Category Archives: Lifestyle

Business, City, Community, Lifestyle, News

Community stands up for Palm Center

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Community members from the greater Old Spanish Trail (OST) area filled Judge Zinetta Burney’s courtroom on the second floor of the Palm Center to the max as they questioned city officials and Marlon Mitchell of the Houston Business Development Inc. about the rumored closure of Palm Center.

Palm Center is a staple for the greater OST region as a place of economic development. Ken Bolton, former Assistant Director of Economic Development for the city of Houston’s Housing and Community Development, addressed the assembled first about the vision for Palm Center for the past 25 years as a place for revitalization and business development. Bolton went on to say that the Palm Center is an engine for economic development and wherever economic development is there is money.

Councilmember Wanda Adams quickly approached the crowd to offer her support and to publicly say she stands with the community she represents in District D.

“I offer my commitment as an elected leader,” said Adams. “There is no way there are any plans to sell Palm Center.”

For there to be a sale of Palm Center it would be up to a city council vote and Councilwoman Adams strongly said there won’t be any support for it amongst her colleagues.

Elected officials and hopefuls from around the city took turns trying to quiet the concerns of the people assembled. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee called as she was in Washington at the time to say that the federal dollars she allowed to trickle down for Palm Center would not just fade away in vain.

“I will fight to make sure there is no sale to Palm Center,” said Lee. “A change to Palm Center won’t be tolerated.”

The city of Houston Housing Department represented Mayor Parker. They presented a letter from Neal Rackleff, Director of Housing and Community Development, stating that the City has placed Land Use Restrictions (Restrictive Covenants) on the Palm Center for a period of 20 years “to insure that HBDI will use the Palm Center Project for economic development purposes” and that HBDI may “not sell, lease, transfer or otherwise dispose of the Palm Center Project Property, without the prior approval of City Council and if “HBDI agrees that its failure to abide by the terms and conditions of this Agreement, including the Restrictive Covenants … will result in a default. The city of Houston will enforce the contract in order to make sure a sale of Palm Center doesn’t happen.

Carroll Robinson, Board Trustee, District IV Houston Community College spoke to HCC’s role in the rumored closure of Palm Center’s closure. Originally Palm Center was a target area for the westward expansion of HCC’s campuses but the proposal did not make much headway with HBDI and HCC will expand in the Medical Center.

At this point is where the confusion set in for the proposal from HCC was a main catalyst for concern about the future of Palm Center. Leaders such as Judge Zinetta Burney and Constable May Walker of Precinct 7, whom have their offices located in the Palm Center, both declared that HCC could not make a home inside Palm Center even though they are champions for growth in the area.

“I was told by high level people that HCC wants to buy Palm Center,” said Burney. “I hope HCC puts a campus nearby just not at the Palm Center.”

The entertaining of the idea of closure cause for serious upset and Constable Walker demanded to know what the plans would be for Palm Center stating that everyone needed to know what was going on.

For now Palm Center is safe. There will be no sale of the facility but across the street there will be a state of the art, two story library built with $6 million from the HISD bond that was voted on in last November’s election. The Young Branch Library will break ground in June 2014.

City, Health, Lifestyle, News

City of Houston helps train communities in bystander CPR

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The Houston Department of Health and Human Services and the local chapter of the American Heart Association along with Rice University teamed up to do research about the air quality and cardiac arrest in Houston and found a bigger issue of Houstonians failing to do cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) as a bystanders in predominately African American communities in Houston.

Mayor Parker introduced Dr. David Persse, EMS director and the health authority for the city’s Department of Health and Human Services, and his team as she spoke about the collaboration between the city and the American Heart Association to do neighborhood sessions to teach CPR to the communities that their research has told them is at higher risk for cardiac arrest without the help of bystander CPR.

“It’s hard to see someone suffering and you don’t know what to do. Each of us has the ability with our own hands to save lives. Houston has an outstanding EMS system and been on the cutting edge of research with our public EMS system,” said Parker. “Recently the public health authority, Dr. David Persse and statisticians from Rice University examined health outcome data that’s related to Houston’s air quality. We noticed an unequal distribution of cardiac arrest and with further evaluation we also noted a disparity in bystander CPR.”

