February 16, 2023

Celebrating 31 Years of Service in Inglewood, Airport area Communities

ON THE CITY

City of Champions

Your Community Connection Since 1994

‘Promising season ends...” See Page 5

In 1955, at age 15, Claudette Colvin was charged with three crimes for her act of defiance against White supremacy and systemic racism, which occurred nine months before Rosa Parks’ famous refusal to move from a bus seat for a White patron.

Ms. Colvin, now 83, was charged with disturbing the peace, breaking the thensegregation law, and assaulting a police officer. The first two charges were eventually dismissed on appeal, but assaulting an officer stuck with her for over six decades.

According to Ms. Colvin, “In segregated law, a colored

person couldn’t sit across the aisle from a White person. They had to sit behind the White person to show that they were superior and the colored people was inferior.” When a White woman entered the bus and sat down near her, Ms. Colvin was asked to move — and refused.

“I said I could not move because history had me glued to the seat,” she recalled. “And they say, ‘How is that?’ I say, ‘Well, it felt as though Harriet Tubman’s hands were pushing me down on one shoulder, and Sojourner Truth’s hand was pushing me down on the other shoulder.’”

Eventually the bus driver

found a police officer, who arrested Ms. Colvin. She claims she was manhandled by the law enforcement officer, and then put in jail for several hours for the alleged crime.

The incident — and Ms. Colvin herself — was instrumental in striking down Alabama’s bus segregation law. She was one of four plaintiffs in the landmark case Browder v Gayle in 1956, which ended segregation on public transportation in Alabama.

Judge grants record expungement

Ms. Colvin later moved to New York, where she worked as

a nurse aide. In October 2021, she filed paperwork to have her record expunged, which was granted a month later.

The judge who presided over Ms. Colvin’s request, Montgomery County Juvenile Judge Calvin Williams, agreed that all Ms. Colvin’s records relating to the arrest would be destroyed. The records were sealed, and the judge noted he granted the relief for “what has since been recognized as a courageous act on her behalf and on behalf of a community of affected people.”

The Black Wall Street Times / News Publication

Dear Inglewood Unified School District (IUSD) Staff, Students, Families, and Community,

In our continued commitment to serving our community and providing current information, we have some important updates in this week’s message.

IUSD

Board Meeting and Updates

In an effort to keep our community informed, we invite you to join our IUSD Board Meeting on Wednesday, February 15, 2023. (4:00 pm. Closed Session and 5:00 p.m. Open Session) You may join in person or tune in virtually via livestream. We will present the Cash Flow Report and the Governor’s Budget. Please click here for information regarding our Board Meeting agenda and livestream information, posted 72 hours prior to the meeting.

Lincoln Day - No School

In observance of the Lincoln Holiday, our District Offices and schools will be closed on Monday, February 13, 2023. School and District operations will resume on Tuesday, February 14, 2023. We hope you enjoy the long weekend and take this opportunity to spend time with friends and family.

IUSD All-Star Employee Recognition

We are thrilled to name Jackie LeeHuman Resources Department as our All-Star Employee

for the February 14, 2023 - February 27, 2023 time period. Congratulations, Jackie, and thank you for your hard work, dedication, and vital contributions to IUSD!

Every 2 weeks a classified employee from the District Office will be named as the All-Star Employee, offering them the privilege of parking in the first parking spot of the District Office labeled: “IUSD All-Star Employee”.

Black History Month

Our District is proud to join the nation in celebrating National Black History Month. A month dedicated to honoring and celebrating the valuable contributions that African Americans have made in our country and our communities. In an effort to recognize the significant contributions of African American, we have kicked off a series by introducing African American owned businesses throughout the City of Inglewood. This week we are spotlighting Sweet Red Peach.

Sweet Red Peach Custom Cakes and Pastries specializes in desserts made from scratch. Owner and Founder, Karolyn Plummer’s, motto is “If we wouldn’t eat it, why would we expect you to?”, vowing to always offer her customers the finest desserts. After finding a way to fulfill her dreams of making and designing delicious pastries, Ms. Plummer began selling desserts to local salons, barber shops, and churches and in 2000 opened her very first bakery. Some of her desserts include, chocolate cookies and cream and peach cobbler cupcakes, blue velvet cake, strawberry cake and much more! For more information regarding AfricanAmerican owned businesses within the City of Inglewood and Los Angeles County, please click here.

