December 14th, 2017 Edition

Action at West Lake Landfill?

By Rebecca Rivas

Chapman went through multiple different emotions upon hearing the news, she said. She was happy, but at the same time, she was also angry.

Finally, it’s validation.”

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said the list came out of the recommendations that the

FebruAry 20, 1953December 6, 2017

‘He

By Rebecca Rivas Of

By Jessica Karins For The St. Louis American

Police chief finalists face the public

Majority are people of color, though names not released

By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American

The eight semi-finalists in the search for St. Louis’ next police chief are heading to town this week, and the community will get a chance to ask the final six candidates questions at a public forum on Thursday, December 14.

Personnel Director Richard Frank said that no one – not even the mayor – knows the names of the eight semi-finalists. Throughout the search process, the outside search firm has presented the candidates to the mayor and her advisory committee as numbers, not names, along with summaries of the people’s backgrounds.

“I don’t even know who they are off the top of my head,” Frank said. He is the only one in St. Louis who has

See CHIEF, A6

Photo by Wiley Price

The St. Louis American

Ferguson Police Chief Delrish Moss connected with DaShawn Jones, 2, Jeremiah Jones, 5, Elisia Williams, 4, and Emya Williams, 5, at the Ferguson Community Empowerment Center’s Christmas party on Friday, December 8. The center stands on the site of the QuikTrip that was burnt

Ferguson unrest.

Norm White

Photo by Wiley Price

Phaedra has no desire to return to ‘RHOA’

Former “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star, Phaedra Parks, who was fired for spreading lies about co-star Kandi Burruss, says she has no desire to return to the show.

“I have no desire to [return to the show]. I mean, I’ve turned the page,” Parks told TMZ. “I love being happy. I love living drama-free. My kids are happy, and I am able to enjoy life. It made me sick sometimes. You know, it’s a lot to deal with.”

Hannibal Buress arrested for public intoxication

heard shouting at arresting officers, “you look really stupid right now,” and telling them they have “don’t have probable cause to arrest him.”

The Miami Herald reported that an inebriated Buress and asked an officer if he would call an Uber for him.

The report says that after the officer declined, he claims Burress became belligerent. The officer told Burress to leave, but instead he went into a venue, was followed by the officer and arrested.

He was booked on a disorderly intoxication charge and posted bail just before 6 a.m.

Comedian Hannibal Buress was arrested over the weekend for public intoxication in Miami. His arrest was caught on video, and he is

Tyrese explains his ‘Furious’ rage

For the past few months, Tyrese Gibson has been trolling “Fast and Furious” co-star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for his decision to accept a Fast and Furious spin-off. In an appearance on “The Ed Lover Show,” Gibson explains what set him off.

“I want people to know that me and Ludacris was offered a spin-off long before Dwayne and Jason and I turned it down because the Fast and Furious is not about us individually.

Everything about the multi-ethnic cast, the fact that I stand on the shoulders of Vin Diesel

Michelle Rodriguez, Paul Walker... it ain’t

my franchise and it’s not his. So, for any of us to take the liberty, in my opinion, to go and say you can offer me a bag of money, you can put my name on a script and just make it about me individually, to me, that comprises the integrity of what the Fast and The Furious is about.”

Was Omarosa dragged out of the White House?

Wednesday morning, the White House confirmed Omarosa Manigault submitted her resignation to the Trump administration. According to several sources, Manigault was dragged out kicking and screaming.

In a thread of tweets, veteran White House reporter April Ryan details what reportedly happened behind the scenes.

“I heard there was drama and she was escorted out of the building and off the campus,” Ryan tweeted.

“Sources say General Kelly did the firing and Omarosa is alleged to have acted very vulgar and cursed a lot and sad she helped elect President Trump. The word

ALWAYS IN SEASON.

is that General Kelly had it and got rid of her.

“Okay, the White House still contends Omarosa signed a resignation letter,” Ryan continued. “But Gen. Kelly kicked her out with high drama with the Minister offering vulgarities and curse words as she was escorted out of the building and off campus.”

Da Brat owes millions to accuser and has yet to pay Back in 2014, rapper Da Brat was ordered to pay $6.4 million to former Atlanta Hawks cheerleader Shayala after Da Brat allegedly broke a bottle on her face at Jermaine 2007 Halloween party. According to TheBlast.com, Da Brat hasn’t paid a dime in restitution and the interest has surpassed $1 million, upping the judgment to $7.8 Stevens recently filed documents in California, so she can go after Da Brat’s assets in that state.

Sources: The Blast.com, The Miami Herald, The Ed Lover Show, Twitter.com, CNN. com, TMZ.com

Omarosa

City plans gun buyback program

Missouri Bar, police association will partner in effort

By Jessica Karins

For The St. Louis American

St. Louis is initiating a new gun buyback program that aims to get illegal weapons off the street, Mayor Lyda Krewson announced at a press conference on Friday, December 8.

St. Louis is ending 2017 with the highest number of homicides the city has experienced since 1995. Now, Krewson and members of her administration are calling on residents of the city to turn in any illegal guns they or their family members might possess in an anonymous program that will compensate them with gift cards to area businesses.

This year, Krewson said, “The police department has taken over 2000 guns off the street. That’s not nearly enough.”

Krewson said though police have been focusing on preventive measures for gun violence, the city cannot “arrest our way out of this situation.” She suggested part of the solution would be the expansion of job programs through the St. Louis Agency on Training and Employment (SLATE), but removing guns that are stolen from cars and gun shops from the streets is another.

“If you’re a mom, a dad, a brother or sister, a pastor, a teacher, and you have information, or if you’re worried about a gun that may be in your house, please come forward,” Krewson said. “You can come forward completely

anonymously and contact Crimestoppers, or you can contact a trusted social service agency.”

Once the guns are repossessed, police will run them to check whether they have been involved in a crime, but those turning in a gun are not required to identify themselves.

Experts have questioned the effectiveness of gun buyback programs as a measure to prevent violence, especially compared to other gun control measures like stricter background checks. Unlike many others, though, St. Louis’ program will focus on illegally possessed guns rather than those made illegal by recent changes or simply aiming to reduce overall gun possession.

St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson outlined the city’s proposed gun buyback program as Jimmie Edwards, director of Public Safety and Lawrence O’Toole, interim police chief, listened during a press conference in St. Louis on Friday, December 8.

because that same gun that is in your house may be a weapon used to hurt someone very badly.”

The city itself will not be spending any money on the program, which will mostly be funded by donations from the Missouri Bar Association.

GOP tax plan spells disaster for our education system

By Benjamin Wheeler For The St. Louis American

Since the unveiling of the GOP tax plan, the country has been abuzz with questions. Individuals ask, “How does this affect me?” Companies contemplate, “How does this affect the bottom line?” Pundits and talking heads sputter, “Who wins? Who loses?” I ask only one question, “Has the entire country forgotten about graduate students?”

The most familiar educational provision in this bill is the elimination of the student loan interest deduction. However, this bill has a more nefarious plan for graduate students.

Typically, PhD students have their tuition waived by the school and are given a modest stipend to live on – all as a small way to keep graduate students from flipping burgers in between classes, time in the lab, and running undergraduate courses. Currently, this stipend is counted as taxable income and the tuition waiver –money never actually seen by the students – is not.

The GOP proposes to now include the tuition waiver as “income,” increasing graduate student’s taxes three- to four-fold under most calculations. No matter how exact rates change, this bill will not in any way be a tax cut for graduate students. This spells disaster for our country’s education system.

Benjamin Wheeler

Recently appointed Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards asked the public to come forward if they have witnessed or been the victim of a crime. He said he is not expecting many criminals to turn in their own guns, but hopes their family members will.

n “My message is simple: Mom, Grandma, Uncle, Dad, give us the guns.”

– Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards

“My message is simple: Mom, Grandma, Uncle, Dad, give us the guns,” Edwards said. “Give us the guns,

Edwards also called on police chiefs in nearby municipalities, including East St. Louis, to participate in regional solutions to gun violence.

The last time St. Louis attempted a gun buyback was nearly a decade ago.

“We think it is time to do that again, and we are really very hopeful that all of you will work with us in order to try to take additional guns off the street,” Krewson said.

This may be a way of circumnavigating a Missouri state law which bans many of these initiatives. The law requires local governments to vote on gun buyback programs -- in this case, a resolution would need to be passed by the Board of Aldermen – and to sale or trade guns turned in to a licensed firearms dealer.

Koran Addo, spokesman for the mayor, said that the program will be conducted by the Missouri Bar Association and the St. Louis Police Officers Association and that he does not foresee any legal problems.

“We think we’re well within the law to conduct it in that way,” Addo said.

Addo said guns collected in the buyback program will be destroyed.

PhD students already live on the brink of poverty and devote on average five of their best years to expanding our collective knowledge. This bill seeks to take this opportunity away from any student who is not independently wealthy. The loss of graduate students would stretch university resources to their limits as they scramble to fill all the positions currently covered by graduate students.

Any attempt to soften the blow to graduate students would mean universities diverting the costs to others – the most likely candidates being the undergraduate students and ultimately the government, who would see tuition spikes and increased borrowing rates of subsidized student loans.

It is no secret that America’s prowess in the last half century has been built upon the education system we have created. Firms like Apple, Amazon, Boeing, and AbbVie thrive on the talent cultivated by these institutions. This destructive blow to the education system risks our economy, our health, and our military might. This provision will not make America great again.

As Americans we must support those who sacrifice for the greater good. So we must call upon our representatives and senators to remove this attack upon our nation’s students.

However, this does not go far enough. We should go a further and make stipends tax-free as they once were. If the goal of this bill is to reward hard work and drive growth, then let us incentivize innovation. Let us support those students who sacrifice time and careers with much higher pay to instead delve into the questions and problems plaguing our world.

Benjamin Wheeler is a scientist for a local biotech start up with a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University.

Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI

Guest Columnist

Editorial /CommEntary

STL PD needs a seasoned police chief to change it

There will be a moment on Thursday, December 14 when the people of St. Louis will get to see if their voices have been heard, and it will happen even before the public forum on police chief candidates begins at 6 p.m. that day at the SLU Law Clinic Courtroom in downtown St. Louis.

Earlier that day, between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m., eight semifinalists will appear before two panels. The 13-member Citizen Advisory Committee – a search group Mayor Lyda Krewson put together at the demand of city residents – will get to ask these candidates questions, then the city’s search firm will have a go. The candidates will also take an online management assessment test on Wednesday. Their scores on the interviews and tests will be tallied around 4 p.m.

The candidates with the top six scores become finalists and go before the public that night.

This is when we’ll see if the Citizen Advisory Committee has truly been listening during the community work sessions this summer, where citizens described the person they want to lead their police department.

If Interim Police Chief Lawrence O’Toole is offered as one of the final six candidates, then the committee and the entire process has already failed the public. In his short time as interim chief, he has managed to have a handful of lawsuits filed against the city, stemming from incidents when officers ultimately under his command brutally handled nonviolent protestors, members of the media, and even neighbors (one of them a U.S. Air Force officer) out for a walk – then boasted that police “owned the night.” Under his leadership, the department was issued an injunction from a federal judge that basically orders that O’Toole and his officers obey the Constitution, and subsequently the Department of Justice opened a civil rights investigation.

O’Toole, clearly, is not the answer. We agree with David Dwight, who sits on the Citizen Advisory Committee for the police chief search, when he says, “We need someone who is really ready for bold leadership, who can transform the culture of the police department.” During his brief time in charge, O’Toole has not transformed the culture of the police department; he has encouraged it and boasted about it at its worst.

Indeed, it is difficult to see why the public should trust anyone who has advanced to senior leadership in this police department to take the lead in changing it. Before the brutal policing of Stockley verdict protests was the Stockley case itself. A police killing with such inflammatory evidence against the shooter should not have festered for five years before coming to a public hearing. Much of senior police leadership has its fingerprints on the case – including the civil trial that preceded criminal charges, in which police failed to hand over to the victim’s family critical DNA evidence, an independent investigator concluded. In the meantime, police leadership looked the other way while officers overbilled the city for overtime pay, as an audit

Interim St. Louis Police Chief Lawrence O’Toole being interviewed in July –before the department was ordered by a federal judge to stop policing protests unconstitutionally and a federal civil rights investigation into the department was opened.

by the comptroller revealed. Much of this current leadership was advancing in the department during the towing scam, when citizen vehicles were confiscated, retitled and sold, and we don’t believe nearly all the police perpetrators in the scam were brought to justice.

So the bold leadership we need to transform this into a more law-abiding, Constitutionobeying, trust-deserving and therefore more effective police department needs to come from outside of this region, because no one in this region has shown the vision, courage and skills to transform a dysfunctional police department’s culture. The mayor had a chance to appoint a Public Safety director with this experience and chose instead someone whose law enforcement experience all came behind a bench and gavel. Now she has no choice but to hire a police chief with this experience and demonstrated effectiveness.

The search committee has been told this before. At one of the search committee’s work sessions with residents in June, a facilitator reported that her group wanted a police chief with a history of changing the culture of a police department. Or, as this resident said more dramatically, “He needs to not be afraid to blow up the system.”

Those are the key questions the public needs to ask the candidates. “Do you have history of changing the culture of a police department?” If the answer is not a convincing “yes,” that candidate is out. “Are you afraid to blow up the system?” If the answer is not a convincing “no,” then that candidate is out. And if all of these candidates fail these rigorous tests, then the search has failed and it’s imperative that the mayor and Edwards – who will make the final decision – start over.

Black voters show democracy can still function after Trump

In the year-plus that Donald Trump has been president of the United States, those of us who have watched politics for a long time have taken only one comfort in his constant, reckless assault on the rule of law, respect for fact, and simple human dignity – taking your position too far always backfires in the end, in a democratic system. This sanity-saving comfort has been challenged by Trump’s assaults on fact and the media. The backlash that overreach provokes only works if we have some shared sense of reality. People have to believe reports of misdoings and bad outcomes and vote accordingly for the overreaching person or party in power to get voted out in the next cycle. And Trump’s assaults on our democratic institutions, alongside Republicans’ decades-long efforts to pass voting laws that have the effect of disenfranchising minorities – not to mention that a hostile foreign power has just shown success at influencing our elections – have given reason to worry how democratic our system will be by the next major election.

The special election to replace Jeff Sessions in the U.S. Senate representing Alabama was a tremendously encouraging sign that American democracy can still function despite Trump. Those with the most to lose if a Trump-backed Republican had been elected delivered a crushing backlash vote to defeat a Republican in a deepred state that Trump won by 28 points. Black voters in Alabama came out in even larger numbers than they did to elect Barack Obama to the presidency twice – a larger percentage of voters on Tuesday were black (30 percent) than blacks’ representation in the state’s population (26 percent) – and, according to exit polls, 96 percent of them voted Democrat. That is what Democrats need to win elections – a huge black turnout that votes almost totally Democratic – and it joined a coalition that also is critical to defeating Republicans. Voters under age 45 voted overwhelmingly against the Trump-backed Republican, and women overall voted Democrat by a 16-point margin. Although, disturbingly, 63 percent of white women voted for a Republican who stood credibly accused of initiating a sexual

encounter with a 14-year-old girl, among other alleged attempts to prey on teenagers when in his 30s. But a diverse coalition led by black voters – especially black women – kept this alleged pedophilic sex predator with racist, homophobic views from becoming a U.S. senator. This reassuring outcome – that our democracy can actually function after the election of Trump – has implications throughout the country.

In Missouri, a state Trump won by nearly 20 percent, Democrats need to reelect a U.S. Senator next year. In 2012, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill got an electoral gift on par with the damning allegations against Roy Moore in Alabama, when her Republican rival, Todd Akin, voiced the opinion that women’s bodies can avert pregnancy in cases of “legitimate rape.” Her likely opponent in 2018, Josh Hawley, currently serving his first term as Missouri attorney general, is not likely to give McCaskill that great of a gift. McCaskill and Missouri Democrats have their work cut out for them in building a coalition of minority, young and educated voters, similar to the winning coalition in Alabama on Tuesday – and, most crucially, in energizing black voters. That means moving beyond the usual second-tier organizing effort in the black community with its huge Democratic margins. Trump’s candidate in Alabama told a black man, when asked when America was last “great,” that it “was at the time when families were united — even though we had slavery.” The media reported this anti-historical nonsense and, thankfully, black people trusted reported fact enough to get angry and do something about it. Though many said they were not inspired by a Democratic candidate who did not aggressively pursue their vote or speak directly to their concerns, black voters in Alabama – where so many fought and died for the right to vote –came out in historic numbers to defeat a man they felt was a local version of Trump and an advocate for his policies. Assuming McCaskill’s Republican rival won’t publicly long for the good old days of slavery just before election day, she will need a robust, intentional outreach strategy to energize black voters. If she has one now, it’s lost on us.

Would this Congress impeach Trump?

We need to prepare for the eventuality that the Mueller probe catches President Trump, family members and associates red-handed – and Republicans in Congress refuse to do anything about it. This is beginning to look like a possible or even probable outcome.

Witness the cowardly about-face on the subject of Roy Moore’s candidacy for the Senate. The party initially took a position in line with its purported values: that a credibly accused child molester, who haunted the local mall seeking dates with teenaged girls when he was in his 30s, is unworthy of the high office he seeks.

But then Trump endorsed Moore – given that more than a dozen women have accused the president of sexual misconduct, the phrase “birds of a feather” comes to mind – and Republicans changed their tune. The flow of money from national party coffers to Moore’s campaign, briefly interrupted, was resumed. Moore’s fitness became a matter that no longer troubled the GOP’s moral conscience, or what was left of it.

Here is the distinction between our two major parties in 2017: Democratic leaders are forcing Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., both accused of harassing women, to resign. Republican leaders are trying to put Moore, accused of harassing teenagers and molesting a 14-year-old, in the Senate.

Given that context, it is naive to assume that anything special counsel Robert Mueller uncovers will lead Republicans

to choose principle over political advantage. Trump boasted during the campaign that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose support. As far as the GOP majorities in Congress are concerned, he may be right.

Trump has been using his Twitter feed to try to create the impression that Mueller – the straightest of straight arrows, and a lifelong Republican – is somehow biased against him.

Trump’s aim isn’t so much to pull the wool over the eyes of his base; rather, it’s to give House Republicans an excuse not to start impeachment proceedings if and when the time comes.

I realize it seems premature to speak of such eventualities. But if there really was no collusion with Russia to tilt the election in Trump’s favor, I wonder why one of the president’s lawyers, Jay Sekulow, is arguing that such collusion would not constitute a crime. And if there really was no obstruction of justice, I wonder why another of Trump’s lawyers, John Dowd, is arguing that the president by virtue of his office is incapable of obstructing justice. Perhaps Trump and his family are just getting bad legal advice. I’m wondering who gave Donald Trump Jr. the bright idea to cite attorneyclient privilege in refusing to answer the House Intelligence Committee’s questions about conversations with his father

Letters to the editor

Financing Scottrade Center renovations

While I hope that a downgrade of the city’s credit rating does not occur, an August 2017 credit report by S&P specifically warned the financing of Scottrade Center renovations would increase our already high debt burden. On top of that, the city’s 2018 budget had to be reduced by $17 million. This is a significant burden on our taxpayers, and that is why I called upon city leaders and the Kiel Center Partners to find another financing mechanism.

Over the past year both Moody’s and Fitch credit rating agencies have lowered credit ratings for the City of St. Louis, citing limited financial flexibility, a reserve shortage and high debt levels. Then in the August report, S&P warned it might lower the city’s credit rating should budgetary performance and flexibility worsen.

St. Louis city voters last approved $25 million no-taxincrease general obligation bonds in 2016 to support our firefighters. If asked, I am confident that they will again support our first responders in 2018. City voters will not see higher taxes and first responders can receive essential public safety equipment to better serve the community.

