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Weren’t we here just four years ago, when Jarvis Green, then a New England Patriots defensive end, let Eli Manning’s jersey slip out of his hand?

But Sunday night was different. Manning tarnished Tom Brady‘s majestic armor and made the New York Empire proud.

Super Bowl night didn’t start off well for the Patriots.  Early on, the safety net was taken away as Brady gave up two points in the game, which placed the ball right back into Manning’s hands for the Giant’s first touchdown.

But the tide would change as Brady marched New England into the lead with a field goal. By halftime, Brady and company were ahead 10-9. Afterward, Madonna entertained during halftime, looking like a robot pacing the stage for Valvoline oil — she was pretty impressive for a 53-year-old!

As Brady threw another touchdown strike, the second half of the game started in New England’s favor. The Giants kept their poise, though, and chipped away with a couple of field goals to keep the game close at 17-15.

By the fourth quarter, the game was thrilling as Manning performed another signature comeback in the final period, driving New York down the field for the go-ahead score by Bradshaw. With the Giants ahead 21-17, Brady and company only had less than a minute to pull off a miracle.

But it wasn’t gonna happen.

Ahmad Bradshaw scored the biggest — and strangest — touchdown. Who wasn’t waiting for him to take a cigarette out of his pocket and smoke it? New York proved once again that they are still the coolest state in the world.

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Surveillance video shows Antonio getting into the vehicle at around 9:40 p.m. on Monday, January 30. His mother recovered his bicycle at the gas station on Tara Boulevard in Jonesboro, Georgia on the outskirts of Atlanta.

The AJC reports the descriptions of Antonio and the unknown male as follows:

Antonio is described as a Black male with brown eyes and black hair. He is 5 feet, 1 inch tall and weighs 100 pounds. He was wearing a dark sweatshirt and dark pants when he disappeared.

The unknown male is described as a Black male, 20 to 35 years old, standing 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighing 240 pounds. He was wearing a blue button-down work shirt with a long sleeve black shirt underneath it, tan pants, and a black hat with a red brim.

The man’s vehicle, a Chrysler 300 from between 2004 and 2009, is silver and likely has a Georgia tag.”

The Clayton County Police Department is asking that anyone with information on Antonio’s whereabouts to call 911 or 770-477-3648.

#1-I Dreamt It Was Heaven- written by Leonce Gaiter

“Hanging Judge” Isaac C. Parker; Notorious half-black half-Indian outlaw Cherokee Bill; one-quarter Cherokee “gentlemen bandit” Henry Starr, relative of the notorious Belle Starr; and the worst of the lot—half-black, half-Indian Rufus Buck. These real-life historical figures collided during the fateful summer of 1895, when young Rufus Buck formed a gang of teens to drive whites from Indian Territory once and for all. His vicious rampage is legend. Learn more at http://buckrampage.com

Never Dead written by Jumata Jones
Emerson McGee has spent most of his life living with a secret, and the first-year law student’s menacing struggle with his sexuality is only the half of it. His wife, Danielle, has her own scars of adolescent heartache—which she thinly veils behind her façade as an upper-middle class princess. The newlywed’s cookie-cutter marriage is abruptly interrupted when they make a reluctant move into the quaint house Emerson inherited from his deceased grandmother. Unbeknownst to them, there’s already something else living there: A malevolent entity hell-bent on exposing its connection to Emerson and the tragic secret they share. While a mysterious narrator recounts the details of his abject life, the McGees’ vengeful poltergeist pulls Danielle deeper into a mystery that has haunted an impoverished ghetto in South Baton Rouge—aptly called “‘Da Bottom”—for nearly a decade, and spills into the provocative world of New Orleans hoodoo. Before its final scare, Never Dead concludes with a bloody twist the McGees never saw coming.

Make sure to tell us what you are reading.

Read: Listen To Destiny’s Child & Beyonce’s Hometown Playlist!

