‘My new is not what people think.’ Then he said. “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” He said to me: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.” Tell my people that they are entering a season in which they will be challenged to make the decision as to whether they want to live or die. They have to make up their minds and they have to make it up now because time is running out! Tell them that they must experience that once for all conversion because then, and only then, will they have the happy, grateful, meaningful life that I have in store for them. And tell them that I am more willing and anxious to do My part – but they must be willing to do their part. So as 2019 end, and they prepare themselves to enter into 2020, they should turn their attention to change, to transformation, and a new life. See I am coming back for a Bride that will be without spot or blemish and I am warning them once again to get their act together. And let them know that if they become willful and stubborn, and not do their part, they will die like dogs. I have spoken says the Lord!” [Isaiah 1: 16-20]. Last but not least, let them know that this call to repentance and faith should not be looked upon and considered as a threat but as an invitation.
I tell you, when you understand God’s purpose for your
life, it should give you a sense of urgency that motivates you to change – not
later, not tomorrow, not sometimes, but immediately! Understand that God wants
you to dedicate yourself to HIm and to His work. He does not want you trying to
live for Him on the one hand and the gods of Canaan on the other. He wants
wholehearted dedication or nothing! That is the clear message of today. If the
Lord be God then serve Him. If He isn’t then go ahead and serve whatever has
your heart. Whatever you do, stop trying to have the best of both worlds!
As Jacob said to his household and to all who were
with him, ‘Put away the foreign Gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and
change your garments.” [Genesis 35:2]. For, “This is not a time for apathy or
complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action.” [Martin Luther King, Jr.] Because the call is now so loud, and so
clear; REPENT! Cast aside all idols! Purify your hearts and your hands!
Know that there is a promised curse coming upon those
who are not taking the things of God to heart. As the prophet Malachi warns,
“And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you. If ye will not hear, and
if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of
hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea,
I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart…” [Malachi
2:1-4].
2020…. Our allegiance to God is being challenged. Will
you renew your Vow to Him today and pledge your allegiance?
Beng confident of this very thing, that he which hath
begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ
[Philipipians 1:6]
When he’s not studying, Aldon Thomas Stiles, 25, a senior at Cal State Bernardino, writes freelance articles to help pay his way through college and assist his parents with the bills at home in Fontana.
The Fontana Herald, Screen Rant, Westside Story News and several African-American newspapers around the state have published Stiles’ articles in the past. Most of his work focuses on educating Californians about state policy or bringing light to unreported Inland Empire stories that, he says, people should know about.
“Freelancing is an incredibly convenient work opportunity,” says Stiles, who is African American. “It has helped me hone my skills as a journalist at my own pace and work on stories I’m passionate about – all from home.”
Stiles says the money he makes freelancing helps him keep a roof over his head while in school and that his schedule would have prevented him from working as a full-time writer while he pursued his degree in Criminal Justice.
Now, AB 5, a new California law that takes effect Jan. 1, 2020 threatens the livelihood of California freelance journalists like Stiles, critics argue, calling the legislation “unconstitutional.”
The legislation that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in September and takes effect Jan. 1, 2020, limits the number of freelance articles journalists in California like Stiles can write for any one publication to 35 per year.
For budding writers like Stiles who can get paid, on average, about $100 per article, that adds up to only about $3,500 a year.
Last week, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, Inc., (ASJA), a national professional organization that represents independent non-fiction authors, filed a lawsuit in federal court against the state of California to prevent AB 5 from impacting its members.
“We have no choice but to go to court to protect the rights of independent writers and freelance journalists as a whole,” said Milton C. Toby, president of ASJA. “The stakes are too high, and we cannot stand by as our members and our colleagues face ill-conceived and potentially career-ending legislation.”
ASJA, which represents about 1,100 freelance writers across the country – with about 120 of its members living in California – is joined by the National Press Photographers Association as a plaintiff in the lawsuit. The Pacific Legal Foundation, a libertarian non-profit with offices in Sacramento, is representing the groups pro bono.
“This law as written, even if it has good intentions, sadly, is an affront to first ammendment constitutional protections,” says Regina Wilson, Executive Editor of California Black Media. “It’s unfair and inconsistent, too. How can you allow freelancers who write marketing copy and press releases to work unrestricted while taking food off the table of freelance journalists who are writers and photographers? Their words and images contribute to our national historical record and they provide critical information to the public.”
“It will no doubt hurt the bottom lines of small ethnic-owned media businesses in the state. They already lag behind their mainstream counterparts,” Wilson added. “We have to do something about this.”
