Category: Afro Briefs

Bank of America announced this week its intentions to help customers avoid overdraft fees on debit card purchases. Starting this summer, the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank will only authorize single debit card transactions at the point of sale if a customer has enough money in their account at the time. The announcement arrives on the heels […]

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica — The international tourism industry has been traveling full-speed ahead as one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world despite the fact that bank accounts have been going in the opposite direction just as quickly. To discuss the state of the industry within the current global economic landscape, Jamaica’s Ministry […]

Amid a Congressional fight for health care reform, President Obama and Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, are asking for more transparency among the nation’s insurance providers. Sebelius met with representatives from the four top health insurers on March 4 to express her concerns about the rising cost of premiums […]

The allegedly poverty-stricken North Carolina woman who was accused of giving her five-year-old daughter to a man for sex late last year was released from jail on February 21 after posting a $51,000 bond. The child, Shaniya Davis, was found dead on Nov. 16 on a rural road in Lee County, near Fayetteville, N.C. Antoinette […]

Democrats spoke out sharply against a document created by the Republican National Committee that depicted President Obama as the comic book supervillain The Joker, a document the chairman of the RNC attempted to distance himself from, the Associated Press reported. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were also caricatured […]

Three Los Angeles teachers have been suspended after they gave their students pictures of Dennis Rodman, O.J. Simpson, and RuPaul to carry in a Black History Month Parade, the Associated Press reported. Los Angeles School District spokeswoman Gayle Pollard-Terry told the AP on March 3 that the teachers’ suspension from Wadsworth Elementary School was caused […]

Superstar runway model Naomi Campbell recently rallied the fashion world with a charity fashion show for Haitian relief efforts, her latest effort to support disaster relief. The event was held on February 12 during New York Fashion Week and drew top models, designers and fashion critics including model Christy Turlington, the Duchess of York. Celebrity […]

President Obama hopes to see his controversial health care reform bill approved by March 18, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said March 4. According to thehill.com, Gibbs said sweeping health care reform should move through Congress before the president leaves for a trip to Australia and Indonesia. “We’re leaving on March 18 and we […]

While the Jobs Bill passed by the Senate on Feb. 24 could potentially open over 1 million new jobs, Marc H. Morial, CEO and President of the National Urban League. views the bill as “timid.” “This bill simply does not go far enough,” Morial said in a press release. “It’s a tiny step when what […]

On Feb. 25, representatives of the National Guard Youth Challenge Program, an initiative that provides structure and discipline to young adults who’ve dropped out of high school, held a roundtable discussion on Capitol Hill to discuss the issues plaguing high school students. “The overriding objective of the program is to leverage the strength of the […]

An 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck Chile on the morning of February 27, destroying buildings, highways and killing 708 people according to Chilean President Michelle Bachelet. The earthquake is one of the largest ever recorded and was felt as far away as Brazil. The earthquake sent a tsunami that barely missed Hawaii and is expected to affect […]

President Obama’s bipartisan health care reform summit on February 25 failed to provoke any Republican converts, forcing Democrats to turn to a political process called reconciliation, which would sidestep the need for Republican support for the measure. The move would allow the majority-Democratic Congress to approve Obama’s proposed healthcare reform with a simple majority vote, […]