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EGACY Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.

WEDNESDAYS • Sept. 11, 2019

INSIDE • Virginia’s role in the gun and money debate - 3 • Examining the root of high suicide rates - 4 • What the fight against world hunger looks like - 8 • Virginia’s fight against Trump’s health “bias” - 14

Richmond & Hampton Roads

The faces of kids with cancer ASK Childhood Cancer Foundation is urging the community to check out its “Kourageous Kids” exhibit in the One James Center lobby in downtown Richmond through Sept 22.

ASK notes that one to two children are diagnosed with cancer every week in Central Virginia.

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2 • Sept. 11, 2019

News

Community storytelling: Ram Bhagat of Drums No Guns Ram Bhagat was retired when he got a phone call from Richmond Public Schools. They wanted him on board as they moved towards a restorative justice and trauma informed care approach to working with students, families and the community.

“Most people, I think, want to resolve their conflicts in a healthy way,” he said, “Some people might not know how.”

He taught in Richmond schools for 30 years. After his first retirement, he took a sabbatical to India, then he returned to Richmond working with youth across the city through the Richmond Peace Educational Center. Then, he taught in D.C. before returning to Armstrong High School where he worked with freshmen on yoga and peacemaking circles, which he’s been curating since before they had a name.

Now, as the director of School Climate and Culture, he’s implementing mindfulness practices in schools across the city. He’s piloted the program at Albert Hill Middle School, Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School and Boushall Middle School. The three schools now feature mindfulness rooms, where students can decompress, do yoga or otherwise just take a moment for themselves in stressful moments. It creates new pathways for responses to recurring issues.

More still, Bhagat has collaborated with the Richmond Food Justice Alliance to establish raised bed gardens at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School.

The ultimate goal is for students to sustain and care for the garden in perpetuity.

“I think a lot of times when students act out,” Bhagat says, “it’s because they’re feeling

Ram Bhagat at recent events, including (top) this week with RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras at MLK with a group of 8th graders.

disconnected. So the garden or the earth is a way to reconnect with self, and to connect with something that’s larger like an ecosystem or an energy system.”

Prior to taking on the job, Bhagat had applied for the first cohort of Lewis Ginter’s Urban Gardener Program. The 12-week program teaches sustainable horticulture, urban greening and community

building, to provide citizens with the skills necessary to increase community-supported urban green spaces. As a part of the program, participants also propose their own project.

Bhagat proposed transforming his own backyard, right down the street from Boushall Middle School, into a yoga garden with labyrinth, herbs and meditation spaces. Then when

he got the job, he started to see a connection between gardening and restorative justice, which sparked his idea for what he calls “RUGS” — restorative urban garden spaces.

His daughter Kiran and wife Traci participated in later cohorts and are actively working to bring the vision to life. The Bhagats’ envision the front and backyard gardens as an opportunity to help students reconnect with the earth and themselves. More still, in a school district where over two-hundred students were shot just this past school year, they see it as a space for family’s affected by gun violence to heal.

“It’s the work,” he says, “that’s why we use the motto ‘I am the work’. It’s a solution. It’s like, I am because we are.”- BRVa.

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Sept. 11, 2019 • 3

Money flowing to Virginia legislative races from both sides of gun control issue National groups on both sides of the gun control issue are pouring money into Virginia legislative races, with the NRA making an unusually large donation to a Republican leader and Everytown for Gun Safety escalating its contributions to Democrats.

Everytown’s Action Fund said Thursday morning that it was spending an additional $438,000 to help turn the Virginia legislature blue in November, on top of $135,000 in digital ad buys it announced last month. The gun-control group founded by former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has promised to spend $2.5 million this year in Virginia, where all 140 seats in the GOP-controlled state legislature are on the November ballot and the balance of power is at stake.

The announcement came two days after the National Rifle Association donated $200,000 to the political action committee of House Majority Leader Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah). That’s by far the NRA’s largest one-time contribution in Virginia in at least the past 20 years, according to the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project. The NRA has contributed a total of about $800,000 directly to candidates over that same time frame, according to VPAP. The NRA traditionally wields power by mobilizing its network of members rather than through large donations. It also makes relatively small independent expenditures, advocating for or against candidates without going through a candidate’s campaign. So far in 2019, the NRA has reported just over $12,000 in such expenditures, according to VPAP. Virginia’s races are drawing national attention as the only elections in the country this year

Moms Demand Action line up in July during a rally at the Capitol in Richmond, where Gov. Ralph Northam (D) convened a special session of the General Assembly to consider gun legislation after the Virginia Beach shootings. (Steve Helber/AP) that will determine control of a state legislature. Republicans are defending thin majorities of 51 to 48 in the House of Delegates and 20 to 19 in the Senate, with one vacancy in each chamber.

Guns became a focal point of the races after a shooter killed 12 people at a Virginia Beach municipal building on May 31. Gov. Ralph Northam (D) called a special session of the General Assembly in July to take up gun-control bills, but the Republican leadership adjourned the session after 90 minutes without debating a single piece of legislation.

All bills were referred to a state crime commission, which met last

month and is studying the proposed legislation but is not scheduled to report back to the legislature until after the election.

“It’s really shocking how blatantly the NRA controls the House Republican leadership,” House Minority Leader Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax) said via email.

Later on Thursday morning, F ­ illerCorn announced her political action committee would match the NRA contribution, giving $200,000 to the House Democratic Caucus.

She and other Democrats have criticized Gilbert and House Speaker Kirk Cox (R-Colonial Heights) for consulting with the NRA and

allowing the group to coordinate with gun-rights protesters from Cox’s conference room during the special session.

“It couldn’t be clearer — the NRA is rewarding Virginia Republicans for standing with them instead of their constituents,” Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee President Jessica Post said in a recent statement.

Cox has countered that Republicans are taking a deliberative approach to gun-control measures. The crime commission spent two full days last month hearing testimony from experts and

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The LEGACY

4 • Sept. 11, 2019

Study: Community ‘deprivation’ tied to higher suicide rates Community location and factors like job opportunities and housing quality impact suicide rates in the United States, a new study indicates.

In light of a nationwide rise in suicide rates, researchers from Ohio State University and elsewhere examined data on more than 453,000 adults ages 25 to 64 who died by suicide between 1999 and 2016, in order to create a picture of the problem and its potential influences at the county level.

Their findings: Higher suicide rates were seen in rural counties and were associated with areas that had higher levels of people living alone, unmarried or who were impermanently settled.

Higher shares of residents who were either veterans or uninsured also were tied to higher county suicide rates, as was a high level of “deprivation” in a county – an assessment based on a combination of factors such as underemployment, poverty, poor housing quality and

(from page 3) lawmakers.

The NRA’s campaign contribution “pales in comparison to the millions that Mayor Bloomberg has already pledged to bring New York-style gun control to Virginia. It’s less than one tenth,” Gilbert said last week via email.

Gilbert, running in a heavily Republican district, traditionally distributes money from his coffers to other GOP candidates around the state.

Everytown is being strategic with its donations, generally focusing on candidates in suburban swing districts that could determine the balance of power in the legislature.

On Thursday, the gun-control group said it would donate

low education levels.

“Particularly in rural areas,

deprivation was much worse – it was more associated with suicide rate increases than in urban areas,” said Danielle Steelesmith, a postdoctoral fellow at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center and the study’s lead researcher.

Overall, suicide rates jumped 41 percent, from a median of 15 deaths by suicide per 100,000 county residents in 1999-2001 to 21.2 per 100,000 in 2014-2016, the study said.

The researchers noted that counties with the highest “excess risk” of suicide were mostly in Western states like Colorado, New Mexico and Utah; Appalachian states including Kentucky and Virginia; and Ozark states such as Missouri.

