Name: Black Santas are appearing in US Disney parks this season for the first time
Uploaded: 2021-12-03T08:26:24-0500
Duration: 714360
Description: Without an official announcement or fanfare, US Disney parks are including a Black Santa Claus in Christmas celebrations this year for the first time in the company's 66-year theme park history.

Shortages of teachers, infrastructure and technology workers will hamper schools' ability to provide the best education, facilities and tools to children, Superintendent Robert Taylor said Thursday.

Higher employee pay will be key to running Wake schools smoothly, superintendent says

Wake County Public School System Superintendent Robert Taylor speaks to the League fo Women Voters of Wake County, April 18, 2024

More than 21% of North Carolina's four-year-olds enrolled in the state's pre-kindergarten programs during the 2022-2023 school year, up from the prior year but still below the state's pre-pandemic highs, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research.

North Carolina ranks 29th in public pre-K enrollment, new report shows

Durham County budget increases funding for pre-K students

Without an official announcement or fanfare, US Disney parks are including a Black Santa Claus in Christmas celebrations this year for the first time in the company's 66-year theme park history.

begins in 2011 when my wife and I moved from Richmond Virginia to Raleigh north Carolina and I left an established photography business there. And so I was looking for a way to get established in the Raleigh area because there were thousands of photographers uh, in this area. So I really thought it was gonna be hard to break into. And then I saw the ad on craigslist, if I remember correctly about photographers needed at the Crabtree valley Mall for the santa set. And I said, what better way to get out to the public than working with santa where you will see thousands of families throughout this short window of about two months. And so I went and applied for the job, got the position as assistant manager and started, you know, taking pictures with santa. Well, of course this was a white santa and people would come and say, are you guys going to ever have a santa of color? And I jokingly said, you know, they're not gonna let you guys have a black santa here. Little did I know that, I was right, unfortunately. Um, I went to the mall and asked about possibly having an event, You know, we're not even trying to take over the chair, just give us a one time event to let the people know that hey, we hear you and they said it was a good idea and that's about as far as it went. So at that point I realized it's not gonna happen. So I started looking for a santa in search of black santa so I could provide this service. Um, so I just kept looking, kept looking to put an ad in craigslist trying to find a natural bearded black santa and I was looking for the white beard and I wasn't gonna be satisfied with anything less. So, um, I kept, I kept finding people that wanted to be in santa's, but they all have black beard and I was like, no, that's not what I want. And so I kept looking and I think it was the Christmas of 2012. I was working at the santa set and my coworker tapped me on the shoulder said, hey Stafford doesn't that guy look like a black santa. So fortunately for me, I had my business cards on me, I ran off and said handed the gentleman a business card and said, look, I'm not trying to be offensive because you know, I don't want him to think I was approaching because he was fat. You know, I said, I'm not trying to be offensive, but if you're interested in being santa, you know, call in january and we can discuss it. Well january came and went, nothing. I didn't hear called, didn't get called text or anything. So I kept looking that found that that May of 2000 and 13 His mind right yet, that May of 2013. Um I was doing my first wedding, I managed to get a wedding in Raleigh and at that wedding, there was one other black guy other than me. So, and he looked like a black saddle. So I waited a couple of weeks after the wedding and I approached the group and I said, hey, they got like sand at your wedding. Um, do you know him or was he a guest? I guess. He says no, I've known him for over 20 years. So I told her what I was trying to do he says, I'll pass along information if he's interested, he'll give you a call. Well weeks went by and nothing. So you know, you got married, you got a lot of things going on, maybe you didn't get the information to him. So I called him back and say, hey, were you able to get the information to your friend? And he said, yeah. And I said, well he must not be interested because he hasn't called me, he said no, no, he's interested. He said he was, so he hung up the phone called his friend, his friend called me. We met that following week. I was like finally, and so as I'm sharing my vision of a christian santa claus, I mean come on that it wasn't for jesus, there would have been no santa claus, there have been no christmas. So I'm like, this is a christian business, we can share the reality of what christmas is about. And as I'm sharing my vision, he goes into his wallet, pulls out a business card, puts it on the table. It was the same guy Jessica that I had met in the previous december. No, oh my gosh, the same guy wow! So that's that's where the ball got rolled and he had a white beard and he had not just the white being a full white beard, snowy white and and look and at this time I'm working at the Science Museum of Virginia doing a green screen exhibition where uh you know I've got these dinosaur graphics and people come and go, you know and I have superimposed them and so I'm talking with the people there about where I should do this. I'm like I don't know this area. So I'm I'm enquiring and they're like we don't know where you should go but there's and I cannot remember the name but I'm gonna have to find the name. She worked in the administrative office and so I was going to go meet her, they told me who she was while I'm on an elevator, she's right beside me. Her name badge I guess stuck out to me and I said oh I'm supposed to come see you and she's looking at me like I don't know who you are, what do you mean you're supposed to come see me. So I told her about what I was doing and she said you know you need to go to the Haiti center