Insight ::: 04.03.2023

CHAKA KHAN!

Boyz II Men and Chaka Khan headline 2023 State Fair

Just announced by the Minnesota State Fair: Boyz II Men and Chaka Khan are confirmed for the 2023 Grandstand Concert Series sponsored by Sleep Number. Tickets for this show will go on sale starting Friday, March 31st. Tickets are available through Etix at etix. com or by calling 800-514-3849.

For additional State Fair ticket information, call 651288-4427. Please note that the State Fairgrounds Ticket Office will not be open for in-person sales. Currently, tickets will be sold online and by phone only.

Chaka Khan is one of the world’s most gifted

and celebrated music icons. A singer, songwriter, actor, author, philanthropist, entrepreneur and activist, she has influenced generations of music creators during her four decades as an artist. A 10-time Grammy Award winner, she has the rare ability to sing in a number of musical genres, including R&B, pop, rock, gospel, country, world music and classical. She is revered by millions of fans as well as her peers for her timeless, unmatched vocal style and image. During her legendary career, Khan has released 22 albums and racked up 10 No. 1 songs on the Billboard charts,

seven Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)-certified gold singles and 10 RIAA-certified gold and platinum albums. Her recordings have resulted in more than 2,000 catalog song placements. Her first hit was the single “Tell Me Something Good” from the group Rufus’ 1974 platinumselling album “Rags to Rufus,” earning Khan her first Grammy. With Khan as the group’s dynamic lead singer, Rufus dominated the airwaves with such hits as “You Got the Love,” “Once You Get Started,” “Sweet Thing,” “Everlasting Love,” “Do You Love What You Feel?” and

“Ain’t Nobody,” which earned a second Grammy for the group. Boyz II Men redefined popular R&B and continues to create timeless hits that appeal to fans across all generations.

The trio, which holds the distinction of being the bestselling R&B group of all time, with an astounding 64 million albums sold, has penned and performed such celebrated classics as “End of the Road,” “I’ll Make Love to You,” “One Sweet Day,” “Motownphilly,” and many others. Recent albums have earned major critical acclaim as well: “Motown: A Journey Through

Hitsville USA” (2007) earned two Grammy nominations; and “Twenty,” marking the group’s 20th anniversary in 2011, debuted at No. 20 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, No. 4 on the Billboard Top R&B Albums chart, No. 10 among Billboard digital albums, and it placed No. 1 among iTunes’

Top R&B and soul albums. The Minnesota State Fair is one of the largest and best-attended expositions in the world. Showcasing

Minnesota’s finest agriculture, art and industry, the Great Minnesota Get-Together is 12 Days of Fun Ending Labor Day.

Follow along on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok @mnstatefair for year-round Minnesota State Fair updates.

The 2023 Minnesota State Fair will run Aug. 24 through Labor Day, Sept. 4. Visit mnstatefair. org for more information.

Show details: 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 27 Tickets: $34, $41 and $51 (all reserved seating)

On sale: 10 a.m. Friday, March 31

Chaka Khan

2. That the Governor hold his appointed State Commissioners and the state departments they lead accountable for measurable and reportable processes and strategies to eliminate disparities that exist in and that are supported by policies and procedures of state governance.

3. That the Minnesota Legislature prioritize intentional solution making that can occur when Legislators, Committee Chairs and Committees engage Minnesota’s Black community at the table of decision.

4. Housing Invest now in multiple housing options for the Black community to close the home ownership gap.

Multiple housing options are an important part of any community. It provides a safe and affordable place for people to live and can help reduce poverty and homelessness. However, there are many challenges associated with providing low-income housing, such as limited resources, high demand, and the need to ensure that the housing is safe and secure. Minneapolis has one of the widest homeownership gaps in the country between whites and Blacks.

new businesses among all races do not receive any outside investors. Most people use the equity in their homes to start their firms. This is a huge disadvantage to Black folks in Minnesota because of the home ownership gap. Further, the report stated that minority owned businesses experience higher loan denial probabilities and pay higher interest rates than white-owned businesses even after controlling for differences in credit-worthiness, and other factors. Limited access to investment capital in its many forms is inextricably linked to systemic discrimination in lending, housing, and employment. It cripples Black business development.

2. Employment Invest now in creating employment opportunities for the Black community

In an article published by the Urban Institute, the issue of Black employment was addressed.

It stated that, “while many are heralding the drop in the national Black male unemployment rate, which recently fell below 10 percent for the first time in seven years, joblessness remains much higher in many poor African American communities. It stated that for many low-income Black men, finding and keeping work is a constant struggle, never far from their minds. Black job applicants might not even make it into the queue if they have had an encounter with the criminal justice system. Helping Black folks secure steady employment at decent wages will require resources to break down the institutional barriers that separate people from decent job opportunities and to enable Black people to build the skills needed for well-paying jobs

3. Public Safety

Invest now in Public Safety in the Black community.

Public safety exists to protect citizens, organizations, and communities by preventing them from being in danger and guarding their well-being. Abraham Maslow defined safety in his famous “Hierarchy of Human Needs“. He said that to function as a society public safety is needed. He said this safety goes beyond just physical safety but also safety when it comes to health, money, possessions, and family. Less we forget, there’s an Emotional Impact on Public Safety. When folks feel unsafe, it could have major effects on individuals, their loved ones, and the community they live in. Violence has been way to prevalent in the inner cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Playgrounds are unsafe, the streets are unsafe, and the shopping malls are unsafe.

5. Education

Invest now in ensuring that our Black students are educated at the same level as White students.

Dr. Sinclair Grey lll stated that education is without a doubt crucial to the success of our students competing for jobs. Quality education that enforces and reinforces math, science, writing, and cognitive thinking will separate those who desire a prosperous future from those who are simply content with getting by. Yet, in Minnesota, reading test scores for Black students are over 20 points below state average and math test scores are 20 points below state average. Minnesota ranks 50th in the nation for Black students who graduate on time. Minnesota has one of the worst college-readiness gaps in the nation by race and ethnicity – only 25% of Black students are prepared for college. Thus, Black students who attend college must take significantly more remedial courses than their peers as their starting point.

