• News

by Derek Major

May 12, 2020

Dr. Fauci Warns Americans Will See ‘Needless Suffering and Death’ If The Country Opens Up Too Quickly

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Dr. Anthony Fauci will warn the Senate that Americans will experience “needless suffering and death” if the country opens up too quickly.

According to The New York Times, Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, will be one of four top government doctors scheduled to testify remotely at a high-profile hearing on Tuesday before the Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

The hearing is a chance for Fauci to discuss the coronavirus outbreak without the Trump administration looming over him. Fauci told New York Times reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg what he intends to say.

• News

by Derek Major

May 12, 2020

President Trump Accuses Barack Obama of ‘Biggest Political Crime in American History’

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President Donald Trump took to Twitter to slam the Obama administration following a conservative talk show host’s claim the former president used his last days in office to sabotage the Trump administration.

Trump retweeted the claim Sunday calling it “The biggest political crime in American history, by far!”

According to Yahoo Finance, the tweet was one in a stream of tweets and memes Trump sent Sunday of right-wing talking heads claiming an anti-Trump conspiracy. One tweet simply read “OBAMAGATE!”

The tweets come just three days after the Justice Department said it would drop its case against Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser. Flynn, a retired general, was fired by Trump in early 2017 for lying to Vice President Mike Pence regarding talks with a Russian ambassador about sanctions the Obama administration levied against the country due to interfering in the 2016 election.

At the time, many in the intelligence community believed the effort was meant to get Trump elected as president. Flynn pleaded guilty and cooperated with special investigator Robert Muller, who led the investigation of Russian interference after Trump fired FBI director James Comey.

Muller’s final report did not specifically state there was a conspiracy, but it did establish extensive links between Trump and Moscow, as well as attempts by Trump to derail the investigation.

While he was awaiting sentencing, Flynn changed his plea and last Thursday Attorney General William Barr dropped the case entirely.

Obama wasted little time admonishing the decision telling associates the Flynn decision was “the kind of stuff where you begin to get worried that basic—not just institutional norms—but our basic understanding of rule of law is at risk.”

War of words between Trump and Obama

President Trump and Obama have gone back and forth in recent months, while not directly attacking each other.

In April, Obama compared Trump’s slow coronavirus response to climate change deniers.

“We’ve seen all too terribly the consequences of those who denied warnings of a pandemic,” Obama wrote on Twitter. “We can’t afford any more consequences of climate denial. All of us, especially young people, have to demand better of our government at every level and vote this fall.”

Obama also laid out his coronavirus response plan in April, saying the country should not reopen until it can create a robust testing and surveillance system to stop a second outbreak.

Trump said in April that he was surprised that Obama did not immediately endorse Joe Biden for president.

“I don’t know why President Obama hasn’t supported Joe Biden a long time ago,” Trump told NBC on April 10. “He feels something is wrong. … It does amaze me that President Obama hasn’t supported Sleepy Joe. It just hasn’t happened. When’s it gonna happen? Why isn’t he? He knows something that you don’t know, that I think I know, that you don’t know.”

Trump also tried to blame Obama for the lack of coronavirus testing in the U.S.

“The last administration left us nothing. We started off with bad, broken tests, and obsolete tests,” Trump tweeted.

However, many were quick to point out that the coronavirus was not established until late 2019, almost three years after Obama left office.

• News

by Derek Major

May 12, 2020

Doctor Shares Photo of United Airlines Flight Packed With Passengers Fighting Coronavirus

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Since April, United Airlines has been providing free round-trip flights to New York City for medical volunteers who want to help fight against the coronavirus outbreak.

Now, as health professionals begin to head home, a doctor is upset that the airline has backed out of its promise to leave space on flights.

According to Forbes, Dr. Ethan Weiss, an associate professor at the University of California San Francisco’s Cardiovascular Research Institute, tweeted a photo of his packed United flight heading to San Francisco from Newark Airport in New Jersey. Weiss was returning home after spending two weeks treating patients at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

Every seat on Dr. Weiss’s flight was filled leaving doctors and nurses scared and nervous about the possibility of infection.

“This is the last time I’ll be flying for a very long time,” Weiss tweeted yesterday from a crowded United Airlines flight. “People on this plane are scared/shocked.”

Weiss was taken aback by the number of passengers on board since his flight to New York was about 30% of capacity. But Weiss said friends told him flights have been increasing in capacity recently.

“I’ve heard from a lot of people who have been doing these medical trips that the number of passengers on the plane has been increasing pretty steadily over the past month,” he says. “My colleagues who came out a month ago said their flights were completely empty.”