The researchers also discovered a notable association between the number of gun shops in urban counties and higher suicide rates, but Steelesmith said “more research needs to be done to make sure that’s really what we’re looking at and measuring, and it’s not just a fluke that we’re finding this.”

Suicide is the 10th-leading cause of death in the U.S. and was responsible for more than 47,000 deaths in 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Among the study’s limitations, Steelesmith says misclassification of deaths by suicide may lead to

an underestimation in the results – “The picture could be worse,” she said – and that suicide death rates examined from the countylevel perspective don’t get to the individual factors associated with suicide.

Going forward, Steelesmith said her study’s findings point to the importance of addressing issues of community deprivation and the need to create opportunities in employment, education, access to health care and housing in areas lacking them, in order to “provide a bit more hope for some of the residents.”

“Making sure people have insurance coverage, and have access to insurance, which then hopefully will improve access to mental health and health care services – those are the important things that I think definitely policymakers can have (an) impact on,” Steelesmith said.

In rural counties, Steelesmith said connecting residents to resources and creating more opportunities for people to engage with one another and discuss what’s happening in their lives also may “protect against suicide.”

“That’s a possibility in those more rural areas, where people are more isolated,” she said. “There are definitely groups of people there that could connect with one another.”-USN

$100,000 to the House Democratic caucus, $125,000 to the Senate Democratic caucus, $100,000 to a state Democratic political action committee and $113,000 to candidates running in particular General Assembly races.

Everytown said the money was to boost candidates it was endorsing in 22 key legislative races, including several in suburban districts in Richmond and Hampton Roads.

In Northern Virginia, the group is supporting Democrat Dan Helmer in his challenge to Del. Tim Hugo (R-Fairfax); Del. Wendy Gooditis (D-Clarke) in her contest against former Republican delegate Randy Minchew; Del. Danica A. Roem (D-Prince William) in her race against conservative activist Kelly McGinn; Del. Hala S. Ayala

(D-Prince William) in her race against former Republican delegate Rich Anderson; and Del. Elizabeth R. Guzman (D-Prince William) in her contest with Republican D.J. Jordan.

The group is also backing Del. John J. Bell (D-Loudoun) in his bid for the state Senate seat being vacated by Republican Richard J. Black. Bell’s opponent is Republican Geary Higgins.

Everytown also said it would hold grass-roots “weekends of action” in partnership with its sister group, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, on Sept. 21-22 and Oct. 19-20.

“The mass shooting in Virginia Beach should have spurred state lawmakers to take action to protect Commonwealth families — but the Republican-led General Assembly

decided to protect the gun lobby instead,” John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said via email. “Everytown is going all-in on the November elections.”

Even before Everytown’s announcement, a spokeswoman for the NRA played down the group’s effectiveness in Virginia.

“The NRA is fully engaged in this election to protect the selfdefense rights of every law-abiding Virginian,” NRA spokeswoman Catherine Mortensen said. “We are focused on educating and mobilizing our members in support of candidates who will protect our fundamental rights. . . . The Bloomberg and Everytown/Moms Demand lobbyists may outspend the NRA, but they will never outwork us.” - WP

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Sept. 11, 2019• 5

‘Fulton Yard’ project near Rocketts Landing gets thumbs up from planning commissions A large mixed-use development planned along the fringes of both the City of Richmond and Eastern Henrico has gained its first round of approvals from local governments.

The Richmond Planning Commission last week unanimously recommended rezoning for Fulton Yard, a development proposed by Wilmington, N.C.-based Zimmer Development Co. That follows a similar recommendation last month from Henrico’s planning commission.

Named for one of Richmond’s largest rail yards, Fulton Yard is planned for a mix of 535 apartments, and 106,000 square feet of retail and office space, at the Richmond and Henrico County line, on 20 acres of CSX-owned land near Rocketts Landing.

Zimmer is seeking a combination of residential and commercial zoning designations for the three parcels that make up the site along Old Osborne Turnpike (Route 5), Orleans Street and Nicholson Street from railroad giant CSX. The developer is looking to rezone

about 3 acres of a 5-acre tract at 201 Orleans St. to B-5 Central Business District. A 1.4-acre site at 25 Nicholson St. near Stone Brewing Co.’s manufacturing and distribution facility is being targeted for B-7 zoning, which allows for a mix of commercial and residential uses in the city.

About 14 acres along Route 5 would get an urban mixed-use designation from the county that would allow for a mix of residential and commercial development.

Another would involve rezoning roughly 2 acres of the Orleans Street site that falls in Henrico to R-6, which allows for multifamily development.

The Richmond City Council voted on the rezoning during its Sept. 9 meeting.

The Henrico County Board of Supervisors voted on Zimmer’s rezoning request at its Sept. 10 meeting.

Upon completion, it will be Zimmer’s largest development in Virginia, and include several

amenities that include electric car charging stations, new lighting and sidewalks and connectivity to the Virginia Capital Trail.

Zimmer remains under contract to purchase the land. Construction on the project could launch in the first half of 2020. - RBiz

Proposed changes to SNAP will impact some states more than others Households in Texas, the northern Midwest and Pacific Northwest that rely on food stamps will especially feel the impacts of a proposed policy change to limit who qualifies for the federal program, new estimates show.

As the law stands, households that qualify for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs in states with “broad-based categorical eligibility” policies can avoid having to meet the federal income and asset tests and receive additional benefits from the U.S. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps.

In July, U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutritional Service Agency proposed a rule that would limit the households that receive SNAP benefits to those "who receive substantial, ongoing assistance from TANF," meaning those that have received benefits, whether cash or non-cash – such as

childcare – of at least $50 per month for six months or more. The federal agency estimated 3.1 million people – or about 1.7 million households – would lose their SNAP benefits if the rule was implemented, accounting for 9 percent of total SNAP households.

To estimate the state and demographic impact of the proposed rule, researchers from policy research organization Mathematica used SNAP quality control data for fiscal year 2016 in comparison to the broad-based categorical eligibility policies in place in more than 40 states and U.S. territories.

They found that, while nationally 9 percent of SNAP households would lose access to these federal benefits, more than 10 percent of SNAP households in 20 states would lose their eligibility, including 18 percent in Wisconsin, 17 percent in

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6 • Sept. 11, 2019

Op/Ed & Letters

The LEGACY

Talk of housing issues REV. DR. WILLIE GABLE Like most people, I care about my community, its opportunities, as well as its future. But as a man of faith, I believe I am additionally called to give voice and support to lift every life. From counseling congregants on ways to find hope, I am keenly aware of many who see none at all, despite the heralded claims that the nation’s economy is flourishing.

Of all the issues confronting Americans, none is more basic than that of housing. Whether renting or owning a home, every family needs a place to come home to at the end of the day. It is where our children are raised, meals are prepared, and family milestone moments are celebrated.

It is also true that everyday Americans are now struggling to keep and/or find homes they can afford. As housing prices rise faster than incomes, an increasing number of people grapple with challenges of how hard it is to keep their loved ones safe.

When the additional and illegal burden of housing discrimination emerges, the lives of many people worsen. Despite federal legal guarantees against housing discrimination, violations confront many who thought their housing rights had been permanently The LEGACY NEWSPAPER Vol. 5 No. 37 Mailing Address 409 E. Main Street 4 Office Address 105 1/2 E. Clay St. Richmond, VA 23219 Call 804-644-1550 Online www.legacynewspaper.com

secured. Beyond people of color, housing discrimination is also felt by the physically disabled, women, families, and the LGBTQ community.

But I never imagined that a black man raised by a single mother and later became a world-renown physician would change careers from medicine to government. More than that, I never expected such a man to misuse his authority as HUD Secretary to personally withdraw a key fair housing rule.

