By Dianne Anderson Going from jail-based systems to community-level trades training is never an easy move for those providing programs for the formerly incarcerated, or those struggling to learn how to take their first steps into work life. For years, youth at Dirtbags Academy have been in and out of the system, but now with ...

By Stacy M. Brown Black Press USA Sr Natl Correspondent Black women remain the backbone of the U.S. labor force—working more, earning less, and bearing greater burdens across nearly every sector. Even as the country added 177,000 jobs in April, Black women lost 106,000 positions, the steepest decline of any group. Their unemployment rate jumped ...

By Dianne Anderson Until now, most young women of color have yet to see a Black woman in a hard hat, probably for lack of visibility, but more likely, lack of opportunity. Not a lot of Black women are seen working construction sites, except for Robin Thorne, who goes on-site to make sure the job ...

By Dianne Anderson At just a hundred pounds soaking wet, Gigi Munoz stepped into the Inland Empire Conservation Corps hauling rocks almost double her weight, all in a day’s work, but her real reward is the job satisfaction. Now graduated, she soon joins the Backcountry Trail Building crew in Colorado after three years of preparing ...

By Selen Ozturk Inequity still dominates the lived experience of many Californian Black women in the workplace, a new report suggests. The March 2025 report — “Invisible Labor, Visible Struggles: The Intersections of Race, Gender, and Workplace,” released by the California Black Women’s Collective Empowerment Institute (CBWCEI) — analyzes a December 2024 survey of 452 employed Black ...

By Catrina Love Division Chief, Department of Beaches and Harbors Every year, countless families in L.A. County seek opportunities to enjoy the water, whether at pools, lakes, or beaches. Yet, access to safe swimming spaces and water education remains limited for many Black families.  This Black History Month, we recognize the late Assistant Chief Russell ...

For the first time at the San Bernardino County Government Center, San Bernardino Fifth District Supervisor Joe Baca, Jr. hosted another successful College and Career Day. The event gathered over 200 students from the Colton Joint Unified, Rialto Unified, San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools, and San Bernardino City Unified school districts. Supervisor Baca, Jr. ...

As a young boy growing up in the high desert town of Palmdale in the early 1960s, Willie Daniels knew he wanted to fly airplanes. “I got the bug to fly back when I was About 5 or 6 years old. At the airshows, I would see these guys flying and jumping out and parachuting ...

By Dianne Anderson Before Chief John Gutierrez got into law enforcement 32 years ago, police chiefs had only a few things to worry about, usually involving budgets, reducing or addressing crime that looked a lot different then than it does today. The list grows longer for himself and many other police chiefs in general. Since ...

By Dianne Anderson How to get more Blacks back to fields of agriculture hasn’t been the easiest of tasks for Sharon Nance. When she first started recruiting high school students to consider good paying farm careers, she hardly received a warm welcome. “Students would walk past my table and make cow and pig sounds. I ...