The disparity was found in Sunnyside, South Park, Riverside, Magnolia, Denver Harbor, 5th Ward and Acres Homes. Since June there has been 4,520 people trained in those neighborhoods on how to do bystander CPR.
“Due to the work of our emergency responders the local cardiac arrest survival rates are the best among the nation however the chances of survival are even better when a bystander can step in with CPR in those critical moments before emergency help arrives,” said Persse. “The Houston Health Department has initiated a partnership with the American Heart Association to provide hands only CPR training specifically in high risk neighborhoods that they identified.”

With CPR being reintroduced without the mouth to mouth component it should appeal to a much larger base. The lack of knowledge about cardiac arrest and the benefits of CPR have resulted in loss of life to many although Houston has one of the best rates in the country for surviving cardiac problems.

“There are certain things that make people hesitant to do bystander CPR like for instance we have taken out the mouth to mouth part because for many years people were afraid to do mouth to mouth and that’s no longer a part of CPR and people need to know that,” said Persse. “Its hands only CPR and actually its very easily done and not terribly strenuous but it is the bridge between when somebody collapses and when professional rescuers get there and we also know from our data that when someone performs bystander CPR it more than doubles that persons chance of survival.

The place that cardiac arrest happen the most are at home around family which is why it is an incentive that people learn CPR to save family. There have been thousands trained in the city and it is simple enough for a child to learn how to do.

Donna Travis, division manager of the Houston Department of Health and Human Services started the outreach education of CPR from the beginning. Her hopes is to continue the neighborhood training and encourages Houstonians to participate in individual sessions or organizations or churches can join in a partnership to teach and train individuals in CPR to save lives and communities.

Travis or anyone on her team can be reached at 713-527-4000 for any information.

City, Community, Entertainment, Lifestyle

July Upcoming Events

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Carl Hampton Memorial at P.A.B.A.
The People’s Party #3 , Black Panther Party Alumni and the Progressive Amateur Boxing Association (P.A.B.A.) commemorate slain activist, Carl Hampton on Saturday, July 20, 2013 at the P.A.B.A 3212 Dowling St. 77004 from 12 pm-2 pm. A candlelight vigil will be held at 6 pm. Entertainment: Guest speakers, poets, face painters and vendors.
For more information call: 832-507-8096 or projectgoodcare@yahoo.com. Donations can be delivered to the P.A.B.A. Sister Ayanna Ade will be honored.

1000 Women in White Annual Day at Holman Baptist Church
July 21th, a 1000 Women in White “Women of faith rooted and grounded in the word of God” will host their annual event at Holman Baptist Church, 3501 Holman Street Houston, TX 77004 at 3:30 pm.

“A Dialogue- The Proposed Closure of Palm Center”
The Old Spanish Trail Community Partnership invites you to “A Dialogue- The Proposed Closure of Palm Center” on Monday , July 22, 2013 at 6:00 pm- 7:30 pm inside of Judge Zinetta Burney’s Courtroom, Palm Center Annex 2nd Floor 5330 Griggs Road. Open to the public

Texas Legislative Black Caucus Town Hall Meeting on July 24th from 6:30p to 8:30p
On Wednesday, July 24th from 6:30p to 8:30p, the Texas Legislative Black Caucus will host a Town Hall meeting in the McCoy Auditorium (Room 114) of the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs of the Texas Southern University Campus located at 3100 Cleburne (Tierwester & Cleburne). The Texas Legislative Black Caucus has partnered with the KEY PAC, Houston Sun, Houston Sun, Houston Forward Times, Majic 102FM, KTSU Radio, KCOH 1230AM and the Texas Southern University – School of Public Affairs for this event.
The Town Hall meeting will provide unprecedented access to African American members of the Texas Legislature from the Houston-area as we cover topics such as the 83rd Session, the recent Supreme Court decision striking down Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act and the impact on Texas, in particular on Voter ID, and the Trayvon Martin verdict.
This meeting will provide a unique opportunity for members of the community to discuss the 83rd Session, as well as how recent Supreme Court actions will have an impact on them. In addition, we want to have a discussion with the community on what lies ahead after the Trayvon Martin verdict. Further, we encourage and will provide an opportunity for members of the community to ask questions to members of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus for a fulfilling, in-depth exchange benefitting all those in attendance with the most current information on the important recent actions which will impact their lives.
For more information, contact Murry Matthews or Alison Brock at 1.866.885.8900 or 512.463.0554.


