By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger celebrated two decades of the state’s landmark climate law on Wednesday, Oct. 14, highlighting California’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while growing its economy and expanding clean-energy investment.

The Democratic governor and Republican former governor appeared together at the 15th annual California Economic Summit in Long Beach to mark the 20th anniversary of Assembly Bill 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act, which Schwarzenegger signed in September 2006. The law established a framework for reducing California’s greenhouse gas emissions and helped lay the groundwork for the state’s cap-and-invest program.

“We’ve shown the world what a state can accomplish,” Schwarzenegger said, highlighting California’s climate leadership.

Newsom credited Schwarzenegger’s decision to sign AB 32 with helping create the state’s cap-and-invest program, which requires companies to reduce their emissions, purchase allowances, or fund projects that offset pollution. Revenue from the program supports climate initiatives, affordable housing and transportation projects, as well as electricity bill credits for residents.

Newsom said California has reinvested $16 billion to offset residents’ electricity costs since the program began and expects to receive another $8 billion over the next four years.

He also argued that predictable climate policies encourage businesses to invest in California’s clean-energy economy, pointing to Tesla as an example of the opportunities the state’s regulatory framework created.

“There’s no Elon Musk without what Gov. Schwarzenegger did because there would be no Tesla,” Newsom said.

Schwarzenegger agreed that long-term policy certainty helps attract investment, arguing that California’s climate initiatives demonstrate that environmental protections and economic development can advance together.

The state extended its cap-and-invest program through 2045 last year, giving businesses a longer-term framework for planning investments and meeting emissions requirements.

However, California’s approach continues to face criticism over energy affordability and regulatory costs. Wayne Winegarden, a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute, argued that assessments of the state’s climate policies should better account for the high energy costs Californians face. Critics have also questioned how much of the state’s economic growth can be directly attributed to its environmental regulations.

The governors’ joint appearance underscored their shared support for climate action despite their political differences. Schwarzenegger has criticized Newsom’s support for Proposition 50, the 2025 redistricting measure that temporarily allowed California lawmakers to redraw congressional districts.

The anniversary comes as California continues to pursue emissions reductions and clean-energy investment while facing questions about the cost of its climate policies for households and businesses.

By Joe W. Bowers Jr., California Black Media

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra outlined his priorities for housing, health care, education and civil rights during an Oct. 15 meeting with Black elected officials and community leaders in South Los Angeles.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell introduced Becerra, citing his experience in the Legislature, Congress and federal government.

“We need people who have walked where we have walked and understand the communities that we all live in, come from, and represent,” Mitchell said.

Becerra pledged to defend diversity, equity and inclusion programs against federal opposition and criticized voter identification requirements as barriers to voting.

“If there’s a fight for that diversity, that strength, that inclusion, that equity, count me in, and let me use the governor’s office to make it clear,” he said.

Identifying housing and health care as immediate priorities, Becerra said more than 40,000 housing units are awaiting financing. He cited Proposition 1, a housing bond measure on November’s ballot, as a potential funding source.

“Prop 1 would give us the money to help start getting those moving,” he said. “And the more you build, the more you relieve the pressure, the demand for housing, which means you can probably see the price stabilize as well.”

On homelessness, he demanded measurable results from cities and counties receiving state funding.

“We will demand accountability when it comes to homelessness,” he said. “I’m not willing to let $1 from the state, from taxpayers, go to a city or a county unless they can show me how they’re going to use the dollar and what the results will be.”

He advocated temporary shelter, mental health and substance use treatment, and intervention before families lose their homes.

Becerra warned that federal Medicaid cuts could leave millions without coverage and threaten hospitals and clinics.

“If these families lose their insurance and still go in for care, now the doctors and the hospitals won’t get paid,” he said. “I want to make sure neither the patients nor the providers feel like Trump’s cuts are going to undermine our health care system.”

He said he is consulting providers and insurers but offered no financing plan.

Addressing surveillance and artificial intelligence, Becerra urged safeguards against discriminatory tracking and dangerous technology, including possible government authority to shut down unsafe AI systems.

“Once you give up your privacy, you can’t get it back,” he said.

He also criticized federal immigration enforcement and advocated comprehensive immigration reform, citing uncertainty for families and employers dependent on immigrant labor.

On education, Becerra supported expanded early childhood learning, tutoring, stronger academic standards and experienced teachers in underperforming schools. He opposed directing public education funding toward for-profit private schools.

“Keep your taxpayer dollars in our public community schools,” he said. “Don’t let those tax dollars go to for-profit private schools first, because it’s already tough enough as it is.”

He said schools must address learning gaps early rather than advancing students without grade-level skills.

“Too many of our kids are starting even kindergarten, and they’re not ready to learn,” he said. “And is it surprising that by the third grade they’re not reading or doing math at grade level?”

