WSSN Stories

By Ronda Racha Penrice 

Home flippers and interior designers are thriving in the rebounding real-estate sector — as seen on TV.

With an average gross profit of $55,000 per home, it’s little wonder that home flipping is attractive. Home flips — reselling properties within 12 months of purchase, usually after some renovation — were up in 83 of 110 U.S. cities, according to RealtyTrac, the leading national source of housing data. And husband-and-wife flippers Daniel and Melinda Wiafe, stars of HGTV’s Flipping the Heartland, have been getting their slice of the pie.

Flipping the Heartland, which began as Five Figure Flip in spring 2014 and currently re-airs on HGTV Canada, shows the Wiafes — with their son Malachi in tow — buying, rehabbing and selling houses in and around Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Melinda’s roots run deep. Being on TV was never a goal, however, until Daniel’s many online real-estate marketing videos caught the eyes of a production company associated with HGTV.

“They were stalking me,” says Daniel. Never imagining his ticket to HGTV was on the line, Daniel didn’t respond until the sixth or seventh call. But being on HGTV, Daniel says, has been great for business.

“If you appeared on HGTV, then people hold you more credible because that’s an authoritative badge that you can wear in your real-estate business,” says Daniel, who moved the family to Las Vegas, where year-on-year local home sales rocketed 211 percent in March, according to RealtyTrac. “It helps with dealing with real-estate partners, getting money; it helps with coaching programs teaching other people how to flip real estate.”

Inspiring others is an added bonus, notes Melinda. “It helps to see that there are African-Americans that are doing this,” she says.

“Most of the time, when you see people on TV, they’re investing in mostly West Coast places. So you’re looking at over $300,000, $400,000, up to million-dollar homes, and it doesn’t seem too realistic to the average flipper,” Melinda says. “Well, we are flipping homes that are like $80,000, and putting $50,000 in [for] rehab,” she says about Tulsa, where final flip sales average $177,735. “I heard a lot of people say ‘Wow, now that’s realistic. Those are things we can do.’ ”

With home flips, sales of new and existing homes and home renovations up, there are increased opportunities in interior design, too. And Tiffany Brooks is among the best known in her field. Ever since the married mother won HGTV Star in 2013 — seven years after she started her own interior-design firm — she has become one of the industry’s brightest stars. Today, beyond running Tiffany Brooks Interiors, the naturally charismatic Chicagoland native has been hosting the show/event HGTV Smart Home 2016. In July, the program will give away the dream home she has been beautifying. Her other HGTV shows include HGTV 2014 Smart Home Giveaway and Most Embarrassing Rooms in America.

Average annual salaries for interior designers are $48,840, the U.S. Labor Department reports. And more than 80 percent of these professionals are overwhelmingly happy, according to a 2012 Interior Design magazine survey.

Brooks, who began in high-end residential property management and entered interior design on a dare, personally knows that the expense of pursuing interior design as a career bars many people from this occupation. And, today, many states have implemented more rigorous certification requirements.

“I couldn’t afford [interior design] school because it was 80 grand,” Brooks says. “I went online, researched courses and the syllabi and ended up buying and reading through the interior-design textbooks on my own.”

Mindful of her struggles, Brooks is very supportive of efforts that help bolster African-American participation in this field, such as the Black Interior Designers Conference, scheduled from August 18 to 20 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Her best advice to new designers? “Don’t be afraid to ask somebody to be a mentor,” she says, “and actually work for that person. Be a part of their brand. See how they tick. See how they chew their food.”

“That’s the one thing that I wish I would have done differently,” Brooks says. “I made a lot of mistakes coming up, and these are mistakes I could have possibly prevented if I had looked for a mentorship program or tried to work for someone else before deciding to start up on my own.”

Don’t let the obstacles deter you, says Daniel Wiafe. “In order for anybody to be successful,” he says, “they have to be able to step outside their comfort zone and take calculated risks.”

By K. Barrett Bilali, Urban News Service

Osman Couey is a New York City teacher who allegedly threw Ka’Veon Wilson, a 7-year-old special-needs student, across a hallway at Harlem’s Public School 194.

