By Russell Stiger Jr. | OBSERVER Staff

If you didn’t already know Da’vian Kimbrough was 13, you couldn’t tell as he made history Sunday afternoon at Heart Health Park.

The 5-11 forward looked calm, cool and collected as he entered in the 87th minute and, at 13 years 7 months and 13 days, became the youngest professional soccer player in United States history.

Da’Vian, who signed more than a month ago after developing in the Sacramento Republic Academy, looked the part as he took the pitch in Republic FC’s 2-0 victory over Las Vegas. His link-up play was decisive and precise in the few moments he had on the ball.

With a thriving youth program, Republic FC are making it a point to develop local talent and Sacramento’s soccer culture.

Axel Kei, who was 13 years, 9 months and 9 days when he signed with the Real Monarchs in 2021, had held the record.

Republic FC won on the strength of two second-half goals, one from forward Luther Archimede in the 74th minute. They have one more home game Saturday, Oct. 14, against Miami FC before the playoffs start.

The post Republic’s Da’vian Kimbrough, 13, Becomes Youngest U.S. Soccer Pro appeared first on The Sacramento Observer.

(CALMATTERS) – Thanks to TikTok videos, billboards and other creative marketing techniques, enrollment in  transitional kindergarten in California appears to be climbing. But advocates are keeping an eye on how those 4-year-olds are spending their class time — which they say will be a key factor in whether the $2.7 billion program is a success.

“Quality is top of mind for us. Some districts are treating it like a second year of kindergarten, which we know doesn’t work,” said Benjamin Cottingham, with Policy Analysis for California Education, an independent, nonpartisan research center. “To be effective, TK needs to be a play-based, developmentally appropriate course of study.”

Transitional kindergarten, which California first launched in limited capacity in 2010, is meant to ease 4-year-olds into the rigors of elementary school. Ideally, it combines the carefree fun of preschool with a hint of structure and academic know-how, so children are better prepared for kindergarten and beyond. In a high-quality TK classroom, children learn to share and take turns, draw pictures and play with blocks, sit in a circle and enjoy story time, among other skills.

A study of California’s TK program by the American Institute of Research found that children who completed TK had stronger skills in math and literacy when they started kindergarten and were more engaged in learning than their peers who didn’t participate in the program. The benefits were especially pronounced for English learners and low-income students.

In 2021, California expanded its transitional kindergarten, requiring schools to provide space for all eligible 4-year-olds whose families want it. With a rollout period of five years, schools have been busy hiring and training teachers, buying more crayons and blocks, converting classrooms to meet state guidelines and getting the word out.

After a lull, enrollment appears to rebound

In 2022-23, enrollment lagged below expectations, likely due to the lingering effects of the COVID pandemic, according to the Legislative Analysist’s Office. Just over half of California’s eligible 4-year-olds were enrolled in TK last year, roughly 22% below state projections. But now enrollment appears to be increasing. The official numbers for 2023-24 won’t be available for several months, but a CalMatters sampling of districts statewide reported better-than-expected enrollment so far this year. 

Schools credit the uptick to improved outreach. District staff are talking to parents at local preschools and child care centers, posting flyers in pediatricians’ offices, buying ads on social media and even going door-to-door.

In Rescue Union School District in the Sierra foothills of El Dorado County, word-of-mouth has been the most effective recruitment tool, said Superintendent Jim Shoemake. The district bought newspaper ads and put up signs, but nothing compares to the power of parents chatting at barbecues, block parties and soccer games. Enrollment has increased steadily, with 142 students enrolled this year, and the retention rate is nearly 100%, he said.

“TK has benefitted the entire district,” Shoemake said. “It’s great to have a child on campus for six years, but seven is even better. We get a chance to onboard these kids early, so they’re successful not just in elementary school, but middle school and beyond.”

Rescue Union parent Aly Perkins said her twin daughters, Hazel and Scarlett, loved their TK class last year. They learned their ABCs and 123s, but it was social skills that had the biggest impact, she said. 

“They learned things like manners, how to make friends, how to keep friends — those skills will benefit them their whole lives,” Perkins said. “I think TK gives kids the confidence and cushion they need to succeed in school. I’m really glad we decided to send them.”

Even in Los Angeles Unified, the nation’s second-largest school district, word-of-mouth has been key to TK enrollment. In addition to bus ads and billboards, a social media campaign, a hotline and robocalls, the district has enlisted school staff and parent volunteers to hand out flyers within a four-block radius of elementary schools.

“A parent saying, ‘I have my kid in this program and it’s great’ is much better than it coming from me,” said Dean Tagawa, the district’s executive director for early childhood education. “That parent-to-parent connection, that level of trust, is what’s important.” 

“We get a chance to onboard these kids early, so they’re successful not just in elementary school, but middle school and beyond.”JIM SHOEMAKE, SUPERINTENDENT OF THE RESCUE UNION SCHOOL DISTRICT

The tactics seem to be working. Los Angeles Unified has opened TK classrooms at nearly all 488 elementary schools. And children who attended the district’s TK program have significantly outperformed their peers not in the program in reading, writing and math in kindergarten and first grade, according to district data. They also fared better social-emotionally, based on teacher feedback on report cards.

In Lodi Unified, a TikTok video chronicling a day in the life of a Lodi kindergartener has garnered more than 13,200 views and helped fill classrooms. With enrollment exceeding expectations, the district is on track to open at least one TK classroom at every elementary school by 2025-26.

“Overall, it’s going really well, and I believe that by the time these students are in third grade, we’re going to see huge improvements in outcomes,” said Susan Petersen, the district’s director of education. 

Persistent staffing challenges 

While some districts have struggled to hire enough TK teachers, Lodi Unified has filled all its vacancies, she said. The district is providing training and in-classroom coaching, and using a curriculum focused on learning through playing. Some of the new TK teachers are credentialed elementary teachers, and some are veteran preschool teachers pursuing credentials.

“We’ve found that it’s a sought-after position,” she said.

Recognizing that 4-year-olds learn in unique ways, the Legislature will require by 2025 TK teachers to have credentials as well as 24 units of early childhood education or the equivalent. That extra requirement may pose a barrier to filling positions — many districts are already grappling with teacher shortages. An analysis by the Learning Policy Institute last fall found that 80% of school districts in California didn’t yet have enough qualified TK teachers.

Meanwhile, the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing is working on a new credential that will prepare teachers for preschool through third grade, with a focus on literacy. A goal: create a seamless continuum in which students learn by playing, rather than sitting at desks.   

That focus on high-quality teaching and learning is imperative if TK is going to succeed in getting students ahead in the early years, Cottingham said. The state is updating its preschool guidelines to include TK, but schools cannot afford to wait for the new version; they should “work with what we’ve already got,” or students will lose out on the benefits of an additional year of schooling, Cottingham said.

Assessments will also be important, he said, to hold districts accountable for the quality of their programs. Currently, the state is not requiring schools to test students in TK, although it does provide guidelines on how to measure students’ progress.

Hanna Melnick, senior policy adviser at the Learning Policy Institute who co-leads the early childhood learning team, adds that assessment, as well as curriculum, will be important as TK expands. 

“The TK rollout has been faster than we expected, but we don’t have a good way to monitor quality, and district capacities to teach 4-year-olds vary greatly,” she said. “Some have been doing this for a long time, and some are new and don’t yet have the background or training.”

‘A system that’s working’ in Tulare

Tulare City School District, a 9,200-student district south of Fresno, has been offering a cohesive preschool-through-first-grade program for a decade, and seeing positive results. Until the pandemic, third grade math and reading scores had jumped nearly 30% since the district implemented the program in the early 2010s. Now they are again beginning to improve.

The curriculum is linked from grade to grade, and teachers work closely together, easing children’s transitions from one classroom to the next. All sites offer after-school care, making it easier for parents with jobs. And teachers try to get to know families and ensure they feel welcome and part of their children’s education, said Jennifer Marroquin, the district’s assistant superintendent of educational services.

“For parents, it can be scary dropping your 3- or 4-year-old off for the first time. So we try to make them feel supported,” Marroquin said. “We found a system that’s working, and it’s become one of our district’s strengths.”

By the time TK is fully in place statewide, most districts should have programs resembling Tulare’s, said Kelly Reynolds, a policy analyst for Early Edge California, a nonprofit advocacy group that’s worked closely with the state on transitional kindergarten. She expects the challenges with staffing, enrollment and quality will be resolved — or close to it — within the next few years.

Because transitional kindergarten, like kindergarten itself, is not mandatory, enrollment will never be 100%, she noted. And depending on where they live, 4-year-olds have plenty of high-quality options aside from TK — including private preschool, state-supported preschool, child care and Head Start. 

“We want to make sure all 4-year-olds are being served in high-quality programs, and families know the breadth of opportunities available to them,” she said. “I do think we’re on track. Enrollment is trending upwards, and we’re seeing there’s a real demand for TK.”  

The post Beyond crayons and circle time: What California transitional kindergarten needs to succeed appeared first on The Sacramento Observer.

Last Prisoner Project Calls Out Sentences Disproportionate To Offenses

By OBSERVER Newsroom

Vibes, the rolling paper brand created by rapper and entrepreneur Berner, recently teamed up with the Last Prisoner Project in conjunction with creative company Mother to launch Release Papers, rolling papers at the heart of a campaign to engage the public to advocate on behalf of individuals imprisoned for marijuana related convictions. 

Release Papers launched in stores and online at vibespapers.com July 24.

“So many people are still locked up with lengthy sentences related to cannabis, while at the same time, so many states have made up their mind that cannabis should be legal, and those states are where those people are still serving time, which makes absolutely no sense,” Berner said. “We have to speak up, stand next to and support causes like Last Prisoner Project.”

Tens of thousands of people remain incarcerated for cannabis in the United States. Marijuana is still classified as a schedule-1 substance, which has disproportionately high sentencing. According to recent polls, 72% of Americans support cannabis pardons. 

Release Papers aims to transform rolling cannabis into an opportunity to educate and engage the public to participate in advocating for prisoners. Each paper includes the name of one of four incarcerated people and a QR code that points to the campaign’s landing page. There, supporters can sign the Cannabis Clemency Now petition urging President Joe Biden to release federal cannabis prisoners. People also can participate in a letter-writing program that sends messages to the featured inmates, who are Edwin Rubis, serving a 40-year sentence in Talladega, Alabama, for a victimless offense; Hector McGurk, serving a life sentence in Victorville without the possibility of parole for a nonviolent marijuana offense; Moe Taher, sentenced to 25 years in Welch, West Virginia, for selling cannabis; and Ricardo Ashmeade, serving 22 years in Pollock, Louisiana, for a victimless offense.

“Vibes Release Papers are helping illuminate the injustice our constituents continue to face, even as more states legalize cannabis. President Biden has the power to right history and free Edwin, Hector, Moe, and Ricardo with the stroke of a pen, says Stephanie Shepard, Last Prisoner Project board member and director of advocacy. “We are grateful to have Vibes join our fight as we keep advocating until everyone still incarcerated for cannabis is fully free.”

The work is personal for Shepard, who was convicted of conspiracy to distribute marijuana in 2010. As a first-time, nonviolent offender, she was sentenced to 10 years’ federal time. After serving nine years, she was placed on federal probation for an additional five years.

A portion of the profits from the new rolling papers go to the Last Prisoner Project, which calls on President Biden to continue to act on broad-based criminal justice and drug policy reform by granting clemency to the tens of thousands of individuals currently incarcerated due to, or otherwise unduly burdened by, federal cannabis-related convictions.

Over the coming weeks, “Inside Out” will highlight the experiences of formerly incarcerated individuals and their families, look at efforts to improve local jail and prison facilities, and share the perspectives of Black correctional staffers and attorneys who work on change from within and activists who have dedicated their lives to shining a light on the inequities of the criminal justice system.

The post Vibes Rolls Out Cannabis Conviction Awareness Campaign appeared first on The Sacramento Observer.

By Genoa Barrow | OBSERVER Senior Staff Writer

Former Sacramento resident Stephanie Shepard is helping lead the charge to raise awareness about disproportionate cannabis sentencing across the country. The OBSERVER spoke to Shepard, who shares her personal connection to the work. She was convicted of conspiracy to distribute marijuana in 2010. After serving nine years of federal time, she was placed on probation for an additional five years. Shepard, 54, is now a leader with the nationally prominent Last Prisoner Project.

Q. When did you leave Sacramento?

A. I grew up in Sacramento. I moved to New York in 2005 to pursue a real estate career.

Q. What circumstances led to your conviction for conspiracy to distribute marijuana?

I was charged with conspiracy to distribute 1,000-plus kilos of marijuana. It was a first-time, nonviolent charge resulting in a mandatory minimum 10-year sentence in federal prison. I was released in 2019.

Q. When you were arrested/charged, did you think you’d end up spending years in prison for weed? For your first offense?

A. Absolutely not. Cannabis may have been illegal, but I never looked at it as a punishable offense, less only something that could result in a 10-year prison sentence.

Q. We hear a lot about Black men and marijuana charges, but not necessarily Black women. Care to address that?

A. The disparities in sentencing when it comes to Black people is alarming to say the least. Black people are four to five times more likely to receive a long sentence for cannabis. As a Black woman, I felt disposable. The jury deliberated for less than an hour before taking away 10 years of my life.

