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COURIER EXCLUSIVE

‘Sugar Hill—The Ellington/Strayhorn Nutcracker’ to premiere in Pittsburgh

by Rob Taylor Jr. Courier Staff Writer

Move over, New York City.

The New Pittsburgh Courier has learned exclusively that the world premiere of “Sugar Hill—The Ellington/Strayhorn Nutcracker,” will debut in Pittsburgh, at the Benedum Center, from Oct. 19-30. It’s a jazzsteeped reimagining of “The Nutcracker” based on the genre-defying collaboration of the legendary Duke Ellington and Pittsburgh’s favorite son, Billy Strayhorn. “Sugar Hill” is set to the timeless music of Ellington and Strayhorn and features a libretto by Jessica Swan. “Sugar Hill” will then play in New York City at the New York City Center from Nov. 15-27.

The performance is directed by Joshua Bergasse and produced by David Garfinkle.

“Premiering it in Pittsburgh is very, very important,” said A. Alyce Claerbaut, a nice of Strayhorn, in an exclusive print media interview with the Courier,

July 17. “(Strayhorn) and Duke partnered in 1960 to do this work (jazz album ‘The Nutcracker Suite’) and it has remained a holiday favorite. If you look every year, some orchestra’s doing it, so it’s quite an honor to have it fully developed (the performance at the Benedum) in a jazzy way.”

Claerbaut is an executive producer of “Sugar Hill,” but she’s also president of Billy Strayhorn Songs, Inc., formed a few decades ago to make Strayhorn’s music available to the public and to capture, manage, preserve, and expand the artist’s legacy.

Strayhorn was born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1915, but his family soon moved to Pittsburgh. He attended Westinghouse High School and, according to a biography from the American Ballet Theatre, attended the Pittsburgh Musical Institute for piano lessons and classical music study.

SEE STRAYHORN A6

BILLY STRAYHORN, THE ICONIC JAZZ COMPOSER. HIS WORK, ALONG WITH DUKE ELLINGTON, WILL FILL THE AIR DURING “SUGAR HILL— THE ELLINGTON/STRAYHORN NUTCRACKER,” AT THE BENEDUM CENTER, OCT. 19-30.

Teen summit gives youth a chance to be heard

by Rob Taylor Jr. Courier Staff Writer

From 1994 to 2017, only one young person involved in the uplifting programs spearheaded by Youth Enrichment Services (Y.E.S.) was killed due to gun violence in the Pittsburgh area.

But in the past four years, there have been three young people directly connected to Y.E.S. that have been killed, and three others killed who were relatives or friends of those connected to Y.E.S. Dennis Floyd, Ph.D., executive director of Y.E.S., knew there was a crisis looming. He knew even more had to be done to help today’s youth.

That is how the “Teen Public Safety and Violence Prevention Summit” was born.

The summit, a day-long event held at Mt. Ararat Baptist Church, in Larimer, July 8, took on added

significance since the April 17 Easter Sunday morning shooting incident at an AirBnB rental on the North Side, claiming the lives of Jaiden Brown and Mathew Steffy-Ross, two 17-year-olds. Nearly 10 other young people were wounded in the shooting that made national headlines. Steffy-Ross was a student in Y.E.S. He was also a friend of fellow Y.E.S. student Iamere Lawrence, 15. Lawrence and 19-yearold Kwahyum Williams, also a participant in Y.E.S., helped bring the summit to fruition.

About 150 youth, the majority of whom were African American, attended the summit. Students received a welcome from Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, and then broke out into group sessions. In those sessions, students, among other groups, heard from SEE TEEN SUMMIT A7

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RYLEE REED, 15, AND SH’KERAH DEDARBELADEN, 18, were among the roughly 150 students at the Youth Enrichment Services Teen Summit, held July 8, at Mt. Ararat Baptist Church in Larimer. (Photo by Rob Taylor Jr.)

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This Week In Black History

A Courier Staple • JULY 20

MARY MCLEOD BETHUNE

Statue honoring Mary McLeod Bethune replaces confederate leader at U.S. Capitol Black Information Network Mary McLeod Bethune, a civil rights leader and pioneer in education, became the first Black American to be honored with a state statue in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall on Wednesday (July 13), per NBC News.

From 1875 to 1955 when she passed, Bethune helped lay the groundwork for the civil rights movement and was a trailblazing educator in Florida, the state that commissioned the project to elevate her statue to the Capitol.

Bethune’s historic statue replaces that of Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, who was one of the last to surrender at the close of the Civil War in 1865.

“To have her statue here is quite phenomenal, abso-

lutely, as a reminder of what our democracy is about,” her granddaughter Evelyn Bethune said in a statement.

Most notably, Mary McLeod Bethune founded what is now known as Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida, which she started as a girls’ school in 1904. She was also a founder of the United Negro College Fund, which served as important financial backing for predominately Black colleges and universities.

Bethune’s friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt led to her appointment as the director of the Negro Affairs Division for the National Youth Administration.

More, she led President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Black Cabinet” and helped President Harry Truman draft an executive order

that desegregated the armed forces, according to Bethune biographer Ashley Robertson Preston.

“She was the Oprah of her time. She was the Booker T. Washington of her time. She was the Martin Luther King of her time,” Preston said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy presented Bethune’s statue in Statuary Hall on Wednesday along with members of Florida’s congressional delegation.

The statue depicts Bethune in an academic rose holding a black rose, a term of endearment she used with her students.

Her core values of love, hope, faith, racial dignity, a thirst for education, courage, and peace are inscribed on books found at the foot of the statue.

19 million U.S. students attend racially segregated schools: report More than a third of U.S. students attended a racially segregated public school during the 2020-21 school year, according to a new report released by the Government Accountability Office, per NBC News.

On Thursday (July 14), a 45-page analysis on racial and socioeconomic equity in public schools from 2020 to 2021 revealed that nearly 19 million students across the U.S. attended institutions where at least 75 percent of their peers were of the same race or ethnicity.

According to the report, the total student population has become more diverse in recent years, yet inequity persists.

“Ensuring equal access to educational opportunity—a

key component of the Department of Education’s mission —remains a persistent challenge,” Jackie Nowicki, the lead author of the study, said.

The report also shows that nearly seven million students went to schools where at least 90 percent of their classmates were all of one race or ethnicity.

Nearly 50 percent of the students who attended racially segregated schools were White, the data revealed, while Black students only made up 23 percent of the K-12 children who went to institutions where at least three-fourths of their peers were of their own racial or ethnic background.

The Government Accountability Office also found that school districts “seceding”

from existing districts over the past decade created higher concentrations of White students—the resulting new, smaller districts were generally wealthier, with some exceptions.

The data was given to U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, on June 16. Scott said that “every American should be alarmed” by the results of the report.

“We know that school segregation doesn’t just isolate low-income students and students of color; it also deprives them of equal access to educational opportunities and resources,” Scott said.

The report has also been provided to the Department of Education and Department of Justice for review.

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1967—The first Black Power Conference takes place in Newark, N.J. More than 1,000 delegates representing 126 organizations attended. The conference represented a break with the integration-with-Whites thrust of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

Instead, delegates called for greater focus on Black political empowerment, economic development, community control and the building of Black institutions.

• JULY 21

1864—Amazingly, what is now considered the first Black daily newspaper begins publishing on this day during slavery. The New Orleans Tribune was founded by wealthy Black Doctor Louis C. Roudanez and edited by a Belgium Jean-Charles Heuzean. The Tribune, however, actually followed the Daily Creole which began publication in 1856.

But it was so pressured by Whites that it adopted pro-slavery positions.

The Tribune, meanwhile, would begin as a tri-weekly and become a full-fledged daily in October.

1896—The National Association of Colored Women is founded in Washington, D.C., and Mary Church Terrell is elected president. The association would establish nurseries, help orphans, and battle for a woman’s right to vote. Terrell became an activist and power broker in the nation’s capital fighting for desegregation of restaurants and helping build schools. She was born in 1863 and died in 1954.

2001—Blues legend John Lee Hooker dies. He was 83.

• JULY 22

1861—President Abraham Lincoln submits the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet. The order freeing slaves, however, was not actually issued until Jan. 1, 1863. And even then, it benefited very few slaves. The Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in the rebellious Southern states. But the federal government at the time did not have control of the South so no slaves actually went free. In the so-called Border States where the federal government did have authority, the Proclamation did not apply.

About the only slaves who benefited were those who had already escaped and fled to the Union side during the Civil War. 1939—Jane Matilda Bolin becomes the first Black female judge in America. New York City Mayor Fiorella LaGuadia appointed her a judge in the court of domestic relations.

1963—Floyd Patterson loses his heavyweight boxing title to Sonny Liston and Liston would later lose it to a young fighter by the name of Cassius Clay—later Muhammad Ali. 2001—Actor Whitman Mayo dies in Atlanta, Ga., of a heart attack. He was 71. Mayo is best known for his role as “Grady” in the popular 1970s television series “Sanford and Son.”

• JULY 23

1900—The first Pan African conference took place in London, England. Blacks from throughout the world gathered to plot strategies for bringing about rights for all people of African ancestry, independence from colonialism for African countries and international Black unity. This “conference” was the precursor of all the subsequent Pan African “Congresses.” Among the most prominent names present in 1900 were African-American activist and intellectual W.E.B. DuBois and West Indian lawyer H. Sylvester Williams.

1948—The Progressive Party Convention begins in Philadelphia.

The convention nominates Henry Wallace for president and he makes the strongest showing of virtually any third-party candidate in American history. More than 150 Blacks were at the convention and dozens ran for office on the Progressive Party ticket. They were attracted by the party’s call for an end to segregation, full voting rights for Blacks and universal government sponsored health insurance. The party was populated mainly by liberals and leftists. Wallace’s candidacy was even endorsed by the then relatively strong American Communist Party.

The party came under vicious attack during the anti-Communist hysteria of the 1950s. But positions taken by the Progressive Party forced the Democratic Party to adopt meaningful changes in order to hold onto the Black vote.

1984—The first Black Miss America Vanessa Williams is forced to give up her crown as a result of the discovery of some sexually explicit photographs. She was replaced by the first runner-up (another Afri-

can-American) Suzette Charles.

Williams bounced back, however, and became a successful singer and actress.

• JULY 24

1651—Anthony (or Antonio) Johnson, a free Black man who had purchased freedom for himself and his wife, is awarded 250 acres of land in North Hampton, Va. Johnson was among the first group of 20 Black indentured servants brought to America in 1619. Indentured servitude was a form of slavery which allowed the person to either work for or purchase his freedom.

After becoming free, Johnson became the first wealthy Black person in America. He even purchased five indentured servants of his own. He probably picked up the name “Johnson” from his original owner but in official records from the period he is simply referred to as “Antonio the Negro.”

1802—Famed French writer Alexander Dumas is born. He was the product of a French general and a light-complexioned Black Haitian woman. Dumas would go on to become one of the world’s greatest and most prolific writers. He is best known for his classics such as “The Three Musketeers” and “The Count of Monte Cristo.” His Blackness caused him some problems in French society, but by and large his fame and the money from his books enabled him to live an extravagant lifestyle.

1904—This is the day it is believed that actor Ira Aldridge was born in Africa. He would come to America, learn English and German, and develop into one of the world’s most accomplished Shakespearean actors.

He played the role of the Moor Othello on many occasions.

• JULY 25

1916—The Black inventor of America’s first gas mask, Garrett T. Morgan, made national headlines on this day when he and a team of volunteers used his invention to rescue 32 workers trapped in a gas-filled tunnel 250 feet under Lake Erie. Morgan called his device “the Morgan safety hood and smoke protector.” But it has become known simply as the gas mask. Morgan also invented America’s first traffic light.

He was born in 1877, did most of his inventing in Cleveland, Ohio, and died in 1963.

1972—Faced with possible exposure by the media, the federal government (specifically the U.S. Public Health Service) finally acknowledges its involvement in the horrific and immoral Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. During the experiment, 399 Black men (mostly poor sharecroppers from Alabama) were led to believe they were being treated for syphilis while the doctors and nurses involved (some of them African-American) were actually fooling the men with fake medicines in order to discover the long-term effects of syphilis on the human body.

The “experiment” lasted from 1932 to the time it was exposed in 1972.

Finally, on May 16, 1997, President Clinton issued an official apology to the eight surviving members of the experiment saying, “The United States government did something that was wrong—deeply, profoundly, morally wrong…and clearly racist.”

• JULY 26

1847—President Joseph J. Roberts declares the West African nation of Liberia an independent republic. The nation was primarily founded by former U.S. slaves returning to Africa. Roberts, himself, was born in Virginia. Three factors were behind the founding of Liberia beginning around 1821. Free Blacks were coming under increasing discrimination in America; pro-slavery forces felt the presence of free Blacks would encourage rebellion within the slave population; and friendly Whites (like those in the American Colonization Society— ACS) felt Blacks would never be treated fairly in America and should return to Africa. The ACS helped more than 13,000 Blacks return to Africa with most going to Liberia.

