a monthly minority publication Valley Voice Central | to subscribe to this publication please contact us at: [email protected] | website: centralvalleyvoice.com| stay connected: visit us on facebook • twitter • Pinterest PRESORTED STANDARD U.S POSTAGE PAID 95340 PERMIT NO. 990 November 2014 Giving Thanks for Our Miracle Kids Zachariah and Michelle “Happy Thanksgiving” PAGE 8 Z achariah, left, and Michelle,right, Joseph Morris, Jessie Thompson Morris and Family Ebony Socialites Black & White Ball PAGE 24 “Give Thanks” Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his stead- fast love endures forever! 1 Chronicles 16:34 Community Cendar of Events visit us on cvvcalendar.com
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PRESORTEDSTANDARD
U.S POSTAGEPAID
95340PERMIT NO. 990
November 2014
Giving Thanks for Our Miracle Kids Zachariah and Michelle
“Happy Thanksgiving”
PAGE 8
Zachariah, left, and Michelle,right,
Joseph Morris, Jessie Thompson Morris and Family
Ebony Socialites Black & White Ball PAGE 24
“Give Thanks”
Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his stead-fast love endures forever!
1 Chronicles 16:34
Community Cendar of Eventsvisit us on cvvcalendar.com
2 NOVEMBER 2014
PublisherFelicia D.Robertsis published monthlyCentral Valley Voice
Views expressed by writers, columnists and stories printed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of Central Valley Voice newspapers. Only when indicated as Central Valley Voice's or editorial views can it be interpreted as the views of this publication. The editorial team of Central Valley Voice reserves the right to edit, cut or piece any article, letter, statement, poem, report, ads, quotes and all other materials submitted before printing.
How many of us had said that statement to our parents or even thought about saying it at one point in our adult lives. No matter how many birthdays we celebrated, our parent’s treat us as if we never moved past the tender age of 13.
I could only imagine how parents may feel to see their offspring transition from dia-pers-puberty-teenagers then adulthood. My mother cried when she witness my brother shaving one weekend when he was home from college. My father referred to me as the “baby” even though at the time I was 39 years old, (I knew be-
ing called the baby was a term of endearment). I often won-der do my parents see the gray hairs on my head or do they still view me as their two ponytails wearing little girl.
Proverbs 22:6 says, "Start chil-dren off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it." When your children are young, you have a lot of control over their lives and choices. As your children get older, that control diminishes. As your child ap-proaches that age when she is almost ready to move out and face the world as a young adult, you may find yourself out of the loop when it comes to giving direct guidance. How-ever, Scripture promises that if you've trained them in the way they should go when they are young, you can have confi-dence that they will continue to follow the right path when they are older. That doesn't mean they'll never veer from the paths you'd like them to take, but it does mean that what you taught them as children will re-main with them.
One of the toughest Bible verses for parents of adult chil-dren to put into practice is Gen-esis 2:24 (repeated in the New Testament in Ephesians 5:31): "That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh." When children grow up and get married (as most of them will), the Bible teaches that they are to leave their par-ents and unite themselves to their mate. All too often, par-ents cause problems in their children's marriages by refus-ing to let go or taking sides in disputes between their adult children and their spouses. Even if marriage isn't on your young adult son or daughter's radar yet, it's important to pre-pare yourself emotionally now to let them go when the time comes.
Most people are familiar with Deuteronomy 5:16: "Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has com-manded you, so that you may
live long and that it may go well with you in the land the Lord your God is giving you." St. Paul called it the "first com-mandment with a promise" in Ephesians 6:2-3. While most think of younger children when they read this, it doesn't have an expiration date. Parents never stop being parents and their children -- even as young adults -- never stop being their children. While adult children should be expected to go their own ways as they turn 18 and get ready to leave the nest, they should continue to honor their parents. As it says in Proverbs 23:22, "Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old."
While we are required to hon-or parents, that doesn’t include imitating ungodly ones (Ezekiel 20:18-19). If a parent ever in-structs a child to do something that clearly contradicts God’s commands, that child must obey God rather than his/her parents (Acts 5:29)
Honor begets honor. God will not honor those who will not obey His command to honor their parents. If we desire to please God and be blessed, we should honor our parents. Hon-oring is not easy, is not always fun, and certainly is not pos-sible in our own strength. But
honor is a certain path to our purpose in life—glorifying God. “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord” (Colossians 3:20).
According to Kira Birditt, researcher at the University of Michigan and lead author of a 2009 study on relationships be-tween parents and their adult children, “The parent-child re-lationship is one of the longest lasting social ties human be-ings establish.” Although the transition from raising a child to an adult can be complex and challenging at times, there are many ways in which both the parent and adult child can fos-ter a healthy and meaningful relationship:
Set Boundaries. Setting limits and boundaries is an important part of every relationship, and as your relationship with your child transitions into adult-hood, previously set boundar-ies will likely require updating. Redefining boundaries may mean ditching the belief that you will do anything to help your children succeed, to learn-ing to support your children in finding their own successes. It may also mean learning to re-spect that there are aspects of your adult child’s life that are private.
In addition, it is important to remember that even though
your children have transitioned into adulthood, there are still topics that are off-limits. Save your venting about your mar-riage or your sex life for your friends or your therapist. Com-plaining to your adult child about your frustration with one of their siblings or another close family member can foster defensiveness and make for an uncomfortable family dynamic. At the end of the day, it is impor-tant to remember that nobody is a mind-reader, and both par-ents and adult children need to be open and honest with one another when a boundary is crossed so that the relationship can be repaired.
Accept Differences. Accept-ing that your adult child has different world views, beliefs, priorities, and opinions than you do may be one of the most challenging parts of maintaining a healthy rela-tionship with your adult child. As he or she continues to age, it is likely that they will make decisions that you do not fully approve of.
As a parent of an adult child, it is no longer your role to ap-prove. It is, however, your role to support them in making decisions that feel authentic to them. As your adult child forms
Mama I’m Grown! By Hermione L. Williams
SEE PAGE >3
Hermione L. Williams
CENTRAL VALLEY VOICE.COM 3
Of the 65 million grandparents in the United States in 2012, 7 million, or 10 percent, lived with at least one grand-child, according to Coresident Grand-parents and Their Grandchildren: 2012, a new report released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. The percentage of chil-dren who lived with a grandparent in 2012 was also 10 percent, rising from 7 percent in 1992.
About 4.2 million households, or 3 percent of all households, contained both grandchildren under 18 and their grandparents in 2012. More than 60 percent of these households were main-tained by a grandparent and about one in three had no parent present.
In 2012, 2.7 million grandparents in the U.S. were raising their grandchil-dren. About 39 percent of these grand-parent caregivers have cared for their grandchildren for five years or more.
“Recent trends in increased life expec-tancy, single-parent families and female employment increase the potential for grandparents to play an important role in the lives of their grandchildren,” said
Renee Ellis, a demographer in the Cen-sus Bureau’s Fertility and Family Statis-tics Branch. “Increases in grandparents living with grandchildren are one way that the grandparent role has changed.”
Coresident Grandparents and Their Grandchildren: 2012 uses data from the 2010 Census, the American Community Survey, the Current Population Survey, and the Survey of Income and Program Participation To examine historical changes in coresidence of grandparents and characteristics of grandparents and grandchildren who live together. The report, for the first time, compares co-resident grandparents with grandpar-ents who do not live with their grand-children.
Other findings:• Grandparents who lived with a
grandchild in 2012 were younger, had lower levels of education and were more likely to be in poverty than those who did not live with a grandchild.
• Two percent of grandparents who lived with a grandchild were age 30 to 39, while the highest percentage was
their own families and tradi-tions, they may not celebrate a holiday, make their meals, plan their vacations, or engage in religious activities the way that you do… and that is OK! Make your best attempt to embrace your differences and celebrate their uniqueness, rather than making comparisons.
Validate Feelings. Perhaps the most important aspect of the parent-adult child relation-ship is recognizing that being the parent of an adult is differ-ent than being the parent of a child or teen. For parents, it can be extremely challenging to sit by the sidelines and watch as your adult child encounters devastating setbacks, makes decisions that you don’t agree with, falls in love, gets their hearts broken, loses their job, or starts a new one.
Unless advice is clearly solic-ited, parents should offer vali-dation to their adult children rather than problem-solving. For example, if your daughter called to share a story about a
recent argument with her hus-band, it may be best to respond with “I can imagine how frus-trating that must be for you” or “It sounds like the argument was very upsetting” rather than “You should just learn to ignore him when he gets like that.” By validating your adult child’s feelings rather than attempting to solve their problems, you are sending the message that you support them and believe that they are capable of handling the various struggles that life may throw their way.
Choose Your Battles. In the words of Melody Beattie in The Language of Letting Go (1996), “Letting go helps us to live in a more peaceful state of mind and helps restore our balance. It allows others to be responsible for them and for us to take our hands off situations that do not belong to us.” Not only will pick-ing your battles and learning to let go lead to a more peaceful existence, it will strengthen in-terpersonal relationships.
