The Dallas Examiner July 27, 2019

VOL. XXXIII • JuNE 27, 2019

50 cents

City Council briefing on new budgets Historic Business Duo

Reparations Hearing

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By DIANE XAVIER The Dallas Examiner

Dallas’ new mayor, Eric Johnson, and the Dallas City Council heard a briefing on the Fiscal Year 20192020 and Fiscal Year 2020-2021 budget overview presented by Chief Financial Officer Elizabeth Reich and the Office of Budget during the council meeting on June 18. It was the first briefing for the new council year.

City Manager T.C. Broadnax recommened presenting a balanced biennial budget to the City Council on Aug. 13.

Although the general fund for the Fiscal Year 2020 planned year was balanced when presented, a City Council amendment to increase police and fire pay resulted in a structural imbalance

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of $5.3 million. Also, that gap is forecasted to increase to $33.7 million in FY21, $36.6 million in FY22 and up to $44 million in FY23, due also to recent state legislation passed.

The topics the City Council will give priority to in upcoming budget talks in the next two months include housing and affordable and mixed-income housing development programs to improve the city’s housing stock, parks and recreation and youth activities, and grocery store strategy to eliminate food deserts in Southern Dallas.

Recent surveys the city conducted also show that residents’ top priorities for the budget are infrastructure maintenance, police services and code enforcement.

“The purpose of the biennial

Mayor Eric Johnson leads his first Dallas City Council meeting. – The Dallas Examiner screenshot from city of Dallas video.

budget is to ensure sustainability,” Reich said. “We want to make sure those things we are recommending to you are sustainable in the next year and we don’t want you to make a decision to fund a program or initiative if we know that we are not going to be able to afford it in the next year.”

Reich presented factors that may

affect the general revenue fund, one of which is the 65/Older or Disabled Property Tax Exemption.

The property tax exemptions reduce a property owner’s liability but also reduce revenues that come to the city to support services.

On June 12, the City Council voted to approve an increase in this exemption from $90,000 to $100,000, which resulted in a projected revenue loss of $3.4 million for the city.

“The budget development for FY20 and future years must consider two significant factors affecting the general fund revenues, and that is the economic condition and state legislation,” Reich said. “The two largest revenues that will be impacted are the property taxes and sales tax.”

For FY19, the City Council

adopted a $3.6 billion budget.

“We are starting on a little bit of a deficit because although we presented a balanced budget last year through the City Council amendment process, the City Council made the decision to fund additional public safety spending to raise the starting salaries to $60,000 and provide a 3% raise for all others,” Reich said. “That took the budget out of balance for the current year, so our budget for FY20 that we are starting out with this year is there is a gap of $5.3 million.”

Another area that will affect the general fund is recent legislation passed by the Texas Legislature such as SB2, known as the Texas Property Tax Reform and

Arlington elects first Black councilwoman

See City Budget Page 3

BY MATHEW SHAW The Dallas Examiner

R&B artist uses music as mechanism for hope Darcell Crayton – Photos courtesy of Crayton Entertainment & Darcell’s Facebook

By MIKE MCGEE The Dallas Examiner

Darcell is the image, the creative, the record label founder. Darcell Crayton is the man, the father, the hometown hero who provides the musical message. Together as one, the performer believes that a musical future was always his destiny.

“I come from a family of a few singers,” he said, recalling his first time singing in church at five years old, as well as growing up being influenced by artists he described as the Michael Jacksons of the world.

His sound might be characterized as soulful, or pop-infused R&B, but Darcell is less fixated on the sound and more about its purpose, calling it “... a mechanism for hope. My music’s feel-good music.”

With his self-titled debut album available on multiple online music platforms, the performer, who called himself “a little old country boy” at one point, is pleased to note that he got his creative start in Dallas County.

“I was performing at Starz,” the artist said as he thought back to some of the first clubs where he made his musical mark. “RJ’s by the Lake, right at Bachman Lake.”

He pointed out that both venues had, in effect, “a revolving door” where he made repeated appear-

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ances on their respective stages.

Beyond Dallas, a performance at the Apollo Theater in Harlem especially stands out for Darcell, yet he described winning a Tom Joyner K104 talent show back home as the “pivotal moment” when he knew he was an established professional singer/songwriter.

“Primarily because at the time all the crème de la crème of the city, so to speak, we were all vying for first place,” he remembered. “And to be in that ambiance of so many gifted people – you know, there’s so much talent out here in Dallas – and then to actually win, for them to actually call my name … at the end of the night, it really validated for me that, you know what? I can touch people.

People do enjoy what I do. And who knows, maybe I can make a living out of it.”

That contest ended with a $10,000 grand prize and opened up new opportunities for the talent. But just as Darcell has enjoyed his journey upward, turbulence accompanied his ascension. He confessed that a move to Los Angeles led to the most trying time in his professional life.

“Now you’re in a place where everybody that thinks they’re that guy, that girl, they come to Los Angeles. So now you’re in the ambiance where some of the finest talent, not only in your city, but

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some of the finest talent in the country, they come, they pitch their tent and now they’re in L.A.” He had with him his guitar and keyboard but knew no one. He found chances to sing and act, but often times also had to live out of his car for prolonged periods.

“Taking a shower at the fitness center. Before that, waking up, going to the service station to brush my teeth and use the restroom,” he asserted. “Then, working out and ironing my clothes, and then some nights sleeping in my car. Some nights trying to sleep in a storage unit hoping the owners didn’t find out.”

Throughout all these difficulties, Darcell never considered quitting and going back home.

“My life changed when I realized, wait a minute, if God will put you in a place to be seen and be heard, all the residual effect is that you receive money, fame and success, then that’s an empty career,” he added. “I want to be in a position where that 17year-old Black kid in South Dallas, or another little White girl in Highland Park says, ‘Hey, he came from Dallas. If he did it, maybe I can too.’”

Darcell concluded that he needed to become a source of inspiration

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After decades of service to her community, Dr. Barbara Odom-Wesley said she was ready to face the next chapter in her life: being the first Black woman to serve on the Arlington City Council.

Though she expressed feeling both humbled and proud, she said she also wondered why it took so long for Arlington to elect a Black woman to the City Council.

“We’re in 2019. Why hasn’t there already been a Black female on the Arlington City Council?” she pondered. “But at least we’re here now, right? I’m opening doors for whoever’s going to come behind me, so I take it as quite a responsibility.”

The daughter of Elzie Odom, Arlington’s first Black mayor from 1997 to 2003, Odom-Wesley led a lifetime of public service inspired by her parents.

“He and my mother taught me that service is the price you pay for the space you occupy,” she said.

“God didn’t bless you just so you could be happy. He blessed you so you could make other people not happy but blessed, so you could bless others. I’ve taken that responsibility seriously my whole life.”

Arlington has been her home for almost 40 years, and during that time she has taught and worked in health care administration and served on numerous boards and committees, such as a charter member for the Martin Luther King Celebration Committee and on the board of trustees for Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital.

“I’ve always had a vision for service,” she stated. “I was president of this and secretary of that, starting with the Campfire Girls and National Honor Society. I was always an officer, always in a leadership position, and I felt like that was Legacy of Service awards $20,000 in scholarships Education Pg 3

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Dr. Barbara Odom-Wesley – Official photo

a responsibility.”

She won the District 8 seat last month by 62%, defeating three other candidates.

Odom-Wesley first ran last year to replace Councilman Charlie Parker after he retired from his District 1 seat.

“It’s also the first seat my dad held, so I decided I can step up and serve at that level,” she recalled.

Though she lost that race by about 350 votes, she said she learned a lot. She decided she would not run again because she assumed the incumbent would occupy the seat for the next six years.

However, Arlington voters approved term limits later that year, which opened a seat in District 8.

“If [the incumbent] had been running in this seat, I would not have run,” she said. “The Lord parted the waters, and then really just kind of pushed me through it and made this happen.”

As a council member, she said she wanted to work with allies and former adversaries to bring workable solutions for the issues facing the growing city of almost 400,000, from its lack of public transportation to the controversy around short-term rentals.

“I’m not a politician. I don’t accept that label,” she declared. “I am a public servant, and so I’m here to help people, and as I said all through my campaign and at every opportunity, I want to be their voice. I want to be the voice for the citizens of Arlington, and since I was elected at an at-large position, that’s everybody in Arlington.”

