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Who’s Winning the Fight for Los Angeles

Who’s Who in the Bill Cosby Sex Assault Trial

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Volume 33 Number 23

Observer Group Newspapers of Southern California

Towne Street Theatre Presents 10th Annual

Ten-Minute Theatre

Four co-workers lament life in the office while planning a retirement party in “Let’s Stay Together, Al Green.” One of 10 ten minute plays in Towne Street Theatre’s Ten Minute Play Festival, running through April 29 at the Stella Adler Theatre in Hollywood. (Photo Credit: Kristina Roth)

April 9, 2018 – LOS ANGELES, CA. -- For a decade, Towne Street Theatre (TST) has been producing the popular Ten-Minute Play Festival that engages audiences through a succession of 10 ten minute plays based on a singular theme. For 2018, the plays will revolve around the subject of “Celebration!”

Playwrights from around the globe submitted carefully crafted ten-minute plays to TST’s selection committee to be considered for the play festival. Over one hundred entries were received this year from as far away as Germany and the United Kingdom. Selection criteria includes the character and plot development and how well the theme is integrated into the play.

This year’s plays involve the celebrations of birth, death, marriage and separation, all written by American playwrights.

“The theme of ‘celebration’ is perfect for this year’s Ten-Minute Play Festival” said TST Advisory Board Chairperson Deborah Charles. “TST is celebrating ten years of producing the play festival and 25 years as a theatre company. Plus, celebration is a topic that we all can relate to.”

In “The Funeral,” playwright Samantha Clay tells a tale of a woman celebrating her mother’s freewheeling lifestyle and their unorthodox mother/daughter relationship. “Amy and Neil” by DeLane McDuffie is the story of a couple celebrating their anniversary with a candlelit argument. Two sons confront their father who has chosen to skip out on his birthday celebration in “Birthday Getaway,” by Dale Griffiths Stamos.

Other plays include “$500 an hour” by James Rosenfield; “War Babies” by Madeline Daly Puccioni; “A Ferry Tale,” Continued on page A4

Thursday, April 12, 2018

National Animal Control Officer Appreciation Week

The County of Los Angeles Department of Animal Care and Control (DACC) celebrates National Animal Control Officer Appreciation Week starting April 9, 2018, through April 14, 2018.

National Animal Control Officer Appreciation Week was started by the National Animal Care & Control Association (NACA) as a way to recognize all officers for the invaluable roles they play in the communities while encouraging the public to become acquainted with their local animal care center and to learn how they can assist their lifesaving work.

National Animal Control Officer Appreciation Week is a perfect opportunity for you to become acquainted with your local animal care center and to help homeless pets. You can help us reach our goal of placing animals into new forever homes, by adopting today. Your kindness will be repaid countless times by the love and affection of your new family member. If you cannot adopt a pet now, you can always make life better for a loving animal by volunteering at one of our animal care centers.

To all of our officers, thank you for everything you do every day for the animals in our care. You perform a vital service and are truly appreciated! Marcia Mayeda, Director of DACC, stated, “National Animal Control Officer Appreciation Week allows us to show our gratitude to all Animal Control Officers for the work that they do each and every day. Although their efforts and dedication to this worthy cause is celebrated one week out of year, we all reap the benefits of their endless commitment all year-around.”

Please join us in expressing our gratitude. The next time you see an animal control officer, please be sure to thank him/ her for their hard work and dedication to saving the lives of animals and serving the public to make the community safe for everyone.

Dedication of Trail Connector in Calabases

Why Stephon Clark’s Killing is a Wake Up Call Requiring

Independent Civilian Oversight of Our Police Departments

By Jasmyne A. Cannick and Patrisse Cullors Special to California Black Media The tragic fatal shooting of Stephon Clark has captured the nation’s attention and elevated the conversation around whether police can and should investigate themselves, especially when the public’s trust weighs in the balance.

The 22-year-old father of two was an unarmed black man who was fatally shot on March 18 by Sacramento police officers eight times, mostly in his back, according to an independent autopsy released Friday.

The Clark family has accused the police department of trying to cover up misconduct by its officers and decided to conduct its own autopsy.

In the wake of Stephon Clark’s death, there are deafening calls from the community for more transparency and accountability regarding the investigation into his death. These calls also include answers to the lingering question of why did the officers decide to mute their audio. Ironically, the one group put into place to be a link between the community, City Hall, and the police won’t be able to help.

The 11-member Sacramento Community Police Review Commission was established in 2017 by the City Council last year as part of a package of police reforms after the community

complained that a previous version of the commission didn’t have enough oversight capabilities.

But like most citizen watchdog groups established by mayors and city councils in cities in the wake of mounting concern over the question of “Who polices the police?,” the Sacramento Community Police Review Commission is merely advisory.

Most independent oversight commissions lack independence. They are unable to conduct their own investigations, subpoena records or to compel the testimony of police officers and their superiors accused of wrongdoing.

In March, a judge stripped Newark’s Civilian Complaint Review Board of its subpoena and investigatory powers but said it could still conduct oversight of the police department.

The board was conceived following a report released by the U.S. Department of Justice in July 2014 that found Newark police failed to provide sufficient constitutional reason for about 75 percent of pedestrian stops and that despite hundreds of citizen complaints from 2007 to 2012, just one complaint of excessive force was sustained.

In San Diego a proposed charter amendment would replace their Citizens Review Board on Police Practices with a new Commission on Police Practices that would among other things have the power to “to subpoena civilian witnesses, compel their atten-

dance, administer oaths and affirmations, take evidence, and require by subpoena the production of any books, papers, records, or other items material.” The amendment also says that the commission “must seek and receive legal advice from independent legal counsel, not the Office of the City Attorney.”

Police reform has been a serious issue in Chicago in the wake of the release of the video showing the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald. McDonald was a black teen who was shot 16 times after walking away from police --contradicting the police’s story that he was threatening or had “lunged at” cops. In the aftermath of the video’s release, then-police Superintendent Garry McCarthy was fired, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez lost re-election, and officer Jason Van Dyke became the first Chicago cop in decades to be indicted for first-degree murder for a fatal officer-involved-shooting. Currently, community groups are proposing the creation of a civilian board with the power to fire Chicago’s police superintendent and to set Police Department policy. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has not taken a position of support or opposition.

In Los Angeles, efforts have begun to change the charter of the county via ballot measure to provide their Civilian Oversight Commission with subpoena power to effectively investigate depuContinued on page A4

Violet Palmer Honored by CBOA

By Earl Heath Contributing Sports Writer After spending nearly two decades officiating in the NBA Violet Palmer returned to her roots of officiating the California Basketball Officials Association –Los Angeles Unit. Celebrating it’s 100th year as an organization. The event took place on the “Regent Sea” part of yachts owned by the Fanta Sea Company located in Marina del Rey. Palmer was inducted into the organization’s Hall of Fame .

“I remember walking into a room where I received looks and was questioned right away, “said Palmer. ‘There were doubters but I stayed strong and made my way through it all.”

After years of doing high school and college games Palmer did several men’s games including NBA Summer League. One day she got a call from Aaron Wade Supervisor of Officials of the NBA. She didn’t believe it at first. “ I thought someone was playing a joke on me at first” said Palmer in front of a crowd of one hundred-fifty people. “Then after a few exchanges”, she realized Continued on page A4

After making a five hour drive Louis Rodriquez (L) of Contra Costa, California accepts special award from Connie Wells-Co-Chair. (Earl Heath photo)

Katrina Lyles, Kim Bly, and Tashara Carter take time out at the C.B.O.A 100th Anniversary. (Earl Heath photo)

The Multi-Use Trail Connector in Calabasas should have a Positive Impact on People Seeking Opportunity to Enjoy Hiking, Horseback Riding and Biking.

At approximately 1,700 linear feet, the Don Wallace Multi-Use Trail Connector may not be among the longest trails maintained by the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation. But, this historic trail, named after a local advocate who pushed for its creation, will have a tremendous impact on the recreational choices available to the growing number of people across the region who seek to enjoy hiking, horseback riding and biking.

Historically, trail users in the Calabasas area have ridden or hiked on freeway overpasses, or passed without authorization through stormwater culverts maintained by Caltrans. This trail is the first in Los Angeles County to enable safe passage under the 101 freeway, and will provide future connectivity to Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority trails, the Las Virgenes Creek trails, as well as the Malibu Creek State Park system. Following years in planning, Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, along with Department of Parks and Recreation officials and Don Wallace, a retired firefighter and outdoor recreation advocate after whom the trail was named, will officially dedicate the Don Wallace Multi-Use Trail Connector in Calabasas.

Friday, April 13, 2018, 11 a.m. Ceremony to take place behind Starbucks Coffee located near trail access at: 26531 Agoura Road, Calabasas, CA 91392 Scheduled remarks by Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, Department of Parks and Recreation Director John Wicker, Outdoor Recreation Advocate Don Wallace, Fred Gaines, Mayor, City of Calabasas; and Joe Edmiston, Executive Director, Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority. Great visuals of the multi-use trail located near a creek.

Cal Poly Fraternity Suspended for Blackface Incident

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (AP) _ Hundreds of students at California Polytechnic State University held an emergency town hall at the San Luis Obispo campus to denounce racism and intolerance after social media posts showed a fraternity member in blackface and others dressed as gangster stereotypes and throwing gang signs.

The Tribune reports that students demanded action during the meeting Monday night.

The Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity has been placed on interim suspension while the university reviews the situation.

Cal Poly Dean of Students Kathleen McMahon says in a news release that racism and hate are unwelcome and the university is focused on enhancing diversity.

In a statement to the school newspaper, the Mustang News, the fraternity said it was sorry and embarrassed “for failing to recognize the racial impacts this brought forth.”

The statement says the photo was taken at a fraternity event Saturday.

Police Recover Ambulance Stolen in Downtown LA

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Police have recovered an ambulance stolen while its paramedic crew was assessing a patient in downtown Los Angeles.

Officials say the ambulance was found early Sunday a few miles from where it was stolen. There was no immediate word of any arrests.

City fire spokeswoman Amy Bastman says a second ambulance was dispatched to the original scene downtown and transported the patient to a hospital.

City News Service says it’s the second ambulance stolen within the past week.

World & Nation

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THE VALLEY’S NEWS OBSERVER

Sickle Cell Stigma

By Dr. Kevin Williams Chief Medical Officer, Pfizer Rare Disease Unit The “Ask Dr. Kevin” series is brought to you by Pfizer Rare Disease in collaboration with the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) to increase understanding of sickle cell disease.

The opioid crisis in the United States is at an all-time high, impacting thousands of Americans every day.

What may surprise you is the impact this crisis has on people with medical conditions that cause severe pain, particularly when they receive treatment in the emergency department (ED).

Dr. Kevin Williams, the chief In light of the curmedical officer for Rare Disrent opioid crisis, ED ease at Pfizer, says that there staff have become much is no evidence to support the more vigilant in monitornotion that SCD patients have any more likelihood of being ing suspected drug abuse. addicted to pain medication This can have particular compared to anyone else. implications for people with sickle cell disease (SCD), whose top reason for visiting the ED is to seek relief from the debilitating pain crises associated with their disease.