Couey allegedly had manhandled his students before. There was the 2013 incident in which a parent complained that Couey grabbed her son by the ear and hurled him down a flight of stairs. He also was reprimanded three times in 2004 and 2006 for corporal punishment and verbal abuse.

But the Ka’Veon Wilson episode was different. The school’s security cameras captured this incident. That recording gave the New York Police Department enough evidence to arrest Couey.

As shocking as it is to hear of a teacher hurting a child, this alleged assault occurred in an environment in which student-on-student and student-on-teacher violence is pervasive. Few transgressions are caught on video, and others go unreported. Nonetheless, a behind-the-scenes glimpse into New York City’s government schools reveals widespread brutality, involving perpetrators and victims across many ages and sizes.

“I have seen staff provoke kids,” said one 30-year veteran Manhattan teacher, who requested anonymity. This teacher and other school professionals have experienced school violence first-hand.

In one incident, a 180-pound eighth-grader pushed her at the top of a stairwell, this teacher said. She grabbed the railing and stopped herself from tumbling down the stairs. She reported the unprovoked attack. Nothing happened.

As this instructor attempted to protect one innocent student from a tormenting elementary school classmate, the aggressive school boy caught the teacher off balance, rammed into her and kicked her, she said. A lasting scar bolsters this educator’s story.

“At the parent-teacher conference, the parent used F-bombs in front of her son but still threatened to file a lawsuit against me for allegedly abusing her son in the past,” said the teacher. “But the worst part,” she said. “There was no support from the administration.”

She said the principal and staff all told her that it was her fault that she did not know how to handle “these kids.”

To cope, keep peace and not endure violence, “Teachers find ways to appease youngsters with candy, favors, and benefits,” she said.

In another Brooklyn school, a child was reported for disrupting a class. The student was assigned to in-school detention and then threw every chair in the room. The child was just 4.

On one Bronx campus, Assistant Principal Mary Negron-Biancaniello broke both of her arms while protecting her face from a flying chair. She since has retired from Gotham’s school system.

Last month, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli released a report that criticized the city’s public schools for not reporting violent outbreaks.  The audit also found numerous “unauthorized student departures.” It sampled 10 city schools and discovered 177 cases of students leaving the premises without permission. School officials made no apparent effort to retrieve these students.

The audit also uncovered 400 unreported violent incidents. Among these, 126 involved reckless endangerment, sexual offenses, weapons possession and assaults with physical injuries.

New York City’s Department of Education is mandated to update accurately the State Education Department’s Violent and Disruptive Incident Report. Albany uses this document to calculate each campus’s School Violence Index. This determines whether a school is “persistently dangerous.”

Thirty-two schools landed on New York state’s “persistently dangerous” list in 2015. Of these, 27 (84 percent) are in New York City.

“If a school has a lot of suspensions, instead of fixing the problems, the schools try to hide them,” said Francesco Portelos, a tenured instructor and candidate for president of the United Federation of Teachers. Many teachers also are afraid to report classroom incidents because they wind up being blamed for them, Portelos said.

In one reported event in Staten Island, a male teacher was struck in the back of the head by a classroom door. Two students were suspended for this, but the teacher was written up for “poor judgement.”

Teachers do get hurt. But what about the violence that they commit?

“We don’t want to defend teachers who are hurting children, but we know what it is like to be accused of something while being innocent,” said Portelos. He said he has withstood 37 investigations in his 10 years as a Big Apple teacher. All of these allegations against him proved false.

Meanwhile, Osman Couey awaits trial for assault and acting in a manner injurious to a child under 16. A video brought his alleged violence to light. But plenty of brutality in America’s largest school system remains in the dark.

