The St. Louis American: June 16, 2016

STL rallies in support of victims in Orlando

@stlouisamerican

St. Louis American Pride STL will proceed downtown June 24-26 with enhanced security

@stlouisamerican

2015 Newspaper of the Year!

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Vol. 88 No. 11 COMPLIMENTARY

Farewell to ‘The Greatest’ Tens of thousands gather in Louisville to honor life and legacy of Muhammad Ali

Some waited for up to five hours for their chance to bid farewell to Muhammad Ali as his funeral motorcade wound its way through the streets of his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, on Friday, June 10.

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

By Alvin A. Reid For The St. Louis American LOUISVILLE, KY – As Muhammad Ali’s funeral motorcade wound its way through the streets of Louisville, Kentucky, on Friday, June 10, people began lining the streets at dawn. Some waited for up to five hours for their chance to bid farewell to the international icon that was Ali. Many times, the procession route narrowed to the width of 17-vehicle motorcade as people wanted to touch the hearse that carried Ali to Cave Hill Cemetery, where he was laid to rest.

When the procession reached Broadway in downtown Louisville, thousands of people yelled

n “His passing and its meaning for our time should not be overlooked as we face uncertainty in the world and divisions at home as to who we are as a people.”

– Lonnie Ali

“Ali, Ali!” or dabbed tears from their eyes.

Louisville is blessed with many major healthcare facilities and hundreds of workers from nearby hospitals, clinics and offices – doctors, nursed, custodians and staff – stood

together as the city’s favorite son made one last trip through the city in which he was born.

Jason Anderson of ESPN 680 AM, a Louisville native, said, “I’ve never seen anything like this. I guess there has never been anything

Ferguson veteran graduates Bradley J. Rayford credits community college with making education ‘obtainable’ St. Louis Community College held its 2016 graduation ceremony on May 22 at the Chaifetz Arena. Over 5,0000 students and family members from all four campuses gathered to celebrate. The graduates, one as old as 76, received their associate degrees.

– Bradley J. Among them was Rayford Bradley J. Rayford, 24, who received an associate degree in Applied Science Mass Communications.

His impact at STLCC was so significant that he was hired by the college as the official

See ALI, A7

From St. Louis to West Point Local African Americans embrace challenge of U.S. Military Academy

By Morgan Bradley For The St. Louis American

n “There is nothing I’m doing now that I could have done without Mike Brown and Ferguson.”

like this.”

Throughout the route, Laila Ali and others had their car windows open. People shook the hands of family members and gave high fives to others, including actor Will Smith and former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis.

While Louisville did not shut down for the day, the entire city was captivated by the procession and memorial service that began at 2 p.m., an hour after its scheduled start time.

The KFC YUM Center filled to its 15,000 capacity and hundreds more stood outside in 90-degree heat as members of Ali’s family,

By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American

it wasn’t until high school that he realized he had a talent for photography.

“I picked up the camera, ”Rayford said, “looked at a picture I took and noticed it was

Jennifer Gail Thomas graduated this May with a 4.25 GPA from McKinley Classical Leadership Academy, where she was the captain of the cheerleading squad for three years. She was also heavily involved in FIRE (Firefighters Institute for Racial Equality), where her father sits as a vice chairperson.

Entering the military was not on her radar, she said. She always thought that she’d end up at a historically black college or university (HBCU) like Howard or Hampton.

Although no one in her family has military experience, she decided to apply for an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy Prep School at West Point. The

See RAYFORD, A6

See WEST POINT, A6

Photo courtesy of St. Louis Community College

Bradley J. Rayford graduated from St. Louis Community College on May 22 with an associate’s degree in Applied Science Mass Communications. photographer for his own graduation ceremony.

Rayford was born and raised in St. Louis and graduated from Hazelwood Central High School, class of 2010, where he discovered his love for photography. Even though his father, Oscar Rayford, is a photographer for KMOV,

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • JUNE 16 - 22, 2016

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bottles of Promethazine/Codeine syrup during a club appearance just before his fateful flight – and that onlookers claim he drank three of the bottles by himself.

ner for him.

Apparently Scrappy hasn’t paid rent on According to Us Weekly, Brown the five bedroom, four bathroom, 3,922 sq. says he thought Janet would leave Rene ft. home since November. The rent was $3k a Elizondo Jr. for him, but “she told me month. she wasn’t in love with me,” he told Us Weekly.

Details of Mike Epps “She loved me but wasn’t in love Kevin Hart’s home divorce proceedings emerge with me,” he said, adding that the singer hit by burglars told him, “My father won’t According to documents from their allow me to be with a black Comedian Kevin Hart was targeted divorce proceedings – which appeared man.”

Kevin by burglars who ransacked his home. on popular urban celebrity news and Brown wrote in his book that Hart According to reports, the back door gossip site Bossip.com – Mechelle her remarks about her father on Kevin Hart’s Tarzana, California Epps wants spousal support as well as compelled him to kick her out home was pried open over the weekfull legal custody of the two children of the hotel room where they end and thieves made off with more in her split with actor/comedian Mike had been “lying in bed after than $500K in jewelry, watches and Epps. having sex.” clothes.

The couple married in July 2006, “I exploded and I threw her out,” he Hart, who was in Miami training with and they have two daughters, aged 10 wrote.

Mechelle NFL star Ndamukong Suh, came and 8. Mike Epps filed for divorce in Brown says he had been crushing on home Monday and reported the theft. Janet since the 1970s.

January, citing “irreconcilable differEpps ences” as the reason.

“I fell in love with her when she She confessed that she had been was Penny on ‘Good Times’,” Brown blindsided

by Epps’ decision to file for told Us Weekly.

“It goes back that far, Bobby Brown claims escadivorce. Mechelle listed their date of you know, my infatuation with her.” pade with Ms. Jackson in separation as February 2016, while Mike said in his filing that they’d been apart since June new book Is Lil Scrappy about to be set out?

2015. She wants a judge to consider all martial assets and determine what she is entitled to and In his new memoir, “Every Several outlets are reporting that “Love and also wants the judge to rule that the “Uncle Little Step: My Story: Hip Hop Atlanta” star Lil Scrappy is facing Buck” star must pay her lawyer fees.

Bobby Brown,” Bobby eviction from his Stone Mountain, Georgia Brown claims he secretly home. dated Janet Jackson but A judge was said to have signed off on an dumped her after she Sources: TMZ.com, Us Weekly, Sandra eviction notice for Scrappy after his landlord wouldn’t leave her partRose, Twitter.com, Bossip.com sued him for non-payment of rent.

Lil Wayne

Lil Wayne released from hospital after seizures Rapper Lil Wayne has been released from the hospital after suffering two seizures on a cross-country flight.

Wayne was flying from Milwaukee to California when the first seizure occurred.

He blacked out when the pilot put the jet down Monday afternoon in Omaha, Nebraska.

He was said to have regained consciousness and was alert when paramedics arrived on the airstrip, but he suffered another seizure after refusing medical attention.

Wayne checked into an Omaha hospital following the second seizure.

Tuesday night he took to twitter to thank his fans for their support after checking out of the hospital.

TMZ reported that their sources said Wayne carried around five 16 oz.

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ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • JUNE 16 - 22, 2016

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Guest Commentary

STL rallies in support of hate crime victims in Orlando Ashley Gregory stood with hundreds of attendees on Sunday, June 12 at a St. Louis vigil held in honor of those killed and injured when a gunman opened fire at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

Pride STL will proceed downtown June 24-26 enhanced security

By Durrie Bouscaren Of St. Louis Public Radio

Photo by Carolina Hidalgo / St. Louis Public Radio

became real today in Orlando, in a club, a space that’s supposed to be safe,” Croft said. “A space that we built for ourselves to get away from the violence.”

Croft and the other speakers called for an end to hate, to gun violence, and for quick action by lawmakers. But the gathering largely focused on Florida.

“Hopefully a little bit of emotional reconciliation, a stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Orlando who have been impacted by this terrible tragedy,” said Alderman Shane Cohn, D-25th Ward.

In St. Louis, many, especially those with loved ones in Orlando, were still stunned shortly before the vigil was set to begin.

“It makes me sick to my stomach because I’m still trying to get a hold of my cousin, and I’ve heard nothing,” said Matt Cherry, 38, of St. Louis.

Cherry said he first heard the news on Facebook. At 7 p.m., he still hadn’t heard

OUR

People from throughout St. Louis marched through the Grove neighborhood late Sunday to hold a vigil for the people killed and wounded in an attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

In the largest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, 50 people died and another 53 were injured when a gunman opened fire as Latin night ended at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. Police stormed the nightclub and killed the suspected shooter, 29-year-old Omar Mateen.

The attack stunned people across the nation, and sparked expressions of solidarity from the LGBT community and their allies. In St. Louis, people from the Metro Trans umbrella group, Pride STL and others gathered at Manchester and Sarah Street, where they began chanting, “we will not forget ... we will not lose hope .... our anger will build peace.”

Holding candles, homemade signs and rainbow flags, about 1,000 marched to the Transgender Memorial Garden where the Gateway Men’s Chorus sang.

Ethical Society Director James Croft asked participants to raise their candles if they had ever been threatened with violence, for being gay, lesbian transgender or queer.

“That’s what we live with every day, and that threat

from his cousin who lives in Orlando and was at Pulse.

While he waited at a local bar, he checked his phone constantly.

“He was there last night with his boyfriend,” Cherry said. “I’m still waiting to hear, but I haven’t heard nothing.

[Family] has been trying to call his phone, and nothing. I keep checking my phone. All I get is the Weather Channel.”

That’s why Cherry wanted to come to the vigil. “’My husband and I live right up the street,” he said. “I feel like I have to be here.”

Cohn hopes that the vigil and others like it will help spur political action that helps protect people from such violence.

“The LGBT community is still a target and we need to take stands to support and protect them, not continually harass them and make it illegal for them to be who they are,” he said.

That the violence occurred during Pride month came as a stark reminder to many that

members of the community can be targets.

“We got word of this tragedy early in the morning, and we’re heartbroken,” said Landon Brownfield, director of marketing and PR for Pride STL. “Because it’s not only a loss to the Orlando, Florida community, but it’s a loss to our community and to the worldwide LGBT community.”

Brownfield said Pride STL will go on as planned on June 24-26 in downtown St. Louis, but with a police presence and enhanced hired security.

“But we’re still encouraging every person to remain alert to their surroundings and to report any suspicious behavior to security and police personnel,” he said.

“It is something that affects the worldwide LGBT community,” Brownfield said, “and it shows that while we’ve come a long way, there’s still a very long way to go.”

Follow Durrie on Twitter: @ durrieB. Reprinted with permission from news.stlpublicradio.org.

Going to the zoo while black in St. Louis serves as another A first-grader from Wichita, example of this trend. A white Kansas was mauled by a infant died from heat exposure leopard after the boy scaled a after her parents forgot that 4-foot railing that surrounded she was in the backseat of the the leopard exhibit, crossed an family vehicle. The parents 8-foot gap and approached the were not charged with a crime animal’s cage. related to her death. Instead, the A 3-year old boy at Little public was encouraged to show Rock Zoo with his father and that family sympathy. grandfather slipped through Less than a week later, a the railings surrounding a black mother was arrested after jaguar exhibition and sustained she left her adolescent children multiple injuries after he fell in an air-conditioned car while 15-feet into the cat pit. she ran into a store to grab a A 2-year-old boy at the few items. This woman Cleveland Zoo suffered was summarily vilified injuries to his legs in the media. after he experienced There is a disparity a 10-foot fall into a in how we present cheetah exhibit after certain groups as his mother dangled worthy of mercy and him over the exhibit’s understanding while railing. simultaneously holding Outside of the fact other groups to a that these incidents different standard. How occurred at zoos, the Guest Columnist can we who seek justice common factor that Terrell and equality for all help these incidents hold is Carter to change this unequal that neither the race of practice? the child nor the race or First, when someone’s criminal history of their ethnicity is identified in a story, parents was ever a point of we can ask ourselves if the emphasis by media outlets. inclusion of that information The father of the boy who makes a difference in why a recently fell into the Cincinnati Zoo gorilla exhibit inhabited by situation occurred. Second, we can call out writers and media Harambe didn’t fare so well. outlets that make ethnicity Within days of Harambe’s a criteria in who to hold death, the father’s personal accountable and who not to history and information were hold accountable. being shared by media outlets.

Third, we all can engage in Ironically, the father wasn’t at honest dialogue with people of the zoo when his son tumbled ethnicities that differ from ours into the enclosure. so that we can learn how they After finding out that are unique from us yet similar the child and his parents to us in so many ways. were black, multiple outlets Terrell Carter is assistant began to point to their race professor and director of as a contributing factor for Contextualized Learning at why the boy ended up in the Central Baptist Theological predicament. This leads me to wonder why black people don’t Seminary in Shawnee, Kansas and pastor of Webster Groves receive the benefit of the doubt when high-profile incidents like Baptist Church. Follow him on Twitter @tcarterstl. this occur.

An incident that occurred

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Editorial / Commentary ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • JUNE 16 - 22, 2016

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As I See It - A Forum for Community Issues

North St. Louis: from depletion (finally) to investment What our next mayor must face

By Eric E. Vickers Guest columnist

Louis, and the amenities required for a workforce Advocates for North St. Louis routinely of that scale will create many more jobs. The condemn the “Team Four Plan,” which was not first definite sign of new economic development a complete plan but rather one memorandum is Paul McKee Jr.’s announcement that his submitted by Team Four Architects to a NorthSide Regeneration project will finally break comprehensive plan for the city being drafted ground in the 1,500 acres in North St. Louis in 1975. This memo defined something called a it controls. McKee said NorthSide will begin “depletion area” as any part of the city “where construction on 3,000 market-rate residential population and building stock were experiencing units – starting with 500 units over the next five severe problems requiring redevelopment but years – in a partnership with Washington-based where reinvestment had not yet begun,” as national developer Telesis and local CRG Real William Albinson of Team Four wrote in this Estate Solutions. paper in 2008. The memo urged, as Albinson These are high-tech jobs moving to North St. wrote, “that spreading scarce redevelopment Louis that will create cross-town synergies with funds thinly across all depletion areas would not the downtown start-up community and Cortex in work; that the city should make commitments to the city’s central corridor. The NGA’s decision specific locations.” to stay in the city and move north coincides with An oversimplification of the advice might a number of other promising, be that the city leaders should current public and private focus development efforts on n North St. Louis is, developments. The Arch grounds parts of the struggling city that are being refurbished in a $380 were already bounding back, for the first time in million project, which will boost and consign areas “experiencing the 40 years since a tourism and help integrate the severe problems requiring riverfront into downtown. The redevelopment” to at least “depletion area” was BJC Campus Renewal Project temporary oblivion. Albinson defined, poised for is well underway (BJC said it argued in this paper that his does not provide the cost of its team’s memo was never an construction projects). Forest organized plan formally adopted new development of Part Forever continues its by the city. Yet, consciously scale. partnership with the City of St. or not, the city has pursued Louis to make $30 million in a development strategy improvements to the city’s great consistent with this advice, park that anchors development and anyone with eyes can see around its periphery. More than that the “depletion areas” left $300 million in enhancements to the east end undeveloped were heavily concentrated in North of Washington University’s Danforth Campus, St. Louis, which also has the city’s highest which borders the city, have just gotten started. density of African-American residents. In a When you connect all of these projects, it’s cultural moment today where “racial equity” is a possible to have hope that St. Louis has started priority (at least on everyone’s lips), the idea of to turn itself around and transform itself into a consciously leaving majority-black areas of the place where more people will want to live, work city depleted and undeveloped looks both unjust and play. and unwise (and arguably racist). It has had the Thanks to the NGA – and, yes, Paul McKee effect of concentrating poverty in majority-black Jr., who assembled the land that made the city’s neighborhoods and, in the absence of legitimate NGA West bid possible – North St. Louis is, for economic means of earning an income, it has the first time in the 40 years since a “depletion helped to foster crime and spawn a criminal area” was defined (and going back decades underclass that endangers us all. before that), poised for new development of Those of us who decry this historical pattern scale. We still have to be vigilant and firm to should be celebrating the relocation of the make certain that this development proceeds in National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s Western Headquarters to North St. Louis, to what a way that fosters the racial equity and inclusion that has been promised – and that this region would certainly qualify (40 years after Team needs as badly as it needs economic investment.

Four’s memo) as a depletion area. The NGA’s And we regret the displacement of a number of decision transformed the prospects for this families who made North St. Louis their home depletion area overnight into one of the region’s during the many years their neighborhoods were most promising new hubs for redevelopment.

The $1.75-billion construction project will create dismissed as “depletion areas” by developers.

But let’s be clear: a huge jump start to badly 15,000 construction jobs, with commitments to needed economic investment has begun in North hiring minority workers and city residents. NGA St. Louis, and that is something to celebrate.

West brings the agency’s 3,100 jobs to North St.

With St. Louis being in the funnel of the black tornado that upended Ferguson and swept across America, the upcoming mayor’s race is probably the most significant in the city’s history. All the combustible elements that combined to ignite Ferguson – principally poverty, race and an oppressive legal apparatus – exist undeniably in the Gateway City. And undeniably, the next mayor will have to offer solutions to this urban explosiveness.

The usual campaign rhetoric of “bridging the racial divide,” or “healing” the racial strife, will not suffice. For the African-American community – an essential organ of the entire community – faces in the Ferguson era an evil equal to the evil of racism. Namely, inner destruction.

It is virtually impossible for black leaders, particularly the millennial leaders, to openly discuss the terror and horror blacks are subjected to from their own because it distracts from addressing the horror and terror whites inflict with racism, both overtly and systemically. In fact, the first wall of defense whites erect when confronted with white police violence against blacks

Letters to the Editor One of the greats Michael Harper was one of the great promoters of AfricanAmerican poetry and AfricanAmerican aesthetics. He was also one of the truly important African-American poets. His anthology, “Chant of Saints,” done back in 1979, is still one of the greatest anthologies of black literary thought and creativity that has ever been done.

Gerald Early, Via email

Commentary

Early winner of 2016 campaign: Obama If you look at the polls, it is clear who’s winning in the 2016 presidential contest: Barack Obama.

There remains the technical impediment that the president is constitutionally barred from a third term. But the longer the campaign goes on, the higher Obama’s approval rating rises. This should be bad for Donald Trump and good for the eventual Democratic nominee, almost certainly Hillary Clinton. But it is even better for Obama’s legacy.

According to Gallup, which has been charting the nation’s assessment of its presidents longer than anyone else, Obama’s approval stands at 52 percent, compared with 44 percent disapproval. That may not look impressive but it is actually quite good for a president nearing the end of his second term; Ronald Reagan, by comparison, had 49 percent approval at this point in his tenure.

For most of last year, Obama’s numbers were upsidedown – more Americans disapproved than approved. So why the turnaround?

I believe the increasingly warm feelings about the president must have something to do with the contrast between him and his potential successors. Trump and Clinton may be the most widely disliked major-party contenders ever (though Trump is arguably in a class of his own, with nearly two-thirds of Americans saying they would never, under any circumstances, vote for him as president.)

The speculation about when Trump will shift tactics and begin acting “presidential” is

laughable. It should be clear by now that Trump is not only unwilling to change but incapable of doing so. Look at the way he continues to lash out at anyone he perceives as having slighted him – New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, for example, a potentially valuable ally whom Trump is determined to make into an enemy. Look at the news conference at which he lashed out at a reporter, calling him a “sleaze,” for having questioned Trump’s record of charitable giving.

Then look at Obama.

Whatever you think of his policies, not for a minute has he failed to comport himself with Columnist the dignity Eugene and gravitas Robinson required to serve as president. Never has he given the impression of acting out of pique rather than calculation.

Never does he seem a threat to put ego-gratification above what he believes to be the best interests of the nation.

Another factor in Obama’s rising approval has to be the realization that despite Republican proclamations of doom and gloom, on balance things are going pretty well.

Slow but steady economic expansion has not only reduced unemployment to 5 percent but also perhaps begun to move the needle slightly on incomes.

Consumer confidence, an important indicator, is up. The effect of the recovery hardly feels like a boom but is nothing

like the total bust that Trump and other Republicans describe.

The president has been increasingly forthright in showcasing his administration’s record. He has also demonstrated his intention to do everything he can to ensure that his successor is a Democrat who seeks to build on his achievements, not dismantle them.

Like many presidents in their final months, Obama is spending considerable time and effort on foreign affairs. Here, too, we see contrast and legacy. He has fundamentally changed the U.S.-Cuba relationship in ways that will be hard for anyone to reverse. He has continued to act with extreme caution in the Middle East, resisting calls for substantial deployment of U.S. combat forces. He made a bold statement against nuclear proliferation by visiting Hiroshima and hugging a survivor of the atomic bombing that turned the city into a smoldering wasteland.

Trump, on the other hand, believes it would be fine if Japan and South Korea got nuclear weapons of their own.

We tend to appreciate presidents more after they leave office. The inevitable reassessment of the Obama years seems to be starting early -- perhaps in apprehension of the years to come. Even Obama’s harshest critics have to admit he was a steady hand in the White House. Reflection upon this fact can only increase Clinton’s chances against a man who prides himself on being combative, capricious and cocksure.

is the “black-on-black crime” argument.

Thus, whenever a black is shot down by a white cop, whites almost instinctively turn a blind eye to that as a crime and reflexively focus on the statistics of blacks killing other blacks. And whenever a black shoots an innocent black mother or child, their response – and even that of some blacks – is to ask why there are no protests of that kind of killing.

Although the only logical connection between a white police officer shooting an unarmed black Guest Columnist and a black shooting an Eric E. innocent black Vickers is violence, the fact that the problem of one is not the same as – or even tied to – the other does not alleviate our imperative to solve both.

Due to protest actions, the next mayor will have at his or her disposal all the post-Ferguson implemented or suggested tools to solve the problem of police excessiveness, such as body cameras, civilian review, and increased and independent prosecutorial scrutiny.

Law good for emergency medical care The triage, treatment, and transport emergency medical service practitioners provide can often be the difference between life and death for patients with a medical emergency. The unique nature of emergency medical services is unlike other health care services governed by the Controlled Substances Act. There is a routinely encountered clinical need for controlled substance medications in the practice of EMS medicine, ranging from the administration of pain narcotics to anti-seizure medications.

Emergency medical technicians and paramedics need to administer these lifesaving drugs as quickly as they are able to reach and assess the patient, and any delay wastes valuable time in the provision of care.

Established practice allows emergency medical service practitioners to administer and deliver these controlled substances under the oversight of physicians, primarily through directional guidelines written by physicians, commonly known as standing orders.

Laws and regulations have not kept up with the evolution of modern medicine, however, and in a recent review of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), the Department of Justice determined that legislation is needed to codify “standing orders.” Absent of Congressional action, patients may lose access to those life-saving medications in emergency situations and established practice will be disrupted because laws have not kept up with the evolution of medicine.

To remedy this dilemma, Congressman Hudson has authored H.R. 4365, the

The tools to eradicate the violence that blacks wreak on themselves, however, have yet to be forged. And protests will not form them.

A protest against blacks killing blacks is impractical, if not irrational. Because unlike a protest against a cop shooting, in which a demand is being made on the authorities to bring him to justice, a protest against a murder in a carjacking crime, for example, has no effect on such perpetrators. The only protest that would make sense in that situation would be one against the police, demanding that they more effectively perform their obligation to protect the public from criminals.

The next mayor will have to turn instead to social engineering and cultural tools to end the destructiveness blacks perpetrate on the black community. He or she will have to construct a livable environment and an economic foundation that provides more than the subsistence survival that engenders crime in a society where wealth abounds.

Equally important, the next mayor will have to re-instill in the black community the brotherly and sisterly love that once made a black harming another black person an intolerable act and an unspeakable shame.

All letters are edited for length and style.

Protecting Patient Access to Emergency Medications Act. This legislation will clarify that the current practice of physician medical directors overseeing care provided by paramedics and other emergency medical service practitioners via “standing orders” is statutorily allowed and protected. The use of “standing orders” is necessary so that physician medical directors can establish these pre-set protocols which emergency medical service practitioners follow in delivering emergency medical care. In the absence of standing orders, patients would not have access to the time-sensitive and potentially life-saving interventions they so desperately need.

Darla Long, Alton, Illinois

Inclusive America I applaud the departments of Education and Justice for taking action to ensure transgender students feel safe in school. This step forward is vital, not just for our most vulnerable students but for the entire school community.

