June 27th, 2019 Edition

St. LouiS AmericAn

Community rallies behind Kim Gardner

Demands special prosecutor to investigate her claims, funding for her defense

By Chris King Of The St. Louis American

A group of community advocates who support St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner will rally at 4 p.m. Thursday, June 27 at City Hall to issue a set of demands to various authorities. They will demand that Mayor Lyda Krewson fire St. Louis City Counselor Julian Bush, that Bush and the city stop obstructing the payment of Gardner’s legal fees, that the courts appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Gardner’s allegation of Tampering with a Judicial Official, and that Judge Mike Mullens lift the gag order in an investigation of Gardner’s office. That is according to Jerryl Christmas, an attorney and former prosecutor and former candidate for

See GARDNER, A6

Program at Little Creek Nature Area in Florissant on June 19. The camp (led by

in Education

was held June 17-28

Cure Violence meets Better Family Life

By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American

Marcus McAllister, an international trainer with Cure Violence, spent a week speaking with community members and public officials about bringing the group’s violence prevention model to St. Louis. But at the end of that week, his tone changed and his posture relaxed when he sat down with some of

Ferguson passes over Frank McCall for police chief

Candidate from Georgia chosen over veteran handling DOJ consent decree

By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American

Two black men were in the running for police chief of the Ferguson Police Department.

Frank McCall is the current interim police chief and was assistant chief under former chief Delrish Moss.

Jason Armstrong is captain of the Forest Park Police Department in Forest Park City, a suburb outside of Atlanta, and has served there for 17 years. He was an interim police chief for two months there, but otherwise has no experience as a police chief.

On June 25, the Ferguson City Council approved the city manager’s selection of Armstrong as the police department’s next chief. Councilwoman Fran Griffin was the only “no” vote. Newly elected in April, Griffin is also the only councilmember who doesn’t consistently align herself with Mayor James Knowles III. The police chief selection was ultimately made by City Manager Jeff Blume. Blume formerly was the longtime financial director for Ferguson cited by the U.S. Department of Justice multiple times for urging police to issue more citations to generate more revenue for the city. Blume said the interview process was

By Rebecca Rivas

Kristin Williams, Kyleigh Johnson, Makila Bean and Janila Hill learned how to use a compass at the St. Louis American’s Summer Science

Cathy Sewell, The American’s Newspapers

manager)

to help students bolster their science skills when out of school for the summer.

Photo by Cathy Sewell

Photo by Rebecca Rivas

Photo by Wiley Price

Cardi B pleads not guilty to charges stemming from alleged brawl

Cardi B has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from a brawl in a New York strip club last August.

According to CNN, the Grammy-winning rapper and two co-defendants were arraigned Tuesday on charges of assault, harassment, conspiracy and seconddegree reckless endangerment in a 12-count indictment, according to the office of Acting Queens District Attorney, John M. Ryan. “The defendants in this case are accused of two premeditated attacks on two women working at a club in Queens last summer,” Ryan said in a statement.

The defendants will be held accountable for their alleged actions.”

“The victims allegedly had glass bottles hurled at them, alcoholic drinks thrown in their faces and one woman’s head was slammed into the bar. This kind of violence won’t be tolerated in our community.

She was arrested this past October for allegedly participating in the fight. The two bartenders claim they were injured by bottles and chairs thrown inside the club. She had been charged with two misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment and one misdemeanor count of assault. But in April, the rapper, whose real name is Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar, rejected a plea deal, which would have granted her a conditional discharge in return for pleading guilty to a single misdemeanor. Prosecutors then investigated further and took the case to a grand jury.

Cardi’s attorney has said he’s not aware of any evidence that she caused anyone harm.

Though she maintains her innocence, if convicted, she

THE STUFF THAT HAS PEOPLE TALKING

faces up to four years in prison. Were Tristan and Khloe on the outs when he kissed Jordyn Woods?

A source close to the Kardashians is saying that Khloe Kardashian and Tristan Thompson weren’t a “proper” couple when he kissed her sister Kylie Jenner’s former

best friend, Jordyn Woods. The “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” star said she never wanted to see the 21-year-old model again when she found out the basketball player shared a kiss during a night out earlier this year, but it’s now been claimed that they weren’t even together when the intimate moment took place.

“When

the Jordyn drama happened, Khloe and Tristan were not in a proper relationship,” The source told PEOPLE. “They had not been for weeks. They didn’t even spend Valentine’s Day together, which was right before he messed around with Jordyn.”

Kardashian and Thompson –who have 14-monthold daughter True together – first hit the rocks in 2018 when video footage of the sportsman kissing another woman emerged just days before she gave birth.

The pair decided to give their relationship another go for the sake of their baby girl but when she found out that he had cheated again with someone so close to her she realized he’d “never change.”

Willow Smith wants polyamorous relationship

“She would never go back with Tristan,” the insider claimed. “She knows he will never change.”

Willow Smith said during a recent episode of “Red Table Talk” that she wants to be in a polyamorous relationship with “one man and one woman”. The 18-year-old daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith is interested in the idea of being in a “throuple” which is a consensual polyamorous romance between three people, and says she loves men and women “equally” so would ideally like to be romantically involved with one man as well as another woman. “I love men and women equally and so I would definitely want one man, one woman,” Willow said. “I feel like I could be polyfidelotous with those two people, I’m not the kind of person that is constantly looking for new sexual experiences.”

Sources: TMZ.com, CNN. com, People.com

Cardi B

Willow Smith

Tristan Thompson

Better family Life launches Clean Sweep 2019 on Saturday, June 29

Malik Ahmed: ‘We want to make this a walkable neighborhood where crime is something of the past’

By Francene Bethune

For The St. Louis American

For the third year in a row Better Family Life (BFL) will continue its Operation Clean Sweep initiative on Saturday, June 29. The organization will be demolishing abandoned buildings, cutting down dead trees and cleaning up rubbish on the North Side of St. Louis.

“We want to make this a walkable neighborhood where crime is something of the past,” said Malik Ahmed, founder and chief executive officer of Better Family Life.

Last year, hundreds of volunteers from the community participated along with professionals from McCarthy Building Companies, Paric Corporation and many other businesses within the Regional Business Council.

“Paric is committed to moving the St. Louis region forward, by leveraging the talent and experience of our people for causes to keep making maybe for results,” said Howard Hayes, vice president of Diversity and Inclusion at Paric Corporation.

Last year over 100 Paric employees participated in the Clean Sweep, joining 3,005 associates and 1,500 community volunteers, according to Hayes.

“This was the ideal opportunity for us to roll up our sleeves bringing down abandoned homes and cleaning up vacant lots to supporting our friends and families,” said Hayes.

Started in 2017 with the goal of cleaning up just a couple of neighborhoods, Clean Sweep now started the year off with the aim of making crimeinfested communities safe.

“Many of you don’t know necessarily the connection between the work that you are promoting, the demolition of

a building and the cleaning up of derelict buildings,” said St. Louis Police Chief John W. Hayden. “Those are always a nest and haven for violent crimes. You are directly responsible for getting rid of those crime havens that are such a challenge to deal with.” Operation Clean Sweep has

demolished over 75 vacant buildings and cleared over 500 miles of alleys of trash, tires, refrigerators, couches and abandoned cars, according to James Clark, vice president of Community Outreach of Better Family Life.

“We are all saddened by the conditions of the

neighborhoods that showed us love and protected us as we grew up,” said Clark. “Today, women and children are shot and killed, senior citizens are living as prisoners, and vacant building span block after block.”

State Senator Karla May (D-St. Louis) said that the

n “We are all saddened by the conditions of the neighborhoods that showed us love and protected us as we grew up.”

– James Clark, Better Family Life

Clean Sweep Initiative is something that the city needed.

“We should work together to eliminate the things that divide us and focus on the things that unite us,” said May. “We should be willing to go anywhere in this city and see people interact outside cafes, restaurants, shopping, and our senior citizens should not be afraid to leave their homes. We should relish in the gaiety and children playing absent of gunfire. That’s what a better family life is.” Better family Life’s Clean Sweep 2019 is set to start on Saturday, June 29 at Hamilton Heights and Wells-Goodfellow. The Clean Sweep is scheduled 10 a.m.-3 p.m. with registration opening at 7:30 a.m. and welcoming remarks at 9 a.m. It will continue at different locations every month until September. For more information on Better family Life, visit http:// www.betterfamilylife.org or call 314-367-3440.

Photo by Wiley Price

Clean Sweep 2018 cleared out derelict buildings on the 3000 Block of Herbert last June 30. Better family Life’s Clean Sweep 2019 is set to start on Saturday, June 29 at Hamilton Heights and Wells-Goodfellow.

Editorial /CommEntary

Fire Julian Bush, fund Gardner’s defense, appoint a special prosecutor, lift the gag

The banner headline at the top of our March 14 edition read, “Under attack, Kim Gardner fights back.” That was just the most succinct statement of a story Rebecca Rivas already had been reporting for more than a month. It sounds like the kind of story derided as a “conspiracy theory,” and maybe that’s why it took other media so long to take it up. The New York Times did a version of Rivas’ evolving story exactly three months later, on June 14, and PostDispatch columnist Tony Messenger put his spin on it a week later than that on June 21, both adding new evidence and momentum to the story.

Rivas has been reporting on the St. Louis city counselor, Julian Bush, who is appointed by the mayor, working with middle management in the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and a circuit judge, Mike Mullens, to seek the appointment of a special prosecutor. They wanted (and got) a special prosecutor to investigate the St. Louis circuit attorney, Kimberly M. Gardner, the first African American elected to that position, in her handling of an investigation. Although the city’s Public Safety leadership, appointed by the mayor, is led by two black men, all of the people acting against Gardner in this story are white. The circuit judges and especially city police have their own grievances and grudges with Gardner, but the aggrieved party that really gets its way in this story is the defense team for Eric Greitens, then the Republican Missouri governor investigated by Gardner and charged with felony invasion of privacy. (That and another felony charge were later dropped.)

But apparently Greitens and his attorneys never got over anger that she proceeded with felony charges – based on testimony by the alleged victim that she provided to Gardner and a state legislature task force – which helped lead to Greitens stepping down from office. The charge that Greitens’ attorneys and Bush, the city counselor, took to the police and then to Judge Mullens concerns the Greitens investigation. Gardner conducted her own investigation, she said, when the police declined to investigate Greitens. She contracted with a former FBI agent named William Tisaby (also a black man). The special prosecutor produced a grand jury indictment of Tisaby for perjury and tampering with evidence. These charges are based on Tisaby testifying – not in open court – but in a deposition to Greitens’ lawyers, and his testimony was not in any way material to the facts in the case, which did not result in a conviction anyway. To seal this sordid little legal circle, the special prosecutor appointed by the judge, Gerard Carmody, went to high school with and remains friends with one of Greitens’ most powerful attorneys, Ed Dowd.

If this sounds like an attempt to damage a disruptive black prosecutor on a flimsy legal pretense (alleged perjury by a contract investigator in a deposition on immaterial testimony in a case that never

went to trial), that’s just what Gardner said that Greitens’ attorneys had threatened to do if she persisted with her investigation of Greitens. If her allegations turn up reasonable cause, those alleged actions could be charged as Tampering with a Judicial Officer. The problem is, the police would not investigate this charge either, and her attempt to use her own authority to compel the appointment of a special prosecutor is stalled in the courts. So: a (black) investigator for the (black) circuit attorney allegedly gives inconsistent testimony in an immaterial deposition, and the hammer of justice comes down from police, a city counselor, a judge, and a private defense attorney playing special prosecutor who are all white. That same black circuit attorney’s career allegedly gets threatened by white defense attorneys – and subsequent events provide some plausible evidence that they are trying to make good on such a threat – and no one lifts an investigative finger. To put the final touch on all of this, Mullen put a gag order on the parties involved with Carmody’s investigation of Gardner’s office, so she has been muted from defending herself.

When we started to unravel this story in February, leading to the March story about Gardner “fighting back,” she was fighting back with the support of the NAACP and several black Baptist churches. The New York Times report and Messenger’s column three months later were clearly sympathetic to Gardner and substantially follow the accounting of events first put together by Rivas. They helped to propel the story forward – and now the community is becoming engaged again.

On Thursday, June 27, a coalition of criminal justice accountability advocates and engaged black clergy will issue a set of demands on Gardner’s behalf at St. Louis City Hall. They will call for Mayor Lyda Krewson to terminate Bush’s tenure as city counselor, which we agree she should do (and, if not, we should consider this another reason to terminate Krewson’s tenure as mayor). They will call for the city to fund Gardner’s defense, as it has funded the defense of circuit attorneys in the past, which we agree it should do (Bush currently is the major obstacle to that). They will call for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate Gardner’s allegations of Tampering with a Judicial Officer, which we agree the courts should do. And they will call for Judge Mullens to lift the gag order on the Carmody special prosecution, which we agree he should do. And we agree with these justice advocates that we should remember Mullens, as well as Krewson, the next time their names turn up on a ballot. Mullens may have been appointed, like the other judges in the circuit, but they have to stand for retention.

These are the things that justice compels in this case: fire Julian Bush, fund Gardner’s defense, appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Tampering with a Judicial Officer, and lift the gag order.

AS I SEE IT – A Forum for community Issues

Planned Parenthood provides critical family planning and health services

Will

Dr.

Ross For The St. Louis American

Reparations

for American slavery are economically and legally valid

By Mike Jones Of The St. Louis American

In the epigraph to “The Godfather,” Mario Puzo quotes the 19th century French novelist Honore’ de Balzac: “Behind every great fortune lies a great crime.” There has never been a more accurate observation about the source of America’s collective wealth.

Nothing makes this point better than a visit to the new Smithsonian African-American history museum. It’s treatment of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the extraordinary detail with which it addresses slavery in Colonial America and the United States establish the inseparability of American economic development to slavery. The foundation of America’s current economic and social wellbeing is the direct result of a highly organized international criminal enterprise that lasted for 240 years.

Defining slavery as an organized criminal activity – as opposed to the moral failings of a discrete group of people in a specific historical moment – changes how you think and talk about the idea of reparations. I want to reframe the reparations discussion by appropriating concepts from Western classical economic theory and American jurisprudence.

There are three intellectual giants who are foundational to Western economic theory: Adam Smith, David Ricardco and Karl Marx. All three were major advocates of the labor theory of value, which holds that the value of a commodity is a function of the labor required to create it. The NBA – where 50 percent of gross NBA revenue is contractually committed to player compensation – is an example of what happens when an empowered workforce understands the labor theory of value.

At the beginning of the 1600s, America was populated but underdeveloped, devoid of any agricultural or economic activity of scale.

The first European settlers’ numbers were insufficient to economically develop America. The purpose of the trans-Atlantic slave trade was to provide Europeans with the labor necessary to economically exploit the natural resources of the Americas. It’s estimated that 12 million people were forcibly removed from Africa and 10.5 million were brought to the Western Hemisphere, of whom 400,000 were sent to what was to become the United States. Once here, they and their descendants labored uncompensated for 240 years, transforming a wilderness into a modern economy for the benefit of the European settlers and their trading partners in Europe. There is a direct, unbroken line from the economic capacity of the United States in 1860 (and of the United States of 2019) to the 20 Africans who disembarked at Point Comfort, Virginia in August 1619.

America was a vast, underdeveloped continent incredibly rich in natural resources, but it wasn’t going to transform itself. It wasn’t European genius, but African labor that created the wealth of America.

Wealth shares several interesting characteristics with memory. Both are transferable and cumulative, not just from one individual to another, but also from one generation to another. Transferability allows the preceding generation to endow its heirs, and it’s the cumulative nature of both wealth and memory that allows the inheritors to add to both and then transfer their now value-added inheritance to their heirs.

I want to contextualize these qualities of transferability and

Letters to the Editor

accumulation using concepts from American jurisprudence. There is a general rule that nobody can pass on better title to goods than he or she has; a thief can’t pass on a good title to stolen goods. You can’t transfer or sell to anyone something you stole. Add to this the concept of ill-gotten gains, which are benefits obtained in an evil manner or by dishonest means. This is a textbook definition of the benefit white Americans and their descendants received from slavery.

Let’s summarize: Africans were forcibly brought to America to provide the labor required to economically develop the land. They and their enslaved descendants where uncompensated for their labor and got no equity in the value that labor created. The original enslavers then pasted on the ill-gotten gains, to which they had no title, to their heirs, who used it to perpetuate further ill-gotten gains.

This is why a discussion about reparations for the descendants of enslaved African Americans is not only appropriate, but it’s also legitimate, economically and legally. It’s why it’s not unreasonable or hyperbolic to consider the American project an ongoing criminal enterprise. But establishing the intellectual validity of the argument only starts a debate about reparations. So, if reparations for 240 years of slavery are both economically and legally, then what are we owed?

To be continued.

Mike Jones is a former senior staffer in St. Louis city and county government and current member of the Missouri State Board of Education and The St. Louis American editorial board. In 2016 and 2017, he was awarded Best Serious Columnist for all of the state’s large weeklies by the Missouri Press Association, and in 2018 he was awarded Best Serious Columnist in the nation by the National Newspapers Association.

Alternatives to grilling meats

Here are Ten Best Reasons for barbecuing veggie burgers and hot dogs this Independence Day, rather than ground-up animal body parts. Focusing on traffic and fireworks safety, rather than food safety. Giving your eyes a break from reading government food warning labels. Not sweating nasty

E. coli and Salmonella bugs, if temperature is too low. Not sweating cancer-causing compounds, if barbecue temperature is too high. Not wondering about what’s really in that burger or hot dog you’re chewing. Giving your body a holiday from saturated fat, cholesterol, and hormones. Not sweating the animal cruelty and environmental devastation guilt trips. Not having to explain to your kids why we feed Rex and eat Babe. Distinguishing your Independence Day menu from your friends and neighbors. Celebrating a day of independence from the meat industry.

Shem Pinter St. Louis

Address the causes of hunger

poverty? What can be done?

n I cannot stand idly by as this right is stripped away – by the very institution charged with protecting the health of the state’s residents.

Access to comprehensive reproductive and family planning care is vital to ensuring the health of our communities. The American Public Health Association, the nation’s preeminent public health professional association, has long held that “access to the full range of reproductive health services, including abortion, is a fundamental right.” As a public health and health professional entrusted with protecting the health of all Missourians, I cannot stand idly by as this right is stripped away – by the very institution charged with protecting the health of the state’s residents, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. I call on all Missouri health departments, health professionals, lawmakers and the greater Missouri community to stand with Missouri residents and advocate to keep the doors of the St. Louis Planned Parenthood open, permanently. Planned Parenthood of St. Louis provides critical family planning, cancer prevention and comprehensive reproductive health services for men and women in the St. Louis area and thousands of

Missouri residents. Closure of the clinic will have dire public health ramifications. These harms will be particularly felt by uninsured and underinsured residents of our state, who rely on the safety net these services provide, and who, as a result of their already limited access to care, already bear the highest burden of maternal and infant mortality. Missouri has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country (ranked 42nd); further restricting access to care is unconscionable. Let us do what is best for Missouri women. Please support Planned Parenthood.

Will Ross, MD, MPH, is associate dean for Diversity Programs, a professor of medicine, and the principal officer for Community Partnerships at Washington University School of Medicine.

Thanks to Operation Food Search for making an effort to reach hungry kids. Each of us can help by contacting our representatives in Congress and asking them to deal with the underlying causes of hunger in America. Why are 21 percent of America’s children living in

Plenty. Increasing the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit, increasing affordable housing and funding for programs like the Housing Choice Vouchers program (section 8). The more our representatives and senators

hear from us, the more likely they will take action. After all, they work for us. So keep making those calls and writing those letters until summer hunger programs are a thing of the past.

Willie Dickerson Snohomish, WA

Columnist

Dr. Will Ross

Columnist

Mike Jones

Humane Society offers $4K reward for information on mutilated pit bull puppy

The Humane Society of Missouri Animal Cruelty Task Force is offering a $4,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of persons responsible for the appalling mutilation of the ears of a 3-month-old female, pit bull puppy.

