Author Archives: Cynthia E. Griffin

Posted inEducation

Local teams hold their own in state Academic Decathlon

by Cynthia E. Griffin

The academic decathlon is done for the 2016-17 school year, and a number of the perrennially successful teams from Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) are headed to Madison, Wis., to compete for the national championship, April 17-23.
Granada Hills Charter High Shool finished at the top of the leader board in the regional finals held in Sacramento last weekend. It is one of three LAUSD schools that will compete for a chance to win the national championship.

Posted inLocal Politics

Civil rights veteran succumbs

by Cynthia E. Griffin

Roger Wilkins, famed civil rights worker, journalist, author, and history and American culture professor at George Mason University, died on March 26 in Kensington, Md., at age 85 in a care facility from complications of dementia.
Wilkins, a Pulitzer Prize winner, was an assistant United States attorney general, ran domestic programs for the Ford Foundation, and wrote editorials for The Washington Post and The New York Times.

Posted inLocal Politics

Toyota celebrates Black history with inner-city tour

by Cynthia E. Griffin

As the celebration of Black History Month winds down, and recognition of Women’s history month starts, scholar Alison Rose Jefferson, Ph.D., joined forces with Toyota Motors to introduce a group of young journalists to a little-known part of Black Los Angeles history via a driving tour that began at El Pueblo de Los Angeles. One of the first items visitors there were introduced to was a plaque commemorating the 44 African-descended founders including Pio Pico, the last Mexican governor of California, through its #SteepedInHistory hashtag campaign Jefferson also introduced noted African descendants.

Posted inLocal Politics

Applications open for organizations interested in presenting free concerts

by Cynthia E. Griffin

The Los Angeles County Arts Commission is accepting applications from organizations seeking support for presenting music programming at their facility or designated location. Applications for the Free Concerts in Public Sites program are due March 1. Eligibility information and program requirements are available at lacountyarts.org/funding/free-concerts.

Posted inBusiness-OW

Small business funding offered

by Cynthia E. Griffin

The Small Business Administration and a number of organizations feature competitions that give prospective entrepreneurs an opportunity to win funds to launch a small business.
*The Aspire Challenge for Entrepreneurship Training and Microloan targets previously incarcerated individuals and the SBA has received $1.2 million to fund up to 16 nonprofit/not for profit or city entities.
The selected organizations must have an account with the System for Award Management (SAM) and will receive up to $75,000 to create a training program. Then the individual programs will make microloans of up to $50,000 to the formerly incarcerated owners.

Posted inLocal Politics

Black business advocate Pat Means, has died

by Cynthia E. Griffin

Pat Means, a long time member of the Black Los Angeles business community and former publisher and co-founder of Turning Point magazine, has died after an extended illness.
Just prior to her death, Means served as Director of Communications and Community at AltaSea located at the Port of Los Angeles. AltaSea is a nonprofit organization focusing on developing innovative partnerships between public entities, private companies and the public to explore, incubate and sustain ocean-related business; and pioneer new ocean-related education programs.

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