LAWT 1-21-10

Vol. XXX, No. 1163

January 21, 2010

SERVING LOS ANGELES COUNTY WITH NEWS YOU CAN USE

After Earthquake, Local Haitian Community Galvanizes Help

BY CHICO C. NORWOOD STAFF WRITER

Photo by MARTY COTWRIGHT

RAINY PARADE — The Dominguez High School Marching Band strolled through the Kingdom Day Parade in Leimert Park on Jan.18 in the rain. The parade has taken place annually in South Los Angeles since 1986 to honor slain civil rights pioneer the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. KABC-TV Channel 7 News anchorman Marc Brown served as parade grand marshal, while new Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck served as one of the celebrity grand marshals. See more parade photos on page 6.

FIRST COLUMN

The Italian League Sends Wrong Message on Racism

BY JOHN LEICESTER AP SPORTS COLUMNIST

PARIS (AP) — Mario Balotelli endures abuse that no 19-yearold should suffer — for no other reason than because he is black.

There is the ugly graffiti on walls leading to the San Siro stadium, where the Inter Milan striker plays.

“Non sei un vero Italiano, sei un Africano nero,” it says.

Translation: “You are not a true Italian, you are a black African.”

There are the unprintable racist chants and vicious boos he hears when he plays, and which live on even after matches are over in videos on the Internet.

There was the time in Rome last June when, his sister says, people threatened him and hurled bananas into the bar where Balotelli was relaxing with fellow

Photo by STEINDY

ENDURING HATE — Italian Mario Balotelli, an Inter Milan player, has been taunted and harassed many times because he’s black.

Among the taunts is graffiti on walls leading to the San Siro stadium, where Inter Milan plays. “Non sei un vero Italiano, sei un Africano nero,” the graffiti reads, meaning, “You are not a true Italian, you are a black African.”

players from Italy’s under-21 squad, prompting the owner to call the police.

And what has the Italian league done in response to the insults he regularly faces?

Unbelievably, it slapped Balotelli with a euro7,000 ($10,000) fine recently.

“It’s like the world is upside down,” Cristina Balotelli says.

“It’s ridiculous, and I think my brother just doesn’t want to think about it because he is so disgusted.”

In a fairer world, all you’d need to know about Balotelli is that he is young, gifted, quick, muscular, scores goals and is nicknamed “Super Mario.” He joined Inter in 2006. He made his first team debut in December of the following year, aged just 17, as a late substitute in a 2-0 win against Cagliari.

Two days after that, he scored twice in a 4-1 crushing of Reggina.

With a total of 23 goals in 68 appearances for the 17-time Italian champions, a call-up to Italy’s national squad may not be far off.

But the racists who have long soiled Italian football don’t see Balotelli’s skills, just the color of his skin. Even when Inter is not playing, he has been targeted for abuse.

Prosecutors in France are investigating taunts about Balotelli that Juventus supporters shouted when the club played French champions Bordeaux in the Champions League last November, says the French anti-racist group that is pushing for criminal and sporting punishments in the probe.

Juventus fans again sang racist slurs directed at Balotelli on Jan. 13, continuing despite a plea made over Stadio Olimpico’s public address system asking them to stop.

Speaking by phone with The Associated Press, Cristina BaloSee ITALIAN LEAGUE, page 10

Claudine Oriol counts herself as being lucky.

The actress was on a New York-bound plane from Haiti just two hours before the 7.0 earthquake rocked the small Caribbean nation, leaving much of its capital, Port-auPrince, in rubble and anywhere from 75,000 to 200,000 people, or even more, dead.

“I was actually saved by God. I found out when I landed in New York what had happened,” said the Haitian actress, who before the Jan. 12 quake worked with Delmas Mayor Wilson Jeudi to start a public library in Delmas, a district in Portau-Prince that reportedly is one of the hardest-hit areas.

Since receiving the news, Oriol See HAITI, page 12

Photo by MARCO DORMINO/THE UNITED NATIONS

RECOVERED — People remove a body from the rubble of a school in Haiti that collapsed after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that rocked Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, on Jan. 12. While international aid is still coming in, Haitians, abroad and locally, are helping their people.

Gang Tours — For $65, Tourists Get Peek at Los Angeles Gangland

BY THOMAS WATKINS AP WRITER

(AP) — Only miles (kilometers) from the scenic vistas and celebrity mansions that draw sightseers from around the globe — but a world away from the glitz and glamour — a bus tour is rolling through the dark side of the city’s gang turf.

Passengers paying $65 a head Jan. 16 signed waivers acknowledging they could be crime victims and put their fate in the hands of tattooed ex-gang members who say they have negotiated a cease-fire among rivals in the most violent gangland in America.

If that sounds daunting, consider the challenge facing organizers of LA Gang Tours: trying to build a thriving venture that provides a glimpse into gang life while also trying to convince people that gang-plagued communities are not as hopeless as movies depict.

“There’s a fascination with gangs,” said founder Alfred Lomas, a former member of the Florencia 13 gang. “We can either address the issue head-on, create awareness and discuss the positive things that go on in these communities, or we can try to sweep it under the carpet.”

Several observers have questioned the premise behind the tours, and some city politicians have been more blunt.

“It’s a terrible idea,” City Councilman Dennis Zine said. “Is it worth that thrill for 65 bucks? You can go to a (gang) movie for a lot less and not put yourself at risk.”

More than 50 people brushed aside safety concerns for the Jan. 16 maiden tour to hear how notorious gangs got started and

Alfred Lomas

bear witness to the struggling neighborhoods where tens of thousands of residents have been lured into gang life.

The unmarked chartered coach wound its way through downtown.

The first sight was a stretch of con-

crete riverbed featured in such movies as “Terminator” and “Grease,” where countless splotches of gray paint conceal graffiti that is often the mark of street gangs and tagging crews.

After that, it was on to the Central Jail, home to many a thug, past Skid Row’s squalor and homeless masses, and into South Los Angeles, breeding ground for some of the city’s deadliest gangs.

Motoring through an industrial area, the bus enters the FlorenceFirestone neighborhood, close to the birthplace of the Crips and current home to Florencia 13, a Latino gang that was accused by federal prosecutors of racist attacks against black residents.

See GANG TOURS, page 9

NEWS IN BRIEF THE SOUTHLAND L.A.’s Crime Rate Lowest in 50 Years (AP) — Authorities say the 2009 crime rate in Los Angeles was the lowest in 50 years, with drops reported in everything from homicides to car thefts.

L.A. Police Chief Charlie Beck said the number of homicides dropped more than 18 percent last year compared with 2008. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says the 314 reported homicides were the fewest since 1967.

Overall, there was a 10.8 percent drop in violent crimes and an 8 percent dip in property crimes even though the city’s economy sagged and unemployment rose.

Rapes were down about 8 percent and auto thefts plunged nearly

20 percent.

The drops are being mirrored elsewhere in the country. New York City finished the year with the fewest killings since comparable record-keeping began in the 1960s.

On the Net: LAPD, www. lapdonline.org.

THE STATE Court Revives Black Inmate Civil Rights Complaint SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A black inmate’s civil rights lawsuit against prison officials is back on track after a federal appeals court reinstated the case.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Jan. 12 overturned a trial court’s decision to toss out the lawsuit filed by convicted murderer See BRIEFS, page 4

Page 2

L.A. WATTS TIMES

January 21, 2010

OPINION EARL OFARI HUTCHINSON

Where Was the World When Haiti Really Needed It? The heartbreaking and pathetic scene I and a group of other American visitors witnessed at the small beach town in Northern Haiti years ago still haunts me.

We had no sooner arrived at the beach when a contingent of Haitian police and local officials frantically waved away a throng of the town’s residents who had poured onto the beach to hawk food, trinkets, and carvings, and tattered clothing items, but mostly to beg.

Their torn T-shirts and ragged shorts, and emaciated, hollow-eyed looks bespoke of more than Haiti’s legendary, world-leading poverty. It spoke of the sheer, utter desperation to get anything from those they regarded as rich foreign tourists.

The tormenting scene that I and thousands of other visitors to Haiti have routinely witnessed during the past decade has become the national emblem of Haiti. Yet, it took a murderous earthquake, clips of bodies sprawled in the streets, a collapsed palace and shanties, torn streets, and the shocked expressions on children’s faces for the United States, and legions of public agencies and private donors to leap over themselves to promise to send an armada of food, medical supplies, clothing, building materials, construction teams, security forces and cash to Haiti.

Why did it take a natural tragedy for this?

Haiti’s sorry history of American occupation; brutal dictatorial and military rule; the flood of refugees trying to escape the nation’s destitution; the wave of devastating hurricanes that tore through the country in one month in 2008; the United States, Canada and France’s

meddling in the nation’s internal politics; and the grinding poverty is well known.

Haiti’s corrupt, repressive military rulers and government officials get standard blame for the country’s chronic poverty and bankruptcy.

There’s much truth to that.

But Haiti is also a relentless victim of crushing and never-ending debt servitude to the International Monetary Fund and foreign banks, vicious labor exploitation, and the blind-eye U.S. aid policies that stunt Haiti’s farm and manufacturing growth.

The nation’s debt burden would sink virtually any developing nation.

Haiti is compelled to shell out nearly $1 million a week to pay off its debt to the World Bank and the IMF, debt incurred by the Papa and Baby Doc Duvalier regimes and their successive military governments propped up by the United States. Half of the loans were given to the Duvaliers and the other dictatorships.

They squandered the cash on presidential luxuries with barely a cent going to development programs for the poor.

In 2008, World Bank President Robert Zoellick, in reaction to massive outcry from government officials and Haitian activist groups, publicly pledged to forgive part of the nation’s debt totaling $500 million.

The bank reneged on the promise then.

It subsequently, after protest, agreed to partial debt relief. But in the time lost, the money could have bankrolled a vast expansion of health care, nutrition and feeding programs, supplies of clean water, and rebuilding the country’s badly

frayed infrastructure.

The United Nations has hardly been a benevolent force to aid the country’s development and Democratic rule. The United Nations annually shells out $600 million to maintain its 8,000 peace keepers.

Yet when the hurricanes ravaged the country, the U.N. force did not dispatch amphibious units, build temporary bridges, or provide trucks or equipment to provide emergency help to Haitians in distress.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has come under intense fire for turning a blind eye to corporations and contractors who ignore basic Haitian labor, human rights, minimum wage and environmental laws, shun service providers, and invest only a relative pittance of profit back into Haitian small businesses, manufacturing and food production.

This is a particular sore point given that Haiti’s near-total reliance on foreign food imports has resulted in famine, near starvation, and food riots.

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization report that with proper investment in food production, the country is more than capable of feeding its roughly 9 million people.

In 2008, a coalition of U.S. and Haitian human rights groups flatly accused the United States of aiding and abetting corruption in the country. It demanded that then-President George W. Bush and Congress determine which U.S. corporations and Haitian officials pocketed and benefited from the more than $4 billion USAID and their sub-contractors spent from 1994 to 1998.

