On May 7, 2024, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) voted unanimously to approve amendments to LPC rules. The rules codify the Commission’s current regulatory review procedure for movable aspects of sidewalk cafes and expand the approach to include roadway cafes. LPC currently does not regulate temporary, movable aspects of sidewalk cafes in historic…
Bettina Benson was getting off a red-eye flight from Los Angeles, on her way home to Marietta, Georgia, when she received an email that altered the course of her business. She was a recipient of a 2023 grant from venture capital firm Fearless Fund, established to help Black women small business owners gain access to capital.
Benson, a self-taught designer, started the online clothing brand Chloé Kristyn in 2016. For her, receiving the grant was about alignment between the fund’s goals and her own mission: Fearless Fund understood the challenges Black women entrepreneurs face, she said.
“Running a business is inherently challenging, and as a woman of color, especially being self-funded and with the gaps in funding, challenges can be even more intense,” she said.
Black women entrepreneurs find it harder to access traditional forms of funding from banks and as well as grants and venture capital funding, according to a study conducted by Crunchbase, a company that provides statistics about businesses.
White men receive a disproportionate amount of venture capital funding when compared with women business owners. The funding gap between White men and Black women entrepreneurs is even bigger, with Black women receiving less than 1 percent of venture capital funding, the report found.
Founded by Arian Simone and Ayana Parsons in 2018, Fearless Fund has raised over $25 million to invest in Black women-owned businesses. The small venture capital firm has also awarded more than 350 grants through a number of different programs, one of which is the Strivers program that awards $20,000. Those grants have gone to Black women business owners to help close the racial disparity and give them the same opportunities for economic advancement, according to Simone.
But now, Fearless Fund’s ability to provide grants exclusively to Black women is at risk.
Edward Blum, a conservative activist who led the fight to strike down race-based affirmative action at colleges and universities, has sued Fearless Fund in federal court. Blum and his organization, the American Alliance for Equal Rights, claim that the fund’s Fearless Strivers Grant contest discriminates against other races and violates the Civil Rights Act of 1866, a law created during Reconstruction to support Black people, particularly those who had been previously enslaved.
In the months ahead, a group of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Florida will determine whether to stop Fearless Fund from awarding the $20,000 grants to Black women-owned businesses while the case is making its way through the legal system.
The lawsuit is part of a bigger conversation that worries civil rights activists across the country. They fear that if the Fearless Fund’s grant contest is struck down, it could also be a threat to other organizations focused on helping historically disadvantaged groups. The American Alliance for Equal Rights’ suits are just part of the effort by right-leaning groups to block diversity, equity and inclusion programs. America First Legal, an organization founded by Stephen Miller, who advised former President Donald Trump, has sued fintech firm Hello Alice over its grant to Black-owned small trucking companies.
Benson and other women who have benefited from Fearless Fund grants say the program has been life-changing.
Before receiving the grant, Benson had challenges with funding inventory for wholesale orders, marketing and attracting the right talent. She was in the process of filling some “pretty significant wholesale orders” when the funds arrived, providing a much-needed buffer.
“You fill those orders and then you get paid, but you have to have funds to be able to invest in production and your material,” Benson said.
The fund has allowed her business to grow, she said; she has even launched a new clothing line.
Janell Norris, CEO and founder of Selfie Skin Co., a skincare brand aimed at Black women, had tried for a grant from Fearless Fund a few times before she got one in July. She was in the process of recording a video at her friend’s house for another grant application when she learned that she was in the final round of the selection process.
Her friend still had the camera rolling when Norris received the news and cried tears of joy.
Norris received a $10,000 Fearless Fund grant, through a different program than the Strivers one being targeted by Blum. The money did not just impact her business, it also created opportunities for those around her, she said. It allowed her to expand her products from two to six and get help with both project management and marketing.
“I don’t think that people realize that when one brand gets a grant, it’s not just that one brand, you’re really supporting an ecosystem of other women minority-owned businesses,” she said.
Norris credits Fearless Fund for helping her brand gain visibility through the venture capital firm’s website, as well as allowing her to invest in organizations that serve underprivileged people, and her employees.
But not long after she received the grant, she said, uncertainty set in. A friend pointed out Blum’s lawsuit after she posted about the grant on social media. She worries about the entrepreneurs who were planning to apply for grants in the coming years.
“For me, it was OK, I got rejected, but you know what, I’m gonna just try it again next year, and I’m gonna work on it throughout the year until it comes back around,” Norris said. “To the entrepreneur who got that rejection in 2023, there’s nothing to look forward to in 2024 because someone has decided to attack programs that are beneficial to women of color.”
