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‘THE PANDEMIC PUT SOME THINGS IN PERSPECTIVE FOR ME.’

Lynne Hayes-Freeland ending daily radio show on KDKA Iconic figure wants to spend more time with family, precious grandchildren Courier Staff Report

LYNNE HAYES-FREELAND

When someone says in conversation that “it has been an amazing ride,” it usually signals that something is ending.

But when that someone making the statement is a legendary figure in Pittsburgh’s Black community, it becomes front-page news, and everyone in the community pays attention.

Lynne Hayes-Freeland, a daily fixture on KDKA-TV for decades before switching to KDKA Radio (100.1 FM, 1020 AM) full-time to host a weekday show, announced during her show on Friday, Sept. 3, that she would be ending her daily radio show in November.

She called it a “semi-retirement,” as she’ll still be involved with KDKA radio and TV on a de facto part-

time basis.

“For 45 years, I have been connected to a microphone on some level or another, and I am grateful for that,” Hayes-Freeland voiced around 12:50 p.m. on her KDKA radio show. “But I’ve also decided to step back from being behind a microphone every day of the SEE HAYES-FREELAND A4

Enough is enough with attacks on Hamlet, Black leaders say Group outraged at ‘vicious effort’ to undermine PPS superintendent

by Rob Taylor Jr. Courier Staff Writer

Whether he goes for a jog through Downtown Pittsburgh, spends countless hours at the Board of Education building in Oakland devising strategic plans to improve student outcomes, or steps outside to take out the trash, a group of Black leaders in Pittsburgh is downright tired of Pittsburgh Public Schools

Superintendent Anthony Hamlet, Ed.D., having a target on his back.

The issue at hand: A state Ethics Commission Report recently found that Dr. Hamlet violated the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act due to not filing financial documents properly, receiving payments for appearances, and being reimbursed for travel exSEE HAMLET A2

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RICK ADAMS, co-convener of the Western Pa. Black Political Assembly, said on Sept. 7 that there is a “vicious effort” to undermine Pittsburgh Public Schools’ Black superintendent, Anthony Hamlet, Ed.D. He is calling on the school board not to listen to calls from some that Dr. Hamlet be removed from his position. (Photo by Rob Taylor Jr.)

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Enough is enough with attacks on Hamlet, Black leaders say GROUP OUTRAGED AT ‘VICIOUS EFFORT’ TO UNDERMINE PPS SUPERINTENDENT HAMLET FROM A1

penses.

The city’s school board released a statement stating its members had read the report, calling the findings “concerning and a distraction for the District as we commence the new school year.” The board’s statement also read in part that they would “consider any appropriate actions to be taken.”

But some members of the Western Pa. Black Political Assembly stood in front of the Board of Education building Tuesday, Sept. 7, and demanded that the board take a chill pill; there should be no additional punishment for Dr. Hamlet, they said.

“To ask for a vote of ‘no confidence’ or removal is feeding into a broad-based political attack by privileged elements, establishment, and community groups who have hidden agendas,” Rick Adams, co-convener of the WPBPA, said at the press conference. “It reminds one of the similar attacks on previous Superintendent John Thompson, also an African American educator, which resulted in his departure (in 2005).”

Adams said his group could not sit back and watch as Dr. Hamlet continues to get lambasted in the media, in their opinion.

Adams said there is a “gang of four” that are behind the “attempted railroading”— KDKA-TV investigative reporter Andy Sheehan, City Controller Michael Lamb, Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala, and Pittsburgh Public Schools Solicitor Ira Weiss.

Together, they are creating a “rush to injustice” concerning Dr. Hamlet, Adams and his compadres said, which doesn’t happen with White city school superintendents.

“I am here today for Dr. Hamlet, but this ain’t even about Dr. Hamlet,” voiced Mark Brentley, a former school board member and current member of the WPBPA. “This is about the process and the treatment of African Americans in education, and the lack of support that it receives from elected officials and everyone including the corporate community and foundations...I was here 15 years ago for John Thompson at this same spot, and years prior to that, I was

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here for Dr. Loretta Webb, who, as an African American, highly qualified, made it as a finalist, but it was the process of the White power structure putting power on the board saying, ‘No, no, no’ (there can’t be a Black superintendent).”

Brentley added: “It almost suggests as though any time someone (Black) attempts to come to this school board and begin to educate children, they’re kneecapped, and they’re undermined.”

Brentley said there’s a usual process that occurs— something detrimental about a Black superintendent is leaked to the local media, followed by a character assassination, “and then there’s the call—‘Oh, he’s bad, he’s a criminal, gotta go, gotta go.’ And then they discredit him and then he’s run out of here. At the same time, our children lose, due to the lack of consistency.”

The Western Pa. Black Political Assembly pointed out that the state Ethics Commission did not call for a vote of no confidence or suggest that Dr. Hamlet be removed from his post.

The commission merely called for adjustments to the financial reports. Thus, the board shouldn’t pile on with any thoughts of removing the superintendent.

“We don’t need to be changing superintendents,” said Rev. Johnnie Monroe, pastor emeritus of Grace Memorial Presbyterian Church and WPBPA member. “The board needs to focus on how do we educate our children, that they may get a first-class, world-class education, and get out of the business of trying to micromanage the superintendent...the board needs to stand with him to ensure that our children get a decent education.”

It’s unclear when or if the school board will hold a vote of “no confidence” in Dr. Hamlet or discuss removing him from the superintendent position. But the board, with KDKA-TV’s reporting of Dr. Hamlet’s trips to Cuba and other perceived professional indiscretions front-and-center, voted 7-2 to renew his contract for another four years back in August 2020.

At the time, school board president Sylvia Wilson said that during Dr. Hamlet’s tenure, “progress has been made in the levels

MARK BRENTLEY, former PPS board member and current member of the Western Pa. Black Political Assembly: “Black people need heroes, too. We’re tired of seeing our heroes always on the front page, having to face some form of trumped-up charges...The question is, to the power structure, when will you allow us to educate our children? We love our children, too.” (Photos by Rob Taylor Jr.)

LOUIS “HOP” KENDRICK, former New Pittsburgh Courier columnist and current member of the Western Pa. Black Political Assembly: “How far have we really come in this city? Are we the most racist city in America? I recall when we couldn’t work for KDKA, couldn’t work for the newspapers, weren’t welcome in certain churches...When I was in school, I never saw a Black teacher, never saw a Black janitor, never saw a Black cafeteria worker, in this city... so we need to ask ourselves, is racism driving this (calls for Superintendent Hamlet to be removed)?”

of Black student achievement...the levels of Black student achievement were low before Dr. Hamlet arrived...change and evolution takes time.”

“I want to thank the board for this vote of confidence,” Dr. Hamlet said at the time.

“And while the misdirected self-interest of a few attempted to take away from the progress we have made together, we are now able to move forward squarely focused on improving outcomes for our students.”

Adams, the co-convener of the WPBPA, told the Courier exclusively on Sept. 7 that Dr. Hamlet “has impressed me with his dedication and improving the academic achievement and quality of education for all the students in Pittsburgh Public Schools.”

Adams said that Sheehan, the KDKA-TV investigative reporter, should be terminated for his “unprofessional, inappropriate, and unsubstantiated personal and racist attacks” against Dr. Hamlet. “He makes these outrageous, inflammatory statements, and frankly, some of them I’ve interpreted, not just with Hamlet, as racist.”

ANTHONY HAMLET, ED.D. Adams said Lamb, the city controller, violated Ethics Commission rules by publicly calling for an ethics investigation into Dr. Hamlet. Adams said Weiss, the PPS solicitor, was “derelict” in his duties for approving Dr. Hamlet’s contract and the two not being on the same page concerning what reimbursements the superintendent was permitted to obtain. Adams said Zappala, the DA, was wrong for announcing he would investigate Dr. Hamlet based off the commission’s findings, when the commission itself usually refers a request for criminal investigations to the DA first.

The commission never did.

“Nothing criminal has been charged (against Dr. Hamlet). Why is he (Zappala) volunteering to investigate? It sounded like a cheap shot to me,” Adams told the Courier exclusively.

“As a father, as a grandfather, and as a former student in the Pittsburgh Public Schools, Black people need heroes, too,” added Brentley, the former school board member. “And we’re tired of seeing our heroes always on the front page, having to face some form of trumped-up charges...The question is, to the power structure, when will you allow us to educate our children? We love our children, too.”

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FROM DEFENDANT TO DEFENDER Jarrett Adams continues to fight for equality in the legal system

by Danielle Sanders Chicago Defender

Jarrett Adams was only 17 years old when an allWhite jury convicted him of a crime he didn’t commit. As a result, he was sentenced to 28 years in prison. After multiple appeals and 10 years spent in a jail cell, Adams was exonerated with the assistance of the Wisconsin Innocence Project. He eventually used his experience to become an advocate and attorney. Earning his JD in 2015, he now practices law in federal and state courts across the country with his firm, the Law Office of Jarrett Adams, PLLC. Chicago Defender: What events led to your incarceration and later conviction?

Jarrett Adams: The summer after I graduated from high school, my friends and I would often go to parties outside of Chicago at various colleges. It felt safer than Chicago. I was preparing to attend junior college before heading to a four-year college, so I never experienced college parties before. My friends and I decided to head to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater for a party.

We didn’t tell our parents where we were going.

While at this party, my friends and I had a consensual sexual encounter with a White girl on campus. After the party, we returned home, and I was finishing up my summer job bagging groceries. A few weeks later, I came home, and there was a card in the door. The card said Chicago Police Department-Robbery/Homicide with a phone number. I just knew this was wrong, so I called them immediately.

The officer I spoke to told me that while he knew I was a “good kid,” he needed to clear my name and wanted me to come down for an interview. I told him I would as soon as my mom returned home from work in a few hours. That officer said I was 17 and could come down on my own and get it over with.

I get down there, and a Wisconsin investigator interrogates me.

(At this point, Jarrett Adams learns the White girl at the party has accused him of rape.)

Chicago Defender: What is going through your mind at that moment?

Jarrett Adams: Stunned. I thought they were crazy. I’m telling them my story, and they don’t believe me. We were the only three Black kids on this campus. When I was released from the interrogation, they didn’t arrest me for a week. That’s when the naivete began to fall off. My mother couldn’t afford an attorney. We couldn’t fight back.

Chicago Defender: It had to be surreal. Going to jail for a crime you didn’t commit has to do something to you mentally and emotionally.

Jarrett Adams: When the verdict came back guilty, it was as if my body levitated out of my suit.

Going to prison was scarring. They gave me an additional eight years because I would not admit to the crime at sentencing.

I apologized for putting myself in a bad situation.

I apologized to my family, but I would never apologize for something I didn’t do. You just want someone to believe you. My mother and the women in my life knew the man they raised.

They continued to support me by writing me letters to encourage me and keep me going. That helped.

Chicago Defender: How did you prove your innocence?

Jarrett Adams: My cellmate was an older White man who would see me playing basketball or chess or talking to my family, and one day he told me that I

needed to be working on my case. He said innocent people aren’t playing basketball; they are in the law library. He said if I didn’t sit down and start working on my case, I would be in here for good.

That scared me. Prison is the place where life is put on layaway. It was at that moment that I started working on my case. I was sending letters to everyone proclaiming my innocence and asking for help. My attorney did not do anything.

I was the one who found the witness whose statement was withheld during my trial. I had to compel the attorney to speak with the witness.

During the initial investigation, there was a witness who provided a statement disputing everything my accuser said. They saw us downstairs, but that statement was withheld.

(Adams’ public defender called for a “no-defense” theory which does not allow any witness statements. It is unknown why the public defender chose this strategy.

The WI Innocence project took Adams’ case in 2004 after reviewing the research and evidence provided by Adams. In 2007, after 10 years in prison, the court of appeals unanimously overturned his conviction. He was exonerated but was left with conflicting emotions.)

Chicago Defender: Exonerated after 10 years.

What are you feeling?

Jarrett Adams: When we learned that the courts were probably going to dismiss all charges, I thought to myself, “Finally, my mother is going to get to hear what she knew all along. They were wrong and clear my name, but it wasn’t like that. They filed the motion, the judge ruled, and that was it. After losing 10 years of my life, the damage to my reputation, the pain my family went through…that was it.