Q. Can you speak on the toll that the “war on drugs” and drug policies have had on the Black community?

A. The war on drugs is riddled with casualties. Incarceration doesn’t only affect the person incarcerated, but entire families, and when families are hurting, it hurts communities and ultimately hurts this country. The collateral consequences of incarceration are a ripple effect that harms already vulnerable communities. The impact far exceeds just the time lost. There’s probation and the fear of violation, voter suppression, lack of opportunities in employment, and housing. The system’s purpose is much more sinister than meets the eye.

Q. How did you become involved with Last Prisoner Project and how important is it that formerly incarcerated people lend their voices to the cause?

A. While I was incarcerated, state after state was legalizing, but there was no retroactive release for those serving time for the very plant that was becoming a booming legal industry. There was no organization fighting for cannabis prisoners, so I ended up serving my sentence and upon my release I went to LPP’s second fundraiser and met the founders and began working with them to amplify the need to bring people home and to right the wrongs surrounding cannabis criminalization.

I was very unsure of how I would move forward with my life as a felon, but I knew I couldn’t sit idly by knowing the harm being done to people incarcerated for the same plant that was now being celebrated. I didn’t have much, but I had my voice, my experiences and my passion to be on the right side of this issue. Everyone has a different story, different experiences, and will touch different people. As an advocate, I look to tap into whose words will move those that can make a change. Whether those words come from the child, spouse or parent of an incarcerated person, it’s imperative that those feelings are shared if we want to see change.

Q. The goal is full freedom. How realistic is that and why hasn’t it happened as of yet? Why hasn’t legalization made a difference?

A. Full freedom is long overdue. LPP has two campaigns, The Pen to Right History and Pardons to Progress. These campaigns are an opportunity for people to make their voices heard on both the state and federal level, asking not only President Biden to fulfill his campaign promises and use his powers to sign an executive order releasing the thousands incarcerated federally, but also asking governors across this country to do the same. While cannabis is a billion dollar industry for some, others should not be serving 10, 20, 60 years for the same plant. A life sentence for cannabis is simply unacceptable. Why hasn’t retroactive relief been granted? The system is not broken but working perfectly as designed. Prisons are a business. The tens of thousands of incarcerated cannabis prisoners contribute to keeping these prisons in business. Many of these prisons are in rural, low-income areas. There is no motivation to not incarcerate people. Legalization has not made a difference because it’s making money for those intended while also further hurting those intended. Justice was never the intention of legalization. What isn’t being recognized by those in power is the collateral damage being done cannot be contained. When one community is suffering, that suffering manifests itself in ways detrimental to this country as a whole.

Q. What do you hope to accomplish with the Release Papers campaign and reaching weed smokers?

A. The intention of the Vibes Release Papers campaign is to remind people as they are rolling up and partaking in the privilege of consuming, that they are able to do so because of people who are serving time for the plant. It’s also a call to action to make their voices heard that as Americans, we don’t support the incarceration of people for cannabis.

Q. What has been the Last Prisoner Project’s most successful program to date?

A. Last Prisoner Project is a young organization that has achieved many successes. One thing that I’m especially proud of is the work of our legal team, who have facilitated early releases for people like Ferrell Scott, Jeremy Grove and Richard Delisi. Additionally, our policy team has helped pass Assembly Bill 1706, which supports record-clearing for Californians. In addition to these accomplishments, LPP has been able to give over $2.4 million in direct funding to constituents and their families through our grant programs. These grants are made possible by donations from people who care about individuals, not just laws.

Over the coming weeks, “Inside Out” will highlight the experiences of formerly incarcerated individuals and their families, look at efforts to improve local jail and prison facilities, and share the perspectives of Black correctional staffers and attorneys who work on change from within and activists who have dedicated their lives to shining a light on the inequities of the criminal justice system.

The post She Stands By Her Convictions appeared first on The Sacramento Observer.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has selected Laphonza Butler, a Democratic strategist and adviser to Kamala Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign, to fill the U.S. Senate seat made vacant by the death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

In choosing Butler on Sunday, Newsom fulfilled his pledge to appoint a Black woman if Feinstein’s seat became open. However, he had been facing pressure from some Black politicians and advocacy groups to select Barbara Lee, a prominent Black congresswoman who is already running for the seat.

Butler will be the only Black woman serving in the U.S. Senate and the first openly LGBTQ+ person to represent California in the chamber.

Newsom said in a statement that the priorities Feinstein fought for in Congress — reproductive freedom, equal protection and safety from gun violence — were under assault in the nation. “Laphonza will carry the baton left by Sen. Feinstein (and) continue to break glass ceilings and fight for all Californians in Washington D.C.,” he said.

Butler leads Emily’s List, a political organization that supports Democratic women candidates who favor abortion rights. She also is a former labor leader with SEIU 2015, a powerful force in California politics.

Her appointment sets up a potentially tricky political calculus in the crowded 2024 contest to succeed Feinstein, which has been underway since the beginning of the year.

Newsom spokesman Anthony York said the governor did not ask Butler to commit to staying out of the race. The deadline for candidates to submit paperwork to seek the office is Dec. 8. Should Butler enter the contest, she could set up a competition for the relatively small but influential group of Black voters in California and possibly undercut Lee’s chances.

Emily’s List is known as a fundraising powerhouse, and raising huge sums of campaign cash is a must in any statewide California race. Newsom’s statement said she will step down from the organization.

The decision carried the threat of political fallout for Newsom, who is seen as a potential future national candidate. The candidate favored by Black voters has won the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination every cycle since 1992. The Congressional Black Caucus was among the groups and Black politicians that had urged Newsom to appoint Lee, calling her the best qualified choice for the post.

The long-serving Feinstein died Thursday at age 90 after a series of illnesses.

Butler currently lives in Maryland, according to her Emily’s List biography. Izzy Gardon, a spokesman for Newsom, said Butler owns a home in California. She is expected to reregister to vote in California before being sworn in. That could happen as early as Tuesday evening when the Senate returns to session.

Butler did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment nor release a statement.

Democrats control the Senate 51-49, though Feinstein’s seat is vacant. A quick appointment by Newsom will give the Democratic caucus more wiggle room on close votes, including nominations that Republicans uniformly oppose.

Feinstein, the oldest member of Congress and the longest-serving woman in the Senate, said in February she would not seek reelection in 2024. Lee is one of several prominent Democrats competing for the seat, including Democratic U.S. Reps. Katie Porter and Adam Schiff. Newsom said he did not want to appoint any of the candidates because it would give them an unfair advantage in the race.

Butler has never held elected office but has a long track record in California politics. She served as a senior adviser to Harris’s 2020 presidential campaign while working at a political firm filled with strategists who have worked for Newsom and many other prominent state Democrats. She also briefly worked in the private sector for Airbnb.

She called Feinstein “a legendary figure for women in politics and around the country,” in a statement posted after Feinstein’s death.

Emily’s List, the group Butler leads, focuses on electing Democratic women who support abortion rights. With the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn women’s constitutional right to abortion, the issue has become a galvanizing one for many Democrats.

Equality California, the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, said the appointment “will give our … community another voice in Congress at a time when our rights and freedoms are under attack across the country.”

It’s not Newsom’s first time selecting a U.S. senator, after being tasked with choosing a replacement for Kamala Harris when she was elected vice president; at that time he selected California Secretary of State Alex Padilla for the post. It was one of a string of appointments Newsom made in late 2020 and early 2021, a power that gave him kingmaker status among the state’s ambitious Democrats.

The seat is expected to stay in Democratic hands in the 2024 election. Democrats in the liberal-leaning state have not lost a statewide election since 2006, and the party holds a nearly 2-to-1 voter registration advantage over Republicans.

The post California governor names Laphonza Butler, former Kamala Harris adviser, to Feinstein Senate seat appeared first on The Sacramento Observer.

By Aziah Siid | Word In Black

(WIB) – As local school boards and state lawmakers unleash attacks on teachers, pass legislation suppressing Black history, and promote extremist ideology, America’s schools have become battlegrounds in the fight for democracy’s future. 

But labor unions like the 1.7-million-strong American Federation of Teachers aren’t taking it lying down. The organization is on the front lines, defending educators’ right to do their jobs free of harassment. They’re pushing school districts to treat teachers, and the truth, with basic respect. And they’re working overtime to create environments where all students can thrive.

There’s no better place for the AFT to engage the nation’s Black leadership on what’s happening in public schools than the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference. The conference brings together members of Congress, experts, activists, and thought leaders to address “today’s issues from an African American perspective.”

The theme of this year’s gathering, taking place from September 20 – 24, 2023, is “Securing Our Democracy. Protecting Our Freedoms” —  which is why Dr. Fedrick Ingram, Secretary-Treasurer of the AFT, participated in a panel on the “Courage to Teach.”

The discussion examined the current challeges facing Black educators, what they need to do their jobs — and be safe while doing them — and how to attract more Black folks to the teaching profession.  

Word In Black caught up with Dr. Ingram before the panel to hear his thoughts on what political leaders, the Black community, and educators can do to stop the ongoing assault on civil rights and teaching the truth in schools.

WORD IN BLACK: Given that education is a states rights issue, what is the CBC’s plan to apply pressure to state and local boards of education and districts to create environments that are grounded in truth?

DR. FEDRICK INGRAM: I don’t speak on behalf of the CBC, but what I can tell you is that the American Federation of Teachers, we are constantly and persistently talking to politicians trying to enact public policy that says all educators in all public schools should teach honest, comprehensive, and total history as it relates to American history. 

Black history, along with other histories, is American history, and we should all be pushing toward having teachers include these lesson plans. We should all be inclusive of everything that has happened in this country. In terms of public policy, what we’re trying to do is make sure that our teachers have freedom to teach, they have autonomy to do what they believe is necessary for our kids to do that, and we want these commissioners of education around the states — superintendents, principals — to adapt curriculum that is far and wide and stretches the breadth of a total history — of African American History.

We’re talking to lawmakers, we’re talking to supervisors, educators, and district administrators to ensure that these school districts include African American history, to ensure that they give the teachers the freedom to teach. This should not be an option for people to maybe learn about something about African American history. This should be part of education, mandatory participation, because it’s American history. 

WIB: What else would you suggest when it comes to creating these freedoms? How does that look? You mentioned lesson plans and making African American history not optional. What other ways does that freedom show up in the public education system?

INGRAM: We need parent and community support. We need parents to go to school boards, we need them to go to their schools and sit down and have a conversation with the principals and assistant principals and teachers, and ensure that their child is getting what they, the parent, perceive they need in their total education.

Part of their total education is African American history because, if you are Black, the way you achieve Black excellence, the way you achieve academic excellence, is to see yourself in these spaces and places to know that you as a person — as a young Black son or young Black daughter — can achieve certain things. You can learn about Michelle Obama, you can learn about Fannie Lou Hamer, you can learn about Frederick Douglass. 

Those kinds of things are really, really important — that we have parents who are knowledgeable, who are on the ground and will speak to the power. You speak that truth to power to your school boards, your school. And you also talk to your local politicians, because it is a state’s rights. You need to know who your state representative is, you need to know who your state senators are, you need to email and contact your governors because those are the advocacy positions.

We need to put the pressure on these folks. If parents are out there and believe that they just can’t do this by themselves, there are parent advocacy groups that can help. There are certain social groups, there are fraternities and sororities, there are HBCUs, there are many different avenues that people can take to link up and amplify their voice.

WIB: What do you want to see students doing, especially high school students who we are seeing a certain level of power and voice coming from the generations that have popped up during 2020-2021? What do you want to see more of them doing, especially that they have these platforms that I didn’t have in high school?

INGRAM: Keep on keepin’ on. That’s the saying, because what we know about this generation, they care more about social values and social issues than we’ve seen in decades, and they are more accepting of a lot of things that are right on the value side. They want to see people accepted regardless of who you love, how you look, and where you come from. They want to see people educated, they want to see a list of these have more in their lives. They want to see these opportunities broaden their horizons. We need to support these young people. What we know in American history is that anytime we’ve made a change for the better, it has always come through the advocacy and push and persistence of young people. 

I think back to the Freedom Riders in 1964-65. These young people who were in colleges and high schools, like John Lewis, who risked their lives to actually make change. I think about the North Carolina sit-ins where North Carolina A&T students said, you know what, enough is enough, I’m gonna go sit in this Woolworths, and I’m going to order food, and I’m going to have these things happen to me so that they don’t happen to anybody else. And you can go on and on and on. All of these movements have been fueled by our young people. 

When these young people turn 18-years-old, they’ve got to become super voters.DR. FEDRICK INGRAM

We need to encourage that, we need to encourage that civic activism. And we also need to always emphasize the power to vote, because you can advocate, you can speak loud, you can demonstrate, but if you don’t change the voting cycle, if you don’t get people who are in power, who can actually pull those levers of power or push people to do the right thing, then we don’t want all of that to be for naught. 

You got to get into the voting booth. When these young people turn 18-years-old, they’ve got to become super voters. We don’t tell people how to vote, we just teach them about the value system of life, that everybody should have a fair shot in life.

WIB: What suggestions do you have for pulling in those people? How do we get the people who aren’t moms or don’t have children to understand that this is a fight of theirs as well?