The puppy, which Humane Society of Missouri staff have named Gloria, was brought to the Humane Society’s headquarters on Macklind Avenue on the afternoon of June 10 by a passerby who saw her dropped out of a car and bleeding on Chambers Road at some point west of the village of Riverview in North St. Louis County.

According to Dr. Mark Wright, director of shelter medicine at the

n Anyone with information about this crime should call 314-647-4400 any time, day or night. Calls may be made anonymously.

Humane Society of Missouri, both of the puppy’s ears had very jagged, open, bleeding wounds in what appeared to be a cruel, amateur attempt to crop the animal’s ears. Despite the severe injuries to her ears, Gloria is expected to make a full recovery and will be made available for adoption in

the next several weeks.

“There is absolutely no justification for this type of horrific abuse of a defenseless animal,” Humane Society of Missouri President Kathy Warnick said. “We will do everything in our power to find and hold responsible the person who did this atrocious act.”

Anyone with information about this crime should call the Humane Society of Missouri Animal Cruelty Hotline at 314-647-4400 any time, day or night. Calls may be made anonymously.

Donate to the Humane Society of Missouri’s Animal Cruelty Fund at www.hsmo.org or by calling 314-9511542.

Police bigotry in plain view

By Jamala Rogers

Since the Ferguson Uprising in response to the murder of Mike Brown, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department has been exposed from the inside and out. The exposes have affirmed for some citizens, and bolstered beliefs in others, that the department is racist, incompetent and corrupt and undeserving of public trust. There have been a couple of areas that used to have people wondering. Now we understand, thanks to the investigative work of the Plain View Project, which looked at the department’s social media rants against black folks, women, Muslims and the LGBTQ community.

For example, let’s look at a persistent complaint by many in the black community related to what often happens when they call police. The police come very late or not at all.

Said one Facebook post by one of St. Louis’ finest: “They said F***k the police,’ so I said ‘F**k your 911 call. I’ll get to your dying home boy when I finish my coffee.” Should I add—and donuts?

Because a few people expressed their First Amendment rights, must a whole community be penalized by retaliatory refusal by police to respond to calls? The cops who had their hateful tirades revealed hid behind that very amendment when it came to justifying why they should not be fired.

Most urban police departments are having difficult recruiting and retaining officers of color. St. Louis is no exception. This should come as no surprise that the profession has been stained by its own wicked behavior and practices towards the racially, culturally and gender-bending diverse communities it is paid to serve and protect.

That behavior is not just reserved for us in the ‘hood. It’s also directed at fellow cops who aren’t white, straight and heterosexual.

Sgt. Heather Taylor is the president of the St. Louis Ethical Society of Police. She’s outspoken and a fierce advocate of the black officers she represents.

The Plain View Project highlighted another troubling post. Some of Taylor’s fellow officers were in solidarity with the sick hope that she “bleeds out on a call.” So much for back up from your brethren. And then there’s Milton Green, an African-American officer shot by a white fellow cop when Green tried to save some blue lives in a 2015 shoot-out in front of his house. Even when told Green was an off-duty officer, he was still shot and now is permanently disabled.

The shoddy treatment Green and his family received from the police department is appalling. Two years later, the City of St. Louis has not provided Green with his pension, forcing him to file a lawsuit.

We should clearly understand why a potential recruit would not choose this kind of employer and this hostile work environment. This is not a profession where black and brown people are beating down doors to sign up.

What the Plain View Project uncovered is not new. These incidents and statements are rampant inside our police department. They explain the brutal and often lethal interaction between the departments and the communities they occupy. They explain why communities are looking for alternatives to the current policing methods.

It’s all in plain view. Now we understand.

Jamala Rogers

Continued from A1

“We showed our region that a $15 wage isn’t just possible, it’s essential in making St. Louis a better place for all working families.”

Chancellor Andrew Martin made the announcement on the university’s website and explained that the transition will start on July 1 with $12.65/hour for regular employees and $12.25/hour for basic service contractors. Then on July 1, 2020, the rate will rise to $13.80/hour for both regular employees and basic service contractors.

“I have made this decision after an inclusive, thoughtful and thorough process that involved dialogue with students, university employees, community activists, and St. Louis religious and social justice leaders, as well as a full assessment of the financial and operational implications,” Martin stated.

Since joining the university in January, Martin said he has gathered input from important stakeholders, including the university’s Board of Trustees.

“I have recommended that we take this step because it is

GARDNER

Continued from A1

circuit attorney. Christmas was summarizing plans made at a meeting at St. Paul AME Church. Rev. Spencer Lamar Booker of St. Paul and other clergy, including Rev. Phillip Duvall, are standing in support of Gardner, along with Adolphus Pruitt of the St. Louis NAACP, John Chasnoff and Jamala Rogers of the Coalition Against Police Crimes and Oppression, Zaki Baruti of the Universal African Peoples Organization, civil rights activist Walle Amusa and others.

“Their attack on her has

the right thing to do,” Martin stated. “The university’s current minimum wage is well above the regional average, as well as federal and state mandates. Nonetheless, we always are open to considering ways in which we can further support our employees. I thank those who have brought this issue to our attention.”

Fight for $15 movement at Washington University largely includes graduate student workers, food service staff and housekeepers.

The average wage for housekeepers is $12.75, according to a spokesman for the movement, but other workers around campus make as little as $9 to $10 an hour.

On April 15, seven students and a member of the clergy were arrested when they occupied Martin’s office.

Throughout the spring, members of the movement — largely students — had been sleeping in the campus Quad in tents (branded “Martinville”), and there were about 10-20 tents any given night.

The movement will continue to fight for $15, a union voice and childcare, they said.

St. Louis’ third-largest

galvanized people around her,” Christmas said of Gardner.

“It had the opposite effect as intended, because it was so obviously frivolous.”

Christmas is trying to describe a dizzying set of legal maneuvers in connection to the circuit attorney, the first black person elected to that position. It might help to work backwards from the “frivolous” matter that Christmas mentioned.

Christmas and the coalition believe that William Tisaby was indicted by a grand jury on a “frivolous” charge, to which he pleaded innocent. He was handed multiple perjury charges for statements made when testifying – not in court – but in a deposition to lawyers

employer enacting a $15 wage for a large portion of its workforce is significant, advocates said. In May, St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura O. Jones also announced plans to raise employee pay in her office to $15 an hour. More than 2,100 janitors across the city and county will be kicking off their fight for a $15 wage in a strong new contract later this year, according to SIUE.

Movement leaders emphasized that these moves align with Forward Through Ferguson’s recommendation to implement a $15 wage to make the St. Louis region more equitable across racial lines.

“The increase to $15 is a really important victory for workers at WashU,” said Washington University Graduate Workers Union (WUGWU) member Grace Ward. “As a member of WUGWU, I’m proud of the coalition that came together in this fight, and I’m looking forward to continuing to organize with housekeepers, service workers, undergrads, faculty, and activists in the wider St. Louis community. Direct action works, and we’re going to keep it up.”

for Eric Greitens, then Missouri governor. Tisaby’s testimony was not material to establishing the facts in the case, which did not result in a conviction anyway. Gardner had charged Greitens for felony invasion of privacy, based on testimony by the alleged victim, then later dropped that and another felony charge.

Tisaby is a former FBI agent (African-American, like Gardner) she contracted to investigate Greitens when, she said, St. Louis police would not. Tisaby is being prosecuted by a private attorney, Gerard Carmody, appointed by Circuit Judge Mike Mullens. The judge was handed the case by City

Counselor Julian Bush and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. Carmody, the special prosecutor appointed by the judge, went to high school with and remains friends with one of Greitens’ attorneys, Ed Dowd.

That is relevant, given that it was Dowd’s client, Greitens, whom Tisaby investigated and Gardner charged.

Further, Gardner claims that Greitens’ legal team should be investigated for Tampering with a Judicial Officer for threats to her career that she claims were made during the Greitens investigation. She claims police would not investigate this allegation, and her attempt to use her own authority to compel the

appointment of a special prosecutor is stalled in the courts.

Meanwhile, in the ongoing investigation of her own office by a special prosecutor appointed by the court (on the urging of the mayor’s city counselor and police), Bush and the city have tried to block the city from paying for her defense, and Judge Mullens has issued a gag order. Gardner has been silenced in her own defense.

That motivated and explains the tangled web of demands now being made –and why Gardner needs the community to make them in her silence.

“The malicious prosecution of Tisaby is part of a

vendetta against Kim Gardner because of the Greitens case,” Christmas said. “They overcharged him to try to get him to flip on her and manufacture some allegations about her. He is being used as a pawn to embarrass the circuit attorney and try to prevent her getting reelected.” Christmas said it was odd to be protesting in support of his adversary.

“I’m a defense attorney,” Christmas said. “I go up against her and her staff in court every day. But this is not right. This is people just totally manipulating the criminal justice system and trying to turn the whole system against her.”

The Washington University Graduate Workers Union occupied the campus quad (and later the lawn outside Graham Chapel) and branded its tent city after the incoming chancellor in a sustained direct action pushing for a $15 minimum wage and child care for all campus workers. The university has agreed to gradually meet the minimum wage demand.

FERGUSON

Continued from A1

“rigorous” and the evaluation was unanimous among the council. Griffin made a point to put on the record that it was not unanimous.

“After talking to people in the community, I made the decision to go with what the people want,” Griffin said. “We had an opportunity to be very transparent and let people’s voices be heard.”

Knowles said the search was an “extremely inclusive process.”

Five different groups interviewed the two candidates, Blume said, and they consisted of senior leadership and department heads, six chiefs from mostly

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St. Louis, working to mediate gun violence. At the head of the table sat James Clark, vice president community outreach at BFL.

“We have trust in their credibility and their ability to deliver,” Clark told his team, regarding Cure Violence.

McAllister was not a stranger at the table. At the other end sat McAllister’s long-time friend “Big Steve,” or Steve Banks, one of BFL’s community outreach specialists.

“If you all don’t know, in the hierarchy of Chicago, this brother is super official,” McAllister said about Banks. “That’s real talk. He’s not ashamed of his background. The fact that he’s at the table now is humbling.”

“Big Steve” was a “security” back in the day, but now Banks is like almost every person who works for Cure Violence. It’s a program that started in Chicago, but now has 65 sites in 25 cities, many of which McAllister helped to establish.

“We hire a lot of F.I.P.s — formerly incarcerated professionals,” McAllister said. “About 90 percent of our work staff has been in jail; they are ex-gang members. They’re ex-everything but they changed their lives. We are not interested in how we can do Cure Violence with college kids. I’m not knocking social workers or those in the room with degrees. I respect you. But the work we do is tailor-made for the guys in the streets who don’t get a shot.

North St. Louis County, Kirkwood and Webster Groves, the mayor and city council, about 12 members of the police department, and a Town Hall meeting. At the town hall, residents voted for McCall, 33-20, The American learned. Knowles said all of the group’s input went into making the decision but could not be discussed because it was a personnel decision.

The decision goes against Delrish Moss’ fervent recommendation that McCall be the next chief.

“When we did the national search in 2016, I came in number one and Frank came in number 2,” Moss said at a press conference on October 12, 2018 announcing his decision to step down. “I went to Frank and brought him in.”

I fell in love with this work not because we were able to save lives. I fell in love with this work because it saved the staff’s lives.”

It’s this work that saved McAllister’s life as well, he said. He grew up in a Blood neighborhood in San Diego, and at 18 he got caught up in the gang and ended up serving 10 years in federal prison. He then spent time in both St. Louis and Chicago, and his mom still lives in Alton, Illinois. After he got out of prison, he tried starting up a national magazine called Exposure that highlighted African American businesses — and it’s base was in St. Louis.

“I wanted the magazine to succeed so much that I stepped my foot back in the streets, even though I said I would never do that,” he said. “I almost went back to the penitentiary. I’m not proud to say I sold a lot of dope in this city.”

When his daughter was born, he wanted to change his life. A woman told him about a new program in Chicago called CeaseFire, now Cure Violence, where he could use his background for good. Cure Violence was founded in 2000 by Gary Slutkin, M.D., former head of the World Health Organization’s Intervention Development Unit and professor of Epidemiology and International Health at the University of Illinois/Chicago School of Public Health. McAllister started out as a violence interrupter, where he was able to use his influence to “talk people down” and keep people from killing each other. He moved through the ranks and became a trainer.

McCall was previously Berkeley’s police chief for eight years and had served there for more than 25 years. The Ferguson Police Department signed the consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice in March 2016, and McCall has been in charge of the process since he came on with the department.

“I’ve come to trust him, and he’s intricately familiar with the consent decree,” Moss said. “He knows the community, he has the skill set and he has proven to be a tremendous help. A lot of the police officers have come to trust him and will stay if his leadership is there, especially some of those ones who were considering jumping ship because they found out I was leaving. I think it’s in the best

Now he travels all over the world — including the West Bank, Trinidad, South Africa and Belize — and sits down with people just like those at Better Family Life, he said. For example, Baltimore has four sites, and it’s now expanding to 10, he said. There he trained the “real life Avon Barksdale,” a character on the TV series “The Wire” (series creator David Simon has said Barksdale is a composite of actual people).

“We are really big on hiring people who have a tremendous credibility in the neighborhoods,” McAllister said. “We probably got the biggest ‘hood pass in America bar none.”

In Baltimore, four communities saw a 56 percent reduction in killings and a 34 percent reduction in shootings after the Cure Violence model was implemented, according to an evaluation completed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and John Hopkins University in 2012.

Cure Violence is a resultsbased approach that treats violence as a public health issue. According to the group’s literature, “Science has shown

interest of the city to make Frank McCall its chief.”

In October, Moss also said that another national search would be expensive, and a new chief is going to have a learning curve coming in.

“We are well within the consent decree process,” Moss said. “If we want to get out of it in time, we need to be consistent.”

The consent decree process is supposed to last about five years, he said, but it can take longer if there are interruptions.

Cassandra Butler, a Ferguson resident, said she attended the town hall meeting, where community members were allowed to ask McCall and Armstrong questions. One thing that stood out to her was that Armstrong had not read the

that violence is contagious and can be treated successfully as an infectious disease.

Communities that have adopted a health approach to violence prevention have seen up to 70 percent reductions in shootings and killings worldwide.”

Like Better Family Life, Cure Violence provides support and help in situations that could result in violence and then helps to get both sides of the conflict connected with job opportunities and social services. McAllister said Better Family Life was a “step ahead” because it had many of those social services in house.

Cure Violence has the best training in the world for violence interruption, McAllister said, and Better Family Life staff talked about attending its annual conference to learn about what other cities are doing.

Funding Cure Violence

This is not the first time McAllister has come to St. Louis.

About seven or eight years ago, he was brought to town by a gun-violence reduction committee, formed

consent decree or the D.O.J.’s report.

“It’s hard to keep momentum if you have a new person who doesn’t know where we’ve been and doesn’t know where we’re going,” Butler said. “I don’t think Armstrong is a bad person, but it slows down the consent decree with his lack of knowledge.”

Butler mentioned her concern at a city council meeting, and the council members replied that they were going to hire someone to handle the consent decree.

That person will not be a commander, but a lower position, Butler said. And that person will be reporting to a police chief that has no experience with consent decrees, she said.

“To me, that speaks

through the United Way and Washington University. Clark regularly attended the meetings and continually pushed the committee to stop studying the issue and get out in the streets, Clark said. McAllister was brought in to appease those who shared this concern.

But the funding for Cure Violence never surfaced back then. So instead, Clark took some tips from the organization and applied them to the work Better Family Life had been doing. Now Better Family Life has four gun violence de-escalation centers. However in November, Clark told The American that in order for them to keep up with the number of calls they receive, they need to “scale up.”

This year, Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed has been supporting the Coalition Against Police Crimes and Repression in trying to bring Cure Violence to St. Louis. In the city’s budget that is set to be approved on June 30, $500,000 has been earmarked for such an effort. However, it’s been a fight to keep that allocation in the budget.

“I don’t know how this is

volumes that you are de-emphasizing the consent decree,” Butler said. “Slowing the process is a benefit for the council that wasn’t even going to sign the consent decree, and only did after the federal government threatened to sue.”

Neither McCall nor Armstrong were present at the June 25 council meeting. Both Ferguson and Forest Park City have populations of about 20,000, according to the U.S. Census. Ferguson has a black population of about 68 percent compared to 39 percent in Forest Park. The average income levels are comparable, between $41,000 and $33,000 respectively.

going to play out,” McAllister said. “It could be a mirage. I could be here again in another seven years.”

John Chasnoff, co-founder of CAPCR, is hoping that won’t be the case because the model is needed.

“It is clear the reactive arrest-and-incarcerate model of public safety has failed,” Chasnoff said. “Cure Violence has been able to show rapid and sustained reductions in gun violence wherever it has been properly funded.” Clark said that BFL welcomes the program coming to St. Louis and the opportunity to network nationally with other people doing the work, because they have to be just as strongly connected as the network of crime that they are fighting to change.

“We got to look at it in the same way,” Clark said. “You have to have partners all over the country. They serve death, we serve life. But it’s the same thing. We have to look at the best applied practices and go with it. So let’s learn. Let’s share.”

For more information on Cure Violence, visit http:// cureviolence.org/.

Taking time for ‘The Talk’

How do we prepare our children for everything that life will throw at them?

By Shakia Gullette and Emily Underwood Missouri Historical Society

Parents and caregivers from all walks of life have “The Talk” with their children, but the content of this conversation varies widely across racial, cultural, and gender lines.

For white families, The Talk usually refers to the birds and the bees. For racial and ethnic minorities, there’s also a more difficult talk about discrimination and personal safety, especially when interacting with the police.

While families have always had some version of The Talk, the world of 2019 can feel particularly challenging, with so many issues rising to the surface and bubbling up in our daily interactions as well as in the media. In the era of Black Lives Matter, #MeToo and #TimesUp, claims of “fake news,” and social media saturation, how do we prepare our children for everything that life will throw at them, both now and in the future?

n “If the adults are uncomfortable taking on difficult topics themselves, then it’s a stretch for them to approach those topics with their children.”

– Colette Edson

“The killing of Michael Brown five years ago and events around sexual harassment by men in positions of power have sparked public conversations,” says Erika Sandiford of the Women’s Group on Race Relations (WGRR). “We think it’s an important moment to talk about how our children face challenges around identity in their everyday lives and look at what strategies parents are using.”

On Tuesday, July 9, at 7 p.m., the Missouri History Museum will host “The Talk: What All Our Children Need to Hear.” This free event, presented by WGRR, St. Louis Public Radio, and the Missouri Historical Society, will explore what The Talk means to different families.

Panelists Colette Edson, public educator and La Salle Middle School board member; Jerry Phillips, Ferguson resident and father of a son and daughter; Gabriela RamírezArellano, podcaster and business consultant for the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; and Faizan Syed, executive director of the Missouri chapter of the Council on American–Islamic Relations, will share their experiences talking with their own children and the particular challenges they face. Audience members will also have the opportunity to ask questions and weigh in on the significance of The Talk in their own lives.

Parents across all backgrounds share a common ground in that they love their children and want them to thrive, but the issues that concern one parent may not even cross the mind of another. By providing a platform for listening to each other, the event organizers hope that participants will come away with a deeper understanding of the various ways that current issues affect us, and perhaps with an

even more empathetic and nuanced approach to how they communicate with the children in their own lives.

Edson says, “Here is what it comes down to: if the adults are uncomfortable taking on difficult topics themselves, then it’s a stretch for them to approach those topics with their children.” She believes that “open and honest two-way conversation” helped her oldest daughter, then a sixth grader at a south city private school, better understand the demonstrations in Ferguson and then in their own Shaw neighborhood after the shooting of VonDerrit Myers Jr. “We hope families come out together to consider this issue and even learn from each other about ways to approach tough but necessary conversations,” says moderator Holly Edgell of St. Louis Public Radio and the public radio reporting collaborative Sharing America. “We are looking forward to a thoughtful and helpful conversation among people of all walks of life. All are welcome.”

