College, our time is almost through.

After 4 years in school, I'm proud to say that it's almost OVER for undergrad. I'm still trying to decide on grad school.

This semester has been a bit overwhelming and it has become hard to stay motivated. Mostly because the classes this semester are so boring. They're not too hard or anything but everything is just so boring and I have some older teachers (60+) this semester so it seems like everything is moving so slow. Prayerfully this will mean only A's and B's.

The only way I'm able to get motivated and stay up and get through the day is just constantly thinking about my future. I'm content in where I'm at now. I'm healthy, educated, alive, in my right mind and I'm very appreciative to God for that. But I just know there's something more for me and more I'm supposed to have and I'm just remaining patient but at the same time, I just want to go get it!

Another February 14th, another lonely Valentine's Day. Lol. I'm in my 20's and I've never had one before. But I hope all the lovers are having a wonderful day. Love is such a beautiful thing... So I hear... :)

Be good to me 2016!

Every time around late December, everyone starts with the slogan "New Year, New Me." I'll be going on 4 years in college this year and it's been a learning experience. I haven't had the best grades but I've learned so many lessons and character and maturity wise, I've come a long way. I've been betrayed, lied on, heartbroken, broke, laughed at talked about, disrespected and lots of other things. But I haven't been the best person myself.

I'm tired of living the same just to get the same results. I'm ready for something different, something better. I have so many ideas going on in my head and I just want to make them happen. I'm honestly over school. I'm not really a good student but I am trying to finish strong. I have lots and dreams and goals though. I want to pay off my parent's mortgage and own a bunch of small businesses and build up the city where I live now.

My mom tells me not to focus so much on the money and not to chase it. I don't think I do but I don't think there is anything wrong with being financially rich. And it's not like I'm a selfish person. Even when I have a little, I still give it and help people out when I can. I might not have it today, but one day.

I'm hoping this year will be a year of turn around. I might not get rich but I just want more out of this life that God has blessed me with.

I hope you all have a prosperous 2016.

North Carolina Teen Could Face 10 Years in Prison for Sexting Girlfriend

One North Carolina teen is facing 10 years in prison for having nude pictures of himself on his own cell phone, ABC11 reports. Cormega Copening, 17, of Fayetteville, is being charged as an adult with second-degree and third-degree sexual exploitation after police found images sent between he and his girlfriend last fall.

Authorities say it is illegal for individuals under the age of 18 to possess nude images or to send them with a cell phone. "If you are under the age of 18 and disseminate pictures of yourself or receive pictures of someone under that age, it falls under the sexual exploitation of minors' statute," North Carolina's Cumberland County Sergeant Sean Swain told The Independent.

Officers took Copening's phone last fall while investigating an incident at his high school, which is still unclear, according to various news reports. Although he was not charged, he and his 16-year-old girlfriend were both brought up on felony charges when the images were found. Her charges were lowered to misdemeanors after she took a plea deal. As a result, she must complete a year-long probation.

Copening will appear in court on Sept. 30. If he is convicted, he will have to register as a sex offender. Copening has already been dropped from his high school football team. 

Some are questioning whether these teens are being treated too harshly since the messages were sent privately between two minors.

Couple suffers severe injuries after attacked by sons

Via WSBTV:

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — 

Two men are in police custody after being accused of trying to kill their parents at their Snellville home.

Police say Yvonne Ervin called 911 around 7:49 a.m. and told emergency dispatchers her sons Cameron and Christopher Ervin, aged 17 and 22,  were trying to kill her and her husband Zachary Ervin.

Yvonne told police her husband distracted her sons so she could call 911.

Gwinnett County police says officers found Zachary and one of the sons outside the home. Zachary was severely injured and bleeding heavily.

Officers found Yvonne with the other son inside the home. Police say she was also severely injured.

Gwinnett County firefighters were called to the scene after officer smelled natural gas in the home.

Both parents were transported to a hospital, and both sons were transported to police headquarters.

According to police both sons were cooperative with police interviews, and are in custody at the Gwinnett County Detention Center.

Cameron and Christopher Ervin are charged with two counts of aggravated assault and two counts of first-degree arson.

Georgia elementary student 'accidentally' shot at school

Via WSB-TV:

AUGUSTA, Ga. — 

Officials in Georgia say an elementary school student was accidentally shot by a classmate playing with a gun.