The Prairie View Interscholastic League Coaches Association host banquet
The Prairie View Interscholastic League Coaches Association “PVILCA” will host their 34th Annual banquet/ awards ceremony on Saturday, July 27, 2013 in Fort Worth, TX. ( Irving, TX at the Westin Dallas- Fort Worth Airport Hotel from 1:30 – 4:30 pm.
The Houston Area inductees are Daye Shon Roberson, Gary Joseph, Mareon Lewis, Billie Matthews, Elton Conger, Clifford Mc Bride, Thomas Valley, Marcus Moseley and Jerrell “Tank” Washington.
The PVILCA is an organization preserving the past while remembering the ‘glory years’ of the Prairie View Interscholastic League Coaches Association. The organization instills personal pride and self esteem by increasing cultural awareness of the PVILCA heritage.
For table and ticket information contact Robert Brown at 713-747-3764.

Rev. Timothy Dinger to Speak:Annual Camp Lone Star BBQ
Rev. Timothy Dinger, Pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Port Arthur, will be the featured speaker t the Annual BBQ Worship Service at 11: 00 am on Sunday, July 28 at Camp Lone Star.
The day will include the traditional Barbeque dinner at 12:00 noon with all the trimmings. Drive –thru BBQ plates can also be purchased for $8.00 from 11:00 am to 12:30 p.m.. Live and silent benefit auctions follow from 1-3:00 p.m. indoors in the camp’s Koop Center.
For more information on the Barbeque or to donate an item to the auction, please call 1-979-968-1657 or go to camp’s website at www. LOMT.com.

Back to School Health Fair and Supply Drive
The Friends of Emancipation Park will partner with Houston Parks and Recreation Department to host their first Back to School Health Fair and Supply Drive on August 17, 2013 at Emancipation Park Community Center, 3018 Dowling Houston, TX 77004 from 9am – 12 pm. Proof of enrollment is mandatory. Parents must bring the student to receive and supplies.

Lifestyle, News

George Zimmerman found not guilty in Trayvon Martin shooting death

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George Zimmerman
George Zimmerman
A not guilty verdict was rendered, Saturday July 13, 2013 in the 2nd degree murder trial of George Zimmerman. Zimmerman was on trial in Florida for the alleged self defense killing of 17 year- old Trayvon Martin as he was walking home un-armed from a corner store to his father’s girlfriend’s home.

The trial has proved to be racially charged as many believe the outcome may have been different if the ethnicity of Zimmerman and Martin were switched.

On many social media outlets people have changed their avatars to a black screen or to an image in black with a hoodie to represent their support of the Martin family. Superstars took to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and other social media outlets to express their disappointment in the verdict as well.

Zimmerman who didn’t testify in his own defense faced 20 years to life if convicted. The stand your ground law stood firm and has set precedent as a law the will stand up in court.

Community, Lifestyle, News

Rick Perry will not seek re-election for govenor of Texas

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Rick Perry, Govenor of Texas
Rick Perry, Govenor of Texas

Rick Perry will not seek re-election as governor of Texas in this upcoming election.

Perry is the longest to serve as govenor of Texas, elected in 2000. He is the successor of former president, George W. Bush.

The govenor may just try for another shot as the president as he said any, “future considerations” will be announced “in due time and I will arrive at that decision appropriately.”

Perry’s departure leads to many question marks about the future leader of Texas as many politicians have waited many years to take a shot at that seat.

