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Pittsburgh Courier NEW

www.newpittsburghcourier.com Vol. 112 No. 27

Two Sections

JULY 7-13, 2021

thenewpittsburghcourier Published Weekly $1.00

Wilkinsburg residents fight back against proposed merger with Pittsburgh Hot-button issue; Borough Council advocating to keep Wilkinsburg’s independence

CONCERNED WILKINSBURG RESIDENTS spoke out on July 1 against a proposed merger between Wilkinsburg and Pittsburgh. Pictured in the left photo are Margaret Gramby, Darryl Green and Shonna Green.

Pictured in the right photo is Derek L. McKinley. (Photos by Rob Taylor Jr.)

by Rob Taylor Jr. Courier Staff Writer

Wilkinsburg students in grades 7-12 attend Westinghouse, inside Pittsburgh city limits in Homewood.

Wilkinsburg residents get their trash picked up by the City of Pittsburgh, and when there’s a fire, the residents are serviced

by City of Pittsburgh fire-

fighters.

There’s even a working website, wilkinsburgmerger.org, dedicated to promoting the advantages of Wilkinsburg merging, once and for all, with Pittsburgh.

But on Thursday, July 1, right before the holiday, there was an “explosion” of support from Wilkinsburg officials and residents, saying they don’t want any

part of merging with Pittsburgh.

“This is a gentrification process that is just going to try to run over Wilkinsburg, try to displace people.

We don’t want that here,” voiced Derek McKinley, the union representative for Wilkinsburg’s borough employees, told the New Pittsburgh Courier exclusively. “We want to remain independent. We can han-

Henry Parham, who was part of D-Day invasion in 1944, dies

HENRY PARHAM The New Pittsburgh Courier has learned that Henry Parham, who was one of the last surviving African American D-Day

combat veterans, passed away on July 4. His wife of nearly 50 years, Ethel, announced her husband’s passing. He was 99.

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He was 21 years old when he was enlisted in the military, served in the 320th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Balloon Barrage Battalion, an all-Black unit trained for the Invasion of Normandy, France, to aid in the Allied liberation of Europe. His unit, the only SEE PARHAM B6

dle our own business here.

We can take care of our own streets. Not that the city is a bad place, but it’s just not for us.”

Wilkinsburg Council held the engaging press conference at the borough building, flanked by employees, residents and some faith leaders.

The Wilkinsburg Community Development Corporation (WCDC) is

the primary entity in the borough that’s been collecting signatures from residents to eventually place the issue on the ballot for a referendum vote for borough residents. The WCDC, which has been in existence since 2008 and has its office just a stone’s throw from the borough building, said Wilkinsburg residents pay more for public safety per resident

than Pittsburgh residents, and get fewer resources in return. The organization said that Wilkinsburg has no Citizen Police Review Board, police detective services, year-round youth programs or community task force on police reform, like Pittsburgh does. Yet, Wilkinsburg residents pay $16 more per resident for SEE WILKINSBURG A5

THE ‘CHERRY’ ON TOP Robert L. Cherry Jr. named CEO of Partner4Work The New Pittsburgh Courier has learned that Robert L. Cherry Jr., Deputy Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, has been named Chief Executive Officer of Pittsburgh-based Partner4Work.

He assumes the role on July 26. He succeeds Earl Buford, who was named president of the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning in February.

Partner4Work is a workforce development organization that connects funding, expertise, and opportunities for employers, job seekers, agencies, and policymakers to develop a thriving workforce in the Pittsburgh area. As stewards of more than $25 million in public and private workforce funds, Partner4Work oversees and funds workforce programs for adults, dislocated workers, and youth; educates the community through labor market analytics; and implements innovative

ROBERT L. CHERRY JR. solutions to the region’s systemic workforce challenges.

“With his deep knowledge of workforce development priorities, commitment to greater system alignment, and experience in leading strategic business

engagement, Mr. Cherry is the workforce development professional to lead Partner4Work during this critical time,” said David J. Malone, Partner4Work board chair and chairSEE CHERRY A4

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THOUSANDS CAME TO POINT STATE PARK IN DOWNTOWN PITTSBURGH for the Black Music Festival, which was paired with the Juneteenth Festival this year for seven days of fun and celebration catered to Pittsburgh’s Black community, June 18-20 and June 24-27. (Photos by Courier photographer J.L. Martello)

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...2021 Black Music Festival

THE R&B GROUP BLACKSTREET (Photo by J.L. Martello)

RAY PORTER JR., with his son, Ray Porter III. (Photo by Rob Taylor Jr.)

AMBER FARR, REV. A. MARIE WALKER (Photo by Rob Taylor Jr.)

STEPHANIE MURRAY, SOPHIA BROWN (Photo by Rob Taylor Jr.)

JULY 7-13, 2021

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Robert L. Cherry Jr. named CEO of Partner4Work

CHERRY FROM A1

man and CEO of Gateway Financial Group, in a statement. “Additionally, Robert’s policy and urban planning skills will help strengthen Partner4Work’s industry partnerships, job seeker initiatives and strategic alliances with community organizations.

We believe his impressive leadership experience will elevate P4W’s long-term organizational strategies and reaffirm P4W as the go-to organization for workforce development in the region and beyond.”

Partner4Work Board member Debra L. Caplan led the organization as interim CEO while a national search was conducted.

“Mr. Cherry has proven to be an influential figure in the world of workforce development and a true leader when it comes to evoking positive change in the lives of employers, workers, job seekers, and youth,” Caplan said in a statement.

“We excitedly look forward to seeing his exceptional skillset translate into meaningful impact here in our region and throughout the organization.”

“Joining a workforce development agency with such an already strong and robust reputation and trajectory could not be more exciting,” Cherry said in a statement provided to the Courier. “I am eager to expand Partner4Work’s footprint across the region, build valuable new relationships with employers, and implement strategies with partners to make Pittsburgh a more inclusive, diverse, and equitable place to live and work. With my experience, passion, and dedication, I firmly believe that together with Partner4Work’s committed partners, board and providers, we will be able to achieve high-level results that impact the lives of individuals and families for the foreseeable future.”

Cherry’s resume boasts more than 10 years of

workforce development leadership experience which includes senior roles at Employ Milwaukee, Community Advocates Public Policy Institute, and the Center for Urban Population Health, in addition to his current position at the Wisconsin DWD. During his time at Employ Milwaukee, Cherry led the development and implementation of the Career Plus program that consisted of year-round combined workforce training, subsidized improvement, and social-emotional development delivered to Milwaukee citizens ages 15-24.

Since April 2020, Cherry has managed six bureaus that include the Division of Administration, Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, Department of Unemployment Insurance, Division of Employment and Training, Division of Equal Rights, and Division of Workers Compensation as the Appointed Deputy Secretary of the Wisconsin DWD. During the last 15 months, Cherry led 2,500 employees and partnered with the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs, Wisconsin Department of Disabled American Veterans, Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, and the Veterans Chamber of Commerce for a Vets Ready initiative, an employer recognition program highlighting employers committed to the veteran workforce. In addition, under Cherry’s guidance and expertise, last year he also spearheaded a complex program that provided additional unemployment insurance dollars into the hands of out-of-work Wisconsinites.

Cherry received a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

It’s so hard to save money!!!

Thankfully, the Courier’s Damon Carr has some tips on keeping money in our bank accounts. See Page B1.

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JULY 7-13, 2021

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Wilkinsburg residents fight back against proposed merger with Pittsburgh WILKINSBURG FROM A1

public safety, according to the WCDC. The WCDC also said Wilkinsburg’s property taxes are too high, and that a median home value homeowner at Wilkinsburg’s median income level would save $1,593 yearly in property taxes.

But during the July 1 press conference, Denise Edwards, president pro tem of the Wilkinsburg Borough Council, stressed that the WCDC is not part of Wilkinsburg government, though some residents think it is.

“It’s a totally different entity (from Wilkinsburg Council) and they have initiated this drive and it is creating confusion in the community,” Edwards said.

The residents of Wilkinsburg have been through a lot, and rebuilding this community has taken this entire community,” Edwards continued. “We are not looking for any kind of knight to come in here with a magic wand and save us.

We are independent, we make our own decisions and we don’t need big banks and big money coming in here and dictating to us how our neighborhoods get rebuilt...I’m very proud of this entire community and I’m very proud to be a Wilkinsburg resident.”

Edwards said that Pittsburgh picking up Wilkinsburg’s trash and providing fire services “are all contracts, just like we sign a contract to do street paving or street reconstruction or any other service.”

She said it shouldn’t be construed as the borough wanting to eventually merge with Pittsburgh.

William Smith III, a

WILLIAM SMITH III, center, said it’s important that Wilkinsburg remain an independent borough because “the Wilkinsburg residents have a say in how the borough progresses, and they can get things that they really want.” (Photo by Rob Taylor Jr.) Wilkinsburg resident who could become an official council member after the November general election, said he’s concerned that Wilkinsburg residents won’t have a political voice if the borough merges with the much-larger Pittsburgh. As it stands now, he said, “the Wilkinsburg residents have a say in how the borough progresses, and they can get things that they really want instead of big corporations dictating to the residents how things will go” to benefit the corporations.

Many Wilkinsburg supporters at the press conference pointed out how 7,000

Black residents left Pittsburgh in recent years, and Wilkinsburg supporters believe it’s all because of how Pittsburgh invites big companies and real estate developers to build apartment buildings, etc., and charge higher rents. That pushes African Americans out the city. Would that happen in Wilkinsburg if it became part of Pittsburgh?

The Wilkinsburg supporters don’t want to have to even worry about it. That’s why they’re pushing back on the merger proposal.

“I think the WCDC thinks that because we’re a lower-income borough that poor people are stupid,”

said 21-year Wilkinsburg resident Renee Dolney, in an exclusive interview with the Courier. “Let me tell you what poor people understand. They understand power. And they understand graft and greed, and we’re not going to have it. We’re going to fight this.”

Margaret Gramby, who grew up in Homewood and East Liberty, moved to Wilkinsburg more than 13 years ago. She loves Wilkinsburg. She told the Courier she couldn’t understand how the WCDC could be called “Wilkinsburg Community Development Corporation,” while

at the same time promoting the idea of the borough losing its independence.

“I’m really confused about that one,” she said.

Gramby added: “I would have stayed in the city if I wanted to continue to live in the city. Wilkinsburg is a diamond in the rough.

It can grow so much more than what it is right now.”

Some residents of Wilkinsburg have countered with a website of their own, wilkinsburgfuture.org, to advocate for keeping Wilkinsburg its own entity. The website tells residents how, if the merger happens, their rent could go up due to

Pittsburgh’s higher Area Median Income (AMI), 9-1-1 response times could increase, and police officers “who don’t know the neighborhood” would be responding to incidents.

The merger would not affect the current Wilkinsburg school district, which is comprised of Kelly Primary and Turner Intermediate. The partnership between Wilkinsburg and Pittsburgh Public Schools began with the 2016-17 school year, and a new, six-year extension was agreed to in June. While most Wilkinsburg 7-12 students attend Westinghouse, there are about 40 students who attend other magnet schools in the PPS district.

Darryl and Shonna Green are current Wilkinsburg residents who told the Courier they love living in the borough. “I like the closeness, it’s family-oriented, it’s slow-paced for kids,” Darryl said. “I don’t even miss New York City (where he’s from) to be honest with you. I wanted to settle down and this is a great place to settle down,” Darryl said, who also has a son.

Dontae Comans, who won the Democratic nomination for mayor of Wilkinsburg in the May Primary, told the Courier that it’s unfair to Homewood and East Hills residents who continue to seek assistance from Pittsburgh on their neighborhoods, to hear about Wilkinsburg wanting to be “put in the front of the list” to get help from Pittsburgh. “We have to have interest in us,” he said. “We’re not broken.

We’re Wilkinsburg. We’re here.”

P.R.O.M.I.S.E. Basketball Camp enters its 10th year

SON-AND-FATHER—Jakim and Jay Donaldson, about to begin another P.R.O.M.i.S.E. Basketball Camp, Aug. 4.

New Pittsburgh Courier contributor Jay Donaldson, pictured at right, and his son, Jakim, are excited about holding their 10th P.R.O.M.I.S.E. Camp, Aug. 4-6 at A Giving Heart Community Center, 816 Climax St., Knoxville.