Supporters of AB 5, introduced by Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), praise the legislation for closing loopholes, they say, employers use to underpay workers and deny them benefits like health insurance, minimum wage, paid parental leave, etc., that state law requires for full-time employees.
“Big businesses shouldn’t be able to pass their costs on to taxpayers while depriving workers of the labor law protections they are rightfully entitled to,” said Gonzalez in May when the Assembly voted 59-15 to pass AB 5.
AB 5 writes into law a 2018 California Supreme Court ruling that instructed businesses in the state to apply an “ABC” test to determine whether a worker is a freelancer or employee. For a worker to be classified as a freelancer, employers would have to prove that the person is (A) not under the contracting company’s control, (B) is doing work that is not central to the company’s business, and (C) has an independent business providing a service. If freelancers or contractors don’t meet those requirements, companies would have to employ them and provide all the pay and benefits required under California labor laws.
It’s still too early to gauge exactly how AB 5 will impact freelancers in California, but some moves in the media industry, for a while now, have been sending early signals. Last week, Vox Media, parent company of popular niche websites, including Vox, SB Nation, Eater and Curbed, announced that it is laying off hundreds of freelancers in California. On the other hand, the Los Angeles Times hired 30 of its freelancers as full time employees after the Supreme Court decision last year, according to that publication.
“First, this states the company had been contemplating the switch for 2 years,” Gonzalez wrote in a tweet that was widely criticized on social media for coming off as insensitive. She was responding to Vox Media’s freelancer layoffs last week.
“Second, it clearly states that those contracted jobs are being converted to full & part time jobs,” the Assemblymember’s tweet went on. “I understand a contractor who doesn’t want a job being upset, but that’s certainly not all bad.”
Laid-off Vox freelancers who have spoken out publicly about their loss of work fired back at Gonzales, pointing out that the company transitioned only about 15 journalists to full-time positions while cutting hundreds of freelance gigs.
“The government cannot single out journalists,” said Jim Manley, a Pacific Legal Foundation attorney, in a statement about the lawsuit.
Last week, news about the lawsuit lifted the hopes of many California-based freelancers who fear that employers outside the state might blacklist them while California-based companies might replace them with peers living in other states.
“Freelance journalism is a whole different ballgame and this law ignoring that is a travesty,” said Antonio Ray Harvey, a Sacramento-based African-American writer who has, for more than 17 years now, wholly earned his living freelancing. He covers sports, politics, current events, and other beats, for the Associated Press, NBC sports Radio, California Black Media and the Sacramento Observer.
“Its not like there are a lot of journalism jobs out there nowadays,” said Harvey. “We have to maintain our careers and pay our bills.
By the late 1970s, drug traffickers were shipping so much cocaine to the United States that the street price of the powdered stimulant dealers cook to make crack – the smokable rock form of the stimulant – dropped by nearly 80 percent, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
Some historians believe that new affordability of cocaine aided the flooding of crack or “rock” into cities and towns across the United States, particularly in African-American communities where the illicit trade of the drug contributed to sharp increases in gang-related violence and murders during that period.
By 1985, almost 6 million Americans admitted to using some form of cocaine, according to the DEA.
Then, in the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan launched the government’s multi-pronged and widely criticized “War on Drugs” designed to toughen drug crime laws and aggressively pursue and incarcerate drug users and traffickers. Those policies led to the imprisonment of millions of African Americans from the early 1980s until now.
By 2013, African-American men and women accounted for more than 50 percent of the total United States prison population.
Now, more than two decades after the height of the crack era, African-American neighborhoods in California and around the country are facing another haunting drug epidemic: The Opioid Crisis, stemming from untreated addictions to potent – and potentially dangerous – drugs like Codeine, Fentanyl, Methadone, Morphine and Oxycodone, among others.
“When I watch the Republican Party hugging heroin-addicted folks, opiate-addicted folks, it makes me very happy, but it also makes me very mad,” said media personality, author and activist Van Jones, according to the website Inkredibly.com.
“Those same Republicans and Democrats, when the problem was crack, showed no mercy. No compassion. No understanding at all, and locked up a bunch of people,” Jones continued. “I do think that now its hitting everybody, hopefully we can come up with a more compassionate response.”
Although the mainstream news media has largely framed the opioid crisis as a problem America’s majority-White rural and suburban communities are wrestling with, data shows that it is, in fact, becoming a problem in predominantly African-American neighborhoods across the country as well.