America is at its best when we are inclusive. Recognizing that a person’s gender identity

The largest weekly newspaper in Missouri 70,000 copies - CAC Audited 100% Independently owned & operated Continuously published, without interruption since 1928

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should be respected is a move every American should be proud of.

As a union, the AFT has a long history of fighting discrimination, including requiring locals to desegregate in the 1950s and filing an amicus brief in support of Brown v. Board of Education. This fight continues today with our efforts to fight for LGBTQ-inclusive union contracts, signing on to the LGBT Healthcare Bill of Rights, and working for full and equal access to facilities for transgender students.

As a gay woman, the fight to change laws and attitudes is also quite personal. It has given me great hope about America, as centuries of discrimination against gay people have given way in the last few years to widespread legal and societal acceptance and rights. This is why I was proud to join Delaware Gov. Jack Markell yesterday in a broader fight against transgender discrimination and in applauding today’s move by the Department of Education and the Department of Justice.

Randi Weingarten, president American Federation of Teachers

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ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • JUNE 16 – 22, 2016

A5

My mother the leader watching her face down the same challenges that gives me the courage to keep leading.

Women of color do not seem to fit America’s archetype of leadership: just 6 percent of My mother turned 60 on May 31. It was a the United States Congress is comprised typically celebratory occasion for our family of women of color — and none of them are several of her sisters, nieces and nephews American Indian. Women of color aren’t fully were present, along with her fiancée, my only represented in media, the arts, the tech sector, brother and myself. In the style of our large, and make up just 0.4 percent of S&P 500 joyful, loving family, we dined, laughed, CEOs. and each toasted my mother to congratulate That’s right - there are just two women of her on this milestone, share our hopes and color leading S&P 500 companies. That is not prayers for her future, and thank her for the just a loss for women of color, who gifts she has given us. have yet to experience the kind of My mother is significant not equity in leadership that our talents simply because she gave me life, deserve. It’s also a global loss. but because she consistently defied From Fannie Lou Hammer expectations in her professional and demanding the seating of the civic life. As a result, I never had to Mississippi Democratic Party in 1968 seek external role models to aspire to Delores Huerta securing rights to: the most powerful leader I know for farm workers across the nation, is my mother. women of color have permanently By her early 20s she was an and positively shifted life for all accomplished educator and social Brittany Americans. Their accomplishments worker, leading trainings around Packnett are evidence that when women of the country. My father, a young color lead, everyone benefits. minister, met her when she was Though women of color have leading a national workshop. often pushed to the sidelines of historical By her 30s, she had established an social movements, we are fighting back emerging legacy of community and against erasure and silence in today’s civic leadership and had created the first movements for racial liberation, educational Multicultural Relations and Student Support justice, and gender equity. One needn’t center in her university’s history. look further than activists like Cherno Biko, By age 41, she became a widow, lost her trailblazing director Ava DuVernay or the own father just three months after my dad, indomitable Malala Youdafzai for what and had to postpone her doctoral studies as women of color bring: resilience, brilliance, the now single mother of two young children. rich perspective and a unique sense of dignity.

In her 50s she walked across the stage Despite unparalleled and repeated trauma to become Gwendolyn Packnett, Ed.D. If to our bodies and the continual devaluation that weren’t enough, she capped off her 50s of who we are and what we bring, women of by becoming an ordained Baptist minister color are still here, setting the trend, leading - something still refused to many women the market, and establishing the pace for across various faiths and denominations. industry.

The lessons she taught me are the ones Like my mother before me, we needn’t that mothers teach their daughters daily: defy wait on the pathway to be created - we can the odds. Defy them with grace, tenacity, blaze trails on our own. And we can leave our sacrifice and care. textured hair, curvy hips, double sun-kissed When I led my first workshops as a skin, brilliant minds and big hearts just as teenager, I modeled myself after my mother’s they are when we do so. We already have teaching style. When I managed my own everything in us we need to lead, and the world 3rd grade classroom as a Teach For America wins when women of all color seize our power corps member, her lessons were the most and take the world by storm. critical ones. When I became an executive Lead on, sisters. Rumble. director at age 27, I knew how to lead authentically in the community and the board Commissioned by the White House in room because she had done the same. As I anticipation of the United State of Women began to address more crowds, it was her gift event. for language and rhythm that influenced me Brittany Packnett is executive director of the most.

Teach For America St. Louis and a member Most significantly, as I face the challenges of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century of being a woman of color in public positions Policing. of influence and responsibility, it has been

By Brittany Packnett Guest columnist

County Library provides literacy gift packs Eager readers at the Early Childhood Center and Kindergarten Center in the Normandy Schools Collaborative recently received a summer gift pack from the St. Louis County Library. As part of the year-end program, the Gift of Reading, the County Library provides a backpack and materials to use over the summer. This year, each preschool and kindergarten student received an elephant lunch pail containing a book by children’s author Mo Willems, crayons, a notebook, pencil and information about summer reading. A total of 535 gift packs were provided to the pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students.

Non-profits working on incarceration issues merge Ava’s Grace Scholarship Foundation has united with Connections to Success. Since 2010, Ava’s Grace has worked to break the cycle of poverty by awarding scholarships to children of incarcerated parents. Founded 15 years ago, Connections to Success has focused on strengthening families to break the cycle of incarceration. It offers a variety of programs that help individuals find employment and fulfill their potential, such as Dress for Success, Wheels for Success, Sweet Success, as well as mentoring and skills training. For more information, visit connectionstosuccess.org.

Family Reunion Weekend at Mathews-Dickey Mathews-Dickey Boys’ & Girls’ Club will produce its inaugural Family Reunion Weekend on August 26-27. The festivities start with a Food Truck Friday from 4-8 p.m. at the organization’s 4245 North Kingshighway facility on Friday, Aug. 26 and culminates with An Evening with Chaka Khan and El DeBarge at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 27 at The Fabulous Fox Theatre, 527 North Grand Blvd.

“The purpose is to raise funds to help Mathews-Dickey pave an achievement avenue of welleducated, physically active and hopeful scholar-athletes who are ready for college and the global workforce,” said Mathews-Dickey President & CEO Wendell Covington Jr. Tickets for the concert are on sale now at fabulousfox.com and by calling Metrotix at 314-5341111. Special packages for the 5 p.m. dinner-and-show and corporate sponsorships are available at mathews-dickey.com and 314-679-5228.

A6

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • JUNE 16 – 22, 2016

WEST POINT Continued from A1 application process for West Point is notoriously long and grueling. It includes a congressional interview process and extensive paperwork, among other things.

Once you’re accepted, it’s a free ride to earn one of the most prestigious college degrees and potential leadership positions in the U.S. Army.

“West Point is a golden ticket to success,” she said.

Thomas is one of four African-American students in Missouri who will be attending either the U.S. Military Academy or its Prep School in the fall. The others are Nile Trice from Pattonville High School, Laryn Grant from McCluer North High School and Samuel Howard, a 2015 graduate of Clayton High School.

In total, 22 students from Missouri were selected to attend West Point in the fall.

By law, each congressman is allowed to make a nomination.

This year, all the appointments for black students came out of the St. Louis congressional districts.

Malik Mitchell, a graduate of O’Fallon Township High School, is the only African American from Illinois’ 12th Congressional District in the Metro East who will start at West Point this fall.

This spring, Thomas and her father, Guy Jennings, attended an event held for all the

RAYFORD Continued from A1 pretty good.”

Developing the craft also helped him to develop as a person. “My love for photography brought me out of my social anxiety,” Rayford said. “I felt safe behind the camera.”

After high school, Rayford enrolled at the local community college’s Florissant Valley campus.

“I was worried about everything,” he said. “How could my parents pay for school? Am I good enough to go school? I didn’t necessarily

Malik Mitchell, a graduate of O’Fallon Township High School, is the only African American from Illinois’ 12th Congressional District in the Metro East who will enter the U.S. Military Academy at West Point this fall.

Jennifer Gail Thomas, a graduate of McKinley Classical Leadership Academy, will attend the U.S. Military Academy Prep School at West Point this fall. The Prep School is designed for students with no military background.

The idea is to help ease those students into West Point’s grueling academic, physical and military challenges.

There are 242 students going into West Point Prep this fall, and about half are AfricanAmerican.

Captain Benjamin Johnson, who is in charge of the academy’s minority recruitment in the region, said a majority of minority recruits in the Midwest come from Texas.

That’s largely because Texas has many more congressional districts than Missouri.

Johnson said he can’t visit every school, but he does focus on urban schools.

academy’s incoming recruits in the area. In the entire room, the only African-American students were Thomas and Mitchell. Jennings said it made him raise his eyebrows.

“Surely the schools need to take more responsibility and reach out to urban black students,” he said. “How many more kids had good scholarships, but because of their financial means had to take another route?”

He knows of cases where minority students got scholarships for half their tuition but decided to enter the U.S. Army Reserves to help pay for the rest. These students

could have been groomed to be military leaders, as West Point does, but instead they are entering the military at low levels – just as minorities have historically done.

West Point has about 4,400 students and 15 percent are African-American, according to the academy’s diversity office.

The academy’s incoming class of 2020 has 1,307 students and 172 were African American, 128 were Hispanic, 282 were women and 164 were other minorities.

The Prep School, or West Point Prep, is designed for students with no military experience, like Thomas.

like school. The creative aspects were more important to me than the classwork.”

Bradley believes that STLCC is a hidden gem. The college provided resources that he felt he couldn’t receive anywhere else.

“It allowed me to learn about myself,” he said. “I don’t know if I would be the person I am today if it wasn’t for my decision to stay here and go to STLCC over a traditional fouryear university.”

He said that at Florissant Valley he was able to learn about the industry and meet amazing people who were willing to invest in him even when he didn’t want to invest in himself. That support

n “I went back to STLCC during the spring semester with the money I made selling Ferguson footage.”

– Bradley J. Rayford

went all the way to the top to Chancellor Jeff Pittman.

“To have the chancellor of the college have a meeting with me and ask, ‘How can I help you out?’” Rayford said. “That wouldn’t happen at any other university.”

As August 2014 began, Rayford’s biggest concern was how he would pay for the upcoming school semester.

On August 9, 2014 everything

changed when 18-year-old Michael Brown Jr. was killed by a Ferguson police officer just three miles from the Florissant campus.

Rayford showed up at the earliest protests and shot critical footage from the heart of the action. He quickly edited a mini-documentary, “Ferguson: A Resident’s Perspective,” that was picked up for MSNBC. Then he began to freelance for MSNBC and various other media outlets.

The streets of Ferguson became his place of work.

That work led to two awards from the National Association

Unlike Thomas, both of Mitchell’s parents come from a military background. As a teen, his father took him to visit West Point.

“I fell in love with the school and wanted to go there since freshman year,” he said.

What stood out to him was the unity among the students and the opportunities the academy presented. Mitchell is heavily involved in his school and community. While maintaining a 3.85 GPA and his part-time job at the YMCA as a lifeguard, he also was part of the football, wrestling, crosscountry and swim teams. He believes all “great things are possible” through his faith in God and support of his family.

In his view, he believes the academy’s diversity officers are engaged with recruiting in the black community.

“They are doing everything they can,” Mitchell said. “I just think not many people know about West Point.”

Trice will begin boot camp on June 26, and she said she’s very excited. Trice is the second student from Pattonville High to earn an appointment to West Point, and she’s the school’s first female and first minority.

She has been getting in touch with her future classmates, and many of them are minorities and women.

“Diversity is very important because it brings the different ideas and perspectives that people can offer,” Trice said.

She plans to double major in law and Chinese.

This spring, 16 black female cadets who were set to graduate in May dressed in

traditional uniforms and posed for a picture with their fists raised. The academy nearly disciplined them for violating military restrictions on political activity. Some assumed that the fists represented support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

However by campus tradition, groups of cadets often take pictures in traditional dress uniforms as a nod to the generations of cadets that preceded them.

As a father who was about to send his black daughter to the academy, the incident was disturbing, Jennings said. The cadets’ white counterparts would never been questioned for raising their fists in the air, he said.

“It was interpreted to be a political, and it scared nonAfrican-American society,” Jennings said. “If you paid attention, it did not mean to go out and attack anyone. It was a symbol of overcoming.

They have made their part of history.”

The academy dropped the charges on the women, saying that the photo was meant to show pride for the academy.

Thomas said she followed the incident alongside her father. As a black female, these kinds of potential confrontations or miscommunications don’t scare her away from West Point, she said.

“It’s always been a struggle for African Americans,” she said. “I believe it’s my responsibility to break through those barriers to make AfricanAmerican history.”

Follow this reporter on Twitter @RebeccaRivas.

of Black Journalists in its Digital Media category. He said his success is bittersweet because it was made possible by another person’s death.

“I got this coverage because a child lost their life, and I cannot take that for granted,” Rayford said. “There is nothing I’m doing now that I could have done without Mike Brown and Ferguson.”

After all of the excitement on the streets of Ferguson and accolades from the industry, Rayford was still a young man with no steady work and no college degree.

“I took the semester off, and the staff constantly encouraged me to get back in school and finish it off,” Rayford said. “I went back to STLCC during the spring semester with the money I made selling Ferguson footage.”

He said the individual attention – and relatively

affordable tuition – at a community college enables “untraditional people to have an obtainable goal.“ After graduation, he moved to New York to accept a fellowship with MSNBC that continues until September.

After that he will look for other professional opportunities in New York and apply to universities to pursue his bachelor’s degree, hoping to enroll next January.

But he hasn’t forgotten what got him there – Ferguson and his local community college.

“At STLCC, the staff and the students did so much for me as a person with social anxiety,” Rayford said, “who didn’t always feel like they were good enough in certain aspects.”

Morgan Bradley is an editorial intern for The St. Louis American.

A7

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • JUNE 16 – 22, 2016

ALI Continued from A1 former President Bill Clinton, and pallbearers Smith and Lewis arrived.

The mood was solemn as the service began, not as celebratory as the procession.

But as ESPN broadcaster Bob Valvano, who resides in Louisville, said during the morning hours, “You know who would have loved this?

Muhammad Ali. I know that he is smiling right now.”

‘The power of understanding’ Lonnie Ali was the picture of grace and dignity as she spoke of her husband.

Early in her remarks, she reminded the audience that a police officer helped launched his famed boxing career – and what that kind of relationship can mean in this nation.

“We cannot forget a Louisville police officer, Joe Martin, who embraced a young 12-year-old boy in distress when his bicycle was stolen,” Lonnie Ali said. “Joe Martin handed young Cassius Clay the keys to a future in boxing he could scarcely have imagined.

America must never forget, when a cop and an inner city kid talk to each other, then miracles can happen.”

Lonnie Ali said Muhammad knew instinctively the road he needed to travel – that he lived in the moment and neither dwelled in the past nor harbored anxiety about the future.

“His passing and its meaning for our time should not be overlooked as we face uncertainty in the world and divisions at home as to who we are as a people,” Lonnie said.

“Muhammad was not one to give up on the power of understanding; the boundless possibilities of love and the strength of our diversity.

He counted among his friends people of all political persuasions, saw truth in all faiths and the nobility of all races.”

‘He was our most basic freedoms’ The service lasted three hours, ending with remarks from former President Bill Clinton.

“We all have an Ali story,” Clinton said. He shared the story of the night Ali lit the Olympic flame to open the 1996 Games in Atlanta – during his presidency.

“I’ll never forget it,” Clinton said.

“I was sitting there in

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

Throughout the route of Muhammad Ali’s funeral motorcade in Louisville, Kentucky, on Friday, June 10, his family members had their car windows open to shake hands with the public.

Boxing promoter Don King was one of many who broke down into tears during Muhammad Ali’s memorial service in Louisville, Kentucky, on Friday, June 10.

Atlanta. By then we knew each other. By then I felt I had some sense of what he was living with – and I was still weeping like a baby seeing his hand shake and his leg shake and knowing, by God, he was going to make those last few steps no matter what it took. The flame would be lit, the fight would be won.”

Senior White House advisor Valerie Jarrett, whose uncle was an Ali pallbearer, spoke on behalf of President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama.

She read a tribute written by the president.

“The man we celebrate today is not just a boxer or poet; or an agitator or a man of peace. He was not just a Muslim or a black man, or a Louisville kid. He even wasn’t just the greatest of all time.

He was Muhammad Ali. The whole being greater than the sum of its parts,” Obama wrote.

“As he once put it, Muhammad Ali was America.

Brash, defiant, pioneering, joyful; never tired, always game to test the odds. He was our most basic freedoms: religion, speech, spirit. He embodied our ability to invent ourselves. His life spoke to our origins in slavery and discrimination and the journey he traveled helped to shock our confidence and lead us on a

He said Ali and he “shared a personal relationship.”

“Both of us were indicted for various stands against the Vietnam War,” Lerner said.

“At the key moment when he had the recognition, he used it to stand up to an immoral war and say, ‘I won’t go.’”

Lerner said it is for that reason that tens of millions of Americans, who don’t particularly care about boxing, do care about Muhammad Ali – because he was a person willing to risk his fame and honor to stand up for his beliefs.

“How do we honor Muhammad Ali?” Lerner challenged the crowd. “The way to honor Muhammad Ali is to be Muhammad Ali today! We must speak out.

We must refuse to follow the path of conformity.”

Lerner then listed the causes that Ali followers should now take up, including wealth re-distribution, ending unjust mass incarceration, ending warfare, creating guaranteed incomes, prosecuting corporate criminals and politicians who support torture.

He referred to the next U.S. president with female pronouns.

“Tell her that the way to achieve homeland security

and the power and capacity of roundabout path to salvation.”

African Americans – that he Ali inspired Obama and dared to openly love America’s paved the way to his historic most unloved race. election, according to the Cosby said, “Let us never president. forget that he is the product of “Ali was a radical, even in black people in their struggle to a radical time – a loud, proud be free.” and unabashedly black voice in a Jim Crow world.

The freedom He chose to help n “Before fighter perfect a nation where a descendant James Brown Only once of slaves could said, ‘I’m black during Muhammad become the king and I’m proud,’ Ali’s interfaith of the world, and Muhammad Ali memorial service while doing so, said, ‘I’m black did those in lending some attendance scream dignity to all of and I’m pretty. in unison “Ali! Ali! us,” Jarrett read.

‘Black and Ali! Ali! “And he helped pretty’ was an The speaker inspire a young oxymoron.” responsible for the mixed kid with outburst of emotion a funny name to – Rev. Kevin was the Rabbi have the audacity Cosby Michael Lerner, to believe he could editor of Tikkun, a by anything, even progressive Jewish the president of the interfaith magazine United States.” based in Berkeley, Rev. Kevin California, and the rabbi of Cosby, senior pastor of St. Beyt Tikkun Synagogue in Stephen Baptist Church, was Berkeley. the service’s first speaker.

“Today we stand in “Before James Brown said, solidarity with the Islamic ‘I’m black and I’m proud,’ community in this country and Muhammad Ali said, ‘I’m around the world. We will not black and I’m pretty,” Cosby tolerate politicians or anyone said. “‘Black and pretty’ was else putting down Muslims and an oxymoron. Blacks did not blaming Muslims for (the acts say ‘pretty.’” of) a few people,” Lerner said Cosby said Ali dared to to loud applause. affirm the beauty of blackness

is not to try new ways of domination,” Lerner said.

“The way to get security is to get the United States to be known as the most generous and caring county in the world, not the most powerful.”

While it was not tense, when Malcolm X’s daughter, Attallah Shabazz, approached the podium there was palpable wonder in the atmosphere.

What would she say?

After asking Allah to give her strength to overcome a weak voice, she moved the audience.

“Having Muhammad Ali in my life somehow sustained my dad’s breath for me just a little while longer – 51 years longer, until now. I am forever grateful at our union on this Earth together that allowed for me the continuum of shared understanding, preserved confidentialities and the comfort of living in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky for the past six years,” Shabazz said.

“While he and I had a treasured relationship, the genesis of this love was through the love of my father.

Muhammad Ali was the last of a fraternity of amazing men bequeathed to me directly by my dad.”

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • JUNE 16 - 22, 2016

A8

African-American Male Initiative 2016 SUMMER LEADERSHIP SUMMIT The St. Louis Community College African American Male Initiative invites African American males aged 13 to 18 to attend a FREE leadership summit.

Monday, June 27 - Friday, July 1, 2016 8 a.m. — 3 p.m.

St. Louis Community College at Forest Park The Leadership Summit will include but is not limited to the following: • • • •

Personal and Professional Development Strategies Financial Literacy Training Leadership Training Continental breakfast and lunch each day

To register and for more information, contact Keith Ware at 314-951-9858 or kware14@stlcc.edu

Expanding Minds. Changing Lives.

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • JUNE 16 - 22, 2016

Shahid stands ground against Turkish president at Ali funeral In an amazing twist of fate, St. Louis activist Brother Anthony Shahid stood his ground, face to face – actually, elbow to elbow – against Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the president of the Republic of Turkey, and he did so at the memorial service for Muhammad Ali on Friday, June 10 in Louisville, Kentucky.

Shahid, who had known Ali personally starting in 1975, arrived early to secure a good view. As a fellow Muslim, he knew the casket would be facing east when it arrived, so he knew where to stand. He had staked out his spot for a good four hours before a small entourage encircling the Turkish president attempted to move into his space and usurp his vantage point. Reportedly, Erdogan arrived expecting to speak at the service, but was not included on the program and therefore not in a good mood by the time he encountered Shahid.

The elected president of a nation of nearly 80 million people – and his steely-eyed security force – might be expected to shoulder aside one brother from St. Louis and his small traveling party. But Brother Shahid does not stand down from any man.

“In Islam there is no big ‘I’ and little ‘you,’” Shahid told The American. He wasn’t about to be shouldered aside. Indeed, photographs and camera footage broadcast all over the world portray Shahid holding his own with Erdogan in an elbow skirmish. A security guard behind and between the two men glared at Shahid, but Shahid kept his cool, stood his ground and honored his dead friend.

“We stood there and did our prayers together,” Shahid said of his adversary for elbow room, the president of the Republic of Turkey.

Two things must be said about this incident.

Erdogan is founder of the

conservative Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP), which is the target of Turkish protestors very close in spirit to Shahid. The Gezi Park protests against AKP policies that kicked off on May 28, 2013, should be grouped in history books along with the Ferguson protest movement that erupted on August 9, 2014, with Shahid a key early Ferguson protest leader (before the younger leaders, now better-known in national media and on the national speaking circuit, emerged on Twitter and the street).

A core of Gezi Park protest organizers have strong St. Louis ties through the local community-based arts collective Poetry Scores. They followed Ferguson protests closely from Istanbul and recognized the same spirit among protestors and similar enemies on the street. For the leader of AKP and a Ferguson protest leader to end up standing next to each other for an hour of prayer – and elbow skirmishes – in Kentucky must be counted as yet another magical act

by Muhammad Ali. Also, the image of Shahid standing proudly next to the president of the Republic of Turkey, as if he belonged there as much (or even more) than the politically more powerful man, calls to mind an early scene from Ferguson.

Dorian Johnson, Michael Brown Jr.’s friend and considered an eyewitness to his killing by thenFerguson Police Officer Darren Wilson, had been reported dead in the alley behind a pizzeria, another victim of police violence. This was one of the first bogus rumors (but far from the last) to circulate throughout Ferguson protests and falsely agitate people.

But before anyone knew that Johnson was still alive, Shahid took charge.

He went into the Ferguson Police Department – the belly of the beast, to a Ferguson protestor – and more or less dragged Police Chief Thomas Jackson outside to address the crowd.

A security guard for Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the president of the Republic of Turkey, gave Brother Anthony Shahid a steely eye from behind as the St. Louis activist elbowed for space with the Turkish president at the memorial service for Muhammad Ali on Friday, June 10 in Louisville, Kentucky.

This was one way press conferences happened when Ferguson was hot.

Shahid put Chief Jackson up on a flatbed truck with himself and fellow veteran community activists Zaki Baruti and James Clark, and he got an angry protest throng to quiet down and listen to Chief Jackson, who told them Johnson was still alive. At the same time, a reconnaissance group of protestors returned from behind the pizzeria to report no corpse and no blood. Dorian was, in fact, alive.

This was one of several riots that were averted in Ferguson, and not by the police.

Speaking of the police, the strong police presence at Ali’s memorial service did not sit well with Shahid.

“They had those police in there thick,” Shahid said. “If there were 100 police, there were maybe only three that were black. They should have had some brothers out there – Nation of Islam or just brothers, period – not all those police with their guns.”

