SAN BERNARDINO, CA—On Monday, January 20, at Arroyo High School in San Bernardino, the Southern California Black Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with several other community organizations, held the first annual Martin Luther King Jr. Parade and Expo. The parade started and ended on time which was another accomplishment.
“History was made today on the beautiful Westside of San Bernardino,” Lucrierta Dowdy, MLK committee member, stated. “We came together for the very 1st San Bernardino MLK Day Parade and Extravaganza. Special thanks to everyone that helped to make it a success.”
This is just the beginning for more to come to the City of San Bernardino.
As legalization spreads across the U.S. and the world, there is
much discussion of its use for medicinal and recreational purposes but often
forgotten is its use as a guide to spirituality and enlightenment.
At the February 1, 2020 meeting of the Marijuana
Anti-Prohibition Project, Terry Turner, an ordained Minister of Religious
Science with a Master’s Degree in Consciousness Studies and a Bachelor’s Degree
in Theology, will present a talk on Cannabis as Spiritual Practice.
Tracing its use back to 2000 B.C.E. in the
ancient Hindu Vedas where cannabis was revered as a sacred plant used for
health, pleasure and meditation, Rev. Turner asks the question is it morally
acceptable to get high? Rev. Turner challenges our reliance on materialist
science and technology for solutions to life’s various challenges and our
tendency to consider ancient spirit-based cultures as primitive and
superstitious.
The U.S. government enforces this belief by
continuing to deny the protection of the 1st amendment which
prevents government from “prohibiting the free exercise thereof,”
to any group which uses cannabis as a sacrament.
Rev. Turner points out that the cannabis
plant, being a mild psychedelic or entheogen, was seen by ancient cultures and
remains today as a powerful and sacred tool that deserves to be treated with
care and respect. He notes the states of consciousness available through
cannabis use can be even deeper than those achieved by seasoned meditators without
the years of discipline and training. Used reverentially and with proper
intention, it is capable of ushering its initiates into the realm of savikalpa
samadhi, the portal of mystical or unitive consciousness.
Rev. Turner will explore the uses of cannabis
in the practice of spirituality by exploring the intent of its use, how to
create a safe and sacred space for its use, the importance of set and setting,
understanding the proper ingestion and dose and concluding with a guided
session of meditative techniques which can be practiced for spiritual benefit
either with or without cannabis.”
Rev. Turner will make his presentations in
both Palm Springs and Joshua Tree on Saturday, Feb. 1. Everyone is invited to
attend and there is no charge for admission.
The
Palm Springs/Coachella Valley MAPP meeting will be held on Saturday, Feb. 1 at
12 noon at Crystal Fantasy, 268 N. Palm Canyon, Palm Springs CA 92262.
The
Joshua Tree/Yucca Valley MAPP meeting will be held on Saturday, Feb. 1 at 3
p.m. at the legendary Beatnik Lounge, 61597 Twenty-Nine Palms Hwy., Joshua Tree
CA 92252.
Background information on Rev. Terry Turner
Terry Turner is an ordained
Minister of Religious Science. He holds a Master’s Degree in Consciousness
Studies from Holmes Institute as well as a Bachelor’s Degree in Theology.
He has been a sojourner on the spiritual path for almost 50 years and has
been using cannabis for recreational medicinal and mostly spiritual
purposes for about 50 years as well. He is also an informal student of such diverse
disciplines as evangelical Christianity, kundalini yoga, I Ching, holotropic
breathwork, entheobotany, and shamanic studies. He currently makes his home in
Desert Hot Springs, CA
RANCHO CUCAMONGA – RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CA— Los Osos High School in the Chaffey Joint Union High School District will be the site for the 37th annual San Bernardino County Academic Decathlon competition, which will be held over two weekends, January 25 and February 1.
Approximately 450 high
school students have signed up to compete in this year’s event that features
teams representing 25 high schools. Both weekends of the competition will take
place at Los Osos, located at 6001 Milliken Ave. in Rancho Cucamonga.
There are 10 academic
events for students to compete, including written tests in the areas of math,
economics, music, art, language/literature, science and social science.
