April 7th, 2011 edition

Aging with balance

Scott Sisters seek pardon

Prop E, Hattie, Jake win big

JACKSONDOMINATES FOUR-CANDIDATEFIELD FOR SLCC TRUSTEE

American staff

Half a century delivering babies

2011 Lifetime Achievement Awardee Jonathan R. Reed, M.D.

By Rebecca S.Rivas

Of The St.Louis American

It’s that moment in the delivery room when a newborn lands in the doctor’s hands. The parents and grandparents light up with joy. That connection shared between the doctor and a family impassioned Jonathan R. Reed, M.D., in his 35 years of solo practice as a gynecologist and obstetrician and eight years in a public health center.

Though he has been retired for five years, people in the community continually recognize him as their physician and introduce him to the grown children he helped to deliver.

“After administering eight or nine months of pre-natal care and then to accompany that mother into the delivery room and experience the

Remembering Manning Marable

‘Embodiment of the scholar/activist’ passes away at age 60

By Chris King Of The St.Louis American

When Manning Marable died

Friday, April 1, 2011 in New York at the age of 60, Black America lost an important advocate, chronicler, scholar and intellectual.

“He was the embodiment of the scholar/activist,” said Adrienne D. Davis, vice provost and professor of law at Washington University.

“He was a deep thinker who had a great love for his people,” said Donald M. Suggs, who for many years published Marable’s column in

– Gerald Early

St. Louis American “He was a brilliant intellectual and a very inventive thinker, very principled and uncompromising,” “I liked his seriousness of purpose and his demeanor of the proud black intellectual.”

“That experience at Homer Phillips was really amazing. I still cherish those years.”

– Dr.Jonathan Reed

Manning Marable,an important advocate, chronicler, scholar and intellectual for Black America,died Friday,April 1,2011 in New York at the age of 60.

There were decisive victories at the polls on Tuesday in the three races followed most closely by The St. Louis American Proposition E, a vote to retain the 1 percent earnings tax in the city of St. Louis for another five years, won by an all but unanimous 88 percent, a margin of nearly 30,000 votes. The push for Prop E, depicting it as a threat to public safety, resulted in a 20 percent voter turnout in the city, a strong number for an April municipal election. Nearly 40,000 people cast their vote in the city on Tuesday.

Also in the city, Hattie R. Jackson had a resounding win as St. Louis Community College trustee, winning 66 percent of the vote in a four-candidate field. She beat the incumbent, Denise Chachere, by nearly 8,000 votes.

Hattie R. Jackson acknowledged with a laugh that “all those students I taught over time”are now voters.

Jackson was surprised Wednesday morning hearing the precise vote totals read back to her. “Wow,” she said. In St. Louis County, which voted last year to elect its tax assessor, Jake Zimmerman proved that not paying your business taxes promptly is much, much more toxic in St. Louis County than being a Democrat. He beat the Republican candidate for County Assessor, the realtor L.K. “Chip” Wood, 64 to 36 percent, a margin of nearly 32,000 votes.

The vote on Proposition E, and one just like it every five years, was triggered by a statewide vote last year. That ballot initiative, funded by Rex Sinquefield, restricted municipalities in Missouri from enacting a new

Photo by Rosalind Guy

Hattie R. Jackson

Clay, Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club applaud decisions; environmentalists raise objections to process.

Chaminade College Prep All-American basketball player becomes first Missouri player awarded since honor started in 1985.

Gladys Scott and Jamie Scott were supported by some 200 people in a rally on

Jackson,Miss.The women served 16 years for their roles in an armed robbery of less than $200.Jamie Scott suffers from lifethreatening kidney failure.In January,Gov.Haley Barbour suspended their sentences on the condition that Gladys Scott donate a kidney to her sister.Now they seek a full pardon,which Barbour has denied.

The truth behind ABC going easy on Breezy

Sources say that there is a hidden agenda regarding the reason ABC was so quick to publicly assure singer Chris Brown there would be no consequences for his violent outburst follow ing his Good Morning America interview with Robin Roberts

Even after Chris threw ABC under the bus on BET’s 106th and Park by claim ing they were trying to exploit him, ABC responded by refusing Brown’s offer to pay for the damage he caused.

The network also promised they wouldn’t cancel his appearance on Dancing with the Stars, despite viewer protests, AND laid down the law banning anyone on DWTS from asking him any questions that might set him off.

The kind gestures are reportedly going down because ABC is determined to reunite Brown and Rihanna in their first tele-

vised meeting since their infamous fight.

Foxy catches Tom Joyner in tall tale

Rapper Foxy Brown is continuing her campaign to clear her name in accusations surrounding Tom Joyner’s Fantastic Voyage in an appearance on celebrity news show Inside Edition “There was never an altercation,” Brown said on the show. “We had a great time and I did not get kicked off of the ship at all.”

The show then played Joyner’s on-air comments that sparked the

Joyner changed his tune quite a bit since then.

“She did not get put off, she was scheduled to get off…that much was incorrect,” Joyner admitted in a follow up broadcast.

“Did she act a fool at the nail place?” Joyner’s co-host J. Anthony Brown asked. “Yes she did!” Joyner exclaimed.

“It was completely fabricated. Brown said. “Nothing ever happened.”

Tameka blames Nanny for nip/tuck nightmare

“I don’t want to go into details, but she did get put off,” Joyner said. “First we sent her to her cabin and locked her in, because we don’t have a jail,” Joyner said.

The incident began when the rapper reportedly threw a fit inside a nail salon on the ship after showing up three hours late to her appointment and went into a rage when she couldn’t be immediately accommodated.

“I’m not perfect, but I won’t pay for mistakes I didn’t make,” Brown told Inside Edi-

In an interview with Sister 2 Sister Magazine, Tameka Raymond opens up about the decision to undergo plastic surgery that nearly became a fatal mistake.

“I had a Brazilian nanny. It was her son’s birthday. She was very sad she couldn’t go and see him for his birthday. The tickets are very expensive to go. I was like, ‘You want to go to Brazil? We’re gonna go.’ When I got there, I started seeing all those pretty people walking around. And I was like ‘Dang!’ And my nanny was formerly a nurse there and she said, ‘Oh yeah, it’s popular here and inexpensive.”

“She was even telling me how people would get it and they would snap back so fast. And I just had a little pooch. And I had a baby, like, three months earlier. And I’m not going to lie, I was mad at my husband at the time.’”

I was just trying to be spontaneous. And when I got there I made a really dumb decision. It was

dumb, because it wasn’t nothing a few crunches and another month wouldn’t have gotten off. I never had the surgery. I ended up going into cardiac arrest while I was getting anesthesia.”

Snooki’s words of wisdom worth more than Toni Morrison’s

“Jersey Shore” reality TV star Snooki Polizzi was paid more than Nobel Prize winning author Toni Morrison to speak at Rutgers University. Polizzi was paid $32,000 Thursday to speak at Rutgers University – $2,000 more than Morrison will get for this year’s commencement address. Polizzi’s fee came out of student activity funds for her at two Q&A shows where she told students, “When you’re tan, you feel better about your self,” and “Study hard, but party harder.”

Meanwhile, Morrison will get only $30,000 to talk before some 50,000 people at the state school’s graduation this year. Morrison, 80, dismissed Snooki’s higher fee, saying, “I don’t know her . . . and I don’t care.”

The Song of Solomon author says she usually gets double her $30,000 Rutgers fee.

“I have some nostalgia about Rutgers because I used to teach there so, in effect, I cut my fee in half,” Morrison said.

Sources: Inside Edition, AJC.com, S2S.com, The New York Post

No. 1 in the nation at SLU Law

Courtney Logan and Kirsten Staples win national trial competition

American staff

The Saint Louis University School of Law Black Law Students Association’s moot court team recently placed No. 1 in the nation at the Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition hosted by the National Black Law Students Association.

Second-year law student Courtney Logan and thirdyear law student Kirsten Staples represented SLU Law and traveled to the national competition in Houston March 9-13 to defeat teams from Stanford University, Georgetown University and Columbia Law School, among others.

Both of students are from the St. Louis area; Logan went to East St. Louis Senior High School and Staples attended Pattonville High School. The team was coached by SLU Law alumna Sheena Hamilton, who serves as a law clerk for the United States District Court, Eastern District of Missouri.

“Moot court gives students an opportunity to obtain some of the most practical and transferable skills they will gain in law school,” said Hamilton.

“And it gives future employers a sense of the student‘s ability to not only strategize and perform in the courtroom but the student’s ability to write.”

The team previously placed third in the Midwest at the regional level of competition earlier this month in Chicago, and later defeated the Midwest regional champions to qualify for the national inal round. To

take home the national title, Logan and Staples displayed extraordinary advocacy skills before a panel of United States Navy Judge Advocate Generals.

preparation on a national level,” said Staples. “Winning the national title wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the university, the School of Law and our coach.”

Addicted to war

If you have the interest and time to keep up with U.S. foreign policy, you will undoubtedly have some confusion about when and how our government gets involved in other countries’ state of affairs. Such is the case with Libya.

How is it that the U.S. can send the CIA to overthrow the Iranian government and install the Shah, do the same with the Iraqi government and bring Saddam Hussein back from exile, side with Iraq in the Iraq-Iran war, then turn around and invade Iraq?

Why did the U.S. duck and dodge intervening in the Rwanda civil war, claiming it didn’t meet the deinition of genocide, but jumped in the Serbs’ and Croats’ rumble?

Why did our government feel the need to crush the little island of Grenada after its democratically elected members of the progressive New Jewel Movement?

“Moot court gives students an opportunity to obtain some of the most practical and transferable skills they will gain in law school.”

Staples also received the Best Overall Oralist Award at nationals. The best oralist is chosen by averaging each competitor’s scores from all of the preliminary rounds.

“It has been hard work preparing for this competition, and qualifying for nationals gave us the opportunity to display our skills and

“As an aspiring litigator, the skill set I have developed preparing for and competing in the Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition is invaluable,” said Logan. “It is also an honor to represent BLSA and SLU LAW with this victory at the national level.”

Competition has provided National Black Law Students Association members with opportunities to learn skills in appellate advocacy through oral arguments and brief writing. Between 100-125 teams compete during six regional competitions, with the top three schools in each region advancing to the national competition held during NBLSA’s Annual Convention.

– Sheena Hamilton

Since 1975, the Frederick Douglass Moot Court

“The time commitment and personal sacriices it takes to prepare for a competition like this truly demonstrates their passion for this area of the law and the skills they’ve been working so hard to develop in law school,” Sandra Johnson, interim dean, said of Logan and Staples.

“We look forward to seeing what are sure to be two excellent legal careers develop.”

Why was Nicaragua so important that it was necessary to sell drugs and arms to bring in extra cash to make sure the Contra thugs had an edge against a popular government?

Why haven’t military actions been called declarations of war since WWII?

These are some of the many twisted military decisions that cause American citizens to be suspect of our government’s true intentions. That brings us to Libya. Setting up a no-ly zone is a declaration of war, whether one “declares” or not. When the U.S. got support from NATO to establish such a zone in Libya, it was claimed to do so for humanitarian reasons and not to topple its leader, Moammar Gaddai.

President Obama grossly miscalculated when he said it would take a few days to scare

Gaddai off the throne. The compelling reason that you go to war is to save lives of the Libyan people, but you aren’t there to do anything to the leader you think is the root of the problem. Really? The U.S. its into the true deinition of a warmonger, always eager to go to war. There’s a website, From Wounded Knee to Libya: A Century of U.S. Military Inventions, that lays out a clear pattern of U.S. war addiction from 1890 to the present. The majority of those military actions were against people of color. Libya is in the midst of a civil war. What the U.S.-led NATO mission is doing will not bring resolution to this situation. America is now engaged in three serious wars – er, uh, I mean interventions. This is our money, money that the Congress says we don’t have and so they’re going on a budget-slashing spree. On the table for having their budgets axed are the Food and Safety Inspection Services, Minority Business Development Agency, Community Services Black Grant, Food and Drug Administration, Center for Disease Control, Women, Infant and Children Program (WIC), Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies, to name a few. No one around the world believes that this country is a neutral party just looking for a peaceful resolution. U.S. citizens must demand that we move from a war economy to a people economy. We must demand that our government stop the pretense of being the good guy when we’re really trying to snatch other people’s resources. We can’t afford another war; we need to concentrate on the home front.

Kirsten Staples and Courtney Logan represented the Saint Louis University School of Law Black Law Students Association in the Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition, placing No. 1 in the nation. They were coached by SLU Law alumna Sheena Hamilton. Staples also received the Best Overall Oralist Award at nationals.

Jamala Rogers

EDITORIAL /COMMENTARY

An encouraging day at the polls

At a very strange and often discouraging time in our public life, it was encouraging to see a very strong consensus in the city of St. Louis and St. Louis County on three elections that were decided on Tuesday where we see the decisive winners as bringing simple and unequivocal good news for this region.

Billionaire ideologue Rex Sinqueield branded his $12 million campaign to eliminate a city earnings tax in Missouri as “Let the Voters Decide.” The voters in the two Missouri cities that currently have an earnings tax, St. Louis and Kansas City, have decided – decisively – that they want to retain the one cent tax for the next ive years, the span decreed in a statewide ballot initiative that Sinqueield got passed.

In St. Louis, Proposition E passed by margins usually seen only when an incumbent Democrat runs against a no-name independent: by 88 percent, a margin of nearly 30,000 votes. Mayor Slay’s chief of staff remarked on election night that the voters had given the city ive more years to make necessary changes. That’s a truly bizarre spin. What those numbers mean to us is that city voters reject Sinqueield as someone who dictates how this city is managed. The voters – in a 20 percent turnout, a strong number for an April election – have said they would like to see Slay distance himself from his single largest campaign donor and his dangerous, unproven ideas for revamping tax codes to promote economic growth.

If city voters denied Sinqueield a mandate in nearly historic numbers, they were nearly as decisive in their embrace of Hattie R. Jackson for St. Louis Community College trustee. The retired educator and dean won 66 percent of the vote in a four-candidate ield that included the incumbent and another African American, by a margin of nearly 8,000 votes. We think this bodes well for the leadership of the system, which has some 30 percent black students.

Jackson told us she thinks the community embraced her “willingness not to work in vacuum, to be part of a team.” She said, “You get much better decisions and more credibility when you include people of differing opinions.” Every civic leader in this region should be required to say these words as they gaze into their mirror in the morning and adhere to them.

While we don’t have a high regard for the importance of the ofice of County Assessor or its need to be an elected position, St. Louis County elected the right man in Jake Zimmerman, a veteran progressive Democratic state representative who beat Republican realtor L.K. “Chip” Wood, 64 to 36 percent, by a margin of nearly 32,000 votes. A Harvard Law grad with a passion for public service and an inclusive leadership style, Zimmerman can now count an impressive landslide victory for countywide ofice. We think that when Charlie A. Dooley decides he wants to retire, Zimmerman, 36, will be well positioned to become the next County Executive.

The Way I See It - A Forum for Community Issues Save Kenneth Hall Hospital

Guest Columnist Grady Brown

What happens to a city when it loses one of its most valuable resources? That’s the question East St. Louis residents may face, if the powers that be of Southern Illinois Health Care Foundation have their way in terms of closing the doors of Kenneth Hall Regional Hospital.

Kenneth Hall Regional hospital has served East St. Louis residents for as long as I can remember. When Christian Welfare Hospital closed its doors, Kenneth Hall (or St. Mary’s, as it was known to us back then) took on the task of serving East St. Louisians for both our physical and mental health needs, and did it so well.

Although Touchette Regional Hospital was also available to those in East St. Louis and all within the St. Clair and Madison county area, the distances for those of us without transportation to get to Touchette

Regional was much too risky for victims of stroke, heart attack or gunshot wound.

I am in no way knocking the quality of Touchette Hospital, but to add on more patients to the overlowing patient population you already have can be a

n Closing the doors of Kenneth Hall would put such a burden on the neighborhood clinics and mental health agencies.

heavy burden on your medical staff, not to mention the patients themselves, who may not be able to get that one-on-one attention that they may have been used to.

Closing the doors of Kenneth Hall would put such a burden on the neighborhood clinics and mental health agencies. It would place a tremendous burden on these remaining medi-

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

21st century St. Louis

Regarding Sherri Absher’s “Politics, police work and local control” commentary, “politics” is another name for democracy. On June 12, 2010 the Indianapolis Star, reported on its front page: “Violent arrest. Police chief … recommends to city/county council that police oficer be ired.” Indianapolis and Marion County merged in 1970.

The St. Louis Police Department command structure was created in 1861 because St. Louis voted for Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and the rest of Missouri did not. The City of St. Louis and St. Louis County divorced in 1876 over Forest Park: a “carriage park” the rich could enjoy but the poor would pay for. Local police control and city/county reconciliation go hand and hand. They provide economics of scale, social justice and accountability lacking in our present situation.

If the 2010 census igures are true, people are voting with their feet and moving to where they want to live in the 21st century and not in 1876 or 1861.

dial fathers ind the legal means to have a positive place in their children’s lives. This service is complemented by other programs that are offered at no charge, thanks to the generosity of people who care. These services include job readiness, job retention and job placement. If we fail to invest in children, including training and supporting fathers, we will see more cases like Tyrone Cherry, who is, as McClellan described, drowning in slow-motion.

Halbert Sullivan, CEO Fathers’Support Center St. Louis

Film fest thanks

cal and mental health services to provide quality care for so many who will not have access to neighboring hospitals. Also, the jobs that would be lost in East St. Louis if the hospital closes would be a blow the city cannot afford. I am calling on all who care about quality health care to join in the ight to save Kenneth Hall Hospital. In a nation like this, no one deserves to receive medical care from an overcrowded, under-staffed medical facility.

I urge all of you to do what you can to help a city and its people from losing their lifeline. Today East St. Louis, tomorrow your city. Call Southern Illinois Health Care at 1-618-332-3060 and let them know that the human rights soldiers are ready to ight for their brothers and sisters. Also, send the Health Facilities Service Review Board your feelings and opinions about closing the hospital. Fax your testimony to 217-785-4111 by April 9.

Brandon Davis is Mormon. BYU is the Mormon Church’s lagship university. Further, the thinly-veiled assertion that white athletes can control their emotions while black athletes cannot is ludicrous. Young men and women should be responsible for themselves rather than blame their actions on circumstance, regardless of what society and Mr. Claiborne believe.

Gregory Lee Orlando, Fla.

The recent report that America’s most segregated cities are just as – if not more – segregated than they were a couple of decades ago is hardly a revelation.

The report focused on the top 10 most segregated cities. But this could easily be expanded to ind vast and unbroken pockets of racial segregation in many of the nation’s smaller and mid-size cities as well. A casual drive through any of the major urban neighborhoods in America, or a walk through the neighborhood schools, hospitals and clinics, reveal the stark pattern of the two Americas.

In fact, even three or four urban Americas: an America that is poor, black and Latino; an America that is black and middle-class; an America that is white, working-class and middle-class; and one that’s white and wealthy.

There are the usual suspects to blame for the rigid segregation. Poverty, crime, lender redlining, a decaying industrial and manufacturing inner city, white- and middle-class black and Hispanic light, crumbling inner-city schools, the refusal of major business and inancial institutions to locate in minor-

ity neighborhoods, and cashstrapped city governments that have given up on providing street repairs and basic services.

This tells a big part of the story of the chronic segregation, but it’s only part of the story. The painful truth three years after the election of America’s irst black president is that there are far too many policy makers, political leaders and many whites that still think that segregation is too much a longstanding, even immutable, way of life in America to ever change.

The history of Northern urban segregation is damning proof of that. In the decades before the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the great migration of blacks from the South and the light of whites from urban neighborhoods to the suburbs locked in place the economic, social and political mindset that racial segregation was a fact of life in the North. Redlining, zoning laws and the federal government’s deliberate policy of bolstering residential segregation insured that. Even as the Jim Crow barriers tumbled in the South and blacks and whites mingled in schools, public facilities and more and more neighborhoods, residential segregation in the North remained America’s idée ixe. Every census report in the post-civil rights era and the countless Urban League’s State of Black America reports showed that the inner cities

continued to get blacker and browner and poorer, while the suburbs got whiter and more well to do. That trend isn’t likely to change.

With President Obama and congressional leaders trying to igure out where to cut every penny they can from education, health care and employment programs, there is no chance of any new spending or initiatives to deal with the continuing decay of urban neighborhoods. Some experts have pointed to the increasing gentriication by young whites and non-blacks of some urban neighborhoods as a hopeful sign.

In fact, studies have shown that gentriication has not altered the neighborhood racial segregation patterns as much as is popularly presented. Many of the old homes that have been renovated as chic, pricey apartments and townhouses, have been gobbled up, not by whites and non-blacks, but by upwardly-mobile black professionals. They are upscale, but they are still black, and so are the freshly gentriied neighborhoods they live in.

Urban racial segregation, then, may not be the permanent lot of American society, but if past decades and current policies are any sign, America’s most segregated cities will stay that way for more census counts to come.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson(thehu tchinsonreportnews.com) is an author and political analyst.

Joseph Kuciejczyk St. Louis

Drowning in slow motion

Bill McClellan’s recent column in the Post, “Offender swimming against the current,” was about a young father with a criminal record who was sent to prison for failing to pay child support.

The irony was evident: Because he hadn’t kept up with his child support payments, he faced a year in prison and clearly would not be able to pay anything. When he is released, he will face insurmountable obstacles in reestablishing himself as a productive citizen and father.