City, Community, Lifestyle

The Friends of Emancipation Park presents The Lonal Robinson Volunteer Award

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The Lonal Robinson Award will be given to two nominees from the Friends of Emancipation Park.
The Lonal Robinson Award will be given to two nominees from the Friends of Emancipation Park.

Celebrate Emancipation Park’s 141st birthday and the presentation of the Lonal Robinson Volunteer of the Year Award by the Friends of Emancipation Park on July 13, 2013 at Emancipation Park, 3018 Dowling St. 77004.

Education, Lifestyle, News

Abigail Fisher beats UT and makes ripples with affirmative action

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Abigail Fisher is a graduate of Lousiana State Univerity with a degree in finance. While earning that degree at LSU, Fisher took on the University of Texas- Austin in lawsuit based on a “no” for admission to the university.

In 2008, Fisher was denied acceptance to UTA and decided not to take it as a part of the college application experience. She alleged the school’s affirmative action policies are the reasons she was not accepted.

UTA admits the top 10 percent of students from every Texas graduating high school class, Fisher still found fault with the admission policy as she alleged that African- American and Hispanic students were let in due to the effect of racial diversity for the school.

Fisher did not fall into the top 10 percentile of her graduating class in Sugarland.

Her goal is for the Supreme Court to rule that it shall be illegal for the University of Texas-Austin to include race in admissions decisions.

Abigail Fisher won her case and UTA nor any other university will not be able to use race during the admission process.

Editorial, Lifestyle, News

Texas State Senator Rodney Ellis: Why I stood with Wendy

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Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, left, and Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, right, vote against a motion to call for a rules violation during Davis' filibusters of an abortion bill, Tuesday, June 25, 2013, in Austin, Texas. Davis was given a second warning for breaking filibuster rules by receiving help from Ellis with a back brace. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, left, and Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, right, vote against a motion to call for a rules violation during Davis’ filibusters of an abortion bill, Tuesday, June 25, 2013, in Austin, Texas. Davis was given a second warning for breaking filibuster rules by receiving help from Ellis with a back brace. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

State Senator Rodney Ellis

On Tuesday, I joined my friend and colleague Senator Wendy Davis as she engaged in a heroic and historic filibuster to protect women’s health in Texas. I could not be more proud of her and my fellow Senators as we helped defeat some of the most onerous women’s health restrictions in the nation. It was an incredible, awe-inspiring moment of passionate citizen action meeting incredible personal will and strength.

Senate Bill 5 was an unprecedented, unreasonable and unconscionable attack on women’s health. It would have eliminated access to reproductive services in all but 4 of Texas’ 254 counties in Texas and all but eradicated Texas women’s ability to receive constitutionally-protected health care services. Opponents of reproductive freedom want to make it virtually impossible for Texas women to seek safe, legal health care without facing the political consequences of trying to ban all abortions. It is a cynical, destructive but, sadly, effective strategy.

Rather than taking up issues that hard-working Texans want us to address, we are instead continuing the war on women by decreasing Texas women’s access to health care. Senate Bill 5 would enact some of the most restrictive limitations on reproductive freedom in the nation. They bring Big Government into what should be a very personal and private matter between a woman, her doctor and her faith, all under the Orwellian talking point of ‘protecting women’s health.’

Texas women deserve better.

During the original Senate debate on this bill, members in favor of harsh restrictions spoke eloquently about caring for the unborn, noting that these measures will increase the quality and standard of care. They, somewhat incredulously, argued that this anti-choice legislation has nothing to do with restricting a Texas woman’s right to control her own body. But let’s suspend disbelief for a moment and give proponents of further erosion of reproductive rights the benefit of the doubt and say they truly are concerned about women’s health. If that is sincerely the case, then the answer is shockingly simple: expand access to health insurance under Obamacare.

Yet they refused to accept all amendments or changes, including an amendment I offered which would truly improve the quality of life and health of Texas women and families.

