Elderly Florida Woman Charged With Attempted Murder After Husband Receives Postcard From Ex-Girlfriend
Bertha Yalter, 71, was enraged after her husband got a postcard from a woman he had dated six decades earlier.
An elderly Florida woman was arrested for attempting to murder her husband after he received a postcard from one of his ex-girlfriends on Jan 28.
According to WSAZ 3, 71-year-old Bertha Yalter was charged with attempted murder, aggravated battery on a person 65 and older, and tampering with a victim.
Authorities explained that the incident occurred after her husband received a postcard from a woman he had dated six decades earlier.
Yalter reportedly flew into a violent rage in the couple’s Eastern Shores North Miami Beach home. Her husband recalled to police that she “tried to smother him with a pillow, bit and physically battered him.”
The official arrest report detailed the victim after the attack as being “extremely fragile with serious bruises and open lacerations on both of his arms and stomach area, as well as open bite marks that were bleeding.”
Yalter was arrested by responding officers and is currently being held for attempted murder without bond in Miami Dade County jail.
Investigators have asked the public for any further information pertaining to the case, but there is a cell phone recording of the incident that has been issued into evidence, and Law and Crime reported that Yalter admitted to the domestic violence incident while in police custody.
However, Yalter’s lawyer, Jeff Weiner, told the outlet that her husband wanted to drop the case. He said Yalter didn’t try to smother him with a pillow and that it was a marital spat that turned “unfortunate and distasteful.”
“They got into an argument; it got out of hand, but there was absolutely no reason for her to be charged with attempted second-degree murder,” said Weiner.
Weiner added that if she is released from jail, she will be issued a temporary restraining order from her husband and unable to contact him by court order.
“This thing has been blown so out of proportion, they’re just sick about it. Both of them,” he said.
Usher Opens Up About Headlining For Super Bowl LVIII
Usher said that he wants to honor all of the artists who paved the way for him in his performance.
R&B singer Usher opened up in an interview with Good Morning America on Feb. 2 about his upcoming Super Bowl LVIII halftime show performance. He told the outlet that he plans to give rhythm and blues a spotlight on the field.
Usher told reporter Kelley Carter that he felt honored to be able to carry on the mantle in this way. Usher, 45, explained that it was surreal to think that he could be the one to headline for such a big performance when some of the artists that came before him “had to, at some point, go through kitchens to even be able to perform for an audience.”
“They had to leave back through that same door, you know, fearing for their lives as they went to the next state to do the same thing,” he added, “So, I’m coming through the front door with this one.”
The “U Remind Me” singer reflected on having over three decades of music to choose from for his halftime show set. He told Carter he tried to think about some of his mentors while constructing it.
“I didn’t start where I am now, and I didn’t get there by myself,” said the eight-time Grammy winner, Peoplereports. “So, everybody that has been a part of it, I’m carrying them with me. All of my fans, my loved ones — the people who may have felt like they have been forgotten, they haven’t. I’m carrying you right with me when I walk on that stage that night.”
Although Usher admitted that the initial adrenaline rush of learning that he was going to perform at the Super Bowl had worn off, he was ready to put in all the work that would come with putting on a great performance.
Usher is set to perform on Feb. 11 during the Super Bowl halftime show when the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers face off in Las Vegas.
U.S. Secretary Of Education Miguel Cardona Addresses Teacher Shortage And Student Loan Relief Efforts
Diversifying the profession is also a priority for Cardona and the Biden-Harris administration, he noted.
The nation’s teacher shortage “is a symptom of a teacher respect issue in this country,” U.S. Secretary of Education Dr. Miguel Cardona told BLACK ENTERPRISE, referring to low pay.
Speaking at the College of Charleston, In South Carolina, on Feb. 1 while attending a Power Up summit hosted by the White House Initiative for Black Americans, Cardona said low teacher salaries demonstrate a lack of respect for educators, noting that some of them have side gigs such as driving for ride-sharing apps or taking on food service roles to round out their income.
