Compton Herald - November 24, 2014

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! A prayer heard and answered

UGLY SIDE OF POLITICS A2 Heralding the First Amendment: Freedom of the Press and the Public’s Right to Know!

VOL. 1 NO. 9

500 Percent Increase

Students admitted to UCI surges COMPTON—More than 600 students, staff, and community leaders celebrated Dominguez High School’s huge jump in fall 2014 admissions to the University of California at Irvine, during the Achieve UC annual event Oct. 30.

In a substantial 500 percent increase over the past year, 20 Dominguez students have been admitted to UCI this year.

The purpose of the yearly event is to educate students on how to prepare for college academically and ensure they have all the requirements needed for admission.

Dominguez High School senior Keith Hairston, who serves on the Compton Unified School District Board of Trustees as a student representative, said it is important for his classmates to know their peers are moving on to schools like UC Irvine after graduation from high school.

“An event like Achieve UC lets students know they can get to college,” he said. “A lot of students only have a [general] picture on how to apply [to] a university, but knowing the specifics makes a difference. Today we are learning so much more.”

Vanessa Landesfeind, Principal of Instruction, credited Dominguez High School’s dramatic increase to the high school’s counseling staff and its partnership with college outreach staff, including those at the UCI Early Academic Outreach Program.

“We’re very proud of all the students who [have been] admitted to UCI. We could never have accomplished this without the dedication of our counselors Michelle Brewer, who advised the senior class, and Moyofune Shabazz who worked with UCI representatives on our campus.”

Highlights at the Achieve UCI event included a Question and Answer town hall meeting and an assembly which featured guest speakers UCI Vice Chancellor Thomas Parham, UCI Admissions Director Patricia Morales, UCLA professor and CUSD alum Tyrone Howard.

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Mumbling and Grumbling About malodorous equine stables, horse droppings

BY JARRETTE FELLOWS JR. LOS ANGELES — The County of Los Angeles has developed a masterplan for improvements to an urban park located at 905 E. El Segundo Blvd. in Willowbrook, an unincorporated urban area of L.A. County—south of Watts and just north of Compton that should have a neighborhood singing the praises of local government.

But, the proposed amenities and upgrades to the Earvin “Magic” Johnson Recreation area have some residents galloping mad.

The County Department of Parks and Recreation in its masterplan proposes lake enhancements, construction of a sports complex and gymnasium, walking trails, exercise apparutus, and expanded child play areas, The masterplan also includes an equestrian area and equestrian trails.

The latter amenity is what has angered some residents in the adjoining community. An equestrian center is proposed on the west side of the park,

2nd District L.A. County Supervisor Mark RidleyThomas.

along Avalon Boulevard and along the perimeter of the park. An equestrian trail and stables are also proposed.

Named after the pro basketball hall of famer, the existent park features two lakes for fishing, numer- Residents who live near Earvin “Magic” Johnson Park oppose the inclusion of ous picnic areas, barbecue horses and a stable area in the County’s master plan for the park. They contend grills, and children’s play moments like the above will be ruined by the malodor of equine droppings. areas, but the county desires enhancements. masterplan.

“And instead of a horse “It wouldn’t be right The plan also calls for One woman who spoke trail around the park, how next to any one’s home expansion to adjoining only on the condition of about a bike path. More of and there are plenty of acreage once known as anonymity, said most of the community would be trails that could possibly Ujima Village. the area residents are riding their bikes than rid- be used” there by riders on The Second Supervis- against the equestrian ing the horses they don’t horseback, she said. orial District under the component of the plan. own.”

“But, I bet that commuleadership of powerful “I just feel once again The woman, who owns nity wouldn’t want it Supervisor Mark Ridley- our supervisor is going her own home questioned either—‘so let’s just dump T h o m a s , a l o n g w i t h against the wishes of the whether or not the idea of it [in] Willowbrook. They Parks and Recreation are community,” she said. an equestrian center at the won’t care; they won’t the spearheads of the park “Who in their right mind westside’s much larger organize and oppose it’— improvements. thinks that people want Kenneth Hahn Recreation well, it ain’t so!”

But not all of the resi- horse stables next to their Area has ever been prodents have bought into the homes? posed.

See EQUESTRIAN page 15

County reward for slayer’s arrest still on the table COMPTON — A hefty reward of $30,000 offered by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the City of Compton leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the murder of a 34year-old Compton man, is still fresh on the table.

Tauruson McMillan was shot and killed Jan. 4, this year at 6:40 p.m. while driving his red Monte Carlo Super Sport north on Wilmington Avenue from Rosecrans Avenue in Compton, afterwhich his automobile collided with a

fence at Wilmington Avenue and Cressey Street.

Sheriff’s detectives investigating the case have determined McMillan was not a gang member and believe he was shot simply because he was driving a red vehicle.

Investigators are earnestly requesting the public’s assistance in providing information about Tauruson’s murder.

Witnesses with information should call the County Sherrif’s Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500, anytime seven days weekly.

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Major League Baseball Urban Youth Academy 901 E. Artesia Blvd., Compton

“Agitate, Agitate, Agitate!” — Frederick Douglass, 1895

PAGE 2 COMPTON HERALD MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2014

CITY BEAT JARRETTE FELLOWS, JR.

uNchArTed

I

N THE AGE OF MEAN-SPIRITED POLITICS, some went a bridge too far. U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters returned to her home Oct. 30, to find her front law crowded with the poster below.

A lot of people take their politics a little too seriously, especially when their actions are an affront to others with whom they have fundamental political and philosophical differences.

This was an affront to Waters; could even be called threatening because we don’t know the emotional state of the perpetrator. At the very least, it was a crime because the responsible party(s) thread on private property to erect the items.

What you cannot see in the art are the inscriptions that provide a backdrop to the glaring caricature of Waters and the phrase, “Maxine Waters Poverty Pimp,” The inscription printed over and over, reads: “Niggas better have my money!”

The poster was printed in color. So, the black and white rendition published in the Herald does not reveal the caricature’s “red eyes!”

No one knows as of yet who created and distributed these posters; but they have been seen plastered all over California’s 43rd district, which Congresswoman Waters represents, and has represented since 1991. This area encompasses a large portion of South Central Los Angeles including Westchester, Playa Del Rey, Watts, the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County, and the cities of Gardena, Hawthorne, Inglewood, Lawndale, Lomita, and Torrance.

Poverty Pimp is a phrase ascribed to liberal leaning politicians (usually Black) who represent a large minority, mostly low-income constituency. The term originated with conservatives who claim that people like socially conscious activists and politicians gain riches from their crusades to aid the poor.

Whatever may divide both sides of the political aisle, does not justify the disrespect shown Waters.

Friends and aides to Waters removed the posters Nov. 2, and prompted Urban Policy Roundtable President Earl Ofari Hutchinson to say, “We’re highly offended, we’re disgusted by it.”

Friends and aides of Waters are demanding a “fast track investigation” by the California Fair Political Practices Commission to find out who created and distributed the posters.

There has been no indication that Waters’ opponent, Republican John Wood, Jr., had anything to do with the public display. Waters defeated Woods handily in Tuesday’s primary 70.4 to 29.6 percent of the ballots cast in the 43rd Congressional District. Wood released a statement in response to the incident: “All I can say is that people have a right to free speech, but that I represent a fundamentally different brand of politics.

“Whatever people think of Maxine Waters, we should try to call attention to our differences and challenge our opponents on them without being disrespectful.

That’s really what my campaign has been about.”

Despite this last hour campaign against Waters, she easily won re-election

‘Border’ exhibit through Dec. 22 CARSON—A contemporary arts exhibit that gives artistic meaning to life on both sides of the U.S.Mexico border, will extend through Dec. 4 at California State University at Dominguez Hills, for art enthusiasts.

“Crossing Borders: Storiesof Migration in Contemporary Art,” opened in October at the University Art Gallery, opened Oct. 22 to a packed room of artists and enthusiasts who were treated to artistic perspectives centered around the U.S.-Mexico border where migrants often find themselves at odds with cultural bias and political issues.

The exhibit features paintings, prints, pencil drawings, photographs and sculptures shown through the eclectically creative minds of six artists: Los Angeles-based artists Ramiro Gomez, Nery Gabriel Lemus, Oscar Magallanes, Antonio Pelayo, Eric Almanza and San Jose purefiber artist Consuelo Jimenez Underwood.

The exhibit is curated by CSUDH alumnus Eric Almanza, whose work is also on display. One of Almanza’s pieces, “In Search of a New Home,” an oil painting in the realist style, “sums up the theme of the exhibit” as is clearly depicts the desperation of an immigrant family as they attempt to scale a border wall as a helicopter circles above.

Another piece “Those Things That Divide Us,”

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This manhole street cover graphically illustrates the stark border divide between the U.S. and Mexico.

separate people.”

A former textile professor at San Jose State University for 20 years, Underwood is a renowned purethread fiber artist who is highly political in her work, which she exhibits across the U.S. The flowers in “Undocumented Border Flowers” are intricately woven from linen, canvas, paper and cotton.

“On a formal level, this installation is about the materials.They are so mundane. There are paper clips, cheap jewelry, photographs; things that people really know how they feel.

“I want people to remember the humble materials, and know that one can make art with any mundane item or humble experiences,” Underwood says.

“More basically, this is about the flowers. The flowers live on both sides of the border, but they’re ‘undocumented’ and in

danger of being wiped out.

So this piece also represents the ecological destruction that’s taking place near the border towns, which are named in the artwork. Each side of the wall is a dead zone for about a mile. Once you create a solid dead zone across a continent, it becomes a desert.”

Pelayo, who has been an animator at The Walt Disney Company for 21 years, began exhibiting pencilphoto realism art in 2005.

He had several of the delicate pencil drawings on display at the exhibit, which were drawn from images he found in his family photo albums.

He began in the genre by documenting his family’s migration from Mexico to the U.S. with a series of 13 renderings in which he redrew the photos in their entirety. Pelayo then “took See ‘CROSSING’ page 4

University awarded $1.2 million Special Ed grant CARSON—The California State University, Dominguez Hills College of Education has been awarded a five-year $1.25 million grant from the United States Department of Education Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services to recruit, prepare and retain highly qualified special education teachers dedicated to serving students with disabilities who attend inner city schools.

According to statistics, the state mirrors national special ed teacher shortages, notably in lowperforming urban schools.

“We are looking forward to working with our LAUSD partners on another quality project,” said associate professor of education Kamal Hamdan, who is co-director on the grant with Kate Esposito, professor of special education.

“Our partnership contin-

ues to grow through our commitment to the preparation of the most qualified teachers,” Hamdan said.

The grant would establish the Secondary Special Education Teacher Interventionist project, allowing the CSUDH College of Education to expand its accredited special education credential program and assist in addressing disparities within the Los Angeles Unified School District, where

about 12 percent of the district’s 650,000 students qualify for special education.

It is estimated that the intervention project will credential 80 special education teachers with expertise to teach students with mild to moderate disabilities. Currently, between 80 and 90 students earn their preliminary ed specialist credential in special education from Cal State Dominguez on an annual basis.

