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FEBRUARY 19, 2020
All-Star Saturday Night a success once again Story and Photo By Dorothy J. Gentry
A mean-spirited budget proposal FROM THE CAPITOL
Sports Editor
All-Star Saturday Night is easily the most-hyped, most-attended and favorite of the NBA All Star festivities. Saturday night in Chicago was no exception as fans and the audience were witnesses to great competition, fantastic performances and an epic dunk battle that will go down in history as one of the best ever. The Slam Dunk Contest everyone’s favorite event – featured Orlando Magic player Aaron Gordon and Derrick Jones Jr. of the Miami Heat both former runners-up in the battle. They tied after both the finals and the tiebreaker round and had to keep on dunking in what was essentially the first OT in the event. Finally, despite Gordon dunking over 7-5 Boston Celtic player Tacko Fall, Jones was named the Slam Dunk Champion. “It feels great,” Jones Jr. said of winning the competition on what was also his 23rd birthday. “Just being able to get an achievement like this on a day like this, it’s special for me. This is a day that I’m going to tell my kids about. Just make sure that they know this is a day for me.” Before the Dunk Contest, AllStar Saturday Night opened with the Skill Challenge; a threeround, bracket-style contest where players compete head-to-head in an obstacle course featuring checkpoints that test their dribbling, passing and shooting. The finals of the competition featured the Miami Heat’s Bam Adebayo and Domantas Sabonis of the Indiana Pacers. Adebayo was named Skills Challenge winner. He dedicated the award to his mom. “It’s because all she’s been through and all the struggles
BY CONGRESSWOMAN EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON
Derrick Jones Jr. Miami Heat she’s been through and what the living conditions were I had to go through,” he said. “And how she still strived to make me happy and make our house feel home, and I can’t do nothing but give her that and keep giving her every other accolade I get.” Another favorite of All-Star Saturday Night is the 3-Point Contest. Last year's champion Joe Harris of the Brooklyn Nets competed along with seven other players. Davis Bertans of the Washington Wizards, Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns and Buddy Hield of the Sacramento Kings, reached the final round. Booker put a strong score of 26 up on the board in his final run through the course but Hield was able to make his final shot which gave him 27 points to beat Booker. “I feel great. Like I said earlier, as a shooter, this is on your bucket list. You have to come in, and you want to win a three-point shootout. With a stacked field like that, it makes it even better. Pressure is on and you’ve got to show up.”
The budget proposed recently by the Trump administration for fiscal year 2021 is meanspirited, disruptive and contains recommendations and policies that undermine working people and those in need of a safetynet to simply help them and their families survive. The $4.8 trillion plan calls for unacceptable decreases in student loan programs, Medicaid, housing assistance programs, the food stamp program, programs that protect the environment and Social Security Disability among others. It would severely harm poor people, injure the middle class, and would increase income disparities in our country. It is unacceptable and fair-minded people in Congress will do all that we can to see that it does not become a reality. During a period in which many people live in the midst of
PAUL QUINN,
food deserts, and are able to feed their families because they receive some assistance from the federal government, the Trump budget proposes to cut $15 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It also seeks to decrease the number of adults who qualify for the program by expanding work requirements for people who, due to no fault of their own, are unable to work. It seems that the government has little concern about whether people, including children, go to bed hungry. Sadly, in a nation in which 500,000 people are homeless on any given night, and many others live in inadequate housing, the proposed budget calls for a steep reduction in a federal rental assistance program designed to assist people who live near or below the poverty line. The budget would also
eliminate federal funding for communities that have public housing that is in need of repair. It also would require tenants who live in public housing to pay more of their income towards rental units. Many of these people are barely making it with the incomes they have. If all of this were not enough, the budget proposes demonstrative cuts in Medicaid and in financial subsidies that are available under the Affordable Care Act, while neither the administration nor its allies in Congress have come up with alternative healthcare plans for the American people. The administration is calling for cuts in vital programs while requesting an additional $460 million increase in military spending, letting everyone know its priorities are far from doing what is in the best interests of the American people.
+ Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson represents the 30th Congressional District of Texas in the United States House of Representatives where she chairs the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.
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NABJ Secretary Cheryl Smith and comedian Roy Wood Jr. of the Daily Show with Trevor Noah sign beam at Paul Quinn College, during NABJ Basics Bootcamp, last week. Photo-Maurice West
