IN HOLLYWOOD, BLACK TEENAGERS COMPRISE A DISPROPORTIONATE PERCENTAGE OF STREET YOUTH

A young woman sleeps on a bus bench in Hollywood, where 42 percent of homeless youth identify
 themselves as African-American. (Photo by Gary McCarthy)

By MCKENZIE JACKSON, Special to The Independent

Story Published: Nov 18, 2010 at 2:02 PM PST

Story Updated: Nov 18, 2010 at 2:04 PM PST 

According to a study unveiled Wednesday by the Hollywood Homeless Youth Partnership, the number of black youth on the streets of Tinseltown is far greater than those of other races and ethnicities living in similar circumstances.

That reality is one of many chilling facts exposed in “No Way Home: Understanding The Needs and Experiences of Homeless Youth in Hollywood,” a 68-page report that aims at reducing homelessness in the area.

Susan Rabinovitz, who co-authored the in-depth needs assessment, said a significant shift occurred over last 10 to 15 years that has resulted in more African-Americans, ages 24 and under, becoming homeless in Hollywood. “We don’t really know why this change has occurred, but it is very concerning,” Rabinovitz said Tuesday, one day before she and other representatives and associates were due to reveal the contents of the study at a press conference at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles.

Funded by grants from the California Endowment and California Wellness Foundation, the $300,000 report was put together to show the pathways to homelessness for youth; their utilization of and experiences with services in the area; their health status and educational and vocational needs; and the particular risk factors for youth in the delinquency and dependency systems. HHYP is a collaborative effort between eight agencies that serve displaced youth, all focused on preventing and reducing homelessness through training and capacity-building, research, policy development and direct service.

Rabinovitz, a former associate director of the Division of Adolescent Medicine at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, said the study provides recommendations for improving outcomes for youth that live on the street. She said “No Way Home” was organized to build awareness of the problem of youth homelessness.

“It identifies homeless youth as a target population,” Rabinovitz said. “We felt that we needed to have a better understanding of the youth we are serving. These young people want what all young people want — positive relationships, a future.”

The report provides a profile of the homeless youth in Hollywood, details their life experiences, reveals the differences between various segments of the homeless youth population, provides recommendations on how to improve the homeless youth advocacy system and explains the services needed to deal with homeless youth.

Rabinovitz began working on the study in 2007 with a series of interviews, focus groups and surveys with 389 youth that lived on the streets of Hollywood.

An initial draft of “No Way Home” was presented to the funding agencies in August 2009, and last winter a second draft was modified with the release of “Opening Door: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness,” the federal government’s comprehensive plan to end homelessness in America. She said the members of HHYP — Angels/Flight Catholic Charities, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, Covenant House California, L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, Los Angeles Youth Network My Friend’s Place, The Saban Free Clinic and The Way In/Salvation Army — decided to release the study in November because it has been designated for the first-time as National Homeless Youth Awareness Month.

The plight of young African-Americans residing on the streets is detailed extensively in the report. Forty-two percent of the homeless youth interviewed for the study identified themselves as African-American, while 24 percent said they were Latino and 16 percent said they were Caucasian.

The study says that the disproportionate representation of blacks is seen in the overall homeless population of Los Angeles, where 47 percent of the homeless population is African-American. “However, this ethnic distribution is significantly different from the overall demographics of Los Angeles County, where, according to 2009 U.S. Census data, 9.3 percent of the population is African American and 48 percent is Hispanic/Latino,” the study reads.

The study also reveals that 53 percent of the homeless young people in Hollywood do not possess a high school diploma or GED, while 40 percent of the teens and young adults interviewed for the report identified their sexual orientation as gay, lesbian, transgender or unsure.

“A lot of them were kicked out of their homes because of their sexual orientation,” Rabinovitz said.

“No Way Home” details the percentage of street-dwelling young people that are from the Los Angeles area or have origins elsewhere.

