RIALTO, CA—- Local dignitaries and community leaders including Mayor Robertson, City Council members, and members of the Chamber of Commerce joined the Ayres Hotel executive team on Friday to celebrate the groundbreaking of the new Ayres Hotel Rialto. Ayres Hotels, a family-owned and operated hotel collection based in Southern California, has begun construction on the corner of Linden and Renaissance Parkway.
Situated off the 210 Freeway at the Ayala exit, the hotel is part of the Renaissance Marketplace, a master planned development by Lewis Companies that focuses on residential, retail, restaurant, industrial and corporate space. The hotel will also complement Lewis Companies’ redevelopment of what was once the Rialto Airport that now features a new state-of-the-art industrial zone with top distribution and fulfillment centers.
“Ayres Hotel Rialto is centrally located between Rancho Cucamonga and San Bernardino and will meet the demands of travelers and the businesses of this new industrial area,” noted Don Ayres III, a fourth generation Ayres family member. “Ayres looks forward to serving the needs of the community, its corporate and leisure guests and will serve as a job stimulator and training ground for young hospitality professionals in the area.” This new location is the 9th Ayres Hotel in the Inland Empire and the 26th property in the Ayres Hotels collection. The addition of the property is part of the overall Ayres Hotels strategy to embrace new markets while continuing their commitment to quality hospitality in the communities they serve.
The hotel was designed to be a reflection of the growth Rialto has seen over recent years. It will feature industrial design elements with mixed metals, exposed brick and concrete floors while also fostering a sense of community through its warm color palette and communal space concept. The lobby promotes guest interaction with an on-site bar and retail. “We encourage our guests to come downstairs and be part of the warmth and charm that is consistent throughout Ayres Hotels,” said Ethan Ayres, a fifthgeneration Ayres family member. In addition, the hotel includes over 3,750 square feet of indoor/outdoor meeting and event space that will be available for business and community gatherings. The hotel will offer 135 modern guest rooms, scenic views of the San Gabriel Mountains, an outdoor heated pool and spa adjacent to a beautiful garden courtyard, and fitness center. Signature amenities commonly associated with the Ayres Hotels brand including their complimentary hot breakfast buffet, wi-fi, and parking will be part of the Ayres Hotel Rialto experience.
“We’ve had to overcome some setbacks through the pandemic, but are excited to begin construction and get on our way to bringing Rialto its first new hotel. An anticipated opening date will be in early 2023,” said Ethan. “We have a seasoned team at Ayres Construction Co, along with our in-house design and procurement team, that will ensure the project gets built in a timely manner” said Ethan, who oversees the construction process.
The Ayres Collection, including Ayres Hotel Rialto, continues to be family-owned, operated and managed by Ayres Management.
SAN BERNARDINO, CA –PAL Charter Academy faced off against Lucerne Valley Saturday, October 23 at San Bernardino High School. PCA won 48-0, moving them to 2-0 in Agape League play.
The Bulls received a surprise visit from President Dr. Gwen Rodgers from the San Bernardino City Unified School District. She gave the team a boost before the game telling them she and the district were proud of them.
Dr. Rodgers then gave them a pep talk and encouraged them to bring it home for PCA and the city. The district extended PAL Charter Academy SBHS football stadium to play their season games while PCA builds their football field. PAL Charter is the longest operating and first authorized Charter school under the SBCUSD.
Head coach, Joseph Stanley, said the team played hard and followed the school’s 3D code, “Discipline, Determination, and Dedication equals winner on and off the field!” Tonight, they lived the code.
Executive Director Dwaine Radden Sr. said it was great seeing Dr. Rodgers out here supporting their players and school. It meant a lot to them and the staff. Radden noted the district has worked with him and the team to ensure they had a district facility to play their CIF games. Her visit was also coupled with making sure PCA received quality customer service from the district.
On Friday, October 29, the Bulls had a barn burner against Hesperia Christian, who is also 2-0.
RIALTO, CA— On Sunday, October 31, 2021, the City of Rialto held their annual Halloween Hi-Jinks at the Civic Center in Downtown Rialto.
Halloween Hi-Jinks is the city’s annual Halloween celebration. This year there was a New Orleans Masquerade Mayhem with free candy, games and live entertainment. Other festivities included Down in the Bayou with kid’s crafts, food vendors and Princess & the Frog movie, Mazes and a Masquerade Mask Contest.
“Another great success during our Halloween Hi-Jinks,”Mayor Deborah Robertson stated. “Thanks to everyone who participated in making this a wonderful night. Special thanks to the new Community Services Director Cynthia Alvarado and the entire supporting staff of Parks and Recreation, as well as the various City department heads in attendance. The crowd and turnout was awesome!”
SAN BERNARDINO, CA—- With excitement in her voice Sheri Lewis, Social Lites Inc. President 2021 told the young men wanting to be a part of the 2021-22 Beautillion program that she is implementing great ideas this year. “New structure, new ideas and a myriad of support from former Alumni and corporate sponsors will catapult this years’ program to greater heights,” she explained.
