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California woman who faked her own kidnapping sentenced to 18 months in prison

Sherri Papini, the California mother who faked her own kidnapping in 2016 in a hoax that was exposed with the help of advances in DNA technology, was sentenced to a year and a half in prison on Monday, according to a release from the Department of Justice.

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Wisconsin police shoot Black man as children watch from a car, attorney says

Two Wisconsin police officers are on leave Monday as state authorities investigate why a Black man was shot multiple times in the back as he entered the driver's side door of an SUV, officials said.

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Loni Love Shares Commends Grassroots Activists of Civil Unrest and Talks About Her Experience with Racism

During her first-ever appearance on ABC's "The View," Emmy & 2x NAACP Image Award winning talk show host Loni Love shared her experience with racism as a college student and what will prompt change in America.

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Benjamin Green Appointed Interim Chief Information Digital Officer and Head of Technology at Texas Southern University

Texas Southern University (TSU) welcomes Benjamin Green to its ranks as the Interim Chief Information Digital Officer (CIDO) and head of Technology, marking a pivotal moment in the institution's technological evolution. With a robust background spanning over 25 years, Green brings a formidable blend of expertise and innovation to TSU, poised to elevate the university's digital landscape and enhance the overall academic experience for students, faculty, and staff.

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Body camera video shows a Columbus, Ohio, police officer fatally shooting an unarmed 20-year-old Black man

Police in Columbus, Ohio, have released body camera video that shows a police officer fatally shooting an unarmed Black man in his bed.

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National Non-Profit Invests $100k in Minority Businesses in Texas to Retain, Grow Workforce Through the Pandemic

Founders First CDC to Award $100,000 to Minority Businesses Throughout the State to Create and Promote Premium Wage Employment Opportunities in Underserved Communities

Founders First CDC, a national 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that empowers expansion in diverse founder-led, revenue-generating businesses, announces its new Job Creators Quest Grant which will award $100,000 to support minority and underrepresented business owners throughout the state of Texas. The grant opened for submission on August 19, 2021. Thirty grants will be awarded to diverse-led companies located in the north, central or south Texas regions, with a current staff of 2-20 employees and the ability to add 1-2 net new premium wage jobs in the next 12 months. To be eligible, the company’s founder must be Black, indigenous, a person of color, LGBTQIA+, military veteran, woman or located in a low to moderate income area and be a for-profit company with annual revenues between $100,000 to $3 million.

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Cardi B turns herself in to police, charged with endangerment and assault

Superstar rapper Cardi B turned herself in to New York Police on Monday morning.

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Dimitrios Pagourtzis identified as Santa Fe High shooter, sources say

Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, is suspected of being the shooter at a Texas high school, federal law enforcement officials tell CNN. The information was confirmed to the Houston Chronicle by the Galveston County Sherriff's Office.

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The new FAFSA: What you need to know to get financial aid for college

There’s one form prospective and current college students must submit in order to receive federal financial aid, and it looks a lot different than in prior years.

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The new FAFSA: What you need to know to get financial aid for college

There’s one form prospective and current college students must submit in order to receive federal financial aid, and it looks a lot different than in prior years.

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Anthony Anderson To Host The Andrew J. Young International Leadership Awards and 85th Birthday Celebration for Ambassador Andrew Young

On June 3, 2017, The Andrew J. Young Foundation will present the second biennial Andrew J. Young International Leadership Awards and welcome the city of Atlanta and guests from around the world to celebrate the 85th birthday of its founder and chair, Ambassador Andrew Young. The gala event will be held at the Philips Arena in downtown Atlanta.

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Beyond the Rhetoric: The Obama Years – Scandal and Corruption, Final

The Obama Administration was taking form. Our new Attorney General Eric Holder was instantly mired in scandal with the Fast and Furious debacle. Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State seemed rather tame but that was just the quiet before the storm. One afternoon Minyon Moore from the Dewey Square Group (one of the Podesta companies) brought me two complimentary tickets to the kickoff of the new Clinton Global Initiative.

