VOL. XXXIII • JULY 11, 2019
50 cents
A champion, through the pain: Our Yards, Our Gardens
The Body’s Warning Signs
State/Metro Pg 2
Health Pg 6
Local student advocates stem cell, bone marrow donations By DIANE XAVIER The Dallas Examiner
She felt powerless at times. Every morning, Genesis Jones wakes up knowing her days will be filled with pain. Jones, 20, has been fighting painful episodes since she could remember. A nursing student at Richland College, Jones has been battling excruciating and constant bodily pain since she was 3 years old. She has also had two silent strokes, frequent blood transfusions, hospital visits and dealt with major depression as a preteen. Jones was born with sickle cell disease, a group of inherited red blood cell
disorders that cause pain throughout the body and can cause life-threatening complications such as stroke or organ failure. In sickle cell disease, the cells are shaped like a crescent instead of a doughnut. The misshapen cells cause the sickle cells to die early, which then causes a shortage of red blood cells, and when they travel through small red blood vessels, they get stuck and clog the blood flow. Today, Jones is in search of a matching blood stem cell donor, the only known cure for sickle cell disease. “I plan my life around my pain,” Jones said. “I have been in and out of the
A protester holds a sign outside the U.S. Supreme Court where the court ruled that U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration did not give an adequate explanation for its plan to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, delivering a victory to New York state and others challenging the proposal in Washington, D.C., June 27. – Photo by Carlos Barria of REUTERS
U.S. Justice Department: Fight over 2020 census not over By TARA BAHRAMPOUR and JOHN WAGNER The Washington Post
(The Texas Tribune) – The Justice Department affirmed Friday that it still is pursuing a path for adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census, according to a filing in federal court in Maryland. The filing followed statements earlier in the day from President Trump in which he said he is “thinking of” issuing an executive order to add the controversial question. Government lawyers said in their filing Friday that the Justice and Commerce departments had been “instructed to examine whether there is a path forward” for the question and that if one was found they would file a motion in the U.S. Supreme Court to try to get the question on the survey to be sent to every U.S. household. Attorneys for the government and challengers to the addition of the question faced a 2 p.m. deadline set by U.S. District Judge George J. Hazel to lay out their plans. Hazel said earlier this week that if the government stuck with a plan to try to add the question, he would move ahead on a case before him probing whether the government has discriminatory intent in wanting to ask about citizenship. The Justice Department lawyers argued in Friday’s filing that there was no need to start producing information in that case since for now courts have barred the government from adding the question. But the government also agreed to follow a schedule to move ahead if that was laid out. The government has begun printing the census forms without the question, and that process will continue, administration officials said. Trump had raised the possibility that some kind of addendum could be printed separately after further litigation of the issue, a move would almost certainly carry additional costs and may not be fea-
See 2020 Census Page 3
Read…
Genesis Jones – Photo courtesy of the Be The Match campaign
hospital growing up and had my first stroke at the age of 8. I wake up daily and I wait to see how I feel at that moment and kind of
just get going. I just learned to cope with what I have with a lot of different strategies and manage how I feel with my back, which
is where I usually have my pain. I just keep going because I know it is always something that is going to be there, and I just focus on more of the things I need to do, like school.” Jones is one of approximately 100,000 African Americans battling sickle cell disease. Sickle cell disease disproportionately affects African Americans. It is estimated that sickle cell disease occurs among about 1 out of every 365 Black births, and that 1 in 13 Black babies are born with sickle cell trait, according to the Centers for Disease
See Jones Page 7
First Black DCCCD chancellor dies at 85
Special to The Dallas Examiner
Dr. Wright Lassiter Jr., former chancellor of Dallas County Community College, local minister and educator died July 1 at his home. He was 85. Between 2007 and 2014, he served as the DCCCD chancellor. He was the first African American to be appointed as the district’s chancellor. During his time as chancellor, he oversaw a $450 million bond election, which resulted in the construction of 29 buildings including five new community education campuses. “Dr. Lassiter served many students and employees at DCCCD for over 25 years. His leadership is a testament to his commitment to a higher education for all,” said DCCCD Board Chairwoman Diana Flores. “He often spoke with a quiet eloquence. We are saddened to learn of his passing, and the DCCCD board offers condolences to his family.” Born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Lassiter received a bachelor’s degree from Alcorn State University, a master’s degree from Indiana University, and a doctorate in education from Auburn University. For decades, Lassiter served as an educator at colleges like Tuskegee University and Morgan State University, before moving in 1983 to Dallas and becoming the president at Bishop College, now Paul Quinn College. He went on to serve as president of El Centro College for 20 years. Dr. Jose Adames, president of El Centro College, said he was deeply saddened by the news of Lassiter’s death. “Early on in my presidency, I had the pleasure of sharing lunch with Lassiter. He appeared to be a kind and wise soul who graciously shared with me some of his wealth of experience. I will forever be grateful,” he said. Trustee Charletta Compton recalled Lassiter as a “dedicated leader who championed worthy causes.” “I first met Dr. Lassiter when I worked at the Dallas Black
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Dr. Wright Lassiter Jr. – File photo courtesy of DCCCD
Bryan Carter persents a plaque honoring Dr. Wright Lassiter Jr. for his mentorship of Black young men during the African American Pastors Coalition’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. holiday celebration, Jan. 19, 2015. – File photo courtesy of Concord Church
Chamber where he chaired the Education Committee,” Compton said. “He did an outstanding job as president of El Centro College, and worked well with the board when he was chancellor. I am sorry to hear that he has passed, but I know that he led a full and active life. My prayers go out to his family.” Lassiter was the recipient of numerous awards and honors. In 2002, he was nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as a member of the National Advisory Council to the National Endowment for the Humanities. He previously served as a commissioner for the United States Commission of Minority Business Development and as a member of the Texas Council for the Humanities. In 2006, BKM Total Office of Texas, a Dallas-based furnishing company, established the
Dr. Wright Lassiter Jr. BKM scholarship. The scholarship is awarded to students attending any of the seven DCCCD colleges who are majoring in entrepreneurship studies and other disciplines. In 2013, the early college high school at El Centro College, a Dallas ISD program, was renamed in his honor as The Dr. Wright L. Lassiter Jr. Early College High School. Calling him “the Campus Gentle Giant,” Laura Allen offered condolences and prayers of comfort on a legacy website. “He was always approachable by the students. He shared a wealth of wisdom and encouraged students and myself to ‘always do your best work.’ It was such an honor to have met him,” she expressed. Lassiter retired in 2014 but continued to serve as a graduate school faculty member at Dallas Baptist University. An ordained minister, he taught at Concord Baptist Church and was an interim pastor at St. John Missionary Baptist Church. In 2016, he received the national Leadership Award from the American Association of Community Colleges. A lifelong learner, Lassiter was the author of several books. “We all live in the spirit of hope and service that was the trademark of Dr. Lassiter’s life.
See Gentle Giant Page 6
214-941-3100
Congressman Colin Allred stands on the steps of the U.S. Capitol July 9 with his congressional colleagues holding photos of constituents that would lose health care or be harmed if the federal lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act succeeds. – Photo courtesy of U.S. House of Representatives
Texas seeks to overturn Affordable Care Act: Attention focuses on a potential swing judge By EMMA PLATOFF The Texas Tribune
NEW ORLEANS – On the left was Judge Carolyn Dineen King, an appointee of Jimmy Carter; on the right sat Judge Kurt Engelhardt, a nominee of Donald Trump; and in the center sat Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod, the George W. Bush appointee expected to represent the critical swing vote on a three-judge panel now charged with deciding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. It was that perhaps fitting seating arrangement that greeted attorneys for Texas on Tuesday afternoon, as the state and its allies asked this three-judge panel on the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to strike down the sweeping health law known as “Obamacare,” a legal means to a political end that has eluded conservatives for the better part of a decade. Texas won a major victory in its bid to end the law in December, when a federal district judge in North Texas sided with the state, declaring that the law is unconstitutional in its entirety after Congress in 2017 gutted one of its important provisions, a tax penalty for individuals who chose to remain uninsured. The U.S. Department of Justice, in a highly unusual move, has declined to defend the law. A California-led coalition of blue states that has stepped in to oppose Texas in the lawsuit quibbles with that question of “severability,” arguing that even if one slice of the law must fall as unconstitutional, its other hundreds of provisions – including a host of popular patient protections – should stand. The question of how much of the law may rightly be salvaged was a focal point of court discussions Tuesday. Texas’ odds of total vindication remain in question after nearly two hours of
See ACA Page 9
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State/Metro . . . . . 2 National . . . . . . . . 3 Editorial . . . . . . . . 4 Perspectives . . . . 5 Health . . . . . . . . . . 6 LifeStyle . . . . . . . . 7 Classifieds . . . . . . 9 Calendar . . . . . . 10
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Page 2 July 11, 2019
The Dallas Examiner www.dallasexaminer.com
Sankofa Garden Homes: Our yards, our gardens
By CLARENCE GLOVER Sankofa Gardening Homes
I dedicate this month’s article to Dr. Charles Mitchell, M.D., and his wife, Vernil Mitchell, who shared their yard garden with me years ago and inspired me to grow mine. Thank you for keeping our heritage and culture alive! “The Africans who were brought to the U.S. as slaves had left one agrarian society in Africa, to be forcibly introduced to another totally different system in the New American colonies.”
