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EGACY Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.

WEDNESDAYS • Sept. 2, 2015

INSIDE Report examines lead poison & poor blacks - 2 Henrico Board appoints new member - 4 Hou can Virginia reconsider parole - 12 Looking at menus. Why are you overweight? - 14

Richmond & Hampton Roads

LEGACYNEWSPAPER.COM • FREE

Recalling ancestors and offering peace to their spirits Slave Trail Commission wants community input

The Richmond Slave Trail Commission has worked for years — over 20 — to preserve the history of slavery in Richmond. It has had many successes through the various stages of development, but several phases remain and members of the commission want the public to become involved in the Slave Trail’s future development.

The Richmond Slave Trail is a walking trail that chronicles the history of the trade of enslaved Africans from Africa to Virginia until 1775, and away from Virginia— especially Richmond—to other locations in America until 1865.

Through Richmond Speaks, a planned series of roundtable discussions, members of the commission hope to gain insight from the community on how to proceed with preserving and honoring the history and role Africans had in Richmond history.

Richmond Speaks will have 10 forums to spark the interest of Metro-Richmond and hear what residents want to see in the project and how they can feel connected to it.

“The overall goal is to develop and amazing story of tragedy and triumph,” said Del. Delores McQuinn, chairperson of the Slave Trail Commission. “Through the media, advertisements, invitations or social media, the purpose is to engage the community in this effort.

We want to involve participants in this process to create a legacy for generations to come.”

The Slave Trail Commission began in 1994 as the Unity Walk Commission and was established by the city of Richmond. Its purpose has always been the same—to allow the public to fully understand this part of

Virginia history and learn what this particular era was truly about.

The overall objective is to establish a museum to reflect the authentic history of the Slave Trail and Lumpkin’s Jail while being inclusive of citizens and their desires.

The commission wants to ensure that all participants feel their voices are heard and share in the work. It has received $11 million from the state and $10 million from the city in order to move forward.

The community is being asked to participate and become fully engaged in the process.

“Every participant’s thoughts and concerns are important and will be reflected in the storytelling of the site. We want to know what they want to see, hear and learn,” said McQuinn (right).

There are approximately 3,000 pieces of artifacts to include in the desired open-air style museum.

What the commission wants the public to understand is that while most museums of regular size can tell a story, they don’t possess the authenticity that this particular museum would have. The land where the museum would rest was, in part, where most of the wheeling and dealing occurred in terms of slave trading.

Matt Laird, an archeologist with James River Institute for Archeology says the Slave Trail and Lumpkin’s Jail is an asset for the people of Virginia and will draw people from all around the state and country.

“People from the around the world will find it fascinating,” he said.

“It’s such powerful history and the archeological site is well reserved and perfectly preserved. It’s truly

(continued on page 3)

2 • Sept. 2, 2015

The LEGACY

News

Companies make millions off lead-poisoned, poor blacks TERRENCE MCCOY The letter arrived in April last year, a mishmash of strange numbers and words. This at first did not alarm Rose. Most letters are that way for her — frustrating puzzles she can’t solve. Rose, who can scarcely read or write, calls herself a “lead kid.” Her childhood home, where lead paint chips blanketed her bedsheets like snowflakes, “affected me really bad,” she says. “In everything I do.”

She says she can’t work a professional job. She can’t live alone.

And, she says, she surely couldn’t understand this letter.

So on that April day, the 20-yearold says she asked her mom to give it a look. Her mother glanced at the words, then back at her daughter.

“What does this mean all of your payments were sold to a third party?” her mother recalls saying.

The distraught woman said the letter, written by her insurance company, referred to Rose’s lead checks. The family had settled a leadpaint lawsuit against one notorious Baltimore slumlord in 2007, granting Rose a monthly check of nearly $1,000, with yearly increases. Those payments were guaranteed for 35 years.

“It’s been sold?” Rose asked, memories soon flashing.

She remembered a nice, white man. He had called her one day on the telephone months after she’d squeaked through high school with a “one-point something” grade-point average. His name was Brendan, though she said he never mentioned his last name. He told her she could make some fast money. He told her he worked for a local company named Access Funding. He talked to her as a friend.

Rose, who court records say suffers from “irreversible brain damage,” didn’t have a lot of friends. She didn’t trust many people. Growing up off North Avenue in West Baltimore, she said she’s seen people killed.

But Brendan was different.

He bought her a fancy meal at Longhorn Steakhouse, she said, and guaranteed a vacation for the family. He seemed like a gentleman, someone she said she could trust .

One day soon after, a notary arrived at her house and slid her a

12-page “purchase” agreement. Rose was alone. But she wasn’t worried.

She said she spoke to a lawyer named Charles E. Smith on the phone about the contract. She felt confident in what it stated. She was selling some checks in the distant future for some quick money, right?

The reality, however, was substantially different. Rose sold everything to Access Funding — 420 monthly lead checks between 2017 and 2052. They amounted to a total of nearly $574,000 and had a present value of roughly $338,000.

In return, Access Funding paid her less than $63,000.

‘They fall through a crack’ Rose, who requested that her full name be witheld on the advice of her attorney, had just tumbled into the little-noticed, effectively unregulated netherworld of structured settlements.

Traditional settlements are paid in one immediate lump sum. But these structured agreements often deliver monthly payments across decades to protect vulnerable recipients from immediately spending the money.

Since 1975, insurance companies have committed an estimated $350 billion to structured settlements.

This has given rise to a secondary market in which dozens of firms compete to purchase the rights to those payments for a fraction of their face value.

What happens in these deals is a matter of perspective. To industry advocates, the transactions get money to people who need it now.

They keep desperate families off the streets, pay medical bills, put kids through school.

“What we do is provide equity for those people to buy homes,” said Access Funding chief executive Michael Borkowski. He said his organization had no reason to think Rose was cognitively impaired, pointing to her high school degree, driver’s license and written documents in her name.

He said Access Funding has no record showing Brendan, whom he praised for “the highest level of professionalism,” took Rose out to eat and disputed that she’d been promised a vacation. “We’re trying to bring better value to people,”

Rose, who can neither read nor write, was supposed to be set up for life after she won a lead lawsuit against her former landlord and was awarded a large settlement. She’s seen here in Baltimore.

PHOTO: Amanda Voisard Borkowski continued. “...We really do try to get people the best deals.”

But to critics, Access Funding is part of an industry that profits off the poor and disabled. And Baltimore City has become a prime target.

It’s here that one teen — diagnosed with “mild mental retardation,” court records show — sold her payments through 2030 in four deals and is now homeless. It’s here that companies blanket certain neighborhoods in advertisements,

searching for a potentially lucrative type of inhabitant, whose stories recall the legacy of Freddie Gray.

Before his April death in police custody, before this hallowed-out city plunged into rioting, the life of Freddie Gray was a case study in the effect of lead paint on poor blacks.

The lead poisoning Gray suffered as a child may have contributed to his difficulties with learning, truancy (continued on page 13)

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com (from page 1) exciting because of the visible and physical aspects of it.”

Laird said that this is unique for Richmond because preservation to this degree is usually found in places in Italy.

“This is truly special,” he said.

It’s McQuinn’s desire that not only Virginians, but the nation would take time to reflect on past injustices and work for the common good of all men and women by committing to teaching future generations the contributions of the African people through the Richmond Slave Trail.

“We have much to do to create a community, city and state that ensures all citizens equal opportunities and access to the American dream,” she said. “Some would rather forget the human toll of this inhuman system. Forgetting means we are likely to continue past oppression and creates a risk of other forms of enslavement to other people.”

McQuinn has been working to add to Richmond’s rich history with the Slave Trail and hasn’t stood alone in her efforts. Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones, who has been criticized for placing his focus on other city issues has also been at the helm offering guidance and would like to see this effort evolve into a statewide and national phenomenon.

“The mayor has been on the receiving end of a lot of slack for not doing enough for the development of the Slave Trail, as well as other things, but I don’t believe that to be true,” said a community member who requested anonymity. It’s not his fault if others try to place focus on other city matters that are really irrelevant in comparison. It seems that he has given this effort his full support.

“In fact, it appears as if all leaders involved in this effort have done just that—offered their full support and dedication.”

The Slave Trail, said Jones, aids in providing a lesson in history that should be acknowledged, remembered and learned from.

Full development would allow people to experience it “in solemn remembrance of this nation’s tragic history, but with renewed exuberance

Sept. 2, 2015 • 3 about all that has been overcome and all that we must still yet overcome,” the mayor stated.

Jones further states the purpose is to remind the nation of the necessity of learning from the past, offering the ability to acknowledge the truth while moving forward, correcting wrongs while facing consequences and recognizing hurts while healing wounds.

The prospected museum will also show a connection to the nearby educational institution Virginia Union University (VUU), which produced many of the city’s past and current administrators, elected officials and legislators.

After slavery ended, the Lumpkin land was sold to a Baptist minister who sought to establish a black seminary. The buildings once used to imprison slaves would now serve to educate them. The seminary school would eventually evolve into VUU. The land went from being known as “the Devil’s half acre” to “God’s half acre” “VUU is the bridge of education that affected change by the people it has produced. It’s only appropriate that it be included,” McQuinn said.

The next phase of this initiative will also include the faith-based communities, the NAACP, Crusade for Voters and other influential organizations.

“The church can be so influential,” McQuinn said. “They have a capital audience in their congregations and we want them involved.”

This has become McQuinn’s passion and she says she will see it through.

She looks at this project as not only an obligation that was designated for her but sees it as a privilege and is honored she is heading it.

“Now that I am where I am I can have a voice and do something to exonerate our ancestors and give peace to their spirits.

“They will know that they, and all they endured, have not been forgotten and they are remembered.

“We don’t want anyone to ever forget. We want fruitful knowledge of this and to provide factual and authentic insight into what happened so generations to come can discover the true story of slavery, the slave trade and the transition into independence in this commonwealth,” McQuinn said.

The first Richmond Speaks community forum will take place Sept. 10 at MLK Middle School.

Annual Newport News parade celebrates 25 years

Newport News is getting ready for a three-day series of events commemorating the 25th Annual Southeast Community Day Parade/ Festival. Also dubbed the Andrew Shannon Gospel Music Celebration, the event will be held from Friday, Sept. 11, to Sunday, Sept. 13.

Media personalities Don Roberts of WAVY TV-10 and former Daily Press columnist and radio broadcaster Wil LaVeist, will host the weekend events, serving as parade announcers during the Saturday parade that lines up from 9 a.m. at Booker T. Washington Middle School. The parade will end at Zion Baptist Church, 633 20th St., in Newport News.

Andrew Shannon, who heads the local SCLC chapter, has been planning the annual parade as a catalyst to unify the community and provide an opportunity to memorialize the thousands who have died and honor the country’s military and public safety personnel. The weekend celebration also honors slain civil rights icon, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This year’s festival site will be lat Zion Baptist Church with marching bands from throughout the United States attending and participating in the parade and festival with energetic routines and performances.

A commemorative march in Memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will begin at 12:30 p.m. immediately following the Parade.