6. Health & Wellness

Invest now in efforts that will impact the health and wellness of the Black community. The Black community is faced with escalating social, economic, and life-style problems, which threaten the life and well-being of current and future generations of Black people in crisis proportion. The rising number of deaths due to heart disease and stroke, homicide and accidents related to substance abuse, AIDS, cancer, and infant mortality are among the leading culprits. They interfere with prospects of longevity and contribute to joblessness, poverty, and homelessness and further complicate the crisis in the Black community. The magnitude of the problems dictates the need for support from the Minnesota State Legislature.

7. Policy Each member of the legislature, regardless of political affiliation, is involved in setting public policy. These policies should reflect the will of the people and is carried out by those elected to vote. Because of conflicting interests and capacities, some policies have disenfranchised the Black community. There is therefore a need for coherence of interest/capacities in an attempt to pass policies that reflect the needs of the Black community.

Every time another national “quality of life” is broadcast or published about the best places to live in the U.S., Minnesota and the Twin Cities always rank at or near the top. The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson once referred to this as the miracle of Minneapolis.” Likewise, every time those lists are parsed out further, the state and the metro fall all the way to the bottom when it comes to quality of life measures for Black people, or, what some have called the “Two Minnesotas.” But to ensure that all those in our state have the opportunity to thrive, we cannot forget about the communities that have been systematically abused, persistently underrepresented, and long underserved.

Minnesota is now the seventh (7th) worst state in the country for Blacks to live. This dubious recognition alongside the May 2020 murder of George Floyd has brought the State into an era of racial reckoning and has put racial inequity at the center of the national conversation, and Minnesota on the racial map. Today Black folks are more than twice as likely as their white counterparts to live below the poverty line. Additionally, the typical Black household earns just 63 cents for every dollar a typical white household earns, and African American workers are more than twice as likely to be unemployed as white workers.

Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, 24/7 Wall St. created an index to measure socioeconomic disparities between Black and white Americans to identify the worst states for Black Americans. High on the list of cities that have extremely troubling disparities is Minneapolis-St. Paul. Minnesota’s urban core boast these disturbing rates:

• Black population: 290,210 (8.2% of total)

• Black median income: $36,127 (44.0% of white income)

• Unemployment: 9.2% (Black); 3.2% (white)

• Homeownership rate: 25.2% (Black); 75.5% (white)

• Black poverty rate of 28.3% in the metro area, 5.9% (white)

• Black medium household earn $36,127 a year — the median income among white area households is $82,118.

The profound racial wealth gaps for Blacks in Minnesota is structural, as they are across the United States. Structural racism is inherent in intersecting and overlapping institutions, policies, practices, ideas, and behaviors that give resources, rights, and power to white people while denying them to others. The roots of racial wealth gaps can be traced back centuries through racialized public and private policies and practices, which fueled economic boosts to white families that allowed for intergenerational wealth transfers and created barriers to Black families. Past discrimination and injustices accumulate and build across generations, making it hard for communities that have been harmed to catch up. As one example, the losses from unpaid wages and lost inheritances to Black descendants is estimated at around $20 trillion today. The NAACP Twin Cities 2019 Economic Inclusion Plan states: “There are two Minnesota’s, one white, one Black – separate and unequal.”

Data from the 2019 Prosperity Now Scorecard shows that 40% of Americans are liquid asset poor—meaning they do not have enough in savings to make ends meet at the poverty level for three months ($6,275 for a family of four in 2018). This problem is even more stark when disaggregated by race. 31.7% of white households are liquid-asset poor compared to over 62% of Black households.

Recent trends in Hennepin and Ramsey Counties are moving in the wrong direction. The share of Black families who own a home has declined from 31 percent in 2000 to 21 percent in 2018. The racial homeownership gap in the Twin Cities is the highest in the nation and has only widened over the past two decades, especially in neighborhoods where investors have acquired hundreds of single-family homes to now use as rentals, according to a June 2021 report from the Urban Institute.

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died

By Chuck Hobbs

Randall Maurice Robinson, the founding executive director of TransAfrica whose lobbying

fforts in the 1980’s heavily influenced America’s foreign policy towards South Africa’s racist apartheid government, died earlier this week on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts.

Attorney General Ellison lawsuit against e-cigarette maker Juul goes to trial

By Steve Karnowski Associated Press

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison personally opened his state’s case against Juul Labs on Tuesday, accusing the e-cigarette maker of using “slick products, clever ads and attractive flavors” to hook children on nicotine as the first of thousands of cases against the company reached trial.

Minnesota is seeking more than $100 million in damages, Ellison said, accusing Washington, D.C.-based Juul of unlawfully targeting young people to get a new generation addicted to nicotine. The court seated an eight-woman, four man jury Tuesday morning and Ellison gave the state’s opening statements in the afternoon.

“They baited, deceived, and addicted a whole new generation of kids after Minnesotans slashed youth smoking rates down to the lowest level in a generation,” Ellison said. “Now, big tobacco is back with a new name but the same game. Juul wiped out the work of our state with their slick products, clever ads, and attractive flavors.”

Juul has faced thousands of lawsuits nationwide but most have settled, including 39 with other states and U.S. territories.

Not Minnesota, which won a landmark $7.1 billion settlement with the tobacco industry in 1998. Minnesota added tobacco industry giant Altria, which formerly owned a minority stake in Juul, as a co-defendant in 2020.

Altria completed its divestiture this month

and says it effectively lost its $12.8 billion investment. But it didn’t abandon e-cigarettes: Just a few days later, Altria announced a $2.75 billion investment in Juul’s rival, the vaping company NJOY.

In his opening statement, Ellison argued that Juul and Altria broke the law by using deceptive actions to sell tobacco products to minors. The companies purposely made their products small and sleek to make detection by adults difficult, used large amounts of nicotine to addict children, added flavors that would appeal to young people and used a marketing campaign they knew would appeal to teens, Ellison said. “Young people are innocent, and they want to explore,” Ellison said. “”Kids are attracted to what is shiny, slick, cool — and that is exactly

who Juul and Altria were targeting and preying upon.” Ellison has said he plans to hand the case over to attorneys for two outside law firms after delivering part of the opening statements.