Action gets underway tomorrow in the preliminary rounds of the NCAA Division III Tennis Championships, and the student-athletes of Baruch College have been eagerly awaiting this opportunity. The CUNY Athletic Conference plays its main tennis season in the fall, and Baruch secured its spot in the championships by winning the CUNY title last October. The spring has been filled with training and matches with non-CUNY opponents, but now it’s showtime.
Among the players is junior Brianna Augustin, a political science major. Originally from Haiti, where soccer was the main sport, she discovered tennis after moving to New York City. In middle school, she saw a flier for her school’s tennis team.
“I thought it sounded interesting; I’d never played tennis in my life, but I went and tried out, made the team,” said Augustin, who understood she had a lot to learn about the sport. “I started going to the public courts where the walls are good for practicing. That’s where I met a coach that started giving me lessons. From there, then history.”
She never envisioned playing college tennis, but grasped the opportunity and ran with it. She found a love for tennis, which has continued into college. Being part of a team is exhilarating. “The team we have is amazing,” Augustin said. “I’ve met my core friends from the team. Since freshman year, we’ve been together. Even those who have graduated are still in contact. It pushes you in all ways.”
Being a student-athlete has given her discipline, focus, and time management skills. The competitive edge of tennis readily transfers to the classroom. Augustin strives to see her name on the list of Baruch Bearcats—student-athletes who also excel academically.
Augustin attended the Preparatory Academy for Writers in Queens. Several of her high school mentors spoke highly of Baruch, which helped her with college selection.
During the cold winter months, she and her college teammates have kept each other motivated in anticipation of competing on the national stage. She appreciates the diverse cultures among the student-athletes.This summer, she will do an internship in addition to training. After college, Augustin anticipates going to law school—her dream school is the Howard University School of Law. She’s currently preparing to take the LSAT exam. Another goal is to become a political commentator or journalist, for which her language skills will be most beneficial.
NEW ORLEANS — Last summer, Derrika Richard felt stuck. She didn’t have enough money to afford child care for her three youngest children, ages 1, 2 and 3. Yet the demands of caring for them on a daily basis made it impossible for Richard, a hairstylist, to work. One child care assistance program rejected her because she wasn’t working enough. It felt like an unsolvable quandary: Without care, she couldn’t work. And without work, she couldn’t afford care.
But Richard’s life changed in the fall, when, thanks to a new city-funded program for low-income families called City Seats, she enrolled the three children at Clara’s Little Lambs, a child care center in the Westbank neighborhood of New Orleans. For the first time, she’s earning enough to pay her bills and afford online classes.
“It actually paved the way for me to go to school,” Richard said one morning this spring, after walking the three children to their classrooms. City Seats, she said, “changed my life.”
Last year, New Orleans added more than 1,000 child care seats for low-income families after voters approved a historic property tax increase in 2022. The referendum raised the budget of the program seven-fold—from $3 million to $21 million a year for 20 years. Because Louisiana’s early childhood fund matches money raised locally for child care, the city gets an additional $21 million to help families find care.
New Orleans is part of a growing trend of communities passing ballot measures to expand access to child care. In Whatcom County, Washington, a property tax increase added $10 million for child care and children’s mental health to the county’s annual budget. A marijuana sales tax approved last year by voters in Anchorage, Alaska, will generate more than $5 million for early childhood programs.
The state of Texas has taken a somewhat different tack. In November, voters approved a state constitutional amendment that allows tax relief for qualifying child care providers. Under this provision, cities and counties can choose to exempt a child care center from paying all or some of its property taxes. Dallas was among the first city-and-county combo in Texas to provide the tax break.
The recent local initiatives are focused on younger children—infants and toddlers—more than ever before, said Diane Girouard, a senior state policy analyst with Child Care Aware, a nonprofit research and advocacy group.
“In the past, we saw more of these local or state-driven initiatives focusing on pre-K, but over the last three years, we’ve seen voters approve ballot measures to invest in child care and early learning,” she said.
One reason: People saw the economic impact of a lack of child care during the pandemic, said Olivia Allen, a co-founder of the nonprofit Children’s Funding Project.
“The value of child care and other parts of the care economy became abundantly clear to a lot of business leaders in a painful way,” Allen said.
For some Americans, the child care crisis has continued, keeping them from being able to hold down jobs and advance in their careers. The number of parents who reported missing work because of child care surged in 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak; it has yet to recede to pre-pandemic levels. In Louisiana, 27% of households with kids under age 5 reported a child care disruption in February or March, according to Census Household Pulse Survey data analyzed by the Associated Press in partnership with the Education Reporting Collaborative.
