May 3rd, 2018 Edition

‘Clean sweep’ of North St. Louis

president and CEO

was joined by community partners on May 1 to announced revitalization efforts in four St. Louis neighborhoods: Hamilton Heights/ Wells-Goodfellow, Jeff VanderLou, Penrose/Kingsbury, and Walnut Park.

Better Family Life, RBC, builders plan to revitalize four neighborhoods

By Niara Savage For The St. Louis

American

Better Family Life has recruited some community partners to make a “Clean Sweep” of North St. Louis this summer. Malik Ahmed, president and CEO of Better Family Life, described the efforts as “rebuilding the community with a hands-on approach” during an announcement on Tuesday, May 1 at the Better Family Life Cultural, Educational and

Attacking segregation

Business Center, 5415 Page Blvd.

The Regional Business Council is partnering with Better Family Life, and 12 construction companies will donate time, resources and equipment to the Clean Sweep efforts. They will target four St. Louis neighborhoods: Hamilton Heights/ Wells-Goodfellow, Jeff VanderLou, Penrose/Kingsbury, and Walnut

See SWEEP, A7

New community report strategizes to ‘dismantle the divide’

By Rebecca Rivas

American

Of The St. Louis

When she was 18, LaTonya and her African-American family were living in one of the few affordable housing complexes in predominantly white South St. Louis County. But because it is one of the most isolated areas from public transportation in the region, LaTonya had to walk along a treacherously narrow shoulder of Highway 141 to get to her $7.50-an-hour job at Burger King.

n Malik Ahmed, president and CEO of Better Family Life, described the efforts as “rebuilding the community with a hands-on approach.”

Capacity crowd of 450 showed their support

By Chris King Of The St.

Louis American

Dr. Garey L.C. Watkins sounded the keynote for the St. Louis American Foundation’s 2018 Salute to Excellence in Health Care in accepting the 2018 Lifetime Achiever in Health Care Award: “This award,” he said, “is not about Garey Watkins.”

Like every other award recipient who addressed the capacity crowd of 450 at the Hilton St. Louis Frontenac on Friday, April 27, Watkins passed his recognition onto those who have trained, supported and loved him.

For Watkins, an ophthalmologist who served the U.S. military for more than three decades and retired from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel, credit was due, foremost, to God, his family and his educators. He praised East St. Louis public schools, Meharry Medical College and, especially, Homer G. Phillips Hospital, which brought him to St. Louis in 1972 and where he completed his residency in 1975.

“To see all these black people teaching and all dressed up,” he said of Homer G. Phillips Hospital, “I was in awe.” That awe was overshadowed only by his unabashed, awesome love for his family, especially his

NAACP, new coalition address ‘unconstitutional’ underfunding of HBCUs

By Rebecca

Rivas

Of The St. Louis American

Telayah Richards, a junior and communications major at Harris-Stowe State University, is a first-generation college student. As a freshman, she and about 20 other students from similar backgrounds attended a summer program that helped them transition into the college lifestyle. But funding for the program – as for many other things at Harris-Stowe – was limited, she said. “I wish we could have opened it up to more students like myself who come from a background where I wasn’t familiar with

Malik Ahmed,

of Better Family Life,

Photo by Wiley Price

Dr. Garey L.C. Watkins

Angela Clabon

Jury finds Bill Cosby guilty

On Thursday, a Pennsylvania jury found TV and comedy icon Bill Cosby guilty in a retrial of a case stemming from an aggravated indecent assault for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in a Philadelphia suburb in 2004. He was found guilty of all three counts of aggravated indecent assault.

According to CNN.com, Cosby stood up and yelled, “He doesn’t have a plane, you [expletive],” when prosecutors asked the judge to revoke Cosby’s bail because he is a flight risk and has a private plane.

a trustee at Temple, drugged her and sexually assaulted her when she visited his home to ask for career advice.

Cosby’s defense team argued that their interaction was consensual– and that Constand was seeking financial gain from Cosby.

The 80-year-old comedian faces up to 10 years in prison on each count, but according to CNN, would likely serve them concurrently. A sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled.

Judge Steven O’Neill ruled that Cosby should not leave his Pennsylvania home, and that he would need to be fitted with a GPS tracking device.

The case against Cosby centered on testimony from Constand, a former employee with Temple University women’s basketball team. She testified that Cosby, who was then

Kanye receives instant backlash for ‘slavery is a choice’ remarks

In an interview with TMZ on Tuesday, rapper Kanye West shocked the world when he implied that the African Americans chose to be enslaved.

“When you hear about slavery for 400 years…for 400 years, that sounds like a choice,” West told TMZ.

“Like, you was there for 400 years and its all of y’all.”

West was met with criticism by TMZ Sports employee Van Lathan.

“Do you feel that I’m being

free and thinking free,” West said to Lathan.

“I actually don’t think that you’re thinking anything. I think what you are doing right now is actually the absence of thought and the reason why I feel like that is because Kanye, you are entitled to your opinion and to think whatever you want.” Lathan had ranted on his Red Pill podcast about West after he posted images of himself wearing a Make America Great Again cap and professed his love for Donald Lathan clapped back on West when the rapper addressed the room during his interview with Harvey Levin.

Janelle Monáe

“But there is fact and real world, real life consequence behind everything that you just said. And while you are making music and being an artist and living the life that you’ve earned by being a genius, the rest of us in society have to deal with these threats to our lives,” Lathan said. “We have to deal with the

marginalization that has come from the 400 years of slavery that you said for our people was a choice. Frankly, I’m disappointed, I’m appalled and, brother, I am unbelievably hurt by the fact that you have morphed into something, that to me, is not real. Bro, you gotta be responsible, man. Your voice is too big.”

Janelle Monáe comes out as pansexual

In an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, singer and actress Janelle Monáe came out as Pansexual as she discussed her new album “Dirty Computer.”

“Being a queer black woman in America, someone who has been in relationships with both men and women, I consider myself to be a free- [expletive] [expletive]. Monae told the magazine that she identified as pansexual after reading about the subject.

According to GLAAD, pansexuals have the capability of attraction to others regardless of their gender identity or biological sex. A pansexual could be open to someone who is male, female, transgender, intersex, or agendered/genderqueer.

Sources: TMZ.com, Rollingstone.com, HollywoodUnlocked.com, CNN.com

Kanye West

Bill Cosby

Starbucks arrests part of daily nightmare of racial profiling in America

‘It does happen. All the time. Just not to you and me’

By Ron Harris and Matthew Horace

For The St. Louis American

The first time we met

Howard Schulz, the founder and chairman of Starbucks, he was speaking to more than 200 of the nation’s highestranking black law enforcement officers during their conference in Seattle. He was explaining his company’s efforts to promote better relationships between black and Latino communities and police through a program he initiated called “Coffee with a Cop.” It was early last year, and Schulz told the group how two years earlier, following riots and protests in the wake of a spate of highprofile killings of black men by police, he and then Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole

had begun inviting residents and local cops to meet in his Seattle coffeehouses, so both could hear the others’ points of view.

It was effective, Schultz said. About 70 percent of the participants walked away from the events feeling better about the other side.

Schulz’s audience that day was the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), which is made up of the highest levels of African-American leaders of local police and sheriff’s departments, state troopers, the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, U.S. Marshals, Secret Service, Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal agencies.

We were there doing research for our upcoming book, “The Black and The Blue: A Cop Reveals the Crimes, Racism, and Injustice in America’s Law Enforcement.” We thought the conference would be a good first stop on our yearlong book project to examine police and race. We wanted to understand how and why those relationships play out in continual shootings of unarmed black men, racial profiling and disparate rates of arrest and incarceration.

Matt had been a member of the organization for much of

his 24 years as a special agent with the ATF and knew many of the officers. Despite having covered law enforcement issues as one of my jobs as a local and national newspaper reporter for more than 20 years, I was a novice to the group.

Starbucks’ “Coffee with a Cop” meetings had spread to other cities, Schultz explained, and he announced plans to host 100 more events that year. He would hold the first events in five cities in partnership with NOBLE and two other police organizations, the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Major Cities Chiefs Association.

“We are pleased to host meetings in our stores . . . where police and the community can meet and share experiences to foster greater understanding and empathy,” he said.

And then came the embarrassing arrest just days ago of two black men in Philadelphia, hauled off by police in handcuffs for doing

nothing more than sitting and waiting to meet someone in Starbucks, the place where millions of Americans sit every day and wait for other people.

The company immediately recognized the “reprehensible” mistake its employee had made by calling the police. It refused to press charges, issued an apology, met with the men who were arrested and promised company-wide bias training.

Not the Philadelphia police. Instead, they did what we found police departments do incident after incident. They hunker down and back their officers at all costs. We saw it following police incidents in Chicago, Ferguson, Baton Rouge, and New York. “Don’t back down,” seemingly is their mantra. Find policy that will justify your officers’ actions.

And that is exactly what Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross did. In a Facebook video, Ross said his officers “had legal standing to make an arrest. In short, these officers did

absolutely nothing wrong. They followed policy. They did what they are supposed to do.”

He never asked whether just because his officers could do something, should they do it?

Was there a better way? Was it good police policy for six officers to arrest two men for doing what virtually everybody in the same space was doing?

Do you really want a policy that will enforce discriminatory policies or actions without exception as they did in the Jim Crow South?

As we interviewed hundreds of police, government officials and victims of police abuse across the nation, we found that police actions are driven daily by the stereotypes and biases too many Americans hold of black people, black men in particular. Their mere presence incites anxiety and fear in many. Consequently, for people of color, the Starbucks incident is just part of the continuous nightmare of racial profiling by America that often ends with tragic results.

The same day the two black men were being arrested in Philadelphia, a 14-year-old black teenager was shot at and nearly killed by white residents in Rochester Hills, Michigan. Brennan Walker overslept and missed his bus and then got lost while he walked to school. So, he knocked on a family’s door that morning to ask for directions to his high school.

The wife saw a black face and accused him of trying to break him into the family’s house. The incident was caught on the family’s doorbell video. She yelled, and her husband came running, picked up with his shotgun and fired, but missed. Walker ran and hid in some bushes. And then he cried.

Just 34 minutes away in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, Theodore Wafer five years earlier shot an unarmed, 19-year-old in the face with a 12-gauge shotgun and killed her. Renisha McBride had knocked on his front door in the early morning hours to ask for help after wrecking her car

nearby. He was sentenced to 17 years.

Meanwhile, the list of unarmed black men killed by police continues to climb; the most recent is Stephon Clark, 22, shot by police eight times in the back, according to the family coroner, in his grandmother’s backyard in Sacramento.

These incidents continue to happen, we found, because America usually condones or excuses them. The most common excuse for police is “I feared for my life,” and there is the ongoing supposition by many that there was something the black person did to cause whatever happened to him or her. Even when African Americans tell our white friends who know us well, who respect us, who we work with or supervise, we can see that look in their faces that says, “No, police don’t do that. The person did something wrong to cause the officer to react that way.”

Melissa DePino, whose online video post of the arrests in Philadelphia has been viewed seven million times, got her lesson on the breadth of America’s bias as much from the incident she recorded as from the reactions to her post. Now, she knows what most people of color know.

“Ever since I posted this, I’ve had white strangers AND friends say, ‘there must be something more to this story,’” she wrote in a tweet. “That assumption is a big part of the problem. It does happen. All the time. Just not to you and me. Believe it . . .”

Matthew Horace and Ron Harris are the co-authors of the upcoming book, “The Black and The Blue: A Cop Reveals Crimes, Racism and Injustice Inside Law Enforcement,” which will be available in August. Ron Harris is a journalist and adjunct professor at Howard University. Matthew Horace is a former policeman and ATF special agent and a contributor to CNN and Headline News.

Guest Columnist

Guest Columnist

Ron Harris

Editorial /CommEntary

Black aldermen should sit down and start drawing

The Black Lives Matter movement has been echoed in a new claim being made by some black politicians in St. Louis: “Black wards matter.” It’s a movement to undo the popular vote to downsize the city’s wards from 28 to 14. To this, we say: It’s black power that matters, not black wards – and whether or not black elected officials use their power to serve their constituents.

Those who oppose the voter-mandated reduction in wards – and, consequently, reduction of aldermanic seats and committee posts – claim that fewer black-dominated wards will result in less black political power, but this argument is specious and wrongheaded. As Alderman John Collins-Muhammad argues: “The reduction of black aldermen will essentially take away black influence in the city’s political spectrum – which one can assume is the ultimate plan.”

The whiff of conspiracy clearly is intended to enflame black citizens, but this argument is nonsense. Reducing the number of wards in the city will reduce both white-majority and blackmajority wards, provided the redistricting is done equitably. Fortunately for Collins-Muhammad and his black colleagues on the Board of Aldermen, they hold the redistricting pen. If the city’s wards are not redrawn equitably, they will have no one to blame but themselves. We advise black aldermen to stop protesting and start fighting inside for equitable redistricting. We gladly will fight right alongside them.

But we cannot join any fight to preserve the city’s unwieldy status quo in ward districting.

Kansas City, where black political power has been more productive and the City Council has been much more progressive than in St. Louis, has only 12 council members – fewer even than St. Louis will have after its 28 wards are downsized by half. Los Angeles, with nearly 4 million residents, has only 15 City Council seats, only one more than St. Louis will have after downsizing. Anyone who would say that St. Louis has more black political power than Kansas City or Los Angeles has not been outside of St. Louis much.

One consequence of our jigsaw puzzle of tiny wards is that ward alderman has not been a powerful elected position from which black politicians have built capacity to directly launch major political careers. St. Louis has never had a black mayor who started out as an alderman. In recent decades, the only black citywide elected official who started as an alderman was Michael McMillan, who moved up to license collector, a relatively powerless patronage office that has never been a stepping stone. The only path to greater power for a black alderman has been board president, and that path will remain after redistricting. Fewer wards will mean a broader base for all aldermen, which also will spark more competition and attract better candidates. The result will be a more, not less, representative and

participatory local democracy.

Stronger black political elected officials, ultimately, are what will benefit black citizens and St. Louis as a whole. If you look at who holds elected office in the city today, the problem in black representation is not quantity but quality. Two of the three officeholders on the Board of Estimate & Apportionment, the city’s chief fiscal body, are black. Clearly, if Aldermanic President Lewis Reed and Comptroller Darlene Green wielded their power more effectively and collectively, they could exert much greater influence on the direction of this city, whether the mayor was Francis Slay, Lyda Krewson, Bill Haas or Daffy Duck. Further, this two-thirds black majority continues throughout all of the citywide elected offices, where blacks hold six out of the nine seats. This is far greater than blacks’ percentage of the city’s population, as blacks now form a plurality, not even a majority, of city residents.

Ironically, the one place where blacks are politically underrepresented is the Board of Aldermen, where blacks hold only 11 out of 28 seats. So guess who has the most to gain in political representation by redistricting the city’s wards? Black political hopefuls for alderman and the black people they will be presumably most motivated to serve once elected.

Black power, not black wards, is what matters – black power and good governance. We are not effectively using the political power we now have because we are not being well served by most of the black elected officials we have now. The aldermen who hold the pen to redraw the city’s wards need to stop protesting the redistricting process, sit down, and work together to draw an equitable map where black people can have a more representative presence on the Board of Aldermen. And where, hopefully, more competitive city politics will produce stronger black politicians who will make more effective use of their political power.

The trajectory of our ailing former industrial city must be reversed. There is understandable anger and frustration due to the city’s high level of poverty caused by a stagnant economy and resultant high unemployment. The city and region, whose destinies are inextricably bound, have competitive advantages, like higher education institutions, major corporations, toptier health care centers, and a central location that can bolster greater economic development. If the African-American community is to participate more equitably in future growth, we will need to elect our most able leaders to assure that we play a consequential role in formulating more effective strategies for economic growth (which must include improving education at every level for everyone). The future success of this city and region requires a more prosperous black community with better informed, more effective public officials.

Commentary

We didn’t choose America – or each other

By Mike Jones Of The St. Louis American

The root of community comes from the Latin communis, which means shared in common. A community can be defined as a social unit that shares common norms, values, language or religion that are the foundation of an identifiable culture that creates a shared identity. They also share a sense of place. This is important because it’s the culture that transfers the identity from generation to generation in that specific geography that supports and maintains the community. We are inherently social animals, but specific communities are not preordained. They evolve as the response of groups of individuals to the physical conditions of their environment. The black community of today has its genesis in the response of groups of individual Africans and their descendants to their enslavement in North America. What separates the black community from everyone else in America is how we came here. Malcolm used to say, “We didn’t land on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock landed on us!” Unlike everyone else, our ancestors didn’t come to America by choice; they were violently extracted from Africa so their labor could be exploited in America. We didn’t choose America; America chose us.

You Can Never Go Home

Again, the title of a novel by Thomas Wolfe, is about

a young author who writes a successful novel about his hometown that outrages its residents and makes him an outcast. This estrangement sends him on a journey in search of a new identity in a troubled pre-WWII world. This is the other foundational reality of the black community: Once we got here, we couldn’t leave. Everybody from Europe came here voluntarily, including indentured servants, and they all retained the theoretical possibility of returning to their ancestral homelands. Our ancestors never had the option of leaving and, like Wolfe’s protagonist, had no home to return to. Nothing speaks to this sadness better than the Killmonger death scene in Black Panther

Our ancestors were given a new identity by their captors; they became Negroes because they were slaves, they were slaves because they were Negroes. Solomon Northup’s 1853 memoir Twelve Years A Slave illustrates the impossibility of anyone black escaping the logic of this paradigm. Black life and liberty have always been at risk to the arbitrariness of white men. The only thing separates Solomon Northup from Michael Brown is time.

Today’s black community is a function of overt, structural, systemic oppression of a group

Dismantling the divide Commentary

By Jason Q. Purnell

For The St. Louis American

Seven months before Martin Luther King Jr. would deliver his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech envisioning a day when “the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners” would be “able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood,” a very different vision for America was articulated.

“In the name of the greatest people that ever trod the earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny and I say segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

These far more ominous words were those of Alabama Governor George Wallace on the occasion of his inauguration in January of 1963. His words weren’t just a dark declaration of white supremacy but a sadly accurate description of what America would be more than 50 years into the future. In many ways, Wallace’s vision appears to have won out over King’s, particularly where segregation in housing is concerned.

While clearly visible markers like “whites only” signs have been consigned to museum display cases, the enduring legacy and living embodiment of segregation can be found in the most accessible of places: where we live. The exact contours of this reality for the St. Louis region are outlined in Segregation in St. Louis: Dismantling the Divide, a new report produced in partnership by ArchCity Defenders, Ascend STL, Inc., Invest STL Network, Empower Missouri, For the Sake of All, the Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing and Opportunity Council, and Team TIF. It describes over a century of housing policies consciously and intentionally designed to

exclude African Americans from access and opportunity, not just in terms of housing, but also education, employment, and ultimately, life and health.

It is not a pretty history, and we continue to live with its effects. Indeed, the region continues to use tools that exclude.

Among the many actionable recommendations that are also included in the report—and that are ready to be realized by the remarkable set of partners assembled to create it—is one that has to do with what I have called “consciously inclusive communities.” It has its origins in the very opposite inclination.

St. Louis has the dubious distinction of being at the center of a legal battle over what are called restrictive deed covenants. Essentially, neighbors came together to contractually obligate one another never to sell their homes to African Americans. Though state court enforcement was ruled unconstitutional in Shelley v. Kramer, the Federal Housing Administration continued to encourage the use of restrictive covenants in much of the new development of suburban America following World War II. As Richard Rothstein so thoroughly and eloquently notes in his book The Color of Law, federal, state, and local governments created segregation where none existed before and thus created the geography of inequity we see in cities across the nation. But what if we turned the notion of restrictive covenants on its head and had “inclusive

Letters to the editor

We need clean air and clean energy

Thanks for the column from Dr. Doris Browne of the National Medical Association about Trump’s proposed budget cuts for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

of human beings around the social construct of race. But as they say in Jurassic Park, “life will find a way,” so like Sisyphus they struggled against the absurdity of their condition and created a new identity and culture out of the chaos of racism and slavery. Central to that identity and culture was the inseparability of the fate of the black individual from the destiny of the black community. We will see the full articulation of this fusion of the new individual identity with the group identity when we get to post-Civil War America. It’s this historical reality that makes us a community, but it also makes us a community formed by someone else’s hand. Just as we didn’t choose America, we didn’t choose each other either. And it’s this historical reality that is impacting how we have and haven’t navigated the 21st century. It’s this social construct and the oppression associated with it that must be the basis of our political organizing until race is no longer a social construct or race is no longer the basis of oppression.

We were brought here against our will because we were black. We were enslaved and robbed of our labor because we were black. We were stripped of our historical identities because we were black. In fact, we didn’t know we were black until we got to America.

The second in a series of commentaries on the evolution of the black community and black political unity.

President Trump’s proposed 2019 budget would reduce the EPA budget by 23 percent. What would that mean in St. Louis? More air pollution. More children missing school due to asthma attacks. More premature deaths from strokes and heart attacks.

Kids in the City of St. Louis go to the emergency room for asthma attacks at triple the rate of kids in the state as a whole. Our children should not bear such a disproportionate burden of air pollution from coal-fired power plants, diesel trucks and locomotives.

The Sierra Club agrees with the National Medical Association. U.S. Senators McCaskill and Blunt should reject Trump’s budget, and should instead invest in clean air and clean energy.

John Hickey, Sierra Club, MO Chapter Director, St. Louis

Jim Crow in Bon Terre

I am a black man in a Missouri prison (Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center) where the administration is exclusively white. No black caseworkers, no black functional unit managers, and no black wardens. There is a continuous pattern of abuse toward blacks by staff.

In the administration unit, black offenders, Muslims, are being refused non-pork meals. Black offenders are being thrown in the hole –administrative segregation, or ad seg, units – when family members call to inquire about

covenants” instead? What if neighbors came together not to keep people out but to welcome them in? I don’t intend this as a legal remedy or even an exercise sufficient in scope or scale to fully redress the wrongs of several decades of disastrous housing policy, but the reality is that help from Washington, D.C. or even Jefferson City seems like a fairly remote possibility. It must be people who live in neighborhoods throughout the St. Louis region who decide what kinds of places they should be. There is a chance to finally redraw the boundaries of opportunity to include everyone. Doing so will not be easy, and it will not be without costs and conflict. Becoming “consciously inclusive communities” means taking seriously all three of those words. This is not a colorblind project or Pollyanna optimism, but involves a hard and conscious look at the systematic ways in which generations have been denied access to resources. Nor can inclusion mean simple window dressing with a smattering of black and brown faces, but true inclusion across race, income, age, and ability. And finally, these must be communities in the truest sense of that word, where bonds of trust facilitate shared action and mutual support and the ability to thrive is nurtured among the young and old alike. The truth is that the jury is still out on whether the vision of Wallace or the dream of King wins in the end. And the jury is us.

Access the new report at forthesakeofall.org/ segregationinstlouis. This is the first in a series of commentaries devoted to Segregation in St. Louis: Dismantling the Divide

claims of abuse, arbitrary censorship of mail, and daily use of pepper spray on black inmates for no other reason than to inflict pain.

These things set off a small revolt on April 6, where staff totally disregarded procedure by using excessive force, punching, slamming and banging inmates’ heads on the ground while in restraints, with medical staff ignoring complaints and refusing the injured medical attention.

Now the administration is requiring unrealistic obligations to document their behavior. Poor, uneducated blacks have been required by certain caseworkers in the ad seg unit to recite the First Amendment. If they cannot do so, this caseworkers denies the offender access to grievance/ complaint documents. There is a requisite procedure for legal relief in the courts for this abusive environment.

This white administration is re-enacting Jim Crow laws to deny me access to my civil rights. I have many witnesses who are willing to attest to all these complaints/issues but are not willing to sign any petitions in fear of retaliation and undeserved punishment. I am asking that my plea for help from your organization not be overlooked or less valued because of me being an offender in prison.

Byron

Pollard

El Jr.

Columnist Mike Jones

Columnist

Jason Q. Purnell

LinkSTL Youth Council in Hyde Park

Hyde Park’s LinkSTL Youth Council enjoyed free dinner and games provided by Dave and Buster’s for their community leadership and mutual support. From left to right is: Taylor Jamison, Zazion Massey, Jordan Bosley, Keyontay Lampkin, Victor Johnson, Zakariyya Muhammad, Cornell Hezekiah McIntosh, Trinity Graham, Barbara Graham, Savione Mull, Tylan Collins, and Ladell Chappel.

Ameren, NAACP agree to address low-income energy

In a joint filing with the Missouri Public Service Commission on April 30, Ameren Missouri and the NAACP have agreed to work together to identify opportunities to provide affordable, renewable energy to persons who reside in low-income and minority communities within Ameren Missouri’s service territory.

“The more than 35 million families in the United States with incomes below twice the federal poverty level use approximately 30 percent of the nation’s residential electricity, but consistently are denied access to clean and affordable wind and solar- generated renewable power,” said Bruce Morrison, Missouri NAACP Environmental Justice Committee chair and an attorney with Great

needs

Rivers Environmental Law Center

Through its Environmental and Climate Justice Program, the NAACP works to address Environmental injustice, including the proliferation of climate change, which has a disproportionate impact on communities of color and low income communities.

“At a time when there is growing recognition that Missouri is at the nexus between examining its energy landscape and planning for climate change impacts, the NAACP is compelled to advance an equity based analysis of our energy choices and effects on community well-being, and the environment on which we all rely for our existence,” said NAACP Missouri President Rod Chapel.

Free beneficiary deed Info

The Hyde Park Neighborhood Association will host a free Beneficiary Deed Informational Event noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 19 at Clay Academy, 3820 N. 14th St. Learn more about beneficiary deeds and sign up for this free service. Meet with

your lawyer to sign paperwork and finalize arrangements. After signing, Legal Services of Eastern Missouri will record the document for participants and mail them the original. For more information, contact Peter Hoffman, pjhoffman@LSEM.org or 314.256.8744.

No tears for Bill Cosby

By Jamala Rogers For The St. Louis American

After 2004, I had a few ounces of respect for Bill Cosby, mainly as a humanitarian for his generous support for education, particularly for Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs). Advancing black culture including exposing and financing black artists, creating career opportunities for people of color in the entertainment industry.

The saga of Cosby’s sexual predatory behavior has led to the evaporation of any respect I had for the once-revered comedianactor. I admit that I was skeptical when the first rape accusation against Bill Cosby came out. My skepticism was not about not believing rape victims; I’ve been working on violence against women for too many years to be in that camp. However, I could not be oblivious to the history of black men being falsely accused of rape white by women. Neither should I be dismissive of America’s treatment of black men who get too big for their britches.

But I was convinced of Cosby’s guilt long before the recent retrial of sexual assault of Andrea Constand which found the comedian-actor guilty on three counts.

are reluctant to come forth when any form of sexual assault has been committed. It’s an environment that smacks a victim into shame and silence.

Cosby victims go back a long time. Some attempted to tell their stories or file charges but were often met with hostility and cynicism. Barbara Bowman was only 17 years old when she first made claims that Cosby drugged and raped her some 30 years ago. Bowman added her voice and story with the parade of Cosby accusers who finally, and some reluctantly, came forward.

For me, his character flaws became more real and large after criticizing black mothers for buying their sons expensive Air Jordan tennis shoes instead of investing in Hooked on Phonics. It was downhill from there with more shaming for the black community in his response to the Trayvon Martin murder by racist vigilante George Zimmerman.

At the same time Cosby was spewing his moral and self-righteous indignities, he was actively preying on women knowing that his powerful status would provide him cover and protection. Many fans of The Cosby Show were deeply disappointed in the daddy icon. Despite the preponderance of evidence, there are too many that may still believe in Cosby’s innocence. There was a deep divide in the AfricanAmerican community on the rape charges. That divide didn’t close with the recent guilty verdict.

