The Dallas Examiner headliners

VOL. XXXIII • AuGuST 8, 2019

50 cents

New Parkland Board Chair

Reforming Bail Practices

Health Pg 6

State/Metro Pg 2

Evicted and homeless:

A homeless camp under I-45 set up during the summer of 2017. Randy Mayeux of CitySquare recently lectured on the book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City to reveal how evictions are a part of the homeless crisis.

– Photo by Mike McGee/The Dallas Examiner

Rev. Zan Wesley Holmes and Carolyn R. Davis – Photo courtesy of Thomas Muhammad

John McCaa of WFAA-TV and Carolyn R. Davis – Photo courtesy of Thomas Muhammad

Carolyn R. Davis and her daughter, Melissa Lashan DavisNunn – Photo courtesy of Thomas Muhammad

Bill Hall, CEO of Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity is flanked by former Councilwoman Carolyn R. Davis and Diane Ragsdale, ICDC managing director, who championed Habitat for Humanity's efforts to tear down old Carolyn R. Davis, along with other Dallas and blighted structures in Southern City Council members and other local nota- Dallas in 2012. – Photo courtesy of bles participate in the groundbreaking cere- Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity mony for the Hatcher Gardens development, June 21, 2013. – Photos by Mike McGee/The Dallas Examiner

By MIKE MCGEE The Dallas Examiner

Former Councilmember Carolyn R. Davis and Mayor Mike Rawlings unveil sweeping changes and rebuilding of MLK Boulevard and Fair Park, June 10, 2014. – Photo by Mike McGee/The Dallas Examiner

A reflection of Davis, the legacy Local leaders recall Davis’ service to the community she left behind Elsie Faye Heggins Street sign – Photo courtesy of Thomas Muhammad

Special to The Dallas Examiner

By DIANE XAVIER The Dallas Examiner

A warrior, community leader and a friend to many is how former Dallas City Council member Carolyn R. Davis will be remembered, according to Teresa Coleman Walsh, executive artistic director of the Bishop Arts Theatre Center.

Davis and her daughter, Melissa Lashan Davis-Nunn, were killed in a wrong-way crash in East Oak Cliff July 15, around 7:45 p.m. Davis died that night while her daughter was critically injured but pronounced dead at the hospital two days later.

Reports indicate they were killed by an impaired driver, Jonathan Moore, who struck Davis’ vehicle after traveling in the wrong lane.

The loss of Davis has impacted many in the community, including Walsh.

“Carolyn was an incredible mentor and shining example of women in leadership positions, so when my husband told me about her death, my entire family just mourned,” Walsh said. “We were devastated, and it was a tragedy for us.”

Walsh said she met Davis when she moved from Atlanta to Dallas in 2000.

“At that time, Carolyn was one of the people in the community that was helping me meet people and make relationships with community members to establish the theater,” she said. “The theater that I chartered was chartered in Atlanta, and we moved to Dallas in January 2000, and we wanted to establish roots in the Dallas area, and Carolyn was very instrumental in helping me

See Reflections Page 8

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“She came to work for Innercity Community Development Corporation at age 22 as a secretary/clerk.

She’d been a financial assistant at Trammell Crow Corporation,” recalled Thomas Muhammad, vice president of the ICDC board of directors, as he reflected on meeting Carolyn R. Davis.

“Former City Councilwoman Carolyn R. Davis without doubt left a distinguished footprint of a powerful performance of community service.

She was co-chair of the South Dallas Fair Park Connectional Alliance, a group made up of 25 communitybased organizations supporting each other in crime prevention techniques and programs.”

Muhammad revealed that, as a council member, Davis applied those strategies in creating the city’s first “Code Conference” with the purpose of teaching residents the importance of code compliance and how to keep their neighborhoods clean. A major host of the conferences was John McCaa of WFAA-TV. He also credited her for changing the South Dallas Fair Park area.

“She changed the look of South Dallas Fair Park for future generations in a spectacular way. A quick glance at the intersections of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X boulevards stand as a testament of her work,” he revealed.

He pointed out the corner that features concrete columns of the iconic photo of the only time the two leaders met. The columns light up at night similarly to the unique giant fingers statue that lights up nightly at the end of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

He also stated that she constantly lobbied public and private funding institutions to assist programs such as the South Dallas Cultural Center, the African American Museum, The Black Academy of Arts and Letters, the Harambee Festival and Clean South Dallas Inc. Moreover, she also gave donations of her own money.

Other efforts included her putting together the loan package that made possible the development upgrades and relocation of Elaine’s Kitchen, pushing to rename streets and roads

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Behind the pain of losing everything

Al Lipscomb Way sign – File photo

in the area, and working to save needed institutions.

“She was a prominent leader in helping us to save Common Ground Credit Union,” said Rev. Zan Wesley Holmes, former president of the African American Pastors Coalition.

Debra Peek-Haynes, owner of Quorum Commercial, a real estate company, points out how significant the councilwoman’s role was in creating Our Community Pantry.

“Carolyn made this deal happen at a time when everyone else couldn’t do it! Her leadership was awesome,” she said.

The Pantry is managed by St. Philip’s School and sponsored by the North Texas Food Bank.

“Construction work is currently being done at Highway 310 to redo the notorious ‘Dead Man’s Curve,’” Muhammad pointed out. “Ms. Davis not only successfully secured the funding to straighten a road that had caused numerous deaths and accidents for decades, she was able to turn the project into a jobs program targeting area residents who could be hired even if they had felony records.

“Signs of famous South Dallas fighters like Al Lipscomb Way and Elsie Faye Heggins Street and others are prominent at cross streets because of Carolyn’s leadership.”

As a council member, Davis led the push through several hurdles to have a portion of Grand Avenue renamed to honor Lipscomb, and a portion of Hatcher Street named after Heggins.

“None of these things would have happened without the bold, brass, courageous leadership of Carolyn,” said former Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Diane Ragsdale. “I thought I was bold, but Carolyn was like a political pit bulldog.”

Yet, Davis’ long history as a civil rights leader on the City Council was marred after she was charged with conspiracy to commit bribery using federal funds while she was chair of the council’s Housing Committee – for which she pled guilty in March.

While everyone who knew of Councilwoman Davis’ great passionate voice for issues as they related to her district, according to Muhammad,

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214-941-3100

“We have failed to fully appreciate how deeply housing is implicated in the creation of poverty. Not everyone living in a distressed neighborhood is associated with gang members, parole officers, employers, social workers or pastors. But nearly all of them have a landlord.”

– Excerpt from Evicted

by Matthew Desmond

Randy Mayeux, book reviewer at CitySquare’s Urban Engagement Book Club, recently brought the lecture program “15 Minute Business Books” to the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library auditorium for a noon lunch crowd.

Mayeux used a PowerPoint presentation to provide a brief overview and accounting of the 2016 book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

by Pulitzer Prize winner Matthew Desmond as part of the continuing literary series. The work covers the loss of homes by individuals and families in Milwaukee, yet Mayeux provided evidence that there were parallels between evictions occurring thousands of miles away and housing issues in North Texas as well as the state overall.

For example, in December 2018, tenants residing in the affordable housing Bryan Song Apartments in East Dallas received eviction notices so that redevel-

Website measures diversity, inclusion in workplace

See Evicted Page 7

BY MATHEW SHAW The Dallas Examiner

In an era of civil justice movements and hashtags for Black Lives Matter, Me Too and LGBTQ rights, American businesses and individuals have become more aware of inequality and harassment in the workplace.

To help businesses adopt better relationships with their employees, Kanarys – which keeps track of a company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion – launched a new website July 29.

Kanarys.com compiles cultural and demographic data, industry trends and anonymous employee reviews to measure diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace, according to the platform’s own description.

Kanarys CEO Mandy Price said the idea was inspired by her own experiences in the workplace when she realized wellmeaning companies were

Incentives for School Districts to Work with Charters Education Pg 9

Kanarys CEO Mandy Price – Promotional photo

doing “surface level” diversity attempts.

“Traditionally, when we’ve talked about data around diversity and inclusion, that’s been head count,” Price explained.

“Any time we looked at whether people are using data, they’ve used head count, which is counting bodies and saying we have this many bodies. That’s great that we’ve recruited bodies, but what are we doing to make sure people

See Kanarys Page 8

Inside

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www.dallasexaminer.com

Page 2 August 8, 2019

STATE/METRO

The Dallas Examiner www.dallasexaminer.com

Harris County agrees to reform bail practices

By JOLIE McCuLLOuGH The Texas Tribune

Harris County officials agreed Tuesday to settle a federal lawsuit over how it sets bail for criminal defendants, a case Commissioner Rodney Ellis said was “as big as Brown v. Board of Education.”

The vote by the commissioners court in Texas’ most populous county marks a notable step to ending the yearslong litigation over its bail practices, which were deemed unconstitutional in federal courts. Judges have held that the county’s pretrial system discriminated against poor misdemeanor defendants, and although changes have been in the works for years and a new wave of Democratic judges dramatically altered bail practices in January, the lawsuit remains open.

