LAWT 11-17-2011

W E E K E N D E R

L.A. Watts Times Vol. XXX, No. 1258

www.lawattstimes.com

Thursday, November 17, 2011

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Thursday, November 17, 2011

HOROSCOPES RIES ~ Relax the grip you have on your attitudes this week and just go with the flow. Ease up in full knowledge that goodness is being perfectly fulfilled. Let go of any feelings of insecurity or loss and bless the perfect moment. Soul affirmation: I quiet all confusion.

AURUS ~ Exhilaration is high and your mental abilities are amazing. Use your intuition to brainstorm your way to a highly creative idea that could change the way you make your living. Soul affirmation: I give thanks for the chance to give.

EMINI ~ What you say and what you do are in harmony this week. The importance of your idea(s) comes through very clearly to others. They can see that you walk what you talk. Communicate your ideas through your values. Soul affirmation: I give thanks for the goodness in people.

ANCER ~ You are the best person that you can be. Evaluate your strengths and celebrate them this week. So often when self-evaluating we concentrate on weaknesses well this week weaknesses doesn’t count. You are wonderful and you are becoming better every day. Nobody is perfect and if we all were our journey would be boring at best. Soul affirmation: I am patient with all that comes my way this week.

EO ~ Lots of communicating going on early in the week. You may even hear from someone you haven’t seen in ages. The long distance will certainly make your heart grow fonder. You’ll want to catch up with someone you haven’t heard from and will probably seek this person out via email. There’s a general feeling of catching up, from correspondence to current fashion. Soul affirmation: Anticipation of a beautiful night will light up my week.

IRGO ~ Confusion exists over some question, and every time you think you’ve got the answer, circumstances will change and new information will come to your attention. Don’t worry — things are going to clear up and work out. Take it easy. Worry will create the exact problem that you’re worrying about how to avoid. Soul affirmation: I remain conscious of other people’s feelings all week long.

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Inside This Edition UNCF, NAFEO and TMCF continue to fight for federal funding for historically Black colleges and universities and predominantly black institutions

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IBRA ~ Cool jazz! Fly dark glasses! Give yourself a chance to show off. It’s good. Let others know how much you like yourself, and how many ways you can present yourself. All the ways are real. Start fixing the fantasy in your mind and make preparations so you can make the fantasy true just by stepping into it. Soul affirmation: Seeing my past clearly this week gives me a clear vision of my future.

CORPIO ~ Surprises are in order this week.

Keep yourself open and alert for the unexpected. Put yourself in the presence of people whose spirits are akin to yours. The surprise is likely to be a spiritual one, an awakening, a realization. Soul affirmation: I stay calm when all about me is in an uproar.

AGITTARIUS ~ You need to be with someone this week who does not place too many demands on you, and who is creative, intelligent, a good conversationalist and highly spiritual.

Perhaps you should be out looking for that person now with eyes wide open! You know what you need. Soul affirmation: My mood is enhanced by the company I keep.

APRICORN ~ Work calls and you’re not completely happy with current divisions of labor. Do more than your part as a member of the team and you’ll be glad that you did. Your reward will come from someone who also did more than their part. Soul affirmation: Generosity of spirit brings generosity to me.

QUARIUS ~ Business looks good this week as you discover a new way of increasing exposure to your product. Even if the product is you. Let hope and optimism lead you into new beginnings and fresh starts. All vibes are good, so go! Soul affirmation: When I feel good about myself, the world feels good to me.

ISCES ~ Everybody should be in a good mood this week, and you’ll want to join friends or family in sharing food and feelings. You may be asked to change your opinion about something you believe in. Make the change. It will enhance your spiritual growth. Soul affirmation: Clinging to the old will inhibit my growth this week.

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FAIRFAX, Va. - Groups representing a coalition of more than 100 colleges and universities are fighting to persuade Congress and its deficit-reducing “Super Committee” not to cut $85 million or more in federal funding for the colleges and their students.

The coalition consists of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF); the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO); and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF). These three organizations, which collectively represent the 105 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and 50 Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs), are opposing proposals that will cut federal funds to HBCUs by $85 million or more and would zero out support for PBIs. The proposed funding cuts would come on top of $30 million in cuts already made in HBCU funding.

These colleges face a double-barreled threat: Funding cuts could be contained in the Super Committee recommendations or made through the normal appropriations process for the current fiscal year.

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The organizations support funding levels contained in an appropriations bill passed by a Senate Appropriations Committee for the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. They oppose the sharply lower levels proposed

by House appropriators.

“The colleges that would have to absorb these cuts serve students who employers are counting on as the next generation of engineers, scientists, teachers, doctors and nurses,” said Michael L. Lomax, Ph.D., UNCF president and CEO. “Their education is being threatened at the worst possible time — in the midst of an economic downturn that is already making it hard for them to stay in school and graduate.”

The coalition seeks to rally students, alumni, faculty, staff, administrators and all supporters of HBCUs and PBIs to get their U.S senators and U.S. representatives to persuade the Super Committee members not to cut the deficit by disinvesting in higher education.

The Super Committee has until November 23 to submit recommended See FEDERAL FUNDING, page 6

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BlackFacts.com

November 18, 1993 Black and White leaders in South Africa approve the new democratic constitution that gives Blacks the vote and ends White minority rule.

November 18, 1978 More than 900 people, most of them African Americans, die in mass murder and suicide pact in Jonestown, Guyana.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

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Cain’s trouble with women voters threatens GOP bid

BY LAURIE KELLMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) — In a matter of a week, Herman Cain referred to the House Democratic leader as “Princess Nancy” Pelosi, said presidential rival Michele Bachmann would be “tutti-frutti” ice cream and shrugged off a joke about Anita Hill.

The Republican presidential candidate also has denied allegations that he sexually harassed several women and, through his lawyer, threatened to investigate anyone else who makes such a claim.

Now, as Cain struggles to stabilize his campaign, the Republican presidential candidate is rolling out his wife to defend him — and help shore up female support for his bid for the GOP nomination.

“I know that’s not the person he is,” Gloria Cain said on Fox News Channel’s “On The Record.” ‘‘He totally respects women.”

Her public foray into the presidential campaign after months of staying behind the scenes comes as polls show Herman Cain’s support among women dropping, further threatening a campaign rocked by accusations of inappropriate sexual behavior.

Cain’s overall standing has slipped in surveys just weeks before the Iowa presidential caucuses that kick off the state-by-state voting for the Republican Party’s nomination.

State and national polls show former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney

leading the pack, with Cain no longer challenging him for the top spot.

Polls released in recent days show unmistakably that female voters have turned away from Cain since the sexual harassment allegations surfaced at the end of October.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll released Tuesday shows nearly three-fourths of Republican women — 74 percent — now call the harassment charges against Cain serious, up from 39 percent earlier this month.

A CBS News poll conducted Nov. 6?10 shows his support among Republican women had dropped since late October, from 28 percent to 15 percent.

Credibility is a problem for Cain among women. A CNN/ORC International poll conducted Nov. 11?13 showed that majorities of all women said they tend to believe his accusers and would like to see him end the campaign.

Majorities of men take the opposite position.

The polls are national in scope, meaning they’re hardly predictive of how Cain is faring in Iowa — the first state to weigh in on the GOP nomination fight on Jan. 3.

Even so, the findings of the national surveys raise questions about whether Cain, should he manage to win the nomination, would be able to compete for women’s votes against President Barack Obama in next year’s general election.

Women have made up a majority

of voters in every presidential year since 1980, and while Democrats tend to win the group, successful Republicans have had to win or come close to splitting the vote among women in order to prevail.

In the 2008 presidential election, female eligible voters participated at a higher rate than males — 66 percent to 62 percent, according to the Pew Research Center. Nearly 10 million more women cast ballots than men.

And Obama won 56 percent of the female vote, the biggest margin among women a Democratic presidential candidate has had since exit polling began in 1972.

Cain has repeatedly denied the allegations of sexual harassment, though they aren’t going away.

On Monday, the former boyfriend of Sharon Bialek — one of Cain’s accusers — said the then-couple spent an evening with Cain in the 1990s.

That countered the GOP presidential candidate’s earlier statements that he never met the woman.

“Sharon indeed did meet and spend time with Mr. Cain,” said Victor Jay Zuckerman, a Louisiana pediatrician.

In turn, Cain’s attorney, Lin Wood, insisted that his client “doesn’t recall Ms. Bialek.” Cain, in earlier statements, said he had seen Bialek “for the very first time” last week when she publicly accused him of groping her in 1997.

“As I sat in my hotel room with a couple of my staff members, as they

AP Photo/Mike Roemer

Is Cain able to overcome the hits he’s taken lately? Recent polls say support for the Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain among women is waning. got to the microphone, my first response in my mind and reaction was, I don’t even know who this woman is. Secondly, I didn’t recognize the name at all,” Cain said.

Later, Cain added: “I don’t even know who this woman is. I tried to remember if I recognized her and I didn’t.”

It wasn’t just the allegations of sexual harassment Cain had had to explain — he’s also been forced to answer for his colorful statements about women.

During a debate last week, Cain likened Pelosi to royalty for blocking efforts to repeal Democrats’ health See CAIN, page 11

The new Happy Meal® doesn’t fall far from the tree.

At participating McDonald’s. ©2011 McDonald’s.

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Thursday, November 17, 2011

US Secret Service says bullet hit White House WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Secret Service says it has found a bullet that hit an exterior window of the White House that was stopped by ballistic glass.

An additional round of ammunition was found on the White House exterior. The bullets were found Tuesday morning.

A spokesman for the Secret Service, Edwin Donovan, declined to answer additional questions about the incident, including the caliber of bullets recovered or what room of the White House was behind the window that was hit, citing an ongoing criminal investigation.

The discovery follows reports of gunfire near the White House on Friday. Witnesses heard shots and saw two speeding vehicles in the area. An assault rifle was recovered.

President Barack Obama, who was headed to a summit in Hawaii, was not at the home at the time of the shooting.

The Secret Service said it has not conclusively connected Friday's incident with the bullets found at the White House. Previously, authorities had said the White House did not appear to have been targeted Friday night.

U.S. Park Police have an arrest warrant for Oscar Ortega-Hernandez, who is believed to be connected to the earlier incident.

After the gunfire was reported, police said they found an abandoned car Friday night near the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge that crosses the Potomac River to Virginia.

U.S. Park Police spokesman Sgt. David Schlosser has said items found in the vehicle led investigators to Ortega. The suspect hasn't been linked to any radical organizations but does have an arrest record in three states, Schlosser said Monday.

In 2010, there were a series of predawn shootings at military buildings in the Washington area, including the Pentagon and the National Museum of the Marine Corps.

Police charged a Marine Corps reservist with those shootings earlier this year. The suspect, Yonathan Melaku, remains in custody.