“We have seen a sharp rise in communities of color and urban communities of overdoses and deaths related to illegal opioids, including heroin,” said Chet P. Hewitt, president and CEO of The Center at the Sacramento-based Sierra Health Foundation (SHF).
“Opioid use disorder is often a response to physical and emotional pain, including that of historical and systemic trauma,” Hewitt told California Black Media.
SHF is managing the state of California’s Medication Assisted Treatment Access Points Project in partnership with the California Department of Health Care Services (CDHCS), the federal government, California Black Media and its network of more than 20 African-American owned media outlets, and other ethnic media around the state.
The public awareness campaign, dubbed “Choose Change California” will employ a combination of advertising as well as news stories and profiles to inform Californians about opioid abuse in the state and direct people who are affected to locations where they can seek Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT).
“We can’t afford to go through another drug epidemic that kills our children, parents, brothers and sisters,” said Regina Wilson, Executive Director of California Black Media. “Our publishers are aware that we have to inform our audiences about this growing problem as well as encourage them to reduce the stigma around opioid abuse so that people suffering from it can come out of the shadows and seek treatment.”
In 2018, more than 10 million Americans misused opioids, according the the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
In California, there were 5.3 opioid-related deaths for every 100,000 people in 2017. Among African-American Californians, that number is about 1.4 for every 100,000, a high number based on the state’s Black population of nearly 6 percent.
And the death rate from overdoses of the synthetic opioid Fentanyl is rising fastest among African Americans.
In a statement shared with California Black Media, CDHCS says the media campaign began in April 2019 and includes digital, television, print, and billboard advertising. As of October 2019, the media campaign has had 1.2 billion impressions across media markets statewide.
The second phase of the campaign will continue through winter 2020. It was designed to launch during the holidays when there are historically high incidences of opioid overdoses.
“The holidays are a difficult time for those experiencing addiction. We knew that promoting the campaign’s message of destigmatizing Opioid Use Disorder and promoting Medication Assisted Treatment was critical for those suffering with a substance use disorder,” Marlies Perez, Project Director of the MAT Expansion Project at CDHCS, said.
A third media campaign phase will launch in spring 2020 and will continue to target communities statewide, including communities of color and rural populations, the CDHCS statement said. .
It is widely reported that there are more OUD treatment centers located in predominantly White areas in California and across the country, and that there exists a bias among doctors which leads them to not recommend MAT to minority patients because they fear those individuals would resell their treatments on the street, fueling the crisis.
Hewitt said it is critical that the opioid campaign targets census tracts of the state that are often overlooked.
“An emphasis will be placed on neighborhoods of color and communities that are experiencing a rapid rise in opioid-related deaths along with decades of drug policies that have disproportionately incarcerated and penalized those with substance use disorders.”
“Because of the short time period of this project, sustainability has been prioritized, according to the CDHCS statement. “The aim is to create a community of practice that lifts up and makes available racial and culturally responsive approaches focused on prevention, education, outreach and referrals, which ultimately results in increased education and access to MAT for California’s most underserved communities.”
On Oct, 12, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 919 into law introduced by Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris (D-Laguna Beach).
It mandates CDHCS to license all addiction treatment centers in the state and requires that they adopt the American Society of Addiction Medicine’s treatment criteria as an operating standard.
Trudy Coleman – J.E.T.M.A.C. (Juneteenth Education Technology Mobile Arts Center, Inc.)
Dr. Bendetta Perry – Author, Motivational Speaker and Performing Artist
DISCUSSING: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Unity Breakfast & Wallace’s theme… As we consider improving ourselves in 2020, do we follow our taste buds or should we seek nutrition…
A recent visit to the Social Security Administration Office in downtown San Bernardino provides a glaring example of government inefficiency and ineptitude.
A long line of people waited in shivering temperatures outside the office. Some had arrived at least two hours before the office opened at 9 a.m. An elderly gentleman near the front said he was forced to wait behind 35 people who arrived before him. Others said they were disgusted at having to stand in the cold weather before they could go inside to receive services.
There was a security guard at the door who gave out a business card with a phone number to make an appointment. I called the number and got a recording that said I might have to wait 15 minutes to speak to a representative. After 10 minutes on hold, the line got disconnected. I called back and waited another 10 minutes before a woman came on the line.
I told her I wanted to make an appointment and she said the next opening for an appointment wasn’t for at least two months. She suggested going directly to the office rather than waiting so long for an appointment. This is totally unacceptable!
