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Dems endorse Woodruff for Pa. Supreme Court

by Christian Morrow Courier Staff Writer

Only one African American justice has been elected to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court throughout the commonwealth’s history; Robert N.C. Nix, who after being elected in 1972,

rose to serve 10 years as chief justice before retiring in 1996.

That could change this year with former Pittsburgh Steeler and longtime Allegheny Common Pleas Judge Dwayne Woodruff vying for the lone vacancy on the state’s top court.

Though he finished well back in a crowded primary field last year, he now has something not even Nix had—the endorsement of the state Democratic Committee.

“After choking up a bit, he spoke strongly and promised to represent the people of Pennsylvania well and make them proud,” said his wife Joy Maxberry Woodruff. “He received a SEE DEMS A4

ENDORSED—Common Pleas Judge Dwayne Woodruff poses with a campaign banner in Harrisburg just after the PA Democratic Party endorses him for the state Supreme Court. (Photo by Joy Woodruff)

$16.5 billion for community KeyBank’s Murphy meets with local community development groups to evaluate bank’s investment

URA approves $37 million in housing projects

by Christian Morrow

by Christian Morrow

Courier Staff Writer

Courier Staff Writer

Bruce Murphy, a former football star at Pitt who later worked as a banking executive for Mellon before leaving to seek other opportunities, returned last week in his new position as KeyBank’s Executive Vice President of Corporate Responsibility—responsible for seeing how the bank distributes $16.5 billion in community benefits over the next five years.

“This is more than just (complying with) the Community Reinvestment Act,” he told the New Pittsburgh Courier editorial board. “It is a reflection of our company. We believe in investing in the communities we serve, and making places better than we found them, making them sustainable.”

Since KeyBank announced its 2017 Community Benefits Plan, Murphy said he regularly gets calls at his Cleveland, Ohio office asking, “Are you the guy with the $16 billion?” People in Pittsburgh were asking too, but the bank isn’t at the investment stage yet, he said.

He and his team were here to listen to several community development organizations—including the Hill CDC and Neighborhood Allies—about their visions, and 16 BILLION MAN—KeyBank Executive VP Bruce Murphy tells the New Pittsburgh Courier about the bank’s commitment to investing heavily in low-and moderate-income communities. (Photo by J.L. SEE BILLION A4 Martello)

The Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh board has approved moving ahead with more than $37 million in housing initiatives that will create or renovate more than 500 units of rental housing across the city, most of it designated affordable.

Mayor Bill Peduto praised the authority action in a press statement released ahead of its Feb. 8 board meeting.

“The need for affordable housing is one of the biggest issues facing not only Pittsburgh but cities across the world,” he said “I’m happy to be working with the URA and stakeholders across our city to provide more such housing, and adopt policies to ensure more affordable housing initiatives in the future.”

In its first action the board approved the sale of the former Morningside school property on Yancy Street for a $14 million redevelopment that will yield 39 affordable, and seven market rate, one- and two-bedroom housing units. Ten of the units will be in the old schoolhouse and the balance in a new three-story addition.

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County and Habitat for Humanity partner on homeownership

by Christian Morrow Courier Staff Writer

Eight low-income families who otherwise would never think of owning a home will now be able to do so, thanks to a new partnership between Allegheny County and Habitat for Humanity.

Joined by Allegheny

County Housing Authority Executive Director Frank Aggazio, Habitat President and CEO Howard Slaughter, Gateway Health CEO Patricia Darnley, County Executive Rich Fitzgerald announced the partnership Feb. 9.

This is a great partnership we’re announcing to-

day, because we have great partners working together to increase homeownership in Allegheny County,” he said. “It’s great to have Habitat for Humanity step up like this because, sadly, we can’t always get funding for initiatives like this.”

As Aggazio explained the

partnership came about when Habitat approached the authority about acquiring properties. The initiative has now been kickedoff with the authority selling five homes in Penn Hills, and three empty lots PARTNERS—Allegheny County Housing Authority head Frank Agin Duquesne to Habitat for gazio looks on as Habitat for Humanity President and CEO Howard Slaughter explains their joint homeownership initiative. (Photo by SEE COUNTY A4 J.L. Martello)

Trump advisor Omarosa and AURN reporter Ryan go at it NEWSONE is reporting that Omarosa Manigault, director of communications for the White House Office of Public Liaison tried to intimidate and threaten veteran American Urban Radio Network correspondent April D. Ryan last week.

The story has also been reported by the New York Daily News and the Washington Post which like NEWSONE say Manigault got in

OMAROSA MANIGAULT

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Ryan’s face just outside of press secretary Sean Spicer’s office on Wednesday night. ”She stood right in my face like she was going to hit me,” Ryan said of Manigault, whom she described as a onetime friend. “She thought I would be bullied.

I won’t be.”

Manigault allegedly also

told Ryan that White House officials have compiled “dossiers” of damaging information on her and several other African-American journalists. It was not clear what the supposed “dossiers” might contain.

Post reporter Abby Phillip witnessed parts of the hostile interaction, and said SEE OMAROSA A5

Regina Holley says

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INTERNATIONAL

FEBRUARY 15-21, 2017

Former ambassador to African Union talks Trump, American values on Pitt campus

by Stephen Caruso Public Source

Reuben Brigety spent three years of his life trying to help African nations develop their own governments.

Now, as the retired U.S. ambassador looks at the United States, he’s concerned that the country is at risk of losing its values under President Donald Trump.

“This great experiment we have is not guaranteed to stay forever,” Brigety warned a group of about 25 people during a Feb. 8 lecture at the University Club in Oakland.

To keep the experiment in democracy and freedom alive, Brigety suggested an agenda of political activism, community engagement and faith in other Americans.

Brigety, who lives in Washington, D.C., represented the United States at the African Union from 2013 to 2015, and has held other positions within the Department of State.

His lecture was one from the the Roscoe J. Robinson Lecture Series, named after the eponymous graduate who was the first black four-star general in the U.S. Army. The talks focus on the intersection of diversity and public service.

Brigety, dean of George Washington University’s Elliott School for International Affairs affirmed his belief in four fundamental traits—faith, persistence, action and love. When times seemed darkest, he says Americans should lean on those traits.

Those four values, Brigety said, originate from the African-American community’s struggle against oppression. Each helped pull Black Americans through times when the color of the skin meant explicit racism in the form of separate water fountains, racial slurs or midnight visits from men in white hoods.

So as Brigety watched Trump’s campaign unfold over the past year and half—and now follows his first weeks in office—he questions the president’s “commitment” to social justice. In fact, he thinks the president has reversed the course of change.

GUEST LECTURER—Former US representative to the African Union Reuben Brigety spoke at the University of Pittsburgh’s University Club in Oakland Wednesday evening. (Photo by Stephen Caruso/ Public Source) “The tone of [Trump’s] campaign rhetoric has unleashed ugliness in our country,” Brigety said.

But, Brigety was careful to not project that ugliness onto Trump voters.

In fact, he rejects the idea that Trump supporters are racist or that the Russian hacking scandals make the president illegitimate.

Brigety was concerned by

“We assumed that once the moral arc of the universe is bent in a certain direction, it will stay that way,” Brigety said, adapting King’s quote.

“For the arc to stay bent, we must stay woke.”

REUBEN BRIGETY

the name calling and fierce words exchanged between both Trump supporters and their progressive opponents. He thinks Americans are losing the ability to treat each others’ ideas in good faith, and asked if in the future, “Will we embrace the idea that there are many ways to be Americans?”

In the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy, Brigety asked fellow concerned citizens to commit to

awareness and action.

“Will we embrace the idea that there are many ways to be Americans?”

“We assumed that once the moral arc of the universe is bent in a certain direction, it will stay that way,” Brigety said, adapting King’s quote. “For the arc to stay bent, we must stay woke.”

The former diplomat then took questions from the crowd on various topics — such as America’s shrinking role on the world stage, handling debates on college campuses, and the state of American race relations.

“How do we improve the state of race relations in America?” one person from the audience asked.

Brigety started by offering sympathy to the “White working-class” voters who are fed up with hearing about racism.

However, Brigety thought that there was no natural end point to racism in America, and it could only be halted through “hard conversations” between Black and White neighbors across the nation.

“The bad news is that’s got to happen, realistically, a millions times over,” Brigety said. “The good news is that is a place every single one of us has agency.”

Wrapping up the lecture, Brigety called for everyone in the room interested in positive change to offer their time and energy by volunteering with refugees or veterans or hosting protesters in need of a place to rest.

It is through these little actions—“things anybody can do,” Brigety said—that national strength is built.

“That is where the true work in making America great again truly lies.”

This story is supported in part by a 100 Days of U.S. award from The Sprout Fund.

(Stephen Caruso is an intern for PublicSource. He can be reached at stephen@publicsource.org. Follow him on twitter @StephenJ_Caruso.)

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This Week In Black History

For the week of Feb. 15-21 February 15 1804—The New Jersey legislature passes a law leading to the gradual elimination of slavery in the state. However, the process was so gradual that there were still slaves in New Jersey right up to the start of the Civil War in 1860.

1851—In an extraordinary bold move for the times, a group of Black and White abolitionists invade a Boston courtroom and forcibly free a fugitive slave before he could be sent back to the South. Shadrach Minkins was hidden from slave catchers and he later fled to Canada.

1961—A group of U.S. Blacks and African nationalists disrupt a session of the United Nations to protest the slaying of Patrice Lumumba in the Congo. Lumumba was one of Africa’s bright and shining stars. But his nationalism and socialism frightened some Western nations.

NAT KING COLE It is widely believed that Belgium intelligence and America’s CIA arranged the killing of Lumumba.

1965—Great singer and Jazz pianist Nat King Cole dies of lung cancer in Santa Monica, Calif. He was only 45. Cole was the first Black entertainer with his own radio program and later he became the first with a nationally televised TV variety show.

February 16 1923—The “Empress of the Blues” Bessie Smith makes her first recording—“Downhearted Blues”—which immediately sells over 800,000 copies for Columbia Records and over 2,000,000 copies by the end of the year. Those were astounding numbers for those days. The Chattanooga, Tenn., born Smith used her sweeping and powerful voice to sing songs of Black culture and real life such as “Nobody Knows You When You Are Down And Out,” “St. Louis Blues,” “Give Me A Pig Foot And A Bottle Of Beer” and the controversial “Give Me A Reefer And A Gang Of BESSIE SMITH Gin.” She died in an automobile accident in 1937 in Clarksdale, Miss. Early reports that her death was caused by Mississippi medical personnel who refused to treat her because she was Black may not be true.

1951—The City Council in New York City passes what is believed to be the first law barring racial discrimination in public assisted housing.

February 17 1902—Opera legend Marian Anderson is born in Philadelphia, Pa. Her tremendous operatic talent was revealed at 17 when she was entered into a New York Philharmonic competition and placed first among 299 entrants. Despite her fame she suffered from racist rejection. On Easter Sunday 1939, she performed an open air recital at the Lincoln Memorial because the all White Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow her to sing at Washington, D.C.’s Constitution Hall. (NOTE: Throughout her MARIAN ANDERSON life Anderson gave her birth as Feb. 17, 1902. However, newly discovered evidence suggests she was actually born Feb. 27, 1897.) She died April 8, 1993.

1942—Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton is born. The Panthers were perhaps the most militant Black organization of the 1960s. At its height, it had thousands of members in several major cities. But it was also the target of massive operations by the FBI and local police departments. Dozens of Panthers would be killed, often under suspicious circumstances. A little known fact, however, is that throughout it all Newton, an illiterate high school dropout, taught himself to read and in 1980 earned a PhD in social philosophy from the University of California, Santa Cruz. His dissertation was entitled “War Against the Panthers—A Study of Repression in America.” Newton was found shot to death on an Oakland, Calif., street in 1989.

1963—Perhaps the greatest player to ever dribble a basketball, Michael Jordan, was born on this day in Brooklyn, N.Y. However, his family moved and he played high school basketball in Wilmington, N.C. 1982—The nation’s greatest Jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk dies. Born in Rocky Mount, N.C., Monk moved with his family to New York City when he was four. His classic work was “Round Midnight.”

2006—African-American skater Shani Davis wins the men’s 1,000-meter speed-skating race in Turin, Italy. He thus became the first Black person to win an individual gold medal in the history of the Winter Olympics.

TONI MORRISON February 18 1688—The first formal protest against slavery is conducted by a group of Quakers in Germantown, Pa. They denounced slavery and the slave trade. The Quakers were perhaps the only religious group in America that never compromised and consistently opposed slavery.

1913—The Delta Sigma Theta Sorority was incorporated at Howard University.

1931—Author Toni Morrison is born Chloe Anthony Wofford in Lorain, Ohio. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1993 for her novel “Beloved.”

February 19 1919—The “first” Pan African Congress is held bringing together prominent blacks from throughout the world to chart a program for Black unity and betterment.

African-American scholar and activist W.E.B. DuBois was the chief organizer. The gathering was held in Paris, France and drew 57 distinguished delegates including 16 from the United States, 14 from Africa and others from the Caribbean, South America and Europe. (The 1919 Congress is considered by many the “first” but another such Congress had been organized in 1900.)

1940—Smokey Robinson is born William Robinson in Detroit, Mich. He formed “The Miracles” in 1955 while still in high school. With his voice and poetry of song, Robinson led The Miracles as the group became one of the all-time best record sellers for Barry Gordy’s Motown music empire.

1942—The Tuskegee Airmen are activated for service in World War II. The all-Black pursuit squadron, later designated 99th Fighter Squadron, was organized and trained at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. The squadron TUSKEGEE AIRMEN served with honors in Europe. During the war, the nearly 1,000 pilots who had been trained flew 15,000 sorties, destroyed 1,000 German aircraft and earned more than 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses.

February 20 1895—The great Black leader Frederick Douglass dies at 78 in Washington, D.C. Douglass was the foremost Black abolitionist struggling to end slavery in the mid1800s. He used his great oratory skills and his abilities as a newspaper publisher on behalf of freedom and justice for Blacks. Most of his early work emanated from the Rochester, N.Y., area. But after the Civil War he moved to Washington, D.C. Douglass was the nation’s foremost Black leader for nearly 40 years.

1927—Actor Sidney Poitier is born in Miami, Fla., and grows up on Cat Island in the Bahamas. However, by the early 1950s, he was establishing a career in movies. Indeed, it can be said that Poitier was the first Black actor to make it in mainstream movie roles without having to play stereotypical and often demeaning “Black roles.”

1963—Basketball great Charles Barkley is born on this day in Leeds, Ala. February 21 1933—Song stylist and activist Nina Simone is born Eunice Waymon in Tryon, N.C. She was a child prodigy who was playing the piano by age 4. She had numerous songs to her credit but one of the most memorable was “Mississippi Goddam” which was composed as a protest against the terrorist bombing of a Black church in Birmingham, Ala., which resulted in the deaths of four little Black girls. Simone, often referred to as the High Priestess of Soul, died in France on April 21, 2003.

1965—The most prominent Black nationalist of the 20th century, Malcolm X, is assassinated on this day in Harlem, N.Y.’s Audubon Ballroom while giving a speech which was to issue a call for Black unity. Born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Neb., on May 19, 1925, he graduated at the top of his high school class NINA SIMONE but had his dream of becoming a lawyer crushed when a teacher told him that was “not realistic for a Nigger.” He gradually drifted into the underworlds of first Boston and then New York where he became a drug dealer and gangster known as “Detroit Red.” He was friends with comedian and upcoming star Redd Foxx who at the time was known as “Chicago Red.” Malcolm was arrested and jailed for robbery at age 20. While in prison he converted to the Nation of Islam and after his release in 1952, he became the leading force building the group into a major national organization. He was a brilliant orator and organizer as well as a fierce opponent of racism, imperialism and the non-violent approach to combating the nation’s evils. But disagreements with Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad led to a split. He then formed the Organization for Afro-American Unity. However, 11 months after his split with the Nation of Islam he was assassinated. Many in the Black community felt the New York City police and the FBI played a role in his death. But three man associated with the Nation of Islam were tried and convicted of his murder.

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The rise, fall of Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams

by Maya Earls

Philadelphia Tribune Staff Writer

The election of Rufus Seth Williams to District Attorney of Philadelphia in 2009 was a cause for celebration. Succeeding Lynne Abraham, he won with more than 75 percent of the vote to become the first African-American District Attorney of Philadelphia. His campaign phrase was, “A new day, a new DA.” On Friday, Williams announced he will not run for a third term as District Attorney.

His announcement comes after reports surfaced of an FBI and IRS investigation into his personal and business finances.

In January, he paid a record $62,000 to the Philadelphia Board of Ethics for his failure to report income and gifts.

Williams apologized for “regrettable mistakes in my personal life and personal financial life that cast an unnecessary shadow over my office” during a press conference on Friday. He did not take questions, but he indicated plans to stay in office until the next election.

“I think he saw the handwriting on the wall,” said Linn Washington, professor of Journalism at Temple University. “A re-election would be the proverbial uphill struggle, if not mission impossible.”

An American story Williams’ rise to District Attorney is a local American success story. Born in 1967, he was put up for adoption. Young Seth was placed into two foster homes before being adopted by Rufus Williams, a Sulzberger Middle School teacher, and Imelda Williams, a Philadelphia Naval Shipyard secretary.

Williams grew up in West Philadelphia and attended Central High School before attending Penn State.

He was very active as a student, serving as the president of the Penn State Student Black Caucus and the Undergraduate Student Government. In 1987, Williams led a 102-mile student march to Harrisburg to protest Penn State’s investments in apartheid-era South Africa.

“I actually coined the phrase that ‘Apartheid Kills and Penn State pays the bills,’” Williams said, according to an interview transcript from the Penn State “African American Chronicles.”

Williams graduated from Georgetown University Law in 1992 and joined the District Attorney’s Office as the assistant district attorney. He first ran for District Attorney in 2005, and lost with 46 percent of the vote. Following his loss, Williams served as the Inspector General of the City of Philadelphia. His responsibilities included investigating

WILL NOT SEEK RE-ELECTION—Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams speaks during a news conference in Philadelphia on Friday, Feb 10. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) of killing infants born alive and against corruption within government officials three priests accused of sexual abuse. and corporations in the city.

He received heavy criticism in 2015 for After winning the race for District refusing to fire prosecutors associated Attorney in 2009, Williams promised his with sharing pornographic, anti-women office would apply justice equally to the and racriminals cially inin the sensitive streets “His turn of fortune is almost Biblical… he email in and in office suites. was somebody we should have been able to be a scandal known as “If you proud of for a long time.”

“Pornshoot JAY MCCALLA, former city deputy managing director gate.” someone Black while trycommuing to rob nity leaders such as Washington and them, or if you’re involved in a conspirAttorney Michael Coard also criticized acy to move pedophile priests from one Williams for prosecuting Black elected parish to another, we’re going to proseofficials such as State Reps. Vanessa cute you for it,” Williams said in a 2015 interview with The Tribune. “That’s what Lowery Brown, Harold James and Louise Williams for “conflict of interest” and I want Philadelphians to know; if crime “failure to report” violations. happens on the streets or in the suites “He in fact prosecuted them for the the same justice applies.” same thing he did,” Washington argued.

Record as D.A. Outside of the courtroom, Williams During his time as District Attorney, served as an inspiration for the young Williams prosecuted cases against a people in the Black community. He startPhiladelphia abortion provider accused

ed Philadelphia’s own Back on Track program, which helps low-level drug offenders get their GED and job-skills training. Williams often visited schools and encouraged kids to graduate.

“I understand what it means to have a second chance because I was given a second chance,” Williams said in a Tribune interview.

“What made the difference in my life was being adopted by Rufus and Imelda Williams,” he said. “My dad was a teacher and worked in recreation centers.

Every summer he ran a day camp in Fairmount Park. His life was committed to children. I felt as though I had to be part of the solution.”