“South Carolina is not immune. When the starting salary for teachers is about $38,000 or $39,000, you’re basically telling teachers, ‘I need you to get another job to make ends meet,’” Cardona said. “We need to show respect to our teachers so we can keep our teachers.”
“The teacher shortage and teacher respect issue go hand in hand,” Cardona told BE. “We’re out there pushing—not only for funding in education from the federal level, but we’re pushing states to do more. Step it up. Our kids deserve it.”
Diversifying the profession is also a priority for Cardona and the Biden-Harris administration, he noted.
“Quite frankly, the number of diverse teachers compared to the number of diverse students is less than a quarter. We have to do better,” said Cardona.
According to an Education Department “Raise the Bar” policy brief, the federal government is working with minority-serving institutions, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), to eliminate educator shortages as well as diversify classrooms and schools. Cardona also said the administration has implemented new grants over the last three years “to make sure we’re recruiting Black and Brown teachers.”
“It’s been going great,” he said of the grant initiative. “We’ve put more money into it. Every year we put a little bit more into it. We have to scrap for those dollars, but we recognize that when Black and brown children have teachers of color, they see themselves. They engage better. They perform better. All students do, not just Black and brown students.”
What’s next for Black student loan borrowers?
While in Charleston, Secretary Cardona also addressed the administration’s efforts to reduce or eliminate student loans for borrowers, including for Black borrowers, who are the hardest hit.
“Black borrowers end up owing more money on the loan they took 12 years later, because of the interest accrual,” Cardona said. “We changed that. We introduced the SAVE plan, which now caps interest. Think about what that means for first-gen kids like me. You won’t have the interest compounding like it has been in the past.”
Cardona said the administration has provided “over $50 billion in debt relief to public servants,” which are roles often occupied by people of color, “which is another way Black borrowers get support.”
He expressed frustration that the Supreme Court struck down President Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, which “was intentional about addressing the racial wealth gap in this country. Students who are eligible for PELL would have gotten $20,000 debt relief. And we know Black borrowers are more likely to be PELL receipts.”
Secretary Cardona pointed out, “Forty-two percent of Black borrowers would have had their total debt erased if that planned passed, “but we’re still fighting for student debt relief. This president gets it; that it affects Black and brown communities much more and we’re intentional about saying ‘we need to do better.’”
The Power Up series will make stops in other cities over the spring and summer, including Denver and Philadelphia, according to Alexis K. Holmes, executive director of the White House Initiative on Black Americans, as “an opportunity for us to go directly into the Black community to provide inspiration, information and innovation” by sharing federal resource access information with local communities.
The company explained to media outlets that it wants to shift to focus more on future growth in artificial intelligence, sales, and products.
Videoconferencing company Zoom has announced that it’s cutting 150 different jobs this year to refocus on a new company direction.
Zoom Video Communications will eliminate nearly 200 jobs to narrow its focus on future division growth in artificial intelligence and product sales. According to a report published by Bloomberg on Feb. 1, Zoom experienced a sharp decline in users with the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although it had millions of users while businesses were forced to go remote during the height of the pandemic, it has lost popularity as workers consistently return to the office full-time or even to a part-time hybrid business model.
A spokesperson from Zoom toldCRN more about the business cuts. They said, “We regularly evaluate our teams to ensure alignment with our strategy. As part of this effort, we are rescoping roles to add capabilities and continue to hire in critical areas for the future.”
Zoom’s new structure will include more hires in AI, products, and sales team roles this year, but it will cut 150 other jobs to make room for the reconfiguration.
According to the outlet, the layoffs will account for “less than 2%” of the company’s total workforce.
Jobs that have come under fire by the job cuts include integrated marketing and webinar program managers. Departments included in the functioning of their online video base sales have also been speculated to have been impacted, according to Zoom employees on LinkedIn confirming their shrinking departments.
This is not the first time the company has undergone a downsizing. Around this same time in 2023, Zoom reportedly “cut around 1,300 workers or about 15% of its workforce.”
Zoom’s CEO, Eric Yuan, even claimed that he would have to reduce his 2023 salary by 98% from the COVID-19 pandemic and that many workers would no longer receive corporate bonuses.