Treasurer budget skirmish There was a tussle over a budget matter at the St. Louis Board of Aldermen’s Ways and Means Committee hearing on Monday, June

6 that was either the first skirmish in a probably mayoral battle between aldermanic President Lewis Reed and Treasurer Tishaura O. Jones – or just some aldermen doing due diligence and trying to make an independent office with a hefty reserve fund pay for its own programs without tapping general revenue.

“Aldermen took aim at treasurer Tishaura Jones’ budget for more than $340,000 in reductions, mostly targeting her Office of Financial Empowerment and a college savings program she started last year,” St. Louis Public Radio reported.

“Those who supported those changes said, if the office was important, Jones could find the money in her budget to cover its costs.

Many, including Alderman Antonio French, D-21st Ward, raised questions about how much money Jones has in reserve, especially after the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Jones had offered to use $2 million from the parking division to fund a conceptual design study for a north-south MetroLink line.”

Jones told The American that Reed and French both supported the Office of Financial Empowerment and its College Kids Savings Program, which provides all kindergarten students in a

A9 St. Louis public or charter school with a $50 savings account for college. But, she claimed, they moved to defund these programs for political reasons.

Jones alleged payback for her overt support of Alderwoman Megan Green after Reed laughed along at misogynistic comments made about her on The Grim Reaper of Radio’s show (hosted by a generous Reed campaign donor). Also, Jones’ father (and former campaign manager), former comptroller Virvus Jones, was critical of new stadium proponents hosting a fundraiser for Reed two days before the stadium financing vote took place. She claimed Reed threatened to cut the treasurer’s office budget shortly after.

All of this, she acknowledged, is playing out in a political climate where, for the first time in recent memory, an incumbent St. Louis mayor is not seeking reelection. Reed is Mayor Francis G. Slay’s most recent opponent and said he will run again next year. Jones is on everyone’s short list to run as well. When Jones partners with Slay – say, on funding a study for a north-south MetroLink expansion – she falls open to the accusation of pandering to Slay voters who will need someplace else to go next March (and most likely are not going with Reed).

Reed responded via Tom Shepard, his chief of staff (and a certified public accountant).

“The money going into the children savings accounts was not cut at all. Alderman Stephen Conway’s amendment to make the treasurer’s budget more reasonable and add money for recreation center programs throughout the city passed the committee by a margin of 7 to 1. Those 7 included both supporters and detractors of the stadium, as well as supporters and detractors of Mayor Slay. All of them support the concept of a north-south Metrolink expansion, and this had nothing to do with a football stadium or Treasurer Jones’ close relationship with Mayor Slay,” Shepard said.

“This was not politics, just plain old fiscal management 101. The treasurer’s budget request was adjusted to better reflect sound financial principals and the fact that the treasurer has a reserve fund of $18 million which can more than accommodate any additional salary expenses the treasurer wants to add.”

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ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • JUNE 16 - 22, 2016

Emerson gives grant to Obama Elementary Picking and choosing who gets justice

Brunetta Blackshear, 3rd grade teacher at Barack Obama Elementary School, is the recipient of an Emerson Gold Star Grant. Blackshear was presented the $2,500 grant by Emerson Executive Vice President Patrick Sly during a surprise assembly at the school May 27. A 2015 Emerson Teacher of the Year for the Normandy Schools Collaborative, Blackshear plans to use the grant to teach students geometry by using doodling techniques. As part of the award, the school will also receive $2,500 for another project of their choosing. Shown here with Blackshear (2nd from right) is Barack Obama Elementary Principal Netra Taylor-Nichols (from left), Normandy Superintendent Charles J. Pearson and Patrick Sly.

indisputable history of racial The parents of Mansur BallBey received the crushing news bias and incompetence of the circuit attorney’s office. And last week that there would be then there’s the fact that St. no justice for their son coming Louis is in the middle of an from the St. Louis circuit important election for the next attorney. The 18-year-old was city prosecutor. gunned down by St. Louis While there have been police officers Ronald Vaughan several cases of wrongful and Kyle Chandler last year. conviction that have come Both officers are white, Ballto light over the years, I Bey is African-American. He was killed on the anniversary of believe there are hundreds of people who languished Kajieme Powell, also killed by in prison for years or who St. Louis police. are still incarcerated due to Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce claims that there was prosecutorial misconduct. insufficient evidence to charge The case of Fredrico Lowethe officers, but she didn’t take Bey is one of those cases. a stand on whether the shooting Centurion Ministries has been was justified. This is the kind working on the case for years of muddled process that with full resistance from often allows officers a the circuit attorney’s get-out-of-jail-free card. office to regard the Well, you might say, compelling evidence.

Joyce is prosecuting Lowe-Bey was ex-STPD cop Jason wrongfully convicted Stockley for the 2011 of rape in 1988; he has shooting death of already served more Anthony Lamar Smith. time than some who Again, Stockley is have committed an white and Smith is actual murder. There is Columnist black. At the time of no physical evidence Jamala the shooting, Joyce linking Lowe-Bey to the Rogers also claimed there was crime, but Joyce’s office insufficient evidence to has been dogged in its pursue charges against refusal to admit they are the officer. wrong.

Then came the family’s Groups like Centurion lawsuit and one of the biggest Ministries and The Innocence payouts in the department’s Project are in existence only history – $900,000. It was after because of the incredible this settlement – and public injustices perpetrated by the records requests about the case very offices that are supposed by activists – that we hear to pursue truth and justice. about Stockley’s prosecution.

Because of the number of Supporters of Reggie wrongful convictions in this Clemons are outraged about country, you are a lucky soul if Joyce’s decision to file new your case gets chosen by one of murder, rape and robbery these groups. charges after his previous There is a field of five conviction for murder – and candidates currently running death sentence – was vacated for circuit attorney. One by the U.S. Supreme Court. has the blessing of Jennifer The court ruled that Clemons’ Joyce. Given the history of trial jury should have been incompetence and corruption presented with evidence that of this office, the August 2 his confession – to rape, not election is an important one. murder – was coerced by a If you don’t know about police beating. the office functions or about First, there’s the question the candidates, check out the of the misuse of taxpayers’ candidate debate at 3 p.m. dollars to take on an expensive Saturday, June 18 at Wool trial when there’s already Ballroom at SLU’s Busch been due diligence done on Student Center. the case. We can’t ignore the

For the latest news, sports and entertainment visit us online @ www.stlamerican.com

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • JUNE 16 - 22, 2016

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The greedy robbing the needy?

Scholar Dr. Alvia Wardlaw to speak on black folk art

By Courtney M. Baxter Romare Bearden Minority Graduate Fellow, 2015-2016 On Saturday, June 25 the Saint Louis Art Museum welcomes Dr. Alvia Wardlaw, a nationally recognized scholar and expert in African American art, for a free public lecture.

The talk, African American Expressions in Folk Art, will complement the Museum’s main exhibition Self Taught Genius: Treasures from the American Folk Art Museum, which opens Sunday, June 19.

Born in Atlanta, Georgia and raised in Houston, Texas, Alvia Wardlaw grew up surrounded by art. Her childhood in Texas included a generous amount of time spent at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston taking classes in art history and painting. Decades later she would become a curatorial assistant and then curator at the very same museum after she received her B.A. degree in art history from Wellesley College in 1969. While at Wellesley College, a private women’s college in Massachusetts, Wardlaw first discovered a passion for African American art that would greatly influence her work as an art historian and curator. She would go on to help increase the visibility of African American art and artists through exhibitions and her work as a curator.

Wardlaw continued to pursue her scholarly interest in art and received her M.A. degree in art history from New York University in 1986 and her Ph.D in art history from University of Texas, Austin in 1996. While working at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston she began her position as a professor at Texas Southern University (TSU). TSU was an institution Wardlaw had already been closely acquainted with; her father, Alvin Wardlaw, had spent many years there as a math professor. She has also curated several critically acclaimed exhibitions, including The Quilts of Gee’s Bend and Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial. Dr. Wardlaw’s love for museums and African American art continues today and she currently serves as the museum curator and director at the University Museum at Texas Southern University.

Wardlaw’s knowledge of African American folk artists like Thornton Dial and Dave Drake (also known as “Dave the Potter” or “Dave

African American Expressions in Folk Art

with Dr. Alvia Wardlaw Saturday, June 25, 2016, 10:30 am Farrell Auditorium, Saint Louis Art Museum All events in The Farrell Auditorium, including free events, are ticketed.

Tickets are subject to availability.

Tickets may be purchased or reserved in person at the Museum’s Information Centers or through MetroTix at metrotix.com or 314.534.1111. All tickets purchased or reserved through MetroTix incur a service charge; the service charge is waived for tickets purchased at the Museum.

the Slave”), two artists featured in Self-Taught Genius, make her a speaker you do not want to miss. We hope you join us Saturday, June 25, 2016 at 10:30 am at the Saint Louis Art Museum.

For more information please visit slam.org or the Saint Louis Art Museum’s Facebook page.

In recent months, credit rating agencies have revised their rating criteria, and the City of St. Louis will be affected by the changes. The city has been proactive and commissioned a 10-year financial strategic plan, approved in September 2015 by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment.

The Fitch agency downgraded the city last week after applying its new rating criteria released in April. Under the new criteria, the earnings tax

reauthorization is a negative factor for the first time.

Fitch said it, along with the Hancock Amendment, reduces the city’s legal ability to raise revenues.

Another key rating factor is the city’s low reserve levels.

Darlene Fitch had Green more positive comments regarding city’s ability to control costs and the city’s

favorable long-term liability burden.

The city proved its financial resilience during the most recent economic downturn.

But, the city would be smart to strengthen its financial resiliency for the future by increasing reserves and seeking legislation to remove the earnings tax reauthorization mandate.

The city remains in the “A” category for overall ratings with all three credit rating agencies Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s, and Fitch.

expenditures were a mystery to board members Ricky Eastern and Edith Moore, who were oblivious to Hamilton’s Las Vegas trips and other charges because, they claim, the charges never came before the board for approval.

Hamilton disagrees, saying that his charges did, in fact, go before the board. So either someone is a lying or is malfeasant in their duties. Either way, it’s inexcusable.

Oh, and did I mention conflicts of interest?

How about having your sister as a paid $33,000 -a-year townJames ship financial Ingram consultant?

Well, June Hamilton Dean serves in that capacity, in addition to moonlighting as an ESL City Council member and Scott Air Force Base employee. Hamilton Dean also has a township American Express card in her name.

But, despite this flagrant conflict of interest, Hamilton Dean refers to herself as “Miss No” because she claims that she does business “by the book.” But perhaps she should have said “no” to her job with the township.

All of these expenditures are exacerbated by the fact that there is nothing to show for the outlay of charges.

When Hamilton was quizzed about two trips to Las Vegas, in May and December of 2015 (accompanied by township board member Michael Roberts and their wives), he claimed to be attending a seminar on hydroponics.

However, upon checking with the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, I was informed that no hydroponics seminars were scheduled during those months.

And during that same 18-month period, the ESL Township paid $45,700 to a defunct construction company, which operates out of Hamilton’s dilapidated boarding house at 1232 Cleveland Ave. The company, Padron Construction, is owned by Hamilton’s friend Earnest Walker.

Walker is also the manager of Hamilton’s boarding house.

I’ll leave it to the feds to get to the bottom of this sordid financial mess, but between the conflicting information, excessive spending and lack of accountability by Hamilton and the ESL Township, I smell indictments, convictions and incarceration for those who may have been complicit in this abuse of ESL tax dollars and the public trust.

Once again, the needy citizens of East Boogie have been victimized by the greedy, inept “public serpents” of their community.

Email: jtingram_1960@ yahoo.com; Twitter@JamesTIngram.

Riverview still unaccredited

By Dale Singer Of St. Louis Public Radio

Earnings tax reauthorization hurt the city

By Comptroller Darlene Green Guest columnist

It would appear that East St. Louis Township Supervisor Oliver Hamilton may soon be adding the credential of felon to his extensive resume.

That’s contingent upon the outcome of an investigation into township finances after the township was served with a federal subpoena, following news that Hamilton reportedly spent $84,970, within an 18-month period, using a township American Express Card on a plethora of items including construction materials, tools, cleaning supplies, tractor tires, gasoline, car washes, and trips to Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

For those who may be oblivious to the function of the East St. Louis Township, it exists as an antiquated government entity tasked with the purpose of distributing aid to the financially destitute, receiving $1.6 million in taxes from a community in which 45.4 percent live in poverty.

However, only $285,780 found its way to those in need last year (that’s only 18 cents for every tax dollar). The remainder was spent on a political patronage jobs, overhead and Hamilton’s apparent spending sprees.

Then there is the absence of basic accounting procedures, checks and balances, or financial safeguards. For example, checks are routinely issued with Hamilton’s stamped signature versus having two signatures to authorize payment.

And apparently Hamilton’s

Members of the Missouri state school board praised progress made by Riverview Gardens in recent years on Tuesday, June 14, but postponed any vote that could upgrade its status from unaccredited.

Because the board put off until at least this fall any consideration of making the district provisionally accredited, students living in Riverview Gardens will remain eligible to transfer to nearby accredited schools in the coming school year.

“I think we should reflect with a great deal of pride for Riverview Gardens for what they have accomplished to date,” said board member Peter Herschend of Branson. “This is not a time of failure. This is a time of absolutely moving in the right direction, and they should be proud.”

Mike Jones of St. Louis added that the board has no authority to change the state’s transfer law, so it had to be very mindful of the ramifications that an upgrade to provisionally accredited status would bring to students in Riverview Gardens. Some parents whose children have

thrived after transferring out of the district have urged the state board to delay any change in the district’s accreditation.

For two years after the Missouri Supreme Court upheld the transfer law in 2013, lawmakers worked to make changes to the transfer process.

Both efforts were vetoed by Gov. Jay Nixon. In the most recent legislative session, three bills introduced to make changes went nowhere.

Edited for length and reprinted with permission from news.stlpublicradio.org.

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ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • JUNE 16 - 22, 2016

How Muhammad Ali once offended this Muslim

By Ishmael-Lateef Ahmad For The St. Louis American In the mid-1960s Muhammad Ali, the boxer, was on the ascent – and as a teenage Muslim I didn’t like him.

His braggadocio offended me. And even though everybody around me, it seemed, loved and cheered him on to victory, I had little love for a Muslim who proclaimed: “I am the Greatest! I am the Greatest!”

Islam associates such words nearly exclusively with Allah or God, the creator and master of the universe. To hear a Muslim seemingly equate himself with and challenge God was to commit the unthinkable and went against everything I was taught. While I appreciated his boxing prowess, it would be years before I forgave Ali for this.

It also took me a while to understand his arrogance and his intricate mix of sport, showmanship, religion, politics, public relations and his love for humanity.

As a newspaper editor in the early 1980s for the East St. Louis News, I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Ali during his visit to East St. Louis, Illinois. I was no longer that naïve teenager but an adult in my early 30s with a more mature sense of understanding. I no longer disliked the haughty Ali, and with a newfound respect put that part of him in its proper place. The real Ali would never disrespect God as I thought he once did.

I recall it was warm outside and he was seated along Collinsville Avenue, a main downtown street, surrounded by youth. Media handlers gave me about five minutes to talk to the champ. I was excited and thrilled at the opportunity and planned to discuss his many achievements and controversies, as well as his hope for humanity.

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When my turn came, I approached him and we shook hands. I greeted him with “Salaam” or “Peace.” I was ready to share how I once felt about him and how that later changed once I came to know the real Ali and the greatness which he truly stood for. Instead, the meeting left me feeling surprised and disappointed.

The bold, brazen, boisterous Ali was gone. A calmer, slow-talking, Guest Columnist thoughtful Ali had emerged Ishmaelin his place.

Lateef We would Ahmad later learn that Parkinson’s disease was the thief that would one day take away both his voice and his youthful body, all too soon.

I used to think that perhaps a jealous God had silenced Ali, as punishment for his claim to greatness. But, the more I learned about Ali and his love of people and his work to improve the world, the more I resolved that God would not silence him out of

anger. Just as the rest of the world, I learned to accept and live with a great man, silenced and physically humbled in his prime.

Years later I would marry an African woman whose father absolutely loved Ali, the boxer, and taught his daughter to love him as well. As a child growing up in Ghana, Ayesha would be awakened at 3 a.m. by her father and together they would sit and watch Muhammad Ali on television, in awe as he nearly always vanquished his boxing foes. It was as if Ali stood in triumph for people of color everywhere.

The world hurts to know that he is gone, as with the passing of all great people. Yet, I feel certain his life will be studied for many decades to come by scholars and others in search of the magic that endeared him to the world. Even his critics came to respect and honor him.

How many of us can claim greatness in our personal lives, let alone to the world? And live up to it? Muhammad Ali did.

Therefore, I honor him and pray to God to forgive him his faults, whatever they may be.

But, being the “Greatest” is not one of them.

How many of us can say that about our lives?

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • JUNE 16 - 22, 2016

NEWSPAPER IN

EDUCATION

Planting the Seeds for Success!

The weekly Healthy Families series is presented by the Missouri Foundation for Health to encourage your family to work (and play) together to improve your health.

Summer Bounty!

Gardening!

Healthy Families PRESENTS:

Summer brings an amazing abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables. Delicious produce that is in season, taste better — and is also cheaper this time of year, at the grocery store. You can also do some exploring to see if there are any

farmer’s markets near your neighborhood.

You’ll not only eat healthier, but you’ll be supporting area farmers!

Learning Standards: HPE 2, HPE 5, NH 1, NH 5

In addition to looking for seasonal fruits and vegetables, why not plant your own?

It’s not too late to plant some of your favorite summer fruits and vegetables.

Look online to see what can still be planted. Digging a garden together, and planting, and weeding is a great way to get some outdoor exercise, while supplementing your dinner table with delicious home-grown produce.

Learning Standards: HPE 1, HPE 2, HPE 5, NH 1, NH 5 Sit down as a family and discuss a safety plan for when there are no adults in the home. What should you do if someone knocks on the door? Who do you call if there is an emergency? Is there a neighbor that could provide assistance if needed?

Home Alone!

Summertime is often a time when school-aged kids are home alone.

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Learning Standards: HPE 2, NH 1

The Planet Walk is a fun, outdoor family activity that helps everyone understand the size and distance of the different planets and the sun. There is a station/signpost for each planet (plus the sun) which includes interesting facts for each, and the size and distances of each are proportionate to the actual solar system.

The Planet Walk is designed at 1:5 billion scale which means the sun is about 10 inches in diameter and Earth is a small speck — just 95 feet away. The entire walk stretches 2,880 feet in total.

LOCATION 6100-6600 Blocks of Delmar in St. Louis COST There is no charge for the Planet Walk and it’s open year-round.

PLAN YOUR VISIT http://loopplanetwalk.com/

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • JUNE 16 – 22, 2016

A14

Your Family Doctor

Father’s Day message

By Denise Hooks-Anderson, M.D. Of The St. Louis American Photo by Sandra Jordan

The St. Louis MetroMarket made a stop at Saint Louis University Hospital recently, stocked with the fresh food and staples customers said they wanted.

Mobile market New food oasis in St. Louis food deserts

By Sandra Jordan Of The St. Louis American It was a few years in the making, but St. Louis MetroMarket is scheduling grocery stops in the city for shoppers that need affordable healthy food closer to where they live.

A donated city bus was converted into a traveling grocery store for urban areas with less access to affordable, nutritious food and produce. The bus was the brainchild of then SLU Medical School student Jeremy Goss and two students from Washington University, Tej Azad and Colin Dowling, who studied food access and social entrepreneurship. n “They “These are places wanted fresh where there are far more fast food restauproduce at a rants than anything and good price, where there is access so we made to food, it’s typically sure that was a convenience store,” the first thing founder Jeremy Goss told the American in we looked at, the 5/2/2013 issue. but we made “And the selection isn’t sure we had ideal.” Goss is currently your basics a medical research felthat everybody low at Harvard. Azad is studying biomedical wanted.” informatics at Stanford – Serene Bugett, and Dowling is an operations manager for a director of software company.

Community Serene Bugett, Engagement director of Community for St. Louis Engagement for St. MetroMarket Louis MetroMarket, said the group held listening sessions with community members to see what types of foods they would be interested in purchasing.

“They wanted fresh produce at a good price, so we made sure that was the first thing we looked at, but we made sure we had your basics that everybody wanted – we have onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes; we have an awesome selection of greens, collards, kale, mustards, things like that,” Bugett said.

The choices include a variety of vegetables, fruit, some refrigerated dairy products and frozen meats.

Interestingly enough, while organic products did not resonate with prospective shoppers – buying locally grown items did.

Bugett said, “Organic produce and fruits really were not a ‘must’ from the community.

I think they were more excited about the fact that the majority of the fruits and produce are local.”

Many of the leading causes of death for men can be prevented with lifestyle changes and regular preventative care. However, men are least likely to see their doctors on a routine basis and lag behind women on obtaining recommended procedures, tests, and immunizations. So this Father’s Day, let’s provide our dads with the tools and information they need to live a long healthy life.

No. 1: Regular exercise! Countless studies have proven over and over the benefits of consistent movement of at least 150 minutes per week. And be creative!

There is no cookie cutter Denise Hooks- version prescribed. If Anderson, MD you like to walk, then walk. If you like to box, then box. The only thing that matters is daily activity that raises your heart rate.

No 2: Yearly doctor’s visits! Men are notorious for avoiding their providers.

Reasons given for this behavior include: fear of being diagnosed with a disease, not wanting to be weighed, or fear of a prostate exam. However, if a diagnosis is prolonged and the pron Countless studies disease gresses, then have proven over what could and over the benhave just been yearly visits efits of consistent has now balmovement of at looned into least 150 minutes weekly visits per week. needing some type of expensive, painful treatment. So as you can see men, prevention is far better than the alternative. Go to the doctor!

No. 3: Don’t smoke! Cigarette smoking kills almost 500,000 Americans per year.

The largest preventable cause of death and disease in the US is caused by tobacco use. About a fifth of all men smoke and the greatest prevalence is between people aged 25-64. And if you already smoke, it is never too late to quit. See your doctor for various tools to aid in smoking cessation.

No. 4: Eat life! Our society thrives

See DOCTOR, page A15

See MARKET, A15 Missouri Foundation for Health is a resource for the region, working with communities and nonprofits to generate and accelerate positive changes in health. As a catalyst for change, the Foundation improves the health of Missourians through partnership, experience, knowledge and funding.

Your Health Matters is provided in partnership with

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • JUNE 16 – 22, 2016

A15

Summer safety tips Summer is a time of fun and relaxation for most people. But for seniors, the heat and sun can be dangerous without proper precautions. Private duty nursing provider MediNurse offers readers the following tips for older adults and caregivers.

Stay hydrated. Seniors are more susceptible to dehydration than younger people because they lose their ability to conserve water as they age. They can also become less aware of their thirst and have difficulty adjusting to temperature changes. Remember to drink water often, and be sure to pack some when going out.

Stay cool. Even small increases in temperature can shorten life expectancy of

seniors who are coping with chronic medical conditions.

Protect your eyes. Wearing sunglasses can protect your eyes from harmful UV rays and preserve vision.

Use sunscreen and wear hats. People of all ages should use sunscreen when outdoors.

Hats are especially helpful for those with light-colored or thinning hair.

Know the risks of hyperthermia. During the summer, be especially cautious about abnormally high body temperature, a condition known as hyperthermia. Heat stroke is an advanced form of hyperthermia that can be life-threatening. If you or an elderly loved one shows these warning signs, ask

for medical help and get out of the heat, lie down and place ice packs on your body: Hyperthermia symptoms include: • Body temperature greater than 104 degrees • Dry, flushed skin • Nausea and vomiting • Headache • Not sweating, even if it is hot out • Fainting Know who to call. Prepare a list of emergency phone numbers and keep the list in a place that’s easy to access.

Openings on Missouri Foundation for Health board The Missouri Foundation for Health is seeking applicants for its 2017 Board of Directors. Its board consists of 15 directors who serve voluntarily for three-years.

Members may be nominated for a second three-year term.

Five board positions expire

each year.

A guiding principle of the board selection process is that the Board as a whole represents the gender, racial, cultural, geographic, and ethnic diversity of the MFH region, which includes 84 counties and the city of St. Louis.

MARKET

Bugett said feedback has been positive, much like that of shoppers during a bus visit to the Renaissance Place Apartments on N. Compton.

“A lot of those residents came out and visited the bus and they were very pleased with the products and they were really pleased with the prices we have to offer,” Bugett.