“The Talk: What All Our Children Need to Hear” will be held at the Missouri History Museum’s Lee Auditorium on Tuesday, July 9, at 7 pm. This free event is presented with the Women’s Group on Race Relations and St. Louis Public Radio. The Women’s Group on Race Relations was founded in 2009 with a mission to increase and improve race relations in St. Louis by bringing women together across boundaries to share, learn, and act. Since then, WGRR has hosted many events and gatherings that have brought women together from across the region who might otherwise never have met to share ideas and perspectives in a nonconfrontational, kind, and encouraging way.

St. Louis Public Radio, a member station of National Public Radio, provides audiences with news and programs that are significant to their communities and their world.

We invite you to check out Fair Saint Louis when it takes over Downtown St. Louis July 4, 5 and 6 with music, fireworks and more.

Fair St. Louis returns to Downtown St. Louis

By Kiara Bryant For the St. Louis American

Summer has officially arrived!

Let’s take in every moment with the highlight of the summer, our annual Independence Day celebration, Fair Saint Louis. We invite you to check out the Fair when it takes over Downtown St. Louis July 4, 5 and 6 with music, fireworks and more. Thousands will gather to celebrate at this free festival with headliners including country music singer Brett Young, R & B star Keith Sweat, and rock band The Flaming Lips, as well as performances by country music’s Randy Houser, R & B legend Johnny Gill from New Edition and alternative rock band Vertical Horizon.

The festivities begin with the 137th Annual VP Parade on Wednesday, July 4 at 9:30 a.m. in downtown St. Louis at 20th and Market Street. Since 1878, this parade has been a tradition in the St. Louis community. The theme of the parade will be “We The People!”

Fair Saint Louis at the Gateway Arch National Park. Thursday, July 4 – the Fair will open at noon. Enjoy the daytime family-friendly festival fun, the Boeing Air Show and musical guests Randy Houser and Brett Young on the main stage. The fireworks display will begin at 9:35 p.m.

n Fair Saint Louis will offer many familyfriendly activities throughout the day and conclude with musical entertainment and fireworks every night.

The parade will feature 14 marching bands from across the region, 21 magnificent floats, larger than life balloon characters and more. KMOV 4 will broadcast this event for millions to watch at home in up to 56 different markets.

Fair Saint Louis will offer many familyfriendly activities throughout the day and conclude with musical entertainment and fireworks every night. Each day, family entertainment will be provided along with the Boeing Air Show and the Purina Festival Zone.

Here’s the schedule of events for this year’s

Friday, July 5 – the festival will open at 4 p.m. In the evening, you can listen to musical performances by Johnny Gill and Keith Sweat on the main stage. The fireworks are set to start at 9:35 p.m. Saturday, July 6 – For the grand finale, the festival will begin at noon. During the day, enjoy a variety of family entertainment. A Salute to the Troops will take place on the main stage at 4:30 p.m. and music by Vertical Horizon and The Flaming Lips will follow. Fireworks will close the fair at 9:35 p.m.

The Fair is made possible by this year’s major sponsors: Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Budweiser, Edward Jones, Maritz, MasterCard, Purina, Express Scripts and the Express Scripts Foundation in collaboration with the City of St. Louis and many other organizations. This year, Fair Saint Louis has collaborated with local clothing retailer Arch Apparel on Fair Saint Louis-branded T-shirts and hats.

Find more details about the Fair including: T-shirts, a map, parking and transportation information visit www.fairsaintlouis.org and enjoy your summer to the fullest by visiting www.explorestlouis.com.

Holly Edgell of St. Louis Public Radio will moderate “The Talk: What All Our Children Need to Hear” 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 9 at the Missouri History Museum.

Photo courtesy of Holly Edgell

County executive recommends Justice Services Advisory Board with guts

St. Louis County Executive Sam Page has recommended to the St. Louis County Council an impressive list of nominees for a new Justice Services Advisory Board to advise the director of the Department of Justice Services regarding the policies and operations at the County jail in Clayton.

“Recent deaths of inmates in the county’s custody prompted us to improve the Justice Center and set it on a new course,” Page said in a statement. “Appointing a new advisory board will help us identify additional reforms we can implement at the Justice Center.”

With the health (and life) of people in county custody at stake, a senior health expert was nominated: Dr. Alexander Garza, chief medical officer at SSM Health and the former assistant secretary and chief medical officer of the United States Department of Homeland Security.

With County justice services frequently targeted by protests, a protest veteran was nominated: Reverend Phillip Duvall, who helped to provoke the reopening of the Jason Stockley case, also Social Justice commissioner of the Missionary Baptist State Convention of Missouri.

A very unique and insightful former inmate, though in federal rather than county custody, was nominated: Jeff Smith, executive director of the Missouri Workforce Housing Association, former state senator and author of the memoir “Mr. Smith Goes to Prison,” which closes with an argument for prison reform.

With one of the best research universities in the county footprint, a subject matter expert from Washington University was nominated: Timothy McBride, a professor at the Brown School of Social Work at and chair of the MO HealthNet Oversight Committee in the Missouri Department of Social Services.

Clearly, the voices of women engaged in relevant community work is needed, and two were nominated: Twyla Lee, an educator and active participant in Color of Change, a civil rights organization; and Mary Zabawa Taylor, a volunteer in the criminal justice ministry in the St. Louis County Justice Center and former director of Patient Safety at Washington University School of Medicine.

“These appointees are professional, thoughtful and diverse,” Page said in a statement. “We will look to this board for advice and counsel. And I will expect them to listen

to our diverse community in formulating their reports.”

Duvall has a proven record of working collaboratively behind the scenes to bust open a major public safety scandal in the Stockley case, and several of the nominees have brash voices in social media, where they have highly public profiles, so this was not a safe list that Page has handed to the County Council.

Clay moves toward impeachment of Trump Political EYE does a lot of reporting and commenting on bad politics and government. This week, it’s all good, responsible politics and government.

U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay (D-Missouri) is co-sponsoring resolutions that outline an Article of Impeachment in the U.S. House of Representatives against President Donald Trump and demanding an immediate inquiry.

“Impeachment is the only constitutionally available remedy that would directly address President Trump’s blatant and repeated attempts to obstruct justice, his repeated lies to Congress, and most importantly his lies to the American people,” Clay said in a statement on Friday, June 21.

Clay joined with U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-California) and U.S. Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) to cosponsor House

Resolution 13: “Impeaching Donald Trump, President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors.” The proposed Article of Impeachment recount’s Trump’s repeated attempts to obstruct justice in the Russia investigation, as outlined in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report. It has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee. The proposed Article of Impeachment concludes:

“Donald John Trump has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.”

“Today, I have acted to assert the constitutionally mandated authority of the U.S. House to hold President Donald Trump accountable for his repeated acts of attempted obstruction of justice and his reckless contempt for the Constitution which he took an oath to preserve, protect and defend,” Clay stated.

Clay also joined with U.S. Rep. Rashida Talib (D-Michigan) and Green to cosponsor H. Res 257: “Inquiring whether the House of Representatives should impeach Donald John Trump, President of the United States of America. It has been referred to the House Rules

Bell announces Conviction and Incident Review Unit

St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell is rolling out a new Conviction and Incident Review Unit with two mandates that will, he said, “safeguard the integrity of convictions” won by the office.

The Conviction and Incident Review Unit (CIRU) – which will stand as its own unit, independent from the rest of the office and answer solely to Bell, will employ a director who will be hired through a national search. Its mandates will be to review two sets of things: cases involving substantiated claims of wrongful prosecution or conviction, and all matters relating to police officerinvolved shootings and alleged police misconduct.

Committee.”

“In the past, other presidents who trampled on the Rule of Law, dishonored their office, and violated their sacred oath were ultimately held accountable by the Constitution and the harsh judgment of history,” Clay stated. “Donald Trump is about to learn that same lesson.”

To read the full text of H.Res. 13, visit: https://www.congress.gov/ bill/116th-congress/houseresolution/13/text

“The obligation of every prosecutor is to pursue justice, an obligation that cannot be met if the public lacks confidence in the integrity of criminal convictions,” Bell said in a statement. “From the data we know wrongful convictions happen all over the country, which is why it’s imperative to critically review cases where credible challenges are raised.”

In the past 30 years, according to Bell, 2,446 people have been exonerated in the U.S. who were wrongfully convicted – and 50 of those exonerations were in Missouri, who served a combined total of 523 years incarcerated for crimes they did not commit.

“To that end,” Bell said, “this office will employ every measure available not only to prosecute crimes and assist victims, but also to correct injustice by safeguarding the integrity of all convictions.”

Muslims for a Better America host Campaign Training Academy

In Trump’s America, Muslims are one of this country’s most vulnerable minority groups, and a local organization is trying to groom candidates who will protect the community and advance its interests. Muslims for a Better America is hosting a new comprehensive, local and nonpartisan campaign training program. On weekends from August to September, students will attend 10 classes taught by local political experts covering topics such as filing for office, field strategy and donor cultivation. It is open to any future candidate, campaign staff or anyone who wants to consider running for office.

“We first thought that this would be a service to train qualified Muslim candidates,” said Saad Amir, executive director Muslims for a Better America, “but we quickly realized that no one else in the state was offering what we were going to offer, and we knew right away that this training had to be open to everyone.”

Bell said that more than 30 prosecuting attorneys nationwide have established similar programs to address the problem, “using datadriven methods to establish best practices that vigorously uphold prosecutorial ethics,” Bell said.

The application period opens 9 a.m. Saturday, June 29. For more information and to apply, visit mbamissouri.com/ academy.

Reverend Phillip Duvall (right), who helped to provoke the reopening of the Jason Stockley case along with Brother Anthony Shahid (left), was nominated to the new Justice Services Advisory Board by St. Louis County Executive Sam Page.

Abortion fight moves to administrative hearing

Planned Parenthood’s abortion license extended until June 28 after state denies license renewal

By Sandra Jordan Of The St.

Louis American

Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region has until the end of this week to seek administrative remedies before the court’s preliminary injunction is lifted and it can no longer perform abortions at Reproductive Health Services. In his ruling June 24 on Monday, 22nd Circuit Court Judge Michael F. Stelzer ordered: “THEREFORE, it is Ordered and Decreed that the Preliminary Injunction entered on June 10,

2019 is extended in part. Petitioner’s license shall not expire and shall remain in effect until June 28, 2019 @ 5 PM in order to allow Petitioner to seek review and injunctive relief from the Administrative Hearing Commission. Thereafter, on June 28, 2019 @ 5 PM, the Preliminary Injunction issued by this court shall be dissolved. FURTHER, Counts II - VI are dismissed without prejudice for failure to exhaust administrative remedies and all other remaining motions are denied as moot. Each party to bear their own costs.”

Planned Parenthood said the judge’s order gives them the chance to ask the Administrative Hearing Commission to reverse the Department of Health and Senior Services’ license denial, but it “creates uncertainty for the patients” it serves.

“Abortion care is health care and patients in need of this service shouldn’t have to wait day by day wondering if they can access

Five things you need to know about your health plan

Anthem

It’s never been more important for you to have a complete understanding of your health care benefits so you can get the most from your coverage. Here are five things you should understand about your health plan.

Benefit and Plan Summaries. Once you are enrolled in a health plan, you should review your summary of benefits and coverage (SBC) and summary plan description (SPD) documents. These documents have all the information you need about your plan, including co-pay and deductible amounts, out-of-pocket maximums, what is covered, what is not, and more. These documents should be stored where you can easily access them, such as on a company intranet or with the human resources (HR) department, and your employer should educate you about where to find them.

n Most consumers are surprised to learn about the amount of discounts and free extras that are available to them through their health plan.

Member ID Card. Your member ID card has a lot of important information that can be useful as you navigate the health care system and use your benefits. Health plan and network names, group and/ or member numbers, and many important phone numbers are listed on ID cards. Check with your employer to see if they have any informational material that shows an example of your ID card with the important information highlighted. Don’t’ forget, you should carry your ID card with you at all times and you should know how to request a new card if needed.

How to Find In-Network Doctors. One of the most beneficial things to understand about your health plan how to find doctors, hospitals and other health care facilities that participate in your health plan’s network. Benefits are always richer when receiving services from an in-network provider, which could save you money. You risk paying more out-of-pocket or having your services be denied when you go outside of your network. No matter how you search – through

County Circuit Court to hire treatment court commissioner

Will handle non-violent defendants with substance use disorders and mental illness.

The St. Louis County Circuit Court will hire a full-time treatment court commissioner to handle the growing number of cases involving non-violent defendants with substance use disorders and mental illness. The new position is the first of its kind in St. Louis County. It was included in a bill passed by the Missouri Legislature this year and signed by Gov. Mike Parson. The St. Louis County Circuit Court (the state’s 21st Judicial Circuit) operates six treatment courts: Drug Treatment Court, Mental Health Treatment Court, DWI Treatment Court, Veterans Treatment Court, Family Drug Treatment Court for drug-addicted mothers and infants, and Domestic Violence Treatment Court. The new treatment court commissioner will handle a variety of types of cases. Due to the sharp rise in the use of opioids

n Judge Gloria C. Reno, presiding judge of the 21st Judicial Circuit, said a treatment court commissioner will help the courts to reduce the county’s jail population.

and other factors, St. Louis County’s treatment courts had reached their operational limits. In 2018, 5,688 drug-

Protestors outside Planned Parenthood on Forest Park Parkway on June 5.

Photo by Wiley Price

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care tomorrow, nor should they have ever had to undergo invasive exams that have nothing to do with their health,” Dr. Colleen McNicholas, a Planned Parenthood obstetrician-gynecologist stated, following Monday’s ruling. “We will continue this fight in the Administrative Hearing Commission, and we won’t stop until every person can access the care they need when and where they need it.”

Before a court hearing in St. Louis on Friday, June 21, the State of Missouri notified Planned Parenthood it is denying a renewal license to perform abortions at Reproductive Health Services in St. Louis, citing “unprecedented lack of cooperation, failure to meet basic standards of patient care, and refusal to comply with state law and regulations protecting women’s health and safety that resulted in numerous serious and extensive unresolved deficiencies including multiple that involved life-threatening conditions for patients.” Randall Williams, MD, Missouri state health director and an obstetrician-gynecologist, told reporters last Friday following the court hearing that only four of 30 sited deficiencies had been addressed by Planned Parenthood from its onsite inspection by regulators in March. Williams described three cases from the statement of deficiencies – one patient who had three abortions in three days; another patient who had two abortions in five weeks following a failed surgical abortion; and a third patient who was transferred to Planned Parenthood from a hospital who was critically ill and had lost half of her blood volume. Williams said she would have been better served at a hospital. He said further investigation by the state was hampered by lack of cooperation.

“In all our years, and all the things we regulate, it is unprecedented that the three doctors that were involved in the cases I just sited to you,

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refused to cooperate,” Williams said. “It’s made it a very difficult job for our regulators – in fact, unprecedented, to investigate the quality of care if the people who took care of the patient won’t talk to you.” He said it was the state’s duty to prevent future harm to make sure there is not something systematically going on that caused such outcomes. He said 3,000 patients had abortions at Planned Parenthood.

Also on Friday, however, Williams did retract a state mandate that forced women to undergo an extra pelvic exam before having a surgical abortion. Planned Parenthood had contended the extra exam was medically unnecessary and had refused to continue putting its patients through the second exam.

“I am issuing an emergency rule today – that Planned Parenthood can defer the pelvic

an online provider finder tool, a provider directory, or by calling Customer Service – you should know exactly how to find a doctor that participates in your network.

Included Products and Services. If your health plan includes programs that can help you better manage your health, such as case management, disease management or telemedicine, you should take advantage of them. The same is true for pharmacy, which is one of the most used benefits. You should be familiar with your pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) and any prescription guidelines or restrictions so you can make the best use of these benefits.

Additional Tools and Extras. Most consumers are surprised to learn about the amount of discounts and free extras that are available to them through their health plan. If you have a member portal or website available, it can often be an extremely useful tool to help you maximize your benefits. You should also inquire about any discounts available on items you purchase, such as glasses and contacts or healthy eating and living products. Some health plans may even offer premium reductions for well-being assessments or preventive screenings.

Remember, it’s your responsibility to know the facts about your health plan so you can control your health care spending.

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related cases and 2,157 alcohol-related cases were filed in St. Louis County, according to state statistics. Additionally, the number of civil and criminal cases involving litigants with mental illness also has continued to grow, boosting the number of participants in the County’s Mental Health Treatment Court by 130 percent in the last year. Treatment courts are highly

labor-intensive for judges and court staff. Working one-onone with judges and teams of highly trained court staff, treatment court participants must agree to take part in an intensive regimen of counseling, drug or alcohol treatment, case management, drug testing, supervision and monitoring and regular check-ins with the court. Connecting participants with community support services – such as mental health treatment, trauma and family therapy, housing assistance, education and job training –

exam to the day of surgery, if, in their estimation, using their clinical judgement, that they think there’s a medical reason that they should do that...,” Williams told reporters, “because we don’t want patients having two pelvic exams.”

In Planned Parenthood’s response on Monday, she stated, “The Department of Health and Senior Services Director, Randall Williams, has already

proven himself to be harmful to Missourians,” McNicholas said. “His admission that he forced women to undergo medically unnecessary pelvic exams is proof that this state is on a destructive path against Missouri women.”

Without administrative redress, Missouri becomes the first state in the nation where women cannot have a legal abortion. Last month, Angie Postal, vice president

by

of Education, Policy and Community Engagement for Advocates of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region of Southwest Missouri, told The American prior to the May 31 license original expiration date that it will help Missouri women get to Illinois clinics to obtain needed surgical or non-surgical abortions.

has been shown to improve the likelihood of participants’ success. Successful completion of treatment court programs may result in a withdrawal of a defendant’s guilty plea, the dismissal of criminal charges or shorter probation.

Judge Gloria C. Reno, presiding judge of the 21st Judicial Circuit, said a treatment court commissioner will help the courts to reduce the county’s jail population. “We are confident that the return on taxpayers’ investment will be realized

not only in significant savings in the cost of operating the jail,” Reno said in a statement, “but in an improved quality of life for defendants, their families and our community as a whole.”

The St. Louis County treatment court commissioner must have the same qualifications as an associate circuit judge and will be appointed to a four-year term by a majority vote of the judges in the 21st Judicial Circuit. The new post is expected to be filled later this summer.

Free Community Health Education Day on June 29 at Christian Hospital

Siteman Cancer Center Smart Health 2019 will sponsor a Free Community Health Education Day 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, June 29 at Christian Hospital Detrick Building Atrium 11133 Dunn Rd., 63136. There will be programs on Ways to Prevent Cancer; on Breast, Colon & Prostate Cancer; Exercise & Nutrition and Cancer Survivorship. There will be raffle prizes for attendees and a “Meet the Expert Lunch” with local physicians. Lunch and a return Metro pass will be provided. Space is limited. Reserve a seat at 314-747-1109 or wilsonmarilynl@wustl.edu or on eventbrite.com.

Photo

Wiley Price

Planned Parenthood workers exit the building on Forest Park Parkway on June 5.

Urban League to open restaurant training site in Florissant

Lion’s Choice donates shuttered location for workforce development in North County

By Francene Bethune

For St. Louis American

A former Lion’s Choice restaurant location will soon become a training center for people in the St. Louis area seeking jobs in the restaurant industry. The restaurant chain donated both the 0.95-acre site as well as the 2771-square-foot restaurant located at 3407 Dunn Rd. in Florissant to the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis for use as a training ground for individuals seeking training in hospitality and culinary work, in partnership with the Missouri Restaurant Association and St. Louis Community College. Michael McMillan, president, and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, said that thousands of jobs are open in the St. Louis area, but many people do not have the necessary skills to qualify for the jobs.

“Our workforce development staff has been working with business owners to fill employment opportunities and noted that there are over 1,000 restaurant job openings in the St. Louis area every day,” said McMillan.

“We felt that providing a community culinary training program could help fulfill this extreme demand for talent. Applicants could confidently

n “We felt that it was imperative that the building and land go back to the community.”

– Lion’s Choice President and CEO Michael Kupstas

enter the workforce with the necessary shortterm training needed to obtain these jobs.”