Students also write an essay, face a panel of interviewers and give impromptu
and prepared speeches.
For the final event on February 2, teams compete in a Super Quiz, a college bowl-style event consisting of multiple-choice questions. This year’s overall competition theme is “In Sickness and in Health: An Exploration of Illness and Wellness.” Rancho Cucamonga High School from the Chaffey district is the defending county champion of Academic Decathlon.
Teams consist of nine
students, three from each grade-point category: “A” (Honors),
“B” (Scholastic) and “C” (Varsity). Students compete for
individual and team awards.
This year’s
participating high schools and their districts are: Alta Loma High, Chaffey High,
Colony High, Etiwanda High, Los Osos High, Montclair High, Ontario High and
Rancho Cucamonga High, Chaffey Joint Union High; Chino Hills High, Chino Valley
Unified; Jurupa Hills, Kaiser High and Summit High, Fontana Unified; Citrus
Valley High, Redlands East Valley High and Redlands High, Redlands Unified;
Eisenhower High and Rialto High, Rialto Unified; Arroyo Valley High, San
Bernardino High and San Gorgonio High, San Bernardino City Unified; Upland
High, Upland Unified; and Cobalt Institute of Math and Science, Lakeview
Leadership Academy and Victor Valley High, Victor Valley Union High. Aquinas
High School, a private school, also is participating.
Winners and finalists from the Academic
Decathlon will be announced at an awards banquet on Feb. 7. The winning team
and possible other qualifiers will represent the county at the statewide
Academic Decathlon competition in March.
Crystal Fox is no stranger to fans of Tyler Perry’s “The Have and the Have Nots.” Since the show premiered in 2013, it has remained one of the Oprah Winfrey Network’s most popular series and Fox’s character, Hanna Young, the prayer warrior mother of Candace (Tika Sumpter) and Benny (Tyler Lepley), is one of the show’s most popular and recognizable characters. So much so that Fox shared, during an exclusive phone interview with Urban News Service, that “people who meet me on the street love Hanna so much that [they] ask me to pray for them.”
In “A Fall From Grace,” Tyler Perry’s first film for Netflix, Fox gives those fans a brand-new look. She plays Grace, a lonely divorcée who falls for a much younger man who isn’t who he seems. The fallout of that relationship lands her in prison where the young, inexperienced lawyer Jasmine Bryant (Bresha Webb) leads her defense. Phylicia Rashad plays her good friend Sarah. Tyler Perry and Cicely Tyson also have roles.
At age 56, this is the first starring film role for Fox, whose career has largely been on TV and in theatre. Prior to “The Haves and the Have Nots,” the Tryon, North Carolina native’s longest-running series was a six-year (1989-1995) stint as LuAnn Corbin, who rose from police officer to corporal, on “In the Heat of the Night.”
More recently, she played a memorable role as Elizabeth, mom to Zoe Kravitz’s Bonnie, on HBO’s hit limited series, “Big Little Lies.” Because “A Fall From Grace” is a huge first for her, Fox admitted to experiencing self-doubt.
“The thing that was intimidating to me was whether I could be a strong enough leading lady,” she said.
For Fox and many other Black actresses over 50, there have been few Hollywood opportunities to star in films featuring a strong storyline where they are not just playing someone’s mother or grandmother. In “A Fall From Grace,” she is so much more.
Reflecting on her three-decade-plus-long career as a professional actor, Fox, speaking via phone in New York City, told Urban News Service, “I feel like I’ve been unseen more than anything. The people who have the vision didn’t envision me; they didn’t have a placement for me. But, at the same time, I’m not trying to fault anybody, but they weren’t trying to get to know me either, or people like me.”
That’s why Fox looks forward to seeing more films like “A Fall From Grace” with interesting storylines starring women of color in the prime of their lives.
“I hope there will be another chance to do more with women like [Grace] so that you can see how multifaceted we are, especially as we’re aging.”
In the film, Fox and Rashad, who have primarily worked together on stage and are friends in real life, enjoy an easy chemistry as Grace and Sarah. But the relationship between Grace and her much-younger, untested lawyer Jasmine, who convinces her to forego her initial plea deal to stand trial, is one of the most interesting dynamics in the film.
