Let Us Help You Grow Your Business to New Heights. To take your business to the next level, it’s essential that you choose the right financial partner. At East West Bank, we offer all the products and services you expect from a big bank with the high level of personal attention you expect from a local bank. Our bankers have over 40 years of experience helping minority businesses reach their financial goals. We look forward to working closely with you to customize a financial solution tailored to your unique situation. For more information about East West Bank and our solutions for businesses, please call: 1.626.768.6729 www.eastwestbank.com
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Publisher's Message
B
usiness ownership is often seen as a steppingstone to economic and social equality, which makes the high growth rate of black-owned businesses in the U.S. a positive shift. According to the most recent data, the number of black-owned businesses in the U.S. grew at around triple the national rate. In 2010—the year on which this data is based—there were 2 million businesses owned by African-Americans, a 60.5% increase over five years. The national rate was 18%. Over the same period, receipts generated by blackowned businesses increased 55% to $137.5 billion. According to the census analysis, nearly four in 10 black-owned businesses operated in the health care Pubisher/Chief Executive Officer and social assistance; and repair, maintenance, personal and laundry services sectors. The retail trade and health care, and social assistance sectors accounted for over 25% of black-owned business revenue. Of the reported 2 million black businesses, less than 1% has paid employees. Subsequently, the bulk of them are non-employers. However, with adequate growth, this profile can be dramatically changed. One of the major challenges for successfully operating and growing a business to a point to hire employees is capital. However, small and mid-size black firms tend to fund their operations and expansion via cash-on-hand and cash flow. Selffinancing is preferred over debt, and everything else is a distant third. And one of the most published sources for capital is the U.S. Small Business Administration (www.sba.gov). For minority firms looking to raise capital, programs provided by the SBA and recent changes to security laws – the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act (www. sec.gov/spotlight/jobs-act.shtml) in particular – can help small and minority businesses access capital. However, familiarity with and use of these options are low. It is also a well publicized message that small businesses are the engine that drives our economy and economic growth, with more than 28 million small businesses employing 56 million Americans – nearly Denise Young Smith
Earl “Skip” Cooper, II
half of the workforce population – across the country. Small businesses represent more than 99.7% of all U.S. businesses – more than half of the non-farm private GDP in the United States – and contributed two of every three jobs generated in 2014. On the 4th of May, President Barack Obama proclaimed National Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.
Black Business News Group P.O. Box 43159 Los Angeles, CA 90043 USA 323-291-7819 Fax: 323-298-5064
www.blackbusinessnews.net PUBLISHER/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Earl “Skip” Cooper, II
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3 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
About
ABOUT THE BLACK BUSINESS NEWS GROUP… The mission of The Black Business News is to inspire and inform public and private sector industry representatives on the importance of smart small business growth. As a versatile source of socioeconomic development activity news, the publications of the Black Business News Group impart current local, national and international industry and social trends and news affecting small businesses across the United States of America (USA), providing guides to greater access to financial capital, management efficiencies, business education, mentorship opportunities and social media networks. The goals of the Black Business News Group include:
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promoting USA-based black-owned business enterprises to a world wide audience.
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offering business growth enhancing information on education, exhibitioning, international trading, technology, industry trends, and more.
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or exploring major public and private sector pmethods to educate black-owned and operated enterprises.
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providing an affirmative influence forr emerging entrepreneurs by sharing in-novative design and creative cultural con-tent that exposes them to the history off black enterprises and urges them to participate in the USA’s future.
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advocating and promoting on behalf of black-owned businesses by promoting the need for expanding an economic foundation that supports an unfettered and self-sustained urban society with USA job creation and economic opportunity, where blacks work, live and operate viable business enterprises.
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Contents
Black Business News…May 2015 3
~
Publisher's Message
Government 8
~
Celebrating the Highly Successful PAGE Initiative
39 41 42 43 49 56 72
~ Recommendations on Immigration ~ Radio One, American Express Serve Announce Women’s Empowerment Tour ~ Microsoft Rolls Out Skype for Business to Office 2013 ~ USPS May 31 Rate Hike Approved ~ 4 Ways to Increase Event (Business) App Adoption ~ Skyline Trade Show Tips: 11 Ways to Build Your Brand at Trade Shows ~ PUSH TECH 2020
CommunityPublic Interest 78
~ First Lady's Powerful Remarks to Tuskegee University's Class of 2015
Obituaries 82 83 84 86 87 88 92
26 10 ~ 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit 11 ~ Thoughts the President Shared on Poverty in America 12 ~ President Obama Issues ConnectED: Library Challenge 14 ~ My Brother's Keeper Alliance: Expanding Opportunity Works 18 ~ More Visitors, More Exports — U.S. Trade Agreements Matter to the Travel Economy 21 ~ It's World Trade Week! 22 ~ World Fair Trade Week 2015 23 ~ USTDA Celebrates Making Global Local and U.S. Exports During World Trade Month 24 ~ Governor Brown Appoints Gene Hale to International Trade and Investment Advisory Council
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Ann Shaw, civic leader in Los Angeles Lu Vason, Producer, Rodeo Impresario Calvin Peete, a Pioneer on the PGA Tour Golf Pioneer Charlie Sifford Remembering Percy Sledge B. B. King, Defining Bluesman for Generations Globetrotters Legend Marques Haynes
International 96
~ Ethiopian Airlines to Launch Route to Los Angeles International Airport
96
Editorials/Perspectives 26
~ Without Fear or Favor
Entertainment 28
~ BBN Show Biz Buzz
Business 33 34 37
~ The Facts Behind the Figures: Determining the Cost of Goods Sold ~ Email is a Product, Not an Advertisement ~ BBN Biz Notes
Columns
74 ~ Take a Look! 108 ~ Shopping Gallery 123 ~ Calendar 124 ~ Books to Consider... 127 ~ Resources
5 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Government
Celebrating the Highly Successful PAGE Initiative
U
.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker joined President Obama in celebrating emerging entrepreneurs from across the United States and around the world. During the event, the White House announced the addition of nine new members of the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship (PAGE) initiative, which Secretary Pritzker chairs. PAGE is a group of America’s most respected business creators who have committed to sharing their time, energy, ideas, and experience to help develop the next generation of entrepreneurs around the world. The investment summit comes ahead of this summer’s Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, which both Secretary Pritzker and President Obama will attend to galvanize global attention on emerging women and young entrepreneurs. “The expansion of PAGE will allow us to meet an evergrowing demand for entrepreneurship ambassadors in the U.S. and globally,” said Secretary Pritzker. They will share their lessons and experiences about transforming innovative ideas into thriving companies. At home, we must continue to encourage entrepreneurship as a key driver of economic growth. Abroad, we must support emerging entrepreneurs as they seek to achieve economic opportunity that leads to long-term peace and stability. President Obama and his Administration are fully committed to this task as well as to supporting and creating the conditions for entrepreneurs to succeed.” In the United States and in developed countries, entrepreneurship has been a key driver of job creation and innovation. Across a wide range of sectors and regions, entrepreneurs and small business owners have generated more than 65% of net new jobs over the last two decades. In addition, startups in high-tech hubs alone account for over 40% of new jobs each year – despite comprising only 1% of all businesses. As the driving force behind the Administration’s
President Barack Obama focus on entrepreneurship, the Commerce Department partners with businesses to set the conditions for innovators and new businesses to test new ideas, take risks, find financing and customers, and ultimately thrive. Many of the Department’s core responsibilities help create the essential infrastructure of opportunity for entrepreneurs – whether issuing patents that protect intellectual property, making investments in local economic development, collecting and disseminating data to inform better decision making, expanding
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access to broadband, or protecting a free and open internet. “As the Administration’s point person on entrepreneurship, and as an entrepreneur myself, I am honored to chair the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship Initiative. It is our goal to spread the knowledge, ideas, and talent of America’s top innovators who can inspire and empower the next generation of entrepreneurs at home and around the world,” said Secretary Pritzker. Each PAGE member has agreed to develop a signature initiative, delivering on the core tenets of the PAGE mission: to provide entrepreneurs with opportunities to access capital, talent and education, inspiration and hope. These signature initiatives are specifically designed and developed to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs, expand the networks and global exposure of existing entrepreneurs, Secretary John Kerry
and increase the deal-flow between investors and entrepreneurs. PAGE members will participate in public events and use their voice and platforms to connect with and inspire entrepreneurs, at home and abroad. The members of PAGE are (new members in bold): • Rich Barton, Founder, Expedia, Zillow and Glassdoor • Tory Burch, Founder and CEO, Tory Burch • Steve Case, Chairman and CEO, Revolution, LLC • Brian Chesky, Co-Founder and CEO, Airbnb • Antonio Gracias, CEO and Chief Investment Officer, Valor Equity Partners • Helen Greiner, CEO, CyPhyWorks • Julie Hanna, Executive Chair of the Board, Kiva • Elizabeth Holmes, Founder and CEO, Theranos • Daymond John, Founder, FUBU and CEO, Shark Branding • Daphne Koller, President and Co-Founder, Coursera • Daniel Lubetzky, CEO and Founder, KIND Snacks • Ali Rosenthal, Vice President, Strategic Partnerships, Wealthfront • Debbie Sterling, Founder and CEO, GoldieBlox • Hamdi Ulukaya, Founder and CEO, Chobani • Nina Vaca, CEO, Pinnacle Technical Resources • Alexa von Tobel, Founder and CEO, LearnVest • Andrew Yang, Founder and CEO, Venture for America
Secretary Pritzer with Eric Schmidt, Chairman, Google
http://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/ USDOC/bulletins/103cc56
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Government
2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship (PAGE) initiative
President Obama elevated entrepreneurship to the forefront of the United States’ engagement agenda during a historic speech in Cairo in 2009. The Administration has delivered on this commitment, greatly expanding support for entrepreneurship and economic opportunity around the world. Since 2010, when the U.S. hosted the first Summit in Washington, D.C., GES has expanded to a global event, subsequently hosted by the governments of Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, and Morocco. The 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) will be held in Nairobi, Kenya, on July 25-26, 2015. It will be the sixth annual gathering of entrepreneurs at all stages of business development, business leaders, mentors, and high-level government officials. The established tradition demonstrates the U.S. Government’s continued commitment to fostering entrepreneurship around the world. If you are interested in being considered to receive an invitation to the summit, you must submit an application. To apply to attend GES, please visit www.ges2015.org and follow the instructions online. Thank you, Bert Kaufman, Senior Advisor, Office of the Secretary Co-Director, Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship (PAGE) U.S. Department of Commerce 10 May Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
"I am a black man who grew up without a father, and I know the costs that I paid for that." “I also know I had by Tanya Somanader the capacity to break that cycle, and as a consequence I think my daughters are better off,” he said. “For me to have that conversation does not negate my conversation about the need for early childhood education, or the need for job training, or the need for greater investment in infrastructure or jobs in low-income communities.” "It would be President Barack Obama participates in a discussion about poverty during the powerful for our faithCatholic-Evangelical Leadership Summit on Overcoming Poverty, at Georgetown based organizations University in Washington, D.C. From left, moderator E. J. Dionne, Jr., Washington Post to speak out" on columnist and professor in Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy, Robert Putnam, poverty." professor of public policy at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government “There’s a more and Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute. (Official White House transformative voice Photo by Pete Souza) around these issues that can move and touch people,” the President said. If faith-based n May 12th at Georgetown the decision — or failure — to make organizations make it a priority to University, President those investments. The President fight on poverty issues, they can Obama sat down with also offered his candid and personal spur a swell of political will to act on Harvard professor Robert Putnam views on how growing up without a behalf of America’s impoverished and American Enterprise Institute father shaped how he sees these communities. “Nobody’s shown that better than Pope Francis.” president Arthur Brooks to share issues today.
Thoughts the President Shared on Poverty in America
O
his views on poverty in America and what we can do to ensure every American — no matter who they are, where they come from, or where they live — has access to the opportunities they deserve. The conversation, hosted by the Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne, touched on economic solutions that can broaden opportunity, the political will to support initiatives that expand those opportunities, and the minority communities that are disproportionately impacted by
Here are the top three highlights from the conversation here: "We have not been willing, I think, to make some of those common investments so that everybody can play a part in getting opportunity." “A free market is perfectly compatible with making investment in good public schools, public universities; investments in public parks,” the President said. “But that’s, in part, what’s been under attack for the last 30 years.”
The White House Wants Your Thoughts How does poverty impact your community? Share what you’re seeing and what you think would make a difference in your neighborhood with us here: www. whitehouse.gov/webform/povertyand-opportunity-your-communitywhat-are-you-seeing, www.whitehouse.gov/ blog/2015/05/12/3-important-thoughtspresident-shared-poverty-america
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Government
President Obama Issues ConnectED: Library Challenge
P
resident Obama has called on library directors to work with their mayors, school leaders, and school librarians, to create or strengthen partnerships so that every child enrolled in school can receive a library card. Over 30 major cities and counties have announced they are taking the challenge and will work to provide cards to all students. To support the implementation of the ConnectED Library Challenge (www.whitehouse. gov/the-press-office/2015/04/30/ fact-sheet-spreading-joy-readingmore-children-and-young-adults), the government announced new commitments to action: The Institute of Museum and
Library Services: Host a national convening this summer to identify and share best practices in reaching universal library card use among public school students. Urban Libraries Council: Lead an initiative that provides a forum for community, library and school leaders to work together to meet city and county education goals by leveraging resources and measuring outcomes. American Library Association
(ALA): Drive adoption of the ConnectED Library Challenge through their 55,000 members and align the challenge with existing support and technical assistance provided through their Every Child Ready to Read initiative. “ALA calls on school and public library leaders to work collaboratively with school administrators and civic leaders to ensure that each and every student has a public library card,” said American Library
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Association Young.
President
Courtney
FACT SHEET: Spreading the Joy of Reading to More Children and Young Adults Every child deserves the chance to learn and thrive in an environment that is enriched by the latest technology. Two years ago President Obama announced ConnectED, a signature initiative focused on transforming teaching and learning through digital connectivity and content. Today, building on the progress made to date, at the Anacostia Library in Washington, D.C., the President will announce two new efforts to strengthen learning opportunities by improving access to digital content and to public libraries: new eBooks
commitments and the ConnectED Library Challenge. The first is commitments from publishers to find ways to make sure their content is available to low-income youth in America. Major publishers are announcing they will make over $250 million in free eBooks available to low-income students. Nonprofits and libraries are partnering with each other to create an app that can deliver this content and materials from the public domain. Complementing that effort, the ConnectED Library Challenge is a commitment by more than 30 communities to put a library card into every student’s hand so they will have access to the learning resources and books they can read for pleasure, all available in America’s libraries.
These initiatives represent another way the ConnectED effort is making a real difference for students. Combined with the $2 billion in private-sector commitments, and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) funding for school and library connectivity that includes $2 billion specifically for Wi-Fi, and $1.5 billion more in annual funding — today’s announcement brings the total value delivered as part of this fiveyear transformation in American education to over $10 billion. And as a result of these commitments, we are on track to meet the President’s goal of connecting 99% of students to high-speed broadband in their classrooms and libraries. www.techlearning.com/ blogentry/9275
13 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Government
My Brother's Keeper Alliance: Expanding Opportunity Works by Broderick Johnson
T
oday, I will join President Obama as he travels to Lehman College in the Bronx, NY to speak about the importance of expanding opportunity and to applaud a new private-sector entity -- the My Brother's Keeper Alliance. A group of private-sector leaders and other prominent private
citizens, led by Joe Echevarria (the former CEO of Deloitte LLP) have come together to form this new, independent non-profit. Joined by a diverse range of philanthropic, community, and private-sector partners, leaders of the Alliance are pledging to work to expand opportunity for youth, strengthen the American workforce, and fortify the
economic stability of communities across America. The Alliance will join other privatesector organizations all across America to focus on expanding opportunity and tearing down barriers facing our youth so that we can truly say the American Dream is available to all. Meanwhile, at the White House,
On the first anniversary of the My Brother's Keeper initiative, President Barack Obama gree Gerard Contee during a mentee lunch in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, Fe 27, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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ets eb.
the work of the President's My Brother's Keeper (MBK) Task Force, which it is my honor to chair, will continue to move forward on the work the President has charged us with. We will continue -- with great urgency -- to disseminate best practices, strengthen federal policy, and implement strategies to support communities in their efforts to expand opportunity for all youth. When President Obama first announced the My Brother's Keeper initiative from the East Room of the White House in February 2014, he framed it as a call to action for every American to recognize that "my neighbor's child is my child" -- that each of us has an obligation to give every child the same chance this country has given so many of us. Over the past year, foundations, corporations, small business owners, educators, philanthropies, law enforcement, artists, athletes,
and all levels of government from across the country have responded with remarkable energy and resolve, and they have announced an array of fresh initiatives to attack the challenges facing our youth in new ways. Over the course of the Administration, we have made consistent progress on important goals, such as reducing high school dropout rates and lowering unemployment and crime. Yet persistent gaps in employment, educational outcomes, and career skills remain, barring too many youth from realizing their full potential, and creating harmful social and economic costs to our nation. Over the past year, we already have made progress addressing the central goals originally laid out by the President's MBK Task Force to ensure that all young people enter school ready to learn, all young people are reading at grade level by the third grade, all youth are graduating from high school ready for college and career, all youth
are completing postsecondary education or training, all young people are successfully entering the workforce, and all young people are safe from violence and provided the second chances they deserve. Here are some examples on how we are working to achieve these goals: • The U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services (HHS) have worked together to begin reversing troubling trends of suspensions and expulsions in preschool settings, and have announced upwards of $750 million in Preschool Development Grants. • In December 2014, the Department of Education also helped launch the second White House College Opportunity Day of Action. And the President launched America's College Promise, a campaign to advocate for free community college for all dedicated students. • The Department of Labor's
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continues on page 16
Government American Apprenticeship Initiative and the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe will provide more than $100 million to create clearer pathways to success by helping youth build both work and life skills. • The Department of Justice, agencies across government, and the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing have worked to promote community-oriented policing practices, improve trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve, and improve the overall life and educational outcomes for young people -- including those who encounter the law enforcement or the legal system. Beyond the work of the President's MBK Task Force, there are now more than 200 communities that have accepted the President's My Brother's Keeper Community Challenge, committing to launching Local Action Plans with bold goals and strategies to produce results that will bridge opportunity gaps. And, since the President's call to action in February 2014, nearly $500 million in grants and in-kind resources have been independently committed by the private sector to
attack the challenges facing our youth in new ways and expand opportunity, including a $100 million announcement just last week from Equal Opportunity Schools and its partners to increase enrollment of low-income and minority students in advance courses. For so many of us, the My Brother's Keeper initiative is deeply personal. As a proud son of Baltimore, this week's announcement comes at a time of unique and special resonance for me. As the country reflects on our shared responsibility to ensure that opportunity reaches every young person, I urge everyone to look at their own capacity to make a difference. Whether it's taking time to mentor, tutoring young people in your neighborhood, or creating new internship or apprenticeship opportunities for young people in your community -- everyone can play a role in building a brighter future. The President's My Brother's Keeper Initiative is about recognizing that our young people are not the problem, but rather the solution. And it's about each of us seeing our neighbor's child as our own. Their futures as individuals, and as members of a shared
community and economy, are forever tied together. As we move further into the fourth quarter of President Obama's time in office, our entire team is following his lead and preparing to accomplish as much as we possibly can with the MBK Task Force. And as leaders like Joe Echevarria, MBK Alliance honorary chair John Legend, and their colleagues take initiative to respond to the challenges facing our youth in new ways -- big and small, locally and nationally -- I share the President's confidence that we will begin to see a future come into focus that is increasingly inclusive, empowering, and rich with opportunity for all Americans. We welcome the newly organized My Brother's Keeper Alliance to this work, and look forward to the progress they will help build. Broderick Johnson is Assistant to the President, Cabinet Secretary, and Chair of the My Brother's Keeper Task Force. www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/05/04/ expanding-opportunity-works www.whitehouse.gov/the-pressoffice/2015/05/04/remarks-presidentroundtable-my-brothers-keeperalliance
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Guest Editorial
More Visitors, More Exports — U.S. Trade Agreements Matter to the Travel Economy By Roger Dow, President/CEO, U.S. Travel Association
“…75 million international visitors entered the U.S. in 2014.” “…overseas visitors spend an average of $4,300 here per person, per trip. That math isn’t complicated.”
