Happily Divorced And After

Andre Herndon talks about his journey to his new role, some of his most proud achievements, and his relationship with his family in an exclusive interview with Westside Story Newspaper.

By Savannah Thomas

Working in politics takes a special kind of drive and personality: thankfully, Andre Herndon is the man for the job.

On January 26, 2022, Herndon was promoted to Mayor Garcetti’s Chief of Staff. Herndon has been a part of Garcetti’s team since 2015 and has spent his entire career in politics working his way through multiple roles to get to where he is today. Now, it seems as though years of hard work are finally paying off.

Herndon has always had an interest in public service, but it would be many years before he would work directly in politics. He started his career as a journalist in the mid-1990s, working for the Westside Story newspaper before moving to the LA Wave in 2000. He worked as an editor at the paper for nearly a decade before shifting gears to becoming communications director for the city council, then into Parks and Rec, and finally accepting a job offer working for Mayor Garcetti. Now, Herndon has graduated from reporting on the city budget to helping write it.

And Garcetti couldn’t be happier to have him.

“Andre’s thoughtful leadership and dedication have been essential to everything we’ve done to make Los Angeles a safer, more prosperous, and well-run city,” wrote Garcetti in an email to Westside Story. “In my years of working with him, I have seen that he isn’t just a strong leader—he inspires people to work harder and embrace new ways of solving our most pressing challenges. That’s the kind of leadership Los Angeles needs, and it’s why I know he will make an excellent Chief of Staff.”

In 2021, Mayor Garcetti and his team unveiled their Justice Budget, an ambitious project aimed at targeting underserved communities in Los Angeles. According to Herndon, the process to create and launch this project was time-intensive but resulted in being one of his most impressive projects to date.

“That was my baby for over a year,” Herndon admits, referring to Basic Income Guaranteed: KA Economic Assistance Pilot (BIG: LEAP), a pilot program that will provide 3,000 Angelenos with $1,000 a month for 12 months. It’s a big step towards trying to assist low-income individuals by setting an income floor for them in this time of need.

Given his dedication to making the city of Los Angeles a more equitable place for everyone, it should come as no surprise that Herndon also had a hand in creating Los Angeles Reforms for Equity and Public Acknowledgement of Institutional Racism (LA REPAIR): a program designed to provide $8.5 million in funds to low-income communities of color that were struck the hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic.

It should come as no surprise that this field of work requires a lot of time and dedication. In fact, Herndon admitted that he often “spends more time with his [coworkers] on a weekly basis than his family”. But that doesn’t stop him from finding time to be present in his son’s lives when he clocks out at the end of the day.

Herndon, who had thus far come across as a somewhat closed-off public figure, finally cracked a smile when talking about his family. He recalled taking one of his sons to the Kanye West and Drake benefit concert late last year, and the fond memories that came from it.

“It was very cold, but I braved it,” Herndon said, laughing. “Because I want [my children] to have those experiences.” According to Herndon, his family is something he holds very dear, and he wanted to make an attempt at being a present figure in the lives of his children since being in public service is often-times demanding.

It takes a very special kind of person to do well in politics, but thankfully, Andre Herndon is more than qualified.

By Antonio Ray Harvey | California Black Media

To ensure Black communities across the state voice their thoughts and concerns and provide input, the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparations Proposals for African Americans is partnering with six “anchor organizations” to host public listening sessions.

Each organization will help the task force hear various perspectives of Black Californians as it assesses the state’s involvement in slavery and Jim Crow discrimination. The committee expects that process to inform the work they do when developing recommendations for compensating African Americans for past and ongoing race-based injustices.

The Coalition For A Just and Equitable California (CJEC) is one of the host organizations. A state-wide network of organizations, associations, and individuals united to push reparations for the descendants of enslaved men and women, the CJEC will participate in 12 sessions involving Black Californians from different social and economic backgrounds.

 “We’ve been at this since 2019. We worked hard for this assignment and it’s really a testament of waking up, networking, and organizing Black folks around the state,” Chris Lodgson, a founding member of CJEC, told California Black Media.

“What we are expected to do as part of that process is produce at least two listening sessions and the task force will support them. These sessions will allow Black Californians to think about what reparations should look like and how it should be implemented,” Lodgson continued.

