Merdies Hayes
Apr 12 2013

The state flower actually grows along all the West Coast

The legacy of the poppy is often seen as related to war, or the remembrance of it. It is in such a setting that Canadian John McCrae, a lieutenant colonel and surgeon in a British artillery brigade in Belgium during World War I, grieving over the recent burial of a friend, noticed how red poppies sprang up in the war-torn ground near the burial sites. It inspired him to compose the now-famous poem “In Flanders Fields.” It reads:
 

Apr 5 2013

AV slowly pulls out of the long recession

As the nation slowly emerges from the Great Recession, the economic numbers for the Antelope Valley show a much higher rate of sustained unemployment and devalued housing prices in both Lancaster and Palmdale.

The five-year economic downturn saw much of the area’s the job losses come from the construction industry and retail sales. At the beginning of the year, Lancaster had an unemployment rate of 14.4 percent while Palmdale fared better at 11.1 percent. In 2008 the two cities lost a little fewer than 1,000 jobs combined, according to a 2009 report.

Mar 22 2013

Rex Parris sees profit in Earth’s most renewable resource

Owners of single-family homes in Lancaster may be required by January 2014 to have solar power systems in operation. It is a unique proposition posed by Lancaster Mayor Rex Parris to position the city as the nation’s foremost “green” community. This motion will be taken up for debate at the March 26 meeting of the Lancaster City Council.

Mar 21 2013

Continues to provide needed services

The Watts Labor Community Action Committee (WLCAC) continues to provide needed services to a changing demographic in South Los Angeles.

Founded by the late Ted Watkins shortly before the 1965 Watts Riots, the organization has focused on quality-of-life issues in the community which has, for more than 50 years, been mired in poverty, unemployment, inadequate housing and violent crime.

Mar 21 2013

Highest API growth among LAUSD schools

David Starr Jordan High School sits smack within one of America’s best known ghettos—Watts. In the past, most of its students have consistently performed on par with the ambience of their surroundings.

Mar 14 2013

“It is a community issue,” says Executive Director Karen Earl

The Jenesse Center Inc. is the oldest domestic violence intervention program in South Central Los Angeles. Founded in 1980 by five African American women who survived years of domestic violence, its mission is to provide victims of household beatings and mistreatment with a comprehensive, centralized support base to assist them in addressing their immediate crisis and change the patterns of their lives.

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.