‘Good riddance’ Even with his and ethical failings, Williams was at one point one of the most popular Democrats in Philadelphia according to Jay McCalla, the city’s former deputy managing director.

“His turn of fortune is almost Biblical …he was somebody we should have been able to be proud of for a long time,” McCalla said.

In a statement, Attorney and member of the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition Michael Coard had a stronger opinion of Williams’ fall from grace.

“I say good riddance to bad rubbish,” he said. “I also say that it’s a new day, and we need a new D.A.—one who doesn’t victimize Black people for political gain or racial self-hate or both.”

For McCalla, Williams’ decision not to run is a cause for worry in the Black community. His worry is not for the loss of Williams as an individual, but more the loss of the value that comes with having a Black District Attorney.

“We need somebody who knows us,” he said. “We need somebody who sees us, who feels us. I don’t see that in anybody in this race.”

Looking towards the future, Washington said the city needs a District Attorney who is not concerned about getting convictions like getting another “notch in their belt.”

“The primary mission of a prosecutor is to seek justice, not seek convictions,” he said. “Most prosecutors take the latter and seek a conviction at all costs, whether it means bending or breaking the law.”

As for Williams’ legacy, Washington said his achievements will always be clouded by the federal ethics investigations that led to his downfall.

“He will be remembered as a person who had some severe ethical failings, and what good he did will be canceled out by these ethical issues,” Washington said.

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County, Habitat for Humanity partner on homeownership CONTINUED FROM A1

$218,000.

“This partnership with Habitat for Humanity is a logical next step to offer alternatives for county residents who are no longer in need to housing assistance,” he said. “We have a lot of goals in common with Habitat, and one of them is increasing homeownership. We look forward to working them in the future to expand homeownership opportunities.”

Slaughter said, nationally, the homeownership rate has dropped to its lowest point in 50 years, and is directly correlated to low-income families having to rent. So, he was very excited about being able to offer these properties to the families in their homeownership program.

“These homes are in much better shape than we usually get,” he said. “That means we can get families into them more quickly.”

Low-income residents who qualify need only put down $950 and commit to putting 350 hours of “sweat equity” into rehabilitation a property to become a Habitat homeowner—with a 30-year, zero-percent mortgage. The sweat equity is an important factor, said Slaughter.

“When you work on your home, it’s important to you. So, you’re less likely to walk away in times of difficulty,” he said.

“The proof is that we’ve had just one foreclosure in 30 years.”

The houses in Penn Hills have been appraised at between $40,000 and $60,000, so the families going into them have a real chance to build wealth as they appreciate in value, Slaughter said. He said the Penn Hills homes should be occupied by the end of the year, and the three new homes built on the Duquesne lots by the end of next year.

Additionally, Gateway Health is providing its Health Home kits to all the new homeowners. In addition to fire extinguishers, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, the kits also contain information on CPR, burn prevention, and heart and stroke response and intervention.

“We’ve been in the community for 15 years and many of our members can benefit from this,” said Darnley. “This is a great initiative and we’re proud to be a part of it.”

NEW LIFE—The URA commits $14 million to turn the Morningside School into 46 apartments.

URA approves $37 million in housing CONTINUED FROM A1

Rents for the affordable units—restricted to those earning less than 20, 50, and 60 percent of the Area Median Income— will range from $255 to $715 for a one-bedroom, and $300 to $825 for a two-bedroom unit. Market rates will be $900 and $1,100 (For more information, contact Habitat for respectively.

The board also authorized $310,000 to Humanity of Greater Pittsburgh at 1-866-639renovation 28 units in Wood Street Com4663. ) mons, downtown so they would qualify for U.S. Housing and Urban Redevelopment Department Section 8 vouchers.

The board then approved selling the former East Liberty Gardens and Larimer Park properties to the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh, and providing a $3.2 million grant, which along with an additional $4.2 million, will fund the 150unit second phase of the Larimer/East Liberty Choice Neighborhoods Development.

In a related action, the board also authorized $750,000 in funds to create new park for the Choice Neighborhoods development at the intersection of Larimer Avenue and Station Street.

In the biggest single action, the board

approved issuing $15 million in debt to extend the long-term affordability of 324 scattered-site units throughout the North Side over the next eight years. The units are jointly owned by Northside Coalition for Fair Housing and Robert Mistik. This plan includes full renovations and new construction replacement of obsolete units.

Reading from the Director’s report, Housing Director Tom Cummings said the first phase will involve 75 units and will include new roofs, windows, flooring, appliances and updated kitchens and bathrooms. Most of the units will be gutted and reframed.

The units are a mixture of one, two, three, four and five-bedroom townhouses and flats originally built between 1870 and 1910, and as such, qualify for Federal Historic tax credits.

The proposed financing will include a new first mortgage, equity from Federal Historic Tax Credits, equity from four percent Low Income Housing Tax Credits, seller financing, interim income, and other to be secured gap funds. The approximate construction cost per unit is $142,000.

$16.5 billion for the community CONTINUED FROM A1

HOUSING MATTERS—County Executive Rich Fitzgerald announces a homeownership partnership with Habitat for Humanity and Gateway Health. (Photo by J.L. Martello)

to evaluate how the bank’s investments can yield the greatest benefit.

“We’re here to use data to talk to people in the community, about people in the community, to do something in the community that makes sense,” he said, adding that track records make a difference.

“Did I do what I said? Did it happen the way I said it would,” Murphy said. “It’s about not overreaching with a good idea—is it of scale? Some organizations don’t have the capacity to deliver what they want to.”

Murphy said the $16 billion will be broken down into four areas: $5 billion in new mortgage loans targeting low- and moderate-income individuals and com-

munities, $2.5 billion in small business/farm loans, again to low- and moderate income communities, $8.8 billion in community development lending and investment, and $175 million in philanthropy— which includes education, workforce and living-wage job development, providing technical assistance and education to businesses and homeowners, and service—supporting employee-driven volunteer efforts.

Hill CDC President and CEO Marimba Milliones said she was pleased to meet with Murphy and his team.

“I am very encouraged to see that KeyBank brought such a large contingent to meet with the community and get an understanding of the area,” she said.

“We had an extensive conversation about the goals of our master plan. I remain consistent in my belief that the Hill is a strategic site for development investment—with the Downtown/Oakland corridor as a multiplier. Hopefully, they took that away from our discussions.”

Murphy said the evaluation stage his team is currently going through will be done across the bank’s entire 15-state service footprint. He expects that to be completed by mid summer.

Only after that will investments be made—and not necessarily everywhere.

“There will be markets that won’t get anything, at first,” he said. “‘No’ doesn’t mean ‘not ever.’ It might just mean ‘not now.’”

Dems endorse Judge Woodruff CONTINUED FROM A1

standing ovation from approximately 300 delegates. What a blessing.”

Woodruff noted the difference during the endorsement meeting in Harrisburg, Feb. 11.

“Last time we had the whole football team up here, now we just have the quarterback,” he said.

Woodruff is the only Democratic candidate in the race, and with only Tioga County Justice Sallie Updyke Mundy running on the Republican side, the May Primary election will be a formality for both.

“It’s been our judicial system that has been our backstop to make sure that our individual rights and our family rights are protected,” Woodruff told the committee.

The race is for the seat formerly held by Republican Michael Eakin, who resigned after becoming embroiled in a porn email

scandal. Should he win the Democrats would hold a 5-3 majority on the state’s highest court.

Not only was Woodruff the only Allegheny County Judicial candidate endorsed by the Democrats, he was the only Allegheny County judicial candidate to receive a positive rating from the Pennsylvania Bar Association.

Woodruff is rated “recommended,” meaning, based on legal ability, experience, integrity and temperament, he would be able to perform satisfactorily as a judge or justice of the court for which he is a candidate.

His opponent is rated “highly recommended,” meaning she possesses the highest combination of legal ability, experience, integrity and temperament and would be capable of outstanding performance as a judge or justice of the court for which she is a candidate.

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Community Calendar American Heart Month Event

FEB. 18—The Community College of Allegheny County will host “CCAC Loves Your Heart!” at The Mall at Robinson on Saturday, February 18. Activities will run from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Grand Court near Starbucks, 100 Robinson Centre Dr., Pittsburgh, 15205. Activities include 20-minute training sessions on the basics of cardiopulmonary resuscitation and features a demonstration of the proper use of an automatic external defibrillator. Among other activities will be blood pressure checks, first aid demonstrations, fitness and mini-yoga sessions, chair massages, pet CPR demonstrations and prize drawings. For more information, call 412.788.7394.

Leadership Nominations Open

Through FEB. 21—BMe Community is accepting nominees for its 2017 Bme Leader Award. Leaders are social entrepreneurs, innovators, and difference-makers who the world needs to know. They cure hopelessness, end helplessness and build community in places where the world’s leading social innovators fail to do so. BMe Community seeks remarkable, authentic, committed Black men whose works and stories speak for themselves, and who live to make a better world for us all. To tell your story or nominate someone, visit http:// www.bmecommunity.org/call-forstories/. Top honorees receive national recognition, $10,000 to help build their communities, and a trip to Washington, D.C. for induction.

FEBRUARY 15-21, 2017

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Report calls for youth voices in juvenile justice reform PITTSBURGH—An eight-month study by The Pittsburgh Foundation has found that youth involved with the Allegheny County juvenile justice system could play a much greater role in shaping prevention and diversion programs.

The report also recommends addressing disproportionate system involvement by youth of color, particularly girls, and that youth have a seat at the table with human services staffs, law-enforcement authorities and school officials.

The report advocates for schools to reform discipline policies and cultivate race-positive curriculum and calls for changes to court-related fees and res-

Omarosa and Ryan go at it CONTINUED FROM A1

Ryan told her that Manigault’s demeanor was so aggressive that she felt it should have triggered Secret Service agents to intervene.

The White House has not commented.

Manigault Women Leadership gave a terse two word asNominations sessment: “Fake news.”

The hostility between the Through FEB. 22—The YWCA of Greater Pittsburgh is seeking two, former friends, apparnominations for its 2017 Tribute ently stems from the camto Women Leadership Awards. paign when Manigault supThe Y invites nominations from posedly emailed Ryan and individuals, businesses, profes- accused her of being paid sional groups, or neighborhood by the Clinton campaign. and community organizations. Ryan vigorously denied the Nominees should be women who accusation.

Jerry Lopes, AURN Presiencourage social justice, build confidence and independence, dent for Programming Opand advance women’s lives. erations and Affiliations, Since 1983 the YW has honored did not respond to emails the achievements of more than for further comment by Courier deadline.

250 exceptional women.

titution policies, which can leave some youth trapped in the system.

The report, “A Qualitative Study of Youth and the Juvenile Justice System: A 100 Percent Pittsburgh Pilot Project,” begun in the fall 2015 by the Foundation’s Program and Policy staff, to amplify the voices of youth by gathering first-person data from those who have experienced the juvenile justice system or are at risk of being involved with it in Allegheny County.

The Foundation’s review of local and national research shows that juvenile justice system involvement is a direct result of poverty and near-poverty conditions, as well as structural racism.

But data alone do not tell the fully story.

“If we mean to put an end to the school-to-prison pipeline, reform efforts must include listening to youth and involving them fundamentally in shaping programs and policy actions,” said Maxwell King, the Foundation’s president and CEO. “The most valuable insights come from young people willing to offer unflinching descriptions of their lives against a backdrop of poverty and the juvenile justice system.”

The report also recommends involving youth in reforming school culture, curriculum and disciplinary policies to move toward restorative justice models; engaging youth as advocates with their peers against system involvement; exploring and supporting interdisciplinary training opportunities for youth and their families and advocates; and supporting initiatives that combine data with youth expertise to identify and address disparities.

Michael Yonas, the Foundation’s senior program officer for research and spe-

cial initiatives, led the participatory research effort and worked closely with a 22-member advisory group of local youth advocates, program providers and system partners, Foundation colleagues and data analysis experts from the University of Pittsburgh. The primary goal of the study and follow-up actions is to work with youth to identify opportunities for systems change through grants, convening, additional research, policy and advocacy initiatives.

The juvenile justice pilot is the first research initiative

of 100 Percent Pittsburgh, a new organizing principle adopted by the Foundation in 2015 to address inequality. Despite advances in the regional economy, roughly one-third of the regional population struggles with poverty. Youth ages 12 to 24 and single women raising children are at greatest risk of falling into poverty, according to a 2014 Urban Institute study. The goals of the pilot project are to support youth, to bring regional and national attention to the many factors influencing youth involvement in the justice system and to

highlight intervention and prevention opportunities that can reduce the numbers of young people flowing through the school-toprison pipeline.

The 2015 annual report from the Allegheny County Office of Juvenile Probation indicates that 3,328 young people were referred to the juvenile justice system in Allegheny County. Of those referred, 972 youth were placed in secured detention, while 704 youth were placed in electronic detention. Still, youth of color are disproportionately represented in the system.

Establishing community schools in PPS PITTSBURGH—District representatives from the 26-member Community Schools Steering Committee presented to the Board its report and timeline for establishing community schools in the Pittsburgh Public Schools, using a national best-practices model.

Under a phased approach to implementing community schools, PPS will invest in all schools to increase holistic support for all students. In addition, the District is accepting applications to gauge the interest, readiness and commitment of schools to become a Designated Community School or ultimately a Full-Service Community School.

Under this tiered plan, all PPS schools will be effective schools that support the overall well-being of students. Among the services to be offered are expanded nurse services, positive behavioral intervention and supports, and restorative practices.

Designated Community Schools will also engage community organizations to provide intensive support, based on a needs assessment, and will have a person on site to coordinate programs and services.

Full-Service Community Schools would be a hub for the community, offering ser-

vices such as adult education and medical/ dental services in addition to traditional school functions and activities.

“Many of our children face complex issues that prevent them from fully engaging in school. As educators, we’re meeting this challenge the head-on by helping them develop into successful, engaged learners,” said Superintendent Anthony Hamlet.

“The Community Schools Policy recently adopted by our Board aims to enhance connections between schools, families and the community. “I’m grateful to the committee of PPS Board members, staff, parents, and a wealth of community partners for their hard work to launch the application process. This will help us to understand the supports each school may need, and each team’s vision for their school.”

Applications are due by Feb. 17 and site visits to schools will begin in March. The Board will vote on Designated Community Schools at its March 21 Legislative Meeting. All Community Schools staff will receive professional development training in June as the committee continues its work during the summer on school-based needs assessments and an implementation plan.

ENTERTAINER New Pittsburgh Courier

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FEBRUARY 15-21, 2017

www.newpittsburghcourier.com

Cover To Cover

‘Tears We Cannot Stop’

by Terri Schlichenmeyer For New Pittsburgh Courier

“I know what you’re thinking.”

You’ve said that before, to a furrowed brow, a mischievous smile, a child who’s about to do something sneaky. You can see it in the eyes, the body language, the tone of voice, and you know just what they’re thinking. But until you’ve read “Tears We Cannot Stop” by Michael Eric Dyson, you might not really have a clue.

If you watch the news or read the paper, you know that things aren’t going well in our country. Much of it, says Dyson, can be blamed on race, and the fixes he believes are needed are most eloquently said in a sermon.

Racism, he says, is “poison.”

For Black people, that’s not a possibility, it’s a fact. It’s seen in courtrooms and streets, colleges and workplaces, neighborhoods and prisons.

It means that Black parents must specifically remind their children how to act around police officers, an everyday caution that White people rarely need to worry about, but “that can mean the difference between life and death for (African Americans).”

Most White people, he says, are racist, even if they don’t mean to be. Some of them don’t even know they’re racist; or they’ll deny it, until they read a book like this one with truths laid bare.

African Americans know that unovert, deeply-buried kind of racism and they discuss it with one another but rarely with Whites; most whites don’t know or don’t think about it because they weren’t taught it. Instead, it’s a legacy of skin color, passed down for centuries.

White people have an advantage, says Dyson, by merely being White. “White privilege” opens doors. It doesn’t worry about dying in a police encounter. White privilege offers higher-paying jobs and nicer homes. It enjoys “a way of life that comes at the direct expense of other folk who are denied the privileges you take for granted.”

So what can be done?

“Beloved,” says Dyson, the first step is to wake up to the advantages of being White, realize the wrongness of it, and admit it. Demand justice for injustices.

And be open and willing to be R.E.S.P.O.N.S.I.V.E. Got a comfortable chair to relax in? If not, then get one.

“Tears We Cannot Stop” is going to keep you there.

Yes, there’s controversy in what Dyson states, but it will also open a lot of eyes.

To get readers there, Dyson chides as deftly as he uses outrage and sorrow, but his point never wavers: we will not fix this country until we get to the root of racism and that must start with the education of, and mind-setchange within, White America. He offers ideas here on how that can happen, as well as musings on cultural assimilation, racial epithets and the re-writing of history. (“Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America” by Michael Eric Dyson, c.2017, St. Martin’s Press, $24.99/$34.99 Canada, 228 pages.)

Singer, actress Capathia Jenkins shares her love for Hamlisch, stage

by Genea L. Webb For New Pittsburgh Courier.

Actress and singer Capathia Jenkins will always have a soft spot in her heart for performing with orchestras.

She has performed with numerous symphonies worldwide, including the Cleveland Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Utah Symphony, National Symphony and Atlanta Symphony. But her voice grows tender and her eyes well up when she talks about her time performing with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Marvin Hamlisch.

Hamlisch, who died in 2012, served as the principal pops director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra beginning in 1995.

Hamlisch was the composer of over 40 motion picture scores and the Pulitzer-prize winning Broadway show, “A Chorus Line.”

“When I think of him it’s always fondly. He was just like a party walking down the street, but so clear on what he wanted on stage. He kept your tempo steady. He was fun loving and an expert and giant in our industry. I worked with him a few times before he passed away.

I had a really good time with him. I was already a big fan and he exceeded anything I expected. When I think of him I just smile,” said Jenkins, who was born, raised and still resides in Brooklyn, N.Y., and sang a tribute to Hamlisch at the Library of Congress. “Pittsburgh is one of the best symphony’s ever!

It’s such a jewel and it’s such a great vibe and they play beautifully.”

So when she was asked to perform as the featured soloist for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Highmark Holiday Pops show this past December, she

CAPATHIA JENKINS immediately accepted the invitation.

The show featured a collection of holiday Christmas carols performed by Jenkins, the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School the Three Rivers Ringers and, of course, Santa Claus.

Jenkins held the audience captive with her angelic rendition of “Mary Did You Know?” the Hamlisch-penned “Chanukah Lights” and “Silent Night.”

“I was really excited and happy on stage. That was a joyous time for me. The Pittsburgh Symphony has great players and there’s a great vibe in the room. I was so excited to be back with the symphony and I was grateful and thrilled to be chosen as their soloist,” ex-

plained Jenkins, who made her Broadway debut in “The Civil War” where she created the role of Harriet Jackson.

In 2000, she starred in the Off-Broadway revival of “Godspell,” where she wowed audiences with her mesmerizing rendition of “Turn Back, O Man,” which can still be heard on the original cast recording. Jenkins returned to Broadway in “The Look of Love” and was critically acclaimed for her performance of the production’s Bacharach/David hits. She then went on to create the roles of the washing machine in “Caroline or Change” and Frieda May in “Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me.” Jenkins starred in “(mis) Understanding Mammy: The Hattie McDaniel Story,” for which

Bounce TV post strongest year ATLANTA—2016 was the best year ever for Bounce TV in Primetime as the network racked up tremendous gains over 2015 in Households and targeted sales demos, led by increases of +9 percent among HHs (201K), +23 percent among Persons 18-49 (121K), +18 percent in P25-54 (129K) and +7 percent in Persons 2+ (275K).

The average audience age of Bounce viewers in Prime fell to an all-time network low of 43 years old, a significant drop of four years younger than last year.

Bounce’s 2016 performance

in Total Day was also its best in HH delivery up +7 percent (155K), A18-49 up +18 percent (90K), A25-54 up +18 percent (98K) and Persons 2+ up +3 percent (202K).