Update: The Secret Service said a suspect, Oscar Ortega-Hernandez, 21, potentially tied to a shooting incident near the White House on Friday has been arrested in Pennsylvania.

AP Photo/Ron Edmonds

The Secret Service confirmed Tuesday that a bullet hit an exterior window of the White House and was stopped by ballistic glass. An additional round of ammunition was also found on the exterior of the White House.

Justices unlikely to have last word on health care

BY RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama’s historic health care overhaul divided the nation from the day he

signed it into law, and that seems unlikely to change no matter how the Supreme Court rules on its constitutionality.

Some legal disputes, like the 2000 presidential election, the court can settle.

Others rage on, such as abortion. It may

take another decade to find the balance between private and public responsibility for health care in America, a nation disdainful of big government yet historically unable to guarantee affordable basic coverage to its citizens.

“Either way it rules, the Supreme Court decision will not end the debate on health care,” said former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, an influential Democratic adviser. “It is, and will largely remain, a debate on the role of government.”

The Supreme Court’s announcement Monday that it will take up the constitutional challenge to what Republicans deride as “Obamacare” sets the stage for a decision next summer in the heat of the presidential election campaign.

But even if the court upholds the law, Republican leaders say “repeal and replace” remains their slogan.

“Job-killing tax hikes on families and small businesses may well be constitutional — that doesn’t mean we would support them,” said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio remains committed to repealing the overhaul and replacing it with a Republican plan regardless of the Supreme Court ruling, his spokesman said. “We will continue to work to repeal it,” said Michael Steel.

The administration is dug in, too.

Publicly, officials say they’re confident Obama’s plan for covering the uninsured will be upheld to the last comma.

See SUPREME COURT, page 15

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Think the U.S. Supreme Court will finally settle America’s contentious debate over health care? Think again.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

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Obama insists U.S. does not fear China

BY BEN FELLER ASSOCIATED PRESS CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — President Barack Obama insisted Wednesday that the United States does not fear China, even as he announced a new security agreement with Australia that is widely viewed as a response to Beijing’s growing aggressiveness.

China responded swiftly, warning that an expanded U.S. military footprint in Australia may not be appropriate and deserved greater scrutiny.

The agreement, announced during a joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, will expand the U.S. military presence in Australia, positioning more U.S. personnel and equipment there, and increasing American access to bases. About 250 U.S. Marines will begin a rotation in northern Australia starting next year, with a full force of 2,500 military personnel staffing up over the next several years.

Obama called the deployment “significant,” and said it would build capacity and cooperation between the U.S. and Australia. U.S. officials were careful to emphasize that the pact was not an attempt to create a permanent American military presence in Australia.

“It also allows us to meet the demands of a lot of partners in the region that want to feel that they’re getting the training, they’re getting the exercises, and that we have the presence that’s necessary to maintain the security architecture in the region,” Obama said.

The president spoke shortly after arriving in the Australian capital, his second stop on a nine-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. After a 10-hour flight from Honolulu, where he hosted an economic summit, Obama headed straight into meetings with Gillard.

On Thursday, Obama will address the Australian Parliament, then fly to the northern city of Darwin, where some of the Marines deploying to Australia next year will be based.

During his news conference with Gillard, the president sidestepped questions about whether the security agreement was aimed at containing China. But he said the U.S. would keep sending a clear message that China needs to accept the responsibilities that come with being a world power.

“It’s important for them to play by the rules of the road,” he said.

And he insisted that the U.S is not fearful of China’s rise.

“I think the notion that we fear China is mistaken. The notion that we’re looking to exclude China is mistaken,” he said.

China was immediately leery of the prospect of an expanded U.S. military presence in Australia. Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said Wednesday that it was worth discussing whether the plan was in line

with the common interests of the international community.

Obama national security aide Ben Rhodes said the agreement was not only appropriate, but also a response to the demand from nations in the region that have signaled they want the U.S. to be present.

The U.S. and smaller Asian nations have grown increasingly concerned about China claiming dominion over vast areas of the Pacific that the U.S. considers international waters, and reigniting old territorial disputes, including confrontations over the South China Sea. China’s defense spending has increased threefold since the 1990s to about $160 billion last year, and its military has recently tested a new stealth jet fighter and launched its first aircraft carrier.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said that the goal of the new security pact is to signal that the U.S. and Australia will stick together in face of any threats.

In addition to the expanded Marine presence in Australia, more U.S. aircraft will rotate through Australia as part of an agreement between each nation’s air force.

Obama and Gillard said the increased air presence would allow the U.S. and Australia to more effectively respond to respond to natural disasters and humanitarian crises in the region.

Rhodes said the U.S. military boost would amount to a “sustained U.S. presence.” He distinguished that from a permanent presence in the sense that the U.S. forces will use Australian facilities, as opposed to the United States to building its own bases, as it has in such regional places as South Korea. The U.S. has not signaled any interest in that in Australia.

The only American base currently in Australia is the secretive joint Australia-U.S. intelligence and communications complex at Pine Gap in central Australia. But there are hundreds of U.S. service personnel in Australia on exchange.

Air combat units also use the expansive live bombing ranges in Australia’s sparsely populated north in training rotations of a few months and occasionally naval units train off the coast. But training exercises involving ground forces are unusual.

During Wednesday’s brief news conference, Obama and Gillard also fielded questions on a range of other issues, from U.S. efforts to address climate change to the debt crisis in Europe.

Obama reiterated his call for urgent action by European leaders to back the euro and develop a financial firewall to keep the threat of default facing Greece and Italy from spreading across the Eurozone.

“The problem right now is one of political will; it’s not a technical problem,” Obama said. “At this point, the larger European community has to stand behind the European project.”

Asked whether the U.S. would be able to lower carbon emissions

AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

U.S. President Barack Obama and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard speak at a joint news conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Wednesday. through a cap-and-trade system as Australia is undertaking, Obama conceded the U.S. has been unable to pass such a plan through Congress, but noted U.S. efforts to increase vehicle fuel efficiency and to explore clear energy options. He said emerging economies such as India and

China must also assume responsibility for addressing climate change.

For Obama and Australia, the third time’s the charm. He canceled two earlier visits, once to stay in Washington to lobby for passage of his health care bill, and again in the wake of the oil spill in the Gulf of

Mexico.

“I was determined to come for a simple reason: The United States of America has no stronger ally than Australia,” he said.

Associated Press writers Erica Werner and Rod McGuirk in Canberra contributed to this report.

“While my husband Perry and I had the pleasure of being the first teachers of our sons, Talib and Jamal, their achievements are wholly possible because of the excellent teachers who helped us nurture the passion within them.”

— Dr. Brenda Greene Prof. of English & Exec. Dir., Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College Jamal Greene, Talib Kweli & Dr. Brenda Greene

Every child deserves a Great Teacher A child with an ineffective teacher learns only half as much in one year. Students with an ineffective teacher three years in a row will likely never catch up. Given the stubborn “achievement gap,” we just can’t afford that status quo anymore.

Our children cannot wait. Join our movement to put an effective teacher in every child’s classroom.

To join the movement visit www.StudentsFirst.org/join-now or call 916-287-9220.

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Thursday, November 17, 2011

The rich life of Winston Churchill Doby Winston Churchill Doby was born Feb. 20, 1940, to Laura Elizabeth Lilly Doby and Albert Floyd Doby in Shiloh, Ala. He was the youngest of 8 children.

The family moved to Watts in l946.

Winston attended 111th Street Elementary School, Edison Jr., and Fremont High School in Los Angeles.

He attended UCLA on a scholarship and went on to earn three degrees. He was also a member of Kappa Alpha Psi. Winston C. Doby, vice chancellor emeritus for student affairs at UCLA, who dedicated his career to increasing student diversity and access at UCLA and throughout the University of California system for more than three decades, died Thurs., Nov. 10, in Los Angeles after a long battle with cancer.

He was 71.

A visionary leader whose efforts to broaden opportunities for educationally disadvantaged students earned national recognition, Doby served as UCLA’s head of student affairs from 1981 to 2001. During that time, he helped guide the campus through rough waters, fighting to preserve student diversity following the 1996 passage of California’s Proposition 209, which dismantled affirmative action programs in admissions.

Although he had retired when UCLA faced a crisis of declining African American enrollment in 2006, Doby played an instrumental role in bringing together local African American leaders to serve on a task force aimed at recruiting more Black students to UCLA and reinvigorating the campus’s connection to the African

American community.

“Throughout his career at UCLA and with the University of California, Winston Doby was committed to encouraging excellence for all students while leading the way for equity,” said UCLA Chancellor Gene Block. “During his tenure as head of student affairs at UCLA, the campus became a national leader in every area of student services and programming. At every step in his career, his special genius for creating programs that were both visionary and pragmatic shone through. He was a leader in every sense of the word.”

In November 2010, the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities presented Doby with its Distinguished Service Award for his lifelong work to increase diversity and access, calling him “a shining example of the leadership needed in higher education to meet the challenges of serving increasingly diverse and low-income student populations.”

Doby’s career spanned more than 40 years of service to UCLA and the UC Office of the President, where he served as UC vice president for educational outreach and, later, student affairs.

After graduating from UCLA with a degree in mathematics, Doby fulfilled a promise he had made to his high school mentor by taking a teaching job at his alma mater, Fremont High School in Los Angeles, where he taught mathematics from 1963 to 1967. He returned to UCLA in 1968 to pursue a master’s degree in education and doctorate in higher education administration, during

which time he served a one-year stint as a UCLA assistant track coach. He joined campus administration full time in 1969.

Throughout his tenure as vice chancellor, Doby played a prominent leadership role, chairing numerous high-level campus and systemwide task forces that helped shape university policies and practices in a variety of areas, including admissions and outreach, student financial support, student services, and community service.

In the larger community, Doby served as a “roving ambassador” for UCLA, especially in the area of K-12 education, helping to promote outreach, teacher quality and student achievement. For more than a decade, he served on the Los Angeles Unified School District’s evaluation planning team, which tackled tough issues like school desegregation, busing and overcrowding.

In the 1980s, he co-founded the community-based Young Black Scholars Program, which has prepared thousands of young African American students for college. In the early 1990s, he founded the Black Male Achievement Project at Ralph Bunche Elementary School in Los Angeles and launched the Los Angeles Sports Academy, designed to promote academic achievement through sports. He also founded a charter school for high school dropouts and was a key contributor to a middle-school pilot program developed to improve mathematics competency.

Doby faced perhaps his greatest challenge in 1996 with the passage of

Proposition 209, which effectively ended affirmative action in college admissions. “It was clear that if we were going to achieve a level of diversity on this campus, which had become so competitive, we would have to get our students of color to perform at a much higher level,” he said.

To help students of color in Los Angeles achieve their full academic potential, Doby created what he called the “optimal learning system,” a form of “paying it forward.” This system of values and practices became the basis for the Career-Based Outreach Program, which was taught on campus to UCLA students, who fanned out into the Los Angeles community and taught it to middle and high school students in lowperforming schools.

