SAN BERNARDINO, CA- On Saturday, December 10, community members and elected officials came out to celebrate the 50th Anniversary Kwanzaa Celebration. The annual celebration was held at San Bernardino Valley College. This year there was a special skit presented by the PAL Charter Academy.
SAN BERNARDINO, CA- The Mu Xi Lambda chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc will be hosting its Men of Tomorrow Rites of Passage ceremony on Saturday, December 17 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at California State University, San Bernardino in the Student Union, Event Room A.
The program will be in collaboration with our fraternity’s national initiative, to inspire young men to complete high school, and college. Over the past eleven months, members of the fraternity have been mentoring a group of young men (ages 8-18) on various skills that are vital to their future success. They have attended workshops on goal setting, self-respect, and peaceful conflict resolution, to name a few.
These young men will be honored during Saturday’s luncheon to celebrate their commitment to complete this intensive learning program they began at the beginning of the year. To RSVP to this event, please contact Kevin Hall at khall1949@yahoo.com by Thursday, December 15. The event is free but parking is $6 for vehicles that do not have a CSUSB parking permit. The street address of the student union is 5500 University Pkwy, San Bernardino, CA 92407.
SAN BERNARDINO, CA- On Saturday, December 10, PAL Charter Academy students Jesse Hamilton, Brent Matthews, Rica Taylor, Jacqueline German, Edward Orrego and Devyn Graves attended the 50th Anniversary Kwanzaa Celebration at San Bernardino Valley College. These students actively participated in the event by presenting a skit that highlighted The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa: unity, self-determination, working together, supporting one another, purpose, creativity and faith.
Lou Coleman
By Lou Coleman
Pretending to love the Lord! This is a clear reminder that you never know the true condition of the hearts of those around you. Just like the other disciples they never did figure out that Judas was a traitor until after he had betrayed Jesus. They always assumed that he was one of them… Keeping a low profile and camouflaging his hypocrisy. Well, “Undercover Brother” I want you to know that, “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time,” and you can NEVER fool God! Jesus has warned us to examine our motivation for our good deeds and in [Matthews 7:13-28] along the same lines, He warns us that when we “hear” His words we had better respond, and respond GENUINELY. Superficiality doesn’t do us any good, and it doesn’t fool God. Genuine discipleship, however, is a gift from God to help us. But naw, we think we are so smart, we think we are able to pull a fast one on God. Well you better think again! Adam and Eve tried it to their sorrow [Genesis 2: 15-17; 3: 6, 24]. Believing the devil’s lie, they sneered at and scorned God’s law, but not with impunity. They deluded themselves, thinking they could set aside God’s law and all would be well, but the consequences surely followed and they were driven out of the garden and death came upon man. In [Joshua chapter 7] the man named Achan thought he could fool God. He concealed his sin from others but God was not fooled [READ Joshua 6: 18-19; 7: 1, 11, 20-21]. Gehazi, Elisha’s servant, tried to gain personal profit by lying but God was not fooled [See 2 Kings.5: 15-16, 20-27]. The prophet Jonah tried to run and hide from God but God was not fooled [Jonah 1: 1-3, 17]. Ananias and Sapphira tried to fool God by their lies in [Acts 5] but, the seed of lies produced the awful harvest and cost them their lives. Are you sure you want to go down this road?
You know in the Book of [Mark chapter 14 verses 10-11] it deals with a man named Judas Iscariot; a man who is without a doubt, the most notorious and most vilified of all the disciples. Every time he is mentioned in the Bible, the Word of God reminds us that he is a traitor who betrayed Jesus to His death. Judas was a failure as a disciple. Even though he was exposed to the same teaching the others heard. Even though he saw the same miracles and was involved in the same ministries. Yet, Judas never came to saving faith in Jesus Christ. He spent three years with Jesus and he died lost. While Judas was a failure as a disciple, he was the most successful hypocrite of all time. He played his part so well that no one but Jesus Himself knew that Judas was a fraud and a pretender. He was as common and as ordinary as the rest of the disciples. He was so ordinary that he never stood out from the rest. He hid behind the camouflage of hypocrisy and no one but Jesus ever realized it. I wonder just who I am talking too…. Don’t be like Judas… the man who kissed the door of Heaven but went to Hell. Jesus picked him as an apostle but he went to Hell. He lived with Jesus for three years and still went to Hell. He watched Jesus walk on the water and still went to Hell. He listened to the Sermon on the Mount and still went to Hell. He ate with Jesus, talked with Jesus, walked with Jesus, and listened to Jesus day after day, month after month, year after year. He knew Jesus as well as one has ever known Jesus and still he went to Hell. And yet, none of the disciples suspected him. Even at the Last Supper, when Jesus identified Judas publicly, they still couldn’t figure it out.