– John McLaughlin
The above quote is taken from A Guide to Planting an African American/African Focused Yard in MiamiDade County: An Overview of Landscape Design and Plants Grown in Traditional African American Yards, from the Miami-Dade Extension Office. The quote reflects the fact that Africans brought to America during slavery came from well-established agrarian societies. Coming from the tropical West Coast of Africa, many of the people from countries such as Ghana, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Cameroon, Senegal, Yoruba, Mandingo and Fulani were master gardeners. While they had large farms where a variety of fruits and vegetables were grown, they also grew gardens around
their homes where food was readily accessible. As a result of slavery in millions of America, Africans were brought to the Americas. Many were brought to the East Coast of America where they found a landmass very familiar to that of the West Coast of Africa. Familiar with the southeastern land and climate, many Africans worked to grow plants they brought from Africa, such as blackeyed peas, gumbo (okra), watermelon, squash and goobers (peanuts). They also began to grow greens (collard, turnips and mustards), and yams (sweet potatoes). These fruits and vegetables soon came to be a part of the stable diet of Africans in the American South, known as “soul food.” The yards of many enslaved Africans became the focus of their gardens, in that they could not own land. Their yards became an extension of their cabins, expressions of their lives and places of socialization and bartering (the exchange of one good for another). Richard Noble Westmacott, in his book AfricanAmerican Gardens and Yards in the Rural South, stated the following: “Our yards and gardens are places where we perform all sorts of mundane tasks. Moreover, they are likely to reflect our aesthetic preference and our philosophy of life. In this book, I have endeavored to
Professor Freedom with Al and Lela Herron and their grandchildren Brooklyn and Braxton as they pick snap beans at the Herron’s Sankofa Garden located in their back yard. – Photo courtesy of Sankofa Garden Homes
describe traditional patterns and practices in the gardens and yards of African American families and to examine the ways in which the traditions are evolving. I have explored the thoughts and the impulses behind each design focusing on the concepts of the garden as a place serving specific functional needs and also expressing values, aesthetic preferences and spiritual belief. The functions of the garden for food production, household chores, welcome, leisure and entertainment are analyzed.” I encourage you to get his book and explore further his study of African American gardens and yards, particularly in light of the recent growth of urban gardening and the green movement, and how African Americans can learn from their ancestors this age-old tradition of growing food in their yards. In the March 14 edition of The Dallas Examiner, the
Around the State
Special to The Dallas Examiner
DALLAS The city of Dallas paid sick leave ordinance will go into effect on Aug. 1 for employers with more than five employees. The ordinance does not go into effect for employers with five or fewer employees until Aug. 1, 2021. If residents have any questions that they would like answered at the information sessions, they can send them to paidsickleave@dallascityhall.com.
DALLAS The city of Dallas was awarded the Healthy Homes Supplemental grant and the Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes in the amount of $2.3 million. The 42-month funding award is comprised of the LHR grant in the amount of $2 million and the HHS grant in the amount of $300,000. “This grant will ensure Dallas residents, especially children, in eligible houses don’t have to live in homes that trigger health issues like asthma,” said David Noguera, director of the Department of Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization. “It is part of our continuing push to make sure people live in healthy homes.” HUD developed the LHR grant program to identify and control lead-based paint hazards in eligible
rental or owner-occupied housing units. HUD developed the HHS grant program to prevent children and families from home-related health and safety hazards, including mold, lead, allergens, asthma, carbon monoxide, home safety, pesticides and radon.
DALLAS Registration has begun for the third annual Expunction Expo, hosted by the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, the Dallas County Public Defender’s Office and the Dallas County District Clerk’s Office, to clear criminal records of people who, by law, are eligible for an expunction. It will be held at Jubilee Park Community Center, located at 907 Bank St. “We want to help people who qualify for an expunction get a fresh start so they can become productive and contributing members of society,” said Criminal District Attorney John Creuzot. “Many people may not be able to obtain gainful employment, attend college or serve in the military because of something on their record that can be eliminated. This is an opportunity for them to change their lives for the better.” Participants must fill out a a participant form and preregister at http://www.dallascounty.org/expunction or in person by July 28. Registrants will be notified by Sept. 9 of eligibility to attend the PreQualification Clinic on Sept 14.
Sankofa Garden Homes featured Al and Lela Herron and their grandchildren, fourth-grader Brooklyn and first-grader Braxton Bruff, students at Harry Stone Elementary School, visiting my Sankofa Garden Home. In that article, I reflected on how excited Brooklyn and Braxton were when they entered my garden and began picking collard greens, much to their grandparents’ surprise. They were so excited with picking collard greens that they asked their grandparents if they could have a garden. Six months later, I was extremely excited to know that Brooklyn and Braxton’s wish had come true. Their grandparents have turned a portion of their yard into a “Sankofa Garden Home.” Upon a recent visit, I found the Herrons had done a wonderful job in creating above-ground garden beds as I recommended.
The garden was wellplanned and utilized a variety of materials that were around their home. The scarecrow was a work of art, while the strategically placed chairs and tables gave the garden a warm and welcoming feeling. The landscaping design provided space for their summer garden of beans, tomatoes, squash and peppers, while beds along the wall were prepared for their fall collard, mustard and turnip greens. When asked how she felt about their garden, Lela replied, “I am really excited about how well the vegetables are growing and how Brooklyn and Braxton are learning about how food grows. They are learning about how to grow food and where food actually comes from. I hope they learn to eat more vegetables and what vegetables can do for their body.” When I asked Al what he thought, he replied, “My wife and I grew up in Mississippi on farms with plenty of field peas. I was excited when my wife wanted to plant a garden and the excitement the grandchildren showed in helping with the garden. It’s rewarding to produce your own food in the city.” It is clear that Al and Lela are excited about their garden and are drawing upon memories from their ancestors gardening skills. It was moving to see African
American grandparents who grew up in the South passing on important gardening skills to their grandchildren who will pass them on to their children. When I asked Brooklyn how she felt about the garden, she replied, “I like it. It’s like a human being. It grows like a baby to an adult and passes on and it regenerates. I learn a lot of things about how humans grow and how plants grow.” When I asked Braxton, he replied, “I liked it when my grandparents created the garden. I like to watch it grow from the bedroom window. I would like to have a garden one day.” When I asked their mother, Latosha HerronBruff, her reply was, “I love that my children have the opportunity to spend quality time with their grandparents learning how to grow and care for a garden. They are excited to see the fruits of their labor. These are moments they will remember forever.” Latosha is right, because I have never forgotten the garden in my grandparents’ yard. Create a garden in your yard and let me know about it. Eat well, live well! Until next month, happy Sankofa Home Gardening!
Clarence Glover, known as Professor Freedom, is a historian and president of Sankofa Education Services. He can be reached at clarencegloverjr@aol.com.
Annual Mayor’s Back To School Fair Special to The Dallas Examiner
On July 9, newly elected Mayor Eric Johnson unveiled details for the 23rd annual Mayor’s Back To School Fair. Scheduled for Aug. 2 at Fair Park, which attracts approximately 35,000 family members each year. “The Mayor’s Back To School Fair has become a staple – and a great tradition – for Dallas families, filling in the gaps and playing an important role in ensuring our kids are ready to roll their first day of school,” Johnson said. “I heard how the fair has helped thousands of Dallas families over the years and, as the newly elected mayor, I’m thrilled to step in and continue all the great work that Mayor Rawlings and other mayors have done, not only with the fair but with supporting education.” The fair and parking are free. It will offer dental screenings, haircuts, immunizations, free health, dental and vision screenings, along with free eyeglasses for registered children who qualify. And, new this year, children will receive six pairs of underwear. Free school supplies are available only to children who attend a Dallas ISD school or live in Dallas and meet eligibility requirements. Also, parents will receive the latest information on education, health and social services. Families can register the following ways: preregister online May 20 through June 30, attend a pre-
Preregistration events:
Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. J. Erik Jonsson Central Library 1st Floor Lobby 1515 Young St., 75201
Monday from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Center 2901 Pennsylvania Ave., 75215 Tuesday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Casa View Elementary School 2100 N. Farola Drive, 75228
Tuesday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Lancaster-Kiest Branch Library 2008 E. Kiest Blvd., 75216 July 18 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Leonides Gonzalez Cigarroa, M.D. Elementary School
9990 Webb Chapel Road, 75220
July 19 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Eastfield College Pleasant Grove 802 S. Buckner Blvd., 75217 July 20 from 10 a.m. to noon Thurgood Marshall Recreation Center 5150 Mark Trail Way, 75232 July 20 from noon to 2 p.m. Fretz Park Bracnh Library 6990 Belt Line Road, 75254
July 23 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sam Tasby Middle School 7001 Fair Oaks Ave., 75231
July 24 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Highland Hills
registration event in July, or register on-site the day of the fair on Aug. 2. However, it is recommended that families preregister and then arrive at the fair early to save time entering the fair and be given a voucher that will guarantee their school supplies. For more information, visit
Branch Library 6200 Bonnie View Road, 75241
July 25 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Harmony Science Academy - Dallas High 12005 Forestgate Drive, 75243 July 25
from 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Juanita J. Craft Recreation Center 4500 Spring Ave., 75210
July 27 from 10 a.m. to noon Prairie Creek Branch Library 9606 Lake June Road, 75217
July 27 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Martin Weiss Recreation Center 1111 Martindell Ave., 75211
h t t p : / / w w w. m a y o r s b a c k toschoolfair.com. The mayor is asking for the public’s support by donating school supply packets and backpacks online at https://mei.kimbia.com/mbtsf to provide. Donations are tax-deductible.
The Dallas Examiner www.dallasexaminer.com
NATIONAL
Texas Department of Transportation Notice of Public Hearing Disclosure of Financial Information Interstate Highway 635 (I-635) LBJ East Project
DISCLOSURE OF FINANCIAL INFORMATION: Pursuant to the authority granted under Texas Transportation Code, Chapter 223, Subchapter F, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has solicited proposals and recommended selection of a proposer for award of a design-build contract (DBC) and the associated capital maintenance agreement (CMA) that includes the design, development, construction, and potential maintenance of Interstate Highway 635 from US 75 to I-30 in Dallas County (I-635 LBJ East Project). The department has agreed to “grandfather” and permit the reconstruction of the existing one tolled managed lane in each direction as part of the project scope. The project will include the full reconstruction and widening of the facility from eight to ten general purpose lanes and the full reconstruction of the existing tolled managed lanes, for a total of 12 general purpose and tolled managed lanes, construction of continuous frontage roads, and improvements to the I-635/I30 interchange. On May 30, 2019, in Minute Order 115486, the Texas Transportation Commission (Commission) determined that the proposal submitted by Pegasus Link Constructors (DB Contractor) provides the apparent best value to TxDOT and authorized TxDOT to commence and complete negotiations necessary to finalize the DBC and CMA.
