The new Miss Black USA is none other than Miss Connecticut USA, Osas Ighodaro. Ms. Ighodaro is a professionally trained actress, and she performed her winning talent, “What If I Am a Black Woman” in four dialects. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Broadcast Journalism from Pennsylvania State University. She is also a Master of Fine Arts degree candidate for Pace University.Upon winning the title, Osas said:

“It’s an honor to be crowned where President Barack Obama and the First Lady Michelle Obama resides. It would be my dream to meet the First Lady,” stated Ms. Ighodaro during the post pageant press conference at Ben’s Next Door.”

Ms. Ighodaro will serve as the celebrity advocate for the pageant’s national partnership with the Heart Truth® campaign to increase awareness of heart disease.

SOURCE

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In an event celebrating the launch of her recast President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition, Michelle Obama took time to exercise and focus on making the most of your life with healthier eating habits.

Michelle Obama wasn’t the only one getting physical with the children. Star athletes including fitness expert Donna Richardson Joyner, gymnast Dominique Dawes, figure skater Michelle Kwan and NASCAR driver Carl Edwards were also in attendance actively participating in fitness trainings and more. For more details on the story and to find out how you can get involved, visit BlackAmericaWeb.com today.

Do you think the First Lady’s health and nutrition initiatives will continue to inspire people across the nation to gain control of obesity and issues with their weight? How do you personally maintain a healthy lifestyle in your household?

Share your thoughts with us here at TheBuzzCincy.com – the online home of 1230AM WDBZ The Buzz. Link up with Cincinnati’s community and inspiration station by checking us out on TheBuzzCincy.com. Let us know here or check out the conversations with 1230AM WDBZ’s network of friends on on Facebook, or join our group page here – 1230AM WDBZ The Buzz Group Page.

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Tell us what you enjoy most about our coverage and post your comments below right here at TheBuzzCincy.com – the online home of 1230AM WDBZ The Buzz, Cincinnati’s community and inspiration station.

Tom Adams Field on the campus of Wayne State University was packed yesterday morning to hear the full speech on mentoring and the future of Detroit: the youth. Michelle Obama pushed those in the audience, including more then 5,000 Detroit Public Schools students, to focus on their studies and make a difference in their lives.

She used her life and that of her husband, President Barack Obama, as examples of how students can rise from modest upbringings to the highest office in the land.

Check out the following exclusive from buddies in the Motor City who were able to capture the details and share them with us. Think of it as a gift for those of you keeping up with current events in our neighboring cities and states up north. For more on the story and to check out the full speech, click here.

Cincinnati, tell us what you thought of the coverage by posting your thoughts in the comments section below. Share with your friends and tell them to meet you here for more updates coming soon.

You can also check us out on Facebook, follow us on Twitter (@1230WDBZ). As always, keep up with us on BlackPlanet and check out all of our video exclusives on YouTube. Tell us what you enjoy and post your comments below.

And that’s exactly what Michelle Obama’s older brother, Craig Robinson, the only other man besides Pres. Barack Obama who knows her best, is most concerned with discussing in his new book “A Game of Character: A Family Journey from Chicago’s Southside to the Ivy League and Beyond.”

Robinson details he and his sister’s experiences and the family’s evolution from the middle class to the stratosphere.

Their mother, Marian Robinson, also writes the book’s foreward contributing to Robinson’s account of growing up in a household that was committed to success.

Is this new book something you’ll be reading soon? Tell us what you think by posting your comments below. Read more about Craig Robinson’s new book by checking out the story available on BlackAmericaWeb.com

In tackling the problem of childhood obesity, first lady Michelle Obama is doing something that her husband rarely does — talking about an issue bluntly in terms of race and helping urban America.

She is, some say, filling a role that Barack Obama seems less inclined to fill, serving as a kind of bridge from the White House to black America in much the same way that she functioned during the campaign, observers said.

Where President Obama has been reluctant at times to address domestic policy in terms of how it would specifically affect African-Americans or Hispanics, Michelle Obama has approached her signature issue differently, frequently bringing up issues of race, region and inequality.