Unfortunately, ED staff may doubt the legitimacy of the high level of pain relief needed by someone with SCD, and this suspicion has contributed to the stigma that SCD patients are “drug-seeking.” When I was in medical school more than 30 years ago, ED staff treated SCD patients as drug seekers, and opioid abuse wasn’t even considered a crisis then. In light of the current opioid crisis, this stigma has become magnified.

SCD is a lifelong disorder most common in people of African descent and causes red blood cells to form sickled shapes.

People with SCD often experience frequent acute pain episodes, called vaso-occlusive crisis (VOC). Currently, treatment for

VOCs is limited and primarily involves administration of fluids and pain management, which often includes treatment with high levels of opioid pain medications.

As a result of the stigma related to drug-seeking, the patient is delayed in receiving the adequate and timely pain relief they so desperately needed. In fact, a study published in the “Clinical Journal of Pain” found that people with SCD wait an average of 30 minutes longer in the ED for pain medication when compared to people with other extremely painful conditions, like kidney stones.

Greater understanding of SCD and the pain experienced by people who suffer from the disease is urgently needed to help ensure that stigma and misunderstanding do not stand in the way of receiving adequate and timely medical treatment.

I’m here to answer the most common questions about pain related to SCD in the hope that this information will increase understanding and address some of these misperceptions.

Are SCD pain episodes really that severe?

Yes, they most certainly are. These episodes are characterized by excruciating, debilitating pain. The pain often occurs without any warning—then may worsen over time or escalate suddenly.

Nearly all people living with SCD experience these pain crises at some point, but the frequency is variable and unpredictable.

Some people with SCD experience six or more pain crises a year.

Why do SCD patients receive pain medicine at such high doses?

Early and aggressive pain management is a priority when treating a SCD patient who is experiencing pain episodes, as multiple studies have demonstrated that more frequent severe episodes of VOC are associated with death.

It’s important to understand that SCD is a life-long chronic disease. The repeated opioid treatments needed for pain relief over a patient’s lifetime often lead to a tolerance, requiring higher doses for adequate pain management.

The SCD individuals treated with opioids eventually learn which opioids and dose are best to relieve or minimize their pain.

Many times, this can appear suspicious to health care providers and lead to delayed or inefficient treatment.

Are SCD patients addicted to pain medication?

Unfortunately, this is a common misperception about the disease—not just by ED staff, but by many people in general.

It’s important to highlight the difference between tolerance

Thursday, April 12, 2018

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and dependence. An SCD patient may develop tolerance to opioids due to repeated opioid treatments and thus require higher doses, but this does not mean that they are dependent on—or addicted to—opioids.

In fact, there is no evidence to support the notion that SCD patients have any more likelihood of being addicted to pain medication compared to anyone else. A study in the journal “Pain Medicine” found that in 2013, out of the 16,225 people who died of an opioid overdose, 99.94 percent did NOT have SCD. Thus, the approximately 100,000 individuals living with SCD are making limited contribution to the opioid epidemic.

How can primary care providers help to improve the ED experience for SCD patients?

Primary care providers and people with SCD need to work together to ensure there is a pain management plan in place that will help coordinate care to support long-term pain management.

Along with your primary care provider, the use of prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMP) can easily assist in discovering a patient’s prescription history to help combat the misperception that drug abuse is taking place. Creating individualized pain plans could help result in less frequent admissions, less waiting time in the ER, and shorter length of hospital stays.

Can you share tips on how people with SCD can better manage the ED experience?

First and foremost, finding ways that help to reduce and/ or manage pain, such as stress reduction, plenty of fluids, and exercise, before it becomes an emergency is extremely important.

If that doesn’t work, here are a few tips: Do not delay your visit to the ED when you begin to experience a pain crisis Create a “pain plan” with your primary care provider, and either carry a validated copy with you at all times or have easy access to an electronic version. Carry a document with you at all times that summarizes previous emergency department stays Work together with your hematologist and your primary care provider, to ensure your pain management plan is right for you Additionally, caregivers of SCD patients can also play an important role in improving the ED experience by: Recognizing the onset of a pain crisis and encouraging the patient to visit the ED Accompanying the patient to the ED and ensuring that all useful documents are brought along Providing support and distraction from the pain. Taking notes on interactions between the patient and ED providers

Gentrification

Published every Thursday by The Observer Group Newspapers of Southern California, Inc. Member: National Newspaper Publishers Assc.

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Threatens Housing & Health of Black Washingtonians

By Barrington M. Salmon BlackPressUSA/NNPA Newswire Contributor This is the first article in a series focused on the health effects associated with gentrification in Washington, D.C. This series is supported through a journalism fellowship with the Center for Health Journalism at the Annenberg School of Journalism at the University of Southern California.

By many measures, the revitalization of neighborhoods across Washington, D.C. has been a windfall for the city. Fueled by higher tax revenues and property values, the city is awash in construction cranes, new libraries, restaurants and retail, and more than 70 miles of bike lanes—all welcomed signs of gentrification in the nation’s capital.

Lost in the city’s waves of new amenities and newer, more affluent inhabitants, are the long-time Washingtonians who have been pushed out or who are fighting to stay in the city.

Shirley Williams is one of those residents, who decided to fight. For Williams, that fight came with debilitating consequenc-

es.

Williams said that she developed diabetes a year after she and fellow residents were displaced, for eight years, from their 54unit garden-style apartment complex at 7th and Q Streets in the Shaw neighborhood. She has since returned. Now, there’s a new apartment building at 7th and Q named Jefferson Marketplace; an upscale pet store, a Thai restaurant and a French wine bar are located on the street level; Williams said that she’s not the same, either.

Williams connects many of her health problems to the uncertainty of her housing situation, a rootlessness that has spanned nearly a decade. “I’m on dialysis now; I can hardly get around,” said Williams, a mother of three grown children. “I wasn’t weak.

I could walk down to those ONE DC meetings, but I can’t do that anymore. I’m pretty sure it affected my health; I lost my eyesight…can’t see anything anymore.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the displacement associated with gentrification has many health implications that contribute to disparities among special

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populations, including the poor, women, children, the elderly, and members of racial/ethnic minority groups.

“These special populations are at increased risk for the negative consequences of gentrification,” the CDC said. “Studies indicate that vulnerable populations typically have shorter life expectancy; higher cancer rates; more birth defects; greater infant mortality; and higher incidence of asthma, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.”

Dominic Moulden, a veteran activist, housing advocate and resource organizer for Organizing Neighborhood Equity (ONE DC), knows Williams well and spoke of her challenges and those faced by thousands of other residents who have been displaced by rising housing costs or who have decided to fight for their homes in court and on the streets. ONE DC is a grassroots organization that advocates on behalf of residents who are in danger of losing their homes.

Moulden said that he’s watched the city change in significant and seemingly all-encompassing ways, usually to the disadvantage of native Washingtonians. “I’ve been here for 32 years and I organized on 14th and U Street in the ‘90s. If we talked then, I could have told you what was going to happen in every quadrant,” he said. “Our focus is on displacement—the economics of land and housing impact health and wellness, as people are moved around this chessboard.” Moulden said that Williams’ story of declining health during a prolonged housing battle, is a familiar one.

“I’ve seen people get sick and die in the years [after they were] forced out of their homes and that includes mental health issues,” Moulden said.

In the mid-90s, according to Census data, the district had a population of 528,000 and by 2015, the population had climbed to 681,170. Washington has seen a net population gain of more than 70,000 people since the 2010 Census and more than 100,000 residents since the 2000 Census. In the mid-1990s, the city boasted a 72 percent Black population and in 2016, according to the Census, it now stands at 48 percent. To the chagrin of the city’s Black residents, “The Chocolate City,” has become a vanilla swirl, replete with dog parks, street cars, bike lanes and cobbled streets as physical evidence of the changing demographics.

Washington, D.C is one of the most expensive cities to live in anywhere in the United States. Million-dollar homes are commonplace in areas of the city like Kalorama and Congress Heights and it’s fairly certain that buyers would have to ante up hundreds of thousands for a home, apartment or townhouse. In 2015, the median household income in Washington, D.C. was $75,628, a 5.55 percent growth from the previous year.

Statistics from the U.S. Census, a combination of studies conducted and compiled by researchers at Georgetown University and an investigative series centering on gentrification by the nonprofit, independent news organization Truthout, estimates that more than 50,000 D.C. residents have fled the city, as housing costs spiraled out of reach. Washington has the second highest rents in the country and more than 50 percent of the city’s affordable housing stock has vanished since 2009.

Researchers, policymakers and physicians have only begun to scratch the surface of the effects of gentrification on residents who have lost their homes or those who refuse to leave their neighborhoods, who have chosen, instead, to do battle with wealthy landlords, real estate developers and newcomers. A number of reports and studies over the past year detail the scope and depth of the health effects caused by the dismantling of low- and middle-income neighborhoods and the displacement of residents, some of whom have lived in Washington for decades.

Maurice Jackson, a history professor at Georgetown University and the chairman of the DC Commission on African American Affairs and Christopher King, an assistant professor at the university’s School of Nursing and Health Studies (NHS), produced a report in 2016 that found that gentrification has had a major impact on the health and welfare of the city’s African American population.

Researchers reported that many of Washington’s long-time, Black residents, who remain in the city, have experienced increased stress and financial hardship, as the cost of living continues to rise. King said that this form of “survival stress” can increase risks for or exacerbate chronic disease conditions. “Native Washingtonians also recognize how their communities are changing, and that results in a loss of cultural identity,” King said, noting that some African Americans have been forced to leave the area even though their families have lived in the city for generations.

“This dynamic can have a profound effect on mental health and the civic engagement [of city residents].”

Gentrification in Washington has produced tension and lingering resentment between Black and White residents—old and new. Long-time residents have complained about newcomers who have lobbied to change the names of old neighborhoods, called the police to harass families sitting on their own stoops, and pushed city officials to ramp up parking enforcement, ticketing and towing churchgoers double-parked on Sundays—a custom in D.C. that has spanned generations. The stress and trauma associated with the city’s very real demographic and cultural shifts, not only affect where people live, but also how Washingtonians are living.

One area of particular concern to researchers and those in

Jefferson Marketplace at 7th and Q streets was built after Kelsey Gardens was demolished. (Freddie Allen/AMG/ NNPA)

A once-thriving community of more than 400 residents has been reduced to less than 100 as city officials prepare to build expensive, mixed-use housing that Barry Farm residents fear will force them out of their homes. (Miriam Machado-Luces/NNPA)

the medical community is the relationship between toxic stress and displacement. Experts like Amani Nuru-Jeter, a social epidemiologist at the University of California at Berkeley are studying the impact of stress on health disparities and outcomes. While Nuru-Jeter, Dr. Roberto Montenegro and other researchers are looking at the effects of racism and discrimination on the bodies of Blacks and Latinos, others are tying displacement to toxic stress, which many believe, is likely a precursor to a range of diseases that could afflict those who are being pushed out of the city or have already left. Studies have connected a number of maladies to toxic stress, such as mental illness, substance abuse and behavioral problems, cancer, obesity, diabetes, auto-immune diseases, asthma, high blood pressure and heart disease, kidney disease, and gastro-intestinal problems.

