Author: Carma Henry

The City of Pompano Beach is thrilled to Light Up MLK at the newly refurbished Annie Adderly Gillis Park. The holiday celebration is returning with great fanfare to the beloved community space. The event takes place November 20, 2022, with festivities beginning at 5:30 pm and the official tree lighting ceremony occurring at 7 pm. Sounds of the holidays will ring throughout the neighborhood and will include a variety of local community-based performances. Enjoy food and beverages plus a variety of interactive holiday themed activities, and be sure to have your camera ready as Santa stops by for a visit! The event is free and open to the public. Learn more at www.pompanobeacharts.org.

      Currently, Texas, Georgia and Washington D.C. are all seeing high flu activity and it’s only the beginning of the season. Health experts say this season is likely to be severe and according to a recent survey by the National Foundation for Infectious Disease, nearly half of Americans don’t plan to get vaccinated against the flu this year.

Mississippi officials on Friday approved the city of Jackson’s request for $35.6 million in federal funds to help fix its crumbling water infrastructure, following this summer’s flooding-induced breakdowns that left 150,000 people without running water for days.

      Before I begin on my focus for this week’s article, I must ask, “where do we go from here?” Elections bring out the best and the worst of people, be it from leadership or voters. The Yin and the Yang has been caught up in the tic and the toc. When will we learn that social media should be a tool and not a toy expression which presented can be misrepresented to what you intended. It can be a cowardly way for one to throw rocks and hide their hand (so they think). There has been a lot of unreported, overlooked, and flat-out disregard for the misbehaviors of leadership in our schools and on our school board.

     The ceremony will feature clips from the video, Alphonso Giles: Story from an American Hero, exploring Giles’ most memorable military experiences.  The public is invited to attend.

       Ol’ Pete gives Super Cartwright some credit. She was told to make good with the Black community and what better way to kick off the effort than to cross the threshold of the Black church with a King James Bible in one hand and a charm with a Black Jesus on the cross in the other. Contrarily, the Street Committee is talking, critiquing, and seeing through Cartwright’s efforts as being short of genuine. No amount or “testa-lying” (and she did plenty) can make up for the attack on Blacks that she executed at the beginning of her superintendency. Black parishioners told Peter that they don’t want to be pacified or patronized. They are seeking real atonement that starts with an apology, something they doubt Cartwright would ever extend. The Super made some erroneous assumptions when she came to Broward and was led astray by some folk with personal agendas. Peter Traceit, the Street Detective, is told Cartwright must first understand and embrace for herself that she was targeted and used to exact other people’s vengeance, and then she must seek out those who she hurt and atone. 

Pieper Lewis, the Iowa teen who killed a man she claimed raped her and was sentenced to probation and ordered to pay restitution to his family, has escaped from a juvenile detention facility. Lewis “walked away from the Fresh Start Women’s Center on Friday at 6:19 a.m. after cutting off her electronic monitoring tracking device,” officials said, recommending her probation be revoked.

     Today at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Broward County, 66 percent of the Little Brothers and Sisters we serve identify themselves as Black or Biracial. By comparison, only 26 percent of our volunteer mentors identify as Black or Biracial.  Currently, 56 percent of our wait list – or 462 children – are Black or Biracial.

     Health insurance is complicated. Not many people will disagree with that. And since it’s the time of year when individuals and families can enroll in a health insurance plan for 2023, it’s a perfect time to correct a few common myths about health insurance so you can make an informed decision about buying a health plan for you and your family.

Coronavirus Report: November 7, 2022