Recently, “Extra” correspondent AJ Calloway traveled all the way to South Africa to help Oprah Winfrey celebrate the first graduation ceremony of Oprah’s Leadership Academy for Girls.

Oprah marveled, “Can you believe it? And not only are 100 percent graduating, 100 percent are also going to college!”

Unfortunately, building her OWN cable network has had more challenges.

Although Oprah was already a billionaire and a household name, she says she wanted to create OWN to further her inspirational vision.

“The reason I did OWN was I wanted to continue the platform to speak to people in a way that made them feel inspired,” she told Calloway. “And that’s been harder than I thought it would be, but it’s also been as exciting as I thought it would be.”

After her network showed garnered disappointing ratings, Oprah became more visible hosting life classes with Iyanla Vanzant and introducing her latest show, Oprah’s Next Chapter, which has been a hit with viewers. But will it save OWN?

That remains to be see, but Oprah thinks it’s a good start.

“Yes, that’s nice, a good start. Now I just need 23 more hours a day, but that’s a good start. What I know now is you start one show at a time, one night at a time… building your nights instead of trying to do it all at one time.”

Oprah said she’s “always looking” for new shows. “Every time I meet somebody now I’m like, ‘Do you want a show?’ I’m looking for everybody who has great ideas.”

Debra Sledge, Joan Sledge, Kathy Sledge Lightfoot and Kim Sledge Allen filed suit in federal court on Thursday claiming that Warner Music’s method for calculating digital music purchases as “sales” rather than “licenses” on songs (such as the band’s chart-topping “We Are Family”) cheats artists out of money due to them under recording contracts, many of them signed decades before music was sold digitally via iTunes, Amazon, ringtones and other outlets.

“Rather than paying its recording artists and producers the percentage of net receipts it received–and continues to receive–from digital content providers for ‘licenses,’ Warner wrongfully treats each digital download as a ‘sale’ of a physical phonorecord…which are governed by much lower royalty provisions than ‘licenses’ in Warner’s standard recording agreements.”

If that claim sounds familiar, it’s one of the most hotly-disputed issues in the music business. Songwriters typically make much less money when an album is “sold” than they do when their music is “licensed”. But record labels have taken the position that music sold through digital stores, such as iTunes, should be counted as “sales” rather than licenses.

The difference in revenue can be significant. The Sister Sledge members claim their record deal promises 25% of revenue from licenses but much less from sales.

Rapper/Actor Eminem brought a nearly identical claim against Universal Music Group and won a fairly important decision at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2010. At the time, UMG downplayed the ruling as specific to Eminem’s contract, but music lawyers believe more of these cases are going to be filed by legacy artists (newer contracts have specific language precluding such suits).

Sister Sledge has a 35-page class action lawsuit seeking to bring together many artists in one proceeding, calling Warner Music’s actions “wide-spread and calculated.” Hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue is at stake, the complaint alleges.

It should be interesting to see which artists come forward.

Barr said in a statement that she’s a longtime supporter of the party and looks forward to working with people who share her values. She said the two major parties aren’t serving the American people.

“The Democrats and Republicans have proven that they are servants — bought and paid for by the 1% — who are not doing what’s in the best interest of the American people,” Barr said.

Occupy Wall Street protesters popularized the “We are the 99 percent” slogan in their fight against economic disparity and perceived corporate greed.

Barr has submitted paperwork to the Green Party for her candidacy. The party’s presidential nominee will be selected at a convention in Baltimore in July.

Barr said she has been fighting for working-class families and women for decades.

“I will barnstorm American living rooms,” she said in a candidate questionnaire submitted to the Green Party. “Mainstream media will be unable to ignore me, but more importantly they will be unable to overlook the needs of average Americans in the run-up to the 2012 election.”

Barr’s hit TV sitcom “Roseanne” aired from 1988 to 1997 and earned her an Emmy and a Golden Globe. She played a wise-cracking mom in the comedy about a blue-collar family. Barr has a 46-acre macadamia nut farm in Hawaii.

If you were convicted of a felony and would like to start the process of getting your rights restored get information here.  Please obtain copies of your sentencing orders and proof that you have paid all fines and restitution -then start the process.  For more information,  go to the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s website at www.commonwealth.virginia.gov and/or www.sbe.virginia.gov, fill out the application, print it,  and mail it to the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office.

The next Rollin’ Rally stop is Thursday, February 9, 2012 at New Generations Church 1515 Chamberlayne Avenue in Richmond, Virginia 23222. The time is 6:00pm-8:00pm.