With a lengthy and detailed settlement proposal – which still needs approval from the federal judge in the case – county officials are hoping to become a model for bail reform across the country. The settlement, which was estimated to cost up to $97 million, solidified the local judges’ new policy of automatic, no-cash pretrial release for about 85% of low-level defendants. It also added additional legal and social services for poor arrestees and help for getting them to their court dates.

“The easiest way to think about this whole settlement is like you have an old house and it burns down,” said Harris County Criminal Court Judge Darrell Jordan, a Democrat. “Do you build the house with the same 1960stype setup? Or do you build now a hurricane-proof house, a house that’s really energy efficient, fully automated?”

Although plaintiffs’ attorneys noted Harris County’s landmark settlement proposal

as being the first case to put America’s cash bail system on trial in federal court, it’s unclear how, if at all, it will influence other bail lawsuits in Texas.

“Anytime one county settles, it could possibly provide a roadmap for another county, but I can’t say that it will,” said Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot, whose county’s bail practices have also been slammed by a federal judge.

“The landscape of this lawsuit is different.”

A big piece of that is because Dallas’ lawsuit, like another in Harris and one in Galveston, targets bail practices not only for misdemeanor defendants, but for felony cases, too.

Bail is a legal mechanism to ensure that people charged with crimes show up to their court hearings. The most common type is money bail, where judicial officers set a bond amount, based on the alleged crime, that an arrestee must pay in order to be released from jail before trial.

Defendants can pay the court the full amount, which is refundable if they show up to all their court hearings. Or they can pay a nonrefundable percentage of it – usually about 10% – to a bail bonds company that fronts the total cost of getting them released before their trial.

In recent years, civil rights lawyers and criminal justice reform advocates have targeted the cash bail system.

Counties and states have turned away from bail systems reliant on cash and moved toward release decisions based on a defendant’s evaluated risk of posing a danger to society or skipping court. And lawsuits have popped up across the nation, arguing the cash-based system is unconstitutional when a poor person can be stuck in jail before trial while a similar defendant with cash gets to walk free.

Magistrate Judge Hal Turley sets bail for defendants in Dallas County’s Lew Sterrett Justice Center in July 2018. – Photo courtesy of Dallas County/The Texas Tribune

Multiple bail lawsuits are active in Texas, though Harris’ was the first and has drawn nationwide attention because of the scale of its impact. Officials in Harris County, home to Houston, arrested more than 46,000 people on misdemeanor charges last year.

The Harris County lawsuit was filed in 2016 by several plaintiffs who were jailed for days on low-level offenses, like driving with an invalid license or shoplifting, because they could not afford to pay for their release. The next year, a federal judge slammed its bail practices, calling them unconstitutional and ordering the release of almost all misdemeanor defendants from jail within 24 hours of arrest, regardless of their ability to pay. The appellate court later walked back that ruling and called instead for bail hearings within two days of arrest where defendants can argue for lower or no-cash bonds.

The county also took on its own reforms, including implementation of a new risk-assessment tool that weighs how likely a defendant is to commit another crime or avoid court if released from jail before trial.

Such tools have raised concerns for taking into account some criminal history that may exacerbate already-existing racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

Then in 2018, county voters swapped an almost fully Republican group of misdemeanor judges with all Democrats. In January, they drastically changed county

policies to qualify 85% of misdemeanor defendants for automatic jail release on no-cash bonds – where defendants promise to arrive at court or they could later have to pay. Only those arrested for violating bonds, repeat drunken driving or some family violence offenses would need to first appear before a magistrate before release decisions could be made.

The settlement proposal going before the federal judge includes this policy, but it goes further as well. In 51 pages, it details allowing for things like more indigent defense services, access to social workers and improving a system to ensure people get to their court hearings. The courts would also create an “open-hours court,” to be held once a week, where in some cases, those who miss their hearings could go within a week of their court dates with no consequences.

A study would also be conducted and practices impleto minimize mented financial-based reasons why people miss their court hearings, like a lack of transportation or child care, or strict work schedules. The settlement, in the form of a federal consent decree, would also put the county under a court monitor for seven years.

County commissioners approved the proposal on a 3-2 vote Tuesday, with the two Republican officials expressing concerns about the reach of the settlement.

Commissioner Jack Cagle said he wanted more judicial discretion and less of a

financial burden on the county for defendant services, and he argued for more funds for crime victims.

“We are neglecting the civil rights of people who are victims in the community,” Cagle said at the meeting before the vote. “If we are going to go far in this criminal justice reform, we need to make sure that we maintain the balance.”

The bail bonds industry, which is funded through those fees defendants pay to be released from jail, also strongly opposed the settlement.

“This settlement ... specifically requires judges to inform defendants that they cannot set a bail that a defendant cannot afford,” said Ken Good, an attorney on the board of the Professional Bondsmen of Texas, at the hearing. “The only persons who will remain in jail would be those that are unconstitutionally preventatively detained.”

But despite opposition from the Republican commissioners and the bail bonds industry, the proposal moved through as expected – with celebration from reform advocates.

Those involved in other lawsuits across the state were watching.

“I’ve been studying very closely what’s happening in Harris County, and I think that it’s a step in the right direction and something that we should ... modify or use as a blueprint for felony cases,” said State District Court Judge Brandon Birmingham, a Democrat and defendant in Dallas’ lawsuit. He was especially interested in the idea of an open-hours court.

Adding felonies to the lawsuit against bail practices in Dallas brought a new complication, however. The judges work for the state, not the county, and are being represented by the Texas attorney general’s office, which

claims they have no jurisdiction over early bail decisions.

County officials, who are largely Democratic, have said the attorney general’s office, run by Republican Ken Paxton, has stalled settlement talks and reform efforts.

“The fact that felony judges are part of the lawsuit complicates resolution,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, a Democrat. “The AG office’s public positions on criminal justice reform and bail reform are not the same as the Commissioners Court or most of our elected judges.”

The attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a court filing last month, Texas Solicitor General Kyle Hawkins wrote that the Dallas lawsuit goes too far by including felony judges. He said bail decisions are set by county judicial officers before felony judges assume jurisdiction over criminal matters.

“Despite tens of thousands of words spilled in this case so far, [the plaintiff] has yet to articulate just what she expects the felony judges to do, going forward, to remedy her alleged harm,” Hawkins wrote.

But things appear to be moving toward resolution.

Two district judges, including Birmingham, recently began conducting their own bail hearings every morning and hired a lawyer to represent them instead of the attorney general. Jenkins and Creuzot confirmed that the parties are now headed to mediation to hopefully come up with a settlement proposal or consent decree.

“We do have an agreement to mediate, so I am hopeful,” Creuzot said, noting there is no set date for discussion yet. “Maybe [Harris County] has an impact; maybe it doesn’t.”

The Dallas Examiner www.dallasexaminer.com

Page 3 August 8, 2019

Page 4 August 8, 2019

Protect children, not guns By MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN Children’s Defense Fund

Will our nation ever decide to prioritize children’s lives over guns?

Once again, the headlines this week were all too familiar. ‘Nothing short of horrific’: Three killed, including two children, in shooting at California food festival (Washington Post), and Gilroy joins grim fraternity of communities terrorized by mass shootings (Los Angeles Times).

On Sunday, July 28, a dozen people were injured by a gunman with an assault-style weapon who fired on the Gilroy Garlic Festival, a beloved annual community event in the city 80 miles southeast of San Francisco. The three people killed were 25-year-old Trevor Irby, 13-year-old Keyla Salazar and 6-yearold Stephen Romero.

Keyla’s aunt told reporters that she was eating ice cream with her parents and younger sisters when the shooting started, and stayed behind to try to help an older relative who used a cane. Stephen’s father, Alberto, told a local television station that he was at home when his wife called to tell him that she, her mother and Stephen had all been shot.

He raced to the hospital where his son was in critical condition, only to be told minutes later that Stephen had died. “My son had his whole life to live, and he was only six,” he said.

Why does gun violence remain a uniquely horrible American epidemic? Mass shootings like the one in Gilroy may make national headlines, but children continue to be killed and injured by guns every day in America.

The day after the Gilroy shootings, 11-year-old Karon Brown was laid to rest in Washington, D.C. Karon had been at a McDonald’s near his home picking up a snack for his sister on July 18 when a fight broke out between several adults and a group of children. His 12-year-old brother managed to race home, but Karon was not so lucky. He was shot as he tried to get into a car and flee.

Karon’s mother had recently moved her family to that community in part to try to escape the violence in their previous neighborhood where Karon’s classmate and friend, 10-year-old Makiyah Wilson, was shot and killed last year walking from her front porch to the ice cream truck. At a community vigil, Karon’s family remembered the rising sixth grader as a loving, funny child who wanted to grow up and play in the NFL. “He was the joy of our lives,” his mother said.

Every year, students at Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools summer enrichment program sites across the country participate in a National Day of Social Action to highlight policy concerns that matter to children and youths and teach them that they are never too young to speak out and make a difference.

This year, CDF Freedom Schools scholars demanded action on gun violence prevention.