I see in this young man the same fate that faces so many fathers we serve at a charity I founded nearly 12 years ago, Fathers’ Support Center. We aim to ensure the well-being of children by training their fathers to be responsible adults, inancially, emotionally, spiritually and physically. We work with numerous ex-offenders who seem forever punished in a relentless struggle. It is heartbreaking to see the consequences of this vicious cycle on their daughters and sons. The children pay the price of fatherless homes.

The FSC’s legal clinic, one of the few of its kind in the United States, helps non-custo-

Thank you for supporting the 2011 African Film Festival. We had a great turnout and some beautifully shot ilms and touching stories. We cannot do this ilm festival without you, so thank you for coming out and helping to spread the word. Again, thanks to our sponsors African & African American Studies Program, Program in Film & Media Studies (especially our wonderful projectionist Brett Smith), African Students Association, and the Washington University Women’s Society. We especially thank the Saint Louis Art Museum for the craft activities and the reception as well as the Saint Louis Metropolitan Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority for co-presenting Saturday’s ilms and co-hosting the reception.

I have put ilm websites on our Washington University African Film Festival Page. Some of our ilms were part of the African Film Festival New York Traveling Series. To learn more about this organization, please visit their website, www. africanilmny.org.

Wilmetta Toliver-Diallo Washington University

Schooling

Claibs

Mike Claiborne should do some research before writing. His “Sex, BYU and the 21st Century” rant alleges that BYU recently started recruiting athletes because their skin color coincides with athletic prowess (factually inaccurate and borderline nonsensical). The question “How did this African-American athlete end up [BYU]?” was especially telling in its latent xenophobia and complete disregard for the truth.

Brandon Davies attended high school in Provo, UT. BYU is located in Provo, UT.

Columnist

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Neighborhood Stabilization Homes Open House

On Sunday, April 10 from 1-4 p.m. the St. Louis County Office of Community Development will host its first ever Neighborhood Stabilization Homes Open House.

In 2008 St. Louis County was funded with approximately $18 million from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to administer a Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) in the County. NSPwas created as part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act and designed to combat the nation’s home abandonment and foreclosure crisis.

Since 2008 St. Louis County has funded the purchase and rehabilitation of 130 homes in the county. To date the county has sold approximately 30 homes. The county is holding this event to generate interest in the upcoming 40 to 50 homes which will be completed and put on the market in 2011. The homes will be sold with a $5,000- $15,000 buyer’s incentive to be used for down payment and/or closing costs. The tour will begin at the Urban League, 8964 Jennings Station Rd., from 1-4 p.m. Maps will be available at the event. For more information, vid=sit http://ww5.stlouisco.com/plan/ns p, call 314-615-4427 or email aroberts2@stlouisco.com.

Registration open for2011 Komen

St. Louis Race

Registration is now open for this year’s Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure.You can register online at www.komenstlouis.org.

More than 70,000 participants in last year’s event in St. Louis raised more than $3.4 million, the bulk of which stays in the St. Louis area to fund screening, treatment, education and support programs.

Making history – and donations

Glenda Ervin of St.Louis was the winning caller on KMJM during Fifth Third Bank St.Louis’African American History Maker campaign.Ervin was one of 20 $50 MasterCard gift card winners who called into the station after listening to a vignette featuring an African-American history maker during Black History Month and the grand prize $1,000 winner chosen at the end of the month.She also had the honor of choosing Covenant House to receive $5,300 from Fifth Third Bank.Covenant House of Missouri is a non-profit organization that serves homeless,runaway and at-risk youth.

Free Health & Wellness Fair

Riverview Gardens School District will present its 3rd Annual Free Health & Wellness Fair 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, May 7 at Riverview Gardens High School, 1218 Shepley Dr. in St. Louis. Free screenings and important health information. The event is open to the Public.

Earthquake maps available

Ten new geologic maps that are critical to seismic modeling are available for portions of St. Louis County and St. Louis City, thanks to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources through the St. Louis Area Earthquake Hazards Mapping Project component of the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program.

Areas of map coverage include Alton, Cahokia, Clayton, Elsah, Florissant, Grafton, O’Fallon, Oakville, Webster Groves and Wentzville. The department’s Division of Geology and Land Survey authored the maps along with previously published Columbia Bottom and Granite City maps. Project partners include the Missouri Department of Transportation, the Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, and the Illinois Geological Survey.

Activities are planned for the bicentennial of the Great New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-12 including a multi-state “ShakeOut” earthquake drill April 28, and a National level earthquake response training exercise May 16-20, focused on a coordinated local, state and federal response to a magnitude 7.7 earthquake.

The ShakeOut is an earthquake preparedness drill that provides everyone a chance to practice the “Drop, Cover and Hold On” protective actions that should be taken in the event of a real earthquake.

Geologic maps and other items are available for purchase at the Division of Geology and Land Survey, 111 Fairgrounds Road, Rolla or you may order online at missourigeologystore.com or by calling 573-368-2125.

Blended family values

By Robin Moore-Chambers For The St.Louis American

As a single parent with three children when I married, I took the rules from my biological family of origin and applied them to my blended family. It was like trying to fit a triangle into a circle and it did not fit: it never will.

Not understanding the rules for blended families, I developed dysfunction in my household that wounded all of us. Fortunately, I eventually learned from my mistakes. My family is being healed and my daughter broke the cycle in her blended family by talking to her son about his feelings concerning her pending marriage.

My daughter Jan and I are writing a handbook on blended families, and we co-facilitate workshops that explore blended family unique dynamics. Ahighlight is when we provide scenarios of blended family functioning, then participants identify the challenges and discuss possible solutions. The responses have been overwhelming. Being in our own blended families, we can relate. While all families face common trials, blended families face more issues as a result of their new familyform.

There is a need to redefine blended families because they continue to be stigmatized and portrayed in media negatively and unrealistically.

Consider the wicked stepmother in Disney’s fairytales, the violent stepfather in adult media and the unrealistic and problem-free Brady Bunch.

Broadly defined, blended families are formed by married partners, un-married partners and civil union in joint residence with biological children of one or both parents. Diverse blended families are thus straight, gay, multi-race and cross all cultural lines.

While the 2000 U.S. Census report did not count all blended families separately from nuclear families, it is widely believed that at least 75 percent of all households in the U.S. represent some aspect of blended-family structure. With this increase, blended families (traditionally known as step-families) are becoming the new normal family type. From our personal experience and research, we know these families are not necessarily “less” but are simply different than biological families, with unique dynamics that require unique solutions and interventions.

In our book we discuss five points to remember for effective blending: Effective communication: With parents, stepparents, non-residential parents and all children.

Building relationships: There are no ready- made families: How to construct your new family and validate your reality: your new normal. You ain’t my Daddy, you ain’t my Mama: addressing boundaries and discipline.

The name game, or how to refer to stepparents/stepchildren: “What do I call you?” Maintaining and normalizing individual identities of children in the family with different last names. Be careful of the guilt factor: biological parents’guilt and overcompensating their biological children because of the blended family situation. Learning to be balanced.

As blended family members, we have seen the good, bad and the resilience of new beginnings. We encourage blended families to be hopeful and intentional about creating your own journey, but know there are tools to help you in the process.

Robin MooreChambers

ELECTION

Continued from A1

earnings tax, which explained its statewide popularity. It also required voters in the two cities that have an earnings tax, St. Louis and Kansas City, to vote to retain the tax every five years.

The statewide measure failed in St. Louis, which simply crushed Sinquefield’s proposal when put to the test citywide on Tuesday.

The citywide initiative was opposed by all three members of the city’s chief fiscal board, the Board of Estimate & Apportionment, even Mayor Francis G. Slay, who counts Sinquefield as a major funder and did not oppose the statewide initiative. Opponents pointed out that the city has no plan to replace the earnings tax revenue, which funds one-third of all city services, including roughly the same portion of the city budget as fire and police protection.

In the race for Subdistrict 2 in the St. Louis Community College, Jackson overwhelmed a four-candidate field that included the incumbent and another African-American candidate. Aformer dean of the Forest Park campus, she becomes the only current black trustee on a six-member board that oversees a community college system with some 30 percent black students and an $164.5 million operating budget. Jackson credited the resounding victory to her educational experience, her past leadership on the St. Louis Public Schools board, support

MARABLE

Continued from A1 said poet Eugene B. Redmond, professor emeritus at Southern Illinois University –Edwardsville.

“Marable was a major figure in Africana Studies and a prominent personality in leftist academic circles,” said Gerald Early, professor and director of the Center for the Humanities at Washington University.

“He created a new group of journalists who made positive change in the communities, in neighborhoods, schools, boards and community affairs,” said Bernie Hayes, author, activist and radio personality.

In fact, Marable’s career as a writer started as a youth journalist. Born May 13, 1950 in

from elected officials and clergy, a strong endorsement by The American and the leadership of state Sen. Robin Wright Jones. She also acknowledged with a laugh that “all those students I taught over time” are now voters.

As county assessor, Zimmerman, 36, who currently represents the 83rd District in the state House, will be in charge of 170 staff members and a $12 million budget. The assessor’s office locates all taxable properties and establishes value for the properties. For the past 50 years, the county assessor has been an appointed position, but for

Dayton, Ohio, he went South to cover the funeral of Martin Luther King Jr. as a journalist when he was still in his teens.

He remained a committed political activist and organizer as he developed his academic credentials, earning a doctorate in history from the University of Maryland in 1976 and joining the faculty at Columbia University in 1993 after several previous appointments, including at Cornell University.

“I first met Manning Marable back in the late 1970s or the very early 1980s while I was still a graduate student at Cornell University,” Gerald Early said.

“He was a professor in the Africana Studies program there, and even then his presence was striking with his ‘Frederick Douglass’look.He

years residents have accused the office of negligent “driveby” assessments and inconsistent property valuation. Zimmerman pledges to restore integrity.

In other races

There were no surprises in the city for African-American elected officials on Tuesday. Aldermanic President Lewis Reed, Alderman Samuel Moore and Alderman Jeffrey Boyd all had marginal opponents and won by huge margins.

North County residents voted to retain court-appointed

struck me immediately as a highly prolific scholar and polemicist, and he was clearly devoted to the idea of being an activist.I liked his seriousness of purpose and his demeanor of the proud black intellectual.”

Eugene B. Redmond crossed paths with Marable many times over the course of three decades at various public forums. He remembered in particular one “memorable encounter” in October 1980 at California State University –Sacramento, where Redmond was poet in residence and Marable attended a working conference to define a plan for a black political party.

“I had the honor of introducing him,” Redmond remembered.

“I mentioned he was the new kid on the block. We are

Northeast Ambulance and Fire Protection district board members Bridget Quinlisk-Dailey and Derek Mays. Both won by less than 100 votes over three other candidates. Clarence Young, a resident, won the seat of board member Rhea Willis, who chose not to run, by more than 600 votes. However, last week the St. Louis County Circuit Court ruled that former board member Robert Lee was removed from his board seat unlawfully in 2009 by the other board members. He resumed his position last week, making Young’s win void at the present time.

In Pasadena Hills, residents clearly voiced the desire for

talking almost 30 years ago when he would have been 30 or so. I said he was like a stepchild of the pioneers of the black arts and black power movements – a restless one, a complex one, a sometimes difficult one for people who wanted to soft-shoe the issues.”

“In his first book, How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America, published in 1983, Dr. Marable gave a devastating economic critique of racial injustice, showing how capitalism systematically and inevitably produces racial inequalities,” Adrienne D. Davis said.

Marable adapted this title from the Marxist classic of African history, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney, the Guyanese scholar who was car-bombed

ESL celebrates Sesquicentennial

A large crowd,including Mayor Alvin Parks Jr.,gathered at East St.Louis City Hall on April 1 for the celebration of the City of East St.Louis’ Sesquicentennial.Eugene B.Redmond, East St.Louis’longtime poet laureate, delivered the “Purpose.”The event kicked off a year-long celebration that will include a Miles Davis Arts Festival in May,parades,a 4th of July expo and the publication of four books about the city,including an encyclopedia of the city.

new leaders. Scott Livingston defeated incumbent Mayor Jim McLaughlin with 61 percent of the vote, and incumbent Ward 1 Alderman Kris Boevingloh lost to Gerri Clifton, who captured 67.5 percent of the vote.

Boevingloh was the attorney who filed for a restraining order the Northeast fire district’s spending, and recently requested $14,000 in attorney fees, which would be paid by taxpayers’money. The court denied his request.

Florissant voters elected Tom Schneider as the city’s next mayor with 3,803 votes, a clear win over the five other candidates. In the past 47 years, only two mayors have

in 1980 while organizing workers in his home country. Early compared Marable to Rodney and to W. E. B. DuBois, a common comparison.

“Dr. Marable, like Angela Davis, Paul Robeson, Pauli Murray and W. E. B. DuBois, had the courage to embrace Marxist perspectives on the exploitation of labor in a nation that has systematically persecuted those who align themselves with that view,” Davis said.

Marable wrote an important book about DuBois, W. E. B. Du Bois: Black Radical Democrat (1986). However, the final decades of his life primarily were spent working on a monumental new biography of Malcolm X that wasscheduled for publication just days after his death from complica-

In

tions stemming from pneumonia.

“Afitting tribute to honor Dr. Marable and his legacy as a scholar/activist might be to organize reading circles to buy, or check out from the library his final study of black America,” Davis said of this final work, Malcolm X: ALife of Reinvention

“Unfortunately, he and ideas never got the attention they merited when he lived,” said Donald M. Suggs.

“As a people with extraordinary challenges we have paid too little attention to our thinkers. Now that he has passed away, we need to make use of the valuable work he left behind.”

Early noted, “I believe his work will endure and that his career will be an inspiration to many coming after him.”

served Florissant. Incumbent Mayor Robert Lowery did not seek another term and endorsed Schneider, a Florissant council member for 32 years.

Monica Huddleston is once again mayor of Greendale, beating out Chandra Coughley, 212 votes to27. Coughley also lost the race for alderperson in Ward 1, whereDoris Trojcak prevailed, 103 votes to 25. Voter turnout in the small municipality was a whopping 43.8 percent.

East St. Louis, incumbent Mayor Alvin L. Parks Jr. defeated former mayor Carl Officer, 3,985 votes to 3,189.

Photo by Roscoe “Ros”Crenshaw

REED

Continued from A1

birth of a viable infant,” he said, “I really enjoyed that experience.”

On Friday, April 29, Reed will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the St. Louis American Foundation’s 11th Annual Salute to Excellence in Health Care Awards Luncheon at the RitzCarlton. Areception will be held from 11 a.m. to noon, and the awards program will follow from noon to 1:30 p.m.

Growing up in Chicago, Reed had an interest in science at a young age, but one experience truly shaped his career ambitions. Reed had appendicitis, which required an emergency surgery and prolonged hospital stay.

“While there, I observed the care given by the doctors and nurses,” he said. “I was so impressed with their dedication and their attentive care. I said, ‘This might be something I’d like to do myself.’” Reed majored in pre-med at Fisk University, a predominantly African-American institution in Nashville, Tenn. But before he could enter medical school, Reed was drafted into the U.S. Army. When he returned, he became a government employee and continued to take graduate courses, hoping to speed his acceptance into medical school.

“The most memorable time back then occurred in 1961 when I married Bettye, my wife, and subsequently was admitted to Meharry Medical College,” he said. “It’s been 50 years of a very interesting career,and this year Bettye and I will celebrate our 50th anniversary.”

The early years of medical school were challenging, he said.

“We were newlyweds, and we had to make many sacrifices,” he said. “It just so happened that she was employed by the Department of Psychology, and she was one of our instructors. No, I did not make an ‘A’in that class.”

Recruited by Homer G.Phillips

During his senior year in 1965, representatives from Homer G. Phillips Hospital in St. Louis came to campus to recruit students.

“It was at this time that many hospitals weren’t admitting African Americans for further training; Homer Phillips was one of the few,” he said.

“That experience at Homer Phillips was really amazing. I still cherish those years. The constant supervision, the good teaching, the excellent dispensing of medical care and the commitment of the entire staff were truly impressive.”

He loved his St. Louis experience so much, he said, that he decided to raise his family here. His three daughters all graduated from histori-

cally black colleges or universities.

After his residency and internship at the hospital, Reed joined the late Dr. Parker Word in his practice. By the mid1970s, he opened his own office in St. Louis city and then in North County. Most of his patients were admitted into Barnes Hospital, later BarnesJewish Hospital.

He also became affiliated with the prestigious Washington University School of Medicine as an assistant professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology.

Reed closed his private practice in 1996, then served eight years at Myrtle Hilliard Davis Comprehensive Health Centers as head of its OB/GYN department.

“During my time of solo practice, when I look back on

it now, it was very frustrating and very trying,” he said. “I was tied to a beeper 24/7. Mothers just don’t go into labor when they are supposed to, and babies don’t wait.”

There were many times, he had to leave his family and return to the delivery room. He missed many occasions when his children had dance recitals and other events, he said.

“However, it was truly an amazing experience,” he said.

“Through my practice, I realized that all people need access to medical care. Science doesn’t recognize skin color or socio-economic status.”

His focus on equality is also reflected in his work with the Unity United Methodist Church, National Assocation for the Advancement of

Colored People and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. The medical field has changed significantly, he said. Most graduating doctors now go into group practices or work for hospitals.

“The model is changing where there is less attention to the interpersonal relationship between doctors and patients, and some of the medical decisions are handled more as administrative functions rather than by the doctor,” he said.

The upside, he said, is that doctors can spend more quality time with their families.

Reed said that in the African-American community, many patients do not seek early care in pregnancy or other health matters. In his experience, it was a financial issue.

Jonathan R.Reed, M.D.,a retired gynecologist and obstetrician and retired professor at Washington University School of Medicine,will be recognized as the 2011 Lifetime Achiever on Friday,April 29 at the St.Louis American Foundation’s 11th Annual Salute to Excellence in Health Care Awards Luncheon at the Ritz-Carlton.

“They were caught in the middle where they didn’t qualify for insurance or the government-supplemental programs,” he said.

“We would accept them, no matter if they had adequate coverage, partial coverage or full coverage. I am hoping with the new health-care laws that are coming on board that this problem will be served.” Tickets for the 11th annual Salute to Excellence in Health Care Awards Luncheon are $75 each for VIP/Corporate seats, $50 each for Individual seats and $40 each for General seating. Tables of 10 are available in each price category. To order tickets, visit stlamerican.com or call 314533-8000.

Photo by Willey Price

Money Wise at AfroWorld

The St. Louis American recently held its “Money Wise Workshops” Saturday, April 2 at AfroWorld International. The event was sponsored by Edward Jones and Midwest BankCentre. Several investment and inancial topics were covered by Marvell Mitchell, an Edward Jones Financial Advisor in the morning workshop. In the afternoon workshop, John Shivers, Midwest BankCentre Assistant Vice President Retail Banking shared details regarding credit and inancial matters. Marion Clark, Midwest BankCentre Senior Mortgage Leader shared details and programs for home owners and potential home buyers. Children also participated and learned about inances, budgets and received Midwest BankCentre piggy banks to start saving early.

Photos by Maurice Meredith

Normandy High teacher honored by Yale University

Duane Foster receives 2011 Yale Distinguished Music Educator Award

American Staff

Duane Foster, a music instructor at Normandy High School, has been selected to receive the Yale Distinguished Music Educator Award and will represent Missouri at the 2011 Symposium on Music in Schools to be held June 9-12 in New Haven, The symposium honors teachers for their outstanding accomplishments teaching music in public schools. Foster is one of 50 selected from a ield of 330 music educators to attend the symposium and receive the award.

“I am looking forward to attending the symposium and meeting with colleagues from throughout the country to share and learn new methods of enhancing the value of music education in our classrooms,” said Foster. For three days, the distinguished music educators

n Duane Foster is among three of those selected to be nominated by members of the Yale College Class of 1957.

will participate in a variety of skill-building workshops, discussions and other events culminating with the presentation of the Yale Distinguished Music Educator Awards at the closing banquet. He is among three of those selected to be nominated by members of the Yale College Class of 1957, which gave its 50th reunion class gift to the School of Music to improve the quality of public education in America. As part of the

award, Foster’s expenses to the conference are being paid by the Yale School of Music through the Yale College Class of 1957 Endowment.

Along with serving as the vocal music instructor at Normandy High School, Foster serves as director of the Normandy Chorale and Swing Choir and is the founder and director of the Normandy Dance Academy. He also is an accomplished singer, musician, actor and dancer, having trained with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and is a Broadway performer. Locally, Foster has performed with the St. Louis Muny and the IN UNISON and spent ive seasons as a member/soloist with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Foster is a Normandy High School alumnus and has been an instructor in the district for ive years.

Fifteen people were honored by the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis and Verizon Wireless at the Everyday Heroes Reception, the culmination of a Black History Month program that sought nominations for ordinary people doing extraordinary things

Urban League honors

‘Everyday Heroes’

Verizon partners to honor ordinary people doing extraordinary things

Special to The American

Fifteen extraordinary people were honored by the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis and Verizon Wireless on March 15 at the Everyday Heroes Reception.

The top three St. Louis Everyday Heroes are:

· Pastor Paul Hutson, founder of Joshua House Ministries, goes above and beyond the call of his pastoral duties, working odd jobs in addition to his full-time career to help pay utility bills and buy groceries for struggling families while also helping to restore broken families, snatch young men out of gangs and from behind bars. Hutson was awarded a Motorola Xoom and $100.

· Jake Bernstein, co-founder of StLouisVolunteen.com, a website geared toward connecting St. Louis-area teens with volunteer opportunities, also created an annual St. Louis Youth and Family Volunteer Fair and leads local high school students to volunteer at various

community events. Bernstein was awarded a Motorola Xoom and $250.