We often give these predators a pass because of who they are and because we love them as the characters they play. This unconditional support of superstars (and some not so super) is a critical reason why women

The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) reports that 68 percent of sexual assaults don’t get reported to authorities, which means that 98 percent of the victimizers will not face the justice they deserve. The refusal to believe a female has little to do with whether their attacker is a super-star. There are predators on the lower rung who have gotten away with their dastardly deeds simply because they were males and their voices carry more weight in a patriarchal society.

I can’t count the number of debates I’ve had with men and women about what a woman did to deserve such a horrific assault. What about the short skirt she was wearing? And what time did she go to that man’s hotel room? Why would he have to rape her when he can get any woman he wants? How can it be rape when she knows him?

Sadly, these biased questions have prevailed throughout the years. My hope is that the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements take the issue of sexual violence to a much deeper place, where people can understand the underlying reasons for sexual control, there’s a community support system to embrace victims – and victimizers also get what they need in the form of psychological help and consequences.

I refused to shed a tear when Mike Tyson went to jail for rape or Harvey Weinstein crashed from grace. I won’t have any tears for Bill Cosby – only sadness for his wife and kids who must suffer the shame he selfishly bought upon them. We are all responsible for nurturing an anti-woman environment where our pain and suffering is ignored, de-valued or criticized. We must all commit to working together to make sure time’s up on sexual predators, regardless of their race, popularity or status.

Jamala Rogers

Continued from A1

college,” Richards said at a press conference on Monday, April 30 at Harris-Stowe.

“We could have helped more students in my same boat who just need an extra push or pull.”

During her three years at Harris-Stowe, Richards, who is president of the university’s NAACP chapter, has come to realize that there are grave disparities in the resources that Missouri’s two historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) – Harris-Stowe and Lincoln University in Jefferson City – receive compared to predominantly white universities. And it’s time to take a stand, she said.

On Monday, Richards and St. Louis City NAACP President Adolphus M. Pruitt II announced the Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Higher Education that will advocate for change of educational inequities. They said that the state needs to address its disparate funding and the unnecessary

SALUTE

Continued from A1

high school sweetheart and wife, Karen Morris Watkins, and God. The 2018 Stellar Performer in Health Care Award, Angela Clabon, gave praise and credit to a very similar mix of people and powers – indeed, God could be said to be the main awardee at this event – though she emphasized professional mentors rather than educators.

The chief executive officer of Care STL Health, formerly Myrtle Hilliard Davis Comprehensive Health Centers, she credited black women who led community health centers before her and trained her: Betty Jean Kerr, who first hired her at a community health center, and Amanda

duplication of academic programs that put HBCUs at a disadvantage.

“The state’s educational policies are unconstitutional and violate the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause, because they deprive its two HBCUs of academic programs that are unique, high demand and high quality,” Richards said.

The coalition sent a letter on April 30 to the governor, leaders of the state legislature and the Missouri Department of Higher Education detailing these issues.

The Missouri Department of Higher Education told The American that it is “in the process of a comprehensive review of how we fund higher education, including facilities, operating budgets, financial aid, and workforce initiatives. This work will be viewed through the lens of our blueprint goals, which include access, success, and equity.”

Harris-Stowe administrators declined to comment on the issue.

Harris-Stowe and Lincoln enroll about 3 percent of the state’s total student population, Richards said, but nearly 20

Murphy, who hired her in her first executive position (as chief financial officer) at a community health center. Clabon did not work with Myrtle Hilliard Davis, the former namesake of what is now Care STL Health, though she credited Davis’ legacy –despite the controversial recent decision by the center’s board to remove her name from it. Clabon vowed of Davis, “Her legacy will be preserved.”

Interdependence was the entire theme of the remarks made by board chair emeritus Rev. Earl Nance Jr., who accepted the 2018 Health Advocacy Organization of the Year Award on behalf of HeatupStLouis.org, alongside current board president Pamela Walker.

“We’re a consortium, and we all have roles to play,” Nance said, singling out

name after a community-based group composed of alumni from Maryland’s four HBCUs. In the case of Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education et al. v. Maryland Higher Education Commission, a federal district judge ruled in 2013 that Maryland violated the constitutional rights of students at Maryland’s HBCUs by unnecessarily duplicating their programs at nearby white institutions.

percent of the state’s entire black undergraduate population in the public four-year sector.

Richards said that colleges enrolling the highest share of black students tend to have the smallest budgetary “boost.”

The campuses receiving the largest budgetary gains from the state’s new funding model are those enrolling the smallest share of Pell Grant students, she said.

“The State of Missouri has the responsibility to be fair,”

Ameren, Vatterott College and the St. Louis Fire Department as especially critical role players in executing the organization’s mission of keeping low-income homes warm in the winter and cool in the summer, which is critical to health.

The organization’s founder Gentry W. Trotter made the same point in an award video produced by Rebecca Rivas.

“We impact people as a collective effort,” Trotter said. “We work together as a tag team to address a health and safety issue.”

The recipient of the Dr. John M. Anderson Excellence in Mental Health Award, Dr. Renee Cunningham-Williams, also showered praise on and passed credit onto God and family, especially her parents, who recently celebrated “55 years of love and marriage.”

she said.

The Missouri Department of Higher Education provided The American with a list of Pell Grant recipients for all the state universities. Nearly every one of Harris-Stowe’s 1,400 undergraduates are Pell Grant recipients, and about half of Lincoln’s 2,800 undergrads are. Less than one-fourth of students at University of Missouri college campuses are Pell Grant recipients.

The coalition modeled its

An associate professor and associate dean of Doctoral Education and director of the Doctoral Program in Social Work at Washington University’s Brown School of Social Work, she also shared credit with colleagues and mentors at the Brown School. Cunningham-Williams was especially thoughtful in praising and stressing connections to her work with both the namesake of the award she received, Dr. John M. Anderson (19161986), a pioneer in the field of mental health, and the award’s sponsor, the St. Louis County Children’s Service Fund. She said the fund’s mission – “To improve the lives of children, youth, and families in St. Louis County by strategically investing in the creation and maintenance of an integrated system of care that

The local coalition’s letter gave an example of unnecessary duplication in Missouri. Although HarrisStowe had more than 100 years of teacher education and preparation by 1963, the University of Missouri–St. Louis was allowed to establish an education school that year, offering both undergraduate and graduate programs. However, HarrisStowe was restricted from offering graduate degrees. This provided “an unfair long-term competitive advantage” to other institutions, the letter stated.

The St. Louis City NAACP has entered into discussions with legal experts on Missouri’s treatment of Harris-

delivers effective and quality mental health and substance abuse services” – is perfectly consistent with her research and practice as a social worker. Eight 2018 Excellence in Health Care Awardees also were recognized: Paulette Luckett-Grant, a school nurse at Berkeley Middle School in the Ferguson-Florissant School District; Dr. Eboni January, an obstetrician/gynecologist at Betty Jean Kerr People’s Health Centers; Dr. Michael Johnson, a critical care and internal medicine physician at SSM Health St. Joseph Hospitals in St. Charles and Lake Saint Louis; Shunta Johnson, a nurse practitioner for BJC HealthCare; Dr. Moyosore Onifade, an internist in primary care and a physician advisor at Christian Hospital and CEO of Practical Health Technology Solutions; Jeanetta

Stowe and Lincoln universities, Pruitt said.

Two bills introduced this legislative session, sponsored by state Rep. Courtney Allen Curtis (D-Ferguson) and state Rep. Karla May (D-St. Louis), would provide more funding for the two universities, but Pruitt said they’ve had little traction.

Since the press conference, Curtis has requested that the state legislature’s Joint Committee on Education study the funding of HBCUs. The committee unanimously agreed to do so. This move could be “proactive” in preventing a lawsuit, Pruitt said.

The coalition hopes that the committee makes a recommendation of what needs to happen going into the next legislative session – which could be a combination of legislation, policy and budget changes, Pruitt said.

“Hopefully, they will see it and understand our argument,” Pruitt said. “If not, we know what we need to do.” To get involved in the Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Higher Education, call the St. Louis City NAACP at 314-361-8600.

Stomer, academic director and cofounder of Aspire Healthcare Solutions; Christina Furr Thurman, a marketing team lead for Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital; and Tawannia Wilson, a registered nurse, is a clinical administrator at Betty Jean Kerr People’s Health Centers.

Presenting sponsors for the 2018 Salute to Excellence in Health Care were Centene Charitable Foundation and Home State Health. BarnesJewish Hospital and BJC HealthCare were Gold Sponsors. A.T. Still University and Siteman Cancer Center were Silver Sponsors. The Bronze Sponsors were Ameren Missouri, Care STL Health, St. Louis Children’s Hospital, the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis and Webster University.

Telayah Richards, president of Harris-Stowe State University’s NAACP chapter, and St. Louis City NAACP President Adolphus M. Pruitt II announced a new Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Higher Education on Monday, April 30 at Harris-Stowe.

Photo by Wiley Price

DIVIDE

Continued from A1

were in areas with the least resources.

St. Louis is among the 10 most-segregated cities in the country, according to a calculation of the percentage of metropolitan-area black residents who live in predominantly black census tracts performed by 24/7 Wall St. The St. Louis region’s policymakers have long catered to meeting the needs of white middle- and upper-class families, in the process making living in St. Louis harder for low-income and AfricanAmerican families.

Both local and national experts attempted to explain why at the “Dismantling the Divide: Fair Housing Conference” on Wednesday, April 25, hosted jointly by the Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing Opportunity Commission (EHOC) and For the Sake of All.

“For over a century, African Americans in the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County had endured housing policies and development strategies that have trapped generations of some families in segregated and disinvested neighborhoods,” stated the report, which was released at the conference.

The conference’s keynote speaker Richard Rothstein, author of The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, said segregation

SWEEP

Continued from A1 Park, beginning with Page Boulevard, which has long been the focus of Better Family Life development and beautification efforts.

Clean Sweep seeks to not only rebuild homes, but also to improve the landscape by removing plant overgrowth, planting seeds, and removing

across the country could be attributed to two policies that the Federal Housing Administration established during the late 1940s –systematic segregation of public housing and the federal funding of whitesonly subdivisions in every metropolitan area.

Although the conference was also meant to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968, Rothstein noted that enforcement provisions weren’t passed until 1988.

“So I might recommend you postpone your celebration until another 20 years,” Rothstein said. “And the Fair Housing Act only prohibited future discrimination effectively. It did nothing to undo this enormous segregation they created.”

After World War II, many working-class families – both white and black – were living in public housing projects. At some point, white families started to move out, and the projects became almost entirely black, Rothstein said. That’s because the Federal Housing Administration began to finance whites-only suburban housing divisions – which moved white working-class families out of the urban core and into the suburbs. The administration’s written manual required developers to sign agreements, or racial deed covenants, that they would not sell these homes to African Americans, he said. Because black families were not able to buy these homes, they rented apartments

abandoned refrigerators and washing machines. Ahmed stressed the significance of appearance in regards to landscape, suggesting that being surrounded by dilapidated buildings is unlikely to encourage a feeling of safety.

Tony Thompson, president of Kwame Building Group, called Clean Sweep an opportunity to “convert the St. Louis black community.” In addition to Kwame,

in public housing – missing out on generations of equity building. Today, AfricanAmerican incomes on average are about 60 percent of white incomes, he said, and African-American wealth is about 10 percent of white wealth.

“That enormous disparity is entirely contributable to the unconstitutional federal housing policy that was practiced in the mid-20th century, explicitly violating the 14th Amendment of the Constitution – and that we have never remedied and never even attempted to remedy,” Rothstein said.

He stated the policies were not just a “historical curiosity.”

“They are so powerful that they created the boundaries we have today,” he said.

Zoning and race in St. Louis

St. Louis is among the most-segregated cities because the region got an aggressive start – earlier than the rest of the country – on using segregation tools, such as racial deed covenants and exclusionary zoning, according to the report that was written collaboratively by ArchCity Defenders, Ascend STL, Invest STL, Empower Missouri, Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing and Opportunity Council (EHOC), For the Sake of All, and Team TIF.

Some of those damaging zoning practices are still

the construction companies involved in Clean Sweep include Associated General Contractors, Ben Hur, BSI Constructors, Busey Bank, Clayco Construction, Fred Weber Inc., Holland Construction, Keeley Companies, McCarthy Building Companies, Paric Corporation, and S.M. Wilson.

One of the missions of Clean Sweep is to reduce the number of abandoned and vacant buildings and lots in

in place today, particularly regarding where multi-family units can be built. As part of the report, researchers surveyed nearly all of the region’s existing zoning requirements.

Today, few parts of St. Louis County are zoned for more affordable multi-family homes. And large swaths of far western St. Louis County are almost exclusively zoned for detached singlefamily homes. The cities of Ladue and Grantwood Village banned multi-family housing outright. Another 48 cities lacked specific zoning classifications for multi-unit housing, the report found. If developers want to build multi-family housing in some cities, they must go through a process that includes formal hearings and resident input.

Of the city and county’s approximately 614,000 housing units, researchers found 25.9 percent of them exist in some form of multifamily housing and they are concentrated in a few areas. Because of the zoning practices and other policies, the report found that the region’s 41 most-exclusionary cities – meaning that they remain inaccessible to most low-income and/or AfricanAmerican families – are located in West and South St. Louis County.

Modern development tools, such as tax incentives, can also be veiled segregation tools, that displace African Americans, the study found. For instance, the report found that tax incentives,

North St. Louis. St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson, who attended the announcement, said that of the 130,000 parcels of land in St. Louis, 25,000 are vacant lots, and over 7,000 are abandoned buildings and structures.

Ahmed stressed the importance of the community aspect of the movement, applauding Clean Sweep’s tendency to “utilize neighborhood resources and

such as TIFs, mostly support majority-white or commercial neighborhoods.

“The current use of development tax incentives has directed investment into wealthier communities and neighborhoods and bypassed areas with the greatest need for jobs, businesses, retail, and better housing,” the report found.

Remedies for dismantling the divide

“Conscious choices created our ‘geography of inequity’ in St. Louis,” the report stated. “Conscious choices can also help to reshape it.”

The report made several recommendations. The first was that St. Louis County create an Affordable Housing Trust Fund and that St. Louis city fully fund its trust fund.

In order to combat the legacy of redlining, the report recommends creating a “Greenlining Fund” that would foster homeownership for lower-income residents.

It recommends enacting legislation that prevents housing discrimination based on source of income.

Tax incentives are continuing the region’s legacy of segregation. The report demands reform of TIFs and other public tax incentive programs, and it urges that publicly-funded development projects include Community Benefits Agreements – or agreements that protect the residents’ interests in taxincentive deals.

neighborhood people.”

In order to invest in neighborhoods dealing with economic hardship, it encourages those in the private sector to support a regional Community Reinvestment Fund that would provide loans, grants and tax abatements in these areas.

Like the rest of the country, St. Louis has an eviction crisis which is destroying families, particularly those in poor, African-American communities. The report recommends eliminating unfair local nuisance ordinances which disproportionately put domestic violence survivors and people of color in lowincome families at risk of evictions. The report also highlights the city’s former program called Hope Is Moving In, which partnered with local agencies to send housing caseworkers into public schools to prevent evictions and homelessness. The program was not sustained through federal funding, but was considered a model for the prevention of evictions and homelessness.

And finally it pushes residents to establish “Consciously Inclusive Communities” and to start having more conversations about how they can heal and unify the region within their own neighborhoods.

The report concluded with the hopeful message, “Change is possible.”

Read the report

“Segregation in St. Louis: Dismantling the Divide” athttps://forthesakeofall.org.

To that end, Better Family Life has planned four cleanup weekends this summer and is seeking volunteers to take part in the community transformation. Volunteers will meet from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. one Saturday a month from now until August to aid in the efforts of Clean Sweep by picking up trash and removing debris. Those dates and meeting places are: May 19 at Better Family Life (5415 Page Blvd.), June 30 at St. Teresa and Bridget’s Catholic

Eric Vickers died fighting the good fight

The Bible asks the question “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” The same question can be posed in reference to East St. Louis. Nazareth and East Boogie have similarities: issues with poverty, crime, reputation, etc.

Yet, Nazareth produced Jesus Christ, arguably, the most significant religious figure in the world, and ESL has produced world-class individuals in the world of academics, politics, the arts and sports. East St. Louis produced my brother and homeboy, the late, great attorney Eric E.

Vickers, who recently transitioned after a gallant fight with pancreatic cancer.

The real story is not about how Eric died but, rather, how he lived –unapologetically and boldly as a defender and warrior for his people, using his legal expertise as his sword and his courage and tenacity as his shield, fighting the good fight until the very end.

James Ingram

I was blessed, on multiple occasions, to witness Eric in action, eviscerating opponents

HOMEGOING SERVICES FOR

in court, strategizing behind the scenes and pursuing justice as only Eric Vickers could do.

As a colleague under the administration of ESL Mayor Carl E. Officer, with Eric as city attorney and me as press secretary, I vividly recall when Eric and the mayor were briefly handcuffed, together, and jailed (in Belleville) for contempt of court over sewer repair issues. It was a national story. Yet, Eric eloquently and defiantly defended the city and characterized it as a case of “black robes and white justice.”

an invaluable experience for me to observe, thanks to my brother.

More importantly, I considered Eric to be a friend and one whose expertise I could rely upon, whether it was an issue of discrimination with an employer or discussion (and oftentimes a good laugh) over our columns in The St. Louis American

Cornel West to visit East St. Louis for day of free events

Cornel West visited Canfield Green Apartments in Ferguson on August 8, 2015 for the one-year anniversary of the Ferguson Police killing of Michael Brown. Photo by Wiley Price

Ira J. Eubanks

Sunday, May 6, 2018

Solomon Temple Missionary Baptist Church

4859 St. Louis Avenue

St. Louis, Missouri 63115

Wake/Musical: 3:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

Funeral: 5:00 p.m.

Burial: St. Peters Cemetery

On another occasion, in November of 1996, I flew with Eric and over 100 others on a chartered TWA jet to a frigid New York City for a protest on Wall Street, over concerns with NationsBank, which produced $100 million in concessions for the minority community.

As we broke bread at the legendary Sylvia’s soul food restaurant in Harlem following the protest, Eric and Rev. Al Sharpton unpacked the events of the day and outlined a strategy going forward. Eric was in his element and it was

Eric was always willing to appear on my radio shows on KKWK or WGNU, discussing the issues of the day, with his last appearance being over a lawsuit by MEBCO (Metro East Black Contractors Organization) against IDOT (Illinois Department of Transportation) over AfricanAmerican inclusion on the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge project.

To this day, I never cross the “Stan Span” without thinking of Eric Vickers, and I will never see an injustice toward African Americans without wondering what Eric would think or do. I will miss my brother and pray that he will rest in peace and that, as long as injustice exists, that he will never be forgotten.

Email: jtingram_1960@ yahoo.com; Twitter@ JamesTIngram.

American staff

The Eugene B. Redmond Writers Club will host Cornel West at the East St. Louis Higher Education Campus, 601 J.R. Thompson Dr., on Thursday, May 17. West will give a public address, serve on a panel, and participate in a conversation about Malcolm X with Redmond, his friend of more than four decades.

The day begins at 1 p.m. with a press conference in Building B, Room 2074, followed at 2 p.m. by a public address by West – the professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University and author of 20 books – in the All-Purpose Room in Building D of the center, along with readings of poems and impact statements.

After a tour of the city with former mayor Carl E. Officer at 3 p.m., Building B will open at 6 p.m. for viewing of exhibits and purchasing of books by West and others. Then at 7 p.m. West and Redmond will engage in “A Conversation

about Malcolm X” followed by a panel at 8 p.m. featuring Reginald

Dr.

Farmer-Hinton,

Davheed

and Redmond.

will respond. All day an exhibit will be on view devoted to Katherine Dunham, who lived in East St. Louis for more than 30 years, along with works from the collections of Edna PattersonPetty, a local artist best known for her quilts, and Redmond. Club members currently are refining kwansabas to perform for West. The kwansaba is a poetic form created by Redmond, a celebration of family and African-American culture in seven lines, with seven words in each line, written with no word exceeding seven letters.. Area school districts are encouraged to set up student tours for the West events. For more information about the free May 17 events, call 618 650-3991; email eredmon@siue.edu; or write the club at P.O. Box 6165, East St. Louis, IL 62201.

Petty,

Raquel

Laninya A. Cason,

Nelson

West

One woman, two careers

Colette Taylor-Moore is an EMT and a teacher at Lucas Crossing Elementary

By Bridjes O’Neil

Normandy Schools Collaborative

As a child, Colette Taylor-Moore saw a future in medicine, bringing new life into the world as an OB-GYN physician. She began her undergraduate studies in biology/pre-med at the University of Missouri in Columbia before transferring to DePaul University in Chicago. Her biology professor at DePaul recommended that she apply for the Health Careers Enhancement For Minorities (HCEM) internship at Case Western Reserve University, a top-ranked private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. The program gave participants an opportunity to prepare for the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) and an opportunity to shadow medical doctors.

“But, life has a way of turning out the way

n Her biology professor at DePaul recommended that she apply for the Health Careers Enhancement For Minorities (HCEM) internship at Case Western Reserve University.

it does,” said Taylor-Moore, now a first-grade teacher at Lucas Crossing Elementary Complex in the Normandy Schools Collaborative. “I stayed at DePaul until I became pregnant with my first child.”

Taylor-Moore returned home and enrolled at Harris-Stowe State College (now HarrisStowe State University). There, the St. Louis native eventually earned a bachelor’s degree

in Education and then a master’s degree in Education from Lindenwood University. She had served more than 20 years as an elementary educator when she decided to return to school.

“I had an undying need to test the waters in medicine,” she said. “So, I figured I would try being an emergency medical technician (E.M.T.) to see if medicine was something I was still interested in.”

She was teaching in the Ferguson-Florissant School District when she took a year off to focus on her E.M.T. studies at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park. It was during her first class that her professor made a dire prediction.

“He said, ‘Look around you. I guarantee you that over two-thirds of the people you see in this class won’t make it through.’”

Ameren sends diverse suppliers to Ivy League

Two owners of local MBEs receive scholarships to executive program at Dartmouth

American staff

The executive officers of two St. Louisarea companies have been awarded businessdevelopment scholarships from Ameren Corporation to attend the Minority Business Executive Program at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The recipients were selected based on their strategic relationship with Ameren and the supplier’s success in providing service to a range of companies in Ameren’s 64,000-square-mile service territory. The 2018 scholarship recipients are William Mason Jr., president of Mason’s Landscaping

See AMEREN, A10

Colonel Grace Link was named executive director of the Missouri Veterans Commission, which serves 485,000 veterans through the service of 1,750 employees in seven State Veterans Homes, five State Veterans Cemeteries, and its Veterans Services Program. Link, a Missouri National Guard colonel with 31 years of service, was appointed interim executive director of the commission in December.

Anthony Kiekow was appointed executive director of Communications for the Riverview Gardens School District. Most recently he served as public relations manager for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He also spent seven years working as a television journalist for media outlets across the country, including KMOV-TV and KTVI/ KPLR-TV in St. Louis.

Cora Faith Walker received the Emerging Leaders Award at the 35th Annual Brown School Awards of Distinction. Walker, D-Ferguson, represents District 74 in the Missouri House of Representatives and earned her Masters of Public Health as part of the inaugural MPH class at the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis in 2010.

Timothy Smith was appointed to the Missouri Democratic Party’s Executive Committee by Stephen Webber, state party chairman, and Emily Waggoner, executive director of the state party. Smith is an attorney and bishop in the Church of God in Christ. He is also a longstanding member of the Ecumenical Leadership Council of Missouri-St. Louis Chapter.

Kathleen Foster accepted a new position as District Secondary ELA Coach with Topeka Public Schools, rejoining Tiffany Anderson, district superintendent, with whom she had worked in Jennings Public Schools. Foster was a 2016 recipient of the Salute to Excellence in Education Award from the St. Louis American Foundation and supports teachers through her nonprofit, Teachers4Teachers.

Dmitri Jackson was nominated in the category of Best Male Character in the Glyph Comics Awards at the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention for his ongoing comic series Blackwax Boulevard The awards recognize the best in comics made by, for, or about black people He is a cartoonist

Cora Faith Walker

Dmitri Jackson

Kathleen Foster

Anthony Kiekow

Timothy Smith

Colette Taylor-Moore with students at Lucas Crossing Elementary Complex in the Normandy Schools Collaborative

Shawn Schukar, president, Ameren Transmission Company of Illinois; Richard Mark, president, Ameren Illinois; William Mason Jr., president, Mason’s Landscaping & Construction Services; Dana Howard, CEO and president, Zoie, LLC; Michael Moehn, president, Ameren Missouri; Byron Witherspoon, director, Supplier Diversity, Ameren.

By Cara Spencer For The St. Louis American

Last week, the Missouri House Financial Institutions Committee passed a bill that purports to regulate payday lending, but consumer organizations argue that the bill essentially maintains the status quo for an industry that preys on our state’s poorest residents and are hoping to stop it from moving forward this week.

Missouri has more payday lenders than McDonald’s, Starbucks and Wal-Mart stores combined. Last year,

Payday lending bill allows 910 percent interest rates

1.62 million payday loans were issued in Missouri alone, averaging 1 in 4 residents. Loans carried an average APR of 462.78 percent. and the fees and fines add up to tens of millions of dollars. This is detrimental not only for Missouri families but its terrible for our state’s economy.

Despite years of efforts by consumers groups, faith leaders, labor and others in Missouri to lower the rates on these loans to 36 percent annually, the Missouri House is moving forward HB 2657 which will allow 35 percent every two weeks, translating

County Council asked to approve bonds for Save-A-Lot to build at former Northwest Plaza

American staff

To help retain Save-A-Lot in St. Louis County, the St. Louis County Council is being asked to approve Chapter 100 bonds. The bonds would provide for the company to pay 50 percent of assessed personal property taxes on computers and other office equipment for the next 15 years.

Save-A-Lot plans to build its new corporate headquarters at the Crossings at Northwest in St. Ann, formerly Northwest Plaza shopping mall; its current headquarters is in Earth City. The development would create 64 jobs and retain more than 450, according to the St. Louis County executive.

into 910 percent APR. Given that the average loan in Missouri carries a 462 percent APR, this does nothing to change the status quo.

This not only lacks the real regulatory changes the state of Missouri needs to protect its citizens, passage of this bill leaves Missouri far behind the regulation of all of our surrounding states, all of which have rate cap of 15 percent.

Secondly, while the bill reduces the number of

Cara Spencer

renewals from six to two, all surrounding states prohibit them all together. Reducing renewals does not stop the debt trap. These types of provisions are easily evaded by payday lenders who keep borrowers stuck in back-to-back loans. Even in states which prohibit any renewal, borrowers are stuck in an average of 9 loans a year and payday lenders earn 60 percent of revenue from borrowers with 12 or more loans a year.

Finally, the bill loosens the

n The Missouri House is moving forward HB 2657 which will allow 35 percent every two weeks, translating into 910 percent APR.

regulatory burden on payday lenders by reducing the fee for payday lenders to operate from $500 to $300 a year, making it less expensive to operate and providing the state with less funds to provide oversight.

At a time when our federal government is loosening regulations on the banking and predatory lending industries, now is the time for our state to stand up and enact real consumer protections. We urge the Missouri legislature to enact real reform to predatory payday loans in this state, and to reject HB 2657 – a sham bill that maintains payday lenders status quo.