Edward Brantley, the father of the Sir Knight 2020 Kameron Brantley, kicked the program off with a great start by educating young men about how to retain information, knowledge and wisdom.
Also in support were former Alumni Chache Wright, Alumni 1999 and currently the President of the San Bernardino NAACP; Dr. Gregory Alexander, Alumni 1992 and Vice Principle of Arroyo Valley High School; Charles Brown, Alumni 1989, the Director of Equity for Riverside County Office of Education; Johnathan Moreno and Kamau Osonduagwuike Alumni 2018, Kameron Brantley, Alumni 2020 are hard-working and full-time students; Russell Ward, Alumni of 1984 and currently a Software Specialist for Konica Minolta, he also has been the Dance Choreographer for us for the past 25 years. Each Alum offered their overview and shared the long-lasting benefits of joining the Beautillion.
With 55 years of service and having blessed thousands of African American young men the Social Lites have collectively distributed over $2.5 million to our young men who want to attend college or a trade school of their choice. Through mentorship, leadership and character and life development skills we can help Elementary to High School students achieve their goals.
If you know of young men who fits the criteria and wants to be a part of this six-month extracurricular program, please contact the program director as soon as possible. The Beautillion Briefing is every Sunday from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Youth & Community Development Center, 468 West 5th Street in San Bernardino, CA. 92401.
Let’s be the help for our young men’s dreams of becoming better. Knowledge Is Power. If you have questions, please call Marlene Davis at (909) 709-5502.
AB AB 928 and AB 1111 make it easier for students to transfer into four-year universities
AB 1377 and SB 330 improve housing affordability for students, complementing the California Comeback Plan’s unprecedented $2 billion investment in student housing
NORTHRIDGE, CA – At California State University, Northridge today, Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation to improve college affordability and increase access to higher education and highlighted the historic $47.1 billion higher education package – the most ever invested in higher education in modern history.
“We’re turning commitments into reality by ensuring that our students have more access to high-quality educational opportunities, creating a change of course for generations to come and bolstering California’s innovation economy,” said Governor Newsom. “Californians have thrived at our world class universities for decades, but not everyone has had similar access – today that’s changing. Everyone deserves a shot at the ‘California Dream’ – we’re eliminating equity gaps and increasing opportunities at our universities to make those dreams a reality for more California students.”
“Over the last five years I’ve held hearings across California to discuss higher education issues,” said Assemblymember Marc Berman, Chair of the Assembly Select Committee on the Master Plan for Higher Education in California. “When students discussed their experience with the transfer process from community college to four-year university their message was loud and clear: transfer is too complex, confusing, and difficult to navigate. Instead of being a clear path, it’s a maze, and it’s costing students time and money that they can’t afford. Together, Assembly Bills 928 and 1111 will make it easier for students to achieve their educational goals. I am grateful that Governor Newsom signed these historic bills, and for the advocates and students who inspired these reforms.”
“From historic investments in financial aid and student housing that will benefit students to a radical revamping of transfer, 2021 is a landmark year for public higher education in California,” said California State University Chancellor Joseph I. Castro. “We appreciate the bold vision demonstrated by Governor Newsom and his commitment to further improving education access and outcomes throughout the Golden State.”
Increasing Transfer Rates for Underserved Students
Governor Newsom today signed legislation to help facilitate access to the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) systems for students to attain four-year degrees and help further prepare them for the economy of tomorrow:
AB 928 by Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) – Requires the CSU and UC to jointly establish a singular lower division general education pathway for transfer admission into both segments. Also requires California Community Colleges (CCC) to place students who declare a goal of transfer on an Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) pathway for their intended major, and establishes the ADT intersegmental implementation committee as the primary oversight entity.
AB 1111 by Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) – Requires, by July 1, 2024, the CCCs adopt a common course numbering system (C-ID) at all community colleges and for each community college campus catalog. This common course numbering system is required to be student-facing and ensures that comparable courses across all community colleges have the same course number.
Finding Solutions to the Student Housing Crisis
On top of the unprecedented $2 billion investment to significantly increase affordable housing for students and help address the student housing crisis, Governor Newsom signed legislation to create long-overdue housing plans at the UC and CSU systems:
AB 1377 by Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento) – Requires the CSU system, and requests the UC system, to conduct a student housing needs assessment for each campus, and create a student housing plan outlining how projected student housing needs will be met.
SB 330 by Senator María Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles) – Requires the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) to develop a pilot program to provide affordable housing to students or employees of LACCD. This bill also allows LACCD to enter into agreements with nonprofit or private entities to lease real property under certain conditions, in order to develop affordable housing.
