The majority of the country will receive English–only materials. Households in areas with high concentrations of Spanish-speaking residents may receive a bilingual (English/Spanish) form. Any personal data you provide is protected under federal law.

Please take the time to fill out the Census and mail it back because the information affects the numbers of seats your state occupies in the U.S. House of Representatives. People from many walks of life use census data to advocate for causes, rescue disaster victims, prevent diseases, research markets, locate pools of skilled workers and more. It also helps to determine how more than $400 billion dollars of federal funding each year is spent on infrastructure and services like:

• Hospitals
• Job training centers
• Schools
• Senior centers
• Bridges, tunnels and other-public works projects
• Emergency services

Don’t take this lightly. For more information regarding the Census and how it affects all Americans, check out the Census blog at http://blogs.census.gov/2010census.

If you are in need of a job, the U.S. Census Bureau is recruiting temporary, part-time census takers right in your own community. These short-term jobs offer good pay, flexible hours, paid training, and reimbursement for authorized work-related expenses, such as mileage incurred while conducting census work. For more information on the job opportunities they offer, visit http://2010.census.gov/2010censusjobs.

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The Black History Hero for this week  is Ursula M. Burns. She is the first African-American woman CEO to head a S&P 100 company and the first woman to succeed another woman as head of a S&P 100 company.

Ursula M. Burns is chief executive officer of Xerox Corporation.

Burns joined Xerox in 1980 as a mechanical engineering summer intern and later assumed roles in product development and planning. From 1992 through 2000, Burns led several business teams including the office color and fax business and office network printing business. In 2000, she was named senior vice president, Corporate Strategic Services, heading up manufacturing and supply chain operations. She then took on the broader role of leading Xerox’s global research as well as product development, marketing and delivery. In April 2007, Burns was named president of Xerox, expanding her leadership to also include the company’s IT organization, corporate strategy, human resources, corporate marketing and global accounts. At that time, she was also elected a member of the company’s Board of Directors. Burns was named chief executive officer in July 2009.

Burns earned a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Polytechnic Institute of NYU and a master of science degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University. She serves on professional and community boards, including American Express Corp., CASA – (The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse) at Columbia University, FIRST – (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), National Academy Foundation, MIT, the U.S. Olympic Committee and the University of Rochester. Burns was also named by President Barack Obama to help lead the White House national program on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) in November 2009.

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Today is the day the new rules for banks issuing credit cards to consumers take affect. Since the initial signing of the bill I’ve had the interest rate for two cards jump to 29.99% and a business card canceled because I didn’t use it enough. It doesn’t matter how good your credit score is anymore, which proves that no matter what their commercial says, your welfare is the last thing on their minds.

I’m no personal finance coach, so I thought I’d share an article I read by personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary regarding some of the loopholes in the credit card law. There’s also a fact sheet about the Credit Card Act on the White House Website. The best thing to do and my personal goal is to pay off all the credit cards. But if you’re not in a position to do it, know the law so they won’t take advantage of you.

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Source: http://twitpic.com/13yxsb

On my way home from work, I was listening to talk radio and was truly disgusted by the people who called in with the “it may not have been the right thing to do, but I understand” attitude. How can these people attempt to justify Joseph Stack’s actions? Why is it that the democracy we hold so true and dear all of a sudden not good enough? Why are people so upset and moved to react violently because they feel their voice isn’t being heard? When have our voice ever been heard! Joseph Stack plain and simple committed an act of domestic terrorism. I don’t care how upset you are with your current situation or “the system”, there’s no reason to attempt a mass murder of innocent people.

People have been reading a lot into the manifesto he wrote and many are attempting to use a bad situation to prove a point about our political system. Stack is not the first person to have issues with the IRS and he definitely isn’t the only one going through hard times. He’s not the first to work hard to achieve a dream and have it taken away from you. He’s not the first to feel taken advantage of and hopeless. Nothing Stack wrote in his manifesto was new and I’m sure there have been others who’ve felt the same way. But they dealt with it, as most continue to do today.

What he did IS NOT bringing attention to a greater issue that needs to be addressed. The issues he had were far greater than his frustration and mistrust of the government. For those who would like to read the Stack manifesto, is can be found here.

Alex Haley began his writing while in the U.S. Coast Guard.

[b.1921 - d.1992]

Born on August 11,1921 in Ithaca, New York, Alexander Murray Palmer Haley grew up in Henning, Tennessee, the first of three sons to Simon Henry Haley, a professor of agriculture, and Bertha George Palmer, a school-teacher. In 1937, he attended Hawthorne College in Mississippi, and then transferred to Elizabeth City State Teachers College in North Carolina, which he attended for two years. He enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1939 and completed a twenty-year tour of duty, first as a messboy, and then, in 1950, as Chief Journalist. During the 1940s, Haley began writing short anecdotal sketches about the coast guard, some of which he published in Coronet magazine. In the 1950s, he continued to publish short, mostly biographical pieces in Coronet, as well as in Readers Digest, Atlantic, and Harper’s. He retired from the coast guard in 1959 to become a freelance writer.

In the early 1960s, he continued to publish short articles, among them an exposé of Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam for the Saturday Evening Post. At the same time, he began a series of interviews for Playboy magazine, including ones with Miles Davis, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali), Jim Brown, and Quincy Jones. His interview with Malcolm X led to their collaboration on The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965). Haley’s probing questions of Malcolm X and editorial skills helped shape what has undoubtedly become the most influential twentieth-century African American autobiography.

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What is Photo Phinish?

On Jan 22, 2010, the President signed the following bill(s) into law:
H.R. 4462: Small Business Act Temporary Extension. To accelerate the income tax benefits for charitable cash contributions for the relief of victims of the earthquake in Haiti.

On Jan 27, 2010, the President signed the following bill(s) into law:
S. 2949: Emergency Aid to American Survivors of the Haiti Earthquake Act. A bill to amend section 1113 of the Social Security Act to provide authority for increased fiscal year 2010 payments for temporary assistance to United States citizens returned from foreign countries, to provide necessary funding to avoid shortfalls in the Medicare cost-sharing program for low-income qualifying individuals, and for other purposes.

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But even if that weren’t the case, having a month to focus on heart disease is extremely important because it is the leading cause of death in the United States. All of us know one or more people who’s lives have been affected by heart disease and if not taken seriously it could kill you. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put together a nice site, full of information for you to learn more about the dangers of heart disease.

While dangerous, heart disease is something that can be controlled if caught early enough. Knowing your family health history and living a healthy lifestyle are just some of the things you can do to prevent it. I’ve provided some links below for you to learn more on what you need to do to become heart healthy.

American Heart Association National Website
Go Red For Women
The Heart Truth Campaign
Men and Heart Disease
Heart Disease and Black People