The news is getting depressing. Even commercials are now targeted to us broke Americans- debt consolidation, financial advice, lenders, etc…
Glad New Orleans still knows how to keep it festive through the the best of times and the worst of times. Maybe there’s something we can learn from NOL.
Check out story from the Associated Press.
Do you remember doing that? I do, with my dad. “Slap me five!” followed by “On the black hand side!”
Check out the blog- ON THE BLACK HAND SIDE (it’s on my blogroll, too)
AND
Check out the feature- 20 QUESTIONS WITH AFFRODITE. I temporarily let down my guard and let you know more about me as well as my other blog creation in a rare conversation where my blog worlds collide.
I gave shout outs to bloggers from…
Thanks for continuing to read and support! 
Don’t miss Lifetime‘s new movie adaptation of E.R.Frank’s book America on Saturday, February 28th at 9PM on Lifetime. Lifetime presents Rosie O’Donnell, Ruby Dee, and newcomer, Philip Johnson:
Dr. Maureen Brennan, a psychiatrist at a youth treatment center, encounters her newest patient, a 16-year-old biracial boy named America. Through their sessions, Dr. Brennan helps America come to terms with his roller-coaster life, which began when he was taken by authorities from his crack-addicted mother and placed into foster care as an infant. Dr. Brennan works to help him open up about his painful past and discover the support and courage he needs to get his life back on track.
Watch the America trailer now:
Learn more about the cast and crew of America right here:
http://www.mylifetime.com/on-tv/movies/america/cast
Update Mar 2, 2009- NEW! Here’s some behind the scenes footage.
Check out the exclusive behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast at the screening of Lifetime‘s original movie America staring Rosie O’Donnell at the Paley Center in Beverly Hills, CA on Feb 24th!
Newcomer Philip Johnson is Rosie’s hopeful favorite for a future Oscar!
I’ve been under the weather, but I wanted to at least throw a quick post up to make all of us smile. 
Check full story on Black America Web-
COUPLE SETS RECORD FOR MARITAL LONGEVITY
What a blessing! Congrats to Herbert and Zelmyra Fisher. 84 years of marriage.
Newbern (North Carolina) News Journal article on the couple from last September (I had a feeling this was a slowly trickling out)- MARRIED 84 YEARS AND STILL LOVING
I heard this on CNN yesterday and couldn’t believe my ears. These stories keep coming out of every crevice of the American economy. Charles Darwin taught us about survival of the fittest nearly 200 years ago and American businesses still haven’t caught on to this evolutionary premise.
Aye yi yi!
From the Washington Times
POSTMASTER GOT $800,000 IN PAY, PERKS
Postmaster General John E. Potter recently warned that economic times are so dire that the U.S. Postal Service may end mail delivery one day a week and freeze executive salaries. But his personal fortunes are nonetheless rising thanks to 40 percent in pay raises since 2006, a $135,000 bonus last year and several perks usually reserved for corporate CEOs.
The changes, approved by the Postal Board of Governors and contained in a little-noticed regulatory filing in December, brought Mr. Potter’s total compensation and retirement benefits to more than $800,000 in 2008. That is more than double the salary for President Obama.
The new compensation package, much of it deferred to later years, goes beyond a newly beefed-up salary, now $263,575, that Congress arranged for him as part of a 2006 law to make top postal salaries more competitive with those in the private sector. At least four other postal officials got more than a quarter-million dollars in total compensation in 2008, according to Postal Service records reviewed by The Washington Times.
Lawmakers, already trying to limit compensation of Wall Street executives, have taken notice of Mr. Potter’s good fortune when the Postal Service is posting nearly $3 billion a year in losses and now wants to raise the price of a stamp by 2 cents.
I feel like I can barely get through a book of stamps before they’re obsolete.
There’s even talk about going to 5 day a week mail service.
I mean, I get it. Like so many things, snail mail has become just that- snail mail. Gone are the days of writing love letters to your boo, writing checks to pay all of your bills, or even the need to mail greeting cards.
From USA Today (long article but worth reading the entire thing, I’ve placed some excerpts below. I also like that it’s written from Grandview Heights, OH which is not from me. lol)
POSTAL SERVICE SEEKS TO WEATHER ECONOMIC STORM
Most Americans realize the Postal Service they’ve known for generations has to change. A new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll indicates that most support cutting back mail services — closing post offices, trimming deliveries from six days a week to five — rather than raising stamp prices or using taxpayers’ money for a bailout…
…The Postal Service has withstood challenges from the telegraph and telephone. It has adapted to stagecoaches, railroads, airplanes and other innovations that quickened the pace of American life.
