Volume 54 No. 10
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)discrimination, mistreatment and brutality.
Musical icons make their transitions
On June 23, 1981, legendary Reggae artist Bob Marley was given an official state funeral in his homeland of Jamaica after dying of cancer on May 11 in Miami. He was only 36 when he died. Also in June— June 25, 2009 to be exact—another icon passed away. I was in the weight room of Texas Southern University’s Wellness and Recreation Center working out with my oldest son, Biko, when
news broke that intergalactic music superstar Michael Jackson had died of cardiac arrest in his Los Angeles home. Jackson was 50 years old and was in the process of preparing a major comeback tour when he died after reportedly being given a powerful sedative, Propofol, to help him sleep. Let us honor these fallen musical giants during the month of June, President Jimmy Carter declared to be “Black Music Month” in 1979. This article was originally published on Defender Network.
Antonio Ray Harvey| California BlackMedia
In support of celebrating Black history 24/7/365, check out the list below to learn about key historical events that have taken place during the month of June— in addition to Juneteenth.
U.S. Rep. Joseph Haynes
Rainey born
On June 21, 1832, the first African American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives, Joseph Hayne Rainey, was born in Georgetown, S.C. He was elected in 1870 from the state of South Carolina, served five terms in Congress and died in 1887. However, it wasn’t until 2005, 118 years after his passing, that a portrait of Rainey was finally hung in the U.S. Capitol Building.
Military Prowess (Don’t ever question our patriotism)
On June 19, 1864, U.S. Navy seaman Joachim Pease earned the Congressional Medal of Honor for his brave actions in battle.
In June 1877, Henry O. Flipper became the first African American to graduate from West Point.
On June 4, 1922, the Navy’s first Black admiral, Samuel Gravely, was born in Richmond, Virginia.
And on June 22, 1959, Benjamin O. Davis Jr. became the first African-American general in the U.S. Air Force. His father, Benjamin O. Davis Sr., had been the first Black U.S. Army general.
Juneteenth was born
Even though the Emancipation Proclamation technically freed all enslaved persons in 1863, it was not until June 19, 1865 that all were actually informed that they were free. On that date, U.S. General Gordon Granger read General Orders No. 3 in Galveston, Texas stating “the people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”
On paper, at least, this decree freed more than 250,000 enslaved Blacks. However, as internationally lauded historian and University of Houston professor, Dr. Gerald Horne, shares in his book “The Counter Revolution of 1836: Texas Slavery and Jim Crow and the Roots of American Fascism,” the reality was much different.
Horne highlights that it was the oft-ignored “war” waged by Granger’s roughly 2,000 predominantly Black troops against stubborn enslavers that made freedom possible. Grangers
soldiers took on those who refused to acknowledge the new law of the land.
Horne reveals that Black troops engaged in numerous bloody battles with White enslavers and their armed forces, defeating them on the battlefield, thus making Juneteenth quite literally a Black Liberation holiday.
But the story gets even Blacker!
These same Black troops again saved the nation two years later, on June 19, 1867, when they put down an insurrection led by exConfederate soldiers working with the French, who moved their base of operations to Mexico with plans of re-taking Texas for the confederacy as step one in restarting the Civil War.
Horne writes: “It’s not only June 19, 1865, that we should mark, but also June 19, 1867, because that’s when the French leader Maximillian was killed, which marks the end of the attempt to continue our enslavement in Mexico.”
Wilma Rudolph Begins Her Run
On June 23, 1940, track icon Wilma Rudolph was born in Saint Bethlehem, Tenn.. Rudolph overcame polio and became the fastest woman in the world. In 1960, she won three gold medals at the Olympic Games in Rome, Italy.
SCOTUS rules segregation in D.C. unlawful
On June 8, 1953, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation in Washington D.C. was unlawful. This was a victory for civil rights activist Mary Church Terrell who had led the fight to end segregation in DC restaurants.
Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner
On June 21, 1964, civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner all disappeared near Philadelphia, Miss. They were later found murdered. Seven Ku Klux Klan members who opposed the Black voting rights campaign being led by the men were indicted for the killings, but none served more than six years in prison. The incident became one of the major sparks of the then young Civil Rights Movement.
Justice for the three was finally completed in June 2005 when the leader of the group of klansmen — Edgar Ray “The Preacher” Killen — was convicted of their murders, ironically, on June 21,
2005 — 41 years to the day that Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner were murdered.
Thurgood Marshall Nominated to Serve on the SCOTUS
Though Thurgood Marshall was confirmed as the first Black person to serve as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice on Aug. 30, 1967, then President Lyndon Baines Johnson nominated Marshall in June 1967 to replace the retiring Justice Tom Clark. Johnson said Marshall was “best qualified by training and by very valuable service to the country.… I believe it is the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place.” Marshall courageously served 24 years on the SCOTUS before retiring in 1991.
Ali Takes a Stand
On June 20, 1967, World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Muhammad Ali was convicted in a Houston federal court of violating the Selective Service Act for refusing to be inducted into the armed services. Ali was fined $10,000 and given five years in prison, even though he took the legal position of being a “religious objector” to the Vietnam War.
Ali stated plainly he was no draft dodger, hiding in a foreign land. Rather, he stood his ground saying he would willingly accept any punishment rather than betray his principles. The
SCOTUS later overturned the conviction, but not after Ali lost more than three of his prime boxing years.
When asked why he refused to go to Vietnam, Ali often said, “No Vietnamese ever called me N**ger.”
“I’m not gonna help somebody get something that Negroes don’t have. If I’m going to die, I’ll die now right here fighting you. You’re [racist White people] my enemy… You’re my opposer when I want freedom. You’re my opposer when I want justice. You’re my opposer when I want equality. You won’t even stand up for me in America for my religious beliefs, and you want me to go somewhere and fight, but you won’t even stand up for me here at home,” said Ali, to media outlets of the day.
It was this stance against global White imperialism, neocolonialism and militarism, coupled with his boxing accomplishments, that cemented Ali in the minds of the world’s majority that he was, without a doubt, the greatest of all time. Apology, but No Reparations (WTH?!?)
On June 19, 2009, the U.S. Congress issued a formal apology to Black Americans for the enslavement of our ancestors, acknowledging the “fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow laws” which followed. However, the resolution specifically rejected paying Blacks reparations for past,
In California, an increasing number of Japanese, Jewish and other non-Black groups are expressing their support for reparations to Black American residents of the state who are descendants of enslaved people.
Around 100 grassroot organizations, motivated in part by the efforts of the Japanese American Bar Association and John M. Langston Bar Association of Los Angeles, have endorsed the work of the task force, and are calling on California to compensate Black residents for historical wrongdoings.
Donald Tamaki, an attorney, and the only non-Black member of the nine-member state reparations task force panel, stated that the groups supporting the task force are mostly Asian, Latino and Jewish.
“They didn’t need whole lot of persuasion,” Tamaki said.
“Why? Because they know the healing power of reparations.
I think that, in itself, is a news story: that there's a multi-racial group of both big and small organizations representing different constituencies.”
The United States government has previously approved reparations for other ethnic groups to address historical injustices. For instance, Native Americans have been given billions of dollars in compensation for land that was unlawfully taken from them.
Japanese Americans received billions in compensation and some of their property was returned for being placed in internment camps during World War II.
Many of the injustices experienced by Japanese Americans occurred after President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s issued Executive Order 9066 on Feb. 19, 1942, responding to Japan’s aerial bombing of U.S.
of the group Keniah and Keyanna began taking college courses at just 12 years old.
The scholars anticipate obtaining their Associate’s Degree within the next year from Saint Leo University. They will then transfer to another four-year university as juniors to complete their Bachelor’s degree. They are applying to Florida A&M University, Howard University, and Clark Atlanta University to name a few.
Military installations at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on Dec.7, 1941.
graduated
Icon Preparatory School is a private school in the cities of Tampa and Jacksonville, FL that educates over 800 students. Icon Prep is open to any student in the state of Florida and committed to closing the achievement gap among its scholars and more affluent peers. With a belief
that a student’s zip code does not determine their destination, Icon Preparatory School empowers its students to reach their maximum potential, preparing them for life in college and beyond.
Five of Icon Prep’s six founders are alumni of Florida A&M University, a historically black college that prides itself on excellence with caring among its students. The leaders of Icon Prep aim to use the knowledge obtained from their HBCU experience to significantly impact their student population that is 99% African American and Hispanic.
Learn more about Icon Prep at IconPrep.org
Also, be sure to follow the school on Facebook and Instagram
Padilla, Sanders Introduce Bill to Make College Tuitionand Debt-Free for Working Families...continued
(HSIs), Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), and other Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) can attend tuition- and fee-free.
In the months following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, approximately 122,000 men, women, and children of Japanese descent were forcibly relocated to “assembly centers.” Nearly 70,000 of these evacuees were American citizens. They were then evacuated to and confined in 75 isolated, fenced, and guarded “relocation centers,” known as "incarceration camps.”
According to the National Park Service (NPS), 92,785
Californians of Japanese descent were put in temporary detention camps called “Assembly Centers.” The cities of Sacramento, Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Francisco, metropolitans with the largest Japanese contingents, were incarcerated without legal recourse.
and other Nisei (secondgenerations Japanese Americans) and Sansei (third generation) are urging the state to compensate Black descendants of chattel slavery and provide a formal apology for harms suffered in California.
