SB American News Week Ending 4/12

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 with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance those of whom they suppress.

—Fredrick Douglass (1849)

New York Grand Jury Votes to Indict Donald Trump

Food insecurity, hunger expected to soar after cuts to extra SNAP benefits

Contributing

by Barrington M. Salmon,

Writer, Black Press USA

In 1872, police in Washington, D.C., stopped President Ulysses S. Grant for speeding in a horse and buggy at the corner of 13th and M streets.

The officers issued the President a fine and immediately released him.

There are some that argue that the criminal charges against Donald Trump are similarly minor to those incurred by Grant. However, others relish in the fact that he may face justice for at least some of his alleged crimes now that a grand jury in New York has issued an indictment against the former President.

The “Election Denier-in-Chief” was indicted by a grand jury in New York on Thursday, March 30, on criminal charges stemming from his alleged encounter with porn star Stormy Daniels.

Though prosecutors haven’t said what charges the grand jury issued the indictments on, it’s alleged that Trump made a $130,000 payment to Daniels through his former attorney Michael Cohen.

It’s believed that the payment was issued to buy Daniels’ silence.

Further, it’s alleged that Trump illegally falsified records and violated campaign finance laws. The twice impeached former

president now faces the ignominy of becoming the first U.S. president to be criminally indicted.

Trump also faces potential conspiracy and racketeering charges in Georgia, where Atlanta prosecutor Fani Willis has been working to secure an indictment against the MAGA leader there.

Further, Democratic Mississippi Congressman Bennie Thompson, who chaired the Congressional Committee investigating the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, told the Black Press that a special federal prosecutor had received a mountain of evidence suggesting Trump’s guilt.

Five police officers died because of the Trump-inspired riot at the U.S. Capitol.

“It would be a travesty of justice,” Thompson said if Trump isn’t prosecuted by federal authorities for his role in the insurrection.

“Nobody is above the law, not even the President of the United States.

“What we saw after interviewing more than 1,000 people – the majority of whom identify with the Republican Party – we are convinced that whatever happened, happened because of one person. So, we are

clear in our recommendation.”

While Trump has called for demonstrations in response to his arrest, authorities have already begun preparing.

Last week, barricades were put up around the criminal courthouse in lower Manhattan where the former President was supposed to be arraigned.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other supporters lashed out at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, claiming his investigation amounted to a witch hunt.

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), and House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil (R-Wis.); sent Bragg a letter demanding he appears before Congress.

“This indictment comes after years of your office searching for a basis — any basis — on which to bring charges, ultimately settling on a novel legal theory untested anywhere in the country and one that federal authorities declined to pursue,” the lawmakers wrote.

“If these reports are accurate, your actions will erode confidence in the evenhanded application of justice and unalterably interfere in the

course of the 2024 presidential election.”

They said that Cohen, who used to work for Trump and seems to be the main witness against the former President, has a “serious credibility problem.”

They demanded Bragg provide them with documentation of any communications he’d had with the U.S. Department of Justice over the past six years.

Already on the defensive in multiple jurisdictions, Trump’s current attorneys have asked for a judge to toss the final report and evidence from a special grand jury in Georgia.

The attorneys seek to remove Willis, a Black woman, as prosecutor.

“President Donald J. Trump hereby moves to quash the SPGJ’s [special purpose grand jury’s] report and preclude the use of any evidence derived therefrom, as it was conducted under an unconstitutional statute, through an illegal and unconstitutional process, and by a disqualified District Attorney’s Office who violated prosecutorial standards and acted with disregard for the gravity of the circumstances and the constitutional rights of those involved,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in a court filing.

Twitter pulls check mark from main New York Times account

social media platform.

Musk, who owns Twitter, set a deadline of Saturday for verified users to buy a premium Twitter subscription or lose the checks on their profiles. The Times said in a story Thursday that it would not pay Twitter for verification of its institutional accounts.

Groceries/food Credit: Photo by Maria Lin Kim on Unsplash

Food security advocates, policymakers, and others had been warning of the dire consequences to those most in need if Congress chose to halt the extra allotments of SNAP benefits. Still, the Republicanled House let the COVID-era supplemental payments wind down at the end of February.

Those closest to the problem say the consequences are already evident in the days since the extra allotments ended. The issues of hunger and food insecurity are being pushed to the forefront of the nation’s myriad challenges. The abrupt benefit cuts are estimated to affect more than 30 million people in 35 states.

On the frontlines, activists fighting the twin scourges of hunger and homelessness, like Anne Miskey, Kymone T. Freeman, and Daniel de Pielago, contend that this and other crises were avoidable. Still, Congress, other elected officials, and society at large lack the political will or the compassion to eliminate what is essentially a man-made problem.

“Yet, although the SNAP extra allotments, stimulus funds, and other assistance from the federal government helped stave off hunger and homelessness during the COVID crisis, Kymone T. Freeman said, the politicians have inexplicably allowed a

critical lifeline to expire.

Freeman said politicians are more concerned about staying in office and catering to the donor class and the wealthy instead of focusing on and delivering programs, projects, and policies to working- and middle-class Americans, particularly African Americans.

“This sounds like more austerity to me. The fact that they are cutting anything now is obscene and immoral. All it means is more hardship for the poor,” said Freeman, a social justice activist, playwright, and co-founder of WEACT Radio in Washington, DC. “This will increase crime, poverty, distress, and misery. The cuts are contributing to hunger. Thirty percent of the children in Washington, DC, live in poverty. A budget is a moral document, and this is where their morality lies.”

Miskey, executive director of Union Station Homeless Services in Los Angeles, California, agreed.

“Much of the inflation and high prices we’re seeing is because of corporate greed. We’re expecting homelessness to skyrocket,” Miskey said. “During COVID, we rented all these hotels and shelters. We managed pretty well

Twitter pulls check mark from main New York Times account...continued

its business news and opinion pages still had either blue or gold check marks on Sunday, as did multiple reporters for the news organization.

bracing for the loss of the blue check marks that helped verify their identity and distinguish them from impostors on the

Early Sunday, Musk tweeted that the Times’ check mark would be removed. Later he posted disparaging remarks about the newspaper, which has aggressively reported on Twitter and on flaws with partially automated driving systems at Tesla, the electric car company, which he also runs.

Other Times accounts such as

“We aren’t planning to pay the monthly fee for check mark status for our institutional Twitter accounts,” the Times said in a statement Sunday. “We also will not reimburse reporters for Twitter Blue for personal accounts, except in rare instances where this status would be essential for reporting purposes,” the newspaper said in a statement Sunday.

The Associated Press, which has said it also will not pay for the check marks, still had them on its accounts at midday Sunday.

Twitter did not answer emailed questions Sunday about the removal of The New York Times check mark.

The costs of keeping the check marks ranges from $8 a month

for individual web users to a starting price of $1,000 monthly to verify an organization, plus $50 monthly for each affiliate or employee account. Twitter does not verify the individual accounts to ensure they are who they say they are, as was the case with the previous blue check doled out to public figures and others during the platform’s pre-Musk administration.

While the cost of Twitter Blue subscriptions might seem like nothing for Twitter’s most famous commentators, celebrity users from basketball star LeBron James to Star Trek’s William Shatner have balked at joining. Seinfeld actor Jason Alexander pledged to leave the platform if Musk takes his blue check away.

The White House is also passing on enrolling in premium accounts, according to a memo sent to staff. While Twitter has granted a free gray mark for

NNPA NEWSWIRE — Former President Trump also faces potential conspiracy and racketeering charges in Georgia, where Atlanta prosecutor Fani Willis has been working to secure an indictment against the MAGA leader there.

The Associated Press, which has said it also will not pay for the check marks, still had them on its accounts at midday Sunday.

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

HUD Announces $5.5 Million Award for HUBCUs to Conduct Housing and Community Development Research

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

Mapping Africa’s natural resources

Nearly half the world’s gold and one-third of all minerals are in Africa. Here’s a look at the resources African countries have

“This funding will bolster efforts HBCUs are making to expand opportunities for underserved communities and strengthen community development,” said HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced awards totaling $5.5 million for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to conduct housing and community development research.

The announcement came during a Black Media Roundtable hosted by HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge.

Adjoa Asamoah, HUD’s senior advisor for Racial Equity; Melody Taylor, regional director for the Mid-Atlantic Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity; Alanna McCargo, president of Ginnie Mae; and Erica Loewe, the director of African American Media at The White House, also participated in the roundtable.

“HBCUs create economic opportunity both for their students and throughout the communities they serve,” Fudge stated.

“At HUD, we are proud to partner with HBCUs to expand the voices in the housing

research space to support strong communities, build affordable housing, create job opportunities, revitalize neighborhoods, and promote homeownership.”

HUD will provide the funding to Texas Southern University ($3 million) and North Carolina AT&T University ($2.5 million) to establish or bolster their existing Centers of Excellence that conduct housing and community development research.

At Texas Southern, the school’s research will focus on individual and community wealth building, and housing security and stability. It also will focus on planning and infrastructure inequity that affects underserved communities.

At North Carolina AT&T, the funds will allow the university to establish a center with research that would focus on the production of affordable housing, homeownership, renewable energy, sustainable communities, and post-disaster recovery.

“This funding will bolster

efforts HBCUs are making to expand opportunities for underserved communities and strengthen community development,” Fudge stated.

Under Fudge, HUD has worked to advance racial equity and ensure steps to make homeownership more accessible for Black Americans.

In a Fact Sheet, HUD officials noted that through the Federal Housing Administration, the agency has implemented major reductions to the annual premiums it charges homebuyers for mortgage insurance.

Officials said the action will help Black low-and-moderate income residents save an estimated $600 million in the next year, and billions over the next decade.

Additionally, HUD’s Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity issued a policy statement in 2021 about making way for lenders to resolve inequities in homeownership that individuals of color face.