Chicago Defender: No apology, no admission that this was wrong or an injustice?

Jarrett Adams: No. The judge never looked me in my eyes. I remember walking out of the courtroom saying, “You might not look at me now, but you will have to see me for the rest of your life.”

Chicago Defender: What happened when you returned home?

Jarrett Adams: My family made me get therapy, then I immediately enrolled in school.

(Adams enrolled in college and graduated with honors from Roosevelt University with a bachelor’s in Criminal Justice.

He then enrolled in Loyola University Chicago School of law and received his Juris Doctorate in 2015. The former defendant was now an attorney.)

Chicago Defender: As an attorney, what challenges face formerly incarcerated and/or exonerated individuals?

Jarrett Adams: There is so much. The system has far-reaching tentacles. The families are affected the most. They are one of the biggest unspoken victims.

This is why I created the nonprofit, “Life After Justice.” The criminal justice system is disproportionately impacting African Americans and people of color. And so, if we allow ourselves to be bamboozled into believing that everyone who has an interaction with the criminal justice system is a bad person that we can throw away, then we will never win this numbers game, ever.

Chicago Defender: What is your mission now?

Jarrett Adams: I hope that the way I’m living my life will inspire young Black kids to go into the legal field. I would love to see a young person aspire to become the next Thurgood Marshall or new-gen-

eration lawyers. We have to penetrate the system with Black attorneys, judges, and prosecutors. I want to help my people. I don’t want anyone to face what I did because they cannot afford an attorney. We have to change the narrative. I hope my story and experience aid in that.

Adams’ book, “Redeeming Justice: From Defendant to Defender, My Fight for Equity on Both Sides of a Broken System,” is available on Amazon and other book retailers, Sept. 14.

For more on Jarrett Adams, visit Jarret Adams Law.

(Danielle Sanders is a journalist and writer living in Chicago. Find her on social media @DanieSanders20 and @DanieSandersOfficial.)

JARRETT ADAMS

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Lynne Hayes-Freeland ending daily radio show on KDKA HAYES-FREELAND FROM A1

week.”

When Hayes-Freeland was hired as full-time host on KDKA Radio in December 2018, it marked the first time in the legendary station’s history that an African American would host a full-time, weekday show on its airwaves.

The New Pittsburgh Courier was the first to report Hayes-Freeland’s hiring on KDKA Radio.

Leaders in Pittsburgh’s Black community had pushed station management to add an African American to its weekday lineup. Tim Stevens, CEO of the Black Political Empowerment Project, wrote an open letter to then-KDKA Radio Program Director Jim Graci, in November 2018: “I have been a citizen of Pittsburgh for my entire life, except for nine months in 1967. To my knowledge there has never been an African American regular

weekday radio talk show host on your station. As a civil rights activist of five decades, I find this reality an embarrassment to our city for its most historic radio station to have such a history reflecting such a near total absence of diversity. The good news is you can do something about this absence of diversity going forward.”

And KDKA Radio did, with the hiring of Hayes-Freeland.

Hayes-Freeland’s daily show began on Jan. 3, 2019 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., but was later moved to noon to 3 p.m.

“For nearly three years you and I have spent Monday through Friday...right here on News Radio 1020 KDKA,” Hayes-Freeland said on-air, Sept. 3. “It has been an amazing ride, we’ve had some great times, we’ve had some candid conversations, we’ve had some difficult conversations. But I’d like to think that we all

grew in the course of that three years.”

Hayes-Freeland’s undeniable credibility in Pittsburgh’s Black community afforded her the ability to bring African American guests onto KDKA’s radio airwaves at a moment’s notice. And when sensitive issues were occurring in Pittsburgh, such as the “not guilty” verdict rendered for former East Pittsburgh Police Officer Michael Rosfeld (who shot and killed 17-year-old Black teen Antwon Rose II in 2018), or Pittsburgh’s George Floyd protests in 2020, Hayes-Freeland was able to bring the perspective of a Black woman regularly to the airwaves.

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, it forced Hayes-Freeland, among other KDKA Radio hosts, to broadcast their shows from home. But it also put some things in perspective for Hayes-Freeland, “and that was, most importantly,

“Coming to KDKA Radio felt like a homecoming. It’s where I started my broadcast career after college, and it seemed like the perfect place to circle back to. But like so many others, the pandemic gave me a clarity I did not expect. I used to laugh when I heard people retire or leave a job and say they wanted to spend more time with family. I get it now.”

LYNNE HAYES-FREELAND

LYNNE HAYES-FREELAND I wanted to be either closer to my family or more available to my family,” she said on-air. “I missed birthdays, I missed holidays...I was not happy with any of that, so all of that pushed me to re-evaluate my life, pushed me how to re-evaluate how I’ve been spending my time.”

Hayes-Freeland’s father is in the Pittsburgh area, but her son, daughter and grandchildren all live outside of Pennsylvania. “My grandson turned 5 last week, my granddaughter will be 2 in two weeks,” Hayes-Freeland said onair, “and we’ll be having a

dedicated to the community and we’ll miss her presence.”

When Stevens learned from the Courier that KDKA Radio would be launching a “national search” for its next fulltime host, Stevens said the choice is already in-house.

“I would hope that they just pick up the phone and call somebody down the street in Chris Moore,” Stevens told the Courier.

“I don’t think a national search is necessary.”

Moore, like Hayes-Freeland, is a pillar in Pittsburgh’s Black community.

He’s hosted weekend shows

insult to Chris to not ask him to do the show with his history and background in Pittsburgh and on KDKA Radio.”

Stevens, who’s been a guest on The Chris Moore Show numerous times over the years, called Moore’s show “informative, provocative,” and that Moore has a “tempered level with his audience and is able to engage debate in a reasonable fashion. I think he would be a very appropriate host.”

Stevens said he felt it was important that KDKA Radio keeps a daily African American presence on its airwaves, as there are no

“My grandchildren have literally changed my world.

So much so, I don’t want to miss any more special moments with them. But it’s tough because I believe my work here (on KDKA Radio) isn’t done. That’s why I am grateful for the opportunity to continue that work, only now on a schedule that better suits my needs.”

LYNNE HAYES-FREELAND big birthday party for the two of them coming up.

They just make me smile. If you’re a grandparent, you understand it. They just make me smile.”

In an article posted to KDKA Radio’s website, Michael Spacciapolli, senior vice president/market manager of Audacy Pittsburgh (which owns KDKA Radio), called Hayes-Freeland “an icon in the city and a pillar of the community.”

The station’s website also mentioned Hayes-Freeland would end her daily show on Nov. 12, then remain part of the station with a weekly one-hour on-air session with 9 a.m. to noon host Marty Griffin, a weekly column on kdkaradio. com, various social media posts, and endorsements.

Hayes-Freeland will also continue to host “Minority Health Matters,” a show in conjunction with Gateway Medical Society that discusses pertinent health issues in the Black community. The show airs the first Saturday of each month at noon.

Stevens, the CEO of B-PEP, told the Courier in an exclusive interview, Sept. 7, that Hayes-Freeland “has been a wonderful breath of fresh air to the KDKA airwaves since she’s been there, obviously very

on KDKA Radio for more than 25 years, but is more notable to Black Pittsburghers as the longtime host of the former “Black Horizons” show on WQEDTV. He also is lauded for his work on WQED’s first nightly show, “On Q.” Moore currently hosts shows on the Pittsburgh Cable News Channel.

“I think this would be the moment; I think it’s extremely important that Chris Moore would be more than a logical choice,” Stevens told the Courier. “I think it would almost be an

other full-time Black voices on the station besides Hayes-Freeland, and Pittsburgh could be poised to have its first Black mayor in Ed Gainey.

“With all the issues that have been affecting African Americans over the decades and particularly the past few years,” Stevens told the Courier, “it’s great to have someone on the air who has some sort of sensitivity to those issues and has the respect of the Black community and many in the White community as well.”

CHRIS MOORE hosts weekend shows on KDKA Radio, with a loyal following. Tim Stevens, CEO of the Black Political Empowerment Project, wants Moore to be offered Hayes-Freeland’s noon to 3 p.m. slot.

HEALTH

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

Neighborhoods and health This month’s Take Charge of Your Health topic is neighborhoods and health—specifically how geographic location affects the lives of Black residents in the region.

In a city like Pittsburgh, where neighborhoods tend to be based on identities like race and ethnicity, the intersection of health and where we live can be glaring.

The Live Longer: Empowering and Engaging Pittsburgh Communities study, led by University of Pittsburgh’s Noble Maseru, PhD, found that residents in the Highland Park neighborhood had a life expectancy of up to 86 years.

Meanwhile, right next

door in the predominantly Black Larimer neighborhood, residents’ life expectancy declined to 62 years.

This is important when we look at neighborhood demographics. The website city-data.com lists* 61.1 % of Highland Park residents as white identified and 58.5% of Larimer residents as Black identified.

Similarly, in the Homewood-North neighborhood, where 86.6% of residents identify as Black, life expectancy is just shy of 70 years.

This month’s health page researcher, Peter Gianaros, PhD, found links between neighborhoods and stress levels. Systemic oppression—like racism, access to

resources and money—affects people and how they live. Dr. Gianaros notes that in lower economic living spaces, as an example, stressors can affect heart and brain health. This connection is critical, as heart disease is the leading cause of death for Black-identified people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Research like Dr. Gianaros’ can help spark change. The more knowledge we have about an issue, the better we’re able address it. Participating in research means that our experiences are seen, that our stories are told and incorporated into decisions about what and how

changes are made.

Taking charge of your health in relationship to your living space might feel hard to do. Maybe we can start at the grassroots level. To me, neighborhoods are not just where we live but are communities built by people. Connect to neighbors and build relationships by attending community meetings to identify assets and barriers to health. Sign up to be a Registered Community Organization with the City of Pittsburgh’s Department of City Planning and gain access to developers’ plans for neighborhoods.

We can help prioritize what’s best for residents and the well-being of peo-

ple already living in our neighborhood.

Get involved in opportunities to advocate for your health and environment through research participation like Dr. Gianaros’s studies such as the Noah Study in Pitt+Me**. Find ways to bring positive and joyful spaces to your neighborhood through community gardening and supporting local and small businesses. If your neighborhood has one, get involved in the community center and bring residents together under one roof.

Other ways to take charge of your health include connecting with us at the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh to de-stress by

ESTHER L. BUSH

reaching educational and financial success goals through our Opportunity Broker program, health programming, family support centers or housing assistance. For more information, call the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh at 412-227-4802.

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

How our neighborhoods influence our health

PETER GIANAROS, PH.D.

Our neighborhoods are places in which we spend a lot of time—in our homes, with friends and community members, at school, in places of worship and at jobs.

So it’s no surprise that researchers are finding more evidence that our neighborhoods influence our health.

In fact, where we live can affect—and be an indicator of—health in ways similar to how we live.

Researchers are looking into the ways that environmental factors and health intersect and affect one another. Peter Gianaros, PhD, professor of psychology, Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, studies how the human brain links stress and heart health and how environmental factors relate to both stress and heart health.

Dr. Gianaros is part of a team of researchers who look at features of neighborhoods and ask questions about how those features might relate to signs of stress—and then how those features might relate to cardiovascular disease (CVD). His colleagues include Anna Marsland, PhD, and Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal, PhD, both professors of psychology at Pitt, as well as Portia Miller, PhD, research associate at the Pitt Learning and Research Development Center.

“We want to understand neighborhood-to-neighborhood differences in health and the factors contributing to it,” says Dr. Gianaros.

“We’re especially interested in how the human brain generates an experience of psychological stress that can affect the body in a way that might influence a person’s heart health. We also want understand how stress may be affecting the brain and whether aspects of the environment are contributing to the effects of stress on the brain.”

Dr. Gianaros and his team have published studies looking at census-based indicators of resource distribution across different neighborhoods. They found that peo-

ple who live in communities that are economically disadvantaged have patterns of stress-related hormones— particularly cortisol—that are related to early signs of cardiovascular disease and brain aging. They are now trying to understand the specific neighborhood features that might be contributing to such risks for poor health.