Detrice Belt, a 33-year-old native Washingtonian and resident of Barry Farm, a public housing complex in Southeast, Washington, D.C. has been engaged in a six-year battle to stay in the community where she has lived for 20 years. She lives with her nine-year-old daughter, two pit bull terriers and a turtle. Belt vowed that she’s not leaving.

“Housing is a big issue in D.C. Right now, current residents are moving out,” said Belt, a licensed dental assistant who’s also the chair of the Barry Farm Tenants’ Association. “This property has [over] 400 units, but now there are about 100 residents left.

People are in shelters, some are in other public housing projects, scattered.” Belt continued: “These [apartments] are bad, but not so bad that they have to be demolished. We want redevelopment, but we want the developer to do it while [we’re] here. They told me about the noise; that my lights may be cut off and other things, but I’m not moving, whatever comes.”

Barry Farm, located east of the Anacostia River—a natural divider between the city’s visible progress and neighborhoods of concentrated poverty—has been targeted by the DC Housing Authority and developers who seek to have the 432 public housing units demolished; in its place, developers want to build a 1,400-unit, multi-phase $400 million mixed-income housing.

The plan is part of the city’s New Communities Initiative, a public-private urban revitalization partnership modeled after the federal government’s Hope VI program.

According to the Washington City Paper, in 2017, a group of Barry Farm residents and housing advocacy organization, Empower D.C., filed a 65-page, class-action lawsuit against the DC Housing Authority (DCHA), which manages the property, as well as its two private developer partners, A&R Development Corp. and nonprofit Preservation of Affordable Housing Inc. Belt said that one of her great fears is that neither the DC Housing Authority nor the developers have given the remaining residents a written guarantee that they can return when the property is redeveloped. And the past is prologue, she said, because once public housing residents are displaced, few ever return.

“They changed the language from ‘guaranteed return’ to an ‘opportunity to return.’ Despite our concerns and questions, this is a done deal,” she said. “I’ve been going to redevelopment meetings for the past six years. I’ve been trying to hear the other side.

I told councilmembers that people are stressed and don’t know their rights.” Belt said that her ordeal has left her and other Barry Farm residents stressed out, worried and fearful of what the future holds. “They have been using scare tactics, like putting up a notice on my door about my dogs,” Belt said. “Children’s Protective Services has been called on people here, the Department of Health on others. I was born and raised here. I’m fighting back. I’m not moving.”

Thursday, April 12, 2018

THE VALLEY’S NEWS OBSERVER A3

Features

NBA Post Season Awards

Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) dribbles against Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry during the first half of Game 1 of basketball’s NBA Finals in Oakland, Calif., Thursday, June 2, 2016. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

By Cameron Buford Contributing Sports Writer Whatsgoodinsports.com As another fantastic season in the NBA comes to a close, we found this to be a great time to recognize those special performances in the league throughout this past season. Each season we see coaches join new teams, players games evolve, including the influx of players that enter the league. Just as with previous season, this season has been like other. We plan to recap the season by naming our What’s Good award winners for this past NBA season.

We will identify players from various categories who out-

performed their competition. Starting with Rookie of the Year we will rundown our nominees and winners of our initial awards presentation. The Boston Celtics Jayson Tatum and Kyle Kuzma have caught the attention of fans and players around the league sure enough, though this season this race comes down to a twoman race for the NBA Rookie of the Year. You final contestants are: Ben Simmons- being drafted #1 overall in last year’s draft, Simmons had a chance to get familiar with the travel and schedule of the NBA by essentially redshirting, for all intent and purposes, during his actual rookie season. Even though he is leading all rookies in rebounds, assist and steals; it’s Simmons eligibility

which remains questionable for this award. Only because this is his first season playing games, can he likely win the award. Primarily based on his solid play throughout this season.

Donovan Mitchell- drafted #13 in this past Rookie draft, I’m sure 12 other General Managers would jump at a chance to draft Mitchell if this was redone. There’s very little chance Mitchell doesn’t get picked in the top 5 of the draft. His all-around game makes him the cornerstone of this team for much of this season. Because he is a true rookie and leads his team in scoring after the team as traded away their leading scorer from a season ago. He is our winner for our inaugural WG Rookie of the Year Award.

We had a tough time identifying a true competition for the WG Comeback Player of the year. Though Dwight Howard played well enough, on a new team, to garner some votes he got beat out by a guy returning to a town where basketball fans are familiar with he and his production.

Victor Oladipo- Many people thought that the Pacers got fleeced by the Thunder in last season’s trade between those two teams! As it turns out the Pacers received an All-Star Player and one who’s been playing with a chip on his shoulders. Playing with this chip on his shoulder Victor has led his team to the 4th seed in the Eastern Conference, by averaging 24.0 points per game Defensive Player of the Year Anthony Davis- Davis makes another of our post season categories from his solid play all season. He has become accustom to taking over games by scoring and blocking shots like no one else in the NBA this season. He has achieved much of his success this season by being the teams only All Star, considering his teammate was injured prior to the All-Star game.

Rudy Gobert- Though the Utah Jazz have lost the leading scorer from a year ago, their defensive attitude didn’t leave them.

This defensive attitude and presence is embodied by the play of Rudy Gobert. Leading the again in blocks makes it easy for Quinn Snyder to create game plans for his team to follow. It is for the afore mentioned reason that Gobert is our defensive player of the year.

We have identified a few coaches that would be deserving of this seasons Coach of the Year award this season; Quinn Snyder of the Utah Jazz, Nate MacMillan of the Indiana Pacers, Dwane Casey of the Toronto Raptors, Mike D’Antoni of the Houston Rockets and Brett Brown of the Philadelphia 76ers each deserve some votes for our Coach of the Year in the

NBA. Considering not many people expected much from the Indiana Pacers after they traded away their best player in the off season a year ago. Their new Head Coach Nate MacMillan has led his team to the 5th best record in the Eastern conference.

However, the Utah Jazz’ Quinn Snyder has done that just that in the more competitive Western Conference. Not many fans, or experts for that matter, expected much from the Jazz this season. After losing Gordon Hayward to the Celtics in free agency last offseason. Climbing to the 4th seed in the competitive western conference all the while having a rookie lead the way with the tutelage of a premier Head Coach. It is for these reasons that I believe this is Snyder’s award to lose.

Our WG Most Valuable Player contestants are listed below.

Each of these guys are quality candidates, though as you know only one guy can win this award. We have identified our contestants and winner below.

Anthony Davis- Davis is looking to play the most games he has in his young NBA career. He also leads the league in the 2pt FGs as well as blocks, all the while averaging just under 20 points per game and 2.6 blocks per game, all this after losing his front court running mate a few months into the season.

Lebron James- In his 15th year in the league, Lebron James is an easy candidate to win the league’s MVP for 2018. Leading the league in minutes played per game at 37.2 while scoring 27.7 point per game, 9.2 assist per game and 8.7 rebounds per game are certainly respectable numbers. However, he must take responsibility for his teams seeding for the upcoming playoffs that has not been impressive.

James Harden- Elected the Players MVP a couple years ago, one could’ve made an argument that James Harden was the league’s MVP last year. Now that he is doing this all over again, Harden’s game as grown and gained more appreciation in the process. Getting to the line is a given with James while averaging 30 points per game, 8.7 assists per game and just under 6 rebounds per game has earned James the deserving praise and our MVP nomination.

It’s been said, “the regular season is where you make your name; the playoffs is where you make your fame!” TNT’s Kenny Smith. As we embark on the playoffs of the NBA, many players will be looking to elevate their play and persona by winning games. I’d be interested to know your thoughts on how you feel about our award winners and who you may have had winning the various awards we’ve handed out. Please let me know What’s Good by commenting in the comment section at www.whatsgoodinsports.com

By Cameron Buford Contributing Sports Writer Whatsgoodinsports.com Though the Rams stadium isn’t set to be completed until 2019, the competition for the supposed Fight for Los Angeles between the Chargers and Rams, has not been much of a fight to this point. Not only have the Rams have been back in town longer, they have made it to the playoffs quicker and appear to have a team built for more consistent success long term.

Solid quarterback play is a must from any team with future expectations in the NFL. Where the Chargers have an experienced QB and the Rams will start a third year QB… where the Chargers have more experienced coaching, the Rams coaching has proven to be more innovative which has led to more victories.

Both teams have impressive Running Backs! Melvin Gordan is a versatile running back the can play every down where as the Rams have the 2017 NFL Offensive player of the year. Due to his consistent play, Todd Gurley entered the MVP race late in the 2017 campaign. Advantage Rams!

The Offensive Line of the Rams is certainly more decorated than the Chargers O line. Even though the Chargers have brought in a pro bowler, in Mike Pouncey, to increase the protection for their aging QB. Advantage Rams!

In comparing the teams receiving corp., the Chargers ap-

pear to have a clear advantage at this point. Keenan Allen, Travis Benjamin, Tyrell Williams and Mike Williams are slightly better and a more proven bunch than Robert Woods, Brandin Cooks, Cooper Cupp and Tavon Austin.

Considering that the Rams have had one of the best defenses in the leagues for multiple years now, the Chargers has some work to do to catch the Rams on this side of the ball. Especially since the Rams have been adding talented and accomplished players this off season. Without question, the Rams have the better defensive line and cornerbacks. While the Chargers have the better linebackers at this juncture of the offseason.

Both teams are effective in their efforts to reach out to their new community. As each of them has sponsored community events where current players are commingling with the locals.

With these efforts, it appears, they understand that developing a new fan base in this market is essential to their Fight for Los Angeles!

Winning sure won’t hurt the fans development process either; the Rams went 11-5 and won their division last season.

Whereas the Chargers went 9-7 last season. To this point in their move to market, who do you believe have won this Fight for the fans of Los Angeles? I let you know my thoughts and opinions, Please let me know What’s Good by commenting in the comment section at www.whatsgoodinsports.com.

Who is winning the Fight for Los Angeles?

(Cam Buford/Whatsgoodinsports.com photo)

API Launches New Jobs Website Suspected

By Freddie Allen Editor-In-Chief, NNPA Newswire Rebecca Winkel, an economic advisor for the American Petroleum Institute (API), said that whenever she travels to communities across the country, to give presentations about her research in the oil and natural gas industry, the questions often turn to business and career opportunities.

Questions like: Where can I go to learn more about the oil and natural gas industry? What types of jobs are available in the industry? What kind of training do I need to break into the industry?

Now, people can go to http://www.oilgasworkforce.com/ to

The American Petroleum Institute (API), recently launched http://www.oilgasworkforce.com/, a new jobs and resource website to help people learn more about the industry. (Screenshot/oilgasworkforce.com)

The job search tool on the homepage of www.oilgasworkforce.com is powered by Indeed, a world-class online jobs portal. (Screenshot/oilgasworkforce.com)

find answers to those questions.