The idea, according to Bob Bonney, CEO of the Missouri Restaurant Association, was born after recognizing that people in the community needed opportunity. He also added that this opportunity would train job seekers to push them towards the middle class.

“The project will make them immediately employable at a wage that allows them to continue and to advance,” said Bonney.

Michael Holmes, regional vice president of the workforce for the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, said that he has been planning this project for years but never found the right location. Holmes also wants students to

have the option to receive college credit by dual enrolling at the St. Louis Community College.

Lion’s Choice President and CEO Michael Kupstas said that though “it is never an easy decision to close a store,” every employee who was previously employed at the Dunn Road location was placed at a different establishment and the community gets a new benefit as a result.

“We felt that it was imperative that the building and land go back to the community.”

Kupstas said.

Robert Millstone, managing partner of Millstone Capital Advisors, Lion’s Choice’s parent company, helped to establish the relationship with the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis.

“The Urban League is one of the leading and longest-serving organizations that advances social justice through creating economic opportunities for people in poverty in our community,” Millstone said. “We hope Lion’s Choice will be involved the training program in St. Louis.”

The project is still in its developing stage. For more information on the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, call 314-615-3600 or visit https://www.ulstl.com.

Tim Wentworth, Greg Smith to co-chair United Way campaign

Tim Wentworth, president of Express Scripts and Cigna Health Services, and Greg Smith, chairman of Husch Blackwell, will serve as co-chairs of United Way of Greater St. Louis’ 2019 annual fundraising campaign.

“Their leadership, experience and guidance will enable us to expand our engagement with the local corporate and civic communities and help increase our impact,”

Tim Wentworth

Michelle Tucker, president and CEO of United Way of Greater St. Louis.

“When one of us is helped, we all are lifted, resulting in a stronger and healthier community. This is at the core of United Way of Greater St. Louis – bringing the entire region together to help our neighbors,” Wentworth said in a statement.

United Way of Greater St. Louis supports more than 160 agencies a 16-county region to help people and create strong communities.

“United Way has far-reaching impact, supporting and improving the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in our area,” Smith said

in a statement.

Last year, United Way’s campaign – co-chaired by Mark Wrighton, former chancellor of Washington University, and Jeff Fox, chairman and CEO of Harbour Group – raised a record $76 million.

The annual fall fundraising campaign officially begins in September. For more information, contact 314421-0700 or visit www. HelpingPeople.org.

Jerald Jones Woolfolk, who joined Lincoln University in June 2018, received a three-year contract extension as the 20th president of Lincoln University. The new contract will run from 2021 through 2024. Previously she served as the vice president for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Oswego and held roles as a visiting professor and the interim chief diversity and inclusion officer at SUNY.

Kelvin R. Adams was named to the Board of Directors of Operation Food Search, a nonprofit hunger relief organization. Board members are eligible to serve two consecutive three-year terms. As superintendent of schools for the Saint Louis Public Schools, he oversees more than 22,000 PreK-12 grade students, and he is responsible for the daily operations of the district’s over 4,000 employees and $400 million budget. “A child who is hungry cannot focus on his lesson,” Adams said.

Courtney Stewart received an Outstanding Alumni award from Webster University’s School of Communications, where she earned her Master of Arts in Communications Management from in 2005. As the vice president of strategic communications at Missouri Foundation for Health, Stewart leads the communications department in its effort to partner with internal and external stakeholders to promote and articulate the work of the foundation to diverse audiences.

Ron A. Austin is celebrating the publication of his debut short story collection, “Avery Colt Is A Snake, A Thief, A Liar,” by Southeast Missouri State University Press. The winner of the Nilzen Prize, Austin’s semiautobiographical, linked story collection follows the misadventures of Avery Colt as he struggles to survive in North St. Louis alongside his family. “This book is my cousins, aunties, uncles, grandparents, parents, siblings, and friends,” noted author Steven Dunn.

Valerie DanielsCarter, a 1978 graduate of Lincoln University, was selected as a member of the 2019 Class of the National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame. Daniels-Carter was nominated by Lincoln University President Jerald Jones Woolfolk for her success as a leader in the Business and Industry category. She is president and CEO of V&J Foods, a 137 unit, multi-brand company, a minority owner of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks.

Basil Kincaid was chosen as one of 10 finalists for the ninth Great Rivers Biennial Arts Award Program presented by the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis and the Gateway Foundation. They were chosen from among more than 85 applicants by a distinguished panel of jurors. From the ten finalists, three artists will be selected to receive $20,000

Valerie DanielsCarter

Kelvin R. Adams

Basil Kincaid

Ron A. Austin

Jerald Jones Woolfolk

Courtney Stewart

Representatives from Lion’s Choice, the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, the Missouri Restaurant Association and St. Louis Community College gathered recently to announce a new training ground for individuals seeking training in hospitality and culinary work at the former Lion’s Choice location at 3407 Dunn Rd. in Lion’s Choice in Florissant.

Photo by Wiley Price

Greg Smith

Mound City Bar Foundation to host scholarship dinner on June 29

By Chris King Of The St. Louis American

The Mound City Bar

Foundation will host its annual Honorable Scovel Richardson Scholarship Dinner on Saturday, June 29 at The Grand Hall on Chouteau, 2319 Chouteau Ave., with reception at 6 p.m., dinner at 7 p.m. and dancing at 9 p.m.

Sandberg Phoenix & von Gontard will be awarded for diversity and inclusion, and Vatterott Foundation will be awarded for community leadership.

J. Danielle Carr, president of Mound City Bar Association, listed several reasons why Sandberg Phoenix & von Gontard will be honored as a diversity and inclusion leader.

Sandberg Phoenix & von Gontard honored for inclusion, Vatterott Foundation for service

It is one of two medium to large law firms in St. Louis led by an attorney of color, Bhavik Patel, managing partner and president. The firm also has impressive percentage of diverse attorneys, as compared to its peer firms, and impressive diversity and inclusion programming.

“The firm employs and supports the following attorneys who commit significant time and energy in support of diverse attorney initiatives: Keith Price, Lauren Collins, Casey Wong, Ashley Walker and Untress Quinn,” Carr said. “If anyone was omitted, it is only because Mound City has not had the pleasure of working with them yet.”

Carr said that Sandberg

Phoenix & von Gontard also supports professional development for AfricanAmerican attorneys and law students.

“The firm consistently supports the local Black Law Students Association groups,” Carr said. “The firm’s attorney of color alumnae Mavis Thompson and Annette Slack benefited from the professional development and support they received from the firm and became invaluable leaders of local and/or national African-American attorney bar associations.”

Carr said the Vatterott Foundation was selected for the Community Service Award because of the family’s support of the Mound City Bar Association’s Rhonda F. William’s CLE Retreat over the last two years.

“We paid for the space, but they gave Mound City a number of monetary concessions and upgrades that significantly impacted the amount of profit the association made on the events,” Carr said. “And

n “With respect to advancing civil rights, the Vatterott Foundation is unsung and we found it fitting to recognize the work.”

– J. Danielle Carr, Mound City Bar Association

the Vatterott family has and continues to play an important role in the advancement of civil rights. With respect to advancing civil rights, the foundation is unsung and we found it fitting to recognize the work.”

Deionna Ferguson of Washington University School of Law and Omari Holt of Saint Louis University School of Law will be awarded scholarships at the dinner.

St. Louis Public Safety

Director Jimmie Edwards and Elaine H. Spearman are dinner co-chairs.

Guests will be treated to appetizers, dinner, an open host bar, a live and silent auction, and after-dinner dancing. The two live auction items up for bid are autographed books by Michelle and Barack Obama. Tickets to the event are $100 per person and may be purchased until by contacting J. Danielle Carr at president@ moundcitybar.com.

Business groups invest more than $2M in community improvement programs

By Eric Schmid and Corinne Ruff

Of St. Louis Public Radio

The Regional Business Council and Civic Progress announced on June 18 more than $1 million in funding for eight St. Louis community organizations working to increase education and economic opportunities. And the Business Council also said it was giving an additional $1.2 million to a neighborhood cleanup program. The community groups that received funding provide a range of services, from employment training and placement to housing assistance and gun-violence de-escalation. These investments allow many of the organizations to focus or expand services to traditionally underserved communities in North St. Louis.

That’s true for the Urban League of Metropolitan St.

Louis, which is expanding its Save our Sons program with the help of a $250,000 grant. The program helps unemployed and underemployed black men in the region find stable jobs.

“Since we opened the office on Dr. King day, we have 130 men that have received employment from this North St. Louis office, and we want to continue that trend,” said Michael McMillan, president and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis.

The league teamed up with Better Family Life to open an office in North St. Louis earlier this year.

McMillan also stressed the collaborative spirit of these grants between organizations.

“Without support from the business community, all of these things would just be ideas,” McMillan said.

“Only through working in a collaboration in the business world, the government, and not-for-profits can we really get to the heart of serving the people in the community.”

Other organizations that received funding include: Better Family Life, Beyond Housing, STL Youth Jobs, The Little Bit Foundation, public

Photo from RBC and Civic Progress

n “Without support from the business community, all of these things would just be ideas.”

– Michael McMillan, Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis

charter-school system KIPP

St. Louis, St. Louis County Library and St. Louis Public Library.

During a press event, St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson and St. Louis County Executive Sam Page emphasized the

Representatives from organizations receiving funding from the Regional Business Council and Civic Progress posed for a photo. The RBC and Civic Progress announced more than $2 million in funding for these organizations on June 18.

shared responsibility between government and the private sector in addressing poverty.

“When any part of the county isn’t thriving, that affects our whole region and all of our potential,” Page said.

“To break this cycle of poverty, all of our residents need to have access to opportunity, education and resources.”

The Regional Business Council also announced an additional $1.2 million for Better Family Life to help fund a St. Louis neighborhood cleanup program, Operation Clean Sweep.

This summer, the organization — along with

J. Danielle Carr Bhavik Patel

n “Wherever Lavar Ball is, there is a village missing an idiot. He’s an idiot in all 50 states.”

– Charles Barkley, commenting on Lavar Ball, the outspoken father of NBA player Lonzo Ball

Sports

Pujols’

Prep Athletes of the Year

By Earl Austin Jr.

Of the St. Louis American

It is now time to officially bring the 2018-19 high school sports season to a close with our annual St. Louis American Athletes of the Year in each sport.

Football (Large Schools): Kyren Williams (Vianney) – Record-setting performer who led Golden Griffins to the Class 5 state championship. He signed with Notre Dame.

Football (Small Schools): Isaiah Williams (Trinity) – Sensational quarterback who led Trinity to the Class 3 state championship. He has signed with Illinois.

Boys Soccer: Braden Johnson (Fort Zumwalt South)

Standout who scored 35 goals and led the Bulldogs to the Class 3 state championship.

Cross Country: Malik Stewart (Maplewood) – Junior standout who finished second at the Class 2 state championships. Stewart is also a district and sectional champion.

Girls Volleyball: Staciana Stock (Lafayette)

Senior outside hitter who led the Lancers to the Class 4 state championship game.

Golf: Parker Perry (MICDS) – A district and sectional champion who finished third at the Class 1 state championships.

Softball: Rylea Smith (Parkway North) –Standout outfielder who hit .526 with five home runs and 27 runs batted in. She has signed with Kentucky.

Field Hockey: Emma Opoku (Summit) – Standout goalie who earned Suburban Conference Defensive Player of the Year honors. She recorded 16 victories and nine shutouts.

Girls Tennis: Journee White (MICDS) –Talented young player who was a district and sectional champion in doubles. White advanced to Final Four of state tournament.

Boys Basketball: E.J. Liddell (Belleville West) – All-American who led the Maroons to back-to-back Illinois Class 4A state championships. He is headed to The Ohio State University.

Ishmael

Belleville West’s E.J. Liddell (32) reacts after

Peoria, Illinois in March of 2019. Liddell led

Photo by Worsom Robinson of the Chicago Sun-Times

SportS EyE

With Alvin A. Reid

Pujols’ return to St. Louis proves that time really does heal all wounds

Let’s go back to December 8, 2011. St. Louis Cardinals superstar Albert Pujols had just accepted a 10-year $254 million offer from the Anaheim Angels and Cardinal Nation sure didn’t like it.

Paul Russo, who owned four Pro Image stores in the St. Louis, decided to give away all his chain’s Pujols merchandise.

“It’s not about the money, just like Albert said,” Russo told the Post-Dispatch. “Except he lied, and we didn’t.”

Online entrepreneur Mark Feltman was selling shirts for $14.99 that read “Albert Pujols is the greediest man on Earth.”

best moments of my career,”

Pujols said. “I’m going to put it up there with the two World Series championships.”

Pujols and catcher Yadier Molina exchanged autographed jerseys they wore in Sunday night’s finale, and he had kind words for his longtime friend.

“It’s something that’s going to be in my trophy case.

“I don’t plan to make any money on this, but I want to make a point,” he said.

Pujols 5 restaurant in Westport felt compelled to post a guard at the Pujols statue that stood outside the establishment.

Former Gov. Jay Nixon even took a shot at Pujols, saying he was “disappointed that (Pujols) decided to take the dollars and head to California.”

While some fans defended Pujols’ decision, the overwhelming majority of comments, social media posts and media responses oozed with resentment and bitterness toward the St. Louis icon.

Almost eight years later, Pujols returned for his first series against the Cardinals since his departure.

He was not greeted with wrath. Instead he received lengthy standing ovations before every at-bat. He was moved to tears several times. It was a lovefest.

“This is probably one of the

To see the man that (Molina) has become, the leader, the champion. I can close my eyes right now and remember him, this little boy walking into Cardinals’ camp. The man that he has become is unbelievable.”

The visit also put some pep in the old slugger’s step. Pujols went 4-for-11 with a home run in the series. It wasn’t vintage Pujols, but he also didn’t look like the shadow of a superstar he has become.

The Cardinals got the better of the decision when Pujols chose the Angels. Injuries and Father Time quickly took over his career.

But the Angels did get Pujols’ 3000th hit and his 500th and 600th home runs.

He has two years left on his contract with the Angels, and he should retire after that.

But, mark my words, barring a major injury between now and Spring Training 2022, Pujols will rejoin the Cardinals for a final season and then work for the organization in some capacity.

Roberts rules of order

Dave Roberts, the lone black manager in Major League Baseball, told the L.A. Watts Times that the absence of black players and black fans must be addressed immediately.

“If you look at the overall numbers of African Americans in baseball, even since when I first got into the big leagues, its tumbled considerably. It’s unfortunate. I think that a lot of young African American kids in the inner-city are gravitating towards football and basketball. The role models in baseball are starting to be less and less,” he said.

“So, now, as an African American kid, to look at somebody and to relate to them and aspire to be them, those are harder to come by. So, as a sport, with Commissioner [Robert Manfred], I serve on the diversity committee and I am proud of that. We are trying to create opportunities for minorities and African Americans in baseball as athletes as players, in front office coaching and all these different scouts.”

Roberts’ comments come on the heels of a black pitcher,

the New York Yankees CC Sabathia, recording his 250th win last week – something that MLB might not see for generations.

“Being an African American pitcher being from…the inner city, wanting this game to grow again back in the inner city,” Sabathia said after his historic win.

“Having the chance to put up these numbers, and see some of these kids know that I’m from where they’re from and love this game of baseball.”

Sabathia trails only Ferguson Jenkins (283) and Bob Gibson (251) in the category “wins by black pitchers.” Ferguson hails from Canada, by the way.

In an outstanding article entitled “CC Sabathia: The last black ace?” by Bradford William Davis of the New York Daily News, the author wonders when, and if, there will be another great black pitcher.

“Sabathia’s win total is a testament to his excellence, especially as reductions in starter workloads across the league make win totals approaching his increasingly rare. However, for African American pitchers, these moments aren’t just rare — they’ve vanished. It’s too generous to say CC’s a dying breed. No, the breed died, and he’s what’s left,” Davis wrote.

“It casts a melancholy light

onto celebration of Sabathia, who may be the last black American hurler reach a round number of that size for a very long time. The next best hope is 33-year-old Red Sox starter David Price, who is second among African American stars with 147 wins.

“The odds of finding another contender are long for two reasons: the modernizing on-field game that does not deploy starting pitchers the same way it used to — or sometimes at all — and the regressive culture of the game that has contributed to sharply declining rates of black youth participation in baseball.”

As shared here last week, The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports annual report card on diversity said MLB is still dragging its feet when it comes to black participation on and off the field.

Black player participation has dropped from 18.7 percent in 1981 to under 8 percent today. Since, historically, the fewest number of black players have lined up as pitchers and catchers, it’s clear Sabathia certainly might be the game’s “last black ace” for decades to come.

The Reid Roundup

First and foremost, please say a prayer for the family

of slain North County Police Cooperative officer Michael Langsdorf … Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott and the Mathews-Dickey Boys and Girls Club will host a free two-session football camp from 8 a.m.-noon and noon- 4 p.m. Saturday June 29 at James “Cool Papa” Bell Stadium, 4442 Geraldine. More than 350 young athletes in each session will work on football skills, eat a meal with Elliott and receive an auto-

for standing with his black players when they threatened to boycott a game in support of fellow black students during the 2015 season. He deserves better … Washington Wizards All-Star guard Bradley Beal said Monday that coach Scott Brooks, acting general manager Tommy Sheppard and owner Ted Leonsis have told him the team has no plans to trade him. The same was said of Otto Porter last season and he was traded a few weeks later … Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum will be sporting Michael Jordan-brand shoes after dropping NIKE and signing a multi-year deal with Jordan. Terms have not been disclosed as of Tuesday. Alvin A. Reid was honored as the 2017 “Best Sports Columnist – Weeklies” in the Missouri Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest and is a New York Times contributor. He is a panelist on the Nine Network program, Donnybrook, a weekly contributor to “The Charlie Tuna Show” on KFNS and appears monthly on “The Dave Glover Show” on 97.1 Talk.” Reach him on Twitter at @aareid1.

Alvin A. Reid

Yadier Molina embraces Albert Pujols before his first at-bat in St. Louis since 2011 on Friday night.

Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI

CLUTCH

Continued from B3 between Smith and LaVar Ball.

“LaVar, can I switch gears with you…’cause I have a question here?” Querim asked, intending to redirect the discussion.

“You can switch gears with me anytime,” LaVar Ball immediately responded. “Go ahead.”

The camera was focused solely on Qerim during LaVar Ball’s response. She clearly interpreted the reply as sexual innuendo. Her reaction was one of discomfort. She took a moment to ensure that she kept her composure before saying, “Let’s stay focused here.”

When the camera cut back to LaVar Ball, Smith and Kellerman, Mr. BBB sat straight-faced in between the two clearly confused commentators.

Upon my initial review of the incident, I felt that LaVar Ball’s comment was inappropriate. In the moment, especially with the visual reactions from everybody on set, it appeared that he was being flirtatious.

ESPN later demanded an apology. When LaVar Ball refused, the network announced that he would no longer appear on its platforms. In my mind, it was LaVar being LaVar and long overdue for him to be taken out of the spotlight.

Later, a woman – a black woman – asked me what I thought of the incident. When I happily threw LaVar Ball under the bus, she asked me

TRACK

Continued from B3

Girls Basketball: Marissa Warren (Incarnate Word) – Talented guard who led the Red Knights to the Class 4 state championship. She has

what exactly he said or did that should have been interpreted as inappropriate. She challenged me to go back and watch the video again.

Upon further review, there’s a great case that LaVar Ball’s comment was completely innocent and misinterpreted. The man who is known for shucking and jiving for the cameras was undoubtedly straight-faced and attentive during the interaction.

There was no mack daddy smile; no LL Cool J licking of the lips; No “wink, wink.”

While the three ESPN commentators shared flabbergasted

signed with DePaul.

Wrestling: Jacob Bullock (Cahokia) – Senior standout who finished with a 34-0 record and the Illinois Class 2A state championship. He signed with Old Dominion.

Boys Track: Justin Robinson (Hazelwood West)

expressions, LaVar looked, well, normal.

Furthermore, he used Qerim’s own words in his response.

