Pomona, CA- It has happened again, nearly two years ago Vons/Safeway Grocery Store in Upland, CA tossed out the Inland Valley News (IVN) newspapers and now Walmart in Pomona, CA has joined them. On April 19, 2012, Tommy Morrow, Publisher of the Inland Valley News, received a phone call from someone who identified himself as a manager at the Rio Rancho Walmart by the name of David, demanded that the Inland Valley News newspapers be removed from the store. The manager informed Mr. Morrow that he was acting on the directive of the Regional Manager whom he named as John. The Rio Rancho Walmart in Pomona is one of the major locations that readers go to pick up their complimentary paper of the Inland Valley News.
For the last five years the Inland Valley News has had a great relationship with Walmart. Up until recently consumers have been able to receive their complimentary copy of the newspaper from the Rio Rancho store. This unpopular decision made by Walmart has affected nearly 2,000 weekly readers.
This act comes as a complete shock and surprise to the IVN. For over 20 years, the Inland Valley News (IVN) has been a reputable publication that has served the Inland Valley communities. It is the only legally adjudicated and audited print publication targeted toward the Black community between Los Angeles and San Bernardino. This newspaper serves nearly 70,000 readers each week as the voice of the African American community throughout Southern California’s Inland Valley.

The Inland Valley News and Walmart have had a longstanding relationship. The newspaper, along with its nonprofit organization Shining Glory Publications, holds an annual Celebration of Excellence Awards Gala in which we honor those members of the community who have excelled in their fields as well as other unsung heroes in the community. This is the largest business gathering of African American business and community leaders, and political figures in the Inland Valley. For the last several years Walmart has been one of the primary sponsors, both financially and by attending and taking part as a presenter for the annual event. Walmart was one of the recipients of the Corporate Community Service award which was given to John Mc Bride, a former manager of the Pomona Walmart store and now manager in Oregon. “He was the one who invited us to bring the newspapers to that location,” Morrow said.

This year Walmart executives simply ignored the call for support of the Gala by evading emails, letters and calls, which eventually led to the Inland Valley News being asked to remove the papers from the store. There was no reason given for Walmart’s failure to return emails, messages, voicemail and correspondences. This is the same community in which so many Walmart stores continue to thrive because many in the Black community are loyal Walmart shoppers.

“As a black business owner, as well as Publisher of a black-interest newspaper, I strongly encouraged Walmart to reconsider the decision to remove the Inland Valley News from its store. In the last several years I have appreciated the support that we have received from Walmart and have welcomed the relationships that have been built with many of the former Pomona store managers and executives. I believe that Walmart has a corporate responsibility to support, uplift and serve the community where they do considerable business,” Morrow said.

This case is a huge injustice to the African American community. Without Walmart being a location to pick up the Inland Valley News newspaper, readers now have to pick up their weekly copies from different locations outside of their area.

“I received a phone call about this issue. It is an unfortunate situation, and now I will contact the executives about it,” Rich Wallace, President, Southern California Black Chambers of Commerce, said.

Let your voices be heard, call these numbers and let the executives know how you feel to have the Inland Valley News in your local store: (479) 204-6662, Leslie Dach, l1dach@Walmart.com; Margaret Sans, (479) 204- 8119, Maggie.Sans@Walmart.com; and (909) 620-4602, Rio Rancho Walmart.

Watch this and other publications for updates on this critical issue that affects this community. There is more to come.

Westside Action Group (WAG) Members and honorees assemble.

Rancho Cucamonga, CA- The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s was an era where Civil Rights leaders strived to make things equal and fair for African American. The Civil Rights eased racial segregation. Now fast forward to 20 years in San Bernardino where racial tension was still an issue, which is why the Westside Action Group was formed, so that it can ease that tension.

On Friday, May 11 at the extravagant Ra Pour Restaurant in the heart of the Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga, the Westside Action Group (WAG) celebrated 40 years of service to the community. This was an event of business networking and recognition of California Legislative Black Caucus’ present and former members.

Westside Action Group was formed in the early 1970’s as a liaison organization to intervene on behalf of the Westside community for the City of San Bernardino to defuse de facto segregation and racial tension. The co-founders, Hardy Brown and Robert “Bob” Parker organized the group as the Black Fathers.

“What started out as an idea by my neighbor, Robert “Bob” Parker, talking with me about the need to organize a political action group is celebrating forty years of service. Bob was an entrepreneur at heart and always believed in ‘charting your own course’ when it came to providing for your family and guiding your destiny in the political arena. In our discussions before and during the genesis of Westside Action Group, he wanted to train and support candidates but also raise money for campaigns. The name was supposed to be Westside Political Action Group but due to the political climate at the time, the word “political” was dropped,” Hardy Brown, Publisher of the Black Voice News, said.