Betty Pleasant / SOULVINE

PHOTO BY GWEN HARLOW (FLICKR)

COMPTON

which he painted for the exhibit, was created to elicit a feeling of “futility” for border walls.

Almanza also submitted both pieces as part of his thesis show at Laguna College of Art and Design, where he recently graduated with a master’s in fine arts.

“I had come across this story about extending the border wall into the Pacific Ocean by 300 feet. That inspired me for ‘Those Things That Divide Us,’” said Almanaz, who teaches art West Adams Preparatory High School in Los Angeles. “The wall is 18 feet high and extends 300 feet into the ocean, but no one seems to take notice or care about it [in the painting] as a family plays in the sand.

“For me, it demonstrates the futility of walls. You can’t wall up or cut people off. All they have to do is climb over or, in this case, swim around.”

The exhibit, which is open Monday through Thursday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., in room A-107 on the first floor of LaCorte Hall, also features “Undocumented Border Flowers,” Underwood’s wall-sized installation in the exhibit, that takes viewers on an environmentally-conscious journey by vividly expressing the destruction a border wall has, not only on people, but on the desert and its flora.

She sees border regions as “wastelands” that are “symbolically trying to

W

a t e r, water everywhere.

We have had an alarming number of water pipe eruptions throughout Los Angeles this year, with none of them having occurred in South Los Angeles. Have you ever wondered why?

Well, I know why and I’ll tell you all about it, as I am reminded of it every time an L.A. neighborhood is flooded.

It was June 30, 1993, the late Mayor Tom Bradley’s final day in office and as he prepared for his retirement I encountered him in the City Hall parking garage while he was loading his car with keepsakes to take home.

I was then-Councilman Nate Holden’s press deputy and I had City Council parking privileges, so went up to Bradley and thanked him for his many years of service to the city and extended my best wishes upon his retirement. Then he said to me: “I have something I want you to do when I’m gone.”

I said, “what?” Then we sat on the bumper of his car and he explained to me that the water pipes in the city are 100 years old and they

are not going to last much longer. He said the pipes are going to burst and create a problem all over the city. He then said to me: “I want you to make Mark (Ridley-Thomas, who was then the 8th District councilman) replace those pipes.”

I immediately put on my Butterfly McQueen “Gone With the Wind” costume and whined: “I don’t know nothin’ bout fixin’ no pipes!” To which Bradley replied: “You don’t need to. Mark does. I want you to nag him into doing it; he’ll listen to you.”

Well, shortly after Bradley retired, I told Mark what Bradley told me about the pipes and the charge he gave me to nag the councilman into fixing them. Mark said: “Yeah, he told me and I’ve already started.” A little while later, Mark came to my office at the [Los Angeles] Sentinel, to which I had returned, and rolled out before me a huge bundle of underground blueprints and specifications and stuff about the repair of South L.A.’s pipes (as if I knew what I was looking at!).

I asked Mark: “When this work you’re showing me is done, will it solve the problem Bradley is concerned

about?” Mark said, “yes,” to which I responded, “great; then I don’t need to nag!”

All hell broke loose in South L.A. neighborhoods when the work began and what looked like perfectly good streets were torn up so the ancient water pipes beneath them could be replaced. People were mad about being inconvenienced by “unnecessary” work.

Imagine how they would feel if Bradley hadn’t extended his stewardship of the city into his retirement years and the “unnecessary” work had not been done, thus affording them the opportunity to go swimming in their streets.

I think about Bradley and smile every time a water pipe bursts. It’s odd that none of the mayors who succeeded Bradley thought to deal with our 100-yearold pipes until they started bursting. So, add that to Bradley’s legacy.

PROMISES, PROMISES —Thanks to the work of Councilman Curren Price, a South Los Angeles Promise Zone application has been developed by him, together with the area’s community and political leaders, to be submitted for the significant

federal Promise Zone grant. South L.A. has been excluded from the city’s previous submissions over the past two years. Even Mayor [Eric] Garcetti signed this one prepared by Price and his people. We’ll discuss its fine points when I get a copy.

THREATS — I heard a federal official this week declare on television that the greatest threat to America is terrorism and we must fight it. That may be so for white people, but from my vantage point, the greatest threat to American blacks and their families is the killing of unarmed black men by law enforcement. Terrorists haven’t killed many Americans, yet it seems like American cops somewhere in the country kill an unarmed black man almost daily.

We’re sitting in our homes awaiting the Henderson, Mo. grand jury verdict on what’s going to happen to cop Darren Wilson, who gunned down the unarmed and black 18year-old Michael Brown in that city. Then earlier this week, local activists had to pressure Mayor Garcetti into ordering the public release of the autopsy report on Ezell Ford Jr., See SOULVINE page 6

PAGE 3 COMPTON HERALD MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2014

LOCAL Was it really ‘Realignment’ that erased jail term?

LOS ANGELES — It was all “treat” for former state senator Rod Wright, who turned himself in to Los Angeles County jail authorities Oct. 31, Halloween night to begin a 90day sentence for his perjury and fraud conviction, but, instead found himself released before ever seeing the inside of a cell.

Wright, a Democrat, turned himself in around 9:30 p.m. and was released little more than an hour later at 10:41 p.m. after being processed and booked, said Nicole Nishida, a spokeswoman for the L.A. County Sheriff's Department.

She said he did not get any special treatment for being a politician.

“Everyone goes through the same process,” Nishida said.

Wright was convicted of eight felonies, including perjury and voting fraud, for lying about where he lived when he ran for office in 2008.

The nonviolent nature of his crime, his lack of prior convictions and crowding in the jail contributed to the decision to process and release him, Nishida said.

She said jail authorities use a complex formula that takes those factors into account to determine how long all criminals will spend in jail.

“A lot of people are not serving 100 percent of their time because of overcrowding,” Nishida said.

Wright’s situation highlights the trickle-down effect of California’s pri-

son realignment program, in which state prisons are shifting low-level offenders to county jails, creating more crowding in those facilities and prompting local authorities to set some criminals free.

Gov. Jerry Brown pushed for realignment as a way to give local governments more control while the state complies with a federal court order to reduce the number of inmates in state prisons, whose populations have skyrocketed since the 1970s as laws passed to mandate harsher sentences.

Californians scratching their heads over Wright’s quick release could see it as a tangible example of the impacts of prison crowd-

“What you have here is somebody in [high] authority looking at this case and doing the right thing.” ing—or as a sign that powerful people get treated better than everyone else, said Jessica Levinson, a professor of political law at Loyola Law School.

“When there is a high profile person … and we know they serve an infinitesimal fraction of their sentence, it really hits home for us.

“It is a minor part of a bigger discussion about

Local man gets 31 years for murder COMPTON — A 29year-old local man convicted of fatally stabbing his niece and hiding her body in a closet was sentenced today to 31 years to life in state prison, the Los Ang- eles County District Attor- ney’s Office said on Oct. 3.

Last Feb. 20, a jury found Julian Carter guilty of second-degree murder in the case. Deputy DA Emily Spear, who prosecuted the case, said at the time of the killing, Carter and his 5year-old niece, Mireya McCall, lived with other family members at a home in Compton.

Evidence presented at trial revealed that on June 13, 2010, Carter stabbed his niece in the throat, put her body in a bag, and concealed the bag in a closet.

Authorities said Carter then wrapped the knife in clothing and hid it under a bed, then left the scene.

The child’s mother reported the child missing and called police.

Sheriff Deputies arrived at the home, conducted a search and found the girl’s body in the closet. Soon after, authorities located Carter and arrested him connection with the girl’s killing.

Elsewhere, a 23-year-old man accused of opening fire on sheriff’s deputies in Lawndale was charged Oct, 3 with 16 counts, including attempted murder.

Travis Herr was charged with seven counts of attempted murder of a peace officer, seven counts of assault with a machine gun on a peace officer and two counts of shooting at an inhabited dwelling.

On Oct. 29, deputies said

what overcrowding means, and the supply and demand of prisons," Levinson said.

“But a lot of people will get from that: ‘I always knew Rod Wright was never really going to serve, because he is a VIP and would get special treatment.’”

Wright’s attorney said he got no preferential treatment.

“This is typical,” said Winston Kevin McKesson, a criminal defense attorney in Los Angeles.

“The jails are overcrowded. The jails should be reserved for people who are dangerous to society.

Senator Wright presents no danger to society. In fact, he is an asset to society.”

Herr began firing various guns in the 4200 block of West 164th St. in Lawndale. Authorities placed the neighborhood on lockdown as they evacuated nearby residents.

Deputies said Herr then shot at responding law enforcement officers from both inside and outside his home. After more than two hours, Herr was shot by return gunfire and taken to an area hospital.

If convicted as charged, Herr faces a possible maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.

Prosecutors recommended bail be set at $7.7 million. Herr’s arraignment in Department 4 of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, Torrance Branch, will be scheduled for a later date.

Elsewhere, a 23-year-old woman was sentenced Oct. 3 to 20 years in prison for holding hostage the chief financial officer of an El Segundo business where she worked, the L.A. County DA’s Office said.

Leonora Banuelos pleaded no contest to one count each of attempted murder and assault with a firearm and was immediately sentenced by Superior Court Judge James Dabney.

Prosecutors said Banuelos was armed with a handgun on April 2013 when she entered the building where she worked looking for another employee.

Ban- uelos and the coworker had been involved in a failed relationship and she had become distraught, prosecutors added. When she failed to find her coworker, she held the CFO at gunpoint. After a threehour standoff with police Banuelos surrendered.

Former state Sen. Rod Wright was convicted of voter fraud, sentenced to 90 days, but freed without seeing the inside of a jail cell.

Wright, 62, served 12 years in the Legislature before he resigned from the senate in September after an L.A. judge upheld a jury’s guilty verdicts and sentenced him to 90 days in jail.

Jurors found that Wright lied about where he lived — claiming a home he owns in Inglewood as his address for political purposes, while actually living

a few miles away in the tonier neighborhood of Baldwin Hills.

Wright argued that he met all the legal requirements to use the Inglewood home as his official address, or “domicile,” and asked Judge Kathleen Kennedy to toss the jury’s verdicts and grant him a new trial.

She denied his requests and admonished him for disrespecting the electoral process by lying about where he lived.

Kennedy said Wright is banished for life from holding public office.

California law requires a legislative candidate to live in the district he wants to

represent. It’s an area of the law that many argue is murky and inconsistently applied.

Many legislators in the Capitol have multiple homes, or change their home addresses as political opportunities arise.

Los Angeles prosecutors have gone after politicians for residency violations, while prosecutors in most other counties have not.

A spokeswoman for the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office that prosecuted Wright said the agency would have no comment about his quick release from jail.

McKesson, Wright’s

attorney, said he is working on an appeal, and expects “the senator to be vindicated totally, because he complied with the law.”

Even after Wright was convicted, his attorneys argued that jail time was not an appropriate punishment for him. So the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department decision to not lock him up was a small vindication for McKesson.

“The Sheriff's Department obviously agreed with our a r g u m e n t , ” McKesson said.