Along with CJEC, the Black Equity Collective, Afrikan Black Coalition, Black Power Network, Congregations Organized for Prophetic Engagement (COPE), and Othering and Belonging Institute are the anchor organizations helping to plan the sessions.

Lodgson said CJEC will “coordinate” with the other five anchor organizations to prevent “doubling efforts” and provide a cross-section of opportunities and ideas from the sessions.

“At least two Task Force members are expected to attend each listening session,” Lodgson said.

“We really want to talk to people in our community that get overlooked the most,” Lodgson said. “People who are unhoused, formerly incarcerated, from the foster care system, street organizations, et cetera, are the people we want to hear from. Their thoughts matter, too.”

At its first two-day meeting of 2022 on Thursday, Jan. 27, and Friday, Jan. 28, task force members will explain in more detail the rationale and process of the listening sessions. The virtual meetings will begin at 9:00 a.m. both days.

During the upcoming meetings, task force member Dr. Cheryl Grills will highlight the task force’s “Community Engagement Plan, providing more information about the listening sessions.

The meeting will also feature testimony from experts during the “Discrimination in Technology,” “Community Eligibility,” and “Public Health” segments on Jan. 27.

During the task force’s second meeting last July, Grills introduced the idea of the listening sessions.

Black communities in the southern, northern, and central parts of the state (where many Black farmers reside) are expected to be involved in the process.

“Black folks exist in an ecosystem and the system includes a diverse, cultural base of people, social class, education levels, etc.,” Grills said. “So how do we make sure that those people, who are a part of the ecosystem, are impacted? They need to be at the table.”

Grills was appointed to the National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC) earlier this month. She is a professor of Psychology at Loyola Marymount University, former national President of the Association of Black Psychologists, and founder/director of a non-profit program evaluation organization called Imoyase Community Support Services.

NAARC is comprised of a distinguished assembly of activists, scholars, civil rights, human rights, labor, and faith leaders. The organization devised a 10-Point Reparations Program to serve as a guide and frame of reference for the growing reparations movement in the country.

“Dr. Grills has been amazing. She’s has done a great job in leading our community engagement effort,” Lodgson said. “She’s been largely responsible for looking for groups to be anchor organizations, bringing together resources, and facilitating the conversations.”

On Friday, Jan. 28, the California Task Force will hear testimonies from experts discussing mental health and physical health.

California’s Assembly Bill (AB) 3121, titled “The Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans,” created a nine-member commission to investigate race-based inequity in education, labor, wealth, housing, taxation and more. The commission is also charged with analyzing the state’s involvement in slavery, segregation, and the historic denial of Black citizens’ constitutional rights.

Current California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber authored the bill when she was a member of the State Assembly and chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus.

AB 3121 requires the task force to submit its recommendations to the legislature no later than 2023.

The January 2022 meeting will be the first of six meeting this year. The public is encouraged to join the meeting at https://primetime.bluejeans.com/a2m/live-event/ccajafkq

By Aldon Thomas | California Black Media

The COVID-19 winter surge has impacted different age groups in different ways, as caretakers struggle to take care of the elderly during this pandemic and parents remain wary of their children returning to in-person classes.

“It’s been here but it’s been everywhere for like the last 14 days,” said Los Angeles County resident Clarence Johnson whose wife, Tanesha Johnson, decided to shut down their daycare last year.

Across the United States, 1,099 children under 18 have died from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In California, the state Department of Public Health reports that 47 children have died of the disease.

This past December saw a four-fold increase of children admitted to hospital over the past year, according to the African American Wellness Project.

Tanesha Johnson, owner and director of the Sunshine Academy Childcare Center in Inglewood, made the choice to close her daycare after reflecting on her own concerns as a parent.

“When I started seeing how fast the COVID-19 virus began to spread, I had to now think as a mother and not just as a business owner,” said Johnson. “I said, ‘okay, if I did not own a daycare, would I feel comfortable sending my children to school at this time,’ and the answer was no.”

Johnson said she is still cautious about her children returning to school and hopes that kids will be required to test before returning.

Both the federal and state governments have been pushing for more tests in schools, with Gov. Gavin Newsom announcing each student in public school will get two at-home COVID-19 tests.

The Biden administration announced that they will be implementing initiatives that will increase the number of tests in schools by 10 million per month.