1926—The NAACP awards its prestigious Spingarn Medal to Carter G. Woodson for his work in Black History. Indeed, Woodson became known as the “Father of Black History.”

The historian, author and journalist founded Negro History Week—the precursor to today’s Black History Month. Woodson felt knowing true Black history would be an inspiration to people of African ancestry.

He once wrote: “Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.”

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Remember the time?

Note: It goes without saying that most, if not all of you, have had the Pittsburgh Courier play some part in your life. For those who returned home for the celebration or just lost contact, please be advised this space is reserved for a weekly update on regional and national sports updates via a “10 second” countdown to the symbolic end of the game. That being said—Let The Games Begin. :10—First off, it’s important that I make an immediate connection to this special report or the only thing you’ll be remembering will be when I used to be a sportswriter for this historic newspaper before they give me my walking papers. :09—Trust me when I tell you the now-legendary story of Banfield Street allows for an easy sports connection given that seven or eight of the athletes from the street are recognized as some of the greatest in Penn Hills High School history. :08—The individual names will remain nameless for several reasons. No. 1—They know who they are, and humility is a built-in part of the DNA of this story (old school style), the way we were raised. No. 2—The family names speak loud and clear. Davis, Berry, Thomas, Frazier, White, Neal, Newman, Tipton, Rideout and Thomas.

And lastly, it allows me the latitude of covering up for whatever I didn’t know or forgot. After all, I am 69. Give me a break!

(BTW—This is where you smile—try to keep up) :07—All that being said, here’s your sports connection. One of the toughest sports known to mankind is playing “Hide and Seek.” You try hiding in the darkness with one street light and racing toward a telephone

pole at what felt like the speed of light with reckless abandon. Many a near-death moment to be sure. :06—Not enough for ya?

OK, how about the fact the fastest legs on the street didn’t belong to any of the guys I made reference to. No, they belonged to a young lady who will remain nameless as well (Masha Rideout...sorry I had to rub that in and bring the fellas down a notch.) :05—Here’s the thing about the street. It provided everything needed to ensure future success.

We were in fact “That Village That Raised The Child.” From end to end on Banfield Street, nothing went unnoticed or unchallenged and held accountable in all the best

ways possible. And yes, we still seek the answer to that age-old question; Why is Mr. Smoot’s garage still standing? :04—Along with that came the additional good stuff you just won’t find everywhere—the Thompson Pies, the cherry and apple trees, the softball/ volleyball/badminton/ cookouts/play in the dirt field—that always seemed larger than life!!!

And not to be forgotten, the little corner “spot” if you will, at the end of the street that provided the very hardworking elders on the street, the occasional libation to get them through the stress and strain of the ‘50s and ‘60s. (Oh please, don’t act like you didn’t know... you knew) :03—It’s important to point out that while we

were, in fact, the same as other streets, both locally and nationally, we were somehow distinct and different. No better than others but different nonetheless. You only needed to go around the corner to connect the dots to additional community greatness. The Carmacks, Hamiltons, Taylors, and of course, the legend and the standard of Hubie Bryant, Brushton Street, Torrance, Columbia, Oberlin and Blackadore can all write their own stories, but one thing remains true...Here we stand to tell ours. :02—Needless to say, no story is made complete without the better half— the Women of Banfield— who gave, nurtured and raised us all. Our mothers who possessed all the necessary qualities to raise the family that we became.

And to the women of our era? Beautiful to be sure, but also intelligent, accomplished, giving and caring, to which this legacy continues. Of course, we give props to the pops—the fathers who were the men that raised the men that we became, and it’s notable to be sure. From local success to national and global accomplishments, it will be showcased in the forthcoming book, screenplay and film, “Banfield Forever!” :01—There is no end to this story, but I’ll leave you with the hope that you get why this matters. While at a time in our collective lives we continue to answer Marvin Gaye’s question of 1971— “What’s Going On?”—It gives us this moment in time to reflect on a time when the world was a slower, safer, more peaceful place to be, or seemingly so. Well, on Banfield Street it was.

The legacy continues. :00—GAME OVER.

Ladies, What’s your type...

Working man or street man?

It’s a must-read. Check out the Courier’s Damon Carr on page B1.

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Football legend Major Harris gets street named after him in the Hill District

by Ashley G. Woodson For New Pittsburgh Courier

Seemingly everyone came out to celebrate College Football Hall of Famer Major Harris getting a street renamed in his honor...and it’s where he grew up. The Hill District officially renamed the corner of Elmore Street and

Bentley Drive, “Major Harris Way.” It happened on a sunny Friday afternoon, July 15.

Harris is best known in his high school days at Brashear for throwing a 79-yard touchdown pass to beat Indiana High School. He went on to attend West Virginia University where he became a quarterback and led the Mountaineers to an undefeated regular season in 1988 and a berth in the national championship game.

Harris wants to impact others and he hopes others seeing his name in the Hill District will inspire others in the neighborhood.

“Anytime you see somebody and talk to them and they have a street named after them, then you can get that done,” Harris told the New Pittsburgh Courier.

Mayor Ed Gainey was in attendance along with Chief of Staff Jake Wheatley, Pittsburgh City Councilman R. Daniel Lavelle

IT’S OFFICIAL—MAJOR HARRIS WAY and Harris’ family and friends.

“What Major Harris did for not only the Hill District, but West Virginia University, was the ultimate sacrifice and he should have been (paid) for his likeness,” the

mayor said. “We thank Councilman Lavelle and others for renaming the street in his honor. I’m not surprised that he honed his skills on the streets of the Hill District. Today is a great day because a lot of times in

the African American community, our heroes don’t get recognized. We don’t tell our young people why our heroes are so great. In order to move this city forward, the stories of Major Harris and many others has to

be told.”

In November 2021, West Virginia University retired Major Harris’ No. 9 jersey.

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‘Sugar Hill—The Ellington/Strayhorn Nutcracker’ to premiere in Pittsburgh STRAYHORN FROM A1

In 1938, at just 23 years old, Strayhorn met Ellington and had an impromptu audition for the famed jazz aficionado at Pittsburgh’s Stanley Theatre. Ellington was so impressed by Strayhorn’s abilities that Ellington moved Strayhorn with him to New York City, and Strayhorn began writing musical arrangements for Ellington and his band. This relationship more than 25 years, which included the famous jazz album, “The Nutcracker Suite,” in 1960, for Columbia Records.

Strayhorn died on May 31, 1967, in New York City due to complications from cancer. He was 51.

“He was a very gentle

man, and he was a man who had such respect for everybody,” Claerbaut told the Courier about her uncle, Strayhorn. “I knew him personally. He was a very kind person. He cared about people...He had a powerful presence in the world. He was with Martin Luther King (Jr.). He helped launch the March on Washington. He worked with Jackie Robinson to raise money for civil rights.

He was in Chicago to do Duke Ellington’s ‘My People’ (stage play) commemoration of the 100 years of progress after the Emancipation Proclamation. He was supportive in Harlem of the Copasetics (tap dance group). A lot of people don’t know about these

activities. He was really an activist and he used his music to do that.”

In 2000, the historic Regent Theater in East Liberty was renamed the “Kelly Strayhorn Theater,” in honor of Strayhorn and another Pittsburgh legend, actor/performer Gene Kelly.

As Claerbaut spoke with the Courier, she began to recall some of her favorite memories with whom she calls, “Uncle Billy.” She recalled the time while in high school, she wrote a poem full of song lyrics.

“He lived three blocks from me...he said, ‘Meet me on Amsterdam Ave. (in New York City), so I met him and gave him my poetry, and he looked at it and

said, ‘Oh, OK,’” Claerbaut remembered. “And that was the end of that. So, I often tell people, in exploring all of his manuscripts, we didn’t find my song in there,” she said, jokingly.

And what about the time in high school that Claerbaut introduced her uncle to the school’s jazz band group? “We went into the auditorium and my music teacher was there,” Claerbaut said. “I said, ‘My uncle is here to hear the jazz band,’ and she said, ‘OK,’ and I said, ‘This is my Uncle Billy Strayhorn...’ and she almost fell off the stage.”

Claerbaut said then, “all the kids who knew jazz were surrounding him like they were his bodyguards.

He was just amused, he loved talking to young people. He was so good with them. That is a real fond memory I have of him.”

Claerbaut said she’s noticed how younger people are becoming more and more interested in Strayhorn’s music and his life.

A nephew of Strayhorn, Galen Demus, started the Billy Strayhorn Jazz Education Scholarship in 2008, which promotes the art of jazz to students in high school and college.

“So many people are coming to jazz because jazz is now in the schools and they’re being educated in it,” said Claerbaut, who was named a “Chicagoan of the Year” in 2011 for her continuous work in jazz circles in Chicago and be-

yond.

Claerbaut then pointed to the continued acceptance of those in the LGBTQ community as a reason for the interest in Strayhorn, who was gay.

And pop superstar Lady Gaga, a few years ago, championed Strayhorn by singing “Lush Life,” one of Strayhorn’s most popular songs, along with “Take the ‘A’ Train.”

“When that happened (Lady Gaga), there were a bunch of young people who heard of him (Strayhorn) for the first time,” Claerbaut told the Courier.

Strayhorn had “a tremendous sense of humor,” Claerbaut added. “You could ask him any question about music. He was always encouraging us.”

Blacks in tech needed for paid cohort program

by Rob Taylor Jr. Courier Staff Writer

The tech field, which was, a decade ago, overwhelmingly White, is becoming more diverse.

But only at a snail’s pace.

According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates and the U.S. Equal Economic Opportunity Commission’s Diversity in Tech Report from 2019, African Americans now account for seven percent of all employees in the tech field. Years prior, it was even less.

But in Pittsburgh, there are African Americans in the tech field trying to get more of their people through the hard-tobreak doors.

Lindsay Powell is the latest.

Powell, a 2019 New Pittsburgh Courier “Fab 40” member, is the new director of workforce strategies/development for InnovatePGH, an Oakland-based nonprofit which works to embed the Pittsburgh region’s

first cohort, a three-week paid position as an animal care technician at the University of Pittsburgh. Lab care technicians are instrumental in the work of helping Pitt researchers develop the medicine to help society solve some of the biggest medical ailments in the world, including cancer.

Powell said it’s a perfect way for more African Americans to get involved in the tech scene in Pittsburgh, as the stipend paid to cohort members is up to $600. Cohort participants also receive transportation stipends, and a laptop computer that the participant gets to keep.

“As the tech economy and the innovation economy (in Pittsburgh) grows,” Powell told the Courier, July 15, “We can make sure that it’s more inclusive.”

Powell said following the conclusion of the first cohort, more cohorts and job opportunities will be announced in August and into September.

LINDSAY POWELL

research-oriented university assets, highgrowth firms, tech talent and creative start-ups into economic growth strategies.

With the help of Jewish Family and Community Services, Powell created the “Innovation District Skills Alliance,” which aims to create career pathways for African Americans and other ethnicities. Powell is urging community members ages 18 and up to apply now for the program’s

“Tech continues to be a burgeoning field,” Powell said. “Obviously, Mayor (Ed) Gainey has been all-hands-in on trying to make it more inclusive, and there are programs in Pittsburgh that exist and are growing to make sure that Black people have a space in the innovation economy.”

(Editor’s note: To apply, go to www.pittsburgh-id. com/idsa)

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Teen summit gives youth a chance to be heard TEEN SUMMIT FROM A1

adult women in the group, “Moms Voice” — women who lost sons, daughters or nephews to gun violence.

They heard from Bonnie McClain, aunt of SteffyRoss, Michelle Kenney, mother of Antwon Rose II (who was tragically killed in 2018 by a now-former East Pittsburgh police officer), and Barbie Sampson, mother of Jasmine Guest, who was shot and killed while riding in a vehicle on the Parkway East last year.

Other groups included “Youth Voice,” “Community Voice,” “Women and Girls Voice,” “Healthcare Voice,” “Project Overcoming” and “Toxic Masculinity.”

The afternoon session of the summit featured a panel formed by both youth and adults on a variety of topics, including the impact of gun violence on today’s youth and if the violence can be stopped. The afternoon keynote speaker following the panel was Special Agent David Daniels, a criminal investigator with the NASA Office of the Inspector General’s Cyber Crime Division.

Students were provided breakfast and lunch during the summit.

With the students hearing from so many different speakers, they were able to get an all-encompassing view of how violence has

learn how to put himself in another person’s shoes.

“I was in the group, ‘Moms Voice;’ they were talking about how they lost a loved one and it helped me understand that maybe what I’m going through, there’s always someone else going through the same or worse,” he told the Courier.

Seeing things from another person’s perspective is something Howie will take with him. Howie said he recently had a falling out with a friend, “and maybe if I had known what I know now (from the summit), maybe (the friendship) could have ended on good terms.”

Gun violence was the primary topic of discussion during the afternoon panel session. Both Lawrence and Williams were part of that discussion. “Getting guns nowadays is like buying a bike,” Williams told the Courier.

Lawrence added that there are websites that teens know about that sell the parts needed to build a ghost gun. “All you need are bullets,” Lawrence told the Courier.