Previously, the agency published a notice of proposed rulemaking to restore the department’s Discriminatory Effects Standards and allow policies that unjustifiably exclude people from housing opportunities to be challenged.

The powerful tool for HUD and private plaintiffs to address polices that cause systemic inequality in housing, includes policies on criminal records, zoning requirements, lending and property insurance policies that impact equal access to housing opportunities for Black people, HUD officials stated.

Beneath the surface of Africa lies a wealth of mineral resources of enormous value. In 2019, the continent produced almost 1 billion tonnes of minerals worth $406bn.

According to the United Nations, Africa is home to about 30 percent of the world’s mineral reserves, 12 percent of the world’s oil and 8 percent of the world’s natural gas reserves.

The continent also holds 40 percent of the world’s gold and up to 90 percent of its chromium and platinum – both valuable metals.

A world of minerals in your mobile phone

More than half of a mobile phone’s components – including its electronics, display, battery and speakers – are made from mined and semi-processed materials.

Lithium and cobalt are some of the key metals used to produce batteries. In 2019, about 63 percent of the world’s cobalt production came from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Tantalum is another metal used in electronic equipment. Tantalum capacitors are found in mobile phones, laptops and in a variety of automotive electronics. The DRC and Rwanda are the world’s largest producers of tantalum. Together they produce half of the world’s tantalum.

Top minerals per country

continent’s largest producer of gold, followed by South Africa and Mali.

Industrial minerals such as diamonds, gypsum, salt, sulphur and phosphates were the main commodity for 13 African countries. The DRC is Africa’s largest industrial diamond producer, followed by Botswana and South Africa. Botswana ranks number one in Africa for the production of gem-quality diamonds – used for jewellery.

Mineral wealth

At $125bn per year, South Africa generates the most money from its mineral resources. Nigeria comes in second with $53bn per year, followed by Algeria ($39bn) Angola ($32bn) and Libya ($27bn).

These five countries produced more than two-thirds of the continent’s mineral wealth.

The world’s minerals

MONEY

Petroleum and coal are among the most abundant minerals for 22 out of Africa’s 54 countries.

Most of the electronics we use today are based on a number of minerals – from aluminium to zinc.

In 2021, some 1.5 billion smartphones were sold around the world – up from 122 million units in 2007. As of 2020, nearly four in five (78 percent) people own a smartphone.

As of 2019, Nigeria produced most of the continent’s petroleum (25 percent), followed by Angola (17 percent), and Algeria (16 percent).

Metals including gold, iron, titanium, zinc and copper are the top produced minerals for 11 countries. Ghana is the

According to The World Mining Congress (pdf), the world extracted some 17.9 billion tonnes of minerals in 2019. Asia was the largest producer, accounting for 59 percent of the world’s total production valued at $1.8 trillion. North America was second with 16 percent, followed by Europe at 7 percent. Africa produced about 5.5 percent of the world’s minerals worth some $406bn.

Food insecurity, hunger expected to soar after cuts to extra SNAP benefits...continued from page 1

during COVID as local, state, and federal money poured in. But with the funding money gone, we’re trying to figure things out. The cost of living, rent, and evictions are going up. The cost of living is driving people into homelessness. Things are going to get pretty bad because of the cost of living.”

Miskey contends that separating food insecurity from gentrification, low wages, displacement, and homelessness is impossible. COVID-19 has laid bare the structural, institutional, economic, and racial inequities that separate African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans from their white counterparts,” she said. Marginalized communities have been hit particularly hard by many challenges, many not naturally occurring.

“Healthcare workers, people of color, and immigrants are making horrible wages,” Miskey said. “They cannot afford afterschool care for kids, don’t have money for affordable housing, and struggle to make ends meet. This is a war against the poor. They tell people that they did this to themselves. Millions of people have no opportunity or are intentionally excluded from opportunities. Racism is the #1 factor for excluding people.”

The SNAP emergency allotments were designed to alleviate food insecurity and stimulate the US economy throughout the COVID pandemic public health emergency.

According to DC Hunger Solutions, the cuts to SNAP benefits will affect more than 90,000 people in the District of Columbia. On average, when this “hunger cliff” hits, each SNAP participant will lose over $90 a month, DC Hunger Solutions officials explained on the website.

“As a result, average SNAP benefits will fall to a meager $6 a person a day. The “hunger cliff” will hit all age groups and all parts of the District of

Columbia. The steepest cliff will be for many older adults who only qualify for the minimum SNAP benefit — dropping from $281 a month to $30,” staff said.

The “hunger cliff” – a perfect storm of a striking reduction of benefits in the face of high inflation and climbing grocery costs – will exacerbate food insecurity and hardship in the District of Columbia and elsewhere. The District will lose more than $14 million in benefits monthly. Emergency food providers can’t fill this gap. Even before the cuts, food banks, pantries, and soup kitchens have reported high demand for assistance, DC Hunger Solutions said.

All over America, Miskey said, people are vulnerable, have health problems and, are aging, have been homeless for a long time, including seniors.

“It doesn’t take much: a single income, losing a spouse, an increase in the cost of housing. People are precariously housed. People have to put themselves in danger sometimes,” said Miskey. “People are stealing to survive. People need help, but needing help is seen as something weak or bad. Of course, the Republican Party sells the lottery mentality. People figure they’re going to be up there one day and dream that they’re going to get there.”

Daniel del Pielago agrees with Miskey that Republicans and others who support their ideas and agenda are committed to former President Donald Trump’s promise to dismantle the administrative state.

Del Pielago, organizing director of Empower DC, said these cuts and Republican plans to disembowel the social safety net – including Medicare and social security – is a deliberate policy choice aimed directly at the working class, low-income households, and the poor in this country.

“It’s part of this onslaught of safety net services being cut. I just heard from the city that

they’re cutting the Emergency Rental Program 6½ months earlier than expected. And rents in May will go up 8.9 percent here in the District,” del Pielago said. “DC is super expensive, there are no livable wages for a certain population segment and there’s a sustained attack on low-income people. What we’re seeing in terms of the onslaught is the Trump effect coming into play. We have a bunch of people making these decisions which don’t benefit low-income residents and Black people. They were attempting, and now they’re having success.”

Miskey said as she views the challenges and devastation food insecurity has wrought on poor, near-poor, low-income, and middle-class Americans, she feels anger and frustration because most of this is and was avoidable.

“… I think our systems have massively failed people,” she said. “I shouldn’t say that. I don’t think our system has failed. I think our system was set up to fail. They are set up to keep up the status quo, ensuring that those people of privilege and wealth maintain their privilege and wealth.”

Meanwhile, everyone else is blamed for their supposed character defects or failures because supposedly all the opportunities are out there if you grab them, Miskey explained.

“The fact is, our system creates massive barriers for opportunity and doesn’t allow huge chunks of our communities to actually access those things. That’s the shame of our system, the shame of our government. As I said before, we’re a system where we have a war on the poor, not a war on poverty.”

Matthew Desmond, a Princeton University sociologist and the director of the university’s Eviction Lab, said America has a poverty problem, and poverty and food insecurity are deeply

(Al Jazeera)

By Al Jazeera Staff

HUD Secretary Fudge Pledges to Change Agency’s Ad Spending with Black-Owned Media

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

HUD Secretary Fudge Pledges to Change Agency’s Ad Spending with Black-Owned Media...continued

and for the people.”

“I had a conversation recently with the Deputy Secretary of HUD (Adrianne Todman) and we will increase our spend with Black and brown media,” Asamoah asserted.

“A couple of things. We are disrupting the present systems with disrupting how we do money. We recognize that the federal government is the largest consumer of goods and services and roughly 10 percent has traditionally gone to Black, Brown, and small, and disadvantaged businesses.”

Asamoah continued:

“That’s not 10 percent

FTC Briefing Targets Scams Hitting API Communities in California...continued

The 18th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Marcia Fudge (Photo: hud.gov)

With the federal government spending a pittance of its advertising dollars with Blackowned media and President Biden demanding that agencies expand contracting opportunities for historically disadvantaged businesses, including those owned by women and people of color, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge has made a specific pledge to African American publishers and media company owners.

“I will take a look at it, and if [advertising spending] is where you say it is, we will change it,” Fudge declared following a question from National Newspaper Publishers Association President & CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. about the inequitable distribution of advertising dollars with the Black Press.

“You can hold me to that,”

Fudge asserted.

Chavis, Washington Informer Publisher Denise Rolark Barnes, and media mogul Roland Martin

all pressed Fudge and others during a Black Media Roundtable at HUD in Washington.

The federal government spends about $600 billion annually on consumer goods and services.

A small portion of that money goes to small businesses owned by women, minorities, and those otherwise disadvantaged.

The most recent Government Accountability Office study found that federal agencies spent more than $5 billion on advertising over five years, with just $51 million, or 1.02 percent, going to Black-owned businesses.

“It’s been on our minds,” said Beth Lynk, the assistant secretary of public affairs for HUD. “We are asking [all contractors] what is your spend? Not just Black reach, but Black ownership in the media.”

Adjoa Asamoah, the senior advisor for Racial Equity for the Office of the Secretary of HUD, called Fudge a “secretary of, with

each. We’ve been tasked by the President with leveraging the full power of the federal government’s procurement power.

“While ad spending directly is what we will look at, under Secretary Fudge we have looked at how we are spending our dollars and adjusted accordingly. Every single notice of funding opportunity that goes out this door, [the contractor] is required to state how you have demonstrated your ability to advance racial equity and what will you do in the future to advance racial equity. We are doing things differently.”

FTC Briefing Targets Scams Hitting API Communities in California

Federal and local agencies, community stakeholders, and ethnic media came together to raise public awareness and encourage people to report when they’ve been scammed.

By Peter Schurmann

“I trusted him, because he was an Army officer, and because he was good looking,” recalls Iwasaki, chuckling slightly at the memory. Today he lives monthto-month on a meager budget.