W
hen most Americans think of “trade,” they think of cars, textiles, agricultural products — basically, things moved in the box containers you see lifted on and off ships in Long Beach, CA; Galveston, TX; or Norfolk, VA. I’m a hotelier by trade. The association I lead represents hotels and other businesses and organizations with a financial stake in seeing more people travel to and within the United States. Why, I am often asked, does the U.S. Travel Association have an active interest in Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) — the proposal now before Congress that would expedite the U.S.’s international trade agreements? You can be forgiven for not thinking
of travel as a U.S. export, because most people and policymakers don’t — yet. But our economy would be better off if that changed. Travel, in fact, is already America’s second-largest industry export —$221 billion worth in 2014 alone. That’s because when foreign currency is spent on U.S. goods and services, it counts as an export — even when the transactions happen on U.S. soil, as is the case when foreign travelers come
here and spend. While the overall U.S. trade deficit last year was $505 billion, the travel and tourism industry boasted a trade surplus of $74 billion. The best part? U.S. travel jobs are unexportable; they need to be here in order to serve the travelers who are here. That’s a big reason why travel supports one out of every nine U.S. jobs. And things are looking better all the time: A record 75 million international visitors entered the U.S. in 2014. The recent growth trend in that figure puts us well ahead of a pace to eclipse 100 million visitors from abroad annually by 2020. And overseas visitors spend an average of $4,300 here per person, per trip. That math isn’t
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complicated, even for me. Travel also has the power to do a disproportionate amount of good for overall U.S. economic performance. It is among the bestperforming sectors in the wake of the recession, replacing jobs 37% faster than the broader economy, and returning to 2007 employment levels in November of 2012 as many other sectors continued to struggle. And while many other industry exports were contracting, travel accounted for 9% of the growth in exports in 2014. But with a couple of policy tweaks, we could be doing even better. An underappreciated fact is that U.S. destinations and travel businesses directly benefit from free-trade agreements negotiated with other countries. Following
the conclusion of agreements with the following nations, travel to the United States increased from Australia (+21%), Colombia (+139%), Singapore (+50% and South Korea (+67%). Free-trade agreements also contribute to greater international participation at U.S. trade shows and conventions. According to Oxford Economics, international visitors comprise up to 5% of total U.S. exhibition meetings. That figure would theoretically rise with expanded trade pacts such as those the Obama administration is actively seeking and which have traditionally enjoyed bipartisan support. The Trade Promotion Act is a key tool in making that happen. TPA gives the president a pre-approved
congressional framework for new trade pacts, allowing them to be negotiated and implemented more quickly. TPA is the critical precursor to long-stalled agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Just think: The economic potential of the huge markets in Asia and the European Union could be fully unleashed in a few short months, once TPA is passed. Congress has granted TPA to all but one U.S. president since Franklin Roosevelt. Why? Trade partnerships, especially in today’s global economy, support jobs and strengthen the economy. The 114th Congress should follow suit and pass TPA today. www.ustravel.org/
www.facebook.com/pages/Los-Angeles-Worlds-Fair/543396465697684
www.laworldsfair.org
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World Trade
THE WHITE HOUSE PRESIDENTIAL PROCLAMATION - WORLD TRADE WEEK, 2015 After 6 years of tremendous progress, America has fought its way back from the worst recession of our lifetimes. With the grit and determination of working families, we have rebuilt our economy, retooled the auto industry, and revitalized American manufacturing. Our economy is growing and creating jobs at the fastest pace in over a decade, and as this progress continues, we must ensure that all Americans can share in our Nation's prosperity. This conviction is at the core of middle-class economics, and few things are as vital to ensuring that our economy benefits all Americans as trade. Trade allows our people to work, our businesses to thrive, and our goods and services to compete on a global scale. This week, we reaffirm the importance of trade, and we redouble our efforts to position our workers, farmers, manufacturers, and businesses at the center of the 21st-century global economy. America's future depends on unlocking economic opportunities beyond our borders, where 95 percent of the world's customers live. Last year was the fifth straight record-breaking year for United States exports, supporting 11.7 million American jobs and contributing nearly one-third of our country's overall economic growth since 2009. Continuing this steady progress will strengthen America's middle class because businesses that export tend to hire more, pay their workers more, and invest more in innovation and research. Americans prosper when foreign markets are open and our trading partners play by the rules. My Administration's efforts to advance trade are focused on opening markets to American products and ensuring the rules of the trading system are fair and reflect our values, including on issues such as workers' rights and the environment. That is why I am committed to leading on trade -- creating a race to the top for higher wages and better working conditions -with a progressive, values-driven agenda that will ensure the United States is able to shape the rules of the global economy to benefit our workers and create economic opportunities for our people and all those around the globe. In the Asia-Pacific, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement will open new doors of opportunity for American workers and businesses in the world's fastest growing region. Through the TPP, the United States is updating NAFTA, instituting stronger, fully enforceable labor and environmental standards, and ensuring our trade partners play by the rules. With American leadership, this agreement will remove trade barriers and provide our Nation's exporters and innovators access to these markets. And to protect our workers and improve the lives of workers across the globe, it will advance labor protections -- including a minimum wage, a prohibition on child labor and forced labor, and the right to form unions. This agreement will level the playing field for our workers and increase exports of products stamped "Made in the USA." Smart trade agreements are important to helping middle-class families get ahead. My Administration has redoubled our efforts to enforce existing trade agreements, and we are working to ensure all Americans have the knowledge and skills to succeed in an export-driven economy. Our work has produced real results, protecting jobs here at home and making it easier for businesses to reach consumers living outside our borders, and it has demonstrated that when the playing field is level, American workers and businesses do not just compete -- they win. During World Trade Week, we renew our commitment to leading on trade in order to support more jobs and increase wages here at home. For nearly a century, a key component of this leadership has been strong bipartisan support for trade negotiating authority, which the Congress now has an opportunity to upgrade and, in so doing, shape how the United States and our trading partners engage on trade in the 21st century. Generations of hardworking Americans have made our economy the greatest in the world, and together, we can ensure that trade safeguards our country's promise as a land of opportunity where everyone can make it if they try. NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 17 through May 23, 2015, as World Trade Week. I encourage all Americans to visit www.WhiteHouse.gov/Trade and to observe this week with events, trade shows, and educational programs that celebrate and inform Americans about the benefits of trade to our Nation and the global economy. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand fifteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-ninth.
BARACK OBAMA
World Trade
It's World Trade Week! Stefan M. Selig is the Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade
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his month is World Trade Month. Every May, we celebrate how trade and investment elevates our businesses and our workers, and we reaffirm our commitment to the policies that will lead to more exports, more prosperity and more jobs. This World Trade Month has more meaning than a lot of previous ones because the U.S. House and Senate are considering trade promotion legislation, which would give the administration authority that has not existed since 2007 to negotiate trade agreements. This legislation will offer all Americans the opportunity to read any trade agreement for 60 days before the President signs it. And for the first time, it will insist that our trade partners meet high labor and environmental standards. But our efforts to secure trade agreements in the Asia-Pacific and Europe do not mean we are
losing focus on our own backyard: the Western Hemisphere. In April, the U.S. signed a historic agreement with our largest trade
streamline the exchange of goods and streamline our supply chains. That is why we are actively working with stakeholders to develop important cross-border ports of entry: road, rail, and air. The West-Hem has also been a strong market for U.S. services
partner, Canada. For the past several decades, air travelers between the U.S. and Canada would be screened prior to boarding planes—a streamlining process called preclearance. The agreement signed last month will apply preclearance for the first time to land and rail travel. That is good news for businesses in states like Michigan, which exported more than $25 billion to Canada last year, and in the Detroit-Windsor corridor, which contributed a quarter of that trade. As for our border partner to the south, much of U.S.-Mexico trade runs through the San DiegoTijuana mega region. What this cluster proves is that in a world of global supply chains, it is hard to see where U.S. commerce ends and Mexican commerce begins. One medical device manufacturing facility in Tijuana sources more than 85% of its inputs from the U.S. Increasing border efficiencies will
exports, including our best-in-class educational services. We recently led an education trade mission to El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua with representatives from nearly 20 education institutions. Those representatives showcased their offerings to prospective students during visits to schools and education trade fairs. While those exports will help to develop the workforce in these and other countries, they will also lead to more jobs here at home. So as we celebrate World Trade Month, let us take a moment to acknowledge the incredible trade partnerships that help generate prosperity here. And let us also take a moment to acknowledge the second-tonone U.S. business community that has produced a record number of exports, exporters, and jobs supported by exports. http://trade.gov/publications/itanewsletter
21 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
World Trade
World Fair Trade Week 2015
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he World Fair Trade Week (www.worldfairtradeweek. org) is a biennial event initiated by World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO), taking place from 23 to 31 May 2015. The first World Fair Trade Week was held in Rio de Janeiro in May 2013 and this year it will be held in Milan, Italy. The organisers are excited that this years celebration will be held in Milan. Alessandro Franceschini, President of AGICES, explained that this will be a great opportunity for Italy to propose Fair Trade as a new solution to the current economic climate, a possibility to strengthen the solidarity economy and drive social justice within Italy and Europe. AGICES is coorganising the event with WFTO. WFTO CE Natália Leal and numerous WFTO Members from all over the world will attend the WFTO Milan Conference 2015, happening during the Fair Trade Week. Highlights of the event include: • 5th Fair Trade International Symposium • Fair Trade fashion show • Fair cooking events • and many more!
World Fair Trade Week Manifesto The World Fair Trade Week is the most important international event for Fair Trade. The Fair Trade movement started in the 60’s to promote an economic system based on justice – fair prices, better working conditions, transparent trade relations – and allow the economically marginalised producers of the South to improve the quality of their life. It is now gradually spreading among
producers of the North, serving as a socially and environmentally sustainable economic model. The focus of the week – represented by various events and taking different forms – will be to highlight the values and innovative meaning of Fair Trade. This will be achieved in the city with the presence of hundreds of farmers, artisans, marketers, and advocates from around the world. They will testify the existence of companies and organisations whose production and commercial activities are committed to the pursuit of economic justice, respect of people and nature, contributing to the reduction of poverty, social exclusion and environmental destruction. The World Fair Trade Week and its contents, developed by the Fair Trade movement in 50 years of experience, will be relevant in the global debate about food production and distribution, which currently failed to take into account the point of view of small producers and the solidarity economy. The concept of “responsibility” will be the theme of the Fair Trade Week, showing how Fair Trade organisations are able to ensure product excellence, virtuous commercial chain, and a development model that can really “feed” the world. These organisations also prove to be a valid support for consumers and institutions that are aware of the profound social significance of “consumption,” a solidarity to encourage just economic and production paradigms. Two important events during the week: the 13th WFTO (World Fair Trade Organization) Global
Conference and Milano Fair City, the first World Fair Trade Exhibition. One important topic of debate will be the influence few actors of the production chain have on “free market” – something that tends to reduce competition, natural and social biodiversity- as well as the role of producers in the South and in the North of the globe. Fair Trade as a possible response to the economic crisis and to a dominating economic model, based on profit maximization, will be the common link among the various initiatives. Fair Trade products are not just good products. They represent an implicit criticism to the dominating economy, demonstrating that it is possible to produce, consume and save, while respecting social and environmental criteria, distributing profits throughout the production supply chain, taking care of small producers, their lands and their communities. The main goal of the WFT Week, therefore, is to remind consumers and institutions, politicians and companies, that poverty, exploitation and social exclusion are not brought about by fate, but are the consequence of political and economic choices. And that solidarity economy “is good for everyone,” being a virtuous model for all, not only for small producers and consumers.
22 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
World Trade
USTDA Celebrates Making Global Local and U.S. Exports During World Trade Month
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orld Trade Month is an excellent opportunity to celebrate the success of Made-in-America exports. Over the past 40 years, trade has tripled as a share of the U.S. economy, and today, more than 1 in 5 American jobs is tied to international trade. That’s because 95% of the world’s consumers live outside the U.S., many of them in emerging economies. The U.S. Trade and Development Agency (www. ustda.gov) helps U.S. businesses connect with these potential customers by entering or expanding their presence in developing and middle-income countries. USTDA’s programs have generated over $25 billion in U.S. exports, supporting an estimated 110,000 U.S. jobs, over the last 10 years. This success can be attributed to the Agency’s effective activities as well as initiatives like Making Global Local (www. ustda.gov/makinggloballocal/?utm_
source=MailerMailer&utm_ m e d i u m = e m a i l & u t m _ content=Making+Global+Local&utm_camp aign=USTDA+Celebrates+Making+Global +Local+During+World+Trade+Month).
During World Trade Month, USTDA will highlight its partnerships with 39 state and local trade promotion organizations through Making Global Local. The Agency will leverage its social media platforms to promote the export and traderelated services that its Making Global Local partner organizations
offer to U.S. businesses across the country. Making Global Local connects companies across the country to USTDA’s activities through strategic partnerships between the Agency and local economic development organizations. By understanding USTDA’s programs and priorities, these partner organizations help U.S. companies identify sales opportunities in emerging markets. Additionally, USTDA incorporates the local market intelligence gained through its partnerships into the planning process for its events and activities. Join the conversation today on Twitter and Facebook using both the #MakingGlobalLocal and #WorldTradeMonth hashtags.
About USTDA The U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) helps companies create U.S. jobs through the export of U.S. goods and services for priority development projects in emerging economies.
23 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
World Trade
Governor Brown Appoints Gene Hale to International Trade and Investment Advisory Council
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uilding on the state's efforts to help expand international business opportunities for California companies, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. appointed Gene Hale to the California International Trade and Investment Advisory Council (ITIAC). Hale is the CEO of Gardena-based G&C Equipment Corporation, which leases and procures equipment, materials and
supplies for the construction industry. He was one of Governor Brown's thirteen ITIAC appointments. The California International Trade and Investment Advisory Council advises the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) on strategies to expand international trade and investment for California businesses and assists GO-Biz in identifying foreign markets with the greatest potential for export expansion. The council also aids GO-Biz in developing specific export strategies for those markets - including the state's top trading partners, Canada, Mexico and China, and emerging markets such as Brazil and India, as well as strategies to attract more jobcreating foreign direct investment into the state. "I am honored to serve on this important council. This dynamic group of individuals brings a wealth of experience in international affairs and business development and we are ready to help the Governor
and GO-Biz continue to strengthen California's position in the global economy," said Hale. This is not Hale's first appointment related to international export trade industry. In 2012, Gene was appointed by President Barack Obama to the President's Export Council which serves as the principal national advisory committee on international trade. He is also chairman of the Greater Los Angeles African American Chamber of Commerce, a non-profit organization which advocates and promotes the economic grown and development of African Businesses. Renowned for his business acumen, Hale has received many other appointments over his 30 year career. He was appointed by President George W. Bush to the President's Board of Advisors on Historical Black Colleges. Governor Gray Davis appointed Gene to the California Infrastructure Committee for the 21st Century and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed him to the California Small Business Commission. Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas appointed Hale to the Los Angeles County Small Business Commission.
24 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Guest Editorial
Without Fear or Favor
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n Friday, May 1, Marilyn J. Mosby, the State's Attorney for Baltimore City, announced she had found probable cause to prosecute six Baltimore police officers for the death of Freddie Gray. Gray died while in police custody on April 12. Her act was electric, turning angry protests and riots into a celebration. For the African American community, finally, the state had acted to enforce the law
clear that no one can be treated as if they were less than human. Mosby acted in 18 days, about one-fourth the time Missouri officials consumed before making their determination about the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. In her clear statement, she described the “comprehensive, thorough and independent” investigation that had been undertaken by investors of the Police Integrity Unit, as well as by
Baltimore Police themselves. Gray, she concluded, had been arrested illegally, having committed no crime. He died in police custody from injuries suffered while under arrest. He was handcuffed
State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby
Mayor Stephanie Ra
Congressman Elijah Cummings even against the police, making it
the state medical examiner and the
and shackled and, against Baltimore
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police regulations, placed in a van with no seatbelts, and no way to protect himself when thrown about. The van stopped repeatedly, with Gray asking for medical assistance. His request ignored, he was left shackled without a seatbelt. This was probably an instance of what is known as a “rough ride,” which police use to purposefully punish someone. Mosby’s action was a courageous one. She is 35, and took her office only a few months ago. The head of the Police Union has a l r e a d y accused her of a “rush to judgment” and called for her to step aside for a special p r o s e c u t o r. (Although a finding of probable awlings-Blake cause only begins the process; all of these defendants can receive their day in court before judgment is rendered). Given the facts, Mosby stood up. She is not an antagonist of the police. She comes from a long line of police officials. Her father, mother, grandfather and many aunts and uncles were all police
officers. In her announcement of the charges, she stated, “these accusations of these six officers are not an indictment of the entire force.” “…[T] he actions of these officers will not and should not, in any way, damage the important working relationships between police and prosecutors as we continue to fight together to reduce crime in Baltimore. Thank you for your courage, committee and sacrifice for the betterment of the community.” Throughout the Baltimore upheaval, she consistently praised the courage of those demonstrating peacefully for justice and the dedication and courage of the police for protecting the city “from those who want to destroy it.” Mosby was criticized for speaking to the demonstrators in her statement: "To the people of Baltimore and demonstrators across America, I heard your call for 'No Justice, No peace,'" she said. "Your peace is sincerely needed as I work to deliver justice on behalf of this young man." But a prosecutor speaking out to calm her city surely is doing the right thing. She was criticized for telling Freddie Gray’s family that “no one is above the law.” But surely that is a principle that every prosecutor is sworn to uphold. She will be under intense pressure
from police and much of the public. The habit of deference to the police, the willingness to condone behavior so long as the “blue line” of police stays unified, exists in Baltimore as well as across the nation. Baltimore’s Mayor as well as U.S. Representatives Donna Edwards and Elijah Cummings defended her integrity and the process. She will need greater support as she moves forward with the case. The riots in Baltimore, the demonstrations across the country, are sparked by police abuse. But the police are placed in an impossible task of trying to keep order in communities like Sandtown, scarred by desperate poverty and deep despair, with joblessness, boarded up homes, closed plants, crushed hopes leading to drugs and too often violence. Black lives matter is not simply a demand for equal treatment from police and the criminal justice system. It must be a call for jobs, for schools, for hope. Marilyn Mosby can’t provide that. But her decisive action gives people in Baltimore some hope for justice, and officials and people across the country an example to emulate. Her act is not simply about this instance of police brutality. It symbolizes the progress towards “liberty and justice for all” that we desperately need. www.rainbowpush.org
Attorney General Loretta Lynch traveled to Baltimore to meet with city and law enforcement officials, members of Congress and religious and community leaders. Attorney General Lynch, President Obama
27 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
BBN Show Biz Buzz By Linda Ware
Neil Tyson's 'StarTalk' Turns TV Talk Shows Topsy-Turvy (Op-Ed) by Dave Brody, Executive Producer Edited by BBN Staff
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here's no absolute up or down in space, and plenty of celestial places where the physics of the extreme turns common sense inside out. It makes a lot of sense, then, that television's only science talk show — hosted by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson — should try to disrupt and distort the conventional fabric of the media universe. But will StarTalk TV (National Geographic Channel, Monday evenings, 11pm E/10pm C) achieve stable orbit? In partnership with National Geographic, Tyson
has launched into the dark and scary cosmos of market-driven visual media. "The greatest goal is to bring science to people who know that they don't like science," Tyson told us. "My guests are hardly ever scientists. They're people hewn from pop culture. And I — the interviewer — am the scientist, not the journalist. If a journalist is interviewing scientists, you pretty much have to know in advance that you like science [in order] to tune in." Tyson's ideal guests are those with strong, colorful opinions viewable through the lens of science, but you have to already know their names. What if you found out that your favorite big-league celebrity is a closet science junkie? As host, Tyson's balancing act will be between probing the personalities for science sensibilities without getting too personal, lest StarTalk turn into "star-stalk". "It is the blend of science, comedy and pop culture," Tyson said, "Three threads, separate and distinct, at the beginning of the program; I'd like to think that, by the end, we have woven it into a tapestry. So that 1+1+1 = 5; the new arithmetic of StarTalk!" As he treads into territory well staked out by others, Neil will face a backlash; some will decry what they see as elitism. Many already mistake his confidence for arrogance. Some academics take Tyson to task for calling attention to personality over pedagogy. Many TV viewers simply won't dig his shtick. But I think Neil has decided the greater good is served by forging
28 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
ahead, elevating the standard, using his forceful public personality as a force for good. These are times when belief, in the absence of evidence, can be deadly for the individual, the nation and the planet. So I'm on his side.
Trevor Noah: Next Host of the Daily Show by Dave Brody, Executive Producer Edited by BBN Staff
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revor Noah has been selected to become the next host of the Emmy® and Peabody® Awardwinning The Daily Show. Noah joined The Daily Show in 2014 as a contributor. He made his U.S. television debut in 2012 on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and has also appeared on "Late Show with David Letterman," becoming the first South African stand-up comedian to appear on either late-night show. Noah has hosted numerous television shows, including his own late-night talk show in his native country, "Tonight with Trevor Noah." He was featured on the October 2014 cover of GQ South Africa and has been profiled in Rolling Stone, Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal, and by CNN and NPR’s Talk of the Nation, among others. He continues to tour all over the world and has performed
Trevor Noah in front of sold-out crowds at the Hammersmith Apollo in London and the Sydney Opera House in Australia.