in Durham, I'm like I don't know what that is. but I googled it. I took my little portfolio went their approach them and say, hey, my name is staff Braxton. I have a black santa. They were like, you have a black santa. They were so ecstatic about me coming there. I don't, I don't think I have to say anything else. It was a done deal and I was just sharing with them. How you know, not only do I have a, you know, santa of color, but I also have quality photography. And so we started there for our first event in 2013 and we've been going there ever since. And so it's just been one thing after another that kind of told me that this was what I was supposed to do. The third thing that I'll show you and then I'll let you say something is that I was going to buy the santa suit just in case santa decide this was not for him. And he wanted to not do with the rest of the season. Okay. It's like, what am I gonna do? I got to find another guy in a suit. So I told him I would buy the suit and so I get a phone call. He says Stafford, have you bought the suit yet? I said no. He said, well don't buy, I mean, what do you mean don't buy it? We need a santa suit. He says, my wife's coworkers friend does santa and he has a suit for me. So I'm already making money and I haven't even done an event yet. Yeah, that's awesome. So those three things lined up and I'm just like, okay, I'm supposed to do this. So your first official event was at the Heritage Center in 2013. Hey, Ty Heritage Center Haiti Heritage Center in 2013. And have you done it every, every year there since then? Every year since, when is that? We missed that event already? Or is that coming up? We had one on the 2020 and then of november and now we're going to come back the weekend prior to christmas december the 18th 19th, 22nd, Oh great. Okay, so between the event in rally this weekend and then that in later December, it sounds like we're going to have a lot of opportunities. You have a lot of, I want to come out. That's great. That's right. That's great. Well congratulations. This is, that's just awesome. I'm glad. It's funny how things just fall into place like that, isn't it? It is, it is when you're open to it and you're willing to step out and just you know, say, hey, let's go for broke. Yeah, now are you the photographer at all these events. I used to be, but I currently have people that have hired to take on that responsibility since now my main business is to get the business going to let people know that we're out here and uh, but if I have to step in and be a photographer? No problem. Okay, cool. Um, and if someone sees this story, if like Crabtree valley or just a store, saw this story and wanted to host a black santa event, could they reach out to you and do that? And how much, how much would it be sure they can? Um, they can go to santa's just like me dot com and drop us a line and let us know that they're interested. Um but certainly if they hire us during the week, it's a little bit less expensive than the weekends obviously. Um, so usually for a business For us to come out, it's a $500 an hour event fee. Um and usually it's a two hour minimum, but we will work with businesses, especially if they're a small business, you know, we're not trying to break anybody, but at the same time, you know, these guys have a very short window of opportunity to earn an income and so we tried to do the do right by them also. Um we can go to homes, we will come to homes. Well if you want us to come to your home and have a visit with santa will do that as well. All that information is on the website that they can reach out to against santa's just like me dot com. Okay, great. Um, do you have a story of maybe a kid, you've seen it one of these events or anyone, you know, basically I want to know, what do you think this means to Children? You know, Children? Um, 11 story that I want to just told me is that we see a lot of interracial couples. A lot of them have black fathers. And so my mother came up and told me an event held in Huntsville this year. She said, Mommy, I want a santa that looks like daddy. And of course we, we were able to do that. So representation to Children is more important than I than I than I think we realize. And when, most of time when they see the red suit and the white beard, they don't really care about color for the most part. Um, but when they're being bombarded all the time with just images that doesn't represent them, it becomes a glaring reality that hey, we're not really thinking about you and what your needs are. And so that's the thing that drives me. Um, it's just the representation. I really hope that I can turn this into a 501 C3 get corporations to fund us so that we can take this to places that, you know, the little Hamlets of north Carolina and Virginia and south Carolina that they don't get a chance to see a santa that looks like them and not have to charge them for the, for the photographs. Um that's really my heart's cry. But um, then there's a story that I had of a woman who came to visit us in charlotte last year, not last year, year before last and her daughter and granddaughter had come to take photographs of the church that we had to pop up at and the daughter posted them online and the grandmother saw them and she made a beeline to us. She's shaking with tears literally in her eyes saying that she had never seen a black sound and she had me crying and of course I did not let her pay for those pictures. It was my pleasure and honor to be able to bless her with these images. There are countless stories like that are parents that are just so appreciative that we're doing this that we're giving them the opportunity and that's all people are asking was just the opportunity to have representation. I just heard about brazil Who has a 54% population that are African American or not African American, excuse me that are people of color and 94% or no, 92% of their media is is white and I'm thinking that ought to be or not to be. And so coca cola is actually doing a, I don't even know what you call it, a caravan, I guess of their santa truck through various cities where they're hiring black santas for the population and I just think that's an awesome thing, so shout out to coca cola for doing that. But I think businesses are waking up, you know, and I'm seeing more black sandals and stores than I've ever seen.