Lawrence and Williams said it will be tough to eradicate a lot of the violence happening today because, “people glorify bad things,” but they are committed to having positive energy. “You (give off) negative energy, negative things will come to you,”

BONNIE MCCLAIN holds a portrait of her nephew, Mathew SteffyRoss, who, at age 17, was killed on April 17 during a shooting on the North Side. affected others. But also as important was how people have overcome the loss of a loved one, which included the ability to speak publicly to others, such as in the summit-style setting.

Eighteen-year-old Sh’Kerah Dedardelaben, who will attend Allderdice High School this fall as a senior, told the New Pittsburgh Courier the summit showed her that “there’s so much more to life than just violence and getting even with someone because of revenge.”

She added that “earlier in the year, revenge was my only way to feel OK. If someone was to do something crazy to me, I felt like the best way I can do is get back at them. It was really bad at that point in time, but now my mind is more open to a positive side of life. There’s so much more to my life than, ‘OK she did this to me so now I have to get her’ or ‘he did this so I have to go get him.’...Revenge is not going to lead me anywhere.”

Dedardelaben wants to be an actress, and she said she doesn’t want to engage in any activities that will deter her from that goal.

Nowell Howie, 17, said the summit helped him

DENNIS FLOYD, PH.D., executive director of Youth Enrichment Services in East Liberty. (Photos by Rob Taylor Jr.) Williams said. “If you’re positive, people will show love to you. It’s the way you carry yourself as a person” which matters most.

Williams said that when more youth act as their true selves, they’ll be less prone to follow the bad apples who think violence is the best answer. “You can be the little weirdo kid, you can be anybody you want to be,” Williams said. “Just be yourself, love yourself, look in the mirror and love the person that you’re becoming.”

McClain, the aunt of Steffy-Ross, said that it was wonderful to see the many students who spoke their mind at the summit. She said that oftentimes, there are resources in the community to help youth who may be struggling with certain aspects of life, but it’s up to the youth who have utilized those resources to inform their fellow students that those resources are available. Youth Enrichment Services, which has been providing academic, mentoring and economic development programs for youth in Pittsburgh since 1994, is one of those community resources.

Floyd, the Y.E.S. executive director, told the Courier exclusively that Y.E.S. recently received a $400,000 grant from the R.K. Mellon Foundation.

“Do what you need to do to

save these kids,” Floyd said the foundation told him.

Floyd said he hoped the youth learned three main takeaways from the summit: “People listen to them, they (the students) matter, they have a voice, people hear the voice; they can make a difference, they’re not alone (in their trauma); and that Y.E.S. is going to

make the necessary changes so they can continue to have that voice and see action.”

Youth Enrichment Services, in East Liberty, has been a source of alternative services for youth rather than juvenile detention for more than 20 years. Floyd told the Courier he tells the youth that they’re not

to blame for the culture of violence. “The guns come into the neighborhood by some other means,” Floyd said. “But we want to make the kids accountable for their actions.”

MIJANA BRATTENWILDER, 18, NOWELL HOWIE, 17, TYSHANTI MONTGOMERY

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RELIGION

JULY 20-26, 2022

Praise & Worship ST. BENEDICT THE MOOR CATHOLIC CHURCH 91 Crawford Street Pgh., PA 15219 412-281-3141 Sunday Mass 11 AM Rev. Thomas J. Burke- Pastor Rev. C. Matthew HawkinsParochial Vicar Rev. David H. TaylorSenior Parochial Vicar. www.sbtmparishpgh.com

NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER

Mt. Olive First Baptist Church celebrates its 112th church anniversary

East Liberty Presbyterian Church Rev. Patrice Fowler-Searcy and Rev. Heather Schoenewolf Pastors 412-441-3800

Worship in person or Online on Facebook/YouTube www.ELPC.church Summer Worship.......10:00 a.m.

Taize -Wednesdays.........7:00 p.m.

Join our growing Praise and Worship Church Community!

A DOVE WAS RELEASED FOR ALL OF THE CHURCH’S DECEASED MEMBERS.

FIRST LADY MELBA LEONA CALLAWAY, DOROTHY ELLIS (PHOTOS BY GENEA WEBB)

For rate information, call 412-4818302, ext. 128. We want to feature positive youth from our Pittsburgh church community. Please mail their bio and photo to: New Pittsburgh Courier 315 E. Carson St. Pittsburgh, PA 15219 or email us: religion@newpittsburghcourier. com

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“For yourselves know perfectly that the DAY OF THE LORD so cometh as a THIEF IN THE NIGHT. For when they shall say, Peace and Safety; then sudden DESTRUCTION cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not ESCAPE.” - Thessalonians 5:2-3 REV. WALKER SAYS: WORD OF GOD—But you, brethren, are NOT in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a THIEF. THEREFORE LET US NOT SLEEP, as do others; but let us WATCH and BE SOBER. (1 Thessalonians 5:4,6)

METRO/SPORTS

NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER

JULY 20-26, 2022

A9

It’s official...

‘MAJOR HARRIS WAY’ IN THE HILL DISTRICT

MAYOR ED GAINEY, MAJOR HARRIS AND PITTSBURGH CITY COUNCILMAN R. DANIEL LAVELLE (PHOTOS BY ASHLEY WOODSON)

HILL DISTRICT FRIENDS SHOWING LOVE TO MAJOR HARRIS

CHIEF OF STAFF JAKE WHEATLEY unveiling the new street sign while Major Harris and mother, Sandy, look on.

MAYOR ED GAINEY WITH FORMER WVU FOOTBALL PLAYER MIKE BOOTH

One man’s gold is another man’s ‘Junker’ Re·tire·ment: the action or fact of leaving one’s job and ceasing to work.

On March 14, 2022, legendary sportscaster Guy Junker rode off into the sunset of one phase of his career and rode into the sunrise of another. To say that the retirement of Junker, who continues to work on his own terms, is an atypical definition of a normal retirement would be to say the least; a humongous understatement. He says the following about his departure from the daily schedule of a Pittsburgh sportscaster: “I have missed so much in my family life but when I had to work on Christmas Day last year, that was kind of the final straw. I just didn’t want to do it anymore. I got tired of working nights, weekends and holidays. I just didn’t want to continue until my health became so poor that I couldn’t enjoy life. I’ve always been financially smart and we have always lived within our means.

After I crunched the numbers, I realized that I would continue working on the side, but it would be on my time. I still do a radio show weekly and Stan (Savran) and I still work for Awesome films.”

As we talked about his retirement, I asked Guy to hit rewind and take us back to the very beginning of his journey.

“I was born in South Side hospital. We lived on the South Side when I was a little kid and I ended up going to Baldwin High School. My parents moved to Brentwood. We lived in Brentwood until I was in the third grade, then we

moved the Baldwin. We still have the house in Baldwin.”

Junker had a love of sports from the very beginning. “Oh yeah,” he recalled, “we played everything. I played high school and college baseball.

I played baseball at Baldwin High School and then at Penn State McKeesport, that was like a junior college. I didn’t play much basketball. I played a little bit of football, but I

played a lot of hockey. In fact, I was still playing hockey until I was about 56.”

Regarding his first break, he pointed out that there were a series of small opportunities before the so-called, “big break.” “Getting that first job no matter what it was, was a break. I was doing high school football games for WPQR-FM in Uniontown for 10 bucks at game. Just the fact that anybody would hire me and pay me to do something was big, but my first real big break where I was starting to make some decent money was when B-94 went on the air back in 1984 and they needed a morning guy to do news and sports.

Before that I worked in Beaver County, Fayette County and in the outskirts of some

of those little suburban radio stations but B-94 was my first big break.”

Junker reminisced about all things Pittsburgh sports but when I brought up the name Stan Savran, his entire demeanor changed as he recalled meeting his future on-air partner for the first time.

“This is a funny story,” he said, laughing heartily. “I actually met Stan when I was working in Beaver County.

The Penguins had a press conference down at the old Pittsburgh Press Club downtown.

That was when they were going to name Eddie Johnston as their coach, I went down, and you know I’m living on practically living on food stamps working at this little radio station. I get down there, I sit down at the table and I’m looking forward to some of the things that the Penguins are gonna feed you, so they give out the press release. I go out in the hallway to phone in my report for the noon news.

When I came back, Stan was sitting in my seat and there were no other seats. I was too timid as a young guy and I didn’t know Stan at the time, so I filed my report and left.

I didn’t even eat lunch. Stan and I started working together at Channel 4 (WTAE) in 1984.

In fact, I got hired because Stan got the Penn State football play-by-play job and they needed somebody to anchor on Saturdays while he was doing the games. When I was originally hired it was only going to be for 11 or 12 Saturdays while Stan was doing Penn

State football. Well, in the meantime during that football season, John Steigerwald left Channel 4 to go to KDKA-TV (2). They (WTAE) moved Stan to weekdays and then I became the weekend anchor and eventually I started producing for Stan’s 11 o’clock sports show on WTAE and I’d fill in for him on his talk show when he’d go on vacation.”

As far as the TV show “Sportsbeat” goes, Junker said that he hosted it from the KDKA studios with Bob Pompeani for the first year. When the now-defunct KBL TV contract with KDKA was not renewed, “we moved to the Channel 11

GUY JUNKER

(WPXI) studious, which meant Bob could no longer do the show and right at that time, Stan got fired from Channel 4, and we hired him, and we’ve been together on TV and radio just about every year since 1991.”

Who could forget “Sportsbeat,” as many callers would start their discussion with, “Stan, Guy, Love the Show.”

Junker also had a strong and valid opinion about some of the gossip magazine-type coverage of the personal lives of athletes and how to create and maintain a balance between covering sensationalism and realism. “I certainly didn’t (get into the business) to cover some guy who got a DUI or was having an affair or whatever. I was never interested in that stuff. I just wanted to report on games, practices, trades, that kind of thing. My biggest gripe since social media became such a hangup is that one guy puts a bleep out there and your management and your bosses want you to drop everything that you’re doing and investigate it and a lot of times it just turns out to be nothing.”

One thing is for certain; Guy Junker, the kid from Pittsburgh’s South Side, had a sparkling career and turned out to be far more than nothing because when it’s all said and done, the value of a man is in his eyes and the eyes of the beholder because as we all know; “One man’s gold is another man’s Junker.”

A10 JULY 20-26, 2022

NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER

Post-Roe: Looking backward at us again J. Pharoah Doss Page B4

BUSINESS New Pittsburgh Courier

JULY 20-26, 2022

www.newpittsburghcourier.com

Classifieds

Find what you need from jobs to cars to housing B5-6

B

Noblemen grow their brotherhood into new Penn Hills cigar lounge

by Ashley Johnson Courier Staff Writer

More than just a place for cigar aficionados to go to enjoy a good puff and relax, or for non-smokers to enjoy conversation, food, and an all-around good time, Noblemen Cigar Lounge, the newest addition to the Pittsburgh area, is an establishment of brotherhood, nobility and love for the community.

Since its opening in June, Noblemen Cigar Lounge, located at 9805 Frankstown Rd., in Penn Hills, has been taking the Pittsburgh area by storm with its daily entertainment; diverse menu consisting of chicken, salmon and lamb chops, just to name a few; and the overall vibe of the environment.

It’s a place where men and women can come and “feel the love,” Sheldon Oliver, CEO & owner of Noblemen Cigar Lounge, told the New Pittsburgh Courier. “They can see noble men doing noble things, and see noble women doing noble things.”

He also said the lounge is a place where kings and queens can come for a good time and feel that “noble love” while they’re there.

At the lounge, there is something for everyone, from First Responders Day on Mondays; Taco and Karaoke on Tuesdays; Port Authority Day and $1 Wings on Wednesdays; Ladies Night (Pink Night) on Thursdays; Live Jazz and R&B on Fridays and Saturdays; and Brunch and Poetry on Sundays.

But it’s that “noble love” that makes this particular cigar lounge stand out, according to Tina Mollett. She’s a Penn Hills resident who was visiting the cigar lounge for the third time when she spoke to the Courier.

“I love the atmosphere—it’s

NOBLEMEN MEMBERS—In front, Rev. Michael Smith, Harold Denson and Judge Kevin Cooper Jr. In back, Lee Kirkwood, Shawn Hall, Shawn Hall, Kevin Cooper, Sheldon Oliver, Greg Washington and Rahim El. (Photos by Courier photographer Jacquelyn McDonald)

“This is a place where men and women can come and ‘feel the love.’

They can see noble men doing noble things, and see noble women doing noble things.”

SHELDON OLIVER

SHELDON OLIVER CEO & owner, Noblemen Cigar Lounge

very comfortable, it’s very relaxing and it’s enjoyable...I truly hope the community will continue to support this Black business. Because when you get to be 30, 40-plus, you want somewhere nice to go. You have your local bars, which are great, but this is somewhere nice where you can just come out, relax or (go) in the evening, on your way home from work.”

Established on the foundation of wanting to give people in the community a safe, loving space where they can enjoy themselves, Noblemen Cigar Lounge was SEE NOBLEMEN B2

Ladies, what’s your type...