Cara Spencer is executive director of the Consumers Council of Missouri.

invests $500K in Justine Petersen’s Emerging Markets Loan

First Bank has invested

$500,000 into Justine Petersen’s Emerging Markets Loan Fund. The revolving loan fund falls under the lending of Justine Petersen’s wholly owned and operated Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and will be used for micro- to

medium-sized loans to small businesses in under-resourced areas of eastern Missouri and Southern Illinois.

Small business owners who are unable to access credit from larger financial institutions for a variety of reasons – such as credit score, debt-to-income ratio and more – can qualify for loans through the CDFI. Then, as they build their bankable credentials and raise their credit score, those clients are graduated back into mainstream finance. For more information, visit www.justinepetersen.org First Bank

Justine P Petersen, a St. Louis-based nonprofit, assists low- to moderate-income individuals and families to develop, maintain and increase financial assets. Additionally, it is the nation’s largest microlender for the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Who’s Who Diversity releases higher education edition on May 3

Save-A-Lot began with a single store in Cahokia, Illinois, in 1977. Its store and distribution network now includes more than 1,200 corporate and licensed stores in 36 states and 16 wholesale distribution centers Current Crossings at Northwest tenants include Charter Communications, Starbucks and Menards and St. Louis County government offices.

“It’s unusual to make such an announcement without first discussing it with the stakeholders,” said St. Louis Council Chairman Sam Page. “It’s been left up to the council to do the hard work of talking with stakeholders like the fire and school districts to ensure that this is a good deal for St. Louis County.” Of course, fire and school districts are funded by tax revenues.

Publisher Ericca Willis will release the Who’s Who Diversity in Color 4th Edition “Saluting Diversity in Higher Education” 6-8:30 p.m. Thursday, May 3 at Ball Park Village.

The edition features 13 college presidents and chancellors in the region, including Dwaun J. Warmack of Harris-Stowe

State University, Mun Y. Choi of University of Missouri, Michael Middleton of Lincoln University, Cliff Smart of Missouri State University, Mark Lombardi of Maryville University, Beth Stroble of Webster University, James M. Dennis of McKendree University, Barbara Kavalier of St. Charles Community College, Jeff Pittman of St. Louis Community College, Fred Pestello of Saint Louis

University, Carlos Vargas of Southeast Missouri University, Thomas George of University of Missouri – St. Louis and Mark Wrighton of Washington University. This year’s Introduction and Foreword writers are Ann Cuiellette Marr, vice president, Global Human Resources for World Wide Technology, and Richard Juang, associate attorney at Goldberg Segalla.

Michael McMillan, president and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, will be honored to celebrate the organization’s centennial. For tickets and more information, visit www. whoswhodiversityincolor. com or call 314-473-5257.

Regions Bank opens new branch in Florissant

Regions Bank opened a new branch at 100 Highway 67 North, near Washington Street and Charbonier Road in Florissant, that replaces an older Regions location at 1100 Shackelford Rd. The bank has also opened new or renovated branches recently in Jennings and St. Ann.

The open design of the new branch does not include a traditional teller line. Instead of waiting to be called up to a counter, when people walk into the new Florissant branch,

AMEREN

continued from page A9 & Construction Services, and Dana Howard, CEO and president of Zoie, LLC. Both companies are Minority-Owned Business Enterprises (MBEs).

Mason’s Landscaping & Construction Services is a commercial landscaping and restoration company headquartered in St. Louis. The company restores yards after Ameren crews finish repair work.

“Ameren has given us the opportunity to work and to provide work to others in search of a better life,” said Mason. “Through the Tuck scholarship opportunity, I’ll be able to continue to grow and shape my business for the future. This is a tremendous

they are greeted by a local Regions banker who can help with everything from general transactions to more in-depth needs, such as planning budgets or analyzing financial options.

The branch also offers Regions Video Banking. The branch includes three Video Banking ATMs in the drivethrough as well as a walk-up Video Banking ATM in the foyer.

Video Banking ATMs allow customers to choose to connect

n “Through the Tuck scholarship opportunity, I’ll be able to continue to grow and shape my business for the future.”

– William Mason Jr., Mason’s Landscaping & Construction Services

opportunity for me, personally, and for all those who rely on our business for employment.”

Zoie, LLC, is a site preparation company based in East St. Louis, Illinois. Zoie, LLC, performs excavation and grading services for Ameren.

“Ameren’s supplier diversity program has helped Zoie compete for and win construction contracts across our region,” said Howard.

with a Regions Video Banker via live, two-way video. Along with processing most general transactions, Regions Video Bankers help people with account maintenance and general inquiries during expanded hours.

Regions Video Bankers are available on weekdays from 7 a.m. – 8 p.m. They are also available on Saturdays from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., Sundays from 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. and during most holidays.

“Being awarded a scholarship to improve my business acumen is just one more way Ameren supports minorityowned companies and helps them succeed.” Ameren began offering scholarships to local suppliers in 2009.

“Zoie and Mason’s Landscaping & Construction Services are valued Ameren partners, as are all of our diverse suppliers,” said Dennis Weisenborn, vice president corporate safety, supply services and chief procurement officer at Ameren.

“By recognizing and investing in the development of diverse businesses, Ameren is able to develop powerful long-term partnerships that are necessary for our success and the economic success of our region.”

Monsanto joins Edward Jones as ‘Champions of Diversity & Inclusion’

Monsanto will be recognized as a Champion of Diversity & Inclusion by the Asian American Chamber of Commerce of St. Louis (AACC) at the organization’s annual Connections Dinner on May 8. Monsanto will join Edward Jones as the only recipients of the AACC Champion of Diversity & Inclusion award.

The AACC board points to Monsanto’s work in this important area, particularly on behalf of the Asian-American employee base at the St. Louisbased company.

“Like our inaugural recipient for this award, Monsanto not only demonstrates executive ownership through their inclusion and diversity strategy but is also a thought-leader

on how a good D&I strategy drives global business results,” said Al Li, AACC president.

“The AACC applauds Monsanto’s inclusion of the Asian community as one of its nine business resource groups while also being one of the major importers of Asian talent to the St. Louis area for decades.”

MOORE

continued from page A9

Taken aback by his comment, Taylor-Moore was determined to prove him wrong. She completed the program and is now approaching her third year working evenings (and some weekends) as a board-certified E.M.T. She says organization and time management are key to balancing both careers. Whether it’s inside the classroom or an ambulance, Taylor-Moore says she’s prepared to meet any challenge head-on.

Any mention of a student not feeling well or a fall on the playground, she immediately checks for high temperatures and broken arms. Other times, she takes a motherly nurturing approach with students. This school year, she said that two students each lost a loved one.

“Sometimes they need an extra hug,” said Taylor-Moore, a mother of two. “You have no idea what the situation is until you get into the trenches.”

Ambulance calls TaylorMoore responds to range from routine transfers to extreme cases like one she said she’ll never forget – the suicide call of a 16-year-old boy. His parents reported that they

had no previous knowledge of him being distraught and to find him in that state was indescribable.

“At the time, my own son was 16,” she said. “You never know what children are going through. My heart was torn as a teacher and a parent.”

Despite the emotional tolls and physical demands of her two careers, Taylor-Moore says it’s rewarding making a difference in the lives of so many.

“I’m truly blessed to have both careers,” she said. “Wherever I’m needed to help, that’s what I want to do.”

St. Louis Enterprise Center-Wellston gets state tax credit

The Missouri Department of Economic Development approved of a $90,000 Small Business Incubator state tax credit to go towards the St. Louis Enterprise CenterWellston, 6439 Plymouth Ave., on April 19. Previously utilized as a portion of Wagner Electric, which ceased operations in the early 1980s, the redevelopment of the St. Louis Enterprise CenterWellston on this site would provide start-up businesses low-cost office, manufacturing and warehousing space, as well as networking and mentoring opportunities through shared services

and information from other businesses, according to state Rep. Joe Adams, D-University City, whose district includes the development. St. Louis Enterprise Centers are a partnership between St. Louis Development Corporation and the St. Louis County Economic Council. Call 314-727-6132.

Financial Focus

By Andre K. Nelson Mother’s

Day – Financial gifts for your adult children

that familiar with how the financial markets work, having these shares in their possession may greatly expand their knowledge and lead to an even greater interest in investing.

Donate to a charity in your child’s name. You might want to donate to a charitable organization that your child supports.

Colette Taylor-Moore, emergency medical technician and Lucas Crossing Elementary teacher

Promoting health benefits of trees

Arbor Day celebration in North County

American staff

n “Honeysuckle is not supposed to be here, so it’s killing all the native plants and all the native foods that the animals eat, so we have to cut it down,” said one eighthgrader, Makiah.

“We want to spread the good news and benefits of trees and improve the community forest in the 24:1,” said Doug Seely, community forester for Beyond Housing. Beyond Housing and its 24:1 Collaborative partnered with the Missouri Department of Conservation and the National Arbor Day Foundation to introduce 38 eighth-graders from the Normandy Schools Collaborative Seventh Eighth Grade Center to the benefits of trees in an Arbor Day Celebration on April 18 at St. Vincent Park. Interaction with trees and natural spaces can boost immune system, lower blood pressure, reduce stress, improve mood, increase ability to focus, increase energy level and improve sleep, according to a review of research by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. An article published in 2011 in the American Psychological Association publication, American Psychologist, states “spending time in nature can promote cognitive functions and overall well-being.”

The Arbor Day Celebration was hosted by 15 Tree City USA-certified communities. Tree City USA is a recognition and certification program for municipalities that meet designated tree care standards in their communities. The MDC administers the

During the 24:1 Collaborative’s celebration of Arbor Day, in partnership with the Missouri Department of Conservation and the National Arbor Day Foundation, eighth-graders from the Normandy Schools Collaborative Seventh Eighth Grade Center got to remove invasive bush honeysuckle. See TREES, A13

Free yoga in Kiener Plaza this spring and summer

Centene Charitable Foundation and Gateway Arch Park Foundation are sponsoring free sunrise yoga and evening boot camp classes in Kiener Plaza this spring and summer. Free Sunrise Yoga takes place at 7 a.m. every Tuesday through October 16. Yoga Buzz instructors lead a 45-minute riseand-shine flow class to relaxing music. All experience levels are welcome.

Heath Norton, owner of Title Boxing Club in Rock Hill leads hour-long yoga boot camp sessions 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays from May 2 through June 6 and from September 5 through October 10. Both classes are open to the public; no RSVP required. For more information about Free Sunrise Yoga, visit archpark.org/yoga. If support, including an assistant or sign language interpreter, is needed during the yoga sessions, Yoga Buzz is happy to accommodate. Email events@yogabuzz.com with any accessibility requests a week before the event. For more information about boot camp, visit archpark.org/bootcamp.

Yoga Buzz instructors lead a rise-and-shine flow class in Free Sunrise Yoga in Kiener Plaza every Tuesday through October 16.

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

As my daughter and countless other teens prepare to leave their protected nests for college, I started to think about all of the topics I have discussed with her in the past and the topics I have yet to cover about life as a young adult. Though I readily admit I am a worry-wart, I am also quite pragmatic and believe that the more you know before, the more likely you are to make good choices when faced with difficult challenges. With that in mind, check out my 2018 college prep guide. At this point of the year, most teens know where they will be attending college in the fall. Parents are paying housing deposits, setting up payment plans, and readying their minds for the departure of their once-little baby boys or girls. However, in the midst of that excitement, please do not forget that colleges will require an updated physical and documentation of immunizations. Proof of immunizations against MMR, Varicella, and Menactra are just a few that are generally recommended. Furthermore, now is a great time to start the HPV (Human Papillomavirus) series if not previously immunized against it. Even though numbers do not lie, many parents still cannot accept that their “innocent” children will one day have sex. This disbelief is one of the reasons given for not consenting to the vaccine. For your information, these “innocent” children will not only have sex but many will have multiple partners.

n Even though numbers do not lie, many parents still cannot accept that their “innocent” children will one day have sex.

Speaking of sex, one of my favorite topics to discuss with teens, it is important to continue to reinforce the concept of safe sex. Simply put, naked penises should never be in the vagina or anus. Sexually transmitted infections are quite common on university campuses. Just because she is cute and makes good grades does not mean that her vaginal fluids are not teaming with organisms like Trichomonas. Let’s not forget about the HPV virus that can cause cervical or oral cancer or the Darth Vader of all viruses, HIV. In the paraphrased words of the Queen B, “If you like it then you should have put a condom on it!”

When discussing sex, you cannot forget the relationships that alcohol and drug use play. Underage drinking is a major problem on and off campus. Many Greek organizations even use excessive drinking in pledging activities. Being intoxicated opens up a host of other issues, like driving while under the influence and sexual assault. When looking at the literature, many of the rapes that occurred with college-aged adults were associated with excessive alcohol either by the perpetrator or the victim.

An additional important point to remember is that a person cannot consent to sex if they are intoxicated. Therefore, if your son has sex with his partner who is drunk, she could later say that she did not give consent and he is then possibly facing rape allegations. Back in the day, no meant no. But today, you need to be certain that yes means yes.

My final piece of advice is concerning mental health. When I think back on my first year of college, no one ever talked to me

Denise HooksAnderson, MD

Photo courtesy of Missouri Department of Conservation

During the 24:1 Collaborative’s celebration of Arbor Day, in partnership with the Missouri Department of Conservation and the National Arbor Day Foundation, eighth-graders from the Normandy Schools Collaborative Seventh Eighth Grade Center got to plant trees.

TREES

Continued from A12 program in Missouri.

One of the requirements to achieve and maintain Tree City

USA certification is to hold an annual Arbor Day Celebration during April. “So being the 24:1, and having smaller communities, we came together and had one big Arbor Day celebration,” Seely said.

24:1 is a collaborative formed by Beyond Housing to serve the 24 communities of the Normandy Schools Collaborative.

During the celebration the students got to plant trees and remove invasive bush honeysuckle and climb trees like professional arborists with an outfitting company.

“Honeysuckle is not

ANDERSON

Continued from A12

supposed to be here, so it’s killing all the native plants and all the native foods that the animals eat, so we have to cut it down,” said one eighthgrader, Makiah. She said it was the most “nature work” she’d ever done.

Fellow student Kenneth said the tree climbing was his favorite, but he also enjoyed planting trees and would like to do that more. “It gives me more experience when I help my grandparents to plant their trees,” he said.

Tree City USA, a program of the National Arbor Day Foundation, enables municipalities to provide their citizens with healthier, greener communities, along with building awareness for the benefits of trees. In Missouri the program broke 100 cities this year, with a total of 104 municipalities certified, and 51

about what to do if I got overwhelmed or started to feel depressed. Was it just assumed that I would be ok? With the rising number of young people reporting feelings of depression and anxiety, we cannot afford to leave such important discussions off the table. Every year college campuses are reporting suicides or suicide attempts from bright, young people with promising futures. We need to prepare these young adults by sharing resources for whom to contact when their mental health seems compromised. They need to know that help is available and that they are not alone. I am extremely excited for these young people leaving for college. But instead of talking about how they will decorate their dorm rooms, let’s talk about some substantive issues that will help them thrive and survive.

Denise Hooks-Anderson, M.D., is assistant professor at SLUCare Family Medicine. Email yourhealthmatters@stlamerican.com.

of those communities are in the St. Louis region.

“We have towns as small as Glen Echo Park with 130 or so residents, all the way up to St. Louis, Kansas City and Springfield,” said MDC St. Louis Community Forester Danny Moncheski.

Seely said he hopes the hands-on experiences these Normandy eighthgraders had during the 24:1 celebration can help move the spirit of Tree City USA into the future.

“I hope they learned a lot and that it sticks with them,” Seely said. “If nothing else, I think they gained a new respect for the outdoors and trees. That was one of the main goals.”

To find out more about the Tree City USA program, search “Tree City USA” at mdc.mo.gov.

Autism diagnosis rates may show modest increase

Many children not diagnosed early enough to maximize therapy benefits

By Sandra Jordan Of The St. Louis American

Autism rates in children show a continued but modest increase, according to a study of the most recent data available, which may suggest a leveling off. However, researchers also found that many children are not diagnosed until age 4 or older.

“There is a gap between the time when parents first recognize that their children are delayed in development (typically 18-24 months) and when they receive an evaluation that confirms the diagnosis (typically after the age of 4 years),” said John N. Constantino, M.D., one of the study’s authors.

Constantino is also the Blanche F. Ittleson professor of Psychiatric and Pediatrics at Washington University in St. Louis, the director of the William Greenleaf Eliot Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and co-director of Washington University’s Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center.

That gap is problematic because the older a child is when diagnosed with autism, the harder it is for health-care professionals to intervene and change the trajectory of autism spectrum disorder. Children with autism often face social challenges, communication problems and intellectual

Autism in black and white

A higher percentage of white children than AfricanAmerican and Hispanic children were identified as having autism spectrum disorder, according to a new study by the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network. That gap, however, is narrowing, which may be due in part to increased efforts to diagnosis children in minority communities. Despite the narrowing gap, minority children with autism are disproportionately affected by intellectual disabilities related to the disorder. Some 44 percent of African-American children with autism also have intellectual disabilities, compared with 22 percent of white children with the

deficits, but research suggests some of those hurdles may be overcome with early, intensive therapy.

“Early intensive behavioral interventions involve one-on-one support (by a developmental therapist or parent when specifically trained) to help a child acquire the succession of necessary developmental competencies that are not coming naturally to them,” Dr. Constantino told The American. “This includes motivating and helping young children to sustain attention with another person, to improve their ability to engage in turn-taking social interaction, to develop communication skills through symbolic play and practice, and to regulate emotion so that they are not overwhelmed.”

Washington University School of Medicine is among the 11-center Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, which based its findings on 2014 data, the most recent year that comprehensive statistics are available, involving more than 10,886 children. The results were published April 27 in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.”

Researchers found that 1.7 percent of 8-year-olds (1 in 59) in the study had a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. That compares with 1.5 percent (1 in 68) in 2012. This increase

disorder.

“We are very concerned that at least part of the difference is due to disparities in access to high quality intervention (developmental therapy), which, if true, must be resolved because of the lifelong implications of compounding the condition of autism with the condition of intellectual disability,” said John N. Constantino, M.D., of Washington University School of Medicine, an author of the study.

“The hope is that all or at least part of this is preventable, and we are testing that possibility in a new effort in which we are asking primarycare providers to refer all young African-American children (12-30 months of age) to our social developmental studies program if they are experiencing any delay in receiving a comprehensive

could indicate an improvement in the identification of autism spectrum disorder, particularly in previously underdiagnosed minority populations, among other factors. Prevalence estimates in the 11 communities represented in this report ranged widely, from a low of 1.3 percent to a high of 3 percent.

“I think this shows that the prevalence of autism in the U.S. is continuing to show signs of steadying,” he said.

“Unfortunately, however, it appears many kids still aren’t getting diagnosed early enough to get maximum benefit from therapy.”

Thirty-nine percent of the children in the study who were diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder did not receive such a diagnosis until they were over 4 years of age, he said.

Dr. Constantino said it remains a priority to diagnose autism earlier and begin intervention sooner, especially given recent research suggesting that higher intensity and duration of early developmental therapy for children with autism is associated with significant improvements in outcomes.

For more information about autism spectrum disorder or autism therapy, visit https:// bit.ly/2I0pGdY or www. autismspeaks.org.

evaluation to establish the diagnosis and eligibility for service.”

Constantino said the children will be evaluated immediately, diagnoses established if present, and they will facilitate their enrollment into every indicated therapeutic support for which they are eligible.

“If we can accrue additional support for this project, we would ideally like to supplement the ‘available’ interventions in the community with state-of-theart therapies of even higherlevel intensity and duration, to determine whether we can fully eradicate the disparity in intellectual disability frequency between AfricanAmerican and Caucasian children in this new cohort in St. Louis,” he said. – Sandra Jordan

At this point of the year, most teens know where they will be attending college in the fall. Do not forget that colleges will require an updated physical and documentation of immunizations. Proof of immunizations against MMR, Varicella, and Menactra are just a few that are generally recommended.

Photo courtesy of Missouri Department of Conservation

Healthy Kids Kids

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with fun and healthy snacks and dinner. Just substitute a few healthy options for the normal celebration foods.

>Substitute whole wheat tortillas for white tortillas.

chips.

buying high-sugar salsa from the store.

>Make your own baked tortilla chips instead of using fried

Five Areas of Fitness

Cardiovascular Endurance —

Aerobic activities (increasing your heart rate and breathing for at least 20 minutes) help improve your heart health and endurance.

Muscle Strength — We improve our muscle strength by making them work harder. This is accomplished by slowly increasing the amount of weight/ resistance you lift or press.

May 10th is National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day. As a class, discuss what you think are important areas of mental health. Today we’ll focus on stress management. This means that we’ll consider ways to relieve the stress in our lives. Individually, make a list

>Use grilled chicken instead of higherfat hamburger.

>Use low-fat shredded cheese whenever possible.

>Make your own salsa (see recipe below) instead of

>Use high-fiber black beans instead of white rice in your recipes.

>Use plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream.

Learning Standards: HPE 2, HPE 5, HPE 6, NH 1, NH 2

Elizabeth Patton-Whiteside, RN, BSN, MBA

Where do you work? I am a public health administrator for the East Side Health District.

Muscle Endurance — Your ability to continue a physical activity for longer periods of time (such as running, cycling, sit-ups, etc.) builds your muscle endurance.

Flexibility — Stretching and bending helps to increase your body’s flexibility.

Where did you go to school? I graduated from East St. Louis Senior High School. I then earned a bachelor of science in nursing from Saint Louis University, a master’s in business administration health care management from Phoenix University, and New Farmer’s Certification and Master Gardener trained at the University of Illinois.

Body Composition — The ratio of fat and muscle in your body makes up your body composition. Remembering to focus on the other four areas of physical fitness will improve your composition, and overall health!

Learning Standards: HPE 1, HPE 2, HPE 4, HPE 5, NH 1, NH 5

of four things that cause you stress. Again as a class, talk about different methods for stress relief: time management, coping, speaking with trusted adults, exercising, journaling, etc. Now looking at your stressors list, what of these relievers might help?

Learning Standards: HPE 2, NH 1

Fresh Salsa

What does a public health administrator do? I manage the local F.R.E.S.H. Community Teaching Garden. I teach gardening practices and nutrition to students, local citizens and gardeners. I actively plant, harvest, run the local Farmer’s Market and help organize local community gardens. I do this in addition to the daily chores of being the administrator of the local health department.

Why did you choose this career? I have always wanted to help people and my nursing profession has allowed me to meet people of various backgrounds in various situations. It has allowed me to be of service to those in need. My latest as a farmer/master gardener has allowed me to use my nursing knowledge to help combat hunger and nutritional deficits within my community.

Directions:

What is your favorite part of the job you have? I enjoy meeting people and teaching people how to take care of themselves.

Learning Standards: HPE6, NH3

Our summer programs offer something for every budget, schedule and interest. From our ever-popular summer camps to programs tailored for little ones, adults and the whole family, we have the adventure for you. Mail-in and online registration options are open now!

Visit stlzoo.org/education for the complete list of summer programs and detailed registration information.

Questions? Please contact the Zoo’s Education Department at (314) 646-4544, option #6.

CLASSROOM SPOTLIGHT

Mrs. EastlingChalmer’s

4th Grade Class

Annette Officer Elementary At Annette Officer

SCIENCE CORNER

SCIENCE STARS

FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN OCEANOGRAPHER TO CONDUCT RESEARCH IN A SUBMERSIBLE— Evan B. Forde

Evan B. Forde was born in Miami, Florida, in 1952. Both of his parents were teachers and encouraged Forde’s interest in science. He owned a telescope, microscope, and chemistry set as a young boy and spent a lot of time watching Jacque Cousteau documentaries on television. Forde enjoyed swimming and spending time outdoors, as well.

Who Wants To Be An Oceanographer?

If you enjoy water, you may have considered a career in oceanography. Oceanography is the study of the ocean. This study includes the water, rocks, plants, soil, animals, etc. Oceanographers observe the water currents, tides, and waves and prepare reports about how these levels affect the climate and weather. Meteorologists use this information for their weather forecasts and government agencies use this information to create emergency plans for natural disasters, such as hurricanes and tsunamis.

Oceanographers must have a strong background in physics, chemistry, biology, math, computers, and language arts.

In a 2003 interview with the National Science Teachers Association, Evan B. Forde said, “Good writing skills are often under-emphasized, but are essential

for any scientific researcher.” Because it is a competitive work field, most job applicants have a doctorate degree. In addition to their research outdoors, oceanographers also spend time indoors researching and creating reports. Students: Discuss why oceanography is an important career. What could you do now to help you prepare for this career?

Want To Learn More?

Visit this website with links to articles, games, and photos: https://kidskonnect.com/science/oceanography/ Learning Standards: I can read nonfiction text to learn about careers in math, science, and technology.

In high school, Forde took a course in environmental oceanography science. Not only was Forde interested in the lessons, he was inspired by the teacher who was a scuba diver. Forde began considering a career in oceanography. Although he was once an average student, Forde began to study harder and focus on his education to become a strong student. He also enjoyed playing trumpet and singing, but it was his athletic abilities that earned him scholarships.

Forde went to Columbia University in New York and earned a bachelor’s degree in geology and a master’s degree in marine geology and geophysics. In 1979, Forde became the first African-American scientist to conduct a research mission aboard a submersible. A submersible is a small vehicle designed for use underwater. In 1980, Forde went two miles below sea level on the Alvin, which was the submersible used to study the wreckage of the Titanic.

SCIENCE INVESTIGATION

Did you know that salt lowers the freezing/melting point of water? When salt is added to an icy road, it helps to melt the ice. When making homemade ice cream, salt will help the milk freeze to create the ice cream. Give it a try in this experiment.

Materials Needed:

½ c. milk

½ teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon sugar

4 cups crushed ice

4 tablespoons salt

2 quart size Ziploc freezer bags

1 gallon size Ziploc freezer bag

Process: Mix milk, vanilla, and sugar in one of the quart sized freezer bags. Make sure there is no excess air and seal

MATH CONNECTION

tightly. Place this bag inside of the second quart sized bag. This bag will help keep the salt solution out of the ice cream and will create another barrier in case of spills. Place ice and salt mixture in gallon sized freezer bag. Place quart sized bags inside the gallon sized bag and seal. This solution will get very cold, so you will need to protect your hands during this experiment. Massage the bag, shake it, or roll it to keep the mixture moving. In five to eight minutes, you will have homemade ice cream.

Analyze: Why is salt necessary in this experiment?

Learning Standards: I can follow directions to complete an experiment. I can analyze the results.

Forde now works for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Miami. A day at the office involves examining ocean samples, writing proposals, and summarizing research for publication in scientific journals. A day at sea may include a submersible dive or taking water and soil samples to monitor pollutants and carbon dioxide levels. Some of Forde’s work involves using sound to create maps of the ocean floor, and working with the hurricane research division, using technology to forecast the storms. He has also designed a set of courses to teach oceanography to inner city middle and high school students. Want to know more?

Check out Forde’s website: www.evanbforde.com

Learning Standards: I can read nonfiction text to find the main idea and supporting details in a biography.

MAP PREP

As an oceanographer, Evan B. Forde had to keep a watchful eye on water temperatures. Do you know the freezing point of water? It is 32 degrees Fahrenheit or 0 degrees Celsius. The boiling point of water is 212 degrees Fahrenheit or 100 degrees Celsius. Keep those ranges in mind as you answer these questions about temperature.

By the Numbers

DID YOU KNOW?

Questions:

q What is a reasonable, comfortable temperature for a room? A. 70 degrees Fahrenheit B. 70 degrees Celsius

w What is a reasonable temperature for a glass of iced tea? A. 45 degrees Fahrenheit B. 45 degrees Celsius

e What is a reasonable temperature for a cup of hot chocolate? A. 28 degrees Fahrenheit B. 28 degrees Celsius

r If the weather is 18 degrees Fahrenheit, would you most likely be?

