Black Celebrity Beauty Tips from Ms. Tyra Banks

Technorati Tags: tyra banks,black beauty tips,african american beauty,black beauty,black women,african american women

Serena Williams Wins Australian Open

Serena Williams routed Dinara Safina 6-0, 6-3 Saturday to win the Australian Open for her 10th Grand Slam title and a return to the No. 1 ranking.

It was total domination for the second-seeded Williams, who moved fluidly on the court and looked at ease in winning back-to-back majors, including the U.S. Open title in September.

"I absolutely, clearly, love playing here," the 27-year-old Williams said. "You guys root for me so much. I don't get that everywhere. So thank you so much."

Williams becomes only the seventh woman with double-digit Grand Slam singles titles. She leads all active players and broke a tie with two greats of the game -- 2009 Hall of Fame inductee Monica Seles and Maureen Connolly -- who each won nine majors.

Justine Henin was the last to win back-to-back major singles titles, at the 2003 U.S. Open and 2004 Australian Open.

Williams' near-perfect performance was in sharp contrast to No. 3 Safina, who was tight from the start. Later apologizing to the crowd for her performance, Safina said Williams was just too good, leaving her feeling like a ballboy.

Click to read.

Technorati Tags: serena williams,black sports,african american sportsl

YourBlackNews: Starving Black Woman Ignored By Family, Friends & City Departments

For days before Danieal Kelly died in a fetid, airless room — made stifling hot by a midsummer heat wave — the bedridden teenager begged for something to drink until she could muster only one word: water.

Unable to help herself because of her cerebral palsy, she wasted away from malnutrition and maggot-infested bedsores that ate her flesh. She died alone on a putrid mattress in her mother's home, the floor covered in feces. She was 14 but weighed just 42 pounds.

The nightmare of forced starvation and infection that killed Danieal while she was under the protection of the city's human services agency is documented in a 258-page grand jury report released this week that charges nine people — her parents, four social workers and three family friends — in her ghastly death.

The report describes a mother, Andrea Kelly, who was embarrassed by her disabled daughter and didn't want to touch her, take her out in public, change her diapers or make sure she had enough fluids. It portrays Daniel Kelly, the father who once had custody of Danieal, as having no interest in raising her.

And it accuses the city Department of Human Services of being "uncaring and incompetent."

"It was this indifference that helped kill Danieal Kelly," an angry District Attorney Lynne Abraham said. "How is it possible for this to have happened?"

The report should "outrage the entire Philadelphia community" and bring about "earth-shattering, cataclysmic changes" at the Department of Human Services, Abraham said.

Andrea Kelly, 39, the only defendant charged with murder, was ordered held Friday without bail. The social workers — suspected of falsifying home visits and progress reports in the case — face charges ranging from child endangerment to involuntary manslaughter. The family friends are accused of lying to the grand jury about the girl's condition before her death.

None of the lawyers for any of the defendants had any immediate comment.

Human Services Commissioner Anne Marie Ambrose, in office only a month, said Thursday that she is intent on improving child safety and worker accountability in an agency that has repeatedly been accused of failing to protect children.

Late Friday, the city announced the resignation of Assistant Health Commissioner Carmen Paris. The grand jury had accused Paris of interfering in the investigation of the girl's death while she was acting health commissioner, but found insufficient evidence to charge her with obstruction of justice.

The report on Danieal's death in August 2006 documents a downward spiral from the early years that she spent in Arizona with her father and his girlfriend.

Though Danieal attended special-needs classes only sporadically, a school report described her as an active learner and "one of the sweetest students ever enrolled in this program." But allegations of parental neglect soon surfaced, and following Daniel Kelly's breakup with his girlfriend in 2001, Danieal never again attended school.

Daniel Kelly and his children moved to Philadelphia in 2003. He eventually asked his estranged wife to move in, even though she had several other children and he knew she was incapable of caring for Danieal, authorities say. He then moved out.

"Daniel Kelly was well aware what deserting his daughter meant to her safety and welfare," the grand jury report said. "He just did not care."

The Department of Human Services received at least five reports of Danieal being mistreated between 2003 and 2005. All described a "helpless child sitting unattended, unkempt and unwashed, in a small stroller in her own urine and feces," her screams ignored by her mother, the grand jury report said.

