Rihanna Listed by Forbes as World’s Youngest SelfMade Billionaire Page A3
Grand Jury Indicts Tops Supermarket Shooter on Federal Hate Crimes Page A2
News Observer Los Angeles
Volume 37 Number 36
Serving Los Angeles County for Over 37 Years
Observer Group Newspapers of Southern California
Vice President Kamala Harris Addresses NAACP Convention Urges Black Voter Participation
By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent Vice President Kamala Harris appeared at the NAACP convention in Atlantic City on Monday, July 18, declaring that freedom, liberty, and democracy are on the ballot in the upcoming midterm elections. She implored the large gathering at the Atlantic City Convention Center to make sure that all voices are heard. “We’re not going to be able to get these days back, so each one of these days we must, with a sense of urgency, ensure that the American people know their voice and their vote matters,” Harris declared. “It is their voice. The right to vote is something that the leaders of this organization and its founders knew to be at the core of all of the other rights and freedoms to which we are entitled,” she further implored. “So, we know what we need to do. And, in particular, to protect the freedom to vote and a women’s right to make decisions about her own body, we need people who will defend our rights up and down the ballot, from district attorneys to state attorneys general, from local sheriffs to governors.” The vice president received several standing ovations as she spoke of the need to vote. The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), a trade association representing 235 African American-owned newspapers and media companies, has teamed with the Transformative Justice Coalition in an effort to register 10 million more Black voters ahead of the midterm and 2024 general elections. As Harris arrived in Atlantic City, Mayor Marty Small greeted her as she descended from Air Force Two. NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson spoke to the vice president and railed against politicians and the U.S. Supreme Court for “the erosion of constitutional freedom, including the right of a woman over her own body.” Harris also decried the sharp increase in mass shootings and gun violence in the United States. “There is no reason for weapons of war on the streets of America,” she asserted. With West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin repeatedly stopping the Biden-Harris administration agenda, Harris called on voters to participate in the U.S. Senate election. “We will not, and the president has been clear, we will not let the filibuster stand in our way of our most essential rights and freedoms,” Harris declared. “I visited Buffalo, New York, to attend the funeral of an 86-year-old grandmother who went to the grocery store after, as she often did, spending the day with her husband who was in a nursing home – Mrs. Whitfield.” Harris continued: “I went to Highland Park, Illinois, where there were
“We’re not going to be able to get these days back, so each one of these days we must, with a sense of urgency, ensure that the American people know their voice and their vote matters,” Harris declared.
strollers and lawn chairs scattered up and down a street where there was supposed to be a parade for July 4th. There – as in Uvalde, Texas; as in Greenwood, Indiana, just last night; and in so many communities across our nation – scenes of ordinary life have been turned into war zones by horrific acts of gun violence. “Mass shootings have made America a nation in mourning. And it’s not only the mass shootings. We see it in our communities every day, and it is no less tragic or outrageous.” “Think about it: Black people are 13 percent of America’s population but make up 62 percent of gun homicide victims. “This issue of the need for
reasonable gun safety laws is a real issue when we are talking about the civil right, the right that all communities should have, to live in a place that is safe without weapons of war running those streets.” She concluded that the number of guns manufactured in the country tripled over the last 20 years. “Today we have more guns in our nation than people,” Harris said. “Earlier this month, the president signed the first federal gun safety law in nearly 30 years. And it was an important and necessary step. But we need to do more. We must repeal the liability shield that protects gun manufacturers. And we must renew the assault weapons ban.”
After the Repeal of Roe v. Wade: What Does It Mean for Black Women By Lauren Victoria Burke NNPA Newswire Contributor After the jolting decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade on June 24, many women had to re-adjust their thinking regarding health care and personal decisions. For Black women already dealing with historic and systemic challenges around access to health care and an increased rate of maternal death, the decision was more than personal. “Black women tend to live in states hostile to reproductive healthcare, Roe’s overturn directly endangers Black women’s lives by exacerbating pre-existing access restrictions. Forcing Black women to carry dangerous, potentially deadly pregnancies to term will worsen the ongoing Black maternal mortality crisis that sees Black women dying from pregnancy at three times the rate of white women,” wrote Michelle Webb, Communications Director of the Black Women’s Health Imperative (BWHI). Additionally, many states have poor social services such as substandard prenatal care and high child poverty rates. The economic factors will become an issue immediately in states that have laws that are put into place as a result of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe. The reversal was a stunning change of almost half a century of landmark law on women’s reproductive rights.
