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Photo Credit: Via Twitter @comicconrevltn

By Naomi Riggins

Comic Con’s usual suspects: heroes, villains, mutants and cosplay – all the things comic lovers want, right? But what about those talents that simply don’t fit into the norm? At Comic Con Revolution, there’s an outlet for those, as well. 

The 1^st Annual Comic Con Revolution is a comic book convention that was held in Ontario Convention Center on Saturday, May 13.  The one day event sponsored by Dave & Buster’s, offered a fan-friendly experience that allows the fans to interact with comic professionals at all levels. Though it primarily focuses on comic books, the convention features a large range of pop culture elements, such as professional wrestling, science fiction/fantasy, film/television, animation, anime, manga, toys, collectible card games, video games, webcomics, and fantasy novels. Workshops develop skills in writing and/or art using comics. In addition to the other vendor booths was The Art Institute of California-Inland Empire Rep. Michael Rector, provided information to creative onlookers trying to develop skills in topics ranging from animation to drawing, film, and more. To request more information Go to www.artinstitutes.edu Enter Code: HS799.

Comic Con Revolution offered many Exhibitors providing opportunities for attendees to buy comics and related goods. Several demonstrations also keep the show fresh and interesting. The wide variety of historical comic images. Panel Discussions include creators sharing their observations and experiences. Btw did I mention the Jerky? One of the most memorable booths I stopped by was David from the Jerky Hut he enticed me to try various samples before I proclaimed the winner the super tender “BBQ Whiskey” as my favorite. The fresh high quality beef jerky packed with a ton of flavor low fat, high in protein snack that comes packed into a resealable bag. See more at www.jerkyhut.com.

Attending Comic Con Revolution gave me a greater perspective in gratitude. Out of all the Conventions and Expos I ever been to I have never met a massive group of people that will go out of their way to make sure you are having a great time! I can’t wait to attend the 2^nd Annual Comic Con Revoulution schedule for May 19 &20, 2018…So mark it on your calendars! To find out about this and other Comic Cons Check Out www.comicconrevolution.com

By California Black Media

Over 300 seniors rallied at the state Capitol last Thursday to support efforts to streamline the way the state deals with policy and budget allocations for senior citizens in the state.

In 2015, the Senate Select Committee on Aging and Long-Term Care issued a report calling for the creation of a Senate Standing Committee on Aging and Long-Term Care as one means of bringing more order to the state’s fragmented policy system on senior issues.

The report found that there were 112 aging programs administered by 20 different state agencies, departments and offices.

According to senior advocates one in five Californians will be over the age 65 by 2030, and the aging population is increasingly diverse with people age 85 and older who constitute the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population. One in six seniors live in poverty with 34 percent of them Black women who live alone.

Legislative leaders spoke at the rally to share bills that have been introduced into the legislature to try and correct the budget decline in senior-related programs since the 2008 recession. 

“Of the senior citizens that live in poverty today two-thirds of them are women, so I find that morally repugnant and disgraceful,” said Senate pro Tempore, Kevin de Leon.

The Senior Coalition estimates 70 percent of people 65 years old and older will need some type of long-term care supports services.

“We as seniors need healthcare, our meds are an enormous cost, and people cannot afford food and are cutting their pills in half or going without,” said Brenda Bristow, of I HELP I.E.

“84-year old San Bernardino resident Norma Archie said, “I am fed up with government leadership and disturbed that government will take 30 million in taxpayer dollars and spend it on attorney fees for non-citizens, while seniors are going without food, their medicine and housing, I am insulted with our leaders.”

Some Bills Up For Consideration:

 SB62 (Jackson) Establishes the Affordable Senior Housing Program.

SB177 (Nguyen) Appropriates $3,300,000 from General Fund to the State Department of Health Care Services for allocation to Caregiver Resource Centers to provide respite care services.

SB202 (Dodd) Increases the Medi-Cal monthly personal needs allowance from $35 to 80 while a person is a patient in a medical institution.

AB806 (Kalra) Creates a tax credit for certain expenses incurred by a family caregiver for the care and support of a family member not to exceed $1,000.

NATIONAL- The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) has announced the dates and locations of its 2017 Summer Engineering Experience for Kids (SEEK) programs. SEEK, now in its 11th year, is the nation’s largest summer engineering program geared toward African-American pre-college students. The program is undergoing a large, three-year expansion funded by a $2-million grant from the National Science Foundation to NSBE and its project partners, Purdue University and Virginia Tech. SEEK, NSBE’s free, signature out-of-school-time program, will take place in June, July and August this year, at 15 sites in 14 cities across the U.S.

