May 4, 2016 Egalitarian

THE

Today’s Weather

EGALITARIAN

Student Voice of Houston Community College Since 1974 85/60 Mainly sunny during the day. A mostly clear sky at night.

Wednesday, May 4, 2016 • Vol. 43, No. 8 • www.HCCEgalitarian.com • @HCC_Egalitarian

USC opens food options survey see On Campus, Page 2

Additional Graduation 2016 information see Graduation, Page 6

Van Camp talks ‘Civil War’ see Culture, page 9

Texans president to speak at graduation

Burillo takes SW reins

Egalitarian Staff Report

Emmanuel Akinola The Egalitarian

Madeline Burillo became the official college president for Houston Community College Southwest on April 22, having the word “interim” removed from her title after seven months.

Burillo is ready to make sure students across all campuses enjoy and make the most of their educational experiences.

During her time as interim president, she has worked with community partners to bring workforce programs to HCC’s centers of excellence at Southwest.

She is currently overseeing the construction of a new Center of Excellence and workforce building at Stafford campus, with its main focus being manufacturing.

“It’s a dream come true,” Burillo said in an interview

Jessica Hamm/HCC Houston Community College-Southwest President Madeline Burillo had the interim tag taken off her position in late April. Burillo is overseeing the construction of a center of excellence focusing on manufacturing at the Stafford campus.

Thursday. She has been a part of the project throughout her tenure as interim president.

The program itself will teach industrial technology, machining, advanced manufacturing, computer numerical control and programmable logical controllers.

The center will partner with the National Institute of Metalworking Skills. From there, it is Burillo’s plan for students to be able to take national industry exams and receive credentials from the institute upon

graduation from the program.

Additionally, the manufacturing program at Stafford will also include robotics, digital manufacturing, welding and additive manufacturing. Part of the curriculum will be 3D printing. The building will be about 57,424 square feet, is budgeted at about $26 million and is projected to be completed sometime this summer.

Manufacturing is currently one of the smallest programs at HCC, with only 128 students enrolled in the program last

fall. The advisory committee is working on recruitment strategies.

“The future is going to be awesome in terms of workforce programs at HCC,” Burillo says.

As for West Loop campus, Burillo has plenty of ideas on the table to enliven the student experience. By the end of the year, she plans on there being a Wellness Center in the back of the building.

see

Burillo Takes Over, Page 2

HCC plans to improve student experience Alyssa Foley

The Egalitarian Each of the six Houston Community College presidents has been entrusted with a project to help improve the student experience.

“These are projects that cut across the entire institution,” says Chancellor Cesar Maldonado, “to bring shared best practices to the institution.”

The projects range from registration and enrollment; new student orientation; career advising; discipline adjacency; learning support; and early alert.

The lofty goal of the student service projects is to bring, “The best student experiences provided by any institution in the country,” said Maldonado at a meeting on April 22.

This is part of the college transformation plan. In the

past year, HCC has been transitioning from operating as six separate colleges to operating as one college with multiple centers of excellence.

HCC Northwest College President Zachary Hodges oversees the revamping of registration and enrollment.

With college registration, Hodges admits that “The first word you think about is that it’s complicated, and it’s long, and you need to get started early to jump through all the necessary hoops. We are no exception to that.”

He noted that HCC mostly relies on face-to-face meetings for registration, with students often having to visit or call multiple offices to get what they need. In the twentyfirst century, “it is outmoded, outdated, and something we have to get right.”

One of their goals is to

increase the use of technology in the admissions and enrollment process. Steps like hiring more IT support, and revamping the online student portal and checklist are currently underway. “There is no higher priority than to get a satisfactory IT platform in place that serves our students,” says Hodges.

Part of the plan is to create a centralized, district-wide call center for admissions, and to better train staff to give consistent service across the district.

HCC Central College President William Harmon has been charged with the task of developing a comprehensive new student orientation for all incoming students starting fall 2016.

At orientation, the college will be “Providing them with information that will allow

them to invest in their own education, and how to survive in this environment,” explains Harmon, it’s about “how we introduce students to this community.”

The Central college has been conducting a mandatory new student orientation for seven years. However, it couldn’t be made truly mandatory because a student could escape the orientation by simply attending another HCC location. “Our mandatory process essentially has no teeth,” notes Harmon.

An online orientation is also being developed for students who have difficulty attending one on-campus. “The online approach will allow us to reach a larger audience of those students with an interest in pursuing their educational see

Student Experience, Page 3

Houston Texas President Jamey Rootes will be the keynote speaker at Houston Community College’s 2016 graduation ceremony Saturday, May 14.

The ceremony begins at 9 a.m. at NRG Stadium.

A Stone Mountain, Georgia, native, holding degrees from Clemson University and Indiana University, Rootes is responsible for all of the club’s business functions. A two-time selection of the SportsBusiness Journal’s “Forty Under 40” list of leading sports executives, the team earned awards for marketing excellence and was recognized

by J.D. Power and Associates for providing the NFL’s best fan experience.

Roots helped launch Major League Soccer as president and general Rootes manager of the Columbus Crew prior to joining the Texans. During his tenure, he was recognized as executive of the year in 1996 and marketing executive of the year in 1999. Rootes helped lead the construction of the Mapfre Stadium in 1999 — the first major-league soccer stadium in the United States. The facility led to the development of numerous soccer-specific stadiums across the country over the past decade, including Houston’s BBVA Compass Stadium.

Rootes maintains an active role in the community, serving on several boards. Those boards include the Greater Houston Partnership, the Houston Food Bank, the Presbyterian School and the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau. He also oversees the activities of the Houston Texans Foundation, which has helped raise more that $20 million since its inception through annual fundraising events, disaster response programs, the United Way and partnerships with nonprofit organizations on game day.

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Wednesday May 4, 2016

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On Campus

Image courtesy of Jamaal Ellis The 2016 winners HCC Newspring Business Plan Competition pose with their awards at the ceremony on April 26.

Entrepreneurs honored at ceremony Egalitarian Staff Report Houston Community College and Newspring celebrated winners of the ninth annual HCC Newspring Business Plan Competition on April 26, awarding $26,000 in prize money and over $10,000 in in-kind prizes to some of Houston’s rising entrepreneurs.

TCC Learning won first place and was awarded $12,000 along with a $2,300 media package from Small Business Today Magazine and Talk Show.

Second place winners included Energy Fundz with an $8,000 prize. There was a tie for third place for the first time in the competition’s history with $2,500 being awarded to Ole Noe and another $2,500 to Twice Media Productions. A $1,000 honorable mention was also awarded to True You Makeovers.

The awards ceremony and reception was held at the Trini Mendenhall Community Center with contestants, advisors, competition partners, sponsors and community supporters in attendance.

Dr. Zachary Hodges, the President of HCC Northwest, opened the ceremony. Newspring Founder and Chairman Robert Westheimer, competition trainer Richard Tyler and Competition leader Jack Barry followed.

Barry recognized past winners and all 26 completer teams for the 2016 competition before calling up finalists to the stage to speak about their business concepts. Finally the winners were announced and prize money was awarded.

First place winner Todd Bermont spoke to the crowd: “Dr. Hodges you have assembled a tremendous team of people that put in a wonderful effort throughout the competition.

I can honestly say the education I received at HCC in this competition far surpasses anything that I have experienced in my career. I also want to once again thank my advisors who were both incredible. Words can’t describe the profound impact this competition has had on both my business and my life. Houston is fortunate to have the Houston Community College System!”

The HCC Newspring Business Plan Competition is a working contest that award prized slots in the competition to an unprecedented 30 teams chosen from over 60 applications in January 2016. In order to apply, at least one member of each contestant team must have completed either specified business planning classes at HCC or have graduated from the HCC Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business program. The 30 teams won the opportunity to vet their business assumptions through five training sessions and one-on-one mentoring from February through April. The program is designed to polish and refine their plans to start and grow their businesses.

Jack Barry leads and delivers the competition training along with Richard Tyler. Newspring Chairman, Robert Westheimer, rallies 60 business mentors to assign to two per team to provide oneon-one mentoring to the contestant teams.

Cash prize sponsors included LiftFund, Wallis State Bank, Midway, Amegy Bank of Texas, MetroNational, Constant Contact and Provideo Systems. In-kind prize sponsors included the Houston West Chamber of Commerce, Small Business Today Magazine, Presentation Power and Wallis State Bank. True Color Graphics and Three Brothers’ Bakery were in-kind reception sponsors.

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Kimberly Webber HCC student Lottie Kesee (left) poses with her Advisor Darnell Pledger (right) and her 2016 APCA award.

Coleman students earn awards Kimberly Webber

Special to The Egalitarian Houston Community College’s Coleman Student Life received several honors at the Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities national conference in Houston this past March.