· Gloria Taylor, founder of Community Women Against Hardship, has helped improve the quality of life for more than 5,000 women and children struggling with poverty by providing housing assistance and free educational services among other services. Taylor was awarded a Motorola Xoom and $500.

“True progress requires that we each use our talents and gifts to lend a helping hand to assist others who may lack wisdom, experience or resources that we may be able to offer,” said James H. Buford, president and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis.

The event, held at the Urban League’s Vaughn Cultural Center, was the culmination of a Black History Month program that sought nominations for ordinary people doing extraordinary things in the community.

The Everyday Heroes who attended the event included teachers, mentors, volunteers and clergy who gave of their

time and resources in creative ways to affect change.

Bertarius Peterson, district manager, Retail Sales, Verizon Wireless, said, “We were proud to have partnered with the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, an organization that is heroic in its own right, on such a worthy program.”

During Black History Month, Verizon Wireless launched its social media campaign, Celebrating Your Story, to honor African Americans who have impacted their communities and inspired others around them. In February, 28 unsung heroes of the past were recognized, and throughout the year the program will continue to encourage African Americans across the country to take the podium and share their own stories and triumphs.

Everyday Heroes is a local extension of Celebrating Your Story developed in partnership with the Chicago Urban League, Urban League of Detroit and Southeastern Michigan, Urban League of Greater Cleveland and Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis.

American staff

The St. Louis Community College Chancellor Search Committee has announced three inalists for the position of chancellor. The three candidates are Myrtle E.B. Dorsey, chancellor of Baton Rouge Community College; Thomas Klincar, president of John Wood Community College; and Marcia Pfeiffer, president of STLCC’s Florissant Valley campus.

Dorsey is the only AfricanAmerican inalist. Current STLCC Chancellor Zelema Harris is retiring effective June 30. She has served as the college’s CEO since August 2007. Public forums at to meet the candidate started yesterday, Wednesday, April 6, with Dorsey and continue today with Klincar and Pfeifer. For more information, visit http://www. stlcc.edu/Chancellor-Search/ Index.html.

Among his many creative duties, music instructor Duane Foster (who received the 2011 Yale Distinguished Music Educator Award) teaches a piano class to Normandy High School students.

Myrtle E.B. Dorsey Thomas Klincar

Marcia Pfeiffer

Attention St. Louis American Readers

As a service to the community, we list obituaries in the St. Louis American Newspaper, on a space-available basis and online at stlamerican.com AT NO CHARGE. Please send all obituary notices to kdaniel@stlamerican.com.

OBITUARIES

In Loving Memory of Permelia Lorraine Brown

April 29, 1919 - April 13, 2002

Permelia Brown, a.k.a. “Bigmama” and “Mother Brown” was born April 29, 1919 to Obie and Mable Rice in St. Louis, MO. She was educated in the St. Louis Public School System. Permelia was united in Holy Matrimony to Rufus Brown, Sr. in December 1943. She departed this life on April 13, 2002. She leaves behind six children and many other family and friends who miss her dearly.

Jimmie Lee Cole

It is with sadness yet great joy to notify you that our beloved father, Jimmie Lee Cole, went home to be with the Lord, Friday, April 1, 2011 at 6:07 pm. We would like to thank each and every one of you for your prayers and encouraging words throughout this transitioning time. Arrangements are as follows: New White Stone MB Church, 1444 N. Union at

Ridge (between Martin Luther King and Page), St. Louis, MO 63115. Thursday, April 7, 2011, Viewing/Wake: 4-6 p.m., Homegoing Services: 6 p.m. All services will be held at White Stone MB Church. Services are entrusted to Austin Layne Mortuary. All cards and lowers may be sent to: 2007 East Fair Avenue or cgracenmercy@aol. com.

Minister Perry Cole and Pastor Amber Cole

Elizabeth Reasonover

January 14, 1931March 22, 2011

Steven Reasonover

June 9, 1954 – March 21, 2011

Elizabeth Reasonover is the mother of Ellen Reasonover, who received notoriety after being released in 1999 for a murder she did not commit. Steven was Ellen’s brother. Steven suffered a fatal stroke when he returned to his residence in Columbia, Missouri after visiting his mother in the hospital on life support. Mrs. Reasonover died hours later.

Affectionately known as Liz, she was a loving and protective mother, grandmother and greatgrandmother. She was a caring person who believed in helping others and was loved and respected by the many people she encountered. Her children and family were most important to her. She was an integral part of Ellen’s case and could often be seen at programs and protests organized for her daughter. Liz was the primary caretaker of Ellen’s young daughter while she was in prison.

Steven shared some of his mother’s passions in life such as ishing and antique shopping. He was the father of one son, Marquis, and a grandfather to Jivonni. They leave to cherish their memories: Hilda ReasonoverJones, Ellen Reasonover, Valerie Reasonover; Shauntel Jones, Tiffany JonesCrawford (George); Marquis Reasonover, Charmelle Bufford, Bria Maul, Darian Jones, Amara Jones, Harlem Powell, Jivonni Bunch, Caden Crawford, Jour’Nee Floyd and Marion’ah Hudgins; and a host of friends and extended family. In lieu of lowers, the family requests that donations be sent to the Organization for Black Struggle (OBS) to continue its work on wrongful convictions and the death penalty. OBS

worked tirelessly in the 16-year ight to free Ellen. Donations can be sent to OBS at P. O. Box 5277, St. Louis, MO 63115.

Linda Inez Gholson

Linda Inez Gholson was born September 25, 1961 to her loving parents, John and Floria Gholson. She was the youngest of seven children. Both parents and two sisters preceded her in death. Linda was educated in the St. Louis Public Schools and graduated from Beaumont High School in 1979. Afterwards, she attended Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and graduated from Harris-Stowe College with her Bachelor of Arts in Education degree with certiication in Early Childhood Education. In 1983, Linda was blessed and gave birth to a beautiful bouncing baby girl, Lacey L. White, the love of her life. Linda was a talented and creative educator, working in the St. Louis Public School system until she became ill, She gained many friendships and memories, which she cherished dearly throughout her years. She had a deinite passion for the children’s overall well being. She accepted Christ at an early age and was baptized at St. James Christian Church, where she remained a member until its dissolution in 2006. She was then faithful at visiting friends and family’s churches. Linda really lived life to the fullest. She was a loving, kindhearted caregiver and nurturer, who had a passion for giving to others. She cherished her friendships and was a faithful, loyal and unselish friend. She was creative person with an eye for a bold sense of design. Linda loved to shop and dress for the occasion. She also loved to travel and share special moments with friends and family. She had a warm smile that could touch your heart and brighten your day. Her loving spirit will be missed by all. She leaves to cherish her memory, her loving daughter, Lacey Lynette White and iancée William T. (Tre) Russell III; four sisters, Glenda Chambers, Lois Gholson, Thaha Menkara and Shirley Gore; one brother, William Amos Gholson; four aunts, Ada Brown, Loistene Gholson, Estelle Hurt and Luella Rozell; one uncle, Curtis Brown and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins and close friends.

Betty Ann Walker

Ann Walker

Betty Ann Walker of Berkeley, MO transitioned Monday, March 28, 2011 at Christian NE Hospital. Beloved wife of Raymond Walker; loving mother of Connie Frazier, Venita Walker and Dina Perkins; dearest sister of Will, Richard and Dayton Ferguson and Judy Shaw; grandmother to Kenya and Kelsie Frazier and Alexia Perkins; aunt, cousin, sister-in-law and great friend to many. She cherished her family and loved preaching the gospel and sharing the salvation of Jesus Christ with others. She was a wonderful cook, talented seamstress, full of generosity and laughter.

Permelia Brown

Elizabeth Reasonover

Steven Reasonover

Linda Gholson

Betty

Birthday Pastor Johnson turns 80

Essel E. Johnson,Jr.

Happy 80th birthday to Essel E. Johnson, Jr., born on Easter Sunday, April 5, 1931. He is the Founder and Pastor of Monument of Faith COGIC for the past 38 years. He will celebrate 60 years of marriage with his best friend and wife Mable C. Johnson this year. They are the proud parents of two daughters (Cynthia Williams and Bethany Johnson) and three sons (Michael, Steve and Paul Johnson.)

Reunions

Beaumont High School Class of 1965 is looking for all classmates interested in celebrating our 45-year reunion. We are in the process of planning a dinner/dance.Your contact information is needed ASAP. Pleaseemail LaLinda Newsom Diggs at lalindadiggs@sbcglobal.net.

~ CELEBRATIONS ~

Soon to be married

Date set for Apr. 30

Dana Bradley and Kevin Wimbley will exchange wedding vows Saturday, April 30, 2011 in St. Louis, MO. The happy couple met at the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff eight years ago when they were both students there. Kevin is currently a student at the University of Arkansas and CEO of American Made Music Group. Dana, a St. Louis native, is currently a radio news anchor, motivational speaker and graduate student at Webster University.

Birthdays

Keyanna “Key-Key” Ewing (32) — April 5

Finnie A. Harris, Jr. — April 8

Onae D. Parker (21) — April 8

Andre and Anyia Powell — April 8

Trinity Price (8) — April 9

Sabrina Jackson — April 10

Beaumont Class of 1966 is holding meetings for their 45year reunion. Next meeting is Sat., April 2, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. at the Whole Community Center on Kingshighway. Meetings are held every other Saturday.

Beaumont High Class of 1971 has scheduled its 40-year reunion for August 5-7, 2011. E-mail your contact information to beaumont71alumni@ yahoo.com for details.

Cardinal RitterCollege Prep High School is seeking members of the classes of 1981 1996, 2001 and 2006 for upcoming reunions. Please contact Alumi Affairs Director, Tonya Farr at 314-446-5506 or tfarr@cardinalritterprep .org for more information.

Cardinal RitterPrep. High School Class of 1986 is preparing for its 25-year reunion. We are looking for all classmates to update information and participate in monthly meetings. Please contact Mike Reynolds at (314) 5789621-mreynolds@cardinalritterprep.org or Sylvester Williams at (314) 629-4429sylwilliams@cardinalritterprep. org.

Central High School Class of 1971 is preparing for its 40year reunion in 2011. We are looking for all classmates of 1971. We need your contact information to complete our class directory. Please email your information to Preston Kerns or Alice Manuel Robinson at centralclassof71@yahoo.com.

celebrate 18 years of marriage

Do you have a celebration you’re proud of? If so we would like to share your good news with our readers. Whether it’s a birth, graduation, wedding, engagement announcement, anniversary, retirement or birthday, send your photos and a brief announcement (50 words or less) to us and we may include it in our paper and website – AT NO COST – as space is available Photos will not be returned. Send your announcements to: kdaniel@stlamerican. com or mail to:

Farragut-Beaumont

Neighborhood Reunion

Dance and Fundraiser will be held Sat., May 21, 2011 from 8 pm to 1 am at the Omega Center, 3900 Goodfellow. For more information, contact boyds@stlouiscity.com, mscatmay@sbc.com or 314-3278330.

Hadley Technical High School class of 1961 is preparing for its 50-year reunion in 2011. We are seeking contact information to complete our directory. For more information contact Ralph Johnson 314-477-2042 or William Perry 314-531-3170.

Northwest High School Class of 1971 is preparing for its 40year reunion. We are looking for all classmates interested in

attending and/or to help plan the festivies. Call Jeanette at 314 398-0383, Willie at 314 378-8326 or Diane at 4986886.

Soldan High School Classes of 1966and1967 45-year reunion will be held June 1618, 2011 at the Ameristar Casino in St. Charles, MO. For more information please contact: Marilyn Edwards Simpson at 314-837-7746, Meredith Wayne Farrow at 314-521-8540, email: stlsoldanhs1966@yahoo.com or Facebook: stlsoldanhs1966.

SumnerHigh School Class of 1992 is planning its 20-year reunion. Please contact P. Parker for further information at parkp@live.com.

Reunion notices are free of charge and based on space availability. We prefer that notices be emailed to us! However, notices may also be sent \by mail to: Kate Daniel, 4242 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63108. Deadline is 10 a.m. on Friday. If you’d like your class to be featured in a reunion profile, email or mail photos to us.

Our email address is: reunions@ stlamerican.com

Eric and Dorenda Townsend, of Outreach Entertainment National Artist Booking Agency, celebrated 18 beautiful years of marriage on Apr. 3, 2011. They are the proud parent of Jonathan Eric Townsend Jr. (aka Mr. Amp)

Haven of Grace recognized with three awards

Honored by FOCUS St. Louis, social workers, sorority

American staff

The Haven of Grace and its executive director Marissa Q. Paine received three awards this spring honoring the agency’s leadership and commitment to serving young women and children in the St. Louis community.

The Missouri Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers selected The Haven of Grace as its “Agency of the Year.” This award honors The Haven of Grace’s “commitment to the promotion of social service and social work issues,” and appreciation for “dedication and hard work to the children, families and community of St. Louis and our state.” The NASW presented the award on March 12 at the Country Club Hotel and Spa in Lake of the Ozarks.

The Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Xi Zeta Chapter has named Paine as a 2011 recipient of Zeta Phi Beta’s “Unsung Hero Award for Community Service.” Paine was honored at the University City Administration Building on March 13.

FOCUS St. Louis recently named The Haven of Grace as a recipient of its “What’s Right with the Region” Award in the “Improving Racial Equality and Social Justice” category. FOCUS will honor The Haven of Grace at an awards celebration Thursday, May 5 at Sheldon Concert Hall.

Paine began her career as a St. Louis Post Dispatch Scholar and later used her writing skills

as a public relations account executive for Monsanto before shifting her career to the nonproit sector, where she worked in fundraising and community relations for diverse nonproits including the American Heart Association, Voices for Children and the Interfaith Partnership of Metropolitan St. Louis. While completing her master’s degree in social work at Washington University, Paine served as executive director for a small community฀based agency in North St. Louis County.

Prior to joining The Haven of Grace, she directed a $1.2 million capacity-building initiative which provided funding, training and technical assistance to

Marissa Q. Paine is executive director of The Haven of Grace, a faith ministry dedicated to helping young mothers and children recover from the damaging effects of homelessness and hopelessness.

stability. With expectations of accountability, we provide a nurturing home, educational programs and long-term support for mother and child. The Haven of Grace strives to instill hope, dignity and the pride of independence, one family at a time.”

For more information, call 314- 621-6507 or visit www. havenofgracestl.org.

Deacons’installation at Galilee Baptist

A Deacons’ Installation Service will be held Sunday evening, April 10, at 6 p.m. at Galilee Baptist church, 4300 Delmar. Guest Speaker: Rev. Dr. F. Delano R. Benson Jr., pastor at Antioch Baptist Church in St. Louis. The public is invited to attend. The Rev. Dr. Carlton Caldwell is pastor.

Jazz and Blues Vespers

small, faith-based organizations in the greater St. Louis region.

As a wife and mother of three, she is a woman of great faith and is quick to share her personal story of triumph over unplanned parenthood with The Haven residents along with one of her favorite quotes, “Winners are made of failures that didn’t quit.”

“The Haven of Grace has been dedicated to helping young mothers and children recover from the damaging effects of homelessness and hopelessness for 23 years,” said Paine.

“As a ministry of faith, our mission is to empower young, pregnant women to overcome homelessness and to achieve

Heaven waits for us

By Edward Blair For The St. Louis American

The cry at midnight was for help, as he slammed his ist into the soft tissue of her face, leaving the memory for years to come for her to carry, for the rest of her fractured life. She had cried out for God, but He was silent.

The Europeans had entered the quiet village on the sandy coast of East Africa. The dwellers were at peace, living lives of communion and joy.

A father smiled at his young son who bore his image and would be an inheritor of his cattle and framed hut. A mother cradled her lovely daughter in her arms and sung in a language that dated back centuries; the harmonies spoke of sweet love and pride.

depressed and of known value to the men who prodded them ever onward.

They were given woolen blankets in which to cover themselves in and protect themselves from the blistering cold. They huddled together, sought relief and became infected with smallpox. They died. Heaven looked on and was silent.

The next St. Louis Jazz and Blues Vespers will be on Sunday, April 17 at 6 p.m., featuring the Paul DeMarinis & the Webster University Jazz Faculty Quintet. It will be held in the Sanctuary of the Beatitudes of Second Baptist Church of St. Louis. The acoustically excellent sanctuary is located 1/2 mile west of the St. Louis Galleria at the intersection of Clayton Road and McKnight Road (one mile north of the McKnight intersection of Highway 40/I-64).

The Vespers, held on the third Sunday of each month, are free to the public. There is a lighted, free, adjacent parking lot. For more information, visit www.stlouisjazzandbluesvespers.com or call 314-991-3424.

The old chief stood with regal stature and viewed the serene village he thought he had protected against any harm that would insist upon destroying that peace.

The capture began in frenzy. Hard steel nets whirled over the heads of the proud father, the singing mother and the watchful chief. They struggled, fought.

The proud man’s son was ripped from his hands, the lovely daughter who had heard the language of her mother would hear it no more, the chief fell wounded to the ground, never to rise again and stand watch, for the club had broken on the head of the royal king.

Heaven looked on and was silent.

The red-skinned people were herded into clusters of men, women, children and driven like the cattle they had witnessed on the green landscape. They were cold and

Age after age has witnessed the same scene being acted out on every kind of people that populate the earth – the Armenians slaughter by the Turks, disposal of the Indians by the travelers West, the march to Bataan by the Japanese, the bite of the police dogs on the black skin of Americans who dared to believe that the dream could be shared. For too many years, the cries have been directed upwards for relief, for any vestige of deliverance, but to no avail. Heaven has remained silent.

“Has He forgotten to be gracious?” “Doth not God know?” And so the faith of many has fallen. The aspirations to live the Christian life have become shipwrecked upon the failed promise of “I will never leave you …”

The answer: Thank God heaven hasn’t answered the cries, for if He had, then millions would be lost in the maelstrom of not forgiving and left to perish in their sins without any hope. Heaven is silent because of the never failing promise.

“He is long suffering not willing that any should perish, but that all come to repentance.”

Oh, the blessed waiting for us to turn, to turn. It has been for us heaven waits and is silent.

Edward Blair

State House map protects Clay’s district

The political chattering class got this one right, so far.

Early in the 2010 Census process, everyone in St. Louis who offers opinions on these matters predicted Missouri would lose a congressional seat, that the St. Louis area would lose one of its three congressional seats (either the 1st, 2nd or 3rd district), and probably U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan would lose his job in the 3rd Congressional District. Indeed, Missouri lost one of its nine congressional seats by a whisker. And indeed, last week the redistricting committee in the Missouri House of Representatives released its new congressional map of Missouri, which draws the 3rd Congressional District as Carnahan knows it – and Dick Gephardt knew it before him – out of existence. A Missouri congressional delegation that has been splitting 6 Republicans to 3 Democrats will now split 6 Republicans to 2 Democrats.

That’s the bad news.

But there is another perspective for Black St. Louis, and more particularly the supporters of U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay. Clay’s 1st Congressional District – represented before him by his father, Congressman Bill Clay – survives relatively intact. If anything, it is strengthened for a black candidate.

The House version of the redistricting map, which Diehl’s committee approved by a vote of 10-1 on Tuesday, includes a 1st CD African-American population of just under 51 percent, virtually identical to the racial makeup of Clay’s current district. Voter universe in a Democratic primary projects that black voting strength in the 1st CD will increase to 62.5 percent of all

Democratic voters. “The voters Clay picks up are all in a very compact and contiguous area, and that’s what’s supposed to happen,” state Rep. John J. Diehl Jr. (R – St. Louis County), who chaired the House committee, told The American

Diehl said the Missouri Legislature is not subject to federal review as mandated by the Voting Rights Act of 1965, yet his committee “was sensitive to the fact that to the extent we can we wanted to preserve a minority district in a way that is compact and contiguous. And I think that’s what happened.”

Diehl’s committee included two black reps from the St. Louis area, state Rep. Jamilah Nasheed and freshman state Rep. Penny Hubbard, both Democrats. Nasheed was on the record with this paper as being dedicated to preserve the integrity of the 1st Congressional District.

“Nasheed and Hubbard played a similar role that all committee members involved in the process played,” Diehl said. “I sought their input, especially regarding their regions.”

The EYE reminded Diehl that Nasheed had vowed to preserve Clay’s district.

“Look,” Diehl said, “her role in the process was to defend her area, no different than anybody else’s role.”

But she was more successful?

“I’ll let the members of Congress draw that conclusion,” Diehl said.

The map that drew itself

Many millions of federal dollars, as well as the partisan balance in the U.S.

Last week the redistricting committee in the Missouri House of Representatives released its new congressional map of Missouri, which carves the state into eight rather than nine districts, because population growth in the state lagged, according to the 2010 Census.

House, are at stake in this process. Not many political observers would accept as true any account of this as a transparent and fair process. But that is Diehl’s story, and he is sticking to it.

“You start looking at where there have been population losses, and you make the commitment to draw, all things considered, compact districts – and the map starts drawing itself,” Diehl said.

Carnahan has pointed out – The American has agreed with him in an editorial – that the St. Louis metropolitan area still has the population numbers to merit three congressional seats, even with the discouraging population losses revealed by the Census. Diehl – who lives in Town & Country in St. Louis County and represents the 87th District in the state House – has answers to all that.

Counting himself, five of his 12 committee members represent state districts in the 1st, 2nd or 3rd congressional districts – that is, the St. Louis area. In that sense, he suggests, he stacked the deck as much as he could.

“It’s kind of hard to justify two con-

gressmen from the same county – the City of St. Louis is a county, for these purposes – with that county being the one that lost the most population over the past decade,” Diehl said.

