Dr. Tashni Dubroy was named the president of Shaw University. The 34-year-old Jamaican native is the second Jamaican and also the third female to serve as president of the university. Dubroy’s appointment becomes effective August 1, 2015. Watch the 17th president press conference held on Monday, June 1.


Dubroy graduated summa cum laude from Shaw University in 2002, and earned a Bachelor of Science in chemistry. She earned a Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry from North Carolina State University in 2007 and in 2010 she graduated with an MBA in marketing from Rutgers University in New Jersey. Dubroy began her career as a research scientist at BASF, the world’s leading chemical company. She quickly moved up the ranks, earning two promotions within a two-year period. Following her tenure at BASF, Dubroy was hired by her alma mater in 2011, where she served as an associate professor of chemistry and later the department chair of Shaw’s department of natural sciences and mathematics.

A Florida church sent a delinquency notice to a new member reminding her that worshipers were expected to pay $1,000 in required fees or face possible removal.

Candace Petterson said she started attending the Greater Mount Moriah Primitive Baptist Church about six months ago after moving to a new home in the Tampa area, but she received a troubling letter last week from the church, reported WFTS-TV.

The single mother said she received what amounted to a delinquency notice from her new church asking her to contribute $50 a month, along with other assorted fees, to remain a member in good standing and vote on church matters.

The predominantly black church, which has operated for more than a century, asked her to pay a yearly $250 anniversary fee and another $150 for Mount Moriah Day – amounting to $1,000, some of which would be set aside to pay off church debt.

“What church charges you to help pay off what they’re going through?” Petterson said. “I’m not there for that.”

In two months Floyd Mayweather will be putting up the gloves for possibly the last time as he finishes his contract with Showtime/CBS.

It looks like he will be blessing the world with a FREE fight after making us spend $99 for his fight against Manny Pacquiao.

After constant pressure from Amir Khan after an impressive win in May against Chris Algieri, reports say Mayweather has chosen an opponent.

It is being reported that Mayweather will face off against WBA Welterweight champion Andre Berto after scoring a TKO in his last fight against Josesito Lopez.  

He is 30-3 and has lost three of his last six fights.

The fight will be on CBS and will allegedly be promoted as a way to give back to the fans. He is still slated to get paid about $30-$35 million for the fight.

A contract engineer is suing his employer, as well as Ford (F), for discrimination after losing an automotive design job because he posted comments criticizing the automaker's support of the gay community.

Thomas Banks of Ypsilanti, Mich., filed a federal lawsuit against Rapid Global Business Solutions, an engineering and employment service in Troy, and Ford, where he had been on assignment at a Dearborn plant for more than three years.

Banks, a who identifies himself as a Christian, claims his civil rights were violated because he was fired Aug. 4, 2014, after speaking up in defense of his religious beliefs. He accused Ford of "endorsing and promoting sodomy."

The suit seeks an unspecified amount for damages for loss of wages, mental anguish, emotional distress, humiliation, shame and anxiety.

"As we have not yet seen the complaint, we are not in a position to comment on it," Ford said in a statement. A spokeswoman for Rapid Global also had not seen the lawsuit.

The legal action comes five months after the nonprofit Liberty Institute filed a complaint on Banks' behalf with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, saying he was fired after he was accused of violating Ford's anti-harassment policy. The EEOC decided not to pursue the complaint, notifying Banks and the Liberty Institute of its decision on April 13.

Banks' lawyer, Timothy Denney of Rickard, Denney, Garno and Associates in Lapeer, referred media calls to the Liberty Institute, which did not return calls on Monday.

The matter dates back to July 2014, when Banks read an article on the Ford intranet that supported efforts to make Ford a more pro-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) environment.

Banks used the comment section of the article to say he felt the stance was an "assault on morality" and that Ford should not be endorsing and promoting sodomy, given that homosexuality would ultimately lead to the death of civilization.

"Endorsing and promoting sodomy is of benefit to no one," Banks said in the comment. "This topic is disruptive to the workplace and is an assault on Christians and morality, as well as antithetical to our design and our survival. Immoral sexual conduct should not be a topic for an automotive manufacturer to endorse or promote."

Ford officials called him to a meeting, and after he confirmed he wrote the comments, he was told he violated Ford's anti-harassment policy and that his work for the automaker was terminated.

"I was stunned to realize that I was fired over expressing my faith in a single comment," Banks said in a statement at the time.

