Councilwoman Muriel Bowser defeats incumbent Gray in D.C. mayoral primary

Muriel E. Bowser, a low-key but politically canny District lawmaker, won the Democratic mayoral nomination Tuesday, emerging from a pack of challengers in a low-turnout primary to deny scandal-tarnished incumbent Vincent C. Gray a second term.

The 41-year-old D.C. Council member triumphed in the latest in a string of District elections to reveal a city unsettled over the shape of its future. Bowser’s win heralds many more months of uncertainty as she faces a substantial general-election challenger while a lame-duck Gray is left to steer the city amid the threat of federal indictment.

Bowser (D-Ward 4) moved deftly to capitalize on public doubts about Gray’s trustworthiness fueled by the still-unresolved federal corruption investigation into his 2010 campaign. Alone among seven Democratic challengers, she amassed a coalition that crossed demographic and geographic lines allowing her to outpoll Gray’s shrunken but steady base of African American voters.

Read more here: Councilwoman Bowser defeats incumbent Gray in D.C. mayoral primary

Teen accepted to all 8 Ivy League schools

A high school senior on Long Island thought he'd give it the old college try and apply to all eight Ivy League schools. Now, 17-year-old Kwasi Enin, of Shirley, has a tough decision ahead of him after he was accepted at all of them. Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Yale and the University of Pennsylvania all said yes. Watch this inspiring story below:

LAPD: DeSean Jackson not linked to gang activity

I'm glad that the LAPD released this statement. While most in the media have tried to be fair and take NJ.com's report that Jackson had gang involvement with a bit of skepticism many fans were not as nice. Even though the Philadelphia Eagles have not publicly cited that as a reason for Jackson's release many fans ignorantly went there anyway. Many jumped to conclusions about DeSean Jackson's gang involvement ( wonder why? ). DeSean Jackson wont get any apologies from those fans but at least he has been cleared of any wrong doing. George Cook AAReports.com

[ SOURCE ] Not long before the Philadelphia Eagles announced the release of DeSean Jackson, NJ.com reported the team was concerned by the pro bowl wide receiver’s “gang connections.“

It was reported that Jackson had relationships with two gang members linked to homicides in Los Angeles since 2010. The LAPD is now saying it has never linked the former Eagle to gang-related activity and that he wasn’t a suspect in the homicide investigations.

“It’s kind of like ‘Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,’ ” LAPD Homicide Det. Chris Barling told the Philadelphia Daily News. “When people grow up in neighborhoods where you have gang involvement, you don’t have to look too far before you find a connection to a connection.

“Now, how sinister that connection is, our position is that’s for others to judge.”

We can cry about changes to voting laws or we can get ready!

In states such as Ohio, Wisconsin, and North Carolina voting times and polls have been curtailed and some type of voter ID is required. Let's be honest these are attacks on voting rights by conservative / republican legislatures. These laws effect mostly minority and lower income voters who vote democrat in overwhelming numbers. If anyone says otherwise they are either on drugs or seriously delusional.

We also have to deal with the fact that many of these laws may hold up in court. You see what republicans have quietly done is change their argument from the nonsense of voter fraud which they couldn't prove to one of voter fairness. They are now making the argument that it's not fair that urban counties can afford to keep polling sites open longer and have more early voting days when rural counties can't. They argue that there should be uniformity among all polling sites. This argument stands a much better chance of holding up in court.

Because of that can hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

We can whine, bitch, and moan about these laws or we can get ready to deal with them.

We should not even wait for these cases to wind their way through the courts. We should start mobilizing now. We should learn these laws inside and out. We must now what we are fighting against and be so prepared for it that these laws restricting voting are rendered useless.

Here are four things I think we need to do:

* Organize drives to get people voter ID. We must find those without ID and help them get it and provide transportation if nescecary. If there are state programs that will pay for the ID we must make sure people know about them and take advantage of them.

* Make sure that everyone that is eligible to vote is registered. Groups such as the NAACP, Urban League , National Action Network, and churches can help here. We as citizens can get our friends and family registered. It's not hard I have worked on many voter registration drives and one just have to be willing to give their time.

* We must learn where all of the early polling sites are and the hours that they are open. We must then bus voters there. If it means we have to use our own cars to give those a ride who can't get there because of the distance then so be it.

* We must flood these states with volunteers from other states to help out with all of the above. It's going to take a lot of organization and man power to get this done.

I'm sure that people much smarter than me can think of other things we can do but I believe these are things we should start doing NOW to get ready for the 2014 mid-term elections.

So what are we going to do people? Bitch and moan or take action?

George Cook AAReports.com

Hey, black people like scifi and comics too, they just don't play dress up...LOL.

Now there's a supposed list of things black people don't do. You know like swimming, vote republican, or watch Fox News. Okay that last one may be true but the others are grand generalizations.

Another generalization I hear because I'm a writer of science fiction and horror is that black people don't like science fiction. I also hear that it's a waste of time marketing such books to them. I would like to state that is categorically false. Just as many African Americans are fans of science fiction as any other group. Yeah we don't show it or talk about it as much but that's because many want to avoid ridicule from our own at times.

Telling other black people you like science fiction is like saying that you are a republican. ( okay maybe not that bad ). All black sci-fi fans have been minding their own business watching a TV show or reading a book and had someone asking what weird sh*t are they reading / watching now? Now normally this comes from people who watch reality TV and think that sh*t is real.

To avoid that reaction many people just keep their love of science fiction it to themselves. It's get tiresome answering the question, "Why are you wasting that time on that made up stuff? Explaining to people that the other stuff on TV is made up too normally falls on deaf ears especially to anyone who thinks Basketball Wives is engaging television.

For the record just as many black people love Star Wars ( not anything featuring Jar Jar Binks though ), Star Trek, Battlestar Galatica, etc. Now you may not see as many of us going to conventions in weird outfits or anything like that but trust me we love the weird sh*t just as much as anyone else.

So there's that's another generalization laid to rest. Live long and prosper!

George Cook AAReports.com