Well, that Mysterious Unidentified Black Man (MUBM), who commits all the crimes white people don’t want to admit to, has struck again in Philly. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer: A Philadelphia police sergeant who said he was shot last month by an unidentified black man in the city’s Overbrook section actually fabricated the entire story and shot himself, Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said this morning. Sgt. Robert Ralston, a 21-year veteran of the department, admitted to homicide detectives early this morning that his previously reported story was false.

Ramsey called the incident “a terrible and embarrassing chapter in our history.” Asked why Ralston concocted the tale and injured himself, Ramsey said he didn’t know.

Allison Steele, a writer for the Inquirer, reported on Tuesday:

Ralston will be suspended for 30 days with the intent to dismiss, Ramsey said. Ralston, married with five children, will face no criminal charges in the case, because he was offered immunity in exchange for his confession.
Ralston will also have to pay the cost of the massive manhunt that was sparked by his tale on April 5, Ramsey said.

In a frantic search for the MUBM, police spent hours combing a West Philadelphia neighborhood for possible suspects, although no one was formally questioned or arrested. The Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge No. 5, had even posted a $10,000 reward for information leading to the suspect.

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In the most recent jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Hispanic Americans were found to be doing far better than African Americans when it comes to finding jobs in the economic downturn. Overall unemployment for Hispanics was 12.5 percent, while unemployment for African Americans remained at 16.5 percent. Both of these numbers do not compare favorably to white unemployment, which is at 9 percent
Differences between African Americans and Hispanics were also present for women and men when separated into different groups based on gender and age. Hispanic men had an unemployment rate of 11.2 percent, while black men saw their unemployment rate remain the highest of all demographics, at 18 percent. Hispanic women did better than African American women, with an unemployment rate of 11.1 percent, lower than the 13.7 percent rate for African American women. White women did better than any other demographic, maintaining an unemployment rate of 7.4 percent.
The differentials for black and Hispanic teens were similar to those for men and women. Hispanic teenagers have an unemployment rate of 29.2 percent, which is a drop from last month’s rate of 30.1 percent. Black teens face an unemployment rate of 37.3 percent, a reduction from the prior month’s rate of 41.1 percent.

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Earlier this spring, Katie Washington was one of three finalists vying to become the University of Notre Dame’s senior class valedictorian. When it was her turn to be interviewed by the selection committee, she told members that the honor wasn’t on her radar four years ago when she arrived on campus.

“I let them know that I came to Notre Dame with the hope of pushing myself to my fullest potential,” said Washington, 21. “I just wanted to do well on every assignment and every exam. I wanted to be the best I could be every day because I’d been given a great opportunity to be here.”

Her hard work has paid off.

On Sunday, Washington will become the first black valedictorian in Notre Dame’s 168-year history. In the fall, she will begin an eight-year joint M.D.-Ph.D. program at Johns Hopkins University in its medical scientist training program. She has been awarded a full scholarship, worth about $500,000, plus a stipend to help cover housing and living expenses.

“I’m so humbled by it,” said Washington, a biological sciences major with a 4.0 grade point average. She also already has co-authored a major research paper. The subject: How mosquitoes that carry dengue and yellow fever transmit infection and disease in Haiti

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The distinction is the first time the Catholic Church has officially recognized the work of any popular American artist. With it, the song joins the ranks of works such as “Don Giovanni” by Mozart, the Vatican’s own “Advocata Nostra,” featuring the voice of Pope Benedict XVI, and “After The Rain,” by Dame Shirley Bassey.

“The genres are very different from each other, but all these artists share the aim to reach the heart of good minded people,” the Vatican explained on its official MySpace Music page.

The playlist, compiled by Father Giulio Neroni, was released Thursday, December 3 – and “Changes” has received nearly five million plays since then.

“This came as such an amazing surprise – it’s not something I would have ever thought possible,” says the late rapper’s mother, Afeni Shakur. “I give thanks every day, knowing Tupac’s words and music continue to have such an incredible effect on people worldwide. My son was always striving to reach out to as many people as he could, and he changed the world in doing so.”

Released two years after the rapper’s death in 1998, “Changes” has been acknowledged as one of Tupac’s all-time classics ever since, with a message that resonates just as strongly today. The song is a streetwise meditation on racism, the Middle East, drugs and gang violence coupled with a call for hope and peace. In essence, it highlights the need for change on both a personal and global level.

“Let’s change the way we eat, let’s change the way we live, let’s change the way we treat each other,” states Tupac on the track. “You see, the old way wasn’t working, so it’s on us to do what we gotta do to survive.”