Making Financial Aid More Accessible
Governor Newsom’s California Comeback Plan requires all students to submit a Free Application for Federal Aid (FAFSA) or California Dream Act application in order to significantly increase federal aid opportunities for California students, and today he signed legislation to further expand such supports:
AB 340 by Assemblymember Chris Ward (D-San Diego) – Conforms the state’s 529 college savings plan statute to recent changes in federal tax law, expanding allowable withdrawals from 529 plans to include expenses associated with participation in a registered apprenticeship program and student loan repayment.
AB 469 by Assemblymember Eloise Gómez Reyes (D-San Bernardino) – Requires, on or before September 1, 2022, and each year thereafter, the California Student Aid Commission and the California Department of Education to facilitate the completion of the Free Application for Student Aid and the California Dream Act Application, through the sharing of specified data.
SB 737 by Senator Monique Limón (D- Santa Barbara) – Modifies and expands criteria for which the California Student Aid Commission may apportion funds to support projects under the California Student Opportunity and Access program, and additionally expands the duties and responsibilities of funded projects.
Overall $47.1 Billion Higher Education Package
The Budget’s unprecedented level of investment in higher education reflects a continued commitment to affordability, more accessible institutions, higher quality programs, equitable outcomes, and more efficient degree pathways—all of which are critical for driving upward mobility across the state.
The Budget includes total funding of $47.1 billion ($25.7 billion General Fund and local property tax and $21.4 billion other funds) for all higher education entities in 2021-22. The state’s three public segments—the University of California (UC), the California State University (CSU), and the California Community Colleges (CCC)—receive substantial ongoing base augmentations, and the Budget includes significant investments to make postsecondary education more affordable, including expanding the state’s Cal Grant program to additional CCC students. Also included are investments to make college savings accounts widely available to low-income children; provide grants to advance training and education for workers impacted by the COVID-19 Pandemic; promote learning-aligned, long-term career development opportunities; and support regional K-16 education collaboratives focused on streamlining educational pathways leading to in-demand jobs.
A full list of the bills signed by the Governor is below:
AB 245 by Assembymember David Chiu (D-San Francisco) – Educational equity: student records: name and gender changes.
AB 275 by Assemblymember Jose Medina (D-Riverside) – Classified community college employees.
AB 340 by Assemblymember Chris Ward (D-San Diego) – Golden State Scholarshare Trust: Personal Income Tax Law: gross income: deductions.
AB 417 by Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento) – Rising Scholars Network: justice-involved students.
AB 424 by Assemblymember Mark Stone (D-Monterey Bay) – Private Student Loan Collections Reform Act: collection actions.
AB 469 by Assemblymember Eloise Gómez Reyes (D-San Bernardino) – Pupil instruction: financial aid applications.
AB 543 by Assemblymember Laurie Davies (R-Laguna Niguel) – Public postsecondary education: student orientation: CalFresh.
AB 576 by Assemblymember Brian Maienschein (D-San Diego) – Community colleges: apportionments: waiver of open course provisions: military personnel.
AB 615 by Assemblymember Freddie Rodriguez (D-Pomona) – Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act: procedures relating to employee termination or discipline.
AB 914 by Assemblymember Akilah Weber (D-San Diego) – Public postsecondary education: California State University: proficiency level of entering students.
AB 927 by Assemblymember Jose Medina (D-Riverside) – Public postsecondary education: community colleges: statewide baccalaureate degree program.
AB 928 by Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) – Student Transfer Achievement Reform Act of 2021: Associate Degree for Transfer Intersegmental Implementation Committee.
AB 1002 by Assemblymember Steven Choi (R-Irvine) – Postsecondary education: course credit for prior military education, training, and service.
AB 1111 by Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) – Postsecondary education: common course numbering system.
AB 1113 by Assemblymember Jose Medina (D-Riverside) – Public postsecondary education: exemption from tuition and fees: qualifying survivors of persons providing medical or emergency services deceased during COVID-19 California state of emergency.
AB 1326 by Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno) – Public social services: county liaison for higher education.
AB 1377 by Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento) – Student housing plans.
SB 330 by Senator María Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles) – Los Angeles Community College District Affordable Housing Pilot Program.
SB 436 by Senator Brian Dahle (R-Bieber) – Community colleges: nonresident tuition.
SB 512 by Senator Dave Min (D-Irvine) – Public postsecondary education: support services for foster youth: Cooperating Agencies Foster Youth Educational Support Program.
SB 737 by Senator Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara) – California Student Opportunity and Access Program.
SAN BERNARDINO, CA— Students at Curtis Middle School in the San Bernardino City Unified School District are leveling up their budding eSports team. The San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools (SBCSS) delivered game consoles for their team to use.
County Superintendent Ted Alejandre expressed his pride in SBCSS eSports, saying, “I am impressed by the tremendous growth we have seen in just a couple of years. There has been an overwhelmingly positive response from students. It’s proving to be a powerful way to keep them engaged.”