A. water skiing B. sledding

Learning Standards: I can use the range of temperatures to make reasonable estimations.

Grab a newspaper and tackle these activities to sharpen your skills for the MAP test.

Questions:

1. Capital Critique— Circle words beginning with capital letters in the newspaper. Discuss why each word begins with a capital letter. Then, identify the words that are proper nouns. Write them in a chart labeled person, place, and thing.

2. Type of News— Look through the newspaper to find examples of local, national, and international news. Create a bar graph that represents the number of each type of news story.

3. Estimation— Estimate the length and width of a photo, advertisement, and a news story. Use your estimation to calculate area. (Area = length x width) Next, use a ruler to measure the actual length and width of the photo, advertisement, and news story. Use the measurements to calculate the true area. What is the difference between the estimated area and the actual area?

Learning Standards: I can apply the rules of capitalization, identify types of news, estimate, and measure accurately.

Map of the floors of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.

Letter from Blake Strode: What can we expect

Blake Strode, an American civil rights lawyer serving as the executive director of ArchCity Defenders, sent The American a long open letter about black representation and progressive change in public safety and criminal justice in St Louis.

“Ferguson changed everything.”

This refrain bears great meaning in a region marked as much by the killing of an unarmed black 18-year-old on August 9, 2014, as by the uprising that his killing sparked. For some, “Ferguson” meant an awakening to conditions and practices that they had long allowed themselves to overlook or ignore. For others, it meant a lifelong commitment to the kind of bold, impolite telling of truths that we saw from a new generation of leaders and activists who stared down guns, shields, and tanks to declare that Black Lives Matter.

In my case, it would ultimately mean a return to St. Louis to advocate for civil rights and racial justice on behalf of the poor, unhoused, and people of color in the region I have always called home. Ferguson changed everything.

It also changed our politics, not only by ushering in new rhetorical demands for those seeking public office – some of whom now utter phrases like “racial equity” and “police accountability” with such frequency and wide-ranging purpose that one begins to wonder whether they still hold their original significance – but also by marking a renewed emphasis on black political representation.

One element of the Ferguson story with great popular appeal was the notion that many of the city’s problems were driven by the fact that a majority-black population was governed by a white political class. For many,

from all of this

the solution was obvious, and would soon be reflected in the diversification of Ferguson’s municipal offices, from police chief to prosecutor to City Council.

But Ferguson is hardly alone in this regard. An activated and highly motivated coalition of black and progressive voters in the City of St. Louis elected its first black circuit attorney in 2016 – by a landslide.

Just months before, these same voters elevated a slate of candidates for local elected offices, from committeeperson to state representative, that were not only black but tied to movement organizing. And in 2017, this post-Ferguson wave nearly claimed its biggest win of all when it brought Tishaura Jones within 888 votes of the overwhelming mayoral favorite Lyda Krewson, despite the existence of four black candidates in a city historically defined by racial politics. In the most high-profile appointments of her first year, Mayor Krewson selected two black men – Jimmie Edwards and John Hayden – for the powerful offices of

Public Safety director and police chief, respectively. The mayor’s detractors are right to understand this as a sort of concession. Black Public Safety director, black police chief, black sheriff, black president of the Board of Aldermen, black treasurer, black comptroller, black alderpersons, black congressman, black state representatives. Score one for representation. But now, in 2018, a new question percolates among those invested in the work of racial justice and the lives of poor people and people of color in the St. Louis region: What can we expect to get from all of this representation? Put differently: what, exactly, did we win? The answer is unclear.

Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner has made friends and enemies alike in her steadfast efforts to prosecute a conservative governor who has turned radioactive. But we have seen little to no structural reform in the way that her office approaches the day-to-day prosecution of poor black defendants concentrated in North City zip codes. The Circuit Attorney’s

black representation?

St. Louis Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards – seen here with Mayor Lyda Krewson during a gun buyback event on December 8 – brought black leadership to Public Safety in St. Louis, though has done nothing to redirect resources away from a failed arrestand-incarcerate model toward a model focused on reducing poverty and homelessness.

Photo by Bill Greenblatt / UPI

Office continues to oppose bail reductions as a matter of course, and Gardner herself has said and done nothing to combat the destructive reliance on excessive cash bail. As a result, every day, hundreds of human beings are locked behind bars in the City of St. Louis purely because they don’t have enough money to buy their way out.

Gardner has also stopped short of simply refusing to prosecute certain cases, including marijuana possession. This, despite substantial evidence that such drug crimes are a major driver of racial disparity in the criminal legal system. Gardner has even continued the prosecution of protestors, including a recent effort to revoke the protest-related probation of a local activist based upon a subsequent protest-related arrest in another state.

Compare this to the record of Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, who has been in office one year less than Gardner, and has already instructed his prosecutors to decline marijuana possession and paraphernalia charges; consider the social and financial costs of incarceration in arguing

sentencing; and make plea offers below the bottom end of sentencing guidelines, all in an explicit effort to combat mass incarceration. Why should we demand anything less?

Former judge Jimmie Edwards occupies the role of Public Safety director, arguably the office best positioned to promote a truly innovative and holistic approach to public safety. Unfortunately, we have heard nothing from Edwards about changing the city’s approach to redirect resources away from a failed arrest-andincarcerate model toward a model focused on reducing poverty and homelessness, and investing in healthy, opportunity-rich communities.

Instead, Edwards has at times embraced a familiar kind of scapegoating rhetoric, such as when he took the occasion of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday to place the burden of community violence squarely on the shoulders of young black men. In response to a multitude of complaints regarding the city’s Workhouse jail, including by ArchCity Defenders on behalf of its clients in a class-action lawsuit, Edwards saw fit to guide a tour of the jail (months after the suit was filed), suggesting that the allegations of uninhabitable conditions by countless firsthand witnesses had been fabricated. Despite startlingly consistent accounts of infestation and well-documented triple-digit temperatures inside the facility last summer, Edwards assured reporters that Workhouse inmates are treated with “dignity and respect.”

Police Chief John Hayden is only a few months into his new role, but already he has been clear about his and Edwards’s Ferguson-esque plan to ramp up enforcement of lower-level “crimes” like speeding and expired tags within a high-crime “rectangle” in North City, seemingly ignoring the devastating effects that we know policing of such poverty crimes has had in cities like Ferguson and many others. During a neighborhood “Block Blitz” in March, city residents reported that SLMPD officers were ticketing and towing their cars under the pretense of “outreach” and “services.” More recently, Hayden bemoaned what he called the “improper release” of department policies and

procedures pursuant to a Sunshine Law request, despite the fact that other police departments, including St. Louis County, publish such procedures online voluntarily. The point here is not to dredge up every grievance one can muster against these or any other policymakers. In fact, we have seen some moves that should be encouraged: Edwards was supportive of subpoena power for the city’s Civilian Oversight Board; Hayden has signaled an interest in open dialogue with protesters; Gardner has diversified the upper ranks of her office and invested some resources in diversion from traditional prosecution.

The critical point is that the most vulnerable residents of our region – those in poverty, the unhoused, and disinvested communities of color – desperately need a different, bolder kind of leadership that centers and prioritizes the interests of the most marginalized. This is as essential for those already holding office as for those who seek our vote in 2018. Public officials who maintain the status quo do so at the expense of these vulnerable communities. For them, the prize of representation is no consolation.

The St. Louis region is still waiting for public leadership that matches the courage and vision of the activists, organizers, and everyday people who turned this region on its head in the months following August 2014. The sacrifice and moral call made in that time and in the time since created space for our public officials to take risks, to shift paradigms, to break the old rules. If the past few years has shown us anything, it is that much of St. Louis is hungry for that kind of trailblazing public action. If the critical mass of black public officials elevated during this period is willing to be the catalyst for that kind of action, they will find that there is a groundswell of enthusiasm and support waiting to buoy their efforts. If, instead, these officials perpetuate the functioning of systems that are devastating for poor people and people of color, they will face a level of resistance reminding them that an empty sense of diversity in leadership was never the ultimate goal.

INSIDE

SIUE East St. Louis Center offers Upward Bound Scholars Program

SIUE East St. Louis Center’s (ESLC) Upward Bound Scholars Academy is a new program that for the first time brings college instruction to students during class hours.

May 30 deadline to apply for Diversity in Media Program

With the massive success of Black Panther, the discussion around diversity in film production has risen to the surface again.

Leadership program challenges students to ‘Be the change’

Middle schoolers take part in interactive workshops that promote love, acceptance and respect in schools, workplaces and community.

High school students participate in SIUE WeCode Event

More than 30 high school students from across the region developed their own computer program during the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Engineering’s (SOE) WeCode event on Saturday, April 21.

“The construction consumer demand for quality, competitive pricing and a diverse workforce is increasing all the time,” said UPCO owner Michael Kennedy, Jr. “The industry needs more minority workers.”

Promoting skilled labor among minorities

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, construction jobs will grow faster than the average for all other occupations from 2014 to 2024. Despite the apparent abundance of construction work, St. Louis trades, unions and construction companies continue to struggle to find qualified, diverse workers.

Minority-owned The UP Companies (UPCO), which consists of Power UP Electrical Contractors and Square UP Builders, is taking several steps toward boosting diversity and making a generational

n “Why aren’t more young minorities pursuing careers in the trades after high school? We are working diligently to change the perception of skilled labor.”

– Michael Kennedy Jr.

impact on the St. Louis metropolitan area workforce by reaching out to minority students and hiring qualified minorities.

“We know that union

membership in Missouri has declined from 15.5 percent in 1989 to 8.8 percent in recent

See LABOR, page B9

Electrical careers – making

By Jim Curran and Dennis Gralike

For The St. Louis American

Kelly Stokes is a daily reminder of the value mentorship and the determination to succeed. And today, the 36-year-old International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1 electrician is the mentor, instilling the drive to succeed in future generations of the IBEW workforce. Stokes’ first mentor was his mom and she was insightful. “I grew up kind of geared for electrical work and working with my hands,” said Stokes. “My mother could see it and kept me focused on math and science programs.” Today, the U.S. strives to improve such skills in the STEM subjects

St. Louis native serves with U.S. Navy half a world away

By Theodore Quintana U.S. Navy

YOKOSUKA – A St. Louis native and 2014 Hazelwood Central High School graduate is serving in the U.S. Navy forward-deployed aboard the guided missile destroyer, USS Barry. Petty Officer 2nd Class Devante Mitchell is a boatswain’s mate aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer operating out of Yokosuka, Japan. The ship routinely deploys to protect alliances, enhance partnerships, and be ready to respond if a natural disaster occurs in the region.

A Navy boatswain’s mate is responsible for maintaining the exterior surfaces of the ships, deck handling and equipment, handling cargo and operating small boats.

Mitchell is proud to serve in the Pacific and fondly recalls memories of St. Louis. “In St. Louis, I learned to stay true to myself and always remember where I came from,” said Mitchell. Moments like that makes it worth serving around the world ready at all times to defend America’s interests. With more than 50 percent of the world’s shipping tonnage and a third of the world’s crude oil passing through the region, the United States has historic and enduring interests in this part of the world. The Navy’s presence in Yokosuka is part of that longstanding commitment, explained Navy officials.

“Being forward deployed has helped me make rank and it is good for junior sailors’ first tour,” said Mitchell.

Mitchell is also proud of winning Bluejacket of the Quarter, a Navy award given to those who stand out for their accomplishments.

Destroyers are warships that provide multi-mission offensive and defensive capabilities. They are 510 feet long and armed with tomahawk

Kelly Stokes pays his mentorship forward by tutoring apprentices at the IBEW/ NECA Electrical Industry Training Center.

See MITCHELL, page B9

SIUE East St. Louis Center offers Upward Bound Scholars Program

In addition to their regular class schedules, many East St. Louis Senior High School students are making time to attend a course that will help them better prepare for college.

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville East St. Louis Center’s (ESLC) Upward Bound Scholars Academy is a new program that for the first time brings college instruction to students during class hours.

“College is a little scary. I don’t know what to expect,” said 15-year-old Taylor Ackins, a freshman at East St. Louis Senior High who is enrolled in the ESLC’s Upward Bound Program. “But I plan to go, and I want to learn what I can now.”

“Upward Bound Scholars Academy is a collegepreparatory program,” said Salim Kenyatta, Upward Bound Scholars Program educational advisor.

“Its purpose is to create in program participants, the skills and motivation necessary to complete a program of secondary education and succeed in college.”

“The SIUE East St. Louis Center has been providing college access programming through Upward Bound for more than 50 years,” said ESLC Executive Director Jesse Dixon. “We are thrilled to be providing this new Upward Bound Scholars Academy program that works with students during the school day and allows our team to do it on a daily basis.”

In its inaugural year, the program has 50 students enrolled, consisting of freshmen and seniors. Only students in good academic standing can apply for the program, which is taken as an elective course, according to Kenyatta.

Some of the program’s services include:

• Personal college, career and life counseling

Academic advisement and assistance • Tutorial support • Leadership development

• A six-week summer program filled with academic workshops and enrichment activities.

n “Because inner city students need as much college exposure as they can get to be successful, it is great to have the Upward Bound Scholars Academy in our school.”

– David L. Shanks Sr., assistant principal at East St. Louis Senior High

“Salim Kenyatta has built great relationships with the young people at East St. Louis Senior High,” said David L. Shanks Sr., assistant principal at East St. Louis Senior

High. “He has inspired them to work on building their

personal skills, to broaden their academic potential and to actualize their goals.”

During one class session, Kenyatta is giving the students a personality test.

“It’s good to get to know yourself and your strengths and weaknesses,” he tells the students. “At college, you will come in contact with a lot of different personalities. You can learn how to work successfully

with different people and not be in conflict.”

“I’m not scared about going to college. I’m looking forward to it,” said 15-yearold Lorrionna Fields, who wants to be a pediatrician.

“Because inner city students need as much college exposure as they can get to be successful, it is great to have the Upward Bound Scholars Academy in our school,” said Shanks. “The program gives our students an engaging weekly college lecture hall experience.”

“I hope the program helps our students become lifelong learners,” he added, “with a drive to become great at whatever they want to do in life.”

Upward Bound Scholars Academy (UBSA) is a TRIO program federally funded by the U.S. Department of Education. UBSA serves high school students from lowincome families, and high school students from families in which neither parent holds a bachelor’s degree. The goal of Upward Bound is to increase the rate at which participants complete secondary education and enroll in and graduate from institutions of postsecondary education.

With a focus on empowering people and strengthening communities, the SIUE East St. Louis Center is dedicated to improving the lives of families and individuals— from pre-school through adult—in the Metro East region. The Center offers programs that give the community renewed hope and an opportunity to reach educational, career and life goals. It does so by providing comprehensive programs, services and training in the areas of education, health, social services and the arts.

Salim Kenyatta, Upward Bound Scholars Program coordinator, helps some East St. Louis Senior High school students explore what college will be like.

May 30 deadline to apply for Diversity in Media Program

With the massive success of Black Panther, the discussion around diversity in film production has risen to the surface again. Continuity, a non-profit whose mission is to expand diversity in media production, aims to put action behind this desire diversity in media production.

Continuity is taking applications for their second annual media production training program. This program focuses on helping underrepresented filmmakers gain the skills needed to secure employment in the media production industry. Applications for their new 36-week program are being accepted through May 30 at continuitystl.com.

n “Minorities are dramatically underrepresented in media today.”

the opportunity to join the second annual media training program. Classes will be taught entirely by industry professionals. The program will be broken down into three progressive phases, each of which lasts 12 weeks, one night a week from 6-9pm. Classes will include access to a state of the art media lab and film equipment and paid stipend for the entire program.

– Dan Parris, executive director of Continuity

“Minorities are dramatically underrepresented in media today,” explains Dan Parris, executive director of Continuity. “Our free, 36-week hands-on intensive filmmaking course provides skills-based training, mentorship and opportunities for untapped talent in our city.”

Starting August 2018, a group of 10 adults will have

ELECTRICAL

Continued from A1

– science, technology, engineering and math. The Electrical Connection, a partnership of IBEW and the St. Louis Chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Associations (NECA), has been a leader supporting STEM education. The Electrical Connection is also involved in advancing job creation,

Continuity’s past graduates have had their work be recognized at the St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase and the St. Louis International Film Festival where one received Honorable Mention for Best Local Short. Show Me Democracy, a documentary that Continuity participants had the chance to edit scenes for, went on to premiere nationally on Fuse TV The Riverfront Times coverage of Chris Hill’s The Wave, a video produced in the Continuity program, led to nearly 6000 video views and the subject of his piece receiving free reconstructive dental surgery. Students from

development and careers north of Delmar Boulevard. Stokes’ pathway to an electrical career was one of starts and stops. It began in 1999 as he sought an electrical engineering degree, working days and going to school at night. But making a living became the priority and he would not attain his degree until he graduated from Washington University in 2014. But along the way, something was missing.

“I wanted to fill the gap

With the massive success of Black Panther, the discussion around diversity in film production has risen to the surface again. Continuity, a non-profit whose mission is to expand diversity in media production, aims to put action behind this desire diversity in media production.

these programs have gone on to start their own businesses, intern at local TV stations and acquire freelance work with production companies in St. Louis.

The classes are on Wednesday nights from 6-9 p.m. with Thursday lab from 6-9 p.m. Program takes place at St. Louis Artworks in the Delmar Loop from August

n “I wanted to fill the gap between electrical systems designed in the office and how they are installed.”

– Kelly Stokes

between electrical systems designed in the office and how they are installed,” said Stokes. So, in 2013 he began apprenticeship training at the award-winning IBEW/NECA

Electrical Industry Training Center.

From the moment he began the first of 10,000 hours and five years of training, Stokes had launched his career. The

15 -May 22, 2019. Serious applicants only are invited to apply at continuitystl.com by May 30. Contact Continuity at http://www.continuitystl.com/ call-to-action.

training was fully paid for by IBEW/NECA. In fact, as an apprentice he earned a living with benefits and was enrolled in a pension as he learned the trade. And it was during this “earn while you learn” phase of his career that Stokes found more mentors.

NECA contractors

PayneCrest Electric and BRK Electric nurtured his skills on the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge.

“That was absolutely the best and most daunting project I’ve worked on,” said Stokes. “I climbed 400 feet to help install all the lighting on the bridge, including the beacon lighting. I’m incredibly proud every time I see it brightly lit at night.” Stokes would also work with PayneCrest on the Taubman Mall in Chesterfield. He was also part of the BRK team working on the SLU Commons dormitory project and the Mel Price Lock and Dam. He continues to work for BRK.

Stokes graduated from the training center last January.

You can get a taste of the Continuity program by attending the premiere (June 1, 7-9 p.m. at St. Louis Artworks - 5959 Delmar Blvd) of participant’s projects.

Over the past four years, Stokes has been paying his mentorship forward by tutoring younger apprentices. Now, he’s shadowing instructors to learn the nuances of becoming a teacher himself. This May, he’ll capitalize on another training center career development program when he earns his associate degree in construction management from St. Louis Community College. Determination, conviction and mentoring drove Stokes’ 19-year journey to fully cultivate his skills and he’s still learning. His advice to anyone considering the electrical trade: “Always keep moving forward. Don’t stagnate. And never give up hope. Hope is the only thing that makes tomorrow possible.”

Visit www. electricalconnection.org to learn more about careers with the IBEW/NECA team. Jim Curran is executive vice president, Electrical Connection and Dennis Gralike is director, IBEW/NECA Electrical Industry Training Center.

Leadership program challenges middle schoolers to ‘Be the Change’

By Bridjes O’Neil Normandy Schools Collaborative

It’s been said before: middle school can be tough – but it’s not impossible.

Andrew Miller, principal at the Normandy 7th-8th Grade Center, has championed a variety of initiatives to help support students at his school: chess clubs, student newspaper, chicken coop project (for hands-on lessons in science, math, and biology).

To kick off the school’s second semester, Miller and Kimberly Campbell, a counselor at the Normandy 7th-8th Grade Center, wanted to do something to foster a more collaborative environment, a culture to encourage stronger leadership skills with their students.

Researching organizations with a track record of improving school culture, Miller and Campbell came across the Challenge Day program. They worked with another school counselor, Dretta Gray-Gilard, and Tim Kjellesvik, building director of Normandy Wraparound Services, to bring in facilitators to work with students.

“The Challenge Day program is a way to break down barriers and make our students feel closer to each other,” Miller said. Challenge Day is a national

not-for-profit organization that conducts interactive workshops that promote love, acceptance

and respect in schools, workplaces and community.

The Normandy 7th-8th Grade Center held its Challenge Days January 3 and 4, with more than 200 seventhgrade students participating, along with school teachers and staff as well as representatives from Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Beyond Housing, Wyman’s Teen Outreach Program, BJC Behavioral Health, and Preferred Family Health Care.

The Challenge Day organization research has shown that bullying, emotional trauma and violence can reduce learning, increase discipline problems, and result in physical harm. Kjellesvik said some N78C students have had their share of conflicts with each other, coming to terms with hurt in their own lives, and understanding how hard life can be for others.

Program facilitator Angela Aguilar shared her personal story of challenges she faced as a teen. She admitted to the group, that in middle school, she was a loner. In high school she was tired of being on the “outside looking in,” and started hanging with the

“mean girls” clique who were all about drama, fighting and putting people down.

Then one day, Aguilar said her friends turned on her and the bully became the bullied. The taunting was so

n “The Challenge Day program is a way to break down barriers and make our students feel closer to each other.”

– Andrew Miller, principal at the Normandy 7th-8th Grade Center

unbearable; Aguilar said by her senior year, she hated school. Because of issues like these, Kjellesvik said school leaders hope what students learned as part of the Challenge Days will help them learn to be okay with themselves, to give themselves credit for being survivors, and provide them tools to be the authors of their futures.

Aguilar recited a list of “Challenge Day Norms,” or

workshop expectations, ending with a quote by Mahatma Gandhi: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” That quote seemed to resonate with students. Kjellesvik commented that some students said what they learned in the session may be the reason they were now more likely to stand up for someone being bullied and less likely to bully someone else.

N78C student La-Tavion Tompkins said it was also a great way to get to know other students better. Many students noted that they didn’t realize so many other students were facing similar challenges to theirs, Kjellesvik said. “They learned new things about themselves,” Kjellesvik said. “They were able to share things about their lives they hadn’t shared before…and it felt good to get it out there.”

The N78C Challenge Day was made possible by grants through Challenge Day and Wyman, a not-for-profit organization that partners with Normandy Schools Collaborative to provide critical wraparound services for students and their families.

Ruby Jackson (center), teacher at the Normandy 7th-8th Grade Center, works with students at the Challenge Day program.

Hazelwood Central seniors participate in College Day

On April 12, approximately 109 Hazelwood Central High School seniors participated in their Annual College Day. Seniors committed to universities, colleges, trade schools, or the armed forces following graduation in May. Universities and colleges from all over the country were represented during the event. During the ceremony, students

walked across the stage in front of their parents, peers, and staff members, and presented their name and what school they will be attending along with their majors. If students received a

full-ride scholarship, they also shared that information.

“I am proud of our students for committing to postsecondary academic careers or serving in the U.S. military

after graduation,” said Latasha Harvey, guidance counselor at Central High. “Congratulations to the class of 2018, their families, and staff on this wonderful accomplishment.

Looking to jump into a new career?

WGU Missouri offers an affordable way to earn your degree and advance your career

For those looking to get ahead at work or jump into a new career field altogether, not having the right education or skills can often lead to roadblocks in the path to success. But for many adults who are busy working and raising families, finding the time and money to go to class and complete coursework can seem impossible.

Luckily, there are affordable and flexible high-quality educational options for those who want to earn a bachelor’s

or master’s degree in less time and for less money.

WGU Missouri, for instance, is leading the charge in making affordable, challenging, nationally recognized degree programs available to Missourians who have some college experience but no degree and are unable to attend traditional colleges and universities.

The university was created in 2013 by Gov. Jay Nixon as a state affiliate of Western Governors University and is

Missouri’s only state-endorsed, accredited, nonprofit, online university. It offers more than 50 bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in the areas of business, education, IT and health professions, including nursing. These degree programs are career-focused and relevant to the needs of Missouri employers.

WGU Missouri allows students to balance work and family obligations while they complete their studies. The

university’s industry-leading, competency-based structure lets students earn credits based on previous education, training and on-the-job experience instead of time spent in the classroom. This allows them to move quickly through material they already know and focus on what they still need to learn so they graduate faster and with far less debt. WGU also offers affordable, flat-rate tuition of about $3,500 each sixmonth term, allowing students to take as many courses as

possible each term without any added costs. This model is becoming an attractive option for students who recognize higher education as a worthy investment but need options that fit their lifestyles. Since its establishment five years ago, WGU Missouri’s enrollment has grown to 2,800 and 2,000 degrees have been conferred, 50 percent of them in the past 12 months. Graduates are seeing a difference in their lives as doors open to more career

opportunities, with many earning an average of $10,600 more within a year or two of graduation. WGU provides tuition discounts to employees of its many partners around the state and has awarded over $1 million in WGU-funded scholarships since 2013. To learn more about the university, its programs or scholarships, visit Missouri.WGU.edu or call 855948-8493.

Our primary goal at Hazelwood Central is not only to prepare our students to be college or career ready but to help prepare them for life.”

Learning while making medicine better

BJC HealthCare: committed to innovation and excellence

We’ve all seen how health care continues to improve with new technologies and innovations. Here at BJC HealthCare, we are committed to innovation and excellence in medicine across our 15 hospitals and multiple community health locations.

BJC team members on the frontline and behind the scenes of patient care demonstrate that lifelong learning can help you grow professionally and personally.

Learning on the job

Knowledge gained through experience is invaluable.

Whether it’s watching a peer demonstrate the most efficient way to safely sanitize equipment, or shadowing a seasoned coworker as they lead a challenging conversation, learning on the job is a great way to observe and practice skills. Plus, learning can happen any time while on the job and sometimes when you least expect it.

BJC team members participate in mentoring programs and work alongside industry experts, which helps them expand the wisdom and skills needed for their current job and future roles.

Learning for career growth

Long-term career goals can take a lifetime to achieve. Outlining your ideal job and how you’ll get there, or forming a short-term goal like earning a degree, are solid first steps. BJC team members take advantage of:

• The BJC Institute for Learning and Development (BILD), which is a hub for helping BJC team members grow their careers, teams and leadership skills.

• BILD’s Career Services Center, where learning professionals help team members identify skills that will enable them to grow in their current role or train for a new career at BJC. Assessments and one-onone counseling help guide

employees’ career plans.

• The BJC Tuition Assistance Program, which provides financial assistance for benefits-eligible employees pursuing continuing education or certifications that will enhance their career and contributions to making medicine better at BJC. Upon hire, full-time employees are eligible to receive up to $4,500 in tuition reimbursement, per year, for successfully completing classes

n Visit BJC.jobs if you are interested in growing your career and skills alongside BJC team members who are dedicated to making medicine better for our communities.

related to their professional responsibilities. Part-time employees are eligible to receive up to $2,250 per year.

Learning for personal development

Continuous learning isn’t limited to building professional skills or a career plan. Personal growth opportunities can be beneficial in and outside of work. This growth can include developing your:

• computer skills;

• interpersonal skills;

• teamwork skills; and

• leadership skills.

BJC’s BILD organization offers a variety of courses that help employees strive to continuously learn. Having the desire to learn more helps BJC team members fulfill their shared responsibility of improving the health and well-being of the people and communities they serve. Personal development can also help you manage your work-life balance. You might learn skills that can help you find balance or recognize the benefits certain skills have at home and in your workplace. As our world changes, we need to learn and grow with it to be successful.