Rabinovitz said the perception that all homeless young adults and teens are from out of state, and came to Hollywood to chase dreams of stardom, is not true. “Fifty-six percent of the homeless lived in L.A. [County] before they were homeless,” she said.

According to the statistics in the report, 37 percent of the young men and women lived in either Hollywood or the city of Los Angeles before becoming homeless, 24 percent lived in another U.S. state, 18 percent lived in unincorporated Los Angeles County, 13 percent lived outside of Southern California, five percent in other Southern California areas besides Los Angeles County and two percent lived outside of the U.S.

According to the report, 14 was the average age when youth in the study became homeless due to either being removed or forced from their homes.

The report says homeless youth are largely disconnected from traditional service systems. To counter that, “No Way Home” lists several recommendations to improve the systems, including the expansion of youth-specific housing programs and development of low-barrier housing for youth, connecting homeless youth to caring adults, strengthening support for youth involved in dependency and delinquency systems and ensuring that youth have access to good health care.

Rabinovitz said five years from now, she hopes to see the end of youth homeless in Hollywood on the horizon.

“We want to use the information to transform our services and educateother agencies,” she said. “I hope to see a dedicated action plan to ending homelessness.”

Haiti Violence Spreads Over Cholera Epidemic

Nov 18, 2010 9:18 PM EST

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Anti-U.N. violence spread to Haiti's capital Thursday as protesters blocked roads and attacked foreigners' cars over suspicions that peacekeepers introduced a cholera epidemic that has killed more than 1,100 people.
The unrest followed three days of similar violence in northern Haiti. The protests come a little more than a week before national elections, and the U.N. has characterized them as political. Some demonstrators threw rocks at an office of President Rene Preval's Unity party and tore down campaign posters.
But the protests are fueled by suspicions, shared by some U.S. disease experts, that a contingent of Nepalese soldiers brought cholera with them to Haiti and spread the disease from their rural base into the Artibonite River system, where the initial outbreak was centered.
The disease is new to Haiti and was not expected to strike this year despite rampant bad sanitation and poor access to drinking water.
The 12,000-member U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti, or MINUSTAH, which has been the dominant security force in Haiti for six years, denies responsibility for the epidemic.
Standing before the thick black smoke of blazing tires Thursday, protesters yelled "We say no to MINUSTAH and no to cholera" and carried signs reading "MINUSTAH and cholera are twins." The windows of several cars belonging to the U.N. and humanitarian groups were broken.
Haitian police fired tear gas at the protesters on the central Champ de Mars plaza, and clouds of choking irritants blew into nearby tent shelters of thousands made homeless by the Jan. 12 earthquake.
"I survived the quake but the police are going to kill me with gas," Marie Paul Moses said as she fled the white cloud.
Aid workers, including U.N. humanitarian agencies that are structurally separate from the peacekeeping force, called for calm, saying the violence is hampering efforts to treat the tens of thousands of people stricken with cholera.
The disease is spread by contaminated fecal matter. Health experts say it can be easily treated with rehydration or prevented outright by ensuring good sanitation and getting people to drink only purified water.
But after years of instability, and despite decades of development projects, many Haitians have little access to clean water, toilets or health care.
In the neighboring Dominican Republic, health authorities launched a nationwide search Thursday for people suffering from symptoms typical of cholera: diarrhea, vomiting and dehydration.
Health Minister Bautista Rojas said hundreds of doctors, epidemiologists and other medical officials will be going "house by house, in each sector, neighborhood and alleyway," looking for any trace of an outbreak.
They will interview neighbors, offer medical care and, if necessary, take anyone suspected of having cholera to the hospital.
The Dominican Republic has stepped up health measures to try to keep the epidemic from crossing the border -- especially after the nation's first cholera case was detected Monday in an immigrant brick worker who returned sick after a vacation in his Haitian homeland.
Dominican authorities have increased border patrols and monitoring of frontier crossings. The two nations share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.