“These additional tests will help schools safely remain open and implement screening testing and test to stay programs. With the additional ten million tests per month, we will make available to schools more than double the volume of testing that took place in schools across the nation in November 2021,” read the press release from the White House.

In the US, only 27% of parents of 5- to 11-year-olds are in favor of vaccinating their children, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) survey.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a number of challenges for the country’s aging population as well, particularly for African Americans and other minorities.

Only 7% of people ages 65 and older who received a booster shot are Black.

Earlier this month, retired Assemblymember Cheryl R. Brown (D-San Bernardino), who is a member of the California Commission on Aging, hosted a news briefing with journalists featuring caregivers discussing the difficulties of taking care of aging adults in the state. The virtual conversation was organized by St. Paul AME Church in San Bernardino, Black Voice News in Riverside and Ethnic Media Services.

According to Donna Benton, Research Professor of Gerontology at USC, caretakers of aging Californians, including family members, have also been impacted.

“The majority of care, elder care in our state, is done by family members,” she said. “We are an essential part of the healthcare system.”

Benton, who is also director of the USC Family Caregiver Support Center and the Los Angeles Caregiver Resource Center, said there are nearly 4.5 million family caregivers in California.

One caretaker, Ruth Rembert, who lives in the Inland Empire, talked about tending to her ill husband and how the pandemic puts him at greater risk.

“His immune system was compromised,” she said. “He has two strikes against him, number one is his age and also his medical issues.”

She also emphasized her support for more people being immunized.

“This pandemic has definitely been a challenge for me and for my husband,” she said. “We all wish this would be over, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to be anytime soon unless we take seriously the importance of vaccinations.”

The Rev. Noella Buchanan, Caregiver Coordinator for the Southern California Conference of the African Methodist Church Ministerial Alliance, said most elderly African Americans are people of faith and that plays a role in the way they approach their health care.

“We need to share with them that if God has opened up a way for someone to come up with a vaccine, we need to trust. And part of our trust comes from what we are seeing. We are seeing loved one die. And the loved ones that are dying are the one that have not taken the shot,” she said.

California Black Media’s coverage of COVID-19 is supported by the California Health Care Foundation.

RIALTO, CA— San Bernardino County Fifth District Supervisor, Joe Baca Jr. is joining Darious Harris, the founder of Never Stop Grinding (NSG), to host the third free dental and vision services event. This event is meant to serve those who need exams, cleanings, fillings and extraction, full eye exams and free prescription glasses, all at no pocket cost to participants. The event is open to the public and will have dentists and optometrists on site. The event will take place in Rialto on Saturday, February 5 from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. This event is available to all those who fill out the application and receive a notification of their appointment time. Spaces are limited, so we please urge you to apply promptly as walk-ins will not be accepted.  We cordially invite community members to sign up for this free dental and vision services event.

“Dental and vision health is pivotal to the quality of our lives and to our individual health. Being able to spread the word and assist those who would appreciate this free event is something I am more than ecstatic to do. Considering the recent surge of COVID-19 in our county, we will also be providing rapid COVID-19 tests to be performed before each appointment. All CDC and COVID-19 guidelines will be followed. We cannot wait to have a lot of the community come out and receive necessary dental and vision services at no cost. Again, I would like to thank Darious Harris and all at NSG for their constant support to San Bernardino County.” -Supervisor Joe Baca, Jr.

Address will be disclosed to only those who are selected to render services. Register for the event at this using this link:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nsg-impact-free-dental-vision-event-tickets-237115638257?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

By Antonio? ?Ray? ?Harvey? ? |? ? California? ?Black? ?Media?

Gov. Gavin Newsom says his administration is emphasizing combating drug addiction and mental illness as part of the state’s multi-year plan to solve California’s homelessness crisis – the worst in the country.

Newsom says focusing on those health needs of unhoused people is a component of his ongoing “Comeback Plan,” an effort launched last year to help the state recover from the economic and social impacts of the pandemic.

“This past year, California has been able to move 58,000 individuals off our streets and into the housing and treatment they desperately needed,” said Newsom, adding that it will require a multi-pronged approach to end homelessness because the housing, medical and social needs of unhoused people vary.