“Be careful out there,” he says, in reference to the growing minefield of scams and scam artists that in 2022 alone cost consumers $8.8 billion.

Iwasaki shared his experience during a March 30 forum on scams targeting API communities organized by the Federal Trade Commission to raise public awareness and encourage people to report when they’ve been scammed.

His was among a litany of cases discussed during the gathering, which was hosted by the FTC’s Western Regional Office in San Francisco and included representatives from federal and local agencies, community stakeholders, and ethnic media.

Community engagement key

“Scammers are everywhere… they’re not just on the phone anymore. They’re in the mail, they’re in advertising, they’re online,” said Rosario Mendez, an attorney with the FTC’s Division of Consumer and Business Education Bureau of Consumer Protection based in Washington DC, who opened the briefing. She noted the record amount consumers lost last year – over $8 billion. “It’s more than we’ve ever seen,” she said.

the public, Mendez said. She shared a story from a recent session in Louisville, Kentucky where a Korean reporter described a scam that one community member had fallen victim to. The FTC used that information to put out an alert in Korean that was then run across nearly two dozen Korean media outlets.

“The ripple effect is very real,” she said, highlighting the role community engagement with her agency plays in helping to staunch the bleeding.

Katsumi Iwasaki is originally from Tokyo but has lived in the Bay Area for more than thirty years. After losing his partner of more than two decades to cancer, the soft-spoken octogenarian went on dating apps at the urging of friends to cope with

the loneliness.

That decision would ultimately lead him into the perilous world of romance scams, costing Iwasaki both his life savings –totaling more than $400,000 –and “my love.”

Mendez’ office has undertaken a series of nationwide listening tours to meet with local communities and to hear directly from them about the types of scams they’re encountering.

The FTC can and does prosecute fraud cases, but its effectiveness depends on what it learns from

Representatives from local community based organizations shared resources available for victims of scams.

Making it easier to report scams

“This is the first convening of this type in the state with the API community,” said San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu in his opening remarks, calling the city the “capital” of the nation’s Asian American community when it comes to “deciding how our community is taken care of.”

Chiu’s office recently opened a hotline for residents to report potential scams. The portal is available in English, Spanish, Chinese and Tagalog.

Food insecurity, hunger expected to soar after cuts to extra SNAP benefits...continued from page 2

intertwined.

“Poverty is measured at different income levels, but it is experienced as an exhausting piling on of problems. Poverty is chronic pain, on top of tooth rot, on top of debt collector harassment, on top of the nauseating fear of eviction,” said Desmond. “It is the suffocation of your talents and your dreams. It is death that comes early and often. From 2001 to 2014, the richest women in America gained almost three years of life while the poorest gained just 15 days. Far from a line, poverty is a tight knot of humiliations and agonies, and its persistence in American life should shame us.”

Desmond said housing assistance and food stamp programs are “effective and essential, protecting millions of families from hunger and homelessness each year,” he said in a March 16 column in the New York Times. “But the United States devotes far fewer resources to these programs, as a share of

President Joe Biden and members of his Cabinet, lower-level staff won’t get Twitter Blue benefits unless they pay for it themselves.

“If you see impersonations that you believe violate Twitter’s stated impersonation policies, alert Twitter using Twitter’s public impersonation portal,” said the staff memo from White House official Rob Flaherty.

Alexander, the actor, said there are bigger issues in the world but without the blue mark, “anyone can allege to be me” so if he loses it, he’s gone.

“Anyone appearing with it=an imposter. I tell you this while I’m still official,” he tweeted.

In this photo illustration Elon Musk Twitter seen displayed on a smartphone screen with Twitter logo in the background in Athens, Greece on October 30, 2022.

After buying Twitter for

its gross domestic product, than other rich democracies, which places America in a disgraced class of its own on the world stage.”

That disgrace is illustrated in the stats showing that 33 percent of Americans live in households making less than $55,000, he said.

“Many are not officially counted among the poor, but there is plenty of economic hardship above the poverty line,” Desmond said. “And plenty far below it as well. According to the Supplemental Poverty Measure, which accounts for government aid and living expenses, more than one in 25 people 65 or older lived in deep poverty in 2021, meaning that they’d have to, at minimum, double their incomes just to reach the poverty line.”

He said Americans must commit to becoming poverty abolitionists to break this cycle.

“Like abolitionist movements against slavery or mass incarceration, abolitionism

$44 billion in October, Musk has been trying to boost the struggling platform’s revenue by pushing more people to pay for a premium subscription. But his move also reflects his assertion that the blue verification marks have become an undeserved or “corrupt” status symbol for elite personalities, news reporters and others granted verification for free by Twitter’s previous leadership.

Along with shielding celebrities from impersonators, one of Twitter’s main reasons to mark profiles with a blue check mark starting about 14 years ago was to verify politicians, activists and people who suddenly find themselves in the news, as well as little-known journalists at small publications around the globe, as an extra tool to curb misinformation coming from

views poverty not as a routine or inevitable social ill but as an abomination that can no longer be tolerated,” he said. “And poverty abolitionism shares with other abolitionist movements the conviction that profiting from another’s pain corrupts us all. Ending poverty in America will require both short- and long-term solutions: strategies that stem the bleeding now, alongside more enduring interventions that target the disease and don’t just treat the symptoms.”

This includes appropriately addressing the housing crisis, which forces most poor renting families to devote at least 50 percent of their income to rent and utilities; immediately expanding housing vouchers to reduce the rent burden; pushing for “more transformative solutions” like scaling up the country’s public housing infrastructure; building out community land banks; and providing on-ramps to homeownership for low-income families.

accounts that are impersonating people. Most “legacy blue checks” are not household names and weren’t meant to be.

One of Musk’s first product moves after taking over Twitter was to launch a service granting blue checks to anyone willing to pay $8 a month. But it was quickly inundated by impostor accounts, including those impersonating Nintendo, pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Musk’s businesses Tesla and SpaceX, so Twitter had to temporarily suspend the service days after its launch.

The relaunched service costs $8 a month for web users and $11 a month for users of its iPhone or Android apps. Subscribers are supposed to see fewer ads, be able to post longer videos and have their tweets featured more prominently.

Above: Katsumi Iwasaki (L) and Junko Kenmotsu of Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach were among attendees at a March 30 briefing in San Francisco looking at scams impacting API communities.

Twitter pulls check mark from main New York Times account...continued from page 1

California may change its mental health funding. Why that might cut some services

BY KRISTEN HWANG

stunt in threatening to withhold money from counties and failing to significantly increase the state’s housing stock.

“The question in our minds is what is the approach and process to solving some of these problems. We would welcome greater partnership around that.”

CHRISTINE STONERMERTZ, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE CALIFORNIA ALLIANCE OF CHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES

Time For Change Foundation Celebrates 21st Anniversary With “Unmasking The Future” Gala ...continued

For the second time in as many years, Gov. Gavin Newsom is pushing for major reform of California’s mental health system, this time by overhauling the way counties spend mental health dollars and placing a bond measure before voters to build more psychiatric beds.

County behavioral health advocates and local service providers fear programs will be cut, and, much like the controversial CARE Courts legislation — which passed last year and allows individuals to petition a court to force seriously mentally ill people into treatment and housing — say Newsom’s initial announcement came as a shock.

“We listened to the press conference just like you,” said Christine Stoner-Mertz, executive director of the California Alliance of Child and Family Services, which represents organizations that provide child welfare, foster care, juvenile justice and youth behavioral health services.

The proposal is being pitched as a solution to the state’s ballooning homelessness crisis, but experts doubt it will make any kind of meaningful dent. No one has published bill language for the proposal, but Newsom unveiled two major changes during his March state-of-thestate tour:

Divert 30% of existing Mental Health Services Act money toward housing people living on the streets who are severely mentally ill;

Use a bond measure to generate between $3 billion and $5 billion for 6,000 residential

psychiatric treatment beds.

Voters passed the Mental Health Services Act nearly two decades ago as a ballot initiative that levied a 1% tax on state millionaires to fund local mental health programs. Substantial changes to the act are subject to voter approval because it originally passed as a ballot measure in 2004.

The proposal aims to reprioritize a significant portion of the state’s existing behavioral health system to focus on what Newsom characterized as the state’s “most acute challenge,” which is the number of homeless people with mental illness and substance use disorders. Only about 20% of California’s approximately 172,000 homeless people have a severe mental illness, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, but the issue plays an outsized role in state politics.

“It’s unacceptable what we’re dealing with at scale now in the state of California,” Newsom said. “We have to address and come to grips with the reality of mental health in this state and our nation.”

Newsom, who made reducing homelessness a key part of his gubernatorial campaign in 2018, is contending with the reality of homelessness increasing by nearly 32% in the past four years. Though he has called out counties for not acting aggressively enough and dedicated nearly $10 billion to address the problem, he has also faced harsh bi-partisan criticism for what many view as a political

The California Black Media Political Playback: Officials Show Respect for Ridley-Thomas’s Service

Tanu Henry | California Black Media

Newsom’s proposal is backed by several lawmakers, including former Assemblymember and current Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, who coauthored the original act, and Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman, a Democrat from Stockton who co-authored the CARE Court legislation and who has staked the remainder of her term on advancing mental health changes. Those who do the on-theground mental health work in the state, however, say they have major concerns about such a large system shake-up. The focus on housing and the need for more behavioral health treatment beds is welcome, Stoner-Mertz said, but shouldn’t detract from the current workforce crisis and other problems exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“One-third is a big chunk of money,” Stoner-Mertz said. “The question in our minds is what is the approach and process to solving some of these problems. We would welcome greater partnership around that.”