The acclaimed single climbed to the top of the charts upon its release and became the only posthumously released Hip-Hop song to receive the Grammy nomination for “Best Rap Solo Performance.” It recently confirmed its lasting power when it hit #1 on the Billboard Hot Ringtones Chart (November 7, 2009), a spot it held for a whopping 34 weeks.

“It’s a testament to Tupac’s genius that his music can have this kind of impact more than ten years after the fact,” says Interscope Geffen A&M Chairman Jimmy Iovine. “This is an unprecedented honor to his legacy, as well as for those who had the privilege of working with him during his lifetime.”

In additional Tupac news, it was announced in September that the artist’s private writings would be added to Atlanta University Center’s Robert Woodruff Library – an institution that also houses Martin Luther King’s papers – to be made available for scholarly research.

The collection features Shakur’s handwritten lyrics and track listings, personal notes, video and film concepts, fan correspondence, promotion materials and other items providing a unique insight into his creative genius.

Peep the video for “Changes.”

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See I really hate to cry racism in a situation like this, because I truly DO NOT think a hispanic woman who choses to adopt a black child would have any level of racist tendencies, especially towards a baby. So explain to me how you can easily raise 5 latin children , but cannot handle a tiny black baby ? Was she not prepared for the cultural shock of raising a black child in a hispanic family? Maybe she isn’t strong enough to handle the stares and the double takes she may be getting from her community.. Or maybe she just realized she was in over her head..either way, I am very disgusted by her openly adding blame to the BABY for her issue with it!

What makes me even angrier is that there are many women (white of course) who “admire” her honesty and don’t think she is wrong to do this..I wonder if they would feel the same way if the baby was white, and after 18 months she gave the baby back and blamed it for not bonding with her. I think this is very suspect and maybe she just wanted to be like Angelina Jolie too much and figured out you can’t fake love for a black child. I can tell you Angelina loves her kids, you can see it on her face , but this woman is weak, and that child is better off without her sorry butt. Read the story and watch the video ….

The “Today” show on NBC did a shocking segment on Anita Tedaldi, “a woman who adopted a child and then gave him up 18 months later.” Tedaldi is a writer who originally told this story on The New York Times’ Motherlode blog.

She and her husband have five biological children and decided that they wanted more. After going through the approval process, she was able to adopt a baby who was found by the side of a road. Despite her pre-adoption belief that she would “be able to parent this little boy the same way I had done with my biological daughters,” she terminated the adoption after 18 months.

Because she couldn’t bond with him, she said.

Asked by Matt Lauer what this means, Tedaldi was somewhat vague and did manage to blame the baby. “It went both ways,” she said in the interview. “The child, D., wasn’t connecting with us.”

What on earth is she talking about? Without giving us particulars, we’re left to wonder what went on in that house for a year-and-a-half? Was Baby D. not a hugger? Did he not smile? What does it mean exactly that an infant is not bonding with his mother?

Lauer really missed the boat by not pressing this question. And Tedaldi, but averting a direct explanation, only adds to the frustration and creates more questions.

Writing about the story, “Today” correspondent Natalie Morales thinks that we shouldn’t be too quick to judge the woman. Many commenters on the “Today” show Web site agree.

But what no one is saying is that ultimately this story is about the one thing that it shouldn’t be about — Anita Tedaldi. One of the not-discussed-enough aspects of the mommy blogosphere is how often it becomes All About Mom. This story is a classic case of that.

Not only did Tedaldi give back a baby she had decided to adopt, she actually says that the baby shares some of the responsibility for this lack of bonding. Is it possible that it’s just damn hard to raise a baby when you already have a house full of children? And that Tedaldi didn’t realize this until the child arrived?

Explain it to us, lady. What happened?

Ironically, Tedaldi used to feel the same way we did, and wrote a column for Military.com called “We Can’t Trade In Our Children or Husbands” back in January 2008. (Military.com has pulled the piece, but the Adoption Talk blog has some of the text.) Now that she has had this experience, she feels differently

Hey, no harm no foul, right?

But there is harm. There is a baby involved here.

In the original Times blog, Tedaldi wrote that she “wasn’t connecting with [the baby] on the visceral level I experienced with my biological daughters.”

Perhaps that was part of the problem? She wanted to duplicate her parenting experience with her older kids frame-for-frame. We have no way of knowing unless we hear details.

Many are praising this mom for her honesty. We can’t help but wonder how much of the story she decided not to share with the world.

What do you think?

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Too many teachers, and students are just plain STUPID and it’s time we stop acting as if having tons of weapons and clout is all it takes for us to remain as a superpower. We need our youth to grow up and become smart, CRITICAL THINKERS, who can compete in science, math, and economics and against other countries like India and China who are pumping out mini-Einsteins every day. Read the full story below ..

