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AHoward University student and two of her siblings are taking their talents to the 2020 Olympics. Senior Latroya Pina and her sister and brother Jayla and Troy have been selected to be on the Cape Verde National Swim Team during the Summer Olympics which is slated to take place in Tokyo, Japan, the Sun Chronicle reported.

Pina has been racking up several accolades at Howard for her swimming skills, the news outlet writes. She came out victorious in the women’s 100 breaststroke and 200 individual medley against Marymount during the 2017-2018 season. The honors went beyond the swimming pool for Pina. She made the 2018 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Commissioner’s All-Academic Team and the 2018 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Spring President’s Honor Roll List. Although having the opportunity to compete in the Olympic Games is a huge honor for Pina and her siblings, she says their accomplishment isn’t “far-fetched.” “We’re not just swimming for our colleges or schools, but for a nation so we want to do our best,” she told the Sun Chronicle. Pina also added that she’s proud to be representing Cape Verde. “Cape Verde is trying to make swimming a big sport now, so it’s our responsibility to represent our country. People in Cape Verde and all the Cape Verdeans in the U.S. will be looking up to us.”

Howard’s Swimming & Diving Head Coach Nicholas Askew is excited for Pina and her siblings. “To represent your country at the Olympic level is every swimmer’s dream,” he said in a statement, according to HU Bison. “We are excited for Latroya and have no doubt, she will make Howard University and Cape Verde very proud.”

The siblings are slated to compete in the Confederation Africaine de Natation Championship Meet in Algeria next month

A venture capitalist firm is aiming to level the playing field for Black women when it comes to securing funding for their business ventures. Backstage Capital recently announced that it will invest $36 million in the entrepreneurial endeavors of African American women, Business Insider reported.

The firm unveiled the plan for the fund at the United State of Women 2018 Summit in Los Angeles, the news outlet writes. Through the initiative, Backstage Capital plans to invest in nearly 20 companies over the next three years. Arlan Hamilton, the founder and managing partner of the firm, says that the statistics surrounding Black women securing venture capital are alarming and it needs to be changed. “I think the figures speak for themselves: less than .2% of all early-stage venture funding goes to Black women, while we make up approximately 8% of the U.S. population and are one of the fastest growing entrepreneur segments in the country,” she told Tech Crunch. She also believes that its unfair Black women have had to “accept scraps” when trying to get financial backing for their business endeavors.

According to Business Insider, the first group of entrepreneurs will be awarded this year.

Many Black entrepreneurs are launching initiatives to help their fellow Black business owners thrive. Marceau Michel—creator of Black Founders Matter—is aiming to raise $10 million for visionaries of color in the tech industry. “By raising awareness, using our supporters as walking billboards and reaching our community, I believe we can raise more than enough funds to shake up venture funding as it pertains to people of color and make them pay attention to our resourcefulness and resilience,” said Marceau.

Source: https://newsone.com

Even in supposed defeat, LaVar Ball is winning.

The face of the world’s newest professional basketball league has been raked across the coals for what critics have described as sparse attendance at the games that feature lower tier talent in the Junior Basketball Association’s (JBA) inaugural season. But after just about three weeks’ worth of games, online metrics show that there was a much higher interest in the JBA than critics care to admit, no matter who was running the league.

With all of its games streamed on Facebook, the JBA has averaged “between 100,000 and 200,000 views” for each contest, according to a report published in the Undefeated on Friday. When Ball’s son and star player, LaMelo, plays, his “games have closer to 800,000.”

Source: Alius Koroliovas / Getty

Those enviable analytics could end up helping to disprove the naysayers who have gleefully predicted the demise of the JBA – and LaVar Ball – since the day it was announced. Those statistics could also pave the way for “views of more than a million per game” and “potential Fortune 500 advertisers,” Ball’s JBA co-founder Alan Foster said. If that were to become a reality, the longevity and overall sustainability of the league would be all but solidified.

While it’s tough to accurately translate those views into immediate dollars, Facebook’s continued relationship with Ball – don’t forget he has a successful reality show in its third season streamed and documenting his family life – shows LaVar’s brand has an audience the social network trusts to reliably bring in a dedicated viewership, something that is far from a guarantee in digital media.

And before you go dismissing shows on Facebook as inconsequential, the uber-successful, all-world soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo was reportedly negotiating a deal for his own reality show to stream on the social site. If it goes through, he could make an eye-popping $10 billion for just 13 episodes, according to CNBC.

Now, of course that doesn’t mean LaVar will ever see that kind of money from Facebook (or does it?). But given that payday for Ronaldo, it’s pretty safe to assume Ball’s compensation from Facebook alone will reach, if not break, the seven-figure mark.