In an interview with Black Press USA the day after the decision, Linda Goler Blount, President of the Black Women’s Health Imperative (BWHI), spoke on how the decision by the court will impact Black women specifically. “I am worried about the internalization of that messaging and the trauma that it will cause in this next generation — but more to the point right now. What we will see over the next few years is an increase in the maternal mortality rates for particularly for Black and brown women, but for all women, maternal mortality is projected to increase by 20 to 21 percent. For black woman it’s 33 percent,” Blount said. “We’re talking about another two or three hundred Black women who will die every year simply because they don’t have access to abortion care because they can’t make that choice. Most black women live in the south and this is where it is going to be more felt the deepest, I would say — but also, I’m thinking about poverty. The number one reason Black women, and all women, choose to have to get an abortion is because they can’t afford the child at the time. Most people who are choosing abortion already have children and they know they can’t afford to have another child. So, this means that for Black women and Latinas in particular, the poverty rate is likely to increase by another 15 to 20 percent,” Blount told Black Press USA.
The 6-3 ruling by the court ended the constitutional right to an abortion and there is now no federally guaranteed right to an abortion in U.S. States. “The fall of Roe will also condemn Black women who seek abortions due to financial hardship to an inescapable cycle of impoverishment along with the poor health outcomes that accompany it. Roe was a significant step toward a more equitable society in which Black women had access to the autonomy and agency they have traditionally been denied,” Michelle Webb added. “By overruling nearly fifty years of legal precedent, the Court has turned the clock back on decades of progress made by Black women in America -- and fanned the flames of a deadly public health crisis in the process,” added Webb hours after the decision came down. All three of the Associate Justices appointed by former President Donald Trump, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Comes Barrett, voted to overturn Roe. Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the host of the podcast BURKEFILE. She is a political analyst who appears regularly on #RolandMartinUnfiltered. She may be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke
Human Rights Violations in Prisons Throughout the South Cause Disparate and Lasting Harm in Black Communities NEW YORK – The Southern Prisons Coalition, a group of civil and human rights organizations, submitted a new report on Friday to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination on the devastating
With the long-term goal of eliminating all forms of racial discrimination in the criminal legal system, including the carceral system, the report describes the widespread, disparate harms resulting from the arrests, harsh prison sentences, and incarceration on Black communities.
consequences of incarceration on Black people throughout the southern United States. With the long-term goal of eliminating all forms of racial discrimination in the criminal legal system, including the carceral system, the report describes the widespread, disparate harms resulting from the arrests, harsh prison sentences, and incarceration on Black communities. The report also cites the devastating impacts of solitary confinement, prison labor, the school to prison pipeline, and incarceration of parents on Black families. On August 8, 2022, the UN will review the United States’ compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination for the first time since 2014. Among the ongoing stark racial disparities throughout prisons in the southern United States, Black people are five times more likely to be incarcerated in state prisons. In states like Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas, where Black communities comprise 38% of the total population, Black individuals account for as much as 67% of the total incarcerated population.
While incarcerated, Black people are more than eight times more likely to be placed in solitary confinement, and they are 10 times more likely to be held there for exceedingly long periods of time. By submitting the report to the United Nations, the Southern Prisons Coalition hopes to solicit concrete recommendations from the UN Committee as well as commitments from the United States delegation about their plans to address systemic issues in the United States prison system, particularly in the South. According to the report, several states in the United States have also failed to meet several of the UN’s Standard Minimum Rules for the treatment of incarcerated people, including: • Work should help to prepare incarcerated people for their release from prison, including life and job skills; • Safety measures and labor protections for incarcerated workers should be the same as those that cover workers who are not incarcerated; • Incarcerated workers should receive equitable pay, be able to send money home to their families, and have a portion of their wages set aside to be given to them upon release. “The U.S. has long failed to live up to its international human
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Take One!