The jury trial before Hennepin County District Judge Laurie Miller is expected to last about three weeks. The trial over the lawsuit by the state and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota lasted nearly four months before big tobacco companies settled, just ahead of closing arguments. That case forced the release of millions of pages of previously secret industry documents that expanded America’s understanding of how the tobacco industry tried to conceal the addictive

Los Angeles strike highlights paltry US school worker pay

By Jocelyn Gecker and Collin Binkley AP Education Writers

Bus drivers shuttle America’s children to schools where cafeteria workers feed them and teacher aides assist students who need the most help.

And their pay is notoriously low. School support staffers earn, on average, about $25,000 a year in Los Angeles, barely enough to get by in one of the most expensive cities in America.

The pay is a driving factor behind a three-day strike that has shut down the entire Los Angeles school system and put a spotlight on the paltry pay of support staff that serves as the backbone of schools nationwide.

Even outside pricey California, the school gigs often don’t pay enough to live on.

Arthur Anderson, a school worker in Virginia, says it’s a shame it took a walkout to draw attention to the longstanding problem, but he hopes it helps.

“People are so frustrated. We all are,” said Anderson, a teacher’s assistant

in the Chesapeake Public School System where he has worked for 30 years and makes $32,000. He works three other part-time jobs to make ends meet. “I struggle to pay my rent. I struggle to pay my bills,” he said. “I love what I do.

I just don’t love what I get paid.”

Anderson works 36 hours as a special education aide in his school’s science department. But he is also asked to fill in as a bus driver and a custodian. When a science teacher is absent, he fills in as a substitute, which pays an extra $10 per class. “I did that today. I got an extra $20.”

The strike against the Los Angeles Unified School District that started Monday has been led by the teachers’ assistants, custodians and other support staff who are among the district’s lowest-paid workers.

They’re demanding better wages and increased staffing.

Teachers joined the picket lines, in a show of solidarity that forced the district to close schools in the nation’s second-largest district that serves a half million students.

School support staff around the country tell stories of spending entire careers in public education, filling jobs that keep

schools functioning. Yet, many are not making a living wage and like the striking workers in Los Angeles cannot afford to live in the communities where they work.

“The issue in Los Angeles is not confined to Los Angeles. It’s an issue across the country and it has been decades in the

Robinson, a native of Richmond, Virginia born in 1941, attended Norfolk State University, an HBCU, on a basketball scholarship before graduating from Virginia Union University, also an HBCU, in 1967. He later graduated from Harvard Law School and focused his legal career on social justice issues due to the lingering angst that he felt having grown up in the Jim Crow South.

Robinson, along with his pioneering journalist brother Max Robinson of ABC News, arguably comprised the most influential Black family of the late 1970’s through the 80’s. When Max passed away in 1988 at the age of 49, Randall kept the family legacy alive

through his indefatigable efforts against not just apartheid, but in raising greater awareness to the plight of Blacks across an African continent that has been raped and pillaged for centuries due to European colonization.

In addition to being a lawyer and lobbyist, Robinson authored numerous books including his seminal work,”The Debt: What America Owes Blacks,” a tome that quickly rose up the NY Times best seller list when it was published in 2000. One of my favorite quotes from The Debt reads as follows: “No race, no ethnic or religious group, has suffered so much over so long a span as blacks have, and do still, at the hands of those who benefited, with the connivance of the United States government, from slavery and the century of legalized American racial

By Ben Finley Associated

Irvo Otieno had realized his passion: making hip-hop.

He could write a song in less than five minutes. And he was streaming his music under the moniker “Young Vo,” while working toward starting his own record label. “He had found his thing — you know that feeling when you find your thing?” his mother Caroline Ouko told reporters Thursday. “He would go in his room and shut the door. And he had it — he was brilliant and creative and bright.”

But, the mother added, “All I’m left with is his voice.”

Ouko remembered her son’s life at an hourlong news conference that focused primarily on his death March 6 at a state mental hospital in Virginia.

Ouko had just viewed video of Otieno’s final minutes

as he was being admitted to Central State Hospital south of Richmond, during which she and her attorneys say sheriff’s deputies smothered him, pressing him down until his body was “clearly lifeless.” His arms and legs were bound, they said, but he posed no threat to the deputies and hospital employees who’ve since been charged with second-degree murder. Otieno’s biography is now coming to the fore, not for his music, but because of the shockingly inhumane way in which authorities say he was killed. He was yet another Black man to die in police custody in a case that prominent civil-rights attorney Ben Crump, who is also representing Ouko, said harshly echoes the previous deaths of such men as George Floyd. Crump represented Floyd’s family and the relatives of other Black men killed under similar circumstances. Otieno, who was

photo/Damian Dovarganes

Cecily Myart-Cruz, United Teachers Los Angeles, UTLA President, with Max Arias, executive director of the Service Employees International SEIU Local 99 union, speak to thousands of Los Angeles Unified School District teachers and SEIU members rallying outside the LAUSD headquarters in Los Angeles Tuesday, March 21, 2023. Thousands of service workers backed by teachers began a three-day strike against the Los Angeles Unified School District on Tuesday, shutting down education for a half-million students in the nation’s second-largest school system.

photo/Renee Jones Schneider

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison speaks at a press conference at the State Capitol on Dec. 4, 2019, in St. Paul, Minn. Ellison is slated to lead off opening statements expected for

March 28, 2023, in his state’s lawsuit against Juul Labs – marking the

Randall Robinson

photo/Daniel Sangjib Min Caroline Ouko, mother of Irvo Otieno, holds a portrait of her son at the Dinwiddie Courthouse in Dinwiddie, Va., on Thursday, March 16, 2023. She said Otieno, who died in a state mental hospital March 6, was “brilliant and creative and bright.”

Education

Florida Republicans and Dixiecrats strike back against public education

play sports with Black kids.

By Chuck Hobbs

When I arrived at Morehouse College in 1990, one of the occasional dorm debates that used to intrigue me was when schoolmates would argue that they did not consider Florida to be “part of the South.”

Even more curious was when some of those same classmates would argue that they didn’t really consider Maryland, my home state before our family moved to Florida, or Virginia, the state in which the Hobbs family lived before moving to Maryland, to be part of the South, either.

