Harvard Reduces Student Loans Offers More Grants

Photo courtesy of http://mirror-in-bom1.gallery.hd.org
On Monday, December 10, Harvard University unveiled a major financial aid plan designed to reduce tuition bills by thousands of dollars — for all students.

The University is planning to replace all loans with grants, and is prepared to spend more money (up to $22 million more) annually on aid. They will mostly target middle – and upper-middle class students. As it is, families earning under $60,000 currently pay nothing to attend the university.

Harvard is planning to take home equity out of its wealth calculation when determining financial aid. This should provide a greater boost for students and parents. A typical family earning $120,000 would pay about $12,000 next year, down from $19,000 under current award policies. For a typical family earning $180,000, the bill would drop to $18,000, from more than $30,000.

Approximately half of Harvard students receive some form of aid, including students from about 100 families who earn more than $200,000. For those who pay full tuition, room and board, the price is $45,620.

The announcement is the latest of a string by ivy league universities that are trying to combat perceptions they are unaffordable by offering major initiatives to reduce the price students actually pay. Princeton began it’s changes in 2001 when they eliminated all student loans and offered students more grants and jobs.

5 Public Housing Projects To Be Demolished In New Orleans

Photo of the B.W. Cooper Housing Project in New Orleans
Photo courtesy of www.builtstlouis.net

The Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) held a meeting on November 29 stating that, in conjunction with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, the demolition of five public housing projects in the area had been rescheduled and would begin on December 15.

The housing projects on the list were are St. Bernard, Lafitte, C.J. Peete, Fisher and B.W. Cooper.

The demolition scheduling had been pushed back due to local and nationwide protests stemming from initial annihilation of one of the projects on November 13. HANO is resuming the demolition in spite of the outcry of residents from the working-class neighborhood of Algiers, while stating their approval of $30 million in contracts with demolition companies to bulldoze the housing units which could have been easily
renovated.

The plan is to replace these public-housing units with “mixed income” neighborhoods—meaning a mixture of low-income and luxury housing, at least on paper. In other words gentrification has hit New Orleans with a vengeance since hurricane Katrina.

For the full story, please go to www.workers.org.

Check out the writings of Torrance Stephens…

Torrance has a wonderful array of books written in verse, novels and short stories. He began writing as an undergraduate at Morehouse College. Below, is a review of his work:

Rock Star Stud Gigolo is a thrilling collection of stories, told forms the new South. Stories, including the big three, deal with developing and losing relationships with women, but finding comfort in friendship in general. Cutlass Daddy’s and Wicked Ego Strokin’ are political treatise that basically shows how small experiences can end up being life or death situations for young black men. In all of these stories you can feel and see the author’s passion through his unique use of language. These stories are a definite new look into the eyes of black men in the years of the mid 80s.

Other books by Torrance Stephens

A Matter of Attention

Fast and Gamin’

For U Who Left Me While I Slept

Butter Brown

Black AIDS Day 2/7/08

Remember the date: February 7, 2008 which will be otherwise known as Black AIDS Day.

Organizers and sponsors of the National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NBHAAD) are encouraging 1 million black people to get tested for the disease between now and February at local clinics and hospitals.

The goal is to make sure that the more people who are tested, will also be that many more people who are educated, involved and more importantly… treated. Communities across the country are going to be receiving the message loud and clear:

The purpose of testing 1 million black people is four-fold:
• Spread prevention awareness
• Know your status
• Get involved in education
• Seek continual treatment if you’re HIV positive

Organizers want to spread awareness about the disease and how to avoid the risk of contracting it and unknowingly spreading it.

The organization was actually five separate organizations which were funded by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1999. Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day has recruited the help of celebrity spokespeople to get its message out. NBHAAD is calling upon the likes of Colin Powell, T.D. Jakes, Cheryl Lee Ralph, Patti LaBelle, NFL coach Tony Dungy, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and members of the Congressional Black Caucus to participate in a nationwide media blitz, starting today, to motivate people to learn their HIV status.

NBHAAD organizers are also relying on the following television channels to spread the word – TV One, Radio One, CNN, and BET.

Contributions, donations, and resources from the black business community would help to achieve the goal much quicker and help turn the epidemic around.
Statistics show that one out of every four African Americans with HIV does not know that they are infected with the virus.