National School Counseling Week

In honor of National School Counseling Week, our Student Support Services department recognized our amazing school counselors, who work tirelessly to help our students examine their talents, strengths, abilities and interests. In addition, our counselors ensure that our students and families receive the proper services and support around social emotional learning and mental health services. We are extremely grateful for the significant impact they make in the lives of our students every day.

The District collaborated with the Los Angeles County Office of Education, as they kicked off a series of School Counselor spotlights. We are excited to share spotlight messages of Dr. Karla Harness-Brown and Arnel Sison, Child

Welfare & Attendance Advisors. Important Immunization Update

Over the past several weeks, notification letters have been sent to families whose children’s immunization records are not up-to-date. It is very important that families provide their child’s school with up-to-date immunization records, in order for their child to remain in school. Students who have been enrolled 30 days prior to February 1, 2023

projects. The modernization and improvement projects have been funded through the use of Measure GG and Measure I bonds funding proceeds, alongside private donations. To learn more about how the funding proceeds have impacted our schools, please click here.

Subscribe to Our IUSD Weekly Newsletter

Subscribe to our IUSD Newsletter and learn about important information and exciting events. We share and celebrate the great accomplishments from our amazing students and staff and their fantastic work. Stay connected and sign up by clicking here today!

Follow Us On Social Media

Stay connected with the District’s latest highlights, important information, and upcoming meetings on our social media platforms. Follow us today on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube by clicking here.

Community Events and Resources

IUSD’s Martin Luther King Jr. Art Expression Exhibition and Literacy Village

and currently do not have up-to-date immunization records will not be able to attend school. Students will be marked absent, as required by the California Department of Education. In addition, we understand that there may be some exemptions to the requirement of student immunization records, as determined by the California Department of Education. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact IUSD Student Support Services at (310) 680-5170.

What’s

Happening in Our District and Schools?

District Committee Meeting Updates

In an effort to keep our community informed, our Citizen’s Bond Oversight Committee will take place on Thursday, March 16, 2023 at the District Office Board Room. The meeting is open to the public to attend, listen, and provide public comments. Please click here for information regarding our committee meeting agenda and supporting documents that will be posted 72 hours prior to the meeting. Furthermore, our LCAP Educational Partner Committee will take place via Zoom on Tuesday, March 7, 2023 from 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. To access the Zoom meeting link, click here.

The Inglewood Unified School District will host its annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Art Expression Exhibition and Literacy Village on Saturday, February 18, 2023, alongside the City of Inglewood’s Black History Month Celebrations. The event will take place in downtown Market Street at the Miracle Theater Event Space (230234 S. Market Street) from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., featuring K-12 student artwork themed: Why must the dream go on and where do we go from here?, live entertainment, and fun-filled family activities including a TK-3 Literacy Village. To access the flyer, click here. How to Pay For College Community

Presentation

The Inglewood Public Library has partnered with the Growth Ready Organization and the Next Generation Champions, and will be hosting a community presentation on How to Pay for College. This event will take place on Saturday, February 25, 2023 at the Inglewood Public Library from 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. To learn more about the community presentation, click here. Thank you staff, parents, students, and community members for your ongoing support and commitment to the success of our district.

Together, #WeAreInglewoodUnified

Facilities-At-A-Glance

December/ January Newsletter

Our District would like to share some highlights and updates on the District’s current and completed school modernization and improvement

Sincerely,

James Morris, Ed.D. County Administrator

Elected Officials, Community Leaders Embrace First District Candidate Gloria Gray

By Willie Brown, Publisher

The opinion of elected officials, community leaders and others is important to political candidates aspiring for elected office and when they embrace a candidate, it may influence voters who do not have firsthand knowledge of the candidate. Their support or endorsement signals to voters that the candidate is capable of delivering exceptional service to their constituents.

In addition to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, the former California Governor Gray Davis, former Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn, who were photographed with Gloria Gray; Leonard Redway and Cindy Giordina, former Inglewood City Council candidates, community leaders you know and trust, endorse Gloria Gray for Inglewood City Council District 1, in the important runoff election on Tuesday, March 7th. They are urging voters to vote for Gray now through election day.

In last week’s INGLEWOOD TODAY it was reported that several Inglewood voters expressed a desire to view a debate between Gray and George Dotson. It is highly unlikely that Dotson would agree to a public debate where his inability to effectively communicate would be on full display. It appears as though Dotson is using a

surrogate to manage his campaign and to fashion his written responses.