He also urged districts to assign skilled teachers to schools with the greatest needs, working with unions to address compensation.

Twelve people were hurt, six of them children, when gunfire broke out near Florida A&M’s stadium as homecoming crowds headed home Saturday night. A 15-year-old has been charged.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Homecoming is supposed to be the one weekend everybody comes back. Grandmothers in orange and green. Alumni who haven’t seen each other in twenty years. Kids on shoulders watching the band.

Saturday night, it ended in gunfire.

Twelve people were hurt in a shooting near Perry and Manatee streets, behind Florida A&M University’s Bragg Memorial Stadium, around 8 p.m. as crowds left the homecoming celebration, according to News4JAX. Eleven were shot. A twelfth hurt an ankle running from the gunfire. Six of the injured are children, including an 11-year-old.

By Sunday, five had been released from the hospital and six were still being treated, one in critical condition, CBS News reported. No one was killed.

What police say

A fight broke out first, police said, among people who knew each other. Then somebody started shooting. None of the people hit appear to have been the intended targets.

A 15-year-old was arrested and charged with multiple counts of attempted murder and possession of a firearm by a delinquent, according to CBS News. Police said more arrests are possible. The Sun-Reporter does not name minors charged with crimes.

“What should have been a weekend of celebration in our community instead became a night of fear and violence,” Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell said.

FAMU President Marva Johnson said she shares in the “outrage and profound sadness at the senseless and despicable shooting.” The university said the shooting happened near campus and that the campus remained safe.

Rattlers head football coach Quinn Gray put it plainest.

“No one should leave our celebration in an ambulance,” he wrote, “and no child should ever be caught in gunfire.”

Why it lands here

Homecoming at a historically Black college is a family reunion for the whole Black diaspora, and the Bay Area sends its share. Alumni, parents of students, kids who’ve already got their acceptance letters in mind. When something like this happens in Tallahassee, it happens to people we know.

Police are asking anyone with information or video to contact the Tallahassee Police Department.

Sources: CBS News and News4JAX. Photo: Bragg Memorial Stadium at Florida A&M University. Photo by Michael Rivera via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Based on reporting by San Francisco Sun Reporter.

(Trice Edney Wire)—Like Amy Acton, candidate for Governor in Ohio and Dr. Abdul El-sayed for U.S. Senate in Michigan, the Positive Calvary really is coming soon! Aren’t we all tired of the negative past two years we’ve experienced in the U.S.? Aren’t we tired of the atrocious accusations being thrown around, the filthy language, lies, unending corruption, hatred, racism, sexism, Islamophobia, and bigotry of all kinds. This election season has been worse than ever! I’m sick and tired of women’s names being dragged through the mud—as mine, and others have been out of hate and jealousy. I’m tired of so many people being reluctant to support women. Let’s be the ones to stop this

I’m ready to hear in detail what candidates are ready to do to win the upcoming elections and give help to the people in need—and there are a lot of things from which to choose!

My prayer is that candidates will stop bickering and just tell us what they’re planning to do to help to bring us out of this abysmal situation we’re in now. Instead of spending so much time being shocked by what the highest elected man in the land is saying and doing, let’s concentrate on how to put up guard rails for him when we vote We already know more than enough about what he has said and done. Let’s pledge to elect leaders who’ve shown they care about the people they campaign to represent. There are a lot of good candidates out there who are being overshadowed by the bickering

Let’s not leave everything to elected leaders. As community activists, Get Out the Vote workers, religious leaders and all the good people around us. Show the way to a better nation to all around us. Let’s concentrate on what we are going to do to help people in need. Let’s work on plans to make their lives better. Let’s pledge to get along with our neighbors at home, and our neighbors in Canada, our friends in Ukraine and stop being led by someone who hangs out with those set on disrupting our system of democracy. Ignore the wrecking balls who are more interested in tearing down monuments and praising themselves, supporting evil with lies and unbelievable positions on good people, those who are destroying our military and using government and our taxes on evil things.

Let’s call out corruption, but don’t participate in it. Let us ignore lies about good candidates at all levels. Let’s support the left out. Jamie Davis, a Black man in Louisiana, is a leading candidate for the U.S. Senate. We don’t have to live in Louisiana or be a Democrat or a farmer to support him when you see how much trouble the person running against him is dealing with something people don’t want.

We can vote across party lines when that candidate has expressed the good things she/he will work for when elected. Never mind that in this case she has an R after her name. I know Monique Appeaning in Louisiana who worked in my campaign for Congress when she was a very young woman. I missed winning by a few votes to become the first Black woman to represent my home state in Congress. Forty years later, there has still been no Black woman in the Louisiana delegation. Monique has chosen to pick up the challenge and give my hope life so that other young Black women can have hope in refusing to allow any good thing to be beyond their reach

You know right from wrong, so don’t be afraid to vote for what’s right in a few days. Always promote good. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed and Amy Acton deserve your vote if you are in Ohio or Michigan. Yes, you know right from wrong, so do what’s right wherever you are.

