SerenityLife Blooms

We've just learned Michael Jackson was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Los Angeles ... and we're told it was cardiac arrest and that paramedics administered CPR in the ambulance. ... We've just learned Michael Jackson was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Los Angeles ... and we're told it was cardiac arrest and that paramedics administered CPR in the ambulance. ...

Washington, DC (PRWEB) June 25, 2009 -- Traverse Legal, PLC Attorneys are investigating the Washington Metro commuter train crash, which occurred on June 22, 2009 at approximately 5:00 p.m. EST on the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority's Red Line between the Takoma and Fort Totten Metrorail stations.

WASHINGTON - Two Metro transit trains collided at the height of the Monday evening rush hour, killing at least four people and severely injuring others as cars of one train jackknifed into the air and fell atop the other. One of the fatalities was a female train operator, Metro officials say. The six-car train derailed and then collided with another train on an elevated track between the Takoma Park and Fort Totten stations around 5 p.m. Monday, trapping dozens of passengers. Some reports indicate as many as 50 people are injured. The trains are "lodged on top of one another," D.C. Fire and EMS spokesman Alan Etter says. Officials are preparing for a "mass casualty event," Etter says. Rescue crews were using heavy duty equipment to cut the train apart to rescue at least 100 people who were trapped, officials say. The extrication process appeared to be over just before 7 p.m. Rescue workers propped steel ladders up to the upper train cars to help survivors escape. Seats from the smashed cars had spilled out onto the track. WTOP's Hank Silverberg, who is on the scene, reports that four cars from the southbound train are on top of the northbound train, with the front of the cars completely split open. "It looks like a deck of cards falling on top of one another," Silverberg says. "It looks almost like the trains hit each other in a head-on collision." The trains look like "a tangled roller coaster," reports WTOP's Patricia Guadalupe, who is on the scene. Metro spokesperson Candace Smith calls the scene "terrible." "One rail car is about a third of the way on top of another rail car," Smith says. Metro officials are investigating the details of the derailment and collision, Metro spokesperson Cathy Asato says. The train was headed toward the Shady Grove station at the time of the accident, which occurred near the Maryland-D.C. border and the New Hampshire Avenue overpass. Metro trains typically run through the station around 44 miles per hour, Silverbe...

An English toy based on a 1885 book with a character of the same name. Many people still believe that the toy is a relic of an earlier time when racism against black people was blatant. Recently the Supermodel Naiomi Cambell assaulted airline staff after reportedly being called a ‘Golliwog supermodel’ _______________________ This blog post was shared with me via twitter today. Please don't be alarmed. It's a part of world history. Let's create images though that are positive and not in this negative light. We can always learn from the mistakes of the past.

This month, two African American artists with Portland connections have died - Robert Colescott on June 4 from Parkinsonian syndrome and Philemon Reid on June 9 from pancreatic cancer. Bob Hicks has written a sweet tribute to Reid on Art Scatter, and DK Row did some good reporting on Colescott's years in Portland in a provocative take a couple of days ago.

President Barack Obama at the White House in Washingtom, 17 Jun 2009 President Barack Obama has marked the anniversary of what has become known as "Juneteenth" to mark the day word reached enslaved African Americans in Texas on June 19, 1865 that they were free.In a written statement, Mr. Obama said the Juneteenth anniversary serves as a time of reflection and appreciation. He said African Americans have helped build the nation "brick by brick" and have contributed to its growth in every way, even when they were denied rights and liberties.Mr. Obama, the country's first African-American president, said the occasion carries "even more significance" considering Thursday's resolution passed unanimously in the Senate apologizing for slavery and segregation.The resolution apologizes for "the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery" and system of institutionalized racism and segregation known as "Jim Crow."The resolution, introduced by Senators Tom Harkin and Sam Brownback, "expresses its recommitment to the principle that all people are created equal and endowed with inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." It also calls on all people of the U.S. to "work toward eliminating prejudices, injustices and discrimination from U.S. society."The House of Representatives is also expected to take up the measure soon. A similar resolution passed by a voice vote in the House last year. During the Civil War in the 1860s, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation , ordering the slaves to be freed in the southern states that were in rebellion, eventually leading to the abolition of slavery in all of the United States. However, the slaves in Texas learned of their emancipation on June 19, 1865 more than two years after the proclamation. The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, added after Mr. Lincoln's assassination in 1865, abolished all slavery in the U.S.