DALLAS (NNPA) — Dr. M. Joycelyn Elders, The first Black surgeon general of the United States under Pres. Bill Clinton, won't keep silent about America's unhealthy relationship with sex. Speaking to a crowd of 500 people last week at a World AIDS Day luncheon held at the Hilton-Anatole Hotel in Dallas, Texas, Elders called for better sex education for children and teenagers and a more honest discussion of sexual matters.
Stating that America has a sexually unhealthy society, Elders emphasized the fact that humans are sexual beings, yet, she said we don't talk about sex enough.
"We walk around and we say, well, ignorance is bliss and we misinterpret ignorance for innocence. We've got to start educating our children," she said, introducing her "ABC" list for sexual education. ...

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The 51st annual National Urban League Equal Opportunity Day Dinner on Thursday, Nov. 15 in New York raised $2 million dollars that evening, a record for Microsoft, who was inducted into their $5 Million Dollar Hall of Fame. From left: Claudette Whiting, Microsoft's General Manager of Global Diversity and Inclusion; Russ Mitchell, CBS "The Early Show" News Anchor; Magic Johnson, CEO Johnson Enterprises; Soledad O'Brien, CNN News Anchor and Special Correspondent join Marc Morial, president and CEO, National Urban League and John D. Hofmeister, Chairman of the Board of the National Urban League.

It's official. Crystal Aikin is the best of the best in amateur gospel singing, according to Black Entertainment Television.
The 33-year-old from Tacoma, Wash., sung her way into first place in BET's Sunday's Best Gospel competition. Her dynamic voice earned her the keys to a 2008 Toyota Camry and a  national recording contract with Zomba Records.
 And that's before we get to the $300,000 in prize money.
Aikin shed a few tears when her win was announced but said she felt enormous gratitude. Of all of the national and local singing competitions she participated in, this is the first competition she's actually won. 

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Rev. Al Sharpton angrily denounced federal authorities Thursday for investigating him and his civil rights organization, suggesting that the Justice Department was retaliating against him for his political activism.
"I have probably been under every investigation known to man and I can't remember a time that I've not been under investigation," Sharpton said at a news conference at the Harlem headquarters of his National Action Network.
"The issues raised are issues that we've learned over and over again, particularly when we are approaching an election season."
Sharpton called the news conference after reports emerged Thursday of a federal probe into his finances.
The FBI and the IRS are investigating Sharpton for tax fraud and possible campaign finance violations stemming from his 2004 presidential bid, according to a person familiar with the investigation. They are also investigating the National Action Network and several businesses he runs.
A Brooklyn grand jury is scheduled to begin hearing evidence in the case at the end of the month.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) _ The federal government calls demolition of public housing complexes an overdue war on poverty in New Orleans made possible by Hurricane Katrina. Churchmen, civil rights lawyers, preservationists and protesters call it a land grab and class cleansing.
On Wednesday, workers began tearing down the first of 4,500 federally administered public housing units to make way for mixed-income neighborhoods.
The plan has ignited allegations the true aim is to benefit developers over the needs of New Orleans' poor, who are overwhelmingly black. ...

WASHINGTON (AP) _ A Black congressman who claims he was racially profiled by Chicago police last month pushed for legislation Thursday that would ban the practice.
Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., called racial profiling "one of the most sinister issues that exists in American life."
In November, two White officers pulled Davis over and gave him a traffic ticket alleging he swerved over the center line, which Davis denied doing.
"I know that I'm getting up in age a little bit, but I'm not so old that if I weave, I don't know that I'm weaving," Davis, 66, said at a Capitol Hill news conference. The real reason he was pulled over, Davis asserted, was that he and three other Black men were in a car on a deserted street after midnight.
"Ultimately, I was actually ticketed because I was driving while being Black," he said. ...

As part of an International Aids Day event at PCC's Cascade campus Nov. 30, students from Jefferson High School displayed a quilt they made themselves, while standing in front of a panel from the largest community art project in the world — the  AIDS Memorial Quilt. As well as making the quilt, the students set up an information table at Jefferson to raise awareness about the disease. African Americans now make up about 50 percent of those newly diagnosed with HIV infections. From left: Marquis Stoudamire, a veteran, attending college at PSU. Jefferson students: Raquelle Holden-Harris,15; Vera Holden-Harris, 17; Lupe Mapapalangi, 17; Marquesha Baines, 16; Tiffany Olson, 16; Erandin Ascencio, 16; Darryl Thomas, 17; Carlos McCall, 16; Antoinette Washington,16; Corey Ware, 17; and Willie Smith, 16.