The Dallas Examiner headliners for Oct. 31, 2019!

VOL. XXXIII • OCTOBER 31, 2019

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Dental care program approved for Dallas seniors in need CATS Inspired Designs

What Kind of Nation ...?

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By DIANE XAVIER The Dallas Examiner

The Dallas City Council voted at its Oct. 23 meeting in favor of authorizing a one-year interlocal agreement with Texas A&M University College of Dentistry to administer the Clinical Dental Care Services Program in order to provide dental health services from Jan. 1 through Sept. 30, 2020 to low- to moderate-income seniors ages 60 and older that reside in the city of Dallas.

TAMCOD will provide these services at three locations, according to Assistant City Manager Nadia Chandler Hardy.

Those locations include North Dallas Shared Ministries located at

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2875 Merrell Road, Agape Clinic located at 4104 Junius St., and beginning in 2020, South Dallas Dental Clinic at Hatcher Station Village at 4542 Scyene Road.

“The Senior Affairs Commission advocates for senior dental care as low-income seniors and seniors on fixed income are often unable to afford private dental care, but Medicare does not typically cover dental care services for seniors,” Hardy said. “Providers of dental services to low-income seniors state that they frequently encounter patients who have not been seen by a dentist in over 20 years, resulting in severe dental disease. The Senior Dental Program is likely the only option for many Dallas residents and the County does not provide

Jessica Galleshaw, director of the City of Dallas Office of Community Care, speaks during the Dallas City Council meeting, Oct. 23. – The Dallas Examiner Screenshot taken from the City of Dallas video

these services.

The lack of proper dental care can lead to other health issues and advancing age puts senior residents at risk for oral health conditions. In additional to dental health, dental care appointments provide an opportunity to identify signs of other health issues in patients such as

high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease. In cases like these, the Clinical Dental Care Services Program provider, Texas A&M College of Dentistry is able to refer patients for low cost medical services near the dental clinics.”

Council member Cara Mendelsohn of District 12 supported this cause despite her concerns of all the funds not being used and shared some data with council members.

“The council allocated $375,000 to this program,” Mendelsohn said.

“But only spent $246,000. This past year, the council allocated $400,000 and only $212,000 was spent. Also, the program had a 2,000-client target of which 1,700 were served. In

See City Council Page 7

The collaboration will align aggressive, high-reward research efforts to accelerate progress on shared gene-based strategies (depicted in green) to cure sickle cell disease and HIV that are available globally including in low-resource settings, while continuing to invest in other parallel research efforts on cures for these two diseases outside of the collaboration. – Photo courtesy of the NIH

NIH to invest in develop cures for sickle cell, HIV globally NIH Newsroom

The National Institutes of Health plans to invest at least $100 million over the next four years toward an audacious goal: develop affordable, gene-based cures for sickle cell disease and HIV. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will also invest $100 million toward this goal. The intention is for these cures to be made globally available, including in low-resource settings.

Dramatic advances in genetics over the last decade have made effective genebased treatments a reality, including new treatments for blindness and certain types of leukemia. Yet these breakthroughs are largely inaccessible to most of the world by virtue of the complexity and cost of treatment requirements, which currently limit their administration to hospitals in wealthy countries. To make these treatments effective and available for SCD and HIV, which disproportionately affect populations living in Africa or of African descent, new investment is needed to focus research on the development of curative therapies that can be delivered safely, effectively and affordably in low-resource settings.

The collaboration between the NIH and the Gates Foundation sets out a bold goal of advancing safe, effective and durable gene-based cures to clinical trials in the United States and relevant countries in sub-Saharan Africa within the next seven to 10 years. The ultimate goal is to scale and implement these treatments globally in areas hardest hit by these diseases.

“This unprecedented collaboration focuses from the get-go on access, scalability and affordability of advanced gene-based strategies for sickle cell disease and HIV to make sure everybody, everywhere has the opportunity to be cured, not just those in high-income countries,” said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. “We aim to go big or go home.”

The collaboration will align aggressive, high-reward research efforts to accelerate progress on shared gene-based strategies to cure SCD and HIV. Both organizations also will continue to invest in other parallel research efforts on cures for SCD and HIV

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New film combines action, love and reality Scenes from Queen & Slim – Photos courtesy of Universal Pictures

Special to The Dallas Examiner

A new unflinching new drama joins the legacy of films such as Set It Off and Thelma & Louise. Queen & Slim is a powerful, consciousness-raising love story that confronts the staggering human toll of racism and the life-shattering price of violence.

Queen & Slim stars Academy Award nominee Daniel Kaluuya as “Slim” and rising star Jodie Turner-Smith as “Queen,” in her first starring feature film role. Kaluuya is a British actor known for his leading role as Chris Washington in the suspense film Get Out. Turner-Smith portrayed Melantha Jhirl in Syfy’s Nightflyers.

While on a forgettable first date together in Ohio, Slim, a retail employee, and Queen, a criminal defense lawyer, are pulled over for a minor traffic infraction. Slim is bewildered when the officer asks him to step out of the vehicle. The situation escalates suddenly when

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the Slim kills the police officer in self-defense. Terrified and in fear for their lives, the Black couple are forced to go on the run.

However, the incident is captured on video and goes viral, and the couple unwittingly becomes a symbol of trauma, terror, grief and pain for people across the country.

As they drive, the two unlikely fugitives discover themselves and each other in the most dire and desperate of circumstances and forge a deep and powerful love that reveals their shared humanity and shape the rests of their lives.

Screenwriter, producer and actress Lena Waithe wrote the screenplay from an idea originated by bestselling author James Frey, known for his first book, A Million Little Pieces.

Waithe is known for her starring role in Master of None and is the first Black woman to be awarded the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for writing the show’s Thanksgiving episode.

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The feature film was directed

by Melina Matsoukas, a twotime Grammy award winning director and the visionary filmmaker behind this generation’s most powerful pop-culture experiences. She is the executive producer/director of HBO’s Insecure, and has directed the Emmy award-winning Thanksgiving episode of Netflix’s Master of None, and Beyonce’s Formation.

The film was produced by Frey, Waithe, Matsoukas, Michelle Knudsen, Andrew Coles, Brad Weston and Pamela Abdy. The executive producers were Pamela Hirsch, Kaluuya, Aaron L. Gilbert and Jason Cloth.

Universal Pictures and Makeready presented Queen & Slim in association with 3BlackDot and Bron Creative, a Makeready/De La Revolución Films/Hillman Grad/3BlackDot production. Universal Pictures will distribute the film worldwide – eOne will handle distribution in select territories including the U.K. and Canada.

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Photo by Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune

Texas to vote to give cancer research $3 billion in November

By CHASE KARACOSTAS The Texas Tribune

Karlee Steele was diagnosed with an aggressive type of melanoma in 2015.

Within weeks of the skin cancer forming, it spread to the lymph nodes under her right arm and looked like it might be deadly.

Doctors in Austin initially “said to me, ‘OK, well, here’s what you got. Here’s what’s going on,’” Steele said. “‘You’re probably not going to lose your hair.’ But I was like, ‘I don’t give a damn about losing my hair. Are you kidding me? I give a damn about losing my life.’”

She went to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where she would undergo surgery to remove the tumor on her lymph nodes. Before treatment, the tumor doubled in size every 10 days. While there, she also got involved with a clinical trial for an immunotherapy drug created

by Jim Allison, who leads the immunotherapy program at MD Anderson. He receives funding for his research from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, a state organization that has become an international leader in the field in less than a decade since its creation.

After undergoing aggressive treatment and medication, Steele has been cancer free for four and a half years, she said.

Next month, Texas voters decide on Proposition 6, a $3 billion bond for CPRIT to continue funding grants and other cancer research initiatives. It would be an extension of the institute’s existing $3 billion bond, which voters approved in 2007. That money is expected to run out in 2021.

In the years since opening in 2009, the institute – which was plagued during its first few years by a scandal involving mismanagement and poor oversight of spending – helped create over 100,000 jobs in the state, invested in 1,500 research initiatives and kickstarted 132 clinical drug trials, the organization said.

On top of that, the institute has a special focus on cancer

See Ballot Page 2

Inside

State/Metro . . . . . . 2 Education . . . . . . . 3 Editorial . . . . . . . . 4 Perspectives. . . . . 5 Health . . . . . . . . . . 7 Calendar . . . . . . . . 8 Classifieds. . . . . . 10

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Page 2 October 31, 2019

Around the State

Special to The Dallas Examiner

FORT WORTH Tarrant County tudents have been challenged to help design a Tarrant County Vietnam war-era memorial, according to project planners led by Jim Hodgson, executive director of the Fort Worth Aviation Museum.

“At least 211 county residents died as a result of the conflict,” Hodgson pointed out. “Currently, there’s no local monument to honor those killed in Southeast Asia, but that may soon be changing.

“We’re proposing a permanent display in Fort Worth’s Veterans Memorial Park on Camp Bowie Blvd. designed by local students to honor American service members for their sacrifices, as well as commemorate the loss to the families and loved ones.”