As a history major who was equally adroit at geography, I would always remind my schoolmates about the MasonDixon line and the fact that while Maryland, south of said line, did not join the Confederacy prior to the Civil War, that it still remained a slave holding state, the same as Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, and Washington, D.C.

I also would remind my Brothers that Jim Crow segregation was very much in full effect in those states and in D.C., too, well into the late 1960’s by law—and still in custom long afterwards!

Now, my words often fell on deaf ears as many of my schoolmates hailed from those very slave holding, Jim Crow practicing enclaves; perhaps they wished to “wish away” the past in their minds? I’m not sure, but what I was very sure of as a son of parents who grew up in Jim Crow Florida was that while the Sunshine State loved to praise itself in the 1980’s as being the

JUUL

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nature of its products. Part of the $7.1 billion supported antismoking programs, but Juul and Altria have noted in court that lawmakers spent much of it to fund state government.

The 2019 lawsuit against Juul alleges consumer

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home of Mickey Mouse, orange juice, and pristine beaches, it was still the home of some whites who proudly called themselves “Florida Crackers” while discussing the “good Ol’ days” along the “S’wanee River,” an homage to the racist state song by Stephen Foster that featured “darkeys,” or Black minstrels, pining for the “old folk at home” on the slave plantation.

Today, as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis joins thousands of other Republicans across America in reestablishing what I often call Jim Crow 2.0, I am reminded more than ever that in some respects, the original Jim Crow never really went away.

You see, as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 led to a rapid integration increase in Florida’s 67 public school counties, what often goes unmentioned is that while Black students, faculty, and administrators began mixing with whites, that those self proclaimed “Florida Crackers,” Dixiecrats who soon turned Republicans, were steadily creating private schools to keep their little white children from mixing with little Black children.

Seriously, if you check the founding dates of private K-12 schools in Florida and across the South, most were established after 1954. If you’re asking, “so, what happened in 1954,” I remind that the United States Supreme Court’s Brown vs. Board of Education decision was handed down on May 17th of that year—a decision that signaled the “legal” end of Jim Crow segregation in public schools.

Lest we forget that while Southern white politicians and lawyers did their best to stall the implementation of the Brown decision that in the interim, they started building and staffing all sorts of “Christian,” “Catholic,” and “Prep” schools to keep the government from forcing their kids to learn and

fraud, creating a public nuisance, unjust enrichment and a conspiracy with Altria that “preyed upon and enticed Minnesota’s children, through deceptive and illegal tactics, to buy a product that may sentence them to a lifetime of nicotine addiction and other destructive behaviors.”

The state’s brief said Juul’s marketing was designed to ensnare children by attracting “cool kids” and using social

hostility that followed it. It is a miracle that the victims–weary dark souls long shorn of a venerable and ancient identity–have survived at all, stymied as they are by the blocked roads to

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Right here in Tallahassee, the Florida legislature, fearing integration, started earmarking funds at a torrent pace to build brand new Black high schools as if to say, “see, our facilities are separate—but equal.” These Florida segregationists figured that if there were brand new buildings or additions at, say, FAMU High School and Lincoln High School in Tallahassee, or Havana Northside High and Carter-Parramore High Schools in Quincy, Florida, that “The Blacks” wouldn’t dare enter the hallowed all-white public schools like Tallahassee’s Leon High School or Florida High School, or nearby allwhite Quincy High School!

History shows that with the exception of FAMU High School, the other Black schools were closed or demoted to middle school status, with Black students then forced to attend previously all-white Leon High School, Florida High School, or the brand new Rickards High and Godby High in Tallahassee, and Shanks High School in Quincy.

In the 50 years since, however, those early integrated days across Florida dissolved due to, 1. White flight and 2. Increased private school options.

When I was growing up in Tallahassee during the 80’s, both Rickards and Godby High Schools, established in the 60’s, were already majority Black due to whites fleeing the Southside and Westside for the more affluent areas in North Tallahassee.

Today, Leon County Schools, a system that was still litigating integration cases in Tallahassee in the early 1970’s, has over 70% minority enrollment—with 31.5% of students identified as economically disadvantaged

media and celebrities to act as “pushers” of its addictive products. “Defendants claim their conduct was in the name of helping ‘aging smokers’ to stop smoking. That claim is false; it is a smoke screen,” it said.

Juul said Minnesota’s insistence on going to trial has deprived its citizens of some of the nearly $440 million in settlement money other states are using to reduce tobacco use.

“Effective interventions

economic equality. Lest we forget that Robinson also conducted a highly publicized 27-day hunger strike in 1994 to protest America’s longstanding policy of detaining and repatriating Haitian refugees seeking political asylum—a policy that was far stricter than the ones in effect for many of their fairer skinned neighbors from Cuba. Due to his efforts, the Clinton administration conceded to allow more access, but still not to the extent that the obvious racial distinctions between

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making,” said Princess Moss, vice president of the National Education Association, which represents about half a million educational support staff The NEA, the nation’s largest teachers’ union, last year released data that showed fulltime school support staff earned an average salary of $32,800. Delaware had the highest salary for full-time K-12 support staff ($44,738), while Idaho had the lowest ($25,830), but salaries vary widely by state. They can also vary by metro area and even within school districts, depending on how long a person has been in a job.

per U.S. News & World Report’s latest rankings.

Now, those numbers do not account for the thousands of white students that attend charter schools and private high schools, like Maclay School, John Paul II Catholic School, and North Florida Christian School.

And while those institutions enroll Black and other racial minorities, the populations remain overwhelmingly white, affluent, and subject to whatever curriculum whims of the governing boards of the same.

Further, those Tallahassee private schools are filled with the children of prominent politicians, politicos, and other wealthy professionals, including some who are among the leading critics of public school education and proponents of limiting what can be taught at the same!

What strikes me as perverse about the last sentence of the preceding paragraph is that those critics, men like Gov. DeSantis and all of his acolytes, either have their children enrolled in private schools— or their children are (or were) enrolled at the patrician public schools that look and operate like private schools.