EbonyLife TV Africa’s first Global Black Multi-Broadcast Entertainment Network
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bonyLife TV (http://ebonylifetv.com) is a multiplatform broadcaster set to reach Africa’s most important target demographic, the custodians of the present and the future. We are set to produce and broadcast over 1,000 hours of non-stop, original programming with world-class production values. We are set to do this through a variety of engaging platforms that include TV, Mobile, Online, Apps and Live. We are positioned to be the home of the best of African content available. We are a subsidiary of Media and Entertainment City Africa (MEC Africa) located in the serene surroundings of Tinapa, Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria. Visit EbonyLife TV on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/EbonyLifeTV/ photos/a.392792750862691.107374183 0.260856657389635/563925543749410 /?type=1#!/EbonyLifeTV?fref=photo.
see page 30 29 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
BBN Show Biz Buzz
HBO Presents "Bessie"
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ueen Latifah stars as Bessie Smith in the HBO biopic "Bessie" on May 16th. Bessie Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and '30s. She starred in vaudeville, then signed with Columbia Records in 1923. She was highestpaid black performer of her day. Queen Latifah has been evolving Bessie Smith
as a performer over time, from hip hop artist and producer, to movie star in films like "Jungle Fever" and "The Secret Life of Bees" on to Talk Show host of "The Queen Latifah Show."
Steve McQueen Bringing Paul Roberson to Center Stage, Again Paul Roberson, 1925
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teve McQueen, “12 Years a Slave” director, is teaming with Harry Belafonte to produce a Paul Robeson biopic." McQueen hasn't divulged when the film will likely come out, but he has revealed that Harry Belafonte, will star in an as yet unspecified role. Belafonte was a friend and contemporary of Robeson. On his collaboration with Belafonte on the Robeson film, McQueen said: "We're very fortunate that we're on a roll together to make this dream a reality. Miracles
Queen Latifah
Sasha/Getty Images
Steve McQueen do happen. With Paul Robeson and Harry Belafonte, things have come full circle." Harry Belafonte
30 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Ribeiro, who won the ABC dancing competition last season, returned to the reality series for the passing of the baton. The new deal will continue his relationship with the network. As the network began its search for a new television personality,
Shonda Rhimes to Produce MiniSeries
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sabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns is being developed by FX as a limited series with writer-director Dee Rees and producers Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers, best known for the ABC drama trifecta Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder. The Hollywood Reporter first reported the news.
Isabel Wilkerson Published in 2010, The Warmth of Other Suns is nonfiction study of the Great Migration, in which, between 1915 and 1970, nearly 6 million black citizens fled the South for safety in northern and western cities. Wilkerson, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1994 and became the first African-American woman to do so, spent 15 years writing the 622-page New York Times bestseller Betsy Beers, Shonda Rhimes
Dee Rees and winner of the National Book Award for nonfiction. The adaptation, to be penned by Rees, marks Shondaland’s first foray into cable TV. The limited series is also the latest in a line of black heritage dramas currently in development: WGN America is working on the 10-episode production Underground, HBO and Amblin TV have a Harriet Tubman biopic set to star Viola Davis, a Roots remake is headed to History, A&E, and Lifetime in 2016, and a miniseries named Freedom Run is in development at NBC. http://time.com/3847121/shonda-rhimesthe-warmth-of-other-suns/#3847121/ shonda-rhimes-the-warmth-of-other-suns
Alfonso Ribeiro Set as New Host of ABC's 'America's Funniest Home Videos'
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lfonso Ribeiro, best known as Carlton Banks on the 1990s sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, has been named as Tom Bergeron's replacement, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The outgoing emcee made the announcement during the season finale of Dancing With the Stars, which Bergeron also hosts.
Ribeiro, who had an existing relationship with the network (and with Bergeron) from his time on DWTS, stood out as a likely candidate. He's also no stranger to hosting. Among his most recent gigs: The Cooking Channel's Unwrapped 2.0, ABC Family's Spell-Mageddon and GSN's Catch 21.
31 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
THE WHITE HOUSE PRESIDENTIAL PROCLAMATION NATIONAL SMALL BUSINESS WEEK, 2015
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merica's small businesses are the backbone of our economy, employing half of our country's private sector workforce and creating nearly two out of every three new jobs in our country. Representing the quintessential American ideals of hard work and ingenuity, small businesses -- from startups to mom-and-pop shops -- are crucial to our national prosperity and economic security. During National Small Business Week, we recommit to advancing these vital enterprises, and we celebrate their contributions to our collective American story.
From day one, my Administration has made supporting our Nation's small businesses a priority. We have fought to ensure our tax code reflects our values and encourages growth, and part of that effort includes making sure those who take risks and do the hard work of turning a good idea into a great business get a fair deal. That is why I have signed into law 18 different tax cuts for small businesses, which are helping them thrive in the 21st-century economy. By investing in our infrastructure, expanding access to credit, and assisting entrepreneurs as they start out and scale up, we are continuing to bolster America's small business community. My Administration is committed to ensuring small businesses have the tools, resources, and expertise they need to succeed. Last year, we built on the success of my QuickPay initiative -- which has already generated over $1 billion in cost savings for small businesses -- by launching SupplierPay, a new partnership with the private sector to strengthen small businesses by increasing their working capital. The Affordable Care Act is working to expand insurance coverage, reduce health care costs, and improve the quality of care -- all of which help small businesses and our economy. Additionally, the law allows small businesses access to SHOP, a competitive marketplace where they can look for coverage that meets their needs and where they cannot be charged more for operating in blue-collar industries, employing women, or insuring people with pre-existing conditions. We are also focused on injecting capital into emerging, entrepreneurial communities, supporting ventures operated by women, veterans, and underserved populations. And we continue to work to open new markets for small exporters because we know trade promotion bolsters our small businesses and their employees. Our small businesses represent what is best about our Nation -- the idea that with determination and responsibility, anyone can build a better life for themselves and their loved ones. For more than two centuries, American innovation has sparked ideas that have changed our lives and the course of our history for the better. This week, we recognize the role small businesses play as pillars of our communities and engines of our growing economy, and we rededicate ourselves to fostering the entrepreneurial spirit that has forged the strongest economy the world has ever known. NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 4 through May 8, 2015, as National Small Business Week. I call upon all Americans to recognize the contributions of small businesses to the competitiveness of the American economy with appropriate programs and activities. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand fifteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-ninth
BARACK OBAMA
Business
The Facts Behind the Figures: Determining the Cost of Goods Sold Units Sold
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o you know all of the expenses involved in making your product or delivering your service? If so, then you know what your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) is. In a nutshell, COGS drives profit – it tells you the expenses you have each time you make a sale. Before products are sold they might sit in a storeroom or display for an undetermined period of time. Obviously, they are not making you money during this time, but they are still costing you money. It’s for this reason that the COGS is calculated. The COGS is an important figure on your profit and loss statement. For most companies, it's the largest expense – and a critical figure in determining net income. What it costs you to do business is critical not only in determining your income, but also for making decisions for the effective management of your business. It will also help you keep track of the flow of inventory as it moves through your business. The good news is that you can determine COGS using a simple formula: Beginning inventory + inventory purchases – end inventory = cost of goods sold
Any business owner should know how many product units his business has sold. There are several ways of doing this, but it all boils down to determining what inventory you have on hand at a given time. To arrive at this figure, you need to know how many units of finished goods you had on hand in your beginning inventory. To this figure you add the number of units created or added to that inventory during the period. Next, you subtract the number of units that make up your ending inventory. Let’s say you run a dairy farm, for example. If you begin the accounting period with 400 gallons of milk, and during the period your cows gave you 3,900 gallons of milk, and at the end of the period you have 100 gallons of milk, the amount of milk you have sold would be 4,200 gallons.
Calculating the Cost of Goods Sold When you finally arrive at the number of goods you have sold, you need to determine what it cost you to create those goods. There are three methods of doing this – FIFO, LIFO, and Average Cost. This is important to know because while you may have a given number of units on hand, that doesn’t mean you paid the same price for each unit. For example, let’s say you sell shirts from a single vendor and that
vendor charges you $3.00 per shirt. But in the middle of the month, he increases what he charges you to $3.50. If you sell 100 shirts, is your cost of goods sold $300 or $350? It depends on how you cost your goods. FIFO, or "First In, First Out," assumes that the first products in are put out first. In the example above, you would assume that the $3.00 shirts were sold before the $3.50 shirts. LIFO, or "Last In, First Out," assumes that the oldest units of inventory are sold first. In our shirts example above, you would be assuming that your $3.50 shirts were sold before the $3.00 shirts. Average Cost is just what it sounds like. First you take the beginning inventory plus purchases in dollars. Next, this figure is divided by the beginning inventory plus purchases in units. The result of this calculation is the average cost per unit. Next, you take the average cost per unit, and then subtract the number of units sold. The resulting figure is the COGS. Anyone who is debating the best way to determine COGS should not be misled into thinking that this is simply a theoretical concept – it is very real. Further, it can be of great use in determining how much money you have really made for your business efforts. Remember, COGS drives profit! www.sba.gov/blogs/facts-behindfigures-determining-cost-goodssold
33 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Business
Email is a Product, Not an Advertisement 3 ways to put customers first and give them what they want By Daniel Burstein
from them). But it does mean you have to understand how your customers' motivations for email marketing are different. How do you deliver information and offers to people that they want to receive and help them find the things they are looking for? You treat email as a product. And like any good product developer, you create something customers want. Customers want email. According to a MarketingSherpa survey of 2,057 people in January 2015, we discovered that a large majority of U.S. adults, 72%, prefer communication with companies to happen through email (second place was postal mail at 48%). But you don't care if customers want any email marketing; your job is to ensure customers want your email marketing. So how do you break through the digital clutter filling consumers' inboxes? Here are three ideas to help you put the customer first and turn your email marketing into a product.
Idea No. 1: Technology Can Help With Segmentation and Personalization
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ustomers don't choose to receive your print advertisements, your search and display ads, or even some of your direct mail. They subscribe to a newspaper, and happen to receive your print ad within it. They search or read content online, and see a payper-click ad. Or their names are in a database because they're attending an event and your direct mail appears in their mailboxes.
Email is different.
Customers Buy Your Email Marketing From You Sure, they don't use cash. But if you're sending to an opt-in list, customers have chosen to pay for your email marketing with their time and space in their inboxes. This doesn't make any of the advertising tactics I mention wrong or ineffective (the pages of Target Marketing magazine are filled with examples of marketers profiting
Email service providers (ESPs) and marketing automation platforms can help you segment your audience and deliver the content its members want when they want it. Eventful, an online retailer for concerts and local event tickets, went a step further. It essentially created an email marketing product for its customers. Let's say a person in Jacksonville, Fla., searches Eventful to see if Pearl Jam is coming to town. If there is no concert coming up, the site asks, "Would you like to be notified when Pearl Jam comes to Jacksonville?" The Pearl Jam fan can then "Demand It!" and let the band know that one of its rock shows is wanted in Jacksonville, while also signing
34 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
up for email notifications about upcoming events in the area. Once completed, Eventful has a piece of information about this person. The company has developed recommendation and personalization technology to leverage that piece of information and better predict other performers its customers may like, based on the performers who subscribers have already told Eventful about, in order to deliver more personalized recommendations through its email marketing. "In essence, I'd like to think I'm enabling them to be that person that knows everything that's going on in their neighborhood," said Ryan Blomberg, Eventful's Director of Engineering. As a result of its email marketing product, Eventful was able to increase purchases by 66%.
Idea No. 2: But Technology Isn't Magic Technology is helpful, but ESPs and automation simply create email "buckets" that you have to fill with something. You have to think of the content that goes in the buckets as a product, just like a newspaper or magazine creates a product with the content it produces. If you're struggling with content, just know you are not alone. During an onstage interview at the 2014 MarketingSherpa Email Summit, Byron O'Dell said content takes much longer to build than technology for a multi-touch lead nurturing program. And Byron is the senior director of demand management for Jane's Defence at IHS. It's a content company, and content creation was even hard for Byron. "Don't mistake having a marketing automation platform for having a process, because they're two different things. A CRM system is just a box, and if you choose to fill
it with your old processes, you're going to get the old results. If you choose to fill it with new processes that are optimized for the buying behaviors, then you can expect to get different results," he said. "But if you're missing content from the beginning, you can't even start that process." By creating content to enable its audience to do jobs better, IHS increased its email clickthrough rate by 1,112%.
Idea No. 3: Test to Improve Your Product Testing isn't new. Savvy direct marketers have been testing direct mail long before the Internet. However, the Internet makes testing faster and cheaper. And perhaps nowhere is it easier to test than in email. By testing its welcome email, CNET learned customers preferred shorter welcome emails, thus improving its email marketing "product." "If we're going to take the time to run a special program, like these programs, we're going to test them. If we can't test them, we're not going to run them," said Diana Primeau, director of member services at CNET. Testing led to a 26% average clickthrough rate increase for CNET's welcome and nurturing program. And because you can test more easily with email, you should not just be running random tests. Your tests should be sequenced to build up a better customer theory to help create a better email marketing product. For example, we recently ran a subject line contest on the MarketingExperiments Blog in association with the Moz Blog. We asked readers of both blogs to write the best subject line for an email for VolunteerMatch, a nonprofit
that helps interested people find volunteering opportunities. But we didn't ask for random subject lines. We defined categories of value (for example, "Better, more opportunities to choose from") and asked marketers to provide subject lines that best expressed those values. Of the 224 subject lines received, we tested seven of them to help understand what value was most important to VolunteerMatch's audience. We were able to identify a subject line that helped produce a 40% higher clickthrough rate than the lowest performer. But we also learned about the customer; what values were important and what words in the subject line expression most resonated.
What Is Your Product? Email marketing doesn't need to be synonymous with junk mail; by treating your email marketing as a product and putting the customers' needs first, it can be highly valued content that helps consumers find what they are seeking. www.targetmarketingmag.com/ article/3-ways-use-email-putcustomers-first/1
35 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Use Your Senses to Spot a Gas Leak To help keep your community safe and secure, use your senses of sight, hearing or smell to alert you to any of the following signs of a natural gas leak. LOOK
WHAT TO DO IF YOU SUSPECT A GAS LEAK • Remain calm • Don’t light a match, candle or cigarette • Don’t turn electrical appliances or lights on or off or use any device that could cause a spark • Natural gas leaking from a plastic pipe can create static electricity which can ignite the gas • Immediately evacuate the area, and from a safe location, call 800-427-2200, 24 hours a day, seven days a week; or call 911
© 2014 Southern California Gas Company. All rights reserved.
• A damaged connection to a gas appliance • Dirt or water being blown in the air • Dead or dying vegetation (in an otherwise moist area) over or near gas pipeline areas • A fire or explosion near a pipeline • Exposed pipeline after an earthquake, fire, flood or other disaster
LISTEN • An unusual sound, such as a hissing, whistling or roaring sound near a gas line or appliance
SMELL • The distinctive odor* of natural gas *Some people may not be able to smell the odor because they have a diminished sense of smell, olfactory fatigue (normal, temporary inability to distinguish an odor after prolonged exposure to it) or because the odor is being masked or hidden by other odors that are present, such as cooking, damp, musty or chemical odors. In addition, certain conditions in pipe and soil can cause odor fade – the loss of odorant so that it is not detectable by smell.
Business
BBN Biz Notes
first phase was slavery, 246 years. The second was Jim Crow, 100
By Black Business News Staff
Videos Spotlight Success Strategies for Women Entrepreneurs
A
ll six installments of the new Kauffman FastTrac® “Success Strategies for Women Entrepreneurs” videos are now available online (http:// f a s t t r a c . o r g / C o m m u n i t y / Vi d e o s . aspx?utm_source=newsletter&utm_ m e d i u m = e m a i l & u t m _ c a m p a i g n = I d e a s _ A t _ Work_04_30_15).
Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.
www.calasiancc.org
(Photo: Stephanie Taylor, USA TODAY)
years of denial. The third was the right to vote. You can be out of slavery and have the right to vote, but unless you have access to capital, industry and technology, you can't fulfill your dreams." www.rainbowpush.org
Trade Mission to China Scheduled for August 2015 The series offers practical tips on finance, legal, negotiating, marketing, social media, and managing work/life balance to start implementing today. The videos on the recently revamped FastTrac website—which also includes two Kauffman Sketchbook videos and features on specific FastTrac programs—have received nearly 10,000 views.
Specialty Foods products including Gluten-Free, Natural, Health, Dietary, and Organic Foods, etc. Food Processing Equipment: Machinery and related Services. Food and Agriculture Trade Associations and Organizations. Contacts for this mission are: Glen. roberts@trade.gov or Jchen@ calasiancc.org. Gather detailed information at: www.calasiancc.org/ event/hong-kong-and-china-tradeleadership-mission.
The trade mission will visit Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing between August 1429, 2015. The targeted industries include: Food & Beverage Products: Tree Nuts (almonds, pistachios, walnuts, etc.); Dried Fruits; Beverages (wine, beer, non-alcoholic); Olive/Seed Oil; Snack & Confectionery; Canned or Frozen Foods; Convenient/instant Foods; Sauces & Seasonings;
Bid Opportunities Still Available for Brazil 2016 Olympics
A visit to the Olympic games page for Brazil on www.export.gov will provide you with a comprehensive overview to Brazil and the Olympic games plan. Topics include how to do business in brazil, trade events, research on Brazil and more. Check out the most recent event newsletters to see what bids are still open. Don't miss this business building opportunity. www.export.gov/brazil/games/ eg_br_080260.asp
The Four Stages of the Rights Struggle
R
ev. Jessie L. Jackson, Sr. reminds us that "There are four stages in our struggle to make this a more complete union after such a miserable start. The 37 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Business
Recommendations on Immigration By Mark Marich
A
White House Task Force on immigration released an “initial strategic plan” last week to help strengthen existing pathways to naturalization and promote entrepreneurial growth. The plan, Strengthening Communities by Welcoming All Residents: A Federal Strategic Action Plan on Immigrant and Refugee Integration (www.
whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/ docs/final_tf_newamericans_ report_4-14-15_clean.pdf), contains
several recommendations to encourage entrepreneurial growth among immigrants: • Develop training courses and outreach materials including the SBA’s new “101” classes in targeted cities with concentrations of immigrants and refugees, in collaboration with local partners. SBA will also create a new Small Business Smart toolkit (www. sba.gov/offices/headquarters/ oed/resources/1475961) to
help underserved immigrant and refugee entrepreneurs understand business and financial fundamentals to assist them in becoming lender-ready. • Launch “Made It in America” campaign to highlight notable new American entrepreneurs who have used SBA as a small business resource. • Promote immigrant entrepreneurship through
the President’s Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship (PAGE www. commerce.gov/PAGE). • Launch Business Sunday events (www.commerce.gov/ news/press-releases/2014/10/ us-commerce-department-andsmall-business-administrationlaunch-business), a collaboration
between Commerce and SBA, that focus on promoting local economic growth and job creation by connecting congregations and communities with business development resources offered by the federal government. The recommendations are government driven and seem more targeted at lifting up nascent immigrant entrepreneurs and begin to address some of the challenges they face, outlined in a Growthology post last week from Emily Fetsch (www.kauffman.org/ blogs/growthology/2015/04/the-newgeneration-of-latino-entrepreneurs ).
However, more needs to be done to tackle the questions surrounding high-growth, high-impact immigrant entrepreneurship.
www.kauffman.org/blogs/policydialogue/2015/april/white-housetask-force-on-immigration
39 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Business
Radio One, American Express Serve Announce Women’s Empowerment Tour
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adio One and American Express Serve have teamed up to empower African-American women with a series of expos being hosted by leading urban radio stations across the country. American Express Serve and Radio One, which is the parent company of Hello Beautiful, introduced the One VIP Card from American Express Serve, which is a full service, reloadable prepaid account, nine months ago. The card has no credit check or minimum balance, and no hidden fees. And to help raise the profile for the
money management tool, expos in seven cities started in April 2015, in Raleigh, NC. The markets will include: • Raleigh, NC – April 18 • Indianapolis, MN – May 2 • Detroit, MI – August 15 • Cincinnati, OH – September 26 • Richmond, VI – October 17
properties said, “Radio One wants to be a part of the solution, not the problem, for our vast urban audience. Having a financial partner that has transparent card practices was critical. We’re proud of the strides we’ve made and look forward to reaching more people during our Women’s Empowerment Tour.”