“First, I want to acknowledge the difference in our fight for reparations for the injustice of the (incarceration) camps and the 400 years history of enslaved people,” Iwataki testified. “We’re not here to make recommendations or to prescribe lessons learned. I am here to share the experiences of NCRR and all volunteer grassroot organizations that fought for reparations and to express our continued solidarity for Black reparations.”
The San Bernardino City Unified School District is ensuring that children ages 0–18 have access to nutritious meals throughout the summer break. With the implementation of a seamless summer meals program, the District aims to address summer nutrition insecurity.
SBCUSD's summer meals program provides free breakfast and lunch at three locations in San Bernardino. The program is open to all children, regardless of their enrollment or socioeconomic status, and no application is needed. Meals must be eaten on-
Summer Meal Locations Location, Contact and Telephone
Wiiwish Native Steam Enterprise Building Malia Vincent-Finney (951) 468-6678
Sharon Morgan (909) 7711174
Inland Behavioral and Health Services-WIC
Inland Family Community Health Center
Jo-Ann Gallagher (909) 708-8158
Address 320 North E St. #106 San Bernardino, CA 92401 665 North D St.
site and adults cannot eat with children.
The program supports children's health, well-being, and development during the summer months, and it also eases the financial burden on families and ensures that no child goes hungry, said Director of Nutrition Services Adriane Robles.
“San Bernardino City Unified's summer meals program demonstrates our commitment to the overall welfare of students by providing nutritious meals to children during the summer break,” Robles said.
San Bernardino, CA 92401
Serving Meals/ Times
Breakfast: 8–8:30 a.m.
Lunch: 11:45–12:15 p.m.
Lunch: 11:30–12:30 p.m.
Dates and Days No service
June 19 or July 4
Mon–Fri
June 20–July 28 Mon–Fri July 3–July 28
WASHINGTON, D.C. —
Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), co-Chair of the Senate Hispanic-Serving Institutions Caucus, joined Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in reintroducing the College for All Act, legislation that would expand access to college for millions of working-class children. This legislation represents the most significant federal investment in higher education in the modern history of the United States. As the nation seeks to reconcile the burden of student loan debt, the College for All Act would alleviate undue financial stress for working families and open economic opportunities.
As tuition costs have increased by 295.2% since 1963, a college degree has become an unattainable dream for too many Americans. Moreover, students who take on the cost of attendance are too often encumbered by a lifetime of student loan debt. This bill would allow working-class students to attend – tuition-free – public community colleges, public trade schools, and public fouryear colleges and universities. It would also ensure that the vast majority of students enrolled at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-Serving Institutions
“As a first-generation college graduate who came from a lowincome household, I understand the challenges of accessing and affording higher education,” said Senator Padilla. “The College for All Act would help millions of working families shoulder the financial burden of paying for their children’s college. It is in our nation’s best interest to invest in all students to ensure that the American dream and economic prosperity are attainable to all, regardless of income.”
“Today, this country tells young people to get the best education they can, and then saddles them for decades with crushing student loan debt. To my mind, that does not make any
sense whatsoever,” said Senator Sanders. “In the wealthiest country in the history of the world, a higher education should be a right for all, not a privilege for the few. It is absolutely unacceptable that hundreds of thousands of bright young Americans do not get a higher education each year, not because they are unqualified, but because their family does not have enough money. In the 21st century, a free public education system that goes from kindergarten through high school is no longer good enough. The time is long overdue to make public colleges and universities tuition-free and debt-free for working families. Education is one of the keys to a successful democracy and we must make it easier, not harder, for young people to obtain the degrees they have worked so hard for.”
This legislation would guarantee tuition-free community
Evictions Can Lead to Increased Housing Insecurity
LOS ANGELES, Calif.— The City of Los Angeles remains committed to providing tenant protections to help decrease the chances of residents being evicted from their homes, adding to housing insecurity and the City’s unhoused crisis. Tenants continue to have City protections for unpaid COVID-19 rental debt through extended eviction protections until August 1, 2023, specifically addressing rental debt incurred between March 2020 and January 31, 2023.
It is also important for tenants to know they are at risk of unfavorable consequences if they fail to respond to an unlawful detainer, including eviction and the impact of an eviction record on their credit report. Responding promptly to an unlawful detainer, also known as an eviction notice, is crucial to safeguard tenant rights. Failure to file an answer with the court could lead to a “default judgment” against the tenant, essentially meaning that the case has been lost and the tenant can be locked out of their home.
Ann Sewill, General Manager of the City of Los Angeles Housing Department stated, “The LA Housing Department joins the Mayor in her commitment to keeping Angelenos informed and housed. There are many protections that exist for tenants such as additional time to pay COVID related rental arrears and protection from eviction due to additional tenants or pets until February 1, 2024. Rent increases for units covered by the Rent Stabilization Ordinance are also
Japanese Americans were imprisoned based on ancestry alone. There was no evidence that they had committed any crimes against the U.S. or presented any danger, NPS explained in its “A History of Japanese Americans in California: Incarceration of Japanese Americans During World War II.”
Three Japanese Americans who were involved in and knowledgeable about the Japanese American Redress Movement (JARM) testified at the California reparations task force’s public meeting held in Los Angeles on Sept. 24, 2022. They educated attendees about efforts Japanese Americans made to obtain restitution for their forced removal and confinement during World War II.
Mitchell Maki (President and CEO of the Go for Broke National Education Center, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the legacy and lessons of the Nisei World War II veterans) and Ron Wakabayashi (former Executive Director, Japanese American Citizens League) provided historical context on how Japanese Americans achieved a rare accomplishment in U.S. history by passing the Civil Liberties
In September 2022, the San Francisco Black and Jewish Unity Coalition held reparations teach-ins at Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco. Secretary of State Shirley Weber, who authored the legislation, Assembly Bill 3121, that created the task force when she was an Assemblymember, was one of the speakers.
Congregation B’nai Israel hosted a 90-minute reparations information session in Sacramento on June 11. Presented by Sacramento Jewish opera singer Lynn Berkeley-Baskin, over 20 people – Jewish and Japanese — attended the event to hear Chris Lodgson from the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California share his experiences as one of the grassroots leaders driving California’s movement for reparations.
Germany has openly acknowledged past aggressions committed during the Holocaust. According to a June 202 report by Steven J. Ross in the Jewish publication the Forward, the German government has paid out $92 billion to Holocaust survivors over seven decades. In the United States, the country has “failed to reckon with the consequences of centuries of slavery,” Ross writes.
“As laws advancing revisionist history sweep our nation’s state legislatures, Americans who
limited until February 1, 2024.” She continued, “It is important for L.A. City residents to inform themselves of the systems and guidelines in place to help them stay in their homes and avoid evictions. It is about being informed, being protected, and being at home,” she explained.
The City’s goal is to inform tenants of their residential rental rights and provide information to help them stay in their homes and avoid evictions. Here are five facts residents should always remember when it involves renter protections:
1. Tenants cannot be evicted without a reason or just cause.
2. Take immediate action if you receive an eviction notice or unlawful detainer from a landlord for unpaid rent.
3. Tenants have five days to respond to an unlawful detainer.
4. No-fault evictions have resumed as of February 1, 2023.
5. Rent increases for units covered by the Rent Stabilization Ordinance are limited until February 1, 2024.
Through the extension of eviction protections, encouragement of prompt response to unlawful detainers, and regulations on rent increases, the City aims to ensure housing stability for all residents.
To learn more about your rights, call (866) 557-RENT (7368) or visit http://www. housing.lacity.org.
Act of 1988.
They received an official apology letter from the President of the United States and 82,000 surviving Japanese Americans were compensated with $20,000 payments, which totaled to $1.6 billion. Executive Order 9066 was officially rescinded by U.S. President Gerald Ford on Feb. 16, 1976.
Miya Iwataki – a special assistant to former California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC) member and U.S. Congressmember Mervyn Dymally who represented the state’s 31st District in Congress during the 1980s – was a member of the National Coalition for Redress/Reparations for Japanese Americans.
Iwataki says she drew inspiration from the activism of Black leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Black Panther Party member Fred Hampton, the Tuskegee Airmen, the Brown Berets, among others. She explained that it was Black leaders such as Dymally and former Oakland mayor and U.S. Congress member Ron Dellums who supported the passage of the Civil Liberties Act.
Maki, Iwataki, Wakabayashi
favor a national reckoning with our own complicated past would do well to take a lesson from Germany," writes Steven J. Ross, a history professor at the University of Southern California (USC).
“If we want to truly heal as a nation, we must first acknowledge both the long history of slavery and the pain its legacy still causes – and take tangible steps to right our collective wrongs,” Ross stated.
The task force will hold its final meeting and submit its final report to the California legislature on June 29.
The meeting will start at 9:00 a.m., in the First Floor Auditorium of the March Fong Eu Secretary of State Building, located at 1500 11th Street, downtown Sacramento.
“If there are helpful takeaways from our experience, I hope that they will contribute,” Wakabayashi said of Japanese Americans’ fight for reparations. “It would help repay a great debt. The Black civil rights movement generated the Japanese American Redress Campaign and led the struggle for human rights in this country.”
