By Cedric ‘BIG CED” Thornton, Black Enterprise

There is history being made! According to Deadline, as of February 1, 2021, Rashida Jones will be taking over as president of MSNBC, making her the first Black executive to lead one of the major cable news networks. She is replacing Phil Griffin, who will be stepping down next year.

The chairman of the NBCUniversal News Group, Cesar Conde, had made the announcement in a memo that was sent to the staff. According to NBC News, Jones, who is currently senior vice president at NBC and MSNBC, will take over at MSNBC on Feb. 1.

Jones currently leads the breaking news and major events coverage.

Conde announces the move via a staff memo:

“Rashida knows and understands MSNBC, in part because it’s where she started when she first joined NBCU seven years ago.  She knows that it is the people who work here that make it great, and she understands its culture. She also appreciates the impact and potential of the brand.

“As you know, Rashida currently leads coverage of breaking news and major events across NBC News and MSNBC, in addition to overseeing dayside and weekends news programming on MSNBC. In the last year alone that has meant, of course, that she has masterfully guided our coverage of the global pandemic, the social justice protests and unrest, Decision 2020, and the two most-viewed Democratic presidential debates in television history. She helped lead the preparation for Kristen Welker’s role as general election debate moderator. And she has steered many of our groundbreaking editorial series, including Justice for All and Climate in Crisis.”

Before she joined NBC News, the Hampton University graduate was the news director for the NBC affiliate in Columbia, South Carolina, and also served as director of live programming for The Weather Channel.

All Californians are Urged to Add Their Phone to the Fight

SACRAMENTO, CA – Following the announcement by Governor Gavin Newsom to expand CA Notify statewide, the California Department of Health (CDPH) and the California Department of Technology (CDT) today launched the digital tool designed to notify Californians of their possible exposure to COVID-19. The free, mobile technology is now available to all Californians and can be accessed on mobile devices. 

Starting today, Californians can receive notifications informing them if they have been exposed to someone who has tested positive for the virus so they can take immediate actions around quarantine and testing. Californians with iPhones can enable CA Notify in their settings and Android phone users can download the CA Notify app from the Google Play Store to immediately start receiving exposure alerts on their phones. Use of the technology is completely voluntary, private, and secure. CA Notify does not collect the location of a phone or individual to detect exposure, and it does not share a user’s identity. Californians opt in to use the tool and may to opt out at any time. 

“We want all Californians to add their phone to the fight to slow the spread of COVID-19 because the tool works best when more people sign up,” said Dr. Erica Pan, Acting State Public Health Officer. “Combined with other actions like physical distancing and wearing masks, CA Notify helps Californians anonymously keep themselves, their loved ones, and their communities safe.”

When individuals voluntarily activate CA Notify, the tool uses Bluetooth technology to exchange random codes between phones without revealing the user’s identity or location. When someone is tested for COVID-19, they will receive a text message from (855) 976-8462. This text will remind CA Notify users who receive a positive test result from a provider or laboratory to enter their verification code into their phone using CA Notify. Any other CA Notify users who were within six feet of the COVID-19 positive individual for 15 minutes or more when that person was most likely to be infectious will get an anonymous notification of possible exposure. 

“The technology is 100% voluntary and secure and provides Californians immediate information and links to resources when they’ve been exposed to COVID-19,” said Amy Tong, Director of CDT. “We are proud the Golden State is making this innovative tool available statewide to encourage more Californians to do their part to keep others safe.”

The state launched a pilot in September for students, staff, and faculty at UC San Diego and UC San Francisco and expanded it to include five other UC campuses in mid-November. The privacy-first focus of CA Notify does not allow the state to know how many people opted into the system, but the UC system estimates more than 250,000 individuals are utilizing the technology as part of the pilot. CA Notify has helped identify exposed individuals early, allowing them to quickly quarantine and reduce virus transmission. The CA Notify pilot has been successfully evaluated, and similar programs have been launched in other states.

“Our pilot experience starting at UC San Diego and expanding to other UC campuses showed this technology was effective in identifying exposed individuals early for quarantine and testing, and helping keep our communities as safe as possible,” said Christopher Longhurst, MD, chief information officer of UC San Diego Health. “This free and reliable smartphone technology can help all Californians. As we enter a new, and hopefully final, surge in the pandemic, now more than ever is the time to put every possible tool to use to slow the spread of the virus.”