Now, it’s facing a range of modern problems that could cause it to run out of cash this year or early next…
…With 650,000 workers, the Postal Service is the USA’s third-largest employer, after Wal-Mart and the Defense Department. It has the nation’s biggest vehicle fleet — and high gas prices cost it $500 million last year.
Union contracts make layoffs rare. Raises are automatic. Labor costs have been reduced through early retirement packages and cutting back hours. The Postal Service has trimmed its workforce by 120,000 since 2002. It wants to cut 100 million work hours this year. The average unionized postal worker made $66,929 in wages and benefits in 2008, the Postal Service says…
…The Postal Service thrived during the recent bubble economy. It reached its financial peak in 2003, when it earned a $3.8 billion profit. The mail business was boosted by soaring credit and a booming consumer economy. Banks mailed billions of credit offers to Americans. Retail catalogs were fat and profitable.
In 2006, at the peak of the credit bubble, Congress passed its first major overhaul of the Postal Service since 1971. The Postal Service got more freedom to control its prices, especially on packages and overnight deliveries that compete with services offered by private companies.
But the law also ordered the Postal Service to pay $55 billion over 10 years to create a reserve fund to cover retirees’ long-term health care benefits.
“We did not oppose this,” Potter says. “We were well-positioned at the time. We thought we could afford it.”
I know. The first thing when I read this article is scratch my head and say “huh?” I don’t want to bias this too much, rather just put it out there and you tell me what you think. However, I’ll say that there’s something unsettling about this whole concept.
Here are some excerpts.
BBC News- JACKSONS STAR IN NIGERIA RESORT ROW
One of pop superstar Michael Jackson’s brothers, Marlon, is involved in a controversial plan to develop a $3.4bn (£2.4bn) slavery memorial and luxury resort in Badagry, Nigeria.
The historic slave port is to be transformed through the bizarre combination of a slave history theme park and a museum dedicated to double Grammy-winning pop-soul group the Jackson Five.
The idea is that the band will help attract African-American tourists keen to trace their roots back to Nigeria.
The men behind the plan say it will honour the history of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and provide employment opportunities for Nigerians…
…The developers say the Badagry Historical Resort will be marketed to African-American tourists as a mixture of luxury tourist attractions and historical education.
Visitors will be able to see the route their ancestors walked, shackled together as they were whipped toward the “point of no-return”.
They can then retire to their five-star hotel to drink cocktails by the pool…
…Currently fewer than 300,000 tourists visit Nigeria in a year, they say.
It is impossible to get a visa without a letter of invitation.
Flights to Nigeria are expensive, and there is little tourist infrastructure to cater for European or American consumers when they get there.
And then there is the country’s reputation as a chaotic and violent place.
I just ran across this article and thought I would share it with you because I have not heard much discussion about our economy and it’s impact on HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities). Here are a few excerpts.
MSNBC- RECESSION HITS BLACK COLLEGES HARD
Many U.S. universities have been affected by the recession, which has eroded state and private funding for education. But a majority of students at black colleges come from low- or middle-income families, making them and their schools more vulnerable to the economic squeeze.
As it bites, students struggle to get loans and scholarships, and the colleges struggle to pay bills…
…In a dramatic example, Clark Atlanta University laid off 70 of its 229 full-time faculty members and consolidated classes in its arts and science school last week when 300 students out of an enrollment of about 4,000 failed to return for the spring semester because of cost.
“Ninety-eight percent of our students require financial aid. As that became less accessible, increasingly our students have found they were unable to return,” said spokeswoman Jennifer Jiles.
regarding the stimulus package
It would include more than $800 million for infrastructure projects on HBCU campuses and $500 million over two years for improvements in technology as well as increased federal grants for students from low-income families, she said.
Love Your Curls entry: Nina from Burlington, NJ, twitter "Scionlvr"
I am the daughter of a hairdresser. My childhood was spent in The Shop. Saturday mornings. Listening to R&B and funk, town gossip and smelling heads frying.