By LIBBY QUAID, AP Education Writer Libby Quaid, Ap Education Writer

WASHINGTON – Students beware: The summer vacation you just enjoyed could be sharply curtailed if President Barack Obama gets his way.

Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.

“Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas,” the president said earlier this year. “Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom.”

The president, who has a sixth-grader and a third-grader, wants schools to add time to classes, to stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go.

“Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

Fifth-grader Nakany Camara is of two minds. She likes the four-week summer program at her school, Brookhaven Elementary School in Rockville, Md. Nakany enjoys seeing her friends there and thinks summer school helped boost her grades from two Cs to the honor roll.

But she doesn’t want a longer school day. “I would walk straight out the door,” she said.

Domonique Toombs felt the same way when she learned she would stay for an extra three hours each day in sixth grade at Boston’s Clarence R. Edwards Middle School.

“I was like, `Wow, are you serious?’” she said. “That’s three more hours I won’t be able to chill with my friends after school.”

Her school is part of a 3-year-old state initiative to add 300 hours of school time in nearly two dozen schools. Early results are positive. Even reluctant Domonique, who just started ninth grade, feels differently now. “I’ve learned a lot,” she said.

Does Obama want every kid to do these things? School until dinnertime? Summer school? And what about the idea that kids today are overscheduled and need more time to play?

___

Obama and Duncan say kids in the United States need more school because kids in other nations have more school.

“Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here,” Duncan told the AP. “I want to just level the playing field.”

While it is true that kids in many other countries have more school days, it’s not true they all spend more time in school.

Kids in the U.S. spend more hours in school (1,146 instructional hours per year) than do kids in the Asian countries that persistently outscore the U.S. on math and science tests — Singapore (903), Taiwan (1,050), Japan (1,005) and Hong Kong (1,013). That is despite the fact that Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong have longer school years (190 to 201 days) than does the U.S. (180 days).

___

Regardless, there is a strong case for adding time to the school day.

Researcher Tom Loveless of the Brookings Institution looked at math scores in countries that added math instruction time. Scores rose significantly, especially in countries that added minutes to the day, rather than days to the year.

“Ten minutes sounds trivial to a school day, but don’t forget, these math periods in the U.S. average 45 minutes,” Loveless said. “Percentage-wise, that’s a pretty healthy increase.”

In the U.S., there are many examples of gains when time is added to the school day.

Charter schools are known for having longer school days or weeks or years. For example, kids in the KIPP network of 82 charter schools across the country go to school from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., more than three hours longer than the typical day. They go to school every other Saturday and for three weeks in the summer. KIPP eighth-grade classes exceed their school district averages on state tests.

In Massachusetts’ expanded learning time initiative, early results indicate that kids in some schools do better on state tests than do kids at regular public schools. The extra time, which schools can add as hours or days, is for three things: core academics — kids struggling in English, for example, get an extra English class; more time for teachers; and enrichment time for kids.

Regular public schools are adding time, too, though it is optional and not usually part of the regular school day. Their calendar is pretty much set in stone. Most states set the minimum number of school days at 180 days, though a few require 175 to 179 days.

Several schools are going year-round by shortening summer vacation and lengthening other breaks.

Many schools are going beyond the traditional summer school model, in which schools give remedial help to kids who flunked or fell behind.

Summer is a crucial time for kids, especially poorer kids, because poverty is linked to problems that interfere with learning, such as hunger and less involvement by their parents.

That makes poor children almost totally dependent on their learning experience at school, said Karl Alexander, a sociology professor at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University, home of the National Center for Summer Learning.

Disadvantaged kids, on the whole, make no progress in the summer, Alexander said. Some studies suggest they actually fall back. Wealthier kids have parents who read to them, have strong language skills and go to great lengths to give them learning opportunities such as computers, summer camp, vacations, music lessons, or playing on sports teams.

“If your parents are high school dropouts with low literacy levels and reading for pleasure is not hard-wired, it’s hard to be a good role model for your children, even if you really want to be,” Alexander said.

Extra time is not cheap. The Massachusetts program costs an extra $1,300 per student, or 12 percent to 15 percent more than regular per-student spending, said Jennifer Davis, a founder of the program. It received more than $17.5 million from the state Legislature last year.

The Montgomery County, Md., summer program, which includes Brookhaven, received $1.6 million in federal stimulus dollars to operate this year and next, but it runs for only 20 days.

Aside from improving academic performance, Education Secretary Duncan has a vision of schools as the heart of the community. Duncan, who was Chicago’s schools chief, grew up studying alongside poor kids on the city’s South Side as part of the tutoring program his mother still runs.

