Joseph Wright
OW Senior Staff Writer
Jul 8 2010

Car show helps draw in 1,400 people

On a recent overcast day, the Watts Healthcare Corporation held its annual Watts Men’s Health Fair (WMHF) and attracted more than 1,400 people. About 800 participants received screenings to determine their health status regarding blood pressure, HIV/AIDS, cholesterol levels, cancer detection, and other health concerns.

Jul 8 2010

Some see it as another excuse for racial profiling

The city’s Public Safety and Community Relations Department is encouraging Palmdale residents to form Neighborhood Watch groups where they live.

“Neighborhood Watch is the most effective means available for keeping crime out of our neighborhoods,” said Community Safety Supervisor Kelly Long. “It relies on the best crime fighting tool around, and that’s a good neighbor.”

Jul 8 2010

Paul George is highest NBA pick ever from the AV

Recently, the National Basketball Association (NBA) held its annual draft in New York’s Madison Square Garden. In the first round, with the 10th overall pick, the Indiana Pacers chose Fresno State forward and former Knight High School star Paul George. He is the highest drafted Antelope Valley native ever in the NBA.

Jul 8 2010

Doors expected to re-open in December

A project to renovate the movie complex formerly known as the Magic Johnson Theaters as well as the adjacent Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza (BHCP) is currently underway, and is expected to be complete by the end of the year. Because the theater’s operators, Loews and AMC, chose to pull out and let their lease run out last month, BHCP took over the venue’s operation.

Jul 8 2010

Payments help people escape poverty

The Social Security system is one that Black people have relied on for years. As of this year, Blacks in the United States are more likely than Whites to expect Social Security to be their major source of income during retirement, according to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

Because of this, Blacks and other non-Whites often have different views on proposals for reforming the Social Security system in America.

Jul 8 2010

Grim Sleeper arrest wraps up decade’s-long investigation

After killing 10 Black women and at least one Black man in South Central Los Angeles for almost 25 years,  a man suspected of being the so-called “Grim Sleeper” was arrested yesterday by the Los Angeles Police Department.
 
The Robbery-Homicide Division of the LAPD took 57-year-old Lonnie David Franklin Jr. into custody at his home on 81st Street near Western Avenue. His arrest is the culmination of an investigation that began more than two decades ago.
 

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.
 

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.
 

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.