Moms moved away when I was in college. I was broke & faced with a decision: Borrow money to get a relaxer or cut it. A haircut and a bottle of moose was less than $15.
I went natural & simultaneously found myself. I have big sexy unruly curly Jersey hair that epitomizes who I am. I am larger than life. I am sexy. I am unruly with passion. My curls awaken my spirit every morning & I love them for that.
Nina Burlington, NJ twitter.com/Scionlvr
Love Your Curls entry: Fallon from Columbus, OH
I love my curls because they love me back. My curls are strong and not photo-shopped; they are me at my core essence – creative, bouncy, kinky, sassy, and attention grabbing. I do not have to pretend with my curls – we have an unspoken language between us.
They love me because I no longer torture them with harsh chemicals or mock them with magazine pages. I dress them up, spritz them with vitamins, and cherish every spiral and twist. We are madly in love, us two.
Fallon Columbus, OH
Laing’s Lifestory Subject of New Film “Skin” starring Sophie Okonedo
(Wed. February 11, 2009) Sandra Laing (middle), black woman born to white parents and subject of the new film "SKIN" attends special screening at the 17th Annual Pan African Film & Arts Festival (PAFF) in Los Angeles. Laing is pictured with PAFF founder Ayuko Babu (left) and actress Alfre Woodard (right). Photo credit: Shon Smith for D'Angelo's Photos.
LOS ANGELES, CA – Sandra Laing attended a special screening at the 17th Annual Pan African Film & Arts Festival of the critically acclaimed new film about her life “SKIN,” starring Sophie Okonedo. Among those in attendance were actress Alfre Woodard. The screening took place Wednesday, February 12, 2009 at the Culver Plaza Theatre as part of the 2009 Pan African Film & Arts Festival held annually in Los Angeles.
Based on true events, “SKIN” tells the story of a genetic abnormality that caused a woman born of white parents in apartheid South Africa, to look like a black person. Tormented and unaccepted by white society though classified as white, she falls in love with a Black man and moves to a township, alienating her parents. The film stars Sophie Okonedo, and is directed by Anthony Fabian.
The Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) is the largest and most prestigious flagship black film and arts festival in the country. The festival consists of more than 150 new movies by filmmakers and 100 fine artists from the United States, Africa, the Caribbean, South America, the South Pacific, Europe and Canada, showcasing the diversity and complexity of people from African descent. www.PAFF.org
(Wed. February 11, 2009) "SKIN" director Anthony Fabian and actress Alfre Woodard at a special screening at the 17th Annual Pan African Film & Arts Festival (PAFF) in Los Angeles. "SKIN" tells the story of a black woman born to white parents in South Africa during the 1950s. Photo credit: Shon Smith for D'Angelo's Photos.
We were all riding high after the heroic efforts and some circumstantial luck/divine intervention (whichever you believe) of USAirways Fl 1549. It was the first crash of that severity that I’ve seen with survivors. It gave me perhaps a false sense of comfort that not all plane crashes are deadly.
The flight from Newark, New Jersey to Buffalo, New York last night was not so fortunate. What I need to keep telling myself, and maybe some of you, is that this situation is completely different, but my mind keeps wanting to make a connection as I read this news. The disbelief, still hoping for the best as I wipe the coal from eyes and read all of these disturbing news headlines.
It was the first fatal crash of a commercial airliner in the United States since Aug. 27, 2006, when 49 people were killed after a Comair jetliner took off from a Lexington, Ky., runway that was too short.
I was in living in Lexington, KY while on a grad school co-op when the above event happened and it really hit home. As I prepare to fly from Ohio to LA in a few days, the news of the past few weeks is unsettling.
Prior to the crash, the voice of a female pilot on Continental Flight 3407 could be heard communicating with air traffic controllers, according to a recording of the Buffalo air traffic control’s radio messages shortly before the crash captured by the website www.liveatc.net. Neither the controller nor the pilot exchange showed any concerns that anything is out of the ordinary as the airplane is asked to fly at 2,300 feet.
A minute later, the controller tries to contact the plane but hears no response. After a pause, he tries to contact the plane again.
Then the controller asks the pilot of a nearby Delta Air Lines plane to see if he can see the Continental flight.
“Delta 1998, look off your right side about 5 miles for a Dash 8 about 2,300 (feet). You see anything there?” he asks.
