Oprah Gives a Fat Check to Atlanta Educator
On Christmas Eve, Ron Clark, the creative, inspiring educator, got a Federal Express package from the Queen of Talk TV, Oprah Winfrey. It was $365,000. Turns out that Winfrey had been monitoring the success of his South Atlanta school and thought that $1,000 a day for an entire year made sense as she was looking for the recipient of her most generous gift this year, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Clark, who said his school needs $2.4 million to operate, says the extra money will enable him to provide 26 full scholarships for a year. Last month, his academy also got $300,000 from Tony Cann, vice chairman of Promethean Ltd, the leading manufacturer of collaborative classrooms systems.

Foxx’s ‘Intuition’ Pays Off
Jamie Foxx’s third album, Intuition, debuted at No. 3 on the Top 200 Albums chart, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The disc’s success goes in part to the offerings of such sidemen as T.I. (on “Just Like Me”) and Ne-Yo and Fabolous (on “She Got Her Own”). With a total of 265,196 units sold in the first week, Intuition also reached No. 2 on the R&B Albums chart. The video for “Just Like Me” was the Spotlight video on VHI, netting more than 100 spins a week on VH1 Soul.