INGRAM: I believe in meeting people where they are. I am obviously African American, been one all my life. I know a little something about having cousins and nephews and folks who don’t have a formal education. When I talk about education, I’m not talking about going to school, I’m not talking about going to college. One of the smartest people I’ve ever known was my grandmother. She had a third-grade education, but she is the smartest person who I’ve ever met in my entire life. 

We’ve got to meet people where they are. If you’re in the barbershop, getting a haircut, talking to your barber, and the guys are talking about sports, then you insert some of this policy stuff where they can understand it. 

When I talk about education, I’m not talking about going to school, I’m not talking about going to college.DR. FEDRICK INGRAM

People understand that they can pay their rent, people understand that there are kids who are not getting a good education, people understand that the price of eggs and milk are going up every day. We have to link that to why these things are happening. It is not rocket science.

What we want to do is make sure that we have talking points for people who are everyday people. These are people who are just trying to pay the bills, who try to go to work every day, who don’t watch MSNBC, who don’t watch CNN, maybe not even read Word In Black — shame on them, right? 

What we want to do is focus on issues that matter to people. We’ve got to talk to people where they are. We can’t be a pie in the sky and think that everybody has a college education, because we are still the exception and not the rule. There are still far too many first-generation college students coming from the African American diaspora. 

Whether you have a high school education, or college education, or no education, as an American, you can still vote, you can still advocate, and we know that people still care about their kids, their schools, and what’s happening in their community.

WIB: We have been fighting for the rights of students and teachers for as long as we can remember. But, in years and months to come, how are you going to measure the results? What are the results you’re looking for?

INGRAM: When we look back in history, we came here in ships, where we were stripped of our names, stripped of our culture, stripped of our families, and made to think that we are less than, made to think that we could not be educated. There was a time where people like you and me, because of the skin color we have and what we represent — it was illegal to teach us, it was illegal to teach our ancestors. 

And then we migrated to: we’re going to steal education, we’re going to steal books, we’re going to learn this language, we’re going to formulate churches, and we’re going to get with those well-intentioned white folks who are going to help us through this. 

Then there was a time where these people can learn, these people can do, and they can have schools, but we’re going to have their schools over there on the other side of town, and we’re going to give them second-hand books. We’re going to tell them that they are less than. Then we have Brown v. Board of Education. 

I’m speeding through all of this — there have been advances. And there has been progress. Some have been big leaps. Some of them have been tiny little micro steps, but every single step of the way, it is up to us our generation to move the needle where we are right, and this is our part of the race. This is our part of the marathon.

iIf we measure progress, it’s one family and one student at a time. There’s the saying we use in the African American community, “each one teach one,” and that it “takes a village to raise children.” IThat village may be in your house with your own kids. It may be your grandkids, it may be your nieces or nephews, and may be the kid across the street. 

We’ve given away millions of books.DR. FEDRICK INGRAM

We need to ensure that every kid has a value system, is worth something, and we can do what we can to make sure that we grab that kid before the streets get them — grab that kid before others who don’t like the way they look good get them. We need to make sure that we instill education in as many young people as we can, and I’m talking about really young.

We need people to read to our young people. In the AFT, we are giving away books all over this country. We’ve given away millions of books at this point, and we will continue to do so. 

I’m going to Boston this Saturday, and we’re going to give away another 40,000 books to communities in Boston. We have a banned bookmobile that we’re going to start up soon, where we’re giving books away to communities from as far away as Florida, all the way through Pennsylvania. We’re taking this all over the country where people are trying to ban books. 

We believe in libraries, and we believe that all families should have a classroom set of books for their home, so that they can share between the mom and the dad and between brothers and sisters. And you know, when the cousins come over, they not only have the advent of social media, but they also have the tried and true way of learning, which is reading a book.

We want a new generation of Black teachers to come into our classrooms. We want to make sure that people respect the profession of education, because there was a time when if Miss Jones was in the grocery store, and the third grade students saw Miss Jones, it was almost like seeing God. We’ve got to bring that joy back into the profession. We’ve got to bring that joy back into what we know. That’s going to help our students. 

This conversation was lightly edited for length and clarity.

The post AFT Leader Fedrick Ingram Talks Teaching Truth in Schools appeared first on The Sacramento Observer.

By Rio Yamat and Ken Ritter | The Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A man who prosecutors say ordered the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur was arrested and charged with murder Friday in a long-awaited breakthrough in one of hip-hop’s most enduring mysteries.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis has long been known to investigators as one of four suspects identified early in the investigation. He isn’t the accused gunman but was described as the group’s ringleader by authorities Friday at a news conference and in court. In Nevada you can be charged with a crime, including murder, if you help someone commit the crime.

“Duane Davis was the shot caller for this group of individuals that committed this crime,” said police homicide Lt. Jason Johansson, “and he orchestrated the plan that was carried out.”

Davis himself has admitted in interviews and in his 2019 tell-all memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” that he provided the gun used in the drive-by shooting.

Authorities said Friday that Davis’ own public comments revived the investigation.

Davis, now 60, was arrested early Friday while on a walk near his home on the outskirts of Las Vegas, hours before prosecutors announced in court that a Nevada grand jury had indicted the self-described “gangster” on one count of murder with a deadly weapon. He is due in court next week.

The grand jury also voted to add a sentencing enhancement to the murder charge for gang activity that could add up to 20 additional years if he’s convicted.

The first-ever arrest in the case came after Las Vegas police raided Davis’ home in mid-July in the nearby city of Henderson for items they described at the time as “concerning the murder of Tupac Shakur.”

Davis denied an interview request Friday from jail, and court records don’t list an attorney who can comment on his behalf. Prosecutors said they did not know if he had a lawyer yet and several local attorneys said they did not know who from Las Vegas would represent him. Phone and text messages to Davis and his wife on Friday and in the months since the July 17 search weren’t returned.

In a statement Friday, Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur, the rapper’s sister, described the arrest as a victory.

“This is no doubt a pivotal moment. The silence of the past 27 years surrounding this case has spoken loudly in our community,” she said. “It’s important to me that the world, the country, the justice system, and our people acknowledge the gravity of the passing of this man, my brother, my mother’s son, my father’s son.”

On the night of Sept. 7, 1996, Shakur was in a BMW driven by Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight. They were waiting at a red light near the Las Vegas Strip when a white Cadillac pulled up next to them and gunfire erupted.

Shakur was shot multiple times and died a week later at the age of 25.

Davis, in his memoir, said he was in the front passenger seat of the Cadillac and had slipped a gun into the back seat, from where he said the shots were fired.

He implicated his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, saying he was one of two people in the backseat. Anderson, a known rival of Shakur, had been involved in a casino brawl with the rapper shortly before the shooting.

“Little did anyone know that this incident right here would ultimately lead to the retaliatory shooting and death of Tupac Shakur,” said Johansson, the police lieutenant.

Anderson died two years later. He denied any involvement in Shakur’s death.

Emails seeking comment from two lawyers who have previously represented Knight were not immediately returned. Knight was grazed by a bullet fragment in the shooting but had only minor injuries. He is serving a 28-year prison sentence in California for an unrelated voluntary manslaughter charge.

On the night of July 17, Las Vegas police quietly surrounded the home where Davis lives with his wife, Paula Clemons. Police lapel video obtained by AP showed SWAT officers detaining a man and his wife outside the home lit up by a swirl of red and blue lights after announcing their presence on a bullhorn. The couple’s faces are blurred in the videos.

Police reported collecting multiple computers, a cellphone and hard drive, a Vibe magazine that featured Shakur, several .40-caliber bullets, two “tubs containing photographs” and a copy of Davis’ memoir.

Greg Kading, a retired Los Angeles police detective who spent years investigating the Shakur killing and wrote a book about it, said he’s not surprised by Davis’ arrest.

“All the other direct conspirators or participants are all dead,” Kading said. “Keffe D is the last man standing among the individuals that conspired to kill Tupac.”

The rapper’s death came as his fourth solo album, “All Eyez on Me,” remained on the charts, with some 5 million copies sold. Nominated six times for a Grammy Award, Shakur is still largely considered one of the most influential and versatile rappers of all time.

___

Associated Press writer Andrew Dalton contributed reporting from Los Angeles.

The post Last living suspect in 1996 drive-by shooting of Tupac Shakur indicted in Las Vegas on murder charge appeared first on The Sacramento Observer.

By Stacker

Canva

(Stacker) – A high school diploma gives graduates a leg up in the workforce, even if they don’t pursue any further education.

The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that workers over age of 25 with a high school diploma or equivalent earned about 25% more than those without one—$853 a week compared to $682. Diploma holders also faced lower unemployment rates, at 4% in 2022, compared to 5.5% for those who never completed high school.

There are many reasons high-school graduates may choose to not continue on to college—for instance, the cost. Average tuition costs continue to rise, increasing by 1% to 4% last year, depending on the institution type. While higher degrees of education typically pave the way for higher earnings, a college degree isn’t necessary for many high-paying jobs. And for many careers, it doesn’t make sense to pay to study for years when there are paid apprenticeship or learn-on-the-job programs.

Stacker used Bureau of Labor Statistics data to find the highest-paying jobs in Sacramento for those with a high school diploma or equivalent. Jobs are ranked by their annual median salaries as of May 2022. Jobs without available data for annual pay were excluded from this analysis.

Keep reading to see which jobs in your city pay high school graduates the most.

This story features data reporting and writing by Paxtyn Merten and is part of a series utilizing data automation across 366 metros.

#50. Sheet metal workers

– Median annual wage: $64,600
– Median hourly wage: $31.06
– Total employment: 770 people (0.75 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Apprenticeship

#49. Sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing, except technical and scientific products

– Median annual wage: $64,870
– Median hourly wage: $31.19
– Total employment: 5,300 people (5.15 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Moderate-term on-the-job training

#48. Rail car repairers

– Median annual wage: $65,510
– Median hourly wage: $31.49
– Total employment: 130 people (0.13 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Long-term on-the-job training

#46. Property, real estate, and community association managers (tie)

– Median annual wage: $65,610
– Median hourly wage: $31.54
– Total employment: 2,880 people (2.8 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: None

#46. Aircraft structure, surfaces, rigging, and systems assemblers (tie)

– Median annual wage: $65,610
– Median hourly wage: $31.55
– Total employment: 60 people (0.06 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Moderate-term on-the-job training

#45. Mobile heavy equipment mechanics, except engines

– Median annual wage: $66,110
– Median hourly wage: $31.79
– Total employment: 890 people (0.87 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Long-term on-the-job training

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#44. Glaziers

– Median annual wage: $66,200
– Median hourly wage: $31.83
– Total employment: 440 people (0.43 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Apprenticeship

#43. Medical equipment preparers

– Median annual wage: $66,700
– Median hourly wage: $32.07
– Total employment: 610 people (0.6 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Moderate-term on-the-job training

#42. First-line supervisors of gambling services workers

– Median annual wage: $67,140
– Median hourly wage: $32.28
– Total employment: 280 people (0.27 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: None

#41. First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

– Median annual wage: $67,880
– Median hourly wage: $32.63
– Total employment: 9,330 people (9.07 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: None

#40. Media and communication workers, all other

– Median annual wage: $68,450
– Median hourly wage: $32.91
– Total employment: 230 people (0.22 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Short-term on-the-job training

#39. Meter readers, utilities

– Median annual wage: $70,180
– Median hourly wage: $33.74
– Total employment: 70 people (0.07 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Short-term on-the-job training

#38. First-line supervisors of production and operating workers

– Median annual wage: $71,000
– Median hourly wage: $34.14
– Total employment: 2,110 people (2.05 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: None

Monkey Business Images // Shutterstock

#37. Insurance sales agents

– Median annual wage: $72,240
– Median hourly wage: $34.73
– Total employment: 3,220 people (3.13 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Moderate-term on-the-job training

#36. Explosives workers, ordnance handling experts, and blasters

– Median annual wage: $73,680
– Median hourly wage: $35.42
– Total employment: 40 people (0.04 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Long-term on-the-job training

#35. Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

– Median annual wage: $74,490
– Median hourly wage: $35.81
– Total employment: 3,170 people (3.08 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: None

#34. Public safety telecommunicators

– Median annual wage: $74,780
– Median hourly wage: $35.95
– Total employment: 630 people (0.61 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Moderate-term on-the-job training

#33. Surveying and mapping technicians

– Median annual wage: $74,980
– Median hourly wage: $36.05
– Total employment: 330 people (0.32 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Moderate-term on-the-job training

#32. Title examiners, abstractors, and searchers

– Median annual wage: $75,600
– Median hourly wage: $36.35
– Total employment: 410 people (0.4 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Moderate-term on-the-job training

#31. Forest fire inspectors and prevention specialists

– Median annual wage: $76,230
– Median hourly wage: $36.65
– Total employment: 40 people (0.04 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Moderate-term on-the-job training

#30. Claims adjusters, examiners, and investigators

– Median annual wage: $76,900
– Median hourly wage: $36.97
– Total employment: 2,330 people (2.26 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Long-term on-the-job training

#29. First-line supervisors of mechanics, installers, and repairers

– Median annual wage: $76,940
– Median hourly wage: $36.99
– Total employment: 3,580 people (3.48 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: None