The Augusta Chronicle reports that Richmond County sheriff's Sgt. Michael McDaniel says the shooting took place about 10:45 a.m. Tuesday at Hornsby Elementary School in Augusta.

A statement by the Richmond County School Board says a student brought a gun to school and was playing with it inside a desk when it "accidentally discharged."

School officials say the bullet struck another student, who was taken to a hospital.

The school board's statement said the student who brought the gun to school is in police custody. School officials did not name the students or give an age or grade.

21-year-old mother accidentally killed

Via Ballerallert:

A 21-year-old mother was shot and killed in crossfire outside a bar while allegedly handing out CDs to promote her boyfriend's album.

Ashlee Berryman had been watching her boyfriend perform inside the Braza Bar and Grill in Everett, Massachusetts, on Thursday before she died. She had just left the venue around 1am when she was reportedly shot twice in the parking lot. The victim's sister told the Boston Globe that one of the bullets struck Berryman's heart.

Prosecutors said that Berryman was an “unintended target’’ in the shooting, which was one of five overnight homicides in the Greater #Boston area.

Berryman, who just turned 21 last month, leaves behind a three-year-old son. 

So far, no arrests have been made.

Faux Locs

Faux (pronounced "foe") Locs are becoming a very popular protective style! You get the look of dreads without the actual commitment of growing them out. I have seen this done with Marley braid hair and also yarn & both look great!!

The most irritating thing about the locs are the burnt ends at the bottom that makes the hair stick together, but other than that, you can do anything with them. All down, all up, big bun, half up, half down, and the list goes on. 

If you have any questions, leave them in the comment area below:

Two Texas women have launched a fundraising campaign so that a homeless man might get a proper funeral

When Duc Van Tran disappeared from his usual spot beneath an overpass in Houston, Adriana Castro Garcia and Rosa Quintero took notice, Huffpost reports. 

Tran always minded his own business, they said, and never asked for help or begged for change. “He would just give a look of ‘thank you’ with a smile and go back to his cart, back to minding his own business,” they wrote on a GoFundMe page for the man, launched this week.

Tran’s disappearance worried them, so they began asking around for his whereabouts. The women soon learned that he had been killed in May after being struck by a drunk driver.

According to police, Tran had likely been sleeping under the overpass when a 33-year-old woman lost control of her vehicle and ran him over. When Quintero called the medical examiner’s office, she learned that Tran’s body was still there -- unclaimed.

"I was actually really, really sad," she told KTRK-TV after learning about Tran’s fate. She and Garcia became determined to give Tran a proper send-off. 

Boston bomber formally sentenced to death by execution

BOSTON (AP/WPRI) — A judge formally sentenced Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to die Wednesday, but not before he apologized for bombing the 2013 Boston Marathon.

After Tsarnaev said his piece, U.S. District Judge George O’Toole Jr. quoted Shakespeare’s line about “The evil that men do lives after them” and told Tsarnaev that no one will remember that his teachers were fond of him, that his friends found him fun to be with or that he showed compassion to disabled people. “What will be remembered is that you murdered and maimed innocent people, and that you did it willfully and intentionally. You did it on purpose,” O’Toole said. “I sentence you to the penalty of death by execution,” he said.

Tsarnaev looked down and rubbed his hands together as the judge pronounced his fate.

Tsarnaev was convicted of 30 federal charges for planning and carrying out the terror attack with his older brother, Tamerlan. Days after the bombings, in the midst of a massive manhunt, the brothers killed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer and engaged in a wild gun battle with police in the Boston suburb of Watertown. Tamerlan died after being shot by police and run over by Dzhokhar as the younger brother escaped in a stolen car.

Tsarnaev’s lawyers admitted he participated in the bombings, but argued that Tamerlan was the driving force behind the attack.

In a note he scrawled in a boat he was found hiding in, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev said the attack was meant to retaliate against the U.S. for its actions in Muslim countries.

The City of New York to pay $6.25 Million to Innocent Man who spent 25 years in prison for 1989 murder

A man who spent 25 years of his life in prison before being exonerated for a Brooklyn, N.Y. murder he didn't commit has made a settlement with New York City, the Associated Press reports. 

According to The Root, the city has agreed to pay Jonathan Fleming $6.25 million, with Comptroller Scott Stringer saying that it was "in the best interest of all parties" to settle. “We cannot give back the time that he served, but the city of New York can offer Jonathan Fleming this compensation for the injustice that was committed against him,” Stringer said.