“What you have here is somebody in authority looking at this case and doing the right thing,”

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PAGE 4 COMPTON HERALD MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2014

CALIFORNIA Arnett Hartsfield, Jr. f ought to integrate L.A. Fire Department

BY BETTY PLEASANT uneral services for Arnett Hartsfield Jr., the African American fire fighter who led the struggle to integrate the Los Angeles City Fire Department, were held Nov. 14 at the Crenshaw Christian Center Faith Dome preceding interment in the Inglewood Cemetary.

Hartsfield, a Los Angeles icon who battled racism everywhere he went — from the city’s public schools to the U.S. Army to the LAFD — died Oct. 31 of natural causes. He was 96 years old.

Having been born in Bellingham, Washington in 1918, Hartsfield moved with his family to L.A. in 1929, settling in the then predominately white Southwest area of the city.

After attending the neighborhood elementary and middle schools, Hartsfield attended Manual Arts High School, where his fight for civil rights began.

Despite his being a track star and an honor society student, the teenaged Hartsfield had to battle Manual Arts’ administrators for admission into various student groups.

Following his 1936 graduation — with honors — from Manual Arts, Harts-

F

field enrolled at UCLA and faced another fight against institutional racism. He was already in the Junior Army ROTC but he was denied admittance to UCLA’s advanced ROTC course four times because “there had never been a ‘colored’ cadet admitted to the advance course,” university officials kept telling him.

Then Hartsfield and his UCLA classmate, the late Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, began protesting the university’s racist ROTC policy, which inclued a radio protest program broadcasted by the late local journalist and civil rights activist Charlotta Bass, which was so hot that UCLA changed its policy immediately and admitted Hartsfield as the first nonCaucasian in the universit y ’s a d v a n c e d R O T C course—giving him a commission. That earned him the rank of lieutenant. He later joined the U.S. army reserves.

Hartsfield faced another battlefield when he joined the segregated L.A. Fire Department on Nov. 18, 1940, where he remained until the segregated U.S. Army called him to World War II in 1943.

Hartsfield was one of the few black army officers during the war and he left it with a Bronze Star Medal

on his chest and returned to the racist LAFD as a rookie, and was told that, despite his previous three years in the department, no matter what he did, he could not promote to a better position.

An angry Hartsfield thought of quitting the fire department, but decided instead to use his G.I. Bill of Rights benefits to attend USC at which he earned a B.A. in economics and obtained his law degree.

He opened his law office in 1955 but continued to work for the LAFD. And in the 1950s, the civil rights movement took off and things began changing throughout the country, especially in L.A. The lawyer/fireman Hartsfield jumped into the civil rights movement and lead the battle to desegregate the LAFD, which was borne of necessity because there was no room for promotions within the two segregated, black fire stations on Central Avenue.

Mayor C. Norris Poulson put an end to institutionalized Jim Crow in the LAFD in 1955 when he ordered Fire Chief John H. Alderson to integrate the department, thus targeting the one or two black firefighters assigned to each fire house for outrageous racial harassment and indignities.

Arnett Hartsfield, Jr. was denied admittance t o UCLA’s advanced ROTC program four times because “there had never been a ‘colored’ cadet admitted to the advance course,” university officials kept telling him.

The fire houses, which provided more isolation than integration, became known as “hate houses,” over which Hartsfield convened strategic meetings, wrote letters and organized the “Stentorians,” the organization through which the black firefighters fought to maintain their rights, jobs and dignity.

Hartsfield retired from the LAFD in 1961 after 20 years of service to practice law and teach black studies at Cal State University at Long Beach.

The energetic Hartsfield was a busy man, then, also serving on the California Fair Employment Practice Commission and was later appointed to Los

Angeles’ Civil Service Commission where he was instrumental in invoking the 1974 consent decree that forced the fire department to promote black captain candidates as openings became available.

Hartsfield also served as assistant city attorney for the city of Compton, legal advisor for the Compton Police Department and minority recruitment officer for the LAFD. He has also written a book, “The Old Stentorians,” which chronicles the history of black firemen in L.A., detailing their struggles and victories.

Hartsfield has received more plaques and awards than this reporter can

describe, all of which are housed on the second floor of the African American Firefighters Museum at 1401 S. Central Ave. His bust was unveiled in the museum’s rear garden on June 14, 2011 — his 93rd birthday. He volunteered three days a week at the museum as an on-site historian.

Hartsfield was a widower after 50 years of marriage to Kathleen Bush Hartsfield. He is survived by daughters Paula Johnson, Charlean Fields, Barbara Heyworth and Sharyna Reece, and son Arnett III. He is also survived by three grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

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COMPTON HERALD MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2014

NATION & GLOBE Sanctuary for migrant children difficult to f ind

BY JENNY MANRIQUE OAKLAND (NAM) — Edwin can hardly understand Spanish and is slowly learning English, but his biggest dilemma now is finding a way to save his mother from the violence in his native Guatemala, and how to pay the $7,000 he owes lawyers.

Edwin, 14, is a native Mam speaker (the Mayan language of his ethnic group). In spite of his

Earlier this month St. John’s Presbyterian Church in nearby Berkeley hosted a forum that drew dozens from congregations around the Bay Area to learn about the history of the Sanctuary Movement and how it is helping today’s migrant youth.

“Our idea of a sanctuary can take different forms,” explained Reverend Deborah Lee, director of the Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights, at the

NORTH-SOUTH OF THE BORDER US-MEXICO

youth, he has already made a dangerous escape from the gang violence of his homeland, crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and spent two months in the El Centro Service Processing Center, an immigrant detention facility south of Los Angeles.

Since his release from detention two months ago, Edwin has found a home at the Primera Iglesia Presbiteriana Hispana (PIPH, First Hispanic Presbyterian Church) in Oakland.

“The church wants me to go to school during the day, but how am I going to cover my expenses if I do not work,” he asks. “How am I going to pay for rent when I find where to live, and send money back for my mother, my brother and my sister?”

PIPH is one of several religious organizations in the Bay Area that have spearheaded a burgeoning Sanctuary Movement that began last summer in Arizona. So far 24 congregations offering sanctuary in 12 cities across the country have joined.

Inspired by the Sanctuary Movement of the early 1980s, when at least 500 churches offered safehavens for migrants escaping conflict in Central America, faith leaders today are looking to renew that commitment by providing shelter, food and even legal advice to this latest wave of child refugees.

“We are helping these kids with shelter, clothes, food, classes, vaccinations,” says PPIH Pastor Pablo Morataya, adding that many live in fear of being detained again.

“That is why we need to become a sanctuary, so they can feel safe,” he said.

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forum. These can range from providing safe living spaces, to accompanying refugees in legal procedures and offering hospitality and other kinds of protections.

St. John’s Pastor Max Lynn reminded attendees that Berkeley declared itself a sanctuary in 1982, two years after the assassination of the Archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Arnulfo Romero.

“Changing immigration policy is a long path,” he said, “but in the meantime the least we can do is bring support to those who were brutally violated.”

Lynn’s church is currently helping to reunite several families, including the parents of one 10-year old, the youngest of three sons and the last to arrive to the United States. “We are struggling to raise money for the lawyers and the courthouse process,” he said.

Lee praised Latino congregations specifically for helping to turn church property “into a place of resistance” against deportation orders.

“Our actions since October 16th include doing weekly vigils in front of the immigration courts, constant praying for the families, and increasing the

number of churches that are willing to become sanctuaries.”

Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection show that between October 2013 and the end of September 2014, 68,541 unaccompanied children from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala were apprehended along the southwest border. They estimate that by the end of 2014, the number of children seeking protection in the U.S. will reach 90,000.

Almost 13,000 of them are seeking asylum through immigration courts in California, according to the Transactional Record Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

To meet the costs, Oakland’s City Council last week voted unanimously to adopt a resolution authorizing a grant of up to $577,000 to finance legal representation, mental health services and housing for the migrant youth.

San Francisco approved a similar measure in September that provides more than $2 million in funds to pay for legal support for unaccompanied minors and families registered on the San Francisco Immigration Court’s expedited removal docket.

Oakland “has always been a refuge with no exceptions, and we are happy to help these kids, taking into account the responsibility of the United States in the drug war in Central America,” said Mayor Quan at an event organized by the Red Nacional Salvadoreña En El Exterior, or RENASE (Salvadoran National Network Abroad).

RENASE is urging Congress to enforce protections for children under the 2008 William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, a law that guarantees hearings before an immigration judge, and a chance to consult with an attorney, for children arriving from countries that don’t share a border with the U.S.

NEW AMERICA MEDIA

U.S. Customs and Border Protection estimate that as many as 90,000 unaccompanied children will be in need of protection in safe havens by the end of 2014.

“We are also demanding that they stop the so-called ‘rocket docket’ directive, which gives children’s attorneys only three weeks to prepare their cases,” said Mirna Medina of RENASE. “While the legal help takes place, we are glad that these kids are sponsored by religious communities to relieve the trauma,” she added.

Other religious institutions that have not officially joined the Sanctuary Movement are doing their

part to help out as well.

Pastor Juan José Lima from the Church of God in San Francisco’s Mission District said Pentecostal churches help anyone who shows up at their doors in need.

“We don’t have a constituted network, but we are helping get medicine for a Honduran girl who has been very sick since her arrival,” he said.

The local Jewish community, meanwhile, is also responding. “We are assist-

ing these kids with mental health and legal support,” said Jessica Trubowitch, ?director of Intergroup Relations at the San Francisco-based Jewish Community Relations Council.

“But we want to extend our response to the humanitarian crisis in the Bay Area [and] identify how we can be of more help,” Trubowitch said, adding, part of that will involve synagogues around the Bay Area holding meetings on the Sanctuary Movement.

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PAGE 6 COMPTON HERALD MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2014

THE AMERICAS Unheralded History Who were the ancient people of Mexico?

T

he Ancient Mexicans

[1000 B.C.] Perhaps the principal reason why so many have sought to find a birthplace for this race in a foreign country is because their own traditions are so obscure. Yet great historians tell us that they are no more so than those of many nations of the Old World.

They do not extend back so far, that is all. Their earliest traditions reach only to about one thousand years before the coming of Jesus Christ. And where the exact line of division

occurs between tradition and history it is difficult to determine. But we may say pretty positively that their annals may be accepted as history so far back as the sixth century.

[SIXTH CENTURY, A.D.] Though the ancient history of Mexico commences with the annals of the Toltecs, it is believed the country was inhabited by a wild people before this race came into prominence.

There were the Olmecs and Xicalancas, the Otomies and Tepanecs—we are speaking now of the Mexican valley. Then, also, if

we may believe the traditions, there were giants in those days. But we may find that the history of every people begins with fables and traditions regarding giants, and a great flood that may have occurred before or after the arrival of the giants upon the earth.

We shall see, later on, that all these different tribes living in Mexico preserved traditions of a flood, or deluge, that covered their portion of the world, and destroyed the inhabitants of their country.

Now, these giants may have been fabled monsters,

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but the early Indians believed that they lived in Mexico. They were goodnatured men, but very lazy, and when the strangers arrived among them from the south they enslaved them.

Tired at last of the disgusting habits of the giants, the Indians turned upon them and slew them, first having put them to sleep by drugging their wine. Thus Mexico was freed from these worthless giants; but another monster was to stride over the land for many hundred years and make its fair valleys to be desolate more than once, this was the demon war.