Coleman was represented by student leaders Nadia Carter, Travana Matthews, Fandrea Nazir, Lottie Kesee and their Advisor Darnell Pledger. These leaders have shown a high level of commitment to make a difference on their campus and within the community.

HCC Student Lottie Kesee was this year’s winner of the 2016 APCA award. It is the highest award that an individual student can win at the APCA National Conference. Criteria for this award include service, scholasticism, and leadership.

Coleman Student Life was recognized for its ‘Extensions of Me’ project which was held on campus in honor of Hispanic Heritage month. ‘Extensions of Me’ illustrated the importance of diversity and inclusion.

Students delved into verbal expressions that explored

the struggles of those in the Hispanic community while also highlighting other minority groups.

“Being Hispanic is not all that you are; it is merely an extension of you,” said poet Gabriella Garcia Medina.

She was the featured poet at the conference, and she provided her experiences through recited poetry. Medina has performed for President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, The Black Eyed Peas, Eva Longoria and many more.

The event combined multiple races, ethnicities, religions and nationalities to celebrate people of color.

The association’s mission is “to promote campus engagement through quality educational experiences, affordable entertainment and community service initiatives.”

The conference gives students an opportunity to enhance their leadership skills as well as identify dynamic and diverse programs to adopt on their respective campus. Over 95 academic and support institutions from across the country attended the conference.

Burillo Takes Over, From Page 1 Also, there are ideas for libraries to have technology enhanced learning sessions where students can share what they learned in study groups through projectors or their own tablets.

Pending approval from the Student Government Association, Burillo has come up with the idea called “Music at the Plaza” where students and faculty come together and perform almost like a venue.

“There have been different ideas thrown,” Burillo says. While she still not sure whether there’ll be a theme each

month for specific music, she also has gotten with students on fleshing the idea out more.

“I really want to create that kind of environment where our students outside utilizing that plaza being built and having a meeting place [to perform music],” Burillo notes.

Burillo is also leading the district wide student experience project for career advising, an initiative that takes the academic advising at HCC to the next step.

She has outlined plans for assessment of

students on what career path they want, the right classes to take, and linking them to the proper employers for them to work for after graduation.

This advising project will be linked through centers of excellence and with plenty of transparency and oversight from deans and other faculty.

Regarding her new promotion to college president, Burillo found herself “humbled” when receiving the new position. She has also noted that her parents were inspirational for her in her experience.

Before having a 30 year career in higher education, she received her Bachelor’s in Economics from the Universidad de Puerto Rico, received a Masters in Education from Oklahoma State University and a doctorate from Sam Houston State University.

She strongly believes that education is a transformative tool and hopes to make HCC students have the opportunity to be well-equipped for life in general.

“We’re here for the students and we want them to be proud of being Eagles,” President Burillo states.

News

3 Thousands of children in Texas not helped @HCC_Egalitarian

Robert T. Garrett & J. David McSwane

The Dallas Morning News AUSTIN, Texas — Tens of thousands of infants and children believed to be in imminent danger of abuse or neglect, even death, are not being seen promptly by state child abuse investigators — and thousands of them haven’t been checked on at all.

Over the last two months, on any given day, more than 3,400 children who were on the radar of Child Protective Services hadn’t been seen once by a caseworker, according to state data of face-toface interactions analyzed by The Dallas Morning News.

Across Texas, on an average day, nearly 700 unseen children are classified as extreme cases — “Priority 1” in the agency’s terms — in which they face an immediate safety threat or are at “risk of abuse or neglect that could result in death or serious harm.” For instance, an infant might be neglected by a drugaddled parent or a child is living with a relative suspected of sexual abuse.

It’s a sign of the depth of the havoc in the state’s child welfare system, where extreme workloads, rapid employee turnover, inept leaders and low pay have left investigators and caseworkers unable to simply check in on thousands of the

most vulnerable Texans. State leaders, aware for about two months of the alarming data, have promised to overhaul the system but offered few details of how they would do so.

On March 3, the worst day in recent months, 5,917 children statewide classified as needing immediate contact hadn’t been seen within 24 or 72 hours, the mandatory deadlines for Priority 1 and 2 cases, respectively.

Last week in Dallas County, child abuse investigators still hadn’t laid eyes on 588 of those children, or about 10 percent of abuse calls.

But the most staggering numbers come from Harris County, where about 1,300 children who are supposed have already had a face-to-face contact with a caseworker haven’t been seen. The unvisited children account for about 22 percent of all cases referred to that office in March and April, The News’ analysis found.

That figure spiked to 44 percent on March 3, when more 2,591 unseen children were tallied.

On average, 13 percent of Harris County’s Priority 1 children — about 250 of the worst cases — aren’t being seen.

The reasons for Harris County’s substantial backlog are unclear, but records indicate about 30 percent of Harris County CPS investigators are buried with 60 or more cases while about half are juggling at

least 38 cases each. National child welfare experts recommend about a dozen cases per abuse investigator and a slightly higher threshold for caseworkers.

And child welfare experts say there’s no substitute for a prompt visit by a state worker — to make sure children named in maltreatment allegations are safe.

A state social services spokesman called CPS’ performance on first visits “inexcusable and unacceptable.”

Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered a shake-up of top management at CPS and its parent agency, the Department of Family and Protective Services. He also has spoken of a lofty goal, to end all child-abuse deaths.

Many child-welfare experts, though, have said the quality of Texas’ initial investigations won’t improve until it lowers caseloads, does a better job of holding on to caseworkers and improves leadership offered by their front-line supervisors and midlevel bosses.

The News obtained CPS’ data through the state’s open records law and found significant problems statewide.

Nearly 10 percent of all credible Texas child abuse calls aren’t being responded to in a timely way — either within one day or three days, depending on the level of concern for a child.

Even when CPS workers do manage to see children face to face, between 25 percent and 35

Wednesday May 4, 2016

percent of those kids aren’t seen on time, the data show.

The metrics are real-time snapshots of possibly at-risk kids — whom the state is aware of but hasn’t checked on.

Officials at the Health and Human Services Commission, which oversees all social services programs, apparently were unaware of the problem until late February. At that time, they began to share the timely-visit numbers weekly with Abbott’s office.

The Republican governor has promised changes in the wake of several high-profile child deaths, including that of 4-year-old Leiliana Wright, a Grand Prairie girl who was beaten to death in March after CPS workers failed multiple times to protect her.

Abbott spokesman John Wittman declined to provide specifics on Abbott’s plans for fixing the problem of slow responses by caseworkers.

“I’d just want to reiterate what the governor has stated several times, that the situation at CPS is unacceptable, and he is committed to overhauling the agency - starting with the new leadership team he announced a couple of weeks ago,” Wittman said in an email.

Last month, Abbott’s social services czar, Chris Traylor, appointed former Texas Ranger Hank Whitman to lead the protective services department.

Traylor also named Kristene Blackstone to run CPS as an

Student Experience, From Page 1 objectives at HCC,” says Harmon.

HCC Southwest President Madeline Burillo is leading the move to make career advisement more effective and consistent across the district. Burillo called it “absurd” that the execution of the advisement process varies at different locations.

“The role of the advisor is critical in the on-boarding process and providing guidance,” says Burillo, “It has a significant impact not only while they’re here, but the pathway that they’re going to continue on once they leave HCC.” While examining the current career advisement strategies, Burillo said that the need to integrate career advising from start to completion or transfer became apparent.

Burillo says that the job placement department is in need of additional resources to be able to fully prepare students to join the workforce. They plan on creating career services centers at each college. Dedicated spaces and staff budget sources have already been identified.

In the future, students will be contacted so that the college can offer them services before they exit the college, ensuring that

“It is outmoded, outdated and something we have to get right ... there is no higher priority than to get a satisfactory IT platform in place that serves our students.”

Zachary Hodges President, HCC Northwest College they have a resume, portfolio and cover letter ready as well as providing mock interviews.

HCC Southeast President Irene Porcarello was charged with mapping program adjacency. “It’s not just getting into a [career] cluster and saying ‘I’m taking this pathway,’ just for the sake of taking a couple of courses,” explained Porcarello.

After extensive research, the committee decided to create cohorts of students in each program that will be assigned to career advisers. They are still reviewing curriculum and degree plans.

“We must enhance the student’s ability to achieve academic success,” Porcarello says that improvements “will provide students with a plethora of support systems, academic

advising, financial aid, tutoring, academic and social support networks that validate the success of the students. Student experience is second to none.”

HCC Northwest College President Margaret Ford Fisher is responsible for bringing the best practices in learning support to the entire district.

Student support includes academic, intellectual, social, physical, athletic and emotional help for students to have a positive college experience.