Working man or street man?

I recently saw a meme online. It read, women are debating between choosing a working man with a 401(k) and $40,000 in the bank or a man who’s a street hustler with $250,000 in cash on hand. Niia Kash, the author of the post, had this to say: “Working men are boring. Nine times out of ten they expect the woman to go half on the bills. What is $40,000? Give me the street man, PLEASE! You only live once. I’m trying to LIVE! Plus I’m going to help my man invest and flip that $250,000.”

I posted this meme to my group to see what some of the women on my page would say. Below are some of their responses: The working man with a 401K and $40,000 in the bank. Why? Street life isn’t for me. ~Michika In my younger days—PLENTY of women went for the street pharmacist. Money was definitely a want/need for many. I knew a few of the girls and guys. Hearing the stories I’ve heard—NOT A CHANCE was I going that route. Unbelievable the things the guys did to get that money. Unbelievable the nonsense the girls endured to keep getting money from the drug dealers.

Thankfully, I had a support system that included my parents and family. I would have been too embarrassed to go through some of those things. I’m NOT disrespecting anyone who did. It’s just not my thing. I’ve ALWAYS been “afraid “ of those street guys and that lifestyle. A working man brings much security and stability. You can absolutely grow and become more with a working man. ~Lovely Breeze It’s not about the amount of money a man brings. The truth is money can easily be made by anyone. As long as a man has a good head on his shoulder we can work together and make so much more money.

With that being said I ain’t messing with street money. We all know how things end. ~Choice $250,000. Street money sounds nice until it gets seized! ~ Brooke This is easy. The working man. Consistency, stability, and security are what I look for in a relationship. 40K can and will grow to more because he’s a working man. No amount of money can make me want to be a significant other to a man in the streets. ~Jessica No street life for me. I’m going with the working man. ~Chanda L. Imma rock with the working man! ~Teea I’m not messing with a man who makes his money illegally. I’m not waiting on somebody to get out of jail or worried about the house getting shot up.

I’m not about that life at all. Too many negative consequences come with that lifestyle. A man with a career and a plan is more my speed. ~ Chandra W. I would definitely choose a working man because we could build together, as a working couple. A street man is for the streets and not for me. Also street money is not always consistent, especially when it’s a drought. ~MeChelle Working man! Women need security and steadiness. More interested in his plan to build and bills can be split based on ratio of income to bills if needed. ~Jasmine I’m taking the working man. Maybe when

I was in my late teens or early 20s I would’ve taken the drug dealer but I’m not living like that at this point in my life. ~Melissa I’m taking the working man off top. Yes, I have messed with drug dealers in my early days but I’ll still pick that working man.

The drug dealer has multiple women (not saying working men don’t), no health insurance, no 401k, and death or jail is their early life sentence. ~Niki In my younger years I would have went for the drug dealer but now that I am older and wiser it is the working man for me. The drug dealer girlfriends are pretty and popular and you become the envy of all the other girls vying for your position. Drug dealers are gonna spend money on you to get your hair and makeup done. But it is a dangerous lifestyle. Working men are gonna have a 401k, pension for us to live off of when we retire. Last I checked drug dealers don’t have a portfolio. Working men are going to give you money for the mortgage and utility bills. In your teens and 20s you think of the “right now.”

As you get older you think and plan for the future. ~Kathy I’m 40 years old. I would not pick a street dude because I have seen personally that it leads to prison, death, or a handicap. ~GaBrielle Damon here: As a kid who grew up in the hood, when you’re in it, your choices to get out of those circumstances seems limited. Biggie Smalls said it best: “Either you’re

slinging crack rock or you got a wicked jump shot.” Fortunately for me, I had a decent basketball game with a decent jump shot.

The sport saved me from forging a life selling drugs. Having countless friends in the hood who got caught up in the streets, there’s one thing I remember vividly. Not one of them was single. They had multiple women wanting to be with them. Many of them have several children and several baby mothers to prove it. Many of them spent an average of 10-15 years in prison. Many of them died long before the age of 40. Some died before the age of 21. Many of them became users of the drugs they were selling. I know of stories where innocent girlfriends were gunned down along with their boyfriends who were considered street dudes.

The women who responded are all over 40 years old. They’re giving answers based on observation over the years and perspective.

Hindsight is 20/20. Not one of them would date the street guy with $250,000. They’d opt for the working man with benefits.

Niia, the author of this meme, is more than likely under the age of 25. Her response sounds like something a young, immature person would say. She’s living in the moment. She’s not thinking about the negative consequences associated with the street lifestyle. Those of us who have lived 40 years or more get it.

This article is written with our younger generation in mind. To the young man who’s growing up with limited resources, choose work over dealing drugs. To the young woman who’s looking to be swept off her feet by a young man, choose the hard-working man with drive and ambition over the drug dealing man. You’ll thank us later!

(Damon Carr, Money Coach can be reached at 412216-1013 or visit his website @ www.damonmoneycoach.com)

BUSINESS

B2 JULY 20-26, 2022

NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER

NOBLEMEN MEMBERS—Lee Kirkwood, Harold Denson, Rahim El, Rev. Michael Smith, Sheldon Oliver, Shawn Hall, Kevin Cooper, Greg Washington, Judge Kevin Cooper, Jr. and Shawn Hall. (Photos by Jackie McDonald)

Noblemen grow their brotherhood NOBLEMEN FROM B1

birthed from the vision of the Noblemen organization, a brotherhood of 13 Black men with a strong commitment to what they call the 5 C’s—Christ, Character, Community, Camaraderie and the Calling of being noble men.

Their foundational scripture is Isaiah 32:8: “But the noble make noble plans, and by noble deeds they stand” (New International Version).

According to the organization’s president and a founding member, Rev. Michael Smith, pastor of Destiny International Ministries in Lincoln-Lemington, the Noblemen organization started five years ago when a group of men would get together to bowl. Each week, after bowling, they would gather next door, at a local establishment, to relax, smoke cigars and talk about their lives. As time went by, more men would gravitate to them; it was then that they realized they had something special and established the Noblemen

NOBLEMEN PRESIDENT, REV. MICHAEL SMITH organization.

As the group grew, the founders came up with a process for men to join the organization.

Smith and Oliver, the organization’s vice president, explained that the membership process includes being sponsored by a member and going through a 90-day trial period. During that time, potential members are given various tasks to ensure that they can demonstrate a commit-

ment to the 5 C’s. At the end, the potential member is voted in and if they are approved, they become a member of the Noblemen and receive their own sacred “Noblemen glass.” If they are not approved, they are given the opportunity to go through the process again.

Rahim El, of Homewood, a Noblemen member and co-owner of Life Now Insurance Agency, said the group is a healthy outlet where men can vent, encourage each other and hold each other accountable to being noble men.

Other members of the Noblemen are Shawn Hall (from Homewood); Harold “H” Denson (from Homewood and Life Now Insurance Agency); Lee Kirkwood (the sergeant of arms and a founding member); Greg Washington (the treasurer and general manager of the cigar lounge); Allegheny County Magisterial District Court Judge Kevin Cooper Jr. (secretary); Kevin Cooper (a contractor of the organization and the vice president of the cigar lounge); Greg Logan (a contractor of the organization); Em-

NOBLEMEN MEMBER, RAHIM EL

mett Wilson; Justin Smith; and another Shawn Hall (also from Homewood).

Reverend Smith described the Noblemen organization as a “Fraternity of Faith” and said that while there are men with various pasts, backgrounds and professions, “we’re all equal.”

Oliver added that the group has made them better fathers, husbands, uncles and children.

It was roughly two years ago

Savoy Magazine announces the 2022 Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America ATLANTA, July 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/—Savoy magazine announced its 2022 Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America listing in the upcoming summer issue. Savoy’s Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America is the definitive listing of African American executives, influencers and achievers impacting corporate America.

“Savoy is proud to present the 2022 Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America. In this issue, we assembled an elite representation of African American men and women who have been recognized for their executive and business leadership in national and global-leading corporations,” said L.P. Green, II, Publisher of Savoy magazine. “These innovative trailblazers have led efforts to foster growth for some of the country’s highest-performing companies throughout and beyond the U.S. market.”

Savoy’s summer issue features a cover story on Marvin Ellison, Chairman and CEO of Lowe’s Companies, Inc. Under Ellison’s leadership, Lowe’s has supported many diverse small business owners before and during the pandemic. Lowe’s commitment to investing $9 million to select schools and scholarship programs to help un-

derrepresented students. Lowe’s announced that full- and part-time employees are eligible to enroll in over 50 academic programs at 23 universities and education providers to obtain undergraduate degrees.

The selection of the Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America begins by examining the spheres of influence impacting Savoy’s readership including: corporate sector influence,

scholastic achievement, career growth, community outreach and recognition.

The information received from over 500 prospective candidates in diverse fields was pre-screened by the selection committee.

The selection committee includes the Savoy editorial board and community leaders with representatives from the academic and business arenas.

The committee reviewed information on executives in human resources, information, real estate, finance, investment banking, diversity, foundations, procurement, business development, marketing, sales, healthcare, manufacturing and legal. After reviewing all the profiles, the field of candidates were narrowed to the 2022 Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America listing based upon their exemplary record of accomplishments and influence while working to better their community and inspire others.

Savoy’s full 2022 Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America listing is available online, as of July 18, 2022, exclusively at savoynetwork. com. Print editions of the summer issue of Savoy magazine are available for purchase online through Amazon and savoynetwork.com/shop.

that the men decided they needed a place of their own, and the vision for the Noblemen Cigar Lounge was conceived. They purchased the vacant building that now houses the cigar lounge and on June 25 celebrated the grand opening.

Since the organization’s inception, the men have not missed a meeting and are dedicated to their creation. Through their organization and the cigar lounge, they plan to increase their presence in the community.

Misty Work, the bar manager, said the support has been overwhelming. “I think a lot of cigar lounges may have a brotherhood, but this is one like no other.”

Kirkwood said the cigar lounge gives a person an out-of-town feel. “I like to travel. You can go to any large city and you always (can find) a nice cigar lounge,” he told the Courier. “If you want to just sit and talk, you go to the cigar lounge. We brought that here, to (greater) Pittsburgh.”

Here’s how to combat rising electricity rates In a statement DLC said they are committed to providing its customers with as many resources as possible to help them through financial hardships. As a result, customer delinquency is back to pre-pandemic levels, due largely to more available grants and other financial assistance programs. DLC’s online Here to Help platform includes information about rebates, payment assistance, energy-saving tools and more.

DLC also increased eligibility to and expanded our Dollar Energy Fund earlier this year, with more than $1 million in grant money currently available for electric bills. DLS said it strongly encourages in-need residential and business customers to visit their Here to Help platform to learn about various resources and apply for assistance.

As with other electric utilities, DLC adjusted the default service rate, or “price to compare” (PTC), for residential and small commercial customers ef-

fective June 1. DLC revises these rates every June and December based on energy market prices and other factors. DLC competitively bids the energy supplied through the default service rate to secure the best prices possible for customers.

The PTC may be higher or lower in future adjustments, meaning the impacts to a customer’s bill will likely vary over time.

These rates represent a 17.3 percent increase from previous rates, putting DLC’s increase among the lowest in Pennsylvania.

In an effort to be a trusted partner, DLC encourages customers to evaluate all options when it comes to the supply portion of their bill. This not only enables them to find the best rate, but also ensures they’re receiving the type of service that works best for them.

Because generation costs are passed through to customers, DLC does not profit on any electric generation.

Rihanna listed by Forbes as world’s youngest self-made billionaire

by Stacy M. Brown For New Pittsburgh Courier

(NNPA Newswire)—In 2021, Rihanna achieved billionaire status.

In 2022, Forbes acknowledged that the Barbadian beauty now counts as the youngest self-made billionaire in America.

The 34-year-old, who recently gave birth to her first child, ranked 21st overall in the latest Forbes list of billionaires.

The singer and entrepreneur, whose Fenty Beauty line counts among the most popular in the world, is the only billionaire under 40 on Forbes’ list.

Earlier this year, reports noted that Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty lingerie planned an initial public offering valued at about $3 billion.

The megastar owns 30 percent of Savage X Fenty and 50 percent of Fenty Beauty, reportedly generating $550 million in revenue in 2020.

The nine-time Grammy Award winner has stated that she in-

RIHANNA

tends to increase her philanthropic efforts around the globe.

“My money is not for me; it’s always the thought that I can help someone else,” she told the New York Times in 2021. “The world can really make you believe that the wrong things are priority, and it makes you really miss the core of life, what it means to be alive.”

In 2021, Forbes estimated Rihanna’s net worth at $1.7 billion, trailing only Oprah Winfrey as the world’s richest entertainer.

“A lot of women felt there were no lines out there that catered to their skin tone. It was light, medium, medium-dark, dark,” Shannon Coyne, co-founder of consumer products consultancy Bluestock Advisors, told Forbes about Rihanna’s successful beauty products.

“We all know that’s not reality.

She was one of the first brands that came out and said, ‘I want to speak to all of those different people.’”