Ryan Bisesi

Black Santas are appearing in US Disney parks this season for the first time

Disney World at Christmas

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I'm meteorologist K Campbell in the wr severe weather center. Here's your weekend forecast looks pretty good. On Saturday, there is a small chance for rain. That would be first thing very early in the morning in our northern counties. The rest of the day looks pretty good, partly cloudy, mid to perhaps upper seventies. By Sunday, it's much cooler. Highs struggle to get into the sixties even. It's a cloudy day and we've got some scattered showers in the forecast Sunday, but we're on the stable side of the front. So we're not severe weather on Sunday and we really could use some rain. We'll get to that in a minute. Let's talk about your Saturday planner because that's going to be the day to be outside 63 at 8 a.m. by noon, 71 and will be in the mid to upper seventies during the afternoon. Still in the low to mid seventies by dinner time. Future cash shows pretty quiet, start to the day. Perhaps a few showers in our northern counties and cloud cover to start, but those clouds clear and we'll see more sunshine later on before we cloud back overnight into Sunday morning. Scattered showers are possible throughout the first part of the day, Sunday and then we'll see a band of steadier rain make its way in as we head into Sunday evening and perhaps Sunday night as well. Early on, we need any rain, we can get the drought monitor showing an expanded region for abnormally dry and yellow. That's the morning stage before you reach drought status. So we really need some rain to prevent drought from developing as we head into the month of May. The system that's bringing our rain chances for your Friday night is this area of low pressure along with a cold front draped to the south. That cold front is going to knock temperatures down as well. We're down to 46 degrees on Monday morning, 44 we had to lower the low Tuesday morning because there's not likely to be as much cloud cover and that's going to allow temperatures to fall even further. But for the weekend morning will wake up to temperatures near 60 Saturday morning and in the lower fifties again on Sunday morning. If you are running the Tar Heel 10 miler, we got some pretty nice weather for it. A 20% chance for rain for early on. Otherwise temperatures will be in the low to mid 60 s. Looks like some pretty good running weather for us. Looking ahead to next week, we're still on the cooler side start 66. But Monday trending more sunshine And then as we get into Tuesday, Wednesday, we're likely to be back in the seventies, Wednesday. We've got a cold front coming the way it looks now. Only a small 20% chance for rain with the front, but it is going to knock temperatures down again. Not as dramatic but low temperatures could be back in the upper forties with highs in the upper sixties to lower seventies toward the end of next week.

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Hi there, I'm Tina S the cash with tonight's lottery drawings for Friday, April 19th, 2024. Here we go with the Carolina pick 31 is our first winning number tonight, followed by nine, third pick three is six and our pick three. Fireball number is four. Joining me for tonight's drawing is our auditor from the and Jones L LP. Now it's time for the Carolina pick for takes good luck. First winning pick for tonight is three. Second winning number is two. Our third pick for five, fourth pick for another five and our pick for fireball number is one. Let's turn now to the Carolina cash five. If no one matches all five numbers to win the jackpot tonight, tomorrow's top prize is an estimated $287,000. Good luck first winning cash five tonight. 37. That's followed by 10. Our third cash 5, 24th winning number is one and good luck. Our final winning Carolina cash five number tonight is 26. The North Carolina Education lottery has contributed over $10 billion to education. Thanks for your support and get the winning numbers every night right here. Thanks for playing.

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>> ACROSS AMERICA WITH MEGA JACKPOTS, IT'S MEGA MILLIONS. >> GET EM, CAROL. BLACK MEN IS FRIDAY, APRIL 19TH AND TONIGHT'S MEGA MILLIONS JACKPOT IS AN ESTIMATED ANNUITY TIES 178 MILLION DOLLARS. SO THE JACKPOT ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS THAT ALL 5 WHITE PLUS THE GOLD MEGA BALL. GET OUT YOUR TICKETS. GOOD LUCK. THE FIRST NUMBER. IT'S 46 THAT'S FOLLOWED BY 34. THEN WE HAVE 30. UP NEXT IS 19 AND OUR FINAL WHITE BALL IS 58 AND THE GOLD MEGA BALL. IS 3 WINNING NUMBERS AGAIN. ARE 46 34 30 1958.