“The SEEK expansion will allow NSBE to make a resounding impact on the nation as we move toward our 10-year strategic goal,” said NSBE National Chair Matthew C. Nelson. NSBE is leading the concerted effort to graduate 10,000 African-American engineers with bachelor’s degrees annually by 2025, a nearly threefold increase over the 2014 total. “Thanks to our dedicated partners, we can expose many more black children to STEM careers, providing the U.S. more of the engineering talent it sorely needs while simultaneously strengthening African-American communities across the country.

SEEK participants engage in team-based, competitive engineering design activities and learn science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) concepts, under the guidance of mentor-instructors, many of whom are collegiate members of NSBE. More than 18,000 students in grades 3–12, more than 20,000 parents and more than 2,800 mentors have participated in SEEK since its launch in Washington, D.C., in 2007. The engineering design activities for the children and teens are provided by SAE International (formerly the Society of Automotive Engineers) — NSBE’s curriculum partner in SEEK since 2007 — and by numerous other organizations. The program enjoys the support of a broad base of corporate, government and nonprofit partners.

NSBE Executive Director Karl W. Reid, Ed.D. is the principal investigator of the NSBE-Purdue-Virginia Tech project, which is titled “Strengthening the STEM Pipeline for Elementary School African Americans, Hispanics, and Girls by Scaling Up Summer Engineering Experiences.” The NSF grant will be used to expand the SEEK program to 31 sites and 27,000 African-American, Hispanic and female third through fifth graders across the U.S., by 2019. The project will measure: the effectiveness of SEEK in improving the students’ STEM-related skills, attitudes and knowledge; the relationship of those qualities to the students’ academic motivation; and the effect of organizational context factors on the students’ STEM experiences and outcomes.

“We look forward to the knowledge that will be gained from this project and to the positive results we will see for aspiring engineers,” said Dr. Reid.

A listing of the SEEK programs for 2017 follows. More information about SEEK is available at www.nsbe.org/seek.

2017 SUMMER ENGINEERING EXPERIENCE FOR KIDS

Current Cities                                    Start Date                   End Date 
Ascension Parish, La.                         June 19                       July 7
Atlanta, Ga. (All-Female)                    June 12                       June 30
Birmingham, Ala.                                June 12                       June 30
Chicago, Ill.                                         July 17                        August 4
Detroit, Mich.                                       July 24                        August 11
Houston, Texas                                   June 12                       June 30
Jackson, Miss. (All-Female)                June 26                       July 14
Kansas City, Mo.                                 June 5                         June 23
Los Angeles, Calif.                              June 26                       July 14
New Orleans, La.                                June 12                       June 30
Oakland, Calif.                                    June 19                       July 7
Pittsburgh, Pa.                                    July 3                          July 21
Sacramento, Calif. (Twin Rivers)        June 19                       July 7                          
Sacramento, Calif. (Sac City)             July 17                         August 4
Saginaw, Mich.                                   July 24                         August 11
Washington, D.C.                                July 24                         August 11

SAN BERNARDINO, CA– Community Action Partnership of San Bernardino County (CAPSBC) is celebrating National Community Action Month, dedicated to recognizing the success of the National Community Action Network that fights poverty across the United States. This month, CAPSBC will be conducting healthy food cooking workshops at partnering soup kitchens to educate their staff on the importance of healthy food preparation.  The project, funded through a grant from Kaiser Permanente, is focused on educating our communities on how to prepare and consume healthful food.  The cooking demonstrations will be done by Graduate students of the Loma Linda University School of Public Health.  Nutrition education resources and healthy food preparation tips will be shared with the staff.

“Community Action Month is a wonderful time to honor and celebrate the impact Community Action has in the lives of families and communities across the country.  Agencies are successful every day in helping families achieve economic security. Given that the needs of each family and community are unique, Community Action can use a range of resources and programs to meet local needs in creative and impactful ways.  This month we are pleased to showcase the fantastic work of our Food Bank in helping our partner soup kitchens who serve food insecure families and individuals who need nutritional assistance,” stated Patricia L. Nickols-Butler, Chief Executive Officer of CAPSBC.

