Daily News Feed 10.27.2009/Vocab: punctilious

Monica: Still Standing premieres on BET
After a brief hiatus from the music industry, Monica is back in the spotlight with “Still Standing,” an intimate docu-drama that takes a look at her day-to-day world. The original series, “Monica: Still Standing,” premieres tonight at 10 p.m., on BET. Viewers will have the chance to experience the many faces of the singer as she balances family, deals with trials, triumphs and health challenges, records her fifth album and tackles the hardest job of all – being a full-time mother of two young sons. “It was very scary stepping into the type of situation that would expose me and my life,” said Monica. “But I think that there are so many kids now that are aspiring to do exactly what I’ve done and I felt like that was worth me putting myself on the line so they would really understand what it’s like to try and juggle both a music career and personal life.” (Continue Reading…)

Obama: “I may be skinny but I’m tough”
President Barack Obama had a message for his political friends and foes on Monday — “just because I’m skinny doesn’t mean I’m not tough.” Obama was in Miami raising $1.5 million for Democratic congressional candidates for the 2010 elections, in which Democrats are seeking to hold onto their strong majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate. After weeks in which he has been angrily criticized by some on the right, to the point of creating a poster image of him with a Hitler mustache, Obama told a fund-raising event that some of his supporters have been expressing concern to him. (Continue Reading…)

TSU drops Tavis Smiley’s name from school
A long-simmering disagreement between broadcaster Tavis Smiley and Texas Southern University ended Friday when the university’s governing board agreed to strip Smiley’s name from its communication school. Smiley promised in 2004 to donate $1 million and to raise another $1 million for TSU. The school later created the Tavis Smiley School of Communication in his honor. In return, Smiley made one $50,000 donation in mid-2005 and raised $250,000 from three corporate donors. But he said Friday that he had intended to fulfill his personal $1 million pledge. “Any institution that turns away a $1 million gift in this economy, I think ought to have good reason for doing that,” he said in a telephone interview. (Continue Reading…)