Based on reporting by Seattle Medium.

Faith leaders of different religions came together Thursday afternoon inside the downtown Detroit United Methodist Church to oppose Islamophobic rhetoric that’s ramped up ahead of the Nov. 3 general election.

“In the final weeks of Michigan’s U.S. Senate race, we have watched religious identity used as a weapon,” said Rev. Paul Perez, who leads the downtown Detroit church.

Perez and other faith leaders said at the press conference they weren’t endorsing a candidate, but compassion and understanding as Michigan voters decide who to send to the U.S. Senate.

Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed would be the first Muslim ever elected to the U.S. Senate. His identity is being used by supporters of Rogers’ campaign to cast doubt on his loyalty to the U.S. Constitution.

Earlier this month, El-Sayed’s Republican opponent, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers agreed with a social media post calling El-Sayed a terrorist.

“The charge of dual loyalty has been thrown at Jews for generations,” says Rabbi Alana Alpert, of Ferndale’s Congregation T’chiyah. “When we hear it aimed at our Muslim neighbors we recognize it. And we will not let it be used against anyone.”

At an El-Sayed event Thursday at the Wayne State Fieldhouse, an ant-Muslim activist Cam Higby interrupted his rally as El-Sayed began his remarks.

“Why do you take money from members of the Muslim Brotherhood?” Higby shouted before being escorted out of the gymnasium.

TV and digital ads echo the charge against El-Sayed that he is connected to designated terrorist organizations, which he has denied. He has disavowed and condemned Hamas, the military group controlling Gaza, and the Muslim Brotherhood, a decentralized movement with a long history in Egypt.

While tweets from his half-sister suggest she and her mother had sympathetic attitudes toward the organization, no evidence has been produced that points to El-Sayed being affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

In an interview with Michigan Chronicle, Higby said he doesn’t believe Muslims belong in America. That sentiment is often found in online replies and comments from accounts run by conservative Christians.

sd Democratic voters have also expressed skepticism about El-Sayed’s faith.

Ahead of the primary election, Farmington Hills School Board member Angie Smith caused an uproar online after she told Michigan Chronicle she wasn’t sure whether El-Sayed could represent everybody.

“Don’t come out speaking only Arabic; don’t come out with your Arabic music on; represent everyone,” Smith said.

She later apologized for the comments.

At Thursday’s press conference, Imam Steve Mustapha Elturk of Warren’s Islamic Organization of North America, shared a story about how he eventually earned the trust of new neighbors who feared his congregation was bringing Sharia law when they arrived.

“When a person’s faith is treated as evidence for disloyalty, every Muslim family hears that message. Our children hear it. They come home from school and ask, ‘Are we really American?,’” Elturk said. I want to answer them today from this pulpit surrounded by our Christian and Jewish brothers and sisters, yes, we are Americans. Yes, we are Americans. Our faith is protected by the same Constitution that protects every other faith.”

Pastor Louis Forsythe II of Detroit’s Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, said that liberation of Christians, Jewish and Muslims are tied together.

“The Black church knows what it means to have our loyalty questioned,” Forsythe said. “We know what it means to be told we are less than full citizens. We are called un-American for demanding the rights of the Constitution promised us.

“Our faith carried us through that, and it was the faith of others standing beside us that helped bend this nation toward justice. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote from a Birmingham jail that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Based on reporting by Michigan Chronicle.

Dirk Nowitzki played 21 seasons for the Dallas Mavericks, becoming one of the most recognizable players in franchise history. However, some of the younger fans attending the team’s 2026 Community Tip-Off had a question for the Mavericks legend.

“I’m sure some of these kids didn’t know who I was because they asked,” Nowitzki said. “Some of them asked me, ‘Did you play for the Mavs?’ I think so, when your parents were around.”

It was one of many interactions that took place Monday afternoon as the Mavericks brought their 2026 Community Tip-Off directly to the people of Southern Dallas at Halperin Park in Oak Cliff.

Thousands of children had the opportunity to play basketball, enjoy festivities and spend time with their favorite Mavericks players and legends at the free community event, presented by Ticketmaster.

Mavericks president of business operations Ethan Casson spoke about the planning that went into bringing the celebration to Oak Cliff and the organization’s desire to create something different for the community.

“I think what we wanted to do for this season was really establish something that was about creating something more substantial, being very intentional with our efforts,” Casson said. “What if we showed up in a very grand way?”

That vision helped bring the Mavericks to Halperin Park, a bridge park constructed over Interstate 35E to reconnect Oak Cliff neighborhoods that had been separated by the highway for decades.

