black community

Julianne Malveaux  |   OW Contributing Columnist
Dec 13 2012

Counting the Cost

By now, it’s old news that Kasandra Perkins was murdered by Kansas City Chiefs football player Jovan Belcher, her boyfriend and the father of her daughter. By now we’ve read about how great a teammate Belcher was, how dedicated to his girlfriend and daughter. We’ve read his hardscrabble story of moving from the University of Maine, hardly a football powerhouse, to a coveted slot in the NFL.

Belcher has been humanized, even enshrined as his friends have talked about him not having a violent bone in his body.

Dec 13 2012

Another suspect remained at large

Gardena police arrested one of two home-invasion robbery suspects who led officers on a freeway chase to the Culver City area Wednesday.

The crime occurred about 3 a.m. in the 15500 block of Normandie Avenue, said Gardena police Lt. Steve Prendergast.

One suspect, a 15-year-old boy, was arrested after police forced the suspects’ vehicle to crash at the La Cienega Boulevard exit to the eastbound Santa Monica (10) Freeway, Prendergast said.

Property believed taken in the crime was recovered from the vehicle, according to police.

Dec 13 2012

Demand involvement in deciding Crenshaw’s future

Rosalind Harris is no stranger to public education. She has one offspring who matriculated through L.A.-area schools and is now at Clark Atlanta University and another in eighth grade at a local charter school. But it is what is happening at Crenshaw High, where her 11th-grader attends that has this parent feeling upset, disrespected and just plain angry.

Dec 13 2012

La Tanya Kirk-Carter steps in as interim

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson has appointed La Tanya Kirk-Carter to serve as interim administrator of the Inglewood Unified School District after accepting the resignation of Administrator Kent Taylor.

“This change is in the best interests of taxpayers, students, and employees of the Inglewood Unified School District,” Torlakson said. “I’m confident that our work to address the district’s troubled finances will proceed without interruption.”

Dec 12 2012

Two children freed

LOS ANGELES, Calif.—A standoff at a home in Baldwin Hills ended this morning with police fatally shooting a 28-year-old man and freeing his two children, whom he was holding hostage, authorities said.

The standoff in the 7100 block of Don Ricardo Drive began around 6:50 p.m. Tuesday, said Sgt. Robin Brown of the Los Angeles Police Department's Southwest Station.

Officers sent to the residence on a domestic violence call met a woman outside who reported she had been battered by her ex-boyfriend, police said.

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.