Antonio Ray Harvey | California Black Media
Added a new 24/7 compliance sergeant in the IRC; Expanded the number of cleaning crews and sanitation checks in the IRC; Increased the number of Correctional Health Services staff designated to provide mental health services in the IRC, including embedding additional psychiatric staff stationed in the IRC;
Hired 182 Correctional Health Services (CHS) employees for positions throughout the jails as of June 15, 2023;
Assigned 215 recentlygraduated deputies to fill existing vacancies in custody operations; Announced assignment bonuses of up to 20% for more than 1,900 Correctional Health Services employees working in the jails to help retain and recruit staff in key clinical, case management, technical and administrative positions; and Implemented a new Shared Intake Management (or “SIM”) System that uses wristband scanner technology and integration of Sheriff’s Department systems to track, monitor and implement the timely movement of people through the intake process to reduce wait times; and Retrained staff on legal requirements for IRC conditions and wait times.
have been transferred to state hospitals for treatment, with the population pending state hospital transfer reduced from 422 to 356.
The County has authorized the Department of Health Services (DHS) to enter into a contract with the California Department of State Hospitals for approximately $629 million in State funding to increase the number of ODR beds for those accused of felonies found incompetent to stand trial (FIST) from 794 to 1,344 over five years.
On April 4, the Board of Supervisors (BOS) authorized 500 new community mental health beds through ODR and the Department of Mental Health for individuals in custody and suffering from severe mental health disorders (P3/P4s) who cannot safely be released. The County is finalizing funding for the first year of this ramp up.
The preliminary injunction order in the Urquidi bail reform case temporarily reinstates the Emergency Bail Schedule and may further reduce the pretrial population in the jails.
The County has established a DOJ Compliance Office to drive compliance with the remaining provisions of U.S. Department of Justice settlement agreement to improve conditions in the County’s jail system for those with mental health conditions.
(LOS ANGELES, CA –
6/19/2023) – The Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) today condemned the distribution of antisemitic flyers in Redondo Beach, Calif., early this morning.
A resident of the Southern California neighborhood was taking out his trash when he found the plastic bag containing the leaflets with antisemitic messages in his yard. The incident is similar to those occurring in neighborhoods throughout the state of California and the nation, although it is not clear if these incidents are linked.
SEE: Antisemitic flyer tossed onto lawn in Redondo Beach
In a statement, CAIR-LA
Executive Director Hussam Ayloush said:
“We are disturbed by the ongoing acts of bigotry against our Jewish neighbors. There is no place in our state for the targeted hate and antisemitism that continues to be spread and we strongly condemn these senseless acts.
“The Jewish community deserves the right to feel safe in their homes, neighborhoods, and
places of worship. We need to work to address antisemitism in our communities to bring respect and tolerance for all and seek justice for our Jewish neighbors.”
SEE:
CAIR-LA Condemns Distribution of Antisemitic Flyers in Culver City and the Beachwood Canyon Area CAIR-LA Condemns
Antisemitic Flyers Distributed at Homes in San Marino and Pasadena on Yom Kippur CAIR-LA Condemns
Antisemitic Flyers Distributed in San Bernardino Neighborhood CAIR, CAIR-PA Welcome Conviction of Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue Shooter
To report any bias incidents, contact CAIR-LA’s Civil Rights Department at (714) 776-1177 or click here to file a report.
CAIR-LA is Southern California’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, protect civil rights, promote justice and empower American Muslims.
Last week, hundreds of community leaders, advocates, and organizers representing labor, faith-based, Black, AAPI, Latinos, women and youth rally and march were held at the State Capitol. They were supporting Senate Bill (SB) 846, which aims to increase election turnout and remove barriers to voter registration for millions of Californians.
The California Grassroots Democracy Coalition, which is the largest voting rights coalition in California, has launched a campaign to enfranchise 4.7 million unregistered voters through SB 846. This bill, also known as the Motor Voter bill, was authored by state Senators Caroline Menjivar (D-Chino) and Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara).
The coalition, which represents millions of Californians, has embarked on a multi-year campaign to expand the electorate to better reflect the state’s diversity.
SB 846 is co-sponsored by three members of the California Black Legislative Caucus (CLBC) -- Assemblymembers Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood), Chris
Holden (D-Pasadena), and Mike Gipson (D-Carson).
“For decades, grassroots organizations like ours have worked year-round, mobilizing voters, organizing immigrant communities, providing legal services, running advocacy campaigns, and building multiracial, multi-issue coalitions,” said Stanette Dixon, volunteer coordinator from Congregations Organized for Prophetic Engagement. “We are coming together to advance a new vision for California’s democracy and dismantle racist barriers to civic participation that marginalize BIPOC, naturalized citizens, young, low-income, and low English proficiency voters.”
SB 846 is being reviewed in the Senate Appropriations Committee. The bill requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to transmit specified information to Secretary of State Shirley Weber for each person submitting a driver’s license application. To be eligible for voter registration or preregistration, these individuals must be United States citizens
continued on page 4
County/Business News
Los Angeles County has reached an agreement with the American Civil Liberties Union to significantly improve conditions in the jail system.
The agreement filed today with Judge Dean D. Pregerson in Rutherford v. Luna recognizes the improved conditions in the Inmate Reception Center (IRC) resulting from the remedial actions taken by the County in recent months to improve waiting times, overcrowding and unsanitary conditions. This work addresses the root causes of the issues raised in the ACLU’s Motion for Contempt and resolves that motion with no finding of contempt or contempt sanctions for the County.
Under the agreement, which requires the judge’s approval to become final, the County agrees to a series of limits on how long those in custody may be held in various areas to ensure more humane treatment.
This settlement recognizes corrective actions taken by the
County and allows the County to build on the momentum and focus achieved over the past several months to continue to:
—Decrease the jail population while balancing public safety concerns;
—Expand the capacity for community-based care for those who can be safely released or diverted from custody;
—Increase staffing to provide more robust care for those who must remain in custody;
—Align how we are using our jail facilities to better address the mental health needs of the jail population; and
—Adjust how we operate to support our compliance goals and better track our progress.
The County has:
The County has also actively engaged state agencies to expedite the transfer of individuals ordered to their facilities. This has reduced the total jail population, which has dropped from 14,209 to 13,176 (about 7%) from February 27 to June 9, 2023. We have also committed to building out the network of community beds for those who can safely be treated in the community mental health placements.
More than 2,900 individuals sentenced to state prison have been transferred with the population pending state prison transfer reduced from 1,543 to 607.
500 individuals declared felony incompetent to stand trial
The County’s Chief DOJ Compliance Officer Margaret L. Carter has been empowered to set priorities, expedite approvals and sustain focus across multiple departments to accomplish this goal. This multi-faceted work is being carried out by a wide range of LA County departments and divisions—including Correctional Health Services, the Justice, Care, and Opportunities Department, Mental Health, the Office of Diversion and Reentry, and the Sheriff’s Department— and relies on many others, including our justice partners in the courts and various State agencies, to achieve the broad systemic changes that will be required.
More than 37,800 student loan borrowers who were tricked by a student loan debt relief operation soon will share more than $3.3 million in restitution, thanks to enforcement action announced in mid-June by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
The FTC began investigating Arete Financial Group in 2019 after complaints of false promises of student debt relief. The agency found that Arete Financial Group and several related companies used radio, television, online ads, and telemarketing calls promising their monthly fees would reduce or eliminate consumers’ student loan balances. Instead, borrowers were lured into illegal upfront payments because the firm falsely claimed to be affiliated with the U.S. Department of Education.
The June action follows another FTC enforcement action that delivered this April more than $1.1 million in refunds to 41,934 consumers who had been defrauded in so-called “free-trial offers”.
In that case, RevMountain,
LLC, Anasazi Management Partners, and 59 related corporate defendants were charged for deceptive “free trial” offers for tooth whiteners and other products to consumers who paid a small fee. Instead, consumers were charged, without their knowledge, for two ongoing subscriptions to nearly identical products that cost them approximately $200 a month, or until a cancellation was received. Information on all FTC refunds is available at: https://www.ftc. gov/enforcement/recent-ftccases-resulting-refunds/refundprograms-frequently-askedquestions.
Last year, FTC returned more than $392 million to more than 1.9 million consumers who registered complaints, according to the agency’s annual report. Auto sales and financing, payday lending, credit repair and debt relief were targets of other successful enforcement in 2022 that benefited consumers in every state.
For example, $9.8 million in restitution was paid to 66,355 consumers last November by
an Illinois-based automobile dealership group, Napleton, that charged junk fees to consumers for unwanted add-ons such as payment insurance and paint protection. The dealership also advertised $90 down payments on mailers without disclosing the terms of repayment or annual percentage rate, as required by law, which led to consumers incurring hundreds or thousands of dollars in excessive fees. These actions violated multiple consumer protection laws including the Truth in Lending Act, and were brought in cooperation with the State of Illinois.
Similarly, a 2022 case involving Harvest Moon Financial, an internet-based payday lending enterprise that included 11 firms, multiple websites and telemarketing, bilked millions of dollars from consumers through deception about the terms of their loans and an absence of required loan disclosures.
“Harvest Moon bled consumers dry, by promising a single payment payday loan, but then automatically debiting consumers’ bank accounts for finance charges every two weeks, in perpetuity,” said Andrew Smith, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.