What the mental health funding proposal would change

On Wednesday, state officials revealed new details about the proposal. It changes the categories counties would be required to invest in, focusing most of the money on homeless adults. Counties would be required to spend 30%, or roughly $1 billion annually, of their Mental Health Services Act dollars on housing homeless people with serious mental illness or drug addiction. They would also direct 35% of the funds to full-service partnerships for these individuals, which include clinical treatment and social supports co-designed by the client and the program.

The remaining 35% could be used for a combination of existing programs like mental health prevention and early intervention, infrastructure and workforce investments, although officials made it clear that workforce would be a priority. Innovation grants that have historically been part of the program do not have any dedicated funds. The proposal also opens the door to using the money for people who struggle with addiction but don’t have additional mental health needs.

In contrast, current regulations give counties broad flexibility in using the money. A minimum of 38% must be spent on fullservice partnerships, although counties can spend up to 70% on these services. (Full-service partnerships are intensive wraparound services designed to do “whatever it takes” to meet the client’s long-term needs. They can include things like 24/7 case management, clinical treatment, and housing.) About 19% is reserved for prevention and early intervention programs, much of which focuses on children, and 5% for innovation. Some counties choose to use a portion of the funds for workforce and infrastructure needs. There are some concerns about whether counties have historically met minimum spending requirements, particularly for full-service partnerships, but there’s no question that the money has become an integral part of the state’s behavioral health system, making up nearly one-third of all spending. Last year the tax generated about $3.8 billion. Newsom’s proposal introduces standardized accountability measures and reduces the amount of money counties are allowed to keep in reserves.

In addition, language will be placed on the 2024 ballot asking for a general obligation bond to pay for 6,000 psychiatric and substance abuse treatment beds. These beds would serve approximately 10,000 people annually, according to a fact sheet from Newsom’s office, by providing long-term residential treatment. An undetermined portion of the bond funds would be used to house homeless

Time For Change Foundation Celebrates 21st Anniversary With “Unmasking The Future” Gala

SAN BERNARDINO, CALIF – April 3, 2023 – Time for Change Foundation (TFCF) is excited to announce their annual gala will be returning to Southern California on April 14 after being held as a virtual event for three years. “Unmasking the Future” will celebrate TFCF’s 21st anniversary with a star studded masquerade ball. The event will take place at 6 PM at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Ontario Airport.

“We have so many amazing milestones to celebrate this year,” says Vanessa Perez, Executive Director of Time for Change Foundation. “We couldn’t be more excited to honor these incredible people while shining a light on the organization’s accomplishments this past year, most notably the highlyanticipated opening of our B-BOP Center.”

To support the work of Time

for Change Foundation, you can become a sponsor, make a donation, or purchase an ad in the event program book. Registration is $150. To register for the event or to become a sponsor and increase your business’ visibility in the community, please visit our website TimeForChangeFoundation.org, or contact Vanessa Perez at (909) 886-2994 or by email at vperez@ timeforchangefoundation.org.

FTC Briefing Targets Scams Hitting API Communities in California...continued from page 3

According to Chiu, the hotline’s launch came in response to the “flood” of reports his office has fielded about scams targeting largely immigrant and minority populations.

“We want to make it easy for residents in San Francisco and across California to report to us,” explained Chiu, noting the sense of shame and powerlessness that can come in the wake of being scammed often prevents victims from coming forward. “You feel stupid… like it’s your fault. We need to overcome that.”

Tip of the iceberg Romance scams like the one Iwasaki fell prey to are just the tip of the iceberg. Speakers recounted dozens of scams they’ve encountered, from shady travel agencies with hidden fees to unscrupulous immigration services that can leave victims in jeopardy of being deported. Equity and home improvement scams are a particular issue in the API community and can leave especially older homeowners underwater or force the sale of their home. Scammers operate both domestically within the US and increasingly abroad. The rise of artificial intelligence also poses additional challenges on the near horizon, as scammers are turning to the emerging technology to perpetrate more sophisticated scams. Chiu called that potential “frightening.”

Renee Coe is a third-year law student at UC Berkeley and is currently working with the nonprofit Bay Area legal Aid on a two-year research project looking into how scams are impacting immigrant communities. She shared the story of one Indian student studying in the US who lost $18,000 to a fraudster claiming to be with ICE.

don’t have time to reach out to friends or family” before it’s too late, said Coe, noting the victim in this case was only able to recover $700 of the total amount she lost.

This story “highlights some of the challenges with recovery from scams, and also some of the areas where our laws could be more protected,” Coe explained, noting victims have just 10 days to report unauthorized withdrawals from banks, during which time banks are required to investigate or be liable for losses. Investment scams, particularly those involving crypto currencies, have ballooned in recent years.

Maeve Elise Brown is the Executive Director of Housing and Economic Right Advocates (HERA) based on Oakland. She recalled a friend whose losses totaled in the six figures, and who lost even more after an agency approached him claiming to be able to retrieve his money. Brown believes both instances involved the same entity.

Vindicating the rights of victims

“Don’t be afraid to make a fool of yourself,” said Brown, echoing Chiu and the other speakers about the importance of coming forward. “We’re both sad and happy to learn about new scams. Sad that people are being scammed, and happy for having learned about it.”

Iwasaki eventually did come forward, sharing his story with the organization Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach, which has brought his case to litigation. Iwasaki says he’s now preparing to go to court and is hopeful that he will see some – if not all – of his money returned.

California Black Elected Officials

React to Ridley-Thomas Conviction

Last week after a jury found former Los Angeles City Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas guilty on corruption charges, California’s Black elected officials issued statements acknowledging RidleyThomas’s political leadership, many contributions to his constituents and his track record of unapologetically advocating for policies that advanced racial equity and improved the lives of African Americans in the state.

“I am compelled to share my appreciation for the civic contributions of Mark Ridley-

Thomas. Mark Ridley-Thomas has devoted his professional life to serving the people of Los Angeles. He has invested his time and energy to empower and uplift his community and constituents for decades,” said Sen. Steve Bradford (D-Gardena), chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus in a statement. “His relentless commitment to helping improve the lives of others through public service will always be worthy of our admiration and appreciation,” Bradford added.

I believe that this is a sad day

Each year TFCF hosts their annual gala to honor and recognize those who have defied all odds and reclaimed their rightful roles as mothers, leaders and active participants in their community. All proceeds from “Unmasking the Future” will support the foundation in their mission to empower disenfranchised, low-income individuals and help families find the path to self-sufficiency. “Unmasking the Future” will highlight the successes of the women that have emerged from homelessness, addiction, domestic violence, and incarceration and have become thriving mothers and community

members.

This year’s honorees include Dr. Elizabeth Dowdy (founding Pastor of Lion of Judah Worship Center and owner/operator of Eliz' Elegant Apparel) with the Ramos Family Spirit of Compassion Award, Webb Family Enterprises with the Community Champion Award, Hilda Kennedy (President and Founder of AmPac Tri State CDC) with the Nancy Varner Angel Award, Latino Community Foundation with the Courageous Philanthropy Award and Kat Taylor (social, racial, gender and environmental advocate) with the Humanitarian Award.

Since 2002, TFCF has continued to live out its mission of empowering the disenfranchised and creating thriving communities. Most recently, TFCF opened the doors to their new Black and Brown Opportunities for Profit (B-BOP) Center, a first of its kind, high-tech economic hub in San Bernardino designed to support Black and Brown female entrepreneurs.

SF City Attorney David Chiu spoke with reporters about the work his office is doing to tackle the proliferation of scams impacting API and immigrant communities.

“One thing that scammers do is they emphasize the urgency of the situation so much that you

“Don’t feel this is your fault,” stressed Chiu. “Part of why we’re here today is to say, no it’s not your fault. You are a victim of a fraud. You need to have your rights vindicated. And if you need justice done, we are the agencies that are looking to do that justice.”

He added, “So we encourage you to reach out to us.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom announces a proposed a 2024 ballot initiative to improve mental health services across the state, at Alvarado Hospital in San Diego on March 19, 2023. Photo by Adriana Heldiz, The San Diego Union-Tribune via AP, Pool

Mark Ridley-Thomas ( Facebook screenshot)

Thursday, April 6, 2023

LIFESTYLE/RELIGION/ENTERTAINMENT/CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING

Return-to-Roots Album Ubuntu Releasing on April 28th Via Artistry Music / Mack Avenue Music Group

Features Special Guests Including Marcus Miller, Stevie Wonder, Keb’ Mo’

Entertainment News

“God’s Two-Minute Warning!”

March 31, 2023: Beloved

singer/guitarist and “Son of the Soil” Jonathan Butler shares the first single and title track from his new album, Ubuntu, which will be available everywhere on April 28th via Artistry Music/ Mack Avenue Music Group. The 11 track collection celebrates his South African roots and was produced in Johannesburg by Marcus Miller (Miles Davis, Luther Vandross.) Ubuntu is Butler’s tenth album for the label and his twenty-eighth release overall. The first track “Ubuntu” is available today, stream the song here. https:// lnk.to/jbubuntusinglePR

Joining Butler on “Ubuntu” is Marcus Miller on bass, keys and bass clarinet, Ernie Smith on guitar, Mornay Hoffmeestet and Russell Gunn on trumpet. The track was co-written by Butler and Miller. Butler recalls the origins of the track writing, “The

groove was so infectious, the Bass just grabbed me - this is true pure energy! I told Marcus, ‘We gotta make a record together.’” Butler defines Ubuntu as, “A philosophy based in South Africa and spread by Archbishop Desmond Tutu which states, ‘I am me because of you. You are you because of me. We are not separate. We are connected. Sometimes, it is something to seek. Other times it is clear to see. We are One People. All the tribes from Zulu to Gaza embrace this - passed on from generation to generation - and shared amongst every tribe in every village. Sharing my life with you is Ubuntu.”