The Toltecs [596-1050.] Our first certain knowledge is of the race known as the Toltecs —Toltecas, artificers, or architects—who were really quite civilized when they first appeared in the pages of history. They understood and practiced agriculture and many arts. Being driven from a country in which they had been long settled, by invading savages, they commenced a journey southward, halting at intervals long enough to plant corn and cotton and gather the crops.

[596.] Their annals tell us that they began their migration in the year “1 Tecpatl,” or 596 of our Christian era.

The country they left, supposed to be in the north, they called Huehue Tlapaltan, or the old Tlapaltan.

Here again enters speculation, upon the location of that country of the Toltecs.

No one knows certainly where it was, but everything points to its having been in the north.

If you are acquainted with the early history of the United States, you will

SOULVINE Continued from page 2 the mentally challenged young unarmed black man who was killed a couple of months ago by LAPD Newton Division gang officers Sharlton Wampler and Antonio Villegas. The U.S. Justice Department has opened a civil rights probe into the shooting death of John Crawford, III in Beavercreek, Ohio.

Crawford, an unarmed black youth was gunned

remember that the oldest remains of civilization there are those of the Mound Builders. You will recall the descriptions given of the great earthworks lying in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys; works so vast that it must have taken many generations to complete them, and erected so long ago that not even the faintest tradition remains to tell who built them.

Mound builders They were a very civilized race, these Mound Builders, very different from the savages who surrounded them, or who have since swept over the country they once occupied.

They extended their sway, we know, as far north as Lake Superior, because old shafts have been discovered in the copper mines there, and detached masses of copper ore, with the wedges and chisels they used at their work. This was but an outpost of theirs, for their great works were in the south.

Everything seemed to indicate, also, that they came from the south.

Besides axes, adzes, lanceheads, knives, etc., found in these mounds, explorers have also unearthed pottery of elegant design, ornaments of silver, bone and mica, and of shell from the Gulf of Mexico. But there have been found there implements of obsidian, a volcanic product once used by the ancient Mexicans for spear-heads, arrowheads, and knives. This shows that this people had connection with Mexico, if they had not originally come from there, since this volcanic glass, obsidian, "is found in its natural state nowhere nearer the Mississippi valley than the down on Aug. 5 by Beavercreek officer Sean Williams while he was doing nothing but shopping in Walmart. The cop killed him in the store while he was looking at toys for his son! Lord, have mercy!

I have two sons. Whenever they leave the house, I make the sign of the cross over them and pray to God that during the course of their day they encounter a terrorist and not a cop.

Mexican mountains of Cerro Gordo.”

There are evidences, likewise, that they possessed the art of spinning and weaving, which was unknown to the Indians of the north, but practiced years ago by those of the south—of the West Indies and Mexico.

Now, it would seem that these great Mound Builders, when they were driven from this country, took a southerly direction, and at last arrived in Mexico. It is much pleasanter to think this than that they were crushed out of existence entirely; and there is a great deal to prove that this was actually the case, and that they were identical with those Toltecs who came down into Mexico 1,250 years ago.

In doing this, in performing this migration southward, they were, it is said, only returning to their old homes, from which their ancestors had strayed, it may be, in the first years of the world's history.

Well, the Toltecs came into Mexico; suddenly appearing from the darkness that had enveloped their past, and settled finally at Tollantzingo, in the year 700, where, 20 years later, they founded the city of Tollan, or Tula. It is said by some that Tula already existed, under the name of Man-he-mi, and was merely rebuilt and renamed by the Toltecs.

Be this as it may, the ruins of this capital city of the Toltecs now remain on the northern edge of the Mexican valley, to point out to the visitor the site of an ancient empire. The writer of this history has seen them—a scattered line of earthen-walled houses and temples, occupying a ridge of hills overlooking a lovely valley.

On the face of a cliff is sculptured one of their heroes, and in the marketplace of the present town of Tula may be seen sculptured pillars and great stones, taken from the ancient city of Tollantzingo.

This feature appears courtesy of the almanac Heritage History. it is purposed to inspire and encourage cultural understanding and appreciation.

It will publish in multiple parts.

PAGE 7 COMPTON HERALD MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2014

SPORTS Davis’ wrestling too much for Teixeira RIO DE JANEIRO— Light-heavyweight Phil Davis fully applied his wrestling expertise and dominated Glover Teixeira for a unanimous decision in the co-main event at UFC 179 on Nov. 1.

Davis controlled Teixeira with various clinches en route to grabbing the judges' nod with scores of 30-27 across the board.

Davis pushed to get the fight to the ground or over three minutes before finally putting Teixeira on his back.

While on the ground, Davis landed blows while holding a clinch. Teixeira fought to get back to this feet, but Davis consumed him and concluded the

round holding a clinch on the ground, landing more punches.

Teixeira found himself in trouble again in the second round, getting put down by Davis and absorbing punches while Davis held a body lock. When he was able to break free, Teixeira chased Davis down, throwing looping punches, but landing very few.

Towards the end of the round, Davis scored another takedown and secured his opponent’s back, working for a rear-naked choke as time ran out.

In the final round, Teixeira began by landing a few one-two combinations, but again became victim to Davis’ takedowns. While

holding his opponent in a cradle position, Davis landed knees and various other strikes.Teixeira had no answer to Davis’ wrestling for a majority of the fight.

Following the win, Davis unexpectedly called out Anderson Silva. The light heavyweight said he’s beaten a lot of Brazilians, and Silva is the only Brazilian that he would like to fight next.

When the camera panned to Silva in the crowd, the former UFC middleweight champion just covered his mouth and shrugged.

The win on Saturday rebounds Davis from his previous loss to Anthony Johnson and improves his record to 13-2, 1 NC.

Silva rushed to hospital RIO DE JANEIRO—Former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva was rushed to a hospital on Nov. 3, here, suffering from severe back pain following a training session at XGym. The incident is not expected to

jeopardize his return bout against Nick Diaz at UFC 183, Jan. 31.

Silva reportedly attempted to stand after a jiu-jitsu training session, according to Combate. com. He was rushed to a hospital after realizing he could not

Anderson Silva

Phil Davis applied superb grappling skills and kicks to defeat Glover Teixeira.

stand and no longer had feeling in his legs.

Silva was cleared and released from the hospital on Nov. 4.

Marcio Tannure, M.D., medical director for the Brazilian MMA Athletic Commission, told Combate diagnosed that Silva suffered from severe lower back pain.

“He felt a severe pain because of the contracture,” Dr. Tannure

said. “It really hurts a lot, but it won’t change anything in terms of training.

“The issue he had explains the pain, but won’t get him sidelined or even cancel the bout,” Tannure said.

If he suffers no further setbacks, Silva will face Diaz in a five-round, non-title middleweight headliner on Jan. 31 in Las Vegas.

Lakers on a ‘tear’ with second straight victory HOUSTON (ESPN) — For Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers, the celebrating is beginning to elevate. Bryant has been insisting the Lakers are a much better team than their terrible start indicated.

For the past two nights, the Lakers have shown he might be right.

Bryant had 29 points, Wesley Johnson made key free throws in the stretch and the Lakers took advantage of Dwight Howard’s absence Wednesday in a 98-92 victory over the Houston Rockets.

It was the second consecutive win for the Lakers following a 1-9 start.

Howard sat out the loss to the Lakers with a sprained right knee.

“Look, we had a bad start,” Bryant said. “Are we a 3-9 team? No. We’re a

Kobe Bryant appears to be fully recovered from last year’s injuries, scoring 44 against Golden State—all in just three quarters. Bryant also had three assists.

Carson to host Special Olympics 2015 CARSON—The City has been officially selected to participate in the Special Olympics World Games Host Town program from July 21 to 24, 2015, as a Host Town for the games.

Prior the beginning of the Special Olympic World Games on July 25, 2015, more than 7,000 athletes from 177 countries will be welcomed to Southern California through the Host Town program.

As many as 100 communities from San Luis Obispo to San Diego will have the honor of being selected as an official Host Town.

“We are thrilled to see so many communities eager to participate in this integral component of the World Games,” said Patrick McClenahan, president and chief executive officer of LA2015, the Games Organizing Committee.

“The Host Town program will not only create lasting memories for these athletes and coaches from around the world, but leave a lasting legacy for the communities opening their doors, hearts and minds to host these inspiring athletes,”

McClenahan said.

As a Host Town, the City of Carson will showcase itself as a vibrant city with a small town atmosphere.

Located in the heart of Southern California, the diverse social composition of Carson is California in miniature.

Cal State University, Dominguez Hills, which also housed athletes for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, will provide accommodations during the Host Town program for the delegation of athletes arriving next year.

“The City of Carson embraces the opportunity to have a role in the 2015 Special Olympics World Games and provide a mutually meaningful, memorable experience to the athletes, coaches and volunteers, to showcase our diverse community,” said Jim Dear, mayor of Carson.

The Host Town program has been an important element of Special Olympics World Games since 1995, and the experience has left a lasting impression on the local communities.

Ireland, Japan, China, Greece, South Korea and the U.S., all have previous-

ly organized Host Town programs as part of the Special Olympics World Games.

LA2015 is actively identifying potential Host Town candidates to be considered for the program.

Commuties are evaluated on the availability of lodging accommodations, sports practice facilities and recreation/ entertainment offerings for the athletes, among other criteria.

Host Towns are also responsible for planning activities for the athletes to introduce them to the community and help spread the word about the Games.

Carson joins the growing list of officially proclaimed Host Towns, a list that includes Long Beach, Thousand Oaks, Calabasas, Studio City; Manhattan Beach, West Covina, Arcadia, Bubank, Santa Clarita, Palmdale, La Mirada, Glendale; Palm Springs, Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, Irvine, Downey, Whittier, Simi Valley, Fountain Valley, Pasadena, Huntington Beach, Fullerton, Solvang, Oxnard, San Diego, Del Mar, and Encinitas

much better team than that.

We got off to a really bad start, but we’ll (get better).”

Los Angeles used a 7-1 run, highlighted by Bryant's three-point play and capped by four free throws from Johnson, to take a 9492 lead with less than a minute left. Nick Young and Bryant added two free throws apiece to secure the victory.

Young scored 16 points in his second game back from a right thumb injury. He had 17 in his season debut Nov. 18, causing him to jokingly wonder if he was what the Lakers had been missing this season. Bryant was fine with that theory.

“Listen, if that’s what’s rolling, that’s what’s rolling,” Bryant said, flashing a huge smile. “I’ll take it.”

Los Angeles took its first

lead since the second quarter when Young capped an 8-0 run with a nifty reverse layup to make it 82-81 midway through the fourth.

Houston missed three 3pointers and had a turnover during that stretch.

The Rockets outscored Los Angeles 8-2 after that to regain an 89-84 lead.

The Lakers used a 9-0 run at the end of the third quarter and early in the fourth to cut Houston's lead to 7574. Ed Davis led the way with four points.

Guard James Harden’s scoring spree pushed Houston’s lead to 75-65 in the third, but then the Lakers scored the last five points of the quarter.

Los Angeles made 19 of 23 free throws. ... Bryant has led the team in scoring 10 times this season.