If you don’t know your HIV status, then you don’t know enough about HIV.

For more information, please go to www.blackaidsday.org for more information on how to get tested or get involved in Black AIDS day activities. For information about sponsorship, send an e-mail to sponsorship@blackaidsday.org

(Courtesy of BlackEnterprise.com)

Mental Break…

“I don’t mind coming to work,
But that eight hour wait to go home is a b*tch!!”

Be Thankful For Your Family And Tell Them You Love Them Each Day…

Girl 7, shot 6 times trying to save mom

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DETROIT — A 7-year-old-girl is being hailed as an “angel from heaven” and a hero for jumping in front of an enraged gunman, who pumped six bullets into the child as she used her body as a shield to save her mother’s life.

Alexis Goggins, a first-grader at Campbell Elementary School, is in stable condition at Children’s Hospital in Detroit recovering from gunshot wounds to the eye, left temple, chin, cheek, chest and right arm.

“She is an angel from heaven,” said Aisha Ford, a family friend for 15 years who also was caught up in the evening of terror.

The girl’s mother, Selietha Parker, 30, was shot in the left side of her head and her bicep by a former boyfriend, who police said was trying to kill Parker. The gunman was disarmed by police and arrested at the scene of the shooting, a Detroit gas station. Police identified him as Calvin Tillie, 29, a four-time convicted felon whom Parker had dated for six months.

Parker, who was treated and released at Detroit Receiving Hospital, is now at her daughter’s bedside. She declined to comment Tuesday.

The drama began to unfold just before midnight Saturday, when Parker called Ford and asked if she and Alexis could spend the night at Ford’s home.

“She said she had no heat and they were very cold, and I said , sure I’ll come and get you,” Ford said.

Ford said she drove her burgundy 1998 Ford Expedition to Parker’s home on Dwyer. She said as Parker and Alexis walked up to her vehicle she saw a man on the porch, who she assumed was a furnace repairman. She said Alexis, who walks with a limp, slipped momentarily on the icy sidewalk and as she helped the girl up, she saw the man and recognized him as Tillie. He was holding a gun.

Tillie ordered them into the vehicle, cursed at the women and angrily told Ford to drive him to Six Mile Road, she said.

“He looked like he was enraged and didn’t care what he did. I knew if we went to Six Mile, he would kill us,” Ford said. Instead, she told him she needed gas and drove to the Fast Stop Gas station in the 5000 block of East Seven Mile Road, a station that requires customers to pay the attendant inside.

“I figured if he got out to pump the gas, I was going to take off,” Ford said.

Instead, Tillie gave her $10 and told her put in $5 worth of gas.

Ford said she dialed 911 on her cell phone as she walked into the station.

“The first operator clicked off and I dialed again and told that operator a guy with a gun was holding me hostage with a mother and baby and threatening to kill us. I told her the name of the gas station and then she said they didn’t have a unit to send.”

Ford said she paid for $5 of gas and slowly returned to the vehicle, stalling for time as she handed Tillie the change. She said she kept stopping and starting the pump, hoping the police would show up.

“I told him I needed more gas and took money out of my purse and went back into the station,” she said. The attendant, Mohammad Alghazali, 30, said he noticed Ford was crying and she told him what was happening. He called 911 as he heard shots coming from the vehicle.

“It was very scary. She (Ford) was scared and screaming when the guy was shooting. I was scared, too. I was on the phone talking to the police when he started shooting,” he said

Parker told police that Tillie said Ford was taking too long

She said she pleaded with him but he pointed the gun at her and shot her in the side of the head. She told police she was shot in the arm as she lunged at Tillie.

Before Tillie could fire again, Alexis jumped over the seat between her mother and the gunman and begged him not to shoot her mother.

The police report said Tillie “without hesitation” pumped six shots into the child.

As police arrived, they saw Parker, covered in blood, running from the truck, screaming, “He just shot my baby.”

The officers said Tillie came out to the vehicle holding a blue steel 9 mm semi automatic and dropped the weapon when ordered to do so. Officers said they found Alexis huddled on the floor under the steering wheel, covered in blood, surrounded by spent cartridge casings, a spent bullet on the floor and teeth on the seat. There were bullet holes in the windshield and blood inside.

Alghazali said a police car on a street nearby arrived in less than a minute after his call.