CA Notify is not a contact tracing app but augments the contact tracing process by issuing exposure notifications to people you may not know. Contact tracing identifies the close contacts of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, and contact tracers reach those individuals by phone, email, and text. CA Notify does not track or trace information about the people you are in contact with and does not collect or exchange any personal information.

Visit CANotify.ca.gov to learn more about how CA Notify works. 

Read the Governor’s Dec. 7 announcement.  

By Brooklyn White, Essence

We are sad to report on the passing of actress Natalie Desselle-Reid, who appeared in movies such as B*A*P*S, Set It Off, Cinderella and Madea’s Big Happy Family. She also had a starring role in the UPN show Eve. Fellow actress Holly Robinson Peete first shared the devastating news. 

“Just absolutely decimated by this news…,” Peete wrote on Twitter. “Actress Natalie Desselle, bright shining star passed away this morning.” She added that she had gotten to know Desselle-Reid through her mother, who once managed the late star. “She will be so missed…sending out prayers to her children and husband. Rest in Peace, Sweet Girl.”

Desselle-Reid grew up in Louisiana and attending Grambling State University. Her first roles for both television and film came in 1996, when she was featured in Family Matters and Set It Off. Her innate wit was immediately noticeable, and she was given the opportunity to further expand as an actress in following years, appearing as primary characters in Robert Townsend’s 1997 film B*A*P*S and as the stepsister Minerva in Cinderella. Desselle-Reid starred alongside Halle Berry and Brandy, respectively. 

As far as television is concerned, she is perhaps most famous for her work on Eve, for which she played one of the best friends of the main character (portrayed by Eve Jeffers). 

An official statement on Desselle-Reid’s passing was shared through Instagram. 

It reads: “It is with extremely heavy hearts that we share the loss of our beautiful Natalie this morning. She was a bright light in this world. A queen. An extraordinary mother and wife… Her diverse career touched so many and she will be loved forever. Naturally, we are grieving and processing this profound loss and we thank you in advance for respecting our privacy at this extremely difficult time.”

TMZ has reported that Desselle-Reid passed away from colon cancer.

We are sending our sincerest condolences to the Desselle and Reid families during this time. 

WASHINGTON, DC— Walker’s Legacy is proud to announce the release of its COVID-19 Relief Micro Grant. As part of the continued commitment to elevate minority women owned small businesses that have been impacted by COVID-19, Walker’s Legacy is inviting multicultural women small business owners across the United States to apply for the Walker’s Legacy COVID-19 Relief Micro Grant.

Through this grant Walker’s Legacy intends to reward eight women with $500 for their entrepreneurial efforts. To apply, respondees must submit a response to Walker’s Legacy COVID-19 Impact Survey funded by the Gates Foundation. Through this survey, Walker’s Legacy will establish quantitative and qualitative data on the effects of COVID-19 to assist multicultural businesswomen and develop an action plan to support multicultural businesswomen in combating economic setbacks based on the current environment. The goal is to reach multicultural women who have been deeply affected by the impacts of COVID-19 through this survey.

By submitting a response to this survey, each respondee will be automatically entered for a chance to receive a $500 grant. Survey respondents must be submitted by December 28th at 11:59PM EST. Additionally, two survey respondents each week will be selected at random for a $50 Amazon gift card and a 1-year free membership to Walker’s Legacy. 

The COVID-19 Impact Study and the COVID-19 Relief Micro Grant initiatives are reflective of the continued commitment Walker’s Legacy has to multicultural women entrepreneurs. To learn more about this grant opportunity please refer to the COVID-19 Relief Micro Grant page. To take the COVID-19 Impact Study survey, click here.

By Stacey Brown, NNPA Newswire

The first wave of coronavirus vaccines should reach the public this week, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommending that all adults receive the vaccination in 2021. 

While the CDC said there should be enough doses for as many as 20 million people to receive vaccination by the end of December, health officials expect a much larger supply in the coming months.  

Still, with a justified distrust of unproven vaccines, and a perceived limited participation by African Americans in clinical trials that lead to the development of the COVID-19 vaccine, many question whether African Americans will accept vaccination.  

Others are also concerned that, even if the Black community generally accepts the vaccine, would doses be available. 

Distrust among the community

“I’m guessing white folks will be first in line,” Monica Roderick, a Temple Hills, Maryland mother of four, opined.  

“One of the reasons I shudder when I hear people talk about how Black people are still suspect because of the Tuskegee Experiment and other vaccines that ended wrong is because it tends to give other folks the greenlight to leave us out,” Roderick said. 