See HUTCHINSON, page 10

Mehserle’s Trial Suggests Change in Law Enforcement

BY KOKAYI KWA JITAHIDI

The recent and first pre-trial hearing for Johannes Mehserle — the ex-Bay Area Rapid Transit officer who shot and killed Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day 2009 — brought out a tapestry of emotion and activity.

The Foltz Criminal Justice Center was abuzz with scores of protestors, media representatives, and agents of the legal system all taking part in the early morning rush. It was an amazing scene considering that the hearing itself was rather basic and bland.

The biggest developments of the day included an announcement of a start to the trial in May, and Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert Perry’s insistence of no cameras in the courtroom.

While these tidbits of legal information are indeed critical, they pale in comparison to the acknowledgment that countless legislative barriers make it nearly impossible to fairly and successfully prosecute officers like Mehserle in a court of law.

This reality creates a piercing anxiety in the hearts and minds of everyone hoping for justice in this case. However, if Grant has any chance of being our generation’s

Emmett Till — a martyr that inspires a movement for progressive social change — we will need to immediately identify concrete next steps to work on.

A few recommendations include: 1. Repealing or amending the California Police Bill of Rights, passed in 1976 to supposedly protect officers against workplace harassment.

This part of the state’s constitution has become a tool used primarily to protect trigger-happy cops from getting fired.

Much of the Police Bill of Rights deals with issues of due process when officers violate department rules. However, it contains several problematic clauses that not only make it difficult to fire officers, but to convict them of criminal acts.

Some of these clauses include guaranteeing all officers administrative reviews regardless of the severity of their actions and paying officers if they are questioned while off-duty.

Moreover, as long as the Police Bill of Rights remains intact, local efforts for community-controlled policing are rendered ineffective. In order to repeal or amend the

California Police Bill of Rights, community leaders will need to raise millions of dollars to put forth a ballot initiative before voters. This will be a hard-fought, yet just Kokayi Kwa Jitahidi battle to save the lives of thousands of vulnerable residents.

2. Establishing a Special Prosecutor Office to investigate and charge police crimes.

As the legal representatives of Californians, county district attorneys have the primary responsibility to handle felony cases throughout the state. Consequently, they work very closely with local law enforcement.

This collegial relationship creates a contradiction in the legal system. District attorneys are very reluctant to bring charges against on-duty police officers — especially in cases of brutality and murder — out of fear of alienating the very group often responsible for their pay and job status.

In order to change this appalling scenario, community leaders should look at creating a Special See KOKAYI, page 11

The Fight of the Century

BY MAYA RUPERT CONTRIBUTING WRITER

If you’re like me, Muhammad Ali’s birthday always meant viewing hours of old footage of his bouts with Joe Frazier and interviews about the renowned rivalry.

If you’re really like me, those viewings weren’t your choice, but were something “fun” that you and your father did together. Some people had daddy-daughter dances. I had the Thrilla in Manilla.

But when you’re about to watch the same retrospective you’ve seen so many times you’ve lost count, a funny thing happens: You stop watching the fight they’re showing, and you start thinking about the fight that’s still going on.

The Ali-Frazier battle is one of those rivalries that transcends its time and its participants. It’s one of those rivalries that can represent anything and everything if you really think about it.

That’s the thing about rivalries — they’re so rarely about what they’re about.

It was Ali’s speed versus Frazier’s strength. Ali’s glitz versus Frazier’s guts. Ali’s anti-establishment stances versus Frazier’s proestablishment ones. Ali’s black radical politics against what Ali described as Frazier’s willingness to be a puppet for his white audience.

And the fight that never ended, the issue of colorism both within the black community and in broader society as well.

When Harry Reid’s comment that Obama’s light skin made him a more attractive and potentially viable presidential candidate was made public, all I could think was Ali versus Frazier as I groaned, “Wow, I guess this will be the fight of the new century, too.”

Leading up to their third and final bout, Ali ramped up his signature trash talk against Frazier.

Among other insults, Ali infamously nicknamed Frazier “the Gorilla” — a gossamer-thinly veiled insult

directed at Frazier’s dark skin tone — as opp o s e d t o A l i ’s lighter complexion.

It was an interesting dynamic. Even as Ali Maya Rupert accused Frazier of selling out to the white community, Ali was perpetuating the racist idea that black people should strive for the lightest and whitest features.

“Colorism,” as it’s been dubbed, is this idea, and it results in a privilege afforded to lighter-skinned black people both within and outside of the black community.

While colorism is a form of racism, they are separate ideas. And in some ways, colorism is more insidious because it’s harder to catch and harder to describe.

Colorism is feeling like lighterskinned black people are less intimidating — more palatable, easier to be around. It’s not understanding why, but thinking they’re more attractive. It’s being more inclined to call a black woman “angry” when she’s darker and “passionate” when she’s lighter. It’s the black make-up counter clerk who implored me to try a different shade of powder because, as she so diplomatically put it, “With your complexion, you don’t want to get any darker!”

Colorism is what made it easier for Ali with his more privileged background, eloquence and diction, and his light skin, to espouse the ideals of the Nation of Islam and still remain such a popular figure in a way that would have been substantially more difficult for someone like Frazier to do. Colorism is what accounts for the disturbing skinbleaching phenomenon that has allowed people of color to risk their health and safety all in the name of looking lighter. And it is one of the factors that helped Barack Obama get elected.

See RUPERT, page 3

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CIRCULATION AUDIT BY

January 21, 2010

L.A. WATTS TIMES

Page 3

BUSINESS It’s a New Year: Time to Update Your Resume

BofA, Walmart Foundation Pledge Haiti Relief (AP) — Bank of America Corp. will give $1 million and the Walmart Foundation $600,000 to help victims of the earthquake that hit Haiti Jan. 12, the company and the foundation said.

A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck just west of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and thousands have died. President Barack Obama has promised an all-out rescue and humanitarian effort.

The bank said it also will match any donations its employees make and will not limit its total gift.

Half of Bank of America’s $1 million commitment covers a grant to the American Red Cross for the Haitian Relief and Development Fund. The other $500,000 will cover long-term recovery, including restoring basic medical services and rebuilding homes and schools.

The Walmart Foundation said Jan. 13 it plans to give $500,000 in cash plus food kits worth $100,000, both through the American Red Cross.

The foundation also launched a Web site at walmartstores.com/ haiti, where customers and employees can donate to nonprofits that are helping Haitian victims of the natural disaster.

The philanthropic organization said that in September 2008 it donated more than $100,000 to relief efforts for Haitians who were hurt that summer by hurricanes Gustav and Ike, which killed hundreds of people.

California Exports in Nov. Increase Over a Year Ago SACRAMENTO (AP) — California’s export economy showed faint signs of life in November as the value of shipped goods increased from the same month a year ago.

Jock O’Connell, international trade adviser at the University of California Center Sacramento, says the $200 million increase over November 2008 is a slight gain. That holds even after the $10.9 billion in exports is adjusted for inflation.

It was the first time since October 2008 that exports climbed over the previous year. Exports from the Port of Oakland are growing faster than exports from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The state data are mixed, however, with November 2009 exports down 1.2 percent over the previous month. The center’s analysis, released Jan. 12, was based on figures from the U.S. Commerce Department.

Obama Highlights Report Saying Up to 2 Million Jobs Created or Saved by Stimulus WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is trumpeting a new White House estimate that his top economist calls “stunning”: His stimulus plan has already created or saved up to 2 million jobs.

The analysis is part of the administration’s quarterly report to Congress on the controversial $787 billion package of spending and tax cuts he signed weeks after taking office.

Republicans have denounced the stimulus plan as an expensive flop, pointing to a national unemployment rate stuck at 10 percent and December figures showing the economy shed 85,000 more jobs.

But the report from the President’s Council of Economic Advisers said the economy is a lot better off than it would have been without the stimulus.

Citing its own analysis plus a range of private-sector summaries, the council estimated the annual growth rate last year would have been roughly 2 percentage points lower, and there would have been 1.5 million to 2 million fewer jobs.

Unusually Long Calif. Train Raises Safety Concerns (AP) — An unusually long train that recently rolled through Southern California is raising concerns about public safety and traffic delays.

The 31/2-mile long Union Pacific train, about two to three times the length of a typical freight train, left Texas on Jan. 8 and arrived at the Port of Long Beach Jan. 10. The Omaha, Neb.-based railroad said it ran the train — the longest ever assembled by the company — to test equipment and explore ways to improve operations.

While there are no state or federal limits on the length of trains, regulators monitored its movement to ensure the train had adequate braking capacity. Officials were also on hand in case of extended delays for drivers and emergency vehicles at rail crossings.

A spokesman for the California chapter of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen said such long trains could cause potential problems for emergency vehicles, and put train operators at risk.

Rail crews have many things to consider when running a train, including speed, braking, grading, curvature of tracks and following safety rules, said Tim Smith, state legislative chairman for the union.

Tom Lange, a Union Pacific spokesman, asserted that long trains actually minimize the chances of derailment because locomotive power is distributed along the train, reducing stress on couplers and other equipment.

Obama Considering Adding Levies to Banks to Help Recoup Bailout Money WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is weighing a levy on Washington-rescued banks to help recover shortfalls in a $700 billion bailout fund and to help balance a budget that is looking increasingly grim amid an ongoing economic crisis.

A senior administration official said Jan. 11 that Obama would seek modifications to the law that sent billions in bailout money in 2008 and 2009 to a flailing Wall Street that was approaching collapse. The government official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the president’s thinking.

The law that created the Troubled Asset Relief Program gives the president until 2014 to seek a way to recoup unrecovered money from financial institutions.

BY TALI ARBEL AP BUSINESS WRITER

Whether you’re out of work or browsing for new opportunities, keeping your resume fresh and available in the right online locations could help jump-start job leads, career experts say.

They offer advice, both old standards and new tips, that incorporate the power of social networking: • Tailor your resume to individual companies and positions as much as possible.

The Internet today offers jobseekers immense opportunity for corporate research, said Tim Schoonover, chairman of OI Partners, a leadership coaching and career consulting firm. Take advantage of the business information on Web sites such as Hoover’s Online and use the data to focus your resume when applying or networking.

• Maintain a presence on LinkedIn, a corporate social networking site. List your job experiences and accomplishments there, just as you would on a resume. Schoonover recommended that you add the Web address of your profile to the contact-information portion of your paper resume. He also said that, just as colleagues can write you a recommendation on LinkedIn, you can add a short endorsement from a coworker or manager under your

RUPERT Continued from page 2 Reid’s comments, while inelegant, were … true.

Obama benefited from the fact that his light complexion and oratory style did not comport with stereotypical images of a black man. While it’s certainly something that we should be ashamed of, it cannot be denied that colorism helped Obama and that if his complexion had been closer to that of his wife’s, his campaign trajectory would have looked a lot different.

The reaction to Reid’s comments was troubling because of the utter refusal to engage in the substance of what he said.

We hear racially charged language, and we immediately demand an apology. But the statement should have made us angry, not because he shouldn’t have said it, but because it shouldn’t be true.