“Uh, negative,” the Delta pilot says.
excerpts above from USA Today article- PLANE CRASH NEAR BUFFALO KILLS 49
Look at the vivid color in the night sky in the above photo. I recall reading in one of the reports that there was still quite a bit of fuel left in the aircraft. I’m sure that explains the large explosion followed by a ball of fire. The crash happened shortly after 10pm on Thursday night and I recall reading that they were still battling the blaze around midnight.
from local Buffalo news station WGRZ…
Authorities tell 2 On Your Side the plane that went down on Long Street near the intersection of Goodrich and Clarence Center Roads was a commuter plane traveling from Newark, New Jersey to Buffalo, New York. The plane last had radio contact with air traffic controllers in Cleveland at shortly after 10:00 p.m. while it flew at an altitude of 15,000 feet.
article: CONTINENTAL AIRLINES PLANE CRASHES IN CLARENCE CENTER
from CNN…
Authorities also said one person on the ground was killed. It is not yet known whether that person was in the home at the time of the crash…
…The plane crashed about 10:20 p.m., hitting a Clarence Center, New York, home.
Authorities said the plane went down near a local fire hall, so firefighters were quick to respond to the accident scene.
article: PLANE CRASHES INTO SUBURBAN BUFFALO-AREA HOME
We now know that one family inside the home perished while 2 others miraculously escaped alive.
One person in the home was killed, while two others inside, Karen Wielinski, 57, and her daughter, Jill, 22, were able to escape with minor injuries.
The husband who perished when the plane crashed into his home, whose name I haven’t seen yet in a report I’ve read, was 61 years old.
Additionally, one person on board was a widow as the result of 9/11 and an activist.
Among the passengers was Beverly Eckhart, 50, the widow of Sean Rooney, a Buffalo native who was killed at the World Trade Center in 2001, and herself an activist on behalf of victims’ right of the attack.
As co-chairwoman of Voices of Sept. 11, she pushed for a formal commission to investigate intelligence failures surrounding the attack and structural weaknesses in the towers. She also campaigned for a proper memorial to be built to honor the victims.
Oh, her story gets more sad…
Eckert was headed to Buffalo to mark what would have been her husband’s 58th birthday, reports the Buffalo News. She was scheduled to participate in the presentation of a scholarship established in memory of Rooney at Canisius High School – which was also Tim Russert’s alma mater.
The above 2 excerpts from People article- 50 PEOPLE DIE IN FIERY PLANE CRASH
I’m sure as more details unfold, and victims are identified, we will hear more stories about these passengers and the flight crew.
From The Buffalo News…
A nurse at Erie County Medical Center said the hospital’s second shift had been told to stay late to treat survivors but was sent home before midnight.
“There were no souls to bring in and treat,” she said…
…Crew members aboard the flight from Newark Airport had reported mechanical problems as they approached Buffalo…
…Police said one man was in the residence at the time of the crash…
…Chris Kausner of Clarence, whose sister Ellyce was aboard the flight, told The Buffalo News that after he heard about the crash, he called another sister who had gone to pick her up at the airport to see if her plane had landed.
“She said that they told them the plane had landed and was taxiing, but that was not the case,” he said.
Kausner said Ellyce was a law student at Florida Coastal University in Jacksonville and was coming home to visit…
article: 49 KILLED AS PLANE CRASHES INTO HOME IN CLARENCE CENTER
From Reuters…
A local official said the plane was a 74-seat Bombardier Q400, a turboprop plane. The plane is made by Bombardier Inc. Colgan Air is a subsidiary of Pinnacle Airlines Corp
article: PLANE CRASHES IN NEW YORK STAE, 49 DEAD
Aviation (a publication) just released this article on the 74 seater Bombardier Q400 as an improvement to Continental’s fleet and the frequent delays suffered from Newark’s airport.
article: 74 SEAT BOMBARDIER Q400
Continental Airlines expects its new fleet of Bombardier Q400 regional airliners to produce a welter of operational benefits at its Newark Liberty hub — including reducing delays to the airline’s flights from the airport, one of the most congested in the United States.
Bigger, more fuel efficient and just as quiet and fast as the 35-to-50-seat regional jets they will supplement and replace, Continental’s 74-seat Q400 turboprops — to be owned and operated by Continental Connection franchise partner Colgan Airways — will operate from Continental’s Newark and Cleveland hubs to 18 domestic destinations and two in Canada from Feb. 4.