Jay Donaldson told the Courier that it’s been an overwhelming pleasure to be able to teach and mentor African American children over the years through the game of basketball. In the heart of summer, the P.R.O.M.I.S.E. Basketball Camp gives youth a fun activity of which

to engage, see and make new friends.

P.R.O.M.I.S.E. is a local, nonprofit organization dedicated to helping men, women and children who have lost loved ones to violence.

P.R.O.M.I.S.E. stands for Protecting and Restoring the Order of Mankind with the Initiative of Serving Elders.

The camp is open to boys and girls ages 8-18.

To register or for more information, call 412580-8030.

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HEALTH

JULY 7-13, 2021

NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER

Take Charge Of Your Health Today. Be Informed. Be Involved.

ESTHER L. BUSH

IPV This month’s Take Charge of Your Health topic affects people in every walk of life, at every age. Hopefully, when we are young, we learn what it means to have healthy relationships.

We learn from those who care for us as children. As adults, we model the behavior that was demonstrated to us. If we witness, or are a victim of, emotional, physical, verbal or psychological abuse, it can affect our physical, mental and spiritual health.

While intimate partner violence (IPV) varies by community (as other articles on this page point out), studies show that rates of IPV are highest in the most socially and economically disadvantaged communities for both white and Black men and women. However, especially in Pittsburgh, we know it is our African American brothers and sisters who reside in these neighborhoods who have historically been—and continue to be—cut off from services. As the COVID-19 pandemic prompted many service providers to create virtual access points, access to the internet helped reduce barriers to services.

Within Pittsburgh and the surrounding communities, there is help available.

Many of these resources can be tapped into from your smart phone or landline.

The Women’s Center and Shelter of Pittsburgh developed an app called RUSafe.

The app (available for Android and Apple users) is based on the Danger Assessment system (created at The Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and draws on the lives and experiences of hundreds of survivors of domestic abuse). The assessment helps determine the level of danger faced by a person being abused. By answering a few questions about the relationship, RUSafe helps people understand the possible threats they or loved ones may face and connects them using GPS technology with nearby emergency shelters and domestic violence hotlines.

For additional information about the app, visit the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh’s website and type “RUSafe” in the search box on the upper right-hand corner. This tool alone can save your life or the life of a loved one. Anyone who might be in danger or in an escalating IPV situation can benefit from having the app on their phone.

Additionally, the City of Pittsburgh Bureau of Police has a list of 24/7 hotlines that are available to call if you need to escape or report an abusive situation (https://pittsburghpa.gov/ police/domestic-violence-resource-guide).

The best thing you can do for yourself is to do what you can to build a strong support system. Likewise, the best you can do for others is to be the strong support system that they may desperately need. Taking charge of your health begins with empowering yourself with knowledge and tools.

Esther L. Bush, President and CEO Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh

VICTIM OF IPV—In this Aug. 18, 2010, file photo, a victim of intimate partner violence (IPV), who calls herself, “Sierra” sits at a safe house in Nevada County, Calif. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE Not everyone’s relationships are positive Healthy relationships are based on communication, love and respect.

They feel good. But not everyone’s relationships are positive. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in four women and one in 10 men have experienced contact sexual violence, physical violence and/or stalking by an intimate partner during their lifetime and reported some form of effect related to intimate partner violence (IPV). More than 43 million women and 38 million men have experienced psychological aggression by an intimate partner in their lifetime.

IPV is most often thought of as physical, social, emotional or sexual violence. However, IPV is rooted in power or control over another person; therefore, it can mean any behavior used to exert power. For example, IPV can also be financial (like ruining someone’s credit) or immigration-related (like threatening to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement), as well as many other things. IPV can occur in any very close relationship (the word “intimate” does not mean it is limited to sexual relationships), and it can happen to anyone.

“IPV is a public health epidemic, and there are many different ways people experience it,” says Maya Ragavan, MD, MPH, MS, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. “Data are still being reported,

but, overall, it looks as if IPV severity and frequency has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data have been mostly based on police reports, which may not capture the actual number of incidents as survivors may

the pandemic and what structural issues they have encountered, like racism, unsafe housing, environmental concerns or a lack of child care and other social support.

Even before the pandemic, IPV survivors faced

MAYA RAGAVAN, MD, MPH, MS

not always engage with law enforcement for a number of reasons.”

The COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns caused more people to be isolated with their abusers. However, this is only part of the reason incidences of IPV have increased, according to Dr. Ragavan.

The COVID-19 pandemic reinforced preexisting difficulties, particularly structural challenges.

Starting in July 2020, Dr. Ragavan and Pitt colleagues, in partnership with the American Academy of Pediatrics, Futures Without Violence, and the Centers for Disease Control, have been interviewing IPV advocates about survivors’ experiences during

challenges when trying to meet basic needs; the pandemic made those challenges worse. Many survivors from marginalized groups experienced multiple inequities in addition to the pandemic.

In the study interviews, IPV advocates relayed stories of abusive partners using the COVID-19 pandemic to exert power and control. For example, abusers shut off partners’ cell phones—something that happened prepandemic but was especially isolating when it happened during the pandemic when so many interactions were virtual.

There were also reports of abusive partners taking stimulus checks and not allowing survivors

to wear masks. Abusive partners used Children and Youth Services as well as threats to custody and immigration status to exert power and control.

“What’s important to mention is the interweaving between the structural inequities that marginalized groups of survivors face and IPV,” says Dr. Ragavan. “When we think of IPV, we think of it on a personal level.

But there are so many structural factors that affect not only the way that abusive partners use power and control but also the way that survivors can engage with different resources.”

Despite the difficulties faced by IPV survivors, Dr. Ragavan says that another compelling part of the study interviews was the incredible amount of resilience IPV survivors and their families have shown during the pandemic. Advocates report that survivors showed enormous strength while working to keep themselves and their families safe. Also noteworthy is how IPV advocates and agencies supported people experiencing IPV, especially during pandemic shutdowns.

“These groups have always been on the frontlines helping survivors, but they were extremely supportive during the pandemic,” says Dr. Ragavan. “In the study interviews, IPV advocates said they came up with creative solutions to continue supporting survivors as the world

switched to mostly virtual interactions. Advocates created texting lines and partnered with stores that remained open to communicate to survivors that IPV agencies were still open and available to help. When we think of who our essential workers are, we need to include victim services agencies.”

With most places under shut-down orders for long periods of time, some people relished the time with loved ones and renewed healthy relationships. But people experiencing IPV continue to need support.

If you know people who are experiencing IPV and you want to help but don’t know how, Dr. Ragavan recommends listening to them and validating their experiences. Some things to say are “It’s not your fault,” “I am here to listen,” and “I hear you.” You can also help them find resources that may be helpful for them. It’s important to not take power and control away from survivors by forcing them to make decisions or engage with resources before they are ready.

Many supports and services are available in Pittsburgh and nationally. It is important to remember that victim services agencies include more than shelter (although that is available). They also include support groups, counseling, legal advocacy, help with medical care, child groups and so much more.

Healthy Relationships Resources If you or someone you know is experiencing intimate partner violence, the following resources offer help. If you are in immediate danger, call 911.

Local/Regional Alle-Kiski Area Hope Center—24-hour hotline: 888-299-4673 Center for Victims—24-hour crisis hotline/ gateway to all services: 1-866-644-2882, https://www.centerforvictims.org/ Crisis Center North—24/7 hotline: 412364-5556, text: 412-444-7660, toll free: 1-866-782-0911, https://www.crisiscenternorth.org/ Pittsburgh Action Against Rape—24hour confidential hotline: 1-866-363-7273 (1-866-END-RAPE), text/chat line accessed through https://paar.net/ Women’s Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh—24-hour hotline: 412-687-8005, text support (9 a.m.-9 p.m. daily) 412-7448445, https://www.wcspittsburgh.org/

NATIONAL Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline—24/7 phone/text hotline: 1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453), chat at https://childhelphotline.org/, https://www. childhelp.org/childhelp-hotline/ Crisis Text Line—24/7 crisis support: text “HOME” to 741741 Futures Without Violence: https://www.futureswithoutviolence.org/resources-events/ get-help/ Love Is Respect—1-866-331-9474, TTY 1-866-331-8453, text “loveis” to 22522, chat online: www.loveisrespect.org National Domestic Violence Hotline—24/7: 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), TTY: 1-800-7873224, text “START” to 1.800.799.SAFE (7233), https://www.thehotline.org/ National Parent Helpline: For emotional support from a trained advocate, call 1-855-4A-PARENT (1-855-427-2736) Monday-Friday, 1-10 p.m.

National Sexual Assault Hotline—24/7 hotline: 1-800-656-HOPE (4673), live chat at https://www.rainn.org/ RUSafe App (for IOS and Android, available in English, Spanish and Nepali)—free interactive app that assesses the potential for domestic violence and harm in a dangerous relationship. By answering a few simple questions about the relationship, RUSafe helps you understand possible threats you may face, while simultaneously connecting you with nearby emergency shelters and domestic violence hotlines.

Violence Against Immigrant and Refugee Women—information about violence against women who are immigrants or refugees, including how to get help and further resources provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office on Women’s Health, https://www.womenshealth.gov/relationships-and-safety/other-types/immigrant-and-refugee-women

RELIGION

NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER

JULY 7-13, 2021

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Praise & Worship ST. BENEDICT THE MOOR CATHOLIC CHURCH

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and NOT of US. We are troubled on every side, yet NOT forsaken; cast down, but NOT destroyed. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.”

91 Crawford Street Pgh., PA 15219 412-281-3141 Sunday Mass 10:30 A.M. www.sbtmparishpgh.com

East Liberty Presbyterian Church Rev. Dr. Randy Bush, Senior Pastor 412-441-3800 Now offering in-person services, with limited capacity and required pre-registration through the website, and virtual services!!

Worship Online on Facebook/YouTube www.ELPC.church

- 2 Corinthians 4:7-10

Summer worship.......10:00 a.m.

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

REV. WALKER SAYS: Answered with the WORD for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory; While we look not at the things which are seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. Count the ‘NOTS’ above.

- 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 (Rev. A. Marie Walker is servant pastor of St. John Baptist Church.)

BEATRICE E. COLEMAN Age 108, peacefully passed away in her sleep Thursday, June 17th, 2021, at home on the North Side.

She was just 1 ½ months shy of her 109th birthday.

She continued a long family tradition of female old-age survivors.

Her mother Sara Green, died at 93; her sister Nina Bey at 97, and her grandmother, Bina Webb, who was born a slave, lived to be 103.

She was the wife of the late Jesse E Coleman, Sr whom she met and married in Uniontown, PA where she grew up and went to school.

She is survived by a son, David Coleman of Pittsburgh, and daughter Teresa Coleman Clark of Palmdale CA, six grandchildren, eleven great-grandchildren and one great-great grandson. She was preceded in death by her husband, Jesse, Sr and son Jesse, Jr. Visitation will be July 8th, from 2 – 6pm at the Robinson Funeral Home, 2025 Perrysville Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15214. Funeral services will be held on July 9th at 11:00am at the Trinity Lutheran Church, Northside, 616 North Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15212. Interment to follow at the Highwood Cemetery.

Instead of flowers, Mrs. Coleman had requested donations be made to her favorite charity, the St Joseph’s Indian School, 1301 N Main St, Chamberlain SD 57325, (800) 341-2235.

DIANA DAVIS WARD Age 77, of McMurray, PA passed away on Friday, July 2, 2021; beloved daughter of the late Erroll B. Sr. & the late Eleanor Davis, wife of the late Chester B. Ward, beloved Mother of Jason D. (Kelly) Ward of Venetia, and the late Jonathan B. Ward; Sister of Erroll B. (Elaine) Davis Jr. of Atlanta, grandmother of Carson J. Kiger and Melia R. Ward.

Those lucky enough to have had Diana in their lives found a strong, compassionate, devoted and loyal wife, mother, sister, daughter, colleague, and friend.