The effort is backed by a coalition of Tarrant County officials, the Fort Worth Parks Dept., national and local veterans service organizations, as well as patriotic groups and individuals across North Texas. Representatives of these groups are now meeting to discuss the logistics of the project.

Over the next several months, efforts will include: • Engaging schools in the memorial’s design.

• Verifying the names to be included on the monument.

• Spreading the word and raising funds.

• Dedication ceremony in Veterans Memorial Park.

“The memorial is to be designed, built and installed by mid-September 2020,” Hodgson explained.

The dedication ceremony would coincide with

STATE/METRO

National Medal of Honor Society’s annual conference in Fort Worth.

The project will use Facebook and an interactive website for information and donations.

AUSTIN A rise in deaths on the road account for close to half of all traffic fatalities in Texas.

In 2018, 1,673 people died and more than 6,000 were seriously injured in crashes in the Barnett Shale, Eagle Ford Shale, Granite Wash, Haynesville/Bossier Shale and Permian Basin, where oil and gas exploration is underway. Traffic deaths in these areas are up by 4 percent compared to 2017. Crash reports point to failure to control speed as the most-often cited factor in traffic crashes, followed by driver inattention such as using a cell phone.

In the coming weeks, drivers can expect to see a variety of common-sense safety reminders as TxDOT kicks off its annual “Be Safe. Drive Smart.” campaign in the state’s energyproducing regions. It will remind drivers to: • Always buckle up – drivers and all passengers, day and night.

• Drive a safe speed that takes into account the amount of traffic, road conditions and weather.

• Focus 100 percent on driving and put your phone away: no talking or texting when you’re behind the wheel.

• Give large trucks plenty of space, be patient, and pass only when it’s safe and legal to do so.

• Obey stop signs and traffic signals.

• Never drive under the influence of alcohol or other drugs.

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prevention, in contrast to the federal government, which primarily focuses on research for treating the disease. Experts credit this focus on prevention, such as grant-funded cancer screenings, with helping lower the state’s cancer mortality rate by 8 percent between 2011 and 2016.

“So advance [CPRIT] 12 years,” and the cancer research advancements could be even more revolutionary, Steele said. “If we’re not contributing to this $3 billion now, what happens to Texas’ [efforts]? We’re so large, and we’re on the forefront that it’s almost like you can’t not fund it.”

Former State Rep. John Zerwas, R-Richmond, has seen how radically cancer can change someone’s life.

In less than two years, he lost his wife and both parents to three forms of the disease that 40 percent of Americans will be diagnosed with in their lifetimes.

So when it came time to consider extending funding for CPRIT, it wasn’t even a question for him to spearhead the efforts.

“I may not have been touched [by cancer] a whole lot prior to that time, but I certainly had a full dose in 2012 and 2013,” said Zerwas, who left his seat three weeks ago for a job at the University of Texas System.

“The everyday person, if they haven’t been touched yet by it, somehow in their circle of family and friends will be touched by it.”

There are more than 100 types of cancer, each requiring unique treatments.

Allison, who was brought to MD Anderson from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York in 2012 in part by a $10 million grant from CPRIT, won the 2018 Nobel Prize for

physiology and medicine.

He won the award for creating a drug that enhances the immune system’s ability to fight cancer on its own. It was the same treatment that saved Steele’s life.

Allison said the CPRIT funding meant he no longer had to worry about battling for highly competitive grants from the National Institutes of Health.

“Having lived in Texas for a long time and turned to Texas Legislature over these decades, I was surprised that they would pass such a thing, to be honest,” Allison said. The stability CPRIT brought also made progressing his work much easier. Federal grants “are fiercely competitive, so it just makes it very difficult to take on a project that would take more than the cycle of a grant, which is usually three years or something. That really keeps you from taking the long view on” research, he said.

However, in a state that prides itself on having a balanced budget, taking on billions in debt through bonds isn’t something that usually attracts a lot of support from Texas Republicans, Zerwas acknowledged. He said CPRIT 12 years ago represented the state’s desire to take bold steps in promoting business, science and technology.

The resolution that created CPRIT’s latest bond request passed unanimously in the Senate and sailed through the House, 132-14, with two present, not voting. Its few critics primarily expressed concerns over the mismanagement and improper spending scandal that dogged the agency in 2013, leading to the resignations of several executives. One of them was also indicted but later acquitted.

“While well-intentioned, CPRIT has not been a good steward of taxpayer dollars and cancer research is not a core function of govern-

The Dallas Examiner www.dallasexaminer.com

ment,” the hardline conservative group Empower Texans wrote in its voter guide for the constitutional election.

But Zerwas said changes to the executive team of CPRIT, including the hiring of CEO Wayne Roberts, have resulted in better management and improved vetting of grant proposals since the scandal.

“When you’re dealing with the size of these grants and distributions and it being public money and, in fact, money that you’re issuing debt, you can’t be too careful about that,” Zerwas said. “They went through that, and they’ve emerged even stronger.”

Medical research can be a lucrative area that leads many research institutes to be self-sufficient, but Zerwas, an anesthesiologist, said CPRIT’s focus on doing base-level research, which is necessary but often not as profitable, means it needs occasional state support to stay on the leading edge.

Roberts said the agency, if Proposition 6 passes, is looking at spending the next 10 years expanding its areas of focus, including looking into childhood cancers – which are rare, making drugs for them incredibly

expensive to research and produce – as well as Texasfocused issues like the state’s high incidence of liver cancer.

“If we don’t get it, we run out of money,” Roberts said. But he added, “If we’re fortunate enough to be reauthorized on Nov. 5, we will be taking a very deep dive at this point in time and delving into those and other opportunities.”

CPRIT, as a state agency, cannot advocate during the upcoming election. Roberts said he worried about low turnout being something that could kill the proposition, but a recent poll suggests widespread support for the ballot measure, and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network said it is working to promote grassroots efforts in support of CPRIT, too.

“The first 10 years was – it was a jumpstart,” Zerwas said. “It demonstrated that if we invest money and we bring the brightest minds to the state of Texas and we immerse them in the culture that we have in terms of treatment of cancer ... we’re going to make some discoveries, and we’re going to find some cures and treatments for some of these very elusive diseases out there.”

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EDUCATION

Page 3 October 31, 2019

Students display CATS inspired designs Special to The Dallas Examiner

The El Centro College Fashion Design Internship class is very much like the TV show, Project Runway. Recently, the students were tasked to create a project under the mentorship of a professional designer.

The project was a partnership between El Centro and Dallas Summer Musicals, a nonprofit musical theater that presents the Best of Broadway to North Texas audiences. The partnership has provided the opportunity for students to stretch their design abilities and showcase their work in conjunction with the musicals.

Rob Bradford, a Dallas designer who has worked in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, and had his designs in several exhibitions, was the mentor for this challenge.

The project was to create garments inspired by Andrew Lloyd

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outside of this collaboration.

“In recent years, genebased treatments have been groundbreaking for rare genetic disorders and infectious diseases,” said Trevor Mundel, M.D., Ph.D., pres-

Quintin Warner works on patterns for his garment before cutting out the pieces of material.

Webber’s CATS – a record-breaking musical spectacular that has captivated audiences in over 30 countries and 15 languages.

“The students prepared by researching photos and watching snippets of the CATS musical on YouTube,” said Emmanuel Tobias, Fashion Design faculty. “I

ident of Global Health Program, Gates Foundation.

“While these treatments are exciting, people in low- and middle-income countries do not have access to these breakthroughs. By working with the NIH and scientists across Africa, we aim to ensure these approaches will improve the lives of those most in need and bring the incredible promise of genebased treatments to the

Emmanuel Tobias (black shirt) talks to his students about the CATS Internship project. – Photos courtesy of El Centro College

was thrilled to see their excitement level rise when they found out that the CATS movie will be out in theatres this December.

While most of the students are taking a costume/cosplay approach to their designs, some have opted for a more marketable and ready-to-wear garment to match

world of public health.”

SCD and HIV are major burdens on health in low-resource communities around the world. Approximately 95 percent of the 38 million people living with HIV globally are in the developing world, with 67 percent in sub-Saharan Africa, half of whom are living untreated.

Fifteen million babies will be born with SCD globally over the next 30 years, with

Racial Equity at Dallas ISD:

Innovation Changes the Landscape of Public Education for Underserved

A year and a half ago, with support from the superintendent and the Trustees the Dallas ISD’s Racial Equity Office was established to identify and remove obstacles to creating a level playing field for all students to succeed.

The department is already making a positive impact with an intentional, focused and measurable approach. During its first year, the office worked to identify inequities in the district, not only in student achievement, but in student access to things such as technology, specialized programming and wellmaintained facilities. As it celebrates its first year and a half, the office has led the way in the implementation of three major initiatives that are reshaping the landscape of quality education for Dallas’ children.