Just days ago, HUD Secretary Benjamin Carson ended a rule known as Disparate Impact that has preserved the goals of the Fair Housing Act that is now more than 50 years old. Why he would do such a thing is beyond unthinkable. But it is immoral as well.

As a man raised in the turbulent 1960s in Detroit, has Secretary Carson forgotten the struggles of the civil rights movement that included the hard-fought battle to enact the Fair Housing Act? Has he forgotten the marches in his own city, Dr. King’s speeches that appealed for this country to live up to its promises, or how in 1968 his hometown exploded in racial strife?

Even more — Has Secretary Carson come so far in life and risen so high that he has lost all recollection of what it was to be poor, or in need, or discriminated 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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against?

I believe he needs our prayers to remind him of who he is and from whence he came. We, as a people also need him to act in the best interests of all Americans, and especially those of us who share a heritage of fighting to be free in all aspects of life.

His story is one of tremendous personal strides and achievements.

It is time for him to understand that it was opportunity that enabled his success. It is highly probable that somewhere in this country another young child needs similar opportunities to live and grow and become all that our Creator intended them to be.

The way to a better life in this or any year begins in a home where young minds are supported and nurtured… Places where values that last life-long are taught… including the duty to reach back and help others who have struggled their way out of want and lack.

There is nothing second-rate about the hopes and dreams of people who have few or meager monies.

In the wealthiest nation on earth, doesn’t everyone deserve a chance to live free without the burden of discrimination?

As co-sponsor of the 1968 Fair

Housing Act (FHA), former Vice President Walter Mondale participated in HUD’s 50th anniversary program honoring the pivotal legislation. He termed the Act’s passage as “one of the great miracles in modern history.”

“When the federal and state governments will pay to build new suburban highways, streets, sewers, school and parks but then allow these communities to exclude affordable housing, the goals of the Fair Housing Act are not fulfilled,” continued Mondale. “When we build most new subsidized housing in poor Black and Latino neighborhoods, the goals of the Fair Housing Act are not fulfilled.”

I heartily agree. Secretary Carson has a duty to pursue housing justice for all. Just as our nation fought a war to abolish slavery, we now need a war against public policies that bless the wealthy while condemning everyone else to misery.

It’s time to put real fairness into fair housing again – for all.

Gable is chair of the National Baptist Convention USA, Inc, Housing and Economic Development Commission, and senior pastor of Progressive Baptist Church in New Orleans, LA.

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Sept. 11, 2019• 7

P.T. Hoffsteader, Esq.

A fool’s folly

The hundreds of thousands of distressed desperate women with babies, children and men from Central America, South America and Africa who journey thousands of miles from their countries, risking their lives and leaving those that they love behind to enter the United States for a new life, will not be stopped by a Southern border wall.

That belief is simply folly, or at worse, political rhetoric designed to win over emotional voters that can be easily manipulated during the election season by an administration whose life expectancy, many predict, will conclude in 2020.

Serious thinkers understand that a comprehensive federal immigration strategy and a working relationship with the leaders of nations such as Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, are critical to stem the tide of the massive numbers of migrants that are moving north.

Perhaps the president and those who help him to shape his immigration policy might consult with people such as the president

of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, who recently suggested that migrants would remain in the country that he leads if there were sufficient employment and a safe environment.

President Bukele recently urged Washington to become his country’s partner in creative a massive jobs programs in El Salvador.

He said that he believes his government, with assistance from President Trump, could create nearly 400,000 jobs that do not exist today. Those jobs, President Bukele said, would discouraged Salvadorans from seeking a life in the United States, he added, saying “… if people have an opportunity for a decent job, a decent education, a decent health care system and security, I know that forceful migration will be reduced to zero.”

No one wants to leave their home.

If the average person were to examine their own lives and found that they were jobless and fearful, they would search for a place where they could earn an income and raise their families in peace.

Isn’t that what the first settlers in this country did when they fled what they characterized was tyranny in England?

So, history teaches us that those who stand at our Southern Border eager to enter and those who are walking towards it are not much different from those who settled what is now the United States of America, which we have declared as the ‘the land of the free and the home of the brave.’

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson

Believing polls

There are more than 20 Democratic candidates running for president of the United States, and if you listen to them talk, they all believe they can win the nomination. Everyone knows that most of these candidates know they can’twin, but they canraise money. No individual or agency can keep up with how they spend the money, and the amount is in the billions.

This may not make much sense, but in the first debate spanned two nights with 20 candidates up on the stage.

President Donald Trump and the Republicans are laughing at this spectacle and the polls say the majority of leading Democratic candidates would win the election if it were held today. Quinnipiac University’s polls have been deemed “fake news” by the president.

“The fake news has never been more dishonest than it is today.

Thank goodness we can fight back on social media. Their new weapon of choice is fake polling. Sometimes referred to as suppression polls and they suppress the numbers. Had it in 2016, but this is worse,” says Trump in a Tweet.

Many Americans say the president is wrong, but the Quinnipiac University poll numbers do appear to be incorrect, because 60 percent of white people support Trump and that number could be higher. Trump is always talking about how much he loves America, and it appears that

most white Americans love him right back.

White Americans have been searching and looking for a savior, and Trump is someone they can believe in. Almost their entire life, White folks have been looking for an individual they can put their trust in, and Trump is their man.

“Make America Great Again” is essentially a code slogan that means “Make America White Again,” and it is working under Trump’s administration. Most Americans are not looking for a minister to be the president, and most are comfortable if he does not tell the truth and breaks some rules.

Many politicians are lawyers and they go to school to learn how to bend, stretch, and change the laws, and there is nothing wrong with lying as long as you don’t get caught.

President Trump has changed the rules, because he does not care if he is caught lying. In fact, the president will say one thing one day and say something totally different the next day.

Our president believes the system is set up for white men to rule, and when you are caught with your hand in the cookie jar, most of the time money has a way of fixing problems.

The mass media in America has awesome power and it can turn a criminal to a saint, and a saint into a criminal. Americans are lazy, and they wait for the news to give them information and it does not matter if it is right or wrong.

Roger Caldwell

8 • Sept. 11, 2019

The LEGACY

Faith & Religion At 89, Bread for the World founder Art Simon ‘not giving up’ on goal of ending hunger ADELLE M. BANKS RNS — Decades after former Lutheran pastor Art Simon founded the Christian advocacy group Bread for the World, he refuses to give up on the goal of ending hunger in the U.S. and across the globe.

At 89, he has written a new book, “Silence Can Kill: Speaking Up to End Hunger and Make Our Economy Work for Everyone.” In it, he encourages readers — religious and nonreligious — to see the value in moving from solely charitable efforts to address hunger to also advocating for legislative action on the issue. He ends his book with practical steps for believers to take, from visiting poor neighborhoods and countries to get to know about the struggles of the people there to writing to members of Congress.

Simon, an ecumenical minister who is affiliated with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, spoke to Religion News Service about the reluctance of some religious people to address hunger and why he thinks food banks are not sufficient to solve the hunger crisis.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

As founder of Bread for the World, you have long been concerned about hunger in this country and in the world. Is it any more likely that hunger can be ended in the near future than when you started your organization 45 years ago?

It’s much more likely. We’ve made tremendous progress in recent decades. But the last few years have actually set us back a little bit. So the goal of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, getting us to

Art Simon, left, with Iva Carruthers at the “Silence Can Kill” book launch at Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. PHOTO: Lacey Johnson for Bread for the World the end by 2030 — possible but a very steep hill. It will take some extraordinary efforts to make that happen by 2030.

What is it about your role as a faith leader that has led you to continue championing this cause?

It was my pastorate in New York City, in quite an economically poor neighborhood, that got me involved very directly in hunger and poverty issues. Before long I was involved in helping to put Bread for the World together as an idea and then, became the first president. I saw that as an extension of my pastoral ministry, actually, rather than a departure from it.