“Her objective is hers and [Grace’s is separate from that]. So, when they come together and you see these opposing objectives, it creates some genuineness [in] discovering what [that] relationship is going to be,” Fox explained.
Fox believes that the relationship Grace and Jasmine develop makes an important statement.
“It says a big thing about women supporting women, in allowing another woman to fight for you.”
One of the most challenging parts of her role, Fox admitted, was the romantic scenes between her character and the younger photographer Shannon, played by 39-year-old Mehcad Brooks. “Oh my gosh, can I just tell you, I can do serious, I can do dramatic, left, right, top, center and I’m not nervous. When I had to do that love scene, I felt like I was two years old,” she laughed. Brooks, she shared, couldn’t have been nicer.
Fox, who was blown away by the enthusiastic applause following the private Atlanta screening she and Perry hosted on January 9, said she is grateful that the entertainment mogul and friend cast her in this role, even if she is not sure exactly why.
“I don’t know what he saw in me,” she said. “If he believes you when he watches you, that draws him in. So, whatever he saw me do, he believed in me.”
What she doesn’t doubt is that “A Fall From Grace” is a huge opportunity for her. “For me, it can be a big career shifter or something that will propel me forward, so it means a lot.”
“A Fall From Grace” Debuted on Netflix January 17.
SAN
BERNARDINO, CA— The Diocese of San Bernardino held their Migrant Mass at our
Lady of the Rosary Cathedral this past Sunday. Bishop Barnes celebrated the
mass with priest and practitioners from all over the diocese. During the homily
Bishop Barnes emphasized the importance of the census and our role as people of
faith.
“This year we are going to have the census, and, in the census, everybody counts, everybody!” Bishop Barnes explains. “So that the benefits can come to everyone, so we are going to help promote the census.”
Leaders
from Inland Congregations United for Change (ICUC) were in attendance to
collect pledge cards from churchgoers as they left mass. Collecting over 80
pledges. The census is important because it gives everyone a voice no matter
their immigration status. Parent and youth organizers with ICUC helped organize
the collection of census pledge cards.
“We are all a part of this community and we all belong, we all deserve to be counted,” Miguel Rivera, ICUC Organizer, states. “Let’s bring in the resources that we need for our communities. Having the bishop pledge to do the census is an honor and it shows just how important it is.”
If
you would like to learn more about the census, please visit censusie.org.
SAN BERNARDINO, CA— Mr. Joseph G. Paulino, Chief of Police for San Bernardino City Unified School District Police Department spoke to participants of the Social Lites, Inc. Beautillion program on Saturday, January 11, 2020 at the Center for Youth in San Bernardino on leadership and facts about police youth contact. Chief Paulino emphasized, “when people see you they see your history” using visuals of his identification cards from grade school, middle school, high school, military, and current identification card as Chief of Police. Future leaders were encouraged to guard their history. It was important for future leaders to be reminded, “don’t let an uninformed person speak into your life.” As leaders, Chief Paulino shared the importance of relationships, “it’s not who you know, but who knows you.”
Mr. Neuman Sneed II, Sir Knight 2019, sophomore at University Merced also guest speaker was in the audience prior to speaking appreciated Chief Paulino words of wisdom. Sneed II entered college as a sophomore. He shared with future leaders “college is hard.” He earned an Associate of Arts Degree while in high school and assumed college would not be as challenging as earning the AA degree while in high school. Sneed II plans to be an Optometrist. He shared living on his own, experiencing dormitory life, learning various faculty style has been challenging, one in which he welcomes and looks forward in the upcoming semester. Both Chief Paulino and Mr. Sneed II inspired the youth to “be good stewards as they pursue their goals in life.”
The 2029/2020 Beautillion Scholarship program will commence on Saturday, March 28, 2020. For more information regarding the Beautillion Scholarship Program, please telephone chairperson, Mrs. Tina Darling at tribicu2@msn.com or Ms. Lisa Blacksher, President at lisasocialities@gmail.com or Mrs. Bettye Brewster, Business Manager, bettyebrewster@yahoo.com
SAN BERNARDINO, CA—- San
Bernardino Valley College welcomed Senator Connie Leyva and Assemblymember
Eloise Gómez Reyes for a ceremonial presentation of a $35 million check towards
the renovation of the Applied Technology building on campus.