Why should an elderly or disabled person have to wait two months for an appointment? These individuals depend on their monthly Social Security checks to pay their rent. If they don’t pay, they will get evicted. Some may end up on the streets. No one should have to put up with such lousy service from a government agency. All taxpayers should be ashamed. With all the technology available today, the federal government must get its act together and start providing high quality customer service.
PHOENIX, AZ. — In the conference room of the Phoenix Indian School Visitor Center, a chair sat empty at a recent convening of community media and stakeholders to promote Arizona’s 2020 census.
Lizbeth Luna, regional director for NALEO’s Arizona census
initiative, abruptly cancelled as a speaker, learning her father had been
detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE). The
intersection of immigration and the census was one of several topics at the
convening, but the empty chair spoke to the tenuous netherworld of immigrant
status in the United States.
In June, the Supreme Court barred Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross
from adding a question on citizenship to the Census 2020 form. The ruling was
applauded by Katie Hobbs, Arizona’s Secretary of State, who supports a
permanent ban on such an initiative. After the question’s dismissal, advocates
continue to fear diminished participation in the census, particularly from the
Latino community. Worries are the current administration will not respect the
confidentiality of personal information, despite laws and fines discouraging
the sharing of individual census responses among federal agencies.
At the convening, co-hosted by Ethnic Media Services, OneArizona, the Arizona Community Foundation and the Leadership Conference Education Fund, EMS executive director, Sandy Close encouraged attendees to collaborate in their messaging and outreach on Census 2020. Citing the decrease of traditional community media as one motivation, Close said the driving impetus for collaboration should be concern about the potential loss of census data-based funding for federal programs that contribute to children’s well-being. Children are the most likely to be undercounted and highly vulnerable to funding reductions.
“We, as media, need you, as community organizations, to extend your communication outreach, especially to populations that don’t have media outlets,” Close said. “Today’s meeting is an effort to forge a consensus across ethnic groups, community organizations, state and local government groups and other stakeholders. Do it for the kids.”
Jim Chang, state demographer, Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity, provided an overview of the state’s racial demographics. He projects that the decreasing and aging white population, currently comprising 54%, and the increasing, younger Latino one, now at 32%, would reach relative numerical parity by 2050 at 45% and 40% respectively. The balance of the population, with no cohort above 5%, is comprised of Asians, blacks, Native Americans and others.
“A lot of people I talk to believe that, right now, the births to Hispanic mothers are higher than the births to non-Hispanic whites,” Chang said, “but that was true only one year, 2007.” Since then, white, non-Hispanic women have led their Latina counterparts with no anticipated change through 2050. Importantly, Chang has seen estimates of Arizona’s 2010 census undercount of children at 4%, 7% and as high as 10%. “Every method has its flaws,” Chang said, but overall, compared to other states, Arizona did fairly well in its total population 2010 census assessment.
Alec Thompson, representing the Arizona governor’s office,
acknowledged hard-to-count communities within the state where undercount
percentages have been higher than those for children. Though the state
legislature rejected his budget request to fund census public education
initiatives, he said Gov. Doug Ducey has about $1.5 million for paid media
advertising.
“We are hoping to grow that number,” Thompson said, with media outreach as part of a plan that includes a complete count committee’s credible messengers to reach diverse communities. Government agencies will be directed to contact the customers they serve, for example, the state’s 6,000 foster parents will receive an email about the census.
Thompson said Arizona had spent no state money for 2010 census outreach due to fiscal caution after 2008’s recession. A key motivation to encourage 2020 census participation is a calculation that “a 1% undercount is a direct loss of $62 million to the state.”
Whitney Walker, director of communications and public policy for
Protecting Arizona’s Family Coalition, (PAFCO), spoke to the need for more
state level advocacy to bolster the housing trust fund and domestic violence
shelters, among other initiatives that ameliorate “the cycle of poverty
vulnerable Arizona families are facing.”
Sign outside the Phoenix Indian School reading: “The Phoenix Indian School was founded as an Industrial School and later became known as Phoenix Indian High School. Many young Indian children have passed through these doors.”
To her point, the annual Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT
Data Book on the status of American children living in poverty ranks Arizona at
only 43rd in overall wellbeing for children.
In Arizona, immigration is a highly contested issue. Walker said
the political climate can interfere with the dissemination of clear and concise
information. She didn’t dispute the assessment of Arizona’s 2010 census
efforts, but noted that there was “a 30% undercount for Maricopa County, which
now has a population of over four million people.”
