#NNPA BlackPress

PRESS ROOM: 2023 APGA Farmers Insurance® Fall Series Finale

NNPA NEWSWIRE — Leading up to the Fall Series Finale, the APGA Foundation is hosting a golf clinic for underserved youth on Sunday, November 5th at Chester Washington Golf Course in Los Angeles from 12-4:30 pm. The day will include a mental health and wellness discussion run by clinically trained personnel, a career development program with the APGA Foundation, and a fun-filled golf clinic conducted by APGA Tour pros.
The post PRESS ROOM: 2023 APGA Farmers Insurance® Fall Series Finale first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

Published

1 year ago

November 6, 2023

Oakland Post

EVENT: The 2023 APGA Farmers Insurance® Fall Series Finale will take place November 7-9 at Tustin Ranch Golf Club in Tustin, CA. The Advocates Professional Golf Association (APGA) Tour was established in 2010 as a non-profit organization with the mission to bring greater diversity to the game of golf. The event will include a diverse field of approximately 50 golfers playing for a $45,000 purse and will allow players to establish a position in the Farmers Insurance Fall Series bonus pool.

The APGA Farmers Insurance Fall Series is a three-event series designed to further the APGA Tour’s mission of bringing greater diversity to the game of golf and to provide additional playing and earning opportunities to APGA Tour players. Chase Johnson won the first two events of the 2023 series at both the APGA Farmers Insurance Cincinnati and APGA Farmers Insurance Austin.

Leading up to the Fall Series Finale, the APGA Foundation is hosting a golf clinic for underserved youth on Sunday, November 5th at Chester Washington Golf Course in Los Angeles from 12-4:30 pm. The day will include a mental health and wellness discussion run by clinically trained personnel, a career development program with the APGA Foundation, and a fun-filled golf clinic conducted by APGA Tour pros. Youths ages 13-17 will attend and are asked to write an essay on the importance of mental health and well-being for the opportunity to earn a scholarship. Please find further details here.

MEDIA: Media are invited to cover the practice rounds or competition rounds of the tournament. Please find details below for reference. For story ideas, specific times, onsite questions or additional information, please contact the below:

CONTACTS: Chris Reimer, CR PR Group, reimer@crprgroup.com

Erin Alexander, APGA Director of Marketing & Sponsorships, erin@apgatour.org

DATE: November 7-9, 2023

FORMAT: Approximately 50 players, two-day, 36-hole stroke-play competition, no cut

Nov. 7: Practice Round: starting at 10 AM PST

Nov. 8: Round 1 of competition, starting at approximately 8 AM PST

Nov. 9: Round 2, the final round of competition, starting at approximately 8 AM PST

SITE: Tustin Ranch Golf Club, Tustin, California

PURSE: $45,000 purse, $15,000 to the winner

Tournaments in the APGA Tour Farmers Insurance Fall Series:

3-5 – APGA Farmers Insurance @ Sharon Woods Golf Course – $25,000 purse, $7,500 to the winner
2-4 – APGA Farmers Insurance Austin – $25,000 purse, $7,500 to the winner
7-9 – APGA Farmers Insurance Fall Series Finale – $45,000 purse, $15,000 to the winner

The top-performing players from the three events will receive additional money from the Fall Series Bonus Pool

Current Top 5 in the APGA Tour Farmers Insurance Fall Series

Place	Name
1	Chase Johnson
2	Varun Chopra
3	Ryan Ellerbrock
4	Gabe Lench
5	Aaron Beverly

Jeff Dailey Award

In January 2023, the APGA Tour announced that the top player at the end of the season will receive the Jeff Dailey APGA Tour Player of the Year award. This honor will be given to the APGA Tour member who earns the most combined points in the APGA Tour competition throughout the Lexus Cup season, the APGA Farmers Insurance Fall Series, and two Cisco Invitational events. The award, which is named after former Farmers Insurance CEO Jeff Dailey in recognition of his long-time support of the APGA Tour, will include a $25,000 bonus for the winner.

“We launched the APGA Tour in 2010 thanks to a $10,000 contribution that came from Farmers Insurance and through the support of Jeff Dailey,” said APGA Tour CEO Ken Bentley. “The APGA Tour has made incredible progress over the years and Jeff has been a catalyst of our momentum and success. As we look at the future, we want to make sure that his impact on our Tour isn’t forgotten. Having this award in his name is fitting and will serve as a reminder that with the sustained help of dedicated and passionate supporters, change can happen.”