Lou Coleman

By Lou Coleman

There are some dire consequences when you don’t do things God’s way. You lose out on the blessings that God has for you when you don’t do things God’s way. You lose out on the victory that God has for you when you don’t do things God’s way. Doors of opportunity will be shut in your face when you don’t do things God’s way. Sleep will leave your eyes and you won’t be able to get any rest when you don’t do things God’s way. You will find yourself disappointed, depressed, and sad when you don’t do things God’s way. You will find yourself in bondage and confused when you don’t do things God’s way. You will find yourself broke, disgusted and frustrated when you don’t do things God’s way. You will find yourself in a whole lot of trouble, a whole lot of mess, and in a whole lot of unnecessary drama when you don’t do things God’s way. You will become weak, and despondent when you don’t do things God’s way. There will be no peace for you and no comfort for you when you don’t do things God’s way. Not only will you mess yourself up, but you will even cause your family, your children, your neighborhood, or even your own church not to be blessed when you don’t do things God’s way.

If you want to be blessed, you have to do things God’s way. If you want the victory, you have to do things God’s way. If you want to be successful and prosperous, you have to do things God’s way. If you want to be the head and not the tail, you have to do things God’s way. If you want to be blessed in the city and blessed in the field, you have to do things God’s way. If you want to be blessed going in and blessed going out, you have to do things God’s way If you want to be more than a conqueror through Christ Jesus, you have to do things God’s way. If you want deliverance, you must do things God’s way. If you want to be healed, you have to do things God’s way. If you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, you have to do things God’s way. If you want your home and marriage to be blessed, you have to do things God’s way. If you want to be blessed on your job, at school, in your neighborhood, you have to do things God’s way.

If the church wants to be blessed, the church must do things God’s way. If the choir wants to be blessed, the choir must do things God’s way. If the Usher board wants to be blessed, the Usher Board must do things God’s way. If the Deacon board wants to be blessed, the Deacon board must do things God’s way. If the Trustees board wants to be blessed, it must do things God’s way. If the Sunday School Department wants to be blessed, it must do things God’s way. If the Mission or the Evangelism Department wants to be blessed, it must do things God’s way. Last, but not least, if the Pastor and the Ministers in the pulpit wants to be blessed, they must do things God’s way because doing things God’s way is a whole lot better than doing things our own way. I tell you, we ought to be committed in doing things God’s way.

To learn how to do things God’s way, we must put our focus, our trust, and our faith in God because it is through Christ, we learn how to do things God’s way. In John 14:6- Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man can come unto the Father, but by me.” We must be in prayer daily. We can’t do anything God’s way without prayer. Jeremiah 33:3 says, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee and show you great and mighty things which thou knowest not.” Finally, we must learn, study and be taught the Word of God. To know what is written in the Word of God, we must read the Word, hear the Word, learn the Word, and study the Word.

God has given us instructions, and directions in His Word for our lives to follow and obey, and he has spoken to us by His Holy Spirit. All King Joash had to do was take heed and do exactly what Elisha the prophet had told him to do because what Elisha the prophet was telling him to do was of God [2 Kings 13:14-19]. God has spoken, let the church say, Amen!

By Madlen Grgodjaian/California Black Media

A recent poll revealed many Black voters in California strongly identify with the Democratic Party, although 58 percent feel the establishment takes them for granted.

Commissioned by the African American Voter Registration, Education and Participation (AAVREP) Project, The California African American Policy Priorities Survey sampled 800 potential African-American voters in Los Angeles, Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area.

The May 5-17 poll was conducted by telephone. Pollsters targeted registered voters who participated in either of the last two primary or general elections. They asked the survey participants questions on a range of topics, including state ballot initiatives, policy priorities and federal and state election candidates.

Nearly half of the respondents were ages 65 and older, reflecting a higher voter turnout in past elections. The  participants were also Californians who are more likely to vote this election year.

During a telephone press conference, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas said this recent poll is a follow-up to others conducted in the past.

“This is a following on some of the polling that we’ve done in the past, measuring the outcome of the African-American voters in the City of Los Angeles and then one in the county of Los Angeles,” he said.

The survey revealed voters over 40 invariably favor Hillary Clinton as the Democratic Presidential nominee. On the other hand, a sizable generational gap reveals Bernie Sanders leads by 16 percent among voters under 40.

A majority of the voters had an unfavorable opinion of Donald Trump, and two-thirds are motivated to vote specifically  to keep him from being elected.

