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EGACY Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.

WEDNESDAYS • Dec. 7, 2016

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INSIDE

Fannie Mae & discrimination - 2 Where the ‘Fight for 14’ is - 4 FLOTUS begins goodbyes - 5 Isolation affecting seniors- 14

Richmond & Hampton Roads

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Evidence!

Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia and other fair housing organizations have filed a joint suit against Fannie Mae alleging discrimination in the way foreclosed homes are maintained across the country.

They are presenting evidence in the way of pictures showing backyards with dead and overgrown shrubs, as well as invasive plants. Others show patio doors that are boarded and weeds that are growing all around the foundation where dead rodents can also be found.

Fannie Mae had said in the past that it would maintain such properties discoloration, but nothing has been done to foreclosured homes in minority neighborhoods.

See more on page 2

The LEGACY

2 • Dec. 7, 2016

News

Fannie Mae accused of racial discrimination Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia (HOME) this week joins the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) and 19 other fair housing organizations to file a housing discrimination lawsuit against Fannie Mae in federal district court in San Francisco. The civil rights groups allege that Fannie Mae fails to maintain its foreclosed homes (also known as real estate owned or “REO” properties) in middle- and working-class African American and Latino neighborhoods to the same standard to which it maintains its foreclosures in predominantly white neighborhoods. This practice violates the federal Fair Housing Act. Together, the fair housing organizations investigated over 2,300 properties owned by Fannie Mae, collected evidence on over 35 data points for each foreclosed home, and documented differences in treatment based on the race and/or ethnicity of the neighborhood in which the Fannie Mae foreclosure was located.

The evidence includes over 49,000 photographs.

The data supporting the federal lawsuit, shows a stark pattern of discriminatory conduct by Fannie Mae in the maintenance of its foreclosures.

Over a four-year investigation in Richmond, HOME notes it found results consistent with other cities investigated.

“These problems are long standing and we’re disappointed that they remain unaddressed and unresolved.

Fannie Mae must maintain their properties to the industry standard no matter where they are located.” said Heather Crislip, president and CEO of HOME, “Communities that were hit hardest by the foreclosure crisis are still struggling. We must ensure that neglect does not continue to inhibit a full housing recovery in our most vulnerable neighborhoods.”

The lawsuit is the result of a multi-year investigation. During the past several years, NFHA notified Fannie Mae many times of its failure to maintain and market its foreclosed homes in communities of color to the same standard to which it was maintaining and marketing the foreclosed homes it owned

in similar, predominantly white neighborhoods. In spite of numerous meetings between NFHA and Fannie Mae to address these disparities in maintenance and marketing, Fannie Mae persisted in its willful neglect of its properties in African American and Latino neighborhoods.

The initial investigation was undertaken by NFHA and two local fair housing organizations in 2009 and involved four metropolitan areas.

Much of this evidence was shared with Fannie Mae. However, Fannie Mae failed to make changes to ensure equal treatment in the maintenance and marketing of its foreclosures in neighborhoods of color, and the investigation was expanded to include an additional 18 fair housing organizations, culminating in data from 212 cities in 38 metropolitan areas. Comprised of evidence from 2011 through 2015, the lawsuit contains information from more than 2,300 foreclosures owned and maintained by Fannie Mae. NFHA and its 20 partner fair housing organizations collected evidence at each property on over 35 data points that were identified as important to protecting, securing, and marketing the homes. Investigators also took and reviewed over 49,000 photographs of these foreclosures that document the differences in treatment.

According to Fannie Mae’s website, “the mission of the Fannie Mae Property Maintenance team is to ensure the quality of our REO property maintenance services, consistently producing best-inclass, market-ready properties and maintaining them until removal from our inventory.”

“Fannie Mae’s mission statement contradicts the findings of the multicity, multi-year investigation,” said Shanna L. Smith, president and CEO of NFHA. “Fannie Mae executes its mission in predominantly white neighborhoods, but certainly the evidence in the complaint and the photographs illustrates that its foreclosures in middle- and workingclass neighborhoods of color are not maintained as ‘best-in-class’ and they are not even close to ‘market-ready.’”

Fannie Mae-owned properties in

predominantly white working- and middle-class neighborhoods are far more likely to have the lawns mowed and edged regularly, invasive weeds and vines cleared, windows and doors secured or repaired, litter and trash removed, leaves raked, and graffiti erased from the property. Conversely, Fannie Maeowned properties in predominantly African American and Latino neighborhoods are more likely to be left neglected with debris and trash on the property, overgrown grass, and invasive plants. The windows and doors are often unsecured, left wide open, or boarded. The poor appearance of the Fannie Maeowned properties in middle- and working-class neighborhoods of color destroys the homes’ curb appeal for prospective homebuyers and invites vandalism because the homes appear to be abandoned. Additionally, the blight created by Fannie Mae results in a decline in home value for the predominantly African American and Latino families who live nearby, deepening the racial wealth gap and inequality in America.

Poorly-maintained foreclosures also have serious health consequences.

According to a report by Mariana Arcaya, Sc.D., M.C.P for the American Heart Association, living near a foreclosure can increase a person’s blood pressure “due in part to unhealthy stress from residents’ perception that their own properties are less valuable, their streets less attractive or safe and their neighborhoods less stable.”

Arcaya said that “people may not find walking past an empty house appealing and this affects the physical activities that they engage in such as running and walking around the neighborhood.”

The Fannie Mae investigation uncovered hundreds of windows and doors that were left open or broken at properties in neighborhoods of color, allowing rain water to accumulate inside the home or basement. Many photographs also show the growth of mold and discoloration of the interior and exterior walls from water damage. According to the International Code Council (ICC): Aerobiologist Darryl Morris and Dr.

Joseph Leija, co-founders of Midwest Aerobiology Labs (a MoldDNA laboratory), have researched how specific molds affect infants, often leading to an increased chance of childhood asthma. . . . The final outcome was that out of the mold species that were identified, 88 percent of study foreclosed homes contained dangerous levels of Aspergillus flavus, a very infectious mold that is capable of causing human disease. Eighty-seven percent of study foreclosed homes had one or more molds that have been known to cause childhood asthma . . . and 80 percent of study foreclosed homes had dangerous levels of Stachybotrys chartarum (Black Mold), which indicated that these homes had suffered severe water damage.

According to PestWorld.org news, a foreclosed home that is empty and uncared-for can attract a variety of pests, including termites, spiders, ants, mosquitoes, stinging insects and rodents.

An overgrown or unkempt yard, for example, can harbor many more pests than a well-groomed yard. Small holes in siding, rips in screens, broken window glass, and cracks in the foundation provide easy access inside for pests. A rodent infestation is especially likely to spread from a foreclosed home to other nearby houses. Once rodents do invade a home, they can pose serious health and property risks.

Rodents contaminate food and spread diseases like Hantavirus, a viral disease that can be contracted through direct contact with, or inhalation of, aerosolized infected rodent urine, saliva, or droppings. A number of Fannie Mae’s foreclosed properties were infested with rats upon inspection.

Imagine having to live next door to a poorly-maintained Fannie Mae foreclosure. The black neighbors have to put up with a house that has dead grass in the front yard, boarded windows and broken gutters, and a backyard in even worse shape— with overgrown bushes, dead grass, and more boarded windows. This Fannie Mae foreclosure has absolutely no curb appeal, yet Fannie Mae is marketing this property in this horrible condition.

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Gas prices rise The Virginia average price of unleaded gasoline is currently $2.06, which is seven cent increase from last week and a one cent increase from the weekend, in and an 18 cent climb from last year’s price, according to the AAA. Traditionally

Dec. 7, 2016 • 3 this time of year gives way to lower gas prices as a result of cheaper to produce winter-blend fuel and less demand. However, due to an agreement from OPEC it is still unclear if prices will retreat considerably ahead of the upcoming holidays. Traders continue to watch how OPEC members move forward.

