The Associated Press is reporting that Barack Obama will officially name at least four more members of his administration on Monday. According to the AP, Obama will announce the following appointments that will be subject to Senate confirmation: Susan Rice -Ambassador to the U.N. Eric Holder - Attorney General Gov. Janet Napolitano - Homeland Security Hillary Clinton - Secretary of State

DALLAS, Texas, (Nov. 25, 2008) — The Allen Group, developers of the Dallas Logistics Hub (DLH), a 6,000-acre multi-modal logistics park in Southern Dallas County, announced today an execution of a lease with Bridge Terminal Transport (BTT), one of the largest marine container haulers covering all major port locations and inland rail sites within the United States. BTT is a market leader in worldwide container services, agency, logistics and terminal activities. The company will relocate their container yard operations from an existing facility near the Love Field Airport area to a site at DLH that falls within the City of Hutchins. With close proximity to Union Pacific’s Dallas Intermodal Terminal (DIT) and Interstate 45, the container yard will store inbound and outbound containers that transfer through DIT, as well as chassis and trailers for customers. “We are pleased to work with Bridge Terminal Transport to provide them with a perfect location for its Dallas container yard facility,” said Daniel J. McAuliffe, President of The Allen Group’s Texas operations. “This will be the first storage facility within the Dallas ...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In anticipation of World AIDS Day on Monday, December 1, the Global AIDS Alliance is calling on the incoming Obama Administration to intensify the US effort against HIV/AIDS, both at home and abroad, and to resist "AIDS fatigue." Over 100 global health advocacy organizations have signed a memo to US President-Elect Obama, laying out practical and immediate steps he should take on HIV/AIDS and related issues. The memo is online: http://www.globalaidsalliance.org/page/-/GAR_Transition_Recommendations.do c Carol Bergman, Acting Executive Director of the Global AIDS Alliance, stated: "We are looking forward to the President-elect's new budget for Global AIDS and hope that he will reject recent proposals that would diminish the stature of the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator. Expanding resources for Global AIDS in the FY 2010 budget will be critical to achieving President-elect Obama's commitment to provide $50 billion over five years in the fight against the pandemic. The new budget provides an opportunity for the President-elect to signal his commitment to multilateralism by providing $2.7 billion for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. In recent years, the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC), which is situated in the State Department, has demonstrated success in getting urgently needed ...

It's reported that President-elect Obama has asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates to remain in his role for at least a year in the next administration. It's the first time a Secretary of Defense has been held over by a President of a different party than the one he was appointed by.  The former CIA Director and Texas A&M President has spent the last two years cleaning up the mess left by Donald Rumsfeld. Back in 2006, I asked the President of the Texas A&M Black Former Student Network how he thought Gates would handle his new post. " I think he’ll do great.," Robinson said. "It’s probably one of the brightest moves the Bush Administration has made." Ken was right on in his assessment. Gates is pragmatic to the letter, and he will smoothly transition from working for the "War President" to one who wants to end the War in Iraq. This is another good call by Obama who should have few problems with Senate conformation of his appointees.

At the beginning of last season, I wrote than Southlake Carroll would not win the 2007 State Championship. I didn't feel the need to go back over it because it should have been obvious to everyone that the Dragons wouldn't win it all this year. I can say the Dragons proved me wrong...in a way. I had them losing in the first round, but they were able to make it all the way to round two. On the broadcast then announcers tried to blame Hurricane Ike and make excuses. To his credit, coach Hal Wasson would have none of that. Next year, there very few varsity players will have ties to the championship years. The players and staff will have to forge their own identity and can't rely on the Dragon mystique to win football games. I'm going to run my Southlake Carroll will not win the state title post again for two reasons. Number one, because it's one of my favorite posts that I've ever written. And number two, this post isn't about Southlake, it's about Texas High School Football and how important coaching is. Take my native Paris for instance. In the 1980's, the ...

When my wife and I moved to Dallas, I told her I was going to solve the JFK Assassination conspiracy. I had become a conspiracy buff watching Oliver Stone's JFK throughout college. In our early days in town, we'd head down to Dealey Plaza a couple of times a year. I would take a look up at the 6th floor window, over at the grassy knoll, and never come to any conclusion. On Saturday, the 45th Anniversary of Dallas' darkest hour, I had planned to go downtown town and finally come to terms with Lee Harvey Oswald being the lone shooter and acting alone in killing President Kennedy. The trip didn't go as I planned. Right before I left home, I came across a timeline of the events on November 22, 1963 at JDTippet.com named after Officer J.D. Tippett who was murdered by Oswald. The site referenced two places I wasn't familiar with, and a familiar place that I hadn't visited. These locations were all in Oak Cliff not far from where I live. The first was 1026 N. Beckley, the rooming house where Oswald was living at the time of the assassination. The second was the ...