But the problem is that while DeSantis and others realize that full out legal segregation would not pass constitutional scrutiny even among the heavily conservative Roberts Supreme Court, their pernicious aims to “Make America Great Again,” which I have always interpreted as make America look and feel like it did circa 1954, can be achieved by white washing the Black out of America’s torrid racial history, while diminishing the rights and privileges that have been granted based upon religious tolerance and the LGBTQ community.

Such is why I remain concerned that Florida

to address underage use of all tobacco products in Minnesota, including vapor, depends not on headline-driven trials, but on evidence-based policies, programs, and enforcement,” Juul’s statement said.

Richmond, Virginiabased Altria Group — which makes Marlboro cigarettes and other tobacco products and was formerly known as Phillip Morris Cos. — said it bought a 35% stake in Juul Labs in 2018

Cuban and Haitian immigration were fully ameliorated.

Randall Robinson and his wife, Hazel, left America for St. Kitts due in large measure to his beliefs that racism in the United States had morphed from the overt oppression of the Jim Crow era to a more covert—but still potent — form of oppression in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries. In addition to his wife of 36 years, Robinson, 81, leaves to mourn his passing three children, Anika, Jabari and Khalea Robinson. Fitting

to hire more tutors. In recent years, staff also have found themselves on the front lines of enforcing pandemic protocols or helping students struggling with their mental health or behavior.

Republicans, along with Tallahassee Democratic State Rep. Gallop Franklin II and Jacksonville Rep. Kim Daniels (D), recently pushed through a voucher bill that will only bolster the coffers of private schools— potentially at the expense of the state’s public schools.

Now, all is not doom and gloom, however, as I was pleased yesterday to see that the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld U.S. District Judge Mark Walker’s enjoining of Gov. DeSantis’ (above) Stop Woke Act for now. But I remain concerned that the 11th Circuit, or the

only after Juul assured Altria “and announced to the world” that it had made meaningful changes to its marketing. Juul Labs launched in 2015 on the popularity of flavors like mango, mint and creme brulee. Teenagers fueled its rise, and some became hooked on Juul’s high-nicotine pods. Amid a backlash, Juul dropped all U.S. advertising and discontinued most of its flavors in 2019, losing popularity with teens. Juul’s

of a legendary lawyer, lobbyist, and writer, Robinson penned his own epitaph with the following words in his book Makeda: “…son, you won’t need to talk to my headstone in order to talk to me. I won’t be there. I’ll be in the air and the Earth. I’ll be in the stars that light the African heavens. I’ll be watchin’ over you and your family. My spirit will always be close enough to touch and protect you all. So, do not grieve for me. My body will die, but my soul will live on. For my soul cannot die.

25. The package would also include more full-time positions and an expansion of healthcare benefits.

Roberts Supreme Court, could side with the madding MAGA crowd at some later date—and place public education, the type that serves Florida’s minorities primarily, into greater peril. Stay tuned… Hobbservation Point is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Chuck Hobbs is a freelance journalist who won the 2010 Florida Bar Media Award and has been twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.

share of the now multibilliondollar market has fallen to about 33% from a high of 75%. Juul is now appealing the Food and Drug Administration’s rejection of its application to keep selling its vaping products as a smoking alternative for adults. Juul is still being sued by New York, California, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Alaska, Illinois, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Always remember that my soul is the spark of God in me.” Rest in eternal peace, Mr. Robinson… Subscribe to Hobbservation Point By Chuck Hobbs · Hundreds of paid subscribers “Real Politics in Real Time” Chuck Hobbs is a freelance journalist who won the 2010 Florida Bar Media Award and has been twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.

North, Minneapolis,

Amid staff shortages exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, schools have struggled to hire during a strong labor market, adding to the burden on the staff that remain.

A RAND survey of school leaders last year found that around three-fourths of school leaders say they are trying to hire more substitutes, 58% are trying to hire more bus drivers and 43% are trying

More than half of the nation’s public schools started this school year feeling understaffed, with many struggling to fill key support staff jobs, especially in transportation and custodial work, according to an Education Department survey. Asked about the biggest challenges, roughly four in 10 said candidates felt the salary and benefits weren’t good enough. Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union represents about 30,000 LAUSD teachers’ aides, special education assistants, bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers and other support staff. The union says many live in poverty because of low pay or limited work hours while struggling with inflation and the high cost of housing. Support staff including many who work part-time, earn about $25,000 a year, according to the union, which is asking for a 30% raise. The school district has offered a cumulative 23% raise, starting with 2% retroactive as of the 2020-21 school year and ending with 5% in 2024-

Superintendent Alberto Carvalho has accused the union of refusing to negotiate and said that he was prepared to meet at any time.

Leaders of United Teachers of Los Angeles, which represents 35,000 educators, counselors and other staff, have pledged solidarity with the strikers.

Experts say it is unusual for different unions in the same school district to band together but the unified labor action in Los Angeles could mark an inflection point.

“The idea of the teachers union and service personnel union saying we can do better if we stick together, could be a contagion in other communities looking and saying, ‘Hey, they did it in Los Angeles — maybe we can do it,’” said Lee Adler, a lecturer and expert on education union issues at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

The fight for higher wages has been brewing in other school systems.

In one example, food service workers in Hastings, Minnesota, have been on strike for six weeks over higher

wages and other issues. The union representing the 35 workers says the starting wage is less than $15 an hour in the suburban school district, which serves about 4,300 students.

“There’s a growing movement to fight for a living wage,” said Rebecca Kolins Givan, an associate professor at Rutgers University’s School of Management and Labor Relations. “Schools can’t function without workers in these roles. And it’s a fiction to suggest that people don’t need to live on the wages they earn.”

With 26 years’ experience as a bus driver, Carl Kirchgessner earns $20.35 an hour driving for a school system outside Rochester, N.Y. His Rush-Henrietta Central School District is still struggling with driver shortages coming out of the pandemic, when many had to double up on routes. He said he can afford to make ends meet only because his wife also works.

“If it was just me alone,” he said, “no way.”

Binkley reported from Washington, D.C.

