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By Earl Heath th the bloodie E h n o d cat. e v tr es so w ld en ev o to tr as lv l idence over co oyed it. o th an e a ffi m cr o v ce u an io e im d g rs at le im h es nt cr - is bold, he rushed the no cost to Newsom , trau al hospital, Contributing Sports Writer to the poli African Am b where it w ma. ce, but thim issue that Cis treading carefu’sll decision in the Cothe state.” ericans, His The Los Angeles Lakers and East West Bank recently as diagnolese ey y o al p o if D er n o panics and r. rn a ca K p ia se w ri o v te at st o n i ch joined forces for a Thanksgiving food give away. There were te Krause ti ly polari rs across th ing. He is other mino she expects zing e politicalalsp keeping his rities liv- C the 11-pou, a veterinarian, tells many smiles entering the Salvation Army in Inglewood as b ec ac ontinued fo tr k cu nd (5-kilo th u in s m to o ar n the e fairness an on page A they assisted some 300 needy families to help ensure d justice 2 McGuire wvild after it regainsgstram) cat to they have a better Holiday season. The distribution is a is re ited ngth. that if he se es it again, the bobcat on Fri continuation of the Salvation Army of Inglewood Citadel day he’ll issue a Corps’ annual Miracle on Manchester giveaway. This was ticket for ja. the second event of the Lakers annual “Season of Giving” which is a series of events that allow the Lakers and their fans to share in the joy of the holiday season.

Laker greats Robert Horry and A.C. Greene were on hand to assist in the distribution of turkeys, pies, and other treats for the holiday. They were joined by Laker staff members including the Laker Girls.

Since 2000, the Lakers have used “A Season of Giving” to assist thousands of children and adults. This year’s events include the Thanksgiving Feast, a Thanksgiving turkey Laker greats (L) AC Green and Robert Horry (R) help distribute more than 300 meals at the Salvation Army giveaway, and a holiday party for kids. AC Greene said, “I in Inglewood. (Earl Heath Photo) have no favorite Christmas or Thanksgiving, it’s all about the family. When all the grand-kids can talk with the the Salvation Army here and in Portland, Oregon for more and after school programs.

“It’s the Lakers and East West Bank that allow us to do grandparents and share so much about being thankful. than 30 years,” Greene added.

The Salvation Army has been a fixture in the such a program like this,” said Salvation Army Lieutenant That’s the best thing about Thanksgiving.”

Greene, who the Founder of The A.C. Greene Youth Inglewood community for years and has assisted with Timothy Wticher. “It’s great to see the community come Foundation, loves helping others. “I’ve been involved with homeless life skills, Service for Veterans, utility assistance, together like this. “

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2020 California Census

Dont Be Invisible. ’

California Census Chief: Counting Everyone Comes Down to Money and Power Charlene Muhammad California Black Media Even if you have people living with you who are not on your lease – or say your affordable housing application - you should still make sure they are counted during the 2020 Census, says Ditas Katague, director of the California Complete Count office.

“No enforcement agency, federal, local, or anything, can get that data,” she assures Californians. “It’s safe.”

Last week, Katague visited Los Angeles county, the hardest-to-count area in the United States and also a region in the state with census tracts where the most African Americans live. She was on a stop that was part of a statewide push to encourage all Californians to respond to next year’s census forms.

She sat with California Black Media writer Charlene Muhammad to talk more about the state’s $187.3 million investment to get an accurate count of all Californians.

Katague also shared details about what her office has been doing so far to achieve it, and she give some insights on why it has been so hard for census workers to get the African-American count right in the past.

CALIFORNIA BLACK MEDIA (CBM): What has your office done to reach out to Blacks in California – particularly to the the Black population here in Los Angeles?

DITAS KATAGUE (DK): As you know, statewide, the money and the investment that both the governor and the legislature have made across the state have been unprecedented.

That’s because California is the hardest-to-count state in the country. In fact, the City of L.A. is the hardest-to-

count city and Los Angeles County is the hardest-to-count county in the hardest-to-count state.

So, even though our efforts are unprecedented, these are the reasons that we need to do that level of outreach.

The U.S. Census is actually a federal operation, and so here at the state level, we don’t control any of the actual counting. We don’t design the form, but what we can control is reaching out, educating our Californians to make sure that they know how important it is to respond.

And to that end, we’ve divided the state. We’ve used data to really inform our partners on the ground about where they should be reaching out and to whom. I’m up in Sacramento. Nobody wants to listen to me about why they should be filling out the form. It’s really about getting the word out through trusted community partners on the ground, and really connecting with folks to say why is it so important and what an accurate count means for them on the ground.

CBM: L.A. - the hardest to count in the country! I didn’t know that. What makes L.A. and the state the hardest-to-count places?

D K : Well, for Los Angeles County, one of the things is that it’s so very diverse. In L.A. Unified School District, they speak over 200 languages. That is what makes our state so beautiful and so diverse, but it also makes it very hard to count.

Now, when we talk about hard to count from the state

Till Memorial Vandalism Security Beefed Up A commission behind a memorial for teenage lynching victim Emmett Till in Mississippi was forced to get a new sign with a bulletproof front and add cameras and alarms after repeated vandalism.

It’s one of numerous monuments to U.S. civil rights figures or events around the country that vandals have attacked through the years, forcing organizations and elected officials to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on repairs and surveillance.

There’s no movement to pass federal protections for such memorials. Advocates of the sites say their only recourse has been to rely on local and state vandalism and hate crime laws to prosecute suspects.

The need for protection came into focus again this month after security cameras captured white nationalists trying to film in front of the new Till memorial sign.

NAACP Image Awards to be Televised on BET

Black Caucus Visits US-Mexico Border

LOS ANGELES (AP) – The NAACP Image Awards will be televised for the first time on BET. NAACP and the cable network announced Monday that the 51st awards ceremony will be held in Pasadena, California, on Feb. 22. The event will spotlight the contributions of the NAACP and its impact on the community.

NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson says the collaboration between the organization and BET will be “critical to reaching our shared communities’’ before heading into the 2020 election and census.

Nominees for the awards will be announced Jan. 9.

Beyonce was named entertainer of the year at the previous awards in March. Her husband, Jay-Z, received the President’s Award, and the Marvel film “Black Panther’’ won several nods, including best motion picture.

made unbelievable journeys,” Bass stated.

The CBC Chair and her colleagues blasted the Trump administration and its policies toward immigrants, particularly those from countries that consist predominately of people of color.

Bass described the sobering plight of a Black migrant from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“The first child separated from her mother was from a family from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The child was sent to Illinois while the mother, who spoke French, was detained at the border,” Bass stated.

“This happens as our country grapples with [a president] who makes it clear that he welcomes immigrants from places like Norway, but not ‘sh-thole’ countries. He’s breaking the law. International law states that if you are from a country that’s experiencing distress, you can request asylum. Trump has done everything he can to block that and to make the United States not compliant with international law,” Bass noted.

In the case of Abienwi, the Cameroonian died in the custody of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after experiencing a hypertensive event at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego.

Reportedly, he was unresponsive and appeared

SUN PRAIRIE, Wis. (AP) – The Sun Prairie Area School District is investigating a student who wore blackface at a girls basketball game.

The district said in a statement Monday that the student attended the game on Saturday. The student wasn’t wearing blackface when he entered but apparently applied it during the game to his entire face and posted a photo of himself wearing it on social media. He removed the paint after his peers intervened.

The district noted that it prohibits anything deemed to be disruptive, provocative or intimidating during the school day or at school events, including identity-obstructive masks, full face paint and any materials worn over the face.

The statement said blackface evokes reminders of a racist and painful history for black people and school administrators have launched a full investigation.

Continued on page A3

State Director for CA 2020 Census Ditas Katague (Courtesy Photo)

“Mistreatment of Black Immigrants Wisconsin School is Another ‘Stain on America’” Investigating Blackface Student Incident

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) (center), Rep. Barbara Lee (DCA) (fourth from left), and Congresswoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY) (far left), along with local Congressman, Rep. Juan Vargas (second from left), visited a shelter for African asylum-seekers in Tijuana November 22, 2019. Attorney Nana Gyamfi, the executive director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (far right), joined the group at the border.

(Photo: Screen capture KPBS / YouTube)

By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior Correspondent Chairwoman Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) led a delegation of Congressional Black Caucus members to the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday in San Ysidro, California, where they said they witnessed first-hand the deplorable treatment and plight of Black immigrants.

Bass, Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA), and Congresswoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY), each said they wanted to examine the treatment – and call attention to the mistreatment – of African immigrants at the border, including the October 1 death of 37-year-old Cameroon immigrant Nebane Abienwi.