Further, the firm made withdrawals from consumers’ checking accounts without authorization, violations of both the FTC Act and the Electronic Fund Transfer Act. FTC secured a $970,000 refund for the scam’s
victims.
Last year in written testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, reminded lawmakers of the agency’s value to the nation.
“The FTC is charged with tackling unfair or deceptive practices—be it businesses who lie about products being Made in America, fraudsters who peddle fake COVID cures, or firms who abuse consumer data—and we’re responsible for rooting out unfair methods of competition that can crush entrepreneurs and stifle innovation,” stated Kahn. “I have asked staff to orient our enforcement efforts around targeting and rectifying root causes to avoid a whacka-mole approach that imposes significant enforcement burden with few long- term benefits. We are also ensuring that our work is tackling the most significant harm across markets, particularly by dominant firms whose business practices affect huge swaths of Americans.”
Ms. Khan also advised that these accomplishments came despite successive budget cuts in 2017 and 2018 that left the agency with two-thirds of the staff it had in 1980.
Even so, recent enforcement actions continue the proconsumer achievement. Now as Congress resumes its annual appropriations process, it would be useful to remind lawmakers of what’s really working for the people.
NNPA NEWSWIRE — The truth is, crime is out of control in this country, especially in too many of our cities. While many choose to turn a blind eye, it is people of color who are the majority of the victims: People of color account for 73 percent of rape victims; 72 percent of robbery victims; and 80 percent of felony assault victims; and 68.7 percent of the people in prison are Black and brown and 44% percent of the people killed by police in the United States are Black and brown.
By Andrew M. Cuomo and Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr.
charges are deliberately vague and are subject to discretion that can be abused by police, like loitering, vagrancy, trespass, or failure to pay a fine. In fact, some of the most horrific examples of police abuse occurred when a minor crime arrest escalated: Eric Garner killed for selling loose cigarettes; Rodney King beaten within an inch of his life for speeding; George Floyd killed for a bad $20 bill; Alton Sterling killed for selling CDs; Philando Castile killed for a broken taillight; and, Michael Brown killed for jaywalking.
Daniel Ellsberg’s Last Message...continued broke free and provided the Pentagon Papers to news media.
As he said in the CBS interview, “The fact is that secrets can be held by men in the government whose careers have been spent learning how to keep their mouths shut. I was one of those.”
Ellsberg’s mouth, and heart, never stayed shut again. For the 52 full years that followed his release of the Pentagon Papers, he devoted himself to speaking, writing and protesting. When the war on Vietnam finally ended, Ellsberg mainly returned to his earlier preoccupation — how to help prevent nuclear war.
During the profuse interviews that he engaged in during the last few months, what clearly preoccupied Ellsberg was not his own fate but the fate of the Earth’s inhabitants. He was acutely aware that while admiration for brave whistleblowers might sometimes be widespread, actual emulation is scarce. Ellsberg often heard that he was inspiring, but he was always far more interested in what people would be inspired to actually do — in a world of war and on the precipice of inconceivable nuclear catastrophe.
Andrew M. Cuomo
2011 to 2021. Dr.
is an American lawyer
Jr
President
served
Association (NNPA) and also serves as a National Co-Chair of No
America 2023: tumultuous times. Yes. Yet, amidst the greatest domestic challenges of American history, our nation has attempted to respond to the challenges through transformative public policy initiatives that have moved America toward a more perfect inclusive union.
Today there are new challenges to be sure, but also there are ongoing battles that have yet to be won. There are civil rights struggles and conditions that harken back to the 1960s that still abuse people of color every day, that still deny justice, equality and opportunity for all.
There’s an old saying: The first step to solving a problem is admitting it — and the first step can be painful.
There is still gross inequity in our education system, between rich school districts and poor districts. There is still inequality in access to healthcare, employment, to financial credit and there is a basic violation of civil and human rights in our criminal justice system.
Misguided pseudoprogressive policies such as “defund the police” and soft on crime procedures are literally contributing to the killing of hundreds of Black people and other people of color every day across America.
The truth is, crime is out of control in this country, especially
in too many of our cities. While many choose to turn a blind eye, it is people of color who are the majority of the victims: People of color account for 73 percent of rape victims; 72 percent of robbery victims; and 80 percent of felony assault victims; and 68.7 percent of the people in prison are Black and brown and 44% percent of the people killed by police in the United States are Black and brown.
We do need police reform and reform of the entire justice system.
One: we need to change the culture and premise of policing. Our basic police system was designed in the mid-1800s — a different time and place. Today, it’s estimated that less than 10% of police officers’ time is actually fighting violent crime.
We need a different vision, we need to rethink how we police — 911 calls signal an emergency, and we need more specialized and better trained emergency responders for different needs: domestic violence, substance abuse, mental health, homeless issues, gang problems as well as violent crime in progress.
Second: We need dangerous guns off the streets and all guns away from dangerous and mentally ill people. By far, most gun crimes are committed in urban areas with handguns. We need to reduce not increase concealed weapons in our cities.
Tuition- and Debt-Free for Working Families...
continued from page 2 college for all students and allow students from single households earning up to $125,000 a year, and married households earning up to $250,000 a year, to attend college without fear of being saddled with student loan debt. If passed, the College for All Act would also:
Double the maximum Pell Grant award: $7,395 to $14,790 for the 2024-2025 school year for students enrolled at public and private non-profit colleges;
Expand Pell Grant Eligibility to DACA, TPS, and DED students
Establish a $10 billion grant program for states participating in the federal-state partnership to scale evidence-based practices and strategies;
Triple Federal TRIO funding from $1.191 billion in FY23 to $3 billion in FY24; Double GEAR UP funding from $388 million in FY23 to $736 million in FY24; and Double mandatory funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and other MinorityServing institutions.
In addition to Padilla and Sanders, the legislation is cosponsored by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.),
Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Chris Van Hollen (DMd.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.). Senator Padilla believes every student should have access to high-quality and affordable education opportunities so that they can pursue their dreams. Last year, Padilla cosponsored a resolution calling on President Biden to use his authority under the Higher Education Act to cancel up to $50,000 in student loan debt for federal student loan borrowers. During his first term in congress, Padilla introduced the Basic Assistance for Students in College (BASIC) Act to ensure college students are able to meet their basic needs while pursuing their education. Senator Padilla also led the bicameral, bipartisan introduction of the Hispanic Educational Resources and Empowerment (HERE)Act to close the enduring gap in college completion for Hispanic students. Padilla also cosponsored the Pell Grant Preservation and Expansion Act with Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) to double the Pell Grant and expand access as well as the award for working students and families.
Governor
We need to keep guns out of the hands of anyone under 21. We need to fill gaps in the background check system so it’s universal and nationwide.
And we need to bring back the assault weapons ban because weapons of war have no place on our streets or in our communities. Assault weapons enable the horrific mass shootings that continue to plague our country.
Third: We need to reduce recidivism. The vast majority of violent crimes are repeated by a small number of people who keep hurting others over and over.
Fourth: We need to have more effective alternatives to incarceration, safer jails, but dangerous and repetitive violent people must be taken off the streets to protect all Americans, and in particular for the most vulnerable who are disproportionately victimized by violence and crime in Black and brown communities.
Fifth: We have to stop over criminalizing petty, non-violent acts. 80 percent of crimes are for misdemeanors, and many are petty non-violent acts. And some
We believe that the time to act is now. These specific categories of civil rights have been violated for too long and the time to make a difference is surely too short. As a nation we cannot afford to remain silent about extremists’ hatred, violence, crime, and the fear-filled deterioration of American cities and towns.
This is for us a sense of urgency and civic responsibility. We have decided to work and act together, and to speak out publicly with recommended commonsense solutions to crime, violence, guns, and police reform that we know the majority of the American people support.
Andrew M. Cuomo, American lawyer who served as the 56th Governor of New York from 2011 to 2021, Chair of the National Governors Association, U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and former Attorney General of New York.
Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr, President and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), Executive Producer/Host of The Chavis Chronicles on PBS TV stations across the nation; former Executive Director and CEO of the NAACP, and today serves as a National Co-Chair of No Labels.
This spring, during the three months after diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, Ellsberg made the most of every day, spending time with loved ones and speaking out about the all-too-real dangers of nuclear annihilation. He left behind two brilliant, monumental books published in this century — “Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers” (2002) and “The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner” (2017). They illuminate in sharp ghastly light the patterns of official lies and secrecy about military matters, and the ultimate foreseeable result — nuclear holocaust.
Ellsberg was deeply determined to do all he could to help prevent omnicide. As he said in an interview when “The Doomsday Machine” came out, scientific research has concluded that nuclear war “would loft into the stratosphere many millions of tons of soot and black smoke from the burning cities. It wouldn’t be rained out in the stratosphere. It would go around the globe very quickly and reduce sunlight by as much as 70 percent, causing temperatures like that of the Little Ice Age, killing harvests worldwide and starving to death nearly everyone on earth. It probably wouldn’t cause extinction. We’re so adaptable. Maybe 1 percent of our current population of 7.4 billion could survive, but 98 or 99 percent would not.”