It is important to remember
that choosing your battles do not mean stuffing your feelings away or pretending they don’t exist. It simply means learning to articulate them in a non-threatening and non-aggres-sive way. It also means prioritiz-ing the relationship over being right. The next time you are on the brink of a battle and trying to make a decision about how to proceed, ask yourself these questions: “Does it matter if I’m right?” “Is there a right and wrong in this situation?” “Is this an issue that I’ll still feel strong-ly about in a year?”
Focus on the Present. Fo-cusing too much on the past or dwelling on the future is a sure-fire way to damper a rela-tionship with your adult child. Understand that as your chil-dren have grown up, they have changed. They are no longer the teen that constantly rolled their eyes, broke countless cur-fews, and picked questionable mates. Their childhood love for basketball and disdain for broc-coli have likely faded.
It is important to show an interest in your adult children
as they are in the present, and as pure as your intentions may be, interrogating your offspring about when they are going to settle down, get married, and give you grandchildren can quickly breed pressure and re-sentment. Patience and pres-ence are some of the key ingre-dients in a healthy and happy relationship, and it is essential to let your adult child know that you love them for who they are today.
Seek Help When Needed. Let’s face it: there isn’t a rule-book on parenting, and there cer-tainly isn’t a fool-proof manual for developing and maintaining a healthy relationship with your adult child. Every relationship is unique, and some are much more difficult to manage than others. There is no shame in asking for help when your re-lationship with your adult child feels toxic or overwhelming.
Just like therapists work with couples to help mend their re-lationships, they can help by facilitating communication be-tween a parent and adult child and help both parties set real-
istic expectations and bound-aries with the goal of fostering a happy, healthy, and balanced relationship. Therapy can be especially helpful in preparing for an adult child to move back into the family home and dur-ing other times of familial tran-sition, such as marriage, death, divorce, or illness.
My relationship with my mother is still one of the most meaningful and important re-lationships in my life. I have come to realize that the cur-rent alliance of my relationship with my mom is not simply due to the fact that she birth and raised me, but a direct result of both of our efforts to nurture and maintain the bond.
DisclaimerThe topic discussed in this arti-cle is based on research, knowl-edge, and experiences from the health community. Please keep in mind that I am not a Doctor or other health professional so please consult the appropriate professional for further help.
10 Percent of Grandparents Live With a Grandchild, Census Bureau Reports
for those age 50 to 59 (34 percent). Those age 80 and over made up only 4 percent.
• Women comprised 64.2 percent of grandparents who lived with their grandchildren.
• Forty-nine percent of children in grandparent-maintained house-holds lived with both grandparents compared with only 19 percent of children in parent-maintained house-holds.
• Since 2007, about one-third of children who lived with a grandpar-ent also had two parents present.
• Percentages of children who were uninsured were not statistically dif-ferent when looking at whether or not the child lived with a grandpar-ent. However, those who did live with a grandparent were more likely to have public insurance.
MAMA I’M GROWN! ... CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2
4 NOVEMBER 2014
State News
SACRAMENTO - According to two studies commissioned by the California Energy Com-mission, computers are not going into sleep mode or au-tomatically being turned off as often as users think, leaving opportunities to save more energy. The implications of the research are that work-place desktop computers consume significant amounts of energy even when not in use.
The first study, “A Survey of Computer Power Modes Usage in a University Popu-lation,” surveyed more than 2,000 respondents to obtain detailed information about the use of more than 3,000 office desktops, home desk-tops, and laptops. This large user-centric study is unique compared to most previous studies because of the focus on user behaviors regarding power management features.
“People think when they leave their workstation, the computer will reduce its own energy consumption after a specified amount of time,” said Commissioner Andrew McAllister, the agency’s lead on energy efficiency issues. “These studies show a strong desire and intent by com-puter users to reduce energy use. Identified user error and knowledge gaps indicate sig-nificant room for improve-ment in the power manage-ment options and interfaces available to computer users.”
Computers have built-in power management soft-ware—with settings such as sleep, hibernate and shut-down—that enables comput-ers and monitors to consume less energy when not in use; however, these features are not delivering the full energy savings potential.
Additional findings: Respondents report using
automatic power manage-ment features over manual modes. The survey showed that 39 percent of the time users regularly use manual controls to put office desktop computers into sleep, hiber-nate, or off modes. Of those office desktops not taking ad-vantage of automatic power management, 61 percent are left on all the time.
Users changed power man-agement settings themselves in 50 percent of laptops, 41 percent of home desktops and 20 percent in office desk-tops. Respondents have less control over their office desk-tops than their laptops or home desktops.
According to the survey, the two main reasons computers were left on, even when not in use for hours, are that users felt restarting is too slow and the belief the computer will automatically go into sleep or other lower-power mode. For office desktops, two other main reasons were “need to leave computer on for up-dates or backups” and “needs to be available for remote ac-cess.”
The second study, “Moni-toring Computer Power Modes Usage in a University Population,” used software to remotely monitor 125 com-puters in the first study, 24 hours a day for several weeks. Research was gathered by monitoring actual computer usage patterns, a supplemen-tary questionnaire, and direct observations of computers’ power management settings. The findings were compared to those of the first study.
Among the findings of the second study:
The monitoring study showed a large difference between direct observation of user’s computer settings and their survey responses.
Researchers observed that 20 percent of computers had au-tomatic power management enabled whereas the survey responses indicated that 84 percent of computers had at least one automatic power setting enabled. The data suggest users incorrectly be-lieve automatic settings are engaged when they are not.
Workplace desktop com-puters are on 76 percent of the day, even though they were only being used 16 per-cent of the day. Sleep mode was enabled for about 7 per-cent of the day.
Overall, workplace desktop computers in the study were on and not being used more than 60 percent of the time. If computers had manually or automatically been turned off or put in sleep mode, energy use would be less.
The majority of computers (69 percent) are off for less than 5 percent of the time, and most of those are off for a few minutes a day, likely when rebooting.
“The considerable amount of energy that is being con-sumed by computers that are on, but not in use, shows that with better power man-agement alternatives, a large amount of energy could be saved with improved power management features,” McAl-lister said.
The California Plug Load Research Center conducted the two studies to better un-derstand computer use pat-terns and identify potential ways to reduce energy waste in California. The Energy Com-mission will use these studies to supplement other research as it develops a draft staff pro-posal for computer and moni-tor energy efficiency stan-dards.
Computers Use More Energy ThanPreviously ThoughtOffice computers often left on, consuming energy around the clock The California Energy Commission
Superintendent Tom Torlakson: California Ranked #1 in After School Programs
NORTH HOLLYWOOD—State Superintendent of Public In-struction Tom Torlakson an-nounced today that California leads the nation in after school programs, placing first among all states in a national survey released Thursday by the Af-terschool Alliance External link opens in new window or tab..
"The good news is, because we have followed through on our long-term commitment to invest in our children, California has the largest network of after school programs in the coun-try," Torlakson said. "These pro-grams are helping our children learn and stay safe after school, while helping working parents keep their jobs. The challenge is that many more children still need to be served."
Torlakson celebrated Califor-nia's number one ranking with students, parents, community leaders, and advocates Thurs-day in a visit to the after school program at Roy Romer Middle School in North Hollywood.
The Alliance gave California its top ranking in the 2014 edi-tion of its "America After 3PM External link opens in new win-dow or tab." survey, singling the state out for both strong participation among students and high satisfaction with after school programs among par-ents. It found that expanded learning participation in Cali-
fornia had increased to 25 per-cent, compared to 19 percent in 2009, with more than 1.6 mil-lion students enrolled.
The survey also found that 92 percent of California parents were satisfied with the qual-ity of care of their child's after school program, up from 83 percent in 2009.
"Superintendent Torlakson has spearheaded efforts to make California number one in the nation," said Afterschool Alliance Executive Director Jodi Grant. "He created a statewide after school initiative within the California Department of Education that has increased quality and access to after school programs across this state. California stands head and shoulders above the rest of the country, not only for the percentage of students it serves, but for its emphasis on making high-quality after school programs a state prior-ity. From extraordinary STEM programs, to service learn-ing, to its trailblazing literacy programming, California has done an amazing job with af-terschool programs."
The Alliance's report also noted California's work to emphasize the quality of pro-grams, including Torlakson's move to create an After School
Next year will mark the 40th anniversary of the mi-gration of Hmong refugees from Laos and Thailand to the United States and, for many, to California. Hmongstory 40 is a traveling exhibition of Hmong photographs, art, stories and artifacts that will commemorate the occasion, with one CSU Stanislaus lec-turer playing an integral role in the project.
Seng Vang, who was born in a refugee camp in Thailand and moved to the U.S. with his family before his second birthday, earned his bach-elor’s degree in anthropology at CSU Stanislaus in 2002 and now teaches ethnic studies at the University. Vang is curat-ing an anthology of Hmong stories from throughout Cali-fornia, with plans to sell the book as a fundraiser during the Hmongstory 40 events.
The book will be anchored by commissioned feature stories, Vang said, but will also rely heavily on stories and photographs submitted by members of the Hmong community. Hmong students from all grade levels are en-
couraged to engage and re-search their family’s history and submit their own stories, with a deadline of Dec. 5. Scholarships of $250 each will be awarded for the 20 stories that appear in the anthology, and all submitted stories will be published on the Hmong-story 40 website.