In late April, United announced it would begin blocking the middle seats on all flights in order to promote social distancing. The carrier also said it would take in passengers from back to front and process all seating upgrades in order to space out passengers.

Weiss believes the problem with United was many passengers didn’t expect the flight to be full. Most passengers believed United was still leaving the middle seat open. Additionally, many of the health professionals who came to New York and New Jersey did so on mostly empty flights.

“Most of what happened yesterday was a reaction to the fact that they [United] had been telling everyone that the middle seat was blocked,” Weiss said.

The airline industry as a whole is suffering. In April, all U.S. based airlines were ordered by the Department of Transportation to pay refunds to customers whose flights were canceled as a result of coronavirus. The future doesn’t look much better for customers either. A post-coronavirus world is likely to be one with fewer choices in airlines, flight times, and available routes and markets.

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) along with Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) proposed a bill that will significantly expand on the $1,200 stimulus payments Americans received.

According to The Root, the Monthly Economic Crisis Support Act will provide a check of $2,000 a month for people who earn less than $100,000 (individual); $150,000 (head of household). Married couples who file jointly would and make less than $200,000 would receive $4,000. Married couples filing jointly would also receive an additional $2,000 for each child up to three children.

Harris told Politico the first round of coronavirus response payments  weren’t “nearly enough to meet the needs of this historic crisis.”

Markey called the bill “the most direct and efficient mechanism for delivering economic relief to those most vulnerable.”

“Congress has a responsibility to make sure that every working-class household in America receives a $2,000 emergency payment a month for each family member,” said Sanders, Politico reported.

The payments would be retroactive to March and would last until three months after the Department of Health and Human Services declared the pandemic over.

The bill has a long way to go, most Republican lawmakers have spoken out against monthly payments. The bill would also give payments to undocumented immigrants who do not have a Social Security number but pay taxes.

For Harris and Sanders, this is the first significant bill they’ve worked on. Harris did support Sanders’ Medicare-For-All bill in 2017, but she backed off during the 2020 Democratic primaries, releasing her own plan, which included private insurance.

The coronavirus has decimated the job market and put more than 26 million Americans out of work. Additionally, the Paycheck Protection Program has been riddled with issues from applying and receiving funds to funds not going to minority and women business owners.

Denise Woodard never imagined that her daughter’s food allergies would lead her down a pathway toward entrepreneurship.

Back in 2016, she was a corporate executive at The Coca-Cola Co. when a peanut and corn snack almost took her daughter Vivienne’s life when she was just a year old.

“My daughter was born in 2015, and in 2016, right after her first birthday, on a Wednesday afternoon at 3’o clock, I remember clear as day, I was on a conference call,” said Woodard recalling the terrifying encounter on an episode of The Startup Podcast. “Immediately after she takes a tiny bite, her lips start swelling up, her tongue starts swelling up, it’s clear she’s having trouble breathing. She turns blue in our living room.”

Fortunately, Vivienne survived the frightening incident and Woodward realized that she was allergic to corn. After taking another allergy test, she discovered that Vivienne had a tree nut allergy as well. In order to keep her young daughter safe, Woodard went on a mission to find allergy-safe snacks.

“Naturally, I set out to find the healthy, allergy-friendly snacks we’d need to fuel our active lifestyle,” Woodard writes on her website. “I came away from the stores frustrated and mystified. Nothing on the shelves met our dietary needs and my healthy standards.”

As a result, Woodard resorted to making snacks for her daughter from scratch. That same year, she launched Partake Foods, a vegan food startup that specializes in allergen-free cookies. All Partake cookies are free-from the top eight food allergens: cow’s milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, soybeans, and wheat.

In 2017, Woodard left her job at Coca-Cola and sold cookies out of her car for six months. In 2019, she secured a $1 million investment from Marcy Venture Partners, a venture capital firm co-founded by hip hop billionaire Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter. Not only did the investment help take Partake to the next level, but it also made Woodard the first black woman to ever raise over $1 million for a food startup company.

Fast-forward to 2020 and the vegan cookies inspired by Vivienne are now being sold in over 1,600 Target stores nationwide. Partake revealed the partnership with the mega-retailer on Monday in a press release. In addition, Partake is expanding its cookies into Sprouts, The Fresh Market, and additional Whole Foods Market regions across the country, making the vegan snacks available in over 2,700 stores.