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

www.dallasexaminer.com

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The Dallas Examiner www.dallasexaminer.com

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee spearheads reparations hearing

By ALEX SAMuELS The Texas Tribune

For the first time in a decade, members of Congress examined the topic of reparations for African Americans over slavery at a hearing on a proposed study on the issue from U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, DHouston.

In her opening remarks to a packed committee room Wednesday, Jackson Lee said her measure would be “long overdue,” adding that “slavery has never received an apology.”

“The role of the federal government in supporting the institution of slavery and subsequent discrimination directed against Blacks is an injustice that must be formally acknowledged and addressed,” she said.

Her resolution calls for a commission to “study and develop reparation proposals for African Americans” and consider a national apology by the government “for the perpetration of gross human rights viola-

tions and crimes against humanity on African slaves and their descendants.”

“Let this day, June 19, 2019, be the marker for the commitment for each and every one of you,” she later said. “On my watch, we will watch this bill pass and be signed by the president of the United States of America.”

Although her measure received a warm reception from many civil rights advocates and Black Americans, it will be a tougher sell in the U.S. Senate. Earlier this week, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, dismissed reparations for slavery as not “a good idea” and said that it would “be pretty hard to figure out who to compensate.”

“We’ve tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a civil war, by passing landmark civil rights legislation,” McConnell said. “We’ve elected an African American president.”

Still, the hearing by the House Judiciary Subcom-

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee talks about “the role of the federal government in supporting the institution of slavery and subsequent discrimination directed against Blacks.” – Photo by Leah Mills of Reuters/Texas Tribune

mittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties on House Resolution 40 — named for the unfulfilled federal promise to provide freed African Americans “40 acres and a mule” — marked the first opportunity in more than a decade that House members were able to tackle the issue, with witnesses including actor and activist Danny Glover; writer Ta-Nehisi Coates; U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat and presidential candidate who proposed a companion ver-

sion of the bill to the Senate; and retired NFL player Burgess Owens.

During his testimony, Coates rebuked McConnell for his earlier comments on reparations, noting that “for a century after the Civil War, Black people were subjected to a relentless campaign of terror.” That campaign, Coates added, “extended well into the lifetime of Majority Leader McConnell.”

Wednesday’s hearing fell on Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating the emanci-

pation of slaves in Texas on June 19, 1865, but also comes amid a national discussion on reparations among 2020 Democratic presidential contenders.

Booker told the House panel that the nation has “yet to truly acknowledge and grapple with the racism and white supremacy that tainted this country’s founding.” The two Texans in the race — Beto O’Rourke and Julián Castro — have both said they backed Jackson Lee’s reparations proposal, as do most members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters that Democrats plan to vote on the bill, calling the proposal a “very serious issue,” according to Politico.

Aside from Jackson Lee, three other Texans on the committee — Republican U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert of Tyler, Democratic U.S. Reps. Sylvia Garcia of Houston and Veronica Escobar of El Paso — were part of a bevy of lawmakers who peppered witnesses

with questions about the potential benefits and shortfalls of the proposal.

Escobar and Garcia, who both arrived in Congress this year, asked panelists to respond to critics who argue the country has already addressed reparations through policies like affirmative action or dismiss the idea of reparations as little more than just writing out checks to Black Americans.

Gohmert, meanwhile, noted that the Democratic Party, not the Republican Party, played a role in introducing Jim Crow laws and historically supported the institution of slavery.

“It is important that we know our history and we not punish people today for the sins of their predecessors in the Democratic Party,” he said.

“You lie,” a protestor in the audience shouted back.

“I just stated all facts, and again, we have people who are denying history,” Gohmert responded.

“That’s not helpful to our discussion.”

Local business duo is nation’s only Black certified Scrum trainers

By MATTHEW HIRST The Dallas Examiner

When it comes to helping businesses bring more efficiency to their workflow management processes, BeardedEagle Management and Consulting Firm – the only Blackowned firm certified by the Scrum Alliance – is said to be one of the best around. That’s largely due to co-founders Devon and Lizzy Morris, the charismatic, diligent and once-married but now divorced power-duo, who decided to put differences aside in order to build one of the premier Agile and Scrum consultancies in the world.

The partners built a multimilliondollar firm in 12 years, and garnered a reputation for taking companies to the next level – helping them thrive, creatively providing some of the best Agile, Scrum, Lean and Six Sigma business solutions.

“BeardedEagle is a management consultancy practice for people who are wanting to see their organization change, whether it be from the top-down, from the middle-out or from the bottom-up. But they want to see their organization make a shift, and they are ready to do the work necessary for that shift to be made,” Lizzy said. “We are the company that is there to help them make it without coming in and making them feel like they’ve made huge mistakes.”

Personally and professionally helping companies get to the next level through the application of Agile methodology and Scrum is the name of the game for BeardedEagle, because businesses are only as strong as their management.

Alongside growing as a company comes the need for operational consistency and efficiency that can scale too.

When it comes to project management, people often use the words “Agile” and “Scrum” – but what do they mean?

“Agile … is a collection of values and principles that you live and breathe, no different than the Ten

Commandments or any other value that you have in your life. You incorporate them into your everyday actions and behaviors. There’s Agile, and then there’s Scrum,” Devon said. “Well, Scrum is something that we do, while Agile is something that we live and breathe.

So Scrum lives and breathes the values and principles of the Agile manifesto.

“If I were to explain Scrum to anyone, I would say, ‘Just think about short cycles of getting things done that you want to achieve.’ All you do is start off with a plan, you work your plan and you get to the end. You learn about the product you built, you learn about the thing that you made, then you try to find a way to get better at the next goround. … So there’s Agile, and then there’s Scrum, and we operate in both of those worlds.”

But what are the benefits of Agile and Scrum?

In a world where so many businesses become entrenched in their ways and reluctant to incite organizational change from within, there has to be a noticeable benefit for companies willing to adopt an entirely new project management methodology. There is, Lizzy said, although sometimes companies struggle to see it and aren’t willing to commit the time and effort to building the work atmosphere they desire.

But those willing to work for it will certainly reap the rewards. Part of this success is due to how understandable Agile methodology and Scrum are to anyone who has experienced the hindrances of project management in any space.

“One of the things that Scrum does is that it takes the frustrations that they’re well-aware of in regular project management and the things that they know don’t work. Scrum exposes those and simplifies the project management process and makes everything visible. So instead of a project manager now having to be honed down and creating needless Gantt charts and paper-

Devon and Lizzy Morris – Photo courtesy of BeardedEagle Management and Consulting Firm

work that means nothing, it allows them to equip their teams, who they trust, to actually get the work done.

And the business is normally semiinvolved – it lets them come take a seat at the table and actually drive it,” Lizzy said.

She went on to speak of how many of the project managers she has worked with – particularly the older, male ones – have given her a lot of positive feedback.

“What they loved was the empiricism that is embedded in Scrum – the fact that you are doing and learning and not pretending you’re supposed to know. So you no longer have to pretend to know exactly what the outcome’s gonna be before you actually start the work.

You just need to know what the goal is that you’re trying to drive toward,” she continued.

The duo is dedicated to the methodology of Agile and believes that the applications are vast, going much further than just the traditional business uses as they are currently known. They have planned to launch two new programs this year: ScrumFit, aimed at helping people make the best of their fitness experience, and Scrum for Living to help schedule and manage everything else in life.

In spreading their message of improving efficiency in the workplace and beyond, the company has traveled across the globe. They’ve even done work within the music industry, with Lizzy having produced a Christian Christmas album in Atlanta using Agile methodology as its foundation.

“If you really boil it down to what

this year is all about, you can put it in our theme for Dallas called ‘Inoculate Dallas.’ The idea is that we are trying to bring all styles, the things we know in terms of Scrum, and apply it in everyday living in the Dallas community,” Devon said. “So we moved our office to Dallas – we were in Grand Prairie. ... I feel like we’ll have more of an impact on communities here by being located where we are now.

When it comes down to that juvenile work that we’re going to start doing, we’ve already been doing work in schools, we’ve got educators that we work with.

“We’re just finding more ways to just touch, make ourselves more present and work with various people that are already doing great things in this community, and how can we partner with you to make this an even better world than what it is today. … We’re finding the ways to just bring it back to those basics of it takes a village to make this world a better place, and that’s what we’re actually doing here in Dallas.”

