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January 26, 2012

  • NorthStar Briefs

    NorthStar Briefs Analyst Sees Flaws in Gingrich Claims on “Food Stamp President” Newt Gingrich's charge that President Barack Obama is the “Food Stamp President” because many Americans have had to go on food stamps during his first term in office ignores a key fact, like the Great Recession, says Algernon Austin, director of the Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy Program at the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.–based think tank.

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  • Pepsi Bias Settlement Awards $3.13 million to Black Job Applicants

    Pepsi Bias Settlement Awards $3.13 million to Black Job Applicants by Frederick H. Lowe Pepsi Beverages has agreed to pay $3.

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  • Black Unemployment Rate Was Flat in 2011

    Black Unemployment Rate Was Flat in 2011 Joblessness dropped for black men, but it climbed for black women By Frederick H.

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  • Etta James

    Etta James Funeral services will be held on Saturday, January 28, in Gardena, Calif., for singer Etta James, who died Jan. 20. Ms. James had been suffering from terminal leukemia, kidney disease, hepatitis C and dementia.  She was 73.

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  • President Wants to Change Tax Code So It Does Not Reward Companies That Outsource Jobs

    President Wants to Change Tax Code So It Does Not Reward Companies That Outsource Jobs by Frederick H. Lowe President Barak Obama said during the State of the Union address on Tuesday that the U.S. tax code must be changed so it does not reward companies that outsource U.S.

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  • The Help and A Film About A Barber Are Nominated for Oscars

    The Help and A Film About A Barber Are Nominated for Oscars by Frederick H. Lowe A short documentary about an 85-year-old African-American barber, who was a soldier in the civil-rights movement, and the feature film The Help, about black domestic workers, received Oscar nominations, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Tuesday.

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  • Openly Gay, Black Man Named to New Jersey Supreme Court

    Openly Gay, Black Man Named to New Jersey Supreme Court New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Monday nominated an openly gay, black man as one of seven justices to serve on the state Supreme Court. Bruce A. Harris, mayor of the Borough of Chatham, N.J.

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  • NorthStar's Week In Black History

    NorthStar's Week In Black History January 26 through February 2 January 26 1863 ----- The United States War Department authorized on this date the Governor of Massachusetts, John A. Andrew, to recruit black troops to serve in the Union Army in the American Civil War.

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Red Tails Soars to No. 2 at Box Office on the First Weekend

Red Tails, a movie about the Tuskegee Airmen, beat expectations for weekend box office receipts, although inclement weather in some parts of the country may have kept moviegoers at home.

The film, which opened on Friday on 2,512 screens nationwide, reported final weekend box office receipts of $18,782,154, Paul Dergarabedian, box office analyst and president of the Hollywood.com Box office division, tells The NorthStar News & Analysis

The film about African-American fighter pilots during World War II finished second to Underworld Awakening, a film about vampires. That movie appeared on 3,078 screens nationwide, and it reported weekend box office receipts of $25,400,000.

“Red Tails,” like other films, had to overcome an opening Friday night blizzard in Chicago and inclement weather in other parts of the country that kept people at home in front of their television sets and out of movie theaters.

“The weather hurt in Chicago and Seattle,” Dergarabedian said. “But we have to assume that bad weather hurts all of the movies. If there had not been bad weather in Chicago, Red Tails might have done better.”

The Red Tails box office take also was helped by other strong films that appealed to moviegoers.

Dergarabedian tracks box-office receipts for 86 films. “The 86 movies reported box office receipts of $133 million, up 30 percent, compared with $102 million for the same week last year,” he said. “The movies are better this year.”

Red Tails
also had to overcome mediocre movie reviews, but many groups urged African Americans to see the film during the all-important opening weekend. 

George Lucas, chairman and CEO of Lucasfilm Ltd. and the Red Tails executive producer, appealed to the groups, explaining in newspaper and television interviews that he had difficulty raising funds for the film because studios doubted the film's marketability because it did not have any white actors with major roles.

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