“Can I switch gears with you?”

“You can switch gears with me anytime.”

Women should always be free of harassment and sexual advances, especially in the workplace. I stopped listening to R. Kelly long before the docuseries aired. I advocated for locking Bill Cosby up as others defended him with ridiculous conspiracy theories. I support women. I believe

All-American sprinter who led the Wildcats to the Class 5 state championship. Robinson is one of the best 400-meter dash performers in the world in his age group.

Girls Track: Alicia Burnett (Parkway North) –Standout sprinter who led the Vikings to the Class 4 state

Giannis Antetokounmpo won the 2019 NBA MVP Award. The Greek Freak gave a tearful and heartfelt speech at the awards ceremony.

Lonzo Ball is now in small market New Orleans, where Zion Williamson will eat up all the airwaves. LeBron James and Anthony Davis are more than enough star power to keep the headlines pumping in Los Angeles. ESPN simply no longer needs LaVar Ball.

International takeover

women.

However, it’s hard to wonder if this whole incident is a simple misunderstanding – a misunderstanding that reinforces the idea that black men are dangerous predators. As annoying as LaVar Ball has been, he hasn’t shown a history of being a creep. An egomaniac? Absolutely. A chauvinist? Probably.

For the record though, LaVar Ball denied the accusations of inappropriateness.

“I don’t even have to respond to that on the fact that I meant no sexual intent,” LaVar Ball told BallisLife.com.

championship. Burnett won three gold medals at the state meet.

Boys Tennis: Chase Nwanu (MICDS) – Junior standout who finished in fourth place at the Class 1 state championships.

Baseball: Nick Moten

“‘Switch gears’ means change topics to me. Her mind is in the gutter if she’s thinking something else.”

Yet to have ESPN effectively ban Ball from the airwaves makes you wonder. The network has no qualms about interviewing Ben Roethlisberger, despite numerous sexual assault allegations over his career. ESPN also did not take issue with Rob Gronkowski twerking on former ESPN personality

Jemele Hill I believe the real reason ESPN is no longer in the LaVar Ball business is simple.

(Westminster Christian) –Sophomore pitcher who had a 9-2 record and helped the Wildcats to a second-place finish in the Class 4 state tournament.

The NBA award show has come and gone. The big news is that Giannis Antetokounmpo earned his first NBA MVP Award. While James Harden had a tremendous season, the voters made the right pick by choosing the Greek Freak as the top player in the league. Antetokounmpo gave a tearful and heartfelt acceptance speech. It was somewhat of a surprise to see the international players dominate the awards. In addition to Antetokounmpo (who hails from Greece), four of the five top players awards went to international players. Dallas’ Luka Dončić (Slovenia) was named Rookie of the Year. Utah’s Rudy Gobert (France) was named Defensive Player of the Year. Meanwhile Toronto’s Pascal Siakam (Cameroon) earned Most Improved Player. The only player award earned by an American was Sixth Man of the Year, which went to the Clippers’ Lou Williams There can be no debate as to whether basketball has truly become a global sport. Congratulations to all the winners. Be sure to check In the Clutch online and also follow Ishmael on Twitter @ishcreates.

Girls Soccer: Aaliyah Brown (University City) –Big-time offensive player who scored 47 goals and had 15 assists for the Lions.

Boys Volleyball: Donovan Parker (St. Mary’s) – AllConference performer who was among the area’s leaders with 215 kills.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) named Justine Petersen the SBA Micro Lender of the Year for 2019 at The Lender Awards Luncheon for this year’s SBA Small Business Week of Eastern Missouri. Having closed thousands of SBA small business microloans in the district over the last 20 years, Justine Petersen has deployed millions of SBA dollars to small businesses in need. Justine Petersen provides credit building and financial education, homeownership preparation and retention, and micro-enterprise lending and training. The micro lender said it is indebted to SBA St. Louis District Director Maureen Brinkley (center, in red dress), who nurtured this program with Justine Petersen over 20 years ago and is still serving the SBA and the St. Louis small business community. For more information, visit https://www.justinepetersen.org/ or call 314-533-2411.

INVEST

continued from page B1

local construction companies, city departments and neighborhood volunteers — plans to tear down abandoned buildings.

Kathy Osborn, CEO of the council, said they will also clean up debris, mow grass and install new park benches. She said the new funding will specifically go toward

improving neighborhoods in the high-crime area known as “Hayden’s rectangle,” which is roughly bordered by Goodfellow Boulevard, West Florissant Avenue, Vandeventer Avenue and Dr. Martin Luther King Drive.

“What we’re really trying to say is, with some investment and work and the right kind of law enforcement, ‘Can we make a difference in the trajectory in that community?’ And we’re already seeing that happening,” Osborn said.

The city has a modest budget to improve neighborhood appearances, she said, which makes private funding for this program critical.

“We found that the people in the neighborhood are starting to feel like they can come out of their homes; they’re taking some pride,” she said. “They’re taking back their neighborhoods.”

Reprinted with permission from https://news. stlpublicradio.org.

Financial Focus

By Aaron Ezell

Justine Petersen named SBA 2019 Micro Lender of the Year

Bold work, black voices

Trap Soul & Paint turns one

n Trap Soul & Paint will host their One Year Anniversary Edition from 5 p.m. – 9 p.m. on Sunday, June 30 at The House of Soul (1204 Washington Ave.)

“I’m just so humbled and grateful for all of the support over these past 13 years,” Stevenson said. She was giving a nod to the people who have stayed tuned into the brand she created along with Angela Brown and Rochelle “Coco Soul” Walker (who parted with Café Soul some years back and has since relocated to Atlanta) as a traveling open mic and concert series. “The Café Soul crowd has been with us since the beginning. We are so grateful to them, but we are thankful for everybody who has come on board for Trap Soul & Paint. And we try to make sure to try to give people something that makes them want to keep coming back.” Trap Soul & Paint takes the concept of sip and paint and turns it up about five notches. Visual artist instructor Lauren guides participants through the creation of their own piece of art, while

n The goal is to foster the creative spark that lies at the heart of both hip-hop and architecture – and explore ways that one discipline can influence the other.

Photo by Kara Hayes Smith

By Kenya Vaughn Of The St. Louis

By Kenya Vaughn Of

St.

Rising opera star Julia Bullock as Destiny in the world premiere of ‘Fire Shut Up in My Bones.’

Photo by Camille Mahs

How to place a calendar listing

1. Email your listing to calendar@stlamerican. com OR

2. Visit the calendar section on stlamerican.com and place your listing

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

concerts

Sat., June 29, 7 p.m., An Evening with Melba Moore With special guest Lamont Hadley Sr. 3648 Washington Blvd., 63108. For more information, visit www. metrotix.com.

Wed., July 3, 7 p.m., Atomic Cowboy presents Robert Randolph and the Family Band. 41410 Manchester Ave., 63110. For more information, visit www.ticketmaster.com.

Fri., July 12, 7 p.m., Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre presents Santana: Natural Now. 14141 Riverport Dr,, 63043. For more information, visit www. ticketmaster.com.

Sat., July 13, 7:30 p.m., 95.5 The Lou presents The Tom Joyner One More Time Experience feat. Tom Joyner, KEM, and Maze feat. Frankie Beverly. Chaifetz Arena, 1 S. Compton Ave. For more information, visit www. thechaifetzarena.com.

Fri., July 12, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., Jazz St. Louis presents Carlos Brown, Jr. & Ingenuity. Jazz at the Bistro, 3536 Washington Ave., 63103. For more information, visit www.jazzstl.org.

Mon., July 15, 7 p.m., The Ready Room presents Devin the Dude. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave., 63110. For more information, visit www.thereadyroom.com.

Sun., July 21, 6 p.m., Fox Sports Midwest Live presents Bone Thugs-N-Harmony ft. Dirty Muggs. 601 Clark Ave., 63102. For more information, visit www.eventbrite.com.

Sun., July 21, 7:30 p.m., Stifel Theatre presents Earth, Wind & Fire. 1400 Market St., 63103. For more information, visit www. ticketmaster.com.

local gigs

Thur., June 27, 8 p.m., Old Rock House presents Southern Avenue. 1200 S. 7th St., 63104. For more information, visit www. metrotix.com.

June 28 – 29, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., Denise Thimes Sings Carmen McRae. Jazz at the Bistro, 3536 Washington Ave., 63103. For more information, visit www.jazzstl.org.

Sun., June 30, 4 p.m., National Blues Museum presents Soulful Sunday with Carolyn Mason. 615 Washington Ave., 63101. For more information, visit www. nationalbluesmuseum.org.

Sun., June 30, 5:30 p.m., Allusion Entertainment Productions presents The Drew Project: Urban Jazz – Rumble on the Drums The Ambassador, 9800 Halls Ferry Rd., 63136. For more information, visit www. eventbrite.com.

Tues., July 9, 7:30 p.m., Gaslight Jazz Series with Lamar Harris. The Gaslight Theater, 358 N. Boyle Ave., 63108. For more information, visit www.stlas.org.

Sat., July 13, Atomic Cowboy presents Kim Massie: Steely Dan Tribute. 41410 Manchester Ave., 63110. For more information, visit www. ticketmaster.com.

Sat., July 20, 7 p.m., Masters Touch Summer Concert The Ambassador, 9800 Halls Ferry Rd., 63136. For more information, visit www. thenewambassadorstl.com.

special events

Thur., June 27, 5 p.m., Show-Me Downtown: An Evening in Blue. A concert,

Kenya Vaughn recommends

food stations, live painting, and more in celebration of the growth of downtown St. Louis. Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market St., 63103. For more information, visit www. eventbrite.com.

Thur., June 27, 6 p.m., Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District Rate Commission Public Hearing. An opportunity to give feedback on the MSD Wastewater Rate Proposal. Maryland Heights Community Center, 9700 2300 McKelvey Rd., 63123. For more information, visit www. stlmsd.com.

Fri., June 28, 9 a.m., St. Louis Public Schools Interview Day. Hiring for nurses, custodians, safety officers, substitutes, instructional care aides, early childhood education teaching aides and childcare attendants. For more information, visit www.slps.org/jobs.

June 28 – 29, 9 a.m., Mud Mania at Queeny Park. Slither and slide, crawl and climb through mud pit obstacle course. 550 Wiedman Rd., 63011. For more information, visit www.stlouisco.com/ Parks-and-Recreation.

Sat., June 29, 9 a.m., The Great Inflatable Race

Participate in inflatable obstacle course, visit inflatable village, and raise money for charity. Forest Park, 5595 Grand Dr., 63112. For more information, visit www. thegreatinflatablerace.com.

Sat., June 29, 9 a.m., Show Me Care Bags invites you to Women’s Expo St. Louis Kirkwood Community Center, 101 S. Geyer Rd., 63122. For more information, visit www. facebook.com.

Sat., June 29, 10 a.m., Emmanuel Temple Women’s Department invites you to a Summertime Bazaar. Food, fun, fellowship, and shopping. 4395 Union Blvd. (upper lot), 63115. For more information, call (314) 598-8187,

Sat., June 29, 11 a.m., Wellston Community Coalition and Young Voices with Action, Inc. present the 4th Annual Black Wallstreet Festival. Wellston Loop, Dr. Martin Luther King Dr. & Hodiamont Ave., 63112. For more information, visit www. youngvoiceswithaction.org.

Sat., June 29, 1 p.m., Black Girls Hustle Harder’s 2nd Annual Summer Block Party. There will be music, inflatables, face painting, vendors, and more. 1400

Fair St. Louis 2019 featuring performances by Keith Sweat and Johnny Gill. See SPECIAL EVENTS for details.

St. Louis Ave., 63106. For more information, visit www. eventbrite.com.

Sun., June 30, 8 a.m., 10th Annual STL Pride 5K/10K. Tower Grove Park, 4256 Magnolia Ave., 63110. For more information, visit www. racesonline.com.

Sun., June 30, 5 p.m., Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., St. Louis Metropolitan Alumnae Chapter and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., Nu Chi Chapter present the Annual STL Alumni Greek Step Show. Ballpark Village, 601 Clark Ave., 63102. For more information, visit www.eventbrite.com.

Thur., July 4, 5 p.m., Kinloch Fire Protection District 4th of July Fireworks. Dunk tank, bounce house, become an honorary firefighter, and more. Kinloch Park, 5541 Mable Ave., 63140. For more information, visit www.facebook.com.

July 4 – July 6, Fair St. Louis 2019 featuring performances by Johnny Gill and Keith Sweat. Gateway Arch National Park. For more information, visit https://www. fairsaintlouis.org/

Sat., July 6, 12 p.m., Show Me Kicks Expo 2019. The premier buy, sale, and trade sneaker expo. Old Post Office, 815 Olive St., 63101. For more information, visit www. eventbrite.com.

Sat., July 20, 12 p.m., Frizz Fest 2019: To Encourage Self-Love and Inspire Confidence Among Women. Vendors, food trucks, performances, activities, giveaways, and more. Tower Grove Park, 4256 Magnolia Ave., 63110. For more information, visit www. eventbrite.com.

literary

Sun., June 30, 6 p.m., Books N Bros celebrates Black Excellence in Literacy. Hosted by Dr. Marty K. Casey Innovation Hall, 4220

Duncan Ave., 63110. For more information, visit www. facebook.com.

Sun., June 30, 7:30 p.m., Poetic Justice Open Mic Kranzberg Arts Center, 501 N. Grand Blvd., 63103. For more information, visit www. metrotix.com.

July 19 – 23, 41 st Annual YMCA Book Fair. The largest single fundraising event for the Gateway Region YMCA. Greensfelder Recreation Center, Queeny Park, 550 Weidman Rd., 63011. For more information, visit www.ymcabookfair.org.

Thur., June 27, 6:30 p.m., Contemporary Art Museum presents Artist Talk: Paul Mpagi Sepuya. Sepuya challenges the history of photography and deconstructs traditional portraiture. 3750 Washington Blvd., 63108. For more information, visit www. camstl.org.

Sat., July 13, 10 a.m., Pulitzer Arts Foundation presents a Family Day Block Party. Families are invited to take part in free art activities. Designed for ages 3 – 12. Grand Center Arts District, 3716 Washington Blvd., 63108. For more information, visit www.pulitzerarts.org.

June 27 – 29,

and Chico Bean. Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market St., 63103. For more information, visit www.ticketmaster.com. July 5 – 6, Helium Comedy Club presents The Plastic Cup Boyz. 1151 St. Louis Galleria St., 63117. For more information, visit www. heliumcomedy.com.

Sun., July 7, 7 p.m., NMotion Ent. & TNT Ent. present the Last Laugh Comedy Tour. Feat. Dyon Brooks & Timothy Wilson. The Laugh Lounge, 11208 W. Florissant Ave., 63033. For more information, visit www. eventbrite.com.

Thur., July 11, 8 p.m., Smart, Funny & Black with Amanda Seales: U Kno the Vibeonics: 101. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., 63112. For more information, visit www. ticketmaster.com.

theatre

Sat., June 29, 7:30 p.m., YourWords STL presents This Is Me: Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow. A live theatrical performance of the writing of the residents of Marygrove Children’s Home. Innovation Hall, 4220 Duncan Ave., 63110. For more information, visit www.eventbrite.com.

Through June 30, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Jazz St. Louis presents the world premiere of “Fire Shut

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

Up In My Bones.” Loretto Hilton, 130 Edgar Rd. For more information, visit www. opera-stl.org or call (314) 9610644.

July 5 – 14, St. Louis Actors Studio presents Labute New Theater Festival. Set One includes: Great Negro Works of Art, Color Timer, Privilege, and Kim Jong Rosemary. The Gaslight Theater, 358 N. Boyle Ave., 63108. For more information, visit www.stlas.

org.

July 8 – 16, The Muny presents Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. 1 Theatre Dr., 63112. For more information, visit www.muny. org.

July 11 & 20, Encore Theater Group presents A Raisin in the Sun. Fellowship STL, 3453 S. Jefferson Ave., 63118. For more information, visit www.eventbrite.com.

July 12 – 14, Independent Theater Company presents For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf. The Theatre Guild of Webster Groves, 517 Theatre Ln., 63119. For more information, visit www.brownpapertickets. com.

lectures and workshops

Wed., July 3, 2 p.m., Washington University Libraries presents Stories of Independence. Event includes a talk about the Declaration of Independence, reading of Frederick Douglass’ speech, and more. Olin Library, One Brookings Dr., 63130. For more information, visit www. library.wustl.edu.

Tues., July 9, 1:30 p.m., The Secret of Happiness. Hear from Tim Bono about the scientific study of “the good life” and strategies for life satisfaction based on research in positive psychology. Center

Kenya Vaughn recommends

of Clayton, 50 Gay Ave., 63105. For more information, visit www.stloasis.org.

Thur., July 11, 5:30 p.m., Focus St. Louis presents Equity in City/County Reform. Missouri History Museum, 5700 Lindell Blvd., 63112. For more information, visit www.focus-stl.org.

Sat., July 13, 11 a.m., Queen Key Escapes hosts Human Trafficking Awareness and Vendor Fair. Keynote speaker Dr. Shante Lampley, performances, and testimonies. Club Diamond, 3156 Pershall Rd., 63136. For more information, visit www. eventbrite.com.

Sat., July 13, 1 p.m., St. Louis Area Violence Prevention Commission presents Conversations on the Future of Community Policing in St. Louis. St. Louis Public Library, 5760 W. Florissant Ave., 63120. For more information, visit www. slpl.org.

health

Tues., July 9, 6:30 p.m., How Does Henrietta Lacks Apply to Me? A Discussion on Key Ethical Considerations of Precision Medicine. St. Louis Science Center, 5050 Oakland Ave., 63110. For more information, visit www. academyofsciencestl.org.

Sat., July 13, 10:30 a.m., Transformation Christian Church & World Outreach Center hosts a Free Community Health Fair & Funfest. Eye exams, dental exams, carnival games, and more. 4141 Cook Ave., 63113. For more information, call (314) 535-1176.

spiritual

Sat., June 29, 11 a.m., Bethesda Temple Church Community Day. Guest choirs, gaming truck, resource providers, giveaways, kidz korner, and more. 5401 Bishop JA Johnson Ln., 63121. For more information, call (314) 382-5401.

Sun., June 30, 5 p.m., Fem FM Radio & United Christian Community Church present Gospel Showcase 2019. Gospel Vocalists, Christian Hip-Hop Artists, Praise Dancers, Poets and Comedians. Artist Art, 2643 Cherokee St., 63118. For more information, visit www. eventbrite.com.

Sun., July 7, 11 a.m. & 3 p.m., St. Michael’s Temple of the Expanded Mind’s 50th Anniversary Celebration. 6520 Arsenal St., 63139. For more information, visit www. facebook.com.

Sun., July 14, 10 a.m., Newstead Avenue Missionary Baptist Church’s 49th

Atomic Cowboy presents Robert Randolph and the Family Band. For more information, see CONCERTS.

Educational Anniversary. 4370 North Market St., 63113. For more information, call (314) 371-4436. July 15 – 19, Newstead Avenue Missionary Baptist Church invites you to Vacation Bible School. 4370 N. Market St., 63113. For more information, call (314) 3714436.

July 19 – 20, Ferguson Gospel Choral Workshop The Gospel Workshop will culminate in a Saturday evening performance highlighting the workshop choir. St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 33 N. Clay Ave., 63135. For more information, visit www.eventbrite.com.

Continued from C1

Saturday, June 15 and continues through June 30 with a handful of performances.

“Fire Shut Up In My Bones,” adapted from Blow’s memoir of the same name, explains the emotional turmoil of a boy as the opera describes “with a peculiar grace.” Born and raised in the small northern Louisiana town of Gibsland, Char’es-Baby is the youngest of Billie’s five sons – none of whom seem to have any interest in him tagging along in their lives. Noticeably bright, his intellect goes mostly uncultivated early in his life. There are more pressing matters –namely keeping a family of five growing boys fed, clothed and sheltered. His days are spent tending to the family land while in the care of Uncle Paul, his mother Billie’s brother. Most evenings he makes an unsuccessful bid for Billie’s undivided attention. Her love is apparent and unwavering, but she is either too exhausted or frustrated to actively engage. When her shift of plucking and chopping chickens at a nearby factory for an unlivable wage is over, the work of managing a household begins. She is fighting her own emotional battle with a husband who more often than not pays no mind to the covenant of their marriage or his responsibilities as a father. But Billie is committed to providing for her boys and making a better life for herself and setting an example for her sons to follow.