Register to vote, check your voter status or start the process of getting your rights restored if convicted of a felony.  To date, Governor Bob McDonnell has granted rights to over 2,500 felons in the Commonwealth of Virginia.  Please don’t wait start the process now.

The guest speaker at the Rollin’ Rally Community Speaks Stop is Garry Ellis, Voter Registration Coordinator with the State Board of Elections. Bring your questions to the rally because we have answers.

The Virginia General Assembly is in session through March. Learn all about the Virginia General Assembly at http://legis.virginia.gov/1_home/cit_welcome.html

  The GOP presidential primary in Virginia is Tuesday, March 6, 2012. VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

 The Rolling for Freedom Project (R4F) has kicked off the voter registration and restoration of rights season. The project will come to you to assist in filling out applications for voter registration or the restoration of rights process.

R4F will make stops at area businesses, churches, parking lots, gasoline stations and more to assist you. Keep it here for all Rollin’ Rally stops.

“It was situation and now it’s time for restoration”   Miss Community Clooovia

Since Planned Parenthood is the focus of an inquiry spearheaded by Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), in efforts to determine if public money was illegally spent on funding abortions, the life-saving partnership between the bastions of women’s health has been nullified.

Coincidentially, conservative Karen Handel, who lost a gubernational race in Georgia in 2010 running on a strict anti-abortion and anti-Planned Parenthood platform, was recently named Komen’s vice-president. In her campaign blog, Handle made her position clear:

I do not support the mission of Planned Parenthood.”

While Barbara Walter consistently stated that “federal funds are not used to fund abortions at Planned Parenthood” and Whoopi Goldberg insisting that the “the investigation is false,” Elisabeth Hasselback stayed true to conservative form, stating:

If it was political and if Susan G. Komen would never be associated with someone because they are the nation’s largest provider of abortions, then why would they have ever have partnered with them over the years and years and years?”

See The View debate below:

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“I don’t think there’s a better time than African-American History month to consider the tremendous progress we’ve made through the sacrifices of so many, or a better time to recommit to the challenges we face right now,” said Obama in a video to his supporters.

It is expected that the Democrats would work to shore up their Black base right before the president’s bid for re-election. The dampened enthusiasm among Black voters who are facing 15.8 percent unemployment and rapidly declining wealth levels is also expected. The Black unemployment number is more than double that of white Americans, which stands at 7.5 percent. Throughout the Obama presidency, White unemployment has improved, while Black unemployment has gotten markedly worse.

Ironically, the “African Americans for Obama” website says that the president has been fighting “to restore economic security that has been eroding for American families for a decade.”

President Obama won 96 percent of the Black vote in 2008. His approval rating today stands at 91 percent. The black community continues to be the strongest and most loyal base of the Obama Administration.

Political commentator, Yvette Carnell, has something to say about the issue:

“I have no problem with Obama targeting African-American voters. None. He needs us and he knows it,” said Carnell. “What I do have a problem with, however, is how most of the targeting begins during campaign season and ends on election day. We’re more than just a voting bloc. We’re real citizens with real needs, needs which I hope the President begins to acknowledge and address.”

Columbia University Professor Christopher Emdin doesn’t agree with Carnell’s assessment.

“I do not believe the ‘frustration and dampened enthusiasm’ cited within Af-American communities is as pervasive as we are led to believe. With that being said, these facts do not negate the fact that these communities are dealing with serious issues related to education and poverty,” said Dr. Emdin. “I do not believe that Obama’s campaigning in Af-American communities is reflective of some ulterior agenda to “use them when he needs them.  It very well may be an effort to make a shift to explicitly focus on the needs of this community.”

The pending re-election of Barack Obama has put Black voters in a quandary. While many would agree that conditions have worsened for the Black community under Obama, the Republican Party provides no reasonable alternatives. In many cases, Black people have become the political orphans of America:

You can either live with the parents who abuse you or live with the child molester down the street. While one fate is clearly worse than the other, there is no end to the pain in sight.

It is actually logical for the Obama Administration to keep Black voters on the back-burner. When a group gives you 91 percent approval and asks for nothing in return, there is almost no political incentive to do anything for them. This calculation likely played a role in the statement that the “rising tide will lift all boats” made three years ago, when the president was asked about inequality in wealth and unemployment. The “lift all boats” policy was a clear and miserable failure, for most economic experts can tell you that racial inequality is not going to fix itself without targeted economic policy.