During the last decades of his life, standard assumptions and efforts by mainstream media and the political establishment aimed to consign Ellsberg to the era of the Vietnam War. But in real time, Dan Ellsberg continually inspired so many of us to be more than merely inspired. We loved him not only for what he had done but also for what he kept doing, for who he was, luminously, ongoing. The power of his vibrant example spurred us to become better than we were. In a recent series of short illustrated podcasts created by filmmaker Judith Ehrlich — who co-directed the documentary “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers” — Ellsberg speaks about the growing dangers of global apocalypse, saying that nuclear war planners “have written plans to kill billions of people,” preparations that amount to “a conspiracy to commit omnicide, near omnicide, the death of everyone.” And he adds: “Can humanity survive the nuclear era? We don’t know. I choose to act as if we have a chance.”
Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction. org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. His next book, 'War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine', will be published in June 2023 by The New Press.
and of an eligible age.
Several states, including Alaska, Massachusetts, Oregon, Colorado, Delaware and the District of Columbia, have already passed similar legislation with overwhelmingly positive results. Members of the coalition and other supporters marched from the state capitol and circled the Secretary of State building twice at 10th and O streets in downtown Sacramento to rally support for the legislation.
SB 846 provides a path to 100% voter registration, supporters say.
The documents leaked by Daniel Ellsberg were known as the Pentagon Papers, outlining American involvement in Vietnam between 1945 and 1967. Credit: Shutterstock
When Daniel Ellsberg died on Friday, the world lost a transcendent whistleblower with a powerful ethos of compassion and resolve.
Ellsberg’s renown for openly challenging the mentalities of militarism began on June 23, 1971, when he appeared on CBS Evening News ten days after news broke about the Pentagon Papers that he’d provided to journalists. Ellsberg pointedly said that in the 7,000 pages of top-secret documents, “I don’t think there is a line in them that contains an estimate of the likely impact of our policy on the overall casualties among Vietnamese or the refugees to be caused, the effects of defoliation in an ecological sense. There’s neither an estimate nor a calculation of past effects, ever.”
And he added: “The documents simply reflect the internal concerns of our officials.
That says nothing more nor less that that our officials never did concern themselves with the effect of our policies on the Vietnamese.”
Ellsberg told anchor Walter Cronkite: “I think we cannot let the officials of the Executive Branch determine for us what it is that the public needs to know about how well and how they are discharging their functions.”
The functions of overseeing the war on Vietnam had become repugnant to Ellsberg as an insider. Many other government officials and top-level consultants with security clearances also had access to documents that showed how mendacious four administrations had been as the U.S. role in Vietnam expanded and then escalated into wholesale slaughter.
Unlike the others, he finally
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engagement expertise with communities traditionally ignored by mainstream political campaigns, the California Grassroots Democracy Coalition (CGDC) says it promotes legislation that expands the electorate, builds up civic education, voter registration, and turnout in underrepresented communities, according to the group’s website.
“California is no stranger to making election improvements, from creating the first version of automatic voter registration, to making it possible for all registered voters to vote by mail. Now, we have the opportunity to take the next step in modernizing California’s elections,” Limón said in a statement. “SB 846 will broaden access to the ballot box for all eligible voters.”
Data shows that due to a lack of voter registration among traditionally hardto-reach communities, California’s current voter population is unrepresentative of its demographic, Limón and Menjivar explain.
According to the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), 82% of California’s adults are eligible to vote, but only 64% are registered. As a result, younger, lower income, less educated and state residents who are renters are underrepresented during elections.
Leveraging its voter
CGDC comprises 140plus grassroots organizations that are committed to helping California’s most vulnerable communities become empowered through pro-democracy reforms. Organizations in the network have a range of priorities, including, criminal justice reform, immigrant rights, language access, low-income communities, environmental justice, religious rights, labor unions, etc.
Julius Thibodeaux, Executive Director for Movement 4 Life, spoke about his experience as a person who was formerly incarcerated and how it affected his access to voting. He also discussed the importance of investing in the development, health and wellbeing of youth in cities.
“In 2020, California voters restored voting rights for more than 50,000 people who are no longer incarcerated. But that’s only the first step,” Thibodeaux told California Black Media at the march and rally. “Now, the work begins to get folks informed, registered, and returning to the ballot box every fall and spring election.”
well as key sentiments from Honda leadership. This is the first report released since the inaugural report was shared in May of 2022.
The 2023 Honda Inclusion & Diversity Report provides data on the diversity of the company's U.S. operations, including workforce, dealers, suppliers and corporate giving.
It also highlights partnerships with organizations supporting diverse communities where Honda associates live and work.
Improved ethnic and gender diversity among Honda associates; up 2% year-over-year for total workforce and up 3% for management positions
Increased spending with diverse suppliers and U.S. philanthropic partners
Pledged $1 million to support each of the following organizations: Hispanic Scholarship Fund, National Urban League, and Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund
to gun violence, the restricting of bodily autonomy, and the attempts to erase critical learning in school systems to favor a Euro-centric, incomplete version of history are all examples of the extreme voices of a few having say over the many. And it doesn’t take much investigation into the long history of voter suppression and discrimination in this country to see how we got here. Only when everyone is given fair representation in the voting booth can we have a democracy that represents and responds to all of us.
decrease the power of wealthy special interest groups. It passed the House in 2019 and 2021, and we can get it passed again, with our advocacy and action. You can call on your legislators to support an introduce the legislation with the UCC Washington D.C. Office’s action alert here.
DC and Warner Bros.’ long-inthe-works superhero movie “The Flash” opened to $55 million in its first three days in North American theaters, according to studio estimates on Sunday.
Though a fair amount of money by normal standards, a sizable jump from DC’s last release, the “Shazam!” sequel, and enough for a first place start, it’s also muted by superhero standards where $100 million debut weekends are almost commonplace. It was a crowded weekend at the multiplex overall. In addition to “The Flash” there was the new Pixar family film “Elemental” and the horror-comedy “The Blackening.” The only big win was Wes Anderson’s starry “Asteroid City” which earned $720,000 from just six theaters and the distinction of having the highest per-theater average ($132,211) since the start of the pandemic.
“The Flash” faced more complications than marketplace conditions. It has been in the headlines often over the past year, not because of the movie itself but because of its star Ezra Miller’s off-screen troubles, including arrests, erratic behavior and accusations of misconduct.
Miller has apologized and said they are seeking mental health treatment. They also bowed out of participating in the normal publicity circuit, except for the premiere.
The studio’s leadership remained bullish on releasing their $200 million movie, however, confident in its quality and importance to future DC Studios storylines. The movie introduces the multiverse, which allowed for the return of Michael Keaton’s Batman in a movie that also had Ben Affleck’s Batman.
Going into the weekend analysts expected “The Flash” to earn at least $70 million in its first three days, playing in 4,234 locations domestically.
Now, it’s projected to net out with $64 million in its first four, including Monday’s Juneteenth holiday.
Critics were mixed but more positive than not, with a 67% on Rotten Tomatoes. AP’s Jocelyn
Noveck wrote in her review that despite some “breezily clever and entertaining” moments, “the final act bogs down in what feels like an endless, generic CGI battle and a kitchen-sink resolution.”
Audiences polled for
CinemaScore only gave the film a B, which has not historically been great news for word-ofmouth potential and longevity. But there is a bit of a gap in the schedule before the next major blockbuster comes in ” Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” which opens on June 30. Next week’s biggest offering is the R-rated Jennifer Lawrence comedy ” No Hard Feelings ” and the nationwide expansion of “Asteroid City.”
Second place went to “Elemental” with an estimated $29.5 million from 4,035 locations in North America – a new low for Pixar’s threeday openings. Before, that title belonged to “The Good Dinosaur” and “Onward,” which both debuted to $39 million. “
”Elemental” was greeted positively by critics, with a 76% on Rotten Tomatoes, and audiences (A CinemaScore).
AP’s Jake Coyle wrote that it’s “probably in the lower half” of the Pixar cannon but “sincere and clever, with a splash of dazzle, ” it, “comes closer to rekindling some of the old Pixar magic than some recent entries. ” Including $15 million from 17 international territories, “Elemental” launched to $44.5 million globally.
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” was a very close third, in its third weekend, with $27.8 million. Sony is projecting that its domestic total will have reached $285 million through Monday.
“Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” dropped a steep 67% in its second weekend, adding $20 million to take fourth place. “The Little Mermaid” settled into fifth place with $11.6 million in its fourth weekend.
“The Blackening” was the other big release this weekend – a bit of counterprogramming to the bigger branded releases with an original horror-comedy about a group of friends, who are Black, who get together for a weekend away and find themselves on the run from a killer. Lionsgate and MRC acquired the $5 million movie from director Tim Story after it debuted to positive reviews at the Toronto International Film Festival. Released in 1,775 theaters, “The Blackening” made an estimated $6 million.
The post ‘The Flash’ races to $55 million on a busy box office weekend appeared first on The Atlanta Voice.
"The second annual Inclusion & Diversity report illustrates our unwavering commitment to fostering a diverse and inclusive environment and our ongoing dedication toward progress and growth as an organization," stated Yvette Hunsicker, Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility and Inclusion & Diversity at American Honda Motor Co., Inc. "By supporting inclusion and diversity initiatives that promote equity within our company and in the communities where our associates live and work, we can bring the future."
