Morales Memorial Foundation establishes scholarship at the Houston Community College
During the August 18, 2016 meeting of the Houston Community College Board of Trustees, representatives with the Felix and Angela Morales Memorial Foundation presented the HCC Foundation a check for $20,000 to support single parents in workforce programs and those taking classes primarily at HCC Southeast.
Single parents enrolled in workforce programs at Houston Community College (HCC) and taking classes primarily at the Southeast Campus, are getting financial support from the Felix and Angela Morales Memorial Foundation.
“We know how difficult it can be for single parents to juggle the demands of childcare and their studies while working to help ends meet,” said Dr. Adriana Tamez, HCC Board of Trustees Chair. “This scholarship will help ease the financial burden.”
During the August 18 meeting of the HCC Board of Trustees, representatives from the Morales Foundation, including family members, presented the HCC Foundation a $20,000 check. A portion of the generous funds will go to establishing the Morales Foundation Family Empowerment Scholarship.
Christina Morales, president of the Felix and Angela Morales Memorial Foundation and member of the HCC Foundation Board of Directors, is a single parent of two children. She talked about the importance of having a support system in order to be successful.
“With this new workforce scholarship, this will help empower single parents. We hope to provide more for their families and set a trend for education and stability in their homes,” said Morales.
The Morales family has historical ties to HCC and the Southeast Campus, with two buildings named after Felix H. Morales and Angela V. Morales, who recognized a need for higher education and career training in the East End community.
“The Morales Family’s generosity on behalf the students of HCC is exceptional and we are deeply honored to have the longstanding support of the Felix and Angela Morales Memorial Foundation,” said David Regenbaum, HCC Foundation Vice President.
To learn more about scholarships offered through the HCC Foundation, visit hccsfoundation.org.
‘Watch for Traffick’ media campaign helps Houstonians recognize and report human trafficking
File: On May 9, 2016, Houston mayor Sylvester Turner held a press conference on human trafficking where he was joined by Congressman Ted Poe and other public officials. “Watch for Traffick” ads about the nine different forms of human trafficking will be displayed various places including taxis and buses, television and social media. Printed materials will also be available in five languages.
Mayor Sylvester Turner announced the launch of Watch for Traffick, a city-wide media campaign to raise awareness about human trafficking and encourage Houstonians to report it. The new multi-media campaign is one element of a broader anti-human trafficking strategic plan unveiled earlier this year.
Watch for Traffick ads about the nine different forms of human trafficking will be displayed various places including taxis and buses, television and social media. Printed materials will also be available in five languages. The City’s partners in this campaign are United Against Human Trafficking, the Harris County District Attorney, the Houston Police Department, Yellow Cab, METRO, and Fubu TV. The creative concept behind Watch for Traffick is the work of Deutser, a Houston-based management consulting firm which donated its services.
“Human trafficking is modern day slavery,” said Mayor Turner. “It can occur anywhere and at any time, but its warning signs often go unnoticed. Watch for Traffick will alert Houstonians about what to look for and how to report it.”
Dubbed by the Polaris Project as the nation’s first comprehensive, municipal-level response to human trafficking, Houston’s strategic plan lays the groundwork for advancing policy changes, raising awareness, supporting efforts to coordinate victim services and implementing joint initiatives of Mayor Turner’s task force, the Houston Area Council on Human Trafficking.
To report suspected cases of human trafficking, call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center: 1-888-373-7888.
Houston: Quality Texas Foundation recognizes HCC strategic plan
Steve Arms, Chair of the Board of Directors of Quality Texas Foundation, presented the Performance Excellence Award to Houston Community College for their collaborations to improve student success rates. Accepting from HCC is Dr. Michael Edwards.
– In a continuous effort to achieve excellence and enhance the student experience, Houston Community College received the first phase of the Texas Award of Performance Excellence (TAPE) awarded by Quality Texas Foundation at a ceremony in San Antonio.
“I accepted this award on behalf of HCC, the Chancellor and all my colleagues who put in a great deal of effort. We collaborated not just to win this award. The effort was ultimately centered in improving our student’s success rate. Just pursuing the TAPE recognition, we’ll get better,” said Michael Edwards, HCC Executive Director of Institutional Effectiveness.