“If these students performed to their fullest potential, they would be competitive for admission to any institution to which they applied,” Doby said.

Winston was always involved in the Los Angeles community, serving most recently as a member of the League’s executive staff since 2007 and a mentor to Blair H. Taylor, President and CEO of the League. “In all my years on this earth, I have never met another person like Winston Doby,” said Taylor.”His wisdom, integrity, insight and unwavering passion to help others impacted my life and the lives of many others in such profound ways. He served so many people as a teacher and friend. Winston was a loving father and husband and a venerable and tireless community servant — a man whose incredible life advanced the causes of education and social justice in ways that most of us can only dream of doing in our lifetimes.

Personally, Winston was a trusted mentor who shared his wisdom with me for more than two decades.”

In recognition of his wide-ranging contributions to UCLA and the commu-

Winston Churchill Doby nity, Winston received numerous acknowledgements including lifetime achievement awards from the UCLA Black Alumni Association, the Los Angeles Urban League, 100 Black Men, Inc. and the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity.

Doby said he credited his lifelong commitment to others to his mother, who provided him with his life’s credo: You pass this way but once. If there is any kindness you can show, any goodness you can do, do it now. For you shall not pass this way again.

He is survived by his “soul mate and partner” Linda Baldwin, a daughter, Monica Doby Davis, and a son, Christopher Winston Doby; two grandchildren, Anthony and Marina Davis.

Surviving him are three sisters, Lois Gilmore, Rosalind Harris and Laura Willard. Also surviving Winston are a host of relatives and friends.

He will be missed way beyond the UCLA community.

FEDERAL FUNDING Continued from page 2 budget reductions and revenue increases.

“Cutting federal support for HBCUs would shoot an already weak economy in the foot,” said Thurgood Marshall College Fund president and CEO, Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. “In addition to the students they educate, they impact more than 180,000 jobs, including professors, counselors, staff members and others. Local businesses and national companies depend on the money that the colleges, their employees, and students spend.

Their total economic impact is estimated at over $13 billion.”

The UNCF, NAFEO and TMCF and have been leading a tough fight to gain support of members of Congress to ensure they understand the consequences additional budget cuts will have for HBCUs and other Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs).

In April of 2011, this coalition marched on Capitol Hill and urged support for protecting the maximum funding for Pell Grants, continuing funding for Title III, Part B (undergraduate and graduate programs) and Title III Part A, and continuing funding for the HBCU Capital Financing Program. In October of this year, HBCU presidents visited Washington DC to advocate for HBCUs, and MSIs, and urged protection of HBCU and PBI funding through Fiscal Year 2012 and the Super Committee deliberations.

Then in October, more than 10,000 HBCU students wrote letters thanking the Obama Administration for its support for

full funding for HBCUs and telling their stories of how federal funding for HBCUs is enriching their educational experience.

“Republican and Democratic Presidents have made funding HBCUs a national priority as have successive bipartisan majorities in Congress, in recognition of the fact that HBCUs and PBIs are vitally important to stimulating the economy, preparing excellent, diverse, workers, putting Americans back to work and meeting the human services needs of traditionally underserved communities,” said NAFEO president and CEO Lezli Baskerville, Ph.D. “HBCUs are great national resources of leadership in the sciences, technology, engineering, mathematics, education, health and the environment. They contain costs at a time when the costs of college are increasingly beyond the reach of the masses. HBCUs and PBIs are the best return on investment in the higher education arena. It would be disconcerting if Congress or the Super Committee decides to reduce the deficit without raising revenues and by cutting funding for HBCUs and PBIs, the primary incubators of diverse human capital to make the nation thrive.”

The coalition is urging the community to join the battle. Visit www.UNCF.org/Advocacy and click on the “Take Action” icon today to send a message to Congress to protect HBCU funding; or chat live with Members of Congress and get real-time updates through Twitter @_NAFEO.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

AP Photo/Al Seib

BY LINDA DEUTSCH AP SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT toring him at that time because there was no need for monitoring.”

Other doctors testified at Murray’s trial that leaving a patient alone after

board

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The doctor convicted of killing Michael Jackson remained silent during his trial, but Conrad Murray defended himself in interviews taped just days before a jury found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

Murray defended his use of the surgical anesthetic propofol to put Jackson to sleep in interviews set to air Thursday and Friday on NBC’s “Today” show. NBC released excerpts of the interview Wednesday.

“I think propofol is not recommended to be given in the home setting,” Murray said, “but it is not contraindicated.”

The Houston cardiologist also said Jackson had been using the substance long before the pop star met Murray.

Under questioning by the “Today” show’s Savannah Guthrie, Murray said it was not necessary for him to monitor Jackson because he had given him only a small dose of propofol, and he said that was the reason he didn’t mention it to paramedics when they arrived at Jackson’s mansion.

“That’s a very sad reason,” he said, “because it was inconsequential — 25 milligrams and the effect’s gone. Means nothing.”

Guthrie asked, “Well, you told them about the other drugs, but you didn’t tell them about propofol?”

“Because it had no effect,” Murray said. “It was not an issue.”

The coroner would subsequently find that Jackson, 50, died of “acute propofol intoxication” after a huge dose of the drug complicated by other sedatives.

Murray’s defense tried to show that Jackson gave himself an extra dose of propofol while Murray was out of the room, but prosecution experts said there was no evidence of that and it was a crazy theory.

Asked by Guthrie if he became distracted by phone calls, emailing and text messages, Murray said, “No, I was not.”

“When I looked at a man who was all night deprived of sleep, who was desperate for sleep and finally is getting some sleep, am I gonna sit over him, sit around him, tug on his feet, do anything unusual to wake him up?

No,” Murray said.

“You walked out of the room to talk on the phone?” Guthrie asked.

“Absolutely, I wanted him to rest.”

He insisted Jackson was not on an infusion that would stop his breathing and, “I was not supposed to be moni-

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LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) — A man who fatally shot his three sons while they slept in 1982, shortly after his wife filed for divorce, was executed Tuesday with each of his hands clenched in an obscene gesture.

Reginald Brooks of East Cleveland died at 2:04 p.m.

Tuesday, ending a nearly sixmonth break in the use of capital punishment in Ohio, which often trails only Texas in the number of annual inmate executions.

Brooks declined to make a final statement and remained silent. Witnesses, which included his former wife and her sisters, had a view of his left hand, its middle finger raised. Prison officials said he was making the same gesture with his right hand.

State and federal courts rejected attorneys’ arguments that Brooks was not mentally competent and that the government hid relevant evidence that could have affected his case.

The execution was delayed by more than three hours as attorneys exhausted Brooks’ appeals.

Photo Courtesy of Ohio Department of The U.S. Supreme Court refused Rehabilitation and Correction Tuesday to halt the execution.

Shot his sons while they slept: He is the fourth inmate in Reginald Brooks was executed Ohio to be put to death using the Tuesday. The 66-year-old is the oldest surgical sedative pentobarbital person put to death since Ohio as a stand-alone execution drug. resumed executions in 1999.

Beverly Brooks, who found her 11-, 15- and 17-year-old sons dead when she returned from work, and her two sisters sat silently, wearing white T-shirts printed with a photo of the boys during the execution.

Beverly Brooks did not comment, but one of her sisters, Monica Stephens, spoke on behalf of the family.

“Our nephews are gone, and they’ll never be replaced,” she said.

“The memories we’ll always have … the what-ifs we’ll always have.”

Reginald Brooks’ two defense attorneys and two spiritual advisers were his witnesses.

At 66, Brooks is the oldest person put to death since Ohio resumed executions in 1999.

The defense argued Brooks was a paranoid schizophrenic who suffered from mental illness long before he shot his sons in the head as they slept at their East Cleveland home on a Saturday morning.

Defense attorneys said Brooks believed his co-workers and wife were poisoning him and that he maintained his innocence, offering conspiracy theories about the killings that involved police, his relatives and a look-alike.

Beverly Brooks has said she believes the killings were an act of revenge for her divorce filing, not the result of mental illness.

Defense attorneys did not comment after the execution and did not immediately respond to email and phone messages.

Prosecutors acknowledged Brooks was mentally ill but disputed the notions that it caused the murders or made him incompetent. They said he planned merciless killings, bought a revolver two weeks in advance, confirmed he’d be home alone with the boys, targeted them when they wouldn’t resist and fled on a bus with a suitcase containing a birth certificate and personal items that could help him start a new life.

Brooks was found competent for trial, and a three-judge panel convicted him.

Defense attorneys argued that prosecutors withheld information that would have supported a mental health defense and led the court to rule differently. Former Judge Harry Hanna, one of the three on the panel, told the Ohio Parole Board he would not have voted for the death penalty if he’d had information from police reports that were provided to the defense more recently.

If a three-judge panel hears a death penalty case, it must vote unanimously for a death sentence under Ohio law.

The parole board recommended that Gov. John Kasich deny Brooks clemency, and he did.

Associated Press writer JoAnne Viviano in Columbus contributed to this report.

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BY KANTELE FRANKO ASSOCIATED PRESS

Jackson doctor defends himself in NBC interviews

Dr. Conrad Murray reacts after the jury returns with a guilty verdict in his involuntary manslaughter trial Monday, Nov. 7, 2011 in a Los Angeles courtroom. Murray was convicted Monday of involuntary manslaughter after a trial that painted him as a reckless caregiver who administered a lethal dose of a powerful anesthetic that killed the pop star.

business

Ohio executes man who killed 3 sleeping sons

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giving him an anesthetic was an egregious deviation from the standard of care expected of a physician.

See JACKSON DOCTOR, page 14

HAVE YOU BEEN DENIED YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY BENEFITS? Let me assist you.

There is NO Fee until we win.

Jacquelyn Brown, Disability Appeals Rep.

(323) 756-3755

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Thursday, November 17, 2011

F E AT U R E

L.A. Watts Times WEEKENDER

by Tamara Latta | LA Watts Times Contributing Writer After having a breakout season in 2011 and becoming an all-star and member of the “30/30 club,” for the first time in his career, outfielder Matt Kemp is on the verge of becoming the face of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

As he waits to announce his contract extension worth $160 million over the next eight years, Kemp, who wasn’t eligible for free agency until 2012, closed the door to any ball club that had intentions on flirting with him. The contract is a solid and fair deal for Kemp: He earned every penny he and his agent negotiated. It may seem like a substantial amount of money, but if you view his stats for the year of 2011, you’ll get a better understanding as to why he received such a wealthy oơer.

There are not a lot of baseball players in the league with Kemp’s talent. He set career highs in practically every oơensive category. The 27-year-old stud made an imposing run at the Triple Crown this season, leading the National League in homers (39) and RBIs (126).

The power hitter finished the season batting .324 and stole 40 bases.

