Good News Tuesday: Noramie F. Jasmin

Noramie F Jasmin is the first female mayor of Spring Valley NY:


Noramie Festa Jasmin, previously a trustee and deputy mayor of Spring Valley, was sworn in as mayor on Monday December 7, 2009, and she is the first woman to hold the title of "Mayor of Spring Valley NY" since the incorporation of the village in 1902.



I used to stay in Spring Valley as a kid, nothing much to it but I have memories of the place so I threw it up here.

Congratulations to her.

Good News Tuesday: 14 Year Old Invents Surgical Device

Now that's cool as hell right here.


14?

I cant tell you what I was thinking at 14 but it damn sure wasn't about surgery.

I didn't even know they had programs like this for kids a nice change of pace to that nonsense going on in Detroit.

Good News Tuesday

This one is late as hell but better late then never, big up to MLM for pointing this out.



Good News Now:

Armed with clipboards, leaflets and high spirits, the energetic Ivory leads them into the neighborhood, where they start knocking on doors. The mood is lighthearted, but their mission is serious: to save lives, one house at a time.
They're volunteers from the Florida Breast Health Initiative, and they are waging war against breast cancer. It's an effort started by Ivory, 50, herself a survivor of the disease.
Every weekend in the spring and fall, she and her volunteers -- who include college students, senior citizens and suburban moms, all wearing matching T-shirts -- fan out across low-income communities in southern Florida, educating women about breast health.
They especially seek out uninsured women age 35 and older, who statistics show are twice as likely to be diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer, and thus more likely to die from the disease.
For Ivory, comparing this work to a battle isn't overblown.
"The only thing that we have to fight this disease and lower the mortality rate is early detection," she says. "We are the troops on the front lines."
Since 2006, Ivory has helped provide more than 500 mammograms to eligible women.

Good News Tuesday:CEO of Dodge Car Brand, Chrysler Group LLC Ralph Gilles

First let me say that there certain brands I just wont support.

I do not do Nike despite how good their product is cause I don't like their business practice.

I don't do Starbucks cause they are HIGHLY overrated with their coffee.

And with the exception of Chevy trucks I do not do American cars, just not reliable, I do not care how cheap the parts are I should not have to be seeing a mechanic in less than a year for major work and I damn sure shouldn't have to buy special equipment to work on it my self.

Why the hell should I have to flip the engine to change spark plugs?

And the bottom of the barrel of American brands are Chrysler, Dodge and that despicable Pontiac.

In case of the first two, I don't know how those brands are still in business, after earlier this year, I thought they were done for.

But in a move that might just save their butts the company put in place some one who actually knows how to design cars, Ralph Gilles.


From Black Entreprenuers:

Ralph V. Gilles was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer, Dodge Car Brand, Chrysler Group LLC, October 2009, with full profit and loss responsibility for the Dodge car product portfolio. He continues to lead Product Design as Senior Vice President, a position he was named to in June 2009.

Previously, he was named Vice President – Design on Sept. 1, 2008.

Since first joining the former Chrysler Corporation in 1992 as a designer, Gilles has put his extensive academic background in industrial design and business administration to use, holding various positions within the company, including:

2009, President and Chief Executive Officer, Dodge Car Brand, and Senior Vice President – Product Design, Chrysler Group LLC
2009, Senior Vice President – Product Design
2008, Vice President – Design, Chrysler LLC
2006, Vice President – Jeep®/Truck, Color and Trim Studios, and Specialty Vehicles, Chrysler Group, DaimlerChrysler
2005, Director – Truck Exterior/Interior Design Studio
2001, Director – Design Office, Large Car Studio, Family Vehicles
1999, Senior Manager – Design Office, Studio 3
1998, Manager – Design Office, Jeep Interiors, Chrysler Corporation
1992, Designer – Design Office
Gilles is extremely active inside and outside the company. He serves as the Executive Sponsor of the Chrysler African American Network (CAAN) in addition to playing a leading role with The Chrysler Global Diversity Council. He also serves on the Boards of The Walter P. Chrysler Museum in Auburn Hills, Mich. and The Pontiac Osteopathic Hospital Regional Medical Center in Pontiac, Mich. At his alma mater, The College for Creative Studies (CCS) in Detroit, Gilles serves on The Advisory Board of The School of Industrial Design and on The CCS Capital Committee.

The man has a long hard road ahead of him trying to make cars that appeal to the public as well as break the perception of American automotive incompetence.

But you got to start some where.


