Vol. 49 No. 13
July 19, 2018 - July 25, 2018
This publication is a Certified DBE/ SBE / MBE in the State of California CUCP #43264 Metro File #7074 & State of Texas File #802505971 Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them and these will continue till they have resisted either with words or blows or words or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they suppress. —Fredrick Douglass (1849)
Trump at Putin summit: 'I don't see any reason why' Russia would interfere By Doug G. Ware and Ed Adamczyk
President Donald Trump (L) shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a joint press conference with at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland on Monday. Prior to the conference, President Trump met with President Putin to discuss a variety of subjects including election meddling, the war in Syria and the North Korean threat. Photo by David Silpa/UPI | License Photo July 16 (UPI) -- U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin each expressed optimism at their summit in Helsinki on Monday, a meeting that ended with a controversial joint news conference. At a press briefing at which both spoke, Trump said the two had "deeply productive dialogue." "It went well," he said. Trump said relations between the United States and Russia have "never been worse than it is now. That changed, about four hours ago." He added that he and Putin "spent a great deal of time" on the issue of election meddling, and discussed the Syria crisis at length. Trump's remarks at the news conference were met by some with strong criticism -- particularly for slamming Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation and appearing to back Putin's denial that Moscow did not interfere in the 2016 U.S. election. "He just said it's not Russia,"
Trump said. "I will say this. I don't see any reason why it would be." Multiple members of Trump's own government and the entire U.S. intelligence community have already concluded that Russia did indeed attempt to sway the vote in Trump's favor. "I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today," Trump said Monday. On the topic, Putin emphatically stated, "The Russian state has not interfered and will not interfere in U.S. internal affairs." The Russian leader called the first meeting "a good conversation," adding "I hope we start to get to know each other better." Noting that "mutual interests abound," he said he gave specific suggestions on dealing with crises under discussion. He indicated the talks were wide-ranging and covered nuclear non-proliferation,
Middle Eastern affairs in Israel and Syria, Iran and the nuclear deal and Trump's recent negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. "Syria could be the first showcase example of joint work," he said. "We have all the required components" for peace. Putin defended the Iran nuclear deal, from which the United States withdrew earlier this year, and called for security for Israel. Also in the question period, Putin said Russia had no compromising information on Trump and that he was unaware that Trump was even in Russia during Trump's several visits. Putin also handed Trump a soccer ball, in honor of Russia's successful hosting of the World Cup tournament this year and the United States picking up hosting duties in 2026. Earlier, the pair met for a brief media session at about 7:10 a.m. before they held their first talks. Trump congratulated Putin on
Russia's hosting the World Cup and said he looked forward to discussing a slate of issues with the Kremlin leader. "I think the world wants to see us get along. We are the two great nuclear powers, we have 90 percent of the world's nuclear [weapons]. That's not a good thing, that's a bad thing," Trump said at the brief media session. "We, hopefully, can do something about that because it's not a positive force, it's a negative force." Trump also said he's confident Washington and Moscow can improve relations and said a friendly and productive relationship is "a good thing." Trump's motorcade arrived just before 7 a.m. EDT at the beige neoclassical palace on the Esplanadi near Market Square in the Finnish capital. Hundreds of people in the vicinity of the palace turned out to watch and take photos of the motorcade, and some held signs and flags. A Finnish newspaper placed billboards around Helsinki with various messages for Trump -- like "Make Human Rights Great Again" and "Mr. President, welcome to the land of free press." A second, expanded bilateral meeting with presidential aides followed the first session. The joint news conference ended the meetings. After speaking to reporters, Trump and first lady Melania Trump were set to leave the palace for the airport for their return trip to Washington, D.C. They are scheduled to return at Andrews Air Force Base around 8:45 p.m. EDT and the White House 15 minutes later. Monday's is the first U.S.-Russian summit in eight years. The last, between former Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev, was held in Prague, Czech Republic, on April 8, 2010.
