Cynthia E. Griffin-
OW Managing Editor
Jan 26 2012

County, AV groups agree; Lancaster, Palmdale still face lawsuit

After years of harassment, residents of Lancaster and Palmdale who are part of the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program won a settlement victory Tuesday from the L.A. County Board of Supervisors that must now be approved by a federal court.

The settlement comes in the wake of a racial discrimination lawsuit filed in June 2011 against both cities. According to Neighborhood Housing Legal Services lawyer Maria Palomares, the county was not initially named in the litigation, but will now be added to enable the judge to oversee the settlement. 

Jan 19 2012

Three Davids and a pair of brothers challenge incumbents

LANCASTER, Calif.—Nine candidates, including incumbents R. Rex Parris, Sandra Johnson and Ken Mann, have thrown their hats into the ring for open seats in the city government, and this will be the first election under the new Lancaster city charter.

The election is April 10. Two City Council seats and the mayor’s slot are open. In order to win office, a candidate must garner the majority of votes cast. The winners will be sworn-in on April 24.

Jan 19 2012

Buscaino trounces Furutani

With all 94 precincts reporting, first-time political candidate Joe Buscaino has sent Warren Furutani back to the state Assembly by snagging 60.69 percent of votes cast in the special Council District 15 election Tuesday.

A little in excess of 16,000 of the more than 100,000 registered voters went to the polls in an election where the choice was clear-cut—City Hall outsider versus a veteran with long ties to the state’s political machinery.

Jan 19 2012
Empowerment Congress turns 20

Perhaps more than at any time in recent history, this year’s recognition and celebration of the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is paying homage to his legacy of social justice for all.

One element of this locally was the 20th anniversary celebration of the Empowerment Congress, marked on Saturday at USC. The event featured the Rev. Al Sharpton as the keynote speaker, and he challenged the audience of thousands to maintain and protect the hard-won civil rights that Dr. King and his generation fought to achieve.

Jan 12 2012

Buscaino is the ultimate outsider; Furutani knows his way around government

When voters in the 15th District of the Los Angeles City Council go to the polls Tuesday to select someone to fill the term left after Janice Hahn was elected to Congress, they will choose between two very distinctive candidates.

On the one hand, there is the top finisher in the primary, Joe Buscaino, who describes himself as a hometown boy who ran an Obamaesque, grassroots campaign that stunned the political veterans in the crowded field of 15 candidates.

He prides himself on his outsider status and pushes the mantra that “we can do better.”

Jan 5 2012

Now it’s on to New Hampshire, South Carolina

Although the Iowa caucuses are the first in the nation, and do not necessarily predict who will win the presidential nomination, they do tend to act as a sieve, sifting the field, and that is exactly what is happening in the wake of Tuesday’s balloting.

Top vote-getter Mitt Romney squeezed past the second-place finisher Rick Santorum by a mere eight votes while Ron Paul collected 21 percent of ballots cast.

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.
 

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.
 

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.