Sub-committees examined all these areas, recommending improvements. In January, the committee decided to narrow their focus to one component of learning support: tutoring.

“Tutoring is an essential component of any institution for student success. Tutoring

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helps underprepared students to persist longer. Tutoring also assists the academically prepared students to achieve higher grades,” notes Ford Fisher.

Amanda Vork now oversees tutoring for the entire HCC system, previously she was the director of the Learning Emporium at Central. With the transformation, tutoring is no longer segregated by college and subject area; it’s all under one department.

“Tremendous work has been done now to help move toward the implementation of the tutoring program in fall 2016,” explains Ford Fisher. Tutors have received more training, the tutoring program has been better advertised, and tutoring spaces at each location have

assistant commissioner at the department.

Both started Monday.

Patrick Crimmins, the family and protective services spokesman, also didn’t provide specifics for how faster contacts will be made. Crimmins, though, said each of the state’s various regions has a plan “tailored for their particular issues.”

“Job one for us is keeping children safe, and we have to see them face to face to do that,” he said.

The federal government has warned Texas for more than a decade that it isn’t meeting national standards for timely child visits in abuse investigations. But the latest reports on face-to-face contact with children alarmed Abbott aides and Traylor when they learned of them in late February.

The data provide a fresh glimpse of just how deeply buried CPS workers are and raise concerns that yet more children could die or continue to be abused while state leaders grapple with what to do.

From September through February, Dallas County CPS investigators quit their jobs at a rate of 57 percent a year. The crisis forced the state to bring scores of workers from other parts of Texas to temporarily work Dallas cases. Several of the area’s overworked investigators complained in interviews of lousy supervisors and regional administrators.

been made available to make mini-emporiums like what is at HCC Central.

HCC Coleman President Phil Nicotera is in charge of the committee on the Early Alert System.

“Our ultimate goal is to assist the student to finish what they started,” explained Nicotera, “In the first four weeks of a student’s class, is the most important piece as to whether or not that student will succeed in that class.”

Nicotera noted that early alert “requires the collaboration among three important groups and that is: the faculty, student service personal and you, the students. If you [students] don’t answer our phone calls, and you don’t respond to our pleas to help you, then the Early Alert System will not work.”

Through the system, instructors alert student services when a student is struggling, and they reach out to that student to offer assistance. HCC has already had an early alert system, the committee decided to enhance it.

“Every student at some point might need some help. So we expanded our scope to include every student district-wide,” says Nicotera. At any point in the semester, student services will be alerted when a student needs assistance.

Community 4 No expense spared on stadiums The Egalitarian

Wednesday May 4, 2016

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David Warren Associated Press

DALLAS — A suburban Dallas school district grabbed national attention in 2012 when it opened an eye-popping $60 million high school football stadium.

Not to be outdone, school officials near Houston next year plan to unveil a $62 million stadium-development plan.

And a district north of Dallas is considering spending more than $50 million on its own football arena.

Are such exorbitant price tags for high school stadiums the new normal? Only in Texas, it seems. Football fields in other states are far less expensive, often in the range of $5 million to $10 million. One Southern California district built four stadiums for about $72 million.

Texas school officials say their districts are teeming with new students and that the stadiums reflect their communities’ need for larger, more modern facilities.

“The size dictated the cost, no question,” said Tim Carroll, spokesman for the Allen school district, which built the $60 million stadium about 25 miles northeast of Dallas. “Some say we build things with no concern for expense, with columns made of marble, but that’s not the case.”

Many of the facilities are designed to serve multiple schools and multiple sports and host special events. And they should last for generations.

A big-league sports stadium could easily cost hundreds of millions of dollars, with some surpassing $1 billion. So a $50 million or $60 million project seems modest by comparison.

But it’s an extraordinary amount to spend on teen athletes. The result is a high school stadium that resembles a professional facility, with gleaming digital

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Halliburton, Baker Hughes ditch merger The Associated Press

LM Otero/AP Photo The Allen High School Eagle Stadium is shown in Allen, Texas. This suburban Dallas school district grabbed national attention in 2012 when it opened this eye-popping $60 million high school football stadium. scoreboards, turf fields and expansive press boxes.

Ross Kecseg with the Austinbased fiscal watchdog group Empower Texans calls the money being spent on high school stadiums “excessive.” The larger problem, he says, is school officials who combine outsize expenditures in one large bond package, leaving voters with no option to approve or reject one project over another. New school construction, building renovations, requests for more buses and other needs may be wrapped into a single request.

“When they put these propositions on the ballot, they put a whole lot of other things with them,” Kecseg said. “By law they’re allowed to separate the different requests ... but they lump them all together in an allor-nothing proposition.”

The Allen stadium, with 18,000 seats, stands out for its features and glamour even in Texas, where high school football under the “Friday Night Lights” has been mythologized in print and on television. The Eagles, a powerhouse team that hangs championship banners like tinsel on a tree, drew 22,000

people for their first game at the new field, Carroll said.

Allen has 9,800 season ticketholders, a number that exceeds the 7,000 seats in the high school stadium that opened last year in the Los Angeles suburb of Whittier at a cost of $17.5 million.

Carroll said various factors pumped up the stadium’s price tag, such as high construction costs in a region booming with new homes and corporate towers. The size of the facility, he added, was dictated by the thousands of parents and spectators who turn out, not just for football but also to see one of the largest marching bands in the country.

The Eagles compete against other large regional schools that travel with thousands of fans of their own.

“It seemed as though the further people were away from North Texas, the more questions we got,” Carroll said of the media attention that followed after the cost was disclosed.

That amount will be exceeded by the stadium scheduled to open next year in Katy, west of Houston, likely making it the most expensive high school

football stadium ever built — a distinction previously held by Allen.

By the time the Katy complex opens, the district will have eight high schools and each will play their football games at the 12,000-seat stadium. Soccer will be played there too.

Katy voters in 2014 approved the construction as part of a whopping $748 million bond that will pay for new schools for a district of 74,000 students that’s growing at a rate of 2,000 students a year.

“It’s not just a high school football stadium,” district spokeswoman Denisse Coffman said. “This is a student activity facility that’s going to benefit students across the district.”

School leaders in California, meanwhile, took a different approach.

As part of a spending plan approved by voters in foothill communities east of Los Angeles, four new stadiums were built at high schools that did not previously have any such facilities, according to Mat Holton, superintendent of the Chaffey Joint Union High School District.

Good Samaritan killed trying to help woman The Associated Press ARLINGTON, Texas — A young soldier shot and wounded his wife outside a Dallasarea store and then gunned down a father of three who grabbed his own gun and tried to make a citizen’s arrest, authorities say.

Arlington police say Anthony “T.J.” Antell Jr., 35, saw Ricci Bradden shoot at the feet of his wife during an argument Monday outside of a Walgreens where she works, striking her once. She fled inside the store to call for help.

Antell retrieved a handgun from his vehicle and confronted Bradden in an attempt to make a citizen’s arrest, but Bradden managed to slap it away and then fatally shot Antell, investigators say.

“What was really traumatic, the Good Samaritan’s spouse was here and witnessed this,” police Lt. Chris Cook told WFAA-TV.

“I can’t imagine going through that.”

Bradden, a 22-year-old Army private, drove away and later turned himself in to authorities. At one point, he called his commanders at Fort Hood and confessed, according to an arrest warrant.

Bradden’s wife, Quinisha Johnson, told WFAA on Tuesday that he came to the store because he was upset by a selfie she posted on social media that he thought made it seem she was seeking attention.

“And I was trying to explain it to him, that I married you. You’re all the attention that I needed,” she told the station. “And I could feel that he was getting mad, so I tried to walk off, and that’s when I heard him pull the gun out.”

The couple had only been married about two months.

Bradden was being held Tuesday at the Arlington jail on a murder charge. Online

jail records didn’t indicate if he had an attorney yet.

Cook said it’s difficult to determine when an armed Samaritan should intervene in a deadly situation, The Dallas Morning News reported.

“Any time that you can be the best witness you can be, we always recommend that,” he said. “Sometimes things turn out like this when you’re trying to stop a bad guy.”

Antell was a former Marine and fitness enthusiast who owned a CrossFit gym, according to the family’s pastor, Marc Lowrance of Saint John the Apostle United Methodist Church in Arlington.

“He had a great sense of being a defender of what was right, we saw that with his family and with his business,” Lowrance said. “He had a great ideal of protecting what was good and what was right.”

WASHINGTON — Two companies crucial to the business of U.S. energy exploration, Halliburton and Baker Hughes, have abandoned their planned merger in the face of opposition by regulators who said it would hurt competition.