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Alabama officer on leave after video shows her using stun gun on handcuffed Black man

An officer in a small city in western Alabama was placed on administrative leave after video surfaced showing her using a stun gun on a handcuffed Black man last week. The video, posted by a witness, starts with a White female officer from the Reform Police Department and a Black man handcuffed on the ground on the side of a road on December 2. It is not publicly known what happened before the video started and authorities have not identified the man or the officer involved in the interaction, though both are named in an arrest complaint provided to CNN by the man’s attorney. Attorney Leroy Maxwell, Jr. said the man in the video is his client, 24-year-old Micah Washington. Maxwell said before the video begins, Washington was on the side of the road changing a tire when the officer, identified in the arrest complaint as Dana Elmore, approached him and asked for his identification. Maxwell said after initially telling the officer no, Washington gave it to her but took out his phone and started recording. Maxwell claims that is when the officer first used her stun gun on Washington and then handcuffed him when he was on the ground.

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New January 6 video shows three hours of violent and chaotic assault on police

The Justice Department this week released a three-hour video of a battle between rioters and the police at the US Capitol Building on January 6 where rioters brandished weapons, officers were viciously beaten, and a member of the mob died on Capitol steps.

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Jada Pinkett Smith says Tupac Shakur was her soulmate

Jada Pinkett Smith is diving deeper into her past relationships.

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A Texas woman is wanted for the alleged murder of an elite cyclist who had a relationship with her boyfriend, authorities say

Authorities are searching for a Texas woman accused of murdering an elite cyclist who at one time dated her boyfriend.

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Clifton Oliver, Broadway actor who starred as Simba in ‘The Lion King,’ dies at age 47

Clifton Oliver, a stage actor who starred in “The Lion King” on Broadway and a number of other productions, has died at the age of 47, according to social media posts from family and friends.

Artist Residency Program Ucross Announces Inaugural Founder's Dinner to Honor Legacy of Raymond Plank

Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will receive The Raymond Plank Award for Visionary Leadership at the event

Ucross, a prestigious artist residency program and creative laboratory for the arts, today announced their inaugural Founder’s Dinner & Benefit, to be held on November 2, 2019 in Houston, Texas. The event will honor the legacy of Raymond Plank – WWII bomber pilot, business leader, philanthropist, and founder of Ucross – one year after his passing. Plank lived and worked in Houston after moving Apache Corporation to Texas in the mid-1990s.

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HBCU Grads Form Power Couple, FinTech Genius Angel Rich Gets Engaged

What’s better than one Black future billionaire? Two. Tech star Angel Rich is having the best year ever. On July 11th, the Black wealth visionary got engaged. “I was speechless for at least 3 minutes,” she said. The Hampton Alum, who has maintained a private personal life, says that she is very excited to announce her engagement to Karl Jones, 40, Howard Alum.

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Is There A Black Doctor in the House?

