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May 12, 2012

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thumbnail Teaching girls life lessons, on and off the ice
May 12th 2012, 15:27

At Figure Skating in Harlem, the girls must keep at least a B average in order to stay on the ice. NBC's Dexter Mullins reports.

By Dexter Mullins
NBC News 

When Paula Assou first started figure skating, she cried.

“I was terrified of skating,” she said. But that didn’t keep her off the ice. “I wanted to try skating as something new and to overcome something I was really afraid of.”

That was nearly six years ago. Now, at age 16, Assou is part of Figure Skating in Harlem's junior synchronized skating team. The girls recently won their first gold medal in a regional competition.

Sharon Cohen founded Figure Skating in Harlem in 1997. It was the first program in the nation to pair figure skating with academics, and since then it has grown to serve thousands of girls, ages 6 to 18. A former competitive figure skater, Cohen was teaching ice skating to girls in East Harlem for about seven years when she decided to start the organization she now runs full-time.  With the help of grants and donations, Figure Skating in Harlem teaches about 200 students a year.

“We ended up starting this organization that really had education as its core focus and figure skating as the hook,” Cohen said. “So the girls get the physical benefit of fitness and grace and artistry through skating, which is very unique and not truly accessible to kids especially from inner-cities. And they also get core educational lessons that help them to get into some of the best colleges.”

To stay on the ice, the girls must maintain a minimum of a B average. The girls come after school to get help with homework, receive tutoring, and practice their skating technique. The organization also teaches financial literacy and writing, and offers communications classes.

Of all the students enrolled in the program, 85 percent have maintained at least the required B average, while 31 percent are straight-A students.

“They go on to four-year colleges and have gone onto places like Spelman College and Howard University. We have a student on a full academic scholarship to Brown University,” Cohen said.

For students like Paula, Figure Skating in Harlem was just a way to enhance the talents she already had.

“I've always been a really strong student and I just think skating strengthened that because I had to work hard to stay in the program, and in order to maintain my grades,” she said. “When I started out I was really shy and quiet, and I wasn't very vocal, and I also came from a school and a summer camp where I was bullied a lot because I was smart and because I was quiet. So coming here was just a way for me to escape from that.”

Figure skating can be a very expensive sport, even for recreational skaters. According to Cohen, it can cost $40,000 to $50,000 to train an elite skater at the highest levels. Even for a recreational skater, the costs can be in the low thousands. High costs like that make sports like skating out of reach for a lot of students, especially those in the inner-city.

“We're looking at kids who wouldn't have the opportunity because financially they're in an obstacle from their parents to provide them with this sort of sport, which is tremendously expensive,” Cohen said.  “Nobody is turned away because they can’t pay.”

Sharon Cohen, the founder of Figure Skating in Harlem, says the students in the program have come to realize anything is possible as they learn how to push through obstacles, get back up, and keep going with the guidance of supportive mentors. NBC's Dexter Mullins reports.

To help make the sport affordable, the organization only charges $350 in tuition and provides the girls with skates, a place to study and learn, and access to career-building experiences.

Last year, Cohen took some of the girls to meet Supreme Court Justice Sonja Sotomayor. Just a few weeks ago, the organization received a letter from First Lady Michelle Obama commending them for their hard work. The group has also brought in top executives from companies like Viacom, MTV, UPS and more to expose the girls to the opportunities that are out there.

Sharendalle Murga, who joined the organization 10 years ago, was thinking of becoming a doctor, so last year Figure Skating in Harlem arranged for her to see a live surgery. And when she heard about the girls who met Sotomayor, she began to consider what else she could do.

“Some of the girls went to Washington last year and when they came back I thought maybe I want to be a lawyer,” she said. “All these different trips that we go on, they open my mind, so I'm not really sure what I want to be yet, but all of these things they help me.”

Cohen says those type of experiences are what the group is all about.

“What's so beautiful is that so many girls have come through our program, thousands since we began 15 years ago, that the young ladies now don't think it's odd at all to be a figure skater in Harlem,” she said. “So by having this organization, they've come to realize that anything is possible.”

