ALICIA KEYS - Entertainer, Singer, Actress, Wife and Mom

Alicia Keys - Enlarge, Click photo

 Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), known professionally as Alicia Keys, is an American R&B singer-songwriter, pianist, musician, record producer, and actress. Keys released her debut album with J Records, having had previous record deals first with Columbia and then Arista Records. Keys' debut album, Songs in A Minor, was a commercial success, selling over 12 million copies worldwide. She became the best-selling new artist and best-selling R&B artist of 2001. The album earned Keys five Grammy Awards in 2002, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year for "Fallin'" becoming the second American recording artist to win five Grammys in one night. Her second studio album, The Diary of Alicia Keys, was released in 2003 and was also another success worldwide, selling eight million copies. The album garnered her an additional four Grammy Awards in 2005. Later that year, she released her first live album, Unplugged, which debuted at number one in the United States. She became the first female to have an MTV Unplugged album to debut at number one and the highest since Nirvana in 1994.

Keys was born Alicia Augello Cook on January 25, 1981, in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan, in New York City.^] She is the only child of Teresa Augello, a paralegal and part-time actress, and Craig Cook, a flight attendant.  Keys' mother is of half Italian and half English, Irish, and Scottish descent, and Keys' father is African American; Keys has expressed that she was comfortable with her biracial heritage because she felt she was able to "relate to different cultures".   Her parents separated when she was two and she was subsequently raised by her mother during her formative years in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan. In 1985, Keys made an appearance on The Cosby Show at the age of four, where she and a group of girls played the parts of Rudy Huxtable's sleepover guests in the episode "Slumber Party".  Throughout her childhood, Keys was sent to music and dance classes by her mother.  She began playing the piano when she was seven and learned classical music of composers such as Beethoven,Mozart and Chopin.   Keys enrolled in the Professional Performing Arts School at the age of 12, where she majored in choir and began writing songs at the age of 14.  She graduated in four years as valedictorian at the age of 16.   Wikipedia.

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Swizz Beatz, real name Kasseem David Dean, is married to singer Alicia Keys, with whom he has a two-year-old son Egypt.

He also has three other children by three women - Prince Nasir, 12, six-year-old Kasseem and four-year-old Nicole.

Grammy winner Beatz has produced for every major name in the record industry, including Beyonce, Chris Brown, Dr Dre and Kanye West.

He has his own record label, Full Surface, which he set up when he was 23.

SOCHI - Pairs Short Program

February 12, 2014
SOCHI 2014 |  Russian figure skating duos have won two medals for their free skating at the Sochi Olympics. Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov took the gold, while Ksenia Stolbova and Fyodor Klimov seized silver, edging Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany, who took the bronze.

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Tuesday's Scores - Tuesday, February 11, 2014

1st - Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov - Russia

Russia's Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov won pairs short program in figure skating in the 2014 Sochi Winter Games on Tuesday. They set a new world record score, 84.17, which was 0.19 higher than the score they exhibited at the European Championship on January 17.

 German duo Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy came second with 79.64 points, and another Russian pair Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov rank third with 75.21 points.

2nd - Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy - Germany

3rd Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov - Russia

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Today's Careers - Pharmacist

School of Pharmacy - Hampton University

Average Salary:   $98,960, based on 2007 data - Bureau of Labor Statistics.

What Is a Pharmacist? Overview of Pharmacist's Job:

A pharmacist is a medical professional who dispenses drugs to patients according to a prescription ordered by a physician or other clinician. Pharmacists have an in-depth knowledge of the chemistry of various drugs and how they react in humans, and also how drugs interact with each other. Pharmacists must accurately measure and package medicine, ensuring its dosage and safety to be administered properly to a patient. While the pharmacist does not typically select or prescribe the medication, the pharmacist educates the patient on how to take the medication and what reactions or problems to be avoided.

How to Become a Pharmacist - Education and Training:

Pharmacists graduating from college today are required to have a PharmD, or doctorate of Pharmacy degree. College students can start a four-year pharmacy program after successfully completing two years of undergraduate coursework and earning a passing score on the PCAT (Pharmacy college admission test). Coursework in pharmacy and pre-pharmacy includes chemistry, physics, biology, anatomy, and physiology.