It’s sad that we’re still dealing with this issue. But until we do a better job at acknowledging colorism, this fight looks like its going all 12 rounds.

Maya Rupert is an attorney in downtown Los Angeles. She has previously contributed to the San Francisco Chronicle, as well as other publications. Her column explores issues of race, gender, and politics and appears in the L.A. Watts Times regularly. She can be reached at maya.rupert@gmail.com.

contact information.

• Make sure your resume isn’t just a list of job descriptions and responsibilities. It needs to show how you “add value” to your company, said Ali Chambers, a vice president of ClearRock, an outplacement firm in Boston.

Your resume needs to tell potential employers your accomplishments and how you helped improve your company, she said — your results, not your duties.

Schoonover said a visual representation of your accomplishments, such as a graph of sales increases under your management, can be an unexpected way to make your resume stand out.

George Herrmann, an executive with Right Management, cautions that a graph or graphic that isn’t extremely well done can be gimmicky.

“Shy away from that unless you’re trying to show off your

skills” in graphic design or presentations, he said.

• Make sure recruiters see your resume.

If you post your resume on a jobs board, “update” it once a week, Chambers said.

Even if you just press edit and save without making any changes, that helps prompt some online job sites to circulate your resume anew, making it more likely to be seen by potential hirers.

Herrmann added that it’s important to update your profiles and resume at least once a year, even if you’re content in your position. A refreshed resume could catch a hirer’s eye, and the act of updating itself is good for working on your career goals.

• Industry-specific sites, often those associated with professional organizations, are the best place to post a resume online, said Chambers and Schoonover.

metro.net

MetroBriefs It’s The Right Time To Save. Go Metro.

Let 2010 be the year you decide to start some serious savings by simply going Metro. Experts estimate you can save as much as $10,000 annually by using public transit instead of paying for gas and parking. Find your best route with the Trip Planner at metro.net.

Public Hearings On Bus Service February 3-10 Proposed Metro bus service changes for this coming June will be discussed at public meetings being held February 3-10 in the San Gabriel Valley, the San Fernando Valley and the Westside. For details about the proposed changes along with the time, date and location of the hearing nearest you, check online at metro.net.

Breaking Metro News Online At “The Source” Now you can get instant updates on the issues and actions that keep LA County moving. Just go to “The Source,” a timely online news and feature service that is updated throughout the day on developments that a=ect Metro’s projects and services. Look for it today at metro.net.

I-405 Sepulveda Pass Widening Underway Motorists face road closures and construction delays on the I-405 Freeway through the Sepulveda Pass for the next few years – but with a big pay-o= in the end. Widening the freeway between the I-10 and U.S. 101 freeways will add a northbound carpool lane and reduce travel time on one of the busiest – and most congested – freeways in the nation.

Help The Census Help Transit Make sure you’re counted during the upcoming 2010 U.S. Census. Population >gures generated by the census play a key role in the amount of federal funding Metro receives for transit purposes. The more accurate the census count, the more service Metro can provide. For more information, go to census.gov.

Facts Jan. 21, 1971 Twelve black congressman boycott Richard Nixon’s State of the Union message because of his “consistent refusal” to respond to the petitions of black Americans.

Source: blackfacts.com

If you’d like to know more, please call us at 1.800.464.2111, or visit metro.net.

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BIZSHORTS

Page 4

L.A. WATTS TIMES

January 21, 2010

COMMUNITY

WHAT’S GOING ON?

BROTHERHOOD AWARDS — The YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles sponsored its 39th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Brotherhood Breakfast Jan. 15. Pictured: Constance Rice (center) and Molly Munger (right), co-directors of The Advancement Project, accept the YMCA Human Dignity Award from Ezunial Burts, secretary of the board of directors for the YMCA Metropolitan Los Angeles.

Michelle Obama: No Need for First-Year Do-Overs

BY NANCY BENAC AP WRITER

WASHINGTON (AP) — Michelle Obama reflected on her first year in the White House on Jan. 13 and calmly claimed no need for any do-overs: Even the things that didn’t go quite right were part of the learning curve, the first lady said, and that includes the November state dinner penetrated by three party-crashers.

“The evening was so wonderful and it was so well-orchestrated that for me, the other stuff that everybody is talking about is a footnote to what the state dinner actually was,” she said. “So I wouldn’t do that over.”

Overall, Mrs. Obama said, “the things that have worked and the things that haven’t worked are all a part of making this experience what it is and getting us all ready for this

Deadline for receipt of What’s Going On listings is Friday, noon, at least two weeks prior to activity. Fax to: (213) 251-5720, e-mail us at lawattsnus@aol.com or mail to: L.A. Watts Times, 3540 Wilshire Blvd., PH3, Los Angeles, CA 90010.

GENEALOGY — An African American Genealogy Workshop will take place Jan. 23, 2 p.m., at AC Bilbrew Library, 150 E. El Segundo Blvd., Los Angeles. Information: (310) 538-0059, brc@library.lacounty.gov.

UNCF PARTY — The United Negro College Fund will present a Los Angeles Super Viewing Party Jan. 23, 2 to 5 p.m., at the Century Plaza Hyatt Regency, 2025 Avenue of the Stars, Los Angeles. KJLH radio personality, Adai Lamar, will host the event, which will include networking opportunities, live entertainment, and more. Tickets are $100 and can be purchased at the UNCF office, 3699 Wilshire Blvd., suite 675, Los Angeles. Information: Margo Thomas, (213) 639-3800, www.uncf.org.

COURAGE — The Courage to Win in 2010 Workshop — “Live Happy Feel Great – Organize Your Life” — takes place Jan. 23, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the Ayres Hotel & Suites Convention Center, 1945 E. Holt Blvd., Ontario. During the event, participants are expected to learn several things, including how to organize themselves, live serenely and reduce possessions. The event will feature R.J. Jackson, a writer and Christian speaker. Admission is $15 in advance and $20 at the door. Information: (909) 820-6066, www.thecouragegiver.com.

SCAVENGING — The Grammy Go-Seek Scavenger Hunt will take place Jan. 23, 2 p.m., at the Grammy Museum, 800 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles. Music lovers can attend and discover out-of-the-box music trivia with this multimedia hunt. Admission is $27. Up to six people can play on one team. The winning team will receive prizes.

Information: (323) 799-1374, info@ outoftheboxevents.net, http://www. outoftheboxevents.net.

WRITING — The Independent Writers of Southern California will host “WRITING 2.0: Electronic, POD, and Social Media” Jan. 25, 7:30 to 9 p.m., at the Veterans Memorial Building, 4117 Overland Ave., Culver City. Panelists are expected to explain ways to promote your work. Admission for IWOSC members is free.

Admission for nonmembers is $15.

Reservations are required. Information: (877) 799-7483, info@iwosc. org, www.iwosc.org.

TIDEPOOL— Cabrillo Marine Aquarium Los Angeles will present “Tidepool Wonders” Jan. 31, 2:30 to 4 p.m. During the event, participants can explore low tides on the rocky shore with the aquarium. Admission is free, but reservations are required for groups of 10 or more. Young children must be accompanied by an adult. Non-slip shoes and outdoor clothing are recommended for navigating the slippery, rocky shore. The aquarium is at 3720 Stephen M. White Drive, San Pedro. Information: (310) 548-7562, www.cabrillo marineaquairum.org.

BRIEFS

THE NATION

established a new era of R&B that symbolized masculinity, passion, and the joys and sorrow of romance in songs such as “Close the Door,” “It Don’t Hurt Now” and “Love T.K.O.” Kenny Gamble teamed with Pendergrass on his biggest hits.

“He had about 10 platinum albums in a row, so he was a very, very successful recording artist and as a performing artist,” Gamble said.

“He had a tremendous career ahead of him, and the accident sort of got in the way of many of those plans.”

Pendergrass, who was born in Philadelphia in 1950, suffered a spinal cord injury in a 1982 car accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down — still able to sing but without his signature power. But instead of becoming bitter or depressed, Pendergrass created a new identity, Gamble said.

Gamble noted Pendergrass’ charitable work for people with spinal cord injuries, his performances despite pain, and his focus on the positive in the face of great challenges.

Continued from page 1

Michelle Obama

coming year.”

The first lady looked back at the past year during an hour-long conversation with a handful of reporters in the Old Family Dining Room, seated under portraits of two of her predecessors, Frances Cleveland and Edith Roosevelt.

See MICHELLE OBAMA, page 11

DeWayne McGee Richardson. He claims he was the target of lockdowns at High Desert State Prison in Susanville solely because of his race.

Prison lawyers concede black inmates were targeted for lockdowns in 2002 and 2003. They say prison officials acted after black inmates affiliated with gangs assaulted guards.

A three-judge panel of the appeals court said in its ruling that such security measures appear to be racial discrimination and ordered the trial court in Sacramento to reconsider the lawsuit.

R&B Singer Teddy Pendergrass Dies at 59 NEW YORK (AP) — R&B singer Teddy Pendergrass, who was one of the most electric and successful figures in music until a car crash 28 years ago left him in a wheelchair, has died of colon cancer. He was 59.

Pendergrass died Jan. 13 in suburban Philadelphia, where he had been hospitalized for months.

The singer’s son, Teddy Pendergrass II, said his father underwent colon cancer surgery eight months ago and had “a difficult recovery.”

Before the crash, Pendergrass

Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and the

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Mother Who Inspired Book ‘The Color of Water’ Dies EWING, N.J. (AP) — Ruth McBride Jordan, whose life story was celebrated by her son in a bestselling book, “The Color of Water,” has died. She was 88 and had been in failing health.

James McBride said his mother died Jan. 9 at her home in Ewing, N.J. His 1996 book, subtitled “A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother,” catapulted his mother to international fame.

Born in Poland, Ruth grew up in Virginia and moved to New York.

She married a black pastor, the Rev. Andrew McBride, and after his death, another black man, Hunter Jordan. They had 12 children. James wrote that his mother never paid attention to the slights of those who found interracial marriage unacceptable.

Jordan is survived by six sons and five daughters.

See BRIEFS, page 8

January 21, 2010

L.A. WATTS TIMES

Page 5

COMMUNITY COMMUNITY MEETINGS, FORUMS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

(My.barackobama.com) — On Jan. 12, a catastrophic earthquake struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

The full extent of the damage is still being assessed, but the death toll — already in the thousands — is climbing fast.

This is the worst earthquake to hit the area in more than 200 years.

Entire communities have been ripped apart and as many as 3 million people have been directly affected, including many American citizens who are in Haiti.

The people of Haiti are racing to confront the enormous devastation.

Personnel from the United States and its partners in the international community are on the ground in damaged areas right now, working side by side with the Haitian people.

They’re providing much-needed food, water, and sanitation supplies, saving lives and helping local communities start to rebuild.

To find out what you can do, visit the Barack Obama Web site at http://my.barackobama.com/Haiti.

ega Blvd., suite 415, Inglewood.

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Information: (310) 491-5052.

