Woman Raises over $320,000 for a Selfless Homeless Man
Confederate Monument Pedestals Repurposed for Music Video Page A5
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News Observer Los Angeles
Volume 33 Number 5
1 Killed in Crash of Small Plane
FFRREEEE!!
Observer Group Newspapers of Southern California
Thursday, November 30, 2017
Markle’s Black Girl Sparkle Meghan is Bringing it to the British Royal Family!
TEHACHAPI, Calif. (AP) _ Authorities say one person was killed in the crash of a small plane in Southern California mountains. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor says the single-engine Cessna 152 crashed Sunday evening near Tehachapi. Kern County Fire Department Capt. Jason Knaggs says a body was recovered from the wreckage in a mountainous area southeast of Bakersfield. Gregor says the pilot was the only person on board. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the cause of the crash.
LA Police Say Armed Robber Wears White Paper Mask LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Los Angeles police are searching for an armed robber suspected of holding up at least six businesses while wearing a white paper mask. Investigators say the half-dozen crimes have occurred since Nov. 7 at restaurants and other establishments in the Highland Park and Eagle Rock neighborhoods. In each robbery, officials say, the man has entered the business wearing a black hooded sweat shirt and a white paper mask with holes for the eyes, nose and mouth _ similar to masks used in cosmetic facials. He flashed a small revolver and demanded money before fleeing in a silver Nissan Sentra or similar vehicle. The Los Angeles Times reports Wednesday that police describe him as a Latino man in his late 20s or early 30s, about 5-foot-5 and 200 pounds.
Boy Dies After Truck Lands on Bunk Bed MADERA, Calif. (AP) _ Authorities say an 11-year-old boy is dead after a truck hit a propane tank and slammed on top of a bedroom where two children were sleeping in a bunk bed. KFSN-TV reported Saturday that the driver had suffered a medical emergency that caused him to drift into a shoulder and hit a propane tank. The crash launched his vehicle into a house in Madera Ranchos near Fresno in California’s Central Valley. The 36-year-old driver is also dead. The nine-year-old boy was rescued but the 11-year-old boy, called Tito by his family, was pinned under the truck. California Highway Patrol Officer Rafael Rivera said the early morning Saturday crash could have been much worse given that the propane tank was still leaking when authorities arrived.
Police Capture 8 Year Old Girl for Stealing Car ANDERSON, Ind. (AP) _ It’s unlikely that a suspected car thief in Anderson will face any jail time, but she may end up being grounded. That’s because the person behind the wheel of a stolen Jeep in Anderson that police chased and forced to stop on Friday was the 8-year-old daughter of the woman who reported it stolen. The (Anderson) Herald Bulletin reports the chase began on State Road 32 when police spotted the vehicle. Police spokesman Joel Sandefur says the girl was driving erratically at about 40 mph before authorities in the community of Lapel boxed the Jeep in and forced it to stop outside a convenience store. The girl refused to get out of the vehicle and suffered minor cuts when the officers broke a window to get her out.
Britain Not Fazed by Mixed-Race Fiance By GREGORY KATZ Associated Press LONDON (AP) _ Meghan Markle is the first person who identifies as mixed race to marry a senior member of the British royal family _ but that caused barely a ripple in Britain on Monday amid speculation about her engagement ring and the site of the spring nuptials. The lack of focus on Markle's heritage _ her father is white and her mother is African-American _ reflects Britain's increasingly open attitudes toward race. Former Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind said Markle's mixed-race background would have been a huge story decades ago, but goes virtually unnoticed now. “It's the least interesting aspect of the day's news,'' he said. “It's not an issue. There is no controversy. The world has moved on.'' The election last year of Sadiq Khan, whose parents migrated from Pakistan, as London's first Muslim mayor also showed the declining importance ascribed to racial backgrounds, Rifkind said. “People were aware of it, but the population didn't give a damn,'' he said. “Britain has problems, but this shows Britain is a very tolerant society.''
That doesn't mean Britain and its institutions are free from racial discrimination. Non-whites have lower incomes, suffer a disproportionate number of hate crimes, and are often stereotyped in the media. Prince Harry said as much last November in an angry broadside accusing some elements of the British press of racism in stories about Markle. In a statement issued by the palace, Harry denounced “the smear on the front page of a national newspaper; the racial undertones of comment pieces; and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments.'' Hours after their engagement was announced Monday, the couple appeared together in a joint TV interview and Markle was asked about the scrutiny over her ethnicity. “Of course it's disheartening,'' she said. “You know it's a shame that that is the climate in this world, to focus that much on that, or that that would be discriminatory in that sense. “But I think you know at the end of the day I'm really just proud of who I am and where I come from, and we have never put any focus on that,'' Markle added. “We've just focused on who we are as a couple.''
Markle's entry into the royal family - with its extensive wealth, vast holdings of art and real estate, and taste for pomp and ceremony - has been welcomed by some as a way to breathe fresh air into what has at times seemed a staid institution jokingly called “the firm.'' “In a court and household that is still about as white as it was in (Queen) Victoria's day, perhaps change has to start at the top,'' historian Kate Williams wrote in The Guardian. Markle is close to both of her parents, who divorced when she was a child. “While my mixed heritage may have created a gray area surrounding my self-identification, keeping me with a foot on both sides of the fence, I have come to embrace that,'' she wrote for an American magazine. “To say who I am, to share where I'm from, to voice my pride in being a strong, confident mixed-race woman.'' She has described seeing her mother peppered with racial epithets in Los Angeles and the pain that brought her, and how her grandfather wasn't allowed to eat at Kentucky Fried Chicken when he was a child.
$14.8 Billion in Economic Impact By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Contributor Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) generate $14.8 billion in economic impact annually, which is equivalent to a ranking in the top 200 on the Fortune 500 list of America’s largest corporations, according to a stunning new report by the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). The report, conducted by the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business Selig Center for Economic Growth, revealed that the 1,634-student Alabama school generates $67 million for its local region. In total, the nation’s HBCUs generate $14.8 billion in economic impact annually; that’s equivalent to a ranking in the top 200 on the Fortune 500 list of America’s largest corporations. This estimate includes direct spending by HBCUs on faculty, employees, academic programs and operations, and by students attending the institutions, as well as the follow-on effects of that spending. Public HBCUs account for $9.6 billion of that total economic impact, while private HBCUs account for $5.2 billion. The economic impact of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) on their local communities has never been stronger, especially at Miles College in Fairfield, Ala. A new report funded by the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) and Fact sheets for the economic impact of individual HBCUs are available at https://www.uncf.org/programs/hbcu-impact. “It’s the first time that we’ve had a study conducted by such a professional institution to recognize the importance of HBCUs and particularly the impact on our community,” Miles College President Dr. George T. French, Jr., told the NNPA Newswire. “We’ve talked in general terms, but to quantify this is important so that our partners can understand the value of our institution. Continued on page A2