“Hmong history in the Unit-ed States and in California is not well documented, and therefore these personal sto-ries will give us a new window into the lives of Hmong refu-gees and their families,” Vang said. “In particular, this is a great opportunity for young students to learn more about their cultural roots.”
The Hmongstory 40 ex-hibition will have its stron-gest presence in Fresno and Sacramento, Vang said, with smaller events likely to be held at CSU Stanislaus and UC Merced. The long-term goal of the project is to create a permanent Hmong museum, and Hmongstory 40 will also play an integral role toward that effort.
Along with the Minneap-olis-St. Paul and Milwaukee
metro areas, California is home to some of the high-est concentrations of Hmong people in the United States. The Hmong Student Asso-ciation at CSU Stanislaus is among the longest-standing student organizations on campus and will celebrate its own 30th anniversary to coin-cide with Hmongstory 40 in 2015.
While the Hmong are wide-ly known for their customs, traditions and arts, Hmong-
story 40 will attempt to illus-trate a richer perspective of the Hmong American expe-rience. Organized by Hmong leaders and educators from throughout the state, the exhibition aims to celebrate Hmong accomplishments and leaders while connecting a new generation of Hmong Americans to the struggles of their predecessors. The exhi-bition will also serve to edu-cate the general public about the Hmong people and their history.
“Hmong narratives have typically been written by outsiders, not those within the community, and that can lead to misrepresentations or stereotypes,” Vang said. “We want people to know what the Hmong people have overcome and how they are contributing now.”
A full schedule for the ex-hibition will be finalized in spring of 2015, Vang said, but events are tentatively planned for December 2015 in Fresno and spring 2016 in Sacramento. Details about upcoming events will be posted here as they are con-firmed.
Division within the Califor-nia Department of Education (CDE) and to develop a strate-gic plan to build on the state's investments in expanded learning. The CDE also recent-ly completed development of new Quality Standards for Expanded Learning External link opens in new window or tab. programs.
A teacher and long-time track and cross-country coach, Torlakson has long been a champion of after school programs. Legislation he authored led to the cre-ation and expansion of these programs.
California's expanded learn-ing programs today reach about 4,500 schools around the state. They are, in large part, funded through voter-approved Proposition 49, which guarantees $550 mil-lion annually for the state's After School Education and Safety Program. California administers another $120 million in federal after school program funds.
For more information about expanded learning, visit the CDE After School Division's California Expanded Learning Programs External link opens in new window or tab. Face-book Web page.
CONTINUED PAGE 4CALIFORNIA #1
(Modesto, CA) – Modesto Junior College Cross Country Team invites anyone look-ing for some exercise before their Thanksgiving Day din-ner to participate in the 15th Annual Modesto Turkey Trot and Gobbler Walk on Thurs-day, November 27 at the Tu-olumne River Regional Park in Modesto.
The fun run for boys and girls (13 years and under) will begin with a half mile boys race at 8:45 a.m., followed by a half mile girls race 9 a.m. The 5 kilometer run will start at 9:30 a.m. and the 5 kilo-meter Gobbler Walk begins at 9:35 a.m. The 5 kilometer course (3.1 miles) follows the Tuolumne River on a mostly
paved path, passing through the old oak groves in the park.
After the race there will be an awards ceremony and refreshments. Awards are given to the top three males and females in eight divisions and all participants in the chil-dren’s runs receive a medal.
Pre-registration is available online through November 24 at http://www.finishedresults.com/ModestoTurkeyTrot2014 with registration fees rang-ing from $17.50 to $30. Race-day registration opens at 7:30 a.m. and closes promptly at 8:30 a.m. with registration fees ranging from $20 to $35. Group rates are available for schools, churches and other pre-registering large groups.
T-shirts will be available for the first 1,200 registrants only, so pre-registration is encouraged. Pre-registered participants can beat the race day rush by picking up their number and shirt the day be-fore the race on November 26 from 2 to 6 p.m. in the MJC Gymnasium located on Cold-well Avenue on East Campus.
All Turkey Trot proceeds will support the MJC Cross Country program. For more information visit www.fin-ishedresults.com/Modesto-TurkeyTrot2013 or contact Coach Demitrius Snaer at [email protected] or (209) 575-6279.
Modesto Turkey Trot and Gobbler Walk planned for Thanksgiving Day
Seng Vang
6 November 2014
Young Patriot Challenge to teach Students about U.S. Constitution
Students in Merced Coun-ty showed what they know about the U.S. Constitution in this year’s Young Patriot Chal-lenge.
The contest, which is cel-ebrating its third year, asks elementary school students to develop posters, middle school students to write es-says and high school students to present speeches.
The goal was to have stu-dents show what they’ve learned about the Constitu-tion and reflect on their obli-gations as citizens.
The contest is open to all
students, including those who are home-schooled. This year’s contest theme is “The Constitution of the United States, the Basis of Our Re-public.”
The contest not only makes learning more enjoyable for students, but it also helps teachers comply with the fed-eral mandate of making the U.S. Constitution the subject of lessons and activities dur-ing Constitution Day on Sept. 17.
All schools that receive fed-eral funding must observe Constitution Day, Christensen
explained. However, many schools, like those in Merced County, extend the obser-vance to a week. This year, Constitution Week took place September 15-19.
“It’s a law for schools to observe Constitution Day; teachers have to come up with some sort of lesson plan,” Riis-Christensen said. “But by having this contest, this helps teachers fulfill that require-ment.”
Contest winners was recog-nized at an awards ceremony October 23. Third-place win-ners received gift cards worth $25, second-place $50 gift cards and first-place $100 gift cards. The student who deliv-ers the winning speech will win a computer tablet.
The awards ceremony was held at the Atwater Commu-nity Center, 760 E. Bellevue Road.
Education News
(Modesto, CA) –The Modesto Area Partners in Sci-ence (MAPS) will offer a pre-sentation entitled “Mineralogy of Mars” by David Blake, Ph.D., a senior research scientist with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The free public MAPS event will be held on Friday, No-vember 21, at 7:30 p.m. in Si-erra Hall 132 on the Modesto Junior College West Campus, and is intended for people over 13 years of age.
Blake developed the chem-istry and mineralogy (CheMin) instrument for the Mars Sci-ence Laboratory rover “Curios-ity.” The CheMin instrument on Curiosity is one of two “labora-tory quality” instruments on board the rover that is explor-ing the Gale Crater on Mars. Blake will report on the mis-sion including the discovery and characterization of the first habitable environment on Mars.
CheMin is an X-ray diffrac-tometer that has for the first time returned definitive and
fully quantitative mineral identifications of Mars soil and drilled rock. Blake will describe CheMin’s 23-year development from an idea to a spacecraft qualified instru-ment, and report on some of the discoveries that Curiosity has made since its entry, de-scent and landing on August 6, 2012 on Mars.
Blake joined the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field in California in 1986. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from Stan-ford University, and a Master’s degree in geological sciences and a Ph.D. in mineralogy from University of Michigan.
For more information about the MAPS program visit the website http://maps.events.mjc.edu/, the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/M o d e s t o - A r e a - Pa r t n e r s -in-Science/244618054801 or contact MJC Professor Noah Hughes at 575-6800 or [email protected].
NASA scientist to speak on “Mineralogy of Mars” at MJC
Adolphus Speights Jr. ,right, with speech winner Scott Smith of Golden Valley High School.
Pictured, left, Student participants, event organizers and other guests pose at the 2014 Merced County Young Patriot’s Challenge awards ceremony at the Atwater Community Center.
Congratulations to All Students
Who Participated in the Young
Patriot Challenge
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The campus will develop a short list of teams by the end of 2014 and make a final se-lection in 2015, to build with an eye toward accommodat-ing 10,000 students
Six development teams have strongly indicated their interest in partnering with the University of California, Mer-ced, to realize campus growth plans for 2020.
A second round of requests for qualifications (RFQ) yield-ed extremely detailed state-ments of qualifications (SOQ) to participate in the 2020 Proj-ect.
The project includes the comprehensive develop-ment of academic, adminis-
trative, research, recreational, student-services and housing facilities. This includes infra-structure, utilities, outdoor recreation areas, open spaces, roads, parking and landscap-ing.
One of the key goals of the project is to accommodate projected student enrollment growth from 6,200 to 10,000 by the year 2020.
Originally issued in Spring 2014, the 2020 Project RFQ was reissued Sept. 25 to en-able prospective teams to ex-pand on details so reviewers would have a fuller picture of the quality of their work and their experience in complet-ing projects like this. The reis-
sued RFQ closed Oct. 24.“We are pleased by the re-
sponse we continue to receive as the 2020 Project moves forward,” Vice Chancellor for Planning and Budget Daniel Feitelberg said. “The caliber and composition of teams reflect the robust interest we have seen all year.”
The teams that submitted SOQs (in alphabetical order) are:EP2 DevelopersE3 2020Gateway2LearnInnovation PartnersMerced Campus CollaborativeMerced 2020 Partners
A more detailed list of the responding teams can be
found on the project website. All six teams that submitted SOQs earlier this year sub-mitted again, with only a few changes in team composition. During the next two months, UC Merced will evaluate the SOQs based on evaluation cri-teria set forth in the reissued RFQ.