Additionally, PharmD students must complete a series of rotations in a variety of clinical and pharmaceutical settings. The length and quantity of rotations varies, but the average PharmD program requires 7-10 rotaions, each of which is 4-6 weeks in length.

If a student knows early in his or her college career that they would like to become a pharmacist, one could graduate with a PharmD in about 6 years. Many college students do not decide until later in college or after college to become a pharmacist; therefore, many pharmacists have completed eight years of college.

How Much Do Pharmacists Earn? Average Salary for Pharmacists:

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average annual salary for pharmacists is $98,960, based on 2007 data. According to Sherrie Nackie, CPC, who specializes in pharmacist recruitment for Hire Dynamics Rx in Atlanta, their average contract (temporary hourly) pharmacist job pays $50.00-$60.00 per hour, which equates to $100,000-$120,000 annualized income, assuming a full-time schedule. Additionally, a signing bonus of $5,000-$15,000 may be offered upon accepting and starting a position. Signing bonuses help keep pharmacists locked into a job for up to three years.

What's to Like about Pharmacist Jobs:

Demand is strong and pay is high for this medical career. Therefore pharmacists enjoy job security and stability, and availability of jobs in just about any location nationwide. A variety of options and work settings are available for pharmacists as well.  About.com - Health Careers

SOCHI - Curling

SOCHI, Russia | Sochi is a city in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, located on the Black Sea coast near the border between Georgia/Abkhazia and Russia.   The 22nd Winter Olympics, February 7-23, 2014, is moving along with teams from around the world competing.  One of the sports is Curling, a winter game.

Curling is a sport in which players slide stones across a sheet of ice towards a target area which is segmented into four concentric rings. It is related to bowls, boule and shuffleboard. Two teams, each of four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called rocks, across the ice curling sheet towards the house, a circular target marked on the ice.  Each team has eight stones. The purpose is to accumulate the highest score for a game; points are scored for the stones resting closest to the centre of the house at the conclusion of each end, which is completed when both teams have thrown all of their stones. A game may consist of ten or eight ends.

The curler can induce a curved path by causing the stone to slowly turn as it slides, and the path of the rock may be further influenced by two sweepers with brooms who accompany it as it slides down the sheet, using the brooms to alter the state of the ice in front of the stone. A great deal of strategy and teamwork goes into choosing the ideal path and placement of a stone for each situation, and the skills of the curlers determine how close to the desired result the stone will achieve. This gives curling its nickname of "chess on ice"

Curling was invented in medieval Scotland, with the first written reference to a contest using stones on ice coming from the records of Paisley Abbey, Renfrewshire, in February 1541.

Today, the game is most firmly established in Canada, having been taken there by Scottish emigrants. The Royal Montreal Curling Club, the oldest established sports club still active in North America, as established in 1807. The first curling club in the United States was established in 1830, and the game was introduced to Switzerland and Sweden before the end of the 19th century, also by Scots. Today, curling is played all over Europe and has spread to Japan, Australia, New Zealand, China, and Korea.  Wikipedia

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Curling Standings

    GAMES                                                       WINS      LOSSES

1	Canada	3	3	0
1	Switzerland	3	3	0
3	Japan	3	2	1
3	Sweden	3	2	1
3	China	3	2	1

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Click - Medal standings - Overall Sports to date 

                        Gold        Silver       Bronze     Total

1 Germany 5 1 0 6 2 Norway 4 3 5 12 3 Canada 4 3 2 9 4 Netherlands 3 2 3 8 6 United States 2 1 4 7

EB-5 & The Welcome Wagon - Outreach of MPA LLC

CITY CENTER MILWAUKEE |  EB-5 (Employment Based and 5th option) is one of the methods of Immigration to the United States for "investors" and their families.  It is a process of investment in the USA as a for-profit entity that will help grow our economy.