For instance, Dr. Gianaros and his colleagues published research (https://ehp. niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/ EHP7089) showing the effects of living in neighborhoods with specific pollutants. Using blood samples from study participants, the researchers looked at how immune cells responded to substances foreign to the body. The cells of participants who lived in more polluted neighborhoods had exaggerated immune responses. Such responses can be associated with more inflammation throughout the body and to certain health conditions, like asthma.

Even further, Dr. Gianaros and colleagues are trying to better understand what census measures are actually indicating about communities. Census data like median house or property values do not provide a complete picture of a neighborhood.

So they are digging into the measures to determine whether they reflect information about green space, pollution, proximity to highways, easy access to health care or overall safety. More research may eventually provide evidence to help support policy changes that could break the link between zip code and unwanted health outcomes.

If where we live causes stress, that can affect health, too.

“Stress is not just in your head,” says Dr. Gianaros.

“It’s in your body—an actual physical effect we can measure. It can powerfully shape physical health and how well we grow and age.

We are learning more every day about how stress can ‘rewire’ the brain to affect how it functions. Our biggest challenge is to better understand all the factors that might contribute to stress, as well as how we can change them for the better. We’re learning that many of these factors are more or less present across different neighborhoods.”

This scientific understanding about the connection between our neighborhoods and our health may also lead to preventative health measures that people and policy makers could act on in the future.

To learn more about research by Dr. Gianaros and his colleagues, visit https:// www.healthyheart.pitt.edu.

Longevity Equity—for Life Expectancy

by Noble A-W Maseru, Ph.D., MPH In 2008, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Commission on Social Determinants of Health released a report. In it, the commission examined reasons for differences in people having good and bad health—in essence, a long or short life. The commission’s principal finding for the differences in people’s health was the social conditions in which people are born, live and work. For this article, we see the place where one lives as tantamount to social conditions. These social conditions are largely determined by what are commonly called “bread and butter” issues. Researchers call them social determinants of health.

So how do bread and butter issues like food, transportation, housing, education and a living wage affect life expectancy? In the United States in 1900, life expectancy averaged 47 years. In 2000, life expectancy increased to 77 years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) determined 25 of the 30-year improvement was attributed to bread and butter factors.

The other five years were due to health care. Native Pittsburgher Andre Perry of the Brookings Institute determined that obtaining a high school diploma added 10 years to life expectancy. Education is a bread and butter issue.

In June 2019, Pitt Public Health Center for Health Equity, in collaboration with the Community Empowerment Association, launched the project Live Longer: Empowering and Engaging Pittsburgh Communities. The project’s overarching goal was to use the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s USALEEP database to determine whether there was evidence of disparities in life expectancy within its base community of Homewood (zip codes 15208 and 15209). Using USALEEP data, the Live Longer project has calculated the life expectancy in 63 Pittsburgh-area neighborhoods and determined longevity ranged from 62-84 years. That is a difference of 22 years in some neighborhoods.

The Live Longer project’s Pittsburgh life expectancy findings affirmed the WHO report—that where people live and, more sobering, their zip code can

NOBLE A-W MASERU, PH.D., MPH

be an indicator of how long they will live. Zip codes draw attention to the social environment. We know from our research and practice in public health the effect that bread and butter issues have on population health (which, for this article, we will call zip code neighborhood health).

Today, Allegheny County and the City of Pittsburgh, not unlike the nation, are experiencing unprecedented health and human services crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic is affecting local zip code neighborhoods differently. Communities and populations currently experiencing economic, environmental, social and public health challenges are suffering the most. Just as the county and city declared racism a public health crisis, it is anticipated that Black, Brown and low-income communities will experience disproportionate COVID-19 mortality and morbidity.

The Live Longer project analyzed COVID-19’s effect on the life expectancy of residents in the majority-African American Homewood and other distressed and marginalized zip code neighborhoods. Researchers determined that the life expectancy in these neighborhoods were 11-15 years shorter than the median select neighborhood in USALEEP data—and are worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Using CDC data, Lisa Cooper MD, MPH, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity, found that COVID-19 has lowered life expectancy 1.2 years and 3.2 years

for whites and African Americans, respectively. Data below further shows the effect COVID-19 has on the Homewood zip code (African Americans in Pittsburgh are located in zip codes that Jerry Dickinson describes in his essay “Pittsburgh Is America’s Apartheid City.” https://www.publicsource. org/commentary-jerry-dickinson-pittsburgh-is-americas-apartheid-city/) Homewood Zip Codes Full and Partial Vaccination Percentages as of June 23 and July 7 AA White Total 15206 30% 73% 66% June 23 31% 73% 67% 15208 29% 73% 56% July 7 30% 73% 56% Source: Allegheny County Health DepartmentThe Allegheny County Health Department also reports that 3 out of 5 African American residents are eligible for the vaccine: In African Americans, 35% are fully vaccinated, and 58% of Whites are fully vaccinated.

What Action or Actions Can Improve Life Expectancy When inequality is too great, the idea of community cannot be realized. When linking decision making to the resources that flow from policies formulated, we must ask: Do those decisions lead to better health and advancing health equity or to worse health and greater health inequity? This article affirms that until mechanisms are in place to hold public decision makers accountable for policy that both advances and achieves social equity, organizations like the Black Equity Coalition, Urban Kind, the Human Rights Working Group, The Pittsburgh Study and The Pittsburgh Neighborhood Project are essential to assure social justice is advanced.

Pittsburghers in zip code neighborhoods plagued by poor social conditions (economic, environmental, social, education and health) live shorter lives and have greater illness than people in more affluent zip code neighborhoods.

The marked differences in these neighborhoods will remain until we have social justice and institutional racism is eradicated.

Join in realizing a Just Pittsburgh and Allegheny for All.

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SEPTEMBER 8-14, 2021

METRO

NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER

Ibram X. Kendi headlining CCAC’s ‘Advancing Diversity at Community Colleges’ three-day seminar The New Pittsburgh Courier has learned that the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) will host “Advancing Diversity at Community Colleges: Constructing a CDO Playbook” on Sept. 22–24. The virtual diversity experience is designed specifically for Chief Diversity Officers (CDOs) at the nation’s community colleges, though anyone interested in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is invited to attend. Convener of the virtual institute will be Coopwood Diversity Leadership & Education Universal (Coop Di Leu).

CCAC Provost Dr. Stuart Blacklaw told the New Pittsburgh Courier in an exclusive interview that community colleges, at its core, always served those who were underserved, and it’s a no-brainer that CCAC would host such a forum.

“The idea came our way first,” Dr. Blacklaw said about Coop Di Leu approaching CCAC. The two entities were familiar to each other. “Dr. (Quintin) Bullock (CCAC President) thought that (the institute) was something we should be interested in, and so we started having talks.”

Dr. Blacklaw now anticipates 150-200 people will be attending the three-day virtual event, an event he had hoped could have been in-person for attendees. However, COVID cases surging in Allegheny County put that thought to rest for this year. The speakers and presenters will be in-person, at CCAC’s main campus, as they address the attendees.

Headlining the opening plenary session on Sept. 22, “Diversity and Social Justice,” will be author, professor and anti-racist activist Ibram X. Kendi. Director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, Kendi is one of the nation’s most prolific and accomplished young professors of race, writing for and speaking to both scholarly and general audiences. Other topics to be discussed on Sept. 22 include “Advancing Diversity for Special Student Populations” and “Critical Issues Facing Community Colleges.”

On Sept. 23, Dr. Angelica Perez-Johnston, Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer for CCAC, will speak on “Advancing Diversity Leadership.”

On Sept. 24, Dr. Blacklaw will introduce Dr. DeRionne Pollard, president of Nevada State College, to speak on “The Role of the Chief Diversity Officer and the College President.”

Dr. Blacklaw told the Courier that while CCAC has employed a Chief Diversity Officer for years, Dr. Perez-Johnston is “reimagining” the position at the school. “It’s not an office on the side anymore,” Dr. Blacklaw said. “It’s actually interwoven into our brand new strategic plan. You will see that the equity mission is front-andcenter that it hasn’t been before.”

Those wishing to attend can call 412237-2222 (CCAC) for more information.

IBRAM X. KENDI is director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research. He’ll speak on Wednesday, Sept. 22, the first day of the institute. It is a virtual conference.

Paying for school to get a job to pay for school!

Another gem from our own Damon Carr...

See Page B1.

110 years and counting...

The Courier is THE VOICE of Black Pittsburgh.

RELIGION/METRO

NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER

SEPTEMBER 8-14, 2021

A7

Praise & Worship ST. BENEDICT THE MOOR CATHOLIC CHURCH 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

“A SOFT answer turns away wrath; but a GRIEVOUS word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise uses knowledge aright; but the mouth of fools pours out foolishness.”

- Proverbs 15:1-2

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

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

REV. WALKER SAYS: Our words have power. They can build, destroy, encourage and discourage. Spoken harshly may cause someone to respond with anger. We need use our words and tone of voice wisely.

(Rev. A. Marie Walker is servant pastor of St. John Baptist Church in Wilmerding.)

‘Kings Of Harlem’ performed on local basketball court, opening New Horizon’s latest season New Horizon Theater Inc., opened its 30th anniversary season with a bang, presenting a unique performance on an outdoor basketball court with the “Kings Of Harlem.”

This play portrayed the lives of seven men who overcame adversity to win more than 2,000 games while barnstorming throughout the segregated country in the 1930s despite not being officially accepted professionally or socially. Written, choreographed and directed by Layon Gray, Renaissance Big Five was one of the most successful renowned all-Black professional basketball teams in the 1920s and ‘30s that added grace and style to the game of basketball. The team was formed five years before the Harlem Globetrotters, and provided African American men the opportunity to compete against White athletes equally on

Include your church in the Courier!

the court. They toured the country competing against Black and White teams, and in the process, compiled the most impressive winning streak in basketball history.

In 1963, the entire team was inducted into the Professional Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2015, the play performed for the NBA Legends for All-Star Weekend in New York City.

Layon Gray has written a screenplay version of the stage play, so you will see “Kings Of Harlem” on the big screen soon.

Joyce son-Moore

Attention Churches: Join our growing Praise and Worship Church Community!

For rate information, call 412-481-8302, ext. 128.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR NEXT CHURCH EVENT!

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We want to place your event in our Church Circuit weekly calendar!

Send info to:

New Pittsburgh Courier 315 E. Carson St. Pittsburgh PA 15219

DETROIT, MICHIGAN ATTENDEES take a photo with actor Thaddeus Daniels, second from left.

“KINGS OF HARLEM” actors at New Horizon Theater Inc., following a successful run.

The Courier is THE VOICE of Black Pittsburgh.

A8 SEPTEMBER 8-14, 2021

NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER

New Pittsburgh Courier

Afghanistan and the fog of the Bush Doctrine

J. Pharoah Doss B4

BUSINESS SEPTEMBER 8-14, 2021

www.newpittsburghcourier.com

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HARDEST HIT—Hotels are the only segment of the hospitality and leisure industry yet to receive direct aid despite being among the hardest hit. (Photo: iStockphoto / NNPA)

67% of business travelers to reduce trips amid rising COVID-19 cases. Most are likely to cancel existing trips without rescheduling.

(NNPA Newswire)—U.S. business travelers are scaling back travel plans amid rising COVID-19 cases, with 67% planning to take fewer trips, 52% likely to cancel existing travel plans without rescheduling, and 60% planning to postpone existing travel plans, according to a new national survey conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA).

Despite an uptick in leisure travel over the summer, the new survey highlights the dim outlook for business travel and events, which account for more than half of hotel revenue and aren’t expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2024.

The lack of business travel and events has major repercussions for employment both directly on hotel properties, and in the broader community. Hotels are expected to end 2021 down nearly 500,000 jobs compared to 2019. For every 10 people directly employed on a hotel property, hotels support an additional 26 jobs in the

community, from restaurants and retail to hotel supply companies—meaning an additional nearly 1.3 million hotel-supported jobs are also at risk.