The next step is the short-listing of teams. Finalists will then be asked to design and present detailed proposals. A development team is expect-ed to be selected by the end of 2015. The chosen develop-
ment team will create facilities that support an inspiring and dynamic living and learning environment, providing op-portunities for interdisciplin-ary scholarly activities.
The 2020 Project calls for developing up to 1.85 million square feet of new teaching, research and residential facili-ties on a 219-acre, university-owned site that includes the existing campus.
The university aims to de-liver the first building as early as the summer of 2017.
Six Teams Interested in Developing UC Merced for 2020
In an effort to combat the increasing rates of obesity among Latino residents, the University of California, Merced and the Merced County Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Program will join forces.
Funded by a three-year, $90,000 grant from National Institutes of Health’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the campus and non-profit will look at efforts in other areas that have scientifically proven successful in reduc-ing obesity, particularly in young children.
They will also develop partnerships with community groups and hold public meetings to learn what obesity-related issues are of par-ticular concern in the community. Forty-three percent of fifth-, seventh- and ninth-grade Merced County students were overweight or obese, according to the 2011 study A Patch-work of Progress.
“This is a powerful partnership that stands to benefit an underserved population within the San Joaquin Valley,” said psychology Profes-sor Jan Wallander, who co-authored the grant proposal. “By connecting talented researchers with community partners and members, we hope to help reduce the number of children who are plagued by this serious problem.”
The research project is an example of how the UC Merced Health Sciences Research Insti-tute matches community needs with its mul-tidisciplinary faculty affiliates. The research team will include Wallander, public health Pro-fessor A. Susana Ramirez, sociology Professor Zulema Valdez, anthropology Professor Robin DeLugan and Blum Center interim Director
Steve Roussos.There are multiple challenges in helping
people adopt healthy diets, said Claudia G. Corchado, program manager for the Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Pro-gram and lead community partner in the proj-ect. For example, some people believe chubby children are healthy children, she said, and others don’t fully understand the health im-pacts of high-sugar beverages.
“If we don't understand what a calorie is, how can we understand and learn to control portion sizes?” Corchado said. “How can we know that a 20-ounce bottle of soda has 100 more calories than a can if we don’t know how to read and understand a nutritional label and what exactly that means to our overall health?”
In addition to education, Corchado said, some families need more access to fresh fruit and vegetables. Without nearby grocery stores, they must shop at corner stores that generally stock foods higher in fat, sodium and sugar, which cost less than healthier options.
“We're living in a world of intervention, but we need to go back to a world of prevention,” she said. “We can teach Latino families to avoid obesity and diabetes through healthy eating and drinking habits.”
Corchado and Wallander hope the quarter-ly community forums are strongly attended. They'll also organize an annual conference to share information and findings. With input from community groups and members, Wal-lander said, UC Merced researchers would likely have many projects they could pursue.
Campus, Community Programs Jointo Prevent Obesity in Families
8 NOVEMBER 2014
Zachariah and Michelle the Miracle Babiesachariah and Michelle Liu are regular 3rd grad-ers, playing tag, ballet,
video games and Legos. They are avid readers, struggle with math and team-tag their parents, but it was not always this way. Their story begins 8 years ago, having been born weighing 1lb l0oz and 1lb 5oz respectively at 26 weeks.
Zachariah had a bleed on both sides of his brain. His heart had an unsealed area which prevented normal blood circulation. He was given medicine three sepa-rate times within a week, to create a sticky flap that would seal the heart. The flap stuck the third time; otherwise, he would have had heart sur-gery.
Michelle had soft, glisten-ing skin and a small, rudi-mentary tail. Daily, respira-tory therapist would come to assess their oxygen level and lung development. Dur-ing one treatment, a bandage was removed from Michelle's' abdomen taking the top layer of skin. To this day, there is a bandage shaped indent in her abdomen.
A month later, Zachariah developed a deadly yeast in-fection in his blood. The sur-vival rate for patients with this yeast was 1/3 did not sur-vive, 1/3 had complications and 1/3 survived with no problems. Doctor THUSU told me to pray, you just have to pray. It was a waiting game to see if the medicine would de-stroy the yeast before Zacha-riah’s liver and body functions stopped working.
Three weeks later, good news arrived that three blood samples had come back neg-ative for yeast. They were go-ing to fatten Zachariah and send him home.
They both took a hearing test. Zachariah did not pass his. He was taken to a hear-ing specialist that said, his hearing was better than most
children, but he had shut down his responses. At 41bs, he came home first. The doc-tors shared that they did not know how he would manifest. Whether he would be able to walk or what he could do.
Home coming involved, a heavy double stroller that could hold two oxygen tanks and heart rate monitors. Both of them were small enough to fit in one crib with their hospi-tal equipment at the ends. Anurse came over weekly to monitor their development. We were told at the hospi-tal, that if they became sick it would set them back three months.
As time progressed, they both began to crawl, and pull up and walk. Until, Zachariah reached 3 years old and he was walking on his toes and stumbling. The doctors diag-nosed him with mild cerebral palsy.
He started wearing braces on both legs. He needed to wear these until he was in 7th grade.
Last year, he was able to re-move one leg brace because his leg was strong enough. Six months ago, a new pro-cedure was tried to see if he would be able to walk with-out any braces. Botox was injected into his calf muscle. That leg was recast weekly for six weeks to slowly stretch the tendons. He responded
well to the treatment and cur-rently does not need to wear a brace. Michelle reminded me that Zachariah was sup-posed to wear his braces until 7th grade, but he was able to stop wearing them in 2ndgrade.
Michelle developed asth-ma, food and pollen allergies, but by carefully monitoring what she eats and drinks, she is doing much better.
These are the miracle ba-bies, but their birth, impacted one of their nurses. The nurse shared that she was going to quit nursing. She was unable to see how the medicines and treatments helped, but that with Zachariah and Michelle's birth, from a Mom who took care of herself, she was able to see that the medicines ac-tually worked.
Giving honor to God and thanks to all the prayers that made Zachariah and Mi-chelle's life possible.
Thanks to Christian Life Center and Pastor Kevin, Mount Olive Baptist Church and Pastor Tyler, Friendship Baptist Church and Pastor White, to the doctors and nurses at Children's Hospital Madera, California and to ev-eryone that prayed as far as Europe and beyond.
ZSocial Security Announces 1.7 Percent Benefit Increase for 2015
Monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security In-come (SSI) benefits for nearly 64 million Americans will in-crease 1.7 percent in 2015, the Social Security Administration announced today.
The 1.7 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) will begin with benefits that more than 58 million Social Secu-rity beneficiaries receive in January 2015. Increased pay-ments to more than 8 million SSI beneficiaries will begin on December 31, 2014. The Social Security Act ties the annual COLA to the increase in the Consumer Price Index as de-termined by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Sta-tistics.
Some other changes that
take effect in January of each year are based on the increase in average wages. Based on that increase, the maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security tax (tax-able maximum) will increase to $118,500 from $117,000. Of the estimated 168 million workers who will pay Social Security taxes in 2015, about 10 million will pay higher tax-es because of the increase in the taxable maximum.
Information about Medicare changes for 2015 is available at www.Medicare.gov.
The Social Security Act pro-vides for how the COLA is cal-culated. To read more, please visit www.socialsecurity.gov/cola.
MERCED – Teens who want to be part of the 2015 Merced County Fair are encouraged to apply for a seat on the Junior Fair Board by the December 1 deadline.
The fair is recruiting teens in-terested in volunteering their talents for a year by serving on the Junior Fair Board. Ap-plication forms can be picked up at the Merced County Fair-grounds Office, 900 Martin Lu-ther King Jr. Way , Merced and also can be downloaded from the fair's website, www.Mer-cedCountyFair.com
Candidates must live in Merced County and be 14 to 19 years of age as of Jan. 1.
A GPA of 2.0 or above is re-quired to be eligible to volun-teer and candidates cannot show more than one animal in the 2015 Merced County Fair. Each member will serve for one year and must reapply for membership in succeeding years.
Junior Fair Board duties in-clude providing input on what teens want to see and do at the fair, assisting with pre-fair planning, set-up and help-ing during the fair. Applicants don't need any experience at the fair, such as showing an animal or entering an exhibit.
Serving on the board will
Deadline for Junior Fair Board is Dec. 1
Michelle and Zachariah
SEE PAGE >19
CENTRAL VALLEY VOICE.COM 9
Antioch Missionary Baptist Church
Rev. Dr. Sterling Kyle, Jr.
Pastor Study: (209) 722-9806Church: (209) 383-9758
WEDNESDAYMid-Week Bible Study...... Bible Study 7:00 p.m.
Welcome to the Services of the
John and Ann HillPastor’s Anniversary
Pastor’s John & First Lady Dr. Ann Hill celebrated their 17th An-niversary, of Holy Ground Ministry. The Anniversary was held October 25, 2014 at Holy Ground Ministry in Turlock, CA.
OUR PASTOR’Sastor John Hill is the founder of Holy Ground Ministry Inc. Turlock, Cal-
ifornia and overseer of Holy Ground Ministry Delhi.
