With a passion for education and community involvement popular actor Idris Elba encouraged TSU students to “stay true to their goal of obtaining a college education.” Elba recently spoke at the historically black Texas Southern University. He told students to stay in school and take advantage of every opportunity given to them to succeed.

Two recent graduates of Morehouse College say that they were verbally and physically abused by members of the Cleveland police department, and their story is attracting the attention of local community leaders and activists. Jason Ruiz and Alexander Parilla say they were unnecessarily attacked outside of a nightclub in Cleveland’s warehouse district, an area that has been a focal point for alleged racial discrimination.

The Pinnacle Awards honor companies who have met the various challenges facing businesses and have found ways to positively impact the communities and industries they serve. The companies are professional, capable and committed to maintaining a high quality business operation worthy of the Pinnacle Award.

Beginning Sept. 1, families can lock in the cost of required tuition and fees at Texas’ public colleges and universities when they enroll in the Texas Tuition Promise Fund, the state’s prepaid tuition plan.

“The Texas Tuition Promise Fund gives families an affordable, flexible and easy plan to save for their children’s college education,” said Texas Comptroller Susan Combs.

HOUSTON – Valentin Dragoi, Ph.D., an associate professor of neurobiology and anatomy at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), is one of 17 researchers to win a 2010 National Institutes of Health Director’s Pioneer Award. The award supports scientists who propose revolutionary, high-impact approaches to major challenges in biomedical and behavioral research.

Everyone seems to be doing their own college rankings these days. Forbes and Washington Monthly recently joined the likes of U.S. News and World Report in offering their assessments of the best universities in the U.S. Two ratings systems, developed by Times Higher Education and Shanghai Jiaotong University, assemble lists of the top institutions in the world.

What if students attended school all year? One Wisconsin teacher thinks that could be a way to improve student grades and fix the nation’s public school system.

With more than 10,000 annual visits nationwide to doctors or emergency centers by school-aged children suffering from neck, shoulder and back pain because of misuse or overloading of school backpacks, the Harris County Hospital District offers some simple recommendations to help children avoid these preventable injuries.

Incidence of pediatric neck, shoulder and back pain is approaching rates seen in adults. About 24 percent of back pain related emergency room visits by adolescents are due to lumbar related muscle strains. Physical therapists at Quentin Mease Community Hospital, the Harris County Hospital District’s dedicated physical medicine and rehabilitation facility, report that early back pain problems in children are often predictors of future back health concerns as adults.

The summer of junior year is a dream. Students are seemingly floating on air having passed the hardest year of high school. Their days are filled with sleeping in and raiding the fridge, while their nights and afternoons are filled with shopping, planning, and partying. The perfect summer for any 17 year old. Then August rolls around and the dreams turn to dust, and students find themselves in a whirlwind of being hurled into SATs, ACTs, coming in late, leaving out early, and the inevitable year that comes after graduation. Speaking as a graduating senior of the 2010-2011 class, I know the road to choosing the right college seems impossible, and on some day I imagine it is impossible.

If you’ve got teenagers heading off to college soon, I hope you’ve done a good job educating them about the importance of personal financial responsibility and how to build a strong credit history. If not, better do it now.

College freshmen and young adults entering the workforce encounter many unfamiliar expenses – and temptations – so it’s important to help them avoid early financial missteps that could damage their credit for years to come.

When it comes to studying, a lot of students could use a little extra help in mastering a subject. A new series of nine books from expert authors can help students focus on the skills they need for some tricky classes. The “Essentials For Dummies” series (Wiley) are concise, easy-to-understand review guides that cover entire courses by concentrating on the most important concepts. With clear explanations, these books are helpful resources for those needing help with physics, chemistry, algebra, statistics, calculus, Spanish, grammar, and more.

A bullet that flew through a building at the University of Texas at El Paso may have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border during a shootout between drug traffickers and Mexican federal police, authorities said.

University President Diana Natalicio said Sunday a bullet struck Bell Hall sometime Saturday evening. No injuries were reported at the building.

Today, at a special meeting of the HISD Board of Education, board trustees voted unanimously to hold a special election to fill the vacancy left by former District VIII Trustee Diana Davila. Davila announced her resignation from the board last month citing family reasons.
“I want to thank my fellow board members and the interested individuals who took time out of their schedules to meet with us this week at Furr High School,” said Board President Greg Meyers. “Even though the board has decided to hold a special election, we met some fine community members who clearly are focused and committed to Houston’s children and what is best to further their academic achievement. Hopefully some of them will decide to pursue the District VIII trustee position.”

Senator Rodney Ellis was joined by Representative Kristi Thibaut at Macy’s in downtown Houston to kick-off the Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday, which runs this weekend, August 20-22. The state officials were also joined by students from Aspire Special Needs Centre and the Chinese Community Center Youth Program.

“The tax holiday means real tax relief for hardworking Texas families who need to see their dollars go farther in order to provide the necessities for their children,” said Senator Ellis.

An American who founded a Haitian school for boys pleaded guilty to federal charges Wednesday, admitting he traveled to Haiti to engage in sexual conduct with eight minor boys, authorities said.

Douglas Perlitz, 40, pleaded guilty to one count of traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual

n a bold effort designed to improve the academic achievement of students and close the achievement gap, HISD is launching its Apollo 20 project on Monday, August 16th, by beginning the 2010–11 school year a week early for nine, specially selected schools.
HISD Superintendent Terry Grier, board members, and Harvard economist and Apollo 20 advisor Roland Fryer will visit with students, teachers, principals and math tutors at the Apollo schools on Monday, August 16th, from 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

The dream began in Canton, OH and now Eddie Levert, Sr., Walter Williams, Sr., and Eric Nolan Grant, known collectively as The O’Jays, return to their hometown of Canton, OH to host the Sixth Annual O’Jays Celebration & Scholarship Fund, August 15-16, 2010.

The 2-day celebration will kick off with a welcome reception at The McKinley Grand on Sunday evening from 7 – 10 pm. On Monday at 7:30 am the celebration continue with The Annual O’Jays Celebration and Scholarship Fund Celebrity Golf Tournament at the historic Clearview Golf Course with former LPGA professional Ms. Renee Powell as host and special guest celebrity golfer, comedian Mr. Steve Harvey.

In my last editorial I addressed the crisis of fewer numbers of minority men enrolling in or completing any kind of higher education. The consequence of this diminished presence of African-American and Hispanic men in colleges and universities is a corresponding diminished presence of minority men in business and entrepreneurship, from the mailroom to the board room. Houston Community College (HCC) is countering this trend through the Minority Male Initiative and its Men of Honor student organization. The mission of the Minority Male Initiative is to address this issue by mentoring and guiding minority male students from middle school through HCC.

Safe Communications, Inc. (Pink Sheets: SGTB) (a.k.a. The Suggestion Box, Inc.) today launched www.MouseMail.com, its patent pending, safe digital environment for children, protecting them from vulgar, sexual or bullying emails or text messages. If any incoming or outgoing emails or text messages have questionable content, they are automatically forwarded to the parent to clear before going to the child or stopped from going through. MouseMail.com is the only known text messaging platform that flags and blocks messages containing offensive, bullying or sexually suggestive language before the child receives them, allowing moms and dads to stay one step ahead of those who would do harm to their children.

Attention, Earthlings: The sun is spewing plasma toward you, and the results could be beautiful.