Citizens who have observed city council meetings have seen the mayor step in to ‘bail out’ Dotson and answer questions that were directed to him.

Many believe that Dotson is being held in ‘protective custody.’

Dotson will not debate Gray for fear of exposing his shortcomings and ineffectiveness and showcasing for 1st District voters that he is not capable of properly representing his constituents.

I urge 1st District voters to join the elected officials and community leaders you know and trust to support Gloria Gray and vote for her in the runoff election on Tuesday, March 7th.

Area Communities

Serving Ladera, Hawthorne, Westchester, Lawndale, Gardena, Carson

Memphis Police Murder Case Puts Spotlight on California Legislation

and stealing drugs and money from alleged suspects. But a deadlocked jury acquitted them of eight charges and a judge declared a mistrial after they could not agree on 27 other charges. The officers went free.

“Initially, it looks like they’re doing great things but behind the scenes, people in communities will tell you they are terrorized by them,” said Johnson.

cablackfreedomfund.org a letter reminding the public of the protests that gave voice to collective outrage, frustration, and grief that permeated Black communities and communities across the country in 2020.

By Charlene Muhammad | California Black Media

There was no “protect and serve.” Just an out of control and outside-thebounds-of-their-authority attack on an unarmed Black man, said Sen. Seven Bradford (D-Gardena).

Bradford was referring to the beating death of Black motorist Tyre Nichols in Memphis.

The Memphis Police Department has terminated the five officers involved in Nichol’s death: Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith. Each one was indicted on a seconddegree murder charge and faces up to 60 years in prison if convicted.

Since the incident, Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis has deactivated the city’s SCORPION (Street Crimes Operations to Restore Peace in our Neighborhoods) unit. The 50-person unit of crime suppression officers was launched in 2021 to patrol hot spot crime areas.

“The beating and murder of Tyre Nichols by five Memphis Police Officers is brutal and heart-breaking,” said Bradford. “This is yet another example of the need to hold police officers accountable regardless of the color of their skin.”

In 2021, Bradford authored Senate Bill (SB) 2. The law creates a process to make sure police officers who break the law can never wear a badge again in California. “This legislation will save lives,” he said.

Bradford is currently working on SB 50, which would prohibit police in California from making traffic stops for low-level violations. This will reduce the potential for more harm to innocent citizens, said the lawmaker.

“We tend to pass a lot of legislation that doesn’t really have a lot of binding power,” said Cephus “Uncle Bobby”

Johnson. His nephew, Oscar Grant, III was shot in the back while subdued on a Bay Area Rapid Transit District station platform on New Year Day in 2009.

The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act does not adequately address some of the most critical issues that we’re dealing with, said Johnson, referring to the bill named for the 46-year-old Minneapolis Black man who was murdered by White cop Derek Chauvin on May 25, 2020. The officer was convicted of 2nd and 3rd degree murder and manslaughter.

The bill would end police restraint techniques, including chokeholds and carotid holds at the federal level, as well as improve police training.

More money for training has been part of the problem, according to Johnson, who supported Assembly Bill (AB) 392, the California Act to Save Lives, which mandates that police officers should only use deadly force when necessary. It was introduced by California Secretary of State Shirley Weber when she was a San Diego Assemblymember. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed that bill in 2019.

“What happened to Tyre impacted so many in California. It retraumatized many of the families,” said Johnson. “Many families’ wounds have been reopened. Many families’ hopes that there has been some progress have been totally erased,” continued Johnson.

In Los Angeles, the Rampart police division scandal exposed gang unit officers planting evidence, framing suspects, and stealing drugs and money.

In Oakland, a group of cops dubbed the “Riders” stood trial for beating, planting evidence on,

Marc Philpart, executive director of the California Black Freedom Fund, organized 26 foundation CEOs and leaders to issue a call to action to push back against systemic barriers. Established two and a half years ago following the murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and countless others, the California Black Freedom Fund is a five-year, $100 million initiative created to mobilize the resources necessary to build Black power and eradicate systemic and institutional racism.

The coalition leaders posted on

“America recognized that the problem lies not within Black communities, but within structures that institutionalize and perpetuate racial violence and inequity,” they wrote.

Nationally, police killed at least 1,176 people in 2022 - about 100 a monthmaking last year the deadliest year on record for police violence since killings began being tracked, according to Mapping Police Violence.