Attorney Nana Gyamfi, the executive director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, joined the group at the border.

“It was a very frustrating experience today,” Bass said from the border during an exclusive conference call with publishers, editors, and writers for the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), the trade association that represents the newspaper and media companies that comprise the Black Press of America.

“We crossed the border into Tijuana, Mexico, and we met with a group of Black immigrants from Cameroon, Sierra Leone, and other African countries. Some who have

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LOS ANGELES NEWS OBSERVER

Thursday, November 28, 2019

World & Nation

Debate Clash on Race Pushes Issue to Forefront

By BILL BARROW and KATHLEEN RONAYNE Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) – Democratic presidential candidates put race at the forefront of their primary scramble Thursday, punctuated by a tense exchange between Pete Buttigieg and Kamala Harris after the white mayor connected his experiences as a gay man to black Americans’ long struggle against racism.

Harris, one of three black candidates seeking the nomination, criticized Buttigieg in a post-debate event in Atlanta, calling him “naive’’ and lambasting him for comparing the struggles of the black and LGBTQ communities. A Democrat who wants a winning coalition “should not be in position of saying one group’s pain is equal than or greater to another,’’ said Harris, a California senator.

Buttigieg, the white mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who wed his husband, Chasten, last year, countered that he was not comparing the travails of the LGBTQ community and black America, but instead speaking up for one discriminated class based on his experiences in another.

The exchange highlights the importance of the black vote in the Democratic nomination process and both candidates’ struggles to win them over. It also threatens to expose an uneasy relationship in the party’s civil rights coalition, as Democrats increasingly recognize LGBTQ rights as a priority alongside their decadeslong alignment with the civil rights movement for African Americans.

Harris and Buttigieg are among several Democratic candidates trying to dent former Vice President Joe Biden’s advantage among black Democrats. Biden met Thursday with a group of prominent black Southern mayors, including Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance-Bottoms, who has emerged as one of his top campaign surrogates.

Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts held dueling rallies on Atlanta’s historically black college campuses, pitching their progressive policy slates to a younger African American audience that is viewed as up for grabs.

Buttigieg has surged to an apparent lead in overwhelmingly white Iowa, which holds the nation’s first caucus Feb. 3, but he and his aides acknowledge that he needs to improve on his negligible support in the black community in other states if he hopes to become the nominee. Harris is still trying to crack the top tier in Iowa and beyond, and she used the Atlanta debate Wednesday to make a direct appeal to black women while pitching herself as the ideal nominee to rebuild the multiracial coalition that twice sent Barack Obama to the Oval Office.

The Buttigieg-Harris flap spun off the mayor saying Wednesday night during a discussion of race that he’s often “felt like a stranger’’ in his own country – a version of a point he makes frequently on the campaign trail when he says he understands what it’s like to watch politicians argue over his civil rights.

He clarified his intent Thursday while pushing back on Harris’ characterization.

“There’s no equating those two experiences _ and some people, by the way, live at the intersection of those experiences,’’ he told reporters. “What I do think is important is for each of us to reveal who we are and what motivates us.’’

Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic consultant in South Carolina, said Buttigieg should expect more scrutiny now that he’s a consensus top-tier candidate. But Seawright

downplayed any apparent tensions between gay rights and

Warren, were keeping her from telling the story of black

be afraid either.’’

A tense exchange between Pete Buttigieg and Kamala Harris after the white mayor connected his experiences as a gay man to black Americans’ long struggle against racism. black civil rights.

“I think that our party and our country is made up of the experiences of Kamala Harris and Mayor Pete, so I don’t think that Mayor Pete can walk two and a half steps in Kamala’s shoes, and I don’t know if Sen. Harris could ever walk in the mayor’s shoes,’’ he said.

Cory Booker, the other black candidate on the debate stage in Atlanta, avoided weighing in Thursday morning.

Sanders and Warren, meanwhile, also found themselves on the political tightrope of white candidates navigating discussions of race.

Set to deliver a speech on race with a focus on black women, Warren was interrupted at Clark-Atlanta University several times by dozens of black protesters from Powerful Parent Network, a group of school-choice activists.

They stood down only after U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts took the microphone from Warren.

“The senator is here to talk about fighters like you,’’ Pressley said, adding that the protesters, in drowning out

women already marginalized.

Warren, buoyed by a gymnasium filled with a boisterous, racially diverse crowd, called for a “full-blown national conversation about reparations’’ for slavery as she praised black women for helping build the country and advance causes of social and economic justice. And she had blistering remarks for a long run of structural impediments beyond slavery, from Jim Crow segregation to modern-day mass incarceration and red-lining practices that make it harder for minorities to get mortgage loans.

“Black history is American history,’’ Warren said.

“And American history teaches us that racism has for generations shaped every crucial aspect of our economic and political system.’’

She then offered a litany of policy proposals: new spending at historically black schools, repealing the 1994 crime law, legalizing marijuana, overhauling federal housing policy, student loan debt forgiveness.

“I am not afraid,’’ she said to roars. “And you cannot

Sanders, speaking earlier at Morehouse University, leaned on his own biography, like Buttigieg.

“Some of you know, I’m Jewish,’’ Sanders said, as he spoke near the statue of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., a Morehouse alumnus. “My father came to this country from Poland. He came fleeing anti-Semitism.

A lot of people in my father’s family did not make it out of Poland.

“They were murdered by the father of white supremacy, Adolf Hitler,’’ Sanders continued. “So I learned at a very young age what racism and white supremacy and Aryanism and all that crap is about, and our place together is that we will do everything humanly possible to end all forms of discrimination in this country.’’

Sanders, 78, went on to tell of his 1960s activism, describing himself and his fellow white students as “not quite so brave’’ as black citizens in the more dangerous Jim Crow South. But, he said, “I was arrested and went to jail fighting housing segregation in Chicago.’’

of asylum seekers already being forced to wait under the administration’s policy of turning them back at ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border through metering before the date the ban went into effect – July 16, 2019.

The metering policy, which they are challenging, requires asylum seekers to get on long waitlists before they can seek asylum at a port of entry.

“While there is still a long road ahead, today’s ruling is an important one for the thousands of asylum seekers who followed the ‘rules’ and waited their turn, only to be told they were out of luck once the new ban was announced,” according to Melissa Crow, senior supervising attorney for the SPLC’s Immigrant Justice Project. “These vulnerable individuals, many of whom waited for months to apply for asylum, simply want an opportunity to have the merits of their asylum cases heard.”

The injunction prevents the application of the asylum ban to categorically deny asylum to those vulnerable asylum seekers who should have been processed months ago. Today’s ruling applies to a provisional class that the court certified as part of its decision.

Read more about the case here.

The order issued by U.S. District Judge Cynthia Bashant of the Southern District of California, can be viewed here.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, Center for Constitutional Rights, and American Immigration Council filed the lawsuit, Al Otro Lado v. Wolf, No. 3:17-cv-02366 (S.D. Cal.), in July 2017 on behalf of individual asylum seekers and Al Otro Lado, an immigration legal services provider with offices in Mexico and California.

Al Otro Lado provides cross-border legal services to deportees, refugees, and families separated by unjust immigration laws. With the help of our nonprofit partners and almost 1,000 volunteers, we connect our clients with

free legal, medical, mental health, and other social services they need to heal and thrive. Al Otro Lado employs impact litigation and policy advocacy to promote systemic changes that protect immigrants’ rights.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, based in Alabama with offices in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Washington, D.C., is a nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society. For more information, see www.splcenter.organd follow us on social media: Southern Poverty Law Center on Facebook and @ splcenter on Twitter. The Center for Constitutional Rights works with communities under threat to fight for justice and liberation through litigation, advocacy, and strategic communications. Since 1966, the Center for Constitutional Rights has taken on oppressive systems of power, including structural racism, gender oppression, economic inequity, and governmental overreach. Learn more at ccrjustice.org. Follow the Center for Constitutional Rights on social media: Center for Constitutional Rights on Facebook, @theCCR on Twitter, and ccrjusticeon Instagram. The American Immigration Council works to strengthen America by shaping how America thinks about and acts towards immigrants and immigration and by working toward a more fair and just immigration system that opens its doors to those in need of protection and unleashes the energy and skills that immigrants bring. The Council brings together problem solvers and employs four coordinated approaches to advance change—litigation, research, legislative and administrative advocacy, and communications. Follow the latest Council news and information on ImmigrationImpact.com and Twitter @ immcouncil.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, Center for Constitutional Rights, and American Immigration Council filed the lawsuit, Al Otro Lado v. Wolf, No. 3:17-cv02366 (S.D. Cal.), in July 2017 on behalf of individual asylum seekers and Al Otro Lado, an immigration legal services provider with offices in Mexico and California. (Photo: iStockphoto / NNPA)

Federal Court Blocks Trump Asylum Ban

SAN DIEGO – A federal judge today blocked the Trump administration’s asylum ban from being applied to thousands of asylum seekers who were unlawfully prevented from accessing the U.S. asylum process before the ban was implemented.