Under the DBC, construction work will begin in late 2019 or early 2020 and the project is scheduled to be substantially completed in late 2024. No later than a specified time prior to completion, TxDOT may exercise its sole option to require the DB Contractor to provide capital maintenance services for the I-635 LBJ East Project under a CMA for up to three consecutive five-year terms. TxDOT owns and will continue to own the project.
Pursuant to Transportation Code, Chapter 371, Subchapter D, TxDOT is publishing financial information regarding the project and providing notice of a public hearing that will be held regarding the financial disclosure.
Project Financing. TxDOT intends to fund the Project with federal and state funding sources. No debt has been or will be assumed to acquire, design, construct, operate and maintain the Project.
Duration of Tolling. TxDOT will collect tolls on the I-635 LBJ East Project based on the most current Regional Transportation Council (RTC) policy, even though there is no debt to repay. The initial toll rates will be Method for Setting Toll Rates. set by the Commission in accordance with the managed lanes policy established by the RTC. The policy provides for fixed schedule pricing during the first six months and dynamic pricing thereafter. Pursuant to the managed lane policy, tolls for the initial 180-day period will be no greater than the maximum toll rate described below. After that initial period, the toll rates will be based on user demand, as described below. The toll rate will be established to maintain a minimum average managed lanes speed of 50 mph. Competing Facilities. TxDOT has the right to build any facilities at any time. There are no terms in the DBC related to competing facilities and there are no penalties associated with their construction.
Termination for Convenience. TxDOT has the right to terminate the DBC at any time without cause. If TxDOT elects to exercise this right, TxDOT must pay the DB Contractor for the design and construction work already performed under the DBC and the costs of terminating subcontracts.
Toll Rates. Based on demand projections and subject to Commission adoption, it is estimated that the toll rates charged will be as follows:
Price per Mile 2023 (in today’s $) High $0.35 Low $0.30 $0.53
2040 (in today’s $) $0.82
Methodology for increasing toll rates. Pursuant to the managed lanes policy, the initial maximum toll rate is $0.75/mile. The established rate will be evaluated and adjusted, if warranted, with RTC approval. This maximum toll rate cannot be exceeded during the first 180 days after traffic operations commence on the managed lanes. After the first 180 days, dynamic pricing goes into effect, as required by the RTC managed lane policy, which means that, after the first 180 days: If demand is low, such as during off-peak hours, a lower toll rate will be charged; If demand is high, such as during peak commute times, a higher toll rate will apply. Concession Payments. There will be no concession payments.
Public Hearing. TxDOT will hold a public hearing concerning this disclosure of financial information for the I-635 LBJ East Project on Thursday, July 18, 2019 at the Highland Oaks Church of Christ, 10805 Walnut Hill Lane, Dallas, Texas 75238. An open house will be held from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m., and the formal presentation will take place starting at 7:00 p.m.
Questions and comments concerning the financial information will be accepted by TxDOT at the public hearing. Questions and comments may also be submitted to TxDOT by U.S. mail addressed to Ms. Grace Lo, P.E., Dallas District Office, 4777 E. Highway 80, Mesquite, Texas 751506643, or by e-mail to grace.lo@txdot.gov. These comments will be accepted until 5:00 p.m., August 1, 2019. Copies of the draft DBC will be made available for viewing at the public hearing and at TxDOT’s Dallas District office located at 4777 E. Highway 80, Mesquite, Texas 751506643, and can be accessed on TxDOT’s website at https://www.txdot.gov/inside-txdot/division/debt/strategic-projects/alternative-delivery/lbj-east/rfp.html. Copies of the draft DBC also may be purchased from TxDOT’s Dallas District office at the cost of reproduction. TxDOT will consider all properly submitted questions and comments and will prepare a summary and analysis of the comments received. The summary and analysis will be posted on TxDOT’s website and made available upon request. Persons interested in attending the hearing(s) who have special communication or accommodation needs are encouraged to contact the TxDOT Dallas District Public Information Office at (214) 320-4480. Requests should be made at least 72 hours prior to the public hearing. The public hearing will be conducted in English and Spanish interpretation will be provided; any requests for other special communication needs should be made at least 72 hours prior to the public hearing. TxDOT will make every reasonable effort to accommodate these needs.
Page 3 July 11, 2019
Patrick Gaspard to receive prestigious NAACP medal NNPA
BALTIMORE – The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the nation’s foremost civil rights organization, has announced that Ambassador Patrick Gaspard will be awarded the prestigious Spingarn Medal during the NAACP’s 110th annual convention in Detroit, Michigan, July 24. The award recognizes Gaspard’s lifelong commitment to equality and civil rights. Gaspard, a native of the Democratic Republic of Congo, moved with his parents to the United States when he was 3 years old. He served as political director for President Barack Obama in the White House and as the executive director of the Democratic National Committee, overseeing the party committee’s efforts to reelect Obama. In 2013, Obama nominated Gaspard to the post of United States ambassador to South Africa. He worked to strengthen civil society and worked in partnership with the South African government to develop the country’s health care infrastructure and to support innovation in local governance. He also worked to connect South African entrepreneurs to United States markets; develop clean, renewable and efficient energy technologies; and to end wildlife trafficking. “Ambassador Gaspard’s service within the Labor Movement as well as his tenure as a member of the Obama administration has always inured to the benefit of all Americans,” said Leon W. Russell, chairman
2020 Census, continued from Front Page
sible, according to census experts. “We’ll see what happens,” Trump said. “We could start the printing now and maybe do an addendum after we get a positive decision. So we’re working on a lot of things, including an executive order.” Census experts say that, among other concerns, such an addendum would likely violate the bureau’s strict rules on testing a question, which include considering how the placement of a question on the form affects respondents’ likelihood of filling it out. Trump’s comments came as government lawyers scramble to find a legal path to carry out the president’s wishes despite their conclusions in recent days that no such avenue exists. Census officials and lawyers at the Justice and Commerce departments scrapped holiday plans and spent Independence Day seeking new legal rationales for a citizenship question that critics say could lead to a steep undercount of immigrants, which could limit federal funding to some communities and skew congressional redistricting to favor Republicans. “It’s kind of shocking that they still don’t know what they’re doing,” Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund said. MALDEF is representing some of the plaintiffs in the case in Maryland. “We’re in this posture because they don’t know what the real plan is.” The question had seemed settled after the Supreme Court ruled last week against the Trump administration. As late as Tuesday evening, Commerce Secre-
Patrick Gaspard, president of the Open Society Foundations, will be awarded the prestigious Spingarn Medal during the NAACP’s 110th annual convention in Detroit, Michigan, July 24. – Photo courtesy of NNPA
of the NAACP national board of directors. “His service in the diplomatic corps as ambassador to South Africa during a challenging period of that nation’s development was stellar.” “Patrick Gaspard is a global champion for civil and human rights. His contributions to campaigns to end police brutality, improve access to affordable health care, and dignity for increase working families is unparalleled,” said Derrick Johnson, NAACP president and CEO. For over 100 years, we have honored leaders who have served as pillars in the fight for justice and this year’s selection of the Patrick Gaspard is no exception.” The NAACP Spingarn Medal, established in 1914 by the late NAACP board of directors Chairman Joel E. Spingarn, is awarded “for the highest or noblest achievement by a living African American during the preceding year or years.”
tary Wilbur Ross, who oversees the census, said the administration was dropping its effort and was printing the census forms without the citizenship question. But Trump, in tweets Wednesday and Thursday, said he was not giving up. He tweeted Thursday morning: “So important for our Country that the very simple and basic ‘Are you a Citizen of the United States?’ question be allowed to be asked in the 2020 Census. Department of Commerce and the Department of Justice are working very hard on this, even on the 4th of July!” The reversal came after Trump talked by phone with conservative allies who urged him not to give up the fight, according to a senior White House official and a Trump adviser, who both spoke on the condition of anonymity. In the Supreme Court’s splintered ruling last week, Chief Justice John Roberts said the government had provided a “contrived” reason for wanting the information, seemingly leaving open the door for the government to offer a new justification and see whether it satisfies the court. An executive order from Trump and a new rationale given by Ross on the basis of that order could give the administration something to take back to the justices. Trump told reporters Friday that the White House was surprised by the U.S. Supreme Court decision and that he found it “very shocking” that the citizenship question could not be included. Trump said he believes the rationale provided by Ross “can be expanded very simply.” “He made a statement,” Trump said of Ross. “He wrote something out. The judge didn’t like it. I have a lot of respect for Justice Roberts. But he didn’t like
Previous recipients of this award include Daisy Bates of Little Rock Nine, Jesse L. Jackson, Myrlie EversWilliams, Earl G. Graves Sr., Oprah Winfrey, Cicely Tyson, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier and the Honorable Nathaniel Jones. “The NAACP has been a beacon and an inspiration to me my entire life. Its leaders blazed the trails we now walk, and helped make my career, and the careers countless other of organizers and activists, possible,” Gaspard said. “The previous recipients of this incredible honor are among my greatest heroes, who showed us what dedication and the courage of our convictions could achieve. To be in their company is beyond humbling. I am enormously grateful for this recognition, and will do all that I can to try, now and in the years to come, to live up to its promise.”
it, but he did say come back. Essentially, he said come back.” Saenz derided the idea that an executive order could brush aside the 15 months of litigation that culminated in the high court’s ruling. “Despite what yesterday’s military show may have looked like, the United States is not a Soviet bloc dictatorship,” Saenz said, referring to the “Salute to America” event that Trump staged on Thursday. “Executive orders do not override decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court. Separation of powers remains, as it has been for over 200 years, a critical part of our constitutional scheme.” Earlier Friday, Ken Cuccinelli, Trump’s acting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services director, said during an appearance on Fox Business Network that there’s a “high chance” that Trump would find a way, either through executive order or “another administrative way, to ask the simple census question.” Cuccinelli said he met with Trump this week and the president “was very determined about this.” In litigation earlier this year, the government stressed that forms needed to go to the printer by July 1, prompting the U.S. Supreme Court to expedite its consideration of the question. In a June filing to the court, Solicitor General Noel Francisco noted that witnesses at trial had said changes to the questionnaire after June 2019 “would impair the Census Bureau’s ability to timely administer the 2020 census,” and that a delay until October would be feasible only with “exceptional resources.” Colby Itkowitz contributed to this report.