The complicated family dynamics leave 7-year-old Char’es-Baby vulnerable to be preyed upon by a family member. He swallows his childhood trauma and retreats inward, mainly because he feels like

TRAP

Continued from C1

DJ Climate is simultaneously on the turntables and DreCo is on the microphone hyping the crowd through spurts of dance breaks that somehow manage to wrap before the paint dries.

“The young people that run it do an excellent job,” Stevenson said. Instead of wine and small talk that results in a cute little painting that more than likely has no cultural significance, Trap Soul & Paint uses club music and encourages participants to take dance breaks as they create art with the common theme recognizing and honoring the black experience.

“We painted Nipsey,” Stevenson said. “When we had the issue with Gucci (calls to boycott the fashion brand were made because of a sweater inspired by racist depictions of African Americans) we painted

CAMP

Continued from C1

long events run around the country this summer by Hip

an afterthought or oversight in his family. “Fire Shut Up In My Bones” sees Charles as he faces the truth of his pain and attempts to reconcile with the parts of his seven year-old self he buried long ago as a method of survival.

While making appearances to promote the opera’s opening, Blanchard pointed out that “Fire Shut Up In My Bones” is the first opera with an entirely black cast since George Gershwin debuted “Porgy and Bess” in 1935. But with his second opera, Blanchard accomplishes a feat more compelling than giving black classical singers an opportunity to perform together on stage. In the telling of Charles’ story, Blanchard and Lemmons create space for a first person exploration of the black perspective, framed by uniquely black sensibilities and institutions. The

our own jacket and included all the brands of African American designers. We are just not painting frivolous things – they are things that instill pride and celebrate us.”

Colin Kaepernick, Michael Jackson and Black Panther were also among them.

The audience and the facilitators party together with guests, barely able to sit still as they stroke the canvases that are lined up in the venue with little room to spare. For the breakout twerk sessions that have become as much a part of the event as the painting, they step to the side in the space between where the painting happens and the vendors that feature African American businesses, from sunglasses to desserts and haircare.

“I’ve never witnessed anything like it before,” Stevenson said. “I think it it’s just so different – and so fun.” Stevenson is usually on site walking back and forth through the venue assisting wherever

Hop Architecture Camp, an organization based in Madison, Wisconsin. The concept of the camp came from Mike Ford –an architect who found a way to merge his two loves while seeking inspiration for a thesis

black church, a historically black college and even black nightlife is illustrated through a college party and a trip to an after-hours establishment –commonly referred to in North Louisiana as a “hole in the wall.”

Seeing a gospel choir, a Kappa Alpha Psi step performance, a group of Grambling State University students engage in a perfectly executed electric slide during an HBCU party and a troupe of modern dancers of color conjures up a sense of black pride. Meanwhile, driving home the point that the Blow family challenges stem from a lack of resources and opportunities and not the absence of love or sense of community can lend to perspective shifts toward universal understanding for traditional opera patrons. The talented cadre of per-

there is a need. There’s usually a huge smile on her face and she bops to the beat while going about the business of making sure all of the parts are moving at the new downtown venue she worked so hard to get open over the past several months.

“I just want people to get with St. Louis moving in a different direction and giving fresh ideas as far as entertainment and nightlife,” Stevenson said. “I love the support and we need that support to continue if we’re going to be able to keep bringing something different to our city. This is just the beginning of what we are trying to do at the House of Soul.”

Trap Soul & Paint One Year Anniversary Edition will take place from 5 p.m. – 9 p.m. on Sunday, June 30 at The House of Soul, 1204 Washington Ave. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit http:// trapsoulpaint.com/

while completing studies for his Master of Arts in Architecture from University of Detroit Mercy.

The goal is to foster the creative spark that lies at the heart of both hip-hop and architecture – and explore ways that one discipline can influence the other.

One of those students was Saskia Dentman, 13, who created a model of a five-story building she envisioned as a homeless shelter; it was complete with environmentally friendly elements such as a rooftop garden and glass ceilings to promote natural light. Stephen Watkins, 15, made an abstract sculpture that could be scaled up into a monument. It had a slanted top, with holes in the back.

Watkins explained the item’s origin story: It represented a man who was about to graduate from school but was shot in the back.

“He had gang ties in his past life, and it caught up to him,” he said. “But he was trying to make his life better. This is a representation of how people from places in poverty try to change their lives, but stuff catches up to them.”

Hip Hop Architecture Camp leans into the idea that any form of art is affected by

Karen Slack as Billie and Michael Redding as Uncle Paul with the young Blow brothers (L to R: Jayden Denis, Nathaniel Mahone, Najee Coleman, Rhadi Smith, and Jeremy Denis) in the world premiere of “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.

portrayal. Markel Reed makes the most of a minimal role with his performance of Charles’ cousin Chester. The same can be said of Michael Redding in the role of Uncle Paul. Like Reed and Redding, each member of the ensemble shines when given the spotlight in a myriad of roles.

formers entrusted with the story deliver with care and grace. Char’es-Baby is played by the gifted youngster Jeremy Denis with perfect pitch and precociousness. As Charles, Davone Tines is equally passionate and tortured.

Karen Slack’s endearing yet powerful presence as the opera’s matriarch is stunning to watch – particularly her ability to embody every nuance of the typical black mother and instantly transition into a rich, pure classical musical singing voice.

In helming the production, James Robinson had tasks that require skill, vision and creativity – particularly the nonlinear manner in which Charles and Char’es-Baby engaged with each other for the sake of healing. There was also the challenge of presenting the sensitive subject matter that is

at the root of Charles’ suffering. Both could have proved problematic for a director of lesser capacities. Julia Bullock lives up to her reputation as opera music’s next big star with her personification of Destiny and Loneliness. She is haunting and brilliant while justifying the purpose and intent of Lemmons’ decision to create a physical presence for the powerful forces that are never far from Charles as he attempts to work through the pain and confusion that are residuals of his childhood abuse.

Chaz’men Williams-Ali doesn’t have the bellowing vibrato or vocal charisma of a classical singer, but his voice has plenty of soul. He heaps on the charm necessary to convey Spinner Blow’s womanizing, smooth operator ways and connect audiences with his

Blanchard blends musical genres to lend to situations and timeline within the production – which further expressed the depth of blackness found within “Fire Shut Up In My Bones.” There were a few moments where the understated jazz and R&B instrumentation was drowned out by the big voices, but overall the genre-bending orchestrations were well-rewarded risks. From a production standpoint, Allen Moyer’s set closely resembled the shotgun houses with sun-bleached wood beyond the tall grass along Interstate 20. James Schuette’s costumes perfectly reflect the fashion of the early 1980s –early 1990s.

The storyline of “Fire Shut Up In My Bones” is a departure from the over-thetop death, drama and intrigue typically seen in non-comedic operas, but that’s not to say that the production is anti-climactic. Quite the opposite is true when considering the authentically told story gives space for resolution and healing – a right that many young black men are not afforded.

Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Jazz St. Louis’ presentation of Terence Blanchard’s world premiere “Fire Shut Up In My Bones” continues through June 30 at the Loretto-Hilton, 130 Edgar Rd. in Webster Groves. For additional information or to purchase tickets, visit www. opera-stl.org or call (314) 9610644.

the place where it is created. Hip-hop artists rap about their cities and neighborhoods. If those places are improved by more thoughtful urban design, the idea goes, the positivity could be reflected back again through the music.

“We see the correlation between hip-hop, social engineering, the environments that the youth are growing up in, the subject matter [of the music they listen to]. So, what better way to start to change things than to merge these different disciplines and show how they’re connected?” asked locally based music producer Alonzo “Zo” Lee. “The environments they see are affecting their life, and so is the message they hear in songs and in videos.”

Lee is one-half of the production team the Trak Starz, which produced hit albums and tracks for artists including Ludacris, Usher, Chingy and Britney Spears. More recently, Lee has led workshops on music-business basics and led songwriting workshops at Ferguson elementary schools. (Lee and producing partner Shamar Daugherty pleaded guilty in 2010 to federal charges of failing to file tax returns.)

“I think it’s good to use hip-hop as a way to pull the youth in because they’re very

interesting anyway. When that’s used as a tool to engage them, we can teach them other aspects of city planning, city development, what it means to be positive versus negative, and how things adversely affect our communities and how to make change,” he added.

Lee was there to lead a Q&A session about working in the music business and to help judge a rather friendly rap battle, in which the campers took turns delivering a short rap in front of the group.

Everyone gathered in a circle and rooted each other on. Campers who were a little bashful the first time around got a second chance to deliver their work with more gusto. There was a lot of encouragement to go around.

To help each performer catch hold of the beat, the group began each round by rapping in unison to a catchy hook that worked as an introduction to each piece: “I’m a witness, hear it in my rhymes / This is how we combine rap and design.”

A few winners were eventually selected to participate in a music video of their work that will be put together later in the year.

Kristen Sorth, St. Louis County Library’s director,

said that some campers were drawn to the camp by the architecture angle and others by the hip-hop part.

“By the end of the week, there’s definitely an interest in both,” she said. “It’s a very fun and interesting way to introduce architecture through the lens of hip-hop.”

The blend seemed to be working. Jenaye Ross, 14, said she’s always been interested in building things, and now she’s thinking of songwriting as a structure that gets built up. Her rap was about community building. One of the verses reflected that perspective.

“We gonna make better opportunities People like you and me, commit to the community We gotta have the love, the peace Crush the beef between me and my enemies.”

Saskia Dentman, who made the model for an environmentally friendly homeless shelter, said her time at Hip Hop Architecture Camp was already making an impact.

“I think, after this I want to be an architect now,” she said. “Designing is fun.”

Republished with permission of St. Louis Public Radio from news. stlouispublicradio.org.

A couple of the guests having fun during the Trap Soul & Paint of 2018 back in December. Trap Soul & Paint will host their One Year Anniversary Edition from 5 p.m. – 9 p.m. on Sunday, June 30 at The House of Soul (1204 Washington Ave.).

Photo by Eric Woolsey

Celebrations

Anniversaries

Happy Anniversary to DeMarco and Amber Farrar on July 1! I Love you both!

Love, your mom/mom-in-law, Donna

Reunions

Beaumont High School Class of 1969 will celebrate its 50-year reunion Sept 20-22, 2019 at Embassy Suites St. Charles. Come join us as we celebrate these golden years, “Living Life Like It’s Golden.” For more information contact Dennis Hayden 314 276-6188 or beaumontclassof1969@

Stanley and Nita Brooks will celebrate their 10th year of marriage on June 28, 2019. May God’s richest blessings continue to be upon us always!

yahoo.com or send your questions to P.O. Box 155, Florissant, MO 63032.

Beaumont Class of 1974 is planning its 45-year reunion for the weekend of July 26-28, 2019. To update us with your information please email us at ten55jw@yahoo.com, forward communications to Beaumont Alumni 1974, PO Box 37091, St. Louis MO 63141 or call James White, 314-494-5554. Details coming soon!

Beaumont High School Class of 1979 is planning its 40-year reunion. All activities are scheduled for the weekend of September 27-29. The location is The Airport Marriot at 10700 Pear

Tree Drive, St. Louis 63134. For more information, contact Milton Jackson at 314-2764392 or Yolanda Lockhart at lockhartyo08@gmail.com.

Kinloch Class of 1969 is planning its 50-year reunion, August 21-23. Dinner dance at Orlandos, 2050 Dorsett Village Plaza. For information call Ruben at 314-239-5202 or Ophelia at 314-280-6596. Classmates please respond by April 2019.

Northwest Class of 1979 is planning on cruising for our 40-year reunion and would love for you to join us! Date to sail is set for July 20, 2019 and you can feel free to contact: Duane Daniels at 314-568-

Milestone Birthdays

2057 or Howard Day at 414-698-4261 for further information. Please don’t miss the boat!

Parkway North Class of 1999 will celebrate its 20-year reunion on July 20 at 7 pm at the Fox Sports VIP Lounge at Ballpark Village. Cost is $60/person. For info contact Cyndi at Cyndi@ varsityreunion.com.

Soldan is having its 14th All-Class Alumni Picnic, August 17, 2019, at Tiemeyer Park, 3311 Ashby Rd., St. Ann, MO 63074 from 10 am-6 pm. Bring your own basket or grill out there. Food trucks will be present. T-Shirts are $15—

Mr. Dorr Morris celebrates his 100th birthday on June 27, 2019. Mr. Morris is a World War II veteran and was the first African American to operate a linen and towel supply company in the St. Louis metro area. Morris Linen & Towel Supply Company served the community for over 50 years. Happy Centennial Birthday!

Happy 90th Birthday to Rev. Dr. Louis T. Shelton, Pastor Emeritus of Union Tabernacle M. B. Church at 626 N. Newstead Avenue. He is a great man of God, full of much wisdom and love. Our church family salutes you on your 90th birthday on June 27th....and every day!

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:

get your grad year on your t-shirt before August 3, 2019. For more information call: (314) 413-9088.

Soldan Class of 1974 Alumni Association is planning its 45-year reunion. Please get your contact information to dhblackjack@charter.net or call 314-749-3803.

Sumner Class of 1969 50-year reunion “Living Life Like It’s Golden” June 28-30, 2019. Looking for classmates of 1969 to contact us with your updated information via address:sumnerclass1969@ gmail.com or our FB page: Sumner High.

Reunion notices are free of charge and

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

New Life in Christ celebrates education with scholarships

O’Fallon church now has awarded nearly $275K to high school grads

By Daphne Dorsey For The St. Louis American

New Life in Christ Interdenominational Church recently awarded scholarships totaling $22,000 to nine metro-area high school graduates during its 16th annual Celebration of Education Worship Service.

The Celebration of Education service recognizes New Life in Christ members who are graduating from high school, college and graduate school as well as those transitioning from elementary and middle school levels. More than 50 graduates and students were honored during the special mid-week service, including the church’s senior pastor, Bishop Geoffrey V. Dudley Sr. who received his second Ph.D.in May.

n More than 50 graduates and students were honored, including the church’s senior pastor, Bishop Geoffrey V. Dudley Sr. who received his second Ph.D.in May.

The New Life in Christ Scholarship program supports one of the church’s core values – a continued commitment to promote educational success. Any eligible high school graduate may apply for the scholarships. Since its inception 16 years ago in 2003, the program has provided nearly $275,000 in financial assistance.

“The need to finance education has not gone down, but up,” said Dudley. “Millennials are struggling under a mountain of debt for higher education, so if New Life can help in some small tangible way, we will continue to do so.”

Scholarship recipients are chosen based on their high academic achievement and their ability to demonstrate a love for serving others as well as their communities. All applicants submit written essays on specific topics provided by the church and are then interviewed by members of New Life’s scholarship committee. Those receiving the highest scores are awarded the scholarships which range from $500 to $5,000. The 2019 New Life in Christ Scholarship recipients are:

• Isaiah May, Belleville Township High School East, Bishop Geoffrey V. Dudley, Sr. Pastoral Scholarship of Excellence, $5,000, attending Lake College

• Taylor Jackson, Easts St. Louis Sr. High School, John H. McCants Hope Scholarship, $5,000, attending McKendree University

• Aly Keys, Mascoutah Community High School, Bishop Leamon & Ida Dorothy Dudley Memorial Scholarship, $2,500, attending Lindenwood University

• Gbemisola Fadeyi, Hazelwood East High School, Minister Sheila Renee Swygert Memorial Scholarship, $2,500, attending University of Missouri - Columbia

Aly Keys, Mascoutah Community High School; Taylor Jackson, East St. Louis Sr. High School; Gbemisola Fadeyi, Hazelwood East High School; Allison Dyer, Belleville Township High School East; Cameron Hodges, Mascoutah Community High School; Milani Richardson, O’Fallon Township High School; Abril Hunter, Governor French High School; Isaiah May, Belleville Township High School East and Bishop Geoffrey V. Dudley Sr., pastor, New Life in Christ Interdenominational Church.

• Cameryn Hodges, Mascoutah Community High School, NLICIC Life Changer Scholarship, $2,000, attending University of Illinois - Springfield

• Milani Richardson, O’Fallon Township High School, NLICIC Life Changer Scholarship, $2,000, attending Georgia Southern University

• Allison Dyer, Belleville Township High School East, NLICIC Life Changer Community Scholarship, $1,000, attending Villanova University

• Anthony McKnuckles, East St. Louis Sr. High School, NLICIC Project Graduation Scholarship, $500.00, school undecided

• Naudia Williams, East St. Louis Sr. High School, NLICIC Project Graduation Scholarship, $500.00, school undecided

• Abril Hunter, Governor French High School, Chyriell Drain Hill Scholarship, $1,000, attending Florida State University.

New Life in Christ Interdenominational Church, located at 689 Scott-Troy Rd. in O’Fallon, Illinois, was founded in 2003 and now has more than 2,000 regularly attending members.

The Message

What we mean when we say ‘set free’

Allow me to talk about freedom. The freedom I’m talking about is the freedom afforded you when you come to Christ. There is something quite liberating when you know or realize that you’ve been, as they say, set free.

Have you ever thought about what that really means? The word “release” comes to my mind. Others claim relief. However you want to characterize it, I think the revelation of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior removes the burdens and barriers, we, as human beings, place upon ourselves.

That’s why I believe when people come to Christ, they are overcome by a fresh perspective on life, an enlightened one, particularly when they look back over their own lives. Addictions are cured, feelings are healed, guilt is removed, and insecurities conquered when Christ enters the picture.

James Washington

When Christ enters your life, your fears are conquered. And we all have fears. I know I do, or did. It can be the fear of being alone, or of being ostracized, or humiliated, of being found out, not accepted or the fear of dying. The knowledge of Christ in all of these situations cancels those fears.

n I am who God made. If that’s good enough for God, then it surely is good enough for me.

That’s what I believe people mean when they say “set free.” That’s how I’ve come to understand real joy. In the context of the spiritual awareness of being bloodbought and saved, I have been set free from fear, anger, greed, selfishness and even personal self -doubt. These things have hopefully been replaced with integrity, strength of character, honesty, hope, truth, the promise of life everlasting and, above all, love. One of the hardest things to understand in this life and to do is to love yourself. God even commands us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Without Christ in your life, I believe that concept of self-love can be distorted and, in some cases, perverted. Love with humility is an awesome thing.

When love is set free within you, life takes on a whole new meaning. You no longer have to live in the shadows of pretense. Rather, you and I exist in the light of truth. I can be who I really am. I can strive to be who God made me to be and not what the world tries to make me. You can then show the world real you and not what you think the world needs to see.

I am who God made. If that’s good enough for God, then it surely is good enough for me and anyone who thinks they want to deal with me. I’m free, and it’s wonderful. Freedom is my gift from God, paid for by Jesus Christ His one and only Son. As such what you see of me is what you get, and I’m thrilled about it.

Photo by Anita Thomas

CITY OF PAGEDALE JOB ANNOUNCEMENTS

City of Pagedale is seeking an experienced City Clerk. Prior experience desired, Salary: OPEN. Send resume to City Clerk, 1420 Ferguson, Pagedale, Mo. 63133 or cityclerk@cityofpagedale.org. or Fax: 314-726-2604

No Phone Calls, please.

City of Pagedale is seeking an experienced Court Clerk. Prior experience desired, Salary: OPEN. Send resume to City Clerk, 1420 Ferguson, Pagedale, Mo. 63133 or cityclerk@cityofpagedale.org. or Fax: 314-726-2604

No Phone Calls, please.

City of Pagedale is seeking an experienced Building Inspector. Must be certified and licensed in St. Louis County. Send resume to City Clerk, 1420 Ferguson, Pagedale, Mo. 63133 or cityclerk@cityofpagedale.org. or Fax: 314-726-2604

No Phone Calls, please.