Detroit Business Owner Rides With President Joe Biden, Talks Shop And More
Darren Riley and President Joe Biden talked about politics, leadership, and business development on their ride together.
Environmental tech company owner Darren Riley rode in the presidential motorcade with President Joe Biden on Feb. 1 and talked about the Detroit community one-on-one with him.
Riley met Biden on the Selfridge Air National Guard Base after receiving an invitation from the presidential campaign team. The 32-year-old was given the opportunity to have a private conversation with the president, asking him for advice on his company, JustAir, and learning more about his politics.
Riley talked to CNN about his ride in the armored SUV with President Biden. He said, “It was a shock. I’m still processing it.”
Riley described the day at the outlet. He said that he and Biden rode through Detroit and visited local restaurants and places while Biden asked about his childhood, business, and life.
“He asked me who I am and what I’m about. He grabbed my hand and looked me in the eye,” Riley explained.
“Even if you’re on different sides of the spectrum … it’s important that we’re in this together. You have to build that rapport and that trust,” Biden told the environmental tech company owner.
According to Biden’s campaign officials, the president intends to travel more as the election approaches to emphasize retail politics, personal connections with his supporters, and understanding real business needs. Campaign officials said they offered Riley a chance to ride with Biden for half an hour to “give the president more time and space to hear directly from a constituent.”
Riley admitted that he learned a lot from Biden as they talked. He told the outlet, “He talked about multiple topics, the things he’s juggling and navigating and processing. He is very sharp. That man? He’s sharp. He’s with it.”
He said that the unemployment rate for Black Americans has declined during Biden’s presidency and that the president had a lot of plans to decrease the “widespread pain and suffering in the world.”
SBA, White House Aim To Eclipse Record In Federal Contracting Run With Black Businesses, Launching A Revamped Program To Assist
In 2021, Biden set a goal of awarding 15% of federal prime contracting to small disadvantaged businesses by fiscal year 2025.
After posting banner numbers, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) hopes an upgraded government contract training program and other efforts will provide billions more federal contracting dollars to Black businesses yearly.
The increase could come as the federal agency revitalized its SBA 7(j) Training Program. Rebranded as Empower to Grow (E2G), the initiative is intended to improve small, disadvantaged businesses’ readiness for federal contracting, according to an SBA press release.
The revised program arrives as the SBA released new data from fiscal years 2022 and 2021, revealing how small businesses in almost every demographic landed record-breaking federal contracting dollars. This new data shows an increase in contracting dollars for Small Disadvantaged Businesses.
The Biden-Harris administration also announced actions to expand small business access to federal contracts. It has been reported that the federal government is the largest purchaser of goods and services worldwide, making those agreements an influential tool to help build wealth in underserved communities. The White House mentions the E2G program when discussing steps to support small businesses.
In 2021, President Joe Biden set an overall goal of awarding 15% of federal prime contracting to small, disadvantaged businesses (SDB) by fiscal year 2025 – a 50% increase from spending on these businesses when he first took office. This increase could be a potential $100 billion boom for minority-owned and underserved businesses.
The SBA added the E2G program is just one part of the Biden-Harris administration and the SBA’s robust efforts to achieve the SDB goal, which has already led to an increase of half a billion dollars in federal contracts going to Black-owned small businesses in 2023.
“Small business growth creates jobs while strengthening communities and our economy—which is why the Biden-Harris administration continues to prioritize equity and a level playing field so all small business owners, including those from disadvantaged communities, can successfully compete for over $700 billion in small business-eligible federal contracts,” SBA Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman stated.
The latest data showed Black-owned small businesses got $9.5 billion from federal contracts in 2022, up $490 million from 2021. Native Americans captured $19 billion two years ago, up $1.62 billion from the prior year. But the 2022 number is a fraction compared to the almost $163 billion spent for all federal contracts that year.
An SBA spokesperson says there are existing disparities that the agency is addressing. The disparities include barriers to entry for Black businesses to secure government contracts. That hurdle is especially difficult for those firms because criteria like past performance can be a decisive factor in gaining access to contracts. As such, the SBA says it is adding resources to help more disadvantaged business owners, including Black firms, conquer those barriers.
