Some big time national African-Americans, a couple of whom I usually admire, have been going around bad-mouthing President Barack Obama asserting he has done nothing for Black people since he’s been in office. My president! My president! First he has to deal with the fanatically racist tea parties that have sprung up, and now he’s facing an equally obnoxious uprising from the Red Soda Water Parties. That is so sad. Even though I only drink dark brown soda water (colas), I’d like to set the record straight for my friends who prefer the traditional colorful carbonated beverage.

Tuesday, when Obama signed the hotly contested Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, he put in motion a landmark reform that will benefit our country for generations, and African-Americans, who face some of the toughest challenges with costs and access to health care and education than anybody else, will feel the impact now and long into the future. Right now, nearly one in five African-Americans (19 percent) is without health care insurance. Statistics show that Blacks in general spend a higher percentage of their income on health care costs compared to Whites (16.5 precent vs. 12.2 percent), but despite that, Blacks face continuing health care disparities. African-Americans suffer from higher percentages of chronic diseases such as heart and kidney diseases and diabetes, which are perpetuated by a lack of access to quality care.

Federal statisticians report that currently, 48 percent of African-American adults suffer from a chronic disease compared to 39 percent of the general population. Obama’s health bill acknowledges that lowering health insurance costs increases availability to care and can help reduce chronic illnesses over the long term. And the reconciliation act he signed Tuesday means that seven million African-Americans who are currently uninsured will now have access to health care. Why don’t the red soda waterites mention that? Next time: Part II, Education.

THE PRICE IS WRONG — Workers for the city of Los Angeles who are members of SEIU Local 721 and the Coalition of City Unions took to the streets again last week to help their employer find funds to keep them on the job and keep city services flowing to the people. The intrepid and innovative workers gathered outside City Hall and hosted a mock game show to expose how the city’s expensive outsourcing of city work to private contractors is putting city services, facilities, programs and jobs in “Jeopardy!”
According to SEIU’s research, the city pays millions of dollars to private contractors for engineering services, for example, that are already being performed by city staff. In addition to those, the workers identified dozens of security and information technology contracts for services that could potentially be performed by city workers at a lower cost.

The workers engaged the public with a big “L.A.’s Wheel of Fortune,” which they spun to illustrate the $2.4 billion in private contracts the city has in force and the need for the mayor and City Council to implement strong oversight of those contracts before they start cutting services and laying off workers.

In the meantime, there is a scatological term that describes the City Council to a tee, but I won’t use it because I’m a lady. On one day, the council takes a righteous position and fights to maintain some funding of the city’s art centers and rejects the mayor’s ridiculous series of DWP rate increases, and on the next day that august body capitulates, crumbles and caves and votes to give the mayor one of the four DWP rate increases he wanted and which they had gloriously rejected the day before! I hate these people, especially that Caesar, Councilman Richard Alarcon, whose bright idea it was Tuesday to raise our DWP rates by 4.5 percent and the seven other council members who behaved like (scatological terms) and backed his play. This is just the beginning. The mayor is intent on increasing residential electric bills anywhere from 9 percent to 28 percent over a 12-month period and I suppose Alarcon will be right there carrying his water.

THE INGLEWOOD REPORT — The pipers are coming after Cresia Green-Davis, the ex-felon who works for the city of Inglewood as Councilman Danny Tabor’s assistant. In 2005, Green-Davis was convicted for an array of multiple crimes, sentenced to prison and ordered to make full restitution in the approximate amount of $162,788 to four taxpayer-supported pubic agencies she was convicted of defrauding. Now that she has served her time and is gainfully employed, one of those agencies — the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services — has come to the city of Inglewood demanding that $25,986 in CalWorks and food stamp benefits that Green-Davis defrauded from the department be deducted from her paychecks and forwarded to the county, forthwith. Other defrauded agencies expected to make similar demands on Green-Davis’ income are the Compton Unified School District, Centinela Valley Union High School and the California Department of Health Care Services.

Remember that $90 million bond measure the people of the city of Inglewood passed in 2006? Remember how in 2007, the Inglewood City Council set aside $32.35 million of those bond funds to design and build a senior center and residential facility for the city? Whatever happened to that project? The senior center’s architectural work was completed by the famous African-American-owned Kennard Design Group. The KDG designs were described as “absolutely gorgeous” by those who saw them, but the center was never built. Why? What happened to the money?

THE CHURCH REPORT — As of March 24, the AME Church raised $1,454,909.16 for Haiti/Malawi earthquake disaster relief. … The Rev. John Cager, who replaced the AME-ousted Frederick Murph as pastor of Second AME, has settled in quite nicely. I had to check the situation out and found that his parishioners have nothing but good things to say about him. They’re happy over there. … The Rev. William Epps, pastor of Second Baptist Church, is dealing with “leadership challenges” as he is removing high-ranking church officials as the result of that credit union embezzlement criminal investigation. … The family that sued the AME church over child molestation accusations against the late Ward AME pastor Sylvester Laudermill, settled the suit and left the church after collecting $1 million from Ward and $1 million from the AME church organization. The family took the money and bought a house in Ladera Heights and a new Mercedes. … The Rev. T.M. Chambers Jr. is quite ill, pray for him.

ELECTED ONES — Our own John Frierson has been elected chairman of the California State Athletic Commission. Frierson, who has been a member of the Athletic Commission since 2001, is a 26-year veteran of local law enforcement, having served in the Sheriff’s Department and as an LAPD traffic supervisor for 17 years. He is currently vice chairman of the Transportation Commission, on which he has sat for nine years. He is also an executive board member of the California Democratic Party and has been a delegate to all the Democratic National Conventions held between 1976 through 2000. Congratulations, John.

My big brother and mentor Brad Pye Jr. has been elected into the California Boxing Hall of Fame for the year 2010. Having spent more than 30 years as the award-winning sports and managing editor of the Los Angeles Sentinel, Pye devoted more than half his life to advocating on behalf of Black sports journalists and athletes throughout the nation. The Boxing Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held June 26 at the Sportsman’s Lodge in Studio City. Congratulations, Brad.