Prospects for the merger, which was valued at nearly $35 billion when it was announced in 2014, seemed especially bleak after the Justice Department sued to block the deal on April 6.

The government claimed the merger would lead to higher prices by unlawfully eliminating significant competition in markets for almost two dozen services and products crucial to finding and producing oil and natural gas in the United States.

“The companies’ decision to abandon this transaction — which would have left many oilfield service markets in the hands of a duopoly — is a victory for the U.S. economy and for all Americans,” Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said in a statement on Sunday.

The Justice Department said its opposition to the deal stemmed in part from fear among oil and gas companies that rely on Halliburton and Baker Hughes.

“We heard extreme statements of concern from dozens of companies and over 100 individuals,” Mark Gelfand, deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s antitrust division, told reporters Monday. He declined to identify the companies and did not detail their concerns.

As part of the agreement, Halliburton will pay Baker Hughes the termination fee of $3.5 billion

by Wednesday, according to a joint release from the companies on Sunday.

“While both companies expected the proposed merger to result in compelling benefits to shareholders, customers and other stakeholders, challenges in obtaining remaining regulatory approvals and general industry conditions that severely damaged deal economics led to the conclusion that termination is the best course of action,” said Halliburton Chairman and CEO Dave Lesar.

Martin Craighead, chairman and CEO of Baker Hughes, said the “outcome is disappointing because of our strong belief in the vast potential of the business combination to deliver benefits for shareholders, customers and both companies’ employees.”

The Obama administration has taken credit for stopping more than 30 mergers that were abandoned after antitrust regulators sued or threatened to sue to block the deals. In dozens of other cases, the regulators reached settlements that allowed deals to go ahead, including big airline mergers.

Wednesday May 4, 2016

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Detroit teachers to return to classroom Corey Williams & David Eggert Associated Press

DETROIT — Teachers who closed Detroit schools for two days by calling out sick announced Tuesday that they would return to the classroom after receiving assurance from the district’s manager that they would be paid.

The move by the Detroit Federation of Teachers came hours after Michigan lawmakers advanced a $500 million plan to restructure the public schools by creating a new district.

The vote was intended to ease teachers’ fears that they might not get paid if the district runs out of money. But the union quickly blasted the legislation endorsed by the House Appropriations Committee. It would forbid existing labor agreements from transferring to the new district and restrict collective bargaining over work schedules and school calendars.

Terrence Martin, the union’s executive vice president, said it was “truly outraged” by the proposal. He said the measures sent to the full House “feel like and look like anti-teacher bills” and differ radically from legislation approved in March by the Senate that he described as “workable.”

“It’s just a testament to how far apart lawmakers are right now. ... “(It’s) very discouraging to our membership,” Martin said. “We’ll continue to fight.”

The union said it would encourage members to go back to school Wednesday based on discussions with the district’s state-appointed transitional manager, Steven Rhodes.

The sick-out idled 45,000 children and presented yet another crisis with racial overtones for a governor and Legislature already engrossed in the water emergency in Flint, a majority-black city like Detroit, where many residents have complained about being treated like second-class citizens.

“Teachers, you’re going to get paid,” Republican House Appropriations Chairman Al Pscholka said before the panel approved the plan over objections that it would not be enough money and also hurt the teachers union.

The proposal that passed mostly along party lines would launch a new district in July. Students would attend school in that district, while the old one would remain intact for tax-collection purposes to retire the district’s enormous debt by 2023. The plan would spend less than the $700plus million plan approved by the Senate.

The GOP-led House could vote on the idea later this week. But big differences would still need to be resolved with the Republicancontrolled Senate. It was unclear how quickly that could occur before the Legislature adjourns for the summer in mid-June.

On Tuesday, the district closed 94 of its 97 schools — the same number that canceled classes on Monday, when more than 1,500 teachers did not show up for work.

“We want to be in school teaching children,” said Randi Weingarten, national president of the American Federation of Teachers. “But you cannot in good conscience ask anybody to work without a guarantee they’re going to be paid.”

The district — considered the worst academically of its size in

Carlos Osorio/AP Photo Detroit Federation of Teachers President Ivy Bailey addresses teachers outside the school district’s headquarters, Tuesday in Detroit. Nearly all of Detroit’s public schools were closed for a second consecutive day Tuesday after hundreds of teachers called out sick over concerns that many may not get paid if the financially struggling district runs out of money. the country — has been under continuous state oversight since 2009. It has been led by a series of financial managers who have confronted debt and enrollment that has declined to a third of what it was a decade ago.

Rhodes, the current manager and a former federal judge who oversaw the city’s bankruptcy, warned over the weekend that nearly $50 million in emergency spending that the state approved in March will run out by June 30.

Teachers opting to have their pay spread over 12 months instead of the course of the school year would not receive paychecks in July and August without more help from the state.

The seven-bill plan aims to ensure that the newly created district could spend more on academics if freed of debt payments equaling $1,100 per

student.

But Republicans and Democrats remain at odds over issues such as how much state money is needed and whether to create a special commission to open and close schools, including publicly funded charters. Also unresolved is the question of when an elected school board would take power and if a financial oversight commission would have a say in hiring a new superintendent.

Rep. Henry Yanez, a Democrat, characterized the legislation as “bald-faced union busting.” Other Democrats questioned why it would provide only $33 million for start-up costs and cash flow when $200 million is required.

The mass sick-outs that started late last year with just a small group of teachers, however, angered Republicans, who complained that the protest did not help their

efforts to pass the bills. Four bills won approval on narrow 15-14 votes.

Rep. Earl Poleski of Jackson, who voted for the legislation, called the work stoppages “reprehensible.”

“Their actions have been grossly unprofessional,” he said.

But one parent who was missing work because her daughter has been shut out of class said the blame for the district’s financial maladies falls on the shoulders of the state, not the teachers.

Teachers “have been doing the best that they can with the resources that they have,” said Monique Baker McCormick, whose daughter is an 11th-grader at Cass Tech. “They’re just trying to survive themselves off of what little they get. So I don’t blame them at all for fighting for what they deserve.”

Virginia GOP lawmakers to sue over felons’ voting rights Alanna Durkin Richer Associated Press

RICHMOND, Va. — Republican lawmakers in Virginia will file a lawsuit challenging Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s decision to allow more than 200,000 convicted felons to vote in November, GOP leaders said Monday.

Republicans said that they have hired an attorney and plan to contest the governor’s executive order, which restored the rights of felons to vote, run for office and sit on a jury.

GOP lawmakers argue the governor has overstepped his constitutional authority with a clear political ploy designed to help his friend and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton get votes in the important swing state of Virginia this fall.

“Gov. McAuliffe’s flagrant disregard for the Constitution of Virginia and the

rule of must not go unchecked,” Senate Republican Leader Thomas Norment said in a statement. He said his predecessors and previous attorneys general examined this issue and concluded Virginia’s governor does not have the power to issue blanket restorations.

Iowa, Kentucky and Florida remove voting rights for felons for life unless a state official restores them.

McAuliffe has said that people who have served their time should be given a second chance to exercise their civic duties. He has also said he’s certain he has such authority after consulting with legal and constitutional experts, including Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, who is also a Democrat.

The governor’s spokesman didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment.

The governor’s order enables every Virginia felon to vote, run for public

Mark Gormus/AP Photo Gov. Terry McAuliffe holds up the order he signed to restore rights to felons in Virginia at the Capitol in Richmond, Va. More than 200,000 convicted felons will be able to cast ballots in the swing state of Virginia in November’s election under a sweeping executive order by McAuliffe announced Friday that restores their rights to vote and run for office. office, serve on a jury and become a notary public if they have completed their sentence and finished any supervised release, parole or probation requirements as of April 22. The administration estimates this population to include about 206,000 people.

Republicans have hired Attorney Charles J. Cooper and said they will

begin examining their legal options.

They didn’t say when they would file the lawsuit.

Cooper worked as an assistant attorney general under President Ronald Reagan and has argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.

They said they will not be using taxpayer dollars to pay for the lawsuit.

6

Wednesday May 4, 2016

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Graduation

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Commencement Attendance: Late Registration The graduation registration deadline for attending the ceremony was April 18. However, registration has been extended to Friday, May 6.

Students can also register in person at the Graduation Celebration (RSVP required) on Friday, May 6.

Graduation Celebration The HCC Alumni Association is hosting its Annual HCC Graduation Celebration for the graduating Class of 2016. The event is scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday, May 6 at the West Loop Campus (5601 West Loop South) This event is free to all 2016 HCC Graduates.

Graduation Celebration The HCC Alumni Association is hosting its Annual HCC Graduation Celebration for the graduating Class of 2016. The event is scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday, May 6 at the West Loop Campus (5601 West Loop South) This event is free to all 2016 HCC Graduates.