U.S. Census Bureau Opens Office in Inglewood

Hahn Welcomes 25 New Police Officers to Her District

(U.S. Census) — The U.S. Census Bureau marked the countdown to the 2010 Census with the grand opening of its Local Census Office in Inglewood Jan. 12. The event signaled the beginning of a massive operation to count everyone, one time, where they live. The Local Census Office in Inglewood will be the hub of census operations for the surrounding communities.

The Inglewood office is one of 39 Local Census Offices opening in January throughout the Los Angeles Region’s 19 Southern California counties and the state of Hawaii.

During peak operations, the Inglewood office will employ about 1,500 people from the surrounding area.

The office is at 9800 S. La Cien-

(Janice Hahn’s Office) — Councilwoman Janice Hahn welcomed the deployment of 25 additional police officers to her council district Jan. 22.

Fifteen new officers were deployed to the Southeast Division, and will be assigned to both juvenile programs and patrol.

Also, 10 new officers were assigned to Harbor Division, and will be supplementing existing patrols and working to improve calls for service.

League of Women Voters Urges Participation in Citizens Redistricting Commission (League of Women Voters) — California, like every other state in the nation, will redraw its political dis-

Poll: Black Optimism Rises; Hispanics Wary on Race

BY JESSE WASHINGTON AP NATIONAL WRITER

WASHINGTON (AP) — One year after the election of President Barack Obama, black optimism about America has surged, while Hispanics have become more skeptical about race relations, according to a Pew Research Center poll released Jan. 12.

Thirty-nine percent of blacks say African-Americans are better off now than five years ago, according to the poll. In 2007, just 20 percent of blacks felt that way.

Fifty-three percent of AfricanAmericans say the future will be better for blacks, and 10 percent say it will be worse. Three years ago, 44 percent of blacks said the future would be better, and 21 percent said it would be worse.

Obama’s election is the obvious explanation for this optimism, especially considering the recent recession, said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center.

“The poll shows a whole list of ways in which black attitudes are more positive than they were prior to President Obama’s election,” Kohut said. “When you have a big event like that, and all of the indicators are pointing in one direction, I think the conclusion is inescapable.”

Even though the median black household income has declined relative to whites since 2000, 56 percent of blacks and 65 percent of whites say the difference in standard of living between the two races has narrowed, the poll found.

“Blacks are saying the income gap has narrowed, when in fact that is not the case,” Kohut said. “It has something to do with the perception and the sense of things as more positive.”

A majority of both blacks and whites say the core values of each group have grown more alike in the past decade.

Still, 81 percent of blacks say more changes are needed to ensure equality, compared with 36 percent of whites and 47 percent of Hispanics. The groups also continue to have divergent opinions on how much discrimination exists.

The poll found that Hispanics, not blacks, now are seen as the ethnic

group facing the most discrimination. Twenty-three percent of all respondents say Hispanics are discriminated against “a lot,” compared with 18 percent for blacks, 10 percent for whites and 8 percent for Asians.

Hispanics also are less optimistic than other groups about interracial relations. When whites and blacks were asked how well their group gets along with Hispanics, more than 70 percent say “very” or “pretty” well. In contrast, only about 50 percent of Hispanics feel the same way.

There have been a number of recent attacks on Latinos that advocates say are hate crimes fueled by anti-immigration rhetoric.

“My sense is that racism in this country seems to be pretty entrenched,” said Carmen Febo-San Miguel, executive director of the Latino cultural center Taller Puertorriqueno in Philadelphia. She cited the beating death of a Mexican immigrant in Shenandoah, Pa., that

✁

federal authorities have called a hate crime.

“We’ve all witnessed some of the efforts to combat racism, but at the same time, we still see ... this incredible violence, for the sole reason of being from a different race, being perpetrated against Latinos,” she said. “You really wonder how deep these roots are buried and how difficult it is going to be to eradicate it.”

Hispanics are much more likely to believe there is significant discrimination if they were born in the United States. Forty-eight percent of foreign-born Hispanics say there is “a lot” or “some” discrimination against their group; 79 percent of Hispanics born in America felt that way.

The poll also delved into how Americans perceive Obama. A stratospheric 95 percent of blacks still view Obama favorably, while 56 percent of whites view him favorably, down from 76 percent just before the inauguration.

See OPTIMISM, page 8

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UNDERWATER PARKS DAY — Cabrillo Marine Aquarium participated in Underwater Parks Day Jan. 16. The free informational event focused on the process of establishing Marine Protected Areas along the California coast that could safeguard underwater resources for future generations. The event included presentations, exhibits, speakers and interactive exercise such as the one pictured in which young onlookers learn how the variety of life forms on tidepools are able to survive despite the beating sun, wind and crashing waves.

tricts in 2011 using new U.S. Census data to make sure that every district contains the same number of people.

This process is called redistricting, and it happens every 10 years.

See MEETINGS, page 10

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F E I L E R TRAFFIC

S K R O W E IN TH

Everyone talks about being stuck in tra;c, but LA County voters did something about it. In November 2008, Measure R was approved, committing a projected $40 billion to tra;c relief and transportation upgrades over the next 30 years. Following are updates on some of the projects supported by Measure R.

Alternatives Studied For Westside Subway Extension Public meetings were held late last year to discuss various station locations along the proposed routes of the Westside Subway Extension. Metro is currently preparing an environmental study of two project alternatives: a Metro Purple Line subway extension under Wilshire Boulevard through Santa Monica; and the Metro Purple Line extension plus a subway extension from Hollywood.

$1 Billion I-405 Sepulveda Pass Widening Project Launches Motorists face road closures and construction delays on the I-405 Freeway through the Sepulveda Pass for the next few years – but with a big pay-o= in the end. Widening the freeway between the I-10 and U.S. 101 freeways will add a northbound carpool lane to one of the busiest – and most congested – freeways in the nation. For more go to metro.net/ projects_studies/I405.

$9.5 Million Returned To Cities From Measure R The first installments in Measure R local return sales tax monies totaling $9.5 million have gone out to 38 cities in LA County for transportation improvements. First and second payments for sales taxes received from July through September ranged from $2,635 for the City of Irwindale to $6.1 million for the City of LA.

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Obama Urges Americans to Send Aid to Haiti

Page 6

L.A. WATTS TIMES

January 21, 2010

ARTS & CULTURE Review: Denzel Saves the World in ‘Book of Eli’

SHORT TAKES THEATER • Hothouse at the Playhouse, a reading series presented by the Pasadena Playhouse, will feature a reading of Frank Tangredi’s play, “Pastoral,” Jan. 26 to 27, 8 p.m. In September, Sheldon Epps will direct the play, starring Angela Bassett, on the Playhouse main

• The Watts Village Theater Co. announced the appointment of new managing director David Mack.

Mack is a graduate of Cornell University as well as of the California Institute of the Arts. He’s been involved in theater work in New York, Los Angeles, Europe and the Caribbean as an actor, director and producer for more than a decade. He most recently produced “Chocolate City,” showcasing actors of color from schools across Los Angeles to the Hollywood industry. Mack is also the founder of artistmagnet.com, connecting theater artists and fans.

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BOOKS

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stage at 39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena. The drama is about a pastor whose faith is tested by a shocking request. All readings take place in the Carrie Hamilton Theatre.

Tickets to the stage reading are free, but reservations are required. Information: (626) 356-7529.

• Political analyst, author and L.A. Watts Times columnist Earl Ofari Hutchinson will release his new book, “How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge,” Jan. 27, 6 to 8 p.m., at Lucy Florence Coffee House, 3351 W. 43rd St., in Leimert Park, Los Angeles. In the book, Hutchinson “takes a no-political-holds-barred look at President Barack Obama’s first year in office.” He answers one question: Did Obama fulfill the massive sweeping promise he made to restore hope to effect change in

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America? Hutchinson examines where and how Obama kept his promise, and where and how he failed to keep it, a press statement says. On Jan. 27, Hutchinson will also be viewing Obama’s State of the Union Address with others at the coffeehouse, and afterward discuss and sign his book. Information: (323) 383-6145.

In the future, according to “The Book of Eli,” we’ll all dress like we’re in a Nine Inch Nails video. It is written.

Most everyone wears goggles and leather in the post-apocalyptic wasteland of “The Book of Eli.” A meteorite and a subsequent war 30 years earlier has scorched the Earth and the population.

The landscape (shot in New Mexico) is much like an old Western: bandits (albeit cannibalizing bandits) lurk the desert roads, while rough crowds take refuge in hardscrabble towns.

At the downtown saloon, See ‘BOOK OF ELI’, page 7

Denzel Washington in “The Book of Eli”

MUSIC • Essence Music Festival officials have announced that R&B singer Mary J. Blige will headline this year’s festival in New Orleans, The Associated Press reported. The festival will take place Fourth of July weekend. This marks the ninth time Blige has performed at Essence. Festival organizers will announce the remaining performers in about three weeks. In addition to music, the festival will feature motivational seminars during the day at the Morial Convention Center.

During this year’s festival, organizers will commemorate the 40th anniversary of Essence magazine, as well as the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, The AP reported.

Information: www.essencemusic festival.com.

• Hands for Hope will present the 10th annual Starlight Jazz Serenade Concert Feb. 5, 8 p.m., at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, 5220 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. The event will feature top smooth jazz artists, an art auction, and VIP reception. General admission is $50. VIP admission is $75. Ring of honor seating, which includes a gift bag and VIP treatment, is $100. Information: (818) 763-4673, www.hands4hope.org.

TELEVISION • PBS will present “For Love of Liberty,” a four-hour documentary exploring the contributions of African American men and women in the military from pre-Revolution to the Iraq War, Feb. 15 and 22.

Halle Berry will host the documentary, Colin Powell will give the introduction, and Avery Brooks will narrate. The film, which features dramatic readings by Ossie Davis, Bill Cosby, John Travolta and more, examines how a people so often denied freedom fought to preserve the freedom of their fellow countrymen. The DVD of the documentary will also be available in February.

Information: www.forloveofliberty. com.

Facts Jan. 25, 1972 Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm launches her campaign for president of the United States of America.

Source: blackfacts.com

Photos by MARTY COTWRIGHT

KING PARADE — The 26th annual Kingdom Day Parade took place Jan. 18 in South Los Angeles, with a procession starting at Western Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Pictured (top to bottom): New Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Millage Peaks waves to the crowd; the royal court appears on the KCBM Radio Float; the Dominguez High School Drill Team performs for parade-goers; parade grand marshal and anchorman Marc Brown of KABC-TV greets fans.

January 21, 2010

L.A. WATTS TIMES

Page 7

ARTS & CULTURE The premiere for “The Book of Eli” took place Jan. 11 at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. In the movie, recently released nationwide, Denzel Washington plays Eli, who has the only Bible left on Earth after the world is plagued with war and hit by a meteorite.

Pauletta and Denzel Washington

Kimberly Elise

Larenz Tate

The Hughes brothers, directors of “The Book of Eli”

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‘BOOK OF ELI’ “The Book of Eli.” Like McCarthy’s great novel, “The Book of Eli” follows a wandering man on a lawless road while carrying his charge (a boy, rather than a book, in “The Road”).