FULL TIME POLICE OFFICER

The City of Rock Hill is currently accepting applications for one (1) full-time Police Officer. All candidates must be Post Certified and hold a Class A license. Starting pay is $40,718 per year, based on 2184 hours worked. The City provides a full, competitive benefit package. Applications can be picked up at the Rock Hill Police Department, 827 N Rock Hill Rd., Rock Hill, MO 63119 or the City website under POLICE at www.rockhillmo.net. Completed applications can be returned in person to the above address, mailed to the above address, or emailed to mharries@stljg.org. The deadline for applications is July 15, 2019 at 5:00 p.m. Applications will be processed as soon as they are received. The Rock Hill Police Department is an equal opportunity employer.

VARSITYTRACK COACH

Incarnate WordAcademy is a college preparatory high school that strives to challenge young women of faith to achieve their God-given potential academically, physically, spiritually and emotionally, thereby empowering themselves and others to make a positive impact on our world. The school is a sponsored ministry of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word. Incarnate WordAcademy is seeking applicants for the following positions for the 2019-20 school year:

Varsity Soccer Coach

Varsity Track Coach

Qualified candidates should send a resume to Dan Rolfes,Athletic Director, at: drolfes@iwacademy.org Applications will be accepted until July 14, 2019. Electronic submissions only. AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

RESEARCH AND EVALUATION ANALYST

ARCHS, a highly respected not-for-profit funding agency, is seeking a full-time Research and Evaluation Analyst with a dynamic data informed approach to grant management and measurement. This position is responsible for supporting an effective system that monitors the progress, impacts, and successes of ARCHS’ 30 funded initiatives. Candidates must demonstrate exemplary technical skills related to logic models, qualitative and quantitative research/analysis, data management/analysis, scorecards, field observation, info graphics, and report writing. Requirements: Minimum of bachelor’s degree, master’s degree (MBA) a plus; 5+ year experience; documented portfolio of evaluation/research; highly organized; deadline focused; outgoing; inquisitive; a strong coach, writer, and editor. ARCHS’ benefit package includes a 401(k) match. Be prepared to provide examples of work upon request. EMAIL initial letter of application and resume by July 12 to careers@stlarchs.org or FAX to ARCHS’ HR, 314-289-5670. No phone calls please. EOE

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT POSITIONS

St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC) has a number of exciting economic development positions. To apply online and see full job descriptions go to: http:// www.stlouis-mo.gov/sldc/ and click on “Careers at SLDC.”

SLDC is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity.

FAMILY SERVICES COORDINATOR

AAS degree or higher in Social Work, Human Services, Family Studies, or a related field. Minimum of nine (9) college credit hours in early childhood related courses; or current CDA credential a plus. Please reply to Center Manager Linda Davis at (314) 679-5440.

PRICING ACTUARY

Perform pricing analyses for Loss Portfolio Transfers (LPT) and support pricing initiatives. To apply, please visit:

https://www.safetynational. com/careers-page/

MISSOURI HISTORICAL SOCIETY NEW OPENINGS!

The Missouri Historical Society has position openings for the following:

• Assistant Media Archivist

• K-12 Programs Coordinator

• Production Technician

• Soldiers Memorial Military Museum Education and Visitor Experience Interpreter

Please visit www.mohistory.org under the “Current Openings” tab for position details and to apply.

An Equal Opportunity Employer

MD or frgn equiv. req’d. Mail Resume & Cvr. Ltr to 5000 Cedar Plaza Parkway, St. Louis, MO 63128.

ASSISTANT MANAGER, CIRCULATION

The St. Louis County Library is seeking applicants for a full time Assistant Manager, Circulation at the Lewis & Clark Branch. This position will assist the Branch Manager with the operation and maintenance of the branch to provide quality Library services to all Library customers. A Bachelor’s degree is required. Must possess excellent communication and organizational skills. Salary: $53,810 plus paid health insurance and vacation. Apply online at www.slcl.org. Equal Opportunity Employer.

JUSTICE ORGANIZER WANTED

To staff the Missouri HIV Justice Coalition and serve as the main conduit to community groups, advocates, and other supporters of modernizing Missouri’s outdated laws regarding HIV. A strong commitment to social justice and experience working with marginalized populations – such as people living with low incomes, people living with HIV (PLHIV), People of Color (POC), and or Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender & Queer (LGBTQ) communities. Please send resume and cover letter to jobs@empowermissouri.org

ARE YOU AN ANOINTED MUSICIAN? SOMEONE WHO PLAYS FOR THE GLORY OF GOD?

*****************

Small but Mighty St. Louis Church has an immediate opening for a Pianist/Minister of Music to lead its 15 member gospel choir. Contact Bruce Fleming for details at 314-398-3932.

DOING BUSINESS WITH THE U.S. NAVY & MARINE CORPS

As part of St. Louis Navy Week, Mr. Jimmy Smith, Director, Department of the Navy’s Office of Small Business Programs, in partnership with the Missouri Procurement Technical Assistant Centers, will conduct a small business workshop on September 5th at Grant’s View St. Louis Public Library. This small business workshop is designed to educate small businesses on how to do business with the Navy and Marine Corps. The workshop will also cover how to find out about upcoming contracting opportunities and how small businesses can contribute to the warfighter mission.

Location: Saint Louis Public Library Grant’s View 9700 Musick Ave. St. Louis, MO 63123

Date & Time: Thursday, September 5th from 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM CT Cost: FREE Registration: bit.ly/ptacnavysep5

Contacts: Elaine Palangpour, (573) 882-8058 Missouri PTAC: http://www.missouribusiness.net/ptac This procurement technical assistance center is funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the Defense Logistics Agency.

Responsible for claims payment funds for primary workers’ compensation. To apply, please visit: https://www.safetynational. com/careers-page/

MWBE PreBid Meeting Notice

The SITE Improvement Association is hosting a Prebid meeting for Qualified and Certified MWBE contractors to discuss working on St. Louis County’s Chesterfield Airport Road Project Project No. AR-1740

This meeting is being held on behalf of the following SITE contractor members:

J.M. Marschuetz Construction Co. 15 Truitt Drive, Eureka, MO 63025 636/938-3600

Krupp Construction, Inc. 415 Old State Rd., Ellisville, MO 63021 636/391-8844

Pace Construction Company 1620 Woodson Rd., St. Louis, MO 63114 314/524-7223

N.B. West Contracting Company, Inc. 2780 Mary Ave., St. Louis, MO 63144 314/962-3145

The meeting will take place at 10:00 a.m. Tuesday, July 2, 2019 St. Vincent Community Center 7335 St Charles Rock Road, St. Louis, MO 63133

Project plans are available from St Louis County. For questions regarding this prebid meeting, contact SITE Improvement Association at 314/966-2950.

PUBLIC NOTICE OF CLOSURE

The Avalon Hospice Missouri, LLC d/b/a Avalon Hospice agency located at 5615 Pershing Avenue, Suite 20, St. Louis, MO 63112, announces its closure and will no longer participate in the Medicare program (Title XVIII of the Social Security Act) effective July 12, 2019. We will continue to serve this area through an affiliate provider.

The agreement between Avalon Hospice Missouri, LLC d/b/a Avalon Hospice and the Secretary of Health and Human Services has terminated on July 12, 2019 in accordance with the provisions of the Social Security Act.

The Medicare program will make no payment for patients whose plan of care that began on or after the date of closure. For patients whose plans of care began prior to the closure effective date, payment to the agency can be made for services furnished up to 30 days following the effective date of closure.

We would like to thank our staff, physicians and community for their trust and support.

Missouri Historical Society Request for Proposal

The Missouri Historical Society Press, a not-for-profit publisher, is creating a children’s book entitled Ruth’s River Dreams. We are seeking a graphic designer to lay out the book and design the cover.

For details, please use the following link: https:// mohistory.org/about/ requests-for-proposal

Submission Deadline: July 7, 2019

ST. LOUIS COMMUNITY COLLEGE

St. Louis Community College will receive separate sealed bids for Contract No. F 20 101, Renovations for Truck Driving Program, St. Louis Community College at Highland Park, until 2:00 p.m. local time, Tuesday, July 16, 2019. Bids will be publicly opened and read aloud at the office of the Manager of Engineering and Design, 5464 Highland Park Drive (Plan Room). Specifications and bid forms may be obtained from the Manager’s office, at the above address or by calling (314) 644-9770.

Mandatory Pre-bid Meeting: July 8, 2019 9:00 a.m., 5460 Highland Park Drive, St. Louis, MO 63110

An Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer

Public Notice of Single Source Procurement

Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is proposing to procure: NETZSCH PUMPS AND PARTS. The District is proposing single source procurement for these parts because RESSLER & ASSOCIATES INC is the only known available source. Any inquiries should be sent to gjamison@stlmsd.com.

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

NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS

Notice is hereby given that The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (District) will receive sealed bids for Hunters Way #16041 Sanitary Sewer Repair (IR) under Letting No. 13301015.1, at this office, 2350 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri 63103, until 02:00 PM on Tuesday, July 30, 2019, at a place designated. Bids will be received only from companies that are pre-qualified by the District’s Engineering Department for: DEEP SEWER CONSTRUCTION – St. Louis County drainlayer’s license required Plans and Specifications are available for free electronic download. Please go to MSD’s website and look for a link to “ELECTRONIC PLANROOM.” Plans and Specifications are also available for viewing or purchase at Cross Rhodes Reprographics located at 1712 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.

SEALED BIDS

SEALED BIDS

CITY OF ST. LOUIS BOARD OF PUBLIC SERVICE

REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS for PROFESSIONAL

ENGINEERING SERVICES FOR ON-CALL TRAFFIC ENGINEERING SERVICES. Statements of Qualifications due by 5:00 PM CT, WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 2019 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, Professional Services, or call Helen Bryant at 314-589-6214. 25% MBE & 5% WBE participation goals.

SEALED BIDS

SEALED BIDS

forDNA LabExpansion, MSHP General Headquarters Complex, Jefferson City,Missouri, ProjectNo. R1910-01 willbereceived byFMDC, Stateof MO,UNTIL 1:30PM, 8/1/2019.For specificproject informationand orderingplans,go to:http://oa.mo. gov/ facilities

PUBLIC NOTICE NAME CHANGE

Public Notice of Single Source Procurement

LETTING #8691

ASPHALT OVERLAY FOR BANSHEE RD. – NAVAID RD. TO MISSOURI BOTTOM RD.

At St. Louis Lambert International Airport

Sealed proposals will be received by the Board of Public Service in Room 208 City Hall, 1200 Market Street, St. Louis, Mo. Until 1:45 PM, CT, on July 23, 2019 then publicly opened and read. Plans and Specifications may be examined on the Board of Public Service website http:// www.stl-bps.org/planroom.aspx (BPS On Line Plan Room) and may be purchased directly through the BPS website from INDOX Services at cost plus shipping. No refunds will be made.

Bidders shall comply with all applicable City, State and Federal laws (including MBE/WBE policies). ). Mandatory pre-bid meeting will be held on Tuesday, July 2, 2019, at 10:00 AM in the Ozark Conference Room at the Airport Office Building, 11495 Navaid Rd., Bridgeton, MO 63044. All bidders must regard Federal Executive Order 11246, “Notice of Requirement for Affirmative Action to Ensure Equal Employment Opportunity”, the “Equal Opportunity Clause” and the “Standard Federal Equal Employment Specifications” set forth within and referenced at www.stl-bps.org (Announcements).

At St. Louis Lambert International Airport

Sealed proposals will be received by the Board of Public Service in Room 208 City Hall, 1200 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri, 63103. Until 1:45 PM, CT, on July 30, 2019, then publicly opened and read. Plans and Specifications may be examined on the Board of Public Service website http://www.stl-bps.org/planroom (BPS On Line Plan Room) and may be purchased directly through the BPS website from INDOX Services at cost plus shipping. No refunds will be made.

Bidders shall comply with all applicable City and State laws (including DBE/MBE/WBE policies). Mandatory pre-bid meeting will be held on Tuesday, July 9, 2019, at 1:30 P.M. in the Ozark Conference Room (AO-4066) at the Airport Office Building, 11495 Navaid Rd., Bridgeton, MO 63044. All bidders must regard Federal Executive Order 11246, “Notice of Requirement for Affirmative Action to Ensure Equal Employment Opportunity”, the “Equal Opportunity Clause” and the “Standard Federal Equal Employment Specifications” set forth within and referenced at www.stl-bps.org (Virtual Plan Room).

for Water System Improvements, ElephantRocks StatePark,Pilot Knob,Missouri, ProjectNo. X1707-01 willbereceived byFMDC, Stateof MO, UNTIL 1:30PM, 7/25/2019 Forspecific project informationand orderingplans,go to:http://oa.mo. gov/ facilities

forRepair, Sealcoat&Stripe AsphaltPavement, MissouriNational Guard,Camp Clark, CampCrowder, &IkeSkelton Training Sites, Nevada, Neosho,Jefferson City,Missouri, Project No.T1925-01, willbe receivedby FMDC, StateofMO, UNTIL1:30PM, 8/1/2019 Forspecificproject in

nd orderingplans,go to:http://oa.mo. gov/ facilities

n

Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is proposing to procure: STERIS AMSCO 250 LS Autoclave. The District is proposing single source procurement to Steris Corp for this equipment. Any inquiries should be sent to ameyer@stlmsd.com.

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

Kimberly Henderson will be changing her name to Kimistry Victorious. www.stlamerican.com TO ADVERTISE YOUR BIDS CALL ANGELITA AT 314-2895430

METROPOLITAN ST. LOUIS SEWER DISTRICT

ST. LOUIS COMMUNITY COLLEGE

St. Louis Community College will receive separate sealed bids for Contract No. F 20 401B through F 20 401S, BID RELEASE #1 – Stair Tower, St. Louis Community College at Forest Park, until July 16, 2019 at 2:00 p.m. local time CDT, which includes the following packages: BP-02A Demolition, BP-03A Concrete Foundations, Flatwork and Drilled Piers, BP04A Masonry, BP-05A Structural and Misc. Steel, BP-06A Carpentry and General Trades, BP-07A Membrane Roofing, BP-07B Sheet Metal and Flashing, BP-07C Spray Fireproofing, BP-08A Glass and Glazing, BP-09A Drywall and Air/Vapor Barrier, BP-09B Painting, BP-09C Ceilings, BP-09D Flooring, BP-10A Signage, BP-14A Elevators, BP-21A Fire Protection, BP-22A Plumbing, BP-23A Mechanical, BP26A Electrical, Bids will be publicly opened and read aloud at the office of the Manager of Engineering and Design, 5464 Highland Park Drive. A Pre-bid meeting will be held on July 2, 2019 at 1:30pm at St. Louis Community College Forest Park, Rm C112. Drawings, specifications and bid information may be obtained from Cross Rhodes’ Plan room at 1712 Macklind Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110 or at Tarlton Corporation’s website at www.tarltoncorp.com.

An Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer

for CONSTRUCT CHANGING ROOMS, AVCRADARMY AVIATION SITE, SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI, Project No.T1828-01 willbe receivedby FMDC, StateofMO, UNTIL 1:30PM, 7/25/2019. Forspecificprojectinformation andordering plans,go to:http://oa.mo. gov/ facilities TO ADVERTISE YOUR BIDS CALL ANGELITA AT 314-2895430

Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District will receive Proposals in the Purchasing Division, 2350 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri 63103-2555 until 11:00 a.m. on July 31, 2019 to contract with a company for: CCTV TRUCKS. 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 10015 RFP. If you do not have access to the internet, call 314-768-6254 to request a copy of this bid. Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

METROPOLITAN ST. LOUIS SEWER DISTRICT

Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District will receive sealed bids in the Purchasing Division, 2350 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri 63103-2555 until 10:00am July 24, 2019 for: Pre-aeration Blower 2 Replacement Specifications and bid forms may be obtained from www.stlmsd.com - click on “MSD At Work”, then “Bidding on Projects”. The bid document will be identified as 10031 RFQ. If you do not have access to the internet, call (314) 7686314 to request a copy of this bid. Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is an Equal Opportunity 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 63103-2555 until 10:00 a.m. on July 30th, 2019 to contract with a company for: Asbestos Abatement 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 9777 RFQ. If you do not have access to the internet, call 314.768.2735 to request a copy of this bid. Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer

four (4) steel piping segments containing Victaulic flexible differential settlement joints. Segments include two (2) 48” and two (2) 60” pipe of various length and required number of flexible differential settlement joints. Also included is miscellaneous manufacturer’s services as specified. Bids for this procurement contract will be received from all qualified suppliers of the specified equipment. All bidders must complete the Purchasing Division Reference Worksheet included within the Bid Documents, which provides five (5) project references for similar type work.

Plans and Specifications are available for free electronic download. Please go to MSD’s website and look for a link to “ELECTRONIC PLANROOM.” Plans and Specifications are also available for viewing or purchase at Cross Rhodes Reprographics located at 2731 S. Jefferson. St. Louis, MO 63118. 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.

BID PROPOSAL

KCI Construction requests subcontract proposals from MBE, WBE, and SDVE businesses for the Construct Changing Rooms AVCRAD Army Aviation Site, The State of Missouri Office of Administration, Jefferson City, MO. Project #T1828-01 Plans and specifications are available •To view electronically at no charge from:https://www.adsplanroom.net •To view at our Camdenton office: 5505 Old South 5, Camdenton, MO 65020 • By a request for a Dropbox Link from jmorrow@kciconstruction.com

Subcontractor bids are due by 12:30 p.m. Thursday, July 25, 2019. You may email bids to jmorrow@kciconstruction.com or send a fax to 573-346-9739. Please call if you have any questions: 314-200-6496.

FOR BIDS #: 57819170

Harris-Stowe State University (HSSU) is requesting proposals for Charter Bus Services. A copy of the RFP is available by emailing: morrowb@hssu.edu, faxing a written request to: (314) 340-3322 or calling (314) 340-5763. Proposals must be submitted to room 105 in the Dr. Henry Givens, Jr., Administration (HGA) building no later than 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, July 3, 2019 and will be opened at 10:15 a.m. in room 123 in the HGA building.

Public Notice of Single Source Procurement

Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is proposing to procure temporary help services from Codex Staffing in an effort to support the IT Technology Plan. The District is proposing single source procurement for this service because it does not have the internal expertise to fulfill this Information Technology role. Any inquiries should be sent to strenz@stlmsd.com.

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 confirming procurement: temporary bypass pumping assembly for Carr St Pump Station. The District is confirming single source procurement to Mobile Mini for this equipment because blanket contractor unable to meet needs. Any inquiries should be sent to ameyer@stlmsd.com.

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

TRAINING. DUE

DATE: JULY 9, 2019

The Board of Trustees of the St. Louis County Library District (the “Library District”) requests the submission of responses for qualifications from qualified firms or individuals to provide a quote for Diversity and Inclusion / Prevention of Harassment Training.

For more information please see https://www.slcl.org/bid -opportunities.

LOUIS COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Bids

Road; Bridgeton, MO 63044, and immediately thereafter opened and read. Bid documents can be accessed on our website at www.stlcc.edu/purchasing or by calling (314) 539-5227. EOE/AA Employer.