“We recognize what this park physically represents, which is connecting communities,” Casson said. “And when you’re able to visit, which we did with April and her team, the vision started to come to life.”

The park officially opened in May after years of planning, fundraising and community involvement. The Mavericks saw an opportunity to bring basketball and entertainment to a space created to strengthen relationships between neighborhoods.

April Allen, president and CEO of the Southern Gateway Public Green Foundation, appreciated the organization choosing Oak Cliff for its season-opening celebration.

“For the Mavs to come here to Oak Cliff, to spend the time, energy and resources that you see here is really a testament to their commitment to community,” Allen said. “We’re so grateful and honored that they chose us for this experience.”

The Mavs Foundation also presented a $50,000 grant to Halperin Park during the celebration, providing additional financial support for the community space.

Dallas City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert attended the event and emphasized the importance of bringing celebrations and resources to Southern Dallas rather than leaving communities behind.

“We’ve got to continue to make sure that our community members are not left behind, and we’ve got to take things and be bold about going and being a part of community assets like Halperin Park,” Tolbert said.

The park represents an opportunity for neighborhoods to reconnect while creating a space where residents can gather and build relationships.

“I see that park as now a bridge that’s going to help us do that, even at a higher level,” Tolbert said.

Nowitzki also recognized the significance of the park and the investment that went into bringing the project to life.

“We all know what this park means to Dallas,” Nowitzki said. “Obviously, it’s been a project that’s been in the works for a long, long time.”

The Mavericks transformed Halperin Park into a gathering place filled with children playing basketball, visiting food vendors and interacting with players they had watched throughout the season.

Casson estimated approximately 3,000 children participated in the Community Tip-Off, including students from kindergarten through sixth-grade after-school programs.

Parents, teachers, local businesses and nonprofit organizations also attended, helping bring different parts of the Southern Dallas community together for the afternoon.

Approximately 200 Mavericks staff members helped organize the celebration, along with basketball operations personnel and corporate partners. Casson emphasized that bringing the entire organization together was an important part of making the event possible.

“When I say it was all hands on deck, it was all hands on deck,” Casson said. “It was really just one goal. How do we make it grand?”

Once the celebration began, the players had opportunities to interact with young fans and share messages about pursuing their dreams.

Mavericks forward Morez Johnson Jr. was among those who took the opportunity to encourage children to believe in themselves and work toward their goals.

“I think it means a lot, you know, to give these kids a lot to look up to,” Johnson said.

Johnson also reflected on messages shared with the children by his teammates, including P.J. Washington, Kyrie Irving and Cooper Flagg, about working hard and remaining focused on their dreams.

As one of the newer members of the Mavericks organization, Johnson appreciated the welcome he received and the chance to begin building relationships with the Dallas community.

“They welcomed me with open arms,” Johnson said. “I’m excited to get a chance to spend some time with these kids when I’m done with the interviews. I’m grateful to be here.”

For Casson, having players interact with children was one of the most meaningful parts of the celebration. He believes many athletes can relate to the experiences of young fans because of the coaches, teachers and mentors who helped shape their lives.

“To see your superheroes in person and know that those superheroes raised their hand and said they want to be here and be a part of it for this group is pretty special,” Casson said.

Nowitzki has experienced that relationship with Mavericks fans for more than two decades. Although some of the children were too young to remember his playing career, he appreciated the opportunity to connect with another generation.

“It’s cool to still get embraced by the city that I’ve played for for so long and now is my home,” Nowitzki said. “So definitely special. It means a lot.”

While the Community Tip-Off helped introduce the Mavericks to another generation of fans, the organization hopes to continue bringing similar celebrations to neighborhoods throughout Dallas.

Casson said the team plans to make the event an annual tradition, with future celebrations taking place in different communities.

“This is just the beginning,” Casson said. “This celebration we plan to bring to different communities, special communities throughout Dallas, year after year after year.”

The organization’s plans to visit other neighborhoods will not end its involvement in Southern Dallas. Casson emphasized that the Mavericks intend to continue supporting the community through additional programs, resources and investments.

Halperin Park was built to reconnect neighborhoods that had been separated for decades. On Monday, it also brought together generations of Mavericks fans, from those who watched Nowitzki throughout his career to children meeting him and the current team for the first time.

The Mavericks came to Oak Cliff to celebrate the beginning of the 2026-27 NBA season, but their goal extends beyond one afternoon of basketball and entertainment.

For Casson, the lasting impact of the celebration will depend on the organization’s willingness to continue showing up for the communities it serves.

“I think it’s important when you do any event, big or small, that it’s not a one-off,” Casson said. “This is about showing up again and again and again in different ways.”

The post Dallas Mavericks Unite Players, Legends and the Oak Cliff Community at 2026 Community Tip-Off appeared first on Dallas Weekly.

Based on reporting by The Dallas Weekly.