Andrew Shannon The Andrew Shannon Gospel Music Weekend Celebration kicks off at 6 p.m. on Friday at Second Baptist Church East End, 3307 Chestnut Ave. in Newport News and continues at 7 p.m. on Saturday, with the Andrew Shannon Gospel Music Weekend Celebration at Calvary Seventh Day Adventist Church, 1200 17th St. featuring national recording artists, regional, state and local entertainment.

The event will show case some of gospel’s inspirational artists and mass choirs from 7 – 10 p.m.

The weekend festivities will culminate on Sunday with the Andrew Shannon Gospel Music Weekend Celebration from 4 – 7 p.m. at Holy Tabernacle Church of Deliverance, in Newport News. The gospel celebration will feature national recording artists performing along with regional, state and local performing artists providing musical entertainment for the entire family.

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4 • Sept. 2, 2015

The LEGACY

Board appoints Greene to serve remainder of Fairfield term

Pierre Greene, the new Fairfield District School Board representative with other board members.

Fund in memory of slain reporter Piedmont Arts last week established a fund to support Piedmont Arts On Stage performances by one of Alison Parker’s favorite dance companies, Richmond Ballet.

Parker, a reporter who was gunned down while interviewing a subject, alongside her camera man Adam Ward , is remembered as “an avid

and talented dancer” who loved to participate in and support the performing arts, especially in her hometown of Martinsville-Henry County.

“Alison loved the ballet and she had a great deal of respect for the Richmond Ballet,” said Barbara Parker, Alison’s mother and Piedmont Arts director of programs.

The Alison Bailey Parker Memorial Fund will honor Alison by bringing high-quality performances by Richmond Ballet to the community for years to come, according to the ballet.

The Henrico School Board has appointed Pierre Greene to serve out the remainder of the term of former Fairfield District representative Lamont Bagby.

Bagby resigned from the board in July after winning a special election for the 74th District seat in the Virginia House of Delegates.

Greene’s appointment extends through the end of 2015. Fairfield District voters will go to the polls Nov. 3 to elect a representative to a new four-year term on the School Board. The winner of that election will take office Jan. 1, 2016.

Greene, a pastor and a financial services manager, was selected by the other four members of the board last week. The board interviewed all five applicants for the vacancy, and heard public comments on the opening Aug. 20. Greene was sworn in at Henrico Circuit Court.

“I’m truly honored and overwhelmed to get this opportunity to fill Delegate Bagby’s seat,” Greene said. “The Fairfield District is where I’ve been living for the past eight years and I absolutely fell in love with the community. It’s exciting in the next four months to have the opportunity to add value to our kids, our administrators and our community at large in any way possible.”

“We had five extremely qualified applicants for this position,” said John Montgomery, school board chair and Varina District representative. “Any one of them would have been extraordinarily capable … We hope that the four who were not chosen, as well as Mr. Greene, will continue to be involved in our schools because they brought such an array of skills and ideas.”

Also in January 2016, the board will elect a new chair and vice chair.

Lisa Marshall, Tuckahoe District representative, was elected by the board to serve out the final months of Bagby’s term as vice chair.

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

Sept. 2, 2015 • 5

Va. transfers Fort Monroe land to National Park Service Fort Monroe is on its way to becoming a national monument.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe last week signed a deed that transfers land at the Hampton land from the state to the National Park Service.

This, he said, solidifies Virginia’s “commitment to turning the fort into a national monument for the enjoyment of tourists and historybuffs” from Virginia and beyond.

The deed was signed in a public ceremony at the Main Gate of the Fort by McAuliffe and Peggy O’Dell, the Deputy Director of the National Park Service.

“Fort Monroe is a rich historical site that helps tell the story of our commonwealth and our country,” said McAuliffe. “By transferring this land to the National Park Service, we are creating the opportunity to enhance this great asset so that we can preserve our history and leverage it to draw greater tourism revenue and economic activity to the Peninsula. I am thrilled to sign this deed and help begin the next chapter in the history of Fort Monroe.”

The land transfer preserves a group of significant landmarks at Fort Monroe that highlight some of our nation's most important events.

Robert E. Lee lived at the Fort and helped design and construct the stone fortification. Jefferson Davis was imprisoned in a Fort casemate.

Harriet Tubman spent time at the Fort after the Civil War, and Edgar Allen Poe was stationed there as a young soldier.

The Fort also tells the significant story of the beginning and the end of slavery in the United States. One such story includes three brave men -- Frank Baker, James Townsend and Sheppard Mallory – who escaped enslavement and rowed a skiff to Old Point Comfort to seek asylum. General Benjamin Butler declared these men “contraband of war.” This inspired tens of thousands of African Americans throughout the South to seek selfemancipation across Union lines.

This monument provides a unique opportunity to share this story with visitors from around the world.

The deed signing marks the culmination of years of hard work by state leaders, the city of Hampton, the National Park Service, the historic preservation community, the National Park Conservation Association and the Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park.

Group examines the state of homelessness in Va. The Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness (VCEH) recently released The State of Permanent Supportive Housing in Virginia, 2015 report at its statewide Housing Virginia’s Most Vulnerable conference held in Richmond.

VCEH estimates that Virginia needs approximately 2,500 new permanent supportive housing units to meet the needs of the most vulnerable individuals, families and youth experiencing homelessness in Virginia.

Permanent supportive housing is a successful, cost-effective combination of affordable housing with services that helps people live more stable productive lives, notes VCEH. It is the most effective solution for people who are chronically homeless and suffer from serious physical or mental health illness or have substance use disorders.

Over the past five years, the number of permanent supportive housing units has increased from 1,784 units to 2,886, largely due to

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the increase in federal resources for veterans experiencing homelessness.

Not surprisingly, noted VCEH, during this same time period, the number of chronically homeless individuals in the State plummeted by more than 30 percent.

While there are federal resources for veterans experiencing chronic homelessness, there are not enough for non-veterans. VCEH recommends targeting new and existing state and federal resources to permanent supportive housing, especially for support services, building the capacity of organizations to provide quality permanent supportive housing and developing “Moving On” strategies to help tenants who no longer need supportive housing to move out, thereby freeing up much needed units.

“With housing in place all the other pieces of the puzzle for persons with mental disabilitiesmore effectively come together,” said Joy A. Cipriano, director, Office of Property and Resource Development.

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6 • Sept. 2, 2015

Op/Ed & Letters

The LEGACY

Reconsidering parole in Va. GOV. TERRY McAULIFFE In 1994, the Virginia General Assembly abolished parole in the commonwealth, requiring felony offenders to serve at least 85 percent of their sentences, with the potential to earn good-behavior credits toward an early release date.

Then-Gov. George Allen (R) and the legislature believed abolishing parole would prevent new felony offenses and reduce recidivism by keeping career criminals off the streets.

The legislation also was intended to divert nonviolent drug offenders from the criminal justice system into treatment, thereby reserving prison beds for the most violent offenders.

There is no denying that the abolition of parole has been successful and that truth in sentencing has strengthened the integrity of our justice system.

Virginia has experienced lower crime rates and has the second-lowest recidivism rate in the country.

However, no policy is without flaws, and no program is above examination. I agree with Allen, who recently said, “every governor should periodically review policies in place in their State.” Governors have no greater responsibility than ensuring that taxpayer dollars are spent effectively, with the greatest possible return and benefits to the public. This is a trust I take seriously and that has been a priority of my

The LEGACY NEWSPAPER Vol. 1 No. 31 Mailing Address 409 E. Main Street 4 Office Address 105 1/2 E. Clay St. Richmond, VA 23219 Call 804-644-1550 Online www.legacynewspaper.com

administration.

We ended ill-conceived plans to expand Route 460, saving taxpayers$149 million. We reformed operations at the Port of Virginia, which was losing millions each month when I took office, and returned it to profitabilityin slightly more than a year. We directed our agencies to ensure that their resources were dedicated to the highest and best use.

Virginia spends more than $1.1 billion each year on our corrections system. The time has come to evaluate our progress, identify opportunities to improve our system, build on our successes and maximize the return on our investment. I created the Commission on Parole Review, co-chaired by former attorney general Mark Earley (R), Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran and Secretary of the Commonwealth Levar Stoney, to examine these issues and provide recommendations to strengthen The LEGACY welcomes all signed letters and all respectful opinions.

Letter writers and columnists opinions are their own and endorsements of their views by The LEGACY should be inferred. The LEGACY assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material.

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our system to the benefit of all Virginians.

One issue we must address is the number of nonviolent offenders occupying prison beds. While we have made progress in reducing this number, the Department of Corrections reports that 9,000 offenders, representing 24 percent of its population, have no violent crimes on their records. At $27,000 per inmate per year, we are spending approximately $243 million annually to house nonviolent offenders.

Opponents of the Commission on Parole Review, which I established throughexecutive order, have said this review is unnecessary. I find it hard to believe that we could not spend a single dollar of that $243 million more effectively by investing in mental health or substance-abuse services or with alternatives to sentencing such as drug courts or other successful diversion programs.

Improving outcomes for public safety and better utilizing taxpayer dollars are top priorities of my administration. For example, I recently increased salaries for deputy sheriffs and correctional officers, which will improve retention and allow us to keep our strongest officers in our communities and state and local public safety facilities.

There are other opportunities to achieve similar results, which is why I established the commission.

My decision was not motivated by politics or a desire to let violent offenders out of prison or an intention to reverse the 1994 decision. This is about looking out for taxpayer dollars while maintaining public safety. As governor, it is my duty to ensure that every taxpayer dollar spent is generating the best possible return on investment. This is another important step in building the new Virginia economy.

Unfortunately, the conversation around parole has become a platform for partisan politics, shifting attention from the real issue: evaluating our policies and identifying areas where we can do better. Is the commonwealth appropriately balancing its responsibilities to punish and to rehabilitate nonviolent offenders?

With more than two decades of evidence and data, the Commission on Parole Review is well-positioned to engage in the thorough, careful analysis necessary to create meaningful change. I am confident that with the strong, bipartisan leadership and diverse membership of the commission, I will receive a robust set of evidence-based recommendations in December that will protect public safety and offer alternative sentencing options for nonviolent offenders while keeping faith with the original intent of the 1994 legislation.

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

Sept. 2, 2015 • 7

P.T. Hoffsteader, Esq.

Election preview

We are barely into the 2016 election season and already we’re hearing calls to raise taxes on America’s oil and gas producers.

This kind of campaign is reckless and irresponsible in its methods and extremely dangerous to our nation’s future prosperity. Raising billions in new taxes by selectively denying ordinary and legitimate tax recovery provisions to domestic oil and gas producer's amounts to using the federal tax code as a political bludgeon. It’s a sure fire way to kill good-paying jobs and put the economic brakes on one of the few high-growth sectors in the economy.

And while many want to point to “Big Oil” as their target, what is not so well understood is the effect their destructive tax scheme would have on our nation’s independent producers. These entrepreneurs, men and women who embody the classic American virtues that make our free enterprise system great, develop 95 percent of America’s oil and gas wells and produce 68 percent of domestic oil and 82 percent of domestic natural gas.

These independents are a key factor in America’s current energy revolution and march toward real energy security. This is the case despite the fact that independent producers typically average only 12 employees per firm and most are organized, for tax purposes, as small businesses – paying taxes as individuals.

Again, I can’t imagine a more destructive and reckless tax measure

for an industry that literally provides the lifeblood of our economy: oil and natural gas. We need incentives to spur growth, not more economic decline.