#28. Transportation inspectors

– Median annual wage: $80,510
– Median hourly wage: $38.71
– Total employment: 150 people (0.15 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Moderate-term on-the-job training

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#27. Operating engineers and other construction equipment operators

– Median annual wage: $81,240
– Median hourly wage: $39.06
– Total employment: 2,750 people (2.67 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Moderate-term on-the-job training

#26. Plant and system operators, all other

– Median annual wage: $81,690
– Median hourly wage: $39.27
– Total employment: 120 people (0.11 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Moderate-term on-the-job training

#25. Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators

– Median annual wage: $81,870
– Median hourly wage: $39.36
– Total employment: 910 people (0.88 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Long-term on-the-job training

#24. First-line supervisors of non-retail sales workers

– Median annual wage: $82,710
– Median hourly wage: $39.77
– Total employment: 1,010 people (0.98 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: None

#23. Stationary engineers and boiler operators

– Median annual wage: $83,100
– Median hourly wage: $39.95
– Total employment: 630 people (0.61 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Long-term on-the-job training

#22. Petroleum pump system operators, refinery operators, and gaugers

– Median annual wage: $83,750
– Median hourly wage: $40.26
– Total employment: 30 people (0.03 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Moderate-term on-the-job training

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#21. Paving, surfacing, and tamping equipment operators

– Median annual wage: $85,450
– Median hourly wage: $41.08
– Total employment: 170 people (0.17 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Moderate-term on-the-job training

#20. Farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers

– Median annual wage: $85,750
– Median hourly wage: $41.23
– Total employment: 70 people (0.07 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: None

#19. First-line supervisors of construction trades and extraction workers

– Median annual wage: $85,760
– Median hourly wage: $41.23
– Total employment: 5,150 people (5.0 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: None

#18. Telecommunications line installers and repairers

– Median annual wage: $86,300
– Median hourly wage: $41.49
– Total employment: 710 people (0.69 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Long-term on-the-job training

#17. Correctional officers and jailers

– Median annual wage: $86,470
– Median hourly wage: $41.57
– Total employment: 1,910 people (1.86 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Moderate-term on-the-job training

Ken Wolter // Shutterstock

#16. Postmasters and mail superintendents

– Median annual wage: $86,580
– Median hourly wage: $41.63
– Total employment: 60 people (0.06 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Moderate-term on-the-job training

#15. Insulation workers, mechanical

– Median annual wage: $93,600
– Median hourly wage: $45.00
– Total employment: 30 people (0.03 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Apprenticeship

#14. Construction and building inspectors

– Median annual wage: $96,050
– Median hourly wage: $46.18
– Total employment: 1,060 people (1.03 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Moderate-term on-the-job training

Oil and Gas Photographer // Shutterstock

#13. Control and valve installers and repairers, except mechanical door

– Median annual wage: $96,080
– Median hourly wage: $46.19
– Total employment: 340 people (0.33 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Moderate-term on-the-job training

#12. Transportation, storage, and distribution managers

– Median annual wage: $98,530
– Median hourly wage: $47.37
– Total employment: 1,310 people (1.27 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: None

#11. Gambling managers

– Median annual wage: $100,080
– Median hourly wage: $48.11
– Total employment: 50 people (0.05 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: None

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#10. Pile driver operators

– Median annual wage: $100,470
– Median hourly wage: $48.30
– Total employment: 60 people (0.06 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Moderate-term on-the-job training

#9. Detectives and criminal investigators

– Median annual wage: $101,770
– Median hourly wage: $48.93
– Total employment: 1,450 people (1.41 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Moderate-term on-the-job training

#8. Police and sheriff’s patrol officers

– Median annual wage: $103,030
– Median hourly wage: $49.54
– Total employment: 5,500 people (5.35 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Moderate-term on-the-job training

#7. Excavating and loading machine and dragline operators, surface mining

– Median annual wage: $103,480
– Median hourly wage: $49.75
– Total employment: 110 people (0.1 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Moderate-term on-the-job training

#6. First-line supervisors of correctional officers

– Median annual wage: $115,750
– Median hourly wage: $55.65
– Total employment: 570 people (0.55 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: None

#5. Gas plant operators

– Median annual wage: $116,230
– Median hourly wage: $55.88
– Total employment: 40 people (0.04 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Long-term on-the-job training

Luisa Leal Photography // Shutterstock

#4. Electrical power-line installers and repairers

– Median annual wage: $122,740
– Median hourly wage: $59.01
– Total employment: 680 people (0.66 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Long-term on-the-job training

#3. Power distributors and dispatchers

– Median annual wage: $132,830
– Median hourly wage: $63.86
– Total employment: 120 people (0.12 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Long-term on-the-job training

michaeljung // Shutterstock

#2. Power plant operators

– Median annual wage: $138,420
– Median hourly wage: $66.55
– Total employment: 190 people (0.19 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Long-term on-the-job training

#1. First-line supervisors of police and detectives

– Median annual wage: $142,150
– Median hourly wage: $68.34
– Total employment: 730 people (0.71 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)
– Required on-the-job training to attain competency: Moderate-term on-the-job training

The post Highest paying jobs in Sacramento for high school graduates appeared first on The Sacramento Observer.

By Stacy M. Brown | NNPA

(NNPA) – As discussions surrounding fair and informed journalism continue, it remains clear that many Black Americans are eager to see changes in news coverage that accurately reflect their experiences and perspectives. That perspective became more pronounced with the release of a new report by the Pew Research Center, which sheds light on the perceptions of Black Americans regarding news coverage that often portrays them negatively compared to other racial and ethnic groups.

Based on a comprehensive survey of 4,742 U.S. Black adults conducted from February 22 to March 5, 2023, along with nine online focus groups held between July and August 2022, African Americans have expressed a growing desire for fair and informed reporting. The key findings of the multi-method report provide a nuanced understanding of Black Americans’ views on news coverage include:

1.  Perceptions of Coverage: The report reveals that 63% of Black Americans believe that news coverage about Black people tends to be more negative than that of other racial and ethnic groups. Additionally, more than half of Black adults (57%) feel that news about Black people only covers certain segments of their communities, while 50% think it often lacks essential information. Only 9% believe that the news adequately covers a diverse range of Black experiences and consistently provides the whole story. Worryingly, just 14% of Black Americans are optimistic that fair coverage of Black people will become a reality in their lifetimes, with 38% believing it is unlikely to happen.
2.  Steps for Improvement: A significant majority of Black Americans, 76%, emphasize the importance of journalists covering all sides of an issue when reporting on Black people, while 73% stress the necessity of understanding the historical context behind the stories. Roughly half (48%) also call for journalists to advocate for Black people when covering them. Furthermore, 64% of those who have encountered racially insensitive coverage believe that educating all journalists about issues affecting Black Americans would be highly effective in achieving fairer news coverage. A substantial proportion also supports the inclusion of more Black voices as sources (54%), the hiring of more Black individuals as newsroom leaders (53%), and journalists (44%).
3. Newsroom Representation: Many Black Americans believe that Black journalists play a crucial role in reporting race and racial inequality news. Approximately 45% feel that Black journalists excel at covering these issues, with 44% stating that Black journalists better understand them. However, few Black Americans consider the journalist’s race as a key factor in the credibility of a news story, with just 14% believing it is vital for news to come from Black journalists, regardless of the topic.
4. Concerns Across the Black Population: Concerns about negative news coverage are widespread among Black Americans, transcending political affiliations. Both Black Republicans and Black Democrats (including leaners) express similar concerns, with 46% of Republicans and 44% of Democrats agreeing that coverage often stereotypes Black people. This starkly contrasts with the 11% in both groups who believe it does not. Additionally, Black Americans with higher education and income levels tend to hold more negative views regarding the media’s coverage of Black people.
5. The Role of Black Identity: The study reveals that Black Americans’ perceptions of news coverage vary significantly based on their identity. The vast majority (82%) of those who consider being Black highly important to their identity emphasize the importance of journalists understanding the historical context of stories. This number decreases to 55% among those who place less importance on their Black identity.
6. Sources of News and Information: The report also delves into news sources for Black Americans. At least a third of Black Americans report getting news from local news outlets, national news outlets, social media sites, and friends, family, and acquaintances. Notably, 24% state that they often receive news from Black news outlets, with an additional 40% occasionally turning to them.

The margin of sampling error for the survey’s total sample of 4,742 respondents is plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.

“In 1967, the Kerner Commission – undertaken by President Lyndon Johnson’s administration to investigate the causes behind urban riots – took a harsh view on the news media’s stance toward Black Americans,” the report’s researchers wrote. “The commission’s report cited sensationalist and divisive coverage as well as inaccurate and unfair representations of Black communities, concluding that ‘the journalistic profession has been shockingly backward in seeking out, hiring and promoting’ Black people, and ‘the press has too long basked in a white world looking out of it, if at all, with white men’s eyes and white perspective.’”

The researchers continued: “More than half a century later, there is continued discussion of many of the themes raised in the report. This new study asks Black Americans themselves about their experience with news today, including views around portrayals of Black people in news stories, representation in newsrooms, and where they go and whom they trust for information.”

The post New Pew Research Center Study Reveals Black Americans’ Concerns About Negative News Coverage and Calls for Informed Journalism appeared first on The Sacramento Observer.

By Alexa Spencer | Word In Black

(WIB) – Researchers may have found the reason for hormone-related cancers in thousands of American women: “forever chemicals.”

These  chemicals include per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), parabens, and phenols, and are often found in the environment — breaking down very slowly and eventually building up in people’s bodies. 

Although known for being highly toxic, PFAS are used in industrial settings and found in thousands of everyday products, including food packaging, toilet paper, clothing, and cosmetics.

The study, published in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology on Sept. 18, found that women with previous cancer diagnoses had high levels of forever chemicals in their blood.

The team of researchers from the University of Michigan, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and the University of Southern California discovered the connections between forever chemicals, melanoma, and cancers of the thyroid, breast, ovary, and uterus.

“These findings highlight the need to consider PFAS and phenols as whole classes of environmental risk factors for cancer risk in women,” Max Aung, senior author of the study and assistant professor of environmental health at USC Keck School of Medicine, said in a statement.

Black and Latino communities are most likely to be exposed to unsafe levels of PFAS in their water supplies.

The research team reviewed data from 48,712 adults who participated in the 2005-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The final sample sizes included 8,010 men and 8,686 women in the PFAS analysis and 5,084 men and 5,344 women in the phenol plus paraben analysis. 

The authors found that prior ovarian and uterine cancer diagnoses were most common among white women with higher PFAS exposure. Black and Mexican American women were more likely to have a breast cancer diagnosis when overly exposed to phenols and parabens. 

“Future studies should build on this work to explore intersecting social identities, such as immigrant status, educational attainment, and neighborhood factors, to better understand how to identify high-risk groups to strengthen prevention and intervention efforts,” Aung said. 

Previous research by Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that Black and Hispanic/Latino communities are most likely to be exposed to unsafe levels of PFAS in their water supplies.

The researchers linked the finding to the disproportionate amount of pollution sources near watersheds in those communities, including major manufacturers, airports, military bases, wastewater treatment plants, and landfills.

In the absence of a federal standard, states such as California, Oregon, and North Carolina adopted their own regulations.

Following the lead water crisis in Flint, Michigan, the Biden-Harris administration proposed the first-ever national drinking water standard for six PFAS. The proposal, announced in March, is part of President Joe Biden’s action plan to combat PFAS pollution. 

While some may consider this a step in the right direction, thousands of other forever chemicals would remain federally unregulated if passed.

“One way to reduce exposures is for the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate PFAS as a class of chemicals, rather than one at a time,” said Tracey J. Woodruff, a University of California at San Francisco professor.

In the absence of a federal standard, states such as California, Oregon, and North Carolina adopted their own regulations. Major brands and retailers have restricted or eliminated the use of the chemicals in their products. IKEA, Victoria’s Secret, H&M, and Target are among those on board. 

“As communities around the country grapple with PFAS contamination, policymakers should account for the results of this study as they develop a plan of action to reduce PFAS exposure,” Woodruff said. 

The post Forever Chemicals Flagged as Urgent Health Threat appeared first on The Sacramento Observer.

By Genoa Barrow | OBSERVER Senior Staff Writer

In the wake of several in-custody overdoses, a medical assistant at the Sacramento County main jail has been arrested for allegedly conspiring to bring in drugs and other “dangerous contraband.”

Sheriff Jim Cooper held a press conference Sept. 27 concerning the Aug. 29 arrest of Zareonna Harris. Harris, 23, is said to have used her security access and “position of trust” to bring in controlled substances to sell to individuals incarcerated at the main jail. At least four other people also face charges.

According to Cooper, Harris was arrested outside the downtown facility in possession of “cocaine, a cell phone, phone charger and screwheads that allow inmates to manipulate locks and manufacture weapons.” He was intentional in pointing out that Harris’ position “was brought in by [Adult] Correctional Health” and not the Sheriff’s Office.

Local community-based organizations such as Decarcerate Sacramento have been vocal about jail conditions, lack of adequate staffing and demands for accountability from county officials and the sheriff about in-custody incidents. As previously reported in The OBSERVER, the Berkeley-based Prison Law Office sent a letter addressed to Cooper on Aug. 7 that called out officials for failing to check staffers upon entry into jail facilities.