Diana had a love for children. For nearly 30 years, she taught several elementary grades within the Pittsburgh Public School system, settling in with Kindergarten at Sheraden Elementary in the West End after a ten year sabbatical to raise her sons. She touched the lives of many children. Diana was a member of the Friendship Baptist Church in Washington, PA. She always looked forward to her gatherings with the B.A.S.H. (Black Association of South Hills) women’s group and served as their Scholarship Chairwoman. Diana loved helping others and always left a lasting positive impression.

Diana will be greatly missed by her family and a multitude of friends. Services and inurnment private at Forest Lawn Gardens, McMurray, PA. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Parkinson’s Foundations – Ways to Give, www.apdaparkinson.org. A celebration of Diana’s life will take place later in the summer.

Arrangements by BEINHAUERS, McMurray, 724941-3211. Please view or add tributes at www.beinhauer.com.

RACHEL ELIZABETH COUCH BROOKS Age 96, of Pittsburgh, PA died June 18, 2021. She leaves a remarkable legacy of love, family, and service.

She was born in Chase City, VA on February 22, 1925, to Lula Moss Couch Hardy and Richard Henry Couch Jr. Rachel enjoyed teaching, community service, and her girlfriends and service clubs including the Omega Wives of Omega Psi Phi, the Northeasterners – Pittsburgh Chapter, Peter Pan Club for African American Children, and the “So What’s” Pinochle Card Club. Rachel attended Thyne Institute High School in 1942 in Chase City, Virginia. She went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in Business from Virginia State University and received a master’s degree in Business Education from the University of Pittsburgh. In 1948, she married the love of her life, Earl Leigh Brooks in Washington, DC. Rachel and Earl were happily married for 45 years. Rachel had an extraordinary career as well. She began her career at the Pittsburgh Courier in the Editorial Department reporting to the Managing Editor. In her tenure, she met and interviewed Nat King Cole, Sarah Vaughn, Joe Louis, Lena Horne, Dinah Washington, Billie Eckstein, and Benjamin Mays. After the birth of her first child, she began working at the Allegheny County Housing Authority and Pittsburgh Action Housing Economic Development. Rachel became a teacher in Business Education in 1968 and then developed the Business Education curriculum for the Pittsburgh Middle Schools.

In 1973, she was promoted to Supervisor of Business Education for Pittsburgh Public Schools and nominated for the State of Pennsylvania Board of Education. Rachel retired from education in 1989. After a few years traveling to see the world, Rachel touched many more lives. She opened her home and her heart generously to family and friends. She was an amazing cook, devoted mother, grandmother, aunt, and great grandmother. Her spirit, her light, and her love will be greatly missed. She was preceded in in death by her husband, Earl L. Brooks, Sr.; two brothers, Lewis Zachery Couch and Richard Henry Couch, II; three sisters, Margaretta Jackson Cummings Palmer, Marie Giles Davis, and Rosalie Couch; niece, Gail Jackson Ratliff and nephew, Richard Henry Couch, IV. Surviving her are her three devoted children, Donna Brooks Lucas (Wilfred), Earl L. Brooks, Jr. (Cheryl) and Autumn Laurie Brooks; four grandchildren, Brooke Taylor Spearmon (Shaun), James Marc Brown, Kristin Courtney Brown Riggs (Durand) and Ryan Wilfred Lucas; and five great-grandchildren, Ava Noelle Spearmon, Olivia Hope Spearmon, Vaughn Allen Spearmon, Leilani Laurie Riggs, and Matthew Randall Riggs; six nieces, Joyce Giles Robinson, Sandra Mobley-Terry, Jackie Trice Hoyer, Jeannette Trice Giannetta, and Angela Brooks Cook; two nephews, Johnnie Couch and Milton Earl Brooks; and many loving grandnieces, nephews, and cousins. Rachel was a member of Homewood United Presbyterian, held leadership positions at Bethesda Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh. Rachel was our grand matriarch. Her memory will be cherished forever. Visitation with the family and Celebration of Life were held Friday, June 25, 2021, at East Liberty Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the Alzheimer’s Association in memory of Rachel Couch Brooks.

Arrangements by Robinson Funeral Home, Inc. 2025 Perrysville Ave Pittsburgh, PA 15214.

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A8 JULY 7-13, 2021

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This Week In Black History A Courier Staple JULY 7

1906—Baseball legend Satchel Paige is born in Mobile, Ala. He was one of 15 children born to John and Lula Paige. Paige first learned to pitch in a reform school where he had been sent at the age of 12 for shoplifting. He spent most of his career playing in the old Negro Baseball Leagues prior to the integration of Major League Baseball.

He is generally recognized as one of the greatest pitchers to ever play the game. Baseball great Joe DiMaggio once said Paige was “The best and fastest pitcher I ever faced.” Paige pitched his last game in 1965 at the age of 60 throwing three shutout innings. The great Satchel Paige died on June 8, 1982.

JULY 8

1805—On this day in 1805, Bill Richmond becomes the first African-American to gain international fame as a boxer when he defeated Jack Holmes in a 26-round bout in England. The son of escaped slaves from Georgia, Richmond was born in New York City in 1763. He did most of his fighting in Europe. Near the end of his boxing career, he married a rich woman and retired. He died in London in December 1829.

1914—Jazz great Billy Eckstine is born in Pittsburgh, Pa. He was raised in Washington, D.C., where he began entering talent competitions at the age of 7. Eckstine would become one of the dominant Jazz singers during the era of the big bands. He has been described as “an exceptional singer who never failed to impress.” Eckstine died of a heart attack in 1993.

JULY 9

1863—Eight Black regiments play a major role as Union troops capture Port Hudson in Louisiana.

They had laid siege to the Confederate fortress since May 23. The victory, along with the July 4 capture of Vicksburg, Miss., gave U.S. forces control of the Mississippi River, cut the Confederate army in half and laid the foundation for ending the Civil War. The Civil War would drag on for another two years but the Confederate troops fighting to maintain slavery were never able to recover from the loss of Port Hudson.

1893—Dr. Daniel Hale Williams performs the first successful open heart surgery in American history.

He repaired a knife wound to the heart of one James Cornish. Cornish would go on to live for another 20 years. Williams established himself as one of the foremost African-American surgeons in the history of this nation. In addition to the surgery, his achievements were many. Born in 1856 in Hollidaysburg, Pa., he was appointed surgeon general of Freedman’s (now Howard University) Hospital in Washington, D.C. He taught at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn. He was a surgeon at Cook County Hospital in Chicago and he founded Provident Hospital in Chicago where he trained many of the nation’s early Black doctors and nurses. Williams also co-founded the predominantly Black National Medical Association.

2009—Reports first emerge suggesting that Haiti was beginning to conquer its HIV/AIDS epidemic. According to UNAIDS, the official AIDS infection rate on the poverty-ridden Caribbean island for people ages 15-49 was 2.2 percent—down from a high of nearly 8 percent in the 1980s. The decline was attributed to the closing of blood banks, where the poor sold their blood for money; the work of the Boston-based Partners in Health; and Haiti’s own GHESKIO clinic.

JULY 10

1775—Shortly after taking command of the troops fighting for American independence from Britain, Gen. George Washington (the nation’s first president) has his adjutant general issue an order barring any further Blacks from joining the Continental Army. The decision would be confirmed by the Continental Congress in November of 1775. The fear was that Blacks who fought for America’s independence would be justified in demanding an end to slavery. And slave owners, including Washington, did not want that.

1927—David Dinkins, the first Black man elected mayor of New York City, is born on this day in 1927. He was born in Trenton, N.J., and served as New York City mayor from 1989 to 1993.

1943—Tennis sensation Arthur Ashe was born on this day in Richmond, Va. He would become the first Black male to win the Wimbledon men’s singles championship by defeating Jimmy Connors in 1975.

Ashe would receive a contaminated blood transfusion and die of AIDS in February 1993.

1972—The Democratic Party holds its presidential convention in Miami, Fla. New York Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, the first Black person to actively seek the party’s presidential nomination, received 151.95 votes on the first ballot. Senator George McGovern would eventually be nominated. Chisholm had been the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress, achieving the distinction in 1968.

She was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., to a Barbadian mother and a Guyanese father. Chisholm’s signature phrase was “Un-bought and un-bossed.” She died in January 2005.

JULY 11

1905—The Niagara Movement (forerunner of the NAACP) is founded during a meeting near Niagara Falls, N.Y. Among the most prominent Blacks at the meeting were intellectual and activist W.E.B. DuBois and newspaper publishers William Monroe Trotter and Ida B. Wells Barnett.

1915—Mifflin Wistar Gibbs dies.

Gibbs had worked on the Underground Railroad helping Blacks escape from slavery along with Frederick Douglas. He would later become publisher of Mirror of the Times—the first Black newspaper in California. He was also the first African-American elected to a municipal judgeship in the state.

2010—Gospel legend Bishop Walter Hawkins dies. The Grammy award-winning Hawkins died at his home in Ripon, Calif. Hawkins was part of the influential Hawkins family. His brother was Edwin Hawkins and for a while he was married to gospel great Tramaine Hawkins.

JULY 12

1887—Mound Bayou, Miss., perhaps the nation’s best known historically all-Black town, is founded by ex-slave Isaiah Montgomery and his cousin Benjamin T. Green. It was built as a sanctuary for former slaves during a period when Jim Crow racism and terrorism by groups such as the Ku Klux Klan were on the rise. It is considered the oldest surviving all-Black town in America. According to the 2000 Census, the town had 2,100 residents.

1937—Actor, comedian and political activist William “Bill” Cosby is born on this day in Philadelphia, Pa. Cosby would rise from nightclub comedian, to actor in several of the so-called Black exploitation movies of the 1970s, to star of the hit NBC television series “The Cosby Show” from 1984-92. The show won numerous awards and praise for its portrayal of a middle-class African-American family.

1949—Although he is seldom mentioned today, Frederick M. Jones was one of Black America’s most productive inventors. There are at least 60 patents to his credit. However, Jones is best known for the invention of an air conditioning unit.

Specifically, he designed an automatic refrigeration system for long-haul trucks and trains which he patented on this day in 1949. Jones was born in 1893 in Covington, Ky., near Cincinnati. He died in 1961.

JULY 13

1863—One of the bloodiest race (or perhaps more appropriately “racist”) riots in America history begins.

The event, known historically as New York City Draft Riots, was sparked by angry opposition to the congressionally passed Enrollment Act—a mandatory draft requiring White men to fight in the Civil War. Many Whites went on a rampage out of opposition to the draft and fear of freed Blacks competing with them for jobs. The rioting lasted from July 13 to July 16 before it was finally put down with the aid of Federal troops. But before it was over, an estimated 100 people had been killed and 300 wounded—most of them Blacks. The mandatory draft also reflected a fact commonly omitted from standard American history texts: the class nature of much legislation. In this instance, the draft only applied to poor and working class Whites.

Wealthy Whites were officially exempted from the draft by paying a fee.

1868—Oscar J. Dunn, a former slave, is installed as Louisiana’s lieutenant governor. At the time, it was the highest elective state position ever achieved by any African-American. Another Black person, Antoine Dubuclet, was installed as state treasurer. However, virtually all the Black political gains after the Civil War would be wiped out by the Hayes-Tilden Compromise of 1872 and the subsequent anti-Black Jim Crow laws. It would take nearly 100 years (during the 1960s) before Blacks would once again begin to match the political gains they had made during the post-Civil War period.

New Pittsburgh Courier

What are critical race theorists attempting to conserve?

J. Pharoah Doss B4

BUSINESS JULY 7-13, 2021

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Infrastructure investments help grow small and minority-owned businesses

Classifieds

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

B

Billionaires Row:

by Congressman Kweisi Mfume For New Pittsburgh Courier

(BlackPressUSA)—As each day passes, we feel closer to the moment when we can finally say this pandemic is behind us. While we are not there yet, the sacrifice and fortitude it has taken us to make it this far should not go unrecognized or go unappreciated.

As we prepare to build back a better America after the pandemic, I convened a congressional hearing this week as Chair of the Contracting and Infrastructure Subcommittee for the U.S. House Small Business Committee to discuss the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on small businesses and to examine how federal investments in American infrastructure networks can help small and minority owned businesses.

People across America rely on our infrastructure networks to commute to work, access clean water, communicate with each other, light their homes, transport items by rail, and more. Despite the importance of our national infrastructure, it arguably has become an afterthought to some policymakers over the past several decades in many respects.

