A player on The Klique (in black shirts) attacks the basket against the Hot Shots (in red shirts) during the Heal The Hood AAU Basketball Tournament last weekend.  The event featured top high school players and was modeled after the legendary Rucker Tournament based in Harlem, New York, designed to encourage alternatives to violence.  The tournament was part of the Umoja Festival....
Photo by Susan Fried

http://www.pcgame4fun.com/play-power-rangers-dino-thunder.html…

Most accounts of the Revolutionary War give the impression that America's independence from Britain was won by brave white men.
Maurice Barboza wants to tell the rest of the story.
He's trying to revive an effort to build the first monument on the National Mall honoring Black colonial soldiers -- perhaps the most forgotten heroes from the nation's birth.
The project would recognize such people as Crispus Attucks, the first patriot killed in the Boston Massacre, and James Lafayette, a Virginia slave who risked his life to spy on the British and was granted freedom in return.
"They were Americans, and they should be honored," Barboza says. "They were founders of the country." ...

DETROIT -- Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick wearily thanked supporters for helping her squeak through a surprisingly tough primary battle for her seat in the U.S. Congress.
Three days later, Kwame Kilpatrick fidgeted through an emergency appeal to decide if the embattled Detroit mayor would spend more nights alone in a jail cell....

Bernie Mac, the actor and comedian who teamed up in the casino heist caper "Ocean's Eleven" and gained a prestigious Peabody Award for his sitcom "The Bernie Mac Show," died Saturday at age 50.
"Actor/comedian Bernie Mac passed away this morning from complications due to pneumonia in a Chicago area hospital," his publicist, Danica Smith, said in a statement from Los Angeles.

John Edwards didn't ruin his reputation by admitting on television to an affair. By the time he sat down to come clean, the damage had already been done in private conversations by political insiders.
Edwards' refusal to deny forcefully the charges of infidelity exposed by the National Enquirer and the private suspicions expressed by those closest to him left the widespread impression that he had ...

The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF) and the Congressional Black Caucus Spouses will recognize the significant contributions of three outstanding individuals in the visual and performing arts, as well as students pursuing careers and opportunities in those areas during the 12th Annual Celebration of Leadership in the Fine Arts. Legendary "King of the Blues" musician B.B. King, visual artist Betye Saar and noted Muhammad Ali photographer Howard Bingham will be feted at the event set for 8 to 10:30 p.m., Wednesday, September 24, at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C. ...

Legendary soul singer and arranger Isaac Hayes has died.
Relatives found Hayes, 65, unconscious in his home next to a still-running treadmill, said Steve Shular, a spokesman for the Shelby County Sheriff's Department in Memphis.
Paramedics attempted to revive him and took him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after 2 p.m., the sheriff's department said. ... Family members said the singer, who had a history of high blood pressure, had recently been treated for various medical conditions ...

Did the lives and work of legendary singer and actor Isaac Hayes and/or comedian Bernie Mac make an impact on your own life? While their deaths have served to remind us all of their tremendous impact on our culture, the impact of their art left a much more personal imprint on their fans. Leave your parting words to either Mr. Hayes' or Mr. Mac's guest book online. You may find the Guest Books at ...

King County officials are urging voters to double-check their polling place before voting day, Tuesday, Aug. 19. Since 2004, 141 poll sites have been consolidated or closed either because the location was not accessible to people with disabilities or the site was underutilized, according to elections officials. "We're close to one week away from the primary and we want to make sure poll voters know where to vote on Aug. 19," said Sherril Huff, Elections director. Since the presidential primary held in February of this year, 20 sites were moved or in some cases demolished or impacted by construction, affecting 17,221 poll voters. ...