It's official. Crystal Aikin is the best of the best in amateur gospel singing, according to Black Entertainment Television.
The 33-year-old from Tacoma, Wash., sung her way into first place in BET's Sunday's Best Gospel competition. Her dynamic voice earned her the keys to a 2008 Toyota Camry and a  national recording contract with Zomba Records.
 And that's before we get to the $300,000 in prize money.
Aikin shed a few tears when her win was announced but said she felt enormous gratitude. Of all of the national and local singing competitions she participated in, this is the first competition she's actually won. 

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Rev. Al Sharpton angrily denounced federal authorities Thursday for investigating him and his civil rights organization, suggesting that the Justice Department was retaliating against him for his political activism.
"I have probably been under every investigation known to man and I can't remember a time that I've not been under investigation," Sharpton said at a news conference at the Harlem headquarters of his National Action Network.
"The issues raised are issues that we've learned over and over again, particularly when we are approaching an election season."
Sharpton called the news conference after reports emerged Thursday of a federal probe into his finances.
The FBI and the IRS are investigating Sharpton for tax fraud and possible campaign finance violations stemming from his 2004 presidential bid, according to a person familiar with the investigation. They are also investigating the National Action Network and several businesses he runs.
A Brooklyn grand jury is scheduled to begin hearing evidence in the case at the end of the month.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) _ The federal government calls demolition of public housing complexes an overdue war on poverty in New Orleans made possible by Hurricane Katrina. Churchmen, civil rights lawyers, preservationists and protesters call it a land grab and class cleansing.
On Wednesday, workers began tearing down the first of 4,500 federally administered public housing units to make way for mixed-income neighborhoods.
The plan has ignited allegations the true aim is to benefit developers over the needs of New Orleans' poor, who are overwhelmingly black. ...

WASHINGTON (AP) _ A Black congressman who claims he was racially profiled by Chicago police last month pushed for legislation Thursday that would ban the practice.
Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., called racial profiling "one of the most sinister issues that exists in American life."
In November, two White officers pulled Davis over and gave him a traffic ticket alleging he swerved over the center line, which Davis denied doing.
"I know that I'm getting up in age a little bit, but I'm not so old that if I weave, I don't know that I'm weaving," Davis, 66, said at a Capitol Hill news conference. The real reason he was pulled over, Davis asserted, was that he and three other Black men were in a car on a deserted street after midnight.
"Ultimately, I was actually ticketed because I was driving while being Black," he said. ...

As part of an International Aids Day event at PCC's Cascade campus Nov. 30, students from Jefferson High School displayed a quilt they made themselves, while standing in front of a panel from the largest community art project in the world — the  AIDS Memorial Quilt. As well as making the quilt, the students set up an information table at Jefferson to raise awareness about the disease. African Americans now make up about 50 percent of those newly diagnosed with HIV infections. From left: Marquis Stoudamire, a veteran, attending college at PSU. Jefferson students: Raquelle Holden-Harris,15; Vera Holden-Harris, 17; Lupe Mapapalangi, 17; Marquesha Baines, 16; Tiffany Olson, 16; Erandin Ascencio, 16; Darryl Thomas, 17; Carlos McCall, 16; Antoinette Washington,16; Corey Ware, 17; and Willie Smith, 16.

Carollyn Smith was hoping to spend a perfect family Thanksgiving – complete with turkey, trimmings, and all seven of her grandchildren.  Now, she's hoping the children might all be together this Christmas. But after almost two years of fighting to keep her grandchildren together, Smith knows that Coffee, 6, and C'Lynn, 5, might be spending yet another holiday apart from their five brothers and sisters.
Smith was last featured in The Skanner in July, when she was holding a one-woman protest every Thursday outside the Department of Human Services building on Williams Avenue and Alberta Street. Coffee and C'Lynn have been in foster care after being taken away from Smith's daughter, Conchita Smith, who has a history of substance abuse. Smith has currently has custody of five of Conchita's children, who range in age from 8 to 15
Then came the breakthrough, Smith says. On Nov. 15, family court Judge Nan Waller cleared the way to reunite the seven brothers and sisters in their grandmother's home.
"The judge said they could reside in my house," said Smith, who has resumed her Thursday morning protests at the DHS building. "They never came."

Last week, the Governor's Summit on Minority Overrepresentation in the Juvenile Justice System brought together dozens of Oregonians – including Sen. Avel Gordly, Portland police chief Rosie Sizer and Gov. Kulongoski — to discuss solutions to the injustice that sees African American kids incarcerated at far higher rates than youth of other races.
"We have some Hispanic and some Native American overrepresentation but the African American population is the most overrepresented in Oregon Youth Authority's closed custody system ....

After nearly a year of painstaking work, fixing and restoring more than 500 children's bikes, the Community Cycling Center's Holiday Bike Drive will kick off Dec. 9 at Emmanuel Hospital.
Thanks to countless hours from volunteers, 519 low-income children will experience the joy of cycling. And mending these metal ponies is not easy; sometimes a single children's bike can take three or four hours to fix. Tires must be replaced by hand and – a word to adults — a children's bike tire is much more difficult to remove and replace than a large tire. Chains must be adjusted, bottom brackets tightened, coaster brakes fixed. The list could go on. But for every week since last February, a dedicated group of volunteers ....

Chance Garvey 7, stands by while volunteers help build his school, Dearborn Park Elementary, a new play structure on Saturday, Dec. 1.  The project was funded with money from The Allstate Foundation and a grant from the City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods. The Injury Free Coalition for Kids at Harborview Medical Center and Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center also helped with the project.