She continued: 

“This virus is the worst thing the world has seen in 100 years.

“It’s too important not to consider the vaccine, especially since most people affected by the coronavirus are Black and Brown.” 

Putting whether the Black community can trust the vaccine aside, the next controversy on the immediate horizon is whether African Americans will have access. 

The initial supply certainly will overwhelm demand, CDC officials said. The federal government plans to distribute the vaccine in phases. 

Health care workers and patients in long-term health care facilities are first in line.  

According to guidelines, senior citizens and those with high-risk comorbidities and essential workers are next. 

After that, state and local government officials will determine who next receives a vaccination.  

No plan to reach the Black community

So far, most states have yet to develop a concrete plan.  

The outline reportedly provided suggested no explicit details about reaching marginalized populations like the Black community who have suffered the most. 

“I’m looking at social media, and I’m seeing [Former President] Barack Obama saying he’ll take the vaccine on television, and I’m shaking my head,” said Tonia Everhart, a Northeast, Washington, D.C., nurse.  

“First, understand that Obama isn’t necessarily the most trusted voice in the Black community, and he’s not a doctor.  

“While I understand what he’s trying to do to encourage participation and eliminate fear, our community needs Black medical professionals, trusted voices, to say it’s okay to take the vaccine and then we need to be assured that we are not going to be left behind when the vaccine becomes available,” Everhart demanded. 

Health officials agreed. 

Local leaders needed

“You need that deep community engagement to strategize and inform what needs to be done, community by community,” Eric Toner, a senior scholar with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, who was the lead author for Johns Hopkins’ Covid-19 vaccine allocation framework, told NBC News. 

That means engagement of local leaders, from pastors to principals, to reach hesitant individuals, he said, adding that such strategies are particularly key to reaching historically marginalized and disenfranchised communities. 

“That is a public health priority not only for ethical and moral reasons but because that’s where a lot of the transmission of the disease is happening,” Toner added. 

“It’s absolutely true that we can’t reach them solely through public messaging,” Toner continued.  

“States need to be working now to create the relationships in those communities with trusted leaders to encourage people to seriously think about getting vaccinated.”

By Lou Yeboah

“I’ve been telling you for a long time now to repent. But you have not heeded to a word I said. Well I got news for you. If you think this year was bad, next year, will be a Tsunami, Hurricane, and Storm, all in one. Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it shall be more tolerable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you.” [Luke 10:13–15]. I’ve warned you in January 2020 that the New Year would not be what you expected. Did you listen? No.  I am alerting you once more, come 2021, the New Year will not be what you may expect! 

Man has never experienced anything like what will occur during the Great Tribulation. And it is prophesied to come upon us suddenly—and unexpectedly! In [Luke 21:34-35] Jesus said it would be like a snare—catching us completely off guard. Isaiah compared it to the collapse of a high, swelling wall “whose breaking comes suddenly at an instant.” [Isaiah 30:13].

Sudden destruction—that’s what Christ associates with the events leading to His return. And it all unfolds at the very time most people least expect it. “For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.” [1 Thessalonians 5:3]. It will be so bad that even ambassadors of peace will weep bitterly according to [Isaiah 33:7].

When we look at the four seals of [Revelation 6], we have to understand them in the context of God’s age long message to mankind. When these horsemen make their rides, it will be after repeated warning and pleading from God to turn from sin and live righteously based on His eternal law of love toward God and man.

I’m convinced that all the fearful things we see coming upon the earth right now — all have to do with the coming of Christ. Beyond all the war clouds gathering, beyond the gross darkness covering the earth, a cloud is being formed in heaven. And one day soon Christ is going to enter that cloud and reveal himself to the whole world. [Luke 21:31].

Man’s world faces an inevitable death. Every dimension of our culture, every dimension of our society is escalating on the down slide, being devastated by depravity, more and more given over to lust and pride and self-indulgence, immorality and rejection of God and Christ, and the truth of Scripture. And thus man is sentenced; his whole world is sentenced to divine wrath. [Revelation 14:10].

Listen, when God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, He told them: “If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you” [Exodus 15:26]. However, if they disobeyed and broke the covenant, they could expect disease to afflict them, their families and their nation.

Notice: “But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God.?.?. the Lord will make the pestilence cling to you until He has consumed you from the land into which you go to possess. The Lord will smite you with consumption, with fever and inflammation.?.?. and the tumors, the scurvy and the itch, from which you cannot be healed. The Lord will smite you with madness and blindness and dismay of [mind and] heart” [Deuteronomy 28:15, 21-22, 27-28].