“The Q400′s real benefit is obvious in Newark, with its runway and air traffic control challenges,” said David Kinzelman, Continental’s managing director for corporate development/alliance operations. “It’s a perfect aircraft to be able to do a couple of things. With congestion, it allows us to grow by adding capacity in the market, because it has 24 more seats” than the aircraft it is augmenting — and in come cases replacing…
…Another benefit is that, while the Q400 cruises at 440 mph and — measuring flight time from gate to gate — is competitive with a jet over sectors of up to 600 miles, it typically cruises at altitudes of 23,000 feet or 24,000 feet, said Kinzelman. These flight levels are 10,000 to 15,000 feet lower than the altitudes at which jets normally cruise…
…Continental Connection Q400 services start on Feb. 4 with flights to Albany and Rochester, N.Y., Baltimore, Md. and Pittsburgh, Pa., with flights to Raleigh/Durham, N.C., and Norfolk, Va. beginning on Feb. 14 when Colgan receives two more Q400s, said Kinzelman. Colgan Air will take delivery of all 15 firmly ordered Q400s before the end of June, by which time the fleet will be serving all 20 initially planned destinations.
I’m sure more details and stories from families affected will unfold throughout the day today. If you learn of anything please share in a comment.
My condolences and heartfelt prayers to those affected by those 49 lives lost. Thank you to the fire fighters who quickly responded and police presence who helped evacuate and contain the area. Your efforts are heroic as well.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
WHO: “SKIN” cast members, award winning director Anthony Fabian, celebrity guests, and VIP’s
WHAT: The 17th Annual Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) will present a featured screening and Q&A of “SKIN.” Based on true events, “SKIN” tells the story of a genetic abnormality that caused a woman born of white parents in apartheid South Africa, to look like a black person. Tormented and unaccepted by white society though classified as white, she falls in love with a Black man and moves to a township, alienating her parents.
Stars Sophie Okonedo, directed by Anthony Fabian. Talent attending, special surprise guest. Q&A to follow screening. Film is approximately 107 minutes.
WHERE: Culver Plaza Theatre, 9919 West Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA.
WHEN: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 at 7:00pm – 9:00pm, Red carpet 6:30 p.m.
WHY: The Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) is the largest and most prestigious flagship black film and arts festival in the country. The festival consists of more than 150 new movies by filmmakers and 100 fine artists from the United States, Africa, the Caribbean, South America, the South Pacific, Europe and Canada, showcasing the diversity and complexity of people from African descent. www.PAFF.org
I’m just reading about this from The Loop. The Pan African Film and Arts Festival is currently underway in Los Angeles but runs through February 16, 2009. Check the Pan African Film and Arts Festival official website for details.
Ann Curry interview on Today Show
The Young Turks weigh in true to their style
UPDATE, 6:45am Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Funny, I posted this story overnight and now there are more details coming out, so here they are from Huffington Post:
OCTUPLETS MOM NADYA SULEMAN ON FOOD STAMPS, THREE KIDS RECEIVE DISABILITY
An in-vitro procedure typically costs between $8,000 and $15,000. Asked on NBC how she was able to afford the treatments, Suleman said she had saved money and used some of the more than $165,000 in disability payments she received after being injured in a 1999 riot at a state mental hospital where she worked.
She also told NBC that she does not intend to go on welfare, though her publicist confirmed Monday that Suleman already receives food stamps and child disability payments to help feed and care for her six other children…
In an interview with celebrity news Web site RadarOnline.com, Angela Suleman said she and Nadya’s father pleaded with her first fertility doctor not to treat their daughter again. She said her daughter went to another doctor.
“I’m really angry about that,” Angela Suleman said of the doctor’s decision to perform the procedure. “She already has six beautiful children. Why would she do this? I’m struggling to look after her six. We had to put in bunk beds, feed them in shifts and there’s children’s clothing piled all over the house.”
Angela Suleman said Nadya’s boyfriend was the biological father of all 14 children, but that she refused to marry him.
“He was in love with her and wanted to marry her,” she said. “But Nadya wanted to have children on her own.”
Ok, so it’s her mom throwing her under the bus. I was wondering how this made a turn for the worse in the press. Nadya lives with her mother who is already stressed about caring for the 6 children already in the home, 3 with disabilities that Nadya nor her mom has made public.