The equipment will give the Curtis Middle School team the capability for up to nine players to participate in Super Smash Bros. tournaments. Previously, the team was only able to join Rocket League tournaments on their computers, which greatly limited their opportunities to compete.
The setups provided by SBCSS eSports will allow the team to grow and compete in all types of tournaments the SBCSS eSports League offers.
“I’m excited to start playing on the Switches because I’ll get to see what skills my teammates have in other games, and they will have the chance to show off,” said Andy Morales, an eighth-grade student at Curtis Middle School. “Playing eSports at school inspires me to keep my grades up so I can stay on the team, and it has given me the confidence to try out for soccer in high school next year.”
SBCSS recognizes eSports can transform the lives of students. Aside from the possibility of playing at a collegiate or professional level, students can leverage their eSports experience in many sciences, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) fields.
Students are encouraged to explore careers in computer science, streaming, video game development, animation, programming, marketing and production. Gaming also allows children of all abilities to experience the sense of belonging and accountability that comes from being part of a team sport and can engage students who may not feel as connected to traditional extracurricular offerings.
“I was really surprised that eSports was available [at school].” said Rae’Quan West Corbett, a seventh grader at Curtis Middle School. “I was excited when I heard about it during morning announcements and me and my cousin went right after school to sign up. I want to be on the team next year too!”
This is the second year SBCSS Digital Learning Services is facilitating district participation in the growing field of competitive gaming. They provide a simplified pathway for eSports adoption at San Bernardino County schools with an emphasis on ensuring the programs established are equitable and accessible for all students.
SBCSS eSports empowers districts by providing guidance and resources for administrators who are interested in starting their own programs, as well as providing ongoing support for established teams.
They also host the virtual SBCSS eSports League, which is a comprehensive, yet flexible, series of tournaments that can accommodate teams who are just starting out in addition to well-established teams.
Competition in the SBCSS eSports League is on an ongoing basis and there is no deadline to establish a team. To maximize play time however, teachers, schools and districts are encouraged to register as early as possible to allow time to complete all necessary paperwork ahead of the tournament dates.
Students aged 13 and older are eligible to register for the SBCSS eSports League and can compete on any of the following gaming devices: Nintendo Switch, Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox, or on a PC or Mac computer.
If you or your student are interested in participating in scholastic eSports, contact your administrators to find out what opportunities are available at your school site or district.
For more information on SBCSS eSports, resources to help create a program at your school, to view the tournament schedule or to register for the SBCSS eSports League, please visit esports.sbcss.net.
To receive updates and information about the league, follow @eSportsSBCSS on Twitter.
SAN BERNARDINO, CA—- Alyssa Holmes was a special guest on Wallace Allen’s “Empire Talks Back” radio broadcast on Sunday, October 24. She wrote her Halloween appropriate book, The Bat Blues, when she was nine years old. She is an elementary school student in Highland that is very excited about being back in a classroom. Alyssa will be at the Barnes & Noble Book Store in Montclair beginning at 1 pm on Saturday, October 30th.
Allysa is enthusiastically supported by her mother, Tracy, who has written and published five books and now has her own publishing company, All Home Publishing. You can contact Tracy for more information at 909-745-3763.
The Empire talks Back radio talk show is broadcast each Sunday morning at 10:05 on KCAA 1050 AM, 102.3 & 106.5 FM streaming live video via http://www.kcaaradio.com .
MIDDLETOWN, Va. — Winsome Sears has it all figured out. Black Virginians like her, she believes, are more conservative than they know and even more irked by a Democratic Party that takes them for granted. She hopes that with the right amount of righteous outrage she can bring them with her to the Republican promised land. Sears is the GOP’s nominee for lieutenant governor.
“The Democrats have been successful in instilling fear in people who look like me,” she told Zenger in a wide-ranging interview. “I have had white liberals talk down to me — talk down to me, and as if I didn’t exist — simply because I’m a Republican.”
“I mean, how dare you? Who told you you could talk to me that way? Because I’m not the right kind of black? Is that how this works?”
Developers who gentrify urban blocks and price black Virginians out of their own neighborhoods, she said, often work hand-in-hand with liberal politicians: “I think we have to consider that most of these places that they’re talking about — gentrification — they’re run by Democrats. They are run by Democrats. And so here we go again. We’re talking about — Republicans are supposedly racist, and Democrats are supposedly the ones who care more about you.”
Sears, who joined the U.S. Marines as an 18-year-old Jamaican immigrant, said black voters should be shoulder-to-shoulder with the GOP when it defends gun owners, especially armed women in urban areas. “What am I going to do? Tell these black women, ‘You can’t have guns’? I don’t think so,” said Sears. “When I’m waiting for the police to come, what do I do? How do I protect myself? I don’t know karate.”
She said her time in uniform didn’t shape her views on firearms, but the black community in Virginia’s Hampton Roads region did. “Do you know that the first gun confiscation laws were against black people? … We were the ones who immediately could not own guns, even though it’s our Second Amendment right,” she said. “And so we’re not going to do away with that.”