Comptroller Darlene Green St. Louis

Interviewing sexual assault victims

In response to the growing number of women accusing men – in entertainment, the media, and politics – of sexual assault and misconduct, I have heard the questions asked again and again, “Why now? Why didn’t these women come forward sooner?”

I can tell you why: For years

– conversations that might bear on both collusion and obstruction.

Neither Trump nor Trump Jr. is an attorney. Conversations between Trump Jr. and his lawyer would be privileged, but not conversations Trump Jr. might have had with someone else while his lawyer was present. And Congress is not compelled to honor attorneyclient privilege anyway, though it often does.

At least Trump Jr. gave a reason for his stonewalling. Other administration officials called to Capitol Hill to testify about Trump’s possible obstruction – including Attorney General Jeff Sessions – have relied on some imaginary privilege not to discuss conversations with the president.

Those of us who care whether the president worked with a foreign power to influence the election and then actively impeded an FBI investigation do have recourse, however. If this Congress refuses to stand up for justice and American ideals, we need to elect a Congress that will. The Trump presidency poses a challenge beyond politics or policy. Wrongheaded trickle-down tax policy is a matter of arithmetic; it can be corrected by moving numbers around a spreadsheet. But once corruption has become established, it takes Herculean effort to root it out; once respect for the rule of law is lost, it takes generations to restore.

Mueller is doing his job. Ours is to elect Democrats and independents next year who will hold this appalling presidency to account.

women were not believed, or worse yet treated like suspects, when they reported these crimes to police, thus leading many victims to stay silent.

When being questioned by law enforcement, the victims of sexual assault often can only recall fragments of the incident, their accounts don’t follow a consistent timeline, and they don’t exhibit the emotion one expects from the victim of such a personal crime. How law enforcement has traditionally interviewed these women often leads officers to antagonize victims as they question discrepancies in their stories and try to nail down timelines.

Research shows that rape victims’ memories are impaired by trauma, leading police to mistrust and discredit their accounts. Experts have used these findings to develop a better method for interviewing rape victims. Certified training is available at no cost from End Violence Against Women International (evawintl.org), which could benefit officers, sexual assault victims, and our communities. I would like our law enforcement agencies throughout the St. Louis area to use more effective questioning that leads to justice. So, I have requested that our police department in University City pursue this training and ask anyone reading this letter to ask the same of their local agency. Rebecca Eisele, University City

Columnist

Eugene Robinson

Photo by Wiley Price

Hazelwood Central students immerse in languages

Hazelwood Central High School students, who are enrolled in Spanish and French classes, participated in an interactive and immersive day at Saint Louis University (SLU). Hazelwood Central is a partner school for the 1818 Advanced College Credit Program at SLU. The program provides an opportunity for qualified high school juniors and seniors in Spanish and French classes to experience the rigors of college course work. Students had the opportunity to interact with college professors and ask questions about future career opportunities including obtaining minors in Spanish and French.

LaunchCode offers free coding classes

LaunchCode, a St. Louis-based nonprofit providing technology education to help aspiring technologists find their dream careers, is now accepting applications to two free programs: LC101 and CoderGirl. LC101 is LaunchCode’s introduction to computer programming course – an intensive, 20-week program designed to train students with skills they need to seek an apprenticeship and ultimately a career in technology. The free course begins January 22, and applications close December 29.

CoderGirl is a LaunchCode education program designed to engage and educate women in the technology community in St. Louis. CoderGirl is a year-long tech training program consisting of two six-month cycles: a learning cycle and a project cycle. The free course begins January 17, and applications close December 22. During each course, LaunchCoders are led by skilled educators with mentoring from experienced developers. After honing their technical skills, LaunchCode matches learners with one of our 500 employer partners for a paid apprenticeship. More than four out of five apprentices are converted to full-time hires. For more information on LaunchCode programs, visit LaunchCode.org

Filing open for Ferg-Flor school board

Filing opened for the 2018 Ferguson-Florissant School District Board of Education election on Tues., December 12. The three-year terms of current board members Scott Ebert and Courtney Graves will expire in April 2018.

Declarations of Candidacy may be picked up in the Office of the Superintendent, 1005 Waterford Drive, Florissant, MO from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on days the district is open. Filing closes at 5 p.m. Tuesday, January 16, 2018. District offices will be closed Friday, December 22 through Friday, January 5, and on January 15. Election for the Board of Education is Tuesday, April 3. Individuals wishing to file for candidacy for the Board of Education must be a citizen of the United States, at least 24 years old, a resident taxpayer of the school district and a resident of Missouri for at least one year.

Improving the jury pool, one juror at a time

By Jamala Rogers

I got my jury summons last week. I’m ready to be an improved and empowered juror. That’s because of the Black Jurors Matter workshop I attended this past summer. The workshop was part of the campaign launched by the Organization for Black Struggle earlier this year.

Attorney Will Snowden, founded of The Juror Project, came to St. Louis to conduct workshops on how to be an effective and responsible juror. The New Orleans-based organization is committed to getting better-informed and moreenthusiastic citizens into jury pools across the country.

There were two important issues participants learned in the workshops. One was understanding the distinctions between jury strikes. The other was understanding the power of jury nullification.

When interviewing jurors, there are two types of strikes allowed by the defense and the prosecution: peremptory strikes and strikes “for cause.”

Each side can strike a potential juror if they believe that person will be prejudicial towards their side. This doesn’t have to be explicit bias. In the case of a workplace injury where the company is being sued, the defense attorney may strike a potential juror who was hurt on the job.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Kentucky v. Batson makes it unconstitutional to strike a potential juror based upon race after black or brown defendants often ended up with all-white juries instead a jury of their peers. Batson was later expanded to include ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation. Even so, this doesn’t mean one will always have an impartial jury of their peers.

Too many times in our need to get out of jury duty, we give one side (often the prosecution) a pass in not having to use a legitimate strike. For example, during the questioning of a juror in the above hypothetical case, the person could say something like “I was injured on my job but I think I can put that aside and listen to the all the evidence in this case and be fair.”

In urban areas where there may be an officer-involved shooting, there are plenty of citizens who’ve had negative encounters with the police and may be explicitly biased towards the officer on trial. Can you listen to all the facts in the case and be fair? Sure you can.

Snowden helped also us to better understand jury nullification, a rare but age-old right of juries that traveled to these shores with English colonizers. Nullification is the right of a jury to refuse to convict even when there may be evidence that a law has been broken. Jurors exercise their right to nullify a law that they believe is either immoral or wrongly applied.

Nullification can used for noble causes, as in some slave fugitive cases or for those convicted of marijuana use for a debilitating disease. They’ve also been used to uphold the racist status quo in cases like the killers of Emmitt Till. His killers confessed but the all-white jury saw nothing wrong with their lynching him.

The court almost never informs juries of their right to nullification. Some juries have felt locked in by unfair laws and special circumstances of the defendant but felt they had no alternative but to convict or acquit. The case of George Zimmerman is a good example of a frustrated jury boxed in by Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, a defense used by Zimmerman when he murdered unarmed Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman was acquitted.

There is much black folks still don’t know about the U.S. criminal justice system until we get catapulted into it as a defendant or juror. Then it’s sink or swim. And looking at the overwhelming numbers of African Americans in the system, we are sinking. A deeper understanding of our rights in this hostile system is a lifeline for justice and our survival.

Jamala Rogers

The QuikTrip Corporation donated the property to the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, which now provides social services at the site, along with several other non-profit organizations, after opening in July.

Reyna Spencer is a project manager for Urban Strategies, a social services organization that is advising the community center. Spencer and her organization helped organize the holiday event. The mission, she said, was to inform residents about the services available at the community center and seek their feedback.

Lutheran Hope Center, Alliance Community Credit Union and the Ferguson Police Department. The community center will connect residents with services including the Urban Leagues’ Save Our Sons program, health centers and career services.

“What they wanted to do was come together in a collaborative spirit, show the community that they’re here and they want to support the community, including Christmas cheer,” Spencer said.

n “The event is Christmas cheer combined with, ‘We’re gonna support you.”

– Raina Spencer, Urban Strategies

“The event is Christmas cheer combined with, ‘We’re gonna support you. These are the services that are available out of this empowerment center,’” Spencer said. “This is a, ‘Hello, merry Christmas, and we’re here.’”

In addition to Southeast Ferguson Community Association, the Urban League and the Salvation Army, other partners included Urban Strategies,

CHIEF

Continued from A1

Continued from A1 the names, but he more often refers to them as numbers, he said.

More than half of the candidates are people of color, he said. Three are from within the police department, and five are coming from Chicago, Dallas, Baltimore, Phoenix and the Nebraska area. One is a woman.

On Wednesday, December 13, the eight semi-finalists will take an online management assessment test, which will make up 35 percent of their score, Frank said. Then on

Susie MayberryParker, who attended the event and works with the non-profit FOCUS St. Louis, said she hoped the center would provide residents with assistance on their utility bills and support for fathers.

“Whatever outreach is necessary for social change and environmental change,” she said.

Mayberry-Parker said she had seen incremental change since the protests in Ferguson, but hoped to see more.

The event provided dinner, children’s activities and an opportunity to take photos with Santa Claus alongside its social services offering.

“It’s a holistic approach to supporting residents in this area,” Spencer said.

Thursday, those candidates will interview with two panels. The 13- member Citizen Advisory Committee – a search group Mayor Lyda Krewson put together in May at the demand of city residents – will ask them eight questions, and the outside search firm will also interview the candidates. The combination of those two panel interviews will make up 65 percent of their score. The personnel department will also add up to six points to their scores for living and working in the city.

The candidates with the highest six scores will become the finalists and will go before the community at the public forum that night. The forum

Meet the police chief candidates

The public will have a chance to ask questions of the six finalists for St. Louis police chief 6-8 p.m. on Thursday, December 14 at the SLU Law Clinic Courtroom, Room 1208, 100 N Tucker Blvd. Submit your question online at http://bit.ly/CAC_Townhall before 12 p.m. on December 14.

will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, December 14 at the SLU Law Clinic Courtroom, Room 1208, 100 N. Tucker Blvd.

The community can submit questions at http://bit.ly/ CAC_Townhall. Questions

will be selected from this pool, so make sure to submit your question online before 12 p.m. on December 14.

Mayor Lyda Krewson and Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards will interview the finalists on Friday, possibly

with the Ethical Society of Police and police union, Frank said. Krewson and Edwards will make the final decision before the end of the year.

In total, 42 people applied for the position. The outside search firm narrowed it down to 13 and then conducted telephone interviews with them. They presented 10 candidates to the Citizen Advisory Committee, with names omitted, and the committee asked to interview eight of those 10. On Monday night, the committee went over questions in a closed meeting that they would like to ask the semi-finalists.

However, Frank said that only his staff will know what

those questions will be. He also will be pulling from the questions that were previously submitted by the community.

David Dwight, who sits on the mayor’s committee and works for Forward Through Ferguson, said he believes the city needs a police chief who will acknowledge the historical distrust from community.

“We need someone who is really ready for bold leadership who can transform the culture of the police department and bring it to align with the 21st Century Policing actions that the president’s task force set out, also what the Ferguson Commission set out,” Dwight said. “That’s what I’m looking for.”

The Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis partnered with Urban Strategies, the Southeast Ferguson Community Association, and the Salvation Army to a Christmas party host at the Ferguson Community Empowerment Center on Fri., December 8. The center stands on the site of the QuikTrip that was burnt out during the Ferguson unrest.

Photo by Wiley Price

WHITE

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a juvenile court judge and now the director of public safety for the City of St. Louis.

“He especially wanted to change the juvenile justice system. He was concerned about acknowledging implicit bias and fixing it. He was an effective advocate for equality and effective critic of the school-to-prison pipeline.

Professionally, we heard him, and because of his advocacy, changes were made within the St. Louis Public Schools and within the juvenile court system.”

Norm started at SLU in July 2004 and was an associate professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice. He also had served as associate dean for community engagement and partnership for the College of Public Health and Social Justice.

“He was known for combining his scholarship and teaching with community engagement,” wrote Eddie M. Clark, SLU psychology professor, in an email to black faculty members announcing Norm’s death. “He was active in helping the Ferguson community recover. Norm was always the intense but calm voice for social justice in campus and community issues.”

Norm kept a large, spraypainted sign in his office that stated, “Safe Space,” which he used on campus during the Ferguson protests. He also participated in Ferguson protests.

Many SLU students and colleagues are mourning his loss. Jonathan Smith, vice president for diversity and community engagement, was a groomsman in Norm’s recent wedding.

“It’s not often that you have friends who are also your heroes,” Smith said. “Norm was both of those to me. As a colleague, he always raised the bar and made everyone want to be better. You wanted to satisfy him because you knew he wasn’t asking any less of himself. I can’t begin to articulate the levels on which I already miss him.”

Norm earned his master’s degree and doctorate in criminal justice from the State University of New York at Albany in 1997 and 2001, respectively. He earned his bachelor’s in history from Marist College in 1981.

Born on Feb. 20, 1953, Norm grew up in the projects in upper Manhattan. Attorney Nina McDonnell, his mentee and close friend, said it was important to Norm that people knew that.

“He hated being called ‘Dr. White,’” McDonnell said. “He would start his speeches saying, ‘I’m Dr. White, but really, I’m Norm from the projects.’ He didn’t want people to view his title as a barrier to him. I think that captures the essence of Norm.”

Norm served as an expert witness in two juvenile criminal cases to prevent the youth from being tried as adults. One was a death penalty case. McDonnell served as his research partner in the cases, and they had planned to work on other cases.

In his sworn testimony, he spoke about his unique theory of risk immersion.

“When we talk about children, we talk about how they are at risk,” McDonnell said. “Norm argues that children who grow up in extreme poverty and neglect and violence – they are not at risk, they are immersed in risk. That’s the only world they know. They don’t know the world of not being at risk of violence and trauma.”

Norm’s goal as an expert witness was to help the individuals on trial and also set precedents that other courts could rely on, she said.

“There’s nobody like him,” McDonnell said. “It’s a huge loss.” Norm and Liz just got married on July 8 at the Piper Palm House in Tower Grove Park. Liz said they met 10 years ago, singing in the Community Gospel Choir in Kirkwood. They were among the founding members of the group, whose mission is racial harmony.

“Music was truly an important part of his life,” Liz said. “When he would do his

talks, he would begin with a song. He proposed to me by singing.”

Liz has been performing in the “Christmas Carol” with the Lookingglass Theatre Group for more than 20 years, and this was going to be Norm’s first year performing in the show as well. He was cast as one of the gentlemen and would also have been singing with Liz. They were preparing to leave for a rehearsal when Norm had his heart attack.

Liz said he was someone who loved nature, and that’s why he moved to Belleville.

“Nature centered him and brought him peace,” Liz said.

In his Belleville home, he liked to watch birds in his backyard and would post videos of hawks. His sister, Marvina White, said his little brother enjoyed nature from boyhood. They were raised in the projects, but – unusually for urban public housing – they were surrounded by parkland between the Hudson and Harlem rivers.

He was a “diehard” Yankees and Billikens fan. He had basketball season tickets and was at every game for both the men and women teams.

Transforming schools

In the fall of 2014, White received a grant to help train teachers and principals at seven elementary St. Louis Public Schools on how race impacts the kind of trauma that their students experience. Through that work, the schools have been able to decrease the number of suspensions and implement more “restorative practices” in place of sending students home.

“It’s the light of Michael Brown,” Norm told The American in March, before his Salute award. “It’s something that his death exposed, and we have to pay attention to. In that light, really good things can come.”

In February 2015, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) released a study that found Missouri leads the nation in suspensions of African-American elementary students. It also found that Missouri ranked first for having the largest gap in how its elementary schools suspend black students compared to white students – and it was fourth in the nation at the highschool level.

Following the UCLA report in 2015, more foundations made donations to further Norm’s work in the schools. And in 2016, the Missouri Foundation for Health gave his team funding to extend the work for three more years. The work of Norm and his team touched about 2,500 students.

“There are children who don’t get the right to grow up,” Norm said. “Their lives are made difficult by decisions of

adults who don’t even live in their communities, who make their communities so distressed and contribute to stress and trauma.”

These children live through challenges that “no adult should have to experience,” he said. If we understand this, then we are better equipped to meet the children where they are, “instead of assuming solutions that are not based in any reality,” he said.

Jason Purnell, one of Norm’s close friends and

director of the For the Sake of All public health project, said Norm had a heart for this community, though he was not originally from here. He called Norm’s initiatives at SLPS “ground-breaking, before-itstime work.”

“Norm always put people first, and the research was a vehicle to doing that,” Purnell said. “He established deep relationships with the principals and teachers in those schools. He was great because he was good. It hurts a lot.”

Kelvin Adams, SLPS superintendent, said Norm’s work will live on in the school district.

“This is a tremendous loss for our community,” Adams said. “He was a passionate advocate for the fair and equitable treatment of kids and families, and we can only honor him if we continue to do the work that he started, training and supporting those who work with children. But this is a tremendous loss.” Norm was also the principal

investigator for the Shut it Down: Closing the School to Prison Pipeline project, funded by a consortium of St. Louis philanthropic foundations. Shut it Down represents a partnership with the family court, public schools and other stakeholders to assist school personnel in altering school culture to support improvements in overall student performance.

Working with student volunteers he also developed the Overground Railroad for Literacy, a tutorial program in local afterschool programs to improve student academic performance.

In his March interview, The American asked Norm what he would like people to understand about his work. During his response, he became so impassioned that he began to cry (and this American reporter cried with him.) One of “his kids” had been killed that week, he said, and he had been mourning the child’s death for days. Norm said that people need to stop blaming schools for failure.

“We need to recognize that we have to take this on as a community, and that we all are failing the children in this community,” White said. “We have to make them the center of our work each and every day. For me, the thing I’m most proud of is that every day when I wake up, that’s what I do.”

Norm is survived by his mother Elizabeth “Betty” White and wife Liz of Belleville; sons Patrick and Michael of New York; sister Marvina White and brotherin-law Arnold Rampersad of California; and brother William Riley and sister-inlaw Pauline Riley of New York; a niece, nephew and extended family.

Donations in lieu of flowers may be sent to the Norman White “For the Children” Fund @ St. Louis University, 1 North Grand Blvd., Room 319, St. Louis, Mo., 63103

Norm White was mourned by his sister Marvina White of California, his mother Elizabeth White of Belleville, his wife Elizabeth and the community at a memorial service that Saint Louis University held Friday, December 8 at St. Francis Xavier College Church.

Photo by Wiley Price

agency’s Superfund Task Force issued this summer.

“By elevating these sites, we are sending a message that EPA is in fact restoring its Superfund program to its rightful place at the center of the agency’s mission,” Pruitt said. “Getting toxic land sites cleaned up and revitalized is of the utmost importance to the communities across the country that are affected by these sites.”

Pruitt said he has charged the Superfund Task Force staff with immediately developing plans for each of these sites to ensure they are addressed “with urgency.”

In December 2010, an underground chemical reaction was detected in the north quarry of the inactive 52-acre Bridgeton Landfill. This landfill is adjacent to the West Lake Landfill, and they are located northwest of the I-70 and I-270 interchange.

victory,” said Karen Nickel of Just Moms STL. “It isn’t a list we ever wanted to be on, but more we knew we needed to be on. Sites are not included on a list like this if everything is A-OK. The responsible parties can no longer stand idly by and continue to say everything is fine.”

Just Moms STL began five years ago as a Facebook group to educate and inform the community and officials. At its onset, few people were aware of the dangers the landfill poses to the community’s health and the region’s natural resources, Nickel said. Since then, the group has grown to over 18,000 members. Chapman, also with the group, said, “While it is very heartbreaking and scary having your fears and concerns validated, it is also great knowing what has been allowed to occur within our community is finally being recognized and action to remediate seems to be on the horizon.”

n “By elevating these sites, we are sending a message that EPA is in fact restoring its Superfund program to its rightful place at the center of the agency’s mission.”