“While the nation is grieving, some are making statements telling Black people how to express their outrage. That’s not the focus of our letter. Our letter is a call to action for everyone concerned with the brutalization of Black people and Black communities,” the leaders wrote.

Sports & Entertainment Promising season ends on sour note for Inglewood

Sentinels lose in second round; Morningside melts away

By Kenneth Miller, Publisher

It was his second head coaching job and one that he approached with optimism, but although the Inglewood basketball season got off to a rocky start Jason Porter led the Sentinels to the second round of the playoffs where it lost at home by two points. While that result may appear similar to last season when the Sentinels advanced to the second round under Omar Bray, the difference in this season was two victories over rival Morningside and a surprising league

win against Beverly Hills and its dynamic coach Jarvis Turner which has been dominant in the Ocean League.

The Sentinels finished the campaign with a 15-12 record and 7-3 in league, third behind Leuzinger and Beverly Hills, then advanced to the CIF-SS D-3A playoffs where it defeated LaHabra in the opening round before succumbing to Schurr 47-45 at Inglewood.

Porter, who cut his teeth in the prep coaching rants at View Park in Los Angeles, still considers Inglewood his dream job, but realizes he has work to do on a campus where the football

team just finished as runner-up in D-2 football championship.

Inglewood will lose it’s All Ocean League post player Keyon Agurs who joined the squad from the football team. Agurs will be graduating in June and scheduled to attend Colorado St. on a football scholarship this fall.

However, Inglewood returns two promising building blocks in starting point guard Danaus Cockrell, an All Ocean League first team performer and Steven Arnold, Jr., a second team Ocean League standout. Both players are just sophomores.

where kids want to come to school and play baseball instead of leaving and going to private schools and outside our district,” said Porter.

Porter credits his core of assistant coaches for the second half improvement; Maurice Holder, Corey Wilson, Steve Hamlin and Eric Hayes.

Meanwhile, Morningside went in the opposite direction this season under new head coach Dominic Ellison. The team saw a mass exodus of players leaving upon Ellison’s arrival and he subsequently finished the season with just seven players, concluding a dismal

Cockrell averaged 14 points per game and was second the team in scoring behind Agurs 18.

“We have to have a good off season and continue to develop and get stronger. We need to stick to our principals, continuing to be imposing on defense and stay true to who we are. I want Inglewood to be a program

4-18 season and just 2-6 in league.

Morningside went from 16-7 a year ago to a program that barely defeated Compton Centennial (4-20) which has fallen to such abyss it hardly resembles the once proud and dominant program it once was under current UCLA assistant coach Rod Palmer.

PORTER VILLE—Inglewood head coach Jason Porter gets his message across to his Inglewood basketball team which finished 3rd in the Ocean League and advanced to the second round of the playoffs.

BUPPIE | BUSINESS

Reparations Task Force: Freedmen’s Bureau Essential for Compensating Slave Descendants

By Antonio Ray Harvey | California Black Media

The members of the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparations Proposals for African Americans are preparing the pretext for recommending a modern-day Freedmen’s Bureau that will be critical for compensating descendants of enslaved Blacks for the injustices of slavery and Jim Crow discrimination they suffered.

Task force chairperson Kamilah V. Moore explained during the group’s two-day meeting at San Diego State University (SDSU) that the proposed California American Freedmen Affairs Agency (CAFAA) would identify past harms and prevent future occurrences.

Moore said that the agency would be “a main office or headquarters,” with “specialized offices and branches” dedicated to addressing specific atrocities that have “snowballed over generations.”

“The purpose of this new agency would be to identify how past statesanctioned atrocities have perpetuated and created new iterations of these badges and incidences of chattel slavery,” Moore said.

“And how (the agency can) eradicate and prevent future badges and incidences from forming and prospering against the American freedman or descendant community,” she added.

The CAFAA would facilitate claims for restitution and would set up a branch to process claims with the state and assist claimants in proving eligibility through a “genealogy” department.

In addition, the CAFAA would implement the recommendations made by a reparations tribunal to settle claims for past harms and set up an office of immediate relief to expedite claims.

Task force member and civil rights lawyer Lisa Holder said the proposed agency bears a resemblance to the federal agency set up on March 3, 1865, two months before the official end of the Civil War.

The Freedmen’s Bureau, as it was named under a series of post bellum legislation, was originally designed to settle the formerly enslaved on land confiscated or abandoned during the war.

The Freedmen’s Bureau, officially known as the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, assisted formerly enslaved people in acquiring relief, housing, employment, education, medical aid, and equality under the U.S. Constitution.