Maybe Nadya did not make the wisest choice, but she’s not the only one out there. The fact that she saved disability payments bothers me a bit, but that part doesn’t add up with how she was able to save that much money and also receive food stamps.
No one knew she’d have octuplets, and when they did, how would you handle the question of selective abortion? Whey didn’t the Angela Suleman, Nady’s mom, start her make fuss campaign at that time?
The babies are born now, and I don’t know that the entirely factual scoop will ever be clear to us. I say that people should instead choose to jump in and help just like we do with anyone else in extenuating circumstances (i.e. give her the reality show, book deal, the Oprah appearance)…and then sometimes we don’t. I debated this with my husband this morning, but my original position still remains at the moment. Below is what I originally wrote.
———–
I’ve been holding on this story until I could give myself some time to read more about it, but the snippets I’ve heard and seen in headlines kind of bothered me. Why is this lady all of a sudden an issue with her octuplets?
Here’s my initial reaction. My mother had 5 kids, and I recall vividly parents making comments and passing judgment, as my siblings were born, about why she was having so many kids. Funny, how no judgment goes to my dad…double standards…I digress. Things were and have been tight, but they did their best to raise us, and we’re all very well rounded, bright children today.
How dare America start poking into this recently identified woman’s life about the number of children or whether she can afford them. How can we say this when we watch shows like Jon and Kate plus 8 and Meet The Duggars and Big Love? No medical experts were critics with Jon and Kate Gosselin.
Who cares if she gets a book deal or a tv show? So what if she wanted a lot of kids? In my mind, if she can find a way to love them all and give them the basic needs with help, it’s a non-issue.
This issue is complex. If you read or have gone through infertility treatments, you’ll learn that they’re expensive which puts pressure on people to increas their odds. Medical advancements have led to better odds with multiples being carried to term and the success rate of caring for premature children. Hospital care is expensive, and I’m sure her bills are off the chain for 8 little babies.
I say leave Nadya Suleman alone unless you’re offering to lend some assistance. We live in a free country with free will.
Talk to me.
As always, here are some references for your reading pleasure.
UK Times- AMERICAN WOMAN GIVES BIRTH TO LIVE OCTUPLETS
“We decided to proceed with the delivery in anticipation of seven babies. We had done some drills, some preliminary dry runs,” said Karen Maples, a member of the delivery team at Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Centre, 17 miles southeast of Los Angeles. “Lo and behold, after we got to Baby G, which is what we expected, we were surprised by Baby H.”…
The mother, whose identity has not been revealed, checked into the hospital in the 23rd week of her pregnancy. She was in her 30th week on Monday when she gave birth to the six boys and two girls, weighing between 680 grams and 1.4 kilograms. In total, she had been carrying almost 11 kilograms of baby weight before the delivery.
ABC News- OCTUPLETS MOM: CAN SHE AFFORD TO RAISE 14 KIDS?
Is it unethical to provide fertility treatments to someone who is not infertile? The recent newsbreak that the 33-year old woman who gave birth to octuplets already has 6 children certainly leads one to question the medical legitimacy of the doctor who provided her with either infertility drugs, or in-vitro fertilization.
Time Magazine- THE OCTUPLET MOM SPEAKS, AND THE QUESTIONS GROW
Suleman hired a public relations agent less than a week after the octuplets’ birth. Joann Killeen, president of the Killeen Furtney Group, was hired to field book, movie, and TV offers for her client. During an interview on “Larry King Live” on Feb. 3, Killeen portrayed Suleman as a “wonderful woman.”…
Killeen also countered published reports that Suleman was trying to negotiate becoming a broadcast TV child care expert (NBC denied it paid for its interview with Suleman, the full version of which will air on Feb. 9). She did confirm, however, that it is Suleman’s desire to pursue paying projects about the birth of the octuplets. “It’s not true that she is being paid multiple millions of dollars for going on the media,” Killeen told King. “She’s not on welfare, has no plans on being a welfare mom…
Momaroo Blog- ETHICS OF INFERTILITY- THE CALIFORNIA OCTUPLETS
Is it unethical to provide fertility treatments to someone who is not infertile? The recent newsbreak that the 33-year old woman who gave birth to octuplets already has 6 children certainly leads one to question the medical legitimacy of the doctor who provided her with either infertility drugs, or in-vitro fertilization.