Fortunately, there is a growing understanding that our existing infrastructure networks and their limited lifecycles require immediate attention. That is one reason why President Joe Biden, Vice-President Kamala Harris, and many members of the U.S. House of Representatives plan to revitalize CONGRESSMAN KWEISI MFUME (Cour- the American intesy Photo) frastructure networks through major federal investments over the next decade. The investments would modernize 20,000 miles of highways and roads, repair 10,000 bridges, improve airports and ports, and expand transit and rail into new communities. The investments would also eliminate lead pipes in drinking water systems, provide high-speed broadband, upgrade schools and federal buildings, replace buses and rail cars, and so much more. By all accounts, these efforts represent a new vision for America that will be good for the environment and make our nation’s infrastructure more equitable community by community.

Investing in America’s infrastructure networks will also benefit the nation’s small businesses because small businesses rely on our infrastructure systems to access customers and suppliers, boost business operations, and create new demand for goods and services. Beyond that, investing in America’s infrastructure networks will mean new business opportunities for many small businesses that directly and indirectly support the development, modernization, and maintenance of the infrastructure networks in question. In the construction industry for example, it is estimated that there are 3 million small businesses which employ over 82 percent of all employees SEE INFASTRUCTURE B2

CLOSE FRIENDS AND BUSINESS PARTNERS PATRICK DUCTANT AND WILLIAM BENSON are the owners and co-founders of Billionaires Row, a luxury lifestyle company valued at approximately $600 million.(Courtesy of Billionaires Row)

The only Black-owned champagne brand in the world

by Selena Stanley For New Pittsburgh Courier

(News Source: www.miamitimesonline.com)—When Jay-Z sold 50 percent of the luxury Champagne brand Ace of Spades, Billionaires Row officially became the only majority Black-owned Champagne brand in the world.

With a valuation of approximately $600 million across all of its brands, which include Champagne, a signature cognac, clothing and other goods—the luxury lifestyle company is on track to becoming one of the most recognizable Blackowned conglomerates, according to co-founders William Benson and Patrick Ductant.

Breaking into the multimillion-dollar spirits industry, garnering a celebrity following and quickly growing the Champagne’s footprint across the U.S., the two are no strangers to success. But success and monetary returns ar-

en’t what drives them. Ultimately, the friends and business partners set out to achieve something bigger than themselves when the company started 10 years ago.

“When I look at the little boys and girls who look like me, and I see their ambition and their struggles, I just want to be able to create opportunities for them,” Benson said.

“They’re kids that come from the same roots that I come from, so I want them to have an opportunity to provide for their family and inspire the next generation. That’s why I started the brand.”

“We like to look at ourselves as a legacy brand, and we want to leave a mark in history,” Ductant added.

“From a hospitality perspective, our mission statement is to inspire others.”

Benson, 36, was born in Delaware and raised in a small town in North Carolina. Ductant, 34, is a SEE BILLIONAIRES B2

Help! I can’t save for spending!

“Damon, what are your recommended steps for saving money when you have bad spending habits?”

Signed – Facebook follower Damon says: Saving money is the cornerstone of a sound financial foundation. You build your financial house on hollow grounds if you build it without the essential habit of saving money being the base of your financial structure. In other words, a person with poor saving habits is financially unstable— regardless of income. When the big bad wolf comes in the form of life, emergencies, unexpected expenses, buying cars, vacations, college, buying a home, disability, retirement, and even death—it will huff and puff and blow your financial house down.

Now that we establish why saving money is of paramount importance, let’s address your question. What are some best practice steps for “saving money” when you have “bad spending habits?” I’m reminded of a quote I often heard my mother say when money was tight—which was all the time—“I can’t save for spending.” Take a close look at your question. Take a close look at my mother’s quote.

The answer lies therein. Houston, we’ve solved the problem. Fix your bad spending habits!

If we simply stop spending money we don’t have and make saving money a priority, we’d essentially solve 95 percent of our financial shortcomings. Sounds simple. Why do only a few of us do it? It’s not entirely our fault that most Americans struggle to save money and make ends meet. In fact, 78 percent of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck. Paycheck to Paycheck? Dr. Lynn Richardson said people are living Paycheck-to-Monday. Paid on Friday. Broke by Monday! Nearly 40 percent of Americans say that they don’t have enough money saved to make a $400 car re-

pair. Student loans, not college savings, is the way most Americans pay for college. Paying for school to get a job to pay for school is the mantra of most college graduates. Half of Americans within 15 years or less away from retirement have less than $10,000 saved for retirement.

In the land of the free, the land of ample opportunity, most Americans will die broke.

Why? Because of an inability to consistently save money. I repeat, it’s not entirely our fault. This money-driven world is set up for us to fail. Let me explain: Money doesn’t come with instructions: Financial Literacy isn’t taught in high school or college. I’ve completed Certified Financial Planning training. I learned the concept of investing, tax law, estate planning, retirement planning, and other disciplines and theories. But I was never taught how to write a check, balance a checkbook, create a budget, the dangers of credit cards, or the importance of understanding complicated financial documents before you sign them. We learn through trial-and-error, paying stupid tax after stupid tax. We get most of our financial advice from people selling us financial products. Most of them don’t understand the products they sell. They understand the commission they’re making on the sale of the financial products. Stupid is as stupid does! Most of us are financially illiterate. Financial illiteracy is a high price to pay.

The numbers don’t add up: You can only stretch a dollar so far. The cost of consumer goods and services continues to

increase tenfold. Meanwhile pay raises increase anywhere from 2 to 5 percent annually, then eventually cap. Even with promotions, most companies cap you at a 10 percent pay increase when promoted. On top of that, it’s widely suggested that we save 10 percent and tithe 10 percent. Once you factor in taxes and payroll deductions, it accounts for approximately 30 percent of your paycheck.

That’s half your paycheck gone and you’ve yet to pay the mortgage, car note, utility bills, and feed and clothe the family. With housing, utilities and transportation costs taking up one full paycheck, you have one paycheck left to cover EVERYTHING else. You know that I know, it’s not enough!

They’re out to get you: From the moment you wake up until the moment you close your eyes, we’re inundated with millions of impressions of marketing messages via TV, radio, Internet, and print publications from thousands of companies. Telemarketers calling. Nonprofit companies calling. If you have kids, the new name for mommy and daddy is “Give me” and “Can I have.” It feels like you spend $150 or more every time you step outside. Every company and everybody has one goal in mind, to extract money from your pockets to theirs.

Sheesh!! How’s one to get ahead financially?

Become financially literate: Most of us were never taught sound money management principles. Educate yourself. Read financial books and publications. Read my articles. Hire a fee-only financial planner.

Someone who’s job isn’t to sell you financial

products but to teach you how to better manage money and help you make good financial decisions. Give me a call.

Create some wiggle room in your budget: In order to save and invest money —allowing it to grow without you nickeling and diming it all the time by withdrawing it, you have wiggle room between your income and expenses. Do the math. Add up your income and your expenses. Take a hard look at how you spend money. Do what is necessary to create wiggle room in your budget. It’s one of three things: increase income, reduce expenses, and/or do a better job managing your money.

Reduce or stop wasteful spending: You’re paying high prices for your vices! Did you know, you can blow through $10,000 per year by spending $27.40 per day on miscellaneous spending. Yep, dining out, playing the lottery, alcohol, cigarettes, weed and other vices can add up quickly.

Make saving a priority: Financial guru Warren Buffett said do not save what is left after spending. Instead spend what is left after saving. You may have heard it expressed this way. Pay yourself first. Money talking: “Save me today, I’ll save your ___ tomorrow.”

Saving money is how you build financial security and financial independence. In order to make saving money a priority, you have to develop a strong reason why you want to save. If your life or the life of a loved one was dependent on your saving $15,000, you’d work extra, do without, and make various sacrifices to come up with the money to save your life or that of a loved one. Think of a strong reason that will motivate and encourage you to make saving money a priority.

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

BUSINESS

B2 JULY 7-13, 2021

NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER

Bishop T.D. Jakes approved to purchase 94.5 acres of land adjacent to Tyler Perry Studios THE ATLANTA VOICE— T.D. Jakes Real Estate Ventures (TDJREV) has been approved to purchase 94.5 acres of land on Fort McPherson. The land is adjacent to Tyler Perry Studios.

The Local Redevelopment Authority Board of Fort McPherson also approved Tyler Perry Studios to purchase an additional 37.5 acres of land.

TDJREV will be building office and retail space as well as housing units. The redevelopment plan is focused specifically on bringing affordable housing to the Fort Mac area.

“I see too many Black and Brown working-class people still falling victim to the continued gentrification of our neighborhoods. I’m extremely excited about the accessible ownership options that will exist for future residents of this multigenerational community,” Bishop T.D. Jakes said in a TDJREV press release.

In addition to mixed-income housing developments, the TDJREV plan is to transform this area into a cultural hub. Including restaurants, shopping and theatres to attract business and create jobs in the area.

Bishop Jakes thanked Tyler Perry along with Governor Brian Kemp and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms for supporting this development project.

Jakes called this project an “opportunity to serve and further amplify their vision and unwavering commitment to attracting growth opportunities and development excellence to the City of Atlanta,” in a press release.

In his statement, Jakes also thanked Cassius F. Butts Chairman the Local Redevelopment Authority Board of Fort McPherson for supporting TDJREV in this venture.

(This article originally appeared in The Atlanta T.D. JAKES REAL ESTATE VENTURES (TDJREV) has been approved to purchase 94.5 acres of land on Fort McPherson. The land is adjaVoice.) cent to Tyler Perry Studios. (Photo: CBN.com)

Summer travel brings higher gas prices. So, what’s the solution?

by Stacy M. Brown For New Pittsburgh Courier

(NNPA)—The arrival of summer usually means family reunions, barbecues, and vacations.

Unfortunately, American automobile drivers have routinely experienced higher prices at the gas pump.

A recent U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) report noted that gasoline prices continue to climb for winter lows, averaging $3.112 per gallon. The price is comparable with May 2019 ($2.909) and May 2018 ($3.039).

It is also well below levels this time of year from 2011 to 2014.

Like so many other of life’s necessities, high fuel prices disproportionately affect the motorists of color.

For instance, one report noted a 60-cent per gallon price difference in the cost of fuel in the heart of predominately Black North Philadelphia and the ritzier suburbs.

While advanced fuels and innovative technologies help consumers benefit from more fuel-efficient vehicles that drive farther and run cleaner, consumers still notice when prices rise at the pump.

Officials say demand continues to drive the higher cost of gasoline.

According to AAA, 60 percent more people are traveling 50 miles or more from home this year than last year during the height of the pandemic.

The EIA increased its forecast this month for summer gasoline demand by 100,000 barrels—or 4.2 million gallons—per day over its April forecast.

Supply is another reason for the higher prices.

“Our industry, along with the rest of the country, is recovering from impacts of the pandemic, which dramatically cut petroleum demand leading to slowing domestic oil production,” oil and natural gas officials wrote in a recent blog post.

“Now demand is returning, and production must keep pace,” the officials noted.

In a podcast, American Petroleum Institute Chief Economist Dean Foreman pinpointed supply and demand.

“If you think of the way it’s played out, the fact that we grew domestic oil production

over the last decade really did break the stranglehold that OPEC and Russia together had previously over oil prices,” Foreman noted. “And the ability to control its own destiny there has just cushioned U.S. consumers. So, to the extent that oil prices rise, it could affect U.S. household costs for transportation for driving and flying.”

Because oil is traded globally, robust domestic production puts downward pressure on global crude costs and consumers benefit, oil and gas industry officials noted.

“Thus, we need policy approaches that safely develop domestic reserves, on and offshore, so that U.S. production once again impacts the global crude market,” one official wrote.

The industry believes that strong domestic production also is critically important to U.S. energy security. Thanks to rising domestic

production, the U.S. in 2020 became a petroleum net exporter on an annual basis for the first time since 1958.

“But, because of less trade and lower domestic production compared to pre-COVID levels, the U.S. returned to being a petroleum net importer earlier this year,” the official stated.

The oil and gas industry official continued: “Put simply, when the U.S. is a net importer of petroleum, it is reliant on foreign suppliers and less energy secure.

