News Observer Los Angeles
Volume 35 Number 33
Serving Los Angeles County for Over 35 Years
Observer Group Newspapers of Southern California
Small Businesses File Bankruptcy
Nearly 500 Using Increased Eligibility Limit Since February
In response to the economic distress caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the CARES Act on March 27 increased the eligibility limit for small businesses looking to file under subchapter V from $2,725,625 of debt to $7,500,000. The threshold will return to $2,725,625 after 1 year.
While no official (e.g., government) figures on subchapter V cases have been released to date, ABI’s Ed Flynn compiled the figures after a case-by-case review of records from the PACER system. (Photo: iStockphoto / NNPA)
New statistical table and analysis available on the American Banking Institute’s (ABI) SBRA Resources website show that 471 small businesses have elected to file for bankruptcy relief under new subchapter V to chapter 11 of the Code since it was enacted. The Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019 (SBRA) took effect on February 19, 2020, to provide a better path for small businesses to successfully restructure, reduce liquidations, save jobs and increase recoveries to creditors, and it also recognizes the value provided by entrepreneurs. In response to the economic distress caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the CARES Act on March 27 increased the eligibility limit for small businesses looking to file under subchapter V from $2,725,625 of debt to $7,500,000. The threshold will return to $2,725,625 after 1 year. While no official (e.g., government) figures on subchapter V cases have been released to date, ABI’s Ed Flynn compiled the figures after a case-by-case review of records from the PACER system. A consultant and special editor to the ABI Journal, Flynn previously worked for more than 30 years at the Executive Office for U.S. Trustees and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. In addition to providing the monthly totals of subchapter V elections, he included an analysis of the filings on the SBRA Resources website that also breaks down the subchapter V elections by circuit. “The data on subchapter V elections and additional analysis from Ed Flynn will help provide a better picture to practitioners, researchers and the public about how struggling small businesses are utilizing the new law,” said ABI Executive Director Amy Quackenboss. “These statistics, and the wealth of information contained within ABI’s SBRA Resources site, make the site an invaluable reference.” ABI launched the “SBRA Resources” website in February to help practitioners and struggling small businesses learn about the new law and stay updated on SBRA developments. The site features information on ABI events on the new law, FAQs about the SBRA, an infographic, the legislative history of the SBRA, informative videos of ABI presentations on the SBRA, updated news and commentary, articles from the ABI Journal and ABI committee newsletters, and more. ABI is the largest multi-disciplinary, nonpartisan organization dedicated to research and education on matters related to insolvency. ABI was founded in 1982 to provide Congress and the public with unbiased analysis of bankruptcy issues. The ABI membership includes nearly 11,000 attorneys, accountants, bankers, judges, professors, lenders, turnaround specialists and other bankruptcy professionals, providing a forum for the exchange of ideas and information.
Ben Crump Heralded as Black America’s Attorney General Momentous events can occur in an instant, but more often they emerge after a long build-up.
Attorney Benjamin L. Crump, Esq. (Courtesy Photo)
her bed by Louisville police in Kentucky. But his role in the movement stretches back more than a decade and includes the cases of Michael Brown and Tamir Rice, as well as Corey Jones, Pamela Turner, Botham Jean, Stephon Clark and others. \
Thursday, July 2, 2020
Family Guy Actor to Stop Voicing Black Character
LOS ANGELES (AP) – “Family Guy’’ voice actor Mike Henry said Friday he is stepping down from the role of Cleveland Brown on the Fox animated series. Henry wrote on Twitter that he will stop playing the show’s main African American character because “persons of color should play characters of color.’’ The 54-year-old voice actor, who is a white man, has voiced the character since the series’ debut in 1999. Henry had also voiced the Latin maid named Consuela on the series. His decision comes after voice actors Jenny Slate and Kristen Bell – who are white – pulled out of their roles to recast their biracial characters with someone of color. Slate played the mixed-raced Missy on Netflix’s “Big Mouth’’ and Bell was voiced as Molly on Apple TV Plus’s “Central Park.’’ Slate said she initially reasoned that she could play her character, because Molly’s mother is Jewish and white, just like her mom. But now, she understands that her initial thoughts were wrong. “I acknowledge how my original reasoning was flawed,’’ Slate said. “That it existed as an example of white privilege and unjust allowances made within a system of societal white supremacy, and that in me playing Missy, I was engaging in an act of erasure of Black people.’’
Kaepernick’s Path to be a Netflix Series LOS ANGELES (AP) – Colin Kaepernick is joining with Emmy-winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay on a Netflix drama series about the teenage roots of the former NFL player’s activism. “Colin in Black & White’’ will examine Kaepernick’s high school years to illuminate the experiences that shaped his advocacy, Netflix said Monday. “Too often we see race and Black stories portrayed through a white lens,’’ Kaepernick said in a statement. “We seek to give new perspective to the differing realities that Black people face. We explore the racial conflicts I faced as an adopted Black man in a white community, during my high school years.’’ Kaepernick, born to a white mother and Black father, was adopted in Wisconsin by a white couple who moved to California when he was a child. In 2016, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback began kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial inequality, drawing both support and criticism, with his detractors including President Donald Trump. Kaepernick became a free agent in 2017 but went unsigned. Writing on the six-episode series was completed in May, the streaming service said. DuVernay, writer Michael Starrbury and Kaepernick are the executive producers. Kaepernick will appear as himself as the limited series’ narrator, Netflix said. Further casting details and a release date were not immediately announced. “With his act of protest, Colin Kaepernick ignited a national conversation about race and justice with far-reaching consequences for football, culture and for him, personally,’’ DuVernay said in a statement. “Colin’s story has much to say about identity, sports and the enduring spirit of protest and resilience.’’ Kaepernick, who led the 49ers to the Super Bowl following the 2012 season, filed a grievance against the league in 2017, contending teams colluded to keep him out. The sides reached an undisclosed settlement in 2019. The 32-yearold Kaepernick still wants an opportunity to play. A workout in Atlanta last November that was organized by the NFL turned chaotic and resulted in no job offers. In the aftermath of nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell apologized to players for not listening to them earlier and encouraged them to protest peacefully. Goodell says he’s encouraged teams to sign Kaepernick. “This young man is talented enough to play in the National Football League,’’ league executive Troy Vincent said recently.