In a time when artists of optimism are at a premium, Butler is a shining example of purposeful excellence. From recording local hits as a teenager growing up during the apartheid of South Africa, Butler went on

to become a world-renowned singer, guitarist and songwriter delivering soulful salvos of R&B, gospel, jazz and pop. Touring professionally by age 7, Butler’s first single, “Please Stay,” was the first by a Black artist played on white radio in segregated South Africa and won a Sarie Award (the country’s equivalent to a Grammy). Committed to conveying stirring messages of freedom and unity through his music, Jonathan became a national icon. His music even provided solace to Nelson Mandela, who later met Butler and told him that listening to his music had helped him endure time in prison.

On his upcoming album Butler swings full circle back to his homeland, marinating in all the richness of its musical culture yet with a message for the brotherhood and sisterhood of humanity around the globe. His message of understanding and encouragement, he says, “Life is hard but the Spirit is powerful and there is strong spirit in this music.”

Ubuntu is comprised of both emotionally moving instrumentals such as the title track (a harmonic convergence of ostinatos) and the tenderly gorgeous “Peace in Shelter” cocomposed with Yellowjackets keyboardist Russell Ferrante (one of three featuring Butler’s wife Nadira Kimberly Scruggs on violin) and vocals that include the message songs “Rainbow Nation” (about the ongoing

battle of Equalizers vs. Dividers), “Our Voices Matter” (‘If we look within, we won’t go without’) and “When Love Comes In” featuring blues singer Keb’Mo’. The instant attention grabber is a cover of Stevie Wonder’s classic “Superwoman” with Wonder on harmonica.

Jonathan Butler sees himself as a messenger more than ever before despite a past that has found him balancing pop hits like “Lies” and “Sarah Sarah” with gospel gems and jazz mood music. During America’s soul-numbing days of the COVID pandemic, Black Lives Matter, a too close for comfort presidential race and an economy on the ropes, a shut-in Butler was restless. “The death of George Floyd polarized or awakened musicians I know,” he states. “Some spoke out, others did not, claiming, ‘I’m an artist not a politician!’ My song ‘Our Voices Matter’ came out of that. You’re either silent and complicit or you speak out.”

Through Ubuntu his messages of love, peace and unity ring strong and true because they emanate from the heart of a man who has witnessed and experienced the most glowing of good triumphs over the darkest of evils. Like the philosophy of Ubuntu he shares on his latest album, and the great men Tutu, Mandela and Wonder before him, Butler has a vision to do even more to attain peace and collaboration among all people to change the world through music.

By: Lou K. Coleman Lou K. Coleman

Take Heed! DO NOT IGNORE THE WARNING!

The Great Tribulation and World War 3 [Armageddon] is near. Understand, we are not going back to normal. We’re Not! The Great Tribulation and World War 3 is coming. The Trumpets, the Bowls, and the Seals. The Bible calls it the Seven Last Plague in [Revelation 15:1-2] and in [Revelation 9:15-18] its says 1/3 of the population of the world is going to die. DO NOT IGNORE THE WARNING! Things are going to get more intense and it’s going to be endless, expanded, expended, and enlarged. Grid your loins. This is your twominute warning that the game is almost over! Don’t blow it! Heed the warning! Run to Jesus your only safe haven.

As you know the world’s elites seek to create a New World Order—a better world, as they envision it. But what the world’s elites, experts, leaders, and those who seek to create this New World Order do not know nor understand is the Biblical worldview revealed in the Bible. A world heading into darkness beyond imagination. You see, the inspired Word of God lays out His plan through

the ages—which includes not only the story of salvation but the map of world history from its beginning to its conclusion. A thorough understanding of what begins in Genesis and concludes in the Book of Revelation brings the critical missing dimension of divinely guided history, otherwise known as prophecy. Prophecy described in the Book of Revelation, the end stages of the coming great reset—the rise of a coalition of nations into a system the Bible labels as “Babylon,” in which for a time all will seem well, and the world will praise this system and benefit by economic cooperation. Prophecy where God also predicted the rise of Militaristic Russia [Gog & Magog, King of the North], the rise of the worldwide China Empire [Kings of the East] [Revelation 16] and the accumulation of knowledge and rise of technology capable of keeping track of people, their transactions, and worldwide television [Daniel 12:4; Genesis 11:6]. These are sufficient to tell us we’re down to the Two Minute Warning – just before Christ comes back in power and great glory! DO NOT IGNORE THE WARNING! Take Heed! Jesus is your only safe haven. He will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection. God will take care of you. [Psalms 91:4]. DO NOT IGNORE THE WARNING! Run! Run to Jesus! Game is almost over, only two minutes left. Make your move NOW!

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OPINION: Barbie Bassett has not been seen on air since she quoted Snoop Dogg on live television, but I'm sure she's going to be fine because white people always are — even when they are being racist.

Judge

Monique

WITNESS FOR JUSTICE #1145

Cause for Alarm

on whether she has actually been fired. Her bio is no longer on the station’s website, and she has reportedly removed any mention of WLBT from her Facebook page.

The Vicksburg Daily News reports that an unnamed source has confirmed that Bassett is no longer with the station. The Daily News also noted that this is not the first time Bassett has said something offensive on air.

Barbie Bassett (Screenshot/WLBT via YouTube)

I know the white tears are going to come out for this one.

I am also fully aware that we shouldn’t laugh at other people’s “misfortune,” but I cannot help it in this case. She did it to herself.

In case you don’t know who the “she” is I’m talking about, allow me to get you caught up.

Barbie Bassett, a white meteorologist, was a longtime morning anchor on WLBT, an NBC affiliate that serves the Jackson, Mississippi market.

I say “was” and not “is” because Barbie messed around and found out what happens when “keeping it real” goes wrong. She was taken off the air after a stunt she pulled on March 8.

During a news segment in which Bassett and her colleagues were discussing Snoop Dogg’s 19 Crimes wine collection, one of her co-anchors suggested that Snoop get a wine collaboration going with one of their coworkers, “Julie.” Barbie enthusiastically agreed, and when the co-anchor went on to suggest that Julie would then go on to get a Snoop Dogg tattoo, Bassett replied, “Fo shizzle, my nizzle” live and on camera.

Allow me to make a few notes here that provide context for why this is wrong and why this matters.

Barbie Bassett is and was a news anchor in Jackson,

Mississippi. Mississippi thee blackest state in the union, and Jackson is thee blackest big city in thee blackest state in the union.

I’m sure Barbie was a beloved part of people’s daily news routine down there, and that’s fine, but there’s this thing that happens when white people get too comfortable around Black people: They start thinking they can say and do things they normally wouldn’t if they didn’t have that familiarity.

To be clear, “nizzle” is a euphemism for the n-word. Most of us know that, and I’m sure Barbie Bassett was well aware of that before she let it come out of her mouth. Using the euphemism instead of the real word when you are a white person is still egregious no matter how you try to defend it or spin it. You shouldn’t be trying to use that word in any way, shape or form, even if you try to say she was just emulating or paying homage to Snoop Dogg, it’s still wrong.

It’s just like the digital blackface conversation — there are no passes for this.

Bassett has not appeared on air since the incident happened, and according to multiple news reports, no reason has been given for her absence. While station vice president and general manager Ted Fortenberry said on social media, “WLBT is unable to comment on personnel matters,” there is no official word

During an October 2022 segment on ESPN Gameday in Jackson, Bassett was speaking to a Black woman who was on the ground reporting on the event from the field.

“But Carmen … girl … sis,” Bassett said in an affected blaccent, “I know you well enough to know that those guys working behind you, they probably know who the celebrity Gameday figure is, so you need to go swing by the Krogers, get you a chocolate pie … and you need to go offering it to some of those guys working behind you and see if you can get the scoop from one of those in return. I know your mother or your grandmammy got some type of a recipe that you can whip up. Don’t you think? Take it to them?”

Talking in a blaccent? Adding the extra “s” to the end of a word the way Black people do? Using the word “grandmammy”?

Is she serious with this mess?

Viewers were understandably offended by the exchange, and Bassett reportedly apologized for it the next day.

Like I said before, Barbie knew what she was doing, but that didn’t stop the White People Doing Racist Things Defense League from hopping on Twitter to defend Bassett and say how wrong it is that she has been taken off the air.

“Why would they fire her just for saying fo sizzle my nizzle,” one asked.

“Hey WLBT in Jackson, MS,” someone named John Lewis tweeted. “Firing long time employee Barbi Bassett was a giant mistake. So awhile back she said ‘Fo, sizzle my nizzle’ So what? She likely had no idea of the meaning. Neither do I other than it’s slang.”

(Barbie knew, John. She knew.)

And, of course, we had this take: “What you did is perfectly fine and so is saying Fo’ Sizzle my Nizzle. If it is ok for blacks to be racist to white people then it is ok for whites to be racist to blacks. If not then you should not propagate the issue.”

Sorry. I laughed and rolled my eyes so hard they rolled across the room, so brb cause I have to go get them.

OK, I’m back.

Listen. Barbie is going to be just fine. She is a white woman in a white-controlled media landscape, and the fact that there has been no official statement about her being fired indicates to me that she will likely be reinstated when all of this “blows over.”

That is the way it always is when things like this happen to white people. When the storm dies down, they are right back where they were or sometimes in an even better position because cancel culture is an imaginary concept they came up with to avoid accountability for their actions.

AAVE is not your slang, white people, but more on that later.

In the meantime, just understand that there is no justification or pass for white people using a Black euphemism for the n-word no matter how many times you have heard Snoop Dogg or any other Black person saying it.

PERIODT.

Rachel

In my social media feed, there’s a funny video of an emu overreacting to a loud noise by running haphazardly around the pasture with panicked energy, its legs churning, its neck swinging in high alert. A voiceover for the emu shouts: “They’re coming for the eggs! They’re coming for the eggs!”

I giggle every time that video appears. I also wish it wasn’t so accurate.