The annual report represents Honda's commitment to transparency and accountability, as it publicly discloses comprehensive data on the diversity of its U.S. operations, encompassing its workforce, dealers, suppliers, and corporate contributions. Some actions and accomplishments showcased within the report include:
Expanded dealer diversity with the addition of eight ethnic minority-owned dealerships and two women-owned dealerships, accounting for the highest net increase in the past 21 years
Signed the Human Rights Campaign's letter urging U.S. senators to pass the Respect for Marriage Act
Introduced the new global Honda Human Rights Policy
"We are proud of the progress we have made throughout the past year, but we have more work to do," said Hunsicker. "Honda will remain vigilant and continue to take deliberate action to advance inclusion and diversity within our company and in society. We know the future we envision depends on what actions we take today."
For more information, download the Honda Diversity and Inclusion Report: https:// www.honda.com/community/ diversity-reports
Last week, we celebrated a surprising ruling from SCOTUS that struck down an electoral map from Alabama that would have discriminated against Black voters. This was a major success in the struggle for voting rights, but we are still working with a weakened version of the Voting Rights Act because of another decision from the court. Since the 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision, we actually have less voting rights than the decades before. In recent years, we have seen an increase in legislation that specifically increases barriers to voting for Black, Indigenous, young, and new Americans.
In addition to advocating for voting rights legislation, and critically important, is engaging and empowering those in our communities to exercise their right to vote. Before we know it, we’ll be entering into a presidential election year and there are plenty of state and local elections between now and then.
The UCC’s Our Faith Our Vote Campaign is a great place to start for resources and ways to get involved in your congregation and community.
For people of faith, nonpartisan election engagement and public policy advocacy are ways of living out our commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves and to center the wellbeing of the most vulnerable. As so many of us face legislative attacks on aspects of our identities, affirming access to the ballot can feel like affirming the dignity of each person. Our voice is our vote, and our vote is sacred and must be heard. So, as we continue our advocacy on LGBTQ+ rights, racial justice, abortion access, an end to gun violence, and more, may we also feel the pull of a common thread and be loud in our advocacy for a democracy that represents us all.
Leads California
Fifth
District is Showcasing Commitment to Sustainability with June 20 Environmental Vehicle Trade Show
Lifestyle/Entertainment News
For years, UCC advocates have been pushing for passage of the Freedom to Vote Act, and there are hopes that this critical legislation may be introduced again soon to Congress. If passed, the Freedom to Vote Act would be the most consequential voting rights and anti-corruption bill in more than half a century. The proposed legislation would protect the right to vote, end partisan gerrymandering, and
By Lou K. ColemanJessica Quinn is the Online Communications Specialist for the United Church of Christ.
“Why?”
rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire— where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’ [Mark 9:43-48].
Lou K. ColemanThe San Bernardino City Unified School District (SBCUSD) proudly announces its achievement as the top-ranking school district in California and fifth in the nation for energy efficiency, according to a recent assessment conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This remarkable recognition reflects the District's commitment to sustainability and its diligent efforts to reduce energy consumption while providing a safe and conducive learning environment for its more than 47,000 students in San Bernardino and Highland.
The EPA's evaluation examined the energy efficiency initiatives and practices of school
districts across the country, acknowledging the exceptional performance of SBCUSD in optimizing energy usage and implementing environmentally friendly measures. In fact, 49 SBCUSD schools were awarded the coveted Energy Star Awards.
The District has installed and is in the development and construction phase of solar panel shade structures at 41 of its schools, including a future ground mount solar farm, in which cumulatively will generate as much as 81 percent of the District’s electricity consumption, said Samuel Precie, Administrator of Operations. continued on page 7
WITNESS FOR JUSTICE #1156
It was incredibly difficult to decide what topic to focus on when writing this piece. June is Pride Month, Gun Violence Awareness Month, and Torture Awareness Month.
On June 19th we celebrate Juneteenth, June 20th is World Refugee Day, and June 24th marks the anniversary of the Dobbs decision that effectively overturned the constitutional right to an abortion. You can see
the dilemma in trying to pick just one of these important topics. There is, however, a common thread that allows us to have greater impact in the work for justice on each of these issues. The widespread wave of attacks on the LGBTQ+ community in state legislatures across the country, the seemingly endless examples of tragic loss of life
Oh, no you didn’t just ask “Why?” After all the warnings, the roadblocks I sent to stop you, to arrest your attention, to get you to turn around, you got the nerve to ask “Why?” You know “Why!” Over and over again, I have shown such long suffering towards you restraining My anger, giving you much time to repent and change your ways, but no, you want to sink deeper and deeper in sin and continue to do you. Claiming to be descendants of Abraham, enslaved to no one! If you were descendants of Abraham, you would have listened to Me, but you couldn’t even hear Me! You are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he has always hated the truth because there is no truth in him. But you got the nerve to ask, “Why?” No need to ask “Why?” Disobedience always walks hand in hand with consequences. So just imagine spending ETERNITY with that on your mind! Imagine being in Hell for a million years and then thinking, "I didn't have to come here! I could have received Christ! Oh, what a fool I was! If only I had not been so stubborn! If...if...if...!" That's the shame of Hell: going there when you don’t have to go! Why? Why? Why?
I tell you, if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell…. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell…. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye,
People accuse God of being unfair in sending sinners to Hell. It is not God’s decision it is ours. We send ourselves to Hell through the decisions we make in this life. As [Ezekiel 33:4] states, “If the people hear the horn and ignore the warning and the enemy comes and takes them, they will be responsible for their own deaths. The decision is YOUR'S, not God's. God made His decision over 2000 years ago when He gave His Only Begotten Son to die as a payment for your sins. So, if you go to Hell, you will go AGAINST God's will. Because you chose to reject God. You harden your heart, you didn’t want to hear about Jesus, and you ignored all the ways God tried to reach you throughout your entire life. So don’t be asking why when you know why. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn from your evil ways; for why will ye die. [Ezekiel 33:11]. You have been given a second chance; Go and sin no more. Lest a worse thing come upon you. [John 5:14].
I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it… [Deuteronomy 30:14-20]. This is your Exodus! Repent and live!
‘The Flash’ races to $55 million on a busy box office weekend
Those with 26-49 employees in 2021 or 2022, who paid COVID sick leave, are eligible for $5K to 50K.
conditions like Alzheimer's disease and sickle cell anemia but also the caregivers, families, and communities disproportionately burdened by these illnesses.
Patients of color also tend to be vastly underrepresented in clinical studies for CEDdesignated treatments and procedures.
Geographical and racial inequality often intersect. The studies in which CED-designated treatments and procedures are available often take place at major research universities in wealthier, urban areas. This creates access barriers for patients who have trouble traveling long distances for care.
Medicare's chief purpose has always been to provide high-quality care to all of its patients without favoring any one group. But by abusing the CED program, CMS has warped a procedure meant to get treatments to patients sooner into a tool for neglecting some patients, privileging others, and deepening the racial, socioeconomic, and ethnic inequities in our healthcare system.
Pamela Price, RN, is deputy director of The Balm in Gilead, a non-profit whose mission is to improve the health of Black people in the United States and Africa. This op-ed originally ran in the Virginia Mercury.
National Mosquito Control Awareness Week
Mosquito bites are more than an itchy annoyance, they can pose serious threats to your health.
While COVID relief grants have phased down nationwide since the end of the federal health emergency declaration, California has announced a new one.
Through June 30, small nonprofits and businesses with 26 to 49 employees in 2021 or 2022, and who paid COVID sick leave, are eligible for a grant ranging from $5K to $50K through the state’s Supplemental Paid Sick Leave (SPSL) program, outreach partner CalNonprofits has announced.
The program, created by California Assembly Bill 152 and administered through the California Office of the Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA), offers grants funded to match sick leave provided, on small businesses’ payroll records, between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2022. Eligible businesses and nonprofits must have a physical presence in California.
Robert Gibbons, director of education and advocacy at CalNonprofits, said the bill “was a tailwind piece of legislation for COVID aid toward the end of the pandemic. We were very involved in advocating for this legislation to include small nonprofits, who were previously not given the opportunity to apply for state-reimbursed grants. This issue has become cumbersome in the sense that small nonprofits now have to go back and identify their COVID sick leave with payroll providers and apply for funds, and we’re here to make that process as easy as possible.”
Since being informed in very late May that small nonprofits would be eligible for SPSL alongside other businesses, Gibbons has spearheaded CalNonprofits’ advocacy work at the community and legislative level in collaboration with the
The rate of colorectal cancer in Americans under 55 has nearly doubled since the 1990s, and scientists don't really know why.
By 2030, colorectal cancer is predicted to become the leading cause of cancer deaths for people under 50, and is already the second leading cause of all cancer deaths, behind only lung cancer. We need more and better treatments, and we need them now.
Unfortunately, the new drugpricing rules enacted in last year's Inflation Reduction Act will stymie efforts to develop new cancer treatments.
Under the IRA, Medicare will be able to negotiate with drug makers for lower prices on an expanding list of brandname medications. Drugs are divided into two categories: small- molecule drugs, which are chemical compounds typically available in pill form that patients pick up at the pharmacy and take at home; and biologics, which are extracted from living organisms and usually need to be administered by infusion or injection in a healthcare facility.