Expanded Free Pre-K Decades of studies have shown the positive impact early learning has on a child’s education. Yet, the cost of quality early learning programs prohibits many children from participating. Executives with the Racial Equity Office worked with the district’s Early Learning department to develop the pre-K scholarship policy to address structural racial inequities.

The new pre-K scholarships bring the long-lasting benefits of prekindergarten to more families. The State of Texas has six eligibility requirements for families to qualify for free pre-K. The district’s new scholarship policy opens three additional ways fam-

ilies can qualify for free pre-K in Dallas ISD. “It’s to the advantage of our district and students to have as many students participate in our pre-K program as possible,” said Leslie Williams, Racial Equity Office deputy chief.

“We know the data shows that when our students participate in pre-K programs, they go on to significantly greater success in the following years.”

Opening Dialogues through Introduction of Inclusive History Electives America has often been likened to a patchwork quilt with bits and pieces coming from many sources. Unfortunately, American history courses often do not include the stories and contributions of persons of color. To address the need for a more inclusive curriculum, the Racial Equity Office gathered a team of local and national scholars to work on drafting an ethnic studies curriculum. The result is an innovative African American Studies course that was introduced on 23 campuses this school year. The course is being offered as an elective and provides students the opportunity to learn about mathematics, art, sociology, music and literacy through historical and cultural lenses. Two years ago, Dallas ISD incorporated a course on Mexican American studies. The African American Studies curriculum is currently under review by the State Board of Education for adoption and implementation state-wide.

“Now students from all

over the state will benefit from the work that has been accomplished,” Williams said.

One-to-One Technology As part of the district’s long-range technology plan, all ninth through 12th-grade high school students are receiving Chrome books for use at school and at home.

But what about the students who live in technology deserts where Wi-Fi access is limited?

Having a Chromebook alone doesn’t provide these students with equitable access to online resources. Thanks to a generous donation from Sprint’s 1Million Project Foundation, 5,747 students at Lincoln, Madison, Roosevelt, South Oak Cliff, Pinkston, and WilmerHutchins high schools received free hotspots along with their Chromebooks.

This is a game-changer for these students, providing equitable access to online resources not just at school, but also at home.

The work being done by the Dallas ISD Racial Equity Office has far-reaching impact. But despite these major innovations, the work has just begun. “The plan is for the Racial Equity Office in Dallas ISD to set the standard for the country,” Williams said. “We plan to have school districts from all over this country to benefit from out collaborations with district departments and industry partners.” We invite you to connect with the Dallas ISD Racial Equity Office by following us on our website at Dallasisd.org/racialequity and on social media.

Paid for by the Dallas Independent School District

their aesthetic. I certainly hope the students synthesize their new knowledge with their creativity, while understanding show production timing, and the importance of closures for quick garment changes.”

The students who participated in this design challenge were De-

about 75 percent of those births occurring in sub-Saharan Africa. An estimated 50-90 percent of infants born with SCD in low-income countries will die before their fifth birthday and SCD is identified as the underlying cause of about 1 in 12 newborn deaths in sub-Saharan Africa.

Collaboration Details The collaboration will focus on two areas of coordination: • First, identify potential candidate cures for SCD and HIV for pre-clinical and clinical evaluation, co-funded by the NIH and Gates Foundation • Second, define longterm opportunities to work together and with African partners on advancing promising candidates to late-phase clinical trials, with funding to be determined as candidates progress Though SCD, a genetically inherited disease, and HIV, an acquired infectious disease, present significantly different scientific challenges, gene-based treatments hold promise for both, and many of the technical challenges for genebased cures are expected to be common to both diseases.

To achieve the goals of the collaboration, both projects will require new delivery systems that can get prospective therapies to the right places in the body and optimize treatments to target the cells involved in the respective diseases efficiently and specifically. For SCD, that would mean repairing or compensating for the mutations in hemoglobin that cause SCD in hematopoietic stem cells.

For HIV, that would mean targeting the reservoir of proviral DNA that continues to lurk inside a small number of cells, even after many years of effective antiviral treatment.

Such treatments that happen entirely within the body, known as in vivo treatments, would be a major step forward from current treatments, which apply genetic therapies to cells taken outside the body (ex vivo) and then reinfused.

“We are losing too much of Africa’s future to sickle cell disease and HIV,” said

shann Cross, Joanna Dunning, Shakira Johnson, Edna Ortiz, Raykeshia Spears, Melinda Tilley, Camila Uriarte and Quintin Warner.

The finished garments will be on display in the lobby of Music Hall at Fair Park from Nov. 5 through Nov. 17.

Matshidiso Rebecca Moeti, M.B.B.S., Regional Director for Africa, World Health Organization.

“Beating these diseases will take new thinking and long-term commitment. I’m very pleased to see the innovative collaboration announced today, which has a chance to help tackle two of Africa’s greatest public health challenges.”

SCD The collaboration’s goal for SCD is to develop an easy-to-administer, genebased intervention to either correct the SCD gene mutations or promote fetal hemoglobin gene expression to achieve normal hemoglobin function. The path to a cure will rely in part on the development of gene-based delivery systems capable of selectively targeting hematopoietic stem cells.

This will result in the precise correction of gene mutations or addition of a gene to promote sufficient levels of normal hemoglobin expression and function.

“Our excitement around this partnership rests not only in its ability to leverage the expertise in two organizations to reduce childhood mortality rates in low-resource countries, but to bring curative therapies for sickle cell disease and HIV to communities that have been severely burdened by these diseases for generations,” said Gary H. Gibbons, M.D., director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, part of the NIH. “A person’s health should not be limited by their geographic location, whether rural America or sub-Saharan Africa; harnessing the power of science is needed to transcend borders to improve health for all.”

In addition, more needs to be done to understand the burden of SCD in sub-Saharan Africa and to screen newborns for SCD in highrisk geographic areas.

NHLBI has already begun to establish a clinical research infrastructure in subSaharan Africa. However, additional clinical research and capacity-building efforts are needed to deliver point-of-care screening, such as at the time of infant vaccinations, and to initiate a standard of care. These activities will be undertaken

by NIH and Gates Foundation outside of the collaboration, but will support collaboration efforts.

HIV Nearly 38 million people worldwide are living with HIV, with 770,000 deaths due to AIDS in 2018 alone.

Like SCD, people in subSaharan Africa face a disproportionate risk of HIV. Antiretroviral therapy is highly effective and has made it possible for people with HIV to live long, healthy lives without transmitting the disease to sexual partners. However, treatment must be maintained for a lifetime. A low-cost, safe, effective and durable cure that also prevents reinfection upon sexual exposure has long been a goal to curb the HIV global pandemic.

A number of approaches will be considered to meet the goal of a scalable HIV cure. Both the Gates Foundation and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of NIH, are already funding cure research, exploring gene-based treatments in concert with long-acting therapeutics, monoclonal antibodies and other immune-based targets. This collaboration will allow the partners to intensify and better coordinate ongoing research efforts on these strategies, accelerating studies into early phase clinical trials to safely test promising tools and interventions. A particularly appealing approach is to identify the location of the reservoir of infected cells that still harbor integrated HIV genomes after treatment and target those DNA sequences with gene editing technology.

“This collaboration is an ambitious step forward, harnessing the most cuttingedge scientific tools and NIH’s sizable global HIV research infrastructure to one day deliver a cure and end the global HIV pandemic,” said NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. “We are taking into account those with the greatest need at the foundation of this effort, to ensure that, if realized, this exceptional public health achievement will be made accessible to all.”

Page 4 October 31, 2019

Trump and politics of the 2020 Census

By JESSE JACKSON SR.

Rainbow PUSH Coalition

A new report should raise alarms about the upcoming 2020 Census.

According to the Pew Research Center, the good news is that the overwhelming majority of Americans are aware of the census, and over eight in 10 say they are likely to participate.

The bad news is that nearly one in four Blacks, young people, and lower-income people, and one in five Hispanics, are uncertain or reluctant to participate. If that does not change, it could have a truly negative impact on the most vulnerable.

The census is a big deal.

The Constitution of the United States mandates a population count every 10 years. That count is used to allocate seats in Congress, to inform redistricting of political boundaries and to guide the distribution of literally hundreds of billions of federal funds.

If Hispanics or Blacks are hesitant to participate, the undercount will impact how well represented they are, and how much federal money their neighborhoods get.

In these polarized times, the census is in danger of being turned into a political football. The Trump administration sought to place a question about citizenship on the census, clearly designed to intimidate immigrants from participating.

That was blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court, but the controversy around it may well impact the willingness of immigrants generally, and Hispanics in particular, to participate.

The Census Bureau classifies low-income people as “hard to count.” The census is mailed to households in March. The homeless, however, have no mailbox.

Low-income people change addresses and jobs more often and are often forced into temporary housing with friends or relatives.

Too often the people most in need of federal assistance are the very people who are not counted in the census that determines the allocation of funds.

The Trump administration has consistently sought to cut the budget for the Census Bureau. The 2020 census will be the first that is done largely online – but many Americans, particularly older ones, aren’t as familiar with online responses. They will need extra help, and Trump seems to be doing what he can to ensure that help is not there.

