Delta Air doubles fee for second checked bag to $50

Delta Air Lines on Tuesday doubled the fee to check a second bag for domestic flights to $50 from $25 to help offset record fuel prices.
Delta announced a number of baggage fee increases on domestic and international flights, including a rise in the fee for items that require special handling such as surfboards or ski equipment.
Delta also increased the fee for a third checked bag from $80 to $125 on domestic flights and from $150 to $200 on international flights. It also raised fees for bags that exceed its weight allowance.
These changes will apply to tickets bought on or after July 31 for travel on or after August 5.
"As fuel costs remain at record levels, Delta believes revising the fee structure for excess bags and specialty items is essential to generate the necessary revenues to offset record fuel costs while continuing to offer these services to customers," the airline said in a statement.
Amid record fuel prices and a slowing U.S. economy, airlines are cutting routes, capacity and jobs and raising fares and fees to survive.
Delta said its First Class, Business Elite and Medallion customers will still be able to check up to three bags at no charge and customers on international flights can check a first and second bag at no charge.
Delta said all of its customers can still check a first bag free of charge on domestic flights and check two bags free of charge on international flights.

'Extreme Makeover' house faces foreclosure

More than 1,800 people showed up to help ABC's "Extreme Makeover" team demolish a family's decrepit home and replace it with a sparkling, four-bedroom mini-mansion in 2005.
Three years later, the reality TV show's most ambitious project at the time has become the latest victim of the foreclosure crisis.
After the Harper family used the two-story home as collateral for a $450,000 loan, it's set to go to auction on the steps of the Clayton County Courthouse Aug. 5. The couple did not return phone calls Monday, but told WSB-TV they received the loan for a construction business that failed.
The house was built in January 2005, after Atlanta-based Beazer Homes USA and ABC's "Extreme Makeover" demolished their old home and its faulty septic system. Within six days, construction crews and hoards of volunteers had completed work on the largest home that the television program had yet built.
The finished product was a four-bedroom house with decorative rock walls and a three-car garage that towered over ranch and split-level homes in their Clayton County neighborhood. The home's door opened into a lobby that featured four fireplaces, a solarium, a music room and a plush new office.
Materials and labor were donated for the home, which would have cost about $450,000 to build. Beazer Homes' employees and company partners also raised $250,000 in contributions for the family, including scholarships for the couple's three children and a home maintenance fund.
ABC said in a statement that it advises each family to consult a financial planner after they get their new home. "Ultimately, financial matters are personal, and we work to respect the privacy of the families," the network said.
Some of the volunteers who helped build the home were less than thrilled about the family's financial decisions.
"It's aggravating. It just makes you mad. You do that much work, and they just squander it," Lake City Mayor Willie Oswalt, who helped vault a massive beam into place in the Harper's living room, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Five Keys To Unlocking a Better Credit Score

Pay more than the minimum

Work out a plan with credit people if you're not able to pay on time

Switch from credit to debit cards

Cut up those store cards

Add comments to your credit report

Author Gayle Jackson Sloan

Gayle Jackson Sloan is a native of Philadelphia, but has lived in various places and has traveled extensively, helping to fuel her imagination for the people and places in her novels. Gayle has loved to read and write since she was four years old. Growing up, she used to write volumes of poetry that was inspired by the syncopated rhythms of Maya Angelou and the freestyle of Nikki Giovanni. Life, however, has a way of sometimes getting in the way and she put aside her poetry to raise her daughter. Encouraged by her mother and husband, she started two books that were still languishing in the bottom of a drawer. However, it wasn't until the passing of her beloved mother that she finally finished her first novel, Saturday's Child, which she first self-published.
Amid personal tragedies, upheavals, and general chaos, she struggled tenaciously to finish her second novel, Wednesday's Woes , which is a follow up -- not a sequel -- to her first novel. She attended Philadelphia University where she studied interior design. She is currently a legal assistant at a prestigious law firm. When she is not writing, reading or gardening, she is teaching her grandchildren to say "Nana is a Diva!"

You can read excerpts of her upcoming works here.
Let the Necessary Occur is her third novel.

Expect her next novel, Dancin' In My Shoes, sometime next year!

Why are so many fathers today physically, mentally and emotionally absent from their familes?

The fact is,children don't judge their fathers worth by the amount of money he makes or the monetary value of gifts he may give them. Rather,what children really want-far more than material gifts-is their father's love,time and attention. These are what truly matter to them

Review for "Let The Necessary Occur"

Gayle Jackson Sloan puts you into the world of this couple with, lies, deceit,betrayal,greed,lust and temptation. In the eyes of the outside this couple had the perfect marriage. But behind the walls it's hell. Matthew is a powerful attorney and his wife Gloriana is a Christian Musician. At the beginning of the marriage it was all cookies and cream. As the careers hit high peak, slowly the love is been tested. The more money the more problems come knocking on their door. Matthew finds himself getting weaker as his wife continue her touring. He has told her over again how lonely he is feeling. What suppose to been a short term agreement turns into a long term. Gloriana promise him a family but now the money has gotten good and she is avoiding this with all cost. While she is avoiding the issue at hand. This lady pops up out of no where name Aston(She-devil) comes to destroy the marriage. She is hired by Matthew as his paralegal and she is damn good at what she does. But what she has up her sleeve Matthew can't control. This is just the tip of the iceburg. You have to get your copy to find out what's really going on.