PAGE 8 COMPTON HERALD MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2014

FOOD Thanksgiving Ham Dinner A Succulent and Tasty Change of Pace

T

hanksgiving is upon us.

That translates to family, fun, and food—

cover the carrots. Add the butter and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper.

Bring to a boil, and then reduce the heat to maintain a steady simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the carrots are tender and the liquid has reduced to a glaze, about 20 minutes.

Top with the dill and serve.

plenty of it!

Turkey is usually the centerpiece of most Thanksgiving dinners, but many Thanksgiving meals don’t feature turkey, at all. Ham has become a nice replacement on dinner tables for many families.

This issue, we feature Old Fashioned Glazed Ham, a tasty, and simple entree to prepare.

Lemon Garlic Green Beans

Old-Fashioned Holiday Glazed Ham Total Time: 2 hours Prep: 1 hour 30 minUtes Cook: 30 minutes Yield:12 servings INGREDIENTS: 1 spiral-sliced half ham 1 20-ounce can pineapple slices, juice reserved 15 to 20 whole cloves (optional) 1 small jar maraschino cherries 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar 2 tablespoons yellow mustard DIRECTIONS: Preheat the oven as directed on the ham package and follow the instructions for baking the ham.

Remove the ham from the oven about 30 minutes before the end of the warming time.

Decoratively arrange the pineapple slices on top of the ham, securing them with whole cloves, if using, or toothpicks. Place a cherry in the center of each pineapple ring and secure with a clove or toothpick.

In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, mustard and just enough of the reserved pineapple juice to make a thick glaze. Spoon the glaze over the ham and bake for the remaining 30 minutes. Remove the ham from the oven, transfer to a

cutting board and carve.

Four-Cheese Scalloped Potatoes Total Time: 50 minUtes Prep: 20 minUtes Cook: 30 minUtes Yield:6-8 servings INGREDIENTS: 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus more for brushing 1/2 clove garlic 1/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese 1/3 cup shredded asiago

cheese 1/3 cup shredded raclette or comte cheese 2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/8 inch thick Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper 2 cups heavy cream 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg 4 fresh bay leaves 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese DIRECTIONS: Position a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 425 degrees F.

Generously brush a large skillet with butter, then rub with the garlic. Combine the mozzarella, asiago and raclette in a bowl.

Heat the skillet over medium-high heat. Add half of the potatoes, spreading them out. Sprinkle with 3/4 teaspoon salt, half of the cut-up butter, half of the shredded cheese blend, and pepper to taste.

Arrange the remaining potatoes on top. Sprinkle with 3/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste. Pour the cream over the potatoes, then add the nutmeg and

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bay leaves; simmer 3 minutes. Dot the potatoes with the remaining cut-up butter.

Generously brush a shallow baking dish with butter; slide the potatoes into the dish; arrange with a fork, if desired. (If your skillet is ovenproof, you can skip this step and bake the potatoes in the skillet.)

Sprinkle the potatoes with the parmesan and the remaining shredded cheese blend.

Bake until golden, about 25 minutes. Let rest 5 minutes before serving. Discard the bay leaves.

Total Time: 17 minutes Prep: 5 minutes Cook: 12 minutes Yield: 6 servings INGREDIENTS: 2 pounds green beans, ends trimmed 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 3 tablespoons butter 2 large garlic cloves, minced 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes 1 tablespoon lemon zest Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Orange-Glazed Carrots DIRECTIONS: Total Time: 35 minutes Prep: 10 minUtes Cook: 25 minUtes Yield: 4 servings INGREDIENTS: 1 pound carrots 1 cup fresh orange juice 1 tablespoon unsalted butter Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 tablespoon picked fresh dill leaves DIRECTIONS: Cut a 1-inch chunk off one end of a carrot at an angle. Roll the carrot a quarter turn and cut another 1-inch chunk at an angle.

Continue rolling and cutting all of the carrots into 1-inch chunks.

Combine the carrots and orange juice in a large saucepan. Add water to just

Blanch green beans in a large stock pot of well salted boiling water until bright green in color and tender crisp, roughly 2 minutes. Drain and shock in a bowl of ice water to stop from cooking.

Heat a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the oil and the butter. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the beans and continue to saute until coated in the butter and heated through, about 5 minutes. Add lemon zest and season with salt and pepper.

All recipes courtesy Food Network.

Wishing your family a happy Thanksgiving, and by all means eat heartily!

The holidays cometh That means Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s feasts!

Do you have a special diabetic-safe recipe to share with our readers. The Compton Herald would like to feature you and your recipe.

Call (562) 719-7096

Call (310) 908-9683. Ask for the editor.

PAGE 9 COMPTON HERALD MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2014

FOOD Frying with olive oil better for health

A

ll around the world people enjoy fried food.But how many know that cooking oils differ in their ability to withstand heat and repeated use? Now, a new study finds that compared to several seed oils, olive oil remains the most stable at high temperature and is likely to be better for health.

The results showed that when used as a frying oil, refined olive oil was overall chemically more stable than refined seed oils.

The researchers, led by Sfax University in Tunisia, report what they found

when they compared olive oil with sunflower, corn and soybean oil, in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

In their paper, lead author Akram Zribi, a graduate student in the Ecole Nationale d'Ingénieurs de Sfax, and colleagues note how different cooking oils have different physical, chemical and nutritional properties, which change when heated.

When heated, cooking oils produce new compounds, some of which can be toxic or change the nutritional value of the oil.

The purpose of the study was to find out which oil remained the most stable at

high temperature with repeated use. Many people use the same batch of cooking oil several times for deep frying.

The team cooked potatoes in three ways in four different refined oils— olive, corn, soybean and sunflower. The three cooking methods were: deep fried at 320 degrees F, deep fried at 374 degrees F and pan fried at 356 degrees F. The team repeated each method 10 times with the same batch of oil under conditions that reflected normal home use, and they used several methods to assess chemical changes in the oils during frying.

When used for frying,

refined olive oil is superior to refined seed oils The results showed that when used as a frying oil, refined olive oil was overall chemically more stable than refined seed oils.

The authors note that the olive oil showed the “greatest resistance to oxidative deterioration. Its trans-fatty acid contents and percentages of polar compounds were found to be lower at 160 degrees C [320 degrees F] during deep frying.”

They found the highest deterioration occurred in the refined sunflower oil during pan frying at 356 degrees F and better maintains quality and nutrition than seeds oils.

—Courtesy Nutrition DietMedical News

McD:‘No’ to ‘freaky fries’ SAN FRANCISCO (NEWSMAX) — McDonald’s is turning down GMO potatoes produced by longtime supplier J.R. Simplot Co. even though the genetically modified spuds have received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

According to the Idaho Statesman, the Innate genetically modified potato line earned federal approval for market on Nov. 7.

The potatoes have fewer sugars than normal potatoes and less asparagine, which has the potential to become a carcinogen— acrylamide—when fried.

Despite the positives, McDonald’s has said it doesn’t plan to purchase the new potato from its supplier, according to the agricultural news outlet the Capital Press.

“McDonald’s USA does not source GMO potatoes nor do we have current plans to change our sourcing practice,” a McDonald's spokesman’s told the Capital Press.

Simplot spokesman Doug Cole told the Capital Press he believed that customers would welcome potatoes with less sugars and car-

Genetically-modified fries will not be included in the McDonald’s menu.

cinogen-causing asparaagine. He said that 400 test acres of the GMO potatoes were harvested this fall but the supplier hopes to increase production after next year.

Tom Gillpatrick, executive director of the Food Industry Leadership Center at Portland State University, told the Capital Press, though, that Innate potatoes will still have to overcome the image of GMOgrown products.

“This whole GMO thing is so polarizing,” Gillpatrick said to the Capital Press. “It really doesn’t seem to matter what the facts are.”

C.A. Pinkham of Jezebel wrote that McDonald’s position was actually a head scratcher considering most of its customers are not the label-scrutinizing types while the money-saving potential of using the potatoes were noticeable.

“It's pretty bold for McDonald’s to proudly proclaim they don’t use genetically-modified foods when you can only consider what they do produce ‘food’ by an extremely generous definition—especially true when you consider that if McDonald’s meat is organic, then I am the Queen of England,” wrote Pinkman. “Make no mistake: this is about the fear of a public backlash for accepting a genetically modified potato.

“McDonald's is also likely drastically overrating how much the inclusion of GMO products would hurt their profits or turn off their core customer base.

“They’re never going to pull in the artisanal hipster or granola crowds regardless of their GMO food policies, and who else would even care about their use of GMOs,” Pinkman continued.

PAGE 10 COMPTON HERALD MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2014

HEALTH Brussels sprouts deserve second look

Y

our initial memory of Brussels sprouts may not be of a memorable mouthful.

Brussels sprouts have a bad reputation, but even if you ve had a bad experience with them in the past, they re worth giving another shot just don t boil them to death like your mother did. Oven-roasting Brussels sprouts brings out their sweet, almost nutty flavor and keeps them crisp while reducing the harsh, sulfurous odor and taste so many find offensive.

Brussels sprouts are surprisingly high in protein for a green vegetable, and a single serving would meet your needs for vitamin C and vitamin K for the day.

Brussels sprouts are a part of the cruciferous vegetable family, which also includes nutritional powerhouses kale, broccoli, cau-

liflower, cabbage and collard greens, all of which supply loads of nutrients for a small amount calories. If you are trying to improve your diet, cruciferous vegetables should be at the very top of your grocery list.

Brussels sprouts are among the top 20 most nutritious foods in regards to ANDI score (Aggregate Nutrient Density Index), which measures vitamin, mineral and phytonutrient content in relation to caloric content.

To earn high rank, a food must provide a high amount of nutrients for few calories.

According to the USDA National Nutrient Database, one cup of raw Brussels sprouts (about 88 grams) provides only 38 calories, 0 grams of fat, eight grams of carbohydrate (including three grams of sugar and two

grams of fiber) and three grams of protein.

Consuming one cup of Brussels sprouts will provide 195 percent of vitamin K, 125 percent of vitamin C, and 10 percent or more of vitamin A, vitamin B-6, folate, potassium and manganese needs for the day.

Consuming fruits and vegetables of all kinds has long been associated with a reduced risk of many adverse health conditions.

Many studies have suggested that increasing consumption of plant foods like Brussels sprouts decreases the risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and overall mortality while promoting a healthy complexion, increased energy, and overall lower weight.

Fighting cancer Since the 1980s, consuming high amounts of cruciferous vegetables like has been associated with a

Brussela sprouts contain nutrients that are effective against cancer and diabetes.

lower risk of cancer. More recently, researchers have been able to pinpoint that the sulfur-containing compounds (namely sulforaphane) that give cruciferous vegetables their bitter bite are also what give

them their cancer-fighting power.

More studies with sulforaphane are testing its ability to delay or impede cancer. Promising results have been seen with multiple types of cancers including melanoma, esophageal, prostate and pancreatic.

Researchers have discovered that sulforaphane has the power to inhibit the harmful enzyme histone deacetylase, known to be involved in the progression of cancer cells.

The ability to stop HDAC enzymes could make sulforaphane-containing foods a potentially powerful part of cancer treatment in the future.

