Happily Divorced And After

Jeffrey Cyr wheeled his white Honda sedan into a parking space near a microbrewery and a taco joint at a strip mall here around midday recently. Instead of food, jobs were on the menu.

As more businesses are permitted to resume operations around the U.S., employers are plotting fresh rehiring strategies, such as the curbside job fair in Grand Rapids that attracted Mr. Cyr and his girlfriend, Hannah Vruggink.During the parking-lot screening, the couple and other job seekers sat in their cars and provided recruiters, wearing face masks, with basic information for possible callbacks on a range of jobs in light industry and those requiring skilled labor.

It is an example of how social distancing, needed to stem the coronavirus pandemic, is altering job recruitment.

“Everybody knows how to do the curbside food now, so the idea is to take the concept and apply it to what we do,” said Janis Petrini, owner of the local franchise of the placement agency Express Employment Professionals, which organized the modestly attended job fair.

After she talked with Mr. Cyr, a part-time welder who is 20 years old, and Ms. Vruggink, who is employed at a superstore, Ms. Petrini said Ms. Vruggink, who is also 20, could be a good fit for receptionist work or on an industrial assembly line. “We can find you something better than what you have right now,” said Ms. Petrini. A day later Express lined Mr. Cyr up with a full-time welding position, he said.

Labor Department data don’t yet show much sign of a rebound in job postings, with April’s approximately 5 million listings down from around 6 million in March and lower by 2.2 million than a year earlier. Workers filed 1.5 million new unemployment claims for the week ended June 13, and 20.5 million people were receiving benefits during the prior week, the Labor Department said Thursday.

By Jake Pickering

The Northern California town of Fort Bragg is in desperate need of a name change ASAP!  Sure, there will be some relatively minor expenses for residents from the municipal name change, but the cost of keeping the town’s current obnoxiously racist name will be far greater.

First of all, no self-respecting Californian could ever possibly justify or countenance any town or city in the Golden State being named after Confederate General Braxton Bragg, who was not only a traitor and a slaveowner, but an especially intemperate and incompetent military commander as well.  That name is nothing to brag about, Fort Bragg.

Secondly, why would any patriotic American want to set foot in a town named after an anti-American racist traitor to the republic, like Braxton Bragg?  Thankfully, Mendocino County has other equally picturesque communities to visit and spend our money in as tourists.

Too bad, Fort Bragg, but you’re not getting another dime from me until you change your town’s name!  Here are some non-Confederate, pro-American options for you.  Please feel free to choose any one of these as your town’s new name:

1. Fort Lincoln
2. Fort Grant
3. Fort Sherman
4. Fort Roosevelt
5. Fort Eisenhower
6. Fort Patton
7. Fort Marshall
8. Fort Bradley
9. Fort Kennedy
10. Fort Powell

SACRAMENTO, CA— With Tax Day approaching, the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) today offered key tips to help Californians prepare their taxes before the July 15 filing deadline.

COVID-19 Relief: FTB is providing special tax relief and assistance for taxpayers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic through July 15, which is the deadline for all Californians to file and pay taxes owed. Visit FTB’s COVID-19 frequently asked questions page for more information on collections relief, extensions for filing/paying taxes, the federal CARES Act, and more.

“During this public health emergency, we are doing everything we can to make California taxpayers aware of free tax preparation assistance and other available resources ahead of the July 15 deadline,” said State Controller and FTB Chair Betty T. Yee. 

California’s Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC): If you are 18 or older, work, and have low income, you may qualify for CalEITC. Between CalEITC and the companion federal EITC, low-income families can boost their refund by thousands of dollars. Anyone earning $30,000 or less may qualify for CalEITC of up to $2,982. Those earning $55,952 or less may be able to receive the federal EITC of up to $6,557. Learn more about these valuable credits.

Young Child Tax Credit: The Young Child Tax Credit was introduced in tax year 2019. If you qualify for CalEITC and have at least one child under the age of 6 as of the end of the tax year, you may qualify for $1,000 through this credit.