Whitney Responds to Bobby Brown's Tell-All Book

Bobby Brown is dishing on his rocky marriage to Whitney Houston in a new tell-all autobiography – but she's not letting his accusations affect her. In this, the latest installment of the couple's long-running marital feud, Brown says of his ex, "I never used cocaine until after I met Whitney." Details from the 39-year-old pop star's book, Bobby Brown: The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing But, began surfacing Thursday in the New York Post. Before Whitney, Brown writes: "I had experimented with other drugs, but marijuana was my drug of choice." Whitney's rep responded in a statement to PEOPLE: "Miss Houston is sad that Bobby feels he need to say such things but she choses to take the high road and will not speak badly about the father of her child even if it's to set the record straight." After his 1992 marriage, the former Being Bobby Brown star says his dependence on narcotics spiraled out of control. "At one point in my life, I used drugs uncontrollably. I was using everything I could get my hands on, from cocaine to heroin, weed and cooked cocaine," he writes. Brown also describes his 14-year marriage as "doomed from the very beginning." "I think we got married for all the wrong reasons," he says in the book. "Now, I realize Whitney had a different agenda than I did when we got married ... I believe her agenda was to clean up her image." The couple, who have a 15-year-old daughter, Bobbi Kristina, split in September 2006. One potential stress on their union? Brown's now-admitted infidelity. "Women are always throwing themselves at you," he writes. "I'm only human, so I would make the mistake and bite the hook sometimes. I let the testosterone take over." Brown also claims to have dated Janet Jackson and Madonna before hooking up with Houston. Chapter titles from the book include "Whitney Houston – The Untold Truth," "The Press, More Problems, and Passion for Drugs," and "The Bad Boy Of Boston ... Straight From The Hood."

Eddie Winslow Files Restraining Order Against Superhead

If you haven't heard, Superhead has been making serious claims that Darius McCrary (Eddie Winslow from Family Matters) has been beatin' her silly! CLICK HERETo add to the drama, we have received a direct statement from Eddie....oops, we mean Darius McCrary in which he bluntly denies all of the blah-blah that Superhead has been personally feeding the media!Crisis Statement from Darius McCraryRegarding: Criminal Allegations by Karrine Steffans (aka “SuperHead”):
“As evident in her books “Confessions of a Video Vixen” and “The Vixen Diaries”, author Karrine Steffans is extremely talented in manipulating the truth and capitalizing at the expense of others. Against my better judgment and at the advice of other notable public figures, I, too, regret getting involved with Ms. Steffans. The allegations are not true. Because I have been ignoring her pursuits, I feel that she is reacting immaturely and unjust. When I broke it off with her, I tried to maintain a friendship with her out of concern for her son. A restraining order has been filed to ensure that Ms. Steffans does not continue to show up at my place of business or work, stalk or follow me, and damage any more of my personal property – as well as restrict her from accessing my voice mail and e-mails. I feel extremely sad for her and even sadder for her son. I look forward to putting this incident behind me.”Darius McCrary has also filed a police restraining order against Superhead claiming that she is a danger to his life. CLICK HERE TO VIEWLike I said before, I think that Superhead is lyin' about this whole situation just to bring media attention to herself in preparation for her new upcoming book! Fellas, take my advice, stay away from this chick! I just don't understand why these celeb knuckleheads continue to mess with this skank knowing how shady she is. I understand that she has some serious skills in the sheets, but let's be real......she's isn't the only woman on earth who can put it down

Just My Opinion

I have marinated over this interview since yesterday. Omar Tyree was on 3 Chicks On Lit radio show. He is very bitter about this new literature world of authors. As an avid reader and author myself I just don't read one genre. When it comes to writing you have to have an open mind and go with the flow. Just because you wrote it doesn't mean people is going to like all your books. As an author you have to scope out your readers and keep it very interested to the reader. I do have to admit time has changed but your craft shouldn't change. For example "John Grisham" he has wrote about law forever in a day. "James Patterson" he has wrote mystery forever in a day. They still clocking the dollars. Now Omar claims he can't continue writing because he has written about everything in the Urban that has be done. Not true because he didn't tackle HIV, AIDS,Abuse etc in the Urban world. He is to busy clocking other author dollars and not his own dollars. He need to face the fact that he has lost the passionate for writing and need to move on. In the interview he was speaking up on Black readers, saying that he wants to write about different adventures like African, Europe etc. But us Black folks don't want to read about this, how in the hell he know what we want? You write, get people opinion on it and move the fuck on! You write it submit it and let the readers speak for themselves. But if you haven't listen in on the conversation check it out at the link. This is just my opinion. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/chicksonlit

Kim Wayans, Actress,comedian, producer, writer and director

Part of a unique family of comedians, Kim Wayans has enjoyed working with her brothers, film and television stars Keenen, Damon, Marlon and Shawn. She starred with all of them on the groundbreaking television comedy sketch show In Living Color, and has worked with them in various combinations in such motion pictures as I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, Don't Be A Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the 'Hood and Low Down Dirty Shame. Most recently, Wayans starred in the art film Talking About Sex and had a cameo in the feature film Floundering.
Her first break in entertainment came when she was booked to do stand - up comedy at The Improv clubs in Santa Monica and Hollywood. Since then, Wayans has made several guest television appearances and has starred as a regular on Quincy Jones's In the House, opposite Debbie Allen and LL Cool J. She is currently working as a story editor on the ABC comedy My Wife and Kids.