“I dreamed of becoming a baseball player one day, but never thought I would be where I am today at this age,” Kemp said.

After a rocky 2010 season and Torre retiring, the organization was left unsure. But Kemp refreshed over the oơ season and came in ready to take control. He felt the heat and the pressure, and he knew he had to carry the team on his back. Kemp was focused physically and mentally from the beginning to the end of the 2011 season.

This was the Kemp I was used to seeing two years ago: the smile, the positive energy, and just motivated to play the game. You could see the eơort he brought

to the field every night; he wanted to win and bring back the fight and hunger the team once had in 2009.

Kemp has always had the potential to be one of the best center fielders in baseball.

Not only did Kemp perform well on the field, he matured as a person and player. The Dodgers organization was left in shambles after the owner’s Jamie and Frank McCourt’s divorce became the center of attention at the Dodger’s Stadium. Fans began to vanish, and the team was in last place in the NL West, with one of the worst records in baseball.

But even that didn’t stop Kemp from giving his all to an organization that seemed to fail in every aspect of the game.

He gave the fans what they were missing, and that was dedication.

It would have been so easy for him to just give up and turn his back on the city of Los Angeles, but he rode it out until the end.

It’s now time for the fans to come back and support their hero who bleeds Dodger blue, none other than, Mr. Kemp.

“I love the fans and the city of Los Angeles,” Kemp said. “My heart has always been with the city of Los Angeles from day one; this is where I want to be”.

Kemp will be “that dude” next year: one of the biggest stars in baseball. Look for him to gain more

respect in the league. The Dodgers will attract more celebrities to their games now that they have officially begun to make positive moves around the organization. Kemp is now one of, if not, the biggest stars in Los Angeles.

He’ll be the heart and soul of that clubhouse. His leadership will determine how far the Dodgers make it next season. With the path he’s on right now, I would give the Dodgers about two years before they’re competing in a World Series Championship.

Kemp has proven to be a player that can make his teammates better on and oơ the field. There is no doubt that he worked hard to get where he is today, and he deserves a round of applause. I’m sure the fans will greet him with lots of MVP chants on opening day.

There could be more rewards to come for the center fielder. His team may not have had a winning record, but no other single player meant more to their team than Kemp.

Major League Baseball will be announcing its MVP winners next week, and if Kemp’s name isn’t called, there will be plenty of eyebrows raised.

160 MILLION DOLLAR MAN

www.lawattstimes.com

ABOVE: Los Angeles Dodgers’ Matt Kemp speaks at a dedication ceremony for a new Dodgers Dreamfield in Willowbrook on November 14, 2011. This being one of nine new ballfields to be created by the Dodgers Dream Foundation and the LA84 Foundation.

PHOTO CREDITS RIGHT AP Photo/Jack Dempsey COVER-TOP LEFT Larry Goren/Four Seam Images via AP Images COVER-TOP RIGHT AP Photo/Danny Moloshok COVER-BOTTOM AP Photo/Jack Dempsey

Thursday, November 17, 2011

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Thursday, November 17, 2011

Johnson doubts Bolt’s chances of 4 golds in London

AP Photo/Seth Wenig

With talks having broken down, NBA players have filed a lawsuit.

NBA players file antitrust lawsuits against league

BY BRIAN MAHONEY ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK (AP) — NBA players kept offering economic concessions, and it was never enough to

satisfy owners.

So with no labor deal and no place else to go, players decided to take their fight to the courtroom.

The locked-out players, including Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant, filed class-action antitrust lawsuits against the league Tuesday in at least two states, saying David Stern’s ultimatums left them no other choice.

Attorney David Boies put the blame squarely on the owners, saying players were willing to accept a lower percentage of revenues but owners insisted on more.

“By overplaying their hand, by pushing the players beyond any line of reasonableness, I think they caused this. You don’t give up hundreds of millions of dollars unless you want to make a deal, and that’s what the players were doing,” Boies said. “I think it was mistake to push it as far as they did.”

And it could potentially cost them billions.

The players are seeking “treble damages” — meaning triple the amount of the more than $2 billion they would have made under a full 2011-12 season — for what they argue is irreparable harm by preventing them from playing in their “very short” NBA careers.

Boies, who represented the NFL during that sport’s work stoppage and now has been brought aboard by basketball’s players, said the NBA lockout violates antitrust laws by refusing to allow players to work.

He added that Stern’s ultimatum to the now-disbanded union to accept the owners’ last economic model or face a harsher proposal “turned out to be a mistake” that strengthens the players’ case because it proves that the collective bargaining process had ended.

“If you’re in a poker game, and you run a bluff, and the bluff works, you’re a hero. If someone calls your bluff, you lose. I think the owners

overplayed their hand,” Boies said at the players’ association headquarters. “They did a terrific job of taking a very hard line and pushing the players to make concession after concession after concession, but greed is not only a terrible thing — it’s a dangerous thing.”

Stern believed this was the preferred strategy of Jeffrey Kessler, another attorney for the players, all along.

“We haven’t seen Mr. Boies’ complaint yet, but it’s a shame that the players have chosen to litigate instead of negotiate,” NBA spokesman Tim Frank said in a statement. “They warned us from the early days of these negotiations that they would sue us if we didn’t satisfy them at the bargaining table, and they appear to have followed through on their threats.”

Boies acknowledged that the case could take months, but hoped there would be a settlement before too long. “Nobody can tell you how long it’s going to take. We all know it’s possible to delay lawsuits for a while, but I think it is in everybody’s interest to try to resolve this promptly,” said Boies, speaking on behalf of the California filing. “The longer it goes on, the greater the damages that the teams will face, the greater the damages that the players will suffer, and perhaps most important of all, the longer basketball fans will be deprived of basketball. So we hope that this will move quickly.”

He insisted the players have shown their willingness to negotiate throughout. “You can’t negotiate by yourself,” he said. “You can only negotiate if you’ve got somebody who’s willing to sit down and negotiate with you.”

The two suits — one filed in conjunction with the players’ association in the Northern District of California and another filed in Minnesota — likely were filed with See NBA PLAYERS, page 14

AP Photo/Claude Paris

Gold times four?: Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt arrives at the 2011 World Athletics Gala Awards in Monaco, Saturday.

LONDON (AP) — Former Olympic 400-meter champion Michael Johnson doubts Usain Bolt will be able to win four gold medals at the London Games.

Bolt, who won the Athlete of the Year award on Saturday, said he would like to add the 1,600-meter relay to his repertoire for next year’s Olympics. Bolt won the 100, 200 and 400 relay golds at the 2008 Beijing Games.

“You can’t train for the 400 as well. It would be an absolute distraction and the training wouldn’t work,” Johnson told BBC radio on Tuesday.

“I think he could be the world-record holder at 400 meters, but he’s said that he has no interest in training for it, which I can understand — it’s a difficult race to train for.”

Bolt has long been rumored to add the 400 — his share of the 1,600 relay — to his schedule but has said he has no interest in the longer race and prefers to stay with the short sprints. He has also said he could one day compete in the long jump.

The last track star to win four gold medals at the same Olympics was Carl Lewis, the American great who won the 100, 200, 400 relay and long jump at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

At this year’s world champi-

onships in Daegu, South Korea, Bolt won the 200 and helped Jamaica win the 400 relay, but he was disqualified because of a false start in the 100 final. Jamaican teammate Yohan Blake won in his absence.

“I see no reason why he shouldn’t be able to repeat as an Olympic gold medalist in the 100, 200 and the (400 relay), but the (1,600 relay) is going to be tough,” said Johnson, who won the 200 and 400 golds at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and the 400 in Sydney four years later.

“Without him, the Jamaican team certainly doesn’t have enough 400 runners to beat the United States. They could beat the U.S. possibly with him on the team if he was training for the 400, but he can’t just step onto the track and run a 44 or a 43-second split just off 100 and 200 training.”

In order to have a chance of making the team, Johnson said Bolt will need to run some competitive 400s before the Olympics, which open on July 27.

“I don’t see the Jamaican coaching staff putting him on the (1,600) relay unproven,” Johnson said.

“That means he’s got to go out there and run some 400s during the season, in order to prove that he should be on that relay.”

Thursday, November 17, 2011

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Spirit Awakening Foundation James Earl Jones presents 4th Annual ‘Voices accepts honorary of the Unheard: Epiphany’ Oscar from afar

BY DARLENE DONLOE WATTS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The Spirit Awakening Foundation will present its 4th Annual “Voices of the Unheard: Epiphany” benefit performance at 3 p.m., Sat., Dec. 3, at The Lost Studio Theatre, 130 S. La Brea Ave., 2nd floor, in Los Angeles.

The show will highlight inspiring works written by 30 young people who either currently live or previously lived in probation camps within the juvenile justice system.

The Spirit Awakening Foundation, founded by actress/author and activist Akuyoe Graham, is a nonprofit organization designed to work with young people, inspiring them to find their voices and awaken their spirits.

The mission of the organization is to assist teens and youth in the fulfillment of their spiritual identity and to generate and produce inspirational stories of transformation for the screen, stage and television.

The program is the brainchild of Graham, who also went through challenging times as a teen trying to find her own voice. To work through her issues, she wrote the highly acclaimed one-woman play, “Spirit Awakening.” “That was the vehicle I used to come back to center, come back to myself,” says Graham.

Founder Akuyoe Graham “During my teenage years, my challenge was more internalized about liking myself.”

After performing “Spirit Awakening” at various venues, Graham, who is working to bring her one-woman show to the big screen, said young people began to take notice.

“Children and teens responded to the piece,” says Graham, a tribal princess in her native Ghana. “They

CAIN Continued from page 3 care overhaul as House speaker.

After the debate, Cain said he “probably should not have made” that comment.

Not long after that, Cain found himself defending a joke he made about Hill, who famously accused then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment.

Cain said he was approached at a recent event by a supporter who said Hill was trying to contact him.

“And my response was ‘Is she going to endorse me?’“ Cain said Friday on WGDJ-AM Albany, N.Y. “He said it in a humorous way. I gave back a humorous response. It was in no way intended to be an insult toward Anita Hill or anybody else.”

In a lighthearted interview with GQ magazine, Cain couldn’t resist when asked what ice cream flavor would best describe Bachmann, the Minnesota congresswoman running against him.

“Tutti-frutti,” he said, adding, “I

know I’m going to get in trouble!”

With voting near, Cain has little choice but to try to fix the problem with female voters.

Enter Gloria Cain.

“To hear such graphic allegations and know that that would have been something that was totally disrespectful of her as a woman and I know that’s not the person he is,” Gloria Cain told host Greta Van Susteren.

“I’m thinking he would have to have a split personality to do the things that were said.”

Her response was expected.

“Every woman who finds out her husband is a harasser has a hard time believing it,” said Karen O’Connor, founder of the nonpartisan Women & Politics Institute at American University. “This is another ‘stand by your man.’ ” Now other Republican women will have to decide whether to stand by him too.

