Homeland Security expert Erroll Southers will address the membership about the complicated nature of protecting US citizens in the 21st century.

About Erroll Southers

Erroll G. Southers is the Associate Director of Research Transition at the DHS National Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE) at the University of Southern California, where he developed the Executive Program in Counter-Terrorism and serves as an adjunct professor of Homeland Security and Public Policy in the Sol Price School of Public Policy. He is a former FBI Special Agent and SWAT team member, President Barack Obama’s first nominee for Assistant Secretary of the TSA and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Deputy Director for Critical Infrastructure of the California Office of Homeland Security. Prof. Southers is a Visiting Fellow of the International Institute of Counter-Terrorism in Herzliya, Israel, a member of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Homeland Security Project, a Senior Fellow of the UCLA School of Public Affairs and serves on the Advisory Committee for the Command, Control and Interoperability Center for Advanced Data Analysis (CCICADA) at Rutgers University.

Professor Southers is also the Managing Director of the Counter-Terrorism and Infrastructure Protection Division of the international security consulting firm TAL Global Corporation. He was the Assistant Chief of Homeland Security and Intelligence at the Los Angeles World Airports Police Department and began his law enforcement career with the Santa Monica Police Department. He is a recipient of the Earl Warren Outstanding Public Service Award, recognized in Security Magazine’s Top 25 Most Influential Industry Thought Leaders in the United States and member of the Los Angeles Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Airport Security at LAX. Prof. Southers has twice provided testimony as a subject matter expert to the full Congressional Committee on Homeland Security, published numerous articles and is the author of the forthcoming book, Homegrown Violent Extremism.  He appears as a counter-terrorism analyst on a variety of national and international media networks.

Professor Southers earned his BA degree at Brown University and MPA at USC, where he is a doctoral candidate.

Renew your membership with $15 off, using the PROMO CODE: 150FF

And get $25 off your registration for the 2013 NABJ Convention and Career Fair using the PROMO CODE: 25OFF

Register here while the sale lasts, the Spring Special ends May 12th!

See you in Orlando!

Mark your calendars for Thursday, May 9, and RSVP here.
BJASC members may attend the talk for free with advanced RSVP. Simply enter discount code “BJASC,” then select how many tickets you need from the drop down window.

Steve Padilla, an assistant national editor at the Los Angeles Times,
will discuss “Crafting the Story,” offering practical tips on how to
assemble and organize a piece of writing. Steve, who addressed AAJA
last year on the “Art of Self-Editing,” will cite examples of good
storytelling structure from The Times, and show how other media,
including television and classical music, can influence your writing
for the better. Though his emphasis will be on print, the talk will
apply to all storytelling.

Steve, a 25-year veteran at The Times, has served as a writing coach
and lectures frequently on writing.

Doors open at 7 p.m. Talk begins at 7:30 p.m. Refreshments will be provide

While Greuel and Garcetti appeared at separate times during the meeting for about 30 minutes, BJASC members engaged the candidates in Q&A sessions.

Both candidates were enthusiastic about their vision for the City of Los Angeles.

EVENT PHOTOS

Photos Courtesy: Tony Kinkela

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Mayoral Candidates Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel will address the membership with their platforms ahead of the May 21^st runoff election.  Each candidate will appear separately and will address the meeting for approximately 20 minutes with Q+A to follow.

About Eric Garcetti:

Garcetti was President of the Los Angeles City Council from 2006 to 2012. He served as the Councilmember representing the 13th District.

Prior to serving on the Los Angeles City Council Garcetti taught at Occidental College and U.S.C.

Garcetti was raised in the San Fernando Valley and earned his B.A. and M.A. from Columbia University. He studied as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and the London School of Economics.

A fourth generation Angeleno, he lives in Silver Lake with his wife and one-year-old daughter.

About Wendy Greuel:

Greuel is currently serves as City Controller, the city’s chief auditor and financial watchdog.

Prior to serving as Controller, Greuel served on the Los Angeles City Council, was an executive at DreamWorks Pictures, worked as a senior advisor at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, and served as a deputy to Mayor Tom Bradley.

Greuel was raised in the San Fernando Valley and earned her degree from UCLA.

A lifelong Angeleno, she lives in the Studio City neighborhood with her husband Dean and their son Thomas.