Page 4 July 11, 2019
FBI attacks character of King, again By BARBARA REYNOLDS
TriceEdneyWire.com
In 1970, only two years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., his widow Coretta Scott King received the horrific news that haters had shot into her husband’s crypt in Atlanta, using it for target practice. Though grieved by the news, she conceded it was an omen that even in his grave the assassination of MLK would continue with fabrications and vile assaults on her husband’s character. To her, the words, “you can kill the dream, but not the dreamer,” were not just a catchy mantra. She used them to brace herself for the backlash she feared would come. The recent trove of salacious and ill-reported old rumors being bandied about by Pulitzer Prize winner David Garrow falls seamlessly into that anticipated outcome. Corretta, who died in 2006, had often shared with me her distrust of Garrow because of his close ties to the FBI, an agency that has historically schemed to nullify Black leaders, and according to former FBI agent Donald Wilson, agents cheered in the Atlanta bureau upon news of his death. The controversial information was obtained from FBI bugging of hotel visits as MLK traveled across the country. The newest scandalous claims, according to an FBI agent, place MLK in a hotel room when a minister friend of his, now deceased, raped a woman, and MLK “looked on, laughed and offered advice,” and that he also fathered a child with a mistress. The information Garrow reportedly uncovered was recently reported in Standpoint, a conservative British magazine, along with an article labeling MLK a “sexual predator” and “the Harvey Weinstein of the Civil Rights Movement.” As the news reverberated in London, Keith Magee, a senior scholar at the University College London, expressed his outrage. “This is part of the right wing’s offensive to dismantle and destroy everything revered by people of color. As President Trump visited London, certain people couldn’t bear to see a Black man being more respected than Trump, so there was a move to destroy King’s image.” Meanwhile, several rightwing news outlets are blowing up the fabricated scandal – in one instance calling for the dismantling of MLK’s statue on the Mall in the nation’s capital. Clayborne Carson is MLK’s biographer and oversees his records headquartered at Stanford University. He says he has seen the same information Garrow has but reached a different conclusion. “None of this is new. Garrow is talking about a recently added summary of a transcript of a 1964 recording from the Willard Hotel that others, including Mrs. King, have said they did not hear Martin’s voice on in. The added summary was four layers removed from the actual recording. This supposedly new information comes from an anonymous source in a single paragraph in an FBI report. You have to ask how could anyone conclude King looked at a rape from an audio recording in a
room where he was not present.” In my Coretta King memoir, My Life, My Love, My Legacy, she talked about this material mailed to her home on Nov. 2, 1964, that her sources later confirmed were dispatched by the FBI. “I set up our reel-to-reel recorder and listened. I have read scores of reports talking about the scurrilous activities of my husband, but once again, there was nothing at all incriminating on the tape. It was a social event with people laughing and telling dirty jokes. But I did not hear Martin’s voice on it, and there was nothing about sex or anything else resembling the lies J. Edgar and the FBI were spreading.” Although she and other aides dismissed the tape, she could not dismiss the poorly typed letter in the package, suggesting the information to be released to the press was so damaging MLK should commit suicide. It read: “King we’ve found you out. … You are done for. There is only one way out. … You have thirty-four days before you are exposed and publicly defamed.” What should be made clear is the letter was sent 34 days before Martin was to receive the Nobel Peace Prize but was not opened until the couple returned from the Nobel ceremonies in Norway. Coretta said that Hoover hated MLK and was outraged that MLK was receiving the honor he felt he deserved. “Our source told us Hoover had ordered the doctored tape to be sent to me in the hopes I would divorce Martin, which would bring him down. Despite all the rumors, Martin and I did not take the bait.” Believing the FBI is a friend of Black people would require amnesia, as the agency has historically worked to nullify and destroy Black leaders, author Anthony Summers says in his Hoover biography entitled Official and Confidential. The long list includes orchestrating the jailing and deportation of the fiery Jamaican leader Marcus Garvey, bugging and blackballing the great singer Paul Robeson, the ruthless assault on the Black Panthers and the well-documented COINTELPRO, the FBI program waged in the 1960s to prevent the rise of a Black Messiah, generally thought to be MLK. Over the years, Coretta has defended her husband’s reputation, attesting he was faithful to his marriage. Others, however, such as Carson, a historian, do not put MLK in a category of perfection. “There are no perfect men, but it is still wrong to use undocumented, tainted evidence to smear a man when history shows that many men with documented sordid private lives still remain heroes.” While the scandal is brewing, the words of Coretta are worth remembering: They may kill the dreamer, but MLK’s dream of diversity and justice will outlive his enemies.
Dr. Barbara Reynolds, a former editorial writer and columnist for USA TODAY, has written for numerous publications, such as The Washington Post, Essence Magazine, Playboy Magazine and Trice Edney News Wire. She is an author of seven books. The latest is Coretta Scott King, My Life, My Love, My Legacy.
EDITORIAL
The Dallas Examiner www.dallasexaminer.com
‘A country we still have to create’ By MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN Children’s Defense Fund
This Fourth of July, I returned to the wise words of my late friend, Dr. Vincent Harding, the revered historian, theologian, social justice activist and visionary, who never lost sight of the “beloved community” his friend and colleague Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. believed our nation and world could become. In July 2012, on his 81st birthday, Harding spoke at the National and Racial Healing Town Hall at a Children’s Defense Fund’s conference. He told us he believed America was a wounded nation, but despite so many years of struggle, he remained convinced America could and must get better. He urged all of us to commit ourselves to healing America and making our country what it should be, and shared a line he had heard a West African poet recite: “I am a citizen of a country that does not yet exist.” The poet was speaking about his homeland, which was going through political turmoil on the road to independence, but my dear
brother Vincent said it applied to our current spiritual and moral crisis in America. “We are citizens of a country that we still have to create – a just country, a compassionate country, a forgiving country, a multiracial, multireligious country, a joyful country that cares about its children and about its elders, that cares about itself and about the world, that cares about what the Earth needs, as well as what individual people need. … I am, you are, a citizen of a country that does not yet exist, and that badly needs to exist.” He drew a comparison to the words of the brilliant poet Langston Hughes in Let America Be America Again. That poem celebrates the poor, working class and immigrant Americans from all backgrounds and colors who have always been the farmers, factory workers and laborers on whose backs America was built, but who generation after generation have been “tangled in that ancient endless chain/Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!/Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!/Of work the men! Of take the pay!/Of owning everything for one’s own greed!” Vincent Harding quoted Hughes’ refrain, “America
never was America to me,” and said, “We can always stop there and complain and complain and complain. ‘You’ve never been America to me.’ But remember, Langston did not stop there. ‘America, you’ve never been America to me. But I swear this oath – you will be!’ I want you, those who are not afraid to swear oaths, to swear that oath for yourself, for your children, and for your old uncle here. You will be, America. You will be what you could be. You will be what you should be, and I am going to give my life to the working for that.” I swear this oath – you will be! We are in a moment when we are watching hollow promises about American greatness turn into an American nightmare. Instead of the vision of the Statue of Liberty welcoming the tired, the poor, the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” and the “homeless, tempest-tost,” the picture of America today is the photograph of 23-month-old Angie Valeria Martinez Avalos, her body tucked inside her father’s shirt with her arm around his neck, drowned while trying to swim across the Rio Grande in desperation after attempting to seek asylum at the United States
‘‘ ’’ Black History Fact
I wanted to prove that a Black man could play golf.
– Charlie Sifford
Charlie Sifford was a groundbreaking golf player. He was the first African American to play in the PGA and first Black golfer inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Known as the “Jackie Robinson of Golf,” the North Carolina native’s prolific moment came in 1957 after he competed in the Long Beach Open, where many top PGA stars participated. The sanctioned event was conquered by Sifford with one stroke in a playoff where he was awarded a $11,500 check. His performance showed that African American golfers could play at the highest level and win PGA tournaments, which were “Whites only” at the time. After the Long Beach Open, Stanley Mosk, the California state attorney general, and many others pressured the PGA about their Caucasian rule and threatened to bar the tournaments. As a result, in 1961, the “Whites only” clause was dropped and Sifford became a full-time PGA member.
Sources: Encyclopedia.com, GreatBlackHeroes.com, and WorldGolfHallofFame.org
border. But millions of Americans agree this is not who we are, and we will refuse to let it be who we become. On this Fourth of July, we are very, very far from living up to America’s promise, but this barbaric and shameful moment in American “exceptionalism” and American leadership will not last forever. The need to change course, heal and make America what it professes to be, and the nation our children and grandchildren deserve, is more urgent than ever. Those of us who share the vision for a just, compassionate, multiracial, joyful nation that cares for children and elders, itself and the rest of the world, and the needs of Earth and the people who inhabit it must never stop working to make that America reality. We are citizens of a country that does not yet exist, but it is up to us to finally create it and make it a just and hopeful land for all.
Marian Wright Edelman is founder and president emerita of the Children’s Defense Fund whose mission is Leave No Child Behind. For more information, visit http://www.childrensdefense.org.