The SBA reported program improvements to E2G, including customizable one-on-one coaching, to ensure the SBA is meeting Black business owners where they are with the resources they need to start or grow their contracting revenue. The revamped program is more personalized, and the offerings have expanded for Black-owned firms, making the coaching more geared to their needs.
Further, E2G will provide new tools for accessing $2 trillion in state and local bid opportunities—including market intelligence, training, and technical assistance to eligible small businesses for state and local opportunities. Hence, the matchmaking will connect more Black-owned firms with more state and local contracting opportunities. Data shows that the number of Black families reported owning a business rose to 11% in 2022, doubling from 4.8% in 2019.
The SBA says the program’s impact on contracting dollars for Black-owned businesses depends on how many businesses participate. It reports the bid win rate for contractors using 7(j) services in the past has been around 60%, a number that could rise driven by the increased emphasis from the added E2G resources.
Check out comments from business leaders on the rebranded small business program and more details about it here.
San Francisco Encourages HBCUs To Open Satellite Campuses In City’s Vacant Buildings
Breed says the initiative will not only give Black San Franciscan youth access to better educational programs, but it could open doors for the HBCU students to enter the technology field.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed is encouraging historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to make use of some of the city’s vacant office space to open satellite campuses.
As Fox 2 reports, Breed said at an event marking the start of Black History Month that she envisions the partner universities to fill a gap on the West Coast. San Francisco’s Human Rights Commission has been working on the plan, and according to Breed, city workers have spoken to representatives from Howard University, Charles R. Drew University, Morehouse College, Morgan State University, Morris Brown College, Tuskegee University, and the University of the District of Columbia.
According to the San Francisco Examiner, the first “Black 2 San Francisco” event was held at the Taube Atrium Theater in the War Memorial Veterans Building. Representatives from at least six HBCUs attended the event, which came as the city announced its plans for an HBCU incubator over the summer.
“If you think about it, we don’t have any Historically Black College campuses for students on the West Coast,” Breed said. “They are all in the South and East Coast. How do we bring that experience to San Francisco? We do that by looking at a long-term opportunity.”
As NBC Bay Area reports, over the summer, the commission will host several HBCUs, and three San Francisco area universities will participate in efforts to get HBCUs to expand West: The University of San Francisco, San Francisco State University, and the University of California at San Francisco.
The plan is for 28 HBCU students to come and live in housing provided by the University of San Francisco while San Francisco State will make classrooms available. Guest instructors will rotate, and several paid internships will be available in multiple fields. Breed describes the initiative as a way to not only give Black San Franciscan youth access to better educational programs, but it could open doors for HBCU students to enter the technology field, which is nearly synonymous with San Francisco and the rest of Silicon Valley.
Breed emphasized the importance of this initiative to the future of San Francisco. “In San Francisco, we’re working to build partnerships that strengthen our leadership as a center of education, innovation, and opportunity,” Breed said in a statement. “By bringing HBCUs to our city, we can not only create a connection to empower our next generation of leaders, but we can also contribute to the revitalization of our city. I want to thank all of our private sector supporters, as well as USF, UCSF, and SFSU, for their partnership in this work and continued commitment to San Francisco’s future.”
The San Francisco Human Rights Commission Executive Director Dr. Sheryl Davis also released a statement emphasizing the hard work and planning that has the city on the precipice of a historic achievement, “I’m honored and grateful to see this convening coming together today,” said Davis. “After many years of planning and months of seeding and working to create meaningful partnerships, all the stakeholders are together to explore how we can connect San Francisco to the incredible talent that has historically been cultivated and supported by HBCUs. Our local higher education partners have been actively involved and are central to this project. These efforts have been a long time coming from both community conversations to design the Dream Keeper Initiative and recommendations from the Reparations Advisory Committee. I am heartened to see where the work goes from here.”
Tips From JPMorgan Chase Exec On How Black Businesses Can Overcome Operating Challenges This Year
Black small businesses are now facing multiple headwinds amid trying to grow their enterprises.