Holder said that the “original Freedmen’s Bureau” was “interrupted

and disrupted” when it could have been a “powerful” institution 100 years later if it “had been allowed to survive and thrive,” she said. According to the Freedmen’s Bureau National Archives at www.archives.gov, the bureau ceased operations in 1872 due to the lack of funding and “deeply held racist attitudes.”

Holder added that the CAFAA should be the “guiding light” behind reparations efforts in the state of California.

“One of the things I like about this notion of a Freedmen’s Bureau is that it’s in keeping with this concept that reparations and damages for human rights abuses have to create systems that end the harm that causes the harm,” Holder said. “It is also supposed to create institutions that make the community whole in a sense that they get you up to a place where you were before the harm happened.”

Elmer Fonza of Las Vegas and his elder brother Medford Fonza, who lives in the Los Angeles area, have attended task force meetings and activities around the state. Their great, great, great grandfather Nelson Bell was brought to California as an enslaved person around 1850 to mine for gold. He was later freed.

Bell purchased land in Coloma, 48 miles east of Sacramento, but the family lost it all after he died in the

1870s, the brothers told the task force at the September meeting in Los Angeles. Elmer Fonza believes that the property was confiscated through unscrupulous means.

The Fonza family, who visited and toured Gold Country last summer for the first time in their lives, wants to know how they can benefit from an agency such as CAFAA.

“Now, as we gather more evidence, we want to file a claim through reparations to see if we lost anything or could gain anything,” Fonza said. “We want to know if such an agency (CAFAA) could help us facilitate the process. Right now, we don’t know how that would be done.”

How the CAFAA can be used to determine reparations eligibility for Black Californians has been a topic of public discussion by Black grassroot organizations started before the task force was formed in May 2021. Now it can be addressed. Thanks to new laws that can help reparations eligibility, supporters say.

For the first time in California and American history, a specific category of data collection will be required for African Americans who are descendants of persons enslaved in the United States and living in California, starting with the state’s 2.5 million employees.

California is the first state to require its agencies to present a separate

demographic category for descendants of enslaved people when collecting state employee data. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2022-2023 budget trailer bill -- Senate Bill (SB)189 -- includes language directing state agencies to disaggregate or use separate data collection categories for different Black or African American subgroups.

The State Controller’s Office administered by Malia Cohen and the Department of Human Resources can start collecting this information as soon as Jan. 1, 2024.

The Task Force affirmed lineagebased eligibility for California Reparations in March 2022. The 5-4 majority decision by the task force determined that descendants of enslaved people or free Black people in the United States as of the 19th century are the only group of people eligible for any future cash payments.

“There was great care and intentionality around the creation of this proposal, our proposal in the Interim Report that we released almost a year ago,” Moore said of CAAFA. “It just flushed out more to make all the proposed agencies fully reflect the totality of what we discussed in our 500-page report.”

The reparations task force’s next meeting is in on March 3 and March 4. Times and location have yet to be announced.

King Fest 2023 A Celebration Of Black History Month

PUBLIC NOTICE

Fictitious Business Name Statement

File No. 2023026533

The following Person is doing business as:

Compassion Elevated Therapy

10736 Jefferson Blvd., #1127 Culver City, CA 90230

Registered Owner(s): Jetena McGhee, 10736 Jefferson Blvd., #1127, Culver City, CA 90230

This business is conducted by an individual(s). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the fictitious business listed above on February 6, 2023.

I (We) declare that all information in this statement is true and correct.

(A registrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime.)

Jetena McGhee, Owner.

This statement was filed with the County Clerk on February 6, 2023

NOTICE-In accordance with Subdivision (a) of Section 17920, a Fictitious Name Statement generally expires at the end of five years from the date on which it was filed in the office of the County Clerk, except as provided in Subdivision (b) of Section 17920, where it expires 40 days after any change in the facts set forth in the statement pursuant to section 17913 other than a change in the residence address of a registered owner. A New Fictitious Business Name Statement must be filed before the expiration.

