Humans of New York blogger raises more than $1 million for school

Sometimes success comes out of failure.  What started out as a fail for blogger/photographer Brandon Stanton has turned into a major success for him and a group of Brooklyn, N.Y., schoolchildren.

Stanton's campaign to raise $100,000 to send middle school students to visit Harvard University had yielded more than ten times the goal as of Thursday night and gone viral, with still a week to go until the campaign's end. Barring inflation, the fund now has enough to send the incoming 6th grade students of Mott Hall Bridges Academy on Harvard visits for about 25 years, plus enough to launch a scholarship.

Stanton is the creator behind the wildly popular Humans of New York blog and Facebook page, which he launched in 2010 after being fired from his job trading bonds for the Chicago Board of Trade. As of late Thursday, 36,702 people had donated $1,094,686 to send the students to the Cambridge, Mass., campus.

"Just amazing," Stanton tweeted. "And in less than five days."

Stanton takes photos of New Yorkers and sends them out via his Humans of New York blog and Facebook along with prose or a quote that describes their lives or living situations. Though often sparse with words, the snippets often give a broad picture of the person's existence or personality.

On Jan. 19, Stanton sent out a photograph of Mott Hall Bridges eighth grader Vidal Chastanet, who complimented his principal, Nadia Lopez. The photo drew lots of attention via social media and motivated Stanton to do something.

A few days later, he decided to start a fundraiser to help the school in Brooklyn's Brownsville, a neighborhood that holds the highest crime rate in the city. Stanton latched onto Lopez's goal of taking the incoming 6th grade class on a tour of Harvard at the beginning of every school year.

On the webpage of the crowdfunding campaign he launched at Indiegogo.com, Stanton wrote of Lopez: "Since many of her scholars have never left New York, she wants them to know what it feels like to stand on the campus of one of the world's top schools, and know that they belong. She thinks the experience will broaden their horizons and expand their idea of their own potential."

USA Today.com story

Cuba demands end of trade embargo, return of Guantanamo Bay

Cuban President Raul Castro has demanded that the United States hand back its Guantanamo Bay military base - an apparent bargaining tool in the restoration of full diplomatic relations between the countries.

Castro also asked for a complete lifting of the decades-old trade embargo and for compensation for its effects, saying that without these changes the recent diplomatic thaw "wouldn't make any sense."

President Barack Obama pledged earlier this month that the White House would move quickly to restore ties with Havana, scrapping a slew of travel and economic restrictions with immediate effect and dispatching a U.S. delegation to Cuba for a first round of historic talks.

Already on the agenda are the re-establishment of regular, scheduled commercial flights, the establishment of formal embassies in Havana and Washington and the removal of Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism — a step the United States says it will consider. The Americans, meanwhile, want to make sure Cubans have freer access to the Internet.

Castro set out Cuba's demands during the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States summit on Costa Rica on Wednesday.

"The re-establishment of diplomatic relations is the start of a process of normalizing bilateral relations, but this will not be possible while the blockade still exists, while they don't give back the territory illegally occupied by the Guantanamo naval base," Castro told delegates.He also demanded the U.S. end the transmission of anti-Castro radio and television broadcasts and deliver "just compensation to our people for the human and economic damage that they're suffered."

However, the demands are unlikely to derail the process of restoring ties. Both the U.S. State Department and the Cuban Foreign Ministry have told NBC News on and off the record that there will be no turning back from the resumption of relations.The U.S. established the Guantanamo base in 1903, and the current Cuban government has been demanding the land's return since the 1959 revolution that brought it to power.The Obama administration has pledged to close the high-security prison at the facility, and has been transferring terror detainees to their own countries.

MSNBC.com story

Obama pays respects to Saudi Arabia, defends ties to Kingdom

President Obama was present in Saudi Arabia to pay respects to the Kingdom, after the death of King Abdullah.  Washington dignitaries and the President were accompanied by Michelle Obama, to underscore the problems the U.S. has often had with women's rights in the ultraconservative Middle Eastern country.  Obama felt that it was necessary to show a presence of solidarity with the nation that has supported the U.S. in many security and economic issues in the past.

Saudi Arabia's new monarch, King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, greeted Obama at the steps of Air Force One after it landed in Riyadh.  The two men had met previously, but Tuesday's meetings marked their most substantive discussions.

A senior administration official said Obama raised the issue of human rights broadly in his discussions with the new monarch, but did not tackle specific matters, including the case of a Saudi blogger who was convicted of insulting Islam and sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes.    

ABCNews.com story

Asteroid's moon seen during Earth flyby

The asteroid that flew close to Earth Monday didn't come alone. NASA images released Monday reveal the asteroid, officially known as 2004 BL86, has its own small moon. The grainy, black and white photos show the asteroid, about a third of a mile in size, spinning through space, with its 230-foot-wide moon trailing behind.

It was far enough that it didn't pose a threat to Earth, but close enough to give scientists and amateurs a chance to observe a large asteroid up close. Observers on the ground didn't see much when the asteroid was closest to Earth Monday morning, because it wasn't at its brightest. Only a portion of its illuminated side was visible, according to Sky & Telescope magazine. The asteroid brightened as it got farther from the Earth because its face became more fully illuminated, the magazine said.

"While it poses no threat to Earth for the foreseeable future, it's a relatively close approach by a relatively large asteroid, so it provides us a unique opportunity to observe and learn more," Don Yeomans, the recently retired manager of NASA's Near Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a NASA news release.

