Local

Presented By the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department

All Women are Welcome to Participate

SAN BERNARDINO, CA— Do YOU have what it takes to be a Deputy Sheriff?  Then prove yourself, or just prove to yourself that you are FIT!  Register to participate in the “Women Warriors Fitness Invitational 2013,” presented by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.  This event will take place on Saturday, July 20, 2013  from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. (Check-In starts at 7:00 a.m.) at the Sheriff’s Basic Academy.

This event is open to ALL women, age 21 and older. Participants must present a valid ID and signed waiver at check in. Appropriate fitness attire and running shoes are required. The fitness challenge will consist of a “pursuit and rescue” obstacle course, push ups, sit ups and a 1 ½ mile run. Guest speakers from the Sheriff’s Department will give a brief presentation prior to the event.

Only participants in the event will be allowed on the premises. Absolutely No Males, No Spectators, No Cchildren. Non- participants are not allowed and will be turned away. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Basic Academy is located at 18000 Institution Road, San Bernardino, CA. Register online at www.SheriffsJobs.com.  The Online Registration deadline is Monday, July 15, 2013. For more information call 909-387-3675 or 909-387-3750.

SAN BERNARDINO, CA— The 20th Annual Black Graduate Recognition Ceremony at California State University San Bernardino (CSUSB)will be held this Saturday, which will take place on Saturday, June 8 at CSUSB’s Coussoulis Arena at 7 p.m.  Embracing African American culture, the ceremony celebrates the graduates’ success, and the student can dress in graduation attire and receive symbolic kente stoles. Guests are welcomed to dress in African American traditional cultural clothing.
The theme for the event is “Closer to my Dreams.” CSUSB students Lee Moore and Jeremy Young speak at the event. Moore, a first-generation college graduate and will receive her B.A. in psychology, and plans to pursue a graduate degree in clinical social work at the University of Nevada. Young will graduate with a degree in information systems and technology, and is the current president of the student group Enrichment Through Action, a community service-based CSUSB organization at CSUSB.
Thomasina Hill, a San Bernardino native, will graduate with distinction with a B.A. in English with a concentration in Literature, and will perform an original poem at the ceremony. Thomasina has applied for a dual Master’s program in English Composition and Literature.
Danny Tillman, a 2003 CSUSB alumnus with a B.B. in business administration with a concentration in information technology. He works as an Information Systems administrator for the County of San Bernardino, serves on the Board of Trustees for the San Bernardino City Unified School District, and is a candidate for California’s 31st Congressional District seat.
Jenise Bush, co-founder of the CSUSB Black Graduate Recognition Ceremony, and a CSUSB alumna who earned three credentials and two degrees, and is currently pursuing a doctorate at the University of La Verne, will emcee the event. Children Performers from Dare to Dream Arts Academy will dance at the event.
Tickets are $50, and can be purchased in the Santos Manuel Student Union’s Student Leadership and Development office, Room 204. Students who purchase tickets can have an unlimited number of guests that can attend the event with them. Parking is $5.  For more information, contact Doreen Hatcher at 909-537-5234, dhatcher@csusb.edu, or Misty Levingston at 909-537-7198, mlevings@csusb.edu.

SACRAMENTO – Assemblymember Cheryl R. Brown (D-San Bernardino) is proud to announce that her bill, AB 1094, passed out of the Assembly with a bipartisan vote of 77 to 0. AB 1094 will expand the definition of disability-based unearned income to include veteran’s disability compensation and help California’s veterans get the assistance they need to care for their families.

 “There is no reason that a veteran’s benefits should be treated differently than other federal assistance.  Returning veterans are having a difficult time readjusting to life and it is our responsibility to help them in their transition,” said Assemblymember Brown.

California veterans returning home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are now receiving both CalWORKs and other governmental benefits. Current law provides that $225 in disability-based unearned income is disregarded when computing the individual’s CalWORKs benefits. Unfortunately, veterans’ disability compensation is not currently eligible for the disregard due to an oversight in previous legislation. As a result, veterans enrolled in the CalWORKs program receive, on average, $200 less than other disabled recipients. AB 1094 would correct this oversight and allow veteran families to collect their full benefits.

 “California is home to the largest veteran population in the country. The majority of veteran’s benefits are dispersed by the federal government. However, a massive backlog in claims have delayed many California veterans from receiving their benefits. This bill will help ease the financial burdens of veteran families in California. As a member of the Committee on Veterans Affairs, I look forward to continuing to find solutions that will help the service members in our state access the benefits they deserve,” concluded Assemblymember Brown.

The bill now moves to the Senate.

Assemblymember Cheryl R. Brown represents the 47th Assembly District, which includes Colton, Fontana, Grand Terrace, Rialto, the southwest parts of San Bernardino, and the unincorporated communities of Bloomington and Muscoy.

Website of Assemblymember Cheryl R. Brown: http://www.asmdc.org/members/a47/

June 10 marks the 50th anniversary of the federal legislation that required employers to give women and men equal pay for equal work. Newsflash: It’s not working. This golden anniversary is more call for action than cause for celebration because women are still waiting for the Equal Pay Act’s promise to come true.