Associated Press writer Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.

would ask if they could write their stories. I wanted to use the power of story, the power of reflecting on themselves. I wanted them to have a more powerful and authentic self.

I was just like them. It was about my own self-discovery and query into who I was. I wanted to find my place in the world and be comfortable in my own skin. I didn’t want to apologize for who I was.

Working through it led to a great spiritual understanding.

I’m committed to having the voices of these students heard.”

Proceeds from the fundraiser will go towards satellite writing programs in Culver City, East L.A., South Central L.A. and Lancaster, beginning January 2012.

“Formerly detained youth or foster youth in the juvenile and justice system will have a place to go for mentoring, self-growth and self-awareness, writing courses, job referrals, peer mentorships,” says Graham, who will soon be seen in the upcoming independent films “Switchboard,” “Faith and Dreams” and “Guardian of Eden.”

The evening’s special guests include Rev. Michael Beckwith, founder and spiritual director of Agape International Spiritual Center; Frances Fisher (“Titanic”); Stephani Victor (actress/athlete); and Debra Wilson (“Mad TV”).

“I will be forever committed to Akuyoe Graham, the young men and women who struggle in the journey towards a newer self and the Spirit Awakening Foundation,” said Wilson. “I am humbly grateful to once again host “Voices of the Unheard” so that these sacred voices and messages may be heard in 2011 and beyond.”

“I am deeply moved by the writers in the Spirit Awakening program and their willingness to explore, heal and express in their own unique way,” said Victor. “It affirms my belief that with love and the guidance of a committed and loving teacher like Akuyoe, extraordinary transformations can unfold and in this case lives are changed forever.”

Tickets are $25 for children, teens, students and seniors with ID; $50 for general seating; and $100, which includes a pre-event reception with the artists at 2 p.m.

For tickets, go to www.brownpapertickets.com or call 800-8383006, ext.1. For further information, go to www.Spiritawakening.org or call 310-570-8190.

To interview Akuyoe Graham, contact Darlene Donloe at 248-6318161.

Another accolade: Celebrated actor James Earl Jones, who is starring with Vanessa Redgrave in the London stage production of “Driving Miss Daisy,” received an honorary Oscar on Saturday at the Governors Awards.

AP Photo Stephen Chernin, File

BY SANDY COHEN AP ENTERTAINMENT WRITER LOS ANGELES (AP) — James Earl Jones received an honorary Oscar for his nearly five decades in film — but the 80-yearold thespian says he shouldn’t even be an actor.

“One, because I’m a stutterer,” the deep-voiced star said by phone from London, where he is starring with Vanessa Redgrave in the stage production of “Driving Miss Daisy.”

“And two,” he continued, “my introduction to motion pictures was sitting on a bench in Mississippi watching a movie on a makeshift screen, a sheet stretched between two stores, and when a fistfight broke out on screen on that sheet, I freaked out. I couldn’t handle the violence, so I hid under the bench and begged people to make them stop, and they didn’t.

They just watched.

“I guess I said if I can’t stop them, I better join them.”

Join them he did, making his big-screen debut in Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 classic, “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.”

Jones was nominated for the best actor Oscar for 1970s for “The Great White Hope,” the same role that had won him a Tony two years prior. He has appeared in scores of movies, plays and TV shows, and gave voice to two of film’s most memorable fathers: Mufasa in “The Lion King” and Darth Vader in the “Star Wars” trilogy.

“When Darth Vader first spoke on film, I denied it was me,” Jones said. “I had good reason: I thought it was special effects.”

Asked to compare stage, screen and voice acting, Jones said, “I love it all. I even love commercials.”

When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences called in August to say they were honoring him with an Oscar at the third annual Governors Awards, Jones thought it was a joke.

“The caller convinced my son, who screens everything, convinced him that it wasn’t a prank,” he said. “Once we accepted it as not a prank, we started laughing and haven’t stopped laughing since.”

The actor said he is deeply grateful for the honor and his long tenure as an entertainer. “I have been very content with my career and very happy, even though I am not primarily a film actor, and that makes it even more astonishing that I would get this award,” he said.

He said he still has more to do on screen: “I’ve done some beauties, but I don’t think I’ve done that movie that can say I’ll leave as my legacy. I’m still waiting for that one.”

And what kind of character might that be?

“An older guy, of course,” he said with a laugh. “That’s the main requirement.”

Jones was lauded at Saturday’s Governors Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, along with makeup artist Dick Smith and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey, who received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

The actor wasn’t at the ceremony, though, opting to avoid the long flight to continue “Daisy’s” run uninterrupted. But he celebrated across the pond and participated via video.

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Thursday, November 17, 2011

Entertainers Lenny Williams, Michael Jackson’s bed removed from planned auction Charles Wright and José José to bring message of good health to seniors WATTS TIMES WIRE SERVICE

Added Diaz: “HealthCare Partners continues to demonstrate its commitTorrance, CA. — Seniors age ment to providing high quality care to 65 and older are invited to join Medicare beneficiaries throughout the HealthCare Partners for a free day entire Los Angeles and Orange County of wellness and entertainment at areas, including Carson, Santa Ana and the HealthCare Partners “Musical Los Angeles.”

Celebration for Seniors” in Los On Sept. 25, a similar event was Angeles. held in Carson. More than 4,000 persons This special event will feaattended and hundreds were screened. ture singer Lenny Williams, wellResults of the screenings identified many known for the influential ballad, seniors at high risk, who may require a “Cause I Love You” and as the health care intervention: lead vocalist of the ’70s funk/soul • 37.8% had high-cholesterol levels group Tower of Power. He will be • 30.5% had low HCL and high joined by the legendary Charles triglyceride values Wright of the Watts 103rd Street • 7.3% were at high risk for a cardiac Rhythm Band, and La Sonora ailment within the next 10 years Santanera, a band whose first hit • 17.8% showed high blood glucose songs include “La Boa” and “Los (sugar) and were at risk for diabetes Aretes de la Luna.”

• 1.5% showed moderate to severe All performers will sign autoblockage of the carotid artery and were at graphs for seniors and take pic- Former Tower of Power lead singer, Lenny risk for stroke tures. The Celebration also Williams.

• 2.9% were at high risk for bone includes performances by José fracture and the onset of osteoporosis José, “El Príncipe de la Canción” (The Prince of Song), the New • More than 400 attendees were vaccinated against the flu Orleans Jazz Band, El Charro Negro and Mariachi Latino.

“We wish to thank our host, Carson’s Mayor Jim Dear, a “The event is a chance to enjoy a day of great entertainment HealthCare Partners patient himself, who attended the event and while learning about changes to Medicare and Medi-Cal, and get- welcomed guests,” said Diaz. ting a flu shot and health screenings for cholesterol, diabetes, The event will be held at the HealthCare Partners Medical stroke and more,” explained Arturo Diaz, director of marketing Office at 1025 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles, CA. 90015, from for HealthCare Partners Medical Group. “HealthCare Partners 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. will be offering seniors music and important help with their health Free tickets for seniors and a guest are required. Please call and wellness at no charge.”

888-988-8072 to reserve a ticket.

AP Photo/Dan Steinberg

This is the bedroom at the Beverly Hills home where singer Michael Jackson passed away in 2009. Julien’s Auctions will sell various antique furnishings and paintings that surrounded the King of Pop at the home he rented; however, at the request of Michael Jackson’s estate, this bed has been removed from the list of items to be auctioned off.

BY SANDY COHEN - AP ENTERTAINMENT WRITER LOS ANGELES (AP) — The bed where Michael Jackson died is no longer for sale.

Julien’s Auctions has removed the queen-sized headboard from its auction of items from 100 N. Carolwood Drive, Jackson’s last residence.

Company president Darren Julien said Tuesday the mattress was never for sale, but he removed the carved headboard seen in evidence photos during the trial of Jackson’s physician from the sale at the request of Jackson’s estate.

The auction of art, furnishings and other items from the home where Jackson lived with his three children is set for Dec. 17.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

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Still Elegant at 80: Kenny Burrell

BY LAWT CONTRIBUTING WRITER Someone once said, jokingly, “All the great musicians come from Detroit!”

First to come to mind may, of course, be various and sundry R&B acts, led by “Queen of Soul” Aretha Franklin, closely followed by song stylist Anita Baker. And then there are gospel greats The Winans and The Clark Sisters.

But lest we forget, there are others who must be included on any list of jazz great Detroiters, including Alice Coltrane, Milt Jackson — and Kenny Burrell, who turned 80 earlier this year but is still celebrating that amazing milestone.

Prior to an all-star birthday concert Saturday in his honor at UCLA’s Royce Hall featuring B.B. King, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Lalo Schifrin and the Los Angeles Jazz Orchestra

Unlimited, Burrell took out some time to don his professorial hat at a noontime Q&A Thursday with an intimate group of fellow instructors, students and the media, where he talked “a bit” about his six-decade career. After all, he did have a class to teach immediately afterward.

The Q&A session took place — where else? — in the Kenny Burrell Archive of African American Music, which is part of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies in Haines Hall. Burrell was introduced by the Center’s director, Dr. Darnell Hunt.

Burrell revealed that he’d started his music career in the music-rich environs of Detroit. His dad, a mechanic, played the ukulele.

Initially, he played the piano but, inspired by his older brother Billy, he migrated to the guitar, learning first

Ledisi turns out Club Nokia

BY JOY CHILDS, LAWT CONTRIBUTING WRITER It’s a Thursday night, and you and your girls want to get decked out and go here her “sang!” You put on your black spandex tights, a loose-fitting top and some five-inch heels. Then you and the girls head for Club Nokia to see Ledisi.

It’s all good … ’cause your girl steps out in her black hot pants outfit and her black three-inch heels and opens up blasting her way through her 2009 smash, “I Tried.” You and everybody else are up on their feet to greet the funky diva.

Ledisi’s come a long way since the first time this writer saw her perform at the 2008 Monterey Jazz Festival at a point that she wasn’t much known outside of the Bay Area and was doing a little more jazz-oriented music than now.

But, as the saying goes, that was then.

And this is now.

And now, everyone seems to know who she is and how to correctly pronounce her name Certainly the mostly women and few men who have come out to celebrate her AP Photo/Cliff Owen on the first leg of a U.S. tour know and A bona fide diva: Singer Ledisi adore the New Orleans native. If you’ve not seen her, she’s a high-wattage entertainer who’s fearless on stage. This night, she’s accompanied by two hefty backup singers — Denetra Moore from Atlanta and Sara Williams from Oakland. Each of these women themselves can blow — and get low — though not as energetically as Miss Ledisi, who easily moves from ballad to funk and back again.

It’s somewhat of a sad occasion, as Ledisi announces that recently deceased Heavy D was supposed to appear with her this night.