Observers without binoculars or a scope watched from their computers on The Virtual Telescope Project 2.0. The asteroid was discovered on January 30, 2004, by a telescope of the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research survey in White Sands, New Mexico.

CNN.com story

Northeast braces for "crippling and potentially historic" blizzard

A historical blizzard is set to dump more than 2 feet of snow on parts of the Northeast Monday and Tuesday, crippling the area, and causing authorities to activate emergency shelters and disaster plans.  The 'nor-easter' is a deep low pressure system forming off the coast of South Carolina that could pack winds with 75 MPH gusts along coastal areas.

Many airlines revised flight times and refunded tickets that had already been bought.  The deepest, heaviest snow is expected to fall north of New York City, in the Boston area.  The NFL's New England Patriots, who play in this week's Super Bowl in Phoenix, are expected to leave Boston at 12:30 p.m. Monday, before the storm hits Boston.

Many stores had empty shelves from shoppers stocking up on necessities. Home improvement stores also reported a brisk business on Sunday from homeowners getting ready to protect their homes.

CBS News.com story

Civil rights matriarch relates real-life Selma story

103 year old Amelia Boynton Robinson is immortalized in the new movie, "Selma", released this past weekend detailing the events that led to the attack on many protesters in December, 1965, known now as Bloody Sunday.  Boynton-Robinson attended a private screening of the movie in her home with family and friends, since she is too frail to travel to the premiere of the film.

She was middle-aged at the time and was a victim of police brutality that left her unconscious at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.  Her injuries and condition, along with others injured in clashes with police led the county sheriff to remark that the bodies should "be left for the buzzards".

Boynton Robinson fought for voters rights in the south and U.S. that eventually led to civil rights legislation like the Voting Rights Act and Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in 1968.  She had personally persuaded MLK to focus on Selma.  The camaraderie of the early pioneers of civil rights was evident at the gathering watching the film at her home.  "I couldn't understand why they were beating us, but I was not afraid."

CNN.com story

Obama proposes free community college

President Obama outlined a proposal on Thursday for free universal community college for the nation's students and workers that is expected to save enrolled students about $3800 a year.  The plan will be discussed in the President's State of the Union message scheduled for January 20.

The plan is similar to an already established program in Tennessee, which requires students to maintain a 2.0 average, have a mentor and also complete community service.  The Tennessee program is funded by lottery proceeds.  Tobacco tax funds were considered, but that source of funding has been steadily dwindling.

The proposal would benefit approximately 9 million students, but there is concern about the building capacity of the nation's 1,100 community college.  Congress would have to approve the plan which would cooperate with states on a voluntary basis.

USA Today.com story

Desperate 911 call as semi drags minivan 16 miles through a snowstorm

A family in a minivan called 911 this morning when their car was stuck under a moving semi-truck in Michigan, police said.

A dispatcher received a call at 1:57 a.m. this morning from the family of Matthew Menz, 46, who was traveling northbound on I-75, south of Roscommon, Michigan, according to the Roscommon County Sheriff's Office.

Because to "poor visibility from the snow," the minivan rear-ended the semi-truck pulling a large trailer, the sheriff's office said. Police received a call from a passenger of the minivan, which was stuck.

"The caller's minivan became lodged under the trailer and was being pulled down I-75 unbeknownst to the driver of the semi-truck," police said in a statement.

The four minivan occupants could not see due to snow and couldn't tell dispatchers their exact location, according to the sheriff's office.

The 911 call between the minivan and the dispatcher reveals a tense situation.

“It was snow blinding. We ran into the back of a semi-truck and he’s not stopping and our car is embedded underneath of it," the caller from the minivan said. “Our windshields have completely shattered. I can’t see nothing.”

"I just want to get off the back of this thing," the caller added.

The Crawford County Sheriff's Office eventually located the vehicle, south of Grayling on northbound I-75.

"Deputies successfully stopped the vehicles without incident, 16 miles from where the original collision had occurred," police said. "The four occupants of the minivan were transported by ambulance to Grayling Mercy Hospital for evaluation. However, no serious injuries are suspected."

ABC News.com

Millions caught in icy grip as Arctic front pushes south

Besides snow and blowing snow, 80 million Americans will remain in the grip of icy cold temperatures for the next several days.  Dangerous wind chills are expected to linger through Wednesday.  On Monday, whiteout conditions forced schools in Sioux Falls, SD, to release students early.  

In Chicago, four inches of snow blanketed the city overnight Monday, and it was so cold that maintenance crews were forced to deice fire hydrants with blow torches.  There was also a concern about rail switches freezing on railway lines which can cause derailments.

Iowa received more snow which caused a crash involving at least 20 vehicles, which closed down Interstate 80.  In Wisconsin, wind chill values were near -35 degrees F.

CBS Story about cold

7-year-old girl survives Kentucky plane crash

On Saturday, January 3, an Illinois family was headed from Florida to their home in southern Illinois when their plane crashed in a heavily wooded area of western Kentucky.  Four of the people on board, a dad, mom, 14-year-old daughter and 9-year-old niece all died in the crash, but a plucky second grader, Sailor Gutzler walked away from the crash as the sole survivor.

The girl's dad had taught his daughters survival skills and Sailor used that knowledge to guide her 3/4 mile trek through a dark, thickly wooded area.  She used a branch to make a torch from the burning wing of the plane.  Even though she was injured with a broken wrist and numerous cuts, she managed to reach the home of Larry Wilkens, who put in the 911 distress call to authorities.

Searchers combing the area on Sunday called her survival "miraculous". The girl's family thanked all responders for their help in assisting Sailor and locating the plane wreckage.

NBC News story