Current Top 5 in the APGA Tour Jeff Dailey Award Standings

Place	Name	Points
1	Chase Johnson	4,468
2	Marcus Byrd	4,246
3	Kevin Hall	2,592
4	Wyatt Worthington II	2,570
5	Kamaiu Johnson	2,394

Player Profiles

Marcus Byrd has enjoyed one of the best seasons in APGA Tour history with four victories in five Lexus Cup tournaments and an additional victory at the season-opening APGA Farmers Insurance Invitational (not an official Lexus Cup event). This record-setting streak earned him the Lexus Cup title earlier this year and the $20,000 Lexus Cup bonus. By winning the Lexus Cup, Byrd also takes home the 2023 APGA Mastercard Player Achievement Award winner which includes status on 2024 PGA TOUR Americas and an additional $50,000 bonus from Mastercard to cover travel costs for next season. His record-setting season consisted of four APGA Tour victories at the APGA Farmers Insurance Invitational at Torrey Pines, APGA Florida, APGA at Deere Run, and APGA Valhalla. He also secured a 7th-place finish at the Mastercard APGA Tour Championship, a 5th-place finish at the APGA Cisco Invitational, and a 4th place finish at the APGA Billy Horschel Invitational just last month. Byrd is also an ambassador with Invited Clubs for their Gateway Club program which provides select First Tee participants in Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Washington D.C., and Scottsdale with complimentary memberships to help support diversity in golf in the recreational space. Byrd, who lives in Atlanta, recently spent time with First Tee Metro Atlanta Gateway Club participants at a local Invited Club.

Wyatt Worthington II won the APGA Tour event in Las Vegas earlier this year and added a second win this season at the APGA Cisco Invitational @ Pebble Beach Resorts. Just last month, he finished T5 at the APGA Farmers Insurance Austin and T10 at the Billy Horschel APGA Invitational presented by Cisco. Earlier this year, he qualified and competed at this year’s PGA Championship for the third time in his career – he also competed in the 2016 and 2022 PGA Championships. In 2016, he was the first African-American head professional to qualify for the PGA Championship in 25 years. In 2021, Worthington won the 76th Southern Ohio PGA Professional Championship by five strokes.

Varun Chopra earned his first-ever professional victory in August at the APGA Mastercard Tour Championship. His strong play has continued since then with a runner-up finish at the APGA TOUR Farmers Insurance Cincinnati, T7 at the APGA Cisco Invitational @ Pebble Beach Resorts, and T9 at the APGA Farmers Insurance Austin. Chopra played collegiately first at Illinois in 2018 and transferred to Northwestern in 2021 where he was named to multiple all-academic Big-10 teams. Chopra has also made two Korn Ferry Tour starts in 2023, successfully Monday Qualifying for both events.

Troy Taylor II is the son of Ohio State Basketball player Troy Taylor, Sr. He recently graduated from Michigan State and finished No. 1 in the APGA Collegiate Rankings this summer before turning professional last month. Taylor has finished 11th or better in his first five professional starts, including a solo fourth-place finish most recently at the APGA Cisco Invitational @ Pebble Beach Resorts. Taylor was joined by Joel Basalaine of Livingstone College (#2), Gary Bullard of Army (#3), Troy Stribling Jr. of Florida A&M University (#4), and Jason Johnson Jr. of Alabama A&M University (#5) in this year’s top 5 of the APGA Collegiate Rankings.

Quinn Riley earned his first career APGA Tour victory at the two-man team event at TPC Louisiana with partner Christian Heavens. Riley finished as the No. 1 player in the 2022 APGA Tour Collegiate Rankings as the top black college golfer in the country following his career at Duke University. Riley has nearly won multiple times on the APGA Tour since joining midseason in 2022 but was able to break through in Louisiana as part of a solid season that saw him finish third in the Lexus Cup Standings. In college, Riley was the individual medalist at the Stitch Intercollegiate in April 2022 at Lonnie Poole GC in Cary and led the Blue Devils with a top-20 finish at the ACC Championship in Panama City Beach. He started playing at a local First Tee program in Raleigh and attended the REX Hospital Open when he was 11 years old for a First Tee Clinic.

APGA TOUR 2023 SCHEDULE/RESULTS

Date	Tournament	Winner
Jan 28-29	APGA Farmers Insurance Invitational	Marcus Byrd
Feb 26-28	APGA Black History Month Classic	Kevin Hall
March 20-21	APGA Florida @ St. Johns Golf & Country Club	Marcus Byrd
April 9-11	APGA Las Vegas @ TPC Las Vegas	Wyatt Worthington II
May 1-2	APGA at PGA Golf Club	Kevin Hall
May 7-9	APGA Scottsdale @ TPC Scottsdale	Kamaiu Johnson
May 28-30	APGA Deere Run @ TPC Deere Run	Marcus Byrd
July 23-25	APGA at Valhalla	Marcus Byrd
July 30-Aug 1	APGA Two Man Classic @ TPC Louisiana	Christian Heavens & Quinn Riley
Aug 8-10	APGA Ascension Classic	Chase Johnson
Aug 13-15	APGA Mastercard Tour Championship	Varun Chopra
Sept 2-4	APGA Farmers Insurance Cincinnati	Chase Johnson
Sept. 16-19	APGA Cisco Invitational @ Pebble Beach Resorts	Wyatt Worthington II
Oct. 2-4	APGA Farmers Insurance Austin	Chase Johnson
Oct. 18-20	Billy Horschel APGA Invitational presented by Cisco	Gabe Lench