I don't know how much pull he really has but besides making a good car he should look into going electric.

Good News Tuesday: Wyclef Jean & Timberland Haiti Reforestation

Growing up in New York there was some these that was just mandatory if you were a true black man.

You had to know how to play ball.

You had to have a ball cap.

You had to be arrogant as hell.

You have to have a PhD in smack talking.

But most of all you had to have at least one pair of Timbs.

And if it was just one pair it had to be the standard honey wheat.



It was part of the New York uniform, anything else was looked down upon, that included those high end brands like the Polo boots.


Or the ones that targeted the urban market like Lugz.


They had to be Timbs, didn't matter that the company didn't want black men wearing their boots for what ever reason.

That just gave us the green light to steal their shit, but get it we would.

But that was back in the day, today it is rare to see Timbs on the streets, I have no idea why, I stopped buying them awhile ago for no specific reason so I am just now hearing about the decline in quality and it not being stylish any more.

But after reading this I am hoping for a come back.

From Haitian Internet:

The Timberland company and Haitian Hip Hop Singer Wyclef Jean are teaming up for a new collection of Timberland boots called "Timberland Earthkeepers Yele Haiti boots."



That's not all, The Timberland Earthkeeper line of will also include closing designed by children in Haiti. I watch a video of wake of himself promoting the new timberland yearly Haiti earth keeper line


Timberland Earthkeepers Yele Haiti boots We'll be available for men and women and kids.

For every pair of these boots sold, Timberland will donate $2 to the Yele Haiti foundation to support reforestation in Haiti.


The Timberland Earthkeepers Yele Haiti boots will be Available in the United States in November 2010 and globally by February 2010.

Now the cynic in me is saying this is the move of a company trying to slide it's way back into a market they took for granted a long time ago.

But this is a case were ends do justify the means, Haiti has a serious deforestaion problem that has contributed to flooding during hurricane season.

So this time I put away my side eye and give props to the Timberland and wyclef for giving a fuck.

Good News Tuesdays: Im just Getting Started....

The Obama's "Option" is in!!!

Actually credit goes to Harry Reid for putting the states the choice of opting out of the Option.

Now a couple of things.

1- Credit for Reid for showing some balls and rolling them on the table with what should have been a no brainer. (I was beginning to think that Alan Grayson was the only Dem willing to throw down.)

2- The trigger that was talked about before was iffy at best and no one could tell you exactly what would be good enough to pull the trigger.

3- He is going to be in a hell of a re-election so might as well go out with a bang if your going.

4- It's giving the states the option to say no, and we know how batty some of those states can be, see Texas, South Carolina, and Louisiana.

But I know a bunch of signifying monkeys when I see them.......


They were talking that smack about not taking stimulus money either and just as quick flip flopped and grabbed their share of that cash.

5- This isn't for everyone, it's only for those who are uninsured.

6- Still need 60 votes to get it passed and the bottom line is the real reason we haven't gotten this done yet is not because of the Republicans but because of the cowardly Dem's who are scared to death of the right.


If only they were all like Alan Grayson.....


That's a guy I can vote for.

7- YOU KNOW the Right is going to go ape shit but so what, they were going crazy before anyway.

So you may wonder why such a fragile bill gets the Good News Tuesday, cause it shouldn't of seen day light period.

Just two weeks ago they were claiming that health care reform was dead, well here it is, and it's up for a vote, that's good news to me.

Good News Tuesdays: Torii Hunter

I will over look the fact that this dude plays for a rival team and give props were props are due.





Los Angeles Angels OF Torii Hunter continues to inspire hope in hometown of Pine Bluff, Arkansas

From the New York Daily News:


BY Wayne Coffey

With 11 full years in the big leagues behind him, the 34-year-old Hunter is renowned for his electrifying defensive play and his ebullient personality, but back home in Pine Bluff, and elsewhere, he’s known much more for philanthropy that doesn’t stop, under an initiative called The Torii Hunter Project.

Hunter and his wife, Katrina, who was also born and raised here, have officially donated more than $1 million to their various causes, though close friends are sure the total is much more than that, because of all Hunter does without fanfare.

Hunter is intimately involved with an acclaimed character-development program called Heart Of A Champion, an in-school curriculum that is used in 23 states. He is underwriting college scholarships for a hundred students over five years through a program called Hunter’s 100, and built a youth baseball field in California in an effort to encourage inner-city kids to play the game. He’s also put money into a food-distribution network here, and, according to Skip Perkins Jr., the athletic director at the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff, is by far the biggest contributor to the $5 million Torii Hunter Baseball, Softball and Little League Complex on a 15.5-acre parcel that is being built adjacent to the campus.