– Scott Pruitt

The chemical reaction is particularly dangerous because over the years it has been getting closer to the wastes from 1940s atomic bomb production that are buried only an estimated 700 feet away in West Lake Landfill.

If that happens, toxic fumes – and possibly particulate matter – could spread throughout the region and potentially force people into shelters or to evacuate, according to an emergency plan that St. Louis County issued in 2014. Those who live in Bridgeton, Hazelwood, Maryland Heights, the Village of Champ and the City of St. Charles are directly affected, the plan states.

“As unfortunate as it sounds, we consider this a

Originally used for agriculture, the West Lake Landfill land became a limestone quarrying and crushing operation in 1939. Beginning in the early 1950s, portions of the quarried areas and adjacent areas were used to dispose of municipal refuse, industrial solid wastes, and construction/demolition debris. Radioactive waste from Mallinckrodt Chemical Works’ production of uranium for atomic bombs was illegally dumped there in the 1970s. The entire 200-acre facility was listed on the National Priorities List (NPL) in 1990. The EPA’s news is particularly welcome after the nearby community lost hope in legislators’ ability to come to their aid. In the past year, two bills have failed. One federal bill would have transferred authority of the site’s cleanup to the U.S. Army Corps of

Hazelwood West adopts families for the holidays

For the third year, Hazelwood West High School students and staff adopted 15 families, which included a total of 68 children and adults for the holiday season. Students and staff collected items ranging from bicycles to gift cards, depending on the family’s request. Once collected, students, teachers, and administrators wrapped the gifts and delivered them to the Hazelwood School District Family Outreach Center where they will be distributed to the families.

Engineers Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP). A state bill would have helped as many as 91 families in the Spanish Village subdivision, the neighborhood closest to the landfill, sell their homes to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

Lawmakers and residents are worried that the Superfund site has caused local cases of cancer and autoimmune disease. Such claims have been

disputed by federal regulators and Republic Services, the landfill’s owner.

Pruitt told the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Environment Subcommittee that he plans to release the Record of Decision on whether to cap or excavate the wastes at West Lake this coming January.

Just Moms STL does not want it capped, Chapman said, because it would become “a nuclear storage site in the

middle of our community.”

“It’s hard to go through the holidays with that hanging over our head,” Chapman said. “This administration is very difficult to read. We do see movement, but is it in the right direction?”

Chapman said that this EPA administration has been better at communicating with the community and answering their calls. The moms group said they do not intend to ease the pressure until the waste is fully

removed. Other groups also support this fight.

Ed Smith, policy director for the Missouri Coalition for the Environment said, “The voices of the community have been ignored for too long, and it’s time for the EPA to fully remove the radioactive wastes from the unlined landfill in the Missouri River floodplain.” To see the EPA’s list, visit https://www.epa.gov/superfund/ superfund-sites-targetedimmediate-intense-action.

Alderwoman Megan Green to run for board president in 2019

Alderwoman Megan Ellyia Green announced on Tuesday, December 12 that she plans to run for Board of Alderman president in the March 2019 election. Green seeks to unseat St. Louis’ longtime board president, Lewis Reed

“I think it’s pretty clear that the board needs new leadership,” said Green, who currently represents the 15th Ward. “The status quo has not been working for everyone in St. Louis for a long time. I have proven over and over that I’m not afraid to stand up to the status quo.”

Green, 34, began representing the South City ward in October 2014 when she won a special election (with Reed’s support). She has since won her seat two more times, earning more than 70 percent of the vote in both elections. She is commonly considered one of the most progressive aldermen on the board. Reed, 55, became the first African American to be elected as board president in 2007.

from St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura O. Jones during her campaign for mayor (Reed also was a candidate) and was particularly attractive to progressive voters. Green supported Jones in her campaign.

Green had already had a draft of her CBA bill for five months when Reed introduced his, but she was working to bring community members and city officials together to clarify the language before introducing it. She criticized Reed for not working with the community to draft his legislation. And even further in Reed’s bill, the aldermen would negotiate the CBA with the developer, not the community, she said. Tom Shepard, Reed’s chief of staff, said Reed didn’t know anything about Green’s bill when he introduced his.

about me is that I’m a fighter for the people,” Green said.

And her campaign is going to be fueled by everyday people, she said.

“We’re not going to have the big developers and big corporations behind us,” Green said. “It’s time to have bold leadership at the board who is only accountable to the people.”

Green vs. Reed on pot reform

Green and Reed’s last skirmish over their dueling marijuana reform bills came at an aldermanic committee meeting on December 7. Green said her bill would both decrease opioid and heroin deaths, allow police officers to focus on more serious crimes, and address a racial inequity in law enforcement.

disproportionate number of heroin deaths and opioid deaths for the entire state,” Green said.

However, concerns were raised that St. Louis might not have the legal authority to change its law on marijuana without the state’s cooperation and that the bill might draw retaliation from Missouri Governor Eric Greitens and Jefferson City legislators.

“The city is well within its authority to prioritize our resources,” Green said.

It’s not clear, though, whether the state government would agree with that interpretation. Even if St. Louis’ law were changed, marijuana users could still be arrested and prosecuted by state and federal agencies.

In the past year, Green has introduced bills that would mandate Community Benefit Agreements (CBAs) on tax-incentive deals, reform drug laws and raise tax revenue for police salary increases using measures that wouldn’t hurt the city’s most vulnerable residents – as sales-tax increases do. She is passionate about police reform, which goes hand-inhand with good drug policy, she said.

“As someone who worked in the substance abuse arena, I see how we criminalize addiction,” Green said. “I would like to get us to a place where we are not sending people to jail for drug abuse.”

Green sees the board president as someone who brings a clear vision and agenda to the entire board, she said.

“I’ve already been setting the agenda for the Board of Alderman,” she said, by putting forth legislation that pushes the bar.

For the past year, Green and Reed have been going head-to-head on various issues, including establishing CBAs and marijuana reform. Reed introduced a CBA bill on May 5 that would require developers to give back to the communities surrounding their real estate projects – if the developers are seeking tax incentives.

Adding CBAs to development deals was a call that originally came

“Then I come forth with legislation on marijuana reform and the president is there to do his own bill that again is not real reform,” Green said. “So we’ve got to have someone at the helm who is willing to push bold leadership, who isn’t interested in just incremental change but who will introduce and really champion things that will take us leaps forward rather than inches forward.”

Regarding the CBA legislation, Shepard said, “President Reed introduced his bill over a month before Alderwoman Green and Green can’t hardly consider herself a true proponent of them as she has eliminated the CBA in her own latest tax giveaway on Morganford.”

As for marijuana reform, Shepard said, “President Reed began looking at our city code on marijuana back in February of 2017 during the time Kansas City was going through their initiative process, and the two bills are totally different: President Reed’s reduces punishment and Alderwoman Green’s would be a complete disaster, particularly for North St. Louis.”

Reed said Green’s campaign announcement came as no surprise and questioned her “progressive” credentials.

“I find it a bit hypocritical that someone whose legislative record has consisted mostly of tax abatement deals for developers, who has recently been reported to the Circuit Attorney’s office for violating state law by making a side deal with a developer,

and who has voted in favor of mass eminent domain of a north St. Louis neighborhood is running on the platform that she has chosen,” Reed said in a statement.

“Introducing legislation that is illegal and will never hold up in court is not bold, it’s a waste of time and tax dollars. I’m looking forward to a successful re-election and taking my message of creating a stronger, safer and more unified St. Louis to the voters. Until then, I’ll continue working with people who are more interested in the progress of our city than in masquerades of self-promotion for personal political gain.”

State Senator Jamilah Nasheed said she also plans on running for board president. She will make her announcement in the next few weeks, she said.

“I’ve done some great work in Jefferson City for the past 10 years, but I think I can get more done here in St. Louis,” Nasheed said.

Before becoming an alderwoman, Green had been a nonprofit administrator, working with homeless women. She has also worked in early childhood education, she said.

“I think that the big thing to know

According to the ACLU report studying marijuana arrests in Missouri from 2001-2010, black Missourians are 2.8 times more likely to be arrested on marijuana changes than whites, even though both groups were found to use it at equal rates. St. Louis had the largest disparity of any city in the state.

“If the law cannot be applied justly, what we need to do is change those laws,” Green said.

The bill would allow for the personal possession of two ounces or 10 plants of marijuana for personal use by those 21 years of age or older. It would not legalize drug sales or distribution and would not be allowed in schools, on government property or other properties where the owner has forbidden it.

While police officers could still search someone they suspected of having more than two ounces on them, Green said the change could decrease racial profiling and wasteful spending on minor drug offenses. Missouri spent $49,119,612 enforcing marijuana possession laws in 2010.

Green also pointed to the positive impacts on those who use marijuana for medicinal reasons. She said this demographic could provide an economic boon to St. Louis, especially if the city makes the move before Missouri as a whole or Illinois. It could also reduce the use of addictive painkillers, she said.

“We bear the burden of a

Alderman Scott Ogilvie expressed skepticism about the idea that the state government would allow the bill to stand if it were passed. Even if the response was not direct, he said, the city could face reprisals. “Nothing is more en vogue at the state level right now than enacting policies that hurt St. Louis,” he said.

Reed criticized several provisions of Green’s bill, saying changing the city’s marijuana laws while state laws remain the same could be “setting people up for failure,” leading to confusion about where it is and is not legal to use.

He also said the bill was unlikely to eliminate any degree of bias in policing or unnecessary searches, since the language still allows officers to search someone if they have “reasonable suspicion” they possess more than the amount allowed for personal use.

“If you’re African American and you’re wearing a hoodie and baggy pants, the police officers can say, ‘I had reasonable suspicion,’” Reed said.

Reed then questioned Green’s assertion that former Missouri Supreme Court Justice Mike Wolff had helped her write the bill.

“You’re calling me a liar again,” Green said. “Because I’m a woman, right?”

“Stop that,” Reed retorted. “Because I’m an African-American man, right? Is that what this is all about?”

In fact, Judge Wolff did help to write Green’s bill, as he explains in a commentary on stlamerican.com we will publish next week.

Photo by Wiley Price

Alderwoman Megan Ellyia Green speaking at a Board of Aldermen meeting in April 2015.

Influenza is off to an early start

Now is the time to get a flu shot, experts advise

By Sandra Jordan Of The St. Louis American

The first full week of the holiday shopping season saw a spike in the number people coming down with influenza in the St. Louis area. The most common symptoms of flu include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, and muscle or body aches. Flu viruses spread by tiny droplets when a person with flu coughs, sneezes, or talks. It is easy for flu viruses to spread during travel or while getting together with friends and family.

When certain people get sick, they are at high risk of developing serious flurelated complications, such as pneumonia or bronchitis. Some of these complications are very serious and can lead to death. Those at high risk for flu-related complications include people age 65 years and older, persons with chronic medical conditions (such as asthma, diabetes or heart disease), pregnant women, and young children.

For the past two weeks, over 200 patients have visited Barnes-Jewish Hospital’s emergency department for flu-like symptoms,

a spokesman said, adding that this does not mean they were all influenza-positive.

“We are seeing a steadily increasing number of patients with influenza in the community and in the hospital,” said Steve Lawrence, MD, Washington University infectious disease expert at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

“We anticipate seeing influenza circulating for at least the next two or three months. For those who haven’t yet received

The opioid crisis and us

By Denise Hooks-Anderson, M.D. Of The St. Louis American

I have a serious addiction to sweets. I crave sweets. I sometimes sneak and eat them. Generally, I cannot eat just one and I am often ashamed of myself for overindulging. Admittedly, I have even had so many sugary treats till it made me physically ill.

But for me, my worst consequence from this sugar habit was an upset stomach. However, the fact that I was able to wake up the next day and share my embarrassing story with someone is testament to the difference between a sugar overdose and an opioid overdose. The current crisis with opioids has been flooding the news cycle for the past few years. In this past year, deaths from opioid overdosage exceeded 60,000. Synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have contributed to the increase.

n Physicians and legislators must accept our roles in creating this public health crisis.

In many of the death reports from individuals who overdosed, carventanil, an analog of fentanyl, was implicated in the cause of death. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine; carfentanil, a drug used to tranquilize large animals, is estimated to be 10,000 times more potent than morphine. What is important to understand is that, for the most part, people are not intentionally trying to overdose. When a person uses an opioid medication, this drug can cause respiratory depression. Using this medication repetitively produces drug tolerance: You need more drug to achieve the same effect as in the beginning.

Persons who use the drug to prevent withdrawal are dependent. So those persons

See ANDERSON, A13

Free help to quit smoking

HUD rule makes public housing smoke-free by July 31, 2018

By Sandra Jordan Of The St. Louis American

In advance of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s smoke-free housing rule requiring all public housing to be smokefree by July 31, 2018, the American Lung Association in Missouri, with support from the Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation, will offer free smoking-cessation support for residents of public housing. Through the Smoking Cessation for LowIncome Housing Residents initiative, the Lung Association will work with public housing agencies and other local partners to provide access to proven-effective tobacco cessation services such as Freedom From Smoking, a program that offers options for people to engage in person, online or on a mobile app.

“While we applaud the new smoke-free policy to protect the thousands of Missouri’s public housing residents from secondhand smoke,

n “While we applaud the new smokefree policy, we also understand that quitting smoking can be difficult for those residents that smoke.”

– Plesetta Clayton, American Lung Association

we also understand that quitting smoking can be difficult for those residents that smoke,” said Plesetta Clayton, the director of Tobacco Control and Lung Health for the American Lung Association, Upper Midwest Region.

“We are proud to partner with the Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation to provide access to free quit-smoking counseling and

The first full week of the holiday shopping season saw a spike in the number people coming down with influenza in the St. Louis area. The most common symptoms of flu include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, and muscle or body aches.

Denise HooksAnderson, MD

More than half-million complaints on Trump’s abortion action delivered

In a massive public comment submission effort, the Center for Reproductive Rights – along with more than a dozen reproductive and civil rights organizations, members of Congress, and allies – recently delivered over a half-million public comments on behalf of individuals from all 50 states to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The comments oppose the Trump administration’s recent interim final rules to restrict access to birth control by creating a broad exemption allowing virtually any employer or university with a religious or moral objection to refuse to cover contraception for their employees or students. On the last day of the public comment period on the

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a flu shot, now is the best time because we have not yet hit peak activity and it takes two weeks for it to take effect.”

The City of St. Louis Department of Health said there had been 33 confirmed cases of influenza reported in the St. Louis from October 1 through December 2. Influenza A accounted for 31 of those cases, and there were two reported cases of Influenza B. Faisal Khan, MD, director

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support – which is key to helping individuals overcome smoking addiction.”

In support of the upcoming smoke-free housing policy, Cheryl Lovell, executive director of the St. Louis Housing Authority, told The American the agency has held town hall meetings, placed advertisements in two local newspapers, held a public hearing on November 30 at its headquarters, and placed notices for a public hearing at its developments, central office and website (www.slha.org).

of the St. Louis County Department of Health, said the county had reported 281 cases of the flu this season (254 of Influenza A, 27 of Influenza B) – and the number is going up.

“Weekly case totals for the past three weeks have increased from 35 to 62 to 96,” Khan said.

Since October 1, Christian Hospital has seen at least 91 patients with Influenza A and 11 patients with Influenza B. At least a dozen patients were hospitalized.

Myrtle Hilliard Davis Comprehensive Health Centers reported a significant increase

Lovell said the American Lung Association (ALA) has been an integral part of the planning process for implementing the smoke-free policy and for engaging and educating residents about smoking cessation through literature, free programs and other resources. In September and October, ALA provided educational resources for household management classes held at James House, and recruited participants for Freedom from Smoke training designed specifically for public housing developments, she said. Additionally, information on environmental hazards and smoking cessation was distributed at the tenant affairs board meeting for the Kingsbury development.

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found in abandoned squatter houses or in bathroom stalls were probably not trying to kill themselves, but they were trying to get that quick high, relieve pain or stop the horrible effects of withdrawal. The typical start of this vicious downward spiral is that initial pain-killer prescription.

Physicians and legislators must accept our roles in creating this public health crisis. We now know from numerous studies that narcotic prescriptions were often written for conditions that did not require them or patients were given too many tablets with their initial prescription. Not having an adequate drug registry was also noted to be an issue. In some states, physicians and pharmacists have access to

rules, representatives from the Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood, American Civil Liberties Union, NARAL Pro-Choice America joined individual commenters in reading aloud public comments in response to the administration’s action. Also joining them were U.S. Reps. Judy Chu (D-CA) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL).

The groups are submitting comments from over 526,000 nationwide. Additional comments have been submitted directly to the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and the Treasury. “The ability to decide whether and when to have children is a fundamental right, and more than 99 percent of women have used

n “For those who haven’t yet received a flu shot, now is the best time because we have not yet hit peak activity.”

– Steve Lawrence, MD

in the number of diagnosed influenza cases this flu season. Its clinical staff has diagnosed 236 influenza visits compared to 147 this time last year.

Since November 1, SSM Health in St. Louis reports its hospitals and outpatient centers saw 193 positive influenza tests among patients,

with approximately one-third of those cases occurring from November 26 through December 2. That week, positive tests were dispersed across all age groups, according to a spokesperson, with 51 persons being admitted and 25 vaccinated.”

According to Missouri

contraception at some point in their lives,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights. “Today, hundreds of thousands of people across the country made it known that women will wholeheartedly challenge any infringement on our rights.”

Under the Affordable Care Act, women were guaranteed

health officials, as of November 25 there were 1,545 cases of the flu reported to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, compared to 379 cases reported during the same time last year, when the 2016-2017 season saw more than 70,000 confirmed influenza cases in Missouri. If these trends continue, the state could see even more during the 2017-2018 season.

“All indications are that we are seeing more flu earlier in the year, and we anticipate more cases,” said Randall Williams, MD, director of the Missouri Department of Health

coverage for birth control with no copay. Over 62.4 million women have gained guaranteed coverage of preventive services without co-pays, including birth control. Access to contraceptives benefits women’s health and enables them to pursue their educational and professional goals, Northup noted.

and Senior Services. “Now is the time to get your flu shot if you haven’t already. The flu shot combined with proper handwashing are the two most effective things you can do to protect yourself and your loved ones.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that flu results in between 9.2 million and 35.6 million illnesses, between 140,000 and 710,000 hospitalizations, and between 12,000 and 56,000 deaths annually in the U.S.

“Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States and more than 70 percent of smokers want to quit but just don’t know how to start that process,” said Jay Moore, M.D., chief medical officer, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield. “We are proud to team with the American Lung Association to offer quit

vital information, such as which narcotic was prescribed and by whom, the date and the quantity. This tracking helps to insure that patients are not “doctor hopping” with their medications.

What is interesting about this crisis is that it is not an inner city problem. This situation is affecting the affluent and middle class.

The typical profile of a drug overdose victim is a middleaged, suburban white male. But

smoking guidance and support, and support our Missouri’s lung health and help prevent tobacco-related illnesses.”

Smoking in public housing after July 2018 can jeopardize tenant leases.

Lovell said the St. Louis Housing Authority will enforce the policy by adding a no-smoking provisions to the lease agreement.

as with any health problem, this is also hitting minority communities and, if not controlled, will generally cause more chaos and destruction due to the very fragile nature of that population.

Recently, President Donald Trump declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency. Whether or not his statement will be followed by any substantial funds or programs to address the epidemic is unknown.

Lovell said, “The policy states that a violation of the policy is a serious lease violation which may be cause for lease enforcement action up to and including termination of the lease.” Missouri residents living in

Association in Missouri

at 314-645-5505.