Marvin Bodley, a Detroit Public Schools attendance agent, spent two days at Alexis’ hospital bedside and said it’s miraculous that she’s alive.

“What a courageous, courageous little girl,” he said. “You see more bandages than child,” he said. “It’s a horrific sight.”

Bodley said Alexis receives special education services at school, in part because of a weak left eye, which is the result of a massive stroke she suffered as an infant.

Ford said doctors at the time had predicted that when Alexis got older she would have trouble with tasks such as writing, but she is now able to write her name.

“She is a good little girl who is very protective of her mother,” said Tonya Colbert, Parker’s cousin.

Tillie is being held in the Wayne County Jail facing kidnapping, assault with intent to murder, child abuse, felony firearms and habitual criminal charges.

A preliminary examination is scheduled for Dec. 13.

Source

Think Positive, Be Positive

I’m always saying that there is power in positive thinking… I see that the author of FOR KOLOURED GRRLS ONLY!!: FABULOSITY, TOUGH TIMES, AND THE POWER OF THOUGHT agrees.

We can’t spend our precious time wallowing around in the negative. Will yourself to success & happiness because if you don’t believe you won’t achieve. OK, yeah it sounded as cheesy as it looks, but seriously how many times can you throw a pity party and make yourself and the others around you miserable?

There is ALWAYS a positive within the negative. Just find it within yourself to grab a hold of the positive and hold on tight. When you change your outlook on life, your life changes for the better.

Latasha Norman’s Body Found: Ex-Boyfriend Charged

Latasha Norman, the body of the missing Jackson State University student was found in a wooded area, about 10 miles from the campus, decomposing amongst road side trash and empty beer bottles. Latasha was last seen after attending a class on November 13. JSU classes were canceled on Friday.

The ex-boyfriend, Stanley Cole (24), led police to the body on Thursday (Nov. 28) in north Jackson. Cole has been taken into custody and has been charged with murder. He is being held in jail without bond.

Latasha’s uncle, Matthew, said: “Most of the people she was around, she touched them with that beautiful smile. We’re going to miss this jewel that we’ve lost.”

Leslie Denise Brown, 22, an athletic education major at Delta State University, said she met Norman just after the younger woman graduated from high school and cautioned her about college life. “I was telling her about my first year in college and to be careful because everybody you meet is not your friend. I was also telling her how not to fall for any and everything because people tend to take advantage of freshmen. She was so sweet.”

The Jackson State University Web site reported that two bank accounts have been set up to assist Latasha Norman’s family.

The family opened the “Latasha Norman Family Relief Fund” at the Woodrow Wilson branch of the Trustmark Bank, and the Jackson State University National Alumni Association has placed a PayPal link on the JSUNAA Web site to accept donations for the family.

Latasha Norman’s Body Found: Ex-Boyfriend Charged

Latasha Norman, the body of the missing Jackson State University student was found in a wooded area, about 10 miles from the campus, decomposing amongst road side trash and empty beer bottles. Latasha was last seen after attending a class on November 13. JSU classes were canceled on Friday.

The ex-boyfriend, Stanley Cole (24), led police to the body on Thursday (Nov. 28) in north Jackson. Cole has been taken into custody and has been charged with murder. He is being held in jail without bond.

Latasha’s uncle, Matthew, said: “Most of the people she was around, she touched them with that beautiful smile. We’re going to miss this jewel that we’ve lost.”

Leslie Denise Brown, 22, an athletic education major at Delta State University, said she met Norman just after the younger woman graduated from high school and cautioned her about college life. “I was telling her about my first year in college and to be careful because everybody you meet is not your friend. I was also telling her how not to fall for any and everything because people tend to take advantage of freshmen. She was so sweet.”

The Jackson State University Web site reported that two bank accounts have been set up to assist Latasha Norman’s family.

The family opened the “Latasha Norman Family Relief Fund” at the Woodrow Wilson branch of the Trustmark Bank, and the Jackson State University National Alumni Association has placed a PayPal link on the JSUNAA Web site to accept donations for the family.

Shopping With Mr. Peanut & The Hawk

I went by the grocery store the other day to pic up a few things and Mr. Peanut was there awaiting me… I think he was about to get taken out by The Hawk.

I had to take this pic ’cause I knew no one would believe me. ;o)