The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Florida Field, home of the University of Florida Gators, replete with Confederate Flag in the student section circa 1955…

Insight 2 Health

Agency convenes Long COVID Guiding Council, launches statewide survey

MDH expands long COVID work in 2023

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) is extending its long COVID work in 2023 with the aim to increase knowledge, awareness and resources for the condition among the public and providers.

The agency has teamed up with Stratis Health and consultants from the former Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement (ICSI) to form a network of 20 primary care providers and specialists who are treating long COVID patients from across the state of Minnesota. Facilitated by MDH’s long COVID team, this network of 20 clinicians is known as the Long COVID Guiding Council. Its members represent a diverse array of medical settings including community clinics, safety net hospitals, long COVID specialty centers, rural health systems and academic health centers. The focus of the Guiding Council will be to develop strategies to educate providers and help them implement processes and policies that will improve access and quality of long COVID care. There is still much that is unknown about long COVID. To address this, the Guiding Council meets monthly to discuss emerging evidence, treatment and current practices.

In developing guidance, they will incorporate broader stakeholder input from patients, caregivers, nurses, community health workers and community leaders.

“Clinicians are telling us that there is very little communication among the care providers who see long COVID patients in Minnesota and that a coordinated learning network would increase access to care and the quality of care that is provided,” said Dr. Ruth Lynfield, state epidemiologist and medical director at the Minnesota Department of Health. “We still have a lot to learn about long COVID. But laying the groundwork to expand awareness about the emerging evidence and the available treatments is an important first step toward improving outcomes for those suffering from the impacts of long COVID.” The effects of COVID-19 can vary greatly, from cold and flu-like symptoms to life-threatening complications. Recovery can be similarly complicated. Not everyone who contracts COVID-19 makes a fast or full recovery. Tens of thousands of Minnesotans face ongoing or new symptoms such as shortness of breath, extreme fatigue, headaches, dizziness, brain

fog and more. This is known as long COVID, and even mild infections or reinfections can lead to symptoms that may last for months or years.

Long COVID can be as unpredictable as it is debilitating. Although it’s more common in adults, teens and children can be affected. Some people with long COVID struggle with work, school, family life, education and daily tasks. This impacts their financial stability, quality of life and mental health.

Annette, who is in her mid-30s and was previously healthy, has been disabled from long COVID for nearly three years. She says that if it were not for her savings, which are now gone, she would have ended up homeless after losing her job and facing mounting medical costs. “It’s expensive to be this sick,” she said.

Steve, a 70-year-old retired law enforcement officer from Glencoe, has struggled with long COVID since 2020. “Prior to COVID-19, I was in good health. I used to walk across my 10-acre hobby farm from one corner to the other,” he recalls. “Now, because of problems with my balance, breathing and heart, I need to take the tractor. It has changed my lifestyle, my medical needs and my mobility.”

With appropriate medical care, many people can manage their symptoms and improve their health and quality of life. Unfortunately, all too often, Minnesotans experiencing lasting symptoms after a COVID-19 infection do not recognize they are experiencing long COVID. Additionally, treating long COVID can require specialists and ongoing follow up that is not always accessible, especially for those already experiencing health inequities and barriers to care.

“Making sure we prevent disparities in access to diagnosis, treatment and supports for long COVID is critical,” said Dr. Nathan Chomilo, medical director for Medicaid and MinnesotaCare at the Minnesota Department of Human Services, and Guiding Council member. “For Minnesotans served by our Medicaid program, that starts with ensuring that recognition and diagnosis captures how long COVID may compound challenges they already face and includes ensuring the supports and services that they need are covered. Having a group of clinicians inform how we best take care of Minnesotans from around the state – from our youngest to

our elders and from our diverse communities – is essential to building health equity into this work from the very start.”

To better understand the lasting effects of COVID-19 on the lives of Minnesotans, MDH has launched two postCOVID surveysamong people who have had COVID-19 – one statewide and one in McLeod County. The surveys will explore long-term symptoms Minnesotans are facing since being infected and how this has affected their lives. Results of the surveys are expected to be available later this year and will be used to identify and guide future MDH actions to address long COVID.

Because the virus that causes COVID-19 is not going away, long COVID will continue to impact Minnesotans, the state’s workforce and the economy for the foreseeable future. It is critical that providers are up to date on the latest research, treatments and best practices so that Minnesotans have access to the care and services they need to reduce the impact of long COVID on their lives. MDH’s long COVID program is currently funded by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID and

Health Equity grant through June of 2023. A proposal to extend MDH’s long COVID work has been recommended by Governor Tim Walz and Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan. The proposal provides for a sustained public health response for long COVID throughout Minnesota by supplying the essential resources to allow MDH to build on the foundation established with CDC grant funds. More information about long COVID and MDH’s work along with resources and recovery support information are available on the MDHLong COVIDwebsite.

What to know about new research on coffee and heart risks

By Jonel Aleccia AP Health Writer

Coffee lovers — and their doctors — have long wondered whether a jolt of java can affect the heart. New research published Wednesday finds that drinking caffeinated coffee did not significantly affect one kind of heart hiccup that can feel like a skipped beat.

But it did signal a slight increase in another type of irregular heartbeat in people who drank more than one cup per day. And it found that people tend to walk more and sleep less on the days they drank coffee. Coffee is one of the most common beverages in the world. In the U.S., two-thirds of Americans drink coffee every day, more than bottled water, tea or tap water, according to the National Coffee Association, a trade group. Coffee contains caffeine, a stimulant, which is widely regarded as safe for healthy adults at about 400 milligrams per day, or roughly the equivalent of four or five cups brewed at home.

Otieno

From 3

28, came to the U.S. from Kenya at the age of 4 but he “was as American as apple pie,” his mother said.

As a child in school, he was the type of guy who would invite a student eating lunch alone to join him, and classmates who needed someone to talk to were drawn to him, she said. He was a leader and a listener, someone who took the time to process what was being said and would then “lean back in,” Ouko said.

“He cared that people were treated right,” she said. “That was at the core of his upbringing in our home. He cared that people were treated equally.”

She added that Otieno wasn’t afraid to offer different perspectives in conversations, to go the other way “when everybody else is following.”