 But don’t think we’re waiting patiently—or silently. And don’t think you are immune from this pernicious problem. The gender pay gap exists for women in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

 It exists regardless of whether states have pay equity laws in place that supplement the Equal Pay Act, although several states do not have any specific pay equity law whatsoever. Unbelievably, Wisconsin actually just repealed its equal pay law.

 And the pay gap exists in states where governors are doing excellent work on equal pay: Gov. Peter Shumlin in Vermont recently signed stronger equal pay legislation into law, and Gov. Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii and Gov. Mark Dayton of Minnesota issued Equal Pay Day proclamations this year.

 But until the pay gap goes the way of the dodo bird, every state has more to do. That means your governor owes women and families an Equal Pay Act anniversary “present.” And the American Association of University Women has the perfect idea for a gift.

 President Barack Obama recently ordered federal agencies to develop plans to address pay discrepancies among employees in the federal workforce, including evaluating policies for setting starting salaries and looking at how to promote greater transparency in starting salaries. Your governor could—and should—order state agencies to evaluate and take action on their pay practices as well.

 Your governor should do this because equal pay is everyone’s business. Families and communities are economically stronger when there is fair pay. Every day women nationwide work just as hard only to receive less. On average, women make 77 cents to a man’s dollar, and that number is much worse for moms and women of color. The gender pay gap starts right after college and compounds over a woman’s career. Even after accounting for all the factors that affect earnings, AAUW found that women just one year out of college are still paid almost 7 percent less than their male counterparts are paid. That’s nearly a year’s worth of groceries and 1,400 tall Starbucks coffees. Plus, women vote—and we deserve serious action on the issues we care about.

 Statistics tell us that every action available needs to be taken, and the Obama administration has provided a step that governors can take immediately. I’ll leave it up to you as to how you ask your governor for your “present” —Twitter, Facebook, e-mail, letter. But no matter how you decide to do it, I’ll guarantee you one thing. Unlike the Equal Pay Act, the technology you’ll use—even if it’s just a pen and paper—was updated in the last 50 years.

 Technology has changed. The workforce has changed. But the federal legislation designed to ensure women are paid equally to men hasn’t changed—and it isn’t working.

 Someday, women will celebrate the Equal Pay Act anniversary. But we’ll do so when we get what we were promised: equal pay for equal work.

—————-

American Forum 6/2013

Bag, Bags, Bags, Californians have an obsession with plastic bags and many cities have made their way to mandate how each city will deal with how we will reuse, dispose and deal with plastic bags. Seventy cites have already adopted regulations around  single use plastic bags, and 40 more cities are considering how they will regulate   single use plastic bags, so doesn’t it make since to standardize how we deal with this issue statewide?  Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima) seems to have found a good solution in SB 405 that will make environmentalist and the business community happy. Protecting our environment while bringing uniformity statewide to this issue is a win-win and only makes since that California moves in this direction.

SAN BERNARDINO, CA— 543 students will graduate from Pacific High School this week, led by valedictorian Vanessa Marin, joining many of her classmates as the first in their families to both graduate from high school and go on to attend college or university.

Vanessa was accepted by several schools in the University of California system, but chose Cal State San Bernardino when offered a President’s Academic Excellence Scholarship (established under former CSUSB President Dr. Albert Karnig). Pacific High School graduates have done very well this year, receiving 44 of the 200 Valley-Bound Scholarships issued in 2013 – the most from any one high school in the Inland Empire. That is commendable achievement that reflects the measurable gains that Pacific has made over the last three years in the state of California’s Academic Performance Index (API).

Tex Acosta, the principal at Pacific High has taken a personal approach: on campus with students and encouraging parent participation, and as part of the school district’s Strategic Planning efforts. School Improvement grant funding benefited the school by providing teachers greater access to professional learning opportunities focused on improving student academic achievement.  And in 2012, Pacific High was recertified as a National Demonstration School for the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program, a status is achieved by fewer than 100 schools nation-wide, and making it a model for strengthening other AVID schools.

During these same three years, student referrals and suspensions have dropped 66 percent at the high school!

Certainly, more work needs to take place at Pacific and across the San Bernardino City Unified School District to boost students’ chances of success after graduation, in college and in the workplace, and to continue the journey toward excellence.  They deserve support and praise from their community.

When Pacific’s Class of 2013 marches across the stage at Bailey Bowl to receive their diplomas, they will not only represent their personal achievements, but also the achievement of their parents, their teachers, and their administrators. Go Pirates!! (WSSN 5/17/13)

