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Saturday, December 10, 2022 • Vol. 67 • No. 48
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LULAC sues city over at-large council seats By Landan Kuhlmann
landan@theleadernews.com The nation’s largest and oldest Latino civil rights organization has sued the city of Houston over its at-large city council seats, claiming their existence dilutes the Latino community’s voting strength in the city. On Monday, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) filed a federal lawsuit demanding the discontinuation of at-large city council elections
Arturo Michel
in Houston. In the lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court, Southern District of Texas’ Houston division, the organization claims that the city of Houston is the only major city in Texas that still has at-large council representation. The city council currently has one Hispanic representative – District I representative Robert Gallegos – out of 16 total spots, LULAC says, despite nearly 45 percent of the city’s population being Hispanic, according to the
organization. Having just one Latino on the city council is an outcry,” Houston LULAC redistricting chair Sergio Lira said. “We need more equitable representation at a time when Latinos are building Houston with our labor, and our businesses are pumping in millions of tax dollars. Making this change is not a favor but a right we have earned.” Houston’s City council currently has 11 single-member disSee LULAC P. 7
Piece of the pie
On the rise A local high private school hoops squad is among the state’s best
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Man charged A man has been arrested and charged in a local shooting
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Photo by Scruffy Mutt Studios Two women hold up a pie during a previous PEACE through PIE lunch. Indpedence Heights nonprofit Beauty Community Gardens is hosting its seventh annual PEACE through PIE event at Frank Black Middle School on Jan. 14.
‘Tis the season In this week’s Art Valet, Sawyer Yards is hosting several holiday celebrations
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Celebration abounds In Nibbles and Sips, a local brewery is turning 4, and Heights bars are celebrating the Christmas season
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THE INDEX. Sports............................................................. 2 Church........................................................... 6 Coupons....................................................... 8 Classifieds.................................................. 8 Food/Drink...............................9
Independence Heights nonprofit communinty event returns Jan. 14 By Landan Kuhlmann
landan@theleadernews.com For the first time in three years, an Independence Heights nonprofit organization is bringing back an annual event aimed at bringing the community together while celebrating the legacy and impact of Martin Luther King, Jr. On Jan. 14, Beauty Community Gardens will host its seventh annual MLK “PEACE through PIE” community event and fundraiser from 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. at Frank Black Middle School, 1575 Chantilly Ln.
It will be the first time the event has been hosted since 2020, but has been on hiatus the last two years due to impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic. Beauty Community Gardens will again partner with Austin-based PEACE through PIE for “I was looking for a way to recognize Dr. King’s birthday, so that’s how I found it,” said event organizer Yvette Lono. “It was a way of gathering people together. Their whole thing is bringing people together into welcoming spaces and making people feel a part of things.” Located at 3201 Airline Dr. in Independence
By Landan Kuhlmann
landan@theleadernews.com As many are in the midst of planning for the Christmas season, a local funeral home and cemetery is doing its part to honor men and women who have served and given their lives as part of the United States military later this month. On Dec. 17, Woodlawn Funeral Home Garden of Memories will take part in the annual Wreaths Across America campaign and event aimed at honoring veterans. It will begin at 11 a.m. at the cemetery, located at 1101 Antoine Dr.
The cemetery said Houstonians across the city have banded together by sponsoring a veterans’ wreath that will be placed at Woodlawn to honor the veterans interred there. “In our cemetery, we have over 300 veterans that will be recognized,” said Sean Randall, the outreach coordinator at Woodlawn Funeral Home Garden of Memories. Originally founded in 2007, Wreaths Across America (WAA) is a national nonprofit organization best known for remembering fallen veterans with wreaths placed
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Local cemetery honoring veterans with Christmas wreaths
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Obituaries................................6
Heights, Lono said Beauty Community Gardens has long been committed to fighting food insecurity and “food deserts” in underserved and underrepresented neighborhood through free gardening classes and events. What its events also aim to do, she said, is bring together Houston’s melting pot of cultures through one major commonality – food. According to a 2022 study from WalletHub, Houston ranked as the 9th most culturally and ethnically diverse big city in the country, and
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Photo from Facebook Wreaths are shown placed on veterans’ graves at a Houston cemetery. Woodlawn Funeral Home Garden of Memories will host a Wreaths Across America event on Dec. 17.