That increasingly leaves

publicizing the census and providing assistance to complete the process, to the states. Some states like California and New York take this seriously. Others – like Texas and Florida – do not.

Southern states, mired in the habit of not wanting African Americans to count, often do little as well. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, just 20 states have appropriated funds to coordinate, advertise and partner with local groups on the census.

Again, an undercount can have major effects. In Texas, which has no state committee, 40 percent of the population is Hispanic, and many undocumented residents and their families are no doubt terrified by the fervid debate over immigration. Texas could gain as many as three seats in Congress, if its population is counted. In fiscal year 2016, Texas received over $59 billion in federal funds derived from census data. An analysis by Andrew Reamer, professor at The George Washington University, estimates that an undercount of merely 1 percent would cost the state nearly $300 million in federal funds.

Citizen groups have scrambled to address the problem. The Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Hispanic Caucus have created projects, partnering with local groups and national organizations to spread the word about the census and to set up volunteer efforts. A fight over funding for the census is likely to occur in the upcoming budget battle. If – as seems increasingly likely – there is no new budget, but merely an agreement to keep operating at current levels, the Census Bureau will face doing a census with inadequate funds.

It should not have to be this way. The census is in the Constitution because the founders understood how important it was to know the size of the population.

Everyone should agree that an accurate count is vital.

Congress should step up to ensure the Census Bureau has adequate funding. The states should gear up so that their most vulnerable are counted and gain a fair share of federal support.

Volunteer organizations should mobilize to help register those hardest to count.

Time is short: the census is mailed to households in March. The time to act is now.

Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr. is the founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. He can be reached through https://rainbowpush.org.

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EDITORIAL

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What kind of nation is America?

By SUSAN K. SMITH Crazy Faith Ministries

America touts itself and has been described as a Christian democracy, but current trends in this government makes that definition hard to swallow.

Our civics classes taught us that this government was set up to prevent the democracy – or more accurately, the democratic republic – from ever becoming a monarchy. Though the Founding Fathers were careful to say and to write that the new country was not a Christian nation, the narrative has been that it is, in fact, Christian. The United States Constitution is not “partial to Christianity,” as noted by The Washington Post. President John Adams said in 1797, “the United States is not, in any sense, founded upon the Christian religion,” Forbes reported.

At this time, the structure of the United States government seems to be sinking under the pressure of an executive branch hell-bent on being authoritarian, and there is a growing chasm between those who claim to be “Biblical Christians” and “Progressive” Christianity.

The truth seems to be that this nation has no clear agreement on what it is and on what Christianity is. In my view, Christians are

those who follow the words of Jesus. The words found in Matthew 7:21-23 seem crystal clear; there, Jesus says, “Not everyone who says Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven.” But “Biblical” Christians are known to take issue with what the will of God is.

While those who have been and are being oppressed by political systems see the Gospel and the commands of Christ one way, those in power are apt to see those same words in an entirely different way. I am reminded that author Charles Marsh, whose father was an ordained preacher, was worried that the march across the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma during the Civil Rights movement was in line with the will of God; he was not sure God sanctioned such disobedience and challenge to the pervading laws of the time. Segregation was, apparently, in line with God’s will.

Religion – or Christianity – has a weird history, a tendency to support hard right views. Martin Luther was anti-Semitic and believed that governments should be authoritarian. He touted what became known as Ayran Christianity, which was also known as “traditional” Christianity. Ayran Christians believed that Jesus was sent to cleanse the world of Jewish people, and thus, that Jesus was an Ayran warrior. They denied

that Jesus was even Jewish and did not believe that Christianity grew out of Judaism, according to ChurchandState.com.

The Christianity of Germans and of those who believed in the Ayran God abhorred “the impiety, secularism, and hedonistic decadence that they associated with democracy and free speech,” the article referenced above states. The Christianity of western culture was often “deeply racist, often antidemocratic, and in many respects, dangerously primitive Western culture Nazism would arise.”

But that wouldn’t apply to us, would it? We are a democracy. We believe in democracy, and we are Christian, right?

Maybe not. One of my Twitter followers – a lover of the current president – said, “What the DEMOCRATS are doing to our duly elected Prez is unconscionable.”

I discouraged the blanket condemnation of “the Democrats,” noting that neither political party has a monopoly on righteousness.

I said in that same tweet, though, that the president is killing this country’s democracy and that many people would suffer…and her response was, “Democracy needs to be killed. We are a Republic.”

What she said jostled my very spirit. I have read much about how Germans hated democracy; they

‘‘ ’’ Black History Fact

He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.

– Muhammad Ali

The Dallas Examiner

Seneca Village was the first prominent Black community in New York City. The neighborhood was filled with prospering Black families, 70 wood and brick homes and clean spring water obtained by the 50 percent of African Americans property owners in the area.

In 1853, the many African American people who lived in Seneca Village were displaced by the New York State legislature for the creation of a park.

Today, the park, known as Central Park, is a popular tourist site where an established Black community once lived.

Source: centralparknyc.org; mcah.columbia.edu; npr.org

thought it was weak and that its principles of tolerance were weak and contaminated by Judaism. I have also been amazed at how a large portion of our country seems not to be bothered at all by the apparent disregard and disrespect of the Constitution, which has always been lifted up as a model document.

If “Biblical Christians” – i.e., those who say the current president was put in office by God, and that the White House is a sanctuary, those who say that “God dealt with Rep. Cummings because he dared challenge the president,” The Washington Post reported – and if democracy is not sacred to Americans, then what kind of nation are we, in truth? It seems that the chasm between the right and the left is deeper and far more intricate than I ever imagined.

And that is not good for America.

Rev. Dr. Susan K. Smith is the founder and director of Crazy Faith Ministries. She is available for speaking.

Contact her at revsuekim@sbcgloba.net.

Her latest book, Rest for the Justice-Seeking Soul, is now available for pre-orders through Barnes and Noble at http://bit.ly/restbn or through Amazon at http://bit.ly/restamazon.

Attorney Fred J. Finch Jr., Founder Mollie Finch Belt • Publisher

James C. Belt III • VP of Advertising

Robyn H. Jimenez • VP of Production & Editorial Charity Chukwu • Copy Editor

Michael L. Hupp • Production Assistant

Tina Jones • Administrative Assistant

Reporters

Mike McGee Diane Xavier Matthew Hirst Mathew Shaw

Contributing Reporters Jessica Ngbor

Columnists

Susan Smith Marian Wright Eldelman Charlene Crowell

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PERSPECTIVES

Page 5 October 31, 2019

Billions lost in health care in the U.S.

By EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON

U.S. House of Representatives

Supporters of the Affordable Care Act argued that one of the ways to make our nation’s health care systems more affordable was to cut the tremendous amounts of waste and fraud that we experience in health care delivery and implementation.

Now a new study further validates one of the basic premises of the legislation

that was passed during the Obama administration, which made health care insurance affordable for individuals and families that had previously gone uninsured.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, describes a health care system in which nearly 20 percent of the monies spent can be labeled as wasteful.

Changes in policy and practices could eliminate substantial waste, the lead author of the study, Dr. William Shrank concluded.

Health economists esti-

mate that approximately $750 billion of health care are wasted annually in the United States. That represents nearly $10,000 for each member of the population. At present health care spending represents 18 percent of the nation’s economy. That percentage is larger than the percentage spent on the nation’s military needs.

According to the study, the highest amount of costs is spent on administration, nearly $266 billion each year, the study states. The second highest cost is prices

for health care. Ways must be found to lower the prices that are being paid for health care delivery, the study and experienced health care experts conclude.

The costs for ineffective and medically unnecessary health care procedures are another source of waste, according to the study. Unnecessary hospital admissions, unreasonable costs, a lack of preventive care and procedures, and practices that are of little or no benefit to patients are financially wasteful.

The ACA promotes pay-

ment of medical professionals to encourage and reward them for quality patient results instead of supporting a system in which medical professionals are paid simply because they attempt a particular procedure. Such a philosophy is identified as “valued based” under the health care law signed into law by President Barack Obama.

A more patient and cost sensitive health care system would no doubt lead to increased confidence in our health care system. There would be less patient stress

and increased trust in the health care system if patients believed that their health and not the search for excessive profit were the primary objective of health care professionals, according health care experts.

Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson represents the 30th Congressional District of Texas in the United States House of Representatives. She also chairs the House committee on Science, Space and Technology.

American Democracy needs a new amendment

By MORRIS PEARL

Patriotic Millionaires

American democracy, in theory, is based on the premise of one person, one vote. Unfortunately, that is not really the case. The rich and the powerful use their money to gain more influence than other Americans, and that became obvious to everyone with the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC which opened the floodgates for a wave of dark money donations from wealthy individuals and corporations. Now our democratic model seems increasingly based on the shady principle of one dollar, one vote. No American should be shut out of the political process simply because they can’t afford to spend a couple million dollars on an elec-

tion, but that’s exactly the course that we are on.