Free Tax Help: Most Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) locations are closed during the pandemic. However, there are a limited number of locations around the state that continue to operate. Visit the IRS’ Get Free Tax Prep Help page frequently for updated information on available sites and hours.

More than 6.4 million taxpayers are eligible to file their state tax returns online for free using FTB’s fast and easy CalFile program. CalFile allows taxpayers to file directly with FTB and provides instant confirmation. Registration is not required to use CalFile and taxpayers are able to claim both CalEITC and the new Young Child Tax Credit using the program.

FTB also has a list of other free online tax preparation options.

Tax Filing Extension: California taxpayers get an automatic extension to file state tax returns until Thursday, October 15, although tax money owed must be paid or postmarked by Wednesday, July 15. Those unsure of whether they will owe money can consult FTB’s Tax Calculator.

Pay Online: Taxpayers can pay online with Web Pay directly from their bank accounts with no fees. Payments can also be made with MasterCard, VISA, American Express, or Discover for a service fee of 2.3 percent.

Get Help Paying Taxes: FTB recommends that taxpayers file returns on time and pay what they can to avoid penalties and interest. Payment plans are available for taxpayers experiencing a financial hardship. Those who owe $25,000 or less and can repay within five years generally qualify.  

Check Refunds Online: Taxpayers who already filed their state return and are expecting a refund can use the Check Your Refund Status tool. FTB also provides this service in Spanish. 

Access Your Account: The MyFTB account service allows taxpayers to view their tax documents, check balances due, access tax calculators, send secure messages to FTB staff, and more.

Get Questions Answered: FTB’s Live Chat allows taxpayers to ask an FTB representative general tax questions and get help with FTB’s website in real time. Live Chat is not a secure channel; do not offer personal information such as Social Security numbers or bank account information. Taxpayers also may call FTB at 800-852-5711.

On June 18, the United States Supreme Court ruled against the Trump administration’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The renewable federal provision allows people who were brought illegally to the U.S. as children to defer deportation and receive legal permission to work, study and live in the United States. 

“Congratulations to DACAmented immigrants for this historic win,” said Nana Gyamfi, Executive Director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), a national advocacy organization that pushes for fair immigration policies. According to BAJI’s website, the group stands up for the rights of African, Caribbean and other minority immigrants across the United States; and stands with African Americans in the fight for racial justice. 

“This moment would not have happened were it not for the Black uprisings that have centered Black lives in this country,” Gyamfi continued. “This decision is a welcomed reprieve for DACA recipients and a call to action in support of Black Liberation. There are no permanent protections for any immigrants until African American human rights and dignity are protected.” 

The court decided by a 5-4 vote that the Trump administration had not provided “a reasoned explanation for its action,” according to the majority opinion written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts. 

California has played an integral part in the fight to keep the DACA program. Regents of the University of California were the defendants in the Supreme Court case, and the California Department of Justice led a coalition of 21 attorneys general in defense of the program. 

“The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the University of California and the California Attorney General’s challenge against the Trump Administration’s capricious action is a victory for hundreds of thousands of young people who are making vital contributions to their families, schools, employers, and the nation,” said University of California President Janet Napolitano. 

“Today, America told the Dreamers that this is their home,” said CA Attorney General Xavier Becerra in a June 18 statement. “The highest court in our land saw through the Trump administration’s illegal, baseless excuses. The Court agreed: if you work hard and play by the rules, you deserve a chance to get ahead.” 

According the National Immigration Forum, about 653,000 “Dreamers,” undocumented immigrants who came into the U.S. as children, are currently protected under DACA, with over 200,000 recipients residing in California. The average DACA recipient arrived in the U.S. at age seven and has lived in the country for more than 20 years. 

The Supreme Court decision comes at a time when Dreamers are facing heightened hardships due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Center for American Progress, 202,500 DACA recipients are on the frontlines of the nationwide COVID-19 response. Most of these recipients are essential workers in healthcare, education, and food-related industries.