Youth Leaders Present Nestle With #1 Water Thief Award Community News
San Bernardino, CA -- Fifty student leaders with the Sierra Club’s youth chapter gathered outside the Nestle Bottling Facility in Cabazon, CA today to protest the company’s privatization of public water resources. They awarded Nestle with a “#1 Water Thief Award” in a mock recognition ceremony, noting that the company has been diverting water from national forests using an expired permit. “Nestle doesn’t have a right to claim that this water is theirs to profit off of. Water should be a human right, not something that international corporations can exploit from our communities,” said Sam Rodriguez, youth leader with the Sierra Student Coalition from San Bernardino. Nestle has withdrawn 62.6 million gallons of water per year for the past 68 years for bottling, all from public sources. While California remains in a historic drought and local residents face mandatory water restrictions,
Editor in Chief’s Corner Email: sbamericannews@gmail.com Clifton Harris Publisher of The San Bernardino AMERICAN News
How is Black-owned Business Doing in the Trump Economy By Marisol Beas | California Black Media Leo Hickman, the founder of Classy Hippie Tea Company, has been in business for seven years. Hickman said under the current economy “there is monetary value, even if you are losing” because Trump “just put in tax breaks for owners,” the American Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, that can be written off. The American Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed in December and will have some benefits to small business owners. The National Federation of Independent Business says small business owners will be able to file as “pass through entities,” which allows owners to file and pay as an individual. In addition, the NFIB says business owners can deduct up to 20 percent of claimable income. According to the NFIM, taxpayers will not have to file deductions to claim the deduction, “and may simultaneously claim this deduction and the standard deduction.” Hickman said he started his tea company after backpacking around the world. He noticed how all of the different cultures sat over tea and talked about the community, and how “from there at a community level you could activate and start changing the community.” Hickman says that although the Trump economy is helping his business the system was “not built for us.” But he believes that African Americans are not “excluded, where [they] are included is in the programs as workers and the laborer” but that “you have to figure out a way to get access to get to the other side.” Once you are there Hickman says, “There is going to be bigotry, racism, and hatred that will try to keep you where you are at… but you have to figure out how to bubble up.” Because Hickman says, “If you are going to be in this country you have to be about money.” Hickman says there are no actual losses when you can write things off, “that’s why this side is set up for them, it was built for you to take a risk.” But Hickman says that African Americans need to “take the small risk of…thirty five dollars to get your business filed,” because if you don’t “we miss out on a couple hundred grand.” “You are creating your own economy… it comes down to how much effort you are going to put into educating yourself, and it opens up the world; that’s were freedom lies.” Cheryl Brownlee, the CEO of CB Communications, started her small business 20 years ago. Now,
under the Trump economy Brownlee said, “A lot of things [African American business owners] had the opportunity to be a part of before are changing” and those “opportunities are being taken away.” Brownlee started her business 20 years ago in her living room as an idea, launching CB communications officially in 2000. CB Communications has partnered with organizations like The Black Advocates for State Services, Café De California, The International Black Women’s Policy Institute, and the California Black Expo. “We started out…in Sacramento and now we are international,” Brownlee said, working in countries like “Belize, the Bahamas, Bermuda, and [now] Ghana.” Brownlee and Hickman’s businesses are clear cases of success but perhaps anomalies in the Trump economy. The U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics projects the growth rate of the Black labor force to be slower than the growth rate of the black population between 2018-2026. Furthermore, the overall labor force of Black Americans has been on the decline and is between 5.4 percent-10.1 percent in California. Brownlee said, “I don’t think that when you are a small business. You have many resources” they are “limited.” The Guidant Financial Small Business Trends and Statistics show that 67 percent of small business owners face the lack of capital, marketing, and advertising efforts. African American small businesses exist in California but a majority of them are not certified in the State, Brownlee stated. “The small business administration …[found] that there is ten thousand African American businesses in the state of California.” Brownlee said the Black Chamber of Commerce is making efforts to find the business owners to help them get registered. Brownlee said this is important because this gives African American business owners the “opportunity to be on the list, so when individuals are looking for businesses they can be contracted.” Under the Trump economy, Brownlee says, it is “big businesses [who take] contracts and if they want to work with small business they may work with small women owned businesses, not African American women, just to meet that check box.” According to the Public Law Research Institute this check box is the federal preferences in public employment, contracting, and education based on ethnicity to eradicate (continued on page 3)
Our Values, Mission, & Vision Statement
Nestle continues to divert publicly-owned resources. Sierra Club youth activists cited corporate privatization and climate change as factors that have exacerbated ongoing water shortages in California and around the world. “Nestle is taking water from our
communities and then trying to sell it back to us for profit, while also worsening environmental degradation with plastic water bottles and packaging, and a pipeline that goes through the forest,” said Erika Ruiz, San Bernardino resident and youth leader with the
Sierra Student Coalition. “It’s a danger to our generation’s future and an insult to our communities.” More information and petition language at sc.org/Nestle Live video and photos at facebook.com/SierraStudent
Our Values: Treat all people with care, respect, honor, and dignity. Tell it as it is with love, truth and integrity. Promote the interests of advertisers and sponsors along their strategic interest for the betterment of the community and beyond. Speak truth to power. Our Mission: To continuously improve communication between all people of the world. Our Vision: To be the best community newspaper in our region and the nation. Provider of: A voice for the poor, the underserved, those that are marginalized, Positive and edifying news about people, places and businesses. Keep San Bernardino, Riverside, and Los Angeles Counties informed about global trends while retaining the consciousness of local events and processes. Memberships and Associations: The San Bernardino American Newspaper is a member of the California Newspaper Publishers Association, National Newspaper Association and addociated with California Black Media.