Taylor Geospatial Institute targets STL as world leader
@stlouisamerican
@stlouisamerican
St. Louis American See page B1
The
Serving, empowering and advocating for equity in St. Louis since 1928
CAC Audited APRIL 28 – MAY 4, 2022
stlamerican.com
August 22, 1925 – April 21, 2022
Dr. Homer Nash was a family doctor, family man
Homer Erwin Nash, Jr, MD, a celebrated pediatrician who served at Homer G. Phillips Hospital before starting his own practice, has passed away, his family announced. A Memorial Service for Dr. Nash will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, May 6, 2022, at Layne Renaissance Chapel, 7302 W. Florissant Ave in St. Louis with an opportunity to visit with the family at n He served in the infantry in 10 a.m. Italy during World War II and Dr. Nash was honored received the Military Order of the as a Lifetime Achiever Purple Heart and Bronze Star during the 2009 Salute to Excellence in Healthcare Medal for service to his country. and told The St. Louis American he decided his direction in medicine while an intern at Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago. “In general internship, you spend six weeks or two months in each service. Pediatrics was the one I liked the best,” he said. Dr. Nash was born in Atlanta on August 22, 1925. He was the fifth child, and only son, of Homer Erwin Nash, Sr., who was also a physician, and Marie Antionette Graves Nash. He attended Morehouse
Homer Erwin Nash, Jr, MD, a celebrated pediatrician who served at Homer G. Phillips Hospital before starting his own practice. Dr. Nash was honored as a Lifetime Achiever during the 2009 Salute to Excellence in Healthcare.
Republicans don’t mask intention to thwart Medicaid expansion Playing politics, risking lives
Untreated heart disease claimed Cora Faith Walker Medical examiner found no illegal drugs
By Karen Robinson-Jacobs The St. Louis American
See WALKER, A7
By Sylvester Brown Jr. The St. Louis American
See MEDICAID, A7
COMPLIMENTARY
Cora Faith Walker, the former state representative whose March 11 death set off a wave of speculation, died of heart disease stemming from an untreated condition. That’s according to Dr. Michael Graham, chief medical examiner, for the city. Graham, whose office routinely investigates the sudden, unexpected deaths of young people, said Walker died of the “sudden onset of a lethal cardiac rhythm disturbance that was caused by underlying heart muscle disease,” formally classified as “nonischemic cardiomyopathy.” No illegal drugs were found in her system and Cora Faith alcohol “had nothing Walker to do with her death,” Graham said. The finding confirmed an earlier St. Louis Police Department inquiry that uncovered no “suspicious” activity in the death of the 37-year-old who left state government in 2019 to work for St. Louis County Executive Sam Page. She served Ferguson, District 74, in the Missouri House of Representatives beginning in January 2017. In Page’s administration she served as policy chief. Walker collapsed in the hallway of the Loews Hotel, the morning after attending a birthday party for St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones, a close friend.
See NASH, A6
With more than 1 million COVID-related deaths [in the U.S.] one would think the pandemic would serve as a great equalizer in this country. It has impacted everyone - Black, white, rich, poor, urban, suburban, and more. Of course, it has not been that. Minorities were infected and died at disproportionate rates. Poor countries struggled to get vaccines. Many wealthy people became richer, regardless of one of the greatest recessions since the 1930s. And, in Missouri, Republican legislators are still working tirelessly to stall healthcare coverage for hundreds of thousands of Missourians. Under the Obama administration, the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” (commonly referred to as the Affordable Care Act or ACA), Kendra was expanded to increase Holmes access to primary care. Before expansion, enrollment was limited to mostly children, pregnant women, and people with disabilities. Although these groups still make up the vast majority of those enrolled in the state’s Medicaid program, Medicaid expansion is open to nearly all adults with incomes up to 138% of the Federal Poverty Level. To date, 38 states and Washington, D.C. have adopted Medicaid expansion and 12 states have not. Through a 2020 ballot measure, Missouri voters approved expanded eligibility for Medicaid to people ages 19 to 64. That has not stopped numerous Republican attempts to derail or defund what voters passed by a wide margin. “Sometimes voters are smarter than the people they elect,” said State Sen. Karla May regarding the state GOP’s efforts to stop voter-approved Medicaid expansion. Drawn-out court battles and the pandemic have plagued expansion efforts in the state. For years, the Republican majority in the legislature fought to
Vol. 94 No. 5
Jones targets vacancies, development in North City ‘Roadmap’
Mayors’ proposal for spending $150 million in ARPA funds would address longstanding woes By Karen Robinson-Jacobs The St. Louis American
Photo by Wiley Price / St. Louis American
Getting in touch with Mother Earth
Cydnee Calvert and Derek Perkins, both 13 and students at St. Ann Catholic School, climb a tree under professional guidence during Earth Day activities in St. Vincent Park Friday, April 22, 2022.
Nearly half of the $150 million in federal COVID relief funds Mayor Tishaura Jones proposes to spend to bring economic justice to North City would go to a “pillar” that includes addressing the city’s long-running vacant property problem. That’s according to a 12-page “Roadmap to Economic Justice,” released Monday by the mayor and the St. Louis Development Corporation. The document adds details to the broad outline for the $150 million in American Rescue Plan Act spending Jones announced in her recent State of the City address. Under the mayor’s proposal – which must obtain approval from the Board of Aldermen and the Board of Estimate and Apportionment – $70 million would go to the largest of three “pillars”: “neighborhood transformation.” That includes “capacity building, vacancy [abatement] and environmental justice” and improving housing accessibility. The city has more than 20,000 vacant lots and buildings, according to the Saint Louis Vacancy
See JONES, A6