Visit BJC.jobs if you are interested in growing your career and skills alongside BJC team members who are dedicated to making medicine better for our communities

BJC’s BILD organization offers a variety of courses that help employees strive to continuously learn. Having the desire to learn more helps BJC team members fulfill their shared responsibility of improving the health and well-

High school students participate in SIUE WeCode Event

More than 30 high school students from across the region developed their own computer program during the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Engineering’s (SOE) WeCode event on Saturday, April 21.

Hosted by the SOE Department of Computer Science, participants from Edwardsville, Greenfield, Alton, Jerseyville, Waterloo, O’Fallon, Carrollton, Belleville and more learned computer programming through collaborative problem solving and building. About half of the students had never programmed before.

n “Computer science is a growing field with an increasing variety of career opportunities.”

– Dennis Bouvier, PhD, associate professor of computer science

project while receiving mentorship from SIUE students.”

“Our participants created some wonderful applications during our WeCode event, and I think we succeeded in giving them the tools to continue learning programming on their own.”

Bouvier, and SIUE computer science students

Eli Ball, Meg Heisler, Taylor Dowdy, Jared Schooley and Justin Bruce, assisted participants during the event.

LABOR

Continued from A1 years, and that the majority of union workers are between the ages of 45 and 64, so why aren’t more young minorities pursuing careers in the trades after high school? We are working diligently to change the perception of skilled labor,” said UPCO owner Michael Kennedy Jr. High school graduates who do not pursue a college education are more likely to seek employment in the trades, said Kennedy. In St. Louis City and County combined, 71 percent of individuals with just a high school diploma are minorities and women, and 29 percent are white men, according to the Coro Fellowship report.

“Computer science is a growing field with an increasing variety of career opportunities,” said Dennis Bouvier, PhD, associate professor of computer science.

To create their computer program, they used Snap, an online programming environment hosted by the University of California Berkeley. Snap is used in some computer science AP courses and college courses.

“We were glad to offer these high school students a chance to engage in a programming

Not all high school graduates go to college and there are plenty of skilled labor jobs currently available with competitive salaries and benefits, said Kennedy. A union apprentice can earn a yearly salary of $30,000 - $55,000, plus benefits and overtime pay, while a journeyman or foreman can earn upwards of $85,000 a year.

“With more young people pursuing college degrees after high school, less are showing an interest in learning skilled trades and joining unions, opting for other jobs that typically pay less and require less skills,” said Kennedy. “The construction consumer demand for quality, competitive pricing and a diverse workforce is increasing all the time. The industry needs more minority workers, particularly now when

Event sponsors included Centene Corporation, AT&T, NiSC, OCI, Enterprise Holdings, T-REX, BJ’s Printables and SIUE.

For more information on SIUE’s computer science program, visit siue.edu/ computer-science.

more and more Baby Boomers are retiring.”

UPCO has continued to realize the value in mentoring young minorities and is striving to give disadvantaged students the opportunity for a lifelong, respectable career in skilled labor.

The UP Companies employs a diverse, skilled, union workforce that consistently meets or exceeds minority participation requirements on every project and provides sub-contractor services at a more competitive price. UPCO currently employs 75 union apprentices and has grown its workforce from an initial 30 to 220, which includes 20% minorities.

UPCO has initiated several programs aimed at recruiting a diverse workforce and encouraging careers in skilled labor among minorities.

Company representatives regularly visit high schools, technical high schools, trade schools and universities throughout the St. Louis area to recruit minority students for training at the Carpenters Union and Electricians Local 57. The UP Companies even offers its employees incentives to seek out and hire qualified minority workers.

Once entered in the union program, UPCO ensures that the students get the “right start” as apprentices by providing them with tools and scheduling their job assignments near public transportation when needed.

For more information about career opportunities with The UP Companies, visit www. theupcompanies.com/careers.

from A1

land-attack cruise missiles, Standard Missile-3 and newer variants of the SM missile family, advanced gun systems and close-in gun systems.

Destroyers are deployed globally and their presence helps the Navy control the sea.

Sea control is the precondition for everything else the Navy does. It cannot project power, secure the commons, deter aggression, or assure allies without the ability to control the seas when and where desired.

USS Barry has anti-aircraft capability armed with long range missiles intended for air

defense to counter the threat to friendly forces posed by manned aircraft, anti-ship, cruise and tactical ballistic missiles.

As a member of one of the U.S. Navy’s most relied-upon assets, Mitchell and other sailors know they are part of a legacy that will last beyond their lifetimes providing the Navy the nation needs.

“The Navy helped me to mature and has changed my mindset on things,” said Mitchell. “Serving in the Navy gives me the feeling that I am protecting others while they sleep comfortably at home.”

Theodore Quintana is a Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class in the Navy Office of Community Outreach Public Affairs.

SIUE computer science student

Eli Ball assists high school participants at the WeCode event.

Architecture, beats and rhymes

County Library hosts Hip Hop Architecture camp, applications due May 21

By American staff

“What happens at the intersection of hip-hop culture and architecture?” Michael Ford, cofounder of the Urban Arts Collective asked during a TEDx talk in Madison, Wisconsin. “I’ve dedicated my entire academic and professional careers to exploring this intersection.”

This summer, local youth will have the opportunity to explore that intersection alongside Ford when he facilitates a Hip Hop Architecture Camp hosted by St. Louis County Library’s Natural Bridge Branch. The camp is open to children between the ages of 11-14 and will take place from July 30 – August 3. Hip Hop Architecture Camp is free – and includes free lunch – but students are required to apply in advance. Applications are currently being accepted through May 21. Interested students will be required to submit a brief essay as part of the application process. During the camp, students will be paired with architects, urban planners, designers and

Soul for Variety’s sake

Michael Ford, co-founder of the Urban Arts Collective, leading a Hip Hop Architecture Camp. He will come to St. Louis for a Hip Hop Architecture Camp hosted by St. Louis County Library’s Natural Bridge Branch this summer. Students from ages11-14 can apply to participate through May 21.

Children’s charity Variety brought the heart and John Legend supplied the soul for their 52nd Annual Dinner with the Stars Saturday night at Peabody Opera House. The fundraiser, which was hosted by St. Louis’ own Joe Torry, brought in $2.1M in funds that will go towards young people with physical and developmental challenges. Thanks to a seventh consecutive year of being underwriten by The Steward Family Foundation, Centene Charitable Foundation and World Wide Technology, all funds raised will go directly to the local Variety Kids.

Areva Martin on ‘making it rain’ through the media

Author returns home to speak on personal branding via broader audiences

By Kenya Vaughn Of The St. Louis American

Though she was already a success by any measure, a guest appearance on “The Dr. Phil Show” just over a decade ago changed everything for St. Louis native Areva Martin. She had risen from public housing in Carr Square Village to a Harvard Law School alum with who built one of the largest female-owned African American law firms in Los Angeles and was representing the families of a group of children with autism who said their children were being abused by a teacher. The case gar-

nered national attention and a call came from the show’s producers for her to appear on an episode along with her clients. The visit set Martin on a course to become a regular contributing commentator on a host of political, social justice and legal issues.

“I didn’t know exactly what was going to come of it, but I knew sitting there that something magical was happening,” Martin said of her first visit on “The Dr. Phil Show.” “And I knew having a voice in the media would allow me to reach more people, touch more people

Kehinde Wiley made history when he became the first African American artist commissioned to paint an official presidential portrait. His depiction of President Obama was unveiled during Black History Month at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Saint Louis Art Museum will present ‘Kehinde Wiley’ free exhibition featuring 11 commissioned portraits Wiley painted of North St. Louis and Ferguson residents will run October 19 – February 10, 2019.

‘Kehinde Wiley’ coming to SLAM

By Kenya Vaughn Of The St. Louis American

Kehinde Wiley, one of the most buzzedabout names in visual arts, will be returning to St. Louis, thanks to the Saint Louis Art Museum this fall. He was the first African American artist commissioned to create an official presidential portrait – naturally of the first African American president of the United States – and will be back this fall when the “Kehinde Wiley” exhibition displays at SLAM. The free exhibition will run from October 19 – February 10, 2019 and feature 11 commissioned portraits Wiley painted of people he met while visiting our region. Wiley studied the Saint Louis Art Museum collection to identify works he would reference in the exhibition and invited people he encountered in neighborhoods in north St. Louis and Ferguson to pose for paintings. He is known for using large-scale oil paintings to depict his African American subjects as regal beings that exemplify power.

The wonderful team over at St. Louis Public Radio’s “We Live Here” podcast used excerpts from his chat with former reporter Willis Ryder Arnold. It’s certainly worth a listen. I’ve included an excerpt in case you aren’t convinced.

“It’s really important to talk about the heroic in my work because so much of the image of the black male in American society focuses on the pathetic, the downtrodden, the beleaguered. What I what I wanted to do was draw a psychological line between the pathetic and it’s opposite. The confusion between what we receive and what we want to see in art and popular culture has to be my subject matter.

The style that I’m painting in refers almost directly to the center of power in aesthetic terms to Europe. All of the major developments and depiction of power and the depiction of majesty and grace come from Western Europe and the grand traditions of Western European easel painting. I’m a fan of painting and it makes a lot of sense for me to find a way for paintings to still matter in the 21st century.”

To hear the full podcast, visit http://www. welivehere.show/posts/2018/3/1/kehinde-wileytakes-us-to-art-church

See 314, C4

Photo by ProPhotoSTL

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

May 4 – 6, St. Louis Symphony presents Wynton Marsalis Swing Symphony 718 N. Grand Blvd., 63103. For more information, visit www.shop.slso.org.

Fri., May 4, 7 p.m., The Ready Room presents DDG 4195 Manchester Ave., 63110. For more information, visit www.ticketf.ly

May 4 – 5, Jazz St. Louis presents The Peter Martin Trio. Feat. Peter Martin, Brian Blade & Chris Thomas. 3536 Washington Ave., 63103. For more information, visit www. jazzstl.org.

Sun., May 6, 7 p.m., An Evening with Audra McDonald: Songs from the American Music Theater Touhill Performing Arts Center, One University Blvd., 63121.

Wed., May 9, 8 p.m., The Firebird presents Day 26 2706 Olive St., 63103. For more information, visit www. ticketfly.com.

Fri., May 11, 7 p.m., 95.5

The Lou presents the District Rhythm Series feat. MC Lyte and Big Daddy Kane Ballpark Village, 601 Clark Ave., 63102. For more information, visit www. ticketfly.com.

Sun., May 13, 5:30 p.m., Denise Thimes Mother’s Day Concert. With musical guests Jermaine Smith and Matthew Whitaker. Touhill Performing Arts Center, One University Blvd., 63121.

Sun., May 13, 7 p.m., Smooth presents R&B Legends Mother’s Day Edition feat. Evelyn “Champagne” King with Tony Terry and Kim Massie. Ambassador, 9800 Halls Ferry Rd., 63136. For more information, visit www. metrotix.com.

Sun., May 13, 7 p.m., The Pageant presents Monica 6161 Delmar Blvd., 63112. For more information, visit www. thepageant.com.

Thur., May 17, 7 p.m., The Ready Room presents Big Boi: Daddy Fat Saxxx Tour – The Third Leg. 4195 Manchester Ave., 63110. For more information, visit www. ticketf.ly.

Fri., May 18, 5 p.m., Sheldon Concert Hall presents Ezinma Ramsay Strings Attached Concert. With special guest Rhoda G. 3648 Washington Blvd., 63108. For more information, visit www. metrotix.com.

Sun., May 20, 7 p.m., Jazz St. Louis welcomes Terence E. Blanchard feat. The E-Collective. The Grandel, 3610 Grandel Sq., 63108. For more information, visit www. metrotix.com.

Sun., May 20, 8 p.m., The Pageant presents Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. 6161 Delmar Blvd., 63112. For more information, visit www. thepageant.com.

Fri., June 8, 5:30 p.m., Hot 104.1 Super Jam. Feat. Post Malone, 21 Savage, Remy Ma, SOB X RBE, DJ Luke Nasty, & Derez De’Shon. Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, 14141 Riverport Dr., 63043. For more information, visit www. topeventpromoter.com.

local gigs

May 4 – 5, Jazz St. Louis presents The Peter Martin Trio. Feat. Peter Martin, Brian Blade & Chris Thomas. 3536 Washington Ave., 63103. For more information, visit www. jazzstl.org.

Sun., May 6, 1 p.m., PorchFestSTL 2018. Porches and public spaces become stages for local bands of many genres. Skinker DeBaliviere

Kenya Vaughn recommends

Neighborhood, 6008 Kingsbury Ave., 63112. For more information, visit www. facebook.com.

Sun., May 6, 2 p.m., Friends of Scott Joplin presents Ragtime Rendezvous Open-piano ragtime social event. Scott Joplin House State Historic Site. 2658 Demar Blvd., 63103. For more information, visit www. friendsofscottjoplin.org.

Sun., May 6, 3 p.m., Central Visual and Performing Arts Concert. The St. Louis Wind Symphony will perform a shared concert with CVAP High School. 3125 S. Kingshighway Blvd., 63139. For more information, visit www.facebook.com.

Sun., May 6, 4 p.m., Vintage Vinyl presents Tonina Live 6610 Delmar Blvd., 63130. For more information, call (314) 721-4096 or visit www. vintagevinyl.com.

Sat., May 19, 10 p.m., Dark Room presents Mario y Jingo and Friends: Late Night Grooves. The Grandel, 3610 Grandel Sq., 63103. For more information, visit www. thedarkroomstl.com.

Sun., May 20, 3:30 p.m., Notes from Home. J. Samuel Davis, with special guests

Wycliffe Gordon Harvey Lockhart, celebrates music legend Robert Edwards. Sheldon Concert Hall, 3648 Washington Blvd., 63108.

Sun., May 27, 2:30 p.m., The Grandel hosts the Willie Akins Jazz Festival Performances by Joe Mancuso, Erika Johnson, Sandra Akins, and more. Proceeds benefit the scholarship fund at Webster University. 3610 Grandel Sq., 63108. For more information, visit www.metrotix.com.

special events

May 4 – 6, Florissant Valley of Flowers Festival. Fun for the whole family with a parade, games, beer garden, flea market, and more. Knights of Columbus, 50 St. Francois St., 63031. For more information, visit www. facebook.com.

Sat., May 5, 7:30 p.m., The 2 nd Annual St. louis Open Black Rodeo. Chaifetz Arena, 1 S. Compton Ave., 63103. For more information, visit www.ticketmaster.com.

Sat., May 5, 11 a.m., Broken but Recovered presents The Strength of a Woman: A

Mother’s Day Celebration Honoring women caring for children of the incarcerated. 2127 California Ave., 63104. For more information, visit www.eventbrite.com.

Sun., May 6, 3 p.m., Central Visual and Performing Arts Concert. The St. Louis Wind Symphony will perform a shared concert with CVAP High School. 3125 S. Kingshighway Blvd., 63139. For more information, visit www.facebook.com.

Thur., May 10, 6 p.m., Disney Junior Dance Party on Tour. Peabody Opera House, 1400 Market St., 63103. For more information, visit www.ticketmaster.com.

Sun., May 13, 8:30 a.m., Mother’s Day 5K Run/ Walk. Timed and untimed events, and a kid’s race. Forest Park, Cricket Dr., 63112. For more information, visit www.missouriruns.com/ stlouismothersday5k.

Sun., May 13, 4 p.m., Soulful Sundays Mother’s SoulDAY At the National Blues Museum. Performance by Gene Jackson. National Blues Museum, 615 Washington Ave., 63101. For more information, visit www. nationalbluesmuseum.org.

Tues., May 15, 6 p.m., MSD Rate Commission Public Hearing. A public hearing for the community to give feedback on the 2018 MSD Stormwater Capital Rate Proposal. City of Bridgeton Recreation Center, 4201 Fee Fee Rd., 63044. For more information, visit www.stlmsd. com.

Sat., May 19, 6 p.m., The Fontbonne Prom. A nonprofit gala in support of our new scholarship program for debtfree college education for lowincome students. The RitzCarlton, 100 Carondelet Plaza, 63105. For more information, visit www.fontbonne.edu/ alumni.

literary

Mon., May 7, 7 p.m., Maryville Women & Leadership hosts author Areva Martin, author of Make It Rain. Learn the power of media appearances to revolutionize a business. Maryville University Auditorium, 650 Maryville University Dr., 63141. For more information, visit www.

left-bank.com.

Thur., May 10, 6:30 p.m., Left Bank Books hosts author Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage. Left Bank Books, 399 N. Euclid Ave., 63108. For more information, visit www.left-bank.com.

Thur., May 10, 7 p.m., St. Louis County Library presents Suspense Night. 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd., 63131. For more information, visit www. slcl.org.

Sat., May 12, 3 p.m., Justin Phillip Reed “Indecent Threat” Joint Launch with Aaron Coleman. Reed explores inequity and injustice, while Coleman examines identity for a black man in America. RKDE, 2720 Cherokee St., 63118. For more information, visit www.slcl. org.

Tues., May 15, 7 p.m., Left Bank Books hosts author Benjamin Hochman, author of The Big 50: St. Louis Cardinals. The ultimate history for the die-hard Cardinals fan, from the tarp that injured Vince Coleman to the 2011 World Series. 399 N. Euclid Ave., 63108.

Mon., May 19, 2 p.m., The Broken Conditions Book Launch Soiree: Speak Your Truth. Jo Lena Johnson discusses her book on speaking your truth to change your circumstances. Mark Anthony’s Collections, Chesterfield Mall, 63107. For more information, visit www. eventbrite.com.

Fri., May 25, 7 p.m., Left Bank Books hosts author Jon Meachum, author The Soul of America: The Battle of Our Better Angels. 399 N. Euclid Ave., 63108.

comedy

Thurs., May 3, The Lit AF Tour starring Martin Lawrence and featuring Rickey Smiley, JB Smoove, DeRay Davis and Benji Brown. Chaifetz Arena. For more information, visit www. ticketmaster.com.

Sat., May 5, 7:30 p.m., St. Louis Cinco de Mayo Comedy Jam. With host Eric Rivers and comedian Willie Ranch. 4208 E Natural Bridge, 63135. For more information, call (314) 216-0453.

Fri., May 11, 7:30 & 10

Peabody Opera House presents Trevor Noah: Afraid of the Dark Tour. For more information, see COMEDY.

p.m., Peabody Opera House presents Trevor Noah: Afraid of the Dark Tour 1400 Market St., 63103. For more information, visit www. ticketmaster.com.

May 18 – 19, Funny Bone St. Louis presents Roy Wood Jr 614 Westport Plaza, 63146. For more information, visit www.stlouisfunnybone.com.

theatre

Fri., May 18, 9:15 p.m., The Muny Centennial Gala: An Evening with the Stars Co-hosted by Heather Headley and Matthew Morrison. 1 Theatre Dr., 63112. For more information, visit www. metrotix.com.

Sun., May 20, 1 p.m., The Muny 100th Birthday Bash Guests will enjoy a celebration of musical theatre, community and The Muny. 1 Theatre Dr., 63112. For more information, visit www.themuny.org.

June 1 – June 24, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis presents “Romeo and Juliet,” Shakespeare Glen in Forest Park. For more information, visit www.sfstl. org.

Fri., May 4, 6 p.m., St. Louis Public Schools presents Performing Arts in the Park Students from Central VPA and Roosevelt high schools will entertain attendees with dance, music and live art. Ritz Park, 3147 S. Grand Blvd., 63118. For more information, visit www.facebook.com.

Fri., May 4, 6 p.m., St. Louis ArtWorks presents Young at Art – A Celebration of St. Louis ArtWorks. Dinner, silent auction, and performance by Denise Thimes. 5959 Delmar Blvd., 63112. For more information, visit www. eventbrite.com.

Sun., May 6, 11 a.m., Richmond Heights ArtFest. Come out for vendors, music, and to buy art pieces from local artists. Lindbergh Parkway between Big Bend Blvd. and Bredell Ave., 63117. For more information, visit www.richmondheights.org.

Thur., May 10, 6:30 p.m., Contemporary Art Museum

hosts Artist Talk: Amy Sherald. 3750 Washington Blvd., 63108. For more information, call (314) 5350770 or visit www.camstl.org/ calendar/event.

Fri., May 11, 7 p.m., Contemporary Art Museum hosts the 2018 Great Rivers Biennial. Featuring St. Louis artists Addoley Dzegede, Sarah Paulsen, and Jacob Stanley, Amy Sherald, and Claudia Comte. 3750 Washington Blvd., 63108.

Thur., May 17, 6 p.m., Katrina Z’Chori Tripmix 18 Trunk Show. Hand-dyed art to wear fashion showcase. Soulard Art Gallery, 2028 S. 12th St., 63104. For more information, visit www. facebook.com.

Through June 24, From Caricature to Celebration: A Brief History of AfricanAmerican Dolls. Field House Museum, 634 S. Broadway, 63102. For more information, visit www.fieldhousemuseum. org.

lectures and workshops

Thurs., May 17, 2 p.m., The Eugene B. Redmond Writers Club will host Cornel West at the East St. Louis Higher Education Campus, 601 J.R. Thompson Dr., For more information about the free May 17 events, call 618 650-3991; email eredmon@siue.edu; or write the club at P.O. Box 6165, East St. Louis, IL 62201.

Mon., May 14, 5:30 p.m., The Importance of a Business Plan. Anheuser-Busch Hall, Fontbonne University, 6800 Wydown Blvd., 63105. For more information, visit www. stlouis.score.org.

Tues., May 15, 5 p.m., Grace Hill Women’s Business Center presents a Legal Clinic. Meet with an attorney from Legal Services of Eastern Missouri to discuss business related questions. 2125 Bissell St., 63107. For more information, visit www. eventbrite.com.

Wed., May 23, 12:30 p.m., Recap of the 2018 Missouri Legislative Session. Law Library Association of St. Louis, 10 N. Tucker Blvd., 63101. For more information,

visit www.llastl.org/CLE-0518.

Sundays, Through Dec. 30, 2 p.m., Center for Divine Love Church presents Finally Understand Race in America. A portrayal of the African-American experience. Discussion will follow. 3617 Wyoming St., 63116. For more information, visit www. facebook.com.

health

Sat., May 5, 9 a.m., St. Louis HELP Home Health Equipment Donation Drive

Receive a tax deduction voucher for every item you donate, and help provide free loans of home health equipment. For more information or a list of donation sites, call (314) 5674700 or visit www.stlhelp.org.

Sat., May 5, 9:30 a.m., Gateway Hemophilia Association presents Unite for Bleeding Disorders Walk/5K. Forest ParkLower Muny Lot, 1 Theatre Dr., 63112. For more information, visit www. uniteforbleedingdisorders.org.

Sat., May 5, 5 p.m., Central Institute for the Deaf presents CID Out Loud! Raise funds to help children who are deaf and hard of hearing acquire spoken language. The Ritz-Carlton, 100 Carondelet Plaza, 63105.

For more information, visit www.cid.edu/support-cid.

Sat., May 19, Community Women Against Hardship’s 14th Annual Walk For Life & Health Fair, Honorary Co-Chairs are Dr. Christy Richardson, Dr. Jacqueline turner, Dr. Tracy Reed, Myrtis Spencer and Dr. Will Ross. Grand Entrance – Son of Rest Shelter. Tower Grove Park. For more information call 314289-7523 or website: www. cwah.org

Sat., May 19, 8:30 a.m.,

Lupus Foundation of America, Heartland Chapter presents the Walk to End Lupus Now. Chesterfield Central Park & Amphitheater, 16365 Lydia Hill Dr., 63017. For more information, visit www.chapters.lupus.org.

May 19, 10 a.m., Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis Guild Annual Health Fair, O’Fallon Rec Plex, 4343 West Florissant.

Wednesdays through June 6, Health & Wellness Series: Boot Camp. Led by Heath Norton, Owner of TITLE Boxing Club-Rock Hill. Kiener Plaza, 500 Chestnut St., 63101. For more information, visit www.archpark.org.

Sat., May 5, 7 p.m., Festival of Praise Tour presents Texture of a Man feat. Fred Hammond, Hezekiah Walker, and Donnie McClurkin Peabody Opera House, 1400 Market St., 63103. For more information, visit www. ticketmaster.com.

Sat., May 19, 9 a.m., Breaking the Silence through Prayer and Praise Breakfast Bellefontaine United Methodist Church, 10600 Bellefontaine Rd., 63138. For more information, visit www. breaksilencewithsummers.com.

May 14 – 20, 109th Annual Holy Convocation. Nightly speakers and worship services. Eastern Missouri First Jurisdiction, 4307 Kennerly Ave., 63113. For more information, call (314) 4828547.

Fri., May 11, Breaking In starring Gabrielle Union opens in theatres nationwide.

Fri., May 25, Solo: A Star Wars Story starring Donald Glover opens in theatres nationwide.

Kenya Vaughn recommends

The Ready Room presents Big Boi. See CONCERTS for details.

a music video featuring all the participants and their hip hop architecture design concepts.

“We are thrilled to provide this unique opportunity for middle schoolers to expand their horizons and create a new vision for the St. Louis community and for themselves,” said. Kristen Sorth, St. Louis County Library director. “The Hip Hop Architecture Camp will introduce kids to various aspects of the design field with hip hop as the anchor. St. Louis County Library strives to open doors, remove barriers, and encourage people to explore endless possibilities. This program accomplishes these goals.”

The camp is presented in partnership with the Urban Arts Collective, a non-profit

focused on increasing the number of underrepresented groups in S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) careers and Autodesk, Inc., the software provider for people who make things.

According to a recent National Council of Architectural Registration Boards report, only four percent of today›s architects are African American. To help fill the skills gap and effectively engage, the Urban Arts Collective uses hip-hop as a catalyst to explore S.T.E.A.M. disciplines. Ford, also known as “The Hip Hop Architect,” is leading the design of the upcoming Universal Hip Hop Museum, established alongside many hip hop pioneers. The museum is also sponsoring the camps. Ford often discusses the power of black culture and its

global influence on art, design and architecture. In his TEDx talk, he pointed artist Pablo Picasso and famed Swiss architect Le Corbusier as examples.

“They called themselves ‘negrophiliacs’ – which was their way of describing their infatuation with black culture,” Ford said.

He tied in hip-hop by referencing Jay-Z’s “Black” album when he spoke on Picasso’s black period. Ford said this creative period was heavily influenced by the visual arts giant’s obsession with African tribal art.

“It was during that time he invented cubism,” Ford said. “African art changed the way Picasso saw the world, and how he saw himself.”

Meanwhile, Corbusier’s relationship with St. Louis native Josephine Baker inspired a love for jazz music – and the people who created it – which shaped his work.

“Jazz is more advanced than architecture,” Ford quoted Corbusier, who coined the term art deco, as saying. “And if architecture was at the point reached by jazz, it would be an incredible spectacle.”

With hip-hop as a descendent of jazz, Ford sees applying its elements to architecture as a way of realizing the “incredible spectacle” of design Corbusier imagined.

“If Corbusier could fantasize about this merger of black music and architecture, and Pablo Picasso can transcend all of the artists that were around him at that time by incorporating African Tribal Art,” Ford said, “Why can’t we – constituents of hip-hop culture, black people – bring our culture into new arenas and create something that has never been seen before?”

Applications for the Hip Hop Architecture Camp will be accepted through May 21 at www.hiphoparchitecture. com. The camp will be held from July 30 – August 3 at St. Louis County Library’s Natural Bridge Branch, 7606 Natural Bridge Road in Normandy. For more information, visit www. slcl.org.

In a wonderful twist, Amy Sherald, the African American visual artist commissioned to paint the official portrait of former first lady Michelle Obama, will have her first major solo museum exhibition at Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis from May 11 –August 19. For more information, call (314) 535-4660 or visit http://camstl.org.