“It’s pretty hard to justify that. The fact that nobody could draw a map that does otherwise during the month-long process bears that out.”

What about Carnahan’s math that shows the St. Louis region has the numbers for three congressional districts?

“No doubt, the St. Louis metropolitan area has just under two million people, though it depends on where you draw the lines,” Diehl said. “Every one of those people will be represented by a congressman, just as they are right now.”

St. Louis might not like it, Diehl said, but the new map makes more sense.

“Right now the 2nd District goes almost to Hannibal, the 3rd District goes all the way down to St. Genevieve the way it is now, part of St. Charles is in a district that goes all the way to the Iowa border the way it is now,” Diehl

said. “Our map does consolidate the districts around St Louis. The districts will be much tighter than they are now.”

Above all, Diehl insisted, no one showed him anything different that was better.

“Nobody really proposed a substantially dissimilar map, and I did get input. We offered all the congressional representatives to submit us their proposed maps,” Diehl said. Even Russ Carnahan?

Even Russ Carnahan. “Carnahan’s people never submitted one to us,” Diehl said.

Nixon 2012

Politics being politics, everyone who watches the game will be watching for evidence of dirty deals and back-alley political assassinations. Nasheed and Hubbard will be watched. Their choices as black Democrats for the committee – picked by white Republicans – were understood from the beginning to have political motivation. Hubbard inherited the political operation and loyalties of her son, former state Rep. Rodney Hubbard who worked very closely with House Republicans. The Hubbard’s fit into a well-established pattern in the city of St. Louis – Democrats on election day, but open for business every other day of the year.

As for Nasheed, she has close personal relationships with both of the Republicans expected at the top of the ticket in 2012: Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder and state Rep. Steve Tilley, who will run for governor and lieutenant governor. Nasheed and Hubbard are not the only problems the Democrats will have in St. Louis in 2012. Many St. Louis Democrats voted for Kinder over Sam Page in the last lieutenant governor race, and Kinder has as many personal relationships among St. Louis Democrats as incumbent Gov. Jay Nixon. Kinder has worked hard for those relationships. Nixon lumbers into town, expecting deference as a ranking Democrat, while Kinder works every room like a politician hungry for every vote he can hustle.

So far, in the redistricting process, which is far from over, Clay and the 1st Congressional District are prevailing, but quite possibly at the expense of Nixon’s 2012 gubernatorial race.

“

“I give to United Way because I truly believe that it is my responsibility to help support my community and those in need. I feel very fortunate that I am in a position to give and convinced that I am here to help others, not just serve myself.”

“As a professional, the words of Winston Churchill have always resonated for me: ‘You make a living by what you get; you make a life by what you give.’ I’ve been blessed both personally and professionally, and United Way has been a great partner for helping me find ways to improve the lives of people in our community. I encourage everyone to explore the opportunities for giving back to our community through involvement with United Way.”

Third-graders hit MAP Boot Camp

Larimore Elementary students prep’d for big test

Special to The American Third-grade students at Larimore Elementary School in the Hazelwood School District gathered in the cafeteria, stood at attention and waited for orders during the school’s Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) test Boot Camp.

“This activity was designed to be a good review for the students of all the skills and strategies that will be on the MAP test,” said third-grade teacher Michael Nobile, who sometimes acted as drill sergeant as he barked directions and instructions at the students.

et that matched station activities so students could record their answers. Among each group, students had to select a recorder, a time-keeper and a checker. Stations included subjects such as elapsed time, identifying the narrator, measurement, making change from $5.00 and causeand-effect.

n “My favorite subject is math, because I love to skip count. It helps me multiply.”

– Ashanti Thomas

“Since this is the irst time the third-grade students will take the MAP test, we felt that they needed to get comfortable with the types of questions on it.” With lunchroom tables as stations, staff members divided students into small groups and sat them at the tables. Each team had a corresponding pack-

“We encouraged them to use all the strategies we have taught them throughout the year,” Nobile said. “They were divided into 19 teams and one student from each class was on a team. All team members had cooperative learning roles. They only had four minutes at each station, so they needed to use their time wisely.”

Darrell Turner explained one thing he learned about the MAP test, “That if you don’t know the answer, skip it and come back to it when you’re done with the rest.”

He said his favorite subject in school is “math, because I’m good at adding, subtracting and

multiplying.”

Classmate Ashanti Thomas said, “One thing I learned at boot camp was to use strategies that my teacher taught me when I see familiar questions. My favorite subject is math, because I love to skip count. It helps me multiply. We do inger rolls when we skip count and that makes it fun to skip count.”

Larimore staff members had help in conducting this year’s boot camp. Former administrators Barbara Thompson and

Bill Heckel participated in the activities, too.

“They assist us in our school with classroom instruction and during our weekly data teams,” Nobile said of the extra aid. “They are a huge help to our school. They graciously offered their assistance with the boot camp so we could have enough supervision and help at the stations. It was truly awesome to see all the adults moving around from table-to-table helping the students.”

This

be the

“One of the objectives we were trying to accomplish was to build endurance for the test,” he continued. “I often see students struggle with a question and they will spend too much time on that question, so students had to realize that they should skip that question and come back to it when they are checking their answers. Our school does a truly amazing job of getting the students excited for the MAP test. We hold a MAP pep rally every year. This

MAP Boot Camp was just another way to get the students ready and excited to take the MAP test.”

Staff participation in boot camp was a team effort. Besides Heckel, Thompson and Nobile, the team included Principal Rhonda Ely, Christina Spanberger, instructional specialist, third-grade teachers Rex Waddell, Tracy Jones and Candice Belton, Sheila Marshall, reading specialist and Lenore Rengel, a Special School District teacher.

Tracy Jones, left, a third-grade teacher at Larimore Elementary School, answers questions from students Eric Smith, Kameron Perry, Jazmyn Rozelle and Shawn Barnes as they work at the Context Clues station during MAP Boot Camp.

will

irst time district thirdgrade students will take the test.

BUSINESS

STATEINCENTIVESFOR CHINA HUBPROPOSED

Senate will consider new tax credits to attract international trade

By Jason Rosenbaum For The Beacon

Missouri state Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Glendale, has offered legislation that he says could bring a steady international trade route from China – and possibly elsewhere – to Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. In the process, the measure could provide needed incentives to put to use some of the region’s idle or under-utilized complexes –such as the former Chrysler Plant or the NorthPark Business Park.

The bill has a broad set of supporters. It’s won plaudits from business groups, some rural lawmakers and Democrats. And it passed out of a Senate committee without opposition.

Reginald Butler,a managing partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, led a discussion on diversity recently with52 multicultural fellows of the St.Louis Business Diversity Initiative.The Marchsession took place at Washington University’s Knight Center.

“This is new.This is new investment. This is new economic activity.” – state Sen.Eric

“Alot of what we do is reallocation. What we do is move pieces from one side of the chessboard to the other,” Schmitt said. “This is new. This is new investment. This is new economic activity that we just don’t have.”

Federal, state and local officials have been jockeying to establish a “China hub” at Lambert for years. They argue Lambert, which doesn’t have as

much runway traffic as Chicago, could be China’s cargo gateway to the Midwest.

Schmitt’s legislation would provide up to $60 million in tax credits for companies shipping exports out of Missouri, which Schmitt said is a way of steering cargo away from cities such as Chicago.

The bill also would provide roughly $420 million of incentives to build warehouses and distribution centers within a 50-mile radius of Lambert. That aspect of the bill, which Schmitt said is “critical” for the hub’s “sustainability,” is aimed at bolstering infrastructure.

An inclusive environment is productive

Lessons from the St. Louis Business Diversity Initiative

By Rebecca S.Rivas Of The St.Louis American

“Have you ever been ashamed of how you look?” asked Reginald Butler, a managing partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, in a conference room at Washington University’s Knight Center. About a third of the 52 multicultural business leaders in the room stood up. The fellows of the yearlong leadership program with the St. Louis Business Diversity Initiative began answering hard questions in August. The program of monthly workshops ends in September. Butler told them to look around. “Notice who’s with you, notice who’s not, notice how you feel about that,” he said.

Butler said understanding and accepting what is going on in their employees’lives is the ultimate level of inclusion.

In a workshop about diversity in the workplace, Butler went on to ask other personal questions, such as whether they had alcoholic family members or were raised by a single parent. After a page of questions, Butler finally asked the business leaders how they felt.

“Vulnerable” was the common sentiment.

“It’s the opposite of what we do at work,” said

Galen Gritts, president of the Thorpe Company, LLC and a registered tribal member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

“We put on many layers.”

Some said they felt uncomfortable answering the questions because their managers were in the room. Butler said this level of mistrust must be addressed, because understanding and accepting what is going on in their employees’lives is the ultimate level of inclusion. And that will in turn make them better leaders in their companies.

“Life cycles and careers are supposed to match, so managers are suppose to be talking

EPAto clean up CarterCarburetorsite

Clay, Boys & Girls Club applaud; environmentalists

By Chris King Of The St.Louis

“I am excited the EPA is going to move forward.”

– Flint Fowler, Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club

environment to raise children, create new business opportunities and grow jobs.”

Clay said he was “especially pleased” that “the responsible parties will foot the entire $27 million bill.”

Obi Nwakanma

self, Nwakanma is assistant professor of English at Truman State University and author of The Horseman and Other Poems Laurna

Laurna Godwin has been elected chair of the Board of Directors of the Greater Saint Louis Community Foundation, the first minority to serve as board chair in its 95year history. Godwin is co-founder and partner at Vector Communications. The foundation helps St. Louisans put charitable dollars to work. Each year, it makes over $17 million in grants, making it one of the largest grantmakers in the region.

“I am excited the EPAis going to move forward,” said Flint Fowler, executive director of the Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club.

“That building has sat vacant over 20 years. It’s an eyesore and prime target for vandalism. It sends the message the city and elected officials don’t have the best interests of the community at heart.”

According to the EPAAction Memorandum released last Wednesday, the agency plans a thermally enhanced extraction

BUSINESS BRIEFS

Black unemployment worsens as U.S. gains jobs

The U.S. economy gained 216,000 jobs in March while private sector employment (excludes government losses) increased by 230,000, according to the National Urban League’s State of Urban Jobs report.

The unemployment rate changed little –now 8.8 percent (from 8.9 percent in February) – though it did fall for the fourth straight month.

The black unemployment rate increased slightly to 15.5 percent (from 15.3 percent). The unemployment rate for black men was up to 16.8 percent (from 16.2 percent); for black women, down to 12.5 percent (from 13.0 percent); for black teens, up to 42.1 percent (from 38.4 percent).

Together with February’s revised numbers of 194,000 net total job growth and 240,000 net private jobs, this represents the fastest two-month pace since before the recession.

The number of unemployed people in March declined to 13.5 million, while the labor force participation rate was unchanged.

The largest private sector job growth occurred in professional and business services (78,000-plus), education and health (45,000-plus ), and leisure and hospitality (37,000-plus).

Most losses were concentrated in government , with local governments shedding 15,000 jobs in March.

$1.1 billion in IRS tax credits available forApril 18 filings

Brenda Procter, a University of Missouri Extension personal financial planning specialist and tax expert in the College of Human Environmental Sciences, says many tax filers are unaware of tax refunds and exemptions. The IRS has more than $1.1 billion in unclaimed tax credits and refunds from 2007 alone. Procter says those who are eligible can claim this money if they file by Apr. 18.

“What many people don’t realize is that they can retroactively file or amend updated tax returns and receive refunds for up to three years in the past,” Procter said. “People who learn they were eligible for a certain exemption or refund from 2008, for example, can still file a return for that year and receive that money.”

One tax credit that confuses many people is the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Aperson can claim this credit if the child in question lives with them for more than 50 percent of the year and otherwise qualifies them for the EITC.

Procter blames unemployment or change of income mid-year as another reason that people miss out on certain tax credits and refunds. Those who made enough money to be ineligible for many credits last year may not think to claim them this year if they suffered a loss or change of income.

Procter maintains the Poverty At Issue website, http://extension.missouri.edu/cfe/poverty/.

Godwin

Photo by Wiley Price

How can I bettermanage my short-term cash?

For the vast majority of people, it is essential to keep a portion of their assets in liquid form in order to meet monthly commitments.

For example, most families have to meet their mortgage or rent payments, grocery, utility, and transportation bills out of their monthly paychecks. There are a host of other expenses that arise from month to month, such as auto insurance, that help keep the pressure on the family cash flow. If people are fortunate enough to have anything left

HUB

Continued from B1

NorthPark, a 550-acre complex east of Lambert, stands to benefit greatly. State Rep. Clem Smith, the Democrat from Velda Village Hills whose district includes part of NorthPark, said the legislation could go a long way toward developing the compound.

“It could be a logistics hub

INITIATIVE

Continued from B1 to you about your life,” Butler said. “It will help you be a better worker. And you are not supposed to be stuck in a place of ‘I don’t know if I want to tell them because I don’t want

over once all the expenses have been met, then they can worry about saving or investing for the future. The paychecks that you deposit in your checking account, which seem to swiftly disappear as you pay monthly expenses, constitute a portion of your short-term cash. The money is no sooner in your bank account than it flows out again as payment for goods and services.

However, because the money that we use to meet our monthly expenses is so liquid,

for moving products that come in from wherever – whether it’d be China, India or Europe,” Smith said. “And [it could be] a warehousing hub. We’ve got a lot of acreage that’s sitting there that’s ready to go.”

Dick Fleming, the president and CEO of the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association, wrote in his association’s March newsletter that Schmitt’s legislation would be “groundbreaking.”

them to judge me.’”

“That is diversity at its highest level, and we call that inclusion,” he said – “when you include people in the context and storyline and you feel comfortable having that conversation. An inclusive environment is much more productive than any other type of environment you can have.”

By Charles Ross PERSONAL FINANCE

there is a tendency to simply look at it as a method of payment. We often leave more than we need in our checking accounts, gaining little or no interest until we need it for a future expense.

By actively managing the short-term

Charles Ross

Some rural lawmakers have embraced the bill as a way of helping agriculture. State Rep. Caleb Jones, R-California, is sponsoring a similar bill in the House, while cosponsors for Schmitt’s bill include rural lawmakers such as state Sens. Brian Munzlinger, RWilliamstown and Bill Stouffer, R-Napton.

“Most people wouldn’t expect a rural country lawyer to be filing a bill that affects an airport in St. Louis,” Jones

Even though the fellows have been meeting monthly since August, sharing personal information still threw up a protective layer from fear of judgment, many said.

The fellows are HispanicAmerican, African-American, Asian-American or Native American mid-level managers or professionals working at St.

cash that passes through your hands, you can provide a means of saving for the future. You can use this money to increase your net worth with little or no additional risk to your principal.

Short-term investment instruments,

said. “And that speaks a lot to the gravity of the bill. It’s not just going to affect St. Louis. This is a bill that’s going to affect the entire state and likely states around us, too.”

Schmitt said complexes that fall under the bill could be used to store meat that could be sent to China, a sentiment echoed by Munzlinger.

“Agriculture’s one of the largest industries we’ve got in this state,” said Munzlinger, whose district encompasses

Louis region companies for a minimum of seven years. They have all been nominated by their company leaders. Now in its fifth year, the program’s goal is to help minority business leaders tune their leadership skills, said Valerie Patton, director of the initiative.

In its first year, there were 22 fellows. The program has more than doubled its annual participants, and throughout the year the program’s alumni participate in activities with current year fellows as well. About 47 percent of all fellows to date have received promotions in the past 24 months.

Program leaders are accepting nominations for next year’s fellows until May 13. As part

such as Treasury bills, certificates of deposit, and money market mutual funds, can provide you with the liquidity needed to meet expected and unexpected expenses and to increase your short-term investment income. There are numerous alternatives available to enable you to get your short-term cash working for you. The key to successfully managing your shortterm cash lies in understanding the alternatives and choosing the one most appropriate to your particular needs and circumstances.

much of northeast Missouri.

“And I see this as a major, major export enhancement that we can offer to ag producers in this state.”

Even though Schmitt’s legislation is supported by what would seem to be a broad coalition, it still could face a difficult legislative path. That’s because a group of senators in the past few sessions have tried to curtail tax credits.

State Sen. Brad Lager, RSavannah, said without tax

of the fellowship, managers are invited to participate in some parts of the monthly workshops.

The idea for the initiative grew out of conversations about employment, housing and employment between African-American political leaders and Civic Progress representatives in the late 1990s. Despite diversity efforts, the fellows are learning that the region remains largely polarized.

$250,000 per depositor, per institutionin interest and principal. Charles Ross is host of the syndicated radio program “Your Personal Finance.” Contact him at P.O. Box 870928; Stone Mountain, Georgia 30087; or email to charles@

credit “reforms” – which he said would include phasing out or placing caps on existing programs – there’s very little chance of it getting out of the Senate.

“You can’t keep spending new until you reform what’s in place today,” Lager said.

Edited and reprinted with permission from a story that appeared on www.stlbeacon.org.

Later in the workshop with Butler, the business leaders and company managers stood around jars of different colored beads waiting for instructions. They were told to pick the color of bead that represented the race of various people in their lives, including their supervisor, company president, co-workers and the majority people in their households.

“The person who takes care of how you look. And if there are too many, pick the one who you give the most money to,” instructed Butler. Then he told them to close the box and go back to their seats. “I have touched you at an emotional level, and unless I give you an opportunity to express that, you won’t hear or learn anything from here,” he said. The most common words were “embarrassed,” “limiting,” “lacking” and, lastly, “suffocating.”

"I don’t look at the negativity I’m hearing so far as a negative, I look at it as a positive."

Haith who?

By Earl Austin Jr. Of The St.Louis American

Another exciting season of high school track and field is underway in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Here is a capsule look at some of the top athletes to watch this season.

Boys

Darion Boure (University City): The Class 3 state champion in the triple jump returns for the state champions.

Vernon Carter(Cahokia): One of the top jumpers in the state of Illinois. Won Class 2 state title in Illinois in triple jump.

Michael Hester(Hazelwood Central): One of the top 400-meter runners in the state back to lead Class 4 state champions.

David Lambus (University City): Standout distance runner who was key member of the Class 3 state champions.

Marcus Taylorand Eric Liska (Maplewood): Standout sprinters back for two-time Missouri Class 2 state champions.

St. Louis American Girls Fab Five TRACK STARSTO WATCH IN 2011

Girls Ashley Gaston (East St. Louis): A returning Illinois All-State performer in the shot put and discus.

Emmonnie Henderson (Edwardsville): The returning IHSA Class 4Astate champion in the shot put returns for sophomore season.

By Earl Austin Jr.

The members of the 2011 St. Louis American “Fab Five” Girls All-Star Team make up a tremendous squad with the variety of skill sets. You have a stellar point guard in Hazelwood Central senior Candyce Ussery and a prime-time scorer in Belleville West senior Erika McCaster joining her in the backcourt. Up front, you have a versatile

small forward in Pattonville junior Mikala McGhee as well as the athletic Shanity James of Miller Career Academy at the other forward spot. In the middle of it all is powerful sophomore Emmonnie Henderson of Edwardsville. That is one heck of a team. That is also your First Team of the 2011 St. Louis American Girls “Fab Five.” Here is a closer look at each player.

Austin Jr.

Emmonnie Henderson (Edwardsville): The 6’2” sophomore has already established herself as one of the top young players in the state of Illinois. Apowerful force in the low post, Henderson averaged 16.7 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in leading the Tigers to a 31-3 record and a berth in the IHSAClass 4ASupersectionals. Astate champion in track and field in the shot put, Henderson is already a major

First Missouri player awarded since honor started in 1985

By Earl Austin Jr.

The

boatload of postseason honors since the conclusion of his stellar career, but this is the biggest. He made statewide history with the Gatorade award.

Beal is the first basketball player in the state of Missouri to be selected the National Player of Year since the award was started in 1985.

Beal becomes the first basketball player in the state of Missouri to be selected the National Player of Year since the award was started in 1985.

Agymnasium packed full of Chaminade students were on hand for the press confer-

ence, which also included former NBAstar Alonzo Mourning, who was the 1988 Gatorade National Player of the Year.

Beal was already a twotime Gatorade Player of the Year in the state of Missouri. The Gatorade National Player of the Year award annually goes to the student-athlete who exemplifies excellence in athletics, academics and cititzenship. Beal’s basketball exploits are well-documented throughout his All-American career, but he is also an A-student as well as volunteer in

college prospect in both sports. Shanity James (Miller CareerAcademy): Nicknamed “Shan-chise” by her friends, the 5’11” junior was the top player in the Public High League. James led the Phoenix to a 23-5 record and the PHLtitle as well as the team’s fourth consecutive district championship. James averaged 17.2 points, 9.0 rebounds, 3.3 steals and 2 blocks per game in

Samantha Levin (Ladue): One of the most versatile athletes in STLtrack history. The defending Class 4 state champion in the 800. Signed with LSU.

Montenae Roye (Ladue): Outstanding all-around sprinter back to lead the Rams. Signed with LSU.

Tianna Valentine (Hazelwood East): The returning Class 4 state champion in the 100-meter dash.

Kendra White (McCluerNorth): One of the top 400-meter sprinters in the state. Signed with LSU.

Bradley Beal holds his Gatorade National Player of the Year award, which annually goes to the studentathlete who exemplifies excellence in athletics,academics and cititzenship.

Earl

Candyce Ussery

Emmonnie Henderson

Erika McCaster

Shanity James

Mikala McGhee

– Frank Haith,new Mizzou head basketball coach

CLAIB’S CALL

By Mike Claiborne

Frank Haith who?