The market is looking toward added value for customers while combining a bit of community service.

“We helped a lot of clients back with their groceries, so that’s something that we can do,” Bugett said. “We plan to have the volunteers – most likely students, come out and volunteer to help the elderly carry their groceries back.”

In addition, there is a mobile market bus in the works to expand into other areas in St. Louis.

For more information, visit http://www.stlmetromarket. com.

Continued from A14 Local in this case means, Missouri and Illinois.

“They were really excited to find out we were using local farmers to stock the bus with what we sell and that includes a lot of the fresh and frozen meats,” she added.

The bus officially kicked off May 14 at the intersection of MLK and Compton in the Jeff Vanderlou neighborhood, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. Going forward, it will be at 3117 Thomas Street every Saturday, year round.

In addition, the MetroMarket will service the Hyde Park neighborhood at Holy Trinity Catholic Church from 1p.m. to 4 p.m., the first Saturday of every month.

On weekdays, the bus makes stops on Thursday afternoons at SLU Hospital and Friday afternoon at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital.

Joining MFH’s Board of Directors is an opportunity to engage in very meaningful work and to assist the Foundation with achieving its mission of improving the health of Missourians through a combination of partnership, experience, knowledge, and

funding. Board members also serve as financial stewards, carrying fiduciary responsibility for MFH’s over $1 billion in assets.

Applicants must be at least 18 years old and are required to complete and submit an application, along with a CV/

resume, postmarked, faxed or emailed by 5 p.m. Monday, August 8, 2016.

The MFH Community Advisory Council reviews applicant responses and selects candidates for personal interviews in early September.

The CAC identifies, screens,

and nominates candidates, and the current Board elects members from among those nominated.

For an application and more information, visit www.mffh. org.

Cleaning with a wire brush? Grill and eat with caution Now that the unofficial start of the summer grilling season is underway, barbeque kings and queens may not be aware of the dangers of eating food cooked on grills that were cleaned with wire-bristle brushes. A new study conducted at the University of Missouri School of Medicine identified more than 1,600 injuries from wire-bristle grill brushes reported in emergency departments since 2002. Loose bristles can fall off the brush during cleaning and end up in the grilled food, which, if consumed, can lead to injuries in the mouth, throat and tonsils.

Researchers advise individuals to inspect their food carefully after grilling or consider alter-

native grill-cleaning methods.

“Wire-bristle brush injuries are a potential consumer safety issue, so it is important that people, manufacturers and health providers be aware of the problem,” said David Chang, M.D., associate professor of otolaryngology at the MU School of Medicine.

“If doctors are unaware that this problem exists, they may not order the appropriate tests or capture the correct patient history to reach the right diagnosis.”

Chang reviewed consumer injury databases to determine the number of emergency department visits caused by wire-bristle injuries between 2002 and 2014. He observed

that 1,698 injuries were reported by emergency departments in that time.

The most common injuries reported were in patients’ oral cavities, throats and tonsils, with some injuries requiring surgery.

“One little bristle unrecognized could get lodged in various areas of the body, whether in the throat, tonsil or neck region,” Chang said.

“If the bristle passes through

those regions without lodging itself, it could get stuck further downstream in places like the esophagus, stomach or the intestine. The biggest worry is that it will lodge into those areas and get stuck in the wall of the intestine. The bristles could migrate out of the intestine and cause further internal damage.”

Chang said that the number of injuries found from wire-bristle brushes could be

even larger than his 1,698 estimate, since his study did not include injuries treated at urgent care facilities or other outpatient settings. This data could lead to better protective measures from individuals and wire-bristle brush manufacturers, he said.

Chang recommends the following tips for individuals this grilling season: • Use caution when cleaning grills with wire-bristle brushes, examining brushes before each use and discarding if bristles are loose.

• Inspect your grill’s cooking grates before cooking, or use alternative cleaning methods such as nylon-bristle brushes or balls of tin foil.

• Inspect grilled food carefully after cooking to make sure bristles are not stuck to the food.

“If cautionary measures fail and individuals do experience problems with swallowing or pain after eating something that has been barbecued or grilled, they should seek advice from a physician or an emergency department and let the physician know that they were just at a barbecue event or they just grilled food,” Chang said.

The study, “Epidemiology of Wire-Bristle Grill Brush Injury in the United States, 2002-2014,” is published in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.

DOCTOR

pre-packaged, processed and often lack any substantial nutritional value. Fresh foods not only provide essential dietary needs , it also forces us to slow down and savor the process of food preparation. This dying art form must be revived for our existence to continue.

lence of obesity in men was 35%. Obesity has been linked to hypertension, diabetes and osteoarthritis, just to name a few. But choosing to eat mostly fruits and vegetables can positively affect future health outcomes.

a fight in the doctor’s office, then recommend a colonoscopy to a male patient. Although colonoscopy is recommended starting at age 50, men tend to delay or refuse this potentially life-saving procedure. To me, removing polyps endoscopically sounds much better than having a small portion of your colon resected because of colon

cancer.

where we convince these men that we want them to be around for years to come. Therefore dads, you must do your part to make that dream a reality.

Continued from A14 on convenience and 24 hour accessibility. Our fast paced lives leave little room for the simple pleasures of life such as cooking and sharing a meal with one another. Meals are

In 2013-2014, the preva-

Finally, No. 5: Get the test, get the blood work! Want

Missouri Foundation for Health is a resource for the region, working with communities and nonprofits to generate and accelerate positive changes in health. As a catalyst for change, the Foundation improves the health of Missourians through partnership, experience, knowledge and funding.

Furthermore, if your doctor orders lab work, get it done!

Diabetes, electrolyte abnormalities and kidney disease can all be tested via lab work.

Though Father’s Day is a day to honor the men in our lives who have been exemplary dads, it should also be a day

Denise Hooks-Anderson, M.D., is assistant professor at SLUCare Family Medicine. She can be reached at yourhealthmatters@stlamerican.com

Your Health Matters is provided in partnership with

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ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • JUNE 16 – 22, 2016

Fanciful hats help keep Forest Park – forever Forest Park Forever, the nonprofit conservancy that partners with the City of St. Louis to restore, maintain and sustain Forest Park, welcomed nearly 1,200 Park supporters to the World’s Fair Pavilion for its annual Hat Luncheon on Thursday, June 9.

Guests of this exciting annual event donned hats and other fanciful headwear in every shape and size in anticipation of winning terrific prizes for their creative and stylish millinery, all while supporting Lauren Ming, Lee Haynes and Elinor Hancock

Forest Park. Between ticket sales, sponsorships and a raffle, the event raised more than $400,000 to support critical maintenance of Forest Park.

KMOX News Anchor Carol Daniel served as Mistress of Ceremonies for the luncheon, which culminated with the Stifel Hat Contest. Winners were announced and brought to the stage in several categories including: Romantic, Whimsical, Fascinator, Vintage, Couture, Best Male Hat, Best in Show and Best Table Theme.

Photos courtesy of Gentry W. Trotter

St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura Jones and Eva Roberts, another award winner.

FPF’s Tamara Sheffield and David Rowan Penny Ledet won an award for her hat.

Darla Brown, Susan Buford and Valerie Moten

KMOX’s Carol Daniel was a dynamic emcee.

Lesley S. Hoffarth, P.E. President, Forest Park Forever

Minga Furr, Addie Tompkins and Dana Redwing

Business

B1

JUNE 16 – 22, 2016

U.S. Black Chamber of Commerce launches local branch Christal Watson, president of the Heartland Black Chamber, said the U.S. Black Chamber of Commerce’s new St. Louis branch will collaborate, rather than compete, with existing local minority business advocacy organizations.

People On The Move Paula Perkins Bryant was appointed circuit judge for the Twenty-Second Judicial Circuit, which covers the City of St. Louis,

by Gov. Jay Nixon.

Previously she was Paula an associate circuit Perkins judge. Prior to taking Bryant the bench, she was an assistant circuit attorney in St. Louis. She will fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Circuit Judge Margaret Neill.

Gregory Glore joined the Board of Directors for the Gateway Center for Giving, a philanthropic membership organization that helps grantmakers to connect, learn and Gregory act to benefit the Glore St. Louis region. A graduate of Sumner High School, he recently returned home to St. Louis from Kansas City, where he retired from the Seagram’s Corporation.

Charlene NdiJones is the new deputy director of the Wound Care Outreach Program.

The program provides free wound dressings to those who are under-insured and Charlene at greatest risk Ndi-Jones for infection or amputation due to complex wounds. Previously she was senior Community Relations manager at the Johns Hopkins – Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center & Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Photo by Wiley Price

Programs include assisting in business development and microlending

By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American About 75 black business owners and community leaders celebrated the launching of a local branch of the U.S. Black Chamber of Commerce at an event held at Saint Louis University on Monday, June 13.

“How many of you know you’re awesome?” asked Veta Jeffrey, manager of community economic partnerships at the Missouri Department of Economic Development. “The fact that you know you’re awesome, does that mean that the person next to you is not awesome?”

Jeffrey was pointing to the fact that there are currently a few other regional organizations that provide services for minority businesses,

The board members include Kelvin n “We want something that speaks to Westbrook, Tony Thompson, Darlene Davis, African-American business owners, Marvin Steele, Damon Jones, Ron Norwood and and not just minorities overall.”

Naretha Hopson.

– Veta Jeffrey, Missouri Department of Economic Development

including the St. Louis Minority Business Council and the Mid-States Minority Supplier Development Council.

“We want something that speaks to AfricanAmerican business owners, and not just minorities overall,” she said. “They can walk in tangent, and we can be a good support.”

The St. Louis branch falls under the regional Heartland Black Chamber, which also includes Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska.

After Ferguson, the U.S. Black Chamber established a foundation for businesses near “Ground Zero” that were unable to operate in the ongoing unrest. Then they reached out to Jeffrey about opening a local chamber.

The chamber’s programs include business employment services and training, assisting in business development and microlending, among others.

See CHAMBER, B6

NorthSide to build 500 residential units over next 5 years Low-income housing advocates worry about displacement of local community

By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American The long-awaited housing development in the NorthSide Regeneration project that covers 1,500 acres in North St. Louis city is finally seeing some positive movement.

On June 7, NorthSide developer Paul McKee Jr. said they will begin construction on 3,000 market-rate residential units – starting with 500 units over the next five years. To accomplish

this, McKee announced a partnership with Washingtonbased national developer Telesis and local CRG Real Estate Solutions.

McKee’s move to start on the housing development comes seven years after the city first approved a $391-million Tax Increment Financing (TIF) proposal Paul for NorthSide’s $8-billion McKee Jr. redevelopment plan. The NorthSide TIF and plan was basically frozen for three years, following lawsuits filed in 2010 against the city and state.

In April 8, 2013, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled in favor of the NorthSide TIF. On June 2, the National GeospatialIntelligence Agency officially announced that

n “Our goal is to not put income restrictions so they can grow to anyone who wants to live there and increase the value of the neighborhood.”

– Paul McKee Jr.

North St. Louis will be the new home for its $1.75-billion west headquarters. NorthSide’s first housing will go up immediately adjacent to the NGA facility site, in a 50-block area bounded by St. Louis Place Park, Cass Avenue on the south and North Florissant on the east.

See NORTHSIDE, B2

Vincent D. Reese joined the St. Louisbased law firm Mickes O’Toole. He specializes in labor and employment and education law as well as commercial litigation. He has successfully Vincent D. litigated employment Reece discrimination claims based on race, sex, age, disability, religion, national origin and pregnancy in Missouri and Illinois state courts as well as many courts across the country.

Wilmetta ToliverDiallo has been elected to the Board of Directors of the Foster & Adoptive Care Coalition. She is an assistant dean in the College of Arts and Sciences and senior lecturer Wilmetta in African & African ToliverAmerican Studies Diallo at Washington University. The coalition is one of the largest recruiter of foster/adoptive homes.

Jermine Alberty was named the lead consultant for Pathways to Promise.

He is the principal consultant of SALT Initiative, founded on the principles that service, affirmation and love can bring Jermine about transformation Alberty in organizations and those they serve. Pathways is committed to creating an atmosphere in the faith and mental health communities that promotes recovery from mental illness.

On the move? Congratulations! Send your good professional news and a color headshot to cking@stlamerican. com

B2

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • JUNE 16 – 22, 2016

Personal Finance

Anyone can make mistakes with estates – you don’t have to

By Nathaniel Sillin Adulthood brings certain financial responsibilities like the building of budgets, bank accounts and proper insurance.

It’s surprising how few consider a proper estate plan part of that essential mix.

In fact, a recent ABCNews poll (http://abcnews.go.com/ Business/story?id=86992) found that only about 50 percent of Americans have created a will and significantly fewer have created the supporting estate documents like a living will or a power of attorney.

Preparing now for the end of your life or for illness may not sound like fun, but it is necessary. Having a plan for the future can help bring you peace and even put you on the road to stronger financial security. It can also help those you care most about.

We’ve all heard cautionary tales about relatives or friends who did not have a will, and family members who were left with difficult but avoidable situations.

So, how do you start an estate plan? It has a lot to do with carefully drawn documents, but it’s the planning behind them that really counts. I would encourage you to work with a qualified financial, estate and/or tax professional in your home state at the earliest opportunity to make sure your plans fit your needs and the needs of your loved ones.

Here’s a bit more detail on each.

A will, also called a testament, is the starting point.

release to your family or donation for medical research.

Powers of attorney are legal documents that allow you to name a specific person to take care of your money or healthcare wishes if you are incapacitated. It is particularly wise to seek professional counsel from a qualified trusts and estates attorney in writing these documents. The person you designate as healthcare power of attorney will be speaking with doctors and executing your wishes on various forms of treatment; your financial power of attorney will be in charge of paying your bills and depending on the range of responsibilities you outline for that person, handling your investment and business affairs. Both are extremely important jobs that should be carried out by people you trust, and that’s why they need to be people in the know. Make their preparation part of your estate planning so they know how to step in and carry out the assignments you’ve given them efficiently.

Wills are generally seen as the umbrella document that drives the rest of an individual’s estate process. A will generally accomplishes the following:

to care for them after you die or become incapacitated. It also indicates who will manage your kids’ assets, including what you leave them.

• It details how you want to leave your property to specific people or institutions after you die.

• It lets you name your executor, the trusted person who will carry out all your wishes in the will.

If you die without a valid will, your state’s court system may get involved

• If you have minor children, it allows you to name a guardian

in distributing your assets depending on intestacy laws on the books.

A living will – also known as an advance directive – allows you to define how you want to be medically treated under specific situations, including irreversible injury or terminal illness. Depending on your state laws, living wills allow you to express

NORTHSIDE continued from page B1 The first phase will include houses, starting at $115,000 for a 1,000 square-feet home.

It will also include apartments and lofts, starting at rents of $750 on up to $1,400 for 800-square-feet. At present, Catherine Lynch, director of planning for Telesis, said they do not plan to include affordable housing among the first 500 units.

“There’s a difference between affordable housing and income-restricted housing,” said Lynch. “Right now the market rate for rents and sales in that neighborhood are affordable to households below 80 percent and in comes cases 60 percent, which is the usual income restriction for affordable housing. So how many are affordable? Right now, everything.”

McKee said there are

your exact wishes about feeding, breathing assistance and other life-sustaining procedures in addition to how you want them carried out at certain decision points in your care. A living will may also provide information on pain or infection medications you either want or don’t want administered as well as specific instructions about your remains, including

already seven low-income projects in surrounding neighborhoods.

“There is so much subsidized housing on the North Side,” McKee said. “Our goal is to get prices that people can afford to pay but not put income restrictions on people so they can grow to anyone who wants to live there so that we can increase the value of the neighborhood and make it a market neighborhood.”

Molly Metzger, a board member of the Equal Housing Opportunity Council and associate professor at the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University, has been part of many recent conversations on preventing gentrification and diversifying city neighborhoods.

“I suppose you could say that even the most expensive housing is affordable to someone,” she said. “But the big question is: Who can afford it? And if there are some reasonably priced units, will

Bottom line: Estate planning is the final, responsible step in all good financial planning. While it may be unpleasant to do, it is essential in taking care of family, loved ones and causes you support after you’re gone.

Nathaniel Sillin directs Visa’s financial education programs. To follow Practical Money Skills on Twitter: www. twitter.com/PracticalMoney.

they be dedicated to the lowincome households who really need them?”

While the low-income tax credit program is not perfect, Metzger said it helps to guarantee that there will be a mixed-income population.

Metzger hopes that the housing developers will take into account the Ferguson Commission’s call to apply a racial equity lens to every major policy and practice decision made in the region.

“It is not enough to say that there is affordable housing elsewhere on the North Side,” Metzger said. “If we want integrated housing, as opposed to merely a shifting of the color line, we need to be proactive and plan for it. There is a long history in St. Louis and around the country of the displacement of low-income communities and communities of color. Will the NGA site be the next iteration of that same story?”

n “It’s another hit for us as Americans and what we have to deal with in our world today, and it definitely puts things in perspective on basketball.”

– LeBron James, on the massacre in Orlando

Sports

INSIDE

Bryant Gumbel, Billy Crystal said what we felt about Muhammad Ali ~ See ‘Sports Eye’ page B4 ~ B3

JUNE 16 – 22, 2016

Sports Roundup With Palmer L. Alexander

Surge wins home opener Women’s basketball team is 5-1 going into Saturday

By Palmer Alexander III For The St. Louis American The St. Louis Surge didn’t disappoint the energized crowd inside the Mark Twain Center on the campus of UMSL. The Surge won their home opener 103-88 against the Nebraska Strikers, the only team to put a loss on the Surge that sits now at 5-1.

The Surge got tested by the Nebraska Strikers especially in the first quarter of the game. Strikers point guard Michaela Houser had a sizzling first quarter. at one point outscoring the Surge all by herself, 16-15.

I was a little surprised that the Strikers abandoned their hot shooting point guard and played a lot of one on one basketball.

Houser went more than four minutes into second quarter without getting a shot. And by the time she finally was able to take one, she had cooled off considerably. However, I don’t think it mattered, because the Surge had all the answers.

Surge guard Rebecca Harris was impossible to guard. She led them with 27 points and did it with an array of crossovers, pull-up jumpers, and pure desire and determination. And she is really good at changing Palmer L. directions without sacrificing any speed whatsoever.

Alexander Harris played that game with a chip on both shoulders. It was as if every shot Strikers point guard Michaels Houser made just got Harris more agitated, and there wasn’t a Strikers player within the distance of at least one Metrolink stop who wanted to take a charge against Harris.

And she wasn’t alone either, as 6’4” post player Michala Johnson showed off her smooth post moves, finishing with either hand.

Johnson has the softest touch around the basket and plays well n The Surge just kept coming in waves at the without the ball in her hands. She is very difficult to guard in post, Strikers, whether it was and not a bad interior passer either. forward Shannity James After she made a couple shots in the post, she had the Strikers off or Jaleesa Butler and balance on defense.

Leah Cotton.

The Surge just kept coming in waves at the Strikers, whether it was forward Shannity James – whom head coach Tony Condra raved about during an interview I did with him for a podcast – or Jaleesa Butler and Leah Cotton. This team is very, very deep and fun to watch.

Surge owner Khalia Collier was kind enough to give us a quick interview at halftime, which you can see at stlamerican.com. Khalia started off the game in heels, then went into the phone booth for tennis shoes and her Surge basketball shirt while greeting every single person in attendance – even twice, if need be. What this young lady has accomplished is quite remarkable, and it’s only going to get better.

Next up for the Surge is another home game, this time against the Iowa Force (2-3) on Saturday, June 18. The tip off at 7:05 p.m. For more information, visit www.stlsurgebasketball.com.

If you haven’t already, please subscribe to the St. Louis American YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Follow me on twitter @thelegendkil @NTheZoneNetwork.

Photo by Wiley Price

Rebecca Harris (13) of the Surge attempts to pass by defenders Reshea Bristol (10) and Hailey Kimball (11) of the Nebraska Srickers during fourth-quarter action on Saturday. The Surge went on to win 103-88.

In The Clutch With Ishmael H. Sistrunk

Ali’s legacy will live on forever n Ali highlighted his speed, agility and skill over the brute strength and power for which heavyweights were celebrated.

Stands alone as most impactful boxer in history Boxing is a sport of great are built on the fists of the debates. Fight fans rarely have fighters. There is room for conversations of about great reasonable debate on whether fighters without comparing Muhammad Ali is the greatest them to the ring legends of yes- fighter of all-time, or even the teryear. In team sports greatest heavyweight. such as basketball However, what cannot and football, a playbe debated is that Ali er’s greatness is often stands alone as the most impacted by those important and impactful around him. Would fighter in the history of Michael Jordan be as the sport. great without Scottie From the moment Pippen? Would Joe John Graham Montana be as great Chambers penned without Jerry Rice?

Ishmael H. the Marquess of How many yards could Sistrunk Queensberry rules in Barry Sanders have 1865, until the recent accumulated with a plague of mediocrity decent quarterback and offenthat has infected the current sive line? When comparing any crop of heavyweights, boxing’s of those players with today’s heavyweight division was greats, all those things have its pride and joy. Even when to be taken into account (in boxing was broadcast solely addition to the significant rule over the radio waves, marquee changes between eras). matchups for the heavyweight In boxing, the rules are sim- title put the Super Bowl hype ple. The personnel impacting to shame. Heavyweight chama fight are minimal. Legacies pions were billed as the biggest

After laying on the ropes and absorbing punishing for eight-rounds, Muhammad Ali knocked out George Foreman in one of the greatest fights in boxing history. and baddest men on the planet.

They were simultaneously feared and revered.

Then came a slender, fasttalking kid from Louisville, Ky. that had the audacity to claim

he was pretty in the manliest sport around. He highlighted his speed, agility and skill over the brute strength and power for which heavyweights were celebrated. Witnessing Ali

in the ring was like watching Miles Davis on the trumpet or Charlie Parker on the saxophone. He was poetry in motion. His footwork was as graceful as a ballerina.

When his dancing and rhythmic movements entranced his opponents, he had the power to render them unconscious in the blink of an eye.

When I think of Ali’s in-the-ring accomplishments, the fight that stands out most to me was “The Rumble in the Jungle,” his fight against George Foreman. In this bout, Ali broke all the rules of conventional wisdom and emerged victorious. Some thought Ali would get killed in the ring.

Foreman had destroyed both Joe Frazier and Ken Norton in just two rounds. At age 32, See CLUTCH, B5

B4

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • JUNE 16 – 22, 2016

Sports Eye With Alvin A. Reid

Bryant Gumbel, Billy Crystal said what we felt about Muhammad Ali The late St. Louis icon Jack made our fights his fights for Buck hosted a short-lived NBS decades. sports program in 1975 entitled “People like me who were GrandStand, which was once young, semi-gifted and designed to rival ABC’s Wide black will never forget what World of Sorts. Joining him on he freed within us. Some of the show was a young, black us, like him, took pride in man named Bryant Gumbel. being black, bold and brash.

GrandStand didn’t last, but And because we were so Gumbel did. From 1975 to unapologetic, we were in the 1982, he hosted a variety of eyes of many way too uppity; major sporting events we were way too for NBC, including arrogant. Yet we reveled NFL, MLB and college in being like him. By basketball events. stretching society’s In September 1982, boundaries, as he did, he began a 15-year run he gave us levels of as the principal anchor strength and courage we of Today. He now didn’t even know we works for HBO Sports, had. and was a longtime “But Ali’s impact Alvin A. friend of Muhammad was not limited to those Reid Ali. of a certain race or a As he spoke to certain religion or a the world at Ali’s memorial certain mind set. The greatness service last Friday, June 10 of this man is that he was, in in Louisville, Kentucky, his fact, a man for all ages. words touched me more than “Has any man ever scripted any other participant. Maybe a greater art to his life? What it is because I am a black does it say of a man, any man, journalist, maybe it is because that he can go from being I always counted myself as one viewed as one of country’s of his fans. most polarizing figures to Here are his words arguably its most of respect and praise beloved – and to do n “I doubt for Ali. They say so without changing any of us everything I have his nature or for a struggled to say since will ever second compromising Ali passed. his principles? forget how “The great Maya “Yeah, you Muhammad Angelou, who was know there were Ali made us great causes, there herself no stranger feel.” to fame, wrote that were great national ultimately people movements, there – Bryant forget what you said; were huge divisions Gumbel and people forget in our nation that what you did. But no afforded Ali unusual one will ever forget opportunities to how you made them symbolize our feel. As applied to Muhammad struggles. But Harry Truman Ali, the march of time may had it right when he said one day diminish his boasts ‘men make history, and not and his poetry; maybe even the other way around.’ Or his butterflies and bees. It as Lauryn Hill so nicely may even one day dull the put it, ‘consequence is no memories of the ‘Thrilla in coincidence.’