The TAPE award originated with the Quality Texas Foundation. It was established in 1994 for the purpose of highlighting the work of diverse organizations and provide a recognition of excellence to organizations including universities, hospitals and businesses. TAPE is the forerunner (initial level) to the national quality award – The Malcolm Baldrige Award.
Submitting the documentation to obtain this distinction took months of preparation for Edwards and his team. They put together a comprehensive report evaluating leadership, operations and results at HCC.
“We have to embrace data and become an even more analytical institution. In this quality journey, we will learn about our students, our institution and the communities we serve,” indicated Edwards.
The distinction of this level, he added, is a powerful validation that HCC and our efforts are progressive.
“It’s a big deal because now, our competition knows, based on this acclaim that we are serious about being recognized as one of the best in Texas and in the country.”
Edwards and his team continue to plan for the submission of additional documentation to Quality Texas Foundation in order to secure the next level of six applications in pursuit of TAPE.
Is “White Lives Matter” a movement or white supremacist group?
The organizer of Sunday’s protest outside an NAACP office said the group is not racist, but their clothing and signs may send a different message. One of the protestors held a sign that simply said “14 words,” in reference to the white supremacist slogan: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”
The small group of 20 or so people held Confederate battle flags and waved signs in protest against the way they say the NAACP has handled the Black Lives Matter movement, which protestors deem a hate group.
“We came here because the NAACP headquarters is here and that’s one of the most racist groups in America,” Scott Lacy, a White Lives Matter member, told KPRC-TV.
One of the protestors held a sign that simply said “14 words,” in reference to the white supremacist slogan: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”
NAACP President and CEO Cornell William Brooks said to his knowledge the White Lives Matter group has not reached out to the NAACP beyond the protests over the weekend.
“It is not a welcome mat for engagement to brandish a Confederate flag and bring an assault weapon to the NAACP,” Brooks said in a phone interview.
But while the group touts that it formed organically as a direct response to the Black Lives Matter movement, which is a civil rights campaign against police killings of black men across the country, White Lives Matter actually has roots in white supremacy, according to Mark Potok, senior fellow at Southern Poverty Law Center.
“It’s not a real movement at all,” Potok said. “These are a few very small Neo-Nazi, Klan, and similar groups that have formed to push this narrative into the main stream.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center tracked the group’s inception to 2015, and found that often members of the Texas-based Neo-Nazi group Aryan Renaissance Society (ARS) ran White Lives Matter Facebook pages and encouraged white people interested in White Lives Matter to contact ARS members.
He notes small gatherings of White Lives Matter protests have popped up across the country, though the groups are “small and scattered.”
In Houston, protester Ken Reed told the Houston Chronicle, the NAACP failed to adequately respond to the Black Lives Matter movement, which he and other protestors believe have resulted in the “attack and killing of police officers, the burning down of cities and things of that nature.”
“If they’re going to be a civil rights organization and defend their people,” he said, “they also need to hold their people accountable.”
Brooks said the NAACP has always maintained the Black Lives Matter is not a negation of white lives, but “rather an assertion of our shared humanity.”
He points to the wide variety of Black Lives Matter protestors, with members coming from the Urban League, the NAACP, National Action Network, as well as protestors who don’t belong to any groups.
While a common, though infrequent, criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement has been the sometimes destructive protests, Brooks notes that the White Lives Matter protestors are misguided in blaming the NAACP.
“To blame the violent excess of a small fraction of demonstrators in the country is both logically wrong headed and morally wrong-hearted,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense.”
On social media, many noted that White Lives Matter missed the point of Black Lives Matter.
Four men were arrested on drug possession charges after police obtained a search warrant for the Sigma Nu fraternity house. From left: Michael Frymire, 20; Samuel Patterson, 21; Ty Robertson, 21; and Christian Sandford
A 19-year-old man died from an apparent drug overdose early Saturday at a Texas A&M University fraternity house in College Station.
Four other men at the Sigma Nu fraternity house in the 500 block of Fraternity Row were arrested on drug possession charges around 4:40 a.m., according to a report from KXAS-TV (NBC5).
Police found the victim unresponsive and not breathing. Paramedics took him to College Station Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead.
“We are deeply saddened by this news and offer our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of the deceased student,” Amy B. Smith, a spokeswoman for Texas A&M University, told the Bryan Eagle.
Authorities have yet to release further details about the victim.