Janice Palmer of the Helios Education Foundation, which focuses on
Latino students’ academic success, underscored Walker’s observations: “Maricopa
County had the second largest undercount of Latino children.” Using 7% as the
projected undercount, she estimated, in that county alone, 27,000
Latino children were omitted from census 2010 data.
The Native American and Alaskan Native populations pose unique
challenges to the census, according to Mark Trahant, editor of Indian Country
Today.
“The primary problem for us is that it comes down to self-identification, and when you’re dealing with tribal communities, you’re talking about citizenship and a more complex way of looking at identity,” Trahant explained. He added that ICT has been reporting for three years that the 2020 census has been in trouble, partly due to underfunding. In Alaska, he noted, two field tests were cancelled to save funds and, overall, a dearth of linguists available to translate census instructions and information into local languages.
For Trahant, paramount is how to transform Native American
presence into political representation. Even with the recent election of Native
Americans to Congress, he calculates they constitute less than three-quarters
of one percent of that body, assuming Native Americans represent 2% of the
population, which is itself “probably an undercount.”
To achieve accuracy, the Census Bureau will have to contend with
Native Americans’ lack of broadband access and the difficulty of determining
addresses in remote communities. Additionally, Trahant said tribal
identification will be “a demographer’s nightmare” because many Native
Americans have multiple tribal identifications in their family trees. How will
resources be fairly allocated, he mused?
D.L. White, reporting for The Arizona Informant, also raised the
issue of accountability, asking state Rep. Diego Rodriguez – the convening’s
final speaker — how an undercount could negatively affect funding for minority
groups and refugee communities. Rodriguez responded that allocating funds is a
result of horse trading at the heart of the budgeting process.
“We all agree that the budget represents your values,” Rodriguez said, but “we have to make sure our numbers are counted so that we get adequate representation.”
Acknowledging representatives from Somali, Congolese and other
emerging refugee groups at the briefing, as well as from Native American, black
and Latino populations, Tameka Spence of Arizona Community For Change
emphasized that the first step is addressing the trauma many have experienced.
“In trying to help folks understand why the census is important, we’re asking
them to confront that trauma and we need to acknowledge that it’s there, it’s
real.”
Though the empty chair attested to the Luna family’s immediate
trauma, the Indial School Visitor Center venue exuded optimism. Once the site
of a federally run school to socially re-engineer Native American students,
Center director Rosalie Talahonva – herself an alumna — recalled how students
were drawn from different tribes often deeply at odds with each other as well
as the U.S. government. Whether antagonisms were ancient or personal, new or
imagined, the students persevered, forging consensus and cooperation among
themselves — an inspiration for Arizona’s mosaic of stakeholders striving to
achieve an accurate census count.
Tell me, ought not Christians to be different? Ought
not we to be distinct, unique, set apart? Then why do we conform to what
society wants and do what society wants? The problem is that we don’t want to
be different. We don’t want to stand out from the crowd. We don’t want to be
perceived as bing odd. But I have you know that Christ was distinct, unique,
odd, set apart, and He called His
followers to be like Him. I tell you, as a people of God, we must dare to be different. We are not called to fit in but rather to
stand out. [Romans 12:2] tells us, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind, that by testing, you may discern what
is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. So “Come out from
amongst them and be ye separated…” [2 Corinthians 6:14; 7:1].
I tell you God is looking for people who would dare to
be like Daniel. Daniel had faith and applied works to his faith. He dared to be
different in every place he found himself. In every situation, Daniel said, “I
am not like the others. There is something different about me. I am in this
world, but I am not of this world. I am a child of destiny and I must work on
fulfilling my destiny. I am royalty. I am the child of the Most High God.”
Daniel dared to be different. The psalmist says, “I am a stranger on earth. All
the great men and women in the Old Testament were ‘strangers on earth [Hebrews
11;13].
I tell you God is looking for men and women who would
dare to be different. Men and women who have courage and convictions and who
will refuse to compromise and conform.
You and I are called to be different from the world around us and we are
given practical instructions on how to do this. Paul writes, ‘Let us not be
like others. Your lifestyle is to be totally different from those around you.
You are a citizen of a different world. You have to learn a new language. You
must dare to be different to fulfill your destiny, to maximize your potential,
and to excel in life and ministry.
My challenge to you this day is to dare to be
different. Dare to be a ‘stranger’ on earth. Dare to live differently. Dare to
speak differently.
You know Jeremiah’s ministry required great courage.