Bounce skewed much younger in Total Day as well, with an average audience age of 44 years old, down four years from 2015.

Bounce finished 2016 as the fastest-growing African American network on television in P18-34, P1849 and P25-54 ahead of BET and TV One. Bounce outpaced both networks in growth in multiple dayparts, led by Primetime

increases of +36 percent in P18-34, +23 percent in P18-49 and +18 percent in P25-54.

Original series were once again among Bounce’s most-watched programming. The network’s first original drama series “Saints & Sinners” finished as Bounce TV’s #1 most-watched program ever; season two premieres this March.

The Bounce original sitcoms “Mann & Wife” (Second Season),” In The Cut “(Second Season) and “Family Time“ (Fourth Season) all set individual records for viewership.

she earned a Drama Desk Award nomination.

Most recently, she was seen in Nora Ephron’s “Love, Loss and What I Wore.” This summer she will return as a soloist with the Festival Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic for the third time.

The spellbinding entertainer undoubtedly gained a new legion of fans when she appeared as part of the ensemble cast of 2015’s “Wiz Live!” on NBC. “That was amazing! We started rehearsal fpr that with this star-studded cast: Queen Latifah, Ne-yo, Mary J. Blige and it was like ‘oh my God!’ but as it went along, it was like any other rehearsal I have for Broadway; you’re in the role, you’re doing the scene and you’re doing the music and then you move to that soundstage. You’re like ‘oh my gosh’ when you see the cameras and you know that thousands of people are watching you, see the risk of it,” Jenkins recalled.

“But I had such a great time being there! It was two to three months of work and getting to know everybody and working with those celebrities.

“You would have lunch and you could sit anywhere and have wonderful conversations. It was good to see Stephanie Mills again.

We did ‘Children of Eden’ at the Papermill Playhouse years before,” Jenkins continued. “The actual night we did it live, it was buzzing

on stage. It was an amazing experience. That’s a wonderful thing that NBC is doing with these live musicals every year. If someone’s thinking of doing it, I tell them to sign up and go for it.” “‘The Wiz’ was the first show Jenkins saw as a child with Mills in the iconic role of Dorothy.

“I had such a special place in my heart for ‘The Wiz’ that I knew I was supposed to do that. It was great it was a dream,” explained Jenkins, who used to run around her childhood home singing into a hairbrush and later singing in church.

She trained classically from an early age and went to a performing arts high school in New York before attending Temple University for its Jazz program. That’s when Jenkins was bit by the theater bug and knew she wanted to make a career on the ‘Great White Way.’ “It’s such a long road to Broadway. These writers and producers put together a script and then they hire someone to read the role and then they do re-write.”

Jenkins said. “Next we’re walking in the space and then we’re doing a workshop. I love to create and I love to have something written around me. If you work on a project from the beginning it becomes collaborative and then suddenly it’s opening night on Broadway and it all seems worth it.”

Simpson’s second season a hit One of the Sexiest Woman in comedy Popular for her hilarious stunts and performances on stage, Heather Hatton, otherwise referred to as the “Sexiest Women in Comedy” or “SBIC,” as she is affectionately known, is ranked amongst the sexi-

HEATHER HATTON

est female comedians in the world. The list of top 10 sexiest women in the business of comedy, was compiled by Talktome, an entertainment website.

Many lovers of comedy are thrilled and entertained by the comedians’ stunts on stage and what they say, but not too many take the time to appreciate their looks.

Hatton ranks as one of the funniest in the game, but in addition to her sense of humor and talent in making other people laugh, her stunning figure and looks have also made fans want more of her.

Hatton is featured on the list of the sexiest female comedian as the only Black and this is quite unsurprising, considering that she once had the thought of being a model. While her looks and figure might not be appreciated on the runway, she has been able to thrill fans with funny jokes and sensual comedy act on stage.

Hatton appears 4th on the list and one can hardly argue about her featuring on this list as she has the looks and figure to rank on any such list, anywhere in the world.

Other female comedians that complete the list include Chelsea Handler, the frequently topless comedian; the naughty actress and comedian Sarah Silverman; popular “Saturday Night Live” host and actress Tina Fey; and Nicole Arbour, tops the list.

TV One’s second season of “Donnie After Dark” has been a great success. Hosted by radio and TV legend Donnie Simpson, the talk show airs on Sundays at 11 p.m. with more laughs, insights and special live performances from today’s biggest names in music, television and film.

Simpson has sat down with music mogul and super producer Jermaine Dupri; caught up with the incomparable LisaRaye McCoy; shared a few laughs with “Survivor’s Remorse” actress Erica Ash and comedian Special K; and had two unforgettable performances by musical guest 112. He has also been joined by heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder and “Power” star Naturi Naughton stopped by, DONNIE SIMPSON along with the hilariously funny comedian Tony Roberts. Plus, he’s featured R&B nel and website at www.tvone. tv. Viewers can also join the crooner Musiq Soulchild.

(For more information on TV One’s ‘Donnie After Dark,’ visit the network’s YouTube Chan-

conversation by connecting via social media on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook (@tvonetv).)

ARTS & CULTURE

NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER

FEBRUARY 15-21, 2017

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February Sweetwater Center

FOR THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY—Sweetwater’s popular Jazz Series returns! Experience a month-long celebration full of music and culture in Sweetwater’s intimate nightclub setting.

Enjoy great music from local jazz artists every Friday in February and the first Friday in March. Tickets include complimentary wine and beer, and hors d’oeuvres at intermission. Visit our website at www.sweetwaterartcenter. org/sweet-jazz/ or call 412-7414405 to purchase tickets in advance. February 17—Etta Cox & Al Dowe. February 24, The Mark Strickland uartet.

JH: Mechanics of a Legend

FEB. 9-18—A Hiawatha Project original show taking place at the August Wilson Center, “JH: Mechanics of a Legend,” is about the legend of John Henry. The only African American tall tale character is not just a myth—he was a real man and the truth of his story is rooted in the dawn of a new nation and the American machine age. His legacy, left to us in song, tells of the mighty railroad man who races a steam drill until his heart bursts, leaving his fabled hammer to his great love, Polly Ann. “JH: Mechanics of a Legend” melds the language of mechanics, century old ballads and primary historical records to explore the legend of Henry. A diverse team of artists will join forces with theater making company, Hiawatha Project, to measure the myth, the man and the machine, revealing a poetic and dangerous truth inside the machinations of history. PPTCO Artistic Associate Monteze Freeland returns as the title character. For more information, call the box office at 4 2456-6666.

Music on the Mount: My Funny Valentine

FEB. 12—Jazz Chamber Groups concert, featuring conductor Mike Tomaro, 3 p.m., St. Mary of the Mount Parish, 403 Grandview Ave., Mt. Washington Admission is free. For more information, call the Mary Pappert School of Music at 4 2.3 . 0 3 or visit www.duq.edu/musicevents.

Duquesne University Human Rights Film Series: East of Salinas

participate in warm ups with your student and observe what they’re learning. The season ends with a special dance party showcase at FEB. 3 Working with the Kelly Strayhorn Theater where theme, “For the Sake of uman- students show family and friends ity,” the Duquesne University what they’ve learned, followed by Human Rights Film Series pres- KST’s Let’s Move! Family Dance ents “East of Salinas” at 7 p.m., Party.

Duquesne University, College Hillman Performing Hall, 600 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh.

Filmed in the Salinas Valley, this Arts Series film introduces a young boy and FEB. 18—The Hillman Performhis dedicated teacher, both of ing Arts Series presents the whom are sons of migrant farm Grammy-nominated, a cappella workers. Admission is free. For quintet Committed on at 30 p.m. more information, call 4 2-3 - The performance will be held at 4 5, email krausee duq.edu or the Hillman Center for Performing Arts, located on the Shady Side visit www.duq.edu/humanrights.

Academy Senior School campus, KST’s Alloy School 423 Fox Chapel Road, Fox ChapFEB. 18–APRIL 8–KST’s Alloy el.Buy tickets online at www.theSchool is a creative and non-com- hillman.org or by phone at 412petitive community where pro-3040. fessional dancers and master Concert VIII teachers guide learning. Our FEB. 19—The second seacurriculum is designed to teach students fundamental skills in son of Duquesne University’s a comfortable and engaging at- “Schubert on the Bluff” concludes mosphere. We welcome you to with Concert VIII: Piano Duet I

(Grand Duo), featuring pianist Cynthia Raim and David Allen Wehr, series artistic director and pianist. The repertoire will include favorite works by Fran Schubert and American classical composer Aaron Copland. Wehr and soprano Sari Gruber will conduct the pre-concert discussion at 2 30 p.m. The event will take place at 3 p.m. in PNC Recital all, Mary Pappert School of Music, Duquesne University, 600 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh. Reserved Seating is $ 0.Tickets are available at www.duq.edu/Schubert.

Uptown Jazz Series

FEB. 20—The Uptown Jazz Series continues with the Boilermaker a Band, featuring artistic director Mike Tomaro, 30 p.m., at the Duquesne University, Genesius Theater, 600 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh.

Admission is $10. For more information, call the Mary Pappert School of Music at 4 2.3 . 0 3 or visit www.duq.edu/musicevents.

Soul Food Sampler

With a career spanning 40 years, Salgado is a one-of-a-kind talent FEB. 23 The Duquesne niwhose music is as compelling as his versity Black aw Student Assostory. From co-fronting The Robert ciation will host its annual Soul Cray Band to leading his own band Food Sampler, featuring meals (and recording nine solo albums) provided by Roxanne’s Take-out to helping transform John Belushi and Catering. All sampler meals into “ oliet” ake Blues to touring come with the choice of either the country with Steve Miller and fried chicken or fried catfish, and Santana, he is a true musical giant. sides including macaroni and NPR calls him “a blues icon” with a cheese, sweet potatoes, tradition“huge voice.” For more information, al greens and corn bread. Meals call 412-828-2040 or visit www. will be available for pick-up or eatmoondogs.us in. 2 to 2 30 p.m. and from 5 to 6 p.m., Student Lounge, School MCG Jazz of Law, Duquesne University, 600 FEB. 25 ewis Nash uintet Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh. Cost: with special guest Roger Hum$10. For more information, email phries at 00 pm 30 pm at the connorsr duq.edu or call 4 2- Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, 3 - 300.

1815 Metropolitan St., Manchester. The ewis Nash uintet will Curtis Salgado pay tribute to Pittsburgh Jazz FEB. 24—Award-winning soul, drumming Masters, enny Clarke blues and R&B vocalist/harmon- and Art Blakey. MCG a Pittsicas/songwriter Curtis Salgado, burgh Jazz legend Roger Humtouring in support of his latest CD, phries will join Nash onstage.

“THE BEAUTIFUL LOWDOWN,” (Please email all calendar events will perform at 30 p.m. at Moon- to newsroom@newpittsburghcourier. dog’s, 3 Freeport Rd., Blawnox. com at least 2 weeks in advance. )

New Pittsburgh Courier

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BLACK HISTORY MONTH FEBRUARY 15-21, 2017

www.newpittsburghcourier.com

Fosberg lends unique perspective for PNC Black History event

MICHAEL FOSBERG (Photos by J. L. Martello)

by Christian Morrow Courier Staff Writer

As part of its Black History Month activities—and to highlight its corporate commitment to increasing diversity and inclusion in the workplace, with clients and in the communities it serves, PNC recently welcomed actor, writer and educator Michael Fosberg for a presentation at its downtown tower.

Fosberg, now 60, grew up thinking he was a typical Californian of Armenian ancestry until age 32 when—prompted by his parents’ divorce—he went searching for his biological father, and learned that he was Black.

His ensuing journey of discovery is encapsulated in his one-man performance “Incognito,” part of which he delivered during his Feb. 9 visit. He—as he said during the question and answer session following his presentation—almost exclusively now makes presentations to universities, corporation and government agencies on Diversity and Inclusion issues, including overcoming unconscious bias.

He told of meeting his father and paternal grandparents for the first time in Virginia—with his English girlfriend at the time recording the experience with a camera—being struck by how much he looked like his

father, and of how the fried catfish, collard greens, mac and cheese, sweet potato pie and corn bread dinner his grandmother made that first day was “the best food I have ever tasted.”

He also spoke of going to “The Inkwell,” a formerly segregated—now somewhat celebrated—beach on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. And for all the wonderful cultural richness he felt from finding his Black family members, he was aware of the other side.

“I did not live the Black experience,” he said. “I was not the target of racism. I was not singled out or turned away—does that make me less a Black man?

So what am I now? Who am I? What box do I check on the tax form?

“Do I need a box to fit in,” he asked. “No. I’ve got too much culture to fit in a box. I’m more than a label.

I have two dads and three heritages. I call myself ‘Triple A,’ African, American, Armenian.”

When asked how his experience changed his biases, he said he was in a unique place.

“I’m in a weird position—I pass, there’s nothing I can do about that,” he said.

“I also don’t go hey y’all, I’m Black when meeting Black people. But I’m out, and I’m doing this work.

At the same time, silence gives consent. If you see something that’s racist, say something. Speak up.

Now in a situation where you might feel physically threatened—in that case take it to someone else. But speak up.”

Fosberg said he has developed seven tools to help start conversations about race, and eliminating biases: •Tell your story. It can help others open up and you can find commonalities; •Don’t judge differences.

Often that is the first thing we notice. Make a conscious effort to find commonalities, then embrace the differences that make us all unique; •There is no one-way to discuss experiences. There isn’t any one Black experience, one White experience, one gay or female experience; •We can—as former President Obama put it—disagree without being dis-

FAMILY—Michael Fosberg’s mother and father holding him as a child. agreeable; •Get comfortable being uncomfortable; • there are realities outside our experiences—just because you’ve never been subject to discrimination, that doesn’t mean someone else hasn’t, and •Practice forgiveness.

“When we’re asked in mixed company to have conversation about race, here’s what happens,” he said.

“White people—and I can say this—approach this issue from a place of caution—because they don’t want to say something that could be perceived as racist.

Also White families don’t have this conversation

growing up because race is not part of daily life.

“People of color—and I can say this too—have this conversation a lot. And what happens is, people of color are ready to pounce on anyone or anything that sounds remotely racist. And so we’re polarized and don’t have the conversation.

That’s why I say we need to get comfortable to be uncomfortable. We need to allow ourselves the space to make mistakes. We can’t fear it. We’ll never get through this if we don’t stumble through it together.”

(J.L. Martello contributed to this story.)

NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

FEBRUARY 15-21, 2017

Thomas another hidden figure in Black History Unlike the very popular “Hidden Figures” movie that exposed the hidden history of three women at NASA the HBO made for television “Something the Lord Made” staring Mos Def as Vivien Thomas exposed many to the history making Thomas but not as broad as the women of NASA. “Something the Lord Made” is a film that tells the story of the 34-year partnership that begins in Depression Era Nashville in 1930 when Alfred Blalock (Alan Rickman) hires Vivien Thomas (Mos Def) as an assistant in his Vanderbilt University lab, expecting him to perform janitorial work.

But Thomas’ remarkable manual dexterity and intellectual acumen confound Blalock’s expectations, and Thomas rapidly becomes indispensable as a research partner to Blalock in his forays into heart surgery.

The film traces the two men’s work when they move in 1943 from Vanderbilt to Johns Hopkins, an institution where the only Black employees are janitors and where Thomas must enter by the back door. Together, they attack the congenital heart defect of Tetralogy of Fallot, also known as Blue Baby Syndrome, and in so doing they open the field of heart surgery.

Vivien Theodore Thomas (August 29, 1910 – November 26, 1985) was an African American surgical technician who developed the procedures used to treat blue baby syndrome in the 1940s.

He was the assistant to surgeon Alfred Blalock in Blalock’s experimental animal laboratory at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn, and later at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. He served as supervisor of the surgical laboratories at Johns Hopkins for 35

Before meeting Blalock, Thomas married Clara and had two daughters. When Nashville’s banks failed nine months after starting his job with Blalock, Thomas’ savings were wiped out—he abandoned his plans for college and medical school, relieved to have even a low-paying job as the Great Depression deepened.

Thomas and Blalock did groundbreaking research into the causes of hemorrhagic [and traumatic shock]. This work later evolved into research on crush syndrome [and saved the lives of thousands of soldiers on the battlefields of World War II.] In hundreds of experiments, the two disproved traditional theories which held that shock was caused by toxins in the blood.

Blalock, a highly original scientific thinker and something of an iconoclast, had theorized that shock resulted from fluid loss outVIVIEN THOMAS side the vascular bed and that the condition could be years. In 1976 Hopkins and Industrial College as a effectively treated by fluid awarded him an honorary premedical student. In the replacement. Assisted by doctorate and named him wake of the stock market Thomas, he was able to an instructor of surgery for crash in October, Thomas provide incontrovertible the Johns Hopkins School put his educational plans proof of this theory, and of Medicine.[2] on hold, and, through a in so doing, he gained Without any education friend, in February 1930 wide recognition in the past high school, Thomas secured a job as surgical medical community by the rose above poverty and research technician with mid-1930s. At this same racism to become a carDr. Alfred Blalock at Vantime, Blalock and Thomas diac surgery pioneer and derbilt University. On his began experimental work a teacher of operative first day of work, Thomas in vascular and cardiac techniques to many of the assisted Blalock with a surgery defying medical country’s most prominent surgical experiment on a taboos against operating surgeons. dog. At the end of Thomupon the heart. It was this The television film based as’s first day, Blalock told work that laid the foundaon his life entitled “SomeThomas they would do tion for the revolutionary thing the Lord Made” preanother experiment the lifesaving surgery they miered May 2004 on HBO. next morning. Blalock told were to perform at Johns Thomas had hoped to Thomas to “come in and Hopkins a decade later. attend college and become put the animal to sleep By 1940, the work Blalock a doctor, but the Great and get it set up.” Within had done with Thomas Depression derailed his a few weeks, Thomas was placed him at the forefront plans. He worked at Vanstarting surgery on his of American surgery, and derbilt University in the own. Thomas was classified when he was offered the summer of 1929 doing and paid as a janitor, deposition of Chief of Surcarpentry but was laid off spite the fact that by the gery at his alma mater in the fall. In that same mid-1930s, he was doing Johns Hopkins in 1941 he year, Thomas enrolled in the work of a Postdoctoral requested that Thomas the Tennessee Agricultural researcher in the lab. accompany him. Thomas

arrived in Baltimore with his family in June of that year [confronting a severe housing shortage and a level of racism worse than they had endured in Nashville Hopkins, like the rest

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of Baltimore, was rigidly segregated, and the only Black employees at the institution were janitors.

When Thomas walked the halls in his white lab coat, many heads turned.

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FEBRUARY 15-21, 2017

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER

LIFESTYLES New Pittsburgh Courier

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FEBRUARY 15-21, 2017

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Classifieds Find what you need from jobs to cars to housing B7-B8

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Debbie Norrell

Lifestyles Report

Valentine’s Day past DIAMOND & GOLD—Alma Burgess (Diamond Soror), Barbara Brown Baulding, Geil Wesley Williams, Martha B. Hunt, Della Burt, Agnes Curry and Patricia English

Launching new dimensions of service through education

by Debbie Norrell

paper cups were invented and on January 15, 1908 nine young ladies founded Alpha Lifestyles Editor Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. on the campus What happened in 1908? of Howard University.

Madame CJ Walker perfectOn Jan. 21, at the Sheraton Hotel at Staed the straightening comb, tion Square over 200 celebrated the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, Founders Day. The celebration was hosted by the Alpha Alpha Omega Chapter with the theme “Launching New Dimensions of Service Through Education.” The illustrious dais introduced by Jackie Blakey Tate, Founders Day Protocol Chairman included Toni S. Kendrick, AKA Great Lakes Regional Director, Glenda Baskin Glover, Ph.D., JD, CPA, AKA International First Vice GOLDEN SORORS—Gelora Wilson and Mary H. President, Lynne Hayes Freeland, mistress of cerPage emonies, Monica Lamar, DAIS GUESTS—Monica Lamar, Glenda Baskin Glover, Casey Tompkins Rhoades, Jonnai Jones and Destiny Gadson

=

Valentine’s Day is over and now you can go out and buy your chocolates at a reduced price. There are a lot of singles and some not so single who did not celebrate. I have found new ways to celebrate holidays and I celebrated Valentines with some of my favorite friends.