“So, the question is, can’t the U.S. just produce more oil? Historically, it has with more development—and relatively quickly as supporting prices increased, a key benefit of the U.S. energy revolution.

“But with the economic impacts of the pandemic, drilling and capital investment have remained low.

“Industry-wide capital investment in the first quarter of this year was the lowest for any quarter since 2008 (chart below). It’s a global phenomenon, not limited to the U.S., making sound energy policy all the more important.”

“Now, with the pandemic’s effects on the economy and domestic energy production playing out, Americans are beginning to notice the importance of planning for energy abundance and security through strong domestic production—as well as the need to ensure that we have the energy infrastructure to deliver supplies where they’re needed.”

Infrastructure investment helps grow small businesses INFASTRUCTURE FROM B1

in this sector.

Put simply, a federal investment in infrastructure is an investment in small businesses. That’s true because there are a number of federal safeguards in place to ensure small businesses participate in the competitive procurement processes for federal contracts and earn their fair share of federal contracting dollars. For instance, there is a government-wide goal

requiring that 23 percent of all eligible prime contracting dollars be spent with small businesses, and the Small Business Association (SBA) works to ensure that this goal is met or surpassed. Other goals exist for specific subsets of small contractors at the prime and subcontracting level. We seek 5 percent participation by small and disadvantaged businesses, 5 percent by women-owned small businesses, 3 percent by service-disabled veter-

an-owned small businesses, and 3 percent in Historically Under-utilized Business Zones. Once again, the SBA is responsible for making sure these goals are met or surpassed.

The current infrastructure plan would also create contracting programs, administered by the SBA, that reserve contracts for underserved small businesses through dedicated opportunities and sole-source opportunities.

Additionally, there are re-

served contracting programs in place at the state and local levels whenever federal dollars are involved with infrastructure spending. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program is designed to enable women and minority-owned small firms to compete for federally funded contracts led by state and local agencies. It is the U.S. Department of Transportation’s most important tool for remedying the effects

of discrimination and leveling the playing field in transportation-related projects.

These programs are vital to the wellbeing of the small business community and will help to guarantee that small businesses have a seat at the table when it comes to infrastructure spending and contracting opportunities using federal dollars. The American Jobs Plan will create thousands of these contracting opportunities. I want to use this opportunity and use my

oversight role in Congress to take a closer look at the small business programs and ensure we are maximizing small business participation in contracting at the federal, state, and local levels. This week’s hearing was just a part of that process.

(The post Infrastructure investments help grow small and minority owned businesses appeared first on Afro.)

Billionaire’s Row: The only Black-owned champagne brand BILLIONAIRES FROM B1

native son of Miami.

Both men come from humble beginnings, sons of single mothers who adopted a hustle mentality at an early age.

The two also dropped out of college to pursue entrepreneurship in their early twenties. Benson moved to New York and worked his way up on Wall Street, becoming head of relations for a hedge fund. Ductant became a real estate investor, buying his first property at age 23.

A chance encounter at the Mondrian Hotel on South Beach brought the duo together. Benson and Ductant had an instant connection and promised each other they would go into business one day.

“When we first met, it was like we were blood brothers,”

Ductant said. “I think that we just understood each other’s struggle, being young African American entrepreneurs at heart, having similar stories of being raised without a father, and both wanting to carve something great out for ourselves.”

The friends have nicknamed themselves “Scotty and Jordan,” a reference to basketball legends Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan, who together won six consecutive championships playing for the Chicago Bulls.

“Just like any brothers, we fight and we go at it, but we can go ahead and have lunch 10 minutes after that, like nothing happened,” Ductant said. “That’s what sets our friendship apart.”

In 2012, a few years after they met, Benson noticed the lack of diversity within the

spirits industry and boldly decided he wanted to own a Champagne brand.

“I had people tell me, ‘You’re Black, you can’t own a Champagne company,’” he recalled.

“But our culture, we consume a lot of alcohol and we indulge in luxury just like anybody else. We need a voice in business.”

An impromptu trip to France, a meeting with the owners of Champagne Dumenil (an independent Champagne house) and an unspecified initial investment later, and Benson owned the rights to Billionaires Row staple Brut Rosé Champagne.

The entrepreneur was also able to get the brand recognized by the French government as a “Champagne” proper. Sparkling wines made from grapes in the

Champagne region of France are the only products allowed to be labeled as such.

Benson is the only American to land that approval for ownership and branding. He calls it a “true honor” and is grateful to the French government for believing in his vision.

“I really wanted to step out on a leap of faith to become an entrepreneur,” he said.

“Even though I was really fearful, I took that risk and it looks like it’s paying off.”

After laying the groundwork for the company and launching the Champagne in several markets, Ductant joined Benson at Billionaires Row in 2018, making good on their long-ago promise to join forces in business. The partners trademarked the name “Billionaires Row” and began expanding into other indus-

tries, making the company what it is today.

“The closest company we have ever been compared to, as far as what we’ve been able to envision and put together, is LVMH,” Ductant said.

LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, commonly known as LVMH, is a French multinational corporation and conglomerate specializing in luxury goods, headquartered in Paris.

“One of the things we talk about by ourselves is the pressure we feel,” Ductant shared. “It’s just not about us.

You know, it’s about everyone that looks like us that wants to forge their own path.”

Although the responsibility of being the only Blackowned Champagne brand can be overwhelming, Benson and Ductant say seeing

how far they’ve come has been the most rewarding part of the experience.

As for what’s next, the business owners hope to expand the availability of the Champagne, currently sold in South Florida at iconic nightlife venues NOBU Hotel, the Mondrian South Beach and LIV Miami. It’s also available at several online wine retailers, priced at $110. A recent deal with Total Wine & More has also made Billionaires Row signature cognac more widely available, retailing at $65.

“I think our short term goals are really clear. We want to be disruptive,” Benson said. “[Long term,] we want to be able to allow people from all over the world to experience what we’re doing.”

(Selena Stanley is a Miami Times Staff Writer.)

OPINION

NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER

JULY 7-13, 2021

B3

Dead men tell GOP lies on vote fraud

Guest Editorial

Panel to investigate Jan. 6 riot is necessary The House is launching a new investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced last month that she would move to create a select committee to further investigate the violent attack. The committee was approved on Wednesday.

Pelosi should be commended for taking action after Republicans blocked an independent bipartisan commission to scrutinize the storming of the Capitol by a mob of former President Donald Trump’s loyalists who sought to disrupt Congress’s counting of electoral votes to formalize President Joe Biden’s victory.

“Jan. 6 was a day of darkness for our country,” Pelosi told reporters. “Our temple of democracy was attacked by insurrectionists. The gleeful desecration of the Capitol resulted in multiple deaths, physical harm to over 140 members of law enforcement and terror and trauma among staff, workers and members.”

Pelosi had maintained that she preferred that the Senate follow the House’s lead and approve a bill to form a bipartisan commission, modeled after the one that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“It is imperative that we seek the truth,” Pelosi said.

“It is clear the Republicans are afraid of the truth.”

Pelosi is right.

A select committee could allow lawmakers to get to the truth. The committee would be able to issue subpoenas for witnesses and documents that could reveal crucial facts.

Several investigations into the assault are already under way, but none have a mandate to look comprehensively at the event in a way similar to the fact-finding commissions that scrutinized the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

Americans need to know the truth of what happened when a mob stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 after a rally where Trump spoke, urging supporters to reject the results of what he falsely claimed was a stolen election. The Justice Department’s investigation into the Capitol riot includes several defendants who claim they were merely following the orders of Trump.

What happened on Jan. 6 should be investigated similar to what occurred in 2014 when the Republican-controlled House created a select committee to investigate an attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, which achieved its desired result of damaging the presidential prospects of Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state.

Republican lawmakers have tried to downplay the attack in which seven people died during and after the rioting. Two police officers died by suicide in the days that followed, and a third officer, Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick, collapsed and later died after engaging with the protesters. A medical examiner later determined he died of natural causes.

So much about that Jan. 6 riot remains unknown, including: Who put explosives outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic parties that drew the attention of law enforcement away from the Capitol as the crowd grew and became more violent; what was the level of coordination between extremist groups and the Trump supporters who planned the rally that preceded the attack; what was Trump doing as the mob overtook the Capitol; why did the National Guard take more than four hours to respond; and what changes can be undertaken to ensure such an attack never happens again?

The Jan. 6 select committee is necessary to investigate the root causes of the riot, including White supremacist ideologies and extremist groups, as well as security failures at the Capitol that allowed it to unfold.

(Reprinted from the Philadelphia Tribune)

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Michigan voter Roberto Garcia got the unpleasant shock of his life at the close of the presidential election in November 2020. He found out that he was one of 10,000 or so deceased Michigan voters who voted. That is who voted for Biden.

He was called out by name by the local Michigan GOP. The claim of Garcia’s death fit in with Trump’s charge that the Democrats dredged up hordes of dead people from the cemeteries and crematoriums to vote for Biden. Fox News shill Tucker Carlson quickly latched onto the claim and cited it as fact. The inference was that a “dead” Roberto Garcia and thousands more of the dearly departed in Michigan were dumped on the voting rolls by cheating Democrats to vote for Biden. If so, then the Democrats could empty the cemeteries in the other states that swung to Biden.

The claim, even by the GOP’s abominably low standards, was so incredible that investigators easily and quickly debunked it. A beaming and very much alive Garcia fittingly had the final word. He posed in his yard holding a gigantic Biden-Harris sign. He couldn’t resist adding: “I’m definitely alive and I definitely voted for Biden!”

As for Carlson, he ate crow again, and offered yet another shame-faced apology, saying that he was “duped” by the Trump camp into reporting the lie that a supposed “dead” Georgian also voted. Like Garcia, he also turned out to be very much alive. Like Garcia, he voted for Biden.

The GOP’s dead person vote myth though pitiable and laughable has been often trotted out as one of its vote fraud canons. Every one of them has been painstakingly investigated to determine if there is anything to the charge.

NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice has taken the lead in debunking the GOP’s vote fraud lies. The Center in countless reports has found that that deliberate, designed vote fraud is virtually non-existent in state and federal elections.

It put the incident rate of actual larcenous vote fraud at between 0.0003

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Commentary percent and 0.0025 percent. This is not to say that voting mistakes and errors don’t occur. They do. However, they can be attributed in almost all instances to something that can never be purged.

That’s human error, clerical errors, and sloppy or erroneous data matching.

The Center drove the point of the absurdity of the claim home with the proverbial quip that one stands a better chance of being struck by lightning than getting away with or even attempting to impersonate another voter at the polls. One study found a total of 30 impersonation vote fraud cases in fourteen years from 2000 to 2014. This is out of more than 1 billion ballots cast. Studies found there were almost no prosecutions for impersonation vote fraud.

Even more telling is the study that noted the likelihood of where vote fraud when it occurred was likely to come from. The accuser was almost always the loser of a race. The other big, but favored GOP lie, is the Democrats’ herd packs of illegal, ineligible workers in the U.S. to the polls to vote Democrat.

The Government Accounting Office, Columbia University, the Washington Post, and even the Republican National Lawyers Association, found little to support this perennial GOP allegation.

GOP officials dismiss these studies as simply more partisan propaganda

by Democrats, liberals, and Democratic-leaning think tank researchers and the press. The GOP insists they have an ax to grind by downplaying alleged widespread vote fraud.

Vote fraud cases as a result almost always end up in the courts. The GOP’s

record here in trying to make the case for vote fraud has not been much better.

Several federal district courts have ruled that the strict photo ID laws in Texas, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Indiana, were racially discriminatory.

There have been all of two convictions under the law out of tens of millions of votes in elections in these states.

The Department of Justice fared even worse when it scoured for cases of federal election fraud presumably to prosecute during the 2002 and 2004 federal elections, it found 0.00000013 percent of ballots cast were fraudulent. The SCOTUS is packed with Trump-friendly justices. These justices would be the most likely to find something to hang a phony vote fraud hat on. Trump got nowhere with them when he demanded the high court toss the results of the 2020 election based on fraud. This was even too much for the court. In a terse ruling in December 2020, the court tossed out his lawsuit that not surprisingly was backed by 18 GOP states attorneys general.