This amendment would have made these anti-choice bills effective only if Texas expands Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. With approximately one in four Texans lacking insurance and about 16 percent of Texas children uninsured, this amendment could have provided health insurance to approximately 1.5 million additional Texans, including resources to improve access to quality care for women, infants and children.

Lack of adequate health insurance coverage makes it hard for Texas families to get the health care they need, and if and when they do it leaves them with large medical bills. In fact, study after study has shown that one of the best ways to protect and improve the health of women and babies – born and unborn – is by expanding access to quality health insurance. Having health insurance contributes to healthier mothers, healthier children, and significantly reduces infant mortality. In fact, women who lack insurance are more likely to have inadequate care, receive a significantly lower standard of care and are more likely to postpone or skip entirely needed care because they lack the money to pay for it. This has a serious impact on all Texans, especially our children.

The sad truth is that Texas is failing our mothers, failing our children and failing to focus on solutions that help all Texans, rather than narrow partisan interests. Texas women and families deserve better.

Lifestyle

The Beauty of Juneteenth

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Joy Williams
The Houston Sun

As we embark upon another round of celebratory traditions for June 19, 1865 or as we affectionately call it, Juneteenth, it is important to remember that this holiday does not just commemorate the date that the Emancipation Proclamation was enforced in Texas. It represents the day that the opportunity was presented for the emancipation of the black psyche from the limitations imposed upon us through slavery. A large portion of our black identity has been shaped and reshaped in the 150 years since we have been freed (148 years in Texas). Most often our identity is reflected in our beauty culture. From the braids and locks that were violently removed from the heads of Africans enslaved and carried to the West on slave ships to the naturals, relaxers, and weaves sported by women today, how we feel about ourselves and our culture has historically been displayed through our hair and cosmetic adornments.
It is not surprising then, that upon the heels of freedom many of our first generation entrepreneurs were pioneers in the black hair care industry as well as advocates for financial and community empowerment.

Such entrepreneurs recognized the fractured sense of self in the Black Community as a result of enslavement and helped us regain our footing as we once again embraced that thing that makes us unique- the ability to express ourselves through our beauty culture like only we can!
A few of the many notable figures in the shaping of our beauty identity are:
Annie Malone(1869-1957) developed her own shampoos and scalp treatments to grow and straighten hair and used street demos as her main marketing tool. Her company, Poro Products became an international company with customers in the United States, Africa, South America and the Caribbean. In 1918 Malone built a four-story million dollar factory and beauty school complex in the historic St. Louis neighborhood known as The Ville. She employed over 175 people (including at one point Sarah Breedlove, who would later become known as Madam C.J. Walker.)

Madam C.J. Walker (1867-1919) suffered from hair loss in her thirties and began experimenting with different hair treatments and products to regrow her own hair. At 39, she moved to Denver, Colorado where she married Charles Walker and began selling her “Wonderful Hair Grower” through door-to-door sales. In 1908 she opened Leila College (her daughter’s namesake) to train “hair culturists.” In 1910 she opened the Madam CJ Walker Manufacturing Company in Indiana and began training of the “Walker Agents”. The company empowered black women to gain economic mobility through commissions from direct sales rather than being pigeonholed as maids and nurses. In addition C.J. Walker Preparations, included facial treatment powders and other cosmetic treatments created for and marketed to Black women. Walker is featured in the Guinness Book of Records as the first Self-Made Millionaire.

Madame Nobia A. Franklin (1880-1934) expanded her beauty salon into a chain in 1915 and eventually created one of the first major lines of cosmetics to include face powders that were meant to flatter, rather than lighten darker skin tones. By 1917 she opened the Franklin School of Beauty Culture and relocated the manufacturing, salon and educational operations to right here to Houston, Tx. In 1922 she moved to Chicago to further her business and soon began to teach others “the Franklin way” of styling hair using her products. Like Malone and Walker, she trained women to style and grow hair using her products and encouraged them to set up shops to style, straighten hair and sell the company’s skin and hair products. Products included hair tonics, hair growers, soaps, pressing oil and face powder customized for an African American clientele.