“The Sacramento Sheriff’s Office is failing to make appropriate and sensible interdiction efforts to stop drugs from entering the jails,” the letter stated.

Cooper is tired of taking the heat for in-custody deaths, which he said should fall on Adult Correctional Health.

“I have zero control over the majority of the problems cited in the Mays Consent Decree and they all pertain to correctional medical,” he said.

Of the six deaths in 2023, Cooper said five involved “medical-related issues.”

“I have no control over jail medical, yet the sheriff is blamed for everything,” Cooper said.

“I take responsibility for my deputies, their actions and what they do,” he continued. “This all revolves around jail medical,” which Cooper called “inept” and plagued by issues of leadership, management and oversight. “That’s a big issue we’re dealing with and fighting with,” he said.

Cooper cited lengthy intake and booking processes at the main jail and the frequency with which prisoners are sent out for medical attention that taxes sheriff’s personnel. He suggests a system overhaul.

“I’m at my breaking point,” Cooper said.

The Board of Supervisors issued a statement following Cooper’s press conference.

“Meeting the requirements of the federal Mays Consent Decree is a shared responsibility between Adult Correctional Health and the Sheriff’s Office, as the operator of the jail,” the statement reads.

“Inmates being booked into the Sacramento County Jail have a constitutional right to a standard of medical care, and Adult Correctional Health will not compromise that standard of care. … The county is working, along with the Sheriff’s Office, toward a larger intake facility and accessibility issues within the jail, in compliance with the decree. … Adult Correctional Health looks forward to continuing productive conversations with the Sheriff’s Office on how to improve medical care within the main jail.”

The post Jail Staffer Accused Of Bringing In Drugs, Other Contraband appeared first on The Sacramento Observer.

By Nicholas Ibarra | OBSERVER Staff Writer

All listed events, and more, can be viewed online on The OBSERVER’s community events calendar at SacObserver.com. Be sure to submit your events two weeks in advance to have the chance to be featured on the list.

1. Invictus Youth Foundation Ninth Annual Champions Golf Classic – 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 2, at Valley Hi Country Club. Enjoy a round of golf, entertainment and networking. Proceeds will help raise funds to support Invictus Youth Foundation’s mission and to keep their annual programs free for all participants. Invictus Youth Foundation serves at-risk youth throughout California providing them with life and leadership skills through sport.
2. Chamber of Commerce New Member Networking and Orientation – 10-11 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 3, at East Sacramento Chamber of Commerce. Meet other new members, introduce yourself and your business, learn what’s included in your membership and what committees are available to join at this free event, held first Tuesdays monthly.
3. Monthly Security Task Force Meeting – Noon-1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 3, at Florin Road Partnership. Don’t miss this highly informative meeting where they discuss reports from law enforcement, Sacramento County, City of Sacramento, district security, PBID maintenance, businesses, property owners, community members and more. Lunch will be provided by Panera Bread. Free and open to the public.
4. Free Senior Resource Fair – 9 a.m.-noon Wednesday, Oct. 4, at the Masonic Center-Folsom. Discover a wealth of resources and information tailored specifically for seniors. Whether you’re looking for health services, financial advice or simply want to connect with others in your community, this fair has it all. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to explore various booths and learn about the amazing support available to you.
5. Wonk Wednesday: Nighttime Economy – 7-9 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 4, at New Helvetia Brewing Co. Over the last several years, the Sacramento arts and culture scene has received increased investment and attention. Welcome Megan Van Voorhis, director of convention and cultural services and nighttime economy manager Tina Lee-Vogt to discuss the future of arts and culture and nightlife in Sacramento. Free and open to the public.
6. Samara Joy – 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 4, at the Mondavi Center. In 2023, the young jazz singer from the Bronx earned two Grammys for her first album, including for best new artist. Don’t miss the opportunity to bask in Joy’s resonant, emotionally stirring voice. Tickets starting at $25.
7. Her: Folsom Women’s Conference – 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 5, at the Harris Center. Thought-provoking discussions, inspiring speakers, comedy, networking, shopping and more. Bring girlfriends, coworkers, business partners or come solo and meet hundreds of other women from throughout the region. Tickets starting at $132.
8. “You Betta Work” Career Fair – 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 5, at 1015 20th St. This career fair celebrates diversity and empowers the LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities in their career journeys. You’ll have the opportunity to network, learn about job openings and showcase your skills to potential employers. Free and open to the public.
9. Briefing: Black Health Equity – Noon-1:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 5, at California Chamber of Commerce. Join the California Health Care Foundation for a free briefing that examines the health care challenges so many Black Californians face despite their pursuit of good health, as well as highlight strategies for advancing Black health equity. Free and open to the public.
10. Connecting the Dots: Women in Business Dinner and Forum – 5-8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 5, at Tsakopoulos Library Galleria. Featuring a cocktail hour followed by dinner and a powerful fireside chat with dynamic and accomplished women. Guaranteed to motivate and inspire you. Speakers include Azizza Davis Goines, Brandy Bolden, Lorrie Clark, Dr. Idara Essien-Wood, Dr. Michele Foss-Snowden and Karla Stevenson. Tickets starting at $315.
11. AMA for Authors: by Jason Denzel and Anita Crawford Clark – 5-6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 5, at A Seat at the Table. Ask Jason and Anita anything about writing, marketing, editing and publishing books in any genre and through any publishing method, and network with authors and the bookselling staff. Free and open to the public.
12. Cut to the Chase – 6-7 p.m. first Thursdays, starting Oct. 5 at Exclusive Barber Studio. A monthly meet-up for Black men to gather and discuss everyday challenges and issues. We invite Black men to join for encouragement, counseling and support in a small group setting with licensed mental health professionals. Free and open to the public.
13. Godfrey – 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct 5, 7:30 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 6-7, at the Punch Line Comedy Club. Don’t miss the opportunity to witness the great Godfrey as he performs his new comedy special for three nights in Sacramento. He has been featured on BET, VH1, Comedy Central and many other networks and films. Tickets starting at $30.
14. Made Studio Makers Market: Oak Park First Fridays – 5-9 p.m. Friday, Oct. 6, at Made Studio. Shop with local vendors, get a tour of the Made Studio space, enter a raffle, have fun crafting at Halloween-themed stations and bring home your own creations. Free and open to the public.
15. California Black Chamber of Commerce Business Mixer – 5:30-8:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 6, at Seasons 52. This free mixer features distinguished guest speakers from the City of Sacramento and SMUD, who will discuss various programs tailored to benefit small businesses, a raffle and the chance to connect with like-minded individuals in the business community.
16. David Covin Memorial Service – 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 7, at Capistrano Concert Hall. Sacramento State professor emeritus David Covin carefully developed a network of organizations to advocate for the economic, educational and political condition of Black men, women and children. He died of colon cancer on June 3 at age 82, according to his daughter, Holly Covin Jacobson. A memorial service will celebrate his life and contributions on the Sacramento campus.
17. Youth Braiding Academy – 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 7, at the African Marketplace. This academy aims to empower youth by teaching them various braiding techniques and styles. From cornrows to box braids, our experienced instructors will guide participants through hands-on demonstrations and provide step-by-step instructions. Tickets starting at $200.
18. South Sacramento Multicultural Festival – 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 7, at North Laguna Creek Park. Immerse yourself in the rich tapestry of the community as a variety of traditions, music, dance and flavors are showcased. Celebrate diversity and foster cultural understanding. Free and open to the public.
19. Elk Grove Giant Pumpkin Festival – 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 7-8, at Elk Grove Regional Park. Experience carnival rides, inflatables, arts and crafts, vendors and food trucks, contests, a pumpkin patch and more. Entertainers and musical acts will fill three stages; plus, some of the giant pumpkins from the weigh-off will be carved into boats and paddled across the lake in the Pumpkin Regatta. Free and open to the public.
20. Sacramento Loves R&B – 9 p.m.-1:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 7, at Harlow’s. An R&B experience that you will get nowhere else. Don’t miss the opportunity to dance the night away and groove to some of the best R&B music of all time. Tickets starting at $15.
21. Honorary Negro Leagues Game – 1-5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 8, at John Smith Field, Sac State. Sierra Community Medical Foundation and Perfect Game Pitching Solutions present special guests Bob Kendrick from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and Dennis Biddle from Yesterday’s Negro Leagues Baseball Foundation for an afternoon of baseball honoring the legacy and impact of the Negro Leagues. The game will be played by area high schoolers and managed by local baseball legends.

The post Weekly Outings With The OBSERVER appeared first on The Sacramento Observer.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, a centrist Democrat who was elected to the Senate in 1992 in the “Year of the Woman” and broke gender barriers throughout her long career in local and national politics, has died. She was 90.

Three people familiar with the situation confirmed her death to The Associated Press on Friday.

Feinstein, the oldest sitting U.S. senator, was a passionate advocate for liberal priorities important to her state — including environmental protection, reproductive rights and gun control — but was also known as a pragmatic lawmaker who reached out to Republicans and sought middle ground.

She was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1969 and became its first female president in 1978, the same year Mayor George Moscone was gunned down alongside Supervisor Harvey Milk at City Hall by Dan White, a disgruntled former supervisor. Feinstein found Milk’s body.

After Moscone’s death, Feinstein became San Francisco’s first female mayor. In the Senate, she was one of California’s first two female senators, the first woman to head the Senate Intelligence Committee and the first woman to serve as the Judiciary committee’s top Democrat.

Although Feinstein was not always embraced by the feminist movement, her experiences colored her outlook through her five decades in politics.

“I recognize that women have had to fight for everything they have gotten, every right,” she told The Associated Press in 2005, as the Judiciary Committee prepared to hold hearings on President George W. Bush’s nomination of John Roberts to replace Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court.

“So I must tell you, I try to look out for women’s rights. I also try to solve problems as I perceive them, with legislation, and reaching out where I can, and working across the aisle,” she said.

Her tendency for bipartisanship helped her notch legislative wins throughout her career. But it also proved to be a liability in her later years in Congress, as her state became more liberal and as the Senate and the electorate became increasingly polarized.

A fierce debater who did not suffer fools, the California senator was long known for her verbal zingers and sharp comebacks when challenged on the issues about which she was most fervent. But she lost that edge in her later years in the Senate, as her health visibly declined and she often became confused when answering questions or speaking publicly. In February 2023, she said she would not run for a sixth term the next year. And within weeks of that announcement, she was absent for the Senate for more than two months as she recovered from a bout of shingles.

Amid the concerns about her health, Feinstein stepped down as the top Democrat on the Judiciary panel after the 2020 elections, just as her party was about to take the majority. In 2023, she said she would not serve as the Senate president pro tempore, or the most senior member of the majority party, even though she was in line to do so. The president pro tempore opens the Senate every day and holds other ceremonial duties.

One of Feinstein’s most significant legislative accomplishments was early in her career, when the Senate approved her amendment to ban manufacturing and sales of certain types of assault weapons as part of a crime bill that President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1994. Though the assault weapons ban expired 10 years later and was never renewed or replaced, it was a poignant win after her career had been significantly shaped by gun violence.

Feinstein remembered finding Milk’s body, her finger slipping into a bullet hole as she felt for a pulse. It was a story she would retell often in the years ahead as she pushed for stricter gun control measures.

She had little patience for Republicans and others who opposed her on that issue, though she was often challenged. In 1993, during debate on the assault weapons ban, Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, accused her of having an insufficient knowledge of guns and the gun control issue.

Feinstein spoke fiercely of the violence she’d lived through in San Francisco and retorted: ”Senator, I know something about what firearms can do.”

Two decades later, after 20 children and six educators were killed in a horrific school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, first-term Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas similarly challenged Feinstein during debate on legislation that would have permanently banned the weapons.

“I’m not a sixth grader,” Feinstein snapped back at the much younger Cruz — a moment that later went viral. She added: “It’s fine you want to lecture me on the Constitution. I appreciate it. Just know I’ve been here a long time.”

Feinstein became mayor of San Francisco after the 1978 slayings of Moscone and Milk, leading the city during one of the most turbulent periods in its history. Even her critics credited Feinstein with a calming influence, and she won reelection on her own to two four-year terms.

With her success and growing recognition statewide came visibility on the national political stage.

In 1984, Feinstein was viewed as a vice presidential possibility for Walter Mondale but faced questions about the business dealings of her husband, Richard Blum. In 1990, she used news footage of her announcement of the assassinations of Moscone and Milk in a television ad that helped her win the Democratic nomination for California governor, making her the first female major-party gubernatorial nominee in the state’s history.

Although she narrowly lost the general election to Republican Pete Wilson, the stage was set for her election to the Senate two years later to fill the Senate seat Wilson had vacated to run for governor.

Feinstein campaigned jointly with Barbara Boxer, who was running for the state’s other U.S. Senate seat, and both won, benefiting from positive news coverage and excitement over their historic race. California had never had a female U.S. senator, and female candidates and voters had been galvanized by the Supreme Court hearings in which the all-male Senate Judiciary Committee questioned Anita Hill about her sexual harassment allegations against nominee Clarence Thomas.

