Howard Students Want Demands Met Hundreds of Howard University students, who participated in a loud protest rally outside the main administration building at the historically Black campus on Friday, gave university officials until this week to respond to their demands. Among the diverse complaints lodged by students were the slow pace of financial-aid paperwork, too-little on-campus housing, poor student services and questionable labor practices. “We love Howard,” Corey Briscoe, a 20-year-old junior and the director of student advocacy for the Howard University Student Association, told The Washington Post. “But this impinges on academic freedom.” Protestors, who threatened to sit in at the administration building until they got acceptable answers from university leaders – a formal response, in writing – gave them until Wednesday. Classes at the Washington, D.C., campus began two weeks ago. “I can [now] go to class,” junior Vanessa Ray, told Myfoxdc.com. “But there will be a purge date, and, if I’m still not validated at that time – if they haven’t certified my loan by that time – I’ll be kicked out of school.” That was also Najauna Muschetta’s complaint. “I think… day to day, okay, am I going to be purged?” she said. “Am I still going to be able to go to my classes? Will I still be able to live in my room? And, you know, that’s stressful!” Britney Wilson, a sophomore from Brooklyn who has cerebral palsy, said that she finds it difficult to access most of the buildings on campus in her electric scooter because the power buttons to open the doors rarely work. Administrators have met with student leaders and said they are taking the students’ concerns “very seriously.” President Sidney Ribeau has promised to meet with some of the protesters today.

By Robin Caldwell, BlackWeb20.com

It is the mother of all luxury smart phones. Encased in mother-of-pearl layered behind sapphire crystal and framed in black nickel; and the buttons are stainless steel and sapphire crystal. The Mobiado Grand 350PRL is the business for professionals. The Vancouver, Canada manufacturer, Mobiado, calls their state-of-the-art cellular phones - Luxury in Mobility.

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Rep. William Jefferson, convicted of selling his influence for hundreds of thousands in “cold cash,” wants a new trial. Last week a New Orleans jury found the nine-term congressman guilty on 11 of 16 counts of public corruption, acquitting him of five others. On Wednesday, Jefferson’s attorneys filed a motion requesting that Judge T.S. Ellis III grant a new trial. While it is highly unlikely that Ellis will comply, Jefferson’s defenders are hoping that the court will release material concerning Lori Mody, the Virginia businesswoman who wore a government bug to record conversations with Jefferson but never appeared to testify during his seven-week trial, NOLA.com reports. Ellis is scheduled to sentence the 62-year-old Jefferson on Oct. 30. The Web site reports that lead Prosecutor Mark Lytle said sentencing guidelines call for the Louisiana Democrat to spend 20 years in prison. Most observers believe that Jefferson will serve a much lighter sentence. Investigators, who raided Jefferson’s Capitol Hill apartment in 2006, found $90,000 in his freezer.

Another provocative video featuring Harlem-based pastor, Rev. David Manning, is making the rounds on the Internet.  This time the Obama-bashing pastor has joined in the chatter of the “Birther” movement, an informal group of people who question President Obama’s United States citizenship, believing he was born in Kenya.

“There’s a snake in the White House,” intones Manning, referring to President Obama.  “It needs to be smoked out.”

The pastor even goes on to blast conservative talk show hosts Shawn Hannity and Bill O’Reilly, two commentators who have dismissed the Birthers’ claims about Obama’s citizenship. “Who’s paying you,” he questions both men, calling them “sellouts.”

Manning got his first splash in the media during the presidential campaign when video of one of his sermons blasting then-Senator Obama appeared online. “Obama is a mack daddy,” he said of the President in that video. “He is an emissary of the devil.” He also ridiculed President Obama’s biracial  background.

Manning, an ex-felon convicted for burglarizing over 100 homes during the 1960s and 1970s, according to the New York Times, is the pastor of ATLAH World Missionary Church on 123rd Street in Harlem. His church has about 150 members.

See a Copy of Pres. Obama’s Birth Certificate.

Watch the video at The Daily Voice.

What do you think about Pastor Manning’s tirade? Comment below.

When Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times asked President Obama about Harvard professor Henry Louis “Skip” Gates’ arrest, the President got a few laughs from his audience, but gave a pointed response to the question.

First he issued the caveat: “I may be a little biased,” he said. “Skip Gates is a friend.”

“I think it’s fair to say, No. 1, any of us would be pretty angry. No. 2, the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. And No. 3, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is there is a long history in this country of African Americans and Latinos being stopped by police disproportionately. That’s just a fact.”

He capped it off with the joke that had his audience laughing. If he tried to jimmy his way into the White House, he said, “I’d get shot.”

Rap mogul Russell Simmons, who critics say is ushering poor people into further debt with his money card that targets poor and minority communities, denounced what he called “misinformation” and said he is providing a service that gives people a sense of respect and dignity. “The RushCard is a prepaid card, NOT a credit card.  It gives people the convenience of a credit card without the debt,” Simmons said in a statement. “I have watched with pride the way RushCard has changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people giving them respect and dignity.  It gives underserved communities the tools to get their money right.” Read the rest.

 Michael Jordan, arguably one of the best basketball players in history, is headed to the Basketball Hall of Fame. Joining His Airness among the class of 2009 are five other players, including center David Robinson and point guard John Stockton, two of his teammates on the USA’s 1992 Olympic “Dream Team.” Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan and current Rutgers Women’s Coach C. Vivian Stringer rounded out the honorees, who will be enshrined Sept. 10-12 at the Naismith Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. Jordan’s tone of disappointment contrasted with that of other former  inductees. “This is not fun for me, because it means your basketball career is completely over,” Jordan said. “I was hoping to go in when I was dead and gone.” Whom do you believe is the best basketball player in history?