• Cleveland, OH – October 25 Card members will enjoy specific perks at the expos, including giveaways and celebrity encounters. Kim Bandell, who is the director of prepaid operations for radio
www.whoswhopublishing. com/index.php/newsroom/topnews/1075-radio-one-americanexpress-serve-announce-womens-empowerment-series www.facebook.com/ womensempowermentral
41 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Business
Microsoft Rolls Out Skype for Business to Office 2013 By Jeffrey Schwartz
M
icrosoft recently released its new Skype for Business client to Office
2013. Microsoft is also starting to roll out Skype for Business Online to Office 365 customers. The
company expects all Office 365 customers to receive the update by the end of May, according to its announcement on Tuesday. Microsoft said in March that the new server edition will support highavailability, including support for the company's AlwaysOn capability included in SQL Server. Skype for Business is Microsoft's next-generation unified communications (UC) product, previously called Lync. Microsoft introduced Lync nearly five years ago as a revamped iteration of its Office Communications Server. Microsoft announced its plans to rebrand Lync to Skype for Business last November. Skype for Business has been available as a technical preview only since mid-March.
Organizations not ready to let their users transition to the new Skype for Business client can switch back to the existing Lync interface, Microsoft said. The company posted instructions for how customers can roll back to the current Lync client, both for shops with Lync Online and those with Lync Server. Skype for B u s i n e s s promises to bring the look and functions of Skype -which Microsoft acquired in 2011 for $8.5 billion, its largest acquisition to date -- to Office. Microsoft claims that more than 300 million consumers use Skype. By integrating the enterprise features of Lync with the interface of Skype, Microsoft is hoping it can raise the profile of its UC technology among business and enterprise users. The
UC market has been a slippery one for Microsoft, which recently lost more ground against market leader Cisco, according to data from Synergy Research Group. Microsoft says Skype for Business has "enterprise-grade security" and controls for compliance. Just like the existing Skype and Lync clients, the new Skype for Business provides IM, presence, voice and video calls and meetings. With this new release, Skype is integrated directly into Office. In the new client, users can initiate and control calls from their Office contact lists. It also brings the Skype emoticons to discussions; improved file transfer, including the ability to drag-anddrop; the ability to let recipients see file details, including the file's size and name; and the ability for users to take notes from within the clients via OneNote. It also includes the Skype call monitor. http://rcpmag.com/ articles/2015/04/14/skype-forbusiness-rollout.aspx
42 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Business
USPS May 31 Rate Hike Approved
T
he U.S. Postal Service will raise postage rates by as much as 2% on May 31, 2015. The Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) has approved the request USPS submitted earlier this year. “This adjustment includes the prices previously approved by the commission … for First Class mail and Special Services,” reads Thursday’s USPS response, “as well as the proposed prices for Standard Mail, Periodicals and Package Services … The only exception relates to the Earned Value Reply Mail promotion, which will start as scheduled on May 1, 2015.” USPS tells Target Marketing on Friday the promotion starts on May 1 because registration began on March 15 and ends on April 30. “This promotion allows mailers to earn postage credits based on receipt of First Class mail reply pieces,” USPS says on Friday. “The postage credit can be redeemed later this year on First Class mail
and Standard Mail mailings.” It’s only delaying one promotion— the Advanced and Emerging Technology Promotion moves to June 1 to Nov. 30. In an email blast to its members on Thursday, the American Catalog Mailers Association (ACMA) adds one more comment about May 31. “All competitive and previously approved market dominant prices would be implemented at the same time,” the ACMA says in the email. This PRC request is happening now because USPS isn’t raising rates on April 26th due to the PRC having issues with some of its requests. PRC asked twice that the postal service fix the problems. On March 27, USPS told Target Marketing it wasn’t raising any rates because it didn’t want to confuse customers by raising some rates and not others. In response to Target Marketing‘s request for comment on Friday,
USPS sent a statement saying “today,” as in Friday, it filed the newest PRC request. (The filed document is dated Thursday.) Asked if the date was a mistake, USPS says this is its official statement. “The postal service today filed a response to Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) Order No. 2398, in which the Commission remanded proposed rates for Standard Mail, Periodicals and Package Services,” Friday’s statement reads. “The postal service’s response contains adjusted pricing and further explanation consistent with the commission’s order.” USPS states that "pricingimplementation webinars" and updates through an Industry Alert will keep mailers informed. The USPS response requests: "The commission expeditiously approve the proposed rates for Standard Mail, Periodicals and Package Services." A nearly 2% price increase for Standard Mail, Periodicals and Package Services (the information about the latter is in the document "Package Services Workpapers for Second Remand—Proxy Version"). Forwarding-and-Return Service fees to change "from $0.43 to $0.435 for letters, and from $1.39 to $1.395 for flats. After the exigent surcharges are applied, the final fees will be $0.45 and $1.40 for letters and flats, respectively." www.presort.com/2015/04/20/ usps-requests-may-31-rate-hike/
43 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
RIO 2016 OLYMPIC OPPORTUNITIES Stay Current through the Olympic Newsletter: http://www.export.gov/brazil/games/eg_ br_080260.asp Current tenders can be found at: http://portaldesuprimentos.rio2016.com/en/ status/of/the/bids For information on the Games visit http://export.gov/ brazil/games/index. asp www.export.gov/ brazil/games/eg_ br_080260.asp
Sell Your Products & Services on
44 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Publisher's Message from page 3
Small Business Week, kicking it off with a South Florida event. The event is designed to recognize
the nation’s top small businesses, entrepreneurs, and business advocates. In the past few years, blacks have been making some gains in the tech industry. Historically, blacks representation in high-tech has been relatively low in portion to our population. However, we are witnessing a positive change in the particular economic segment. For example, Apple appointed
Denise Young Smith, an AfricanAmerican, to lead its worldwide human resources division. Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. through the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
(www.rainbowpush.org) has held numerous open discussions with several high-tech giants, including Intel, Facebook and Google, advocating diversity and inclusion. Still, racial minorities and women are generally underrepresented in management roles, however our voices are being heard and our talent is being sought. www.bbala.org
Quote of Note "If faith-based organizations make it a priority to fight on poverty issues, they can spur a swell of political will to act on behalf of America’s impoverished communities. “Nobody’s shown that better than Pope Francis."
Barack Obama 48 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Business
4 Ways to Increase Event (Business) App Adoption By Barbara Scofidio
G
etting attendees (customers) to download and use your event (business) app can be difficult. Try the following tips, from French app developer MyQaa (https://myqaa.com):
1) Use the App to Generate Hype An event app doesn’t need to be
something only used at the event itself. By implementing things such as places to visit in the area, polling that will affect the event itself, and running contests through the app can get those planning to attend onto the app itself, engaging with you, and providing additional data that you can use to plan future events.
2) Have Your App Allow Users to Affect Their Experience in Real Time
Musicians have been using audience input to guide their shows in real time for hundreds of years. An audience that is loud suggests they are enjoying the experience, while an audience that is quiet often indicates that the musicians need to step-up the game and interact more with the audience. You can put that same theory in
place for your event, and use it as a method to get people using your app. Polling is a great way to achieve this. By putting out a poll through the app, perhaps used to unlock a special segment of the event, can get great audience involvement as they will feel that they’re having a marked influence in how the event proceeds.
3) Reward Engagement Event apps can be used to reward a persons engagement. One way to
do this is through unlocks. By using a point system, awarding points for things like posting on social networks or putting in feedback through the app, in exchange for a VIP experience can boost use of the app while providing even further engagement as well as boost marketing for the event at minimal expense.
4) Ask your Event Stakeholders to Promote the App All your event stakeholders are your allies. Speakers, exhibitors, sponsors, presenters, staff—they all can help you to promote your event
app, if you ask them. So tell them about the app, show them ways to encourage the event participants to use it and ask them to integrate it in their activities or sessions. It is also important to send frequent updates, so your event attendees will keep checking the event app often. http://prevuemeetings.com/experiences/ technology/4-ways-to-increase-eventapp-adoption/?utm_source=nl&utm_ medium=email&utm_term=042815&utm_ content=read&utm_campaign=pv
49 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Business
Mentors are the Secret Weapons of Successful Startups by Rhett Morris (@rhettmorris)
E
ntrepreneurs often spend hundreds of hours raising funds from angel and venture capital investors. While these activities are clearly important, analysis of new data on startups suggests that founders should also dedicate significant time to something that many people overlook: recruiting great mentors. This simple strategy can increase a company’s odds of success more than almost anything else.
Discovering the secrets of the best founders Our team studied thousands of tech businesses last year. We looked specifically at companies in New York City’s tech sector, which was the fastest-growing tech sector from 2003-2013 and is now the second largest tech hub in the world. The goal of this research was to investigate how local tech firms had become so successful. Our analysts combined data from CrunchBase, AngelList and LinkedIn, and interviewed nearly 700 founders. (In total, New York tech founders dedicated more than a month of time to this project.) These sources enabled us to create the world’s largest database of a single entrepreneurship community. We found that a number of characteristics that are often highlighted as predictors of success for startups – such as
starting a company while in college – don’t actually make much of a difference. While these conclusions on traditional startup myths were interesting, we uncovered several other intriguing findings by examining the habits of the best firms and founders.
Creating an entrepreneurial advantage The size of our dataset of New York tech firms allowed us to do something unique. We compared companies within “peer groups” made up of startups launched in the same year and working in the same city and industry. Within each peer group of New York tech firms we identified companies as “top performers” when they met one or more of the following criteria: • Significant acquisition: an exit of at least $100 million • Investor traction: top 10% of peer group in terms of the amount of equity funding raised • Internal scale: top 10% of peer group in terms of number of employees. Only 13% of the New York tech firms in the study met one or more of these standards. These top-performing firms include Gilt Groupe, Huffington Post, MongoDB, Shutterstock and Tumblr. Our analysis of the topperforming companies in New York’s tech sector revealed several interesting patterns. We found that
many of the entrepreneurs leading these startups had strong personal connections to the founders of other successful companies. One of the most powerful connections identified in our analysis was mentoring relationships. Topperforming founders such as Chad Dickerson of Etsy and Nat Turner of Flatiron Health have been mentored by other successful entrepreneurs like Caterina Fake from Flickr and Brian O’Kelley of AppNexus. Relationships like these are quite powerful. 33% of founders who are mentored by successful entrepreneurs went on to become top performers. This is over three times better than the performance of other New York-based tech companies. This pattern of mentorship can also be seen among entrepreneurs outside of New York. When Steve Jobs passed away, Mark Zuckerburg noted that the Apple founder had been an invaluable mentor. The founders of Dropbox, Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi, are mentored by Ali and Hadi
50 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Mentors for Startups from page 50
Partovi, two successful serial entrepreneurs in the Valley. The benefits of mentorship aren’t limited to entrepreneurship. Research in other fields also shows that good mentors tend to improve the performance of their protégés. However, the magnitude of difference between the performance of companies with successful mentors and companies that lack them suggests that the value of effective mentors for startups may be especially high.
Making the most of mentors and mentoring relationships Endeavor (www.endeavor.org) has supported more than 1,000 entrepreneurs at fast-growing companies in over 20 countries. In addition to our work connecting these founders to investors and training programs, we’ve cultivated thousands of mentoring relationships between our founders
and experienced entrepreneurs and executives. These mentors have helped companies in the Endeavor network reach average growth rates of over 60% per year. A number of these firms have gone public or sold for figures well above $100 million. Here are three lessons that founders can use to build effective relationships with mentors. Lesson 1: Mentor quality matters. Simply having mentors isn’t enough. If you want your company to be among the best, you need a mentor who knows how to reach that level. Our analysis shows that mentors who had already achieved success in the tech industry were able to help younger tech startups outperform their peers by a factor of three. The benefits from lower-quality mentors were far, far lower. Lesson 2: Good mentorship requires a sustained relationship. The top-performing mentors and protégés in our New York study met together three or more times.
In our work directly supporting entrepreneurs, we have also seen that consistent contact is critical. In fact, all new founders who join Endeavor’s network receive advisory boards made up of multiple mentors who meet with the entrepreneur at least once each quarter. Lesson 3: Great mentors focus on critical business issues. It’s important to utilize your mentors’ talents to the fullest. The relationships we identified between top-performing founders all focused on discussions of major issues that faced the protégés’ companies. The best mentors are very busy individuals. Founders should use the time and expertise of these mentors in the areas where it will do the most good. http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/22/ mentors-are-the-secret-weapons-ofsuccessful-startups/?ncid=tcweekly&utm_ source=Illinois+Small+Biz+Week+++Free+Events++Brilliant+Networking&utm_ campaign=The+Chicago+Edge&utm_ medium=email
51 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Business
New Program to Add Business Value to Pinterest By Chris Crum
P
interest just announced its new Marketing Developer Partners (MDP) program with the goal of helping businesses get more value of their Pinterest efforts. It's basically like Pinterest's version of similar programs from other social networks, such as Facebook's Preferred Marketing Developer (PMD) program, which recently became Facebook Marketing Partners. "The program helps businesses optimize and scale their Pinterest marketing and improve Pinterest for Pinners," a spokesperson for Pinterest tells WebProNews. "The initial MPD program is made up of a limited, carefully selected group of developer partners who meet the needs of existing businesses on Pinterest and align with Pinterest's core value of putting Pinners first." These partners include: Ahalogy, Buffer, Curalate, Expion, Newscred, Percolate, Shoutlet, Spredfast, Sprinklr and Tailwind. Ahalogy focuses on a Pinterestspecific marketing solution. Buffer lets brands publish, schedule, and measure performance of Pins from a single dashboard. Curalate focuses on helping brands use imagery to build awareness, engage customers, drive traffic, and make sales. Expion is about managing content and customer relationships in social channels, and lets enterprises manage multiple brands or markets from one interface. NewsCred gives
brands access to a large content marketplace and original content creators. Percolate lets brands manage all their marketing activities. Shoutlet helps brands build relationships through data acquisition, customer insights, and enterprise integration. Spredfast lets marketers manage social connections and amplify content. Sprinklr enables enterprise brands to connect with customers on any platform, and Tailwind lets brands integrate content creation, publishing, community engagement, analytics, and reporting into a single platform. All partners are using Pinterest's Content Publishing API to make it easier to create, schedule, and publish pins and boards. The spokesperson tells us Pinterest is also in the early days of testing its Ads API in the U.S. in an effort to help advertisers optimize their campaigns and find "sustained success" on Pinterest. MDPs are focused on these two APIs. "We excited to work with these Marketing Developer Partners and to support businesses on Pinterest," says Pinterest's Jyri Kidwell. "We also think it's important that our Pinners have the best possible experience on Pinterest and continue to see high quality Pins, so we're going to keep our MDP standards high as the program expands in the future." All of this is designed to make it easier for marketers to find content to pin, and ultimately to pin that
content in the most effective way possible. The company has also been hard at work on making things easier for all users in general. Recently, Pinterest shared some new information on how it uses predictive technology to suggest boards for users to pin content to. It's using smarter technology for this, and says early results have shown an increase in pinning and a reduction in the number of abandons on repin flows. One of the biggest changes Pinterest has made in recent memory, in terms of making it easier to find valuable content, was the launch of Guided Search, which Microsoft's Bing search engine is now basically emulating. Earlier this month, Pinterest announced the launch of a new Pin It flow to make savings things easier and faster. More on that here. It also made changes to make it easier to share content to Facebook. www.webpronews.com/newprogram-to-add-business-value-topinterest-2015-04
55 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Business
Skyline Trade Show Tips: 11 Ways to Build Your Brand at Trade Shows By Mike Thimmesch
E
xhibitors tell us in survey after survey that building awareness is their #1 or #2 trade show marketing goal. Building awareness comes in several different levels, depending on how well known a company already is. Exhibitors want to build awareness: For their company For their brand For their division In a (new) industry In a (new) geography For a (new) product For their re-brand, after a merger or re-positioning
Are You Building A Leadership Brand? Companies that are concerned about their brand usually don’t want to be known as second-best. They want to be known as the leader in their industry. However, leadership comes in different flavors, depending on the industry they are in. Exhibitors often tell us they want their brand to: • Be seen as high-end • Be seen as a high-quality manufacturer • Be seen as an innovator • Be seen as high-tech Sound like your company? Let’s see how to build your leadership position through your exhibit and exhibit marketing.
How to Build Awareness at a Trade Show Once
you
know
what
your
goals are for building awareness at your upcoming trade shows, how do you do it? Here are 11 ways to help build your brand into an industry powerhouse: 1. Get a bigger exhibit: There’s a reason everyone wants to see the Grand Canyon: it’s really big! Similarly, one of the key factors in which exhibits attendees remember most is booth size. So get a bigger booth space, and then fill it with a bigger, taller exhibit that demands attention and fills their senses. A caveat: if the key audiences you want to meet can’t be found at one single show, you may do better to go with smaller booths at various regional or vertical market industry shows. 2. Create graphic impact: Ensure attendees don’t ignore your exhibit by using bright, bold colors, big images such as photos and illustrations, and easy to read messages. The fewer elements you put on your exhibit, the larger you can make them, and the more impact they will create. Large, taller exhibits can have branding at 2 to 3 heights for as visitors approach from far away, just down the aisle, and in the booth. 3. Design for 3 dimensions: Create impact and messaging for all public-facing sides of your booth, especially for island exhibits that can be viewed from 4 sides. Consider making your biggest brand impact on the exhibit side
that faces the aisle that will get the most traffic. Some of the most memorable exhibits use shape that conveys the brand personality, even the company logo in 3 dimensions. 4. Build a hierarchy of messages: Your exhibit usually works best when you have a hierarchy of messages, starting highest with who you are, then what you do, and finally what you can do for people. For
larger companies, your exhibit may have sub-levels of messaging for multiple divisions or products within a single booth. Be sure the overall brand is understood as primary and that the sub-brands balance each other out. Another pitfall to avoid is confusion between your company
56 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
and product names. 5. Be consistent with your other marketing: Your trade show exhibit and your trade show promotions should reinforce the look and messages you share via your website, brochures, and advertisements. Otherwise, if you contradict your existing brand, you will cause confusion, which weakens your brand, rather than build it.
6. Remember that your brand is more than a logo: Your brand is not just a unique graphic shape and a PMS color. Your brand is defined by the position you’ve taken in the marketplace, the promise of value you give to customers, and the personality your company has in
its interactions with the world. Keep that in mind when you design your exhibit, and even the overall trade show experience you give visitors.
Which leads to … 7. Create a brand experience: Trade shows are an immersive environment that takes place over several days. Take advantage of that by creating an experience that activates your brand in the minds
of your booth visitors, so they understand and remember your brand at a deeper level. So if you want a high-tech brand, give them a high-tech experience. If you want to be known for service, then be the best host you can be when they visit your booth.
8. Exhibit at more shows: If you can afford it, expand your show schedule to reach more key audiences, especially if you are building your brand in a new vertical market for your company, or have introduced a new product that could help a whole new group of buyers than you traditionally serve. 9. Bring your brand ambassadors: Bring to the show your employees who best exemplify your brand. Have them staff your exhibit – and more. Ask them to schmooze at networking events. Have them attend educational sessions and ask the speaker questions. Better yet, offer them up as speakers at your conferences – and not just your CEO, but subject matter experts who can teach howto sessions. 10. Do more promotions: When you want more people to know you, pre-show and at-show promotions can give you that lift. Consider sponsorships, ads in the show book or show daily, and other ways to reach the attendees going to the show. You can offer giveaways that will attract more people to your booth, and that will remind attendees about your brand after the show is over. Better giveaways even reinforce your brand message. 11. Meet the press: Use the trade show as a forum to meet faceto-face with the key influencers who will share your brand message long after the show is over. These include your industry press, bloggers, highly connected social media people, and analysts. The reason for building your brand is so that you are remembered – and preferred. So when you are at a trade show, do these 11 things so that attendees will walk away knowing exactly who you are, what they can get from you, and that you are their best choice. www.skylinetradeshowtips.com/11-waysto-build-your-brand-at-trade-shows
57 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
The 10 Most Reputable Companies in the World by Ayaz Nanji for MarketingProfs
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he world's most "reputable" company, according to a recent report from the
Reputation Institute (www. reputationinstitute.com/Home) is BMW. The report was based on data from a survey conducted in 1Q15 of more than 61,000 consumers living in the world's 15 largest economies. Respondents were asked to rate the reputations of 100 top global brands across a number of key areas, including products/services, innovation, workplace, governance, citizenship, leadership, and financial performance. BMW took the top spot this year from The Walt Disney Company,
which was first on the list in 2014. Google ranks as the second most reputable company. The rest of the top 10 are Daimler, Rolex, Lego, The Walt Disney Company, Canon, Apple, Sony, and Intel. The full rankings of the 100 brands evaluated can be found at www. reputationinstitute.com/research/ Global-RepTrak-100. www.marketingprofs.com/ charts/2015/27572/the-10-mostreputable-companies-in-theworld?adref=nlt043015
59 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
FOR
Africa Day
OCCASION
OR ANY SPECIAL
Faison Wealth & Retirement Regina Faison Senior Financial Advisor 3070 Bristol Street Suite 500 949-200-8212 714-329-7184 regina@faisonwealth.com www.faisonwealth.com
E
ven before your children can count, they already know something about money: it's what you have to give the ice cream man to get a cone, or put in the slot to ride the rocket ship at the grocery store. So, as soon as your children begin to handle money, start teaching them how to handle it wisely.
