Miss UVI Elisa Thomas made history when she won the title of Miss National Black College Alumni (NBCA) Hall of Fame – becoming the first Miss UVI to win that crown. Thomas competed against 20 other college queens from Historically Black Colleges and Universities from across the nation on Sept. 27, in Atlanta. In addition to winning the crown, Thomas won the “Hats and Heels” segment of the competition.

“Being crowned Miss National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame is an amazing feeling,” said Thomas. “To hear my name and school be called literally brought tears to my eyes. I’m proud that I was able to achieve this national recognition not only for the prestigious University of the Virgin Islands, but also for the United States Virgin Islands.” She continued, “I’m honored to represent an organization geared toward the relevance of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, promoting African American achievement, individual school pride and collective HBCU pride.”

“We are elated Elisa will be representing our HBCUs during the next twelve months as Miss Hall of Fame,” said Thomas Dortch, Jr., NBCA Hall of Fame Foundation founder and board chairman. “She has proven herself to be very capable of conveying the message of educational excellence that our HBCUs send. I am also happy that the University was able to have one of its queens to hold this coveted title.”

“I am extremely proud of Elisa Thomas, Miss UVI, for achieving this outstanding honor of being selected as Miss National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame,” said UVI President Dr. David Hall. “She represented UVI in an excellent way, and now she will represent Historically Black Colleges and Universities.” He continued, “When we consider the number of HBCUs and the important role they have played in the past and will continue to play in the future, this honor takes on an even greater significance. Elisa’s accomplishment is a compelling reminder that UVI prepares our students to take on and lead the world.”

“The entire UVI Division of Student Affairs is especially proud of Elisa,” said Doris Battiste, dean of students on the St. Thomas Campus. “This is something that we dreamed of for many years and we finally got it. We believe that she will represent UVI and the NBCA Hall of Fame well during her reign.”

“This win increases awareness that our students are second to none,” said Battiste. “Although we are geographically isolated from other HBCUs, our students measure up and do very well academically and socially. They assume leadership positions locally, regionally, nationally and internationally and serve their communities admirably.”

Thomas traveled to the Miss NBCA Hall of Fame Queens competition in Atlanta with UVI Student Activities Supervisor Leon Lafond and UVI Chaperone Marisel Melendez. She also had a group of 10 supporters, including two integral camp members Sheldon Turnbull and Lorna Freeman that assisted her in the journey and attend the show.

“To see Elisa successfully advance in the competition was superb,” said Lafond. “The various standing ovations that she got from her talent during the preliminaries and the final competition definitely spoke for itself. She is the true definition of a queen.”

Lafond thanked “Team Bubbles” – Thomas’ team of supporters who assisted her during the competition. “Without everyone’s support, none of this would be possible,” he said. “Team work makes the dream work.”

Thomas is a communication major at UVI. She said that her communications classes solidified her presentation skills.

“Communications has definitely helped me,” said Thomas, who plans to own and host her own talk show. She also plans to start an organization geared toward pre-adolescent girls entitled the “Building Blocks of Empowerment,” become a published writer and start a college fund for students in need of financial assistance. “I just think it’s imperative that we always ask ourselves what we can do for others, because any of us would not be where we are today, if it wasn’t for someone assisting us along the way,” she said.

The NBCA queen contestants are judged in four categories, including talent, poise, image and personal and private interviews. In the interviews the contestant has up to two minutes to introduce herself and discuss her platform. As Miss NBCA Hall of Fame, Thomas will serve as a national representative and advocate of HBCUs, and was awarded an academic scholarship and other prizes.

“Elisa is unquestionably a person who is the essence of beauty and intellect,” said Prince Brown, NBCA Hall of Fame Foundation executive director. “We look very much forward to having her represent us.”

During her reign as Miss NBCA Hall of Fame, Thomas plans to be an advocate promoting the importance of HBCU’s, serve as an effective panellist at the various seminars, campus tours and the events she attends. She will also promote more awareness and preventative measures to Domestic Violence. Her platform as Miss UVI and Miss NBCA Hall of Fame is “Combatting domestic violence by Building Stronger Women from a Young Age.” “If I’m able to positively influence at least one person, then I feel I have efficiently carried out my duty as a true queen – a humble servant,” said Thomas.

The NBCA queens competition is sponsored by the NBCA Hall of Fame organization, which is dedicated to the growth and development of HBCUs through scholarships, internships, training and technical assistance, alumni recognition, and programs to encourage humanitarian involvement.