Trinity Bevridge Richmond

Societal issues

In the last few weeks, several corporations have decided to discontinue their sales of merchandise bearing the Confederate flag symbol. We believe that the Confederate war flag and engraved battle flad monuments belong in a museum-- not located over or on our state house, on localities, streets or on state-issued license plates. It is a symbol of terror, segragation, hatred and treason to America’s ideal.

We believe, however, that not only should the flag and monuments come down, but we must work together collectively to dismantle private segregation, neragtive racism and structional systems of oppression.

Our society’s committment to address negative racism cannot stop with the removal of symbols. This must include opening the path to upward mobility for those who are trapped at the bottom of the social ladder due to blocked opportunities and the hoarding of economic resources by a small minority of segregationists and racist sympathizers.

More importantly, policies can’t get a pass on addressing systemic segregated policies of racism simply because they have reluctantly or otherwise moved to remove the flaf in the wake of the Charleston massacre.

Nine lives and the blood of nine of God’s children and all of the blood of the martyrs is too much hurt for a symbolic action against racism and segregation that does not go deeper into structural and systemic change.

If we don’t address this, then the flag or monuments may come down but opportunity barriers will still run through the political terrain of our society.

We need to deal with the substsnce of discrimination, white supremacy, segregation and its policies. As long as we pass voter suppression laws, disenfrachisement laws and injust environmental laws, racially at large election laws and laws that underfund public education and cause re-segregated, high-poverty schools, public neighborhoods and laws that block Medicaid expansion and a living wage. As long as we openly promote mass incarceration, police brutality, the racially applied death penalty and a broken criminal justice system, systemic negative racism still exists and continues to wave its ugly statin over our body politic.

The work of bringing down discrimination, racism and segregation is not over when we bring down a flag or monument.

Roy Perry Bey Norfolk

History lessons

The legacy of industrialization in the Southeast Community dates back to 1880, 1890, and 1892, respectively, with the creation of the Old Dominion Land Company (ODLC), the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock

Company, and the infamous Coal Pier. Air pollution has become a big concern for residents because of the many sources of close by pollution including the massive coal piles, the shipyard, I-664 and its vehicle and truck emissions, and the sewage treatment plant to name a few. Is anything being done to fight against the pollution and for improved health?

The Southeast CARE Coalition based out of the Moton Community Center has created a sign-on letter to Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources, Molly Ward. The sign on letter is an opportunity for Hampton Roads businesses, organizations, and churches to show their support for an air monitor in the Southeast Community. The air monitor will help assess the levels of toxins and pollution sources. Respiratory disease death rates for African Americans in Newport News are already nearly twice the average rate in Virginia! This is the next step for improving community health.

If you are interested in having your organization, church or business sign on to the letter, please send your name, title, organization, and contact information to southeastcarecoalition@gmail.com.

Clean air is vital to public health and ensuring everyone can enjoy the outdoors and breathe clean air is a matter of justice. With your help, we can tackle the effects of these pollutants and clean up the air in East End Newport News.

Skye Whitlow Richmond

The LEGACY

8 • Sept. 2, 2015

Keeping the Faith The wisdom to wait Two monks lived together in a monastery for decades.

In time one of them died, and within months the other followed.

The first monk awoke to discover that he was in heaven, and never had he experienced such happiness. But he realized that his friend wasn’t with him, so he took to traveling the heavenly realms to find him. This search, however, did not produce one trace of his partner.

“Oh dear,” the monk now thought, “If he isn’t here, then he must be caught in some sort of pur-gatory.”

So off to the lower realms of eternity the celestial monk traveled, and sure enough, that’s where he found his friend: He was now a worm, digging in a pile of manure.

Taking no thought for what his friend did to deserve such a fate, he said to himself, “I’m going to help my friend out of this situation. I’m going down there to that manure pile and bring him back to heaven so he can be as happy as I am.” With that, the monk commenced to digging.

Before long the worm wiggled out and asked roughly, “Who are you?”

The monk answered, “You don’t remember? I am your friend, and I’m here to take you to heaven where life is won-derful!” The worm barked, “Get lost!” The monk was stunned and began describing heaven in glorious detail to convince the worm to go with him. “No way,” came the grumpy answer, “I am staying here.”

This was more than the heavenly monk could stand. So he grabbed hold of the worm and started tugging and pulling, begging and pleading the entire time. But the harder he worked at it, the harder that worm clung to his pile of manure. There was no way he was going anywhere.

The above story is an adaptation of a Zen tale meant to communicate an important point: If someone

isn’t ready to change his or her destructive ways of thinking, acting, and behaving - if they are truly committed to the manure pile - even guarantees of a happy, blissful life will make no difference whatsoever.

And the more you dig in to “help” that person, to show them the error of their ways, to pull and tug on them so they will see how good life could be, the more tenacious their grip on the com-post will become. Simply, you can’t make someone change. It’s not within your power to do so.

In the Christian tradition, we have a similar story. It was told by Jesus and is known as “The Prodigal Son.” A young man took his fortune and ran away to a “far country” and promptly ex-hausted his enormous wealth. He ended up working a hog farm, living in a pig pen. Meanwhile, his loving father remained at home - waiting - and never chased the boy down, though he must have known the disaster that had overcome his son.

The father was wise enough to know that he couldn’t make the boy change. The prodigal had to “come to the end of himself,” to quote Jesus, and even a magnanimous, gracious father with all the help his son would ever require, could not do that for him. Attempting to intervene before the young man was finished with the pig pen, would have only resulted in frustrating failure for all parties.

I suspect we all have people in our lives that we want to “help.” Addicts.

Codependents. Emotional junkies.

Friends or family who go running over Fool’s Hill every chance they get. It’s hard to practice restraint with these we love, but there is no other choice, because we can’t change them, rescue them, or make them see the error of their ways.

We can only wait, hope, and pray that they, like the prodigal, will reach the end of their rope, admit that life has devolved into a manure pile, and then “turn their will and life over to a Power greater than themselves.” And when this happens, and not a second sooner, we can be there to help dig them out.

McBrayer is a syndicated columnist, pastor, and author/ronniemcbrayer.me.

RONNIE McBRAYER & MORE

CBCF to host Annual Prayer Breakfast WASHINGTON—Stellar award-winning gospel singer VaShawn Mitchell will perform and Rev. Dr. Otis Moss, III will deliver the keynote address at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Incorporated (CBCF) Annual Prayer Breakfast, Saturday, Sept. 19, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington D.C. The Miles College Choir will also perform.

The Prayer Breakfast, the penultimate, signature event of the 45th Annual Legislative Conference (ALC), draws roughly three thousand attendees each year.

Interactive One will livestream the event for the second year in a row on NewsOne.com.

“The Prayer Breakfast is unique in that it brings our conference

guests together in the spirit of worship,” said A. Shuanise Washington, president and chief executive officer of the CBCF. “The Breakfast provides an opportunity for thoughtful reflection and is welcomed respite from the very important work that occurs during the ALC. We are especially thankful for our title sponsor, The CocaCola Company, and the Radio One Family for their continued support of this uplifting event.”

VaShawn Mitchell is one of gospel music’s shining stars. His 2010 album, “Triumphant” rose to the top of the charts. “Billboard” magazine declared the album’s single, “Nobody Greater,” the most played gospel song of 2011, and named Mitchell the top Gospel Radio Artist of the same year.

Dr. Otis Moss, III is the senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, IL, and an accomplished author, speaker, and activist. He published his first book, “Redemption in a Red Light District,” in 1999. His sermons, articles, and poetry have appeared in various publications.

The Good News Package If you represent a church or a non-profit organization, you can take advantage of our special “Good News” advertising package. We understand that marketing can be a costly challenge and we want to make it easy for you to spread good news.

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Sept. 2, 2015 • 9

Black churches bucking the trend of decline ADELLE BANKS ALEXANDRIA, Va. (RNS) - At Alfred Street Baptist Church, the pews start to fill more than half an hour before the service begins.

White-uniformed ushers guide worshippers of all ages to their seats.

Some stand and wave their hands in the air as the large, robed choir begins to sing.

In September, after using a dozen wired overflow rooms, the church will start its fourth weekend service.

So many people attend, church leaders are now asking people to limit their attendance to one service.

“Pick your service,” said the Rev. Edward Y. Jackson, an assistant to the pastor, at the start of a recent service. “Come in, come early, get your parking space so we can all enjoy and worship God together.”

A recent Pew Research Center survey found that Christians are losing their share of the U.S. population, dropping to 71 percent in 2014, down from 78 percent in 2007, with young people leading the exodus. But historically black denominations have bucked that trend, holding on to a steady percent of members during that same period.

As significant, the share of millennial-generation AfricanAmericans who affiliate with historically black churches is similar to that of older churchgoers.

There are numerous reasons why some black churches retain their members, but, most prominently, the church has played a historic role in black life that has fostered a continuing strong black Protestant identity. Members and visitors at Alfred Street say the church’s holistic ministry — the preaching, the singing and the community outreach — are what draw them in and keep them there.

“I think black churches have always been very pivotal in social movements and outreach,” said Kelli Slater, 20, a Howard University student from Mississippi who was visiting Alfred Street at the invitation of her older sister. “I think black churches do a whole lot more than religion.”

L-R: Deacon Emeritus Richard Wair, 84, is a member of Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Va., where his family has attended for more than a century. Ozetta Boseman, reads the Scripture with her nephew, Richard Wair.

In late July, the church held its annual “Brother’s Keeper” outreach project, in which it gave 2,000 lowincome children backpacks and winter coats and provided health screenings for their families. In December, some members marched from the church to a local courthouse in support of the “Black Lives Matter” movement.

“In some cities, there are some congregations, often with younger pastors, either millennials or GenXers, who’ve been able to develop ministries that are able to attract in their cohort group,” said Daniels, a minister of the Church of God in Christ.

Alfred Street Baptist Church, an historic, predominantly black congregation in Alexandria, Va., advertised its “Brother’s Keeper” initiative, which aided 2,000 lowincome children and their families in July.

The Rev. Howard-John Wesley, 43, has been pastor since 2008 of Alfred Street, which is affiliated with the historically black Progressive National Baptist Convention and National Baptist Convention, USA. He introduced a monthly “Come As You Are” Wednesday night service for millennials as well as “Hour of Power” summer Sunday services.

In the last seven years, he said, his church membership has grown from 2,300 to 7,100, and 80 percent of the new members have been in their mid-30s and low 40s. Total attendance on recent weekends has

surpassed 3,000.

“We decided to be very concise with time,” said Wesley, who knows families need time for their kids’ sporting events and who watches a 60-minute clock placed strategically at the back of the sanctuary. “The No. 1 thing people ask when they’re invited to a church is ‘What time do you get out?’”

The Rev. Kip Banks, interim general secretary of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, said societal issues such as police brutality as well as efforts to be relevant to millennials — from livestreamed services to marriage and mentoring ministries — continue to draw African-Americans to black churches.

“The church has always spoken to these issues and the church is addressing these issues,” he said.

“The black church is the place that’s always affirmed African-American life.”

But Banks and others say black churches are not immune to some of the declines experienced by Christianity in general.