“The Road” even included an Eli: “Ely,” played by Robert Duvall in the movie. We might take both as a reference to the prophet Elijah.

But “The Book of Eli” doesn’t get too Biblical, mostly content to spout a few cool-sounding verses before a battle.

The Hughes brothers don’t let nary a bullet or arrow fly without sending their cameras behind to track it in slow-motion. That such a Christian-themed film enthralls in violence so much (the body count is in the dozens) is obviously contradictory to its message of civilization saved by the Bible.

Blink and you’ll miss the only allusion to other religious tomes — a cheap, belated try at tolerance.

One senses the Bible was chosen for “The Book of Eli” earnestly, but perhaps also to take advantage of its cultural weight.

Such travails might not be plausible for one carrying the last copy of “Moby Dick,” or, for that matter, “Jonas Brothers: Inside Their World.”

Cinematographer Don Burgess has drained the film to a sepia. What breathes life into “The Book of Eli” are the performances, most notably

by Washington and Oldman.

It’s fun to see Oldman, made relatively boring in the Batman films, return to full, theatrical villain mode. He’s not over-the-top like he was in “The Professional,” but a rational, intelligent survivor — a frustrated dictator. He wants order, only he wants to control it.

Washington, too, is in his wheelhouse. Ever able to play a man with purpose, he propels the film on a straightforward, linear path: a charismatic man-of-few-words with a whole lot of them in his sack.

“The Book of Eli,” a Warner Bros. release, is rated R for some brutal violence and language.

Running time: 118 minutes.

Two stars out of four.

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Continued from page 6 water, not whiskey, is “the good stuff.”

Across this charred land strides our Christian cowboy, Eli (Denzel Washington), a mysterious, solitary man who carries the last remaining Bible in his backpack. He also carries a gleaming silver knife and a shotgun, both of which he’s expert with.

Like a prophet, he has heard God’s voice in his head and he walks West with divine determination. He says to himself: “Stay on the path.”

After “the flash” of the cataclysm that rocked the Earth, many blamed the troubles on religion. All the books were burned, making the few that remain precious cargo indeed.

Those born after this event (and this might not seem so futuristic) don’t have any knowledge of books — what they mean or how to read them.

The elders are the exception, those who lived “before.” Among them is Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a villainous man who presides over the town Eli wanders into.

He sends his minions out in search of a Bible, though all they can do is return with “The Da Vinci Code” — which apparently even meteorites can’t destroy. An intellectual (we first meet him reading a biography of Mussolini), Carnegie believes the Bible’s power will make him a great leader: “It’s a weapon,” he says.

When Eli and Carnegie meet, much fighting ensues. A young woman, Solara (Mila Kunis, oddly fashionable in tattered clothes), gets roped into the fracas. Tom Waits makes a good cameo as a simple, somewhat quirky shopkeeper.

“The Book of Eli” is the first movie from Albert and Allen Hughes — the filmmaking brothers of “From Hell” and “Menace II Society” — in nine years.

Post-apocalyptic tales are all the rage these days, and it’s easy to see the imprint of Cormac McCarthy’s far more deeply felt “The Road” — just recently adapted with disappointing results — on

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L.A. WATTS TIMES

EDUCATION Charter School Advocate from South L.A. to be Virginia’s Education Head

NOTEBOOK L.A. Juvenile Offenders Denied Education (AP) — Three teenagers sued Los Angeles County Jan. 12, claiming they were denied a proper education at a Lancaster juvenile probation camp.

The federal lawsuit filed by civil rights groups in Los Angeles contends youth at the Challenger camp were denied their constitutional rights.

The lawsuit against county education officials and the probation department claims teens were kicked out of class for requesting more teaching help or to use the restroom. It alleges teachers skipped classes and students who were removed from class did camp work such as mopping floors.

County Office of Education spokeswoman Margo Minecki said the office does not comment on pending legal matters and cannot respond to specifics in the lawsuit. However, Minecki said any allegations about the county’s educational programs are taken seriously and any substantive issues that need to be resolved will be addressed.

The camp serves about 650 students and is the county’s most populous youth detention center.

Beverly Hills to Boot Non-District K-8 Pupils (AP) — After more than four hours of emotional and sometimes contentious debate, the Beverly Hills Unified School District approved a controversial proposal Jan. 12 to boot out more than 400 out-of-district students.

The board voted unanimously to notify all so-called “permit students” in kindergarten through 8th grade that they must enroll elsewhere because of the district’s new financing formula. But the board will allow all high school students to remain in the district Former Mayor Robert K. Tanenbaum presented the school board with a petition signed by 2,600 residents in favor of allowing the so-called permit students to matriculate.

“We made a commitment to these children when we needed the dollars. The children are not expendable. They are not financial assets,” he said, to a standing ovation.

The board’s action comes as the district switches its funding from reliance on state financing to its own property tax dollars. That means the district will keep more money from its wealthy tax base but won’t receive the state’s $6,239 for each out-of-district student it schools.

School Built on Ambassador Hotel Named for Robert F. Kennedy (AP) — The school complex built on the site of Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel where Robert F. Kennedy was killed will be named after the senator.

Los Angeles Unified School District board members approved the name Jan. 12 as a tribute to the Democratic presidential hopeful

January 21, 2010

who was gunned down in 1968.

There was no opposition.

The Ambassador site was highly contested, first by developer Donald Trump who wanted to build the world’s tallest building there and later by historic preservationists, who wanted to restore the crumbling hotel to its former glamor.

The new educational complex cost more than $400 million, and is one of the most expensive ever constructed for K-12 education.

Two elementary schools are operating on the site. A middle school and high school are still under construction.

UC Receives Record Number of Undergrad Applicants SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The University of California says it received a record number of applications for the coming academic year.

The data released Jan. 14 shows a jump in applications from minority, international, and community college students, as well as an increase in freshman applications.

The number of students applying for undergraduate admission for fall 2010 increased by nearly 6 percent — from about 127,000 a year ago to more than 134,000.

The 10-campus UC system reported a 5-percent jump in applications last year.

The university received more than 100,000 applications for freshman slots, up from 98,000 last year. The number of transfer applicants rose more than 17 percent to nearly 34,000.

Each of the 10 campuses saw application increases.

On the Net: UC applications data, www.ucop.edu/news/factsheets/ 2010/10app.html.

Race Amity Center in Boston Fosters Dialogue (AP) — A new National Center for Race Amity opens this month in Boston to foster learning and discussion at the community level about race.

Part of the center’s work will involve a national expansion of a program William Smith, who will head the new center, developed that trains college students to moderate discussions on race.

Organizations including Harvard University and the United Church of Christ have participated in Smith’s “Campus Conversations on Race” program so far.

And Smith hopes to develop a network of 250 colleges using the program over the next three years.

The center’s goal is to expand Wheelock’s mission of improving the lives of children and families by developing new educational curricula on race and ethnicity, including activities based on the college’s family theater program, said Jackie JenkinsScott, Wheelock’s president.

On the Net: www.wheelock. edu, www.campusconversationsonrace.org.

BY ZINIE CHEN SAMPSON AP WRITER

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Gerard Robinson was introduced Jan. 12 as Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell’s secretary of education.

A native of South Los Angeles, Robinson heads the nonprofit Black Alliance for Education Options, a group that advocates giving black parents greater access to charter and private education for their children.

Robinson, 43, said his priorities include making college accessible and affordable to more Virginians; giving public teachers merit pay and incentives for good performance; and establishing more public charter schools, including securing federal funding to assist in that effort. He also stressed support for community colleges as part of his higher education priorities.

“Education and the systems of delivery are always important to public policy in America,” Robinson said. “As your secretary, I’ll make sure it’s a top priority of this administration because the governor is keenly aware that the foundation for our sys-

BRIEFS Continued from page 4

Brown: Mass. Victory Sends ‘Very Powerful Message’ BOSTON (AP) — Republican Scott Brown, fresh from a stunning Massachusetts Senate victory that shook the power balance on Capitol Hill, declared Jan. 20 that his election had sent a “very powerful message” that voters are wary of Washington business-as-usual.

Democrats scrambled to explain the loss, which imperils President Barack Obama’s agenda for health care and other hardfought domestic issues.

Democrats still exercise majority control over both the House and Senate.

But the GOP’s Jan. 19 upset to win the seat long held by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy — following Republican victories in Virginia and New Jersey last fall for gubernatorial seats that had been held by Democrats — signals challenges for Democratic prospects in midterm elections this year. Even when the economy is not bad, the party holding the White House historically loses seats in midterms.

Brown, in his first meeting with reporters after the special election, portrayed his victory as less a referendum on Obama and more of a sign that people are tired of Washington politics and deal-making.

Brown’s victory gives Republicans 41 votes in the 100-member Senate, upending the Democrats’ ability to stop filibusters and other delaying tactics.

Pioneering Black Sportscaster Art Rust Jr. Dies at 82 NEW YORK (AP) — Pioneering African American sportscaster and author Art Rust Jr. has died at age 82.

His daughter, Suzanne Rust, said he died Jan. 12 in New York after a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease.

Gerard Robinson

tem of government, the economy, our military and general welfare depends on having an educated Virginia, and we’re going to make that happen.”

McDonnell, a Republican, pledged during his campaign to expand charter schools in Virginia.

Such schools get state support but are exempted from many regulations, allowing them to operate more like private schools. Virginia has four charter schools and another will open soon in Richmond.

McDonnell and Robinson said at the Jan. 12 news conference that Rust got his start at New York radio station WWRL and worked at NBC from 1967 to ’73. In the 1980s he hosted a popular sports talk radio show on WABC. His daughter said Rust considered himself a sports historian more than anything. Baseball and boxing were his favorites, and his books included autobiographies written with Joe Louis and Darryl Strawberry, along with an oral history of black baseball players that explored their struggles against racism.

Justice Dept. Sues Pa. Swim Club, Charging Race Bias PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Justice Department is suing a suburban Philadelphia swim club, alleging race bias after black and Hispanic day campers were barred from the club.

The lawsuit filed Jan. 13 charges that the Valley Club of Huntingdon Valley engaged in a pattern of racial discrimination.

Club officials have said race had nothing to do with the ouster of the mostly black and Hispanic children from Philadelphia last summer. They say there were too many children for the lifeguards on duty, and that many of the campers

OPTIMISM Continued from page 5 This could be connected to blacks’ and whites’ different views about the economy, and the idea that blacks were hit hard by the recession but had much less to lose.

The percentage of whites who rate the economy as excellent or good has fallen from 42 percent to 7 percent since late 2006, the poll found.

Among blacks, that percentage only fell from 16 percent to 14 percent.

Black political leaders criticized Obama last month for not doing enough specifically to help unemployed blacks. In the poll, 80 percent of blacks say he is paying the right

the new administration plans to apply for millions in federal Race to the Top grants to support such initiatives.

Robinson has worked on school-choice legislation in Congress and several states, and was a senior researcher at several projects studying urban school choice. As executive director of a New Yorkbased nonprofit, he opened a charter school in New Jersey.