Pre-Order Marvin Sapp’s “I Win” Album HERE

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In the video, he shares his understanding of the plight of everyday Americans and juxtaposes it with emotional — or so he hopes — references to the Civil Rights Movement and slavery and urges Black voters to “keep making history”:

This month we are announcing the 2012 launch of African Americans for Obama. I don’t think there’s a better time than African-American history month to consider the tremendous progress that we’ve made through the sacrifices of so many, or a better time to commit to meeting the very real challenges we face right now.

Every day I think of the generations of African-American men and women who overcame slavery and oppression, risked their own safety to cast a ballot, even gave up their lives to help build a country that lived up to its founding principles. Their extraordinary hope, their unwavering determination changed this country. Their efforts made it possible for somebody like me to be here today.”

Beginning in November, when Obama surprised attendees of the first African-American Policy In Action Leadership Conference, and gaining momentum with the White House release of “The President’s Agenda and the African-American Community,” the president has quietly tried to staunch the flow of resentment that many in the Black community feel for his seemingly blatant lack of disregard for the nearly 16 percent unemployment rate – nearly double the national average — and his continued focus on the middle-class while an estimate 27.4 percent of African-Americans are living below the poverty line.

Still, according to a statement on BarackObama.com, that shouldn’t stop African-Americans from coming out in droves in November in support of the president:

In some ways this election is more important than the last for our community. If we fail to re-elect President Obama, some people will say everything we’ve accomplished since 2008 was a fluke. That’s why we’ve got to speak loudly about his accomplishments and make sure that, throughout the campaign, we’ve got President Obama’s back.”

For many in the African-American community, that decision hinges upon clear evidence that Obama has ours.

To learn more about the campaign, click here.

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The reason George Romney was born in Mexico was that his Mormon family fled the United States to set up a colony in Mexico due American laws that prohibited the Mormon practice of polygamy.

The Boston Globe reports:

But there are other elements to the Romney story that may explain why he doesn’t tell the full tale on the campaign trail. The reason that George was born in Mexico is that his grandfather – Mitt’s great-grandfather – had taken refuge there in order to escape US laws against polygamy. It was this family patriarch, Miles Park Romney, who established the colony and lived there with four wives.

Mitt Romney has decried what he has called the “awful’’ practice of polygamy and has never visited the colony, even though several dozen of his cousins continue to live there.

Read More At The Boston Globe

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Adams and her boyfriend, whose name has not been released, purchased their tickets at a Chevron Food Mart and had actually forgotten that they had done so.  As Adams and her boyfriend were driving to work on Thursday morning, she noticed a billboard along the highway that prompted her to check the lotto tickets, which had been thrown in the vehicle’s center console.  Adams’ boyfriend checked the lotto ticket numbers on his cell phone then suddenly began screaming her name.  After rechecking the numbers, the couple went to a nearby retailer and checked their tickets yet again.  Even though her ticket perfectly matched the winning numbers, Adams still needed more proof.

After lotto officials sanctioned the legitimacy of her winning ticket, 33-year-old Adams was still a disbeliever.  She told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

It still hasn’t set in, she said. It seems like it’s somebody else besides me.

Ga. Woman Gets $52M From Winning Lottery Ticket: MyFoxATLANTA.com

Now that she finally believes that she won, Adams, a corporate accountant who has been on her job for the last 12 years, doesn’t plan on quitting her job anytime soon.  She actually wants to continue working:

I love what I do.  I have a purpose.

For her winnings, Adams opted to take the cash option, which leaves her with $52 million.  After Uncle Sam takes its just desserts, Adams will still have $33.8 million in mad money.

What does she plan on doing with her newfound wealth?

Adams wants to hire a financial planner in order to stretch her dollars and make savvy money moves.  Marrying her boyfriend of seven years and planning their wedding is also on her agenda.  Otherwise, Adams mainly wants to focus on her family, particularly her retired parents who are experiencing medical issues.