ELECTION NOTICE TO CITY OF RICHMOND RESIDENTS A SPECIAL ELECTION FOR MEMBER, VIRGINIA SENATE, 9TH DISTRICT WILL BE HELD ON TUESDAY, JAN. 10, 2017 The only City of Richmond precincts involved in this election are: 104, 105, 106, 204, 206, 207, 208, 213, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 306, 307, 308, 310, 501, 504, 602, 603, 604, 606, 607, and 708

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Register in person in room 105, City Hall, 900 East Broad Street between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday, except holidays. Applications are also online at www.elections.virginia.gov, at all city post offices and libraries, and DMV. The Office of the General Registrar will mail applications upon request. Voter registration applications must either be postmarked or received in the Office of the General Registrar by the deadline.

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YOU CAN NOW APPLY FOR AN ABSENTEE BALLOT ONLINE AT WWW.ELECTIONS.VIRGINIA.GOV. Applications for absentee ballots through the mail must be received by the Office of the General Registrar by 5 PM on the deadline date. The deadline to apply and vote an absentee ballot in person is 5:00 PM, Saturday, January 7, 2017, except in the case of certain emergencies or military personnel. The Office of the General Registrar will be open on that Saturday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

Call the Office of the General Registrar at (804) 646-5950 for more information

The LEGACY

4 • Dec. 7, 2016

How the ‘Fight for $15’ movement could survive the Trump era DAVID IACONANGELO & STAFF REPORT Thousands of service-industry workers recently rallied in dozens of cities across the United States, including Richmond, shutting down roads and walking off the job in airports to agitate for a $15 minimum wage.

Fast-food workers joined janitors, Uber drivers, and home- and child-care providers in calling for a $15 minimum wage outside of McDonald’s restaurants, reported Reuters, while airport employees in Chicago; Washington, D.C.; Boston; and Atlanta demonstrated outside of terminals. Well over 100 demonstrators were arrested, including four local officials in New York City.

In Richmond, fast-food workers walked off their jobs, demanding $15 and union rights. Workers then gathered for a roundtable at Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, and later, workers across the service economy were joined by community leaders and elected officials as they risked arrest in front of a McDonald’s restaurant on Chamberlayne Ave. “Galvanized by the election and frustrated with an economy that is rigged for the rich, airport, fast-food, home care, higher education and child care workers organized the massive demonstrations to mark the fourth anniversary of the Fight for $15, a movement that has won raises for 22 million Americans since it started in 2012,” noted Anna Scholl with ProgressVA, described as a multi-issue advocacy organization dedicated to communicating progressive values across Virginia.

The actions were the largest coordinated effort from the Fight for $15 campaign since its inception in 2012. The protests come on the heels

In addition to the strikes demanding $15 and union rights, workers waged their most disruptive protests yet recently saying they will not back down in the face of newly-elected politicians and ‘newly-empowered corporate special interests who threaten an extremist agenda to move the country to the right’. of a transformative election for the political symbolism of labor, with Donald Trump claiming the mantle of the white, male manufacturing worker – historically a Democraticallied group.

Whatever happens at the federal level, the minimum wage movement and the slogan “Fight for $15” have proven successful at changing minimum wage laws at the state and local level, said Ben Zipperer, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute who studies minimum wage increases.

“It’s been pushing companies to increase their low-skilled and entrylevel wages and also changed the conversation about national policy,” he said in published reports.

Since 2012, 29 states and 51 cities have passed minimum wage increases, with some, like California and Washington, D.C., on track to reach the symbolic $15-an-hour level, more than twice the federal minimum.

To explain these successes, experts point to the decision to make the minimum-wage fight a general political cause, using protests and other publicity-raising measures to achieve increases, rather than organizing unions and bargaining with individual companies.

Election Day netted the movement its latest advances. In ballot measures, Maine, Arizona, and Colorado voted to boost their states’ minimum wages to $12 an hour, with subsequent cost-of-living increases, while Washington state voters raised the hourly rate to $13.50, as the Monitor’s Amanda Hoover reported.

Those new laws are buttressed by a growing number of studies that compare data from similar, neighboring counties with different wage laws, and turn up little negative effect on employment. Those studies, said Dr. Zipperer, “provide intellectual heft to the movement.”

Despite concerns that the Trump administration could dismantle

collective bargaining rights, observers note that the Fight for $15 movement has never relied too greatly on Congress or the White House.

That’s not to say that labor organizers don’t see storm clouds ahead, according to the Times report, that the idea of staging strikes at airports, instead of just demonstrating there, originated after the election.

“Today, there is a renewed sense of urgency because of the results of the election,” said Luisa Blue, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, at a demonstration held at Reagan National Airport, noted U.S. News and World Report.

“But the underlying struggles of these workers and their need for $15 and worker organizations, the need to fight against racism, the need to fight against deportations, hasn’t changed,” she said. “And we are not going to back down.”

Dec. 7 2016 • 5

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Children say goodbye to FLOTUS at one of her final WH events AYANNA ALEXANDER TEWIRE - Children from all over the nation, some who had never ventured past their street corners and others who had never traveled outside their cities, stood in the White House and cried, the tears streaming down their face.

They also laughed and giggled and hugged.

They were a diverse group, black, Hispanic, Native American and gay, ages 12 to 18. They had traveled to Washington from as far away as Alaska and San Francisco to receive awards for their special arts organizations.

They also got a chance to say goodbye to the first lady, Michelle Obama, a woman who they said made them feel like they too are a part of America.

“I’m more than happy,” said Noemi Negron, 15, after giving Obama a huge hug and mugging for the cameras. “As a woman of color, it just makes me so happy to see Michelle up there fighting for everybody’s rights. She thinks everyone should be equal and that’s how it should be and. I think she’s so amazing.”

Ian Aquino, an autistic 9-year-old, hugged Obama four times and wore an ear-to-ear smile throughout the hour-long program.

The children and their programs were there to receive awards from the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program, which uses the arts to address the needs of youth with special needs.

Aquino, for example, is with Subway Sleuths, a New York City program for autistic children.

Negron is part of Inquilinos Boricuas En Accion’s Youth Development Program in Boston, which helps low-income youth prepare them for college and careers.

The program included speeches, a special appearance from Cuban Ambassador Jose Ramon Cabanas Rodriguez, and music.

A string quartet of young men smartly dressed in black performed as part of the event.

They represented the Sphinx

Overture, a program that provides free music education, violin lessons and instruments to students in underserved communities in Flint.

Traeshayona Weekes told the audience that she “had been waiting to wrap her arms around Mrs. Obama all day.” Weekes is with True Colors: OUT Youth Theater, a Boston theater group for lesbian, gay, transgender and bi-sexual children.

It was not only children who were excited.

“Oh my God, it’s like an explosion in my heart,” said Lizt Alfonso, who was honored as founder of the Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba School in Havana. “It’s such a delight. I was a little nervous because -- you see between two countries you have a lot of differences, but no, we’re the same.

We’re at the same point, with the same things and it feels so good to me.”

Obama embraced, thanked and took photos with each child. The presentation was one of her last official duties as first lady.

“So many lasts we’re having, but this one was the best yet,” she said.

“I am proud of you guys. You make this job worth doing, but if we don’t invest in our youth as a nation, we lose.”

Obama said the tenor of the day’s program reflected an effort on her part to make the White House inclusive.

“We made it a priority to open up this house for as many young people, because we wanted them to understand that this is their house too,” she said.