“When you start to explain to people what the [oil and natural gas] industry does everyday…you talk about all of these products that we love and care about and need that come from the oil and natural gas industry, people start to think, ‘this is really cool, this is an industry that matters in our lives,’” Winkel said.

Still, many people don’t know how their professional skills fit into the oil and natural gas industry.

“What a lot of people don’t realize is the number of different jobs that are available in the [oil and natural gas] industry,” Winkel said. “They think that that you can only work in the field [on an oil rig] or maybe get a job as a chemist in a research lab somewhere. They don’t realize that we hire engineers, lawyers, accountants, marketing professionals and economists, like myself.”

Winkel continued: “To see examples of all of the types of jobs and being able to search for open jobs in the industry is really impactful. This website is our attempt to help direct those people.”

Winkel said that the job search tool on the http://www.oilgasworkforce.com/ homepage is powered by Indeed.com, a website that “allows job seekers to search millions of jobs on the web or mobile in over 60 countries and 28 languages.” API uses filters on www.oilgasworkforce.com to make sure that jobs related to the oil and natural gas industry are featured on the website.

IHS Global reported that, “nearly 1.3 million job opportunities by 2025 and close to 1.9 million job opportunities by 2035 in the oil and natural gas and petrochemical industries and roughly 700,000 of those jobs are projected to be filled by African American and Hispanic workers through 2035.”

The wages offered in the oil and natural gas industry are often hire than in other sectors of the labor market.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “the average annual pay in the oil and natural gas industry is over $100,000, nearly $50,000 higher than the 2014 U.S. average,” the IHS Global report said.

Other pages on the site provide information about the impact of the oil and natural gas on everyday life and outreach in communities of color, with women’s groups trade unions, veterans and millennials. The website also features information about how the industry is working to encourage education in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics, also known as STEM, in elementary and middle schools.

Investing in a STEM education can pay huge dividends for Blacks seeking career opportunities in the oil and natural gas industry.

An article posted to BlackPressUSA.com said that, “Blacks with STEM bachelor’s degrees earn $45.15 in hourly wages in the oil and natural gas industry, compared to Blacks with non-STEM bachelor’s degrees, who make $28.10 per hour, according to a RAND report.”

Winkel said that API highlights those opportunities so that, “people get a sense of who we are and the work that we’re doing in the communities.”

Winkel added that the website is for everyone.

“Whether you’re coming out of high school or college and looking for a job or you’re looking for a mid-career change… whatever skills you have [the oil and natural gas industry] is a good place to apply them and we hope that people see that,” Winkel said.

Cliff Crash Body Found

Received by Newsfinder from AP MENDOCINO, Calif. (AP) _ A body was recovered Saturday in the vicinity where an SUV plunged off a Northern California cliff last month, killing a family of eight in what authorities suspect may have been an intentional crash.

The Mendocino County Sheriff’s office said in a statement that a couple vacationing along the coast saw a possible body, which was pulled from the surf Saturday afternoon by a third bystander.

The body appears to be that of an African American female, but the age and identity could not immediately be determined, said Lt. Shannon Barney. An autopsy is planned Tuesday to determine a cause of death.

While authorities said they believe the body may be that of one of two missing girls from the crash, positive identification will most likely be done by DNA analysis, which could take weeks.

Sarah and Jennifer Hart and their six adopted children were believed to be in the family’s SUV when it plunged off a cliff last month. Five bodies were found March 26 near Mendocino, a few days after Washington state authorities began investigating the Harts for possible child neglect, but three of their children were not immediately recovered from the scene.

There were no signs of the other two children, authorities said Saturday.

Authorities have said that data from the vehicle’s software suggested the crash was deliberate. They said the SUV had stopped at a coastal highway overlook before speeding straight off the cliff and plummeting 100 feet (31 meters) into the rocky Pacific Ocean below.

Sarah Hart pleaded guilty in 2011 to a domestic assault charge in Minnesota over what she said was a spanking given to one of her children.

Bruce and Dana DeKalb, the family’s next-door neighbors in Woodland, Washington, called child welfare officials last month because the couple’s 15-year-old son, Devonte, had been coming to their house almost every day for a week, asking for food. They said the teen claimed his parents were “punishing them by withholding food.”

Devonte, a black boy who is still missing, drew national attention after he was photographed in tears while hugging a white police officer during a 2014 protest.

The discovery of the body Saturday follows a two-day storm that swept through Northern California.

The sheriff’s office noted that it is not uncommon after a significant storm that items would surface or wash onto the beach.

“The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office is monitoring the ocean conditions to see when further searches might be safely conducted,” Barney said. “This evaluation includes the use of divers if conditions permit.”

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News

Thursday, April 12, 2018

Towne Street Theatre Presents 10th Annual Ten Minute Play Continued from page A1

by Donna Warfield; “Sabrina’s Christening,” by Kevin Harold Davis; “The Wedding Topper,” by Dan Borengasser; “Not my Type,” by Marsha Roberts; and “Let’s Stay Together, Al Green,” by Steffi Rubin.

Each night, audience members will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite play. At the end of the festival, all votes will be tallied and the top four playwrights will receive cash prizes.

TST’s Ten-Minute Play Festival will take place each Friday, Saturday and Sunday, throughout the month of April at the Stella Adler Theatre, 6773 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, CA. 90028. Friday and Saturday performances are at 8:00 P.M. and Sunday matinees are at 4:00 P.M. For ticket information, visit www.townestreetla.org/10thplayfestival .

Police Departments Need Independent Civilian Oversight Continued from page A1

ty misconduct. The Reform L.A. Jails ballot measure also seeks to ensure that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, the governing body for America’s most populous county and largest jail system, invests some of the $3.5 billion planned for building new jails into providing alternatives to incarceration. Proponents need to gather over 150,000 signatures of registered voters to place it on the highly coveted November gubernatorial ballot. Reform L.A. Jails will hold a campaign kickoff for their signature-gathering drive this week.

Civilian oversight bodies are put into place because the public has lost faith in their scandal-ridden beleaguered police departments. But these groups often end up being more of conciliatory gesture from local governments to placate the public in troubled times. They are prevented from doing the very work that both city officials and police departments claim they want to be done--improving public accountability and transparency. To root out misconduct, bring about real criminal jus-

tice reform and avoid having Bonnie investigate Clyde, these civilian bodies that hold the trust of the public must have two things—independence and power. Without it, they’re just for show. Oversight with no site. Overnight with no bite.

For more information the Reform L.A. Jails ballot measure, please visit www.ReformLAJails.com.

Jasmyne Cannick is a nationally known writer and commentator on political, race and social issues. She is a political consultant working on the L.A. County ballot measure to Reform L.A. Jails.

Patrisse Cullors is the New York Times bestselling author of “When They Call You a Terrorist” and the co-founder of Black Lives Matter, Dignity Power and Now and JusticeLA. She is a proponent on the Reform L.A. County ballot measure to provide subpoena power to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Civilian Oversight Commission.

An older woman shopping for lingerie gives a young sales person a few tips on how to dump her boring fiancee in “Not my type.” One of 10 ten minute plays in Towne Street Theatre’s Ten Minute Play Festival, running through April 29 at the Stella Adler Theatre in Hollywood. (Photo Credit: Kristina Roth)

ESSA Demands Full Transparency on K-12 Educational Funding

The Every Student Succeeds Act, President Obama’s education law, calls for transparency in school funding. (Pexels. com)

By Lauren Poteat NNPA Newswire Contributor Public school systems throughout the nation will now be required to be a lot more transparent when it comes to school funding.

According to the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2015, all public schools nationwide, will be required to give fully-detailed reports on how and where they spend institutional funding.\ The ESSA reporting requirement for school funding begins in December 2019, and supporters of the rule, including the NAACP, believe it will help to encourage greater educational equity, particularly among schools serving large numbers of Black and Hispanic students in low-income neighborhoods.

“We need more equitable and adequate funding for all schools serving students of color,” said Victor Goode, the education director for the NAACP. “Why? Because education funding has been inadequate and unequal for students of color for hundreds of years. Second, privatization forces are working to eliminate our public schools and, with it, transparency, public accountability and access to all.”

Goode said that ESSA requires a breakdown of how student need is met with a focus on equity over equal distribution for funding.

Goode continued: “That explains the reason behind the school-by-school, per pupil spending report. This kind of public transparency is a good thing and can help provide more meaningful parental and community engagement, which is also essential to accountability and achieving educational equity.”

According to the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy organization, based in Washington, D.C., that conducts research on solving societal problems locally, nationwide and globally, to date minority students are still far more less likely than White students to have adequate school resources.

In addition, the Brookings Institution reported that schools with predominantly Black and Hispanic children, on average, are nearly twice as large as White schools—reaching an estimated 3,000 students or more in most cities, with lower-quality curriculum offerings and less qualified teachers (in terms of levels of education, certification, and training in the fields they teach), all of which George H. Lambert, Jr., president and CEO of the Greater

Washington Urban League, believes can be rectified through adequate funding.

“Through the availability of [ESSA] data, Black and [Hispanic] educators can begin to prove that Black and [Hispanic] students suffer from funding disparities and the lack of teachers in the classroom who look like them or represent their perspective,” Lambert said. “We need better, more transparent data on school funding. The availability of such data and our ability to access it forces greater urgency on what is, arguably the most important issue of our time.”

Lambert said that any discussion on educational equity should acknowledge the enormous achievement gaps that still plague Black and Hispanic students.

“If these gaps aren’t closed, our community doesn’t have much of a future,” Lambert said.” Even though high school graduation rates are better now than 30 years ago, we still face a situation where more than a quarter of Black students, for example, are dropping out. Most Black students in the largest U.S. cities are attending schools with high concentrations of poverty. Over half of our young, Black men are either dropping out or finishing K-12 late, hence 1 in 3 end up trapped in some fashion in the criminal justice system.”\ Despite high approval from many civil rights organizations, school district administrators, like Robert Lowry, the deputy director of the New York State Council of School Superintendents still believe that the new law might shine light on imbalanced revenue and create the perception that some students are being shortchanged, even when this may not be the case.

“We question whether the state officials would even have the expertise and the capacity to evaluate spending levels between schools,” Lowry told Education Week.

Though Lowry’s concerns may be valid, Lambert believes that full transparency is a plus.

“This is a good way to learn about flaws in the system and how those flaws are aggravated by a lack of Black and [Hispanic] expertise and perspective in the curriculum, the classroom and the leadership office,” Lambert said. “We can also find out if school districts with a larger number of Black and [Hispanic] educators are experiencing high levels of funding disparities and uneven attention from policymakers.”

(L to R) Walter Moore, Ed Kikuchi, and John Lozano. (Earl Heath Photo)

Violet Palmer Honored by CBOA Continued from page A1

that Wade was the real deal and she got emotional.