Born Robyn Rihanna Fenty on February 20, 1988, in Saint Michael, Barbados, the tantalizing starlet delivered hit after hit with songs like “Umbrella,” “Rude Boy,” and “Diamonds.”

With over 100 million social media followers, Rihanna’s fans have pleaded with their idol to deliver new music.

But with her Fenty and Savage X Fenty business white-hot, Rihanna appears to have settled in as an entrepreneur and business magnate.

Cutting deals with Puma in 2014, Dior in 2016, Fenty Beauty in 2017, Savage X Fenty in 2018, and Fenty Skin in 2020, Rihanna

kept her business focused.

Forbes writer Madeline Berg described Rihanna’s rise this way: “When Robyn Fenty, known to the world as Rihanna, launched Fenty Beauty in 2017, she sought to create a cosmetics company that made “women everywhere (feel) included.” A perhaps unintended consequence: The beauty line has helped her enter one of the world’s most exclusive ranks: Billionaire.”

Berge concluded by providing commentary from Coyne, the consultant.

“She is creating a brand outside of herself. It’s not just about Rihanna. Even if you don’t like her music, she’s created a real style in the fashion and beauty space.”

(Stacy M. Brown is NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent)

OPINION

NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER

JULY 20-26, 2022

B3

Dots

Guest Editorial

Police failed children in Uvalde massacre A new video shows footage of police officers in body armor milling in the hallway of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, while a gunman continued firing inside a fourth-grade classroom where 19 children and two teachers were killed.

The video published July 12 by the Austin American-Statesman is a disturbing recording of what has been known for weeks but now has video evidence to confirm—local and state law enforcement failed the children and families in one of the deadliest shootings in U.S. history.

It is inexcusable that heavily armed police officers, some armed with rifles and bulletproof shields, gathered in the hallway and waited more than an hour before going inside and stopping the massacre.

The video underscores the need for accountability after weeks of still-unanswered questions and changing narratives about what happened that day.

“This has been the most unprofessional investigation or handling of it that I’ve ever seen in my life,” Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said in an interview with The Associated Press. “These families get blindsided constantly.”

The mayor is right.

Instead of transparency, the families of the victims have been met with resistance and obfuscation from officials.

The video shows the gunman entering the school building with an AR-15 style rifle and includes 911 tape of a teacher screaming, “Get down! Get in your rooms! Get in your rooms!”

Two officers approach the classrooms minutes after the gunman enters, then run back amid the sounds of gunfire.

As the gunman first approaches the classrooms, a child down the hallway can be seen poking their head around the corner and then running back while shots ring out. Later, about 20 minutes before police breach the room, the video shows a man wearing a vest that says “sheriff” use a hand sanitizer dispenser mounted on the wall.

There are still questions that remain about the law enforcement response, including how schools police Chief Pete Arredondo came to the forefront of the massive response involving numerous local, state and federal agencies.

There are also questions on the roles of the ranking on-scene officers from other agencies, including the Texas Department of Public Safety.

McLaughlin has accused DPS of minimizing its involvement in the response and releasing inaccurate timelines.

State authorities said Arredondo was the on-scene commander and said his errors delayed police killing the gunman. Arredondo, however, has told the Texas Tribune he didn’t consider himself to be in charge of operations and that he assumed someone else had taken control of the law enforcement response. He did not have a police radio at the time.

A report on the police response written by tactical experts and requested by DPS alleged that a Uvalde police officer had a chance to open fire on the gunman before he entered the school. McLaughlin has said that account was inaccurate.

What is clear is that the law enforcement response was a failure that cost 21 lives.

(Reprinted from the Philadelphia Tribune)

Founded 1910

Rod Doss Editor & Publisher Stephan A. Broadus Assistant to the Publisher Allison Palm

Rob Taylor Jr.

Ashley Johnson

Office Manager

Managing Editor

Sales Director

John. H. Sengstacke

Editor & Publisher Emeritus (1912-1997)

(TriceEdneyWire.com)—Like many of my generation, I was never reared in opulence. There was never an over-abundance of anything that could make life materially easier. We did have love and the values of personal achievement and the pursuit of a quality education. We learned to appreciate many things that others would consider insignificant.

I can recall gleefully stimulating my imagination with connect-thedots art. I always enjoyed predicting the subject of the illustration before completing the connections and found that I became quite skillful at both, including the final coloring. In reflection, I consider that activity as preparation for my adult life—learning how to assess the big picture and understanding how things come together. So it is with the reversal of Roe v. Wade.

Taking the time to connect-thedots and realizing that life, like the DOTS, frequently offers a glimpse into the future, it is difficult to believe that so many find it shocking and unbelievable that the Supreme Court would follow-through with the dissolution of Roe. The ‘leaked’ decision in May makes this shock and disbelief even less understandable. Beyond the leak, it must be acknowledged that this decision was not made spontaneously. This well-orchestrated decision is the result of decades of organization, planning and single-issue voting.

I can’t remember the number of times I’ve mentioned it in past articles, but, as far back as the

Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.

Commentary mid-seventies, I can remember televangelist and 1988 Republican presidential candidate, Pat Robertson, providing tutelage on a groundup approach to national Republican political domination. He advocated vigorous competition for any and all available local elective offices. He was confident that securing these offices would lead to establishing the groundwork for success in securing higher elective offices. In my assessment, the Robertson plan has worked.

In 1982, Congress amended the Voting Rights Act by changing the standard from requiring proof of intended discrimination to only having to show discriminatory impact. Ronald Reagan believed that the Voting Rights Act humiliated the South and brought in an individual to determine how to oppose the 1982 Voting Rights Act amendment. That person was John Roberts who began his career arguing against the Voting Rights Act. When writing for the majority in the evisceration of the VRA in 2013, Roberts’ crusade had, seemingly, achieved its highest objective.

Mitch McConnell led Senate Republicans in a disciplined, sustained, and, at times, underhanded

campaign to deny President Obama the opportunity to appoint federal judges. McConnell helped bring down Roe—a decades-long goal of anti-abortion activists—by leveraging his leading role in the U.S. Senate to reshape the U.S. Supreme Court. He was responsible for steering three conservative Supreme Court Justices through the confirmation process, and he is most notably criticized for the hyper-partisan hypocrisy that he used to justify the ‘irregular’ (some would argue illegal) confirmation of Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett. Of course, these three justices provided the margin of victory for the anti-abortion initiative and have opened the door of scrutiny on other privacy issues.

It may be easy or convenient to assess these circumstances as separate and distinct occurrences, but that would be naïve. Without direct evidence, collusion cannot be proved, but, like discrimination, the real proof is in the impact and effect.

However flawed, the ideals of Democracy promoted by the nation’s founders and the achievements in civil rights and social justice that have been earned through struggle since 1776 are more threatened than at any time in our history.

The current struggle boils down to voting consistently and creating a legislative majority of those who value the freedoms we have won.

(Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq. is a minister, a UN Peace Ambassador, and President of the Dick Gregory Society.)

His name is George Floyd (TriceEdneyWire.com)—George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer just over two years ago. His killing sparked a movement to end unjustified police killings and racist law enforcement practices. Sadly, the killings have not stopped. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act was blocked by Senate Republicans last year. The struggle continues in communities large and small.

During racial justice protests that sprung up after video of Floyd’s murder spread around the world, millions of people spoke his name as they demanded accountability and justice. Now, a remarkable book examines Floyd’s life and death in the context of our history and what one of the authors calls the “complex, tangled web” created by racism in this country.

“His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice” was written by Washington Post reporters Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa. It draws on the reporting of their colleagues and on intimate interviews with Floyd’s family, romantic partners, and circle of friends.

At a time when politicians are making it illegal for educators to acknowledge that systemic racism exists, Samuels and Olorunnipa document in painful detail the ways in which racially discriminatory policies on housing, education, health care, addiction, policing and more contributed to “a life in which Floyd repeatedly found his dreams diminished, deferred, and derailed—in no small part because of the color of his skin.”

“For example,” Samuels says, “you could not disentangle police departments’ disproportionate use of force against African Americans from the junk science that is still taught about

Ben Jealous

Commentary Black people being more resistant to pain. We could not ignore that those same instincts led to the inadequate mental health treatment in George Floyd’s life, nor could we separate that society both encouraged George Floyd to bulk up to pursue his athletic dreams and then stereotyped him as dangerous when he was off the field.”

The book doesn’t try to make Floyd a saint. It doesn’t have to. He was a human being. He did nothing to deserve being murdered on the street by an abusive police officer who shouldn’t have been wearing a badge.

“His Name Is George Floyd” is worth reading for many reasons. It gives us a fuller picture of the person George Floyd was. It introduces us to many people who loved him and sought a measure of justice for his murder.

And it points to some important facts about policing in this country.

One is the need for accountability. Chauvin had a record of violent behavior. When abusive cops are not held accountable, more people will be subjected to their violence.

Another point is that policing is a local issue requiring local solutions.

National policies, like those in the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, can help. But holding violent cops accountable, getting them off the streets, or better yet, preventing them from getting hired in the first place, all require change at the local level.

People For the American Way spent the two years since Floyd’s murder

developing a road map for transforming public safety. We looked at the research. We talked to criminologists, public officials, clergy and other community activists, and members of law enforcement. “All Safe: Transforming Public Safety” is a guide for public officials and community activists seeking to make their communities safer.

Among the essential steps to make policing more just and more effective at the same time: improving recruiting to weed out potentially dangerous cops, holding violent officers accountable, and getting unfit officers off the force. Also, importantly, restructuring public safety systems to reduce the unnecessary involvement of armed officers in situations where they are not needed and for which they are not trained is good for cops as well as communities.

The authors of “His Name Is George Floyd” describe optimism in the face of our history as both a defense mechanism and a means of survival. I am optimistic that we can end unjust police killings. I am optimistic that we can build the uncomfortably large coalitions it will take.

“Our book makes the argument that if we can demonstrate step-by-step how this country’s history with racism continues to shape people today, then we can continue the good work of dismantling systemic racism,” Samuels told me in an email. “We have to connect the theory with the practice.”

That job belongs to all of us. We know what kind of changes will make our communities safer. Let’s organize, city by city and town by town, to make it happen.

(Ben Jealous serves as president of People For the American Way and Professor of the Practice at the University of Pennsylvania.)

Talking to kids about current events

by Dr. Kyle Boerke The recent mass shootings at a 4th of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois and at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas has left lives shattered. Images of the parade route, the school, frightened parents and angry politicians have saturated the 24 hour news cycle, and our kids are watching.

News that could be confusing at best—or scary at worst—is circulating on-air and online, and many parents are left to wonder how to talk to their children about unsettling current events.

“The conversation really should be about the child. Give them permission to express their feelings. Make sure that they understand it’s important for them to be expressing their opinions, their viewpoints, their feelings. We want to make sure that they are hearing from us as the parent that we care about what they think. We care about what they are feeling,” explains Kyle Boerke, PsyD, an OSF HealthCare clinical child psychologist.

As information comes in, children may misinterpret what they hear, and might be frightened by something they don’t understand. Dr. Boerke says the first step parents should take is to simply ask kids what they know, and then talk about it truthfully, in a way that is appropriate for the age and developmental level of their child.

“We want them to know the information that I am giving to them is something that they can trust that is accurate. So if they are hearing me fiddle with the truth one way or another and they have a teacher at school that is having a conversations with them, that is going to put kind of a doubt in their head. So it is important to be open and honest with them at that age appropriate level. That way they know that they can trust you as a parent and your discretion,” he says.

And while the topic of the day might be divisive, parents can use the current environment as a teaching opportunity. Dr. Boerke reminds us that our kids are watching our reactions to current events and how we treat those with

differing opinions or outlooks.

“We have the ability to model how we agree with or how we disagree with something in an appropriate way, and especially in a time like this when the country is so divided, that is a really important thing for us to model—appropriate ways to disagree or have different opinions from other people,” urges Dr. Boerke.

And Dr. Boerke says one of the most important things a parent can do is to reassure kids that they are safe.

During unsettling times, sometimes kids can have trouble coping.

Dr. Boerke says signs of that include changes in behavior like nightmares, a child not sleeping, new fears, a lack of concentration or unusual moods.

If a parent notices these changes are ongoing, and talking with the child doesn’t seem to alleviate the fear, Dr. Boerke suggests speaking to your child’s pediatrician to get a referral to a behavioral health provider.

(This article originally appeared on OSF HealthCare.)

(Reprinted from the Chicago Crusader)

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JULY 20-26, 2022 NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER

Overturning Roe v. Wade weakens our union (BlackPressUSA)— The statement of purpose in the preamble to the U.S. Constitution says, “in order to create a more perfect Union.” While I often focus on the words “more perfect,” equally important is the word “Union.” I fear that the Supreme Court’s recent opinion overturning Roe v. Wade is a step back from that pursuit and significantly weakens our Union.

Ill-advised Supreme Court decisions have torn our Union asunder in the past. And anything that has happened before can happen again. The Supreme Court’s decisions in Citizens United and Shelby County started the most recent erosion of our constitutional rights and democratic values, and its decision in the Dobbs case strips away another long-held right.