Many years ago I wrote about this same friend and the lengths he goes to for his wife for Valentine’s Day. I wonder if one year he is going to run out of ideas.

This past Sunday he decided to do a dove release from his patio. He invited a few couples to witness the festivities and I was invited to take pictures. He planned all of this without his wife’s knowledge. The doves and the owner of the doves had arrived and were waiting on the patio and his wife was none the wiser.

I learned so much that day about doves. The owner wanted them to be released at a certain time of day so they could find their way home in the light instead of the dark. In this case they had to go from Cranberry, Pa. to New Kensington, Pa. It was finally “show time” and the wife comes downstairs from her nap and she finds she has a house full of guests. Her husband instructs us all to go to the patio. We go outside and Joe (the husband) begins to sing “I just called to say I love you.” Yes he sings as well. While he was singing they stood next to a box that housed the doves. Once he finished the song he opened the box and the doves flew away. I guess I expected them to fly in slow motion so I could get just the right camera angle.

Before I knew it the doves were gone and on their way back to New Kensington.

Thank goodness for cell phones with cameras allowing many others to capture the moment because all I caught was the flutter of a wing.

But we all had fun and I know the wife was surprised. Then it was time for the reception or the repast. I use those terms because the doves are often used for weddings and special services where food is served afterwards. The husband planned all of this by himself and even bought a big Valentine’s Day sheet cake for everyone to enjoy.

I had a great time and when February 14, rolled around I didn’t feel sad at all that I didn’t have a Valentine. I went right to the store and bought my own flowers and placed them on my desk so I could enjoy them for the entire week. One year I mailed Valentine cards to friends just like we used to give out in elementary school. Remember how we all decorated shoe boxes with paper hearts and put a mail slot in the top allowing others to put a Valentine in our box.

If you don’t have a sweetheart don’t be sad.

Be your own Valentine.

Happy belated Valentine’s Day. (Email the columnist at debbienorrell@aol.com.)

LARUE FREDERICK UNDERGRADUATE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD RECIPIENTS—Danielle Hatter, Lauren Robinson and Shawnee Sparrow

Ph.D., President, Alpha Alpha Omega Chapter, Glenda Mayo, Chairman, Alpha Alpha Omega Chapter Founders Day Committee, Marisa Jamison, First Vice President, Alpha Alpha Omega Chapter, Angela Stubbs, Chaplain, Alpha Alpha Omega Chapter, Casey Tompkins–Rhoades, President Iota Chapter, University of Pittsburgh, Jonnai Jones, President Alpha Sigma Chap- GOLDEN SORORS—Della Hale and Doris Brevard ter, Robert Morris

DAIS GUESTS—Glenda Mayo, Angela Stubbs, Marisa Jamison, Toni S. Kendrick and Lynne Hayes Freeland

GOLDEN SORORS—Myrna Sumpter and Nancy Bolden

University and Destiny Gadson, President Rho Rho Chapter, Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Lamar said the weekend was filled with events honoring sisterhood, scholarship and education.

During the luncheon the Project HBCU (Historically Black College & University) donation was presented to Glenda Baskin Glover who is the current president of the University of Tennessee. Educational scholarships were presented to Larue Frederick, Destiny Gadson, Dannielle Hunter, Lauren Robinson and Shawnee Sparrow.

The Alpha Alpha Omega Chapter was honored to be joined by Diamond (75 years of AKA) and Gold Sorors (50 years of AKA).

GOLD SORORS—Sylvian Robinson and Cecelia Epperson

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RELIGION

FEBRUARY 15-21, 2017

NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER

Urban League Sunday

Praise & Worship ST. BENEDICT THE MOOR CATHOLIC CHURCH Crawford & Centre Ave. Pgh., PA 15219 412-281-3141 Mass Sunday 9:00 A.M. & 12:00 P.M. Sunday (Gospel Choir Mass) 12:00 P.M. www.stbtmchurch.org

METROPOLITAN BAPTIST CHURCH 22 Sampsonia Street, Northside Pittsburgh, PA 15212 412-231-2554 FAX 412-231-6395 Rev. Lacy F. Richardson, Ph.D., Pastor Church School.................................9:30 A.M. Worship Service.................8:00 & 10:45 A.M. Bible Study/ Prayer Wednesday...................6:30/7:30 P.M. www.metropolitanbaptistchurch.com metropolitanbaptist2224@gmail.com

East Liberty Presbyterian Church Rev. Dr. Randy Bush, Senior Pastor 412-441-3800 116 S. Highland Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15206

REV. DR. RONALD PETERS Guest Speaker

ESTHER BUSH

www.cathedralofhope.com

Journey Worship........8:45 a.m.

Sanctuary Worship........11 a.m.

New Destiny CME Church 1018 Bidwell St. Pittsburgh, PA 15233 412-231-7882 Rev. Kornelus Neal, pastor The Rt. Rev. Marvin Thomas Sr., presiding bishop Sunday School....................................9 A.M. Morning Worship Service............11:00 A.M.

To have your church included in the Praise & Worship section contact Ashley Johnson at 412-481-8302 ext. 128 for ad rates.

Join our growing Praise and Worship Church Community For rate information, call 412481-8302, ext.

128.

MUSIC MINISTRY—Musical selections by The Family & Friends Choir

REV JOHNNIE MONROE The Benediction

REV. BRENDA GREGG Pastor of Destiny of Faith Church was honored by the Urban League.

JUDGE DWAYNE WOODRUFF Closing Remarks

PACKED HOUSE—The Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh held its annual Urban League Sunday Feb. 12 at Destiny of Faith Church, 3737 Brighton Road. Rev. Dr. Ron Peters, Theologian In Residence, Grace Memorial Presbyterian Church, was the guest preacher. The Family & Friends Choir directed by Parrish Davenport provided the music ministry. (Photos by J. L. Martello)

We are looking to feature our positive youth in the church communities. You can e-mail, fax or mail their bios and photo to:

New Pittsburgh Courier 315 E. Carson St. Pittsburgh, PA 15219 Fax: 412-481-1360 email: newsroom@newpittsburghcourier.com

Church Circuit Black History

Feb. 18—In recognition of Black History, Hope Chapel invites all to attend its first annual Black History concert featuring two of Pittsburgh’s finest choirs: The S.W. Williams Ensemble, of New Zion Baptist Church, and the Beulah Baptist Church Choir at 3 p.m., located at 1028 Chartiers Ave. As a part of the Black History program, there will be a discussion on “Hidden Figures,” the book and newly released movie about Black female mathematicians who

pioneered the way for modern space exploration! The Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority to which many of these professional women belong will be in representation. Mr. Hercules Chico Butler, a highly decorated disabled veteran that served in the Korean Conflict will be present.

He is an advocate for his fellow Black disabled veteran in their quest for benefits.

Black History

FEB. 26—The Rachel Randall Education Department of Pentecost Temple, 6300 East Liberty

Blvd., will Celebrate Black History Month on Sunday, Feb. 26, at 6 p.m. The service will feature special guest artist, “Voices For Christ, drama presentation from “Hidden Figures” by “Words by Ways” Production, along with recognizing African American Legends and Historical Contributions. All is welcome and there will be a free will offering.

For more information, contact the church office at 4 2-3 7000. Bishop Loran E. Mann, pastor.

Pastoral Anniversary

March 5-11—Triedstone Baptist Church of Rankin will celebrate Rev. Nathaniel and Rev. Terri Pennybaker’s 13th Pastoral Anniversary.

The church is located at 18 Harriet St., Rankin. For more information, call 4 2-2 -3000. Guest preachers will be Rev. Barry Givner, Rev. Daniel Page, Rev. Dr. Darryl Canady and Rev. Christine Pope Portis.

Spiritual Retreat

MARCH 31—The Mercy Parish Nurse and Health Ministry Program, part of Pittsburgh

Mercy and Trinity Health, serving in the tradition of the Sisters of Mercy, will host a two-day, overnight, spiritual retreat, “Listening and Becoming Free,” from 4 p.m. Friday, to 4 p.m. Saturday, April , at 4 p.m. at earns Spirituality Center, 9000 Babcock Blvd., Allison Park, Pa., 15101. For more information, contact Amy B. Armanious, health ministry specialist, Mercy Parish Nurse and Health Ministry Program, at ParishNurse@pittsburghmercy. org or 4 2-232- 5 .

New Pittsburgh Courier

BUSINESS

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Black-owned Seaway Bank fails FEBRUARY 15-21, 2017

www.newpittsburghcourier.com

Jesse Jackson Sr.

Commentary

by Frederick H. Lowe For New Pittsburgh Courier

Trump’s minion prepare to gut consumer watchdog (TriceEdneyWire.com)—“Personnel is policy,” says Gary Cohn, the former president of Goldman Sachs recently named to head President Trump’s National Economic Council. He got that right, and every working family should shudder that Trump—after railing against the corruptions of Goldman Sachs and other big banks in the campaign—has put six former Goldman Sachs bankers at the head of his economic team.

Their first priority is to roll back bank regulation, and, as Gary Cohn told the Wall Street Journal, one of their first targets is to disembowel the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The CFPB was created in the DoddFrank banking reforms passed after the excesses of the banks helped blow up the economy. Led by Elizabeth Warren (then a Harvard Law professor, now a U.S. senator), consumer and civil rights groups pushed for it against the full force of the banking lobby. The agency’s sole mission is to protect consumers against the scams and schemes of fraudulent banks and lenders. Led by Richard Cordray, a former Ohio attorney general and treasurer, it has been a stunning success, recovering nearly $12 billion for 27 million consumers from the lenders who cheated or defrauded them.

The CFPB is the champion of what Trump calls the forgotten working families of America. It has protected veterans and military families, recovering $100 million from lenders who preyed on them. It recovered over $480 million for students who were deceived by for-profit chains peddling fraudulent products. It has moved against the payday lenders that gouge low-wage workers. It is about to issue rules prohibiting payday loans with interest of 300 percent or more—literally immoral loans that earn the Bible’s condemnation of usury.

Seniors are often targets of financial frauds. Last year, a survey showed that nearly one in five citizens 65 and older had been “taken advantage of financially.” The CFPB has worked actively to shield them from deceptive practices.

The big banks hate the CFPB and its investigations into their policies and practices. The agency has recovered more than $1.5 billion for consumers bilked by credit card companies. For the first time, with the CFPB working people have a cop on the financial beat.

At its head, Cordray has earned widespread applause. Consumer SEE MINION B4

(TriceEdneyWire.com)—Seaway Bank and Trust Co., once one of the nation’s largest Black-owned banks based on assets, went into receivership and has been taken over by State Bank of Texas, an Indian-owned bank headquartered in Dallas, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. recently announced.

The Illinois Department of Financial & Professional Regulation–Division of Banking and the FDIC, which insures deposits, was named Seaway’s receiver on Jan. 27, ending an effort by bank officials to raise needed capital to keep open the financial institution.

An FDIC official did not return calls for comment. Chicago-based

Seaway’s 10 branches recently reopened as branches of State Bank of Texas during their normal business hours.

Seaway’s deposits will continue to be insured by the FDIC so customers will not need to change banks. As of September 30, 2016, Seaway had approximately $361 million in total assets and $307 million in total deposits, according to the FDIC. In addition to assuming all of the failed bank’s deposits, State Bank of Texas agreed to purchase $309.0 million of the failed bank’s assets.

The FDIC will retain the remain-

ing assets for later disposition. At one time, Seaway ranked third on the Black Enterprise magazine’s 100 Financial Services Bank list. In 2014, Seaway re-

ported $551.6 million in assets. Chan Patel founded the family-owned State Bank of Texas 30 years ago to serve the immigrant community.

Black business group, Black banks making Black history with economic justice

by Hazel Trice Edney For New Pittsburgh Courier

(TriceEdneyWire.com)—It is the number one reason that Black-owned businesses fail: Simply put—not enough money and not enough places to get it.

That’s why as America commemorates Black History Month, the US Black Chamber Inc., an association of more than 122 Black chambers and 265,000 business owners, is escalating publicity on its partnership with historic, Black-owned Liberty Bank. Both entities are determined to break economic barriers that have historically oppressed Black people.

“Our history is full of trailblazers and pioneers that fought to build our community from the ground up. We owe it to them to sustain our community,” says Ron Busby, USBC president/CEO. “The top three concerns facing Black entrepreneurs are access to capital, access to capital, and access to capital,” Busby says. “As the voice of Black business owners, our focus during Black History Month is to highlight the importance of economic sustainability in the Black community and the dire lack of funding facing Black businesses.”

The USBC has launched what it calls a “buy-Black, bank-Black initiative” as a solution to spur economic growth in the Black community.

“Bank-Black is the single most powerful economic move-

MICHAEL GRANT National Bankers Association

RON BUSBY U. S. Black Chambers Inc.

ALDEN MCDONALD JR. Liberty Bank

ment currently taking place in Black America,” Busby says.

“Now is the time to utilize our Black banks as more than a place to hold our money, but as a resource for securing capital.”

As a part of this initiative, a USBC Bank-Black Credit Card is being offered in partnership with New Orleansbased Liberty Bank, a historic institution and one of the leading banks of the National Bankers Association.

“Through our relationship with Liberty Bank, we can now provide access of up to $10,000 with an unsecured line of credit at an annual percentage rate of 9.96 percent and with a credit score as low as 570. We think this is gamechanging in that it now provides the needed resources for African-Americans to be able

to move our communities to sustainability,” Busby says.

Black businesses have long suffered oppressive redlining by major national banks. Even the Small Business Administration has barely reached 3 percent in its loans to Blackowned businesses. The U.S. Census Bureau reported in 2014 that more than half of Black business owners do not apply for business loans when they need it because of fear of being turned down. According to a report by NewsOne Now, their “fear is justified” as “only 47 percent of Black business owners get the full amount they requested versus 76 percent of Whites.”

The Wall Street Journal reported last year that national banks tilting toward major mortgages “means fewer loans for Blacks, Hispanics.” This

leaves Black-owned community banks to do what they have historically done - serve the underserved.

Despite the proven historic wrongs of government and corporate discrimination, NBA President Michael Grant says Black business owners must now find ways to rescue themselves.

“When it comes to the burden of proof of who is ultimately responsible for the economic survival of the Black community in America, I’m arguing that the burden of proof has shifted to the Black community itself,” Grant says. “It does not in any way remove the responsibility of government to be fair. It doesn’t remove the responsibility of corporate America to be fair and SEE GROUP B4

Time to dismantle America’s lingering legacy of economic exclusion (TriceEdneyWire.com) — As 2017’s Black History observances unfold in communities across the country, new research on racial wealth gaps refutes the age-old advice for people of color to pull themselves up by their proverbial bootstraps. According to researchers at Demos and the Institute for Assets & Social Policy at Brandeis University, historical and systemic privileges afforded Whites and denied to Blacks are the true root causes.

The Asset Value of Whiteness: Understanding the Racial Wealth Gap, analyzed data from the 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances. After examining individual differences by race in consumer spending habits, education, family structure, and employment, the report concluded that these factors are not “sufficient enough to erase a century of accumulated wealth.”

“For centuries, White households enjoyed wealth-building opportunities that were systematically denied to people of color,” said Any Traub, report co-author and Associate Director of Policy and Research at Demos. “When research shows that racial privilege now outweighs a fundamental key to economic mobility, like higher education, we must demand our policymakers acknowledge this problem and create policies that address

Whites was $792 each week, the equivalent financial loss of $8,892 per year. When gender was added, Black women fared even worse and earned only 68 percent – or $28,005 of the $41,184 made by similar White males.

With smaller paychecks and fewer discretionary dollars in household budgets, it is little wonder that the report also found that the median White single parent has 2.2 times more wealth than the median Black two-parent household, and 1.9 times more wealth than the median Latino two-parent household.

The only area where the new report found consistently higher Black consumer spending was for utility costs: electricity, heating fuel, water and sewer charges. The report cited risk-based pricing that often connects mandatory deposits or low credit scores for these services.

It is equally true, however, that older and less-insulated housing is also a relevant factor in driving up the price of utility services. In another professional post, as a local government official I witnessed first-hand how winter utility bills force difficult challenges for many people of low to moderate incomes.

Racial wealth gap could close with systemic public policy reform, says new research structural inclass. Yet Blacks equity.” frequently pay the Charlene Crowell The significance cost of higher eduof these new findcation with a ings must not be greater student lost during the loan indebtedness month set aside to than their White observe Black Hiscounterparts. tory. As obser“With less stuvances honor those dent loan debt to whose sacrifices pay off over their and dedication led to notable achieveworking years, the typical White college ments, February should also be a time to graduate has a head start on building rededicate ourselves to the battles not wealth compared to their Black peers,” yet won. states the report.

Public policies of the past systemically Independent findings from the Center advantaged Whites and allowed their for Responsible Lending support the new families to create intergenerational report. Today more than half of Black wealth that now serves as a financial families with a college student borrow to springboard for future generations. New pay for college. Further, on average Black public policy reforms must be enacted to college graduates owe $7,400 more on correct and replace the harms Blacks student loans than their White classhave faced as a result of our financial ex- mates. clusion.

When it comes to wages and employFor example, a college education is ment, in 2012, the median full-time wage often cited as an essential gateway to earned by Blacks was $621 per week higher incomes and America’s middle compared while the median wage for

Commentary

SEE TIME B4

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FBRUARY 15-21, 2017

NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER

BUSINESS

Black business group, banks making Black History CONTINUED FROM B3

to treat Black consumers and their businesses with equity. But the burden of proof of who is ultimately going to save the Black community, I am arguing that this must be the Black community.”

Grant continues, “Even if it means our advocacy, supporting our own businesses, going to our leadership asking, ‘What are your plans for the economic survival of Black people in this country?’ the burden of proof has shifted to us. And this credit card, in no small way, says that we are accepting the burden of proof. We’re saying, ‘Okay, if our businesses are having a difficult time in majority banks getting access to credit, what can the Black banks do about it?

How can we accept that burden? How can we step up and revive access to credit?’ That’s what this

has done.”

Despite negative stereotypes, Grant points to the education and professionalism of African-Americans in business and in banking as what enables them to create their own economic strategies for survival.

For example, Liberty Bank President Alden J. McDonald, Jr., is the longest tenured AfricanAmerican financial executive in the country. His nearly 45 years of experience in the banking industry was first established with his presidency of Liberty, which started with the bank’s founding in 1972. The bank’s website credits his “strategic vision and hard work” for the success of the bank.

Assets have grown from $2 million in 1972 to more than $600 million currently.

“Our relationship and

our partnership with the US Black Chamber is a partnership that will make certain that available credit is based on a level playing field,” says McDonald. “And one of the reasons why we feel the relationship with Liberty Bank is important is because Liberty Bank is very sensitive to the credit challenges of the community.

And therefore, our underwriting standards are taken into consideration for the small business person.”

Grant stressed that Black-owned banks can strengthen the economy of the Black community while operating within a stringent regulatory environment.

“Our banks, like any bank, have to adhere to the regulators. We can’t get around that. What we can do is when you come to our banks, we can talk

Minion prepare to gut consumer watchdog CONTINUED FROM B3

groups hail how he’s made the CFPB transparent and responsive. Civil rights groups applaud the progress he’s forced on diversity in hiring and services.

He’s gone after lenders and others for charging people of color more for mortgages, auto loans and credit cards. The CFPB has recouped over $400 million in payments and credits to more than 500,000 consumers who experienced discrimination.

