(Akiit.com) NEW YORK, NY - Nearly 60 percent of African-American children cannot swim, almost twice the figure for white children, according to a first-of-its-kind survey which USA Swimming hopes will strengthen its efforts to lower minority drowning rates and draw more blacks into the sport.

Stark statistics underlie the initiative by the national governing body for swimming. Black children drown at a rate almost three times the overall rate. And less than 2 percent of USA Swimming’s nearly 252,000 members who swim competitively year-round are black.

USA Swimming is teaming with an array of partners — local governments, corporations, youth and ethnic organizations — to expand learn-to-swim programs across the United States, many of them targeted at inner-city minorities. One of the key participants is black freestyle star Cullen Jones, who hopes to boost his role-model status by winning a medal this summer at the Beijing Olympics.

USA Swimming’s motives are twofold, executive director Chuck Wielgus said.

“It’s just the right thing to do — making an effort so every kid can be water-safe,” he said. “And quite frankly it’s about performance. We’re something of a niche sport and for us to remain relevant, considering the changing demographics of the population, it’s important we get more kids involved at the mouth of the pipeline.”

Study surveyed nearly 1,800 children

As part of the initiative, USA Swimming commissioned an ambitious study recently completed by five experts at the University of Memphis’ Department of Health and Sports Sciences. They surveyed 1,772 children aged 6 to 16 in six cities — two-thirds of them black or Hispanic — to gauge what factors contributed most to the minority swimming gap.

The study found that 31 percent of the white respondents could not swim safely, compared to 58 percent of the blacks. The non-swimming rate for Hispanic children was almost as high — 56 percent — although more than twice as many Hispanics as blacks are now USA Swimming members.
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(Akiit.com) Are you the guy or gal that has to stop at Starbucks every morning to get that liquid rush? Would you just have the most terrible day if you were running late for work and had to skip it? If you are, than you make up an estimated 90% of Americans that need that fix everyday!

Despite recent controversy about alleged benefits of drinking coffee, you may want to reconsider your position upon considering some not-so pleasant long term effects.

Coffee contains nearly 200 chemicals. Many of these chemicals are oil based and therefore put an added stress on liver function. One chemical, caffeine has several different ill-effects on the body. Here are 4 reasons to kick your coffee habit:

REASON #1: In large amounts, caffeine can interfere with normal sleep patterns as well as become difficult for liver metabolism.

REASON #2: Caffeine in coffee consumed during mealtime, fools the stomach’s ability to secrete the needed amount of Hydrochloric Acid. This reduced Hydrochloric Acid often times contributes to an Acid Reflux response.

REASON #3: Caffeine stimulates adrenaline, the “fight of flight hormone”; however once it wears off, you face fatigue and even mild depression. So then you have to take more and more to get the adrenaline going again. That’s the typical addiction that you want to stop!

REASON #4: Although some studies have shown coffee may reduce your risk of developing breast cancer; coffee drinkers are also more likely to increase their risk of stomach cancer and leukemia.

These are just a few of the known effects that coffee can have on the body, but understand that coffee, with its hundreds of chemicals, affects each person differently and it is still a drug - even if legal!
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(Akiit.com) Chicago, Illinois - Time to shape up if you want to collect Social Security…

I recently looked at my “Social Security Statement” and realized that I’m one of the hardworking boomers who may never see a dime of this nest egg.

After being in the work force full-time for 43 years, and paying into Social Security all those years, I’m beginning to have visions of going someplace where it doesn’t snow on the first day of spring.

But my escape may be short-lived.

No excuse

That’s because I have to be 66 years old to retire. I’m not rushing to check out of here, but you never know.

Last week, one of my earliest childhood friends died unexpectedly after a brief illness. In fact, the last time I saw her was about three weeks ago, when I drove to San Antonio after covering a political event in Austin.

Her name was Sirretha Fondren, and we were probably the same age. After serving in the military, Sirretha and her son, Tony, relocated to San Antonio.