The Court is reverting to a dark chapter in its history and risks thrusting our Union down another dark path.

During the Reconstruction era immediately after the Civil War, our Union made significant progress toward greater perfection through the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, and congressional action to enforce their protections. These efforts granted more Americans a greater ability, as the Supreme Court observed with respect to abortion rights more than a century later in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, “to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation.”

Yet the Supreme Court of that time issued decisions that contributed to halting this progress in its tracks, and which aided and abetted the return to power of Confederates and their White supremacist governing ideology—and the ultimate rise of the Jim Crow era. In the Slaughterhouse Cases and Bradwell v. Illinois in 1873, the Court severely limited the privileges and immunities clause of the 14th Amendment, stripping this constitutional source of rights from those Americans whose privileges and immunities were under threat. In United States v. Cruikshank in 1876, the Court exonerated members of a White supremacist mob that had perpetrated a local insurrection, holding that Congress could not protect Americans against violations of their constitutional rights by non-government actors, no matter how organized or how violent.

The Court’s endorsement of White supremacy was sealed with Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, upholding the establishment of second-class citizenship with its “separate but equal” holding. The Court followed with Giles v. Harris in 1903, upholding Jim Crow voter suppression schemes that were disenfranchising African American voters throughout the South, rendering the 15th Amendment a dead letter for more than 60 years.

The effects of these decisions were that the rights of African Americans—the right to vote, the right to equal education, the right to be protected by law from deadly violence, the rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”—were dependent upon the states in which they lived. This states’

Rep. James Clyburn

Commentary rights approach was highly detrimental to our Union and lethal to thousands of Blacks and other minorities.

Under this oppressive reality, the Great Migration ensued, where millions of African Americans moved north searching for dignity and greater opportunity. For them, a country in which they had to migrate from one part to another for basic rights—though circumstances at their destinations were far from perfect—was no union at all.

This type of disunion is beginning to repeat itself. Already, the Supreme Court’s decisions over the past decade in Shelby County (which resulted in states and localities no longer needing to have voting law changes “precleared” by the Justice Department), Rucho (which gave a green light to partisan gerrymandering), and Brnovich (which increased the difficulty of protecting the right to vote under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act) are enabling stark divergences in democratic procedures from state to state, with some states enacting significant barriers to electoral participation and accountability.

This creeping disunion is being exacerbated with the overturning of abortion rights in many states. As a result of the Supreme Court’s green lighting of voter suppression and partisan gerrymandering, this backsliding may not be limited to states where a majority of voters support candidates who favor abortion bans. When this happens, women in many states—disproportionately Southern states—will be forced to travel elsewhere for abortion care. That will be a grave imperfection in our Union. And this option may not even be feasible for many low-income women, and they will find themselves in wrenching situations with no good options.

Those seeking to deny basic rights rarely stop halfway.

States are already proposing to legally sanction trips to other states for abortions. The enactment of these laws—which I believe to be blatantly unconstitutional, but do not trust the current Supreme Court to agree—would force women to choose between living in certain states and access to legal abortion anywhere. Given that nearly one in four American women have an abortion in their lifetimes, I fear deaths and horrific outcomes to many pregnancies and maybe another Great Migration.

There is no reason to believe the anti-choice zealots would stop there. Members of Congress are already discussing a national ban on abortion. The most extreme seek a constitutional ban. Some may say they don’t foresee these bans happening, and they may be right. But I don’t trust the rightwing, anti-abortion extremists to stop until the right to legal abortion has been eliminated.

And as Justice Thomas’s concurring opinion warned, those seeking to outlaw abortion won’t stop there. The Republican platform calls for overturning Obergefell, which guarantees the right of same-sex couples to marry. Other rights like contraception, intimate activity between consenting adults, and even interracial marriage could also be at risk. If this Republican Party is given the power to pass laws and appoint judges, rights that many thought were safe will be in jeopardy.

Forming a more perfect Union in a diverse society like ours cannot be achieved through mandated conformity—that is a recipe for rupture, not cohesion. I have often observed that none of us is any more or any less than our experiences allow us to be. Some Americans’ experiences have led them to the conclusion that abortion is morally acceptable, while the experiences of others have led them to the opposite conclusion.

The best way to form a more perfect Union is to leave decisions regarding abortions to those who are by far the best suited to make them: pregnant women. The Court’s decision in Dobbs will go down in history with the Slaughterhouse Cases, Bradwell, Cruikshank, Plessy, and Giles as grave errors that took us further away from a more perfect Union.

I urge my congressional colleagues and state legislators to learn from our history and change course before our nation is torn apart once again.

Post-Roe: Looking backward at us again Every public intellectual conducts the same thought experiment during the course of their career. They’ll speculate how the generation after the next will judge the contentious political debates of the present day.

William Raspberry, the celebrated Washington Post Columnist, partook in this thought experiment a couple of years after the Supreme Court legalized abortion in a 1981 column titled-Looking Backward at Us. Raspberry wrote, “Take the question of abortion. Maybe my grandchildren will find it laughable that so many of us even dreamed of questioning the right of a woman to decide whether to carry a pregnancy to term-just as it strikes us as silly that our grandparents took seriously the question of whether it should be legal to buy a bottle of liquor.

Or maybe they will be aghast that people in Grandpop’s day spent time debating whether a fetus was something other than a human being-just as we are aghast that an earlier generation spent time debating the humanity of Black slaves. One way or another, the answer will be clear. Or, perhaps more likely, the question itself will have evaporated.”

But how would the moral gravity of the issue vanish? Raspberry believed that 100 years down the line, morality-by-consensus would resolve the matter.

Raspberry wrote, “The notion of morality-by-consensus will strike a lot of us as immoral. We like to think that things are right or wrong, regardless of the popular attitude. Our

J. Pharoah Doss

Check It Out grandchildren are likely to understand that morality-by-consensus is the only societal morality there is. Individuals may opt-out of the consensus, just as some individuals reject such commonly accepted medical procedures as blood transfusions. But when most people accept a thing as right or wrong, that is the end of the moral debate.”

However, fifty years after Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court reversed the ruling.

It wasn’t overturned due to a moral consensus opposing the legality of abortion. On the contrary, the latest gallop poll revealed that 8 in 10 Americans believe abortion should be legal to some degree and the majority didn’t want Roe v. Wade overturned.

The Supreme Court’s reversal wasn’t a moral judgment against the procedure, it merely returned the moral issue to state legislators.

With the current poll numbers suggesting a national moral consensus in favor of abortion, Raspberry would have been surprised at the Supreme Court’s reversal. When Raspberry wrote his column, he treated the notion of morality-by-consensus as if it were the popular vote of a presidential election and ignored the fact that each state would have a different moral

consensus on abortion. This means he underestimated the underlying influence of moral relativism on the entire culture.

In short, moral relativism holds that nobody is objectively right or wrong.

Everyone should tolerate the behavior of others, even when they adamantly disagree about the morality of a certain action.

Here the highest value is tolerance, not what’s moral.

Senator John Kerry demonstrated this value during his 2004 presidential campaign. When asked about his stance on abortion, Kerry said, “I oppose abortion personally. I don’t like abortion. I believe life begins at conception. But I can’t take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or an Atheist who doesn’t share it.”

Most Americans, especially those on the left side of the political spectrum, would agree with Kerry and be against individuals forcing their morals, beliefs, or values onto others. Now, here’s the question—is it possible the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade reflected the same sentiment? In other words, each state was treated like an individual with its own moral consensus regarding the legality of abortion, and the Supreme Court felt it had no right to impose its own moral judgment across the board.

If a fraction of this is true, whenever future generations look backward at us, they won’t believe for a second that the Supreme Court was as conservative as its critics claim.

Jan. 6 hearings—Is it too late to save our democracy?

(TriceEdneyWire.com)—The House Select Committee investigating the sacking of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 has held the first of its prime-time, televised public hearings. The committee has done an exhaustive investigation, interviewing a thousand witnesses, looking at tens of thousands of documents.

The hearings will reveal new information about what was, in fact, a multi-layered effort to overturn the results of a presidential election, driven by the White House and involving Republican legislators, operatives, state officials, and donors. The hearings will ask every American to understand how vulnerable our democracy is, and how close we came to losing it.

The question, of course, is whether it is too late to save our democracy. Donald Trump has persisted in propagating his Big Lie about the election, despite the fact that court after court, many times judges appointed by Trump, his own attorney general and Justice Department, and partisan audits of votes in several states universally found no evidence of fraud that could have come close to making a difference in the election result.

No matter. Trump has persisted, the right-wing media led by Fox News has echoed his claims, and today, two-thirds of Republican voters say Joe Biden is not the legitimate winner of the 2020 presidential election and the election was stolen from Trump. Many Republicans join Trump in praising as patriots those who sacked the Capitol.

The Big Lie goes even further than this. Across the country, in the Congress and in the states, Republican officials have systematically blocked efforts to strengthen our electoral system, and instead, in states where they have power, have passed a range of measures to make voting more difficult.

Jesse Jackson Sr.

Commentary Driven by Trump, they have also supported extremists for what used to be nonpartisan posts in charge of the administration of elections. In some states, they have given the Republican legislatures greater power to overturn the results of the elections. By 2024, Republicans in about 20 states will be primed and eager to ensure that their candidate wins—no matter what the voters say.

In Congress, Republicans have filibustered attempts to reform our electoral laws to make clear how the electoral college works and how it must reflect the votes of the people. They have filibustered against attempts to set federal standards for voting that would make registration and voting far easier. They have even blocked efforts to revive the Voting Rights Act, the keystone of the civil rights movement that was gutted by five right-wing, Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices.

The last time the Voting Rights Act was re-authorized, it received nearly universal bipartisan support in the House and Senate. No more. Now, ensuring the right of Blacks to vote meets with partisan opposition.

There’s the rub. Republicans in polls say that they believe that votes are counted honestly in states that vote Republican, in rural and suburban areas where Republicans congregate.

They say that fraud takes place in urban areas—areas where Blacks and

Hispanics live. Mail-in ballots, which Trump objects to, are fine in Republican areas, but somehow illegitimate in urban areas. When senior citizens used mail-in ballots, there was no problem.

Now that more African Americans and Hispanics use them, they are viewed as suspect.

These fears are compounded by the so-called “replacement theory,” a favorite of the right-wing media. The replacement theory essentially argues that Black, Hispanic and Asian American votes are tainted because Democrats allegedly are plotting to use immigrants to “replace” White majorities.

America, in this view, must remain a White, Christian, male-dominated country. And if that takes subverting the democracy to ensure that the minority can rule, so be it.

The Jan. 6 congressional committee hearings are, in many ways, a plea for Americans to defend their democracy.

This should be as popular as apple pie—but it won’t be. The committee will face a right-wing media complex—Fox News, Newsmax, the QAnon network and legions of poisonous talk radio hosts—that will no doubt ignore its evidence and savage its conclusions.

More than eight in 10 Republicans who get their news from Fox News believe the election was stolen.

America has experienced brutal battles over its democracy before. The Civil War was fought over whether the United States would remain united and free. The civil rights movement had to overcome entrenched resistance to end apartheid Jim Crow in the South. Now democracy is at stake once more. Will Americans again rally to defend our democracy or will they succumb to a Big Lie grounded in racial animus that will drive our country apart? The Jan. 6 committee hearings are yet another chapter in that ongoing battle.

The social crisis, Black folks and the economy It appears that we continue to live in Charles Dickens “A Tale of Two Cities”.

He wrote these words: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

Where you fit in between “the best of times” and “the worst of times” really depends on who you are today in America. For African Americans, too many of us are still experiencing the worst of times, and things will not get better unless we decide to make them so. While America is excited about abortions and gun violence, we have been victims of the latter, with civil rights violations and voter suppression being more important than abortions to most of us. The speed with which the President moved with an Executive Order to assist the abortion issue and his mentioning of overturning the Filibuster Rule were both absent on the Voting Rights and Civil Rights issues.

Nevertheless, it is now our turn to correct all this. Just as our votes made Joe Biden president and sent two U.S. senators to the Senate from the State

John E. Warren

Commentary of Georgia, it is now our turn to rally in every state that the Trump people are trying to “Steal” in the coming elections.

We must vote out their supporters.

This means that no matter what the social issues that emerge, we must stay focused on who is seeking to get elected and whether they will commit to overturning the Filibuster Rule in the Senate.

While some say we need two more U.S. Senators so that we can break the chokehold of Senator Manchin and Senator Sinema, who vote with the Republicans on all issues, we must examine all the Senate races and throw our support into every state race where we find a candidate who will commit to our agenda. Remember, only one third of the Senate is up for election each election cycle. Just as in Georgia, we can make a difference.

Trump and the Conservative Right are counting on a low voter turnout in November, just four months away.

From the voter turnout in most primaries so far, they have been right.

Let’s remember that we, as Black people, are responsible for the Voting Rights Act, and the Civil Rights Act. We elected Obama twice and Biden once.

We are not apathetic. We are just tired. But we can not stop to rest. As Robert Frost wrote, “The woods are dark and deep, but I have miles to go before I sleep.”