Making allowances Giving children allowances is a good way to begin teaching them how to save money and budget for the things they want. How much you give them depends in part on what you expect them to buy with it and how much you want them to save. Some parents expect children to earn their allowance by doing household chores, while others attach no strings to the purse and expect children to pitch in simply because they live in the household. A compromise might be to give children small allowances coupled with opportunities to earn extra money by doing chores that fall outside their normal household responsibilities. When it comes to giving children allowances: • Set parameters. Discuss with your children what they may use the money for and how much should be saved. • Make allowance day a routine, like payday. Give the same
Teach Your Children Well: Basic Financial Education
amount on the same day each week. • Consider "raises" for children who manage money well.
Take it to the bank Piggy banks are a great way to start teaching children to save money, but opening a savings account in a "real" bank introduces them to the concepts of earning interest and the power of compounding. While children might want to spend all their allowance now, encourage them (especially older children) to divide it up, allowing them to spend some immediately, while insisting they save some toward things they really want but can't afford right away. Writing down each goal and the amount that must be saved each week toward it will help children learn the difference between shortterm and long-term goals. As an incentive, you might want to offer to match whatever children save toward their long-term goals.
Shopping sense Television commercials and peer pressure constantly tempt children to spend money. But children need guidance when it comes to making good buying decisions. Teach children how to compare items by price and quality. When you're at the grocery store, for example, explain why you might buy a generic cereal instead of a name brand. By explaining that you won't buy
them something every time you go to a store, you can lead children into thinking carefully about the purchases they do want to make. Then, consider setting aside one day a month when you will take children shopping for themselves. This encourages them to save for something they really want rather than buying on impulse. For "bigticket" items, suggest that they might put the items on a birthday or holiday list. Don't be afraid to let children make mistakes. If a toy breaks soon after it's purchased, or doesn't turn out to be as much fun as seen on TV, eventually children will learn to make good choices even when you're not there to give them advice.
Earning and handling income Older children (especially teenagers) may earn income from part-time jobs after school or on weekends. Particularly if this money supplements any allowance you give them, wages enable children to get a greater taste of financial independence. Earned income from parttime jobs might be subject to withholdings for FICA and federal and/or state income taxes. Show your children how this takes a bite out their paychecks and reduces the amount they have left over for their own use.
Creating a balanced budget With
greater
62 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
financial
independence should come greater fiscal responsibility. Older children may have more expenses, and their extra income can be used to cover at least some of those expenses. To ensure that they'll have enough to make ends meet, help them prepare a budget. To develop a balanced budget, children should first list all their income. Next, they should list routine expenses, such as pizza with friends, money for movies, and (for older children) gas for the car. (Don't include things you will pay for.) Finally, subtract the expenses from the income. If they'll be in the black, you can encourage further saving or contributions to their favorite charity. If the results show that your children will be in the red, however, you'll need to come up with a plan to address the shortfall. To help children learn about budgeting: • Devise a system for keeping track of what's spent • Categorize expenses as needs (unavoidable) and wants (can be cut) • Suggest ways to increase income and/or reduce expenses
The future is now Teenagers should be ready to focus on saving for larger goals (e.g., a new computer or a car) and longer-term goals (e.g., college, an apartment). And while bank accounts may still be the primary savings vehicles for them, you might also want to consider introducing
your teenagers to the principles of investing. To do this, open investment accounts for them. (If they're minors, these must be custodial accounts.) Look for accounts that can be opened with low initial contributions at institutions that supply educational materials about basic investment terms and concepts. Helping older children learn about topics such as risk tolerance, time horizons, market volatility, and asset diversification may predispose them to take charge of their financial future.
Should you give your child credit? If older children (especially those about to go off to college) are responsible, you may be thinking about getting them a credit card. However, credit card companies cannot issue cards to anyone under 21 unless they can show proof they can repay the debt themselves, or unless an adult cosigns the credit card agreement. If you decide to cosign, keep in mind that you're taking on legal liability for the debt, and the debt will appear on your credit report. Also: • Set limits on the card's use • Ask the credit card company for a low credit limit (e.g., $300) or a secured card to help children learn to manage credit without getting into serious debt • Make sure children understand
the grace period, fee structure, and how interest accrues on the unpaid balance • Agree on how the bill will be paid, and what will happen if the bill goes unpaid • Make sure children understand how long it takes to pay off a credit card balance if they only make minimum payments If putting a credit card in your child's hands is a scary thought, you may want to start off with a prepaid spending card. A prepaid spending card looks like a credit card, but functions more like a prepaid phone card. The card can be loaded with a predetermined amount that you specify, and generally may be used anywhere credit cards are accepted. Purchases are deducted from the card's balance, and you can transfer more money to the card's balance whenever necessary. Although there may be some fees associated with the card, no debt or interest charges accrue; children can only spend what's loaded onto the card. One thing you might especially like about prepaid spending cards is that they allow children to gradually get the hang of using credit responsibly. Because you can access the account information online or over the phone, you can monitor the spending habits of your children. If need be, you can then sit down with them and discuss their spending behavior and money management skills.
IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES Regina L. Faison Senior Financial Advisor Faison Wealth & Retirement Services C/O Woodbury Financial Services 3070 Bristol Suite 500 Costa Mesa, CA 92626 Office Direct -949-200-8212 * Efax - 949-556-9806 * Regina cell - 714-329-7184 Customer Service Email- service@faisonwealth.com Ph# - 949-939-1194 Website - http://faisonwealth.com "Helping businesses and individuals achieve their life goals" Securities, and Investment Advisory Services offered through Woodbury Financial Services, Inc., Member FINRA, SIPC and Registered Investment Advisor. Woodbury Financial Services P.O. Box 64284*St. Paul, MN 55164*-800-800-2638 Faison Wealth and Retirement Services and Woodbury Financial are not affiliated entities. Prepared by Broadridge Investor Communication Solutions, Inc. Copyright 2015
Business
Tesla Launches Solar Batteries for Business, Home Use
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EO and founder Elon Musk has unveiled ‘Tesla Energy’ (www.teslamotors. com/presskit/teslaenergy) — a new business arm that is focused on ending our dependence on grid
power and switching instead to solar energy. The first Tesla Energy product is ‘Powerwall Home Battery,’ a stationary battery that can power a household without requiring the grid. The battery is rechargeable lithium-ion — it uses Tesla’s existing battery tech — and can be fixed to a wall, removing much of the existing complexity around using a local power source. “The issue with existing batteries is that they suck,” Musk said in a press conference announcing Tesla Energy. “They are expensive, unreliable and bad in every way.” Tesla’s solution, he said, is different. The company’s batteries cost $3,500 for 10kWh and $3,000 for 7kWh. They are open for pre-orders in the U.S. now; the first orders will be dispatched “in late summer.” Like regular batteries, they can be used together — up to nine can be stacked up together to create a strong and reliable power source. Musk said he believes they can help people in emerging markets or remote locations ‘leapfrog’ the need for existing power systems, in a similar way that mobile phones have become more important than landlines in remote parts of the world. The Tesla Powerwall charges using solar power, but it also integrates with the grid “to harness excess power and give customers the flexibility to draw energy from
their own reserve.” The batteries recharge in a ‘smart’ way, saving money by picking low-rate periods when electricity is cheapest. They store solar energy for later, for example overnight, and can act as a back-up in the event of a power outage. Removing dirty energy is an ambitious plan but Musk believes it can be done. He explained that 160 million battery packs could “transition” power usage in the U.S. to renewable energy, while 900 million units could shift the entire world’s energy needs. Then there is the potential to make the world’s cars run on clean energy. “This is within the power of humanity to do,” Musk said. “It is not impossible, it is something that we can do. But there’s going to [need to] be other companies involved.” Musk added that Tesla will continue its policy of open-sourcing patents to help make that happen. Contrary to most companies these days, Tesla’s press conference — which ran entirely on solar energy — was direct and to the point with little hyperbole. Musk has made electric cars a (stylish) reality, and is pioneering space exploration with SpaceX. Tesla Energy is another concept which, though beyond the realm of most people’s understanding, has potentially huge consequences if Tesla can execute as Musk believes it can. http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/30/ tesla-powerwall-home-battery
64 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
SAVE THE DATE
Mark your calendars and save the date for Hollywood’s premier annual gathering of civic, business and community leaders. The Economic Development Summit will afford an opportunity to take stock of recent developments and successes taking place as Hollywood continues to revitalize. Attendees will be the first to receive coveted copies of the Chamber-produced Economic Development Update, listing the status of all major projects in the development pipeline, as well as the new Hollywood Business Profile, providing the latest demographic information on the community.
Victor L. Coleman
Victor Coleman is Chairman of the Board and CEO of L.A.-based Hudson Pacific Properties (HPP). Hudson Pacific’s current portfolio consists of seven-million sq.ft. located in L.A., San Francisco and Seattle. HPP also owns two irreplaceable media and entertainment properties in the heart of Hollywood – Sunset Gower Studios and Sunset Bronson Studios.
Keynote Speaker
Hamet Watt
Hamet Watt is a Venture Partner at Upfront Ventures. He is also co-founder and Chairman of bLife – a wellness innovation company, and co-founder and Chairman of MoviePass – a subscription service for movies in theatres. A leader in both the L.A. and wider entrepreneurial communities, Hamet has received numerous awards for technology innovation and entrepreneurship.
Keynote Speaker
Tickets for the conference are $50 with advance registration and $60 at the door. Watch for more details and the opening of registration for this great gathering! Produced by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce For sponsorship information, contact: Leron@hollywoodchamber.net
67 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Business
Small Business Investment Companies (SBIC)
favorable rates through the federal government. •And the national economy benefits as the small businesses financed by SBICs continue to create jobs and generate tax revenues.
Where can I learn more? Visit the SBIC Program pages ( w w w. s b a . g o v / c o n t e n t / s b i c program-overview-0), including the FAQ, for more information about the SBIC Program. Still have questions? Email askSBIC@sba. gov.
D
id you know that the Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program has been helping high-growth small businesses get financing since 1958? That's right – for more than 50 years, SBICs have facilitated the flow of long-term capital to America’s businesses. There are thousands of small business success stories, but here are a few you probably recognize: Costco, Apple and Staples – just to name a few.
funds (the SBICs) that finance small businesses.
How does it work?
What are the perks?
SBA doesn't finance businesses directly. For the SBIC program, the Small Business Administration (SBA) partners with private investors to capitalize professionally-managed investment
•Small businesses can receive equity capital, long-term loans and expert management assistance. •Investment managers can add to their own private investment capital with funds borrowed at
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68 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Business
7 Quick Tips to Set Up The Perfect Home Office By Sean Bradley
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he home office is your opportunity to make your workspace the ideal place for no one but you. Whether you’re a creative freelancer or a management consultant, you need a place to think, get organized and, of course, get stuff done. In order to optimize the inception of your home office, here are some strategies that will help you set up an office that is built for success.
Create a Different Vibe Than Your Home Design When you step out of your living room and into your home office, you should be entering a different headspace. Both sides of the threshold should provide comfort, but in their own unique way. The relaxed feeling of your bedroom or den is not suited for a work mentality. You want to be certain to design your home office in a way that keeps you focused on what you need to accomplish, whether it’s meeting clients or finalizing documents.
Think Outside the Cubicle There may be certain artwork that inspires you and frees your mind. Maybe it’s childhood comics or a water fountain that would’ve driven the rest of your office mad. Whatever you choose, make sure that your chosen pieces serve some sort of productive purpose and won’t become a distraction.
Construct Multiple Workspaces Within One The home office is most beneficial if you construct it into multiple distinct working areas. Obviously, the main area will be for your desk, which is where you’ll hunker down and get business done, but you can and should get creative with the
other sections. Another important but oftenoverlooked section of a home office is a place to think freely. Think of a couch or a chair with an ottoman. This is where you’ll do your brainstorming or reading. Having these two distinct areas will allow you to maintain a productive flow to your day.
Acquire the Right Furniture and Decor Instead of spending money on things that look nice, building a practical workspace should be your priority. A chair with proper back support, a desk that can sustain your materials and abundant storage options are crucial. After you’ve locked down the practical elements, then you can think about aesthetics. Additions like plants or artwork can add life, but too much of anything can become a distraction. A good way to think about finding a balance with color schemes is to incorporate the colors you desire within rugs or pieces of art.
Let There Be Light When considering the location of your home office, think about what setting will lend itself to the most natural light possible. If your situation allows it, position your desk near a window. Placing your desk against a wall can make you feel like you’re back in a cubicle. Additional lighting, such as lamps and overhead lighting, is next on the agenda. Consider lamps, floors lights and track lighting with dimmers. You should be able to create a controlled lighting situation that you simply can’t wait to work within.
Choose a Noise-Controlled
Environment This is an often-overlooked aspect of setting up your home office, but it is very important. Consider the phone calls you’ll have to make and the quiet time you’ll need for brainstorming. Don’t just opt for the room with the best layout: also think about the noise factor. If you don’t have any other options besides the noisy room in the back, placing a running water fountain closest to the source of the sound could be a solution. Additionally, freemium music-streaming services, such as Pandora and Spotify, offer fantastic playlists to help keep you focused.
Lights, Camera, Action With services like Skype and Google Hangouts allowing free videoconferencing, you’ll want to be mindful of your office’s background. Your clients and associates should see an environment that is nothing short of professional. If one wall is your family photo shrine or your playful comic section, make sure the other wall is fit for your videoconference backdrop. Lighting is also an important factor to consider when videoconferencing, which will be something you’ll have to tweak and then tweak again during your setup and testing process.
Deduct Your Home Office One of the many benefits of having a home office is the ability to deduct expenses for the business use of your home. The IRS provides two methods for determining your deduction: 1.Regular Method: Determine the actual expenses of your home office. This could include mortgage interest, insurance, utilities, repairs and depreciation. With the regular
70 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
method, deductions are typically based on the business percentage of your home. This exhausting method led to the IRS offering another option. 2.Simplified Option: You don’t need to determine actual expenses. Instead, you simply deduct $5 per square foot of your home used for business, capping off at a maximum 300 square feet. It’s worth noting that deducting a home office can increase your chances of being audited by the IRS. This is because your home office can be deducted only if it’s used exclusively for business purposes. This means that you can’t use the same space as an office for eight hours and as a bedroom for the other 16. The solution to any IRS problem is to keep immaculate records of your business and personal expenses.
If you do this properly, there is no need to worry, since you’ll be able to prove that your home office is for business purposes only. Not only will you have more money in your pocket, but you can also deduct many of the businessrelated things you plan to get for your office, such as equipment
purchases. Again, these can only be deducted if they’re used exclusively for business purposes. www.docstoc.com/ article/173825609?utm_ source=email&utm_ medium=email&utm_ campaign=222&utm_content=7846
Apple HomeKit devices due in June By Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
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n a statement to the Wall Street Journal, Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller said that "HomeKit has been available for just a few months and we already have dozens of partners who have committed to bringing HomeKit accessories to market and we're looking forward to the first ones coming next month." Apple had previously not given a timescale for when HomeKit devices would be available, although developers had said the
timescale was May or June. HomeKit is expected to be at the heart of a raft of home automation devices, ranging from smart thermostats to smart locks, cameras, switches, and garage door openers. Homekit and its family of
accessories and partner options may also be applicable to servicing small business sites.. www.zdnet.com/article/apple-says-homekitdevices-to-start-appearing-in-june/?tag=nl. e232&s_cid=e232&ttag=e232&ftag=TRE6 a12a91
71 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Intel & PUSH - Changing the Face of Technology
Rev. Jackson, Sr. with Intel CEO Brian Krzanich Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
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ntel will invest $5 million over the next five years in a new pilot program to teach computer science to high school students in the Oakland Unified School District. The goal of the program will be to send 600 high school graduates to college to study computer science engineering in preparation for jobs with Intel or other companies. "We knew we wanted to do something in K-12 education that targeted underrepresented minorities and we thought we should start in our own backyard" said Brian Krzanich, Intel CEO.
INTEL Wants Women, Minority Supplers The Silicon Valley chipmaker also plans to sprinkle some economic goodwill by increasing its spending with women and minority owned suppliers more than sixfold to $1 billion a year by 2020. Currently the
company spends $150 million with diverse suppliers, Intel said. "We are not fully represented on the supplier side yet because the technology and level of complexity of our supplier base is high," Krzanich said earlier this week. "Some of these suppliers won't be ready. They won't have the right education or capabilities. We will lift those suppliers up." Krzanich officially unveiled the initiatives at the Rev. Jesse Jackson's PUSH Tech 2020 Summit in San Francisco where Krzanich was a keynote speaker. Krzanich says Intel is making progress in reaching the ambitious goal he set in January to have Intel's U.S. workforce reflect the available talent pool of women and underrepresented minorities by 2020. So far 41% of the people Intel has hired this year have been women or underrepresented minorities,
up from 32% last year, he said. In addition, 17% of hires at the senior levels were underrepresented minorities and 33% were women, up from 6% and 19% in 2014 respectively. Intel has tied Intel executives' compensation to their success in reaching the company's diversity goals. Krzanich says he's hopeful Intel's diversity campaign will expand the talent pool of blacks, Hispanics and women in the tech industry to the point that Intel has to chase "a number that is getting higher and higher." Intel, like other major technology companies, is wrestling with the lack of diversity in its own ranks and in the industry at large. Intel has been publicly releasing the demographics of its work force for years. In fact, it was one of the first to do so. The company's U.S. workforce is 24% female, 8% Hispanic and 3.5% black. Krzanich took a leading role in the push for more diversity in the tech field during his keynote address in January at the International Computer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. During the keynote, he pledged $300 million over five years to diversity initiatives. Krzanich says he has not yet mapped out where all the money will go but that Intel has a long tradition of setting aggressive goals and then figuring out how to achieve them.
72 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Natural language interface to databases (enterprise systems) that enables average people to do advanced analytics and reporting without learning new skills; ask questions in ordinary English and the system answers in English with associated charts. http://quarrio.com
Onēva provides a two-way marketplace for professional women with a need for care and sitters with high qualifications including FBI background checks and customerservice attitudes. http://oneva.com/
Powering innovation and entrepreneurship by connecting diverse founders with access to capital and growth resources. www.crowdismo.com/home
We help small farmers increase their profits by connecting them directly with retailers and truckers. www.eharvesthub.com
Wearables are a thing of the past- Introducing Cocoon Cam, the first ever smart video vitals monitor. www.cocooncam.com/
The human data project is connecting patients to cutting edge medical research. www.humandataproject.org We are creating a job marketplace for the unbanked to help employers tap into a new talent pool of jobseekers with nontraditional backgrounds such as minorities, veterans, dropouts, people with disabilities, etc. www.laborx.co/#/
Flipcause helps nonprofits optimize their community development programs by providing them with a comprehensive suite of fundraising tools that can be deployed on-demand, without technical experience at price any organization can afford. www.flipcause.com/ The social learning platform for college students.
Nodal Industries is deploying a multi-threaded network security box to home networks and small businesses with no setup required and no humanly noticeable latency. https://nodal.net/
Business Technology:
Take a Look! by LaSandra Stratton
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your account, in the case of a prepaid plan). There is no commitment. You can cancel or put your account on hold anytime. Visit the website for all of the details on sending Postcards and pricing. Have fun staying in touch.
heck out what these firms and organizations have to offer for your personal interests, personal wealth building, and business expansion opportunities.
https://postcardly.com
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ostcardly turns your emails into real-life postcards, delivered by U.S. Mail. We also have a Postcardly app, which helps you send postcards right
islands and more from any origin in the U.S. and many countries around the world. This iPhone app is compatible with iPad and iPod touch. It is available through iTunes. Enter your destination and date information and review the available flight options. Google Flights automatically eliminates long or expensive flights to help you get straight to the best options for you. Sort your results by price to find the cheapest flight, or sort by departure time to find the earliest flight. You can also filter your results for your preferred flight times and airlines. Read about the many ways to use Google Flights to create the travel plans that suit your needs and wants at https://support.google. com/flights/?p=productlanding&hl= en.
www.tumblr.com
www.emaze.com from your iPhone. Postcardly is especially great for staying in touch with older family members who don’t use computers. You can send postcards from your phone, your computer, or anywhere you have email—including from your iPhone, using either your email or the Postcardly app. If you’re using email, just create a new email with an attached photo the way that you normally send an email: your photo will be on the front of the postcard, your words will go on the back. Your attached photo is on the front: The message from your email is on the back:
Simpler than PowerPoint, Emaze lets user create sleek presentations fast. The free basic version includes pre-made templates, 3-D effects and online storage; premium plans with additional features start at $4.90 a month.
www.google.com/flights
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oogle Flights offers users flight search tools that make it easy to quickly find the best flight. Whether you’re planning a trip on your desktop, tablet or phone, you can use Google Flights to search for countries, states,
T
umblr lets you effortlessly share anything. Post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos from your browser,
How much does it cost? Postcardly costs $4.99 a month for 5 postcards, $9.99 a month for 15 postcards, or a one-time charge of $19.99 for 20 prepaid postcards, for domestic U.S. postcards. International postcards count as two postcards against your monthly limit (or the number of postcards on 74 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
phone, desktop, email or wherever you happen to be. You can customize everything, from colors to your theme's HTML. Build a cadre of followers and follow fellow tumblrs. Your posts may be for personal interest but they may also be an outreach tool for your business. Promote your brand or the products and services you offer using the Tumblr ad products. Tumblr boasts of over 200 million blogs and 100 billion posts so there is an audience waiting to hear from you - whether your point of view, your information revelation or your business perspective and offering. Give Tumblr a try. What have you got to gain?
www.snapcash.com
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napcash is a new feature of Snapchat. With snapcash you can send money directly to your snapchat contacts. Out for dinner with friends, send your portion of the tab to the event host in a "snap." We’re huge fans of the folks at Square and have been big admirers of Square Cash since it launched. We loved it so much that we wanted to create something with them that felt Snapchat-y. So together we built Snapcash.