Regalia Requirement All students attending commencement, including late registrants must obtain regalia as follows: visit any HCC Bookstore through Thursday, May 12 and then at the rehearsal on Friday, May 13 and the morning of the ceremony on Saturday, May 14.

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Graduation

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Mandatory Rehearsal

There will be a mandatory rehearsal Friday, May 13 at 6 p.m. at NRG Stadium. There will be nocharge for parking at rehearsal.

On graduation day, participating graduates need to arrive at 6:30 a.m. and park in the blue lot (Kirby Drive at Westridge) with a $12 parking fee.

Upon arrival, proceed to student check-in, you will receive a preprinted registration card, please verify all information is correct. Staff will assist you with seating arrangements in the staging area and answer any questions you may have.

The ceremony will include speeches from the Administration, a student speaker and a guest speaker followed by the highlight of the ceremony, “awarding degrees�. As you prepare to line up to cross the stage, please be prompt in reaching the center of the stage, then proceed to exit off the stage. There will be staff to guide you during this process. Please be attentive and follow their instructions. It is important that you return to your seat after receiving your recognition and remain seated until the end.

Click on QR code for information regarding Graduation 2016.

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8 Texans go for offense in draft Wednesday May 4, 2016

Kristie Rieken AP Sports Writer

HOUSTON — After years of focusing on defense in the draft by choosing J.J. Watt, Jadeveon Clowney, Whitney Mercilus, Kevin Johnson, Kareem Jackson and Brian Cushing, the Houston Texans shifted to offense this time around, adding a bevy of playmakers that should help new quarterback Brock Osweiler.

Houston took offensive players in the first four rounds of the draft for the first time since its first draft in 2002.

First-round pick Will Fuller, a Notre Dame receiver selected 21st overall, should take some pressure off star DeAndre Hopkins, who made his first Pro Bowl last season after finishing third in the NFL with 1,521 yards receiving.

“There’s still going to be some double teams on a guy that caught 111 balls,” coach Bill O’Brien said of Hopkins. “He’s a great player.

But I think one of the things we looked at was ... trying to give him some help. Trying to get it where he could be more 1-on-1 and things like that. And I think that’s what we’ve done with this offensive skill draft class.”

Fuller had 62 receptions for 1,258 yards and 14 touchdowns last season for the Fighting Irish. It was his second straight 1,000-yard receiving season after he had a career-high 76 receptions for 1,094 yards and 15 touchdowns — also a career-best

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— in 2014.

In the second round, Houston addressed another need by trading up two spots to take Fuller’s teammate, center Nick Martin. Houston added Osweiler and running back Lamar Miller in free agency to boost their offense, but were looking for a center after losing Ben Jones in free agency to the Titans. The 6-foot-4, 299-pound Martin is the younger broker of Zack Martin, who was a first-round pick by the Cowboys in 2014 and a two-time Pro-Bowler at guard.

Their third-round pick is an intriguing playmaker: Former Ohio State quarterback Braxton Miller was the 85th overall selection after converting to receiver this season following sitting out a year with a shoulder injury.

He was the two-time Big Ten offensive player of the year in 2012 and 2013 after throwing for more than 2,000 yards and rushing for more than 1,000 in both of those seasons. He finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting in 2012 when he ran for a career-high 1,271 yards and was responsible for 28 touchdowns.

He couldn’t throw more than 45 yards after his shoulder injury so he requested a move to receiver. In 13 games he had 26 receptions for 341 yards and three touchdowns and ran 42 times for 281 yards and another score.

O’Brien said they had a long conversation on Friday night

Sports

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Pat Sullivan/AP Photo Houston Texans top NFL football draft pick Will Fuller, left, and owner Bob McNair smile at a press conference Friday in Houston. The wide receiver played football for Notre Dame. after drafting Miller about the importance of not overwhelming him early.

“We have a plan for Braxton,” he said. “You can’t throw everything at these guys right away because you have to give them a chance to learn and to be able to play fast. To be able to play the game at a good pace, the way they played the game in college.”

In the fourth round they added depth at running back, making San Jose State’s Tyler Ervin the 119th pick. Ervin ran for 1,601 yards with 13 touchdowns last season after rushing for 888 yards and four scores in 2014. He’s also a threat out of the backfield after grabbing 74 receptions for 640 yards combined in the last two years.

Ervin, who also saw limited action at cornerback, could find

a place in Houston’s return game after finishing his college career with 2,374 return yards and three touchdowns. He left San Jose State as the school’s career leader in all-purpose yards with 6,146 yards.

“He’s a dynamic football player,” general manager Rick Smith said. “Those stats are impressive ... he is a tough, durable football player. I think with his skillset and his versatility there are a lot of things we can do with the young man.”

The Texans have placed a premium on speed in this draft.

Ervin ran a 4.41 40-yard dash, to become the third player they’ve drafted this season to run a 4.5 or faster. Miller, who was a twotime Big Ten player of the year at quarterback, was clocked at 4.5

in the 40.

“Some of it is just how the board falls so we were fortunate to be in multiple positions where we had guys we really liked at the corresponding values,” Smith said. “We were able to take those guys and they spoke to (our) intent ... (of) trying to get faster. It was something that we were trying to add to our football team.”

Houston finally looked to the other side of the ball in the fifth round when they chose West Virginia safety K.J. Dillon with the 159th pick and Clemson nose tackle D.J. Reader at 166.

The Texans did not have any picks in the sixth or seventh rounds after trading them away to move up to get Fuller and Martin and because of past moves.

Rockets must find coach in wake of first-round ouster Kristie Rieken AP Sports Writer

David J. Phillip/AP Photo Houston Rockets’ Dwight Howard, center, misses a basket as Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green, left, and Harrison Barnes defend during the second half in Game 4 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series.

HOUSTON — The Houston Rockets’ season got off to a disappointing start.

So it was fitting that it ended in similar fashion.

The Rockets narrowly avoided missing the playoffs and barely put up a fight before their firstround elimination by Golden State in Game 5 wrapped up a tough season. Now they face many offseason questions, the biggest being who will coach this team and whether Dwight Howard will opt out of the last year of his contract and become a free agent.

“We’re going to get the coach search right,” general manager Daryl Morey said. “We’re going to get someone in here who is going to help turn this thing around.”

Morey said he would like to keep Howard, but that they’ll have to wait to see what he decides.

Howard wouldn’t

discuss his future with the team, but did talk about the struggles of the season.

“It didn’t go the way we wanted it to go,” Howard said. “We had a lot of ups and downs. I’m pretty sure all of us are going to take some time to reflect on what we can do to better ourselves.”

The Rockets reached the postseason for the fourth straight year, but certainly didn’t have the season they expected after reaching the Western Conference finals for the first time since 1997 last season. They returned most of the pieces from that team that won 56 games, but weren’t able to build on last year’s success.

Star James Harden set career marks in points (29), assists (7.5) and rebounds (6.1), but his improvement didn’t lead to more success for Houston.

“The season, from the beginning, wasn’t going our way,” Harden said. “Just had too many distractions. It’s just been like a bumpy road this entire season.”

The Rockets traded for Ty Lawson in an effort to take some pressure off Harden, but he was a bust and was released in March.

“We don’t pick high,” Morey said of the draft. “Most of these teams are built by picking high.

Because we don’t pick high we have to take bets on our roster.

We have to take bets on players that maybe some teams don’t see are going to turn out ... we have to take those gambles.”

Expectations were high after last season’s success, but it didn’t take long for cracks to appear.

Coach Kevin McHale was fired after the team won just four of its first 11 games. He was replaced

by J.B. Bickerstaff, but it didn’t lead to more consistent play and the Rockets were never able to keep pace with the elite teams in the West.

Morey said Bickerstaff did a “solid job” in a tough situation and will be considered for the job as the Rockets begin the search immediately.

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Culture

Wednesday May 4, 2016

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Van Camp talks ‘Civil War’ Neelou Goodarzi Contributor

“Captain America: Civil War” focuses on the once allies Steve Rogers (Captain America) and Tony Stark (Iron Man). A serious disagreement prompts the Avengers to choose sides, leading to a tough battle.

“Captain America: Civil War” is preceded by “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, which was a huge box office hit. The expectations are set just as high with “Civil War,” based loosely on a comic series of the same name.

Along with other students across the country, I participated in a conference call interview with Emily Van Camp, who plays Sharon Carter. She gave us some insight on her own opinions of her character, behind the scenes secrets and more.

We first met Sharon Carter in “Captain America: Winter Soldier”, where she was working at the Joint Terror Task Force. In Civil War, her loyalty to Rogers is put to the test.