In New Orleans, a city with many in the service industry and other low-wage jobs, the City Seats funding has been transformative for parents struggling to hold down demanding, mostly non-unionized jobs. The program has also been a boon for the child care centers themselves.
Richard had struggled off and on to find affordable child care since dropping out of college when she gave birth to her oldest son, now 12. That’s even though she immediately put her name down for a spot at child care centers when she discovered she was pregnant. “Literally, when you see the ‘positive’ line, you fill out an application,” she said of taking a pregnancy test.
Now that she can think about building a career again, Richard has set her sights on finishing her college degree. Her dream is to have a career in forensics.
Another parent, Mike Gavion, who has two children enrolled at Early Partners in the Garden District, said City Seats allowed his wife to finish school and get a nursing job. Before the program was available, Gavion’s wife had to care for the children, now 2 and 4, and could only make slow progress through the coursework she needed to qualify for a job.
“It really gave us an opportunity,” Gavion said. “If we had to pay for two kids, I don’t think she would have been able to do nursing school.”
Families in New Orleans qualify for City Seats if they have children from newborn to age 3 and earn within 200% of the federal poverty level. But many don’t immediately get a spot: As of April, City Seats had 821 students on its waitlist, according to Agenda for Children, the nonprofit that administers the program.
About 70% of the City Seats budget pays for children to attend centers ranked as high quality on the state’s rating system. The rest of the budget goes to improving quality: Child care providers have access to a team that includes a speech pathologist, a pediatrician and social workers.
Participating providers are required to pay their staff at least $15 an hour—on average, Louisiana child care workers made $9.77 an hour in 2020—and abide by strict teacher-to-child ratios and class sizes. They also receive professional development from early learning experts.
Funding from City Seats has allowed Wilcox Academy’s three centers in the city’s North Broad, Central City and Uptown neighborhoods to raise average staff pay to $18 an hour. The Academy’s goal is to raise it even higher—to $25 an hour.
“Teachers deserve it,” said Rochelle Wilcox, the Academy’s founder and director. “They deserve to go on vacation, they deserve to buy a home, they deserve to buy a car. … This is not a luxury.” ___
Valeria Olivares of The Dallas Morning News and Sharon Lurye of The Associated Press contributed reporting.
The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content.
WBC, WBA, IBF, and WBO undisputed 168-pound super middleweight world champion Canelo Álvarez dominated previously unbeaten Jaime Munguia on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas to earn a unanimous 117-110, 116-111, 115-112 victory in his annual Cinco de Mayo weekend card.
Alvarez (61-2-2, 39 KOs) and his counter-punching prowess were on full display throughout the fight, but it was a right uppercut that set Munguia (43-1, 34 KOs) down in the fourth round. Alvarez was the far more accurate puncher, landing 43.7% of his punches, compared to 25.6% by Munguia.
“This win means a lot,” said Alvarez. “I’m glad that I gave him this opportunity. Munguia is a great guy and a great champion. He’s gonna have a great career. I’m very proud that the whole world is watching us Mexicans.”
“There’s no doubt I would have beaten anyone else tonight,” said Munguia. “He has a lot of experience. I started well, but he’s a fighter who creates a lot of problems.”
“Munguia is a great fighter,” Alvarez added. “He’s strong and smart. But I have 12 rounds to win the fight and I did. I did really good and I’m proud of it. He’s strong, but he’s a little slow. I could see every punch. That’s why I’m the best.”
Alvarez has now gone five fights without winning by knockout or technical knockout. He last finished off an opponent in November 2021, when he defeated Caleb Plant by TKO in the 11th round. The punishment Alvarez has absorbed, especially in the loss to Dmitry Bivol and the first two fights of his trilogy against Golovkin, have taken a toll on the 33-year-old future hall of famer.
Japanese boxing superstar Naoya Inoue was dropped for the first time in his career by former two-division world champion Luis Nery in the first round of their clash on Monday, but Inoue got up off the canvas and conquered his opponent in the sixth round by TKO to retain his WBC, WBO, IBF, and WBA junior featherweight world championship.
“I appreciate Nery,” said Inoue, (27-0, 24 KOs, after handing Nery (35-2, 27 KOs) his second loss “That’s why I shook hands with him after the fight. The knockdown motivated me. I am thankful to have fought against a great fighter in Nery.”
A magnificent May for boxing continues as former champions Vasiliy Lomachenko and George Kambosos Jr., clash on Saturday in a battle for the vacant IBF lightweight world championship. The following Saturday, on May 18, Oleksandr Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs), who holds the WBO, IBF, and WBA heavyweight world championships, takes on lineal and WBC heavyweight world champion Tyson Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) for the title of undisputed heavyweight world champion.
