Janet Jackson, Nicki Minaj, Kevin Hart on Tap for Essence – A3
A Critical Figure in the Civil Rights Movement, Autherine Lucy Foster Dies at 92 – A4
Opioid Settlement: California, 13 Other States, to Share $30 Billion-Plus in Payouts – A4
News Observer The Valley’s
Volume 37 Number 17
Serving the San Fernando Valley for Over 37 Years
Observer Group Newspapers of Southern California
Parents Plead Not Guilty to Slaying Missing California Boys
This photo provided by the Kern County District Attorney’s Office from their Facebook page from a video news conference feed, shows photos displayed of Orrin West and Orson West prior to a news conference by Kern County District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer to discuss recent developments in the case involving the two brothers on Wednesday, March 2, 2022 in Bakersfield, Calif. The adoptive parents of the boys who were reported missing in 2020 have been charged with killing their children, although their bodies have not been found, authorities said Wednesday. (Kern County District Attorney’ Office)
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (AP) _ The adoptive parents of two California boys who were reported missing in 2020 pleaded not guilty Thursday to killing them. Trezell West, 35, and Jacqueline West, 32, entered pleas in a Bakersfield courtroom to two counts of seconddegree murder, two felony counts of willful cruelty to a child and a misdemeanor charge of making a false report of an emergency. They could face 30 years to life in prison if convicted. They were ordered held without bail, with the judge calling them “a significant and substantial risk to public safety.” “Just knowing that they are handcuffed and they aren’t leaving is a blessing,” Rosanna Willis, a cousin to the missing boys, told KERO-TV. “I could finally get some sleep now, you know, knowing they’re not out just running. So it’s a lot of relief on our family.” The Wests were indicted by a grand jury and arrested Tuesday night. Their trial is tentatively set for May 23. Their sons Orrin West, 4, and Orson West, 3, were reported missing from their family’s backyard in the desert town of California City on Dec. 21, 2020. A huge search by law enforcement agencies and community members failed to find them. In announcing their arrests, Kern County District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer said investigators believe the boys died three months before the parents reported them missing but she declined to provide details until the trial. The bodies of the children haven’t been found. The family has four other children, two of them also adopted, and all are in protective custody. The missing boys lived with the Wests since 2018. The couple fostered them and then officially adopted them in 2019. The family previously lived in Bakersfield, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) west of California City. Zimmer previously said that a week after the boys were reported missing “crucial information came to light” that brought in the involvement of police in Bakersfield.
Take One!
Thursday, March 10, 2022
Florida Police Chief Fired Over Discriminaton Issues FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) – A Florida police chief
has been fired after only about six months on the job following an investigation into several discrimination complaints. A city of Fort Lauderdale news release said the chief, Larry Scirotto, 48, was fired by City Manager Chris Lagerbloom on Thursday. The complaints centered on allegations that Scirotto made hiring and promotion decisions with an improper minority-first approach. Scirotto, a former assistant chief in Pittsburgh, was the first openly gay chief hired in Fort Lauderdale and also is from a mixed-race background. An investigation into the bias complaints concluded that Scirotto was unfairly focused on minority candidates for jobs and noted that he once said a conference room wall of photos was “too white” and said, “I’m gonna change that.” Another time, when considering a promotion, the investigation found that Scirotto said “which one is blacker?” The report quoted Scirotto as saying he intended to “consider diversity at every opportunity.” “Overall, there is a very divisive atmosphere within the department based on the perception the chief is intentionally using race, gender and sexual orientation as attributes necessary for promotions,” the investigative report concluded. “While the goal to diversify is an important and laudable goal it must be accomplished in a legally permissible manner.” The acting police chief will be Luis Alvarez, who is currently an assistant chief. The department has about 530 officers and 179 civilian employees.
Court Refuses to Dismiss Suits Alleging Gerrymandering
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday refused to dismiss three lawsuits that challenge new Republican-drawn congressional redistricting maps. Attorney General Derek Schmidt made the request, arguing that the state court system does not have jurisdiction to decide disputes over redistricting for federal offices. All three of the suits allege that the new maps impermissibly gerrymandered in violation of the Kansas Constitution. Two of the lawsuits were filed in Wyandotte County District Court in the Kansas City area, on behalf of aggrieved voters. They raise concerns that the new maps would cost U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, the state’s only Democrat in Congress, some of the territory in her Kansas City-area district that she carries by wide margins in elections. The third lawsuit was filed in Douglas County District Court. The focus of that suit is that the maps move Lawrence from the 2nd District of northeast Kansas into the sprawling 1st District of central and western Kansas with conservative Republican communities hours away by car. Republican lawmakers have dismissed allegations of gerrymandering.