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PERSPECTIVES
Page 5 July 11, 2019
A fool’s folly in ‘the land of the free’ By EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON
U.S. House of Representatives
The hundreds of thousands of distressed, desperate women with babies, children and men from Central America, South America and Africa who journey thousands of miles from their countries, risking their lives and leaving those that they
love behind to enter the United States for a new life will not be stopped by a southern border wall. That belief is simply folly, or at worse, political rhetoric designed to win over emotional voters that can be easily manipulated during the election season by an administration whose life expectancy, many predict, will conclude in 2020. Serious thinkers understand that a comprehensive federal immigration strategy and a working relationship
with the leaders of nations such as Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador are critical to stem the tide of the massive numbers of migrants that are moving north. Perhaps the president and those who help him to shape his immigration policy might consult with people such as the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, who recently suggested that migrants would remain in the country that he leads if there was sufficient employment and a safe environment.
Bukele recently urged Washington to become his country’s partner in creating a massive jobs program in El Salvador. He said that he believed his government, with assistance from President Trump, could create nearly 400,000 jobs that do not exist today. Those jobs, Bukele said, would discourage Salvadorans from seeking a life in the United States, he added, saying “… if people have an opportunity for a decent job, a decent education, a decent
health care system and security, I know that forceful migration will be reduced to zero.” No one wants to leave their home. If the average person were to examine their own lives and found that they were jobless and fearful, they would search for a place where they could earn an income and raise their families in peace. Isn’t that what the first settlers in this country did when they fled what they characterized was tyranny in England?
So, history teaches us that those who stand at our southern border eager to enter and those who are walking toward it are not much different from those who settled what is now the United States of America, which we have declared as the “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson represents the 30th Congressional District of Texas in the United States House of Representatives.
Irreconcilable differences: Biden, Harris and busing By SUSAN K. SMITH
Crazy Faith Ministries
Sometimes, in spite of the best intentions, relationships just do not work out. The two parties involved cannot see eye to eye on at least one issue important to them both. The two try to “talk it out,” but they remain entrenched in their own positions. They do not hear each other because they do not listen to each other – i.e., they hear the words being said by the other, but they do not have the capacity or desire or perhaps neither to internalize what the other is saying – which is what “hearing” is about. Each grows more and more frustrated, then angry, and then finally, they give up. There is no common ground, no large enough area for them both to stand on, and they end up walking away from each other. It is the failure of Vice President Joe Biden to hear what Sen. Kamala Harris is saying that is causing the seemingly unending conversation about busing. Harris has said that she does not believe that Biden is a racist, but she is adamant about him
not understanding what his – and other White lawmakers’ – stance on busing meant for her as a Black child. Contrary to her “attacking” him, as the media and Biden himself have charged, Harris took an opportunity to challenge Biden on his actions concerning racism and busing that caused a lot of pain for a lot of Black people. There really has been no need for Biden to be defensive. He was entrenched in a system of white supremacy that was bold in its attacks against freedom and equality for Black people. He was part of the group that resented federal intervention in trying to get schools to desegregate so that Black children would have the same opportunities as did Whites. It was really Black children who suffered; it was they who were bused miles away from their homes for the most part, into neighborhoods and schools that did not want them. That is the way it was. White America was incensed about Brown v. Board of Education and was adamant that they would not obey the law. But it was the children, especially the Black children, who suffered, and Harris was one of those children. She spoke from her pain; she
spoke from her raw experience of having to act like she was not afraid, or bothered, or maybe even angry that she and others had to be taken by bus to an all-White school because state and local governments would not do what needed to be done to get enough funding for predominantly or all-Black public schools to make them as top-notch as White schools. The federal government stepped in because the U.S. Supreme Court had made a ruling, a law, that said “separate but equal” was unconstitutional. Schools for Black children were not only separate but totally unequal, and White-run governments were not going to do anything about it. When between couples there is a disagreement of this sort, it takes one of the two parties involved to stand down, to stop talking and start hearing. When the other person feels affirmed, the tension goes away or at least greatly diminishes, and the relationship has a chance of being saved. It often is. But when both sides dig their heels into their positions, the outlook for the relationship is bleak. In our country, White people have often thought that the complaint of racism has been overused, forgetting that racism and white su-
premacy were written right into the Constitution. They do not see because they do not want to see what white supremacist laws and policies have done to Black children for hundreds of years. To say that Black children have an equal opportunity to be successful as do White children is to admit that one has no clue about the power of white supremacy. All of us – Black as well as White – have been taught history and social values according to the white supremacist model, but white supremacists have had the power to make and enforce laws that have ensured that they will remain in power, no matter what. One only has to read one of Jonathan Kozol’s books on the state of education for Black children in this country to understand how grave the issue of substandard education is – which includes dilapidated buildings, old books and insufficient supplies – for Black children, even now, 65 years after Brown v. Board of Education passed. The issue would be quelled if Biden would say, “You know, I did vote that way. I thought that way back then, about busing. But I have evolved, and I have changed how I think about it … and I don’t understand how the whole busing debacle
affected Black children, but from what you are saying, I see that it was very damaging. I cannot undo what I did and how I thought back then, but I can say, moving forward, that the lessons I learned back then will help me in anything I do going forward.” Or something like that. That Biden is so defensive is a problem. Until someone stands down, the media is going to continue to spin this story, day after day after day after day. Harris exposed her pain from being bussed. Biden would do well to acknowledge it, affirm her as a person who has succeeded in spite of white supremacy, and continue to get to the business of running for president. Not reconciling this issue will only be bad for them both, but perhaps more for Biden because Black people do remember the pain of being the objects of scorn and hatred just because we wanted our children to get a good education. This is no time to be wrestling with irreconcilable differences, especially when it comes to racism.
Rev. Dr. Susan K. Smith is the founder and director of Crazy Faith Ministries. She is available by email at revsuekim@sbcglobal.net.
Regulatory rollback on student loans removes protections By CHARLENE CROWELL Center for Responsible Lendin
Every Fourth of July celebrates this nation’s founding. But this year, only a few days before the annual freedom celebration, an ill-advised governmental action will financially doom, rather than free, millions of student loan borrowers – as of July 1. Moreover, this action arrives as the cost of higher education continues to soar and household incomes remain largely stagnant. On June 28, the Department of Education announced the end of an important student loan regulation that since 2015 has held colleges with career training programs accountable for failure to provide an education that resulted in marketable skills and earnings high enough to repay student loans. Known as the “gainful employment” rule, it required career and technical training programs that receive federal financial aid to prove that students would receive the education promised or forfeit future federal funding dollars.
Additionally, covered institutions and programs were required to disclose to prospective students the career earnings and student debts of recent graduates. In other words, the rule was intended to rein in abusive schools before they could harm students or waste taxpayer-funded aid. Finalized in 2014, the rule was too late to help the tens of thousands of student borrowers affected by the failures of huge for-profit institutions, Corinthian Colleges and ITT Technical Institute. Borrowers at these now-shuttered colleges were left without degrees, or credits that could be transferred, but carried with them unaffordable debts that have devastated the stability of their families. These closures also resulted in massive losses to taxpayers who fund federal financial aid. Even so, the gainful employment rule has been effective in two other ways. First, it pushed many other forprofit institutions to cut their worst performing programs. Secondly, it controlled tuition costs. Either violation brought regulatory sanctions. Now, instead, consumers are left on their own – directed to an expanded web resource known as the College Score-
card, where information on student debt and earnings now includes 2,100 certificategranting programs. “These important reforms are a more complete and effective way to hold all types of higher education institutions accountable and make sure that students have a full suite of data when making a decision about their education,” said Secretary DeVos in a statement. Saying that information is the equivalent of regulation is simply not true. Effective regulations impose penalties, fines and conditions on future actions – all to deter bad actors from repeating behaviors. By contrast, information only discloses with no guarantee that what is shared will be truthful, complete or current. Elected officials and consumer advocates were quick to point out the shortcomings of student loan deregulation. “By eliminating this rule without enforcing any alternative standard, the Education Department is giving lowquality, for-profit colleges a free pass to charge high tuition for worthless credentials that leave students with insurmountable debt,” noted U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor.
“Students need protection against unaffordable loans,” said James Kvaal, president of The Institute for College Access & Success. “This rule rolls back the clock on those very protections. At a time when millions of borrowers are struggling with debt they cannot afford, the department’s repeal of the gainful employment rule is reckless and irresponsible.” The ills that TICAS’ Kvaal points out are well-documented. A 2018 research report entitled The State of For-Profit Colleges, by the Center for Responsible Lending, analyzed student debt on a stateby-state basis. It concluded that investing in a for-profit education is almost always a risky proposition. It showed the percentage undergraduate students that borrow from the federal government generally ranged between 40% to 60% for public colleges, compared to 50% to 80% at for-profit institutions. CRL also found that women and Blacks suffer disparate impacts, particularly at forprofit institutions, where they are disproportionately enrolled in most states. For example, enrollment at Mississippi’s for-profit colleges was 78% female and
nearly 66% Black. Other states with high Black enrollment at for-profits included Georgia (57%), Louisiana (55%), Maryland (58%) and North Carolina (54%). “Betsy DeVos’ decision to eliminate this important education protection is a disservice to the public and only serves to put corporate interests ahead of struggling students and taxpayers,” said Debbie Goldstein, a CRL executive vice president, following the recent rescission of the gainful employment rule. “Completely removing oversight of these programs and leaving parents and students to navigate the college loan system is irresponsible and wastes federal money on programs that aren’t performing.” Similarly to CRL, the National Consumer Law Center found that for-profit college students borrow more money more often. More than 80% of for-profit college graduates incurred nearly $40,000 in debt at the time of graduation. Further, Black and Latino student loan borrowers were found to default on their loans at twice the rate of similarly situated Whites. “Repealing the gainful employment rule will cost taxpayers over $6 billion over the next decade, and ending this
rule will worsen the student loan debt crisis, especially for the people of color and lowincome students who disproportionately attend career education programs and who are often targets of predatory recruitment practices,” said Abby Shafroth, an NCLC attorney who works with its Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project. “The department’s unfounded claims that students will benefit from “more access” as a result of the repeal are bogus: Students don’t need access to more failing schools, they need a student loan system that doesn’t set them up to fail.” With 44 million student borrowers owing $1.5 trillion nationwide at the end of 2019’s first quarter, removing federal guard rails against future borrower risk is as costly as it is unsustainable. As the federal government turns its back on these borrowers, perhaps another level of government can and will fill the void. “Now more than ever, states have important roles to play in regulation, oversight and enforcement,” Goldstein concluded. Charlene Crowell is the communications deputy director with the Center for Responsible Lending.