Brussels sprouts also contain a high amount of chlorophyll, which can block the carcinogenic effects of heterocyclic amines generated when grilling meats at a high temperature. If you tend to like your grilled foods charred, make sure to pair them with green vegetables to decrease your risk.

Improving bone health Low intakes of vitamin K have been associated with a higher risk for bone fracture. Adequate vitamin K consumption (which just 3/4 cup of Brussels sprouts provides) improves bone health by acting as a modifier of bone matrix proteins, improving calcium absorption and reducing urinary excretion of calcium.

Brussels sprouts also contribute to your daily need for calcium, providing 37 milligrams in one cup.

Managing diabetes Many green vegetables contain an antioxidant known as alpha-lipoic acid that has been shown to reduce glucose levels, increase insulin sensitivity and prevent oxidative stress-induced changes in patients with diabetes.

Studies on alpha-lipoic acid have also shown decreases in peripheral neuropathy or autonomic neuropathy in diabetics.

Of note, most studies have used intravenous alpha-lipoic acid, and it is unsure whether oral supplementation would elicit the same benefits.

Maintaining vision Making sure you get your daily requirement of vitamin C has been shown to help keep eyes healthy by providing increased protection against UV light damage.

Eating just one serving of Brussels sprouts per day would ensure you are getting enough of this important nutrient. Another antioxidant in Brussels sprouts, zeaxanthin, filters out harmful blue light rays and is thought to play a protective role in eye health and possibly ward off damage from macular degeneration.

A higher intake of all fruits and vegetables (three or more servings per day) has also been shown to decrease the risk of and progression of age-related macular degeneration.

The antioxidant vitamin C, when eaten in its natural form (in fresh produce as opposed to supplement form) or applied topically, can help to fight skin damage caused by the sun and pollution, reduce wrinkles and improve overall skin texture. Vitamin C plays a vital role in the formation of collagen, the main support system of skin.

You may think automatically reach for citrus fruits when you think of vitamin C, but Brussels sprouts provide a whopping 75 milligrams per cup, over 100 percent of your daily need. Vitamin A is also crucial for healthy looking skin, which Brussels sprouts also provide.

Try to find sprouts still on the stalk for superior freshness and look for sprouts that are smaller in size, which tend to be sweeter, more tender and have a less woody or fibrous taste then larger sprouts.

Make sure the leaves are tight and firm; store the sprouts in a bag in the refrigerator. The fresher the sprouts, the better they will taste. The most important thing is to not overcook them, which tends to give them a bitter flavor and diminishes their nutritional value.

Roasting Brussels sprouts in the oven will help bring out their best flavor and retain their bright green color.

Compton Herald Online @ www,comptonherald.com

PAGE 11 COMPTON HERALD MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2014

FILM STAGE TV ‘Fury’ message: War is still hell

Robin Thicke

Singer loses round in Gaye claim U.S. District Judge John Kronstadt denied singer Robin Thicke’s motion for a summary judgment in his lawsuit against Marvin Gaye’s estate over the origins of Thicke’s smash single “Blurred Lines,” ruling that the hit track does have significantly similar elements to Gaye's “Got to Give It Up.” Kronstadt wrote that the Gaye family “have made a sufficient showing that elements of ‘Blurred Lines’ may be substantially similar to protected, original elements of ‘Got to Give It Up.’ Defendants have identified these with particularity for purposes of analytic dissection.”

He added that while Thicke’s “inconsistent state- ments do not constitute direct evidence of copying,” they probably don’t help the singer much either.

The court’s decision on Oct. 30 to deny Thicke with a summary judgment opens up the possibility of a full-blown copyright infringment trial.

Gaye’s family has maintained all along that “Blurred Lines” is an outright “copy [of] ‘Got to Give It Up.’” “We believe the evidence of copying of Marvin Gaye’s legendary work ‘Got To Give It Up’ is overwhelming and now look forward to trying the case,” Gaye family lawyer Richard Busch said in a statement.

“We also disagree with [plaintiff attorney] Mr. [Howard] King’s assessment that the court ruled that there will be any limitation on what the jury considers at the trial, which involves a different analysis than what the court analyzes on a motion for summary judgment,” said Busch.

There’s no timetable on how soon a trial can start.

HOLLYWOOD — Why haven’t there been more war movies set in an Army tank? Aside from 1943’s Sahara and 1970’s Kelly’s Heroes, I have a hard time coming up with any. Maybe it’s because unlike soaring fighter jets or loaded-for-bear battleships, these lumbering beasts of burden aren’t exactly the flashiest pieces of military hardware just aren’t as romantic, but rather the grunting workhorses of combat: 30-ton steel sardine cans on plodding track wheels that make the cramped confines of a submarine look downright roomy.

That stifling sense of claustrophobia hangs over almost every scene in David Ayer’s new WWII film, Fury. Set in April 1945 as the Allies are advancing into Nazi Germany, where the soon-tobe-defeated Hitler is digging in his heels and mounting one final desperate push, the movie tells the story of a battle-scarred American tank unit. Led by Brad Pitt’s stoic Sgt. Don “Wardaddy” Collier, this band of brothers has been through hell together — from Africa to France, Belgium, and now Germany.

Their long march is nearly over, but looking at their grime-caked faces and haunted, thousand-yard stares, you’d never get the impression that they're on the winning side.

As the film opens, the unit has just lost a member of its five-man crew and takes on a replacement, a terrified and ill-prepared combat virgin (The Perks of Being a Wallflower’s Logan Lerman), who’s been plucked from the steno pool and sent to the front line. We’ve all seen these olive-hued types before: the tough-as-nails leader with a hidden streak of compassion (Pitt), the wide-eyed innocent (Lerman), the Southernfried loudmouth (The Walking Dead's Jon Bernthal), the soft-spoken grunt (Michael Peña), and the Scripture-quoting gunner (Shia LaBeouf).

The problem is, Ayer, the writer and director of such existential macho action flicks as Harsh Times and End of Watch, isn’t interested in giving his characters more than one note to play. It’s as if they walked out of an old Sgt. Rock comic. Pitt, for instance, could’ve used a scene like Tom Hanks’ in Saving Private Ryan, where we learn something — any-

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Nonstop bloody combat provides tense action in “Fury,” which opened in theaters nationwide, Oct. 17.

thing — about his life back home and what he’s fighting for besides the Stars and Stripes. Instead, Fury (the title comes from the

name of the tank) just plods from one brutal, bloody combat scene to the next.

And while these orgies of violence are staged with

tense, gruesome precision (especially the film’s climactic, Wild Bunch-esque last stand), providing all the tense action a war-film

aficionado could wish for, they don’t convey much beyond what we already know.

That war is hell.

...

PAGE 12 COMPTON HERALD MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2014

BUSINESS Owning a home in Compton a real deal COMPTON — Individuals and organizations in Compton seeking affordable homeownership or to foster community development, may get a leg up on their ambitions in fiscal year 2015-2016.

The City has issued a Notice of Funding Availability from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, in the new fiscal year. The

city will offer HUD grant funds, including a Community Development Block Grant, and a Emergency Solutions Grant.

The city is authorized by HUD to distribute these funds to promote housing and community development for low- and moderate-income persons.

Organizations classified by the Internal Revenue Service as tax-exempt

501(c)(3) are organizations that have been in existence for at least two consecutive years; and projects that meet a HUD national objective and address a pri-

ority need identified by the City of Compton Consolidated Plan.

Organizations that have matching funds from other sources are eligible, as well.

Applications will be available beginning Nov. 19, 2014 on the City of Compton website at www.comptoncity.org.

The application will be in pdf format.

According to a spokesperson for the city, applications must be submitted and postmarked no later than 5 p.m. on Dec. 18, 2014, addressed to: Office of the City Clerk, City of Compton, 205 S. Willowbrook Ave., Compton, CA 90220.

Facsimiles, e-mails, and late applications will not be accepted. Applicants are encouraged to get a receipt

for applications. A warning in the City website says that incomplete applications will not be allowed.

A technical assistance workshop is scheduled for Dec. 2, 2014, from 10 to 11 a.m. in the Council Chambers Community Meeting Room at 205 S. Willowbrook Ave. For more information, call the city’s Grants Division at (310) 605-5580.

Federal legalized ‘pot’ would spearhead tax billions NEW YORK (UPI) —If marijuana is legalized at the federal level, it appears it will become a multi-billion dollar industry. On top of that, it would produce a lot of tax revenue.

A new report from GreenWave Advisors, a firm that analyzes the marijuana industry, claims marijuana could pull in as much as $35 billion in annual revenue by 2020.

“The federal government’s ‘allow for now’ policies suggest that it is

warming up to the idea of full legalization,” the report says, referencing the federal government’s growing leniency toward states legalizing marijuana.

Their estimates show revenue of $21 billion by 2020 if there is increased but not full legalization.

As the Washington Post points out, a $35 billion annual revenue would far exceed the revenue of the National Football League, which makes about $10 billion a year at this time.

Furthermore, it would be on par with industries like newspaper publishing and the confectionary industry.

Making $35 billion annually would make marijuana a huge industry, though it can’t compare to companies like Apple that make that much revenue every quarter.

A 2010 report from the Cato Institute claims legalizing pot would result in $8.7 billion in tax revenue, which could do a lot for a struggling economy.

HERALDO DE COMPTON VIENE!

The report claims much of the savings involved in legalizing marijuana would come from law enforcement agencies not needing to pursue marijuana users and distributors.

As of May 2014, Colorado had already accrued $25 million in revenue since they legalized the substance.

Marijuana has been illegal in most countries since the beginning of the 20th century. While medical marijuana has been legal in many U.S. states for some time, Colorado is the first to allow recreational sales.

The state of Washington approved legal marijuana in November 2012, at the same time as Colorado.

Washington is now implementing its system of legal sales. Oregon became the latest state to legalize marijuana just this month.

Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, said the group is lobbying legislatures and pushing for referendum votes in several other states.

“It’s only a matter of time before lawmakers and voters in more states adopt similar laws regulating

marijuana like alcohol,” Kampia said. “The dominoes are falling.”

The Colorado amendment allows for the “personal use and regulation of marijuana” for adults age 21 and over.

The amendment also permits the commercial cultivation, manufacture and sale of pot, effectively regulating cannabis in a manner similar to alcohol.

A patron with a Colorado ID can buy as much as an ounce of marijuana at a time. Someone with an outof-state ID is limited to a quarter ounce.

MEXICO

Surging economy is uplifting a nation

BY DANIEL BRODERICK Editor’s Note: While it hasn’t received the recent media attention of other emerging economies like Brazil or India, Mexico has quietly positioned itself to be a major economic force in the long term.

Mexico’s exportation market is growing, as well, driven largely by growing fields within the country.

Information Communication Technology alone is expected to account for 13 percent of the increase in

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exports from 2017 to 2020.

Likewise, increased spendi n g i n t h e c o u n t r y ’s Research and Development sector will allow Mexico to

PART TWO service a broader international market. The United States and Canada are likely to remain two of the largest export destinations for the foreseeable future, but Chinese demand is growing. China is expected to be Mexico’s second largest export market by

2030.