What was it about that

congregation where this became an issue for the people in the pews?

There were quite a number of people in the congregation who were economically poor. And the whole neighborhood context of the congregation — constantly dealing with people who were struggling to make a go of it and finding themselves running short on food, on money. And all sorts of complications that come along with hunger and poverty.

You note that religious people are often charitable, often running food banks or contributing to them, but that, that’s not enough. Why is that not enough?

Charity is a wonderful thing.

Charity is essential and I’m still actively part of charitable efforts in hunger. But charity can only do so much. It’s quite limited in what it can do in the long run. It doesn’t have a sufficient spread to reach people who need the help and it doesn’t have the authority to make decisions for the nation as a whole.

To end hunger — even to reduce hunger — we’ve got to get the whole nation behind it.

Only the government can speak for the nation as a whole. Second Harvest can do a lot, but it can’t do that.

You titled your book ‘Silence Can Kill.’ Why? Because a lot of people are dying as

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Sept. 11, 2019• 9

(from page 5) North Dakota, and 16 percent in Delaware, Iowa, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. Meanwhile, the researchers estimated Texas would have the highest number of households slated to lose benefits, at 233,195 – accounting for nearly 390,000 people.

“Eliminating BBCE would mean millions of people currently receiving SNAP benefits would become ineligible. Using available data and microsimulation modeling, we break down the numbers and show the impact in each state for both individuals and households,” said Sarah Lauffer, a senior research programmer at Mathematica, in a press release.

Zero households in states such as Virginia, Indiana and Wyoming that do not have BBCE policies would lose SNAP benefits, though some states without the guidelines, including Missouri, would still experience a slight decrease in the number of SNAP households that qualify.

The rule change aims to eliminate a “loophole” that enables people who require minimal TANF benefits to “receive assistance when they clearly don’t need it,” according to the USDA. The agency estimates the reduction in SNAP benefit payments will save about $3 billion per year.

“Too often, states have misused this flexibility without restraint,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said in a statement in July.

“That is why we are changing the rules, preventing abuse of a critical safety net system, so those who need food assistance the most are the only ones who receive it.”

But because states have determined individually the caps for their own categorical eligibility programs or whether they have the programs at all, the impacts of the proposed rule will fall more heavily on states that have more inclusive policies in place, the Mathematica data shows, with nearly 2 million households and 3.6 million people at risk of losing their SNAP benefits.

The USDA said elderly individuals would be the largest group impacted by the rule, with about 13 percent of all SNAP households with

elderly members losing benefits.

But, again, the new data shows the percent impacted varies by state; for example, 26 and 34 percent of households with elderly members will lose benefits in Wisconsin and Texas, respectively.

“This data was released at the national level as part of the federal regulation, but we didn’t have a common resource for people to look at how their state specifically was impacted,” Lauffer said. “I’m hopeful that states will be able to come in and recognize whether or not their state has an expansive broad-based categorical eligibility program, but also recognize the specific number that might be dropped or might be affected.”

The analysis was completed for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Its results show that if the new rule goes into effect, millions of people may be at risk of losing their access to healthy food, says Dr. Rich Besser, president and CEO of the foundation.

“If this new rule goes into effect, millions of people may be at risk for losing access to healthy food,” Besser says. “Any barrier that you put up to an assistance program will mean that there are people who would qualify, who are entitled to receive that support, who aren’t going to get it maybe because they don’t have the time to go through the administrative hurdles to make that happen. It’s just one step too far.”

Groups in support of the rule change such as conservative public policy think tank Foundation for Government Accountability say it will help those who need the most help by cutting down on the number of households that receive welfare who are above the federal cutoffs as well as those who may be abusing the program.

“Anyone losing food stamp eligibility because of BBCE being eliminated was not an individual that Congress intended the program to cover,” Sam Adolphsen, policy director at FGA, said in an email to U.S. News. “This includes millionaires and lottery winners,

but will also certainly include those with significant assets or income well above, even double, the federal poverty limit.”

“Eliminating the BBCE loophole is not about ‘kicking people off’ welfare – it’s about preserving the program for those it was meant for: truly needy individuals and families without other means to support themselves,” he said.

Besser says the impact of the new rule will hurt more than the anecdotal cases of wealthy people misusing the system. The Mathematica data show about 40 percent – 1.4 million of the 3.6 million – of individuals expected to lose their benefits are living below the poverty line.

“You are seeing people who are just above that poverty line, people who rely on these programs to make sure that their kids don’t go hungry,” Besser says. “Any barriers that are put in place that make it harder for people to get support will mean that more people in America go hungry.”

The public has until Sept. 23 to comment on the proposal. - USN

10 • Sept. 11, 2019

The LEGACY

The racial roots behind the term ‘nappy’ MICHAEL PAULINO FIRST PERSON A black man walks into my barber shop on Manhattan's Lower East Side and removes his hat, revealing hair that is thick and tightly coiled.

Therem’s usually a hum of hair clippers buzzing through the loud bachata music in the shop, but the moment the man walks through the heavy glass door, a silence seems to befall the place.

“Este muchacho tiene pelo malo,” one of the barbers says to the others, shaking his head. But in English, the barber doesn't tell the man his hair is bad (malo).

Instead, he says, “Your hair ... it’s ... ehm ... nappy, yes?”

The translation of English words into other languages often unveils some interesting layers of meaning.

The translation the barber chose for nappy was malo; the two terms were synonymously used to describe the hair texture of millions of people of African descent.

So some questions rose in my head: Where does the term nappy come from and why does it have such negative connotations? Is it possible to reclaim a word that has been used as a slur for so long?

Turns out, the origins of the term are complex. Nappy’s history is tangled up in the arrival of the first slave ships on the coastlines of the Americas in the 17th century. The likely origin of the term is the word nap, which was used to describe the frizzled threads raising from a piece of fabric. There is a lot of speculation that nap was redefined as a disparaging phrase for the coils and kinks in the hair of the African enslaved, in connection with the fields of cotton that drove the Colonial economy.

(There’s also a largely discredited theory out there that the term comes from the British use of nappy to describe a diaper, or someone dirty or unruly.)

Hair texture was one of the many rationalizations of the perceived subhuman status of the African,

according to Silvio Torres-Saillant, a professor of humanities at Syracuse University. He says the focus on hair began as Europeans tried to rationalize their dominance and superiority. “[The argument] was based on the phenotype,” said Torres-Saillant.

“And that included the skin color, their build, their height, and it especially included their hair.”

Those negative associations have endured for centuries.

In 1998, white New York City schoolteacher Ruth Sherman received tremendous backlash after assigning Nappy Hair, a book

by Carolivia Herron focused on cultivating positive feelings about nappy hair in young children. One

of the parents was not pleased, according to an investigation launched by New York City’s Department of Education, because of the belief that the phrase “nappy hair” was a racial slur. The debate resulted in a firestorm of calls to have Sherman fired. “[Sherman] had what she considered to be viable death threats against her,” says Noliwe Rooks, author of Hair Raising: Beauty, Culture and the African American Woman. “All because she was trying to teach little kids, many of which were of African descent, that ‘nappy’ could be seen as positive.”

Rooks said that when she first heard about the controversy, she was sure that it was centered on

the misconception that Sherman, a white woman, was being racially insensitive. But Rooks said the parents weren’t accusing Sherman of discrimination. Rather, they confronted her for framing nappy hair as a positive.

“You start to hear that [the parents] were like, ‘Why would you be trying to tell my child that her nappy hair is a good thing?’ “ Rooks said. “I found that fascinating.”

Nearly a decade later, in 2007, nappy was once again thrown into the national spotlight after radio host Don Imus used the term “nappy-headed hos” in reference to the Rutgers women’s basketball team. The backlash was immediate.