Where are all the Black doctors? They are hard to find. On average, about 5.7% of all the doctors in the US are Black according to data from the Association of American Medical Colleges. Although enrollment of African Americans in medical school is on the rise, 5.7% is still low when considering that there are 66.1% of active physicians with a US Doctor of Medicine degree.Where are all the Black doctors? They are hard to find. On average, about 5.7% of all the doctors in the US are Black according to data from the Association of American Medical Colleges. Although enrollment of African Americans in medical school is on the rise, 5.7% is still low when considering that there are 66.1% of active physicians with a US Doctor of Medicine degree. Looking back at the history of Blacks in medicine, it's easy to see why the numbers are so low. However, new data suggests that more black doctors are needed now than ever, and for some, it could mean the difference between life and death. On average, when put in a crowd of a diverse population with no identifying connections, a person will gravitate toward those of their own race. It's a natural behavior because people are more at ease with who or what they know. Generally, being of the same race is an easy commonality to draw towards. This same kind of thinking works in medicine as well. According to studies, Black Americans who have black doctors have more trust in them, practice preventative care, and ultimately live longer lives. "I think we as blacks relate more to people who look like us. Often, we have unspoken similar backgrounds that bring us to a common place of understanding when we have difficulties in our quests for higher education," said Dr. Creaque Charles, Pharm. D. at an accredited HBCU school of pharmacy. How to Improve Representation of African Americans in Medicine? The answer to that question lies in the problems that Blacks have with medicine. To understand the concerns, one must go way back in history to when enslaved men and women were forcibly brought over on ships to America. Those men and women were treated less than humans and stacked on top of each other like property. On that journey, they had to exist in deplorable conditions that were filled with human fecal matter, urine, and other forms of human waste. This resulted in them becoming gravely ill, and some died. None received medical care. The feeling continued when slave owners subjected their Black female slaves to forced sterilization to stop reproduction. Women were also exploited for their bodies to produce more strong slave labor. These women did not also receive any medical care. When the truth about an unethical experiment with Tuskegee men and Syphilis (dubbed the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis) came to light in 1972, prejudices grew.vDuring the era of the Civil War, Blacks were "doomed to extinction" by the medical community of the time, which thought the mental, moral, and physical deterioration of Blacks would send them to an early grave. The distrust of the medical community continues to this day as some doctors of other races may have prior biological beliefs about Blacks that can result in doctors thinking Blacks have a high tolerance for pain, so they may undertreat them for pain. Incidents like the above led some Blacks to believe that they receive better treatment than their own because they know the point of view from which they are coming. They understand it. "When people look at me and they can see themselves in me, that commonality serves as the foundation for a bond of trust," said Dr. Robbyn Traylor, chief medical officer of an urgent medical care clinic, who knows that any doctor can be excellent no matter their race. "There is a level of comfort that is understood and that can remain unspoken when brown and Black patients are treated by brown and Black doctors." A CNN article dives further into the issue of why there is not a surge of Black doctors. Those reasons include factors like the race being excluded from medicine, systematic racism, institutional racism, not being exposed to STEM or STEM careers as a child, and a lack of Black doctors as mentors are among the top reasons. History supports this when looking at the first Black person to earn a medical degree. Dr. James McCune Smith had to go all the way to Scotland to receive his degree in 1837 from the University of Glasgow. Dr. Traylor was fortunate as a child to be heavily exposed to the life of a Black doctor as both of her parents worked in the medical field. She was often at their heels as a child while they worked at one of the best trauma centers in the Texas Medical Center. "I was lucky enough to grow up in a community of people who made me believe that I had the intellect and attitude for medicine." Diversity Matters Diversity Matters After Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, and Washington enacted bans on affirmative action, the diversity of the medical schools in those states dropped by a third. Before Black students were wholeheartedly welcomed at these schools in the 1800s and 1900s, they had a choice of seven medical schools, according to research by the Duke University Medical Center Library and Archives. Now only two remain: Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, D.C., and Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. Black students are more likely to attend black medical schools to seek out those who look like them and have proven that their dreams are achievable. Future Black doctors want to attend schools where they don’t have to feel as if they don’t belong. They want to go to schools where they are encouraged to do well, and those who are instructors and mentors truly believe that THEY can do well. Dr. Tamiya Sam, who is a registered pharmacist and holds a Doctor of Pharmacy degree, knows that whether it is medical, pharmacy, dental, or nurse practitioner school, having a Black mentor matters. "The face of pharmacy is increasingly non-Black. I believe if there were more hands on and dedicated Black pharmacists who truly mentored Black pharmacy students, it would have a higher impact on their completion because they would serve as someone who has been there and genuinely wants to help them succeed." Rosa Terrance, DNP, APRN, GNP-C, agrees with Dr. Sam. "Mentorship absolutely matters and is influential in producing more providers of color. At all times, I make sure of two things: 1) I have a mentor who looks like me, and 2) I am acting as a mentor to someone else. There is a degree of comfort and trust that is birthed out of just being present with someone of your likeness in an otherwise underrepresented space." The Next Generation of Doctors African Americans have a responsibility to expose our children to all the world can offer them. African Americans have a responsibility as a race to step up and be mentors for brown and black children in all fields, not just the medical field. To improve race relations, Blacks must educate our non-Black counterparts. A change must come, and it must start now with each of us.