As the list of higher education institutions apologizing for their role in the slave trade grows it is time investing in historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) institutions is prioritized. Democratic presidential candidates increasingly acknowledge the need to study the question of reparations. Ta-Nehisi Coates fastidiously establishes “The Case for Reparations” in a 2014 Atlantic Magazine article and environmental justice expert, Mustafa Ali, advocates reinvestment in underserved communities to ensure a just transition to a clean energy economy. 
Today, the top five well-endowed institutions that benefited from slavery possess collective endowments in excess of 100 billion and the total for the richest twenty exceeds 200 billion. The combined total for all 100 HBCU endowments is slightly more than two billion and not a single HBCU possesses a billion-dollar endowment.

Comparatively small investment from the endowments of institutions that benefited from slavery can help to restore HBCUs as anchor institutions. Collaborative research initiatives focused on closing persistent gaps would set the stage for deeper equity commitments. Financing infrastructure projects will dramatically reduce deferred maintenance, cut energy and operating costs and will generate a return on investment with enormous social, environmental and economic dividends.

Fifty years of targeted efforts have failed to close the educational achievement gap between black and white students. In the absence of a concerted effort on the part of academia to deconstruct racist pseudo-scientific rationales woven into the American fabric for four centuries, disparities are likely to persist unabated.

Recent research, most notably Craig Steven Wilder’s Ebony & Ivy, documents the significant contribution that enslaved people and the slave trade made to the development of virtually all of the oldest and most well-endowed higher education institutions. According to Wilder, “the first five colleges in the British American colonies-Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, Rutgers … were major beneficiaries of the African slave trade and slavery.”

Two hundred years after the founding of Harvard the first HBCUs were established to educate former slaves and their descendants. Remaining true to their mission, today black colleges educate a disproportionate share of low-income and first-generation college students. HBCUs also play a critical role in deconstructing ideologies that perpetuate systemic racism that undergirds health, education and wealth disparities.

Apologists for slavery seldom accept responsibility for deconstructing lingering misconceptions about race that negatively impact blacks and other people of color. Conversations about the wealth gap have yet to explore the impact of endowments in exacerbating the gap. Instead of exploring opportunities for leveraging and sharing wealth, elite institutions publish public apologies, rename buildings and provide scholarships for direct descendants of individual slaves. While commendable, these acts suggest narrow individual impact rather than collective disadvantage experienced by an entire community. With all of the attention on expanding wealth inequality, examination of the role of endowments remains muted.

Observing that, “wealth begets wealth,” noted minority-serving institution scholar Marybeth Gasman finds that racism plays a role in the expanding endowment disparity. According to Gasman, Black colleges are not trusted to manage funds and this depresses giving. Endowment size is considered an important measure of institutional wellbeing and institutions with small endowments are considered weak with limited ability to support operations.

Just because elite institutions declared African peoples as less than fully human, profited from their sale and labor, justified and promulgated racist ideology that clearly disadvantaged an entire race, does not obligate the sharing of wealth. Rather, it is enlightened self-interest that should inspire action.

Increasing access to the highest quality education, disseminating proven sustainability strategies and elevating the standard of living especially for the most vulnerable should be shared goals for all of higher education. Working in partnership with HBCUs and leveraging the power of endowment investment, American higher education can usher in an era of change defined by improved quality of life for all. This approach will also help to end the myth of black inferiority by eradicating educational achievement gaps.

Investing in historically black colleges and universities is possibly the most socially responsible investment that well-endowed institutions can make, especially those that profited from slavery.

We have all heard alleged stories of famous couples’ volatile relationships: Ike and Tina; Bobby and Whitney; Chris and Rihanna; Mike and Robin; Thomas and Juanita; or Ray Rice and Janay Palmer. These couples suffered through alleged perpetrations of violence and abuse in the public view. 

But in private, every day, throughout California — and now more than ever with the slow-easing social isolation orders brought on by the COVID-19 global pandemic — we find families are forced to spend more time together than ever before. Stuck in their homes, facing an uncertain future, watching news stories of chaos in the streets, we hear countless stories of couples who say they are feeling irritable, crowded, alone, isolated, helpless, or afraid. 