The case is Al Otro Lado v. Wolf, a class action lawsuit brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Center for Constitutional Rights, and the American Immigration Council on behalf of individual asylum seekers and the legal services organization Al Otro Lado (AOL).

“Today’s order will protect the lives of asylum seekers who were forced to endure extreme hardship while waiting in dangerous border cities for months for their chance to seek asylum in the United States,” said Erika Pinheiro, AOL director of litigation and policy. “These asylum seekers have a deep commitment to following our laws in seeking protection, and we are relieved to see that their decision to follow our government’s instructions to wait in Mexico will not prejudice their chances for relief.”

Added Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, “Today’s ruling is another important limitation on the Trump administration’s cruel, relentless, and lawless attack on asylum seekers and the asylum system.

It recognizes that, Trump’s efforts notwithstanding, courts can and should preserve this country’s commitment to international human rights principles. We hope the court’s decision will protect the lives and safety of thousands of vulnerable individuals fleeing dangerous conditions at home.” The latest iteration of the asylum ban requires asylum seekers to have been previously denied protection in a country they traveled through en route to the United States before they may be eligible for asylum here. After the ban went into full nationwide effect in September, the rights groups filed a motion to protect the thousands

By Herb Boyd New York Amsterdam News Was it Trump? Was it Obama? Nope. The surprise visitor last Sunday to the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn was former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Not until the mega church’s Senior Pastor, the Rev. A. R. Bernard, introduced him to the crowded pews, was anyone aware it

would be Bloomberg.

“I hope you don’t mind that a good friend of mind has stopped by this morning,” Rev. Bernard said to his congregation and then announced Bloomberg’s presence. Many of those in the front pews of the church knew he was there

FILE - In this Feb. 26, 2019, file photo, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks at a news conference at a gun control advocacy event in Las Vegas. Tennessee’s top election officials say Bloomberg has requested a petition that would require securing 2,500 signatures from registered voters in less than a month if he wants to qualify for the state’s Democratic presidential primary ballot. The secretary of state’s office confirmed Wednesday, Nov. 13, that Bloomberg requested the ballot petition earlier this week. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

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Bloomberg: I Apologize! ‘

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but the press lodged in the balcony had no idea he was there. Bloomberg mounted the stage, greeted the audience, and moved quickly into his remarks after accepting rather polite applause. He said that this wasn’t the first time he had been to the church, “in fact, and my mother didn’t know this, I spent more time in church than the temple.”

But Bloomberg’s purpose, as his candidacy for president becomes more and more a reality, was to clear up some missteps in the past during his three terms as mayor.

“We didn’t get everything right,” he admitted after citing various achievements during his administrations and warming to the central topic of stop-and-frisk. He said he could have acted faster on stop-and-frisk. “I was wrong, and I am sorry.”

He said he was too “focused on saving lives…and hindsight is twenty/twenty” and that he gradually began to halt the arrests of an overwhelming number of Black and Latino men.

Again, the response was lukewarm and the balcony, which earlier rocked when the gospel singers lifted their voices, was now calm. The listeners attentive. The press was given a handout showing a 39 percent reduction in incarceration during Bloomberg’s mayoralty; that murders were cut by 50 percent, while the national average only experienced an 11 percent reduction; and as he noted during his brief speech, racial and ethnic minorities became the majority of the NYPD. While Bloomberg admitted that his first term in 2002 was terrible, he didn’t mention that there were more than 92,000 stops and that by 2011 there were more than 685,000 stops, the majority of whom were Black and Latino, and 90 percent of them innocent of any wrongdoing.

His critics viewed these tactics as a form of terrorism, a fear factor that played well to those opposed to his measures of gun violence.

And after his apology, he returned to the theme of gun violence which was at the top of his comments. According to the handout he is among the nation’s leading advocates on gun control. He said his Young Men’s Initiative to reduce violence, prompted President Obama to create his My Brother’s Keeper program.

“So that’s why the press was here,” one of the church members seated nearby observed.”

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Thursday, November 28, 2019

LOS ANGELES NEWS OBSERVER A3

Features

Black Caucus Visits US-Mexico Border “Mistreatment of Black Immigrants is Another ‘Stain on America’” Continued from page A1

paralyzed on his left side when he arrived at the hospital. After undergoing treatment for a brain hemorrhage, Bass said Abienwi was taken off life support against his family’s wishes and died.

Doctors listed his official cause of death as brain death due to a brain hemorrhage.

“Thousands of African and Caribbean immigrants who immigrate to the United States of America are treated as if they are invisible,” Bass stated.

“Many arrived in South America and then walked north, all to be dehumanized and mistreated at our southern border. We [went] to the border to hear what they have been through. They are an important piece of this story,” Bass said.

In a statement, officials at ICE said they’re still in the

Legal Notices

PUBLIC NOTICE

SUMMONS (CITACION JUDICIAL) NOTICE TO DEFENDANT: (AVISO AL DEMANDADO): DANIEL RAMIREZ, AN INDIVIDUAL; MARIA DEL CARMEN RAMIREZ, AN INDIVIDUAL; FIRST AMERICAN FUNDING, LLC; and ALL PERSONS UNKNOWN, CLAIMING ANY LEGAL OR EQUITABLE RIGHT, TITLE, ESTATE, LIEN, OR INTEREST IN THE PROPERTY DESCRIBED IN THE COMPLAINT ADVERSE TO PLAINTIFF’S TITLE, OR ANY CLOUD ON PLAINTIFF’S TITLE THERETO, as DOES 1-20, inclusive The real property that is the subject of this action is located in Los Angeles County and is commonly known as 36520 Nickel Street, Palmdale, CA 93550, bears Parcel ID Number: 3052-066-026 and is more particularly described as: LOT 48, OF TRACT NO. 46788, IN THE CITY OF PALMDALE, COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES, STATE OF CALIFORNIA, AS PER MAP RECORDED IN BOOK 1134 PAGE(S) 16 TO 21 INCLUSIVE OF MAPS AND AS AMENDED IN BOOK 1171 PAGE(S) 78 TO 83 INCLUSIVE OF MAPS, IN THE OFFICE OF THE COUNTY RECORDER OF SAID COUNTY. YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF: (LO ESTA DEMANDANDO EL DEMANDANTE): The Bank of New York Mellon f/k/a (Additional Parties Attachment form is Attached) CASE NUMBER (Numero del caso) 19AVCV00454 NOTICE! You have been sued. The court may decide against you without your being heard unless you respond within 30 days. Read the information below.

You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this Summons and legal papers are served on you to file a written response at this court and have a copy served on the plaintiff. A letter or phone call will not protect you. Your written response must be in proper legal form if you want the court to hear your case. There may be a court form that you can use for your response. You can find these court forms and more information at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfor.ca.gov/selfhelp), your county law library, or the courthouse nearest you. If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the court clerk for a fee waiver form. If you do not file your response on time, you may lose the case by default, and your wages, money, and property may be taken without further warning from the court.

There are other legal requirements.

You may want to call an attorney right away. If you do not know an attorney, you may want to call an attorney referral service. If you cannot afford an attorney, you may be eligible for free legal services from a nonprofit legal services program. You can locate these nonprofit groups at the California Legal Services Web site (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), or by contacting your local court or county bar association.

NOTE: The court has a statutory lien for waived fees and costs on any settlement or arbitration award of $10,000 or more in a civil case. The court’s lien must be paid before the court will dismiss the case.

AVISO! Lo han demandado. Si no responde dentro de 30 dias, la corte puede decidir en su contra sin escuchar su version. Lea la informacion

PUBLIC NOTICE

a continuacion.

Tiene 30 DIAS DE CALENDARIOS despues de que le entreguen esta citacion y papeles legales para presentar una respuesta por escrito en esta corte y hacer que se entregue una copia al demandante. Una carta o una llamada telefonica no lo protegen. Su respuesta por escrito tiene que estar en formato legal correcto si desea que procesen su caso en la corte. Es posible que haya un formulario que usted pueda usar para su respuesta. Puede encontrar estos formularios de la corte y mas informacion en el Centro de Ayuda de las Cortes de California (www.sucorte. ca.gov/), en la biblioteca de leyes de su condado o en la corte que le quede mas cerca. Si no puede pagar la cuota de presentacion, pida al secretario de la corte que le de un formulario de exencion de pago de cuotas. Si no presenta su respuesta a tiempo, puede perder el caso por incumplimiento y la corte le podra quitar su sueldo, dinero y bienes sin mas advertencia.