Van Camp noted, “[Captain America] is rebelling against the Accords, and she’s just sort of trying to help him and continue to keep her job…you really get a

sense of her loyalty to him.”

Van Camp says that they were “planting a seed” in Winter Soldier. “Cap didn’t even know she was Sharon Carter…we find out who she is.”

She added that the trust between them is what solidifies their relationship. “We see [Carter] follower her heart rather than her head.” takes obvious sides in the movie, but who’s side would she choose in real life? She says that she has “such an attachment to Sharon and her loyalty to Steve… but I really see both sides.”

Nevertheless, her loyalty is unwavering. “You really do see the right and wrong of both sides.

It’s a tough one…but I’d probably go Team Cap.” “Civil War” is directed by the Russo Brothers, with whom Van Camp has worked with before. She mentioned that their “rapport” is part of what makes them such a great team to work with.

“With a movie of this scale… it’s double the power.” Van Camp says their differences and similarities as directors help: “to sort of keep this huge engine moving, it really helps to have two people, and they are both

Disney-Marvel via AP This image released by Disney shows Elizabeth Olsen, left, Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan in a scene from Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War,” opening in theaters nationwide Friday. brilliant and extraordinary in their own way… it’s a win-win all around.”

“Civil War” may be one of the many Marvel films, but each one is always more unique and more thrilling than the last. “This is kind of the biggest [movie] they have done yet…that’s kind of what Marvel does. They never, ever disappoint.”

Emily Van Camp is fully aware of the impact “Civil War” will have, noting that “it’s just taking

it to a whole other level.”

“Captain America: Civil War” opens in theaters on May 6.

Political interference in the Avengers’ activities causes a rift between former allies Captain America and Iron Man. Chris Evans plays Steve Rogers/Captain America; Robert Downey Jr. plays Tony Stark/ Iron Man; Scarlett Johansson plays Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow; Sebastian Stan plays Bucky Barnes/ Winter Soldier;

‘Papa’ brings Hemingway to life Fabian Brims The Egalitarian

Ernest Hemingway is one of the greatest authors of all time, yet there aren’t many movies about him or his books. If he would have written comic books, I’m sure this Yari Film Group via AP would be different.

Bob Yari’s new movie,”Papa: Heming-way This image released by Yari Film group shows Minka Kelly, left, and Giovanni Ribisi in a in Cuba” doesn’t only bring back the author scene from the film, “Papa: Hemingway in Cuba.” The film is the first full-length Hollywood of “The Old Man and The Sea”, it is also feature filmed on the island since the 1959 Cuban Revolution. the first Hollywood production to be shot in Cuba. The script was written by Denne Hemingway (Joely Richardson) in Cuba, where as the reporter’s love interest stays oneBart Petitclerk, who was the real reporter the young reporter has to learn that all idols dimensional, the screenplay doesn’t give her the chance to shine. look different when you get close to them. befriending Hemingway back in 1959.

There are some clichés, especially about There are many great things about this Since the end of the Revolution in 1959, the United States upheld an embargo against movie, but for me the most outstanding part Myers’ relationship with Debbie, but overall Cuba. It was only last year that President were the sets. The movie is filmed on location the script feels natural, especially when Adrian Obama softened these sanctions. It’s these in Havana and at Hemingway’s actual home, Sparks shows us Hemingway’s darker sides— you almost forget you’re watching a movie. times in the late fifties when the true story which grants a great deal of authenticity.

I also liked the soundtrack, which was Since the embargo to Cuba stopped, the this movie depicts, took place.

The young reporter Ed Myers (Giovanni houses, the cars and the streets look almost composed by the great Mark Isham. It was Ribisi) works for the Miami Herald and exactly as they did in 1959. The production subtle yet emotional and built the perfect since early childhood, he has been a huge crew had to go through great lengths to get musical background for the movie. I also liked fan of Ernest Hemingway. After his parents the permission to film, but it was all worth it. that it often feels more like a documentary, Also, the acting in this movie was excellent. like watching the real Hemingway. Just for abandoned him during the great depression, Myers searches desperately for a father figure Stage actor Sparks steals every scene. When that all the production’s efforts paid off.

A true story, beautiful cinematography, he walked through Havana in his costume, and finds it in Hemingway.

He writes a letter, but is too afraid to mail people actually confused him for the real original Cuban locations, great dialogues and it, until his colleague Debbie (Minka Kelly) author, who was just called ‘Papa’ by his amazing actors—there is not much negative to say about this film. If you would to time finds it and sends it for Myers. Hemingway friends and admirers.

Ribisi and Richardson also play their travel to Hemingway’s Cuba and meet the (Adrian Sparks) actually likes the letter, and invites Myers to visit him and his wife Mary parts with bravour. Only Minka Kelly’s role famous author, this is your chance!

Anthony Mackie plays Sam Wilson/ Falcon; Don Cheadle plays Lieutenant James Rhodes/ War Machine; Jeremy Renner plays Clint Barton/Hawkeye; Chadwick Boseman plays T’Challa/Black Panther; Paul Bettany plays Vision; Elizabeth Olsen plays Wanda Maximoff/ Scarlet Witch; Paul Rudd plays Scott Lang/Ant-Man; Emily VanCamp plays Sharon Carter; and Tom Holland plays Peter Parker/Spider-Man.

Wilmore says tone did not fit David Bauder

AP Television Writer NEW YORK — Comic Larry Wilmore says his “tone didn’t fit the room” at his much talked-about White House Correspondents Association speech but believes his use of a provocative term to address President Barack Obama may open an important dialogue for the country.

The Comedy Central host said in an interview Tuesday that he’s willing to take the heat for his performance over the weekend, which skewered media figures and politicians. The so-called nerd prom is a big Washington event in Washington, and Wilmore’s roast, which followed Obama’s final address at the event as president, was televised across the country.

“I may have underestimated the tone of how I was telling the jokes,” the “Nightly Show” host said, although he said “all of these revelations you realize see

Wilmore Tone, Page 10

10 Students experience WorldFest The Egalitarian

Wednesday May 4, 2016

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Fabian Brims The Egalitarian

A student’s life can be pretty tough. Papers, projects, and deadlines can be overwhelming so a little distraction, like a movie, is like pure gold. How fortunate that HCC was able to provide stressed students with VIP Gold Passes to WorldFest — America’s longestrunning independent film festival that took place in April here in Houston.

This gold pass opened many doors at the festival. The students had access to hundreds of short and feature films, all nine seminar master classes, and even to the opening night premiere with the champagne gala.

For a film lover, watching as many movies as possible is the most fun. This year they showed a wide range of films as well as many shorts, curated in 2-hour blocks.

There were comedies, dramas, thrillers, horror, science fiction and even a western movie in the program.

Of course not every movie was perfect, but the HCC future filmmakers had the chance to see what other students, graduates, and film veterans are doing. By either getting inspired or learning from other’s mistakes, every screening provided not only entertainment, but also education for aspiring directors, writers, and producers.

Among my favorites this year was the coming-of-age-drama ‘Coming through the Rye’ from Jim Sadwith, the Indian drama

Fabian Brims/The Egalitarian Houston Community College provided students with VIP gold passes to the WorldFest movie festival.

‘The Bridge’ from Amit Ranjan Biswas and the comedy ‘The Truth about Lies’ from Phil Allocco.

Allocco attended the screening and answered questions after the movie, which is just a small selection.

The nine master class seminars also provided a wealth of information for students and interested people, but more than that, they were excellent opportunities for networking, meeting peers, and making connections in the industry.

It is always the hardest to get your foot in the door, but the friendly atmosphere at the WorldFest provided a relaxed forum where it was easy to get in touch with people.

The seminars were held at the Doubletree Hilton Plaza Hotel.

They included scriptwriting, directing for cinema, acting unions, drones and more, and were led by experts from the industry like Shawn Welling, Casey Kelly and Gary Chason.

They were able to share their knowledge and experience and they patiently answered many questions from the audience.

My favorite seminar was Nick Nicholson’s insight on the life of a movie critic. He has the type of personality you enjoy listening to and he told us some funny anecdotes from Hollywood — I enjoyed it.

At one of these seminars I ran into Vinod Patel, another

HCC student who got a VIP Gold Pass. In addition to attending the movies and lectures, Vinod decided to apply his skills to make a documentary about WorldFest.

Next year, WorldFest will will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary.

Patel filmed plenty of interviews with festival staff, filmmakers, and members of the audience and was also able to get his hands on archival footage of previous festivals. He is currently working on editing the documentary, which may be in the next year’s program.

It would be such a great success for HCC and its collaboration with the WorldFest if next year one of our students makes it into the festival’s program. Good luck, Vinod!