I want you to know that I truly believe in the assurance of salvation through the Word of God and the testimony of the Holy Spirit. I’m not in favor of constant introspection about whether or not you are a Christian. But there is a place for healthy self-examination in the Christian life. No one should take for granted his hope of Heaven. What happened with Judas could happen to any of us. The story of Judas is in the Bible for many reasons, not the least of which is that before we take anything for granted, we at least ask the question the other apostles asked that fateful night: “Lord, is it I?” It is my prayer that the Lord will use the lessons from this man’s life to cause us to look deep within our own souls; lest we also be found to be great pretenders.
SAN BERNARDINO, CA- Thirty-five Reading Heroes who raise the bar for literacy throughout San Bernardino County were recognized by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday as part of the Countywide Vision project’s Vision2Read initiative.
In February, the Vision2Read campaign asked the public to identify people in the community who go above and beyond the call of duty to motivate others to read and improve literacy skills and nominate them as Reading Heroes.
“I’m pleased to learn that so many sectors in our community are collaborating to improve literacy in this county,” said James Ramos, chairman of the Board of Supervisors. “These Reading Heroes come from private business, public schools, libraries, and community organizations. Several of these Reading Heroes are spending their own personal time to make sure our children and adults are learning what they need to succeed in life.”
The Reading Heroes are:
Laurey Aydelotte volunteers in classrooms at Wrightwood and Phelan Elementary and Pinion Mesa Middle schools helping children read.
Carol Baker of Baker’s Drive Thru sponsors the Baker’s Book Club and donated the land for the Baker Family Learning Center in Muscoy.
Amber Claflin gets the children of Etiwanda schools excited about reading by implementing a Battle of the Books competition and keeping school libraries open during the summer.
Dawn Coberly created an accelerated reading program at her school in the Snowline School District and works during the evenings to teach literacy to adult learners.
Stacy Diemert is a High Desert Juvenile Court school librarian who works with struggling readers to bring them up to speed and orders books in advance so they don’t have to wait for new material.
Karen Duns volunteers and works overtime to encourage children in Highland to read by helping select books that will pique their interest and connect them to lifelong reading.
Michelle Dusick works with local schools to encourage literacy for people of all ages on their journey to recovery and wellness in San Bernardino County.
Cindy Easterly helps children and adults build valuable literacy skills as a volunteer for the City of Rancho Cucamonga’s public library.
Skylynn Ellison is an 11-year-old from Fontana who is already a published author of the book “Sky’s the Limit: The Drama Queen,” about a girl who stands up to bullies.
Melany Espinoza is a student at Phelan Elementary School who does household chores to fund the purchase of new books to read to her own goats, cows and horses.
Alyssa Gammell is an Oak Hills High School student who encourages friends and classmates to read by writing stories so interesting they want to read more. Her ultimate goal is to become an author.
Dr. Jane Guttman is a teacher librarian for Juvenile Court Schools in San Bernardino County and encourages literacy for incarcerated youth at risk.
Lydia Harjehausen is a library technician at an elementary school in Yucaipa who motives children and young adults to reach each day.
Lisa Hazen dresses up as the Cat in the Hat for children at the Adelanto Branch Library and brings stories to life for children with her enthusiasm.
Linda Holden holds reading competitions and other literacy events for students and parents to motivate even the most unlikely readers to become successful at the Mission Crest Elementary School library in Hesperia.
Niki Jack is an avid reader who completed about six and a half years of adult reading in three months while a student at Mary Putnam Henck Intermediate School in Lake Arrowhead.
Martha Kennedy is a retired teacher who works with adult literacy learners that meets at Lugonia Elementary School in Redlands.
Cindy Kimble-Pirner inspires her preschoolers in San Bernardino County schools to learn to read in unconventional ways and through reading games such as “popcorn words” and “bubble gum” words.
Brad Letner is a Rotarian who established a literacy program aimed at pre-kindergarten children in the Victor Valley area which pairs community members with a child for an hour, three days a week to improve their literacy skills.
Pamela Martinez leads the successful Young Readers program at the AK Smiley Public Library in Redlands that serves thousands of youth each year.
Kristen Mungcal works with peer advocates and program managers in the county to help develop writing and reading comprehension skills for adults improving their quality of life.
Suzanne Oliver, a retired Victorville librarian, takes her trained therapy dogs to schools and libraries so children can read with them and to them to improve their literacy skills.