“Those hours from 3 o’clock to 7 o’clock are times of high anxiety for parents,” Duncan said. “They want their children safe. Families are working one and two and three jobs now to make ends meet and to keep food on the table.”

Aimee Louise Sword gave up a male child for adoption years ago, and now the media is reporting that Sword searched the internet for that now teenage son- and allegedly seduced him. But Aimee Louise Sword has many defenders standing with her saying “She could not do such a thing”…….The 35 year old Michigan woman is charged with third-degree criminal sexual misconduct…….. Remember- Innocent until proven guilty by a court of law. (Pic from CBS Link/My Space)

Note: Updated news reports are now saying that Ms.Sword “raped” the teen and that the teen may have been unaware that she was his biological mother .

 

Watch the video

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BOSTON (July 21) – Police responding to a call about “two black males” breaking into a home near Harvard University ended up arresting the man who lives there — Henry Louis Gates Jr., the nation’s pre-eminent black scholar.
Gates had forced his way through the front door because it was jammed, his lawyer said. Colleagues call the arrest last Thursday afternoon a clear case of racial profiling.

Cambridge police say they responded to the well-maintained two-story home after a woman reported seeing “two black males with backpacks on the porch,” with one “wedging his shoulder into the door as if he was trying to force entry.” By the time police arrived, Gates was already inside. Police say he refused to come outside to speak with an officer, who told him he was investigating a report of a break-in. “Why, because I’m a black man in America?” Gates said, according to a police report written by Sgt. James Crowley. The Cambridge police refused to comment on the arrest Monday. Gates — the director of Harvard’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research — initially refused to show the officer his identification, but then gave him a Harvard University ID card, according to police. “Gates continued to yell at me, accusing me of racial bias and continued to tell me that I had not heard the last of him,” the officer wrote.

Gates said he turned over his driver’s license and Harvard ID — both with his photos — and repeatedly asked for the name and badge number of the officer, who refused. He said he then followed the officer as he left his house onto his front porch, where he was handcuffed in front of other officers, Gates said in a statement released by his attorney, fellow Harvard scholar Charles Ogletree, on a Web site Gates oversees, TheRoot.com
He was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge after police said he “exhibited loud and tumultuous behavior.” He was released later that day on his own recognizance. An arraignment was scheduled for Aug. 26.

Gates, 58, also refused to speak publicly Monday, referring calls to Ogletree.”He was shocked to find himself being questioned and shocked that the conversation continued after he showed his identification,” Ogletree said. Ogletree declined to say whether he believed the incident was racially motivated, saying “I think the incident speaks for itself.” Some of Gates’ African-American colleagues say the arrest is part of a pattern of racial profiling in Cambridge. Allen Counter, who has taught neuroscience at Harvard for 25 years, said he was stopped on campus by two Harvard police officers in 2004 after being mistaken for a robbery suspect. They threatened to arrest him when he could not produce identification.”We do not believe that this arrest would have happened if professor Gates was white,” Counter said. “It really has been very unsettling for African-Americans throughout Harvard and throughout Cambridge that this happened.”

The Rev. Al Sharpton is vowing to attend Gates’ arraignment. “This arrest is indicative of at best police abuse of power or at worst the highest example of racial profiling I have seen,” Sharpton said. “I have heard of driving while black and even shopping while black but now even going to your own home while black is a new low in police community affairs.” Ogletree said Gates had returned from a trip to China on Thursday with a driver, when he found his front door jammed. He went through the back door into the home — which he leases from Harvard — shut off an alarm and worked with the driver to get the door open. The driver left, and Gates was on the phone with the property’s management company when police first arrived.Ogletree also disputed the claim that Gates, who was wearing slacks and a polo shirt and carrying a cane, was yelling at the officer.
“He has an infection that has impacted his breathing since he came back from China, so he’s been in a very delicate physical state,” Ogletree said. Lawrence D. Bobo, the W.E.B Du Bois Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard, said he met with Gates at the police station and described his colleague as feeling humiliated and “emotionally devastated.”

“It’s just deeply disappointing but also a pointed reminder that there are serious problems that we have to wrestle with,” he said.
Bobo said he hoped Cambridge police would drop the charges and called on the department to use the incident to review training and screening procedures it has in place. The Middlesex district attorney’s office said it could not do so until after Gates’ arraignment. The woman who reported the apparent break-in did not return a message Monday.Gates joined the Harvard faculty in 1991 and holds one of 20 prestigious “university professors” positions at the school. He also was host of “African American Lives,” a PBS show about the family histories of prominent U.S. blacks, and was named by Time magazine as one of the 25 most influential Americans in 1997.”I was obviously very concerned when I learned on Thursday about the incident,” Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust said in a statement. “He and I spoke directly and I have asked him to keep me apprised.”