911 calls to Prince estate varied over years Philip Marcelo Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS — Authorities and emergency responders were called to Prince’s suburban Minneapolis home over the last five years for everything from mundane reports of tripped fire alarms to more serious medical calls, a log released Tuesday shows.

Data released by Minnesota authorities provide some new details about more than 40 calls for service involving Prince’s Paisley Park complex.

Also Tuesday, authorities released emails to The Associated Press showing that detectives in Minnesota have asked authorities in Moline, Illinois, for fire and ambulance records related to the emergency landing of a plane carrying Prince about a week before his death. It was not clear whether Moline officials had fulfilled the request.

The 911 log released Tuesday includes a June 20, 2011, call in which a woman from Germany claimed Prince had told her a year earlier that he had a cocaine habit that he couldn’t control and that he had advised her to report it. According to the log, it appears authorities didn’t respond, telling dispatchers to call the woman back and tell her that her information was a year old and didn’t specify that Prince was in immediate danger. The woman’s identifying

information was blacked out of the log and it wasn’t clear whether she actually knew Prince.

A message seeking comment from Prince’s representative wasn’t immediately returned Tuesday. Several people who have known Prince over the years have said they never saw him use drugs.

Prince was 57 when he died on April 21 at Paisley Park. His cause of death hasn’t been released. A law enforcement official has told the AP that investigators are looking into whether Prince died from an overdose and whether a doctor was prescribing him drugs in the weeks beforehand. The official has been briefed on the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media.

The official also told the AP that investigators were looking into whether Prince overdosed on the plane in Moline.

In an email to the city clerk in Moline, Carver County Sheriff’s Detective Chris Nelson asks for “the information from the Fire/Ambulance records you have for Prince on 4-15-16. We are currently investigating his death and these records may assist us.”

Nelson also asked a city detective for the name of the hospital that treated Prince.

The emails were released to AP in response to an open records request.

Messages left for the detective weren’t immediately returned.

Some details about prior calls to Prince’s

address were released last week. The data released Tuesday provides some new detail about calls that did not generate police reports. They include calls about a woman having an allergic reaction, a fire alarm that was set off by a fog machine, a trespasser walking in the parking lot banging a drum, and a call about a suspicious vehicle in which the responding officer “checked and it was Prince,” the log said.

Other calls include: — On Oct. 23, 2013, paramedics were called to a report of a 53-year-old man who was apparently dehydrated. That man was taken to a local hospital. The man’s name isn’t listed; Prince would have been 55 years old at the time. When a hospital spokeswoman was asked Tuesday whether Prince was treated on or near that date, she said the hospital can’t provide information on any patients due to privacy laws.

— On Feb. 12, 2014, a woman called saying that since 2009, she had been receiving phone calls from a man who identified himself as Prince. She said the calls started after she listened to a Prince record and heard private information that only she could hear. Police advised her to tell the person who was calling her to stop.

— On Feb. 18, 2016, a female caller asked for a welfare check on Paisley Park, but it wasn’t clear whom she wanted authorities to check on. Authorities said they didn’t have enough information.

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Wilmore Tone, From Page 10 after the fact.”

Still, he wasn’t taking back the most-discussed moment of the speech, which came at the end. Wilmore, who is black and, at 54, the same age as Obama, said words didn’t do justice to the idea that he could live at the same time a black man could be leader of the free world.

He concluded: “Yo Barry, you did it, my n----a. You did it.”

Wilmore’s use of the phrase shed light on a debate among many in the black community: those who feel it is an offensive slur and shouldn’t be used in any context, and others — including Wilmore — who feel that using it as a term of endearment among blacks robs the word of its negative power.

“I knew that it would be provocative and yes, I was taking a big chance,” Wilmore said.

“But you know what, it was just a creative expression that I made at the time. I don’t know if I would take it back.”

He said that “at this point, I think it may open up a dialogue that at the end of the day is probably pretty good. And if I have to take the heat for it, that’s OK. Part of my job is to take the heat. I certainly dished out a lot of stuff.”

He recalled that as a child, the police broke into a neighbor’s home and that he heard them shout, “freeze, n---er, dead.” He was completely dehumanized by the phrase, and he and his friends would use it in humor to strip that pain away.

Wilmore said the president was “very kind and very warm” to him and the White House said Monday that Obama wasn’t offended by use of the phrase.

Others were, including civil rights activist Al Sharpton, who was at the dinner and criticized it later.

Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart, who is black, wrote that he recognized that Wilmore was coming from a place of pride. But the White House Correspondents’ dinner “was neither Wilmore’s barbershop nor his momma’s house. Obama is president of the United States and should have been accorded the respect that comes with the office.”

Wilmore said that Capehart incorrectly wrote that he called the president “n---er” instead of “n---a,” and said that was a crucial distinction. “I would never call the president that,” he said.

For his full speech, Wilmore said he treated it like a roast. To a certain extent, so did Obama, but the professional comedian noted the president’s tone was better.

He thinks he may have lost the room when he said, “Speaking of drones, how is Wolf Blitzer still on television? Hey, Wolf, I’m willing to project tonight’s winner: anyone that isn’t watching ‘The Situation Room.’”

Blitzer sat in the audience, stone-faced.

Wednesday May 4, 2016

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Egal•i•tar•i•an (adjective) aiming for equal wealth, status, etc., for all people 3517 Austin; 303 Fine Arts Center; Houston TX 77004 Phone: 713.718.6016; Fax: 713.718.6601 Adviser: Fredrick Batiste

SPRING 2016 EGALITARIAN STAFF Editor-in-Chief............................................... Alyssa Foley News Editor................................................Jimmieka Mills Sports Editor..............................................John Cañamar Culture Editor.............................................. Erik Calderon Photo Editor........................................... Thomas Hopkins Social Media Mgr.....................................Jessica Wosiack Staff Writer................................................... Ajani Stewart Staff Writer................................................... Fabian Brims Staff Writer.................................................... Ana Ramirez Staff Writer.......................................... Emmanuel Akinola Staff Writer................................................. Tori Hendricks Staff Writer............................................ Marialuisa Rincon Staff Photographer......................................Gilbert Bernal ——— The Egalitarian has been the official student newspaper of the Houston Community College System since September 1974.

The Egalitarian is published bi-monthly, every other Wednesday except during holiday breaks.

Print circulation is 8,000 copies per issue and distributed to selected HCC campuses in the Houston, Spring Branch, Alief, Katy, North Forest and Fort Bend areas. Comments and contributions are always welcome.

Deadlines for contributions and advertisements are one week before the issue print date.

The Egalitarian is written and edited by students of Houston Community College. This publication does not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, interests, attitudes and tastes of the Board of Trustees, HCC administration, faculty, staff or students.

Opinions and editorial content of The Egalitarian that are unsigned do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Egalitarian staff or adviser. The Egalitarian reserves the right to edit any submitted material for grammatical errors, offensive language, libelous materials and space constraints. It may also refuse any advertising that does not adhere to the HCC mission.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

The Egalitarian staff consists of HCC students who must complete all tasks required to produce the newspaper, which serves all campuses of the HCC System. We want all students from all majors to contribute. However, we must follow our submissions policy in order to operate under our limitations of time, energy and staff.

All staff and contributing writers must be currently enrolled students at Houston Community College. The Egalitarian interacts with contributing writers via e-mail and telephone.

Visiting The Egalitarian will not help contributors get published, only quality work will.

Publication priority is given to staff members and assigned articles, and verbal commitments for assignments will not be accepted or recognized.

Press releases, story ideas, news tips and suggestions are always welcomed.

Any student interested in joining The Egalitarian staff may request more detailed information regarding story length, topics, style, etc., by e-mailing The Egalitarian Faculty Adviser Fredrick Batiste at adviser@hccegalitarian.com.

Karen Pulfer Focht/AP Photo Candelario Jimon Alonzo, 16, right, and his cousin, Melisa Jimon Reynoso, center, sit with Domingo Jimon, left, in Memphis, Tenn. Jimon took his nephew in after he fled Guatemala. Local school officials have kept the teen out of the classroom since he tried to enroll in January. Instead, the cash-strapped district routed the minor to an adult school in East Memphis that offered English classes a few hours a week. But before Jimon could register, the state shut the adult school’s English as a Second Language program over concerns that few were graduating, effectively ending all of their chances for a formal education.

Migrant children kept from enrolling in school Garance Burke & Adrian Sainz Associated Press

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Candelario Jimon Alonzo came to the U.S. dreaming of becoming something more than what seemed possible along the rutted roads of his hometown in Guatemala’s highlands. This was his chance: He could earn a U.S. high school education and eventually become a teacher.

Instead, the 16-year-old spends most days alone in the tumbledown Memphis house where he lives with his uncle, leaving only occasionally to play soccer and pick up what English he can from his friends.