Oprah eyes $68M NJ mansion

By JENNIFER GOULD KEIL

Last Updated: 2:50 PM, November 18, 2010

Posted: 1:57 AM, November 18, 2010

Oprah Winfrey is eyeing a house in the New York area, The Post has learned.

The TV titan -- whose new network is slated to launch in Los Angeles next year -- quietly slipped into town yesterday for a house-hunting ex pedition along the banks of the Hud son, sources said.

Among the homes on her must-see list: a $68 million manse on the sprawling grounds of the old Frick estate in Alpine, NJ, the sources said.

PHOTOS: OPRAH THROUGH THE YEARS

Oprah's three-car caravan, including two black SUVs and a van, pulled into the ritzy enclave before noon yesterday, a source said.

The billionaire then toured the 30,300-square-foot, English-manor-style mansion, which is part of the lavish "Estates at Alpine."

Workers and others on the grounds were asked to make themselves scarce while Oprah checked out the five-story, 19-bedroom and 12-bathroom spread, according to one source.

"Her people requested that everyone leave the house so it would be empty when she walked through," the source said.

A security guard, the source said, was allowed to stay at his post at the gate.

Alpine last year was named by Forbes magazine as the most expensive ZIP code in the country. Its celebrity residents include Eddie Murphy, the Jonas Brothers and CC Sabathia.

The estate eyed by Oprah is the most expensive in Alpine, with walnut and marble floors and Venetian plaster walls.

There's a carriage house, English gardens, a library, ballroom, movie theater, tennis court, saline pool and wine cellar.

Before hitting Alpine, Oprah and her entourage were spotted a few miles north in Snedens Landing.

It's unclear what property Oprah looked at in the woodsy Rockland County hamlet.

jkeil@nypost.com

Ex-President Bush, Maya Angelou awarded top honor

WASHINGTON -- President George H.W. Bush, poet Maya Angelou and investor Warren Buffett are among the 2010 winners of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
President Barack Obama will present the awards to the 15 honorees early next year, the White House announced Wednesday.
Other winners include a civil rights hero, Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., plus St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Famer Stan "The Man" Musial, Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
Obama's bipartisan gesture in picking the first President Bush for the honor is not unprecedented. Former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, awarded a Medal of Freedom to former Republican President Gerald Ford.
"These outstanding honorees come from a broad range of backgrounds and they've excelled in a broad range of fields, but all of them have lived extraordinary lives that have inspired us, enriched our culture, and made our country and our world a better place," Obama said. "I look forward to awarding them this honor."
The medal is presented to people who have made notable contributions to U.S. interests, from cultural achievements to security matters.
The full list of winners:
-George H.W. Bush was America's 41st president, and previously vice president and CIA director. He also worked with Clinton to raise money for victims Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.
-Merkel is the first woman and first East German to serve as chancellor of a unified Germany.
-Musial is a Hall of Fame first baseman/outfielder who played 22 seasons for the St. Louis Cardinals.
-Russell is the former captain of the Boston Celtics and first black man to become an NBA head coach.
-Yo-Yo Ma is a world renowned cellist who has won 16 Grammy awards and is known for his interpretations of Bach and Beethoven. He played at Obama's inauguration.
-Lewis served as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and helped organize the first lunch-counter sit-in. In 1965 he led the Selma-to-Montgomery, Ala., march for voting rights and was brutally beaten along with others in what became known as "Bloody Sunday."
-Buffett, chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, is a famed investor known as the "Oracle of Omaha" for his prescient business sense. He is also a generous philanthropist.
-Angelou is a prominent poet, educator, filmmaker, producer and civil rights activist.
- Jasper Johns, an American artist whose work has dealt with themes of perception and identity. He is considered a major influence on pop, minimal and conceptual art.
-Gerda Weissmann Klein, a Jewish Holocaust survivor who founded Citizenship Counts, an organization that teaches students to cherish the value of their American citizenship.
-Dr. Tom Little, an optometrist murdered last August by the Taliban in Afghanistan as he and nine others returned from a mission to provide eye care in the Parun valley of Nuristan. The award is being given posthumously to Little.
-Sylvia Mendez, a civil rights activist of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent.
-Jean Kennedy Smith, a Kennedy family member who served as U.S. ambassador to Ireland and is the founder of VSA, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts that promotes the artistic talents of children and adults with disabilities.
-John Sweeney, AFL-CIO president from 1995-2009.
-John H. Adams, who in 1970 co-founded the Natural Resources Defense Council, a prominent environmental advocacy group.