It 1997 she and Dee Kantner were the first two women selected to work an NBA regular season game both began their career in what was then an all men’s league. Some of the best athletes in the world and she was part of it.

Kantner was in the league for three years-After that Palmer was on her own. Her run of sixteen years and 919 games came to an end in 2016 when she announced her retirement. Along the way she set a few first for women such as: a play-off game between the Pacers and Nets in 2006.She worked nine play-off games in six different seasons. In 2014 she did the All-Star game in New Orleans in front of 14,727 and a National television audience of millions.

In 1999 she won the Naismith Award for Official of the Year.

On this night she was received congratulatory letters from Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson and the entire

L.A. council proclaimed it “Violet Palmer Day.” “She has been great for the game and great for the Los Angeles Unit,” said John Lozano CBOA Board Vice President. “ She treats everyone the same.”

The CBOA is a statewide organization that originated in Los Angeles. It was originally known as the Southern California Basketball Officials Association. Founded in 1918 it is believed to be the first organized instructional unit in the country. Throughout the years it has also provided training for officials in Arizona and Nevada It helped include the first African American officials to work a state championship game. It also was the first to have women work boys games on the high school and college level Ed Kikuchi joined the unit in 1973 after returning from Viet Nam he is an architect by trade. “Its great to be here this is really good seeing everyone,” said Kikuchi. “There are a lot of people I haven’t seen in years.”

LA Unit of CBOA celebrates 100th Anniversary (L to R) John Lozano C.B.O.A Vice President, Connie wells-Committee Co-Chair Violet Palmer, and Nate McClung also Co-Chair. (Earl Heath photo)

Entertainment

Thursday, April 12, 2018

THE VALLEY’S NEWS OBSERVER A5

Cosby Lawyer Launches Fierce Attack on Accuser

By MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press\ NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) _ Bill Cosby’s lawyer launched a blistering courtroom attack on the comedian’s accuser Tuesday, portraying her as a con artist whose goal was “money, money and lots more money.”

Lawyer Tom Mesereau told jurors in his opening statement at the former TV star’s sex-assault trial that Andrea Constand wasn’t attracted to Cosby but was “madly in love” with his fame and money and made up the accusations to score a big payday.

He said she “hit the jackpot” when Cosby paid her $3.4 million to settle a lawsuit over allegations he drugged and molested her in 2004.

Prosecutors say it was the “Cosby Show” star who betrayed Constand’s trust by giving her pills and then assaulting her at his suburban Philadelphia mansion. Cosby, 80, faces three counts of aggravated indecent assault, each punishable by up to 10 years in prison.\ A jury deadlocked at his first trial last spring, setting the stage for a retrial.\ District Attorney Kevin Steele had revealed the previously secret settlement amount in his opening statement on Monday, in an apparent attempt to suggest Cosby wouldn’t have paid out so much money if the accusations against him were false.

Mesereau, who won an acquittal in Michael Jackson’s 2005 child molestation case, told jurors that Constand was in deep financial trouble and attached all of her hopes to what she could milk from her relationship with Cosby.

He said she stiffed roommates on utility bills, racked up big credit card bills and operated a Ponzi scheme while running women’s basketball operations at Temple University.

“A con artist is what you get, ladies and gentlemen of the jury,” Mesereau said. “A con artist. And we’ll prove it.”

The comedian arrived at the courthouse Tuesday amid heightened security after a topless protester who appeared on several episodes of “The Cosby Show” as a child jumped a barricade on Monday and got within a few feet of Cosby as the comedian entered the courthouse.

He was surrounded by five sheriff’s deputies as he walked inside Tuesday. \The AP does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Constand has done.

Who’s Who at Bill Cosby’s Sex Assault Retrial Opening statements start Monday in Bill Cosby’s retrial on sexual assault charges stemming from allegations he drugged and molested a woman at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004.

The key figures to watch include: BILL COSBY

JANICE BAKER-KINNEY

a bartender who says she awoke naked with signs she had been sexually assaulted after Cosby insisted she take two pills in 1982, when she was 24 and he was 45.

Cosby, 80, amassed a $400 million fortune as an actor and comedian best known for the family-oriented sitcom, “The Cosby Show.” His reputation as “America’s Dad” has been tattered in recent years as about 60 women came forward to accuse him of drugging and sexually assaulting them. Cosby didn’t testify at his first trial, which ended in a hung jury last year, but the jury did hear parts of a deposition he gave in accuser Andrea Constand’s related 2005 lawsuit. The same could happen at his retrial. Cosby was arrested on Dec. 30, 2015, days before the 12-year deadline to file the aggravated sexual assault charge. In the deposition, he said he gave Constand pills that night before putting his hand down her pants. However, he said they had a consensual, romantic relationship.

ANDREA CONSTAND

HEIDI THOMAS

DEFENSE LAWYER TOM MESEREAU

Tom Mesereau is a high-profile Hollywood lawyer best known for winning an acquittal in Michael Jackson’s 2005 child molestation trial. Mesereau has also represented boxer Mike Tyson, rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight and a Playboy bunny. Last year, he won an acquittal for a black teen accused of killing an Iraq War veteran in Alabama. Mesereau is joined at the defense table by Los Angeles appellate lawyer Becky James, former federal prosecutor Kathleen Bliss and Philadelphia litigator Lane Vines, who has specialized in securities and investor fraud cases.

DISTRICT ATTORNEY KEVIN STEELE

an aspiring actress who says Cosby forced her to perform oral sex as she faded in and out of consciousness after he gave her a drink in 1984, when she was 24 and he was 46.

CHELAN LASHA

Andrea Constand, 44, managed the women’s basketball team at Cosby’s alma mater, Temple University. She met Cosby there in 2002 and said he drugged and molested her in early 2004. She left Temple months later to move home to the Toronto area and start a career as a massage therapist. She filed a police report against Cosby in early 2005, then sued him when Pennsylvania authorities declined to press charges. The settlement they forged in 2006, after Cosby gave four days of deposition testimony, ended the case and swore both sides to secrecy. A judge recently agreed to let retrial jurors hear how much Cosby paid her. The figure didn’t come up at the first trial. The Associated Press does not usually identify people who say they are sexual assault victims without their permission, which Constand has given.

ACCUSERS WHO’LL TESTIFY Judge Steven O’Neill is allowing five additional accusers to testify as prosecution witnesses about allegations dating to the early 1980s. Cosby’s lawyers have said the women’s memories are tainted at best and tried to get them barred from testifying. They are: JANICE DICKINSON

a model and reality TV star, who says Cosby knocked her out with a pill and raped her in Lake Tahoe in 1982, when she was 27 and Cosby was 45.

Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele was the top deputy in the office in July 2015 when a judge unsealed Cosby’s deposition and then-boss Risa Vetri Ferman decided to reopen Constand’s 2005 police complaint. Steele, a Democrat, was running to succeed her while she ran for judge. His opponent was Bruce Castor, the prosecutor who had decided not to charge Cosby in 2005. Steele attacked Castor over the decision in campaign ads and went on to win the November election. He announced Cosby’s arrest the following month.

Bill Cosby’s lawyer has launched a blistering courtroom attack on the comedian’s accuser, portraying her as a con artist whose goal was “money, money and lots more money”.

Pioneering Black Choreographer, Director Donald McKayle Dies IRVINE, Calif. (AP) _ Donald McKayle, a modern dancer and choreographer who brought the black experience in America to the Broadway stage in musicals such as “Raisin” and “Sophisticated Ladies,” has died. He was 87.

His wife, Lea McKayle, told the University of California, Irvine that McKayle died Friday night. He was a UCI professor emeritus of dance.

Born in Harlem, McKayle began dancing as a teenager.

McKayle choreographed works that focused on black life and socially conscious themes such as poverty, homelessness and discrimination.\ His 1959 work “Rainbow ‘Round My Shoulder” depicted the lives of chain-gang prisoners.

McKayle was the first African-American man to both direct and choreograph major Broadway musicals, including 1973’s “Raisin,” which won the Tony as best musical, and 1981’s “Sophisticated Ladies.”

He also choreographed for movies and TV shows.

Selena Drink Cups are Gobbled Up

by Fans Cups Sold for $3 were offered on online sales sites for at least 10x that amount.

JUDGE STEVEN O’NEILL

a model and aspiring actress who says she lay immobilized and unable to speak as Cosby pinched her nipple and humped her leg after he gave her a pill he described as an antihistamine in 1986, when she was 17 and he was 48.

LISE-LOTTE LUBLIN,

an aspiring actress who alleges Cosby sexually assaulted her after prodding her to take two drinks to relax in 1989, when she was 23 and he was about 52.

Steven O’Neill, the administrative judge of Montgomery County’s criminal court, presided over the first Cosby trial and is continuing to handle the retrial after rejecting defense pressure to step aside. He ruled he’s “not biased or prejudiced” by his wife’s work as a social worker who counsels sexual assault victims.

O’Neill was appointed in 2002 and elected to 10-year terms in 2004 and 2014. He worked for five years as a prosecutor and 18 years as a criminal defense lawyer.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) _ The latest version of drink cups bearing the likeness of slain Tejano music queen Selena didn’t last long this weekend at Stripes convenience stores in Texas and Louisiana.

Fans quickly exhausted supplies of the plastic cups within hours after they went on sale Saturday.

And just as quickly, some of the containers that sold for $3 were offered on online sales sites for at least 10 times that amount.

A spokeswoman for the store chain, Piper Scott, tells the Corpus Christi Caller-Times it’s the third time Stripes has participated in the promotion. Some of the proceeds go to the Selena Foundation, which supports youth education.

A former friend and business associate of Selena Quintanilla-Perez was convicted of her 1995 fatal shooting in Corpus Christi and is serving life in prison.

Local

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THE VALLEY’S NEWS OBSERVER

Thursday, April 12, 2018

Ballmer’s & LA Clippers Announce Major Gift to Renovate Nearly 350 Public Basketball Courts Courts add momentum to Mayor Garcetti’s vision to expand youth sports to benefit every child in Los Angeles LOS ANGELES — Hundreds of public basketball courts across the city will be renovated over the next three years, thanks to a major gift to the Department of Recreation and Parks Foundation from the L.A. Clippers and Chairman Steve Ballmer and his wife, Connie Ballmer.

Mayor Eric Garcetti and First Lady Amy Elaine Wakeland joined the Ballmers and Clippers guard Lou Williams, as well as L.A. City Council President Herb Wesson, for the announcement today at Jim Gilliam Recreation Center — one of nearly 350 courts that will be overhauled by the end of 2021.

Last year, Mayor Garcetti led the effort to bring the Olympic and Paralympic Games back to Los Angeles in 2028. LA 2028 will invest up to $160 million in youth sports programming in the city of Los Angeles over the next 10 years. The. Ballmers’ and Clippers’ gift will build on the city’s momentum towards creating even more access to sports for children in all geographic areas and economically diverse regions of Los Angeles.

“Los Angeles is a city that embraces opportunity – and every kid in this city should have every opportunity to grow up to be the next Lou Williams, or DeAndre Jordan,” said Steve Ballmer, Chairman of the L.A. Clippers.

