Category: Valleys

Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

Don Lemon Made the Headlines, but Georgia Fort’s Arrest Shows No Journalist Is Safe

Famed journalist Don Lemon may draw the headlines, but Emmy-winning independent reporter Georgia Fort and Trahem Jenn Crews and Jamael Lydell Lundy were also taken into custody as federal agents moved against four Black journalists whose only apparent offense was documenting protests critical of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

History Will Remember Who Spoke and Who Hid

America watched it happen in real time. Journalists were arrested for doing their jobs. Not in some distant dictatorship. Not under cover of night in a failed state. In the United States of America.

Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

Grammys Open Black History Month as Michael Jackson’s Story Heads to the Big Screen

Sunday’s Grammy Awards opened Black History Month while also setting the tone for a year that will once again bring Michael Jackson to the forefront of popular culture. When Jackson made history in 1984, winning eight Grammys for the Thriller album, the awards field was far more limited than it is today. With the dramatic expansion of Grammy categories since then, it is not difficult to imagine that a release of that scale in the current era could have produced well over a dozen wins from an even larger number of nominations. More than forty years later, the King of Pop is preparing to command attention again, this time through a major motion picture.

Local
Stefi Mar

City of Good Neighbors Celebrates Inaugural Hawthorne Eats!

The “City of Good Neighbors” is planning a food journey from January 25 to January 31, 2026. This will be the first official Restaurant Week in Hawthorne, aptly named Hawthorne Eats! Hawthorne Eats! It’s more than an event—it’s a citywide celebration of food, culture, flavor, and community. This initiative celebrates Hawthorne’s diverse culinary scene while supporting local restaurants, small businesses, and community pride.

African Americans
Stefi Mar

State of the Dream 2026 Finds Black America Facing a Recession Across Jobs, Housing, and Technology

Black unemployment surged to 7.5 percent by December 2025, a level that would signal a recession if it were reflected across the national workforce. But the latest “State of the Dream 2026” report makes clear the damage extends far beyond jobs. From broadband access and housing to artificial intelligence and federal workforce policy, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies finds that 2025 marked a sharp economic breakdown for Black America driven by policy reversals and the removal of long-standing safeguards.

Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

Midnight Friday Deadline Nears as Congress Risks Another Shutdown

The federal government is once again facing a shutdown deadline, with funding set to expire at midnight Friday, January 30, just two months after the nation emerged from a prolonged lapse that disrupted lives far beyond Washington.

Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

Crump and Obama are the Top Black News Makers of the 21st Century

The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) represents the organized voice, survivor, and power of the Black Press in America. On the eve of Black History Month, we have chronicled the top Black newsmakers of the first quarter of the 21st century to honor Black impact through legacy, liberty, and justice. This list serves as a living record, centering Black leadership, innovation, and influence while ensuring today’s history is documented with clarity and intention for future generations. Our staff researched and reviewed news headlines and news articles for the last 25 years from our catalog of more than 200 member Black-owned newspapers across the United States with a reach of 20 million weekly readers from both our print and digital publications.

Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

The Exit Signs Are Flashing at the Place That Wrote the Authoritarian Playbook

The Heritage Foundation is beginning to come apart in public, and what is unraveling is not simply a think tank but a long-maintained illusion. More than 60 senior staff members, fellows, and trustees have now resigned from the institution that spent decades presenting itself as the sober custodian of conservative thought. Board members tied to major donors have stepped down. Veteran policy writers have walked away. What remains is an organization forced, perhaps for the first time, to reckon with the distance between how it spoke about America and what it planned to do to it.