Mizzou hires second black basketball coach

Just when you thought Missouri was going to make us forget about the Mike Anderson era, they went one better. They now have charged all fans with trying to learn about the new coach, Frank Haith. Some task, one that none of us were ready for. All of the so-called real candidates that we thought would qualify for the job decided the job was not as good as we think it is. Athletic Director Mike Alden had to scramble.. Enter Frank Haith. Yes, it’s come to this. I have to admit that it took three to maybe four phone calls for someone to enlighten me about Coach Haith, as he was not to be confused with John Thompson or “Big House” Gaines. But after hearing about him, I thought, what a find, but will Mizzou fans give him a chance?

Considering it’s Mizzou, I am concerned, to say the least.

Abreath of fresh air? Sure, but will Mizzou inhale coach Haith?

There is something for everyone to dislike about this hiring. Haith has a mediocre coaching record, he is not well-known in this part of the country and, yes, he is AfricanAmerican. While the latter should not be as much of a barrier and create resentment like in the past, the fact that Mike Anderson kept everyone honest would make you think the fans may cut him some slack. One could only hope.

Considering it’s Mizzou, I am concerned, to say the least.

It’s not like Mizzou basketball is steeped in tradition. Never won a championship, nor a Final Four appearance to their credit, getting to the second weekend of the tournament and archrival Kansas has been hard to beat. With all that on their plate to chew on, why not, they decided to go out and hire Frank Haith. You have to wonder why Missouri is not a more attractive program, but then again, I am not sure if I can take the media recommendations like Kevin Stallings, Steve Alford and the other fair-headed sons that we always seem to hear of first.

It will be a challenge, as some in these parts only think that guys who went to a certain high school can win, let alone save the rest of the free world. It may be a six-year deal for Haith but he might want to get a few wins in the bank early to see year four. The scouting report is that Haith is about building character and getting his kids to graduate. In this day and age, that means a lot.

Alden under scrutiny

The other person who is on a hotter seat than Haith is Mike Alden. The most successful athletic director in the history of the school has not been this scrutinized for a move on his watch since the Quin Snyder fiasco.

If not for the courage of a few of the Missouri curators at the time to keep him, Mike Anderson would have never set foot on campus. This hire came from left field, as no one

Frank Haith speaks to reporters after being introduced as the 17th head men's basketball coach at the University of Missouri in Columbia,Missouri on Tuesday.Haith comes to Missouri after spending seven seasons at the University of Miami as their head basketball coach.

really knew about the new Mizzou coach. If this thing does not work early, Alden will hear about and hear it

loud. Alden’s hiring record has been a good one. His hiring of Gary Pinkel brought more

money and exposure to the program than at any other time in Mizzou’s history. The nonrevenue-generating sports have all been competitive, as well as finding a spot in post-season play in their respective sports. As for facilities, all have been upgraded to the level where they can play with anyone anywhere. Above all, Alden has found a way to do something that had never been done in the 100plus years of Missouri athletics: he has now hired two African Americans on his watch. There is something to be said for that, not to mention his efforts to reconnect with the African-American communities throughout the state.

Earl Austin Jr., every week,

Mike Claiborne

McLemore commits to Kansas

By Earl Austin Jr.

Of The St.Louis American

Former Wellston High star Ben McLemore announced on Sunday that he will be attending Kansas University.

McLemore, who is currently attending Life Christian in Texas, made his announcement after scoring 14 points in the Next AllAmerican All-Star Game in Chicago on Sunday afternoon.

The 6'5" McLemore chose the Jayhawks over Big XII Conference rival Missouri.

As a junior at Wellston, McLemore led the Trojans to a third-place finish in the Class 2 state tournament. When Wellston closed its doors after the 2010 school year, McLemore began his senior year at Oak Hill Academy in Virginia before transferring to Life Christian.

BEAL

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leading the Phoenix to the quarterfinals of the Missouri Class 4 state tournament.

Erika McCaster(Belleville West): The 2011 St. Louis American Player of the Year, the 5’7” senior guard finished her stellar career as the Maroons’all-time leading scorer. McCaster averaged 22.7 points a game as a senior to lead the Southwestern Conference. She also averaged 2.5 assists and 3.6 steals in leading West to a 20-12 record and a regional title.

Erika McCaster, the 5’7” senior guard for Belleville West, is The 2011 St.Louis American Player of the Year.

McCaster was a great player nin the open court, but she also nailed 77 3-pointers. McCaster came up big in the regional playoffs with 31 points against O’Fallon in the semifinals and 27 points against Belleville East in the regional championship game. She will attend Eastern Michigan in the fall on a basketball scholarship.

Mikala McGhee (Pattonville): The Player of the Year in the Suburban North Conference, the 6’0” junior guard stuffed the stat sheet in virtually every way this past season. The versatile McGhee averaged 17.1 points and 10 rebounds a game to lead the Pirates. She also hit 43 3several community projects throughout his high school career. “This honor for Bradley is

well-deserved,” said Chaminade coach Kelvin Lee. “He is a great person, a great student and a great athlete. He is the total package.” Beal will now head to Portland this weekend to play in the Nike Hoop Summit on Saturday for the USAteam

pointers while averaging 3.6 assists and 5.5 steals a game. McGhee has received recruiting interest from several NCAADivision I schools. She is also a standout performer in soccer and softball for the Pirates.

Candyce Ussery

(Hazelwood Central): The 5’7” senior was one of the top point guards in the St. Louis area. Her all-around play led the Hawks to a 23-6 record and the Suburban North Conference title.

Ussery averaged 12.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.0 steals a game in leading the Hawks to a berth in the Class 5 state quarterfinals. She also handed out 145 assists to lead the Suburban North. Ussery scored a game-high 20 points in the Hawks’victory over McCluer North in the Class 5, District 2 championship game. Athree-year starter, Ussery is headed to Indiana University in the fall.

First Team

Emmonnie Henderson 6’2” Edwardsville (Soph.)

Shanity James 5’10”

Miller Career Academy (Jr.)

Erika McCaster 5’7”

Belleville West (Sr.)

Mikala McGhee 6’0”

Pattonville (Jr.)

Candyce Ussery 5’7” Hazelwood Central (Sr.)

Second Team

Keonia Blair 5’5” Lindbergh (Sr.)

Lauren Maclin 5’11” Ladue (Sr.)

Jasmine Swopshire 6’1” Fort Zumwalt West (Sr.)

Jordan Thompson 5’7” Webster Groves (Jr.)

Amarah BrooksWilliams 6’2” Althoff (Sr.)

that will play against a squad of international prep all-stars. He scored 17 points to lead the East All-Stars to a victory in the McDonald’s All-American Game last Wednesday night in Chicago.

Third Team

Kaci Cason 5’9” McCluer North (Sr.)

Shakaunna Futrell 5’6”

Hazelwood West (Sr.)

Cherese Jones 5’8”

Francis Howell Central (Jr.)

Yelena Rosado 5’7” North Tech (Sr.)

TaylorRobinson 6’3” Ladue (Soph.)

Fourth Team

Tiara Baker 5’6” Cardinal Ritter (Sr.)

Kelsey Jones 5’8” Fort Zumwalt West (Sr.)

Daizha McGee 5’8” Jennings (Jr.)

TaylorManuel 6’3” Incarnate Word (Jr.)

Mariah Sunkett 6’1” Belleville East (Jr.)

Fifth Team

AmberAlexander 5’10” Parkway North (Soph.)

Stephanie Anderson 5’10” Whitfield (Soph.)

Antoinette Holmes 6’3” East St. Louis (Jr.)

Courtney Powell 5’7” Westmister (Jr.)

Sherice Williams 6’2” McCluer (Jr.)

Player of the Year:

Erika McCaster (Belleville West)

Team of the Year: Incarnate Word Academy

Freshman of the Year: Nakiah Bell (Incarnate Word)

Ashley Gaston

Kevin Phillips

Ben McLemore

Financial Focus

By Richard Pitts, financial advisor

One out of every eight Americans aged 40 to 60 is both raising a child and caring for an aging parent

• Talk. Many people in the “Greatest Generation” (over age 80) have not

a will, so, if your parents are in that

you may want to talk to them about taking action. Also, find out whom, if anyone, is handling their investments. And ask if your parents understand how Medicare works and if they need to add supplemental health insurance, such as Medigap. Plus, you need to find out if your parents have created a power of attorney or health care

directive. It’s best to have these conversations sooner, rather than later.

• Delegate. You eventually may have to take some responsibility for your parents’care – but you don’t have to do it alone. You could, for example, work with a financial services provider that offers trust services which can be invaluable if your parents are incapacitated, but which are useful even if they aren’t. Aprofessional trust officer can, among other duties, help manage your parents’investments, pay their bills, keep their records and supervise distribution of their assets to beneficiaries. In short, a qualified trust officer can make life a lot easier for you. Stress Awareness Month only lasts 30 days, but by taking the right steps, you can de-stress yourself for many years to come. After all, just because you’re in the Sandwich Generation, it doesn’t mean you have to be “squished.”

This article was written by Edward Jones for use by your local Edward Jones Financial Advisor.

Forfurtherinformation contact Richard Pitts at (314) 991-0269 or1-800-EDJONES

EPA

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of two toxins: trichloroethylene (TCE), a chlorinated industrial solvent, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a cancer-causing chemical once used in electrical transformers that were disassembled at a building on the site.

The EPAwill remove PCBs and TCE from subsurface soils and remove PCBs in two onsite buildings.

At the Above-Ground Storage Tank Area and Die Cast Area, the contaminated soil will be heated, allowing for contaminants to be removed from the soil, collected and disposed of in an offsite facility.

The Carter Building, Inc. (CBI) Building will be remediated of asbestos-containing material, demolished and the building materials disposed of, based on PCB concentrations.

At the Willco Building, because PCB contamination is relatively low, a thorough cleaning may be sufficient, though the first- and secondfloor slabs will be partially removed and replaced if needed.

“Cleaning up this highly contaminated site is my number one environmental priority in the city of St. Louis,” said Clay.

“I have been fighting to win this approval for years, and I want to thank President Obama and the leadership at EPAfor acting decisively on my request.”

However, citizen activists raised concerns about the InSitu Thermal Desorption and Vapor Extraction (ISTD) technology that the EPAplans to use at the site. It would be performed by TerraTherm, a spinoff of Shell Oil.

“TerraTherm has not demonstrated that this technology can treat PCB contamination at this scale,” said Romona Taylor Williams, a member of the Carter Carburetor Citizens Advocacy Group.

The Missouri Coalition for the Environment also raised concerns that the remediation might create new toxins.

“Because heating PCBs can lead to the formation of dioxins, the on-site heat-treatment plan is questionable,” said Kathleen Logan Smith, executive director of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment.

“PCBs are not very volatile, which adds to the uncertainty. This, coupled with a flawed risk assessment that okays a higher cancer risk for area children, suggests to us that ISTD won’t be a clean cleanup.”

Logan Smith said ISTD has more potential for effectiveness on the TCE contamination

because of the lower temperatures needed, the smaller extent of contamination, and the volatility of the material. She also said EPAtesting at the site was insufficient because it was limited to four areas. She said testing should have had to prove that other areas on the site are not contaminated as well, since the contaminants involved “have some degree of mobility and pose significant health risks to the community.”

The citizen advocacy group is calling for cleanup goals be expanded to cover all areas impacted by Carter Carburetor, the treatment technology to be proven to work on PCBs on similar sites and at similar concentrations before use at the St. Louis site, the risk assessment scenario expanded to include children of all ages and the cleanup plan protect the health of children and area residents.

An Administrative Record has been established for the Carter Carburetor Superfund Site and is available for review at Herbert Hoover Boys and Girls Club, 2901 North Grand Ave. and the St. Louis Public Library, Divoll Branch, 4234 North Grand Ave. If you have questions, contact Jeffrey Weatherford of the EPAat 636-326-4720 or weatherford.jeffrey@epa.gov.

By American Staff

Janet’s STL experience

Janet Jackson left some of her heart (and her hips) on the stage when her highly anticipated Number Ones: Up Close and Personal Tour stopped at the Fox Theatre last Thursday. For a full review and more exclusive photos from the show, visit www.stlamerican.com

Obsessed with O.J.

Ishmael Reed’s new novel Juice! was published Monday by Dalkey Archive. Ishmael Reed’s new novel Juiced! is sour on the media

By Chris King Of The

It says a lot about the new Ishmael Reed novel, Juice!, that the irst thing I wanted to do after inishing it was to do a news search for “O.J. Simpson.” Reed inished writing the book on January 2, 2011 – extraordinarily recently, for a novel with a street publishing date of April 4, 2011 – but up until the second he sit “send” on the manuscript, he scoured the headlines and loudmouthed cable TV channels, alert for evidence of O.J.-bashing or O.J.-obsessing.

Juice! is a story of O.J. obsession narrated by a self-confessed O.J. obsessive named Paul Blessings, nicknamed Bear. If that doesn’t sound like enough to spin a 336page novel around, then Juice! is not for you. Though it has other pleasures, these other pleasures tend to dwindle along the way, and on any page the narrator can disappear into yet another rant about the racist media’s obsession with O.J. Simpson, the murder of his former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and his many legal entanglements. Much of this novel is scathing media criticism – I wouldn’t even say “disguised as a novel” – just scathing media criticism.

As for those other pleasures, the novel begins in a voice that is somewhat new for Reed, who has published nine previous novels (Mumbo Jumbo being the best). It is a calm, self-relective, quietly funny voice, kind of like an old-head AfricanAmerican Kurt Vonnegut. An aging cartoonist who hides fried chicken coupons while carping about his diabetes, he talks politics and basketball with his oldest buddies, in an internet chat room rather than on a

The cast of Danai Gurira’s Eclipsed, presented April 1-10 by Washington University’s Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences. From left to right: Eboni Sharp, Yasmin Boakye, Vanika Spencer, Jessica Davie and Eboney Hutt. Photo by David Kilper/WUSTL Photo Services.

See JUICE, C4 See ECLIPSED, C4

Photos by Wiley Price and Lawrence Bryant.

How to place a calendar listing

1.Email your listing to calendar@stlamerican.com OR 2.Visit the calendar section on stlamerican.com and place your listing

Calendar listings are free of charge, are edited for space and run on a space-available basis.

concerts

Sun., Apr. 10, 7 p.m. The I Am Still Music tour starring Lil’Wayne with special guests, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross and Travis Barker, The Scottrade Center. For more information, visit www.livenation.com.

May 1, 2 p.m., Quiet Your World Piano Concert featuring composers and artists from Nashville and Seatlle as heard on ww.solopianoradio.com, 8920 Eden Avenue, Affton, MO 63123. For more information www.edenucc.org or [314]631-8930.

Fri., May 6, The 2nd Annual St. Louis SuperMusic Festival featuring Charlie Wilson, Eric Benet, Fantasia and En Vogue, Chaifetz Arena. For more information, visit www.metrotix.com

May 15, 8 p.m. Diddy Dirty Money with special guests Lloyd and Tyga, The Pageant. 6161 Delmar. For more information, visit www.thepageant.com or call (314) 7266161.

July 28, Sade with special guest John Legend, Scottrade Center. Tickets on sale April 16. For more information visit www.ticketmaster.com

local gigs

Sat., Apr. 9, 3 p.m., The Sisters Theonis and Luevenia presents Trios Tres Bien and company, Scruggs Memorial CME Church, 3680 Cook Ave.

Wednesday evenings, 7 p.m., Saxophonist Fred Walker will perform his Saxy Jazz Music Show featuring the best in live and recorded music, Van Goghz Martini Bar & Bistro, 3200 Shenandoah Ave. (at Compton). For more information, call (314)865-3345.

Kut-Nup Productions is seek-

ing hip hop dancers immediately for the upcoming Lip Sync Competition in May at the Cotton Club. Please contact Sherre Ward 314-3131614 or Eric Ward 314-7755679.

special events

Thurs., Apr. 7, Be The Difference: ABenefit for Voices for Children featuring authorand speaker Wes Moore, Windows on Washington. For more information, call (314) 552-2454 or visit www.voices-stl.org

Fri., Apr. 8, 5 p.m., Stress Free Fridays, 609, 609 Eastgate in the DelmarLoop.

Sat., Apr. 9, 7 a.m., New Life Christian School Spring Extravaganza, 11570 Mark Twain Lane. For more information, call (314) 291-4181.

Sat., Apr. 9, 8 p.m., The Aries Zodiac Birthday Bash, Starlight Room, 8350 N. Broadway.

Sat., Apr. 9, 7:15 p.m. (6:30 p.m. doors), Woman’s Place Springtime Trivia Night, proceeds will benefit Woman’s Place, a safe and welcoming drop-in center for adult women, especially women who have experienced relationship violence. St. Gerard Majella Parish Center, Ballas & Dougherty Ferry Road. For tickets and information call Ruth at (314)966-6084.

Sun., Apr. 10, J.R.L.W. Productions presents a Special All-StarExplosion Body Blast 2011, Blackmon’s Plaza, 127 Collinsville Ave, East St. Louis, IL. For more information, call (314) 8689564.

Apr. 17, 12 noon, Cardinal RitterPrep Open House, 701 N. Spring, St. Louis, MO 63108. Summer Academy and

CALENDAR

Athletic Camps begin June 6th, 2011 www.cardinalritterprep.org for more info.

Fri., Apr. 22 & Sat., Apr. 23, ANNONYArts Presents: THE SLAUGHTER PROJECT, Founders’Theatre, COCA, 524 Trinity Avenue, University City, MO. 63130. For more information, visit www.cocastl.org.

Fri., Apr. 29 – May 1, MurderMystery Train Trip from St. Louis To Kansas City. For more information call (314) 219-4188 or visit kcmysteryweekend.eventbrite.c om.

Sun., May 1, Rockhouse Ent. Presents I’m ASurvivorAll White Party and Cancer Benefit, The Label.

Through May 15, Bob the Builder– Project: Build It will be on site at The Magic House, 516 S. Kirkwood Road, one mile north of Highway 44 in historic downtown Kirkwood. For more information, please call (314) 822-8900 or visit The Magic House online at www.magichouse.org

comedy

Fri., May 6, 8 p.m., Martin Lawrence, Scottrade Center

Concert Club. For more information, visit www.livenation.com

Sat., May 7, 7 p.m. & 9 p.m., Laugh With Me Ma Comedy Weekend starring Jovan Bibbs, Marcus Combs, Matt Collins and more, Gateway Center, One Gateway Drive in Collinsville, IL. Call (618) 345-8998.

literary

Sun., Apr. 10, The St. Louis Poetry Center will present the benefit reading “Do Thy Will” featuring Shakespeare’s sonnets read by fourteen members of the community, Blueberry Hill’s Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd. For more information, call (314) 973-0616 or visit www.stlouispoetrycenter.org.

Sat., Apr. 16, 8 p.m., HEARding Cats Collective presents These Cats Can Speak, a multimedia event featuring several of St. Louis’ finest poets, accompanied by improvised music. The evening will feature readings by Brett Underwood, Anna Lum, K. Curtis Lyle, and Stef Russell. Floating Laboratories, 4528 Ohio. For more info, visit www.heardingcatscollective.org.

Tues., Apr. 19, 6 p.m., The Eugene B. Redmond Writers Club presents KWANSABAS & PSALMS In Observance Of Its 25th Birthday (& National Poetry Month), featuring The SoularSystems Ensemble, Building “B” –Room 2083, SIUE/East St. Louis Higher Education Center, 601 J. R. Thompson Drive, East St. Louis, Illinois 62201.

theatre

Thurs., Apr. 7- Fri., Apr. 8, Central Visual and Performing Arts High School presents The Secret in the Wings by Mary Zimmerman, Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, 3125 S. Kingshighway. For more information, call (314) 771-2722.

Through Sun., Apr. 10, The Black Rep presents The Real McCoy, The Grandel Theatre, 3610 Grandel Square. For more information, call (314) 534-3807.

Apr. 28 – Apr. 30, Chicago’s legendary comedy theatre The Second City brings FAIR & UNBALANCED to St. Louis, Touhill Performing Arts Center Tickets are available now at the Touhill Performing Arts Center Ticket Office; online at www.touhill.org; or by phone at 314-516-4949.

arts

April 8 – April 10, The GreaterSt. Louis Art Association presents the SemiAnnual Art Fairat Queeny Park, Greensfelder Recreation Center in Queeny Park, 550 Weidman Rd, Ballwin, Mo. Sat., Apr. 9, 7 p.m., Wall Ball 2011 featuring C’Babi Bayoc and more than 40 other artists. Proceeds to benefit Scosag. NEO (2801 Locust Avenue). For more information, visit http://www.scosag.org/wallball/default2010.shtml

April 14 – April 30, UMSL Studio Art Students present Parental Advisory (Opening reception to take place from 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. on Apr. 14), Gallery 210, Telecommunity Center at UMSL, 1 University Blvd. For more information, visit gallery210.umsl.edu or 314516-5976.

Through April 17, The Contemporary Art Museum

St. Louis is pleased to announce a new exhibition to The Front Room: Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver KochtaKalleinen’s The St. Louis Complaint Choir Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, 3750 Washington Boulevard. For more information, call (314) 535-0770.

Through April 21, Framations Art Gallery presents Those Who Dream by Night, a juried exhibit of artwork focusing on themed work. Framations Gallery, 218 North Main Street, St. Charles, MO 63301. For more information, call (636) 724-8313.

lectures

Sat.,Apr. 9, 2:30 p.m. (5 p.m. lecture), Sabayet Inc presents a lecture by Bro Mfundishi Jhutyms Ka N Heru Salim and a Metu NeterWorkshop, Sabayet Inc. 4000 Maffitt Ave. Call (314) 867-2393 or (618)334-9932.