Both have shared a mutual love for the methodology since they first met in San Antonio in 2007, when Devon began working at USAA and became Lizzy’s Agile and Scrum coach. She fell in love with what he was doing, and the two bonded further over their motivations for what creating a business should be. They married but later divorced; however, they still wanted to make it work as a business couple.

“So even when we weren’t able to find a base point to still have a successful marriage, we have still built a fabulous base to have a successful business. And because our goals are still 100% the same, which is we’re going to make this a success because we want our children to have a legacy, and we want to have a standard we set here in the community, in America, so that other Black kids, other Black people period, know you can be in this world and be the equal to everybody else who’s out there, regardless of the

color of their skin. Hold your ground and still be successful.”

By 2013, Devon became the first Black certified Scrum trainer, with Lizzy coming a few years later as the first Black female trainer. Of some 300 certified Scrum trainers worldwide, they remain the only two Black trainers.

“Now, I’m not in the position where mentally I have to prove anything, but I’m in the position where I want to succeed because I want young girls everywhere to know that they can be anything they want to be. So if they choose to be a stayat-home mom, they can do that and they can do that brilliantly … without fear of judgment or feeling inferior,” Lizzy said. “And if they choose that they want to be on Wall Street or own the biggest company in the world, they can do that also – there’s nothing wrong with their brain, nothing wrong with them.

They can really have it all if they choose it. One of the things I spend a lot of time doing is working with women’s groups and speaking at women’s functions because I want to inspire women to stretch as far as their dreams exist.”

For Devon, it’s about humility and honor for what he has achieved, and giving back to the community and setting an example.

“To me, it is an absolute honor and privilege to stand on the shoulders of my ancestors who were slaves. … I’ve had an amazing journey in terms of life, so everything that I do is trying to inspire others to do the same, because if I’ve done it, they can do it,” he said. “And I always take an opportunity to talk with kids, whether it’s in a school environment or sometime soon, we’ll be speaking to some people in juvenile detention. … These are things that I do and I don’t even tell anybody about because I want to make sure that I spark the brain; I plant the seed within someone that is going to do something great in the future. So it is always a part of what I’m trying to do. It is always the example that I’m trying to set.”

The Dallas Examiner www.dallasexaminer.com

Darcell,

continued from Front Page

along with being an entertainer. He acknowledges that as a performer he still owes something to his listeners despite his own creativity.

“I think that as artists we have a responsibility to be transparent, a responsibility to let people get a bird’s eye view of my emotions, of what we’re feeling and also of what we’re thinking. I think that’s how you transmit emotion,” he remarked, adding that whatever he goes through, the listener will better be able to relate via his lyrical honesty.

Darcell expressed that his work transcends patterns found in current popular music. His lyrics are nearer to the sacred than to the profane.

“I’m a follower of Jesus Christ,” he proclaimed.

“Even beyond my spiritual core in terms of being a Christian … why won’t I just make music that’s universal

Darcell Crayton – Photo courtesy of Crayton Entertainment & Darcell’s Facebook

to everyone? And so what I find as a songwriter, I find that if I can grasp a thought of beauty, if I can tap into that idea that love is the answer regardless of the question, then that’s really the paradigm I operate from.”

He mentioned that he rarely struggled with needing to express what he considers sexually explicit or degrading lyrics.

“That’s just not what I’m attracted to. That’s really just not what permeates from me,” he said.

Still, if L.A. taught him anything, Darcell learned that talent alone will not get anyone anywhere. Califor-

EDuCATION

nia is filled with talent from around the world.

“I like to say, ‘Talent makes you eligible,’ and so that was a really big learning curve for me.”

He conceded that following dreams was simply not enough.

“If dreamers, or anybody, would identify their dreams and then manifest their dreams, that is who they are,” he exclaimed as he referred to his personal acronym “I AM,” meaning “Identify And Manifest,” which he maintains has kept him on track to achievement.

“I am identifying my dreams and manifesting my dreams,” Darcell said as he encouraged others to step forward and do the same.

“If you really believe, open your heart, open your mind, put away the fear – or even walk with the fear still present – and go get what you know is rightfully yours.”

Darcell’s latest single, All I Want, is available online now.

He will perform at the Corner Theater in DeSoto July 6.

Page 3 June 27, 2019

Legacy of Service awards $20,000 in scholarships

Special to The Dallas Examiner

The Legacy of Service Foundation, the fundraising arm of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Omicron Mu Omega Chapter, awarded $20,000 in scholarships May 30 to high school students who have exhibited excellence in character and academics.

The scholarships were presented during a reception at the African American Museum, located at 3536 Grand Ave. Awarded in varying increments from $550 to $2500 each, the scholarships were presented to 14 Dallas County students who will attend a variety of colleges, including five students who will attend Historically Black Colleges and Universities, in alignment with the sorority’s Target 1: HBCU for Life initiative.

The Legacy of Service Foundation was established in 1995 to provide critical resources and support to uncommunities derserved

The Legacy of Service Foundation awarded $20,000 in scholarships to 14 local students during a reception at the African American Museum May 30. – Photo courtesy of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Omicron Mu Omega Chapter

throughout Dallas/Fort Worth through scholarships and community service.

The foundation has provided signature education programs, such as Cachet Youth Group and ASCEND youth enrichment programs, as well as community service projects, including Acts of Green, Childhood Hunger and One Million

Backpacks.

Since its inception, the foundation has awarded over $350,000 in scholarships, 10,000 school supplies to underprivileged students, and more than 2,000 seasonal wraps, as well as meals, to families in need. For more information, visit http://www.legacyofservicefoundation.org.

Report: Dallas ISD bus arrival times have improved Special to The Dallas Examiner

The on-time bus arrival rate increased to 95% by the end of the school year, according to a report shared with Dallas ISD trustees on June 13.

Dallas ISD started running its own transportation system for the first time this past school year after Dallas County residents voted to dissolve Dallas County Schools, the taxpayerfunded agency that Dallas ISD contracted to bus students. The average on-time arrival rate under DCS in 2017–2018 was 65%.

While Dallas ISD saw notable transportation improvements this past school year, Dallas ISD Chief of Operations Scott Layne said the district must do a better job to start the school year.

In August, the on-time arrival rate was 70%.

City Budget, continued from Front Page

Dallas ISD buses have shown marked improvement since the district began running its own transportation services, according to a recent report. – Photo courtesy of Dallas ISD

“The start was bumpy, but we’ve come a long way since then,” Layne said.

“While some transportation issues will always come up at the start of the school year – no matter how much we plan and prepare – we are now much better prepared to address those issues.”

A mobile app rolling out will give parents real-time updates on their child’s bus and drop-off time. The district will provide bus route

Transparency Act of 2019. This legislation will cap the city’s ability to grow property tax revenue at 3.5% instead of 8% without seeking voter approval and only applies to reappraisals for the general fund. It also continues to exclude revenue needed to pay voter approved debt and the growth from new construction does not count against the cap.

Exceeding the 3.5% cap is allowed, but requires an election on the November uniform election date.

Also, other legislative changes include HB1525 and HB2153. Starting on Oct. 1, out-of-state internet retailers with at least $500,000 in Texas sales in the prior 12 months will be required to collect and remit local sales and use taxes.

Furthermore, another legislative change that is determined to impact the city’s general fund revenue is legislative change SB1152. In this legislation, companies that provide both telecommunications and cable TV services are exempt from paying the lesser of telecommunications right-of-way fees and cable TV franchise fees .

All cable TV providers currently serving Dallas also provide telecommunications services and pay both fees.

Based on SB1152, Time Warner Cable/ Spectrum and Grande Communications may be exempt from telecommunications right of way fees, and AT&T and Frontier Communications/Verizon may be exempt from cable TV franchise fees.

This new legislation takes effect on Jan.1, 2020, and will reduce revenue for both years of the upcoming biennial budget. In FY20, the total decrease will be $6.6

access to families at the end of July, rather than the week leading up to school.

Meanwhile, increasing the starting pay to $20 per hour for bus drivers – and adding attendance incentives and retention bonuses – has helped eliminate a driver shortage.

“We look forward to continuing to provide a high level of service to families to get students to school on time and ready to learn,” Layne said.

million, and the decrease will be $9 million in FY21.