After championing the building’s renovation as a state budget priority earlier this year, these elected officials celebrated the project with other dignitaries on the grounds that will house a new 21st century training center for Inland Empire students. The $35 million check matches the state funds approved to build this nearly 100,000-square-foot modern career training hub, where students will receive the necessary preparation to sharpen their skill sets to meet the needs of today’s tech economy. Built in 1964, the current 78,000-square-foot technical facility is one of the oldest on campus. With the $70 million in state and Measure CC funds, it will be a huge boon for SBVC students to be able to not only learn but do hands-on training with state-of-the-art equipment.
“A new cutting-edge job training facility will elevate career technical education training in the Inland Empire and create pathways to the highly skilled, good paying jobs that our communities deserve,” said Senator Leyva to the San Bernardino Community College District. “I am proud to partner with Assemblymember Reyes and SBVC to bring good jobs and quality public education to the Inland Empire.”
Approved by 61 percent of voters last year, Measure CC will generate $470 million for upgrades to classrooms and job training facilities in the San Bernardino Community College District. The new Applied Technology Building is expected to begin construction in July 2021, with its final debut anticipated for 2023.
By Joseph Hammond, Urban News Service (A Division Zenger News)
Claressa Shields made boxing history in Atlantic City on January 10th when she earned a third world title becoming the quickest fighter ever in the sport to win world titles in three different weight classes in just 10 fights. The Michigan pugilist is set to have a breakout year with a Hollywood biopic and cross-over fights in the UFC set to take place.
Recently, Shields earned a dominate win over Croatia’s Ivana Habazin to earn the WBC and WBO junior middleweight titles. Shields had promised to knockout Habazin but, had to settle for an unanimous decision victory. Earlier she won the middleweight and super-middleweight titles.
“Congratulations to Clarissa Shields, the 2019 Women’s Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the Year, and now the quickest fighter, male or female, to win world titles in 3 different divisions,” tweeted Tennis icon Billie Jean King.
The Urban News Service caught up with Shields in London earlier this month, where she was doing her final training for the the Habazin fight.
London has been good to Shields where she became the youngest Olympic boxing champion since 1924 when she won a gold-medal there in 2012 at the age of 17. In 2016, she won a second Olympic gold medal at the Rio Olympics becoming the only American boxer to win multiple gold medals in the sport.
During an interview at a fight card held at York Hall, a historic venue dating to the 1929, which is the heart of the London boxing scene, Shields acknowledged her close ties to the United Kingdom.
“I love the fans – the York Hall fans, the British fans, I would love to fight here in the United Kingdom,” said Shields. “I love the atmosphere here. Maybe in 2020 or the year after she said.”
Many female boxers come to the sport from comfortable middle-class backgrounds. Shields’s life hasn’t been easy. Her life story is one of turning to tragedy to triumph. Born in Flint, Michigan, a town full of poverty, despair and though it was not known at the time, poisoned water. Her father spent time in prison for dealing drugs and she didn’t start speaking until the age of five. That same year she was molested by one of her alcoholic mother’s boyfriends.
She was picked-on at school and started boxing at age 11. She chooses the sport after overhearing her father lament he had never pursued his passion for the sport – though he initially objected to her boxing dreams. Despite that she soon joined a gym where she was the only female fighter. In boxing she found personal resilience and found further strength when at 13 she was baptized into a local church.
Not surprisingly
her rise through adversity to world champion has attracted the interest of
Hollywood filmmakers who are looking to turn the life of the 24-year-old into a
major feature film. It was announced last year that Ryan Destiny, perhaps
best known for her role in Fox’s television show “Star,” will
play Claressa Shields in Universal’s biopic “Flint Strong” which is
currently in production.
The
fight most British fans would like to see is a rematch between Shields and the
United Kingdom’s Savannah Marshal. Marshal defeated Shields in the amateurs. By
chance the two crossed paths at the York Hall event and posed for a promotional
stare down.