Black talent sweeps 8th Annual Teen Talent Showcase

African American young people took home first, second and third prizes at the Fox Charitable Foundation’s 8th Annual Teen Talent Showcase Saturday night at The Fox. Nicaya Wiley, a 16-year-old junior at Kirkwood High School who some may recognize from the reality show “Dance Moms,” took first place. Along with bragging rights as St. Louis’ most talented teen, Wiley earned an $8,000 college scholarship, underwritten by Ameren Corporation Charitable Trust,

thanks to her performance to “This Bitter Earth.” Dance troupe Labels earned second prize, which came with a $6,000 scholarship. Labels consists of Arielle Adams, a 16-year-old from Hazelwood Central High School; Kelsey Carnes, a 16-year-old from Francis Howell North High School; Madison Alexander, a 14-year-old from Incarnate Word Academy; DessaRae Lampkins De’Jai Walker and Brooke Reese –17-yearolds from Hazelwood Central High School. Josh Royal, a 17-year-old from Pattonville High School took the $4,000 scholarship for 3rd place for his rendition of Michael Jackson’s “She’s Out of My Life.” The $1,000 cash Audience Choice Award went to Labels for their performance.

Wake up Mr. West

To quote famed philosopher Drake, “When I look back I might be mad that I gave this attention.” Yes, I know that Yeezy has albums to sell and his latest remarks were yet another stunt – but at the expense of our ancestors though? TMZ Sports’ Van Lathan is still getting a slow clap from me for coming from behind his work cubicle to gather Kanye West and get

him all the way together when he said “slavery was a choice” during an interview with TMZ. What’s most dangerous about West’s remarks is that he has so many people arguing on his behalf – people who don’t understand the horrific systems that were in place to ensure that people remained in bondage for centuries. And the same people who are clueless about the residual trauma and systemic abuse that continues to impact black people around the world. I saw one of Ye’s disciples present Haitian revolt leader Toussaint L’Overture as his example of evidence that West had a point with his awful implications. The young man was clearly uninformed about the sacrifice L’Overture made for a freedom he never lived to see. Not only did the French kill L’Overture, Haiti’s triumph came at incredible cost – including racial terror with Haiti as justification and 200 years of reparations forced upon them by the French government. I don’t want to go full history lesson, so I’ll end here. But Van said it best when he pointed out that we are still suffering through the marginalization birthed during our centuries of enslavement – and told Kanye that his platform is too huge to be irresponsible with his false narrative.

Dancer Nicaya Wiley, a 16-year-old junior from Kirkwood High School, took home the top prize at the 8th Annual Teen Talent Competition Saturday at The Fox Theatre.

n “I’m not sacrificing no bench role, so that’s out of the question.”

– Carmelo Anthony, on whether he would consider coming off the bench

Sports

violence finds its way to hallowed ground of St.

Something about Marion

It is something about the Marion Freeman Clayton Invitational that always brings out the best performances from the area’s premier athletes. Last weekend’s meet was no exception as some of the best and brightest from the area showed out in a big way. Athletes such as Justin Robinson of Hazelwood West, Brandon Miller of John Burroughs, Josh Sutton of MICDS, Deja Ingram and Aisha Southern of Hazelwood Central and Kylie Goldfarb put on a show at Clayton. In the 100meter dash, Sutton and Robinson came across the tape together in a state’s best time of 10.6 seconds. Right behind them was Cardinal Ritter standout Jameson Williams at 10.69 in a real smoker of a race. In the 200, Robinson took the win in 21.39, followed by Sutton in 21.59. Robinson put the capper on a brilliant day with a spectacular 46.6-second anchor leg to give the Wildcats the victory in the 4x400-meter relay. Williams, the sophomore sensation, took the track to run in his specialty race, the 800-meters for the first time of the season. He cruised to a victory in an impressive time of 1 minute 52.61 seconds. Pattonville’s Michael Jackson was a double winner in the long jump and triple jump. He won the long jump with a leap of 22 feet 9 inches and the triple jump with an effort of 45-10.

On the girls’ side, Ingram swept the 100 and 200 and broke

hoodies! Beautiful hoodies.”

When the Oklahoma City Thunder acquired Paul George and Carmelo Anthony during the offseason, to join Russell Westbrook, many presumed the trio of stars would help the Thunder challenge the Golden State Warriors for Western Conference supremacy. There was certainly a question of whether the three ball-dominant players could co-exist in the same offense. However, many analysts and fans expected the players to gel after a brief acclimation period. The results were mixed. Westbrook managed to repeat his remarkable feat by averaging a triple-double for the second consecutive season. George played well enough to earn his fifth career AllStar appearance. What about Anthony? After all, he waived his no trade clause and left his hometown to chase rings in OKC.

To paraphrase the great Aretha Franklin, “Great

Despite adding two players with All-NBA level nicknames, neither “Playoff P” nor “Hoodie Melo” could help the Thunder avoid getting ushered out of the first round by Donovan Mitchell and the Utah Jazz. Anthony might as well have played the fourth quarter of all seven games with a hoodie over his face.

The 10-time AllStar only scored four fourth-quarter points the entire series. Those four points all came in Game 1.

If you recall, before the season Anthony scoffed at the idea of coming off the bench, even if it would help the team. During the team’s exit interviews, he doubled-down on his demands to remain a starter next season.

“Yeah, I’m not sacrificing no bench role,” Anthony told reporters, according to NBA. com. “So, that’s out of the question.”

Unfortunately for the

Earl Austin Jr.

Ishmael H. Sistrunk

Photo by Wiley Price

Russell Westbrook and Paul George fought hard,

SportS EyE

With Alvin A. Reid

Gun violence finds its way to hallowed ground of St. Louis Cardinals

Ballpark Village has hosted a pair of concerts my wife, friends and I attended.

On July 12, 2015, George Clinton’s Parliament/ Funkadelic played to a standing-room-only crowd of which 99 percent of the folks in attendance were black. It was a fantastic evening – and it was also scorching on that Sunday evening.

Hundreds of people were waiting in a lengthy line in an attempt to buy tickets when the show sold out. Instead of turning them away, the St. Louis Cardinals, owner of Ballpark Village, televised the concert on high-definition big screens outside. Yes, the franchise reaped the benefit of selling beer and food but it was still a nice gesture to not turn away people who hoped to view the amazing show.

Last year on May 26, Morris Day and The Time performed on the outdoor Busch II Infield Stage at BPV. Perfect weather and a peaceful, party crowd made for another outstanding concert. When the Cardinals opened the venue, many years after it should have made its debut, I never would have guessed it would host R&B artists and thousands of their respective fans.

A tip of the cap to the Cardinals for that.

Love the Cardinals or hate the Cardinals, BPV and the franchise did not deserve the tragic episode last Sunday night that left one person dead and another seriously wounded.

Corey Hall, who was an innocent bystander, was mortally wounded when a fracas between other attendees at a ticketed event led to gunfire on the roof of the Budweiser Brewhouse. The 38-year-old Hall was

from Spanish Lake, a father of two daughters, had been married earlier this month and was a coach. His friends remember him as “always smiling.”

The gunman turned himself in early Wednesday morning. In the wake of the shoot-

ings, Cardinals president Bill DeWitt III said security will be heightened at BPV during a press conference on Monday.

“There will be some enhancements. Some of those I’ll just leave vague, because there is an element of not wanting to telegraph everything we do from a security standpoint,” he said.

He said this type of event has been held without trouble in the past.

I’ll say what he probably wanted to right here, “This involved black people, and we’ve had no problems with black events or guests in the past.”

He used the adjectives “disgusted, alarmed, sad,” to describe his feelings. Welcome aboard, Mr. DeWitt.

The venue of the latest violence has made it a topic of just about every sports and news talk show in St. Louis. The fact that there are too many guns, too many bullets and too many gun deaths in the region is hardly news.

If the site of this latest murder-by-gun helps spark even the slightest change in how this region handles its escalating level of violence then so be it.

Hitting a Wall

Once again, the Washington Wizards failed to advance to the NBA Eastern Conference Finals after dropping a sixgame opening-round series to the Toronto Raptors. Instead of taking on the winded Cleveland Cavaliers, who escaped a seven-game

showdown with the Indiana Pacers, the Wizards’ season is over.

Following the series, Washington guard John Wall praised the play of backcourt mate and St. Louis native Bradley Beal Wall missed half of his team’s games, including 28 consecutive contests from January to April, with various injuries.

“And for these guys to even compete the way they did and for Brad to have an MVP-type season for our team and making more strides is big-time for us. He held it down and other guys competed and made it a fun season and had an opportunity to make the playoffs,” he told the Washington Post.

Beal averaged a career high 36.3 minutes per game. He added career highs in points (22.6), assists (4.5) and rebounds (4.4) In the final game of the Raptors series, Beal poured in 32 points, including six three pointers.

Washington head coach Scott Brooks said the WallBeal on-court relationship is getting stronger.

“John giving Brad a lot of credit, there’s been talk about before I got here that that would not have been the case. But from the two years I have been here, they have been connected at the hip. They know that they have to keep getting better and keep becoming better leaders,” Brooks said.

Personally, I think the best option for the Wizards is to perform a hip surgery and send Wall to another team for

Cardinals president Bill DeWitt III said this type of event has been held without trouble in the past. I’ll say what he probably wanted to right here, “This involved black people, and we’ve had no problems with black events or guests in the past.”

a first-round lottery pick and a seasoned player.

Beal disagrees with my thinking.

“They have trusted us, to build around us,” Beal said following the playoff setback.

“I’m not really a fan of change and starting over again. Hopefully (owner Ted Leonsis and team president Ernie Grunfeld) won’t give me the boot — or give either of us the boot.”

Front office follies

While Major League Baseball’s headquarters in New York is improving its diversity, individual teams’ respective front offices are not, according to the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at Central Florida.

The report examined data collected by the MLB central office and sent to the TIDES research team, which examined data as of Dec. 31 and then updated listings of owners, general managers and managers as of April 1.

About 34.8 percent of the MLB central office’s professional staff is comprised of “people of color.” Women represented 31.8 percent with 17 people of color and 25 women holding positions of vice president or higher at the commissioner’s office, MLB Advanced Media and the MLB Network.

Teams received a B-plus for racial hiring at senior and professional administration levels but only a C-minus for gender hiring in those areas. With only one black manager, teams received a C-minus for both managers and general managers, with the study reporting four people of color in each of those categories.

“If (teams) are to reach the (diversity level of) Major League Baseball central offices, which I think should be their goal, then a lot more work has to be done,” said TIDES Director Richard Lapchick Alvin A. Reid was honored as the 2017 “Best Sports Columnist – Weeklies” in the Missouri Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest. He is a panelist on the Nine Network program, Donnybrook, is a weekly contributor to “The Charlie Tuna Show” on KFNS and can also be heard on Frank Cusumano’s “The Press Box” and The Dave Glover Show on NewsTalk 97.1 His Twitter handle is @ aareid1

Alvin A. Reid

CLUTCH

Ryen Russillo cited a trusted source in proclaiming that George is “gone.”

Signing Day at Cardinal Ritter

Two of the area’s girls’ track and field performers recently signed their National Letters of Intent at Cardinal Ritter College Prep. Valarie

signed with DePaul University and

signed with UMKC. They led Cardinal Ritter to a second-place finish at last year’s Class 3 state championships in Jefferson City.

ESPN’s Ryen Russillo stated on his podcast that Paul George is “gone” from the Thunder. He claims a trusted source wasn’t sure where George would land in free agency, but that it wouldn’t be in Oklahoma City.

Continued from C5 finished in third place. His winning time in the 100 was 10.64 seconds. He posted a time of 21.58 in winning the 200. Carter also won both events at the Rose Hulman Twilight Invite in Terre Haute, Indiana. He then anchored Principia’s 4x100-relay team to a school record time of 43.21 seconds.

Many have speculated that George could end up in a Lakers jersey (possibly alongside LeBron James). Others believe that George could flee back East to the Philadelphia 76ers. It’s hard to imagine a scenario where Westbrook, George and Anthony are back all in Oklahoma City next season. Even if by some miracle, GM Sam Presti convinces George to stay with the Thunder, the addition of his max contract and Anthony’s opt-in would send the Thunder’s payroll and luxury tax spending in the $250M range for next season. That’s not happening. Westbrook is the face of the franchise and signed a five-year, $205M extension in September. Unless he negotiates a lucrative buyout, Anthony has a choice between earning nearly $30M with the Thunder or commanding $10M-$15M on the open mar-

TRACK

Continued from C5 a couple of meet records in the process. She won the 100 in 11.87 seconds and the 200 in 24.54. Southern won the 100meter high hurdles and set a meet record with a 14.19. The Hawks also broke the meet record in the 4x200-meter relay with a blistering time of 1:40.11. Danielle Frank completed the sprint dominance by winning the 400-meter dash in 56.88. Goldfarb, a freshman distance standout, won the 800 in 2:18.31 and the 1,600-meter run in 5:12.33. Jade Moore of Pattonville was also impressive in finishing second to Central’s Ingram in the 100 and 200 with times of 12.12 and 24.72, respectively.

MICDS girls shine at Eureka

The MICDS girls put on a strong performance at the Eureka Invitational last Thursday. Senior Zionn Pearson won the long jump and triple jump. She won the long jump with a jump of 17-10 and the triple jump with an effort of 38-11 ¾. Junior Jhordin Gilmore won the 400 in a time of 58.38. Zuri Reed finished first in the 800 and Zuri Reed was second in the 100-meter high hurdles. The Rams also swept all three sprint relays.

ket. George can sign with any team. It’s easy to see who’s hitting the road. Though a trade or buyout of Anthony’s contract is certainly possible, the Thunder would be wise to simply welcome Anthony back into the fold and hope for the best. Without George, it’s possible that Anthony can slide back into his natural small forward position and get enough touches to remain respectable. Right now, his trade value is

They won the 4x100 in 47.77, the 4x200 in 1:45.29 and the 4x400 in 4:12.99.

Gateway girls run strong at Lindenwood

The Gateway Jaguars enjoyed a strong performance at the Lindenwood High School Classic in St. Charles. Sandrea Cogio won the 100 in 12.92 while freshman Marshaun Bostic won the 200 in 26.41. Bostic also won the long jump with an effort of 16-11. The Jaguars also

at an all-time low. However, if he bounces back to respectability next season, the Thunder could move him mid-season to a borderline playoff contender or a team desperate for an expiring contract.

Westbrook is in Oklahoma City for the long haul. If the team wants to be successful with Mr. Triple-Double’s brand of bully ball, the franchise will need to mimic Houston and surround him with shooters and hustle guys.

Unfortunately for the

swept the 4x100-, 4x200 and 4x400-meter relays.

On tap this weekend

The postseason series begins for Class 1 and 2 schools with district competition around the state. Several area teams will be competing in the Class 2, District 2 meet at Monroe City on Saturday. Those St. Louis area teams in action include Cleveland Naval Jr. ROTC, Brentwood, Crossroads, McKinley Classical and Maplewood. There will also

eek

McKinlee Morris

Crossroads – Girls Track & Field

The sophomore standout was a double-winner in the throws at last weekend’s Lindenwood High School Classic in St. Charles. Morris won both the shot put and discus competition at Lindenwood. Her

won the shot put with a heave of 38 feet 7 ½ inches. Morris also won both events at the Timberland Throwers Meet. She won the shot put with a meet record effort of 41-4. As a freshman, Morris was a state qualifier at the Class 2 championships in Jefferson City.

Thunder, there are not many upcoming free agents that fit the bill. Many franchises are busy putting together plans to lure George, James, DeMarcus Cousins and other high-profile free agents. OKC should be hoping that the 76ers sign one of those stars to a max deal. Then they can make a run at J.J. Reddick.

If James chucks the deuces to Cleveland once again, the Thunder could attempt to swing a deal for Kyle Korver when the Cavaliers team is blown up. Otherwise, the Thunder’s best free-agent options will include guys like Trevor Ariza (Rockets), Avery Bradley (Clippers) and Seth Curry (Mavericks).

Unfortunately for Thunder fans, it appears that Presti’s gamble to win now with Westbrook, George and Anthony failed miserably. There doesn’t seem to be an immediate solution. That means next season, Westbrook could be in line to average a triple-double for the third-consecutive season. However, the team would also be in line for a first-round playoff exit for the third time in a row. Follow Ishmael and In the Clutch on Twitter @ishcreates.

be several conference meets around the area as the larger schools prepare for their district meets next weekend.

Next Wednesday, the Illinois Class 2A girls’ sectionals will be held with metro east area schools competing at Herrin and Springfield Lanphier.

The freshman sprinter from Cincinnati, Ohio was one of the top performers at last weekend’s St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic College (SLIAC) Meet in Greenville, Illinois. Carter won the conference title in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes and ran a leg on Principia’s 4x100-meter relay team that

Missouri Baptist – Women’s Lacrosse

The sophomore goalie from Ladue High was selected as a First Team member of the Women’s Lacrosse Independent Conference. For the season, Mills posted a record of 6-5 with 189 saves and a save percentage of .531. She helped lead

Principia College – Men’s Track & Field the Spartans to an overall record of 7-6. Mills recorded 19 saves in the Spartans victory over LindenwoodBelleville and 11 more saves in a victory over Washington University to close out the regular season.

Whitted

Shayla Davis

and connect with more people.”

She was invited back again, and again. She soon became a regular on his show and others including “Anderson Cooper 360,” “The Doctors,” “Good Morning America,” “World News Tonight” and on networks such as CNN and MSNBC.

She authored a book entitled “The Everyday Advocate,” an acclaimed memoir about the journey of raising a child living with autism.

On Monday, May 7, Martin will be back in St. Louis sharing the tips and tools she’s learned while developing a platform initiated by her 2007 appearance on “The Dr. Phil Show” when she discusses her new book “Make It Rain: How to Use the Media to Revolutionize Your Business and Your Brand.”

The foreword for her new book is written by Dr. Phil himself.

“A lot of people have important messages in their communities and they can be change agents,” Martin said. “We see that with the students of Parkland, Florida who took on the mantel of the NRA. What I hope the book does is help people find their voice. That’s the most important part.”

When conversations in the news were framed around the shooting deaths of unarmed people of color by police and unrest in Ferguson in response to the death of Michael Brown, Martin was often a sought-after guest.

“It was invited on these shows not only because of my

legal background and my civil rights background, but because I was from St. Louis,” Martin said. “I found myself trying to provide some balanced commentary, particularly during the unrest as some of the images that were coming out of St. Louis was less than positive. I found myself trying to push back on that narrative that protests were bad, they led to violence and they were counterproductive.”

People began flooding her email and social media with messages seeking advice based on seeing the perspective and the poise she offered during her appearances.

“It was through those inquiries that I realized that a lot of people have a voice and didn’t know how to deploy their voices or connect with people,” Martin said.

She noticed that with the rise of social media, developing a message that is a positive reflection of one’s personal brand was critical. So through “Make It Rain,” she sought to provide tools based on her experience in front of the camera and her understanding of the broadness of present-day media and how one can capitalize from it.

“Ten years ago, the people with platforms were elected officials and big celebrities. That’s changed,” Martin said. “Today, you can go to Instagram and find somebody with 5 million followers and you or I may have never heard of that person. They’ve identified an audience and tapped into that audience. That makes them powerful. That makes them influential. It gives them a voice.”

Martin’s personal experience led to a passion for helping

people embrace that they have a perspective that can be used to benefit their personal brand, life’s work and purpose – and that getting people to tune in via the media is possible. She says that it can be a bit overwhelming, as people of the non-digital native generation get onboard.

“I remember a person telling me that they hated Twitter because people post about everything,” Martin said. “What somebody ate for breakfast might be important for who they are and what their message is.”

Martin is excited about sharing the nuggets from her new book before a hometown crowd. She’s also worked in private talks with the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis for their Save Our Sons and Save Our Sisters program.

“It’s critically important to connect with some group that would allow me to connect with students and people who look like me and come from similar backgrounds,” Martin said. “I want them to have the opportunity to see that it’s not where you start, it’s about the work that you put in that will determine where you finish.

Whenever I give talks I always tell people, ‘Never doubt your ability to achieve whatever you put your mind to and never allow anyone to outwork you.’ Those have been the guiding principles for me.”

Maryville Women & Leadership will host author Areva Martin in collaboration with Left Bank Books on Monday, May 7 at The Maryville University Auditorium. 650 Maryville University Dr., 63141. For more information, visit www. left-bank.com.

Twilight Tuesdays rock Forest Park in May

By Shakia Gullette For The St. Louis American

Spring is here, and the Missouri Historical Society is excited to announce that Twilight Tuesdays are underway. This free outdoor concert series takes place starting at 6 p.m. every Tuesday through May 31 on the Missouri History Museum’s north lawn. Space is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Bring some lawn chairs and a blanket, or set up a table (smaller than three feet by three feet, please). Food trucks will provide plenty of options for dinner, or you can pack your own picnic basket and a cooler – though we ask you to refrain from bringing glass into Forest Park. Come a little earlier to take part in free pre-concert activities that are designed just for kids and families, sponsored by The St. Louis American

This year’s Twilight Tuesday lineup is simply spectacular. From Latin folk to ’80s rock, you are in for a treat.

in Love in St. Louis: Wedding Vow Renewal Night.” There will also be plenty to love, foodwise. Chris’ Smoke House, Slide Piece, My Big Fat Greek Truck, the Fountain on Locust, and St. Louis Kettle Corn food trucks will all be on hand.

This year’s Twilight Tuesday lineup is simply spectacular. From Latin folk to ’80s rock, you are in for a treat.

May 8 brings the smooth sounds of Javier Mendoza. Riverfront Times readers have voted Mendoza the city’s best male vocalist, and a poll by KDHX (88.1 FM) named him St. Louis’s top Latin artist. Whether you’re one of Mendoza’s longtime fans or new to his music, you will not want to miss this show! His songs are a perfect backdrop for a relaxing evening in the park. Before the concert, meet up with Club Atletico on the north lawn for some soccer fun. This night’s food trucks include My Big Fat Greek Truck, Brazil Express by Yemanja, the Fountain on Locust, and St. Louis Kettle Corn.

You will feel the love on May 15 when wedding band extraordinaire Fat Pocket serenades concertgoers under the stars. This Twilight Tuesday features a sweet moment sure to make your heart melt: the special event “I Fell

Queens Blvd. will take us back to the 1970s and ’80s on May 22 for a night full of classic hits. Get into the groove by teasing your hair and freezing it into place with Aqua Net for the Best ’80s Hair Contest. Food will be available for purchase from My Big Fat Greek Truck, Brazil Express by Yemanja, the Fountain on Locust, and Sarah’s Cake Stop. If you couldn’t make it out to California for Coachella this year, no worries! The Missouri Historical Society has you covered on May 29 with a tribute to Beyoncé. Taynka will sing fan favorites like “Run the World,” “Single Ladies,” and many more. We’ll make the Queen Bey experience complete with Beyoncé-inspired photo booth props. You can buy food from a range of trucks, and you’ll also be able to shop the styles at Niki + Miche fashion truck.

During each concert kids can enjoy free face painting and a strolling magician from 5:30 to 7:30pm. Families are also invited to step inside the Museum and experience the History Clubhouse, a space designed just for kids where they can learn about St. Louis history in a handson way. They can dress up in costumes, put on a puppet show, fish over the edge of a canoe, pull on a steamboat whistle, and more! The History Clubhouse will stay open until 7:30pm each Twilight Tuesday evening. MHS would like to extend our gratitude to our generous sponsors for supporting this wonderful event, including this newspaper, Spire, 100.3 the Beat, 103.3 KLOU, Majic 103.7, Riverfront Times, and OUTINSTL. We hope to see you there!

Twilight Tuesdays, a free outdoor concert series, takes place starting at 6 p.m. every

Tuesday through May 31 on the Missouri History Museum’s north lawn.

Celebrations

Silver Anniversary

Happy Birthday to Mrs. Ida M. Walker, who turned 91 years young on April 26! We love you, Mom!

Happy Birthday to Arthur Clark on May 1! He enjoys cooking and spending time with friends. God bless you with many more birthdays! Love,

Reunions

Beaumont Alumni Class of 1968 50th Class Reunion will be held June 8-10, 2018. Our 2018 meetings in preparation will be held at STL County library located 7606 Natural Bridge at 1:00 p.m. Dates are (Saturdays) February 17, March 17, April 21, May 19 and June 2. For more information call (314) 8698312 or email bhsco1968@att. net. Pass the word and let’s celebrate!

Beaumont High Class of 1973 will celebrate its 45th reunion, Aug-10-12, 2018! Banquet is Aug. 10 at Orlando’s, 2050 Dorsett Village Plaza, picnic at January Wabash Park. $100 per person includes entire weekend. Deadline is June 15! To register, contact Dr. Liz Franklin at mychoice2succeed@yahoo. com or (636)293-9553. Also checkout BHS Class of 73 Facebook page.

Beaumont High Class of 1978 will celebrate its 40-year reunion in 2018. For further information, please contact: Marietta Shegog Shelby, 314-799-5296, madeshe@ sbcglobal.net.

address and telephone number to: Homer G. Phillips Nurses Alumni, Inc., P.O. Box 8033 St. Louis, Missouri 63156.

McKinley High School Class of 1978 40th Class Reunion will take place July 27-29, 2018 at the Embassy SuitesAirport Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri. Classmates from all McKinley H.S. classes are invited. Registration is required. To register, contact Barbara Lindsey, Barbara_ Lindsey@icloud.com or Marvin Woods, mwoods@ projectcontrolsgroup.com or (314) 647-0707.

years and share that each year is better than the last. They are all members of, and very active in, the Northern M.B. Church. To God be the glory!

northwestbluedevils@78gmail. com. Check us out on Facebook Northwest High School-Class of 1978.

Northwest Class of 1979 is planning on cruising for our 40th class reunion and would love for you to join us. Date to sail is July 20, 2019. Contact Duane Daniels at 314-568-2057 or Howard Day at 414-698-4261 for further information. Please don’t miss the boat!

details. If you did not receive a newsletter in January, please contact Marsha JosephWilliams (314-606-8701) or Dorris Simmons-McGhaw (314-541-2462) or you can inbox Sid S. Shurn or Dorris on Facebook.

OF

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

St. Louis American Celebrations c/o Kate Daniel 2315 Pine St. St. Louis, MO 63103

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 On

Homer G. Phillips and St. Louis Municipal School of Nursing is planning an all class reunion in June 2018. Please send your name,

Northwest High School Class of 1978 is planning its 40 year reunion for next year. PLEASE reach out to our classmates, tell them get ready for this. If you have any questions please contact Sly at (314) 397-0311 or email us at

Soldan Class of 1978 will sponsor a “40 and Still Triple Threatening” basketball tournament. Contact Janice A. Tompkins 314-322-6406 if interested in participating.

Sumner High School Class of 1973 will have its 45th year class reunion the weekend of June 22-June 24, 2018. More info to follow outlining the

Sumner Alumni Association will host its 10th Scholarship Awards Luncheon & Fashion Show on June 9, 2018, Noon—4pm. The cost is $50 to attend and it comes with a cash bar, free parking, attendance prizes and more. For more info, contact B. Louis at 314-385-9843 or email: sumneralumniassn@yahoo. com.

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

Reunion notices are free of charge and based on space availability. We prefer that notices be emailed to us! However, notices may also be sent by mail to: Kate Daniel, 2315 Pine St., St. Louis, MO 63103

April 22, Betty Jean Kerr reached a milestone of 80 years old! It is with a broad sense of humility that family, friends and colleagues

Akaria Clark

North County churches celebrate local youth

American staff

Under the direction of Barbara K. Thompson and Rance Thomas, the North County Churches Uniting for Racial Harmony and Justice (NCCU) celebrated its 11th Annual NCCU Youth Appreciation Dinner on April 15 at Christian Hospital Northeast.