Now Cohn suggests he plans to weaken the CFPB by firing Cordray. Fire him?

He should give him a medal. Under the law, Cordray has been appointed for a term that ends in 2018 and can only be fired for cause. To fire him, Cohn will have to violate that law.

Trump has given his economic policy

over to the big bankers. They are gearing up for another predators’ ball. The first regulation Cohn wants to reverse is the “fiduciary rule,” which requires investment advisers to put client’s interests first when they deal with retirement accounts. Banks don’t like the rule because it prohibits investment advisers from peddling products that line their pockets at their clients’ expense.

One thing is clear. If Trump’s bankers can get rid of Cordray and geld the CFPB, millions of Americans will lose billions to the tricks and traps of the banks and lenders. Cohn has made Trump’s intentions clear. Now we have to rise up and demand that Congress protect the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from Trump’s Goldman Sachs marauders.

with you, we can take a little extra time with you. We can tell you where the flaws are in your business plan, we can tell you that if you don’t qualify for credit, then here are the things that you can do so that you can become credit worthy. But, the bottom line is that the burden of proof has shifted to the Black community and its leaders and its organizations,” he said.

Ultimately, money in Black-owned banks is a win for everyone, Busby concludes.

“We want African-Americans to have money in Black banks because we feel that Black banks historically provided the resources in Black communi-

ties. But, we’re taking it a step further, understanding that banks truly make the largest profits by providing loans and receiving fees,” he says. “And so we feel like this is a win, win, win. It’s a win for the Black bank, which has additional capital to lend. It’s a win for the individuals because they can now get capital at an affordable rate. And it’s a win for the community because the banks can now make the loans that homeowners and business owners need.

The USBC takes great pride in commemorating Black History Month with a tribute that honors Black history and anticipates an even greater Black future.”

Time to dismantle America’s lingering legacy of economic exclusion CONTINUED FROM B3

In cold-weather climates, winter heating bills can often be higher than the cost of housing itself. If utility providers are regulated by a moratorium on cutoffs for failure to pay winter utility bills, spring shut-off notices are as predictable as flowers in bloom. During cold weather months, delinquent utility accounts can run several hundred if not thousands of dollars in arrears. In warm-weather climates, the surge in utility costs are usually associated with spring and summer temperatures; but with the same financial burden.

“We can only create a more equitable future by confronting the racial wealth gap and the public policies that continue to fuel and exacerbate it,” concludes the report.

In other words, targeted public policy reforms are the key to closing the nation’s wealth gap. These changes will require the same focus, vigilance and endurance of our historical efforts that forged laws addressing fair housing, voting rights, and equal employment oppor-

tunities.

“Equal achievements in key economic indicators, such as employment and education, do not lead to equal levels of wealth and financial security for households of color,” said Tom Shapiro, report co-author and Director of Brandeis University’s Institute on Assets and Social Policy. “White households have a leg up, while households of color face systematic barrier to growing wealth, reproducing our long-standing racial wealth gap over generations.”

We should all join together to dismantle the lingering legacy of economic exclusion, and create a more financially inclusive future. When we do, in future years, new Black History chapters will note how we provided better opportunities for all of America’s children.

It’s past time for our ‘fair share’ of America’s wealth.

(Charlene Crowell is the communications deputy director with the Center for Responsible Lending. She can be reached at C h a r lene.crowell@responsiblelending .org.)

BUSINESS BUSINESS CALENDAR CALENDAR

Consumer Trends Presentation FEB. 15—The African American Chamber of Commerce of Western Pa will host “Toss out the Rulebook Top Consumer Trends for 2017,” a presentation by Campos Research Strategy Vice President Alice Greene, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Grant Room, 9th floor, Koppers Building, 436 Seventh Ave. Learn how trends will affect the marketplace and how brands and businesses can respond. Cost $25 for non-members, $10 for members. Call 412392-0610.

Better Business Seminar FEB. 17—The Duquesne University Small Business Development Center will present “6 Steps to Better Business,” 9 a.m., 108 Rockwell Hall, Duquesne University, 600 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15282. Topics to be covered include gaining control of time, personnel and money; multiplying and retaining customers, leveraging technology, avoiding common mistakes and more.

Cost is $49. For more information, call 412-396-6233.

Women Engineers Career Conference FEB. 17 through 19—The Society of Women Engineers will host its annual conference and career fair a the Omni William Penn Hotel.

WE is one of the most sought-after events for women engineers and college students pursuing STEM, and the new, localized version provides Pittsburgh engineers an opportunity for furthering education, professional development and networking. The event will feature inspirational speakers from Intel, the Pittsburgh technology Council, The University of Pittsburgh and IQ, Inc. For more information about WE Local Pittsburgh and to register, visit http://welocal.swe. org/pittsburgh/. For media inquiries and to request a complimentary media registration, contact Jennifer Jaacks at jjaacks@davidjamesgroup.com.

Certification Seminar FEB. 23—In conjunction with the Hill CDC, the Women’s Business Center at Chatham University presents “Is My Business Certifiable,” 6-7:30 p.m. at the KJeron X. Grayson Community Center, 1852 Enoch St. in the Hill District. Learn about the different types of diversity certification programs for Minority, Women and Disadvantaged Business Enterprises, why the alphabet soup of certification abbreviations matter, and about diversity spend goals. The event is free. For more information, contact Patricia Decker at 412-365-2779.

Training Event FEB. 28—The Duquesne University Small Business Development Center will present Export Opportunities in Mexico and Peru: Infrastructure Projects, 8:30-10:30 a.m., at the SMC Business Council, 600 Cranberry Woods Dr, room 190, Cranberry Twp, PA 16066. Topic include: Export Strategies to enter Peru and Mexico, industry briefings, the best ways to find representatives and distributors, and how to deal with them. Participants may also ask about Invitations to join the Trade Missions and Trade Shows to Mexico and Peru scheduled for May 21-24, June 5-7 and September 18-22, 2017

Women in Skilled Trades Expo MARCH 5—The Community College of Allegheny County presents a skilled trades career fair for women at its West Hills Center, 1000 McKee Road, Oakdale PA 15071, 12 to 4 p.m. Meet faculty members & current students in CCAC’s 30 skilled trades programs, including HVAC, Building Construction, Auto Mechanics and more. For more information, call 412-237-4546.

Business Energy Efficiency Grants THROUGH APRIL 15—The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has to $1,000,000 of grant funding available in the 13th year of the Commonwealth’s Small Business Advantage Grant Program for small businesses that adopt or acquire equipment or processes that promote pollution prevention and/or energy efficiency projects. Applicants must be a for-profit corporation, limited liability corporation, partnership, sole proprietorship or other legal entity with 100 or fewer full-time employees. Businesses can apply for 50 percent matching funds of up to $9,500 to adopt or acquire energy-efficient or pollution-prevention equipment or procedures.

Funding is eligible for those costs incurred between July 25, 2016 and June 30, 2017. For more information, contact the Small Business Ombudsman’s Office at 717-7725160.

OPINION

NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER

FEBRUARY 15-21, 2017

B5

Grads make more…really?

Guest Editorial

NBC made the wrong decision on Tamron Hall News anchor Tamron Hall is leaving NBC and MSNBC, the first casualty of the network’s poor decision to sign Megyn Kelly away from Fox News Channel.

Hall co-hosted the third of NBC’s four-hour “Today” show, airing at 9 a.m. ET, with Al Roker. They were told that their hour was giving way to Kelly, who was promised a slot in NBC’s daytime lineup.

NBC said Hall, who also hosted an hour of news programming each morning on MSNBC, had her last day at the network on Jan. 31. The network said it tried to convince Hall to stay beyond the end of her contract this month, but she declined.

Hall reportedly rejected a multi-million-dollar, multi-year deal to stay on at “Today” and continue hosting her cable news program, “MSNBC Live with Tamron Hall.”

NBC was lauded for naming Lester Holt, a highly respected award-winning journalist, as the only African American to host the evening news on a major network. But the network got it wrong on Hall and Kelly.

The National Association of Black Journalists is right to slam the network. “[Hall] broke ground as the first Black female ‘Today’ show co-host and was enjoying ratings success alongside Al Roker during the show’s third hour of programming,” NABJ said in a statement.

“NBC has been a leader for diversity in broadcasting, but recent reports that Hall and Roker will be replaced by former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly are being seen by industry professionals as whitewashing,” it added.

Hall, a graduate of Temple University, did an excellent job at NBC as the morning show’s co-host and on her late-morning show on MSNBC. Not many journalists can show the versatility required to be fun and lighthearted for the morning “Today” show and then switch within hours to asking tough, serious questions in her late-morning show.

Although the network said it valued her work, if published reports of her departure are correct NBC did not treat her with the respect she deserved as a veteran award-winning television journalist.

According to published reports, Hall who joined MSNBC and NBC News in 2007 and became part of “Today” in 2014, was reportedly blindsided last month when she learned she would be bumped from her role as co-anchor of the third hour of “Today” by Kelly, who left Fox after 12 years.

Hall was also doing well in the ever-important ratings.

The “Today” show’s rating success, according to NABJ, “deserves praise, not punishment, as replacing talent often is associated with low-ratings performance.”

NABJ said in its statement, “Roker tweeted last week that the show leads the ratings in its time slot and consistently beats its competition.”

NBC is also wrong to bring on a race-baiter like Kelly.

As the NABJ correctly pointed out “Kelly has a well-documented history of offensive remarks regarding people of color. On ‘The Kelly File,’ her Fox News show, the host said then-first lady Michelle Obama’s commencement address at Tuskegee University pandered to a ‘culture of victimization.’”

Jamelle Bouie, Slate’s magazine chief political correspondent, points out Kelly has demonstrated racist demagoguery, which defined much of her tenure at Fox News.

“In 2010, for example, Kelly devoted hours of coverage to the New Black Panther Party, a small group on the fringe of American politics, because two members of the NBPP were charged with voter intimidation after standing outside of a heavily Black polling place in Philadelphia in the 2008 election. Those charges were later dropped, but the incident became the basis for a wide-ranging conspiracy disseminated by conservative writers, websites, and—most prominently—Megyn Kelly. Along with Republican activist J. Christian Adams, then a frequent guest of Kelly’s, the Fox News host spun a disturbing tale of voter intimidation and anti-White racism sanctioned by an Eric Holder–helmed Justice Department that she claimed wouldn’t investigate Black Americans accused of criminal activity. “Well, think about that. Think about that…Now you’re going to have instances like this where Black Panthers and others can go to the polling stations and do this if they so choose. And they just basically are gonna get a pass because while it’s not an official thing, it’s been made very clear to all the rank-and-file voting rights attorneys in the DOJ those cases are not to be pursued,” Kelly said during one broadcast before suggesting that Holder was, in fact, involved in a plan to protect the NBPP. This is not the only time Kelly has engaged in race-baiting.

She has criticized those who dare to portray Santa Claus, a fictional character, as anything other than White, she has falsely accused the African-American community as having an “anti-cop” mentality.

This is the woman who will replace Hall.

True to form Hall left the network with style and grace.

“The last 10 years have been beyond anything I could have imagined, and I’m grateful,” Hall said in a statement. “I’m also very excited about the next chapter. To all my great colleagues, I will miss you and I will be rooting for you.”

We wish Hall well in her future endeavors.

(Reprinted from the Philadelphia Tribune)

Founded 1910

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

Ulish Carter

Jeff Marion

Office Manager

Managing Editor

Circulation Consultant

John. H. Sengstacke

Editor & Publisher Emeritus (1912-1997)

The Economic Policy Institute recently released a study telling us all what we already knew but still needs to be emphasized to our children, especially the males.

It says that college grads earn 56 percent more than non-college grads, and since the Great Recession ended in 2009 college grads have been getting almost all the good paying jobs as well as the growth jobs.

Now where do Black people fit in this equation?

During the Bill Clinton administration and during the Barack Obama administration and even the George Bush administration more and more college doors were open to Blacks than at any other time even though the Right Wingers tried everything they could to close or keep the doors closed by trying to block affirmative action. However, by fighting for diversity in the workplace as well as on college campuses, progressives and moderates were able to get more Blacks in both, the workplace and on campus.

But with the new Donald Trump administration, as well as a conservative U.S. House and U. S. Senate as well as many states dominated by conservatives will these gains hold?

Many Americans, as the last election testifies to, are looking back to the old America when a White man could graduate from high school and still get a good paying factory job with excellent health benefits. But even though most of those jobs are gone to never return, the uneducated White America still believes these jobs are available, that they have been shipped to other countries and can be shipped back to this country if more things were made in this country.

This may be partially true, but only partially. Other countries have caught up with America and are de-

Ulish Carter

Just Sayin’ manding higher pay, which means goods are going to be more expensive cutting into the profits. And profits are why businesses are in business.

It’s like the Green vs. Fossil energy controversy. America became great behind coal, wood, natural gas and others but now a new breed is pushing green. Well, why can’t we have both? Let them compete against each other. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Give the consumer a choice.

This would keep many of the jobs in the old fossil industry as well as the cleaner green industries. The horse and automobile co-existed for a long time.

But back to Blacks and college.

More and more community colleges as well as major universities are seeking that middle ground student.

There are many jobs in this country that pay well and have benefits that don’t require four years of college and all the debt it creates. But these jobs still need training that should come from community college as well as high schools.

Blacks must find out where the jobs are and what kind of training is needed for these jobs and not get caught up in the W. E. B. DuBois, Booker T. Washington dilemma. A college degree or nothing. Washington said Blacks must do whatever necessary to survive. If it means college then college it is. If it’s a trade school then there’s nothing wrong with that. The

money is still green. But we must make sure our schools are preparing our kids for the job market, and not just college, because there are thousands of kids with college degrees struggling to find jobs to pay off those school loans, who can’t leave home because they don’t make enough. But they are nothing like the thousands of young high school dropouts that are mostly Black males, dying on the streets caught up in gangs and drugs.

Parents and students must sit down with schools at all levels and evaluate the job market. What is available, what is it paying, how much will the education cost, and what is the likelihood of finding a job that will pay the kind of money that will allow that person to live comfortable. And what is the school doing to make sure there is a job at the end of the 2 or 4 years?

We must start making the schools accountable, not just paying our hard earned money and accepting their word. There’s a lot of competition out there. *** The Black Political Coalition recently released their blueprint for collective neighborhood driven effort to transform underserved minority communities in the city.

My suggestions are eliminate high school drop outs, make sure every child finishes high school and either goes to trade school or college, and make sure that every government or private employer in those communities include residents from those communities.

Bottom line. Make sure the community is educated and aware of job opportunities available to them. Oh, get a copy of the Economic Policy Institute study and hand it out to all students and parents.

(Ulish Carter is the managing editor of the New Pittsburgh Courier.)

With DeVos appointment, we must advocate for public schools As a lifelong educator in Pittsburgh Public Schools, it hurts my heart to watch our country potentially reverse the advances we’ve made in recent years to uphold diversity and care for the underserved. Backsliding can have disastrous consequences.

We have many reasons to be concerned when people take office who are not sympathetic to the needs of society’s most vulnerable: children and families who live in poverty or are homeless, who go hungry because they lack access to good nutrition, and people with learning challenges, disabilities or special needs.

The reality in Pittsburgh is that many parents are worried about making a living wage and providing their children balanced meals and a decent place to live. They worry about keeping their kids safe in the streets. And the weight of tending to these basic needs keeps many families from focusing on education— even though it’s just as essential in a child’s upbringing.

That’s why public schools are so important. If public education loses its standing with those in charge of this country, and if a groundswell of opposition develops, the children who need public schools the most will suffer.

It sounds trite but it’s true: Children are our country’s future. It’s our job to engage them in learning, to teach them to analyze things and

Regina B. Holley

Commentary to take chances and make mistakes along the way. We want our children to challenge themselves—and the injustices they encounter. We want them to reflect with open minds, and to appreciate the wonders of this world. They need our guidance to identify opportunities ahead.

Most of all, they need us to advocate for them when the political climate threatens the standing of our nation’s public schools. Like many parents and educators, I fear what might happen.

Our new Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has made it no secret that she favors charter and private schools over public education. I hope she truly will make sure the Department of Education protects our children’s civil rights and fosters safe, innovative learning environments.

Public schools exist to ensure every child has the right to a good education. Pittsburgh Public Schools welcomes all students, regardless of race, immigration status, economic

bracket, religion or disability. Charter schools, which operate with public education dollars, do not have to accept any child—and they open their doors selectively.

Already, Congress wants to set aside goals for accountability and K-12 teacher prep in President Obama’s Every Student Succeeds Act. This wrangling could lead to confusion and delays in funding and policy.

Among other things, ESSA allowed states to set goals to address proficiency on tests, English-language learning, and graduation rates. There was an expectation to close the gaps for those who are furthest behind in achievement.

We cannot allow inclusion and diversity to fall by the wayside in Pittsburgh. It’s essential that we continue the momentum we’ve gained under Superintendent Hamlet in making much-needed improvements to our schools. We are emphasizing academics as we embark on community schools and expand restorative justice programs.

Watch the news; become active in your community. Contact your representatives to ask for fair and sensible policies that strengthen public schools. Now more than ever, we all need to become advocates for our children’s future.

(Dr. Regina B. Holley is board president, Pittsburgh Public Schools)

It shouldn’t feel this way

by Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq. (TriceEdneyWire.com)—Without creating too much knowledge of how chronologically advanced I am, I can honestly say I’ve seen my share of presidential campaigns and have been on both the winning and losing sides personally and in support of other candidates. I know the glow of excitement that lingers long after Election Day for a successful campaign. I also know the deep and burning frustration and disappointment of having to make a concession speech or having to see your chosen candidate make a concession speech after decisive returns are revealed.

One thing is certain. Each election will yield a winner and loser. I accept that. It doesn’t mean we have to like the results, and it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t protest and resist the actions of the winner when we don’t agree with them.

While we accept the 2016 presidential election, this time feels different, and the feeling is not good! Every day there is something new that gives cause for great concern.

Maybe I’m naïve or my expectations are too high! Maybe I just give my fellow citizens too much credit! Whatever the circumstance, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of other Americans have the same dim view I have of the outcome of the presidential election and the new president, Donald Trump. I am fearful for the future of our country. I see the sub-

tle autocratic manipulations that suggest movement to less individual freedom and to more dictatorial rule.

These feelings aren’t a recent phenomenon. They were not manufactured from a sense of anger or loss. They are the result of the dissonance between Trump’s campaign and post-election behaviors and the behaviors we have come to expect from candidates and eventual presidents. I have seen these same sentiments expressed by television pundits and citizens alike. Even some Trump supporters I know have begun to express a sense of “buyer’s remorse” because of voting for him.

One of the primary reasons for these feelings can be summed up in a simple statement, “Trump is a con man and a pathological liar!” We must remember that fact-checks of Trump’s campaign rhetoric found him to misrepresent facts at nearly a 7-in-10 rate. He has shown himself to possess an above average mastery of the most sophisticated techniques of propaganda.

We must remember that the “con” in “con man” refers to confidence. Just as in advertising or propagandizing, confidence is built by appealing to the image of an individual’s self-interest or desire. This is accomplished with: •Use of sensational generalities (Make America great again.)

•Name-calling and labeling (appealing to negative imagery) •Biased testimonials •Appeals to “common folk” and

their values (Drain the swamp.)

•Group identification (creating a sense of US versus THEM, i.e. promoting attacks at rallies) •Information manipulation (endless flow of lies and misrepresentations coming from the Trump camp) •Image manipulation (demonizing the opposition while creating the impression that “I” am the only solution to your problems.)

Few will deny that Trump has used these methods to obtain power. Most will agree those are tools of psychological manipulation that are used by many politicians. Some will try to convince you that Trump used them with overwhelming efficiency (The popular vote disputes that.). What is unsettling is that he continues to use them to sustain a combative nationalist sense of fear and paranoia. While continuing to feed us the pabulum of his “I am one of you” messaging, Trump has embraced an inner-circle of racists, white-nationalists, oligarchs, sexists and elitists who threaten any philosophy beyond their own self-interests.