The world is full of loud, startling noises—crises for concern, sources of fear, calamities and violence—and the world is just as full of reactionary emus, running through the news, mobbing across social media, shouting for attention to their cause. “They’re coming for the children! They’re coming for the books! They’re coming for the guns! They’re coming for the ballot box!” Also, “They’re coming for your data! They’re coming for your wallet! They’re coming for your time!”

When the emus take over, when our alarm churns its legs and swings its neck and runs around the pasture in endless circles, our capacity to respond—productively and from a faithful core—falters. When anxious emus are only satisfied by an increase in anxious emus, the cause becomes secondary. When the cause is secondary, the response is reactionary. And faith cannot be lived as a reaction.

Too often, I confess, I experience the church as a worried mob of emus, sounding the alarm but only living for the alarm. “Membership is declining!

Injustices are growing! Financial support is down! Humanitarian crises are up!” Also, “They’re getting a new hymnal for

Hackenberg

worship! There aren’t enough volunteers! There’s not enough Jesus! There’s not enough activism!”

A church built solely on alarm is not a church but a siren. It gets the heart racing, it creates a purpose to pursue, but it doesn’t nurture the spiritual foundation to sustain a response. Siren ministry doesn’t know its purpose without tension. Siren ministry doesn’t know its own resting heart rate.

Similarly, when church races from alarm to alarm, it lives not as a ministry but as an ambulance chaser, in need of a crisis to have meaning. For the ambulancechasing church, alarm is the cause. The ambulance-chasing ministry is a heart attack waiting to happen (while chasing heart attacks).

The church and her ministries cannot live well when constantly alarmed. Neither can you. Neither can I.

When we experience that adrenaline rush of alarm, we must practice reversing our response: starting not with reaction but with foundation, searching not for a fitting response but for a faithful root. Then the root frames the cause. Then the foundation fuels the response. Then life is sustainable through and after the moment of alarm has subsided.

The core makes the cause possible. The root understands love as the beginning and the end. The foundation—the Foundation—cannot be alarmed. We are not anxious emus. We are the church.

The Rev. Rachel Hackenberg is the Publisher for The Pilgrim Press and Faith-Forming Publications for the United Church of Christ.

A white lady news anchor said ‘fo shizzle my nizzle’ on air and got benched for her trouble

National Latino Officers Association & Law Enforcement Activists Express Warning to New York Legislators

By BlackPressUSA

NLOA acknowledges the negative health impacts of tobacco use. However, numerous reports find that overall, smoking rates in the U.S. are the lowest they have ever been in public health history.

NEW YORK — Since 1996

the National Latino Officers Association (NLOA) has been at the forefront of advocating against issues that adversely affect our Latino and Black communities. Today, we respectfully request that New York’s governor and New York City councilmembers see the warning signs of a racially discriminatory policy: the menthol cigarette prohibition. Let it be clear that WE DO NOT ENCOURAGE, SUPPORT, OR PROMOTE CIGARETTE SMOKING. As law enforcement experts, we hope that legislators consider our perspective and understand that we don’t make the laws, but we do have a hand in enforcing them.

“The National Association of Latino Officers firmly believes the best way to address tobacco use in our community is through a medical, not a criminal, approach,” said Sylvia T. Miranda, MBA, NLOA Executive Director.

“Additionally, rather than increase the cigarette tax by one dollar, we urge the governor and legislators to consider allocating resources to crack down on illicit cigarettes. This will allow the state to recoup the billions in tax revenue lost to street cigarette dealers and illicit sales in stores. The loss of revenue on illegal and illicit sales of cigarettes is already astronomical. Banning

cigarettes doesn’t prevent access it simply increases illegal access and greater loss of revenue. These revenues can help fund the education, treatment, and counseling services needed to address tobacco addiction. We urge lawmakers to consider the unintended effects of this ban and the criminal consequences it will have on Latino and Black communities.”

The Coalition includes:

National Latino Officers Association (NLOA)

The Grand Council of Guardians (GCG) Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP)

Nassau County Sheriff Guardians

Nassau County Police

Guardians Yonkers Guardians Westchester-Rockland

Guardians Guardians Association of New York State Troopers

Individual justice practitioners affiliated with:

National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE)

National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice (NABCJ)

National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers (NABLEO)

National Association of

Issue.”

Criminal Justice Practitioners (NCJP)

The ACLU wrote this in a 2021 letter to the FDA: “Wellintentioned efforts to continue to reduce death and disease from tobacco products must avoid solutions that will create yet another reason for armed police to engage citizens on the street based on pretext or conduct that does not pose a threat to public safety. Of adults, approximately 80 percent of Blacks and 35 percent of Latinx who choose to smoke prefer menthol cigarettes. Banning menthol cigarettes risks massive setbacks to our criminal justice system at precisely the moment we should be advancing reform. If menthol cigarettes are banned, their sale and distribution would be a crime punishable as a felony under federal criminal statutes.”

Do Not Criminalize a Public Health Issue

NLOA acknowledges the negative health impacts of tobacco use. However, numerous reports find that overall, smoking rates in the U.S. are the lowest they have ever been in public health history. In addition, people of color who are menthol smokers have the same overall cessation rates as their non-mentholsmoking white counterparts. Adopting a public health solution, such as expanding

anti-smoking education and prevention and cessation programs, would keep communities safer and healthier far more effectively than a prohibitive policy.

As New York considers a menthol ban, NLOA asks:

Exhaust all non-prohibition alternatives before removing menthol cigarettes from legal and regulatory channels.

Evaluate how a ban would adversely impact communities of color, trigger criminal penalties, and increase negative interactions with law enforcement.

Meet with legislators to provide evidence-based criminal justice resources for pretextual stops and racial profiling.

“Public health and public safety solutions can exist sideby-side. We ask policymakers to choose another path. A menthol cigarette prohibition is not the right answer for New Yorkers, especially in communities of color,” Ret. Commissioner Jiles Ship, former NOBLE Past National President and NCJP coalition member.

About The National Latino Officers Association (NLOA)

The National Latino Officers Association (NLOA) is an acknowledged fraternal and advocacy organization. The mission of the NLOA is to create a coordinated network of support without limitations or boundaries. NLOA strives to create affiliations in the wide array of law enforcement agencies and companies that will provide representation and services equivalent to those offered by NLOA. NLOA represents both uniform and civilian members who are employed by law enforcement agencies on the city, state, and federal levels and represents non-law enforcement personnel employed in the private and public sectors. There are no ethnic requirements for membership to NLOA. However, members must embrace the organization’s vision and be supportive of its goals. https://nloaus.org/

Vaccine Disinformation Preys on Black Community’s Well-Earned Distrust

Low levels of trust in the medical system among African Americans stemming from a history of systemic racism has allowed misinformation about the pandemic to flourish.

By Danielle Parenteau-Decker | Richmond Pulse

The 2021 video brought those things together. NBCNews. com reported that it “promotes false claims that COVID-19 vaccination efforts are part of a larger, sinister experiment on Black communities.”

most to distrust institutions…”

Brandi Collins-Dexter of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy told NBC News the video “sought to take advantage of the pain felt by Black communities.”

Deliberately inaccurate information comes in many forms, much of it about the COVID-19 pandemic. It can create doubt, anger, unrest and fear.

It takes a tidbit of truth or a reasonable concern, twisting the truth or magnifying and manipulating any fear.

That is what happened with a 2021 video that twisted the real history and trauma of the U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee to advance an anti-vaccination agenda. Two of the men behind the 2021 debunked video were Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and David Centner. Kennedy is a noted anti-

vaccination activist. Centner cofounded a Florida private school that discouraged teachers and students from getting vaccinated against COVID-19.

The legacy of Tuskegee

People who spoke to Richmond Pulse last year about COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among the Black community repeatedly pointed to the Tuskegee study. They said that while disinformation was a factor in why some Black people were reluctant to get the vaccine, for many, the distrust created by decades of mistreatment by the government and healthcare system was a far bigger reason.

“Real facts on the ground can be powerful ways to amplify or get people to believe misand disinformation,” said misinformation expert Cameron Hickey in a Feb. 8 Ethnic Media Services press briefing. “The African American community was experimented on by the United States government, so that leaves us in a position where that community rightly has some skepticism of now you should trust the government.”

“The Black community has been historically attacked, marginalized and sabotaged,” Nicole S. Grove, editor in chief of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Misinformation Review, told the Pulse via email. “As a consequence of things like centuries of undisclosed medical experiments, the subversion of black industry through redlining, and clear histories of law enforcement collaborating with racist vigilante groups like the KKK, they have more cause than

Collins-Dexter, who is Black, added that the film’s most obvious manipulation tactic was “to liken vaccines to the Tuskegee Study.”

“When you say ‘Tuskegee experiment’ to Black people, that’s automatically going to mean something that feels truthful, and that opens the door to a sort of manipulation…” she said. “But they don’t contextualize what it means.

Mis-information ‘thrives’ where trust is low

Taking something out of context is a common strategy behind a lot of disinformation and misinformation.

Hickey said that false information and misleading claims are sometimes shared with legitimate news sources to make them seem more believable. Information is also shared that is technically true but “lacking critical background details” or

Vaccine

Disinformation Preys on Black Community’s Well-Earned Distrust...continued

perhaps was once true but no longer accurate or relevant.

The Tuskegee Experiment (1932-72) was a government program studying the evolution of syphilis that involved hundreds of mostly low-income African American males who never gave informed consent. The experience is one of many behind lingering mistrust of medical institutions in the Black community. (Image via Wikipedia)

He said recognizing the no longer accurate or relevant notion is “particularly important in the ever-changing world of public health information.”

The RFK Jr.-backed film also used another dubious antivaccination strategy: co-opting civil rights language.

“Anti-vaccination activists have targeted marginalized groups for years,” NBC News reported.

“Misinformation thrives in low trust environments,” Grove said, “particularly among people for whom institutional failures in the past have produced scenarios where it makes more sense to believe that the worst is true.”