Mexico has also benefitted substantially from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Though it took time and patience to see NAFTA’s effects, Mexico now exports about $1 billion worth of goods per day, which is more than 10 times what they were when the NAFTA was implemented in 1994. And NAFTA is hardly Mexico's only free trade agreement. In fact, Mexico has 44 such agreements, more than both the United States and China combined.

Stock Market In September 2012, Banco Santander’s Mexican unit, Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico (SANMEXB) had Mexico’s largest IPO to date, totaling $4.3 billion—and public offerings have been announced at a breakneck pace ever since.

Meanwhile, Mexico’s private equity sector has grown 50 percent since 2000, totaling $14.6 billion in 2012. Mexico’s stock market isn’t currently as robust as those in some emerging markets, but that may change in the near future.

Diversification Mexico’s forays into diversification has only solidified its status as a growing economic power, particularly with its pension funds. New demand for pension funds has played a key role in Mexico’s surging stock market, and the flurry of IPOs announced last fall was prompted largely by pension funds that are growing more confident about buying individual stocks.

This first appeared in ForbesBrandvoice. Part III of this feature continues next issue

PAGE 13 COMPTON HERALD MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2014

RELIGION

WOUNDED pastor on Ferguson’s

Front Lines

BY LILLY FOWLER ST. CHARLES, Mo. (RNS) — The first time the public heard the name Renita Lamkin was probably the day she was shot.

In early August, four days after Michael Brown was killed by Officer Darren Wilson, Lamkin, a pastor, stood with Ferguson protesters, attempting to mediate. Police had warned the crowd to disperse and in an effort to buy a little time, Lamkin shouted, “They’re leaving!”

“That’s when I felt a pop in the stomach,” Lamkin recalled of the rubber pellet that hit her. The pellet left a ghastly wound — large, deep and purplish — and spurred a social media frenzy.

Tweet after tweet showed Lamkin, 44 and white, wearing a T-shirt with an image of a cross that she lifted up just slightly to show off the ugly bruise.

Lamkin said she didn’t really have a plan when she ventured out to Ferguson but that “the whole being shot thing was probably the best thing that could have happened.” The injury had cemented Lamkin’s role in the struggle for racial equality.

“They say, ‘You took a bullet for us.’ My sense is

…We’re in this together, and I was playing my role,” Lamkin said.

Fast forward nearly three months and Lamkin continues to deliver the same message of defiance as pastor of an African Methodist Episcopal Church in St. Charles.

The AME denomination was born out of the resistance to slavery with approximately 2.5 million members, most of them African American.

“We can and should be defiant,” Lamkin told her congregation on a recent Sunday at St. John AME Church. “There will always be those who discount the voice of the poor.” But “we don’t have to accept the conditions of this world.”

Although Lamkin is mother to two AfricanAmerican children, her role as a white leader in the African Methodist Episcopal Church is unusual.

“She’s a rare breed of person to be both white and female in an overwhelming black denomination where the ministry is overwhelming male,” said Michael Joseph Brown, academic dean at Payne Theological Seminary in Wilberforce, Ohio.

Brown said Lamkin, who graduated from Payne in 2014, was the only Cauca-

sian in her graduating class.

Dennis C. Dickerson, a history professor at Vanderbilt University who taught Lamkin, says the “social protest and social insurgency” ethos that’s “baked into the church’s DNA” clearly appealed to her.

While the church’s philosophy informs her work in Ferguson, Lamkin acknowledged that the experiences her children had growing up in St. Louis also influenced her decision to be actively engaged in the protests.

“My kids would be suspended for things that other kids would just have a detention for,” Lamkin said when describing the treatment of African Americans in schools. “It’s painting all these kids as if they’re these gangsters who are out killing everybody.”

Lamkin said she’s outraged by what she sees as unnecessary police brutality, even in cases where the victim may have been guilty of certain crimes.

Lamkin was four when her mother died in a car wreck. She and her three siblings were reared by their grandmother.

From an early age she read the bible three or four times a year and could rat-

J.B. FORBES, COURTESY ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

St. Johns AME Pastor Renita Lamkin (center), prays for and “lays hands” on Missouri Highway Patrol Col. Ron Johnson in Ferguson on Aug. 14, 2014.

tle off scripture on command.

“First person I led to Christ, I was like eight or 10 or something,” said Lamkin, who grew up in the Pentecostal church in Kansas City. “I was out knocking on doors after church asking people if they knew Jesus Christ.”

As a child, Lamkin says, she even ran a bible school in the yard.

But Lamkin’s involvement with religion was not always so playful. She said a youth pastor, as well as a cousin sexually abused her.

She was also severely mistreated by the father of her children. The two met in high school and were together for seven years.

Lamkin said she knew she had to leave him on the day that he threatened her with a gun and accidentally shot himself instead.

“That is when I said to God, ‘You got to get me out of here, one of us is going to die,’” Lamkin

said.

When she had enough money to put down a payment for a rental property, she and an old high school girlfriend loaded up a Pontiac Trans Am with everything they could and left.

Lamkin expected to be a missionary or a pastor’s wife. Yet because of her knowledge of scripture, she was repeatedly invited to preach. She said her fate was sealed when in bible study she met a woman pastor in the AME church.

“I talk too much, you know, I get on people’s nerves, I’m abrasive — sometimes it takes a little bit to warm up to,” Lamkin said. But “people trust me with their stories and trust me to speak from God’s heart to theirs, and I don’t take that trust lightly.”

Ferguson has complicated Lamkin’s life as a pastor. When asked if she’s fearful of what might happen when the grand jury’s

decision on indicting Wilson is released, Lamkin says police comportment remains her primary concern.

“That regular group of protesters that are normally out there, they’re not violent. They’re angry, they’re loud, they’re intense, they say a lot of cuss words, but they’re not violent.”

Lamkin said the simple act of arresting Wilson would send a badly needed message.

“Even if it didn’t go anywhere, the arrest itself would say that we are making a shift and that there is accountability. It would be a start,” Lamkin said. “The way things are now, police are protected, and they can act on their opinion and be protected.”

They can’t shoot first,” Lamkin said, “and figure it out later.”

This story was first published in the St. Louis PostDispatch.

Lynwood to host 93rd Christmas parade LYNWOOD — Great plans are in store for the City of Lynwood’s 93rd Annual Candy Cane Lane Christmas Parade scheduled Dec. 5, 2014.

Parade-goers will once again grab their blankets and lawn chairs and line up along the City’s stretch of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to enjoy everything heart-warming about a small town parade.

Set to start at 7 p.m. at the corner of MLK Boulevard and Atlantic Avenue, the parade will proceed west toward Bullis Road where a holiday carnival will await families this year.

With an array of special guests, to be confirmed,

WORSHIP DIRECTORY ATTEND CHURCH THIS SUNDAY

this year’s parade will feature over 100 entries, from marching bands to holiday floats to little leaguers eager to wave to their families on the sidelines.

“Last year’s Candy Cane Lane Parade was a huge success, our families were very happy with it,” said Mark Flores, interim director of the city’s Recreation and Community Services Department. “This year, it’s going to be even better.

Our parade isn’t just a tradition for our community; it’s a tradition for our families.

“People who grow up here and move away don’t just return for the holidays to be with their families, they return to see our parade with their families.

It’s a tradition for them too,” Flores said.

Confirmed special guests include radio personality Carlos Alvarez from Super Estrella 107.1 FM, Lupita

Special guests participating at Lynwood’s 93rd Annual Candy Cane Lane Christmas Parade set for Dec. 5, include Carlos Alvarez, DJ from Super Estrella 107.1 FM (top left), and Lupita Infante, granddaughter of the late Pedro Infante, who will be releasing her first album in 2015; and Angelito and Luis Angel Garcia, fresh off the La Voz Kids’ stage.

Infante, granddaughter of the late Pedro Infante who will be releasing her first album in 2015, and Angelito and Luis Angel Garcia fresh off La Voz Kids’ stage.

Parade’s festivities will begin with a reception at Bateman Hall in Lynwood for the parade’s special

guests, grand marshals and parade marshals at 5:30 p.m.

Booth spaces and sponsorship opportunities are still available. Contact the Recreation and Community Services Department for more info at (310) 6030220 ext. 319 or email to: recinfo@lynwood.ca.us.

PAGE 14 COMPTON HERALD MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2014

EDITORIAL JARRETTE DEAN FELLOWS, JR PUBLISHER, CEO and EXECUTIVE EDITOR FOUNDED 2007

ALEX JOHNSON AND LACOA

Shady dealings beg disclosure

BY BETTY PLEASANT

T

HE LOS ANGELES County Office of Education (LACOE) began taking steps in May to close the Wisdom Academy for Young Scientists (WAYS), a Manchester Avenue-based charter school, and took its final step Tuesday when its board voted to revoke the license of the 10-year-old school and move to change it from a black operated entity and convert it into an Hispanic operated school.

LACOE is the same entity that closed down the iconic and last black operated Kedren Head Start program in June and bestowed its contract upon the white-run Children’s International Institute (CII). But unlike its treatment of Kedren, LACOE said it was willing to leave WAYS’ contract intact provided the school’s board of directors be “reconstructed,” and its principal and all its administrators be replaced —

by Hispanics, according to LACOE’s pro-revocation arguments and emails among LACOE officials, Judy Higelin and Yolanda Benitez.

According to WAYS’ principal

Alex Johnson Edward Cabil, LACOE board member Alex Johnson presented WAYS a “deal” from LACOE in which WAYS would contract a management team to perform the day-to-day operations at the school and whose express purpose was to bring in all Latinos for each vacant position at WAYS, as well as force out all present administrators and board members — all of whom are black.

Johnson pressed the WAYS board — especially in secret meetings with WAYS board member Cheryl Johnson, to hire Celerity Educational Group,

which runs the Celerity Sirius charter school, to manage WAYS as a means of avoiding revocation. But the WAYS board, including its two newly elected Latino board members, did not buy it. The WAYS board saw the deal for the ruse it was because, according to LACOE’s own audit, Celerity Sirius is $766,000 in the red, while WAYS’ total assets are more than $1 million.

This whole matter between LACOE and WAYS reeks of racism and has been going on for three years with Alex Johnson being involved in it for that entire period. Kendra Okonkwo, a former WAYS board member whose financial contribution was instrumental in creating the school, said LACOE’s animus has been so severe that WAYS’ board members met with Johnson frequently about LACOE’s abuse.

“He was Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas’ education deputy and every time we wanted to talk with the supervisor about the problems, we were told to talk to Johnson,” Okonkwo said. “And we did. He took notes all the time and said he’d discuss it with the supervisor. Nothing was ever done. We never heard from Ridley-Thomas or Johnson — until Ridley-Thomas put him on the

LACOE board and he voted to revoke our contract,” Okonkwo said.

Johnson and his fellow board members’ full-court press to get WAYS under CEG management is odd considering that LACOE’s own final revocation report about the CEG-managed Celerity Sirius charter school, dated June 30, 2014, reads as follows: “Additionally, there is a concern regarding CEG’s capacity to manage WAYS, as its Sirius charter school, currently operated by CEG, had a negative net position of $476,357 as of June 30, 2014.

CEG has been given until Dec. 15, 2014 to provide LACOE with a plan to stabilize the school’s fiscal position. Additionally, Sirius owed CEG approximately $4.5 million as of June 30, 2014.”