Ruby Bridges on how she helped change America

Fifty years ago, six-year-old Ruby Bridges walked into a Louisiana school and made history as the first African-American to attend an all-white elementary school in the American South.

Ruby endured screaming crowds and demeaning threats, but her experience paved the way for generations to come and inspired a famous painting by Norman Rockwell.

In this First Person account, Ruby returned to her former school in New Orleans and talks about the pivotal role she played in breaking down racial barriers.

Anti-Prostate Cancer Foods

By Jacob Franek

Published November 17, 2010

| Askmen.com

There’s no hiding the fact that diet heavily influences cancer risk, no matter the type of cancer. However, knowing exactly which foods are beneficial and which ones are harmful can help to shape a diet to achieve its maximum health potential. Considering that prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, AskMen.com has decided to take a long, hard look at anti-prostate cancer foods. 

Here are a few...

Tomatoes

Active ingredient: Lycopene, an antioxidant

Why eat them?

Lycopene is an antioxidant compound, a carotenoid, which gives tomatoes their color. It is also one of the most widely studied anti-cancer agents. A 2004 review of all the studies to date on tomatoes found a slight reduction in the risk of developing prostate cancer in men with high blood levels of lycopene or with diets rich in tomatoes. 

In 2007, however, the largest study of its kind disputed these results. Fortunately, further studies of greater quality are currently underway that will hopefully put any doubt to rest. 

Notwithstanding those results, tomatoes are still chock-full of other beneficial vitamins and antioxidants and, thus, this little red fruit (yes, it’s a fruit) should be a part of any healthy diet.

How should you prepare them?

When it comes to tomatoes, the general rule of thumb is to add heat and fat whenever possible. The more processed the tomatoes and the longer you cook them, the more lycopene is released. Adding fat in the way of oils or meats will also improve lycopene absorption.

Broccoli

Active ingredients: Sulforaphane, among others

Why eat it?

It turns out mom was right: You should really eat your broccoli. In fact, all cruciferous vegetables, like cauliflower, kale and brussels sprouts, appear to offer anti-cancer benefits. Although it’s still not clear which of the many beneficial chemicals or compounds found in broccoli is most responsible for protecting your health, sulforaphane has been the most widely investigated.

Just how does it prevent cancer? Well, sulforaphane might act as an antioxidant itself or it may instead boost detoxifying enzymes in the body. Regardless of how broccoli helps, it’s clear that it is a potent anti-prostate cancer veggie. Some experts even suggest that it’s one of the strongest anti-cancer fighters we have.

How should you prepare it?

When it comes to the method of preparing your broccoli, there is no clear-cut champion, so try to mix things up each time you dine. Eat it raw sometimes, steamed others, and if you boil it, try not to overdo it. Mixing it with other anti-prostate cancer foods such as tomatoes may even enhance anti-cancer effects according to one study done on mice.

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More from AskMen.com:

Prostate Cancer Treatment And Prevention 

4 Fun Ways To Help Prevent Prostate Cancer 

Prostate Cancer Overview 

Men's Health Charities 

Testicular Cancer Myths

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Soy

Active ingredients: Isoflavones, such as genistein, daidzein and glycitein

Why eat it?

Soy refers to the soybean, a high-protein legume that comes in many consumer-friendly forms including soy milk, tofu and protein powder. Soy is promoted for its protective properties against many cancers, among them prostate cancer. The effects of soy are thought to be due to isoflavones, compounds that are sometimes called plant estrogens because they mimic the actions of human estrogen, but in plants.

