INTERIM BOSS — The Board of Trustees of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science named Dr. Keith C. Norris Monday to the position of interim president while the board conducts a national search for a new president to head the institution. Norris, the university’s highly regarded vice president for research, was touted by many in the Drew community as the logical choice to replace Susan Kelly as Drew’s president after she was ousted on April 27. Instead, the trustees created a team of Drew personnel to lead the university, with Norris as the leader of that team. John Mitchell, Drew’s media advisor, said: “Under Norris’ leadership, Drew has ranked among the top National Institutes of Health-funded institutions and is currently rated one of the top 50 private universities in research in the U.S.”

PRICE IN; BRADFORD RUNNING — On the same day (Monday) that Curren Price took the oath of office as state senator of the 26th District in Sacramento, Gardena City Councilman Steve Bradford announced his candidacy to replace Price in the 51st Assembly seat Price vacated last month. Bradford will run in a special election on a date to be determined by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Bradford ran against Price for the Assembly seat in 2006 and lost to him by 112 votes. His taking another shot at the seat is a given. Price has scheduled a 26th District swearing-in ceremony on June 19 at the California Science Center in Exposition Park.

RETURN ENGAGEMENTS — Councilwoman Janice Hahn will be sworn into her third term on June 27 at 10:30 a.m. at the Banning Residence Museum, 401 E. “M” St. in Wilmington. Her brother, former mayor and present Superior Court Judge James K. Hahn, will administer the oath of office and barbecue will be served thereafter. I think I’ll go — if I can get up early enough and if I can remember how to get to Wilmington.

Speaking of Janice Hahn, she’s not all that happy about the mayor’s appointment of former Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski to the Harbor Commission. “I had specifically asked the mayor to appoint a local person to the Harbor Commission,” said Hahn, who represents the harbor on the council. As a matter of fact, I thought the same thing when I read of the appointment. I said to myself: “Why would the mayor appoint Westside-born, bred and based Miscikowski to the Harbor Commission rather than somebody associated with the Harbor?” Maybe because the mayor is spanking Hahn because she led the fight to reject his creation of a $205,000 top management job at the Port of Los Angeles for former West Hollywood Assemblyman Wally Knox. If so, then you can see why newsstands everywhere are displaying a magazine with the mayor on the cover and the word “Failure” written across his belly. Yeah, I think I’ll go.

BLACK OPERA — Opera Noir, the only organization in Los Angeles and one of fewer than five nationally that is committed to providing performance opportunities for classically trained artists of color in leading roles, will celebrate its 10th anniversary on June 16 with a Juneteeth Gala at the McClaney Estates in Holmby Hills. The celebration will feature classical opera and ballet performances and will also honor several leaders in the arts including Arthur Mitchell, founder of the Dance Theatre of Harlem; multi-faceted artist Geoffrey Holder and choreographer Donald McKayle, along with arts philanthropist Ronald Chatman, Target manager Bernard Boudreaux and CAAM Foundation President Charmaine Jefferson. Opera Noir is committed to preserving and performing the works of African-American composers in addition to traditional European classical music and has provided more than 15,000 children in underserved communities and their families with classical programs and performances during the past 10 years. Information: (818) 609-7137.

WHITE CEILING WATCH — The recent kidnapping by Somali pirates and the rescue of the Maersk Alabama ship Capt. Richard Phillips is so well known that the heroic episode will surely be recorded in American history. But there’s somebody else who needs to be remembered: The commander of the ship that saved Phillips. That would be Rear Admiral Michelle Howard, an African-American woman. Adm. Howard, who holds a master’s degree in military science arts and sciences from the Army’s Command and General Staff College, had received the assignment of leading the U.S. Navy’s counter-piracy task force just three days before the Maersk Alabama was attacked by Somali pirates.

Howard was the first in her 1992 U.S. Naval Academy class to reach the rank of admiral in 1999 and the first Black woman to command a Navy ship — the USS Rushmore. Adm. Howard’s task force operates with U.S. warships deployed to the Eastern Africa area as well as with those sent from allied nations. Before her present assignment, she was the senior military assistant to the secretary of the Navy. Remember the name: Adm. Michelle Howard.

THIS AND THAT — Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas will host his 8th annual Juneteenth celebration on June 18 from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Quarles’ Estate, 5915 Kenway Ave. in View Park. You just can’t walk into the place with empty pockets, as the event is a fundraiser for the African American Voter Registration and Education Project (AAVREP), so you’ll need to call (310) 773-4756 about tickets and sponsorships and such.

The Compton-based National Association for Equal Justice in America  presented its Community Service Award to Superior Court Judge Ellen C. DeShazer Saturday night at its 10th annual banquet and scholarship awards dinner at the Petroleum Club in Long Beach, at which famed educator George J. McKenna III, was the keynote speaker.

IN MEMORIAM — Jack Henning died June 4. Those of you who did not grow up in California may not know that Jack Henning was a legend in this state who, as the passionate, silver-tongued leader of the California Federation of Labor, advocated unionism and fervently fought for the rights of workers. He was a vigorous opponent of racism in America and apartheid in South Africa and he was active in the civil rights movement and championed affirmative action as a means of correcting racial discrimination in the workplace. He was 93 years old. May he rest in peace.

Sheryl A. Flowers, executive producer of The Tavis Smiley Show on public radio, died Monday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after a two-year battle with cancer. She was 42 years old. May she rest in peace.

AND FINALLY — In the run-up to the hotly contested Inglewood run-off election Tuesday, some parents made allegations to the Soulvine that school board candidate Alena Cindy Giardina attended the May 13 school board meeting in what they believed to be an intoxicated state. They also assert a belief that Giardina’s best friends and ubiquitous running buddies are Cresia Green-Davis, the former school board member who was tried, convicted and imprisoned for welfare fraud and for lying about her qualifications when she ran for office, and Charlotte Bell, the convicted drug-dealing felon who has been given complete access to roam Inglewood schools and reportedly harass students and parents. They talk in terms of “birds of a feather…” School officials say the felonious Bell is free to enter and egress schools via the “employees only” doors whereas parents and others with bonafide business are not. They say Giardina’s endorsements are specious and believe that she appeared as a “character witness” for Green-Davis at her trial. Inglewood district employees have to whisper these and other things to the Soulvine because they fear for their jobs. After all, that beast Arnold Butler, the school board candidate seeking re-election Tuesday, is already on record in the minutes of a school board meeting late last year stating: “If the board members hear that anyone is saying anything negative against this board, we will find a way to give you your pink slip.” And present majority of Butler, Johnny Young and Trina Williams have been true to Butler’s word.