Hay otros requisitos legales. Es recomendable que llame a un abogado inmediatamente. Si no conoce a un abogado, puede llamar a un servicio de remision a abogados. Si no puede pagar a un abogado, es posible que cumpla con los requisitos para obtener servicios legales gratuitos de un programa de servicios legales sin fines de lucro. Puede encontrar estos grupos sin fines de lucro en el sitio web de California Legal Services, (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), en el Centro de Ayuda de las Cortes de California, (www.sucorte. ca.gov/) o poniendose en contacto con la corte o el colegio de obogados locales.

AVISO: Por ley, la corte tiene derecho a reclamar las cuotas y los costos exentos por imponer un gravamen sobre cualquier recuperacion de $10,000 o mas de valor recibida mediante un acuerdo o una concesion de arbitraje en un caso de derecho civil. Tiene que pagar el gravamen de la corte antes de que la corte pueda desechar el caso.

The name and address of the court is (El nombre y direccion de la corte es): LOS ANGELES SUPERIOR COURT Michael D. Antonovich-Antelope Valley Courthouse 42011 4th Street West, Lancaster, CA 93534 The name, address, and telephone number of plaintiff’s attorney, or plaintiff without an attorney, is: (El nombre, la direccion y el numero de telefono del abogado del demandante, o del demandante que no tiene abogado, es: VICTORIA J. TSOONG, CHUCK & TSOONG, LLP, 700 N. Brand Blvd., #440, Glendale, CA 91203, (626) 689-4000 Date: (Fecha) June 19, 2019 Sherri R. Carter Executive Officer/ Clerk of Court, Clerk, By (Secretario) Jade Ziegler, Deputy (Adjunto) NOTICE TO THE PERSON SERVED: you are served as an individual defendant.

LOS ANGELES BAY NEWS OBSERVER (E) PUB: Nov 21, 28, Dec 5, 11, 2019

process of reviewing Abienwi’s death.

According to various published reports, the Department of Homeland Security records had revealed that Abienwi applied for admission into the country at the San Ysidro Port of Entry without proper paperwork on September 5.

He was taken into custody by ICE on September 19, 2019.

Bass said his death remains a mystery and is cause for concern.

CBC members also pointed to a recent Pew Research Center study that revealed that there are more than 4.2 million Black immigrants in the United States, with Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America making positive contributions to the United States.

However, those immigrants are at a higher risk for arrest, detention, and abuse because of racial profiling and racial bias, according to the Pew report.

“We need to shed some light on what is taking place here as it relates to Black immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa,” stated Lee, the chair and majority leader of the House Task Force on Poverty, Income Inequality, and

Opportunity.

“They came here fleeing from violence in their own countries, getting to a place where they thought they could be treated humanely,” Lee stated. “It’s been the opposite.

They are dehumanized, treated in a racist fashion, and then stuck at a border town.

“I hope the Black community understands that this is another example of Trump’s racist policies to make America White again. We see that every step of the way in this process.

“Black America has to rise up. This has got to stop.”

Lee added that she’s putting out a call to Black professionals, be it psychiatrists, social workers, and others that their help is needed to help people of color at the border.

“They desperately need our help. Certainly, some Black professionals can provide services that are needed to help them,” Lee stated.

“A lot of them will get very sick, a lot are traumatized and already unhealthy. They will need to be able to survive – they’re barely surviving now. I’m issuing the call. This is yet another stain on America.”

Clarke, the chair of the House Task Force on Immi-

gration for the CBC, said it’s tough to fathom what Black immigrants face at the border.

“These people are resilient, they have gone through quite a few things in their homeland that drove them to try and get to the land of the free and the home of the brave,” Clarke stated.

“We have to speak for them. They don’t have a voice.

These are people who will be persecuted if they return to their homeland where there is genocide, other hardships, and violence,” she stated.

“We have to be their voices. The Trump policies are totally illegal.”

Gyamfi, of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, said she was moved by what she witnessed.

“You can look in their eyes. They had a sense that finally, they’re looking at people who look like us, and who actually care,” Gyamfi stated.

“They heard the voices of our leadership. But they see the anti-Blackness throughout the entire system. This is a humanitarian crisis where human rights violations are happening daily.”

contractor - California Community Foundation - and they’ve really done a great job looking at the data and then identifying partners because they’ve been involved in L.A. a lot. And they’ve been funding partners on the ground to talk about it right now. This time around, we’re doing an education component. We’re also identifying what I call the grass-top leaders, so maybe not all the way down to the ground just yet, but folks that are leaders and movers and shakers in the community to let them know why it’s so important.

Then, as we move into Spring – from January and February to March of 2020 - that’s when the education starts to move in to motivate and activate. That’s when we want everyone on the ground from high school students all the way to our elder folks - to understand and be ready to respond.

So, the efforts we’re doing right now are focusing on the importance, and it’s really about two things. It’s about power and it’s about it’s about money.

We talked a little about power, about being heard when it comes down to it. And it might be a little

child that is born in 2020 will be in 5th grade in 2030, and if they’re missed, will they have a seat or will they have to sit on the ground? So, in terms of money, it’s about health clinics. Will that health clinic be located close enough? I always talk about how a friend’s dad had a stroke, and he had to travel 10 extra minutes to get to a hospital because there wasn’t one close enough, and those 10 minutes can make a difference between life and death or being disabled or being able to heal. So, in terms of health care, in terms of schools, our education, in terms of traffic, everyday traffic, the roads are getting worse and worse, but if we don’t know, we’re unable to plan for how many people are going to have cars. It has everyday impact on our lives.

CBM: Let’s talk more about the fear factor. For instance, in the Black community, you may have someone with Section 8 (housing assistance), or people who may have formerly incarcerated persons, still in the system, living in their homes. One big issue is the trust factor with the Black community. People are like, “We’re not telling the government anything!” How have you all been able to get your message to permeate that attitude?

DK: There’s been a lot of testing done, and so we’re well aware of that. And there are different trust issues for different communities. And so one of the things we’ve been looking at is if they’ve tried different messages. But, at the end of the day, people think everybody’s going to get stuff on their Facebook and WhatsApp. At the end of the day, for me, even if technology is really quick, it’s really that face-to-face, that person-to-person communication that is most important. That’s human nature and that doesn’t change. That’s why the investment that we put out there has been to make sure that people in the community, whether it be faith-based, whether it be service-based - your hair stylist, your nail technician - whether it be community members that you already deal with, or even your healthcare professional in your clinic.

We want to go where people go already in the community and we want them to be trusted. A part of that is being able to tell people that there’s Title 13 that guarantees privacy.

People are like, “Well, why do they need to know my name?

Why do they need to know all this stuff?” And I think about it and it seems kind of invasive, but they do keep it private. No enforcement agency, federal, local, or anything, can get that data, so it’s safe.

I view the Census as a snapshot in time, like those coffee table books, and if you’re not counted, you’re missed.

And then, to quote my favorite play “Hamilton,” “who will tell your story if you don’t?” So it’s to up to us to rise up, to be counted, and to be able to put a stake in the ground to say “I’m here, and there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be recognized and counted.”

Census Don’t be Invisible Continued from page A1

level, we looked at the state and we took these14 variables and we came up with a hard-to-count index based on them.

(Those variables are: Percent of households without broadband subscriptions; percent of households that are non-family; percent of households that are renter occupied; percent of housing units that are vacant; percent of households that are crowded with more than 1.5 persons per room; percent of population that is foreign-born; percent of adults (25 or older) who are not high school graduates; percent of population with income below 150 percent of the poverty level; percent of households receiving public assistance; percent of persons (ages 16 or older) unemployed; percent of limited-English households; percent of persons who moved from outside a county in the past year; percent of population under 5; and percent of total housing units with three or more units in a multi-unit structure.)

What does that mean? Well, that is really because the enumeration is address-based, so it’s where you are. In order to be invited, you have to have an address, right? Think about the difficulty of counting people that are living in multi-unit apartments, or if they’re living with non-family members. So, say there is an apartment, and there are four of us living there, and we’re not related. Sometimes, one person will get the mail and the invitation to respond, and they’ll respond for themselves but forget the other three roommates. So, it sort of compounds itself in terms of the difficulty to be counted. And, of course, we have a lot of people who rent. We have a lot of people here in Los Angeles that have limited English, or that are new to the country. We have a lot of folks who are scared, or just kind of don’t care, and so it’s not just one thing that makes folks hard to count.

It’s a number of things if you kind of layer them on top of each other.

CBM: Why is the Census important for the Black community?