Manilla and the ‘Rumble in “Befitting his stature as the Jungle.’ But I doubt any The Greatest of All Times, of us will ever forget how Muhammad Ali never shied Muhammad Ali made us feel. away from a fight. He fought I’m not talking about how not just the biggest and baddest proud he made you feel with men of his day inside the his exploits, or how special he ropes, but outside the ring he made you feel when you were went toe-to-toe with an array privileged enough to be in his of critics, a seemingly endless company. I’m talking about succession of societal norms, how he gripped our hearts. our the architects of a vile immoral souls and our conscience and war, the U.S. government; he

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

“By stretching society’s boundaries, as he did, he gave us levels of strength and courage we didn’t even know we had,” Bryant Gumbel said of Muhammad Ali at his funeral last Friday, June 10 in Louisville, Kentucky. even fought, ultimately to his detriment, the limitations of father time.

“Strictly speaking, fighting is what he did. But he broadened that definition by sharing his struggles with us and by viewing our struggles as his. And so it was that he accepted and led battles on behalf of his race, in support of his generation, and in defense of his religious beliefs and, ultimately, the fight of his disease.

“I happened to be overseas working in Norway this past week when my buddy (Today host) Matt Lauer called and he said that the champ had been

taken to the hospital - and this time it was really serious. Right away I called Lonnie, who was as always a pillar of strength.

As we discussed the medical details, the doctors’ views and ugly realities of mortality, Lonnie said ‘Bryan, the world still needs him.’

“And indeed it does. The world always needs a champion who always worked to bridge the economic and social divides that threaten a nation that he dearly loved. The world needs a champion that always symbolized the best of Islam to offset the hatred and the fear. And the world needs a champion that believed in fairness and inclusion for all.

‘Hating people because of their color is wrong,’ Ali said. ‘And it doesn’t matter what color that does the hating, it’s just plain wrong.’

“Yeah, we do need Muhammad Ali now. We need the strength, the hope, the compassion, the conviction that he always demonstrated. But this time our beloved champion is down. And for once he will not get up. Not this time. Not ever again.

“Let me close with a personal story. Fifty years ago, Muhammad Ali defeated George Chuvalo in Toronto Canada. The very next day he showed up in my Hyde Park neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. As Ali got out of a car at the home of Elijah Muhammad, I happened to be next door shooting hoops in a friend’s backyard. Of course, I quickly ran to the fence and for the first time in my life I shook the champ’s hand. I was 17. I was awestruck and, man, I thought he was the greatest.

Now, half a century and a lifetime of experiences later I am still awestruck and I am convinced more than ever that Muhammad Ali is the greatest.

“To be standing here on a virtue of his and Lonnie’s request is mind numbing. The honor that Ali has done me today as he goes to his grave is one that I will take to mine.

God Bless you, champ.”

Crystal clear Actor Billy Crystal brought humor to the ceremony, as well as poignant memories of his

relationship with Muhammad Ali. He first met the champ when Ali was being honored as Sport magazine’s man of the year. Crystal, then a struggling stand-up comedian, was only selected to entertain because the sought-after comic was not available.

He imitated Ali and the late Howard Cosell to the amusement of Ali and other guests. After the show, Ali came to him and said, “From now on, you my little brother.”

Ali called Crystal “Little Brother” until his death.

He shared a tale of the two giggling during Cosell’s funeral service after Ali asked him “Do you think he’s wearing his hairpiece?” Crystal said, “I don’t think so.” Ali: “How will God recognize him?” Crystal: “Champ, as soon as he opens his mouth, He’ll know.”

The final words of Crystal’s remarks brought the family, dignitaries, crowd and media to their respective feet.

“He was a tremendous bolt of lightning created by Mother Nature out of thin air.

A fantastic combination of power and beauty. We’ve seen still photographs of lightning bolts at the moment of impact; ferocious in its strength, magnificent in its elegance, and at the moment of impact it lights up everything around it. So you can see everything clearly.

“Muhammad Ali struck us in the middle of America’s darkest night, in the heart of its most threatening, gathering storm. His power toppled the mightiest of foes and his intense light shined on America, and we were able to see clearly injustice, inequality, poverty, pride, self-realization, courage, laughter, love, joy and religious freedom for all.

“Ali forced us to take a look at ourselves. This brash young man who thrilled us, angered us confused and challenged us ultimately became a silent messenger of peace who told us that life is best when you build bridges between people, not walls.

“My friends, only once in a thousand years or so do we get to hear a Mozart, see a Picasso, read a Shakespeare.

Ali was one of them. And yet at his heart, he was still a kid from Louisville who ran with the gods, and walked with the cripples and smiled at the foolishness of it all. He is gone, but he will never die. He was my big brother.”

He was mine too, Billy.

Alvin A. Reid is a panelist on the Nine Network program, Donnybrook and appears on ABC’s The Allman Report and several sports radio shows. His Twitter handle is @aareid1.

B5

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • JUNE 16 – 22, 2016

Hazelwood Central alumna is All American Ashley Henderson excels at NCAA Outdoor Championships

By Earl Austin Jr. Of The St. Louis American

Former Hazelwood Central girls’ track and field standout Ashley Henderson, now a sophomore at San Diego State, earned All-American status in two events at last weekend’s NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon.

of 11.21 seconds. She also anchored the Aztecs’ 4x100meter relay team to a sixthFormer Hazelwood Central place finish and a new school girls’ track and field standout record. Henderson was also a Ashley Henderson put on semifinalist in the 200-meter quite a show at last weekend’s dash, finishing in 11th place NCAA Outdoor overall.

Championships in The All-American n Ashley Eugene, Oregon. performance at the A sophomore at NCAA Outdoors Henderson San Diego State, culminated an has also Henderson earned outstanding season qualified for All-American status for Henderson, the upcoming who was named the in two events. She finished second in U.S. Olympic Outstanding Female the women’s 100Track Athlete in Trials. meter dash, just the Mountain West missing a national Conference. She was championship by the MWC champion .01 seconds behind in the 100, 200 and Oregon’s Ariana Washington.

4x100-meter relay.

Throughout the three rounds, Henderson has also qualified Henderson displayed a late for the upcoming U.S. Olympic surge in the last 20 meters that Trials, which will also be held nearly netter her an individual in Eugene from June 30 to July national title.

10. Henderson will compete in Henderson posted a windthe 100 and 200. aided time of 10.96 seconds Henderson was a two-time in the 100-meter finals. In state-champion in the 100 and the semifinals, she won her 200 during her stellar career at heat with a personal best Hazelwood Central.

Leaders of the track St. Louis American 2016 All-Area Track and Field Team

By Earl Austin Jr. Of The St. Louis American There were some extraordinary individual performances during the 2016 track and field season.

Cahokia’s Ja’Mari Ward unleashed a triple jump effort of 53 feet 7 ½ inches, which was the best in the history of the state of Illinois.

Edwardsville’s A.J. Epenesa threw the discus 206 feet 5 inches, which is the best throw in the United States and the second-best effort in Illinois prep history.

Brentwood girls’ star Sophie Rivera threw the javelin 180 feet 4 inches to qualify for this

month’s U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon.

Alton High’s LaJarvia Brown was a monster in the jumps and hurdles all season as the area’s best all-around performer.

Ward is this year’s St. Louis American Male Track Athlete of the Year while Brown is the Female Track Athlete of the Year. Ward is headed to Missouri while Brown will attend Texas A&M. All four of these athletes are mainstays on this year’s St. Louis American All-Area Track and Field Team. Here is a list of the athletes on the 2016 All-Area Team by their event.

Boys 100-meter dash: Adam Nelson (Triad) 200-meter dash: Jayson Ashford (SLUH) 400-meter dash: Isaiah Cole (Hazelwood West) 800-meter run: Dylan Quisenberry (Lafayette) 1,600-meter run: Dustan Davidson (SLUH) 3,200-meter run: Austin Hindman (Lafayette) 110-meter high hurdles: Travis Anderson (Edwardsville) 300-meter int. hurdles: William Session

(Belleville East) 4x100-meter relay: East St. Louis 4x200-meter relay: East St. Louis 4x400-meter relay: East St. Louis 4x800-meter relay: Lafayette Shot Put: A.J. Epenesa (Lafayette) Discus: A.J. Epenesa (Lafayette) Long Jump: Ja’Mari Ward (Cahokia) Triple Jump: Ja’Mari Ward (Cahokia) High Jump: Lamont Allen (De Soto) Pole Vault: Mark Govero (Festus)

Girls 100-meter dash: Deja Ingram (Hazelwood Central) 200-meter dash: Madison Fuller (John Burroughs) 400-meter dash: Margaret Sliney (MICDS) 800-meter run: Melissa Menghini (Rockwood Summit) 1,600-meter run: Anna West (Lafayette) 3,200-meter run: Sara Nicholson (Lafayette) 100-meter high hurdles: LaJarvia Brown (Alton) 300-meter low hurdles: LaJarvia Brown (Alton) 4x100-meter relay:

October 1, 1975, Muhammad Ali defeated Joe Frazier in what was called the ‘Thrilla in Manila’ to retain the heaveyweight championship.

CLUTCH Continued from B5 Ali wasn’t quite as swift and elusive as he was when he shocked the world to become heavyweight champion. Still, his obvious advantage over the brute and stalking foreman, was his foot and hand speed.

Rather than using his natural advantages though, Ali did the unthinkable and laid on the ropes and corners and allowed Foreman to tee-off on his face and his body for eight long rounds.

Ali dodged some punches and ate plenty of others. The extreme confidence that led Ali to long proclaim that he was ‘The Greatest,’ allowed him to devise the plan to beat Foreman. He sat still and allowed one of the most devastating punchers in history to punch him. To make sure Foreman threw everything at him, Ali taunted and peppered him with insults before (and during) the fight to make his opponent angry. Ali gambled that Foreman would get tired of punching before he would get tired of being punched in the face. Ali gambled on his heart, endurance and ability to persevere and it paid off with one of the most impressive victories in the history of the sport. The victory laid the foundation for mental warfare as a strategy in the sport of boxing.

Between his showmanship and entertaining personality, his affinity for mind games, his never-wavering (publically, at least) confidence, without Ali, your favorite fighter probably would not exist. Recent greats such as Floyd Mayweather Jr., Roy Jones Jr., Sugar Ray Leonard, Mike Tyson, Bernard Hopkins and others owe part of their success and the ability to be flashy, brash or outspoken fighters to the doors Ali opened during his reign.

Ali defied convention and fought against the odds in almost every aspect of his life.

Hazelwood Central 4x200-meter relay: Hazelwood Central 4x400-meter relay: Kirkwood 4x800-meter relay: Lafayette Shot Put: Sophie Rivera (Brentwood) Discus: Sophie Rivera (Brentwood) Long Jump: LaJarvia Brown (Alton) Triple Jump: LaJarvia Brown (Alton) High Jump: Chrishana Wilson (Gateway STEM) Pole Vault: Taylor Gross (Seckman)

Ali speaks to 1,500 students in Los Angeles in February, 1968.

In the age of segregation, when it was even more deadly for black men to be defiant, Ali stood up for civil rights.

He stood up for the Muslim faith when he changed his name from Cassius Clay to Cassius X and ultimately Muhammad Ali. He stood

up for the Vietnamese and against war by refusing to fight in the Vietnam War, even when it put his career and life in jeopardy. He stood up against Parkinson’s Disease by waging a long and public battle against the debilitating illness.

The fact that an entire nation wept after Ali, a loud-mouthed, black, war-skipping Muslim man passed away, shows that there was no foe too great for him to defeat. It is likely that we will never see another Muhammad Ali, inside the ring or out. As I mentioned,

boxing fans and historians can debate and discuss where his skills place him amongst the all-time greats. What cannot be debated though is that any conversation on the most-important and influential fighters of all-time begins and ends with Ali. Much like

Foreman was never the same after the Ali defeat, boxing will never be the same without ‘The Greatest.’

Follow Ishmael and In the Clutch on Twitter @ IshmaelSistrunk

B6

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • JUNE 16 – 22, 2016

Financial Focus

By Ana Anderson-Stringfellow

Give your children the gift of (financial) knowledge

Photo by Wiley Price

Otis Williams, executive director of the St. Louis Business Development Council, said the U.S. Black Chamber of Commerce’s new St. Louis branch will help “get the minority community into the working environment.”

CHAMBER continued from page B1 One person at the event asked if the local chamber will be working in collaboration or in competition with the other minority business organizations.

Christal Watson, president of the Heartland Black Chamber, said that they want to collaborate.

“What is the black business

agenda in St. Louis?” she said. “There needs to be a conversation about what our roles are and what services each of those organizations deliver. There is a role each of us play, and we just need to be more specific about it.”

Otis Williams, executive director of the St. Louis Business Development Council, said he applauds many of the services that the chamber officers and any efforts to “get the minority community into the working

environment.”

Mike Jones, former senior policy advisor for County Executive Charlie Dooley (and current member of The St. Louis American editorial board and the State Board of Education), said the chamber’s launch is an important step for black business leaders.

“The laws of that universe apply to the big and the small,” he said. “You will never develop without effective political instruments.”

It’s almost Father’s Day. If you’re a dad with young children, you can expect some nice homemade cards and maybe even a baseball cap. But, of course, your greatest reward is spending time with your kids and watching them grow.

In return, you can give them a gift – the gift of knowledge.

Specifically, in the months and years ahead, teach them the financial skills that can help make their lives easier and more rewarding.

For starters, encourage your children to become savers. You can do this in a couple of different ways. First, set a good example. You might explain to your kids that you want to buy a certain item, but you are waiting for it to go on sale. Or, if it’s a particularly big-ticket item, like an ultra high-definition television, tell your children that you simply can’t afford it now, but that you are putting away some money each week until you can. You might even make a chart showing your progress.

Another way to help your children become better savers is to provide them with a monetary incentive.

To illustrate: For every dollar they put into a “piggy bank” or an actual savings account, tell them you’ll put in, say,

50 cents. They are likely to be an entertainment company, pleased and excited by how much and that company produces faster their money grows with your a blockbuster movie that contribution, and they may well leads to sequels, spinoffs become more motivated to save. and merchandise tie-ins, Furthermore, you’ll be giving them you can point out how these a valuable lesson for later on in life, developments have pushed when they work for a business that up the company’s stock offers to match price. their contributions You might to a 401(k) or other also explain that n Encourage retirement plan. while these shortyour children Unfortunately, many term price moveto become young people, upon ments are interesttaking on their first ing – and maybe savers. “career” jobs, either even fun – to under-contribute follow, investing to their retirement is actually a longplans or ignore them completely – term endeavor, and the best thereby making it more likely that, investors often hold stocks later on in their working lives, they for many years before sellwill have to come up with much ing them. bigger sums each year to accumulate By following these enough resources for a comfortable suggestions, you can help retirement. your children acquire good Learning to save is certainly financial habits – and seeimportant – but children should also ing them put these skills to learn about investing. To help get good use can provide you your children interested in becoming with many happy Father’s investors, point out that they can Days in the future. actually own shares of companies

with which they are already familThis article was written iar – the companies that make the

by Edward Jones for use by games they play, the movies they your local Edward Jones watch and the food they eat. In fact, Financial Advisor. you could even simulate the investment process by letting them choose For further information a stock and then follow it. To make contact Ana Stringfellow the results more tangible, use “play” at (314) 298-7410 or money to represent an initial invest1-800-EDJONES ment, and add or subtract to the pile to track the ups and downs of the Copyright © 2015 real stock. You might even explain Edward D. Jones & Co., some of the reasons for the stock’s L.P. All rights reserved. movements; for example, if you and Member SIPC. your child are following the stock of

Check out the latest Edition of

PARTYLINE Page C10

C1 • ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • JUNE 16 - 22, 2016

Co-star chemistry makes for guilty pleasure Natural ebb and flow of Hart and Johnson salvages formulaic ‘Central Intelligence’

By Kenya Vaughn Of The St Louis American

“Central Intelligence,” written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber and starring Kevin Hart and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, opens in theatres nationwide on Friday, June 17.

In “Central Intelligence” Kevin Hart steps into the familiar role of odd couple/cop buddy comedy co-star with his reputation as a movie star on the line.

For his last two films, the standup phenomenon’s transition to the screen has been reduced to a windup physical comedy toy failed by a thoughtless premise and script – and without the luxury of his own routine to fall back on.

On the verge of being declared box office kryptonite, Hart has found a rhythm with “Central Intelligence.”

The film by director/co-writer Rawson Marshall Thurber that co-stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson just might be his saving grace.

“Central Intelligence” opens in theatres

nationwide on Friday, June 17 – and with better jokes and comedic situations, the film could have been the “Rush Hour” for the millennial generation.

But they’ll have to settle for an enjoyably serviceable action comedy that sprinkles in cute elements from the reunion comedy formula and showcases the potential of its stars.

The pair seems unlikely at first sight, but the duo meshes well. The secret to their successful partnership is Hart’s graciousness and generosity. He gives Johnson plenty of breathing room to flex his comedy muscles.

In “Central Intelligence,” Hart is actually the straight man – well, as close to a straight man as he could possibly get.

He plays Carl Joyner, a former highSee FILM, C4

A nod to old soul

Payne not in vain

Theresa Payne’s record “Get My Heart Back” is available on digital outlets including iTunes, GooglePlay, Amazon, Spotify and Tidal.

Agony of unhealthy love inspires new album from Theresa Payne

His peers prefer the modern influences of hip-hop, but millennial singer Leon Bridges has found his niche in vintage. The Texas native took his sold-out audience at The Pageant on a stroll down memory lane with original material that pays homage to the early days of R&B.

By Kenya Vaughn Of The St. Louis American “You picked the wrong heart to play with,” local soul singer Theresa Payne belts in her mid-tempo track “Forever” from her latest project “Get My Heart Back.”

With the release of the album last week, Payne furthers the notion that R&B hath no better subject matter than a woman scorned.

“It really started out as therapy for me,” Payne said. “My intention was not to put out an album at all.”

As a matter of fact, she was fighting against it.

That is until she recorded the song “Didn’t I.” Payne knew she was on to something musically, but didn’t think what she was coming up with was for her.

Her previous projects 2009’s “Go Fight Win” and 2011’s “The Moment,” were comprised mostly of inspirational soul.

She came up through the ranks of local traveling open mic event Café Soul, opened for Jill Scott and even made her way to the televised auditions for NBC’s hit talent See PAYNE, C4 Photo by Lawrence Bryant

• Only Online •

‘Five Guys Named Moe’ for Father’s Day

St. Louis loses local artist Tyrell Thompson killed during robbery at age 29

By Morgan Bradley For The St. Louis American

The Jazz Edge Orchestra with guest vocalists Duane Foster, Jermaine Smith, Chuck Flowers, Herman Gordon and Leslie Johnson will perform the beloved Broadway musical on Father’s day (Sun., June 19) at The Sun Theatre.

www.stlamerican.com

The life of Tyrell Thompson – an accomplished artist with a gift for friendship--ended abruptly last Wednesday, June 8, when he was shot by a stranger trying to steal his wallet. He was 29.

After graduating from Hazelwood East High School, Thompson – known to his friends as “Rell Finesse” – studied for three years at the Art Institute of Santa Monica and then continued his studies at Webster University, pursuing a degree in graphic design.

He was a nurturing role model for his

family and friends, and his home and studio provided a safe haven for fellow artists. His home exuded love and warmth and a fostered a feeling of togetherness.

The art that covered his walls was vibrant, full of imagination and color – a parallel to his life. His love for cartoons and anime was ever-present in his skillful, witty work. He painted Power Ranger helmets onto basketball players and voluptuous women.

Rell’s father, Tyrone Thompson, was a policeman who himself had been murdered, yet he loved and respected his city that is plagued with violence. “Don’t See ARTIST, C4

Local artist Tyrell Thompson was killed Wednesday, June 8, when he was shot by a stranger trying to steal his wallet. He was 29.

Calendar

C2

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • JUNE 16 – 22, 2016

How to place a calendar listing

Thur., June 23, 9 a.m., HireLive presents the St. Louis Sales & Management Career Fair. This is your opportunity to interview face to face with 15+ Fortune 500 and Industry Leading companies. DoubleTree Westport Hotel, 1973 Craigshire Rd., 63146. For more information or to register, call (949) 599-1867 or visit www.hirelive.com.

1. Email your listing to calendar@stlamerican. com OR 2. Visit the calendar section on stlamerican.com and place your listing Calendar listings are free of charge, are edited for space and run on a space-available basis.

concerts Fri., June 17, The Marquee Old School Series with Rakim, The Marquee, 1900 Locust. For more information, visit www.metrotix.com .

Sun., June 19, Temptations Revue featuring Dennis Edwards, The Ambassador, 9800 Halls Ferry. For more information, visit www. metrotix.com.

Wed., June 22, 10:30 a.m., St. Louis County Library presents Music & History: West African Kora.

Enjoy this special musical performance by Sean Gaskell on the Kora, an ancient 21-stringed harp from West Africa. Gaskell will feature traditional songs that are the heart and soul of the Kora’s musical repertoire, in addition to some of his own personal compositions. Grant’s View Branch, 9700 Musick Rd., 63123. For more information, call (314) 994-3300 or visit www.slcl.org.

Fri., June 24, 8 p.m. Café Soul welcomes PJ Morton for Black Music Month, The Lux, 2619 Washington Ave. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/cafesoulstl Sat., Jun. 25, Mo Investment presents Brian McKnight Live, The Ambassador, 9800 Halls Ferry. For more information, visit www.

Sat., June 25, 7 a.m., Haven House City of Refuge Church Bazaar, Barbeque, and Carwash Building Fundraiser. 11115 New Halls Ferry Rd., 63033. For more information, call (314) 2991641.

metrotix.com.

Sun., July 3, 7 p.m., Club Riviera Productions presents The Whispers with special Guests The Dirty Muggs, The Ambassador, 9800 Halls Ferry.

For more information, call (314) 534-1111 or (314) 8699090 or visit www.metrotix. com.

local gigs Sun., June 19, 4 p.m., Sikuizm: A Soulition Day Groove. A day of groove offering unapologetically afroprogressive vibes for those who dare to think outside the club. Centene Center for the Arts, 3547 Olive St., 63103.

For more information, visit www.facebook.com.

Sun., June 26, 4 p.m., The Griot Museum of Black History presents Groovin’ at the Griot feat. Lamont Hadley, Sr. Reservations required.

2505 St. Louis Ave., 63106.

For more information or to make your reservation, call (314) 241-7057 or visit www. thegriotmuseum.com.

Sun., June 26, 6 p.m., 28th Annual Carondelet Concerts in the Park feat.

Kingdom Brothers Band.

3900 Holly Hills Dr., 63116.

For more information, call (314) 752-6339 or visit www. carondeletliving.com.

Club Riviera Productions presents The Whispers with special Guests The Dirty Muggs. For more information, see CONCERTS.

Featured Event Sat., June 18, 10 a.m., CAM, the Pulitzer, and the Sheldon present Family Day Block Party. Enjoy superhero-themed art activities, music by KDHX DJ Paul Stark, performances by Tapman, face painting, and more.

Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, 3750 Washington Blvd., 63108. For more information, call (314) 535-4660 or visit www.camstl.org.

special events Fri., June 17, 5:30 p.m., Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis presents Salute to Women in

Leadership. Marriott St. Louis Grand Hotel, 800 Washington Ave., 63101. For more information, call (314) 6153668 or visit www.ulstl.com.

Sat., June 18, 10 a.m., Family Day Block Party. Enjoy superhero-themed art activities at each location, music

by KDHX DJ Paul Stark, performances by Tapman, face painting, and more.

Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, 3750 Washington Blvd., 63108. For more information, call (314) 535-4660 or visit www.camstl.org.

Sat., June 18, 3 p.m., Circuit Attorney Debate 2016. An opportunity to engage all four candidates running for St. Louis City Circuit Attorney before voting in August.

Busch Student Center, 20 N. Grand Blvd., 63103. For more information or to register your questions, visit www.bit. ly/1XvLbU4.

Mon., June 20, Kingdom House presents 2016 Golf Tournament & Dinner Auction. The day will include 18 holes of golf with cart, lunch, food and drinks on course, a dinner auction, and more. Forest Hills Country Club, 36 Forest Club Dr., 63005. For more information, (314) 260-6369 or visit www. kingdomhouse.org.