Persons familiar with history understand that Trump’s ascendance mirrors those of other authoritarian dictators. The constant name-calling and demonization of opponents support the siege mentality. We must persist in our opposition because it should not feel this way.

(Dr. E. Faye Williams, President of the National Congress of Black Women. 202-6786788. www.nationalcongressbw.org)

B6

FEBRUARY 15-21, 2017

FORUM

Pathfinders for Black History Month

There has to be something inside you

(TriceEdneyWire.com)—I love Black History, and so revel in Black History Month. Not that Black History should be constrained to a month.

Indeed, when I wrote my book Surviving and Thriving: 365 Facts in Black Economic History in 2010, I hoped that some folks would touch the book each day and talk about the many ways African American people have shaped our nation’s economic life, from building this country, to being the basis of our bond system. Despite my work, and that of others, Black History Month celebrations seem to center on the men in our history, and on the familiar names. Our 45th President has lifted up Frederick Douglas, touting his many accomplishments, as if he is still living. Omarosa, don’t you give this man talking points? He needs to be locked into the Museum of African American History and Culture, and then forced to watch Raoul Peck’s I Am Not Your Negro. I digress.

You’ve heard of Frederick Douglas (18181895), Ida B. Wells, Dr. Dorothy Height, WEB DuBois and Mary McLeod Bethune. But do you know Venture Smith, Mary Bowser, James Forten, Charles Wiggins, Clara Smith, Paul R. Williams, and Jackie Ormes? These are among the Pathfinders that Tonya Bolden has lifted up in her book, Pathfinders: The Journeys of 16 Extraordinary Black Souls. Her book is extraordinary not only because it features the biographies of relatively unknown and amazing African Americans, but also because she puts their lives in context. Thus, each biography talks about what was happening historically during the subject’s lives. She also highlights their contemporaries, expanding the reach of the book and, perhaps, challenging students to do their own research about other notable African Americans.

I have over the “Thank God The course of my life Louis ‘Hop’ Kendrick Coon Is Dead.” met, known and Upon my endiscussed a multering the room titude of issues they instantly and views with grew silent and people of every several of them walk of life. Peosaid, “Hop we ple of all races, had nothing to genders, gainfuldo with it,” and I ly employed, unstated at the top employed, those who have done well, of my voice, “None of you made any individuals who border on poverty, attempt to stop them.” educated, uneducated, religious beOver the course of my life I had lievers and non-believers, committed been appointed to four positions and politicians and those who labor for was terminated on all four, because I the three pieces of silver. would openly challenge racism and I A major issue that has for too long had a very clear understanding that been a part of our everyday lives is there was a price to pay when atfor our brothers and sisters to allow tempting to make a difference. our proverbial enemies to destroy us As I wrote this column I reflected on and they stand by and do not attempt three old school mates and endearto prevent it. A person can be termi- ing lifetime friends of mine, who also nated from their employment, denied graduated from Fifth Avenue High a promotion, even arrested and we School. The common denominator is are able to help these persons, but that we all made a difference. Berabsolutely refuse to become involved. nard Jones is deceased, but his legacy Have you ever been involved person- will live forever. He was the founder ally and needed help and those you of Urban Youth Action and the first knew could help you but failed? Or Black foundation in America Poise has the shoe been on the other foot Foundation. Herman Reid, Ph.D. and you refused for whatever reason served 35 years as outstanding dito help someone in an identical situ- rector of NEED. The third is Dr. Cyril ation?

Wecht, a proven champion of equalThere was a period of time in my life ity. The original question asked was that I was a county detective and the “what motivated these men?” It was only Black. One night the entire office not money, fame, education or matehad to work in smaller municipalities rial things. The universal answer is, to help local police, because Dr. Mar- there has to be something inside of tin Luther King Jr. had been assassi- them.

(Louis “Hop” Kendrick is a contributor to nated. That night when I approached the office I heard voices singing, the New Pittsburgh Courier.)

Julianne Malveaux

Commentary Tonya Bolden is an award-winning children’s book author, but Pathfinders is no children’s book. To be sure it should be ordered in every school library and purchased by many parents.

But young people will not be the only ones enhanced by a book that highlights sixteen stellar African Americans, many unknown. Bolden says, “Without denying racism and oppression, I did not want to talk about racism, but about accomplishment.” So she set out to offer a range of occupations for the young people who will read her book. “I wanted to give kids variety,” she told me. “I also wanted to expose them to people who had done something.” Black folks have done amazing things, and Bolden says she wants to encourage young people to “dream big and take chances”. Her book reflects that, lifting up Richard Potter, a Black magician who traveled the world as a cabin boy before joining a circus, studying with a ventriloquist, and stepping out on his own to be, says Bolden, “the first magician born in the United States to have success in the land of his birth.” Or who would have thought that Sissieretta Jones, the daughter of enslaved people, would have had a successful career as a concert singer? Jones performed at Madison Square Garden and Carnegie Hall, sung at the White House for President Benjamin Harrison, and completed a European tour. Bolden says she wants young people to “think big.” Well, in spotlighting Sissieretta Jones, she encourages that dream. While the average American earned about $400 a year in Jones’ heyday, her earnings were more than $8000 a year. She was one of the highest paid Black entertainers in the United States.

The richness of Bolden’s book lies in the fact that she does offer occupational variety. There are entertainers but there are also women near and dear to my heart, women that I’ve written about over the years. One is Dr. Sadie Tanner Mosell Alexander, the first African American woman to receive the Ph.D. in economics, and one of the first three to receive the Ph.D. in a single week in June 1921. Georgiana Rose Simpson earned her Ph.D. in German from the University of Chicago, and Eva Beatrice Dykes earned her Ph.D. in English from Radcliffe (now Harvard). She taught at D.C.’s Dunbar High School, Howard University and Oakwood College (now University) in Huntsville, Alabama.

Another sister Bolden lifts up is Maggie Lena Walker, the first African American woman to form and run a bank, Penny Savings Bank, in Richmond, Virginia. Maggie Lena, cannily merged her bank with others to survive the Great Depression, and the bank thrived until it closed in 2009. As an economist, Maggie Lena Walker and Dr. Sadie Tanner Mosell Alexander resonate with me, but many will also enjoy the lives of architect Paul Williams, combat pilot Eugene Ballard, or filmmaker Oscar Michaeaux. Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson, the woman whose accomplishments were highlighted in the movie, “Hidden Figures,” is also featured in Bolden’s book.

What can we learn from these Pathfinders?

We can appreciate their achievement against all odds. We can appreciate their faith and their contributions. And, most importantly, we can be inspired by their contributions and by the words of Dr. Martin Luther King. “Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.” The service of these Pathfinders should inspire our own drive to achieve, to accomplish and, most importantly, to serve. Tonya Bolden’s book is an absolutely worthy addition to your library! On Saturday March 18, to honor those in the books and our communities authorless book parties will be held around the country.

To participate or host an event contact —read@ theafricanamericanchildrensbookproject.org (Julianne Malveaux is an author and economist. Her latest book “Are We Better Off? Race, Obama and Public Policy” is available via www.amazon.com for booking, wholesale inquiries or for more info visit www.juliannemalveaux.com)

To Tell The Truth

From crazy White boys to arson on holy ground In 1963 Jack to free speech Weinberg was and academJ. Pharoah Doss a graduate ic freedom. student at the Savio’s speech University emboldened the of California, crowd for what Berkeley. He became a 32 joined Berkehour stand off ley’s chapter of with the adminCORE. (Conistration. gress of Racial That day the Equality) Now, this crazy White boy Free Speech Movement began. spent the summer of ‘63 traveling That December Savio delivered through the South meeting with his famous speech against “the civil rights groups. He returned to operation of the machine” from the Berkeley, withdrew from grad school, steps of Sproul Hall, and in 1997 and became head of Campus CORE. the university named the steps after Mario Savio, another crazy White Mario Savio. boy, spent the summer of ‘63 in MexRecently, Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza ico working with a Catholic relief hosted another confrontation conorganization. His parents moved cerning free speech. A Republican to Los Angeles and that fall Savio student group invited Brietbart’s enrolled at the University of Califorgay conservative editor to speak and nia, Berkeley. protesters gathered to prevent his Early in 1964 Savio was arrested campus appearance. for demonstrating against the San A woman with a megaphone told a Francisco Hotel Association for mob: This is not about free speech, excluding Blacks from non-menial these are not people interested in jobs. While Savio was in his cell genuine debate, they hide behind another jailed demonstrator asked that hypocritically to try to shut up him if he was going to Mississippi to and put in their places women, Mushelp in the Freedom Project. Savio lims, minorities, and other oppressed spent the summer of ’64 in Missisgroups. What they are really trying sippi. He helped register Blacks to to do is assert their power, threaten vote and taught at a freedom school us, intimidate us, rape us, and kill for Black children. These activius. ties, organized by CORE and SNCC Eventually, violence erupted, fires (Student Nonviolent Coordination were set, people were attacked, the Committee) became known as Freespeaking event was canceled, and dom Summer.

Berkeley was left with $100,000 in Savio returned to Berkeley with property damage. plans to raise funds for SNCC, but President Trump tweeted: If UC the school banned all political activi- Berkeley does not allow free speech ty and fundraising on campus. and practices violence on innocent One month into Berkeley’s fall people with different points of semester there was a commotion. view—NO FEDERAL FUNDS. Savio and other students heard a But the university did nothing former grad student set up a CORE wrong. table to distribute civil rights inforThe university rejected all requests mation and was in a confrontation to cancel the event. So the protestwith campus police. ers demonstrated to prevent the When Savio and dozens of other speech, but the property destruction students arrived at Sproul Hall, was a retaliatory act against the Jack Weinberg was placed inside of a administration for not canceling the police car. speech in the first place. (Or not Dozens of more students arrived caving in to their anti-free speech until hundreds surrounded the demands.) police car that held Weinburg.

After this incident an inscription Someone in the crowd shouted, “Sit should be added to the Mario Savio’s down!” and students sat to prevent Steps plaque, it should be required the police car from transporting reading for future protesters at Weinburg to jail.

Berkeley, and it should say, “Sit Then Mario Savio took off his down, take off your shoes, you’re on shoes, climbed on top of the police holy ground.”

(J. Pharoah Doss is a contributor to car and demanded the university to lift their ban on political activity and the New Pittsburgh Courier. He blogs at jpharoahdoss@blogspot.com) acknowledge the students’ rights

Commentary

Letters to the editor for publication The New Pittsburgh Courier welcomes all responsible viewpoints for publication. All letters should be typewritten and contain writer’s address and phone number for verification.

All letters will be edited for clarity and length. Address all letters to: Letters to the Editor, New Pittsburgh Courier 315 East Carson Street, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15219 You may fax your letter to 412-481-1360, or via e-mail to letters@newpittsburghcourier.com.

NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER

Marc H. Morial

To Be Equal

Trump’s travel ban betrays America’s values (TriceEdneyWire.com)—“Like many immigrants, we came to this country empty-handed. We believed in American democracy--that with hard work and the goodness of this country, we could share in and contribute to its blessings. We were blessed to raise our three sons in a nation where they were free to be themselves and follow their dreams. Our son, Humayun, had dreams of being a military lawyer. But he put those dreams aside the day he sacrificed his life to save his fellow soldiers…If it was up to Donald Trump, he never would have been in America.”—Khizr Khan, father of U.S. Army captain killed in Iraq, Democratic National Convention Address, July 28, 2016 As a Republican candidate running for the nation’s highest office, Donald Trump promised an enthusiastic crowd of supporters that in the wake of the San Bernardino, CA attack--a mass shooting perpetrated by an American citizen of Pakistani descent and his wife, a Pakistani national and lawful permanent resident--he would, as president, call for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.” It took only a week into his new administration for now-President Trump to make good on his campaign trail promise. With the easy stroke of a pen, and a messy roll out, President Trump summarily stopped an entire class of people from entering the country, throwing airports into chaos and confusion, sparking spontaneous protests, delaying or halting family reunions and disrupting the lives of lawful immigrants both within and outside our nation’s borders.

The “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry to the United States” executive order, along with two previous orders, triggered a blanket, targeted 90-day ban on all travelers from seven predominately Muslim countries— Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen--all deemed terrorist hot-beds. The entry of any and all refugees was suspended for 120 days, including an indefinite ban on refugees from war-torn Syria, as Trump’s administration established “new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America.” The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has refused to reinstate the ban, key parts of which were suspended by a district court judge.

The Administration has made clear its intention to appeal to the Supreme Court.

In the court of law, what is at stake here is defining what, if any, checks can be placed on the president’s authority to oversee and determine federal immigration policy. In the court of popular opinion, however, what is at stake here is how we define ourselves as a nation and how we will continue to define ourselves in the future and in the face of legitimate national security concerns.

Fear, fiction, alternative facts, reality and discrimination have no place in this critical discussion where lives hang in the balance on both sides of the debate.

By singling out majority-Muslim countries, the Trump administration has effectively created an unconstitutional, discriminatory religious preference in our immigration policy that also slams the doors shut on Muslims, while openings the doors and prioritizing the admissions of non-Muslim refugees--namely, Christians, who are fleeing their countries in response to religious persecution. The First Amendment’s Establishment Clause forbids our government to establish an official religion or to officially prefer one religion over another religion. This order is, therefore, not based on core American values.

None of the perpetrators of major terrorist attacks on U.S. soil has come from any of the seven countries that are on the president’s executive order. In fact, the majority of attackers come from within our borders, with many national security and counterterrorism experts noting that the perpetrators of attacks on U.S. soil have primarily been U.S. citizens or permanent legal residents--who, incidentally, have not been from any of the seven countries on the ban list. As far as refugees are concerned, there have been no fatal terrorist attacks by refugees in this country for nearly 40 years. According to a Cato Institute study on immigration and terrorism, “all of the murders committed by foreign-born refugees in terrorist attacks were committed by those admitted prior to the 1980 act.” The Refugee Act of 1980 is described as the “modern, rigorous refugee-screening procedures currently in place.”

This order is, therefore, not based on reality.

The executive order foments fear. The executive order foments hate and falsely justifies and legalizes discrimination. The executive order ignores the reality of migration and terrorism and puts American lives at risk by failing to address our very real issues and potentially unleashing anti-American sentiment around the globe that could very well translate into devastating attacks. We, as a nation, cannot and should not support discrimination of any kind, person or religion, because since our founding we have aspired to renounce discrimination. We have failed, but we have also struggled to remain true to the ideals woven into the DNA of America.

Favoring one religion over the other and punishing entire countries by associating all her citizens with criminal intent flies in the face of our American ideals and the Constitution.

Further, it’s a short slide from religious discrimination to racial discrimination. First they came for the Muslims, and you said-what? All people who abhor discrimination must speak up!

CLASSIFIED New Pittsburgh Courier

B7

FEBRUARY 15-21, 2017

www.newpittsburghcourier.com

JOB OPPORTUNITIES

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Help Wanted

Public Notice

MANAGING EDITOR

Seeking weekly newspaper managing editor for African American newspaper. Candidate must have prior newspaper experience, editing skills, writing skills, management skills, computer/Internet savvy, willingness to serve a local niche community, understand deadlines and ability to work with a fast paced production and marketing environment while maintaining high ethical standards. Candidate must also possess graphic layout skills. This is a full time position offering compensation commensurate to experience. Please send letter of interest, experience and resume to jobs@ newpittsburghcourier.com

DISPLAY ADVERTISING SALES REPRESENTATIVE

The New Pittsburgh Courier is looking for a display advertising sales representative. Experience in media sales or related area preferred but will train the right individual. This full-time staff position offers salary + commission with full benefits after 0 days, paid vacation after 6 months. Must be a self-starter with leadership skills, reliable transportation, and strong computer, written and verbal communication skills. All resumes will be considered. Must be able to work under deadlines, do comprehensive sales-related research and make sales presentations. Send resumes by Feb. 2 , 20 to jobs@ newpittsburghcourier.com.

SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Duolingo, Inc. seeks Senior Graphic Designer in Pittsburgh, PA to (i) apply Duolingo’s visual design style and user experience philosophy to advertising (ii) implement the visual design and user experience of Duolingo’s proprietary native programmatic advertising formats; (iii) design programmatic materials (including media kits and RFP decks) for targeted use (iv) coordinate campaign design processes, and media graphics planning and execution (v) work with third party data vendors (e.g. Google, Nielsen) to supply and segment audience data and perform detailed cohort analysis on existing audiences; and (vi) track metrics of implemented designs and explore solutions to improve designs. Email resume to jobs@duolingo.com and specify ob 20 in the subject line.

DIRECTOR CHEMICAL LABORATORY TECHNICIAN PROGRAM BIDWELL TRAINING CENTER

Plans, develops, and administers the Chemical Laboratory Technician Training Program. B.S. degree in chemistry or related area (Master’s degree preferred) 3 years of progressive experience within the chemical industry, and 2 years experience in training or adult education strong MS ffice skills demonstrated ability to develop curriculum, manage program budgets, communicate with a diverse population, and a valid Pennsylvania driver’s license & insurable driver’s record required. Send Resume with cover letter and salary requirements to hr@manchesterbidwell.org EOE

JOINT APPRENTICESHIP COMMITTEE ocal nion No. 5, I.B.E.W. and Western PA Chapter, N.E.C.A. 5 ot Metal Street, Suite 00 Pittsburgh, PA 5203-235

February 20 APPRENTICESHIP opportunities for those who meet the requirements are hereby announced by the Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee of the I.B.E.W. ocal nion 5 and the Western PA Chapter of N.E.C.A. Applications will be distributed at the: Electrical Training Center - 5 Hot Metal Street, Suite 00, Pittsburgh, PA 5203-235 (South Side) March 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th - from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM March 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th - from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM Clearfield Training Center - 400 eonard Street, Clearfield, PA 30 March 18th - from 10:00AM to 1:00PM ALL APPLICATIONS MUST BE PICKED UP IN PERSON BY THE APPLICANT AND COMPLETED AT THAT TIME. APPLICANTS MUST MEET THE FOLLOWING REQUIREMENTS: A. Applicants shall be in good health, of average intelligence, conscientious and interested in learning the trade.

B. Must be years old, as of June 30, 2017.

C. Must be a high school graduate or hold a GED. D. Must have completed one year of high school algebra or one post high school algebra course.

E. Applicant must be willing to take any tests given by or for the Committee.

F. When an apprenticeship is offered, one must submit to a physical and substance testing and a test for color blindness. These tests will be administered by a doctor selected and paid for by the Committee.

G. Must be a resident of one of the following counties in Pennsylvania for at least one year prior to application: Allegheny; Armstrong; Bedford; Blair; Butler; Cambria; Cameron Centre Clarion Clearfield Elk Fayette Fulton Greene untingdon Indiana efferson Mc ean Somerset enango Washington and Westmoreland.

H. A non-refundable check or money order for $25.00 (Twenty-five Dollars) will be required with the returned application. Cost of all testing and examinations to be paid by the Committee. We will not accept cash payments; check or money orders only.

I. All applicants must have a valid Pennsylvania Driver’s License for the entire time they are in the apprenticeship program. . The recruitment, selection, employment and training of apprentices during their apprenticeship shall be without discrimination due to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, or nonjob related disabilities. The sponsor shall take affirmative action to provide equal opportunity in the apprenticeship and will operate the apprenticeship program as required under Title 2 or the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 30 and the Equal Employment pportunity Regulations of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

PLEASE BRING THE FOLLOWING ITEMS WITH YOU: . Copy of your igh School transcript/ fficial or nofficial (not the diploma) or your GED with scores (not a co of t e certificate) and High School transcript for years attended.

2. Your Driver’s License.

3. A (non-refundable) check or money order only for $25.00 made payable to Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee. We will not accept cash payments; check or money orders only.