Fortunately, House Democrats have introduced a plan to stop this alarming trend and return political power where it belongs: regular working Americans. Representative Ted Deutch, D-FL, introduced the Democracy for All Amendment, a proposed constitutional amendment that would enact desperately needed reforms to stop the corrosive influence of money in politics, including overturning Citizens United.

This amendment is critical to ensuring every American has an equal voice in our government, and to stop rich folks from buying up politicians through dark money donations. That’s why I respectfully urge House leadership to join over 160 co-sponsors in supporting this bill and bringing it to a vote.

How exactly do you accomplish the monumental task of taking money out of politics? To start, we

must ensure that all campaign contributions are transparent. Individual donations have long been publicly accessible on sites like Open Secrets, yet under our current laws, deep-pocketed special interests can make unlimited donations to super PACs and political nonprofits without disclosing a thing. The Democracy for All Amendment would allow congress to mandate campaign finance disclosures from everyone, because Americans deserve to know precisely who has the wallet, and therefore the ear, of our elected representatives.

The Democracy for All Amendment would explicitly affirm the right of Congress and state legislatures to set rules and regulations around campaign finance in public elections, including limiting campaign spending from corporations and special interest groups. Currently, the average winning House race costs over $1 million, while the

average winning Senate candidate can expect to spend over $10 million - and the numbers climb startlingly higher for Presidential races.

Enshrining this right in the Constitution would allow states and Congress to stop runaway spending in elections and guarantee that the rich and powerful do not have so much more access to our elected officials than everyday Americans.

If that sounds like a stretch, in a mind-blowing 91 percent of elections, the candidate who raises the most money wins. Under those conditions, it’s clear why our laws increasingly seem to benefit the wealthy against the population at large, whether it’s a deeply unpopular $1.8 trillion handout to the top 1 percent or a minimum wage that hasn’t budged in 10 years despite nationwide support for a $15 minimum.

In addition to the moral good of protecting Americans’ democratic

rights and preventing a government of, by, and for the elite, the Democracy for All Amendment is a political no-brainer. Americans know that our democracy is being hijacked by the elite. In 2018, a full 75 percent of Americans supported limiting the influence of money in politics with a constitutional amendment, including 85 percent of Democrats and 66 percent of Republicans. The Democracy for All Amendment is a vastly popular, desperately needed bill to stop money from dictating our political future, and we need strong, courageous leaders to give it the outspoken, full-throated support it deserves.

Morris Pearl is a former managing director at BlackRock and Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, a coalition of high net worth Americans concerned about the destabilizing concentration of wealth and power in the U.S.

Deadly and dangerous – health care in America

By RAY CURRY UAW

Laughter is the best medicine, says the Reader’s Digest version of America.

But not when it’s the only medicine, responds the America that far too many have known and continue to know.

Not when the United States alone is one of the world’s top 33 most developed countries that does not have a form of universal health care that covers all of its population.

I guess I am just not in on the joke when I see people either going without health care – something that ought to be a human right – or struggling to the breaking point to keep on top of huge medical bills when sickness hits.

Funny how that just isn’t funny. Actually, it is a national tragedy. A tragedy when African Americans disproportionate number lack insurance coverage. For too many folks in this country, you are free to laugh – just not till it hurts.

The system is sick. Here are some not-so-fun facts.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, which fo-

cuses on major health care issues facing the nation as well as the U.S. role in global health policies, as of year-end 2016, 27 million Americans in this country were without medical coverage.

That number was significantly down from the more than 44 million in 2013 – just before the Affordable Care Act kicked in. But in 2017, the current administration took office, and … voila!

After much purposeful meddling and dismantling, a year later we saw 700,000 people moving back into the uninsured column. These are the latest stats from the KFF, but the folks there know the score under the current administration. Ongoing efforts to alter historic gains in health insurance coverage via the ACA or to make receipt of Medicare contingent on work – another Republican initiative – they say “may further erode coverage gains seen under the ACA.” That statement carries with it profound life and death implications, that have the potential to affect families from coast to coast, in neighborhoods and communities all over America.

The KFF aren’t the only ones who know what that will mean for working Americans.

I think we all know that assaults on the ACA are an assault on the health and wellbeing of millions of Americans.

Scared … just plain scared.

So, what does it mean to be without health care in America? It is truly frightening on so many levels.

How about facing each day without knowing if medical care is even available for your family? How about having to postpone necessary care and forego preventive care – such as childhood immunizations and routine check-ups? How about no regular doctor, limited or no access to prescriptions, and only seeking medical attention when it’s bordering on too late and winding up in the hospital or worse?

And, how about the shameful fact that in today’s America, when a loved one falls ill or is in need of medical care, too often it’s the devastating financial burden that is the focus, rather than being able to concentrate on healing.

This is not the America I know and love, and it is certainly not the America I want to know.

On a macro level, the fact that we don’t insure all of our people adds up this way: The U.S. spends two to three times

as much per capita on health care as most industrialized nations. Elsewhere, governments regulate and negotiate the price of drugs and medical services; elsewhere there is no need for a vast, private health insurance bureaucracy.

And how do African Americans fair in all this? While Obama and the ACA have opened up some new roads, too often we continue down a dangerous path. Here are some facts: • Non-elderly African Americans are younger, more likely to be poor, and less likely to have a fulltime worker in the family compared to non-elderly Whites.

• Non-elderly African Americans face endemic health disparities compared to their White counterparts, such as poorer overall health, and conditions such as obesity, diabetes and asthma.

• Uninsured African Americans are more likely to fall into the coverage gap, earning too much for Medicaid but not enough for tax credits.

• And, African Americans are more concentrated in those southern states that somehow see no need to expand Medicaid.

So, what’s to be done?

I am a union man, so I am

going to talk from my gut.

The state of our health care here is not some Norman Rockwell painting nor is it some kid bravely waiting for the nurse to give him that booster shot during the monthly visit by the county health department’s mobile clinic.

We must do better … right now!

I’m sorry to say it’s bad news for so many Americans and the ACA made it better, but things are starting to backslide. I belong to the United Automobile Workers – also known as The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America. We first proposed comprehensive health coverage for all Americans back in the 1940s and we haven’t stopped as our bargaining and our policies have shown over the years. Not even slowed down.

Our goal is universal health care – coverage for everyone – and we have spoken loud and clear about the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs; against those who would deny coverage for those of us with pre-existing conditions; against those who would scuttle provisions like Section 1557 of the ACA which combats discrimination based on

race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability.

All these reforms are under threat. So, we fight on.

We have recently signed on to a grassroots campaign to lower the cost of prescription drugs. Lower Drug Prices Now! is a coalition comprised of 53 state and national organizations that are committed to forcing bold prescription drug reforms that will stop Big Pharma price gouging and put people ahead of profits. No more should working Americans have to make decisions between putting food on the table and filling their insulin prescription.

I truly believe, as my union brothers and sisters do, that with universal health care, working people can turn to employers for higher wages, for job security and retirement security because health care would be off the table.

I will end this way.

How about this? Instead of some folksy panacea like laughter is the best medicine while we turn back the clock, we go with a healing prescription of democracy and access to affordable, quality health care for one and all.

Ray Curry is the secretarytreasurer of the UAW and a longtime grassroots activist.

Black representation, appearance in Japanese pop culture

By NOAH WASHINGTON NNPA

With the release of Netflix’s Cannon Busters, we go back to the ageold conversation of representation of African Americans in anime. The most well known characters in Japanese pop culture have often been represented with European features and fairer skin tones such as Naruto, Ichigo, Luffy or Spike Spiegel. Even in live-action adaptations, some have been played by Caucasian actors.

And Black characters written into a storyline, their features are often exaggerated or they are made into a stereotype, most infamously with Mr. Popo of Dragon Ball fame; his dark as night skin and big red lips are reminiscent of Blackface.

This issue extends outside of classic cartoon anime. Japanese video games are also guilty of unequal and stereotypical representation. There are many different types of representation and all of these entertainment companies are missing the mark on

all of them.

The closest thing we have to a fair representation is in Aaron Mcgruder’s The Boondocks. Yes, I know that it is not considered an anime, but it has anime influences, and development by Madhouse Studios made it the closest thing we have o an enjoyable anime with a predominantly Black-filled cast.

Unfortunately though, as much as I enjoyed it and how it cleverly portrays stereotypes, they are stereotypes nonetheless.

Cannon Busters, part of Netflix’s anime initiative to bring about more original content, was recently released and I have to say the quality of it and the writing are outstanding.

It has all the qualities of a traditional anime, giant mecha’s, over the top protagonists, and a dramatic impossible plot. But I am disappointed with it in one aspect. The anime has Black warriors, a Black prince, a Black king and most importantly a Black hero named Odin. I see Odin as a double-edged sword.

This presented a chance to show off powerful deities with African origins, since there are plenty to choose from in the Yoruba and Egyptian

pantheon. On the other side of this problem is the fact that, as a Black man, Odin is depicted as a powerful larger than life figure that has traditionally looked like a grizzled Caucasian male with an eye patch.