Mon., June 20, 5:30 p.m., Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. St. Louis Metropolitan Chapters present the Longest Day Awareness Happy Hour.

Troy’s Jazz Gallery, 4519 Olive, 63108.

Sat., June 25, 9 a.m., 150th Anniversary of the Buffalo Soldiers Bike Ride.

We will conquer all 11.8 roundtrip miles of the St. Louis Riverfront Trail. We will meet at the trail entrance at the northern end off Riverview Drive & 270. For more information, visit www. facebook.com.

June 25 – 26, 10 a.m., Midwest Natural Hair Expo.

Hotel Lumiere, 999 North 2nd St., 63102. For more information, call (314) 6437336 or (618) 580-8407.

Sat., June 25, 4 p.m., Reggae Fest Day Party: Carnivãl Edition. This is not just a day party, Carnivãl is a vibrant experience full of color, dance, and of course Caribbean food. The Office, 5917 Delmar Blvd., 63112. For more information, visit www. facebook.com.

comedy June 16-June 18, Helium Comedy Club St. Louis welcomes Sinbad, Helium Comedy Club, 1151 St. Louis Galleria St. For more information, call (314) 7271260 or visit http://st-louis. heliumcomedy.com/ Fri., July 29, 8 p.m. Martin Lawrence, Chaifetz Arena.

For more information, visit www.ticketmaster.com

literary Thur., June 16, 7 p.m., Ferguson Public Library hosts author Carol Anderson, author of White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide. As Ferguson erupted in

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • JUNE 16 – 22, 2016 Café Soul welcomes PJ Morton for Black Music Month.

For more information, see CONCERTS.

2014, and media commentators across the spectrum referred to the angry response of African Americans as black rage, Anderson wrote a remarkable op-ed in the Washington Post showing that this was, instead, white rage at work.

35 N. Florissant Rd., 63135.

For more information, call (314) 521-4820 or visit www. ferguson.lib.mo.us.

Wed., June 22, 7 p.m., St. Louis Public Library hosts author Kimberla Lawson Roby, author of A Sinful Calling. Schlafly Branch, 225 N. Euclid Ave., 63108. For more information, call (314) 367-4120 or visit www.slpl. org.

Mon., June 27, 7 p.m., Left Bank Books hosts author Alison Flowers, author of Exoneree Diaries: The Fight for Innocence, Independence, and Identity. 399 N. Euclid Ave., 63108.

Wed., June 29, 7 p.m., Left Bank Books hosts author Natashia Deon, author of Grace. 399 N. Euclid Ave., 63108.

theatre Through June 22, The Muny presents The Wizard of Oz. 1 Theatre Dr., 63112. For more information, call (314) 3611900 or visit www.muny.org.

Through June 26, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis presents A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 6604 Fine Arts Dr., 63110. For more information, call (314) 5319800 or visit www.sfstl.com.

arts Fri., June 24, 6 p.m., 5th Annual Contemporary Night Out. This is an evening of short, informative programs about various aspects of contemporary art. For more information, call (314) 935-4523 or visit www. kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu/

events.

The Griot Museum of Black History presents Lady Leaders and Legends.

Artist Daniel Hodges will 20 outstanding St. Louis women including Maya Angelou, Katherine Dunham, Frankie M. Freeman, Ida Woolfolk, and others. 2505 St. Louis Ave., 63110. For more information, call (314) 241-7057 or visit www.thegriotmuseum.org.

lectures Sun., June 19, 10 a.m., Every Black Man. What would it take to get every black man in St. Louis to pray for our brothers that have passed, tribute our ancestors, make arrangements to better ourselves, our women, our children, and our communities? Art Hill in Forest Park, 63110. For more information, visit www. facebook.com.

Tues., June 21, 8 a.m., Day Care Provider Training Conference at Harris Stowe State University in the William Clay Center. If you have a Day Care or thinking about opening a Day Care, don’t miss this FREE training opportunity. Register by phone at (314) 622-3306 or email at RayWi@stlouis-mo. gov.

health Sat., June 18, Community Women Against Hardship’s 12th Annual Walk and Health Fair, Tower Grove Park. For more information, Call (314) 289-7523 or visit www.cwah.org.

Sat., June 18, 10 a.m., Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. Upsilon Omega Chapter presents the 17th Annual Commemorative Charles Drew Blood Drive.

For more information or to

schedule an appointment, call (800) RED CROSS or visit www.redcrossblood.org and enter sponsor code: Omega.

Sat., June 18, 10 a.m., Alzheimer’s Association and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Gamma Omega Chapter present the Care & Conquer Education Seminar. In honor of Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness Month, join us for this free education program.

Attendees will learn the latest information on research and early detection of Alzheimer’s disease. The event is free and open to the public. Friendly Temple M.B. Church Youth Worship Center, 5544 Dr. Martin Luther King Dr., 63112. For more information, call (800) 272-3900 or visit www.alz.org/stl.

Sat., June 18, 12 p.m., East St. Louis Branch NAACP and Southern Illinois Healthcare Foundation

C3 Healthy Start Male Involvement Program present Men’s Health Day. During the event, men will learn about the health disparities that affect African American males and get the necessary screenings needed to put them on the path toward greater health.

The event includes a variety of services for men without medical insurance or a medical provider, including: blood pressure, glucose, and health screenings. State Street Health Center, 2001 State St., East St. Louis, IL 62205. For more information, call (618) 2158149 or visit www.sihf.org.

Fri., June 24, 6 p.m., Sickle Cell Association Quarter Auction Fundraiser. What is a quarter auction? It is a cross between an auction (where you hold up a numbered paddle to bid on an item), a raffle (where you are trying to win a prize), Bingo (using chips or a ball with a number on it), and a home party (a gathering with friends). This is a fun and easy way to raise money for a great cause, while bidding on great items from various vendors, like Partylite, Miche, It Works, Thirty-One Gifts, Created, Tupperware, and many, many more. Bidding Paddles are 1 for $5 or 2 for $8. Bring lots of quarters to bid with (we will have extras rolls, if you run out). 5615 Pershing Avenue, Ste. 29, 63112. For more information, call (314) 277-3950 or visit www. sicklecellassociation.org.

Sat., June 25, 8:30 a.m., St. Louis Walk to Defeat ALS. Welcome and Announcements will begin at 10:00 am with the Walk immediately following. There is a 3 mile and a 1 mile route that you can choose. Visitors & Education Center, Forest Park, 5595 Grand Dr., 63112. For more information, visit www.web. alsa.org.

Wed., June 29, 8 a.m., The Alzheimer’s Association presents Alzheimer’s Care Consultation Day. Consultations discuss dementia and Alzheimer’s related issues

including caregivers stress, diagnosis questions, resources and services, coping with behaviors and learning how to communicate with someone with dementia. Consultations are conducted by a social worker for an hour to answer your questions and address concerns. If unable to attend, care consultations can also be conducted by telephone or at the Alzheimer’s Association office, 9370 Olive Blvd, 63112. Appointments are required. To register, call (800) 272-3900. James J. Eagan Center, 1 James Eagan Dr., 63033. For more information, visit www.alz.org/stl.

Wed., June 29, 1 p.m., The Alzheimer’s Association and Saint Louis University’s Geriatric Education Center present Free Geriatric Screenings. Screenings are for anyone age 65 years or older and will include assessment of frailty, nutrition, and cognitive function. Jewish Community Center, 2 Millstone Campus Dr., 63146. For more information, call (314) 8010416 or visit www.alz.org/stl.

Sat., July 9, 1 p.m., Sickle Cell Association presents a Sickle Cell Baby Shower.

Play games, meet other parents, enjoy cake and punch, and most importantly be educated on the important facts for the road ahead. This event is primarily for those parents of a newly diagnosed infant, however it is open to parents of children 5 years and under, also diagnosed with sickle cell disease. RSVP required.

5615 Pershing Avenue, Ste. 29, 63112. For more information or to RSVP, call (314) 833-6751 or visit www. sicklecellassociation.org.

Tuesdays & Thursdays, 7:30 p.m., Get Sexy Movement Boot Camp. Station styled boot camp with 1 minute at each station for three rounds.

North County Recreation Center, 2577 Redman Rd., 63136.For more information, call (314) 898-8898.

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • JUNE 16 - 22, 2016

C4

ARTIST Continued from C1

Art by Tyrell Thompson

PAYNE Continued from C1 series “The Voice.” But she grew up singing church music.

So an album that exposed the grimy details of unhealthy love didn’t seem like an option.

Payne was looking to shop “Didn’t I” to other singers and played the song for her trusted crew within the local music scene.

“I told them I wrote it and wanted to give it to somebody else, and they looked at me like I was crazy,” Payne laughed.

She was already three songs into what would become “Get My Heart Back,” though she didn’t know it at the time.

But the more producer Trifecta kept funneling her music for her words and melodies, the better she felt – not only her situation, but presenting her thoughts and feelings through songs as a collective experience.

“I realized how much it was helping and healing me,” Payne said. “And I knew if I were to

put it into a project that it could help somebody else.”

So she did.

The nine-track record dropped last week and features Arshad Goods, Rockwell Knuckles and Aloha Mischeaux. “Get My Heart Back” carries the listener through the range of emotions experienced over the course of a dysfunctional relationship.

“It was literally like I had written myself through the stages of grief,” she said, “and you have to go through all of those to get to the last stage.”

The stages of heartbreak and relationship dysfunction are a bit different, though.

Depending on the nature of the partnership, they can include rage, confusion, self-doubt, delusion, confrontation, relapse, despair, apathy, freedom and, finally, self-actualization.

Payne gives a taste of them all over the course of the album.

“I keep coming back for more, but you change nothing,” Payne sings in “Back For More.” “Guess I ain’t had enough.”

The album could hold its

give up on your dreams for St Louis,” he often said about the same city that eventually took his life.

His optimism was a constant.

He possessed the unique ability to bring out the best in the people he cared the most about.

“Although seven years apart in age, we fostered a friendship that transcended both space and time,” said John Greene.

“Our friendship did not exist because of the commonalities that we shared, but because of the things that made us distinct and different. These distinct differences rendered me almost speechless in one of the last moments I was fortunate

enough to share with him.”

That night, Greene picked up Rell and they went to a hip-hop event in South City.

“The performance was over, and people are slowly filing out of the event space,” Greene said. “I am standing around, passing out flyers to promote an upcoming event that I curated. Too introverted and shy to pass the flyers out to everyone, I intentionally overlook a group of people standing across from me. Rell witnesses how reserved I am and asks me, ‘Why don’t you go invite them?’”

Green gave his friend excuses why he couldn’t. Rell wasn’t hearing it.

“This next moment is what truly makes me marvel at his genius and his spirit,” Greene said.

“Tyrell takes one of the

flyers, puts it in his back pocket and goes over to the group of people. He stands there talking to the party for several minutes before he returns to me with his beaming smile and says, ‘Yeah, man. They’re coming!’ This is what made Tyrell unique.

This is what made Tyrell a rarity. This is what made Tyrell beautiful.”

Rell challenged his friends to grow and led by example.

“His actions showed you that he cared and he wanted you to live beyond your present state,” Greene said. “He saw where you were but he also saw where you could be and he would do whatever he could to help you get there. One could not quantify a spirit and energy as extraordinary as his.”

Morgan Bradley is an editorial intern for The St. Louis American.

n “It really started

you are a queen?” Payne sings in the closing number entitled “Crown.” “Don’t you know you can conquer anything?”

“It’s okay to struggle, hurt and cry,” Payne said. “But it’s also okay to heal from that struggle and move forward. If you ever want to know what’s on the other side of pain, we have to be willing to take that journey.”

“Get My Heart Back” is available on digital outlets including iTunes, GooglePlay, Amazon, Spotify and Tidal.

Payne will celebrate the album’s release with performance at the Kranzberg Arts Center (501 N. Grand in Grand Center) for Music at The Intersection on Friday, June 17 (8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.). She will also open for Café Soul’s presentation of PJ Morton (of Maroon Five) on Friday, June 24 at The Lux, 2619 Washington Ave. For more information on Theresa Payne, visit her on Facebook.com/Theresa Payne, Twitter @theresa_payne, IG: @theresapayne and on her website at theresapaynemusic. com.

out as therapy for me. My intention was not to put out an album at all.”

– Theresa Payne

own against just about anything out right now in mainstream R&B. With the mostly mid-tempo and hip-hop-flavored selections, Payne nails the experience of carrying listeners through her experiences on the losing end of love.

She feels that doing so through the album shows that

she has grown not only as an artist, but as a woman.

“Sometimes we as women don’t like to talk about those sensitive subjects, because you don’t want to be judged or have anyone look at us like we are crazy,” Payne said.

“But it’s just about being real and owning your feelings.

It showed me that I have

actually learned from my experiences – and that all of that pain wasn’t in vain.”

It wasn’t easy reliving the pain for the sake of her art – even though it was worth it.

“I cried my way through it,” Payne said of the opening prelude.

“In order to move forward, we have to heal – from whatever it is that’s keeping us from getting to the next level,” Payne said. “Everything that happens to us – good or bad – is for a reason.”

“Don’t you know you are beautiful? Don’t you know

Hart and Johnson is also something that deserves a

second look. They are two of the hardest-working individuals

URBAN Continued from C1 school hero disenchanted with the monotony of his life as an adult. On the eve of his high school’s 20-year reunion, former overweight outcast turned CIA hard body Bob Stone (Johnson) inserts himself into Joyner’s life and makes him ache for the ordinary.

The physical absurdity of Hart and Johnson’s pairing is probably the biggest advantage of “Central Intelligence.” It is reminiscent of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito in “Twins.”

Schwarzenegger and DeVito had better punchlines and content to work with. However, Hart and Johnson are both naturals when it comes to timing – and they manage to use their gifts to maximize the funny.

The chemistry between

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in Hollywood. They put in the elbow grease and rose to the occasion of making “Central Intelligence” something they both could be comfortable with presenting to their fans.

The film is a practice run for what could be a decent recurring comedy duo, though there would have to be an upgrade with respect to jokes and subject matter.

More intention being placed on the overall package of “Central Intelligence” from a production standpoint – and not just placing the weight of the film on the star power – would have led to an incredible experience. It certainly had the potential to grow beyond formulaic, predictable comedy.

The film isn’t a side-splitting masterpiece by any stretch, but “Central Intelligence” also has an indisputable fun factor that will allow it to rest comfortably among the guiltypleasure comedy selections of recent years. Between the surprise comedy elements and a few cameos, even the harshest critics will at least be amused.

“Central Intelligence” opens in theatres nationwide on Friday, June 17. The film is rated PG-13 with a running time of 114 minutes.

C5

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • JUNE 16 – 22, 2016

Celebrations Scholarship Winners

21st Birthday

Ga’Nel Wiggins, a senior at McCluer High School and member of the school’s Army JROTC, received Alabama A&M University’s Bulldog Battalion Order of Merit List for a four-year Advanced Designee Campus Based Scholarship. The $81,000 scholarship will cover four years of undergraduate studies. Wiggins plans to major in biology/pre-med with goals of becoming an Army officer and physician.

FREE OF CHARGE

Happy 21st Birthday to my daughter, Brandy Lee, on June 19.

Love you, Nooka Nook, and God bless you!

-Ma

Do you have a celebration you’re proud of? If so we would like to share your good news with our readers.

Whether it’s a birth, wedding, engagement announcement, anniversary, retirement or birthday, send your photos and a brief announcement (50 words or less) to us and we may include it in our paper and website – AT NO COST – as space is available. Photos will not be returned.

Send your announcements to: kdaniel@stlamerican. com or mail to:

Book release Hazelwood Central senior Tyrese Goldsby was awarded the prestigious Millennium Gates Scholarship that will cover the full cost of tuition for four years of college. Goldsby will be attending Morehouse College. He also has aspirations of attending Georgia Tech to complete his master’s degree.

Reunions All reunion announcements can be viewed online!

Beaumont High Class of 1971 is planning its 45th year reunion for July 22-24, 2016. The reunion dinner dance is Saturday, July 23, 2016 at the Renaissance Airport Hotel, 9801 Natural Bridge Road. Please send your contact information (address and phone number) to Gladys Smith at beaumont1971alumni@aol. com.

Beaumont High Class of 1976 will have its 40th year reunion September 23-25, 2016. For more detailed information please email bhs1976@swbell. net or Facebook: Beaumont High class of 76.

Beaumont High Class of 1984 can stay updated via our Facebook page “Beaumont Class of 1984”. We meet the last Friday of every month.

Contact Rochelle Williams at

In May, Wykeeta Lee released her debut book entitled, Breaking the Silence from Shame: My Journey. Empowered through her relationship with Jesus Christ and motivated by her life experiences, Wykeeta shares her story in hopes of helping other victims of abuse.

rochellewilliams001@yahoo. com.

4300 Calvert Ave 63134 (off Woodson Rd.).

East St. Louis Lincoln High Classes of 1966 will celebrate our 50 year class reunion August 19 - 21, 2016 at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel in Fairview Hts., Ill. The cost is $100 for classmates and $50 for guests. A late fee of $25 pp will be assessed after May 31. Please contact John Cunningham for details and reservations at: 618-692-6610.

Harrison School All-Class Reunion Saturday September 10, 2016, 6:30 pm-10:30 pm at Ambruster Great Hall (6633 Clayton Rd., St. Louis, Mo 63117). Tickets are $60 per person.For more info contact; Judy Darris at 314-443-6741, Yolanda Beck at 314-346-8103 or Làshell Tolliver at 314-4203566.

East St. Louis Class of 1971 will celebrate its 45-yesr reunion Sept. 2-4, 2016 at the Casino Queen in East St. Louis, IL. For more information, please contact Opal at 314-952-4729, Sandra at 314-249-7295 or Glenda at 618-781-4888 or email timac48@aol.com.

Hadley Technical High School Class of 1961 will celebrate its 55-year reunion, September 16-18, 2016 at the Renaissance Airport Hotel.

For more information, contact Ralph Johnson 477-2042, Shirley Woods 361-5351, or Jeffery Raybon 3821875. Send updated contact information to celiajteach@ gmail.com. The annual picnic is Sunday, September 4th at John L. Brown Park,

Soldan High Class of 1965 is pleased to announce that our trip to the Nation Capitol of Washington, D.C. was a success. Thank you to all who participated.

Soldan High Class of 1966 has planned its 50-year reunion for September 9-10, 2016 at Christian Hospital Atrium, 1111 Dunn Road St. Louis, Mo 63136. For more information, please contact: Meredith Wayne Farrow, 314.521-8540, Robert Collins, 908.313-5002 or Marilyn Edwards Simpson, 341.837-7746. Facebook, soldan class of 1966 or email: stlsoldan1966@yahoo.com.

Sumner High School Class of 1956 will celebrate its 60th reunion July 15-17,2016, at the Sheraton Westport Plaza Hotel.

For more information, please contact Gloria at 314-438-7339 with your contact information (address, phone number, e-mail).

Sumner High Class of 1964 70th Birthday Gala will be held Sat. Aug 13. 2016 at the Norwood Hills Country Club at 6:30 pm. Please contact Joyce Camp for additional information 314-423-8821 or Yvette Allen 314-997-2214 or Fannie Clark Rogers 314-3554337 your Gala Committee.

Sumner High School Class of 1966 is planning their 50th Class Reunion. Please contact Ella Scott at 314-436-1696, Els2188@sbcglobal.net with your name, address and email or join the Sumner Class of 1966 Facebook Group page.

Sumner High Class of 1971 is planning its 45th year reunion for August 12-14, 2016 at the Holiday Inn Earth City. Contact: Rita Shields at 314-868-7989 or email ritashields@att.net, Al Wilhite 314-302-3448 or email 27alhouse@sbcglobal. net for more information.

Sumner Class of 1976 will celebrate its 40th Reunion July 15 - 17, 2016 at the Holiday Inn Earth City and Shalom

St. Louis American Celebrations c/o Kate Daniel 2315 Pine St. St. Louis, MO 63103

Church City of Peace. Contact B. Louis at 314.385.9843 or email: sumnerclassof76@ yahoo.com for info and/or with your complete mailing address and telephone number(s) or join our Facebook page Sumner Class of 76.

Reunion notices are free of charge and based on space availability.

We prefer that notices be emailed to us!

However, notices may also be sent by mail to:

University City High School Class of 1976 is planning its Fabulous 40th year class reunion for June 24-25, 2016. We need your contact information. Please email your information to: weareuc76@ gmail.com or call the UCHS Class of 76 voicemail at 314301-9597.

Kate Daniel, 2315 Pine St., St. Louis, MO 63103

Vashon January and June Classes of 1966 will celebrate our 50 year reunion October 7-9, 2016 at the Hollywood Casino, 777 Casino Center Drive, Maryland Heights, MO 63043. Contact Marilyn Stuckey, Chairperson, 314-438-8338, email: masystucup@att.net or Janice Holland, Co-Chairperson, 314-727-1695, email: jholland1695@att.net for more information.

Vashon Class of 1967 is planning its 50-year reunion and is need of contact information for all alumni.

Contact JoAnn Alvoid at alvoidjoe8@gmail.com;

Deadline is 10 a.m. on Friday. If you’d like your class to be featured in a reunion profile, email or mail photos to us.

Our email address is:

reunions@ stlamerican.com Sarah (Taylor) Robinson at srobinson647@hotmail.com; or Sonya (Walker) Smith at 314.381.8221, with your address, email and phone.

Vashon Class of 1986 will be celebrating its fabulous 30th Class Reunion in beautiful Las Vegas Nevada, July 21-23, 2016. For more information contact, Claudette at 314 3681502 or cctreze@att.net.

Religion

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • JUNE 16 - 22, 2016

C6

The Message

From pain to ministry

Power of a promise

Evangelist Cynthia Bennett uses her experience to encourage women in abusive relationships

By Marjorie Moore For The St. Louis American Going through a personal and private experience such as an abusive marriage, one woman exposes her past pain and has also pivoted her pain towards a positive direction.

The outcome of her distressful experience has resulted to the birth of an organization as a method to help educate and empower other women concerning the effects of abusive relationships.

This Journey Ministries, founded by Evangelist Cynthia Bennett of St. Louis, was purposed as source to help women to overcome abusive relationships.

“I am a survivor of domestic abuse,” she said. “My first marriage was an abusive relationship. I know by experience and can identify that women don’t have to live in abuse and know that God loves them.”

Moreover, Bennett uses the internet as a platform to reach volumes of women concerning the subject matter. She launched an online magazine as an avenue for women who have suffered abusive or domestic relationships to bond, share and experience their commonalities as a support mechanism.

“This Journey” (www. thisjourney.org) consists of contributing writers, poets and ghost writers, as these writers have chosen the option to remain anonymous.

“We are not going to be

silent any longer,” Bennett said, as she encourages women to tell their stories.

According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, on an average nearly 20 people per minute are physical abused by an intimate partner in the United States.

The coalition reports one in three women are victims of some form of physical violence by an intimate partner within their life time.

This Journey Ministries helps women to make informed choices in their relationships regarding the word of God and available resources.

“God spoke to me that I would have a ministry for hurting women,” Bennett said.

“I heard the call and accepted it, but it came with a price.

God said I would minister effectively out of my pain, and life experiences.”

Bennett said she experienced unusual and unexpected deaths involving many of her family members. Within a 10-year period, she said, her parents and her six siblings all passed away. During this time, Bennett was encouraged to continue to inspire others. She reached out to women via email and would send a one-page letter which contained words of encouragement and scriptures.

The newsletter was the foundation of her online magazine.

“I was faithful with the newsletter and never missed an issue regardless of what I was going through,” she said.

Evangelist Cynthia Bennett of St. Louis founded This Journey Ministries to help women to overcome abusive relationships.

“I knew someone else needed to hear what God had for them.”

Bennett said she has a sense of fulfillment when she helps women. She loves to build them up and knows it is her life’s calling to direct women to a closer relationship with God. “My words come from the heart, and women listen,” she said. “This Journey Ministry’s title derives from knowing everyone has a journey. This journey, our life, will always take place in present tense. It will always be in the moment, in the now.”

Bennett provides other resources for assistance, including biblical counseling sessions, on-site shelter support, job search skills, emotional support, crisis Intervention, parenting skills, preaching engagements,

presentations and workshops for women teens and children.