DK: It’s important for all our communities, of course, but particularly for the Black community. I mean they have to know we exist for us to resist, right? And if they don’t know we’re here, then we’ll be ignored. I say that both for the Black community and also for the Native American community. My Native American folks up in Northern California, the way they look at it is to save their water, and that’s what really resonates with them, because if they don’t know you’re there, they’ll take the water. That’s how they feel, so you have to think about that within your community. If people don’t understand how strong and how powerful our communities are, they don’t understand what kind of voice we could have and will have. So, it’s really about being seen. It’s about standing up. It’s about no longer being invisible for all of our communities.

CBM: What has been your outreach efforts in the community so far?

DK: We’ve divided the state into regions, and so here in Region 8 is the Los Angeles County area. We have a

bit n e r d y, but it’s our Congressional representation, too. So, we could lose a seat or two - very serious - if we’re not counted and they don’t know where we are. So, I already joke around that we don’t need Texas to be counted. They don’t need to answer (laughs), but I mean it’s because it’s a zero-sum game in terms of the way they divide up the seats.

It all depends on the response of other folks.

And it’s about money. People say “Oh! It’s about $1,000 per person, per year!” But what does that actually mean? The way I think about it when I talk to my 16-yearold daughter is: What if she, for a semester, didn’t have a chair to sit in, or a desk to sit at during her math class at this public high school? If they don’t know we’re here, if we forget children - and children 0-5 have often, in the past three decades, been missed for a number of reasons. A

Most Holiday Shopping Online Three Quarters Are “Excited” when Brands Send Deals in Emails

Gone are the days of coupon clipping, instead consumers prefer to receive discounts and deals from brands via email. In fact, two-thirds of respondents reported they open emails from brands they believed contained product deals or sales. (Photo: iStockphoto / NNPA)

SAN FRANCISCO — Leanplum, the leading multi-channel engagement platform, today announced the results of a new study* that shows consumers are shunning brick-and-mortar stores this holiday season with over 95 percent choosing to buy half or more of their gifts online.

Younger Americans (Millennials and Gen Zs) are leading the online shopping trend and over 16 percent are “only” shopping online this holiday season.

As shopping online and via mobile devices quickly becomes the new norm, personalized communication becomes even more crucial to brand success. With 80 percent of respondents reporting that they shop on their mobile phones, brands need solutions that enable them to reach their customers at appropriate touchpoints. Brands must successfully connect the right way and at the right time with their customers.

Three-quarters of shoppers find it helpful to receive emails from retailers regarding deals and promotions. In-

terestingly, 74 percent of those surveyed said they were “excited” to receive notifications from retailers about offers/sales. After receiving a notification from a brand about a deal, almost 70 percent said they would check out the offer and probably purchase the item.

However, 75 percent of respondents said generic messages from retailers annoy or bother them. Consumers have a preference for when and how they would like to receive messages from retailers. It is imperative retailers communicate with their consumers regularly regarding topics that are useful to them and in the form that they are most comfortable engaging with, to ensure consumer satisfaction and retention.

“Personalizing customer experience and communication is the cornerstone of everything we do at Afterpay,” said Frazer Adnam, CRM marketing director at Afterpay, a Leanplum customer. “Christmas is a key trading period for Afterpay and the retail sector, so it’s imperative we deliver a world-class personalization experience to our cus-

tomers and make trading seamless.”

Across all income levels, consumers reported sales as the primary reason they opened notifications from brands and retailers. Surprisingly, even respondents who earn $150,000 or more annually, stated they are most excited to receive push notifications from retailers regarding sales.

Gone are the days of coupon clipping, instead consumers prefer to receive discounts and deals from brands via email. In fact, two-thirds of respondents reported they open emails from brands they believed contained product deals or sales.

When asked about favorite shopping apps, the Amazon app dominated with 82 percent of the vote. Walmart was a very distant second with five percent of the vote, followed by second-hand marketplaces (eBay/Poshmark/ ThredUp) at four percent and Target at three percent.

Consumers had opinions about how brands communicate with them as well. Sweden’s H&M handily beat out other brands with 19 percent of the vote. Urban Outfitters (12 percent), Asos (four percent), Zara (four percent) and Brandy Melville (two percent) rounded out the top five best brands at communicating with consumers.

“As shopping habits shift online and away from brickand-mortar stores, brands must adjust to communicate with their customers via mobile,” said Momchil Kyurkchiev, CEO and co-founder of Leanplum. “Through our research, we see that it’s important that brands provide a personalized experience for each customer. At Leanplum, our core mission is to enable our customers to consistently deliver relevant, timely and personalized communications to their end users.”

Other interesting statistics include: • Nearly half (46 percent) of respondents said that they’ve bought a product because it was shown in an app or sent in an email • Over half (52 percent) of Millennials and Gen Zs will shop on Cyber Monday and Black Friday compared to just over a third of Gen Xers and Baby Boomers • About two-thirds of respondents that make $150,000 or more annually plan to do most of their holiday shopping online this year Download the complete survey report for additional tips and insights. *Leanplum surveyed 1,000 online shoppers in the United States, October 2019.

All trademarks and product names are the property of their respective companies.

A4

LOS ANGELES NEWS OBSERVER

Thursday, November 28, 2019

Sports

Wilders wins in his 10th Title Defense. (Photo Credit: Sean Michael Ham/Mayweather Promotions)

Wilder drops Ortiz in the 7th round of their rematch. (Photo Credit: Sean Michael Ham/Mayweather Promotions)

Wilder vs Ortiz Rematch at MGM Grand Arena East Coast Correspondent Damarus Stephens whatsgoodinsports.com MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada (November 23, 2019)- Tick, tock, tick, tock. Deonte “The Bronze Bomber” Wilder promised that another knockout was coming in his rematch with Luis “King Kong” Ortiz.

Some wondered why Wilder was even taking this fight when he was hurt and almost knocked out in the 7th round of the previous matchup. Well, it appears now that he was determined to leave no doubt as to who the better fighter was and is between the two, and also to send another clear message to the rest of the Heavyweight division.

In the FS2 prelims telecast, Viktor Slavinskyi (11-01, 6 KOs) earned a unanimous decision over Rigoberto Hermosillo (11-2-1, 8 KOs) in Super Featherweight action.

Cruiserweight Marsellos Wilder (5-2, 2KOs), Deonte’s brother, was knocked out in the 4 round by Dustin Long (3-1-2, 3 KOs). Vito Mielnicki Jr (3-0, 3 KOs) scored a 2nd round KO of Marklin Bailey (6-6, 4 KOs) in Welterweight action. Super lightweight Omar Juarez (6-0, 4 KOs) scored a 6th round KO with a straight right over Kevin Shacks (3-5-3, 3 KOs).

The main undercard fight featured a WBA Super

Featherweight Championship between Leo Santa Cruz (37-1-1, 19KOs) vs Miguel Flores (24-3, 12 KOs). This fight might have been one of the slower and uninspiring fights of the night with Santa Cruz picking up a unanimous decision. The preceding fights featured a split decision win for Super bantamweight Brandon Figueroa (21-0, 15 KOs) over Julio Ceja (32-5, 28 KOs) who failed to make weight for this fight. The other PPV undercard saw Eduardo Ramirez (23-2-3, 10KOs) get a 4th round KO to win over Leduan Barthelemy (15-1-1, 7 KOs).

Wilder talked about some of the most memorable rematches in the division in a pre-fight interview with PBC. Some of the more notable mentioned was Ali/Frazier and Tyson/Holyfield. The build-up of this fight could never match either of those contests due to the public not knowing much about the Cuban born Ortiz, but inside the ring, it had the potential given the competitiveness of both fighters and also what went down in New York during the first fight. Ortiz fought a very good fight that night and was aggressive early working behind his jab. Wilder did score a knockdown late in the 5th round before he almost went down in the 7th. Wilder recovered after some extra time before the 8th and went on to score the knockout victory

ASU Freshman Jayden Daniels threw for 408 yard vs. Oregon to earn Walter Camp Player of the Week.

(Courtesy Photo)

in the 10th round.

Enough history though and back to this 2019 heavyweight rematch. Betting odds were of course in favor of Wilder given his knockout record and also winning the previous fight by KO. As with any boxing match you look to see who would land the first big shot and how the recipient would react. This fight went a lot like the first fight with Ortiz winning the earlier rounds. The official scoring had Ortiz winning the fight through 6 rounds on all three scorecards. Ortiz was controlling the pace of the fight with Wilder only landing maybe 3 hard shots.