When Newsom presented his budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2022-23 on Jan. 10, he asked the Legislature to approve $12 billion to support his housing strategy. About $3 billion of that amount would be spent on behavioral health housing, creating 44,0000 new housing units and treatment opportunities for people who are mentally ill. Another $2 billion would go to local governments in the form of flexible aid for housing programs, he said.

 “The California Blueprint will double down on those efforts, focusing on clearing encampments, while also setting the groundwork for long-term systemic change with significant investments in mental health and substance abuse treatment to get vulnerable people off the streets.”

Black Californians are disproportionately homeless. Of the estimated 160,000 unhoused people in the state, more than 40 % are African American.

Newsom said, in addition to several other measures like securing housing for students and veterans, his administration is currently considering a plan to move the state toward conservatorship for people who are mentally ill. He did not give details about the program, but he said there is a possibility the state will begin entrusting the care of mentally ill people to individuals or institutions in the near future.

In 1967, when Ronald Reagan was governor of California, the State deinstitutionalized mentally ill patients after the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act (LPSA) was passed and signed into law. California was one of the first states to deinstitutionalize mentally ill patients.

The number of mental patients occupying mental hospitals in California reached its highest point at 37,500 in 1959 when former Gov. Jerry Brown’s father, Edmund G. Brown, was governor. It dropped to 22,000 patients eight years later, according to a report by Chauvet Public Relations titled, “The History of Homelessness and Why We Can Do Better.”

Supporters of LPSA believed the law would provide protections for mental health patients and eliminate “the inappropriate, indefinite, and involuntary commitment of persons (to mental institutions) with mental health disorders,” the language of the bill reads.

LSPA critics say it inappropriately empowered mentally ill people to make important health care decisions for themselves when many of them had neither the will nor ability to do so.

When Reagan became president in 1980, he used the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) to repeal President Jimmy Carter’s Mental Health Systems Act, which funded federal mental health programs.

The OBRA gave mental patients the authority to make decisions about their treatment, including the options to seek care outside of a mental institution, get treatment at state-run clinics or the freedom to administer their own medication.

Last fall, the Newsom administration publicly let it be known that it is was leading the charge to provide solutions in the areas of low-income housing, mental health, and the state’s enduring homelessness problem.

In October, Gov. Newsom vetoed Assembly Bill (AB) 36, authored by Sen. Sydney Kamlager’s (D-Los Angeles) when she was an Assemblymember. The bill would have provided people experiencing homelessness access to health and social services outside the walls of a traditional medical clinic, including mobile clinics and shelter-based and other transitional housing-based health care.

According to Kamlager, AB 36 would have been the first law of its kind in the nation offering unhoused people Medi-Cal benefits without them having to share the cost.

Newsom’s letter explaining the veto says that the unhoused can already receive similar service through California’s Presumptive Eligibility program, which offers Medi-Cal and timely health care.

The bill was endorsed by 70 organizations and leaders across the state, including Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. In L.A. County, where over 66,000 people are homeless, African Americans make up 34% of that number although the total Black population is nearly 8%.

People of color in California experience some of the highest rates of homelessness in the nation. For example, nationally, 55 Black people experience homelessness out of every 10,000. In California, that number is 194 out of every 10,000.

Pacific Research Institute (PRI) a San-Francisco-based research think tank released a report in April 2021 that specified decreases of homelessness in major metropolitan areas such as New York City and Seattle.

The report, “No Way to End California’s Homelessness Crisis,” says that “Clearly, California is doing something wrong” in terms of finding solutions.  Although the state makes up 12% (nearly 40 million residents) of the U.S. population, 27% of all homeless persons live in California, stated Kerry Jackson and Wayne Winegarden, the report’s authors.

According to Jackson and Winegarden, mental illness is one of the driving forces behind the California’s chronic homelessness problem.

But all hope is not lost, the researchers say.

“A new approach is needed. To cut through the state bureaucracy, California should rely on private efforts to minimize homelessness. Private organizations are typically better equipped than the government to make real differences in the lives of the homeless because they tailor programs to meet the specific needs of individual homeless and can adapt where the government cannot.”

Having health care coverage and getting COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters are critical to protecting your health and the health of your family and community.

Covered California is urging those who do not have health insurance to sign up for affordable, brand-name health plans by its Jan. 31 open-enrollment deadline to have their coverage start Feb. 1.