“Mayor Garcetti asked if the Clippers would play a role and help give opportunity to kids, and we were happy to step up. We believe every kid should have a shot at the American Dream, and youth sports opportunities can absolutely play a role in that.”

“Sports have always been an incredible vehicle for social change, and this gift is an extraordinary investment in our children and communities,” said Mayor Garcetti. “The Ballmers and the Clippers organization reflect the best of Los Angeles, and I’m grateful to them for their leadership and generous commitment to our city’s future.”

Research has shown that the benefits of physical activity and sports for young people extend well beyond the values of teamwork, leadership, and fair play that are rein-

forced on courts and playing fields. They also hold significant implications for short- and long-term health, academic achievement, and social development.

Students who participate in sports also have more opportunities to access scholarships that put higher education within reach — and girls who compete are more likely to get higher grades and graduate from high school, have lower levels of depression, and avoid unintended pregnancies.

A large number of the courts being renovated are located in communities where Mayor Garcetti’s Girls Play L.A. (GPLA) initiative is driving higher participation by young women in the City’s youth sports programming.

Gender equity is a core value of the Clippers organization, which has the largest female leadership team in the National Basketball Association. In Los Angeles, basketball participation is roughly 25% female and 75% male whereas nationally the stats are 40% and 60% respectively. In conjunction with the targeted resources and expanded female mentorship that GPLA provides, today’s donation is expected to help the program continue to increase female participation rates.

Early in Mayor Garcetti’s administration, the Department of Recreation and Parks (RAP) conducted a detailed assessment of basketball courts and determined that the floors of 108 indoor courts and 236 outdoor courts are in need of restoration in order to be in use. The generous donation from Steve and Connie Ballmer and the Clippers will renovate every single court that is in need of repair in Los Angeles.

Renovation of Los Angeles basketball courts will include updating the asphalt, concrete (outdoor) or wood (indoor) flooring, installing new backboards, frames, rims and scoreboards. Each project will be customized to update each court in line with the needs of the local community who uses it. RAP expects all renovations to be complete within three years.

Sacramento Settles Police Beating Lawsuit

By SOPHIA BOLLAG Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) _ California's capital city has agreed to reform its policing practices and pay a black man $550,000 after a police officer threw him to the ground and repeatedly punched his face.

Nandi Cain's lawyers announced the tentative settlement Friday. Cain had sued Sacramento, California, saying he was targeted because of his race.

Mayor Darrell Steinberg's office says the city has reached a settlement with Cain and is waiting for him to

return the written agreement with his signature.

The altercation occurred a year ago when an officer accused Cain of jaywalking and threw him to the ground when Cain argued.

Cain's lawyers say Sacramento agreed to update its use-of-force policy.

Sacramento police have faced intense scrutiny in recent weeks after two officers shot Stephon Clark, a 22-yearold unarmed black man.

You Can Read the News Observer Online

on your PC , Tablet or Phone Bill Cosby’s Daughter Ensa Dies at 44 Page A6

Billy Graham Civil Rights Regrets Page A4

Volume 33 Number 18

Bill Cosby’s Ensa Daughter Page A6 Dies at 44

Billy Graham Civil Rights Page A4 Regrets

Observer Group Newspapers of Southern California

r News Observe K.I.S.S. March 1, Thursday,

Observer

Number 18

ers of Southern

S) ONG SISTAH PIRING STR (KEEP INS at

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wife, enawson, to singers Tina Knowles-L (Car, and mother Knowles. News trepreneur & Solonge os Angeles Beyoncé rington Prichett/L Photo) Observer

March Rams are hosting attherams.com/2018 The Los Angeles season starting Sunday, perform the 2018 rs not only at auditions for Rams Cheerleade Coliseum and 11. Los Angeles at the LA Memorial also participate service at home games in Mexico City, but community Estadio Azteca internas, events and nationally and in public appearance Angeles region, t the year. or oldacross the Los must be 18 tionally throughou online by looking to audition Candidates March 1, and must register is not availer by Thursday, 8. Walk-up registration y auditions Thursday, Marchfrom last year’s preliminar /videos. able. Coverageat therams.com/cheerRams Cheerleaders can be viewed to auditions the Los Angeles In addition,voluntary workshops prior t the LA region. four are hosting Fitness locations throughou led by Chodance of n hour at 24 Hour includes one followed by a presentatio Each workshop PETERS, Rams Cheerleading Diper the reographer JOHN s cost $40.00 last A segment with and a Q & LY FIMBRES. Workshop . Footage from rector KEE have limited availabilitye. Interested candiperson and can be viewed her at therams.com/cheer year’s workshops up for workshops dates may sign leaders/workshops.

Female First Black to Nominated Fame of State Hall

Women’s Retreat Held in Burbank

Tina Knowles-Lawson, wife, entrepreneur, and mother to singers Beyoncé & Solonge Knowles. (Carrington Prichett/Los Angeles News Observer Photo)

By Darlene L. Williams Los Angeles Contributing Beat Writer

BURBANK, CA- The K.I.S.S. (Keep Inspiring pe of HoWomen’s Strong retreat was held Saturday, FebgeSistahs) Messa ruary, 24th at the Ramada- Burbank Airport Hotel from The CSU’s

Tina Knowles-Lawson further empowered the energetic group with an open question and answer session in relation to operating successful businesses.

1 p.m. to 9.m. The one-day event geared towards inspir“The best businesses are services people need. You ing and empowering women to love themselves, featured want to have a product that people need,” explained dia Keynote Speaker,rni andaMulti-Award Winner, TinaasCampan Knowles-Lawson.

Black Me Tex Womin Pan ts of Ca the lifo famed sister duo, Mary Mary and Q es and t to “Find a couple of people you can trust, she said. anbell Defaecat Gr ’s &E gs Dru PG A session with entrepreneur, designer, philanthropist, to Hide Knowles-Lawson along with husband, Actor Richmotivational speaker, and mother of iconic daughters ard Lawson successfully operates and owns WACO Beyonce’ and Solange; Tina Knowles-Lawson.

(Where Art Can Occur) Theater Group in Los Angeles, The event also included a One-Woman Stage play, where they mentor inner-city youths. an All Male Panel Discussion (What Men REALLY “I’ve always dreamed of mentoring young girls”, she Want?) hosted by Fox 11 News Reporter, Leah Uko; and said.

Flying Over 50 Exotic Dance Coach, Makeda Smith.

Event founder, producer, life-coach, and celebriCampbell, spoke to a group of about 70 women ty hairstylist, Stephanie Singleton told The Bakersfield about the importance of faith, forgiveness, and healing.

News Observer; that the overall message intended “I’m a person of faith, Campbell said. Jesus is for women is that they embrace their “outer and what I do”. inner beauty”.

Campbell, spoke about her marriage to Robert Coats and Brandon Ellis both husband, Teddy Campbell. “I dealt with his inflew out from Akron, Ohio to support Singlefidelity very publicly and it almost destroyed ton and the K.I.S.S. retreat.

“I’m here my marriage. I’ve overcome the opinions of to support the movem e n t people,” she said. and brand. It’s power“God has your life fully orchestrated, Campful for bell told the attentive group, as she began to the womsoftly sing her hit song, “Destiny” an culture. This “I’ve got a destination in my view/ is a great time to push the road may be bumpy getting there/ for the woman, it’s so importBut I’m pressing through/ I will enjoy ant,” Coats said. this journey/ No matter come what “It’s a nice atmosphere; it’s nice what may/ I’ll become better and she’s (Singleton) doing for the women. stronger/ and wiser every It’s important to make women feel powerday.” ful, Ellis said. We are kings and queens.” “ W h y Additionally, Veteran Entertainlook good er and Flying Over 50 Exotic Dance when you can be Coach, Makeda Smith encouraged the good,” Campbell women in attendance to move their said. hips and to “awaken the sleeping goddess within.” “When was the last time Exotic Dance Coach, Makeda Smith leading you shook your hips? Smith asked. the audience in a dance practice. (Carrington Soon the energetic and funny Prichett/Los Angeles News Observer Photo)

a

By Tony Khing Media PG&E presentedefCalifornia BlackENTO -- On Feb. 22, to help their SACRAM California Black Media outlets to erican news t was $53,000 grant major African-Am The endowmen California forts in supporting service area. company’s event at The eight Afwithin the a multicultural media CBM with given during co-hosted by PG&E and organizations. t the AfriEndowmen print and broadcast to support sperican-American we work hard but February is a “At PG&E, all year, of many community acknowledgement can-American it’s a formal made significant cial month because erican heroes who’ve erican press is a African-Am African-Am We’re unsung community. We in history. The contributions in the African- American their work. to support vital resource with them work with them in 2018 to initiapleased to partner to continuing energy policy Jimi look forward PG&E updates and Manager ty Relations on important PG&E Communi Post tives,” said such as The other and Harris. from outlets Representatives andSacramento Observer rate plan Time of Use Reporter News, Sun ned about PG&E’s their energy usage. media outlets lear can better manage received informa and how customers session, they also one-hour During the A2 Continued

Owner

(323) 296-3034

Exotic Dance Coach, Makeda Smith leading the audience in a dance practice. (Carrington Prichett/Los Angeles News Observer Photo)

Observer Group Newspapers of Southern California

Tina Knowles-Lawson further empowered the energetic group with an open question and answer session in relation to operating successful businesses.

“The best businesses are services people need. You want to have a product that people need,” explained Knowles-Lawson.

“Find a couple of people you can trust, she said.

Knowles-Lawson along with husband, Actor Richard Lawson successfully operates and owns WACO (Where Art Can Occur) Theater Group in Los Angeles, where they mentor inner-city youths.

“I’ve always dreamed of mentoring young girls”, she said.

Event founder, producer, life-coach, and celebrity hairstylist, Stephanie Singleton told The Bakersfield News Observer; that the overall message intended for women is that they embrace their “outer and inner beauty”.

Robert Coats and Brandon Ellis both flew out from Akron, Ohio to support Singleton and the K.I.S.S. retreat.

“I’m here to support the movem e n t and brand. It’s powerful for the woman culture. This is a great time to push for the woman, it’s so important,” Coats said.

“It’s a nice atmosphere; it’s nice what she’s (Singleton) doing for the women.

It’s important to make women feel powerful, Ellis said. We are kings and queens.”

Additionally, Veteran Entertainer and Flying Over 50 Exotic Dance Coach, Makeda Smith encouraged the women in attendance to move their hips and to “awaken the sleeping goddess within.” “When was the last time you shook your hips? Smith asked.

Soon the energetic and funny

First Black Female Nominated to State Hall of Fame

By Dr. Soraya M. Coley President, Cal Poly Pomona As I was reflecting on the importance of CSU’s Super Sunday, what came to mind was an experience I had meeting an African American great-grandmother who introduced me to her 8-year-old great-grandson that she and her husband were raising. She had heard my message about the

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) _ The first black female member of the General Assembly is being nominated to the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame.