To use the snapcash feature, enter your debit card info. It’s securely stored by Square, who will swiftly process your payment and send cash directly to your friend’s bank account. Just swipe into chat, type the dollar sign, an amount (e.g. $11.25), and hit the green button. Done. Snapchat (www.snapchat.com) is a video messaging application. Users can take photos, record videos, add text and drawings, and send them to a controlled list of recipients. These sent photographs and videos are known as "Snaps". Users set a time limit for how long recipients can view their Snaps (as of April 2015, the range is from 1 to 10 seconds), after which they will be hidden from the recipient's device and deleted from Snapchat's servers.
and multi-tiered premium (paid) services. Livestream also offers wireless HD broadcasting in the form of a device combination called Livepack, described as "a satellite television truck in a backpack." In September 2009, Livestream started providing custom channel pages to stream events like concerts sports events, conferences, worship serivices and more. These pages integrated live chat, Twitter, and Facebook. Livestream is both a virtual television studio and embeddable video player, offering users the opportunity to produce and broadcast Web video in the manner of a television network. Users can stream live video or broadcast prerecorded video in their channels, utilizing multiple cameras and onscreen graphics. Users may also
www.livestream.com
collaborate with other producers anywhere in the world.Newspapers and by the World Economic Forum, and some local TV affiliates, usually for local news and storm watch. Livestream released Twitcam which allows users to broadcast live streaming video using their Twitter account. When someone replies to a tweet that includes the link to the show, Twitcam counts it as a reply. It then compiles these in a single place where everyone watching the broadcast can see the entire corresponding conversation. Broadcasts using Twitcam are saved with a unique URL.
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ivestream is a live streaming video platform that allows users to view and broadcast video content using a camera and a computer through the internet. It offers a free ad-supported service
Submitted by LaSandra Stratton, Chief Content Administrator of the Black Business News.
75 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Community/Public Interest
First Lady's Powerful Remarks to Tuskegee University's Class of 2015 By David Hudson
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n Saturday, May 9, 2015 First Lady Michelle Obama delivered the commencement address to the Class of 2015 at Tuskegee University -a historically black university in Tuskegee, Alabama. Founded by Booker T. Washington in 1881, Tuskegee is the only university in America to be designated as a National Historic Site. In her remarks, the First Lady detailed Tuskegee's rich history -- spotlighting a number of the distinguished alumni that have previously walked the university's halls -- and encouraged the current class of graduates to not be intimidated by the legacy of their predecessors, or the expectations of others. Mrs. Obama explained that she understood that kind of pressure herself -- not only as a First Lady, but as the first African American First Lady of the United States. "I didn’t start out as the fully formed First Lady who stands before you today. No, no, I had my share of bumps along the way." "Eventually," she said, "I realized that if I wanted to keep my sanity and not let others define me, there was only one thing I could do, and that was to have faith in God’s plan for me. I had to ignore all of the noise and be true to myself -- and the rest would work itself out." Mrs. Obama also detailed the
obligation that she felt to make the "biggest impact possible" with the platform that comes with being the First Lady: I took on issues that were personal to me -- issues like helping families raise healthier kids, honoring the incredible military families I’d met on the campaign trail, inspiring our young people to value their education and finish college. Now, some folks criticized my choices for not being bold enough. But these were my choices, my issues. And I decided to tackle them in the way that felt most authentic to me -- in a way that was both substantive and strategic, but also fun and, hopefully, inspiring. "At the end of the day," she said, "by staying true to the me I've always known, I found that this journey has been incredibly freeing." "Graduates, that’s what I want for all of you. I want you all to stay true to the most real, most sincere, most authentic parts of yourselves." The First Lady also encouraged the graduates to remain strong in the face of those that "will make assumptions about who they think you are based on their limited notion of the world," explaining how she and the President have been on the receiving end of those assumptions throughout their lives: We’ve both felt the sting of those daily slights throughout our entire lives -- the folks who crossed the street in fear of their safety; the
clerks who kept a close eye on us in all those department stores; the people at formal events who assumed we were the “help” -- and those who have questioned our intelligence, our honesty, even our love of this country. And I know that these little indignities are obviously nothing compared to what folks across
78 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
First Lady Michelle Obama participates in the Tuskegee University class of 2015 commencement ceremony in Tuskegee, Ala. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)
First Lady Michelle Obama greets alum and Selma civil rights leader, Dr. Amelia Boynton Robinson, age 103 and Latifya Mohammed before the Tuskegee University Commencement ceremony in Tuskegee, Ala. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)
the country are dealing with every single day -- those nagging worries that you’re going to get stopped or pulled over for absolutely no reason; the fear that your job application will be overlooked because of the way your name sounds; the agony of sending your kids to schools that may no longer be separate, but are far from equal; the realization that
no matter how far you rise in life, how hard you work to be a good person, a good parent, a good citizen -- for some folks, it will never be enough. "All of that is going to be a heavy burden to carry," she said, adding that it can often make people feel like their lives don't matter. "[These feelings are] rooted in decades of structural challenges that have made too many folks feel frustrated and invisible. And those feelings are playing out in communities like Baltimore and Ferguson and so many others across this country." The First Lady emphasized, however, that those frustrations are not an excuse to quit, or to lose hope.
"Our history provides us with a better story, a better blueprint for how we can win," she said. "It teaches us that when we pull ourselves out of those lowest emotional depths, and we channel our frustrations into studying and organizing and banding together -- then we can build ourselves and our communities up. We can take on those deep-rooted problems, and together -- together -- we can overcome anything that stands in our way." www.whitehouse.gov/ blog/2015/05/11/case-you-missedit-first-lady-speaks-tuskegeeuniversitys-class-2015
79 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Community/Public Interest
Obama Presidential Library will be Built on Chicago's South Side
general and education secretary to discuss teen violence. Four years later, after honor student Hadiya Pendleton was shot to death in a park about a mile from the Obama home, Michelle Obama returned to Chicago By Don Babwin and Caryn Rousseau to declare in a deeply personal speech that "Hadiya Pendleton is me and I was her." Much was said Tuesday about resident Barack Obama less smooth than expected. will establish his presidential Questions lingered for months the powerful effects the library will library on the South Side of about whether the library could have for a part of the city, both as an Chicago, a part of the city where legally be built on park land as the inspiration for local children and as his political career began and where university proposed, because the an economic boost to an area that some of the issues that he plans to university had not secured the land. "suffers the effects of systematic Those questions triggered a flurry neglect and disinvestment," as devote himself to when he leaves the White House are playing out of activity, with the City Council Carol Adams, former president of approving an ordinance to transfer the DuSable Museum of African on the streets. The Barack Obama Foundation the land and state lawmakers American History, said. The South Side is also widely made official recently what had been passing a bill reinforcing the city's widely expected, that the library will right to use the park land for the viewed as an opportune spot for be erected on a site proposed by library as well as "Star Wars" Obama to base his post-presidential the University of Chicago. The creator George Lucas' proposed plans to create and broaden educational and location was selected over bids lakefront museum. In the video, Obama cited Chicago other opportunities made by Columbia University in New York, the University of Hawaii as the place he was able to apply for boys and young and the University of Illinois at his "early idealism to try to work in men of color. "On the South communities in public service" as Chicago. Side he's going "With a library and a foundation well as being where he met his wife to be right in the on the South Side of Chicago, not and their children were born. Added First Lady Michelle middle of the lives only will we be able to encourage and effect change locally, but what Obama: "Every value, every of young black every important men, not in some we can also do is to attract the world memory, to Chicago," Obama said in a video relationship to me exists in Chicago. remote place but right down there accompanying the release. "All the I consider myself a South Sider." As a place to tell the president's where this is a strands of my life came together and I really became a man when I life story, Mayor Rahm Emanuel big issue," said moved to Chicago." noted that the chapter about the Willard Boyd, a The library, to be located in one president's days as a community former president of two public parks near campus, organizer happened just outside of Chicago's Field is expected to be a boon to what will be the doors of the library. Museum and past nearby communities that struggle "This is where President Obama's chairman of the with gang violence, drugs, and journey began in public life," (Harry S.) Truman unemployment. The University of Emanuel said Tuesday. "He walked Library Institute Chicago has said the library and its these streets, knocked on these in Independence, Missouri. 800,000 expected visitors a year doors." One remaining will translate into dozens of new That connection remains a businesses, thousands of jobs and strong one. After the videotaped question is which of tens of millions of dollars in revenue. beating death of a 16-year-old two proposed sites While the choice was not a honor student in 2009, for example, near the campus, surprise sewing up the deal was Obama dispatched his attorney W a s h i n g t o n President Barack O and First Lady Mich 80 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819 Obama
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Obama helle
Park or Jackson Park, will be chosen. Foundation Chairman Marty Nesbitt, a friend of Obama, said Tuesday that he expects the selection to come within nine months and expects the library to be finished in 2020 or 2021. Nesbitt said the university and foundation would be independent entities but, "we will be good neighbors."
Hawaii and Columbia Universities to Have Links With Obama Library University of Hawaii President David Lassner said Tuesday that it's clear that the foundation wants to have a presence in Hawaii, and that the university will be working with the foundation over the next few months to figure out what the relationship will be. Hawaii had submitted a bid to build the presidential library in the Honolulu
neighborhood of Kakaako. "This is an incredible opportunity for our students, faculty and staff and the entire state and will only enrich the educational experience here at the University," Lassner said at a news conference. "While we're not building that magnificent facility at Kakaako that we proposed, I think that there will be decades of benefit to the state as a result of putting in the proposal, getting on the radar and clearly attracting the attention of the president, that he wants to be doing something here related to his legacy and with the University of Hawaii, very specifically." Maya Soetoro-Ng, Obama's sister and a member of the foundation's board of directors, said Hawaii presented a compelling plan, and that the foundation plans to develop joint programs with the University of Hawaii and other local
partners. The foundation also intends to have a presence at Columbia University in New York, according to a news release from the Hawaii Presidential Center Initiative. Obama's policy of pivoting attention to the Asia-Pacific region and the fact that the island chain has direct flights throughout the region helped the state, said Gov. David Ige. "Our location in the Pacific, his early years spent here really did shape his thinking in a lot of different ways," Ige said of the president. ď ƒ http://www.huffingtonpost. com/2015/05/12/obama-presidentiallibrary_n_7263666.html www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/13/ hawaii-loses-obamalibrary_n_7271648.html?cps=gravi ty_2425_-2027364445366217956 www.barackobamafoundation.org
Community/Public Interest-Obituary
Ann Shaw, civic leader in Los Angeles for five decades, dies at 93 By Elaine Woo, Los AngelesTimes
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n 1849, a black man walked into a one-room schoolhouse in Ohio with his son, Ed. "What's the matter with this damn schoolhouse that they won't take Ed?" he said when he confronted the white schoolmaster. "Ed has got to get in!" His words rang for generations of his family, particularly his greatgranddaughter, Ann Shaw. "I grew up with the understanding that I was responsible … for not opening doors but for putting my foot in the door, holding them wide open for others to pass through," Shaw, who cut a wide swath across Los Angeles as a civic leader for five decades, said when she recounted
the story more than a century later. Her grandfather Ed "got in," and so did she: She earned degrees from three universities, including University of Southern California (USC), as well as a seat at the table of influential charitable, community and political organizations during an era when minorities rarely penetrated the city's elite circles. Shaw, the first African American to head the YWCA of Greater Los Angeles, died of natural causes May 5 at her Los Angeles home, said her daughter, Valerie Shaw. She was 93. Her husband, Leslie N. Shaw, was a banker who in the 1960s served six years as the city's postmaster, the first black to be named to the position. His prominence opened some doors, but Shaw made it her business to demonstrate that she was qualified to lead. Elected president of the Los Angeles YWCA in 1963, Shaw led the charge to persuade its board of 50 middle-class white women to start a job training program for an area with a large number of poor black families. "I do think at the time my race helped me," Shaw said in a 1993 oral history for the California Social Welfare Archives at USC, because the white board members did not want to appear racist by opposing the proposal. "I might say that's about the only time that racism ever worked to my advantage." The Y won a federal grant to launch the program in 1965, just a
few months before the Watts riots laid bare the economic hardships of the region it would serve. Fifty years later, it is one of the largest Job Corps programs in the nation, according to Faye Washington, president and chief executive of YWCA of Greater Los Angeles, who considered Shaw a mentor. Margaret Ann White was born in Columbus, Ohio, on Nov. 21, 1921. Her father, P. Daniel White, ran a funeral home at a time when few blacks owned businesses. Her mother, Sarah Roberts White, was active in the local Episcopal Church and the segregated branch of the YWCA. When her mother became ill, Shaw moved to Los Angeles to live with an aunt. She graduated from Jefferson High School and attended the University of Redlands on a scholarship, earning a bachelor's degree in speech in 1943. "I had a lisp," she told The Times when the paper named her one of its Women of the Year in 1969. "I fixed it. I decided if I could fix mine, I could fix somebody else's." The following year she received a master's degree in speech from Ohio State University, where she met Leslie Shaw. They were married in 1947 and settled in Los Angeles a few years later. She applied to be a speech teacher in the Los Angeles school district but was not hired despite passing the eligibility exam three times. She was told she was overqualified but suspected that race was a factor. As her husband's career took off, she turned to volunteer work. In 1963, the year Leslie was appointed Los Angeles postmaster by President Kennedy, Shaw began the first of two terms as YWCA president. Two years later, in the wake of
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PRODUCER, RODEO IMPRESARIO LU VASON DIES AT 76
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riends and family are mourning the loss of Lu Vason, President and Producer of the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo and creator of numerous unique national and local entertainment events. Vason passed away on Sunday, May 17 in Denver, Colorado after an illness. Vason is credited with uncovering the cultural past of the Black cowboy and creating the all Black rodeo named after legendary Black Cowboy Bill Pickett who
originated “bulldogging.” “Lu leaves an indelible mark on Denver’s cultural scene and western heritage that will never be forgotten,” says Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock. The popular invitational rodeo series reaches over 130,000 spectators annually across the United States. With a career spanning more than four decades, his independent production and promotion company Lu Vason Presents, Inc. has showcased
the Watts riots, she helped lead a committee to ease tensions in the area's schools. The severity of the problems she was asked to address spurred her to take a graduate course at USC that led her to a master's in social work in 1968. Over the next decades she served on many boards, including
those of the California Medical Center Foundation, the California Community Foundation, the University of Redlands, the UCLA Medical School Board of Visitors, Lloyds Bank and what is now the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science. Her husband died in 1985, and
national and international talent. Extensive credits include creating the Pointer Sisters, the American Heritage Rodeo of Champions and the Denver Jazz
Festival. Vason was well known in the arts and multicultural communities. He was also a master at nurturing diverse communities by creating unique entertainment events like bringing the Dance Theatre of Harlem to Denver and introducing Denver to Opera infused with Jazz, which was his latest project presented earlier in the year at the University of Denver's Robert & Judi Newman Center. Vason used the rodeo not only for entertainment but also as an educational tool, sharing the story of the African American cowboy and cowgirl while touching hundreds of thousands of lives all over the world. The Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo has traveled to 33 cities and is known as the world’s only African American rodeo. Lu Vason’s legacy will live on through the Bill Picket Invitational Rodeo as it begins its 31st year in July in California, followed with Atlanta, GA, Washington, DC and Denver, Colorado. For more information, visit www. billpickettrodeo.com or call 303373-1246. www.birminghamtimes. com/2015/05/17339
a son, Leslie Jr., died in 2011. Besides daughter Valerie, she is survived by two other children, Dan and Rebecca; six grandchildren; and a great-grandson. http://touch.latimes. com/#section/-1/article/p2p83517634
83 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Community/Public Interest-Obituary
Calvin Peete, 71, a Pioneer on the PGA Tour, Is Dead By Bruce Weber, New York Times
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alvin Peete, whose life traced one of sport’s most triumphant arcs — a school dropout with a crooked left arm who did not pick up a golf club until his 20s, did not join the pro tour until his 30s, and still became one of the leading players of his era and the most successful black professional golfer before Tiger Woods — has died. He was 71. A self-taught player who never hit especially long, Peete was one of golf’s most accurate drivers and fairway players. He won his first Professional Golfers Association tour event, the Greater Milwaukee Open, in 1979, and from 1982 through 1986 was among the tour’s most prolific champions, winning 11 tournaments, including four in 1982. In 1984, he averaged 70.56 shots per round, winning the Vardon Trophy, given annually to the professional golfer with the lowest per-round score. In 1985, his two wins included the prestigious Tournament Players Championship (now the Players Championship) in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., a victory that Sports Illustrated described as “against the best field that will tee off all the year on one of the most unrelenting, terrorizing courses the pros play.” From 1976 to 1995, Peete played in 344 tournaments, winning 12, finishing in the top 10 73 times and earning $2.3 million. His story is Dickensian in its downand-out beginnings and American in its particular obstacles and
eventual rewards. He was born in Detroit on July 18, 1943. According to numerous sources, his parents had nine children, and after they divorced, his father, Dennis, had 10 more. Calvin lived with his father, a vegetable picker in Pahokee, Fla., in the south-central part of the state, and after he dropped out of school in the eighth grade to help feed the family, he, too, worked in the corn and bean fields. He was unable to do heavy work, however; at age 12, he had fallen out of a tree and broken his left elbow, leaving him unable to straighten the arm. It was perhaps a serendipitous accident. It is a golfing dictum that for right-handed golfers, the left arm remains straight during a swing, but Peete, who never had a golf lesson before he turned pro, developed his own method, compensating for his handicap and developing a stroke uncanny in its accuracy, or, as his onetime caddy Dolphus Hill said in 1986, “He goes flag on you.” Peete was regularly among the tour leaders in driving accuracy and greens hit in regulation. “I get my accuracy from my tempo and rhythm,” he told The New York Times in 1982. “I never really worked for it. It is just something that happened. I just seem to have a good tempo and good control as far as knowing just when to release the club.” But that was long in the future. As a teenager, Peete grew tired of the laborious field work and eventually
contrived a different way to earn money, managing to buy a car, traveling to farms and orchards up and down the East Coast and selling clothes and jewelry out of the back of his station wagon to migrant workers. He had no interest in golf. “If I happened to turn the channel and see golf on television, I’d be like most people I knew,” he said in a 1983 interview with The Times. “I’d turn to a basketball game or a war movie.” It was in Rochester, in the summer of 1966, that he tried golf for the first time. He was 23. Friends invited him to a fish fry, he recalled in a 1986 interview with Boys’ Life magazine, but they took him to a golf course instead. “I couldn’t get a ride home,” he said, “so I went along with the fool idea.” Quickly bitten by the bug, and with his selling done at night, he began spending days on the golf course, teaching himself by reading books. He took advice on his grip from the man who sold him his golf gloves, practiced on a baseball field, made films of his stroke and studied them. It took him nine years and three trips to the PGA qualifying school before he earned the right to join the tour, at 32, in 1975. At the time, blacks were rare in professional golf, a sport that had a history of exclusion. A “Caucasianonly” clause was not rescinded by the PGA until 1961, and only a handful of black golfers — among them Charlie Sifford (who died in February), Lee Elder and Jim Dent — preceded Peete on the pro tour. In 1975, Elder became the first black golfer to play in the Masters in Augusta, Ga. In 1980, Peete was the second. He never played especially well at the Masters; in 1986, his best finish, he tied for 11th. After the 1983 tournament — during which he
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had one of his worst rounds, an 87 on the third day — he was asked his opinion of the traditions at the Masters. “Until Lee Elder, the only blacks at the Masters were caddies or waiters,” he said. “To ask a black man what he feels about the traditions of the Masters is like asking him how he feels about his forefathers who were slaves.” Peete’s first marriage, to Christine Sears, ended in divorce. A complete list of survivors was unavailable, but they include his second wife, Pepper, and seven children. In 1982, Peete took — and passed — a high school equivalency test; a high school diploma or its equivalent was required for membership on the American Ryder Cup team, which represents the United States in a competition against a team of Europeans. Peete played on two Ryder Cup teams. On the 1983 squad with Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Ben Crenshaw, Curtis Strange and other stars, he helped the United States to a narrow victory. “Calvin Peete was a remarkable golfer; he overcame a lot of adversity, including a physical limitation, to become a very, very good golfer,” Nicklaus wrote on his website on Wednesday. “Over the years, we played a lot of golf together, and I was amazed at what he could get out of his game.” Nicklaus added, “He was an extremely straight driver of the golf ball; a very smart golfer; and, you might say, he was very much an overachiever.” www.nytimes.com/2015/04/30/sports/ calvin-peete-71-a-pioneer-on-the-pga-touris-dead.html?_r=0
Calvin Peete, capturing the Pacific-Atlanta Classic in 1983, was pro golf’s most successful black player before Tiger Woods.Credit Joe Holloway Jr./ Associated Press
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Community/Public Interest-Obituary
Golf Pioneer Charlie Sifford, 92, Dies
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harlie Sifford, who only wanted a chance to play and who broke the color barrier in golf as the first black PGA Tour member, died on February 3, 2015, the PGA of America said. Sifford, who recently had suffered a stroke, was 92. Charlie Sifford broke barriers all his life. He was the first African-American to play the PGA and the first to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. There was a time when none
of this seemed possible. Jackie Robinson’s courageous integration of Major League Baseball in 1946 is widely and appropriately credited for changing the American sports landscape forever. One year later, toughened by a tour of duty in the Army’s 24th Infantry, another young black man named Charlie Sifford told Robinson he planned to follow in his footsteps and compete in golf, a sport where the ball and the participants were equally as white. "If you try hard enough, anything can happen." "He asked me if I was a quitter,"
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Sifford recalled. "He said, 'OK, if you're not a quitter, go ahead and take the challenge. If you're a quitter, there's going to be a lot of obstacles you're going to have to go through to be successful in what you're trying to do.' "I made up my mind I was going to do it. I just did it. Everything worked out perfect, I think." It was Sifford who opened professional golf, a game with a "Caucasian only" rule, to blacks more than four decades ago. Without him, Tiger Woods would probably not have been able to make his own impact on the sports world. "He has my respect and my gratitude for the sacrifices he made to open the doors to this great game to people of color," Woods said. Born June 2, 1922, Sifford started in golf the only way a black kid growing up in North Carolina could in the 1930s - as a caddie. He earned 60 cents a day and gave his mom 50 cents and kept 10 cents to buy stogies, which became his trademark on the course. By 13, he could shoot par golf. Sifford's skin was tough enough to
endure racial injustice and epithets. At the 1952 Phoenix Open, Sifford and his all-black foursome, which included the boxer Joe Louis, found excrement in the cup on the first hole, and waited nearly an hour for the cup to be replaced. Despite all the insults, Sifford lived up to the standard set by Robinson. Sifford fought his battle essentially alone; he didn't have teammates. He broke barriers by breaking par. He won the National Negro Open five straight times from 1952-1956, all the while pushing golf's color boundaries. Not until 1960, when he was 39, did he earn a PGA player card. A year later, under pressure from the California attorney general, the PGA of America, which then ran the Tour, dropped its "Caucasian only" membership clause. Sifford's best years already had passed, but he still won twice on the PGA Tour, at the 1967 Greater Hartford Open and the 1969 Los Angeles Open. "If you try hard enough," Sifford said, "anything can happen." Sifford, who won the 1975 PGA Seniors' Championship, went on to become an original
member of the Champions Tour, where he won the Suntree Classic. In 2004, Sifford became the first black golfer to break into another exclusive club. Of the 100 previously enshrined at the World Golf Hall of Fame, none was black. He was selected via the Lifetime Achievement category for his contributions to the game. "Tonight we honor a man not just for what he accomplished on the course, but for the course he chose in life," South African Gary Player said as he introduced his long-time friend at the induction ceremony in St. Augustine, Fla. Better late, than never. That's been the story of Charlie Sifford's life. "Man, I'm in the Hall of Fame, the World Hall of Fame," he said in his induction ceremony speech. "Don't forget that now! I'm in the World Hall of Fame with all the players. That little old golf I played was all right, wasn't it?"