Trump was aware of the blitz the GOP made in the courts and through state organizations to vote suppress.

He, and GOP shills, in the conservative media, have badgered many into buying the myth of massive fraud and elections stolen by the Democrats. Yet, there is not a word from the supposed protectors of voting integrity and honesty about the very real legacy and history of vote suppression, let alone the out and out near century-long racial disenfranchisement of Blacks in the South. A history that is very much still alive and well in more than a few places in America.

This is the second in a four-part series on the GOP’s War on Voting Rights.

The series is based on my forthcoming book, Bring Back the Poll Tax! —The GOP’s War on Voting Rights (Middle Passage Press). It will be officially released on August 6, 2021, the 56th anniversary of LBJ’s signing of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Reflections on America’s independence observance Because of where America stands today on the ever present issue of race, the following reflections are offered from the first two paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence, signed July 4, 1776. First, the Preamble, which has much bearing on where we stand today as a nation: “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, they should declare the causes which impel them to separation…”

The Republican Party and all its state affiliates seeking to abolish voting and civil rights, have provided living proof that the political “Bands” they are connected to do not include us, as people of color. The voter suppression laws, murder of Black people by law enforcement and the biased prison sentences for the murder of Blacks such as that given to Derek Chauvin, are clear proof that there is no belief that “that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Before we get too excited about the cookouts and holiday celebrations with fireworks across this great land, let us reflect on some of the words of Frederick Douglass which appear elsewhere in this issue as his Fourth of July Speech of 1852 in Rochester, New York. Let’s

John E. Warren

Commentary look at Independence as being incomplete because of the disparity that Douglass found between Black and White.

Today such disparities exist at every level, in spite of the efforts of so many Whites who have joined with Blacks in the struggle.

Douglass asked in his speech: “Are the great principles of political freedom and natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence extended to us?” It would appear that in 160 years, many of his questions remain unanswered.

The inequality of slavery still exists today in the minds and behavior of many Americans who cannot accept that America is a melting pot of all nations. “Out of many, one”. That melting pot includes people of color. The key requirement is that we as people of color must never accept less than equality in all things. While we may not technically be slaves, as reminded by the recent declaration of Juneteenth as a federal holiday, many of us are still mental slaves to mediocrity and the acceptance of less than what we should have. If some of us remain slaves to inequality and injustice, then the following question Douglass raised is

appropriate today: “What to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham, your shout of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.”

In conclusion: what should we do?

We should review the America to whom Frederick Douglass spoke. We should weigh against his words how far we have come. We should celebrate Juneteenth; the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments; the Emancipation Proclamation, which had not been thought of when he wrote this speech; Civil rights, Voting Rights and Equal Employment Opportunity as well as an integrated armed forces. While we are remembering and celebrating the U.S. Supreme Court Decision of Brown vs. Board of Education, let us remember that our schools are more segregated now than ever before. Yes, we can take some time out to celebrate that which we should have already enjoyed, as stated elsewhere here.

What is the 4th of July? That which I must still fight for to make real in the lives of those who look like me.

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

Tony Moreno, win or lose The election of a Republican mayor in Pittsburgh, in and of itself, may not be very important to the national Republican Party establishment.

After all, Pittsburgh is shrinking and by population is ranked the 66th-largest city in the entire United States.

But former Pittsburgh police officer Tony Moreno’s current campaign to be elected mayor of the city may be important to the GOP’s hopes and dreams for the 2022 elections for the Pennsylvania state government and the U.S. Congress, and also for the 2024 national elections for the White House and the US Congress.

Pennsylvania was a key battleground state in 2020.

Win or lose, Moreno’s campaign should draw some public attention to GOP politics in Allegheny County, one of the Democratic Party’s two major strongholds in the state. This may, in some way, help to boost the GOP’s prospects in 2022 and 2024.

Fred Logan

Commentary With that in mind, watch in the coming weeks for Moreno to move further toward the right; don’t be misled by the location of his June 28 campaign kickoff announcement in Homewood, a predominantly-Black neighborhood.

Watch in the days ahead for Trump to endorse Moreno, and to speak (about himself, of course) at a Moreno campaign rally in Pittsburgh.

White America is in flux, swinging this way and that, “Black Lives Matter” one day, the Proud Boys the next.

So, predicting the White vote is very difficult. Look at the track record

over the last 13 years of the big-time professional political experts in the media and the universities.

The experts were wrong on Obama and Clinton in 2008, and Clinton and Trump in 2016. And they did not predict that in 2020 a defeated Trump would still receive some 70 million White votes, which is an indication of the astounding scale and scope of right-wing reaction and political instability in the United States.

An important question to consider here is how many Pittsburgh votes did Trump receive in 2020?

In 2021, the experts predicted the incumbent Pittsburgh mayor Bill Peduto would win the Democratic primary.

All of this is on the minds of Tony Moreno and the Republican Party’s movers and shakers.

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This Anthem does not speak for me (TriceEdneyWire.com)—Frances Scott Key, author of the Star-Spangled Banner, our “National Anthem” was a dyed in the wool racist. He opined that “Negroes” were a “distinct and inferior race.” He was a slaveholder from a family of slaveholders who influenced the odious seventh President Andrew Jackson to appoint Roger Taney, the author of the Dred Scott decision (“Blacks have no rights that Whites are bound to respect”) to the Supreme Court.

Aspects of the “National Anthem” are derisive to Black people. Key disagreed that the formerly enslaved who fought with the British in the War of 1812 should receive their freedom due to their service. The British kept their word, settling formerly enslaved Blacks in the British Caribbean on land they provided them. How, then, does the raving of a racist become our nation’s national anthem, taught in every school, played at every athletic event and assembly, and designed to stir patriotic strings when we hear it?

When I hear the words, “land of the free, home of the brave,” I think, “land of the thief, home of the slave.” As early as 1836, abolitionists were mocking the song, taking that offensive line and recasting it as “the land of the free, home of the oppressed.” When you delve into the lyrics, Key’s utter contempt for Black people, especially those formerly enslaved people who claimed their freedom by fighting with the Brits, was apparent. But the Daughters of the Confederacy (surprise, surprise) were among those who thought

Julianne Malveaux

News Analysis this slave-deriding song should be our national anthem. In doing so, they ensured that generations of schoolchildren would never learn the truth about the hypocrisy of their country, fighting for freedom against the Brits while also fighting for the right to deny others freedom.

When Gwen Berry, the African American athlete who has qualified for the 2020 Olympics, turned her back on the American flag while the troublesome national anthem was playing, she invited criticism for her actions and the paradox of the African American reality in this nation.

Berry said, “the anthem doesn’t speak for me,” and giving voice to the ambivalence that so many African American people feel about this nation. We are disgusted by the injustice and hypocrisy woven into every fabric of our lives, even as we experience and enjoy aspects of progress and opportunity that distinguish our lives from those of our enslaved foremothers and fathers.

She turned her back and covered her face with a t-shirt that said “activist athlete” in the spirit of Frederick Douglas, who famously asked what the Fourth of You Lie could mean to the Negro.

Generations have been taught the Star-Spangled Banner without understanding its author or the meaning of its lyrics. That the Daughters of the Confederacy championed it ought to say enough.

Since their inception in 1894, those women have been determined to embrace the Southern “Lost Cause.” Historically openly racist, they endorsed the Ku Klux Klan at their 1919 convention. They have supported or funded the erection of statues and memorials to Confederate leaders.

They have never refuted their racist views, although they have had many opportunities to do so in contemporary times. Their headquarters in Richmond, the cradle of the confederacy, was damaged by fire last year as people protested the massacre of George Floyd at the knee of Derek Chauvin. Their ideology ought to be equally incinerated.

While many opposed the national anthem, Woodrow Wilson, whose own racial views were questionable, embraced the anthem. Still, it was not made official until the passage of HR 14 in 1929. Before that, America the Beautiful (oh beautiful, for gracious skies) was considered the national anthem. The Ray Charles rendition, and his struggles to sing it in Georgia, is more impactful emblems of “America” than the lyrics of a slaveholder could ever be.

Gwen Berry said the anthem did not speak for her, but it still seems to speak for so many of our fellow citizens who mindlessly sing racist lyrics penned by a slaveholding man. As long as this is our international calling card, so long as this is the music that accompanies our athletic victories, we tell our Black athletes that they are valued for their athleticism, but not for their lives and for the injustices they experience. To force someone to stand up and listen to that nonsense is to shove patriotism down the throats of those who feel somewhat less than patriotic. It is entirely possible to excel in one’s sport and look askance at American hypocrisy.

Gwen Berry is one of a long line of activist athletes. She deserves applause, not approbation. She says the Star-Spangled Banner doesn’t speak for her. It doesn’t speak for me either.

(Dr. Julianne Malveaux is an economist, author, and Dean of the College of Ethnic Studies at the California State University at Los Angeles. juliannemalveaux.com)

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What are critical race theorists attempting to conserve?

Recently, Congressman Dan Crenshaw (R-Tex.) interviewed Dr. Richard Johnson on his podcast. Johnson is the director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Booker T. Washington Initiative.

When the conversation turned to Critical Race Theory (CRT), Johnson said, “The ideal of CRT was not a weapon of Dr. Martin Luther King … (The traditional Civil Rights Movement’s) mantra was equal-opportunity not equity — there is a difference. We need to combat CRT with the one-race theory of the Civil Rights Movement – there’s only the human race.”

Crenshaw added, “A truly colorblind society.”

Right now, defenders of CRT are shouting Crenshaw and Johnson aren’t critical race theorists, and their assumptions do not prove CRT rejects a colorblind society.

Exhibit A: In 2019, the University of California Press published a CRT textbook called “Seeing Race Again: Countering Colorblindness across the Disciplines.”

Now, Marc Lamont Hill, host of Black News Tonight, recently interviewed Brown University professor of economics, Glenn Loury. After Loury advocated for colorblindness, Hill told Loury, “CRT would absolutely push against, what they call, liberal colorblind theory, or even seeing colorblindness as an ultimate goal of society.”

Some defenders of CRT will say Marc

J. Pharoah Doss

Check It Out Lamont Hill isn’t a critical race theorist either, but there are some questions here.

What did Hill mean by “liberal colorblind theory” and how exactly does CRT push against it?

Exhibit B: The 2001 textbook “Critical Race Theory: An Introduction,” explains, “Unlike traditional civil rights, which embraces incrementalism and step-by-step progress, CRT questions the very foundation of liberal order, including equality theory, legal reasoning, enlightenment values, and neutral principles of constitutional law.”

Hill eventually asked Loury why he even advocated a colorblind approach to society.

Loury explained colorblindness, not the notion I don’t see race at all, but dealing with individuals from the human dimension should be the highest ambition an advanced multi-racial society should strive for because co-existence depends on it.

But shouldn’t a similar question be posed to promoters of CRT? If they oppose

a “liberal colorblind theory” then what concepts are they attempting to conserve?

To answer that question, two opinions of U.S. Supreme Court justices need to be contrasted.

In 1896 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Plessy v. Ferguson. That ruling established the doctrine for racial segregation laws. In Justice John Marshall Harlan’s dissenting opinion, he wrote “the constitution is colorblind and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens,” and laws that distinguish races should be unconstitutional. Harlan’s notion of constitutional colorblindness is what the traditional civil rights movement sought to achieve.

However, in 1978 the U.S. Supreme ruled on Bakke v. California and upheld Affirmative Action. In Justice Harry A. Blackmun’s opinion, he wrote, “In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. There is no other way. And in order to treat some persons equally, we must treat them differently.”

However, critical race theorists don’t believe we can get beyond racism.

Racism is permanently embedded into the system, and the mistreatment of Blacks has to always be taken into account to provide equity. Therefore, critical race theorists are attempting to conserve treating the races different, not in order to achieve equality, but as compensation for a racist past.

Insurance giant prioritizing profits over patients (NNPA)--In the past year, a reckoning has happened across the country. What Black people and other communities of color have known for years, our White brothers and sisters are starting to learn. Our country is plagued with systemic racism that runs through industries across the nation. Most concerning is the deep roots it has within the American healthcare system. It’s time that we shine a light on this and stop letting insurance companies get away with it.