Feinstein was appointed to the Judiciary panel and eventually the Senate Intelligence Committee, becoming the chairperson in 2009. She was the first woman to lead the intelligence panel, a high-profile perch that gave her a central oversight role over U.S. intelligence controversies, setbacks and triumphs, from the killing of Osama bin Laden to leaks about National Security Agency surveillance.

Under Feinstein’s leadership, the intelligence committee conducted a wide-ranging, five-year investigation into CIA interrogation techniques during President George W. Bush’s administration, including waterboarding of terrorism suspects at secret overseas prisons. The resulting 6,300-page “torture report” concluded among other things that waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation techniques” did not provide key evidence in the hunt for bin Laden. A 525-page executive summary was released in late 2014, but the rest of the report has remained classified.

The Senate investigation was full of intrigue at the time, including documents that mysteriously disappeared and accusations traded between the Senate and the CIA that the other was stealing information. The drama was captured in a 2019 movie about the investigation called “The Report,” and actor Annette Bening was nominated for a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Feinstein.

In the years since, Feinstein has continued to push aggressively for eventual declassification of the report.

“It’s my very strong belief that one day this report should be declassified,” Feinstein said. “This must be a lesson learned: that torture doesn’t work.”

Feinstein sometimes frustrated liberals by adopting moderate or hawkish positions that put her at odds with the left wing of the Democratic Party, as well as with the more liberal Boxer, who retired from the Senate in 2017. Feinstein defended the Obama administration’s expansive collection of Americans’ phone and email records as necessary for protecting the country, for example, even as other Democratic senators voiced protests. “It’s called protecting America,” Feinstein said then.

That tension escalated during Donald Trump’s presidency, when many Democrats had little appetite for compromise. Feinstein become the top Democrat on the Judiciary panel in 2016 and led her party’s messaging through three Supreme Court nominations — a role that angered liberal advocacy groups that wanted to see a more aggressive partisan in charge.

Feinstein closed out confirmation hearings for Justice Amy Coney Barrett with an embrace of Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and a public thanks to him for a job well done. “This has been one of the best set of hearings that I’ve participated in,” Feinstein said at the end of the hearing.

Liberal advocacy groups that had fiercely opposed Barrett’s nomination to replace the late liberal icon Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg were furious and called for her to step down from the committee leadership.

A month later, Feinstein announced she would remain on the committee but step down as the top Democrat. The senator, then 87 years old, did not say why. In a statement, she said she would “continue to do my utmost to bring about positive change in the coming years.”

Feinstein was born on June 22, 1933. Her father, Leon Goldman, was a prominent surgeon and medical school professor in San Francisco, but her mother was an abusive woman with a violent temper that was often directed at Feinstein and her two younger sisters.

Feinstein graduated from Stanford University in 1955, with a bachelor’s degree in history. She married young and was a divorced single mother of her daughter, Katherine, in 1960, at a time when such a status was still unusual.

In 1961, Feinstein was appointed by then-Gov. Pat Brown to the women’s parole board, on which she served before running for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Typical of the era, much of the early coverage of her entrance into public life focused on her appearance, and she was invariably described as stunning, tall, slender and raven-haired.

Feinstein’s second husband, Bert Feinstein, was 19 years older than she, but she described the marriage as “a 10″ and kept his name even after his death from cancer in 1978. In 1980, she married investment banker Richard Blum, and thanks to his wealth, she was one of the richest members of the Senate. He died in February 2022.

In addition to her daughter, Feinstein has a granddaughter, Eileen, and three stepchildren.

The post Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California dies at 90 appeared first on The Sacramento Observer.

By Sunita Sohrabji, EMS | Special to California Black Media Partners

(CBM) – Voting and elections have become the targets of threats and intimidation as the nation faces a proliferation of guns, more frequent gun violence, and fewer legal protections, noted Brennan Center for Justice and the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence in a report released this week.

The proliferation of guns in American homes has increased dramatically since 2008, when the Supreme Court ruled for the first time that the 2nd Amendment allows US residents to possess an operable handgun in the home for self-defense.

“This was a considerable change from what the court had long held, which was that possessing a firearm had to be related to militia service,” Robyn Sanders, Counsel for the Voting Rights and Election Reform Democracy Project at the Brennan Center, told Ethnic Media Services.

The Supreme Court did caution that the rights secured by the Second Amendment are not unlimited; it identified laws that would forbid firearms in sensitive places, such as schools and government buildings. “And so there, while the Supreme Court handed down what was a dramatic decision at that time, it did specify that regulations are still permissible in places that are sensitive,” said Sanders, who co-authored the report.

But the Supreme Court further weakened gun restrictions last year in its ruling on the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. vs. Bruen case. The opinion, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, stated that the American public has the right to carry guns in public for self-defense, and that states cannot require applicants to demonstrate a need for owning a gun.

“The decision in Bruen has invited more legal challenges to gun regulations. But the court also explicitly states that sensitive places are places where states can regulate where guns can be carried, and they were unequivocal about polling locations being one of those,” said Sanders.

In a Sept. 20 interview with EMS, Sanders discussed the threat gun violence poses for US elections. “We believe this report served a significant purpose in alerting states that there are ways that they could help to maintain the confidence that voters historically had in our elections as being safe and secure from violence and intimidation,” she said.

Excerpts of Conversation with Sanders:

What types of justifications are states using to allow concealed guns at polling sites and drop-off boxes?

The Supreme Court was unequivocal in its decision in Bruen that prohibiting firearms in polling places is constitutional. And so, while I can’t speak for why states have not filled the voids that we recognize in our report, what I can say is that we are offering policy proposals for states to enact laws that would better protect voters and election officials and workers from threats and help voters and the public remain confident that our elections will continue to be by and large peaceful.

Older adults traditionally account for the majority of election workers. Have you seen a drop-off of older adults choosing to work at the polls, given the uncertainty of protection from violence at those sites?

We were experiencing a global pandemic in 2020. And so there was a downturn in retired or elderly folks serving as election workers due to the vulnerabilities related with COVID -19. But it is true that election officials have reported that it’s been harder to recruit the more elderly folks to serve in that capacity.

Compared to anything prior, there was dramatically more harassment and threats lodged at election officials and poll workers over the last two election cycles. Poll workers have reported experiences of harassment and threats of abuse in recent years.

Are election workers of color more likely to face harassment, violence and intimidation?

We found that election officials serving what’s known as majority minority jurisdictions were more likely than election officials overall to report having been threatened, having been harassed or abused because of their job. And they were also considerably more likely to be concerned about being assaulted.

This is alarming, it’s concerning, and it’s unacceptable in a democracy.

One out of every 3 election workers have reported harassment or threats, according to the report.

As a result of the shifts in how our electoral process was being carried out, we started to observe trends in elected leaders and others who were spreading disinformation and misinformation about our elections as it relates to various methods of voting, including voting by mail and the use of drop boxes as a result of the uptick in mail voting.

And so based on that climate, we started to see an increase in threats and intimidation and threats of violence being lodged at election workers and officials. And that was also tied to the election denial movement that took hold at the time as well, where various elected leaders were sowing disinformation and misinformation about our elections and raising conspiracy theories about various methods of voting and really increasing the fear among the electorate that the voting process was insecure and was not fair. So, we think that’s what inspired this increase in the climate of threats and intimidation against election officials.

Could you talk about some of your policy recommendations?

One of the key findings in our report is that only 12 states and Washington, D.C. have laws prohibiting open carry and concealed carry at polling places. And even fewer states have laws that prohibit guns where other sensitive election activity occurs drop boxes as well as places like election counting facilities.

And while it is illegal to intimidate voters in all 50 states, neither federal law nor any state law explicitly acknowledges that guns in or around places where people are engaged in voting or conducting election activity can constitute illegal intimidation.

In our report, we offer two main policy proposals. One: we recommend that states enact laws to prohibit guns at and around all sites of voting and vote counting. And we recommend that states strengthen their laws, protecting voters and election workers and officials from intimidation and violence, but explicitly addressing the void that is currently present and addressing the intimidating effect of guns.

I would reiterate to voters that — because our elections have remained by and large peaceful — the proposals that we offer in our report are simply action items that states can take to further strengthen legal protections that are already in place.

The post Report: States Must Ban Guns at Places Where People Vote appeared first on The Sacramento Observer.

By Christopher J. Miller | National Underground Railroad Freedom Center | Special to the NNPA

(NNPA) – September is International Underground Railroad Month.

This proclamation began in the State of Maryland in 2019, and now more than 11 States officially celebrate one of the most significant eras in U.S. history. With the signing of Ohio HB 340 in June 2022, Ohio became the 12^th state to designate September International Underground Railroad Month.

Many history enthusiasts and scholars hope the momentum of the proclamation spreads to other states so that all our forebears of freedom are remembered.

Examining this era, you find that the Ohio River Valley is instrumental in the many narratives of freedom seekers. These stories are critical to our understanding of race relations and civic responsibilities.

Before the Civil War, many communities in the Ohio River Valley were part of an elaborate system that provided resources and protection for enslaved persons from Southern states on their journey to freedom. Once someone crossed the Ohio River, they traveled along unknown terrain of trails to safe houses and hiding places that would become known as the Underground Railroad.

The Underground Railroad was comprised of courageous people who were held to a higher law that confronted the institution of slavery with acts of civil disobedience by helping freedom seekers elude enslavers and slave hunters and help them get to Canada.

Many communities were a force for freedom along the more than 900-mile stretch of the Ohio River Valley, but I would like to focus on two significant communities.

Southern Indiana was a major part of this history. It was originally believed that there were from Posey to South Bend, Corydon to Porter, and Madison to DeKalb County, with many stops in between.

In further examination, the Underground Railroad in Indiana was a web of trails through the forests, swamps, briars, and dirt roads. The city that is often overlooked in reflecting on the history of the Underground Railroad is New Albany, Indiana.

By 1850, New Albany was the largest city in Indiana, with a population of 8,632. Free Blacks accounted for 502 of that population. Across the river, Louisville was Kentucky’s largest city, with a population of 42,829. A quarter of the 6,687 Black population were free in Louisville.

Louisville and New Albany would grow to become a significant region for Underground Railroad activity. People like Henson McIntosh became a prominent community member and major Underground Railroad conductor. McIntosh was one of approximately ten Underground Railroad agents in New Albany who used their wealth and influence to impact the lives of freedom seekers crossing the Ohio River.

The Carnegie Center for Art & History is an outstanding resource that continues to preserve New Albany’s role during the Underground Railroad era. Approximately 104 miles east along the Ohio River is another institution that plays a critical role in elevating the profile of the Underground Railroad on a national scope.

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is located on the banks of the Ohio River in Cincinnati, Ohio.

By 1850, Cincinnati would grow to be the 6^th largest city in the Union, with a sizable Black population.

The Freedom Center is prominently located in the heart of a historic Black community called Little Africa. Although the community no longer exists, its legacy lives on through the Freedom Center.

As with New Albany, the community that resided along the banks of the river served an important role in the story of the Underground Railroad. Little Africa was the gateway to freedom for thousands of freedom seekers escaping slavery.

Although there were Underground Railroad networks throughout the country, Ohio had the most active network of any other state, with approximately 3,000 miles of routes used by an estimated 40,000 freedom seekers that crossed through Little Africa.

Despite the growth of enslavement leading up to the Civil War, communities such as Little Africa and New Albany reveal the realities regarding race relations and a model for the dignity of human life through their respective efforts to be kind and resilient friends for the freedom seekers.

For More Information:

National Underground Railroad Freedom Center – https://freedomcenter.org/

Cincinnati Tourism – https://www.visitcincy.com/

Carnegie Center for Art & History – https://carnegiecenter.org/

Southern Indiana Tourism – https://www.gosoin.com/

The post Tale of Two Underground Railroad Communities appeared first on The Sacramento Observer.

By Bria Overs | Word In Black

(WIB) – In preparation for a supposed uptick in hiring, former and current hiring managers recently made “September Surge” a trending topic across social media platforms.

It is the idea that companies hire more after Labor Day than in the summer months. Yet, it is hard to say whether the hiring phenomenon is legitimate or if it will happen this year.

Data on job openings and the unemployment rate from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics do not verify that the “September Surge” exists. On the other hand, career coaches, hiring managers, and human resources professionals agree that behind the scenes, companies do hire more starting in  September and continuing through the end of the year.

If the surge is real, it could be good news for Black Americans who saw record low unemployment in April.

“It is true that in a lot of industries, around this time, there is an uptick in hiring or at least the intention to do so,” says Brandon Johnson, career coach and founder of Be Gallant Coaching.

What’s behind the “September Surge”? Johnson and Theola DeBose, career change coach and founder of JSKILLS, point to the end of summer. 

No more vacations means the return to work. Johnson says companies usually take time in September to strategically plan for the rest of the year and the start of the new year.

Whether “September Surge” is real or not, the experts agree it’s a great time to look for that new job or prepare to make a career change.

The power is in the hands of job searchers, says Joyce Weru, executive leadership coach, former human resources manager, and founder of Rise Above Coaching. Weru says “people have the ability to engage with any organizations they want to actually work for or that they’re interested in.”

Our experts say the following three things can help you land your next role.

1. Get Clear on Career Goals and Personal Values

There are better ways to find and land a job than applying to every position on Indeed, ZipRecruiter, or any other hiring or recruiting platform. Experts say that’s not even the first step in the process.