Troubled by the nitpicking double standards to which LACOE applies to black operated charter schools, WAYS principal Cabil said: “Will someone please tell me how Celerity Sirius can continue to operate when it is obvious that they don’t have funds?!

Moreover, why wasn’t an FCMAT (audit report) ordered for them like it was for WAYS? Where did the school’s money go? There must be some mismanagement of funds? No one seems

to want to answer that question!”

Cabil said.

“And LACOE states that Celerity Sirius only needs to come up with a plan? Where is the fairness?” he asked.

This is not about money. It’s about race. “As far as WAYS is concerned, the hatred LACOE officials have toward the black Okonkwo family and its commitment and involvement in the school far outweighs all other concerns; therefore, anything other than allowing a full Latino take-over would result in our revocation,” Cabil said.

On May 29, when I wrote the first story about the WAYS/ LACOE problem, I reported the following statistics about the school: It had 525 students in kindergarten through grade five, of which 57 percent were black.

The California Department of Education measures overall school improvement over time on statewide Academic Performance Index (API) testing and has set an API score of 800 as the statewide goal for all schools. WAYS’ API score was 768 and it raised its score 53 points between the 2012 and 2013 school year. While the school met its statewide API target for 2013, in May it has not yet See SHADY page 15

The revolution will not be televised

BY K. GERARD THOMAS

W

hile the nation and the world watches and waits for the St. Louis, Mo. grand jury’s decision to be announced in regards to the legal fate of a white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, who shot and killed 18-year-old unarmed black teenager Michael Brown on Aug. 9 in front of witnesses, the question is will their decision be taken with calm or riotous protest by the community?

Three months later many are concerned that the grand jury will not choose to charge the officer with a crime due to the divided racial and political culture within the St. Louis County Police Department, and the District Attorney’s office.

Because so many have very little faith in Wilson being brought to trial business owners in Ferguson have already started boarding up their business in preparation of the coming storm of protest and the probability of looting and destruction.

District Attorney Bob McCulloch engendered criticism for refusing to bring an indictment against Wilson but chose to leave it in the hands of the grand jury, which critics believe washes his hands clean of any backlash by the powers that be in case Wilson is indicted.

Some believe McCulloch is biased and should have recused himself, or that Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon should have recused McCulloch and appointed another DA to the case.

Since neither McCulloch nor Nixon agreed for him to step down, his office is accused of allowing leaks to the press to go unanswered. This has been happening from the very beginning.

As extreme as it sounds for this day and time, some online comments and Fox News’ raciallytinged broadcasts reek of a covert propaganda scheme similar to those used in pre-World War II Germany. What is most sad is the media is the messenger, pro or

con.

It would appear on both sides of this issue some are counting on the public forgetting about the details of the shooting in order to give made- up online innuendos and distortions, time to fester and take their place in the psyche of those who are already pre-disposed to Wilson’s innocence or guilt.

This type of propaganda is also being used by outside groups who want nothing more than to see a return of violence and looting that transpired days after the shooting.

Propaganda to taint the grand jury and the case against Brown was set in motion with the Ferguson Police Department’s release of a video of an earlier, unrelated incident at a convenience store in which an individual resembling Brown was seen taking cigars he did not pay for as he exited the store. The man in the video is stopped by the store manager, who is pushed aside.

The Ferguson Police Department did not have to release the video because it was unrelated to the actual shooting as stated by the chief of police and Wilson in his initial testimony. It was a calculated move to create an image and picture in the mind that last longer on the human psyche and resulting in giving the viewer an excuse for Brown being shot even if the shooter and his chief disagrees based on their testimony. This is my opinion As of this composition, the St. Louis Post Dispatch released new video and audio of events that took place shortly after Wilson shot Brown. Under the Sunshine Act the press was able to obtain video showing Wilson walking with his attorney and another lead officer in police headquarters, showing no visible signs of physical injury. Some will look at the video and make excuses because it does not fit their narrative.

Fear is opening the door for elements that have a destructive agenda because it gives these groups an excuse to act as a spokesperson to commit mayhem and violence to others who had

zero to do with Brown’s death.

Members of the Missouri chapter of the Ku Klux Klan are now passing out threatening leaflets in Ferguson, warning of violence toward the protesters if there is no indictment. There are said to be anarchists among those in Ferguson, whose sole aim is to encourage violent confrontations with law enforcement.

There are so many elements to

this story that are questionable, but it is a fact that there is a great divide in St. Louis, once again underscoring the reality that there exists two Americas.

Whatever grand jury’s decision, it will not change the minds of those who made up their minds along time ago.

Taking a page out of the George Zimmerman playbook some are assured that like Zimmerman

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who shot and killed un armed Trayvon Martin, Wilson will continue receiving more love and support due largely to his race.

Brown’s death may be remembered for igniting a movement and causing martyrdom. This, too can be attributed to his race.

For the sake of the community and the nation...are we ever going to learn live together and respect one another?

PAGE 15 COMPTON HERALD MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2014

COMPTON HERALD

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Equestrian center kicks up dust of dissent Continued from first page Mago Mendoza, a plumber who recently purchased a home in the area on Aug. 29, is disgruntled about the horse stables and was more blunt.

“I just bought a three bedroom-one bath home for $238,000 across the street from the park,” Mendoza said. “I had no idea the county was planning to build horse stables in the vicinity of my home. It’s a bad idea.

“If I had known, I would have never bought the house because of the smell.

I don’t want to wake up to the smell of horses and horse ---- seven days a

week, 24 hours a day.”

The stable is going to be less than 200 feet “from my home, said the father of three small children.

“Besides, it’s going to be too crowded with horses and the traffic. The park is good for kids and things like picnics,” but not for horseback riding.”

In fairness to RidleyThomas and the Department of Parks and Recreation, “nothing is set in stone at this point” said a spokesperson for the supervisor, who noted that the opportunity for residents to attend scheduled meetings to voice their concerns regarding the masterplan.

Residents conceivably can even challenge any and all aspects of the county’s strategic Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) currently in development.

“The purpose of these meetings is for community input, said the spokesperson, who noted that the Compton Junior Posse, an equestrian program located three miles south of Magic Johnson Park supports the masterplan in its entirety.

Residents have had one opportunity to voice their concerns at one meeting at Athens Park on Nov. 1, with a second planned at an unknown future date.

Betty Pleasant: Shady Dealings Continued from page 14 met the state goal of 800.

Nevertheless, WAYS has an API statewide rank of 10 --- meaning the school’s API fell into the top 10 percent of all schools in the state with a comparable grade range.

WAYS also has an API Similar Schools Rank of 10, meaning the school is among the top 10 schools in the state with similar student demographic profiles (i.e. poverty level, ethnicity, parents’ educational level, etc.)

And now that the

LACOE board has voted to revoke, WAYS will lose all rights to function as a charter school, including being eligible to receive state and federal funding.

Alex Johnson, the only black member on the LACOE board, did not return my call for an interview and discussion of the WAYS revocation matter, and to allow me the opportunity to ask him, point blank: Why didn’t he and his former boss, RidleyThomas, the only black member on the Board of Supervisors, fight to keep

open this fine, high performing, black-operated charter school whose majority black student body excels? And why would he and his fellow LACOE board members seek to solve whatever financial/operational problems WAYS has by requiring it to be managed by a non-black charter school company that has far greater problems than WAYS?!

Because it’s not about anything but race. Somebody needs to sue somebodies.

Immigration policy sank the Dems in the Senate Continued from page 14 than the worst Tea Partier.

What are some of the most interesting races you have been tracking?

I think one of the most interesting things happening right now is in Arizona.

Largely unreported is what I would call the beginning of the end of SB 1070 and SB 1062, the racial profiling law and the ethnic studies ban. The politics and the politicians that brought that about are not expanding and growing; they are retreating now.

You have no better instance than the case of David García, a largely unknown Ph.D Army vet who ran his campaign [for Superintendent of Public Instruction] against a Tea Party candidate. The most telling thing is… he got the endorsement of the Chamber of Commerce. That’s the same Chamber of Commerce that was being boycotted by Latinos in Arizona and throughout the U.S. So what does that mean?

It means that those forces are now on the retreat. It means that the boycotts, the protests, the Move the Game campaign get the Major League game out of Arizona, all those campaigns, all those efforts on the ground worked. That previews for me what’s

going to be the most exciting thing in U.S. politics, which is what I call the latinoamericanización of U.S. politics.

Can you describe what the latinoamericanización of American politics might look like?

It’s a style of politics where street action, continued organizing in different communities and different sectors, and bold actions and campaigns are intimately linked to electoral processes.

Which is very different from the way “politics” is defined in the U.S. The U.S. is bordered off from Latin America, so our ideas about politics are bordered off in the imagination: Politics mean elections.

Punto.

Well, if you have the Arizona Chamber of Commerce endorsing a proimmigrant candidate, and calling on the Republican Party to tone down and change course, which they’re doing—regardless of who won these elections in Arizona, because you still have 150,00 votes that are not counted as of right now—that’s a sea change in politics, and a sea change that’s being led by Latinos.

Why do you use the term latinoamericanización of

U.S. politics?

People in the U.S. only get political when it’s election time. In Latin America, that’s not how politics are thought of, conceived of or practiced. It’s more organic and from the ground up, and opens up possibilities that we absolutely have to have now here in the U.S. If you look at the Latino Decisions poll and other polling, people don’t have confidence in the political process. Our political process itself may be dead because of the Citizens United decision. In the face of such a dictatorship of corporations, we have really no choice at this point but to fight and organize outside of the two-party system that’s controlled by those corporations.

We have before us a dictatorship. So if we have a dictatorship—it’s not just military, but corporations that are in cahoots with the military, and that profit from military funding— then we have to go to those who know about how to fight military dictatorship, like the ones that the U.S. created in Latin America.

We have to go to Latin American-style politics, from below.

Roberto Lovato is a Visiting Scholar at UC Ber keley’s Center for Lat- ino Policy Research.

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PAGE 16 COMPTON HERALD MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2014

NOTICE TO RESIDENTS OF COMPTON FROM THE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCILMEMBERS City of Compton 2014 Street Resurfacing Project Phase I of IV Dear Compton Residents, The City of Compton has contracted with American Asphalt South to complete street improvements adjacent to your home. The project will begin in October 2014 and continue through February 6, 2015. A variety of improvements will be made over the next several months including repairing damaged sidewalks, curbs and gutters, driveways, handicap ramps and street improvements such as slurry sealing and cane sealing. The streets effected are residential and no street closures are expected. Trash collection will continue as scheduled with minimum street sweeping interruptions. These improvements are designed to improve pedestrian safety and improve the street surfaces from more costly repairs in the future.

Aja Brown MAYOR Janna Zurita Councilwoman District 1

Isaac Galvan Councilman District 2

Yvonne Arceneaux Councilwoman District 3

Dr. Willie O. Jones Councilman District 4

Concrete Asphalt R ehabilitation Effort Paving the Way to a Better Compton Contractor - American Asphalt South - 800-678-4007 Construction Manager - APA Engineering - 949-679-2600 x1003

www.comptoncity.org/care