The survey of 2,200 adults was conducted August 11-12, 2021. Of these, 414 people, or 18% of respondents, are business travelers—that is, those who either work in a job that typically includes work-related travel or who expect to travel for business at least once between now and the end of the year. Key findings among business travelers include the following: 67% are likely to take fewer trips, while 68% are likely to take shorter trips 52% say they are likely to cancel existing travel plans with no plans to reschedule 60% are likely to postpone existing travel plans until a later date 66% are likely to only travel to places they can drive to The survey also tested attitudes among 1,590 people (72% of respondents) who are likely to attend large gatherings,

meetings, and events—all key drivers of hotel revenue. Findings among those respondents include: 71% are likely to attend fewer in-person events or gatherings 67% are likely to have shorter meetings or events 59% are likely to postpone existing meetings or events until a later date 49% say they are likely to cancel existing meetings or events with no plans to reschedule According to a recent Deloitte survey, corporate travel is projected to remain at only 30% of 2019 levels through the end of 2021. This lack of corporate travel would cost the hotel industry an estimated $59 billion in 2021, according to leading economists, underscoring the need for targeted federal relief such as the Save Hotel Jobs Act. “Hotels were already on pace to lose more business travel revenue this year than we did in 2020. And now rising

COVID-19 cases threaten to further reduce the main source of revenue for our industry,” said Chip Rogers, president and CEO of AHLA. “Hotel employees and small business owners across the nation have been pleading for direct pandemic relief for over a year now. These results show why now is the time for Congress to listen to those calls and pass the Save Hotel Jobs Act.” Hotels are the only segment of the hospitality and leisure industry yet to receive direct aid despite being among the hardest hit. That is why AHLA and UNITE HERE, the largest hospitality workers’ union in North America, joined forces to call on Congress to pass the bipartisan Save Hotel Jobs Act introduced by Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.). This legislation would provide a lifeline to hotel workers, providing the assistance they need to survive until travel, especially business travel, returns to pre-pandemic levels.

Paying for school to get a job to pay for school!

I recently had a financial planning session with a client. Young, married couple.

They’re both 25 years old. They have one child. I was impressed with the fact that a couple so young would seek out a financial professional. They wanted to be better stewards of their money. Their goal was to get out of debt and increase their savings.

As I reviewed their financials, I was again impressed! Great household income, earning upwards of $80,000 per year. Low household expenses. They were debt-free with the exception of $35,000 in student loan debt. They had disposable income of approximately $1,700 per month after accounting for all bills and lifestyle expenses.

I explained to them that every 40-yearold and older person wishes they’d thought like them when they were 25. I told them the sky’s the limit. If you adopt the plan I’m going to lay out for you, you’re going to be debt-free with mega money in the bank. They were ecstatic!!

I ran some numbers and showed them that if they paid X amount towards the student loans, they could have those student loans paid off in 17 months; far shorter than the 20-year payment term they were on! It was that exact moment when they started backpedaling.

They have been taking advantage of the COVID-induced student loan forbearance. No payments! No interest accrual.

They were hellbent on riding it out until the end. I listened to their reasoning intently. I explained that if your goal is to get out of debt as soon as you can, why wait? You’re gainfully employed with available resources to tackle this student

loan sooner rather than later. Still, they wanted to ride it out.

My job is to guide, and let them decide. I modified the numbers to account for their wishes. We joked about it then concluded our session. After I hung up with them, I created a meme. The meme included a picture of an elderly lady well into her 80s with a kodak smile and holding her thumbs up. The caption read, “30 years from now, people riding out those student loan forbearances are going like, STILL PAYING MY STUDENT LOANS! I sent this meme to them. They called me back laughing loudly as they assured me, this will not be them. I then posted the meme on Facebook. This meme generated some interesting dialogue on Facebook.

Tasha chimes in, “I want to return mine, I want a refund. I now owe $145,000!”

Damon’s response: You think you got it bad? I recently talked to a girl with $80,000 in student loans with no degree. I’m reminded of a quote one of my friends’ mom told him. Boy you been going to school too long to be that dumb!

Autumn chimes in. “I will die with them!” Not to be outdone, Nicole says, “I will die with them, too! Once we have to start paying them back, I will continue to defer them! I have more years behind me than I have ahead of me.”

Nick, a guy with a banking background replies to Nicole. “You do realize, interest

is still accruing while in deferment?” Nicole assures Nick she got this. She said she’s been doing deferments for years.

Gabriel chimes in. “$5-$20 per month for the rest of my life is cool by me.” She continues, “If I live to be 100 years old, paying $10 per month or $120 per year for 60 years is better than paying the $60,000 balance I owe. I’m a nurse, they better forgive it soon.”

Damon’s response: Gabrielle, It sounds like you’re on an income-based repayment plan, with a bonus being: You work in a specific area or specific industry for so many years and make timely payments for 10-20 years, the balance remaining on your federally backed student loan will be forgiven. Here’s why I find this interesting.

People in general don’t trust the government —Black people surely don’t trust the government! But people of all hue are trusting the government when they tell them that they will forgive a portion of their federal student loans!

Shaking my head!

Interesting Facts: Those repayment plans with a loan balance forgiveness clause have been around for over a decade now. You have people who did exactly what was required to be eligible for forgiveness. Millions of people applied for student loan forgiveness. Less than 1% of those who applied for student loan forgiveness actually had their loan forgiven.

I hope it works out for you!

Donna chimes in. “People on this thread are going to be so very very sad. We were told, ‘student loans can only be forgiven if you are permanently disabled or DEAD’ (cue scary music.) This administration JUST forgave loan debt for the permanently disabled. Default on your student loans could get you fired or unable to find a job. I have worked for the government since 1998, paid my loans religiously, and still got turned down for PSLF forgiveness because I chose the ‘wrong’ repayment plan back in 2001. The game is they WILL get their money! One sickness and you are in default. Your kids will have a hard time qualifying for sufficient funding for college because you won’t qualify for the Parent Plus Loan. They WILL get their money!”

Damon here: Did you know COVIDinduced student loan relief—no payments, No interest accrual, No debt collection— is being calculated as student loan forgiveness? So…That forgiveness many are banking on may have already been forgotten!

Aside from mortgages, student loans are the largest debt category in America.

Nearly 45 million people have student loans with an aggregate balance of $1.7 trillion.

I find it daunting that it costs approximately $233,000 to raise a child from birth to age 18. Yet the average cost to pay for a child’s four-year college education is approximately $100,000.

(Damon Carr, Money Coach can be reached at 412-216-1013 or visit his website @ www.damonmoneycoach.com)

BUSINESS

B2 SEPTEMBER 8-14, 2021

NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER

Blair Mundy named community director at Entrepreneurs Forever The New Pittsburgh Courier has learned that Entrepreneurs Forever (eforever), the flagship program of the Pittsburgh-based nonprofit Mansmann Foundation, has promoted Pittsburgh-area native Blair Mundy to the role of community director for the Pittsburgh Region. Mundy joined Entrepreneurs Forever as the Program and Administrative Coordinator in August 2020. In her new role, Mundy is responsible for developing community relationships, recruiting members, and supporting programs in Pittsburgh and Southwestern Pennsylvania.

Entrepreneurs Forever provides support to existing businesses through professionally moderated monthly peer group meetings. Peer group members share their entrepreneurial journeys with others on a similar path and work through a progressive three-year competency program, ensuring that they build necessary skills for long-term success.

“Connecting small business owners to one another through peer groups is a powerful way to counter the often-isolating work of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs Forever is strengthening our communities by strengthening our small businesses and that’s work I’m proud to be a part of,”

BLAIR MUNDY said Mundy, in a statement.

Mundy earned her Bachelor of Science Degree in Hospitality Management and Special Events Management from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2017. Since

graduating, she has worked in sales and staff development with Prospera Hospitality, Heartland Restaurant Group, and Millcraft Hospitality.

“Since 2014, Entrepreneurs Forever has

grown to serve small business owners in 27 communities in Southwestern Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, connecting our members with the people and skills they need to succeed,” said A.J. Drexler, CEO of Entrepreneurs Forever. “Blair understands our members and the communities we serve. She’s proven to be an integral part of our team and will be a great advocate in her new role.”

In addition to their presence in Pittsburgh and Massachusetts, Entrepreneurs Forever recently announced expansion into Western New York. They are partnering with Entrepreneurship for All (EforAll), a nonprofit whose mission is to accelerate economic and social impact through inclusive entrepreneurship, and the nonprofit Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC) to launch peer programs in Buffalo this fall. Together, these organizations will work to provide under-represented individuals with the training and support needed to start, grow, and sustain their businesses. To help launch these initiatives, BNMC connected with financial partners, including lead sponsor KeyBank.

Roland Martin announces new Black TV network

by Lauren Victoria Burke NNPA Newswire Contributor

On the evening of September 2, journalist Roland Martin, the host of #RolandMartinUnfiltered, announced an overthe-top media (or OTT) network that will broadcast directly to viewers free via the internet and a phone app. The new Black owned network, Black Star Network (curated by Roland S. Martin), will feature new shows and live stream Black news and information focused on news, politics, technology and culture.

The first interview on Black Star Network was with legendary civil rights attorney Fred Gray, on September 4. Gray, 90, was the legal mastermind behind several civil rights victories and an advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin announced his new network on the third anniversary of #RolandMartinUnfiltered, the first daily digital show specifically targeting African American audiences five days a week. The show has enjoyed expansive audience growth averaging 20 to 30 million views a month.

Unlike several other Black content related news and information platforms, Black Star Network is 100 percent Black-owned.

ROLAND MARTIN Black Star Network will be available on all platforms including AppleTV, Roku, Samsung, XBox and Amazon FireTV. The new network’s content will also be carried on a phone app for Apple and Android phones at Black Star Network. The network’s website, BlackStarNetwork.com is also now live.

Even though many other TV networks charge viewers to see content, Black Star Network will not.

“A lot of our people simply cannot afford to pay for a streaming service. We purposely chose to keep this free. We purposely chose for people to be able to access our content — that’s what we’ve done with

this show as well,” Martin said referring to #RolandMartinUnfiltered. The network will be ad supported.

Martin’s show #RolandMartinUnfiltered has been streaming live on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter with the support of the show’s Bring the Funk Fan Club donations which have totaled over a million dollars in the last 18 months.

Martin recently announced the construction of a new studio space in Washington, D.C. close to The White House.

The veteran journalist, who hails from Houston, also has plans to announce Black Star Network’s 24-hour streaming channel to be launched during the first quarter of 2022.

Black Star Network’s social media addresses are Facebook.com/BlackStarNetwork, YouTube.com/BlackStarNetwork, Instagram.com/BlackStarNetwork and Twitter.com/BlkStarNetworkon twitter.

(Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent journalist for NNPA and the host of the podcast BURKEFILE. She is also a political strategist as Principal of Win Digital Media LLC. She may be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke)

How disability insurance can help you protect what matters most (BPT)—As we begin to transition out of the pandemic, it’s important to consider steps that can help provide you and your loved ones a more stable financial future.

Just consider that 41% of U.S. employees are living paycheck to paycheck right now, and the same number of employees don’t feel in control of their finances, according to MetLife’s 2021 U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study.

To change course, employees should consider reviewing the benefits their employers offer, including disability insurance, which offers a vital source of income protection that may help cover essential living costs such as

food, clothing and mortgage payments in the event you are unable to work due to a qualifying physical or mental health condition. In fact, MetLife’s study shows that employees with disability insurance feel more confident in protecting what matters most to them in the event of unexpected expenses than those without disability (66% with versus 59% without disability insurance).

Financial protection for those caring for loved ones While almost everyone has been impacted by the financial stressors of the pandemic, caregivers may feel an increased burden. Caring for family members can be over-

whelming - leaving many unsure about their shortterm and long-term financial goals. In fact, MetLife’s study finds that 4 in 10 caregivers don’t have a savings cushion of at least three months.

These financial concerns are also just as real for pet parents. Expenses related to pets can become a burden should a pet parent suddenly become unable to work. To avoid having to dip into long-

term savings to pay for shortterm expenses, pet parents should consider having disability insurance to ensure their pets’ needs can be met in the event of something unforeseen.

What’s more, disability insurance may also help provide security for those struggling with serious medical conditions, like cancer, stroke or heart attack, especially when paired with supple-

mental benefits like critical illness insurance. Critical illness insurance may help cover expenses not covered by health insurance, like plan deductibles, copays and costs for out-of-network care.