It is important to understand why these claims resonate with people, Hickey said. Just throwing facts and data at people and expecting them to immediately admit they were wrong and change their mind won’t work — with anyone.

“I’m not sure the solution to this should simply be getting more and better information out there,” Grove added.

Addressing the information deficit

One step in countering disinformation, Hickey said, is considering the “information deficit.”

“If a piece of misinformation is spreading and if it’s being amplified,” he said, “the first thing we want to do is think about, what is the gap, what is the information people don’t have that creates the space for this message to gain traction?”

Additionally, getting people to move away from bad sources “requires dialogue” and “engaging with someone in a responsible and empathetic way,” he said.

He suggested asking questions such as “Why does this make sense to you?” and “What are the fears or concerns that lead you to believe this?” Then, offer to explain your own perspective, what you have learned about the issue and how you came to your conclusions.

Also important is who is starting these conversations and where they happen.

That’s the reason behind the state of California undertaking efforts to overcome COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy by having “trusted messengers” talk to people in the “places they tend to be,” says Ashley Clark, press secretary for the state Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications.

Clark, who is Black, said the state has done vaccine outreach and hosted vaccine clinics in places such as churches, beauty salons, barbershops and farmers markets to make it easier for people to get “resources and information that’s accurate and reliable.” Then, if they want, they can get the shot.

Black doctors are among those delivering the information “so that folks can see themselves in the people that are providing them with this key information that they need to be able to get the vaccine and feel comfortable doing that,” she said.

The state has also worked with gospel artists and pastors through its Shot of Faith program. Clark said churches have “been very important” in reaching the Black community.

Lower life expectancy

She also said “the vaccine is all the more important” for Black people, partly because they are more likely to have preexisting conditions “that COVID takes advantage of, and it has led to many deaths in the community,” as well as long COVID. She pointed to a study that showed that life expectancy had dropped across the state since the start of the pandemic, “but for Black communities, it was by … a little bit more than the average.”

“Seeing that lets you know right there that we need to do what we can to combat misinformation that is preventing folks from getting the vaccine so important to them and their health,” she continued.

Over time, efforts to overcome disinformation, distrust and access issues have showed positive results.

“I still have a segment of patients that just don’t feel comfortable with getting the vaccine, but thankfully those are fewer and fewer in number,” Dr. Jennifer Miller said in February. Miller, a Black East Bay physician, spoke to the Pulse last year about vaccine hesitancy. Many people got vaccinated. Then, the booster shots came out, and they didn’t go back for them.

“Several have gotten the primary series, but the uptake of the bivalent booster has been much lower,” Miller said. She said some “are not convinced that the bivalent booster is making any worthwhile impact” because people still get sick.

But Clark said people “need the vaccine to prevent the more severe outcomes of COVID.”

“It has been a bit of an uphill climb for the booster,” she said. “Folks are tired of getting shots.”

“It’s important to make sure that we’re up to date with that booster dose to make sure we’re as protected as possible,” Clark added.

This story was produced as part of Ethnic Media Services’ COVID Myth Busters series with funding from the California Department of Public Health.

Autism Diagnosis Rates Rise Among Black and Latino Children

By Latinovations Staff

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said autism is being diagnosed more frequently in Black and Latino children than in white children in the U.S.

Among all U.S. 8-year-olds, 1 in 36 had autism in 2020, according to the CDC. But the rates rose faster for children of color than for white children. The new estimates suggest that about 3% of Black, Latino, and Asian children have an autism diagnosis, compared to white children with 2%.

Autism was most diagnosed in white children, usually in middle- or upper-income families with access to autism specialists. As recently as 2010, white children were 30% more likely to be diagnosed with autism than Black children and 50% more likely than Latino children. Improved screening and autism services for all kids have contributed to the change, increasing awareness and advocacy for Black and Latino families. However, it’s still unclear whether Black and Latino children with autism are being helped as much as their white counterparts. A study published in January found colored children had less access to autism services than white children during the 2017-2018 academic year.

Autism is usually diagnosed by making judgments about a child’s

A Menthol Ban is Discriminatory. It Will Turn a Health Issue into a Criminal Justice

Trump heads to NY amid tight security ahead of his surrender

by TERRY SPENCER and WILL WEISSERT Associated Press

areas of the city, including near courthouses, is a crime.

“While there may be some rabble rousers thinking about coming to our city tomorrow, our message is clear and simple: control yourselves,” said New York Mayor Eric Adams. “New York City is our home, not a playground for your misplaced anger. We are the safest large city in America because we respect the rule of law in New York City.”

The California Black Media Political Playback: Officials Show Respect for Ridley-Thomas’s Service... continued from page 4

In Florida, preparations to cheer Trump as he headed to the airport began early. Supporters gathered at a West Palm Beach shopping center on the way to the airport, hours before he was set to pass along the route.

the governor.

for Los Angeles,” said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who worked with Thomas for more than 40 years.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.

(AP) — Former President Donald Trump flew from Florida on Monday aboard his private plane toward New York and his historic booking and arraignment on hush money charges.

The nation’s largest city bolstered security and warned potential protesters it was “not a playground for your misplaced anger.”

Trump’s motorcade from his Mara-Lago club to his red, white and blue Boeing 757, emblazoned with his name in gold letters, was carried live on national television. It took him past supporters waving banners and cheering, blasting the case against him — stemming from payments made during his 2016 campaign — as politically motivated. The scene was quite different in New York, where Trump built a national profile in business and entertainment but became deeply unpopular as he moved into politics. Prosecutors say their case against him has nothing to do with politics and have defended the work of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg who is leading it.

Monday’s return to the city opens an unprecedented chapter in American history, with Trump the first former president to face criminal charges even as he is in the midst of a third campaign for the White House. It is causing major legal, political and cultural events to collide in unprecedented ways.

The former president and his aides are embracing the media circus. After initially being caught off guard by news of the indictment when it broke Thursday evening, Trump and his team are hoping to use the case to his advantage. Still, they asked the judge in a Monday filing to ban photo and video coverage of the arraignment.

Repeating his frequent denunciation, Trump posted, “WITCH HUNT” on his social media network.

He also bolstered his legal team Monday, adding a third high-profile attorney, Todd Blanche, according to three people familiar with the matter. Blanche, a former federal prosecutor, has previously represented Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort. The people would not publicly discuss details of the legal team’s plan therefore and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The former president planned to spend the night at Trump Tower, then surrender to authorities on Tuesday for booking and a likely afternoon arraignment. So far, officials have not seen an influx of people coming into the city, as was the case in Washington in the days before a mob of Trump supporters overran the U.S. Capitol in January 2021.

Still, authorities warned that possessing a weapon in certain

Trump Tower was open Monday, but traffic was expected to be snarled by nearby street closings, especially as the former president came and went, and additional security was also in the works. A small group of supporters hung large “Trump 2024” banners across from a makeshift pen of reporters, a block away from Trump Tower.

Authorities also have taken steps to close and secure the courthouse floor where Trump is to appear before a judge as part of his arraignment.

One of Trump’s staunchest defenders in Congress, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, was helping to organize a rally in New York for Tuesday morning, and Mayor Adams took the unusual step of calling her out by name.

“Although we have no specific threats, people like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is known to spread misinformation and hate speech, she’s stated she’s coming to town,” Adams said. “While you’re in town, be on your best behavior.”

Trump is facing multiple charges of falsifying business records, including at least one felony offense, in the indictment handed down by a Manhattan grand jury last week. The investigation is scrutinizing sixfigure payments made to porn actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Both say they had sexual encounters with the married Trump years before he got into politics.

Trump denies having sexual liaisons with either woman and has denied any wrongdoing involving payments.

Boca Raton firefighter Erik Solensten and his retired colleague, John Fischer, put up banners. One was 30 by 6 feet (9 by 2 meters), picturing police officers and firefighters saying, “Thanks for having our backs, President Trump.”

“We are fire-rescue. We are prepared and don’t like to wait for things to happen,” said Solensten, who took a vacation day to show support for Trump. “He needs morale just like everyone else needs morale. He’s done more for this country than any 10 presidents combined.”

No former president has ever been indicted and trump’s active campaign for the presidency during next year’s election only further raises the political stakes. Trump spent the weekend golfing and meeting advisers but his campaign says it has raised more than $5 million since word of the indictment broke. One Trump fundraising email Monday carried the subject line, “Tomorrow, I will be arrested.”

Top Republicans, including some of Trump’s potential rivals in next year’s GOP presidential primary, have decried the case against him. President Joe Biden, who has yet to formally announce that he’s seeking reelection next year, and other leading Democrats have largely had little to say about it.

Trump’s former UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley, was campaigning on Monday near the U.S.-Mexico border and suggested that coverage of the former president’s indictment was distracting from other key issues, like immigration. But even she added, “You’ve got a liberal prosecutor that’s doing political revenge against a former president.”

“We’re dealing with a lot of political drama that’s unnecessary because you’ve got political,

continued in next 2 columns

California may change its mental health funding. Why that might cut some services...continued from page 4 veterans.

For many mental health organizations, the bond to increase residential care capacity is much easier to swallow than prescriptive changes to how mental health dollars are spent. The state faces a shortage of more than 7,700 adult psychiatric beds, according to a 2021 RAND report commissioned by the County Behavioral Health Directors Association.

“We really appreciate the administration looking at the report that we did, and the focus on building out infrastructure is wonderful,” said Michelle Doty Cabrera, executive director of the County Behavioral Health Directors Association. “But we continue to need the same kind of focus on workforce and funding for services ongoing.”

At the same time that Newsom is advancing this proposal, his January budget delays $1.1 billion in other behavioral health investments over the next two years, including money intended to increase treatment capacity for adults and kids in crisis, and money for workforce development.

What are the primary concerns?