Sat., Apr. 9, 10 a.m. , the Black Alumni Council of Washington University presents Addressing Health Disparities in the African American Community Moderator -Brenda Battle. Panelists - Dr. Will Ross, Dr. Denise Hooks-Anderson, Dr. Vetta Sanders-Thompson, Joseph Palm.Alumni House Living Room, 6510 Wallace Circle, To register, call 314935-5645 or e-mail at wubac@wustl.edu

Sat., Apr. 9, 10 am., Operational Unity: Coalition Against Community Violence neighborhood and workshop series, Indigo Hotel St Louis (Central West End), 4630 Lindell Boulevard, Saint Louis, MO 63108.

Tues., Apr. 12, 9 a.m., AARP DriverSafety Program class, Brentmoor Senior Living Community, University City, MO. For more information, call (314) 995-3811.

Sat., Apr. 16, 9:30 a.m., Uplifting Spirit Prison Ministry presents a Free Jail/Prison Re-Entry and Visitation Workshop Washington Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church, 3200 Washington Boulevard (corner of Compton Avenue). The event is free. Acontinental breakfast will be served. Call (314) 533-8763.

Tues., Apr. 19, 5 p.m., INC Yourself in 2011 seminars

presented by Comptroller

Darlene Green of the City of St. Louis. INC Yourself in 2011: Doing Business with Airports and the Federal Government.” This seminar will be held at the new William J. Harrison Center located at 3140 Cass Ave.For more information, e-mail: incyourself2011@gmail.com or call 314-612-1462.

Wed., Apr. 20, St. Louis University School of Law, NOBLE, U.S. Probation Office - ED/MO, and the Black Law Student Association, will host an Offender Reentry Conference at St. Louis University - Busch Student Center.

Fri., Apr. 29, 7:30 a.m., The first-everDowntown Housing Summit, featuring guest speakers reporting on national and regional housing trends reflected in the just completed 2010 Census and the future of downtown living. For more information, visit www.downtownstl.org.

Wed., May 4, 6 p.m., We Are More Than You Think: Removing the stigma of mental illness and Promoting mental wellness in the African-American community, Missouri History Museum – in Forest Park (Corner of Lindell and DeBaliviere). For more information, call (314)482-5697 or email:jidleburg@gmail.com

TMAPYouth Empowerment Sessions, Thursdays, 4:45 p.m., 5019 Alcott Walbridge

C.E.C. Riverview West Florissant -TMAPmeet for Youth Empowerment Sessions facilitated by Keith Minor Nuisance Coordinator in the 27th Ward and feature a variety of positive role models from the St. Louis Metropolitan area listen to and dialogue with youth in the Walnut Park neighborhood. Topics vary and are youth driven. Call the RWF-TMAP office at (314) 381-6999.

Toastmasters International St. Louis presents Primary

Conversations! Want to develop in Public Speaking? Visit Toastmasters Primary Conversations Club every 2nd and 4th Tuesday at 6pm...Please call 314-2259098 for more information.

The Gateway EITC Community Coalition will offer free tax help to Households in St. Louis City, County, St. Charles and metroeast Illinois with incomes of less than $49,000 in 2010. For information qualifications, locations, dates, and documents, visit www.gecc.us or contact United Way at 2-1-1 or 800-427-4626.

health

Thurs., Apr. 7, 6 p.m., St. Louis native and author Areva Martin (The Everyday Advocate: Standing Up for Your Autistic Child) will speak on “The Power of Advocacy: 5 Ways to Change Your Life,” Central Reform Congregation, 5020 Waterman Blvd. in St. Louis. Call 314-516-5917 or visit powerofadvocacy-autohome.eventbrite.com for more information.

Sat. Apr. 9, 1p.m. - 4 p.m. –Community Health & Resource Fair, Mt. Bethel M.B. Church, 1600 Belt Ave. St. Louis. Free health screenings including flaucoma & memory; pregnancy testing/ultrasounds; mammograms (pre-register) chair massages, entertainment, gam4es, weatherization demos. For more information, call 314925-0750.

Sat. Apr. 9, 6:30 p.m.

–Midnight, Blue Tie Gala to celebrate prostate cancer survivors, at St. Louis Gateway Classic Sports Foundation, 2012 Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, St. Louis. The event is sponsored by The Empowerment Network and Betty Jean Kerr People’s Health Centers. Tickets are $20 – sales support prostate cancer outreach efforts. For tickets, call 314-367-7848 ext. 1246.

Sun. Apr. 10, 2 p.m. – 5 p.m.

– ATasteful Affair23, Chase Park Plaza Khorassan Ballroom, 212 N. Kingshighway, St. Louis, an annual fundraiser for Food Outreach. More than 40 restaurants and caterers are providing the tastings; live and silent auction items. Tickets are $50 in advance and $65 at the door. The VIPPreview Party from 12 p.m. is $123 (includes main event ticket). Food outreach provides nutritious meals for low-income persons living with HIV/AIDS or cancer. For more information call 314652-3663 x. 122 or visit www.foodoutreach.org.

Wed. Apr. 14, 6 p.m. – 7 p.m., Crisis Nursery Kid’s Banquet at Creve Coeur Government Center - honoring local volunteers from throughout the region. For more information, call (314) 292-5770 or visit www.crisisnurserykids.org.

Sat. Apr. 30, Wellness Jam 2011 at the St. Louis Gateway Classic Foundation, 2012 Dr. Martin Luther King Dr. –St. Louis. Free activities for all ages, including a children’s pavilion; free health screenings; fitness demonstration, step and line dancing; giveaways, raffles, and live performances. For more information, call 314-621-1994

“The I Am Still Music”tour starring Lil’ Wayne with special guests, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross and Travis Barker. For more information,see CONCERTS.

Sunday, May 1, 2 p.m. –Heart & Soul 5K Race, at Creve CoeurPark. Event includes prizes, awards, health/ fitness stations; music and entertainment. Proceeds will benefit KaBOOM!, the national non-profit organization dedicated to saving play. Register at www.heartandsoulrun.com.

Wed. May 4, 6:00 – 8:30 p.m. –“We Are More Than What You Think,” a free community forum about mental illness in the African American community at the Missouri History Museum. Continuing education credits from the Missouri Institute of Mental Health are available for $10. For more information, contact Bryan Evans-Mental Health America @ 314-773-1399 or Justin Idleburg at 314-482-5697jidlehelps@gmail.com.

Sat. May 7, 9:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. – “Behind the Mask” Lupus Educational Conference at Saint Louis University. Registration at 8 a.m., $10 attendance fee includes all sessions and lunch. Attendees must preregister by calling 800-9LUPUS6, email info@LFAheartland.org or go to http://tinyurl.com/lupusSTL.

Sat. June 18, 7 a.m. - 2nd Annual Ronald McDonald House Charities of Metro St. Louis’Bike Ride in Forest

Park. The event has five race options: To ride, volunteer or for more information, visit www.rmhcridestl.com, 314932-4146 or e-mail lfletcher@rmhcstl.com.

Sun. June 19, Katy Trail Father’s Day Family Bike Ride, to benefit prostate cancer research at Siteman Cancer Center at BarnesJewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine. Riders can start from a designated KATYTrailhead and ride to Defiance, Mo. Pre-registration is $10.00 ($15.00 day of ride). For more information, or to sign-up, go to www.fathersdaybikeride.com.

The American Cancer Society offers free transportation services through a program called Road the Recovery, but more volunteers are needed to make certain that every patient has access to their lifesaving care. The program is in great need of volunteer drivers in St. Louis City and County. To learn more about Road to Recovery and become a volunteer, please call Kaci Hubbard at 314-286-8174.

spiritual

Through Apr. 8, 6:30 p.m., Praise Ye The Lord Revival Christ Our Redeemer A.M.E. Church, 13820 Old Jamestown Road, Florissant, MO, 63033-4515. Featured speakers: Wednesday, April 6: Rev. Traci Blackmon - Pastor, Christ the King UCC, Thursday, April 7: (Youth Night) Rev. Shannon Reed, Friday, April 8 : Rev. Tremaine Combs - Pastor, Mount Zion M.B.C. For more information, please contact Christ Our Redeemer A.M.E. Church at (314) 741-4222.

Sun., Apr. 10, 3 p.m., GreaterFairfax Missionary Baptist Church 43rd Pastoral Anniversary for Rev. Dr. Haymond Fortenberry with guest speaker Rev. Ralph Jackson,

Greater Fairfax MB Church, 2941 Greer Ave. Call (314) 534-1993.

Sun., Apr. 10, 4 p.m., GRACE & MERCY, Solomon’s Temple Church Dance Ministry Recital, Missouri History Museum, Lindell and DeBaliviere in Forest Park. For more information, call (314) 746-4599. Mon., May 2 – Fri., May 6, 7:30 p.m., GreaterLeonard M.B. Church Annual Spring Revival with Evangelist Rev. Dr. Haywood A. Robinson, III - Pastor, People’s Community Baptist Church of Silver Spring, Maryland, Greater Leonard M.B. Church, 1130 Benton Street. For more information, call (314) 421-5288..

Apr. 11, 7 p.m., CinemaSpoke readings begin with Robert W. Hazel’s “Marksman of Death,” Kranzberg Arts Center, 501 N. Grand Blvd. in Grand Center. The readings are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Cinema St. Louis at 314-289-4150 or visit its Web site at www.cinemastlouis.org.

Apr. 14 – Apr. 17, Cinema St. Louis presents the Fourth Annual Stella Artois QFest Hi-Pointe Theatre. Advance tickets for all shows are available through BrownPaper Tickets at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/profile/49376. For more information, visit www.cinemastlouis.org.

Fri., Apr. 15, Rio starring the voice of will.i.am opens in theatres nationwide.

Apr. 17, 7 p.m., Found Footage Festival and 25th anniversary screening of the bootleg classic, Heavy Metal Parking Lot, Mad Art Gallery (2727 S. 12th St.). For more information, visit www.foundfootagefest.com.

from Iran, who own the corner store; Miss Wanda and Miss Rita, who tend a beautiful garden down the street; Roy-Roy and Poochie, who are the neighborhood thugs; Junebug, who is 22 and raising a son by himself; and the Dobolinas, a young Yuppie couple from Texas. Richardson played all the roles when Metro Theatre Company produced the show during an 18-month run, performing 80 shows for an estimated audience of 20,000. The success of the play regionally has led to a deal with Dramatic Publishing Company.

A St. Louis native and graduate of Sumner High School,

Richardson received her bachelor of arts degree in communications from the University of New Mexico and a master’s in ine arts from Smith College in Playwrighting. Her last play, Sistahs Indeed! was a mainstage production at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park in 2008. She worked with the St. Louis Black Repertory Theatre for two seasons and toured for three years in Metro Theater Company’s production of Long Road to Freedom. Her HBO/New Writers Project solo performance show, all that..., has toured throughout the country. Richardson is also a budding ilmmaker. Her irst short ilm, 5 of Cups, premiered in The Center’s Film Festival in New York in 2004. Her third ilm, Beautiful Hands, made the rounds in ilm festivals, being

screened by Chicks with Flicks in New York City and the 2006 St. Louis International Film Festival.

In addition, she is an accomplished poet whose work is published in many anthologies and magazines such as Essence, Sinister Wisdom and Harbinger, as well as her own chapbook, Stronger Than My Fears

She has taught in after-school programs, residences and homeless shelters from Los Angeles to New England. Her goal is to combine all the things she loves – poetry, performance, ilm and music – to create work which inspires others to tell their own stories and radiate the Creator Spirit within.

“I can’t do anything else,” she said. “I do other things, but I’m a creative at heart, so that’s what I do.”

street corner or bar stool – and admits he prefers the virtual reality version. This is when Bear has the most substance as a character, and he is likable and real. “I’m a black man and I’m supposed to avoid stress,” Bear notes. “Let me run that by you again. I’m a black man and I’m supposed to avoid stress.” Reed builds a narrative structure intended to contain or at least challenge Bear’s propensity to go into the deep end over O.J. and the white media’s blood lust for him. Bear’s wife gets weary of his obsession and delivers an ultimatum: it’s O.J. or his family. But this narrative

Continued from C1

to serve as “wives” to a rebel warlord and Gurira shares their stories. Set in a remote rebel encampment, Eclipsed opens in June 2003, during the waning months of the ight against former Liberian president Charles Taylor (who is currently on trial in Paris for war crimes).

The four women, led by the willful chief wife, are known not by their names — indeed, at least one woman has forgotten hers — but by numbers corresponding to their places in the “household” hierarchy.

“This is very much a character-driven play,” said director Andrea Urice, senior lecturer

structure proves to be uselessly limsy in the face of Bear’s – or Reed’s – desire to vent in fury over the media mobbing O.J. At one point, we are told Bear’s wife wins and Bear goes cold turkey on his obsession, but we are never shown that; it’s just one of many interruptions in the rant.

Mind you, it’s a good rant. Whether or not you think O.J. killed his former wife, or deserved to lose the civil suit, or was framed in the later Las Vegas caper over his stolen memorabilia, Juice! makes a thoroughly convincing case that the white-dominated media lost their collective marbles over the story of the handsome black former athlete and his gruesomely murdered, beautiful blonde former wife. Starting with the televised pursuit of a

in the PAD. “The irst ‘wife’ is 25 but has been aged by her experiences and seems decades older. She is also very much in charge.”

Though they share a common space each “wife” and her position uniquely relects the range of trauma imposed on women caught in the crossire of war.

“Number Three is pregnant with the commanding oficer’s baby,” Urice continues. “The youngest girl is just 15 years old, and at irst she’s hidden by the others. Later, she is discovered by the oficer — who we never see — and is made Number Four.”

The second wife, however, charts a somewhat different, and more violent, path.

“Number Two actually leaves the compound to join the rebel soldiers,” Urice says.

white Ford Bronco transporting O.J. Simpson down the freeways of Los Angeles on June 17, 1994, the American media has been forever Juiced! – for the worse. I’m not sure I needed a 336-page novel to convince me of that, but I am convinced. I certainly didn’t need convincing that the idea of a “post-race” America is ridiculous, but I really enjoyed Reed’s destructions – no, I didn’t mean “deconstructions” – of this idea. Here is the funniest: “Next time you’re stopped by a blackmale-hating cop like [Mark] Fuhrman, who said that if he saw a white woman in a car with a black man he’d stop the car (yet dated black women), tell this cop that race is a social construct.”

2011 African American Citizens of the Year

Special to The American

On Saturday, March 19, the St. Louis Gateway Classic Sports Foundation presented the African American Citizens of the Year Awards Luncheon. The 2011 honorees included: Mary Tillman, evangelist and Radio One on-air personality; Reuben Shelton III., senior counsel, Monsanto Company; Nicole Roach, Webster University Downtown director; Eddie Davis, president and executive director , Center for the

Acceleration of African American Business; Larry Blue Jr., co-founder and chairman, National Sales Network St. Louis; Steven Cousins, partner, Armstrong Teasdale; Vincent Edwards, executive director, American Red Cross; and Vickie Newton, news anchor, KMOV Channel 4. This award was created in 2002 to recognize and pay tribute to those individuals in the St. Louis area who have made signiicant contributions to the community and/or their respective areas of work. The

individuals were selected by the Gateway Classic Committee because they exemplify the values and mission of the St. Louis Gateway Classic to provide programs structured to assist our community development.

The 2011 Awards Luncheon will took place at the St. Louis Gateway Classic Sports Foundation at 2012 Dr. Martin Luther King Dr. Each recipient received overwhelming support

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“She takes up a gun and participates in atrocities. But we also understand that she has faced a horrendous set of choices.”

The title simultaneously suggests a story that operates in a season of darkness and sheds light on a group of “sheros” who manage to rise in the midst of the most tragic existence imaginable.

“Though each woman struggles to ind her own means of survival, they do ind ways to support one another,” Urice concludes.

Eclipsed will be presented on Friday and Saturday, April 8 and 9; and at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 10 at The A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre in The Mallinckrodt Center, 6445 Forsyth Blvd. Tickets are available through the Edison Theatre Box Ofice and all MetroTix outlets. For more info, call (314) 935-6543.

Wynnie Clemons, a seventh-grade student at Hazelwood West Middle School, won second place in the 2010-2011 PTA Relections Program, a national arts recognition program.

Budding artist

Hazelwood West Middle student honored for creative work

Special to The American Wynnie Clemons, a seventhgrade student at Hazelwood West Middle School, won second place in the 2010-2011 PTA Relections Program, a national arts recognition program. Clemons won her award in the visual arts category in the sixththrough eighth-grade division. Through the school’s Parent Teacher Student Association, or PTSA, students submitted creative works inspired by the theme, “Together We Can.” Besides visual arts, students in preschool through grade 12 were invited to create and submit works of art in the areas of dance choreography, ilm production, literature, musical composition and photography.

“I created a design of six or seven large leaves that I traced using oil pastels and then I illed them in using watercolors,” Clemons said. “It feels great to win second place.”

Clemons, whose art teacher is Pratima Bajaj, said she used a blend of warm colors in her design, which is on display at the Missouri State PTA Leadership Conference in April.

“I really like painting,” Clemson said. “The color I really like is lime green, but I like any kind of green and I also like bright colors.”

While she enjoys painting,

Clemons said she thinks it will remain a hobby for her, not a career. She is considering becoming a lawyer, a pediatrician or doing animal-related work. Hazelwood West Middle School PTSA oficers noted that Clemons achieved some district and PTSA irsts.

“This is the irst time we have had a state winner from Hazelwood West Middle,” said Margaret Heffner, PTSA president. “We are very proud of Wynnie.”

“To the best of our knowledge, she is the irst Hazelwood School District winner and the only Gateway PTSA Regional winner this year,” said Tracy Prasad, PTSA vice president. Clemons, who won at the local level, had her submission sent to the Missouri PTA for judging. She and her submission will receive recognition at the Relections Student Showcase during Missouri PTA’s Leadership Conference, Saturday, April 30, at the Hilton Garden Inn in Independence. For more than 40 years, the PTA Relections Program has encouraged students across the nation and in American schools overseas to explore their artistic talents. PTA believes that all children deserve a quality arts education and encourages students to pursue artistic expression through participation in the program.

SCIENTIFICALLY SPEAKING

The Love in a YES Teen

I’ve been a YES teen since the summer of 2008. I really enjoyed my irst summer in the YES program working at the main building of the Science Center. I had the chance to work with the visitors, enhance my working skills and get in some ACT and college prep.

I had a lot of life changing, skill-building experiences working with the visitors. I had to learn how to adapt to quick changes. There was a time when I didn’t have all the materials for a project so I had to substitute them with others. The visitors enjoyed the substitute project more than

the original one. So it turned out better at the end; I really loved the expressions on their face when they did the tabletop activities. The kids really loved the silly putty, which was one of my least favorites to clean up! It wasn’t easy being the only new teen working in the main building. I really had to bring my “A-game” with it being my irst year and everything… well at least that’s how I looked at it. Everybody was impressed with my working skills. They always thought I was older than what I really was because I was mature. I sometimes thought that some people didn’t take the program as serious as others but I never turned down the great opportunities that were offered. I really loved the ACT and college prep. We got to do ACT and college-prep before or after

we worked in the main building. We took a practice test to get a feel of what to expect and to be ready for the real test. We worked in the practice books almost everyday with cool interns from Washington University making it fun and exciting. I really loved getting prepared for college and the ACT. Working as a YES teen means a lot to me. It makes me feel good. Being a YES teen means more than working for the Science Center to me. Its about the great opportunities I get, the college prep, the “science-isn’t-so-boring” feeling, the learning experience, the great people I work with and the feeling that I made a great impact on somebody’s life. That’s why I love being a YES Teen!

By Melanie Adams

Art meets culture in ‘Splendid Heritage’

‘Perspectives on American Indian Art’at History Museum

How can something be both a work of art and a cultural artifact?

This question is answered in the History Museum’s new exhibit, Splendid Heritage: Perspectives on American Indian Art. The exhibit features 140 artifacts of unparalleled beauty and craftsmanship that help tell the story of American Indians who resided in the Plains, Plateau and Northeast during the 18th and 19th centuries.

The exhibit was organized by the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, University of Utah, Salk Lake City, Utah, and the collection of John and Marva Warnock. Most of these artifacts have never been on public view prior to this exhibit.

To learn a little more about the exhibit, I spoke with one of the curators, Emma Hansen, senior curator of the Plains Indian Museum at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.

Many people consider an artifact an example either of art or of culture. The artifacts in the exhibit are both art and cultural objects. Can you talk about how an artifact can be both?

Emma Hansen: Museums traditionally interpret Native American materials by emphasizing either the cultural or the ine arts context. In contrast, Splendid Heritage presents both perspectives in an intersection of culture and art and so uncovers a much richer story. From the cultural perspective, the viewer gains insight into the life of the object’s maker, learning about the ways in which an object was used and its cultural signiicance within the community.

The artistic perspective offers visitors the opportunity to consider the aesthetic value of an object. This approach may emphasize how color, composition and materials contribute to the particular vision of each artist. Splendid Heritage aims to connect visitors to both perspectives – the cultural and the artistic – in the hope of creating a richer understanding of the remarkable objects presented in the exhibition.

The artworks of the Splendid Heritage collection are signiicant both for the relatively early time periods represented and for their inherent artistry. In addition to their intrinsic beauty and as examples of the artists’ creativity, such works also are powerful and often multilayered expressions by Native artists of cultural knowledge and understandings, biographical and historical experiences, and a spirituality that guided all aspects of life.

With space for only 144 artifacts, how did you make your selection? What things did you want to include but did not have the space?