Flleming's case was rather curious, having been convicted and imprisoned even after having an airtight alibi, an alibi that the Brooklyn district attorney's office agreed was valid at his exoneration last year. However, Fleming was upfront about his whereabouts from the very beginning. Jonathan Fleming had proof that he was vacationing at Disney World in Florida when his friend was shot to death in Brooklyn.

A friend of Fleming's was shot to death in Brooklyn in August 1989, however, at that time, Fleming was more than 1,000 miles away in Orlando, Fla., vacationing in Disney World. Fleming had plane tickets, videos, a hotel receipt and other material to prove his innocence.

Obama to deliver eulogy for the Charleston victims

WASHINGTON — President Obama will travel to Charleston, S.C., on Friday to deliver the eulogy for the pastor who was gunned down along with eight other worshipers at his church last week, the White House said.

First lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Biden are also scheduled to attend the funeral for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney of the Emanuel AME Church, the historic sanctuary where last week's killings took place. "Further details about the President's travel to South Carolina will be made available in the coming days," the White House said in a statement.

Authorities have charged a white supremacist with nine counts of murder in connection with the Wednesday shootings of nine people at a Bible study session.

In remarks shortly after the shooting, Obama said the nation needs to keep looking for ways to prevent an epidemic of mass shootings, including new measures designed to keep guns away from dangerous people. "This stuff happens way too often," Obama said during a weekend fundraiser in California. "We've got to change that. It's not enough for us to express sympathy. We have to take action."

Woman Claims She Was Attacked by Black Men, Actually Attacked by Makeup

This weekend, in the wake of last week’s racially-motivated mass shooting in Charleston, a Texas woman claimed on Facebook that she’d been brutally beaten by three black men outside a Texarkana Walmart store. It now appears as though she made the whole thing up.

In her now-deleted Facebook post, Ashley Casey Martin wrote, “Just got jumped by 3 African Americans ourside of the as Walmart they are in a white ford 150 extended cab. Arkansas tags. They hit me inside Walmart and were cussing. I was very polite and asked them to lower their voices and the cuss words in front of my 3 year old daughter and this is the outcome. What has the world come to...” The accompanying photo showed Martin with two exaggerated black eyes and a bloody nose that appeared drawn on with makeup. After people started calling Martin out for her apparently made-up injuries, the Texarkana (Tex.) Police Department posted, and then deleted, a Facebook statement saying they “believe the post to be fake” and “the injuries... are highly questionable,” according to the Daily Dot.

Walmart wasn’t aware of any violent incidents taking place at the store during the time frame in question, and that Texarkana Police have no record of the attack.

When asked why the Facebook post accusing Martin of faking had been removed, police told the Daily Dot, “We were informed that she is emotionally disturbed and that they are attempting to get her the assistance that she needs. We have removed the post to avoid contributing to her difficult struggle.” Martin maintained that the beating was real, and posted a second unconvincing photo as proof, writing: “Here is your police report. Sorry I got jumped by three African American young men. I have 2 black eyes and nose still is bleeding, and somehow I am in the wrong. Enough for people to say it was makeup, how embarassing and very rude quite frankly. I don’t want you pitty (sic) attention anything. I’m just warning there are dangerous people in Texarkana be careful. They did this to me for no reason in front of my 3 year old. At Texas side Walmart.” She has since deleted all of her social media. 

Charles Barkley's Mother Passes

Via USAToday-- LEEDS, Ala. (AP) — The mother of NBA great Charles Barkley, Charcey Glenn, has died at her home in Alabama.

The Jefferson County Medical Examiner's Office says Glenn died Friday in her hometown of Leeds, east of Birmingham. She was 73.

Deputy medical examiner Derrick Perryman says a report lists the cause of death as kidney failure and Barkley as the next of kin.

A pastor at First Baptist Church of Leeds says Glenn's funeral is scheduled there on June 27

A Texas mom who was desperate over being denied food stamps shot her two children and then committed suicide after a seven-hour standoff with SWAT teams at a state welfare office, authorities said.

Ramie Grimmer, 12, and her brother Timothy, 10, were clinging to #life at a San Antonio hospital after Monday night's l horrific ordeal, during which Ramie apparently updated her #Facebook page to say "may die 2day." The chilling incident began about 5 p.m. #Monday when Rachelle Grimmer, 38, visited a state welfare office in Laredo to discuss a food stamp application she had submitted in July #police said.