“There are kids all over this country and the world that think that places like this aren’t for them, so they’re intimidated by it. We worked to change that. They should always feel at home within these walls and so many important institutions all over the world.”

“These kids represent the very best of America. We’re a country that believes in our young people -- all of them. We believe that every single child has boundless promise, no matter who they are, where they’ve come from or how much money their parents have.

“We believe that each of these young people is a vital part of the great American story. It is important

to our continued greatness to see these kids as ours, not as them, not as other, but as ours. So, don’t ever feel fear, because you belong here.”

The programs awarded for their

work also included The Reading Road Show - Gus Bus in Harrisonburg, Va., which brings literature to lowincome children via two buses free books in various communities.

6 • Dec. 7, 2016

Op/Ed & Letters

The LEGACY

Ways to make U.S. democracy more democratic MARC MORIAL “Can we forget for whom we are forming a government? Is it for men, or for the imaginary beings called States?” — James Wilson, delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 When the United States of America was born, emphasis was far greater on “States” than “United.”

Citizens of the newly-formed nation identified first and foremost as “Pennsylvanians” or “Georgians,” for example, and as “Americans” only as a distant second. Our method for selecting a chief executive originally was devised to serve interests of each state, rather than each citizen.

The idea that all citizens of the nation should have an equal say in electing the highest office in the land was far from the minds of the framers of the Constitution in 1787.

The Constitution did not specify who could vote; that was left to the states and most granted suffrage only to white male adult property owners.

Delegates to the Constitutional Convention considered election of the President by Congress, election

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by state governors, election by state legislatures and direct election by voters.

Direct election was considered, though not seriously, and twice rejected. It can be argued that the framers of the Constitution were far more concerned about electing a qualified president than a popular one. The Committee of Eleven on Postponed Matters came up with the Electoral College as a compromise.

Today’s Electoral College would be as baffling and unforeseen to the Framers of the Constitution as Twitter or the Mars Exploration

The LEGACY welcomes all signed letters and all respectful opinions.

Letter writers and columnists opinions are their own and endorsements of their views by The LEGACY should be inferred. The LEGACY assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material.

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Rover.

Over the next two centuries, the United States grew to cherish democracy as an American ideal. As the right to vote was expanded and the principle of “one person one vote” overtook the nation, the justification for the Electoral College diminished.

Five times the winner of the popular vote has been denied the presidency because of the Electoral College – twice in the last 16 years.

Today, one Wyoming voter has roughly the same vote power as four New York voters. Minnesota has 22,000 more people than Colorado and one more electoral vote, while Wisconsin has 33,000 more people than Minnesota and the same number of electoral votes. According to a study conducted during the 2012 presidential election, the candidates conducted two-thirds of their public events in September and October in just three states – Ohio, Florida, and Virginia. At the same time, the candidates failed to hold a single public event in 40 states. Overall, campaign events and advertising took place in only 12 states.

As a nation that cherishes the “one person one vote” ideal, we should find these facts offensive.

Abolishing the Electoral College would require the consent of the

legislatures of the very states that benefit from this imbalance in power.

In the current political climate, chances are almost nil.

However, the Constitution does not specify how each state must apportion its electoral votes. If states agreed to award their votes to the winner of the national popular vote, the anti-democratic influence of the Electoral College would be eliminated.

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact would guarantee the presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It has been enacted into law in 10 states and the District of Columbia, representing 165 electoral votes. It will take effect when enacted by states with 105 more electoral votes.

Public opinion surveys consistently find solid majorities in favor of eliminating the Electoral College.

Even our current president-elect, the most recent beneficiary of its antidemocratic effect, has called it “a disaster for a democracy.”

While the road to actual elimination appears long and fraught, eliminating its antidemocratic influence appears to be within our grasp.

-TEWIRE

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Dec. 7, 2016 • 7

P.T. Hoffsteader, Esq.

Hands off my flag “Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag,” writes Donald Trump in one of his patented incendiary (pun intended) tweets. “[I] f they do, there must be consequences -- perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!”

Youve probably heard all the arguments for and against a flagburning ban, most of them variations of the maudlin “my ancestor died for that flag” or the obvious (and Supreme Court affirmed) fact that flag-burning is a form of political expression protected by the First Amendment. Let me throw another one at you: Flags are property.

If someone wants to set fire to a brightly colored piece of cloth, it’s nobody else’s business unless the flag is stolen, the flag-burner is trespassing, or burning the flag endangers other people’s lives or property.

That’s true even if you’ve convinced yourself that your grandfather “died for” that brightly colored piece of cloth (hopefully he died for something more consequential than your favorite rectangular textile pattern).

It’s true even if you profoundly disagree with the point the flagburner is trying to convey (or, as may well be the case, even if you can’t really tell what that point might be).

It’s true even if you’re Donald Trump.

You don’t have to like it. That’s how

it is whether you like it or not.

It’s not that I don’t get the sentimental attachment many Americans have to the flag. I do.

In elementary school, one of my duties as a student crossing guard was raising, lowering and folding the flag each day. As a U.S. Marine, I occasionally performed the same duties, and of course saluted the colors as appropriate. My brother still has the 48-star flag which covered the casket of my grandfather, a World War II veteran, and if my family so desires there will be a 50-star flag on my own casket one of these days (I’ll be dead, so I won’t really care, right?).

Even though my own political beliefs tend more toward the black flag of anarchy these days, I still have a soft spot for Old Glory.

But if Trump and the burningbanners get their way, I’ll be among the first to hit the pavement with a kerosene-soaked American flag and a cigarette lighter. The proper and accepted method of disposal for a desecrated flag is burning it, and Trump’s off-the-cuff attempt to wrap himself in the stars and stripes with a proposed burning ban would, if successful, constitute desecration of the very value most Americans place on it.

Furthermore, neither my free speech rights nor my property rights are negotiable. The author of The Art of the Deal has nothing to offer for them that I find tempting.

Thomas L. Knapp

Just imagine... ...if Donald Trump got two million more votes than Hillary Clinton, but by some fluke of Electoral College math, Clinton won. What would Trump be saying? The answer is easy: He’d be saying what he said weeks before Election Day: That the election was rigged against him. Why the same isn’t true the other way around is anyone’s guess.

On Nov. 23, we learned that Clinton received two million more popular votes than Trump. Yeah, I know: Trump will be the next President. At some point someone has to ask: Does it make sense that the person who received the most votes isn’t the winner? Does it make sense that Clinton has a wider vote margin over Trump than seven people who eventually became president?

The talk after the election was that the Democratic Party needs an overhaul and all is lost for the party.

But the Democrats should be careful not to over-correct. If receiving two million more votes signals a crisis, that’s quite something. Just imagine that Democrats received two million more votes with an imperfect candidate of the past carrying loads of baggage.

The bigger problem for the Democrats is running establishment candidates at the top of the ticket in an age of anti-establishment politics doesn’t work. The 2008 run of Barack Obama should have taught them

the value of change politics to the American voters. But what did the Democratic Party — more specifically President Obama — do instead? As the leader of the party, the president handpicked Hillary Clinton as his successor, put her in the position of Secretary of State, selected a Democratic National Committee Chair who wouldn’t get in the way and fought against Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders’ efforts during the primaries. And we all know what happened next.

It’s unlikely all of that would happen again, but after President Obama made the DNC an afterthought in favor of his Obama for America (OFA) affinity project, who knows what the future holds.

“Mr. Trump is unfit to serve. His scapegoating of so many Americans, and his impulsivity, bullying, lying, admitted history of sexual assault, and utter lack of experience make him a danger,” wrote Elijah Berg, who has launched the petition urging electors to vote for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. The petition now has over 4.6 million people signed on.

