A snapshot of Robin Roberts with the GMA team — left to right, Josh Elliot, Sam Champion, Lara Spencer, and George Stephanopolous seated — on her first day back. Via Yahoo website

Great news from Good Morning America: Robin Roberts made her return to the anchor desk this morning after more than five months away to treat a rare blood disease that required a bone marrow transplant.

And on her first day back, she was greeted by a video from the President and First Lady, who said the Obamas have been thinking about her and praying for her. Michelle Obama also used the clip to announce that she will be sitting down with Roberts in a “few days” for an interview. You can watch the video here. (And check out the President’s tan!)

To cheers and fist bumps, Roberts returned to the studio, saying she’s been waiting “174 days” to say ‘Good morning America!’”

The New York Daily News reports that every precaution is being taken to make sure everyone at the show stays healthy, even making a medical editor and advisor, Dr. Richard Besser, available for questions.

Welcome back Robin! Her battle has been a tough one and we’re glad to see her back at work.

Malia and Sasha stand next to Mom, aka FLOTUS, during the Democratic National Convention. Image: AP Photo/David Goldman

Business Insider takes an interesting look at the lives of Sasha and Malia, the First Daughters who have found themselves growing up in the spotlight, before the eyes of an entire nation.

The feature notes that, when Barack Obama was elected to the Presidency, Sasha was the “youngest child to live in the White House since John F. Kennedy Jr.” They attend a prestigious private school, Sidwell Friends School, which has educated the children of past presidents and dignitaries. And they travel around the world. But the story notes that they also have responsibilities and aren’t lavished with gifts.

Titled “The Fabulous Lives of Sasha and Malia Obama,” we have no doubt that there is a level of fabulosity to it. They are the daughters of The President of the United States, after all. But there has to be a good deal of pressure involved also. Knowing that when you go on vacation with your parents, for instance, it will be photographed and beamed out to the world is intense stuff. There’s probably also a fair amount of worry. We can imagine that the girls, especially Malia, who’s older, must be thinking about the election and whether their dad will win.

The most striking thing about the slideshow is how grown up the two girls look now. Amazing. Click here to take a look.

(Also, Obama 2012!! It’s Voter Registration Day!)

First Lady Michelle Obama greeted by an elementary school student in Raleigh, NC today. Image: AP, Gerry Broome

Another day, another thing we can learn from our fabulous FLOTUS.

Today, we have insight from James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner, authors of the book Leadership Challenge, who offer five leadership practices gleaned from the words and actions of Michelle Obama. Black Enterprise highlights five noteworthy traits.

“Basically, practice what you preach,” the article says. “In order to position an organization to continuously set high standards and show commitment, leaders must model their ideal behavior.” The First Lady has talked about how the President reads letters from ordinary Americans and empathizes with their plight.

Also, “inspire a shared vision.”

“The most palatable way to lead is understanding the concerns, values, and aspirations you share with supporters,” the article continues.

To be further inspired by FLOTUS’ leadership skills, visit BlackEnterprise.com.

Images: Reuters, AFP

The First Lady’s DNC speech caused quite a stir, to put it mildly. Her performance was praised by the media, constituents and viewers. Her wardrobe was the talk of the town. But there was other news about Michelle Obama’s speech — she made oratory history.

According to an analysis by a University of Minnesota political scientist, her speech read at a twelfth grade level. “[B]y that measure,” writes The Raw Story, it was “the most complex speech delivered by a presidential candidate’s spouse at a nominating convention.”

On the other hand, the speech delivered by Mitt Romney’s wife Ann was only on a fifth grade reading level — making it  “the lowest reading level for a spouse’s convention speech since the practice [of measuring the speeches] first began in 1992.”  (The President, by the way, generally delivers his union speeches on an eighth grade level, according to The Raw Story.) The speeches were measured using the Flesch-Kincaid readability test.

There was also another competition between the two women — TV ratings. Obama and Romney both opened their respective conventions. But Michelle Obama pulled in higher ratings for the opening night of the Democratic National Convention than Ann Romney did for the opening of the Republican National Convention, reports CBS News. Nielsen Co. data  revealed that about “26.2 million people watched the opening night of the Democratic National Convention where the first lady was the featured speaker. Compare this to the  22.3 million who watched the first night of the Republican National Convention featuring  potential first lady Ann Romney.”

Obama, says CBS News, even had Twitter jumping. “[S]he was responsible for at least 28,003 tweets per minute shortly after she delivered her speech.” Romney’s Twitter peak was just 6,195 per minute.

Image: Tom + Lorenzo

Did you see FLOTUS at the DNC Convention last night? Vogue editor-at-large said it best in this tweet last night:

Michelle Obama: You ARE the Best of the American Spirit. Its not the clothes you wear, its your grace, your kindness, your caring. PURE JOY

But just for the record, the dress was a custom Tracy Reese worn with suede J.Crew shoes. According to Tom + Lorenzo, they were not only getting bombarded with questions about the First Lady’s outfit but the shade of her nail polish. “[T]o which we have to respond ‘Really?’” they write. No really. I was curious about it too. We’ve seen a couple of people predict that those shoes (in “rhubarb”) will probably sell out. And she could do for Tracy Reese (already a popular designer) what she did for Jason Wu. Reese has already got a story on today’s Wall Street Journal Speakeasy blog, which notes that the First Lady wore Tracy Reese on the cover of Ebony previously.