"You can’t meet a better person than Torii Hunter. He’s one in a billion," Perkins says.

I like to point out the athletes who are doing positive things especially when they give back to the communities they come from, because the media will always give these type of activities as back page press in favor of misconduct by a few others.

To let them say it there all hyper-sexual criminally leaning, thugs, which is that is what they think of the community at large.

That type of reporting has to be checked, and Torii's story is a good way to do it.

Good News Tuesday: The Reverend Joseph Lowery

I am keeping it simple for this Tuesday and saving the tounge in cheek commentary, to say Happy Belated Birthday to the Reverend Joseph Lowery who celebrated his 88th birthday at Morehouse college.



From the AJC:

The event featured civil rights icons as well as Aretha Franklin.

She was the highlight of a night that featured dancing, music and plays focusing on Reverend Lowery's life.

The $50-a-head ticket went to support the Joseph E. Lowery Institute for Justice and Human Rights.

Mildred Drayton says Dr. Lowery is an inspiration to youth today.

A little bit of bio:

Lowery was pastor of the Warren Street United Methodist Church, in Mobile, Alabama from 1952 until 1961.

His career in the civil rights movement began in the early 1950s in Mobile, Alabama.

After Rosa Parks' arrest in 1955, Lowery helped lead the Montgomery bus boycott. He headed the Alabama Civic Affairs Association, an organization devoted to the desegregation of buses and public places.

In 1957, with Martin Luther King, Jr. Lowery founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and subsequently led the organization as its president from 1977 to 1997.

Best quote:

Speaking at Coretta Scott King's funeral,

"We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. But Coretta knew and we know that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war billions more but no more for the poor!"

Honor the elders before their gone.

Good News Tuesday: Haiti HOPE International

As seen at Movie Lakay.....

Haiti HOPE International from Nic McLean on Vimeo.

This is a documentary created for HOPE International to show how microfinance enterprise is working to fight poverty and change the lives of people in Haiti. It was directed by Nic McLean and shot on a Panasonic HVX200 and a Nikon D90. Music is by Josh Garrels, Jessica McLean, Chad Farran & Justin Werner.

Haiti HOPE International


I will say this as a sidenote, never trust a missionary man.

Good News Tuesday: Haitian Author Edwidge Danticat wins the Genius Award.

Wikipedia:
Danticat was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. When she was two years old, her father André immigrated to New York from Haiti, to be followed two years later by her mother Rose. This left Danticat and her younger brother Eliab to be raised by her aunt and uncle. Although her formal education in Haiti was in French, she spoke Haitian Kréyòl at home.


Miami Herald:
An award-winning author who was born in Haiti, Danticat, 40, learned she had just won the biggest honor of her career: the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation `Genius Award,' which carries a $500,000 ``no strings attached'' prize.

Wikipedia:
The MacArthur Fellows Program or MacArthur Fellowship (nicknamed the Genius Award) is an award given by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation each year to typically 20 to 40 United States citizens or residents, of any age and working in any field, who "show exceptional merit and promise for continued and enhanced creative work."

According to the Foundation's website, "the fellowship is not a reward for past accomplishment, but rather an investment in a person's originality, insight, and potential." The current amount of the award is $500,000, paid as quarterly installments over five years. As of 2007[update], there have been 756 recipients who have received a total of more than $350 million.



Now who says nothing good comes out of Florida;)


UPDATE,

Now I have been saying to stop treating FOX News like a legitimate news stations for awhile now because there not, there a bunch of Right Wing instigators.

And last week the President did just that, and Fox cried bloody murder about it.

(See Here)

Well it looks like their own partners in crime are realizing that.



It's just that simple.

I just love Good News Tuesday!

Good News Tuesday: The Presidential Snub.

Atttt Laasssssttt!!!!!

The President finally got it and gave Fox News the cold shoulder this weekend, by appearing on every other network but Fox's.

Loooong over due if you ask me.

I have been saying that Fox and there mindless minions has one purpose and one purpose alone and that is to undermine everything and anything the President does.

And they manage that by corrupting as many minds as possible......



.....with half truths, out right lies, splitting, and instigating.

The audacity that they can even call themselves a news channel is enough to turn Jesus around on the cross and tell the world to "kiss my black ass".

But than it doesn't stop there Fox had the nerve to cry about it.....



.....and call the White House small minded.