Howard Witt of the Chicago Tribune reporst on a rise in hate incidents across the U.S. since the election of Barack Obama. To read Witt's entire story click here. Below are some of the highlights. Barely three weeks after Americans elected their first black president amid a wave of interracial good feeling, a spasm of noose hangings, racist graffiti, vandalism and death threats is convulsing dozens of towns across the country as white extremists lash out at the new political order. More than 200 hate-related incidents, including cross-burnings, assassination betting pools and effigies of President-elect Barack Obama, have been reported so far, according to law-enforcement authorities and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups. Racist Web sites are boasting that their servers are crashing under the weight of exponential increases in page views. "We've seen everything from cross burnings on lawns of interracial couples to effigies of Obama hanging from nooses to unpleasant exchanges in schoolyards," said Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, based in Montgomery, Ala. "I think we're in a worrying situation right now, a perfect storm of conditions coming together that could easily favor the continued growth of these ...

  When people ask me if I'm going to the Obama Inauguration, I usually tell that the next time I go to D.C. will most likely be for the dedication of the Martin Luther King Memorial.  As a member of Alpha Phi Alpha this is a project that is near and dear because our Fraternity kicked off this massive undertaking while I was an undergraduate at Texas A&M (Potent Pi Omicron Chapter). On Thursday, the leadership of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation, Inc. announced that Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has provided a $12.5 million letter of credit through their Wal-Mart Foundation to the project.  The funds will expedite the beginning of physical construction of the memorial. The foundation's contributed a $1 million donation in 2005. Harry E. Johnson is President and CEO of the MLK Memorial Foundation and former General President of Alpha Phi Alpha.  ""Wal-Mart's partnership demonstrates the company's ongoing commitment to the community and to the causes important to its associates and customers," Johnson says.  "The company's continued support helps to uphold the ideals of hope, democracy, justice and love for which Dr. King stood." To date, the Memorial Foundation has raised $100 million towards its fundraising goal of ...

I was alerted by email this week that Outside.in has named Dallas South one of the Top 5 Blogs in town. According to the message, they analyzed data from over 4,000 blogs that provide feeds to the Outside.in site. Based on variables that included total number of posts, location of posts, and links from other sites in the community identified Dallas South as a top blog in the Dallas area. Here's their Top 5 in Dallas Back Talk - this recently redesigned blog spills the beans on local politics, news and happenings Dallas Blog - an independent online newspaper focused on Dallas politics and local issues. Larry James’ Urban Daily - lots of engaged readers tune in daily to read and comment on stories penned by Central Dallas Ministries CEO about issues affecting the urban poor. We Shot JR - one of the city’s best music blogs, with daily updates on dance parties, gallery openings, and album/concert reviews, along with videos, pics, and audio samples. Dallas South - This blog focuses on national and local Dallas politics, from a progressive African American perspective. They also list 5 up and coming blogs in Dallas. Trey Garrison - a side project of D Magazine’s contributing ...

The Black Blogosphere has taken issue with Tavis Smiley’s State of the Black Union 2009 symposium blog contest. The issue was brought to our attention by (who else) our fellow Texan Gina McCauley at What About Our Daughters. In her original post titled Black Bloggers Second Class Citizens Gina is one of the first to make us aware of Tavis' intent. Ironically on the day that we announce the second gathering of Black new media content creators in Chicago next June, Tavis Smiley made an announcement of his own. Y’all Tavis is getting with this century and in his own “special” way acknowledging the growing influence of Black bloggers. Tavis is holding a “contest” to RANDOMLY select the next “Web Star”- His words not mine. Gina then goes on to detail all that's wrong with this contest; so does Black Web 2.0, so does Jack and Jill Politics, so does Global Grind. I agree with Jill Tubman who posts "The truth is that Tavis should be begging us to sit on stage with him not the other way around." Any one who clicks the link above can see how condescending this contest is to grown folks, but here ...