When I saw her, I marveled at how well she had aged. There wasn’t a wrinkle on her face or a gray hair on her head. She was thin as a rail and still carried herself like the diva I remembered.

On Wednesday, I got the sad news that Sirretha had passed away after a bout with the flu turned fatal.

Her death was another reminder that — as hectic as things can get — it is a bad idea to put off the annual checkup.

Although the picture of good health, my friend obviously had some health issues that were probably not addressed.
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(Akiit.com) HIV/AIDS was quickly stereotyped as a “gay disease” 25 years ago because most of the victims were homosexuals. Today, African Americans, who account for 12 percent of the U.S. population, are 50 percent of HIV cases. Black teens (aged 13-19), who account for 16 percent of the population, are 69 percent of new HIV cases. Black women are 66 percent, while Latina women, at 16 percent, have the same HIV rate as White women.

Do these figures make HIV/AIDS a Black disease? Of course not. Stereotypes hurt more than people’s feelings. They breed myths and dangerous prejudice that spread the virus. Why has HIV/AIDS settled in our community? Why are we faced with an epidemic that we know we have to prevent?

The myths and stereotypes that surround HIV/AIDS have fed the virus. Perhaps the most harmful stereotype is the “gay disease” myth. Although transmission among Black men, for example, most often occurs through sex with men, only half as many Black men as Whites get HIV through sex with men. Both drug use and heterosexual contact are major modes of transmission among African American men, as well. The District of Columbia’s rate escalated artificially because of a unique congressional ban on needle exchange programs, which exchange dirty for clean needles. I was able to remove the prohibition only recently when a new Democratic majority took control of Congress. Although drug addiction accounts significantly for higher African American rates, HIV is largely spread through sexual contact.

AIDS has become a Black epidemic because we have allowed it to thrive in the shadows, with too little open discussion and leadership to conquer it. For this reason, I devoted last year to breaking through the silence with a series of four town meetings in D.C. entitled, “A Series of Frank Conversations by Us with Us: A Self Examination on the D.C. HIV/AIDS Epidemic“.

We began with our clergy, natural leaders whom many look to for guidance. Because HIV has unique effects by age and sex, three separate town meetings followed, devoted to the population groups most seriously effected ¯ a “For Men-Between-Men” town meeting, a “Sex in the City” town meeting for women and a “Holla Back” forum for teens.

These were no holds barred, but civil discussions, led by well-known popular figures, such as nationally syndicated radio personality, Russ Parr, who led the men’s town meeting. However, the audience, not the moderators, dominated the discussions and hit all the hot button issues - multiple partners, risky and unsafe sex, denial about sexually transmitted diseases, homophobia, superstition, the “down-low“, the need for stronger, trusting relationships, the decline of marriage and its effects on children - all came out the shadows at the four town meetings.
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(Akiit.com) Financially strapped historically black colleges across the country are at a crossroads.

Cutbacks in federal and state spending and competition from mainstream institutions for the best students, educators and academic programs have taken a toll on schools that were created to educate African-American students after slavery, said presidents from some of the nation’s top historically black colleges on Thursday.

Now, critics are questioning the relevance of historically black colleges and universities, commonly known as HBCUs, in a post-segregation era, and some decry the use of taxpayer dollars to pay for them.

“I am often asked as the president of a historically black university whether HBCUs continue to be viable. The answer I give is a resounding yes,” Mary Sias, president of Kentucky State University, told members of the House Education and Labor Committee. “HBCUs are and continue to be needed and are as vital now to the educational system in America as they have ever been.

“KSU and other HBCUs take the terror of poverty, hunger, fear and hopelessness and turn it into hope,” she said. “With a little more money and capital we can do even more.”

The Princeton Review listed KSU as a “Best Southeastern College“; U.S. News and World Report listed it as part of its “America’s Best Colleges 2007.”

Still, the school is facing a $3 million cut in state funding, and Sias said she’s fighting an uphill battle when it comes to helping some of her school’s non-terminal degree graduate programs become eligible for a federal competitive grant designed to help schools that serve large minority populations.
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