Former Green Party candidate for President Jill Stein has raised $5 million dollars for a recount efforts in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan. You can bet that the two states with Republican governor, Wisconsin and Michigan, will reject a recount for fear of what they might find.

Lauren Victoria Burke

8 • Dec. 7, 2016

Faith & Religion

The LEGACY

Why Jews are coming to the defense of mosques in the U.S. JESSICA MENDOZA CSM — When Sheryl Olitzky first broached the subject of a Jewish-Muslim women’s group, Atiya Aftab didn’t buy it.

“Why is someone calling me because I’m Muslim?” Aftab recalls thinking. “This is creepy.”

But as Olitzky made her case over lattes at a Starbucks in suburban New Jersey, Aftab found herself drawn in.

After that meeting in 2010, the two women launched the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom – then just a casual gathering of local Muslim and Jewish women talking about faith and family, and sharing their experiences as religious minorities in America. Today, the group has chapters in more than 50 cities, including Reston and Springfield, Virginia.

The success of groups such as the Sisterhood point to a growing – and perhaps unprecedented – desire among American Muslims and Jews to work toward a common goal, some say. Over the years, “More people have become aware of their common faiths given the rise of toxic anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic hate,” said Haroon Moghul, senior fellow and director of development at The Center for Global Policy, a New York think tank. “There’s been a definite change, and for the better.”

This past spring, business, political, and religious leaders from both communities for the first time formed a joint advisory council that seeks to give the Muslim and Jewish Americans a national voice. And amid a post-election spike in anti-Islamic sentiment, local Jewish groups have stepped up their support for Muslims in their own communities.

When mosques in California this week received a threatening letter calling Muslims “a vile and filthy people” and saying that Donald Trump “is going to do to you Muslims what Hitler did to the jews (sic),” Jewish groups were among the first to reach out, said Ojaala Ahmad, communications director for the Council on Islamic Relations in Los Angeles. The letter was also sent to mosques in several other states, including Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, and Rhode Island.

One Jewish group out of New Haven, Conn., started an online campaign to raise funds for a Muslim nonprofit, urging fellow Jews to “hold ourselves accountable for the intersectional oppressions Muslim people are facing, and honor and join the movements Muslim Americans are building to combat white supremacy and advocate

for their rights.”

“I think there’s more of a sense of urgency,” said Aftab at the Sisterhood. “We’ve heard from people all over the country, even all over the world, saying, ‘I need to reach out and do something constructive rather than be affected by this fear in a negative way.’ ” For the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom, the goal was to bridge a gap between two faith groups that shared a rich history and experience as religious minorities in Christian-majority America.

“For a Christian, to go to your weekly service generally means you don’t have to ask for a day off. Sunday is a day that most people don’t work,” said Loskota at USC. “If you’re Muslim, to get the middle of the day off on a Friday to go pray, that’s not easily accommodated.”

The same goes for dietary restrictions, modes of dress, and customs regarding behavior towards the opposite sex, Loskota said, not to mention more overt experiences of discrimination.

The coming together of these two faith groups, despite decades of conflict on issues of foreign policy, could serve as an important model for others seeking to focus on shared American values, experts note.

Such efforts also demonstrate a continued drive among Americans to hold to ideals of democracy

and pluralism by banding together and finding common ground in times of fear and confusion.

“Groups that are willing to talk and learn and still maintain their identities and distinctiveness represent a real promise for what a pluralistic society looks like,” said Brie Loskota, executive director of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California.

“Difference is a fundamental reality of humanity,” she said. “If we can’t negotiate that – if every disagreement is an existential disagreement – then the work of knitting together a society of 300 million people becomes almost impossible.”

For decades, Jews and Muslims in the U.S. have clashed on the issue of Israel-Palestine, and the council is no different – Silverman notes its members often stand on opposite ends of the conflict. Yet all of them, he says, are dedicated to promoting both communities’ concerns in America.

“This [effort] is about the country we care about most, which also happens to be the country we live in,” Silverman says.

Jewish-Muslim relations are “the single thorniest interfaith issue of our time,” said Moghul at The Center for Global Policy. “And if we can find a way to talk and to understand and respect each other even as we disagree, then we are establishing a model.”

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Dec. 7, 2016 • 9

Advocates press Obama to pardon undocumented immigrants “We are praying that he does not miss the opportunity to do the right thing at the right time.”

Clergy and immigrant justice advocates with the PICO National Network, a collection of 45 groups in 150 U.S. cities and towns committed to changing the world through faith, joined a dozen national faith, labor and community organizations are calling on President Barack Obama to protect vulnerable families by pardoning undocumented immigrants and people with nonviolent, federal drug offenses.

“This is about protecting families,” said Richard Morales, immigration policy director for PICO. “There is tremendous fear in our communities.

This is a moral rather than legal issue. The President does have the constitutional power to grant these pardons and his needs to act.”

“We need to think about our kids, our neighbors, and their dreams,”

said Miguel Oaxaca, a faith leader with Together Colorado. “I am an immigrant, a father, a business owner, but most importantly, I am your neighbor. ... I’m asking President Obama as a father to keep families together. I’m asking him to use his heart to see all the families that will be separated if he does not take action. Take action to help the country be stronger.”

The group urged local elected officials, governors, mayors and churches across the country to take steps to designate themselves “sanctuaries.” Such expressions of solidarity with undocumented families and other targeted communities is a moral imperative.

“When families are broken and shattered, our country is broken and shattered,” said Bishop Dwayne Royster, political director for PICO National Network. “Our faith traditions underscore the power of

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redemption. Tens of thousands of our non-violent brothers and sisters languish in prisons because of the War on Drugs. The President has the capacity and the power to release them.”

The event was part of PICO’s larger efforts to raise a moral critique. It comes after promises from Trump to deport two to three million undocumented immigrants, expand Stop and Frisk, eliminate health insurance for 22 million individuals and families, and implement a dangerous registry for Muslims.

“One of the major tenets of the Christian faith is to love thy Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. Second to that is to love your neighbor as yourself,” said Pastor Greg Holston, executive director for Philadelphians Organized to Witness Empower & Rebuild (POWER). “Our neighbors are under attack. We are urging preachers and leaders all over this nation to find those who are in danger, undocumented immigrants who need a safe place. Unless we stand up together, we will all be attacked. We have to learn to follow the tenants of our faith.”

Reyna Montoya, a faith leader

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from Arizona and a DACA recipient made a heartfelt plea to break down divisions: “When I think about the moment we’re in, I think about a nation that is completely divided, without compassion and without seeing each other,” said Montoya.

“Every single person in the nation has the opportunity to walk in the light or in the darkness. This is about people, our neighbors, our communities.

The network is currently circulating a petition to deliver to the White House on December 15, that addresses pardons, clemency and sanctuary. Signatories include Sojourners, Bend the Arc Action Fund, National Employment Law Project (NELP), Peoples Action Network, the Alliance for Citizenship, Unite Here, America's Voice, Auburn Seminary and author, professor and civil rights advocate Michelle Alexander.

In a direct plea to the president, Denise Collazo, chief of staff for PICO National Network, said, “We are asking and praying that you keep families together. Perhaps, President Obama, you were called to this position ‘for such a time as this.’ You told our nation, ‘yes we can.’ Now

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The LEGACY

Hard time software: Why prisoners learn coding

Alamin McAdoo (l.) and Darnell Hill, who participated in The Last Mile program when they were inmates at San Quentin prison, sit at their new workplace, a distributor of natural products, in San Bruno, Calif. MELANIE STETSON FREEMAN/CSM ANN SCOTT TYSON SAN QUENTIN, CALIF. — Wearing a blue prison uniform, Chris Schuhmacher sits in a gutted factory building surrounded by the concrete and steel walls of California’s oldest penitentiary, San Quentin.