He’s surely missed. But Ledisi forges on: with an imitation of her idol, Chaka Khan, whom she honors by air-guitar-playing, and even of Michael Jackson, whose dancing she nails in a crowd-pleasing performance.

On 2011’s “Simple,” she flirts with the audience and raises the song’s three central questions: Do you love me? Do you hear me? and Can’t you just accept me the way I am? These questions — in fact, most of the lyrics of her songs strike a deep chord in many of the women in the crowd, who mouth the words with her and do their best hip-hop moves.

And this young lady knows she’s got it going on (physically), as her beautiful dark skin, stunning profile, gorgeous gams and sexily/funkily suggestive moves evoke a whole lotta ‘woof woofs’ from the fellas in the house.

And she flaunts it too, changing no fewer than five times through the 90+minute set, from one hot pant suit to another. Each time, it seems, her heels get higher and higher, as she seemingly dons four-inch, then five-inch versions!

She loves to dance. And she dances really hard and really well in her heels, especially on “Hate Me,” which ponders, “One call … two calls … three calls … is that what I do to you?”

And on “Knockin’ ”, which has a decidedly rocked-out vibe, inspired by her White back-up guitarist, she feels compelled to explain to the largely Black female crowd that she’s a rock fan before she jams hard on the guitarist’s solo.

And besides, she offers, the song was nominated for a Grammy.

She maintains that high energy throughout the entire set so that by the time it’s over, you, not she, are worn out — but delighted.

from his brother, eventually glomming on to the albums of the day — especially those of Lester Young on tenor sax.

Since he couldn’t afford to buy a sax, he bought his first guitar for $10 at a nearby pawn shop. Thereafter, he focused on the guitar stylings of Charlie Christian and those of Django Reinhardt.

Active since 1956, the guitar legend is nowadays thoroughly enjoying the satisfying life of teacher, mentor for aspiring students as well as founder of the Jazz Heritage Foundation and the Friends of Jazz of UCLA. Among current passions are his and others’ quest to promote his new Los Angeles Jazz Orchestra Unlimited. It’s a huge student band that the guitarist hopes will some day rival that of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, currently headed by trumpeter Wynton Marsalis.

If anyone can achieve that goal, it’d be Professor Burrell.

Asked to identify his favorite guitarists, Burrell apparently doesn’t discriminate when it comes to who’s out there he likes: He likes everyone — from George Benson to Russell Malone.

And everyone loves him.

After all, Burrell is a professor in the departments of music and ethnomusicology at UCLA so he had a little

Photo/Earl Gibson III

Solid as a rock: Jazz legend Kenny Burrell is celebrating the big 8-0 this year. over an hour to share a few of the salient points that define his stellar

musical career before he had to hurry off to teach his next class

14

Thursday, November 17, 2011

GOVERNMENT

PSOMAS REQUEST FOR NOTICE OF INTEREST

LOS ANGELES COUNTY METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY (METRO)

Psomas is responding as a Prime Consultant to the following County of Los Angeles solicitation:

INVITATION FOR BIDS

Request for Proposal—As-Needed Engineering Design and Support Services for the Road/Flood Control Construction Programs for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works (LADPW)

Metro will receive bids for IFB NO.C0985R Lankershim Depot Rehabilitation Phase One for selective demolition, structural stabilization, and abatement of paint, asbestos, and soil per specifications on file at the Office of Procurement & Material Mgmt, One Gateway Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90012 (9th Floor).

All Bids must be submitted on forms furnished by Metro, and must be filed at the reception desk of the Office of Material on or before December 14, 2011 at 2:00 p.m.Pacific Time, at which time bids will be opened and publicly read. Bids received later than the above date and time will be rejected and returned to the bidder unopened. Each bid must be sealed and marked Bid No. C0985R. A Pre-Bid conference will be held on November 29, 2011 at 9: 30 a.m. in Huntington Conference Room located on the 3rd floor at the address above.

You may obtain bid specifications, or further information, by emailing Zack Munoz at munozz@metro.net 11/17/11 CNS-2207398# WATTS TIMES

NBA PLAYERS Continued from page 10 favorable venues in mind.

The Minnesota district court has been favorable to the NFLPA during litigation dating to the 1980s. The federal court in San Francisco is under the jurisdiction of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, considered the most liberal of the 13 circuit courts.

The NBA already has filed a preemptive lawsuit in New York seeking to prove the lockout is legal and likely would push for cases to be moved there to gain the legal home court.

Though Stern has ridiculed the players’ “losing” strategy, Boies said he believes NBA players have a stronger case than NFL players did.

Their decertification, he said, could have been argued as a sham because they walked out on the bargaining process before it was technically over and brought litigation. He said Stern’s actions left NBA players without options beyond seeking legal relief.

“Here you had an ultimatum from the owners that made absolutely clear that the collective bargaining process was over,” he said, adding that Stern’s threat is quoted in the lawsuit. “That’s not collective bargaining, and so you have a very distinct set of facts here.”

The California filing says that in 2007, Stern met with union negotiators and demanded the players reduce their revenue share from 57 percent to no more than 50 percent and “insisted on a much more restrictive salary cap, which would restrict the market for player services.”

Stern threatened at that meeting,

Black Facts.com November 20, 1865 Howard University is founded.

November 21, 1984 TransAfrica’s Randall Robinson, congressional delegate Walter Fauntroy, and U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner Mary Francis Berry are arrested at a sit-in against apartheid at the South African Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Psomas is seeking qualifications from CBEs and other professional subconsultants for the following work: • Pavement Engineering • Drainage/Hydrology • Traffic Planning • Traffic Engineering • Environmental • Geotechnical • Potholing • Landscape • Projects Controls, with Primavera P3e Expertise • Public Relations • Structural Engineering This proposal is in alignment with the Los Angeles County Community Business Enterprise (CBE) Program. Certified CBEs—Disabled Veterans, Disadvantaged Business Enterprises, and Minority- and Women-Owned Businesses (DVBE, DBE, MBE, WBE)—are encouraged to respond.

Psomas can provide assistance to firms in obtaining required bonds, lines of credit, or insurance. No plans are currently available but the RFP can be provided, if needed.

Psomas intends to conduct itself in good faith in regards to all firms. Interested firms should email a two-page firm overview with LADPW experience and CBE documentation by November 23, 2011 to Outreach_LA@psomas.com.

according to the lawsuit, that the league was “prepared to lock out the players for two years to get everything” that the NBA owners sought and that “the deal would only get worse after the lockout.”

The league locked out its players on July 1. Tuesday marked the 138th day of the lockout and the players’ first missed paycheck. The season was scheduled to start Nov. 1, but already games through Dec. 15 have been canceled — a total of 324 or 26 percent of the season.

The league’s latest proposal, which was rejected by the players on Monday, called for a reduced 72game season to start Dec. 15.

Although the NFL was able to get its recent labor dispute resolved quickly enough to lose only one preseason game, the NHL lost the entire 2004-05 season, and the NBA’s last work stoppage led to a 50-game season in 1998-99.

Boies said players will not seek a preliminary injunction to lift the lockout. Because the lockout “arguably grew out of prior collective bargaining discussions,” Boies said he believes it would be very difficult to get a court to immediately halt the lockout and such a path would delay the case.

Anthony and Chauncey Billups of the Knicks, NBA scoring leader Durant, rookie Kawhi Leonard and Grizzlies forward Leon Powe were listed as plaintiffs in the complaint filed in conjunction with the players’ association in the Northern District of California against the NBA and the owners of its 30 teams.

That case has been assigned for now to U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu in Oakland, Calif.

Timberwolves forward Anthony Tolliver, Pistons guard Ben Gordon, free agent forward Caron Butler and Derrick Williams — the second overall draft pick by Minnesota in June who has yet to sign a rookie contract because of the lockout — were listed as plaintiffs in another lawsuit filed against the league and

owners in Minneapolis, where NFL players had some level of success in a similar court proceeding this summer.

Boies said there might be other, similar cases to those filed on behalf of NBA players in California and Minnesota. The ideal scenario, he said, would be to bring them all together in the Northern District of California.

The plaintiffs represent various types of players affected by the lockout — those under contract, free agents and rookies.

They argue in the Minnesota filing that the lockout “constitutes an illegal group boycott, price-fixing agreement, and/or restraint of trade in violation of the Sherman Act” and that the owners’ final offer for a new CBA would have “wiped out the competitive market for most NBA players.”

Boies said the lawsuit was an attempt to restore competitive freemarket conditions Players were willing to consent to the owners’ demands of a 50-50 split of basketball-related income — a transfer of about $280 million annually from their guaranteed 57 percent under the old deal — but only if the owners met them on their system wishes.

And Boies said it was those owners who put the league in this position.

“If it were up to the players, there would be games being played right now,” he said. “There is one reason and one reason only that the season is in jeopardy and that is because the owners have locked the players out and have maintained that lockout for several months.

“If there’s not a basketball season, responsibility for that lies in one place and one place only, and that is the NBA and the NBA owners because they’re the ones who are keeping the players from playing.”

AP Sports Writer Jon Krawczynski in Minneapolis contributed to this report.

JACKSON DOCTOR Continued from page 7 In one exchange, Murray suggested that had he known that Jackson had a problem with addiction to medications he might have acted differently.

Experts testified that he should have researched Jackson’s medical history before he undertook his treatment for insomnia.

On the day Jackson died, June 25, 2009, Murray said he believed he had weaned the singer off of propofol, the drug Jackson called his “milk.”

But when Jackson could not sleep, Murray told “Today,” he gave the entertainer a very small dose of propofol.

In retrospect, he said he probably should have walked away when Jackson asked for propofol. But he said he would have been abandoning a friend.

Meanwhile, the disclosure that MSNBC will air a documentary about Murray brought outrage Wednesday from the executors of Jackson’s estate, who said Murray is getting a primetime platform to smear Jackson’s reputation without fear of cross-examination.

The executors, John Branca and John McClain, demanded the program entitled “Michael Jackson and the Doctor: A Fatal Friendship” be cancelled. The network said it had no comment.

Murray, 58, was hired by Jackson at a promised salary of $150,000 a month to accompany the singer on his “This Is It” concert tour to London.

A jury that heard six weeks of testimony convicted Murray of involuntary manslaughter on Monday. He is now being held in Los Angeles County Jail awaiting sentencing Nov. 29 and could face up to four years in prison.

Defense attorney Ed Chernoff said in an interview aired on KCAL-TV Wednesday that he wasn’t surprised

by the verdict. “I can’t say I was surprised,” Chernoff said. “Look, it was a tough case.”

Chernoff said earlier this week that the verdict was disappointing and would be appealed.

In a separate interview broadcast Wednesday, one of the jurors said there were contentious moments, including yelling and cajoling, during the two days of deliberations.

Debbie Franklin, 48, told ABCTV’s “Good Morning America” in the first juror interview so far that most of the jurors had decided on guilt Friday, the first day of deliberations.