Caseworkers took Grimmer to a private room, where the distraught mom pulled a gun and threatened employees, authorities said.

Police negotiators spent the next several hours trying to persuade Grimmer to bring her children out safely, but she refused, instead haranguing them about the red tape she grappled with while trying to feed her family, The Associated Press reported.

At one point, Ramie Grimmer posted an update on Facebook that said "tear gas " — an apparent reference to tear gas being fired at the building.

Finally, just before midnight, cops heard three shots and stormed the building, where they discovered Grimmer lying dead in a pool of blood.

Her children were nearby, unconscious and bleeding from gunshot wounds.

Both #kids were reported in critical condition on Wednesday.

Authorities told the AP that Grimmer was denied food stamps because she had left some key information out of her initial application.

She and her children had recently moved to Texas from Ohio and appeared to be struggling to say on their feet. “She was dealing with a lot of issues," Health and Human Services spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman told the AP.

Grimmer had last contacted the agency in mid-November, but had fallen out of touch since then, Goodman said".

Jeralean Talley, World's Oldest Person On Record, Dies At Age 116 In Her Michigan Home

 

Jeralean Talley, previously listed as the world's oldest living person, has died at the age of 116, according to friends and family.

Longtime friend Michael Kinloch told The Huffington Post that Talley died Wednesday at her home in Inkster, Michigan. Talley had been in the hospital for about a week due to heart problems, but came home over the weekend and spent her last days with her loved ones.

Talley's 77-year-old daughter, Thelma Holloway, told the Detroit News that her mother was "ready to go home and rest." “When she left here, she didn’t suffer. She asked the Lord to take her peacefully and he did," Holloway told the paper. “Now she’s at peace.” Talley celebrated her 116th birthday on May 23. Multiple parties were held, including one with a large crowd at her church in Inkster. Deeply religious, Talley credited God for her long, healthy life. "She was a believer in Jesus Christ and she gave him all of the credit for her health, for her longevity and even for just bringing people into her life," said Kinloch, who met Talley through church about 25 years ago. "She lived her life according to what she thought God wanted her to do, and her motto was 'treat people like you want to be treated.'" Mother Talley, as she was often called, was born in 1899 in Montrose, Georgia, where she lived on a farm and picked cotton and peanuts, before she moved to Michigan in 1935.

The following year, she married Alfred Talley. They were together 52 years before he passed away.

Talley stayed active up until her death, enjoying playing with her great-great grandson. She had a fishing trip planned for this summer with Kinloch and his son Tyler, her godson. She initiated their annual fishing tradition in 1999, when Tyler was six years old.

9 dead after Charleston church shooting

 Nine dead in Charleston church massacre

CHARLESTON – A gunman shot to death nine church members who had gathered for Bible study and prayer Wednesday night at one of the nation’s oldest black churches.

Among the dead was beloved pastor Clementa Pinckney, a longtime state senator who spent the earlier part of the day campaigning in the city with Hillary Clinton. South Carolina Police Chief Gregory Mullen called the shooting “a hate crime” in a press conference after midnight. ‘Intense scene’ in Charleston, South Carolina after shooting

The gunman, who the police chief described as “a white male, 21 years old with sandy blond hair,” remained at large early Thursday. Mullen said the suspect is “extremely dangerous.”

The police chief said there were wounded victims in addition to the dead, but he did not say how many.

The violence erupted at Charleston’s historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church, the oldest such congregation in the South, known as much for the role it played at significant moments of racial distress as for its grand Gothic architecture.

3-year old Ohio boy kills himself with mother's gun

Three-year-old Marques Green killed himself while playing with his mother’s handgun, Ohio police say. The boy fatally shot himself in the chest after finding the gun in his mother’s purse.

The boy’s mother made a 911 call reporting the incident on Thursday. The child was wounded in the chest and pronounced dead at hospital shortly afterwards.Police released the audiotape on Friday, according to the Associated Press.

"My son just shot himself and I'm not getting a pulse," Elizabeth Green is heard screaming in the 911 call. “Oh, my God, Oh, my God, I’m not getting a pulse… I don’t think he’s alive.”“His eyes are open, but he’s out,” she added.The mother told operators she kept the gun in her purse and had set it down before the tragedy happened.“The gun is mine. It is in the house, I carry it in my purse, I laid it down. We just got home,” the mother said.No information has been released yet on the type of gun involved. The accidental shooting happened in town north of Cincinnati. The Butler County prosecutor’s office has not said yet whether anyone should be charged in the case. 