Michelle Obama’s riveting speech overtook Mitt Romney’s GOP Convention speech last week on the Twitter leaderboard, peaking at 28,003 tweets per minute versus Romney’s high point of 14,289 per minute, Politico reports. Here, the site lists what it thinks are her top 10 lines from the speech. And here’s coverage of the speech from another of the night’s notable speakers, San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro.

And as we noted yesterday, Michelle Obama focused on the middle class and President Obama’s values.

“The address was meant to lay the foundation for a convention program devised to remind wavering working- and middle-class voters — the same ones Mr. Romney is working so hard to woo away — what they liked about the president when they supported him four years ago, and how his own humbler roots have helped inspire his policies to help them,” The New York Times says. Moreover, the speech painted a personal picture of the President and the life he has shared with Michelle. We watched on MSNBC and Chris Matthews, post-speech, noted how the camerawork caught the emotion of the attendees, rapt and even a little teary-eyed as they listened.

“Barack knows the American Dream because he’s lived it,” she said.

Image: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

The Democratic National Convention is getting underway and among the speakers taking to the podium tonight will be our FLOTUS, Michelle Obama. Recently coming in at number seven on Forbes’ list of women who run the world and riding a wave of popularity that USA Today says has two-thirds of Americans holding a favorable view of her, the First Lady is “expected to echo the middle class message” she has delivered in previous speeches, according to MSNBC. It’s a message that is meant to “draw a contrast” to Mitt Romney.

“She implies that Romney, who had a privileged upbringing, can’t relate when she tells middle-class voters that President Barack Obama understands their economic struggles because he has struggled too,” reports the Associated Press. “And she suggests Romney would have other priorities when she says her husband’s empathy will result in a second-term agenda focused squarely on middle-class economic security.”

The article says the speech will also be “sprinkled” with talk about the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act that President Obama made law. The Act eases the process for women seeking to sue employers for equal pay. In addition, her speech will tackle the healthcare law and other policies that reflect the “values that drive my husband to do what he has done and what he is going to do for the next four years,” the First Lady said in an interview on SiriusXM.

ABC News sums up the speech as one that will showcase the Democrats’ “one big idea: ‘How you build an economy meant to last with a strong middle class at its core.’”

This issue of the middle class is a particularly important one at this point with new jobs numbers coming on Friday and research from the National Employment Law Project showing that many of the new jobs being created in this economic recovery are paying less than the middle range of wages — $13.84 to $21.13 — of a chunk of the jobs lost during the recession.

Separately but still on the topic of the Democratic Convention, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is the chairman of the Democratic National Convention, has said outright that this convention “will be the most diverse in history,” which also creates a contrast with the Republican National Convention. During last week’s events, writer Baratunde Thurston, who was covering the GOP convention, started a hashtag, #negrospotting, pointing out the lack of African Americans in attendance.

Also speaking tonight will be Mayor Julian Castro from San Antonio who will be delivering the keynote.

celebrity-gossip.net

Birds of a feather flock together but sometimes, there’s always an odd one in the nest. That’s true when it comes to friendships. You never really know why people become close but there are some Hollywood friendships that took the public by surprise.

Read the rest of this entry »

usatoday.com

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, the divorce of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise has saturated the media. The gossip fiends are getting their lives with the break up but some couples under the same Hollywood glare are still going strong. Denzel and Paulette Washington, Will and Jada Smith, Jay Z and Beyoncé are just some of those standard bearers.

The following couples have also gotten stronger with time…

Read the rest of this entry »

Michelle Obama is working on a new book about her White House produce garden titled, “American Grown: How the White House Kitchen Garden Inspires Families, Schools and Communities.”

The book falls in line with the first lady’s campaign to reduce childhood obesity and will discuss how improving access to healthy, affordable food can improve eating habits and health overall.

Proceeds from the book, which is scheduled for release in April, will be donated to charity.

Will you pick up a copy of “American Grown?” It may seem impractical, but urban farming is actually a big trend, which can help you connect with family and save money on produce. An African-American man is even a pioneer of the urban farming movement. Now the first lady is on the bandwagon? Something to think about.

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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“…Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values, like you work hard for what you want in life. That your word is your bond; that you do what you say you’re going to do. That you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don’t know them and even if you don’t agree with them.” -First Lady Michelle Obama

First Lady Michelle Obama is truly an inspiration in so many ways, as a mother, and an advocate for the health of children, and so much more. But today we want to focus on the example of integrity that she embodies, as evidenced in the quote above. The ideals of fairness and keeping your word seem simple, but sometimes it is hard to find people who routinely express these greatest of human behaviors. And it can be just as hard to be that person — the one who strives to always do right by your fellow men and women, even in the small things. Clearly our first lady must have been kind, honest and just all along her path to the White House. If there was any evidence to the contrary, she would not have made it there because Michelle Obama faced intense scrutiny. We might not all face such public judgment, but we can still enact the same values in our own individual lives. It’s worth it just for the sake of itself. That is the only way to express such high ideals authentically — because just like Michelle you want to be a paragon of positive ideals because it’s the right thing to do.

Stay strong and live in the spirit of truth and fairness! Have a wonderful day lovely women!