On July 17, scholars in kindergarten through 12th grade marched to places of power in their communities with homemade signs and chants to call on lawmakers

to “Protect Children, Not Guns.” One CDF Freedom Schools site produced their own music video to make their voices heard.

In 2017, 3,410 children or teens were killed with guns – enough to fill 71 school buses. Many of our CDF Freedom Schools children know that one life lost to gun violence is too many and it’s long past time to act.

In Washington, D.C., where Karon’s murder is one of a string of devastating gun deaths this summer, hundreds of students rallied at the U.S. Capitol to demand congressional action. The day after Karon was killed, 17-year-old rising D.C. high school senior Ahkii Washington-Scruggs and his father were found shot to death in their apartment across town. Ahkii, a football player who also loved poetry and art, recently shared a poem he’d written, I’m From, with his coach: “I’m from a city where it’s a blessing to see the age 20.

Where I’m from you get killed over stupid stuff …”

In St. Paul, Minnesota, 1,100 students were joined by elected officials marching to the state Capitol.

Eleven-year-old students Sekinat Fakunle and Destiny Cannon described to a reporter a recent school shooting drill where they practiced hiding behind a coat rack. “It’s scary,” Destiny said. “That’s why we’re here. We’re protesting for people to put their guns down.”

In North Charleston, South Carolina, where CDF Freedom Schools scholars were joined by parents, community leaders and the police chief at a 200-person rally, rising eighth grader Dajia Hart said, “Today we are going to be marching for all lives that have been lost. It makes me upset.”

In Jackson, Tennessee, where a 3-year-old died after finding a loaded gun under a mattress in May, scholars were taught what to do if they find a gun.

Tanya Rivers, whose 16year-old son James died in an accidental shooting in February, was one of the speakers and said, “If you see a gun, don’t play with it.

Let someone know. I’m begging you, don’t play with guns. You are the future, you have a life to live, but you can’t live it if you’re not here.” Her words sounded much like Alberto Romero’s after he lost his son in Gilroy this week: “My son had his whole life to live.”

Our children are telling us they want to live and are desperately crying for adults to do something. Instead, a child or teen is killed with a gun every 2 hours and 34 minutes in our gun-saturated nation. Parents are now adding bulletproof backpacks to their back-to-school lists.

When will we act and provide the commonsense gun violence prevention measures our children deserve?

How many news stories with the same headline and deadly ending are too many? It is way past time for adults in America to protect children, not guns.

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.

EDITORIAL

The Dallas Examiner www.dallasexaminer.com

Photo by David Samuel Photography/Graphic by Robyn H. Jimenez/The Dallas Examiner

No justice for Eric Garner: NYPD must terminate officer who used excessive force

By MARC H. MORIAL National Urban League

“It was Eric and my family five years ago, but it could be you and yours today or tomorrow. They want all of us to believe that we didn’t see what we saw on that video, but our eyes do not deceive us. … Eric is no longer able to speak, so I will be his voice, and you will hear me.”

– Gwen Carr, Eric Garner’s mother

Eric Garner died pleading for his life on a New York City sidewalk. The chokehold that triggered his fatal asthma attack was illegal.

Eleven times Eric Garner said he couldn’t breathe, and Officer Daniel Pantaleo did not loosen his strangling, illegal grip on Garner’s neck. The world saw Pantaleo’s deadly assault.

The world heard Garner’s pleas. But there will be no justice for Eric Garner.

When U.S. Attorney General William Barr abandoned the civil rights case

against Pantaleo, it sent a devastating message from an administration whose hostility toward civil rights protections is unprecedented in the last 50 years.

Astonishingly, Pantaleo remains a member of the New York Police Department, pending a decision by an administrative judge who is expected to rule within a few weeks. His continued employment by the NYPD diminishes the institution, and he should be terminated.

It is difficult to imagine the grief of Garner’s family.

To lose a father, a son, a brother to an untimely death is painful enough. To have been dragged through five years of injustice after injustice, to see the person responsible for that death escape accountability seems almost too much to bear.

Not only has Pantaleo escaped accountability, he has received a substantial raise in his pay since Garner’s death.

Sadly, police officers are rarely held accountable for unjustified brutality – local prosecutors are predictably reluctant to bring charges.

That’s precisely why the federal government has a special responsibility to

‘‘ ’’ Black History Fact

Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.

– Toni Morrison

The Dallas Examiner

Before Madam C.J. Walker, there was Annie Turnbo Malone, who gained notoriety as one of the nation’s wealthiest African Americans and most successful hair entrepreneurs in the 1920s.

The self-made hair tycoon revolutionized Black cosmetology by creating different ways to straighten hair during a time when soap, goose fat and heavy oils were used, which damaged Black women’s scalp and hair follicles.

Malone started her own business and sold her popular product, Wonderful Hair Grower, door-to-door through out Black neighborhoods in Illinois.

She also created Poro College, which became a very successful cosmetology school in 30 states and mentored notable figures such as Walker and Chuck Berry.

Malone was also known as a major philanthropist and donated thousands of dollars to the construction of orphanage buildings and Black students’ college tuition.

Sources: Freemaninstitute.com; Histarch.illinois.edu; Blackhistoryheroes.com; SHSMO.org

seek justice in such cases, and why Attorney General Barr’s failure to do so in the Garner case cuts so deeply.

In the wake of the death of Garner and other unarmed people of color who died violently at the hands of police officers, the National Urban League promulgated a 10-Point Plan for Police Reform and Accountability, elements of which were incorporated into the final report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. One of the key recommendations is “external and independent investigations and prosecutions of officer-involved shootings and other use-of-force situations and in-custody deaths.”

In the Eric Garner case, as in many others, the Department of Justice’s civil rights inquiry was arguably the only hope for an external and independent investigation.

But this is an administration that is intent on weakening enforcement of civil rights laws. Under Barr’s predecessor, Jeff Sessions, the Justice Department abandoned all efforts to work with local police departments to address discriminatory practices.

Consent decrees historically have been a crucial tool in the Justice Department’s efforts to ensure constitutional and accountable policing.

The department also tried, unsuccessfully, to block a federal court in Baltimore from approving a consent decree between the city and the Baltimore Police Department to rein in discriminatory police practices that the department itself had negotiated over a multiyear period. The Department of Justice’s failure to seek justice in the Eric Garner case is just the latest in a series of missteps with regard to civil rights.

Our hearts go out to Garner’s family as they suffer yet another blow in the ongoing tragedy of Garner’s untimely death.

Marc H. Morial, former mayor of New Orleans, is president and CEO of the National Urban League. He can be reached through http://nul.iamempowered.com.

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PERSPECTIVES

Page 5 August 8, 2019

Hate speeches: Words have consequences

By EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON

U.S. House of Representatives

No matter how much some people argue that it is untrue, there is a strong nexus between repulsive language used in public by elected officials and their supporters and the carnage caused by hate-filled young men, armed with assault rifles, who brazenly entered a retail store in El Paso, Texas, and an entertainment district in Dayton, Ohio, and slaughtered 29 innocent

men, women and children.

People that never harmed them in any way!

Moments prior to the El Paso shooting, a manifesto reportedly written by the shooter appeared online.

It contained hatred for people of Hispanic origin and immigrants, stating that they were a threat to the stability of America. It expressed sentiments similar to those used by a candidate in the 2016 presidential election.

The shooters were able to kill as many people as they did because they used semiautomatic weapons, which have no place in the hands of civilians. They were de-

signed for use in combat, and that is where they should remain.

The Democratic-led House has, with my support, passed bipartisan legislation to ensure comprehensive background checks. Now the Senate must act, and I call on Sen. McConnell to bring the bill to the floor of the Senate without delay.

The Congress must also take up legislation that bans the possession and use of “weapons of war” by members of the public.

We must implement sensible gun legislation such as the federal assault weapons ban that was signed into law

by former President Bill Clinton in 1994, and which lasted until 2004 when the administration of President George W. Bush and Republicans in Congress allowed it to lapse.

Subsequent attempts by Democrats in Congress and

by President Barack Obama to reinstate the assault weapons ban were unsuccessful, largely due to the overwhelming influence that the National Rifle Association had – and continues to have – over Republican members of Congress and Republican presidents.

This occurred even though polls of the Ameri-

can people demonstrated that the electorate overwhelmingly was, and continues to be, in favor of commonsense gun laws.

The family members and loved ones of those who were killed in El Paso and in Dayton, as well as the families of the hundreds of people who have been killed by gunmen in mass shootings that have taken place in America since the beginning of this year, are weary of elected officials offering their “thoughts and prayers.”

It is without question that the public demands meaningful action that will take assault weapons out of the

hands of deranged individuals and groups.

People of common sense desire to live in a county where no one is considered less human or more valuable than any other. And where human life is sacred!

U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson is the ranking member of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology and the highest-ranking Texan on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. She represents the 30th Congressional District of Texas.