“We are excited to launch the next phase of our grantmaking,” said Judy Belk, president and CEO of The California Wellness Foundation.  “Advancing Wellness builds on the Foundation’s long history of responding to the needs of California communities and addressing the root causes of health and wellness inequities.”

The process for submitting letters of interest to the Foundation has been streamlined with the introduction of an online grants application process to increase efficiency and support grantees’ efforts. Grantseekers can apply here.

Building upon its legacy, the Foundation remains committed to responsive, statewide grantmaking; core operating support; funding of direct services, public policy and capacity building; and improving the health of underserved populations.

Grants made under the Bridging the Gaps in Access and Quality Care portfolio will be related to: the equitable implementation of the Affordable Care Act; the health care safety net; oral health care for low-income adults, including seniors; and increasing diversity in the health care professions.

Grants made under the Promoting Healthy and Safe Neighborhoods portfolio will be related to: ensuring that effective systems, infrastructures and resources are in place to support healthy living and to minimize trauma and injury resulting from violence, particularly gun violence.

Grants made under the Expanding Education and Employment Pathways portfolio will be related to: charting a path to greater access to resources, opportunities, and support for adolescents and young adults whom Cal Wellness defines as “resilient youth,” i.e., young people who are in, or have exited, the juvenile justice system; are current or former foster youth; have been or are currently homeless or runaways; or are pregnant and/or parenting youth. The goals of this portfolio are also to ensure that there is access to sufficient income and other resources through fair employment and appropriate government benefits, as well as the building and protection of financial assets for resilient youth, military veterans and formerly incarcerated adults.

The Opportunity Fund will support capacity building, public policy and innovation among nonprofit agencies and philanthropic organizations working to improve the health of Californians.

To view a video and other materials on the grantmaking program, please visit the CalWellness.org newsroom.

The California Wellness Foundation is a private independent foundation created in 1992 with a mission to improve the health of the people of California by making grants for health promotion, wellness education and disease prevention. Since its founding in 1992, Cal Wellness has awarded 7,523 grants totaling more than $899 million.

Lou Coleman

By Lou Coleman

I tell you we should all be like Habakkuk… Instead of standing staring in the face of his problem he backed off from the problem and he stood on solid ground. He gave up on what he didn’t know and started remembering what he did know and instead of worrying about why things were going the way they were going, and why in the world God was allowing this and allowing that, he just stood back and said, “Now wait a minute, my God is an eternal God, He’s a righteous God, He hates sin and He never does wrong, He always does right.” Once he had established what he knew about God then it was much easier to cope with what he didn’t know about the events around him.

Habakkuk’s attitude was: God I don’t understand everything; I don’t understand why you let Israel go. I don’t understand why you’re bringing the Chaldeans to judge them. I don’t understand why you’re going to wait to judge the Chaldeans after that. I don’t understand any of the things, but I know one thing God, You’re the God that is righteous. You’re the God that’s eternal. You’re the God that never makes a mistake. You’re the God that hates sin. You’re the God that never does anything wrong and I’ll stand on that and praise you anyhow.

In Chapter 2, Habakkuk is standing in the midst of an absolute dilemma. He is afraid. He is afraid for himself, he’s afraid for Israel. He can’t seem to justify and rectify all the parts of the situation, though he understands that God who allowed the situation is always right. He’s caught in a dilemma, but he does not ask for deliverance, he does not ask for personal escape, he does not ask for ease, he does not pray that God should spare Israel, he doesn’t even pray that there would be no victory for the Chaldeans and that they would lose the battle, he doesn’t pray that Jerusalem wouldn’t be sacked, he doesn’t pray any of these things because he knows in view of the kind of God that God is, God must judge. So he doesn’t even bother with those things. What he does pray is this: that God will do His work and that God will have His way…. What a tremendous prayer. He knows how to pray, contrary to most of us. He knows what to pray for. He’s not praying selfishly, he’s not praying biased in favor of his flesh or his people. He is praying singularly that God’s work come to fulfillment.

I tell you when you can arrive at that kind of position in prayer you have arrived. When you can look at the problems around you and the problems in your life and the problems in your world and say, “God I don’t care about those things, all I care about God, that you be glorified.” What a tremendous, tremendous prayer. Habakkuk had one thought in his mind and that was that God receive the due glory for doing His work. He says, God, if you’ve got to do it that way I want you to do it, revive your work in the midst of the years. His one desire was that things be right according to God’s plan, not comfortable according to his desires. Not peaceful, not easy, not happy, just right like God would have them. He wanted things to be the way God wanted them, and if you want a New Testament equivalent to that kind of a prayer you’ll find it in the prayer commonly called the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy kingdom come.”