Support extends beyond financial health After a year of lockdowns and uncertainty, you may, like many others, feel more stressed and anxious about your financial future than ever before. This stress and anxiety can often build - reducing mental wellness and even hindering your ability to care for yourself and your loved ones.

However, taking hold of your financial health may help alleviate some of these anxieties - ensuring that you and your family are able to focus on healing, not your finances. Caregivers, for example, who have a savings

cushion of at least 3 months are 47% more likely to say they feel mentally healthy than those who do not.

By having disability insurance and other supportive benefits as part of your financial wellness arsenal, you can feel some additional security in the event you are unexpectedly unable to work.

Taking action to improve financial security can have a positive impact on reducing stress and anxiety, allowing you to provide you and your loved ones more secure care now and in the future.

To learn more about disability insurance and how it can support your financial and mental health, talk to your HR department or visit MetLife.com/insurance/disability-insurance.

Five trends driving new vehicle purchases (BPT)—Buying or leasing a new vehicle involves plenty of planning and consideration. We think about what features we’d like to add, like self-parking technology or heated seats. And we ask how our needs might be changing, which could mean moving from a compact to an SUV, or from gas to electric.

According to the latest Hankook Tire Gauge Index, nearly two-thirds (62%) of Americans would change something about their current vehicle, such as the size, safety features or even the color. So what are the biggest drivers for Americans entering the new vehicle market?

1. Eye on safety The most important feature for Americans looking at new vehicles is safety, with nearly a quarter (24%) saying that a new vehicle has to protect them and their loved ones.

That’s especially true for women, who place a higher premium on safety than men

when choosing a new vehicle (30% vs 18%).

A great way to ensure that a new vehicle will offer the best protection is to research safety ratings from both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

2. Saving at the pump and the socket A close second to safety is fuel efficiency, with good mileage ranking as the most important element for 23% of Americans when choosing a new vehicle. It’s also important to consider both city and highway fuel economy, and make a decision based on the most likely type of driving that will be done.

Efficiency isn’t just for gas-powered cars, either: electric mileage is just as important for drivers shopping for new electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrids. The EPA offers an informative section on its fueleconomy.gov site to

determine not just what an EV’s range is, but the equivalent annual costs in electricity.

3. Going green With so many of us focused on the efficiency of our next vehicle, it’s no surprise that over half of all Americans (52%) either currently own or lease a hybrid or EV (18%), or plan to in the future (34%).

This trend is already growing, especially among younger drivers. Most millennial (69%) and Gen Z (71%) respondents either already or plan to own or lease a hybrid or EV. 4. Gearing up with gadgets It can be hard to choose from the assortment of bells and whistles available on the newest vehicles, but for many Americans, there’s a clear list of must-haves. Back-up cameras were the top necessity for 29% of Americans, followed by Bluetooth connectivity (16%) and blind spot

detection technology (14%).

Not all tech is a musthave, though. Only 6% of Americans would consider self-parking technology as a necessity, and 15% say they don’t have any technological deal-breakers when looking at new vehicles.

That could still change: After all, back-up cameras were introduced to the U.S. in 2002, and have quickly become the top choice for in-car tech!

5. Sticking with what works As the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And for 34% of Americans who wouldn’t change anything about their current vehicle, that holds true. So when this third of Americans need to buy or lease a new car, it’s likely that they’ll stick with what they know and like, including body style, color and features.

OPINION

NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER

SEPTEMBER 8-14, 2021

B3

For Whites Only

Guest Editorial

Gov. Wolf is right to mandate masks in Pennsylvania schools Gov. Tom Wolf announced on Aug. 31 that masks mandates will be required in all Pennsylvania public and private schools, as well as child care facilities.

Less than a month ago, Wolf had ruled out a statewide mask mandate for schools after requiring them last year. But the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus has rightly changed the administration’s view about what is needed to keep students in class.

The governor’s decision is in the best interest of the health and safety of Pennsylvania schoolchildren considering a statewide COVID-19 resurgence that is filling hospital beds just as students return to class.

The Department of Health order will take effect Tuesday. It comes after the start of school in many districts — and will require students, teachers and staff to wear masks when inside.

The order will not apply to student athletes while they’re playing. The masking order will apply to private as well as public schools and will also apply to child care facilities.

The Democratic governor took action after the Republican leaders of the House and Senate rejected his request to pass legislation requiring masks in classrooms. GOP lawmakers acknowledged that coronavirus cases are again surging across the state but wrongly insisted that local leaders were best positioned to respond to the pandemic.

Rep. Jesse Topper, R-Bedford, said the statewide mandate makes him “beyond furious.”

“If somehow they’re trying to find a way to take this away, that will be a breathtaking example of bureaucratic overreach,” said Topper, a senior member of the House Education Committee.

Masking is a highly contentious issue, and school board meetings have been the scene of heated debate as parents argue for and against. Local school boards could be intimidated or too influenced by politics from making decisions that are in the best interest of keeping children safe.

Also, this is not a problem confined to a local school district but a statewide problem.

Parents of special needs children sued a suburban Philadelphia school board that refused to mandate masks. The North Schuylkill School District began requiring masks indoors after it was forced to quarantine 60 students. Last week, a federal judge ordered the North Allegheny School District and its board to require face masks.

Pennsylvania is now averaging more than 3,200 new, confirmed infections daily — 20 times the number of cases it was reporting on a typical day in early July. More than 1,700 people are hospitalized with COVID-19. Deaths have doubled in two weeks to about 20 per day.Wolf’s order is in line with the recommendations of public health experts. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends masks in schools for students, staff and teachers.

(Reprinted from the Philadelphia Tribune)

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – There’s no doubt that events like the recent earthquake in Haiti and its associated devastation and loss of life, and the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban occupy center-stage in the minds of many. Both events are worthy of such consideration, but they must share a position of significance with the deliberate destruction of voting rights currently and potentially affecting millions of Americans. Although Republican politicians seem hell-bent on redesigning VOTER RIGHTS as being “For Whites Only,” this is not a battle that we are willing to lose.

Increasingly, fewer numbers of people still live who actually remember the ‘FOR WHITES ONLY’ signs posted in public spaces which “shielded whites from contact and interaction with people of color (POC), and which served to restrict POC from the courtesies and amenities of life. By honoring icons like Mother Rosa Parks, John Lewis, and Dr. King, we will not forget their bold resistance to Jim Crow Laws which imposed segregation throughout the greater society. Existing far beyond the immediate segregation was an entire way of life supported and maintained by abhorrent laws which assigned social and legal superiority to whites and relegated POC to a permanent status of social and legal inferiority.

These exclusions were designed to dehumanize POC in their physical activities and to strip away any self-esteem they may have had.

Like Pavlov’s Dog who when stim-

Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.

Commentary ulated by a bell would salivate, the accepted social order established a certain (ab)normalcy in interracial relationships which found the response of many POC in support of their own inferiority. My friend, Dick Gregory, would say, “In the South, it didn’t matter how close you got, just don’t get uppity. And in the North, it didn’t matter if you got uppity, just don’t get too close.” However different these two realities, they were accepted social contracts which supported a self-fulfilling superior-inferior relationship.

These exclusions also protected Whites from having to share one of their most prized and cherished commodities–the vote.

As time and circumstance would have it, the rigid structure of that social order began to erode. The white guilt of having to watch television and see POC savagely brutalized for seeking equities fundamental to their citizenship led to a loosening of the restrictions to voting. This was objectionable to many, but their sense of numerical superiority gave them the assurance that, although threatened, their

power would remain intact. That is, until the 2008 Presidential Election and subsequent elections, thereafter.

The basic premise of voting is that politicians express their beliefs and core values to the masses in hopes of convincing a majority of voters to support the beliefs and values they espouse. The power of the vote dictates the direction of the nation.

The handwriting was on the wall.

The Republican message was/is no longer appealing to most Americans and, already, white America is wielding less power. Demographers are predicting that the nation will become a majority minority country around the year 2030. In practical terms, this means that Whites will no longer arbitrarily dictate how power is shared or controlled in this nation.

If not understandable, the expected White response to these revelations is a concentrated effort to make voting “For Whites Only” once again.

The number of jellybeans in a jar or the number of bubbles in a bar of soap will no longer be the measure of a voter’s qualification. This time they’re just planning on highway robbery. They alone will decide on the validity of votes and use race or political designation as the measure of whether a vote is “good” or not.

Ultimately, passage of HR1 and HR4 are the only remedies to overcome this disrespect of our vote and humanity.

(E. Faye Williams is President of the National Congress of Black Women and host of “Wake Up and Stay Woke” on WPFW-89.3 FM)

The new multiracial America (TriceEdneyWire.com) – So you are sitting on a park bench, just enjoying the weather. What is the likelihood that the next person that walks by you is of a different race than you? In 2010 the probability of a different race person walking by was 54.9% in 2010, and it rose to 61.1% in 2020. We are more likely to see people who are different than us is the classroom, the boardroom or the sidewalk, and from what we are seeing these days, our nation is not ready for this change.

The 2020 census data, released a few weeks ago, reinforce what we already knew. The White population, still our nation’s largest, is dwindling, down by 8.6% from a decade ago. The Latino population, which includes people of any race (yes, there are Black Latinos) rose by 23%. It is the fastest-growing population in the country. The Black population rocks steady at around 13%.

And the population that identifies itself as “multiracial” has grown by a factor of three.

The increase in the multiracial population, which was 9 million in 2010 and grew to 33.8 millon by 2020, reflects two things. First, the rate of racial intermarriage has increased, leading to an increase of mixed-race children.

Equally importantly, the number of people who are willing to self-identify as mixed race has increased. People who once hid their mixed-race identity, or felt pressured to choose one identity or the other, now feel free to embrace the totality of their identity.

The increase in the number of people who choose to identify as multiracial is both a blessing and an illusion. It’s a blessing because the accursed “one

Julianne Malveaux

Commentary drop” rule was an oppressive way of managing racial classification. But the new multiculturalism is an illusion because it should not inspire “fear of a Black planet.” As Richard Alba writes in his book, “The Great Demographic Illusion: Majority, Minority and the Expanding American Mainstream” (Princeton University Press 2020), everybody brown ain’t down. In other words, many who identify as multiracial take on the identity and politics of their white parent, not their Latino or Asian parent.

They embrace their multiracial identity, but not necessarily multiracial politics.

Many of the young people whose multiracialism is partly Black do “get” Black issues and speak up for them.

Some, though, are conflicted and want to see “both sides.” In the face of the outrageous police killings of Black men and women, there are no two sides, but some who identify with their white parents are not as ready as others to take a strong stand.

Still, young voices are driving our reality. On Aug. 28, young Tamika Mallory called the “Good Trouble” rally that drew thousands to the Lincoln Memorial on the 58th anniversary of the March on Washington. In the tradition of Dr. King, who was but 34 when he

delivered the “I Have a Dream” speech, Mallory called people out and took them to task. She asserted her leadership role and said she would take it, come what may. More importantly, she told Democrats to do their job, do their work, end the filibuster and implement the voting rights agenda. She is powerful, fierce and surrounded by a multiracial team that supports her.

The is the future of our nation. Young, bold, bodacious, multiracial energy.

There are too many who would throw back to the past, too many who would deny the demographics, too many who are frightened about what comes next, who insist on humming, singing and swaying plaintively, “We Shall Overcome.” In this multiracial world, there will be less singing and swaying, and more demanding.

But those of us who watch the demographics know that numbers don’t mean solidarity, and that we will have to work to get the coalitions that we want. And we must also know that no matter how the demographics shift, our nation still owes Black folks.

“We have come to the nation’s capital to cash a check,” thundered Martin Luther King Jr. “And the check has been marked insufficient funds.”

The funds are still insufficient, and the debt is no less pressing. Shifting demographics don’t cancel the debt.

Tamika Mallory, with her inspired leadership, reminds us to hold those we voted for accountable.

Julianne Malveaux is an economist, author and founding dean of the College of Ethnic Studies at California State University at Los Angeles.

Pro-life should really mean pro life

by David W. Marshall

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(TriceEdneyWire.com)—Belhaven is a small rural town located along the coast of eastern North Carolina. This majority-African American community has a median income which is three times less than the state median. Many of its approximately 1,700 residents lack health insurance. From 2005 to 2017, Adam O’Neal served as the town’s Republican elected mayor in this largely Democratic community. And like so many rural communities around the nation, in 2015 Belhaven experienced the closure of its one and only hospital which served over 20,000 people throughout a two county area. The 65-year-old hospital closed in part to the decision of the governor and state legislature to reject the expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare.