“There are some of our churches that are doing extraordinarily well in terms of captivating and being able to minister to young people,” said the Rev. Jerry Young, president of the National Baptist Convention, USA. “And then there are a number of our churches that also are suffering.”

Like the rest of the U.S. population, some African-Americans are disaffiliating. The Pew survey found that 18 percent of African-Americans

describe their religious affiliation as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular,” compared with 12 percent in 2007. The share of U.S. blacks who fit in the “nones” category rose at about the same rate as the general population, said Greg Smith, associate director of research at Pew. Recently, NFL running back Arian Foster revealed he does not believe in God, telling ESPN “faith isn’t enough for me.”

And in his new book, “Between the World and Me,” author TaNehisi Coates, a prominent black nonbeliever, writes to his son about how he has a markedly different perspective on the black church than his elders do.

“I thought of my own distance from an institution that has, so often, been the only support for our people,” he wrote. “I often wonder if in that distance I’ve missed something, some notions of cosmic hope, some wisdom beyond my mean physical perception of the world, something beyond the body, that I might have transmitted to you.”

But Richard Wair of Springdale, Md., the patriarch of a family that has attended Alfred Street for more than a century, remains hopeful that the next generation of African-Americans will continue the churchgoing tradition.

“As an older person, seeing young people coming in, I feel great, I feel encouraged,” said the 84-year-old deacon emeritus. “They have to take up where we left off.”

10 • Sept. 2, 2015

The LEGACY

Norfolk to host free Virginia Opera concert Underworld, La Bohème, Romeo and Juliet and The Flying Dutchman.

As always, Broadway favorites are included as an exciting addition to the concert. This season, Broadway selections showcase such well known musicals as West Side Story, Into the Woods and Showboat. Hosted by Virginia Opera’s own engaging opera comedian “Doc Opera,” Dr. Glenn Winters, Virginia Opera celebrates the opening of the 2015-2016 with this free, family concert.

“By being free and open to the public, Opera in the Park annually exposes thousands of Hampton Roads area families to some of opera’s and Broadway’s most beloved selections in a casual and welcoming atmosphere for people of all ages,” said Russell Allen, Virginia Opera’s president and CEO. “Opera in the Park also serves as an exciting launch of the new

opera season which opens this year in September with Orpheus in the Underworld – an hilarious spoof of the art form – with some of opera’s very famous music that includes the Can-Can – all never before seen on the Virginia Opera stage.”

Turner, the opera’s artistic advisor, conducts the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and features some of opera’s rising stars – including many participants of the Virginia Opera’s nationally recognized Herndon Foundation Emerging Artists Program. Audience members can look forward to Javier Abreu performing Ah! mes amis, the aria made famous for crowning Luciano Pavarotti as the “King of the High C’s;” showcasing both his opera and Broadway muscle, Troy Cook, international sensation and former Virginia Opera Emerging Artist, now an exceptional Verdi baritone, singing a famous aria never before heard by Virginia Opera audiences from Don Carlo, as well as a piece from Showboat; and two leading ladies, Meredith Lustig and Margaret Gawrysiak singing the fabulous duet from West Side Story - A boy like that/I have a love.

The program also includes examples of Wagner orchestral music, the stormy and thrilling overture to The

Flying Dutchman and the exciting Prelude from Act 3 of his Lohengrin.

American composers showcased for the evening include Bernstein, Copland, Rodgers, Kern and Sondheim. Says Turner, "For me, these free concerts are a highlight of the season. Opera in the Park provides the opportunity to showcase opera's and Broadway's greatest hits performed by our spectacular singers alongside the Virginia Symphony. It's the perfect celebration of this music, shared with the entire Hampton Roads community, underneath the glorious backdrop of Mother Nature.

Raise a glass and do a little dance – Can-Can style!”

Attendees are encouraged to bring lawn chairs, picnic supplies, and coolers with non-alcoholic beverages.

Food and beverage will also be available for purchase at the concert.

Virginia Opera will also be hosting free drawings for a large selection of prizes, including tickets to Virginia Opera performances and other local arts venues, and restaurant gift certificates. Special ticket pricing valid only that day will be available at the event for those who wish to purchase opera tickets on the spot!

Parking for Opera in the Park is available within walking distance to the concert.

A T I O N’

S

N

The 7th Annual Opera in the Park is set for Saturday, Sept. 12 at Town Point Park in Norfolk. The free event begins at 7:30 p.m. and will feature accompaniment by the Virginia Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Adam Turner, the Virginia Opera principal conductor and artistic director.

This annual event, produced in conjunction with Norfolk Festevents, is programmed with all ages in mind, Opera in the Park features a casual, picnic-style atmosphere. Drawing a capacity crowd every season, audience members are encouraged to arrive early to secure the best seating.

This year’s Opera in the Park will include music from some of the most popular operas, such as Don Giovanni and The Tales of Hoffman, as well as highlights from all four of this season’s Virginia Opera productions, Orpheus in the

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The urban president? Obama speaks with a group of students.

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

Sept. 2, 2015 • 11

Designer lights up GM

Ask Alma

FREDDIE ALLEN

Friend is marrying the ‘wicked witch’

Dear Alma, This is a question about my best friend. He and I have been best friends forever and we are just that – friends. I’m a woman and he’s a man, but, never at anytime did we think it would be anything else. So I guess you could say it’s like we’re brother and sister.

We have been there through family issues, heartbreaks, lost jobs, college graduations, I mean everything. Whenever I have a new friend I’m dating, if it starts to get serious, this person has to meet my one and only best friend for approval and vice-versa.

About a year ago, he met and fell hard for a co-worker. Initially, she seemed to be OK. When we finally met, at the table she was courteous, very friendly and I was thinking, I like her.

But when we walked to the bathroom together, she became the wicked witch of the north. She did a complete turnaround and was mean to me and told me she knew that I wanted him, but to watch out because that wasn’t going to happen.

I tried to explain that we are just friends. She said she knew what we were and that he talks about me all the time and he has made it clear we were to remain the best of friends.

She told me she didn’t like me and she didn’t like our friendship but she would do whatever it takes to keep him happy. She walked out the bathroom and once at the table she became the really, sweet, friendly woman he thinks she is.

Now they are getting married and he wants me to be in the wedding.

He asked me to be his best woman and he also wants me to do things with her while they make all the plans.

Things did not get better with us over time and I still don’t like her at all. I was just going along with it because I love him and I tried to suck it up for the past year, but now that they are getting married, I just can’t do it.

My mother says I have to be there for him and not make it about me. I just can’t. How do I break it to him without losing my friend?

Friend Till The End There’s nothing like ordering a praline sauced bread pudding, a la mode and a diet soda. Two selections that have absolutely nothing to do with each other, but they sure do taste good together. You don’t mind

if I eat while we’re talking, do you?

Sometimes I eat when I’m sad, and your question sure did make me blue. I couldn’t help but think about the friendship that you and he shared, how special it is and how it’s about the end. I’m a firm believer that a man and a woman can be just friends, but not everyone will agree. Ask my friend, Richard.

I love him and he means the world to me, but he’s not my husband, he’s my dear friend. We don’t hide or sneak around to see each other when meeting for a meal. We knew each other before I married and we were able to continue our individual relationship, because my husband trusted what we shared. Partly, I’m sure is because my husband has Gail, one of his best and dear friends. When I met Gail, early on in our relationship, I thought she was awesome, too. What I also thought was, if they haven’t hooked up and made it work by now, it ain’t ever gonna happen. So I made my peace.

Men and women are smart enough to know when friendships are ready or capable to moving to the next level. That’s not the case for the two of you and it’s sad his new wife can’t or is choosing not to understand it.

I agree with your mom. You should suck it up and stand by your best friend. You don’t have to accompany ‘Glozilla’ on her whirlwind of wedding trudges, but you do have to show up and take your rightful place at the wedding. Once they’ve married, she may no longer see you as a threat and that should change things for the better.

It’s time for you to prepare yourself to move over. You need to make room for her in his full life.

Things don’t have to change but they should become different.

You have to adjust to the new rules of friendship, engagement and marriage. As he becomes one of your dearest friends, but no longer your only best friend, because he has a new best friend in the soulmate that he’s marrying. ***** Want advice? E-mail questions to alwaysaskalma@yahoo.com.Follow her on Facebook at “Ask Alma” and twitter @almaaskalma *****

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – If you’re driving down a highway, street or tunnel anywhere in North America and you see the shimmering new headlights on the latest Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC or Buick approaching you, there’s a good chance you’re seeing the work of Martin Davis, a young designer who works for General Motors.

Since 2012, Davis has led the exterior lighting and design studio for the automaker’s North American division, the team responsible for the exterior lighting for every brand under the General Motors’ umbrella.

Davis traces his love for design and innovation back to elementary school. He didn’t like Hot Wheels and the Lego sets that he owned weren’t intricate enough to hold his attention even at five years old. He found that he didn’t like any of the toys sold in the stores, so he started making his own.

The Detroit-area native started collecting empty cardboard boxes that were used for transporting fruits and vegetables from the grocery store, bring them home and just start cutting. He molded shapes with glue, tape and construction paper. There was a small closet in the entryway of his parents’ house, just big enough for a chair and his creations: interior designs for a car including a dashboard and center console. Then he invited all of his friends over to “test drive” the car. He rolled out a new model about once a month. His father, then an employee at Ford Motor Company’s stamping plant in Dearborn, Mich., shut down young Martin’s burgeoning auto operation fearing that letting the neighborhood kids play with cardboard in their closet presented a safety hazard.

That didn’t stop him from sharing his talent for design with others, including his father’s employer.

“One day I decided to send my sketches into Ford. I was still in middle school. I found an address to Ford in some magazine and put a few of my drawings in an envelope and put it in the mail,” Davis explained.

“I didn’t tell my parents anything.”

Martin Davis holds a taillight.

A few months went by, and the young designer began to lose hope and figured that nothing would come of his letter. Then one day after school when he got home, his brother was waving a piece of paper at him. “’This guy from Ford called you here’s his number and he wants to call you back,’” Davis recalled his older brother saying. So Davis anxiously dialed the number and the Ford employee who answered, thanked him for his interests and told him that he sent the drawings over to the design department, and that someone would get in contact with him.

He received a follow-up letter from the design department with some career advice and a list of schools.

The list of schools included his eventual choice. Following the advice that he received from Ford, while still in middle school he set his mind to attending the College for Creative Studies (CCS) in downtown Detroit.

After he graduated from CCS, he applied to a number of companies. (continued on page 12)

12 • Sept., 2 2015

The LEGACY

(from page 11) At one point he believed that he would follow in his father’s footsteps at Ford, but despite earlier interest in the middle schooler’s work, he never got an offer from the company.

But he did get an offer from GM. “My time at GM has been amazing,” said Davis. “I couldn’t have imagined it being better.”

Davis admitted his first day on the job was nerve-racking, and it took him awhile to find his way around the mammoth General Motors complex.

“I remembered sitting at my desk that first day looking around at all designers thinking, ‘How am I going to compete with all of them?” said Davis. But the young designer did compete, gaining confidence with every completed sketch. Davis’ work began to catch eyes of the design managers and they started selecting his sketches among dozens plastered on the 20-foot wall in his studio at GM. “The early days were a lot of fun,” said Davis. “There was a freeness.