Voter Registration and Voter Turnout in all 50 States must become our Number One Priority, at all costs. More important than abortions, homelessness, high gas prices and bad Supreme Court Decisions. Let registration begin and let’s track the numbers week by week. As Rev. Ben Chavis, President of the National Newspaper Publishers Association has said, “We want 10 million new registered voters by November 2022. Let’s make this the “best of times” in spite of what appears to be the “Worst of Times”.

(John E. Warren is Publisher, The San Diego Voice & Viewpoint)

New Pittsburgh Courier

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JULY 20-26, 2022

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JOB OPPORTUNITIES Help Wanted

MINISTER OF MUSIC MT. OLIVE BAPTIST of Coraopolis is currently accepting applications for the position of Minister of Music.

Job description and application for the position can be found at www.mtobaptist.org Deadline for applications is August 7, 2022.

Interested candidates send application to: Mt. Olive Baptist Church Minister of Music Search Committee 1201 Hiland Ave. Coraopolis, PA 15108 mobchurch@comcast.net FULL TIME POLICE OFFICER. Munhall Borough announces that it is seeking applicants for the position of FULL TIME POLICE OFFICER. Applicants must be 21 years of age or over, be a US Citizen, possess a current valid PA Driver’s License, Diploma or General Equivalency Degree, some college preferred and be Act 120 certified to be eligible to take the exam. Salary is $24.74 per hour with fringe benefits.

The application form and a $50.00 fee are required to be completed in order to apply for the position of FULL TIME POLICE OFFICER. Applications are available at the Borough Building at 1860 West St., Munhall PA 15120 and at www.munhallpa.us. The Borough Building is open Monday-Friday from 8 AM to 4 PM. Call 412-4647310 if you have any questions.

COMPLETED APPLICATIONS MUST BE TURNED IN TO THE BOROUGH MANAGER’S OFFICE DURING NORMAL BUSINESS HOURS BY AUGUST 12, 2022.

Seth Abrams Borough Manager SOUTH FAYETTE TWP. SCHOOL DISTRICT is seeking the following positions: ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERLIFE SKILLS, AUTISTIC, AND LEARNING SUPPORT Deadline 4:00 PM, July 26, 2022 MIDDLE SCHOOL SPECIAL EDUCATION SUBSTITUTE TEACHER (MATH FOCUSED) Deadline 4:00 PM, July 27, 2022 NURSE Deadline 4:00 PM, July 27, 2022 Position available at the start of the 2022-2023 school year Complete job description and directions on how to apply are available at: www.southfayette.org SOUTH FAYETTE TWP. SCHOOL DISTRICT is seeking multiple FOOD SERVICE MEMBERS Complete job descriptions and directions on how to apply are available at: www.southfayette.org Applications must be received by 4:00 PM July 27, 2022, or until positions are filled SOUTH FAYETTE TWP. SCHOOL DISTRICT is seeking a HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHER Position available at the start of the 2022-2023 school year Complete job descriptions and directions on how to apply are available at: www.southfayette.org Applications must be received by 4:00 PM July 22, 2022 SOUTH FAYETTE TWP. SCHOOL DISTRICT is seeking a HEAD VARSITY GIRLS TENNIS COACH Complete job description and directions on how to apply are available at: www.southfayette.org Applications must be received by 4:00 PM July 22, 2022 SOUTH FAYETTE TWP. SCHOOL DISTRICT is seeking a CERTIFIED SCHOOL NURSE Position available at the start of the 2022-2023 school year Complete job descriptions and directions on how to apply are available at: www.southfayette.org Applications must be received by 4:00 PM July 22, 2022

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ORACLE OTBI REPORTING ANALYST CONSOL Energy, Inc. (Canonsburg, PA) to dvlp tchnlg imprvmnts, incl. entrprs reporting & dashbrdng, perform advanced research, & anltcl work spring orgnztn, & w/sprtng the bus. w/data anls. Specific job duties incl.: OTBI, SmartView, Oracle Fnncl Reporting Sys. admnstrtn by sprtng & driving intvs through data anls. & tchnlg enblmnt; creating bus. & functional design dcmntn foll. standard sftwr dvlpmnt protocols; dvlpng, testing, & dplng code foll. Infrmtn Sys. & Tchnlg Change Mngmnt prcdrs; dvlpng/ dlvrng training courses at basic, intrmdt, & advanced levels; & prep. dprtmntl Key Prfrmnc Indicator (“KPI”) msrmnts. Jira admnstrtn by cnfgrng, mngng current ongoing & enhncmnt projects. Rcmndng indstr best practices, alternate mthdlg. to imprv cllctn, quality, accuracy, & utlztn of Co’s Oracle Cloud Fusion ERP Sys. Support Oracle analytics cloud security through oracle cloud infrstrctr, mng release schedules & tstng for anltcs cloud. Master degree in Comp.

Science, Infrmtn Tchnlg or directly related field. Must know (through academic training or work exp.)

Database Mngmnt Sys., Object Oriented Prgram., Object Oriented Anls. & Design, Sftwr Testing Mthdlgs, & Computer Networks Data Modeling & Implmntn Techniques, Advanced Database Design & Anls, & Advanced Strctrd Progrmng & Algrthms. Email resume to MariaFarneth@consolenergy.com.

SOFTWARE ENGINEER Aurora Innovation, Inc. seeks Software Engineer (REF#00044) in Pittsburgh, PA for architecture, design, & dev. of core perception algorithms, data-structures & tools for autonomous operation. Email resumes to Mary Ellen Mahoney at memahoney@aurora.tech and include REF#00044.

DOCUMENT & PROJECT CONTROLS SPECIALIST Pittsburgh Regional Transit is seeking a Document & Project Controls Specialist to maintain all records documentation using various ty p e s o f e l e c troni c document storage applications and software, as well as off-site storage; researches non-contractual product for price quotes according to specifications.

Orders office supplies for company.

Verifies invoices against purchase orders. Monitors budget and reconciles invoices, resolve invoice discrepancies.

Serves as point-of-contact for office service equipment and furniture repairs and issues.

Essential Functions: •Researches products and obtains price quotes for non-contractual products such as paper stock, non-paper supplies, technology equipment under $10,000, furniture, and professional printing services.

Maintains adequate stock for company with products provided by Administrative Services. Reviews purchase orders from other departments, creates purchase orders, and obtains order approval, shipping verification, returns, delivery confirmation.

• Assists in monitoring department budget against expenditures.

Reconciles purchase orders and invoices for payment. Resolves invoice discrepancies with vendors. Maintains databases pertaining to all orders placed. Codes invoices for payment.

• Point of contact for IT Help Desk Tickets related to copier, printer, and fax repairs; related supplies; and furniture repair. For maintenance issues, determines whether repair can be made in-house or if it will require a vendor service call.

Job requirements include: • AA/AS in Business Administration, Accounting, Finance or related field.

Directly related experience may be substituted for the education on a year-for-year basis.

• Minimum of two (2) years of document or project management experience.

• Experience in budgeting, reconciliation, and office equipment and maintenance.

• Experience in creating, updating and maintaining electronic forms.

• Ability to work independently.

• Effective and professional communication and organizational skills.

• Demonstrated ability in the use of Windows, Microsoft Word, and Excel.

Preferred attributes: • Experience in PeopleSoft.

• Experience supervising or coordinating efforts of others.

• Experience with SQL, Falcon/ DMS, Crystal Reports, query and report writing tools.

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We offer a comprehensive compensation and benefits package. Interested candidates should forward a cover letter (with salary requirements) and resume to: Holly A. Jenkins Employment Department 345 Sixth Avenue, 3rd Floor Pittsburgh, PA 15222-2527 HJenkins@portauthority.org EOE CLASSIFIEDS GET RESULTS!

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Help Wanted

Name Change

Bids/Proposals

ASSOCIATE COUNSEL – CLAIMS & LITIGATION Pittsburgh Regional Transit is seeking a Associate Counsel – Claims & Litigation to represent Pittsburgh Regional Transit as the attorney of record in civil, labor, criminal and administrative matters; provide legal advice and counsel to Authority personnel; provide legal services and counseling regarding internal and external legal matters.

Essential Functions: • Provide proactive and effective legal representation for Pittsburgh Regional Transit and its members, officers and employees in a wide range of claims litigation matters, including personal injury and property damage claims as assigned and under the direction and guidance of the Director of Legal & Consulting Services, Chief Legal Counsel, Counsel – Claims & Litigation Matters and/or other designated Legal Department attorney(s).

• Prepare legal documents including pleadings, discovery requests and responses, motions, briefs, etc., as litigation needs dictate.

• Interview witnesses, parties, etc. for the development of facts relative to matters asserted against Pittsburgh Regional Transit or by Pittsburgh Regional Transit, as the issue or issues dictate.

• Draft, review, analyze and interpret legal documents, including civil complaints, answers, discovery matters, contracts, construction documents, etc.

Job requirements include: • Degree of Juris Doctorate and membership in good standing of the Pennsylvania Bar. • Valid Pennsylvania License to Practice Law. • Minimum of three (3) years substantive experience in civil litigation with emphasis on discovery, trial preparation and trial of civil matters, including personal injury and property damage cases, in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County or comparable forum.

• Admission to Pennsylvania State Courts.

• Demonstrated knowledge of Pennsylvania Rules of Civil and Appellate Procedure and applicable statutes.

• Demonstrated ability to analyze issues and communicate legal advice, both in written and oral form, to non-lawyers.

• Demonstrated ability in the use of Windows, Microsoft Word, Outlook, and Westlaw legal research software.

• Professional and effective communication skills Preferred attributes: • Experience prosecuting and defending litigation matters on behalf of a Pennsylvania government agency or Pennsylvania municipal entity.

IN The Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania: NO. GD-22-8500.

In re: Petition of Andrea Simon, parent(s) and Legal guardian(s) of Molly Adalynn Schrager for Change of name to Molly Adalynn Simon. To all persons interested: Notice is hereby given that an order of said Court authorized the filing of said petition and fixed the 22nd day of August, 2022, at 9:30 AM., as the time and the Motions Room, City-County Building, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15219, as the place for a hearing, when and where all persons may show cause, if any they have, why said name should not be changed as prayed for. Andrea Simon, 414 Diehl Drive, McKeesport PA 15132, 412719-5186

LEGAL AD FOR 2022-2023 MEETING SCHEDULE SOUTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA COMMISSION The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC) has set the following meeting dates for fiscal year 2022-2023. The Commission Executive Committee meetings will begin at 3:00 p.m. on Monday, August 22, October 24 and December 12, 2022; and February 27, April 24, and June 26, 2023. The regular meetings of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission will begin at 4:00 p.m. on Monday, August 22, October 24 and December 12, 2022; and February 27, April 24, and June 26, 2023. The meetings will be both virtual and in-person, held in the SPC Conference Center at Two Chatham Center, Suite 400, 112 Washington Place, Pittsburgh, PA 15219.

SPC is committed to compliance with nondiscrimination requirements of civil rights statutes, executive orders, regulations and policies applicable to the programs and activities it administers. Accordingly, SPC is committed to ensuring that program beneficiaries receive public participation opportunities without regard to race, color, national origin, sex, age, disability or economic status.

Meeting facilities are accessible to persons with disabilities and the location is reachable by public transit.

SPC will provide auxiliary services for individuals with language, speech, sight or hearing needs, provided the request for assistance is made 3 days prior to the meeting. SPC will attempt to satisfy requests made with less than 3 days notice as resources allow. Please make your request for auxiliary services to Shannon O’Connell at (412) 391-5590, Ext. 334, soconnell@spcregion.org.

Title VI Notice to Public: The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC) hereby gives public notice that it is the policy of the Commission to assure full compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987, Executive Order 12898 on Environmental Justice, and related statutes and regulations in all programs and activities. Title VI and other related statutes require that no person in the United States of America shall, on the grounds of race, color, sex, national origin, age, or disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be otherwise subjected to discrimination under any program or activity for which SPC receives federal financial assistance. Any person who believes t hey have been aggrieved by an unlawful discriminatory practice by SPC under Title VI has a right to file a formal complaint with the Commission. Any such complaint must be in writing and filed with SPC’s Title VI Coordinator within one hundred eighty (180) days following the date of the alleged discriminatory occurrence.

For more information, or to obtain a Title VI Discrimination Complaint Form, please see our website at: w w w. s p c r e g i o n . o r g o r c a l l 412-391-5590.

JOB OPPORTUNITIES

We offer a comprehensive compensation and benefits package. Interested candidates should forward a cover letter (with salary requirements) and resume to: Missy Ramsey Employment Department 345 Sixth Avenue, 3rd Floor Pittsburgh, PA 15222-2527 MRamsey@portauthority.org EOE RENTAL SERVICE Furnished Apartments

FURNISHED ROOM with all amenities conveniently located in the Hill District JAMES (412) 924-8678.