There’s no telling how exactly existing mental health priorities will get reallocated, but cuts are nearly inevitable given how heavily counties rely on the dollars. The money is “braided into the fabric of all things in our safety net,” Doty Cabrera said. But some of the most pressing questions come from those who work with children and families. Currently, at least half of the money earmarked for prevention and early intervention must be used for children and young adults.

“This is the only protection from our perspective that is actually going to keep a focus on young people and keep a focus on more upstream services,” said Adrienne Shilton, director of public policy for the nonprofit California Alliance of Child and

Family Services.

That money is potentially on the chopping block under the new proposal, as are innovation grants that have catalyzed multi-county programs to improve services for communities of color and LGBTQ folks.

Historically, Medi-Cal — the state’s public health insurance program for extremely lowincome residents — has not covered behavioral health prevention programs, which is where the Mental Health Services Act becomes important.

The money was intended to allow counties the greatest amount of flexibility in meeting local needs, particularly when other funding streams came with restrictions, said Toby Ewing, executive director of the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission.

“It is designed to be a counterpoint to historic restrictions that were in place for Medi-Cal,” Ewing said.

The public perception that California’s homelessness crisis is caused by psychiatric emergencies and drug addiction is a false one.

At the same time that the money gives counties the ability to provide services beyond MediCal, they also use qualifying program expenses to draw down matching Medi-Cal federal funds, effectively expanding local mental health programs. Collectively, counties use about half of the money on services that qualify for matching federal dollars, Doty Cabrera said. With about $1 billion earmarked for housing, which the federal government will not pay for, the mental health system may face between $500 million and $1 billion in lost federal revenue, Shilton said, if Newsom’s proposal is approved.

Dr. Mark Ghaly, state secretary for Health and Human Services, disagrees with the assumption that these changes mean cuts will happen. The administration’s team has heard the same concerns in stakeholder meetings

following the announcement and will work with counties “to try to maintain as much as we possibly can with them,” Ghaly said.

“There is no reason why we won’t be able to do a lot on the prevention and early intervention side,” Ghaly said.

He also notes that this proposal can’t be considered alone. It is part of a larger strategy to improve mental health services in the state, which includes sweeping changes to Medi-Cal, a children’s behavioral health initiative and investments in crisis response. One piece of the puzzle seeks permission from the federal government to use MediCal dollars on housing, which would allow counties to still draw down a significant portion of matching funds.

“All of these things come together, build on each other, and I would like to say catalyze one another to promote the transformation,” Ghaly said.

“This is, in my mind, government doing well.”

Will this help homelessness?

Not really.

The proposal has been couched as a solution to California’s explosive homelessness problem, which consistently tops the list of voter issues.

“We’re fooling ourselves that if we don’t address that fundamental need that we can turn this thing around,” Newsom said during his press conference, backed by more than a half dozen officials who detailed homeless issues from state, county, city and personal perspectives.

But the public perception that California’s homelessness crisis is caused by psychiatric emergencies and drug addiction is a false one. Rather, decades of politicians upholding restrictive zoning laws and obstructive environmental policies have pushed California to the bottom of affordable housing rankings and are the primary drivers of homelessness in the state. Other

“And I feel that sadness personally,” she added. Bass described RidleyThomas as a “a policymaker who made a real impact.”

L.A. City Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson took to Twitter to express his appreciation for Ridley-Thomas.

“When those in power chose to forget our community, Mark RidleyThomas centered and uplifted us,” he wrote.

“I certainly think people are shocked and saddened by what they’ve read. But I’ve also heard people share how much respect they have for the work that Mark RidleyThomas has done.”

Gov. Newsom Announces $736 M in Funding for Local Communities

Keeping his promise to fast track solutions addressing California’s stubborn homelessness crisis, last week Gov. Gavin Newsom announced $736 million in grants to be channeled directly to local communities for building or acquiring shelter for unhoused people.

“At a time when more housing is desperately needed, Homekey is proving that we can build faster, and at a fraction of conventional construction costs,” Newsom said.

“My Administration has made available an unprecedented $3.4 billion to date for Homekey to use at the local level to address housing and homelessness. I look forward to seeing more communities use this latest round of funding to boost housing around the state,” the Governor added.

California Black Media Hosts

Dinner Honoring Joe Stephenshaw

Last week, California Black Media hosted a reception honoring Department of Finance (DOF) Director Joe Stephenshaw.

A number of state lawmakers, public officials, Black news publishers, journalists and others attended the event co-hosted by the California Black Freedom fund and held at the Prelude Kitchen & Bar in downtown Sacramento.

factors, like changes to the state’s criminal justice system, also contribute. Dr. Margot Kushel, director of the UC San Francisco Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, said no amount of spending on mental health will improve the state’s overall homelessness problem.

Still, she and other medical professionals who work primarily with unhoused people say the most vulnerable people on the streets are those with untreated mental illness, and prioritizing housing is the most important thing the state can do for that population’s physical and mental health. People living without shelter also face dismal health outcomes, and discharging a patient back to the street is a recipe for swift deterioration.

Even local and county behavioral health groups that have raised concerns about the proposal acknowledge the need for more housing for their clients, but they fear an inversion of the current problem — housing without services — will result.

“My concern is robbing Peter to pay Paul,” said Debbie Manners, president and CEO of Sycamores, a Los Angeles behavioral health and child welfare agency. Sycamores serves about 500 children and families daily through its schoolbased mental health program. Two years ago the state allocated $4.4 billion to a Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative, but it’s a one-time investment.

“I’m not sure how that will fill in the gap. I don’t think it will fill the gap,” Manners said.

Unfortunately, limited funding is the reality of this year’s budget cycle, with the Legislative Analyst’s Office projecting a $24 billion deficit.

“You don’t want to pit one need for money against another, and I get that,” Kushel said. “On the other hand, it isn’t really possible to serve this population without their having housing.”

Project Homekey is a state government initiative that aims to quickly provide shelter to individuals experiencing homelessness. To date, it has successfully provided shelter for nearly 12,800 formerly unhoused individuals across the state.

Rep. Lee Releases Statement on Trump Indictment

After a New York grand jury reportedly indicted former President Donald J. Trump on more than 30 counts of business fraud last week, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA-12) said she hopes the action was the “beginning of our justice system holding him and all involved in these crimes accountable.”

“This is the first time a former President has been indicted in American history, and this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Trump's alleged crimes—before, during, and after his one term as President,” said Lee who is a outspoken progressive known for her Left-leaning political stances and candidate in the competitive race to replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein in the November General Election.

“No one is above the law,” emphasized Lee, the highest ranking African American woman in the United States House of Representatives.

Gov. Newsom Calls U.S. House Speaker McCarthy “Coward”

In a tweet last week, California

Gov. Gavin Newsom called U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA-20) a coward. Newsom made the comment in a caption when he shared a video of the highest-ranking Republican member of Congress refusing to respond to a reporter’s questions about the mass shooting at a Nashville private school that claimed the lives of three adults and three 9-year-old students.

Report: Black Students Among Students With Highest Absenteeism Rates

“For us, this is one of those moments we deeply treasure when the leaders of the Black Press in California get to officially welcome, celebrate and interact with a top thought leader and decisionmaker in state government in an environment that is intimate and welcoming – no spotlights, no cameras, no fanfare,” said Regina Wilson, Executive Director, California Black Media.

We exchanged ideas and talked freely about our challenges as we got an firsthand view into how our government is deploying our tax dollars in ways that directly impact the lives of the communities we serve,” Wilson added. “We look forward to working more closely with Joe and the Newsom administration on priorities that advance equity for Black Californians.

Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Stephenshaw to the DOF role. In January, he made his first annual budget presentation as the state’s chief fiscal officer alongside

The Public Policy Institute of California is reporting that absenteeism is on the rise among all students in California, and Black children are among the top sub-groups of kids who miss school the most.

Absenteeism rose substantially for nearly all student groups. However, we do see variation across demographic dimensions. Among racial/ethnic groups, Black, Native American, and Pacific Islander students experienced the highest rates of chronic absenteeism, exceeding 40% in 2021–22,” the report reads.

Read the full report here.

The California Legislature Is on Spring Recess

Look out for listings of your state lawmakers’ local townhall meetings in your city or a nearby town. On March 31, the California Legislature adjourned for its Spring Recess. Members are expected to return to Sacramento on or before April 10 when the Legislature reconvenes.

Trump heads to NY amid tight security ahead of his surrender...continued

vengeful people out there,” Haley told Fox News Channel.

Solensten, the Florida Trump supporter, said it is wrong that the former president is being charged with a crime stemming from an alleged tryst with a porn star long before he was in office. He said investigators should instead be looking at Biden’s son, Hunter, and his business dealings, which committees in the Republican-

controlled House have already begun examining.

“To me, those acts are treasonable,” Solensten said of the Bidens. “But it’s a walk. Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Michael R. Sisak, Jill Colvin, Bobby Caina Calvan and Julie Walker in New York and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.

Autism Diagnosis Rates Rise Among Black and Latino Children...continued

from page 7

behavior. For decades, children were diagnosed with autism if they had severe problems communicating or socializing and had unusual, repetitive behaviors. But around 30 years ago, the term became shorthand for milder, related conditions known as “autism spectrum disorders.”

To estimate how common autism is, the CDC focuses on 8-year-olds because that age diagnoses most cases. Autism rates have been rising for decades, and it is far more common among boys than girls. But the latest study also found, for the first time, that more than 1% of 8-year-old girls had been diagnosed

with it.

The CDC recently reported on how common autism was in 4-yearolds because autism diagnoses are increasingly happening at younger ages, said Kelly Shaw, who oversees the CDC autism tracking project. Black children with autism have historically been diagnosed later than their white peers, said Rose Donohue, a psychiatrist at Washington University. But the study of 4-year-olds found that autism was less common among white kids in 2020 than among Black, Hispanic, and Asian children.

Former President Donald Trump Credit: Shutterstock