The
leading boxing promotional agency MTK Global released a press-release after the
encounter in which Marshal described being “amused” by the face-off with
Shields, “our rematch could 100% be the biggest fight in women’s boxing,” she
said.
As a
professional, Marshal, like Shields, is undefeated. While Shields has
accomplished more in her brief boxing career, Marshall at least according to
their professional records, could be the harder puncher. Shields has 10 wins
with two coming via knockout. Six of Marshall’s eight wins have come
by knockout.
Another
potential blockbuster fight in her future could be with UFC star Amanda Nunes.
Shields is training for a mixed-martial arts debut later this year. If all goes
well, she would like to fight a series of fights – one in the boxing ring and
one in the UFC octagon against the Nunes. Shields believes such fights could
have a cross-over appeal similar to the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Connor
MacGregor fight in 2017.
“My
[MMA] debut is going to happen, and that fight is most likely going to be in
September and October,” she told Urban News Service. Shields will most likely
take a tune-up fight in the octagon before challenging Nunes.
As a
child, Shields was teased over her skinny arms and called “T-Rex” after the
proportions of that extinct dinosaur. Shields has embraced the name as ring moniker,
but her recent ring victories have led her to start using a new nickname
“GWOAT” the acronym for “Greatest Woman of All Time.”
Next
year, expect big fights among state government officials and your
representatives in the state legislature about how the huge windfall of cash in
the state’s savings account should be spent.
California’s
nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) recently predicted that the
state will have a $7 billion surplus by the end of this fiscal year. The
following year, California’s savings account is projected to grow to more than $18
billion.
“As
Washington soaks Americans with a trillion dollars in debt to pay for tax cuts
that benefit the wealthy and destroys the social safety net, our state is now
doing more than ever before to provide opportunity for all California families,
especially those who are not equally sharing in our nation’s prosperity,” said
Gov. Gavin Newsom, responding to the news.
“We are taking important steps so that growth
is broadly shared, doing it all while saving record amounts for a rainy day,”
he added.
The
LAO is recommending that legislators commit no more than $1 billion of the “estimated
$7 billion surplus to ongoing purposes in 2020?21.”
Last
fiscal year, California had a record-breaking $21.5 billion surplus of which the
state spent about half on paying down the debt and bolstering reserves. It
invested about $4 billion on ongoing projects and used to rest to fund one-time
programs, including initiatives to solve the state’s homelessness crisis.
By state law, the governor has until January 10, 2020, to present his initial budget to the legislature.
“… I’m not after the blessings ¬ I’m not after things ¬
I’m after Your presence. My hands are
raised because¬ I surrender¬ After coming to grips with the reality¬ that You
love me so much so¬ that You thought I was worth saving¬ You thought I was worth
keeping¬ You thought I was worth dying for¬ that You sacrificed Your life¬ so
that I can be free ¬ so that I can be whole ¬ so that I can tell everyone I
know ¬ Love lifted me when nothing else could have¬ Lord, I tell you, all I want is You¬ You are
my God and my hallelujah belongs to You, and You only. So withholding nothing –
I Surrender ¬ Everything I give to You¬ I give myself away so that You can use
me¬ My life doesn’t belong to me¬ My life is not my own¬ To You I belong¬ Fill
me up Lord¬ until I overflow¬ I’m hungry¬ I’m thirsty¬ I’m desperate for You¬
take my heart¬ take my life¬ as a living sacrifice¬ all my dreams¬ all my
plans¬ Lord I place them in Your hands¬
Here I am to worship¬ here I am to bow down¬ here I am to say that
You’re my God – For You are altogether lovely¬ altogether worthy¬ altogether
wonderful to me¬ and all of my days I’m gonna serve you. Wherever you want me
to go Jesus, I’m gonna go¬ Whatever you tell me to say, I’m gonna say it¬ I’m
gonna move when you tell me to move¬ Have Thine own way Oh Lord¬ Thou art the Potter¬ I am the
clay¬ mold me and make me after Thy will¬ while I am waiting yielded and
still.”