Click to find out more

YourBlackNews: Another Cross Burning Incident In Muncie Indiana

My very own Muncie, Indiana is hit by another cross-burning incident. Who could have guessed?:

The discovery of a burned cross in Mary Pointer's back yard marks the second such hate crime in Muncie in about as many years.

Pointer, who is black and lives in the McKinley neighborhood near Central High School, said she does not know why she was targeted.

"I cried because I know I've never done anything to deserve this," Pointer said Tuesday. "It just really hurt."

Family members discovered the cross -- about 4 feet tall and made of scrap wood -- smoking in the backyard Friday afternoon while Pointer was at work.

Pointer lives with her daughter and four grandchildren and said the incident has left her scared for the safety of her family and suspicious of every bump and creak in the night.

Friday's cross burning is the second since March 2006, when Kyle Shroyer and Kyle Milbourn, both 22, burned an 8-foot cross in the yard of a home in which a white woman and her three biracial children lived.

Both men were convicted in federal court in Indianapolis of hate crimes.

Milbourn received a 10-year prison sentence, and Shroyer received a 15-month sentence.

Pointer filed a report with the Muncie Police Department on Friday afternoon.

The responding uniform officer phoned Sgt. Mike Engle of the detectives division for advice.

Engle said he told the officer to make a thorough report.

Because there was little evidence at the scene, Engle said someone would likely have to come forward with information before the investigation could continue.

That was how the 2006 burning was solved, Engle said.

If police received more information, the case would be forwarded to the FBI, Engle said.

Pointer's neighbor, Donna Patterson, who is white, said she also felt threatened by the cross burning.

Patterson was born and raised in the neighborhood and said she can't remember anything like the cross burning happening.

"It's a big concern," she said.

Pointer said she has witnessed racism in her job at the Muncie Housing Authority, where whites sometimes refuse to deal with her because of her skin color...

Click for more

Black Female Athlete Wins Fight, Yet Loses: Video

In the 21st Century world of race-neutrality and color-blindness, it is hard to imagine that a record-breaking 2004 Olympic Silver Medalist, who unequivocally won a fight, is informed that she indeed lost -- the fact that a video evidence that documents her victory exists, notwithstanding. Nia Abdallah is the 2004 US Silver Medalist in Taekwondo. She is also the first woman from the United States to earn a medal in this sport since it became an official Olympic sport. In a qualifying match for the 2008 Olympics, Nia fought Diana Lopez - a fellow Olympian - and is believed to have won by a stretch. Upon the announcement of the result and the purported victor, the crowd can be heard booing in dissapointment and disbelief, as Diana Lopez is awarded the victory. In light of this, Nia is now fighting three fights; one against her athletic opponents, one against the political administration that governs the US Olympics Committee, and one against the big-name networks who have persistently refused to tell her story. The "We Support Nia" campaign is urging everyone to "contact the US Olympic Committee Ombudsman (john.ruger@usoc.org or 888-Athlete... ESPN, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX" and to "implore your local media, and your congressmen to force the US Olympic Committee to review this decision and right this wrong." In solidarity, I urge everyone reading to join in this struggle against the arm of injustice.

Footage of the match (you decide):

Nia Abdallah vs Diana Lopez - Olympic Qualifying Match


To support the campaign, pls. visit:

http://www.myspace.com/wesupportnia

http://wesupportnia.blogspot.com/

To donate to her campaign, pls. go to:

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=P54HNyud7fljCv9H5NwqzzVpI7ekQ2nNIiXTX8V1wk6JKNdo6L0CbSlFsi4&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f80512b0980fcab74abc3e59231243d18121e007aec81fb1f

Cynthia McKinney Is Presumptive Green Party Nominee

Greens for Greens is reporting that Cynthia McKinney - former Georgia Congresswoman - has just clinched the Green Party Presidential Nomination. She has selected as her running mate, Hip-Hop Activist and Journalist, Rosa Clemente. Cynthia's Campaign is built around a "Power To The People" Agenda -- that fights for the everyday citizen and the ordinary person. In a recent Black Agenda Report article, she reiterated this stance, saying:

I have accepted as the platform of the Power to the People Campaign, the 10-Point Draft Manifesto of the Reconstruction Movement, a grouping of Black activists who came together in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to advocate for public policy initiatives that address the plight of Blacks and other oppressed peoples in this country.