Robinson earned an associate’s degree from El Camino Community College, a bachelor’s from Howard University and a master’s in education from Harvard University. He is working toward a doctorate at the University of Virginia.

When he was accepted to U.Va., which didn’t admit its first black student until 1950, his father noted that Robinson’s great-grandmother was a slave, and said, “Son, we’ve come a long way.”

“He’s deceased now, and if he were to tell the story again, he would say, ‘Son, you’ve come a long way,’” Robinson said. “In this position, I will take the entire state a long way.” couldn’t swim.

But the Justice Department says that racial hostility prompted club members to ban the children from the Creative Steps camp.

Imari Obadele, ‘Father of Reparations,’ Dies in Ga. ATLANTA (AP) — Imari Obadele, the former leader of the Republic of New Africa separatist group, has died. He was 79.

Obadele’s daughters, Marilyn Obadele and Vivian Gafford, said Jan. 19 that their father died of massive stroke Jan. 18 in Atlanta.

Known as the “Father of Reparations,” Obadele was a staunch supporter of Malcolm X and eventually became president of the Republic of New Africa, which sought to establish its own nation in the South.

He was president when, in 1971, city police and FBI agents battled RNA members who were inside a fortified home in Jackson, Miss.

One police officer was killed and two others were wounded in the shootout.

Obadele spent more than five years in prison for conspiracy but was not charged with murder.

As of Jan. 19, funeral arrangements were pending.

amount of attention to blacks.

Thirteen percent of blacks say he is paying too little attention, and 1 percent say too much.

Twenty-two percent of whites and 42 percent of Hispanics say Obama is not paying enough attention to their respective groups.

The poll of 2,884 people, including 812 blacks and 376 Hispanics, was conducted by landline and cellular telephone from Oct. 28 to Nov. 30, 2009. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3 percentage points for the entire group, 3.5 percentage points for whites, 4.5 percentage points for blacks and 7.5 percentage points for Hispanics.

January 21, 2010

L.A. WATTS TIMES

Page 9

HEALTH Data: U.S. Obesity Rate High, but Not Rising

BY LINDSEY TANNER AP MEDICAL WRITER

FRUIT FRENZY — Local students participating in the Community Services Unlimited (CSU) fourth annual fruit tree giveaway Jan. 16. CSU gave fruit trees away at three sites: John Muir Middle School, Normandie Avenue Elementary School and the EXPO/Community Services Unlimited Urban Farm.

THE PULSE L.A. Council to Revisit Medical Marijuana Ordinance

Pregnancy Clinic to Open in Los Angeles

(AP) — Pot dispensaries will either be 500 or 1,000 feet from schools, parks, and other public gathering spots in Los Angeles as part of a long-awaited ordinance.

The Los Angeles City Council on Jan. 12 hammered out the final guidelines for the ordinance it has fumbled with over the past several years.

The council was to consider two draft ordinances Jan. 19 — one that places pot clinics 500 feet from so-called “sensitive uses” such as schools; the other 1,000 feet.

Councilman Ed Reyes says the council will likely vote on the ordinance in the coming days.

City officials are trying to come up with an ordinance that addresses medicinal marijuana and figure out if it is permissible under state law. Hundreds of pot dispensaries have opened in Los Angeles over the past couple years.

Westside Pregnancy Clinic will open its third location in the Los Angeles Crenshaw District Jan. 23, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., at 4249 Crenshaw Blvd., Los Angeles.

Award-winning actresses Patricia Heaton of “The Middle” and Camille Winbush of “The Bernie Mac Show” are expected to be in attendance to show support.

The clinic will provide free pregnancy testing, limited obstetric ultrasound, tests for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), education on prenatal care, nutrition and general newborn health, along with parenting classes for mothers and fathers.

WPC is open Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Information: (323) 299-9977, tera@wpclinic.org.

Consumer Chief Warns: Take Cheap Jewelry From Kids (AP) — The country’s top product safety regulator is warning parents and caretakers to take cheap metal jewelry away from children due to concern they may be exposed to toxic heavy metals like lead and cadmium.

Inez (EYE-nez) Tenenbaum, the chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, writes in a blog, posted Jan. 13, “Do not allow young children to be given or to play with cheap metal jewelry, especially when they are unsupervised.”

In making the recommendation, she cites an investigation by The Associated Press, which reported high cadmium levels in items including bracelet charms from Wal-Mart and Claire’s.

Lead and cadmium can hinder brain development in young children, according to research.

State Mental Hospital Reports Another Suicide SAN BERNARDINO (AP) — A San Bernardino state mental hospital under federal scrutiny has reported another patient suicide — the eighth at a state hospital since 2002.

The California Department of Mental Health says 50-year-old Marc Biron hung himself in his bedroom Jan. 4 at Patton State Hospital.

Federal civil rights attorneys have cited problems at Patton, noting in a letter to state officials that the hospital has not done enough to prevent suicides. The U.S. Bureau of Justice has been investigating patient rights at all the state’s mental hospitals since 2002.

Nancy Kincaid, a spokeswoman for the mental health agency, said staff had last checked on Biron at 5:45 a.m., and he was in the bathroom. At the next check, he was found hanging from the wardrobe in his bedroom.

Kincaid says Biron showed no signs of being suicidal.

CHICAGO (AP) — Raise a glass of diet soda: The nation’s obesity rate appears to have stalled.

But the latest numbers still show that more than two-thirds of adults and almost a third of kids are overweight, with no sign of improvement.

According to government data from the years 2007-08 published Jan. 13, the obesity rate has held steady for about five years, reflecting earlier signs that it had stalled after steadily climbing.

Dr. William Dietz, an obesity expert with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cautiously called the results promising.

“We’re at the corner; we haven’t turned the corner,” he said.

Not only are the vast majority of adults overweight, but 34 percent are obese; and 17 percent of children are obese. Even the youngest Americans are affected — 10 percent of babies and toddlers are precariously heavy.

The CDC data were contained in two reports published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“Even though this finding is certainly good news, the statistics are still staggering,” said Dr. J. Michael Gaziano, a contributing editor at the journal.

The new data are based on health surveys involving height and weight measurements of 5,700 adults and 4,000 children, surveys

GANG TOURS Continued from page 1 Gray warehouses soon merge with single-story stucco homes as the bus heads south. Few gangsters risk hanging out on street corners, as local rules mean they could get arrested even for congregating, but graffiti on walls, road signs and convenience storefronts betray the presence of Florencia 13 and other gangs.

Sieglinde Lemke, 46, an American Studies professor from the University of Freiburg in Germany, said she enjoyed the opportunity to interact with former gang members.

“It brings to life the class divisions you have in America,” she said. “This is an area that’s blocked out of my mental map of the States.

It’s important to get a firsthand account of the area.”

Junior high school teacher Prisca Ricks, 37, was of two minds about going on the tour after reading critical blog comments about it being “ghettotainment.”

But ultimately, she was pleased she went, and said she appreciated the focus on trying to help the community.

Lomas, 45, a respected activist who has worked with the faithbased Los Angeles Dream Center to distribute hundreds of tons of food to low-income families across the inner city, left gang life about five years ago.

He stresses the aim of his nonprofit company is to bring jobs to communities along the route and to reinvest money through micro-loans and scholarships, though he’s not

the CDC does every two years.

The results in adults, showing 68 percent are too heavy, have been virtually the same in the last three surveys.

In most age groups, black adults had the highest rates of obesity, followed by MexicanAmericans and whites.

Among children ages 2 to 19, 32 percent were too heavy — a rate that was mostly unchanged. Also, most obese kids were extremely obese. And the percentage of extremely obese boys ages 6 to 19 has steadily increased, to 15 percent from about 9 percent in 1999 to 2000.

CDC researcher and study author Cynthia Ogden said it was disappointing to see no decline, and troubling that the heaviest boys seem to be getting even heavier.

The study didn’t examine the causes, but Ogden cited the usual reasons — soft drinks, video games and inactivity — as possible explanations.

“We shouldn’t be complacent.

We still have a problem,” Ogden said.

Gaziano, a cardiologist at Boston’s Veterans Affairs hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said getting the nation to turn the corner and reduce obesity requires changing many unhealthy behaviors, and getting restaurants, schools, food manufacturers and communities to support the fight.

That’s starting to happen, from efforts to pull soda from

school vending machines to campaigns by groups like the NFL to encourage physical activity, he noted.

People like Darrell Pender are paying attention.

Obesity “is constantly in the news,” said Pender, a 42-year-old New York City computer technician who decided to get serious about fighting fat after being diagnosed with diabetes three years ago.

Pender was tempted by a TV ad for obesity surgery, but chose a less drastic option — a nutrition support group that he credits with helping him make healthier food choices. So far, he’s lost 50 pounds (23 kilograms) over several months.

At 350 pounds (160 kilograms), he’s still very obese, but his diabetes is under control and he feels healthier.

Karen Congro, Pender’s nutritionist at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, said obese patients in recent years seem more willing to try lifestyle changes rather than quick fixes doomed to fail.

Fifteen years ago, “I would have said this seems almost hopeless. Patients would say, ‘I had an overweight uncle who lived to 99,’ ” Congro said. “Now I almost never hear that.”

Associated Press Writer Nancy Benac in Washington contributed to this report.

On the Net: JAMA: http:// jama.ama-assn.org; CDC: http:// www.cdc.gov.

sure how the tour will accomplish that. He also eventually wants to start a gallery and gang museum.

He said the tour will create 10 part-time jobs, mainly for ex-gang members working as guides and talking about their own struggles and efforts to reduce violence. The tour is initially scheduled to run once a month.

No tour quite like this runs elsewhere in the country. Chicago has a prohibition-era gangster tour, and another Los Angeles group buses people to infamous crime scenes, including the Black Dahlia murder.

Lomas faces a quandary as he tries to show the troubled history of the area once known as South Central, before politicians renamed it South Los Angeles in 2003 in an attempt to change its deep association with urban strife.

The tour is billed as “the first in the history of Los Angeles to experience areas that were forbidden.”

But tour leaders don’t want it to be voyeuristic and sensational.

“We ain’t going on no tour saying, ‘Look at them Crips, look at them Bloods, look at them crack heads,’ ” said Frederick “Scorpio” Smith, an ex-Crip helping narrate, who helped broker the cease-fire among the Grape Street Crips, 18th Street, F13 and the East Coast Crips.

Out of sensitivity to residents, passengers are banned from shooting photographs or video from the bus. The only place that is allowed is near the end of the trip, when they can step off the bus and film an outdoor area where graffiti is allowed.

Stretches of the tour have almost nothing to do with gangs, but instead exploit famous chapters of violence in the city’s history, such as a deadly 1974 shootout between police and the Symbionese Liberation Army and the site of the riots that followed the acquittal of officers in the Rodney King beating.

If done right, the tour could highlight the decades-long struggle to solve the gang problem, said civil rights lawyer and gang expert Connie Rice.