But, she said “not everyone was convinced that Dr. Murray was solely responsible for Michael Jackson’s death.”

“Toward the end of the day, we finally took a vote,” Franklin said. “It was not unanimous and we talked a little more about it.”

The panel decided to think it over during a weekend break.

“It was stressful,” said the mother of two, who is a paralegal. She said there was “yelling and we had to keep saying, ‘Nobody talk while this person is talking. Raise your hand if you have something to say.’ ” The majority managed on Monday to convince all jurors that Murray was negligent and his mistakes led to Jackson death, Franklin said.

“He had addictions. He asked other doctors to do it (give him the operating room anesthetic propofol).

They said no. He was looking for somebody to say yes. And Conrad Murray said yes,” she said.

An Associated Press reporter approached Franklin for an interview Wednesday but she refused. She said all jurors had agreed not to speak to the media, but she did not explain why they made that agreement or why she spoke to ABC.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Los Angeles County Community and Senior Services Request for Proposals Release Date: November 30, 2011 RFP No.: AAA-ENP-1216 Elderly Nutrition Program (ENP): Provides Congregate and Home-Delivered Meal/Telephone Reassurance Services that are intended to maintain or improve the physical and social well-being of older adults.

Proposer’s Conference: December 13, 2011 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM 3175 West 6th Street, Room 105 Los Angeles, CA 90020-1708 Proposals Due: 4:00 PM Pacific Standard Time - January 17, 2012 For details, go to the County’s Website: css.lacounty.gov “Doing Business with CSS” Internet Available at County Libraries Contact: Carol Domingo, Program Manager 213-639-6339

SUPREME COURT Continued from page 4 Privately, there’s a Plan B: If the court strikes down the law’s unpopular linchpin — the so-called individual mandate requiring most Americans to carry health insurance — the administration would take whatever’s left and try to put that in place.

That includes a major expansion of Medicaid for low income people, a host of new rules for insurance companies, and cuts for hospitals, drug companies and other providers serving Medicare recipients.

So far, the law’s record is mixed. A provision allowing young adults to remain on their parents’ policy until age 26 has been a big success. But the administration had to pull the plug on a long-term care insurance plan that turned out to be financially unsustainable. New programs to help small businesses and people with health problems get coverage have attracted much less enrollment than hoped for.

Seniors with high drugs costs are saving money, but some continue to struggle.

The law’s major changes — expanding coverage to more than 30 million uninsured people — are still two years away. The Supreme Court decided to take the case now, after lower courts split and the administration, as well as its opponents, asked for a decisive ruling to clarify the law of the land.

Of four federal appeals courts that have ruled, two upheld the law, one struck down only the insurance mandate, and one punted, saying it is premature to decide the merits until the main coverage provisions take effect in 2014.

Appeals courts in the District of Columbia and Cincinnati that upheld the law found that requiring Americans to carry health insurance — even if intrusive — is within the power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce.

Starting with 2014 tax returns, the law imposes a penalty on those who do not have coverage through an employer or a government program, or through individual purchase. In passing that requirement, a Democratic-led Congress found that the health care system is a major part of the national economy and that insurance can’t work if people can postpone getting coverage until they become sick.

A federal appeals court in Atlanta saw things differently.

Ruling against the administration in a

15

NOTICE INVITING BIDS NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the City of Long Beach, California, acting by and through the City’s Board of Harbor Commissioners (“City”) will receive, before the Bid Deadline established below, sealed Bids for the following Work: TRENCH DRAIN GRATE IMPROVEMENT AT PIER T LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA AS DESCRIBED IN SPECIFICATION NO. HD-S2424A Bid Deadline:

Prior to 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, December 20, 2011.

Bid packages will be time/date stamped on the 4th floor or in the Lobby and shall be submitted prior to 10 a.m.

Place for Submission of Bids: 1. By Delivery Any Calendar Day Before the Bid Deadline Harbor Department Administration Building 4th Floor, Plans and Specifications/Program Management Office 925 Harbor Plaza Long Beach, CA 90802 2. By Delivery on the Same Calendar Day as the Bid Deadline Harbor Department Administration Building Lobby 925 Harbor Plaza Long Beach, CA 90802 Bid Opening: As soon as practical after the Bid Deadline Harbor Department Administration Building 6th Floor Board Room 925 Harbor Plaza Long Beach, CA 90802 Contract Documents Available: Date/Time: Beginning Thursday, November 17, 2011 Monday –Friday 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Location: Harbor Department Administration Building 4th Floor, Plans and Specifications 925 Harbor Plaza Long Beach, CA 90802 Pre-Bid Meeting: Date/Time: Tuesday, November 22, 2011, 11:00 a.m.

Location: 6th Floor Board Room, Harbor Department Administration Building, 925 Harbor Plaza, Long Beach, CA. Job walk immediately following.

Project Contact Person: Erwin Liang-Project Engineer 562-283-7874 phone 562-901-1729 fax liang@polb.com or John Chun-Deputy Chief Harbor Engineer 562-283-7854 phone 562-901-1729 fax chun@polb.com NIB -1 Contract Documents. Copies of Contract Documents in CD format may be obtained, at no cost, at the Plans and Specifications Office, 4th floor, Harbor Department Administration Building, 925 Harbor Plaza, Long Beach, CA 90802 during the hours of 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday beginning Thursday, November 17, 2011.

To arrange to receive a CD of the Contract Documents by courier at the expense of the Bidder, call (562) 590-4146.

For information on this Project and other upcoming Port projects, you may view the Port website at http://www.polb.com/economics/contractors/out_for_bid.asp.

Copies of all Port insurance endorsement forms, SBE/VSBE Program forms, Harbor Development Permit Applications and other Port forms are available at http://www.polb.com/economics/contractors/forms_permits/default.asp.

NIB -2 Pre-Bid Meeting. The engineering staff of the City’s Harbor Department will conduct a pre-bid meeting at 11:00 a.m., on Tuesday, November 22, 2011, in the 6th Floor Board Room, of the Harbor Department Administration Building. Note that attendance at the pre-bid meeting can be used to satisfy a portion of a Bidder’s good faith efforts to meet the SBE/VSBE participation goals listed below.

NOTE: PRE-BID MEETING ATTENDANCE IS OPTIONAL, BUT HIGHLY RECOMMENDED NIB -3 Summary Description of the Work. The Work required by this Contract includes, but is not limited to, the following: 1. Remove and dispose of existing steel plate and other demolished materials.

2. Furnish and install steel angles, trench drain grates, bolts, and other miscellaneous materials.

3. Remove and reinstall steel trench drain grates.

4. Repair concrete spall.

NIB -4 Contract Time and Liquidated Damages. The Work shall be completed within one hundred and eighty (180) calendar days as provided in Paragraph SC - 6.1 of

lawsuit by 26 states, that court found that Congress overstepped its constitutional authority by imposing the insurance mandate. The unprecedented requirement to carry health insurance would force average citizens to buy an expensive product from a private company from cradle to grave, the majority said.

The immediate impact of a Supreme Court decision in 2012 is likely to be political.

Upholding the law will be seen as vindication for Obama’s approach to gov-

erning, said Robert Blendon, a Harvard public health professor who follows opinion trends on health care. “This is not only an issue of whether or not the bill is constitutional, or what is the best public policy,” said Blendon, “it’s an issue about the judgment of the president.”

At the other end of the spectrum, the Supreme Court could strike down the entire law, validation for Republicans who from the start called it government overreach.

But no appeals court has gone that far.

the Special Conditions, from a date specified in a written “Notice to Proceed” issued by the City and subject to adjustment as provided in Section 3.1 of the General Conditions.

FAILURE OF THE CONTRACTOR TO COMPLETE THE WORK WITHIN THE CONTRACT TIME AND OTHER MILESTONES WILL RESULT IN ASSESSMENT OF LIQUIDATED DAMAGES IN THE AMOUNTS ESTABLISHED IN THE SPECIAL CONDITIONS. NIB -5 Contractor’s License. Each Bidder shall hold a current and valid Class “A” California Contractor’s License to bid this Project.

NIB -6 Contractor Performed Work. The Contractor shall perform, with its own employees, Contract Work amounting to at least 50% of the Contract Price, except that any designated “Specialty Items” may be performed by subcontract and the amount of any such “Specialty Items” so performed may be deducted from the Contract Price before computing the amount required to be performed by the Contractor with its own employees. “Specialty Items” will be identified by the City in the Schedule of Bid Items.

NIB -7 SBE/VSBE. This Project is subject to the Port of Long Beach (POLB) Small Business Enterprises (SBE)/Very Small Business Enterprise (VSBE) Program. The combined SBE/VSBE participation goal for this project is twelve percent (12%), of which a minimum of zero percent (0 %) must be allocated to VSBE’s. POLB expects all Bidders to achieve the combined SBE/VSBE participation goal. Award of the Contract will be conditioned on the Bidder submitting an SBE-2C Commitment Plan demonstrating the bidder’s intent to meet the combined SBE/VSBE participation goal. If the Bidder’s Commitment Plan does not demonstrate intent to meet the combined goal, the Bidder shall demonstrate that it made an adequate good faith effort to do so, as specified in the Instructions to Bidders (ITB 18). The Port’s SBE Program staff is available to provide information on the program requirements, including SBE certification assistance.

Please contact the SBE Office at (562) 499-3472 or sbeprogram@polb.com. You may also view the Port’s SBE Program requirements at www.polb.com/sbe.

NIB -8 Prevailing Wage Rates and Employment of Apprentices. This Project is a public work as defined in Labor Code section 1720. The Contractor receiving award of the Contract and Subcontractors of any tier shall pay not less than the prevailing wage rates to all workers employed in execution of the Contract. The Director of Industrial Relations of the State of California has determined the general prevailing rates of wages in the locality in which the Work is to be performed. The rate schedules are available on the internet at http://www.dir.ca.gov/DIR/S&R/statistics_research.html. Bidders are directed to Article 15 of the General Conditions for requirements concerning payment of prevailing wages, payroll records, hours of work and employment of apprentices.

NIB -9 Trade Names and Substitution of Equals. With the exception of any sole source determination that may be identified in this paragraph, Bidders wishing to obtain City’s authorization for substitution of equivalent material, product, or equipment, are required to submit a written request for an Or Equal Substitution using the form included in Appendix A together with data substantiating Bidder’s representation that the nonspecified item is of equal quality to the item specified, thirty five (35) calendar days after Bid Opening. Authorization of a substitution is solely within the discretion of the City.

NIB -10 NOT USED. NIB -11 Bid Security, Signed Contract, Insurance and Bonds. Each Bid shall be accompanied by a satisfactory Bidder’s Bond or other acceptable Bid Security in an amount not less than ten percent (10%) of the Base Bid as a guarantee that the Bidder will, if Conditionally Awarded a Contract by the Board, within thirty (30) calendar days after the Contract is conditionally awarded to the Contractor by the City, execute and deliver such Contract to the Chief Harbor Engineer together with all required documents including insurance forms, a Payment Bond for one hundred percent (100%) of the Contract Price, and a Performance Bond for one hundred percent (100%) of the Contract Price. All Bonds shall be on forms provided by the City.