And that brings us to the infamous 7th round. This time it belonged to Wilder. With a cannon of a shot, he unleashed his infamous right-hand bomb after seemingly lulling Ortiz in. Ortiz dropped his left hand and left himself open just long enough to get caught by Wilder’s straight right hand. And just like that, it was over. Tick tock, tick tock! With this victory, Wilder moves to 42-0-1, with 41 KOs, while Ortiz suffers his 2nd professional loss falling to 31-2, with 26 KOs. Ortiz’s performance was one that should get him another title shot against another opponent even though he was knocked out. Of course, everyone will be looking for Wilder to face the Ruiz/Joshua winner or

a rematch with Tyson Fury. As for Ortiz, he stated in the post-fight press conference that he will be taking out his frustrations on his next couple of opponents. Wilder stated in his post-fight presser that he plans to fight as soon as February against Tyson Fury. Either way, these two guys pose a definite problem for the rest of the heavyweight division.

Wilders’ knockout capped off another impressive another great night of boxing at the MGM Grand Arena.

His patience was impressive and I’m looking forward to seeing if he can replicate the performance in his upcoming rematch against Tyson Fury in February. Please let us your thoughts on Wilders’ 10th consecutive title defense by commenting in the comment section of this article on www. whatsgoodinsports.com or by following me on Twitter @ whatsgoodnsport for immediate engagement. Additionally, subscribe to our weekly “Voice of the Fans Podcast” which is available for you on most podcasting platforms, Apple and Google Podcasts including Spotify, TuneIn, and iHeart Radio. As always, we certainly appreciate you for making our voice your choice!

OSU Chase Young was named Walter Camp Player of the Week for the second time this season. (Courtesy Photo)

ASU Daniels and Ohio States Young are

Walter Camp Winners

By Earl Heath Contributing Sports Writer It was a proud moment as Arizona State Freshman Jayden Daniels as he earned The Walter Camp National Offensive Player of the Week after completing 22-of-32 passes for a season-high 408 yards and three touchdowns as Arizona State (6-5) upset No. 6 Oregon

31-28. He was almost perfect in the first half completing 12 of 14 passes for 183 yards. With his 57 yard TD pass he surpassed former Sun Devil Rudy Carpenter (2005) and set a new freshman record for most yards in a season.

The San Bernardino (Cajon High) native threw scoring passes of 57, 26, and 81 yards as the Sun Devils snapped a four-game losing streak with their first victory

over a top-five team since 2017.

Daniels is the fourth Arizona State player to earn Walter Camp National Player of the Week honors since 2004, and the first offensive honoree since former Sun Devil wide receiver Jaelen Strong (Oct. 5, 2014).

On the Defensive side it was Chase Young of Ohio State. The Junior DE posted a career-best nine tackles,

including four tackles-for-loss, three quarterback sacks and forced two fumbles as second-ranked Ohio State defeated ninth-ranked Penn State, 28-17. The Hyattsville, (De Matha High) native has 38 tackles, nearly half are for losses. His three sacks allowed him to set the Ohio State single season record with 16.5.This is the second time. This season young has earned the award.

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Thursday, November 28, 2019

LOS ANGELES NEWS OBSERVER A5

Entertainment

Lizzo Premieres Emotional Ballad at AMAs

If ABC sees a ratings spike from Sunday’s American Music Awards, they can go ahead and blame it on Lizzo.

The singer — who entered the 2019 AMAs with three nominations, including New Artist of the Year — had everyone at the Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theater feeling loose with a fiery performance of her new single “Jerome.”

Watch footage of Lizzo’s performance below (with official video to be added when it becomes available): Taking into consideration all of Lizzo’s previous televised performances, expectations were understandably high for her debut at Sunday’s American Music Awards. Need we remind you of her performance at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards earlier this year? (Four words: World’s.

Largest. Bouncing. Booty.)

Lizzo’s spotlight moment at the AMAs is just the latest in a series of personal victories for the fierce flutist this month. Not only was she recently nominated for eight Grammy Awards — including Album of the Year for Cuz I Love You — but it was also announced that she’ll make her Saturday Night Live debut as Eddie Murphy’s musical guest on Dec. 21.

Lizzo – who earned eight Grammy nominations performed at last Sunday’s American Music Awards.

Dear Hollywood, Wise Up On Aging

By Cheryl Brown and Stuart Greenbaum Special To California Black Media Partners Does Hollywood lead or follow when it comes to important social causes? Judging by recent concerns - of equality, equity and diversity - it mostly follows. The bottom line, that is: the money, the box office, the ratings.

Which is only fair since entertainment is business, after all, not charity.

Suppose, however, there is a vital cause that Hollywood cannot only lead, but offers the industry the potential to produce both economic and social benefits? It would be an opportunity for redemption, not to mention the role of a lifetime. And it would be a surefire winner: Promote healthy and purposeful longevity.

Hollywood need only refer to the industry’s old adage for inspiration: Every story is a coming-of-age story.

Ironically, older adults are under-represented and misrepresented on TV and film. They make up about 20 percent of the population but only about 10 percent of the speaking roles on TV and film. Worse, according to 2017 research conducted by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, ageist comments appeared in 41 percent of TV shows they analyzed.

The numbers don’t add up. Individuals 65-and-older are the fastest growing segment of society. Within a generation, older adults will outnumber children under the age of 18 for the first time in history. They watch twice as much TV as 18-34-year-olds, according to the Nielsen ratings.

And, as Oxford Economics reports, individuals 50-and-

over control almost 80 percent of the net worth in the United States and account for a disproportionate amount of consumer spending.

Hollywood has the opportunity to make good at the box office and do good for society. This fortunate coincidence, the California Commission on Aging determined, should be exploited. As state government’s mandated advocate on behalf of older adults, the Commission convened representatives from the fields of entertainment and aging in May 2018 to advance their mutually beneficial goals.

The resultant “Wise Up On Aging” (@WiseUpOnAging) initiative encourages Hollywood’s content developers to represent older adults and aging-related storylines more authentically and more often. In effect, to “normalize” rather than contrive our longevity. Represent aging as something everyone will experience; as all-inclusive as it is inevitable. At the same time shelve the stereotypes of older adults as frail and senile, clueless and cranky, unfiltered and unaware, and dependent and depressed. And minimize the other overwrought tropes and memes of older adults as doting grandparents, annoying in-laws and defiant bucket-listers. The best storytelling educates and elevates while it entertains.

The truth is older adults are complex, multi-dimensional and diverse. Our physicality, mentality and emotions differ as much as with any age. Moreover, it is critical to understand that “older” is a relative term. Between the millions of mature 50-year-olds represented by AARP and the 50,000-plus centenarians alive today, there are five de-

cades of distinct generations and life styles and experiences.

“The industry is becoming more integrated, diversified … and ageless,” veteran actress Marla Gibbs, shares.

Known from “The Jeffersons,” “Blackish” (above photo) and nearly 100 other films and TV shows in her four-decades-plus career, Gibbs has witnessed historic social movements influence the culture of Hollywood and vice versa.

“I appreciate my recurring roles as well as the new ones that are planned. I believe Hollywood is heading in the right direction,” Gibbs says. But is quick to add, “To see more older-adult roles and aging storylines, audiences need to show their support.”

Everyone has a role to play in this initiative.

What does it mean for Hollywood to “wise up on aging?” For example, content developers can trust authorities to help navigate aging-related issues such as health concerns, abilities and challenges, opportunities and expectations, language and labels, relevancy and purpose, and lifestyles and living conditions. They can cast against type and include older adults randomly in roles that typically go to younger people. And, for reality’s sake, producers and showrunners can take advantage of older writers with real-life, first-hand experience.

Aging advocates have a serious role to play as well.

This includes the California Commission on Aging and other professionals in the field of aging, whose message is that, sooner or later, the aging process affects all of us … not them. How well we support older adults today will impact those who follow our footsteps. This is “generativ-

ity:” one generation helping the next. Whereas the USC research confirms Hollywood needs to expand its view of aging, advocates can incentivize content developers with more sanguine research by Yale from 2002 which found that older adults with a positive perception of their own aging experience live an average of 7.5 years longer. This is not to suggest that all portrayals and storylines featuring older adults need to be positive, simply realistic.

With all due respect and humility, there is no telling Hollywood what they should do. But there are ways for viewers to be agents of change by encouraging and ultimately influencing their actions. If not already, older adult viewers should become familiar with cable and streaming platforms which tend to be more progressive in embracing older adults as a relevant, albeit niche audience. Viewers should support TV shows and films that get aging right.

And they should be vocal and share perspectives on social media, and with editors and reviewers.

To Hollywood, positive word-of-mouth is more than desirable, it is bankable. Regardless, there is no certainty the industry will take the lead on showing respect for older adults. Though they will definitely follow the money, which for better and worse is an ageless pursuit. Thus, it is for aging advocates and viewers of all ages to let Hollywood know we’re keeping a critical eye on how well the TV and film industry ages into the future.