Local school officials have kept Jimon out of the classroom since he tried to enroll in January.

Attorneys say Jimon and at least a dozen other migrant youth fleeing violence in Central America have been blocked from going to Memphis high schools because officials contend the teens lacked transcripts or were too old to graduate on time.

The Associated Press has found that in at least 35 districts in 14 states, hundreds of unaccompanied minors from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras have been discouraged from enrolling in schools or pressured into what advocates and attorneys argue are separate but unequal alternative programs — essentially an academic dead end, and one that can violate federal law.

Instead of enrolling Jimon and the other minors in high school, their cash-strapped district routed them to an adult school in East Memphis that offered English

classes a few hours a week. But before Jimon could even register, the state shut the GED and English-language programs over concerns that few students were graduating, effectively ending his chances for a formal education.

“I really wanted to study math and English when I got here,” said Jimon, who grew up speaking Spanish and the indigenous language Quiche. The teen is in the process of applying for permission to stay in the country permanently.

Shelby County Schools spokeswoman Natalia Powers said her sprawling district had a policy that allowed students 16 and older to choose to enroll in a GED program, and that once the program closed, students could continue studying in a “similar” program at a local nonprofit. But attorneys and advocates said their clients weren’t given the choice to attend a mainstream high school, and that the Memphis nonprofit did not teach English.

America’s schools remain one of the few government institutions where migrant youth are guaranteed services, but the federal government has extended little money or oversight to monitor whether that happens, in part because schools are locally governed.

Since fall 2013, the federal government has placed nearly 104,000 unaccompanied minors with adult sponsors in communities nationwide, where they are expected to attend school while they seek legal status in immigration court. Months later, during the dramatic surge of illegal crossings at the border, the Education and Justice departments issued joint guidance reminding districts that a 1982 Supreme Court ruling established

that states cannot deny children a free public education, regardless of immigration status.

For students learning English, guidance says school districts must provide appropriate language assistance services so students can participate equally in the standard instructional program within a reasonable period of time.

Districts found to have broken the law can be forced to change their enrollment policies, but making that happen is not easy.

To start, few migrant children understand their rights.

Students and their advocates can sue districts or file complaints with the Education or Justice departments, but investigations are backlogged and typically result in civil sanctions, said Lisa Carmona, senior attorney with the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center.

Many local school districts have stretched to find the resources and staff to meet the educational needs of these students, who often carry emotional trauma, have gaps in their education and are older than other English-language learners.

To determine where that was not happening, the AP analyzed federal data to identify areas where the number of migrant children was relatively large when compared to public school enrollment, along with the number of students formally learning English.

In Alabama, California, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and South Carolina, social workers and attorneys told AP that migrant students have been barred from enrolling, kept out of class for months due or routed to reform schools and adult programs.

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Wednesday May 4, 2016

The Egalitarian

www.HCCEgalitarian.com

@HCC_Egalitarian

Trump virtually clinches nomination Julie Pace & Scott Bauer

Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS — In a stunning triumph for a political outsider, Donald Trump all but clinched the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday with a resounding victory in Indiana that knocked rival Ted Cruz out of the race and cleared Trump’s path to a likely November face-off with Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.

Trump still needs about 200 delegates to formally secure the nomination, but Cruz’s decision to end his campaign removed his last major obstacle.

“Ted Cruz — I don’t know if he likes me or he doesn’t like me — but he is one hell of a competitor,” Trump said of his last fierce competitor whom he had dubbed “lyin’ Ted.” Trump, in a victory speech that was much lower-key than usual, promised victory in November, vowing anew to put “America first.”

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders eked out a victory over Clinton in Indiana, but the outcome will not slow the former secretary of state’s march to the Democratic nomination.

Heading into Tuesday’s voting, Clinton had 92 percent of the delegates she needs.

“I know that the Clinton campaign thinks this campaign is over. They’re wrong,” Sanders said defiantly in an interview Tuesday night. But Clinton already has turned her attention to the general election.

She and Trump now plunge into a six- month battle for the presidency, with the future of America’s immigration laws, health care system and military

posture around the world at stake. While Clinton heads into the general election with significant advantages with minority voters and women, Democrats have vowed to not underestimate Trump as his Republican rivals did for too long.

For months, Republican leaders considered him a fringe candidate and banked on voters shifting toward more traditional contenders once the primary contests began. But Trump proved to be surprisingly durable, tapping into Republicans’ deep anger with party leaders and outlasting more than a dozen experienced political rivals.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus declared the race over, saying on Twitter that Trump would be the party’s presumptive nominee.

“We all need to unite and focus on defeating @HillaryClinton,” he wrote.

Indeed, Trump’s first challenge will be uniting a Republican Party that has been roiled by his candidacy. While some GOP leaders have warmed to the real estate mogul, others have promised to never vote for him and see him as a threat to their party’s very existence.

Even before the Indiana results were finalized, some conservative leaders were planning a Wednesday meeting to assess the viability of launching a third party candidacy to compete with him in the fall.

One outside group trying to stop Trump suggested it would shift its attention to helping Republicans in other races.

Rory Cooper, a senior adviser to the Never Trump super PAC, said the group will help protect “Republican incumbents and

Mary Altaffer/AP Photo Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a primary night news conference, Tuesday in New York. down-ballot candidates, by distinguishing their values and principles from that of Trump, and protecting them from a wave election.”

Indiana was viewed as the last gasp for Cruz, the fiery Texas conservative. He campaigned aggressively in the state, securing the support of Indiana’s governor and announcing businesswoman Carly Fiorina as his running mate, but lost momentum in the closing days.

Cruz had clung to the hope that he could keep Trump from reaching the 1,237 delegates needed for the nomination and push the race to a rare contested convention.

“I’ve said I would continue on

as long as there was a viable path to victory; tonight I’m sorry to say it appears that path has been foreclosed,” Cruz told a somber crowd in Indianapolis.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich is now the only other Republican left in the race. But Kasich has won just one primary — his home state — and trails Trump by nearly 900 delegates.

Kasich pledged to stay in the race, with his campaign manager saying the governor would continue to “offer the voters a clear choice for our country.”

Only about half of Indiana’s Republican primary voters said they were excited or optimistic about any of their remaining candidates becoming president,

according to exit polls. Still, most said they probably would support whoever won for the GOP. Clinton, too, needs to win over Sanders’ enthusiastic supporters. The Vermont senator has cultivated a deeply loyal following in particular among young people, a group Democrats count on in the general election.

Though Sanders claimed momentum, he has conceded his strategy hinges on persuading superdelegates to back him over the former secretary of state.

Superdelegates are Democratic Party insiders who can support the candidate of their choice, regardless of how their states vote. And they favor Clinton by a nearly 18-1 margin.

two would divide their time and resources based on states where they were each poised to do better.

Days later, he prematurely named former Hewlett-Packard

chief executive Carly Fiorina as his running mate, hoping it would woo some of the female voters turned off by Trump’s brash rhetoric.

Cruz ends White House bid Scott Bauer & Steve Peoples Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz ended his presidential campaign Tuesday, eliminating the biggest impediment to Donald Trump’s march to the Republican nomination.

The conservative tea party firebrand who cast himself as the only viable alternative to Trump announced his exit after a stinging defeat in Indiana’s Republican primary.

“It appears that path has been foreclosed,” Cruz told supporters in Indianapolis. “Together, we left it all on the field of Indiana.

We gave it everything we’ve got, but the voters chose another path, and so with a heavy heart but with boundless optimism for the longterm future of our nation, we are

suspending our campaign.”

Cruz had already been mathematically eliminated from clinching the delegate majority in the state-by-state primary process, but hoped to force a contested national convention in July. That possibility ends Tuesday with the Texas senator’s announcement.

Had he succeeded in his quest, Cruz would have been the first U.S. president of Hispanic descent, although he often downplayed his heritage on the campaign trail, instead, touting the need for tougher immigration laws, for a border wall along the border with Mexico, protecting gun rights, repealing President Barack Obama’s health care law and instituting a flat tax.

Cruz argued he was the only true conservative in the race, building on his reputation in the Senate where he clashed both with Democrats and members of

his own party over his ideological stubbornness. Cruz railed against what he called the “Washington cartel,” trying to appeal to an electorate that is craving political outsiders.

But he ultimately couldn’t compete with Trump’s appeal among white, working class voters who were drawn to the billionaire’s outlandish approach to politics.

Cruz’s campaign placed its hopes on a data-driven effort to turn out conservative evangelical Christians who had opted out of recent presidential elections.

Increasingly, he would modify his travel schedule to go where data showed there might be pockets of untapped supporters.

With the scale tipping increasingly in Trump’s favor, he announced an extraordinary pact in April with his other rival, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, in which the