Antelope Valley

Juliana D. Norwood  |   OW Staff Writer
May 3 2013

Here’s a look at individuals and issues making headlines throughout the country.

Arizona

Apr 23 2013

Mother of four

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — The Board of Supervisors today offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the hit-and-run motorist whose car fatally struck a 34-year-old mother of four in Lancaster.

At about 7:45 p.m. March 19, Simone Walker was walking across Avenue L near the intersection of 32nd Street East when a car being driven east hit her.

The speed limit in the area is 50 mph and a sheriff’s spokesman told the Daily News that the car was likely driving at least that fast.

Apr 19 2013

Casualty count remains unclear

Authorities searched through mounds of rubble Thursday in hopes of finding survivors of the huge, deadly explosion at a fertilizer plant that flattened much of a small Texas town.

The blast, which residents described as “massive” and “overwhelming,” left shattered homes and wreckage in a wide swath of West, Texas, a town of only 2,800 people.

Apr 19 2013

Elementary students encouraged to enter Fit to Draw contest

Students in kindergarten through sixth grade can participate in the “Fit to Draw T-shirt Contest,” and the deadline to submit an entry is June 3 at 5 p.m.

The Fit to Draw contest is designed to enable children to design a T-shirt for the Lancaster Corporate Challenge event which takes place in the city during the months of April, May and June.

Children should incorporate the theme of sports, physical fitness and teamwork into their designs.

Apr 19 2013

Emotional reactions are normal, but we shouldn’t change how we live

Editor’s note: Dr. Charles Raison, CNNHealth’s mental health expert, is an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Humans evolved in a dangerous world.

Because of this, our brains and bodies are wired to be overly sensitive to threats. This phenomenon is often referred to as the “smoke alarm” principle, based on the idea that it is better to be awakened 10 times in the middle of the night by a false alarm than to sleep blissfully just once while your house burns down around you.

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.