Video games also have their own role in this dilemma. Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy are two of the most popular video game series and have cemented themselves in American pop culture.

Kingdom Hearts is a joint venture with Disney Interactive and Square Enix. The third entry in the series was released early this year and is good overall, but yet again another missed opportunity.

Several Disney worlds were featured in the game, but the easy slamdunk world that is missing is The Princess and the Frog. For some fans, this was a disappointment.

It is overflowing with the themes of dark vs. light, love conquers all, magic (good and bad), and whimsically simple-minded villains. The Bayou would have made a great location for the main characters to play around in, you could have even turned them into frogs like the design mechanic that was done when the

characters went to see Simba from the Lion King in Kingdom Hearts II which visualized them as lions.

Final Fantasy faces a different issue. More than 13 games make up the series and there have hardly been a handful of memorable characters.

Barret Wallace and Sazh Katzroy are Black, but practically the same characters. They both use guns as their main style of fighting and have operated as comic relief at various points in the main story.

Sazh is a mild-mannered character that represents a big problem. He isn’t a bad character, but it’s what he is constantly carrying around with him: A Chocobo.

Chocobo’s are like horses, but look like large chicks and to any uninformed viewer, kind of cute. But to the informed, it carries the stereotype that Black people love chicken – an insulting character choice.

Barret Wallace, on the other hand, is made to look like a stereotype, a muscled up Black man with a gun.

I hope they treat Barrett a cut above his old self in the Final Fantasy VII remake set to release March 3, 2020. I just want a Black character that has a slim muscular build who

carries around an awe-inspiring sword that one day my kids would want to dress up as for Halloween.

Are these stereotypes an issue of the Japanese studios not interacting enough with people of African heritage or is it a matter of malevolence?

We as Black nerds are entitled to characters that we can identify with and our children can take pride in.

Growing up, I loved Goku, Cloud and Sora. But it would have been nice to have a stalwart and cool character that looked like me that I could identify with and look up to.

The good news is that the release of Marvel’s Black Panther brings in a new era of representation that does not have stereotypes anywhere around it. The bad news is that there is not a character of color that stands out in the world of anime like Goku or Naruto.

Noah Washington is a black nerd since birth and a media entrepreneur major at Georgia State University.

He loves everything in from “Antman” to “Z-Gundam” He has written for the SCADCONNECTOR, as well as written exposés and held TV interviews.

Page 6 October 31, 2019

The Dallas Examiner www.dallasexaminer.com

The Dallas Examiner www.dallasexaminer.com

HEALTH

Page 7 October 31, 2019

NIH Experts: Ending HIV will require Counseling Corner optimizing treatment and prevention tools Promoting good behavior in children

HIV.org

Optimal implementation of existing HIV prevention and treatment tools and continued development of new interventions are essential to ending the HIV pandemic, National Institutes of Health experts write in a commentary in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Today, many highly effective HIV treatment and prevention interventions are available. Antiretroviral therapy – known as ART – not only improves the health and prolongs the lives of people with HIV but also plays an important role in HIV prevention. People living with HIV whose virus is durably suppressed to undetectable levels by ART cannot sexually transmit HIV to others, a concept known as Undetectable=Untransmittable, or U=U. Antiretroviral drugs taken by people without HIV as pre-exposure prophylaxis – known as PrEP – are highly effective at preventing acquisition of HIV. Theoretically, the widespread provision of ART and PrEP could end the HIV pandemic. However, a gap exists between theory and reality, write Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and colleagues.

Implementation gaps exist at all stages of the HIV care continuum. Progress

City Council, continued from Front Page

patient visits, the target was 3,600 of which 1,900 were served and in procedures provided, 6,000 was the target of which 3,849 were served. So the program is not meeting the goals we are establishing.”

Mendelsohn asked what happens to those remaining dollars not spent on the dental services program.

Jessica Galleshaw, director of the Office of Community Care for the city, said she didn’t have that information, but offer other information regarding the program.

“Texas A&M College of

American Counseling Association

Unprecedented biomedical research advances over the past four decades have led to development of “toolkits” of highly effective interventions for preventing and treating HIV. – Photo courtesy of NIAID

in cities like San Francisco, which has dramatically reduced new HIV cases by deploying ART, PrEP and other tools, suggests that these gaps can be overcome. Such examples offer lessons for optimizing implementation strategies.

Even with the availability of simplified HIV drug regimens, medication adherence remains a challenge for many. Thus, there is a need to develop new treatment and prevention strategies and products that can be efficiently taken up by people from diverse communities. Potentially, these new tools will have improved efficacy and broader uptake due to better acceptability and usability.

Dentistry is really the only entity that does this type of service on that large of a scale,” Galleshaw said. “In having conversations with Texas A&M we identified that one of the biggest barriers for them to be able to serve the number of clients that they target, is that they have limitations in just being in the two physical clinics.

There is just only so many chairs and only so many services and they are effectively maxed out. So when we talked about this program we didn’t want to tie up the full allocation that we knew wouldn’t be expended but we also learned from them that they are in the process of opening a new clinic in Southern Dallas and are

Researchers are pursuing multiple approaches to achieve durable control of HIV without daily ART, including pursuing a cure that would eradicate HIV from the body or keep it at very low levels, and developing long-acting ART and broadly neutralizing antibodies that could be dosed once every few months or less often. Approaches to optimizing HIV prevention include long-acting injectables and implants, bNAbs, multipurpose tools for HIV prevention and contraception, and other innovative strategies. Scientists also are working toward development of a safe and effective preventive HIV vaccine. Currently, three large HIV vaccine efficacy clinical trials are under way globally.

going to be able to expand their capacity to serve.”

City Manager T.C. Broadnax explained where the unused funds would be allocated.

“In the end, it stays in the department until they in fact expend it and/or it falls to fund balance and then they come back at mid year or end of the year and appropriate the dollars in the budgets that were over budget and council approves that as well,” Broadnax said.

Council member Carolyn King Arnold also supported the services but was concerned about transportation issues and how seniors would be able to get to the facilities.

The facilities are accessible by bus and light train stations

for those that don’t drive.

“If you are not of the age of 70 or 80, we don’t really understand the impact of dental health on our lives,” Arnold said. “The failure to have adequate dental health maintenance can contribute to a lot of diseases and often times death. So, we want to be proactive and we have to sell this program because there is no way in the world we should have any money left. With all these seniors in the city of Dallas with needs, we shouldn’t have any money left. We have to take care of our business of marketing, change the way we give out our information so we can get the information to our seniors so they can have healthy teeth.”

Parents are naturally proud when their children are well behaved. When our children play well with others, responsibly complete family chores, and interact politely with adults, we feel we’ve done a pretty reasonable job of child rearing. But getting our children to be well behaved is not always a simple task.

Children learn behaviors through the consequences that various behaviors bring. If a child earns a reward for doing something well, he’s learned it’s a positive consequence. Poor behavior that brings a punishment is a negative consequence. Over time, as either consequence is repeated, it can lead to changes in behavior.

This seems simple enough, but there are actually some complicating factors. Research has found that rewards, those pleasant, positive consequences, are more effective in changing behaviors than unpleasant consequences – or punishments. Such rewards might be tangible, such as a toy or book or favorite food, or intangible, such as praise for a task well done. But regardless of the type of reward, how it is used is important if it is to be effective.

It’s advised to reward only occasionally. When a child figures out that an award or gift will be provided, he or she might produce the desired behavior only if certain the reward is forthcoming.

It’s also important that the reward happens immediately after the desired behavior. Delaying a reward loses its motivational power for most children.

Effective rewarding also means rewarding effort, not just performance. A reward is earned when a child is truly trying to complete a task, even if he or she falls short of the desired goal.

For rewards to be effective, it can help to give children a say in what rewards matter to them. And you want to have a variety of rewards. The repeated use of the same one can cause it to lose its value.

Effective rewarding isn’t just tangible rewards. Positive compliments matter, and when using a tangible reward you increase its effectiveness by combining it with a positive word or touch.

Rewards shouldn’t be bribes. Children who perform desired behaviors only to earn prizes aren’t really growing and learning to mature positively. It’s important that rewards aren’t the only motivation to perform, because over time rewards will lose their value. But they can be a valuable way to encourage short-term behaviors and are often more effective than using threats and punishment to discourage unwanted ones.

The Counseling Corner is provided by the American Counseling Association. Comments and questions can be sent to acacorner@counseling.org or visit http://www.counseling.org.

Page 8 October 31, 2019 Now-Oct. 31 Amazon Hiring Event, a job fair to fill full-time positions starting at $15 an hour, weekdays, no walk-ins, must apply at https://amazon.force.com.

Now-Nov. 24 The Village Coop neighborhood market, with up to 35 vendors selling locally grown foods, will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Friendship-West Baptist Church, 2020 W. Wheatland Road.

For more information, contact Danielle Ayers at 972-228-5200.