Habakkuk had made a fantastic transformation from fear to fate. He started out shaking like a leaf in Chapter 1, but he come to the consciousness of faith in a God that he knows is doing right. Our prayer ought to sound something like Habakkuk’s. We ought to be praying daily God be glorified in my life. God be glorified in my church. God be glorified in this world. That should be the cry and the prayer on the heart of every believer. Habakkuk had the right perspective. He had first things first. What really mattered to him were not the circumstances in the world around him, or his problems, although there were unbelievably bleak. The thing that really mattered to him was that God receive the glory. And that ought to be the thing that matters number one to us. Our concern should be the things of God that God’s work is coming to its fulfillment. What a tremendous lesson here. What can a person do in a state of human weakness? What can you do when you’re faced with all sorts of problems? Habakkuk said,” I’m going to stand here and love God and just keep on loving Him and praising Him no matter what happens.” Job said, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”

Unless we see the big picture of what God is doing through the difficulties of life, the suffering, the pain, the iniquities, the injustices of life, we will miss the profound and foundational truth that God is using all of it for our ultimate good and His glory. So when all hell breaks loose in your world; when the worst comes to the worst; when everything is lost, step back from your problem, remember your God and start to rejoice with a holy joy based on love and adoration that nothing will ever touch. That you’re His and He’s yours and He cares for you and nothing will ever affect that in anyway. The sweetness of the spirit of Habakkuk. His problems were solved, not because he understood everything, but because he knew his God and he put his trust in Him. His circumstances caused him to shake, but his relationship to God was absolutely unshakeable. “Praise God Anyhow!”

After months of waiting, the official arrival is now here! While teens are surrounded by a world of social media, selfies and hashtags, one teen in Fontana is making a difference by breaking the mold of conformity. Her name is Brittany Evans, 18, unlike most teens Brittany would rather be about business than taking tons of pictures to show off to her friends.

She not only has beauty and brains but she is the first in her family to become an inventor. Her invention is called Sparkbudz (patent pending) it is an all new earphone in which you can magnetically attach and detach when you are alone or with a friend.

The product is now available through IndieGoGo. She is asking for your support. For more information, visit www.Sparkbudz.com or www.Facebook.com/Sparkbudz.

Comedian Tamiko Kirkland

It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood and this is What It Do! This week I want to shout-out my girl and the very, very funny comedian Tamiko Kirkland, straight out of COMPTON.

This talented young lady is the TRUTH. She is a loving wife and mother who is slaying folks all over the Inland Empire and beyond with the funnies. How they say keeping it real, that’s exactly what she does.

She is not afraid to talk about her personal relationships in her sets. Tamiko has a unique way of capturing the audience through her sassiness mixed with a little gangsta’, which keeps the crowd laughing. I have seen folks fall out of their chairs with laughter after she has told a joke. She can go there if need be too. Her joke about the SMART CAR is one of my favorites.

You can catch her performance this month at our LUE Productions “TOP COOK COMPETTION/COMEDY FUNDRAISER” as a judge on Friday, October 24 in San Bernardino at 114 S. Arrowhead Avenue. Tickets are on sale now for 8 bucks. Don’t miss out! You can find her performing in Barstow and Victorville this month as well.

I need everyone to pay attention to the name “TAMIKO KIRKLAND”! A COMEDY QUEEN ON THE RISE! I say it all the time that comedy is good for the soul. Laughter is something that is needed in everyone’s life. It’s a great stress reliever. Until next week! Please follow LUE Productions on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter under LUE Productions. 1 LUV!

REDLANDS, CA- The “Pink and Green Divas” team of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Sorority, Inc., Eta Nu Omega Chapter participated in the Stater Bros. 7^th Annual Believe Walk.  The walk benefits several cancer fighting organizations in the Inland Empire where Eta Nu Omega is chartered and their members reside.

“It is very important for us to participate in this walk because all of the funds generated will go to support cancer patients and their family’s right here in our community,” stated Team Captain Kimberly Isaac.

The members of Eta Nu Omega are very invested in health education and awareness and participate in many activities such as health fairs, monthly health education tips for members and even ran a Men’s Health Month campaign to spread the word about prostate cancer by visiting barbershops, men’s groups, and churches where they distributed materials from the Prostate Cancer Foundation. For future events, please visit www.etanuomega.org.