Emma Hansen: Included are pre-reservation- and early reservation-era clothing and accessories, pictographic drawings, pipes and

pipe bags, weapons, cradles, dolls and other representative materials created and used by Native peoples of the Plains, Plateau and Eastern Woodlands regions. Many pieces are considered masterworks of Native American art. Speciic pieces were selected to represent the diversity of Native American arts and cultures in the Plains, Plateau and Woodlands regions. Several individuals had input into the selection process. The owners of the collection, Marva and John Warnock, and the collection curator Clinton Nagy worked with curators and exhibition designers in the selection of speciic objects from the Splendid Heritage collection. There were dificult decisions to be made because of the overall artistic quality and cultural signiicance of the entire collection. A few objects in the Splendid Heritage collection represent a continuity of traditions in the context of the major changes for Plains Native peoples with the establishment of reservations in the late nineteenth century including a pair of fully beaded commercially-made woman’s shoes.

What do you hope visitors will take away from their experience in the exhibit?

Emma Hansen: Hopefully, visitors will begin to understand and appreciate the diversity and the depth of Native artistic and cultural traditions from throughout North America. School groups will have the opportunity to experience the exhibit. What do you hope students learn about American Indian culture that is not taught in textbooks?

Emma Hansen: I would hope that they develop the same understanding and appreciation I described above. It seems that schools in general have not covered Native American history, much less explored arts and cultures for some time, if they ever did. Like general audiences, students tend to view Native American people in a stereotypical and often negative manner based upon erroneous information from popular culture (movies, television, books, etc.). Hopefully, exhibitions such as Splendid Heritage will broaden students’ interests as well as their knowledge. The exhibition includes a computer station with additional information on speciic objects and their cultural contexts and signiicance. School groups and families with children will enjoy the interactive panels containing questions and answers written for a younger audience.

Splendid Heritage: Perspectives on American Indian Art Closes Sunday, April 24

Adults: $8, Seniors/Students/Groups/Active Military $5 Children Ages 6-12: $5 Children under 6: Free Free Admission on Tuesdays from 2-8 p.m. for St. Louis City and County residents Museum members: Free for level of membership (additional tickets $4).

Toni Stovall

A doll made by the Swampy Cree people.

ST. LOUIS AMERICAN

UMSL’s Bridge Program celebrates 25 years

Special to The American

More than 1,600 high school students and families, as well as campus and community leaders, filled America’s Center in downtown St. Louis last Saturday morning. They came to celebrate 25 years of the University of Missouri–St. Louis Bridge Program’s success.

Since its inception in 1986, the Bridge Program has provided effective college access programming to students and parents. The program offers students with academic, social, college and career planning and professional development courses. Bridge attracts more than 1,500 students each year representing approximately 90 public and private high schools throughout the St Louis metropolitan area. The Saturday Academy has grown from serving 120 students five years ago to 500 students this year.

“We find it critical to provide pre-collegiate services that are beyond exposing students to basic foundational topics in their preparation for college,” said Natissia Small, director of the program.

This year’s Bridge senior class has been accepted to more than 90 institutions and has received more than $1 mil-

Accepting applications for summer and Saturday Academy in fall

lion in scholarship offers. Bridge maintains an unmatched record of 100 percent participating students matriculating to college.

Students complete Bridge having already fulfilled the necessary requirements for a transition to a post-secondary institution.

“I’m interested in becoming a doctor,” said Whitney Butler, a senior at Hazelwood West High School and one of the graduating honorees at the event. “I love working with various cell structures in biology. I’m learning that there are a lot of options in science that are open for me to consider.”

Elma Cavcic, a native of Bosnia, graduated from Gateway High School in St. Louis. She was one of many Bridge alumni attending the celebratory event.

“I have always loved science and belonged to the science club at my high school,” she said. “The Bridge Program helped me figure out what I wanted to major in and how to receive scholarships. I am now a student in the College of Nursing at UMSL.” Bridge also excels in providing effective programming for parents through the Saturday Academy Parent Program and CONNECT

Parent Support Group.

Marla Brown learned about the Bridge Program through a co-worker.

“I went online and signed my daughter up right away,” she said. “It’s helped me prepare her for college, locating scholarships and what to expect along the journey.”

Her daughter, Rhiann White, a senior at Bayless High School in St. Louis County, hopes to study veterinary medicine at the University of Missouri–Columbia.

Cheryl Walker, an attorney

Whitney Butler (left),a senior at Hazelwood West High School,and JaLisa Shaw,a senior at Lutheran North High School,were honored Saturday for their participation in UMSL’s Bridge Program Saturday Academy.

More than 1,600 people celebrated the program’s 25th anniversary at America’s Center.

with Bryan Cave law firm, former member of the Board of Curators of the University of Missouri System, and graduate of the University of Missouri–Rolla, served as the keynote speaker at Bridge’s 25th anniversary event. She was exposed to Bridge early serving as a community volunteer at Vashon High School and the now-closed Northwest High School.

“Afriend introduced me to the program and we often visited schools together with a tag-team approach. Our visits would often focus on identify-

ing and overcoming obstacles,” Walker said.

“I grew up in North St. Louis city and am proud of where I am from. My community enabled me to pursue my dreams. I am compelled to do what I can to assist others in doing the same.”

Small, who started at UMSLas a financial aid coordinator in 1995, transitioned to the Bridge Program as a counselor in 2003 and was named director in 2007. She is the driving force behind the recent growth in offered programs. In addition to Saturday and Parent academies, the program also offers:

• Four-week Summer Academy programs conducted for current 9th and 10th grade students

• Math and science afterschool clubs held currently at selective high schools throughout the St Louis region encouraging inquiry and discovery in science and math

• Parent-support groups offering a variety of workshops and seminars to assist with supporting and equipping parents with strategies to encourage a college-going culture and strengthening studentparent relationships

• School and community workshops conducted through-

out St Louis that focus on career planning, college research, financial literacy and social development. This year, the Bridge Program conducted its first gender specific male and female conferences for middle school students in the Normandy School District. According to Small, more than 600 students participated in workshops that focused on academic, psychosocial and professional development. Bridge is currently developing male and female conferences open to high school students throughout the St Louis area in fall 2011.

In addition to enhancing academic skills, Bridge students learn about potential careers from professionals at companies such as Boeing, Enterprise Incorporated, Edward Jones, Clear Channel Radio, Express Scripts and Husch Blackwell Sanders LLP. Students interact with a variety of professionals from the campus and community. The Bridge Program is currently accepting applications for the summer and upcoming Saturday Academy offered in the fall. For more information, visit http://umsl.edu/%7Eprecollegi ate or call 314-516-5196.

Celebrity Swagger Snap of the Week

The laughs didn’t end after Mike Epps essentially sold-out crowd at Chaifetz Arena Friday night. He stopped by The Loft to get up close and personal with St. Louis. Kim was just one of many fans Epps was eager to mingle with following his sidesplitting show.

Just okay Janet. I know plenty of y’all have been wondering what I would say about Janet (Miss Jackson if you’re nasty) as she kick-ball-changed it to the Fabulous Fox on Thursday. The audience consisted of leather gloves and unspeakable shapes squeezed in to unfortunate liquid leggings, but a spectacle wouldn’t be quite how I would describe Janet’s “up close and personal” set.

Now the real read is that Miss Jackson hasn’t seen a bonaide hit since her “Nipplegate” stunt. I guess she thought that if she said it softly (her usual ploy) to a point where she thought she was coming off as cute and adorable, you would buy that it was her choice to do theaters instead of arenas. HAVE A SEAT Miss Jackson! We all know the deal. You ain’t gots to lie!

I suppose Jackson gave a few lashes of extravaganza. Before the show commenced, she featured one of her music videos, “What Have You Done for Me Lately” on a projection screen as a dedication to her St. Louis fans. But the gag, if you will, was that it was originally supposed to be “Call On Me,” her duet with St. Louis’ runaway child, Nelly. Apparently (as I predicted) Mr. Country Grammar had a more pressing event to attend. As the show started, the curtains lifted to reveal Janet on a platform adorned in an expected “Black Cat” leather suit – and that heffa had the nerve to have her body back! Was I the only one who punched it to Club Fitness after being inspired by Penny Woods to get my frame in order? Her footwork was also in top form as she pop locked and dropped with ease. Even with obvious vocal track assistance, she did give strong elements of performance –which is key in the current sea of singing/dancing divas that offer nothing but disappointment and yawns.

I would have liked to see her actually own up to her “up close and personal” intentions. There was no real audience interaction – not even her favorite familiar segment where she invites a lucky man from the audience and pulsates her aged pelvis in his face! Instead she should have renamed the tour “Number Ones: Same Stuff (yeah…that’s the “s” word I’m looking for)/Limited Budget.”

Chuckles at Chaifetz. Everybody in St. Louis with more than twenty dollars of tax refund money left was in the building for Mike Epps and ‘nem on Friday night. Before I start, I must mention a phenomenon I just did the math on thanks to this show. Who decided “comedy show clean” was toe-to-toe with “open casket sharp?” On a regular night out, a simple denim jacket will sufice. But if you’re going to catch a laugh, you’ll have to sew some rhinestones in the shape of a stiletto on the back to it in. Okay, on with the show. While I’m happy that Kenny Howell and Sheryl Underwood decided to use this tour to celebrate and reenact the 20th anniversary of their breakthrough set on the Def Comedy Jam, I had a few issues. That “Chinamen” bit was funny when Kenny irst moved here. However, anybody who has been to three shows with him on the bill can recite it from memory by now.

And Sheryl’s tired tragic velour top and wispy wig wore me out before she uttered a word. And girl, if you are going to tie a tote bag strap on a wallet and try to pass it off as a clutch, please don’t parade your fashion fail on stage – even if performing with a purse is your trademark!

Her show consisted of her other trademark – threatening men with sexual favors. She somehow managed to mix high praises to God and Obama in there too. Help. I wish I had a picture of the expression that was frozen on the face of Majic 104.9’s Arika Parr during Underwood’s segment. Her stare summed my feelings up better than any words ever could. It was equal parts “yuck,” “girl, stop… please…,” “poor thing” and “am I the only one that smells feet?” Mike Epps was funny as per usual – especially his jabs at Underwood and Kat Williams. He made the show’s horriic elements worth my trauma.

One-on-one with Mike Epps. I’ve decided to keep my opinions on what prescriptions were involved leading to the mental state of Mike Epps once he arrived at the Loft following his comedy show, because he was such a great sport from the time he arrived until I left (he was still going strong when I decided to call it a night). He walked in the door welcomin’ the ladies who brushed up against him and taking phone pics for the entire path from the front until he planted himself up in VIP.

Getting played by ‘The Game.’ Unfortunately Mike Epps’style of interaction with STL fans was nowhere to be seen for So Sexy Saturdays at EXO when the stars of BET’s The Game came through. Hosea Chanchez’s appearance must have been him doing research for an upcoming role as a building inspector on his lunch break because he did a walk through, ate some wings and punched it. All he needed was a clipboard and one of those forms with the boxes and a to-do list of prerequisites necessary to obtain an occupancy permit.

No party like a Pooch Party. It was almost worth getting caught up in the exit trafic from the ESL smack down (and subsequent shootout) that popped of at Blackmon’s Plaza to see Pooch Hall at Posh. When he inally arrived He blew that Hosea’s pitiful presence at EXO out of the water. Pooch is such a ham (in a good way) and twerked it with the folks while security stood by and had nervous breakdowns as he kept breaking free to be with fans. The good news for show fans at Posh is that Hosea came with Pooch. The bad news for the promoters at EXO is that he spent more time at Posh than he did at the place they paid him to appear The worse news is that Pooch and Hosea looked like they had either just inished a pickup game at Fairgrounds Park or clocked out from detailing a leet of vehicles (doo rags and all).

A Lil Wayne weekend. I hope I at least seem excited to catch a sip of the yabba-dabba-doos of Lil Wayne, Tourette spasms of Nicki Minaj, and the heavy breaths of Rick Ross for the “I Am Still Music even without Drake tour,” on April 10th at the Scottrade Center. Several reliable sources tell me that Weezy (Lil Wayne, not Rick Ross) WILL BE IN THE BUILDING at the Posh (in East St. Louis) after the show.

The big non-payback. I received ive e-mails (three of them in all caps) regarding the refund action for the Jaheim show. Here’s my favorite: ON 04-01-2011 AT 2:30PM I WENT TO OBTAIN A REFUND AND WAS TOLD THERE WERE NO MORE FUNDS AGAIN. (APRIL FOOL ON ME). I WAS ALSO INFORMED REFUNDS WOULD BE GIVEN TOMORROW, 04-02-2011 FROM 2P-6P. I WAS THERE YESTERDAY AT 415PM AND WAS TOLD THEY WERE OUT OF FUNDS AND REFUNDS WOULD BE GIVEN TODAY FROM 2PM-6PM...IT APPEARS NO MATTER WHAT DAY AND TIME I GO,

Beth and Corey celebrated her b-day with big laughs Friday night @ Chaifetz Arena

Sineta and Jeff spent her birthday enjoying the sounds of Anthony David Saturday @ The Old Rockhouse

Mayda McInnis with TV and ilm star Antonio Fargas, who stopped through the Wainwright building on Cardinals’ opening day

案The Game闇 star Hosea Chanchez and Lynn Galloway Saturday night @ Posh

These lovely ladies were waiting patiently for Mike Epps to make his entrance Friday @ The Loft

LJ of the Dramatics spent time with fans following the show Saturday night @ Starlight Room

Soul singer Anthony David and Shay after David’s sold out show Saturday @ The Old Rockhouse

Staci Static and Hope Lynn were among the STL stars checking out Pac Div Thursday night @ The Gramophone

Michael and Meghan O(MG) check out underground hip-hop artist Pac-Div Thursday night @ The Gramophone

Alona and her girl were in prime position for a peek at

案The Game闇 star Pooch Hall Saturday @ Posh

Kim Goodwin was the lucky winner of our latest contest that

Catina and Rebeccah got an earful of down home soul Saturday night @ The Old Rockhouse

The keys to living longerare simple

By Consuelo H.Wilkins,M.D.

Of The St.Louis American

I prefer to go grocery shopping in the early mornings. In general, I’ve found that if I arrive before eight o’clock in the morning, it’s less crowded, the fresh fruits and vegetables look good, and I’m less likely to make impulse purchases because I’m hungry. Unfortunately, one of my favorite grocers doesn’t open until 8 a.m. so I have to squeeze in some time during the day to get there.

As I was leaving a meeting recently, I decided to make a quick stop to pick up a couple of items. I was a little skeptical because it was midday and I had another meeting, but I was going directly to the aisle where I could get some dried cranberries and raw almonds, which I needed for my morning snacks. That was the plan; get the two items, and get out.

I hurried into the store, which was less crowded than I imagined, and went straight to the aisle. Standing just in front of the dried fruit was a well-known, long-time elected official. He was read-

ing the nutritional label on a product very intently, so I could have easily grabbed my two items and fled. But this is someone I have come to know because he is a very dedicated community advocate and is a strong proponent of quality health care and eliminating health inequities.

I stopped to say hello, and we had a brief discussion about healthy nutrition. I glanced in his cart and saw that he had no meat products, so asked if he was a vegetarian. He told me that he had been diagnosed with high blood pressure in the past and decided that he could eat much healthier. He had been successful in reducing his blood pressure by eating fewer processed foods and less fat, and exercising regularly.

Consuelo H. Wilkins,M.D., Medical Accuracy Editor

can be very challenging. Often one of the biggest determinants to living healthier is being motivated, so I asked him if he had motivators other than his blood pressure. He talked about living longer and emphasized that he wanted to feel good and be functional even if he lived to be a centenarian. I was inspired and was definitely happy that I stopped to talk with him.

As a geriatrician, I am often asked about the keys to longevity. For the sake of my subspecialty, I wish that the answers were more sophisticated and complex. Although genetics and the environment play a role in longevity, how long a person lives is more often related to diet and amount of physical activity.

nutritious diet and regular exercise (both aerobic and strength training), avoiding smoking and second-hand smoke is important. If you do develop a chronic illness, diet and exercise can still help improve most conditions but should be supervised by your health provider.

Good mental health is also key in healthy aging. Remaining mentally active by learning new things, reading, playing games (such as cards and puzzles), and other activities that require multiple levels of thinking can help maintain or improve memory.

I was impressed. These are the simple things that we know decrease the risk of chronic illnesses, such as heart disease and diabetes, but these lifestyle changes

Recent studies have found that it’s not just the kinds of food but the total calories consumed. People who consume fewer calories (10-25 percent less than the average American), while still getting the appropriate vitamins and nutrients, have lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, less inflammation, and some have better memory. The degree to which a person should restrict calorie is not yet well established, but maintaining a body mass index (BMI) between 18-25 has better outcomes.

Preventing health problems is the key to successful aging, so in addition to a

Low mood and depression are sometimes challenging to recognize, especially in older adults as it can be mistaken for simple loneliness. Having a low mood every now and then is okay, but consistently low mood and lack of motivation or interest in things is not normal and should be addressed. People with low mood have worse health than those who don’t.

The good news is that living longer and healthier isn’t that complicated. So whether your goal is to be a centenarian (100 years and older) or just a nonagenarian (90-99 years), it’s never too late to start!

Consuelo H. Wilkins, M.D., is medical accuracy editor of The St. Louis American and associate professor of medicine and psychiatry, Division of Geriatrics and Nutritional Science, at Washington University – St. Louis

YourHealth Matters

Abi-monthly special supplement of the St. Louis American April 7, 2011

YourHealth Matters provides up-to-date information, from an African-American perspective, about one of the most important subjects in evryone’s life – their personal health.

Donald M. Suggs, President and Publisher

Kevin Jones, Senior Vice President, COO

Dina M. Suggs, Senior Vice President

Chris King, Editorial Director

Consuelo Wilkins, MD, Medical Accuracy Editor

Sandra Jordan, Health Reporter

Debbie Chase, Director of Health Strategy & Outreach

Sonia Dulaney, Onye Ijei, Barb Sills, Sales

Michael Terhaar, Art/Production Manager

Angelita Jackson, Cover Design

Wiley Price, Photojournalist

Bernice Richardson is the official caller for the bingo sessions at the Heman Park Community Center's Adult Day Care.Photo

American NewspaperBernice Richardson is the official caller for the bingo sessions at the Ochs Senior Center located in the

Aging with balance

Healthy elders need nutritional eating and physical activity

By Sandra Jordan

Of The St.Louis American

“Keeping it moving” for an older person can mean the difference between remaining active, despite aches, pains and other health conditions, and becoming socially isolated and even bedridden.

Monday through Friday activities at the Ochs Senior Center, located at Heman Park Community Center in University City, are geared toward making the first part of the day a special time to come together.

Special, in this case, is spelled B-I-NG-O. It is no secret that the game is the

big draw for the room full of seniors. So the center director decided to incorporate physical activity during the game.

“We’d say, ‘Okay – it’s time to stretch,’” Carmen Smith, center director, said.

“Then I would go around to the tables, and if I didn’t see someone participating, I would hand them one of the stretch bands.”

The one-on-one prodding even got the fellows to stop being spectators and to move as well.

Asenior volunteer leads exercise breaks: chair routines, standing and stretching, and work using exercise

bands.

“It’s got to be a balance – the combination of nutrition as well as exercise,” said Gladys Hicks, area supervisor for the Mid-East Area Agency on Aging (MEAAA).

With input from seniors at the center, MEAAAchanged lunch menus, while maintaining strict nutrition requirements as outlined by the state and federal government.

“We have a dietician on staff who reviews all the menus to make sure the potassium is correct, the calcium is correct, the vitamin C is correct – it has to do one-third of their daily requirements,”

Hicks said.

“Keeping that in mind, we put together a beautiful plate so that they would eat together more – that’s the whole point of it all – eating more better foods. We’re giving them some of their favorites along with what’s necessary to be a balanced meal.”

‘A friendship gathering’

Most of the participants are University City residents who ride in on

Photo by Wiley Price

by Wiley Price / St.Louis

Heman Park Community

HEALTH BRIEFS

Heart issues may be tied to memory problems

Middle-age men and women who have cardiovascular issues, such as high cholesterol and high blood pressure, may be at risk for heart disease and increased risk of developing early cognitive and memory problems, according to a study that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 63rd Annual Meeting this month.

The study found people who had higher cardiovascular risk were more likely to have lower cognitive function and a faster rate of overall cognitive decline compared to those with the lowest risk of heart disease. A10-percent higher cardiovascular risk was associated with poorer cognitive test scores in all areas except reasoning for men and fluency for women.

“The study further demonstrates how these heart disease risk factors can contribute to cognitive decline over a 10-year period,” said study author Sara Kaffashian, MSc, with INSERM, the French National Institute of Health & Medical Research.

Obese seniors need diet and exercise

For obese seniors, dieting and exercise together are more effective at improving physical performance and reducing frailty than either alone, according to a report in The New England Journal of Medicine by a team at Washington University School of Medicine.

Dr. Dennis T. Villareal and his colleagues evaluated the effects of dieting and exercise in more than 100 obese seniors over a one-year period. Although weight loss alone and exercise alone improved physical function by about 12 percent and 15 percent, respectively, neither was as effective as diet and exercise together, which improved physical performance by 21 percent.

The investigators used the Physical Performance Test, a test that evaluates an individual’s ability to perform tasks.

Researchers also evaluated peak oxygen consumption during exertion with treadmill walking. Obese elderly people who both dieted and exercised improved 17 percent from their baseline. The diet-only group showed a 10 percent gain, and the exercise-only group improved about 8 percent.

All subjects in the study were over 65. Their average age was about 70. All subjects had medically significant obesity, defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more. BMI measures the relationship between a person’s height and weight.

