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Latino High School Grads Entering College At Record Rate: Let’s Assure Their Success

Posted on June 6, 2013 by The Soul Brother

By Jaime Dominguez

The image of the Latino or Latina in mainstream media and primetime television programming is under transformation. Instead of the traditional roles of the immigrant maid or the linguistically challenged truck driver, we now have talent on full display such as Selena Gomez on The Disney Channel’s “Wizards of Waverly Place” and Sophia Vergara of ABC’s “Modern Family.”

But there is still room to grow in popular culture to reflect the Latino reality in this country. The next logical step is the Latino or Latina as the intellectual and academic.

With high school and college graduation season upon us, in the near and immediate future, you are more likely to see many more Latinos crossing the stage with a diploma in hand than ever before. A recent Pew Hispanic reportshows that Latinos are on the cusp of something phenomenal: breaking the stereotype that college is not for them.

According to Pew Hispanic, seven in 10 U.S. Latino high school graduates, or 69 percent, in the class of 2012 went to college last fall. That’s a record-high college enrollment rate for Latinos, and it’s the first time Latinos have surpassed white (67 percent) and black (63 percent) students, even as they lag behind Asian-Americans (84 percent.)

This is a milestone given that a little more than a decade ago, only 49 percent of American Latino high school graduates were enrolling in college. For Latinos, their 40 percent increase since 2000 is the most by any racial/ethnic group.

Posted in News from the Soul Brother | Tagged education, educational opportunity, higher education, Hispanic and Latino, Pew Hispanic, Selena Gomez, United States | Leave a comment

Disease Alley: Bronx Zip code 10457 has the highest numbers of dual STD sufferers in the city

Posted on June 6, 2013 by The Soul Brother

By Jennifer H. Cunningham

Here’s one neighborhood where you definitely shouldn’t have unprotected sex, share a needle or stand next to someone coughing.

The 10457 ZIP code in the Bronx — which includes Tremont, portions of Crotona, Belmont and Claremont — has the highest number of people afflicted by two of the following conditions: HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, gonorrhea, syphilis, chlamydia and tuberculosis, according to the Department of Health.

All seven diseases are epidemic in 10457, with infection rates for all conditions in the top 20% of cases citywide.

It’s not just a 10457 problem. In fact, the Bronx has the highest number of ZIP codes — 70% — where residents are in the top 20% for at least two diseases.

In Manhattan, 45% of ZIP codes have two-disease rates in the top 20%, compared to 25% of Queens ZIPs and 22% in Brooklyn.

“It’s very disturbing, especially for our community,” Tom Murray, director of community affairs for St. Barnabas Hospital and the chairman of Community Board 6’s Health and Human Services Committee.

“The teenagers are engaging in very risky behavior. They think AIDS is a thing of the past.”

***This is extremely troubling. I do not totally agree with Yolanda Smith’s statement that “The government needs to do something” though. The government has a role to supply the necessary $$ for sexual education of teens to help prevent the transmission of disease and for their protection. Ultimately, however it is a person’s responsibility to engage in safe and responsible sex. ~ SB***

Posted in News from the Soul Brother | Tagged AIDS, Bronx, Department of Health, health, Manhattan, New York, Queens, Sexually transmitted disease, ZIP code | 1 Comment

Michelle Obama Heckled: No Angry Black Woman, Just a First Lady

Posted on June 6, 2013 by The Soul Brother

By Helena Andrews

If it’s been true in past elections that what the average Joe Voter really wants is to share a beer with the president, then perhaps getting into a bar fight with the first lady will be 2016’s litmus test. As it stands, reaction to first lady Michelle Obama’s swift handling of a recent heckler fell heavily on the side of “You go, girl!” cementing the public’s already deeply entrenched crush on Obama — and perhaps proving that she has transcended the race and gender stereotypes that used to dog her.

While giving a speech at a private fundraiser in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday night, Obama was repeatedly interrupted by a member of the audience who was there to do just that. “First lady heckler” 56-year-old Ellen Sturtz attended the $500-a-ticket event at the behest of Get Equal, an LGBT-rights advocacy group that seeks to “take bold action to demand full legal and social equality, and to hold accountable those who stand in the way.”