White privilege has produced a group of spoiled brats

By SuSAN K. SMITH Crazy Faith Ministries

It is a fact that whenever any of us feel privileged in any way, we expect that privilege to always be there, and we expect for those around us to know about that privilege and to honor it.

A person, for example, who has a substantial income is used to going to his or her favorite restaurant and is used to being treated as someone “special,” receiving the respect he or she believes is due, but one day gets someone who does not know “who” that person is, the person is offended, or even insulted.

It is becoming clear that White people in this nation have grown used to the privilege of being White; they have gotten used to getting away with things no other member of any other ethnic group can get away with. They have grown accustomed to expecting respect from police officers, as did the El Paso shooter who was arrested and not mowed down and killed by police in spite of having killed 20 people, and who was known to be heavily armed.

White people have grown accus-

tomed to expecting better schools and being able to live in better neighborhoods. They have grown accustomed to committing crimes and getting away with it and worse – not really worrying about being held accountable, as seen in the steady parade of people in the current administration who committed crimes that would have landed anyone else in prison a long time ago. Rich White people have gotten even more accustomed to doing what they want and not worrying about the consequences, because they have the money to purchase justice.

While African Americans might stew over the fact that Daniel Pantaleo, the officer responsible for the death of Eric Garner, has basically gotten away with murder, many White people are insulted that any agency would even consider the possibility of him being fired.

There is a disgusting arrogance that “the privileged” carry with them; they cry out “law and order” while knowing they have no intention of obeying the law – or the Constitution – if they don’t feel like it, and they have the money to do just that. It does not appear that any of the officers who have been accused of state-sanctioned murders over the years have worried one iota about being held accountable

for their crimes, which include, too often, murdering unarmed Black people.

When White people are called the R-word, they buck like angry mules; they insist that they are not racist even as they walk in the privilege that racism has afforded them.

But when they get caught in their wrongdoing, and for a short time are exposed for who they are and for what they have done, they react like spoiled brats. They are angry not because they have done wrong; they are angry because they feel they have been mistreated and that those calling them to accountability have forgotten “who they are.”

Police officers are notorious for wielding unlimited power and then pouting when they are held to account. The New York Police Department is incensed that anyone would call for Pantaleo to be fired, according to Fox News.

Though not a police officer, Michael Dunn, a White man who shot and killed Jordan Davis because the latter was playing his music too loud, was astounded and angry that he was actually charged and sent to prison for what he did, as noted by CBS News. When Whites are called to account, they frequently claim that they are the victims.

White people have been pam-

pered in this country, made to feel that they are special, that they are above the law, and that the country owes them something because they are White. The current fight against immigrants is being waged largely because Whites say that Black and Brown people are taking jobs away from them (not true, as immigrants do the jobs that no American wants to do), and they are complaining that these “foreigners” are getting too much from America – a country that Africans, forcibly brought here, and then later, immigrants who came here voluntarily, built.

They whine, they pout, they throw temper tantrums in the form of policies and in the form of violence against those who they believe are in their way of being “privileged.”

If one looks at some of the traits of “spoiled brats,” one notices that they include: • They don’t play well with others.

• They drive people away.

• They have frequent tantrums.

• They’re not helpful.

• They don’t say “thank you.”

• They start sentences with “I need.”

• They’re not generous.

• They talk to you like a peer.

The whining of the “White privileged” is hard to take, maybe harder

than enduring the pain of seeing them get away with the things that they do. In thinking about it, White people in this country and around the world are like the perpetual younger sibling, doing what he or she wants while the parents, exhausted with parenting, let them get away with that behavior.

The good thing about being the elder sibling is that often that sibling is stronger and more able to deal with the curveballs thrown at them in life, while the pampered “little brother or sister” is totally or near totally inept to navigate change, difficulty, disappointment and a host of other life experiences that we all must go through.

As our government spirals into an unknown place, my hunch is that the spoiled brats will flounder and panic, even as those who have been trained to weather difficulty find a way to “make do” and keep on moving.

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

Contact her at revsuekim@sbcglobal.net. Her latest book, Rest for the Justice-Seeking Soul, is now available for preorder at Barnes and Noble at http://bit.ly/RESTBN or Amazon at http://bit.ly/RESTAmazon.

Another 100 million consumers at risk from Capital One data breach By CHARLENE CROWELL Center for Responsible Lending

A second disclosure of major consumer data breach was announced on July 29 by Capital One Bank. That same day, the FBI arrested a suspect who was charged with stealing the personal information on March 22 and 23. The apparent focus of the financial theft was credit card applications filed with the bank between 2005-2019.

Those most vulnerable are two types of consumers: small businesses whose company credit card applications included personal Social Security numbers, and other customers who linked “secured” credit cards to other accounts.

For these two developments to occur on the same day, suggests a tacit agreement between one of the nation’s 10 largest banks and the country’s top law en-

forcement agency.

But why did it take four months for consumers to learn their personal data has been at risk for four months?

Ranked No. 145 on the Fortune 500 company list, Capital One has 45 million customers in the states of Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Virginia and the District of Columbia. In the second quarter of this year, the bank reported net income of $1.6 billion.

According to the bank, the data breach affects approximately 100 million consumers in this country and additionally 6 million Canadians. An estimated 140,000 Social Security numbers used for credit card applications and another 80,000 bank account numbers all place affected consumers in financial jeopardy.

“I sincerely apologize for the understandable worry this incident must be causing those affected and I am committed to making it right,” said Richard Fairbank, Capital One’s CEO. The bank has

also pledged to provide affected customers with free credit monitoring and identity.

For consumer advocates, however, Capital One’s mea culpa was too little, and much too late.

“I wouldn’t say that consumers can or should ‘breathe a sigh of relief,’ cautioned Aracely Panameño, the Center for Responsible Lending’s director of Latino affairs. “The latest data breach speaks to the lax cybersecurity systems currently in place at major financial institutions and national credit reporting agencies.”

Equifax, one of three national credit reporting agencies, or NCRAs, waited two months to disclose its cybersecurity breach that occurred in July but was kept from the public until September that year. During that delay, 147 million unsuspecting consumers – the equivalent of 58% of the U.S. adult population – did not know that their personal data – including federal income tax records, as well as employee records for

government employees and those of Fortune 500 firms – was at risk. Nor did recipients of major government programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security learn that they too were affected.

In response to Equifax’s massive cybercrime, a surge of 50 federal class action lawsuits were filed in at least 14 states and the District of Columbia in September 2017, following the public disclosure.

“This settlement is a slap on the wrist of Equifax,” continued Panameño. “The restitution fund is up to $425M, which is equivalent to $2.89 per impacted consumer; the initial restitution fund is only $300M. The average monthly cost for credit monitoring is $20. These 147 American consumers will have to worry about identity theft and financial fraud in perpetuity. Yet under the settlement agreement, consumers must request benefits by Jan. 22, 2020.”

Similar reactions came from other consumer advocates.

“It’s disappointing but not

unexpected that consumers face yet another breach of our sensitive financial information,” said Chi Chi Wu, staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center. “People should take the most effective measure to prevent identity theft involving new credit accounts by freezing their credit reports. It’s free as a result of a new law last year.”

According to NCLC, credit card customers are not liable for any unauthorized use of over $50. By contrast, consumers with bank accounts in most cases are not liable for unauthorized debit card or other electronic transactions so long as the fraudulent transactions are reported within 60 days of receiving their bank statement. Further, lost or stolen debit cards must be reported within two business days of learning of the loss or theft.

For Ed Mierzwinski, senior director of U.S. PIRG’s federal consumer program, answers to consumer questions were also a key concern.

“How did this happen?”

asked Mierzwinski. “And how is Capital One going to prevent future breaches? We need answers to ensure that increasingly frequent, large breaches such as this, Equifax and others don’t become the new norm.”

Neither America, Canada, the United Kingdom or any other nation needs or wants yet another financial breach.

Only time and additional investigations will reveal just how many more consumers may be affected by these or other delayed announcements.

“The hackers made out with all the data needed to wreak havoc in the lives of 147 million American consumers for the rest of their lives,” concluded Panameño. “They need remedies that are commensurate with that risk.”

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

How should Americans engage globally to ensure a more prosperous world?

By LEE H. HAMILTON

Center on Representative Government

I’ve been struck recently by news coverage of climate change and humans’ degradation of the planet.

Two opposing themes keep appearing. One is the sense that, as individuals, there’s little we can do; the forces are too large. The other – and I think many Americans would agree with this – is that as citizens of the planet we have a responsibility to protect it and to pass it on in good shape to those who follow us.

So how do we reconcile those warring impulses – not just on the environment, but on many global and international issues? How, in other words, do we engage with the world?

Because make no mistake: As

Americans, we are global citizens.

It’s not just that the world has deep-seated, unavoidable problems that, if ignored, will bite us where we live. It’s that we inhabit a preeminent world power that bears a responsibility to lead.

If you pay attention to international meetings, you can’t help but notice that other countries have for many years turned to us to take the lead. That’s diminishing under our current administration, but not because other countries (with the exception of China and Russia) are eager to take our place. Shaping the global order has been a central feature of our identity and our history. Lincoln spoke of American freedom as “the last best hope of earth.” JFK promised to “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” Ronald Reagan spoke of this country as a

“shining city upon a hill.”