The City of Inglewood will host its annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebration on Saturday, Feb. 18. This event, which was rescheduled due to rain and now coincides with Black History Month, will get underway at 11:00 a.m. along downtown Market Street (Market Street from Florence Ave. to Hillcrest Blvd.). King Fest is a funfilled family event that will celebrate the life and accomplishments of Dr. King along with other Black historical figures that changed the world. King Fest will include commercial vendors,

interactive games, food trucks, and live entertainment, including Noel Gourdin, Andrew Gouche, The Reel Band, Tiffany Gouche, Kenyon Dixon, and more. The event will also include special guests and some of Inglewood’s and L.A.’s hottest DJs – DJ Battlecat, DJ Malski, and DJ Rtistic, to name a few.

A highlight of the event will be the presentation of the winners of the City of Inglewood’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Speech Contest. Be sure to come out and support our winning students!

This event was previously scheduled to take place in January but was postponed due to rain. Join us on our new date – February 18, 2023.

The City of Inglewood’s King Day celebration is sponsored by Consolidated Disposal Services, Intuit Dome, Los Angeles Clippers, Kia Forum, Los Angeles Rams, KJLH 102.3 FM, and the Inglewood Unified School District.

For more information about Inglewood’s King Day Celebration, call (310) 412-8750

Lawmakers Push Bill to Grant Prisoners Right to Vote

By Maxim Elramsisy | California Black Media

Last week, Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles) the chair of the Assembly’s Committee on Elections introduced Assembly Constitutional Amendment 4 (ACA-4). The legislation proposes amending the California Constitution to allow felons serving time in state and federal prisons to vote.

Proposition 17, approved in 2020 by California voters, enabled persons convicted of felonies on parole to vote.

If the bill passes the Assembly and Senate, and the governor approves it, voters in California could vote to join Vermont, Maine, and Washington D.C. in allowing incarcerated individuals to vote.

“After the 13th Amendment liberated the slaves, we started to see different types of voter disenfranchisement occurring,” Bryan explained in an interview with California Black Media (CBM).

“We saw Black code, we saw Jim Crow, poll taxes, literacy tests, felony disenfranchisement, becoming more commonplace in statewide constitution and so it’s through that legacy that we’ve been trying to roll back all of these years and make sure that our democracy is inclusive of everybody,” Bryan commented on the systemic discrimination and disenfranchisement African Americans have endured over centuries.

Lawmakers opposing the legislation say allowing incarcerated felons to vote is a slap in the face to victims of the crimes they committed.

“I believe that it discounts the impact that this will have on people who have suffered being a victim of a very violent offense,” Assemblymember Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale) told CBM.

“Part of rehabilitation is going through a process of recognizing the seriousness of what has been done, and I think when we allow someone to exercise the most sacred privilege that we have in this country, that people have died so that we can exercise that privilege, that is an affront against those who have suffered ill, and a lot of times eternal pain,” Lackey said.

Responding to Lackey’s objection, Bryan said, “That’s like saying allowing incarcerated persons to breathe is an affront to their victims, allowing incarcerated persons to drink water, allowing incarcerated persons to hold conversations with one another.”

“There is no reason that that should be coupled with disenfranchisement and the expelling of individuals as citizens of this country.”

“There’s a difference between suspending a privilege and dehumanizing someone,” Lackey said. “Certainly no one expects someone to go through inappropriate suffering. That is not part of justice. That’s not part of our judicial process.”

David Liamsi Cruz, an advocate from Initiate Justice, was released in September after serving 13 years in prison.

“One problem that I constantly came across was that people serving their sentence alongside me felt that

they didn’t have the means to improve their environment that controlled their lives or to contribute to their families’ wellness outside. Despite what many people assume, people in prison care about the same political issues that we outside do,” Cruz said.

“Those who were willing to become civically engaged with me were diligent in their work, they even brought me bill ideas that could have solved issues that were longstanding in their communities.

I was honored to witness their passion for change, for an opportunity to grow, and to contribute to something way bigger than themselves. Even though I am home [from] prison now, I have not forgotten the 10,000 voices of people who are still inside and have so much to contribute. I want their voices to be heard.”

Supporters of the plan say that reducing recidivism - or the reincarceration of persons less than 3 years after they are released from prison – is one of the primary benefits of this plan.

“We already know a lot of the facts, and the facts are that the more someone is engaged in their democracy, they are 50% less likely to reoffend,” said Assemblymember Ash Kalra (D-San Jose) who is a co-sponsor of the bill.

“So, if we already know this, then the policy not allowing those who are incarcerated to vote has nothing to do with public safety.”