The only extravagant purchase Adams plans to make is to buy another house:

I’ll probably get another house, only because now, my name is out, she says.

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Applications fell 50,000, the biggest drop in the seasonally adjusted figure in more than six years, the Labor Department said Thursday. The four-week average, which smooths out fluctuations, dropped to 379,000. That’s the second-lowest such figure in more than three years.

A department spokesman cautioned that volatility at this time of year is common. Applications had jumped two weeks ago, largely because companies laid off thousands of temporary workers hired for the holidays.

Still, when weekly applications fall consistently below 375,000, it usually signals that hiring is strong enough to push down the unemployment rate.

“This continues a clear downshift in claims,” said Ian Shepherdson, an economist at High Frequency Economics.

Shepherdson suggested that stronger hiring should follow.

Hiring improved in the second half of 2011. In December, employers added 200,000 jobs. That marked the sixth straight month in which the economy added at least 100,000 jobs. And the unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent, a three-year low.

For all of 2011, the economy added 1.6 million jobs. That was up sharply from 940,000 in 2010. Economists say they expect roughly 1.9 million more jobs to be added this year, according to a survey by The Associated Press.

Still, the job market has a long way to go before it fully recovers from the damage of the Great Recession, which wiped out 8.7 million jobs. More than 13 million people remain unemployed. Millions more have given up looking for work and so are no longer counted as unemployed.

The overall number of people receiving benefits, which isn’t seasonally adjusted, rose. More than 7.8 million people received benefits in the final week of last year. They include about 3.6 million people covered by extended-benefit programs begun during the recession.

The manufacturing sector remains a bright spot. Factory output jumped 0.9 percent in December, the Federal Reserve said this week. That was the sharpest monthly gain in a year. Manufacturing gained 225,000 jobs last year, the most since 1997.

The pickup in hiring reflects stronger economic growth. The economy likely grew at an annual rate of about 3 percent in the final three months of last year, economists estimate.

That would be a sharp improvement over the 1.8 percent annual growth rate in the July-September quarter. Rising consumer spending is thought to be fueling much of the gain in the current quarter.

Even so, economists worry that growth could slow in the first half of 2012. Europe is almost certain to fall into recession because of its financial troubles.

And wages aren’t keeping up with inflation. The department said in a separate report that average inflation-adjusted hourly earnings dropped 0.9 percent last year.

Without more jobs and higher pay, consumers might have to cut back on spending. That would weigh down growth next year. Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the economy.

Are you currently employed full-time?

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Moore, 21, called in to report an officer who’d groped her breast while responding to a domestic disturbance at the home she shared with her boyfriend.   But rather than receiving justice, Tiawanda was charged with violating the Illinois eavesdropping law, a felony that carries a stiff penalty of up to 15 years in prison.

After recording her conversation with the officer and being charged for it, Moore was later acquitted in August.  One of the jurors called the trial “a waste of time.”

Moore spent two weeks in the Cook County Jail.  She eventually got out and filed suit against the city and the police department.  She is alleging unreasonable seizure, false arrest, and malicious prosecution and claims that the law specifically exempts those who record police officers “under reasonable suspicion that another party to the conversation is committing or is about to commit” a crime.

Prominent Chicago attorney Karen Cecile-Wallace says that Moore was right to record the officer:

The Illinois eavesdropping statute is a double-edged sword. It prohibits persons from being recorded without their knowledge and permission, but Moore was within her right to protect herself from the officer’s blatant unlawful and egregious acts. I commend the jury for reaching the right decision.

I am in agreement with attorney Wallace.  It’s interesting to see legislators creating laws that serve to protect themselves at the expense of the American public.   This woman did nothing wrong, and it’s frightening to live in a world where a woman who records a police officer seeking to cover up a crime, can end up in jail.  Welcome to the end of American democracy; our country is no longer the standard bearer as it pertains to civil liberties.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University and founder of the Your Black World Coalition.  To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.

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