Bill Cosby Speaks from Prison

By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia November 24, 2019 — Bill Cosby breaks his silence, granting his first exclusive interview since beginning his sentence at SCI-Phoenix, a maximum-security Pennsylvania penetentiary near Philadelphia.

Today, in a special phone call with the National Newspaper Publishers Association’s BlackPressUSA.com, Cosby said he’s spending his time helping to teach and encourage a large population of African American inmates – men he calls residents — via Mann Up, a prison reform program.

The 82-year-old educator and award-winning TV producer/director/comedian was sentenced to serve 3-to10-years in Pennsylvania’s prison system following his September 2018 conviction on charges of aggravated indecent assault.

Unless he receives relief from the state’s appellate courts, Cosby said he fully anticipates serving his entire sentence, saying he’s not guilty and will never admit to something he didn’t do. Displayed remorse is generally a required prerequisite to obtaining parole or a shortened sentence.

During the exclusive interview with NNPA, Cosby was candid, vivid and outspoken.

Andrew Wyatt, Cosby’s spokesman, was also on the call, where Cosby stressed that there would be no ground rules or restrictions. No topics were off-the-table for discussion.

Cosby received no special treatment from the facility for this interview. Because inmates are only allowed to remain on phone calls for 15-minutes, Cosby had to call back multiple times in order to complete today’s interview.

“I have eight years and nine months left,” Cosby stated. “When I come up for parole, they’re not going to hear me say that I have remorse. I was there. I don’t care what group of people come along and talk about this when they weren’t there. They don’t know.”

He said his trials were a sham, unjust and not fair.

“It’s all a set up. That whole jury thing. They were imposters,” Cosby stated.

“Look at the woman who blew the whistle,” he said, alluding to the potential juror who overheard a seated juror proclaim before the trial that, “he’s guilty, we can all go home now.”

“Then she went in and came out smiling, it’s something attorneys will tell you is called a payoff,” Cosby stated. “I know what they’ve done to my people. But my people are going to view me and say, ‘that boy looks good.

That boy is strong.’ I have too many heroes that I’ve sat with. Too many heroes whom I listened to like John Henrik Clarke, Kenneth Clark, and Dorothy Height. Those people are very strong, and they saw the rejection of their people. This is political. I can see the whole thing.”

“I am a privileged man in prison,” he stated.

During the call, Cosby referred to his small cell as “my penthouse.”

He revisited his famous 2004 “Pound Cake” speech and clarified that he probably should not have addressed that controversial dissertation to all African Americans – the residents at SCI-Phoenix make for the perfect audience, Cosby stated.

Cosby said he remains concerned, however, for all of Black America.

“They are under siege. This thing with the drugs and the different pockets of the neighborhoods where it’s going on. When you look at what drugs are doing… things that make these people drive around and shoot into crowds,” Cosby said.

“The insanity of what is the cause to the brain by all the drugs these people are dealing with. It’s exactly what I warned them about in 2004. They’ve thrown education out the window.

“They’ve thrown respect for the family out the window, and they’re blaming each other for what’s going on.

There is post-traumatic stress syndrome, and there are also bad manners.”

While inmates who spoke to NNPA Newswire said they were saddened to see an icon like Cosby imprisoned, each said they believe he’s serving a higher purpose. Cosby

NNPA Exclusive:

He revisited his famous 2004 “Pound Cake” speech and clarified that he probably should not have addressed that controversial dissertation to all African Americans – the residents at SCI-Phoenix make for the perfect audience, Cosby stated. Cosby said he remains concerned, however, for all of Black America.

Bill Cosby (Courtesy Photo)

agreed.

“I don’t belong to the Mann Up Association, but it’s a privilege to come in and speak,” Cosby stated. “I never wanted them to lord me up (be put on a pedestal). This is a great privilege.”

A weekly highlight for Cosby since his incarceration, has been the reform program, Mann Up, where he is often the featured speaker. The program serves to encourage and empower African American men to strive for self-respect and dignity, and to put their family first.

Anthony “Benny-Do” Sutton, Tyree Wallace, Robert Groves, and Michael Butler, each spoke from SCI-Phoenix to NNPA Newswire about the program and Cosby’s influence.

“Every Tuesday, Mr. Cosby and I sit down and talk before the other residents come in and he explains to me what moves I need to make so that Mann Up can be a success,” stated Sutton, 56, who has spent his entire adult life in prison.

“He says to always remember to work as a team. We are all in this life together and Mr. Cosby is a political prisoner and he tells us that we’ve got to save our babies. We can’t be out there killing our children and our women,” Sutton stated.

Wallace, who has served more than two decades in prison, said Cosby has also opened his eyes because of his authenticity.

“This powerful man, one of the best comics, a legend and here he is with us,” Wallace told NNPA Newswire.

“Mr. Cosby comes into the room with his fist in the air and all of these men rise up and applaud him. He gives us so much wisdom and the Mann Up program is the perfect vehicle. He told us a story about his mother, and how she would have him clean the hallways after guys would go and urinate. He said he’d ask her why he had to clean it, and she told him that you have to clean where you live,” Wallace said.

Groves and Butler echoed their peers.

Both have served more than a dozen years in prison and said Cosby’s presence has helped them to see their lives differently.

Cosby recalled entering Temple University as a young

man in the 1960s and his desire to become a teacher.

“I’m not a psychiatrist, and I’m not a psychologist. I’m an educator, and what I look forward to is talking to this group of 400 or so men. Some of them here are in their 70s, in their 50s, their 40s, 30s, and 20s,” Cosby said.

“I tell them what I know and what I feel. I feel that everything that I said in 2004, there is a light [behind it],” Cosby stated.

“The mistake I made [in 2004] is making it sound like all the people were making the infractions, and that’s not true.”

Cosby stated that he believes he’s in the right place at the right time because he’s spent his life and career trying to reach African American men.

“I’m looking at a state [Pennsylvania] that has a huge number of prisons, and the one I’m in, thankfully, has the largest population of African Americans,” Cosby stated.

“These are guys who are also from Philadelphia, where I grew up. Many of them are from the neighborhood. Michael Eric Dyson said ‘Bill Cosby is rich and forgot where he came from.’

“That’s not true. I’m not calling him a liar; I’m saying that’s not true. What I’m saying is that it’s not the same neighborhood as it was when I was coming up.

“The influx of drugs and what they’ve done with their own history. If they would pay attention to these things and put education first and respect for others first…it’s almost insane to hear someone say they don’t know how to be a father.

“As I said earlier, the revolution is in the home, and we’ve got to put it there. Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On,’ is very prophetic in that too many of us are dying in these neighborhoods. Too many of us dying and, another quote from the song, is ‘we’ve got to find a way.’”

It’s easy to see the devaluation of the Black family by others, Cosby stated.

He said the shelving of his iconic “The Cosby Show” is proof that those in power have long conspired to remove anything positive from the Black community.

“When ‘The Cosby Show’ came on with the Huxtables, just think about it. While it was running, other networks and even the media were doing jobs on trying to

belittle whatever it represented,” Cosby stated.

Then, with ‘A Different World,’ they really ramped up the rhetoric. “While new shows were coming and we had gone off the air – this is the worst time in the history of television – I remember hearing shows coming on advertising saying this is not ‘The Cosby Show,’ which is an indictment in itself.

“They did not like what ‘The Cosby Show’ looked like for us, and many of us traded into it. Now, look at what has happened. They’ve taken everything that I’ve done and swept it into a place where it would not be shown.

“Thank goodness for TV One and BET, but we’ve got to respect ourselves. We’ve got to have a very, very strong respect for our history.”

Behind the steel walls at SCI-Phoenix, Cosby said he’s at peace.

His fellow residents often ask about his contemporaries like Richard Pryor, whom Cosby once encouraged to use profanity because it fit Pryor’s act.

“It’s a huge smile in my spirit. I can… use their own profanity back at them. I’m saying things to them like, ‘how many times if you have a lamp, do you rub it, give it three wishes. And, how many times can you say mother f—-r and things will come true?” Cosby stated.

“Sometimes, you have to turn on the conjugation of things like slang. You speak it in the home, and that’s what I said in 2004. It was the shock of hearing, ‘Where you is?’, and ‘Where you at?’ and then hear the parents say it too.”

Cosby believes he’s reaching his fellow residents.

“I’m reaching them because they want to be reached.

They’re in prison. I don’t forget a saying, one I quoted or read in a book, which says, ‘I don’t know the secret to success, but I do know the secret for failure.’ You can’t please everybody. I have a feeling that these people [Mann Up participants] really want somebody. They have rappers here who are strong and spirited people. They don’t just blame people; they say, ‘we’ve got to do it.’”