Another major legislative change is HB1631. This law went into effect on June 1 and states that the city will no longer operate its red-light camera program or issue citations for violations based on a photographic enforcement system.

“This legislative change will reduce revenue for FY19 by $1 million and there will be a $2.4 million net decrease for FY20,” Reich said. “It will be a decrease of $7.5 million in revenue and $5.1 million in expenses.

Factors that may impact the general fund expenses align to six strategic priorities, which include public safety; mobility solutions, infrastructure and sustainability; economic and neighborhood vitality; human and social needs; quality of life; and government performance and financial management.

Town hall meetings to discuss the upcoming budget will take place in August.

Council member Carolyn King Arnold of District 4 reiterated the fact that despite budget deficits, public safety needs to be a top priority.

“We need to be the council that goes on record to having fought for public safety,” Arnold said. “So we are not continuing to play this game of which cup are you going to find this money. We cannot do without public safety. We need to do what we know we can do, and we need to find this money and cannot go to these town hall meetings and continuing to feed that, ‘Oh, we are down 700 officers.’ I had a constituent tell me she does not want to hear that. She wants an answer to the question, ‘What are we going to do and how we are going to address public safety in this city?’”

Page 4 June 27, 2019

Thank you, MaryLee Allen By MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN Children’s Defense Fund

MaryLee Allen was a brilliant, passionate, persevering, caring servant leader – not a self-serving leader – committed to helping build a world fit for children. When the Children’s Defense Fund was brand new, I was searching for smart, passionate people to help with our earliest work. One of the very first ones I found was Allen.

Immediately after graduating from Marquette University with her degree in sociology, Allen had come to Washington, D.C., to join the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, where she prepared research for lawsuits on school desegregation and discrimination in employment and jury selection, and received a special commendation for her work on Alabama school desegregation efforts.

Since then, she continued working as a policy and law researcher, and she joined us to work on CDF’s first-ever policy report, Children Out of School in America. Soon after that, she went on to earn her master’s degree in social work from Catholic University, but as soon as her graduate studies were done, I called again, asking her to work with CDF for just a month while she waited to hear about her next job.

Forty-two years later, she was still here. For more than four decades, Allen’s heart, soul, and political and policy expertise have been behind some of the most enduring and successful efforts to help America’s children and families.

Allen, CDF’s longest-serving staff member and the anchor of our policy work, passed away peacefully at home on June 13, a few short weeks after a diagnosis of advanced stage cancer. The entire CDF family and child advocacy community sends all of our love and prayers to her son, Sean, her sister, Barbara, and the rest of her family. We are also celebrating her extraordinary legacy and impact and saying thank you.

Along with CDF’s late Director of Research Paul Smith, Allen was the co-creator of CDF as we know it.

She will live on through the millions of children whose lives she touched and improved, especially some of our most vulnerable ones in the child welfare system.

She also lives on in all the young (and not-so-young) current and former CDF staff who she trained by her example, in her meticulous work and publications and in her mentoring and outreach to the other child welfare and child advocacy networks she nurtured.

She taught us that children do not come in pieces. She was a forger of laws, regulations and practices that will continue to endure as beacons of hope and protection for generations to come and guide those seeking to serve the most vulnerable children and families in our nation.

For that very first CDF report, one of the colleagues Allen worked alongside was a young lawyer named Hillary Rodham – later first lady and Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton. Together they knocked on doors to gather data on why schoolage children were at home and not in school.

Children Out of School in America became a major catalyst for the enactment of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act – now

the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA – and was the first of many major policy victories Allen helped achieve.

For most of her professional life, she took a lead role in shaping CDF’s advocacy for children’s welfare, health and safety, and from IDEA to the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act to the recent landmark Family First Prevention Services Act, it is not an exaggeration to say every federal child welfare law enacted in the past four decades has been influenced by Allen and her unwavering commitment to improving the lives of children.

Just as important to her as the work itself was building the next generation of advocates and leaders and bringing new voices to the table to broaden the perspectives and impact of our collective work to improve outcomes for children. Allen was a strong believer that major policy reforms couldn’t be accomplished without a groundswell of support and advocacy from different stakeholders and partners at the national, state and local levels.

She drafted, edited and consulted. She testified before Congress more times than anyone can count, and colleagues inside and outside of CDF depended on her wise counsel for their policy decisions and campaigns. But beyond all of her expertise, we depended on her leadership as a person.

She was the consummate servant leader. As one of her policy team members put it, “She showed her leadership by helping others learn to lead.”

Her former interns, staff and colleagues have gone on to lead organizations at the state and national levels and are just one more way her fingerprints are left on our nation’s work for children.

She was known for her unfailing kindness, calm steadfastness, grace and her attention to other people’s needs. She never failed to ask about a child’s graduation or a sick parent.

Her enduring example was in encouraging and reminding all of us always to keep moving forward. In the words of one of her favorite sign-offs: “Go! Go! Go!” Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about Allen’s life is that it exemplifies how one person can make a difference and leave the world better than they found it in profound and enduring ways.

Millions of children and families have benefited from this one woman’s passion to make change and create an equal opportunity for every child to succeed in America.

Their futures are brighter because Allen lived.

Following her example, all of us will strive every day to be as effective, as careful and as committed to the most vulnerable children as Allen was. Her spirit, servant leadership, work ethic and unwavering commitment to ensuring a chance for every child to fulfill their Godgiven potential through the highest quality work will live on and on.

We will miss her beyond measure, but we will honor her by carrying on as she taught us.

Thank you, MaryLee Allen.

Marian Wright Edelman is founder and president emerita of the Children's Defense Fund. For more information, visit http://www.childrensdefense.org.

EDITORIAL

The Dallas Examiner www.dallasexaminer.com

Mental health awareness in our rural communities

By KEINO

McWHINNEY Texas Tech Mental Health Institute

Many of us can attest to our own personal struggles with mental illness, or that of family members and friends.

Today, 1 in 5 U.S. adults live with mental illness, and young adults ages 18 to 25 experience the highest prevalence – at 25.8% – of any mental illness.

Mental illnesses and substance use disorders are the leading causes of disability worldwide, with a strong connection to suicide. The National Center for Health Statistics indicates the ageadjusted suicide rate increased by 33% from 1999 to 2017.

More than 80% of Texas’ 254 counties are designated as Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas, with a majority being rural counties.

Despite lacking the density of urban counterparts, rural communities often experience similar rates of mental illness. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that, from 2001 to 2015, Americans in rural counties had higher rates of suicide than those in urban counties.

This is profound because rural communities must overcome unique barriers in accessing needed care. These include the need to travel

long distances, mental health workforce shortages, discrepancies in information technology infrastructure and a lack of anonymity when seeking care.

Recognizing the need for investment in mental health, Texas legislators proposed significant mental health bills in their most recent session.

Among them was Senate Bill 11, which creates the Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium to leverage the expertise of health-related institutions of higher education, such as the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.

This session built upon tremendous investments made by the 85th Legislature, which invested $7.6 billion in behavioral health funding in the 2018-19 biennium. The state must be commended for moving from awareness to taking concrete steps to fund mental health. This is an exciting time filled with hope.

In line with the state’s investment, Texas Tech University and TTUHSC have identified the need to better address mental health challenges, and in 2018 established the Texas Tech Mental Health Institute. Though in its early stages of development, TTMHI’s vision is to become a leading mental health institute that reduces the impact on our communities of mental illness, substance use disorder and related co-occurring conditions. To achieve this vision, TTMHI

‘‘ ’’ Black History

If I could just get you all thinking again, you can save yourselves.

N

– Noble Drew Ali

oble Drew Ali was born in 1886 as Timothy Drew. The North Carolina native was the founder and prophet of the first mass religious community in American Islam history, the Moorish Science Temple of America, established in 1928 in Chicago. Ali was a prominent leader in promoting Islamic teachings and Black Nationalism within the Black community prior to the Nation of Islam.

Ali was very vocal about African Americans embracing their African roots and referring to themselves as “Moors” and not “Negro” or “Black.” The religious leader obtained 30,000 followers before his death and is the teacher of Nation of Islam founder, Elijah Muhammad.

Ali’s fellowship became the blueprint that the Nation followed in the 1950s, which helped them rise to prominence. The temple is now based in the District of Columbia and has over 30 temples located throughout the country.

will leverage and coordinate the unique strengths of the Texas Tech University System’s component institutions.

