Model Airplanes

The Black Magic Project focuses on people and organizations who carry on the spirit and legacy of the Civil Rights Movement in big and small ways.

Victor and Christian Jackson are redefining what it means to live ambitiously and actively autistic.  

Photograph by photograph, Victoria Coman-Jackson has enjoyed documenting their journeys of life with a developmental disorder that impairs how they connect and communicate with the world. As the boys’ mother, she’ll gladly tell you about victories frozen in each picture. In this one, the Jackson brothers are volunteering as the first special-needs members of Birmingham’s Kappa League, a youth mentoring program through the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. In that one, they are marching in the P.D. Jackson-Olin High School band during a parade. Victor Jackson, 18, has played the cymbals for four years, she will tell you. Christian Jackson, 17, has played the trumpet for the same amount of time. Look in their eyes and you’ll see the searing pride when they wear their green and gold band uniforms.

Coman said sometimes it takes her a moment to figure out who is who in the photos. Although the boys are 15 months apart, those who know them say they look like twins. But Victor is the only one who has what looks like a birthmark on his forehead.

Victor Jackson grunts sometimes when his mother points it out. The mark is a reminder of his self-stimulating, or “stimming”, behavior: the repetitive movements or sounds an autistic child makes to cope with strong emotions.

Article source: http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2017/02/birmingham_brothers_show_how_a.html

Days after Chicago Public Schools filed a lawsuit against Gov. Bruce Rauner and the state claiming discriminatory school funding, the Illinois State Board of Education announced it has reached a tentative settlement in a similar case after a yearslong legal battle with the Chicago Urban League.

Document: Read the tentative agreement

In the agreement, ISBE agrees to revise the way it handles general state aid cuts and says it will cover the Urban League’s $12,000 litigation costs. But the plaintiffs’ complaint against the state has been dismissed with prejudice.

An ISBE spokeswoman said the board will consider and vote on the tentative agreement at its meeting next Wednesday, but will not comment on the matter until after that vote.

An Urban League spokeswoman also declined comment Friday afternoon, but Lisa Scruggs – a private attorney assisting the plaintiffs on their case – acknowledged the two sides had reached a tentative settlement.

“The Board will consider and vote on the tentative settlement agreement during the February 22 regular meeting,” she wrote in an emailed statement. “The Plaintiffs are unable to comment on this matter until after the vote.”

In its 2008 suit, the Urban League claimed the state’s funding model has a “demonstrable, disparate and adverse impact” on minority students, violating the Illinois Civil Rights Act. The suit also claims the way schools are funded violates the state constitution’s Equal Protection Clause with respect to African American and Hispanic students.

The Urban League has since moved for a partial summary judgment

Article source: http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2017/02/17/chicago-urban-league-isbe-reach-tentative-settlement-yearslong-suit

President Donald Trump called Boeing Co.’s 787-10 “an amazing piece of art … an amazing piece of work” as the aerospace giant celebrated the debut of the first new plane of its second century in a roll-out ceremony Friday in North Charleston.

“That is one beautiful airplane,” Trump told a crowd of more than 5,000 people, including politicians, company executives and Dreamliner production workers. It was the largest roll-out celebration in the company’s history and was broadcast live on the Internet.

“An airplane roll-out is a historic and inspiring event,” Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing’s chairman, president and CEO, told the group. He recounted Boeing’s decision in 2009 to build the Dreamliner in South Carolina, joining a plant in Everett, Wash., and its growth since then to become the exclusive builder of the 787-10 model.

“This area here seven years ago was swampland,” Muilenburg said of the Boeing South Carolina campus adjacent to Charleston International Airport. “Today, after $2 billion of investment and partnership in the community, this is a modern aerospace facility building the highest technology airplanes in the world. And we’ve added thousands and thousands of jobs over that time period.”

The 787-10 is the largest member of the Dreamliner family and is made of lightweight, composite materials that improve fuel efficiency. The plane, comprised of more than 2.3 million parts made around the world, is capable of flying long-range, nonstop routes that previously weren’t possible.

“It is the most efficient airplane in its class anywhere in the world,” said Kevin McAllister, president and CEO

Article source: http://www.postandcourier.com/business/trump-boeing-s---dreamliner-a-celebration-of-american/article_52e4b928-f54f-11e6-8ca7-af25a2ea9487.html