Schuhmacher stares intently at the computer screen in front of him, then types a line of multicolored code. The windowless room is quiet except for the clacking of keyboards and the occasional squeaking of swivel chairs.

This is Schuhmacher’s day job at the prison – not stamping out license plates or making furniture, but devising complex computer calculations for one of the fastestgrowing start-up companies in the United States. It’s a slice of Silicon Valley behind the razor wire of the institution with the largest number of death row inmates in the country.

It’s good work for Schuhmacher, who has spent the past 16 years in prison for killing a fellow drug dealer in Los Angeles. It pays well, $16.77 an hour, compared with the usual prison wages of less than $1. And he likes it – back in his cell at night he roughs out answers to coding problems with pen and paper. But most important is what the work will offer Schuhmacher once he gets out: a sense of purpose and the possibility of starting a new life.

“I know my crime was super violent, but I’ve used my time in prison to my advantage,” said Schuhmacher, a tall, thin man with

searing blue eyes and close-cropped hair graying around the temples. He graduated from college while behind bars in 2011 with a 3.9 GPA and was chosen as valedictorian. Then he took computer coding classes. Now awaiting a parole board hearing later this year, he is using his wages to pay court-ordered compensation to his victim’s family. “It feels great to have a chance to pay the restitution,” he says.

Schuhmacher is one of the first employees of a new and unprecedented technology joint venture that began operations in September inside San Quentin.

His coding work is destined – via a project manager who acts as a bridge to outside clients – for companies such as Airbnb, a booming San Francisco-based start-up that runs a global website for room and house rentals. The joint venture, The Last Mile Works, is giving these inmates job skills that are in high demand across the U.S. The venture is a small but cutting-edge experiment in a much broader, nationwide movement aimed at reducing the number of Americans behind bars by lowering the repeat offender rate among freed inmates.

The U.S. has the world’s highest rate of incarceration, with 2.3 million adults – about 700 per 100,000 of the population – in federal and state prisons or local jails. That population has grown from 500,000 in 1980, largely as a result of harsh sentencing laws and the war on

drugs. Moreover, US prisons have revolving iron doors: About twothirds of former prisoners are rearrested within three years of their release, and roughly half are reincarcerated over the same time period, studies show.

Yet Schuhmacher and his coworkers at San Quentin are demonstrating that another path is possible – one that leads through education, training, treatment, and introspection to a productive and law-abiding life.

Tapping away at a screen nearby is Harry Hemphill, a college-educated engineer from Cleveland who landed in San Quentin for assault. Hemphill, who, like the other inmates, isn’t allowed access to the internet inside the prison, is also excited to work for the joint venture. “We are full-stack developers now,” he says, rattling off the computer languages he’s learned.

“We can do [both] everything you can see on the screen and all the brains behind it.” When released about three years from now, “I will be marketable,” said Hemphill. “The greatest challenge will be getting society to see past me and what I’ve done to who I am today.”

The venture is helping build a community of current and former inmates who share not only a unique opportunity but the determination to establish a better future for themselves, and those who follow, outside prison walls – a hope they say is already spreading in San Quentin’s yard.

That enthusiasm is embodied in David Monroe, a soft-spoken man with a steady gaze and ready smile, who helped start the computer coding program at San Quentin.

After a childhood in Stockton, Calif., surrounded by poverty, abuse, drugs, and death, Monroe joined a gang at age 12. “Violence was very natural for me,” he said. He was only 15 when he killed a rival gang member – who threatened and disrespected him, he then believed. “I was caught red-handed on the way to drop the gun off,” said Monroe. He was tried as an adult by a judge who called him a “cold-blooded murderer” and gave him a sentence of 15 years to life. He has been haunted ever since by the scream of his mother, sitting behind him in the courtroom.

Nearly 20 years later, Monroe feels nothing but shame and regret for

taking an innocent life, emotions that have propelled him to spend nearly a decade mentoring at-risk youth who are brought in and exposed to prison life to discourage them from making bad choices. At San Quentin, he earned a college degree and became a certified sheet metal worker. Expecting to be released in December, he will go on parole and live in transitional housing that provides meals and health care. He also has a job waiting at the San Francisco firm RocketSpace, which runs a technology campus for startups.

“After 19 years of prison, I’m prepared for anything,” he said. “I’m not at all nervous. I have no fears.

I’m just ready.”

The explosion of the U.S. prison population has spurred a national conversation on the problem of largescale incarceration, as advocates on both ends of the political spectrum seek solutions to America’s prison crisis.

Conservatives alarmed by the cost of prisons – estimated to total $80 billion a year – and the fiscal pressure on federal, state, and local budgets, want to reduce the prison population to cut taxpayer burdens.

With the expense of imprisoning one inmate running from $30,000 to $40,000 a year, or more than $80 a day, “a lot of states are realizing they can’t afford to incarcerate people,” said Lauren-Brooke Eisen, senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan institute at the New York University School of Law. In contrast, supervising someone in the community, including with mandatory training or treatment, costs about $3.42 a day, Eisen said.

Liberals argue that the high rate of incarceration reflects harsh sentencing, disproportionately affects minorities, is inhumane, and causes major “collateral” social and economic damage, such as unpaid child support.

“Our incarceration rates are off the charts compared to any other nations’,” said Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project, a Washington-based nonprofit. “We have a far more punitive approach to public safety than any other country.”

(continued on page 11)

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

Dec. 7, 2016 • 11

(from page 10) Governments, meanwhile, have imposed “a host of barriers with little connection to public safety that make it more difficult for people [with felony convictions] to reintegrate,” by restricting public housing options, access to welfare and food stamps, as well as the right to vote, he said.

A growing body of research has exposed flaws in a heavily punitive approach. “Study after study has shown that punishment can backfire, and recidivism can increase when people spend lengthy time behind bars,” said Eisen. “Providing treatment, programming, and job training is much more effective in many cases.”

Public support for change is gaining momentum. A poll in September showed that nearly 70 percent of U.S. voters – including majorities of both Democrats and Republicans – agree that the main goal of the justice system is rehabilitating prisoners and making them less likely to commit another crime upon release.

The poll by the Coalition for Public Safety, a bipartisan organization for justice reform, also found strong bipartisan support for replacing mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent offenders with case-bycase sentencing.

For their part, inmates say they struggle to turn their lives around while navigating the violence and gang activity common behind prison walls. “You have to let go of your humanity to survive prison,” said Aly Tamboura, a divorced father of three, reflecting on his more than 12 years at San Quentin a few days before his recent release.

Wearing black-rimmed glasses and the hint of a goatee, the well-spoken inmate sounds more like a middleaged academic than a man serving time for threatening his wife with a gun after accusing her of having an affair. Indeed, Mr. Tamboura, formerly an engineer who ran his own geotechnical business, has been a model prisoner. He writes for San Quentin’s prisoner-run newspaper, won an entrepreneurship award for a company he designed, and didn’t have a single day added to his sentence for bad behavior.

“That was incredibly difficult,” he says, explaining how it’s impossible to just walk away from adversaries.

“Most conflict in prison is solved by violence.”

Having grown accustomed to being

Inmates at San Quentin learn how to write computer code as part of The Last Mile program. PHOTO: CSM unable to cry or show weakness, Tamboura says he fears he won’t be able to express feelings of warmth and intimacy upon returning to his family. He recalls having to hide his grief when he learned an aunt who helped raised him had died. “I had nowhere to go. I laid on my bunk and turned toward the wall and stayed there all day,” he said.