Partners are finding themselves in close proximity to each other, some worrying about finances, others increasing alcohol and drug use. Many couples and families are in crisis. In fact, the National Domestic Violence Hotline (2020) has reported that abusers are using the COVID-19 crisis as an excuse for isolating domestic abuse victims from friends and family. 

According to the California District Attorney’s office (2008): Domestic violence involves or may include: physical abuse, repeated psychosocial abuses, social isolation, intimidation, or economic coercion. Whether you are a teen or an adult, rich, poor, middle class…gay, straight, or transgender…regardless or your race, your gender, your religion, or status in your community, domestic violence can impact your life. Whether you are dating, married, or in an “intimate” relationship, you may become a victim of domestic violence. 

Domestic Violence is a pattern of behavior used to establish power and control over another person (Duluth Project). Typically, abusers physically hit, kick, or push their victim or their victim may be sexually abused and/or psychologically or emotionally abused. During this period, victims have reported being blamed for giving the virus to family members, threatened to be kicked out of the house, or not allowed to seek medical treatment for themselves or loved ones. 

Whether the perpetrator is using intimidation, making light of the ill treatment, or shifting responsibility, saying, for example, that the victim’s behavior caused the violence, these are all examples of abuse in relationships. 

Research has illustrated that person-directed violence is taught at home and learned at a very young age (Anderson 2004). We have learned that children who see their parents and other adults in violent relationships, they often become victims or aggressive in their own lives. The goal in any domestic violent relationship is to stop the violence and control your own behavior. 

Oprah said (March 2009), “If he hits you once, he will hit you again.” I think that for most victims, be they men or women, they just cannot believe that the person, who they love, can hurt them. They cannot believe that they have been belittled, made to feel less than who they are. 

They cannot believe that the person who they placed their dreams in, who they believed that they would walk down life’s road with, would treat them with less respect than a random stranger. 

However, as hard as it may be to believe, the facts do not lie and without extensive intervention, rest assured, the abuse will happen again. If experiencing this, make the call for help to: the Domestic Violence Hot Line at: 1-800-799-7233 or 1-800-799-SAFE or 1-800-VICTIMS.

SAN BERNARDINO, CA— Linda Bardere, director of the San Bernardino City Unified School District’s Communications/Community Relations and the Printing Services Departments, is retiring after 33 years.

Bardere served as the Communications officer for three years before being promoted to the position of director in 2003. Prior to that, Bardere taught at Highland-Pacific Elementary School from 1987 to 2000. During her time at Highland-Pacific, she taught budding young scholars in first, second and third grade.

Among Bardere’s accomplishments was the creation of a School Site Emergency Checklist. This handbook provides guidance for schools on who to contact and first steps to take during a school or community crisis ranging from a power outage to a natural disaster. This empowers school staff to act quickly and decisively during a crisis while the District offices provide support.

With Bardere’s departure, Ginger Ontiveros, executive director of Community Engagement, will guide the Communications/Community Relations and Printing Services Departments.

For the past six years, Ontiveros has guided the Community Engagement Office in building partnerships between the community and SBCUSD, connecting with alumni, developing resources, and growing the Making Hope Happen Foundation.

The Community Engagement office is located at the Board of Education building, 777 North F Street. Communications/Community Relations will remain at the Professional Development Center, 4030 Georgia Blvd. Ginger Ontiveros can be reached at ginger.ontiveros@sbcusd.k12.ca.us.

By SUNITA SOHRABJI/EMS Contributor

SAN FRANCISCO — Americans are facing a critical inflection point as the nation grapples with the twin pandemics of COVID and racial injustice.

COVID has killed more than 445,000 people worldwide, more than 118,000 of them in the United States. In the midst of that pandemic, white Americans — angered by the brutal killing of Minnesota resident George Floyd by former police officer Derek Chauvin — are waking up to the challenges Black Americans face daily.

Experts at a June 19 panel organized by Ethnic Media Services detailed those challenges: police brutality and over-zealous policing, economic injustice, disparities in access to health care, higher levels of incarceration resulting in greater rates of recidivism, and a pervasive culture of casual racism.