Bennett is a member of Faith Miracle Temple, 870 Pershall Rd. in St. Louis, where Apostle Larry J. Baylor is senior pastor. She served as the director of Women’s Ministry at the church for nine years. Bennett is happily married in her second marriage to Elder Michael A. Bennett Sr., a minister at Faith Miracle Temple, who assists his wife in the ministry.

Together they have three children.

Bennett plans to organize 3K run on behalf of women and domestic violence on October 8; see www.raceforjadasa.org for registration and details.

To contact Evangelist Cynthia Bennett, email her at info@ thisjourney.org or call 800-2922146.

Covenant is a word I definitely understand.

However, its biblical significance is so dynamic that for most of us, it’s a stretch to grasp the concept of God establishing a “covenant with His people” and realizing that means you.

When all is said and done, this covenant thing is an agreement, a promise between us and God. If you’ve lived at all, then you’ve had people make promises to you that 1) they had no intention of keeping, 2) they failed miserably while trying to keep them, or 3) they didn’t care whether they kept a promise to you or not.

You may have even been more of a promise breaker than a promise keeper. For now, let’s keep the focus on God here.

I’ve got to believe that if anybody is going to keep His Word, it’s God. Therefore this covenant, the one God made to Abraham, the one which Jesus came to fulfill, is the one we should take to our graves.

Because this apparently is a good example of how important it is to keep one’s promises, I submit to you that we should all be extremely careful about making them.

It seems that the basis of spiritual belief is rooted in a simple promise.

Columnist To Noah, “Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as James Washington I gave you green plants, I now give you everything.” Exodus 19:5.

From Jesus to the disciples, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood…for whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” 1 Corinthians 11:25-26. Remember this is God talking about His promise to us. Have you made any promises to Him lately, to yourself about Him, to anybody you love or to someone who loves you? Have you kept them?

Many of us have heard and said the phrase, “Speak it into existence” and “Be careful what you ask for.”

Because of its biblical roots, this covenant thing is a powerful truth to wrap your brain around. A promise is Godly. It has to be. The first promise was made to Adam and Eve. Everything somehow gets caught up in words and the understanding of words; God’s Word, our words. They have incredible power, if only we could understand them in the context of covenant.

They are our vehicles for communicating with the original covenant maker. I am therefore accountable to a higher power for everything I say. And guess what? So are you. “So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth…” Isaiah 55:11. If god can be counted on to keep His Word and I am made in His image, then honesty is the stuff my promises are made of. Remember that when you make your next promise.

May God bless and keep you always.

THE

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN

Career Center ST. LOUIS AMERICAN

MAKE MORE

ACCOUNTS PAYABLE ACCOUNTANT The Missouri Historical Society seeks an Accounts Payable Accountant. Visit www.mohistory.org for position details and how to apply.

An Equal Opportunity Employer

TRANSPORTER needed for all shifts including evenings and Saturdays. High school graduate/GED and Class E license required with the good driving record and knowledge of City and County.

Must pass drug test and background screening.

Experience with chemical dependency a plus.

CPR certified. Send resume and cover letter to: rdickens@ccstl.org or call and leave message at 314.531.0511, ext. 203 EOE

www.stlamerican.com

REPRESENTATIVE The Community Music School of Webster University is seeking a part-time Orchestra and Ensembles Representative. Please visit our website at www.webster.edu for a complete job description. No phone calls please.

Webster University provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, national origin, ethnicity, age, protected veteran or disabled status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

MAJOR PROJECTS MANAGER St. Louis Development Corporation has an opening for a Major Projects Manager. Full description can be found on-line at www.stlouis-mo.gov/sldc select "Careers at SLDC" and follow the online application process.

SLDC offers a full range of benefits including deferred comp, 401(a), and medical insurance.

SLDC is an equal opportunity employer.

Successful candidate must be a St. Louis City resident or establish residency within 180 days of completing a probationary period.

DEPARTMENT ASSOCIATE Webster University’s Office of Academic Affairs seeks a Department Associate. Please visit our website at www.webster.edu for a complete job description. No phone calls please.

Webster University provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, national origin, ethnicity, age, protected veteran or disabled status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

CORRECTIONAL OFFICER Works a 12 hour shift booking, processing and supervising prisoners. Must be high school graduate or GED; 21 years of age, and have no disqualifying criminal history. Valid driver’s license preferred. Starting salary $29,680.56.

Must complete corrections application available at Jennings City Hall, 2120 Hord Ave. or online at www.cityofjennings.org. Returned application must include a current record check from St. Louis City and County Police Dept.

Application deadline 5:00 p.m. Friday, July 1, 2016.

Turn Your Social Media into a

MONEY CALL OR TEXT DERRICK

CASH MACHINE.

314.853.3700

Adasane200@gmail.com

For info email

VOLUNTEER & SPECIAL EVENTS MANAGER $19.16 hourly plus excellent benefits To apply, visit www.wentzvillemo.org E.O.E.

Email your text to vmedina@stlamerican.com

JANITORIAL

The Missouri Department of Transportation has a vacancy for a Motor Carrier Auditor in its Central Office-Chesterfield Audits and Investigations Division. This position performs activities to ensure the accuracy of International Fuel Tax Agreement and International Registration Plan fees due from Missouri-based motor carriers.

Successful candidates will possess a bachelor’s degree in accounting or related field. Auditing or accounting experience is beneficial.

We offer an excellent benefits package. An on-line application may be completed at www.modot.org, under “Career Opportunities”

by June 28, 2016.

EEO/AA

HHAs & CNAs Agency has immediate positions for Home health Aides and C.N.A s. Home health Aide experience is required. Apply at 3470 Hampton Avenue Suite 103 St. Louis, MO 63139.

Call 314-454-1219 “JANITORIAL” Full, Part-Time positions, background check.Steady work history for 3-5 years preferred. MUST apply in person at 314 N. Jefferson at Olive. Monday - Friday 9A to 5P. Two forms of I.D.

ASSEMBLY JOBS

COORDINATOR

REJIS is currently seeking an Assoc. Network Analyst to provide a wide range of services from installing, maintaining desktop PC's, switches, network routers, firewalls, servers, communication troubleshooting and support.

To see our benefits or apply for this or other jobs, please visit:www.rejis.org

ATTORNEY Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, Inc. (LSEM), a non-profit law firm that provides free legal assistance to people living with low income/low opportunity, seeks an attorney to work in its Lasting Solutions (Family Law) Program in all substantive aspects of family law in Missouri. For more information, see the full posting at www.lsem.org. Interested candidates should submit their resume and cover letter by July 10 , 2016 to John Early, Human Resources Director & Attorney at jgearly@lsem.org.

The City of Jennings is accepting applications for the position of laborer in the Public Works Department. Duties include street maintenance and repair, snow plowing and maintenance to public buildings and facilities.

Applicants must have current valid driver’s license and have or be able to obtain a commercial driver’s license, class B. (CDL/B permit required before starting work.)

Experience in concrete and asphalt work or operation of heavy equipment such as a dump truck, street sweeper or high lift preferred.

Hours generally 7:00 to 3:30, Mon-Fri, may be required to work some evenings or weekends.

Starting salary $27,573 without CDL/B, $28,801.50 with CDL/B license.

Applications available at Jennings City Hall, 2120 Hord Ave., 63136 or online at cityofjennings.org. Include copy of driver’s license with returned application. Applications accepted through 5:00 p.m. Friday, July 1st.

No resumes accepted without our application.

Immediate shifts available You must successfully pass all background screenings, have a reliable car and insurance.

To apply visit www.seniorshomecare.com.

Hiring open house Mondays 10am-2pm.

314-962-2666

AUDIO VISUAL TECHNICIAN Part-time The Missouri Historical Society is seeking a Part-time Audio Visual Technician. Visit www.mohistory.org for position details.

An Equal Opportunity Employer

Location: Gateway Region YMCA: Monsanto and O’Fallon Park.

Duties and Responsibilities: Perform preventive maintenance on heating, ventilating, air conditioning systems, water heaters and related equipment.

Qualifications Requirements: Education: High School diploma or GED Experience: One year staff experience in related positions or equivalent education/training

Evaluation and Audience Development The Missouri Historical Society seeks Coordinator, Evaluation and Audience Development. Visit www.mohistory.org for position details.

An Equal Opportunity Employer

ASSOC. NETWORK ANALYST

CAREGIVERS

MAINTENANCE TECHNICIAN

Search Nextemps on craigslist.

STREET/PARK LABORER AUDITOR

C7

Window mfg. co. has assembly jobs now!

Temp-to-perm, 1st shift, 40 hr/wk, mid-Stl County. Tape measure & power tool skills and 75# lifting req’d. $10.00/hr, Nextemps Staffing, 314-727-1060, Jerry.

EOE/Minorities/Females/Vet/Disabled/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity

Need a quote for an ad?

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN

JUNE 16 - 22, 2016

City of Wentzville Parks & Recreation

SLDC values a diverse workforce, and is an equal opportunity employer.

Boldt Brothers Building Maintenance is seeking qualified applicants for General and Rest Room Cleaner positions located in St. Louis, Mo. and surrounding areas.

Candidates must be dependable, drug free and possess no criminal record.

Principal Accountabilities/Duties & Responsibilities: • Performs a wide variety of cleaning tasks such as: Clean, sanitize of bathroom fixtures, mopping, dusting, spot cleaning, trash collection and removal, and vacuuming.

• Operates various cleaning equipment and is familiar with various types of tools and cleaning material.

• Lifting requirements – 25 pounds.

• Complies with all work and safety standards and regulations set forth by Boldt Brothers Building Maintenance.

Applications can be filled out at our home office at 1219 S. Vandeventer Ave., St. Louis, MO 63110, or can be downloaded off our website at BoldtBrothers.com and e-mailed to hr@boldtbrothers.com, mailed, or faxed to us at (314) 533-9000.

•

THE

If Interested apply on-line at:www.gyrymca.org The YMCA Welcomes a Diverse Workforce Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/D/V Must Pass Criminal History Background Check Must Pass E-Verify Check

Multiple Options for CDL Drivers. Choose from Dedicated, Regional or Flex Fleet. Limited Part Time Positions Also Available. Home Weekly, Auto Detention Pay. Top Pay, Benefits. Monthly Bonuses & more! CDL-A, 6 mos Exp Req'd EEOE/AAP. 888-524-8542 www.drive4marten.com

Internal candidates must submit Internal Job Posting Application with resume. (See HR section of intranet for form)

PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICER

HOUSING CLERK

Webster University has an opening for a full-time Public Safety Officer within the Public Safety Office. Please visit our website at www.webster.edu for a complete job description. No phone calls please.

Webster University provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, national origin, ethnicity, age, protected veteran or disabled status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

FIELD STAFF PERSON

JOB OPPORTUNITY Opportunity for an individual with excellent data entry, filing and record tracking skills.

Individual must be detail oriented, have good organizational skills and manage multiple priorities in a quick accurate manner. Individual should have a strong work ethic, good attendance and be comfortable in a working office environment. Should have strong customer service and telephone skills. Must be proficient in Microsoft WORD, EXCEL and OUTLOOK. YARDI Voyager software experience preferred.

Excellent employee benefit package.

The Missouri National Education Association seeks a field staff person to be based in our EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER St. Louis office. The successful applicant will SECTION 3 COMPLIANCE work with teachers and educational support personnel in the Special, Riverview Gardens and Send Resume to: Clayton school districts. Undergraduate degree Housing Clerk and experience with union organizing, Attn: Personnel community organizing and employee advocacy P.O. Box 23886 preferred. Salary and benefits are set by a union St. Louis, MO 63121 contract. Applications including cover letter, resume and three professional references are due or

by June 24, 2016. Send application to job@haslc.com Steve McLuckie at steve.mcluckie@mnea.org.

For a job description or more information email All resumes/applications must be received by 5:00 P.M. July 6, 2016 Mr. McLuckie.

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT RECREATION DEPARTMENT Primary office staff for Jennings Recreation Department, assists residents and others in person and by phone, maintains records and files, assists in computer lab. Hours generally 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, may also assist with other recreation department activities at other locations and on evenings or weekends.

Minimum three years office experience with excellent clerical, computer and customer service skills and attention to detail. Starting salary $26,578.50 Applications available at Jennings City Hall, 2120 Hord Ave., 63136 or online at cityofjennings.org. Applications accepted through 5:00 p.m. Friday, July 1st.

No resumes accepted without our application.

www.stlamerican.com

THE

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN C8

Bids & Public Notices ST. LOUIS AMERICAN

E-BID

REQUEST FOR BIDS The Special School District of St. Louis County will be seeking bids for SSD-100-16 Masonry Repair Work. Bids/drawings available at County Blue Reprographic. $50 deposit, check made out to Special School District. Prebid meeting at South Technical High School, 12721 West Watson Road, 63127 on June 22 at 2:00pm. Bids are due July 12 at 2:00pm.

CITY OF ST. LOUIS LAMBERT - ST. LOUIS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT® Solicitation For Bids (SFB) for Overhead Door Services Bids Wanted Bid documents may be obtained at Lambert St. Louis International Airport - Airport Properties Division, Monday through Friday between 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., or by calling (314) 426-8184. This SFB may also be obtained by visiting our website at www.flystl.com (Click on “Business Opportunities”).

Robert Salarano Airport Properties Division Manager

Need a new career?

Check the job openings on page C7

SEALED BIDS

SEALED BIDS

for

for Roof Replacement, Troop I, Rolla, Missouri , Project No. R1404-01 will be received by FMDC, State of MO, UNTIL 1:30PM, 6/30/2016. For specific project information and ordering plans, go to: http://oa.mo. gov/facilities

REPLACE SHINGLE ROOFSWITH METAL ROOFS, 10 HOUSING UNITS, ALGOA CORRECTIONAL

CENTER, JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI, Project No. C1608-01 will be received by FMDC, State of MO, UNTIL 1:30 PM, 7/14/2016.

For specific project information and ordering plans, go to: http://oa.mo.gov/

facilities

METROPOLITAN ST. LOUIS SEWER DISTRICT Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District will receive sealed bids in the Purchasing Division, 2350 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri 63103-2555 until 10:00am July 18, 2016 for Purchase of: FLOWMETER Specifications and bid forms may be obtained from www.stlmsd.com - click on “MSD At Work”, then “Bidding on Projects”. The bid document will be identified as 6512 RFQ. If you do not have access to the internet, call (314) 768-6314 to request a copy of this bid.

The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS Notice is hereby given that The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (District) will receive sealed bids for Landmark Office Pump Station (P-411) Replacement under Letting No. 12324-015.1, at this office, 2350 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri 63103, until 02:00 PM on Friday, July 15, 2016, at a place designated.

Bids will be received only from companies that are pre-qualified by the District’s Engineering Department for: DEEP SEWER CONSTRUCTION – St. Louis County drainlayer’s license required Plans and Specifications are available for free electronic download. Please go to MSD’s website and look for a link to “ELECTRONIC PLANROOM.” Plans and Specifications are also available for viewing or purchase at Cross Rhodes Reprographics located at 1710 Macklind Avenue, St. Louis MO 63110. All bidders must obtain a set of plans and specifications in order to submit a bid in the name of the entity submitting the bid.

The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

JUNE 16 - 22, 2016

CITY OF ST. LOUIS LAMBERT - ST. LOUIS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT®

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS World Trade Center St. Louis requests proposals for the purchase and installation of an animal wastewater drainage system to be used for international airport operations. To learn about requirements, visit www.stlpartnership.com.

Bids due by 12pm (CST), July 6, 2016.

EOE/DBE/MBE/WBE/SBE

Solicitation for Bid (SFB) for OXYGEN INHALATOR Services Bids Wanted Bid documents may be obtained at Lambert St. Louis International Airport - Airport Properties Division, Monday through Friday between 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., or by calling (314) 426-8184. This SFB may also be obtained by visiting our website at www.flystl.com (Click on “Business Opportunities”).

INVITATION TO BID Ferguson-Florissant School District Sealed bids for Trash Disposal and Recycling Collection Service at Ferguson Florissant School District will be received until Friday, July 1, 2016 at 11:00 a.m. CST by the Ferguson-Florissant School District, and will be publicly opened at 7469 Mintert Ind. Drive, Ferguson, MO 63135. Bid specs must be obtained online at http://new.fergflor.k12.mo.us/facilities-rfq.

Contact Connie Roth at 314-506-9188.

Robert Salarano Airport Properties Division Manager Email ad text to vmedina@stlamerican.com

METROPOLITAN ST. LOUIS SEWER DISTRICT Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District will receive sealed bids in the Purchasing Division, 2350 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri 63103-2555 until 10:00am July 15, 2016 for Purchase of: NEFCO FRP LAUNDER COVERS

REQUEST FOR BIDS The Saint Louis Zoo seeks qualified contractors to submit bids to install water meters in several locations throughout the campus. Bid documents are available as of June 16, 2016 with MOKAN, AGC St. Louis, St. Louis Minority Business Council, Dodge Construction Reports or by contacting Document Imaging Services at (314) 531-0167. Full RFP information, including mandatory pre-bid meeting and site visit, RFP deadline, and contact information may be found on the Zoo’s website: https://www.stlzoo.org/about/contact/ vendoropportunities/

Specifications and bid forms may be obtained from www.stlmsd.com - click on “MSD At Work”, then “Bidding on Projects”. The bid document will be identified as 6507 RFQ. If you do not have access to the internet, call (314) 768-6314 to request a copy of this bid.

The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Send your ad text to

• • • • • •

Masonry Flooring HVAC Plumbing Carpentry Drywall

• Asphalt & Concrete Paving • Painting • Electrical • Doors & Hardware • Foundations & Flatwork • Elevators

The pre-bid meeting for City Hi-Pointe, LLC has been scheduled for June 17, 2016 at 10am at the project site 6825 Clayton Ave. Contact Robert Duffe, Project Manager 314-393-9322 rduffe@e404llc.com Section 3, MBE & WBE firms encouraged to bid

Email ad text to vmedina@stlamerican.com

INVITATION TO BID Sealed bids will be received by the Construction Manager, S. M. Wilson & Co. for the Maplewood Richmond Heights Early Childhood Center (MRH-ECC) at 7539 Manchester Rd., Maplewood, MO 63143 until 2:00 pm on June 30, 2016 for the scope of work described herein. Bids will be opened publicly and read aloud at that time. Bids must be hand delivered to the above address by 2:00 pm on June 30, 2016.

MRH – ECC Bid Package #01 – Phase 1 - Work including site demolition, site grading and excavation, site concrete, site lighting and asphaltic paving.

There will be a Pre-bid Meeting scheduled on June 23, 2016 @ 10:00 am.

The meeting will be held at MRH – ECC, 2801 Oakland Ave., Maplewood, MO. All Contractors are encouraged to attend this meeting. Contractors are not allowed to visit the site unless prior arrangements are made with the Construction Manager.

The bid package will be available for viewing after June 16, 2016 at the following location: Smartbid.net link; https://secure.smartbidnet.com/External/PublicPlanRoom.aspx?Id=240775&i=1

The Construction Manager for this project is S. M. Wilson & Co. and the Project Manager is Mr. Jim Hoette, (314/633-5657 phone), Jim.Hoette@smwilson.com email or the Estimator Mr. Dave Boeger (phone (314)633-9632) or email Dave.Boeger@smwilson.com S. M. Wilson & Co. is an Equal Opportunity Employer The Maplewood Richmond Heights School District is an Equal Opportunity Employer Email ad text to vmedina@stlamerican.com

NOTICE TO SMALL, HUBZONE SMALL, SMALL DISADVANTAGED, WOMEN OWNED, VETERAN OWNED, & SERVICE-DISABLED VETERAN OWNED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS TARLTON CORPORATION, 5500 West Park Ave., St. Louis MO 63110, is seeking qualified Small, HUBZone Small, Small Disadvantaged, Women Owned, Veteran Owned, and Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business Concerns for the Passenger Elevator Upgrades at the Robert A. Young Federal Building, 1222 Spruce Street, St. Louis MO 63103 project for General Services Administration, St. Louis MO for subcontracting opportunities in all work areas as defined by the contract drawings and specifications.

NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS

All interested and qualified businesses should contact Scott Snyders at 314-633-3300 to discuss the subcontracting opportunities. All negotiations must be completed prior to 12:00 p.m. on June 23, 2016.

AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

Montauk State Park Sewage Treatment Lagoon Modifications Salem, MO KCI Construction requests subcontract proposals from MBE, WBE and SDVE businesses for the Montauk State Park Sewage Treatment Lagoon Modifications in Salem, MO. Plans and specifications are available • To view electronically at no charge from: American Document Solutions • To view at our St. Louis or Lebanon offices • By request of a Dropbox link from jwalters@kciconstrution.com Subcontractor bids are due by 12:30 Thursday July 7, 2016. You may email to jwalters@kciconstruction.com or send a fax to 417-588-9211.

The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS Notice is hereby given that The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (District), the Owner, will receive sealed bids for University City Public I/I Reduction - East (UR-10) under Letting No. 12438-015.1, at its office, 2350 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri 63103, until 2:00 PM, local time, on Wednesday, July 13, 2016. All bids are to be deposited in the bid box located on the first floor of the District’s Headquarters prior to the 2:00 p.m. deadline. Bids may, however, be withdrawn prior to the opening of the first bid. BIDS WILL BE PUBLICLY OPENED AND READ IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE BID DUE DATE/TIME AT 2350 MARKET STREET, AT A PLACE DESIGNATED. The Work to be performed under these Contract Documents consists of: The work to be done under this contract consists of the rehabilitation of approximately 27,560 lineal feet of pipe sewers, varying in size from 6-inch to 30-inches in diameter using cured-in-place pipe (CIPP) methods, 196 manholes, and 516 service connections. The project is within the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District Boundaries, inside the city(ies) of varies in the State of Missouri. The work will be per formed in various quantities at various sites.

All prospective bidders must prequalify in the Cured-In-Place Pipe (CIPP) category, and be certified prior to the Bid Opening. Prequalification forms for obtaining said certification may be obtained from the Owner at the above mentioned address. All bidders must obtain drawings and specifications in the name of the entity submitting the bid.

This project will be financed through the Missouri State Revolving Fund, established by the sale of Missouri Water Pollution Control bonds and Federal Capitalization Grants to Missouri. Neither the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, its divisions, nor its employees will be party to the contract at any tier. Any Bidder whose firm or affiliate is listed on the GSA publication titled “List of Parties Excluded from Federal Procurement or Non-Procurement Programs” is prohibited from the bidding process; bids received from a listed party will be deemed non-responsive. Refer to Instructions to Bidders B-27 for more information regarding debarment and suspension.

Nondiscrimination in Employment: Bidders on this work will be required to comply with the President’s Executive Order 11246.

Requirements for bidders and contractors under this order are explained in the specifications.

Plans and Specifications are available from free electronic download. Please go to MSD’s website and look for a link to “ELECTRONIC PLANROOM.” Plans and Specifications are also available for viewing or purchase at Cross Rhodes Reprographics located at 1710 Macklind Avenue, St. Louis MO 63110. All bidders must obtain a set of plans and specifications in order to submit a bid in the name of the entity submitting the bid.

The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Work consists of the renovation of two electric traction passenger elevators nos. 6 and 7 in the GSA Robert A. Young building, St. Louis MO as noted in the elevator schedule. Schedule indicates elevators to be renovated, required performance, control, capacities, features, and finishes for the groups of elevators. The scope of this project will also excavate the pit of elevators nos. 6 and 7 down, extending the patch of travel for these two elevators to the basement. Currently in the central bay only two descend into the basement (elevators 8 and 9) and the others stop at the ground floor. All eight elevators travel up to the 10th level. Because of the large amount of building traffic to the basement, the additional two elevators to the basement will help alleviate the issue. The current elevators are old and do not meet ABBAS.

Is seeking a General Contractor for the construction of an elevated press box at the Selma Avenue Soccer Field. Request for Proposal submissions are due at the Webster Groves School District Service Center 3232 South Brentwood Blvd. Attention Mr. Robert Steuber, WGSD CPM no later than 2:00 pm on July 14th 2016. The RFP will be available online @ www.webster.k12.mo.us, (under RFP heading) June 28th, 2016. The owner reserves the right to reject any and or all proposals

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

Plans and Specifications are available for free electronic download. Please go to MSD’s website and look for a link to “ELECTRONIC PLANROOM.” Plans and Specifications are also available for viewing or purchase at Cross Rhodes Reprographics located at 1710 Macklind Avenue, St. Louis MO 63110. All bidders must obtain a set of plans and specifications in order to submit a bid in the name of the entity submitting the bid.

