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From Prison to College Graduate: Genarlow Wilson Set to Graduate with Honors from Morehouse College

May 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment
genarlow wilson From Prison to College Graduate: Genarlow Wilson Set to Graduate with Honors from Morehouse College

From Prison Inmate to College Graduate: Genarlow Wilson Set to Graduate with Honors from Morehouse College

What the devil meant for bad God can turn around for good.  Genarlow Wilson is set to walk across the stage at Morehouse College commencement ceremonies this weekend. He will graduate with honors with a degree in Sociology. You will recall then-Atlanta teen Genarlow Wilson was imprisoned for having consensual oral sex with a 15 year old in 2005 at a New Year’s Eve party. Genarlow Wilson was sentenced to 10 years in prison for a consensual act by an overzealous prosecutor and judge.  Well, with public outrage and the tireless work of many advocates, he was released from prison after a Georgia Supreme Court ruling. Hat tip to Tom Joyner and the Tom Joyner Foundation for making this graduation possible for Genarlow Wilson after he stepped up to the plate and paid for his college education.

Here’s a little background on the case:

Wilson v. State, 652 S.E. 2d 501, 282 Ga. 520 (2007) was a Georgia court case brought about to appeal the aggravated child molestation conviction of Genarlow Wilson (born April 8, 1986 to Juanessa Bennett and Marlow Wilson).

Wilson was convicted of aggravated child molestation in 2005, after, at the age of seventeen, he had engaged in oral sex with a fifteen-year-old at a New Year’s Eve party, an offense carrying a mandatory penalty of ten years imprisonment.

At the time of his conviction, provisions for similarity in age that allowed underage consent to be taken into account were only applicable to vaginal sex. Because the case involved oral sex the consent of the girl was not at that time legally relevant.

On October 26, 2007, the Georgia State Supreme Court, while not overturning the conviction itself, ruled that Wilson’s sentence was disproportionate. He was released later that day, after serving over 2 years of his 10 year prison sentence in the Al Burruss Correctional Training Center in Forsyth, Georgia. Source

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Black Finance Exec Robin Washington Listed Among T&R ’30 Outstanding Women in Finance’

May 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Robin Washington, CFO of Gilead Sciences among Treasury & Risk Magazine’s 2012 list of the ’30 Outstanding Women in Finance.’ 

robin washington 1 Black Finance Exec Robin Washington Listed Among T&R 30 Outstanding Women in Finance

Black Finance Exec Robin Washington Listed Among T&R '30 Outstanding Women in Finance' (Gilead Sciences)

Robin Washington  CFO & SVP, Gilead Sciences
“As finance chief since 2008, Washington has presided over a period of significant revenue growth for the biotech company. She played a key role in its strategic use of cash,  as well as in the financing for Gilead’s recently announced purchase of Pharmasset.”

Here’s Robin Washington’s bio from Gilead Sciences:

Ms. Washington joined Gilead as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer in May 2008. In this role, she oversees Gilead’s worldwide Finance and Investor Relations functions. Prior to joining Gilead, Ms. Washington served as Chief Financial Officer of Hyperion Solutions, an enterprise software company that was acquired by Oracle Corporation in March 2007.

Ms. Washington also spent nearly 10 years at PeopleSoft, a provider of enterprise application software, most recently in the role of Senior Vice President and Corporate Controller. She previously was a Director of Finance for Tandem Computers, an Accounting Analyst for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and a Senior Auditor for Deloitte & Touche.

Ms. Washington holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Michigan and a MBA from Pepperdine University. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of MIPS Technologies, Inc. and the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose.

Who said we don’t have positive role models in the black community for our young people to aspire to be like? I know this won’t be a popular story in the black news media, but I am proud to lead the charge on recognizing the achievements of all the women who made the list.

Here’s an excerpt from the press release:

Each year the editors of Treasury & Risk compile a list of women in corporate finance who have made a difference to their companies and their industries. The executives on this year’s list have worked on acquisitions, spin-offs and IPOs, led bond deals and negotiated credit lines, wrested upgrades from credit rating agencies, developed sourcing strategies, set up an in-house bank and built a best-in-class internal audit group.

“The percentage of women in executive positions at Fortune 500 companies has barely budged in the last few years,” says Editor-in-Chief  Donna Miskin. “Despite that discouraging reality; women executives in corporate finance continue to press forward, juggling work-life balances, multitasking to the hilt, and doing whatever it takes to get the job done.”

The accomplishments of these 30 leaders in corporate finance serve as an inspiration and a reminder that perseverance and execution count.