John is a native of Los An-geles, California. He gradu-ated from Livingston High School & attended Merced College. John received the Lord in 1977 after hearing about Jesus from the wom-an he would later marry in 1978 and began his journey at Bethany Church Of God In Christ in Atwater, California, under the leadership of the late Pastor Elder J.D. Jeffery, State Secretary of The Cen-tral Valley Jurisdiction of the Church of God in Christ, lnc.
ln 1979, He heard the call of pastorialship, but his season wasn’t until 1997 when the
Lord called John and Ann to pastor in the Shepherd Min-istry and proclaim the King-dom of God in Turlock CA. The Lord has established a strong multinational congregation under their care. Holy Ground Ministry has a passion to birth, equip, build, activate and release men and women in their calling impacting the nations with the love of God.
Dr. Ann Hill is a native of Mo-bile, Alabama. Ann received the Lord in 1972 at Bethany Church of God in Christ in Atwater, California under the leadership of the late Pastor Elder J.D. Jeffery, State Sec-retary of The Central Valley Jurisdiction of the Church of God In Christ, Inc.
In 1977, Ann heard the call of God to become a mission-ary, and received her state
Love That Would Not Give Up
Have you ever been asked to do something very diffi-cult? Maybe your mom or dad asked you to do something, and you did not understand the reason until later. In the Old Testament book of Hosea, we read about one of God's prophets who was asked to do something very difficult, but for a very important reason. God chose Hosea as one of his spokesmen (a prophet) during the reign of the Israelite king Jeroboam II.
Hosea probably lived and prophesied around the year 750 B.C. During this time, Isra-el had turned away from God and had started worshiping
SEE PAGE>10SEE PAGE>24
P
Evangelist Louise Cooksey recognizing and honoring-Pastor’s John & First Lady Dr. Ann Hill.
Minister Brian Cooksey was the Master of Ceremony.
10 NOVEMBER 2014
Antoich Community Outreach Event
Woman of all ages sometimes can find themselves at a cross road when it is difficult for them to move forward in their lives, and therefore have a desire to be set free of the things that hinder them from experiencing a more "Spiritual Intimacy Through Christ." It is our desire to reach out and connect with other women so that we may encourage each other to seek the love of Christ and to experience the fulfillment of his promises. Join us, the women of "Valley Harvest Church," for our first annual wom-en's conference luncheon as Christ draws us into a more intimate relationship with him.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he en-dured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart . (HE-BREWS 12: 1 -3)
So please keep the date and join us the women of "Valley Harvest Church" on Dec 6, 2014 for our first annual women's conference luncheon WCW (Wom-en Connecting Women in Complete Victory). We are expecting miracles. Come in groups of three's and receive a gift.
We are beautiful and wonderfully made! FOR TICKET PURCHASES AND FURTHER INFOR-
MATION PLEASE CONTACT VHC/WCW Office @209-756-6777 or
(Scriptural Foundation: Romans 8: 35 - 39)THEME: “SPIRITUAL INTIMACY THROUGH CHRIST”DATE: Dec 6, 2014TIME: 8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. PLACE: Merced Community Senior Citizen Bldg. 755 West 15th StreetMerced CA. 95340 COST: $25.00
"Valley Harvest Church Presents"
1st Annual WomensConference Luncheon
WCW "Women connectingWomen in Complete Victory"
Saturday, October 11, 2014
The Antioch's Youth and Brotherhood departmentsheld an outreach event with activity focusing on community unity, youth, and family development.
The outreach consisted of basketball shooting, games, prizes, apple bobbing, pinada, balloon toss, bounce house, and food.
Antioch Baptist Church is located on 404 W. 6th, Merced, CA. Pastor is Rev Sterling Kyle Jr.
idols. God used the life of Hosea to paint a clear pic-ture for Israel of how He felt about their idol worship.
God instructed Hosea to take a sinful woman as his wife. Hosea chose a woman named Gomer who. had a very bad reputation. She-had lived a wicked life, and was not someone who would make a good wife. Hosea did what God commanded him to do. Hosea married Gomer, and they had children. Sadly, after some time had passed, Gomer returned to her life of sin. Even though Gomer left Hosea and returned to her wicked life, Hosea still loved her very much. One day, Hosea spotted his wife Gomer, who was in such terrible shape that she was being sold as a slave. Gomer could not have sunk any lower or been in a more shameful position. Hosea's love for Gomer was so great that he redeemed her (bought her back), even after, she had left him and been an unfaith-ful wife. God uses the story of Hosea and Gomer to teach a valuable lesson.
Through the relationship between Hosea and Gomer, God was showing Israel how He felt about their wicked behavior. Israel was worshiping idols, and did not recognize that their blessings and wealth came from the Lord, but gave idols the credit. When Israel would do this, God would take their riches and blessings away. God continued to love Israel, even when they were unfaithful to Him, just as Hosea had loved Gomer while she was unfaithful.
The Old Testament story of Hosea and Gomer pro-vides a wonderful lesson for Christians today. Christ's death on the cross made forgiveness of our sins pos-sible. When a Christian sins, Jesus' blood redeems them (or buys them back) from sin. Let's use the story of Hosea and Gomer to remind us how much it hurts God when we sin, but how He is always willing to buy us back when we repent.
LOVE...CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9
Rob Brummel of Antioch Baptist attended the Out-reach event.
Member Jeannine Pulliam Phillips participated in Community Outreach event.
Chairwoman: Sister Tisha Turner @209-233-5310.
RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY
The Community Outreach offered activities for youth and family.
1721 “M” Street •Merced, CA 95340(Located Downtown Meced)
Reflections
Central Valley Community
New Program Helps Pay For Water Bills
The City of Merced is help-ing publicize a program that helps pay for sewer, water and garbage bills. Tucked inside the November utility bills sent out by the City is a notice from the Merced County Community Action Agency about the new program.
The Drought Water Assis-tance Program helps low-in-come families pay up to two months of their entire utility bills, with a minimum payment of $150. Individuals in danger of having their utilities shut off because of non-payment are eligible to receive up to $500.
The applications and pay-ments are being handled by the Merced County Communi-ty Action Agency, not the City.
Anyone applying for the pro-gram assistance must meet income eligibility require-ments. An individual can’t earn more than $972.50 a month or $11,670 a year, while the maximum income for a family
The annual Men’s Day Outing event, was held on October 4th at Rahilly Park, Merced, CA.
News From across the Central Valley
Happy-Thanks-givingfromCentralValleyVoice
Long-time Merced resident William Smith attended the annual Men ‘s Day Outing event.
Homer Monk turned 90 years young on October 14, 2014. Dur-ing the Women’s day celebration she enjoyed tasting her birth-day cake, at the home of Eunice & Selma Green.
•Gifts•Apparel•Unique Jewelry•Scarves•Purses •Not Your Mother's Jeans
Selma and Eunice Green posed after the celebration of the an-nual Men and Women Day Outing event held in Merced.
The New Faith Tabernacleprayer symposium
The New Faith Tabernacle, Merced, CA held their 1st An-nual Prayer Symposium on Oc-tober 18, 2014.
The guest speakers were: Pastor Cherly Bolton, Pastor Bates of God’s of Prayer Minis-tries, and Rev. Jerry Huey. Each speaker were very disguished and effective in there presen-
tion.The Topics Were: “The Power
Of Prayer And Where It All Starts” “Strategic Praying And Victory In Prayer” “Praying On One Ac-cord” “Knowing The Voice Of God In Prayer And Wait.
Hosts Bishop & Pastor: Dwight & Gwen Amey.
Linda Huddleston, Rancho Cordova, CA a guest speaker at the 1st Annual New Faith Tabernacle Prayer Symposium. She is the wife of Samuel M. Huddleston, Assistant Superintendent at As-semblies of God USA.
Men and Women’s Day Outing
CENTRAL VALLEY VOICE.COM 13
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HOT & TASTY! Fried Chicken
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Triumphant Believers Center andAnnual Women’s Conference
Triumphant Believers Cen-ter Ladies held their 2nd An-nual Women's Conference Saturday, October 25th at Triumphant Believers Center 1750 Canal Street Merced Ca.
A continental breakfast & lunch was provided
The Conferences included:• Praise & Worship- Frances,
Alicia & Estela• Praise Dance Offering byAnointed Fine Arts MinistryKeep It Holy - Youth Wor-
shippersMain Speaker: Pastor Esther
Butler, A graduate of Rhema Bible College, Esther and herhusband Mark pastored Pitts-burgh Christian Fellowship, in Pittsburgh Pa. After 12 years at
P.C.F. God placed on their hearts to move their family to Stockton, CA and founded Harvest Bible Church where she ministers weekly and con-ducts a weekly prayer service. Esther has been in ministry for over 35 years, she desires to exhort and excite people to become doers of the Word
SEE PAGE> 15
Pictured, left-right, are Roslind Peggins, Ruby Fagan, Sterling McAllister and Mary Jones at the Ebony Socialites Tournament.
Pictured above left to right; Conference Coordinator Alicia Salazar, Stephanie Haro, PastorNellie Cisieris and Pastor Esther Butler.
