Photo Credit: Ladyfroufrou SparkleSparkle!/flickrShirley Temple Black, iconic child star, dies at 85

By Valerie J. Nelson.

Shirley Temple Black, who as the most popular child movie star of all time lifted a filmgoing nation’s spirits during the Depression and then grew up to be a diplomat, has died. She was 85.

Black died late Monday at her home in Woodside, Calif., according to publicist Cheryl J. Kagan. No cause was given.

From 1935 through 1938, the curly-haired moppet billed as Shirley Temple was the top box-office draw in the nation. She saved what became 20th Century Fox studios from bankruptcy and made more than 40 movies before she turned 12.

Hollywood recognized the enchanting, dimpled scene-stealer’s importance to the industry with a “special award” — a miniature Oscar — at the Academy Awards for 1934, the year she sang and danced her way into America’s collective heart.

After she sang “On the Good Ship Lollipop” in “Bright Eyes,” the song became a hit and the studio set up Shirley Temple Development, a department dedicated to churning out formulaic scripts that usually featured the cheerful, poised Shirley as the accidental Little Miss Fix-It who could charm any problem away.

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Photo Credit: YouTube The Meaning of Shirley Temple

By William Bigelow.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “As long as our country has Shirley Temple, we will be all right.” We don’t have her any more after her death Monday night, and the truth is we are not all right.

Shirley Temple and her iconic screen presence were a tribute to an America that believed in innocence, even during a dark era when millions of Americans were out of work and desperate to find a path back to normalcy. Temple’s screen presence, a cherubic, delightful, utterly charming persona, was a balm for those in the audience who needed a respite from the daily terrors of insolvency and loss of faith in their future.

Temple was innocent enough that when she danced with the legendary black dancer Bill Robinson in The Little Colonel, no one gave a hoot that the interracial teaming was a watershed moment.

More than anything, Temple represented the wide-eyed innocence that America once believed was the natural province of childhood.

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Photo Credit: WKOW/CNNNothing short of a miracle, that’s how family and doctors are describing the health of a newborn who survived more than a day sheltered in a duffel bag.

Kayden vanished from his home early Thursday and was found safe by police at an Iowa gas station a day later.

“I would expect to have found a dead baby, to be honest with you,” said Dr. Jeffrey Segar, who first examined baby Kayden after he spent more than 28 hours in the freezing cold, sheltered only by a plastic tote and a blanket.

WNEM TV 5

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Photo Credit: Hannah Rose Allen via FacebookHannah Rose Allen, the woman who authored a letter of remorse and apology to Luke, the baby she aborted, has come under scrutiny over allegations of plagiarism after her note was published and covered on various news sites over the past few days.

The contents of her letter, which has some similarities to another note written by a woman named Carla Stream about her own past abortion experience, are now being questioned.

In a post on her Facebook page Saturday, Allen admitted to “copying a few … sentences and ideas” from Stream’s letter, noting that she is “genuinely sorry” for what she described as a “hurtful blunder.” Allen’s complete statement is below:

“While I was in the midst of writing a long letter of love, from my grieving mother’s heart, to Luke Shiloh in February 2013, I Googled “letters to aborted babies” and came across a sweet letter written to “Aubrey” in 2008 from her grieving mother, Carla Stream (https://outcrywisconsin.blogspot.com/2008/11/my-girl.html?m=1).

The letter deeply resonated with me because I had felt and expressed some of the same words about my beloved baby that she wrote in her brief letter to her beloved baby. I realize now that I crossed the line of simply being inspired by her letter to the point of actually copying a few of her sentences and ideas. I want to apologize for making such an unwise choice. Even though I shared some of her thoughts and feelings, I should have clearly expressed them in my own words, rather than using someone else’s. I am genuinely sorry for my hurtful blunder. I think it would be best for my letter to be removed from the news sources where it’s been shared, and I will post my original letter on my personal blog.”

Allen also published a blog post offering similar sentiment, expounding upon the scenario.

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Photo Credit: YahooElizabeth Warren wants paying for college to be like paying for a car.

No, she doesn’t want mandatory airbags in colleges or Presidents’ Day sales on tuition. Instead, the senator from Massachusetts wants students to be able to refinance federal student loans.

Unlike a loan to pay for a house, a vehicle, or just about anything else your heart desires, you can’t refinance a student loan. The result is that student loans have become a rare way for the federal government to generate revenue, making $66 billion in profits off them between 2007-2012. Warren told The Daily Beast that she is discussing legislation with colleagues that would allow students to refinance their federal loans at rates currently offered to new borrowers. The legislation will be introduced in the coming weeks as Warren continues to work with other senators from both parties on the exact language.

Warren has long been working to reduce the $1.2 trillion in student loan debt currently held by Americans, seeing it as deeply problematic that the federal government makes a huge profit on student loans. In her opinion that “does not reflect our values” and presents a threat to the economic recovery. Warren cited a recent report that cited student borrowing as hurting the economy because the debt overhang kept many purchasing cars or houses.

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