Soon after arriving at San Quentin, Tamboura was walking in the prison yard when a man staggered toward him, a hand over his bleeding stomach. Tamboura, trained as a first responder, moved instinctively to help the man, but another inmate stopped him. “Get away! If the guards think you stabbed him, you could be shot!” he warned.

“That was a turning point for me,” Tamboura said. “They put you in prison to become better, but prison life demands you give up some humanity.”

Chris Redlitz walks through San Quentin’s arched brick entry into what resembles the gatehouse of a medieval castle. The slim, whitehaired entrepreneur passes a building labeled in gothic calligraphy as the “Adjustment Center,” where the most hardened criminals are housed. He pauses at the original stone dungeon of the prison,

completed in 1854.

San Quentin has a notorious history, and it still houses the most people on death row in the U.S., more than 740 men. But in recent years the prison has earned a reputation among authorities and inmates alike as one of the nation’s more progressive correctional facilities. Thousands of volunteers like Redlitz from San Francisco and Marin County work with some 3,800 inmates in dozens of programs, from Shakespeare and yoga classes; to an award-winning, privately funded prison university; to an in-house TV and radio channel.

Dressed entirely in black as required to set him apart from inmates, Redlitz stops a short distance from the prison yard, a dirt and gravel expanse with a baseball diamond and tennis courts, pull-up bars, and punching bags. The yard is surrounded by walls topped with concertina wire and towers where armed guards keep a watchful eye.

“A marathon is 105 laps around the track,” Redlitz said. “The best time is about 3 hours, 20 minutes.”

Groups of inmates are playing sports and milling around talking.

What at first glance appears to be a scene of spontaneous recreation is in fact one of clearly defined turf, with

the men self-segregated by race and ethnicity.

“The group in front is the Mexicans, and the ones by the fence are white,” Redlitz observed. “The blacks are in the basketball court and the Asians around the tennis court.”

Six years ago, Redlitz, manager of Transmedia Capital, a Silicon Valley technology venture fund, first visited San Quentin to give a talk about entrepreneurship. What he encountered surprised him.

“I didn’t think it would have any resonance, but these guys had done their homework. The conversation was far deeper than I expected,” he recalls. Soon he was the one doing homework – on the causes of overflowing prisons in the U.S. and the fiscal burden they’ve created.

“A light went off for me,” he says. “I thought, I have some tools. I know a lot of people running companies. I can fix this.”

Week after week, Redlitz and his business partner and wife, Beverly Parenti, returned to San Quentin to build a rapport with inmates. “It took us a year just to get to the point where they trusted us,” Redlitz said.

“I’m an old white guy from Silicon Valley who is now dealing with

(continued on page 13)

12 • Dec. 7, 2016

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The LEGACY

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

Dec. 7, 2016 • 13

Advocates confident about D.C. vouchers under Trump EMILY LEAYMAN Advocates are hopeful that Donald Trump’s education platform of expanding school choice could lead to more than a renewal of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.

Trump has suggested a $20 billion voucher program for use at public and private schools, but it is unclear where the money would come from. Federal education insiders see the D.C. voucher program as more of a sure thing in a Trump administration. A Whiteboard Advisors survey found that 94 percent of insiders think the administration will reinvigorate the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.

“Even though it has benefited 6,000 children since 2004, I think that this is a good chance for us to save this whole program,” said said Virginia Walden Ford, who had rallied D.C. parents before the program was approved in 2004. “I was really concerned with how it was going, what was going to happen.”

The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship,

(from page 11) young black guys who grew up in gangs.”

The early meetings with a handful of inmates took place in a tiny room they called the “mop closet.” State corrections authorities were initially skeptical of his plans. Redlitz created a curriculum, recruited teachers, and slowly won backing from the state government.

By 2012, Redlitz and Parenti founded The Last Mile, a nonprofit devoted to breaking the cycle of mass incarceration in America by providing inmates with career training and help finding jobs after their release.

There are plenty of people who need such help. Even though the U.S. prison population has been declining modestly since its peak in 2009, some 600,000 inmates are still released in the US each year. Experts say it’s vital to address the shortage of prison education, job training, and mental health programs to increase their chances of successful reintegration.

Inmates who take education courses are 43 percent less likely than those who don’t to return to

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser the nation’s only federally funded voucher program, allows low-income children to attend a private school of their choice. Families with incomes up to 185 percent of the poverty line are eligible to apply. This year, scholarships are up to $8,452 for elementary and middle school and $12,679 for high school.

A 2010 Education Departmentsponsored study found that the program improves students’ chances of graduating but had no conclusive evidence on changes in student achievement beyond that.

The vouchers are set to expire at the end of the calendar year. prison within three years, according to a 2014 study by the RAND Corp.

They are also 13 percent more likely to get jobs. “Education in prison is a win-win,” said Fred Patrick, director of sentencing and corrections for the Vera Institute of Justice in New York. “For every dollar invested in education in prison, there is a $4 to $5 savings from the reduced recidivism rate.”

Job training has also been shown to reduce the number of repeat offenders. In California, for example, inmates who work in joint ventures have a recidivism rate of 9 percent, compared with 45 percent for the general population, according to Chuck Pattillo, general manager of the California Prison Industry Authority (CALPIA).

For this reason, even many critics of recent moves in California to reform harsh sentencing laws support programs like The Last Mile.

“They are few and far between,” said Harriet Salarno, chairman of the board and cofounder of Crime Victims United of California, an Auburn, Calif., victims’ rights group.

“We are not against these programs; - CSM it’s just not enough.”

Without a re-authorization of the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act, recipients would lose their scholarships after this school year. The House passed a reauthorization bill in April; the Senate has yet to consider the legislation.

Sign-up for our Education Watchdog email list to receive the latest news and in-depth coverage.

Trump’s pick of Betsy DeVos for Education secretary further excited voucher proponents. DeVos was head of the American Federation for Children, which pushes for private school choice program expansions across the nation. “I think she will have some input into what goes on moving forward with D.C. OSP,” Walden Ford.

Reauthorization is all but assured under Republican control, but expansion is another matter.

President Barack Obama was unsuccessful in his attempts to defund D.C. vouchers, but was able to keep the program from expanding.

Walden Ford supported the initial decision to limit vouchers to lowincome families, but said she would like all families to be eligible. “One of the things that I saw a lot of when I was in D.C. were families that were just barely missing the income requirements,” she said. “I would like to see all parents be given the opportunity to take advantage of education that meets their children’s needs.”

Support for SOAR transcends the

private-school sector because the legislation matches voucher funding to D.C. traditional public and charter schools.

Democratic D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and a number of city council members generally oppose vouchers, but have relented in order to secure SOAR funding for traditional public and charter schools.

Boswer said in a letter to Congress that D.C. Public Schools use SOAR Act funds to support teacher and principal retention initiatives. This year, some schools are using SOAR funding rather than allocating operating dollars to participate in the city’s lottery application process.

Charter schools can apply for SOAR funding in the form of a grant.

Friends of Choice in Urban Schools and charter school leaders are preparing a letter to Congress with examples of how they have benefited from SOAR funds.

Irene Holtzman, executive director of Friends of Choice in Urban Schools, said that grants have jump-started academic programs and helped charter schools meet facility needs. Charter schools seek alternative funding sources for startup costs and other facility expenses not covered by the city’s $3,124-perstudent facility allotment.

“The competitive SOAR Act funding has allowed many schools to take on real estate projects they wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise,” she said.

-Va. WATCHDOG

14 • Dec. 7, 2016

The LEGACY

VCU hosts seminar on addiction prevention The U.S. surgeon general recently released a report on alcohol, drugs, and health, declaring drug and alcohol addiction a public health crisis in the U.S. Less than a week later, Virginia’s state health commissioner declared opioid addiction a public health emergency in the state.