The late Margaret E. Morton was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1972. She served four terms, representing Bridgeport. She later won a Democratic primary against an incumbent senator and then went on to win the general election after a lengthy court battle with Bridgeport Democrats.

She served six terms in the Senate, eventually becoming deputy president pro tempore in 1990. She retired in 1992 and died in 2012.

Four current black women legislators nominated Morton to the hall of fame, citing her “quiet determination” to fight prejudice and racism.

Nominations for the hall of fame are accepted on an ongoing basis and reviewed by a consulting scholars committee.

Continued on page A2

Fernandez Diversity,O’Connell,PPG&E, Allen CBM, Valerie Roberts, Publisher, Manager, Director, Manager, Supplier Program Sun Reporter, Felicia Hub, Libby Real, Sr. Wilson, Executive Sac Cultural Jerilyn Gleaves, rd, Publisher,y Support, Regina L to R Justin , Publisher, ations, PG&E, Robertson Amelia Ashley-Wa Communit ral Communic Multicultu Media Group, Pleshette of Black Employees Integrated One New Fiona Chan Publisher,One New Media Group.

Dudley Najieb, Lennice Najieb, G&E and

Multi-Grammy Winning Gospel Artist, Tina Campbell.

(Carrington Prichett/Los Angeles News Observer Photo)

57 year-old, whose motto is #SexyNeverGetsOld, had the women up on their feet and moving. It appeared as if all the sleeping goddesses had been awakened, as the women swayed their hips from side to side to a sultry and soulful blues tune Smith used for the inspirational moment.

Bridgett LaRe’, Author, Aspiring Actress and event attendee, told the BNO, “I was looking for self-love and a friend told me about the retreat; I knew it was God.” “I was handed a flyer at church, said another event attendee, LaToya Towner of Los Angeles, I’m trying to find myself.”

“K.I.S.S. stems from a personal place; it’s a movement, Singleton said. I’m helping women to know that we were all born with love and someone robbed us if you can’t say you love yourself.”

The CSU’s Message of Hope

Multi-Grammy Winning Gospel Artist, Tina Campbell.

(Carrington Prichett/Los Angeles News Observer Photo)

57 year-old, whose motto is #SexyNeverGetsOld, had the women up on their feet and moving. It appeared as if all the sleeping goddesses had been awakened, as the women swayed their hips from side to side to a sultry and soulful blues tune Smith used for the inspirational moment.

Bridgett LaRe’, Author, Aspiring Actress and event attendee, told the BNO, “I was looking for self-love and a friend told me about the retreat; I knew it was God.” “I was handed a flyer at church, said another event attendee, LaToya Towner of Los Angeles, I’m trying to find myself.”

“K.I.S.S. stems from a personal place; it’s a movement, Singleton said. I’m helping women to know that we were all born with love and someone robbed us if you can’t say you love yourself.”

Dr. Soraya M. Coley (Courtesy Photo)

L to R Justin Real, Sr. Program Manager, PG&E, Allen Fernandez Smith, Manager Customer Energy Efficiency, PG&E, Amelia Ashley-Ward, Publisher, Sun Reporter, Felicia Roberts, Publisher, Central Valley Voice, Dionne Adams, President of Black Employees Community Support, Regina Wilson, Executive Director, CBM, Valerie Bell, V.P. Operations, PG&E, Fiona Chan Integrated Multicultural Communications, PG&E, Jerilyn Gleaves, Manager, Supplier Diversity, PG&E, Julia Dudley Najieb, Publisher, One New Media Group, Pleshette Robertson, Publisher, Sac Cultural Hub, Libby O’Connell,PG&E and Lennice Najieb, One New Media Group.

California Mayors Seek $1.5 Billion to Help Homeless

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) _ Mayors from California’s eleven largest cities on Wednesday asked state lawmakers to provide $1.5 billion to help with what they say is a growing homeless crisis.

They are backing legislation that would require the cities to provide matching funds, creating a $3 billion pot of money to be spent on affordable housing, temporary shelters, supportive services and outreach.

They said in an earlier letter to legislative leaders that lawmakers should use a quarter of the state’s $6.1 billion budget surplus to help the homeless.

San Diego Mayor Kevin L. Faulconer called it “the most pressing issue facing California cities today.’’

The mayors cited a 2017 federal estimate that the most populous state now has more than 134,000 homeless people.

Their request came the same day that two Democratic state senators announced they will seek $2 billion for affordable housing, also in response to the mayors’ requests.

The bipartisan group includes mayors from Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Long Beach, Sacramento, Oakland, Bakersfield, Anaheim and Santa Ana. The proposals come less than six months after Gov. Jerry Brown signed 15 housing bills into law. They imposed a new $75 real estate transaction fee and placed a $4 billion housing bond on the November ballot.

lanewsobserver.com increasing value of a college degree and the commitment of the CSU system to access and opportunity. She wanted reassurance that if her great-grandson continued to excel in school, he might one day achieve his dream of becoming an astronaut. She also wanted advice on courses he should take to prepare him for college. She and her husband were in their 70s and had few resources but were trying to set

Dr. Soraya M. Coley (Courtesy Photo)

PG&E’s Grant to California Black Media

By Tony Khing California Black Media SACRAMENTO -- On Feb. 22, PG&E presented a $53,000 grant to California Black Media to help their efforts in supporting major African-American news outlets within the company’s service area. The endowment was given during a multicultural media event at The California Endowment co-hosted by PG&E and CBM with eight African-American print and broadcast organizations.

“At PG&E, we work hard to support the African-American community all year, but February is a special month because it’s a formal acknowledgement of many

Tina Knowles-Lawson, wife, entrepreneur, and mother to singers Beyoncé & Solonge Knowles. (Carrington Prichett/Los Angeles News Observer Photo)

increasing value of a college degree and the commitment of the CSU system to access and opportunity. She wanted reassurance that if her great-grandson continued to excel in school, he might one day achieve his dream of becoming an astronaut. She also wanted advice on courses he should take to prepare him for college. She and her husband were in their 70s and had few resources but were trying to set Continued on page A2

on page

Continued on page A2

Thursday, March 1, 2018

PG&E’s Grant to California Black Media

By Tony Khing California Black Media SACRAMENTO -- On Feb. 22, PG&E presented a $53,000 grant to California Black Media to help their efforts in supporting major African-American news outlets within the company’s service area. The endowment was given during a multicultural media event at The California Endowment co-hosted by PG&E and CBM with eight African-American print and broadcast organizations.

“At PG&E, we work hard to support the African-American community all year, but February is a special month because it’s a formal acknowledgement of many unsung African-American heroes who’ve made significant contributions in history. The African-American press is a vital resource in the African- American community. We’re pleased to partner with them to support their work. We look forward to continuing to work with them in 2018 on important PG&E updates and energy policy initiatives,” said PG&E Community Relations Manager Jimi Harris.

Representatives from outlets such as The Post News, Sun Reporter andSacramento Observer and other media outlets learned about PG&E’s Time of Use rate plan and how customers can better manage their energy usage.

During the one-hour session, they also received informa

Texas Woman Defecates in Pants to Hide Drugs

CORSICANA, Texas (AP) _ Police say a Texas woman attempted to hide evidence during an arrest by defecating in her pants and using the feces to conceal drugs.

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The CSU’s Message of Hope

a Texas _ Police say arrest by Texas (AP) an CORSICANA,to hide evidence during to conceal using the feces woman attempted her pants and defecating in (88 kilomea about 55 miles drugs. g a report of investigatin when they atOfficers in Corsicana, of Dallas, were ters ) south take her into store on Wednesday suspect and Martin in the theft at a grocery subdue a female Shannen lly tempted to say they placed say she intentiona custody. Police cruiser where they pipe, 2.3 grams hid a crack card in her exback of a police her pants then Day defecated in and a Valentine’s feces of crack cocaine woman’s the on crement. to sift through was booked a Officers had of after Martin PG&E, the evidence evidence and possession to retrieve with Energy Efficiency, tampering of Customer Dionne Adams, President charges , PG&E, Voice, Smith, Manager Operations Central Valley Bell, V.P. controlled substance.

PG&E, Julia

By Dr. Soraya M. Coley President, Cal Poly Pomona As I was reflecting on the importance of CSU’s Super Sunday, what came to mind was an experience I had meeting an African American great-grandmother who introduced me to her 8-year-old great-grandson that she and her husband were raising. She had heard my message about the

Billy Graham Civil Rights Regrets Page A4

Page A6

News Observer K.I.S.S.

By Darlene L. Williams Los Angeles Contributing Beat Writer BURBANK, CA- The K.I.S.S. (Keep Inspiring Strong Sistahs) Women’s retreat was held Saturday, February, 24th at the Ramada- Burbank Airport Hotel from 1 p.m. to 9.m. The one-day event geared towards inspiring and empowering women to love themselves, featured Keynote Speaker, and Multi-Award Winner, Tina Campbell of the famed sister duo, Mary Mary and a Q and A session with entrepreneur, designer, philanthropist, motivational speaker, and mother of iconic daughters Beyonce’ and Solange; Tina Knowles-Lawson.

The event also included a One-Woman Stage play, an All Male Panel Discussion (What Men REALLY Want?) hosted by Fox 11 News Reporter, Leah Uko; and Flying Over 50 Exotic Dance Coach, Makeda Smith.

Campbell, spoke to a group of about 70 women about the importance of faith, forgiveness, and healing.

“I’m a person of faith, Campbell said. Jesus is what I do”.

Campbell, spoke about her marriage to husband, Teddy Campbell. “I dealt with his infidelity very publicly and it almost destroyed my marriage. I’ve overcome the opinions of people,” she said.

“God has your life fully orchestrated, Campbell told the attentive group, as she began to softly sing her hit song, “Destiny” “I’ve got a destination in my view/ the road may be bumpy getting there/ But I’m pressing through/ I will enjoy this journey/ No matter come what may/ I’ll become better and stronger/ and wiser every day.” “ W h y look good when you can be good,” Campbell said.

Mayors California Billion Seek $1.5 eless to Help Hom

Soul Food

Gregory Dulan

Candidates May Register through March 8th at attherams.com/2018cheerauditions The Los Angeles Rams are hosting cheerleader Bill Cosby’s auditions for the 2018 season starting Sunday, March Daughter Ensa Dies at 44 11. Los Angeles Rams Cheerleaders not only perform at home games at the LA Memorial Coliseum and Los at Angeles Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, but also participate in public appearances, events and community service across the Los Angeles region, nationally and internationally throughout the year.

Candidates looking to audition must be 18 or older by Thursday, March 1, and must register online by Thursday, March 8. Walk-up registration is not available. Coverage from last year’s preliminary auditions (KEEP INSPIRING STRONG SISTAHS) can be viewed at therams.com/cheer/videos.

Women’s Retreat In addition, the Los Angeles Rams Cheerleaders Held in Burbank are hosting four voluntary workshops prior to auditions at 24 Hour Fitness locations throughout the LA region.

