Monthly Archives: June 2012

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - Summer has arrived for thousands of local students. While your children may be glad to be out of school, its not always the best for their mind.

Summer learning loss is often the biggest reason behind the achievement gap between low and high income children.

However, Charlotte is lucky enough to have a literacy program that aims to shrink that gap.

"They're going to get off the bus really tired, but really excited about the difference they can make in young peoples' lives", said Mary Nell McPherson with Freedom School.

200 College students returned to Charlotte Sunday after spending a week in Tennessee, learning how to motivate younger students this summer at Freedom School.

McPherson says "Freedom School makes such a difference because children re-enter the classroom in the fall excited about reading, better readers, and having not spent the summer with their brains turned to mashed potatoes while they're hanging out in the neighborhood or on the sofa for the summer."

This year, Freedom School will serve 1600 Charlotte-Mecklenburg students at 25 sites, helping with reading skills and a lot more.

Kofi Stitt is a college student who volunteersto help withFreedomSchool."They see college age kids that look like them, that sound like them doing something with their lives and making something better for themselves, and they believe that they can do it also."

Collins Cornwell is also a college student in the program."It's very important, especially for the black males, because a lot of young black males don't have positive black male role models, and Freedom School has so many intelligent, educated black males who want to give back to the kids."

Freedom School beginsMonday, June 18that all 25 Charlotte-Mecklenburg sites.

Read more:
Freedom School volunteers prepare for summer program

The Freedom Hall Civic Center auditorium was a full house Saturday as thousands of Jehovahs Witnesses from Western North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, parts of Kentucky and West Virginia piled inside for their annual convention.

This years convention started Friday afternoon, kicking off the events theme of Safeguard Your Heart!

Zack Self, program overseer for the convention, said the talks focused on the figurative heart.

It has a lot more to do with your emotions, the actions, the things that make you do what you do, Self said. The idea is that you identify the influences, the risks, the threats, the opportunities and then see if you cant help to be more successful in your spiritual life, as well as your other life.

The audience was attentive as speakers took the podium to discuss topics of the heart and then assimilating those topics to scripture. While participants moved freely throughout the auditorium, many sat and listened with their Bibles and notepads in their laps.

Some of the topics discussed Saturday ranged from showing generosity, forgiving one another freely and listening to those who love you from the heart.

Jehovahs Witnesses make trips annually to big conventions like this one and they view it to be a peaceful place to gather with people who share their faith.

We see each other maybe once a year at these conventions and its like a big reunion, he said. If you appreciate spiritual things, this is a gift. Its peaceful, its relaxing, its comforting, its reassuring because you have other folks who care like you do. Families feel comfortable, children feel comfortable together, so its a spiritual haven.

Self said by Saturday the convention had brought in around 3,500 people and they anticipate to have had around 3,800 when it closes this afternoon.

Late Saturday morning, people made their way to the Freedom Hall pool to observe the baptism and ordination of seven members. Jehovahs Witnesses believe baptism not only confirms spiritual beliefs, but also ordains believers as ministers who will help spread the word of Jehovah and his son, Jesus Christ.

See the rest here:
Witnesses at Freedom Hall for convention

Ian Hemphill gets a congratulatory hug from school board member Buddy Armour on Friday night at Freedom High Schools graduations.

MORGANTON Donning white caps and gowns, a sea of young adults marched into Patriot Nation as seniors and out as graduates on Friday night as Freedom High School handed out 236 diplomas.

It was an evening filled with emotions, from proud parents cheering and snapping photos, to happy graduates taking center stage, to snickers as Principal Ken Prichard read Dr. Seuss Oh The Places Youll Go, to tears remembering two classmates who died too soon.

It also was a night of encouragement from members of student government, the salutatorian and valedictorian and Prichard.

In his speech, Marcus Kincaid, SGA president, talked about what makes Freedom unique and encouraged fellow graduates to take life by storm.

Patriots do it differently, and we do it better, he said. We never wasted any time trying to become something we arent.

Salutatorian Stephanie Norman, who finished her high school career with a 4.71 GPA, charged her classmates to make the world a better place.

Our lives are full of endless possibilities, she said, encouraging fellow graduates not to look back in 20 years and have regrets and not be afraid of failure.

Valedictorian Melissa Pressley, who finished with a 5.0 GPA, urged classmates to find that unique dream and pursue it whole heartedly no matter what others may say.

After recognizing Anah Phillips for perfect school attendance from kindergarten through 12th grade, Prichard asked senior Ben Lee to accept Alex Burlesons diploma on behalf of Burlesons parents. Burleson was killed in an off-road truck incident during spring break.

Link:
Freedom grads ready for their futures

Attorney General Eric Holder's announcement that two U.S. attorneys have been assigned to lead a criminal investigation into possible, unauthorized leaks of classified information is being met with skepticism by GOP lawmakers questioning whether the attorneys will be able to act independently of the Obama administration.

"I have no doubt that these U.S. attorneys are excellent prosecutors," GOP Sen. Saxby Chambliss, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said. "However, they would still be operating under the Obama administration's Department of Justice. The better solution is to appoint an outside counsel to impartially investigate what will likely lead to a White House inquiry."

Holder said late Friday he had assigned the investigation to Ronald C. Machen Jr., a U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, and Rod J. Rosenstein, a U.S. attorney for Maryland.

"These two highly-respected and experienced prosecutors will be directing separate investigations currently being conducted by the FBI," Holder said. "I have every confidence in their abilities to doggedly follow the facts and the evidence in the pursuit of justice wherever it leads."

The announcement follows a bipartisan call from Capitol Hill for an investigation and a special prosecutor to look into suspect national security leaks -- which congressional lawmakers say is needed because the disclosures have put Americans world-wide at risk and perhaps came from the administration.

Holder said Machen and Rosenstein are "fully authorized" to prosecute criminal violations and talk with U.S. intelligence officials and that their investigations can reach into Congress and the administration.

Still, congressional Republicans expressed uncertainty.

"The Attorney General is so politicized in his office," Texas GOP Rep. Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, told Fox News on Saturday. "I just hope these U.S. attorneys will be totally independent and go where the trail leads them."

The CIA and the Justice Department's national security division said before Holder's announcement that they will not participate in investigations.

President Obama said Friday that the leaks did not come from the White House.

More:
GOP Questions Attorneys' Freedom in Leaks Probe