LOS ANGELES, CA- Maxwell Dickson: Creative Canvas Art Print Company will host the “Pink Tie Affair” art show fundraiser on Saturday, October 11 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the California Market Center, with the goal of raising $200K for the Breast Cancer Care and Research Fund.

The event is powered by Coca Cola, Amante Restaurant, California Market Center, APT2B.com, Valley Voice, Zizi Showroom, The Cougar Chronicle, Bakersfield News Observer, Wantickets, OPI, ABS Special Events, Trea Day PR, Maddalena Vineyard Brands, Event Message Services and Gents Closet, just to name a few. “Pink Tie Affair” will feature red carpet, gourmet cuisine, wine and spirits, gift bags, massage services, live entertainment and more. Art world enthusiasts, celebrity guests, elite Los Angeles philanthropic taste-makers and socialites will be sporting pink ties in support of BCCRF a non-profit 501 © 3 organization.

The art gallery is located on the 9^th floor of the California Market Center at 110 E. 9^th Street, C919 in Los Angeles (90079). Remember to get social at the event by using the event hashtags #PINKTIEAFFAIR #THINKPINK #MAXWELLDICKSON.

By Audrey Thompson

In 1964  President Johnson, a Democrat,  received 94 percent of the Black vote and since then no Republican presidential candidate has gotten more than 15 percent of the Black vote. Today, in the new Millennium, our vote is the most reliable block of votes for the Democratic Party from local elections to the Presidential elections. We are not new Democrats, but for almost 100 years, not 45 years since the voting rights act was passed and not even since President Barack Obama was first elected, but for almost 100 years, we have been the most reliable block of voters for the Democratic Party. No other group can boast the same.

Yet, all other groups get support, money and their voices heard by the Democrats. For me, I think I have seniority! My people have been their most reliable block of voters for almost a Century. Time vested in this Democratic Party with blood, sweat and tears and nobody else can say the same. It’s so bad, you can count on one hand how many African American’s are on staff for the California Democratic Party, it’s bad, it’s real bad!

We still have the highest unemployment rate, the highest incarceration rate and the highest school suspension rate. In fact, we have the highest of all the bad things and the lowest of all the good things. The Democratic Party does not support our agendas and they don’t support our candidates. If we continue to vote for the Democrats blindly they will never respect us nor give us a thing. This election look closely at the candidate, don’t vote blindly!  Please don’t go for the okeedoke again, stop voting on a promise! As the late comedian Joan Rivers used to say, “Can we talk?”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs & Border Protection (CBP) this week will begin new layers of entry screening at five U.S. airports that receive over 94 percent of travelers from the Ebola-affected nations of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

New York’s JFK International Airport will begin the new screening on Saturday.  In the 12 months ending July 2014, JFK received nearly half of travelers from the three West African nations. The enhanced entry screening at Washington-Dulles, Newark, Chicago-O’Hare, and Atlanta international airports will be implemented next week.

“We work to continuously increase the safety of Americans,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “We believe these new measures will further protect the health of Americans, understanding that nothing we can do will get us to absolute zero risk until we end the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.”

“CBP personnel will continue to observe all travelers entering the United States for general overt signs of illnesses at all U.S. ports of entry and these expanded screening measures will provide an additional layer of protection to help ensure the risk of Ebola in the United States is minimized,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson. “CBP, working closely with CDC, will continue to assess the risk of the spread of Ebola into the United States, and take additional measures, as necessary, to protect the American people.”

CDC is sending additional staff to each of the five airports. After passport review:

• Travelers from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone will be escorted by CBP to an area of the airport set aside for screening.
• Trained CBP staff will observe them for signs of illness, ask them a series of health and exposure questions and provide health information for Ebola and reminders to monitor themselves for symptoms. Trained medical staff will take their temperature with a non-contact thermometer.
• If the travelers have fever, symptoms or the health questionnaire reveals possible Ebola exposure, they will be evaluated by a CDC quarantine station public health officer. The public health officer will again take a temperature reading and make a public health assessment. Travelers, who after this assessment, are determined to require further evaluation or monitoring will be referred to the appropriate public health authority.
• Travelers from these countries who have neither symptoms/fever nor a known history of exposure will receive health information for self-monitoring.

Entry screening is part of a layered process that includes exit screening and standard public health practices such as patient isolation and contact tracing in countries with Ebola outbreaks.  Successful containment of the recent Ebola outbreak in Nigeria demonstrates the effectiveness of this approach.