Jerry Patterson spends one day every week at Warm Springs Elementary School in San Bernardino reading to classrooms of children. At Christmas time, he provides a book to each student.
Frank Perez founded the Colton nonprofit Rewritten where he works with at-risk youth to empower them through education and literacy.
Denise Perry, a first-grade teacher at Lugonia Elementary School in Redlands, stresses the importance of reading to her students and their parents by encouraging them to read at least 15 minutes a day together.
Lynette Ramirez launched the Ready4Reading Book Club in the High Desert to collect books so underprivileged children, often transients, could have access to literacy.
Sharon Regalado, a retired teacher, works with adult literacy learners that meets at Lugonia Elementary School in Redlands
Ashenden Salazar tutors and reads at the STEM Charter School in Barstow helping other students achieve their goals.
Courtney Saldana implemented KinderGo which puts a library card in the hands of every Ontario kindergartner and holds the Ontario Teen Book fest where teens can meet their favorite authors in person.
Kenneth Thomas, an elementary school student who reads at a 12th grade level, constantly has a book in his hand and encourages his sister, his friends and classmates to read.
Jim and Judy Watson funded the Watson and Associates Literacy Center at Cal State San Bernardino, a tutoring facility designed to help students struggling to reach grade-level proficiency.
Diane and Paul Williams helped create the Rancho Cucamonga Public Library and they raise funds for Friends of the Library which pays for books and literacy programs.
Chris Wilson, a second grade teacher at Fairfax Elementary in San Bernardino, built a Reading Room in his classroom and filled it with donated books.
Vision2Read, an initiative of the Countywide Vision project, aims to raise the bar on literacy in our county by focusing on the importance of reading, connecting people who need help or who can help to literacy resources. Sixty-three percent of San Bernardino County third graders did not meet 2016 California English language arts and literacy standards and 32 million adults nationwide can’t read.
Literacy has an impact on a number of elements in our community such as jobs and the economy, education, public safety and wellness. When literacy skills are nurtured and encouraged, children and adults can reach their potential, the local economy can continue to prosper and the county will have a more educated workforce to attract employers to the region.
Visit Vision2Read.com for additional information about the campaign and literacy resources.
Claire Smith
The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) congratulates member Claire Smith for being named the recipient of the 2017 J.G. Taylor Spink Award. The award is given out annually by the Baseball Hall of Fame to a journalist for “meritorious contributions to baseball writing.” Smith will be the first woman in the award’s 55-year history to receive this top honor.
“On behalf of the entire NABJ family, I congratulate my dear friend Claire for this tremendous honor. She is such an inspiration as she continues to knock down doors for women in sports journalism. She is to be commended not only for being a talented reporter, but also for being steadfast in fighting for equality and paving a way for those who will follow in her footsteps,” said NABJ President Sarah Glover.
Smith, 62, has written about sports for more than 30 years, for publications including the Philadelphia Bulletin, Hartford Courant, New York Times, and Philadelphia Inquirer. For more than 20 years, her beat was Major League Baseball. In July 2007, she went in a new direction and new industry when she joined ESPN as a news editor, working with the production teams on MLB game broadcasts. She is the author of the autobiography “Don Baylor – Nothing But The Truth: A Baseball Life.”
A trailblazer for women in sports media, Smith has fought for equal access during her entire career. She often refers to a defining moment that came in the 1984 National League Championship Series between the Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres. She was physically removed by players from the Padres clubhouse after Game One. While the situation was eventually resolved, thanks to then-Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, it left scars for a number of years.
For sensational singer and actress Vanessa Williams and her gorgeous daughter, Lion Babe’s Jillian Hervey, fierceness runs in the family—but so does staying true to who you are at any age. In the cover story, Vanessa + Jillian, the stunning duo chat with Essence about being in the business, the sacredness of family and loving the skin you’re in. Plus, visit Essence.com to see a bonus solo cover for each star! Essence’s January 2017 issue hits newsstands this Friday.
“You have to go through the fire. Avoiding the pain is why most people never resolve it. You have to dig deep, sit in it and ugly-cry. Pretending it’s not there and keeping busy are a way of avoiding it,” Williams states.