I don’t actually agree with the boundless sense of American power and responsibility suggested

by Kennedy’s promise. The truth is, we couldn’t “pay any price” or “bear any burden” back then, and we can’t now. Our obligation in its broadest terms is to try to make our nation and the world safer, freer and more prosperous when and where we can. But we can’t do it all.

What does this mean for us as citizens? It means we have an obligation to inform ourselves about the world we live in. It means we should learn about international affairs, visit other countries if we’re able, learn a foreign language, read what foreign leaders have to say.

We should engage with people from other countries, both here and abroad, and work hard to understand the challenges that other countries and their citizens con-

front. In short, we should try to see problems not just from an American perspective, but more broadly.

Beyond that, I think that as Americans, we ought to be first in line to respond to humanitarian disasters and to raise our voices in support of innocent people who have been mistreated. Where we can, we should try to lessen tensions between nations and groups, reduce conflict, and improve the quality of life for all. We should be perceived to be a benign power.

Yet we have to do all this with keen awareness of our limitations. We can’t solve all the world’s problems.

We can’t pour our resources into every challenging place and problem. We need the help of others and should welcome it. We have to be smart about how we use our power.

We have to reserve the right to use force as a last resort, but diplomacy and development should be our pre-

ferred tools of engagement.

I’m uneasy talking about “American exceptionalism,” even though I really do believe we have a responsibility to the world. I’m far more comfortable when we show we’re exceptional. If we really are exceptional, others will notice. We don’t need to flaunt it.

In the end, we have to look at our responsibilities as global citizens quietly and confidently, with humility, and try to contribute to a safer, more prosperous world.

That’s something we can all do, and a goal we should push our leaders to pursue.

Lee Hamilton is a senior advisor for the Indiana University Center on Representative Government. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years.

HEALTH

Page 6 August 8, 2019

The Dallas Examiner www.dallasexaminer.com

Parkland’s board selects new chairwoman Special to The Dallas Examiner

During a July 24 special election, the Parkland Health & Hospital System board of managers unanimously elected Paula Dobbs-Wiggins, M.D. to serve as its chairwoman and Jesse Vallejo, RN as vice chair. Robert D. Martinez, J.D., who was not part of the special election, will continue to serve as secretary.

Dobbs-Wiggins succeeds Winfred Parnell, M.D., who twice was voted chair by his peers. Parnell, who was appointed to the board in 2012, announced his resignation after seven years of distinguished service, effective Aug. 31. A new appointee has not yet been named.

Paula Dobbs-Wiggins, M.D., chairwoman of the Parkland Health & Hospital System board of managers – Photo courtesy of Parkland

She was named to the board in November 2013.

She is a board-certified psychiatrist and distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and is in private practice. She is as an

American Counseling Assoc.

Depression in teens shouldn’t be ignored

If there’s a teenager in your home, he or she, at various times, is probably moody, ecstatic, angry, happy and just about every other emotional state you can think of.

The fact that your teen can seem like an entirely different person at various times is fairly easy to explain. The teenage years are a pretty difficult time. Teens face all kinds of pressures. Their bodies are changing, their friendships can be volatile, there are demands at school and the uncertainty of college or career decisions.

It’s not an easy time of life and one issue, which can be easy to overlook, is that a teen can face a very real and serious mental health problem – depression.

Teen depression is more than the moodiness that many teens display in everyday situations. Teen depression is described as prolonged, persistent feelings of sadness and is characterized by a loss of interest in most activities.

ordained minister, member of Saint Luke “Community” United Meth-odist Church and a retired professor of the practice of pastoral care at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University.

Dobbs-Wiggins received her bachelor’s degree in biology (cum laude) from Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and her medical degree from Harvard Medical School in Boston. She completed her residency in psychiatry at Psychiatric Timberlawn Hospital in Dallas.

She is a member of a number of professional organizations including the APA, American Medical Association, Texas Medical Associ-

ation, North Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians, Dallas County Medical Society, Black Psychiatrist Association, C.V. Roman Medical Society and NAMI Dallas, among others.

Vallejo was named to the board in September 2015. He is a registered nurse at Children’s Health in Dallas in clinical program development and manages neuroscience service programs and the Center for Cerebrovascular Disorders in Children.

Prior to joining Children’s in 2015, he served as a critical care nurse educator, employee health coordinator and administrative supervisor at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Rockwall. In addition, Vallejo was a registered

Counseling Corner

It’s a problem that not only shuts out the happiness that ought to be part of the teenage years, but can also lead to serious consequences, including suicide. Teen suicide is one of the leading causes of teenage deaths and leads to thousands of hospital visits resulting from suicide attempts.

It’s vital for parents to recognize the signs of clinical depression and to get help for their teenager when needed.

There are a number of signs to look for in your teen, some emotional and others behavioral. A depressed teen will often feel sad, perhaps even experiencing crying spells for no apparent reason. The teen may be easily annoyed or angry, and may express feelings of worthlessness or guilt or hopelessness.

The teen’s behavior will also be changed, including losing interest in most activities. Your teen may seem lacking in energy, or may be overly active. Sleeping too much or insomnia may occur. There may be a loss of appetite, or suddenly overeating.

One sure sign of teen depression is when the teen’s loss of interest and happiness goes on for a period

of more than two weeks. This is a time to take action, especially immediate action if a teen starts talking of suicide or makes a suicide attempt.

If your teen is showing signs of depression, talk to your family physician or contact a professional counselor. If you sense the potential of suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1800-273-8255.

Taking that parent-teen disagreement down a level If there’s a teen in your home, odds are overwhelming that there have been parent-teen disagreements, perhaps even hot and heavy fights. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Parents and their teens disagreeing is a normal part of the developmental process. Young children easily accept the black and white rules we create for them, like “No snacks just before dinner.” But as our children grow up they begin to learn that not everything is an absolute and that there are often shades of gray or

nurse at Forest Park Medical Center and Medical City Dallas Hospital, among others.

Vallejo earned his registered nurse degree from Garden City College in Garden City, Kansas. He is a member of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses and the Association of Nursing Professional Development.

Martinez was appointed to the board in February 2016.

He is a litigator with experience in a diverse range of civil, criminal, arbitration and regulatory arenas. He is also a community leader with extensive board service, including leadership, public speaking and general counsel roles. Martinez is in private practice at Robert D. Martinez, PLLC. He also

alternatives. The result is that they will increasingly question and test us. It may be frustrating for parents, and often the fuel for parent-teen arguments, but it’s actually a healthy, normal part of becoming more mature.

While only time will make that questioning and testing disappear – and even adulthood may not stop it – there are ways you can keep the disagreements from getting out of hand now.

A starting point is simply accepting that as your child grows he or she will instinctively question rules and decisions, and often want to debate you. When you can accept that this is just naturally going to take place as your maturing child seeks more independence, it can be easier to not let such occurrences make you angry and frustrated. Instead, try to develop techniques to avoid the fights.

One key is to take a nonaggressive attitude in disagreements. If your immediate response to your teen questioning your judgment is one of anger and zero compromise, you can probably expect the same back in

serves in an of counsel role to the Fort Worth law firm of Broude Smith Jennings & McGlinchey PC. Martinez began his litigation career as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, serving in the department’s Dallas Field Office and as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. He has chaired the board and continues to serve on the board ex officio as general counsel of the Greater Irving-Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce. He received his Juris Doctor from Wayne State University School of Law in Detroit, Michigan. He received his bachelor’s degree in political science from Wayne State University in Detroit.

response. Instead, stay calm, use a rational tone of voice and make it clear you’re willing to listen and discuss. Setting that example helps your child understand that you expect the same sort of response from him or her.

You’ll want to avoid words and accusations that put your child on an angry defensive. You’ll want to control your anger, and instead consider options and compromises that both of you can live with. When you disagree with something the teen has done or wants to do, make it very clear you’re disapproving of the behavior itself, not your child.

Questioning and disagreeing is a regular factor in growing up and learning to be more selfsufficient. When disagreements occur, understand why, stay calm and non-combative and you’ll avoid major fights that end in hurt feelings and distrust of each other.

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.

The Dallas Examiner www.dallasexaminer.com

Page 7 August 8, 2019

Evicted,

continued from Front Page

oping of the property could take place.

“Let’s state the obvious. If you have a home, and you are evicted, you are now homeless,” the speaker began. “This book is about people who lose their home, and when they lose their home, they lose everything connected to their home.”

Approximately 1 in 8 people nationwide are or will be evicted, according to the publication.

He spoke to those gathered about items he had at home that were precious to him: photos, books, gifts from his wife and so on.

Things that he would trade for nothing, he voiced, and posed to the audience that they probably had similar such belongings.

“Imagine just putting all of that on the curb and losing it. And so, homelessness, in this book, is about being evicted, and losing the roof over your head, the chair you like to sit in, the room you like to sit in. It is a serious problem in many parts of the country,” Mayeux said, preparing the audience to better relate to the subject by placing them in the emotional position of an individual facing forced relocation.