Now if that is not the pot calling the kettle a black mutha%$& I don't know what is.

But I damn sure hope the White House keeps it, the more there out of the loop hole the less relevant they become and they can take there rightful place as King of Reality TV.

That's Good News To Me

Good News Tuesday: Black Teenage multimillionaire

Never underestimate the power of working at something you love it makes it that much sweeter when you make it.

Me I just like playing video games, I got to see how to flip that into money.

Good News Tuesday: Teen pilot breaks flying record

Cute kid, warms your heart to see kids doing something positive, gives you hope that the world is going to be OK.

Good News Tuesday: Cheerleader to Doctordom

NBA Cheerleader Dances Way to Doctordom


After dancing her way through school, former Miami Heat cheerleader has Fabienne Achille traded in her pom-poms for a stethoscope.

From the Heat to the Hospital

A former Miami Heat dancer turns in her hot pants for scrubs.
The pretty 28-year-old paid her way through pre-med school at University of Miami by cheering on the likes of Alonzo Mourning, then turned her attention to the grueling medical curriculum at University of South Florida. The ballgame glamor made her undergrad days memorable, but it wasn't exactly easy, she says.

“It was a lot of hard work especially being pre-med," Achille, the daughter of Haitian immigrants, says of her dancing days. "But it was definitely a very very enjoyable memorable time in my life.”

The obstetrician is now finishing her residency, delivering babies at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami -- the facility where she was born.

Now here is a feel good story, just goes to show you what you can do when you focus.

Good News Tuesday: President Obama signs SCHIP

The feel good vibe is not over yet during post-election year so far for President Obama, but you can feel there is some sobriety settling in among us supporters as people start to worry about their jobs they do or do not have.

And the GOP and Fox News have geared it up as they are already fight every idea that pops up and than blame it on Obama as they set the stage for the next election.

So let me light a candle instead of trying to cast a shadow in the dark cause the truth is the ball is in the White House's court and we have to wait and see if the stimulus package will give the economy a jolt.

Here is something I like to bring up as good news that you can see now since people are expecting to wave a magic wand and turn everything around today because they are to short sighted to see the benefits of the stimulus package in the long run.

So here is some good news for Tuesday that may have been lost in the mass panic of the economy.

Friday, February 6, 2009
President Obama signs SCHIP (the State Children's Health Insurance Program) legislation into law



You cant possibly have beef with this one.

Good News Tuesday: Salma Hayek Really Cares.

I mean really, really, really, really cares.

Please watch All Of It.


This is the type of corporate responsibility that I like to see all though you can say well they are just making sure they have babies to sell pampers to, (Damn why wont the cynic in me just die!!).

50 million shots ain't no joke, that's saving an entire generation.

This moved me I felt for this one for real.

On to another note.

Now I could joke all day about Salma Hayek breast feeding little African babies and all but this time I am giving her a pass.

Now of course if this becomes a Hollywood trend like those pocketbook dogs and adopting colored babies, than all bets are off.




OK maybe just one.........thank God it was Salma Hayek cause if it was any other Hollywood celebrity that baby would have gotten a tummy full of silicone.

OK I'm done.

Good News Tuesday: Back To The Debates.

Movie revives black college's debate team.

MARSHALL, Texas - The movie "The Great Debaters" made millions aware of the decades-old accomplishments of the debate team at a small historically black college tucked deep in the piney woods of East Texas — and gave that history new life at the school itself.

Before work began on the film, the Wiley College team that broke racial barriers with several impressive victories in the 1930s was a faded memory. When the school received e-mails from debaters all over the country after the movie was released a year ago, there was no team for them to join.

That has changed, thanks to donations including $1 million from the movie's star and director, Denzel Washington. An 11-member team started debating this fall, and its ranks are expected to eventually grow to about 30.........

...........Haywood L. Strickland, the school's president since 2000, said the idea of restarting the program came while the movie crew was doing research on the campus. He said Washington's donation, helped jump-start its revival.

"We're always looking for ways in which to engage and excite students," he said. "It occurred to us that even though it's something built on history, it's been demonstrated this is a good way to get students involved."

Debate coach Shannon LaBove came to Wiley over the summer.

She whittled down the prospects to a team of 11, all of whom got some kind of scholarship.

The new team did an exhibition debate at Oklahoma City University in October to commemorate the 1931 meeting between the two teams, believed to have been the first interracial debate in the South.

"We have to make our own history, while respecting the previous," LaBove said.
She said this is a building year for the team, but she expects it to be nationally competitive within a couple of years.

