Northrop Grumman Gives $2 Million Grant to National Society of Black Engineers &HBCUs

National Society of Black Engineers announced a three-year, $2 million program funded by the Northrop Grumman Foundation designed to expand the nation's engineering workforce through a partnership with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The Northrop Grumman Corporation/NSBE Integrated Pipeline Program will provide 72 engineering students with $8,000 scholarship grants, internships with Northrop Grumman and year-round academic and professional development support. The program's three HBCU partners - Florida A&M University, Howard University and North Carolina A&T State University - will receive grants, technical assistance and a package of programs researched and managed by NSBE.

Northrop Grumman is a leading global security company providing innovative systems, products and solutions in unmanned systems, cyber, C4ISR, and logistics and modernization to government and commercial customers worldwide.

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Sean Combs launches Charter School In Harlem

Combs announced Monday that the Capital Preparatory Harlem Charter School will open in the fall. Watch the story below.

U.S. states giving more ex-felons voting rights back

Baltimore community organizer Perry Hopkins, 55, is looking forward to stepping into a voting booth for the first time in his life this election season.

Hopkins lost his never-exercised right to vote when he was convicted for drug and other offenses. He gained it back last month when Maryland joined a growing list of U.S. states making it easier for ex-convicts to vote.

"To have the right to vote now is empowering. I'm stoked," said Hopkins, who spent a total of 19 years in prison for non-violent crimes, and was one of 40,000 in the state to regain his right to vote from a legislative action.

"I plan to vote in every election possible. I'm voting for mayor, I'm voting for city councilman in my district, and, yes, I'm voting for president," said Hopkins. He hopes to vote for former Secretary of State Hillary

Clinton, the front-runner in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, on Nov. 8.

Hopkins is among some 800,000 Americans who have regained the right to vote in the last two decades as about two dozen states have eased restrictions on felons casting ballots, according to the Sentencing Project, a prison reform advocacy group.

The restoration of voting rights has drawn support from both Democrats and Republicans as a way to improve prisoners' reintegration into society.

Read more: U.S. states giving more ex-felons voting rights back

Wisconsin Man Sentenced to 3 Years for Threatening President Obama

A judge has sentenced a Wisconsin man to prison for making threats against President Barack Obama last summer.

U.S. District Judge William Conley sentenced Brian Dutcher on Friday to three years in prison and three years on supervised release.

The 55-year-old Tomah man was accused of writing a Facebook comment in June 2015 saying he would be in La Crosse to fulfill his constitutional duty of assassinating Obama during the president's July 2 visit to the western Wisconsin city. He also told a La Crosse Public Library security guard on July 1 that he was in town to shoot Obama the next day.

A federal jury convicted Dutcher of making threats against the president in January.

Dutcher's attorney, Stephen Meyer, didn't immediately return a voicemail seeking comment on the case.

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Black women who boosted Obama are sticking with Clinton

From the pulpit of an African-American church in Detroit not long ago, Bishop Corletta Vaughn offered a rousing endorsement of Hillary Clinton that went far beyond politics.

With a smiling Clinton sitting a few feet away in the purple-walled Holy Ghost Cathedral, Vaughn said she had seen Clinton "take a licking and keep on ticking." Alluding to Bill Clinton's past infidelity, she added: "I'm not talking about politically. I'm talking about as a wife and a mother. That's when I said: I love that woman. She taught so many of us as women how to stand in the face of adversity."

During a primary season in which she has faced surprisingly strong competition and been bombarded with criticism of her trustworthiness, Clinton has maintained a strong bond with one significant bloc of Democratic Party voters. Black women, part of President Barack Obama's winning coalition in 2008 and 2012, have locked arms behind Clinton, hailing her as a Democratic standard-bearer, survivor and friend.

Black women who boosted Obama are sticking with Clinton