Exterior Building Repairs, Dale M. Thompson/ Trails West State School, Kansas City, Missouri, ProjectNo. E1506-01 will be received by FMDC, State of MO, UNTIL 1:30PM, 7/7/2016. For specific project information and ordering plans, go to: http:// oa.mo.gov/ facilities

World Trade Center St. Louis requests proposals for the purchase and installation of an animal penning system to be used for international airport operations. To learn about requirements, visit www.stlpartnership.com. Bids due by 12pm (CST), June 29, 2016.

EOE/DBE/MBE/WBE/SBE

www.stlamerican.com

SEWER CONSTRUCTION – St. Louis County drainlayer’s license required

SEALED BIDS

WEBSTER GROVES SCHOOL DISTRICT

Notice is hereby given that The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (District) will receive sealed bids for Williams Blvd. - Anistasia Dr. Storm Sewer under Letting No. 11183-015.1, at this office, 2350 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri 63103, until 02:00 PM on Wednesday, July 20, 2016, at a place designated.

Bids will be received only from companies that are pre-qualified by the District’s Engineering Department for:

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS STL Venture Work Building Expansion Due 6/21/16 by 2pm to Demien Const. Co. Fax 636-332-5465. Call 636-332-5500 for email address.

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

Need a quote? vmedina@stlamerican.com

Seeking subcontractor bids for following project: City Hi-Pointe, LLC new construction due by June 24, 2016 at 3pm including the following scopes of work:

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN

www.stlamerican.com

for St. Louis Community College Bid No. B0003557 for a contract for Industrial Work Uniforms will be received until 3:00 P.M. (local time) on June 22, 2016 at the Dept. of Purchasing, 300 So. Broadway, St. Louis, MO 63102, and immediately thereafter opened and read. Bid documents can be accessed on our website at www.stlcc.edu/purchasing or call (314) 539-5227.

EOE/AA Employer.

•

THE

SINGLE FEASIBLE SOURCE PROCUREMENT for ACCU-SCOPE & UNITRON Products Reference Revised Statutes of Missouri, 34.044.

Harris-Stowe State University (HSSU) anticipates awarding a single feasible source contract in the amount of $69,975.36 to Visual Dynamix, the sole authorized U.S. Distributor for the state of Missouri for all branded and non-branded ACCU-SCOPE & Unitron products, on or about June 20, 2016.

The contact for the University is Barbara Morrow, Director of Business Services, HSSU, 3026 Laclede Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63103.

Telephone #: (314) 340-5763, fax #: (314) 340-3322.

Visit our award-winning website @ www.stlamerican.com CLICK CLASSIFIEDS

MBE BIDDING OPPORTUNITY MBE firms must be certified as follows: To constitute a Minority Business Enterprises, MBE for the purpose of meeting the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD or District) 17% MBE (African American) utilization goal, those MBE firms which have been certified for the industry type of service and/or material for which they are contracted by one or more of the following agencies on or before the date of the bid opening: Missouri Office of Equal Opportunity, City of St. Louis, St. Louis Minority Business Council. MSD does not accept reciprocity certifications from other certifying agencies.

Shea-McNally Joint Venture invites qualified contractors, specifically MBEs (African American) certified by the agencies and requirements listed above, to contact Shea-McNally JV (Prime Bidder/Contractor listed below) regarding subcontracting services and material supply opportunities in connection with the Deer Creek Sanitary Tunnel Clayton Road to RDP) 11731-015.1project.

The Work under this contract is located in the Greater Metropolitan Area of St. Louis, MO. The MBE (African American) utilization goal is 17% of the total contract price. The Engineer’s Cost Estimate is $205,192,000. The Work consists of the construction of a deep rock tunnel, large diameter shafts, drop shafts and structures, sanitary sewers and appurtenances, diversion structures, junction chambers, manholes, paving, fencing, dog park improvements, grading, electrical and other associated work. Plans and Specifications are available for free electronic download. Please go to MSD website, http://www.stlmsdplanroom.com/other.php?job=736&jobName=11731015.1+DEER+CREEK+SANITARY+TUNNEL+%28CLAYTON+RD.+TO+RDP%29 Owner: Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District DEER CREEK SANITARY TUNNEL (CLAYTON RD. TO RDP) Letting No. 11731-015.1 BID DATE: July 21, 2016 AT 2:00 PM Opportunities to participate exist in the following specific areas of soil and rock excavation, hauling, excavation support systems, mechanical rock excavation, structural steel, engineering, survey, instrumentation and monitoring services, materials testing, demolition and site preparation, environmental investigation, utility relocation, paving, fencing and gates, geotechnical and structural instrumentation, secant piles, cast-in-place concrete structures, reinforcing steel, ground stabilization, rock-bolts, steel dowels, shotcrete, concrete finishing, waterproofing, service utilities, grouting, mechanical equipment – hydraulic, slide gates, electrical and controls work, landscaping, dewater pump station, pest control, IT services, waste disposal, cleaning services, and security services.

Any business seeking to participate as MBE (African American) must submit current valid certification documents with proposal. Shea McNally JV have set up an FTP site where you can view all plans and specifications for your convenience. Please contact Brett Campbell at (909) 594-0982 (brett.campbell@jfshea.com) to receive instructions on accessing the FTP Site.

Shea McNally JV (J.F. Shea Construction, Inc. – McNally Tunneling Corporation) 667 Brea Canyon Road, Suite 22, Walnut, CA 91789 909-595-4397, 909-869-0827 (fax)

Visit our website www.stlamerican.com Click Classifieds to find a great career & the perfect living space!

THE

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN

Real Estate & Rentals ST. LOUIS AMERICAN

ROOM FOR RENT POPLAR GARDEN Natural Bridge!

No Lease! 1 bedroom, Apartments has one North Side Page & Whittier bus line a/c, washer & dryer $100/wk+ $100 Deposit

and two bedrooms apartments for rent and is section 8 approved, please call us at

618-501-3361

314-942-3400

North City!

Fixer Upper! Rent to own 2 bedroom house, fireplace, built in shelves, pets ok, no credit check! only $250

rs-stl.com AHKTN 314-200-0014

1ST MONTH FREE 5200 Block of Palm

VERY NICE APTS.

1220 Warren Senior over age 55 & eligible handicapped individual1 bedroom apt. Income base.

Electric included call

314-583-8764

314-436-0733

314-382-4826

South City!

ROOMS FOR RENT

APARTMENT FOR RENT

Custom 3 bed, 1.5 bath house, finished basement, central air, fenced yard, dishwasher, fireplace, pets! $750

*SPRING UP & FRESHEN UP

ROOMS FOR RENT

314-724-2054

314-369-2070

Potential Free Rent! APT FOR RENT

FOR RENT

314-718-0642 in your new apt!* Very nice Spacious 2BR with laminate fls, includes some utils. $625/mo Dep. Neg. Section 8 welcome.

rs-stl.com AHKTQ 314-200-0014

2 & 4 BR Homes for rent, hardwood fls, new windows,W/D hkup, Cool C/A, public transportation

Backyard Carriage house for rent, 1 BR, full basement. $480/mo.

1st & last mo. 5834 Soloma Ave. Prefer single or couple occupancy.

rs-stl.com AHKT3 314-200-0014

New Unit $375/mo

kitchen appliances, hardwood floors, w/d hookups, low deposit, easy move! only $400

SECTION 8 ONLY

Nice. Quiet. Clean.

Furnished, Utils, cable, w/d.

Close to bus $125/wk + $100 Dep

314-323-6470 Page Ave!

Fully Furnished Free Cable, Quiet, $115/wk CITY & COUNTY

314-532-0928

Park Place Apts $300.00 OFF THE FIRST FULL A Senior Community Now Accepting Apps! MONTH OF RENT. Blue Fountain 62+ Sec 8 housing Apartments avail, income restr. apply 1-bdrm apts, A/C, has 1 and 2 Bedrooms and is Section 8 on-site laundry approved.

Free gas/water/trash Now offering senior discounts!!!

4399 Forest Park Blvd Please call for an St. Louis, MO 63108 appointment today 314-925-9405 314-942-3400.

TTY 800-735-2966 We are located at 819 Gustav Ave Equal Housing Opportunity Professionally Managed by off of North Broadway NHPMN Management, LLC in Baden.

PUBLIC NOTICE PUBLIC HOUSING WAIT LIST OPENING

Remodeled 4 bedroom, full basement, garage, hardwood floors, fenced yard, w/d hookups, utilities paid! only $600

rs-stl.com AHKT2 314-200-0014

Winter Garden Apts.

2BR Available TODAY for qualified applicant 62+ and/or disabled Sec. 8 housing avail, income restrictions apply. ADA. Pet friendly, gated, near Metro Link 5708 Kingsbury Place St. Louis, MO 63112

51XX Cote Brilliante Newly redecorated 1 & 2 br

2BR, 1BA, completely re-decorated, new carpet.

314-389-1804 314-346-1302

South City!

Redone 1 bedroom, all appliances, central air, extra storage, carpet & tile, pets ok, w/d hookups! only $385

rs-stl.com AHKTO 314-200-0014

FURNISHED ROOMS FOR RENT Monthly $400 & Up utilities, a/c& heat included. Proof of income Required. Call

314-644-8056 Kingshighway!

Loaded 3 bedroom, full basement, fenced yard, appliances, w/d hookups, walk-in closets, easy move in! $550 rs-stl.com

AHKT1 314-200-0014

Sec 8 Welcome

APARTMENT FOR RENT, SOUTH CITY, $500 2 BD, 1 BATH

Single family homes

314-579-9765

314-518-5898

North City 1 BR Apts., 4, 5, 6 & 7 BR

•

THE

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN C9

JUNE 16 - 22, 2016 HOUSE FOR RENT

ROOMS FOR RENT

ICE COLD AIR

ROOM FOR RENT ROOMS FOR RENT North City Midtown Near

65XX Perry Ct. 2 BR 2 BA hwds, tile, w/d hk-up, 1 car garage with carport $850/mo + Dep 1st & Last to Move-In

Major bus lines cable, Washer & Dryer

$125/wk

Very nice Large Room $125/wk + Dep. Near bus line, nice neighborhood Employed Single Male Occupancy

314-537-5978

314-629-1220

314-761-5400

Westend!

APTS. & HOUSES FOR RENT

NEWER HOUSE FOR RENT

Looking for a few great tenants Sec. 8 welcome with open arms.

3 BRs, 1.5 BA, Full basement, stove, refrigerator, d/w, microwave, no pets, service animals ok. Sec. 8 ok $825/mo

(314) 520-5289

314-540-3092

Page Metro - U. City 63130

Sharp 1 bedroom, central air, appliances included, ceiling fans, pets ok, newer carpet, credit issues OK! $420

rs-stl.com AHKTR 314-200-0014

314-629-5051 HOUSES & APTS

South City!!

Good heating and cooling. Fully furnished & Cable

2-3-4-5 bdrms North City City Sect 8 OK

Spacious 2 bedroom, central air, kitchen appliances, thermal windows, hardwoods, pets, extra storage! $525

314-484-3147 314-240-9677

314-772-4563

ROOMS FOR RENT

ATTENTION!

Downtown Central air Furnished, TV, satellite, Wi-Fi avail., utilities included, w/d, off street parking. $150/wk

314-397-8422 100% FURNISHED ROOMS ($115) Single Employed

FURNISHED ROOMS FOR RENT North City cable, shared bathroom & kitchen, washer & dryer $100 - 150/wk.

South City!

Handyman Special!

Rent to own 3 bed, 2 bath house, hardwood floors, fireplace, pets ok, no credit check! $400

rs-stl.com AHKTP 314-200-0014

APARTMENT FOR RENT Very Spacicous 4BR 2BA stove, fridge.

Union & Delmar Area

$775/mo

314-532-9891 South City!

All Utilities Paid! Nice apartment w/central air, all appliances, newer carpet, bad credit ok! only $425

rs-stl.com AHKT0 314-200-0014

Male Environment Call 314-952-1614 No call after 7pm

rs-stl.com AHKTS 314-200-0014

APT. FOR RENT

FURNISHED

Starting at $100/wk

314-921-3708

314-740-1878

FURNISHED ROOMS 2 bedroom apartment ROOMS FOR RENT north city. 2nd floor FOR RENT ST. LOUIS CITY FURNISHED KITCHENETTES FOR RENT living room and dining South City, nice & 1BR & 2 BR $149/wk & up! room 21xx Fair Ave clean, c/a, utilities Near bus & Metrolink $575.00 included, near bus line All Utilities & Cable Inc.

PRIVATE BATH & KITCHEN

314-575-2665

(Nothing Like Your Own)

314 780 9263

www.stlamerican.com

Summer is Fun with us!!

North City

PUBLISHER’S

Move-In Special

FOR RENT

Affordable Housing 2 & 3 BR Units $450-$617 44xx Claremce, 41xx Sacramento, 42xx Holly, 39xx Lexington, some with w/d Hook-up, Carpet, Range; Refrigerator, C/A; Mini Blinds; Off Street Parking

1 & 2 bd. garden style starting at $507.00 & 2 bd. duplexes $683.00 Full basements w/ washers & dryers in all duplexes Some utilities paid Terrific onsite management & maintenance!!!

NOTICE:

McCormack House

Advertised herein is subject to the Sr. Living Apartments Federal Fair Heat is Paid ! 24 Hour Desk Attendant.

Housing Act, Fully Equipped Kitchens - Walk-in Showers Call us today 314.869.3400 which makes it Beautiful! A must see for those 62 yrs or older!!

314-925-9406 www.mccormackhouseatwestminsterapts.com Contact: North Newstead Association illegal to advertise Ask forDiana TTY 800-735-2966 any preference, Equal Housing Opportunity 866-347-8650 (314)385-4343 www.stlamerican.com imitation, or Professionally Managed by Equal Housing Opportunity NHPMN Management, LLC discrimination because of APARTMENTS MARK TWAIN ROOMS FOR VERSAILLES FOR RENT race,color, HOTEL RENT 5203 Northland Ave, APARTMENTS 1Br @ $405/mo 2Br @ $505/mo Summer discounts avail. religion, sex, Shared bath & 2nd FL ST. LOUIS COUNTY & CITY VOUCHERS Extensive Renovations, Stove, 314-421-2980 kitchen 3 BR handicap, WELCOME! (Downtown) Delmar Union Area Stove & Fridge, Refrigerator, AC, gas & elec., familial\status, or Centrally Located & $420/mo Sec 8 only $249.00 MOVE IN SPECIAL App Fee $25; 1sm pet allowed, nearby national origin, or Connected to Metro 314-532-9891 314-283-3839 intention to make schools, shops, businesses & parks; 1 BR: $535 / 2BR: $635 and Buses, Short Term Weekly RentalsPAGE laundry facility, park-like setting; ROOMS FOR any such (314) 867-1882 PROPERTIES No credit check RENT credit friendly, rent credit special preference, *Restrictions Apply. Subject to Change. $110.50 and up per Large Remodeled $400/mo + Key Dep Call limitation, or week (utilities and 1 BR $50 Housekeeping svcs in nice neighborhood discrimination .

Single Occupancy included) Other terms $425/mo + $425 Dep. for further details.

“We will not Only www.stlamerican.com and conditions may 314-657-7071 618-781-7968 knowingly accept 8869 Maya Lane, St. Louis MO 63136 apply. any advertising for real estate www.stlamerican.com which is in SENIOR VILLAGE violation of the 62 YEARS & OLDER law. All persons 4558 McMillan are hereby informed that all dwellings advertised are available on an equal opportunity basis.”

Rolling Hills Apts.

The Murphy Park Apartments will accept pre-applications online at WWW.SLHA.ORG for 3, 5, and 6 bedroom units beginning June 21, 2016 at 8:00 a.m. and closing on June 24, 2016 at midnight: Applicants with disabilities that need assistance in completing an online application or who do not have computer access can be accommodated at 1920 Cass Ave, St. Louis, MO 63106 or St. Louis Housing Authority located at 3520 Page, St. Louis, MO 63106 from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on June 21-24, 2016.

(314) 869-5033

HOPEWELL

Call Vida at 314-289-5406 to place your rental/real estate ad today!

1 Bedrooms *Coded entry system *Free Gated Parking *Small pets allowed *Includes appliances & utilities.

Please call 314.371.1227 Rent based upon 30% of adjusted income.

SERVICE DIRECTORY 314-289-5406 Need to sell your car, furniture, clothes or motorcycle? Place an ad in the Service Directory.

Advertise your yard sale, auction or service here today for as little as $29.

MEDICARE & MEDICAID ACCEPTED Dental

Hearing Aids

ANEW Credit Services Less than perfect credit?

Desire to improve your current credit profile?

You should attend the C R E D I T R E S T O R AT I O N

BOOT CAMP As low as $175 EACH Co-pay

$1000/year Dentures, Partials, Crowns, Root Canals & Other Dental Services

Glasses

June 18, 2016

Central Baptist Church 2842 Washington Ave. St. Louis, MO 63103 The cost to attend is $300 per participant and the sessions last for 10 weeks

For details contact 314-327-0937

$0 CO-PAY

Call 1-800-733-1912 to see if you qualify.

Need a quote?

Send your ad text to vmedina@stlamerican.com

LaPlace Enrichment Center Enrolling Now!

SUMMER CAMP Begins June 1, 2016 6wks- 12 yrs.

Transportation, Tutoring & Fun!

(314) 371-1043

Spring Clean-up Man & His Truck Light Hauling Yard Work, Moving & Gutter Cleaning REASONABLE

Are you new to Medicare and have the red,white and blue Medicare card with both part A and part B? Then you are entitled to Medicare part C at no cost. Benefits include preventive dental, $100 towards glasses or contacts, free transportation, and a silver sneakers gym-membership.

Medicare part C may also lower your co-pays.

For more info call Mike: 314-285-2198

314-583-6971 www.stlamerican.com

Metro Clubhouse New Florissant Event Venue Grand Opening Specials!

Weddings $600 (includes linens & free wedding coordination)

Parties $300 Kids and Teen Parties $125 (Bounce jump house, character appearances, princess, superhero, Lego themes available & more!)

Group Meetings $20/hr Book your celebration, event, party, shower, fashion show, reunion or meeting today!

Email your ads to vmedina@stlamerican.com

Call 314-724-1452 www.metroclubhouse.com

North County Rec 2577 Redman Tuesdays & Thursdays at 7:30pm

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • JUNE 16 - 22, 2016

C10

Swag Snap of the week

Elizabeth Donielle, Dr. G, Chris Simmions and Jada Berry made the most of the beautiful day Sunday @ The Anheuser Busch Biergarten for Eat.Drink.Chill

Teddy Blackett, Mo Spoon and Rhashad brought out the masses for their Eat. Drink.Chill Day Party Sunday afternoon at the Anheuser-Busch Biergarten.

Jevon and Brittany were all smiles and full of good vibes Saturday @ Silent St. Louis @ the Kitchen Sink

It was all about the dancehall for Zee Lauren, Countess Danielle and Dee Dee @ Mood Friday for Reggae night

RIP Tyrell Thompson. I just want to take a moment to send my condolences to the Thompson family in the wake of yet another tragedy. I’m am one of many who were heartbroken to learn on Thursday that Tyrell Thompson suffered the same tragic fate as his father Tyrone (nearly six years to the day). My heart goes out to the entire Thompson family – who had become advocates against crime and gun violence in the wake of Tyrone’s death. There are no words to heal this type of loss – and or it to happen to a father AND a son just makes the whole thing even more traumatic. I could go on about the epidemic of gun violence – especially in the wake of the tragedy in Orlando – but I will end here with a prayer that the powers that be will wake up and systemically address the crisis affecting our nation.

A new school throwback. I’ve heard a lot of buzz around him in the mainstream, so I thought I should check out soul singer Leon Bridges when he came to the Pageant on Wednesday. I know right now you are thinking “who is Leon Bridges?”

Well, he’s like the Flo Rida of R&B. I know what you’re thinking… “Who’s Flo Rida?” He’s a rapper with a fan base that falls almost exclusively in the general population demographic. Anyway, the sold out show consisted mostly of assistant principals and librarians of West County and South County – who clapped along as Bridges crooned music that can best be described as pre-Motown. The gag of the century came as a few fans who thought Andra Day was still on the bill turned to me and said, “Who is this?” I said “Leon Bridges.” They said “who is that?” I said “the headliner.” They didn’t get the memo that Day was not being featured. And it only took them two songs to decide that Leon was not their cup of tea. They beat it before he even got a chance to formally introduce himself.

Brittany, Spencer, Dominique and Jasmine soaked up some sun during DayTox Sunday @ Ballpark Village

A winning Whitaker Urban Series. For the first time in a minute I headed over to The Whitaker Urban Evening Series concerts that go down Thursday nights during the late spring and summer. The weekly outdoor concerts take place at St. Louis Place Park near Rauschenbach and St. Louis Avenue near Old North St. Louis. Will Robinson DID THAT as the main entertainment, do you hear me?

It was billed as Stevie vs. Donny, but he threw in some Maxwell and closed the show out with a glorious cover of Purple rain in tribute to the late great (which still feels weird to say) Prince. It was packed to the gills with folks and was getting so much life that the creeping temperatures didn’t bother me one bit. Be sure to stop by before the final show on July 21 (there will be no show on July 7) and get a taste of some of the brightest musical talent in the STL.

Singer Mai Lee and Orlando after Mai Lee slayed the Fair U City stage Sunday @ Heman Park

Jeanette and Dawn stayed in the shade @ The Anheuser Busch Biergarten Sunday for Eat.Drink.Chill

NBA Finals at Knockouts. Now y’all know I don’t necessarily check for sports, but that didn’t stop me from showing love to Kevin Cunningham and company as they gave the folks in North County an option to catch the NBA Finals. I was pleasantly surprised by the robust crowd so early on in the game. The Hot 104.1 FM folks were in the building and it was a great spot to chill and watch GSW get busy on LeBron and the Cavs. I’m sure I’ll be back again before the finals are over in Game 6. Oh I just want to give a shout out to the ladies who came out in full nightclub regalia – stilettos, Hollywood eyebrows, lashes and the whole shebang.

Y’all are going to get male attention by any means necessary.

Breanna and Jarvis were in the building for the Silent St. Louis Launch Party Saturday @ the Kitchen Sink

Partyin’ in pink. Speaking of club wear, so the Pepto-Bismol pink freakum dress is apparently to 2016 what the striped body dress with side slits was to 1993.

Can somebody please explain? Why this color pink? It is so unforgiving and the girls are not careful. I made my way to Element Saturdays for Porcha Lachae’s birthday party and couldn’t help but think “why are so many of the girls dressed like Blossom from The Power Puff girls? Is it ‘Hello Kitty’ night?” Miss Lachae had a nice sized crowd to show her plenty of b-day love though. It was definitely a good look.

Cearra and Tanjii chilled on the dance floor @ Mood Friday night

Chillaxing in the Biergarten. Eat, Drink and Chill day party was first on my menu of Sunday activities and with the promotional power players BFree, Mo Spoon and Rhashad joining forces, how could they go wrong? They didn’t. It was such a win that folks were strolling through that pocket of Soulard like there was some sort of gallery walk underway. It was a nice look and the folks came through with class as they packed out the Anheuser Busch Biergarten. The vibe was chill, but if anyone had tried to turn up in that thousand degree Fahrenheit heat, I’m sure an EMT or two would’ve had to get involved.

Toneta, London, Araiya and Zakia @ The Marquee for Element Saturdays

Diggin’ the Daytox. The dueling day party action was in full effect yet again this Sunday. But it was so hot on Sunday that I had to make a pit stop to wash up before I went from one spot to the next. And I’m so glad that I did, because it was straight up Sub-Saharan heat when I tooted up to the balcony of Ballpark Village for Daytox. It was a good little time, though a few of the ladies should have tested their makeup to make sure it was heat resistant. I stopped by Eat.Drink.Chill first and thought it was going to be an easy win for them, but if I were a betting woman I would have lost because the Liquid Assets crew had a crowd of their own. There’s clearly enough room in the afternoon party market for everybody.

www.stlamerican.com

A day party night cap. While I expected the day party action to be a hit, I thought the odds were also against a repeat performance by the Eat.Drink.Chill team when they took their party over to the HG Sunday night. And once again, I couldn’t have been more wrong. It was pretty lit up in there. As the folks kept their day party clothes on and kicked it all night.

Abby and Ceiffawn @ The Anheuser Busch Biergarten Sunday for Eat.Drink.

Chill Photos by Lawrence Bryant & John Scott