"I think we want to once again put Wiley on the map as a force to be reckoned with," she said.

The primarily liberal arts university, founded in 1873, has 967 students and its enrollment has been climbing for the last eight years. It's located in Marshall, a town of about 24,000 not far from the Louisiana state line.

Public speaking and debate was one of those activities that I was forced to take as a kid in school.

Had absolutely no appreciation for it than but I think the world of it now as I see signs of that experience pop up in my life.

I am glad to see it make a come back in the college the movie was based on, and that Denzel continues to show why he is a class act.

Good News Tuesday: What else is there for today?

What else can be said for Good News Tuesday?

What other thing is going on right now more significant?

Nada, thats what.

Kicked in the door with the 44 now the world wont be the same no more.

Good News Tuesday:Chess Federation Lands Grant

Hip-Hop Chess Federation Lands Community Grant

While many of the country's educational programs are seeing funding cuts, in light of the recession, the Hip-Hop Chess Federation (HHCF) has received a community grant.

According to ThugLifeArmy, the unique project, focused on outreach of under served communities, was chosen by the Mitchell Kapor Foundation for funding.

"This community grant will allow us to take our first steps toward making this a coast-to-coast teaching/learning community," said the HHCF's Founder Adisa Banjoko. "If we are going to promote unity and non-violence in our schools and communities, we need to bring educators together to build a playbook of classroom strategies."

The Hip-Hop Chess Federation is a non-profit organization that fuses music, chess and martial arts together to promote unity, strategy and non-violence.

Now this is a positive twist to community activism, that was recognized for it's out side the box thinking.

Something that is sorely lacking when dealing with community problems.

I like playing chess, I used to get to do that at my old job with the patients, the best players were the ex-cons, I guess if you have all that time on your hands you get to play a lot.

With this you introduce a game that requires you to sit your butt down and think and plan ahead.

Add the fact that your teaching it to kids to keep them out of trouble and it's a plus.

People never fully grasp the concept that children are the future until of course it's too late.

Like say when it's your social security check that comes up short in your old age because not enough people are working.

That's of course because your crooked ass done locked up half the population, while the other half works it's self to death trying to undo the short sighted solutions that are now major problems that you called your self "helping" with.

Than it kind of sinks in right about the time your trying to find money for your medication.

Yeah....that's about right

Dont forget to check out Symphony and Ms. Marvalus for some more Good News.

Good News Tuesdays: The Black Church

Sickle cell awareness in churches increases black blood donors
Thursday, December 18, 2008 5:46 p.m. CST
BY CHERYL WITTENAUER/The Associated Press

ST. LOUIS — Sickle cell researchers in St. Louis say they've significantly increased blood donations to fight the disease with appeals targeted at predominantly black church congregations in the city.

Blacks have tended not to donate blood, they said, but the St. Louis program appears to have changed some minds.

Michael DeBaun, a sickle-cell disease specialist at St. Louis Children's Hospital, launched Sickle Cell Sabbath and blood donation drives five years ago at 13 predominantly black churches in St. Louis.

On Sundays from February to June, the congregations learned about the disease and treatment benefits of blood transfusions and bone marrow transplants. Church-sponsored blood drives were encouraged.

Of the nearly 700 donors who participated in blood drives, 422, or 60 percent, were first-time donors.

Results of the study are published in the advance online publication of the journal Transfusion.

Now I chose this one for Good News Tuesday because I always thought the church in particular black churches got an unfair shake when it came to community woes.

It seem like we blame the church for not doing enough to address certain issues within the community, when the church through it's teachings does just that, we just choose not to listen.

I mean think about.

Church says do not have premarital sex or commit adultery, we choose to ignore that.

Thus we choose to have out of wed lock children, broken hearts, HIV, crime (mostly committed by single men and women), delinquent kids, and so on.

Than we blame the church when Junebug the bastard child of Betty, (who slept with a married Pat), gets 13 year old Shelia pregnant, (who caught Herpes from 21 year old Tyrone who caught it from Betty), decides he is going to shoot Brother Pat for not paying for the cocaine he fronted him, which Pat used to get high with and screw Bernice, Shelia's mother, who is the cousin of Denise, Pat's wife who is now sleeping with Tyrone.

Get it?


Now I don't want to get on a soap box on Good News Tuesday, but I figure I should explain why I chose this.

This is the type of church activity I would like to see more of.

The type that addresses community concerns that are not covered in the good book.

Spread the news to your church.