Police obtained a search warrant for the fraternity house and found drugs inside, according to NBC5.
“Our hearts are filled with sorrow as we grieve the loss of this young man,” Sigma Nu Executive Director Brad Beacham told the Eagle. “Our thoughts, prayers and deepest condolences are with his family and loved ones.”
Police obtained a search warrant for the fraternity house and found drugs inside, according to NBC5.
Police later released the names of the four men arrested on drug possession charges.
Christian Sandford, 18, and Ty Robertson, 21, were charged with marijuana possession. Michael Frymire, 20, and Samuel Patterson, 21, were charged with possession of a controlled substance: Frymire with hash oil, and Patterson with LSD and MDMA, according to the Eagle.
All are listed as College Station residents, though Frymire’s Facebook page indicates that he is from Dallas and Robertson’s Facebook lists Granbury as his hometown.
Several other people were charged with possession of drug paraphernalia.
“They had a great time Friday,” Sophia Faultry, the day care’s director, told WFAA-TV.
The two were probably comfortable onstage at the day care, where they went every day.
“They’re with us on a daily basis,” Faultry told the station. “We pick them up in the mornings, and we drop them off in the evening.”
She remembers sending the young siblings on their way after the show.
“We told the bus driver, ‘We’ll see you Monday,’” she said.
But she wouldn’t.
On Sunday, the two young children’s bodies were discovered in the crawlspace underneath the house next door to where they lived.
The same day, their 30-year-old mother, Sheborah Thomas, was arrested and charged with capital murder for allegedly drowning both children in a bathtub Friday — some hours after the talent show — before hiding their corpses under the house.
Houston police spokeswoman Kese Smith told the Associated Press it appears that Thomas first attempted to bury the two bodies but eventually placed them under the house when that was too difficult.
Thomas was charged after an unnamed acquaintance found her throwing mounds of trash into a nearby field. When he asked her what she was doing, she said she needed to move from her house immediately. She asked him to help her pack, to which he agreed.
She also allegedly told him that she had killed her children.
He thought it was a twisted joke, a bit of dark humor.
“She was so matter of fact about it he didn’t think she was serious. He thought she was joking,” Smith told the Associated Press. “He continued to help her pack.”
It dawned on the man that Thomas might be telling the truth after he asked about her children again, only to receive the same answer. He persuaded her to get in his car, then immediately took drove her to a police station.
As of early Monday morning, there was not a clear motive for the killing. Thomas does not have a known history of mental illness. She does have a minor criminal history, but police could not offer more details, ABC 13 reported.
Tejal Patel, a Houston spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, said that representatives from her office had visited the family in the past, but she couldn’t offer further details as to the nature of the visit.
“Obviously we want to know how this happened, why this happened,” Patel told the Houston Chronicle. “We just feel horrible. This is just a tragic case.”
The news shocked many who knew Thomas.
“She made sure she kept the kids clean,” Thomas’s neighbor Shirley Baines told WFAA. “She takes care of them. She goes to the store. … To me she was, like, a real nice person. They are good kids. They don’t play with nobody. I mean, why would someone do their kids like that? I mean why? They are innocent!”
Other neighbors agreed.
“I never would have thought she would do that. She didn’t seem like the type. She was always with a smile and friendly,” Dee Davis told the Houston Chronicle. “How in the hell can she do something like this? You bring life into the world; it’s not up to you to take it out. I can’t get over this.”
On Sunday, the two young children’s bodies were discovered in the crawlspace underneath the house next door to where they lived.
Geovanna Brewer, another neighbor, remembered the kids as joyful.
“I remember when they first moved in — the kids were happy and everything,” Brewer told the newspaper. “It’s like a shocker to me.”
Still, none of the neighbors knew her well. She had moved into the house only three months prior, her landlord George Shoupe told the Houston Chronicle.
Perhaps most shocked was Kita Thomas-Smith, the children’s aunt who broke down crying in an emotional interview with WFAA.
“Why would she do this? Why would anybody do this to their kids?” Thomas-Smith said between sobs.
A GoFundMe campaign has been set up by Thomas-Smith to pay for the funeral services. As of early Monday morning, it had raised $390 of its $10,000 goal.
Thomas also has a 12-year-old son, but he was staying with his father and is safe, according to ABC 13.
As of early Monday morning, it is unclear whether Thomas has an attorney or whether she has entered a plea. She is expected in court Monday, ABC 13 reported.