The census also explored general perceptions of other leading political candidates on the June 7 Presidential Primary Election ballot. California Attorney General Kamala Harris is viewed favorably by 53 percent of Black voters. Thirty percent of the voters are in favor of U.S. Representative Loretta Sanchez, however, many say they are unfamiliar with her or do not know enough about her to offer an opinion.

On November ballot initiatives, participants strongly supported  proposed education bond and gun control measures.. Nearly four-in-five said they would support a $9 billion bond measure to fund improvement and new construction for K-12 schools and community colleges. Over three-quarters supported gun control initiatives that would outlaw large-capacity bullet magazines and require background checks for ammunition purchases.

The marijuana legalization measure was favored by a small margin. Statewide, 52 percent of respondents were for legalizing the recreational use of cannabis.

When asked about policy priorities, Black voters in all of the three major regions in the state identified homelessness as a serious problem. Ninety-three percent recognized it as a high priority for elected officials to address the ongoing epidemic.

Over half of the respondents believe law enforcement agencies should be held accountable for excessive use of force. Other high priority policies included making housing more affordable, improving access to quality health care, and fighting discrimination and institutional racism.  However, climate change and illegal immigration – two issues that poll high with the general population – did not factor as top priorities among Black voters.

Ridley-Thomas said polling is a fundamental feature of the democratic process.

 “The right to vote was hard fought, and continues to be, in terms of every round of debate pertaining to the voting rights,” he said. “And so this is yet another tool to make sure the promises of democracy are properly fulfilled.”

 

Lynn Swann

LOS ANGELES, CA- Lynn Swann will become USC’s next athletic director, effective July 1, 2016, USC president C. L. Max Nikias recently announced. Swann is a legend in Trojan and NFL football, a highly regarded international media broadcaster, an extraordinarily effective leader, and a deeply committed civic figure.  The Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl X, Swann is already well known to the Trojan Family, as well as to individuals around the world.

Swann will replace Pat Haden, who in February announced he will retire as athletic director on June 30.

“To his new role, Lynn Swann will bring the heart and soul of a Trojan,” said Nikias. “He shares our profound dedication to combining academic excellence with athletic excellence.”

In his letter to the USC community, Nikias said he expects Swann to bring his experience, expertise, and sheer love for intercollegiate athletics to important national conversations and reforms, particularly through the university’s leadership in the Pac-12, National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the College Football Playoff (CFP) association, and the Olympic movement.

“I am excited about coming back to USC – its growth and success under President Nikias has been phenomenal and my family and I are looking forward to being a part of that,” said Swann.

“As athletic director, my goals for the student-athletes will be to graduate, to win and to experience.”

Swann earned his bachelor’s degree in public relations from the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.  While pursuing academics at USC, he excelled on the football field, playing on two Rose Bowl teams and a National Championship team in 1972.  He was team captain, most valuable player, and an All-American in 1973.

KCAA RADIO is WHAT IT DO WITH THE LUE THIS WEEK! PSA! ATTENTION ARTIST’S! Rap/Hip-Hop/R&B music Wanted! LUE Productions has its own radio show right here in the IE titled “LISTENING WITH LUE (Launching Unique Entertainment)” a platform for Indie Artist’s and the ART’S. Every Sunday tune in with us from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.

LIVE RADIO and INTERNET! LET THE WORLD HEAR YOUR MUSIC! Music must be EDITED to be in rotation. The show is hosted by LUE and Co-Hosted by Comedian Anthony Stone and Deeveatva Foy; and featuring a guest host occasionally. For interview and song rotation opportunities, please email Lue.info@yahoo.com at attention: “Listening with LUE”. You can also call in and chat with us at (909) 888-5222.

Launching Unique Entertainment Talent and Production Co., known as LUE Productions, was established in 2005 with the mission of offering a safe and productive venue for artists of all ages to display their talents. We pride ourselves in bringing forth unique and entertaining shows for all too enjoy. Our events over the years have provided a public forum for families to enjoy special presentations from our communities most talented. As the organization has expanded, we have had successful shows which allowed exposure for artist in the Inland Empire and surrounding cities through special events such as musical concerts, talent shows, open mic nights, and theatrical plays.