To find out more about Figure Skating in Harlem, visit their website figureskatinginharlem.org.

thumbnail Jennifer and Julia Hudson on Balfour conviction: 'We have felt the love '
May 12th 2012, 03:15

Tom Gianni / AP

In this courtroom sketch, singer and actress Jennifer Hudson, center, along with her fiance David Otunga, and sister Julia Hudson react in court in Chicago, Friday, after a jury convicted William Balfour for the October 2008 killings of her mother, brother and nephew.

By msnbc.com staff

CHICAGO -- Jennifer Hudson and her sister, Julia, released the following statement Friday night about the conviction of William Balfour, 31, in the murder of their mother, brother and Julia Hudson’s 7-year-old son:

“We have many people to thank but our first thank you is to God, always. We are so grateful to prosecutors James McKay, Jennifer Bagby and Veryl Gambino and State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez and her team for their dedication and tireless work from the beginning.


“We have the best police department and they have been with us every step of the way. We thank all of the State’s witnesses who came forward on our behalf.

Prosecutors say the evidence was overwhelming in their case against William Balfour, who was found guilty of seven counts in the deaths of Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother and nephew in 2008.

“We have felt the love and support from people all over the world and we’re very grateful. We want to extend a prayer from the Hudson family to the Balfour family.

“We have all suffered terrible loss in this tragedy. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in them that perish: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them (2 Corinthian 4:3-4). It is our prayer that the Lord will forgive Mr. Balfour of these heinous acts and bring his heart into repentance someday.”

William Balfour found guilty on all counts in murder of Jennifer Hudson's family 

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thumbnail The verdict is in on that sea monster video: It's a jellyfish
May 12th 2012, 00:54

Experts say the "Cascade Creature" is a jellyfish that's been turned inside-out.

By Alan Boyle




Marine biologists say the spooky "Cascade Creature" seen drifting through the deep sea in a viral video isn't a whale placenta, a parachute, a plastic bag or an alien visitor: It's a type of jellyfish known as a Deepstaria enigmatica.

The video, which was apparently captured by a remotely operated vehicle near an underwater drilling site, caused a bit of a stir over the past couple of weeks among weird-science fans. Now it looks as if the truth is out there, thanks to assessments from experts such as Steven Haddock at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and Craig McClain at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center.

"This bag-like jelly is not that rare, but is large, so rarely seen intact," Haddock and his colleagues write on the JellyWatch Facebook page. "In the video, the swirling from the sub makes the medusa appear to undulate, and it even turns inside-out." They provide a helpful picture of a more typical specimen.


McClain is even more helpful in his posting at Deep Sea News. He provides citations on previous sightings of the beast, including explanations for the jellyfish's weirdly collapsed shape. And he shows through photographs and drawings that the strange appendage and whitish lumps seen in the video are D. enigmatica's gonads. TMI, Craig ... TMI.

For a third opinion, look no further than Australia's Nine News, which quotes Daniel Bucher, a marine biologist at Southern Cross University, as saying that the gonads were the giveaway.

Now that we've settled that, bring on the next sea monster.

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Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

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thumbnail US Army Sgt. surprises daughter with early return from deployment
May 12th 2012, 00:14

Brandon Dill / The Commercial Appeal via AP

U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Carrie Stewart hugs her daughter Tiara Sanders, 14, after surprising the Bolton High School freshman in class on Friday in Bolton, Tenn.. Stewart just finished a 10 month deployment in Kuwait and was not scheduled to return to the U.S. for three more weeks.

See more homecoming images in PhotoBlog.

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thumbnail William Balfour found guilty on all counts in murder of Jennifer Hudson's family
May 11th 2012, 20:57

Singer Jennifer Hudson and her sister released a statement thanking those helped convict their former brother-in-law of killing three family members. NBC's Kevin Tibbles reports.

Matt Sayles / AP

Jennifer Hudson

By Michael Tarm, The Associated Press

A Chicago jury on Friday convicted Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson's former brother-in-law of murdering her mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew in what prosecutors' described as an act of vengeance by a jilted husband.