Brooklyn native Epiphanny Prince’s basketball history is woven into the fabric of New York City. She first played at Madison Square Garden as a preteen. Her 113 points in a high school game—during Murry Bergtraum’s string of 14 consecutive PSAL titles—broke Hall of Famer Cheryl Miller’s record. She was a valuable offensive presence for the New York Liberty from 2015–18 and returned last year as called upon to help the Liberty make it to the WNBA Finals.
Prince also played with the Chicago Sky, Seattle Storm, and Las Vegas Aces, as well as overseas, during her career.
Those would be her last games as a professional baller, but her association with the Liberty continues as she steps into her new role as director of player and community engagement. Prince said she knew the time to retire from playing was at hand when instead of delighting in her career, she started complaining about it. Being based in Brooklyn and settling into her new role is exciting. Now, she will work to elevate the Liberty’s outreach efforts, youth basketball programming, and social responsibility presence throughout the five boroughs.
“It means a lot; I’m excited to be home and try to make as big of an impact as possible in the community here in New York City and give the girls in the community an opportunity to see our players and know that they can do it,” said Prince.
Prince is eager to dive into local grassroots basketball. During her time playing with different WNBA teams and overseas, she would hear about grassroots basketball in NYC. “Now, I’m happy to be hands-on, trying to address the needs,” she said.
Some of the Liberty’s rookies are unfamiliar with the city, so she hopes to introduce them to a bit of street basketball. “If they’re interested in that, they should be able to come out and see our streetball culture in New York City,” Prince said. “I think it will be something that’s cool for them.”
The Liberty heads into this season with high expectations after achieving so many team milestones in 2023, including the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup. Prince looks forward to seeing familiar faces at Barclays Center.
“You miss things when you’re away,” she said. “Being able to reconnect with everybody—it’s been good. Everyone’s doing well in life and everyone’s happy for each other.”
Less than 24 hours after their gripping 121-117 win against the Indiana Pacers on Monday night at Madison Square Garden in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinals best-of-seven series, the Knicks publicly revealed that center Mitchell Robinson, who underwent surgery to his left ankle in December and missed nearly 50 games before returning in late March, has a stress injury in the same ankle is effectively out for the rest of this season.
Robinson sat out Game 4 on April 28 versus the Philadelphia 76ers due to soreness in his surgically repaired left ankle in an opening round series the Knicks ultimately won 4-2. Robinson will be re-evaluated in 6-8 weeks. The Knicks faced the Pacers in Game 2 last night (Wednesday) with Games 3 and 4 in Indiana tomorrow and Sunday respectively. Injuries have been a major storyline and subplot for the Knicks as well as other playoff teams. New York’s All-Star and All-NBA forward Julius Randle had his season end of January 27 when he suffered a dislocated right shoulder versus the Miami Heat at the Garden. Then in Game 4 against the 76ers, key reserve forward Bojan Bogdanovic was injured diving for loose ball when his left foot was caught under Philadelphia forward Nicolas Batum, who also plunged to the court pursuing the ball. Bogdanovic subsequently had season-ending surgery on his foot.
Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau had already constricted the Knicks rotation to eight players, with Robinson and guard Miles “Deuce” McBride allocated the bulk of the minutes off of the bench with forward Precious Achiuwa, who has been highly productive when called upon, experiencing a markedly reduced role this postseason. Achiuwa played in only Games 3 and 4 in the Knicks’ previous series against the 76ers and just four minutes in Game 1 facing the Pacers. The Pacers bench had a massive advantage on Monday, as their four reserves outscored Robinson, McBride and Achiuwa 46-3.
Now, by necessity, Achiuwa will once again need to be a prominent piece to the Knicks altered lineup and Thibodeau will need to reach deeper down his bench as the series progresses. The challenge will be a continuation of the test of the Knicks’ will, resolve and physical fortitude as they have battled attrition for three-plus months.
The Knicks starters already log exhaustive minutes and logically will begin to show signs of fatigue. But guard Donte DiVincenzo, who played 44 minutes in Game 1 against Indiana, asserted the cumulative allotment has neither been prohibitive nor overly taxing.
“I think it’s maintainable,” said DiVincenzo. “Come in tomorrow, watch some film, take care of your body and be ready to go the next day. At this time of the year, it’s less about the wear and tear of your body [and] more about preparing for the next game mentally. “Watching film, adjusting that way, kinda walking through plays rather than running through stuff. So minutes aren’t a factor right now…Minutes can fluctuate throughout the game [and] throughout the series.”