Both types of drugs are crucial to oncology treatment. Unfortunately, the IRA all but ensures that investment will pivot away from small molecule drugs towards biologics in the coming years. The IRA makes small molecule drugs eligible for price controls nine years after FDA approval -- four years sooner than biologics.
Those four additional years
small business lending platform Lendistry, which the state chose to execute the program and vet applicants.
“One of the most potentially confusing aspects of the grant application for small businesses is employee headcount, given that it shifted drastically for many companies during the pandemic,” he added.
The challenges that may arise during the SPSL filing process do not owe to a lack of interest on the part of nonprofits — “the Lendistry folks were impressed to see that our webinars have turned out more than three times the numbers of small businesses,” said Gibbons — but rather to the limited bandwidth of many small nonprofits.
“That’s where CalNonprofits comes in,” he continued. “Call us, email us, and we will advocate on your behalf as the go-between between you and your payroll
provider.”
“CalNonprofits is the only partner working with Lendistry in California to identify eligible nonprofits, and advocate for them through the application process. This sets a precedent for more inclusivity with the way that we think about helping nonprofits in the context of state legislation,” Gibbons added.
An FAQ page for SPSL written by CalNonprofits and geared specifically toward nonprofit applicants is available here.
An informational webinar on the grant program, hosted by CalOSBA, will take place on Monday, June 26 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m., PST. The recording of a previous webinar, livestreamed on June 12, is available here.
Eligibility requirements, an application guide, FAQs, and an application portal for the program is available at the California SPSL website.
To Combat Skyrocketing Colorectal Cancer Rates, Amend IRA...continued all our scientific and medical resources against cancer.
lawmakers need to amend the IRA to exempt both smallmolecule drugs and biologics from price controls for 13 years after approval. It's a simple fix that will allow us to deploy
are critical for investors when deciding whether to invest in researching and developing a medication.
Small-molecule drugs happen to be the only way to target certain cancers. Large molecule biologics are too big to penetrate cell walls and attack cancers with intracellular targets. So it's not as if researchers always have a choice of which type of drug to focus on.
Biologics also come with added complexity in administration. Because they have to be taken under medical supervision, patients often need to travel repeatedly to a hospital, clinic, or infusion center to receive treatment.
Promising small molecule oncological research could lessen this burden. The ability to treat cancer with pills taken at home would not only benefit patients in rural and low-income communities, but also provide relief for our increasingly shortstaffed hospitals.
Prior to the IRA, research into targeted small-molecule cancer therapies was robust, with new studies and drugs popping up all over. One small molecule treatment even showed promise to stave off metastasis in colorectal cancer.
The future of small molecule research, however, isn't nearly as bright today.
Surely the IRA wasn't intended to curtail this research. In order to protect this treatment pipeline,
Andrew Spiegel, Esquire is the Executive Director of the Global Colon Cancer Association.
Thanks to Medicare's top official dodging questions by members of Congress, the fight for equity in American healthcare just suffered a further setback.
In late April, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator, Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, appeared before the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to answer questions about why the Medicare program declined a request to fully cover a newly approved Alzheimer's therapy that was shown to delay the progression of the disease. Not surprisingly, the decision has been met with fierce opposition from Alzheimer's advocates -- as well it should.
The regulatory maneuver employed by Medicare disproportionately harms older people living with early Alzheimer's in rural areas and communities of color.
At the center of the Alzheimer's ruling is a little-known regulatory tool known as "coverage with evidence development," or CED. Under CED, Medicare denies coverage for an FDA-approved item or service, except for treatments provided through a very narrowly constructed clinical study.
Ironically, the CED designation was created by CMS,
not Congress, in 2005 to help get some of the latest medical device treatments to patients more quickly. Lately, however, CMS has abused CED by applying it to ration care for seniors.
Right now, there are 22 different therapies requiring CED, including treatments for colorectal cancer, procedures for sickle cell disease, and even cochlear implants for hearingimpaired patients.
But what's most disturbing about the agency's abuse of the CED paradigm is that it puts people of color and other underserved communities at a unique disadvantage.
Consider, first, that many of the therapies that land in CED limbo treat conditions that disproportionately affect minority populations. Sickle cell anemia, for example, is a genetic condition found among Black Americans. Meanwhile, Black persons are anywhere from 1.5 to 2 times more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease compared to white individuals.
Regulatory maneuvers such as CED inequitably restrict access to treatments for persons of color across the nation. Importantly, these treatment delays not only impact individuals living with
National Mosquito Control Awareness Week is recognized June 18 – 24, 2023. With summer approaching, mosquito experts urge Riverside County residents to take action to protect themselves from mosquito bites.
While vector control agencies work diligently to control mosquito populations, which includes treating communal areas, mosquito control is a shared responsibility. Residents of Riverside County can take the following action to help eliminate mosquitoes from their community:
Apply insect repellent containing an EPA-registered active ingredient, including DEET, picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus, or IR3535, to clothes and exposed skin according to label instructions. Repellents keep mosquitoes from biting. It is important to follow EPA and CDC guidelines for the safe use of repellents on children.
Dress in long sleeves and pants, especially if outside at dawn and dusk when mosquitoes that can spread West Nile virus are most active. Install screens on windows and doors and keep them in good repair to keep mosquitoes out of your home.
Eliminate all sources of standing water on your property, including in flowerpots, old tires, buckets, pet dishes, and trash cans. Mosquitoes lay their eggs in very small amounts of standing water Repair leaking faucets and broken sprinklers that can contribute to standing water around your home.
Clean rain gutters clogged with leaves, which can also contribute to standing water. For additional information on mosquitoes and mosquitoborne diseases, please visit the California Department of Public Health Mosquitoes and Mosquito-Borne Diseases webpage.
San Bernardino City Unified School District Leads California And Ranks Fifth Nationally In Energy Efficiency...continued from page 6
Over the last several years, the District has implemented many energy efficiency improvements including variable frequency drives, turbocor and multistage compressors, weather-based irrigation, LED lighting, cool roofs, power factor correction, and many other initiatives. The District’s energy management program has saved close to $50 million in cumulative costs and reduced SBCUSD’s energy use by nearly 40 percent. All vital given that the Inland Empire region has some of the worst air quality in the United States.
“Our district's commitment to sustainability not only contributes to environmental conservation but also yields significant cost savings, allowing resources to be allocated towards enhancing educational programs and student supports. That’s a testament to our dedicated Board of Education, which truly values putting students first.”
To celebrate this remarkable achievement and promote further environmental awareness, the SBCUSD will be hosting an Electric Vehicle event at its upcoming Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, June 20.
Participating vehicle makers include Karma Automotive, with a production facility nearby in Moreno Valley, Zevx, and Phoenix Motorcars.
The District is purchasing its first electric utility truck, which will be on display at the show, from Phoenix Motorcars. And by this fall, SBCUSD will own five Ford Lightning electric trucks.
The event will showcase an impressive array of sustainable vehicles, including electric and conversion models, with participating automobile manufacturers offering insights
into the latest advancements in eco-friendly transportation. The District is holding the show in preparation for a large purchase of electric vehicles for its fleet over the next 10 years and eventually transitioning its entire fleet of 330 vehicles to zero-emission vehicles. Board of Education members will have an opportunity to test drive the vehicles on June 20, ahead of the meeting’s start at 5:30 p.m.
This event, held at 4.30 p.m. in the Board of Education parking lot, 777 North F Street, will provide an opportunity for District staff, Board members, and community members to explore sustainable transportation options and learn about their benefits.
Beyond the purchase of electric vehicles, the accolades from the EPA reinforce the District's ongoing commitment to environmental stewardship and energy conservation, said Precie, who oversees the District’s Operations Departments. By implementing energy-efficient technologies, optimizing building operations, and promoting sustainable practices throughout its expansive facilities across 110 square miles, SBCUSD continues to lead by example, inspiring other educational institutions and the broader community to embrace sustainability initiatives.
The San Bernardino City Unified School District invites media representatives to attend the Electric Vehicle event at 4:30 p.m. on June 20, 2023. This event promises to be an enlightening and engaging opportunity to witness the District's dedication to environmental sustainability firsthand.
Alabama must redraw its congressional maps to create one more majority-black voting district. The 5-4 Allen v Milligan decision will impact about 30 redistricting lawsuits in ten states where gerrymanders diluted the political power of minority voters.
brief in Milligan that outlined contemporary examples of racial discrimination in native communities; it gave lengthy descriptions out of South Dakota, North Dakota, and New Mexico where NARF won voter dilution cases during the last decade.
Jacqueline De Leon is staff attorney at Native American Rights Fund (NARF) In its brief, Alabama tried to make it seem as if at-large districts, where seats are allocated based on the top votegetters, no longer existed. But in Indian Country that’s how Native Americans are disenfranchised, De Leon explained.
North Dakota
A scene from the Aug. 28, 1963 March on Washington.
Evan Milligan got news of the June 8 SCOTUS decision ordering Alabama to redraw its congressional maps while attending a workshop on the Holocaust in a Berlin church. It was the same church where Martin Luther King famously delivered a sermon in 1964.
After years of demoralizing roll backs on voting rights, Milligan, the lead plaintiff in the case, said he was first stunned, then overjoyed to hear the news.
“There were many people who said our case was not going to prevail and it was a long shot. Lots of things are long shots,” Milligan told reporters during a June 16 EMS news briefing. “But it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take the shot.