The National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund made headlines in June when it endorsed Winsome Sears and attorney general hopeful Jason Miyares, but not Glenn Youngkin, the Republican nominee for governor. Its website gives the Democrats in all three races “F” grades but leaves Youngkin with a literal question mark.
The NRA endorsed Republicans for Virginia governor in the last four elections. The organization did not respond to a question about why this year is different. Youngkin spokeswoman Macaulay Porter didn’t address the NRA directly, but said Youngkin “supports the right to keep and bear arms.” His opponent, former Democratic governor Terry McAuliffe, “wants to repeal the Second Amendment and confiscate your guns,” said Porter. The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is not subject to repeal by any governor.
Sears said Virginians have the right to resist government initiatives that require COVID-19 vaccinations as broadly as possible. Pointing to the infamous Tuskegee experiments that subjected black men to syphilis for 40 years without medical treatment, she said that according to some in the Black Lives Matter movement, as many as 85 percent of African-Americans in New York are not vaccinated.
The city’s public health data indicate the number is a bit lower, 72 percent, counting all black New Yorkers between the ages of 18 and 44. “So what’s going to happen with them? Are they now not going to be able to get a job?” she asked. Sears mused about a future where “you have a restaurant employee, a waiter, checking your medical vaccine status. And by the way, you need a photo ID to prove that this is you on that vaccine record? Are you now going to check for HIV status?”
Spokeswoman Delceno Miles declined to say whether Sears is vaccinated. “As per HIPAA laws, she doesn’t have to disclose any medical information,” Miles said in an email. “Winsome encourages those who wish to take the vaccine to do so, but it should not be mandated.”
Sears believes many black Virginians have sympathized with her furrowed brow as state officials dismantle statues of Confederate generals. “The curious thing,” she said, “is that I have spoken to enough black people, and what they’re telling me is that they wanted the statues up, so that they could talk to their children about who this person was, what they did, what they didn’t do.”
And she would prefer to see a statue of a prominent African-American next to every Confederate statue that remains: “It would be wonderful if we could put up other statues of equal grandeur, to then talk about all of history, so that we could say this is what this person did. We could put up a Harriet Tubman.”
Sitting near the brick hearth of the Wayside Inn — the 18th-century lodge survived the Civil War only because soldiers from both sides stayed there, according to the owners — Sears said she wants to see America’s warring racial politics cool down.
“It is not 1963 when my father came,” she said, recalling her family’s roots in Jamaica. “We can now live where we want, we can eat where we want. We own the water fountains. Excuse me. So let’s not. Let’s stop it. Let’s live together.”
And she was viscerally offended in 2012, she says, watching then-Vice President Joe Biden campaign for re-election in the southern Virginia town of Danville. “Listen to his vernacular, his language,” she said, adopting a vocal caricature of a white man trying to affect a black accent. “‘Republicans are going — ’” Sears stops and ratchets the dialect up one notch, matching Biden’s. “‘Republicans gonna put y’all back in chains.’ Excuse me, who are you talking to?”
“And then when Hillary was in a black church, what did she say?” Sears asked, thinking about a 2007 campaign event at the First Baptist Church in Selma, Ala. “‘Ah don’t feel no ways taahred. I come too faaahr to turn back now,’” she says, mimicking Clinton’s sudden leap to the late gospel singer James Cleveland’s accent.
“This is what I’m saying. They take us for granted,” said Sears.
As a state delegate two decades ago, she represented a 60-percent black district that straddles Norfolk and Virginia Beach. Now she’s one of two women vying to make history in an office that has been exclusively male since the Virginia Constitution of 1851 created it. Her opponent is second-term Democratic Delegate Hala Ayala, whose district in a Washington, D.C., commuter county is nestled between the Manassas Civil War battlefield a giant outlet mall. It’s also 69 percent white.
Ayala has a 4-point polling edge in the latest Christopher Newport University Wason Center for Civic Leadership poll, a nonpartisan survey released Oct. 8. She also has the advantage of being a current lawmaker with party relationships to mine and favors to collect. Sears was vice president of the state board of education a decade ago but hasn’t held elective office since 2004, when she left the House of Delegates and unsuccessfully challenged Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott for his seat in Congress.
But her place in history as Virginia’s first black female Republican lawmaker created enough enthusiasm this year among GOP voters to whisk her past two better-funded contenders during a nominating convention in May.
Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears speaks at a campaign rally at the Danville Community Market on October 26, 2021, in Danville, Virginia. Sears was Virginia’s first black female Republican lawmaker, which helped create enough enthusiasm this year among GOP voters to bolster her candidacy. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
She did it without strong positions on two slow-boiling issues.