The announcement comes in the middle of Food Allergy Awareness Month. Studies reveal that food allergies affect 1 in 13 children and are expected to impact up to 1 in 10 kids this year. Additional research shows that African American children are more likely to have food allergies and suffer from food-induced anaphylaxis. Black and Hispanic children also visit the emergency room more due to food allergies.

• Education

by Dana Givens

May 12, 2020

Howard University Hospital Opens Free COVID-19 Testing Site In Northeast Washington D.C.

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Since the spread of COVID-19, or the novel coronavirus, there has been a fight for states to provide more testing in order to contain and combat the virus. The United States has been lagging behind when it comes to providing proper testing for its residents as compared to other countries that have made efforts to make the test readily available and free of charge. In one of the country’s epicenters for the viral outbreak, an HBCU institution is stepping up to provide COVID-19 testing for the local community.

Last week, Howard University announced its Faculty Practice Plan in partnership with Bank of America with the opening of a free COVID-19 testing center to serve communities located east of the river. The testing site opened a few weeks back at the newly-repurposed Benning Road Center.

“Many of our patients travel great distances to come to Howard University Hospital, which makes it challenging to seek medical attention at the first sign of illness,” said Howard University President Wayne A. I. Frederick in a press statement. “Our goal is to meet the community where they live so their access to care greatly improves and hopefully we can reduce the spread of the coronavirus.”

“You will not need to have a doctor’s prescription in advance to get tested at our location,” said Dr. Hugh E. Mighty, Howard University vice president of clinical affairs said in a statement reported by FOX 5 DC.

“We want to eliminate the obstacles so more people can be tested because we believe everyone should be tested. We want to screen our community neighbors in the areas where there are higher incidents of hypertension, heart disease and diabetes because those pre-existing conditions are linked to the higher incidents of coronavirus that we’ve seen in African American communities.”

Testing will be available on Tuesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for the next three months with no prescription needed. The Howard University team will see patients who are “showing symptoms or who believe they are asymptomatic.” D.C. residents can sign up for an appointment by calling 202-865-2119, option 3.

Last week, BLACK ENTERPRISE reported that ex-heavyweight champion Mike Tyson has been in the gym training and considering getting back into the ring. Now we hear that his former nemesis, ex-heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, is doing the same. Holyfield has even said that he envisions having a third bout against Tyson but this time, they will do it for charity, according to Boxing Scene.

At 57 years old, Holyfield is making a return to the ring and has his eyes set on having a third fight with the 53-year-old Tyson. According to reports, he would like to stage an exhibition boxing match to raise money for his charity Unite 4 Our Fight.

“I’ve already done what I wanted to do in my career, and have been the best that I could be. If it wasn’t for charity, I wouldn’t fight Tyson,” Holyfield told Boxing Scene in an interview. “I don’t look at it as being a winner in this fight. This is a charity event helping our foundations. The thing is knowing what you’re doing it for.

“I’m not afraid of [Tyson] or anything like that, as long as it works for both of us [financially]. I wouldn’t ask for him to do it if he didn’t want to. He’d have to ask me. It’s like being the bully, I already beat him twice.”

Just last month, Tyson said he’d consider making a comeback and fight in four-round exhibition matches. After seeing a video of Tyson training, Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship offered Tyson $20 million for a fight with one of its athletes.

Tyson also spoke to rapper and entrepreneur T.I. on Instagram Live and revealed that he is back in the gym and wants to involve himself in some charitable exhibition bouts.

“I’ve been hitting the mitts for the last week,” Tyson said. “That’s been tough, my body is really jacked up and really sore from hitting the mitts. I’ve been working out, I’ve been trying to get in the ring. I think I’m going to box some exhibitions and get in shape. I want to go to the gym and get in shape to be able to box three or four-round exhibitions for some charities and stuff. Some charity exhibitions, make some money, help some homeless and drug-affected (expletive)s like me.”

According to Boxing Scene, bookmaker SportsBetting.ag listed that a pro or exhibition boxing match in 2020 between Tyson and Holyfield would be a tossup with even odds of -120 on both sides.

“My whole thing is that I’ll do exhibition matches with people that I trust,” said Holyfield. “It’s important in an exhibition to describe how you want it to be. You talk about how to work together. It’s not going to be a tough fight. If you hit me hard, I hit you back hard. That’s my attitude. I have the hand speed and can pop you and move on with my business. I can hold my own, but I’m not here to hurt people. I can fight — plus, I am in better shape than them. If I wasn’t in shape, I wouldn’t go in there with anybody.”