[2 Samuel 16] says there is wrath gone out from the Lord.  [Isaiah 13:9] said, “Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, cruel with fury and burning anger and He will exterminate sinners.” Amos cried in chapter 4 verse 12, “Prepare to meet your God.”

LORD HAVE MERCY ON OUR SOUL!

God instructed Jeremiah to give his people this warning: “Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer thee. But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.” [Jeremiah 7:27-28].

By Charles Ellison, the b|e note

Surveys have documented disproportionate disinclination among Black people in the United States to be vaccinated against the novel coronavirus – a cause of substantial concern for public health professionals given the Black population’s high rates of infection, hospitalization and death from COVID-19. This study delves deeply into these compunctions, relying on an unusually large, random national sample of Black Americans, a review of the literature on vaccine uptake and consultation with experts in the field.  

Confirming previous findings, fewer than half of Black adults, 48 percent, say they probably or definitely would get a coronavirus vaccine if it were available for free – including just 18 percent who definitely would get vaccinated. Among Latinx adults, interviewed for comparison, far more likely would get vaccinated, 66 percent, including 31 percent definitely.

Safety and trust concerns are pervasive in both groups – but their higher levels among Black people are key in these differing vaccination uptake intentions. 

“Student Loans Weigh the Heaviest on Black and Hispanic Students” 

READ more …

Student loan debt weighs more heavily on students of color than on their white counterparts.

For example, if you look only at four-year public colleges, an estimated 86.8 percent of Black students borrow federal student loans to attend, but just 59.9 percent of White students do the same, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

With rising tuition costs outpacing inflation and wage growth, many students are struggling to afford college. In fact, about 44 million Americans owe over $1.48 trillion in student loan debt.

But according to our in-depth analysis of data from Demos and NCES, Black and Hispanic students are paying more when it comes to student loans than White students.

“Increased Winter Drownings in Ice-Covered Regions with Warmer Winters” 

READ more …

Winter activities on ice are culturally important for many countries, yet they constitute a high safety risk depending upon the stability of the ice. Because consistently cold periods are required to form stable and thick ice, warmer winters could degrade ice conditions and increase the likelihood of falling through the ice. This study provides the first large-scale assessment of winter drowning from 10 Northern Hemisphere countries. We documented over 4000 winter drowning events. Winter drownings increased exponentially in regions with warmer winters when air temperatures neared 0°C. The largest number of drownings occurred when winter air temperatures were between -5°C and 0°C, when ice is less stable, and also in regions where indigenous traditions and livelihood require extended time on ice. Rates of drowning were greatest late in the winter season when ice stability declines. Children and adults up to the age of 39 were at the highest risk of winter drownings. Beyond temperature, differences in cultures, regulations, and human behaviors can be important additional risk factors. Our findings indicate the potential for increased human mortality with warmer winter air temperatures. Incorporating drowning prevention plans would improve adaptation strategies to a changing climate.

SANTA RITA, GUAM— Machinist’s Mate (Nuclear) 1st Class Nicholas Miller, assigned to the Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS Oklahoma City (SSN 723), from Ontario, California, poses for a photo on the pier after completing his retirement ceremony. Miller is retiring from the Navy after serving 21 years. Oklahoma City is one of four forward-deployed submarines assigned to Commander, Submarine Squadron 15 out of Polaris Point, Naval Base Guam.

Governor Gavin Newsom has announced that California will provide temporary tax relief for eligible businesses impacted by COVID-19 restrictions. The temporary tax relief entails an automatic three-month income tax extension for taxpayers filing less than $1 million in sales tax, extends the availability of existing interest and penalty-free payment agreements to companies with up to $5 million in taxable sales and provides expanded interest free payment options for larger businesses particularly affected by significant restrictions on operations based on COVID-19 transmissions. The total tax relief, if fully utilized, is estimated to have billions in impact.

Additional information on the tax credit program and applications can be found here.

The state will build on its ongoing support for businesses impacted by COVID-19 with a new $500 million COVID Relief Grant program. The Governor also announced that the state would expand the California Rebuilding Fund by $12.5 million, bringing the total investment to $37.5 million. These efforts are informed by recommendations made by the Governor’s Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery. 

CalOSBA is establishing the COVID Relief Grant program and will make it available to small businesses as soon as possible – for updates on availability visit here.