NIB -12 Conditional Award of Contract and Reservation of Rights. The Board, acting through the Executive Director, reserves the right at any time before the execution of the Contract by the City, to reject any or all Bids, and to waive any informality or irregularity. The Conditional Award of the Contract, if any, will be to the responsible Bidder submitting the lowest responsive and responsible Bid. If the lowest responsive responsible Bidder fails to submit the required documents including insurance forms, bonds and signed Contract within thirty (30) calendar days after Conditional Award of Contract, the Board reserves the right to rescind the Conditional Award and Conditionally Award the Contract to the next lowest responsive and responsible Bidder.

NIB -13 Period of Bid Irrevocability. Bids shall remain open and valid and Bidder’s Bonds shall be guaranteed for ninety (90) calendar days after the Bid Deadline or until the Executive Director executes a Contract, whichever occurs first.

NIB -14 Substitution of Securities. Substitution of Securities for retainage is permitted in accordance with Section 22300 of the Public Contract Code.

Issued at Long Beach, California, this 2nd day of May, 2011.

Richard D. Steinke Executive Director of the Harbor Department, City of Long Beach, California

A mixed verdict would create its own problems. The court could strike down only the insurance mandate, leaving the rest of the law in place. That includes a Medicaid expansion expected to help about 16 million uninsured people, and a prohibition on insurers turning away people with pre-existing health problems or charging them more.

The demise of the mandate to carry coverage would create a real crisis for the insurance industry. Insurers may be

forced to accept patients who apply after getting sick, but at the same time deprived of a larger pool of insured people over which to spread their costs.

Administration lawyers maintain that if the mandate is struck down, the requirement that insurers accept people in poor health should also be invalidated. But the justices don’t have to follow that advice.

Sooner or later, the whole muddle could wind up back in Congress.

16

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Trailblazing lawmaker, strong education advocate, Teresa Hughes passes

BY SENTINEL CONTRIBUTING WRITER JOY CHILDS Former Democratic assemblywoman and state senator, the Honorable Teresa Hughes, has passed.

Hughes’ husband, Dr. Frank E. Staggers, announced that she died suddenly at a hospital Sunday.

She was 80.

Hughes will long be remembered for her strong advocacy for educational opportunities for all Californians — and for being the consummate legislator, having served both in the Assembly and the Senate for 25 years. Hughes represented the people of the 47th Assembly District from 1975 – 1992 (South Los Angeles, Bell, Compton, Cudahy, Huntington Park, Downey and Compton). She was reelected for eight terms.

Then in 1993, she was elected to the state senate, representing the 25th Senate District, which included Marina Del Rey to the city of Paramount.

There she served two terms until a new term-limit law required her to step down in 2000.

According to her colleagues, Hughes was a quiet warrior, with a warm spirit usually in short supply in the legislative halls. Teresa Hughes was a tireless fighter in Sacramento, advocating for better health care and housing.

She was the second Black woman to serve in the legislature; the first was Yvonne Burke.

Hughes’ pre-politics years Raised in Harlem, she attended Hunter College in New York, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in physiology and public health. From New York University, she received a master’s degree in education administration. She moved to Los Angeles in the late 1960s to work on her doctorate in education administration from the Claremont Graduate School, after which she became an assistant professor of education at the California State University at Los Angeles.

Prior to being elected to the state Assembly,

Hughes was a legislative consultant for the State Commission for Teacher Preparation and Licensing.

She also served as an administrative assistant to then state-Senator Mervyn M. Dymally (who now serves as director of the Urban Health Institute at the Charles Drew University of Medicine).

Upon learning of her death, Dymally shared that he first met Hughes during the 1965 Watts riots when she was a delegate for her sorority’s convention at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

Recalls Dymally: “She had three wishes: 1. move to California from New York; 2. earn her Ph.D.; and 3. run for public office … She accomplished all three.”

He says Hughes started her civic career as youth director of the Urban Affairs Institute, and she taught at California State University at Los Angeles. (She was an assistant professor of education there.)

“Influenced by her husband, [who was the] former president of the California Medical Association, Hughes was a big supporter of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, says Dymally, “securing funds for the University at a critical time in its history … The passing of Senator Hughes is a loss to all of us … She was a dedicated public servant … She will be missed by all who knew and worked with her.”

Diving into politics: Her achievements in the state assembly She entered politics in Los Angeles, Calif., when she was elected to the state Assembly in a special election in the heavily Democratic 47th Assembly District in 1975, replacing Assemblyman Bill Greene, who had moved on to the Senate. Her district was composed of much of South L.A. as well as the cities of Bell, Compton, Cudahy, Downey and Huntington Park.

In 1983, then Assembly Education Committee chairwoman Hughes co-wrote a bill that ratcheted up educational standards in the areas of graduation

requirements and teacher standards. The bill also raised teacher salaries.

In 1985, she chaired a bipartisan Caucus of Women Legislators, as the most senior female legislator at that time.

In 1988, the Los Angeles Unified School District, in recognition of her strong commitment to improving education in the city, renamed an elementary school in the city of Cudahy the Teresa Hughes Elementary School.

One of her biggest accomplishments was authoring the bill that led to the creation of the California Museum of Afro-American History and Culture within the Museum of Science and Industry.

Many of her friends and associates, from back in the day through today, expressed their great sadness upon the news of her passing. One of them, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, stated, “I am saddened to learn of the passing of former California State Senator Teresa Hughes.

“Teresa Hughes was a close friend and colleague. We both served in the California State Assembly in the 1970s and 1980s. When Teresa Former Democratic assemblywoman and state was elected to the state Senate, she represented the senator, the Honorable Teresa Hughes.

25th District, which included many of the same provide equal opportunities for homeowner loans. cities and communities in my congressional district.

According to the Los Angeles Times, former U.S. “We shared many exciting times working together in the California Assembly. Teresa was only the Rep. Diane Watson, herself a former colleague in the state second African American woman elected to the Senate, found that Hughes “was very dedicated to policyAssembly. It was a time when the women’s move- making, and she was a stickler for doing it the right way.”

California State Senator Curren D. Price, Jr. ment began opening new opportunities for women.

“Teresa was a strong supporter of then-State (D – Los Angeles), added his sympathies, stating, “I am deeply saddened by the sudden passing of Senator Mervyn Dymally, for whom she worked prior to her election to the California Legislature. I recall the Teresa Hughes. As a public servant, Teresa was a community rallying around her candidacy for the 47th thoughtful leader and a strong, courageous and comAssembly District. They were proud to elect a profes- passionate advocate for the poor and vulnerable. She sional educator committed to expanding opportunities represented her district with energy, determination and for our community. I know how dedicated Teresa was passion. Her tireless effort to improve the lives of her to serving the people in South Central and Southeast constituents was evident in all she did. She was an Los Angeles. She was committed to strengthening the effective legislator who dedicated her career to helping educational system for children in California. Teresa small businesses, improving public schools, expanding worked hard to improve the quality of life for low- job opportunities for Californians and ensuring access to health care. Her strong, positive leadership will be income families, seniors and people of color.

I will miss Teresa and am thankful for the time missed, but her memory will live through their work we spent working together. My prayers go out to she started and through the countless lives she touched.

“I join my colleagues in the California State her family and the many that loved her.”

Senator Roderick D. Wright (D-Inglewood) Legislature in extending my deepest sympathies to noted that, during her quarter of a century of serv- the family of Teresa Hughes. My thoughts and ice in the California Legislature, Hughes repre- prayers are with them.”

And, from L.A. City Councilwoman Jan Perry sented many of the cities he represents today.

Wright remembered what he called “the lasting came these condolences: “Former State Senator Teresa Hughes was a legacy of Senator Teresa Hughes”: “Senator Hughes was a great representative of the people who elected dynamic legislator. Her commitment to supporting her, and even more so of the children in her district and enhancing our state’s education goals set her apart and throughout this state who had no vote … I from her colleagues. She was a staunch supporter and served in the legislature with Senator Hughes, and leader for creating safer schools for the young people she was a great friend. She will be greatly missed in California. Her legacy will live on through the polibut warmly remembered for her efforts to improve cies and effort that she undertook on behalf of millions of school children seeking a quality education.” quality of life for all Californians.”

And finally, Yvonne B. Burke’s statement Adding her voice to the chorus of praise for Hughes was U.S. Rep. Karen Bass: “I am saddened to encapsulates Hughes’ legacy: “When the history of women in the California learn about the passing of former California Sen. Teresa Hughes, who I admired during her time in Legislature is written, Teresa Hughes will have a stellar office and when I was elected to serve in the California place. She utilized her knowledge and experience as an educator to influence education in California. She had State Assembly’s 47th District as she once did …”

Bass, who represents the 33rd congressional dis- the ability to work with everyone no matter what party trict, noted that “Sen. Hughes was committed to or region of California. I appreciated the opportunity to improving the quality of life for Los Angeles residents work with her and receive her cooperation as a memduring her time in office and was instrumental in col- ber of Congress representing the district where she laborating with Community Coalition to decrease the served. When many of us were trying to establish an number of liquor stores in South Los Angeles. As I join African American Museum in California, Teresa took other Angelenos in celebrating the life of former Sen. the lead. She was immediately successful and fought Hughes, we will remember her as an inspirational and for the funds to make sure not only was the Museum established but that it had the resources to move fordedicated leader for Los Angeles.”

Current Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez (D-Los ward to the place it holds in the Museum world today.

Angeles) expressed his deep sadness “to learn that for- Teresa will be missed but she has a brilliant legacy.”

Legislator, educator, fighter. Admired and mer State Senator Teresa Hughes has passed away. She was a fierce advocate for the men and women she rep- beloved. This was Teresa Hughes.

Both retirees, Hughes was married to Dr. Frank E. resented and spent every moment of her time in public service fighting for working families. She was an out- Staggers, a urologist. She is survived by her two chilspoken voice for inclusion and justice, and I was privi- dren: attorney Vincent Hughes and Los Angeles leged to call her a friend. She will be greatly missed, Superior Court Judge Deirdre Hughes Hill; three stepchildren, Frank Staggers Jr., Barbara Staggers and and my thoughts and prayers are with her family.”

Michael Staggers; four grandchildren; eight stepHer illustrious career in the state senate She was elected to the state Senate in 1992, grandchildren; and two step-great-grandchildren.

Memorial services for Teresa Hughes will be at becoming the first Black and the first woman to be a member of the Senate Rules Committee. Also she Holman United Methodist Church, 3320 W. Adams sponsored a school violence prevention bill and a bill to Blvd., Los Angeles 90018 at noon Monday.