However, as a community we can all assist by putting in place safeguards and lobbying our state legislators to increase their efforts to provide more drug rehabilitation and detox programs. Any person on pain medications should ensure that their meds are locked away and not easily accessible by others. Providers should insist upon drug contracts with their patients and prescriptions should be prescribed responsibly.

This epidemic will require all hands on deck. A steep rise in unintentional deaths and a rise in crime are both potential results of failure to intervene in this crisis.

Denise Hooks-Anderson, M.D., is assistant professor at SLUCare Family Medicine and medical accuracy editor of The St. Louis American. Email her at yourhealthmatters@ stlamerican.com.

NEWSPAPER IN EDUCATION

Holiday E ating!

Nutrition Challenge:

The holidays bring parties, family time, plays, concerts and more.

Healthy Kids Healthy Kids

Many of these events also include food! Let’s review some ways to eat smart during these fun times.

Follow The Leader!

No Guns!

> Remember to fill ½ of your plate with fruits/vegetables.

> If you want to try a special treat, just keep it to a taste.

> Be sure to drink plenty of water!

Healthcare Careers

Dawn Patrick, FNP

Choose one leader from your group of friends. Everyone should line up behind the leader and follow him or her throughout the house, yard or playground. The leader will do a variety of actions using their arms and legs: jumping, skipping, clapping, etc. Do

NEVER, ever play with any kind of gun. Even if you think the gun isn’t loaded, or maybe it looks like a toy — it isn’t worth taking a chance. Immediately

Eat a healthy snack before attending such an event — this way you won’t be tempted to overdo it.

> What are other ways to eat healthy during the holidays? — BONUS — Healthy eating helps your body fight off winter colds and other sickness.

what the leader does until they change to a new action. Take turns

being the leader and creating more difficult,

that many kids are killed each year by a gun that they thought was unloaded.

Learning Standards: HPE 5, NH 5

Learning Standards: HPE 2, HPE 3, HPE 5, NH 1, NH 5

interesting and fun activities along the way.

Following the leader is a great way to stay active, increase your heart rate and burn calories throughout the day. Have fun!

Learning Standards: HPE 2, HPE 5, NH 1

Where do you work? I am a nurse practitioner at Preferred Family Health. Where did you go to school? I graduated from Hazelwood East High School. I earned a Bachelor of Arts in Biological Sciences from the University of Missouri, Columbia, and I then earned an Associates of Nursing from Barnes-Goldfarb School of Nursing, and a Bachelor of Science and Master in Nursing from the University of Missouri, St. Louis.

What does a nurse practitioner do at your facility? As a nurse practitioner, I provide medical evaluations, medication assisted therapy and individual and group counseling for persons recovering from drug addiction. I also help people with their problems with mental health issues such as bi-polar and anxiety disorders.

Why did you choose this career? I just love helping people and I have a real passion for it. I’ve been a nurse for 13 years. Drugs negatively affect my community in so many ways and I just really have a heart for those people who need the love and basic medical care that we provide.

What is your favorite part of the job you have? It is helping people solve their problems and recover from drug addiction. I’ve seen people reunite with their families and rediscover a new life. They are no longer sick and are happy again.

Learning Standards: HPE6, NH3

“Questions or comments? Contact Cathy Sewell csewell@stlamerican.com or 314-289-5422

Saint Louis Zoo is a wonderful science and students of all levels and abilities. We offer a variety of programs, tours and learning opportunities.

Visit stlzoo.org/education for a complete list of our program offerings and teacher resources.

Banteng calves are born with red coats.

their first year of life, bantengs develop their characteristic white stockings and rump patches. At this time, juvenile banteng bulls’ coats gradually turn from red to black.

CLASSROOM SPOTLIGHT

Teachers, if you are using the St. Louis American’s NIE program and would like to nominate your class for a Classroom Spotlight, please email: csewell@stlamerican.com.

SCIENCE CORNER

Floyd Malveaux studied asthma and how it affects the lungs.

The lungs take oxygen from the air you breathe and transport it throughout the bloodstream, while removing the carbon dioxide, releasing it in the air you breathe out.

What Is Asthma?

Asthma is a disease that affects the lungs. When airways become irritated and narrow, it triggers an asthma attack. The narrow passages make it hard to breathe air. Asthma makes everyday activities uncomfortable and difficult, due to a lack of oxygen. Symptoms of asthma

SCIENCE INVESTIGATION

Materials Needed:

Clean Plastic Tubing • Large Plastic Bottle

• Water • Sink or Bucket • Ruler

Procedure:

q Put 10cm of water into the water basin.

w Fill the plastic bottle with water.

e Put your hand over the top of the bottle to prevent water from escaping when you turn it upside down.

r Turn the bottle upside down, placing the top of the bottle under the water in the basin before removing your hand.

t Push one end of the plastic tube into the bottle.

MATH CONNECTION

In this week’s science experiment, you measured volume in your lungs. For this activity, you will practice calculating area. The volume of a rectangular prism is length x width x height. Use the formula for area to answer the following problems:

q What is the volume of a rectangular prism with a length of 5 meters, width of 6 meters, and a height of 12 meters? ________

SCIENCE STARS

AFRICAN AMERICAN MICROBIOLOGIST:

Floyd Malveaux

Floyd Malveaux was born on January 11, 1940, in Opelousas, Louisiana. With the guidance of his mother, a math and science teacher, Malveaux excelled in school and placed first in a statewide math competition for minority high school students.

include coughing, wheezing (especially at night), difficulty breathing, and chest pain. Asthma is treated with medicines to control the swelling and open airways. Sometimes medicine is taken orally, in a daily pill. Sometimes an inhaler is used to deliver the medicine when someone is having an asthma attack. Scientists, such as Malveaux, study asthma and how it affects the body, and create treatments.

Learning Standards: I can read a nonfiction passage for main idea and supporting details.

What Is your lung volume?

y Take a deep breath.

u Breathe out as much air as you can through the tube.

i As you breathe out through the tube, the air from your lungs takes the place of the water in the bottle. Measure the volume of air your lungs had in them.

o You will need to sanitize the tube in between each person using it, or provide a separate tube for each student.

Reflection: Did you know that if you have a big air capacity in your lungs you can distribute oxygen around your body at a faster rate? You can increase the air capacity in your lungs with regular exercise.

Learning Standards: I can follow a procedure and analyze results.

w What is the height of a rectangular prism with a length of 10 inches, width of 3 inches, and a volume of 210 inches cubed? ___________

e If a cube has a length, width, and height of 6 inches, what is the volume? __________

r If a cube has a volume of 27 feet cubed, what is the length of each side? ___________

Learning Standards: I can multiply and divide to calculate volume.

In 1961, he earned his bachelor’s degree in biological science from Creighton University. Three years later, he earned his master’s degree in biological science from Loyola University in Chicago. From there, he earned his doctorate degree in microbiology and public health from Michigan State University, then went to Howard University to attend medical school. Malveaux also completed studies at Washington Hospital Center and Johns Hopkins University. While at Howard University, Malveaux studied allergies and asthma, training in internal medicine and allergy/clinical immunology. In 1978, he became an associate professor of medicine at Howard University College of Medicine (HUCM), and created a training program for allergists. In 1986, he joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins University and created the Urban Asthma and Allergy Center in Baltimore, Maryland. His work led to the Community Outreach for Asthma Care, which was a treatment program at HUCM. In 2005, Malveaux retired and joined the Merck Childhood Asthma Network, Inc. Malveaux has won many awards, including the National Institute of Health’s National Research Service Award, and Jewel Plummer Cobb Distinguished Lecture Award. He continues to increase public awareness of asthma and leading healthy lifestyles.

Questions:

q Why do you think Malveaux attended medical school?

w How did that change his career path?

e What parts of the body does asthma affect?

r Are you allergic to anything?

t What are some of the side effects of allergies?

Learning Standards: I can read a biography about a person who has made contributions in math, science, or technology.

MAP PREP

Use the newspaper to complete these activities:

Activity One — Technology in Our Community: New technology is always changing the way we do things. Use the newspaper to locate a picture of an invention that has affected or changed your life in some way. Write about how the invention has changed your life.

Activity Two —

Inverted Pyramid: News stories are often written in a style of writing called the inverted pyramid. The most important information in the story is contained in the lead, or first paragraph(s), and the details are added in descending order of importance. This allows readers to browse through the newspaper at a quicker pace. Find an example of a story in the newspaper that is written in inverted pyramid style.

Learning Standards: I can use the newspaper to locate information. I can write with a key idea and supporting details to support my answer.

Hanrahan Elementary School sixth grade teacher Ms. McGill and students

In Ms. McGill’s 6th grade class at Hanrahan Elementary School, students Mykal Steed-Eiland, Angell Jackson, D’Monte Richardson and Fabyon Collins learn to use the newspaper to help them with STEM lessons. Photo: Wiley Price / St. Louis American

Photo courtesy malveauxmission.org

Photo courtesy Brooke Martin

Business

Cut out to be a barber

Keith

Shackleford keeps his father’s

shop and salon in business downtown

By Kaitlyn Woodley-Roberts Of Academy Journalism

Keith Shackleford is a St. Louis barber born in 1965. He owns and cuts hair at Shack’s Barber and Beauty Salon, located at 1724 Olive Blvd. in downtown St. Louis. He has been working there since the young age of 11 when his father, James Shackleford, owned the shop. “I cut hair for both genders,” Shackleford told Academy Journalism. “I really enjoy cutting hair. I love doing it.”

Shackleford received his barber license from the Missouri School of Barbering and Hairstyling in Florissant. He has been cutting hair for 30 years.

“The reason why I started cutting hair was I was working at a grocery store when the workers threatened to go on strike, and they told me they would fire us if we did,” Shackleford told Academy Journalism. “I didn’t think that was fair. So I went to work with my dad.” When his father died, he left his son Shack’s Barber and Beauty Salon.

In addition to shampoos, haircuts, hottowel shaves and beard trims, Shack’s offers all natural, weave and braid styles, hair lining, mustache arch and eyebrow arch. Haircuts are discounted for children 12 and under and seniors 55 and older.

n “When I cut hair, I have the frame of mind to look at the shape of the person’s head, the shape of their face, and I listen to my client.”

– Keith Shackleford

‘’When I cut hair, I have the frame of mind to look at the shape of the person’s head, the shape of their face, and I listen to my client and what they ask me to do,” Shackleford told Academy Journalism. “What the person wants is more important.”

Shack’s Barber and Beauty Salon, 1724 Olive Blvd., is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Call 314-436-7006 or visit http://www. shacksbarberandbeautysalon.com to make an appointment. Walk-ins are also welcome for haircuts. Academy Journalism is a partnership between The St. Louis American and St. Louis Public Schools founded by DaMaris White, principal of Pierre Laclede Junior Academy, where Megan M. O’Brien runs the program with a staff of volunteers organized by The American.

Boeing grants $667K to seven projects impacting North County

Projects focus on STEM skills, stabilizing families, newspapers in classrooms

American staff

Boeing recently announced more than $50 million in grants to more than 500 nonprofit organizations across 50 countries globally – including $667,000 for seven projects impacting the North County area, near where Boeing is based, that support the Ferguson Commission report, according to Boeing.

FamilyForward ($130,000 grant): This project targets the health, development, and overall wellbeing of youth living in North St. Louis County. FamilyForward collaborates with other non-profits in North County to address underlying issues that lead to child abuse, such as hunger, car issues, lack of childcare, unemployment and legal troubles.

Maryville University ($125,000 grant): Maryville University will develop an extracurricular coding program that will help underserved youth at each of the four Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis develop key STEM skills.

Beyond Housing ($85,000 grant): This project combines decent, affordable rental housing with supportive services, including case management, budgeting advice, coaching, crisis intervention/resources, and referrals to a wide range of partners. The program’s objective is to help low-income families stabilize so they can focus on long-term goals such as achieving homeownership, building work skills, succeeding in education, and improving their finances.

Franklin D. Shelton Jr. has joined Midwest BankCentre as vice president and commercial lender. He markets the bank’s credit products to serve both low- to moderate-income customers and emerging market communities. He serves as credit administrator for the bank’s Community and Economic Development loan portfolio and partners with local organizations to build marketing and community service alliances. He has 28 years of banking and finance experience.

Michelle Y. Smart was promoted to deputy director of the St. Louis County Department of Human Services. This promotion has placed her on the list of topranking women in St. Louis County government. She received a Master of Social Work degree for Washington University- St. Louis Brown School of Social Work.

Ron Himes will be recognized with Cultural Leadership’s Karen S. Kalish Troublemaker of The Best Kind Award for his work in diversity and inclusion, and social justice. Himes is founding producing director of the Black Rep. Kathleen Sitzer, artistic director of the New Jewish Theatre, also will be recognized.

Darlene Green was recognized as a Trailblazing Woman in Public Finance by the Northeast Women in Public Finance. As comptroller for the City of St. Louis, she has led the city to several yearend surpluses and eight credit rating upgrades. Through her foresight and leadership, the city of St. Louis has not issued any derivative or variable rate debt, thus avoiding the 2006-08 derivative debt crisis.

Roderick M. Gilliam II was elected as president of the Board of Directors for St. Louis Chapter Junior Chamber of Commerce (JAYCEES). He will oversee a diverse network of young professionals whose primary function is to impact social enterprises within the St. Louis metropolitan area through charity and professional development. He is a broker with Stratus Financial Group and serves as a noncommissioned officer in the Missouri National Guard.

Youth work on a project at the Challenger Learning Center, which received an $80,000 grant from Boeing.

Ayanna L. Savoy graduated from basic military training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, San Antonio, Texas as U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class. She completed an intensive, eightweek program that included training in military discipline and studies, Air Force core values, physical fitness, and basic warfare principles and skills. She is the daughter of Andrea Burns and Alan Savoy of St. Louis.

On the move? Congratulations! Send

Franklin D. Shelton Jr.

Ron Himes

Ayanna L. Savoy

Roderick M. Gilliam II

Michelle Y. Smart

Darlene Green

Keith Shackleford owns and cuts hair at Shack’s Barber and Beauty Salon, located at 1724 Olive Blvd. in downtown St. Louis. He inherited the shop from his father, the late James Shackleford.

Kaitlyn WoodleyRoberts

Photo by Wiley Price

Five smart money moves before year-end

Courtesy

of First Bank

Before the holidays begin in earnest, take a moment for some financial planning.

“Fortunately, there is still time to implement some strategies before the end of the year,” said Petra Chien, vice president/wealth strategist for First Bank’s Wealth Management Group. “However, once the clock strikes midnight on December 31, there is no looking back. Taking a few simple measures now can prevent a postholiday financial hangover.”

With the clock ticking, the following are five steps from First Bank to set you on a firm financial path for the New Year:

Don’t miss your company’s benefits open enrollment: Around this time of year is the open enrollment period to select your company benefits for the next year. Generally, this is a passive process and your prior elections carry over to the next year. However, if your needs have changed you may want to revisit all the options available. If your company offers a flexible spending plan, this is a great way to pay for out-of-pocket medical expenses and the contributions to your account can reduce your taxes. One caveat, make sure you understand if the plan falls under the carry over rules or use-it-orlose-it rules.

Estimate your tax bill: There are several online calculators that can give you an estimate of your 2017 tax bill. This can help avoid being caught off guard when you file your taxes next year. If you are estimated to get a large refund, then you may be withholding too much from your paycheck. This is

essentially an interest-free loan to the government until next spring. On the other hand, if you owe more taxes than you have withheld, then keep enough saved for your tax liability next year. Over spending during the holiday season may put you in a bind. Adjust your allowances to reflect your individual tax situation.

Review your investments: Holding actively managed mutual funds in a taxable account requires some of your attention. Most active mutual funds will pay out capital-gains distributions towards the end of the year. This is income that may increase your tax liability. Keep an eye out for these distributions so you are not surprised come tax time. If you

need ways to reduce your tax bill, consider harvesting some losses. Always check with your tax professional before you do. They will be able to tell you how much or if this works in your particular situation.

Watch your retirement contributions: At a minimum contribute to your company’s 401(k) to get the full employer match. This is tax-deferred income and part of your company benefits. If your budget allows it, try to contribute the maximum allowed to the 401(k). In 2016 this amount is $18,000 and individuals 50 years of age or older are able to save an extra $6,000. An added benefit of stashing away extra into your 401(k) is it reduces your taxable

income.

‘Tis the season of giving: In certain situations it may make sense to gift appreciated securities to charity or your children instead of cash. Also, if you itemize your deductions and need to reduce your tax bill, consider cleaning out your closest and taking these household items to a charity in need. Make sure to do this (and get a receipt) before December 31st in order to claim the deduction for 2017.

First Bank is one of the largest privately owned banks in the country with $5.93 billion in assets and over 100 locations in Missouri, Illinois, and California.

continued from page B1

Magic House ($85,000 grant): Magic House educators will deliver STEM programs for six hours a day over three days to all K-5 classrooms in Hazelwood district schools. They will also host professional development for 400 teachers at 10 different workshops. They will host 20 STEM family science nights for each elementary school in the district, and some design challenges will use Boeing’s Centennial resources (http://www.boeing. com/boeing100/).

Challenger Learning Center ($80,000 grant): The STEM Igniter program seeks to increase students’ knowledge, confidence and interest in STEM through simulated space missions, engineering design challenge workshops, planetarium programs, classroom activities and lessons, and professional development workshops. This is located in the Ferguson-Florissant School District and works with that district on this programming, though it is offered also to other districts across the region.

Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis ($70,000 grant): The goal of the Urban League’s program Save Our Sons is to help economically disadvantaged AfricanAmerican men living in the St. Louis region find jobs and have the opportunity to earn livable wages.

The St. Louis American Foundation ($55,000 grant): Boeing funding helps to enable The St. Louis American’s Newspapers In Education program to provide newspapers to over 7,000 teachers and students in urban school districts, including an expansion into Illinois for the 2017-18 school year. The funding also goes toward the 2018 Summer Science Academy, held at Little Creek Nature Area in Florissant.

Girls, Inc. ($37,000 grant): This project is a STEM education program for girls from 7th-12th grade in the North County area, where they learn various skills in STEM such as robotics and coding, through summer and after-school programming.

“We aspire to be a top performer in every area of our business, and that includes leading in the communities where our employees and their families live and work,” said Dennis Muilenburg, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Boeing, the world’s largest aerospace company and leading manufacturer of commercial jetliners and defense, space and security systems.

National Council of Nonprofits calls for opposition to tax bill

The National Council of Nonprofits sent the following action alert regarding the Republican tax reform bill before Congress.

The House and Senate have passed separate versions of tax reform. The difference between the bills must be negotiated in what’s called a conference committee made up of a dozen or more Representatives and Senators who will be named soon. We write asking for your help in convincing all in Congress, and particularly the “tax conferees,” to preserve nonprofit nonpartisanship and to reject any changes to the

Johnson Amendment. Each bill contains multiple provisions that would harm the ability of charitable nonprofits to advance our missions. The most damaging is Section 5201 of the House-passed bill; it would radically change the longstanding, vital protection in law for nonpartisanship of charitable, religious, and philanthropic organizations, known as the Johnson Amendment. Section 5201 would allow political operatives to pressure those organizations to endorse or oppose candidates for public office, and powerful donors to exert

even more pressure by giving or threatening to withhold charitable contributions to get the organizations to endorse or oppose candidates the donors prefer. The proposed change would also make political donations – for the first time ever – tax-deductible when funneled through charitable nonprofits, houses of worship, and foundations. The Senate respected, but the House blatantly ignored, the widespread and resolute opposition to changing the law expressed by religious denominations and faith leaders, law enforcement officials, charitable nonprofits and foundations, and the vast majority of the American public. As the National Council of Nonprofits has warned, “This shameful attempt to advance the self-interest of politicians for more money and control at the expense of independent civil society must be stricken from the tax bill that comes out of the conference committee.” All people have a vested interest in preserving the independence and nonpartisanship of the charitable and philanthropic sectors. We urge you to immediately take these steps. Call your Representative and Senators (Capitol switchboard: 202-225-3121) and deliver this important message: “I’m a constituent and I’m calling in opposition to a very harmful provision in the tax bill that would weaken the Johnson Amendment and politicize charitable nonprofits, houses of worship, and foundations against our wishes. The harmful provision is Section 5201 of the House-passed tax bill that is now in a conference committee with the Senate. It is imperative that Senator/ Representative [NAME] reach out to every member of the conference committee and tell them the Johnson Amendment language in the House bill must be stripped from the final bill.”

n “At some point, we gotta stop looking like idiots to the nation.”