Before diving into job boards, do some background work.

First, Brandon says getting clear and specific about short-term and long-term career goals is essential. Without this, finding a job with value alignment will be more challenging.

DeBose and Johnson have “self-inventory” questions that job seekers can ask themselves about their goals and values.

• What kind of job do I want to do?
• Is that the same job I want to hold five to seven years from now?
• What job responsibilities am I willing to take on?
• How much money do I want to make?

“If you don’t know what you’re looking for, how will you know when you find it?” DeBose says.

Johnson recommends candidates consider what they can bring to the table or offer a company.

“If I’m a hiring manager, we have certain outcomes we want [candidates] to be able to meet,” he says. “I want to hire based on your ability to meet those outcomes. That’s how I’m assessing your value.”

DeBose agrees. An understanding of professional value is essential for talented professionals.

2. Find Your Dream Role

The search for a new job takes a lot of work. And applying to a job just for the sake of it slows down the process. That’s why it is important to be selective about the types of jobs you might be applying for.

Take companies at their word and stick with your professional values.

When you find that perfect role and company, it’s still not time to apply. The next step is to look at your résumé, cover letter, and any other necessary documents to ensure they fit the job description’s needs.

For example, DeBose says if you know you are looking for a job with a calmer work culture or more work-life balance, it is not a good idea to apply for a job that clearly states they have a fast-paced culture even if the other aspects of the job look good. 

One worry job seekers have is the use of AI and computers to screen out candidates who do not use keywords in their applications. Weru says applicants are right to be concerned about this.

These platforms are intended to help hiring managers get through the hiring process faster. But Johnson says every applicant’s goal should be to provide tailored documents anyway. 

“Because if you don’t submit a well-tailored résumé and cover letter to the job, either way, you’re going to get screened out,” he says.

Weru recommends candidates apply directly on the company’s website rather than recruitment and hiring sites.

3. Moving Into the Interviewing Stage

The interviewing stage is the most exciting and nerve-wracking part of the hiring process.

Before the first interview, research the company, its mission, and its values to ensure they align with the professional values DeBose mentioned in the previous steps.

Be ready to share key stories that showcase your experience and skills. Tell your “career story,” DeBose says. Don’t leave it up to the hiring manager to ask you for more details about previous experiences.

“One thing that I learned as a hiring manager, that I did not know as a job seeker, is don’t be afraid to be very specific about what you did when describing your work,” she says. 

And confidence is key. In DeBose, Johnson, and Weru’s experiences, they found that confident candidates perform best and are more likely to land the job.

“The market right now is very competitive,” DeBose says. “It’s important to keep this reality in mind but not to get too weighed down by it.”

The post ‘September Surge’: Landing a Job Might Be Easier This Fall appeared first on The Sacramento Observer.

By Greg Toppo | Stacker

Goodwill Excel Center / The 74

In 2004, when he was 17, Michael Jeffery stole a patrolman’s badge out of a police cruiser in Plano, Texas. He admits it was a “dumb decision.” He’d dropped out of school in ninth grade and was in the habit of “car hopping” — breaking into vehicles to look for valuables. 

Police arrested him quickly.

“They left me in jail,” he said. “And all I know [is] I went to court nine months later. I had a felony charge for something — I didn’t know what was going on.”

Nearly 20 years later, at 36, he’s about to enroll at Catholic University, where he plans to study law, saying, “I want to fight for myself.”

On July 14, he finally graduated from high school — as valedictorian, no less, a feat that seems all the more amazing because Jeffery (pictured above with fellow graduate Cheryl Smith) has spent virtually all of his time in Washington D.C., nearly two years, living in a tent near the city’s Navy Yard, showering at a neighborhood pool and riding a city bus 15 minutes to class. 

He graduated thanks to a program housed in a two-campus school with one mission: to help adults get their high school diploma, sometimes decades after they dropped out. The 74 takes a deep dive into this unusual and growing educational program.

Its oldest graduate is 72 and the youngest 15. The average student, if there is one, is 28 years old.

The school gets its name and startup funding from the place where most of us shop for castoff Pyrex pans, old vinyl LPs, and vintage T-shirts.

The Goodwill Excel Center Adult Charter High School is the only adult charter in the district that awards a real high school diploma rather than a GED. After seven years in operation, it boasts about 500 graduates, all of them searching for a second chance to prove to the world — and themselves — that they can succeed in school.

Excel does it by front-loading essential services and personalizing everything it can. Among its features: on-site childcare, free transportation to and from school, and classes that meet just four days a week — Fridays are devoted almost exclusively to tutoring. And each student has an academic coach. 

The typical class size is just 10 to 12 students, with many even smaller. It does all this, its leaders say, with the same level of funding that other D.C. charter high schools get: about $16,000 to $21,000 per student.

“People know your name, know your story — and then your coach is your main person,” said Chelsea Kirk, the schools’ executive director, who calls the approach “curated” to the students it serves.

The individualized approach is intentional, designed to reframe the task of high school completion. 

“We like to put high school dropouts into a box and say, ‘This is why they’re a dropout,'” Kirk said. “But we don’t ever think about what structures caused that. We don’t ever think about ‘How could a school change its structures to embrace people?'”

Like Jeffery, many graduates push to get their diplomas because they want to work as attorneys, social workers, and the like, devoting their lives to changing the “poor service and broken systems” they’ve experienced in school and elsewhere as they looked for help.

Doing it for someone

Many Excel students push for their high school diploma because not having it is holding them back from promotions and higher salaries. One alumnus told the school he worked as a paralegal at the same law firm for 18 years, earning minimum wage. A diploma bumped his salary by $20,000.

But for others, the reasons are highly personal. Carla Thompson, 41, said she made her way to Excel after one of her four children, ages 9 to 21, began asking about the point of finishing high school instead of dropping out and getting a job.

“My 14-year-old is questioning that part,” she said. “I can’t be a hypocrite and say, ‘You have to,’ and I don’t have it.”

Brendan Hurley, who handles public affairs for the D.C.-area Goodwill region, said messaging for the school has adjusted to this reality. When the school opened in 2016,recruiting materials were “very data-driven,” with statistics on how much more high school graduates earn and how they’re more likely to find sustainable employment. Two years in, an alumni focus group found that message paled in comparison to the blush of pride students felt from simply getting the diploma and sharing the accomplishment with their loved ones. 

“It’s the diploma itself that’s important,” said Hurley. “They want that piece of paper. They want the high school experience that they did not have when they were 16, 17, 18 years old.”

The big prize, Kirk added, is the external validation they get, the ability to hold their head up among their children and grandchildren. She calls it a “two-generation” approach. “It’s not just about you. It’s about the next generation and a generation after that.”

‘Small wins’

The Excel model originated in Indiana in 2010, when Goodwill centers there struggled to find high school graduates to be front-line store workers. It has since spread to five states and Washington D.C. 

The approach takes hold at a moment when U.S. high school graduation rates, while never higher at 86%, are unequally distributed. In fact, D.C. has the worst graduation rate in the nation, at 69%, far below even the worst two states, New Mexico and Arizona.

In D.C., enrollment in the two campuses now sits at 405, with a planned, separately privately funded campus in Baltimore this fall as well. The student body is overwhelmingly Black and about 70% female. For these students, the schools maintain a full-time staff of 49 — many of them younger than the students they serve.

Discussions with Goodwill about opening the center began in 2014, when it got a grant from D.C. to train employees at a planned Marriott hotel. But they found that the No. 1 barrier to jobs at the hotel was a lack of a high school diploma. The school opened two years later among the corporate and government highrise canyons just north of the White House. Another campus opened last year near D.C.’s National Mall.

Though most Excel students come from the poorest neighborhoods in the city, miles from downtown, the schools’ geography is intentional, Kirk said: Students wanted safe locations away from the crime and violent schools of their neighborhoods. But they also wanted a place that brought them into contact each morning with professional opportunities. As it is, the original school lies squarely between the World Bank and the Council on Foreign Relations.

One key to the school’s success is its prioritization of “small wins” for students who may have had few of them in school until now. For instance, a big difference between Excel and virtually every other school model is its academic calendar. No matter what their education or skill level when they enter, every student starts as a ninth-grader and proceeds at their own pace, without a cohort of classmates on the same track.

Students ideally can complete their entire high school education in just two years, with individualized education plans and tutoring for every student that allow them to maintain work and family duties. In reality, many students complete the program more slowly, coming and going as life allows — a few who graduated this July first enrolled in 2016, when the center’s doors opened. 

The school licenses with the local YMCA to run a full-time, licensed daycare and child development center upstairs from the classrooms.

And instead of 20-week semesters, as in most high schools, Excel offers all its courses in five compact eight-week terms, all of them based on competency, not seat time. Four assessments over the course of each term keep students on track.

But if they lose the thread of a course and tutoring doesn’t help, they can simply start over again at the end of eight weeks, without having to wait months or even a year for a “re-do,” a major pain point for many students who drop out.

For students with heavy work or family commitments, the school offers a nearly unheard-of accommodation: Staying enrolled requires taking just one class per term.

Jeffery, the valedictorian, showed up to the school in the spring of 2022, after years of bouncing between jobs: dental assistant, tax preparer, fast-food restaurant manager. 

“I can get a job without a high school diploma,” he said. “I have experience. I know I could have probably come out here and got a job that pays well with my resume. But that wasn’t my plan. My plan was to do more with myself because I know I can do more.”

He was ready to get on with his schoolwork: “I told them just to fill my schedule up, give me all the classes I can take.” He graduated barely a year after he started. 

With the school’s help, he’s close to moving into his own place, if a background check clears. But he acknowledges that he’s spent a lot of time “lost, trying to find my way.” 

By Jeffery’s telling, upon his arrest in Texas in 2004, authorities offered this deal: Plead guilty to felony assault stemming from a fight at a nearby high school and walk away with time served plus probation. Or risk going to trial for the fight and serve as much as eight years in prison. Because he was a juvenile, the records remain sealed.

He’d been at the school the night of the fight, but nowhere near the clash, he said — and he hadn’t even been questioned about it while sitting in jail for months. But he soon realized he had no choice: With a public defender who did little to stand up for him, Jeffery said, he took the plea deal and earned his release shortly after his 18th birthday. 

“I didn’t know how the system worked,” he recalled, the ordeal still stinging nearly two decades later. “The lawyer that I had, and the judge, they didn’t fight for me. They didn’t care. They just wanted to get a conviction and call it a day.” 

For the past year or so, Jeffery’s been known to spend more time than most at the school’s downtown campus, arriving early and leaving late, ferreting out the teachers who can offer a bit of extra tutoring. He made a point to get to know every teacher and administrator, lingering over conversations before heading back to his tent.

“Those cold nights and those hot summers and those rainy days and those rats, those people who are under the influence of all kinds, they’re not fun to live around,” he said. The school was “my escape from that world.”

‘I came in like a sour lemon’

The school follows12 accountability goals set by D.C.’s Public Charter School Board. One of them requires Excel to graduate 20% to 25% of its students each year, which it typically does. According to its 2019 school quality report, it graduated 31.7% and exceeded the board’s reading and math proficiency goals. In 2022, it graduated 25%; this year that dropped to 22%, still meeting the board’s goals.

Its annual attendance goal: 60%, but the school adjusts to students’ lives if they show a willingness to persevere and be honest when they can’t make it to class. If students have two consecutive absences, the school requests that they create an attendance plan with their academic coach. Students can be kicked out if they don’t meet the requirements, but can easily reapply.

Many students, Kirk said, work overnight jobs and care for children and grandchildren, as well as parents. And many, approaching and in some cases exceeding middle age, have health issues that keep them away.

“We don’t take it lightly that you show up,” she said.

Cheryl Smith, 49, (pictured with Michael Jeffery) enrolled at Excel 33 years after leaving her D.C. middle school at the end of eighth grade — and a year after beating a lifelong PCP addiction, one that began around the time she dropped out of school. An adoptee who never met her biological parents, Smith had children of her own very young. She eventually had three kids, all before turning 20. 

She can count the number of times she tried to quit PCP: 35. Her addiction tore her family apart. Her two sons would eventually be put up for adoption, but she stayed connected to them through a friend and has once more become a steady presence in their lives. Her kids all grew up, and she’s now a grandmother of eight.

She enrolled in 2021, recalling, “When I came here, they opened up their arms to me. I came in like a sour lemon, but rose to be an apple.”

For Smith, getting her diploma amounts to a kind of redemption and face-saving for her grandkids, the oldest of which is now 16, who spent their lives seeing their grandmother get high.

“The older ones knew,” she said. Though she never used drugs around her grandkids, they all saw the aftermath: “sitting there, looking stupid.”

She tried to get clean one last time, saying to herself: “I’m just tired of it. It’s not a good look.” She had extra motivation: The birth of her youngest grandson Dontae, now 3. Born premature, at just 2 lbs. 11 oz., the size of your hand, “he came out eating,” Smith said, thus earning the nickname Munchy.

Now in her care much of the time, he’d come to school with her most mornings, spending his days in the YMCA childcare center upstairs. Growing up in D.C., she said, he’ll undoubtedly see drug use around him. But not from his grandma.