Every state should pass a ‘compassionate’ medical aid-in-dying law By KIM CALLINAN
Compassion & Choices
Just two months apart, the governors of Maine and New Jersey signed laws ensuring that terminally ill adults in their states would no longer have to suffer needlessly at life’s inevitable end. Similar to bills introduced in 17 other states this year, the Maine and New Jersey laws will allow a mentally capable, terminally ill adult with six months or less to live to have the option to request a doctor’s prescription for medication that they can decide to take to die gently in their sleep if their suffering becomes unbearable. This option allows a terminally person to avoid the very worst, very last part of the dying process.
National polling shows more than 7 out of 10 Americans (72%) support medical aid in dying with majority support across every demographic, political and religious spectrum. This compassionate option is now available to nearly 70 million adults in nine states and Washington, D.C., and lawmakers are beginning to respond to their constituents’ demands for this peaceful option. It took 20 years to authorize medical aid in dying in the first four states (Oregon in 1994, Washington in 2008, Montana in 2009 and Vermont in 2013), but only five years to authorize it in the last six jurisdictions (California in 2015, Colorado in 2016, Washington, D.C., in 2017, Hawaii in 2018, and New Jersey and Maine in 2019). Medical aid-in-dying laws include over a dozen regulatory requirements for a dying person to obtain the prescription. Two doctors must certify
that the patient is mentally capable, terminally ill with a prognosis of six months or less to live, is able to selfingest the medication and is not being coerced. There are witness forms, waiting periods and reporting requirements. And the patient is in charge of the process from start to finish: The patient must make the request and, ultimately, ingest the medication. Current medical aid-in-dying laws protect patients. In a combined 40 years of experience across eight jurisdictions, there has not been a single documented incidence of abuse or coercion. Although the data and evidence clearly demonstrates that medical aid-in-dying laws protect patients, the trend within state houses is to attempt to add additional “safeguards” to address every possible way a nefarious doctor or family member could prematurely end a vulnerable
person’s life. While this approach is well-intentioned, it is unnecessary, duplicative and ill-advised. Unnecessary because the data clearly demonstrates that medical aid-in-dying laws, with their current safeguards, protect patients. Duplicative because the practice of medicine is already highly regulated, with strict licensing laws designed to weed out or convict nefarious doctors. And ill-advised because a dying person with limited time to live will never be able to obtain the prescription if we add more steps on top of the already cumbersome 12-step process outlined in existing medical aid-in-dying laws. If we hamstring doctors by legislating for hypothetical situations, they will be unable to either save lives or provide patients with a more peaceful death. A dying person needs end-of-life care policies that prioritize compassion over unnecessary
government red tape and roadblocks. It is heartbreaking to watch a dying person being robbed of this compassionate option year after year because false assumptions are guiding our policymaking. Medical aid-indying laws protect dying patients while providing them with a necessary and compassionate end-of-life care option. Only the dying person, in consultation with their loved ones and doctor, knows how much suffering is too much to bear. I urge the lawmakers in every state to let the evidence and data guide policymaking and authorize this compassionate option without further delay. Kim Callinan is CEO of Compassion & Choices, the nation’s oldest and largest nonprofit organization working to improve care,
Page 6 July 11, 2019
Counseling Corner
You can overcome feelings of shyness
American Counseling Assoc.
Each of us, at times, feels anxious about a situation we’re currently in or about to enter. If such feelings are the norm for you, you may feel you’re “shy” and may find you’re labeled as such by others. Being shy seems cute when it’s a small child hiding behind a parent’s leg, but as we get older, being shy can leave us feeling needlessly anxious and often keeps us from opportunities and relationships from which we might benefit. Extreme cases of feeling shy can sometimes meet the criteria for social anxiety disorder or social phobia. Fortunately, there are a number of steps a person can take to try to overcome shyness and social anxiety. The simplest is to act with more confidence and to try new things. Shy people often suffer from poor self-esteem and low self-confidence. Taking positive action can help minimize those problems. An important step is to try new things even if doing so may make you anxious. Often a shy person imagines how poorly doing something, like going to a party or engaging in a new social activity, will turn out and then avoids it. But when someone ignores that anxiety and takes that step toward doing something new, it often turns out better than expected. One way to head in that positive direction is to increase your interaction
with others. Start up a conversation in a checkout line or talk to a stranger at the coffee shop or gym or in a store. Having small, positive social contacts helps build confidence and open up new horizons. You can also demonstrate growing confidence just in the way you walk and talk. Make eye contact in conversations, hold your head high and speak clearly and effectively. Don’t be afraid to make physical contact such as shaking hands or giving hugs. The key to overcoming social anxiety and shyness is to take some chances in order to recognize and overcome your fears. Try going to a movie with an acquaintance rather than just a close friend. Be a bit vulnerable by offering opinions, asking questions and carrying on meaningful conversations. As you do things that normally you’d be afraid to try, you’ll find your self-confidence increasing. Overcoming shyness takes effort and can seem frightening. If you need help in moving forward, consider talking to a professional counselor who can assist you in building a more confident you.
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.
HEALTH
The body’s warning signs: Prevent heat-related illnesses, injuries
It’s summer in Texas. The sun is shining, the temperatures are rising and vacationers are taking full advantage of a myriad of outdoor activities. And even though the metroplex averages 18 100-degree days a year, Parkland Health and Hospital System physicians warn that heat exhaustion can be deadly even if temperatures don’t hit the century mark. A combination of high humidity and temperatures in the 90s can have the same effect as triple-digit days, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Exposure to extreme heat can result in illnesses and injuries, heat stroke, heat exhaustion, heat cramps or heat-related rashes. In the last nine years, Parkland Memorial Hospital has seen more than 480 patients with heat-related diagnoses in its emergency department. “When you’re out having fun with friends and family, with the exception of a sunburn, most people don’t think about the effects that heat is having on your body,” said Jeffery Metzger, MD, chief of Emergency Services at Parkland and associate professor of Emergency Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center. “That’s why it’s important to recognize the signs
Gentle Giant, continued from Front Page
Heat Exhaustion
A job seeker gets assistance after fainting while waiting in a long line in the heat during a job fair. – AP file photo
and symptoms of heat-related illnesses before the situation becomes critical.” Heat exhaustion occurs when people are exposed to high temperatures, especially when combined with strenuous physical activity and humidity, and when the body loses fluids and becomes dehydrated. When heat exhaustion elevates, it may result in heat stroke, a life-threatening medical condition occurring when the body’s cooling system, which is controlled by the brain, stops working. The resulting high body temperature causes damage to internal organs, including the brain, and could result in death. “Heat stroke, which is the most serious heat-related disorder, is especially dangerous,” Metzger said. “It occurs when the body be-
He lived by example. He was larger than life, yet he lived with humility. He taught us how to serve our students with passion and focus,” said Dr. Joe May, DCCCD chancellor. “We will
Your Meaningful Career Starts at Parkland
At Parkland, you’ll work in a diverse and dynamic environment where you can explore opportunities for growth in the healthcare industry.
What to do: • Call 911 right away – heat stroke is a medical emergency • Move the person to a cooler place • Help lower the person’s temperature with cool cloths or a cool bath • Do not give the person anything to drink
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If you want to make a difference in your community in a place that’s mission-driven, come to Parkland Health & Hospital System.
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only delivering, but living Parkland’s mission and vision for Dallas County.
Parkland is one of the leading healthcare systems in the nation because of its people – talented, caring and compassionate people who care about their patients, coworkers and community. Our mission to care for the health and well-being of individuals and communities includes that of our own employees.
Embarking on a career at Parkland means joining a team of employees dedicated to the health and well-being of Explore Opportunities the individuals and communiat Parkland ties entrusted to our care. Each day is an opportunity to apply your skills and advance At Parkland, you’ll leave work each day knowing that what your career goals. you do changes lives. As a Whether you work in our Parkland team member, your state-of-the-art hospital, one career will grow with an orof our outpatient clinics or an ganization that values your administrative position, you unique skills and talents. We will be part of something spe- offer meaningful careers that cial. Many of our specialties build on our vision of serving have received national praise the underserved populations for excellence in care, re- of Dallas County. search and innovation. Our accolades and recognitions Visit www.parklandcareers.com may be directly attributed to to learn how to make a differthe many, talented team ence for our patients, commumembers committed to not nity and your career!
comes unable to control its temperature – the body’s temperature rises rapidly, the sweating mechanism fails, and the body is unable to cool down.” When heat stroke occurs, body temperature can rise to 103 degrees Fahrenheit or higher within 10 to 15 minutes. Heat stroke can cause death or permanent disability if emergency treatment is not given. The CDC offers a number of tips of what to look for and what to do for heat-related illnesses: Heat Stroke
Look for: • Hot, red, dry or damp skin • Fast, strong pulse • Headache, dizziness, nausea and confusion • Losing consciousness
carry on his legacy of teaching, leading and ensuring that higher education is accessible to all.” He is survived by his wife, Demetria Lassiter, two adult children and two grandchildren. His first wife, Bessie Lassiter, died in 2014. His funeral will be held Saturday at 11 a.m. at Concord Church, located at 6808 Pastor Bailey Drive.