This year five Hazelwood School District students were selected amongst other students in North County. The HSD recipients are Damon Hines, Hazelwood Central High School; Mackenzie Hamberg, Hazelwood West High School; Alexander Tate, Hazelwood Southeast Middle School; Stephan Blair Thomas, Hazelwood Southeast Middle School; and Sidney Keys III, Hazelwood West Middle School.

Hazelwood schools superintendent Nettie CollinsHart served as the keynote

speaker. The dinner gave an opportunity to honor and appreciate students who are working hard to achieve goals and to showcase the achievements of local youth in the community. Students were nominated by principals, counselors, teachers, police officers, and community members.

NCCU consists of 25 churches of various denominations and nondenominations working to promote racial understanding and justice.

‘An Evening With the King of Kings’

The James Lee Ward, Sr. District of EMFJurisdiction invites the public to attend “An Evening With the King of Kings” Kingdom Impact Conference on Friday, May 11 at 7 p.m. at Nazareth Temple

COGIC, 3300 Marshall Ave., St. Louis, MO 63114. It will feature guest speaker Keith Clinton of Promise Land Christian Church, Psalmist Evangelist Marilyn Dunn, and saxophonist Supt. James Buchanan Bishop R.J. Ward, Jurisdictional Prelate, Auxiliary Bishop Melvin J. Smith of James Lee Ward Sr. District, Pastor Kevin Dunn, organizer, and Pastor Theron Armstead, co-organizer.

Church hosts event on reentry services

Lutheran Social Services of Illinois and Our Brothers’ Keepers of Southern Illinois are offering a new cooperative program that provides Reentry Services for Returning Citizens

in East St. Louis, IL. New Life Community Church (1919 State Street, East St. Louis, IL) as part of this effort is providing program space with the opening at the church on May 11, 10 a.m. to noon.

The community is welcome to attend the opening that includes the keynote address by Gladyse C. Taylor, assistant director of the Illinois Department of Corrections.

This program provides a holistic, multi-faceted approach that supports a returning citizens’ transition back into the community. Reentry services connect the returning citizen to needed supportive programs and reduce the barriers that prevent successful reintegration back into the community. All of the core components are designed to provide transitioning individuals with

job knowledge and experience, a support system, and a stable life. Otherwise, nearly all who are incarcerated will return to their communities without the necessary help, and about half will be re-incarcerated within the following three to five years.

The goal of each returning citizen is to attain productive citizenship by full integration into the community. Full integration is demonstrated by a stable lifestyle which includes necessary identification, dignified housing, and employment with reliable income, possession of life skills, a willingness to become sober /addiction free, and strong family and faith-based relationships. The community must also be involved in the process. With collaboration as the foundation, the program

reaches out to all social and human services providers, faith communities and government agencies, to help in the process of full integration. The cooperative program of Lutheran Social Services of Illinois-Prisoner & Family Ministry and Our Brothers’ Keepers of Southern Illinois as an ecumenical faith-based organization is dedicated to the full integration of formerly incarcerated persons, “returning citizens” into the St. Clair County, Illinois, community. For more information, visit www.obkministry.org and www. lssi.org/services-prisonerfamily.php or call Michael Davis at Lutheran Prisoner & Family Ministry (618-9979076) or Marie Franklin, Reentry Services Program coordinator (618-900-1918).

North County Churches Uniting for Racial Harmony and Justice celebrated its 11th Annual NCCU Youth Appreciation Dinner on April 15 at Christian Hospital Northeast.

St. LouiS american Career Center

MOTOR CARRIER SERVICES DIRECTOR

The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) is seeking applications for the Motor Carrier Services Director at its Central Office located in Jefferson City, Missouri. As a member of the senior management team, this position is responsible for planning, organizing, and delivering motor carrier services support programs, including registration, fuel tax, regulation, enforcement, and educational outreach activities, with a statewide team of approximately 80 employees. The MCS Director provides leadership and direction to a highly customer-focused team that services motor carriers in the areas of motor carrier registration, fuel tax, regulatory compliance and safety inspection, and other enforcement and audit programs; works collaboratively with the motor carrier services division team and MoDOT’s district and division operations teams to ensure safe and efficient movement of goods, and to keep motor carriers and the traveling public safe; manages complex technology systems, a call center operation, and revenue collection processes associated with services delivery; serves as a champion, change agent, results driver, and key public relations agent on motor carrier issues; represents MoDOT when communicating with internal and external customers, stakeholders, legislators, and other state agencies about motor carrier programs; recommends, develops, and monitors changes to state and federal legislation and rules and regulations relating to motor carrier programs; and provides direction for the development of outreach programs to educate motor carriers on the state and federal requirements for legal operation in the state. For more information and to view the entire job description, please visit our website www.modot.org/jobs.

Requirements include a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Public Administration, Civil Engineering or related field and nine years of experience in leading and directing customer focused services delivery, including at least five years of supervisory and progressively responsible management experience. Experience with regulation and enforcement relating to motor carrier services, transportation services, or other related operations is preferred.

Respond in strict confidence by submitting resume and cover letter by May 16, 2018, to:

Carrie Allen, Assistant Human Resources Director Missouri Department of Transportation

P.O. Box 270, Jefferson City, MO 65102

Phone: (573) 751-8653

Fax: (573) 526-0058

MCSDirector@modot.mo.gov

Equal Employment Opportunity/ Affirmative Action Employer, M/F/D/V

SUPERVISOR/

MANAGER - POLICY OPERATIONS

The Policy Services Administration Policy Operations Supervisor / Manager is responsible for the oversight of policy operations, business processes and personnel. This management position is responsible for supervising the day to day operations and supervision of staff personnel in a PSA Policy Operations functional unit. This role leads applicable personnel in PSA best practices for client /customer support, data integrity, accuracy and efficiency of related processes.

To apply, please visit: www.safetynational.com and click on the Careers tab.

ACCOUNTANT

To ensure that the daily tasks required to perform ceded and assumed reinsurance and program accounting are completed accurately and timely. Responsible for claims payment funds for Large Casualty claims and Large Primary Workers Compensation over the SIR and AGG limits. To apply, please visit: www.safetynational.com and click on the Careers tab.

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

American Publishing Company, now in our 90th year, is in search of an optimistic, energetic, hard-working and creative Account Executive. Must be growth oriented, have a strong work ethic and exceptional people skills. Your hard work, energy and strong desire to meet and exceed sales opportunities and challenges will ensure your success in this position.

Must work well independently, be entrepreneurial, persistent and have a proven work record. This is a great opportunity for those who love sales and want to be an integral part of the ongoing growth of a major St. Louis media outlet.

Your task will be to consistently sell a variety of products to meet clients’ needs: print advertising, online advertising, social media advertising, special sections, events, sponsorships, etc.

Full time opportunity, with health benefits. Salary plus commission. High earnings potential.

For information, contact: Kevin Jones, Chief Operating Officer The St. Louis American kjones@stlamerican.com (Absolutely no phone calls will be accepted)

QA ANALYST I

Perform thorough inspection and methodical examination of all Commercial Automobile, General Liability, Excess and Primary Workers’ Compensation system changes released to the various testing environments for proper operation and freedom from defects. This process will follow all prescribed Quality Assurance rules and testing guidelines. Reports directly to the Delivery Manager of his team.

To apply, please visit: www.safetynational.com and click on the Careers tab.

THE MUNY ANNOUNCES

Auditions for Bass (acoustic/electric)

The Muny will hold auditions for a bass position on May 4, 2018 at 11am (acoustic/electric bass). A bass amp will be provided. If you are hired by The Muny you must be/or become a member in good standing of M.A.S.L. Local 2-197.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS

• Professional experience in Musical Theater

• Excellent Musical training/studies

• Solid technical and artistic skills in the musical field

• Excellent level of musical interpretation

• Versatility, ability to interpret a large variety of musical styles

• Ability to work as part of a team

• Ability to play fretless electric bass when called for in a book

Audition repertoire will be furnished via e-mail after receipt of your audition request. Applicants will need to bring both acoustic and electric bass. An amp will be provided, please bring your own cord. Sight reading excerpts will be provided at the audition.

To schedule an audition time or other questions, please contact James Prifti via e-mail by April 20, 2018. jprifti@muny.org

The Muny Orchestra is covered by a collective bargaining agreement with the Musicians’ Association of St. Louis Local 2-197, AFM.

The Muny is an equal opportunity employer.

ASSEMBLY

JOBS

Window mfg. co. has assembly jobs now! Temp-to-perm, 1st shift, 40 hr/wk, mid-Stl County.

Tape measure & power tool skills and 75# lifting req’d. $10.00/hr, We take Appl. Mon.Wed., & Fri. 9am-11am Nextemps Staffing, 314-727-1060, Jerry. Search Nextemps on craigslist.

DAYCARE

WORKER

South City

Experienced is a plus but not necessary 314-853-5653

“JANITORIAL”

BUSINESS SYSTEMS ANALYST

Responsibility for the collection, preparation, documentation and communication of IS requirements, both business and technical.

Demonstrate clear and working knowledge and concepts of Business Analysis and Information Technology. Is capable of working independently, but may be assigned to work under the guidance of a Senior Business Systems Analyst when engaged in larger, more complex projects.

To apply, please visit: www.safetynational.com and click on the Careers tab.

APPLICATIONS ARCHITECT

As a member of the Architecture Team, this position utilizes advanced analysis skills and experience in principals of design to define standards, solutions and tools for SNCC systems and architecture. Complete design, specifications and hands-on development, as well as guidance to Development Team in delivering solutions for new development, maintenance and enhancements. Perform design and code review, ensure development practices are in compliance with SNCC Enterprise Architecture Models.

To apply, please visit: www.safetynational.com and click on the Careers tab.

SPRING HIRING FAIR

Graduating Soon? New Graduate? Seasoned Teaching Professional? The YWCA Head Start Educational

THE MUNY ANNOUNCES Auditions for Harp

The Muny will hold auditions for a harp position on May 3, 2018 starting at 11am. If you are hired by The Muny you must be/or become a member in good standing of M.A.S.L. Local 2-197.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS

• Professional experience in Musical Theater

• Excellent Musical training/studies

• Solid technical and artistic skills in the musical field

• Excellent level of musical interpretation

• Versatility, ability to interpret a large variety of musical styles

• Ability to work as part of a team

Audition repertoire will be furnished via e-mail after receipt of your audition request. Sight reading excerpts will be provided at the audition.

To schedule an audition time or other questions, please contact James Prifti via e-mail by April 20, 2018. jprifti@muny.org

The Muny Orchestra is covered by a collective bargaining agreement with the Musicians’ Association of St. Louis Local 2-197, AFM.

The Muny is an equal opportunity employer.

Administrative Assistant needed for Home Health Agency. Proficient in Microsoft. Fax resume to 314-395-7932

ACCOUNTING ASSISTANT

St. Joseph’s Academy, a Catholic college preparatory high school for young women in St. Louis, Missouri, is seeking an accounting assistant. This position is primarily responsible for processing accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, and human resources. A strong accounting background along with 3- 5 years of payroll processing experience is required. Must have strong organization and communication skills along with a high attention to detail. Experience with Integrated Payroll Systems, Great Plains Accounting software and FACTS Management is a plus. Must be proficient in Microsoft Excel and Word. A Bachelor’s degree is preferred. Interested candidates should email a cover letter and resume to skemp@sja1840.org.

NOW HIRING

East St. Louis Housing Authority is seeking to hire (7) Maintenance Mechanics; (1) Property Manager; (1) Human Resource Manager; (1) Clerk positions. For complete job description and apply at www.eslha.org or within at 700 N. 20thSt. East St. Louis, Il. 62205. AA/EOE

Creative Kids Child Development Center is currently seeking Morning Bus Drivers. This position requires at least a Class E License and a good driving record. Pay is negotiable. Please contact 314-367-6343

The Brentwood School District seeks to hire the following position Principal Secretary

To support the high school principal, faculty, students, and parents in the successful operation of the high school. Main responsibilities include school budget process, record keeping, organizational and managerial duties.

Requirements:

• High school diploma required; some college strongly preferred

• Minimum of 2 years of secretarial experience, preferably in a public service or education environment required

• Strong public relations, clerical, and organizational skills;

• Proficient in Word, Excel and Google applications

• Enjoys working with adolescents, staff, parents, and community members and demonstrates a strong commitment to education

Terms of Employment/Hours:

• 12-month, full-time position.

• Monday-Friday, 7:30am-3pm and as needed to provide support to for various school events including some evening’s throughout the year.

• Entry Salary range: $17.23-$21.00/hour depending on experience and internal equity

• Board paid medical, dental, and vision for employee.

• As a condition of employment, all new hires will be required to complete a FBI, State Highway Patrol and Children’s Division of the Department

Sealed

CHOUTEAU, COMPTON HILL, DESOTO PARKS

DECORATIVE LIGHTING

CITY OF ST. LOUIS

BOARD OF PUBLIC SERVICE

REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS for Electrical

One Line Update and Arc Flash Study Services (Phase II) at St. Louis Lambert International Airport. Statements of Qualifications due by 5:00 P.M., CT, May 24, 2018 at Board of Public Service, 1200 Market, Room 301 City Hall, St. Louis, MO 63103. RFQ may be obtained from website www.stl-bps.org, under On Line Plan Room, or call Helen Bryant at 314-589-6214. 25% MBE and 5% WBE participation goals

INVITATION TO BID

LETTING #8664

RECONSTRUCTION OF RUNWAY 12L-30R OUTER PANELS FROM TAXIWAY LIMA TO TAXIWAY JULIET; REPLACE RUNWAY 12L-30R ELECTRICAL CIRCUITS; REHABILITATE TAXIWAY KILO WITHIN RUNWAY 12L-30R SAFETY AREA at At St. Louis Lambert International Airport

Sealed proposals will be received by the Board of Public Service, Room 208, City Hall, 1200 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri, 63103 until 1:45 PM, CT, on May 22, 2018, 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 and State laws (including DBE/MBE/WBE policies). Mandatory pre-bid meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 1, 2018, at 10:00

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).

The Twenty-Second Judicial Circuit is currently soliciting bid proposals for ADA Compliance and Transition Plan. The request for proposal is available on the Court’s website www.stlcitycircuitcourt.com. Click on General Information, Then Request for Proposals. Bids are due on May 16, 2018 at 11:00 a.m. Submit bids to 10 N. Tucker, Room 412,St. Louis, MO 63101. EOE

ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS

St. Louis Community College invites separate sealed bids for Elevator Service Agreement No. M-331-DW. Bids will be received by the Board of Trustees of St. Louis Community College until 2:00 p.m. local time, Friday, May 11, 2018, and publicly opened and read aloud at the office of the Supervisor of Maintenance at the Corporate College, 3221 McKelvey Road, Bridgeton, MO 63044. Specifications and bid forms may be obtained from the manager’s office.

Non-mandatory pre-bid meeting: Wednesday, May 2 at 3:00 p.m. at the Corporate College Maintenance Office

An Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer

Sealed bids for the above project are being requested from the FFSD and will be received and publically opened and read aloud on May 16, 2018 10:00 AM CST at Facilities Department. Pre-bid mandatory attendance required on May 11, 2018 10:00 AM Dunn Road. Bid documents available on District Website at http://new. fergflor.k12.mo.us/facilities-rfq

NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS

Sealed bids for 2018 CRS Mill and Overlay Program, Area A, St. Louis County Project No. CR-1763, will be received at the Office of the Director of Procurement for the County of St. Louis, County Government Center Administration Building, 41 South Central Avenue, 8th Floor, Clayton, Missouri 63105, until 2:00 p.m. on May 16, 2018

Plans and specifications will be available on April 30, 2018 from the St. Louis County Web Site (www.stlouisco.com), or by contacting County Blue Reprographics, Inc., 1449 Strassner Drive, St. Louis, Missouri 63144, (314) 961-3800.

DIRECTOR OF PROCUREMENT AND ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES ST. LOUIS, COUNTY

Saint Louis Zoo 2018 Jungle of the Apes Sandblasting and Sealing RFP

The Saint Louis Zoo seeks a contractor to remove all failed paint and coatings from designated wall areas in the cage enclosures and recoat with specified material according to bid documents. MANDATORY PRE-BID MEETING & SITE

INSPECTION: On 5/17/2018 at 1:30PM at The Living World building on Government Drive in Forest Park, lower level.

Sealed bids marked with project name will be accepted on or before 5/29/2018 at 2:00 PM and opened immediately after in the Facility Management Conference Room locate at Gate 5 off Wells Drive. Documents can be found at: https://www. stlzoo.org/about/contact/vendoropportunities/

NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS

Paric Corporation is seeking proposals for the following project: SCOTTRADE CENTER CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS 2018 and the following scopes of work: CONCRETE, MASONRY, STRUCTURAL STEEL, ROUGH CARPENTRY, FINISH CARPENTRY, CASEWORK AND MILLWORK, COUNTERTOPS, DOORS, FRAMES AND HARDWARE, SPECIALTY DOORS, GLASS AND GLAZING, ACOUSTICAL CEILINGS, FLOORING, PAINTING & DIVISION 10 ITEMS

REQUEST FOR COMMUNITY FEEDBACK

Remedy for the St. Louis Ordnance Plant, Former Hanley Area, St. Louis, Missouri

Public Comment Period

April 30 through May 30, 2018

Public Meeting May 14, 2018

The Army is seeking public input on a Proposed Plan to address contamination at the St. Louis Ordnance Plant, former Hanley Area in St. Louis, Missouri. The site lies approximately three miles west of the Mississippi River and 0.25 mile south of the intersection of I-70 and Goodfellow Boulevard. Between 1941 and 1979, historic waste handling, generation, and disposal practices resulted in soil and groundwater contamination consisting of primarily metals and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In 2012, the Army completed site cleanup activities to eliminate unacceptable human health risks from construction worker exposure to contaminated soil and groundwater. A potential future unacceptable risk to human health from vapor intrusion (VI) of residual VOCs in soil and groundwater remains and is the basis of the Proposed Plan. The former Hanley Area is a Department of Defense property and the Army manages environmental cleanup activities at the site.

Interested members of the public are invited to review and comment on the Proposed Plan, which presents a summary of investigations and cleanup actions performed at the site and outlines cleanup alternatives to address the VI pathway. A public comment period will be held from April 30 to May 30, 2018.

A public meeting to discuss the Proposed Plan will be held on Monday, May 14, 2018 from 5:00 to 7:00 PM at the Omega Center at 3900 Goodfellow Boulevard in St. Louis, Missouri. Comments received at the public meeting will be thoroughly evaluated and considered before selecting a final cleanup alternative.

The proposed plan is part of the Administrative Record, which is located at:

St. Louis Central Public Library 1301 Olive Street St. Louis, MO 63103 Phone: (314) 241-2288

The proposed plan is also available online at https://dnr.mo.gov/ env/hwp/fedfac/docs/FinalProposedPlanforOU-2Former HanleyArea-Revised.pdf

Please send your written comments postmarked by May 30, 2018 to: Ms. Josephine Newton-Lund CENWK-PME-S USACE-Kansas City District 601 East 12th Street Kansas City, MO 64106 Phone: (816) 389-3912 Josephine.M.Newton-lund@usace.army.mil

A walk thru will be held on Wednesday May 09, 2018 at 1:30pm. We will meet at the 15th Street Entrance.

Bid will be due on May 24, 2018 at 2:00pm

This project must adhere to the City of St. Louis Mayor’s Executive Order #47 requiring the following enterprise participation: 25% MBE business and 5% WBE business participation.

This project must adhere to the City of St. Louis Ordinance 69427 requiring the following Workforce participation: 25% Minority, 5% Women workforce, 15% Apprentice workforce, and 20% City Resident workforce participation.

For any questions or if you would like to find out more detailed information on this opportunity, please contact Ruben Guzman at 636-561-9500 or rmguzman@paric.com All bids should be delivered to Paric via e-mail (bids@ paric.com) or fax (636-561-9501).

Plans, Renderings, and RFP’s will be available to view at Paric’s Main office at 77 Westport Plaza, Suite 250, St. Louis, MO 63146. MOKAN AND CROSSROADS

PARIC CORPORATION IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

www.stl-bps.org (Announcements).

- Cottages A and B, Higginsville Habilitation Center, Higginsville, Missouri, Project N o . M 1 8 11 - 0 1 will be received by FMDC, State of MO, UNTIL 1:30 PM, 5/31/2018. For specific project information and ordering plans, go to: http://oa.mo. gov/ facilities

SEALED BIDS

for Electrical Renovation and Battery Room, St. Louis Lambert Field Readiness Center, (Bridgeton, Missouri), Project No. T1736-01 will be received by FMDC, State of MO, UNTIL 1:30 PM, 5/24/2018. For specific project information and ordering plans, go to: http://oa.mo. gov/ facilities

METROPOLITAN ST. LOUIS

SEWER DISTRICT

Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is accepting proposals in the Purchasing Division, 2350 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri 631032555 until 10:00 a.m. on June 11th, 2018 to contract with a company for: Insurance Brokerage 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 9375 RFP. If you do not have access to the internet, call 314.768.2735 to request a copy of this bid.

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

METROPOLITAN ST. LOUIS

SEWER DISTRICT

Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is accepting proposals in the Purchasing Division, 2350 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri 631032555 until 10:00 a.m. on June 7th, 2018 to contract with a company for: Universal Waste Recycling Services.

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

Millstone Weber, LLC is soliciting proposals for Reconstruction of Runway 12L-30R Outer Panels from Taxiway Lima to Taxiway Juliet; Replace Runway 12L-30R Circuits; Rehabilitate Taxiway Kilo within Runway 12L-30R Safety Area, Letting No 8664 at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. Please phone 636-688-8794, fax 636-949-3129 or email bob.stubbs@ millstoneweber.com or ryan.taylor@ millstoneweber.com, quotes to Bob Stubbs by 5:00 pm Monday, May 21st. Subcontract work includes, removals, concrete, bituminous pavement, PCC backfill, hauling, landscaping, striping, and electrical. Plans and Specifications are available for review on City of St Louis website http://www.stl-bps.org/ planroom.aspx or at Millstone Weber office. Mandatory Pre-Bid meeting May 1st 2018, in Room 4066,

SPECIAL SCHOOL DISTRICT OF ST. LOUIS COUNTY ACCEPTING SEALED BIDS

Notice to contractors, Special School District is accepting bids for Window Replacements at Southview School. For details, please visit the website at www.ssdmo.org/rfps.html

All inquiries pertaining to this project shall be directed to: Greg Coudron Kwame Building Group 1204 Washington Ave., St. Louis, MO 63103 gcoudron@kwmebuildinggroup.com (314) 862-5344

INVITATION TO BID

ICS Construction Services is requesting bids for the Normandy Schools Collaborative Early Learning Center & Kindergarten Center project from subcontractors and vendors. Written bids are due by 10:00AM, May 11, 2018. Bids may be emailed to bids@ ics-stl.com or faxed to 314-5346663. The entire bidders package is available electronically through TR,i Architects at 314-395-9750 or https:// secure.smartbidnet.com/External/ PublicPlanRoom.aspx?Id=368202.

INVITATION FOR BIDS

#: 57818114

Harris-Stowe State University (HSSU) is requesting bids for removal and replacement of existing flooring in Gillespie Residence Hall student bedrooms. A mandatory pre-bid conference will be held on Wednesday, May 2, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. in room 201 of the Dr. Henry Givens, Jr., Administration (HGA) building, 3026 Laclede Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63103. A copy of the IFB is available by calling (314) 340-5763 or (314) 340-3325, emailing: morrowb@hssu.edu or barskys@ hssu.edu or faxing a written request to: (314) 340-3322. Bids must be submitted to room 105 in the HGA building no later than 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, May 9, 2018 and will be opened and the name(s) of the bidders as well as the price(s) read at 10:15 a.m. in room 201 in the HGA building.

NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS

Notice is hereby given that The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (District) will receive sealed bids for Crestwick Dr #9733 and

REQUEST FOR BID PROPOSALS

from MBE/WBE/DBE

SUBCONTRACTORS

Tri-Co Inc. Commercial, General Contractors, is accepting bids for the NORMANDY SCHOOLS EARLY LEARNING CENTER. Bid Proposals are DUE by 12 noon Friday, MAY 11. Plans and Specs are available by request. Please submit bids by email to trico@tricostl.com, or fax to (314) 432-3794. For any questions, call (314) 432-2794.

Advertised

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 I T Convergence 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.

METROPOLITAN ST. LOUIS

SEWER DISTRICT

Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is accepting proposals in the Purchasing Division, 2350 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri 631032555 until 10:00 a.m. on May 31st, 2018 to contract with a company for: Landscape Design 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 9362 RFP. If you do not have access to the internet, call 314.768.2735 to request a copy of this bid. Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Saint Louis Zoo Emergency Services RFP 2018

The Saint Louis Zoo is requesting proposals for Zoo Emergency Services in the following categories, Annual Fire Alarm Testing and Repairs Emergency Automatic Door Services Emergency Electric Gate Services Emergency Elevator Maintenance Services and Annual Pressure Testing Emergency HVAC Services

Plumbing Services

Roof Services

Maintenance Services HVAC Filters Services Fire Sprinkler and Fire Backflow Testing and Repairs Bid Documents will be available on 4/25/2018 at: https://www.stlzoo.org/

PUBLISHER’S NOTICE:

INVITATION

The work will consist of the removal of the existing concrete stairs and ramp between Terminal 1 Baggage Claim (Arrivals) Dr. and Ticketing (Departures) Dr., and construction of new concrete stairs and ramp in the same locations, including glass handrail, electrical and pedestrian shelter relocation. Also included in this scope is the joint repair between Arrivals and Departures Dr., sidewalk modifications, and interior work in the office spaces below as related to temporary shoring. Alternate access and signage into the terminal must be provided for the benefit of the pedestrians will also be constructed. Also included in this project is concrete repairs and recoating of the Arrival Drive and its sidewalks. Also included are ADA upgrades to the Arrivals/Baggage Claim Drive for pickup areas, cross walks and cub ramp modifications. Phases temporary wayfinding included in this scope comprises temporary signage for vehicular redirection, temporary construction water-filled jersey barriers, and temporary channelizers.

Tarlton is soliciting subbids on the following work categories: Shotblasting, Demolition, Traffic Control, Concrete, Waterproofing, Glass Handrail, Acoustical Ceilings, Gypsum Drywall, Signage, Plumbing, Electrical Work, Pavement Marking.

The Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) goal and the Women Owned Business Enterprise (WBE) goal for this letting is a minimum of 25% MBE plus 5% WBE.

Subbids are due at 12:00 p.m. on May 14, 2018. These may be emailed to bids@tarltoncorp.com. Any questions please contact Kurt Aubuchon at KSAUBUCHON@TARLTONCORP.COM or 314.633.3300.

It is our desire to provide meaningful opportunities or minority-owned (MBE) and women-owned (WBE) businesses to participate to complete for our clients. Firms that do not have MBE/ WBE status are strongly encouraged to include MBE/WBE firms in their cost Additionally, we work to enhance diversity through the workforce, or “boots on the ground” which serves to increase the representation of women and minorities, apprentices and St. Louis City residents.

Bid documents may be viewed at: https://app.buildingconnected.com/public/55b2997ad17b3807006f2618/projects/5acfc301b518a7000fcccae8

Tarlton is an equal opportunity employer.

