A N.Y. school is renamed for Obama. The Barack Obama name seems to be catching on everywhere – even at schools.  The former Ludlum Elementary School in Hempstead, New York, was renamed at a school board meeting Thursday – effective immediately – in honor of the president-elect.  The new name is the Barack Obama Elementary School. The school, which is made up of about 440 students, is mostly Black and Hispanic.

MLK Memorial may have hit a snag. Wal-Mart is kicking in a large chunk of change to help along plans for the Martin Luther King Memorial in Washington, D.C., The Associated Press reports. The Wal-Mart Foundation has announced a $12.5 million letter of credit for the planned memorial. The group working to build the King memorial says it has raised $100 million of the $120 million needed for the project. Meanwhile, the memorial may hit a snag over a disagreement about how to secure the site. The National Park Service wants the design to include security measures, feeling the memorial might be targeted by racist extremist groups, AP reports. But the National Capital Planning Commission doesn’t want the security barriers, saying it’s an affront to King’s legacy of inclusiveness.

Obama pool table selling on eBay for $500,000. Just about everything Obama touches seem to turn to “sold” these days.  The owner of the pool hall in West Virginia is planning to sell the  tournament-size pool table along with the cues, balls and lamp used by Obama during a campaign stop back in May. John Mawyer, the owner of the pool hall, posted the pool table on eBay with a starting price of $500,000. Some of the proceeds will go to charity.

Rev. Al owes taxpayers $500,000, says government. Federal auditors say the Rev. Al Sharpton’s 2004 campaign accepted illegal donations and other financial illegalities totally $500,000 and must pay that amount back to the government. Sharpton has been feuding with the Federal Elections Commission for years over the funding of his failed presidential run, for which he received $100,000 in so-called government matching funds that authorities later concluded he did not deserve because he hadn’t followed campaign laws. Now federal auditors say that Sharpton owes $486,803 to the U.S. Treasury because his campaign took improper donations, mostly from the National Action Network, a not-for-profit corporation that Sharpton leads but kept separate from his campaign committee. Continuing the longstanding battle with the government, Sharpton will appeal the finding, aides said Friday.

A former school teacher gifts $500,000 to UNCF. Former school teacher Winifred Davenport Barnes gave the United Negro College Fund, the nation’s oldest and most successful minority education assistance organization, a $500,000 gift.  Proceeds from Barnes’ estate will benefit the 55,000 students who attend the 39 historically Black colleges and universities that are members of UNCF, officials say. Barnes was an avid believer in higher education. A native of South Carolina, she moved to New York, married Dr. Lloyd T. Barnes, and returned to school to complete the education she had been deprived of in her youth due to her gender and race.  She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in early childhood education from New York University and studied finance and investments at Temple University, the Bank of New York and the New School for Social Research. “Our students are Mrs. Barnes’ beneficiaries twice over,” said UNCF President and CEO Michael L. Lomax, Ph.D.  “Her determination to get an education, and the full and active life that her education opened to her, set an example for today’s young people.  And her generous bequest will enable many young men and women to enjoy the benefits of the education that meant so much to her.”