Look for: • Heavy sweating, cold, pale and clammy skin • Fast, weak pulse • Nausea or vomiting, muscle cramps • Tiredness or weakness, dizziness, headache • Fainting
What to do: • Move to a cool place and loosen clothes • Put cool, wet cloths on the body or take a cool bath • Sip water Seek help
Get medical help right away if: • You are throwing up • Your symptoms get worse • Your symptoms last longer than one hour
“The bottom line is that heat-related illnesses are preventable,” Metzger said. “Listening to your body is one of the best things you can do to protect yourself from potential danger.”
“It was an inspiration to know Dr. Lassiter,” Trustee Wesley Jameson. “His legacy of insightful analysis and intuitive perceptions that he shared with others are a testament to his life’s work. He was a gifted orator who motivated thousands of individuals studying leadership skills. Not only will be he missed for his leadership qualities, but also for his ethics and kindness.”
The Dallas Examiner www.dallasexaminer.com
Genesis,
continued from Front Page
Control and Prevention. Jones has been waiting her whole life for a donor and continues to patiently wait to find a genetically matched blood stem cell donor.
She is having trouble finding a donor due to the lack of Black donors on the Be The Match Registry, a nonprofit national marrow donor program. Erica Sevilla, multicultural public relations strategist for Be The Match, said the need for more African American donors is critical. “There is a disparity that
people need to be aware of,” Sevilla said. “Black lives and patients are being affected by the lack of donors on the registry. Only 4% of the 20 million potential donors on the Be the Match Registry are identified as Black or African American. So that is less than 1 million of the 20 million people. Because when you are looking for a blood stem cell transplant, it relies on more than just blood type; it is actually something called HLA, which is a unique identifier in our blood. We are looking for a match that, often times, you’re more likely to find a match from someone who shares your race or ethnicity, and so a Black patient is more likely to find a match from someone within the Black community.” Sevilla said as many as 4 out of 5 Black patients are unable to find a match on the Be The Match Registry compared to the 4 out of 5 White patients who do find a match. “African Americans have the lowest chance of finding a match today and it is absolutely critical to get more donors so it can provide hope for patients like Genesis,” Sevilla said. “The good news is that more ethnically diverse donors joining the registry can resolve this disparity. Patients are most likely to find a match among people who share their heritage. More mixed-race, African American, Hispanic and Asian donors are urgently needed.” Sevilla said it only takes a cheek swab to join the registry and a swab kit can be mailed to one’s home. Persons interested who are ages 18 to 44 can register for free on Jones’ behalf at http://join.bethematch.org/s wab4genesis. Jones receives blood transfusions monthly, along with being in and out of the
hospital four or five times a month, and said the disease has left her battling not only her physical health but mental health also. “I was challenged not only with my health, but with problems at school and home, and started major experiencing depression around the age of 9,” Jones said. “The transfusions were supposed to help with the prevention of crisis and strokes. However, I had another silent stroke when I was 10. With a lot of time and patience, I’ve learned how to better maintain my physical, mental and emotional health. To this day, I am still going to the hospital for appointments, unexpected ER trips and pain management. But I have faith that my pain will continue to get better and I will find my perfect match.” She details the struggles of living with sickle cell disease. “In the beginning, it was terrible having to constantly live in pain from a young age because I was in elementary school and I was missing activities with my friends having to be in the hospital and not in school,” she said. “Not being at school with my friends was very hard and that’s where a lot of my depression came from.” Despite the struggles, Jones said she gained a lot of coping strategies. “I learned to lean on my support team with my family and I think that helped me change my mindset about living with pain,” Jones said. “And, over time, it has become easier for me to walk everyday with pain and learn how to manage it on a daily basis.” Jones manages her pain by taking pain medication. “I take my daily medications and I have a pill regimen that I am on and I work very closely
with my doctors to make sure that my pain level is the lowest level it can be on a daily basis,” she said. “With my strategies, I just know that I have my goals, and I learned not to focus so much on the pain like I did when I was younger. I just have to deal with it in order to reach my goals. I just need to keep going.” Jones has been on the donor list for more than 10 years and has yet to find a matching donor. “Black genetics are very complex and there is a lack of African American donors on the registry, which makes it very hard for me to find my perfect match,” she said. “To get the word out there, I share as much as I can with Be The Match. The lack of diversity on the registry is just sad and it’s harder for me to find my donor.” Jones believes there is a lack of donors of her race due to a lack of knowledge. “I really think it is lack of knowledge or awareness because a lot of people don’t know about the registry because it’s a very personal issue,” Jones said. “I think until something happens to you personally, you are not going to be aware or going to take more action until something happens to you. But I think the lack of knowledge is also there. If you are able to give more knowledge out there to people, I think it will be more clarity and more people would join the registry.” There are no side effects for the donor and it’s as simple as donating plasma and blood. “It takes only a couple of hours and it would completely change my life,” Jones said. “I think people should donate because it is very much for a need, just like a need for organs. So the more people on the registry, the more people can help other people by
Page 7 July 11, 2019
changing their lives and their families, so it’s going to help anyone.” Jone said sharing her story on Be The Match has been the best part about her journey. “Sharing my story has been a blessing,” she said. “My message is that living with sickle cell has definitely been hard and walking in pain everyday has made me stronger as a person and definitely changed my viewpoint on my life, but I wouldn’t of had it any other way because of the opportunity I have had and the awareness that I have brought to sickle cell and to the Be The Match Registry.” Jones’ future goals include graduating college, becoming a nurse and continuing to create awareness about sickle cell disease and the lack of donors for minorities. She would also like to find a way to find a cure for sickle cell. Her biggest accomplishments so far have been graduating high school in three years instead of four. “It felt amazing to graduate early at Grapevine High School, and it was a big accomplishment because those long days and hours were hard for me to deal with, and I was so glad I was able to do that,” she said. Jones also has some advice for those who share her disease. “You are not alone, and it is possible to live with pain and have so many accomplishments,” she said. “There are so many ways to cope with pain, and you can have a great support system and then just learn how to manage it within your own way.”
Page 8 July 11, 2019
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CLASSIFIEDS
MISSING
Bids
Additional informaton: Both photos shown are of Rickia. She was last seen at her home in Carrollton on May 29, 2019. Rickia may frequent areas in or near Dallas. She may be wearing glasses.
Anyone having information regarding this missing youth should call the Carrollton Police Department at 972-466-3333.
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.
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.
ACA,
continued from Front Page
Notices
Employment
Rickia Jackson
Missing Since: May 29, 2019 Missing From: Carrollton DOB: Sept. 5, 2003 Age Now: 15 Sex: Female Race: Black Hair Color: Black Eye Color: Brown Height: 5'3" Weight: 120 lbs NCMEC Number: 1361521
Page 9 July 11, 2019
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 and0 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.
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 Institute for Diversity There will be a limited opportunity to attend healthcare management meetings and conferences. The intern will participate in the Institute for Diversity in Health Management's Summer Enrichment Program which will provide added exposure to the healthcare management field. A final project will be required as part of this program. Contact: www.diversityconnection.org
Yes,
The House of Rhone will like to welcome our beautiful baby boy Micah DeAngelo Rhone a natural flesh and blood into this world, who is a Private American national, Born in Houston Republic, Texas Domiciling in Harris County on this day June twenty-third thousand nineteen, weighing at six pounds 12oz. IN RE of MICAH DEANGELO RHONE estate, natural Mother Ivory Nichole Rhone, and natural Father Jamaal Daurani Rhone in esse and sui juris, are the Beneficiary’s and holds all legal and equitable interests of said Person “MICAH DEANGELO RHONE” until Micah comes of age.
Scholarships
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questions before the three judges. Most of the unusually large courtroom audience of journalists and interested but unaffiliated attorneys focused on Elrod at the center. By far the most vocal judge of the three, Elrod probed both sides on the issue of standing – whether they have the right to participate in the lawsuit at all. And she appeared highly focused on her court’s options for ordering a remedy, seeming to weigh options for sending the case back to a lower court for further consideration. Engelhardt, who is among the newest appointees to the court, was harsh and occasionally sarcastic, asking more questions of the blue state coalition than he did of the Texas-led team. He seemed skeptical of the standing of both the California-led coalition and the Democratic-majority U.S. House of Representatives, which intervened in the case although the Republican-majority U.S. Senate did not. The Senate, Engelhardt remarked, “is sort of the 800-pound gorilla that’s not in the room.” King, meanwhile, did not speak at all. The panel is expected to rule in the coming weeks, when an appeal from the losing side is all but guaranteed. But there likely will be no immediate impact on health coverage: The federal government will continue to enforce the law pending “final resolution of this
case,” August Flentje, a Justice Department lawyer, said Tuesday. The losing side could either appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court or ask the entire 5th Circuit to hear the case “en banc.” Either court could decline to hear the case. Hanging in the balance as the judges mull what they heard: the subsidized health coverage of about 1 million Texans, a suite of low-cost services guaranteed to all individuals with health insurance, and the law’s popular protections for patients with preexisting conditions. Douglas Letter, an attorney for the U.S. House, pointed to those provisions, telling the judges, “These are the kinds of things that would be struck down if there is no severability.” “Couldn’t the House remedy that?” Engelhardt demanded. “Isn’t that exactly the point?” Why, he questioned, should federal judges become “the taxidermist” charged with carving up the Affordable Care Act? Neither side advocates taxidermy; both sides take an absolute position on severability. California argues that all of the law is separate from the mandate, and Texas argues that none of it is, as the result of what Solicitor General Kyle Hawkins characterized as “an inseverability clause.” But the court may still go another way. Elrod asked several questions about which provisions were more directly connected to the individual mandate. “What do you say to people who say it’s absurd to say that the mandate isn’t severable from, say, the calorie provisions?” she ques-
tioned at one point. Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson firmly voiced her opposition in a prepared statement to what she called the continued Republican assault on the ACA. “As the first registered nurse elected to Congress, I can attest to the importance of the Affordable Care Act in improving our country’s health care, especially for the 133 million Americans living with preexisting conditions – of which 11.5 million live in my home state of Texas,” she expressed. “It is clear as day that this president and his administration will stop at nothing to tear down the very law that has expanded critical health care coverage to millions of Americans.” The appeals court here was the latest stop in what, for Texas Republicans, has been a decade-long quest to end a sweeping health care law that now touches practically every node of the health care system. But if the Texas-led coalition succeeds this time, it could bring unintended consequences for the GOP-led states. Health care loomed large in the 2018 elections, with Democrats in Texas and elsewhere attacking Republican adversaries for a lawsuit they warned would strip millions of people of their health coverage. Total abolition of Obamacare would leave Republican states’ policymakers scrambling to replace the law. And a final resolution to the case could come at the height of the 2020 elections, as Democrats and Republicans spar over issues like health care on the national stage. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has said
that should the law remain struck down, state leaders would craft a replacement. But the state has taken few steps toward planning for that outcome even as its litigators project optimism about the lawsuit. “We never heard anything about any Republican plan,” said state Rep. John Bucy, an Austin Democrat who forced a House vote on Medicaid expansion this session. “I think some lightbulbs start clicking on, but politically, there’s such a concern for them on the other side that we’re having a hard time getting real progress.” Texas has the highest uninsured rate in the nation. Experts expect it to climb significantly if Obamacare is repealed. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who did not appear in court Tuesday, said that success in the lawsuit would be “a victory for all Americans.” “When Obamacare is struck down once and for all, legislators across the country can get back to crafting policies that address the needs, and conform with the values, of their own residents,” Paxton said. Legal scholars, including many on the right, have long been dubious about Texas’ arguments, particularly on the question of severability. Many did not take the lawsuit very seriously until December, when U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor sided with Texas and struck down the law. O’Connor, who is something of a favorite for the Texas Attorney General’s Office, has heard a disproportionate number of the state’s challenges to the federal
government. However the court decides, the stakes are high. “If they have their way, millions of Americans could be forced to delay, skip or forego potentially life-saving healthcare,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Our state coalition made it clear: On top of risking lives, gutting the law would sow chaos in our entire health care system.” Congressman Colin Allred joined his colleagues in the House and Senate Monday to tell the stories of people across America that would be harmed if the Trump administration’s lawsuit against the ACA is successful. During a news conference in front of the U.S. Capitol, he announced that he passed a bipartisan resolution earlier that day that authorized the House to intervene as a party in the Texas lawsuit seeking to undermine the ACA. “On day one in this Congress, I introduced a bipartisan resolution that put the U.S. House back on the side of people and protecting their health care in federal court,” he announced. “As the Trump administration continues to attack the Affordable Care Act, and with it, vital protections for people with preexisting conditions, I am dedicated to fighting every day to stop the sabotage and work with my colleagues to lower costs for everyone.”