Among its many specific public policy planks, the Draft Manifesto calls for:

* election integrity, if our vote is to mean anything at all, all political parties must defend the integrity of the votes cast by the American people, something neither of the major parties has done effectively in the past two Presidential elections;

* funding a massive infrastructure improvement program that is also a jobs program that greens our economy and puts people to work, and especially in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast,

• hurricane survivors, who should be treated as internally displaced persons whose right to vote and right of return are protected, play a meaningful role in the rebuilding of their communities;
  
  * recognizing affordable housing as a fundamental human right, and putting a halt to the senseless destruction of public housing in New Orleans;
  
  * enacting Reparations for African Americans, so that the enduring racial disparities which reflect the U.S. government's failure to address the reality and the vestiges of slavery and unjust laws enacted can be ended and recognition of the plight of Black Farmers whose issues are still not being adequately addressed by USDA and court-appointed mediators despite a US government admission of guilt for systematic discrimination;
  
  * acknowledging COINTELPRO and other government spying and destabilization programs from the 1960s to today and disclosing the role of the US government in the harassment and false imprisonment of political activists in this country, including Mumia Abu-Jamal, the San Francisco 8, Leonard Peltier, including restitution to victims of government abuse and their families for the suffering they have long endured;
  
  * ending prisons for profit and the "war on drugs," which fuels the criminalization of Black and Latino youth at home and provides cover for U.S. military intervention in foreign countries, particularly to our south, which is used to put down all social protest movements in countries like Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and elsewhere;
  
  * creating a universal access, single-payer, health care system and enacting a livable wage, equal pay for equal work, repealing the Bush tax cuts, and making corporations and the rich pay their fair share of taxes;
  
  * establishing public funding for higher education--no student should graduate from college or university tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt;
  
  * ensuring workers' rights by 1) repealing Taft-Hartley to stop the unjust firing of union organizers, ban scabbing, and enable workers to exercise their voices at work and 2) enacting laws for U.S. corporations that keep labor standards high at home and raise them abroad, which would require the repeal of NAFTA, CAFTA, the Caribbean FTA, and the U.S.-Peru FTA;
  
  * justice for immigrant workers, including real immigration reform that provides amnesty for all undocumented immigrants;
  
  * creating a Department of Peace that would put forward projects for peace all over the world, deploying our diplomats to help resolve conflicts through peaceful means and overseeing the orderly withdrawal of U.S. troops from the more than 100 countries around the world where they are stationed, and an immediate end to all wars and occupations by U.S. forces, beginning in Iraq and Afghanistan, and slashing the budget for the Pentagon.

"The people deserve an open and honest debate."

The Power to the People Campaign has visited 24 states and I believe there is already broad support across our country for these policy positions. The people deserve an open and honest debate on these issues and more. I encourage the Democratic Party and its new presumptive nominee, Senator Obama, to embrace these important suggestions for policy initiatives.

Contact and Congratulate Cynthia McKinney through her web site.

Black Singer Sings "Lift Every Voice" In Lieu Of Natl Anthem

DENVER (KWGN) — The State of the City address Tuesday started with all the traditional hallmarks of a civic function. 


The Pledge of Allegiance, the presentation of the colors.

And then Rene Marie was introduced to sign the national anthem.

Instead of the "Star-Spangled Banner,", the crowd heard "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," sometimes called the "Black National Anthem," first sung as a celebration of Abraham Lincoln's birthday 108-years ago.

Marie sang the lyrics to the tune of the "Star-Spangled Banner."

Mayor John Hickenlooper says, at first, he was offended.

"We were as surprised as anyone and she didn't tell anyone, she made this decision with her husband, her musical mentor and decided just to do an artistic expression and she kind of wove the two songs together," he said....

To learn more, pls. visit: http://cw2.trb.com/news/kwgn-state-of-city-flap,0,2520287.story