Pressing the point, he noted that many facing eviction do not have the funds to put items in storage, nor can they afford to pay off storage bills to retrieve previously stored items. Too, once property is removed from a home during an eviction, the public is legally allowed to search through it and take items they find.

There are numerous reasons evictions occur, Mayeux explained. Some are economic. Some factors deal with employment issues.

Lack of education also in-

Jackie Hendricks reacts to an eviction notice from Sheriff's Deputy Ken Paige on the front porch of her home. – File photo by The Charlotte Observer, Diedra Laird/AP

creases the odds of housing instability. Property owner evictions are a piece of the puzzle as well. Long distance landlords or absentee landlords, such as the case with the East Dallas apartments, cause 23% of evictions – situations where renters have done nothing wrong.

Yet another reason may be cultural. Part of a mental trap that can lead to eviction is the overemphasis of a home on its own as a measure of having “made it” in life, he insisted.

“At no time did anyone feel secure in this book just because they had a house – when you hear their thoughts and hear their words, talking about, ‘Where’s the rent going to come from? Where’s the next job going to come from?” Mayeux expressed on the book’s subjects.

In speaking about the mission of the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance and other programs or industries dedicated to ending homelessness, he added, “We always say, it’s housing first, not housing only.”

The most effective ones focus on wider improvements for those they help.

“You’ve got to have that community, the support services, that feeling, that sense that brings people back to the patterns of the community.”

As Mayeux called attention to data on his PowerPoint screen, he explained,

“Here are the metros with the highest eviction rates.

Memphis is No. 1. Dallas is No. 5 at 5.6%. The poverty rate in Dallas is 12.7%. …

It is much higher for African Americans and Hispanics.”

He indicated that the book also broke down information in terms of eviction numbers between the sexes as he announced, “If incarceration had come to define the lives of men from impoverished Black neighborhoods, eviction was shaping the lives of women. Poor Black men were locked up.

Poor Black women were locked out.”

In order to shrink the impact of evictions, a wholesale change in housing, employment and homeless solutions would have to be put into place.

“Imagine if you did not have to worry about housing,” Mayeux affirmed.

“How much more we could do for the citizens of our country. Everything else is easier – and this is one of the quotes in the book – everything else is easier when you have a home and [Desmond] talks about respsychological, idential, school and community stability, and we’ve seen that in the housing first model.

“Once somebody moves into a home and we see that they believe it’s their home,” he specifically emphasized, “you see a completely different person than

the person we were dealing with when they were homeless and didn’t believe it.”

Some of what the speaker considered takeaways from the book is the fact that most poor individuals or families face eviction as a part of life, which in turn adds to downward spirals due to debt and instability.

Despite faith-based groups such as the MDHA, there will never be enough “charity” to compensate for the problem of eviction of the impoverished.

Desmond’s book highlights that only a major effort by the government would make a difference.

Mayeux pointed out that the publication recommended a universal voucher system with the goal of people to spend only 30% of their income on housing with a voucher to make up for the rest. A study co-authored by Desmond indicated that “the majority of poor renting families in America now devote over half of their income to housing costs.”

The speaker opened up about his own life and growing up in the South, starting with Florida when Jim Crow laws were still on the books and his elementary school was named after a member of the Ku Klux Klan. He admitted that he never saw homeless people in places he lived as a boy.

It was only later in life he understood that was because the community wouldn’t allow such a thing to occur.

“We are missing that fabric of community,” he considered.

Desmond and, by extension, Mayeux, imparted that the issue will likely get worse.

“We have a growing problem of a shortage of livingwage jobs for the lesser employed,” he wrote in a syllabus available to the audience. “And the shortage will continue to grow.”

Page 8 August 8, 2019

Kanarys,

continued from Front Page

can feel they can be their authentic selves at work?”

For example, companies will celebrate Black History Month, Women’s History Month or Pride Month, but are not successful at making sure people of color, women and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community have the same opportunities as everyone else, she continued.

“Is our organization itself actually inclusive?” she offered. “Are we instituting policies and practices and procedures that ensure that everyone within this workplace has an opportunity to succeed?”

Fewer than 30% of people of color and underrepresented professionals in the workplace report a sense of belonging, Price noted.

“That’s really astronomical if you really think about it,” she said. “We just felt really compelled, like we had to do something about this. We had to make sure

Service,

continued from Front Page

that work really is fair and equitable.”

Price’s own experiences in the workplace help her relate to that 30% of workers.

“I was on the recruiting committee, and I was at a hiring event, and someone asked me if I had gotten into Harvard legitimately,” she recalled. “At that moment it was unbelievable. Not only had I worked at the firm for five years, but this is what this person thinks of me.

People still don’t value me and consider me as a true member of the team.”

Development on the platform began 14 months ago.

It has established a research partnership on diversity, equity and inclusion with University of Texas at Austin as well as an advisory board to offer expertise on diversity in the workplace, according to the press release.

The venture also received outreach from various groups such as the National Association of Black Accountants, National Society for Black Engineers and Lambda Legal, Price added.

The website has profiles of 350 companies, such as

she was even more an aggressive protector of her only daughter, Melissa Lashan Davis-Nunn. Her daughter struggled with schizophrenia since her teen years.

“Through it all, Carolyn never gave up on her darling Melissa,” Muhammad stated.

“They were inseparable. They went everywhere together, including some City Council events. Some believe it was fitting that they died together.”

Still, many community members have expressed unsettled feelings knowing that their deaths were the result of a repeated drunk driver who was reportedly driving under the influence of a drug, resulting in the head-on collision.

Reflections,

continued from Front Page

cultivate meaningful relationships with community members and people of influence.”

Walsh believes that the Bishop Arts Theatre Center would not be as successful today without the foundation that Davis helped build.

“She was very instrumental in helping us meet people, cultivate relationships, and when I first moved to Dallas, I didn’t know anybody, and I didn’t know anybody in the Office of Cultural Affairs,” she said. “These are people who I have deep personal relationships with now and Carolyn helped open that door.”

Establishing connections in the community was a gift Davis had, according to Walsh.

“I think oftentimes people in business don’t realize relationships help everything honestly,” she said. “It’s not my business degree that helped get one off the ground, but rather it’s my relationships with meaningful people, people who are willing to help the theater. The building that we are in now was donated to us. It was formerly a dilapidated photography studio in 2005, and at that time we raised a halfmillion dollars in private sector funding, and we were able to get a construction loan of another half-million dollars.

“We started renovations in 2006, and we completed renovations in 2008 – and again, none of this would have happened without having relationships in place, and Carolyn helped with that. She helped build this center, and she helped us to strategize on who could use it to influence and to make sure this building was for this community, and after the building was built

Uber, Southwest Airlines and Exxon Mobil. Objective data and employee input offer a picture of what benefits and policies the companies offer, including LGBTQ insurance coverage and fertility benefits, Kanarys co-founder Star Carter said.

“Not only are we crowdsourcing all these objective data, we’re asking the employees, ‘Tell us what the deal is. Tell us the feedback.

Can I thrive there as an Asian American woman, African American woman?’

That way it is public.

Everybody can see this stuff,” Carter explained.

This transparency keeps companies accountable, Carter continued, adding that no other website has all this data in one place.

“When you’re transparent, that creates accountability,” she declared. “And when these companies are held accountable, that is the way you truly move the needle with diversity and inclusion.”

Muhammad considered the timing of the crash as he recalled seeing her July 12.

“There she was … excited, bubbly, extremely happy,” he stated. “We were sitting in the office with Carol Frasure, co-owner of Graham Barber College in South Dallas.

She said to Carol and I that she’d just found all files showing she hadn’t taken a penny in the fed bribery charges that she’d been accused of. She was looking forward to correcting her record.”

Davis, killed by a wrong-way driver three days later, never had the opportunity to present her evidence.

The driver, Johnathon Moore, has been charged with two counts of murder. And many who knew them believe it was Carolyn’s way, with God’s permission, that if she had to go, she would take Melissa with her.

she helped us to strategize to form programs that were meaningful to the community.”

Walsh said she is often reminded of Davis’ work in South Dallas as she travels through the city.

“When I look at and ride through South Dallas, I see all of the development, I see the housing, the conditions of the streets, the bike lanes and so much improvement in South Dallas area, and that is Carolyn’s legacy,” she said.

Walsh also credits Davis for being instrumental in helping the South Dallas Cultural Center and getting it built as a place of refuge for use in the community and for people who look to it as a neighborhood resource.

“Carolyn not only did that for the people of South Dallas communities and for the South Dallas area, but she was also very instrumental in nurturing and mentoring Black women like me who were in leadership positions, and I think that is going to be her legacy,” Walsh said.

Walsh also talked about Davis as a mentor and community leader, saying that Davis taught her everything she knows about city government.