INVITATION TO

Ferguson-Florissant School District is issuing a Request for Proposals for Access Control & Identity Management System. There is a pre-bid meeting on July 15, 2019 9:00 a.m. CST. Proposal must be submitted no later than 1:15 p.m., July 24, 2019. For additional information visit our Website at http://new.fergflor.k12.mo.us/ Facilities-rfq Matt Furfaro

ELECTONIC BIDS

forthe REBIDOF Repair ParkingLotsand Driveways,Troop CHeadquarters, WeldonSprings, St.Charles County, Missouri,Project No.R1905-01 will bereceivedby FMDC,Stateof MO, UNTIL1:30PM, 7/25/2019.For specificproject informationand orderingplans, goto: http://oa.mo.gov/ facilities

PUBLIC MEETING/OPEN HOUSE

East-West Gateway Council of Governments (EWG) seeks comment on amendments to Connected2045, the St. Louis Region’s long-range transportation plan, including the FY 2020-2023 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) and related Air Quality Conformity Document. The meetings and comment period will also satisfy Madison County Transit District’s and Metro’s public hearing and program of projects requirement of the Federal Transit Administration Sections 3006(b), 5307, 5309, 5310, 5317, 5337, and 5339 programs in the St. Louis region. The public is invited to view these documents and supporting materials at a series of open-house meetings: Tue., 7/9/19: 4:30 to 6:30 PM – The Heights – 8001 Dale Ave., Richmond Heights, MO 63117; Wed., 7/10/19: 4:30 to 6:30 PM – Hillsboro City Hall, 101 Main St., Hillsboro, MO 63050; Wed., 7/17/19: 4:30 to 6:30 PM – Fairview Heights - The Rec, 9950 Bunkum Rd., Fairview Heights, IL 62208; Thu., 7/18/19: 4:30 to 6:30 PM – Pacific City Hall, 300 Hoven Dr., Pacific, MO 63069; Tue., 7/30/19: 4:30 to 6:30 PM – Wentzville City Hall – Council Chambers, 1001 Schroeder Creek Blvd., Wentzville, MO 63385. The public comment period begins Friday, June 28, 2019 and ends Monday, August 5, 2019. The documents will be available on the website at www. ewgateway.org. Comment forms will be available on the website and at the meetings. Comments must be received or postmarked by midnight Mon., 8/5/19. Send comments to TIP@ewgateway.org or EastWest Gateway Council of Governments, Attn: TIP, 1 S. Memorial Drive, Ste. 1600, St. Louis, MO 63102. Persons requiring special accommodations must notify Roz Rodgers at least 48 hours prior to the open house at 314-421-4220, or email titlevi@ ewgateway.org.

EWG fully complies with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and related statutes and regulations in all programs & activities. For more information, or to obtain a Title VI Nondiscrimination Complaint Form, call (314) 421-4220 or (618) 2742750 or see www.ewgateway.org/titlevi.

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 Houston at

Swag Snap of the Week

St. Louis rap history and roll call. Because of some deadline modifications, I had to wait a whole week to hip y’all to the magic that happened at the Missouri History Museum, thanks to DJ G Wiz and his film, “Background Check Vol. 1.” I have been going to events at the Missouri History Museum auditorium since forever and I cannot remember a time when there were so many people packed in to see what our own hip-hop historian had to say about the origins of STL rap by way of his documentary. Thanks to the series of interviews and a bit of footage, viewers saw how local St. Louis and East St. Louis radio had a strong hand in shaping hip-hop’s rise as a musical genre. Forty years ago, plenty of folks felt like it was just a passing fad. But our own radio legend, “Gentleman” Jim Gates, gave the greenlight for The Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper Delight” to hit the airwaves on WESL 1490 AM, ultimately making the station the first EVER to play a rap record. This film points out that while New York gets credit for the origins, we certainly moved the dial to make it go global. The film also shows how St. Louis and East St. Louis radio helped lay the foundation for local hip-hop. If I named all of the people who participated in the video, attended the screening and were named dropped in the doc, I wouldn’t have space to talk about the actual event – or anything else this week. So what I will do is point out how Doctor Jockenstein got his props for engaging the first generation of hip-hop through his radio roll call. His daughter was on deck, as were several influencers of the hip-hop culture from past and present. DJ Kut was the MC and Lady Re hosted the 80s red carpet affair that reminded me of all the fashion risks we tried and failed miserably – but you couldn’t tell us that we weren’t fly. There were so many throwback crews and rap pioneers in one place that it made my heart melt to see how the audience was so excited and happy to show those legends how much we appreciated them and their contributions in moving the culture forward. Day party in the name of fashion. The cuteness of the Zenith Flair’s 10th Annual Fashion Show – also known as “Beauty Meets Fashion” – Sunday at Third Degree Glass Factory almost didn’t happen. The attitude of the woman with the blonde shadow-fade working the door had me ready to not bother. Trust me – I know how frustrating it can be as the gatekeeper, but dang. Because

By Delores Shante dshante@stlamerican.com

her attitude was so bad, that it gave me a bad attitude. I’m going to assume that somebody tagged her into that attitude the same way she tagged me into mine and keep it moving. But y’all came to hear about the show, so let me get to it. I knew there would be life given on the catwalk, but the folks on the other side of the runway were serving fashion, honey. I think my favorites were the gentleman with the neon and green tank top with the green fringing that stopped midway to his thigh, the gentleman with the clutched pearl denim outfit – yes, his top and bottom were covered in pearls. And the woman with the bedazzled copper face mask deserves a nod as well. I’m sure it sounds crazy, but you had to see it. Perhaps if I had been wearing one all winter at events where there were appetizers and meals, summer wouldn’t have gotten this shape. Okay, now back to the fashion show/day party hybrid. There were plenty of lewks to take in, though it seemed like more boutique clothing than the work of local designers. I lived nonetheless. Black boutique owners matter too. I think my favorite ensemble to hit the catwalk was that rust-colored, open back jumper with the crisscross back straps from Ebony Glover-Wright’s Urban Skye Apparel. But just about every presenting group had something I enjoyed. Shout out to the model who forgot her shoes and gave a high pony walk on her tippy toes the entire stretch. Oh, and let me give a shout out to Young Addy Co’s Afton, who was one of the hosts of the show. That gold cocktail mini-dress with the dangerous slit was giving “Narcos” season one, nightclub scene realness, and I could not have been more thrilled. If I had

her body, I would be wearing it too! Meanwhile, co-host Torezz was giving us Town & Country with that short set that was serving vintage Martha’s Vineyard.

Trees and the trap. So, the title of this item was supposed to be rapped like Nicki Minaj, just in case you didn’t get it. Corny, I’m sure … but it is what came to mind for me when DJ Hoodbunny’s segment of Jon Alexander’s new short film, “Nature of Sound” was shown Saturday afternoon at Old North Provisions. Jon’s film was an ode to St. Louis nature and St. Louis music – and Hoodbunny was in the middle of a beautiful forest, busting it down with some of the best trap music St. Louis artists have to offer. His mix playlist included Zado, Jiggy Keyz, ICE, Freshanova, Leonard, Charlie Free & Sav Karti and Meela Li. When he said during the talkback that his mix featured all local music, I was over the moon with pride that there were so many fire tracks for him to pull from. In my opinion they could hold their own against any music in ANY region. The same can be said about the talent of the other featured artists in “Nature of Sound.” Mad Keys was serving up a chill vibe with his compositions that live up to his name. And Tonina, who has been getting national buzz as a singer and musician – even a plug from our favorite president Barack Obama, inspired the birds to chime in as she performed a beautiful tune on acoustic guitar. I really enjoyed how Jon blended what we have to offer musically with elements of our local landscape as far as the birds, lakes and trees. He accomplished his mission of showing the beauty and variety of them both.

Down for Tupac and Neighborhood Nip. Once again, I enjoyed seeing folks use a visual arts and music combination to remember Tupac around the time of his birthday at the annual exhibit and spin session, entitled, “R U Still Down.” With 2720 gone to glory, Kris Blackmon and Tef Poe moved their show to The Fellowship for 2019 Saturday night. It was the perfect place for it. This year, they also worked in a healthy heaping of pieces that remembered Nipsey Hussle – which made me sad because he was another great one gone too soon, but happy that he will be remembered for trying to make his community a better place.

Photos by V. Lang

St. Louis born filmmaker Kasi Lemmons with her husband, actor Vonde Curtis Hall, as the Archway Chapter of Links Incorporated celebrated the creators of the world premiere of Terence Blanchard’s second opera “Fire Shut Up In My Bones” with a special brunch at the Centene Building in Grand Center. Lemmons wrote the libretto for the the production based on the memoir of the same name by New York Times columnist Charles Blow.

Keith and Arie just as the Zenith Flair 10th Annual Fashion show was wrapping up Sunday @Third Degree Glass Factory

Shona and Vicky linked up @VOCE for some Friday night fun

Friends and family packed out Gourmet Soul to help Patrice celebrate her fabulous 5-0 Saturday

Ebony and Corey served a twist to classic, casual attire @Zenith Flair 10th Annual Fashion Show Sunday @Third Degree Glass Factory

Hosts Afton and Torezz bringing their own style to the Zenith Flair 10th Annual Fashion Show Sunday @ Third Degree Glass Factory

Sydney and Gabrielle showed love to Sie Note for bringing back the REWINE and slid through the reggae set Saturday @Blank Space

Shaylay assisted in greeting guests with a smile as Anthony worked the room at his invite only day party @ The Architect House

Darrien, Sheri, Missy, John and Briana were among the many Rust Belt poets that traveled to the STL to compete Friday @.Zack

Laura and Brijette transitioning from work week to weekend chill mode Friday @VOCE

Beverly, Shelbie and Fatima chopped it up Sunday @Third Degree Glass Factory during a break @ the Zenith Flair 10th Annual Fashion Show

Photo by Bonita Cornute

Choices Special Section

JUNE 27 - JULY 3, 2019

Featured Stories

Page2-ClosingtheGaptakescommunitywidecommitment

Page3-Business,humanservicesprogram popularamongSt.Louisans

Page4-NormandyandParkwayschools collaborateon'STEMSaturdays'

Closing the Gap takes community-wide commitment

Successful degree attainment doesn’t just happen on a stage with caps, gowns and embossed paper. It’s made out of one-on-one intensive academic counseling, summer days spent acclimating to the rigors of academic work, and through enrolling a diverse class of students who our community supports every step of the way to

graduation.

Webster University excels in providing opportunities for students of color and those from lower-income households – and providing the support for them to seize those opportunities in a welcoming, inclusive campus environment.

But this support requires coordinated

attention on numerous levels. The goal of attainment must be hardwired into the campus culture, with students, faculty and staff all looking out for the community, offering support when needed and collaborating to make the community more inclusive and responsive to student needs. At Webster, programs are specifically designed to do just that.

In 2011, Webster University added the Transitions Academic Prep (TAP) feature to its Transitions program, which provides conditionally admitted students with academic counseling and peer tutoring, learning strategies, organization skills, and weekly sessions with mentors to establish close relationships with peers and trusted adults.

to build writing skills, study habits and time management. Participants meet faculty and staff, explore diversity and inclusion topics, and enjoy exercises on socially acclimating to a campus environment.

The free 10-day, residential, creditearning TAP program includes courses

A decade of results speak volumes: Transitions and TAP helped reverse the retention and attainment gap for this student population. Overall, the average Webster alum triples their individual earning power within five years of completing a bachelor’s degree. Their average debt after graduation is below the national average. And their degree completion rate, as well as that of Pell Grant recipients, is above the national average.

When everyone on campus is committed to success, every student wins.

A Commitment to Lifelong Success

Webster University’s commitment to an inclusive, diverse environment that nurtures success for all students extends from conditionally admitted first-time undergraduates to mid-career professionals pursuing advanced degrees. Programs like Transition and Academic Prep (TAP) are designed to get every member of the campus community involved in the success of our students.

WEBSTER.EDU/DIVERSITY-INCLUSION

Questions? Contact Chief Diversity Officer

Vincent C. Flewellen, diversity@webster.edu

• Webster is recognized for the economic diversity of students in U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges 2019”

• Webster students who receive Pell grants graduate at a higher rate than their peers at similar institutions

• For 27 consecutive years, Webster has been ranked first among U.S. nonprofit, private institutions in graduating master’s-level African-American and Total Minority Students (Diverse: Issues in Higher Education)

• Webster’s annual Diversity & Inclusion Conference held in February 2019 attracted nearly 1,000 participants to campus for three days of speakers and activities on topics affecting our communities

Business, human services program popular among St. Louisans

Adults returning to college in the St. Louis area are gravitating toward degrees in business and human services. It’s no wonder, said Erika Thomas, director of Columbia College-St. Louis. “These programs align with St. Louis values,” she said. “We’re innovators who care about the people around us. We tackle issues head on. And there’s no better way to do that than by equipping yourself with education.”

Working adults who have been out of school for a while are in a perfect position to utilize these types of degrees, Thomas said. They understand the needs of their communities, and know what services are or aren’t in place to address those needs. Take, for instance, last year’s winner of the Student Entrepreneurship Student Pitch Competition at Columbia College. She recognized the lack of high-quality clothing in larger sizes, and created a business plan to address it — taking home the first-place $5,000 prize along the way.

Another Columbia College-St. Louis student used what she learned

in management class to create a farmer’s market, taking fresh foods into underserved neighborhoods. It’s a philosophy indicative of Columbia College’s St. Louis location. Students there are encouraged to apply classroom lessons to situations they encounter in life.

“We believe strongly in empowering our students to be leaders in their communities,” Thomas said. “The college’s mission is to change lives, and we do that in and outside of the classroom. We encourage students to use their education to address real needs.”

goals and passions, then selecting coursework accordingly. “If you have an idea for a new product or service that benefits the general public, consider a degree in business administration or management,” she said. “If you’re more interested in working with specific populations to solve social problems, you may want to pursue a bachelor’s in human service.”

n “We believe strongly in empowering our students to be leaders in their communities. We encourage students to use their education to address real needs.”

–

Erika Thomas, Columbia CollegeSt. Louis

Those interested in using education to make a different may also want to consider pursuing a degree in either business or human services, Thomas added. She suggests focusing on your

Columbia College-St. Louis provides in-seat evening classes geared toward working adults. Students needing a more flexible schedule can also mix and match in-seat and online classes. St. Louis is one of more than 30 adult higher learning locations maintained by Columbia College, which also has a traditional campus in Columbia, Missouri. Regardless of the program you

select, prepare to be part of a community that’s making a difference. “Over the past couple of years, our entire college community has come together to support various charities,” Thomas said. “While that may not be specific to a major, it’s an example of our commitment to service. We’re here to teach, learn, support one another, give back and, ultimately, make a difference in the world.”

Columbia College offers a liberal arts curriculum designed to produce globally engaged citizens who are creative, curious and ethical. Apply today at no cost at Apply.CCIS.edu.

Normandy and Parkway schools collaborate on ‘STEM Saturdays’

By Bridjes O’Neil Normandy Schools Collaborative

What began three years ago as a way to help improve student achievement districtwide has morphed into a fun supplemental activity for students in the Normandy Schools Collaborative. Formerly known as the Normandy Saturday Learning Lab, the six-week program each spring and fall has been renamed and re-imagined. It’s now called STEM Saturdays and immerses students in grades three through eight in three hours of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The new and improved program is voluntary and runs from Feb. 2 to March 9.

Mia Carpenter, who has been working in the program for the last three years, said the new focus allows students to see how STEM disciplines are used to create everything from video games and search-and-rescue operations to buildings that can withstand nature’s fury. “We wanted it to be experiences kids wouldn’t normally get in a

classroom, at least right now,” said Carpenter, the district’s math coordinator. “This is more enrichment. They’re going to learn something, but this is just a way of tapping in to what our students are good at, and kids are really good at technology.”

The Saturday Learning Lab program began in 2015 as an effort to increase student achievement in mathematics, English, and reading. But, over time, participation in Saturday Learning Labs began to wane because students viewed it as an extension of regular school. That was when Carpenter and others devised a way to reboot the program. As a math coordinator, Carpenter attends

n “We wanted it to be experiences kids wouldn’t normally get in a classroom, at least right now. This is more enrichment. They’re going to learn something, but this is just a way of tapping in to what our students are good at, and kids are really good at technology.”

– Mia Carpenter, Normandy Math Coordinator

monthly professional meetings with educators from other districts, and made a connection with Jennifer Abdel-Azim and Jennifer Proffitt, math coordinators at Parkway School District. Over time, they brainstormed ways to increase STEM education within Normandy and forged a partnership to make it happen. They also received support from both school’s Curriculum & Instruction departments. The result is STEM Saturdays.

During the spring installment, 100 Normandy students and 100 from Parkway collaborated on different problem-solving activities while getting to know each other. During their exercises, they

worked primarily with Spiro drones and Ozobots, or robots that can be coded to follow different commands. They participated in a Game-a-thon and a STEM Fest in the Parkway School District. Twelve teachers from Normandy and 12 from Parkway acted as facilitators as students learned to collaborate on mutual goals. The student-teacher ratio throughout was eight to 10 students per teacher.

“We are really stretching,” Carpenter said. “We want to make sure kids experience a design challenge using the engineering process. We also want them to be able to code and control robots.”

In a Montessori-like approach, students in different grades were placed in teams – grades three through five, and six through eight. Carpenter said this allows the leaders, thinkers and doers to emerge based on their personalities and interests.

Ultimately, the goal is to open the program to younger and older students. “This is something we really want to build and grow,” Carpenter said.

Students from Normandy Schools Collaborative and Parkway School District gather in the ring at Parkway Central High School to release robots they have programmed using coding. The students are participating in STEM Saturdays, a six-week program that is the result of an ongoing partnership with both school districts.

by Bridjes O’Neil

Photo

Applications for LaunchCode’s free coding & job placement course now open

Learning to code means unlocking a door to countless opportunities – but deciding how to hone those skills can be overwhelming. Luckily, St. Louis is home to LaunchCode, a nonprofit organization committed to equipping driven individuals with the skills and tools needed to land their first tech job. LaunchCode believes that when given the right resources and a chance to prove themselves, motivated people from all walks of life and educational backgrounds can succeed in the tech industry. They’re now seeking applicants for their flagship LC101 course, designed to transform learners with no prior tech skills into computer programmers in just 20 weeks. LaunchCode’s model is unique in that their courses are free to learners and offered in an accelerated, part-time format in order to be more

accessible to those with jobs or responsibilities at home. LC101 students learn in a community-style classroom twice a week supported by in-person mentoring from instructors, teaching fellows and developers from local companies. Outside of class, students

are expected to spend 10-15 hours doing readings, watching videos, working on practice problems, and completing assignments.

After gaining in-demand technical skills, LaunchCode uses a paid apprenticeship model to match job-ready

candidates with St. Louis companies in need of entry-level tech talent. It’s proven successful, as companies like Boeing, Mastercard, and Express Scripts have hired LaunchCode graduates and know that a driven individual who may not have traditional resume credentials can add value to their team.

This summer, LaunchCode is offering two cohorts of their free, part-time LC101 web development course at the Mentor Center, 4811 Delmar Boulevard, beginning August 12. An evening cohort will be held Mondays and Thursdays from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and a morning cohort will be held Mondays and Thursday from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Those interested can learn more at www.launchcode.org/lc101 and applications are open until July 19. Let LaunchCode open the door to your tech career and apply today!

Building a pipeline of black male teachers

The Academy for Men of Color in Education Summer Awareness Camp at Lincoln University

By American staff

High school males of color in the state of Missouri are invited to a free weeklong camp on the Lincoln University campus. The Academy for Men of Color in Education (ACME) will host the Summer Awareness Camp from July 8-12. The aim of the camp is to introduce 25 high school young men of color to the education profession, while providing them with valuable resources to first be a successful student.

Marrix Seymore, Lincoln U Dean of the School of Education

Richard A. Cross, ACME Program Coordinator, says ACME was developed to address the shortage of male teachers of color. The camp will allow participants to explore opportunities

n “The academy was developed by Marrix Seymore, dean of the School of Education at Lincoln University, on the realization of the great urgency to attract, support and retain males of color in teaching.”

in the field of education. “We hope to develop a pipeline of male teachers to urban classrooms throughout the state of Missouri and the nation,” says Cross.

ACME was developed by Marrix Seymore, dean of the School of Education at Lincoln University, on the realization of the great urgency to attract, support and retain males of color in teaching. The mission of the Academy for Men of Color in Education is to holistically prepare men of color for successful careers as educators through

STLCC

IS THE PLACE FOR YOU

We have programs designed for busy and working adults that will help you get promoted, learn new skills for a career change, finish a degree you started or transfer credits to your next destination.

an intensive program of personal, academic and professional development. “It is our obligation to give males of color every opportunity to succeed,” Cross adds.

For more information about the Summer Awareness Camp or to register a high school male of color, contact Richard A. Cross via email at crossr@ lincolnu.edu or by calling 573-6815010.