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LEGAL ADVERTISING Legal Notices

Estate of EDWARD LEE MOSLEY, JR., Deceased, of Pittsburgh, PA 15235, No.: 03575 of 2022, Marisa L. Mosley, 202 Walpole Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15235, Adm or to Sheila M. Ford, Attys., 6419 Stanton Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15206 Estate of RAYMOND F. SCHUSTER, deceased of Forest Hills, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, No.: 02-22-04301, Nicholas P. Brenlove, Executor, 401 Washington Avenue, Bridgeville, PA 15017 or to ROBIN L. RARIE, Atty; BRENLOVE & FULLER, LLC. 401 Washington Avenue, Bridgeville, PA 15017 Estate of DAVID A. QUEST, SR., deceased of Pittsburgh, No.: 4521 of 2022, Lisa B. Quest, Administrator, 2620 Espy Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15216 or to c/o Jacqueline H. Brangard, Esquire, Scolieri Law Group, P.C., 1207 Fifth Avenue, Suite 200, Bldg., Pittsburgh, PA 15219 Estate of MS. ROSE E. PARKIN A/K/A ROSE ELLEN PARKIN, deceased of 2633 Glasgow Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15204, Estate No.: 02-2200830, Mr. Edward Freiberger, Administrator, c/o Max C. Feldman, Esquire and the Law Office of Max C. Feldman, 1322 Fiftha Avenue, Coraopolis, PA 15108 Estate of MR. JOHN EDWARD PARKIN, deceased of 2633 Glasgow Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15204, Estate No.: 02-22-01477, Mr. Edward Freiberger, Administrator, c/o Max C. Feldman, Esquire and the Law Office of Max C. Feldman, 1322 Fiftha Avenue, Coraopolis, PA 15108

LEGAL ADVERTISING Bids/Proposals

BOROUGH OF BRADDOCK COUNCIL MEETING A special meeting of the Borough of Braddock Council will be held in person only Thursday July 21st at 7pm at the Braddock Borough Building, 415 6th Street Braddock, PA 15104, in Council Chambers.

Council may take action on personnel items and any other issue that may come before the Borough.

The Borough meetings will no longer be hybrid setup. All meetings will be in person only.

ALLEGHENY COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES PUBLIC MEETINGS/HEARINGS ON THE COUNTY HUMAN SERVICES PLAN The Allegheny County Department of Human Servi ces ( DHS) i s preparing the 2022-2023 County Human Services Plan. There will be two virtual public meetings to talk about the plan and its implementation as part of a State of the Human Services Address. Join us on Wednesday, July 27 at 11:30 a.m. or Thursday, July 28 at 4:30 p.m.

To learn how you can participate, visit https://bit.ly/2N5AVCX. Send your questions, comments, and ideas to DHS-OEE@alleghenycounty.us or via the Q&A during the live meeting.

American Sign Language interpretation will be offered at both presentations.

Interpretation in Spanish and other languages will be offered on July 28th. To request interpretation for a specific language, send a note to the address above.

Information on the County Human Services Plan is available at https://bit.ly/3dcqbgo. To read th e pr evious plans visit https://bit.ly/3ebyWIR. Erin Dalton Director Allegheny County Department of Human Services

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America’s Best Weekly 315 East Carson Street Pittsburgh, PA 15219

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JULY 20-26, 2022 NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER

LEGAL ADVERTISING

LEGAL ADVERTISING

Bids/Proposals

Bids/Proposals

SONNY BOY

NOTICE TO BIDDERS The Sports & Exhibition Authority will receive sealed bids for the DLCC Kitchen & Banquet Equipment as identified below for the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. The contract for this work will be with the Sports & Exhibition Authority of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. Inquiries regarding the bidding should be made to George Meehan - E-mail: gmeehan@pittsburghcc.com, Telephone: 412-325-6120, ext. 6230. Bid Packages may be obtained after the date identified below by contacting George Meehan.

This Advertisement applies to the following Bid Package: Project: Bid Package Name: Bid Package Available: Approximate Value:

David L. Lawrence Convention Center DLCC Kitchen & Banquet Equipment July 13, 2022 $100,000

Time/Date/Location for Bid: 2:00 PM, Thursday, July 28, 2022

David L. Lawrence Convention Center

1000 Ft. Duquesne Blvd Pittsburgh, PA 15222 PORT AUTHORITY OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY Electronic Proposals will be received online at the Port Authority of Allegheny County’s Ebusiness website (http://ebusiness.portauthority.org).

Proposals/bid submittals will be due 11:00 AM on August 10, 2022 and will be read at 11:15 AM., the same day, at Port Authority’s Heinz location (345 Sixth Avenue, Third Floor, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222-2527) as well as through your web browser via Microsoft Teams video conferencing, for the following: Electronic Proposal - Ebusiness website (http://ebusiness.portauthority.org) 1 2 3 4 5 6

Bid Number B220215ARR

Bid Name Asbestos Free Brake Blocks Assembled on Shoes

B220756A

Snow & Ice Removal - Park n' Ride Lots - North & West

B220757A B220758A B220759A B200760A

Rock Salt - Bulk Synthetic Automatic Transmission Fluid Ready to Use Coolant - Antifreeze Coach Replacement Parts - Articulated Bus Bellows

To join by Microsoft Team video conference: • https://bit.ly/3ImmFBD To join by Microsoft Teams call-in number: • 412-927-0245 United State, Pittsburgh (Toll) • Conference ID: 199 699 899# No bidder may withdraw a submitted Proposal for a period of 75 days after the scheduled time for opening of the sealed bids.

A Pre-Bid Conference will be held via tele-conference on each of the above items at 10:00 am July 26, 2022, as well as through your web browser via Microsoft Teams video conference.

To join by Microsoft Team video conference: • https://bit.ly/3Nwp5hH To join by Microsoft Teams call-in number: • 412-927-0245 United State, Pittsburgh (Toll) • Conference ID: 222 443 158# Attendance at this meeting is not mandatory, but is strongly encouraged.

Questions regarding any of the above bids will not be entertained by the Port Authority within five (5) business days of the scheduled bid opening.

These contracts may be subject to a financial assistance contract between Port Authority of Allegheny County and the United States Department of Transportation. The Contractor will be required to comply with all applicable Equal Employment Opportunity laws and regulations.

Contractor is responsible for expenses related to acquiring a performance bond and insurance where applicable. All items are to be FOB delivered unless otherwise specified. Costs for delivery, bond, and insurance shall be included in bidder’s proposal pricing.

Port Authority of Allegheny County hereby notifies all bidders that it will affirmatively insure that in regard to any contract entered into pursuant to this advertisement, disadvantaged business enterprise will be afforded full opportunity to submit bids in response to this invitation and will not be discriminated against on the grounds of race, color, or national origin in consideration for an award.

The Board of Port Authority reserves the right to reject any or all bids.

NOTICE TO PROPOSERS REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS – AQUIFER WATER FILTER DESIGN/BUILD AT THE DAVID L. LAWRENCE CONVENTION CENTER The Sports & Exhibition Authority will receive proposals for a replacement Aquifer Water Filter Design/Build for the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. The contract will be with the Sports & Exhibition Authority of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. Inquiries regarding the RFPs should be made to the Ryan Buries, Assistant General Manager, E-mail: rburies@pittsburghcc.com, Phone 412-325-6151. The RFP may be requested via email.

This Advertisement applies to the following requests for proposals: Project: RFP Available: Pre-proposal Meeting: Proposals Due:

Aquifer Water Filter Design/Build July 19, 2022 11:30 AM, Tuesday, July 26, 2022 (Non-mandatory) 3:00 PM, Tuesday, August 2, 2022

THE BOARD OF PUBLIC EDUCATION OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF PITTSBURGH Sealed bids will be received in the Bellefield Avenue Lobby, Administration Building, 341 South Bellefield Avenue until 11:00 A.M. prevailing time July 26, 2022 and will be opened at the same hour for the purchase of the following equipment and supplies: HYBRID VEHICLE General Information regarding bids may be obtained at the Purchasing Office, 341 South Bellefield Avenue, RM 349 Pittsburgh, PA 15213. The bid documents are available on the School District’s Purchasing web site at: www.pghschools.org Click on Our Community; Bid Opportunities; Purchasing - under Quick Links.

The Board of Public Education reserves the right to reject any and all bids, or select a single item from any bid.

We are an equal rights and opportunity school district COURIER CLASSIFIEDS

REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS The Allegheny County Department of Human Services recently issued a Request for Qualifications for Forensic Psychological and/or Psychiatric Evaluators. The request is ongoing with deadlines of 3 p.m. Eastern Time on the first business day of March and September each year.

For more details and submission information, visit: w w w . a l l e g h e n y c o u n t y. u s / Human-Services/Resources/ Doing-Business/Solicitations-(RFP/ RFQ/RFI).aspx.

Erin Dalton Director

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LEGAL ADVERTISING

Bids/Proposals

Bids/Proposals

ACHA-1684, SNOW & ICE MELT MATERIALS Allegheny County Housing Authority (ACHA) is seeking Bids from qualified vendors to provide Snow & Ice Melt Materials, per specifications in the IFB. ACHA is now conducting all competitive solicitation on an internetbased eP rocurement H ousi ng Marketplace. ACHA is paying for all costs for the use of the Marketplace so, there will be no additional charges for your company to use the Marketplace to download documents or submit responses to ACHA. AGENCY CONTACT PERSON: Guy Phillips, Purchasing Manager Telephone: (412)402-2435, E-mail: gphillips@achsng.com.

HOW TO OBTAIN THE IFB DOCUMENTS ON THE EPROCUREMENT MARKETPLACE: 1. Access ha.internationaleprocurement.com (no “www”).

2. Click on the “Login” button in the upper left side.

3. Follow the listed directions.

4. If you have any problems in accessing or registering on the eProcurement Marketplace, please call customer support at (866)526-9266.

PRE-PROPOSAL CONFERENCE: No Pre-Bid Conference: If you have any questions regarding this IFB or any of the documents, use the “Question and Answer area in the eProcurement Housing Marketplace Website.

QUESTION SUBMITTAL DEADLINE Wednesday, August 10, 2022, 10:00 AM ET HOW TO FULLY RESPOND TO THIS IFB BY SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL SUBMITTAL: 1. As directed within Section 3.2.1 of the IFB document, submit proposed pricing, where provided for, within the eProcurement Marketplace.

2. As instructed within Section 3.0 of the IFB document, submit One (1) Original copy of your “hard copy” proposal to the Agency Administrative Office.

PROPOSAL SUBMITTAL RETURN & DEADLINE * Friday, August 26, 2022, 10:00 AM ET 301 Chartiers Ave, McKees Rocks, PA 15136 (The proposed costs must be entered within the aforementioned eProcurement Marketplace and the “hard copy” documentation must be received in-hand and time-stamped by the Agency by no later than 10:00 AM ET on this date).

The Authority encourages responses from §3 business concerns, small firms, minority firms and firms that have not previously performed work for the ACHA. The Allegheny County Housing Authority reserves the right to reject any and all submissions.

HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF PITTSBURGH INVITATION FOR BIDS (IFB) FOR FIRE PUMP TESTING AND REPACKING AUTHORITY WIDE IFB#300-15-22 The Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh (HACP) hereby requests bids from qualified Firms or Individuals capable of providing the following service(s):

ALLEGHENY COUNTY HOUSING AUTHORITY Frank Aggazio, Executive Director

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Fire Pump Testing and Repacking Authority Wide IFB#300-15-22 The documents will be available no later than July 18, 2022 and signed, sealed bids will be accepted until 9:00 AM on August 2, 2022 The Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh will only be accepting physical bids dropped off in person from 8:00 AM until the closing time of 9:00 A M on August 9, 2022 in t he lobby of 100 Ross St. Pittsburgh, PA 15219. Bids may be uploaded to the Authority’s online submission site, the link is accessible via the HACP website and within the IFB. Sealed bids may still be mailed via USPS at which time they will be Time and Date Stamped at 100 Ross Street 2nd Floor, Suite 200, Pittsburgh, PA 15219.

Parties or individuals interested in responding may download a copy of the Solicitation from the Business Opportunities page of www.HACP.org.

Questions or inquiries should be directed to: Mr. Kim Detrick Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh Procurement Department 100 Ross Street 2nd Floor, Suite 200 Pittsburgh, PA 15219 412-643-2832 A pre-submission meeting will be held via Zoom meeting; on July 28, 2022 at 9:00 A.M. Please see meeting information below: Join Zoom Meeting https://us06web.zoom.us/ j/83572517082?pwd=SHvaGlQdT BQNGVYdVdLMkxjdHpTUT09 Meeting ID: 835 7251 7082 Passcode: 573312 +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington D.C) The Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh strongly encourages certified minority business enterprises and women business enterprises to respond to this solicitation.

HACP has revised their website.

As part of those revisions, vendors must now register and log-in, in order to view and download IFB/ RFPs documentation.

Caster D. Binion, Executive Director Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh HACP conducts business in accordance with all federal, state, and local civil rights laws, including but not limited to Title VII, the Fair Housing Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act, The PA Human Relations Act, etc. and does not discriminate against any individuals protected by these statutes.

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