LEGAL ADVERTISING Legal Notices

Estate of WILLIAM SINAGRA, deceased of Allegheny County No. 00398 of 2017, Kalli Sweeney, Administratrix, 925 Grand Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15212 or to Allegheny Law Group, LLC, 816 5th Aveue, Suite 600, Pittsburgh, PA 15219 Estate of Sandra Lee Schneider, a/k/a Sandra Lee Stevens, deceased of Pittsburgh, PA anuary 5, 20 No. 02 00 0 .

Personal Representative, August Schneider c/o udith A. ehnowsky, Atty., 20 Evergreen Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 520 4 2- 2 -044

LEGAL ADVERTISING Legal Notices

ANNOUNCEMENTS Public Notice

ANCIENT INK PROJECT

Tattooed 5 year old, or older, African American? Please come tell the story of your first tattoo. The ANCIENT IN project will be in Pittsburgh in March, 20 to listen and record those stories. Participants will be paid. Call or text Mark 4 235-23

SONNY BOY

ORDER FOR ADVERTISEMENT OF REGISTRATION OF FICTITIOUS NAME

N TICE is hereby given, an application for Registration of Fictitious Name (the “application”) was filed with the Pennsylvania Department of State on July 8, 2016. The ficitious name is Awnings by Paul. The name of the person who is party to the registration is PFB Enterprise, Inc. The address of the principal office of the business to be carried on under the fictitious name, as well as the address of the person who is party to registration, is 45 Allen Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15214. The application was filed under the Fictitious Names Act.

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LEGAL ADVERTISEMENT Port Authority of Allegheny County REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL NO.17-03

Port Authority of Allegheny County is requesting proposals for the performance of the following service: LIGHT RAIL TRANSIT SYSTEMS CONTRACT SERVICES The ight Rail Transit Systems Contract Services (Contract Services) under the proposed agreements will be in the categories of (A) R and RT System Design and (B) Way and Facilities Systems Design. The required Contract Services include, but may not be limited to, design, bid/award phase support, constructability reviews, construction support services and inspection, field surveying, claim support, project management/ administration and related tasks. Authority intends to enter into agreements with pools of up to two (2) firms for each of the above-identified categories that can be called upon on an as-needed basis. While it is currently Authority’s intention to enter into agreements with pools of up to two (2) firms per category, this number may be adjusted up or down, at Authority’s sole discretion, based upon the number of proposals received and Authority’s evaluation of same in relation to its ight Rail Transit Systems Contract Services needs in the above-identified categories. Proposals may be submitted to provide Contract Services in one or both of the identified categories. The required Contract Services will be issued on a work order basis as they are approved to proceed by Authority. The agreements will be for a four (4) year period with the option to extend their terms up to one additional year at the sole discretion of Authority.

A copy of the RFP will be available on or after February 10, 2017, and can be obtained by registering at the Port Authority ebusiness website: http:// ebusiness.portauthority.org and following the directions listed on the website. Please note that Proposers must register under one or more of the following ebusiness categories for this RFP ENGINEERING Engineering ENGSC Engineering Systems/Communications ENGPM Engineering Project Management ENGP AN Engineering Planning/Studies Proposers may also register in other categories for any future RFPs issued

by Port Authority. If you have specific questions regarding this RFP, please contact effrey C. Faddis at (4 2) 5 -53 5.

An Information Meeting for interested parties will be held at 9:30 A.M., prevailing time, February 28, 2017 in the Fifth Floor Board Room of Port Authority of Allegheny County’s downtown offices, 345 Sixth Avenue to answer any questions regarding this RFP. ard copy proposals must be both delivered to, and time stamped by a representative of the Purchasing and Materials Management Department at or before 2 00 p.m., prevailing time, March 16, 2017, at the Purchasing and Materials Management Department, Port Authority of Allegheny County, 345 Sixth Avenue, Third Floor, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 5222-252 . Proposals received or time stamped in the Purchasing and Materials Management Department after the advertised time for the submission of proposals shall be non-responsive and therefore ineligible for award. Each Proposer shall be solely responsible for assuring that its proposal is timely received and time stamped in accordance with the requirements herein. Please note that a sealed Summary of Costs should NOT be submitted with the hard copy of the Proposal, but will be submitted at a later date as requested by Port Authority.

This Project may be financed jointly by the County of Allegheny, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) of the .S. Department of Transportation (D T). The proposal process and the performance of the requested services will be in accordance with the guidelines and regulations of the FTA “Third Party Contracting Guidelines”, FTA Circular 4220. F, as amended, and all other applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations.

Port Authority of Allegheny County, in compliance with 4 C.F.R., Part 2 , as amended, implements positive affirmative action procedures to ensure that all Disadvantaged Business Enterprises have the maximum opportunity to participate in the performance of contracts and subcontracts financed, in whole or in part, with federal funds provided under the proposed Agreement.

In this regard, all recipients or contractors shall take all necessary and reasonable steps in accordance with 4 C.F.R., Part 2 , to ensure that DBEs have the maximum opportunity to compete for and perform contracts. Recipients and their contractors shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, age, disability, national origin or sex in the award and performance of DOT assisted contracts.]

Port Authority of Allegheny County, in compliance with 4 Pa.C.S. 303, as may be amended, require that certified Diverse Businesses (“DBs”) have the maximum opportunity to participate in the performance of contracts and subcontracts for these Contract Services. In this regard, all Proposers shall make good faith efforts in accordance with 4 Pa.C.S. 303, to ensure that DBs have the maximum opportunity to compete for and perform contracts.

Proposers shall also not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, age, disability, national origin, sexual origin, gender identity or status as a parent in the award and performance of contracts for these Contract Services.]

Port Authority of Allegheny County reserves the right to reject any or all proposals.

THE BOARD OF PUBLIC EDUCATION OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF PITTSBURGH

Sealed bids will be received in the ffice f The Chief perations fficer, Room 25 , Administration Building, 34 South Bellefield Avenue until 00 A.M. prevailing time FEBRUARY 21, 2017 and will be opened at the same hour for the purchase of the following equipment and supplies: PACKAGING MATERIALS General Information regarding bids may be obtained at the ffice of the Purchasing Agent, Service Center, 305 Muriel Street, Pittsburgh, PA 5203. The bid documents are available on the School District’s Purchasing web site at: http://www. pghboe.net/pps/site/default.asp Click on Bid Opportunities under Quick Links.

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

Leon Webb Purchasing Agent We are an equal rights and opportunity school district

OFFICIAL ADVERTISEMENT THE BOARD OF PUBLIC EDUCATION of the SCHOOL DISTRICT OF PITTSBURGH

Sealed proposals shall be deposited at the Administration Building, Room 25 , 34 South Bellefield Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pa., 52 3, on March , 20 , until 2 00 P.M., local prevailing time for the following: Pittsburgh Obama 6-12 Science abs ADA Restroom Renovations General, Plumbing, Mechanical, Electrical and Asbestos Primes Pittsburgh Obama 6-12 ADA Stage Lift General Prime itt rg reenfie re Replace PA/Sound Systems / Emergency Generator Electrical Prime Project Manual and Drawings will be available for purchase on February , 20 at Modern Reproductions (4 2-4 - 00), 2 Mc ean Street, Pittsburgh, Pa., 52 between 00 A.M. and 4 00 P.M. The cost of the Project Manual Documents is non-refundable. Project details and dates are described in each project manual.

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

The Upper St. Clair School District will be accepting proposals for structured cabling and installation of wireless access points at Baker, Eisenhower and Streams Elementary Schools. A copy of the Request for Proposal (RFP) may be downloaded at http://uscsd.org/rfp.

There is a mandatory site walkthrough on February 3, 20 at 3 5 pm for Baker and Streams Elementary Schools and on February , 20 at 3 5 pm for Eisenhower Elementary School. Please email Mr. Raymond Berrott at rberrott@uscsd. k12.pa.us if you plan on attending.

Proposals are due by noon on February 24, 20 and must be in the format and manner prescribed in the RFP. Upper St. Clair School District reserves the right to reject any or all bids and proposals.

Scott Burchill, Secretary BOARD OF SCHOOL DIRECTORS

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL For LEGAL SERVICES For MCKEESPORT HOUSING AUTHORITY

The Mc eesport ousing Authority is requesting proposals for procurement for legal services.

Whereas the Mc eesport ousing Authority is currently operating numerous low-rent housing projects in the County of Allegheny, and Whereas this service would advise the Authority and its affiliates and instrumentalities on a full scope of legal services.

The term of the contract will be three years with two (2) additional one ( ) year optional extensions. The Mc eesport Housing Authority reserves the right to extend the contract for the last two years for a maximum 5-year period.

Attention is called to all respondents that all applicable Equal Employment Opportunity requirements for federally-assisted contracts must be complied with. This includes strict compliance with Executive rder 24 , as amended (establishing a goal of . for female employment and .3 minority percentage by craft) Nondiscrimination; Executive Order 25, Minority Business Enterprise Executive rder 2 3 , Women Business Enterprise Section 3 of the Housing and Urban Development Act of Civil Rights Act of 4 and Minority Business Participation.

Notice is hereby given that this is a Section 3 covered project and that the Mc eesport area has been defined as a Section 3 area. The Authority promotes the utilization of business concerns which are located in or owned in substantial part by persons residing in the Section 3 area and promotes job training and employment opportunities for qualified, lower income, Section 3 area residents.

Interested respondents may obtain Request for Proposal Documents containing detailed submission requirements from the Administrative ffice, Mc eesport ousing Authority, 2 0 Brownlee Avenue, 2nd floor, Mc eesport, PA 5 32 4 23- 42. Documents are available at no cost.

Interested firms are requested to respond by proposal submission (satisfying the requirements of this invitation) on or before 0 00 A.M., prevailing time on March 5, 20 to be submitted to the Administrative ffice of the Authority, Proposals should be placed in two (2) sealed envelopes; the outer envelope will be addressed to the Mc eesport ousing Authority, 2 0 Brownlee Avenue, 2nd Floor, Mc eesport, PA 5 32. Both envelopes shall be clearly marked, “Proposal for egal Services for the Mc eesport ousing Authority”.

The Mc eesport ousing Authority reserves the right to accept or reject any or all proposals or to waive any informality in bidding, and to withhold award for a period of sixty ( 0) days.

MCKEESPORT HOUSING AUTHORITY Stephen L. Bucklew EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

COURIER CLASSIFIEDS

B8

CLASSIFIEDS

FEBRUARY 15-21, 2017

LEGAL ADVERTISING

LEGAL ADVERTISING

Bids/Proposals

Bids/Proposals

SONNY BOY

LEGAL ADVERTISEMENT Port Authority of Allegheny County REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL NO. 17-05

Port Authority of Allegheny County (“Port Authority” or “Authority”) is requesting proposals for the performance of the following services (Contract Services): INSPECTION AND ENGINEERING SERVICES The work under the proposed agreements will be in the categories of (A) Inspection and Engineering Services for Repair which includes but is not limited to inspection and professional engineering services for continuing Authority’s Bridge Management System and Bridge Inspection Program, including performing initial, periodic and emphasis inspections on Port Authority owned highway and transit bridges, tunnels, radio towers, electrical and mechanical equipment on the Duquesne Incline, haul and safety cables and fall protection systems of the Monongahela Incline, retaining walls and other transit structures; and providing other engineering support services as required by Authority for repairs to the abovementioned structures; and (B) Engineering Services for Rehabilitation or Replacement which includes but is not limited to providing engineering support services as required by the Authority for the rehabilitation and/or replacement of transit bridges, tunnels, radio towers, inclines, retaining walls and other transit structures. The Authority intends to create a pool of up to two (2) firms for each of the above identified categories that can be called upon as needed. While it is currently Authority’s intention to enter into agreements with pools of up to two (2) firms per category, this number may be adjusted up or down, at Authority’s sole discretion, based upon the number of proposals received and Authority’s evaluation of same in relation to its inspection and engineering services needs in the above-identified categories. Proposals may be submitted to provide Contract Services in one or both of the identified categories. The required Contract Services will be issued on a work order basis as they are approved to proceed by Authority. The agreements will be for a four (4) year period with the option to extend their terms up to one (1) additional year at the sole discretion of Authority.

Copies of the RFP will be available on or after February 13, 2017, and can be obtained by registering at the Port Authority ebusiness website: http:// ebusiness.portauthority.org and following the directions listed on the website. Please note that Proposers must register under the following ebusiness categories for this RFP: ENGINEERING Engineering ENGINS Engineering – Bridge Inspection ENGGAE Engineering – General Architecture and Engineering ENGCM Engineering – Construction Management Proposers may also register in other categories for any future RFPs issued

by Port Authority. If you have specific questions regarding this RFP, please contact Robert Sechler at (412) 566-5148.

An Information Meeting for interested parties will be held at 1:30 p.m., prevailing time, February 23, 2017 in the Fifth Floor Board Room of Port Authority of Allegheny County’s downtown offices, 345 Sixth Avenue to answer any questions regarding this RFP. Hard copy proposals must be both delivered to, and time stamped by a representative of the Purchasing and Materials Management Department at or before 2:00 p.m., prevailing time, March 15, 2017, to the Purchasing and Materials Management Department, Port Authority of Allegheny County, 345 Sixth Avenue, Third Floor, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15222-2527. Proposals received or time stamped in the Purchasing and Materials Management Department after the advertised time for the submission of proposals shall be non-responsive and therefore ineligible for award. Each Proposer shall be solely responsible for assuring that its proposal is timely received and time stamped in accordance with the requirements herein. Please note that a sealed Summary of Costs should NOT be submitted with the Proposal, but will be submitted at a later date as requested by Port Authority.

These Contract Services may be financed jointly by the County of Allegheny, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). The proposal process and the performance of the requested services will be in accordance with the guidelines and regulations of the FTA “Third Party Contracting Guidelines”, FTA Circular 4220.1F, as amended, and all other applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations.

Port Authority of Allegheny County, in compliance with 49 C.F.R., Part 26, as amended, implements positive affirmative action procedures to ensure that all Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBEs) have the maximum opportunity to participate in the performance of contracts and subcontracts financed, in whole or in part, with federal funds provided under the proposed Agreement. In this regard, all recipients or contractors shall take all necessary and reasonable steps in accordance with 49 C.F.R., Part 26, to ensure that DBEs have the maximum opportunity to compete for and perform contracts.

Recipients and their contractors shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin or sex in the award and performance of DOT assisted contracts.

Port Authority of Allegheny County reserves the right to reject any or all proposals.

INVITATION FOR BIDS

Sealed bids for the Harcrest Park Phase I Improvements will be received in the office of Benjamin Holland, BUTLER COUNTY CONTROLLER, FLOOR 5, COUNTY GOVERNMENT CENTER, 124 WEST DIAMOND STREET, whose mailing address is P.O. BOX 1208, BUTLER, PA 16003, on or before 2:00pm, March 7, 2017. All Bids must be plainly marked Bid – Harcrest Park Phase I Improvements on the outside of the envelope.

All bids will be publicly opened and read at the Public Agenda Setting Meeting of the Butler County Board of Commissioners on March 8, 2017 at 10:00am, in the Commissioner Public Meeting Room located on Floor 1 of the County Government Center, Butler, PA 16003.

Bids will be received for the following: Harcrest Park (Penn Township) removal of architectural barriers and associated park and recreation improvements in according to the specifications in the bid package.

Plans, specifications and bid documents are available via CD and can be picked up at Herbert, Rowland & Grubic, Inc., 200 West Kensinger Drive, Suite 400 Cranberry Township, PA 16066 for a nonrefundable fee of $25.00 add $10 for postage payable by check.

A mandatory pre-bid meeting will be held at Harcrest Park on February 23. Park located at the intersection of Three Degree Road and Brownsdale Road in Penn Township. Meeting to commence at 2:00 pm. at the gravel parking lot accessed on Three Degree Road.

Each proposal shall be accompanied by a bidder’s bond, or certified check or cashier’s check, in favor of the County of Butler, in the amount of not less than ten percent. The County of Butler reserves the right to waive any informality in and to accept or reject any and all bids or any part of any bid. No bid may be withdrawn for a period of sixty (60) days.

Prevailing wages established under the Davis-Bacon Act will apply to this contract. The contract documents contain requirements addressing prevailing labor wage rates, labor standards, nondiscrimination in hiring practices, goal for minority and female participation, MBE and WBE participation, participation by Section 3 residents and businesses and related matters.

BOARD OF BUTLER COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Leslie Osche, Chairman Kim Geyer Kevin Boozel Attest: Scott J. Andrejchak Director of Administration/ Chief Clerk

HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF PITTSBURGH REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP) FOR Development of New HACP Website, Website Hosting & Maintenance Services Rebid RFP# 800-50-16 Rebid

The Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh (HACP) hereby requests proposals from qualified Firms or Individuals capable of providing the following service(s): Development of New HACP Website, Website Hosting & Maintenance Services Rebid RFP# 800-50-16 Rebid The documents will be available no later than February 6, 2017 and signed, sealed proposals will be accepted until 10:00 A.M., February 24, 2017 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 may obtain information from: Mr. Kim Detrick – Procurement Director/Contracting Officer Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh Procurement Department 2nd Floor, Suite 200 100 Ross Street Pittsburgh, PA 15219 412-456-5116, Option 1 or by visiting the Business Opportunities section of www.hacp.org A pre bid meeting will be held: Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh Procurement Department 100 Ross Street, 2nd Floor, Suite 200 Pittsburgh, PA 15219 February 16, 2017 10:00 A.M. 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.

NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER

LEGAL ADVERTISING

LEGAL ADVERTISING

LEGAL ADVERTISING

Bids/Proposals

Bids/Proposals

Bids/Proposals

LEGAL ADVERTISEMENT Port Authority of Allegheny County REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL NO.17-02

Port Authority of Allegheny County is requesting proposals for the performance of the following service: GENERAL ARCHITECTURAL and ENGINEERING CONTRACT SERVICES The General Architectural and Engineering Contract Services (Contract Services) under the proposed agreements will be in the categories of (A) Roadway and Site Work Design; and (B) Building and Structure Design. The services will include, but may not be limited to; architecture, engineering, bid/award phase support, constructability reviews, field surveying, claim support, project management/administration and related tasks. Authority intends to enter into agreements with pools of up to two (2) firms for each of the above-identified categories that can be called upon on an as-needed basis.

While it is currently Authority’s intention to enter into agreements with pools of up to two (2) firms per category, this number may be adjusted up or down, at Authority’s sole discretion, based upon the number of proposals received and Authority’s evaluation of same in relation to its General Architectural and Engineering services needs in the above-identified categories. Proposals may be submitted to provide services in one or both of the categories. The required services will be issued on a work order basis as they are approved to proceed by Authority. The agreements will be for a four (4) year period with the option to extend their terms up to one additional year at the sole discretion of Authority.

A copy of the RFP will be available on or after February 10, 2017, and can be obtained by registering at the Port Authority ebusiness website: http:// ebusiness.portauthority.org and following the directions listed on the website. Please note that Proposers must register under one or more of the following ebusiness categories for this RFP: ENGINEERING Engineering ENGGAE Engineering – General Architectural/Engineering ENGPM Engineering – Project Management ENGPLAN Engineering – Planning/Studies Proposers may also register in other ebusiness categories for any future RFPs issued by Port Authority. If you have specific questions regarding this RFP, please contact Jeffrey C. Faddis at (412) 566-5315 or email at jfaddis@ portauthority.org .

An Information Meeting for interested parties will be held at 9:30 A.M., prevailing time, February 28, 2017 in the Fifth Floor Board Room of Port Authority of Allegheny County’s downtown offices, 345 Sixth Avenue to answer any questions regarding this RFP. Hard copy proposals must be both delivered to, and time stamped by a representative of the Purchasing and Materials Management Department at or before 2:00 p.m., prevailing time, March 16, 2017, at the Purchasing and Materials Management Department, Port Authority of Allegheny County, 345 Sixth Avenue, Third Floor, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15222-2527. Proposals received or time stamped in the Purchasing and Materials Management Department after the advertised time for the submission of proposals shall be non-responsive and therefore ineligible for consideration. Each Proposer shall be solely responsible for assuring that its proposal is timely received and time stamped in accordance with the requirements herein. Please note that a sealed Summary of Costs should NOT be submitted with the hard copy of the Proposal, but will be submitted at a later date as requested by Port Authority.