– NBA Hall of Famer and Alabama native Charles Barkley, on the eve of the state’s senatorial election

Sports

P

BasketBall noteBook

Stanton didn’t snub Cardinals, but

Midwest Showdown Shootout preview

Terrell Ramey’s Midwest Showdown Shootout is annually one of the top early-season showcase events in the Midwest.

Ramey’s outstanding six-game event will be held this Saturday at Webster Groves High. The event became even more attractive with the late addition of Chaminade, which will face Vashon in the final game of the Shootout at 8:30 p.m.

Vashon was originally slated to face Chicago-area powerhouse Morgan Park, but they had to pull out at the last minute. Fortunately, Chaminade had an open date and it stepped in to face the Wolverines in a battle of two of the state’s top programs.

Chaminade has advanced to the Final Four of the Class 5 state tournament the past three years, with a state championship in 2016. The Red Devils are led by 6’7” senior forward Jericole Hellems, who has signed with North Carolina State.

Vashon, the two-time Class 4 state champions, are a talented and athletic young group led by nationally-ranked junior guard Mario McKinney. The new-look Wolverines have already posted an impressive victory over Chicago area powerhouse Whitney Young this season.

The rest of the Midwest Showdown Shootout is as follows:

Harrisburg (MO) vs. Madison (IL), 1 p.m. – Harrisburg finished third in the Class 2 state tournament. They are led by 6’4” senior guard Cade Combs. Madison will be paced by talented junior guard Kendall Kennedy.

Parkway Central vs. Romeoville

As a longtime Dallas Mavericks fan, I despised and resented the San Antonio Spurs for many years. The Mavs often served as the Spurs’ punching bags during San Antonio’s impressive run of five NBA championships from 1999 – 2014.

My hate began to dissipate as Kawhi Leonard developed into a star player in South Texas. After all, who can root against a guy who gives 100% on both ends of the court, has been rocking cornrows since forever and still pushes a 1997 Chevy Tahoe around town? Not me.

the bucket and made a few scrappy, hustle plays that have endeared him to Spurs fans over the years.

The icing, though, was the fact that the 8-20 Mavericks somehow found a way to knock off the 19-9 Spurs. Who says you can’t have your cake and eat it too?

So I was glad to see Leonard finally make his season debut after missing the Spurs’ first 27 games with a thigh injury. Win or lose, I hoped to see Leonard shine in his return, and he did not disappoint. The All-Star forward racked up 13 points, six rebounds, one assist, one steal and a block in just 16 minutes of action (He was placed on a precautionary minutes restriction).

Leonard’s mid-range jumper was in midseason form. He showed an ability to drive to

The return of the cornrow king should make fans in Houston nervous. The 21-4 Rockets currently have the best record in the NBA and are widely considered the new belles of the bandwagon ball. With a healthy Leonard, expect the Spurs to fight hard to retain its title as the best team in Texas. Remember, the Spurs knocked the Rockets out of the playoffs last season. Even with Chris Paul coming into form in Houston, I think the Rockets will be hard-pressed to take Leonard and Gregg Popovich down in a seven game series. Is Porter Jr. really done for the season? One word stood out to me when the Mizzou basketball program announced that Michael Porter

would be undergo back surgery

Hazelwood East Spartans’ Michael Horton (15) goes up for two over Berkeley’s Torre McMiller (45) during Monday night’s game at East. The Spartans went on to defeat the Bulldogs 69-25.

After missing the San Antonio Spurs’ first 27 games, Kawhi Leonard made his season debut. He scored 13 points, six rebounds, one assist, one steal and a block in just 16 minutes of action.

Earl Austin Jr.

Sistrunk

Photo by Wiley Price

SportS EyE

With Alvin A. Reid

Stanton didn’t snub Cardinals, but Cardinals sure snubbed Matheny

Last week I wrote the St. Louis Cardinals still had a chance – albeit a slight one – to land Giancarlo Stanton in a trade.

Epically wrong was I.

The Cardinals NEVER had a chance to acquire the reigning National League MVP because he NEVER wanted to play in St. Louis.

Stanton said Monday during his introductory press conference with the New York Yankees in Buena Vista, Fla., that St. Louis was not on the list of teams he would have waived his no-trade clause to play for. Neither was San Francisco.

No, this was Miami Marlins co-owner Derek Jeter continuing to be a first-class jerk. He was contacting teams about trades that he knew Stanton did not wish to join. Jeter was wasting all of our time, and I truly believe he had some desire to eventually send the star to New York.

sense that it was a non-starter,” Mozeliak told Langosch.

“I think we went out there with optimism. We thought what we were selling or trying to explain to him was an exciting place to play. I definitely felt like after that meeting that it was sincere. But perhaps it was just not meant to be and maybe it was never meant to be.”

Don’t delude yourself, Mo. It wasn’t going to happen.

What’s more alarming than Stanton not coming here is Manager Mike Matheny not going to L.A. as part of the Cards’ meet-andgreet team. What team excludes its manager from a meeting of this ultimate importance?

This is quite tell-tale about how the front office – and players in general – must feel about Matheny. If his presence is not needed in trying to land a star player in a trade or free agency, how long will his presence be needed in the Cardinals’ organization?

As for the Giants and Cardinals, Stanton said, “They’re historic franchises, so I knew that they would figure out how have a great product on the field within a few years,” Stanton said, referring to the Cardinals and Giants. “But I wanted to be ready this year.”

He added this about the Cardinals, according to Jenifer Langosch of mlb.com: “It’s a winning-first culture… a great organization.”

She reported that Stanton met with Cards Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr., President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak and General Manager Michael Girsch on December 1.

“I don’t think we had the

If you didn’t think his seat was hot coming into the 2018 season, you best believe it now. Stanton didn’t snub the Cardinals because he never wanted to come here. The Cardinals did snub Matheny by leaving him at home while they made their pitch to Stanton.

A win for STL, MVC

Last week, Loyola of Chicago traveled to Gainesville, Fla., to take on the No. 5 Florida Gators. Few people outside of Earl Austin probably paid any attention to the game – until the Ramblers rode out of town with a stunning 65-59 victory. It was the Ramblers’ first

win over a ranked team since stopping No. 15 Butler in 2009 and first over a top-five team since beating No. 4 Illinois in 1984. I was at that game.

Loyola (10-1) is third in the College Insider Mid-Major Top 25 Poll, trailing only West Coast Conference powers Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s.

Loyola also garnered votes in the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches polls this week, and are just outside a coveted Top 25 position. The Ramblers are No. 33, based on the number of votes received. They are No. 34 in noted pundit Andy Katz’s Power 36, which ranks the 36 best teams in the nation each week.

Loyola’s surge is great news for the Missouri Valley Conference, the Arch Madness Tournament and for the host city of St. Louis. With Wichita State leaving the conference, the MVC would be gleeful of thousands of Loyola fans spent a few days here for the tournament in March.

Arch Madness is shaping up to be an all-out battle, with four teams joining the Ramblers in the Mid-Major Top 25.

Loyola is followed by 6. Northern Iowa (8-2); 11. Valparaiso (8-2) 17. Missouri

PREP

Continued from B3 (Illinois), 2:30 p.m. – Parkway Central finished fourth in the Class 4 state tournament last season. The Colts are led by 6’0” senior All-State guard Deandre Campbell. Romeoville features one of the top guards in the state of Illinois in senior Deandre Heckard and talented 6’7” forward Donita Johnson.

Cardinal Ritter vs. Bloomington (IL), 4 p.m. –Cardinal Ritter is once again

State (9-3); and 23. Evansville (8-2).

Faulk faces scrutiny

Marshall Faulk, the former St. Louis Rams star and Hall of Famer, has been suspended with Ike Taylor and Heath Evans by the NFL Network after he and two other employees were accused of sexual harassment in a wrongful termination lawsuit.

Jami L. Cantor, a former makeup artist and style consultant who worked at the leagueowned network, originally filed a complaint in October with no names included. An amended suit naming Faulk and others was filed Monday.

She also alleges that Eric Weinberger, a former network executive producer, sexually harassed her. Cantor claims that Faulk groped her breasts and behind and asked “deeply per-

one of the top contenders in Class 3 with its talented backcourt of junior Malek Davis and senior Jared Phillips. Bloomington is led by dynamic 6’6” junior athlete Chris Payton, who has already committed to Illinois State and guard Colton Sandage, who has committed to UT-Arlington.

Hazelwood Central vs. Chicago Orr, 5:30 p.m. –Hazelwood Central has one of the top teams in Class 5 this season. The Hawks are a talented senior-laden team led by 6’3” senior Kansas State signee Shaun Williams. Chicago Orr

sonal and invasive questions” about her sex life. She said that both Taylor and Weinberger sent her inappropriate pictures. The suit is posted on Deadspin, which has the alleged lurid details. She also described receiving explicit texts from former NFL Network analyst Donovan McNabb, who currently appears on ESPN, and inappropriate behavior toward her by former NFL Network employee Warren Sapp Alvin A. Reid was honored as the 2017 “Best Sports Columnist – Weeklies” in the Missouri Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest. He is a panelist on the Nine Network program, Donnybrook, is a weekly contributor to “The Charlie Tuna Show” on KFNS and can also be heard on Frank Cusumano’s “The Press Box.” His Twitter handle is #aareid1.

won the Illinois Class 2 state championship last season. They are led by senior Tyrone Mosley, a Milwaukee signee and exciting point guard Chase Adams.

Webster Groves vs. Fern Creek (Kentucky), 7 p.m.

– The Class 5 state champion Statesmen will be led by 6’8” senior forward Carte’are Gordon, who has signed with Saint Louis U. Fern Creek has one of the top teams in the Bluegrass State. They are led by guards Ahmad Price, Anthony Wales and Tony Rogers.

Alvin A. Reid

St. Louis Cardinals Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr., President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak and General Manager Michael Girsch excluded manager Mike Matheny from their meeting with Giancarlo Stanton.

In November, Mizzou announced that Michael Porter Jr. would likely miss the remainder of the season after back surgery. Rick Lehman, a local orthopedic surgeon has suggested the MPJ could return within the next month.

CLUTCH

post that gave some Tigers fans hope that the nation’s top freshman could potentially return before the season’s end.

“Just letting y’all know whoever said it was gonna take 3-4 months to recover lied [sic],” the post read. Now, fans have even more hope after nationally-renowned orthopedic surgeon Rick Lehman conducted separate interviews with Frank Cusumano (590 AM) and the Columbia Missourian that suggested Porter Jr. could return to the court within the next month.

“Most single-level decompression (back surgeries) take six to eight weeks to recover,” Lehman told The Missourian “The thought that he’d miss the whole season — in my opinion — is probably not realistic.

“My belief is that he’ll be back six to eight weeks from the time of surgery pretty comfortably,” he added.

Demetrius Alexander was presented with his basketball jersey during a ceremony prior to the Hazelwood Central High School varsity basketball game on December 5 by Josh Martin, the athletic director at Central High, when the school retired his jersey. After graduating from Central in 1994 (when he was the St. Louis American Player of the Year), Alexander played basketball at the University of Alabama before playing for several pro teams. He finished his pro career with an overseas Basketball club in Israel. “Demetrius was one of the best players to ever grace Hazelwood Central High School Basketball court,” said Martin. “He was a leader on the team and in the class. We were honored to commemorate his accomplishments on and off the court by retiring his jersey.”

Justin Blanks

McKendree – Basketball

The senior guard from Akron, Ohio is enjoying an excellent start to the season in leading the Bearcats to a 5-2 record.

The 6’4” Blanks had 23 points, five rebounds and two blocks in a 116-50 over Central Christian. He also had 17 points, seven rebounds and two steals in the Bearcats’ loss to the St. louiS AmericAn college AthleteS of the Week

Truman State last weekend.

For the season, Blanks is averaging 20.3 points and 4.7 rebounds while shooting 52 percent from the field, 48 percent from 3-point range and 73 percent from the free throw line. As a junior, Blanks averaged 16.5 points a game, which was second on the team.

crossing our fingers and hoping things are different this time.

Where’s Rigo?

Hardcore fight fans were excited at the announcement of the fight between Vasyl Lomachenko and Guillermo Rigondeaux. The bout matched up two of the sport’s top pound-for-pound fighters and was featured on ESPN, instead of dipping into our pockets for another expensive pay-per-view.

Rigondeaux entered the fight with several disadvantages. The 37-year-old Cuban native is significantly older than his 29-year-old opponent, moved up two weight classes for the fight and has been fair-

ly inactive for the past few years.

In the ring, his hands have been inactive for most of his career. Still, his defensive-oriented style has made the previously undefeated Rigondeaux a tough nut to crack.

No mas.

Continued from B3 the weekend with 22 points in a victory over Springfield Catholic.

In the first ever professional fight between two twotime Olympic gold medalists, Rigondeaux looked like he didn’t belong in the same ring with Lomachenko.

After six rounds of action, Lomachenko landed 55 of 339 punches compared to just 15 of 178 by Rigondeaux. Though I don’t have an official count, I’m certain that Rigondeaux landed

PreP Athlete of the Week

Brandon Frederick

Of course, any talk of Porter’s return is pure speculation at this point. As a likely top-five pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, it’s doubtful that Porter would return if there’s any chance that he’s not 100% and unlikely to re-aggravate his back.

If he is medically cleared, it would make sense to see him return. Missing an entire season certainly doesn’t help a player’s draft stock. A successful return and late-season run could be the difference between being taken with the first overall selection and the fifth.

Historically speaking, Mizzou doesn’t have the best luck with these things. Still, there’s nothing wrong with

Confluence Academy – Boys Basketball

The 5’10” senior guard is off to a tremendous start to the season in leading Confluence to a 6-2 record. Last week, Frederick scored 32 points and made eight 3-pointers in a victory over Centralia (Missouri). He added 33 points and made seven 3-pointers in a victory over Nixa at the Ozark Mountain Shootout in Springfield. He finished

For the season, Frederick is currently averaging 30 points a game, which is first in the St. Louis metro area. He is also averaging 4.8 assists and 5.2 steals while shooting 50 percent from 3-point range, making 44 of his 88 attempted shots from long distance.

more clinches than punches over those six rounds. Though he didn’t seem to be taking excessive damage, Rigondeaux quit on his stool after the sixth round, citing an injured hand.

Many have suggested that ‘Rigo’ quit because he knew he was outclassed. An X-Ray of his injured hand revealed a bruise, but no broken bones.

To quote another famous Rico, “Boxers fight with bruised hands every day, B!” Hopefully Rigondeaux got his $400K purse paid in full. He’ll have a tough time getting another headlining fight after his subpar performance.

Follow Ishmael and In the Clutch on Twitter @ IshmaelSistrunk

Jocelyn Anderson

Lewis & Clark Community College – Basketball

The freshman forward from Lincoln, Nebraska is off to a strong start in helping lead the Trailblazers to a 6-3 record. The 5’11” Anderson had 11 points, nine rebounds, three steals and a blocked shot in a victory over Lake Land College. She also had

33 points, eight rebounds and two steals in a victory over Missouri Valley. For the season, Anderson is averaging 15.2 points and 7.0 rebounds while shooting 56 percent from the field and 80 percent from the free throw line.

Photo by Olivia Liu / Columbia Missourian

From intern to staff at Disney World

Lindenwood-Belleville grad De’Marcus Terry turns internship into employment

American staff

Lindenwood UniversityBelleville graduate De’Marcus Terry impressed his supervisors so much during an internship at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida, that he’s been asked to stay on at the theme park as staff.

After leaders of several departments engaged in a battle for his services when his internship ended, Terry settled on a job as a competition coordinator at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports athletic complex. A May graduate with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a minor in marketing, Terry said he chose that job over the others offered because it closely lines up with his goal of forging a career in sports. He hopes someday to work at a school as an athletic director.

In all, Terry was approached about four different permanent positions at Disney before whittling the list down to two and then opting to take his current role.

Brandi Copeland, a senior recruiter with Disney,

wrote the graduate’s former Lindenwood academic advisor to say that Terry was “one of my favorite hires to date.” His supervisors credit Terry’s popularity as an employee to his thorough nature, gregarious personality and sharp leadership skills.

n “I coordinate all kinds of events on the site. I make sure when they get here that coaches and players get everything they need.”

– De’Marcus Terry

Terry said Lindenwood Belleville helped him to develop those features and to be the best he can be.

“I had a lot on my plate at Lindenwood,” said Terry, a Florida native. “In addition to playing football and being on the track team, I took part in every club and organization I could. That experience taught me so much and exposed me to so many different things.”

Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports is a 220-acre athletic site built in 1997 near the Walt Disney World amusement park. It includes nine venues for sports competitions, including Champion Field, which serves as the spring training home to the Atlanta Braves and seats 9,500 people.

The complex also includes HP Fieldhouse, a 70,000-square foot indoor sports venue that hosts events including basketball, gymnastics, and volleyball; youth baseball and softball fields; soccer and football facilities; a tennis stadium; and track and field venues, which will keep Terry busy scheduling events throughout the year.

Terry’s role includes organizing sporting events, including tournaments for kids from youth leagues all the way through the college ranks.

“I coordinate all kinds of events on the site,” Terry said. “I make sure when they get here that coaches and players get everything they need. It’s my job to make sure everything is taken care of to accommodate everyone the best we can.”

Lindenwood University-Belleville graduate De’Marcus Terry recently accepted a position as competition coordinator at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports athletic complex near Orlando, Florida. He hopes someday to work at a school as an athletic director.

This is STL

Emmy winner

Sterling K. Brown stars in new Explore St. Louis campaign

By Kenya Vaughn Of The St. Louis American

Though a veteran television actor with more than a decade of experience under his belt, St. Louis native Sterling K. Brown’s fame exploded 2016.

On the heels of an Emmy win for his portrayal of Christopher Darden in the FX Network series “The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” television audiences instantly connected with Brown switching gears to play Randall Pearson on the hit NBC drama “This Is Us” when the show debuted last year.

Brown’s Randall made him a back-to-back Emmy winner – and the first African American man in 20 years to take home an Emmy Award for “Best Lead Actor in a Drama” since his fellow Stanford alum Andre Braugher did so for his role in “Homicide: Life on the Street.”

n Now in his stride as a Hollywood ALister, Brown’s journey has been anything but “regular.”

Brown’s character –who uses perfectionism as a coping mechanism while maneuvering through his complicated personal history – is one of the driving forces behind the phenomenal success of “This Is Us.” But his latest role hits especially close to home – all pun intended.

He stars in series of television spots for the Explore St. Louis campaign entitled “In the Know.” The intention is to highlight St. Louis’ lesser-known aspects that make the city special. In the spots, Brown shares what he loves about his hometown.

“I still think of myself as this regular kid from the Meadows [in Olivette], so I was touched by the invitation to be a part of this project,” Brown said.

Created in partnership with local marketing agency H&L Partners, “In the Know” is the newest Explore St. Louis campaign to promote the city as a top travel destination.

