LAWT-8-27-09 Paper Edition

Page 1

August 27, 2009

SERVING LOS ANGELES COUNTY WITH NEWS YOU CAN USE

Vol. XXX, No. 1142 FIRST COLUMN

A Nontraditional Ministry: One Man and His Mission BY PAT MUNSON CONTRIBUTING WRITER

While many people prepare to attend a church of their choice on Sunday morning, Pastor Worthy delivers a message of hope to passersby on a busy street corner in South Los Angeles. Identifying himself by first name only, Worthy has many people wondering about the man with the big sign standing on the northeast corner of Vernon Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard every Sunday from about 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Worthy has become a fixture in Leimert Park and is dedicated to his membership of hundreds of drive-by parishioners accustomed to seeing this unassuming man with the cardboard sign that reads “Jesus Saves Gangsters Too!” He should know that Jesus saves gangsters. Worthy is a former gang member and ex-convict who spent most of his life going in and out of jails and prison. His former affiliation with gangs and law enforcement led the street minister to shy away from a last name that became his criminal moniker. “I went through the ‘School of Hard Knocks.’ My mother died

when I was 14, I quit school and my family dissolved,” Worthy said. “I left home and went to the See MINISTRY, page 4

Photo by MARTY COTWRIGHT

NEW CHOICE, NEW CHALLENGE — Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa addresses media on the steps of City Hall Aug. 24. The mayor supports the idea of allowing private entities to submit proposals to operate Los Angeles schools. Education unions oppose the idea. The school district board voted in favor of the idea, 6-1, on Aug. 25.

Los Angeles School Board Approves New Controversial Reform Resolution BY CHICO C. NORWOOD STAFF WRITER

Photo by PAT MUNSON

MAKING A STAND — Pastor Worthy stands “in his spot,” near the intersection of Crenshaw Boulevard and Vernon Avenue, not far from the bench he used to sleep on in Leimert Park. Worthy has stood his ground with his hand-made sign, offering salvation to former gang members like himself, for the past eight years.

Chants of “recall, recall” were leveled against several members of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Board of Education following a 6-1 vote in favor of a controversial resolution endorsed by L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The resolution could turn a third of the schools in the nation’s second-largest school district over to private operators. Battle lines were drawn at the highly charged Aug. 25 board

meeting with union members, parents, community groups and LAUSD supporters squaring off against special interest groups and charter school supporters over the Public Choice resolution, authored by Board Member Yolie Flores Aguilar. Entitled Public School Choice-A New Way At LAUSD, the resolution will allow nonprofit organizations, charter, local com-

NEWS IN BRIEF THE SOUTHLAND

Hurricane Katrina Apparently No Match for Human Spirit BY PAT MUNSON CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Perhaps it’s adversity that is the mother of invention, as Hurricane Katrina can be partly credited with making a new woman out of a former street-hustling high school dropout who earlier this year became part and parcel of an Academy Award nomination. Kimberly Rivers Roberts, born into poverty and seeming h o p e lessness in one of New Orleans’ poorest neighborhood, is now a

celebrity. A longtime resident of New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward, which sustained some of the worst damage from flooding in 2005, Roberts will mark the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina — which falls on Aug. 29 — with a performance and speaking engagement in her city of birth. Virtually everyone knows the story of disaster, destruction, despair, misery and government response that followed Katrina. A CHANGED LIFE — Kimberly Rivers Roberts poses for a photo in Los Angeles earlier this year. Roberts, an aspiring rapper from the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, gained prominence for her recording of footage following Hurricane Katrina, which formed the basis for the film “Trouble the Water.” The success of the film has helped Roberts to leave a life of drug dealing behind. Pictured with Roberts: husband Scott Roberts (left) and actor Danny Glover (right), executive producer of “Trouble the Water.”

Photo Courtesy of ALEXANDRIA AVERSENTI

People are getting an inside, first-hand view of not only the devastation, but of the human spirit to rise above the most difficult of circumstances. As the storm approached with ferocious wind and rain, Roberts, then 24 years old, and her husband Scott Roberts had no means of getting out of the city and subsequently endured several days of horrific and dangerous conditions alone in their home. With a recently purchased video camcorder in hand, Roberts captured footage that was later used in the Oscar-nominated documentary “Trouble the Water,” directed by Carl Deal and Tia Lessin. When asked why she chose to stay put when warnings were going out to evacuate, Roberts said, “It was not a decision. It was more of a forced thing because we didn’t have the funds to evacuate. “He (Mayor Ray Nagin) didn’t say, ‘Get out or die.’ And how do you tell people to evacuate and don’t provide a way?” Roberts said recently, by phone from her home in the Big Easy. “He knew of lot of See KATRINA, page 9

munities and the mayor’s office to bid on up to 250 LAUSD schools. The bidding groups would submit plans for running the schools to Superintendent Ramon Cortines, who would oversee the entire process. Cortines said all plans will be up for renewal on a five-year basis. Supporters of the resolution call it school reform. See SCHOOLS, page 7

L.A. Officials Tout First Step in Subway to the Sea (AP) — Crews are nearly finished drilling 70 exploratory holes across the city’s west side — the first step toward building the “subway to the sea” to help unclog traffic in one of the nation’s most congested areas, officials said Aug. 20. Crews drilled up to 80 feet into the ground to assess soil conditions and determine how to best start digging a tunnel, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told reporters at a drilling site in Westwood. The completion of the proposed 121/2-mile line linking downtown to the beach in Santa Monica could create about 16,000 construction jobs, he said. The line beneath Wilshire Boulevard is expected to cost an estimated $6.1 billion. An additional segment across West Hollywood would cost another $3 billion. About $4 billion in funding will come from the county’s halfcent sales tax for transportation projects. Villaraigosa said the line could be completed in 10 years. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said the line could draw up to 79,000 riders a

day and add a crucial link to the area’s light-rail system that now covers 73 miles to Long Beach, Pasadena, the San Fernando Valley and communities around Los Angeles International Airport.

Settlement Bars SoCal Lender from Hassling Debtors (AP) — A Superior Court judge has approved a settlement requiring a Southern California loan company to not use abusive language or threats of police action to collect its customers’ debts. In her judgment Aug. 24, Judge Amy Hogue also ordered Anaheim-based CashCall Inc. not to use deceptive advertising and to pay $1 million in civil penalties and legal expenses. The company is well known for its television ads featuring actor Gary Coleman. California Attorney General Jerry Brown accused CashCall of preying on consumers desperate for cash and using loan-shark tactics to collect on their debts. He says CashCall ads suggested low interest rate loans were available to all borrowers, but actually charged annual interest of up to 129 percent. CashCall attorney Dan Baren says the company is happy to have reached the agreement. See BRIEFS, page 6

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