WKRG News- OCTUPLETS MOM “OBSESSED” WITH HAVING KIDS
Angela Suleman said her daughter always had trouble conceiving and underwent in-vitro fertilization treatments because her fallopian tubes are “plugged up.”
There were frozen embryos left over after her previous pregnancies and her daughter didn’t want them destroyed, so she decided to have more children…
Her mother said she doesn’t believe her daughter will have any more children.
“She doesn’t have any more (frozen embryos), so it’s over now,” she said. “It has to be.”
Since I wrote this post, so much has happened.
The unemployed single mother from Whittier, California has revealed that she met sperm donor David Solomon in a night club and went on a date with him to the cinema before deciding that she didn’t want him as a boyfriend – just to get her pregnant.
(source: Bild.com)
This video is sad, and I want to warn you in case you are extremely tender hearted. It’s not graphic, but if this story has you worked up already, you should use your own judgment on the best timing to view the videos.
CBS WBBM-TV‘s Joanie Lam reporting in the video below.
The below video from teamjustice99 offers a slightly different perspective with a few more details.
So far, I’ve found that the reports on video included here, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Breaking News site (collaboration of CLTV, WGN channel 9, WGN radio 720, and Chicago Tribune), Fox News, and Huffington Post have had the most useful reports (outside of what I’m reporting here). I’ve tried to compile everything between this post and the previous one. Here they are below:
My original post on affrodite.net
Again, I don’t know the family and I’m sure they’re doing what they can to find details and seek media attention (if desired), but let’s at least get this where it’s reported in the major media outlets.
Funeral for Aquan Lewis was on Wednesday, February 11, 2009. Here is some additional information.
CBS 2 Chicago- FUNERAL HELD FOR AQUAN LEWIS
An emergency petition was filed in Cook County Circuit Court by the boy’s family last week, demanding that Evanston police preserve the tapes of the 911 call placed by Oakton School staff on Tuesday. Otherwise, the tapes could legally be disposed of after 30 days.
Patricia Markham, communications director for District 65, said Friday that she had not seen a copy of the order and declined to comment.
Members of the family’s legal team wouldn’t confirm a second, independent autopsy happened, but did say they’ve done everything they need to do in their investigation so far.
The Cook County Medical Examiner who ruled Aquan’s death a suicide told CBS 2′s Kristyn Hartman she based her determination on a couple of things: that she found no other trauma on his body except for a mark on his neck, and that the investigative report indicated he had a psychiatric history.
Chicago Tribune provides first insight into details of Aquan Lewis hanging.
EVANSTON POLICE AGREE STUDENT’S DEATH WAS A SUICIDE
The 10-year-old boy found hanging in an Evanston school bathroom talked with friends about hurting himself before he slipped away from his 5th-grade class and fastened his shirt collar to a stall door hook, authorities said Tuesday.
Aquan Lewis reportedly stepped onto a toilet seat, leaned back and caught his shirt beneath the heavy stitching of the collar that proved strong enough to bear his more than 80 pounds.
“He had told other students he was unhappy that day,” Police Cmdr. Tom Guenther said during a news conference.
Police on Tuesday seconded the Cook County medical examiner’s finding that Aquan’s death was a suicide. They released details about how the child was discovered unresponsive Feb. 3 in the third-floor restroom near his classroom at Oakton Elementary School…
…The teacher has been placed on a routine administrative leave…
…In recounting what happened, Murphy said Aquan left his classroom to use the restroom before the start of gym class at 2:45 p.m. The boy slipped away without signing out for a bathroom break as was the room’s practice, so the exact time of his departure is uncertain, Murphy said.
Police estimate that Aquan went to the bathroom anywhere from 5 to 40 minutes before gym started, although Murphy said it was “a short period of time.”
The teacher realized that Aquan was missing when the students lined up to walk toward the gymnasium. The teacher then doubled back to look for Aquan, but several students discovered him first, Murphy said.
Aquan was unresponsive and bleeding from his nose. There were no signs of a struggle and no evidence of bruising, officials said.
Aquan had buttoned every button of his shirt, something his classmates said he never did, Guenther said…
NBC Chicago posts photos released from police of shirt Aquan Lewis was wearing day he was found hung.
WARNING- somewhat graphic content!
Awesome political t-shirts! I own a few myself.
Black Gives Back
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