March 30, 2023

LAWT News Service

Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D-Los Angeles) joined the California Labor Federation, Assemblymember Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles), unions and community-based organizations at a press conference on March 28 at Starbucks to announce their support of SB 627 – the Displaced Worker Transfer Rights Act. Authored by Senator Smallwood-Cuevas, the bill will hold corporate chain employers accountable for using store closures in a discriminatory or retaliatory manner and give the workers preferential transfer options to other store locations.

“Not only do corporate chains use store closures to deter workers from advocating for their rights, but they disproportionately close stores in low-income and communities of color,” said Smallwood-Cuevas, author of SB 627.

“Store closures are devastating to workers and communities. My bill will make sure workers have time to prepare for a store closure and can keep their jobs and transfer to another location.”

There has been a historic surge in worker organizing at corporate chains, including Starbucks, Trader Joe’s, Chipotle, and REI. Meanwhile, those chains have closed stores across the country in direct response to unionization efforts. In July, Starbucks announced that they were closing 16 stores nationally, including six in Los Angeles.

The chain closed more stores in the fall, with Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz warning in a Twitter video that there would be many more closures to come. Trader Joe’s and Chipotle, where workers are also advocating for their rights, have closed stores as well. 

Store closures and the loss of jobs are devastating to workers, their families and communities. Workers are left without a paycheck, and they and their co-workers must scramble to find a new job with little warning.

SB 627 will ensure workers’ lives aren’t upended when they lose their jobs because their employer closed the store where they work. It requires chain employers to give advance notice of a store closure and give workers the right to transfer to a location within 25 miles when a position becomes open. The bill would only apply to large corporate chains with 100 locations nationally.

March 23, 2023

By Devyn Bakewell

Assistant Managing Editor

Award-winning author Kellye Garrett grew up with a passion for fiction. 

“Since I was five years old, I’ve known I wanted to be a writer,” she admitted in an interview with the L.A. Watts Times. “I was lucky in that mom was a big reader, so I definitely got that from her. As I got older, she gave me free reign over bookshelves. This was in the 90s, so I got to read some really amazing authors. People like Terry McMillian, Eric Jerome Dickey, and Walter Mosley were blowing up, so I was really lucky because it taught me that representation matters.” 

Garrett is the author of three novels—her “Detective by Day” Series, and then her most recent novel, “Like A Sister,” A twisty, voice-driven thriller novel, “Like A Sister” follows a dead Black Reality TV Star’s half-estranged sister who refuses to believe the official story of her death and seeks to find out the dangerous truth.

“[Like A Sister] came from an actual New York Daily headline. The opening of the book says I found out my sister died from the New York Daily News, and I think the actual headline was something, like, pregnant, former reality star found dead in Bronx,” Garrett told the L.A. Watts Times.

“The woman in me thought oh, that’s terrible way to pass away, but I also thought the headline was very hurtful because it was a Black woman, like they wouldn’t be doing that for a Kardashian. But the writer in me was like Oh that’s a good mystery. How did this glamorous reality star go from partying up in Downtown Manhattan to dying alone on a street corner in the Bronx? And then one day said, Oh she was going to see her estranged sister, and never made it.

She continued, “So that’s where the book came from—it’s from the POV of her estranged Sister [Lena]. She hadn’t talked to her sister in two years but knows that she was coming to see her at five in the morning, didn’t make it, and wants to know what happened.”

Within all of Garrett’s novels she incorporates different depictions of Black women, something the author said is not intentional, but just a part of her writing about Black people. Her main character, Lena, is a woman described as the strong one who laughs rather than cries, and always gets her tasks done.

The main character of “Like A Sister,” Lena, is a woman described as the strong one who laughs rather than cries, and always gets her tasks done.

In describing the making of Lena’s character, Garret shared that, “I think with a lot of Black people, we have to have a sense of humor because of our history. We can almost always make a joke about anything, and it’d be funny, so I wanted that to kind of have that in a character. Usually, [in the domestic suspense genre] you see things like “Gone Girl, which is about like some white woman who’s married and living in the suburbs and is lying about something. So, as a Black woman, living in the city, I couldn’t identify with that.”

“I wanted to see someone who looks like me, like my family, on those pages,” Kellye Garret continued, “but I also knew that because it was a Black woman, she would not get the same grace and sympathy that she’d get. So, I wanted to talk about that, too—like, the strong Black woman cape that she uses as a cape, and that she uses as a shield. And that she needs to be more vulnerable.”