Significant efforts exist within the Texas Tech University System to address mental illness and co-occurring conditions.

The Family Therapy Clinic and the Psychology Clinic at Texas Tech provide training opportunities for future mental health clinicians and researchers and much-needed services for our community.

Clinical departments at TTUHSC also provide much-needed access to mental health services, including integrated care and services that meet the needs of children in the juvenile justice system.

Our various colleges and schools offer a variety of degrees in the realm of education and workforce development.

The Center for the Study of Addiction and Recovery directs novel research from a systemic lens by looking at the brains of family members of addicts to better understand ways to help family units in recovery. At the molecular and therapeutic level, researchers in the Department of Pharmacology and Neurosciences at TTUHSC are conducting studies and developing new therapies to combat the opioid crisis.

Since mental illnesses often manifest first in children and adolescents, with 50% of mental health disorders be-

ginning by age 14, it is fitting Texas Tech also seeks to meet the needs of this population.

The TTUHSC Center for Superheroes operates as a unique asset in our region, providing comprehensive medical, mental health and developmental services for victims of childhood trauma and their families.

The Telemedicine, Wellness, Intervention, Triage and Referral Project serves schools with limited mental health resources, using licensed professional counselors and telemedicine consultation with a psychiatrist to screen and assess students and provide the necessary referral services.

Going forward, we must sustain the momentum gained in mental health awareness and be mindful of the continued need for investment in this field. Opportunities exist for both basic science and translational research into the root causes of mental disorders, but we must do more in the area of prevention.

Every effort should be made to increase access to effective treatment that supports long-term recovery.

Keino McWhinney is the director of the Texas Tech Mental Health Institute at Texas Tech University and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. He holds a master’s degree in public policy.

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PERSPECTIVES

Watching Trump, seeing Nixon

By EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON

U.S. House of Representatives

One thing is for certain: The 45th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump, knows little about the true function of government, the history of our democracy and the fundamental importance of our Constitution, the document that guides our nation.

Trump may understand

business and the entertainment industry, but he has proven in the past two years that he has little knowledge of how our democratic society functions, nor the significance of our three independent branches of government. It seems that he is best suited for a 17th century European monarchy.

A ringmaster and bully, Trumps seems to believe that the Supreme Court is his personal bastion of legal advertisers, and that the Congress is his legislative playground whose members

will jump when he says jump, and kiss his ring when he extends his hand. Oh how delusional!

Trump does not seem to understand that one of the functions given to the House of Representatives is oversight of the executive branch of government. Any historian, if the president were to ask, would correctly inform him that the founders of this nation expressly placed that role in the Constitution so that a chief executive could not do as he or she wished after climbing

out of bed in the late morning.

I am not certain if the founders anticipated that one day the leader of the nation would be an individual with the qualities of Mr. Trump, who seems to believe that he has supreme power, and that only his glass will hold water.

A case in point is Trump’s refusal to allow past and current members of his administration to testify before congressional panels that are seeking answers or explanations that the public have

every right to know.

Trump, with the attitude of an heir to a throne, has instructed people to refuse to appear. He states that their information is privileged, but most astute people know that he simply wants to conceal something unfavorable.

He has also claimed privilege over information that the Congress has requested for review. In the case of the census he supports his labor secretary, who was not forthcoming while appearing before a congressional panel.

Sadly, the 45th president

Page 5 June 27, 2019

does not seem to understand that his unwillingness to cooperate with Congress has serious consequences. President Nixon discovered that before he left office. Trump should learn from Nixon’s experience!

Congresswoman Johnson represents the 30th CongresD sional istrict of Texas in the United States House of Representatives, where she chairs the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

The justice system does not protect the oppressed

By SuSAN K. SMITH

Crazy Faith Ministries

In 1857, the case of Dred Scott – Dred Scott v. Sanford – went before the United States Supreme Court.

Scott was suing for his freedom from slavery; he had lived with his owner in a free state before returning to Missouri, where slavery was permitted. Scott sued, saying that he should be free, as he had lived as a free person, but the United States Supreme Court said otherwise and ruled against him.

Chief Justice Roger Taney wrote, on behalf of the high court, that Scott’s case was null and void. He said that no Black, free or slave, could claim United States citizenship – in spite of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution – which granted Blacks full citizenship. His ruling also sidelined and ignored the

13th Amendment that abolished slavery. In the mind of the nation’s high court, Blacks were not citizens of the United States and never could be, and therefore, as slaves, had no rights.

Taney also ignored the tenets of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which prohibited slavery in federal territories, and said that the proclamation in the Declaration of Independence, “All men are created equal,” was never intended to apply to enslaved Africans. He finally wrote that there “were no rights of a Black man that a White man was bound to respect.”

If the disregard of the Constitution and the disrespect of Black people as human beings and American citizens had been corrected, there would be no need for discussion, but it seems that the court is still tilted in favor of those who oppress others – Blacks, women, the poor, immigrants and many who simply cannot fight the system.

It has ruled against immigrants, as

noted by NPR, against labor and unions, as noted by The New York Times, against women’s reproductive rights, as noted by Human Rights Watch, and now, according to CNN, has in its hands a case which might affirm the legacy of this country of making decisions to protect the status of White people.

While people in the current administration, but many other instances as well, are able to pay for justice, the so-called “least of these,” named by Jesus in the Gospels as those we are charged to protect and take care of, are regularly skewered by the system we call “justice.” Justice is a highpriced item – only those who have the money can afford it.

When Anthony Ray Hinton was arrested and charged for a crime he did not commit, he said that the police officer who arrested him basically told him he had no hope for justice.

“He told me I was a Black man, accused of killing a White person. I

was arrested by White officers, I would be charged in front of a White judge by a White prosecutor in front of an all-White jury,” Hinton recalled. He was in fact convicted and sentenced to death; he sat on death row for over 30 years.

With Ava DuVernay’s landmark production, When They See Us, the injustice in the justice system is fully exposed. In spite of the protestations of Linda Fairstein, who was responsible for much of what happened to the five young men falsely accused of and charged with raping a young White woman, the fact remains that persons without the means to purchase justice, and therefore their freedom, know that what DuVernay illustrated is painfully true.

The spirit of Roger Taney is ever with us. He marinated the justice system of this country with white supremacist beliefs and put the concept of justice in an oven of injustice to bake. There are cases before the U.S. Supreme Court now that will

no doubt fall under the guillotine of injustice disguising itself as justice, and poor people – including Black and Brown people – in spite of the directions of Jesus the Christ, whom oppressors call their Lord and Savior, will continue to have their rights eroded by the system we call “justice.”

In the play Hamilton, there is a line in one of the songs that resonates with what is going on in this world: “Oceans rise, empires fall.”

Every great empire has struggled with meting out justice to those who cannot afford it, and most if not all of them failed.

America has taken her place in that sordid line.

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

Contact her at revsuekim@sbcglobal.net.

When They See Us – A tour de force illuminating Black injustice

By TOLSON BANNER BlackNews.com

I didn’t want to take this ride. I knew film director Ava DuVernay would take me on a journey to destinations where new journeys begin – invariably in search of justice for Black people in America.

I’m never ready for the emotional roller coaster, the gut-wrenching, soul-stirring horror DuVernay’s films evoke. But history demands I face my fears to connect the dots that tie our enslavement story together. With trepidation lurking, I pushed the start button for this Netflix movie, When They See Us. The four-part series begins with a group of young Black boys, caught between the innocence of youth and the dignity of manhood, embarking on a “boys will be boys” truant adventure in New York

City’s Central Park.

In search of fun and escapades, five of these young boys would have their lives altered in ways they never envisioned or imagined. At the end of the day, all five young boys would beckon for the same outcome: “I just want to go home.”

The yearning for the actualization of this mantra becomes the basis for their unjust incarceration.

The story revolves around the raping and beating of a White female jogger. While running through New York’s Central Park, she is mutilated, raped and beaten within of her life. inches The Manhattan district attorney’s sex crimes unit is aghast! At the helm is Linda Fairstein who is hell bent on convicting someone. In her haste to get a conviction or convictions, Fairstein bends and contorts the legal system like a pretzel.