Race Neutral Maps
“It’s a win,” he said.
Evan Milligan, lead plaintiff in the case Allen v Milligan and Executive Director of Alabama Forward.
In Allen v Milligan, Alabama argued that election maps must be race neutral. But Alabama’s maps – which a lower court initially rejected – were nothing if not race conscious. Alabama’s Republican lawmakers packed one district with African Americans and spread others from Alabama’s “Black Belt” across three different districts, thereby diluting the Black vote.
“Of all the places to receive this news,” Milligan, Executive Director of the voting rights advocacy non-profit Alabama Forward, told the news site Alabama.com. “I broke down in tears” thinking about the legacy this means for my dad.”
Milligan’s father, Bill, died in 2021 before the case was argued at the Supreme Court.
The 5-4 decision now means Alabama will have to redraw its electoral maps. The ruling also means that Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, and South Carolina – all of which have similarly gerrymandered maps in place –may have to redraw their maps, too.
Thomas Saenz, President and General Counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), said he was surprised by the ruling, which upheld Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, given that SCOTUS overturned longstanding legal precedent when it struck down Roe v Wade last year.
He also pointed out that the June 8 decision comes too late to undo the damage done by gerrymandered maps in a slew of states that were used during the 2022 midterms, effectively denying Black voters and voters of color representation.
“That clearly determined at least one seat in the House of Representatives,” Saenz said.
Stuart Naifeh manages the Redistricting Project at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund (LDF). He argued the Milligan case in District Court and was involved in the Supreme Court proceedings.
“It is a victory that we have preserved Section 2 and this case has impacts well beyond Alabama,” Naifeh said.
Since the 1980s the Supreme Court has used a race-conscious framework in VRA Section 2 cases. And it used that standard to decide Allen v Milligan.
Stuart Naifeh manages the Redistricting Project at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund (LDF).
“Alabama in this case had argued that the framework should be thrown out,” explained Naifeh, and “that a new framework should be adopted – which they called ‘race neutral.’”
Essentially, he continued, the state argued “that you cannot consider race when you’re trying to remedy racial discrimination. So, it is kind of a nonsense proposition that race can’t be considered to remedy racial discrimination, but that is what Alabama was advocating.”
And while Naifeh celebrated the ruling, he also reminded reporters that ultimately its effect is to uphold the status quo on voting rights, which he said are in need of reform.
Native Americans
Jacqueline De Leon is staff attorney at Native American Rights Fund (NARF), the nation’s largest and oldest nonprofit, dedicated to advancing the rights of Native Americans.
“At NARF, we all breathed a collective sigh of relief after Milligan,” De Leon says.
The plaintiffs built an “undeniable record” in the case to uphold Section 2 of the VRA.
“I hope a small part of that was lifting up how Native American communities also continue to have their votes diluted through racial gerrymanders,” De Leon said.
NARF submitted an amicus
For example, if a population is 40% native, and could reasonably expect to win two out of five seats on the county commission, the method of at-large elections meant that the Indian candidates were never chosen, and that all five seats ended up going to people in the white border towns, adjacent to the native American reservations. That violates the VRA, De Leon noted.
NARF brought a successful voting rights case during the Trump administration involving an at-large method of election that diluted native votes. The case was a school board election in Chamberlain, South Dakota, where an at-large election denied native representation on the board.
In Lyman County, South Dakota, the county admitted the election for County Commissioner violated the VRA, but they refused to implement a remedial plan for two years.
So NARF sued. Benson County, North Dakota, was out of compliance with a consent decree for 10 years so NARF sued them and reached another consent decree.
“You can be assured we will be monitoring very closely,” De Leon stressed.
Meanwhile, De Leon is waiting “with bated breath” on the outcome of a trial she just finished in North Dakota.
“We were challenging the state’s legislative map under Section 2,” said De Leon. The Milligan decision could decide it.
“A super majority of the Turtle Mountain band of Chippewa Indians were packed into a single house subdistrict and other Turtle Mountain citizens were cracked into other house subdistricts and Spirit Lake into another house district.”
De Leon says because of those gerrymanders, representation goes down from two possible house seats to just one. That is just what happened in Alabama.
Groundbreaking Recognition is the First in the Nation for a Continuation High School
State/National News
San Andreas High School is excited to announce that it has been awarded prestigious Gold Certification by the Linked Learning Alliance, making it the first continuation high school in the nation to receive this national distinction. The Linked Learning Alliance, an organization that accelerates the adoption of highquality educational pathways that engage adolescents, strengthen workforce readiness, and advance equity, recognized San Andreas High for its commitment to preparing students for both college and career success through its two innovative Linked Learning pathways.
The Linked Learning Alliance, the SBCUSD Board of Education, and San Andreas High School will celebrate this
Linked Learning Program Specialist Roberta Figueroa preparing equipment for the Health Sciences Pathway.
groundbreaking recognition on Tuesday, June 20 at 5:30 p.m. at the Dr. Margaret Hill Community Room, 777 North F Street in San Bernardino. Linked Learning integrates
rigorous academics with realworld learning and strong support services to prepare students for success in college, career, and life. Linked Learning pathways are designed to train high school
students in fields that pay well and don’t necessarily require a college degree.
San Andreas High School's Linked Learning pathways provide students with immersive, career-themed educational experiences that align with their interests and aspirations. By connecting rigorous academic coursework with work-based learning and early college opportunities, San Andreas High School ensures that students are well-prepared for the full range of postsecondary options.
The two Gold Certified pathways that prepare San Andreas High School students for postsecondary opportunities in the business and medical
SBCUSD, Elected Officials and Employers Celebrate Two Gold-Certified Linked Learning Pathways at San Andreas High ...continued field are now national models of excellence. Certification is based on a series of standards identified by leaders in the Linked Learning field as crucial for improving student outcomes and preparing all students for college and career. Gold Certification validates the quality of the college and career pathway and signifies high-quality implementation of core components and equitable opportunities for all students.
In total, San Bernardino City Unified has 7 Gold Linked Learning pathways and 15 Silver Linked Learning Pathways.
Quality is key to Linked Learning experiences that prepare students to succeed in college and career. Independent evaluation shows that students in certified Linked Learning pathways have decreased dropout rates, higher graduation rates, more credits earned, more college preparatory courses completed, and improved workforce skills compared with similar peers in traditional high schools.
“SBCUSD’s trailblazing Linked Learning efforts and continued commitment to highquality practice have generated insights, inspiration, and, importantly, evidence on what really works for students,” said Anne Stanton, president, and CEO of the Linked Learning Alliance. “We are proud to honor the potential and ambition of San Andreas students’ and celebrate the community’s progress toward a future where every young person is connected to purpose and prepared for the future they deserve.”
This seal of excellence comes six years after San Andreas High set out to establish its college and career pathways. Linked Learning Program Specialist Roberta Figueroa, who has been at the forefront of establishing the school’s pathways, said San Andreas had to overcome hurdles that other mainstream high schools don’t have. “This is a dream come true for us,” Figueroa said. “When we first started this six years ago, a lot of people said it couldn’t be done.”
As part of the Business and Technology Pathway, students learn to grow produce hydroponically, which is then sold to local restaurants. Students in the business academy will leave San Andreas with valuable credentials like a food handlers permit or forklift certification. Students who enroll in the Health Sciences Pathway train alongside staff from AMR, giving them hands-on exposure to careers in health care and earning credentials like American Heart Association Basic Life Support, first aid, and OSHA.
“We are incredibly proud to be the first continuation high school to achieve Gold Certification from the Linked Learning Alliance,"
said Principal Dorie Stratton. “This recognition validates the hard work and commitment of our educators, students, and community partners who have all contributed to the success of our Linked Learning pathways. We believe in the potential of every student, and through our robust career-themed programs, we are preparing them for a bright future beyond high school.”
The Gold Certification is a significant milestone for San Andreas High School and serves as an inspiration for other continuation high schools across the region and state.
By demonstrating that even in non-traditional educational settings, students can receive a comprehensive education that prepares them for both college and careers, San Andreas High School is leading the way in redefining what is possible for young people.
The Linked Learning Alliance is a statewide coalition of educators, employers, and community organizations that are committed to improving education outcomes for all students. Their Gold Certification is a rigorous process that evaluates and recognizes Linked Learning pathways for meeting the highest standards of excellence in four key areas: preparing students for college and careers, integrating academics with real-world experiences, fostering relationships with industry partners, and providing comprehensive support systems.
The Linked Learning approach, piloted in nine California districts a decade ago, is now embraced as the high school strategy for a growing number of districts across the state.
Currently, California lawmakers are considering $500 million in funding for college and career pathways critical investments in youth during their decade of difference, a period from ages 14 to 24, when research shows young people develop their identities, dispositions, and lifelong aspirations. These planned investments offer the opportunity to scale Linked Learning pathways like those offered at San Andreas, to even more underserved students throughout the state.
San Andreas High School's Gold Certification from the Linked Learning Alliance not only highlights the exceptional achievements of the school but also underscores its commitment to transforming lives and providing equitable opportunities for all students. Through its innovative Linked Learning pathways, San Andreas High School is nurturing the next generation of leaders, thinkers, and professionals who will shape our community and society.