Amid the global pandemic, there are a number of companies looking to help entrepreneurs and small business owners make a way out of what can feel like no way. The economic impact COVID-19 is having on business owners is projected to leave a lasting mark on some businesses and in efforts to help combat that The Access Project will accept three women-owned businesses into their accelerator.

The Access Project is a nonprofit, seed-stage startup accelerator for women-owned businesses that leverages the expertise of the fashion and beauty industry, namely branding, marketing, and design. They believe that building your brand—and not just a product—is a way startups can be more resource-efficient and increase their probability of success. In addition to an elite mentor list, startup participants will have access to agency resources and work alongside team members focused on business development.

The Access Project runs two, 12-week accelerator programs a year for a group of 2-3 startups (each flight) selected from a highly competitive application pool.

The mentorship board for The Access Project includes trailblazing women that are artistic directors, professional communicators, and executives that are behind the scenes in pivotal campaigns. The mentors are Stephanie Powell, Jamé Jackson, Cierra Jaye’, Jasmine C. Green, and Valese Jones. The chosen candidates will benefit greatly from the guidance of these trailblazing women.

This time around, The Access Project is accepting up to three women-owned businesses to join its program. This incubator will lend its expertise in the fashion and beauty industry, branding, marketing, and design.

In a statement released by The Access Project, the group shared, “We believe that building your brand—and not just a product—is a way startups can be more resource-efficient and increase their probability of success.”

To learn more and apply for the accelerator, click here.

It takes an incredible amount of work to start a business, and it takes a lot more to keep an existing business afloat in an unpredictable market. Many resources are dedicated to helping entrepreneurs start their business dreams by providing the proper knowledge and structure on how to write a business plan and secure a business loan. Those resources become limited once you actually start the business and now have to maintain your newfound venture. According to data collected from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, roughly 20% of small businesses fail within their first year of operation. By the end of their fifth year, that number rises to 50%.

In a report by Investopedia, the four most common reasons why small businesses fail are a lack of sufficient capital, poor management, inadequate business planning, and overestimating marketing budgets. In a survey reported by Fundera, founders of startup ventures cite running out of capital or failure of an established audience that fulfills the demand for your product.

For this Texas-based business owner, he managed to beat the odds and make his business thrive while further expanding his reach.

Dajadt Azakytu is the owner of DAZ Plumbing & Locating based in Waxahachie, Texas. The family-run business has also been focused on providing quality service to its customers with its fleet of 12 service vehicles. The company has now announced that it will be expanding its service area to include the entire Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area in addition to Ellis and Tarrant. Its services include sewer line repairs to basic bathroom repairs for commercial and residential buildings.

“We understand that plumbing problems are more than an inconvenience,” Azakytu told Black Business. “They can also be a health and safety hazard, and can do serious damage to your property. Our goal is to provide solutions that protect customers’ safety, health, property, time and money.”

The plumbing company will also now offer services 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Featuring a broad cross-section of women who have distinguished themselves across a rich variety of careers, our Portraits of Power series is a celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Black Enterprise, and of black women. It’s a place for today’s businesswomen to share their own favorite images and their own stories, in their own words. Today’s portrait is ADP’s top diversity executive Aisha Thomas-Petit.

Aisha Thomas-Petit

Chief Diversity, Inclusion & Corporate Social Responsibility Officer for ADP

My first job was as a management trainee at JPMorgan Chase in NYC right out of college (or as a sandwich maker/cashier at Subway when I was 14 in Pasadena!).

My big break came when the Head of University Relations at JPMorgan Chase promoted me to VP, Marketing Manager and handed me a post-merger, fully integrated recruitment marketing campaign to manage.

I’ve had to work hardest at my poker face. The art of the poker face has been critical in the corporate context.

I never imagined I would be a mother of daughters and be in a position where both personally and professionally my life journey will role-model a way for those who think they “can’t be or do” something.

I wish I’d learned sooner how to invest (in my 20s) with early retirement in mind.

The risk I regret not taking is, 25 years ago I should have studied abroad.  As a global citizen, the perspective would have been invaluable.

If I could design my fantasy self-care day, it would be spent waking up without an alarm, remaining in silence for an hour focused on meditation and prayer, followed by spa treatments and two fabulous meals (breakfast and dinner) … and I would have my three besties with me.

Nothing keeps me up at night! I sleep sound knowing that the universe is conspiring for my good.

When I’m struggling, I say to myself I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

I am unapologetically fierce. I am a Leo and born in the Year of the Dragon!

Portraits of Power is a yearlong series of candid insights from exceptional women leaders. It is brought to you by ADP.