Following her lead, police and detectives interrogate,

abuse and harass these young Black boys without legal representation, without employing the Miranda rule, or having their respective parents present. In those instances where their parents were present, police coerce and trick their parents into going along with custom-designed “concocted stories” in order to “just go home.”

I’m sifting the sands of time through my fingers, yet time stands still when it comes to justice for Black people.

Today is yesterday; tomorrow is looking back. The Central Park Five are no different than the Scottsboro Boys.

On a Southern railroad train in Paint Rock, Alabama, March 25, 1931, nine Black boys are arrested on charges of assault. Later, rape charges are added. A lynch mob out for vigilante justice surrounds the Scottsboro jail. Two White women are said to have been raped by all nine boys. A jury indicts the nine boys for rape.

The two White women were

not as virtuous as the White establishment led most to believe. In fact, they both were prostitutes who concocted the story out of thin air. The nine Black boys were eventually released after serving 10 years!

Fast forward to April 19, 1989: President Trump, a real estate magnate at the time, takes out a full-page ad in The New York Times calling for the execution of the Central Park Five. These young boys were characterized as “wilding out” by the press. Of all the stories written by the press about this horrendous case, only twice were the words “alleged” used to defend their innocence – until proven guilty!

Just as today is yesterday, and tomorrow is looking back, the Central Park Five were incarcerated between five and 13 years. An admission of guilt by the perpetrator is the only reason why these young men were released.

DNA evidence later exonerates all five. The Manhattan

district attorney’s office did nothing in favor of justice.

DuVernay captures the power of the human spirit like energy from the sun. You can never underestimate the love a mother has for her child.

In one poignant scene, the youngest of the Central Park Five is talking to his visiting mother about the recurring dream he is having. He tells his mother he keeps hearing footsteps in his dream, and they keep getting closer and closer. With caring eyes, the mother stares deep into the window of her son’s soul and passionately tells him, “That’s me coming to get you.”

At that point, my machismo gave way to expressions of pain and sorrow. DuVernay’s emotional roller coaster miniseries is in full effect. I told you from the outset I didn’t want to take this ride.

Today, Fairstein still maintains justice was served as she continues to count her untold millions from the five crime novels she has written. A boy-

cott of her books is being circulated online. I already signed it. Fairstein has since resigned from several boards.

In the face of all the evidence, Fairstein holds steadfastly to doing nothing wrong – along with the entire police department.

In the end, the Central Park Five were awarded $41 million for their wrongful convictions. The largest in the city’s history. But Fairstein and the police departments did nothing wrong?

Ralph Ellison, the famed writer/ancestor and author of the classic book Invisible Man, wrote about how America sees Black people.

DuVernay’s When They See Us corroborates what Ellison wrote about decades ago, and they both beg the question of whether America sees us at all.

Tolson Banner is a writer and columnist.

$200M settlements help consumers harmed by for-profit colleges, high-cost loans

By CHARLENE CROWELL

Center for Responsible Lendin

The struggle to eliminate high-cost predatory debt is a daunting one – particularly for Black America. As access to affordable credit, loans and mortgages seem ever elusive across the country, lying in wait are countless predatory lenders eager to fill the personal finance void.

But in recent days, two unrelated developments awarded consumers more than $200 million in victories against high-cost private student loans and restitution for triple-digit interest payday loans. Together, the two developments illustrate how freedom from debt burdens can be lifted and erased.

The work of 44 attorneys general in states and the District of Columbia and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau together secured $168 million in private student loan relief for former students of the now defunct ITT Technical College. In a second development, private legal advocates secured $39.7 million in restitution and cancelled high-cost loans that tried to evade state laws.

Readers may recall that following ITT Tech’s closure in 2016, the institution promptly filed for bankruptcy, stranding an estimated 35,000 students enrolled at one of 150 cam-

puses in 38 states. Due to its high cost of enrollment, most students financed their studies by using a combination of federal and private student loans. ITT targeted low-income students for its private label loans known as CUSO. These loans came with fees and interest rates as high as 16.25%.

In response to the closure, the Department of Education forgave federal student loans incurred as part of enrollment. But that action still stuck student borrowers with costly private loans that the schools and lenders pushed to finance promised educations that rarely were delivered.

Now through intergovernmental cooperation, over 18,000 former ITT Tech students are freed from highcost loans that were prone to default by as much as 90%. Lenders must now cease collections, discharge all debts, and notify the former students that the debts are cancelled.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose share of the national settlement returns $13 million to 1,430 borrower students, spoke to the importance of the settlement.

“Students who attended ITT Tech are burdened with unpayable debts they received while pursuing an honest education,” noted AG Paxton.

“This college and loan program have failed them tremendously.”

A similar reaction came from North Carolina where the settlement will bring $4.2 million to 412 former ITT Tech students.

“As attorney general, it’s my job to protect students and ensure they can safely invest in their futures,” said North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein in a news release issued on June 14. “Today’s settlement will give these students the debt relief they need for a fresh educational start and a future unhindered by these debts.”

By removing the financial burden of these loans, these same consumers will now be able to secure more affordable and lower interest rates, as well as higher credit scores. Whenever defaulted loans are added to borrower credit profiles, the resulting credit score is lower and comes with predictable difficult and costly interest for any new credit application.

In the second consumer win, efforts of private legal advocates like the Virginia Poverty Law Center secured nearly $39.7 million in restitution and wiped out debts from Think Finance. Once a federal judge approves the negotiated settlement, these monies and others paid by other defendants will be distributed to consumers ensnared in loans that came with an average interest rate of 375%.

For consumers, these predatory rates meant that a $500 loan could wind up costing more than $3,000 for unsuspecting borrowers living in California, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia.

The settlement brings an encouraging end to litigation originally filed

in 2016 against the Fort Worthbased, Think Finance, Inc. It should be noted that these nonprofit legal advocates’ pursuit of financial justice from Think Finance stands in stark contrast to that of the current leadership at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – especially when it comes to payday lending and other forms of high-cost loans.

Under CFPB’s first director, a lawsuit against Think Finance was originally filed in November 2017 and alleged that the firm was deceiving consumers in 17 states into repaying loans they did not legally owe.

With a change of administration and key personnel, an amended complaint was filed under acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney that significantly altered the affected dates, as well as the amounts of monies involved in the alleged violations.

According to a May 2019 Bloomberg Law article, the dates originally cited as a 7-year span of time, from 2011-2018, were reduced to only two years, 2013-2015. Additionally, the news outlet reported the amount of fees dropped from at least $325 million to only $40.2 million in interest and fees on combined loans totaling $45.6 million.

“The low penalty assessed to Think Finance follows a recent pattern of the CFPB entering into settlements with companies for alleged abuse of consumers but collecting either no money or low amounts in

civil money penalties and little to no consumer restitution,” stated the article.

In the May 2019 CFPB settlement, there was no consumer restitution.

Instead, Think Finance and each of its six affiliates agreed to pay $1 each to the CFPB to settle claims that consumers paid at least $325 million more than the nearly $50 million in principal amounts borrowed between 2011and 2018.

“These settlements are huge wins for consumers,” said Diane Standaert, an EVP with the Center for Responsible Lending and director of state policy. “They show the scope and harm of abusive practices by high-cost lenders and predatory forprofit colleges that result in consumers carrying the burden of debt for years”.

“The cancellation of these debts is an incredibly important form of redress that should be pursued by other state and federal regulators,” continued Standaert. “Effective enforcement can and will get people out from under crushing debt. And these actions underscore the need for strong protections at both the state and federal levels to prevent these predatory practices from occurring in the first place.”

Charlene Crowell is the communications deputy director with the Center for Responsible Lending. She can be reached at charlene.crowell@responsiblelending.org.

Page 6 June 27, 2019

The Dallas Examiner www.dallasexaminer.com

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MISSING Gabriell Barron

DOB: July 29, 2002 Missing Since: June 23, 2019 Age Now: 16 Sex: Female Race: Black Height: 5’1” Weight: 120 lbs Hair Color: Brown Eye Color: Brown Missing City: Dallas NCMEC Number: 1361449

Additional informaton: Gabriell was last seen on June 23, 2019.

Anyone having information regarding this missing youth should call the Dallas Police Department at 214-744-4444.

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.

Employment

OPEN POSITIONS:

Sales Representative Call Mollie Belt at 214-941-3100 or email mbelt@dallasexaminer.com for details.