Read the full article on the 2012 Women in Finance: http://www.treasuryandrisk.com/2012/04/26/steady-but-way-too-slow

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Nine UF Alpha Phi Alpha Members Face Hazing Charges for “Thunderslaps”

May 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
alpha phi alpha 300x123 Nine UF Alpha Phi Alpha Members Face Hazing Charges for Thunderslaps

Nine UF Alpha Phi Alpha Members Face Hazing Charges for "Thunderslaps"

Nine members of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity at the University of Florida in Gainesville, are facing misdemeanor hazing charges after they allegedly struck and paddled five pledges and hitting them in the chest during a hazing ritual known as “thunderslaps.” If convicted, the could be incarcerated for a year and fined $1,000. They could also be suspended or expelled. The incident allegedly occurred between January 22 and February 1 in a Gainesville home where several fraternity members resided.

Charges were filed against  Safo Agyemang, 26; Metkel Beiene, 22; Chad Billington II, 22; Brandon Daniel, 21; Gregory Davis, 22; Jason Dubery, 23; Dominique Martin, 21; Christoper Jenkins, 22; and Gary Terrell, 24. All the suspects were UF students at the time of the alleged hazing except for Agyemang, who is an alumnus, the Gainesville Sun reports. The State Attorney’s office dropped charges against one  fraternity member, Bryan Mizell,  who was named in the police complaint,  for insufficient evidence, the newspaper said.

I have never understood the relevance of hazing in any social organization. It’s just plain crazy. I remember as an undergraduate student at Ohio University, one of my roommates pledged Delta Sigma Theta, she could not speak to me because she was on social silence. The most disturbing thing about these organizations is that once you go through the initiation process, your grades suffer. Pledging a sorority or fraternity isn’t the reason one goes to college. It’s to get an education.

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Rev. Al Sharpton Faces Scathing Criticism on Twitter for Asking If America Has Changed Since Rodney King Beating

April 29, 2012 By 4 Comments

Rev. Al Sharpton faces scathing criticism on Twitter by the right wing for asking if America has changed in the 20 years since Rodney King beating in Los Angeles. Sharpton sent out a tweet:

Then the flood gates opened and a barrage of tweets from the right wing came with resounding force:

I could go on and on, but what’s the use? You get the message, right? I have long been critical of Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson for the rhetoric they push, but to his credit, Al Sharpton has toned it down quite a bit. But I suppose old habits die hard. On a serious note, racism is still a seedy undercurrent in the American landscape, no matter how hard you try to state otherwise. Just saying….

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FCC Asks Supreme Court to Hear Janet Jackson 2004 Super Bowl Performance Indecency Case

April 18, 2012 By 2 Comments

HINTERLAND GAZETTE BREAKING NEWS:  The FCC has asked the Supreme Court to hear the Janet Jackson 2004 Super Bowl performance indecency case.

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Milledgeville GA Police Handcuff Unruly Kindergarten Student Salecia Johnson for Throwing Furniture

April 16, 2012 By 11 Comments

Milledgeville, Ga., kindergarten student Salecia Johnson was handcuffed for safety after she reportedly threw a temper tantrum. The child’s mother, Constance Ruff, told 13 WMAZ, “she has mood swings some days, which all of us had mood swings some days. I guess that was just one of her bad days that day.”

The police report said Johnson, a student at Creekside Elementary, was crying in the principal’s office before the police arrived and they could not calm her down and the police were then called. They too couldn’t calm her down, she resisted and was then cuffed. Johnson is accused of tearing items off the walls and throwing furniture.  The report mentions the girl knocked over a shelf that injured the principal, WMAZ reports.

The reality is that this probably wasn’t the first time Salecia Johnson threw a temper tantrum. What else was the school adminstrators to do? Especially since they couldn’t contact her parents. Um, these parents need to control their bratty kid. Salecia Johnson has been suspended from school for the rest of the year and was charged with simple assault.

UPDATE#1: This is about to take a really ugly turn — the parents and so-called local civil rights leaders are calling for Rev. Al Sharpton to get involved and they are also asking for a federal investigation. Um, not one time did the parents accept responsibility for their actions. The mother didn’t have enough minutes on her cellphone to accept calls. Really? If you have children, you should make sure your cellphone is in working order just in case the school needs to reach you. This is going to turn into a racial mess, which we don’t need. I wonder if President Obama will be expected to comment on this incident? SMH.