Last year, rural hospital closures hit a record high with 20 closed in 2020.

Throughout the United States, 136 rural hospitals have closed since 2010, according to the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research. Over the past decade, the state of Texas leads the nation with 21 rural hospital closures.

The COVID-19 pandemic is now producing even more financial pressure and further threatening the ability of rural hospitals to maintain healthcare services. Even with the backdrop of struggling hospitals, lawmakers such as

Texas governor Greg Abbott previously failed to give hospital relief by following recommendations by federal health officials. Those recommendations would have reduced the surge of new patient hospitalizations. Most of those individuals now being hospitalized are unvaccinated. Many hospitals are exceeding their capacity and stretching their staff beyond limits.

Ironically, many state governors and legislators who reject mandating vaccines and the wearing of masks actually call themselves “pro-life.” For these lawmakers and their ardent supporters, “pro-life” is conditional and tied to only one issue, abortion. When you look up the definition of “pro-life” it refers to the right to life and advocating the legal protection of human embryos and fetuses. This limited version of “pro-life” is driven more by ideology and culture.

Which explains why many people vote solely on the issue of abortion. Pro-life should really mean the protection of all life by having the unconditional quality of being humane to all people in all situations. Meaning when you hear that 634,250 individuals in the U.S. died of COVID-19, you encourage people to get vaccinated as a means of protecting life and limiting further deaths. If you were truly pro-life then one should promote mask wearing in public indoor spaces and urge universal masking in schools.

If you were truly pro-life then you would fully understand that black lives matter.

And lastly, if you were truly pro-life you would follow the example of the former mayor Adam O’Neal.

Six days after the closure of the Belhaven hospital, a local resident unable to make it to the nearest hospital by helicopter, died of a heart attack. As a result, the Republican mayor made an unpopular pro-life decision which was beyond the issue of abortion. He took a 15-day, 273 mile walk to Washington DC to draw attention to the failure of Republican leaders in his state to accept the Medicaid funding the hospital needed in order to remain operational.

“If the governor and the legislature don’t want to accept Medicaid expansion, they need to come up with another program to assure that rural hospitals don’t close,” O’Neal said. Otherwise, he continued, “they’re allowing people to die to prove a point. That is wrong, and I’m not going to be a party to that.”

Pro-life is more than ideology. It means at times you put aside race, economic class and blind party loyalty in order to unconditionally protect and preserve all lives.

David W. Marshall is founder of the faith based organization, TRB: The Reconciled Body, and author of the book “God Bless Our Divided America”. He can be reached at www.davidwmarshallauthor.com

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B4 SEPTEMBER 8-14, 2021

‘Mommy, I’m scared!’

When I locked the door of my home in Manhattan in March of 2020, I thought I would be gone for about two weeks. I packed a smallish bag loaded up the car with my then nine-year-old daughter, 86-year-old mother, my cousin, two cats and a dog. We picked up a puppy along the way and made our way north to the Hudson Valley. I had never spent more than a few days at a time at my house there, so I looked at it as a little vacation. Little did I know that the next 18 months would become a real change of pace for myself and my family.

After it became clear that Covid-19 was not going away, we began to settle in. Hunker down, so to speak. I had to figure out how to run a newspaper completely remotely. That was probably the one of the greatest challenges of all.

Managing people from afar. Not seeing your colleagues every day and at the same time entertaining a very energetic nine-year-old. We figured it out pretty quickly, but it took its toll, especially on my daughter. She was just nine, and while she understood, in theory, why I had to say no to so many things, she didn’t understand why I had to say no to so many things.

Elinor Tatum

Commentary Being isolated is hard, learning from a screen is even harder.

But she tried and quite frankly she did really well. Her teachers and her principal really worked hard and made a really horrible time in these kids’ lives almost bearable. As the summer of 2020, approached, I was able to enroll her in camp. A day camp that was outside all day. They did not even have an indoor area. So the risks were not that high. But then the summer ended and the question of school came around and what were we going to do. We elected to keep her remote. So, for the 2020-2021 school year she stayed remote.

However, she participated in a wonderful music program and did two live shows; played lacrosse on a local team; joined a swim team; and went back to the same camp she went to the previous summer.

She got to be with other kids, she was able to play sports. I wasn’t panicked about covid every minute of every day. She was outside, in the fresh air. She was getting to be a kid.

So now, as August is beginning to come to a close, the thought of the coming school year is at the forefront of my mind. We have been told remote school is not an option this year in New York City.

My daughter is starting Middle School. At 10, she is not yet eligible for the vaccine. What am I doing by sending her to school in a building with hundreds of students packed into rooms with in adequate ventilation? Yes, the teachers are mandated to be vaccinated, but still breakthrough cases are possible. Sending my daughter to a place where she will be mandated to be feet away from her closest friends and teachers, yet forced to breathe the same air, but through a mask. Does the Delta variant care about masks? Does Lambda care about social distance? Can a 10-year-old understand why her classroom is closed again and will be for the next several however long? Or why for her 11th birthday she can’t have a sleepover party? And why there are no more snow days in New York City , just remote days?

How do I explain all of this and more to her? How do I make up for the fact that her fourth and fifth grades were basically taken from her? And how do I let her out of the house every morning, not knowing if today will be the day that her classroom is closed because someone, she was in contact with is now sick.

When Hillary Clinton lost the election to Donald Trump in 2016, I came home from the Clinton headquarters in the middle of the night, and she woke up. With tears in her eyes after hearing who had won, she simply said, “Mommy I’m scared.” She was right to be scared. Five years later my response to her is, “I know baby. I’m terrified.” This time, not because of who is currently in the White House, but because of the legacy that was left behind.

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Afghanistan and the fog of the Bush Doctrine Last week, a conservative talk radio host discussed the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan on his daily program. The radio host complained he kept hearing people say the United States should never have invaded Afghanistan. He excused individuals under 30 because they learned about 9/11 in high school, but he felt there was no excuse for individuals over 40 to utter such nonsense. The radio host insisted destroying al-Qaeda, toppling the Taliban, and nation-building were honorable goals even though they didn’t come to fruition.

Apparently, the radio host has a selective memory. After 9/11 all Americans understood the need for a retaliatory response, but there was opposition to the invasion of Afghanistan because of the Bush Doctrine.

The radio host began his version of events after 9/11/2001, but the whole story actually began on 2/26/1993, when Islamic terrorists detonated a truck bomb below the North Tower of the World Trade Center. That explosion killed six people and injured over a thousand. The bomb was supposed to make Tower 1 (North Tower) fall and crash into Tower 2 (South Tower), collapsing both towers in one blast.

The Clinton Administration treated the bombing as an issue for law enforcement.

Clinton warned Americans not to overreact and be patient while U.S. law enforcement agencies brought the culprits to justice. The problem with Clinton’s law enforcement approach was that it cut out the government’s most important intelligence agencies. Lacking advanced intelligence on the “perpetrators of the crime” meant the Clinton Administration failed to see the big picture—there was a network of non-state actors that declared war on the United States.

J. Pharoah Doss

Check It Out This network of non-state actors continued their war.

In 1996 a bomb exploded outside Khobar Towers barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 19 American soldiers. In 1998, the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed, killing over 200 people. In 2000 the USS Cole, a guided missile destroyer, was attacked by suicide bombers killing 17 sailors. Byron York, former White House correspondent for the National Review, wrote, “The key to understanding Bill Clinton’s handling of the terrorist threat that grew throughout his two terms in the White House: It just wasn’t his thing.”

Then the hijacked suicide planes crashed into the Twin Towers on 9/11/2001, and the newly elected Bush Administration had to respond more effectively than the Clinton Administration.

The Bush Administration could have strengthened Clinton’s law enforcement approach by incorporating the intelligence community and prioritizing the capture (or killing) of the members of al-Qaeda. No matter how weak the law enforcement approach appeared, it was the proper course of action because the terrorists were non-state actors. There was no precedent for a sovereign nation to declare war on criminals scattered around the world, but if Bush approached 9/11 like his predecessor approached the

first World Trade Center bombing, Bush would have been a one-term president.

Therefore, the Bush Administration declared a “war on terror,” but in order to conduct this war, the Bush Administration established a doctrine that stated the United States will make no distinction between terrorists and the nations that harbor them, and the United States will confront terror threats before they fully materialize.

The radio host forgot there was serious opposition to this logic.

The opposition believed the first premise established a dangerous precedent that would be misused by future presidents. It would allow the United States to falsely accuse any nation of harboring terrorists and launch a full-scale invasion for reasons unknown to the public. The second premise was known by another name – pre-emptive strike. A pre-emptive strike is a military action taken by one country in response to a threat from another with the purpose of stopping that country from carrying out the threat.

Many opposed this premise because they understood Afghanistan didn’t declare war on the United States, it was the nonstate actors in Afghanistan that drew first blood.

The military theorist Carl von Clausewitz said, “War is the realm of uncertainty; three quarters of the factors on which action in war is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty.”

But the pre-emptive Bush Doctrine provided a false sense of certainty that made the Bush Administration believe they could see through the fog of war.

And those that opposed the invasion of Afghanistan thought the Bush Administration’s blind faith in their pre-emptive doctrine was misguided.

White people seem to now hate for sport I first met the brilliant comedian and social activist Dick Gregory in 1968, and for the next 49 years until his passing in 2017, he always insisted that young White people would save America because they saw things differently from the way their bigoted parents saw them. I think my brilliant friend was wrong about that.

I think Dick Gregory believed in the “ghost” of decency that unfortunately does not exist in sufficient numbers of White folks to “save” America from herself.

Sure, there are plenty of “good” White folks, young and old. I know several myself. But their numbers and power appear to be unable to even slow the rising tide of race hate in all age and all income groups of white people.

Since the country’s twice-impeached president, whose father was arrested after a Queens, New York, Ku Klux Klan rally in 1927, rose into office, all the boundaries of the need for human decency have been tossed into the trash by White folks who see themselves being outnumbered soon, and vulnerable to political defeat unless they cheat and rig the electoral system in their own favor.

Now, with incidents of racist “Karen” encounters too numerous to keep track of, and the unrelenting drumbeat of murders of unarmed Black men, the evidence of White hate boiling over is unmistakable.

For decades, spanning the entirety of Dick Gregory’s public career, the infamous Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) had law enforcement strategists and the public worried, directing nearly all government resources into policing “Black extremists” as the greatest domestic terrorism threat, while ignoring what is now seen as the grave danger from so-called “disaffected” Whites — radical right-wingers, members of QAnon, the Proud Boys,

Askia Muhammad

Commentary the Three Percenters, the Oath Keepers, and other so-called “sovereign citizens” who either don’t recognize the authority of the federal government, or who want certain states or counties to secede from the union to form a nation by and for White people, first and foremost.

Those are the core of the insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, at the command of President No. 45. They avoided detection and scrutiny, and are now brazenly conducting unlawful violent acts because of their seething race hatred.

Charleston, S.C. murderer Dylann Roof — a young man — whose death penalty was recently upheld in a federal court, admitted that he plotted for months to murder Black worshipers at a historic church, in order to foment a race war.

In Salinas, California, White children collectively behave as badly as racist adults during the height of the Southern anti-segregation battles. One student there said she’s heard racial slurs since elementary school. Now, as a freshman, she fears walking down the hallways of Alisal High School, she told USA Today.

A group of students allegedly defaced a Black doll during a school jamboree. Some White children created an Instagram account for the doll that the students had named “Shaniqua.” Photos show markings on the doll that appear to be an ankle

monitor bracelet drawn around the doll’s ankle and scribble marks on the face. In a video posted on TikTok, several students are seen stomping on the doll. These were schoolchildren. Sorry Greg, these rascals today are no better than their grandparents were in Dixie. And this is in the education system that is supposed to be preparing the youth for the future.

“I don’t want this to be minimized as just a joke or silly kids,” said Jordana Henry, a parent, teacher and leader in the school’s Black Girl Magic Club. “This is White supremacy.”