“Sterling is the perfect person to help us tell St. Louis’ story through ‘In the Know,’” said Brian Hall, chief marketing officer, Explore St. Louis. “He represents everything good about our city – he’s kind, charming, hard-working, witty, See BROWN, C4

The art of giving back

SLAM receives major gift of Thelma and Bert Ollie Memorial Art Collection

Special to The American

Last Monday (December 4), The Saint Louis Art Museum announced an extraordinary collection gift from New Jersey-based collector Ronald Maurice Ollie and his wife Monique McRipley Ollie that adds significant depth and breadth to the museum’s holdings of works by African-American artists.

“My wife and I share the Saint Louis Art Museum’s commitment of advancing knowledge while introducing art to people of all ages and backgrounds,” said Ronald Ollie, who is retired after a 30-year career in business development that included leadership positions

“The museum’s collection helped ignite my passion – we are delighted to know works we have stewarded might do the same for future generations.” Ronald Ollie grew up in St. Louis. His parents, Thelma and Bert Ollie, were frequent visitors to the museum and instilled in him and his siblings a deep appreciation of art. Ronald Ollie’s childhood fascination with abstract art grew into a passion when, as an adult, he began to acquire abstract works by artists he admired and, often, befriended.

The gift of 81 paintings, drawings, prints, photographs and sculpture includes significant works by such American artists as Terry Adkins, Benny Andrews, Robert Blackburn, Chakaia Booker, Ed Clark, Nanette Carter, Adger Cowans, Herb Gentry, Sam Gilliam, Bill Hutson, Jacob Lawrence, Norman Lewis, James Little, Al Loving, Jack Whitten, Stanley Whitney,

at major Fortune 500 firms and top architecture and engineering firms across the country.

Year of the ‘blackbuster’

African American films make major cash flow impact in Hollywood for 2017

By Kenya Vaughn Of The St. Louis American

On February 26, the entire team behind the film “La La Land” stood on stage in a state of bliss at the 89th Annual Academy Awards as they accepted the final award of the evening. Thank you speeches were delivered. The cast and crew shared hugs and high fives on stage for their “Best Picture” award. Then suddenly there was a buzz of confusion.

Producer Fred Berger went ahead and finished his entire speech, but added “we lost by the way” at the end. There was a pause and then strange looks among the audience and the assumed winners.

See FILM, C5

Colorful visionaries

Diverse group of Visionary Awards honorees announced for 2018

Special to The American Saint Louis Visionary Awards recently announced their 2018 honorees – who are selected for their excellence, passion and advocacy for the arts in St. Louis.

Lana Pepper (Major Contributor to the Arts); Asha Premachandra (Outstanding Teaching Artist); Allison Felter (Outstanding Arts Professional); Antionette Carroll (Community Impact Artist); Yvonne Osei (Emerging

Cheeraz Gormon (Outstanding Working Artist).

“The greatest joy is to lift up women who have these amazing stories who are making change in our communities through the arts,” said Sara Burke, co-chair of the Saint Louis Visionary Awards and past honoree. “And to share this gift of being a Visionary Awardee – it

See VISIONARIES, C4

Sterling K. Brown

Photo by Diane Anderson

The 2018 Saint Louis Visionary Awards Honorees (left to right), Standing: Lana Pepper; Yvonne Osei; Cheeraz Gormon; and Allison Felter. Seated: Asha Premachandra; Antionette Carroll

Artist);

See ART, C4

Photo by Adger Cowans

Monique McRipley Ollie and Ronald Maurice Ollie.

“Girls Trip,” directed by Malcolm D. Lee and starring Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, Tiffany Haddish and Regina Hall became the first movie with a black writer, director, producer and cast to cross the $100 million threshold.

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.

holiday haps

Thur., Dec. 14, 7:30 p.m., Gospel Christmas: A Soulful Celebration with Brian Owens. He will join the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and IN UNISON Chorus. Powell Hall, 718 N. Grand Blvd., 63103. For more information, visit www.slso.

org.

Fri., Dec. 15, 6:30 p.m., Peabody Opera House presents A Charlie Brown Christmas Live on Stage. Join the Peanuts gang in the journey to uncover the true meaning of Christmas. 1400 Market St., 63103. For more information, visit www. peabodyoperahouse.com.

Sat., Dec. 16, 1 p.m., Holiday Market in Strauss Park. A holiday crafts bazaar featuring 20 local artists selling a host of original artwork, gifts and more. Strauss Park in Grand Center Arts District, 3534 Washington Ave., 63103. For more information, visit www. grandcenter.org.

Sat., Dec. 16, 2 p.m., Joyful Noize! Rockn’ The Holidayz – A Rock n’ Roll Holiday Show. This is also a comic book release party. Proceeds benefit Metro Theater Company. Grandel, 3610 Grandel Sq., 63108. For more information, visit www. metrotix.com.

Sat., Dec. 16, 2 p.m., The Legend Singers host the Annual Soulful Sounds of the Season Concert and Bazaar. Guest performance by the Community Gospel Choir of St. Louis. Prince of Peace Church, 9350 Natural Bridge Rd., 63134. For more information, call (314) 6165906.

Dec. 16 – 17, Better Family Life Membership Association presents the 34th Annual Kwanzaa Holiday Expo. A shopping experience to

purchase unique items and support many local businesses mostly Black-owned. 5415 Page Blvd., 63112. For more information, visit www. facebook.com.

Through Dec. 17, An Unforgettable Nat King Cole Christmas feat. Evan Tyrone Martin. Playhouse at Westport Plaza, 635 West Port Plaza Dr., 63146. For more information, visit www. metrotix.com.

Sun., Dec. 17, 5 p.m., Magnify presents Karter’s Christmas Party. Kids ages 1 – 10 can dance, paint, and enter to win gifts. Magnify Art Gallery, 904 S. 4th St., 63102. For more information, visit www.facebook.com.

Dec. 19 – 21, Jazz St. Louis Big Band plays Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite 3536 Washington Ave., 63103. For more information, visit www.tickets.jazzstl.org.

Tues., Dec. 19, 6 p.m., Heartland St. Louis Black Chamber of Commerce invites you to their Holiday Catering and Stocking Stuffer Expo. William J. Harrison Education Center, 3140 Cass Ave., 63106. For more information, visit www. heartlandblackchamberstl.com.

Wed., Dec. 20, 1 p.m., BKG Pamoja CMM presents Kwanzaa Celebration. 3935 Enright Ave., 63108.

Thur., Dec. 21, 6:30 p.m., Prison Performing Arts presents the 2017 Youth Winter Showcase. This event highlights our Learning Through the Arts program, which offers youth at the St. Louis City Juvenile Detention Center weekly classes in a variety of performing arts. 3827 Enright Ave., 63108. For more information or to RSVP, visit www.prisonartsstl.org.

Dec. 21 – Jan. 1, The Gateway Park Foundation and St. Louis Blues present

The Guide

Kenya Vaughn recommends

Winterfest at the Arch Kiener Plaza, 500 Chestnut St., 63101. For more information, visit www.archwinterfest.com.

Dec. 21 – 24, Church in Action presents The Living Manger Experience Watch the Christmas Story as it comes to life, enjoy cookies and drinks, and take a family photo. For more information, visit www. livingmangerexperience.com.

Sat., Dec. 23, 3 & 7 p.m., Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker. The Fox Theatre, 527 N. Grand Blvd., 63103.

Dec. 26 – 28, 7:30 p.m., Peabody Opera House presents ELF the Musical The hilarious tale of Buddy, a young orphan child who mistakenly crawls into Santa’s bag of gifts and is transported back to the North Pole.

Sun., Dec. 24, 7 p.m., STL HouseHeadz presents A House Night Before Christmas. Voce, 212 S. Tucker Blvd., 63102. For more information, visit www. eventbrite.com.

of the First Fruits. A day of storytelling, craft displays, and authentic African drumming and musical performances. 4344 Shaw Blvd., 63110. For more information, visit www. missouribotanicalgarden.og.

Thur., Dec. 28, 6 p.m., St. Louis Public Library presents a Kwanzaa Celebration. Light the Kinara, hear poetry, do crafts, and more. Carpenter Branch, 3309 S. Grand Blvd., 63118. For more information, visit www.slpl.org.

Sun., Dec. 31, 5 p.m., Family Friends New Year’s Eve. Festivities will include children’s characters, performers, giveaways, fireworks at 9 pm, and more. Kiener Plaza, 601 Market St., 63101. For more information, visit www.facebook.com.

Sun., Dec. 31, 7:30 p.m., Poetic Justice Open Mic –NYE 2018. Hosted by Corey Black with music by Michael Franco. Blank Space, 2847 Cherokee St., 63118. For more information, visit www. poeticjusticeopenmic.bigcartel. com.

Sun., Dec. 31, 8 p.m., New Year’s Eve Party. Hosted by Derrty Dj C Note. La Rose

Room, 2723 Dr. Martin Luther King Dr., 63106. For more information, call (314) 5333022.

Sun., Dec. 31, 8 p.m., Ultimate New Year’s Eve Party. Tickets include open bar, buffet, party favors, and champagne toast. Hyatt Regency St. Louis at The Arch, 315 Chestnut St., 63102. For more information, visit www.stlouisarch.regency.hyatt. com.

Sun., Dec. 31, 8 p.m., AllN-1 Entertainment presents The Final Count Down New Year’s Eve Party. Tickets include live music, champagne toast, and party favors. Mandarin Banquet Hall, 8008 Olive Blvd., 63130. For more information, call (314) 6903660.

Sun., Dec. 31, 8:30 p.m., 2 Jo’s Entertainment presents New Year’s Eve Bash with Zapp & DJ Kutt. Tickets include dinner, party favors, and champagne toast. The Ambassador, 9800 Halls Ferry Rd., 63136. For more information, visit www. metrotix.com.

Sun., Dec. 31, 9 p.m., Dread Out 2017. The annual

Sun., Dec. 31, 9 p.m., Afro Sexy Cool NYE. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave., 63110. For more information, visit ww.eventbrite.com.

Through Jan. 1, Missouri Botanical Garden presents Garden Glow. Enjoy s’mores, festive drinks, and more than one million lights throughout the garden. 4344 Shaw Blvd., 63110. For more information, visit www. missouribotanicalgarden.org.

Through Jan. 1, Missouri Botanical Garden presents Garden Glow. Enjoy s’mores, festive drinks, and more than one million lights throughout the garden. 4344 Shaw Blvd., 63110. For more information, visit www. missouribotanicalgarden.org.

concerts

Through Dec. 16, Jazz St. Louis presents Take 6. Jazz at the Bistro, 3536 Washington Ave., 63103. For more information, visit www.tickets. jazzstl.org.

Fri., Dec. 15, 6 p.m., Fubar presents Kyng Kane. 3108 Locust St., 63103. For more information, visit www. fubarstl.com.

Fri., Dec. 15, The Marquee presents Plies. 1911 Locust St., 63103. For more information, visit www.themarqueestl.com.

Sat., Dec. 16, 7:30 p.m., Chaifetz Arena presents Xscape: The Great Xscape Tour. With Monica and Tamar Braxton. Chaifetz Arena, 1 S. Compton Ave., 63103. For more information, visit www.thechaifetzarena. com.

Sat., Dec. 16, 8 p.m., The Ambassador presents Master’s Touch with special guest Zena. 9800 Halls Ferry Rd., 63136. For more information, visit www. thenewambassadorstl.com. Sun., Dec. 17, 7 p.m., The Ready Room presents SZA – The CTRL Tour. 4195 Manchester Ave., 63110. For more information, visit www. thereadyroom.com.

Wed., Dec. 27, 12 p.m., Missouri Botanical Garden presents Kwanzaa: Festival Jamaican style Reggae New Year’s Eve Bash featuring the Infrared Rockers. Attendance prizes, food, and party favors included. Rowan Community Center, 1401 Rowan Ave., 63112. For more information, call (314) 229-7018.

Scottrade Center presents Katt Williams, left, and Mike Epps. See COMEDY for details.

Sun., Dec. 17, 8 p.m.,

Rockhouse Entertainment and Party in Peace present

Chief Keef. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., 63112. For more information, visit www. ticketmaster.com.

Thur., Dec. 21, 6:30 p.m., J Fury presents Trill Vibez The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., 63103. For more information, visit www.firebirdstl.com.

Thur., Dec. 21, 9:30 p.m., Chano Cruz Trio. Dark Room at The Grandel, 3610 Grandel Sq., 63108. For more information, visit www. thedarkroomstl.com.

Fri., Dec. 29, LooseCannon

Ent. Presents Resolution 2017: Lil Wayne & Migos, Chaifetz Arena. For more information, visit www. thechaifetzarena.com.

Dec. 29 – 30, Jazz St. Louis presents Good 4 the Soul Jazz at the Bistro, 3536 Washington Ave., 63103. For more information, visit www. jazzstl.org.

Sat., Dec. 30, 8:30 p.m., DewMo Productions presents Boosie Live. The Ambassador, 9800 Halls Ferry Rd., 63136. For more information, visit www.metrotix.com.

special events

Fri., Dec. 15, 3:30 p.m., The Pageant presents The Irreplaceables Tour. As seen on the hit show Dance Moms, The Irreplaceables (Kendall, Chloe & Kalani) will perform a cutting-edge dance followed by a Q&A with the girls and their moms. 6161 Delmar Blvd., 63112. For more information, visit www. ticketmaster.com.

Sat., Dec. 16, 11 a.m., 8 th Annual NAACP St. Louis County Soulful Jazz Brunch Extravaganza. We will feature a shopping bazaar, a silent auction, fashion show and musical performances. Sheraton Westport Chalet Hotel, 191 Westport Plaza, 63146. For more information, visit www.eventbrite.com.

Fri., Dec. 22, 8 p.m., Black Ink Chicago Inked Up Tattoo Party. The Marquee, 1911 Locust St., 63103. For more information, visit www. themarqueestl.com.

Jan. 13 & 15, 10 a.m., Missouri History Museum presents the MLK Family Celebration. Kids 14 and

under can take part in Youth Activism and Engagement Workshops, create peaceinspired art projects, and dive into St. Louis history. 5700 Lindell Blvd., 63112. For more information, visit www. mohistory.org.

comedy

Dec. 14 – Dec. 17, The Laugh Lounge presents Ray Lipowski and Ha Ha Davis (Dec. 15th & 16th) The Laugh Lounge, 11208 W. Florissant. For more information, visit https://www.thelaughloungestl. com/

Sun., Dec. 31, 8 p.m., Scottrade Center presents Katt Williams and Mike Epps. 1401 Clark Ave., 63103. For more information, visit www.scottradecenter.com.

literary

Thur., Dec. 14, 7 p.m., St. Louis County Library hosts author Peter Hayes, author of Why?: Explaining the Holocaust. Library Headquarters, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd., 63108. For more information, visit www. left-bank.com.

art

Fri., Dec. 15, 8 p.m., Environmental Music & Arts Project: The Bloom Experience and Hello Jizoo. .Zack, 3224 Locust St., 63103. For more information, visit www.metrotix.com.

Sat., Dec. 16, 11 a.m., STL Craft Mafia presents Merrily Made: Gifts and Goods

A shopping event featuring 30 local artists, makers, and independent businesses. St. Louis Artists’ Guild, 12 North Jackson Ave., 63105. For more information, visit www. stlouisartistsguild.org.

Through December 31, Mickalene Thomas: Mentors, Muses, and Celebrities, The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, 3750 Washington Blvd. St. Louis, 63108. For more information, visit http://camstl. org/ or call (314) 535-4660.

Tues., Jan. 2, 7 p.m., Missouri History Museum presents American Indian Art, Symbols, and Meanings. Dr. Carol Diaz-Granados explores the ways in which imagery conveys tells a story about people of the greater Cahokia region. 5700 Lindell Blvd., 63112. For

more information, visit www. mohistory.org.

lectures and workshops

Thur., Dec. 14, 6 p.m., Connect Learning presents Urban Education Design Challenge. Explore ways in which the community and educators can work together to improve urban education in St. Louis. Missouri History Museum. For more information, visit www. eventbrite.com.

Thur., Dec. 14, 9 p.m., Sonic Arts United presents Tapping Our Genius feat. Damon

Davis. This is a quarterly series for those with an interest in the sonic arts community.

St. Louis Hop Shop, 2600 Cherokee St., 63118. For more information, visit www. tappingourgenius.eventbrite. com.

Tues., Dec. 19, 2 p.m., Seniors Home Care presents Free Family Caregiver Training. Learn about incontinence care, home safety, Alzheimer’s/dementia, handling caregiver stress, and more. 504 Marshall Ave., 63119. For more information, visit www.seniorshomecare. com

Sun., Dec. 24, 12:45 p.m., A Womanist Gathering, Between Women. Womanism

is rooted in the African American female experience of seeking liberation, healing and communal justice. InPower Institute, 4126 Humphrey St., 63116. For more information, visit www.facebook.com.

Sat., Jan. 13, Second Saturday Divorce Workshop with Laura Boedges, Financial Advisor, HighTower St. Louis (Magna Place Building), 1401 S. Brentwood Blvd., Ste. 550, St. Louis, MO 63144. For more information, call 314598-4068 or e-mail lboedges@ hightoweradvisors.com.

theatre

Dec. 27 – 31, Fox Theatre presents Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella 527 N. Grand Blvd., 63103. For more information, visit www. metrotix.com.

Jan. 11 – 14, JPEK CreativeWorks Theatre presents The Meeting Stage Play. A depiction of the supposed meeting of Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as they debate their varying approaches to social problems. .Zack, 3224 Locust St., 63103. For more information, visit www. metrotix.com.

Thur., Dec. 14, Star Wars: The Last Jedi Opening Night. St. Louis Science Center Omnimax Theater, 5050 Oakland Ave., 63110. For more information, visit www.slsc. org/starwars.

Mon., Dec. 25, Jumanji starring Kevin Hart and Dwayne The Rock Johnson opens in theatres nationwide. Sat., Dec. 30, 2 p.m., Asbury United Methodist Church presents Family Movie Matinee: Black Nativity. 4001 Maffitt Ave., 63113. For more information, visit www. facebook.com.

LooseCannon Ent. Presents Resolution 2017: Lil Wayne & Migos. For more information, see CONCERTS.

Kenya Vaughn recommends

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fun, and much more – so when he agreed to participate, we were honored and excited to begin shooting.”

Now in his stride as a Hollywood A-Lister, Brown’s journey has been anything but “regular.”

His name was among those announced Monday as nominees for the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards. He’s in the running for a Best Performance by an Actor in a TV Series –Drama for “This Is Us.” The show is also up for a “Best TV Series – Drama” Golden Globe.

Brown is also nominated for two awards for the 49th Annual NAACP Image awards – an “Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series” for his role on “This Is Us” and an “Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion

Picture” for his portrayal of Joseph Spell in the film “Marshall.” The film, directed by East St. Louis native Reginald Hudlin, is also up for an “Outstanding Motion Picture “award.

“All of this has been a dream come true,” Brown said. “And I don’t know if it was a dream that I dared to dream until I booked The People vs. OJ.”

The momentum of his career is in full swing with upcoming appearances in highly anticipated films such as “Black Panther” and “The Predator” in addition to his starring role on “This Is Us.”

As the face of “In the Know,” Brown will definitely leave an impression as he sheds light on what the city has to offer. Brown donated his compensation for participating in the campaign to the MathewsDickey Boys’ & Girls’ Club. The donation will help fund

the club’s Blue Chip ScholarAthletic Initiative. Brown’s grandfather, the late Arris Banks, Sr., was a club donor in its early days.

“The Mathews-Dickey Boys’ & Girls’ Club holds a special place in my heart,” Brown said. “It means a lot to me to follow in my grandfather’s footsteps and share the opportunity to support this club, which has done so much for my family and St. Louis youth.”