14 November 2014
Health CornerRare Blood Cancer Poses AChallenge To African-Americans
(NAPSI)—While there is hopeful news in the battle against a rare blood disease, challenges remain, particu-larly in the African-American community.
That’s the word from ex-perts who say multiple my-eloma (MM) is an aggressive and rapidly progressive form of cancer that causes certain white blood cells, normally responsible for combating ill-nesses, to be overproduced. This proliferation of abnor-mal cells is known as myelo-ma cells, and can lead to the growth of tumors that may potentially spread to multiple sites in the body.
During the past 10-15 years, there has been a concen-trated effort in developing updated and more effective medical treatments for this disease, which sees an aver-age of 15,000-20,000 newly diagnosed cases in the U.S. each year.
As a result, new therapies are providing more effective treatment options for pa-tients, increasing overall sur-vival, in some cases as much as 10 years post-diagnosis. Multiple myeloma, not unlike
many cancers, has become more of a managed illness for patients and their caregivers, but the illness is not without one curious health phenom-enon: While the incident and mortality rates for multiple myeloma have mostly leveled off, this has not been the case within the African-American community, which has seen significant growth of the dis-ease when compared to Cau-casian populations.
As a result, this rare form of blood cancer disproportion-ately affects African-Ameri-cans and is one of the lead-ing causes of cancer deaths among this population. Stud-ies indicate that African-Amer-icans are twice as likely to be diagnosed with this disease versus Caucasians and other ethnic groups, and data also points toward an increased in-cidence and younger onset of the disease.
Treatment Challenges Still Remain
The causes and reasons for this spike of activity, as well as the racial disparity in inci-dence and mortality, remain unclear. Various elements such as diet, socioeconomic
status, and occupation have been closely studied to deter-mine the root causes of this discrepancy, but nothing con-clusive has been drawn.
Although the elevated risk of contracting multiple my-eloma is seemingly elevated among African-Americans who live at certain socioeco-nomic levels and who operate within particular occupations, further research and discus-sion are required in order to determine the environmental and genetic factors that may determine multiple myeloma.
Additionally, data demon-strates that African-Americans also have a lower rate for be-coming potential bone mar-row and stem cell donors than other indigenous groups, and are less likely to participate in clinical trials with novel treat-ments. These facts are discon-certing among public health leaders who shoulder the re-sponsibility to help these pa-tients receive current disease information, but use that data for treatment.
With a clearer understand-ing of the genesis of the my-eloma patient’s condition, the attending physician may suggest the intervention of an oncologist who will make a more accurate cancer diag-nosis. It’s critical for African-Americans who experience any type of bone or muscle pain, numbness in their ex-tremities, muscle weakness or infections, including pneumo-nia, to schedule an appoint-ment with their physician to determine the extent of their condition.
Beyond Treatment—An In-formed Black Community
There are a growing number of available resources to Afri-can-Americans who are living with MM or those who sus-pect they may have contract-ed this blood cancer. Groups such as the Multiple Myeloma
Research Foundation, Interna-tional Myeloma Foundation and Tackle Cancer Foundation are excellent sources for gath-ering important information about symptoms, treatment options, oncologists and a myriad of data that may im-pact a future cancer patient.
In fact, one of these re-sources that is directed at Af-rican-Americans and recently became available is an educa-tional DVD co-sponsored by the Tackle Cancer Foundation and Millennium. “Multiple My-eloma in the African-Ameri-can Community” is an effec-tive resource for patients and caregivers and spearheaded by Kimberly Alexander, who lost her husband, Elijah, to multiple myeloma.
“My desire to stay educat-ed about multiple myeloma didn’t end when my husband lost his battle with cancer due to complications from the disease. I will forever be con-cerned about the possible implications this may have for our children, grandchil-dren and future generations. Because I know the incidence rates of multiple myeloma within the African-American community, my wish for a cure goes beyond doing something in memory of my husband; it could be the dif-ference maker for our family for years to come.”
Millennium’s involvement within this community has been ongoing and has iden-tified outreach to the Afri-can-American community through its Patient Advocacy group. According to Kathy Gram, who is part of the company’s patient advocacy leadership, “We have African-American multiple myeloma patient ambassadors and caregivers tell their stories to the African-American com-munity to offer hope, inspira-tion and the importance of
clinical trial participation.“The ambassadors also en-
courage MM patients to seek second opinions from an MM specialist and find a patient support group in their area. They are also reaching out to both the national office of minority health care and the state offices to identify chan-nels for education and aware-ness.”
More Information NeededOncologists and other
health care professionals in-volved in the treating of my-eloma patients and those scientists challenged with de-veloping future treatments—and possibly a cure—agree that there is a need for more information when it comes to understanding the impact of this disease on African-Amer-icans.
There also remains a need for community education pro-grams to educate this popula-tion about its risks for devel-oping MM and the benefit of clinical trials so that they may better understand this new in-formation and apply it to their lives.
For more information, visit www.mymultiplemyeloma.com.
While the incident and mortality rates for multiple myeloma have mostly leveled off, this has not been the case within the African-American.
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CHILDREN’S HEALTHWhooping Cough Cases Are On The Rise—Be Protected
and has a tangible anointing on her life to pray for the sick.Special Speaker: Stephanie Haro Stephanie was born in Casa Grand, Arizona. She grew up in church and under the teachings of Pastor Ken-neth Hagin ministries. In 2012, Stephanie attended Rhema Bible Training College and in 2014 she graduated from theschools Core program. Cur-
rently, Stephanie ministers onoccasions at local churches. Her desire is to see people ofevery type come to experi-ence the power, love, and joy that you only find in having a relationship with Christ.
All who attended the con-ference were truly blessed.
(NAPSI)—Whooping cough is often thought of as a disease of the past but, unfortunately, it’s making a comeback. To provide yourself and your family with the best protec-tion, get vaccinated against the disease.
There are many factors con-tributing to the current resur-gence of whooping cough. While offering protection, the whooping cough vaccines used now do not last as long as health care professionals would like. Raised awareness, along with better tests to diag-nose patients, has contributed to an increase in the number of whooping cough cases be-ing diagnosed and reported.
Whooping cough can take a toll on anyone but it can be deadly for babies. There are between 10,000 and 50,000 whooping cough cases re-ported each year in the United States, with about 10 to 20 in-fant deaths due to the disease. Most deaths are in babies too young to be protected by their
own vaccination. The best protection against
whooping cough is the whooping cough vaccine. Babies, teens, adults and pregnant women need to be vaccinated according to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) recom-mended schedule.
For babies, protection against whooping cough can start before they’re even born. During pregnancy, women
should get the Tdap vaccine; a shot combining protection against whooping cough, tet-anus and diphtheria. Antibod-ies will be passed to the baby, providing protection until they are old enough to receive their first whooping cough vaccine, and the mother will be protected against spread-ing whooping cough to her newborn.
Before her baby is born, a pregnant woman should also talk to others about making sure they are up to date with the Tdap vaccine. This includes the baby’s father, grandpar-ents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, babysitters and day care staff. If someone is not up to date, he or she should get the whooping cough vac-cine at least two weeks before coming in close contact with the new baby.
Babies begin their series of vaccines against whoop-ing cough at 2 months of age with their first dose of DTaP. Like Tdap, this shot combines
protection against whooping cough, tetanus and diphthe-ria. The series is completed by getting additional doses at 4 months, 6 months, 15 through 18 months, and 4 through 6 years of age. Since the protec-tion the DTaP vaccine provides young children decreases over time, preteens need the Tdap booster shot at 11 or 12 years old.
Even if you don’t have chil-dren or a baby on the way, you can help protect yourself and those who are vulnerable around you by ensuring your whooping cough vaccine is up to date. The CDC recommends that all teens and adults who have never gotten the Tdap vaccine receive a dose.
Do your part to protect yourself and your family from whooping cough. Visit www.cdc.gov/whoopingcough for more information and talk to your doctor about the whoop-ing cough vaccine.
Getting vaccinated against whooping cough can protect you, and keep you from infecting babies too young to be vaccinated.
WOMEN’S CONFERENCESCONTINUED FROM PAGE 13
of four is $1,987.50 a month or $23,850 a year. Applicants are required to provide proof of income, the most recent water bill and a California ID and So-cial Security cards for all adults in the household.
Funds are limited and are being distributed county-
wide on a first come, first served basis.
To obtain an application or for additional information, contact the Merced County Community Action Agency at 209-723-4565. The Agency’s Merced office is at 1235 W. Main St., Merced, CA.
WATER BILLS HELP... CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11
16 NOVEMBER 2014
The MJC Art Gallery pres-ents the student art show “Through My Own Eyes” open now through Nov. 27 in the Gallery on East Campus. The exhibit features multi-media, painting, sculpture, drawing and ceramics by art majors as well as students just begin-
ning to study art. A free public reception will be held on Nov. 13, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m., with re-freshments served. Admission to the Art Gallery is free and it is open Mon. – Wed., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Thurs., 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The MJC Art Gallery
(Modesto, CA) –The Modesto Junior College Community Orchestra, directed by Profes-sor Anne Martin, will present a concert entitled Jaws and Juliet (and Romeo too!) on Tuesday, December 2 at 7:30 p.m. in the Main Auditorium on East campus. Tickets will be available at the door for $5 general admission and $1 for students and senior citizens.
