Barbershop Study Trimmed Black Men’s Hair and Blood Pressure
Men’s Basketball Season Ends with Loss in WAC Tournament
News Observer Bakersfield
Volume 44 Number 28
Serving Kern County for Over 40 Years
Observer Group Newspapers of Southern California
Delayed High Speed Rail Costs Soar to $77Billion While $77 billion is the baseline cost estimate, the plan estimates total costs could be as low as $63.2 billion or as high as $98.1 billion.
By KATHLEEN RONAYNE Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - The costs are up, the timeline is longer and major unanswered questions remain in the latest business plan for California’s proposed bullet train. Here’s a look at what’s changed since the last time the California High Speed Rail Authority updated its business plan in 2016: ROUTE - Officials now plan to build the first operating line between downtown San Francisco and Bakersfield. The prior plan called for tracks that begin in San Jose and terminate north of Bakersfield. Officials hope the slightly longer route between cities _ with stops
throughout the Central Valley _ will drive more commuters and other riders to the train once it opens. Crews then plan to extend south from Bakersfield to downtown Los Angeles and Anaheim. COSTS - The total cost to link Anaheim and San Francisco is now pegged at $77.3 billion, up 20 percent from two years ago. The business plan notes the cost could be as low as $63.2 billion or as high as $98.1 billion. Factors driving the higher costs include construction delays, unexpected costs and larger contingency funds. For now, though, the focus is on building the Silicon Valley to Central Valley link at an estimated cost of $25.1 billion to $36.8 billion. TIMELINE - Voters were told in 2008 that the full
San Francisco to Anaheim line could be running by 2020. Officials are now aiming for 2029, and only to Bakersfield. They offer vague hopes of finishing the whole system by 2033. CHALLENGES - Money and mountains present the biggest hurdles. Rail officials plan to build two lines _ one linking San Francisco and Gilroy on the west side of the coastal range and another from Bakersfield to Madera east of the mountains. That alone will require a tough vote in the Legislature to guarantee decades of funding for high-speed rail. And officials concede that there’s no firm plan for how to pay for a tunnel through the mountains to link those two lines.
Barbershop Study Trimmed Black Men’s Hair and Blood Pressure
By MARILYNN MARCHIONE AP Chief Medical Writer ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Trim your hair, your beard, your blood pressure? Black men reduced one of their biggest medical risks through a novel project that shows the power of familiar faces and trusted places to improve health. The project had pharmacists work with dozens of Los Angeles barbershops to test and treat clients. The results, reported Monday at a cardiology conference, have doctors planning to expand the project to more cities nationwide. “There's open communication in a barbershop. There's a relationship, a trust,” said Eric Muhammad, owner of A New You Barbershop, one of the barbers who participated. “We have a lot more influence than just the doctor walking in the door.” Black men have high rates of high blood pressure _ a top reading over 130 or a bottom one over 80 _ and the problems it can cause, such as strokes and heart attacks. Only half of Americans with high pressure have it under control; many don't even know they have the condition. Churches, beauty salons and other community spots have been used to reach groups that often lack access to doctors, to promote cancer screenings and other services. Dr. Ronald Victor, a cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, wanted to reach black men. “Barbershops are a uniquely popular meeting place for African-American men,” and many have gone every other week to the same barber for many years, he said. “It almost has a social club feel to it, a delightful, friendly environment” that makes it ideal for improving health. Victor did a study in 17 Dallas barbershops a few years ago. In that one, barbers tested patrons and referred them to doctors. Improvements were modest. In the new study, “we added a pharmacist into the mix” so medicines could be prescribed on the spot, he said. The new work involved 303 men and 52 barbershops. One group of customers just got pamphlets and blood pressure tips while they were getting haircuts. Another group met with pharmacists in the barbershops and could get treatment if their blood pressure was high. Continued on page A2
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Wednesday, March 14, 2018
Kern Community Foundation Seeks Scholarship Evaluators
Thanks to many community and media partners that helped get the word out, Kern Community Foundation has received more than 600 applications (a record!) from graduating high school seniors, for its Kern Futures Scholarships for 2018-19. That represents a 40 percent increase over the 430 applications received in 2017-18. Such an overwhelming response from college-bound youth from all over Kern County means KCF needs lots of community volunteers to help with scholarship application evaluations. “Our Kern Futures Scholarship program supports deserving students on their path to postsecondary success,” said Foundation President and CEO Kristen Beall. “By assisting in the scholarship application evaluation effort, community members can help make students’ futures brighter, and do their part to raise Kern County’s educational attainment rates. This is key to the development of a thriving community and something we can all embrace.” Questions? Contact Kern Community Foundation’s Scholarship Coordinator Joe Brown at joe@kern2foundation.org, or 661.616.2605.