Gang crime has fallen in recent years, but groups continue to grow and gain influence. Over the past quarter century, officials in Los Angeles County have spent $25 billion fighting gangs only to see the number of gangsters double to as many as 90,000 and a six-fold increase in the number of gangs.

“If it is carried out well and carefully and carried out with the consent of the community, it could teach people about the very entrenched culture that gangs now have in Los Angeles,” Rice said.

City Councilwoman Jan Perry said she would rather tourists see the development potential in the neighborhoods that make up part of her district. About two years ago, she organized her own tour in the area for about 200 real estate agents and business representatives, resulting in the development of buildings with homes and businesses.

“I’d prefer we focus on showing the community in a positive light,” she said.

On the Net: LA Gang Tours http://www.lagangtours.com.

Page 10

L.A. WATTS TIMES

January 21, 2010

SPORTS ITALIAN LEAGUE

BRAD PYE JR.

Continued from page 1

SPORTS BEAT Notes, quotes and things picked up on the run from coast-to-coast and all the stops in between and beyond.

The Indianapolis Colts vs. the New York Jets and the New Orleans Saints vs. the Minnesota Vikings make up the final four teams left in the NFL playoffs. Winners will head to Miami for Super Bowl XLIV Feb. 7.

To make it to the final four, Reggie Bush and Drew Brees recently helped the Saints thrash the Arizona Cardinals 45-14.

Reggie Bush

Meanwhile, recently Peyton Manning paced the Colts to defeat the Baltimore Ravens 20-3, which earned them the right to host the New York Jets in the AFC championship game. The Jets upset the Chargers 17-14 for a trip to Indianapolis.

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There’s talk that quarterback Donovan McNabb may leave Philadelphia even though he has one more year on his contract. The Dallas Cowboys on Jan. 17 destroyed McNabb’s playoff dreams when they beat him and his Eagles 34-14.

For the record, Perry Fewell didn’t get a chance to become permanent head coach of the Buffalo Bills but is the defensive coordinator of the New York Giants.

The Associated Press named the Green Bay Packers’ Charles Woodson its Defensive Player of the Year. Also, The AP named the Tennessee Titans’ Chris Johnson its Offensive Player of the Year.

And the beat continues‌ Check this out: Speedskater Shani Davis became the first African American to win an individual gold medal in the Winter Olympics in 2006. He hopes to win several gold medals in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics in February.

And the beat continues‌ USA Today columnist DeWayne Wickham says the Washington Wizards’ Gilbert Arenas is “guilty of little more than really bad judgmentâ€? and “is certain to pay a stiff price for his mistakes — but it shouldn’t end his career.â€?

Arenas reportedly had guns in his locker and later pretending his

HUTCHINSON Continued from page 2 The coalition demanded to know who profited and enriched themselves from the more than $8 billion spent following the ouster of democratically elected President Jean Aristide. It charged that the systematic looting of the country’s

Facts Jan. 24, 1993 Thurgood Marshall, the first black Supreme Court justice, dies at the age of 84. Marshall played a role in the desegregation of American schools by acting as the lawyer in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954.

Source: blackfacts.com

finger was a gun and aiming it at teammates in jest. Arenas told the media: “I’m a goofball and that’s what I am.� He’s right about that.

Arenas has been suspended indefinitely without pay.

Vladimir Guerrero

And the beat continues‌ The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim will be without Vladimir Guerrero in 2010. Guerrero, reportedly, has a one-year, $5.5 million deal with the Texas Rangers.

And the beat continues‌ President Barack Obama thinks Tiger Woods can be “rehabilitated,â€? saying, “I’m a strong believer that anybody can look within themselves, find their flaws and fix them.â€?

And the beat ends.

Brad Pye Jr. can be reached at switchreel@aol.com.

treasury did not end with his ouster.

Their demands fell on deaf ears.

A colossal earthquake brought the world to Haiti’s doorstep. The questions, though, are why did it take that? And what will it take for the world to stick around after the rubble is cleared and help transform Haiti into the democratic, self-supporting nation it can be?

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His book, “How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge�

(Middle Passage Press), will be released Jan. 27 at a book signing, discussion, and viewing of President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address at Lucy Florence Coffee House, 3351 W. 43rd St., in Leimert Park, Los Angeles.

telli said it is a testament to his force of character that her brother, somehow, manages not to be cowed by the hatred flowing from a vocal minority of “very ignorant people� who “need an enemy and they need someone to curse.�

So far, he also has resisted the temptation of leaving it behind by going overseas, to the English Premier League, for example, where there has been talk of interest from clubs such as Arsenal or Chelsea. “He gets very upset but then ... he doesn’t think about it anymore; this is a strength,� his sister says. “Of course, I know that he is hurt. “If he decides to go abroad, it shouldn’t just be because of this,� she adds. “It’s like to run away, it’s like to be defeated.�

Such outrages in Italy have gone on for years. In 2001, when 18year-old Nigerian forward Schengun Omolade took the field for Treviso, fans hoisted a banner that said, “We don’t want a black player on our team� and then left the stadium.

Before that, some people in Rome held aloft a large banner aimed at opposing Jewish fans: “Auschwitz Is Your Country; the Ovens Are Your Homes.�

In 2005, Ivorian defender Marc Zoro was reduced to tears by racist boos and insults hurled at him by Inter supporters.

There’s been talk, talk, and more talk about how such behavior is unacceptable. There have been modest fines and bans, and threats from up high in the football world that matches could be suspended or that clubs could even be sent down to lower leagues or stopped from playing.

And yet, as Balotelli knows too well, still it goes on.

Deep-rooted racism is not restricted to Italian football — as was shown recently when violent clashes erupted between African crop-pickers and local residents in southern Italy.

MEETINGS Continued from page 5 But the 2011 redistricting process will be different in California.

And the rest of the nation will be watching.

That’s because in 2008 the people of California made history by passing Proposition 11, taking the redistricting power from the Legislature and putting it in the hands of ordinary citizens. Now the responsibility for drawing new district maps for the state Senate, Assembly, and Board of Equalization is entrusted to a new Citizens Redistricting Commission made up of 14 voters — five

After those riots, in which dozens were injured, Cristina Balotelli found herself fending off calls from reporters looking for comment from her brother, as if he must have something to say as one of the few high-profile black Italian success stories.

That, in itself, suggests how widely Balotelli is marked out for his color in Italy rather than because he’s an Italian teenager who is good at football, the national sporting passion. “I said, ‘What has my brother got to do with this?’ � she says. “I want my brother to lead his life without having all these burdens on his shoulders.� “We don’t have black politicians. We have very few blacks who are in important positions,� she adds. “He became a symbol of too many things.�

At times, for those 19-year-old shoulders, it all becomes too much.

Recently in Verona, in a match Inter won thanks to Balotelli’s lone goal, he again heard insults and boos, directed, he said, both at himself and Luciano of Brazil, who also is black.

In response, Balotelli mocked the crowd by ironically applauding when he was substituted and by saying in a post-match TV interview that “the fans are more and more sickening.�

The Italian league’s fine followed the next day.

If Inter’s subsequent appeal is rejected, then it will be a victory for hooligans — because now they know that by provoking Balotelli, they can get him punished, too. “He just applauded for two seconds,� his brother, Corrado, told The AP. “It’s crazy.�

Associated Press Writer Jeremy Inson in Milan contributed.

John Leicester is an international sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jleicester@ap.org.

Democrats, five Republicans, and four people from neither of those parties.

Consider applying to serve on the Citizens Redistricting Commission.

Applications are due to the California State Auditor by Feb.12.

Information: www.bsa.ca.gov.

Meetings for Proposed Community Park Slated Several planning workshops will be held for a new park at Monitor Avenue and 114th Street.

Discussions will include potential amenities and people’s ideas for the park.

The first workshop, which will be about park design, will be held Jan. 28, 6 to 7:30 p.m., at Macedonia Baptist Church, 1755 E. 114th St., Los Angeles.

The second workshop, also regarding park design, will take place Jan. 30, 10:30 a.m. to noon, at the same location.

The third workshop, which will be about design review, is slated for Feb. 9, 6 to 7:30 p.m., at the church.

Childcare will be provided, and tamales and chicken will be served.

Information: Tori Kjer, (323) 223-0441, ext. 11.

January 21, 2010

L.A. WATTS TIMES

CAREERS PRINT ADVERTISING SALES ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE The L.A. Watts Times, the most widely distributed African American newspaper in Los Angeles has an immediate full-time opening for a Print Advertising Sales Account Executives. The right candidate will sell advertising solutions to corporations and industries locally and nationwide over the telephone and by mail.

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Prior successful sales experience required, preferably in a media environment Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, able to establish rapport with all levels of clients/prospects and must be able to effectively close sales Ability to produce an effective call volume that exceeds goals Goal oriented and results driven Motivated, self-starter with an entrepreneurial spirit Superb follow-up, strong organizational and planning skills Must be flexible and maintain a positive attitude

We offer a positive work environment and excellent compensation and benefits package.

If you possess the above qualifications, we’re looking for you. Please e-mail your resume to willa@lawattstimes.com.

L.A. WATTS TIMES “News You CanUse” 3540 Wilshire Blvd., PH3, Los Angeles, CA 90010 Phone: (213) 251-5700 Fax: (213) 251-5720 Website: www.lawattstimes.com

MICHELLE OBAMA Continued from page 4 With her new bobbed haircut, the first lady arrived wearing a favorite russet-red dress and over-the-knee Jimmy Choo suede boots that she confessed allow her to avoid wearing stockings.

She ticked off a list of achievements for 2009: holding 200-plus White House events, visiting 14 states and eight countries, establishing a garden, creating a mentoring program and more. But she declined to give herself a grade for the year, saying “really, how do you do that?

And then what happens after you do it?”

The first lady called 2009 “a good year of listening and learning” and laying the foundation for issues she’ll push in 2010—principally a campaign against childhood obesity.

While Mrs. Obama in the past has used the bully pulpit to promote

issues such as healthy eating, national service and mentoring, she will take on a larger role as the point person for an administration-wide fight against childhood obesity, including pushing for changes to the school lunch program. She’ll make her pitch to the nation’s mayors during a gathering in Washington next week.

Her hope is to ultimately produce measurable changes in obesity rates among youth.

“I want to leave something behind that we can say that because of this time that this person spent here, this thing has changed,” she said. “And my hope is that that’s going to be the area of childhood obesity.”

Mrs. Obama said that establishing a vegetable garden on the South Lawn this past year proved to be a surprisingly potent way to start a

PUBLIC NOTICE INVITATION FOR BIDS (IFB) NO.1688 ADA UPGRADE OF RESTROOMS AND RECEPTION COUNTER AT SAN FERNANDO GARDENS The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) invites vendors to submit firm fixed price bids for the ADA Upgrade of Restrooms and Reception Counter at the San Fernando Gardens Housing Development located at 10995 Lehigh Ave., Pacoima, CA 91331. Copies of the IFB documents may be downloaded at www.hacla.org/cgs. Technical questions may be directed to Project Manager Hector Areola at 213-252-4266. Bids will be accepted at 2600 Wilshire Blvd., 3rd floor, Los Angeles, CA 90057 until February 12, 2010 at 2:00 p.m. (local time).