A Texas law that significantly limited the accessibility of abortion by allowing citizens to sue doctors and nurses who perform them. Would it be a good thing if Virginia lawmakers imitated it? “We’re not in Texas, and I’m not going to talk about that,” she said.
Still, Sears is pro-life with the same guardrails that have kept anti-abortion Republicans in the hunt for women’s votes. “I believe that the baby in the womb wants to live,” she told Zenger. “I also believe that, you know, we have to make sure that the life and health of the mother is respected. So that she has those options. The life and health of the mother.”
Should the next governor phase out an unpopular personal property tax on cars? “Well, we have to find a way to fund government as well. So we have to be careful with what we’re doing,” she said. The annual tax, the steepest of its kind in America, varies from county to county but averages about 4 percent of resale value.
Haggling with tax-enthusiastic politicians over the value of used cars might become Sears’ reality again, but for now it’s a world away.
She lives in Winchester, an apple-orchard town more than 220 miles from her old district. The move came after her eldest daughter, DeJon Williams, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Sears and her husband, Williams’ stepfather, cared for her and eventually for Williams’ two daughters.
All three — Sears’s daughter and granddaughters — would perish in a 2012 car crash when Williams, according to police, slammed into a car at “a high rate of speed” as its driver turned onto the highway in front of her. Victoria was 7. Faith was 5.
The years of grief that followed, said Sears, gave her perspective about which issues are big and which are small. And it led her toward career choices that run far afield from the lawyer she wanted to become after she served in the U.S. Marines. A few, she said, confound some voters’ expectations of a Republican.
“I’ve run a homeless shelter for women and children. I’ve had people be surprised by that [and] ask, ‘How could a Republican care about the homeless people?’” she said.
“I led the men’s prison ministry. Every Wednesday, I was there, six o’clock, delivering a message of hope,” said Sears. “These are the things that we do in our lives, and we don’t do them for accolades. We do them because we care.”
Zenger asked her to react to this month’s tussle between transgender activists and comedian Dave Chappelle, whose latest Netflix special minimizes that community’s comparatively fast track to civil rights by attributing it to their whiteness. “I’ve never had a problem with transgender people,” Chapelle says in the broadcast. “My problem has always been with white people.”
Sears didn’t want to discuss it. “I want to be left alone. I want you to leave me alone. I want you to live your life,” she said in a moment of quiet libertarian exhibitionism.
“I’m trying to live my life the best way I know how,” she said. “I’ve got my own problems. And when you’ve had three children go to heaven in one night, you see the world a little differently.”
Sears said she loves gardening — “I had a 20-pound watermelon, I couldn’t even pick it up” — and that her favorite comfort food is Caribbean ackee and saltfish. “It’s the Jamaican national dish and I could eat it all day,” she said.
And she laughed at a question about her first pet growing up in Jamaica: “It was a chicken.”
Did it have a name? “No, because we killed her and ate her!”
“You know, I thought of her as my pet until one day we killed her,” said Sears. “We always had dogs and cats and things like that. But this chicken was my chicken.”
Edited by Kristen Butler
Visuals Edited by Claire Swift, John Diaz and Bennett Chess
A novel approach to treating type 2 diabetes under development at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology uses tissue engineering to create muscle cells that absorb sugar at increased rates.
Diabetic mice treated in this manner displayed normal blood sugar levels for months after a single autograft procedure using their own enhanced muscle cells.
“By taking cells from the patient and treating them, we eliminate the risk of rejection,” Levenberg said.
Type 2 diabetes is caused by insulin resistance and cells’ reduced inability to absorb sugar, leading to increased blood-sugar levels. Its long-term complications include heart disease, strokes, retina damage, kidney failure and poor blood flow in the limbs.
Although this chronic and common disease can be treated by a combination of lifestyle changes, medication and insulin injections, ultimately it is associated with a 10-year reduction in life expectancy.
Currently, around 34 million Americans suffer from diabetes, mostly type 2. An effective treatment could significantly improve both quality of life and life expectancy. The same method could also be used to treat various enzyme deficiency disorders.
Professor Shulamit Levenberg and PhD student Rita Beckerman. (Courtesy of Technion Spokesperson’s Office)
Researchers observed that the engineered muscle cells not only absorbed sugar correctly, improving blood-sugar levels, but also induced improved absorption in the mice’s other muscle cells.
After the procedure, the mice remained diabetes-free for four months — the entire period they remained under observation. Their blood-sugar levels remained lower, and they had reduced levels of fatty liver normally seen in type 2 diabetes.
Findings from the study, funded by Rina and Avner Schneur as part of the Rina and Avner Schneur Center for Diabetes Research, were recently published in Science Advances.
Other scientists participating in the study are from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto; and Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City.
Other advances in the field by Israeli companies include LifeWave, a connected health solution that produces a device for treating diabetic wounds, and LabStyle Innovations, which was co-founded by Shiloh Ben Zeev. Its flagship product is MyDario, a compact glucose meter connected to mobile devices through a diabetes management app.