Now-November A Shared Border exhibit on how the diverse cultural landscape of the Texas and Mexico borderland has caused cultures to blend and innovate, will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m at the Dallas Historical Society, 3939 Grand Ave. For more information, visit www.dallashistory.org/exhibitions.

October

National Breast Cancer Awareness Month www.nbcam.com

Brain Injury Awareness Month www.biausa.org National Domestic Violence Awareness Month www.ncadv.org

National Hospice Month www.whitehouse.gov

31

Hallelujah Outing, a free and safe alternative to Halloween in a controlled environment. There will be a host of games, food, entertainment, candy, music and more from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at 2020 W. Wheatland Road. For more information, visit www.friendshipwest.org.

November National Adoption Awareness Month www.adoption.org

National Runaway Prevention Month www.1800runaway.org National Diabetes Month www.diabetes.org

Lung Cancer Awareness Month www.lungcancer.org

2 DeSoto VET Fest 5k by

City of DeSoto Arts Commission, a 5K that will end with live entertainment and vendor booths, will be held from 8 a.m. to noon at the DeSoto Outdoor

CALENDAR COMMUNITY

ONGOING EVENTS

Now-March 1, 2020 The Kinsey Collection, a groundbreaking exhibit featuring 150-plus works of art, photos, documents and more, celebrating the achievements and contributions of Black Americans from 1595-today, will be open to the public at the African American Museum, 3536 Grand Ave. For more information, visit www.aamdallas.org.

Oct. 10 to March 22, 2020 Origins: Fossils From the Cradle of Humankind, an exhibit including fossils of two recently discovered ancient human relatives being brought to the U.S. for the first time from South Africa, will be open to the public at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, 2201 N. Field St. For more information, visit www.perotmuseum.org.

Amphitheater, 211 E. Pleasant Run Road, DeSoto. Veterans participate at no cost.

For more information and registration, contact Kathy Jones at 972-230-9648 or email kathy.jones@desototexas.gov.

2 Dallas Homeownership

Fair 2019, with information sessions critical to home buying experience, will be held from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at DCCCD Bill J. Priest Institute for Economic Development, 1402 Corinth St. For more information, visit www.eventbrite.com.

2 DFW African American

Author Showcase, featuring local African American authors to encourage the power of literature and reading in our communities, will be held from noon to 5 p.m. at Martin Luther King Recreation Center, 2901 Pennsylvania Ave. For more information, contact Antoine White at 314-630-4465.

3 “A Taste of Black Dal-

las,” catered to all Black restaurants, catering companies and chefs in the DFW area, will be held from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Duncanville Recreation Center, 201 James Collins Blvd., Duncanville. Free to the public, great music, games for children. For more information, contact Antoine White at 314630-4465.

7 City of Dallas “Ready

2020,” with education and information on victim intervention programs for rape crisis, family planning and North Texas Poison Center provided by Parkland from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the West Dallas Multipurpose Center, 2828 Fish Trap Road. For more information, contact Jamel Slaughter at 214-

Mondays-Wednesdays Sexually Transmitted Infection Testing/ Treatment for STIs, HIV, Hep C and other sexual infections, will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Prism Health Clinic, 4922 Spring Ave. For more information, call 214-421-7848.

Mondays, Wednesdays & Saturdays Sittercise, a low-impact class that can be done from your chair, is offered from 7:30 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. at Methodist Charlton Medical Center, 3500 W. Wheatland Road. For more information, call 214-947-7777.

1st, 2nd & 4th Tuesdays Free legal services will be available at 5 p.m. at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, 2922 Martin Luther King Blvd. For more information, call 214-748-1234.

671-5117 or jamel.slaughter@dallascityhall.com.

8 Flu Drive – Grand Prairie

Health Center will be held from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at E. Carlyle Smith, Jr. Health Center at Grand Prairie, 801 Conover Drive, Grand Prairie. No appointment needed. Children 6 months to 18 years old are free with Medicaid eligibility; adults 19 and up have a small copay depending on medical coverage. For more information, visit www.parklandhospital.com.

8

Community Impact Awards Luncheon, sponsored by the Community Council at the Statler, recognizing top leaders and agencies who are positively making a difference in our communities, will be held from 11 a.m. For ticket information, call 214-871-5065 or visit impact@ccadvance.org.

9 Freedmans Town Tour of

the Dallas Metroplex by Remembering Black Dallas Inc., a tour of significant local Freedman Towns that were created by force in 1865, will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the African American Museum, 3536 Grand Ave. For tickets and more information, visit www.eventbrite.com.

9 Zeta Delta Sigma Chap-

ter of Sigma Gamma Rho – Founders’ Day Hats Off 2019, a celebrating of 97 years of service and progress with fine dining, wine tasting and dancing the night away, will be held from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. at the Manderley, 2010 N. Hampton Road #700, DeSoto. For more information, email zdsgrammateus@yahoo.com.

9 The Thanksgiving Play,

by Native American play-

The Dallas Examiner www.dallasexaminer.com

1st & 3rd Tuesdays CitySquare’s Hospitality Program, a free 6week hospitality training program, will begin at 10 a.m. at CitySquare, 1610 S. Malcolm X Blvd. – Bldg. 100. For more information, contact Dana Branch at dbranch@citysquare.org or call 214-823-4409.

Tuesdays & Thursdays Free SkillQuest Career Readiness Classes will be held from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, 2922 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. For more information, call 214-879-9950 or email sgronstal@skillquestcareers.org.

Wednesdays The MLK Fresh Produce Distribution Center will be open from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Martin Luther King Jr. Com-

wright Larissa FastHorse, will premier at 7:30 p.m. at Undermain Theatre, 3200 Main St. Good intentions collide with absurd assumptions as a troupe of terminally “woke” teaching artists scrambles to create a pageant. For ticket information, visit www.undermain.org.

9 College and Career Fes-

tival, offering students information about higher education and pathways to 21st century careers, will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Friendship-West Baptist Church, 2020 W. Wheatland Road. For more information, contact Rev. David McGruder at dmcgruder@friendshipwest.org or 972-228-5200.

11 Veterans Day Parade,

“Commemorating the 75th Anniversary of DDay,” featuring a keynote speaker, a swearing-in ceremony of new military members, an Air Force missing-man flyover and a symbolic wreath laying ceremony, will start at 11 a.m. at Dallas City Hall Plaza. For more information, visit www. www.vetsdayindallas.org.

12

Trinity Talks: The Power of the Commons by Trinity Park Conservancy, a presentation and discussion with Lynn Ross about equity in the commons, will be held from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Gatehouse, 1128 Reverend CBT Smith St. For more information, visit www.eventbrite.com.

13 Dallas Career Fair and

Job Fair by Diversity Career Group, where you can meet, sit down and interview with nationally known employers, will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the DoubleTree

munity Center, 2922 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. - Bldg. A. For more information, call 214-708-2739 or visit www.dallasmlkcenter.com.

Wednesdays State Fair Job Assistance will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center Library, 2922 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. - Bldg. C. For more information, call 214-708-2739 or visit www.dallasmlkcenter.com.

Wednesdays The MLK Fresh Produce Distribution Center will be open from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, 2922 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. - Bldg. A. For more information, call 214708-2739 or visit www.dallasmlkcenter.com.

Hotel Dallas Market Center, 2015 Market Center Blvd.

Professional dress; bring plenty of resumes. For more information, visit www.eventbrite.com.

14 Champions in our Midst Awards Luncheon, presented by Texas Capital Bank, honoring individuals, businesses and corporations that have chosen to be the champion for their families, constituents and employees, will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at The Hall of State, Fair Park, 3939 Grand Ave. For ticket information, visit www.eventbrite.com.

15

Old School vs. New School Step Show Return to the Stage, by Metropolitan Dallas Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., where Community Step Teams along with the Divine 9 will be held from 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Billy Earl Dade Middle School, 2727 al Lipscomb Way. For ticket information, visit www.eventbrite.com.

16-24 National Hunger & Homeless Awareness Week

16 Jingle and Mingle, the

ultimate holiday shopping market featuring over 75 African American-owned businesses and merchants, will be held from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Dallas Market Hall, 2200 N. Stemmons Freeway.

16 South/East Dallas Civil

Rights and Heritage Tour

by Remembering Black Dallas Inc., a tour exploring African American culture and the Civil Rights Movement in Dallas and its continued influence and impact on today’s society, will be held from 10 a.m.

to 2:30 p.m. at the African American Museum of Dallas, 3536 Grand Ave. For more information, visit www.eventbrite.com.

16

Friendsgiving at WiNGS, a Victim Intervention Program/Rape Crisis Center providing advocacy, case management and counseling services to people who have experienced any form of violence, will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at WiNGS, 2603 Inwood Road. Services are available for women, men, teens and children, ages 4 and older, who live in Dallas County.

For more information, contact Shajerria Thomas at sthomas@wingsdallas.org.