That’s not including revenue from his Big Baller Brand sports apparel company and other professional ventures and business dealings that the public may not know about. (Never mind the fact that Ball has created a viable alternative to college basketball – which has repeatedly been likened to slave labor – that actually pays its players on their quest to ultimately compete in the NBA or other professional leagues around the world.)

Not bad for a guy who’s been branded by critics as a loudmouth helicopter dad who jeopardized the basketball careers and overall livelihood of his children while trading barbs with the president, who supposedly negotiated the jail release of son LiAngelo for trying to steal a Louis Vuitton belt.

The death of 18-year-old Nia Wilson, who was fatally stabbed in the neck in Oakland last month, could have been stopped, lawyers for the slain teen’s family said Friday (Aug. 17).

Wilson’s death at a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station on July 22 has sparked outcry, and John Lee Cowell was charged with the murder. The killing happened just days after two other female passengers faced a similar threat from Cowell, attorneys said in a claim filed against BART last week, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. One of the women was physically touched by Cowell, who slid his hand across her neck to suggest he would slice her throat open, at the Civic Center BART Station in San Francisco. Another woman saw the man reveal a knife on a train in a separate incident, lawyers said.

The women weren’t able to get help from BART workers during the incidents — events that may not have been followed by Wilson’s death if transit agency personnel had heeded warnings, attorneys said.

“Nia’s death is not some horrific anomaly that occurred in two seconds that nobody could do anything about,” said Robert Arns, a lawyer for Wilson’s family. “There’s a serious and endemic public safety problem on BART, and just about everybody who rides BART knows that.”

Wilson’s killing was a “simple case of cause and effect,” attorneys also said. If Cowell was taken into police custody and BART personnel did more to protect riders, Wilson may have never been harmed, they added.

Grief-stricken family members represented by the attorneys were teary-eyed on Friday. Wilson’s sisters, Letifah and Tashiya Wilson, both saw their sister take her last breath on the BART station platform that day. Letifah Wilson was also stabbed in the neck but survived.

The family should get “just” compensation, with a dollar amount that would likely be decided on by a jury, according to the suit. Attorneys, on behalf of the family, also want “transparency when it comes to criminal activity on BART property” and “a new system to prevent fare evaders.”

BART tried to defend themselves against the family’s and attorney’s statements, saying that “safety” was a “top priority.” The agency is investigating the threats outlined in the claim, Anna Duckworth, an agency spokeswoman, said.

Source: https://newsone.com

More African-American celebrities have raised their voices in support of women. Stephen Curry, Ava DuVernay and Sterling K. Brown are among the list of famous folks who made public demands for an end to the gender pay gap coinciding with Women’s Equality Day on Sunday (Aug. 26).

Curry, who has been on a winning streak with the Golden State Warriors, penned a powerful essay arguing for equal salaries in The Players’ Tribune. The NBA star was inspired by his chef and author wife Ayesha Curry and two daughters, Ryan, 3, and Riley, 6.

“I want our girls to grow up knowing that there are no boundaries that can be placed on their futures, period,” Curry said. “I want them to grow up in a world where their gender does not feel like a rulebook for what they should think, or be, or do. And I want them to grow up believing that they can dream big, and strive for careers where they’ll be treated fairly.”

Curry continued, “And of course: paid equally. And I think it’s important that we all come together to figure out how we can make that possible, as soon as possible. Not just as “fathers of daughters,” or for those sorts of reasons. And not just on Women’s Equality Day. Every day — that’s when we need to be working to close the pay gap in this country. Because every day is when the pay gap is affecting women. And every day is when the pay gap is sending the wrong message to women about who they are, and how they’re valued, and what they can or cannot become.”

DuVernay and Brown joined thousands who signed a letter to call for equality in pay. Wanda Sykes, Don Cheadle and Aisha Tyler also co-signed the letter, The Wrap reported.

“It’s time for the Entertainment Industry to take a hard look at its pay and compensation practices above and below the line to make sure all productions meet the legal — and moral — requirement to pay fairly without discrimination,” the letter, which will be delivered to the heads of major studios, networks and production companies, said.

The entertainment industry has long been plagued by a wage bias: gender segregation and stereotyping have contributed to a salary disparity for women of “hundreds or even thousands of dollars per week less than [their] counterparts in comparable male-dominated crafts,” said a January study released by Working IDEAL, a workplace consultant company specializing in pay equity and diversity assessments.

Shonda Rhimes, who has lent her voice to the Times’ Up movement against sexual harassment, also stood up for women’s equality.