“So I am going to miss her a lot,” she said. “She was a very close friend and she befriended me when I felt very isolated. I left a community I was very close to, and when I moved to Dallas I didn’t know anybody, and she befriended me and helped me in so many different ways. I found her authenticity to be very refreshing. If Carolyn said she was going to do something, she did it, and she wasn’t afraid to share resources. I feel like we lost a warrior, but I personally lost a very dear friend.”

Walsh said she and her entire family were devastated upon hearing the news of Carolyn’s and her

daughter’s death. She believed Davis impacted young people and served as a mentor for them also.

“I remember taking a group of kids to speak before City Council when Carolyn served on the council, and I took those teenagers to City Council to say thank you for the financial resources they provided for the program, and Councilwoman Davis invited those kids to sit around that horseshoe with her, and I just thought about what she meant to young people like my sons who didn’t know what a city councilman did,” she said.

She said she will remember her friend as a woman who deeply loved community.

“She was someone who was about empowerment, not only for Black people, but Carolyn was a woman of integrity and a woman of honor,” she said. “She was a woman of commitment and I want folks to remember her for that.”

She said the two of them spent a lot of time at her house as well.

“I got to know her on a very personal level and she was a woman of her word,” Walsh said. “I loved that she wasn’t afraid to speak up.

She challenged the status quo and she redefined what excellence means for many of us. I wanted people to remember her for the person she was.

“I am really struggling right now because there aren’t many people who did things because it is the right thing to do. Most people do things because they want something in return, and Carolyn never wanted anything other than for the theater and for me personally to be successful.

I’m going to miss her dearly and her friendship.”

The Dallas Examiner www.dallasexaminer.com

The Dallas Examiner www.dallasexaminer.com

EDuCATION

Page 9 August 8, 2019

Texas tries to incentivize school districts to work with charters

By ALIYYA SWABY The Texas Tribune

A 2017 law made some waves by encouraging traditional school districts to partner with charter schools as a way to create more highquality, innovative schools.

The law incentivizes districts to hand over the management of certain schools to a partner organization in exchange for additional funding.

Districts with chronically underperforming schools also get a temporary break from harsh state penalties under Senate Bill 1882.

Opponents argued the law was intended to facilitate the expansion of charter schools, which are publicly funded and privately managed, at the expense of traditional schools that compete with them for money and students.

But two years in, not many school districts are partnering with charter schools, in some cases because they know it’s not politically palatable in their communities. Instead, districts are using the law to partner with universities and private nonprofit organizations, sometimes ones they have created and staffed – allowing them to reap the monetary benefits of the law without giving up as much control over their schools.

For example, Waco ISD in Central Texas tapped Transformation Waco to overhaul five chronically low-performing schools instead of permanently closing them. District officials helped to create the nonprofit in 2018 for the sole purpose of forming a partnership; Transformation Waco’s single employee is a former assistant superintendent for the school district. Everyone else working at the five schools is an employee of Waco ISD. “Families wanted schools

to stay open, but it was also very important for them that we maintain local control and, more than that, local relationships,” said Kyle DeBeer, Waco ISD assistant superintendent of communications.

School districts are “responding to their own community needs,” said Bibi Yasmin Katsev, executive director of the Texas District Charter Alliance, which advocates for district-charter partnerships.

“This is the trend we wanted to see regardless of what route they take.”

But some charter advocates are worried that districts are resisting choosing partners that would drastically change the way their schools are run, skirting the intent of the law and potentially preventing needed improvements.

“What we’re seeing is nonprofits started by districts, run by principals that used to be at the district,” said Starlee Coleman, chief executive officer of the Texas Charter Schools Association. “There really isn’t that autonomy and flexibility that was envisioned.”

A cautionary tale The partnership law passed quietly in 2017, billed as a way to encourage collaboration between districts and charter schools and give more students access to high-quality schools.

State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, one of the authors, said that governmental entities and nonprofits were added as potential partners to appeal to lawmakers who aren’t as supportive of charter growth.

School districts can use a partnership to try out a new educational model in a school that is already thriving. Or, more notably, they can use a partnership as a way to overhaul schools that have repeat-

edly failed to meet state academic standards.

Texas law threatens strict penalties for districts with schools considered failing for more than four years, including forced closure of the underperforming schools or state takeover of the school board. Districts that opt into partnerships get a two-year pause from those penalties.

But once school districts actually attempted to draw up proposals, community members packed into local meetings to rail against giving up the management of their neighborhood schools to outside organizations.

In 2018, San Antonio ISD chose a New York-based charter group to run a lowperforming elementary school, entering into a contract that allowed the charter group to hire and fire teachers at will. Members of the local teachers union argued they were told about the plan too late and that teachers who worked at the elementary school would lose district protections.

The public fallout served as a cautionary tale for others considering partnerships.

“I think there were some lessons learned from that partnership in San Antonio,” Katsev said. “People decided to have more of that community involvement.”

Lubbock ISD officials, in West Texas, hosted several community forums before choosing a new nonprofit called the Lubbock Partnership Network to run four schools on the district’s east side, including a middle school that had low performance for five years.

Cicely Alexander, a former Lubbock ISD elementary school principal, was named the nonprofit’s executive director, in charge of running the four schools, as a sort of school district within a school district. It has an independent, appointed school

File photo

board made up of local community members.

Without the partnership, Dunbar College Preparatory Academy, the low-performing middle school, would have been shut down, endangering the elementary schools that feed into it, Alexander said. Dunbar will now have a longer school day, more training for teachers and an extensive after-school program with free dinner provided.

Unlike in San Antonio’s controversial partnership, all teachers will remain contract employees of the school district, which is more palatable for local teacher groups.

“I’ve seen it as a positive.

It’s not the normal charter schools you see in the urban districts,” said Clinton Gill, a former Lubbock ISD teacher who now helps support the local chapter of the Texas State Teachers Association.

“The company ... is headed up by people in the community in Lubbock rather than some outside company.”

Charter battle For some superintendents, partnerships with charter schools – fierce competitors seen as stealing resources from urban public schools – would be politically catastrophic. This year, Dallas ISD put out a call for partners to help bolster its preK offerings that explicitly prohibited charter schools from applying.

“Unfortunately, people are using this tool that’s supposed to incentivize collaboration to put a stake in the ground to be further anticharter,” said Coleman, of

the Texas Charter Schools Association.

And Houston ISD parents and other community members effectively blocked the school board from approving any partnership, with charters or other organizations, disparaging the approach as a Trojan horse for privatization. Four low-performing schools put the district at risk of state takeover, and they might not all pass the upcoming state ratings.

“In the community, people flat-out said no,” said Zeph Capo, former president of Houston ISD’s local teachers union and now president of the state’s chapter of the American Federation of Teachers.

“Just for agreeing to try it, it was as if we were selling out all of our schools.”

In East Texas, Beaumont ISD parents and community members, too, were wary about the potential privatization of their schools. But administrators decided to partner with two charter organizations anyway to improve three low-performing schools, starting this fall.

They had considered more than 30 other potential partners, including a local university and a principal who proposed creating a nonprofit to run a dual-language program at one of the schools, according to Superintendent Shannon Allen.

But ultimately, the two charter groups, including one from Indiana, convinced district leaders they could improve student performance and the culture at the schools.

“We heard great concern in the community because the perception was that we were quote unquote giving away our schools to the charters,” Allen said. “We were going to be in a situation where we had to close schools ... and we didn’t want to close those schools.”

Will it work?

Bettencourt said he’s waiting to see how the partnerships affect student academic performance. “I just hope that the nonprofits use the same best practices that we saw in the major charters,” he said. “This is not insignificant money, and for that, we want significant performance and improvement.”

As superintendents anxiously await the latest state ratings of their schools, it’s unclear exactly what impact the partnerships will have on getting low-performing schools up to state standards.

With one year of a partnership under its belt, Waco ISD is expecting mixed results for its five schools. A couple of schools that had improved will likely receive failing grades, one will improve and two will remain where they were.

District officials are still studying exactly why the two schools backslid. Both had a significant amount of staff turnover in the summer before the partnership began, while the others did not. Transformation Waco, the partner nonprofit, focused during the year on bolstering teacher retention and recruitment, but it was hard to make up for the teachers already lost, said Robin McDurham, the nonprofit’s executive officer.

“The kind of turnover we were looking at, we were working hard to counter it during the school year,” she said. “It’s a process of gaining traction each year.”

Disclosure: The Texas Charter Schools Association has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism.

Page 10 August 8, 2019

The Dallas Examiner www.dallasexaminer.com

The Dallas Examiner www.dallasexaminer.com

MISSING Tory Brooks

DOB: Jan. 6, 2004 Missing Since: June 13, 2019 Age Now: 15 Sex: Female Race: Black Height: 5’3” Weight: 136 lbs Hair Color: Black Eye Color: Brown Missing City: Lancaster NCMEC Number: 1360710

Additional informaton: Tory was last seen on June 13.

Anyone having information regarding this missing youth should call the Lancaster Police Department at 972-218-2711.

Every 40 seconds, a child is reported as "missing," according to several government and missing children's reports. And the number of missing African American children has increased from 25 percent to 33 percent. This is not only a crisis for the families of the missing children, but for our community and our country.