Currently, the Westside Action Group serves as a community forum and an activist organization to improve the lives of people living in the region; support community based organizations; develop and evaluate public policies; create committees to develop policy strategies; support political leaders and candidates; and to invite speakers to address a variety of topics.

The 40th Anniversary reception was opened with a welcome from Assemblymember Wilmer Amina Carter of the 62nd Assembly District. Carter introduced Senator Curren D. Price, the Chairman of the California Legislative Black Caucus. Senator Price acknowledged the present and former members of the Black Caucus.

A very special recognition was given to Cheryl Brown, candidate for 47th Assembly District, has served her community for than three decades. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts from California State University of San Bernardino and went to work for the San Bernardino County Planning Department. She later served on the County and City Planning Commissions for 17 years and was elected president of the California County Commissioners’ Association. In 1980, Brown and her husband Hardy founded Brown Publishing Company to produce the Black Voice News. With her 30 years of service to her state and community, Brown is now running for the California Assembly to represent her district. She has a very personal stake in the future of her district with four children, eight grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

The 2012 officers of Westside Action Group are Alton Garrett, President; A. Majadi, 1st Vice President; Walter Hawkins, 2nd Vice President; Myron Lilley, Secretary; and William ‘Ratubu’ Jarocks, Treasurer.

Rev. Dick Bunce

Upland, CA- In keeping with our focus of a balanced life, the leadership of Victory Community are spending the month of May bring awareness the critical issue of Mental Illness. “This issue is present in our society and must be addressed from a loving and caring perspective. We are really responsible to those who are in need,” stated Tommy Morrow, Senior Pastor of the church.

The worship services will focus our attention on identifying and addressing the mental health needs of those whom are in our experience. The morning speakers for each Sunday in May include; Pastor Kenneth R. Baker, Bethel A.M.E. Church in San Bernardino, CA; Dr. Gloria Morrow, Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Co-Pastor of Victory Community Church, Upland; Rev. Dick Bunce, National Association of Mental Illness Pomona Valley and Pastor Gary George, Victory Community Church, Upland.

Dr. Gloria Morrow led the series during Sunday’s service on May 13 with a dynamic keynote message on mental health within our community. On Sunday, May 20, Rev. Dick Bunce will be continuing the series.
Rev. Dick Bunce has a extraordinary background in ministry and community service. He received a Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary, and then headed to return to Iran to serve for a year as a missionary intern. He worked mainly among university students. Upon returning the States, he worked as a community organizer and in the field of division of at-risk youths. During the’70’s and ‘80’s, he served at two Presbyterian congregations in Southern California. He has worked more than twenty years in management of nonprofit organizations, retiring as executive director of Progressive Christians Uniting. Other nonprofit organizations that he helped managed were Shelter Now Inc and National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of Pomona Valley. He “re-retired” last December as executive director of NAMI. In April he was hired back by NAMI as a consultant.
A vision that Rev. Bunce has for the community is for people will feel empowered to bring change to the community by working with political sources and creating new organizations that promote change. According to Rev. Bunce our tax payer money go towards sustaining these programs, as a community we need to ensure that the money is being used properly and that it will continue to be available.
Mental idleness touches all families. “It touches my family because my son has a mental illness motivates, so I understand how it touches other families and that motivates me to want to make a difference in the community be making people aware of what mental illness is and how to cope with those who have it,” Rev. Bunce stated when asked on how mental illness awareness motivates him.
He is also motivated by a democratic society where everyone is equal on the terms of wealth, and lastly ministry motivates him. “I want everyone to get in touch with their spiritual side because life is a spiritual journey,” Rev. Bunce said.
Rev. Bunce believes that mental health is a crucial issue because without it we would not be able to take care of ourselves mentally, emotionally or physically. On Sunday, he will be bring the message entitled, “Loving the Unlovable,” which will come from Mark 1: 14-15 and John 15: 9-12. “People with mental illnesses are at times unlovable. They can be stubborn, misunderstood and difficult to deal with, so we are tempted to turn away from them, but Jesus Christ calls us to turn towards the whole world and to love as he would love,” Rev. Bunce said.
For more in depth overview of Rev. Bunce’s message on “Loving the unloved,” come out and fellowship and enlighten your knowledge about mental health this Sunday. Service times are 8:00a.m. and the Institute and the Morning Worship begins at 9:30a.m. For more information and transportation please call (909) 981-1195.