Dan David Prize Goes to 9 History Scholars, Each Gets $300K Jacqueline West, left, stands at her arraignment with attorney Alekxia Torres-Stallings in Kern County Superior Court in Bakersfield, Calif., Thursday, March 10, 2022. Jacqueline and Trezell West, the adoptive parents of two small California boys who were reported missing in 2020, have been charged with killing the children, although their bodies have not been found. (Rodney Thornburg/The Bakersfield Californian via AP)
Trezell West, right, stands next to Mia Shawwa, an attorney from the Kern County Indigent Defense Program, during his arraignment in Kern County Superior Court in Bakersfield, Calif., Thursday, March 10, 2022. Jacqueline and Trezell West, the adoptive parents of two small California boys who were reported missing in 2020, have been charged with killing the children, although their bodies have not been found. (Rodney Thornburg/The Bakersfield Californian via AP)
Critics to Gov. Newsom: Cut Gas Tax, Lower Prices at the Pump
Gas prices are advertised at over five dollars a gallon Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/ Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Antonio Ray Harvey California Black Media As the cost of gas continues to soar in California, Black leaders, state lawmakers and frustrated citizens are urging Gov. Newsom to take immediate action to decrease high prices at the pump. Last week, Shane Harris, president of San Diego-based People’s Association of Justice Advocates (PAJA), wrote a letter to Newsom. Harris urged the governor to declare a “state of emergency,” allowing him to cut the gas tax, which Harris believes helps to drive up the cost of gas. “We are seeing gas at nearly $5.50 a gallon, which is nearly three dollars more than the national average,” Harris said. “I am writing you as someone who works on a daily basis with communities who are already struggling to pay their rent and essentially living check to check.” PAJA is a national civil rights organization and policy institute founded to direct action with a balanced standard of justice for all no matter their race, religion, criminal record, sexuality, gender status, or citizenship. Across social media, African Americans are blasting the sharp increases in gas prices. Ellen Nash, a San Diego resident and chair of the Black American Political Association of California (BAPAC) posted a photo on Facebook of a gas station in Beverly Hills, where reports say fuel is above $6 per gallon. “We are experiencing a gas prices epidemic,” said Nash. “Time to shelter in place again. And work remotely!! With A few exceptions. This is ridiculous.” Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine on Continued from page A2
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) – Nine scholars of history have been awarded the prestigious Dan David Prize for 2022, with each receiving $300,000 to help further their work. The Dan David Prize board said the nine are being recognized for “breakthrough achievements in the study of the past” in new and creative ways. The winners include a historian who investigates the environmental impact of big business, a researcher who has uncovered Jewish hiding places during the Holocaust and the founder of a mobile museum of African heritage. “If you are a person who believes history can make a difference in the world, this prize is an affirmation of that,” said Bart Elmore, an environmental historian and one of this year’s winners. The Dan David Prize board said in its announcement that this year’s recipients are “unlocking the secrets held by human remains and medieval manuscripts, uncovering forgotten legal cases from the American South and revealing echoes of Ethiopian global power.” The prize, established in 2001, was initially dedicated to recognizing achievements in rotating disciplines of the sciences and the humanities, awarding $1 million prizes in three categories each year, past, present and future. The prize was “redesigned” in 2021 ahead of its 20th anniversary, the board statement said. The nine 2022 prize recipients are: • Mirjam Brusius, a cultural historian who studies how objects made their way into major museums and collections, and what happened to them there; • Elmore, who uses everyday products, “from sodas to seeds,” to demonstrate how large multinational firms have reshaped global ecosystems; • Tyrone Freeman, a historian of philanthropy who researches African-American charitable giving and activism; • Verena Krebs, a cultural historian who draws on material culture, art and written sources to uncover the relationship between Ethiopia and Western Christendom; • Efthymia Nikita, an archaeologist who uses innovative methods to unlock what human skeletal remains reveal about the health, diets and mobility of ancient peoples; • Nana Oforiatta Ayim, a curator, writer, filmmaker and public historian whose work “re-centers African narratives, institutions and cultural expressions in telling the past; • Kristina Richardson, a social and cultural historian of the medieval Islamic world who works with understudied manuscripts to focus attention on marginalized groups, among others; • Natalia Romik, a public historian, architect and curator whose work focuses on Jewish memory and commemoration of the Holocaust in Eastern Europe; • Kimberly Welch, who uses endangered local legal archives from the antebellum American South to explore lawsuits brought by free and enslaved Black people. The prize is endowed by the Dan David Foundation and is headquartered at Tel Aviv University.