This open-enrollment deadline comes as the COVID-19 Omicron variant continues to surge across California and is still disproportionately impacting African Americans and other people of color. With the cost of an emergency room visit averaging $8,000 and COVID-19 hospitalizations and ICU care at $127,000 — if you don’t have health insurance — it underscores the importance of having health coverage to avoid medical debt.

Covered California estimates that there are more than 1 million Californians who currently don’t have health insurance and are eligible for more financial help than ever before through Covered California or Medi-Cal to enroll in brand-name health plans. Right now, two out of every three Covered California enrollees can get comprehensive health coverage for $10 or less per month.

Marva Neal said she has truly benefitted from having an affordable, quality health plan through Covered California health. Neal lives in Los Angeles and immigrates from Belize to California more than 40 years ago but didn’t have health insurance until early last year, when she got enrolled into a Covered California plan with Molina Health.

“It’s been nothing but easy going since I’ve gotten a health plan,” said Neal.

Neal works as an aide at a Los Angeles senior day care center and is paying $49 per month for her health coverage. Shortly after getting coverage last year, she spotted a lump on her neck and scheduled an appointment with a physician.

“The doctor said that I had a tumor growing on my neck, and 10 days later I had surgery,” Neil said. “Luckily the tumor was benign, and I didn’t have any problems. Everything went so smooth.”

Signing up for a Covered California or Medi-Cal health plan for 2022 can not only help you avoid high medical bills, but it can also prevent you from having to pay costly penalties at tax time. Consumers who can afford health care coverage but choose to go without could pay a hefty penalty when they file their state taxes next year, which could be as much as $800 for an individual and $2,400 for a family of four. This penalty is administered by California’s Franchise Tax Board

Those interested in learning more about their health coverage options through Covered California and Medi-Cal can:

• Visit CoveredCA.com.
• Get free and confidential assistance, in a variety of languages, from a certified enroller.
• Have a certified enroller call themand help them for free.
• Call Covered California at (800) 300-1506.

SAN BERNARDINO, CA—- The Board of Education of the San Bernardino City Unified School District voted on Tuesday, January 25 to fill a vacancy on the governing body through a temporary appointment, foregoing a costly special election.

Those vying for the provisional seat can begin applying today, January 26 and must be 18 years of age or older, live within the District’s attendance boundaries, be registered to vote in San Bernardino County, and submit a completed application by the February 2 deadline. The Board plans to conduct candidate interviews on February 8 and announce its selection on February 15. The appointed Board of Education member will fill a seat vacated with the December 2021 passing of community icon and longtime SBCUSD administrator and trustee Dr. Margaret Hill.

Candidate applications will be available on the District’s website, www.sbcusd.com/applyforboe, beginning today, Wednesday, January 26, and close Wednesday, February 2, 2022.

The appointed trustee will serve from February 15, 2022, through mid December 2022. Candidates interested in being elected to serve the remainder of the term, which ends December 2024, would need to run for the permanent seat through the formal elections process and be elected by voters.

The seven-member Board of Education provides direction for operating the District through actions taken at its meetings. Board members develop the policies by which the educational programs and other business of the District are carried out. Regular meetings are held on the first and third Tuesday of each month at 5:30 p.m.

By Lou Yeboah

There ain’t no other way to put it. Hear what Jesus says in [Mark 9:43-48]; If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell…. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire where worms do not die, and the fire is not quenched.

I admonish you, detour off the road to Hell. Hell is a place prepared for the devil and his angels, not for you. How will you escape if you ignore God’s salvation? How will you escape His wrath? [John 3:36]; His condemnation? [John 3:18]; His word of banishment? [Matthew 26:41]. You will not! Detour off the road to Hell which the Bible describes as a terrifying and horrible place. “Eternal Fire” [Matthew 25:41], “Unquenchable Fire” [Matthew 3:12; Mark 9:44-49], “Shame and Everlasting Contempt” [Daniel 12:2], “Everlasting Destruction” [2 Thessalonians 1:9]. A “Lake of Burning Sulfur” [Revelation 20:10] where the wicked are “tormented day and night forever and ever.”

Sinking into Hell, hopeless and without excuse!

And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. [Revelation 20:12-20].

“And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night…” [Revelation 14:11].