Removing John Wayne’s Racist Name
The explosion of protests all over the world was such a moment following the George Floyd killing. And Ben Crump who has been called the African American family emergency plan received yet another call from an African American family who was devastated unexpectedly by an unjustifiable killing at the hands of the police. This is not out of the ordinary for the North Carolina native Ben Crump who moved to South Florida when he was 12 years old. He first received national recognition when he represented 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson who was killed at the Bay County Sheriff’s Boot Camp in 2006. Crump advocated for the family and received the largest settlement from the state of Florida for wrongful death. He worked with the Black Conference of State Legislators to close boot camps in the state. Crump rose to international prominence when he represented the family of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old child who was killed by neighborhood watchman George ZImmerman in 2012. Most recently, Crump has represented three of the most high profile cases in America today in his representation of the families of Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, who was shot while jogging in Brunswick, Georgia, and Breonna Taylor, gunned down in
Attorney Benjamin L. Crump, Esq. (Courtesy Photo)
Free!
His face and voice are everywhere – from rallies to funerals, from cable news to a recent profile in the Washington Post. At Floyd’s Houston funeral, the former President of the National Bar Association was introduced by the Rev. Al Sharpton as “Black America’s attorney general.” Ben Crump’s passion for civil rights and justice goes back to his childhood in small Lumberton, NC, where he attended his first integrated school in fourth grade and came to idolize Thurgood Marshall. His family moved to Florida when he was in middle school and he got his undergraduate and law degrees from Florida State University. The 50-year-old Crump is the founder and principal of Ben Crump Law, which has grown to over eight offices across the country, but he never forgot his Lumberton, North Carolina, roots. He began his law practice handling personal injury cases, but his determination to right wrongs and achieve justice spans the spectrum from fighting for Black Americans killed by police to ensuring restitution for poor residents subject to environmental toxins. His current workload includes cases accusing Flint, MI, of poisoning Black residents though a tainted public water supply
and Johnson & Johnson of targeting Black women with talcum powder that causes ovarian cancer. Crump is widely known as the go-to attorney when police violate the rights of Black men and women. And, sadly, those cases abound: Even though they make up less than 13% of the U.S. population, Blacks are more than twice as likely as whites to be shot and killed by law enforcement. In an era when cell phone videos and bodycams are capturing acts of police misconduct and keeping the cases front and center, there is no end in sight for Ben Crump’s work on behalf of victims. He is simultaneously encouraged and concerned about the necessary shift in public opinion in the wake of the 8 minutes and 46 seconds that took George Floyd’s life. “I’m not stunned that this is happening in 2020. It takes extraordinary effort in America for Black people to get simple justice,” Crump, said in that Washington Post profile. “I feel like I’m running out of time.” “If we don’t change the culture and the behavior of policing in America, we will continuously see our children killed and become hashtags - more than we can keep up with.”
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) – In the latest move to change place names in light of U.S. racial history, leaders of Orange County’s Democratic Party are pushing to drop film legend John Wayne’s name, statue and other likenesses from the county’s airport because of his racist and bigoted comments. The Los Angeles Times reported that earlier this week, officials passed an emergency resolution condemning Wayne’s “racist and bigoted statements’’ made in a 1971 interview and are calling on the Orange County Board of Supervisors to drop his name, statue and other likenesses from the international airport. The resolution asked the board “to restore its original name: Orange County Airport.’’ “There have been past efforts to get this done and now we’re putting our name and our backing into this to make sure there is a name change,’’ said Ada Briceno, chair of the Democratic Party of Orange County. According to those who crafted the resolution, the effort to oust Wayne, a longtime resident of Orange County who died in 1979, is part of “a national movement to remove white supremacist symbols and names (that are) reshaping American institutions, monuments, businesses, nonprofits, sports leagues and teams.’’ In a 1971 Playboy magazine interview, Wayne makes bigoted statements against Black people, Native Americans and the LGBTQ community. He said, “I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don’t believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people.’’ Wayne also said that although he didn’t condone slavery, “I don’t feel guilty about the fact that five or 10 generations ago these people were slaves.’’ The actor said he felt no remorse in the subjugation of Native Americans. “I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. . (O)ur so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival,’’ he said. “There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.’’ Wayne also called movies such as “Easy Rider’’ and “Midnight Cowboy’’ perverted, and used a gay slur to refer to the two main characters of the latter film. Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner told the Times that he had just heard about the Democratic resolution and was unaware of its wording or merit.