Each workshop includes one hour of dance led by Choreographer JOHN PETERS, followed by a presentation and a Q & A segment with the Rams Cheerleading Director KEELY FIMBRES. Workshops cost $40.00 per person and have limited availability. Footage from last year’s workshops can be viewed here. Interested candidates may sign up for workshops at therams.com/cheerleaders/workshops.

Volume 33 Number 18

(KEEP INSPIRING STRONG SISTAHS)

the enerempowered awson further and answer session in L. Williams Tina Knowles-L question

By Darlene ng Beat Writer (Keep Inspiring getic group with an open You female Febsuccessful businesses.

Los Angeles Contributi people need.

CA- The K.I.S.S. _ The first black to operating was held Saturday, BURBANK, Conn. (AP) is being nominated to from relation best businesses are services need,” explained Women’s retreat people Airport HotelinspirHARTFORD, “The General Assembly Fame.

Strong Sistahs)the Ramada- Burbank a product that towards at member of theut Women’s Hall of was first elected to said. want to have event geared ruary, 24th can trust, she The one-day to love themselves, featured Knowles-Lawson. the ConnecticMargaret E. Morton served four of people you husband, Actor RichCamp1 p.m. to 9.m. g women in 1972. She The late Dem“Find a couple rd Winner, Tinaa Q and along with Representatives . She later won a then owns WACO ing and empowerin and Multi-Awa Mary and the House of Knowles-Lawson y operates and in Los Angeles, g Bridgeport senator and court pist, Keynote Speaker, sister duo, Mary successfull Group terms, representin famed designer, philanthro ard Lawson against an incumbent after a lengthy Occur) Theater bell of the entrepreneur, ocratic primary the general election of iconic daughters (Where Art Can inner-city youths. girls”, she A session with young and mother mentor Democrats. went on to win awson. speaker, they mentoring eventually bewhere redreamed of motivational Solange; Tina Knowles-L the Senate, an Stage play, battle with Bridgeport “I’ve always six terms in tempore in 1990. She and celebriBeyonce’ and also included a One-WomMen REALLY She served life-coach, Bakersfield president pro (What The event and said. coming deputyand died in 2012. told The founder, producer, nominated Panel DiscussionReporter, Leah Uko; Event Singleton Male legislators intended 1992 All in an message tired black women

by Fox 11 NewsCoach, Makeda Smith. “quiet determihairstylist, Stephaniethat the overall their “outer and Four current of fame, citing her Want?) hosted 70 women ty embrace News Observer; 50 Exotic Dance the hall group of about is that they and racism. are accepted on Flying Over Morton to , and healing. spoke to a for women Campbell. to fight prejudice Ellis both Campbell, hall of fame scholars is PhoArtist, Tina nation” the beauty”. of faith, forgiveness e for Brandon Jesus ns inner Gospel Observer and said.

Nominatio and reviewed by a consulting my Winningos Angeles News about the importanc Robert Coats Ohio to support Singleof faith, Campbell basis Akron, n Prichett/L “I’m here Multi-Gram “I’m a person an ongoing to (Carringto flew out from m e n t to) her marriage K.I.S.S. retreat. committee. what I do”. ton and the the movespoke about dealt with his inpowerCampbell, rGetsOld, had to support Campbell. “I almost destroyed is #SexyNeve It appeared as It’s ful for it and brand. husband, Teddy whose motto of moving. publicly and the wom- 57 year-old,up on their feet and been awakened, as the fidelity very I’ve overcome the opinions had This the women to a sultry goddesses side culture. to my marriage.said. an Campsleeping side d, hips from to push if all the inspirational people,” she to life fully orchestrate swayed their Smith used for the is a great time as she began “God has your it’s so import- women blues tune attentive group, event and soulful for the woman, Actress and Calbell told the hit song, “Destiny” view/ said. _ Mayors from state Author, Aspiring for self-love and e; it’s nice what moment. softly sing her a destination in my ant,” Coats Calif. (AP) asked looking Bridgett LaRe’, “I’ve got BNO, “I was it was God.” the women.

“It’s a nice atmospher getting there/ SACRAMENTO, cities on Wednesday what be bumpy largest ) doing for feel power- attendee, told theabout the retreat; I knew another event to help with said the road may through/ I will enjoy $1.5 billion me ifornia’s eleven she’s (Singleton to provide to make women a friend told what a flyer at church, I’m trying to lawmakers growing homeless crisis. would require the But I’m pressing It’s important We are kings and queens.”

“I was handedTowner of Los Angeles, No matter comeand billion they say is a backing legislation that this journey/ ful, Ellis said. ly, Veteran Entertaincreating a $3 tempomovebecome better Dance attendee, LaToya They are Additional place; it’s a that may/ I’ll matching funds, wiser every Over 50 Exotic the find myself.” affordable housing, from a personal to know cities to provide stronger/ and er and Flying Smith encouraged outreach. leaders to be spent on “K.I.S.S. stems I’m helping women us if you pot of money supportive services and to move their day.”

Coach, Makeda to legislative $6.1 Singleton said. love and someone robbed attendance rary shelters, in an earlier letter “ W h y with the state’s women in “awaken the sleeping god- ment, were all born They said should use a quarter of good hips and to “When was the last time we say you love yourself.” look the homeless.called it “the be lawmakers help can can’t that to asked. within.” you dess surplus when hips? Smith billion budget Mayor Kevin L. Faulconer today.’’ you shook your energetic and funny good,” Campbell San Diego California cities that the Soon the issue facing said. federal estimate most pressing Smith leading cited a 2017more than 134,000 homen (Carringto Coach, Makeda The mayors Photo) state now has Exotic Dance in a dance practice.

Demomost populous News Observer the audience day that two billion os Angeles Prichett/L less people. came the same seek $2 Their request announced they will to the mayors’ in response cratic state senators housing, also nt Los for affordable the commitme mayors from degree and Fresno, requests. y. She wanted group includes of a college and opportunit The bipartisan San Jose, San Francisco, , Anato excel in increasing value Bakersfield Diego, system to access son continued becoming of the CSU Angeles, San Sacramento, Oakland, that if her great-grand his dream of he should Gov. M. Coley Long Beach, reassurance one day achieve Ana. courses six months after

By Dr. SorayaPoly Pomona e of CSU’s Super school, he might also wanted advice on her husband were heim and Santa come less than law. They im-a into and Photo) bills proposals had meet- an astronaut. She President, Cal reflecting on the importanc I She The to set fee and placed signed 15 housing M. Coley (Courtesy him for college.

As I was were trying was an experience who introDr. Soraya Jerry Brown $75 real estate transaction mother resources but came to mind take to prepare November ballot.

Sunday, what American great-grand son that she and her in their 70s and had few posed a new bond on the great-grand message about the ing an African billion housing on page A2 $4 8-year-old her my Continued duced me to raising. She had heard husband were

U.S. Attorney Nicola Hanna says it was a miracle that nobody was injured.

In plea agreements filed Thursday, Jose Saucedo, Edwin Felix and Jonathan Portillo acknowledged that the unprovoked attacks were aimed at driving the families out of the complex.

The men could now face some 30 years each in prison.

Three other gang members previously pleaded guilty and two are facing trial.

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Thursday, March 1, 2018

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Volume 33

Received by Newsfinder from AP LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Three East Los Angeles gang members will plead guilty to federal racketeering and civil rights charges for firebombing black residents at a housing project.

Authorities say four years ago, members of a Latino gang threw Molotov cocktails into four apartments at the Ramona Gardens project in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood.

Black families that included women and children were sleeping in three of the apartments.

On Crenshaw

News Observer K.I.S.S. Los Angeles

LA Men Will Plead Guilty to Firebombing Black Families

attherams.com/2018cheerauditions The Los Angeles Rams are hosting cheerleader auditions for the 2018 season starting Sunday, March 11. Los Angeles Rams Cheerleaders not only perform at home games at the LA Memorial Coliseum and at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, but also participate in public appearances, events and community service across the Los Angeles region, nationally and internationally throughout the year.

Candidates looking to audition must be 18 or older by Thursday, March 1, and must register online by Thursday, March 8. Walk-up registration is not available. Coverage from last year’s preliminary auditions can be viewed at therams.com/cheer/videos.

In addition, the Los Angeles Rams Cheerleaders are hosting four voluntary workshops prior to auditions at 24 Hour Fitness locations throughout the LA region.

Each workshop includes one hour of dance led by Choreographer JOHN PETERS, followed by a presentation and a Q & A segment with the Rams Cheerleading Director KEELY FIMBRES. Workshops cost $40.00 per person and have limited availability. Footage from last year’s workshops can be viewed here. Interested candidates may sign up for workshops at therams.com/cheerleaders/workshops.

First Black Female Nominated to State Hall of Fame HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) _ The first black female

member of the General Assembly is being nominated to the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame.

The late Margaret E. Morton was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1972. She served four terms, representing Bridgeport. She later won a Democratic primary against an incumbent senator and then went on to win the general election after a lengthy court battle with Bridgeport Democrats.

She served six terms in the Senate, eventually becoming deputy president pro tempore in 1990. She retired in 1992 and died in 2012.

Four current black women legislators nominated Morton to the hall of fame, citing her “quiet determination” to fight prejudice and racism.

Nominations for the hall of fame are accepted on an ongoing basis and reviewed by a consulting scholars committee.

California Mayors Seek $1.5 Billion to Help Homeless

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) _ Mayors from California’s eleven largest cities on Wednesday asked state lawmakers to provide $1.5 billion to help with what they say is a growing homeless crisis.

They are backing legislation that would require the cities to provide matching funds, creating a $3 billion pot of money to be spent on affordable housing, temporary shelters, supportive services and outreach.

They said in an earlier letter to legislative leaders that lawmakers should use a quarter of the state’s $6.1 billion budget surplus to help the homeless.

San Diego Mayor Kevin L. Faulconer called it “the most pressing issue facing California cities today.’’

The mayors cited a 2017 federal estimate that the most populous state now has more than 134,000 homeless people.

Their request came the same day that two Democratic state senators announced they will seek $2 billion for affordable housing, also in response to the mayors’ requests.

The bipartisan group includes mayors from Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Long Beach, Sacramento, Oakland, Bakersfield, Anaheim and Santa Ana. The proposals come less than six months after Gov. Jerry Brown signed 15 housing bills into law. They imposed a new $75 real estate transaction fee and placed a $4 billion housing bond on the November ballot.

Texas Woman Defecates in Pants to Hide Drugs CORSICANA, Texas (AP) _ Police say a Texas woman attempted to hide evidence during an arrest by defecating in her pants and using the feces to conceal drugs.

Officers in Corsicana, about 55 miles (88 kilometers ) south of Dallas, were investigating a report of a theft at a grocery store on Wednesday when they attempted to subdue a female suspect and take her into custody. Police say they placed Shannen Martin in the back of a police cruiser where they say she intentionally defecated in her pants then hid a crack pipe, 2.3 grams of crack cocaine and a Valentine’s Day card in her excrement.

Officers had to sift through the woman’s feces to retrieve the evidence after Martin was booked on charges of tampering with evidence and possession of a controlled substance.

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