Calls for Imus to be taken off the air began to flood in.

Days later, Imus appeared as a guest on activist Al Sharpton’s show in an attempt to address the criticism. Imus said that he had used the phrase without an understanding that nappy was a racial slur. (Whether he saw “hos” as offensive is another story.)

Sharpton wasn’t buying it.

“Nappy,” Sharpton said, “is racial.”

About a week after the original comment, CBS Radio canceled Imus In The Morning indefinitely, calling Imus’ use of the phrase racially damaging.

I wanted to know whether there could ever be more to nappy than the racist rant of a talk show host, so I called up Zine Magubane, who is an associate sociology professor at Boston College. I asked her whether there was a context where the term nappy could be used in a nonoffensive manner.

Her response was blunt: “No.” “Certain social movements have changed the meaning of what any word is supposed to describe,” Magubane said. “So ‘slut,’ [for example] — we have had enough of a female revolution so that the idea that a woman must be chaste is mostly gone.”

But she says neither the culture nor the context has undergone a change significant enough for nappy

(continued on page 11)

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

(from page 8) a result of hunger. They’re dying because of hunger and poverty.

That’s true especially globally when it’s very clear that large numbers of people who are extremely hungry and extremely poor simply die too soon. And, typically, the deaths occur mostly in infancy and in early childhood but it occurs in later years as well. But here in the States, it also takes a toll. Now, we don’t have lots of high death statistics to point to like we do in the case of global hunger. But here, too, people who are hungry, people who are poor, their lives are shortened.

Why do you think religious people are reluctant to act on this issue?

One of the reasons is that charity is what we are familiar with and comfortable with. That’s been in the biblical heritage from Old Testament times on all through the history of the church. We don’t do enough of it, but we do it and people understand that that’s part of what being a Christian involves. But advocacy involves something more complicated. It means engaging in leaders at the political level and people are not as comfortable with that because that can be controversial. Leadership in churches tend to back off from getting engaged in advocacy.

You write that when religious people do not speak up to politicians about hunger, that they are hurting their own faith.

What do you mean by that?

Every Christian, I think in theory at least, believes that God calls us to be compassionate toward people who are hungry and poor. And that’s why charity seems OK. But if the answer to hunger and poverty requires responsible citizenship and changes in government policy, then it is the contradiction of our faith if we back away from engaging with hunger at that level.

What has been an example of success in the past when religious people have spoken to political leaders about hunger

Sept. 11, 2019 • 11 policy?

Bread for the World came up with the idea of getting legislation included in our foreign assistance to establish a child survival fund within our foreign aid program.

Long story short, when the letters started coming in, members of Congress began to pay attention to it and they did establish a child survival fund in our foreign aid program. In combination with other efforts, hunger has been reduced worldwide because of child survival efforts. Not just Bread for the World’s. Our piece of it was one small piece, but an important piece.

That’s just one case where a lot of people, largely people anchored in the church, got to their members of Congress and the consequence was millions of kids lived rather than died.

On the other side of this, what has been an example of a failure when people of faith have tried to get members of Congress or presidential administrations to do more?

We don’t like to broadcast too many of those (laughs) but I think back to the 1980s and the Reagan era when there was a pushback against safety net programs and so food stamps and other programs were cut back. Bread for the World and other advocacy groups were really pushed into a defensive mode to lobby against the cuts, but the cuts came.

Probably not as extensive as they would have — I’m quite confident of that, in fact — but nevertheless, there was a setback.

How do you see this work to end hunger fitting into our current times when the country is so polarized?

The current crisis is really a setback to the hunger movement and to what we ought to be doing as a nation. But, having said that, it isn’t an entirely negative picture because Congress for the last couple of years, and going into the third year now, has with some minor exceptions stood up against President Trump in continuing the safety net programs and food stamps in particular and overseas development assistance

and food assistance abroad. And I think a lot of that is due to the advocacy groups that have been bugging Congress over the years.

They’re getting at least a partial hearing.

Hunger could become that morally anchored issue that is so decent and so good and so in tune with our national ideals and Christian ideals that it could become the issue that helped to crystallize an effort to change our economy in a more inclusive direction, an economy that would work for everybody and would include people now who are unemployed, underemployed, underpaid and ought to be given a better chance.

After all of this work that you’ve done for decades, even in this polarized time, you’re not giving up on the hope for the end of hunger?

(from page 10) to get the same treatment. “[Nappy] will only cease to be offensive when the racism in a society that makes certain physical characteristics to be set aside for ridicule goes away,” she said.

“The context in which the word is deployed does not suggest that a similar reclaiming is on the horizon.”

Still, it felt like in some spaces, a reclamation was already taking place. I called up Trisha R. Thomas, author of the book Nappily Ever After, which inspired the Netflix hit of the same name.

“I wrote Nappily with the goal of putting the term in a new light,” Thomas explained. “I can’t tell you how many letters and emails I’ve gotten from people in different countries all around the world about how Nappily’s changed their lives.”

But she said the feedback wasn’t all positive.

“I remember when Nappy Hair came out and the controversy and the anger that was felt, and it was frightening,” Thomas said. “I wasn’t even going to call my book Nappily Ever After; I had about five other titles ready to go — it was that bad.”

But after some thought, Thomas decided to push forward.

Not giving up at all. I don’t think Bread is giving up or other advocacy groups are, or churches for that matter who are engaged this way.

When there are setbacks you just got to work harder.

It’s not unreasonable. Sometimes it just takes reaching that tipping point in the public sense of things that hunger is an outrage in a country as wealthy as ours. If you think of England, back in the early 19th century and ending the slave trade and slavery — it happened because there were some dogged legislators like (William) Wilberforce and churches who began to help shape public attitudes on slavery.

Ultimately the nation as a whole decided slavery is something we’ve got to end.

I think something like that should happen with regard to hunger and extreme poverty here in the States.

“I told my editor that the term was hitting the core of what this story is about: reclaiming who we are and not being afraid,” Thomas said. “I knew it may be causing a little stir, but I knew I had to resist the fear and do what I thought was right.”

A little stir turned out to be an understatement.

“There was so much resistance, I mean I had someone throw copies of my book at me,” Thomas said. “They threw Nappily Ever After, my own book, and told me I had no right to use that word.”

I asked Thomas: In an age where many groups are proudly reclaiming the terms used to pin them down, did she think that her attempt to reclaim nappy had been successful?

Was there any hope for the word moving forward?

“If you would have asked me this when I wrote the book in 2000, I would have told you, ‘Yes, there is hope,’ “ Thomas said. “But I just don’t think so anymore. There’s a group damaged by the word’s hurtful connotation whose pain will never go away. I saw the depths of their hurt, and it was painful to even witness.”

“At this point, I’ve accepted that it’s always going to be a triggering word,” Thomas said. “Always.” - NPR

12 • Sept. 11, 2019

The LEGACY

Va. DOC changes visitation to support reentry, fight contraband The Virginia Department of Corrections recently announced plans to combat the introduction of contraband into the state’s prisons and enhance efforts to help offenders successfully reenter society following completion of their prison terms.

In an ongoing effort to support facility security as well as offenders’ reunification efforts with family and loved ones, a new visitation procedure will go into effect on Jan. 15, 2020.

Cellphones and illicit drugs are said to infiltrate prison walls at high rates.

To help eliminate the introduction of contraband into DOC institutions through visiting rooms, each offender will be required to complete and submit a visiting list of up to 10 visitors that can only be changed twice a year.

Offenders must submit this list by Oct. 1.

Minors are excluded from the 10-visitor limit, and offenders with more than 10 immediate family members may request an exception to the 10-visitor limit.