Otieno began dealing with some mental health issues during his last year of high school, his mother said. But she said he also went to college in California, and “had long stretches where you wouldn’t even know something was wrong.”

There were times, though, when he went “into some kind of distress” and needed to see a doctor, she said.

Ouko declined to share her son’s diagnosis, saying only that he had gone to a mental health facility before and “came back home.”

“That’s the question that I’m asking: why he didn’t come back home,” she said.

Otieno was taken into

Coffee has been associated with multiple health benefits and even a lower risk of dying, based on large studies that observed participants’ behavior. Despite research that has shown moderate coffee consumption doesn’t raise the risk of heart rhythm problems, some professional medical societies still caution against consuming caffeine.

The latest research:

THE EXPERIMENT

Researchers outfitted 100 healthy volunteers with gadgets that continuously monitored their heart function, daily steps, sleep patterns and blood sugar. The volunteers, who were mostly younger than 40, were sent daily text messages over two weeks instructing them to drink or avoid caffeinated coffee on certain days. The results were reported Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

This type of study, which directly measures the biological effects of drinking or not drinking caffeinated coffee

custody March 3, according to a timeline provided by Henrico County Police, a separate entity from the Henrico County Sheriff’s Office.

The police department said in a news release that officers encountered Otieno while responding to a report of a possible burglary in suburban Richmond, and that based on his behavior, they put him under an emergency custody order and took him to a local hospital for evaluation.

Mark Krudys, one

in the same people, is rare and provides a dense array of data points, said study co-author Dr. Gregory Marcus, a cardiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, who specializes in treating heart arrhythmias.

THE FINDINGS

Researchers found

of Ouko’s attorneys, said that Otieno was experiencing a mental health crisis at the time. He said a neighbor called police over concerns about him gathering lawn lights from a yard.

Otieno’s mother tried to de-escalate the initial response from police officers, with the moment captured on a neighbor’s cellphone, Crump said.

“Caroline is hugging her child, as if she’s trying to protect him from these people who might not see him like she sees him,” he said.

that drinking caffeinated coffee did not result in more daily episodes of extra heartbeats, known as premature atrial contractions. These extra beats that begin in the heart’s upper chambers are common and typically don’t cause problems. But they have been shown to predict a potentially

Added Krudys: “She was imploring them (to) treat him appropriately, bring him to a hospital. And he was vacuumed into the criminal justice system, for which there was no care that was provided, that we saw.”

While he was at the hospital, police said he “became physically assaultive toward officers, who arrested him” and took him to a local jail managed by the Henrico Sheriff’s Office, where he was charged with several crimes.

While Otieno was

dangerous heart condition called atrial fibrillation.

They also found slight evidence of another kind of irregular heartbeat that comes from the lower heart chambers, called premature ventricular contractions. Such beats are also common and not usually serious, but they have been associated with a higher risk of heart failure. The researchers found more of these early beats in people on the days they drank coffee, but only in those who drank two or more cups per day.

The volunteers logged about 1,000 more steps per day on the days they drank coffee — and they slept about 36 minutes less, the study found. There was almost no difference in blood sugar levels.

One interesting result: People with genetic variants that make them break down caffeine faster experienced less of a sleep deficit, while folks with variants that lead them to metabolize caffeine more slowly lost more sleep.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU

Because the study

in jail, he was denied access to needed medications, the family attorneys said. Crump said he was pepper-sprayed, and Krudys said the video showed officers on March 6 charging into his jail cell, which was covered in feces and where he lay naked and handcuffed.

o

The video shows

fficers carrying an “almost lifeless” Otieno out by his arms and legs “like an animal” to a vehicle to be taken to the state hospital, Crump said.

Leon Ochieng,

was performed in a small number of people over a short period of time, the results don’t necessarily apply to the general population, said Dr. Dave Kao, a cardiologist and health data expert at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study. However, the study is consistent with others that have found coffee is safe and it offers a rare controlled evaluation of caffeine’s effect, Kao added. Co-author Marcus cautions that the effects of drinking coffee can vary from person to person. He said he advises his patients with heart arrhythmias to experiment on their own to see how caffeine affects them. “They’re often delighted to get the good news that it’s OK to try coffee and drink coffee,” he said. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Otieno’s older brother, said at Thursday’s news conference that his mother can’t sleep or eat. “Our hearts are broken,” he said. “But our spirts are strong. And my brother’s spirit is not done.” A distraught Ouko said that, “When they took my baby away ... they took him away from his brother. They took him away from his nieces. They took him away from his friends. And they took him away from a community that cared (for) and loved him.”

Dr. Ruth Lynfield

photo/Jorge Martinez

Coffee has been associated with multiple health benefits and even a lower risk of dying, based on large studies that observed participants’ behavior.

Envisioning the future of Minneapolis by elevating community dialogue through a series of three lectures with innovators working in Minneapolis and around the country.

Albert (A.J.) Briscoe

Finding our purpose

no testimony.” That being said, I bring to you A.J. Briscoe’s Finding Your Purpose. From the outset, Briscoe states that this book is a guide to finding your purpose, and by doing so serving God.

By: W.D. Foster-Graham Book Review Editor

FINDING YOUR PURPOSE

By Albert (A.J.) Briscoe

I had the pleasure of meeting the author of this week’s review at a Minnesota Black Authors Expo event hosted by the Brooklyn Park Public Library. When I saw the title of this book, I immediately connected it to the Fifth Principle of the Nguzo Saba for Kwanzaa: Nia (Purpose). I was also reminded of the saying, “Without a test, there is