He had to dare to be different from the prophets around. They were all prophesying
peace, but Jeremiah knew that the exile was coming. He was warning the people
about the coming disaster. God said to him, “Tell them everything I command
you; do not omit a word. Perhaps they will listen and each will turn from their
evil ways [ Jeremiah 26:2-3].
However, ‘As soon as Jeremiah finished telling all the
people everything the Lord had commanded him to say, the priests, the prophets
and all the people seized him and said, “You must die! [v.8].
Jeremiah’s response was again very courageous. He
said, ‘Change the way you’re living change your behavior. Listen obediently to
the Message of your God. Maybe God will reconsider the disaster he has
threatened…If you kill me, you’re killing an innocent man… God sent me and
told me what to say. You’ve been listening to God speak, not Jeremiah.
Listen, we may not face the same pressure, but the
world around us will often dislike us for being different. Do not be surprised
or dismayed by such opposition – as Jesus told his disciples, “In this world
you will have trouble.” But take heart, I have overcome the world.’ [John
16:33]
As Paul challenged
his readers, I too, challenge you to “Understand the present time in which we
live.” [Romans 13:11]. We are living in
a time like no other. The world is being turned upside down and we need to be ready!
[Matthew 25:1-13]. You see, our generation is the first generation to fulfill
ALL the biblical signs. There is no time to waste! If you ain’t ready, you need
to get ready because thus saith the Lord, “Time is Running Out!”
Listen, I am not
here to set dates, nor time, but I am here only to warn you that the second
coming of Jesus Christ is NEAR, “even at the door.” [Matthew 24:33]. I beg you, don’t take it lightly, and don’t
ignore the revelation of Christ! Jesus words to His disciples back then are the
same words to us today, “ BE READY, because the Son of Man WILL COME at an hour
when you least expect Him. There is a plea for our return [Joel 2:12-17]. Maybe
you’re saved, but not living for the Lord. This message needs to be your
turning point. Don’t be counted as one of the foolish virgins [Matthew 25:
1-13] who did not attempt to prepare until it was too late. They where left
behind. Prepare while there is still time. For neither time, nor death, nor
judgment linger. NOW is the appoint time! NOW is the day of Salvation! Don’t
Delay! Time is Running Out!
“Blessed is the one
who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it
and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.” [Revelation
1:3].
He who testifies to
these things says, “ Surely I am coming quickly.” Amen! [Revelation 22:20-21]
“This day, I call
the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you
life and death… Now choose life, that you and your descendants may live.”
[Deuteronomy 30:19]
(EMPIRE NEWS NETWORK—ENN)— Damon Alexander, S B City Council Candidate and Cannabis advocate, Lanny Swerdlow, were guests on the “Empire Talks Back” (ETB) radio broadcast. The thought provoking conversations are available on most podcast carriers, including iHeart Radio.
Now
is the time to start checking in with your city council and county board to inquire
how they will allocate millions of dollars in emergency homelessness aid Gov.
Newsom has released to counties and cities across the state.
Gov.
Newsom said to funnel the $650 million aid package to counties and cities, he
had to bypass roadblocks set up by the Trump administration to delay the funding.
President Trump has been a vocal critic of California’s homelessness crisis.
The
governor announced the unprecedented $1 billion investment in fighting homelessness
when he released his budget for the 2019-20 fiscal year earlier this year. The
$650 million emergency spending is a part of it.
“California
is doing more than ever before to tackle the homelessness crisis but every
level of government, including the federal government, must step up and put
real skin in the game,” said Gov. Newsom. “California is making historic
investments now to help our communities fight homelessness. But we have work to
do and we need the federal government to do its part.”
California
law requires local allocation of funding to be based on federally approved 2019
Point in Time homelessness data. Although local governments and Continuums of
Care have requested this data from the feds, they have not yet received it.
The
governor said counties and cities can begin applying for and spending 75
percent of the money ($500 million) while they wait on the numbers from the
feds.
The
governor has appointed Matthew Doherty, who has over 25 years of experience
working on federal solutions to homelessness under the Obama and Trump
administrations, as an expert advisor to his office and state agencies.
“I am excited to work with Gov. Newsom, who has demonstrated national leadership addressing homelessness throughout his career and be part of California’s efforts to tackle the issue head on.”
Together,
San Bernardino, Kern and Riverside counties, for example, are expected to
receive a total of approximately $36 million.
Westside Story Newspaper – Online The News of The Empire – Sharing the Quest for Excellence