Freelance Investigative Reporter Must know AP Style and be able to express ideas clearly and succinctly. Knowledge of the African American community is a plus. Applicants should have journalism experience or have taken journalism classes.

Send resume and writing samples as attachments to rjimenez@dallasexaminer.com Subject: Resume Please note: links will not be accepted.

CLASSIFIEDS Internships

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

Congressional Internship in Dallas, Dist. 30 Working as a congressional intern in Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson’s office allows undergraduates, graduate students and young professionals gain valuable experience and knowledge. Both full and part-time unpaid internships are available for the Summer, Fall and Spring semesters in both the Washington D.C. and Dallas offices.

To apply, send the application, cover letter, and resume via email as an attachment to the Intern Coordinator.

Deadline: varies Contact: Address: Dallas District Office 1825 Market Center Blvd., Suite 440 Dallas, TX 75207 Email: Intern Coordinator TX30.cd@mail.house.gov Subject line: Internship Application Website: https://ebjohnson.house.gov/services/internships

Congressional Internship in Dallas, Dist. 33 Internships are available throughout the fall, spring or summer semesters for college students at Congressman Marc Veasey’s Dallas office.

Although all internships in all offices are unpaid, students gain invaluable work experience. The hours are flexible to accommodate students’ hectic course schedules.

Interns’ responsibilities will vary. Interns may be asked to do a variety of things, including dayto-day office work such as answering phones, writing letters and assisting with media clips. As a result, interns learn about the legislative process and the many other functions of a congressional office.

Deadline: varies Contact: Phone: 214-741-1387 Address: Dallas District Office JP Morgan Chase Building 1881 Sylvan Ave, Ste. 108 Dallas, TX 75208 Website: http://veasey.house.gov/services/internships

American Heart Association The American Heart Association has a excellent opportunity for a Temporary Internship in our Health Equity team located in Dallas. Responsible for providing operational support to the Strategic Alliances and Partnership teams, including research, initiative support, reporting, as well as event planning and management. Responsible for participating in business strategy planning, initiative execution, meeting planning and management, volunteer development and partnership curation. Essential Job Duties Schedule and manage logistics for meetings and teleconferences Plan and execute projects assigned by lead to ensure timely completion Manage reporting/analytics for projects as needed Keep up to date with trending topics and innovations regarding social determinants of health and diversity Manage time sheets, expense reports and other AHA process driven activities and systems Coordinate bulk mailing/shipping for program/initiatives, electronic and paper file management.

Contact: Phone: 888-242-7433 Email: careers@heart.org Website: https://heart.jobs

Social Media Intern The Parvin Group is looking for a passionate Social Marketing Intern for Spring and Summer 2019.

You will work to identify and manage relationships with customers, brainstorm and create content for multiple social channels, and strategize and report content performance across three different companies. The Parvin Group is a collection of six companies, including a hip coffee shop currently with three locations, a real estate brokerage, and a boutique law firm.

Contact: http://www.indeed.com or www.theparvingroup.com

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help with your advertising needs.

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Page 7 June 27, 2019

Scholarships

Urban Scholarship Program The Texas Association of Developing Colleges will provide over $500,000 in scholarships through the Urban Scholarship Program. They are available for high school graduates from various metropolitan cities: including Arlington, Carrollton, Dallas, Denton, Fort Worth, Frisco, Garland, Grand Prairie, Irving, Killeen, McKinney, Mesquite, and Plano.

Deadline: July 11 (postmarked).

Contact: High school guidance counselor; college financial aid officer, call the TADC at 214-630-2511 or visit http://www.txadc.

Development Fund for Blacks in Science & Technology An endowment fund which provides scholarships to African American undergraduate students who enroll in scientific or technical fields of study at Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Criteria: • African American, undergraduate student majoring (or intending to major) in a technical field of study (i.e., engineering, math, science, etc.).

• Be enrolled (or identify his or her intention to enroll) at one of the predominantly Black colleges or universities listed below.

• Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.

Deadline: June 15 Contact: http://www.dfbsstscholarship.org

AWG Science Scholarship For Minority Women This program encourages young minority women to pursue an education and later a career in the geosciences. The scholarships are offered to African American, Hispanic or Native American. It provides financial aid and matches the student with a mentor in the same field who will offer guidance and support. Amount varies up to $6,000.

Deadline: June 30 Contact: http://www.awg.org/eas/minority.htm.

Elihu Nation Scholarship Elihu Nation Scholarships are open to college juniors, seniors, and grad students nationwide.

Launched by Grammy-nominated artist Jonathan McReynolds, three scholarships available at $3,000 each. The scholarship celebrates “Elihus” in school – defined as a young carrier and seeker of godly wisdom based on the character in Job 32.

Deadline: July 31 Contact: http://www.elihunation.org

Wells Fargo Bank Scholarship This is a scholarship sweepstake, open to both high school and college undergraduate students for a chance to win $1000 to pay for college.

Sweepstake is available to high school and college students who meet the following general requirements: 1. Are a legal resident of the U.S. 2. Must be a full-time or part-time student attending an accredited high school, home-school program, college, university, or trade school 3. Must be at least 13 years of age Deadline: Aug. 13 Contact: http://ebm.collegesteps.wellsfargoemail.com

Beyond the Boroughs Scholarship NFL veterans Tutan Reyes founded the national scholarship fund that rewards college-minded students from low-income families that have been accepted to college but unmet financial need.

Scholarships of up to $20,000 are awarded over a four-year period.

Qualifications: 1. Must be a United States citizen 2. Acceptance to an accredited four-year college, university or equivalent 3. Must be from a low-income household 4. G.P.A. of 2.5 or higher 5. Involvement in an extra-curricular activity or work 6. Completion of full application including a completed Student Aid report from the FAFSA or CSS profile.

Recipients will receive notice of their award by June 15 or school year when the scholarship will commence. The award will be paid directly to the institution of higher learning. Applicants can be high school seniors entering college in the fall or currently attending a college or university.

Deadline: varies Contact: http://www.beyondtheboroughs.org Academic Competitiveness Grant The grant is for first-year and second-year college students who graduated from high school. The amount of the ACG, when combined with a Pell Grant, may not exceed the student’s cost of attendance. In addition, if the number of eligible students is large enough that payment of the full grant amounts would exceed the program appropriation in any fiscal year, then the amount of the grant to each eligible student may be ratably reduced.

Qualifications: 1. Be a U.S. citizen or eligible non-citizen; be a Federal Pell Grant recipient 2. Be a first- or second-year undergraduate student or a student in a certificate program of at least one year in a degree program at a two- or four-year degree-granting institution.

Deadline: varies Contact: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/ ac-smart.html

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

CALENDAR COMMuNITY

Page 8 June 27, 2019 Now–July 6 Recovery Orientated Communities of Care Addressing Mental Health and Substance Use in the Community, presented to promote recovery and wellness in the South Dallas community, will have morning classes from 11 a.m. to noon, and afternoon classes from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., at APAA, 3116 Martin Luther King Blvd. For more information, call 214-6342222 or visit http://www.apaarecovery.org.

Now–August The Summer Food Service Program will offer students free breakfast and lunch over the summer. Any child that arrives for breakfast and/or lunch will receive a healthy meal. No registration is needed. To find the nearest location participating location, as well as a list of dates and times the meals are offered, visit

June

Black Music Month www.america.gov Aphasia Awareness Month www.aphasia.org

National Home Safety Month www.homesafetycouncil.org Home Ownership Month https://www.nar.realtor.com National Men’s Health Month www.menshealthmonth.org

27 A free

Senior Safety Summit, with information about hoarding and how to stay safe in different aspects of life hosted by the Dallas Police Department Office of Community Affairs and the city of Dallas Office of Community Care Senior Services, will be held from 9 a.m. to noon at the Lakewest YMCA, located at 3737 Goldman St. A light breakfast and lunch will be provided with registration. For additional information and registration, call the AARP at 1-877926-8300 or register online at www.aarp.com/ events.

27 The Afiya Center – Get Tested Grab A Bite, with information on poison prevention and treatment, HIV/AIDS, Victim Intervention Program/Rape Crisis and Dallas Healthy Start provided by the Parkland, will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at DCHHS-Sexual Health Clinic, 2377 N. Stemmons Freeway, Ste. 100 – first floor and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Glendale Park, 1515 E. Ledbetter

The Dallas Examiner www.dallasexaminer.com

ONGOING EVENTS

https://www.dallasisd.org/fcns.