Whether they are home, the office, or somewhere in between, McDonald’s customers in Southern California can now enjoy their favorite burgers, fries, beverages and desserts delivered right to them through UberEATS. Now McDelivery on UberEATS is available at more than 375 McDonald’s restaurants throughout Los Angeles County, Orange County and Riverside County.

“We are excited to bring a new level of convenience and personalization to our customers in Southern California with UberEATS” said Paul Tulaphorn, McDonald’s franchisee and association president of the local McDonald’s owner operators group. “Our customers have told us they enjoy experiencing McDonald’s in new ways, and this is just one more way for them to enjoy their favorite menu items.”

Customers can place McDonald’s orders on the UberEATS mobile app or on UberEATS.com, using the same account they use to take Uber rides and track their order, as an UberEATS delivery partner brings their meal directly to them. The full menu at participating McDonald’s restaurants will be available for delivery with the exception of soft serve cones. An UberEATS booking fee applies to each order.

“With UberEATS, you can get the food you want, where you want it, delivered at Uber speed. We’re thrilled to partner with McDonald’s to give fans in Southern California easy access to their McDonald’s favorites at the tap of a button,” said Allen Narcisse, General Manager of UberEATS Southern California. “People in Southern California search for McDonald’s in the UberEATS app almost daily, so we’re excited to expand our reach and deliver what they’ve been craving.”

Delivery is just one way that McDonald’s is enhancing the customer experience through added convenience. McDonald’s of Southern California is innovating its customer experience by making interior and exterior improvements to their restaurants, which include a more modern design, digital menu boards, table service and self-serve kiosks. Southern California customers can also enjoy a range of balanced menu items that fit their lifestyle, including the Egg White & Turkey Sausage Breakfast Bowl, and smoothies and parfaits made with nonfat vanilla Chobani® Greek Yogurt.

COLTON, CA- Smart & Final Stores, Inc. opened their doors on last week on Wednesday, May 10 in Colton. The new store is located at 1023 N. Mt. Vernon.

The day before the public opening, representatives from Smart & Final and leaders from the Colton civic, business and non-profit communities participated in a ceremonial ribbon cutting during an in-store preview event for business customers. Representatives from the Smart & Final Charitable Foundation also presented checks, each in the amount of $2,500, to the Ken Hubbs Memorial Little League and Seeds of Hope. The donations are part of Smart & Final’s corporate commitment to supporting organizations and causes in the communities where it operates stores.

“We’re excited to bring Smart & Final’s high-quality products at warehouse prices to the Colton community,” said James Christie, Store Manager at the new Colton store. “I’ve had the opportunity to work in a few Smart & Final stores before joining to open Colton, and to see our new Colton store built from the ground up has been incredible. We look forward to welcoming our new friends and neighbors of Colton to visit us. Whether they’re shopping for their family, an event or a business, they’ll discover we offer club-sized products, the quality of a grocery store, and prices that are 25% lower than supermarket.”

The Smart & Final Extra! store in Colton is approximately 27,000 square feet and offers products in both household and club sizes at warehouse prices – without the membership fee. Compared to traditional Smart & Final stores, the new Extra! format Colton store provides an additional 6,000 club size items; high-quality perishables; and expanded frozen, deli and meat sections. Additionally, the Colton store will feature unique products such as cut fruit, floral arrangements, oven-roasted chicken and self-serve dry bulk goods by the pound.

This week, The Home Depot® held the winners’ ceremony to announce the 2017 Retool Your School Campus Improvement Grant Program recipients. This year, nine HBCUs were awarded a total of $360,000 to use towards funding sustainable campus improvement projects of their choosing. To date, the program has awarded more than $1.8 million dollars in grant money to HBCUs. In 2017 alone, 72 HBCUs participated in the voting phase of the program.

Hill Harper/Home Depot Retool. Photography by Christopher Aluka Berry for Ben Rose Photography.

The nine winning schools were selected by a combination of cumulative online voting scores, along with grant proposals that were submitted by the schools and judged by a panel of distinguished judges which included: actor Laz Alonso, Howard University alumni and television & film star; Commissioner Gregory Moore, Esq., Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC); Mr. Michael Tabb, managing partner, Red Rock Global; Dr. Ivory A. Toldson, president and CEO of the Quality Education for Minorities Network; and Mr. Jermaine Luke, store manager, The Home Depot. The ceremony also welcomed author and NAACP award winning actor Hill Harper and special guest Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed to the Home Depot Headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.