The top challenges for those entrepreneurs heading into 2024 are inflation (44%), being able to grow revenues (23%), and rising taxes (22%), based on responses to JPMorgan Chase’s annual Business Leaders Outlook survey. Minority entrepreneurs were quizzed on many subjects, including their business prospects and topics like AI and inflation.
The survey included data from business leaders in professional services, retail, technology, healthcare, and other industries. Chase provided BLACK ENTERPRISE data on some of the top findings for Black firms that showed:
Black small-business owners are more likely to apply actions such as offering new products and expanding despite inflation versus other small-business owners.
Minority respondents are more inclined to seek financing over the next 12 months than their peers overall.
This year, minority entrepreneurs are planning to use AI at a higher rate than other proprietors.
Minority small-business owners place less priority than other entrepreneurs surveyed on hiring the right people for their company.
Mikal Quarles, head of community business strategies at JPMorgan Chase, connected with BE through email and offered some feedback on the survey. He provided strategies and resources that Black small businesses should consider to help them to grow, overcome lingering obstacles, and empower their ventures.
BE: Why is inflation, being able to grow revenues, and rising taxes challenges for Black businesses?
Quarles: It’s true that Black businesses can face several challenges — inflation is a big one. When a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs costs ten dollars, you know it’s a reason for concern. At least annually but ideally more frequently, business owners should review payroll expenses, costs of goods sold, and profit margins to make sure their prices are aligned to market demands and the cost of doing business. During that review, a business owner should also look at their competition and assess if their pricing is competitive. Being too far outside of competitors can either make a business product or service appear too expensive or cause it to appear inferior to others.
Growing revenue is so critical to a business. And this is not an “If you build it, they will come” moment. Competition is aggressive, markets shift all the time, and Generative AI will change the way we exist — so we must be thinking about the future. Black businesses statistically are often understaffed, so the owners may have little time to work ON their business because they are so busy working IN their business.
BE:Please explain how Black businesses are prepared to handle other potential headwinds this year, including raising capital to grow or expand and boosting their number of customers?
Quarles: Regardless of industry, there are tons of resources — both in person and online — that a business owner can tap into that can help them understand trends and to see around corners. For example, business owners can head to Chase.com/Business to see a range of free articles, courses and tools that gear business owners with everything they need to help start, run, and grow their business. I also lead a Chase mentorship program for entrepreneurs, where business owners can receive one-on-one coaching from an experienced senior business consultant. We now offer the program in 21 U.S. cities and have mentored over 5,000 minority business owners since 2021.
We launched a Special Purpose Credit Program in 2022. From this alone, we are seeing more businesses get access to capital from Chase in the majority minority communities and it’s growing year over year.
BE: What new factors or conditions are giving Black entrepreneurs a more optimistic view than their non-diverse peers? Please provide some examples and the reasoning behind that.
Quarles: Business owners in general are optimists, including Black business owners. In most cases, they don’t have generational examples of success and affluence to emulate and seek mentorship. They have grit and an abundance of untapped potential. Our $30 billion commitment is one step we’ve made to further our efforts to support communities, including by helping to grow businesses. I’ve seen business owners who utilize our resources get into their first big box retailer, purchase new real estate that they had rented for decades, and get contracts that help grow their revenues.
Did You Know? Martin Luther King Jr. Was Born Michael King: The Surprising Origins Of A Civil Rights Icon’s Name
A trip to Germany changed Martin Luther King's life.
Have you heard of Michael King? This Nobel Peace Prize winner was a renowned theologian, author, civil rights activist and has been lauded as one of the greatest orators of the 20th century. But you may know him as Martin Luther King.
That’s right, the famous civil rights leader was born Michael King, Jr. When he was 5 years old, his father, Michael King Sr., changed their names.
In the 16th century, a German Theologian named Martin Luther (1483-1546) challenged the ideologies of Catholicism and spearheaded the Protestant Reformation. He went on to found the Protestant church.
It’s likely that King Sr., a Baptist minister, learned more about Martin Luther’s story when he visited Germany in 1934.
“It was a big deal for him to go there, to the birthplace of Protestantism,” Clayborne Carson, editor of The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., told TheWashington Post.