Edgar Walters/The Texas Tribune and Robyn H. Jimenez/The Dallas Examiner contributed to this report.
CALENDAR COMMUNITY
Page 10 July 11, 2019 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 participating location, as well as a list of dates and times the meals are offered, visit https://www.dallasisd.org/fcns.
Aug. 2-24 Dorothy Marcic’s Sistas The Musical, directed by Jubilee’s newest artistic director, D. Wambui Richardson, will be held at 7:30 p.m. at Jubilee Theatre, 506 Main St., Fort Worth. For more information, call 817-3384204 ext. 2 or visit www.jubileetheatre.org. Mondays
Common
July
Ground
National Eye Injury Prevention Month www.preventblindness.org
Fireworks Safety Month www.aao.org Therapeutic Recreation Week www.nrpa.org
ONGOING EVENTS
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.
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.
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
Parkland’s mobile mammography unit mammograms, breast cancer education and case management services at no cost, as well as information on the Victim Intervention Program and the North Texas Poison Center, will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at North Oak Cliff Library, 302 W. 10th St. For more information, call Doris Benavides at 931-805-1091 or email doris@latinocld.com.
11 Meditation for Every- 13 one, with a breathing meditation, instructions on how to gain control of the mind and choose how we respond to life’s difficulties, and a meditation related to the topics discussed, will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at The Women’s Club of Fort Worth, 1316 Pennsylvania Ave., Fort Worth. For more information, call 214-238-3331 or visit www.meditationintexas.org/weekly-classes.
11 Poetry Battle, based on the topic of the week, will be held at 7 p.m. at Murphy’s Mansion, 10051 Whitehurst. And there is a twist, each contestant that loses the week before will have the chance to participate in a one-minute spit fire battle round to hold their seat to enter the Grand Slam in December. For more information, call 214-404-2330.
A 23rd annual Mayor’s Back To School Fair preregistration event will be held from 10 a.m.2 p.m. at J. Erik Jonsson Central Library – first floor lobby, 1515 Young St. For more information, visit http://www.mayorsbacktoschoolfair.com.
13 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.
13 Mercado369 Mammo-
gram Screenings will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at North Oak Cliff Library, 302 W 10th St. Participants must have proof of Dallas County residence. For more information, call 931-805-1091. Microsoft Extreme Labs: Startup Saturdays, free startup workshops hosted by Dean Jones Lead Microsoft Extreme Labs, will be held from 9 a.m. to noon at Capital Factory + The DEC, 3102 Oak Lawn Ave. For more information, visit www.eventbrite.com.
13 Mercado369 Mammo- 14
gram Screenings, with
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.
in part by Dallas Tourism Public Improvement District, City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs, and Goody Goody, will perform from noon to 9 p.m. at Music Hall at Fair Park, 909 First Ave. For more information, call 214-421-5678.
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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.
15 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.
Dave Koz & Friends Summer Horns, sponsored
Wheatland Road. For more information, call 972-228-5200.
Tuesdays & Thursdays Showers of Blessings Food Pantry will be available from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, 2922 MLK Blvd. For more information, call 214-670-8442 or 214-670-8418.
Third Wednesdays Dallas Alzheimer’s Support Group will meet at 3 p.m. at Grace Presbyterian Village, 550 E. Ann Arbor. For more information, call 214376-1701. Thursdays Christian Business Men’s Connection will host a breakfast from 6 a.m. until 7:30 a.m. at IHOP, 790 N. I-35E, Lancaster. For more information, con-
Drive, and from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Lancaster-Kiest Branch Library, 2008 E. Kiest Blvd. For more information, visit http://www.mayorsbacktoschoolfair.com.
17 Senior Adult WorkSessions, out/Fitness 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.
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.
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A 23rd annual Mayor’s Back To School Fair preregistration event will be held from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Martin Luther King, Jr., 2901 Pennsylvania Ave. For more information, visit http://www.mayorsbacktoschoolfair.com.
16
A 23rd annual Mayor’s Back To School Fair preregistration event will be held from 2-4 p.m. at Casa View Elementary School, 2100 N. Farola
tact Joseph Sam at 972-218-7241.
Thursdays Live jazz music, cocktails and dinner from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Dallas Museum of Art, 1717 N. Harwood. For more information, call 214-922-1200.
Third Saturdays Mental Health Support Meeting and Education Focus will be held from 9:45 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at St. Luke United Methodist Church, 5710 E. R.L. Thornton Freeway. For more information, call 972-298-2811.
Second & Fourth Thursdays MLK Dallas Toastmasters will be held at 6:45 p.m. at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, 2922 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. For more information, call 214-670-8418.
will be held from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Eastfield College Pleasant Grove Campus, 802 S. Buckner Blvd. For more information, visit http://www.mayorsbacktoschoolfair.com.
19 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.
19 Men’s Chorus Musical
17 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 214-7417500 or visit www.dallasholocaustmuseum.org.
18
15
11-13 Francine’s Will, a 13
comedy with youth performers, will be held at 8 p.m. with a Saturday matinée at 3 p.m. at Rover’s Theatre, 221 W. Parker Road, Suite 580, Plano. For more information and tickets, visit www.roverdramawerks.com.
meet at 6 p.m. at the Lions Club, 107 Texas St., Lancaster. For more information, email marketing.lancasterlions@gmail.com.
The Dallas Examiner www.dallasexaminer.com
A 23rd annual Mayor’s Back To School Fair preregistration event will be held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Leonides Gonzalez Cigarroa, M.D. Elementary School, 9990 Webb Chapel Road. For more information, visit http://www.mayorsbacktoschoolfair.com.
18 Meditation for Every-
one, with a breathing meditation, instructions on how to gain control of the mind and choose how we respond to life’s difficulties, and a meditation related to the topics discussed, will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at The Women’s Club of Fort Worth, 1316 Pennsylvania Ave., Fort Worth. For more information, call 214-238-3331 or visit www.meditationintexas.org/weekly-classes.
19
A 23rd annual Mayor’s Back To School Fair preregistration event
begin at 7 p.m. at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, 444. W. Ledbetter Drive. For more information, visit www.newbirthdallas.org.
20 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.
20 Mercado369 Mammogram Screenings, with Parkland’s mobile mammography unit mammograms, breast cancer education and case management services at no cost, as well as information on the Victim Intervention Program and the North Texas Poison Center, will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at North Oak Cliff Library, 302 W. 10th St. For more information, call Doris Benavides at 931-805-1091 or email doris@latinocld.com. 20 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.
20
A 23rd annual Mayor’s Back To School Fair preregistration event will be held from 10 a.m. to noon at Thurgood Marshall Recreation Center, 5150 Mark Trail Way, and from noon to 2 p.m. at Fretz Park Library Branch, 6990 Belt Line Road. For more information, visit http://www.mayorsbacktoschoolfair.com.
21
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 inforvisit mation, www.friendshipwest.org.
22 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. 22 DART will host a com-
munity meeting to review the progress of the Cotton Belt Corridor Regional Rail Project at 6:30 p.m. at the Courtyard Theater, 1509 H Ave., Plano. For more information, call the DART Community Engagement at 214-749-2543 or visit www.dart.org/cottonbelt.
23 A 23rd annual Mayor’s
Back To School Fair preregistration event will be held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Sam Tasby Middle School, 7001 Fair Oaks Ave. For more information, visit http://www.mayorsbacktoschoolfair.com.
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