The first lady provided a vivid example Friday of her approach to childhood obesity, touring the Fresh Grocer in North Philadelphia, a predominantly black neighborhood that had been without a grocery store for more than a decade. The $15 million store opened in December, created 270 jobs and has a 96 percent minority workforce. The store, located near Temple University, is located in Progress Plaza. Aides to the first lady said the goal is to highlight how neighborhoods have addressed the problem of “food deserts,” neighborhoods that lack a full-service grocery store.

“It’s a nuanced conversation about race and place and economic inequality, and at the same time, she is staying within the first lady framework,” said Melissa Gilbert, a professor in the urban studies department at Temple University. “It’s a very smart approach because she is bringing up issues that people haven’t thought about in the popular mainstream society.”

Over the past month, as she has rolled out her Let’s Move initiative, the first lady has spoken broadly of childhood obesity as a problem that confronts children everywhere, but she also frequently mentions the disproportionate effect it has on black and Hispanic children. One in two minority children deal with being overweight compared to one in three white children.

“Because right now, if we think about our children, nearly a third of them in this country are overweight or obese, and a third will suffer from diabetes at some point in their lifetimes. In the African-American and Hispanic communities, that number goes up to half,” she said during one recent speech on health care and childhood obesity.

And in speeches and interviews, she has also addressed the issue of unsafe neighborhoods and often framed the problem as a particularly urban one.

She spoke of the difficulty some children have getting daily exercise. “Urban sprawl and fears about safety often mean the only walking they do is out their front door to a bus or a car,” she said when she launched the program earlier this month.

Speaking of the lack of healthy food options in some urban neighborhoods, Obama said, “And we certainly can’t ask parents who are living in the midst of food deserts without the resources to buy the products and the items for their families, we definitely can’t put them into that trick bag of telling them that they need to do something that is completely out of their reach.”

And she told of her own experiences as the mother of two young daughters. “I was fortunate enough to have a pediatrician who worked in an urban environment in the African-American community,” she told CNN’s Larry King about how she came to the issue. “And he was tracking BMI [Body Mass Index]. And he saw a little uptick in the kids’ BMI and he kind of pulled me aside.”

East Wing aides worked with the White House Office of Urban Affairs in planning for the trip to Philadelphia. And on Saturday the first lady will address the National Governors Association convention in Washington, and appear on Mike Huckabee’s Fox News show, as she ramps up her national public education initiative to fight childhood obesity.

The effort marks her first full foray into policy after a year marked by sustained outreach to metro Washington. She has visited schools, started a mentoring program for young women and invited students to help cultivate and harvest the garden on the South Lawn.

And even when the first lady traveled abroad last spring to London, she made her first speech to a group of inner-city minority students, telling them that she was raised in the “real part of Chicago” and that it was “important for the world to know that there are wonderful girls like you all over the world.”

It was similar to what she told a group of students at Anacostia High School as she sat with them in a classroom, recalling that she had been ribbed for talking like a white girl.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said that Obama “plunged into the district” and hasn’t been content to see “D.C. as a nice backdrop with a lot of black and Hispanic faces.”

“In a country where race rules, she is seen over and over with black children, but it doesn’t send out the same racial vibes,” Norton said. “Barack hasn’t hung back, but she does have greater license to go into the black community without seeming to cut off white people as the president might. And he wouldn’t be doing that, but perception is reality.”

It is an approach, both symbolic and substantive, that hasn’t gone unnoticed by observers of race and urban policy, who had hoped that her husband would live up to his tag of being the first big city, urban president, but have since been disappointed.

For some, Obama’s four-hour trip to New Orleans exemplified his approach to the issues confronting urban America. Critics say that though he created the White House Office of Urban Affairs, he has yet to articulate an urban agenda that has taken hold in the public consciousness.

Last year in a White House meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus, Barack Obama privately told the group “we have to do something about obesity among our people.”

Speaking more broadly, he told American Urban Radio Networks recently that: “The only thing I cannot do is, by law I can’t pass laws that say I’m just helping black folks. I’m the president of the entire United States.”

Read more:

VIA:  MSNBC

When she moved to the nation’s most prestigious address, Michelle Obama’s husband told her that rough times were ahead. The country was in recession, people were out of work, the political parties were in open warfare — and the man who was going to be blamed for it all was President Barack Obama.

But you won’t hear the first lady utter a peep of complaint.