Is there any wonder that White adults in more than 25 Republican-led states have passed or proposed restrictions on how teachers can discuss racism and sexism in a movement that started under Mr. Trump after The New York Times Magazine published its “1619 Project” in 2019.

Their opposition is to the teaching of what they call “critical race theory.” Civil rights historians call it “truth.”

Meanwhile, some White grown-folks have abandoned all masks of civility. J.D. Vance, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Ohio, discarded all civility when he suggested that he has an advantage in the race because “our people hate the right people.” Vance, the author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” made the comment during an interview with The American Conservative magazine in late July.

It’s okay now, for them to just come out in the open with their race hate. It almost feels like some White folks are openly spouting their racism for sport, like in the 1950s.

WPFW News Director Askia Muhammad is also a poet, and a photojournalist. He is Senior Editor for The Final Call newspaper and he writes a weekly column in The Washington Informer.

A red flag on the West Coast (TriceEdneyWire.com)—In just a few days, California will wrap up its recall election targeting Governor Gavin Newsom, a scheme orchestrated by a Far Right still seething over the Big Lie. At first glance that may seem like a problem that only affects California. But it’s not, and the red flag being raised in the West deserves attention from all of us.

Thanks to an oddity of California law, voters could end up replacing Newsom with a candidate who wins only a fraction of the total vote.

That’s because there are more than 40 people on a list of folks vying to be that replacement, a list that by law does not include Newsom.

Whoever gets the most votes in the overcrowded field, wins, and for weeks now the leader has been Larry Elder, an ultraconservative talk show host whose extreme positions embrace racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, COVID-denying, and anti-environment stances - among others.

Elder’s ascendance is very troubling on a whole host of levels. That it was engineered at all in a progressive state like California shows the stop-at-nothing determination of a Far Right enraged and emboldened by the Big Lie. And Elder himself is a marquee example of the type of candidate that could soon be foisted on voters everywhere. He is more than just one person running for one office; he is the product of an unsavory stew of extremist fac-

Ben Jealous

Commentary tions liberated by Trump to do their worst.

One of Elder’s biggest promoters is a radio host named Eric Metaxas, the host of a “Stop the Steal” rally where the Oath Keepers threatened civil war if Trump didn’t stay in power after losing to Joe Biden. Another is a megachurch pastor named Jack Hibbs, who says Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris have “antichrist views.”

Elder is a Black man who allies himself with white supremacists. He denies that systemic racism exists. He argued forcefully to the Los Angeles Times that he wants to “change the rhetoric about how bad the cops are.”

According to the same Times article, he “shared a graphic with so-called facts depicting Black people as murderous,” cherry-picking and skewing data to suggest Black people are disproportionately criminal. This is tragic.

From a national standpoint, Elder’s election would certainly send a very dangerous message and encourage extremists. But it would also have the potential for more concrete effects. If California’s 88-year-old senior U.S. senator, Dianne Feinstein, had to step down during an Elder term, he could appoint someone to her seat and flip the Senate. That would spell doom for the agenda we elected the Biden-Harris administration to advance.

As someone who grew up in California, and whose parents still live there, I find all of this incredibly disturbing. I worry that progressive Californians, thinking “it can’t happen here,” will dismiss the chance of an ultraconservative coup in their state and skip voting against the recall. I’m aware that conservatives in the state, by contrast, are incredibly energized to get their voters to the polls. This is a train wreck that could really happen and could have ripple effects nationwide – but it’s not too late to stop it.

I’m talking to everyone I know in California about the urgency of voting no on the recall.

All of us need to do the same. This is a critically important moment in the battle against the far-right extremism that threatens to overtake us as a country. We can’t miss the chance to nip this dangerous trend in the bud, wherever it threatens to bloom.

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DATA SCIENTIST, LEAD PPG industries, Inc. seeks Data Scientist, Lead in Pittsburgh, PA responsible for developing foundational data sci. standards, governance & tools used across corporation. Specific duties incl.: working w/broader Analytics org. to ensure proper product mgmt for analytics assets; & building advanced Machine Learning Models that enable bus. & functional teams to effectively serve customers & build new bus. models. Apply at ppg.com SOFTWARE ENGINEER L4 sought by Astrata, Inc. in Pittsburgh, PA; telecommuting permissible.

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Send resume to: Rebecca Jacobson, Astrata, Inc., 6425 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15206 or email: jacobsonr@astrata.co LIBRARY DIRECTOR The Borough of Wilkinsburg is currently accepting applications for the position of Library Director.

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CITY OF PITTSBURGH PUBLIC MEETING LIBERTY AVENUE SAFETY IMPROVEMENT PROJECT The City of Pittsburgh invites you to attend a public meeting for the Liberty Avenue Safety Improvement Project. This project extends from 11th Street to Herron Avenue on Liberty Avenue in the City of Pittsburgh.

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THE BOARD OF PUBLIC EDUCATION OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF PITTSBURGH Sealed bids will be received in the Bellefield Avenue Lobby, Administration Building, 341 South Bellefield Avenue until 11:00 A.M. prevailing time September 14, 2021 and will be opened at the same hour in the administration building cafeteria: ROCK SALT & ICE MELT General Information regarding bids may be obtained at the Purchasing Office, 341 South Bellefield Avenue, RM 349 Pittsburgh, PA 15213. The bid documents are available on the School District’s Purchasing web site at: www.pghschools.org Click on Our Community; Bid Opportunities; Purchasing - under Quick Links.

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Estate of BLANE D. BELL JR., Deceased of Homestead, Estate No. 022106629 of 2021,Mary Bell, Administrator, or to Jacqueline H. Brangard, Esquire; Scolieri Law Group, P.C. 1207 Fifth Avenue, Suite 200, Pittsburgh, PA 15219 Estate of ELINOR F. KRYSINSKI, Deceased of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Estate No. 02-19-06978, Howard C. Immekus, Executor, 1806 Worcester Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15243 or to Robin L. Rarie, Atty; BRENLOVE & FULLER, LLC., 401 Washington Avenue, Bridgeville, PA 15017

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Bids/Proposals

Bids/Proposals

ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA September 2, 2021 The Office of the County Controller of Allegheny County, in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Contract Awards Room; 7th Floor; Commonwealth Keystone Building; 400 North Street; Harrisburg, PA 17120 will receive bids through ECMS or a diskette delivered to the aforementioned address until 11:00 A.M. prevailing local time, Thursday, September 30, 2021. Bids will be opened through ECMS at approximately 11:00 A.M. and can be viewed publicly in the Contract Awards Room, for the following: DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS PINE CREEK SB BRIDGE NO. 6 ALLEGHENY COUNTY COUNTY PROJECT NO. PS06-0210 MPMS NO.: 27159 THIS PROJECT WILL BE BID THROUGH PENNDOT ECMS As a prospective bidder, please note the following general Project data regarding: Pre Bid Information, Bidding Requirements, and Contract Conditions.

See the Project Manual and Drawings (Proposal Report) for detailed information, responsibilities and instructions.

PRE-BID INFORMATION: View the project Manual and Drawings (Proposal Report) on the PennDOT ECMS website (http://www.dot14.state.pa.us/ECMS) or in Room 504, County Office Building, 542 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15219.

BIDDING REQUIREMENTS: THIS PROJECT REQUIRES PREQUALIFICATION OF BIDDERS, INCLUDING SUBCONTRACTORS, AS SPECIFIED IN SECTION 102.01 OF COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION SPECIFICATIONS (PUBLICATION 408/2020, CURRENT EDITION) ON THIS PROJECT. ALL QUESTIONS MUST BE SUBMITTED THROUGH ECMS AND IF NEEDED ADDENDA WILL BE ISSUED ELECTRONICALLY. INSTRUCTIONS TO BIDDERS WILL BE PROVIDED IN THE PROPOSAL REPORT WHICH CAN BE VIEWED THROUGH ECMS. SUBMIT YOUR BID USING ECMS OR MAIL A DISKETTE TO THE PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, CONTRACTS AWARD ROOM. CONTRACT CONDITIONS: U.S. Department of Labor minimum salaries and wages apply to this Project.

The County Manager reserves the right to reject any and all bids.

The anticipated Notice-to-Proceed for this project is December 27, 2021 and the project is to be completed by August 12, 2022.

The County of Allegheny, in accordance with the Davis Bacon Act and other Federal Labor Standards Provisions; Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 78 Stat. 252, 42 U.S.C. 2000d to 2000d-4 and Title 49, Code of Federal Regulations, Department of Transportation, Subtitle A, Office of the Secretary, Part 21 Non-discrimination in Federally-assisted programs of the County of Allegheny issued pursuant to such Act; Executive Order 11246; Section 3 of the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968; Section 109 ofthe Housing and Community Development Act of 1974; and Executive Order 11625 (Utilization of Minority Business Enterprises), hereby notifies all bidders that it will affirmatively ensure that in any contract pursuant to this advertisement, the County will afford disadvantaged business enterprises full opportunity to submit bids in response to this invitation and the County will not discriminate against disadvantaged business enterprises on the grounds of race, color, or national origin in consideration for an award. It is a condition of the bidding process/contract that responsive bidders/contractors shall follow the disadvantaged business enterprise procedures in the Bidding and Contracting Documents.

Chelsa Wagner CONTROLLER COUNTY OF ALLEGHENY

PORT AUTHORITY OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY Electronic Proposals will be received online at the Port Authority of Allegheny County’s Ebusiness website (http://ebusiness.portauthority.org).

Proposals/bid submittals will be due 11:00 a.m. on September 21, 2021 and will be read at 11:15 a.m., the same day, at Port Authority’s Heinz location (Please contact the respective Contract Specialist for Tele-Conference dial-in information for the Bid Opening), for the following: Electronic Proposal - Ebusiness website (http://ebusiness.portauthority.org)

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Bid Number B210869A

Bid Name Snow Removal Services - Park & Ride Lots

No bidder may withdraw a submitted Proposal for a period of 75 days after the scheduled time for opening of the sealed bids.

A Pre-Bid Conference will be held via tele-conference on each of the above items at 10:00 a.m. on August 31, 2021. Please contact the respective Contract Specialist for Tele-Conference dial-in information. Attendance at this meeting is not mandatory, but is strongly encouraged. Questions regarding any of the above bids will not be entertained by the Port Authority within five (5) business days of the scheduled bid opening.

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

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

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

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

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HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF PITTSBURGH INVITATION FOR BIDS (IFB) FOR FIRE HOSE INPECTIONS AUTHORITY-WIDE REBID IFB#300-16-21-REBID The Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh (HACP) hereby requests bids from qualified Firms or Individuals capable of providing the following service(s): Fire Hose Inspections Authority Wide Rebid The documents will be available no later than September 7, 2021 and signed, sealed bids will be accepted until 9:00 AM on September 28, 2021. The Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh will only be accepting physical bids dropped off in person from 8:00 AM until the closing time of 9:00 AM on September 28, 2021 in the lobby of 100 Ross St. Pittsburgh, PA 15219. Bids may be uploaded to the Authority’s online submission site, the link is accessible via the HACP website and within the IFB. Sealed bids may still be mailed via USPS at which time they will be Time and Date Stamped at 100 Ross Street 2nd Floor, Suite 200, Pittsburgh, PA 15219.

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

Questions or inquiries should be directed to: Mr. Kim Detrick Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh Procurement Department 100 Ross Street 2nd Floor, Suite 200 Pittsburgh, PA 15219 412-643-2832 A pre-submission meeting will be held via Zoom meeting; on September 16, 2021 at 9:00 AM. Please see meeting information below: Join Zoom Meeting Meeting ID: 927 3024 1363 Passcode: 508791 +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington D.C) The Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh strongly encourages certified minority business enterprises and women business enterprises to respond to this solicitation.

HACP’s has revised their website.

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

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

LEGAL ADVERTISEMENT INVITATION FOR BID Contract No. ACHA-1657, Employee Uniforms The Allegheny County Housing Authority is requesting Bids from qualified Vendors to provide Uniforms for its Trades and Maintenance Aides.

Invitation for Bids and Contract Documents are on file and may be obtained at no charge from the Allegheny County Housing Authority, 301 Chartiers Ave., McKees Rocks, PA 15136, or by contacting G u y Ph illips @ gphillips@achsng.com.