“It was the first time an iPhone was used as a medical device,” said Ben Zeev, whose business model was to sell test strips for the glucometer.
Although MyDario won awards for its revolutionary approach, ultimately what survived was the app rather than the device.
There’s no way to overcome losing a decade of your life by being in prison. It’s even tougher when you were wrongfully convicted of a crime.
When Jarrett Adams was 17, he attended a college party that changed his life forever. An innocent make-out session led to Adams being accused of rape. An important statement from an eyewitness was withheld from the trial, and subsequently led to Adams being sentenced to 28 years in jail.
Eventually, with the assistance of the Wisconsin Innocence Project, the eyewitness statement was released, Adams’ conviction was reversed, and he was exonerated — but only after having already served 10 years of his sentence. Seeking to keep others from suffering the same fate, Adams set his sights on the other side of the legal system by becoming a top defense and civil rights attorney.
He is also an author, and his recently released book, “Redeeming Justice,” is testimony to his refusal to give up on himself. It points out the cracks in a flawed system and shows his commitment to fighting the very system that failed him.
During a recent conversation with Adams, Zenger got a detailed breakdown of what led to his sentence, why he felt compelled to write “Redeeming Justice,” and much more.
Percy Crawford interviewed Jarrett Adams for Zenger.
Zenger: I can relate to your story, given the fact that in 1998 you were 17 years old, and I was 18 years old. The only difference is, I was playing high school football, and you were fighting for your freedom. You were falsely accused of rape — how did this situation come on you?
Adams: It was scary if you think about it because I often time tell people, I wasn’t in and out of juvie (juvenile centers), doing drive-by shootings or none of the stereotypical stuff that people would throw on us and say, this kid was bound to be a statistic. What we would do, me and my friends would get together and go party outside of the neighborhood because it was so damn dangerous. If you’re not getting shot or shot at by the dudes on the street, you’re getting pulled over and hoping you survive an encounter with the police in your neighborhood.
Percy Crawford interviewed Jarrett Adams for Zenger. (Heidi Malone/Zenger)
We got together and we would do this often. We would tell each other’s parents, “I’m going to spend the night at so-and-so’s house.” We would take off, go to these house parties, and we did that on this night like we did many nights. We went to a college party. The same things that we did was what everybody on campus was doing.
There were make-out sessions in every room, people were drinking and smoking. It was an embarrassing situation that this young lady’s roommate walked in on, but it was not criminal, man. We weren’t them kids. Who would be stupid enough to be the only three black dudes on the campus, go rape a white girl in a dorm full of white people, and allow the roommate to walk in, take a halftime break, and then come back and continue to rape? It never made sense.
We have been depicted in such a way historically that it makes it easy for people to believe the most demonized thing that they can about a young black man — even if you’re faced with the reality of, “Hold on, this doesn’t make sense.” You never give the benefit of the doubt to the young black man. That’s how the system has been designed. My mom used to say all the time: “You can’t do what other kids do.” I never understood the depths of that, but what she was saying was, ain’t nobody giving you the benefit of the doubt when you’re a young African American kid. That’s what life was.
Zenger: The cops got involved; you were eventually arrested for this. At 17, you had to be scared to death.
Adams: It was scary… the real reason it was scary is this: I come from a household where you respect your elders, you don’t talk back, the same way you was raised down South. My people [are] from Jackson and Cleveland, Mississippi. I get home from this party, and about three weeks later, there is a card in my door telling me to come down to the police station, robbery/homicide. So, I call the guy, and I’m like, “You definitely got the wrong person.” And he was like, “No, you’re right. I want you to come on down and take a picture and clear your name. You’ve never been arrested before.”
I take my dumb ass down there listening to this dude. I’m 17 and he tricked me. Brother, listen to me when I tell you, and I know you’re going to feel me when I say this. I thought I had nothing to worry about because I was telling the truth. I was so naïve. I hadn’t had those experiences. As a result of that, it sent my life on a tailspin. That experience woke a sleeping legal giant.
This wasn’t one of those, there is an accusation made, and the police come and arrest me on the spot. No! That never happened. What saved our life is this, and this is why I encourage everyone to read the book because it gives you all the details of how it went down. And what’s important is this: After this young lady’s roomie walks in and they start arguing, we all go downstairs in the smoking area. We’re in the smoking area and that’s when we see all of the college students, and again, we’re the only black dudes there.
It saved our life, because there was a white student named Shawn Demain who had given them a statement the day after this false accusation like, “That’s not what happened. We saw the black dudes, they were up and down the stairs, they were all around.” They withheld that statement from us. We never got that statement from them to be able to use it. It changed the trajectory of everything. That statement is what led to the reversal of my conviction 10 years later.