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

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

Yes,

we can

help with your advertising needs.

Call today! 214-941-3100

CLASSIFIEDS Bids

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS RFP-2019-15

DHA, formerly known as The Housing Authority of the City of Dallas, Texas, is seeking proposals from qualified firms to provide Low Income Housing Tax Credit Compliance Monitoring Services. The selected firm(s) will serve as the Compliance Monitor to ensure that DHA’s assets are maintained in full compliance with all applicable federal and state statutes, regulations and other requirements as well as Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) regulatory mandates.

Proposal submission documents may be obtained from the Procurement Department at DHA’s Central Office which is located on the 2nd floor at 3939 N. Hampton Road, Dallas, Texas 75212 or by visiting the website at www.dhantx.com or by calling 214/951-8429, beginning Monday, August 5, 2019. Office hours are from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on Friday.

Sealed Proposals will be accepted until 4:00 P.M., on Monday, August 26, 2019, in the DHA Procurement Department, on the 2nd floor at 3939 N. Hampton Road, Dallas, Texas 75212.

All sealed proposals must be received in the Procurement Department by the specified time.

Any Sealed Proposals received after 4:00 P.M., on Monday, August 26, 2019, will be rejected.

DHA RESERVES THE RIGHT TO REJECT ANY AND ALL PROPOSALS OR TO WAIVE ANY INFORMALITIES IN THE BIDDING. THE HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF DALLAS, TEXAS WILL NOT DISCRIMINATE ON THE BASIS OF RACE, COLOR, NATIONAL ORIGIN, RELIGION, SEX, DISABILITY FAMILIAL STATUS, OR AGE. EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY.

Page 11 August 8, 2019

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

Scholarships

Texas Educational Opportunity Grant Program The purpose of the Texas Educational Opportunity Grant Program is to provide grant aid to financially needy students enrolled in Texas public two-year colleges. To receive an initial award through the TEOG Program, a student must be registered with selective service, or be exempt; be classified by the institution as a Texas resident and be enrolled at least half-time.

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

CALENDAR COMMuNITY

Page 12 August 8, 2019 August Women’s Suffrage in Texas, an exhibit focusing on the long campaign for woman suffrage in Texas, from the movement’s early roots to the new struggles after the ratification of the 19th Amendment, will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m at the Dallas Historical Society, 3939 Grand Ave. For more information, visit http://www.dallashistory.org/exhibitions.

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.

August

National Black Business Month www.nationalbcc.org National Immunization Awareness Month www.partnersforimmunization.org Cataract Awareness Month www.aao.org National Eye Exam Month www.nei.nih.gov

8 Foremost Family Health

Center Open House, as part of National Health Center Week, will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, 2922 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd - Bldg. B. For more information, call 214-7082739 or visit www.dallasmlkcenter.com.

8 DIG- The Dog Person’s

Dating App, helping doglovers meet up, will launch from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the WeWork Thanksgiving Tower, 1601 Elm St. For more information, visit www.wework.com.

8 Free Legal Clinics, legal

advice and consultation in civil matters presented by the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program for Dallas County residents who meet certain financial guidelines, will begin at 5 p.m. at 2828 Fish Trap Road. For more information, visit www.dallasvolunteerattorneyprogram.org.

8

Meditation for Everyone, with a breathing meditation, instructions on

ONGOING EVENTS

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

Aug. 8-24 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-Wednesdays Sexually Transmitted Infection

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.or g/weekly-classes.

8 & 9 Amazing

Scavenger Hunt AdventureFort Worth Stockyards Mini Quest, a citywide team quest to solve clues while learning local history, will be held from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Exchange and Packers, 130 E. Exchange Ave., Fort Worth.

For more information, visit www.urbanadventurequest.com.

9

The RBCA Back 2 School Giveaway will be held from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Regional Black Contractors Association, 2627 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. For more information and registration, call 214-565-8946 or visit www.blackcontractors.org.

9 The Pre-Fair Horse Show

– Team Roping will be held free at 7:30 p.m. p.m. at the Fair Park Coliseum, 1438 Coliseum Drive. For more information, visit www.bigtex.com/livestock-shows.

10

The Dallas NAACP Fred Finch Justice for All Brunch, honoring individuals in the fight for justice, will begin at 10 a.m. at Lofty Spaces, 816 Montgomery St. For more information and tickets, visit www.dallasnaacp.com.

10

The Pre-Fair Horse Show – Team Roping will be held free at 9 a.m. p.m.

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

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.

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

at the Fair Park Coliseum, 1438 Coliseum Drive. For more information, visit www.bigtex.com/livestock-shows.

10

Let’s Get Physical Health Fair will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, 2922 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. - Bldg. B. For more information, call 214-7082739 or visit www.dallasmlkcenter.com.

10 Mesquite ISD Back-to-

School Bash 2019, with education on women’s health services, basic gynecology check-ups and routine prenatal care provided by Parkland’s Family Planning, will be held from 8 a.m. to noon at West Mesquite High School, 2500 Mesquite Blvd., Mesquite. For more information, call Tom Edwards at 214-435-0146 or email tedwards@mesquiteisd.org.

10 Marsalis Avenue COC

Community Fair, with mammography screenings at no cost provided by Parkland, will be held from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Marsalis Avenue Church of Christ, 2431 Marsalis Ave. For more information, call Melissa Bradford at 469371-8208 or email mbradford32@yahoo.com.

10 A job fair, hosted by

Chime Solutions, will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at RedBird Mall, 3662 W Camp Wisdom Road. For more information, visit www.dallas-ecodev.org.

10 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

The Dallas Examiner www.dallasexaminer.com

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

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

Wednesdays State Fair Job Assistance will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center Library, 2922 Martin Luther

www.friendshipwest.org.

11

Comedian Kountry Wayne will perform live at various time at the Arlington Improv, 203 Curtis Mathes Way, Ste. 147, Arlington. For more information and tickets, visit www.kountrywayne.com.

11

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.

King Jr. Blvd - Bldg. C. For more information, call 214-708-2739 or visit www.dallasmlkcenter.com.

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

Saturdays The MLK Fresh Produce Distribution Center will be open from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, 2922 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd - Bldg. A. For more information, call 214708-2739 or visit www.dallasmlkcenter.com.

lunch plate at 11:30 a.m.

Garage parking available from Olive Street. For more information and reservations, email jsmith@dallasbar.org.

12

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 or visit www.friendshipwest.org.

12 Quality of Life, Arts &

Culture Committee meeting will be held at 9 a.m. in Room 6ES at Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St. For more information, call 214-670-3111 or visit www.dallascityhall.org.

11 St. Barnabas Presbyte- 12 Public Safety & Crim-

rian Church 14th Annual Health Fair, with a range of women’s health provided by Parkland Women and Infants’ Specialty Health Division, will be held from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at St. Barnabas Presbyterian Church, 1220 W. Belt Line Road, Richardson.

For more information, call Martha Dorris at 972-6904908 or email marthadorris1@outlook.com.

11-13

Amazing Scavenger Hunt AdventureFort Worth Stockyards Mini Quest, a citywide team quest to solve clues while learning local history, will be held from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Exchange and Packers, 130 E. Exchange Ave, Fort Worth.

For more information, visit www.urbanadventurequest.com.

12 School Shooter Safety: What You Need to Know to Keep Your Kids Safe, presented free by the Dallas Bar Association, will be held from noon to 1 p.m. at the Pavilion at the Belo Mansion, 2101 Ross Ave. Attendees may purchase a

inal Justice Committee meeting will be held at 11 a.m. in Room 6ES at Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St. For more information, call 214-670-3111 or visit www.dallascityhall.org.

12 Government Perform-

ance and Financial Management Committee meetings will be held at 2 p.m. in Room 6ES at Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St. For more information, call 214-670-3111 or visit www.dallascityhall.org.

13

Dallas City Council Agenda Meeting will be held at 9 a.m. in Room 6ES at Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St. For more information, call 214-6703111 or visit www.dallascityhall.org.

Bldg. C. For more information, call 214-708-2739 or visit www.dallasmlkcenter.com.

14

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 or visit www.friendshipwest.org.

15 Amazing Scavenger Hunt Adventure-Fort Worth Stockyards Mini Quest, a citywide team quest to solve clues while learning local history, will be held from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Exchange and Packers, 130 E. Exchange Ave, Fort Worth. For more information, visit www.urbanadventurequest.com.

15 Free Legal Clinics, legal advice and consultation in civil matters presented by the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program for Dallas County residents who meet certain financial guidelines, will begin at 5 p.m. at Salvation Army, 451 W. Ave. D, Garland. For more information, visit www.dallasvolunteerattorneyprogram.org.

15

DART will host a community meeting to review the progress of the Cotton Belt Corridor Regional Rail Project at Shelton School & Evaluation Center, 15720 Hillcrest Road. For more information, call 214-749-2543.

13

Medicare 101 Basics will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center Library, at 2922 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. -

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

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

Email: calendar@dallasexaminer.com