LUE Productions is community-oriented and has committed it’s time and resources to giving back to its neighborhoods. Visit us at www.lueproductions.org. LuCretia Dowdy is the Founder and CEO.

Cheryl Miller

LOS ANGELES, CA- Cheryl Miller is the new head coach of the Golden Eagles women’s basketball program at Cal State LA. Miller has had a stellar career as a player and coach. Considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time, she led USC to two national titles in 1983 and 1984 and was twice named NCAA Tournament MVP. She helped guide the 1984 U.S. Olympic team to a gold medal and is enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.

Miller comes to Cal State LA from Langston University in Langston, Oklahoma, where she led the Lions to a #18 NAIA ranking in two seasons as head coach. Miller was hired at Langston by Cal State LA Executive Director of Athletics Mike Garrett, who previously directed athletics at the historically Black college.

Miller was also the head women’s basketball coach at USC for two seasons from 1993 to 1995, taking the Trojans to the NCAA tournament both years before embarking on a successful career as a television reporter and analyst. She also served as head coach for four years and general manager of the Phoenix Mercury of the Women’s National Basketball Association, guiding the team to the league finals in 1998.

As a teenager Miller spent summers in the U.S. Olympic development program, held in the Cal State LA gym. “The first college I played at, literally, was Cal State LA. I’m glad to be back,” she said.

Miller brings a wealth of playing and coaching experience to the University—and a clear sense of purpose. “Graduating and developing women of inspiration and substance is my goal,” Miller said. “Cal State LA is the perfect place for that mission.”

Women comprise about 60 percent of the more than 27,000 students at Cal State LA, which fields teams in six women’s sports. Garrett, who first hired Miller at USC, says she will help elevate Cal State LA athletics.

“I’ve known Cheryl as a player, coach and general manager for more than 20 years. She is a world-class talent,” Garrett said. “I came to Cal State LA to win national championships, and Cheryl has done just that. She knows how to get us to where we intend to go.”

Cal State LA President William A. Covino said that “Miller is a winning shot for the University as it drives toward greater achievements in athletics.”

“Cheryl embodies the kind of athlete and human being who will lead our students to successful futures beyond what they’ve imagined,” Covino said.

Said Jose A. Gomez, Cal State LA Executive Vice President: “Los Angeles legend Cheryl Miller is coming back home to coach our students to greater heights—to be champions in the classroom, the community and on the court.”

By Steven Owens, MD, MPH, MA

May is Lupus Awareness Month and on May 20th specifically, health advocates and those directly or indirectly impacted by the disease called lupus will Put On Purple to raise awareness and to support the millions of people who are affected by the disease. For far too long, many Americans have remained unaware that more than 1.5 million people, mostly women, are affected by lupus, and that it is the leading cause of kidney disease, stroke, and heart disease.

How many people know that women of color are two to three times more likely to develop lupus than Caucasian women? Sadly, many in the communities most affected, and even those within the medical community, are far less educated about the signs and symptoms of lupus than other equally and less threatening medical conditions.

Lupus has been called “a mystery disease” by researchers and physicians. It is a chronic, autoimmune disease with no cure that can damage any part of the body, including skin, joints and organs. It can even lead to death. It can take up to six years to diagnose if the medical provider is not familiar with its symptoms. There is no cure for lupus but there is hope! With early detection, managed care, reducing stress, and following a healthy diet and exercise plan, individuals with lupus, especially women, can strive for optimal health.

The Directors of Health Promotion and Education (DHPE), along with other national and community-based organizations, is leading a campaign to increase awareness of the signs and symptoms of lupus, to improve rates of early detection and early treatment so that patients with this condition have a better chance of living long, healthier lives.

The campaign targets women of color who are at an increased risk for lupus and focuses on educating public health professionals and primary care providers of the signs and symptoms of lupus as well. Individuals experiencing the following symptoms should discuss the possibility of lupus with their health care provider:

• Achy, Painful or Swollen Joints;
• Extreme Fatigue or Weakness;
• Sudden, Unexplained Hair Loss;
• Photosensitivity or Sensitivity to Sunlight;
• Chest Pains; and
• Anemia.