The concert will open with Gounod’s Funeral March of a Marionette, made famous as the theme song for Alfred Hitchcock’s television show. The second piece is a tone poem by Tchaikovsky, the Ro-meo & Juliet Fantasy Overture. The work uses the full force of a Romantic orchestra, in-cluding English Horn. Travel-ing back to the classical era, the MJC Community Orches-
tra will conclude the first half of the program with Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C Major, pre-senting MJC music student Anthony Houth as soloist.
“Houth brings a dazzling energy to every performance,” promises Director of Orches-tra Martin.
The second half of the pro-gram will conjure images of ogres and sharks with dramat-ic accelerandos and crescen-dos in Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King from the Peer Gynt Suite and the terrifying Suite from Jaws by John Wil-liams.
The college invites the com-munity to support orchestra music by attending the per-formance. For more informa-tion contact Professor Anne Martin at (209) 575-6646, or [email protected].
MJC Community Orchestra Presents Concert Entitled Jaws And Juliet (And Romeo Too!)
(Modesto, CA) –The Modesto Junior College Department of Music presents a Fall Jazz Band Concert on Monday, November 24, at 7:30 p.m. in the Main Auditorium on East Campus, 435 College Avenue. The event is open to the public and admission is free, with donations gratefully accepted. Campus park-ing is available for $2 in student parking lots.
The performance by the 22 member MJC
Jazz Band, conducted by Director of Bands Erik Maki, will feature big band arrangements of a wide variety of styles including rock, Latin, swing, and straight-ahead jazz. The student ensemble will feature works by well-known jazz composers like John Fedchock, Horace Silver, Les Hooper and J.J. Johnson.
For more information contact Maki at [email protected] or (209) 575-6184.
Jazz Band Concert offered atModesto Junior College
CENTRAL VALLEY VOICE.COM 17
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Turkey-Carving Tips: Three Easy Steps
NAPSI)—If you want the turkey you serve to be “gob-bled up” this holiday, consider improving the presentation with these simple carving tips:
Step 1:Be sure to use a good,
sharp knife. Sharp knives are not only safer, they will help you smoothly cut thin, even slices without shredding the meat. Fortunately, you don’t have to be an expert to put a razor-sharp edge on your knife. A sharpener such as Chef’sChoice® EdgeSelect® 120 can make sharpening easy. The sharpener uses 100 percent diamond-coated disks (2.5 karats’ worth of diamonds!) and a polishing stage to create a more du-rable, arch-shaped edge in seconds. The precision guides eliminate all guesswork and that means predictable, pro-fessionally sharp edges every time it’s used. For help finding a sharpener that’s right for you, call 800-342-3255 or visit www.chefschoice.com.
Step 2:After the turkey is cooked,
a meat thermometer should read 165° F when inserted in the innermost part of the thigh and wing and the thick-est part of the breast. Cool the bird for 15 minutes. Cool-ing makes the meat firmer and easier to slice. Remove and set aside the turkey legs and the last joint of each wing. Make a long, deep (to the bone) horizontal “base cut” into the breast just above the wing.
Step 3:Slice down vertically
through the breast until you meet the original base cut. This will release perfect, even slices.
Keep your carving knife sharp and follow these easy steps for an elegant, beauti-fully carved bird that will look as good as it tastes!
Sports NewsSupport Your Local Sports
18 NOVEMBER 2014
Cal Poly Pomona Predicted toClaim 2014-15 CCAA Title
WALNUT CREEK – The Cal Poly Pomona Broncos have been selected to capture the 2014-15 California Collegiate Athletic Association men’s basketball title, according to a poll of league coaches, it was announced Wednesday.
CPP collected 117 points and received eight first-place votes to finish ahead of de-fending CCAA Regular-Sea-son Champion Cal State San Bernardino. The Coyotes to-taled 108 points and two-first place votes.
Reigning Conference Tour-nament Champion, Cal State Stanislaus was predicted to finish third after garnering 98 points and two first-place votes. Following right be-
hind with 87 points was Chico State.
Humboldt State edged Cal State L.A. for fifth with 75 points, while the Golden Ea-gles collected 74 points. San Francisco State (51) led the bottom half of the standings and is followed by Cal State Monterey Bay (45), UC San Di-ego (41), Sonoma State (33), Cal State East Bay (32), and Cal State Dominguez Hills (31).
Cal Poly Pomona begins its 15th season under head coach Greg Kamansky and is coming off of a 22-7 sea-son, which included a fourth NCAA Tournament appear-ance in six years.
The Broncos' roster will fea-ture a number of top return-
ers including All-CCAA First Team selection Jordan Faison and Terrence Drisdom. Last season, Faison averaged 14.6 points and 5.7 rebounds per game and finished second in the CCAA with a 56.5 shooting percentage. Prior to last year’s redshirt season, Drisdom was one of two Broncos to earn All-American status after to-taling 89 assists, 61 steals, and averaging 13 points per game in 2012-13.
Cal State San Bernardino is coming off of another stellar season, snagging its eighth total CCAA title under head coach Jeff Oliver and earning the first overall seed in the NCAA West Region tourna-ment with a 24-5 record. The Coyotes will be leaning on its veteran players and sev-eral newcomers in its drive to repeat as champions. With the loss of All-American and CCAA Player of the Year Lacy Haddock, along with fellow seniors Kirby Gardner, Jordan Burris, and Andrew Young, the Coyotes will look to Casey Oldemoppen, Taylor Statham, and Tevin Harris to lead this year’s squad.
Last winter, Cal State Stan-islaus experienced its best season in program history,
capturing its first-ever CCAA Championship and making its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance.
The Warriors return all-but-two key starters this season, in-cluding Rob Walters and CCAA Newcomer of the Year Chris Read. Walters ranked among the top-ten with 7.9 rebounds per game and 24 total blocks, while Read scored 13.4 points per game and was among the top-four in field goal percent-age (54.3) last season.
Eight institutions — Chico State, Cal State Monterey Bay, Cal State San Bernardino, Cal
State East Bay, Humboldt State, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Stanislaus, and Sonoma State began regular-season play on Friday, Nov. 14. CCAA play will begin on Nov. 22 when the Broncos and Lum-berjacks host the Tritons and Coyotes, respectively.
The 2014 CCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tourna-ment will relocate from its pre-vious site — Citizen’s Business Bank Arena in Ontario, Calif. and is set to be played March 5-7 at Stockton Arena in Stock-ton, Calif.
CCAA TITLE PREDICTED... CONTINUED FROM PAGE 18
Charles Butcher a participant in the Ebony Socialite’s annual golf charity tournament.
Leslie Comerie participate in the Ebony Socialite’s annual golf event.
Ebony Socialite member, Ernestine Portis at the annual golf event.
Ebony Socialite member, LePearl Butcher at the annual golf event.
On October 4, 2014, the Ebony Socialites in Atwater CA, held their 14th Annual Golf Charity Tournament. The course of events included a BBQ Lunch and some nice prizes.
All proceeds support Ebo-
ny Socialites Scholarships & Community Service Projects.
Send future donations to the Ebony Socialites Scholar-ships & Community Service Projects to: Ebony Socialites: PO Box 414, Atwater, CA 95301
help fulfill high school com-munity service requirements. Meetings are the second Tuesday of the month and as needed as the fair gets closer. The 2015 fair is June 10-14.
Each Junior Fair Board member is entitled to free parking and admission for
one person and one vehicle during the fair.
Junior Fair Board applica-tions must be physically re-ceived at the fairgrounds office no later than 5 p.m. Monday, December 1. Ap-plications may be hand-de-livered, sent by the United
States Postal Service or other courier service and should be addressed to "ATTN: Junior Fair Board Advisors." Applica-tions will be stamped with the exact time and date of receipt.
For more information, call the fair office at (209) 722-1507.
JUNIOR FAIR BOARD...CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8
EBONY SOCIALITES OF ATWATER
20 NOVEMBER 2014
Insurance Commissioner Responds ToAnthem’s Move Lower Their Excessive Rate Increase On Small Business
Insurance Commissioner responds to Anthem’s move to lower their excessive rate increase on small business
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -"Ear-lier today the Department of Insurance announced its finding that the Anthem Blue Cross average rate increase of 9.8 percent on small busi-nesses was excessive and unreasonable. Before the an-nouncement, Anthem refused the department's request to lower its rate increase to 2.1 percent.
After the announcement that the rate was unreason-able and excessive, Anthem told some reporters that they will lower the increase to 7.8
percent. Anthem has not shared this with the Depart-ment of Insurance and had already begun imposing the 9.8 percent average increase on some small employers. Now that their excessive rate increase is making headlines, Anthem has made the deci-sion to continue charging an excessive rate, but a slightly lower one, so they have a talk-ing point for the media.
Anthem's reduction of the rate increase, if true, demon-strates that the Department of Insurance was correct in finding Anthem's rate exces-sive and unreasonable. An-them's newly revised increase of 7.8 percent is still excessive
and unreasonable. Anthem's excessive rate in-
crease further demonstrates the need for California to have the authority to reject exces-sive health insurance rates just as 35 other states do, rather than letting Anthem Blue Cross decide unilaterally whether to charge a slightly lower excessive rate when subject to media scrutiny or to engage in accounting ma-neuvers designed to hide the true level of the company's excessive profits."