Indeed, the secondary title is, “Pursuing Your Purpose is Having the Courage to Fulfill the Will of God.” Noteworthy is the following: “Your purpose must serve a purpose,” and “Once you discover it, you have to believe in it.” His first chapter, “Distractors and Distractions,” describes the beliefs and misconceptions that deter and distract us from a life that fulfills ourselves and helps others, the ones that are conducive to a cycle of bad decisions. These distractors/distractions are prevalent in our community, causing us to give our power

away, and they must be broken. Chapter by chapter, from making better decisions to practicing our purpose to independent thinking to “keeping our strive alive,” this guide is transformative and inspiring. Perception is everything; for example, Briscoe presents failure not as an option, but as practice for success in finding one’s purpose, and to look for the blessing in the struggle. We will always have trials and challenges in our journey, for they are the very things that test and strengthen our purpose. He gives prime examples of what our purpose is not as well as what it is. Most importantly, in finding one’s purpose, he stresses the importance of faith, discernment, and putting our discovery into action. From life as a troubled

teen making bad decisions to the positive role model he is today, Briscoe reminds us that our past doesn’t determine our future; it’s who we were, not who we are. As human beings, our knowledge is limited; it is up to us to seek knowledge and discernment of God’s plan for us, and then apply it to our daily lives. Oh yes, readers: take note of Briscoe’s 10 Key Principles for creating purpose. Finding Your Purpose is available through Briscoe’s website, www. strompentertainment.com. Thank you, A.J., for the positive difference you are making through your purpose and with everyone you touch with your words, deeds, and spirit. Thank you for paying it forward and being a blessing to others.

we spend more time indoors, here are some important reminders:

Minnesota nuclear plant shuts down for leak; residents worry

By Trisha Ahmed and Matthew Daly Associated Press

A Minnesota utility began shutting down a nuclear power plant near Minneapolis on Friday after discovering water containing a low level of radioactive material was leaking from a pipe for the second time. While the utility and health officials say it is not dangerous, the issue has prompted concerns among nearby residents and raised questions about aging pipelines.

Xcel Energy discovered in November that about 400,000 gallons (1.5 million liters) of water containing tritium had leaked.

The utility made a temporary fix but learned this week that hundreds more gallons of tritium-laced water leaked, leading to the shutdown decision.

After the plant cools over the next few days, workers will cut out the leaking pipe, which is over 50 years old, said Chris Clark, Xcel Energy’s president. The utility will then have the pipe analyzed in hopes of preventing future leaks, he said.

“We could have continued to safely operate

the plant and simply repair the catchment, but then, of course, there is always a risk that it would spill over again and have more tritium enter the groundwater,” Clark told reporters near the Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) northwest of Minneapolis. “We didn’t want to take that chance, so we’re bringing the plant down.”

Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the fact there was a second tritium leak “shines a light on the problem of maintaining aging pipelines” underground at older nuclear plants.

The temporary closure could be out of an abundance of caution, “or it could be a sign they don’t know how bad the problem is, and they need to do a deep dive to find out what’s going on,’’ he said.

Clark said the tritium isn’t a risk to drinking water in Monticello or the nearby city of Becker, saying the cities take their water from different areas of the Mississippi River. Even if the tritium reached the river, which Clark assured wouldn’t happen, it would dissipate within a few yards, he said.

Clark said the spill had not left the utility’s property.

The utility reported the initial leak to state and federal authorities in late November but didn’t make it widely public until last week, raising questions about transparency and public health issues. State officials said they wanted to wait for more details before sharing information widely. Criticism about the delay played a role in Xcel’s decision to hold a public information session Friday.

Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that occurs naturally and is a common byproduct of nuclear plant operations. It emits a weak form of beta radiation that does not travel far and cannot penetrate human skin, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Cindy Remick, of Becker, attended Friday’s information session and said she still has concerns that nearby residents, especially those who rely on well water, will be safe. Remick also worries about whether the radioactive material could hurt wildlife.

“We have a very large population here of eagles, and I would like to make sure they’re not impacted,” Remick said. “Minnesota is known for our wildlife, and if that (tritium) escapes their

plant into the Mississippi, that could be very damaging.”

Tyler Abayare, who was fishing at the Mississippi River near the plant, said he’s been coming to the river every day for five years and usually sees about 15 to 20 others fishing as well.

“Typically this time of year, there’s a lot of families that come out and fish with their children,” he said. “Now, after the media released what happened, there’s not a soul in sight, and it just takes away from the recreation and passion of fishing.”

Abayare said he doesn’t believe that the Mississippi River is safe. He doesn’t eat fish he catches and no longer ties his line with his teeth to avoid getting sick.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors are monitoring the shutdown and repairs, said Victoria Mitlyng, a spokesperson for the agency. She said in a statement the leak “does not present a safety challenge to the public, to drinking water supplies, the plant or the environment.” The leak also did not exceed any agency limits. Clark said Xcel Energy already had planned to shut down the plant April 15 for nearly a month for

People walk on a trail at the Montissippi County Park near the Xcel Energy Monticello Generating Plant, a nuclear power plant, in Monticello, Minn., on Friday, March 24, 2023.

refueling, and it wasn’t clear if it would immediately reopen after the leak is fixed.

Clark said the leaking pipe is part of the original plant, which opened in 1971. Xcel has applied to extend its operating license at Monticello through 2050.

“We want to inventory the age of everything in the plant and be sure we’re dealing with whatever we need to update,” he said.

Tim Judson, executive director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, a group that opposes nuclear power, said the second

leak “is obviously concerning” and that public worries about possible health risks are exacerbated by the recent toxic train derailment in Ohio, where residents remain concerned about possible health effects despite government pledges that air and water are safe.

“People are seeing what happened in Ohio, and they are distrustful of the government response,’’ Judson said. Daly reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Scott McFetridge in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this story.

CTC creates junior producers

Is the young person in your life ready to face down cats, chase big dreams, and take New York City by a storm? Step behind the curtain by becoming a Junior Producer family for the world premiere production of An American Tail the Musical!

stage, and the opportunity to connect with the artists and theatre professionals that make the magic happen. This spring, join us for a once-in-a-lifetime experience of a world premiere by becoming a Junior Producer family for An American Tail the Musical. Opening Saturday, April 29th, this riveting new musical based on the beloved animated film will be toe-tapping fun for the whole family. family, including: - Four tickets to a designated Junior Producer

performance of An American Tail the Musical on Saturday, June 3 at 2pm - A

25%

Explore MN

discount to purchase additional tickets to any performance - An exclusive Junior Producer reception where you’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at the performance magic* - Swag bags with show goodies - Your child acknowledged as a

*Please note: Junior Producer reception details to be finalized in Spring 2023. Behind-the-scenes experiences may be in-person or virtual, pending current restrictions

photo/Renee Jones Schneider