Remembering Percy Sledge
Following I'll Be Your Everything, an album cut for Southern Rock imprint Capricorn in 1974, he spent a decade working soul circuits in the South, Europe and South Africa. He eventually returned to the limelight when a new generation discovered "When a Man Loves a Woman," which appeared on film and television soundtracks. This resurgence culminated in 1994's Blue Night, his first album for a major label in two decades. Despite positive notices — including a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Blues Album and a 1996 W.C. Handy win for Best Soul or Blues Album — it proved to be Sledge's last major project. When he returned to the stage, he continued singing his classics,
a move that underscored how seminal his eight-year run at Atlantic Records was. Between 1966 and 1974, Percy made some of the finest soul ever recorded and left a legacy that runs much deeper than just one single. P e r c y died on April 14, 2015 at age 74.
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ercy Sledge had plenty of big records, but nothing compared to 1966's "When a Man Loves a Woman," his first single, first hit and lasting legacy. The song stands as the pinnacle of deep Southern soul, and the singer never attempted to escape it. Sledge deepened his Southern signature, accentuating his gospel and country roots as he sang of seduction and heartbreak for discerning listeners. Sledge maintained a loyal following during the decades when he was seemingly off the radar.
www.worldgolfhalloffame.org/charliesifford http://espn.go.com/golf/story/_/ id/12276698/charlie-sifford-golfpioneer-dies-92
www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/percysledge-10-essential-tracks-20150414
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Community/Public Interest-Obituary
B. B. King, Defining Bluesman for Generations, Dies at 89 By Tim Weinermay, New York Times
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. B. King, whose world-weary voice and wailing guitar lifted him from the cotton fields of Mississippi to a global stage and the apex of American blues, died on May 14, 2015 at his home in Las Vegas. He was 89. His death was reported on his website, which said he died in his sleep. Mr. King, who was in hospice care, had been performing until October 2014, when he canceled a tour, citing dehydration and exhaustion stemming from diabetes. Mr. King married country blues to big-city rhythms and created a sound instantly recognizable to millions: a stinging guitar with a shimmering vibrato, notes that coiled and leapt like an animal, and a voice that groaned and bent with the weight of lust, longing and lost love. “I wanted to connect my guitar to human emotions,” Mr. King said in his autobiography, “Blues All Around Me” (1996), written with David Ritz. In performances, his singing and his solos flowed into each other as he wrung notes from the neck of his guitar, vibrating his hand as if it were wounded, his face a mask of suffering. Many of the songs he sang — like his biggest hit, “The Thrill Is Gone” (“I’ll still live on/But so lonely I’ll be”) — were poems of pain and perseverance. The music historian Peter Guralnick once noted that Mr. King helped expand the audience for the blues through “the urbanity of his playing, the absorption of a multiplicity of influences, not
simply from the blues, along with a graciousness of manner and willingness to adapt to new audiences and give them something they were able to respond to. B. B. stood for Blues Boy, a name he took with his first taste of fame in the 1940s. His peers were bluesmen like Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, whose nicknames fit their hard-bitten lives. But he was born a King, albeit in a sharecropper’s shack surrounded by dirt-poor laborers and wealthy landowners. Mr. King went out on the road and never came back after one of his first recordings reached the top of the rhythm-and-blues charts in 1951. He began in juke joints, country dance halls and ghetto nightclubs, playing 342 one-night stands in 1956 and 200 to 300 shows a year for a half-century thereafter, rising to concert halls, casino main stages and international acclaim. He was embraced by rock ’n’ roll fans of the 1960s and ’70s, who remained loyal as they grew older together. His playing influenced many of the most successful rock guitarists of the era, including Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. Mr. King considered a 1968 performance at the Fillmore West, the San Francisco rock palace, to have been the moment of his commercial breakthrough, he told a public-television interviewer in 2003. A few years earlier, he recalled, an M.C. in an elegant Chicago club had introduced him thus: “O.K., folks, time to pull out your chitlins and your collard greens, your pigs’ feet and your
watermelons, because here is B. B. King.” It had infuriated him. When he saw “long-haired white people” lining up outside the Fillmore, he said, he told his road manager, “I think they booked us in the wrong place.” Then the promoter Bill Graham introduced him to the sold-out crowd: “Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you the chairman of the board, B. B. King.” “Everybody stood up, and I cried,” Mr. King said. “That was the beginning of it.” By his 80th birthday he was a millionaire many times over. He owned a mansion in Las Vegas, a closet full of embroidered tuxedoes and smoking jackets, a chain of nightclubs bearing his name (including a popular room on West 42nd Street in Manhattan) and the personal and professional satisfaction of having endured. Through it all he remained with the great love of his life, his guitar. He told the tale a thousand times: He was playing a dance hall in Twist, Ark., in the early 1950s when two men got into a fight and knocked over a kerosene stove. Mr. King fled the blaze — and then remembered his $30 guitar. He ran into the burning building to rescue it. He learned thereafter that the fight had been about a woman named Lucille. For the rest of his life, Mr. King addressed his guitars — big Gibsons, curved like a woman’s hips — as Lucille. He married twice, unsuccessfully, and was legally single from 1966 onward; by his own account he fathered 15 children with 15 women. But a Lucille was always at his side.
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B.B. King receives Medal of Freedom from President G. W. Bush Riley B. King (the middle initial apparently did not stand for anything) was born on Sept. 16, 1925, to Albert and Nora Ella King, both sharecroppers, in Berclair, a Mississippi hamlet outside the small town of Itta Bena. His memories of the Depression included the sound of sanctified gospel music, the scratch of 78-r.p.m. blues records, the sweat of dawn-to-dusk work and the sight of a black man lynched by a white mob. By early 1940 Mr. King’s mother was dead and his father was gone. He was 14 and on his own, “sharecropping an acre of cotton, living on a borrowed allowance see page 89
Community/Public Interest-Obituary of $2.50 a month,” wrote Dick Waterman, a blues scholar. “When the crop was harvested, Riley ended his first year of independence owing his landlord $7.54.” In November 1941 came a revelation: “King Biscuit Time”
the Army and marrying his first wife, Martha Denton, Mr. King, then 22, went to seek him out in Memphis, looking for work. Memphis and its musical hub, Beale Street, lay 130 miles north of his birthplace, and it looked like a world capital to him.
sitting in a room with a thousand records and the ability to play them whenever I wanted. I was the kid in the candy store, able to eat it all. I gorged myself.” Memphis had heard five decades of the blues: country sounds from
went on the air, broadcasting on KFFA, a radio station in Helena, Ark. It was the first radio show to feature the Mississippi Delta blues, and young Riley King heard it on his lunch break at the plantation. A largely self-taught guitarist, he now knew what he wanted to be when he grew up: a musician on the air. The King Biscuit show featured Rice Miller, a primeval bluesman and one of two performers who worked under the name Sonny Boy Williamson. After serving in
Mr. Miller had two performances booked that night, one in Memphis and one in Mississippi. He handed the lower-paying nightclub job to Mr. King. It paid $12.50. Mr. King was making about $5 a day on the plantation. He never returned to his tractor. He was a hit, and quickly became a popular disc jockey playing the blues on a Memphis radio station, WDIA. “Before Memphis,” he wrote in his autobiography, “I never even owned a record player. Now I was
the Delta, barrelhouse boogiewoogie, jumps and shuffles and gospel shouts. He made it all his own. From records he absorbed the big-band sounds of Count Basie, the rollicking jump blues of Louis Jordan, the electric-guitar styles of the jazzman Charlie Christian and the bluesman T-Bone Walker. On the air in Memphis, Mr. King was nicknamed the Beale Street Blues Boy. That became Blues Boy, which became B. B. In December 1951, two years after arriving in
90 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Memphis, Mr. King released a single, “Three O’Clock Blues,” which reached No. 1 on the rhythmand-blues charts and stayed there for 15 weeks. He began a tour of the biggest stages a bluesman could play: the Apollo Theater in Harlem, the Howard Theater in Washington, the Royal Theater in Baltimore. By the time his wife divorced him after eight years, he was playing 275 one-night stands a year on the socalled chitlin’ circuit. There were hard times when the blues fell out of fashion with young black audiences in the early 1960s.
Sue Hall, also lasted eight years, ending in divorce in 1966. He responded in 1969 with his bestknown recording, “The Thrill Is Gone,” a minor-key blues about having loved and lost. It was cowritten and originally recorded in 1951 by another blues singer, Roy Hawkins, but Mr. King made it his own. Mr. King is survived by 11 children. Three of them had recently petitioned to take over his affairs, claiming that Mr. King’s manager, Laverne Toney, was taking advantage of him. A Las Vegas judge rejected their petition this month.
Mr. King never forgot being booed at the Royal by teenagers who cheered the sweeter sounds of Sam Cooke. “They didn’t know about the blues,” he said 40 years after the fact. “They had been taught that the blues was the bottom of the totem pole, done by slaves, and they didn’t want to think along those lines.” Mr. King’s second marriage, to
The success of “The Thrill Is Gone” coincided with a surge in the popularity of the blues with a young white audience. Mr. King began playing folk festivals and college auditoriums, rock shows and resort clubs, and appearing on “The Tonight Show.” Though he never had another hit that big, he had more than four decades of the road before him.
He eventually played the world — Russia and China as well as Europe and Japan. His schedule around his 81st birthday, in September 2006, included nine cities over two weeks in Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France and Luxembourg. Despite health problems, he maintained a busy touring schedule until 2014. In addition to winning 15 Grammy Awards (including a lifetime achievement award), having a star on Hollywood Boulevard and being inducted in both the Rock and Roll and Blues Halls of Fame, Mr. King was among the recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors in 1995 and was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2006, awards rarely associated with the blues. In 1999, in a public conversation with William Ferris, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Mr. King recounted how he came to sing the blues. “Growing up on the plantation there in Mississippi, I would work Monday through Saturday noon,” he said. “I’d go to town on Saturday afternoons, sit on the street corner, and I’d sing and play. “I’d have me a hat or box or something in front of me. People that would request a gospel song would always be very polite to me, and they’d say: ‘Son, you’re mighty good. Keep it up. You’re going to be great one day.’ But they never put anything in the hat. “But people that would ask me to sing a blues song would always tip me and maybe give me a beer. They always would do something of that kind. Sometimes I’d make 50 or 60 dollars one Saturday afternoon. Now you know why I’m a blues singer.” www.nytimes.com/2015/05/16/arts/ music/b-b-king-blues-singer-diesat-89.html?_r=0
91 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Community/Public Interest-Obituary
Globetrotters Legend Marques Haynes Dies at age 89 By Berry Tramel, NewsOK
M
arques Haynes, who went from the dirt courts of Oklahoma to playing basketball before kings and popes, died in Plano, Texas, at the age of 89. Touted as “The World’s Greatest Dribbler” by his employer, the Harlem Globetrotters, Haynes never played in the NBA, instead choosing to stay with the Globetrotters in the 1950s. “If Marques had come along these days, he would be on par with (Larry) Bird and Michael Jordan,” George Scott, a Langston teammate of Haynes, told The Oklahoman in 1998. But Haynes’ fame still soared. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998, and with the Globetrotters and his own offshoot team, the Harlem Magicians, Haynes traveled the globe. Egyptian King Farouk asked for his autograph. Pope Pius X patted his foot to the tune of "Sweet Georgia Brown" as Haynes dribbled. Aly Kahn invited Haynes to a French villa, where he met Rita Hayworth. Haynes walked with Jesse Owens to the chancellor's box at Olympic Stadium in Berlin, where he heard the chancellor say the famous words, “Hitler refused to give you his hand. Today, I give you both my hands.” It all started in Sand Springs, where at Booker T. Washington High School, which Haynes led to the 1941 national black high
Receiving Hall of Fame award from Bill Russell
Marques Haynes in Harlem Globetrotter Uniform school championship in Tuskegee, Ala. Then at Langston, Haynes quarterbacked Zip Gayles’ football team to the national black-school college championship and Gayles’ basketball teams to a record of 1123 over four years. But Haynes’ profile soared on March 13, 1946, when a match game in Oklahoma City’s Municipal Auditorium, Langston stunned the Globetrotters, the basketball power of the day, 74-70. Haynes scored 34 points that night, and ‘Trotter owner Abe Saperstein offered Haynes a contract. His career was set. Haynes played over 12,000 basketball games, none bigger than Globetrotter victories over the
Minneapolis Lakers in 1948 and 1949 in sold-out Madison Square Garden. “The game of basketball has lost one of its most iconic figures,” Globetrotter CEO Kurt Schneider said in a prepared statement. “Marques was a pioneer, helping pave the way for people of all races to have opportunities to play basketball and for the sport to explode on a global scale. His unique and groundbreaking style of play set the tone for modern basketball as we know it. Anyone involved with basketball worldwide is indebted to Marques. He was the consummate Globetrotter.” http://newsok.com/basketballglobetrotters-and-langston-legendmarques-haynes-dies-at-age-89/ article/5421692
92 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
International
Download the Zambia-USA Chamber of Commerce App from the
Apple App Store or
Google Play Store Search: "Zambia USA Chamber"
Find links to the chamber website and facebook page, and embassies; access business resources; receive breaking news; view relevant video presentations; communicate via Twitter, smartphone and e-mail.
www.zambiausachamber.org
94 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
International
Ethiopian Airlines to Launch Route to Los Angeles International Airport
E
thiopian Airlines (Ethiopian) is the flag carrier of Ethiopia. During the past sixty five plus years, Ethiopian has become one of the continent?s leading carriers, unrivalled in Africa for efficiency and operational success, turning profits for almost all the years of its existence. Operating at the forefront of technology, the airline has also become one of Ethiopia’s major industries and a veritable institution in Africa. It commands a lion’s share
of the pan African network including the daily and double daily eastwest flight across the continent. Ethiopian currently serves 84 international destinations operating the newest and youngest fleets. Ethiopian Airlines is the fastest growing and most profitable airline in Africa. In 2014, IATA ranked Ethiopian as the largest airline in Africa in revenue and profit. In its operations in the past close to seven decades, Ethiopian has been a pioneer of African aviation
as an aircraft technology leader providing the first jet service in the continent in 1962, and availing the first African B767 in 1984, the first African B777-200LR in 2010 and the first African and second only to Japan B787 Dreamliner in 2012. Ethiopian commands the lion share of the pan-African passenger and cargo network operating the youngest and most modern fleet to more than 83 international destinations across five continents.
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see page 98
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International Ethiopian fleet includes ultramodern and environmentally friendly aircraft such as the Boeing 787, Boeing 777-300ER, Boeing 777-200LR, Boeing 777-200LR Freighter and Bombardier Q-400 with double cabin. In fact, Ethiopian is the first airline in Africa to own and operate these aircraft. Ethiopian is currently implementing a 15-year strategic plan called Vision 2025 that will see it become the leading airline group in Africa with seven strategic business units: Ethiopian International Passenger
Service; Ethiopian Regional Service; Ethiopian Cargo; Ethiopian MRO; Ethiopian Aviation Academy; Ethiopian In-flight Catering Service and Ethiopian Ground Service. Ethiopian is a multi-award winning, including SKYTRAX and Passenger Choice Awards in 2013 and has been registering an average growth of 25% per annum in the past seven years. Ethiopian is a Pan-African global carrier voted by Passenger Choice Awards as the Best in Africa for two consecutive years, in the most comprehensive survey in the industry. The airline operates the
youngest fleet in the continent with an average of less than 7 years and currently serves 84 international destinations across 5 continents with over 200 daily departures.
New Destinations Ethiopian Airlines has started new services to Tokyo Narita International Airport in April 21, 2015, in codeshare partnership with fellow Star Alliance member, All Nippon Airways, Japan’s leading airline. The thrice weekly flight, the only direct connection between Africa and Japan, will be operated through Hong Kong with the ultramodern Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, which offers customers the best on-board comfort with the biggest windows in the sky, high ceiling, less noise than any aircraft with less carbon footprint, and higher cabin humidity ideal for long haul travel. Tokyo is one of the world’s most populous metropolis and serves as Japan’s political, economic and cultural hub. Japan is the world’s third largest economy and one of the main financial and economic centers with growing investment, trade and tourism ties with Africa. Ethiopian flights to Tokyo will enable the strengthening of investment, trade, tourism and people-to-people ties between Africa and Japan. Ethiopian Airlines is set to begin operating flights between Addis Ababa and Los Angeles via Dublin in June 2015. The carrier will schedule its Addis Ababa-Dublin-Los Angeles round
Captain Amsale Gualu, Ethiopian Airlines First Female Captain trips three times a week with Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner wide bodies. Ethiopian Airlines took delivery on August 14, 2012 of the first of 10 Boeing 787-8s it had on order According to Ethiopian Airlines, its flights will represent the only direct service connecting Africa with Ireland and the West Coast of the United States. Similarly, the flights will be the only non-stop service between Dublin and Los Angeles, the airline says. Travelers from Los Angeles and Ireland will be able to connect at Ethiopian’s Bole International Airport hub in Addis Ababa to and from the 49 destinations the airline serves in Africa. “Our new flights connecting Addis Ababa, Dublin and Los Angeles will play a critical role in the expansion of trade, tourism investment between the fast-growing continent of Africa, and the United States and Ireland,” said Tewolde Gebremariam, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines Group.