Oh, I tell you, when I think about
the goodness of God, my soul cries Abba Father. Sometimes, I can feel
overwhelmed when I realize how much sin and wrong I have done in my life. I
think of the time when I rejected what God wanted me to do. I rebelled against
His authority. But then I remembered, that “where sin multiplied, grace
multiplied even more” [Romans 5:20]. Only God has been able to make payment for
my sin. Only God has been able to put me in a right relationship with Him. God
did this through the death of His Son Jesus on the cross. So when I say My
hallelujah belongs to Him ¬ My hallelujah belongs to Him! He is the reason for
my being, and He deserves all my love ¬ all my adoration ¬ all my devotion ¬
all my praise ¬ all my worship ¬ all my obedience ¬ my everything. Ultimately,
I owe my life to Him.
Tell me, have you every thought of God as generous towards
you? Can you believe that when He looks at you with all your baggage, all your
junk, all your hang-ups, He says, “I want to be generous to you. I can’t wait
to pour out on you that which will make you happy – not because you deserve it,
but because there’s something about Who I am that loves to overflow in
extravagant ways upon you. He gives us grace – [what we don’t deserve] and
extends mercy – [not giving us what we do deserve] – We are indeed blessed by
God. How majestic He is – how loving patient, and kind He is. How gracious He
is – How he puts up with us and blesses us in spite of ourselves.
I tell you as the Jews were so moved by what the Lord had
done in them and for them that they could not contain their praise for Him, I’m
too awestruck for what the Lord has done for me. I praise Him because of one
reason: He is worthy! You see, God moved in grace and power to deliver my soul
from the torment and bondage of my sins. He delivered me from an eternity in
Hell and He adopted me into his family when He saved me out of the shame,
sentence, and sorrow of my sins.
I tell you, He is worthy. He is worthy of our love. He is
worthy of our devotion. He is worthy of our obedience. He is worthy of
everything we can offer to Him. Therefore, I challenge you to praise the Lord
and to magnify His name. When we praise Him we acknowledge that we are nothing
without Him. – we give Him homage, respect, reverence for loving us when we are
so undeserving of that love. David said I will bless the Lord at all times. His
praise shall continually be in my mouth. David understood clearly his
shortcoming – He knew he was messed up – He knew he was wretched before a Holy
God and that his righteousness was filthy – but He blessed God because he
recognized that God loved Him in spite of his way.
I tell you, there is no reason in us that he should bless
us. He has every reason to justly destroy us. Yet he chooses to bless us and
put his name on us and claim us as his own. We ought to praise God for being
God… merciful, just, righteous, holy, omnipotent, immutable. It is a prayer of
nothing but praise to God. There is no supplication, no request, no petition or
plea in this prayer. It is pure unadulterated praise to God. We need to give
great consideration to this because He deserves it!
If you believe that He deserves it, “…Lift your hands
wherever you are, and tell the Lord Yes¬ Tell Him, you won’t be afraid¬ You’ll
step out on His Word and declare His glory¬ Open up your heart and tell the
Lord Yes¬ Say Yes¬ Say I’ll obey Jesus¬ I won’t stray Jesus. This time I’ve
made up my mind¬ I’ll say Yes¬ My soul says Yes¬ My mind says Yes¬ My heart
says Yes¬ Yes, I’ll do what you want me to do¬ I’ll say what you want me to
say¬ I’ll go, if you lead me¬ Yes I will¬ I wanna do your will Jesus¬ I wanna
do your will¬ My soul says, Yes!
“…Flowing from my heart are the issues of my heart is¬
Gratefulness…” All I want is You Lord!
Excepts: [You
Deserve It – J. J. Hairston & Youthful Praise] … [Worth – Anthony Brown
& group therAPY]…[Tasha Cobbs Leonard – You Know My Name ft. Jim
Cravity]… [Tasha Cobbs – Fill Me Up Until I Overflow]… [I Give Myself Away/Here I Am to Worship –
William McDowell]… [Withholding Nothing
Medley] [Yes – Shekinah Glory Ministry][Truth in You – Anthony Brown &
group therAPY][Grateful (Reprise) – Hezekiah Walker & LFC]
Westside Story Newspaper – Online The News of The Empire – Sharing the Quest for Excellence