Currently, offenders can add and remove visitors from their visitation list at any time, leading to many instances in which a visitor is “hired” to bring drugs into a facility through a visit with an offender the visitor doesn’t even know.

The department recognizes the importance of offender visits with friends, family, and loved ones, and continues efforts to make visitation safer for all involved. The introduction of drugs and other contraband into visitation rooms across Virginia puts visitors, including children, offenders, and staff at risk.

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

Sept. 11, 2019• 13

UR exhibition on Richmond’s civil rights history will soon be available for loan via ‘Museum in a Box’ The University of Richmond’s University Museums has received funding to expand the reach of a recent exhibition, “Growing Up in Civil Rights Richmond: A Community Remembers.” No museum required.

A $3,000 grant from Virginia Humanities will allow University Museums to develop two free educational resources that will enable audiences throughout the greater Richmond area to experience last spring’s exhibition, which highlighted stories of local Richmond residents who grew up in the city during the civil rights

Laura Browder movement.

The exhibition will be packaged into two art portfolio cases that will feature residents’ portraits captured

Findings point to clinical similarities in illnesses among people who use e-cigarettes or “vape” Initial findings from the investigation into serious lung illnesses associated with e-cigarette products point to clinical similarities among those affected. Patients report similar exposures, symptoms and clinical findings and these align with the CDC health advisory released last week. While many of the patients, but not all, reported recent use of THC-containing products, some reported using both THC- and nicotine-containing products. A smaller group reported using nicotine only.

No evidence of infectious diseases has been identified in these patients, therefore lung illnesses are likely associated with a chemical exposure.

However, it is too early to pinpoint a single product or substance common to all cases, according to authors of articles published today in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) and the

New England Journal of Medicine.

“We are committed to finding out what is making people sick,” said Robert R. Redfield, MD, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “All available information is being carefully analyzed, and these initial findings are helping us narrow the focus of our investigation and get us closer to the answers needed to save lives.”

CDC, FDA, and state partners are combining information about e-cigarette exposures, results from FDA testing of product samples, and clinical testing results to identify a cause or causes of these illnesses.

“The FDA appreciates the continued collaboration between our federal and state public health partners to get to the bottom of these distressing incidents and gather more information about any products or substances used.

We are leaving no stone unturned

by Richmond-based visual journalist Brian Palmer and excerpts from interviews conducted by Laura Browder, UR’s Tyler and Alice Haynes professor of American Studies.

Each box will also include relevant educational materials such as timelines of civil rights events during Richmond’s history, Virginia SOL guidelines, excerpts from scholarly sources, and recommended additional readings.

“Museum in a Box cuts out the logistics and expense of a field trip and brings the content to the school’s doorstep,” said Martha Wright, University Museums’

assistant curator of academic and public engagement. “It brings the exhibition to the students in their classroom environment which is familiar and comfortable and that allows for deeper inquiry.”

Local school educators, libraries, civic groups, and churches will all be able to loan the boxes for free from University Museums.

“Whether a student or community group, the purpose of ‘Museum in a Box’ is to have a nuanced dialogue,” said Wright. “Conversations about our collective history and race are absolutely integral to community evolution.”

in following any potential leads and we’re committed to taking appropriate actions as the facts emerge,” said Acting FDA Commissioner Ned Sharpless, M.D. “Our laboratory is working closely with our federal and state partners to identify the products or substances that may be causing the illnesses and have received more than 120 samples from the states so far. The FDA is analyzing these for a broad range of chemicals but no one substance, including Vitamin E acetate, has been identified in all of the samples tested. Importantly, identifying any compounds present in the samples will be one piece of the puzzle but won’t necessarily answer questions about causality, which makes our ongoing work critical.”

CDC launched a multistate investigation into the lung illnesses on August 1, 2019, and has worked closely since then with FDA, states and other public health partners, and clinicians to determine the cause. As of today, more than 25 states have reported possible cases of lung illnesses associated with use of e-cigarette products (e.g., devices, liquids, refill pods, and cartridges).

At least two deaths have been reported to CDC. Additional cases of lung illness are being investigated to determine whether they are linked to e-cigarette use and have similar clinical features. This includes looking back for older cases based on CDC’s case definition. States are in the process of classifying possible cases, and this information will be reported this week.

CDC has created an incident command structure to respond to these illnesses and is working with FDA and states to investigate whether the illnesses may be linked to specific devices, ingredients, or contaminants in the devices, or substances associated with e-cigarette product use. On August 30, 2019, states were asked to submit data to CDC about lung illnesses associated with e-cigarette product use, as well as information about the types of e-cigarette products used. CDC is currently receiving data from affected states and will share updates as more information becomes available.

What health care providers can do CDC encourages clinicians to

(continued on page 14)

14 • Sept. 11, 2019

The LEGACY

Herring urges court to block Trump’s rule allowing bias in providing health care Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D) has joined a coalition of 26 public jurisdictions and health care providers in filing a motion for summary judgment requesting that the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York block the Trump administration’s refusal-of-care rule that would allow businesses and individuals to discriminate against patients and refuse to provide necessary health care. Back in May, Herring and his colleagues filed suit against the Trump administration seeking to enjoin the new rule and prevent it from going into effect. In June, that same coalition sought a preliminary injunction to prevent implementation of the rule.

The court pushed back the original implementation date of July 2019 for the rule, and today the coalition is asking the court to hold that the refusal-of-care rule violates federal statutory law and the U.S. Constitution.

“This dangerous rule is just another attempt by the Trump Administration to undermine health care in this country,” said Herring.

“Everyone deserves access to fair, quality health care without the fear of discrimination. I will continue to protect all Virginians and do everything I can to make sure that this rule never goes into effect.”

Herring and his colleagues allege in the lawsuit that the final rule, if implemented, would undermine the delivery of health care by allowing a wide range of health care institutions and individuals the right to refuse care and discriminate against patients.

The rule drastically expands the number of providers eligible to make such refusals, ranging from ambulance drivers to emergency room doctors to receptionists to

AG Mark Herring customer service representatives at insurance companies. The rule makes this right absolute and categorical, and no matter what reasonable steps a health provider or employer makes to accommodate the views of an objecting individual, if that individual rejects a proposed accommodation, a provider or employer is left with no recourse.

The rule would also allow businesses, including employers, to object to providing insurance coverage for procedures they consider objectionable, and allow individual health care personnel to object to informing patients about their medical options or referring them to providers of those options.

The devastating consequences of the rule would fall particularly hard on marginalized patients, including LGBTQ patients, who already confront discrimination in obtaining health care.

The lawsuit further alleges that the risk of noncompliance is the termination of billions of dollars in federal health care funding.

If HHS determines, in its sole discretion, that states or cities have failed to comply with the final rule — through their own actions or the actions of thousands of sub-contractors relied upon

to deliver health services — the federal government could terminate funding to those states and cities to the price tag of hundreds of billions of dollars. States and cities rely upon those funds for countless programs to promote the public health of their residents, including Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, HIV/AIDS and STD prevention and education, and substance abuse and mental health treatment.

The lawsuit argues that this drastic expansion of refusal rights, and the draconian threat of termination of federal funds, violates the federal Administrative Procedure Act, as well as the Spending and Establishment Clauses and the separation of powers principles in the U.S.

Constitution.

Herring joined the attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia; the cities of New York and Chicago; and Cook County, Illinois in filing the motion.

Additionally, two separate lawsuits were brought against the Trump administration for implementation of this rule by Planned Parenthood Federation of America and one of its affiliates, as well as by the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association and Public Health Solutions, which have now been consolidated into this lawsuit.