Swag Snap of the Week

Sending prayers to my city. Before I get into the regularly scheduled programming of the nightlife rundown, I want to send heartfelt prayers to the family of Corey Hall, who lost his life at Ballpark Village Sunday night. My prayers are extended to all those affected by lives lost because of gun violence, but I bring up Mr. Hall and his family because his passing took place at an event that I have covered for years – and without a single incident from patrons. I’ve seen and heard comments and debates that this heartbreaking tragedy has sparked – as well as the hateful things being said about our community as we are collectively judged by the senseless act of one individual. It hurt tremendously learn of the tragic passing Mr. Hall, who was celebrating his birthday and had just married his soulmate. I wish I had the answers as far as what it will take to move the people who feel compelled to take the life of another towards healing, but I don’t. All I know is that we are all hurting because of these actions. I wish had the exact words that would be of comfort to his family and all the others past and present, who suffer from the devastation that such a tragedy brings. I pray for peace. I pray for justice. I pray for St. Louis.

Laughing out loud with Leslie Jones. Okay, now, on with your regularly scheduled disgraceful programming. My girl Leslie Jones was the latest comedian headliner for UMSL’s Mirthday festival Friday night and let me tell you it was clear that those folks who packed out the Touhill only knew her as “SNL” and “Ghostbusters” Leslie Jones. They got familiar real quick – they had no choice. She came out the gate cussing the stage all the way down. And I must admit, I was here for it. Yes, it was filthy. And yes, I got my life. At first there were gasps, but they quickly turned to giggles by all. She was paying homage to the youth with those skinny jeans and Selena shirt, but the elderly woman was also front and center with that overt knee brace in an orthopedic tan tone. Girl, if you had just worn a black one, people would have thought it was part of the outfit. I couldn’t decide if it was part of the joke, or she just didn’t give a good doggone. I’m going with the later, based on the content of her comedy. If she had followed Eddie Murphy on stage after he had done an anniversary live performance of “Raw,” he would have said, “Leslie, girl…that was pretty racy.” When she got to talking about her failed attempt at trying to have her way with Prince, it was so funny because I know it had to be true. I could just see her helicoptering that ponytail right off of her head, it flying past Prince and him looking at it and her with the shadiest shocked face of all times. Hardly any of her material is safe enough for me to repeat in Partyline, but I hollered –especially when she said she had been trying to get her nude photos out to the public for years before she became one of the mass celebrity hack victims.

Silent Party slow jam. Now I’ve been telling y’all for the past few years that DJ Kimmy Nu was a force to be reckoned with on those tables. She proved me right yet again for the latest silent party Friday night at Hiro. Listen, she was able to do something I haven’t seen in on a dance floor for the better part of a decade. She had folks up in the club slow-dancing. You read this correctly. Because I didn’t have any headphones on, I can’t tell you what her playlist was sounding like. All I know is the folks tuned in to her channel looked like the scene on “Cooley High” before the buffet fell over and all you know what broke loose. But Kimmie Nu had the couples gloriously slow grooving as folks were tearing up the club all around them thanks to the other DJ channels.

Job well done by John Legend. Saturday night I made my way to Variety’s 52nd Annual Dinner with the Stars at the Peabody Opera House. I’ll go see John Legend if he comes to town every week, because he’s only failed me once in all the time he’s been crankin’ out hits and coming through STL to sing them. When he kicked things off Saturday night with “The Penthouse” and jumped right into “Tonight” I was like, “I guess he didn’t get the memo that Variety is a children’s charity.” He did, because that was as risqué as it got. This show was a little more showy than usual for him. He had a little dance routine, hopped on the piano and everything. But even though it was a bit different than what I usually see as far as the pace and the selections, it was still great. He clearly knew it was a children’s charity event when he flung the theme song from “Beauty and the Beast” up in his set list out of nowhere. And I was not the least bit mad. I was quietly thrilled and hoping as his next TV production he would star in a live television version that will most certainly eclipse “Jesus Christ Superstar.” Congrats to the folks at Variety for $2.1 million raised – and a shout out to David Steward and family for the additional $50K and his daughter Kimberly Steward’s $20K donation on behalf of her company K Period Media. Hats off to Hey Luv. You know the turnup is real if it starts going down before 11 p.m. And it looked more like 1:30 a.m. when I stopped by Lucha after hearing John Legend sing his heart out at Variety’s Dinner with the Stars. I imagine that there had to have been at least two turnovers of people cycling in and out before evening’s end. I don’t know how the second and third shift partied, but the early crowd came through to kick it. DJ J Mo was killing as usual. Now this is a place where you must let your hair down and kick it – or you will feel out of place. And Lucha was rocking with the regulars and some new faces who were clearly delighted that there’s a place where they can dance the night away. Oh, and I’m sure the Hey Luv facilitators would want me to shout out the Poppa Bubble candy establishment (the one in the Galleria), since Rhashad did so on the regular when he had the microphone.

K, Larro and Michelle just before they closed out the night Saturday @ The Marquee

Saturday Justin and Bri snagged window seats early during HEY LUV Saturday night @ Lucha

Harper and Rita welcomed in the crowd as DJs Reminisce and JMO tore up the tables and Rhashadism hosted HEY LUV @ Lucha Saturday

Mark and Renita were just two of many who danced the night away @ HEY LUV Saturday @ Lucha

Angel, Kendra, Golliday, Angelique and Alysha linked up @ The Marquee Saturday night

The work week was long but Kyria and Terrence had no worries Saturday night @ Mystic

Keyeralarae and O’sheonia couldn’t help but offer up a cute pose as DJ Climate cranked up the fog machine

Nate and Janeace were among those singing their hearts out to the red channel during the silent party Friday night @ Hiro

Krys and Jada were among those who had HEY LUV rockin’ @ Lucha Saturday night

Lamar and Chris, who are new to the STL from London, checked the art scene @ SLAM Underground Friday

The folks of @newwavepromotionsllc brought rising rap star YFN Lucci across the river to the MO side for a second round of turnup @ The Marquee after he wrapped up his show at Pops Saturday night.

Photos by V. Lang and SharRon Pate

Cardiovascular Disease Data Brief

Melba R. Moore, MS, CPHA Interim Director / Commissioner of Health

Lyda Krewson, Mayor

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a group of disorders involving the heart and blood vessels. CVD is the leading cause of health problems in the United States.3 In 2015, 41.5% percent (102.7 million) of the population had at least one CVD condition. Almost one out of every three deaths result from CVD, and about one-third of CVD deaths occur before the age of 75. Many Americans have risk factors for CVD, which include obesity, physical inactivity, high blood pressure, cigarette smoking, high cholesterol, and diabetes. Other factors such as age, race-ethnicity, and gender also put people at a higher risk for CVD. Ninety percent of individuals over the age of 80 have some form of CVD.

The public health impact and the economic burden of CVD is enormous. In 2016, it was estimated that the U.S. spent $55 billion on CVD, which includes the cost of health care services and medication to treat.3

City of St. Louis Surveillance of Cardiovascular Diseases

In 2016, St. Louis City had a CVD death rate of 287 per 100,000 population, which was higher than the rate of St. Louis County with 226 per 100,000, and St. Charles County with 199 per 100,000 population. The state of Missouri had a CVD death rate of 247 per 100,000 population. From 2006 to 2016, there was a steadfast decline in CVD death rates across the country, and in the state of Missouri. The CVD death rate for the city dropped by 27% since 2006, compared to St. Louis County (19%), St Charles (12%), and Missouri (17%), yet the burden of the disease remains high in the City of St. Louis.2 As seen throughout the state and nationally, males suffer from CVD at a greater rate than females. In 2016, males in St. Louis City had a CVD death rate of 322 per 100,000 population compared to females with 253 per 100,000 population. According to CDC, heart diseases are the leading cause of death for men and is responsible for one in every four male deaths.

CVDs are unevenly distributed with

blacks, resulting in higher death rates than whites. The CVD death rate in 2016 among black residents in the City of St. Louis was 328 per 100,000 population, compared to white residents with 258 per 100,000 population.2 The health disparity among racial and ethnic groups is also observed at both state and national levels.

The burden of CVD in the City of St Louis may be ascribed to a high number of residents with unhealthy lifestyle choices, such as inactivity, smoking, and unhealthy diets which constitute major risks for CVD. Based on the data, 34% of adults in St. Louis City are obese, 26% of adults are smokers, 24% of the residents do not engage in any physical activities. Also, the diet quality/food environment index for St. Louis residents is 4.9.4 These health indicators are why the St. Louis City ranked poorly compared to other counties and the state. Other contributory factors are medical conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and high blood cholesterol, which are also high in St. Louis City. Having one of these medical conditions increases the risk of suffering from CVD.

Sources

1. www.cdc.gov

2. Missouri Information for Community Assessment

3. American Heart Association/American Stroke Association www.countyhealthrankings.org

Examples of Cardiovascular Diseases

• Coronary heart disease

• Stroke

• Hypertension

• Congestive heart failure

• Cardiomyopathy

• Congenital heart disease

• Carditis

• Valvular heart disease

• Rheumatic heart disease

• Peripheral arterial disease

• Deep vein thrombosis

• Pulmonary embolism

• Aortic aneurysms

What Are Health Departments Doing to Reduce Cardiovascular Diseases?

• Promoting the adoption of food service guidelines and nutrition standards, which include developing policies aimed at decreasing sodium consumption.

• Promoting the adoption of physical education and physical activity in schools, early child care centers, and work sites.

• Promoting reporting of blood pressure and self-monitoring of blood pressure.

• Promoting awareness of prediabetes among people at high risk for type 2 diabetes.

• Increasing access to healthy foods and beverages, and supportive nutrition environments.

• Implementing quality improvement processes in health systems.

• Educating the community on nutrition and eating healthy foods, being physically active, and other preventive measure for reducing risk factors for cardiovascular diseases.

• Reducing smoking hazards through educational campaigns, promoting policies for smoke-free environments, smoking cessation classes, and enforcing local tobacco-related ordinances.

• Connecting people to resources for medical assistance and for help with reducing risk factors for CVD

Data Sources: City of St. Louis Office of the Medical Examiner, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Survey on Drug Use and Health

Asthma

Melba R. Moore, MS, CPHA Interim Director / Commissioner of Health

Lyda

Krewson, Mayor

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by recurrent attacks of breathlessness and wheezing. These symptoms vary in severity and frequency from person to person. Asthma is triggered by various environmental factors. These include dust, pollens, allergens, molds, indoor and outdoor air pollution, environmental tobacco smoke (passive and active smoking), and occupational sensitizers (many chemicals substances). Other factors include viral infections, exercise and food allergies.

Asthma is increasing in prevalence. It attacks all age groups, but often starts in childhood. There are significant disparities in asthma morbidity and mortality for low-income and minority population. In 2015, an estimated 7.8% of the U.S. population had asthma. Asthma prevalence was higher among children (8.4%) than among adults (7.6%).1 Asthma is significantly greater among females (9.1%) than males (6.5%).1 African-Americans are more affected than other racial groups. Asthma costs the US economy more than $80 billion annually in medical expenses, days missed from work and school, and deaths.1

City of St. Louis Asthma Surveillance

Prevalence: In Missouri, 9.9% of the adult population and 12.8 % of children under the age of 18 were living with asthma in 2016.2 A similar trend was observed in the City of St. Louis, having higher prevalence among children (11.2%, 95% CI 7.3 – 15.2), compared to adults (9.9%, 95% CI 7.8 – 12.0) in 2014.4

Asthma-related Emergency Room Visits and Hospitalizations: In 2015, asthma ER visits rate in St. Louis City were higher than the state rate and surrounding counties. There were 4,292 ER room visits (14.8 per 1000 residents) and 824 inpatient hospitalizations (27.1 per 10,000 population) for asthma in the City of St. Louis. Children under age 15 had

Asthma Emergency Room Visits Rate per 1,000 Residents, 2015

the highest burden of asthma ER room visits (32.6 per 1,000 residents). Within the group, ER visit rates were higher in males than females (38.4 versus 26.5 per 1000 respectively).5 During 2010 – 2015, African Americans residents had higher rate of asthma ER room visits and inpatient hospitalizations per year than whites. Asthma ER room visit rates were 24.7 per 1,000 residents among African Americans compared to whites, 2.9 per 1000 residents in 2015. Asthma ER room visits were the highest in zip codes 63106, 63107, 63118 and the lowest in zip codes 63139, 63109, 63108.5

Asthma Deaths: Asthma deaths are uncommon and have decreased nationwide since the mid- 1990’s. During 2010-2016, there were, on average 9 deaths per year in the City of St. Louis. Although, there had been a decline in asthma deaths rate from 2.5 per 100,000 residents in 2010 to 2.3 per 100,000 residents in 2016. Asthma deaths rate in the City of St Louis in 2016, were still higher than the state of Missouri (1.2 per 100,000 residents),

Asthma ER Visits Rate

Gis.STL City Limits

GIS.PDA.MOIL Rivers Fly

and St Louis County (1.32 per 100,000 residents). Adults, 65 years and over had the greatest burden of asthma deaths than any other age groups. There were more asthma deaths among African Americans compared to White residents.5

Asthma Control: According to the CDC, controlling asthma requires a multifaceted approach focusing on patient behaviors; home, work, and school environments; knowledge and skills of health care providers; and public health programs and policies that influence asthma management practices. The City of St. Louis Department of Health promotes asthma awareness across home, school (including daycare), and health care settings as well as outreach programs. The department educates the community on environmental triggers and also on action plans that can greatly help those who suffer from asthma. The department has a program, Asthma Friendly, which conducts home assessment and connects residents to healthcare system and environmental assistance.

Trends and Future Directions 3 The CDC has launched: “Comprehensive Asthma Control through Evidenced-Based Strategies and Public Health-Health Care Collaboration.” The program uses a stepwise approach that focuses on:

• Ensuring availability and access to guidelines-based asthma care management for all people with asthma

• Increasingly individualized services like home –based trigger reduction for poorly controlled asthma

• Encourages structures and strategies that enable people with asthma to receive more coordinated and complete asthma care

Sources:

1. www.cdc.gov/asthma/asthmadata.htm

2. http://health.mo.gov/data/brfss/2016_ BRFSS_Key_Findings_Report.pdf

3. www.cdc.gov/asthma/nacp.htm

4. health.mo.gov/asthma

5. http://health.mo.gov/data/mica/ MICA/

Prepared by:

City of St. Louis Department of Health Center for Health Information Planning and esearch

City of St. Louis Department of Health •

St. Louis Hypertension Collaborative

The St. Louis Hypertension Collaborative is a collective impact approach to reduce high hypertension rates within our community through the Self-Monitoring Blood Pressure (SMBP) Program. Our efforts are aimed at encouraging individuals to prevent high blood pressure; improve physician prescribed medication compliance; increase daily exercise; and maintain healthy diets.

St. Louis MetroMarket stops will provide the opportunity for residents to purchase wholesome healthy foods from a full-service grocery store on wheels. St. Louis MetroMarket has fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy and bread from local farmers and community gardens. St. Louis MetroMarket also likes to promote where its food came from, and uses the overhead space on the bus, where you’d typically see ads, to tell those stories. Outside of the bus, workers and volunteers offer nutritional information and food demos that show customers how they can prepare the food sold on the bus.

For additional information about the other aspects of the SMBP Program, please contact Affinia Healthcare at (314) 814 –8756 and (314) 814 – 8759.

For additional information about hyper-

health educational information, please visit: www.heart.org.

Take the following steps to prevent mosquito breeding on your property

• Destroy or dispose of tin cans, old tires, buckets, unused plastic swimming pools or other containers that collect and hold water.

• Do not allow water to accumulate in containers like the saucers of flowerpots, cemetery urns or in outdoor pet dishes for more than 2 days.

• Change the water in birdbaths and wading pools at least once a week.

• Stock ornamental pools with top feeding minnows. Ornamental pools may be treated with biorational larvicides[Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis (Bti) or S-methoprene (IGR) containing products] under certain circumstances. *The chemicals can be purchased from your local home improvement store.

• Fill or drain puddles, ditches and swampy areas. Remove, drain, or fill tree holes and stumps with mortar.

• Check for trapped water in plastic or canvas tarps used to cover boats, pools, etc. Arrange the tarp to drain the water.

• Check around construction sites or do-it-yourself improvements to ensure that proper backfilling and grading prevent drainage problems.

• Irrigate lawns and gardens carefully to prevent water from standing for several days.

Mosquitoes transmit diseases, affecting thousands of people in the U.S. every year with symptoms that range from fevers to lifelong debilitating consequences, even death

The American Mosquito Control Association suggests following the 4Ds to provide protection from mosquitoes:

DRAIN Mosquitoes breed in water! Drain any standing water in your yard each week. Eliminate standing water in:

• Buckets, flower pots, pet water dishes

• Gutters

• Tree holes

• Abandoned swimming pools or tires, drainage ditches and other areas

DRESS Wear lightweight, long-sleeved shirts and long pants while outdoors. Spray clothing with insect repellent, since mosquitoes can bite through clothing.

DEET All day, every day: Whenever you are outside, use insect repellent that contains DEET, picaridin or oil of lemon eucalyptus. Apply insect repellent sparingly to exposed skin. Use an approved repellent according to its label.

DAWN/DUSK Limit time spent outdoors at dawn or dusk, when mosquitoes are most active and feeding.

The best way to avoid Zika virus and other mosquito-borne illnesses is to protect yourself from mosquito bites.

Practice the 4 D’sDRAIN Mosquitoes breed in water! Drain any standing water in your yard each week.

DRESS Wear lightweight, long-sleeved shirts and long pants while outdoors. Spray clothing with insect repellent, since mosquitoes can bite through clothing.

DEET All day, every day: Whenever you are outside, use insect repellent that contains DEET, picaridin or oil of lemon eucalyptus. Apply insect repellent sparingly to exposed skin. Use an approved repellent according to its label.

DAWN/DUSK Limit time spent outdoors at dawn or dusk, when mosquitoes are most active and feeding

Keep mosquitoes outside: Use air conditioning or make sure you repair and use window/door screens.

Limit sexual transmission of Zika virus

• Pregnant women and their male partners should discuss the potential exposures with their care provider (http://www.cdc.gov/zika/symptoms/).

• Men with a pregnant partner should use latex condoms the right way every time during sex or abstain from sexual activity for the duration of the pregnancy.

Breastfeeding: At this time there is not evidence Zikavirus is transmitted through breastmilk. The CDC believes the benefits of breastfeeding outweigh possible risks of transmitting Zika virus to an infant.

City of St. Louis Department of Health • 5

E-Cigarettes Use among Teens

Melba R. Moore, MS, CPHA Interim Director / Commissioner of Health

Lyda Krewson, Mayor

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in the United States. Nearly 40 million US adults still smoke cigarettes. About 4.7 million middle and high school students use at least one tobacco product. Every day, more than 3,800 youth younger than 18 years smoke their first cigarette.1 Conventional cigarette smoking has however declined markedly over the past several decades among youth and young adults in the United States (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).5

There are different types of tobacco products, including e- cigarettes. E- Cigarettes are now the most commonly used tobacco product among youths in the United States. It has increased at alarming rate and is now a public health concern. E-cigarettes are a rapidly emerging and diversified product class. These devices are referred to by a variety of names, including juul vaporize (stylized as “JUUL”), “ecigs,” “e-hookahs,” “mods,” “vape pens,” “vapes,” and “tank system,” and “electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS).” The JUUL looks like a USB flash drive and is the new trend of vaping among teens. All of these devices, including “JUUL” typically deliver nicotine, flavorings, and other additives to users via an inhaled aerosol. Bystanders can also breathe in these aerosols when the user exhales into the air. The aerosol can contain harmful and potentially dangerous substances, including nicotine, ultrafine particles, flavoring such as diacetyl, a volatile organic compound, and heavy metals such as nickel, tin, and lead.

According to the CDC, more than 2 million middle and high school students were current users of e-cigarettes in 2016. It was stated that 11% of high school and 4.3% of middle school students were current users of e-cigarettes in 2016. About 4 of every 100 middle school students (4.3%) reported in 2016 that they used electronic cigarettes in the past 30 days, an increase from 0.6% in 2011. Within the same period, about 11 of every 100 high school students (11.3%) reported that they used electronic cigarettes in the past 30 days, an increase from 1.5% in 2011. In 2016, 3.2% of U.S. adults were current e-cigarette users.4 Youths are more likely than adults to use e-cigarettes.

City of St. Louis Surveillance

In 2016, 26 % of adults in the City of St. Louis were smokers, which was higher than the state of Missouri, 22.1%.6 During the same period, the youth smoking prevalence was 11.0%.2 In 2015, the prevalence of cigarette use among high school male students was 13.7% compared to female students, 8.1% in the state of Missouri.7 The prevalence of e-cigarette use among high school students in the state is an alarming, 22.0%. Every year, there are 3,100 new youth smokers in the state. Based on a projection, 398,600 kids that are now alive will become smokers and, 128,000 kids now under 18 and alive in the Missouri will die prematurely from smoking.2 There are so many factors associated with youth tobacco use including social and physical environments, and biological or genetic. Others include low self-image or self-esteem, lower socioeconomic status, lack of skills to resist influences to

tobacco use, lack of support from parents, accessibility, availability, and the price of tobacco products.

Health effects of E- cigarette use among U.S. youth and young adults

Although e-cigarettes do not burn tobacco like the regular cigarette, the device still holds plenty of nicotine, and can lead to the same nicotine related problems. Nicotine is a highly addictive substance, and many of today youths who are using e-cigarette could become tomorrow cigarette smokers. Nicotine exposure can harm brain development in ways that may affect the physical and mental health of adolescent. While e-cigarettes do not contain smoke, they do expose others to secondhand emissions. Nicotine is a health danger for pregnant women because it

Preventing e-cigarette use among youth and young adults.

• Educational initiatives targeting youth and young adults

• Regulation of e-cigarette marketing likely to attract youth

• Incorporating e-cigarette into smoke free policies

• Preventing access to e-cigarette by youth

• Price and tax policies

• Retail licensure

crosses the placenta and has known effects on fetal and postnatal development. Aside from nicotine, e-cigarette contains substances that are linked to cancer and a serious lung disease. Ingestion of e- cigarette liquids containing nicotine can cause acute toxicity and possibly death if the contents of the refill cartridges or bottle containing nicotine are consumed. Unintended injuries such as fire and explosions can also occur from defective e-cigarette batteries, which may result in serious injuries. According to the CDC, e-cigarettes are less harmful than regular cigarettes, but, the aerosols emitted are not harmless. Tobacco use among youth and young adults in any form, including e-cigarettes, is not safe. E- Cigarette use among youth and young adults is associated with use of other tobacco products, including conventional cigarette.1 Because most tobacco use is established during adolescence, actions to prevent young people from a potential of a lifetime addiction are critical. Many e-cigarette companies market their product as a tool to help smokers quit. However, the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research has not approved any e-cigarette as a safe or effective method to help smokers’ quit.8

Sources:

1. www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/ fact_sheets/youth

2. www.tobaccofreekids.org/about/ annual-reports

3. lung.org/stop-smoking/smokingfacts/e-cigarettes

4. National Youth Tobacco Survey 2011–2016

5. United States Department of Health and Human Services

6. www.countyhealthrankings.org/app/ missouri/2017/rankings

7. Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS), 2015

8. Food and Drug Administration

Melba R. Moore, MS, CPHA Interim Director / Commissioner of Health

Depression and Suicide Data Brief

City of St. Louis Depression and Suicide Surveillance

Depression is a common serious medical illness that can affect mood, cognitive function, and physical abilities. Depression affects over 15 million adults in the United States; it is estimated to cost society about $210.5 billion annually. In a 2010 study by Greenburg, Paul, et. al., these costs were associated with significant healthcare needs, medication, work absenteeism, work productivity, and cost associated with suicides. Depression can also affect children and teens; and impacts their home, social, and ability to attend school.

Rate of Depression in USA from 2011-2015 by Age Group

Depression affects both males and females, and can occur at any age. People suffering from depression are at increased risk for disease, injury, mortality, and can even lead to substance abuse. Depression can be short-lived or long-lasting with mild to severe intensity. At worst, depression can lead to suicide. If not effectively treated, depression can become a chronic disease and impair functioning. CDC reports that one out of twenty adults surveyed in the United States report moderate or severe depressive symptoms within the past 2 weeks. Many behaviors or conditions that are often associated with depression include smoking, alcohol use, drug use, physical inactivity, sleep disorders, HIV/AIDS, etc.

Diagnostic Criteria

The American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic criteria for Major Depressive Disorder requires a person to experience five or more of the below symptoms for a continuous period of at least two weeks.2

 Feelings of sadness, hopelessness, depressed mood

 Loss of interest or pleasure in activities

 Change in weight or appetite

 Change in activity: either more or less active than usual

 Insomnia (difficulty sleeping) or sleeping too much

 Feeling tired or not having any energy

 Feelings of guilt or worthlessness

 Difficulties concentrating and paying attention

 Thoughts of death or suicide.

Lyda Krewson Mayor

City of St. Louis Department of Health

The St. Louis City Health Department has recently trained all its staff in Mental Health First Aid, and is encouraging employees to start conversations about depression and mental illness. Suicide is not inevitable for anyone, and by starting the conversation, providing support, and directing help to those who need it, we can prevent suicides and save lives. Evidence shows that providing support services, talking about suicide, reducing access to means of self-harm, and following up with loved ones are just some of the actions we can all take to help others.

How You Can Help to Reduce Suicide

Get resources for yourself or be the difference for a loved one by offering support and understanding, and having conversations about mental health. Learn the risk factors and warning signs of someone who may be thinking about suicide and help connect them to resources.

Spread the word about the Lifeline’s free confidential and emotional support services that are available 24/7, and raise awareness for suicide prevention.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255

Known Risk Factors

 Mental disorders, particularly mood disorders, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, and certain personality disorders

 Alcohol and other substance use disorders

 Hopelessness

 Impulsive and/or aggressive tendencies

 History of trauma or abuse

 Major physical illnesses

 Previous suicide attempt(s)

 Family history of suicide

 Job or financial loss

 Loss of relationship(s)

 Easy access to lethal means

 Local clusters of suicide

 Lack of social support and sense of isolation

 Stigma associated with asking for help

 Lack of healthcare, especially mental health and substance abuse treatment

 Cultural and religious beliefs, such as the belief that suicide is a noble resolution of a personal dilemma

 Exposure to others who have died by suicide (in real life or via the media and Internet)

Sources: MICA, BRFSS, and CDC

Known Warning Signs

 Talking about wanting to die or to kill themselves

 Looking for a way to kill themselves, like searching online or buying a gun

 Talking about feeling hopeless or having no reason to live

 Talking about feeling trapped or in unbearable pain

 Talking about being a burden to others

 Increasing the use of alcohol or drugs

 Acting anxious or agitated; behaving recklessly

 Sleeping too little or too much

 Withdrawing or isolating themselves

 Showing rage or talking about seeking revenge

 Extreme mood swings

Greenburg, Paul, et. al. 2014. The Economic Burden of Adults With Major Depressive Disorder in the United States (2005 and 2010) http://www.psychiatrist.com/jcp/article/Pages/2015/v76n02/v76n0204.aspx

Congratulations To The City Of St. Louis Department Of Health On Achieving National Accreditation

On February 27, 2018, the City of St. Louis Department of Health received notice from the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) that it had obtained national public health department accreditation. Only 187 other local health departments have earned national accreditation.

PHAB is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the continuous quality improvement of Tribal, state, local, and territorial public health departments.

What is Public Health Department Accreditation?

• The measurement of health department performance against a set of nationally recognized, practice-focused and evidence-based standards.

• The issuance of recognition of achievement of accreditation within a specified time frame by a national recognized entity.

• The continual development, revision, and distribution of public health standards.

• The goal of the voluntary national accreditation program is to improve and protect the health of the public by advancing the quality and performance of Tribal, state, local and territorial public health departments.

• The advancement of quality and performance within public health departments. Accreditation standards define the expectations for all public health departments that seek to become accredited. National public health department accreditation has been developed because of the desire to improve service, value and accountability to stakeholders.