One-year-old Tristan lives in a Detroit homeless shelter with his mother Ashante Dickens. Programs like Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, food stamps, and transitional housing are lifelines for them and millions of others.

Ashante calls herself a “back and forth child.” Her mother disappeared from her life when she was six. She grew up in Georgia with her father and spent summers in Detroit with her grandmother. Ashante’s father was an assistant principal and they lived in Cobb County in suburban Atlanta. “I had a good life in Atlanta,” Ashante said. But when she was 16 her father had two strokes that affected him mentally as well as physically.
“He became abusive,” Ashante said. “He wasn’t really right in the head.” By then she had reconnected with her mother and told her “about the situation I was going through where he would hit me.” Her mother called the police who removed Ashante from the home. She was 17 then and the authorities allowed her to go live with her grandmother in Detroit.

Ashante graduated from high school there and began attending Wayne State University. “I didn’t do well,” she said. “A lot was going on in my grandma’s house . . . My auntie and my brother stayed there too. It was hard to study and deal with the different personalities.” She quit school and started to work at McDonald’s thinking that she would save enough to be able to move into her own place and then pick up her education again. She stopped work when she became pregnant with Tristan and left her grandmother’s house for a homeless shelter. After Tristan was born, they moved to a transitional living shelter for mothers and children.

Ashante began receiving cash assistance and food stamps. As soon as Tristan was a few months old she went back to work. “I don’t think anybody wants to be on assistance. My motivation is to work harder so I don’t need it.”

For seven months, Ashante took a three-hour bus trip each way to work a $7.85 an hour job at a Target in the suburbs. This was her schedule: Take Tristan to day care by 8 a.m., take the three buses to work; work eight hours; take the three buses back to Detroit, pick Tristan up at 11 p.m. One of the buses ran just hourly and if she missed that bus, she would be an hour late. This happened enough times that her hours were cut back to just 10 a week.

Eventually she left that job and started seeking another. “I’ve done retail. I’ve done office work. I’ve worked in day care so my experience is broad,” she said. Her goal is to return to college but she thinks she should work to get a place to live and a car first. In October, she got a job at a McDonald’s which is an hour to an hour and a half walk and bus ride each way. The pay was $7.40 an hour. Temporary Assistance to Needy Families gave her a voucher for day care; otherwise she would have ended up making very little.

“If my dad hadn’t had a stroke, I would be somewhere totally different right now,” she said. “I’d still be in Georgia. I would probably be in my second or third year at Kennesaw State in elementary education. But I’m just going to work to the best of my ability to get back on track. I think I’m young enough to turn it around.”
Programs like Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, food stamps, and transitional housing are lifelines that work when people fall on hard times. We need to preserve them for people like Ashante who are already working hard to get back on track but still need extra support to keep turning their difficult circumstances around. But that’s not what the Ryan “reconciliation budget” just passed by the House of Representatives would do. Instead it would eviscerate the food stamp program, literally taking food out of the mouths of babies like Tristan, and also make deep cuts in health and social service programs. We all need to raise our voices and vote this year to make sure children like Tristan have the opportunity to survive and thrive and return hope to find America’s vanishing dream.

Mr. Emmett Terrell, Ms. Zennie Cummings, and Mr. Buford Johnson

By Zennie Cummings
Pomona, CA–This affair was an inspiration to me. It was truly a shining glory. After walking the Red Carpet and being greeted by so many old acquaintances and meeting many new and interesting people. I felt so alive.

The reception was a delightful experience, the hors d’oeuvres were so elegantly presented and the Honorees and all the Guests were so gracious. As I entered the beautifully decorated banquet facility and was seated in the company of several of the night’s honorees Mr. & Mrs. Bob Cable, owners of the airport, Pastor and Mrs. Brian Kennedy and Mr. Buford Johnson, and other honored guests, my spirit soared and my mind drifted back to a time when this was an impossible dream for me, to sit at the table with people of different ethnicity, historical figures, and future leaders. Through the Inland Valley News I am able to read of these things, but this night I was living it. I was able to have my picture taken with Mr. Johnson, “A Tuskegee Airman”, and Mr. Emmett Terrell, whom I watched advance through the ranks of Pomona Unified School District from a classroom teacher, principal, Deputy Superintendent of Pomona School and Board Member of University of La Verne.

I am grateful to Pastor Tommy and Dr. Gloria Morrow and their efforts with the Inland Valley News and this event because of them I have seen so many of my dreams come true. At age 92 I am awaiting more exciting things. To God be the glory for the things I have seen and done. Thanks to the Inland Valley News staff for all that you do.