Rapid Global subsequently said he violated its policies and also fired him. The lawsuit claims the policies apply only in New York City

WASHINGTON (AP) – The State Department said Friday it has been forced to suspend the issuance of United States passports and visas at its overseas diplomatic missions due to a glitch that has hit one of its computer databases.

In a statement posted to its travel.state.gov website, the department said a hardware failure in its Consular Consolidated Database glitch has left overseas embassies and consulates unable to print visas, regular passports and other travel documents.

This means that people who submitted online applications for passports and visas on or after June 9 will likely experience delays in processing, it said.

The failure does not affect domestic passport issuance because it only stopped the database from receiving biometric information sent from overseas posts, the department said.

“We cannot bypass the legal requirements necessary to screen visa applicants before we issue visas for travel,” it said. “As a result, there is a backlog of visas waiting to be processed. We are working as quickly as possible to resolve the issue and to clear the backlog.”

“Security measures prevent consular officers from printing a passport, report of birth abroad or visa until the case completes the required national security checks,” it said.

More details about the failure were not immediately available.

The consular database was taken down last July by another technical glitch that had the same effect but the department said the current issue is unrelated. The department said it was working “urgently to identify the problem and correct it”.

“We expect the systems to be fully operational again soon,” it said, but offered no timeline.


- Nation News

Imported cases
Many locations are testing people who have travelled to Ebola-affected countries and returned with a fever and other symptoms. Senegal and the United States have confirmed imported cases of Ebola. International SOS is monitoring these closely.

1 October
Liberia: Media sources report that soldiers at the Edward Beyan Kesselley Barrack have been quarantined and the facility has been closed for 21 days. The step was initiated after at least seven soldiers from the Liberian army were infected with Ebola. The soldiers have been admitted to John F Kennedy Ebola Treatment Centre. It is reported that one of the soldier’s may have acquired the infection from his spouse, which then spread to his close contacts at the barrack.

Sierra Leone: Ministry of Health and Sanitation has reported more new cases. ...

30 September
United States: An Ebola case has been confirmed in Dallas, Texas, in a traveller from Africa. He arrived in the United States from Liberia on 20 September and was admitted to hospital in Dallas, Texas, eight days later. The patient did not have symptoms during travel, and so passengers on his plane and in the airports are not considered at risk for infection. He is in a critical condition and being treated in strict isolation. Contact tracing is underway. Public health authorities have responded promptly and taken full precautions to prevent spread. 

UN: The United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) has started operating from its headquarters in Accra, Ghana. The main objective of the mission is to coordinate international aid and channel support to the Ebola-affected countries. Headed by Anthony Banburry, the UNMEER will also open regional offices in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. 

Sierra Leone: The Ministry of Health has reported that at least 90 new cases were confirmed on 28 September.

United States: The US CDC has sent Epidemic Intelligence Service Officers (also called "disease detectives") to help in curbing the Ebola outbreak.

Aid: The World Bank is helping Guinea-Bissau implement an emergency plan to prevent Ebola from spreading in the country.

Ghana: As part of the nation's Ebola readiness preparation, Ghana's first designated Ebola Treatment Centre is nearing completion at the Tema General Hospital, located to the east of Accra. Two other ETCs are planned in Kumasi and Tamale. Although more than 95 suspected cases have been tested in Ghana, none had Ebola. There have been no cases in the country.

Outlook: In a study published in PLOS Current Outbreaks, researchers have modelled the population flow in West Africa using historical mobile phone call data. Although the available data is limited to movement within countries rather than across borders, the data suggests that even "rural areas near porous borders remain vulnerable to Ebola importation." This is likely given the connections between border areas and larger population centers within the country and based on the model, "The border between Liberia and Cote d’Ivoire highlights this vulnerability. "

CDC: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have published three papers on the Ebola outbreak in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The success of the Senegalese Ministry of Health in containing the single imported case is championed, and the authors praise the nation's preparedness and collaboration between the health personnel in Guinea and Senegal. Likewise, in an article about the Nigerian response, the rapid public health actions and deployment of an Incident Management System (IMS) are credited with the early containment of the outbreak in a complex environment. The third update is a review of the escalating count and distribution of historical and newly emerging cases in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

UNICEF: The UN Children's Fund estimates that more than 3,700 children have lost one or both parents to Ebola since the start of the outbreak.