He also tutored at MathewsDickey while a student at Mary Institute and Saint Louis Country Day School (MICDS).

“People overlook St. Louis, but we’ve got great food, good music, and quality people who come from this place,” Brown said. “I couldn’t be prouder to call St. Louis home.”

To watch the first two spots, visit explorestlouis.com/sterling. The full campaign will launch Spring 2018.

ART

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Frank Wimberley, and William T. Williams. Works by British artists Winston Branch and Frank Bowling also are included in the gift.

“This transformative gift is a testament to years of passionate collecting that is both focused and far reaching,” said Brent R. Benjamin, the Barbara B. Taylor director of the Saint Louis Art Museum. “I am deeply grateful to Ronald and Monique Ollie, whose generosity will help our visitors enjoy a richer and more diverse understanding of postwar American art.”

Among the highlights of the collection are important groupings of work by Clark and Loving showcasing these artists’ fascination with formal experiment; Whitney’s richly colorful “Out into the Open,” in which the artist invigorates a long modernist tradition of the grid in abstract painting; and Gilliam’s radical draped painting, “Half Circle Red,” where the canvas stretcher has been removed.

Works on paper number among the great strengths in the collection. Blackburn’s iconic lithograph “Faux Pas” places him squarely at the origin of post-war printmaking in America. Numerous drawings and collages represent multiple generations of artists ranging from Lewis and Gentry, whose careers began in the mid-20th century; to Gilliam and Clark, who came of age in the 1960s and 1970s; to Whitney and Little, who are at the heights of their careers.

The Ollies strongly believe

VISIONARIES

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is a life-changing experience.”

Saint Louis Visionary Awards is an annual ceremony that celebrates the numerous contributions and achievements of women who work in or support the arts in St. Louis.

James Little, American, born 1952; “Double Exposure”, 2008; (unframed) oil and wax on canvas; unframed: 39 × 50 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, The Thelma and Bert Ollie Memorial Collection E14521.76 © James Little

in the power of museums to educate. To that end, the couple also has given an extensive collection of related resources – including a library of relevant books and an archive of ephemera and other research materials – that will support the study of the collection and provide a basis for future scholarship.

Ron Ollie graduated from the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy – now known as Missouri University of Science and Technology – with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering. Ollie is a member of the Newark Museum’s board of trustees.

In addition to collecting art, he also is an avid book collector whose library includes over 2,100 titles on black history and

“There are so many women in the region doing transformational work in the arts,” said Burke. “We couldn’t be more impressed with the 2018 honorees. They truly deserve this recognition.”

The 2018 Saint Louis Visionary Awards Ceremony is scheduled for Monday, April 23, 2018 starting at 6:00 p.m. at the Sun Theater.

culture as well as volumes of Negro Spiritual sheet music. Monique McRipley Ollie works in the life sciences and pharmaceutical industries. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree and a doctorate in biomedical engineering from Northwestern University. She serves on the board of the Newark School of the Arts. An exhibition of selections from the collection and an accompanying publication will be organized in 2019; visitors may access the educational resources in the Richardson Memorial Library beginning next year. For more information, visit www.slam.org.

Marcela Manjarrez Hawn, senior vice president, chief communications officer for Centene Corporation and Susan Sherman, chair of the Saint Louis Fashion Fund, will serve as co-hosts for the ceremony. For additional info about the Saint Louis Visionary Awards sponsorship opportunities and ticket information, visit www. vizawards.org.

FILM

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Nobody understood what he meant until producer Jordan Horowitz declared that “Moonlight” was actually the winning film.

“This is not a joke,” Horowitz said. “’Moonlight’ has won ‘Best Picture.’”

“Moonlight” director Barry Jenkins looked around with his mouth open. Horowitz held up a piece of paper and repeated himself. The nearest camera panned in to show “Moonlight” was indeed the winner. The small budget film about a young black man coming into his sexuality while simultaneously grappling with the harsh realities of life during the height of the crack era in Miami, had upset the all but guaranteed winner.

Moonlight made history, and not just because it became the first “Best Picture” winner whose award was accidentally given to someone else. The film became the first “Best Picture” winner with an all-black cast. That same night, Mahershala Ali had won a “Best Supporting Actor” Oscar for his role in the film and Jenkins and Tarrell Alvin McCraney had won for “Best Adapted Screenplay.”

Why does any of this matter when summarizing the year in black movies for 2017? Because while Moonlight didn’t rake in huge dollars, the 89th Academy Awards set the tone for what would be a blockbuster year for black movies with black directors and black casts.

The highest grossing film among the “Best Picture” nominees wasn’t predicted winner “La La Land.” “Hidden Figures” was often referred to as “Hidden Fences” by presenters over the course of the night, thanks to sharing the spotlight with Denzel Washington’s screen adaptation of “Fences” as a fellow nominee.

Four days after the Academy Awards aired, writer-director Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” landed in theatres. Fueled by its viral trailer, “Get Out” proved

“Get Out” earned a staggering $254 million at the box office on a $4.5 million budget.

that black films would deliver a repeat performance as far as

gering $254 million at the box office on a $4.5 million budget.

n Fueled by its viral trailer, “Get Out” proved that black films would deliver a repeat performance as far as critical and commercial success for 2017.

critical and commercial success for 2017. The suspense thriller framed around an interracial relationship made history as the highest grossing original debut.

“Get Out” earned a stag-

The film became a cultural phenomenon and “the sunken place” became a popular catch phrase. As a multiple nominee for the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild awards, the

Oscar buzz has begun for “Get Out” with critics saying that the film is a shoe-in for Peele to make Oscar history as the first black writer with a “Best Original Screenplay” win.

Another film this summer is not getting the same love during the awards season, but was a history-making blockbuster in its own right.

“Girls Trip,” directed by Malcolm D. Lee and starring Tiffany Haddish, Regina Hall, Queen Latifah and Jada Pinkett Smith, became the first movie with a black writer, director, producer and cast to cross the $100 million threshold. The film ultimately brought in nearly $140 million in box office receipts – more than five times its $27 million budget.

“No matter how well you do, it’s like ‘you did good for a black movie,’” actress and author Gabrielle Union said during a video interview for African American online publication The Root. “This summer we had ‘Girls Trip,’ which killed every comedy out there. Still it was like ‘look at this little black movie go.’ Our budgets are way less, and we tend to way overachieve.”

Audiences and Pinkett Smith were vocal about Haddish being left out of the awards mix for her breakout performance in Girls Trip – which compelled Saturday Night Live to make her the first African American female standup comedian to serve as the show’s host.

“Get Out” and “Girls Trip” contributed nearly $400 million to final toll of 2017 box office receipts.

“[Hollywood is like] Isn’t that cute, we had such low expectations for you and look at you,” Union told The Root. “We actually didn’t believe in your art at all. And look at you, making money for us so that we can finance the projects that we really like – that you’re not going to be in.” With the release of the highly anticipated Marvel’s “Panther” by Ryan Coogler and Ava DuVernay’s “A Wrinkle in Time,” the cash cow status of the “blackbuster” will likely continue in 2018.

When historical sources get personal

By Amanda E. Doyle For The St. Louis American

Distilling more than 200 years of civil rights history into a 76-page book is a recipe for writer’s agony – and that’s before the wrinkle of crafting text for an upper-elementaryschool audience. Yet that’s the task Dr. Melanie Adams and I faced in researching and producing Standing Up For Civil Rights in St. Louis, a young reader’s companion to the exhibit #1 in Civil Rights: The African American Freedom Struggle in St. Louis, currently on view at the Missouri History Museum.

We knew that part of drawing a 4th-grade reader into the sometimes remote-seeming tangles of the past would involve personal and official observations of the time. Enter slavery supporter Charles Pinckney, a senator from South Carolina, and abolitionist James Tallmadge, a representative from New York.

Sen. Pinckney defended slavery by stating: “During the whole of life [a slave] is free from care. . . . The great body of slaves are happier in their present situation than they could be in any other, and the man or men who would attempt to give them freedom, would be their greatest enemies.”

Rep. Tallmadge countered in terms both direct and poetic: “Extend slavery, this bane of man, this abomination of heaven, over your extended empire, and you prepare its dissolution; you turn its accumulated strength into positive weakness; you cherish a canker in your breast; you put poison in your bosom; you place a vulture on your heart.”

A vulture on your heart! As the dispassionate nonfiction chronicler of civil rights history, I can’t indulge in such fanciful prose, but you can see how that would stick with a reader in a way that “others argued slavery was morally wrong” does not.

Along with illustrations and historic photographs, we included many eyewitness accounts and commentaries.

A quote from J. D. Shelley, one of the plaintiffs in the 1948 Shelley v. Kraemer U.S. Supreme Court case, is a perfect example. The Shelley case outlawed the practice of restrictive housing covenants, which had been used to keep black homeowners out of white neighborhoods. Years afterward, Shelley’s remarks added a voice of humanity to the dry legalities: The way I see it, it was a good thing that we done this case. When all this happened, when I bought the property, I didn’t think there was going to be anything about it. But I knowed it was important. We

was the first ones to live where they said colored can’t live. Unfortunately, not all of the primary sources we found made it into the book, such as Rev. George Stevens’ 1907 pamphlet beseeching the St. Louis Board of Education to provide a high school for black students that approached the quality of those provided for white students. His plea contrasted an overcrowded, decrepit, barely functional Sumner High School with McKinley High School, whose student body was white: . . . visit this school, modern in every way, look upon its spaciousness, its architectural lines of beauty and strength, its well-kept grounds, it is like entering another world. . . . All the high schools for white youth are after this sort—imposing, suited, roomy. The very sight of this school gives to the youthful mind a high conception of life and the object of education. Such a school in its appearance and environment makes for culture and refinement. Why should there be erected such schools for all youth except colored youth? Why should our

Rev. George Stevens, ca. 1927. From the book History of Central Baptist Church. Missouri Historical Society Collections.

best higher school, Sumner, be where it is, and what it is?

Such high-minded and moving appeals worked: The St. Louis Board of Education ultimately spent $300,000 to build a new Sumner High School, which still stands in the Ville neighborhood and remains a source of pride for the African-American community.

These are just a few examples of history springing off the page (or microfilm).

Breathing life into a fascinating, critically important, and much-overlooked facet of our city’s past has been an amazing learning experience.

I’m grateful to those real, live humans of years long gone for giving us the words to understand how we got from there to here – and for helping us feel and know what they lived through.

“Standing Up for Civil Rights in St. Louis,” by Amanda E. Doyle and Melanie A. Adams, was released last month by the Missouri History Museum Press. It’s available for purchase at the Missouri History Museum Shop, on Amazon.com, and at area bookstores

Annual Kwanzaa Celebration at Art Museum

Saturday December 30

Kwanzaa is a seven-day festival that begins on December 26. Created by Dr. Maulana Karenga, the holiday combines both African and African American cultural practices and celebrates traditions from Africa and the diaspora. Based on African harvest festivals, each day of Kwanzaa is connected to one of seven principles (Nguzo Saba). The principles are Umoja (unity), Kujichagulia (self-determination), Ujima (collective work and responsibility), Ujamaa (cooperative economics), Nia (purpose), Kuumba (creativity), and Imani (faith). Each principle is universally appealing making Kwanzaa a holiday that can be celebrated by everyone.

The Saint Louis Art Museum will present its annual Kwanzaa Celebration on Saturday, December 30 from 12 pm to 4:00 pm. The Kwanzaa principle of the day is Nia (purpose) and according to Dr. Karenga, Nia is “making our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.” The Museum’s Kwanzaa Celebration is themed The Power of Self Love and the day’s activities will include a family art activity, auditorium performance, and a scavenger hunt based on the Nguzo Saba. Beginning at noon, visitors can get their pictures taken at the photo booth, decorate a photo holder, and take a self-guided tour of the Museum’s American art galleries with a Kwanzaa-themed scavenger hunt. Guests who

The Saint Louis Art Museum will present its annual Kwanzaa Celebration on Saturday, December 30 from 12 pm to 4:00 pm.

participate in the family art activity will receive tickets (one per person) for the performance in The Farrell Auditorium while quantities last. Auditorium seating is limited and tickets will be distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis. The family art activity takes place in Grigg Gallery from noon to 4 pm. The Kwanzaa performance will begin promptly at 2 pm in The Farrell Auditorium. Performances include Kuumba youth Performance Ensemble of Better Family Life and the Community Performance Ensemble of the Sunshine Cultural Arts Center. Kwanzaa: The Power of Self Love is presented in collaboration with the St. Louis Metropolitan Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and will feature members of the sorority and its youth groups. The St. Louis Metropolitan Alumnae Chapter was established in 1998 and promotes educational excellence, public service, and leadership development. Since its formation, chapter activities have involved Delta members as volunteers in direct services, catalysts for community action, recruiters of interagency support, and leaders in networking and partnership building with other organizations. We invite everyone to join us for this year’s annual Kwanzaa celebration. All activities are free but tickets are required for the auditorium performance. Ticket for the performance will be available at noon on Saturday, December 30.

Above: The Last Sale of Slaves by Thomas S. Noble, ca. 1880. Missouri Historical Society Collections.

Triple Birthdays

Celebrations

Awards and Honors

Congratulations to Dr. Rance Thomas, Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Lewis and Clark Community College, who was inducted into the International Educator’s Hall of Fame, Youth on the Move, Inc. in Anaheim, Calif., for his achievements as an educator and service above the call to duty.

Reunions

Beaumont Class of 1968 will celebrate its 50-year reunion June 8-10,2018. Yes, Class ‘68 will begin Milestone celebration 6th month on 8th day. Our 2018 meetings in preparation will be held at STL County library located

7606 Natural Bridge at 1:00 p.m.. Dates are (Saturdays) January 13, February 17, March 17, April 21, May 19 and June 2. For more information call (314) 8698312 or email bhsco1968@ att.net. Pass the word and lets celebrate!

Homer G. Phillips and St. Louis Municipal School of Nursing is planning an all class reunion in June 2018. Please send your name, address and telephone number to: Homer G. Phillips Nurses Alumni, Inc., P.O. Box 8033 St. Louis, Missouri 63156.

McKinley Class of 1978

will celebrate its 40-year reunion July 27-29, 2018 at the Embassy Suites-Airport. For more information please contact Barbara Lindsey, Barbara_Lindsey@icloud.com or Marvin Woods, mwoods@ projectcontrolsgroup.com , (314) 647-0707.

Northwest High Class of 1978 is planning its 40-year reunion for next year. If you have any questions please contact Sly at (314) 397-0311 or email us at northwestbluedevils@78gmail. com. Check us out on Facebook Northwest High School-Class of 1978.

Soldan Class of 1978 is

planning their 40th class reunion. The dates are June 1, 2 and 3. For more information: call (314) 413-9088.

Sumner Class of 1976

Annual Christmas Party Saturday, December 23, 2017, 7 pm at DEJAVU II Cafe, 2805 Target Dr. 2 for 1 drink specials (5:30 - 7:30pm), free parking, No cover charge but $5 (40-Yr Class Reunion Attendees & Guest) or $10 for all others for the Catered Food. Limited Reserved Seating AVAILABLE until 10pm. (Doors open 5pm/closes 1am) For more info, call B. Louis at 314.385.9843.

University City Class of 1978 will hold its 40th reunion May 25-27, 2018. For more information please email ucityhs1978@gmail.com

Vashon High School will celebrate its 90th anniversary October 5-7, 2017 for alumni, students and community activities to celebrate educational commitment and tradition. For additional information, go to Vashonhigh. org or contact Elvis Hopson, elvishopson@att.net, (314) 535-0243, Pearl Lake, lakep6@ aol.com, (314) 388-0743 or Cozy W. Marks, Jr., jr3810@ sbcglobal.net, (314) 383-5682.

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, 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: St. Louis American Celebrations c/o Kate Daniel 2315 Pine St. St. Louis, MO 63103 FREE OF CHARGE

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, 2315 Pine St., St. Louis, MO 63103 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

It’s a family affair! December is the birthday month for the Adams family! Mom, Margo, is December 18; beautiful daughter, Naysa, turns 18 on December 23; and Dad, Kevin, turns the big 5-0 on December 28 (alongside his twin, Kenneth)!

Photo by Maurice Meredith

Ron Himes with Frankie Freeman and actress Marla Gibbs, who were honored at the Black Rep’s 2nd Annual Gala. Actor Antonio Fargus served as an award presenter.

Swag Snap of the Week

Kodak wack. Yeah, I said it! If anyone is mad, I could care less. Because I like to see what all the fuss is about when new musical acts are all the rage with the youngsters, I stopped by The Pageant Saturday night to see if Kodak Black is worth checking for. Okay, so he takes the stage and sometimes he was just walking back and forth swinging the microphone. Other times he would attempt to rap along to the tracks – though he never quite made it through a whole line. Occasionally, he would dance a little step touch and the crowd would lose it like he was actually doing something. I said to myself, “Well he’s only 20, so he’s basically a teenager – and new to the performance game – so maybe I’ll give him a pass and a chance to grow up.” Then I tuned in to a line from who knows what song. It essentially said, “I had to dump my yellow bone and head to the milky way. “Wait, so you’re on this stage giving mediocrity live in the flesh and black women are beneath you? Boy, bye. I can’t tell you what he said next, because I hit that East door exit faster than you could say Bodak Yellow

Too Short tore it up. After seeing that mess of a show Kodak Black put me through at The Pageant, I imagine anything else would have been a triumph. Still, something inside of me tells me I would have called Too Short’s concert snippet at Mystic a Triumph had I not bothered with Kodak. Every single person between the ages of 21-60 was in the building to catch the Oakland rap pioneer perform some of his filthy hip-hop classics. I know this to be true after seeing an elderly man with a brim, cobra skin blazer and black leather pants blowing a whistle like a drum major during Short’s set while standing right next to members of the savage population. I even saw one of my neighbors – and her AARP magazine accidently came to my house once or twice. Too Short looked great and sounded even better. And leave it to my girl Pinky Thomas to be all Afrocentric with a headwrap while spitting the words to Short Dog’s most disgraceful lyrics. I lived! The veterans prove that you can actually do a whole set without backing vocals – and I love them for it. It was short (not a pun), but I didn’t at all feel cheated. Well, maybe from that rapper who looked and sounded like an extra from the “Sons of Anarchy.” I don’t know how he thought he was going to win over that crowd with those lyrics. Repeatedly calling yourself a cracker (his word, not mine) and pointing the mic to the crowd will not get anybody in North County to join in a sing-along. He found out the hard way … whatever his name was.

Perfect private parties. I spent a nice chunk of my weekend at private parties, and I got life that would quietly exceed the efforts of any super promoter’s big budget celebrity guest bash. My first stop was the 70th birthday bash for Jackie Cross Porter, aka Mama Jackie, aka the gatekeeper for Radio One St. Louis. The theme was denim and diamonds – and Mama Jackie was head to toe with both. And had the nerve to be serving all types of shoulder in her what looked to be custom-made outfit. I got my life from being able to give her some birthday wishes in the flesh as I spent a few little minutes with some of my favorites from the Radio One St. Louis family. After that I stopped at Vincent and Cory’s annual ugly sweater party. As the title of the soiree suggests, the sweaters were such a premeditated hot mess that it was fun to see them get worse by the night. But the fellowshipping that went down was a beautiful thing. I ended my invitation-only rounds with Kisha Rabun for her big 4-0 birthday slayage at The Gallery by Troy. I cannot say that I ever expected to see a bedazzled Bey-Z “On the Run” tour ski mask coupled with a plunging sequined evening gown in real life. But, as usual, you made it work in a way that NO ONE else would even expect, let alone pull off. Did you have a beautiful-people-only entry code? Because everybody up in there was serving black Hollywood style. You had the usual suspects like Scar LaDon (who did it again). But you also had folks that aren’t necessarily familiar faces on the scene, but slaying like veteran socialites. Elizabeth Donielle, your little black dress with the Kimono sleeves was such life that I had to look you up on social media so that I could name-drop you for that fashion win. And Miche Mo, you better come through with your blonde bombshell realness.