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Louis Farrakhan at Univ. of Arkansas, Says We are in “2012 Looking to Same Slave Masters’ Children” for Jobs

April 16, 2012 By 4 Comments

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan gave a speech at the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff April 16, saying God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. He said if God had created all the religions on the Earth, he would be the author of confusion.”Blacks more than any other people on the planet fit the description of the lost sheep — lost from our culture, our language, lost from the self. Here we are in 2012 still looking to the same slave masters’ children to give us a job and a place in the sun,” he said.

“If someone has the power to name you and you don’t have the wisdom to get out of that name, then maybe he still owns us,” he said. He also added that we took the names of our slave masters and we don’t have the names we should. Um, Muslim names? Really? Wow. “Blacks had built 60 towns during Reconstruction and we had blacks in Congress, but today we don’t have a black Senator.” He said we learned when blacks got freed after the Emancipation Proclamation it was rare to see a white person with a hammer. Blacks were the major builders in the South and were on leave from plantations to build the Congress and other major builders. “We kept the slave masters’ wives looking good while we were dressed in burlap. Today you are nothing compared to what we were when we came out of slavery. He said “our behavior in all the major cities, we are the major killers of our own people. Self-hatred is the order of the day.”

Of course, more racist rhetoric emanated from Farrakhan’s lips:

“They know you, but you don’t know them or yourself, so you’re always at a disadvantage when you sit down with white people to negotiate. “We don’t ever come in their presence like we are some little weak things.”

Addressing whites directly, he said:

“I know myself. I know you. And some of you white people – I know you better than you know yourself because God has revealed you fully.”

“It ain’t about hating you. We ain’t got no time for that. But we know who we’re dealing with. We know what we’re dealing with,” he said. “We know your origin in the world and we know how long you were set to live and unless you change, your end has come.”

Um, why do we always need to race-bait? Isn’t it more productive if these so-called black leaders actually tried to empower the black community to strive to be like those entrepreneurs who built the Black Wall Street in Oklahoma back in the day? Why not try to empower those young black men hell-bent on wreaking havoc in their communities to learn a trade and become productive members of society? If the truth be told, slavery didn’t happen without help from African tribal leaders. Yes, we have lived through hell in this country, but to dwell in the past stops us from approaching the future with a level head.

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LaMarcus Ramsey Gets Three-Day Jail Sentence for Wearing Sagging Pants to AL Court

April 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment
lamarcus ramsey sagging pants 300x274 LaMarcus Ramsey Gets Three Day Jail Sentence for Wearing Sagging Pants to AL Court

LaMarcus Ramsey Gets Three-Day Jail Sentence for Wearing Sagging Pants to AL Court (Facebook)

Alabama Circuit Judge John Bush sentenced LaMarcus Ramsey, a resident of Prattville, to three days in jail for contempt of court for his sagging pants.

LaMarcus D. Ramsey, 20, was in Autauga County Circuit Court to enter a plea on a charge of receiving stolen property. Circuit Judge John Bush took exception to the fact that Ramsey’s blue jeans were sagging too low. The three-day stint will be served in the Autauga Metro jail.

“You are in contempt of court because you showed your butt in court,” a visibly irate Bush told Ramsey. “You can spend three days in jail. When you get out you can buy pants that fit, or at least get a belt to hold up your pants so your underwear doesn’t show.” Source: Montgomery Advertiser

LMAO. That’s funny but I am glad the judge took a stand. I don’t know why some of our young men think it’s cool to show the world their underwear and butts.

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Black Unemployment Rate at 14.0% for March 2012, Virtually Unchanged from February 2012

April 6, 2012 By 4 Comments

The black unemployment rate was 14.0% for March 2012, virtually unchanged from 14.1% for February 2012. For the nation as a whole, the unemployment was 8.2%. Among whites unemployment was 7.3% and 10.3% for Latino, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. I don’t know how the Obama Administration can say this is great because hiring is slowing again and there are fewer people looking for work.

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Gil Noble, Pioneering Black Journalist and Former Host of “Like It Is,” Dies At Age 80

April 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Pioneering black journalist Gil Noble died Thursday at the age of 80. Noble, who hosted the weekly public affairs program “Like It Is,” on WABC-TV from 1967, suffered a stroke last summer.

“Like It Is” featured Noble’s commentary, analysis and interviews with thousands of guests, from the late Kwame Ture, Dr. Martin Luther King and civil rights pioneer Fannie Lou Hamer to entertainers like Bob Marley, Lena Horne and Bill Cosby. Source: NY Daily News

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Gil Noble. He will be missed.

Gil Noble, Pioneering Black Journalist and Former Host of Like It Is, Dies At Age 80
pixel Gil Noble, Pioneering Black Journalist and Former Host of Like It Is, Dies At Age 80
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