(from page 13

immediately report possible cases of e-cigarette-associated lung disease to their local or state health department for further investigation. If e-cigarette product use is suspected as a possible cause for a patient’s lung disease, a detailed history of the

substances used, the sources, and the devices used should be obtained, as outlined in the HAN (Health Alert Network), and efforts should be made to determine if any remaining product, devices, and liquids are available for testing.

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Sept. 11, 2019• 15

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16 • Sept. 11, 2019

The LEGACY

Calendar 9.12, 4 p.m.

The University of Richmond School of Law will host James Forman Jr., a professor at Yale Law, for “Confronting Mass Incarceration” in the law school’s Moot Courtroom.

Forman, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America”, is this year’s Order of the Coif Distinguished Visitor, an academic expert selected each year to visit law school campuses with the goal of fostering an exchange of ideas around topical legal issues. He diagnoses America’s criminal justice crisis with both data and human stories. His presentation will tackle questions, including “How did the U.S. come to lock up more of its citizens than any other nation on earth?” and “What can we do to change that?”

To guide the audience through these questions, he will draw on his life experience as the child of a civil rights leader, public defender, and law professor, with the goal of leaving the audience hopeful, inspired, and armed with concrete ideas for how they themselves can contribute to change.

An introduction and welcome by Rodney Robinson, 2019 National Teacher of the Year. A reception and book sale and signing will immediately follow the event.

9.12, 6 p.m.

A complimentary seminar giving an overview of social security benefits to assist in retirement planning will be offered at the Virginia Credit Union Administrative Headquarters in the Boulders Office Park, 7500 Boulder View Dr., Richmond.

The seminar will be offered by the MEMBERS Financial Services Representatives located at Virginia Credit Union. To register, call 804323-6800 or visit www.vacu.org/ seminars.

COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES & EVENTS

9.21-22, various times

Time Travelers is a biannual Richmond Region tradition that invites tourists and locals to discover treasures spanning 400 years of fascinating history, including historic homes, sites and other one-of-a-kind attractions.

During this event, which coincides with the annual Smithsonian’s Museum Day, a wide variety of the area’s historic sites will offer visitors a “Passport” to visit each site for free. Each site will offer complimentary admission to visitors who show a Time Travelers Passport, available from the participating locations’ websites.

Participating locations include: - Agecroft Hall & Gardens: To reserve a specific tour time, call 804-353-4241.

- The American Civil War Museum’s White House of the Confederacy - The Branch Museum of Architecture and Design: For questions, call 804655-6055 or visit www.branchmuseum.org.

- The Chesterfield County Museum and Historic Jail: For more information, call 804-768-7311.

- Chimborazo Medical Museum Clarke-Palmore House: For more information, call 804-226-1981 or visit www.nps.gov/rich.

- Courtney Road Service Station: For more information call 804- 652-1455.

- Dabbs House Museum: For more information call 804-652-3406.

- Deep Run Schoolhouse: For more information, call 804-652-1455.

- The Edgar Allan Poe Museum - Historic St. John’s Church: To learn more, call 804-648-5015, or visit www. historicstjohnschurch.org.

- The John Marshall House: For more information, call 804-648-7998 or visit www.preservationvirginia.com/marshall - Magnolia Grange: For more information, call Magnolia Grange at 804-748-1498.

- Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site: For more information and for tour times, call (804) 771-2017 ext. 0 or visit www.nps.gov/mawa.

- Maymont: For more information, call 804-358-7166 ext. 310 or visit maymont.org. Last tour begins at 4:30.

- Meadow Farm Museum at Crump Park: For more information call 804-652-1455.

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

Include the who, what, where, when & contact information that can be printed. Deadline is Friday.

9.14, 10 a.m.

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated (AKA), Upsilon Omicron Omega Chapter, will hold its AKAs L.E.A.D. Town Hall Meeting at Norfolk Technical Center at 1330 North Military Highway This free, nonpartisan voter engagement event is designed to offer the public the opportunity to Learn, Empower, Advocate and Decide (L.E.A.D.) in anticipation of the upcoming election season.

Confirmed speakers include Congresswoman Elaine Luria (2nd District, Virginia), Delegate Jay Jones (89th District, Virginia General Assembly), Maribel Castañeda (Office of Governor Ralph S. Northam), Mona Gunn (National President, American Gold Star Mothers, Inc.), and a number of Hampton Roads area candidates for the November 2019 General Election.

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated is an international service organization that was founded on the campus of Howard University in Washington, DC in 1908. It is the oldest Greek letter organization established by African-American college-educated women.

9.19, 6 p.m.

Explore options for paying for college and learn tips on reducing costs in a workshop offered by Virginia Credit Union.

The seminar will be held at Virginia Credit Union in the Boulders Office Park, 7500 Boulder View Drive, Richmond. Participants will learn how options such as federal financial aid, scholarships, grants, student loans and college savings plans can work together to fund goals for education. To register to attend, call 804- 323-6800 or visit www.vacu.org/seminars.

Sept. 11, 2019• 17

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

Voters expect Trump reelection Voters are predicting a reelection victory in 2020 for President Donald Trump, but less than a third would be happy about it, according to a recently released national poll.

The latest USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll also reveals that Republicans favor a populist direction over traditional conservatism by nearly two to one, while Republican-leaning voters slightly favor a more traditional path, according to a USC statement.

Most Republicans are supportive of President Donald Trump’s influence on the party and the GOP’s move toward populism, and they are happily optimistic that he will win reelection in 2020, according to the latest poll.

And while the vast majority of Democrataffiliated voters would be unhappy if he won a second term, eligible voters gave Trump a greater than 50 percent chance of winning in 2020.

When asked about their wishes for the future of the Republican Party, 44 pecent of all Republican-affiliated voters — including leaners — said it should be more populist, stressing strong borders, protecting jobs from competition overseas and standing tough against crime and social disorder.

One in four said the GOP should become more traditionally conservative by focusing on fiscal responsibility, defense and probusiness policies. Another 13 percent said the GOP should stay as it is and 16 percent said they don’t know.

“Trump owns the Republican Party,” said Robert Shrum, director of the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future, which oversees the poll.

“That’s the bottom line of this. They like him, they like his direction. He’s got more trouble with people who might lean Republican but who might not be hardcore Republican.”

Added Jill Darling, the poll’s survey director: “One out of five Republicans and leaners would like to see President Trump have less influence on the party. These dissenters tend to be college educated, younger and only loosely affiliated with the party, but the majority voted for Trump in 2016 and he may be in trouble if they don’t come out to vote for him again.”

The poll shows GOP-affiliated voters with college degrees split between a preference for conservatism or populism (40 to 37 percent), compared to those without college degrees, who prefer populism by more than two-to-one (47 to 21 percent). Support for the populist path was higher among Republican affiliates in rural (48 percent) and suburban (46 percent) areas, versus 39

percent of city dwellers.

“I don’t know if populists are pushing Trump or if Trump is strengthening the populists,” said Mike Murphy, co-director of the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future. “There is no question that the dominant force in the party is Trump-style populism.”

Republican-leaning voters were split, slightly favoring a more traditional conservatism, with 36 percent saying the party should be more traditionally conservative; another third (31 percent) prefer a more populist approach and 28 percent say they don’t know. Five percent of the GOP-leaning voters say the party should stay as it is.

Murphy said the poll brings a question into sharp focus: “Will suburban Republicans and college-educated white independents who are uneasy with Trump swallow the bitter pill of reelecting him, or the very bitter pill of voting for a very progressive Democrat if Joe Biden loses Iowa, New Hampshire and the nomination?”

When asked how they would feel if Trump were elected to a second term, 18 pecent of all eligible voters say they would be completely happy and 42 percent say they would be completely unhappy.

Seventy-six percent of Republicans and 37 percent of GOP leaners said they would be completely or mostly happy, compared with 15 percent of unaffiliated and other party voters and only 2 percentof affiliated Democrats.