I remember doing sketches for the 2004 Oldsmobile show car, the last show car they did.”

One of his sketches was selected as the theme sketch for the car. That Oldsmobile show car would be built at the world-famous, now defunct Gruppo Bertone design house in Italy.

Even though Davis wasn’t selected to join GM designers in Italy, he didn’t sit on the sidelines for long.

A few months later, as the end of his first year with GM approached, the auto company gave him the opportunity to travel to Birmingham, England to work at an advanced design studio that primarily focused on Cadillacs. There he worked on the Cadillac Cien, a two-seater, midengine concept car. The assignment, originally scheduled for two months stretched into two years.

“It was a really great experience to work on such a high-profile concept car,” said Davis.

After the two-year stint in Birmingham, the Detroit area native worked on a number of production programs, including the GMC Acadia and the auto company’s Cadillac group in China.

When Davis returned to the United States, company executives were

Martin Davis — a bright spot for GM. having ongoing discussions about General Motors’ exterior lighting designs compared to some of their competitors. Davis said that as the conversations were happening about the direction of the new project wholly-focused on exterior lighting, he jumped at the opportunity and volunteered to do it.

“It was almost like a huge experiment,” said Davis. “We never had a dedicated, exterior lighting design studio, but we wanted better lights, so we said, “Let’s see how this work.’”

Davis and his team took on the exterior lighting responsibilities for three well-known “programs”: the GMC Acadia Chevy Traverse and the Buick Enclave. Management immediately recognized the how valuable having dedicated focus on lighting could be.

“Not long after that they made it an official studio and made me the first manager of that studio in 2012,” said Davis. “That was really cool.”

Davis said that he still loves to draw, but in his current position he’s more like the conductor of an orchestra than an individual musician.

“I don’t have an instrument. My

team has all of the instruments they need and I have to remember that,” said Davis. “Now my job is to make sure that my team knows where each brand is going and understands how to use technology to create a design that is appropriately styled to the character of each vehicle.”

At first some designers of General Motors other brands were apprehensive about giving up that much control of a central element in the cars overall style, now Davis said all of them want his team’s designs.

Ed Welburn, General Motors’ vice president of Global Design, praised Davis and his team for their creativity.

“Martin is doing a phenomenal job,” said Welburn. “Lighting on that [Cadillac CTS] is so striking.

It wasn’t too many years ago that every headlight was either round or rectangular. Now lighting is so much a character of the car. It really is the eyes of the vehicle. Our organization is really dependent on Martin.”

Davis said educators, parents and support groups first have to raise awareness among students of color about opportunities in

science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers and then help them to understand that they can also excel in those professions.

The GM design manager mentors children in the Detroit metro area and recommended that all students get focused at a young age and seek educational and career development programs that can assist them with achieving their goals. Davis added that his presence in the automotive design field shows students, especially students who look like him, that they can also be successful in that field.

“I think that goes a long way,” he said. And Davis has come a long way, too. “It almost feels like a dream that I have this responsibility,” said Davis. “You think of [General Motors’] history, this 100-yearold company that’s been making cars forever and now there’s this opportunity to shift focus to another part of the vehicle, a part of the vehicle’s face, the face of each brand.

It’s a humbling experience. I really do appreciate the privilege and the opportunity to fulfill this role.”

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

Sept. 2, 2015 • 13

(from page 2) and arrests — all of it culminating in a 2008 lead-paint lawsuit and a windfall of cash locked inside a structured settlement. By late 2013, Gray was striking deals with Access Funding.

People like Gray who have suffered lead-poisoning as children are especially vulnerable to predatory transactions. Many are impulsive and mentally disabled , but not so much that the law regards them as incapable of acting on their own behalf, as long as they’re 18.

“A lot of them can barely read,” said Saul E. Kerpelman, who estimates he has defended more than 4,000 victims of lead poisoning, nearly all of them black. “They have limited capacity. But they fall through a crack. If they were severely disabled enough, you could file a court petition to have a trustee manage their property. But they’re not disabled enough.”

Over the past two decades, state legislatures and the U.S. Congress have passed measures to protect vulnerable people selling structured settlements. In 2000, Maryland inked the Structured Settlement Protection Act, which enumerated a series of requirements. First, a seller must seek the counsel of an independent professional adviser.

Then the proposed deal must go before a county judge, who decides whether that agreement reflects the seller’s best interests.

But today, critics say, that measure is failing. “There are weaknesses and ways people can circumvent it,” said Eric Vaughn, executive director of the National Structured Settlement Trade Association, which represents companies and lawyers working in the industry. “And these companies are getting around the intents of the law. . . . And when that happens, people get hammered.”

A review of thousands of pages of court records and interviews with industry insiders and eight victims of lead poisoning have revealed these loopholes in Baltimore.

Access Funding, located in Chevy Chase, isn’t the biggest player in the industry. But the company’s court documents nonetheless illuminate the mechanics of this trade, as well as how little scrutiny it receives. The firm has filed nearly 200 structured settlement purchases in Maryland since 2013. A review of two-thirds of those cases, which primarily funnel through one judge’s courtroom in Prince George’s County Circuit Court, shows nearly three-fourths involved victims of lead poisoning.

Every case spells out the deal’s worth. It lists the aggregate value

Family photos of Freddie Gray and his siblings from a court filing for a lawsuit against a former landlord. of the lead victim’s payments, their present value and the agreed purchase price. A random survey of 52 of those deals shows Access Funding generally offers to pay around 33 cents on the present value of a dollar. Sometimes, it offers more.

And sometimes, much less. One 24-year-old lead victim sold nearly $327,000 worth of payments, which had a present value of $179,000, for less than $16,200 — or about 9 cents on the dollar. Another relinquished $256,000 worth of payments, which had a present value of $166,000, for $35,000 — or about 21 cents on the dollar.

Taken together, the sample shows Access Funding petitioned to buy roughly $6.9 million worth of future payments — which had a present value of $5.3 million — for around $1.7 million.

Presented with these findings, Borkowski said Access Funding doesn’t target lead victims and that Baltimore’s glut of lead-paint lawsuits has artificially inflated that aspect of its business. He said interested investors set the purchase prices, which are lower than the payments’ face value because various factors — such as a life-contingency clause that stops payments if the holder dies — diminish their present worth. Payments deep in the future also have decreased value.

“When you get all the way until 2052, that’s pretty far out there,” he said, adding that his company, which does 80 percent of its work outside Maryland, survives only by offering better deals than other firms.

Still, Borkowski urged stricter legislation and more oversight.

“These questions you raise touch on

fundamental things we are going to be doing differently now,” he said.

“We want to secure ourselves in the future from any potential questions like this again, so we can say, ‘No, that’s not us.’ ” ‘They sucker you in’ The court proceeding that would alter the futures of Freddie Gray and his siblings took place an hour south from their home in Baltimore, in the town of Upper Marlboro. At stake were hundreds of thousands of dollars, but none of the Grays attended the hearing.

The issue — and the company — were familiar to presiding judge Herman C. Dawson. Access Funding has petitioned his court more than 160 times since 2013 to purchase structured settlement payments.

Dawson has approved those requests 90 percent of the time.

Freddie Gray, awarded a structured settlement as a result of his leadpaint lawsuit, now wanted the same.

“Being debt free will be a great help,” said an affidavit Gray signed. “It will take a lot of stress off of me and will help improve my credit rating so that I can make larger purchases in the future.”

Gray had agreed to sell $146,000 worth of his structured settlement, valued at $94,000, to Access Funding for around $18,300. His sisters wanted ­almost the same exact deal, which in all would relinquish $435,000 of the Gray siblings’ settlement — valued at around $280,000 — for about $54,000, or less than 20 cents on the dollar of its present-day value.

No one objected to the proposed deals. Dawson adjudicated the

petitions, along with two other deals involving victims of lead poisoning, within three minutes, according to a recording of the hearing. “The matter is closed,” Dawson said at hearing.

He declined to comment.

The Gray family, which signed six contracts with Access Funding, now burns with resentment. The kids were in a tough spot financially, stepfather Richard Shipley said.

Shipley said he tried to dissuade them from taking the deal but failed.

“They sucker you in. . . . They didn’t know they were giving up so much for so little,” he said. Now, he said, the lead checks have stopped, and Access Funding won’t return their calls.

Access Funding, Borkowski said, has a “good” relationship with the Grays. “In fact, we have had dialogue since Freddie’s passing in which we provided our condolences and sent flowers to the family,” Borkowski wrote in an e-mail.

The path that led the Gray siblings into these deals began decades ago, inside a series of poorlymaintained lead-painted tenements in the neighborhood of SandtownWinchester, court records show.

“They told us to move out of the house,” Shipley recalled one leadpaint inspector advising the family.

But where could they go? Every house they lived in between 1988 and 1996 had lead paint. Each of the siblings’ lead levels soared to at least 36 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood. This was considered high then, when the city annually produced thousands of lead-poisoned children.

It’s considered even higher now. (continued on page 15)

14 • Sept. 2, 2015

The LEGACY

Despite menu nannies, Americans still overweight

pay attention — even when it’s required to be on the menu.

And even if you are paying attention, most people don’t really understand what a calorie actually is. For the record, it’s equal to 4.1814 joules — or the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius.

Sara Bleich, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University, suggests that instead of numbers that people don’t

understand, menus should instead come with a listing of how much physical activity would be necessary to burn off that amount of food.

It’s a novel idea, perhaps one that can be made mandatory in the next package of health care regulations that pass through Congress.

In the meantime, the existing menu-labeling rule is more than 500 pages long and requires a team of lawyers to understand. As Cato points out, the rules are anything but simple and straightforward — no surprise to anyone who knows anything about the ACA, of course — and are full of exceptions.

Daily specials aren’t required to list calorie totals, unless they recur on a weekly or monthly basis. A madeto-order sandwich doesn’t have to be labeled (although all the potential ingredients do), while a premade sandwich does.

The new requirement has cost businesses as much as $1.5 billion, according to the Obama administration. The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, believes the actual cost is significantly higher.

On a per-business level, Cato says the labeling mandate costs between $49,000 and $77,000, according to HHS. But since the average food service employee costs his or her

employer about $22,000 annually, those fancy calorie-labeled menus have set every food service business in America back by two to three employees while not doing a thing to increase productivity or profit.

What have consumers gotten for all that expense? Not a whole lot.

Americans are still fat, and getting fatter.

In fact, nearly half of all consumers don’t even recall seeing the calorie information that is posted on those glossy menus in fast food joints, according to a recent study by Arizona State University. Only 16 percent of people in the study said they registered the information and used it when making their selections.

We’re willing to concede that putting calorie information on menus is a good idea — perhaps even an idea that businesses should voluntarily embrace in order to better inform their customers. Certainly some businesses would gain a market advantage by providing that information to caloric-conscious consumers.

But in the world of the nanny staters, everything good is mandatory and all bad ideas are banned — no matter the costs of benefits involved.

support of Million Hearts, an HHS initiative aimed at preventing 1 million heart attacks and strokes by 2017.

“Many heart attacks and strokes -- and needless early deaths -can be prevented if we get better control of high blood pressure,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “We applaud the many medical practices which have made hypertension control a daily priority with all of their patients.