Health insurance companies have a long-proven pattern of exploiting and discriminating against people of color in this country. As I wrote in an op-ed in The Hill in April 2020. “Minority and low-income Americans suffer from a significant lack of access to quality health care. They are also more likely to not have health insurance and are often hit with surprise medical bills they cannot afford.” Now, insurance companies are at it again by prioritizing their own profits rather than the health and well-being of all Americans.

One of the most recent acts of insurance company greed happened with UnitedHealthcare, the nation’s largest insurance provider. Just recently, the insurance giant announced it would no longer cover patients’ nonurgent visits to the emergency room retroactively. Yes, you read that correctly. An American insurance company is no longer going to cover American patients who incorrectly self-diagnose and seek emergency treatment.

Benjamin F. Chavis Jr.

Commentary With a year of one public health crisis after another, UnitedHealthcare is creating an extra barrier to entry for patients accessing care. As pointed out by the American College of Emergency Physicians, there is a fear that “the change will cause patients to avoid using emergency rooms because they will be responsible for their hospital bills when UnitedHealthcare rejects them.” Because many patients were already fearful of visiting the hospital during the COVID-19, there was a rise in cases of “out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and associated poor health outcomes,” as reported in Health Affairs by researchers from the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management and unsurprisingly, this rise was particularly seen in low-income neighborhoods.

As with most corporate decisions, the effects of this policy will inevitably affect our nation’s most vulnerable populations the most. In fact, according to a 2017 University of Maryland School of Medicine study.

Black Americans use the emergency room more often than any other racial group.

To put that simply, UnitedHealthcare’s policy is directed at those who visit emergency rooms, and Black Americans are the most likely demographic group to visit the emergency room. A coincidence? I doubt it.

Patients should not be expected to correctly self-diagnose their health issue before visiting the emergency room.

Patients look to medical professions to diagnose and treat health problems; putting the burden back onto patients is unacceptable.

While the policy was scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2021, public backlash led to UnitedHealthcare’s new stance that it should not go into effect until “the end of the national public health emergency period.” The reality is that for the Public Health Emergency (PHE) period is set to expire on July 20. 2021, if it is not renewed.

So, the delay announcement was really just for show, and may not do anything in terms of ending this policy.

UnitedHealthcare should not get away with this. We must speak out and advocate for those who do not have a platform to speak for themselves. Those with chronic conditions, from low income and minority communities deserve to seek emergency health care without fear of racial discrimination and indebting themselves or their families.

(Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. is president and chief executive of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) based in Washington, DC.)

Time for a new ‘good neighbor policy’ (TriceEdneyWire.com) - “America is back,” President Biden announced repeatedly in meeting with allies in Europe. The question, of course, is back for what? Biden has sensibly insisted that we must “build back better” at home and abroad. Our neighbors to the south in Latin America offer a clear opportunity to show that is true.

Now more than ever, it is time for a new Good Neighbor Policy toward Latin America. Donald Trump had little interest in Latin America, other than labeling its refugees as terrorists, drug dealers and rapists. He reversed the initial steps President Barack Obama took to move to better relations with Cuba. He doubled down on crippling sanctions, illegal under international law, on Venezuela, and pushed to overturn the president of the country. Biden has both an opportunity and an imperative to offer better relations. Latin America has been battered by the economic collapse accompanying the pandemic.

Poverty has soared as has the death toll of the coronavirus, over 500,000 dead in Brazil alone. Now elections promise to bring a new generation of progressive leaders to power across the hemisphere. Peru has led the way with the election of Pedro Castillo, running on a populist agenda accusing the mining barons of “looting” and promising to tax them to invest in health care and education. In Brazil, the left is poised to take over from an incompetent and corrupt right-wing government, now exposed for fraudulently conspiring to throw the leader of the opposition, Lula, in jail.

In Chile and Colombia, the left looks to be rising in the wake of the right-wing regimes failure. At the same time, China’s

Jesse Jackson Sr.

Commentary influence has expanded, as it has become a leading trading partner and investor in the hemisphere. The recovery of Latin American economies will depend in no small measure on the sale of commodities to China, such as beef from Uruguay, copper from Chile, oil from Colombia and soya from Brazil. Today, Brazil sends 30 percent of all exports to China, including 80 percent of its soybean crop and 60 percent of its iron ore.

Nineteen countries have already joined Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative, a $1 trillion transcontinental network.

Biden now must choose how to react to these developments. He must resist the easy course of trying to revive a new Cold War with China in the region and using that as an excuse to undermine progressive governments and side with the plantation and industrial oligarchs that have so dominated these countries for too long. The opportunity is to launch a new chapter of what Franklin Roosevelt termed the Good Neighbor Policy.

Let’s join China in a competition defined not by battleships and coups but by investments in infrastructure and by increased trade. As the region’s neighbors, we have a big stake in their prosperity and their

health. We should be leading the effort to provide and help distribute vaccines against the coronavirus. We should be helping governments choose their own development projects. We should be mobilizing the region to address the deepening crisis caused by the extreme weather resulting from climate change - and aid the transition to sustainable energy.

Saving the rain forests of Brazil surely is a global priority. As we’ve found in Central America, desperation will force people to leave their homes and seek ways to save their families. Walls will not stop them, but they have no desire to leave their homes if they can survive in them. Latin America and Canada are still leading trade partners. Our own prosperity and surely our own security are interrelated with their prosperity and security. In this regard, one clear first step would be to normalize relations with Cuba and end the illegal sanctions on Venezuela which are now contributing to the immiseration of its population. Our policy toward Cuba has failed for decades.

These policies are sustained, of course, by domestic political calculations, particularly the voting blocks of Cuban and Venezuelan expatriates — many of them affluent — congregated in the key state of Florida.

But Biden and Democrats are more likely to gain support in the communities with a new generation by changing course, not by continuing what clearly has failed. Biden has said repeatedly that he understands the world has changed. Surely a good place to demonstrate that is in reviving our relations with our neighbors in this hemisphere

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Estate of ELAINE B. ROSENFIELD, Deceased of Mt. Lebanon, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Estate No. 02-21-04737, Elyse G. Rosenfield, Executor,306 Ridge Point Circle, Bridgeville, PA 15017 or to Harry Geyer, Executor, 132 Angena Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15205 or to AUBREY H. GLOVER, Atty; BRENLOVE & FULLER, LLC. 401 Washington Avenue, Bridgeville, PA 15017 Estate of MR. HERBERT A. MATHIAS, Deceased of 3301 Rosebriar Avenue, Glenshaw, PA 15116, Estate No. 02-21-04626, Mr. Todd Mathias, 3301 Rosebriar Avenue, Glenshaw, PA 15116, Executor, c/o Max C. Feldman, Esquire and the Law Office of Max C. Feldman, 1322 Fifth Avenue, Coraopolis, PA 15108

IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY, ORPHANS’ COURT DIVISION, ESTATE OF HELEN GUMINSKY MCKAY, deceased, Case No. 4751 of 2021: Notice is hereby given that on June 16, 2021, a Petition was filed by Robert McKay to terminate the interests of the heirs and devisees of Helen Guminsky McKay, deceased, in the real estate located at 420 Cedarhurst Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15210, and determine that fee simple title is in Petitioner. If no exceptions to the Petition are filed within 30 days, Petitioner will seek an Order adjudging that the title of Helen Guminsky McKay is in Petitioner

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IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY, ORPHAN’S COURT DIVISION, PENNSYLVANIA, ESTATE OF SETH KOLB, Deceased, Case No. 4148 of 2021.

Notice is hereby given that on May 25, 2021 a Petition was filed by Colette L. Kolb a/k/a Collette Kolb to terminate the interests of the heirs and devisees of Seth Kolb, deceased, in the real estate located at 10 Oakwood Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15205 and determine that fee simple title is in Colette L. Kolb a/k/a Collette Kolb. If no exceptions to the Petition are filed within 30 days, Colette L. Kolb a/k/a Collette Kolb will seek an Order adjudging that Seth Kolb’s title is in Colette L. Kolb a/k/a Collette Kolb.

IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY, ORPHANS’ COURT DIVISION, ESTATE OF RONALD E. HUTCHINSON, deceased, Case No. 4751 of 2021: Notice is hereby given that on June 16, 2021, a Petition was filed by Polly V. Dugas to terminate the interests of the heirs and devisees of Ronald E. Hutchinson, deceased, in the real estate located at 1647 Monroeville Avenue, Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania 15145, and determine that fee simple title is in Petitioner. If no exceptions to the Petition are filed within 30 days, Petitioner will seek an Order adjudging that the title of Ronald E. Hutchinson is in Petitioner.

ANNOUNCEMENTS Meetings

Allegheny County Department of Human Services Public Meetings/Hearings on the County Human Services Plan The Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS) is preparing the 2021-2022 County Human Services Plan. There will be two virtual public meetings to talk about the plan and its implementation. Join us on Monday, July 12 at 1:30 p.m. or Thursday, July 15 at 4:30 p.m.

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

Allegheny County DHS makes reasonable efforts to accommodate people with disabilities or limited English proficiency. Closed captioning will be available when joining the meeting on a PC or Mac. Captioning languages will include English, Spanish, Chinese, and Arabic. Information on the County Human Services Plan is available at https://bit.ly/3dcqbgo.

To read the previous plans visit https://bit.ly/3ebyWIR. Erin Dalton Director Allegheny County Department of Human Services

Estate of MR. NICKOLAS M. VENEZIALE, JR. , Deceased of 33 Florence Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15202, Estate No. 02-20-04067, Ms. Cheryl Asche, 33 Florence Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15202, Administrator, c/o Max C. Feldman, Esquire and the Law Office of Max C. Feldman, 1322 Fifth Avenue, Coraopolis, PA 15108

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Estate of ELEANOR D. VERNA,Deceased of West Mifflin, Estate No. 022104678 of 2021, Roberta J. Singer, Adm, or to c/o Jacqueline H. Brangard, Esquire, Scolieri Law Group, P.C. 1207 Fifth Avenue, Suite 200 Bldg., Pittsburgh, PA 15219

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SOUTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA COMMISSION NOTICE OF PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD AND VIRTUAL PUBLIC MEETING Note: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions on gatherings, SPC is unable hold in-person public meetings at this time. A virtual public meeting and other online public participation opportunities will be provided for interested parties to review and comment on draft documents. SPC will provide paper copies of materials upon request (see information later in this notice).

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC) is seeking your input and will open a public comment period for Air Quality Conformity Determination and proposed amendments to SmartMoves for a Changing Region (Southwestern PA’s Long Range Transportation Plan) and the 20212024 Transportation Improvement Program (2021-2024 TIP).

This public comment period will begin Monday, July 12, 2021 and conclude Friday, August 13, 2021.

The following projects will be added to the region’s Long-Range Transportation Plan: •SR 356 Improvements - Widening of SR 356 in Buffalo Township, Butler County from 2 lanes to 5-lanes (four travel lanes and one center turn lane), for approx. 1.1 miles, from just north of T-666 (Harbison Road) to a point approximately 2,200 feet north of the Bear Creek Road intersection.

Other improvements include widening, relocation, and/or realignment of approaches to SR 356 (Monroe Road, Cole Road, Bear Creek Road, Locust Drive); installation of sidewalks and ADA ramps at strategic locations along the corridor; replacement of three traffic signals; and replacement of storm water drainage.

•Market Place District Improvements, Phase 1 - Adding a through lane between Fedex Drive and Market Place Boulevard in Moon Township, Allegheny County. Other improvements include the addition of turn lanes; implementing bicycle and pedestrian connections; and improving intersections at the I-376 Interchange, at Market Place Blvd, and at FedEx Drive.

•I-79 Widening Project - I-79 3rd lane widening in the existing median from Alpine Road to Prestley Road for an approximate length of 2.5 miles in South Fayette Township, Allegheny County. Improvements include mainline I-79 bridge widening / replacement / preservation; Bridgeville Interchange reconfiguration; SR 50 improvements and traffic signal upgrades between S.R. 3003 (Washington Pike) and the Hickory Grade Road intersection to accommodate ramp and bridge improvements; and new retaining walls and replacement of six existing sign structures are proposed along I-79.