This May, DHPE and other partner organizations want to be sure that lupus doesn’t take the back seat but rather gets just as much attention as other chronic medical conditions that disproportionately affect women and minority populations.

In the same way that we support awareness and the funding of research for other diseases that devastate families, we need many more community leaders, health care institutions, health educators and medical professionals to rally around this effort to raise funds and support lupus awareness activities. Secondly, there is a need for increased participation in clinical trials from within the African American, Hispanic/Latina, Asian and Native American communities so that we can better understand this disease and more effectively diagnose and develop treatment plans.

Especially in minority communities, it is well known that women are usually the backbone and the glue that keep their families together. So, there is even more at stake if we don’t bring lupus to the forefront of community health advocacy. We must all play our part to increase funding and education about lupus, early diagnosis and treatment, and participation in lupus research in support of the people we love.

DHPE calls on women of color and health practitioners to join us on Put on Purple Day on Friday, May 20th, to raise awareness about lupus and in particular how women of color are disproportionately impacted by this disease. Encourage your organization, friends and loved ones to wear purple, in unity with and support of, those living with lupus.

Grab your camera, phone, or tablet and share your own “This is Why I Put On Purple” story with a photo! Be sure to share your organization’s Put on Purple participation on social media and use the hashtags: #dhpePOP and #dhpelupus. Whether you are living with lupus, caring for patients, researching a cure or know someone with the disease, it touches everyone. Join DHPE and the lupus community and learn the signs and symptoms of lupus today!

DHPE, a national public health association, was recently funded by the Office of Minority Health, US Department of Health and Human Services, to implement a national lupus health education program. To learn more about lupus, visit www.lupus.org. For more information on the DHPE LEAP Program, visit www.bit.ly/dhpelupus or email LEAP Program Manager Thometta Cozart, MS, MPH at info@dhpe.org.
Steven Owens, MD, MPH, MA is director of Health Equity, Directors of Health Promotion & Education.

By Eric Easter, Urban News Service

In a third-floor loft a few blocks from Madison Square Garden, the wine merchants at Banville & Jones are deciding which wines New Yorkers will drink. Andre Mack has been selling his Mouton Noir wine through these distributors for 10 years, but today they make him wait.

From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, Banville & Jones’ staffers swirl, sip and spit around a conference table as global winemakers pitch new vintages and hope that these experts will push their wares just a little harder.

First this morning is an Italian maker, with a new portfolio of Barolo and Chianti. Then a French maker, who runs way overtime. Next up is Mack.

He sets out his bottles and begins to spin the tales of his own collection of “garage wines.” The “Bottoms Up” white blend (75 percent riesling, 8 percent viognier and the rest pinot blanc) has opening notes of diesel and kerosene with floral tones. “It’s light, easy, not too angular,” Mack says.

Then comes the Oregogne pinot noir (“My workhorse”). Mack details the source of the barrels and the location of the vineyard used for his 2013, and how he has the grapes picked early to yield less sugar.

Mack ends with “Horseshoes and Hand Grenades,” a syrah/cab/merlot blend that “Shows my creativity as a winemaker,” he says.

Mack’s stories compose his narrative. He gets lots of press for being one of the few blacks in the industry. But that’s not just marketing. He is a craftsman.

How important are Mack’s stories to selling his wine?

“Hugely important,” says Vincenzo Guglietta, Banville & Jones’ sales manager. “Andre tells a compelling story. Let’s face it, there are a whole lot of wines out there. Without a story, it’s just juice.”

For the rest of the day, and the next several weeks, Mack tells his story again and again — at a food-industry incubator that afternoon, at that evening’s launch of eBay Wine — a new website that Mack is curating — a TV show taping at his house that weekend, then tastings in Boston, dinners in Milwaukee, more distributors in Kentucky, and then a few days in Texas.

It’s a grueling schedule, but as Mack sees it, more fuel for the wine’s story. “At some point, Robert Mondavi was walking from store to store carrying bottles in a bag, too.”

Mack has no paid assistants, no sales staff. The wines are about a singular taste, a singular vision. So much so that Mack also designs the stark, black-and-white labels that vie for attention in a market where many drinkers judge wines by their covers. “I wasn’t able to convey what I wanted to other designers,” Mack says, “so I taught myself.”