“That probably implanted the idea of changing his name to Martin Luther King,” he continued.
Actor Kelvin Harrison Jr., who plays the civil rights activist in the new series Genius: MLK/X, expressed his surprise about the name change in an interview with People.
“I couldn’t believe his name was Michael. Was anybody else shocked by that? I mean, that was pretty cool,” he said.
Harrison went to reflect on what it may have meant for King, Jr. to be renamed after the religious leader.
“I thought it was such a pivotal moment in his life that most of us would never have to encounter,” he noted.
Genius: MLK/X is the fourth installment of National Geographic’s docudrama series that depicts the lives of historical figures. The eight-episode series covers the formative years of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.
The series premiered Feb. 1 on National Geographic.
Virginia Union Received $40M Investment, Its Largest Gift Ever In 159-Year History
Virginia Union is the first recipient of a partnership between impact investment firm The Steinbridge Group, led by Tawan Davis, and the Student Freedom Initiative, a not-for-profit founded by Black billionaire Robert F. Smith.
Virginia Union University has received a roughly $40 million capital investment from The Steinbridge Group, marking the largest gift in the historically Black university’s 159-year history. The money will be used to develop 100 acres of the university’s underutilized land for attainable commercial and residential uses.
Virginia Union is the first partner recipient to be announced from a collaboration between impact investment firm The Steinbridge Group, led by CEO and founder Tawan Davis, and the Student Freedom Initiative (SFI), a not-for-profit founded by Black billionaire Robert F. Smith, chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners. Steinbridge provided $100 million in capital investment. At the same time, SFI was announced last week as the collaborating organization to help source the recipient of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and other minority-serving institutions (MSIs). The effort will expand investments into developing impact-focused real estate around these institutions, creating affordable housing options for working families, including professors and area professionals.
“Virginia Union is going places we have never been before because students and the community have high expectations of this institution,” Dr. Hakim J. Lucas, president and CEO of Virginia Union, said in a statement. “The Steinbridge investment will enable Virginia Union to create new sources of income, which will further strengthen our ability to create opportunities for students and the community.”
SFI President and CEO Dr. Mark Brown noted Richmond’s 44% Black population. Yet, due to increasing property values and tax assessments, “these community members face growing barriers, and many have been forced to sell their homes in areas they have long lived and worked. As the city faces a 35,000-unit housing shortage, this partnership will help many in the community find stability and will help to grow economic potential for the entire region,” Dr. Brown said.
Davis said downtown Richmond has simultaneously seen a growth spurt driven by people moving into the region and moving close to nearby Virgnia Commonwealth University. However, many HBCUs don’t have the full capacity to catalyze available land into “economically-productive uses for the university,” so his firm is partnering to achieve this.
“America is chronically underhoused and HBCU institutions are chronically underfunded,” Davis, 44, told BLACK ENTERPRISE. “So, our view is that instead of it being just a ‘problem,’ it actually creates an opportunity for us to put together private capital to address it and create a return that is impactful financially—both for the university and for private investors—and invite those investors to continue to expand their private capital commitment to the institutions as they will.”
In announcing the initial details of the partnership, Steinbridge says it will include a development on Richmond’s North Side, designed by Richmond-based KEi Architects, to include 130 to 200 residential homes on university-owned parcels. Martin Architectural Group will provide design support. As part of the initiative, Steinbridge and Virginia Union will collaborate to help graduates become homeowners, building wealth in communities at risk of displacement due to the impacts of gentrification in transitioning neighborhoods.
“As the oldest African-American-owned, continuously run nonprofit, and as an anchor institution for Northside Richmond,” Dr. Lucas said of Virginia Union, which now has record-breaking enrollment, surpassing 2,000 students. “We have a historic responsibility to drive the economic community development of this side of town.”
Impact real-estate benefits to university “are massive,” Davis says, noting Virginia Union will be able to quadruple or quintuple the value of the land throughout the investment versus selling the land outright. Davis said the investment will also increase this HBCU’s endowment, anywhere from 13% to 18%.