16 A Taste of Black Dal-

las, presented by Young Black Entrepreneurs Networking and Development Group, will be held from noon to 5 p.m. at Martin Luther King Recreational Center, 2901 Pennsylvania Ave. Free to the public, great music, games for children. For more information, contact Antoine White at 314-630-4465.

20 Fair Park First Com-

munity Conversation: Initial Concept Ideas, where you can join residents from across Dallas and the 2020 Master Plan design team for the Fair Park First Community, will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Briscoe Carpenter Livestock Center at Fair Park, 1403 Washington St. For more information and to reserve your spot, visit www.eventbrite.com.

23 National Adoption Day

Disclaimer: The Dallas Examiner makes every effort to accurately list all calendar events. However, The Dallas Examiner bears no responsibility for schedule changes and/or cancellations. Contact information on each event listing is provided for the public for confirmation and additional information.

Send your calendar events and a photo no less than two weeks before your event:

Email: calendar@dallasexaminer.com

The Dallas Examiner www.dallasexaminer.com

MISSING Caden Chavis

DOB: June 5, 2002 Missing Since: March 9, 2019 Age Now: 17 Sex: Male Race: Black Height: 5’6” Weight: 160 lbs Hair Color: Brown Eye Color: Brown Missing City: Houston NCMEC Number: 1352023

Anyone having information regarding this missing youth should call the Houston Police Department at 713-884-3131.

Every 40 seconds, a child is reported as "missing," according to several government and missing children's reports. And the number of missing African American children has increased from 25 percent to 33 percent.

This is not only a crisis for the families of the missing children, but for our community and our country.

The Dallas Examiner has made it its mission to post missing children in our community, as reported by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, each week.

Anyone having information regarding this child, should contact National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST. For more information or to view more missing children in your area, visit www.missingkids.com.

CLASSIFIEDS

Page 9 October 31, 2019

Bids

Employment

Internships

Scholarships

For Sale

Internship at The Dallas Examiner Internships are available throughout the year for students enrolled in journalism, writing or design classes.

Applicants must be reliable. Hours are flexible. These are not paid positions but will allow students to gain practical, on-the-job experience. Students interested must e-mail their resume and three writing or design samples.

Contact: rjimenez@dallasexaminer.com Subject Line: Internship

“Discover the Unexpected" Scholarship Chevrolet and the National Newspaper Publishers Association are giving HBCU students an exciting opportunity to Discover the Unexpected about themselves, our communities and everyday people making a real difference.

HBCU students with an interest in journalism, new media, and discovering/reporting on inspirational stories in the African-American community are invited to apply for the fellowship.

Using NNPA’s professional resources, and the All-New 2019 Chevrolet Blazer’s innovative technology, DTU Fellows will share stories that shatter perceptions, jumpstart their journalism careers, and encourage us all to Discover the Unexpected.

Award: $10,000 Requirements: • A completed application • A resume with GPA and references • Writing and professional work samples • A video submission Deadline: May 2020 Contact: https://www.nnpa.org/chevydtu

NBNA Scholarship Program For Black Nurses National Black Nurses Association is committed to excellence in education and conducts continuing education programs for nurses and allied health professionals throughout the year. The association provides annual scholarships for students. Scholarships provide funding for continuing education. This funding enables nurses to grow and better contribute their talents to the health and healthcare of our communities.

The National Black Nurses Association, Inc. offers various scholarships each year.

Requirements: Applicants must submit an official transcript(s) from an accredited School of Nursing, a two-page written essay, and two letters of recommendation (one from applicant's school of nursing and one from the local chapter, or a nurse in the area if a local chapter does not exist). Both must be attached to the application.

Also, a clean/clear professional head shot must be submitted as well as any additional items to accompany the application in support of the candidate's eligibility and desirability may include documented evidence of participation in student nurse activities and involvement in the African American Community, i.e., letters, news clippings, awards, certificates, etc.

Award: $1,000 to $6,000 Deadline: April 2020 Contact: https://www.nbna.org (Hover over “Membership” then click “Sponsorship Program”) Internships at Shell As a Shell intern, you’ll benefit from regular and structured performance evaluation from your mentor and direct supervisor. You’ll also receive direct feedback to help you to enhance your strengths and build on any areas for development. Learn more at http://blackstudents.com.

American Express American Express is committed to attracting the highest-caliber graduates to lead and grow our business into the future. Not just academics, but individuals with intellectual curiosity, passion, flexibility and drive. Learn more at http://blackstudents.com.

Internship at Marriott Marriott offers paid internships that provide true handson work experience to prepare interns for leadership in the professional world. Participants will focus on one professional area, with possibilities to explore other business operations.

Learn more at http://blackstudents.com.

State Farm Internship Program State Farm’s Intern Program is an introduction to the nation’s largest auto insurer and a major financial services provider, plus much more. The objective is to provide you with a meaningful work experience and a preview of the type of work you would do as a full-time employee.

Learn more at http://blackstudents.com.

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help with your advertising needs.

Call today!

214-941-3100

Real Estate

Texas Grant Program The Texas Legislature established the TEXAS – Towards EXcellence, Access and Success – Grant to make sure that well-prepared high school graduates with financial need could go to college. To receive a basic initial award through the TEXAS Grant Program, a student must be registered with Selective Service, or be exempt, demonstrate financial need, be classified by the institution as a Texas resident, have not been convicted of a felony or crime involving a controlled substance and be enrolled at least three-quarter time as a Baccalaureate student who graduated from an accredited public or private high school in Texas, completed the Foundation, Recommended, or Distinguished Achievement high school program (or the equivalent) and, enrolled in an undergraduate degree or certificate program at an approved institution within 16 months from high school graduation.

Deadline: Varies Contact: Scholarship Committee Student Financial Aid Programs P.O. Box 12788 Austin, TX 78711-2788 888-311-8881 Texas Educational Opportunity Grant Program The purpose of the Texas Educational Opportunity Grant Program is to provide grant aid to financially needy students enrolled in Texas public two-year colleges. To receive an initial award through the TEOG Program, a student must be registered with selective service, or be exempt; be classified by the institution as a Texas resident and be enrolled at least half-time.

Deadline: Varies Contact: Scholarship Committee Student Financial Aid Programs P.O. Box 12788 Austin, TX 78711-2788 888-311-8881

ABA Diversity Scholarship The Diversity Scholarship focuses on broadening the number of traditionally underrepresented groups in the management and operation ranks of the transportation, travel, and tourism industry.

Eligible candidates must have completed, at a minimum, their first year of college at an accredited university; must have a declared major or course of study relevant to the transportation, travel, and tourism industry; and must have a cumulative 3.0 GPA. Applicants are required to submit a 500-word essay discussing the role they hope to play in advancing the future of the transportation, motorcoach, travel, and tourism/hospitality industry. For more information or to apply, please visit the scholarship provider's website.

Deadline: varies Contact: American Bus Association 700 13th Street, NW Suite 575 Washington, DC 20005 800-283-2877 https://www.buses.org/?/aba-foundation/ scholarships/diversity

Cheryl D. Conkling Memorial Scholarship Battling the physical hardships of gamma globulin anemia and hearing loss, Cheryl Conkling loved and excelled in education and music, and graduated Summa Cum Laude. This scholarship is named in her honor to support students with hearing or other physical hardships who have demonstrated a love for education. It is only open to students who live and/or attend school in Windsor, Colorado; Conroe, Texas; Wilkinson County, Mississippi; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; or West Feliciana Parish in Louisiana. Students must be a high school senior enrolling in an accredited college or university in the fall when the scholarship is awarded. Preference may be given to students with hearing or other physical impairments, students not receiving other substantial aid, and/or students in Louisiana.

Deadline: Varies Contact: Scholarship Committee 100 North Street, Suite 900 Baton Rouge, LA scholarships@braf.org 225-387-6126 www.scholarships.com

Children of Disabled or Deceased Public Servants Scholarship The Children of Disabled or Deceased Firemen, Peace Officers, Game Wardens, and Employees of Correctional Institutions Scholarship provide a benefit to the children of eligible persons who have been killed in the line of duty prior to September 1, 2000, or who have been disabled in the line of duty. Applicants must apply before their 21st birthday (age 22 if a participant in a special education program under section 29.003); must have had a parent who was a paid or volunteer fireman, paid municipal, county, or state peace officer, or a custodial employee of the Texas Department of Corrections, or a game warden and be the child of a parent who suffered an injury, resulting in disability or death, sustained in the line of duty. Applicants must also enroll in classes for which the college receives tax support (i.e. a course that does not depend solely on student tuition and fees to cover its costs). A person may receive an exemption from the payment of tuition and fees only for the first 120 undergraduate semester credit hours for which he or she registers or age 26, whichever comes first. Must attend a public Texas college/university.

Deadline: Varies Contact: Scholarship Committee Student Financial Aid Programs P.O. Box 12788 Austin, TX 78711-2788 888-311-8881

Advertise your Classified Ads today! Call 214-941-3100

Page 10 October 31, 2019

The Dallas Examiner www.dallasexaminer.com