“For now, it’s just me,” Mack says. “I’m the best person to tell my story and the story of the wine. So far, it’s working.”

And it’s a good story. Wine steward at The Palm in San Antonio. Winner of the Best Young Sommelier competition and the first African-American to do so. Recruited by chef Thomas Keller to head the wine program at Manhattan’s four-star Per Se, where wines can climb to $24,000 a bottle. Then a calling to strike out on his own, a risky move from a safe gig, self-training, self-doubt, mistakes.

In just under 12 years, Mouton Noir (French for “Black Sheep”) has grown from 36 cases shipped in its first year to more than 33,000 cases in 2016. That puts Mouton Noir at the very high end of the small-winery business, a category in which most wineries sell fewer than 2,000 cases per year.

Mack also sells a lifestyle, a concept of fun and approachability backed by disarming quality. “I’m trying to create something that is not just a wine company, but an experience. Something you can remember after the wine is finished.”

A husband and father of three boys, Mack says what he’s really doing — the hard work, the tough schedule, the constant hustle — is building a family business. “My children taste my wine. I want them to know what I do and where it comes from. They travel with me to the vineyards, touch the grapes, walk the farms. That’s what it’s all about.

“This is what I want to be remembered for. This is my legacy.”

Lou Coleman

By Lou Coleman

Paul summarizes it in [Romans 7:15-16, 18], “My own behavior baffles me. For I find myself doing what I really hate, and not doing what I really want to do…” Can you relate to this? He’s saying all the things I don’t want to do I end up doing and all the things I do want to do I end up not doing. I want to do what’s right, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what’s bad, but I do. Even though I know what the right thing to do is, why can’t I bring myself to do it?

Struggling with sin is frustrating. You want to change. But you just can’t. You have the motivation. But you don’t have the determination. You have the desire to do what is right. But for some reason, you can’t do it. Paul says it’s because evil is right there alongside of us. Evil — not just bad choices, Evil itself. We live in that kind of world. A world where the force of Sin, the force of Evil has rubbed off on us. We’re affected by it, tainted by it and we can’t help it. We can’t avoid it, we can’t outwit it. No matter how much we may wish to serve God in our minds, we find ourselves sinning in our bodies. As Paul describes his frustration in [Romans 7], with his mind he desires to serve God. He wants to do what is right, but his body will not respond. He watches, almost as a third party, as sin sends a signal to his body and as his body responds, “What would you like to do?” Paul finds, as we do that while our fleshly bodies refuse to obey God and do that which we desire and which delights God, it quickly and eagerly respond to the impulses and desires aroused by sin. The interaction between the soul (mind, will, emotions) and our Spirit and our Body is where the decisive battles take place. It is a battle of rulership.

It is one thing to have our body not do what we tell it to and quite another to realize that our body is very obedient to something else. That is the frustration of Paul in [Romans 7]. Every Christian who reads [Romans 7:14-25] should immediately identify with Paul’s expression of frustration and agony due to the weakness of his fleshly body: “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” [Romans 7:24]. We are confronted with a dilemma as we try to live righteously. Thanks be to God though, there is a solution!

Jesus said in [Mark 14:38], “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” If you’ve felt this way, have I got good news for you! You can change. The power is there. The Bible makes the principles very clear. GOD’S PROMISE… “Jesus said, ‘When you know the Truth, the Truth will set you free. ’Set you free.” Jesus said that the way you break free from a hurt, from a hang up is by knowing the Truth. How? The way you think determines the way you feel. The way you feel determines the way you act. God says you start with the way you think. Bad beliefs cause bad behavior. Everything you do, good or bad, is based on a belief. If you want to change the way you act, you have to change the way you believe, the way you think. You’ve got to have the truth. And what is the Truth? Jesus declared, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no man comes to the Father but by Me” [John 14:6]. Truth personified. He is the source of all truth, the embodiment of truth and therefore the reference point for evaluating all truth-claims. Who wants to be free? Jesus is on the mainline, tell Him what you want… You just call Him up and tell Him what you want!