Hudson, who expressed her undisguised disdain for William Balfour when she took the witness stand and who endured weeks of excruciating testimony about the October 2008 killings, was visibly overcome with emotion as the verdict was read. Hudson's eyes filled with tears and she shook her head and bit her lip. Afterward, she looked over at her sister, Julia Hudson, and smiled.

Jennifer and Julia Hudson after the verdict: We have felt the love

Balfour, who faces a mandatory life prison sentence, showed no emotion.

Jurors deliberated for three days before reaching their verdict against Balfour, a 31-year-old former gang member who was the estranged husband of Hudson's sister at the time of the triple murders.

With no surviving witnesses to the Oct. 24, 2008, slayings or fingerprints, prosecutors built a circumstantial case against Balfour by calling 83 witnesses over 11 days of testimony. Witnesses said he threatened to kill the entire family if Julia Hudson spurned him.

Balfour's attorneys proposed an alternate theory: that someone else in the crime-ridden neighborhood on Chicago's South Side targeted the family because of alleged crack-cocaine dealing by Jennifer Hudson's brother, Jason Hudson. During the 30 minutes in which they called just two witnesses, however, they presented no evidence to support that theory.

Public defender Amy Thompson said she would appeal the verdict.

"It has always been our position and it still is that William Balfour is innocent of these murders," Thompson said.

Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez reiterated to reporters what prosecutors had told jurors: that the evidence against Balfour was overwhelming.

Jurors said their deliberations were cordial and that Jennifer Hudson's celebrity didn't influence them.

The verdict came shortly after jurors sent the judge a note saying they were split, though they did not say they were hopelessly deadlocked. Jurors said afterward that it took some of them more time to piece everything together, and that a key was cellphone records showing Balfour was in the area when the killings happened.

Jennifer Hudson, who was in Florida at the time, attended every day of the two weeks of testimony, sobbing when photos of her relatives' bloodied bodies were displayed to jurors during closing arguments.

Alvarez, who spoke to Hudson after the verdict, said the star was visibly relieved. Alvarez said Hudson had been determined to attended every day of the trial out of a sense of obligation to her mother.

"She told me, 'If it was me (who had been killed) my mother would be here every day. So, I'm going to be here every day,'" Alvarez said.

Alvarez said Hudson would not speak to the media about the verdict but would release a statement "at the appropriate time."

The jury foreman said he hoped the verdict would bring Hudson closure.

"I hope she can put this thing behind her and get on with the rest of her life," Robert Smith, a 47-year-old employee at Chicago Public Schools told reporters outside court.

Hudson, 30, rose to prominence as a 2004 "American Idol" finalist. But she became a bona fide star for her performance in the film adaptation of the musical, "Dreamgirls," for which she won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Hudson was the first witness prosecutors called to testify, and during her more than 30 minutes on the stand she talked about her murdered family members and spoke endearingly about her nephew, Julian King, whom she called Tugga Bear. She said she knew Balfour since the eighth grade and always deeply disliked him.

Balfour had lived in the Hudsons' three-story Englewood home after marrying Julia Hudson in 2006. He moved out in early 2008 after falling out with his wife, but witnesses told jurors he often stalked the home.

The killings occurred the morning after Julia Hudson's birthday, and prosecutors said he became enraged when he stopped by the home and saw a gift of balloons in the house from her new boyfriend.

After his estranged wife left for her job as a bus driver on the morning of Oct. 24, 2008, prosecutors said Balfour went back inside the home with a .45-caliber handgun and shot Hudson's mother, Darnell Donerson, 57, in the back; he allegedly then shot Jason Hudson, 29, twice in the head as he lay in bed.

Prosecutors said Balfour then drove off in Jason Hudson's SUV with Julian — Julia's son, whom she called Juice Box — and shot the boy several times in the head as he lay behind a front seat. His body was found in the abandoned vehicle miles away after a three-day search.

The defense tried to counter the portrayal of Balfour as an embittered husband by noting Julia Hudson continued to have sex with him until just days before the killings.

In heated closings Wednesday, Thompson, almost shouting, said prosecutors had failed to prove their case. Prosecutor James McKay shot back that the defense was exploiting a popular misunderstanding that circumstantial evidence is lesser evidence.

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