Jarrett Adams’ verdict was overturned and he became a lawyer determined to help others avoid a similar fate. (Courtesy Jarrett Adams)
Zenger: While in prison, you decided you didn’t want to just fight for your injustice but for others wrongfully incarcerated as well. You come out, you pass the bar and become a criminal defense attorney. Tell us about the aftermath of being released from prison.
Adams: It wasn’t an easy feat at all. There was so much life lost. Imagine screaming you’re innocent to the top of your lungs for a decade, and then finally, the courts agree. They overturned my conviction, expunged my record, but the damage was not expunged. I missed the cookouts, I missed the graduations, the birth of family members. You can’t replace that. You can’t replace sitting down and being introduced to the family members who were born while you were locked up, and they looking at you like, “Who is this?”
I vividly remember coming home and visiting people in nursing homes, I’m taking them to dialysis, I’m walking around the neighborhood, and I don’t see a pay phone. I remember getting on the bus with a handful of tokens, and they looking at me like a damn fool. The bus doesn’t take tokens no more.
I want you to highlight this as well:I wouldn’t be where I am right now without the encouragement of my family to get mental health care and to decompress. Let it out. That’s what a lot of our young kids need, and they’re not going to do it unless the people in front of them that they look up to are bold enough to talk about it and share their pain and story. I was angry, man. It wasn’t God-like. A fire within you is good, but you need to keep it in your belly; if not, it will consume you.
I had to learn how to keep the fire in my belly and to not let it consume me overall. Therapy just let me talk about it. You ever been going through something, and you got it out, whether you cried it out, talked it out, you have that relief. That’s exactly what mental health care is. Think about the cities down there in Louisiana and think about Illinois, think about what our babies see on a regular basis. You can’t tell me that ain’t stressful. If it is, it’s not post-nothing, it’s persistent traumatic stress syndrome. If it wasn’t for my family getting me to redirect my energy in a positive light, I probably would have tried to take a shortcut.
Zenger: I read where you said, when you came out of prison, your mom gave you a phone and the first time she texted you, you didn’t even know what a text message was.
Adams: Exactly! When the message came through, I had no clue what it was. Part of the reason I wanted them to put your call through… because my schedule crazy, but I wanted them to slide you in because I get a lot of reporters sticking mics in my face now. I can be sitting on the porch with you right now talking. That’s how comfortable you and I are vibin’ right now. It’s important that we tell each other’s stories as well.
Jarrett Adams’ new book has received shout-outs from the NBA’s Allen Iverson and actor Larenz Tate. (Courtesy Jarrett Adams)
Zenger: Not to give away too much of the book because it’s a must-read, but I have to ask you, do you feel the system is broken or intentionally flawed?
Adams: This is how I would explain it: The system is designed flawed. When we say it’s a broken system, there was an idea that was created around the criminal justice system, the reason why it was flawed is because the people who created it didn’t look like me, you, or any other ethnic person. I’ll give you an example. If you get accused of whatever it is you get accused of, and when you get accused of it, Percy gotta put up his house, or Jarrett gotta put up his land or property.
That sounds good for people who have houses and property. When the people created the criminal justice system and all the things in it, they didn’t take into account people like me and you, our mothers and fathers. If they didn’t design it to equally protect us, it’s going to disproportionately impact us. That’s what’s going on. We don’t throw away the entire idea of cooking with gas just because it burned a steak. We go back in, we acknowledge it, and we fix it.
Zenger: What influenced you to write “Redeeming Justice?”
Adams: I send a shout-out to black women. I used to wonder, “Why the hell I have to always call you when I’m leaving out the house, or just a couple of blocks away, momma? Why I gotta call you when the streetlights coming on or you heard an ambulance? Why do you have to be so worried?” You know what, Percy, I will never ask that question again because I see why. The boys these black women give birth to that they pray become men are under direct threat, and the men that they love and conceive with are under direct threat. Nobody has been stronger than black women in history.
What I wanted to do was tip my cap to my mother and my two aunts. They remained and stood firm. Brother, you know how many family members get lost when you go through something like the joint. I could’ve written the book and clearly said, death to all the people involved, they’re racist, but that wasn’t going to accomplish my goal. I wanted to make sure I acknowledge the black women, the suffrage and the praying. I have had mothers come up to me in the airport and say, “Look, I just want to thank you because that scene you describe of your mother crying in the bathtub was me.”
Zenger: How does it make you feel to receive support from Allen Iverson, Larenz Tate and so many others on the book?
Adams: It means that the light is coming on. If you look back, it was more than Dr. [Martin Luther] King, it was more than Malcolm X and Harriet Tubman. Those are the names they told us about. But there were several other people who were on the front lines moving this thing along. I’m praying through people like A.I. and Larenz that folks understand I’m a part of that generational torch carrier, a person who is leading other people and preparing their hands to carry it the rest of the way. This is about duplication.
This isn’t about Jarrett Adams, this isn’t about the brand, this is about preparing the next hand to carry the torch. That’s what we have to do.
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