Nigerians busted in connection to a large-scale credit card scheme in Houston
Christy Tifase owns Lagos Island Café on Highway 6 South, a west African food restaurant. (KTRK news video).
Police bust identity theft scheme that netted $650k
HOUSTON (KTRK) — Three people have been busted in connection to a large-scale credit card scheme that allegedly used two southwest Houston businesses to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars. According to court records, Shalewa Olayinka, 53, applied for and obtained 116 credit cards from eight different financial institutions in 12 other people’s names. He would allegedly apply for the credit card using a victim’s information and then steal the card out of his or her mailbox when the card arrived.
Financial crimes investigators with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office say Olayinka had a Square card reader attached to his cell phone under the business name “Sleek Auto Sales” and would run the fraudulent credit cards in his southwest Houston apartment. The money was then deposited into his bank account.
He conspired, investigators say, with two local business owners, who are also charged. Christy Tifase owns Lagos Island Café on Highway 6 South, a west African food restaurant. Maxwell Ezenwa owns Lace Warehouse and African Fashions on Bissonnet. They’re accused of also running the credit cards for payments at their businesses.
Investigators say the operation stole more than $650,000. All three face a charge of engaging in organized criminal activity, a felony. When Eyewitness News went to Lagos Island Café, Tifase’s daughter said she wasn’t aware of the allegation against her mother. Tifase is expected to surrender. Olayinka remains in jail on a $30,000 bond. Ezenwa is out of jail on bond.
Houston: Students Protest Sanctions Against Student Leader For Writing “Forget Black Lives Matter” Post
The student government at UH is still grappling with the fallout since a student body vice president wrote on Facebook “Forget #BlackLivesMatter.” At a recent meeting, Kadidja Koné urged student representatives to keep the sanctions against that leader, Rohini Sethi.
Laura Isensee | Houston Public Media
For the last month, controversy has roiled the University of Houston ever since a student leader wrote on Facebook “Forget #BlackLivesMatter” in the wake of the shootings against Dallas police.
It triggered a campaign to remove her from office and the student government suspended her. Now others are protesting that move, decrying it as stifling free speech.
Dozens of people showed up at the UH student government meeting Wednesday night to support Rohini Sethi, the student body vice president at the center of the controversy. She was recently sanctioned by student government for dismissing Black Lives Matter and saying All Lives Matter. She’s been suspended and has to attend a workshop on cultural sensitivity.
“Government institutions cannot in effect remove someone’s constitutional rights. She has a constitutional right to express herself,” said Matthew Wiltshire, a history major at UH who organized the show of support.
“The problem for me is that one entire aspect of diversity is overlooked, that being diversity of opinion,” he added.
Wiltshire pressed that argument at the student government meeting.
If anything, the debate there revealed that the controversy over cultural insensitivity and racial inclusion isn’t over at UH.
“The freedom of speech is not what is being punished. We all have our right to say whatever we want to say. I respect each and everyone’s opinion whether it’s against me or for me. The problem is if you represent me, I expect you to understand my struggle and I expect you to be correct,” Kadidja Koné with the black student union told student senators.
“If you are going to represent a student body with 10 percent black individuals, and you say something that is offensive to them and they tell you they find it offensive and they no longer feel you can properly represent them, we as your constituents, you are supposed to understand and respect that,” she explained.
Some student government representatives considered throwing out the sanctions against the vice president because of some technical rules.
City and Community Partners Launch “Welcoming Houston”
Angela Blanchard, President and CEO of Neighborhood Centers. “…Through this collaboration, we will ensure our city enhances our position as one of the most attractive destinations for immigrants looking for a place where they feel welcomed, they can work and they can build a future for themselves and their families.”
Initiative will focus on building a welcoming environment for immigrants and refugees
The City of Houston Office of International Communities, Neighborhood Centers and the Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative today announced a partnership that will make Houston an official “Welcoming City” committed to creating a welcoming environment for immigrants and refugees. The partnership will launch a multi-sector strategic planning effort focused on welcoming and integrating new Americans. Houston joins numerous municipal governments that have signed on as Welcoming Cities, including Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago and New York City.