It being National Women’s Month and Garret being a Black female author, when asked if Garrett is intentional about the way she portrays her female characters, she shared that “sometimes you have to be, we have to talk about race a lot.”

“There are a lot of things we have to write about,” said Garret. “I feel like often, other races want us to breed our work, which makes me sad because I think we should be able to have all types of stories,” she expressed.

“We should be able to have a really good books and literature, like Toni Morrison. We should be able to have really bad books, too, you know? Or books that are just fun. I think what I want is for Black people, especially Black women, to write whatever they want. I don’t think we’re at that point, but I really hope that one day we are.”

Within all of Garrett’s novels she incorporates different depictions of Black women, something the author said is not intentional, but just a part of her writing about Black people.

“I just wanted to write about awesome Black women because that’s how Black women are—we’re so diverse and different.”

Being a Black woman or man in the publishing industry is not an easy aspiration. Black authors often face a lot of pushback when trying to tell the stories of Black people; their passions being the only thing that keeps them going. ‘

With this, Garret’s advice to other young black women, trying to tell write and tell Black stories is that “it can be painful sometimes, but keep going…keep writing every day, every week, and you’ll have a finished book.”

“Somedays, I tell myself I keep going because I’m not good at anything else,” the author joked. “I just love writing—I hate writing, but I love having written.I love the creative process, and that’s what keeps me going.

I keep doing it because it’s what I love. I always go back to that five-year-old girl. This is what she wants.”

Kellye Garrett’s books are sold everywhere books are sold. For more information on the author, visit https://kellyegarrett.com. Also check out her Instagram (@kellyekell).

March 23, 2023

By Joe Bowers

California Black Media

On her first day in office, Dec. 12, 2022, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass declared a state of emergency on homelessness. This gave her administration expanded powers to help people gain access to permanent housing. 

As she marks 100 days in office this week, Bass estimates that around 4,000 Angelinos will have been housed since she took charge of City Hall. She points out that most of the people are housed due to Proposition HHH and programs already in place when she took office, but about 1,000 of them have found housing due to her Inside Safe program.

 One of the major challenges for Bass in getting people into permanent supportive housing has been navigating bureaucratic red tape.  "Well, it did take a long time because of the red tape, but it's finally coming to fruition in a big way," she said.

She expects to see a significant increase in the number of people in permanent housing over the next 100 days.

 According to Bass, probably the most controversial decision of her administration was agreeing to give LAPD Chief Michel Moore a second term. This decision has potentially long-range consequences for the mayor and her record on crime.  

“We have the World Cup coming up in 2026 and the Olympics coming up in 2028.” Bass said.  “He (Moore) has said he has no intentions of staying five years. I have no intention of a five-year contract. But we are going to begin a community process citywide to ask Angelinos what they want and need to see in order to be safe. And that will provide a roadmap for how we select a chief, but it is important that we have a chief in place."

Yet another issue that the city government needs to address that has Bass’ attention is its current inability to prevent homelessness “now.”  Speaking to Black journalists, Bass said, "Here's where you guys can all help us, and we desperately need your help. I'm very worried that we're going to have another spike in homelessness because of evictions that are kicking up now, because of the eviction moratorium going away.  

“The city council passed tenant protections, and where you could be helpful, and we could be helpful to you is we need to get the word out,” Bass continued. “And so, we're going to be coming to you for advertising. We need you to advertise, and we need to support your advertising.”

When asked by California Black Media what best prepared her for taking on the responsibilities of the mayor, Bass said,

" I think it's been my life's work. I don't think it's been one thing. There are the 14-years at Community Coalition, but that's always been my foundation.

“Of course, being in the state house and Congress is very helpful. I know that was why the government alignment happened so quickly because I was building on many, many, many years of relationships. I think what's always driven me is my commitment to the issues and my purpose is to stop the suffering of our people on the streets.”

As she has been dealing with the homelessness crisis, Bass has been building her City Hall team. Members of her senior leadership team include Chris Thompson, chief of staff, and Mercedes Marquez, chief of Housing and Homelessness Solutions.

Filling many of the open deputy mayor positions, she has hired Rachel Freeman, deputy mayor for Business and Economic Development; Karren Lane, deputy mayor of Community Empowerment; Brian K. Williams, deputy mayor of Public Safety; Randall Winston, deputy mayor of Public Works; and Nancy Sutley, deputy mayor of Energy and Sustainability. 

The deputy mayors are tasked with hiring based on an assessment of the personnel needs of their department. Currently, many departments are understaffed and that is affecting the city’s ability to deliver essential services.