Cosby has also served as a voice of reason in prison.

“I heard a guy say to someone that if someone did something he didn’t like, he’d go out and get all his boys and they’d kill the fella. I said, how much sense does that make? You call your boys, and they want to kill him,” Cosby stated.

“I said to look at all the people you’ve got involved, and when you get caught, you are all going to jail, and you got one dead fella. ‘Call if off,’ I told the guy. I said to him that you need to call your friends, too.”

Cosby often tells his fellow residents about an epiphany he had while serving in the Navy, which has allowed him to remain in good spirits while behind bars.

“I got a wife, family, and friends who are so happy that I have something. I go into my penthouse and lay down and start to think about how I can relay a message and give it on Saturdays (during Mann Up sessions) so that they would hear it and feel it,” Cosby stated.

“This Saturday, I gave a talk dedicated to women. I told the story of my wife, who said to me when she got back home after bringing our 43-year-old daughter back home dead from the hospital. It was the most difficult thing she’s ever done in her life, to sit there and watch her daughter die,” he stated.

“From there, I went into the fact that mothers have something that we all have, which is a navel. We have to respect our mothers and our women. We’ve got to stop buying drugs. If you have no buyer, you can’t sell,” Cosby stated.

After calling back a third time to complete the interview, Cosby said he needed to express the critical role the Black Press has had in telling his story.

“Sixty-five years from now, they will be quoting what you’ve written about your fellow journalists. [Wyatt] has information on how these people have rejected the truth.

You have the information too because you were in that courtroom,” he stated.

“I’m a privileged man. You talk to [NNPA President and CEO] Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., and he will tell you that there is a history of Black political imprisonment in America, and it’s repeating itself in some kind of way.”

A6

LOS ANGELES NEWS OBSERVER

Local

Thursday, November 28, 2019

LA Clippers Foundation Partner to Feed Over 500

Montrezl Harrell and Maurice Harkless meet and greet needy families in attendance at St. Joseph’s Center in Santa Monica. (Cam Buford Photo)

By Cameron Buford whatsgoodinsports.com To continue their investments in the city they work and play in, the L.A. Clippers Foundation have united to give back to the communities of Los Angeles. In concert with 99 Cents Only Stores, they will host the 31st annual Teamwork at the Table Thanksgiving event. In addition to partnering with local supermarket chains, they will be distributing food items, turkeys, and clothing to 500 preselected families in need.

In attendance were Los Angeles Clippers players JaMychal Green, Maurice Harkless, Montrezl Harrell, and Ivica Zubac along with Clippers staff. They were also joined by season ticket members and corporate partners, including volunteers from Bumble to distribute these holidays gift bags at St. Joseph Center in Venice. Partners Ralphs and Food 4 Less have donated turkeys and trimmings to this Teamwork at the Table initiative.

St. Joseph Center is a non-profit social service agency that helps over 7,000 individuals annually. The Center’s mission is to provide working poor families, as well as homeless men, women, and children of all ages with the inner resources and tools to become productive, stable and self-supporting members of the community.

The L.A. Clippers Foundation recently provided

food and personal care items to 1,000 families in need at the annual Feed the Community event just before their season began. In the genuine spirit of the holidays, the L.A. Clipper foundation giving will continue headlined by the 14th annual Adopt A Family event on December 16, more detail to follow. To inspire children through the game of basketball and utilize its unique position to provide resources and opportunities that make a positive difference toward leveling the playing field for youth in Southern California.

The Los Angeles Clippers Organization and Foundation should be applauded for their actions and willingness to give back to the community. Does their community involvement make the team more likable and would their continuous community efforts encourage you to switch your rooting allegiance? Please share your thoughts with us by commenting in the comment section of this article on www.whatsgoodinsports.com or by following me on Twitter at “Voice of the Fans” for immediate engagement.

Additionally, subscribe to our weekly “Voice of the Fans Podcast” which is available for you on Apple and Google Podcasts including Spotify, TuneIn, and iHeart Radio. As always, we certainly appreciate you for making our voice your choice!

California Black Briefs:

What to Do if You’re Slapped with a Rent Increase or a No-Fault Eviction and More News Stories You Should Know About reductions, etc., - but he says the issue is “personal” to him.

“I would like to see, in my lifetime and hopefully my tenure, that we shut down a state prison,” he said. “But you can’t do that flippantly. And you can’t do that without the support of the unions, support of these communities, the staff, and that requires an alternative that can meet everyone’s needs and desires.”

Moving California away from over-focusing on punishment to strengthening prevention programs, as well as providing rehabilitation and reintegration assistance for formerly incarcerated people, is his priority, said Newsom.

The state is investing $20 million in the 2019-20 budget to help formerly incarcerated people successfully reintegrate into their communities through the California Community Reinvestment Grant program.

Why You Should Be Paying Attention to Prop 13 California Black Media Staff

Landlords are Hiking Rents Before Rent Control Law Takes Effect Before a new rent control law Gov. Newsom signed in October goes into effect in January, some landlords around the state are trying trying to get ahead of the restrictions they see coming by slapping tenants now with double-digit rent increases and no-violation evictions.

AB 1482, the Tenant Protection Act of 2019, will the amount landlords can hike rents within one year to 5 percent, plus local inflation. It will also protect tenants who have rented a place for more than one year from noviolation evictions.

The law only exempts rented single family homes and condos that are not owned by corporations.

There are reports from all around the state about the sudden new rent increases and rise in evictions. According to a renter advocacy group “Tenants Together” about 36 cities – including Long Beach, Los Angeles, Pasadena and

Stockton - have responded by passing local ordinances to prevent evictions or place temporary moratoriums on rent increases.

The good news is that once the law goes into effect next year, any rents raised since March 2019, the month the bill was referred to the Legislature, will drop back to what they were at the time. But evictions that happened in that same period will not be reversed.

“Tenants Together” says there are legal resources and vital information available to help Californians affected by rent hikes. Communities can also pressure their local governments to pass urgent ordinances against the practices.

Some landlords are pushing back, saying that this period before the signed bill becomes law allows them an 11th-hour chance to bring the rent on their properties up to market prices and get rid of bad tenants.

Govenor Newsom Wants to Close One State Prison

Gov. Gavin Newsom said earlier this month that he wants to close at least one state prison in California - where there is a disproportionate number of African Americans serving sentences in the state penitentiary system the Department of Correction and rehabilitation mostly runs and costs taxpayers more than $15 billion a year.

Although African Americans only make up about 5.6 percent of California’s population, Black prisoners account for more than 28 percent of all inmates in state prison.

The governor has neither decided which prison he wants to close nor spelled out how he would go about doing it – taking into account jobs, other local concerns, sentence

About 65 percent of Californians are happy with Prop 13, according to CalMatters.

It is a 1978 ballot measure that limits the amount of tax that can be applied to a home or commercial space to 2 percent of the property value a year and 1 percent of the same amount when it is sold.

But recently, there has been rising support among people around the state for revising parts of Prop 13 to allow larger tax increases on commercial properties, but not on homes.

If the more than 400 civic and political groups – as well as elected officials, activists and ordinary citizens backing the proposal get their way, and the initiative gets placed on the 2020 ballot, it could play out to be one of the biggest political fights in the state next year.

Supporters of the “Schools and Community First” initiative say new tax revenues from commercial properties would generate around $12 billion in much-needed funding for public services and education around the state.

Gov. Recaps State Efforts to Fight Wildfires and Help People Affected PG&E Blackouts

Last week, Gov. Newsom recapped in detail the different ways the state mobilized resources to help Californians, including people with disabilities, in response to the recent wildfires and PG&E blackouts in October that affected more than a million people in at least 35 counties.

He said all state agencies - concerned with everything from health and social services to business, transportation and public safety - joined hands with non-profits and private companies like AT&T, Adobe, Apple, Google, Facebook, and more, to help affected Californians who needed it most.

“Faced with the unprecedented decision by PG&E to leave millions of Californians without power, the State of California sprung into action to protect vulnerable residents,” said Gov. Newsom. “Our world-class emergency responders and emergency agencies battled on multiple fronts – dangerous fire conditions and Public Safety Power Shutoffs. Through prepositioning of firefighting assets and mobilizing emergency response systems, California was able to avoid the major loss of life that has occurred under similar conditions.”

The Governor said the state has also kicked off a $75 million program to help state and local governments provide assistance to their residents during shutoffs.

A new website, RESPONSE.CA.GOV, will also “serve as a one-stop portal for resources available to Californians impacted by wildfires and power shutoffs,” the governor’s office said.