In an effort to address the addiction crisis in Virginia, the Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University co-hosted a seminar this week by Beacon Tree Foundation, that featured an overview of Preventure, a schoolbased prevention intervention program recently featured in The New York Times. Preventure was identified in the surgeon general’s report as an evidence-based addiction prevention strategy associated with up to 80 percent reductions in alcohol and drug use at two-year follow-ups with program participants.

“Preventure is one of the most

successful evidence-based prevention programs there is,” said Jasmin Vassileva, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry and psychology at VCU. The Preventure program targets four characteristics that increase risk for addiction and other mental health problems, including depression, anxiety and attention deficit disorder. Vassileva will present at the VCU seminar with Preventure developer Patricia Conrod, Ph.D., a professor of psychiatry at the University of Montreal, who is visiting Richmond to train Vassileva and her research team on how to deliver the Preventure intervention.

Vassileva and Conrod have worked together for more than 25 years and the pair plans to seek federal funding to test Preventure at Virginia high schools in 2017.

“Despite being included in the surgeon general report on addiction,

Eldercare Locator’s 2016 Home for the Holidays Campaign: Isolation impacts older adults

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The Annual Home for the Holidays Campaign is once again encouraging discussions of important issues impacting older adults when families gather for the holidays.

According to representatives from Eldercare Locator, which serves as an essential, trusted gateway to help older adults, caregivers and aging/health professionals navigate the maze of aging programs and services, this year’s campaign addresses preventing Isolation and Loneliness. The National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (N4A), estimates that one in five adults over age 50 are affected by isolation, a concern that has been associated with higher rates of chronic disease, depression, dementia and death.

Senior Connections, The Capital Area Agency on Aging supports ongoing efforts to combat isolation and loneliness impacting older adults in the Metropolitan Richmond Region. These programs and services, sponsored by Senior Connection may be of benefit to older adults: •FRIENDSHIP CAFES:

Gathering places for nutritional/ delicious lunches, health/well education, screenings and activities.

• HOME DELIVERED MEALS: Meals for homebound seniors living alone with significant health conditions or physical or mental impairments that make it difficult or impossible to prepare their own meals. (This is a partnership with Meals on Wheels of FeedMore, Inc. • CAREGIVER SUPPORT: Information for caregivers about available resources and assistive with access to supportive services, options counseling and respite.

•CHRONIC DISEASE SELF MANAGEMENT CLASSES: Workshops to help individuals cope with and manage chronic conditions such as arthritis, hypertension and diabetes.

• TELEBRIDGES: Volunteers provide listening ears and encouraging words with periodic friendly reassurance telephone calls to older adults.

For information about additional Senior Connections programs and services, call 804-343-3000 or visit www.seniorconnections-va.org.

Dec. 7, 2016 • 15

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

(from page 14) Preventure has not yet been tested in the United States,” Vassileva said, adding that it has been implemented successfully in other countries including Canada, Australia and the Netherlands. “Our goal is to make Virginia the first U.S. state to pilot the intervention program.”

The seminar will include presentations by Linda Hancock, Ph.D., director of the VCU Wellness Resource Center, and Anne Moss Rogers, a local mental health advocate who recently lost her son Charles to suicide as a result of depression and addiction. Concluding remarks will be provided by Brittany Anderson, director of legislative and constituent affairs at the Office of Attorney General.

The seminar is one of many steps VCU School of Medicine is taking to combat the opioid addiction crisis in Virginia.

Through the university’s International Programme in Addiction Studies, VCU partners

with two of the world’s top research universities in the field of addiction science — King’s College London and the University of Adelaide in Australia — to offer international perspectives and discussions on addiction to students around the globe.

This fall semester, VCU joined more than 60 medical schools across the country to require prescriber education training for medical students that is in line with the newly released Centers For Disease Control and Prevention Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain.

“Prevention is a key element of addressing the opioid addiction crisis,” said F. Gerard Moeller, M.D., division chair of addiction psychiatry at VCU School of Medicine.

Moeller led the medical school’s curriculum revision that incorporated the new prescriber education training.

“Education of treatment providers and prevention programs like Preventure are some of the best methods to reduce drug addictions,” he said. “These methods will need

to be combined with expanding treatment programs for individuals once they become addicted.”

Earlier this year, VCU Health helped form the Opioid Awareness and Recovery Coalition, a regional organization committed to increasing

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understanding and education about the ongoing opioid epidemic. The coalition includes Richmond’s three major health systems along with area medical groups, government agencies, nonprofit organization and businesses.

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Calendar

12.9, 6 p.m.

The Richmond Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities will host a holiday open house at Pine Camp Arts and Community Center, 4901 Old Brook Rd. This celebration will include seasonal musical entertainment by performer Donald Coles, a reading of the classic tale “A Visit from St. Nicholas” by Clement Clarke Moore, chances to win door prizes, an opportunity to create and sign holiday cards for veterans, and children’s art activities. The event will also be the first night of the 12 foot holiday tree being lit.

12.9, 7 p.m.

The Coalition Against Violence and Partnership with Richmond Victim Witness Services in conjuction with the Office of Richmond Commonwealth Attroney, will host The 26th Annual Hoilday Memorial for Survivors of Homicide on at City Hall. Everyone is invited to attend this event; it is open to the general public.

Survivors are encouraged to bring pictures of loved ones as the community gathers to embrace during the holiday season, which is a sad time for survivors who may be facing the season alone. Linda Jordan is Memorial and Coalition founder.

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The LEGACY

COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES & EVENTS

Actor Chad Coleman will be special guest speaker at Girls For A Change fundraising Chad L. Coleman will be the special guest speaker at a private fundraiser and host a public meet and greet Dec. 15 in Richmond in order to raise funds for his favorite hometown charity Girls For A Change (GFAC).

Coleman has been working with GFAC for a number of years and has been committed to the organization’s goal about being intentional in supporting black girls and other U.S. girls of color.

The mission of GFAC is to, “Support and inspire black girls and other girls of color to visualize their bright futures and potential through the discovery, development, and social change innovation in their communities. In doing so, they develop key skills they needed for success.”

Currently GFAC is seeking support for its transformational afterschool and summer girl-focused center which will “Help Girls Take the Leap and Lead.”

GFAC feels girls deserve imaginative spaces where they can grow and learn.

GFAC’s first state licensed girls’ center will be located south of the James; in the area defined as south of the James, west of Interstate 95 and south of Chester.

GFAC has planned a “STEAM lab,” to immerse girls in science, technology, engineering, arts, and math challenges and explore STEAM and media arts through applied technology and project-based learning. Computer rooms will be available for homework and instructional assistance, and daily online activities will be scheduled. In addition to daily programs, GFAC’s center will offer a wide variety of weekly themes including visual arts, health & wellness, financial literacy, green living, and more. Its programs are a combination of academic support, character development, leadership skills, social change, girl power, and fun, according to organizers.

GFAC is prepared to connect our community with one of its most wasted resource; black girls and other girls of color. We are meeting an important need in the metro area by creating a space where girls can spend their time creating memories, celebrating sisterhood, building their skill set and a network of resources.

With community support, GFAC plans to open in the summer of 2017 serving girls in grades 3-12. The center will make it possible for GFAC to meet the needs of younger girls and improve access to quality programming for their families. The center will also be a place where Hugs are Always a Priority! Visit www.gofundme.com/taketheleapandlead to support GFAC.

Submit your calendar events by email to: editor@legacynewspaper.com.

Include who, what, where, when & contact information.

that can be printed. Submission deadline is Friday.

12.2, 6.30 p.m.