COVID has revealed the failures of a public health system based on the needs of white people, said Dr. Tung Nguyen, a professor of internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. The United States has the most expensive health care system in the world, but its outcomes are poor because it is focused on the wrong things, he said.

“The factors that contribute the most are low life expectancy or income quality, low levels of education and exposure to violence along with other key determinants, like jobs, housing and food insecurity and climate change. These are the proper topics for public health and for health care to work on in the future,” said Nguyen, who also directs the Asian American Research Center on Health.

“The state of race relations today in the United States is in a place I’ve never seen it,” said Constance ‘Connie’ Rice, long-time civil rights activist and lawyer and co-founder and co-director of the Advancement Project in Los Angeles.

“This isn’t about people of color. This is the fourth major national discussion that white Americans have been having about how much racism they’re currently comfortable tolerating, how much white supremacy white Americans are going to condone and continue,” Rice said.

“For the first time, the majority of white people in America are saying, ‘Okay, we have to make a choice. We didn’t know we were part of the choice. We didn’t know we were in this conversation.’ It’s like watching whales discover they live in water, but now they’re starting to get consciousness. We’ll see where it goes.”

Rice said the young marchers around the globe have had an enormous effect on that consciousness.

“This is tectonic plate-level change, it’s seismic. And we don’t know what the politics are gonna ring on it,” she added. “We will see in November, whether they [white Americans] are going to go the white nationalist way or with the future, which is a multiracial democracy.”

The roots of American policing, she said, are ensconced in “slave patrols” meant to keep people “in place,” a mindset that is a “warrior mentality. It’s not about a bad apple. It’s about a toxic orchard and the entire culture.”

Manuel Pastor, professor of Sociology and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California, said overzealous policing of African Americans was the tip of the iceberg in a culture that has consistently marginalized ethnic communities.

“One reason I think this moment has broken things up so significantly,” he said, “is because it comes on the heels of two big phenomena: three and a half years of Donald Trump, three and a half years of what looks like the rise of fascism in America, and simplistic economic strategy. And those years have been so brutal for people of color in the United States.”

Pastor, director of the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity at USC and USC’s Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration, noted the United States’ wide economic gap. African Americans earn an average $17,000 per year, the least amount of any ethnic group, while white Americans earn an average $171,000, according to recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

“What that means is that when a crisis breaks, you’ve got no choice [but] to go back to work because you’ve got no wealth cushion on which to fall,” Pastor said, referring to the large number of African Americans forced to work outside their homes during the pandemic, even as much of the nation was sheltering in place. He also cited African Americans’ rate of incarceration and the difficulty of obtaining employment once out, which leads to high rates of recidivism.

Speaking about the previous day’s Supreme Court ruling that the Trump administration had incorrectly ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Pastor said, “For the last three and a half years, the Trump administration has tormented 700,000 young people who are Americans in every way. We need to center the struggle against the anti-Black racism with the idea of broadening our perspective, so that Latinos, Asian Americans, indigenous folks, and other people of color and white allies can become part of the struggle.”

Marina Gorbis, executive director of the Institute for the Future, likened the United States to a “plantation economy” in which most people are “living on scraps.”

“I’m really hopeful in this moment that in addition to all the racial inequalities and policing and all these things that are now being revealed, that it’s also an opportunity for us to rethink some economic pillars — how we treat workers about what is deserved in this economy and who deserves these things.”

Asset inequality needs to be addressed, Gorbis said. She challenged the notion that “hero entrepreneurs” — of the sort who predominate the Silicon Valley — deserve greater assets than other workers, and she championed the notion of universal basic assets as “a right, not something you have to earn.”

“We all must have access to certain kinds of essential assets that enable us to lead good lives,” she said.

Canceled appointments will be rescheduled automatically

New appointments will be available later this summer

SACRAMENTO, CA—- The California Department of Motor Vehicles will resume administering behind-the-wheel drive tests beginning Friday, June 26. In-vehicle testing – a requirement for first-time driver license holders and commercial license applicants – has been suspended since mid-March because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The DMV will automatically reschedule all canceled drive test appointments.