Right now, in the Black community, there are at least two types of people: those who are suffering and those who are not. The suffering group consists of the poor, unemployed, and those who live under the thumb of the criminal justice system. The rest of us have jobs, food to eat and are not impacted directly by mass incarceration. If you’re in the second group, it’s difficult to find fault with the Obama Administration, for a Black president grants the symbolic comfort that comes along with the “Mama I Made It” syndrome that justifies the trade-offs many of us make for the sake of economic and social progress in a White supremacist society.  Being the first Black president is the granddaddy of all “proud mama” moments, so there are millions willing to forgive nearly any short-coming of the Obama White House to maintain access to the throne.

For those who care about the poor, there is almost no redemption when the president barely mentions poverty in his speeches.  For the unemployed, it’s hard to imagine how your life will get better by supporting an administration that helped white folks find jobs while letting the Black numbers reach levels approaching those of the Great Depression. For those suffering with the effects of mass incarceration, it’s hard to get excited about a president who has not directly confronted the debilitating effects of the drug war, which has destroyed millions of families and an entire generation of children.  All of these issues indicate a state of emergency in the Black community; but thus far, we’ve only given White Americans the right to express dissatisfaction with their condition.

The implicit African American slogan for the Democratic Party is “You should just stop complaining, because the Republicans are even worse than we are.” The threat of political punishment is clearly enough to secure the Black vote without doing a thing. But at the same time, the Black political orphans of America do have a choice. WEB Dubois, when faced with few quality political options 50 years ago, simply said that he refused to vote at all.  Rather than behaving like a teenage girl who shares her body with the first man who buys her a cheeseburger, Dubois advocated for the idea that we save our votes for politicians who have truly worked to earn them.

After a mass holdout from conscientious Black voters, perhaps the Democrats will then strive to honestly earn the Black vote instead of simply telling us that they are not as horrible as the Republicans.  It should not be taboo to request that Black voters have enough self-respect to demand that all politicians give priority to the issues that lead to our suffering. There are no victims, just volunteers, and we don’t have to be political orphans forever.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here,

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It takes being a student of history or simply being alive in 1971, the year Cornelius introduced “Soul Train” to the American television audience, to fully appreciate how he turned the perception that Black culture could not survive mainstream market on its head. And the times were not in his favor.

Malcolm X was shot and killed in 1965. Five months later, the Watts Riots erupted due to suppressed anger from African Americans toward law enforcement. In 1967, five days of rioting claimed the lives of 43 people in Detroit, accelerating an already white exodus from the predominately Black city. That same year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Virginia’s anti-miscegenation laws were unconstitutional. (Cornelius’ second  ex-wife is white.) And let’s not forget that Dr. Martin L. King Jr. was killed in 1968.

Throughout the 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement forced America to recognize that Blacks were not treated as equal citizens under the law, and they demanded sweeping federal legislation to correct it.

Now enters this dark-skin, baritone-voiced Negro telling white executives that they should invest in a Black music television show. Dick Clarke‘s “American Bandstand” was the television dance show that most Americans wiggled their hips to prior to “Soul Train.” And as Kenneth Gamble of the once-renowned Philadelphia International Records label told the L.A. Times recently, there certainly weren’t many Black folks on Clarke’s show leading any of the wiggling.

“‘Bandstand’ was a dance show, but it basically concentrated on Caucasian people. While they had a few Black artists on from time to time, “Soul Train” was something that the African-American community embraced first — and it’s always good to see African-American people on TV — but then it became a national and an international phenomenon.”

NPR correspondent Karen Grigsby recalls an interview she had with Cornelius, where he discussed advertisers’ initial trepidation.

“[Cornelius] told me that when I interviewed him on the celebration of the 40th anniversary, people said, ‘Oh, nobody’s going to buy this,’” Grigsby said. ‘There’s not going to be any advertisers.’ So he lined up the advertisers and, after the first couple of shows, people were like, ‘Wow.’”

Eventually, Cornelius convinced enough power players to invest in “Soul Train” and started the show in Chicago. It moved to Los Angeles soon after. Sears and Chicago-based cosmetic company Johnson Products were Soul Train’s first major advertisers.

Cornelius, in his own way, was an activist. But not in the traditional sense. He didn’t picket or march out his frustration toward the system. He relied on his silky voice, impeccably tailored attire, and laid-back disposition to work within it instead.

Like the Black cultural ambassadors before him who successful gained acceptance from White mainstream audiences (Sidney Poitier, Jackie Robinson, Bill Cosby), Cornelius could not appear as an “angry, Black man” down-trodden by “the White man.”

Shayne Lee, a sociologist, told CNN that Cornelius’ style allowed “Soul Train” to slowly make its way into American mainstream pop culture.

“He was an ambassador, the pope of soul,” Lee said. “For a lot of suburban Whites living in segregated America, this was their first exposure to this exciting new world of movement and energy. He made Black culture more accessible.”