Mega Millions Drawing

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Good afternoon. I'm Me Global. Welcome to this news drawings for Friday, April 19th, 2024. Let's get started with Carolina pick three. The first number is five. The second is seven. The third is eight and our pick three. Fire all number is five. Joining me for this afternoon drawing is our A for a con and JL LP. Now move on to Carolina pick for the first four. Number is eight. The second is eight. The third is six. The fourth is two and our pick four. Fireball number is six. The North Carolina Education lottery has contributed over $10 billion to education. Thanks for your support and thanks for playing.

Daytime Pick 3 and Pick 4 Drawing

Gov. Roy Cooper joins United States Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm to make a clean energy announcement.

Gov. Cooper makes clean energy announcement

After 22 years in business, Armadillo Grill on Glenwood Avenue in Raleigh has closed.



WE HAVE MORE RAIN IN THE FORECAST FOR THE WEEKEND. I'LL SHOW YOU COMING UP. THE LIST OF DOWNTOWN RALEIGH BUSINESSES SHUTTING THEIR DOORS IS ARMADILLO GRILL IS THE LATEST TO CLOSE FOR GOOD. >> WRAL'S SEAN GALLAGHER IS IN DOWNTOWN RALEIGH TO FIND OUT WITH THIS MEANS FOR THE GLENN WOOD, SOUTH AREA. SEAN, THIS WAS A SURPRISE TO A LOT OF FOLKS. >> YEAH, THIS WAS VERY ABRUPT SO ABRUPT THAT WE'VE SEEN A HANDFUL OF PEOPLE COMING UP HERE TRYING TO GET LUNCH ON THIS THURSDAY AFTERNOON AND THEY'RE MET WITH THIS SIGN ON THE DOOR, LETTING THEM KNOW THAT THEY ARE SHUT DOWN FOR GOOD, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY AT THIS LOCATION. NOW, THIS TEX MEX RESTAURANT CALL THE CORNER OF GLENWOOD AVENUE AND TUCKER STREET HOME FOR THE LAST. 22 YEARS. IN A FACEBOOK POST, THE OWNERS SAY CHANGES IN THE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY AND RISING COSTS ARE WHY THEY'RE SHUTTING DOWN THIS LOCATION. IT'S THE LATEST IN A STRING OF STAPLE BUSINESSES RALLY, CLOSING CLOUDS BREWING, SHUT DOWN ITS RALEIGH TAVERN ON WEST STREET EARLIER THIS MONTH IN THE CAPITAL CLUB. 16 IS SHUTTING DOWN AT THE END OF THIS MONTH. OUR BELOVED REAL SAID THEY WILL LOOK FOR ANOTHER LOCATION TO SERVE THE RALEIGH COMMUNITY. BUT FOR SHARE MCCRACKEN OF GARDEN SCAPE DESIGNER FOR BUSINESSES AROUND THIS AREA. THIS IS JUST A SIGN OF THE EVOLUTION OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD. >> IT'S ELEVATING RIGHT NOW. PEOPLE THAT ARE NOT ABLE TO KIND OF ROLL WITH IT. NATURALLY COMING TO AN END AND MAYBE THERE WILL BE ANOTHER SPOT THAT'S PERFECT FOR THEM. BUT YOU CAN DEFINITELY FEEL THAT THERE IS A CHANGE GOING ON ON THE STREETS OF DOWNTOWN RALEIGH. >> AN ARMADILLO GRILL WILL ARE STILL OFFER THEIR CATERING SERVICES HERE AND THEY WILL STILL OPERATE THEIR FLAGSHIP LOCATION IN CARRBORO. BUT RENEE, THAT'S ABOUT 40 MINUTES AWAY RIGHT NEAR UNC CAMPUS. >> WHILE CUSTOMERS WILL HAVE TO DRIVE A LOT FARTHER AND WE WILL SEE WHAT ENDS UP TAKING ITS PLACE. THERE ON GLENWOOD

Glenwood South staple Armadillo Grill closes

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Is powerball. Good evening, everyone. I'm Randy Trainer. Tonight. We have our life changing jackpot. It's estimated to be $80.7 million to get your tickets ready. Here. Come, tonight's winning numbers. Let's start things off this evening with the number 24. Right after that America. We have the number 54 and congratulations to Lisa Hayes from Illinois. She won $2 million playing powerball. All right, the rest of your winning number is 4447. And let's round it out tonight with the number 29 and tonight's win powerball number that's gonna be two and your power play multiplier is two. Let's take a look at tonight's winning numbers. Remember there are multiple ways to win. Good luck, everyone. We'll see you back here on Saturday night. It's time to play America's favorite.

Black Santas are appearing in US Disney parks this season for the first time

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