“I never saw myself as always having that hair. Ever. That wasn’t the plan,” Hervey stated. “That was the label. They were like, ‘You need the hair, you need the hair, you need the hair!…” When the duo signed to Interscope Records, the label loved her video look so much that it insisted she wear it everywhere, even to radio interviews. Hervey, a self-described people pleaser didn’t have the heart to say no. “My hair was supposed to represent this freedom, and then it almost became a trap. You can’t even see my face sometimes because the wig is so big.” These days Hervey was found the strength to put her foot down and has the freedom to ‘transform,’ she says. That might mean donning braids or wearing her hair free and natural…”
SAN BERNARDINO, CA- For the first time, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians lit up The Arrowhead in memory and tribute to the 14 lives lost in the December 2 terrorist attack in San Bernardino one year ago. The iconic Arrowhead is a natural formation on the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains that can be seen for miles throughout the valley. The brilliant lighting of the Arrowhead formation will stand as a memorial to each life lost on December 2 and a symbol of solidarity and hope for this proud and strong community.
“Even as we struggle to make sense of those events from a year ago, we remain strong in our commitment to the values that make us a strong community,” said Lynn Valbuena, Chairwoman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians. “We are proud to join with the San Bernardino and our community partners to shine a new light in memory of those we lost.”
The Arrowhead was lit on Thursday, December 1 and will remain lit until December 15 from 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.
The Arrowhead formation is located in the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains, just north of San Bernardino’s Wildwood Park (40th Street and Waterman Avenue). Lit up with over a dozen 120,000-lumen arc lights, it can be seen from nearly anywhere in the cities of San Bernardino or Highland.
By Lue Dowdy
Artist’s WORK ethic is what it do!! Trying to get something without puttin’ in work will leave you so far behind in the entertainment game. Understanding the value of pouring into yourself financially, along with networking, shows, recording, and self promoting on a consistent basis can only get you one step closer to your DREAM.
This week I would like to highlight RnB singer Yung Muusik for his non-stop hustle. This sexy and talented Cali artist understands in order to be relevant and make it in the music industry you GOTTA WERK. YUNG MUUSIK will be performing live on Saturday, December 9 in the City of Colton. Come check him out on stage. The night will be lit with dope performances by other talented artist as well, and red carpet interviews will be in full effect. The event will be hosted by the funnyman Kyru of EverythangNycce PRODUCTIONS. Until next week. L’zzz!
Publishers Commentary by Wallace J. Allen
Greetings and Merry Christmas! As we enter this season of holidays and goodwill, I encourage you to remember the importance and impact of where you spend and invest your money. Please, all of you, regardless of your race ethnicity or political persuasion, help balance America’s economic opportunity by supporting Black Owned Businesses (BOB) whenever possible. There are jobs that follow your spending and being that the Black unemployment rates are the highest, spending with BOB creates potential employment opportunities that otherwise do not exist for some Black males. There are several Directories of Black Owned businesses on the web. Google, “Black Owned Business Directory” and you will find a variety of directories.
As we ask your participation in supporting the economic wellness of America via supporting BOB, we will make it easier for you by highlighting businesses in the Inland Empire.
This week we are highlighting a familiar face and place. Most of us can find the time and appetite to patronize McDonalds. Yes you can support BOB by eating at certain McDonalds restaurants! The following list of McDonalds restaurants is owned and managed by Webb Family Enterprises.
Reginald Webb, the founder and patriarch of Webb family Enterprises will be my guest on this Sunday’s “Empire Talks Back” (ETB) radio show. Listen to the program at 10: 00 AM via 1050 AM in San Bernardino/Loma Linda, 102.3 FM in Riverside/Moreno Valley and 106.5 FM in Redlands/Yucaipa.
The program streams live video via www.kcaaradio.com
| Webb Family Enterprises Addresses… Look for the Golden Arches | |
| 2200 N. Garey Ave Pomona, CA 91767 | |
| 30 Rio Rancho Rd Pomona, CA 91766 | |
| 832 N. Mountain Ave Ontario, CA 91762 | |
| 860 S. Indian Hill Blvd Claremont, CA 91711 | |
| 9147 Central Ave Montclair, CA 91763 | |
| 1107 E. Fourth St Ontario, CA 91764 | |
| 14008 Ramona Blvd Baldwin Park, CA 91706 | |
| 1830 N. Hacienda Blvd La Puente, CA 91744 | |
| 445 E Holt Ave Pomona, CA 91767 | |
| 225 W. Valley Blvd Colton, CA 92324 | |
| 8701 Baseline Rd Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730 | |
| 12549 Foothill Blvd Rancho Cucamonga, CA91730 | |
| 4310 Mills Circle Ontario, CA 91764 | |
| 3160 Baldwin Park Blvd Baldwin Park, CA 91706 | |
| 1575 E. Highland Ave San Bernardino, CA 92404 | |
| 461 S. Vincent Ave West Covina, CA 91790 | |
| 8070 Monet Ave Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91739 | |
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