“Combining exercise and weight loss isn’t designed so much to extend their life expectancy as it is to improve their quality of life during their remaining years and to help seniors avoid being admitted to a nursing home,” Villareal said.

High blood pressure slows olderadults

Researchers have found a link between high blood pressure and a greater drop in average walking speeds in older adults, according to results from a new National Institutes of Health-funded study. The drop seems to occur even in study participants whose high blood pressure is successfully treated.

The study examined the role of brain, heart and kidney function in changes in seniors’walking speeds over 14 years. Participating seniors, with an average age of 76 at the start of the study, who had high blood pressure, saw their average walking speeds decline 0.2 miles per hour more than seniors who did not have high blood pressure.

The research is part of the NHLBI Cardiovascular Health Study, led by Dr. Caterina Rosano of the University of Pittsburgh to help understand risk factors for cardiovascular disease in older adults.

“An acceptable walking speed is important for seniors to maintain their independence,” Rosano explained. “For seniors, a declining walking speed can be an indicator of other health problems and can help predict who will develop dementia or disabilities.”

Link between hearing loss and dementia

Seniors with hearing loss are significantly more likely to develop dementia over time than those who retain their hearing, a study by Johns Hopkins and National Institute on Aging researchers suggests. The findings, the researchers say, could lead to new ways to combat dementia, a condition that affects millions of people worldwide and carries heavy societal burdens.

“Researchers have looked at what affects hearing loss, but few have looked at how hearing loss affects cognitive brain function,” says study leader Frank Lin, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the Division of Otology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Lin and his colleagues used data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study on Aging (BLSA). The BLSA, initiated by the National Institute on Aging in 1958, has tracked various health factors in thousands of men and women over decades.

The new study, recently published in the Archives of Neurology, focused on 639 people whose hearing and cognitive abilities were tested as part of the BLSAbetween 1990 and 1994. While about a quarter of the volunteers had some hearing loss at the start of the study, none had dementia.

These volunteers were then closely followed with repeat examinations every one to two years, and by 2008, 58 of them had developed dementia. The researchers found that study participants with hearing loss at the beginning of the study were significantly more likely to develop dementia by the end.

Liver, not brain, as origin of Alzheimer’s plaques

Unexpected results from a Scripps Research Institute and ModGene, LLC study could completely alter scientists’ideas about Alzheimer’s disease – pointing to the liver instead of the brain as the source of the “amyloid” protein that deposits as brain plaques associated with this devastating condition. The findings could offer a relatively simple approach for Alzheimer’s prevention and treatment.

The study was published online in The Journal of Neuroscience Research. Scientists used a mouse model for Alzheimer’s disease to identify genes that influence the amount of amyloid that accumulates in the brain. They found three genes that protected mice from brain amyloid accumulation and deposition. For each gene, lower expression in the liver protected the mouse brain. One of the genes encodes presenilin – a cell membrane protein believed to contribute to the development of human Alzheimer’s.

Scripps Research Professor Greg Sutcliff led the study.

YOUR HEALTH QUESTIONS MATTER

What can be done about stinky feet?

BJK People’s Health Center

Podiatrist, Dr. Robert Moore, responds

J.G. wants to know: What can be done about foot odor?

Dr. Robert Moore, a podiatrist, responds.

First of all, a foot examination is needed in order to determine what can be done about foot odor, since there may be several causes for foot odor.

It may be increased perspiration of feet due to type of shoes or health issues.

Some shoes don’t breathe well, such as patent leather, vinyl, or rubber shoes. Wearing shoes that breathe well will help decrease bad odor.

It could be wearing shoes that have gotten wet and not allowing them to dry

well.The odor from the shoes may transfer to feet.

Dry your shoes well before wearing.

People who are anxious may have a tendency to keep moisture on their feet, and wearing those enclosed shoes with socks or stockings may lead to an odor.Changing socks or stockings during the day will help.

Dry in between toes well after bathing or showering.

It’s best to make an appointment to visit your podiatrist to determine the cause of your foot odor.

The normal bacteria that exist on our feet together with moisture may lead to an odor.

Also, infections may lead to an odor. Certain bacterial infections will produce

an odor.If there is a wound or sore that is draining, a culture test can be obtained to determine the type of bacteria. Treating with an antibiotic may solve the problem.

Fungal infections, such as athlete’s feet, can lead to an odor; certain anti-fungals can be applied to help.

Viral infections, such as warts, may occasionally cause an odor.

Dermatitis (skin inflammation), due to chemicals; allergies to shoes or any allergic reactions to medications; or contact dermatitis due to poison ivy or oak, can become infected and lead to an odor.

Cancer on the foot can also become infected and lead to an odor.

It’s best to make an appointment to visit your podiatrist, or please feel free to visit me at Betty Jean Kerr People’s Health Centers to determine the cause of your foot odor, so that proper diagnosis and treatment can be applied to help this problem.

Let us hear from you. Do you have a health-related question? Email it to yourhealthmatters@stlamerican.com Rather than a personal reply, a health professional will provide an answer that we will share with all readers in a future issue of Your Health Matters. Your privacy will be respected.

Lentil Soup

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1/2 cup dry lentils

1 cup water

5 ounces low-sodium stewed tomatoes

1/8 cup chopped onion

2 stalks celery, chopped, with leaves

1/4 teaspoon curry powder

3 cloves garlic, minced salt to taste

ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Combine lentils and water, bring to a boil.

2. Lower heat to simmer, add tomatoes, onion, and celery. Cover and let simmer 45 minutes. Check every 15 minutes to stir, and add water if necessary. Add spices last 15 minutes to taste. Taste and re-spice if necessary before serving.

Nutrition Facts perServing

Calories: 94

% Daily Value

Total Fat: 0g 0%

Saturated Fat: 0g0%

Trans Fat: 0g

Cholesterol: 0mg0%

Sodium: 189 mg8%

Total Carbohydrate: 18g6%

Dietary Fiber 6g22%

Sugars 5g

Protein: 6g

Vitamin A6%

Vitamin C16%

Calcium6%

Iron16%

Food Outreach continues to be the only nonprofit organization in the greater St. Louis area that focuses on providing critical nutritional support to individuals with a life-threatening illness. Through prepared meals, groceries and nutrition counseling, the organization is able to enhance the quality of life of low income men, women and children living with cancer or HIV/AIDS.Food Outreach is on pace to provide 410,000+ nutritious meals to 1,500 clients residing in 137 Missouri and Illinois zip codes in 2009.For more information, call 314-652-3663 or visit www.foodoutreach.org

Attention African-American men

As an African-American man, you are at higher risk for getting and dying from prostate cancer.

Should I be screened for prostate cancer?

The decision is up to you and your doctor. Know your risk factors and the pros and cons of screening. Here are some basic questions to help you start a conversation with your doctor.

• Am I at a greater risk for prostate cancer?

• What does “screening” mean?

• At what age should I start to think about screening for prostate cancer?

• What tests are included in prostate cancer screening?

• What is the difference between the DRE and the PSAtest?

• What are the risks and benefits of being screened?

• If I get a test result back that is not normal, what other things could I have besides prostate cancer?

• What are the next steps after getting the test result?

• What does the test result mean for my life expectancy?

• If I do in fact have prostate cancer, what are all the treatment options (e.g. close monitoring and follow up, radiation, removing the prostate)?

• What are the side effects or risks of each treatment?

Where can I find more information on prostate cancer?

Nothing can take the place of a conversation with a health care provider. In addition to this, there are some good websites with information. It’s important that you use accurate sources. Here are some great websites to help you find more information about prostate cancer risk.

• Your Disease Risk – www.yourdiseaserisk.wustl.edu

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – www.cdc.gov/cancer/prostate

• American Cancer Society – www.cancer.org

• Need help finding a health provider – www.211.missouri.org or call 2-1-1 from most landlines (1-800-427-4626 from cell phones)

Read about St. Louis resident, Bob Washington’s prostate cancer journey in the newspaper during April.

Fri., Apr. 8, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. - Sat. Apr. 9, 7:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. – 2011 Asthma Summit by the St. Louis Regional Asthma Consortium at the Millennium Hotel. Registration is $75 – both days or $50 one day. For more information, call 314-977-8253 or http://tinyurl.com/4ep43vb

Sat. Apr. 9, 1p.m. - 4 p.m. –Community Health & Resource Fair, Mt. Bethel M.B. Church, 1600 Belt Ave. St. Louis. Free health screenings including glaucoma & memory; pregnancy testing/ultrasounds; mammograms (pre-register) chair massages, entertainment, gam4es, weatherization demos. For more information, call 314-925-0750.

Sat. Apr. 9, 6:30 p.m. –Midnight, Blue Tie Gala to celebrate prostate cancer survivors, at St. Louis Gateway Classic Sports Foundation, 2012 Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, St. Louis. The event is sponsored by The Empowerment Network and Betty Jean Kerr People’s Health Centers. Tickets are $20 – sales support prostate cancer outreach efforts. For tickets, call 314-367-7848 ext. 1246.

CALENDAR

Sun. Apr. 10, 2 p.m. – 5 p.m. – A Tasteful Affair23, Chase Park Plaza Khorassan Ballroom, 212 N. Kingshighway, St. Louis, an annual fundraiser for Food Outreach. More than 40 restaurants and caterers are providing the tastings; live and silent auction items. Tickets are $50 in advance and $65 at the door. The VIPPreview Party from 1-2 p.m. is $123 (includes main event ticket). Food outreach provides nutritious meals for low-income persons living with HIV/AIDS or cancer. For more information call 314-652-3663 x. 122 or visit www.foodoutreach.org.

Tues. Apr. 12, 6 – 8 p.m., Caregiver Solutions forDementia Care, Northwest HealthCare Community Room, 1225 Graham Rd. Presented by the Alzheimer’s Association, this free informational program features how-to approaches and demonstrations of care techniques for activities, eating/dining, bathing, grooming, dressing, continence and safety.

Wed. Apr. 14, 6 p.m. – 7 p.m., Crisis Nursery Kid’s Banquet at Creve Coeur

Government Center - honoring local volunteers from throughout the region. For more information, call (314) 2925770 or visit www.crisisnurserykids.org.

Apr. 20, 9 – 10 a.m., Balance

Screening to prevent injuries and broken bones due to falls, which are common in older adults, presented by Graham Medical Rehabilitation Center. The free screenings take place at the Jamestown Mall Food Court, located at N. Hwy 67/Old Jamestown Rd. in Florissant.

Sat. Apr. 30, 9 a.m. - 1 p.m., Wellness

Jam 2011, St. Louis Gateway Classic Foundation, 2012 Dr. Martin Luther King Dr. –St. Louis. Free activities for all ages, including a children’s pavilion; free health screenings; fitness demonstration, step and line dancing; giveaways, raffles, and live performances. For more information, call 314621-1994.

Sunday, May 1, 2 p.m. – Heart & Soul 5K Race, at Creve CoeurPark. Event includes prizes, awards, health/ fitness stations; music and entertainment. Proceeds will benefit KaBOOM!, the national non-profit organization dedicated to saving play. Register at www.heartandsoulrun.com.

Wed. May 4, 6:00 – 8:30 p.m. –“We Are More Than What You Think,” a free community forum about mental illness in the African American community at the Missouri History Museum. Continuing education credits from the Missouri Institute of Mental Health are available for $10. For more information, contact Bryan EvansMental Health America @ 314-7731399 or Justin Idleburg at 314-4825697-jidlehelps@gmail.com.

Sat. May 7, 9:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. –“Behind the Mask” Lupus Educational Conference at Saint Louis University. Registration at 8 a.m., $10 attendance fee includes all sessions and lunch. Attendees must preregister by calling 800-9LUPUS6, email info@LFAheartland.org or go to http://tinyurl.com/lupusSTL.

Sat. June 18, 7 a.m. - 2nd Annual Ronald McDonald House Charities of Metro St. Louis’Bike Ride in Forest Park. The event has five race options: To ride, volunteer or for more information, visit www.rmhcridestl.com, 314-932-4146 or e-mail lfletcher@rmhcstl.com.

Thurs. June 16, Faith Based

Emergency Preparedness Conference at St. Louis UniversityDuBourg Hall- Refectory, Room 157. The conference, “Preparing Our Faith Communities for Disasters” will provide congregations with information on emergency preparedness interest, capabilities, and activities including disaster relief and recovery. Registration begins May 1, and ends June 3, 2011 and is limited to 150 churches, with 2 representatives from each church. For more information, call Cathy Harris (314) 977-8274.

Sun. June 19, Katy Trail Father’s Day Family Bike Ride, to benefit prostate cancer research at Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine. Riders can start from a designated KATYTrailhead and ride to Defiance, Mo. Pre-registration is $10.00 ($15.00 day of ride). For more information, or to sign-up, go to www.fathersdaybikeride.com.

Sundays, 10 a.m., Alcoholics Anonymous Group 109 meets in the 11th floor conference room at Christian Hospital, 11133 Dunn Road at I-270/Hwy. 367. This is an open meeting for alcoholics, drug addicts and their family and friends.

Mondays, 7 p.m., “Tobacco Free for Life” support group – free weekly meetings at St. Peters Mo. City Hall. Supported by SSM Cancer Care; RSVPinitial participation to 636-9475304.

Tuesdays, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m., Help for a drug-free life - chemical dependency information meeting. Call 314-8393171.

Wednesdays, 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m., STEPS Schizophrenia Support Group

This nationally recognized program provides education and support for those with schizophrenia. Group is facilitated by an experienced STEPS nurse. For more information, call 314839-3171.

First Thursdays, 10 a.m. – Family Support Group by NAMI St. Louis, The Alliance on Mental Illness at the Grace Hill Murphy-O’Fallon Health Center, 1717 Biddle St. No registration needed; no cost. For more information, contact Allen Daniel, 314-814-8579.

Free psychiatric and chemical dependency evaluations are confidential at the Christian Hospital Center for Mental Health. Call 314-839-3171.

Elder services from MEAAA

The Mid-East Area Agency on Aging (MEAAA) also focuses on diabetes management, medication management and fall prevention to make golden years productive, safe and healthy ones.

“Missouri is near the bottom for deaths from falls for seniors, so the state is really making an effort to decrease the amount of falls by seniors,” said John Gamache, public relations and resource development specialist for MEAAA. “They devised this program called Steady As You Go. We are presenting these at our centers.”

MEAAAemphasizes the importance of medication management and may refer clients to get a complete assessment of what medications, herbal remedies and over-the-counter items they are taking for possible interaction problems.

“We can arrange for a pharmacist to go to a person’s home if they have a very complicated medication regimen,” Gamache said.

“She specializes in geriatric pharmacy and she looks at all the medications you take – how you’re storing them, when you are taking them, if they are supposed to be taken with or without food, what non-prescription drugs you’re taking, what herbal supplements you’re taking.”

She then writes a recommendation for their doctor.

MEAAAcan assist older adults with transportation to their centers and to doctor appointments, hospitals, banks, grocery stores and to shopping centers to encourage activity.

Its Supply Bank offers incontinence supplies and nutritional supplements, and its Aging and Disability Resource Center helps find services for disabled persons. It offers caregiver assistance

For more information on services available for older adults in St. Louis County, contact MEAAat 636-207-1323 or hwww.mid-eastaaa.org. For St. Charles, Jefferson or Franklin counties, call 1-800-AGE-6060.

AGING

Continued from page 3

MEAAA-contracted buses each day.

The center provides what Floyd Lockridge calls “peace of mind.” “I get to flirt with all the women,” Lockridge said.

Darlene Hubbard said she comes to the center to get out of the house. Bingo, she said, is her favorite part of the day.

“It’s got to be a balance – the combination of nutrition as well as exercise.”

–

Gladys Hicks, Mid-East Area Agency on Aging

Other people living outside of U. City drive to Ochs.

Charles Rollins of Bel-Ridge is one of the commuters.

“I drive down just to be with the people down here, and it’s something for me to do every day,” Rollins said. “I have this place as a friendship gathering.”

The group also is gearing up for community gardening on April 11.

“We’re going to be talking about seeds. We do this in combination with Castle, the community action organization,” Hicks said.

“This year they are going to give us help – how to cook healthy, how to exercise healthy and how gardening is integral to that process.”

Hicks credits the center director, Carmen Smith, for making the “Bingo-cise” fun. Prizes are awarded to everyone who gets Bingo, and they get a choice of food staples and practical household items.

Although bingo is going to be a hard game to match, Smith said she is getting ready to do a version of the television series, The Price Is Right.

Hicks said, “It’s not a forced thing. I am so happy that I am able to see them now doing it, and they are excited about it and looking forward to exercise.”

For more information on services available for older adults in St. Louis County, contact MEAAat 636-207-1323 or hwww.mid-eastaaa.org. For St. Charles, Jefferson or Franklin counties, call 1-800-AGE-6060.

PROFILING PEOPLE IN HEALTH

Jacquelyn Renee McFadden,MD

Position: Family medicine physician, Betty Jean Kerr People’s Health Centers, Florissant

St. Louis Connection: Lutheran High School - North

Yourjourney to success:

My journey to practicing medicine began at a young age. My parents instilled in me the importance of education. During my formative years, I had perfect attendance K-12. There was no question that I would attend college, as I am a proud fourth-generation graduate of a historically black college/university.

I began my higher educational pursuits at Fisk University, where I majored in biology. It was there during my freshman year that I determined I wanted to be a physician. I could look across the street to Meharry Medical College and see all the black people walking around in long white coats.

I was accepted to the University of Missouri – Columbia School of Medicine. There I was met with the challenge of medical school. I am thankful for the power of prayer, grace and mercy from the Lord, and parents who guided me through.

Careerhighlights: Speaking to young people to inspire them to set high goals and reminding them that all can be achieved.

Education: Fisk University

University of Missouri – Columbia School of Medicine

Forest Park Hospital – Family Medicine Residency Program

Personal:

Daughter of the late Reverend Dr. Arthur B. McFadden and Marjesta McFadden

Sister of Anntoinette McFadden

Married to Nathaniel Ford, Jr. and proud parent of Marjesta Ford

Member of Compassionate Ministries Fellowship

Member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.

Juvenile diabetes retreat

Treasure Long of Fenton,Mo.was diagnosed with insulin-dependent diabetes as a toddler.She and her family were among more than 1,000 people who gathered recently at the Millennium Hotel in downtown St. Louis for a weekend retreat.It included updates on research,seminars, counseling and family entertainment.

The event was hosted by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Metro Saint Louis/Greater Missouri Chapter and sponsored by Animas Corporation and The United Way.

Jacquelyn Renee McFadden,MD

Photo by Megan Sheets

Breast

Cancer

Gateway to Hope offers no-charge medical and reconstructive treatment for uninsured breast cancer patients in Missouri. Contact 314-569-1113.

Behavorial

Christian Hospital offers free and confidential psychiatric and chemical dependency evaluations at the Christian Hospital Center for Mental Health. The hospital has a geriatric psychiatric unit dedicated to serving the mental health needs of geriatric patients. For more information, call 314-839-3171.

Diabetes

Free, diabetes education program held at various locations by the Diabetes Network of St. Louis. Participants will be offered testing and support for diabetes control. Six sessions will cover monitoring your blood sugar, controlling complications of diabetes, taking care of your feet, living a healthy life through diet and exercise, and personal goal setting. Call Coco Bopp 314-7479533 for more information.

Dental

HEALTH RESOURCES

Free Dental Hygiene Clinic - No charge dental exams, x-rays, cleanings and other dental services for children and adults provided by dental students at Missouri College. Patients needing more extensive dental work (like fillings, crowns, etc.) will be referred to local dentists. For an appointment, call 314-768-7899.

Fitness

Jazzercise every Monday and Thursday, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. – $1 per class at Ferguson Heights Church of Christ, 1239 N. Elizabeth Ave. Ferguson, Mo., 63135. For information, call 314-521-8005.

Information

Missouri 2-1-1 offers referral and information on a wide range of social service and helpful resources. Call 2-1-1.

Medical

Salam Free Saturday Clinic, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. at the Isom Community Center at Lane Tabernacle CME Church, 916 N. Newstead. for those who are uninsured. For information, call 314-533-0534.

St. Louis ConnectCare offers urgent care services to City of St. Louis employees without an appointment, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and most holidays. For more information, call 314-879-6300.

Nutrition

Food Outreachprovides food, meals and nutritional education/ counseling to eligible persons living with HIV/AIDS or cancer in St. Louis. For more information, call 314-652-3663 or visit www.foodoutreach.org.

Angel Food Ministries operates in hundreds of churches nationwide and offers heat and serve meals, canned and fresh food boxes at a reduced cost. Find the nearest locations by zip code at www.angelfoodministries.com.

Prescription Cost Help

Schnucks Pharmacies – now offers certain prescription prenatal vitamins for free and offers no-cost generic prescription antibiotics at select locations.

Wal-Mart Pharmacies – offer select prescriptions for $4 or less for a 30-day supply or $10 for a 90-day supply. View the complete list at www.walmart.com/pharmacy.

Respiratory Health

Free lung function screening - Christian Hospital Breathing Center at Northwest HealthCare, 1225 Graham Rd. For more information, call 314-953-6040.

Sexual Health

St. Louis County Health Department offers free, confidential testing, counseling and treatment at the North Central Community Health Center, 4000 Jennings Station Road, St. Louis, MO 63121. For more information, call 314679-7800.

St. Louis Metropolitan HIV/AIDS Program offers confidential or anonymous testing for HIV/AIDS. The office is located within ConnectCare’s main building in Suite 203 at 5535 Delmar, St. Louis, MO 63112. For more information, call (314) 879-6468.