Positive affirmation

In the end, the secret of the school’s success may boil down to the simplest of principles: It believes in its students. Ask any Excel student what they missed in their high school career and they’ll easily tell you: a sense of possibility, of success.

“That’s the piece that a lot of our students have missed, that affirmation piece, that ‘Atta boy,'” said Vershaun Terry, who heads special education for the schools. “They want to be seen.”

Many observers might mistakenly believe that positive affirmations are only for small children. Even prospective staffers at the school believe they’re walking into a space where adults can succeed without a lot of affirmation, Terry said.

“They don’t. They come in chronologically at a higher age, but socially, emotionally, they’re youth,” he said. Many still need that guidance, those affirmations, that structure. “They have a whole world out there to take care of, but they still need it here. They need to get refilled here, too.”

As for Cheryl Smith, she graduated alongside Jeffery and 54 others, 35 years after she finished middle school. She has told Kirk she wants to mentor students at Excel, but for now she’s grateful for the opportunity to be a role model after all these years. Next she wants to get off disability and find a home that’s not Section 8 public housing.

“I’ll be 50 next year,” she said. “When I get older, I want to be able to sit back in my rocking chair with my great-grandkids and be able to tell the story: ‘Yeah, Grandma was a pistol, but she turned out to be a winner.'”

This story was produced by The 74 and reviewed and distributed by Stacker Media.

The post A high school for dropouts: Goodwill offers adults a second chance at a diploma appeared first on The Sacramento Observer.

By Maddie Burakoff and Laura Ungar | The Associated Press

(AP) – What does it mean to be human?

For a long time, the answer seemed clear. Our species, Homo sapiens — with our complex thoughts and deep emotions — were the only true humans to ever walk the Earth. Earlier forms, like the Neanderthals, were thought to be just steps along the path of evolution, who died out because we were better versions.

That picture is now changing.

In recent years, researchers have gained the power to pull DNA from ancient hominins, including our early ancestors and other relatives who walked on two legs. Ancient DNA technology has revolutionized the way we study human history and has quickly taken off, with a constant stream of studies exploring the genes of long-ago people.

Along with more fossils and artifacts, the DNA findings are pointing us to a challenging idea: We’re not so special. For most of human history we shared the planet with other kinds of early humans, and those now-extinct groups were a lot like us.

Scientists say they’ve found evidence an ancient human cousin may have buried its dead and carved symbols into cave walls, surprising findings for a creature with a small brain.

“We can see them as being fully human. But, interestingly, a different kind of human,” said Chris Stringer, a human evolution expert at London’s Natural History Museum. “A different way to be human.”

What’s more, humans had close — even intimate — interactions with some of these other groups, including Neanderthals, Denisovans and “ghost populations” we only know from DNA.

“It’s a unique time in human history when there are only one of us,” Stringer said.

A WORLD WITH MANY HOMININS

Scientists now know that after H. sapiens first showed up in Africa around 300,000 years ago, they overlapped with a whole cast of other hominins, explained Rick Potts, director of the Smithsonian’s Human Origins Program.

Neanderthals were hanging out in Europe. Homo heidelbergensis and Homo naledi were living in Africa. The short-statured Homo floresiensis, sometimes known as the “Hobbit,” was living in Indonesia, while the long-legged Homo erectus was loping around Asia.

Scientists started to realize all these hominins weren’t our direct ancestors. Instead, they were more like our cousins: lineages that split off from a common source and headed in different directions.

Archaeological finds have shown some of them had complex behaviors. Neanderthals painted cave walls, Homo heidelbergensis hunted large animals like rhinos and hippos, and some scientists think even the small-brained Homo naledi was burying its dead in South African cave systems. A study last week found early humans were building structures with wood before H. sapiens evolved.

Researcher also wondered: If these other kinds of humans were not so different, did our ancestors have sex with them?

For some, the mixing was hard to imagine. Many argued that as H. sapiens ventured out of Africa, they replaced other groups without mating. Archaeologist John Shea of New York’s Stony Brook University said he used to think of Neanderthals and H. sapiens as rivals, believing “if they bumped into each other, they’d probably kill each other.”

DNA REVEALS ANCIENT SECRETS

But DNA has revealed there were other interactions, ones that changed who we are today.

In 2010, the Swedish geneticist Svante Paabo and his team pieced a tricky puzzle together. They were able to assemble fragments of ancient DNA into a full Neanderthal genome, a feat that was long thought to be impossible and won Paabo a Nobel Prize last year.

This ability to read ancient DNA revolutionized the field, and it is constantly improving.

For example, when scientists applied these techniques to a pinky bone and some huge molars found in a Siberian cave, they found genes that didn’t match anything seen before, said Bence Viola, an anthropologist at the University of Toronto who was part of the research team that made the discovery. It was a new species of hominin, now known as Denisovans, who were the first human cousins identified only by their DNA.

Armed with these Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes, scientists could compare them to people today and look for chunks of DNA that match. When they did, they found clear signs of crossover.

THE NEW HUMAN STORY

The DNA evidence showed that H. sapiens mated with groups including Neanderthals and Denisovans. It even revealed evidence of other “ghost populations” — groups who are part of our genetic code, but whose fossils we haven’t found yet.

It’s hard to pin down exactly when and where these interactions happened. Our ancestors seem to have mixed with the Neanderthals soon after leaving Africa and heading into Europe. They probably bumped into the Denisovans in parts of East and Southeast Asia.

“They didn’t have a map, they didn’t know where they were going,” the Smithsonian’s Potts said. “But looking over the next hillside into the next valley, (they) ran into populations of people that looked a bit different from themselves, but mated, exchanged genes.”

So even though Neanderthals did look distinct from H. sapiens — from their bigger noses to their shorter limbs — it wasn’t enough to create a “wall” between the groups, Shea said.

“They probably thought, ‘Oh, these guys look a little bit different,’” Shea said. “‘Their skin color’s a little different. Their faces look a little different. But they’re cool guys, let’s go try to talk to them.’”

COMPLEX NEANDERTHALS

The idea that modern humans, and particularly white humans, were the pinnacle of evolution came from a time of “colonialism and elitism,” said Janet Young, curator of physical anthropology at the Canadian Museum of History.

One Neanderthal painting, created to reflect the vision of a eugenics advocate, made its way through decades of textbooks and museum displays.

The new findings have completely upended the idea that earlier, more ape-like creatures started standing up straighter and getting more complex until they reached their peak form in H. sapiens, Young said. Along with the genetic evidence, other archaeological finds have shown Neanderthals had complex behaviors around hunting, cooking, using tools and even making art.

Still, even though we now know our ancient human cousins were like us — and make up part of who we are now — the idea of ape-like cave men has been hard to dislodge.

Artist John Gurche is trying. He specializes in creating lifelike models of ancient humans for museums, including the Smithsonian and the American Museum of Natural History, in hopes of helping public perception catch up to the science.

Skulls and sculptures gazed out from the shelves of his studio earlier this year as he worked on a Neanderthal head, punching pieces of hair into the silicone skin.

Bringing the new view to the public hasn’t been easy, Gurche said: “This caveman image is very persistent.”

For Gurche, getting the science right is crucial. He has worked on dissections of humans and apes to understand their anatomy, but also hopes to bring out emotion in his portrayals.

“These were once living, breathing individuals. And they felt grief and joy and pain,” Gurche said. “They’re not in some fairyland; they’re not some fantasy creatures. They were alive.”

MANY CONNECTIONS STILL TO BE FOUND

Scientists can’t get useful genetic information out of every fossil they find, especially if it’s really old or in the wrong climate. They haven’t been able to gather much ancient DNA from Africa, where H. sapiens first evolved, because it has been degraded by heat and moisture.

Still, many are hopeful that as DNA technology keeps advancing, we’ll be able to push further into the past and get ancient genomes from more parts of the world, adding more brushstrokes to our picture of human history.

Because even though we were the only ones to survive, the other extinct groups played a key role in our history, and our present. They are part of a common humanity connecting every person, said Mary Prendergast, a Rice University archeologist.

“If you look at the fossil record, the archeological record, the genetic record,” she said, “you see that we share far more in common than what divides us.”

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

The post Science paints a new picture of the ancient past, when we mixed and mated with other kinds of humans appeared first on The Sacramento Observer.

By Joseph Williams | Word In Black

(WIB) – If you’re Black, chances are you’ve experienced it. 

You’re in a mostly white space, maybe your workplace, a school classroom, or perhaps a social event. A white person with whom you’re interacting will do or say something seemingly innocuous — a joke about your hair, a compliment on how articulate you are, or asking if you really wrote that report the boss loved — that can trigger a stress response. Some describe it as a block of ice in their stomach; others experience sweaty palms, a racing heartbeat, or a mouth drier than paper.

The feeling prompts an inevitable question: Was that racist? But when confronted, that person is offended, becomes defensive, or dismisses the allegation outright. They might accuse you of being overly sensitive or even racist, transforming your insecurity or anger into self-doubt.

If this scenario is familiar, then you’ve encountered what Dr. J. Luke Wood, a sociologist and the new president of California State University, Sacramento, calls “racelighting” — an insidious form of racism that can trigger not only psychological but physical issues in its victims. 

When the condition is identified, the healing can begin. 

The term comes from the word “gaslighting,” defined as a form of emotional abuse in which the abuser intentionally manipulates the physical environment or mental state of the abused. The abuser then deflects responsibility, and insists that the changes are products of the abused’s imagination, weakening their perception of reality. 

Wood says the racism-based manipulation is intended to cause Black people to second-guess their own experiences, their judgment, their memories, and, ultimately, their humanity. 

While it parallels other racist behaviors, like implicit bias or microaggression, Wood says racelighting identifies a specific pattern of behavior that leads the target to question reality. Putting a name to that behavior, he says, is similar to a doctor making a medical diagnosis: When the condition is identified, the healing can begin. 

“What we’ve tried to do with racelighting is to create a set of concepts and terms that help people to explain the nature and condition of their oppression,” he says. “It’s important because it allows you to have a better understanding of what’s going on — to examine it almost like an artifact so that you can see what’s taking place: ‘This is what I’m experiencing.’”

Being able to name something gives you more power over it. I don’t think we can downplay how important that is.DR. J. LUKE WOOD

As with other aspects of racism, there is evidence that the internal conflicts triggered by racelighting do physical and emotional damage “very similar to how Combat Stress Syndrome impacts those who are in war zones,” Wood says.

“It impacts you cognitively — an inability to process information, retain information, manage attention control,” he says. “Then, constant anxiety and worrying: anger, resentment, emotional and social withdrawal. And then it impacts you physiologically: tension headaches, backaches, elevated heartbeat, upset stomach, extreme fatigue due to elevated cortisol levels within your body that are directly related to racialized stress.”

If you continue to sit in this, it may kill you slowly, but it’s going to kill you.DR. J. LUKE WOOD

And it can take different forms, ranging from advancing stereotypes about Black people (“Criminality, being overly emotional,” Wood says) to false allyship (“People say and pretend like they’re doing something to support you or protect you, but really aren’t”) to misrepresenting the past by discounting Black history or pretending systemic racism doesn’t exist. 

Exhibit A, Wood says: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ attacks on “woke culture,” including revising school history standards to include positive outcomes from slavery and eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion programs for state employees. Wood says DeSantis’s December 2021 statement supporting his state’s Stop W.O.K.E. Act is textbook racelighting:  

“In Florida we’re taking a stand against state-sanctioned racism that is critical race theory… We will not allow for your tax dollars to be spent teaching kids to hate our country or to hate each other… We must protect Florida workers against a hostile work environment” that forces them to acknowledge racism.

While it identifies harmful behavior, racelighting also presents an opportunity to begin racial healing, Wood says. 

“Being able to name something gives you more power over it. I don’t think we can downplay how important that is,” Wood says. When presenting his findings before Black audiences, “the number one thing I hear someone say afterwards is, ‘I’m so glad you gave me language to explain what I’ve always felt but didn’t know how to describe.’’

“It is humbling, because we recognize that this work is about trying to help people who come from our community who oftentimes are in a (hostile) environment,” he says.

The most effective antidote to racelighting is for Black people to immerse themselves in Black spaces that are welcoming, validating, or supportive — “a club or organization, maybe a historically black fraternity, maybe a cultural club,” Wood says. “You’ve got to be in a place where you can see yourself through distress, disdain, and disregard. Where someone is instead going to extol your brilliance, your dignity.”

Otherwise, he says, “If you continue to sit in this, it may kill you slowly, but it’s going to kill you.”

The post Are You Experiencing Racelighting? Here’s What it Means appeared first on The Sacramento Observer.

By Alexa Spencer | Word In Black

(WIB) – Hi, I’m Word In Black’s health reporter, Alexa Imani Spencer, and I’m examining the connection between racism and chronic illness for an upcoming reporting project. The project, entitled “The Price of Pain,” explores reparations as a potential solution to health disparities.

Are you a Black American living with two or more chronic conditions? Do you have thoughts about reparations? We want to hear from you.

Complete the survey below or leave a message on our voicemail by calling 512-765-4539. For your voice to be heard, please submit your responses by October 6, 2023.

Click here to open the following survey in a new tab.

The post SURVEY: Has Racism Impacted Your Health? appeared first on The Sacramento Observer.