Congressman Bobby Scott will hold a health care town hall in Newport News at Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center, 2410 Wickham Ave. He will be joined by a representative from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and Ashley Richard and Jamila Allen, both Navigators at ENROLL Virginia!, a nonpartisan, community-based organization dedicated to assisting Virginians with enrolling in health insurance offered by the Affordable Care Act Marketplace.

The town hall will provide an overview of the Affordable Care Act, the Marketplace enrollment process, and other health care initiatives at the federal level. Open Enrollment for 2017 ends Dec. 15, 2016 for coverage to take effect on Jan. 1.

Jan. 31, 2017 is the final enrollment deadline for coverage to take effect on March 1, 2017. Following this date, enrollment and changes to plans can occur only if you qualify for a Special Enrollment Period.

Constituents will also have the opportunity to ask questions and share their concerns.

This event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Congressman Scott's Newport News District Office at 757-380-1000.

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Legislation to expand P’burg Battlefield expected to become law Legislation to add more than 7,000 acres to the Petersburg National Battlefield is on track to be approved

by Congress as soon as this week, with the help of U.S. senators, Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA).

Text of the annual defense authorization bill released by a congressional conference committee includes legislation sponsored by the two Virginia Senators authorizing the National Park Service to acquire additional historic land sites related to the Siege of Petersburg, the longest military event of the Civil War. The National Defense Authorization Act is expected to pass the House of Representatives on Friday, with the Senate projected to follow suit this week.

“The Petersburg National Battlefield bore witness to the longest sustained siege in our nation’s military history and draws visitors from all across the country, injecting millions of dollars into the local economy every year,” said Warner. “Expanding the park will encourage tourism to the region while preserving this important piece of American history for future generations. After working on this legislation for several years now, it’s great news that we are so close to seeing it a reality.”

“The NDAA ensures that the Petersburg National Battlefield will become the nation's largest protected battlefield,” Kaine said. “This hallowed ground bears witness to one of the longest, hardest and most decisive contests of the Civil War. The stories of all the combatants-including more than 16,000 AfricanAmerican troops--will now be more accessible to the current generation.

I thank my colleagues for their support and acknowledge the work of my predecessor Jim Webb in getting us to this day.”

“After working for years with my colleagues to secure the expansion of the Petersburg National Battlefield Park, I am proud to be able to say that we have protected these hallowed grounds and ensured that the lands and history of this battlefield will be preserved for future generations,” said Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), who introduced the legislation in the House.

"Having worked toward this goal for years, I am pleased to see this important legislation being made into

Re-enactment of the trenches at Petersburg National Battlefield. law during my final weeks in office,” said Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA), who sponsored the House legislation. “The Petersburg area contains so much of history and heritage, and I thank my colleagues in both parties and both chambers for their efforts to protect it.”

The Petersburg National Battlefield – which injects more than $10 million into the local economy annually – currently protects over 2,500 acres of battlefield and historic buildings that were involved in General Ulysses S. Grant’s 10 month Siege of Petersburg, Virginia in 1864-1865.

During the Civil War, Petersburg was an important supply post for General Robert E. Lee’s army and the Confederate Capital of Richmond, Virginia. General Grant’s victory over Lee’s army at Petersburg in March of 1865 directly precipitated Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. This was the longest siege in American military history and was an important event for the United States Colored Troops (USCT) as over 16,000 AfricanAmerican soldiers served in battle.

In 2005, the National Park Service recommended modifying the Petersburg National Battlefield to include 7,238 acres of significant core battlefield land. The land identified for inclusion was the site of 18 major battles during the Civil War and are in danger of being lost to development. These sites are not currently protected within the National Battlefield and have been

identified by the Civil War Trust as one of the most endangered group of historic battlefields in the country.

The Petersburg National Battlefield Boundary Modification Act does not spend any money, only authorizes the National Park Service to acquire the land. The legislation also authorizes one small land transfer between Fort Lee and the battlefield.

The acquisition – through purchase or donation of the land – would make the Petersburg National Battlefield the largest Civil War historic battlefield in the nation. Several nonprofits, including the Civil War Preservation Trust, already acquired key acreage that will be turned over to the National Park Service to expand the Battlefield.

In August of this year, Warner joined the National Park Service on a tour of Grant’s Headquarters at the Petersburg National Battlefield. .

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Richmond, VA 23219 804-644-1550 (office) • 800-783-8062 (fax) ads@legacynewspaper.com

Classifieds Notice of Funding Availability

Affordable Housing Trust Fund

The City of Richmond invites interested parties to apply for Affordable Housing Trust Fund (AHTF) dollars to assist with housing production and housing supportive services targeted to low and moderate income citizens. Funds are intended for projects and programs that are aligned with regional, state and federal plans, and follows best practices to address the housing needs of this population. Projects and services will be evaluated to determine whether they are eligible for AHTF funding and ready to proceed. Projects and services must demonstrate a need for AHTF funds in order to proceed and/or operate. AHTF funds may not be used to supplant existing commitments of permanent financing.

Application packages will be available by December 9, 2016 on the City’s website at http://www.yesrichmondva.com/neighborhoodrevitalization/Federally-Funded-Programs. Applications packages will also be available at the Main City Library located at 101 E. Franklin Street. All Project/Program funding requests must be submitted on the current application form and must be in compliance with Application Guidance (AHTF-101). AHTF applicants must submit three (3) hard copies of the application and a digital file on a thumb drive to the Department of Economic & Community Development, 1500 E. Main Street, Suite 400 Richmond, VA 23219.

All proposals and applications must be received no later than 4:00 PM on Monday January 16, 2017. Faxes, e-mails and late submissions will not be accepted.

An informational meeting will be held on Thursday December 15, 2016 from 1pm until 3pm at the Main Library located at 101 E. Franklin Street, Richmond, VA. Please direct all questions to the Department of Economic & Community Development at 804-646-5633. Decisions regarding funding of requests are scheduled to be made by February 6, 2017.

The City of Richmond does not discriminate on the basis of disability status in the admission or access to its programs. Virginia Relay Center - TDD users dial 711.

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Dec. 7, 2016 • 19

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Virginia Department of Transportation REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS – RFP # 153749-CMW AUCTIONS AUCTION Arlington, Virginia.

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The LEGACY is looking for a reliable, highlymotivated, goal-driven sales professional to join our team selling print and digital advertising in the Richmond and Hampton Roads areas.

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skills Familiarity with the Richmond and/or Hampton Roads Professional image Compensation depends on experience and includes a base pay as well as commission.

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E-mail resume and letter of interest to ads@ legacynewspaper.com detailing your past sales experience. No phone calls please.

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is requesting proposals from firms to provide facility and property management for the Safety Rest Areas. All proposals must be received by 2:00 PM, January 12, 2017, at the Virginia Department of Transportation; Central Office Mail Center-Loading Dock Entrance; 1401 East Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219. For questions or additional information email Calisha.Williams@vdot.virginia.gov.

An Optional Pre-proposal Conference will be held at 10:30 AM on December 15, 2016. For a copy of the Request for Proposals (RFP # 153749-CMW), go to the website www.eva.virginia.gov.

VDOT assures compliance with Title VI Requirements of nondiscrimination in all activities pursuant to this advertisement.

Retrieve knowledge by reading newspapers! Thank you for picking up your copy of The Legacy EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY NOTICE

We are pledged to the letter and spirit of Virginia's policy for achieving equal housing opportunity throughout the commonwealth.

We encourage and support advertising and marketing programs in which there are no barriers to obtaining housing because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, elderliness, familial status or handicap.

For more information or to file a housing complaint, call the Virginia Housing Office at (804) 367-8530; toll-free call (888) 5513247.

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