These measures complement the exit screening protocols that have already been implemented in the affected West African countries, and CDC experts have worked closely with local authorities to implement these measures. Since the beginning of August, CDC has been working with airlines, airports, ministries of health, and other partners to provide technical assistance for the development of exit screening and travel restrictions in countries affected by Ebola. This includes:

• Assessing the capacity to conduct exit screening at international airports;
• Assisting countries with procuring supplies needed to conduct exit screening;
• Supporting with development of exit screening protocols;
• Developing tools such as posters, screening forms, and job-aids; and
• Training staff on exit screening protocols and appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE)

Today, all outbound passengers are screened for Ebola symptoms in the affected countries. Such primary exit screening involves travelers responding to a travel health questionnaire, being visually assessed for potential illness, and having their body temperature measured.  In the last two months since exit screening began in the three countries, of 36,000 people screened, 77 people were denied boarding a flight because of the health screening process. None of the 77 passengers were diagnosed with Ebola and many were diagnosed as ill with malaria, a disease common in West Africa, transmitted by mosquitoes and not contagious from one person to another.

Exit screening at airports in countries affected by Ebola remains the principal means of keeping travelers from spreading Ebola to other nations.  All three of these nations have asked for, and continue to receive, CDC assistance in strengthening exit screening.

On  Monday, October 13 at 9:30 a.m., community activists and concerned residences, led by Kim Carter, of Time for Change Foundation, will be holding a Press Conference on the steps of City Hall, to bring national attention to the back door politics of our new city leaders.  This comes on the heels of yet another scandal like the City’s bankruptcy.  Recently, during an open competitive process, a bid competition set up by the City for the purpose of community development, after receiving the highest score in that competition, the City Council final approval was placed on the agenda only to be pulled off, not once but twice!  One would think that with a “Review Committee” and the published results of that competition showing the winner (pgs. 14-16) (pgs. 370-372) that the City would honor their commitment!  But, NO!  If you don’t like the winner, you can change the rules?  The message this sends is “San Bernardino is not open for business!”  Or is it only for a chosen few?  Don’t enter the competition because it won’t work, a handshake won’t work, only back door politics work.  Are we there again?  Did we not just vote in a new regime to move our City in a new direction?

We are in a period of rebuilding our city.  No entity will be willing to come to San Bernardino to invest if the City does not hold to the competition process.  As all citizens are aware, we are supposed to be living in a free market society without the back door politics that plagued the City for the last 15 years and led to bankruptcy. This is not good for the citizens of our City or the future of our children, and we won’t stand for it.  This is the scandalous politics that we said would be long gone.  We voted in new people for an open, transparent and accountable City Council.  We stood for change and the voters’ voices were heard; we have new leadership and a new Council, yet the same only dirty politics. They are letting all businesses know that we don’t have a new regime; we are reminded of the old antics.  Has the new City Council been infiltrated or did we vote in new people who write rules and then change the game when they don’t like the result?  We live in a democratic society, a free market society with open competition.  When someone wins fair and square, there should be no rebuttals.

How can you ask people to vote for you during reelection time when you are sitting in the seat and not living up to the promises of openness, transparency and accountability?  How can you ask the citizens to trust the City to vote yes on Q when we can’t trust the results of Q; when the City takes money from agreements and then reneges?  If the City was truly moving forward, the transparency and accountability would be obvious.  Instead, what we have here smells like a rat!  According to Kim Carter: “I’m not a sore loser, because I was the winner.  This is not about me, this is about the process which is supposed to be open and transparent…a healthy competition.  Is any business safe to come here and enter a competition only to be awarded but not rewarded?”   It’s obvious the game is rigged when the rules change once the winner has been declared.  We are also seeing that the City is attempting to reward contracts following secretive RFPs which only has one person in the race.  There is a motion on the City Council agenda for October 20^th to award an out of town agency … a $200,000 contract … in which there was only one agency in the race.  Hear me clearly … no competition = agency gets awarded contract … However, a healthy competition = winner gets shafted.

It is a rigged game when the rules change if the winner isn’t what … liked?  the right color? the right gender?
the right political party?  in the right family?   As an African American entrepreneur, I have to wonder, is this discrimination or just the City changing the game when they don’t like the winner?  The government is supposed to be open, transparent and accountable.  Has there been some Brown Act violations?  To not honor the process which is clearly laid out sends the wrong signal to people outside and inside San Bernardino.  Where is the accountability?  Where is the transparency?  Where is this new leadership?