“The Home Depot is very excited about the continued growth we’ve seen year to year with The Retool Your School Grant Program,” says Melissa Brown, senior marketing manager at The Home Depot. “We always anticipate the overwhelming excitement of the program from the participating schools, but we are most excited about the long-lasting contribution that this program is making to our nation’s treasured Historically Black Colleges and Universities.”

Established in 2010, The Retool Your School Campus Improvement Grant Program strives to give back to our nation’s HBCUs what they have so generously given to the communities that they are a part of. A strong foundation, renewed purpose and distinctive character are just a few of those contributions. The nine winning schools will begin their sustainable projects in the summer of 2017.

The 2017 Home Depot RETOOL YOUR SCHOOL Winners

AWARD                                     CLUSTER 1                               CLUSTER 2                               CLUSTER 3

Within each cluster, there are three winners vying for one $50,000, one $40,000 and one $30,000 grant. Clusters were based on school population size:

• Cluster 1: Student enrollment of 4,000 or more
• Cluster 2: Student enrollment of 3,999–1,201
• Cluster 3 Student enrollment with 1,200 students or less

The Home Depot is the world’s largest home improvement specialty retailer, with 2,281 retail stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico. In fiscal 2016, The Home Depot had sales of $94.6 billion and earnings of $8.0 billion. The Company employs more than 400,000 associates. The Home Depot’s stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: HD) and is included in the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor’s 500 index.

Home Depot Retool. Photography by Christopher Aluka Berry for Ben Rose Photography.

For more information on The Home Depot Retool Your School Grant Program, visit www.retoolyourschool.com.

RIVERSIDE, CA- Starting this month, the School of Medicine at the University of California, Riverside and UCR Health, the clinical arm of the medical school, have been providing people with more access to medical services through a new office space in downtown Riverside. Located at Citrus Tower, 3390 University Ave., Riverside, the new space had its grand opening ceremony on Wednesday, May 10.

“This really is a milestone for the UCR School of Medicine,” said Deborah Deas, M.D., M.P.H, the Mark and Pam Rubin Dean and Chief Executive Officer for Clinical Affairs. “The new clinic puts a platform in place where we are not just training physicians but also treating patients in the area.”

The new office space at Citrus Tower contains a suite for UCR Health psychiatry and a second suite for UCR Health multispecialty services, which includes neurology, primary care, reconstructive and aesthetic plastic surgery, and more. There are also plans to add women’s health and pain management in the near future.

The new clinic anticipates 33,000 patient visits each year. Doors opened to patients on Monday, May 1.

For more information, as well as a slideshow, please visit: https://ucrtoday.ucr.edu/47024.

By Lue Dowdy

Rap artist M16 TheGreat is WHAT IT DO! Cash On Demand Music Group made it happen. Based out of the Inland Empire this newly formed music group is already turning heads and opening ears. I was able to attend an album release party held by the group which featured the release of their talented artist, ‘M16 TheGreat’ new album “LET DA STREETZ KNOW”.

The event took place in the city of Pomona at the‘M16 TheGreat’ and ‘Cash On Demand Music Group’. The night consisted of live performances by artists, Jay Iverson, YL$NMT, and Swazie, along with music provided by ‘DJ Muda’. I was able to conduct interviews and ask guest their view of the project.

The album contains hits such as, “January 28^th”, “Where You From”, “Drippin”, “Pray for Me”, and more. Just by listening you can tell that M16 TheGreat put his all into it. Funny story, I met M16 two years ago in Dallas, Texas. Both of us were on our way to SXSW which is one of the largest film and music conferences in the world. I saw the hustle, the drive, and ambition in his eyes then and I still see it.

Make sure you follow this dude on all social media sites. Download the album ‘LET DA STREETZ KNOW’. You won’t be disappointed. Until next week Lz!

SAN BERNARDINO, CA- On Wednesday, May 24, the community is welcomed to come out to a parent meeting for ‘Rites of Passage’ hosted by United Nations of Consciousness. The meeting will take place at Anne Shirrells Park Community Center located at 1367 N California St, San Bernardino, CA 92411.

Rites of Passage is a rigorous program centered in traditional African values and history. Designed to strengthen, guide, and mentor young males between 10 to 14 years old and to assist them in developing character, career, and life skills. 

For more information or register, please visit uncyouth.org. To stay connected, text UNCYOUTH to 31996.