BY MARISA KENDALL (CALMATTERS) – California’s massive effort to shelter homeless residents during the COVID-19 pandemic was a success, according to a new report that says the effort changed the state’s homeless services system for the better. But at the same time, the researchers pointed out a troubling dearth of available data on the program. With the little information they were able to access, they found that people who left the program had at least a 40% chance of returning to homelessness. Project Roomkey, one of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature pandemic initiatives, temporarily moved a ..read more

(US MEDIA GROUP) – Tragedy struck the Sacramento community over the weekend when 18-year-old Jeremiah Walker, a student at Grant Union High School, was shot and killed at a house party in Natomas. According to Mervin Brookins, founder of Brother to Brother Mentoring and Walker’s grandfatherly figure, the young man was known for his kind nature and was preparing to graduate in a few weeks. Brookins, who considers himself Walker’s grandfather after helping raise him, said he was devastated to hear about his grandson’s death. “There’s no pain like losing a child, losing a loved one,” he said. “E ..read more

By Kieth Boykin | Word In Black “Black Vote, Black Power,” a collaboration between Keith Boykin and Word In Black,  examines the issues, the candidates, and what’s at stake for Black America in the 2024 presidential election. ​​(WIB) – The past two weeks of campus protests have exposed the hypocrisy of Republicans who claim to stand for “law and order” and free speech. As NYPD officers converged onto Hamilton Hall at Columbia University Tuesday night, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called into Fox News and complained that police should have acted ..read more

BALTIMORE (AP) — Growing up in the streets of east Baltimore surrounded by poverty and gun violence, two kids named Antonio became fast friends. Both called “Tone,” they were similarly charismatic and ambitious, dreaming of the day they would finally leave behind the struggles that defined their childhoods. One has. The other never will. Antonio Lee was shot and killed last summer. In the weeks that followed, his friend Antonio Moore warned their peers about the consequences of retaliation, trying to prevent more needless bloodshed and stolen futures in a city that consistently rank ..read more

By Genoa Barrow | OBSERVER Senior Staff Writer Drawing is a favorite pastime for children who often capture themselves playing with friends or enjoying life with their families and beloved pets. Paul Kaiser remembers creating much darker images. “Some of my earliest memories of negative emotions, if you want to label them as that, are around dealing with very strong emotions that were depression,” shares Kaiser, now 30. “I would draw these pictures of me basically killing myself and stuff like that when I got really, really sad. My brain would rationalize it like, ‘Oh, if I weren’t alive, then ..read more

Antonio‌ ‌Ray‌ ‌Harvey‌ ‌|‌ ‌California‌ ‌Black‌ ‌Media‌ (CBM) – Assemblymember Lori Wilson (D-Suisun City) addressed a group of advocates and activists, including formerly incarcerated men and women at the State Capitol last week.  She promised them that she is determined to advance Assembly Constitutional Amendment (ACA) 8 “across the finish line” for voters’ to decide in a November General Election referendum. Wilson, Chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC), was speaking at an April 29 rally at the State Capitol organized to promote “The En ..read more

By Paxtyn Merten | Stacker Andrey_Popov // Shutterstock (Stacker) – For every dollar a typical white worker earns in America, a Black worker earns 84 cents, and a Hispanic or Latino worker earns just 76 cents. The racial wage gap is persistent, and as policy and the economy change, so do the disparities. Differences in education and experience—which are often used to explain away the pay gap—explain less than half of the disparity in compensation between Black and white workers, according to a 2022 Economic Policy Institute study. Data points to structural racism and discrimination in hiring ..read more

By Rev. Dorothy S. Boulware | Word In Black (WIB) – Given its rich history, it’s safe to say that New Psalmist Baptist Church is as much a part of Baltimore as crab cakes, Orioles baseball games and “The Wire.”  Founded in the basement of a house just a few decades after the CIvil War, the church grew from a few dozen souls in the late 1800s to a congregation that at one point reached 7,000 active members. Revs. Martin Luther King and Jesse Jackson have visited; so has Pastor T.D. Jakes, former President Bill Clinton and then-Sen. Barack Obama. It ministers to the poor, the deaf, the ..read more

By Willy Blackmore | Word In Black (WIB) – After nearly 200 years of burning coal as a major energy source in the United States — and about a half-century of knowing that it would cause damage to the earth’s climate — the end of the coal era may finally be in sight.  A new Environmental Protection Agency rule could dramatically accelerate the gradual tapering off of American coal-fired power.The rule, announced last week, marks the first time the federal government has regulated carbon emissions from existing power plants. READ MORE: A Whole Lot of Black People Live Near Deadly  ..read more

By Charlene Crowell | Trice Edney Wire (TriceEdneyWire.com) – Multiple recent announcements from the Biden administration offer new hope for the 43.2 million borrowers hoping to get relief from the onerous burden of a collective $1.727 trillion dollars of student loan debt. On April 16, the federal Education Department initiated a regulatory change that could give an estimated 30 million student loan borrowers, including Black and Latino borrowers, up to $20,000 in interest forgiveness if they have: Paid on their loans for 20 years or longer; Balances that in repayment are now larger than the ..read more