Wanted fugitive Micky Louis Mayon

I bet this idiot thought no one would EVER find his race hating butt in Israel. What a coward, you go and hide your dumb butt in place surround by the same people you vow to wipe off the Earth. I wonder if he lied and told people there if he was Jewish to get by? His redneck counterparts back home in the states must be livid that he chose Israel of all places..that’s like sleeping with the enemy in Klansmen speak. This just proves how whack these racist bigots really are.

The story..
A high-ranking white supremacist on the run from US federal authorities was arrested on Monday night in a south Tel Aviv hideout.
33-year-old Micky Louis Mayon, one of America’s 100 Most Wanted criminals, and a member of the Ku Klux Klan, was arrested in a Florentine apartment by the National Immigration Authority’s newly formed Oz enforcement unit.Mayon is wanted in the US on charges of racist assaults, setting fire to vehicles belonging to federal agents, and a host of violence incidents. The Oz unit was acting on intelligence relayed by Interpol, which informed authorities here that Mayon had entered Israel illegally.

He is said to have moved apartments often in order to evade police, but his efforts proved fruitless on Monday when a delicate operation by the Oz unit saw officers break into his hideout and arrest him.

Oz unit members have the powers of a police officer but can only use them in cases of illegal entry into the country.

Mayon was the subject of an American arrest operation in November 2007, but officers soon realized he had flown to Israel on a one-way ticket. Earlier that year, he reportedly fired his gun in the air repeatedly after being involved in an argument with an African-American. US authorities have described him as a dangerous fugitive.

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This is very sad day for me , my niece, and I am sure for billions of people on the planet. A few hours ago I was taking a nap and my niece calls me hysterically crying. I thought someone in my family passed, I kept telling her to calm down and tell me what was wrong and she blurted out , “It’s Michael, Michael Jackson is dead!!!” . My niece isn’t someone who cries easily she is 30 years old (2 years younger than me ) and normally has emotions in check, but this was a huge blow. As you can imagine, this is gonna be very traumatic for the BILLIONS of fans of this legendary man. For all those haters who made his life hell, I am sure your happy right now. For the rest of us who loved and admired him, just play his music, watch is videos, and keep him in your hearts every time you dance….

Story & Photos From MSNBC.com

Michael Jackson has died at age 50 after being rushed to UCLA Medical Center, NBC News has confirmed.

Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Steve Ruda told the L.A. Times that Jackson was not breathing when paramedics arrived at his home and CPR was performed.

TMZ.com reported that he may have suffered cardiac arrest.

Jackson had been due to start a series of comeback concerts in London on July 13 running until March 2010. The singer, whose hits included “Thriller” and “Billie Jean,” had been rehearsing in the Los Angeles area for the past two months.

The shows for the 50 London concerts sold out within minutes of going on sale in March.

His lifetime record sales tally is believed to be around 750 million, which, added to the 13 Grammy Awards he received, makes him one of the most successful entertainers of all time.

He lived as a virtual recluse since his acquittal in 2005 on charges of child molestation.

There were concerns about Jackson’s health in recent years but the promoters of the London shows, AEG Live, said in March that Jackson had passed a 4-1/2 hour physical examination with independent doctors.

A life in music

Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, in Gary, Indiana, the seventh of nine children. Five Jackson boys — Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael — first performed together at a talent show when Michael was 6.

 
  
 
They walked off with first prize and went on to become a best-selling band, The Jackson Five, and then The Jackson 5.

Jackson made his first solo album in 1972, and released “Thriller” in 1982, which became a smash hit that yielded seven top-10 singles. The album sold 21 million copies in the United States and at least 27 million worldwide.

The next year, he unveiled his signature “moonwalk” dance move while performing “Billie Jean” during an NBC special.

In 1994, Jackson married Elvis Presley’s only child, Lisa Marie, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1996. Jackson married Debbie Rowe the same year and had two children, before splitting in 1999. The couple never lived together.

Jackson has three children named Prince Michael I, Paris Michael and Prince Michael II, known for his brief public appearance when his father held him over the railing of a hotel balcony, causing widespread criticism.

Here are some videos..R.I.P.

Jackson 5 Home Videos On SOul Train

Michael Jackson Master Dancer

Who Is It

Who Is It – Michael Jackson

Rock with you

Rock With You – Michael Jackson

One of my faves, “Stranger In Moscow”

Stranger In Moscow – Michael Jackson