We look forward to recognizing their achievements and learning from top performing practices.”

Nearly one in three U.S. adults – or about 70 million people – has high blood pressure. Of that group, only about half has it under control.

High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke, two of the leading causes

of death nationwide. In 2013, high blood pressure was a primary or contributing cause of death for more than 360,000 Americans – that is nearly 1,000 deaths each day.

Blood pressure management, a key strategy to prevent cardiovascular disease, is strongly emphasized by Million Hearts. Since 2012, Million Hearts has recognized 41 Champions that care for 12 million patients from small and large, urban and rural, and private, federal, and tribal health practices and systems. Past winners have used a variety of evidence-based strategies including hypertension treatment protocols, self-measured blood pressure monitoring, health information technology, and teambased care.

“A growing number of public and private practices and systems are using evidence-based strategies to

detect, connect and control high blood pressure,” said Janet S. Wright, M.D., F.A.C.C., executive director of Million Hearts. “This challenge is a way to find and celebrate these high performers and help others replicate their success. By excelling in hypertension control, Champions are helping prevent events and improving heart health in the country.”

To enter the challenge, applicants must provide information about their practice, share verifiable high blood pressure control data, and describe how use of health information technology contributed to their success. Examples could include electronic health records, incentives for providers and patients, team-based care, and community involvement. The deadline to submit a nomination is before midnight on Oct. 31.

ERIC BOEHM Perspective American businesses have been required to spend billions of dollars over the past few years to comply with federal regulations requiring calorie information on all menus.

Despite all that effort, Americans are still getting fatter.

California, in 2008, became the first state to pass mandatory menu labeling laws. Like many nanny state ideas that begin on our left coast, other states began to follow the example. In 2010, as part of the Affordable Care Act, Congress made calorie labeling mandatory for all chain restaurants with at least 20 locations, though businesses were given until 2014 to comply with the new mandate.

Health advocates and others who pushed for that provision’s inclusion in the ACA said it would help Americans to better understand what they are eating and why we keep getting fatter.

But what if most Americans don’t care?

As FiveThirtyEight pointed out more than a year ago, people who do pay attention to calorie information tend to eat fewer calories.

The problem is, most people don’t

Million Hearts launches annual blood pressure control challenge The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently launched an annual challenge designed to identify and honor clinicians and health care teams that have helped their patients control high blood pressure and prevent heart attacks and strokes.

The Million Hearts Hypertension Control Challenge recognizes exemplary public and private practices and providers that achieve sustained hypertension control rates of 70 percent or above. The challenge was developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in

Have you had your 4,000 calories today? Most people don’t really understand what a calorie actually is. For the record, it’s equal to 4.1814 joules – or the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius.

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

(from page 13) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today describes any level above 5 micrograms as “elevated,” and on Tuesday federal authorities pledged $3.7 million to eliminate what remains of Baltimore’s lead paint problem.

The study of lead’s effects on the body remains an evolving science.

Used as an artificial sweetener in ancient Rome, lead later became a cheap manufacturing additive. But lead never lost its sweetness — a poison candy irresistible to children.

Scientists once assumed the body could withstand a fair amount of lead, which government authorities banned in residential paint in 1978.

But researchers now say any trace of lead, which children absorb by eating paint chips and breathing paint dust, can cripple cognitive development.

The Grays eventually exhibited “neurocognitive deficits,” records Rose was supposed to be set up for life after she won a lead lawsuit say. Psychologists also discovered those same “deficits” in Rose and her against her former landlord and was awarded a large settlement, but siblings. Her blood lead level reached now has little to show for it. PHOTO: Amanda Voisard 31 and inflicted “permanent and An insider’s view appear in court, as Illinois’ law does. severe brain damage,” according to He likes risks. He’s partial to court papers, severing her capacity to It also doesn’t make purchasing large, shiny watches. He has played companies file their petitions in the “enjoy a normal life.” seller’s county of residence, as in New so much poker, peering over cards, So the Grays — as Rose did, as shuffling chips, that he’s developed York, Oregon and other states. thousands of other families did carpal tunnel syndrome in his right Critics say such conditions can — sued their landlord, settling in arm and now wears a large, black give rise to something called “forum 2010. The Grays then decided on a brace. He drives a late-model blue shopping,” in which purchasing course that six separate lead-paint Audi, which he says has made him companies seek out less-scrutinous lawyers say they often counsel judges. Those firms “find the squeaky nervous when driving through clients to take. The Grays structured certain Baltimore neighborhoods at wheels, where things aren’t as their settlements, an arrangement night to meet a lead-paint victim. enforced as much ... and the judge recommended by insurance “I never roll up on someone without simply looks at the affidavit,” said companies, disability advocates, even calling first,” he said.

John Darer, who operates a blog Congress.

Blumenfeld, who has worked monitoring the industry.

“I try to convince my clients that hundreds of settlement transfer Petitions involving Maryland’s taking a structured settlement might contracts, said he never intended to lead victims cluster in Montgomery, be in their best interest,” Kerpelman Howard and Prince George’s counties get into this sort of work. He grew up said. “They have no experience in Rockville, got his undergraduate — anywhere but Baltimore City, the managing money, are brain degree in Madison, Wis., then jurisdiction where most of those lead compromised, and history shows entered the University of Baltimore victims live.

Access Funding says it they’ll likely run through a large cash has overwhelmingly filed in Prince School of Law. While there, he says settlement in a short time.”

But poverty is expensive. Disability George’s County because that’s where he met other law students who went on to form the legal foundation for is expensive. Debt mounts. Forfeiting their attorney’s office is located.

Maryland’s court system also some of the area’s biggest structured future payments for immediate cash makes it easy to find the right settlement purchasing firms. can seem like a painful necessity. clientele. Its case search puts Many settled in one place, he That’s how 42-year-old Tarsha lead-paint lawsuits into their own said. “Around Bethesda, there’s Simms recently reconciled her category, meaning a few keystrokes a whole concentration of these decision to sell a portion of her can call forth thousands of names. structured settlement companies, daughter’s settlement to Access but no [settlement recipients] are Funding. “I do regret it,” Simms said. This unique confluence of factors constitutes the “perfect storm of bad in Bethesda. Zero. None. Like, I’ve “But if it wasn’t for this deal, we stuff,” said Earl Nesbitt, executive never heard of one in Bethesda,” would be on the street right now.” director of the National Association Blumenfeld said. “But they’re To balance clients’ vulnerabilities of Settlement Purchasers. not doing business with anyone with purchasing companies’ desire But it isn’t bad for everyone. For in Bethesda. No one even in for profit, most state legislatures the savvy operative, someone willing Montgomery County. It’s all about called upon county judges to decide to travel deep into Baltimore’s Baltimore.” the cases. But Maryland’s law, poorest neighborhoods, this can be a Blumenfeld’s first role in the according to longtime structured lucrative trade. industry came in 2005, notarizing settlement expert Craig Ulman, And for a time, it was for Scott contracts for a Bethesda settlement is “substantially weaker” than in Blumenfeld. purchasing company. Over the next most states. For example, it doesn’t five years, he rapped on doors in require that settlement recipients

Sept. 2, 2015 • 15 Baltimore’s toughest blocks to secure hundreds of signatures.

In 2010, Blumenfeld became an independent professional adviser, and started counselling sellers before their deals went to court. Maryland legislation holds that such a person — who can neither be paid by nor affiliated with a purchasing firm — must “render advice concerning the [deal’s] legal, tax and financial implications.” The sellers are supposed to pay their adviser.

Sounds complicated. It wasn’t, Blumenfeld said. “I was doing most of them on the phone,” Blumenfeld said. He asked if they understood the “legal, tax and financial implications” of the deal. “It would take less than a minute. I didn’t go over the terms of the contract. That wasn’t my function. I don’t think any of the other lawyers do that, or else they would never get any repeat business.”

Charles E. Smith is another lawyer who does this work. A review of 52 Access Funding deals revealed that Smith worked as the independent adviser on every one. . Smith entered the same letter in every case stating the lead victim understood the deal’s “legal, tax and financial implications” and that he was not “affiliated” with ­Access Funding. Borkowski said his company has no contractual or business relationship with Smith, declining to answer additional questions.

Smith said such transactions “represent an extremely small percentage of my practice. I have no business partnerships with any company in the structured settlement purchasing industry. . . . In all instances, I am directly contacted by the [settlement recipient.] . . . I’m not exactly sure how [they] come to me. . . . My independence is in no way compromised or at risk.”

Critics condemned the practice of an independent adviser working deal after deal for the same company. “It’s a total conflict of interest,” lawyer Kerpelman said. “He’s doing business for them and with them all the time.

Imagine if he ever said, ‘No, she can’t read. She can’t understand what she’s signing.’ ” That partnership, he said, would evaporate.

But Blumenfeld said perceived conflicts of interest weren’t the only matters that discomforted him.

“A 10-year-old does not have the mental ability to sell these payments, but you see this person is 20, but he has the mental brain capacity of a 10-year-old. . . . So does this annuitant have the ability to sell these payments?”

So Blumenfeld said he adopted (continued on page 17)

16 • Sept. 2, 2015

Calendar 9.8, 10:30 a.m.

The Senior Center of Greater Richmond and the American Diabetes Association are teaming up for a series on Diabetes Control and Prevention. Open to the community by reservation, this program will focus on activity with "How to Limit the DAMAGE that Diabetes Can Do". This is part 1 of a two part class on some of the significant damage that diabetes can inflict on us, if we are not careful. Meet at Battery Park Christian Church in the Fellowship Hall at 4201 Brook Road. Reservations include a light lunch. Contact the Senior Center to register in advance at 804-353-3171 or SeniorCenterRVA@ gmail.com or register on line: seniorcenterofgreaterrichmond. org.

9.9, 3:30 p.m.

If you are considering the possibility of starting a business, attend the Crater SBDC of Longwood University’s free seminar on entrepreneurship at Petersburg Library, 201 West Washington St. The seminar will provide information that may help your business be among the 20 percent that survive and thrive.

Prepare to start a successful business by evaluating your entrepreneurial abilities, marketing strategies, financial resources, and receive tips to prepare and present your business plan.

Registration required at www.sbdclongwood.com or call 804-518-2003.

9.10, 3 p.m.

The public is invited to attend the upcoming meeting of the John Tyler Community College Board on Thursday, Sept. 10, at 3 p.m.

The meeting will take place at the College’s Chester Campus, 13101 Jefferson Davis Highway, in the Nicholas Center, room N102a. A sign-up sheet will be made available 30 minutes prior to the beginning of the meeting for those persons interested in addressing the board.

The LEGACY

COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES & EVENTS

NAMI education program NAMI of Central Virginia will sponsor a Free Family-to-Family Education Program specifically for families of persons diagnosed with serious mental illness. The 12-week series of Richmond classes takes place on Monday of each week starting on Sept. 14, from 6 - 8:30 p.m., at First Presbyterian Church at 4602 Cary Street Rd, Richmond.

The course will cover information about schizophrenia, the mood disorders (bipolar disorder and major depression), panic disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder; coping skills such as handling crisis and relapse; basic information about medications; listening and communication techniques; problem-solving skills; recovery and rehabilitation; and self-care around worry and stress. The curriculum has been written by an experienced family member mental health professional and the course will be taught by NAMI family member volunteers who have taken intensive training as course instructors. The co-teachers will be Mike and Pat Francisco.