The National Baseball Hall of Fame Museum will celebrate the opening of its new exhibit, “The Souls of the Game: Voices of Black Baseball,” by hosting the inaugural Hall of Fame East-West Classic: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues All-Star Game on Saturday, May 25.Replacing the traditional Hall of Fame game, MLB has curated a collection of Black players who have made an impact on the game for decades to take part in this event.
Josh Rawitch, president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, didn’t hide his excitement when speaking about the event: “We are thrilled to host many of the game’s biggest stars of the last two decades for the Hall of Fame East-West classic, a tribute to the heroes of Black baseball who showcased their talents for years in the annual Negro Leagues All-Star Game. The incredible enthusiasm from players participating in this legends game—players who faced their own challenges while helping to build on the diversity that has flowed through our national pastime for more than a century—will make this a must-see event in Cooperstown.”
This modern-day iteration of the historic East/West All-Star Game, which took place from 1933 until 1982, will be coached by Hall of Famers Ken Griffey Jr. and Ozzie Smith. CC Sabathia, a Black Ace who will grace the HOF ballot for the first time in 2025, is the captain of the West Team, while former outfielder Chris Young will captain the East squad.
Sabathia, who works with Major League Baseball to continue growing its presence in the African American community, knows the importance of events like this to keep the legacy of Negro League legends alive.
Ryan Howard
Howard has the most career home runs of any participant, hitting 382 bombs in his 13-year career in Philadelphia. The 2006 NL MVP and 2008 World Series champion finished his career with 1,475 hits, 277 doubles and 1194 RBI. Howard set the Phillies single-season home run record in 2006 when he hit 56 homers and led the Majors twice.
Dontrelle Willis
Dontrelle “D-Train” Willis burst onto the scene with the Florida Marlins in 2003 when he went 14-6 in 27 starts with a 3.30 ERA and 142 strikeouts. Willis earned an All-Star berth and Rookie of the Year honors en route to the first World Series championship in Marlins’ history.
Willis’s success started early, but his most dominant performance on the mound came in 2005. Willis punched his ticket into the Exclusive “Black Aces” club, going 22-10 with a 2.63 ERA and a league-leading seven complete games.
Curtis Granderson
The three-time All-Star Granderson is one of the best power hitters from the leadoff spot in MLB history. Curtis had 47 leadoff home runs in his career, enroute to 344 in his career. Granderson hit 20 or more homers 10 times in his career and topped 40 twice with the Yankees.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame Museum will celebrate the opening of its new exhibit “The Souls of the Game: Voices of Black Baseball” by hosting the inaugural Hall of Fame East-West Classic: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues All-Star Game, on Saturday, May 25, in Cooperstown, N.Y.In replacing the traditional Hall of Fame game, MLB has curated a collection of Black players who have made an impact on the game for decades to take part in this event.
Josh Rawitch, president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, didn’t hide his excitement when speaking about the event.
“We are thrilled to host many of the game’s biggest stars of the last two decades for the Hall of Fame East-West classic, a tribute to the heroes of Black baseball who showcased their talents for years in the annual Negro Leagues All-Star Game,” he said. “The incredible enthusiasm from players participating in this legends game—players who faced their own challenges while helping to build on the diversity that has flowed through our national pastime for more than a century—will make this a must-see event in Cooperstown.”
This modern-day iteration of the historic East/West All-Star Game, which took place from 1933 until 1982, will be coached by Hall of Famers Ken Griffey Jr. and Ozzie Smith. CC Sabathia, a Black Ace who will grace the HOF ballot for the first time in 2025, is the captain of the West Team, while former outfielder Chris Young will captain the East squad.
Sabathia, who works with Major League Baseball to continue growing its presence in the African American community, knows the importance of events like this to keep the legacy of Negro League legends alive.
Participating stars
RyanHoward has the most career home runs of any participant, hitting 382 bombs in his 13-year career in Philadelphia. The 2006 NL MVP and 2008 World Series champion finished his career with 1,475 hits, 277 doubles, and 1194 RBI. Howard set the Phillies single-season home run record in 2006 when he hit 56 homers and led the majors twice.
Willis’s success started early, but his most dominant performance on the mound came in 2005, when he punched his ticket into the Exclusive “Black Aces” club, going 22-10 with a 2.63 ERA and a league-leading seven complete games.
Three-time All-Star Curtis Granderson is one of the best power hitters from the leadoff spot in MLB history. Curtis had 47 leadoff home runs enroute to 344 in his career. He hit 20 or more homers 10 times in his career and topped 40 twice with the Yankees.