Milwaukee Professionals Association LLC has the initial framework for engagement of

MPA LLC ALL Hands on Deck, WE CAN Initiative engagements include
domestic and international opportunities

Milwaukeeans (residential-commercial-light industrial) at the census tract and neighborhood to be introduced properly to this economic process and revenue-generating options through the government of the USA.  

"We see the personal-people-stakeholder-neighbor-neighborhood aspect as key to anyone coming from another town, city, state, region and/or country.  It is especially key to someone coming as an immigrant seeking permanent visa status or a national seeking a temporary visa status while studying and/or engaged in business.  Either way, MPA LLC is about the business of 'customer care and service'.  One of the ways we will provide this personal and informative service is as a Welcome Wagon," said Mary Glass, Chair/CEO, "We see huge opportunities in taking out the mystic at the people level and business acclimation level that goes with the technical documentations."  

What is the EB-5 Visa program?

The Immigrant Investor Program, also known as "EB-5," was created by Congress in 1990 to stimulate the U.S. economy through job creation and capital investment by foreign investors. Under a pilot immigration program first enacted in 1992 and regularly reauthorized since, certain EB-5 visas also are set aside for investors in Regional Centers designated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) based on proposals for promoting economic growth. There are two types of qualifying investments:

• A general minimum qualifying investment in the United States of $1 million.
• A minimum qualifying investment in a Targeted Employment Area (TEA) in the United States of $500,000.

More information on the EB-5 Visa Program can be found at the USCIS Web site www.uscis.gov.

What is a Targeted Employment Area?

A Targeted Employment Area or TEA is an area that, at the time of investment, is a rural area or a non-rural area which has experienced unemployment that is at least 150 percent of the national average rate. A rural area is any area outside a metropolitan statistical area (as designated by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget) or outside the boundary of any city or town having a population of 20,000 or more according to the most recent decennial census.

MPA LLC Case Learning at the census tract and neighborhood level will give students, secondary thru graduate level and opportunity to create, engage and promote successes in the marketplace - one that they hope to find employment. 

Stay tuned.

Year of the Horse - Chinese New Year

The Year of the Horse starts from Jan. 31, 2014 (the Lunar New Year / Spring Festival of China) and lasts to Feb. 18, 2015.

The spirit of the horse is recognized to be the Chinese people's ethos – making unremitting efforts to improve themselves. It is energetic, bright, warm-hearted, intelligent and able.

Celebrities Born in the Year of the Horse

Louisa May Alcott, Chopin, Davy Crockett, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Sandra Day O'Connor, Rembrandt, Teddy Roosevelt, Sir Isaac Newton, Barbara Streisand, Cindy Crawford, Cynthia Nixon, Denzel Washington, Harrison Ford, Jason Biggs, Jackie Chan, Jerry Seinfeld, John Travolta, Leonard Bernstein, Oprah Winfrey, Paul McCartney, Rembrandt, Ashton Kutcher, Emma Watson, Josh Hartnett, Katie Holmes, Kristen Stewart, Kobe Bryant, Genghis Khan, Emperor Kangxi and Yongzheng of China’s Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911)

StrengthsPeople born in the year of the horse have ingenious communicating techniques and in their community they always want to be in the limelight. They are clever, kind to others, and like to join in a venture career. Although they sometimes talk too much, they are cheerful, perceptive, talented, earthy but stubborn. They like entertainment and large crowds. They are popular among friends, active at work and refuse to be reconciled to failure, although their endeavor cannot last indefinitely. 

WeaknessesThey cannot bear too much constraint. However their interest may be only superficial and lacking real substance. They are usually impatient and hot blooded about everything other than their daily work. They are independent and rarely listen to advice. Failure may result in pessimism. They usually have strong endurance but with bad temper. Flamboyant by nature, they are wasteful since they are not good with matters of finance due to a lack of budgetary efficiency. Some of those who are born in the horse like to move in glamorous circles while pursuing high profile careers.  They tend to interfere in many things and frequently fail to finish projects of their own. 