Hey Luv at Lucha. I’m beginning to think that Lucha has become the black “Cheers” of St. Louis. The regular faces come through and get all the way down on the dance floor with folks that have apparently developed a connection with, thanks to their repeated patronage. I knew that Hey Luv was going to have Lucha live yet again on Saturday when I saw folks cutting a rug on the concrete outside when they were supposed to be leaving. The wind chill factor was like five below and this crew of ladies were acting like they were on a second line as they finally made their way to their vehicles. But what else can you expect with DJ JMo on the tables?

Two generations of mumble rappers unite. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but LooseCannon is bringing Weezy and The Migos to help close out the 2017 concert season. The December 29th concert at Chaifetz Arena for a concert billed as The Resolution. I think it’s a great pairing and can’t wait to see the reigning princes of mumble rap share the stage with the founding father. What? Y’all know Lil Wayne is the Chuck Berry of inaudible rap lyrics. It’s as much his claim to fame as The Carter album classics. Anyway, the show will be interesting – and I will be there as I make my way into 2018.

RO and Ronald Harris with STL boxing legend

Vaughn “Da Animal” as he celebrated his birthday Saturday @MOOD

The Domino Effect worked through a pre-show warm up and proved ready to rock the crowd Saturday @ Blueberry Hill

Jenise, Shunda and Vanika made sure they pulled up on Year of The Woman for mural project kick off Thursday @2720

Paige Alyssa was supported by friends and fans Darren Jamelia and Dana as she performed with a live band Thursday @2720

Denale and Morgan Powell just before he received his award from Ferguson 1000 BlackTech Sunday @ FLO Valley

Kodak Black took time to snap a pic with fan Sierra before performing live @ The Pageant Saturday night

Visual Artist Dannie Boyd and Poet Emcee had a chance to network after A Limitless Holiday Friday @ The Monocole

Z with Jackie Cross Porter of Radio One St. Louis, who was celebrating her big 7-0 @ her Denim & Diamonds birthday bash Saturday night in U City

Saturday Jason and Ashley were able to grab one of the few available tables as the HEYLUV crowd filled LUCHA

Oakland rap legend Too Short chopped it up with Carl just before he hit the stage Saturday night at Mystic, where he performed hits from his 30-plus year career.

Photos by V. Lang

Mario arrived early to the birthday chill back for twins Christie and Christian Friday @MOOD

PROJECT DIRECTOR

Deaconess Foundation will sponsor a network of Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools® programs for children in grades kindergarten through five in the St. Louis region. The Project Director works with the Executive Director to manage operations for the CDF Freedom Schools program. The position’s primary responsibility is to manage adequate staff to operate three program sites and ensure overall quality as outlined by the standards of the CDF Freedom Schools program. The Project Director will serve as liaison between Deaconess Foundation and the three program sites, maintain the safety of all staff and students, ensure that the CDF Freedom Schools Integrated Reading Curriculum is implemented with fidelity, and ensure that appropriate program staff inputs data in CDF’s reporting system.

To apply for this position, visit Deaconess Foundation’s website - http://deaconess.org/cdf-freedom-schools-project-director.

SERVANT LEADER INTERN

Deaconess Foundation will sponsor a network of Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools® programs for children in grades kindergarten through five in the St. Louis region. The Servant Leader Intern serve as classroom facilitators delivering an Integrated Reading Curriculum to a class of no more than ten students for 7 weeks during the summer. The Servant Leader Intern will lead afternoon enrichment activities, chaperone field trips, and lead parent workshops and community outreach activities.

To apply for this position, visit Deaconess Foundation’s website - http:// deaconess.org/cdf-freedom-schoolsservant-leader-intern.

The Gatesworth is HIRING

FULL & PART TIME

Housekeepers • Housemen

Shuttle Bus Drivers • Door Attendants

Dining Room Servers

Please send resume to recruiting@thegatesworth.com

Home Repair Manager (Full-Time)

The North Newstead Association is seeking a full-time home repair manager to assist with it providing place-based community development services:

Essential Functions:

• Providing minor carpentry, electrical, plumbing or related repairs for eligible low/mod income homeowners and tenants

• Providing pre- and post- repair inspections of other larger home repair projects

• Plan and oversee all home repair activities. Some minor repairs will be performed by the Home Repair Manager, while more significant repairs will be performed by engaged contractors.

Requirements:

• Minimum of 2 years’ experience as a maintenance technician or a related position

• Must have demonstrated proficiency in general carpentry including; painting, drywall, minor electrical and plumbing

• A vehicle and valid state driver’s license

• Must have outstanding interpersonal skills and be dependable and reliable

• Must be willing to work periodically on evenings and week ends

Application Process: To apply for this position submit your resume and cover letter to smartinez@sfm-stl.com or mail to 4601 Pope Ave, 63115 attn: Sal Martinez, Executive Director. Resumes and cover letters must be received by Friday, December 26, 2017. North Newstead is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

SITE COORDINATOR

Deaconess Foundation will sponsor a network of Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools® programs for children in grades kindergarten through five in the St. Louis region. The Site Coordinator manages the day-to-day operations and supervises staff of one CDF Freedom Schools site. The position’s primary responsibility is to ensure the proper implementation of the CDF Freedom Schools program model by managing daily site activities.

The Site Coordinator will train and manage staff, maintain the safety of all staff and students, coordinate afternoon activities, filed trips, family engagement initiatives and volunteer responsibilities and ensure that the CDF Freedom Schools Integrated Reading Curriculum is implemented with fidelity.

To apply for this position, visit Deaconess Foundation’s website - http://deaconess.org/cdf-freedom-schools-site-coordinator.

ALGONQUIN NURSES HOME HEALTH CARE

is looking for Nurses, C.N.A’s and Home Health Aides for full or part time positions to care for elderly and disabled individuals in their home. Applicants must have reliable transportation with a valid driver license and proof of insurance. Clear background screening, clean drug test need only apply. * Competitive wages /one on one client care /paid holidays medical/dental insurance /paid wkly /referral bonus & much more! Please call 314-822-8158 or go online to register www.algonquinnurses.com

Community Engagement Specialist (Full-Time)

The North Newstead Association is seeking a full-time community engagement specialist to assist with providing place-based community development services:

Essential Functions:

• Coordinating and attending meetings/events on or off-site as directed

• Providing technical assistance to neighborhood associations and residents designed to increase their capacity to improve the quality of life in their communities

• Developing and assisting in the distribution of marketing mate rials that describe the programs/activities of the organization

• Assisting in the intake and analysis of documents needed to determine the eligibility of clients and/or participants

• Providing general project management support

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in urban studies, public policy or related field.

• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite and other computer applications

• Must be able to work in a community setting with diverse populations including community groups, elected and appoint ed officials, professional staff and volunteers

• Must be able to work periodically on evening and weekends

Application Process: To apply for this position submit your resume and cover letter to smartinez@sfm-stl.com or mail to 4601 Pope Ave, 63115 attn: Sal Martinez, Executive Director. Resumes and cover letters must be received by Friday, December 26, 2017. North Newstead is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

INVITATION TO BID

Alberici Constructors, Inc. requests bids on:

Mechanical: Boiler and Steam Heaters Furnish and Install

Electrical: Mill B Distribution Furnish and Install

From qualified and certified MBE/WBE subcontractors for the following project:

Italgrani USA

Pre-Bid Meetings:

Mechanical - December 20, 2017 at 9:00 AM CST

Electrical – December 20, 2017 at 1:00 PM CST

Bid Date:

Mechanical - January 5, 2018 by 4:00 PM CST

Electrical – January 5, 2018 by 4:00 PM CST

For more information, please contact: Precious Jackson at pjackson@alberici.com or 314-406-7988

Alberici Constructors, Inc. encourages all Small, Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprises to participate in this project and hereby notifies all bidders that it will affirmatively ensure that in any contract entered into pursuant to this project, disadvantaged business enterprises will be afforded full opportunity to submit proposals in response to this invitation and will not be discriminated against on the grounds of race, color or national origin in consideration for an award.

SEALED BIDS

for C o n

n Services, Kansas City & St. Joseph Regions, State of Missouri, Project No.

ZASIDIQ-8006, will be received by FMDC, State of MO, UNTIL 1:30 PM, Thursday, January 11, 2018. For specific project information and ordering plans, go to: http://oa.mo. gov/

SEALED BIDS

for Renovate HVAC & Controls, St. James Veterans Home, St. James, Missouri, Project No. U1503-03 will be received by FMDC, State of MO, UNTIL 1:30 PM, January 18, 2018. For specific project information and ordering plans, go to: http:// oa.mo. gov/facilities

SEALED BIDS

for

Services, Springfield Region, State of Missouri, Project No. ZASIDIQ-8007, will be received by FMDC, State of MO, UNTIL 1:30 PM, Thursday, January 18, 2018. For specific project information and ordering plans, go to: http://oa.mo. gov/ facilities

INVITATION TO BID

McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. requests bids on

Acrylic Panel Fabrication and Installation from qualified and certified MBE/DBE/WBE subcontractors for the following project:

St. Louis Aquarium at Union Station

BID DATE:

December 15, 2017 by 2:00 PM CST

Contact: Mary Peterein at mpeterein@mccarthy.com or 314-9192171 for information

Prequalification is required and can be accessed at https://www.mccarthy.com/subcontractors

McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is proud to be an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer.

METROPOLITAN ST. LOUIS

SEWER DISTRICT

Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is accepting proposals in the Purchasing Division, 2350 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri 631032555 until 10:00 a.m. on January 17th, 2018 to contract with a company for: Hazardous Site Assessment Services.

Specifications and bid forms may be obtained from www.stlmsd.com, click on the “MSD AT WORK” link, (bid opportunities). The bid document will be identified as 9119 RFP. If you do not have access to the internet, call 314.768.2735 to request a copy of this bid. Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Email Angelita at

CITY OF ST. LOUIS BOARD OF PUBLIC SERVICE

REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS for PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING DESIGN SERVICES FOR HALL STREET IMPROVEMENTS, PHASE 1, EAST GRAND TO ADELAIDE, ST. LOUIS, MO, FEDERAL PROJECT STP-5404(603). Statements of Qualifications due by 5:00 PM, CT, January 4, 2018 at Board of Public Service, 1200 Market, Room 301 City Hall, St. Louis, MO 63103. RFQ may be obtained from website www.stl-bps.org, under On Line Plan Room – Plan Room, or call Board of Public Service at 314-622-3535. 15% DBE participation goal for this project.

CITY OF ST. LOUIS

ST. LOUIS LAMBERT INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Request For Proposals (RFP) for Air Service Development

Consulting Services

Proposals Wanted

Proposal documents may be obtained at St. Louis Lambert International Airport, Airport Properties Division, Monday through Friday between 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., or by calling (314) 426-8184. This RFP may also be obtained by visiting our website at www. flystl.com/business/contact-opportunites.

Robert Salarano Airport Properties Division Manager

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR TRAINING SERVICES

East-West Gateway Council of Governments is seeking a qualified consultant to provide Urban Search & Rescue Training Courses. Funding for this project will be provided by the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security. Proposals due 4:00 p.m. January 8, 2018. Late proposals will be returned. Details can be obtained at www.ewgateway.org or by calling 314-421-4220 ext. 208.

MBE/WBE/SDVBE INVITATION TO BID

K&S Associates will be accepting bids for the following projects during the month of December. Construct New Music Building MU-Columbia 12/14 Memorial Student Union Renovations MU Columbia 12/21 Plans and Specs can be viewed at www.ksgcstlplanroom.com Submit Bids to estimating@ksgcstl. com or Fax 314-647-5302 Contact Dennis Dyes @ 314-647-3535 with questions.

METROPOLITAN ST. LOUIS

SEWER DISTRICT

Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is accepting proposals in the Purchasing Division, 2350 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri 631032555 until 10:00 a.m. on January 19th, 2018 to contract with a company for: Emergency Response & Hazardous Waste Management Services.

Specifications and bid forms may be obtained from www.stlmsd.com, click on the “MSD AT WORK” link, (bid opportunities). The bid document will be identified as 9264 RFP. If you do not have access to the internet, call 314.768.2735 to request a copy of this bid. Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Public Notice of Single Source Procurement

Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is proposing to procure repair services for our muffin monster grinder units from Muffin Monster LLC. The District is proposing single source procurement for this service because Muffin Monster LLC (Ressler & Associates) is the exclusive dealer for Eastern Missouri. Any inquiries should be sent to strenz@stlmsd.com.

Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

and Lindbergh Boulevard.

To be considered, proposals must be received no later than 3:00 PM on Friday, December 29, 2017. Proposals may be sent to 7733 Forsyth Blvd., Suite 2200, St. Louis, MO 63105, Attn: Howl Bean II, or by e-mail to hbean@stlpartnership.com. DBE, MBE, and WBE firms are encouraged to bid.

The Request for Proposals may be obtained from the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership’s web site at www.stlpartnership.com. The Authority reserves the right to reject any or all proposals and to waive informalities therein. Questions should be directed to Howl Bean II, Staff Attorney, St. Louis Economic Development Partnership at (314) 615-7663 or hbean@stlpartnership.com.

St. Louis Economic Development Partnership Equal Opportunity Employer ST. LOUIS COMMUNITY COLLEGE

www.stlamerican.com

PUBLISHER’S NOTICE:

St. Louis Community College will receive separate sealed bids for Contract No. F 18 404, Renovation to Create Computer Lab in Library, St. Louis Community College at Forest Park, until 2:00 p.m. local time January 4, 2018. Bids will be publicly opened and read aloud at the office of the Manager of Engineering and Design, 300 South Broadway (Room 423, Fourth Floor). Specifications and bid forms may be obtained from the Manager’s office at the above address, or by calling (314) 539-5015.

of

Notice is hereby given that The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (District) will receive sealed bids for Missouri River WWTF Power Feeder Replacement under Letting No.

Advertised herein is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act, which makes it illegal to advertise any preference, imitation, or discrimination because of race,color, religion, sex, handicap, familial\status, or national origin, or intention to make any such preference,limitation, or discrimination.“We will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate which is in violation of the law. All persons are hereby informed that all dwellings advertised are available on an equal opportunity basis.”

Call Angelita at 314-289-5430 to place your rental/real estate ad today!

located at 1710 Macklind Avenue, St. Louis MO 63110. All bidders must obtain a set of plans and specifications in order to submit a bid in the name of the entity submitting the bid. The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is an Equal Opportunity Employer. A

IN UNISON receives $160K grant from Monsanto Fund

Symphony works with 40 predominantly

AfricanAmerican churches

American staff

The St. Louis Symphony IN UNISON program has been awarded a $160,000 grant from the Monsanto Fund. IN UNISON’s mission is to increase diversity in all aspects of music by providing resources for African Americans in the St. Louis area.

The IN UNISON program, which launched in 1992, reaches more than 20,000 people annually and is involved with 40 predominantly AfricanAmerican churches. Thanks to support from the Monsanto Fund, SLSO musicians are able to visit the churches and provide music during worship services. From the program’s beginning, the Monsanto Fund has helped provide scholarships for African-American students studying music at the college level.

“It’s exciting to see how IN UNISON continues to be an educational jewel for college music students who might otherwise not have access to participate in this unique arts program,” said Michelle Insco, Monsanto Fund program officer.

“We are proud that our

support of IN UNISON has served as a stepping stone for many young people within the St. Louis community who are pursuing musical careers.”

Octavia Sydnor, a former IN UNISON scholarship recipient and current IN UNISON Graduate Fellow, coordinates the SLSO’s Mentoring the Music: Peer to Peer program. As the program’s coordinator, the St. Louis native helps young people from diverse backgrounds gain access to music education and music career guidance. In 2016, Sydnor graduated from the University of Missouri-St. Louis with a degree in violin performance.

“My experience with IN UNISON has given me a very strong sense of community,” she said. “Thanks to IN UNISON I have been able to make a difference in the community I love.”

The IN UNISON program

has its own chorus that performs twice each season at Powell Hall with the orchestra. The chorus will take the stage on Thursday, December 14 for “A Gospel Christmas: A Soulful Celebration with Dianne Reeves.” Led by St. Louis Symphony IN UNISON Chorus Director Kevin McBeth, the performance will feature gospel and jazz music of the holiday season.

“Lift Every Voice: Black History Month” is the second IN UNISON concert of the season at Powell Hall. Guest vocalist Oleta Adams will join the chorus for the event on February 23, 2018.

The IN UNISON Chorus will also perform a free “Community Concert” at Friendly Temple Church on April 29, 2018. The concert will spotlight various IN UNISON initiatives and include performances by members of Mentoring the Music: Peer to Peer program. St. Louis Symphony

Octavia Sydnor, a former scholarship recipient for the St. Louis Symphony’s IN UNISON program and current IN UNISON Graduate Fellow, coordinates the SLSO’s Mentoring the Music: Peer to Peer program.

Orchestra Music Director David Robertson will be the guest conductor.

Interfaith Partnership responds to mosque killing

The Cabinet of Interfaith Partnership of Greater St. Louis, comprised of leaders representing 28 religious communities, mourns the killing of Muslim people at prayer in their own mosque in Egypt. The murder, horrific by any standard, is all the more tragic because it assaults a worshiping community.

As religious leaders of thousands of worshipers in the greater St. Louis area, we are concerned and disheartened by the increase in violence in centers of worship and prayer. We call upon members of our communities to pray for peace, pray for the grieving families, and work together for a world where such cruel killing ceases.

Interfaith Partnership of Greater St. Louis is a collaborative organization open to people of all religions in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Our mission statement is: Interfaith Partnership of Greater St. Louis deepens understanding, respect and appreciation among all persons across lines of religious difference. Our motto is: As communities of faith, we agree to differ, promise to love and unite to serve.

The Message

This tithing thing

Remember, tithing comes in the form of time and talent as well as money. I can personally remember times in church when tithing was my least favorite part of the service. But as is my way, I have to read and understand things for myself, as opposed to taking someone else’s word for things – that is unless that Word comes straight from the Lord.

So I’m coming to you today with my interpretation of this tithing thing. And for my purposes let me simply say that my point is made by the phrase “putting God first.”

I am convinced that God does not need my money, nor my time and certainly not my meager talents. But I believe He recognizes and appreciates how I use them all, as they are indeed gifts and blessings from Him. Without going into investing your talents and doing unto the least of these is doing unto Christ, the point is God is only seeking a tenth of what He has given to you so that we, you and me – the church – can invest back into His people for His purposes.

Columnist James Washington

Again, God don’t need your money. What He expects is for you to put Him first in all that you have, all that you do and especially with the unique gifts He’s blessed you with.

See, tithing is really not about giving. It is about receiving. I know that sounds backwards; however, the tithe represents a gift to be received by someone. That’s the point.

I guess you could say God’s tithe is His grace to us. Our tithe is our gift given to Him. He just lets us know that the attitude of putting Him first is rewarded.

“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” Malachi 3:10.

From God’s mouth to your ears. Test me, He says. This is one place in the Bible that God says I dare you to test me. The tithe is the test, as in testimony.

For years I was unwilling to take this test. But if you put God first, you will find the time, the money and the opportunity to share our gifts for His glory. It’s all about attitude and perspective.

But remember the servant who took the one talent and buried it and simply returned to the master one talent? It was taken from him and given to the one who took His five talents, invested them, earned five more and returned 10 to the master.

What are you doing with yours? God is only testing you regarding 10 percent. It seems like a small price to pay to open the floodgates to heaven.