Porterville Man Arrested After 3-Year-Old Picks Up Handgun PORTERVILLE, Calif. (AP) - Police say a man was arrested after a 3-year-old picked up an unattended handgun and pointed it at a family member at a home in central California. Officials in Porterville say the gun was quickly taken away from the child and nobody was hurt. The Fresno Bee reported Saturday that officers responded after authorities got a call that a child had access to an unattended handgun. Police say the man left the gun on a couch when he went into another room and the child picked it up. The 38-year-old suspect fled the scene with the weapon but officers found him and the gun at his residence the next day.
Indicted Attorney Dismissed from Suge Knight’s Murder Case
A recent Economic Policy Institute study revealed that Blacks haven’t made any progress in homeownership, unemployment or incarceration in 50 years. (Pixabay)
No Black Progress in 50 Years By Lauren Victoria Burke NNPA Newswire Contributor Late last year, “The Washington Post” wrote that African Americans were the only group that showed no economic improvement since 2000. They based their conclusions on Census data. This year, there was even more sobering news in a report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). The new study issued found “no progress” for African Americans on homeownership, unemployment and incarceration in 50 years. Much of what was included in the EPI study was stunning data on African American economic progress. Fifty years after the famous and controversial Kerner Commission Report that identified “white racism” as the driver of “pervasive discrimination in employment and education” for African Americans, EPI concluded that not much has changed. The EPI study stated the obvious and pointed to glaring statistics. Regarding the justice system, the share of incarcerated African Americans has close to tripled between 1968 and 2016, as Blacks are 6.4 times more likely than Whites to be jailed or imprisoned. Homeownership rates have remained unchanged for African Americans, over the last 50 years. Black homeownership is about 40 percent, which is 30 percent behind the rate for Whites. Regarding income, perhaps the most important economic metric, the average income for an African American household was $39,490 in 2017, a decrease from $41,363 in 2000.
A press release about the report said that, “Black workers still make only 82.5 cents on every dollar earned by white workers, African Americans are 2.5 times more likely to be in poverty than Whites, and the median White family has almost ten times as much wealth as the median Black family.” In 2017, the Black unemployment rate was 7.5 percent, up from 6.7 percent in 1968, and still roughly twice the White unemployment rate. In 2015, the Black homeownership rate was just over 40 percent, virtually unchanged since 1968 and trailing a full 30 points behind the White homeownership rate, which saw modest gains over the same period. President Trump has bragged about the Black unemployment rate has reached record lows and homeownership has reached record highs under his presidency. What Trump leaves out is the overall statistical data over many years. Much of what the data shows is connected to systemic policy problems that have been persistent for decades. In the press release about the EPI report, EPI economic analyst Janelle Jones said that it’s clear that structural racism is the root cause of the economic inequality between Blacks and Whites. “Solutions must be bold and to scale, which means we need structural change that eliminates the barriers that have stymied economic progress for generations of African American workers,” said Jones.
LOS ANGELES (AP) _ An attorney who was indicted on witness-tampering charges was dismissed Monday from the murder case of rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight. Knight previously gave up his right to having a lawyer without potential conflicts of interest so he could keep Thaddeus Culpepper on his defense team. That decision came last month when Culpepper was under investigation but had not yet been indicted. Los Angeles County Judge Ronald S. Coen overrode Knight’s decision and removed Culpepper. Knight, 52, the co-founder of Death Row Records, has pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder after he ran over two men outside a Compton burger stand in January 2015. Culpepper and another former Knight attorney, Matthew Fletcher, were both indicted a week ago on charges of conspiring to influence potential witnesses in Knight’s murder case. Both have denied any wrongdoing. The indictment accused Culpepper of arranging with a potential witness, who turned out to be a confidential informant, to provide false testimony at trial _ saying he saw weapons at the crime scene. That could bolster defense claims that Knight acted in self-defense. Culpepper said he committed no crimes and was doing his job as Knight’s defense attorney and looks forward to exonerating himself.
Man Charged with False Threat on Airplane
CHICAGO (AP) _ Authorities say a man has been charged with making a false bomb threat after telling a fellow passenger on a plane preparing to depart Chicago that it was going to explode. Court documents say 28-year-old Michael Bielinski of Chicago told a woman sitting next to him “we’re all going to die’’ Friday evening as the American Airlines flight was getting ready to leave O’Hare International Airport for Sacramento, California. Prosecutors say the woman reported Bielinski smelled of gasoline and took out a pipe containing liquid that turned out to be an electronic cigarette. The plane returned to the gate and Bielinski was arrested. He was charged Sunday and ordered held on $5,000 bail.