Dave Jones, Insurance Commissioner
PG&E Opens New $28.5 Million State-Of-The-ArtElectric Control Center In FresnoNew Infrastructure Investment Will Provide Enhanced Reliability and Resiliency for Central Valley Customers
FRESNO, Calif. – Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) today unveiled its new, state-of-the-art, $28.5 million elec-tric distribution control center in Fresno. The Fresno facility is the first of three new control centers – other locations will be Concord and Rocklin – that will manage PG&E's more than the 140,000 miles of electric distri-bution system serving nearly 16 million Californians. A dedica-tion event was held earlier to-day at the new center with local civic leaders, PG&E executives and staff.
The new distribution control center is just one of many infra-structure investments in Fresno and the Central Valley in recent years. In fact, PG&E is set to in-vest approximately $940 million
in the region between 2012 and 2016. The new, 24,000-square-foot, operations center will en-hance electric reliability and resiliency for PG&E customers throughout the Central Valley and will utilize current and fu-ture Smart Grid technologies. Electric operators from the area also played a key role in help-ing design the new electric grid nerve center.
"Every day, we work to pro-vide our customers with energy that is safe, reliable, affordable and clean," said Geisha Williams, executive vice president of Electric Operations, who inau-gurated the new facility. "This state-of-the-art facility, which integrates a wide range of ad-vanced technologies under one roof, gives our grid operators
unprecedented visibility into our electric system, which will allow them to help limit out-ages and restore service to our customers as quickly and effec-tively as possible."
"The City of Fresno appreci-ates the $28.5 million dollar investment in our community, and the 250 construction jobs created during the building and construction phase of this proj-ect," said Steve Brandau, Fresno City Council President.
The new control center has been equipped with systems that support today's current Smart Grid technology, but will also support future upgrades as well. A new Distribution Man-agement System incorporates advanced electronic mapping and SmartMeter™ data to help
operators pinpoint the exact lo-cation of an outage. Operators also have the ability to remotely control equipment and work with automated "self-heal-ing" switches that have been installed on electric circuits throughout the Central Valley. These Smart Switches isolate outages and help reroute the flow of electricity to minimize the number of customers af-fected by an outage and restore others more quickly.
Constructed with redundant data feeds, the new facility will provide emergency back-up capabilities to enhance PG&E’s disaster resiliency capability. Additionally, the center has the flexibility to shift operations to other new regional control centers (Concord and Rocklin) if
support is needed in the event of a major storm or natural di-saster.
PG&E continues to make sig-nificant progress in electric reli-ability that benefits customers throughout its entire service area. In 2013, PG&E custom-ers experienced the fewest minutes without electricity in company history. Investments in the grid, including the de-ployment of Smart Grid tech-nology played a key role in de-livering this performance. Since 2006, Customers have seen a 40 percent improvement in the average duration of service dis-ruptions and a 27 percent im-provement in the number of customer interruptions.
Business News
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CENTRAL VALLEY VOICE.COM 21
NAPSI)—For many, finding and buying the right home is still a big part of the American dream.
However, that dream home can turn into a nightmare when hidden costs from weather and other types of damage start adding up.
It’s not uncommon for con-sumers to find out about these hidden costs rather late in the process. That’s because until now, buyers had to wait until just before closing to receive a “seller’s disclosure.”
This is a document that re-veals details about the house the buyers plan to purchase. At that point, it’s likely that a prospective buyer has already paid thousands of dollars for legal fees, inspections, depos-its and title fees and may be reluctant to back out of the deal.
Fortunately, there is a re-source that buyers can call on earlier in the process. Real estate tycoon and “Shark Tank” host Barbara Corcoran suggests going online to find property history and insur-ance claims on a home. An Insurance Claims report can give homebuyers and Realtors information that was previ-ously only available to home-
owners.For instance, a company
called Housefax offers online reports that provide a com-prehensive history of a home, including building permits; mortgage information; insur-ance claims; fire, flood, hail and catastrophic history; and other residential property de-tails.
The reports also include in-formation on schools in the district, current property as-sessment values and inspec-tor alerts.
For more information, con-tact Housefax at www.house-fax.com.
Homebuyers, Beware Before Buying
There’s a new service that offers homebuyers a comprehen-sive history of a property.
HINTS FOR HOMEBUYERS
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You Saw It In
Central Valley Voice
22 NOVEMBER 2014
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1325 ANGIE AVE Modesto, CA 95351
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611 G StreetModesto, CA 95353
THE SAW SHOPSix Vehicle Warning Signs Your Nose Can Notice
(NAPSI)—While most mo-torists are fond of what’s known as that “new car smell,” there are some other specific odors that motorists should also be aware of.
Identifying these suspect smells early on can help car owners be car care aware and avoid the hassle and expense of an unexpected breakdown.
The Car Care Council rec-ommends a sniff test of your vehicle to identify any unusu-al smells, including the fol-lowing six warning signs:
1. The smell of burnt rubber could be slipping drive belts or misplaced loose hoses that might be rubbing against ro-tating accessory drive pulleys. Do not reach in if the engine
compartment is hot.2. The smell of hot oil could
mean that oil is leaking onto the exhaust system. To verify the leak, look for oil on the pavement or smoke coming from the engine area.
3. The smell of gasoline is likely the sign of a gas leak in some area of the vehicle such as a fuel injector line or the fuel tank. Any smell of fuel can result in a possible fire hazard, so immediate atten-tion should be given.
4. The sweet smell of syrup may be a sign that your car is leaking engine coolant from a leaky component related to the car’s cooling system. Do not open the radiator cap when it is hot.
5. The smell of burning car-pet could be a sign of brake trouble and a safety hazard.
Have your brakes checked right away, especially if this smell is happening during normal driving conditions.
6. If the smell of rotten eggs is coming from your vehicle, it could mean a problem with your catalytic converter or a poorly running engine caus-ing the catalytic converter to become overloaded and fail due to meltdown.
“When you smell any pe-culiar odor, you should not ignore it. Instead, bring your vehicle to a professional ser-vice technician that you trust to get an informed opinion on the nature of the odor,” said Rich White, executive di-rector, Car Care Council.
The Car Care Council is the source of information for the “Be Car Care Aware” cam-paign promoting the benefits of regular vehicle care. For a copy of the council’s “Car Care Guide” or for more informa-tion, visit www.carcare.org.
Any smell of fuel can indicate a possible fire hazard, so im-mediate attention should be given.
CENTRAL VALLEY VOICE.COM 23
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Central Valley Voice
THE ACTIVE CONSUMER
Cleaning up the mess made by title washing
NAPSI)—A dangerous scam that hides major problems from consumers who pur-chase used cars is on the rise.
That’s the word from ex-perts who say nearly 800,000 used cars on America’s roads may be part of an emerging fraud called title washing.
Title washing makes rebuilt wrecks and cars with odom-eter issues look like problem-free used cars on paper. Pro-fessional con men illegally alter vehicle documents to get title brands such as “sal-vage” or “flood” removed from a car’s title. They’ll often patch up the wrecked cars, move them to other states and sell them with a clear title to unsuspecting buyers. Vic-tims can lose thousands and put their lives at risk purchas-ing used cars with washed titles.
To help, Carfax Vehicle His-tory Reports alert people to cases of potential title wash-ing. Every Motor Vehicle De-partment in the U.S. and Can-ada reports branded titles to Carfax. Getting an inspection by a trusted mechanic is also recommended.
You can now shop for used cars at the all-new www.car-fax.com.
Title washing can makerebuilt or waterlogged wrecks look like problem-free cars on paper.
24 NOVEMBER 2014
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OUR PASTOR ... CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9
license. The Lord later called her to the Evangelist office. In 1983, Ann received her Minis-try License.
ln 1986, Dr. Hill founded the ‘Women of Love Ministry, Inc. reaching all nationality of women. There has been 13 ‘Women of Love ‘Chapters opened in the State of Califor-nia.
Ann has also founded Young Women Of Love, Teens for Christ,” Women of Love... Prison Ministry, Women of
Love Prison Ministry Spanish, Pastors Wives With A Mission” was founded in 2003. Ann has traveled throughout the United States and abroad. Dr. Hill moves in a strong pro-phetic anointing ministering in conferences, workshops, outreaches, prisons, retreats,
women shelters, marriage classes & home discipleship. Ann’s greatest passion is to prepare peoples heart for the kingdom of God.
Pastor John and Ann have raised two children, Andres and Latoya.
bony Socialites will cel-ebrate their 43rd Annual Black and White Ball by presenting Top Shelf’s
Classic review Motown Mad-ness. Saturday December 6, 2014, at the Atwater Commu-nity Center, 760 Bellevue Road, Atwater, Ca 95301.
There will be Hor d’ oeuvres
& No Host Cocktails at 6:00pm, Dinner at 6:30p.m. The Show is from 8:00 p.m. to 11:00p.m. This event requires Semi-formal at-tire and $50.00 donation per person.
For more information, please call: 209-358-4421, 209-769-2728 or 209-358-4207.