MORE

Born Frees Millennials - GEN Y, Soldiers of Resilience - CASE LEARNING

Sunday, February 9, 2014
BORN FREES/MILLENNIALS 2014 |  On November 12, 2013, Milwaukee Professionals Association LLC Round-up initiated the focus for the 2014 Born Frees/Millennial Campaign, an Action step of All Hands on Deck, WE CAN identified a population of obligation and expectation, Generation Y.   BF/M are primarily the children of  the Baby Boomers and grandchildren of the Silent Generation.  They can also be children of the Silent Generation and grandchildren of the Baby Boomers.

Soldiers of Resilience 
"Solders of Resilience" comes from the struggles of African American and African over the centuries to have equality and the pursuit of happiness per the Executive Order by President Lincoln and the US Constitution.  They were alive and well in the Anti-Apartheid Movement in Africa; and, the Underground Railroad and the Civil Rights Movement of the '50-'60's.  It is today's struggle for a better Infrastructure of quality of life and economic development for them, their families and fellow man going forward.

Harriet Tubman - A Soldier of Resilience

Civil Rights - 1955-1968

Civil Rights - 50th Anniversary

Black History in America
To ensure that Born Frees/Millennials have real connected understanding of the pre-slavery and post-slavery path they come - and, for sure the path of their parents parents, we have the history of African American and African as part of MPA LLC Case Learning process.  Their ancestors in America were bought-and-brought as slaves to America and sold on Slave Auction Blocks in America.  

Their African ancestors that were African nationals and became naturalized through ownership by Caucasian slave owners.  Their African and African American-born ancestors were enslaved by U.S. law until the 1960's - even tough the Emancipation Proclamation to free the African American slaves in America was PRE-ANNOUNCED September 22, 1862 and signed by President Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States of America, January 1, 1863.  It was June 19, 1865 (2 years and six months later, Galveston, Texas) when Union General Gordon Granger read the Executive order by President Lincoln.  Therefore, Juneteenth Day, also called Juneteenth Independence Day, Freedom Day, or Emancipation Day was born and the African Americans in the town of Galveston and nearby area remained slaves on the books until then.  Additionally, African American were still dehumanized with beatings, killings, separation from family and forced "debt settlement" - many not legal.   

Similarly, in the Mother Country Africa, Born Frees were in Apartheid until the 1960's. The fight for freedom was led by wise men, Solders of Resilience, such as President Nelson Mandela.

MPA LLC bold and aggressive push is on nuance, innovation, and jumpstarting economic engines that utilizes the Internet and creative boutique marketing.  The hidden talent and vetted neighborhood businesses are sought from all generations.   One of the lead groups for emerging markets is:  The Born Frees Millennials.

Born Frees Millennials or Generation Y age groups.  They are the young and the smart with needed responsibility ties and appreciation of cultures and value-added historic connections with Gen X and Gen Z.

They, the Born Frees/Millennials, would lead-partner-create-support-enhance their economic census tract and neighborhoods with hidden talent and vetted businesses.  It is the young-to-elders, ALL working together for BEST in sustainability.  Creating and maintaining ownership, leadership, scholarship, fellowship, citizenship, and stewardship of their land, their bodies, their minds and resources - this includes their daily-monthly-annual taxes.

Born Frees

BORN FREES Millennials are the 1980s to 2000 population.  They are part of the gravitas blueprint of Milwaukee Professionals Association LLC.

Case Learning
MPA LLC Round-up for Secondary, Technical and Higher Education

Case Learning

MPA LLC offers a three-month (minimum) public engagement in the 10-Neighborhood DEMO project.  

It is a hands-on student-to-student, project-to-project and school-to-school competition for engagement in the city center Milwaukee.  The students are from public, private and international-shared environments.  Secondary students are junior and senior level and called "POSSE".  The technical, certificated and higher education are marketplace focus - employment development.

Students utilized study engagement and specialization of their schools to offer expertise and leadership for problem and project engagement.   

You must join as a Member (no charge). You  will need to complete the form.  It will allow you to check one-of--2 COMPLIMENTARY (eVEN sTEVEN) categories for students (POSSE and Volunteer/Case Management).    Click  MEMBERSHIP

Sign-up for the CaseLearning (3 months) project.   Sign -up