This Project may be financed jointly by the County of Allegheny, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). The proposal process and the performance of the requested services will be in accordance with the guidelines and regulations of the FTA “Third Party Contracting Guidelines”, FTA Circular 4220.1F, as amended, and all other applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations.

Port Authority of Allegheny County, in compliance with 49 C.F.R., Part 26, as amended, implements positive affirmative action procedures to ensure that all Disadvantaged Business Enterprises have the maximum opportunity to participate in the performance of contracts and subcontracts financed, in whole or in part, with federal funds provided under the proposed Agreement.

In this regard, all recipients or contractors shall take all necessary and reasonable steps in accordance with 49 C.F.R., Part 26, to ensure that DBEs have the maximum opportunity to compete for and perform contracts. Recipients and their contractors shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, age, disability, national origin or sex in the award and performance of DOT assisted contracts.

Port Authority of Allegheny County, in compliance with 74 Pa.C.S. § 303, as may be amended, require that certified Diverse Businesses (“DBs”) have the maximum opportunity to participate in the performance of contracts and subcontracts for these Contract Services. In this regard, all Proposers shall make good faith efforts in accordance with 74 Pa.C.S. § 303, to ensure that DBs have the maximum opportunity to compete for and perform contracts.

Proposers shall also not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, age, disability, national origin, sexual origin, gender identity or status as a parent in the award and performance of contracts for these Contract Services.

Port Authority of Allegheny County reserves the right to reject any or all proposals.

NOTICE TO PROPOSERS REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR EMPLOYEE UNIFORM RENTAL/LEASE SERVICE FOR DAVID L. LAWRENCE CONVENTION CENTER

The Sports & Exhibition Authority will receive proposals for employee uniform rental/lease service as identified below. The agreement for this work will be with the Sports & Exhibition Authority. The Request for Proposals may be obtained after the date identified below from Conor McGarvey-E-mail: cmcgarvey@ pittsburghcc.com, Telephone: (412) 475-1622.

Project: Employee Uniform Rental/ Lease Service for David L. Lawrence Convention Center RFP Available: February 7, 2017 Date/Location for Proposals: 3:00 PM, Thursday, February 16, 2017, David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Attn: Conor McGarvey, 1000 Fort Duquesne Blvd., Pittsburgh, PA 15222

NOTICE TO PROPOSERS REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR BUILDING CLEANING SERVICES FOR DAVID L. LAWRENCE CONVENTION CENTER

The Sports & Exhibition Authority will receive proposals for building cleaning services as identified below. The agreement for this work will be with the Sports & Exhibition Authority. The Request for Proposals may be obtained after the date identified below from Conor McGarvey -E-mail: cmcgarvey@pittsburghcc. com, Telephone: (412) 475-1622.

Project: Building Cleaning Services for David L. Lawrence Convention Center RFP Available: February 7, 2017 Date/Location for Proposals: 3:00 PM, Tuesday, February 21, 2017, David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Attn: Conor McGarvey, 1000 Fort Duquesne Blvd., Pittsburgh, PA 15222

INVITATION FOR BIDS:

The Allegheny County Housing Authority (ACHA) is requesting bids from qualified contractors for INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR IMPROVEMENTS. The Allegheny County Housing Authority encourages responses from small, minority, and women owned firms, as well as firms that have not previously performed work for the ACHA. LOCATION: West Mifflin Manor, 2400 Sharp Avenue, West Mifflin, PA 15122 CONTRACTS: #ACHA-1574-1/GCGeneral; #ACHA-1574-2/PC-Plumbing; #ACHA-1574-3/MC-HVAC; #ACHA-1574-4/EC-Electrical DOCUMENTS: Bid and Contract Documents will be on file after Wednesday 15/February/2017 on the Pittsburgh Builder’s Exchange, or the McGraw-Hill websites, and may be obtained at the Allegheny County Housing Authority, 625 Stanwix Street, 12th Floor, Pittsburgh, PA, 15222, or by contacting the ACHA at 412-402-2464 or emailing ajamrom@achsng.com.

FEE: A non-refundable fee is required for each set of Contract Documents (certified check or money order only) $75 for paper documents and/or $25 for PDF files on Compact Disc.

PRE-BID CONFERENCE: Thursday 23/February/2017, at 10:00AM at the Allegheny County Housing Authority 625 Stanwix Street 12th Floor Pittsburgh, PA 15222.

BIDS DUE: 2:00 PM local time on Tuesday 7/March/2017 at the Allegheny County Housing Authority, at which time and place all bids will be publicly opened and read aloud.

Compliance is required with the Davis-Bacon Act and other Federal Labor Standard Provisions; Title VI and other applicable provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; the Department of Labor Equal Opportunity Clause (41 CFR 60-1.4); Section 109 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974; Executive Order 11625 (Utilization of Minority Business Enterprise); Executive Order 12138 (Utilization of Female Business Enterprise); in compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990; 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 #6867-12, setting forth goals of 5 percent Veteran-Owned Small Businesses.

Further, notice is hereby given that this is a Section 3 Project under the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968, (as amended) and must to the greatest extent feasible, utilize lower income residents for employment and training opportunities and Section 3 Business concerns and all contracts and subcontracts for this project shall contain the “Section 3 Clause” as set forth in 24 CFR, Part 135.38. Moreover, compliance is required by the prime contractor and all subcontractors with the document entitled Federal General Conditions that is included with the bid materials furnished, these Federal General Conditions to be incorporated by reference into all construction contracts between operating agency and contractor, contractor and subcontractor(s), and subcontractor(s) and lower tiered subcontractor(s).

Frank Aggazio Executive Director Allegheny County Housing Authority

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SPORTS New Pittsburgh Courier

B9

FEBRUARY 15-21, 2017

www.newpittsburghcourier.com

The James Harrison story: It’s a family affair

JAMES HARRISON

by Aubrey Bruce For New Pittsburgh Courier

(Part 2: Dancing with “the Turk”) One of the most obvious liabilities of an athlete, especially one attempting to secure employment as a NFL player is the process of trying out for but not making the team. Competing for and securing a roster position on a National Football League squad as far as today’s football lovers are concerned almost has a “sanctified” aura surrounding it because as many of us know by now: “Many have come but only a select few have been chosen,” to compete in the NFL. When the late Pittsburgh Steelers legendary NFL Hall-of-Fame coach Chuck Noll named the messenger assigned to inform athletes’ that they were being released as “the Turk” that uncomfortable process could possibly be described as the most “awkward” dance ever.

Remember the saying;

by Bill Neal For New Pittsburgh Courier

“You dance with the one you came with?” If the “release process” of making an NFL team could be described as being invited to a dance, well based on the many dances that the “Turk” invited linebacker James Harrison before he made the teams, on multiple occasions left Harrison stranded while the “Turk” left with someone that he, the “Turk” met at the affair. That ill-fated night out could only be described as a “cruel and macabre ballet.”

In professional football more often than not, owners and coaches switch players as if they were dancers with “two left feet.” Athletes are shuttled in and out and in between franchises, almost as quickly as the latest dance moves come and go.

Before James Henry Harrison Jr. became a Super Bowl record breaking, NFL offense wreaking machine and household name, it sometimes appeared as if he was attempting to climb

Armon and “Moon” at the power spot…so for right now…Shang, go in for Lucas!!! :09—Here at the Pitt press conference, where the Panthers just upset the Syracuse Orange in a great Saturday afternoon hoop game. Cam Johnson 22, Artis 21 and Young with 19 as Pitt pretty much led the entire game. Final score sees Pitt walk away with a second victory that got a little too close down the stretch as the Orangemen forced a few turnovers out of their full court press. I may only say this one more time, but this is the same team that lost by 52 a few weeks ago. Say what you

a “greased mountain” barefooted in regards to even making the final cut as an NFL player.

According to an article written by Andrea Hangst in January, 2016 posted on sportsonearth.com: “[Harrison was an] undrafted free agent from Kent State, Pittsburgh picked Harrison up in 2002, only to cut him in September, re-sign him at the end of the year and eventually cut and resign him two more times before the Ravens signed him in 2004. Baltimore then shipped Harrison to NFL Europe’s Rhein Fire in Dusseldorf, Germany … a team that eventually released him as well. Harrison thought that his big NFL dream would not go any further than that, according to a later interview with ESPN’s Elizabeth Merrill. His final chance with the Steelers, coming in 2004 thanks to an offseason injury to linebacker Clark Haggans, saw Harrison double down on his efforts to understand and master coordinator Dick LeBeau’s complex defense.

And once he did, which did take some time, he proved to be one of the team’s most formidable forces on that side of the ball.”

His mother Mildred Harrison explained that James, unlike many other professional football players had made peace with himself about the possibility of not making an NFL team. He had decided that if he did not find success as a football player he would pursue another line of work. As far as continuing to be motivated to seek a position on an NFL roster Mildred Harrison recalled that: “he didn’t need any motivation from the family because he motivated himself.

He [Harrison] said that he if he wasn’t picked up by the Steelers after the final time that he was released, he would become a long distance truck driver because he has a brother that is a long distance truck driver; my son-inlaw is long distance truck

HARRISON FAMILY from left: Sylvia Sims, Mildred Harrison (James Harrison’s mother), Christal Johnson and Johnnie Johnson. (Photo Copied by Thomas Sabol) driver so James decided that was what he was going to be if he couldn’t play football but then he got that last call from the Pittsburgh Steelers and he stuck with the team, but he was willing just to get a regular job. He [James] used to drive a bus at Kent State, he has a Commercial Driver’s License. He loves driving and if he wouldn’t have made it as a football player, he probably would have been employed as driver.” Another profession that James Harrison was considering was a line of work that one might not normally associate with a bone cracking NFL linebacker.

Harrison thought about becoming a veterinarian.

His mother also recalled, “He loves animals, had had hamsters and every other kind of animal running around here.”

When she was asked if he might consider becoming a veterinarian after his playing are over she said, “No, I think that he might pursue the job as the strength coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers because that is a coaching position that

Overtime

want, but I never thought it had anything to do with the physical and not for one minute did I think they quit. Real players don’t quit. But whatever was broke in that locker room got fixed! :08—Call me crazy and most do, “Tiger” will win two more majors and might get four to tie Jack Nichlaus. Take it to the bank. (Yes, I had the Steelers beating New England, but that has nothing to do with this.) :07—Lionel Richie and Mariah Carey concert…a two for one ticket. My how the mighty has fallen!

(Yeah, I am going. Two for one. Are you kidding

me?!?!) :06—Coming down the stretch in high school basketball. Get out and support your kids and your team. And please, keep your mouth shut and act like you’re the adult. You weren’t any good when you thought you were good.

Yeah, I’m talking to you.

You know who you are. :05—Still looking for a few more good men and women. If you can sell medicine to a dying man, we want you. Super commission. Great exposure and tons of fun. Call 412628-4856. :04—The vault is now open for the 4th Annual Pittsburgh City League

might not take up all of his time. We also discussed the legendary strength of Harrison and his almost super human workouts and where that extraordinary work ethic began.

His mother recalled when the “Ironman” regimen of James Henry Harrison Jr. started. “As a child he had a bench with weights upstairs, even as young as seven and eight years old.” She said. When the family was asked if he was showing such abnormal strength at a young age, being the last of fourteen children; when did the family stop bullying him.

His sister Sylvia was the first to recall.

“I never bullied him.”

His brother Johnny added, “I never bullied him but sometimes it was just payback. James was bad, he was too spoiled to be bullied. We spoiled him more than anything.” Mildred Harrison recalls: “there was a time when James was attending Kent State that he had caught a cold.

Mrs. Harrison immediately traveled to the school to attend to James. When she arrived at the gym there

(Correction from Part 1: Sylvia Harrison instead of ‘Shabira’ Harrison.)

(Next week: Part 3: The James Harrison Story: It’s a Family Affair, “Gold Diggers and Bounty Hunters.”)

(Aubrey Bruce can be reached at: abruce@newpittsburghcourier.com or 412-583-6741 Follow him on Twitter@ultrascribe.)

High School All-Sports Hall of Fame Inductions. #1 City league grad. #2 Played 2 of 3 years varsity sport. #3 Best of the best. #4 Must be able to attend. #5 Strong moral character.

Call or text your nomination now at 412-628-4856.

Saturday, October 21st will be here before you know it! :03—The British movie awards. No Denzel. No Fences. No Hidden Figures.

Are you kidding me! No wonder they lost the war! :02—In two weeks the Pirates go to training camp to plan their annual effort to come back without pitching…I’m just sayin’! :01—The Pens are winning. Cosby needs two

points to get a thousand… that’s all I got. (What?) :00—LeBron, please! Nobody touched you! C’mon man. :00:00—DOUBLE OVERTIME Hey, had the chance to catch a good ole hometown game Saturday night at Riverview High School.

Riverview vs. Winchester Thurston. Good game.

Good fun and ran into my longtime buddy Dr. Stan Marks. His son coaches Winchester. By the way, Winchester has a great thing going by the names of Dorian and Millick…Div. II coaches. Better check them out. ~ GAME OVER ~

was a coach there and she said to him, “I’m looking for my baby.”

The coach went and found James. After she left the coach asked James, “does it bother you that your mother still calls you her baby?” “No,” Harrison responded, “because I’m still her baby.” No matter how much over the life of his sometimes tumultuous professional football career and regardless of how much James Harrison Jr., the NFL player is feared and respected by friends and foes, one thing seems to be perfectly clear. When he is at home surrounded by those that truly know and love him, he is just James.

The sources for this article were nfl.com, sportsonearth.com and espn. com)

:10—Farewell to a legend…John “Shanghi” Mathews. The Pittsburgh basketball family gathered at Savoy Restaurant to say goodbye to another beloved member with the sudden and unexpected death of one of Clairton’s finest…“Shanghi.” Here’s to you big fella! •Western PA asphalt legend, •Connie Hawkins League Hall of Famer, •Gannon University legend (started at age 30!) •One of the most ferocious dunkers in Western PA history. •The nicest guy you could ever meet!!!

Pictured here are many of the great players that played with and against “Shanghi” who came out to pay their last respects to the legend. A somewhat quiet man who stood 6’8” at around 240 lbs., “Shanghi” would give you 20 points and 20 rebounds on most any given night and half the points would come on slam dunks. Not much noise, as a matter of fact, some thought he was too nice on the court, but it didn’t stop the end result…get out the way or get dunked on. Period!

“Shanghi” joins a much too long and much too soon list of local basketball legends.

Kenny Durrett, Maurice Lucas, Jeep Kelly, Ken West. Houndini Johnson, Moon Howard, Warner Macklin , Leroy Freeman, Armon Gilliam, and Larry Richardson, just to name a few. “Shanghi” will go in the game at the center spot FAREWELL TO A LEGEND—From left: Papa Banks, Baggs, Big John Marshall, Niel, Coach Cory Gadson, Zik, Tom Bum Coates, Clarence Hopson, Bill Neal, Greg Harrison, although he’s a natural Woff, Still Bill and Myron Brown. power forward…but I got

B10

FEBRUARY 15-21, 2017

PEOPLE

NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER

Young man takes amazing journey across country

by Paige K. Mitchell For New Pittsburgh Courier

A young African American man, Allen Norris, from Clairton, one day decided to take on a mind-blowing journey by choosing to travel from Pennsylvania to California, by foot, to see what the rest of the country looked like and expand his mind.

“I learned the importance of taking a leap of faith and following my dreams no matter how compelling or crazy it looks.

“Ever since I was younger I always had this vision to be a superhero, and save the world,” Norris said. “In high school I began thinking of ways I could fulfill that vision. So I decided the first step was to travel across the country spreading peace and the idea that you can create your own reality. Life is really what you make it.”

A few short years later Norris up and left to pursue his journey, without the approval or consent of family and friends.

“I didn’t tell anyone, I just left and then every-

READY TO GO—Allen Norris with his sleeping bag, compass and pocketknife takes on his journey across country. (Photos supplied by Norris) one found out on Facebook; including my mother. My family was extremely worried and not the least bit supportive at first. My friends thought it was crazy but amazing. Eventually my family came around and became my biggest cheerleaders and all the support from family, friends, and strangers played a large role in keeping me going.”

The National Guard donated a military grade sleeping bag and pocketknife for Norris to take along with him during his travels.

“I would have to say my sleeping bag, compass, and my pocket knife were my essentials,: he said. “The sleeping bag and knife were donated from the National Guard and were military grade. The sleeping bag is water-proof, meant to trap body heat. And the pocket knife is great for survival, and self-defense.”

Norris would rest by taking breaks often to stretch.

He would sleep through the morning and walked at night because he felt it was the best way to keep warm.

The journey took about two months for him to complete.

“I walked the majority of the journey. Didn’t hitch hike but was blessed to have a couple people stop and drive me a couple miles.

No matter the distance, 2 miles by car was extremely helpful as opposed to being on foot,” Norris said.

He arrived in California on January 4.

“From this experience I learned that exactly who I am and why I’m here. If I were to take anything from this journey, it’s the idea that everyone really is connected in the universe and can only change as one. What we do affects the world around us, whether it be good or bad. I want to grow and spread my message and connect with as many people as possible.”

Penn Hills grad lands Senior Care position

MARICCA SPENCER (Photo by Shayna Mendez, senior photojournalism major) (Point Park School of Business)—Penn Hills Senior High School graduate, Maricca Spencer recently landed the position of human resources associate with Presbyterian Senior Care Network. Spencer will graduate this spring with a Bachelor of Science degree in human resource management from Point Park University in Downtown Pittsburgh.

Spencer lives in Forest Hills, Pa., and is the daughter of Portia and Matthew Nicholson of Penn Hills, Pa., and Caperca Spencer of Swissvale, Pa. “I really like the diversity at Point Park. All my classmates have been very kind, helpful and approachable.

I like Presbyterian SeniorCare Network because I get the same feeling I do at Point Park. All of my colleagues are very approachable and will do anything they can to help. The residents and the environment at Presbyterian SeniorCare Network are just wonderful. I could really see myself staying there for quite a while,” Spencer said.

As a student, how did you land your HR position with Presbyterian SeniorCare?

Throughout the fall semester, I dedicated a lot of time each day to searching for and applying to different entry-level human resources opportunities. I came across the human resources associate position with Presbyterian SeniorCare Network on Indeed.com and applied.

Not too long after that, I was asked to come in for an interview. A week or so later, I was offered the position. I have always wanted to work

for a nonprofit organization, and the employee reviews, which I always check before applying, were quite impressive.

Tell us about how your involvement with SHRA has helped you professionally.

I am treasurer of Point Park’s chapter of the Student Human Resources Association. In this role, I have coordinated meetings and spoke in front of groups several times. These experiences have made me more comfortable with speaking in front of a crowd.

My willingness to take initiative and share new ideas has also improved. Through SHRA, I came up with the idea of a study group for the Assurance of Learning certification exam. The founder of our SHRA group, Sandra Mervosh, who is also my professor and mentor, has helped us prepare for this exam.

Additionally, at Presbyterian Senior Care, part of my job is to coordinate orientations. Based on my leadership experiences at Point Park, I’m now comfortable speaking in front of a group of employees and if I come up with a new idea, I don’t hesitate to bring it up.

Describe the teaching styles of Point Park's professors.

The faculty at Point Park are very knowledgeable. They have all been very patient, understanding, kind, professional and have tried the best they can to make sure the whole class understands the material. I couldn’t have asked for better professors throughout my educational experience at Point Park.