Deggans will discuss his new book “Race-Baiter: How The Media Wields Dangerous Words To Divide A Nation”.

BJASC is encouraged to attend the event, on Wednesday, March 27 at 4:00pm on the campus of Cal. State Northridge.  The event will be held in the new Valley Performing Arts Cente (VPAC) Lecture Auditorium, 181.

Address:
1811 Nordhoff St.
Northridge, CA

Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey will address the membership about her priorities for the City and County of Los Angeles.

On Dec. 3, 2012, Ms. Lacey was sworn in as District Attorney. Ms. Lacey oversees roughly 1,000 lawyers, nearly 300 investigators and about 800 support staff employees. She is the first woman and first African-American to serve as Los Angeles County District Attorney since the office was created in 1850.

A Los Angeles native and graduate of the University of Southern California Law School, Ms. Lacey joined the largest local prosecutorial office in the nation in 1986 as a deputy district attorney. She worked her way through the ranks as a front-line prosecutor.
While serving as a deputy district attorney, she prosecuted hundreds of serious criminal cases. Ms. Lacey won national attention for her successful prosecution of the county’s first race-based hate crime murder. Ms. Lacey was recognized by the U.S. Department of Justice in May 2000 for prosecuting this case and for participating on the Law Enforcement Coordinating Committee. Also, Ms. Lacey twice was selected as Deputy District Attorney of the Month by her peers.

Starting in late 2000, Ms. Lacey took on management and executive roles in the District Attorney’s Office. Her duties included reviewing nearly every major case the office prosecuted, serving on the office’s special circumstance committee that reviews death- penalty eligible cases and making high-level policy decisions affecting the pursuit of justice and the management of the office.

In 2011, she was named chief deputy district attorney and was responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the office. She also considered federal, state and local legislation to determine the impact on the county’s criminal justice system.

Ms. Lacey has overseen the development of several groundbreaking crime-fighting initiatives within the office. They include the nation’s first Animal Cruelty Prosecution Program, the Graffiti Prosecution Program and the Project Safe Neighborhoods Gun Prosecution Program.
She was key in the creation of alternative sentencing courts to deal with specific nonviolent offenders. These include the Los Angeles County Veterans Court, the Los Angeles County Women’s Reentry Court and the Los Angeles County Co-Occurring Disorders Court.

She was elected to a four-year term of office. Ms. Lacey is a graduate of the University of California, Irvine and Dorsey High School in Los Angeles. She and her husband, David, have two adult children.

The BJASC will hold its first mixer of the year on Thursday, March 7 at Yxta in Downtown Los Angeles. Please join us from 5pm – 7pm and enjoy food, cocktails and a little conversation. We’ll also use this as an opportunity to send off our VP of Print, Wesley Lowery, as he makes his transition to Beantown to work for the Boston Globe.

Bring a friend! We hope to see you there!

In light of the recent manhunt for ex-LAPD officer Christopher Dorner, this month our special guest will be retired LAPD Sgt. Cheryl Dorsey. She will share her viewpoint that “The stress on officers isn’t the Public, it’s the Department.”

About Cheryl Dorsey (Courtesy: eurweb.com)
Cheryl Dorsey, 54, retired from the Los Angeles Police Department on August 26, 2000, exactly one day after her 20th anniversary with the department.

When asked about Christopher Dorner, she says, “I am not surprised that it happened. I am surprised it took this long and I’m convinced that it will happen again if the department doesn’t start to treat their employees better.”

The mother of four says that when she was going through her own Board of Rights hearing that involved the same charge as Dorner— giving false and misleading statements to an Internal Affairs investigator — when she seriously contemplated just jumping off the third floor of the Bradbury Building.

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This international post is provided by my dear friend, Ann-Sofie Perier, who currently lives in Paris and is originally from Montpellier, France…

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ABOUT WILSON'S "WHERE TO" GUIDE Amber Wilson is a Los Angeles-based writer and a member of the Black Journalists Association of Southern California (BJASC). She is a regular contributor for various print and online publications such as Made Woman Magazine, Nu-Soul Mag, Haute Living Los Angeles and Yoo-N-LA. She's a serious social scene expert: always in the know for the best destinations that Los Angeles has to offer. Visit her blog at www.wilsonswheretoguide.com