“I’m asking for everyone’s patience as we safely clear the backlog of behind-the-wheel drive test appointments,” DMV Director Steve Gordon said. “For all of those Californians who have been waiting, we know how important this is to you.”

The DMV anticipates it will take several weeks to complete testing for previously canceled tests. Appointments for new behind-the-wheel tests will not be available until previously canceled tests are completed.

For the health and safety of customers and examiners, the DMV is instituting numerous new testing protocols. All behind-the-wheel drive test applicants will be required to wear a face covering and answer screening questions before starting the exam. Initially, applicants in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties also will have their temperatures checked. Temperature checks will be added to protocols statewide in the coming weeks. If the customer’s permit has expired, the customer will need to fill out a new online application prior to their office visit, and check in 30 minutes before their appointment time.

DMV examiners will wear protective equipment – face coverings and gloves – and place plastic covers on the test vehicle’s passenger seat and floorboard. At least two windows need to be lowered during the test for increased ventilation. Examiners will conduct more of the test outside of the vehicle, for instance when they are providing applicants with pre-test instructions.

The DMV is also making changes to expedite the testing process and increase the number of exams it can administer each day, including shortening the testing route in many locations. The test routes will be long enough to adequately determine driving knowledge and safety skills. The DMV is also expanding the hours when tests are conducted, including Saturday service for drive tests in some high-volume locations, and adding more examiners.

Employees at 169 field offices are assisting customers with current appointments at the specific office and limited transactions that require an in-person visit. The DMV continues to recommend that customers use its online services, expanded virtual services and other service channels to complete transactions, including eligible driver license and vehicle registration renewals.

Watch Tabula Rasa/College Bound Video Compilation, LEAD Novelas Eductivas: 

Watch FNX Video of our 7th annual Latino Education & Advocacy Days (LEAD) Summit, which highlighted Black, Brown, and Indigenous unity: 

Origins of Race in the US: 

Race, and its ideology of racism arise principally from two related historical processes.

• taking land from and destroying indigenous peoples, and;
• enslaving Africans to work that land. 

The images, characterizations, components, and classifications of race rationalized the conditions of genocide and enslavement. 

Early Interactions:

• Europeans first enslaved Native peoples, introducing Africans to the Americas shortly after. 
• Nicolas de Ovando, Governor of Hispaniola first mentioned African and Native interaction in a report, circa 1503. Natives who escaped generally knew the surrounding areas, were able to avoid capture; but then returned to help free enslaved Africans. Europeans feared a Native/African alliance.
• The first slave rebellion occurred in Hispaniola in 1522, while the first on future United States soil (North Carolina) occurred in 1526. Both rebellions were organized and executed by coalitions of Africans and Native Americans.

So, from the beginning, American Native populations and Africans have shared a historical relationship whose liberation have been intertwined.

Not one case of extradition or deportation of runaway African slaves in the early history of Mexico!

• Early Mexican governments abhorred any form of slavery, thereby had given sanctuary to runaway slaves/African fugitives fleeing from the United States. 
• It was in this trajectory that Mexico’s commitment to harbor Black fugitive slaves triggered the Mexican American war; which Mexico lost nearly 50 percent of her territory. 
• After the war, Mexico undeterred, included in her constitution and continued her commitment to harbor fugitive slaves.

Shift towards the Supralocal or Transcommunal:

• Historically, African Americans since the 1800’s, have consistently expressed Pan-Africanism, anti-imperialism, and expressions of solidarity with a pantheon of Latin America’s greatest freedom fighters including Simon Bolivar, Vicente Guerrero, José María Morelos, José Martí, Antonio Maceo, and Augusto Sandino—among many others.
• It is critical to recognize the legacy of conquest, annexation of ancestral lands, and the prolonged subjugation of native cultures, along with an ongoing history of racial discrimination, socio–?economic marginalization, or draconian immigration practices