“The truth is, there are a lot of folks who are hurting. And there’s no way I’m going to sit here and complain; I’m sitting in the White House,” Michelle Obama told TODAY’s Matt Lauer during an exclusive, far-ranging White House interview that aired Wednesday.

It’s just over a year since Michelle Obama set up housekeeping at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And while she’s been much in the spotlight during that time, she maintains that she’s still the same person she always was.

“I still see myself as Michelle Obama, the girl who grew up in the South Side of Chicago — Marian and Fraser’s daughter. I’ve got this husband who does these interesting things — and I’m Malia and Sasha’s mother,” she said.

Watch her interview below:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Who’s the better gift giver: Barack or Michelle?

The first lady says she is.

On Christmas at the White House: An Oprah Primetime Special (airing Sunday on ABC), Winfrey asks Barack if he feels more pressure to give good gifts now that he’s the president — or if he can get away with giving a less desirable gift.

See Oprah and other stars’ makeunders

His answer ignites a cute debate with the first lady.

“I have given some good gifts – you get some nice stuff – here’s the general rule, I give nicer stuff than I get,” Barack begins.

Michelle quickly interrupts, “No way! I gave you good gifts last year!”

See Michelle Obama’s stunning makeover

“Absolutely – aw, come on, please,” he replies. “You know, it’s like Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.”

Michelle quips, “We’re talking about Christmas, don’t become distracted…”

Check out Michelle Obama’s top style moments

The two – who will celebrate their first Christmas in the White House this year – also reveal the best presents they got as kids.

Michelle says her top gift was “a metal doll house with plastic furniture … I remember I really didn’t know how to set up a house, so I had all the furniture lined up along the walls, as opposed to nestled around the fireplace, but I loved that little doll house.”

Barack’s top present?

“A bike one year,” he tells Winfrey. “Getting that first, big kid 10-speed bike that’s always … special.”

See Barack and Michelle Obama’s wedding photo!

One year, Barack – whose parents separated when he was 2-years old and later divorced – also says his father visited him from his native Kenya and gave him a basketball.

“It wasn’t until much later in life that I realized, ‘Actually, he gave me that basketball,’” he says. “I think there was some cause and effect there in terms of the degree to which I just ended up taking up the sport as a kid who didn’t know his dad.”

As EW previously speculated, First Lady Michelle Obama was named Barbara Walters’ Most Fascinating Person of 2009. “”It has been a whirlwind. But it’s been amazing. I mean, if you think about this year, I had to get these two beautiful girls settled into a new city, into a new home, into a new school. We got a dog. I visited eight countries with my husband. I planted a garden. I’ve started a mentoring program. It has been everything. And now, here we are at our first Christmas in the White House,” the first lady said on Walters’ special, which aired on ABC Wednesday night. She also spoke of her famously toned arms. Other most fascinating people of the year included Lady Gaga and Adam Lambert.

Looking glamorous in an elegant strapless gown by Indian-American designer Naeem Khan, Michelle Obama welcomed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife Mrs. Gursharan Kaur to the White House Tuesday night and ushered in the Obama administration’s first official state dinner.

Though she’s become known for her (sometimes controversial) high-fashion risk-taking, tonight Mrs.Obama chose a dress with a classic floor-length cut in a subdued gold fabric and paired it with a light shawl. Her makeup was kept to a minimum and her hair done in a dignified updo. The entire ensemble seemed traditionally feminine and sophisticated, reminiscent of the first lady’s more conservative predecessors.

But there were a few Michelle-style flourishes, including a pair of elaborate chandelier earrings and a stack of glittering gold-and-diamond bangles piled high on her left arm. Her choice of Khan as designer is also characteristic of this first lady, who often favors little-known artisans over big names. Khan has been on the fashion scene since 2003, and has outfitted youthful celebrities such as Beyoncé, Carrie Underwood, and Jennifer Lopez. He has also dressed dignitaries like Queen Noor and designed the costumes for the 2006 movie “Dreamgirls.”

Tonight’s look may mark a sartorial departure for Mrs. Obama, a shift into more sophisticated, luxurious, and regal attire, rather than the playful, accessible, less-polished clothing she’s worn thus far.

It will also mean a big shift in popularity and business for Naeem Khan, who–like the first lady’s favorite designer before him, Jason Wu–is more than likely about to become one of the most-searched and sought-after names in the business.