A number of laboratory, animal and population-based studies have shown soy to be an anti-prostate cancer food. However, these results still need to be confirmed in clinical trials. Even without those results, simply using soy as a replacement for meat or dairy may be beneficial on its own, since diets high in meats and dairy tend to increase the risk of certain cancers.

How should you prepare it?

The amount of isoflavone varies by type of soy product and there is generally no rule to help you pick one product over another. Until there is, just keep meals varied and opt for soy products instead of meats and dairy from time to time.

Flax

Active ingredients: Lignans, and alpha linolenic acid (an omega-3 fatty acid)

Why eat it?

Flax is an annual plant used in making the fabric known as linen. Although flaxseed is high in omega-3, it is also rich in lignans, a class of phytoestrogen that may act as an antioxidant. Both flaxseed and its oil have been promoted as anti-cancer substances since the early 1950s, but only recently has any solid evidence emerged.

Unfortunately, only a handful of small studies have investigated the link between flax and prostate cancer in humans, but the results all look promising. Of course, further studies will be needed to definitively close the chapter on flax and cancer, but that shouldn’t keep you from getting your flax fix.

How should you prepare it?

As far as versatility is concerned, flaxseed is certainly the most flexible of the anti-prostate cancer foods. Flaxseed is available in flour, meal and seed form and can be found in multigrain breads, cereals, breakfast bars, and even muffins. Flaxseed oil can also be found in pure liquid form or as capsules.

You are what you eat

Rigorous research takes time and money, and unfortunately, one, if not both, may be lacking. There are simply so many foods and supplements available that researching them all is not only impractical, but likely impossible. With that said, the key to preventing prostate cancer via diet is to eat a well-balanced meal, including all of the above foods, along with a hearty serving of other fruits and vegetables. You can dabble in meats and dairy, but if possible, keep your dabbling to a minimum.

Movember, or the month formerly known as November, is when men grow their mustaches for 30 days to raise awareness and funds to help find a cure for prostate and testicular cancer. Sign your mustache-growing team up now or join the AskMen team — 'cause we're about men.

African-Americans Twice as Likely as Whites To Go Hungry

The Washington Informer

COURTESY OF BREAD.ORG

WEDNESDAY, 17 NOVEMBER 2010 00:05

Twenty-five percent of African-American households suffered from food insecurity in 2009—compared to 11 percent of white households—according to the most recent data on hunger released today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Food insecure households are those that struggle to put food on the table at some point in the year. Nationally, one in seven—or 14.7 percent—of U.S. households experienced food insecurity in 2009. 

“The national figures are record-breaking, but the fact that such a disparity exists between African-Americans and whites shows that we must call on Congress to do more—especially for communities with the greatest need,” said Rev. Derrick Boykin, northeast regional organizer for Bread for the World. “Congress must act now to ensure that programs designed to mitigate hunger are well-funded.”

This year, participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP (formerly called food stamps) hit record levels. African-Americans comprised 22.6 percent of the 42 million Americans who receive SNAP benefits each month. Ninety percent of African-American children will receive SNAP benefits at some point before age 20, compared to 49 percent of all U.S. children.

Nearly 35 percent of African-American children currently live in households that struggle to put food on the table, compared to 16.7 percent of white children.

Congress reconvened today for a lame duck session with several important unfinished agenda items, including extending tax benefits for low-income working families and reauthorizing the Child Nutrition Act, which will improve school breakfast and lunch programs along with WIC and summer food sites.

“In the African-American community in particular, high rates of unemployment have led to dramatic increases in poverty and food insecurity rates over the past few years,” Boykin added. “As African-Americans grapple with the ongoing impacts of the recession, Congress needs to ensure that programs like SNAP, the national school meal programs, and WIC are funded at levels to support this time of need.”

According to the USDA figures, nearly 27 percent of Hispanics suffer from food insecurity and nearly 35 percent of Hispanic children live in households that struggle to put food on the table.

For additional information on food insecurity, visitwww.bread.org/foodinsecurity.