98 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
“As these flights will be the first and only direct air route linking Africa with Ireland and the West Coast of the U.S., they will bring these two seemingly far-away cities much closer to Africa and will facilitate mobility and connectivity for businesses and the large African Diaspora community living in the West Coast of the United States,” added Gebremariam. With the addition of Dublin, the airline’s 11th European city, and Los Angeles, its fourth destination in the Americas, Ethiopian international network
Bole International Airport Ethiopian Airlines’ first Boeing 777200LR was delivered in November 2010, As of 2014, the carrier had six 777-200LRs in service
will cover 85 destinations across 5 continents.
Training
Ethiopian Aviation Academy, the largest aviation academy in Africa, has recently graduated 16 pilots, 96 aviation technicians, 36 cabin crew and 24 marketing professionals. The graduates include nationals from Rwanda, Tanzania and Sudan. CEO Tewolde Gebremariam said, “Ethiopian Aviation Academy is the bedrock of our success by making us to be self-sufficient in critical aviation areas. We have invested over $80 million in our Academy over the last 4 years and have upgraded its in-take capacity to over 1,000 students per year. In line with our Vision 2025 strategic roadmap, we plan to further increase this intake capacity to over 4,000 by 2025, with a view to serve not just our needs but also the growing demand of skilled aviation professionals across Africa.” Ethiopian Aviation Academy has joined IATA’s global training partner network as an IATA Authorized Training Center, capable of delivering training programs: IATA International Travel & Tourism Training Program and Foundation in Travel & Tourism. The African Airlines Association (AFRAA) has recently voted the Academy as “Airline Training Services Provider of the Year”. Ethiopian Aviation Academy is certified by the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority, the U.S Federal Aviation Administration, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), and IOSA (IATA Safety Audit). The Academy has been providing training for pilots, maintenance technicians, cabin crew, marketing and leadership for the airline and other sisterly carriers in Africa for more than six decades. www.ethiopianairlines.com/en
99 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
International
South African Airways Brings the 2015 Africa Showcase to the U.S. and Canada
S
outh African Airways’ (SAA), the national flag carrier of South Africa and Africa’s most awarded airline, has announced the tour dates for the Africa Showcase in 2015. From September 29th to October 7th, the annual educational travel trade show will visit Los Angeles, CA, Dallas, TX, Boston, MA and for the first time Toronto, Canada. The Africa Showcase is the largest travel trade event in North America featuring exclusively African suppliers that represent hotels, safari lodges, destination tourism organizations and other attractions that are popular with
North American travellers. The show brings Africa travel specialists the latest trends on the region’s products and services, enabling those who participate to boost their sales to the increasingly popular destinations throughout Africa. The Africa Showcase is hosted in collaboration with On Show Solutions, a South Africa based event organizer. In addition to its traditional format, South African Airways and On Show Solutions will also introduce VIP buyer encounters. These dedicated sessions create an additional opportunity
for top African travel specialists to meet suppliers through scheduled one-on-one appointments. The dates and venues for the 2015 Africa Showcase are: • September 29th: Los Angeles, CA • October 1st: Dallas, TX • October 5th: Boston, MA • October 7th: Toronto, ON www.flysaa.com www.onshowsolutions.co.za
100 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
African Stock Exchanges • Bolsa de Valores of Cape Verde - www.bvc.cv (in Portuguese) • Bond Exchange of South Africa - www.bondexchange. co.za • Botswana Stock Exchange www.bse.co.bw • Bourse Regionale des Valeurs Mobilieres - UEMOA (Abidjan, Ivory Coast) - www.brvm.org • Casablanca Stock Exchange (Morocco) - www.casablancabourse.com/bourseweb/index. aspx • Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (Tanzania) - www. dse.co.tz • Douala Stock Exchange (Cameroon) - www.douala-stockexchange.com/index_us.php • The Egyptian Exchange - www.
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egx.com.eg/English/homepage. aspx Ethiopia Commodity Exchange - www.ecx.com.et Ghana Stock Exchange - www. gse.com.gh Johannesburg Stock Exchange (South Africa) - www. jse.co.za/Home.aspx Khartoum Stock Exchange (Sudan, in Arabic) - www.kse. com.sd Libyan Stock Market - www. lsm.ly/_layouts/membership/ login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fEnglis h%2fPages%2fdefault.aspx Lusaka Stock Exchange (Zambia) - www.luse.co.zm Nairobi Stock Exchange (Kenya) - www.luse.co.zm Malawi Stock Exchange - www. mse.co.mw
• Mozambique Stock Exchange (in Portuguese) - www. bolsadevalores.co.mz • Namibian Stock Exchange www.nsx.com.na • Nigerian Stock Exchange www.nse.com.ng/Pages/default. aspx • Stock Exchange of Mauritius www.stockexchangeofmauritius. com • Swaziland Stock Exchange www.ssx.org.sz • Tunisia Stock Exchange - www. bvmt.com.tn • Uganda Securities Exchange www.use.or.ug Read the lastest issue of The Exchange Magazine www.nse.co.ke/media-center/ecommunique/exchange-magazine/ category/50-free-version.html
101 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
International
Support AGOA's Reauthorization
A CALL TO ACTION! To sign up and pledge your support for the reauthorization of AGOA, learn more and join with other AGOA supporters go to: www.supportagoareauthorization.org
A
'Call to Action' campaign has been launched for the reauthorization of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) which is set to expire in September 2015, and we are running out of time. AGOA is a cornerstone of the U.S.-Africa commercial relationship to increase investments, strengthen the private sector, reduce trade barriers, and the reduction of poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa. Since AGOA was enacted, seven of the world's ten fastest growing economies are in Sub-Saharan Africa creating 1.3 million jobs. Leadership Africa USA, Africare, Bechtel, Bread for the World, Chevron, Constituency for Africa, Manchester Trade, New Markets Lab, Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa, The Africa Society, The Corporate Council on Africa, the U.S.-Angola Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Witney Schneidman (former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs) are supporting this 'Call to Action' for the reauthorization of AGOA to continue as a catalyst for economic development and improved governance between the United States and Sub-Saharan Africa. We hope you will be part of this and join the campaign to reauthorize AGOA by using the hashtag #ProAGOA on your social media.
The Southern African International Trade Exhibition (SAITEX) is the biggest business and networking opportunities event in the continent, showcasing a wide range of products that includes non food retail products with special sectors featuring tools, equipments and essentials, hardware and building supplies as well as house wares and home wares, decorating items, interior designing items and much more. The event throws open an exclusive platform where the right kind of buyer meets the sellers and each is entitled to a gala affair dedicated to business development. www.exhibitonsafrica.com
SAITEX TURNS 22!!! Service offerings in over 3,000 categories presented by exhibitors from 44 countries await visitors to SAITEX, the world-renowned Southern African International Trade Exhibition. This spectacular ‘business opportunities’ expo takes place at Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand from 21 to 23 June 2015. It draws more than 15,000 visitors annually. “In its 22 years of delivering business opportunities to new and established enterprises alike, SAITEX has grown into one of the most successful and effective business networking platforms in the world,” says John Thomson of show organisers, Exhibition Management Services. “With almost 1,000 top notch exhibitors from around the world, all looking for new business partners, SAITEX is the ultimate exhibition for finding new products and suppliers, making new business contacts, exploring new markets and finding new customers.”
What’s New? SAITEX 2015 showcases exciting new developments, including the staging of the first-ever Eastern European and South American pavilions. “Eastern Europe is far more advanced than we realise, and manufactures a huge variety of electrical and engineering equipment, consumer goods and
food products which are exported to other ex-Soviet countries,” says Thomson. “Not many people know that Peru is a big exporter of coffee, clothing, textiles, fabricated metal products and machinery.” Regular SAITEX exhibitor China will have an even bigger and better pavilion this year, aptly branded “The China Year in South Africa”. The China Technology Investment & Trade organisation (CTIT) has already booked out the whole of Hall 5 at Gallagher and will present hundreds of business opportunities from that country. CTIT also plans to host a conference about ‘Doing Business with China’ during SAITEX as well. “We are very excited to have new national pavilions at the show this year; they make a visit to SAITEX even more rewarding and worthwhile for business owners and entrepreneurs seeking new services, products and technology,” says Thomson.
About SAITEX The exhibitor profile focuses on retail products with special sectors featuring tools, hardware and building supplies as well as housewares and homeware, home appliances, and consumer electronics. The visitor profile includes importers, wholesalers, retailers, distributors, agents and entrepreneurs. SAITEX is colocated with Africa’s Big Seven food and beverage expo, making the biggest multi-sector trade show in Africa.
103 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
konya
gi.co.t
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International
One Africa:
J
Tell the US Government that North Africa is Africa Too!
oin with and support the United Africa Organization’s campaign to petition the U.S. Department of State to include the whole African continent under its Bureau of African Affairs.
Why? The State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs, led by Assistant Secretary Johnnie Carson, currently excludes Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Western Sahara from its agenda. Instead, the aforementioned countries are grouped with the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, together with Iran, Iraq, Israel and others. This artificial distinction between North Africa and the rest of Africa
negatively impacts US foreign policy relations throughout the entire continent of Africa. We unequivocally reject the argument that North African countries are outside the scope of African affairs. North Africa is geographically and historically part of the African continent, and all fifty-three (53) independent African states, including North African countries, are represented in the African Union (AU). It would be far more productive for the State Department to engage with the entire continent of Africa, including North Africa, under its Bureau of African Affairs. We are one Africa, from the Cape to Cairo, indivisible and bound together! Therefore, no square inch of African
land should be excluded from African affairs.
Sign The Petition!!! Go to www.change.org/petitions/ one-africa-tell-us-state-departmentthat-north-africa-is-part-of-africa and sign the online petition to support this important proposition. Next tell everyone you know to sign.
www.uniteafricans.org
International
Returning to Africa?
African Repatriation is an invaluable online resource for any African national who is thinking about returning to Africa. Our industry articles and specialist editorials provide the latest sector information. Why not find out for yourself and become a part of our growing community today? www.africanrepatriation. com
Career Opportunities in Africa Search and apply online for the latest vacancies in Africa with African Talent. We provide candidates and employers with the tools and resources needed in today’s competitive job market. For employers, we offer numerous options to feature your jobs in Africa and for candidates, reviewing the most recent job vacancies in Africa is a fast, easy process. Uploading your CV is simple and takes just a few moments. www.africantalent.com
106 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Thursday Blues at Uncle Darrow‛s High Noon-2pm Every Thursday
Come by for lunch and relax to blues & jazz from our house band! 2560 S. Lincoln Blvd. Marina del Rey North East corner of Washington & Lincoln
“LA Times Magazine favorite cajun food”
310-306-4862
www.uncledarrows.com 107 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Shopping Gallery
Cultural Interiors West &
Cordially Invited Cultural Interiors West 5573 West Pico Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90019 Experience our exciting array of products from Cards to Cupcakes, African Masks, Asian Teacups, Healthy Herbal Teas, Gourd Purses, Candles, to Furniture
Artwear Handpainted Handbags, Skirts, Tees, Accessories, Calendars, Wall Hangings & More! http://gbabysworld.blogspot.com Gbabyartwear@hotmail.com or Gbabyart345@gmail.com Find Gbaby Products at the “Collective” http://www.atthecollective.com 280 Elizabeth Street, Atlanta, GA
Hope to see you soon!!! In the meantime visit us on Facebook www.facebook.com/pages/CulturalInteriors-West/140688362658236
JJ’s Belizean Cuisine 2618 W. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90008 1-323-293-2926
111 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
112 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Find us at: https://nubianskin.com
Empowering Women. Embracing our Colour.
Collection Bed, Bath & Beyond
http://bsmith.com/shop
Bernahu Asfaw & Getahun Asfaw
1041 S. Fairfax Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90019 323-938-8827 or 323-938-8806 • Fax: 323-932-6047 messob@gmail.com • www.messob.com
Open 7 days a week • 11am - 11pm
The Economic Turn Around in the USA is in Our Hands •Buy Products Made or Assembled in the USA •Hire One New Employee •Eat an Extra Meal Out Each Week •Start/Grow a Business to Generate Wealth & Jobs
Buy Black Save Black Invest Black 117 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Eso Won Books African American Books 4327 Degnan Boulevard Leimert Park, Los Angeles
Give the Gift of Books and Music Come see our unsurpassed collection of books, C music, videos, children’s books, and games!
1-323-294-0324
www.esowonbookstore.com //esowon.booksense.com for Calendar of Events
120 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Calendar May
12th-17th Trade Mission to China This trade mission to China will promote U.S. clean technology products and services in the areas of green building/construction, energy efficiency, carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) and environmental technologies in support of the Smart Cities-Smart Growth theme. To participate, please visit the mission website to apply: http://www. export.gov/ChinaMission2015.
23rd-31st World Trade Fair Week 2015 The World Fair Trade Week is the most important international event for Fair Trade. The 2015 celebration will be held in Milan, Italy. Two important events will take place during the week: the 13th WFTO (World Fair Trade Organization) Global Conference and Milano Fair City, the first World Fair Trade Exhibition. For information on the organization or participation visit (www.worldfairtradeweek.org).
Gap Congresswoman Maxine Waters and the Black Women's Forum invite the community to discuss issues with the mother's of several of the young Black men who have been killed by police action. Admission is $50 each to $1,000 for a table of 10. For information call 323-292-3009 or send inquiries to bwfonline@gmail.net.
June 21st-23rd SAITEX The Southern African International Trade Exhibition (SAITEX) is the biggest business and networking event on the continent, showcasing a wide range of products that includes non-food retail products with special sectors featuring tools, equipments and essentials, hardware and building supplies as well as house wares and home wares, decorating items, interior designing items and much more. For particiation information on the Johannesburg-based trade show contact www.exhibitonsafrica.com.
24th Hollywood Economic Development Summit The summit offers an opportunity to take stock of recent developments and successes during the revitalization efforts for Hollywood For particiation information contact www.hollywoodchamber.net.
August 13th-15th
2015 African Global Economic and Development Summit Taking place on the campus of the University of California (USC), This 3rd annual conference connects the US entreprenuer a n d b u s i n e s s c o m munities to the opportunities and growth potential of the African Continent. For particiation information visit www.agedsummit. com.
September 12th-17th Trade Winds Africa Conference Set for Johannesburg, South Africa is a two-tier event. Particpants may elect the conference only option or the conference plus trade stops option. The Trade Stops offered in conjunction with the conference are: Angola, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, and extended time in South Africa. For detailed particiation information go to www.trade.gov/DBIA/ tradewinds-africa/index.asp.
29th 2015 Africa Showcase South Africa Airways hosts exhibits in 4 US cities - Los Angeles, 9/30, Dallas, 10/1, Boston, 10/5, Toronto, 10/7. For details go to www.onshowsolutions.co.za
30th Black Mother's Standing in the
123 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Books to Consider
Books to Consider... The Honey Bunch Kids
subject in school is English, and her pastimes include hanging out with her friends, playing tennis, watching television, and developing new ideas for The Honey Bunch Kids. She is an advocate for literacy, and aims to inspire kids to care about each other through her writing. Chental has a strong passion for business, and hopes to develop The Honey Bunch Kids into a popular brand. www.amazon.com/Honey-Bunch-Kids-Chental-SongBembry/dp/1450025196
by Chental-Song Bembry The Honey Bunch Kids is a chapter book series filled with sidesplitting laughter, along with valuable
Blues All Around Me: Autobiography of B.B. King by B.B. King with David Ritz
T life lessons in each and every book. Boys and girls between the ages of 7 and 12 will really enjoy it! Follow the adventures of 5 exciting characters: Dizzy, Cheeks, Stuart, Bubble Gum Boy, and Corinne, as they journey through the 6th grade. Readers will enjoy learning Chental-Song Bembry about different personalities and what it means to be a good friend, no matter what. The Honey Bunch Kids are your every day kids, who are just trying to fit in. Chental-Song Bembry is a 16-year-old high school student who loves reading and writing. Her favorite
he undisputed king of the blues, B.B. King puts his life into words in a story that spans tragedy, triumph, and everything in between—and he tells it just how he plays it, straight from the heart. A trueto-life tale of overcoming monumental odds to succeed as an artist in an often unfriendly world, Blues All Around Me is also the story of how blues music changed during its migration from the Mississippi Delta to urban areas such as Chicago. Rolling Stone calls B.B.’s memoir a “very American success story [told] with the lyricism and leisurely pace of a born storyteller.” www.amazon.com/Blues-All-Around-MeAutobiography/dp/0062061038
124 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
South Side Girls: Growing up in the Great Migration
interviews, Chatelain, an Assistant Professor of History at Georgetown University, uses their powerful stories of hope, anticipation and disappointment to highlight their feelings and thoughts, and in so doing, she helps restore the experiences of an understudied population to the Great Migration's complex narrative. www.amazon.com/South-Side-Girls-GrowingMigration/dp/0822358549
by Dr. Marcia Chatelain
I
n South S i d e G i r l s Dr. Marcia Chatelain recasts Chicago's G r e a t Migration through the lens of black girls. Focusing on the years between
Just Let Me Play: The Story of Charlie Sifford the First Black PGA Golfer by Charlie Sifford
Dr. Marcia Chatelain
1910 and 1940, when Chicago's black population quintupled, Chatelain describes how Chicago's black social scientists, urban reformers, journalists and activists formulated a vulnerable image of urban black girlhood that needed protecting. She argues that the construction and meaning of black girlhood shifted in response to major economic, social, and cultural changes and crises, and that d parents'' and d community leaders' anxieties iti reflflected about urbanization and its meaning for racial progress. Girls shouldered much of the burden of black aspiration, as adults often scrutinized their choices and behavior, and their well-being symbolized the community's moral health. Yet these adults were not alone in thinking about the Great Migration, as girls expressed their views as well. Referencing girls' letters and
T
he first black golfer on the PGA tells of the consistent battles he waged against bigotry in the exclusive world of golf and tells how his courage has opened the sport to a new generation of blacks. www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_11?url=searchalias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=charlie%20sifford%20 just%20let%20me%20play&sprefix=charlie+sif%2Cstripbooks% 2C292
125 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819
Resources Media/Information Africa Interactive Multimedia Press/Content Agency in Africa www.africa-interactive.com Africa World Press Books www.africaworldpressbooks.com African Trade Magazine www.africantrademagazine.com African Vibes Magazine www.africanvibes.com The Africapitalist www.tonyelumelufoundation.org/ africapitalisminstitute/africapitalist-magazine The African World www.theafricanworld.tv Africast TV www.africast.tv Afritorial www.afritorial.com www.facebook.com/Afritorial AllAfrica http://allafrica.com Black Wall Street Times http://bwstimes.com Black Business News Group www.blackbusinessnews.net BlackPast.org www.blackpost.org Black Press USA www.blackpressusa.com BridesNoir www.bridesnoir.com CuisineNoir www.cuisinenoirmag.com DiasporaVoice www.blogtalkradio.com/diasporavoice Publish Africa http://wow.gm/publishafrica Rock Me Africa //rockmeafrica.com YouTube Educational Channels http://teacherswithapps.com/197-educational-youtube-channels-know
Organizations
www.au.int/en Black Business Association www.bbala.org CauseCast www.causecast.com www.causecastfornonprofits.com Pan African Film Festival www.paff.org United African Organization http://uniteafricans.org Zambia-USA Chamber of Commerce www.zambiausachamber.org
Investment/Development Africa Reports www.africareports.com African Development Bank www.afdb.org African Export-Import Bank //afreximbank.com/afrexim/en AfrigadgetTV www.afrigadget.com Disrupt Africa http://disrupt-africa.com/ The Exchange Magazine www.nse.co.ke Silicon Harlem http://event.siliconharlem.net Ventures www.ventures-africa.com
U.S. Government Commerce Department www.doc.gov International Trade Administration http://trade.gov Minority Business Development Agency www.mbda.gov Power Africa www.usaid.gov/powerafrica Small Business Administration www.sba.gov State Department www.dos.gov Trade Africa www.usaid.gov/tradeafrica White House www.whitehouse.gov
Africa Leadership Forum http://africaleadership.org The African Union 127 May 2015 Black Business News www.blackbbusinessnews.net 1-323-291-7819