T

he summit in which featured Mrs. Cheryl Brown one of the city’s assembly members, was a great experience and provided a lot of knowledge about the city’s current status and where hopefully it will be in the near future.  Mrs. Brown didn’t speak much but she did get up for a couple of 2-3 minute speeches which were more inspirational than anything.  She also handed out an award to Dr. John Husing who was also in attendance.  Dr. Husing spoke for the majority of the time accompanied by an projector screen in which it had slides of different graphs and photos pertaining to the topic he was currently speaking about.  He touch on several topics about the city and its current condition, and where it stack up against other cities.  Dr. Husing stated that currently the city is one of the lowest scoring when it comes to adults who have graduated high school and went on to obtain a master’s/bachelors degree at 18 out of 100 adults who have done so.  Where the average for most cities is 42-43 out of 100 adults who have done so.  Which ultimately leads to them either being more of a successful adult , or less of an successful adult which has an ricochet effect to their family and children in most cases.  In all for adults he was saying we must make sure we further educate ourselves to ensure an better chance at success as individuals.  He also touched on the difficulties for the small businesses in our area and how it is difficult for most to become successful due to the current financial status of our city.  Stating that most of our local businesses are in competition with competitors that they can’t compete against due to the fact they are big companies with more power and money.  Saying the big companies come in and take over small businesses and consume most of the business real estate in our area and they are coming from different states and cities not locally which takes the money out of our city. Stating that small business can’t go to the next level because of most people’s falling financial status in our city, which ultimately plays a part in companies success.  He also touched on the fact that there is a rise in medical cost for the city which also carries a burden for the city.  Stating that there is a significant rise in medical expenses for the latino community due to their rising population.  Saying that now hospitals will have to become more educated about the latino community when it comes to medical research in the field.  Which ultimately cost more money.  The solution they had to counter act the problems was to try to make sure everyone is properly and highly educated so they can achieve personal success by having the proper knowledge to do so.  Assure that all local business had the proper information and resources to provide great service in their field and provide many more jobs also.  To allow more businesses to open up and become a success instead of open and close within the same year.  To have more business that are local be locally owned and operated. To have more business networking with one another in hopes of generating more income and more projects that provides more jobs and provides better living to the people of our city.  Of course this will take time and must be done one step at a time but as long as we all work together and stay on the same track it can be done in due time.

SAN BERNARDINO, CA—Seventh grader Isabel Cholbi, the two-time San Bernardino City Unified School District (SBCUSD) Collaborative Spelling Bee winner will compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, May 28 to 30. As the winner of the San Bernardino spelling bee, the Chavez Middle School student won a trip to Washington, D.C. to participate in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. This will be Isabel’s second time competing in the national event.

The competition begins on May 28 with the Preliminaries Test for all 281 competitors.  The test includes spelling words and vocabulary questions. Competitors who misspell a word in round two or three of the preliminaries, on May 29, are eliminated. A maximum of 50 competitors will qualify for the semifinals. The preliminaries will be broadcast on ESPN3 on Wednesday, May 29 at 8 a.m. and at 1:15 p.m. EDT (5 a.m. and 10:15 a.m. Pacific Time). The semifinals will air on ESPN2 on Thursday, May 30 at 2 p.m. EDT (11 a.m. Pacific Time). The finals air on ESPN on Thursday, May 30 at 8 p.m. EDT (5 p.m. Pacific Time).

Every competitor will receive Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged and, courtesy of Jay Sugarman, a 2013 United States Mint Proof Set, plus and Award Certificate. The SBCUSD Collaborative Spelling Bee is affiliated with the Scripps National Spelling Bee, giving Cholbi access to official study guides and materials.

Isabel is not only an accomplished speller, she also builds websites and is learning computer programming languages; she has also competed in the regional science fair every year since 2010; placing fourth in 2013. The talented Isabel is also a musician and plays the xylophone, glockenspiel and vibraphone.

We will be tuning in on ESPN next week to cheer Isabel on.  We hope the community will join in and show support for one of the many special young people coming up in the Inland Empire, and in San Bernardino particularly! (WSSN-5/17/13)

SAN BERNARDINO, CA—Gabrielle Mays graduated from California State University San Bernardino in 2011 with a communications degree, and she has already been honored as the recipient of the 2012 Broadcasting Award of Excellence for news reporting by the Michigan Association of Broadcasters (MAB).

Mays, who grew up in Redlands, works as a news reporter for WLUC-TV 6 in Houghton, Michigan.. The station’s website highlights her work at Cal State San Bernardino where she gained most of her experience as the producer for the campus news station segment ‘Local Matters.’ Mays entered the MAB’s news reporter category with three feature stories she produced in the Houghton/Hancock region. “What makes this award so special is that all of the stories I entered were about the people in this area,” said Mays.

“It’s particularly impressive that Gabrielle graduated from CSUSB in 2011,” said Michael Salvador, chair of the university’s communications studies department. “To win this award in her first year speaks to Gabrielle’s talent and the quality of her professional preparation here at CSUSB.”

Her entries consisted of a story about a young girl with brittle bone disease who wanted an outdoor wheelchair to aid her in getting through the snow; a group called the Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly who assisted senior citizens in their everyday lives; and a fire that broke out in a senior living complex.

“People in the community trusted me enough to tell their story; and to win an award based on how amazing, kind and generous the Houghton/Hancock community truly is; makes me smile,” said Mays.

The award, which she received this March, now sits in the front office of the Houghton news station among the station’s other awards. “I came into this job not being the best on-camera personality, but I learned that if you want to be a reporter, you have to get good at telling the stories of the people that watch you every single night,” Mays added. (WSSN-5/17/13)