Thursday, July 21, 2022
Black San Francisco Leader Blasts Homeless Situation
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – A prominent San Francisco leader in the African American community is calling for more action to curb violent behavior by homeless people after a beloved nonprofit director was severely beaten by two allegedly homeless men Friday. James Spingola, director of the Ella Hill Hutch Community Center in the city’s historic Black Fillmore neighborhood, was beaten with a wooden plank after he asked two men to move away from the organization’s front doorstep, said Rev. Amos Brown, president of the San Francisco NAACP and pastor at Third Baptist Church. The beating was around 11 a.m., said Officer Kathryn Winters, a spokesperson with the San Francisco Police Department, in an email Friday. She said officers arrived to find one of the suspects detained by Spingola and others. Police are looking for the other suspect. Winters did not have the names or housing status of the suspects. Spingola is recovering at a hospital. A GoFundMe page shows a photo of Spingola’s bruised, purple and puffy face. He was trying to protect children and staff in the building, according to the fundraising post. “The homeless situation has been out of control for too many years,” Brown said in a statement Friday. He said the Fillmore has “been besieged in recent weeks by crime, theft, drugs, and danger” as homeless people have been driven from nearby neighborhoods, including the Tenderloin, City Hall and downtown. Mayor London Breed and other officials have made it a priority to stop open air drug dealing and illegal drug use in those neighborhoods. San Francisco has a highly visible homeless population and it has struggled to help unhoused or marginally housed people who have severe psychiatric disorders or drug addictions. Homeless people smoked drugs on the roof of his church and last week, a catalytic converter was stolen from a church van used by seniors, Brown said. “Our streets are littered with needles and feces. They smell of urine and degradation. We need to help these people, we need to help our city, and we need to hold homeless people and our leaders accountable,” Brown said.
Rapper Kodak Black is Arrested on Drug Charges in Florida
MIAMI (AP) – Rapper Kodak Black was arrested in South Florida on charges of trafficking in oxycodone and possession of a controlled substance. The rapper, whose legal name is Bill Kapri, was booked Friday into jail in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he awaits a bond hearing. The Florida Highway Patrol said in a release that troopers pulled Black over because he was driving a purple SUV with window tints that appeared darker than the legal limit. They detected a marijuana smell and then searched the SUV and found a small clear bag with 31 white tablets and almost $75,000 in cash. The tablets were later identified as oxycodone. The agency says record checks also revealed that Black’s vehicle tag and driver’s license were both expired. Black’s attorney, Bradford Cohen, said on Twitter that “there are always additional facts and circumstances that give rise to a defense, especially in this case.” “We will get him a bond today and move forward with resolving the matter quickly,” he said. Black was also arrested earlier this year in South Florida on trespassing charges. Prosecutors later declined to proceed with the case. In January 2020, then-President Donald Trump commuted a three-year federal prison sentence the rapper had for falsifying documents used to buy weapons. Black had served about half his sentence. The rapper is one of the artists on the lineup for the Rolling Loud Festival 2022, which starts next Friday. He is scheduled to perform on July 24. Black has sold more than 30 million singles and has had several massive hits including his most recent “Super Gremlin,” which peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 this year and a remix was released earlier this year by DJ David Guetta. Other smash hits by Black include “Zeze,” “No Flockin”’ and “Roll in Peace.”
US Inflation Surges WASHINGTON (AP) – Surging prices for gas, food and rent catapulted U.S. inflation to a new four-decade peak in June, further pressuring households and likely sealing the case for another large interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve. Consumer prices soared 9.1% compared with a year earlier, the biggest yearly increase since 1981. The persistent price acceleration underscores the brutal impact inflation has inflicted on Americans, with the costs of necessities, in particular, rising much faster than average incomes. Lower-income and Black and Hispanic American have been hit especially hard. As consumers’ confidence in the economy declines, so have President Joe Biden’s approval ratings. Why US inflation is so high, and when it may ease WASHINGTON (AP) – Inflation’s relentless surge didn’t merely persist in June. It accelerated. For the 12 months ending in June, the government’s consumer price index rocketed 9.1%, the fastest year-over-year jump since 1981. And that was nothing next to what energy prices did: Fueled by heavy demand and by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, energy costs shot up nearly 42% in the past 12 months, the largest such jump since 1980. Even if you toss out food and energy prices _ which are notoriously volatile and have driven much of the price spike _ so-called core inflation soared 5.9% over the past year. What’s the impact of Euro parity with the dollar? The euro is hovering close to parity with the dollar, falling to its lowest level in 20 years and even briefly touching a one-to-one exchange rate with the U.S. currency this week. That’s the market’s verdict on Europe’s economic prospects. The euro is falling as fears of a recession grow due to Russia restricting natural gas supplies. European officials say it’s retaliation for the bloc’s support for Ukraine amid Russia’s war. Moves by the U.S. Federal Reserve are strengthening the dollar with higher interest rates. U.S. tourists may get a break on some of their travel bills, but Europeans will pay more for imported oil because it’s priced in dollars.