A non-mandatory pre-bid conference will be held in the Authority’s Boardroom on Tuesday, September 21, 2021, at 10:00 a.m.

Bid submittals are due no later than 10:00 a.m., Thursday, October 7, 2021 at 301 Chartiers Ave., Mckees Rocks, PA 15136.

The Authority encourages responses from §3 business concerns, small f i r m s, m i n o r i t y f i r m s a n d firms that have not previously performed work for the ACHA. The Allegheny County Housing Authority reserves the right to reject any and all submissions.

ALLEGHENY COUNTY HOUSING AUTHORITY Frank Aggazio, Executive Director

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Bids/Proposals

Bids/Proposals

HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE COUNTY OF BEAVER BEAVER, PENNSYLVANIA INVITATION TO BID The HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE COUNTY OF BEAVER will receive sealed bids, in duplicate, until 9:30 AM. (local time) on Thursday, September , at the office of the ousing Authority of the County of eaver, ames F. Tress Administration uilding, State Street ( anport), eaver, Pennsylvania at which time and place all bids will be publicly opened and read aloud at 10:00 A.M for the following: Sidewal Replacement and Renovations Contract #1 Brodhead Apartments, AMP 5 Contract #2 712 12th Street 1215 & 1217 7th Ave Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania 15009 Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania,15009 at Francis Farmer Apartments, 274 Friendship Circle, Beaver, PA 15009 @ 10:00 AM at Francis Farmer Apartments, Community Room, Friendship Circle, eaver, A 5 Proposed forms of contract documents, including Plans and Specifications may be obtained by MAIL ONLY. Contractors MUST obtain copies of the documents from D OTT ngineers, nc., .O. O 5, elienople, PA 16063 by first mailing $100.00 in the form of a check made payable to the HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE COUNTY OF BEAVER for each set of documents so obtained. DEPOSITS ARE NOT REFUNDABLE. Plans and specifications will be available on Thursday, September 2, 2021.

A certified check or bank draft, payable to the HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE COUNTY OF BEAVER, U.S. Government Bonds or a satisfactory bid bond executed by the bidder and acceptable securities in an amount equal to fifteen percent ( 5 ) of the bid, shall be submitted with each bid.

All required Contract Documents must be completed and submitted with the bid. The successful bidder will be required to furnish and pay for satisfactory performance, labor and material, and maintenance bonds of with good and sufficient surety, and will be required to provide same within ten (10) days of contract award.

Prior to award of any contract the Housing Authority will conduct a pre-contract survey of a Bidder’s past performance. Consideration will be given to such matters as bidder’s integrity, compliance with the public policy, record of past performance, and financial and technical resources. nvitation to id EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY REQUIREMENTS: The Contractor will be required to comply with all applicable Equal Employment Opportunity requirements for Federally-assisted Construction Contracts.

The Contractor must insure that employees and applicants for employment are not discriminated against because of race, color, religion, sexual preference, handicap or national origin. The work to be performed under this contract is subject Section 3 Compliance.

A MANDATORY Pre-Bid Conference will be held at 10:00 AM on Thursday, September 16, 2021 at Brodhead Apartments Community Room, 712 th Avenue, eaver Falls, A 5 The HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE COUNTY OF BEAVER reserves the right to reject all bids or to waive any informalities in the bidding. Award of this contract is contingent on funds available.

No bid shall be withdrawn for a period of ninety (90) days subsequent to opening bids without the consent of the HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE COUNTY OF BEAVER. HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE COUNTY OF BEAVER Michael D. Lacey.

Chairman Brian L. Yaworsky ecutive Director INVITATION TO BID On behalf of the ill Community Development Corporation ( ill CDC) NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that specifications and proposal forms for furnishing all labor and materials for the following project: ew ranada Theater ( 5 Centre Ave., ittsburgh, A 5 ) The project consists of the following trades: Structural Steel Full sets of drawings may be obtained by contacting A. Martini & Co. located at 320 Grant St, Verona, PA 15147, from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM beginning September 3, 2021. Drawings will be available either via electronic submission at no fee or hard copies can be purchased at AccuCopy by calling 5 55.

BIDS WILL BE RECEIVED until 2:00PM on September 22, 2021 at the office of A. artini Co. located at 320 rant Street, erona, PA 1514 or via EMAIL to dlb amartiigc.com.

Pre-bid is scheduled at the project site for September 13, 2021 at 10:00AM Bids must be submitted on the proper bid form in the project documents in the manner therein described and be enclosed in a sealed envelope, bearing the name and address of the bidder on the outside, addressed to A. Martini & Co and marked with the project name or A L to dlb amartinigc.com.

Compliance is required with the ennsylvania revailing age Act of , . . , o.

Title and other applicable provisions of the Civil Rights Act of the Department of abor ual Opportunity Clause ( CFR . ) ecutive Order 5 ( tili ation of inority usiness nterprise) ecutive Order ( tili ation of Female Business Enterprise); in compliance with Section 5 of Rehabilitation Act of and Americans with Disabilities Act the Allegheny County MBE/WBE Program enacted July, 1981, which sets forth goals of 13 percent Minority and 2 percent Female Business Enterprise; and the Allegheny County Ordinance , setting forth goals of 5 percent Veteran –Owned Small Businesses. All bidders are to comply with the minimum project goal of 5 and 5 . Bidders who are able to exceed the minimum MBE and WBE goals will be viewed favorably. f there are additional questions, please contact Dave renneman, at A. artini Co., 55 .

NOTICE TO PROPOSERS The Sports hibition Authority of ittsburgh and Allegheny County (SEA) will receive proposals for a Security System (Genetec) Access Control Conversion and pgrade at the David . awrence Convention Center as identified below. The contract for this work will be with the Sports & Exhibition Authority. The Request for Proposals may be obtained after the date identified below from Steve orrison, Director of nformation Systems, email: smorrison pgh sea.com, Telephone: (412) 201-7396 This Advertisement applies to the following Re uest for roposal Project:

Security System Access Control Conversion and pgrade

RF Available

September ,

re roposal

eeting

Time/Date/ ocation for roposals

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September

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Bids/Proposals

Bids/Proposals

Bids/Proposals

HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF PITTSBURGH REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS (RFP) FOR MOVE MANAGEMENT CONSULTATION SERVICES FOR HACP OFFICE RELOCATION TO 412 BOULEVARD OF THE ALLIES RF The ousing Authority of the City of ittsburgh ( AC ) hereby request proposals from qualified Firms or ndividuals capable of providing the following service(s): ove anagement Consultation Services for AC Office Relocation to oulevard of the Allies RFP documents will be available on or about September 7th, 2021.

Copies of RFP documents are not available for in person pickup.

Firms interested in responding may obtain a copy of the RFP documents from the Business Opportunities Section of the HACP Website, www.hacp.org. Prospective Offerors may register as a vendor on the website and download the documents free of charge.

A pre-submission meeting via audio conference will be held via oom on September 17, 2021 at 10:00 A.M.: https // oom.us/ / 5 pwd mhh lhoe t e p Rmd id eeting D 5 asscode 5 Call n 5 5 S ( ashington DC) The deadline for final submission of written questions is September 21, 2021 at 10:00 A.M. The deadline for submission of proposals is September 28, 2021 at 10:00A.M. Proposals must be sent to: Mr. Kim Detrick – Procurement Director/ Chief Contracting Officer Procurement Department, ousing Authority of the City of ittsburgh 100 Ross Street, 2nd Floor, Suite 200 ittsburgh, A 5 The Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh will only be accepting physical proposals dropped off in person from 8:00 AM until the closing of 10:00 AM on September 28, 2021. Proposals may still be submitted electronically at the following link h t t p s : / / w w w. d r o p b o x . c o m / re uest/ ec ge m OT b and can still be mailed via USPS at which time they will be Time and Date Stamped at 100 Ross Street 2nd Floor, Suite 200, Pittsburgh, PA 15219.

THE HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF PITTSBURGH STRONGLY ENCOURAGES CERTIFIED MINORITY-OWNED BUSINESS ENTERPRISES AND WOMAN-OWNED BUSINESS ENTERPRISES TO RESPOND TO THIS SOLICITATION.

HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF PITTSBURGH INVITATION FOR BIDS (IFB) FOR PLASTERING SUPPORT AUTHORITY-WIDE F The ousing Authority of the City of ittsburgh ( AC ) hereby requests bids from qualified Firms or ndividuals capable of providing the following service(s): lastering Support Authority-Wide The documents will be available no later than September 7, 2021 and signed, sealed bids will be accepted until 10:00 AM on September 28, 2021. The Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh will only be accepting physical bids dropped off in person from 8:00 AM until the closing time of A on September 28, 2021 in the lobby of 100 Ross St. Pittsburgh, PA 15219.

Bids may be uploaded to the Authority’s online submission site, the link is accessible via the HACP website and within the IFB. Sealed bids may still be mailed via USPS at which time they will be Time and Date Stamped at 100 Ross Street 2nd Floor, Suite 200, Pittsburgh, PA 15219.

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

Questions or inquiries should be directed to: Mr. Kim Detrick ousing Authority of the City of ittsburgh Procurement Department 100 Ross Street 2nd Floor, Suite 200 ittsburgh, A 5 412-643-2832 A pre-submission meeting will be held via oom meeting; on September 16, 2021 at 10:00 AM. Please see meeting information below: oin oom eeting eeting D 5 5 asscode 5 5 5 5 S ( ashington D.C) The Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh strongly encourages certified minority business enterprises and women business enterprises to respond to this solicitation.

AC s has revised their website. As part of those revisions, vendors must now register and log in, in order to view and download IFB/RFPs documentation.

HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF PITTSBURGH INVITATION FOR BIDS (IFB) FOR VACANT UNIT PAINTING AUTHORITY-WIDE F The ousing Authority of the City of ittsburgh ( AC ) hereby requests bids from qualified Firms or ndividuals capable of providing the following service(s) acant nit ainting Authority-Wide The documents will be available no later than September 7, 2021 and signed, sealed bids will be accepted until 11:00 AM on September 28, 2021. The Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh will only be accepting physical bids dropped off in person from A until the closing time of 11:00 AM on September 28, 2021 in the lobby of 100 Ross St. Pittsburgh, PA 15219. Bids may be uploaded to the Authority’s online submission site, the link is accessible via the HACP website and within the IFB. Sealed bids may still be mailed via USPS at which time they will be Time and Date Stamped at 100 Ross Street 2nd Floor, Suite 200, Pittsburgh, PA 15219.

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

Questions or inquiries should be directed to: Mr. Kim Detrick ousing Authority of the City of ittsburgh Procurement Department 100 Ross Street 2nd Floor, Suite 200 ittsburgh, A 5 412-643-2832 A pre-submission meeting will be held via oom meeting; on September 16, 2021 at 11:00 AM. Please see meeting information below: oin oom eeting eeting D 5 asscode 5 5 5 S ( ashington D.C) The Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh strongly encourages certified minority business enterprises and women business enterprises to respond to this solicitation.

AC s has revised their website.

As part of t hose revi si ons, vendors must now register and log in, in order to view and download IFB/RFPs documentation.

Caster D. Binion, ecutive Director ousing Authority of the City of ittsburgh HACP conducts business in accordance with all federal, state, and local civil rights laws, including but not limited to Title , the Fair ousing Act, Section 5 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act, The PA Human Relations Act, etc. and does not discriminate against any individuals protected by these statutes.

Caster D. Binion, ecutive Director ousing Authority of the City of ittsburgh HACP conducts business in accordance with all federal, state, and local civil rights laws, including but not limited to Title , the Fair ousing Act, Section 5 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act, The PA Human Relations Act, etc. and does not discriminate against any individuals protected by these statutes.

Caster D. Binion, ecutive Director ousing Authority of the City of ittsburgh HACP conducts business in accordance with all federal, state, and local civil rights laws, including but not limited to Title , the Fair ousing Act, Section 5 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act, The PA Human Relations Act, etc. and does not discriminate against any individuals protected by these statutes.

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315 East Carson Street Pittsburgh, PA 15219

5 , September , Sports & Exhibition Authority Offices 171 10th Street 2nd Floor ittsburgh, A 5 smorrison pgh sea.com

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