An overwhelming 9 out of 10 affiliated Democrats said they would be completely or mostly unhappy if Trump wins again.

“This poll says buy Valium stock,” Murphy said. “One huge chunk of the country is going to be really unhappy if Trump wins and another huge chunk will be unhappy if the Democratic nominee wins. We are so polarized now that it’s, ‘I’m right and you’re evil.’”

All eligible voters were asked to rate on a scale of 0 to 100 how likely it was that Trump would win the 2020 election. On average, all voters rated their confidence in a second term for Trump at 54 out of 100.

Republicans rated their confidence in Trump’s reelection at 74 out of 100, compared to the average of 40 among Democrats, indicating a 60 percent likelihood that the Democrats believe that their yet-unchosen nominee will win.

“Having worked in the Democratic vineyards for years, I will tell you that Democrats are classically ‘the sky will fall’ people,” Shrum said. “They worry and worry and worry.”

18 • Sept. 11, 2019

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GEICO, State Farm and Allstate

PRINT & DIGITAL AD SALES EXECUTIVE

REMINDER: Deadline is Fridays @ 5 p.m.

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

Duties include: Building and maintaining relationships with new/existing clients Meeting and exceeding monthly sales goals Cold calling new prospects over the phone to promote print and online advertising space

Qualifications: Proven experience with print (newspaper) and/ or digital (website) advertising sales; Phone and one-on-one sales experience; Effective verbal and written communication skills, professional image and; Familiarity with Richmond and/or Hampton Roads areas.

Compensation depends on experience and includes a base pay as well as commission.

The LEGACY is an African-American-oriented weekly newspaper, circulation 25,000, with a website featuring local and national news and advertising.

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

Your savings could be even more!

Call The Hartford 1-855-398-8975

The AARP Auto Insurance Program from The Hartford.

1

®

Saving is easy! With this policy, experienced drivers who switch save an average of $449* in the first year alone — and they get all the benefits and privileges you’d expect with the AARP Auto Insurance Program from The Hartford. Your own savings could actually be

■ 24/7 claims service ■ Lifetime renewability† ■ Lock in your rate for a full 12 months ■ New car replacement§§

greater.

96%

of customers recommend The Hartford**

The only national auto insurance program endorsed by AARP.

Call The Hartford now to request a FREE money-saving quote.

1-855-398-8975 No coupon necessary.

Not an AARP member? If you’re 50 or over, request a FREE quote and more information today!

FREE duffel bag when you request your free quote!*** * Savings amounts are averages based on information from The Hartford’s AARP Auto Insurance Program customers who became new auto insurance policyholders between 1/1/18 and 12/31/18 and provided data regarding their savings and prior carrier. Your savings may vary. ** Based on customer experience reviews shared online at www.thehartford.com/aarp as of April 2019. *** The gift offer is good for first time responders who provide a valid email address. Responders will be sent an email to confirm the gift. All responders in IA, IL, MA and RI who do not provide an email address are still eligible to receive the gift. The gift offer is not available in GA, ND, NM or PA, but residents may still request a quote. The gift is available only as a limited time offer. Please allow 4-7 weeks for delivery. Bottle not included. † If you are age 50 or older, once you’re insured through this Program for at least 60 days, you cannot be refused renewal as long as applicable premiums are paid when due. Also, you and other customary drivers of your vehicles must retain valid licenses, remain physically and mentally capable of operating an automobile (not applicable in MA), have no convictions for driving while intoxicated and must not have obtained your policy through material misrepresentation. Benefit currently not available in HI, MI, NH, NC and TX. §§ Limitations apply.

AARP and its affliates are not insurers. Paid endorsement. The Hartford pays royalty fees to AARP for the use of its intellectual property. These fees are used for the general purposes of AARP. AARP membership is required for Program eligibility in most states.

The AARP Automobile Insurance Program from The Hartford is underwritten by Hartford Fire Insurance Company and its affliates, One Hartford Plaza, Hartford, CT 06155. It is underwritten in CA by Hartford Underwriters Insurance Company; in WA, by Hartford Casualty Insurance Company; in MN, by Sentinel Insurance Company; and in MA, MI and PA, by Trumbull Insurance Company. Specific features, credits, and discounts may vary and may not be available in all states in accordance with state filings and applicable law. Applicants are individually underwritten and some may not qualify. The program is currently unavailable in Canada and U.S. Territories or possessions.

1In Texas, the Auto Program is underwritten by Southern County Mutual Insurance Company, through Hartford Fire General Agency. Hartford Fire Insurance Company and its affiliates are not financially responsible for insurance products underwritten and issued

by Southern County Mutual Insurance Company.

006131

Resource Information Help for the Disadvantaged and Disenfranchised (RIHD) www.rihd.org ● (804) 426-4426

Sept. 11, 2019• 19

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

AUCTIONS ESTATE AUCTION. Saturday, September 14, 2019-10:00 AM. 1478 Cartersville Rd. (Route 45) Cumberland, VA, 23040. Real estate-79+/- acres- Home -Workshop- Pond - Valuable Timber. Guns - Antiques - Furniture - Tools - Personal Property. www.TilmansAuctions.com VA#348 ATTN. AUCTIONEERS: Advertise your upcoming auctions statewide or in other states. Affordable Print and Digital Solutions reaching your target audiences. Call this paper or Landon Clark at Virginia Press Services 804-521-7576, landonc@ vpa.net EDUCATION/CAREER TRAINING AIRLINES ARE HIRING – Get FAA approved hands on Aviation training. Financial aid for qualified students - Career placement assistance. CALL Aviation Institute of Maintenance SCHEV certified 877-204- 4130 HELP WANTED / DRIVERS Need CDL Drivers? Advertise your JOB OPENINGS statewide or in other states.

Affordable Print and Digital Solutions to reach truck drivers. Call Landon Clark at Virginia Press Services 804-521-7576, landonc@vpa.net REAL ESTATE FOR SALE ATTN. REALTORS: Advertise your listings regionally or statewide. Affordable Print and Digital Solutions that get results! Call Landon Clark at Virginia Press Services 804-521-7576, landonc@vpa.net VETERAN BONANZA 0Down $399K 6A 2Houses Airbnb$ http://www. willowrocks.net Views, Stream, Garage. Roanoke VA 24101 near Smith Mountain Lake. CALL 5406500714. SEE tinyurl.com/jubal7638 AND tinyurl.com/ jubal-video TRADE SHOWS/EVENTS CONVENTION COIN, CURRENCY AND STAMP SHOW! September 27-29 Fredericksburg Expo & Conference Center (2371 Carl D. Silver Parkway, Fredericksburg, VA) FREE ADMISSION/PARKING. Contact Richard Schornak 757659-0235 www.vnaonline.org.

SERVICES DIVORCE-Uncontested, $395+$86 court cost. WILLS $150.00. No court appearance. Estimated completion time twenty-one days. Hilton Oliver, Attorney (Facebook). 757-490-0126. Se Habla Espanol. BBB Member. https:// hiltonoliverattorneyva.com.

Advertise here 804-644-1550 ads@legacynewspaper.com

To file a housing complaint, call the Virginia Housing Office (804) 367-8530 or (888) 551-3247.

For the hearingimpaired, call (804) 367-9753, or e-mail fairhousing@ dpor.virginia.gov

CUO 0010145- Procurement 0906 HAMPTON SOLICITATION CITY OF HAMPTON Tuesday, October 08, 2019 2:00 p.m. ET – ITB 19-50/TM (Rebid) Annual Sewer Construction Services For all forms or additional information, see our web page at http:// www.hampton.gov/bids-contracts or call (757)727-2200. MinorityOwned, Woman-Owned and Veteran Businesses are encouraged to participate.

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