1/21, 1/28/10 CNS-1778435# WATTS TIMES FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT File No. 20091811295 The following person is doing business as: DeJa’s Praise 925 W. 156th Street Compton, CA 90220 Retha Meredith 925 W. 156th Street Compton, CA 90220 This business is conducted by an Individual. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct (The registrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime.) is Retha Meredith. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles County on December 4, 2009.

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above on N/A. NOTICE: This Fictitious Name Statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the Los Angeles County Clerk. A New Fictitious Business Name Statement must be filed before that time.

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

First Filing: 12/31/09, 1/7/10, 1/14/10, 1/21/09 LAWT 399

“non-threatening” conversation about eating right and fighting obesity. It’s key, she said, to talk about the issue “in a way that doesn’t make already overstressed, anxious parents feel even more guilty.”

While the conversation with the first lady ranged over a variety of issues, Mrs. Obama declined to share her thoughts on Republican

KOKAYI Continued from page 2 Prosecutors Office that would assume the responsibility of investigating and charging police-related crimes. This move would likely require a ballot initiative approved by voters.

3. Eliminate the Police Board of Rights in Los Angeles.

One of the most peculiar police structures in California is the Los Angeles Police Department’s Police Board of Rights. This panel, which is comprised of two high-ranking police officers and one civilian, has the power to make binding decisions in cases where a cop may be demoted or terminated.

What makes the board even more powerful is that no one, including the police chief, can reverse their findings. Furthermore, the board has skillfully interpreted state law to make its process confidential.

Therefore, the names of the officers involved, or rationale about their findings, are not released to the public. The role of the board became resoundingly clear in the aftermath of the 2005 LAPD shooting of 13year-old Devin Brown. Despite findings by the Police Commission that the shooting was out of policy, the Board of Rights cleared the officers of any wrongdoing.

Undoubtedly, the board’s decision in the Brown case was impacted by their secretive nature and the pervasive presence of the police-

investigating-police dynamic. For a department maintained by taxpayer dollars, this situation is an abomination and an affront to the principles of freedom and representative government. Since it is written into the Los Angeles City Charter, eliminating the Police Board of Rights will require Los Angeles voters to approve the change at the ballot box.

Another hard-fought battle. Another expensive campaign.

All of the above recommendations would require much from community leaders and residents.

Well-financed law enforcement interest groups would work to prevent any of them from becoming reality. This will force activists to adopt a long-term vision and strategy, raise large sums of money, and recruit a talented network of progressive attorneys, media consultants and, of course, organizers.

However, we must recognize that while marches and protests are essential tactics, they leave much to be desired in terms of deterring police officers from arbitrarily killing and abusing members of our community.

The family of Grant and other victims of police brutality deserve our maximum effort. They deserve victory.

Kokayi Kwa Jitahidi is a community organizer with the Families for Community Safety Campaign, a

Page 11

grassroots effort to create a more just and peaceful society by holding law enforcement officers accountable for their actions. FCSC seeks to work with all sectors of the community including political organizations, elected officials and residents in general. He can be reached bro.kokayi@gmail.com.

INVITATION FOR BIDS (IFB) NO. 1700 RESTORATION OF EXISTING (12) UNITS OF APARTMENTS AT NICKERSON GARDENS AND RANCHO SAN PEDRO The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) invites vendors to submit firm fixed price bids for the restoration of existing twelve (12) units of apartments located at: Nickerson Gardens, 1360-1366 114th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90059 and Rancho San Pedro, 103117 W. Santa Cruz Street, San Pedro, CA 90071. Copies of the IFB documents may be downloaded at www.hacla.org/cgs. Technical questions may be directed to Project Manager, Hector Areola at 213-2524266. Bids will be accepted at 2600 Wilshire Blvd., 3rd floor, Los Angeles, CA 90057 until February 3, 2010 at 2:00 p.m. (local time).

1/21, 1/28/10 CNS-1779110# WATTS TIMES FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT File No. 20091811295 The following person is doing business as: Mus1c Notes, LLC 505 West 5th Street #216 Long Beach, CA 90802 Mus1c Notes 505 West 5th Street #216 Long Beach, CA 90802 James Pascascio 505 West 5th Street Long Beach, CA 90802 This business is conducted by a Limited Liability Company. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct (The registrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime.) is James Pascascio.

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Sarah Palin, saying she didn’t know her well enough. And she said no decision had been made about whether she’ll be involved in campaigning for candidates in the 2010 midterm elections.

Mrs. Obama said she began last year with overriding worries about her daughters, Sasha and Malia, focusing on how the girls and her own mother would adjust to the move to Washington. In March, when the girls declared they felt at home in Washington, “that was the first time that I really was able to breathe a sigh of relief,” Mrs. Obama said. Asked about her major accomplishments for the year, the first lady started with this: “My kids are sane. I recognize them as the kids that they were before we got here.”

Mrs. Obama said 2009 was also

NOTICE OF AGREEMENT TO PURCHASE TAX- DEFAULTED PROPERTY FOR DELINQUENT TAXES AGREEMENT NO. 2321 NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, in accordance with the provisions of Division 1, Part 6, Chapter 8 of the California Revenue and Taxation Code (and the written authorization of the State Controller) that an agreement, a copy of which is on file in the office of the Board of Supervisors of Los Angeles County, has been made between said Board of Supervisors and the Working in Neighborhood (WIN) Project approved by the State Controller, whereby Los Angeles County will sell to the Working in Neighborhood (WIN) Project under the terms set forth in said agreement, all of the real property hereinafter described which is Subject to the Power of Sale by the Tax Collector.

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DBA’s and Legal Notices, Call (213) 251-5700 about “figuring out the job” of first lady. She said it’s been surprising to have every move, word and wardrobe choice subjected to celebrity levels of scrutiny.

“How you stay grounded is to not focus on it,” Mrs. Obama said, adding that she checks in with friends from her past to make sure it’s not all going to her head.

Asked about how the state dinner had been handled, the first lady said the White House and Secret Service were taking steps to make sure such a breach never happens again. Pressed specifically about how the event had been handled by her longtime friend, Social Secretary Desiree Rogers, the first lady added: “When I say the White House, I mean everyone in the White House.”

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HAITI Continued from page 1 and others in the local Haitian American community have gone into overdrive to raise funds, food, and clothing to aid the devastated nation.

Calling upon all of her resources in New York, Miami, and Los Angeles, Oriol, along with producer and director Jean-Claude La Marre, spearheaded a fundraising event on Jan. 18 at Kassava Caribbean Restaurant in Los Angeles.

All of the money raised will be donated to various organizations including the Clinton Global Initiative, Yéle Haiti and Food For the Poor, Oriol said.

She said donations will continue to be accepted at the restaurant.

“We’re collecting shoes, goods, anything people are willing to donate,” said Oriol, who added that the news devastated her. “I knew that it was going to be horrendous. There is nothing left. If somebody wants to wire money to Haiti, they can’t. The banks are gone, the super markets are gone. It’s a city of rubble.”

Tigeorges’ Chicken, a restaurant in Los Angeles, has served as a gathering place for the local Haitian community’s fundraising efforts.

Restaurant owner George Laguerre held fundraising events on Jan. 14 and 16 at the restaurant.

Laguerre says the money raised

Claudine Oriol

will not go to the Red Cross but to organizations including Yéle Haiti, Fonkoze and Ebenezer International Church, which worked in Haiti before the earthquake.

“Anyone who wants to forward funds, make the check to any one of those organizations, and I will make sure it gets to those organizations,” Laguerre said. “We’re acting as a hub. It would be better to bring things here; then we will dispatch to the designated organizations.”

He added that it’s time for the world to recognize that Haiti needs more than just food and clothing.

“People will bring cans of food.

People will bring cheese, rice. They think (if) you feed them that’s good enough. No!” he said. “After 200 years, the idea of sending canned food to Haiti needs to be stopped.

Haiti (has been) in the dark for the last 200 years. All of our rivers run into the ocean; this can be converted into energy. If you are really giving money to Haiti, build dams, bridges, things that will allow Haiti to become a self-sufficient society.”

Activist, talk show host and L.A. Watts Times columnist Earl Ofari Hutchinson has launched a different kind of campaign. Last week, Hutchinson kicked off Operation Haiti Missing Person at Lucy Florence Coffee House in Leimert Park. The purpose of the campaign is to help locals find missing relatives.

“There is a considerable Haitian community in this city.

Many of them have relatives, family members that are among the missing,” he said. “We’ve partnered with the Red Cross and International Red Crescent organization. They have a registry and they are listing missing persons.”

Operation Haitian Missing Person is the same model he used in 2005 when he launched Katrina Missing Persons, which was successful, Hutchinson said.

“We decided, ‘Why reinvent the wheel? Let’s use the same model,’ ” he said.

Hutchinson gave caution about donating money.

“One thing we warn people (is) don’t give a penny to any organiza-

tion you don’t know,” he said.

“We’ve compiled four organizations. We don’t touch a penny. We have religiously stayed away from money. Anytime you go down that road it creates problems. That’s why we started the missing persons thing.

It was better because it’s cleaner. It’s a public service.”

Hutchinson said forms to get relatives listed on the registry can be picked up at Lucy Florence.

Among other efforts to help Haiti, Sprint “is waiving text-messaging fees for Sprint customers who send mobile donations to a number of short codes and organizations participating in the relief and recovery efforts,” a Sprint Web site states.

According to the Web site, the code instructions include: • Text “HAITI” to “90999” to donate $10 on behalf of the American Red Cross.

• Text “YELE” to “501501” to donate $5 on behalf of the Yéle Haiti Foundation.

• Text “HAITI” to “20222” to donate $10 on behalf of The Clinton Foundation.

• Text “HAITI” to “85944” to donate $10 on behalf of the Rescue Union Mission and MedCorp International.

• Text “HAITI” to “25383” to donate $5 on behalf of the Internal Rescue Committee.

Other telecommunication companies are helping in similar ways.

Check your service provider if you wish to help.

In other related news, many aftershocks have hit Haiti, including a 6.1-magnitude quake on Jan. 20.

More donation information: Kassava Caribbean Restaurant, 8600 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles, (310) 385-0248.

Tigeorges’ Chicken, 309 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 9441515.

Registry information for Operation Haitian Missing Person: Lucy Florence Coffee House 3351 W. 43rd St., Los Angeles, (323) 293-1356.

Facts Jan. 22, 1989 Clarence Willi Norris, last surviving member of the Scottsboro Boys, dies at age 76 while a patient at Bronx Community Hospital. Norris was one of nine African American teenagers accused of the 1931 rape of two white prostitutes in Alabama. The case was tried several times between 1931 and 1937, ending only after one woman recanted her charge. Norris spent 15 years in prison before being paroled.

Once freed, Norris left Alabama for New York. He was pardoned by the state of Alabama in 1976 after the state parole board determined his innocence.

Source: blackfacts.com