•Parkway East Corridor Transportation Improvement Phase 2 – Change of project name on the Statewide Interstate Program to I-376 Squirrel Hill Interchange Improvements. This change allows PennDOT to begin the study phase of this project to develop alternatives for potential improvements to the I-376 Squirrel Hill Interchange.

Regional Performance Measures and Targets related to Public Transportation Safety and System Reliability will also be amended into Appendix II of the Plan.

Additional information on the Air Quality Determination and the proposed amendments to the 2021-2024 TIP and SmartMoves for a Changing Region is available for public review online beginning July 12th, at www.spcregion.org, at the offices of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission.

Beginning Monday, July 12, 2021, these draft documents will be available for public review on the internet at www.spcregion.org. A virtual public meeting will be held to provide an overview of the draft documents, updates on project advancement, and opportunities for the public to ask questions and submit comments.

VIRTUAL PUBLIC MEETING: Wednesday, July 28, 2021 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Access Meeting Link and Call-In Information: www.spcregion.org Comments on the draft documents will be accepted by SPC representatives during the virtual public meeting. Written comments may also be submitted to comments@spcregion.org, by mail to SPC Comments at Two Chatham Center, Suite 500, 112 Washington Place, Pittsburgh, PA 15219 or by fax to (412) 391-9160.

All comments must be received by 4:00 p.m. on Friday, August 13 2021.

Upon consideration of public comments received, the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission will consider approval of the draft documents at their meeting at 4:30 p.m., on Monday, August 30, 2021. This meeting will be held at Two Chatham Center, 112 Washington Place, 4th Floor, Pittsburgh, PA 15219.

In the event that this meeting must be held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, notices will be posted at www.spcregion.org and at SPC’s offices.

For individuals without access to the internet, paper copies of draft materials will be mailed upon request. SPC will respond to requests for paper copies as soon as possible in accordance with COVID-19 restrictions.

To request paper copies, please contact Shannon O’Connell at (412) 3915590, ext. 334 or soconnell@spcregion.org.

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (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. 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 virtual 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 Jared Bedekovich at (412) 391-5590, Ext. 343, or jbedekovich@spcregion.org. If you believe you have been denied participation opportunities, or otherwise discriminated against in relation to the programs or activities administered by SPC, you may file a complaint using the procedures provided in our complaint process document or by contacting SPC’s Title VI Coordinator by calling (412) 3915590. For more information, or to obtain a Title VI Discrimination Complaint Form, please see our website at: www.spcregion.org or call 412-391-5590.

TRANSIT SERVICE INFORMATION For information regarding transit services in Allegheny County, please call Port Authority Customer Service at 412-442-2000. For transit information in other counties, please visit: https://commuteinfo.org/for-commuters/ commuting-options/transit/.

This notice satisfies the program of projects requirements of the Urbanized Area Formula Program of the Federal Transit Administration for Beaver County Transit Authority, Butler Transit Authority, Fayette Area Coordinated Transit, Mid Mon Valley Transit Authority, Port Authority of Allegheny County, Washington County Transportation Authority, Westmoreland County Transit Authority, Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, and CommuteInfo, a program of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission.

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Virtual Public Meeting Announcement Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC) Meeting July 15, 2021 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

To participate, please visit: https://spcregion.webex.com/ spcregion/j.php?MTID=md817e7b1ec191fdc3a088ca5552d873d Meeting number (access code): 173 405 2113 Meeting password: awMPYUPJ823 Join by phone: 1-844-621-3956 United States Toll Free Please share your views with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Pennsylvania Division and Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Region III at a public presentation to discuss the transportation planning process in Southwestern Pennsylvania. The public meeting will be held in conjunction with the regularly scheduled Joint Transportation Technical Committee/Transit Operators Meeting.

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC) is the official Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the ten-county region which includes the City of Pittsburgh and the counties of Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, Washington and Westmoreland. For more information, please visit: https://www.spcregion. org/get-involved/.

To participate in this meeting, please visit or click the link: <insert link> You may also participate by phone.

Please dial: <insert phone>

OFFICIAL BOROUGH OF SWISSVALE ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS Notice is hereby given that separate and sealed proposals will be received by the Borough of Swissvale, 7560 Roslyn Street, Pittsburgh (Swissvale), PA 15218 until 11:00 AM, Prevailing Time, on Tuesday, August 2, 2021 opened and read immediately thereafter in the Municipal Council Chambers for the following project: NEW PUBLIC WORKS FACILITIES This project consists primarily of site improvements, the rehabilitation of existing interior and exterior facilities and construction of new facilities at the Borough of Swissvale Municipal Building, located on McCague Street in the Borough of Swissvale.

Copies of Information for Bidders, Contract, Form of Proposal and Bid Forms, Plans and Specifications may be examined or obtained for bidding purposes from the GLENN ENGINEERING & ASSOCIATES, 14920 Route 30; North Huntingdon, PA 15642. Copies of the documents may be obtained with a check or money order deposit (non-refundable) made payable to Glenn Engineering & Associates, Ltd. in the amount of One Hundred Dollars ($100.00).

Requests for mailing will be honored with an additional fee of Twelve Dollars ($12.00). NO documents will be issued within 48 hours of the scheduled bid opening.

Each proposal shall be accompanied by a Bidder’s Bond, Cashier’s Check, or Certified Check in favor of the Borough of Swissvale in the amount of not less than ten percent (10%) of the amount of the proposal, as evidence the bidder will accept and carry out the conditions of the contract in case of award.

This contract shall be subject to the Pennsylvania Prevailing Wage Act of August 15, 1961, P.L. 987, as amended, 43 P.S. Section 165 et seq. Workers shall not be paid less than the prevailing minimum wages as set forth in the applicable schedule.

No bid may be withdrawn for a period of sixty (60) days once filed with the Borough of Swissvale. The Borough of Swissvale reserves the right to reject any or all bids and to waive any informality in the bids received.

Public comments may be shared two ways: 1)Once connected to the virtual meeting, please type your comments into the chat box; or 2)Submit comments via e-mail to Jennifer Crobak at Jennifer.crobak@ dot.gov.

If you require assistance or accommodations to participate, please contact Jared Bedekovich at (412) 391-5590, Ext. 343, or jbedekovich@ spcregion.org at least 3 days prior to the virtual meeting.

If you are not able to attend the meeting, please address your comments to: Federal Highway Administration, Pennsylvania Division c/o Jennifer Crobak, 221 Walnut Street, Room 508, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17101 Jennifer.crobak@dot.gov / 717-221-3440 All comments are due by July 30, 2021.

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (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. 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 virtual 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 Jared Bedekovich at (412) 391-5590, Ext. 343, or jbedekovich@ spcregion.org. If you believe you have been denied participation opportunities, or otherwise discriminated against in relation to the programs or activities administered by SPC, you may file a complaint using the procedures provided in our complaint process document or by contacting SPC’s Title VI Coordinator by calling (412) 391-5590. For more information, or to obtain a Title VI Discrimination Complaint Form, please see our website at: www.spcregion.org or call 412-391-5590.

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ATTEST: Katie Malsch Borough Manager Abigail Salisbury President of Council OFFICIAL BID NOTICE TOWNSHIP OF UPPER ST. CLAIR Sealed Bids will be received by the Township of Upper St. Clair, 1820 McLaughlin Run Road, Upper St. Clair, PA 15241, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania until 9:00 a.m., Tuesday, August 24, 2021 and the Bids will be publicly opened and read thereafter in the Township Building at the same address for the following: TOWNSHIP MUNICIPAL BUILDING PH-5 NEXT GENERATION FACILITY IMPROVEMENTS General Construction Work, Plumbing & Fire Protection Work, HVAC Work, Electrical Work Please refer to https://www.twpusc. org/business/bid_information.php for details regarding specifications and Bidding requirements.

Matthew R. Serakowski Township Manager

Bids/Proposals

PROFESSIONAL Economic development organizational is requesting qualifications from: Environmental Assessment Firms- Qualifications relative to the following should be discussed: conducting Phase I ESA’s according to EPA’s AAI requirements, developing and implementing Sampling and Analysis Plans and Quality Assurance Project Plans., conducting site assessments in accordance with PA Act 2, conducting site characterizations relative for storage tanks, working in a team environment with the EPA’s Communit ide rownfields Assessment Grant, meeting goals for minority and woman owned businesses.

Economic Development/ Real Estate Firms- Qualifications relative to the following should be discussed: inventorying real estate, working with property owners, redevelopment planning, managing the U.S. EPA’s Community-Wide Assessment Grant, packaging other economic incentive programs, working in a team environment, assistance in securing women and minority participation.

Both RFQ’s are due July 23, 2021 and should be mailed to: NSIDC, 700 River Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15212.

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL The Allegheny County Department of Human Services recently issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a Provider of Functional Family Therapy through Child Welfare: An Evidence-Based Intervention Due Date: 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, August 11, 2021.

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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White reporter removed from NBA Finals coverage over controversial comments

MARIA TAYLOR, RACHEL NICHOLS

You may have watched Game 1 of the NBA Finals yesterday, July 6, as the Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns did battle. You also may have seen Malika Andrews doing the sideline reporting for ABC/ ESPN on the broadcast.

Well, usually that job goes to veteran reporter Rachel Nichols, who is White and is host of ESPN’s basketball show, “The Jump.”

But just hours before the game, ESPN removed Nichols from the sideline reporting duties after a wealth of backlash concerning Nichols’ comments she made a year ago about Maria Taylor, the African American woman who serves as host of the pre- and post-game show for the Finals.

“I wish Maria Taylor all the success in the world — she covers football, she covers basketball,” Nichols said in July 2020 in a private conversation that was captured via audio and saved on an ESPN computer, first reported by The New York Times. “If you need to

give her more things to do because you are feeling pressure about your crappy longtime record on diversity — which, by the way, I know personally from the female side of it — like, go for it.

Just find it somewhere else. You are not going to find it from me or taking my thing away.”

Astute ESPN watchers know that Nichols has been a fixture covering the NBA for the network, and Taylor has been on an ascend from intern, to college football sideline reporter, to in-studio host. Taylor played volleyball and basketball at the University of Georgia, and is generally regarded by those in the industry as easily capable of hosting ABC/ESPN’s NBA Finals broadcasts.

It’s clear that Nichols thought that was her job to have, though. As the host of the NBA Finals, you’re seen for at least an hour prior to the game, and in postgame coverage. As the sideline reporter, you’re seen about five times per game, though it’s an important job when

MALIKA ANDREWS adding pertinent information to the broadcast and interviewing the top player at the end of the game.

“We believe this is the best decision for all concerned in order to keep the focus on the NBA Finals,” ESPN said in a statement on July 6.

“Rachel will continue to

host The Jump.”

Andrews has been on the rise at ESPN, too.

At just 26 years old, she made her presence felt reporting for the network inside the Orlando “Bubble” last year during the pandemic.

This year’s Finals raises her profile immensely.

Henry Parham, who was part of D-Day invasion in 1944, dies PARHAM FROM A1

Black combat unit to take part in the D-Day invasion, was responsible for protecting Omaha Beach, one of five landing areas during the invasion, and the American aircraft responsible for bringing reinforcements and supplies to the troops. They also employed barrage balloons against enemy aircraft. His five-man unit flew from dust until dawn and stayed on the beach for 68 days.

In his retirement, Mr. Parham worked at the Courier as a messenger.

Born on Nov. 15, 1921, Mr. Parham grew up working on a Virginia farm in the segregated Jim Crow South during the 1920s and ‘30s, according to an article in the Tribune-Review. He was drafted by the U.S. Army in 1942 at Camp Tyson, Tennessee, the article said.

Mr. Parham moved to

Pittsburgh in 1949, and worked as a machine operator for the Buncher Company.

Mr. Parham lived in East Liberty, and later moved to Wilkinsburg.

On the 75th anniversary of D-Day, Mr. Parham was honored for his service during ceremonies at the Heinz History Center and Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall.

In the Tribune-Review article, Mr. Parham recalled that D-Day was “awful. It was a scary thing, but it was one of the things you had to do because there was no turning back.”

The viewing for Mr. Parham will be held, July 12, from 4 to 8 p.m. at Bernadette Rose Funeral Home, 10900 Frankstown Road, Penn Hills. He will be laid to rest with full military honors on July 13 at 11 a.m.