The free course is designed specifically for parents, siblings, spouses, teenage and adult children and significant others of persons with severe and persistent mental illness. The course is not appropriate for individuals who themselves suffer from one of the major mental illnesses. NAMI-CVA offers a separate course, Peer-to-Peer education, for individuals who suffer from one of the major mental illnesses.

For more information or to register, call Jeff Conley at 804-285-1749 or email jeff.conley@namicentralvirginia.org.

National Megan’s Law Helpline & Sex Offender Registration Tips Program Call (888) ASK-PFML (275-7365) Are you in a suicide crisis?

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

1-800-273-8255

Submit your calendar events to calendar@legacynewspaper.com. Include contact infomation that can be published.

9.10, 9 a.m.

The Newport News Department of Human Services, City of Newport News, and the Eastern Area Committee to Strengthen Families are partnering to present the 5th Annual Community Partners’ Day on Thursday, Sept. 10.

Open to both professionals and community members, the theme is Sharing Best Practices Across Systems to Ensure the Preservations of Families and Communities, and will be held from 9 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. at the Marriott at City Center, 740 Town Center Drive, Newport News.

This event will provide a day of networking, resource and information sharing, skill building and community partnerships. The focus is on human sex trafficking, family preservation and kinship care.

Workshop topics include: Human Sex Trafficking: A Local and Global Issue; Beyond Sex Trafficking: What Can We Do?; A Survivor’s Story of Sex Trafficking; AntiBullying; Your Child’s Brain: Embracing Science in Treating Trauma, and more presented by national, state, regional and local experts. Call 757-552-1151 for more information.

9.12, 11 a.m.

The 11th annual RVA Peace Festival will be held at 4101 Grove Ave., Richmond.

The festival features entertainment, arts and crafts, food and a variety of exhibits -- each underscoring the multi-cultural, interfaith themes that have become a part of the Richmond region’s fastdiversifying citizenry.

Pam Karthik is festival vendor and volunteer coordinator and can be reached at 804-551-1615.

The festival’s organizing sponsors are: the Interfaith Council of Greater Richmond, Richmond Peace Education Center, and the Center for Interfaith Reconciliation at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church.

Sept. 2, 2015 • 17

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

(from page 15) a third and final role, this time as something of a broker. He shopped around clients between several purchasing companies, he said, to secure better deals. One client was lead victim Kevin Owens, who wanted to sell hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of payments. He committed to ­Access Funding but backed out after Blumenfeld spoke with him. In a lawsuit dismissed in March, Access Funding accused Blumenfeld of interference with business practices and unjust enrichment.

Around that same time, the Maryland Attorney Grievance Commission accused Blumenfeld of employing a paralegal with a “substantial criminal history” whom an elderly client named as power of attorney. The board also alleged that Blumenfeld “failed to properly maintain trust account records” and client ledgers. It suspended him in July last year for at least six months for improper supervision and record maintenance.

Those legal issues have stalled Blumenfeld’s work in the structured settlement industry, he said. But even now, he said he still wonders at opportunities missed. One person, especially, still crosses his thoughts.

He tried to get in touch with him. He sent him letters.

But Blumenfeld never did connect with Vincent Maurice Jones Jr. ‘They gave me pennies’ Sunlight spilled across the silent street in West Baltimore. But inside one of its few occupied homes, everything was dark. Black curtains hung across the windows. The living room was strewn with pawn slips and a pamphlet advising what to do upon sustaining a gunshot wound. And anchoring its mantel was a cookie tin emblazoned with the words “Access Funding.”

Vincent Maurice Jones Jr., who didn’t graduate high school, was playing video games upstairs in his bedroom. He quickly tired of questions.

What happened with Access Funding? “You feeling me, they got all that money, and I didn’t even get a lot.” How much money was in his settlement? “What settlement?”

Jones, 25, came of age in a house on Mosher Street, which today stands abandoned and boarded up. Lead paint so infested its interior that only a few walls were free of it, according to records filed in a lead-paint lawsuit Jones settled in 2008. “Just a lead pit,” was what one Baltimore pediatrician called it in a deposition.

When Jones was 2 years old, his

Attorney Scott Blumenfeld is photographed in Pikesville, Md. PHOTO: Marvin Joseph blood carried 16 micrograms — triple the level considered elevated — before shooting to 28. Then it dropped to 16 before rising to 22.

Even at age 8, lead still coursed at high levels in his bloodstream. Soon, he was repeating grades, failing classes.

One psychologist, court records show, doubted his employability, citing his “severe learning difficulties.” He put his lifetime economic loss at more than $1.5 million. Another medical professional couldn’t determine whether Jones, who repeated several grades, was “severely disabled” or just “generally disabled.”

“His mother essentially handles his medical regimen, takes him to doctors and makes sure he gets his medications,” pediatrician Michael A. Conte said in a deposition. “She, obviously, takes care of all the financial matters. And she transports him, or his girlfriend transports him, when he needs to travel to places that involves more than just walking down the street.”

But an affidavit written by ­Access Funding and signed by Jones in 2013 said Jones wanted to sell $90,000 of his settlement for $26,000 to “purchase a vehicle.” The money, the affidavit said, would also be used to “look for work and also need furniture, clothes, school supplies for my young daughter.”

But Jones has a son, not a daughter. And Jones has never had a driver’s license. Within months of buying a Ford sedan, Jones collected four tickets for operating a vehicle without a license. That car today bakes in the sun, unused.

Months later, Jones struck another deal with Access Funding. This time, he signed two contracts. One relinquished $327,000 worth of future payments, with a present value of $179,000, for $16,000 in return. Another deal, later dismissed, offered $34,000 for a stream of

payments that totaled $336,000 and had a present value of $195,000.

In all, Jones seemed willing to sell $663,000 of his settlement for $50,000.

The official reason stated in the two spring 2014 affidavits was puzzling.

Jones, who had just bought the house he and his mother share, hadn’t needed to pay rent for months. But he signed an affidavit compiled by Access Funding saying he intended “to purchase [a] down payment on a house. Because I am currently unemployed, renting is expensive and detracts from my ability to provide suitable housing for myself and my dependent.” The other affidavit said: “Renting is an expense I no longer wish to incur.”

Burkowski, Access Funding’s chief executive, said he could only speculate as to what happened. “We take what is told to us,” he said.

“These are people, respectable people who have honest needs. If they say they need a house, it’s not Access Funding’s position to challenge what that client is representing to us.

We’re trying to help these people.”

It’s help that Jones said he could have done without. “The whole thing’s a scam,” said Jones, claiming Access Funding made up why he needed the money. “All that money I got is gone. They gave me pennies.”

So Jones has decided to fight. He’s working with an attorney who’s considering litigation against Access Funding. And he’s not the only one.

Tears, then litigation “There it is,” Rose said, pointing at a large structure looming just blocks from where the CVS burned during the Freddie Gray protests. This is where her lead-painted, childhood house once stood. “They knocked it down,” Rose said. “It’s gone now.”

It was a Saturday afternoon, and West Baltimore was alive with funeral processions. The city had just undergone its bloodiest month in four decades — 43 shot dead — and Rose pulled out her phone to show a grisly image of a dead black man making the rounds on Facebook. “He got killed over nothing,” she said.

Rose said she hates it here. She doesn’t want to stay long. The funeral processions remind her of everything she was happy to leave behind when her family bought a large home just outside Baltimore with settlement money. The move brought her within a few miles of Heritage High School, where she secured the diploma she now calls her greatest achievement.

That accomplishment, Rose said, now feels far away. One afternoon, she suddenly began to cry. She often tells people she’s “not dumb.”

She just needs a little extra time to

understand things. But right now, saddled by the weight of decisions made and contracts signed, she felt less sure of that conviction.

Believing she still had money, Rose in March again tried to sell some settlement payments. But the petition, filed in April, was later dismissed when it emerged that all her money was gone. It was around that time that she also stitched together what had happened with Access Funding. In May, she called lawyers to see whether anything could be done.

In early June, Rose sued Smith, the attorney who had worked as Rose’s independent adviser in the Access Funding deal. Smith “has signed at least 40 identical or substantially similar letters under similar circumstances in other petitions where Access Funding was seeking a transfer of a structured settlement,” states the lawsuit, filed in Baltimore City Circuit Court. The lawsuit, filed by attorneys Raymond Marshall and Brian Brown, accuses Smith of legal malpractice and intentional misrepresentation.

It says Smith failed to disclose his ongoing relationship with A ­ ccess Funding to Rose and neither met her in person nor inquired about her intellectual capabilities. “No reasonable attorney acting on behalf of Rose would have recommended the proposed transaction,” it says.

Smith argued in court papers that Rose’s lawsuit is “fundamentally inconsistent” with her earlier position and warrants dismissal. Rose, he said, signed a contract stating her desire to sell the payments. She signed an affidavit saying she’d spoken to an independent adviser.

“A party who signs a contract is presumed to have read and understood its terms,” the response stated. “...This general rule applies even where the individual signing the document is ‘functionally illiterate.’ ” Rose now works for a local home care service, providing companionship to an elderly woman, she said. In between shifts and helping her brother with his kids, she says she tries not to think about what has happened to her settlement. Still, she said she feels hunted, “like a target or something.”

Settlement purchasing companies, she said, pester her with phone calls and letters. Just the other day, Rose said she opened the mailbox and there was a letter from Access Funding. It promised her fast money.

All Rose had to do was pick up the phone and call. © WaPo

18 • Sept. 2, 2015

Classifieds

CONTRACT SALES REP

We are looking for a contract sales representative to help us maximize our revenue potential by selling ad space through a multi-platform advertising program that includes newspaper, special editions and online advertising.

The ideal candidate is knowledgeable in newspaper sales, but your motivation and drive to learn are more desirable qualities.

We pay a small weekly stipend with the bulk of your earnings coming from commission paid on closed sales. You must have reliable transportation.

Your responsibilities will include developing and executing sales strategies while meeting and exceeding monthly goals. You must be professional, motivated, well spoken, willing to learn, and organized.

Please submit your resume, cover letter, references, and contact information to ads@legacyewspaper.com. No phone calls please.

Did you know...

Nearly 7 out of 10 adults have read a newspaper in the past week – that’s 147 million Americans!

Readers are highly engaged with newspapers in print, online, smartphones and tablets because they value the news, advertising and local feature coverage.

79% of newspaper users took action on a newspaper ad in the past month.

The LEGACY

EMPLOYMENT, ANNOUNCEMENTS, FOR SALE, SERVICES, FOR LET

AUCTIONS REAL ESTATE ABSOLUTE AUCTION. Craig County, VA. September 19. Desirable 30+/- ac. recreational property in 6 tracts ranging in size from 1.3+/- to 8.5+/-acres. Two wooded parcels are bordered by the Jefferson National Forest & four tracts have long frontage on Craig Creek. Two parcels have hayfields and offer mountain views. Improvements include four rustic cabins with electrical service. Only 12.5 mi. from I-81, Exit 141 (Salem).

Contact Jonna McGraw (VA# 2434), Woltz & Associates, Inc., (VA#321), 800-551-3588 or visit woltz.com.