Kalra said when he was a public

Continued on page 8

The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a Fictitious Business Name in violation of the rights of another under Federal, State or common law (See Section 14411 et.seq., Business and Professions Code.) Original

February 9, 16, 23; March 2, 2023

IT0042230120020367

Inglewood Today

PUBLIC NOTICE

Fictitious Business Name Statement

File No. 2023009321

The following Person is doing business as:

The Williams Healing Company Will Heal Co 1011 North Chester Avenue, A Inglewood, CA 90302

Registered Owner(s): Janee Williams, 1011 North Chester Avenue A, Inglewood, CA 90302

This business is conducted by an individual(s). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the fictitious business listed above on January 13, 2023

I (We) declare that all information in this statement is true and correct.

(A registrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime.)

Janee Williams, Owner.

This statement was filed with the County Clerk on January 13, 2023

NOTICE-In accordance with Subdivision (a) of Section 17920, a Fictitious Name Statement generally expires at the end of five years from the date on which it was filed in the office of the County Clerk, except as provided in Subdivision (b) of Section 17920, where it expires 40 days after any change in the facts set forth in the statement pursuant to section 17913 other than a change in the residence address of a registered owner. A New Fictitious Business Name Statement must be filed before the expiration.

The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a Fictitious Business Name in violation of the rights of another under Federal, State or common law (See Section 14411 et.seq., Business and Professions Code.)

Original February 16, 23; March 2, 9, 2023

IT0042230120020367

Inglewood Today

PUBLIC NOTICE

Fictitious Business Name Statement File No. 2023016984

The following Person is doing business as:

Sign Here Mobile Notary Service 419 E. Tamarack Ave., Unit 22 Inglewood, CA 90301

Registered Owner(s): Gina Lutcher, 419 E. Tamarack Ave., Unit 22, Inglewood, CA 90301

This business is conducted by an individual(s). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the fictitious business listed above on January 24, 2023

I (We) declare that all information in this statement is true and correct.

(A registrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime.)

Gina Lutcher, Owner.

This statement was filed with the County Clerk on January 24, 2023

NOTICE-In accordance with Subdivision (a) of Section 17920, a Fictitious Name Statement generally expires at the end of five years from the date on which it was filed in the office of the County Clerk, except as provided in Subdivision (b) of Section 17920, where it expires 40 days after any change in the facts set forth in the statement pursuant to section 17913 other than a change in the residence address of a registered owner. A New Fictitious Business Name Statement must be filed before the expiration.

The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a Fictitious Business Name in violation of the rights of another under Federal, State or common law (See Section 14411 et.seq., Business and Professions Code.)

Original

January 26; February 2, 9, 16, 2023

IT0042230120020366

Inglewood Today

defender it was “plain as day” to see who was given second chances.

“Those who were given probation versus prison, and it was so connected to race and class and the same communities who have been fighting to be free since the inception, and before the inception of this nation,” he said.

Another concern is the ability for those who are incarcerated to hold public officials accountable. “Those who are incarcerated and their families are some of the most educated people in our state, far more educated than the

average voter,” said Kalra. “And they will hold us accountable, and maybe that’s what people are afraid of. They don’t want that accountability from those who are suffering the most from decisions that are made traditionally in [the Capital].”

The legislation is backed by a coalition of lawmakers, including California Legislative Black Caucus members – Assemblymembers Lori Wilson (D – Suisun City), Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles), Tina McKinnor (D – Inglewood), Mia

Bonta (D-Oakland), Dr. Akilah Weber (D – San Diego) and Senators Steven Bradford (DInglewood) and Lola Smallwood Cuevas (D–Ladera Heights).

“There was a time where women couldn’t vote,” JonesSawyer said at the press conference held last week to announce the bill. “There was a time when African Americans couldn’t vote, and just recently we tried to get slavery out of the California state constitution and it failed, because of Democrats.”

“An American citizen’s right to vote is the most powerful right in our nation,” McKinnor said. “Let’s be clear, an incarcerated American citizen is an American citizen, and no law should ever restrict an American citizen’s right to vote. Too many Americans have died, too many Americans have sacrificed, too many Americans have been denied the right to vote for too long.”

Lackey and others who oppose the legislation, however, insist that denying a felon to vote is appropriate punishment.

“There has to be a period of reflection

and a period of suspension of certain what I would call privileges or rights in order for the judicial process to be effective,” Lackey said to CBM. Bryan said the protection of citizens’ rights is paramount.

“There are some basic human rights, and then there are some basic American rights that have to be preserved, even in the systems of accountability,” he emphasized.