In the middle of the first lady’s impassioned speech, Sturtz began shouting about the “executive order,” referring to anti-discriminatory legislation that would ban federal contractors from discriminating against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees and job applicants.

“One of the things I don’t do well is this,” replied the first lady coolly. “Do you understand?”

In an audio recording of the speech, you can hear Obama emphasize that last bit with all the restrained wrath of a grandmother in church reprimanding a kid with the giggles. According to the pool report from a reporter present, the first lady then left her lectern to confront the heckler directly, telling Sturtz, “Listen to me, or you can take the mic, but I’m leaving. You all decide. You have one choice.”

None too surprisingly, the crowd loudly sided with Obama, Sturtz was escorted from the room and the first lady finished her speech. Game, set, match.

Posted in News from the Soul Brother | Tagged Barack Obama, culture, First Lady of the United States, Heckler, Helena Andrews, LGBT, Michelle Obama, post-racial | Leave a comment

NSA Phone Record Collection ‘Beyond Orwellian,’ ACLU Says

Posted on June 6, 2013 by The Soul Brother

By Ryan J. Reilly and Matt Sledge

The Obama administration’s seizure of millions of phone Verizon phone records under a secret court order is “alarming” and “beyond Orwellian,” an American Civil Liberties Union official said Wednesday.

The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald reported on a secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court order that required Verizon to turn over information on all telephone calls both within the U.S. and between the U.S. and other countries on an “ongoing, daily basis” until July 19. The order was issued on April 25.

“From a civil liberties perspective, the program could hardly be any more alarming,” Jameel Jaffer, the deputy legal director of the ACLU, said in a statement. “It’s a program in which some untold number of innocent people have been put under the constant surveillance of government agents. It is beyond Orwellian, and it provides further evidence of the extent to which basic democratic rights are being surrendered in secret to the demands of unaccountable intelligence agencies.”

Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) said in a statement he could not comment on the details in the Guardian’s report, but reiterated that he felt Americans would be taken aback by the way courts have interpreted the government’s spying powers.

Posted in News from the Soul Brother | Tagged ACLU, American Civil Liberties Union, Mark Udall, technology, United States, United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, Verizon, Verizon Communications | Leave a comment

U.S. Is Secretly Collecting Records of Verizon Calls

Posted on June 6, 2013 by The Soul Brother

By Charlie Savage and Edward Wyatt

The Obama administration is secretly carrying out a domestic surveillance program under which it is collecting business communications records involving Americans under a hotly debated section of the Patriot Act, according to a highly classified court order disclosed on Wednesday night. The order, signed by Judge Roger Vinson of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in April, directs a Verizon Communications subsidiary, Verizon Business Network Services, to turn over “on an ongoing daily basis” to the National Security Agency all call logs “between the United States and abroad” or “wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls.” The order does not apply to the content of the communications. Verizon Business Network Services is one of the nation’s largest telecommunications and Internet providers for corporations. It is not clear whether similar orders have gone to other parts of Verizon, like its residential or cellphone services, or to other telecommunications carriers. The order prohibits its recipient from discussing its existence, and representatives of both Verizon and AT&T declined to comment Wednesday evening. The four-page order was disclosed Wednesday evening by the newspaper The Guardian. Obama administration officials at the F.B.I. and the White House also declined to comment on it Wednesday evening, but did not deny the report, and a person familiar with the order confirme

Posted in News from the Soul Brother | Tagged AT&T, Charlie Savage, National Security Agency, Patriot Act, Roger Vinson, technology, Verizon, Verizon Communications | Leave a comment

10 Ways To Be Happy

Posted on June 6, 2013 by The Soul Brother

Posted in Soul Brother Presents | Tagged happiness, inspiration, life, love, message, self-care, self-enlightenment | Leave a comment

Shalamar – Second Time Around

Posted on June 5, 2013 by The Soul Brother

Wrapping up this throwback Thursday with the great Shalimar!! You say superstar written all over the beautiful Jody Watley in this video. Howard Hewitt and Jeffrey Daniel wasn’t bad either. Great music!