BIG AUCTION- Catering equipment and Antiques.

5-Tractor Trailer Loads! Sept 12, 9:00am. Gray Auction Yard 14089 Robinson Rd. Stony Creek VA 23882. www.graycoservices.com.

804-943-3506 Gray Auctions Co. VA#1104 FORECLOSURE SALE 18,747± SF Cold Storage Facility, 5.86±AC. 777 Industrial Park Rd., Mt. Jackson, VA. ON-SITE SALE: 9/29 @10AM. Vehicles, Equipment, Tools. Online Only Auction: BID 9/23–10/1. www. motleys.com • 1-877-MOTLEYS VA16 EHO ATTENTION AUCTIONEERS: Advertise your upcoming auctions in Virginia Newspapers for one low cost of $300. Your 25 word classified ad reaches OVER ONE MILLION Virginians! Call this paper or Adriane Long at 804-5217585 (Virginia Press Services.

EDUCATION MEDICAL BILLING TRAINEES NEEDED! Train to become a Medical Office Assistant! NO EXPERIENCE NEEDED! Training & Job Placement available at CTI! HS Diploma/GED & Computer needed. 1-888-424-9419.

EDUCATION / HELP WANTED Vacancy: Special Education General Curriculum Teacher. To apply for position visit our website at www.pecps.k12.va.us and complete the online application.

Prince Edward County Public Schools, Farmville, Virginia 23901 – 434-315-2100 ext. 3533) EOE EQUIPMENT FOR SALE Machine Shop Liquidation Sale.

Lathes, Mills, Grinders, Welders And Much More!!!

20 Hedge Lane, Afton, Virginia 22920. September 18th-20th. www.dempseyandco.com Call 804.355.1619 for Details

HELP WANTED Join Our Team! Chesterfield County Public Schools Food and Nutrition Services Employment Opportunities 804-743-3717 x157. We are currently accepting applications for: Substitute Food Service Associates.

Apply via the CCPS website at http://mychesterfieldschools. com. Complete job description and application procedures are available on the website.

EOE/M/F/D HELP WANTED – DRIVERS CDL TRAINING FOR LOCAL/ OTR DRIVERS! $40,000-$50,000 1ST Year! 4-wks or 10 Weekends for CDL. Veterans in Demand!

Richmond/Fredericksburg 800243-1600; Lynchburg/Roanoke 800-614-6500; LFCC/Winchester 800-454-1400.

NEED CDL DRIVERS???

ADVERTISE YOUR TRUCK DRIVER JOBS in Virginia Newspapers for one low cost of $300. Your 25 word classified ad reaches OVER ONE MILLION Virginians! Call this paper or Adriane Long at 804-521-7585 (Virginia Press Services.)

MISCELLANEOUS AVIATION Grads work with JetBlue, Boeing, NASA and others – start here with hands on training for FAA certification. Financial aid if qualified. Call Aviation Institute of Maintenance 888-245-9553.

REAL ESTATE AUCTION AUCTION - VP Dan Quayle’s Residence. WEDNESDAY 9/16 6p.m., Mclean, Virginia. 1.84-acres, 5-Bedroom, 4 ½-Bath, 4,500 sqft, 1013 Union Church Road, McLean 22102. www.

PrimeAuctionSolutions.com, 703-495-7500, VA 2908000975.

SERVICES DIVORCE – Uncontested, $350 + $88 court cost. No court appearance. Estimated completion time twenty-one days. Telephone inquiries welcome - no obligation.

Hilton Oliver, Attorney. 757-4900126. Se Habla Español.

STEEL BUILDINGS STEEL BUILDINGS Save Thousands on Cancelled orders.

VERY Low Monthly payments.

5 remaining. Must Go. 16x20, 20x30, 25x30, 30x40, 42x60 Call Now 1-800-991-9251.

156-828 HAMPTON SOLICITATION The Director of Finance or his designated representative will accept written responses in the Procurement Office 1 Franklin Street, 3rd floor, suite 345 Hampton, VA on behalf of the Entity (ies) listed below until the date(s) and local time(s) specified.

HAMPTON CITY Wednesday, September 16, 2015 2:30 p.m. ET – ITB 16-27/E Annual Needs for Industrial Specialized Fasteners for Hampton/NASA Steam Plant.

For additional information, see our web page at http://www.hampton.gov/bids-contracts A withdrawal of bid due to error shall be in accordance with Section 2.24330 of the Code of Virginia. All forms relating to these solicitations may be obtained from the above listed address or for further information call; (757) 727-2200. The right is reserved to reject any and all responses, to make awards in whole or in part, and to waive any informality in submittals.

Minority and Woman-Owned Businesses are encouraged to participate.

Karl Daughtrey, Director of Finance

Whether it’s zoning inserts by zip code or using a niche publication to target a certain ethnic group or behaviorally targeting a certain group on a newspaper website, newspaper products offer a wide range of products to target any audience an advertiser is looking to reach.

Sept. 2, 2015 • 19

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

PUBLIC AUCTION of Unclaimed Vehicles

100+/- IMPOUNDED AUTOS, LIGHT TRUCKS & MOTORCYCLES SOUTHSIDE PLAZA DRIVE-IN

Monday, Sept. 14, 2015 Gates open at 9:00 AM Auction begins at 10:00 AM Auction will include the vehicles listed below plus many others: 1993 FORD F-150 1FTEX15N5PKB53323 UNK ICEBEAR TRIKE/SCOOTER L37LMGFV9EZ030136 1996 GMC JIMMY 1GKCT18W4TK506205 1989 FORD LTD CROWN VIC 2FABP74F7KX180695 1994 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 1500 1GCDC14K6RZ108965 1995 LINCOLN TOWN CAR 1LNLM83W0SY628768 2013 TAOTAO SCOOTER L9NTEACB9D1043786 1997 MITSUBISHI ECLIPSE 4A3AK44Y2VE020683

SEIBERT’S is now accepting vehicles on consignment!

Reasonable Seller’s Fees.

642 W. Southside Plaza Dr. Richmond (804) 233-5757

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SEALED PROPOSALS Ad Size: 5.10 inches (1 column(s) X 5.10 inches) The City of Richmond announces the9/9) following project(s) available 2 Issues (9/2 & - $112.20 ($56.1 perforad) services relating to: Rate: $11 per column inch Includes Internet placement

Will hold a Public Hearing in the 5th Floor Conference Rm., City Hall, 900 East Broad St., Richmond, VA on September 2, 2015, to consider the Cost: $69.96 following under Chapter 114 of the Zoning Code: Rate: $11 per column inch

InformationOk or with copies of the above solicitations are available by Serving Richmond & for Hampton Roa changes X _____________________________ 29-15: An application of Chaves Masonry Co., LLC a building permit Ok X_________________________________________ contacting Procurement Services, at the City of Richmond website to construct new single-family dwelling at 45301/2 BRITANNIA 409 E.a Main St. #4 detached (mailing) • 105 E. Clay (www.RichmondGov.com), or at 11th Floor of City Hall, 900 E. Broad ROAD. Richmond, VA 23219 Street, Richmond,REMINDER: Virginia 23219.Deadline Phone (804) 646-5716 @ or 5faxed is Fridays p.m.

804-644-1550 (office) • 800-783-8062 Ok with changes X _____________________________ (804) 646-5989. The City of Richmond encourages all contractors to Copies of all cases are available for inspection between 8 AM and 5 PM participate in the procurement process. ads@legacynewspaper.com 409 Street, E. Main St. #4 (mailin in Room 511, City Hall, 900 East Broad Richmond, VA 23219.

Support or opposition may be offered at or before the hearing.

Richmond

For reference purposes, documents may be examined at the above location.

REMINDER: Deadline is Fridays @ 5 p.m.

804-644-1550 (office

Ad Size: 15.7 inches (2 column(s) X 7.85 inches) Roy W. Benbow, Secretary ads@legacyn Phone: (804) 240-2124 Fax: (804) 646-5789 1 Issue (Sept. 2) - $172.70 E-mail: Roy.Benbow@richmondgov.com Rate: $11 per column inch

The City of Richmond is seeking to fill the following positions: Administrative Project Analyst 30M00000627 Department of Parks & Recreation Apply by 9/13/2015

Administrative Services Manager 35M00000142 Department of Public Utilities Apply by 9/13/2015

Advertise here 804-644-1550 ads@ legacynewspaper.com

Run date: Sept. 2

Please review the proof, make any needed changes and return by fax or e-mail.AT 1:00 P.M. BEGINNING Includes Internet placement If your response is not received by deadline, your ad may not be inserted.

IFB J160004061 – Korah 3 AFD Replacement 28-15: An application of Better Housing Coalition for a building permit to Receipt Date: September 22, 2015 at 2:30 p.m.

Please review the proof, make any needed changes andWEST return by fax or Ok X_________________________________________ construct a new single-family detached dwelling at 2102 CARY Opening Date: September 23, 2015 at 2:30 p.m.

If your response is not received by deadline, your ad may not be ins STREET.

Administrative Project Analyst 42M00000481 Richmond Fire Department Apply by 9/13/15

Retrieve knowledge by reading newspapers!

Thank you for picking up your copy of The Legacy

Ad Size: 6.36 inches (2 columns X 3.18 inches)

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT THE CITY OF RICHMOND BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS

Automotive Mechanic II 29M00001123 Department of Public Works Apply by 9/13/2015 Business Analysis Manager 42M00000469 Richmond Fire Department Apply by 9/13/15 Controller 25M00000121 Department of Finance Apply by 09/13/2015 Deputy Chief Administrative Officer 21M00000044 Economic & Community Development Continuous

Director of Finance 25M00000052 Department of Finance Continuous Engineer IV (Bridge) 29M00000603 Department of Public Works Apply by 9/27/2015 Gas & Water Service Technician Supervisor 35M00000558 Department of Public Utilities Apply by 9/20/2015 Human Services Coordinator I-Medicaid 27M00000449 Department of Social Services Apply by 09/13/2015 Human Services Manager-CSA 27M00000473 Department of Social Services Apply by 09/13/2015 Management Analyst II 35M00000262 Department of Public Utilities Apply by 9/13/2015 Senior Capital Projects Manager 29M00000642 Department of Public Works Apply by 9/27/2015 Utilities Instrument & Control Technician II, Wastewater Division 35M00000267 Public Utilities Apply by 9/20/15

********************************* For an exciting career with the City of Richmond, visit our website for additional information and apply today!

www.richmondgov.com EOE M/F/D/V

Includes Internet placement SEALED PROPOSALS Please review theannounces proof, make needed changesavailable and return The City of Richmond theany following project(s) for by If your response is not received by deadline, your ad may not services relating to:

Ok X_______________________________________

Ok with changes X ___________________________ BL 160003051 – CSO 028A Separation Project Receipt Date: September 15, 2015 at 3:30 p.m.

REMINDER: Deadline is Fridays @ 5 p.m.

Information or copies of the above solicitations are available by contacting Procurement Services, at the City of Richmond website (www.RichmondGov.com), or at 11th Floor of City Hall, 900 E. Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219. Phone (804) 646-5716 or faxed (804) 646-5989. The City of Richmond encourages all contractors to participate in the procurement process.

For reference purposes, documents may be examined at the above location.

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