In other words, Cornelius made Black culture “less threatening.”

His efforts to achieve this clean-cut identity eventually clashed with his changing audience and their evolving musical tastes. Cornelius did not like hip-hop at first and was very reluctant to welcome rappers on his program, but his business acumen convinced his ideological bias to open his doors to the likes of Run-DMC, Public Enemy, and Eric B and Rakim.

(These acts were not exactly “hard-core”)

But what is uniquely special about “Soul Train” is that while Cornelius catered to Black audiences, White dancers regularly appeared on his show. Even Elton John and David Bowie (you can’t get any whiter than these two) performed on his shows to expand their reach to Black audiences. If there ever was a musical integrationist, Cornelius was it. Not only did he make Black hip to mainstream White America, he convinced the business world that it was profitable to invest in it.

Black people have always known that we have that God-given gift known as “soul.” Don Cornelius simply made sure the rest of America (and the world) knew it too.

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Arguing once a week can be the secret to strong, happy unions – provided the arguing isn’t of the abusive variety.

The study of married couples found that 44% of pairs believe that fighting ‘helps keep the lines of communication open’.

Conducted by a relationship website and market research agency IMRB, the findings show that fighting and addressing problems constructively makes for a more stress-free relationship than bottling things up.

William Doherty, a professor in the University of Minnesota’s Department of Family Social Science, said that it’s important to remember that the findings do not condone fighting, nor do they ignore the fact that arguing can be a fast-track to relationship downfall.

While some fighting can be constructive and beneficial, not all arguing is the same – destructive, abusive and bitter rows are certainly not the stuff of healthy relationships.

“What the studies have shown is that it’s not so much whether couples get angry but how they handle it,” he said.

The expert’s warnings echo those of the Gottman Relationship Institute, which last year said destructive arguing is a fast track to a break-up.

Other experts see arguments as the best way to deal with issues rather than hiding them and developing resentment.

Bernie Slutsky, a marriage counselor in Minnesota, says, “At least they’re trying to reach the other person. Sometimes it’s a case of, ‘You’re not listening to me so I’m going to tell you louder,’ and we have to tone that down.”

“But it’s still better than if they just sit there and stonewall each other. That’s a lot more destructive.”

He says that fighting in front of children can even be a good thing – provided the irritation is dealt with respectfully and couples are able to show kids that they have moved on quickly and positively.

There’s even a strategy to a healthy argument.

“A soft start-up is the best way,” according to Professor Doherty, who says that a hard opener – attacking or blaming, for example – immediately puts a partner on the defensive.

(((Is arguing the key to a long-lasting relationship or the beginning of the end?)))

The problem affects 14 lots of Lo/Ovral-28 tablets and 14 lots of generic Norgestrel and Ethinyl Estradiol tablets. Both products are manufactured by Pfizer.

Pfizer found that some packets of the drugs had too many active tablets, while others had too few. Oral birth control products use a series of 21 drug tablets and 7 inactive sugar tablets to regulate the menstrual period while providing contraception, reports the huffington post.

A company spokeswoman said the problem was caused by both mechanical and visual inspection failures on the packaging line. She said the problem has been corrected.

Pfizer issued a statement saying the problem is not related to safety but does raise the risk of unintended pregnancy.

The affected packets have expiration dates ranging between July 31, 2013, and March 31, 2014.

The drugs were distributed to warehouses, clinics and retail pharmacies throughout the U.S.

During a 1995 interview with The Washington Post, Cornelius said he was not the same person after the operation.

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“My health history does not allow me to be what I used to be as a manager or as an entrepreneur,” he said.

His problem started with headaches in the early ’80s. A congenital malformation was discovered in some blood vessels in his brain. On Nov. 12, 1982, he underwent a 21-hour operation. “You choose your brain surgeons for their stamina,” he said. “You’re never quite the same afterward. Travel is always a real test.”

Though specifics about Cornelius’ health before his death have yet to be revealed, the New York Daily News reports that his son, Tony Cornelius, says his father was very uncomfortable the day he died.

Tony Cornelius, who worked alongside his father, didn’t reveal specifics of what troubled the TV and music legend. Don Cornelius had suffered serious health problems, and in 2009 went through a bitter, and costly divorce. “My father was extremely private,” his son said. “Unfortunately, when you’re a private person, you keep things inside. ”

He said it was hard to imagine how badly his father felt.

“Me, being extremely close to him, I could tell he was uncomfortable,” Tony Cornelius said.

NewsOne will update this post with new information on Cornelius’ health issues as we receive it.

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