Finished the book

Finally, "Heart to Heart", my book about 12 diverse people who survived heart attacks is done. My agent is now looking for a publisher.

Forbes Magazine's Richest Black Americans.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/06/richest-black-americans-busienss-billionaires-richest-black-americans.html Like me you're probably kicking yourself for not knowing more of the people on the list. Forbes says it compiled the list because African Americans asked for it. Click on the link to start sucking up next time you meet them on the Charity Dinner Circuit!

Thomas L. Blagburn 1944-2009

A bunch of us made our way through the rain to the Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament Catholic church Monday morning to bid farewell to Tom Blagburn.

The church sits on Western Avenue in Northwest. It's the dividing line between the District and Maryland, about as far away as one can get from the tough streets of far south and north east DC where Tom did some of his best work. He helped launch the DC Police Department's Community policing program and before that he was a roving leader and special youth counsel to a few Mayors and Police Chiefs.

Tom Blagburn was always worried about the children and young adults and exoffenders. He felt more should have been done. He was right.

He knew children weren't born bad; that things happened in their homes and neighborhoods that left them too few alternatives to drugs and violence. "I don't know of any society in history that had children arming themselves, killing and being killed." he said more than once to anyone he could pin down on the streets or on the phone in their offices.

Programs aimed at helping the kids barely scratched the surface, he complained . They were too small and never sustainable. New elections meant new priorities. Sometimes the children were a top priority -sometimes they were not--

Blagburn didn't spare the media from his tirades. He knew us all by name-not to become friends; but to cover his stories-his youth. If they were on TV and radio, in newspapers-then public and private leaders couldn't ignore them or their problems.

We eulogized Tom Blagburn today. He died quickly, they say from pancreatic cancer. His obit says he was born in 1944. Tom never told us he was ill. We didn't know exactly how old he was or where he lived-not far from the Blessed Sacrament Parish.. He made sure we knew about this city's children. It was never about him.

Latest H1N1 Information

The Center for Disease Control has a website that contains all the latest information on the H1-N1 virus. Its updated everyday by noon.

http://http//www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/