Now–July 12 F.R.E.E. – The Flagrant Rules of Ensued Emancipation, a Juneteenth group art exhibition of new works featuring 11 local African American artists, will be open from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the John H. Milde Gallery in the Goldmark Cultural Center, 13999 Goldmark Drive. For more information, visit www.goldmarkculturalcenter.org.

June 27–30 The African Film Festival, presenting African short film screenings and a Dashiki Dash parade featuring African Dashiki inspired casual wear Thursday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Pan African Connection Bookstore, 4466 S Marsalis Ave. An African Independent film screenings will be held Friday and

Drive. For more information, call Te’Quan Penny at 972-629-9266, email quanpenny214@gmail.com or visit www.parklandhospital.com.

Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Pan African Connection Bookstore and the African American Museum, 3536 Grand Ave. The festival will conclude Sunday with a grand finale featuring an awards gala ceremony at Moody Performance Hall, 2520 Flora St. For more information, visit www.taffest.org.

July 8–12 Grace UMC & St. Andrews UMC – Vacation Bible School will be held 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at 2045 Southeast Green Oaks Blvd., Arlington. For more information and registration, visit www.graceumcarlington.org.

Mondays Man Talk, hosted by Brian Ganges of The Construction Initiative, will be aired at 9:15 a.m. on 970 AM or www.khvnam.com.

2824 South Blvd. For more information, call 214-421-1363 or email taylor.freeman@southfaircdc.org.

27

Conversations at the West, discussions on “living the faith that the dark past has taught us,” will be held from 7 p.m. to 8:30 pm. in Room D106 at FriendshipWest Baptist Church, 2020 W. Wheatland Road. For more information, call Dr. Brenda Wall at 972-2285200 or visit www.friendshipwest.org.

27

90 Days: Is Love Greater Than Our Secrets? followed by a panel discussion and HIV testing presented by AIDS Walk South Dallas in partnership with AIDS Healthcare Foundation, will be held at 6 p.m. at Texas Theatre, 231 W. Jefferson Blvd. For more information, call 469-410-3755 or email a.wiley@aidswalksouthdallas.com.

28 Exhibition of Let Me

Be Myself The Life Story of Anne Frank, will be held at 7 a.m. at the Dallas Holocaust Museum/Center For Education and Tolerance, 211 N. Record St. For more information, call 214-741-7500 or visit www.dallasholocaustmuseum.org.

28-30 U.S. Conference

of Mayors 87th Annual Meeting, will be held at 2 p.m. in Room 6ES at Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St. For more information, call 214-670-3111 or visit www.cityofdallas.com.

29 The

SouthFair Community Development Corporations will host a National Homeownership Month Celebration from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at

29

Safe Conversations Workshop, providing tools to help people talk to anyone about anything, will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Centrum Building, 5th Floor Deck, 3102 Oak Lawn Ave. For more information, email sharonroberts@relationshipsfirst.org.

29

United In Peace, a peace ride for bike clubs, car clubs, artists, activists and the community against street violence, will begin at 1 p.m. at the Adams Food Market, 9535 Bruton Road. For more information, email mm48@sbcglobal.net.

29

The Dallas African American History Summer Tour will begin at 9 a.m. at the Dart Transit Center, 1423 J.B. Jackson Jr. Blvd. For more information, call 469-585-1590 or visit www.hiddenhistorydfw.com.

29

Independence Day Celebration 2019 will be held from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m at Klyde Warren Park, 2012 Woodall Rodgers Freeway. For more information, visit www.klydewarrenpark.org.

29 Yoga Classes, yoga in

a Christian environment, will be held from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. at FriendshipWest Baptist Church, 2020 W. Wheatland Road. For more information, visit www.friendshipwest.org.

29

McDonald’s Cones with Cops, a new initiative

Mondays Common Ground Radio Live will be held from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at The Dock Bookshop, 6637 Meadowbrook Drive, Fort Worth. For more information, visit www.thedockbookshop.com.

Tuesdays Fort Worth Poetry & Open Mic will be held from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. at The Dock Bookshop, 6637 Meadowbrook Drive, Fort Worth. For more information, visit www.thedockbookshop.com.

Second Tuesday The Lancaster New Centennial Lions Club will meet at 6 p.m. at the Lions Club, 107 Texas St., Lancaster. For more information, email marketing.lancasterlions@gmail.com.

with McDonald’s of North Texas and Plano, Fort Worth and Longview Police Departments to boost officer and community relations through positive interacts, will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at three McDonald’s locations, 2205 McDermott Road, Plano; 3500 Alta Mesa Blvd, Fort Worth; and 1803 NW Loop 281, Longview. Parents will receive information about child safety, while children receive a complimentary ice cream, goody bags and play. For more information, call 816-799-4934.

29

USA’s The Biggest Loser is looking for men and women to compete to lose weight and improve their overall wellbeing at noon at Gilley’s Dallas, 1135 S Lamar St. For more information, visit www.blcasting.tv.

29 & 30 12 Score & 3

Years Ago: The Unfinished Promise of Unity, an immersive pop-up museum exploring slavery and abolition, celebrating the lives of black heroes and innovators in the United States, will be held at various times at Mercury Studios, 6301 Riverside Drive, Irving. For more information, call 972-499-4747 or visit www.mercuryone.org.

30 Free Health Screenings, screening and information with a follow-up appointment, will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Friendship-West Baptist Church, 2020 W. Wheatland Road. For more information, visit www.friendshipwest.org.

First, Second & Fourth Tuesdays Free legal services will be available at 5 p.m. at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, 2922 MLK Blvd. For more information, call 214-748-1234.

Fourth Tuesday Starting a Business, a free workshop, will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Fort Worth Business Assistance Center, 1150 S. Freeway, Fort Worth. For information, call 817-871-6025.

Tuesdays & Thursdays A Zumba class will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the FriendshipWest Baptist Church, 2020 W. Wheatland Road. For more information, call 972-228-5200.

July National Eye Injury Prevention Month www.preventblindness.org

Fireworks Safety Month www.aao.org Therapeutic Recreation Week www.nrpa.org

1 & 2 Exhibition of Let

Me Be Myself The Life Story of Anne Frank, will be held at 7 a.m. at Dallas Holocaust Museum/Center For Education and Tolerance, 211 N. Record St. For more information, call 214-741-7500 or visit www.dallasholocaustmuseum.org.

3

Senior Adult Workout/Fitness Sessions, hosted by Annette ReidJordan Senior Adult Community, will be held from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. at Friendship-West Baptist Church, 2020 W. Wheatland Road.

For more information, call 972-228-5200.

4 July 4th Fireworks Cele-

bration - DeSoto, a free family-friendly event with live music, children’s activities, games for all ages, and food from a variety of vendors, will be held from 6 p.m to 10 p.m. at Grimes Park, 501 E. Wintergreen Road, DeSoto. For more information, visit www.desototexas.gov/parks.

4-7 12 Score & 3 Years

Ago: The Unfinished Promise of Unity, an immersive pop-up museum exploring slavery and abolition, celebrating the lives of Black heroes and innovators in the United States, will be held at various times at Mercury Studios,

6301 Riverside Drive, Irving. For more information, call 972-499-4747 visit www.mercuryone.org.

5 Exhibition of Let Me Be Myself The Life Story of Anne Frank, will be held at 7 a.m. at the Dallas Holocaust Museum/Center For Education and Tolerance, 211 N. Record St. For more information, call 214-741-7500 or visit www.dallasholocaustmuseum.org.

6 Yoga Classes, yoga in a

Christian environment, will be held from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. at FriendshipWest Baptist Church, 2020 W. Wheatland Road. For more information, visit www.friendshipwest.org.

6 The Community United

Methodist Women’s Prayer Breakfast will be held at 8:30 a.m. at Community United Methodist Church, 4501 S. Marsalis Ave. For more information, call 214-372-9649.

7 Free Health Screenings,

screening and information with a follow-up appointment, will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Friendship-West Baptist Church, 2020 W. Wheatland Road. For more information, visit www.friendshipwest.org.

6 Betty Ervin prayer breakfast will be held at 8:30 a.m. at Community United Methodist Church, 4501 S. Marsalis Ave. For more information, call 214-372-9649.

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