Television Academy Elects First African American Chairman, Hayma "Screech" Washington

The Television Academy announced today that its Board of Governors has elected Hayma "Screech" Washington as its new Chairman and CEO. Washington was elected to a two-year term beginning January 1, 2017, and succeeds Bruce Rosenblum who has served since January 2012.

The Academy also announced its newly-elected officers and governors serving on the Board for the 2017–2018 term.

Emmy Award winner Washington, the Academy's first African-American chairman and CEO, is a seasoned television executive who currently produces and directs under his own production company banner, Screechers Pix. Washington previously served as executive producer of The Amazing Race, for which he earned seven Emmy Awards and a Producers Guild Award.

Before that he was at Walt Disney Studios for 10 years as vice president for two production divisions.

His career has also included working in live sports; on awards shows, including the MTV Video Music Awards, the ESPY Awards and the Primetime Emmy Awards; music; comedy; drama; talk; independent films; and short-form digital content.

Washington has served two terms as governor for the Producers peer group, as well as co-chair of the Television Academy's Diversity committee and on the Daytime, Primetime and Creative Arts Emmy Awards committees. In addition, he has served two terms as vice president of television for the Producers Guild of America where he is currently a member of the National Board of Directors.

"I am honored to have been selected to lead the Academy and look forward to serving our membership alongside the governors, executive committee, Foundation and staff," said Washington. "This is a time of considerable change for our industry and I am deeply committed to ensuring that the Academy is at the forefront as we move towards a more inclusive future."

The incoming officers who will serve a two-year term beginning January 1, 2017 and running through December 31, 2018 are:

• Hayma "Screech" Washington, Chairman and CEO
• Frank Scherma, Vice Chair
• Steve Venezia, Second Vice Chair
• Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg, Secretary
• Allison Binder, Treasurer
• Mitch Waldow, Los Angeles Area Vice Chair.

Similarly, the Academy's new governors will serve a two-year term through 2018; they are listed by peer group below, along with their co-governors who continue to serve a two-year term ending December 31, 2017.

Congressman John Lewis wins National Book Award

Congressman John Lewis can now add another accolade to his long and distinguished civil rights/political career. He has won a National Book Award.

U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) won the Young People’s Literature award with his co-writer Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell for “March: Book Three.” The widely celebrated graphic novel recounts Lewis’s experience during the civil rights movement.

Lewis told the ecstatic crowd, “Some of you know I grew up in rural Alabama — very, very poor with very few books in our home.” Forcing back tears, he recalled walking to a local public library with his siblings to get a library card and being turned away because the library was for whites only. [SOURCE]

Other winners were:

Colson Whithead: Fiction: “The Underground Railroad”

Ibram X. Kendi: Non Fiction: “Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America”

Daniel Borzutzky Poetry: “The Performance of Becoming Human.”

READ THE WINNERS!

Officer charged with manslaughter in Philando Castile killing

The Minnesota police officer who fatally shot Philando Castile during a traffic stop in July was charged Wednesday with second-degree manslaughter and two felony counts of dangerous discharge of a firearm, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said.

St. Anthony police Officer Jeronimo Yanez will make his first court appearance Friday, Choi said.

"Based upon our thorough and exhaustive review of the facts of the case it is my conclusion that the use of deadly force ... was not justified," Choi said in announcing the charges.

[SOURCE]

Michael Jordan & Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to get Presidential Medal of Freedom

NBA greats Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar along with Cicely Tyson and Diana Ross are among the 21 recipients of this years Presidential Medal of Freedom being awarded for the last time by President Obama.

The other recipients are Vin Scully, Ellen DeGeneres, Diana Ross, Bruce Springsteen, Robert DeNiro, Tom Hanks, Robert Redford, Bill and Melinda Gates, polymath physicist Richard Garwin, architect Frank Gehry, designer Maya Lin, “Saturday Night Live” producer Lorne Michaels, attorney Newt Minow, mathematician and computer scientist Margaret H. Hamilton,Eduardo Padrón, president of Miami Dade College in Florida, Native American advocate Elouise Cobell and Rear Adm. Grace Hopper.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with the comparable Congressional Gold Medal—the highest civilian award of the United States. It recognizes those individuals who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors".

'Doc McStuffins' renewed for a 5th season

Disney Junior has ordered a fifth season of its beloved and critically acclaimed series “Doc McStuffins,” which will bring more stories of Doc, a girl who aspires to be a doctor just like her mom. S05 will premiere in 2018.

The renewal is likely to assuage fans who took to social media this past summer wondering why a fifth season for the program had not been announced, even though the series at the time was in the middle of its fourth cycle. W. Kamau Bell, the comedian, activist and CNN host, helped intensify speculation about the fate of the program when he took to Twitter and asked similar questions, sparking a grateful reaction from Chris Nee, the program’s creator.

Doc McStuffins” won a Peabody Award in 2015 and NAACP Image Awards in 2015 and 2016 in the “Outstanding Children’s Program” category.

[SOURCE]