(US MEDIA GROUP) – After almost 10 months without a permanent superintendent, the Sacramento City Unified School District Board of Education made a unanimous decision on Thursday to appoint Lisa Allen to the position. Allen, who has been serving as interim superintendent since her predecessor Jorge Aguilar’s resignation in June of 2023, has been with the district for 28 years. Allen, who is the first Black woman appointed as superintendent in the district, and just the second woman in the district’s history began her career as a resource teacher supporting Title I students. Lisa Allen (Courte ..read more

SACRAMENTO (US MEDIA GROUP) – Sol Blume, the popular music festival known for its R&B and hip-hop lineup, will not be taking place in 2024 due to “significant damage” and “growing safety concerns” at Discovery Park, organizers announced on the festival’s website Friday. The decision to cancel the 2024 edition comes after ticket holders raised questions online about whether the festival would still happen. According to organizers, Sol Blume will return to Sacramento on August 15-17, 2025 instead. The announcement cited damage from recent rainstorms in Sacramento as the cause for concern, s ..read more

Edward Henderson | California Black Media (CBM) – Photographs serve as historical records, framing both big moments and small ones. Those images evoke a range of emotions such as passion, sadness, joy, nostalgia and more, connecting us emotionally to the history captured in them. L.A.-based photographer and organizer Ron Wilkins, 78, showcases powerful images he captured from the Black liberation movements of the of the 1960s and beyond in his new book “Crook’s Lens: A Photographic Journey Through the Black Liberation Struggle,” published on Jan. 30, 2024. The book by Wilkins includes photogra ..read more

By Keyshawn Davis | Solving Sacramento About six years ago, Dr. William Sands, the director of special projects for University of the Pacific’s Pacific Health Care Collaborative, was tasked with finding a place to locate this new health education program, where students could learn and practice health together in collaboration with UOP.  Sands said he was told by the university’s dean of the Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry, Dr. Nader Nadershahi, his vision of what that would look like, and Sands started meeting with local, state and federal health advisers to find out where there was ..read more

By Stacker Canva (Stacker) – Fuel prices continued to rise through Monday. A gallon of regular gasoline hit an average of $3.68, up about 4 cents from a week earlier. Prices are now at their highest point so far this year, according to data from AAA. Oil prices have been holding steady the past few days, as traders anxiously watched the conflict in the Middle East. After launching a series of attacks on each other, Iran and Israel both appear eager to avoid an all-out war. Iranian officials have downplayed Israel’s latest strike and said they had no plans to retaliate. Further de-escalation w ..read more

By Rev. Dorothy S. Boulware | Word In Black (WIB) – From helping businesses with recruitment or workforce development, to aiding folks who need help tailoring their resumes and prepping for interviews, Hennither Gant has it covered. The Baltimore-area resident and founder of Career Image Solutions, has spent the past 12 years bringing her human resources expertise, entrepreneurial expertise, and common-sense approach to her work. “Through insightful consultations and assessments, we collaborate closely with our clients to uncover their professional identity and chart a course toward rewarding ..read more

By Tonya Lewis Lee | Word In Black (WIB) – As the maternal mortality rate in America continues to spike, Black Maternal Health Week is an urgent call to action. American women are dying at a higher rate from pregnancy-related causes than in any other developed nation, and Black women are three times more likely to die of complications than their white counterparts. The CDC reports that 85% of US maternal deaths are preventable, and the deaths that do occur tend to reflect a systemic issue rather than a pathology on the part of Black women. RELATED: As Biden Builds on Obamacare, Trump Vows ..read more

By Anissa Durham | Word In Black (WIB) – We all need food. It shouldn’t matter what your background is; everyone should have access to affordable, high-quality food. But, in the country we live in, that’s not always the case. Students at historically black colleges and universities are reportedly facing higher rates of food insecurity than students at predominantly white institutions.   Nationally, 23% of college students experienced food insecurity in 2020. However, 46% of students attending private and public HBCU campuses reported food insecurity in 2020, according to the&nbs ..read more

By Hannah Ross | Solving Sacramento The Sacramento arts scene may be on the brink of transformation. Since a pandemic that had threatened to gut local arts scenes globally, the community has worked tirelessly first to survive, and then to rebrand, shift, change — to become the dynamic and inclusive creative space the city envisions for itself.  But the reformation is not without its growing pains.  Following the public call-out of Wide Open Walls over an ill-executed cultural project in Little Saigon, Verge Center for the Arts has come under scrutiny over the evictions of two residen ..read more

SAN FRANCISCO (US MEDIA GROUP) – Renowned pastor and activist, Rev. Cecil Williams, passed away Monday at the age of 94 in San Francisco. He is best known for his leadership at the Glide Memorial Church in the city’s Tenderloin district, where he oversaw several community outreach projects for over six decades. Williams retired as pastor in 2000, but continued to work with Glide to provide support and resources for the impoverished residents of the city. He is most well-known for Glide’s annual Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, which feed hundreds of thousands of people in need. He also pri ..read more