Zennie Cummings
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If you know of a family earning less than $60,000 a year with an honor student graduating from high school soon, Harvard University wants to pay the tuition. The prestigious university recently announced that from now on undergraduate students from low-income families can go to Harvard for free… no tuition and no student loans!

To find out more about Harvard offering free tuition for families making less than $60,000 a year, visit Harvard’s financial aid website at: http://www.fao.fas.harvard.edu or call the school’s financial aid office at (617) 495-1581.

Jeff Lorber

The free event provides an opportunity for The Playboy Jazz Festival and Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza to bring top quality jazz to the local community as well as to shopping center patrons for their enjoyment. Popular radio personality Pat Prescott will emcee and the Washington Prep High School Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Reggie Andrews will open the show.

Crystallizing jazz, funk and Latin rhythms with his killer melodies and improvisations that translate perfectly to a live setting, Jeff Lorber has come full circle in the three decades since his earliest recordings. In the late 70s, long before he was a globally recognized contemporary jazz artist and performer, the innovative keyboardist/composer/producer was a prominent figure in the new movement known as jazz fusion – a marriage of traditional jazz with elements of rock, R&B, funk and other electrified sounds. His new recording Galaxy, on Heads Up International, a division of Concord Music Group, revisits the sound he helped pioneer. The album takes the experiment he started with his last Grammy-nominated CD Now Is The Time, up a notch with 11 exciting and energetic new compositions featuring some of the biggest names in jazz today.

Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza is an 850,000 square foot retail destination located at the intersection of Crenshaw Blvd. and Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. in Los Angeles, California. Anchored by Macys, Sears and WalMart, with over 100 specialty stores and dining options, the center has long been recognized as the hub of the surrounding communities. From a signature concert series known as BHCP Live!, monthly Kid’s Club and a weekly Farmers’ Market to the many public services offered at the mall, it is clear that BHCP is more than just a place to shop, it’s a central gathering place for the local community. BHCP is managed by Primestor Development Inc. and owned by Capri Capital Partners, LLC.

Food and refreshments will be available for purchase to the public. Glass containers, alcoholic beverages and audio/video recorders are not permitted. Plenty of parking is available both in and around the mall.

For more information regarding the community concert series or the Playboy Jazz Festival, visit www.playboyjazzfestival.com.

Los Angeles, CA — Urban Victory Network Inc. (UVN) launched a new online delivery platform for global black film at www.urbanvictory.com. Michael Eastman, CEO of Urban Victory, believes the movie industry is long overdue for a black film revolution leveraging the latest online technologies.

“Many excellent films that premiere at regional and international black film festivals never get distribution beyond the festivals. America and the world are being deprived of some really fantastic films,” says Eastman, a Harvard University and Harvard Law graduate.

Urban Victory aims to change that. “We will host an online film festival this summer and at the conclusion of the festival offer filmmakers 70% of net revenue on our ad supported and subscriber distribution platforms,” says Eastman. UVN has issued a call for film submissions for their online film festival scheduled to start in July. Filmmakers may submit short films(less than 40 minutes) for the festival for free until May 15 at urbanvictory.com or on Withoutabox. After that, they will be charged a modest fee to make a submission.

Filmmakers who submit films and are accepted for the festival will have the opportunity to win up to $2000 in prize awards. UVN will also give away a pair of regional black film festival passes to three lucky online subscribers to the festival worth up to $200 for providing feedback and input on the films featured.

Films by or about African Americans and people of the African descent rarely make it to the big screen. Last year, only six of the top 300 grossing films were produced by black filmmakers. Eastman continues, “With the advent of digital video cameras and editing, production of film by African Americans, Africans, Afro-Brazilians, and Afro-Caribbean people has exploded. Nigeria, the largest African country, has the second largest film industry in the world in terms of annual film production (2400 films), placing it ahead of the U.S. and behind India.”

“Online audiences will be blown away by the superb quality of these films that typically only get an audience at the 40 or so black film festivals held worldwide every year,” says Eastman, who has worked in the online media space for the last 15 years, including three years founding and managing startups and five years at RealNetworks, the company that pioneered the development of online distribution technologies for audio and video.

Urban Victory Networks is building the world’s premier source for finding and enjoying global black film. They make it easy for filmgoers around the world to enjoy the best black films from Los Angeles to New York, Rio to Kingston, and from Capetown to Cairo. From July 15, 2012 to August 30, 2012, they are inviting filmmakers from around the world to show off their best creative work at our online shorts film festival. After the Festival, filmmakers approved by their Screening Committee who sign the Filmmakers Agreement get free hosting of their film and earn 70% of net revenues generated by their film on UVN. All are invited to join the Global Black Film Revolution on UVN. For more details, visit www.urbanvictory.com