Family Forced to pay $500 fine for cheering teen at Mississippi high school graduation

A Mississippi family was kicked out of a high school graduation ceremony and charged with disturbing the peace after they cheered for a graduating senior.

Superintendent Jay Foster asked audience members to hold their cheers and applause until all the graduates’ names were called, but one family said they were unable to contain their excitement, reported WREG-TV.

Ursula Miller said she called out the first name of her niece, Lanarcia Walker, as she crossed the stage to receive her diploma from Senatobia High School.

The teen’s father, Henry Walker, shouted, “You did it, baby,” and waved a towel, drawing laughs from the crowd.

That’s when school officials asked the girl’s parents and two other relatives to leave the ceremony.

About a week later, they were served with court papers after the superintendent filed disturbing the peace charges against them. “It’s crazy,” Henry Walker said. “The fact that I might have to bond out of jail, pay court costs or a $500 fine for expressing my love – it’s ridiculous man. It’s ridiculous.”

What are your thoughts?

Mom Graduates in Son's Place After Fatal Post-Prom Crash

Via NBC Washington:

In her late son’s cap and gown, Katherine Jackson sat among graduating students at Thornton Fractional North High School Wednesday.

“[My son] knows his mom never walked the stage,” she said. “I’m going to be his legs and he’s going to be my wings and we’re going to go up there and get our diploma.”

Jackson’s son, Aaron Dunigan, was one of two people killed in a south suburban Chicago car crash while on his way home from prom over the weekend. The 18-year-old football quarterback died when the car he was riding in, which was driven by his friend, crossed a median and crashed into another car.

The crash also killed the driver of the other vehicle, 56-year-old Metra employee Juan Rivera, who was on his way to work at the time.

David Peden, who was driving the vehicle Dunigan and a classmate were riding in, was later charged with DUI causing death & reckless him iced with a motor vehicle.  

The third teen in Peden’s vehicle, Mike Crowter, was badly injured in the crash.

The three classmates were scheduled to graduate Wednesday and were returning from prom at the time of the crash.

Crowter was able to attend the school’s graduation ceremony, arriving in a wheel chair.

“It was prom night,” said classmate Keshawn Harrison. “Just wasn’t supposed to end like that.”

Dunigan, who was preparing to play football for Southern Illinois University in the fall, was honored and mourned at the ceremony by friends and family.

“This has to be a moment of celebration and learning,” the school’s superintendent Creg Williams said during the event. “Let their incident not be in vain. Be safe.”

“I just wish he was here so we’d all celebrate together,” said student Jasmine Bailey.

Dunigan’s mother took his place in the ceremony, walking up to the stage to accept her son’s diploma.

“All of this was divinely orchestrated by my son,” Jackson said. 

Warrant out for teacher who allowed his students to have sex in his class

Via WSBtvAtlanta,

A judge has issued an arrest warrant for a DeKalb County middle school teacher and coach after a mother claims he allowed students to have sex in his classroom closet. 

Channel 2’s Tom Regan spoke with the parent, who said she couldn’t believe what was happening. “I was in a state of disbelief when I read all these messages," the mother said, asking to remain anonymous. 

The mother told Regan she looked at her 14-year-old son's phone and discovered a shocking exchange of text messages last Thursday between him and Quinton Wright, a math teacher and coach at Champion Theme Middle School in Stone Mountain. "Basically he's allowing the students to have sex in a storage room of his classroom," the mother said. “He told my son you can have it from 7:30 to like 8:30,” the mother said reading some of the messages. “'Did you tell the girl what's going to happen? That she cannot tell anybody?’ basically don't tell anyone I'm allowing you to use my room.” The mother said the teacher also sent her son a calendar showing teachers' schedules and a text saying he did not have condoms. “It’s very sickening and disheartening, because we trust administrators and educators when we drop our kids off at school,” the mother said. 

The mother told Regan she pulled her eighth-grader from school Friday and contacted the school’s principal and police.  She said she also filed a complaint. 

The DeKalb County school system removed the 25-year-old teacher from the classroom. 

The student's mother told Regan she was suspicious of the teacher from earlier behavior. “He called me when the kids are at their eighth-grade prom and asked if he could come over and take pictures with the boys before the prom, and I said no,” the mother said.