Welcoming Cities is an initiative of the White House Building Welcoming Communities Campaign, the White House Task Force on New Americans, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Welcoming America, a national nonprofit organization with expertise in local innovations that advance civic, economic and linguistic integration. “As a Welcoming City, Houston is committed to building an inclusive environment where all communities have the opportunity to contribute to our economy and vibrant civic, social and cultural fabric,” said Mayor Sylvester Turner. “We are the most diverse city in the nation. With that distinction comes the responsibility of ensuring that we are also an inclusive and equitable city where everyone has fair access to jobs, education, essential services and a voice in local government. This strategic plan will help guide us as we work toward that goal.”
Immigrant Integration Strategic Plan Welcoming Houston will bring together leaders from the nonprofit, business, education, faith and cultural sectors to develop a multi-sector strategic plan focused on improving opportunities and advancing integration for foreign-born residents. The plan will set forth recommendations focused on economic mobility, access to services, education, language access, public safety and legal status.
Welcoming Houston partners will present the plan to the mayor in November as part of the city’s observance of Citizenship Month. “This plan will continue to make Houston a welcoming place of opportunity for all,” said Angela Blanchard, President and CEO of Neighborhood Centers. “Through this collaboration, we will ensure our city enhances our position as one of the most attractive destinations for immigrants looking for a place where they feel welcomed, they can work and they can build a future for themselves and their families.”
“This strategic planning process will only work if a wide array of stakeholders is engaged,” said Kate Vickery, Executive Director of the Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative, a local coalition representing many immigrant-serving nonprofit organizations. “We are looking forward to working with members of the public and private sector to make recommendations on how Houston can be more welcoming to its incredibly rich and growing immigrant populations.” The planning effort is supported by the Gateways for Growth Challenge, an initiative of Partnership for a New American Economy (NAE) and Welcoming America. Houston is one of 20 communities nationwide selected to receive support for immigrant integration planning.
Immigrant Population Economic Impact Current data on the impact of the foreign-born population in Texas and Houston, including tax contributions, spending power and role in key industries as leaders and job creators, supports the importance of building a welcoming environment for immigrants and refugees. NAE research data reveals that foreign-born residents contributed $116.5 billion to the Houston region’s GDP and held $31.8 billion in spending power in 2014.
While foreign-born residents make up one-quarter of the overall-population, they comprise 32% of the employed labor force and 42% of the self-employed labor force. Foreign-born residents in Houston are twice more likely to own a business than their U.S.-born counterparts. Statewide, the data shows that immigrants made up nearly 17% of the population and contributed $29.1 billion in taxes, comprising roughly 17% of the state’s total share in 2014.
That same year, immigrants earned $118.7 billion or about 16.8% of all earnings in the state. The launch of Welcoming Houston coincides with the Reason for Reform national campaign, which brings together state business, civic and cultural leaders to urge Congress to take action on immigration reform. Welcoming Houston is administered by the City of Houston Department of Neighborhoods Office of International Communities in collaboration with Neighborhood Centers and the Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative.
Mayor Sylvester Turner and the Texas PACE Authority today announced the launch of a commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy or PACE program in Houston, providing an additional tool for Houston property owners to finance energy efficiency, renewable energy, and water conservation projects.
“We are thrilled to launch Houston’s PACE program,” said Mayor Sylvester Turner. “PACE is an innovative way to help spur efficiency investments in Houston’s building infrastructure that would otherwise have been capital intensive. Between the long-term utility savings and the energy and water conservation benefits, it’s a win-win for our community.”
PACE is a nationally-renowned, voluntary financing program that allows owners of commercial, industrial, and multi-family residential properties (with five or more dwelling units) to obtain low-cost, long-term loans for water conservation, energy-efficiency improvements, and distributed generation.
In exchange for funds provided by a private lender to pay for the improvements, the property owner voluntarily requests that the local government place an assessment secured with a senior lien on the property until the assessment is paid in full. As PACE assessment payments are generally offset by the project’s utility cost savings and the term of PACE assessments may extend up to the projected life of the improvement, improvements financed through a PACE program may generate positive cash flow upon completion without up-front, out-of-pocket costs to the property owner.
The State of Texas authorized municipal and county PACE Programs in 2013. Houston City Council adopted a resolution establishing a Houston PACE program on November 4, 2015. To date, PACE programs are being set up in four Texas counties (Travis, Williamson, Cameron, and Willacy) and two cities (Houston and Dallas).