Cisco Junior Series presented by the APGA and the Cameron Champ Foundation

The Cisco Junior Series presented by the APGA and the Cameron Champ Foundation is designed to promote the growth of the game in young people of diverse backgrounds. The series creates new opportunities for male and female junior golfers to gain valuable playing experience and exposure to the game from a young age. The APGA Farmers Insurance Fall Series Finale will be the third event in this series and will feature six male and two female junior golfers playing alongside APGA Tour players at Tustin Ranch Golf Course. The male winner of the four-event series will earn a spot in the 2024 APGA Farmers Insurance Invitational at Torrey Pines, while the female winner will earn a spot in the 2024 Farmers Insurance Open pro-am and an exemption into 2024 AJGA Annika Invitational.

ABOUT THE APGA TOUR

The APGA Tour was established in 2010 as a non-profit organization with the mission to bring greater diversity to the game of golf. The APGA Tour Board of Directors works to accomplish this by hosting and operating professional golf tournaments, player development programs, and mentoring programs, and by introducing the game to inner city young people. In addition to conducting an expected 18 tournaments awarding close to $1 million in prize and bonus money in 2023, the APGA has organized a Player Development Program to aid young minority golfers as they work to chase their goals in professional golf.

The post PRESS ROOM: 2023 APGA Farmers Insurance® Fall Series Finale first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

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Chavis and Bryant Lead Charge as Target Boycott Grows

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Surrounded by civil rights leaders, economists, educators, and activists, Bryant declared the Black community’s power to hold corporations accountable for broken promises.

Published

4 days ago

April 23, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown
BlackPressUSA.com Senior National Correspondent

Calling for continued economic action and community solidarity, Dr. Jamal H. Bryant launched the second phase of the national boycott against retail giant Target this week at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta. Surrounded by civil rights leaders, economists, educators, and activists, Bryant declared the Black community’s power to hold corporations accountable for broken promises. “They said they were going to invest in Black communities. They said it — not us,” Bryant told the packed sanctuary. “Now they want to break those promises quietly. That ends tonight.” The town hall marked the conclusion of Bryant’s 40-day “Target fast,” initiated on March 3 after Target pulled back its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) commitments. Among those was a public pledge to spend $2 billion with Black-owned businesses by 2025—a pledge Bryant said was made voluntarily in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020.“No company would dare do to the Jewish or Asian communities what they’ve done to us,” Bryant said. “They think they can get away with it. But not this time.”

The evening featured voices from national movements, including civil rights icon and National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) President & CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., who reinforced the need for sustained consciousness and collective media engagement. The NNPA is the trade association of the 250 African American newspapers and media companies known as The Black Press of America. “On the front page of all of our papers this week will be the announcement that the boycott continues all over the United States,” said Chavis. “I would hope that everyone would subscribe to a Black newspaper, a Black-owned newspaper, subscribe to an economic development program — because the consciousness that we need has to be constantly fed.” Chavis warned against the bombardment of negativity and urged the community to stay engaged beyond single events. “You can come to an event and get that consciousness and then lose it tomorrow,” he said. “We’re bombarded with all of the disgust and hopelessness. But I believe that starting tonight, going forward, we should be more conscious about how we help one another.”

He added, “We can attain and gain a lot more ground even during this period if we turn to each other rather than turning on each other.” Other speakers included Tamika Mallory, Dr. David Johns, Dr. Rashad Richey, educator Dr. Karri Bryant, and U.S. Black Chambers President Ron Busby. Each speaker echoed Bryant’s demand that economic protests be paired with reinvestment in Black businesses and communities. “We are the moral consciousness of this country,” Bryant said. “When we move, the whole nation moves.” Sixteen-year-old William Moore Jr., the youngest attendee, captured the crowd with a challenge to reach younger generations through social media and direct engagement. “If we want to grow this movement, we have to push this narrative in a way that connects,” he said.

Dr. Johns stressed reclaiming cultural identity and resisting systems designed to keep communities uninformed and divided. “We don’t need validation from corporations. We need to teach our children who they are and support each other with love,” he said. Busby directed attendees to platforms like ByBlack.us, a digital directory of over 150,000 Black-owned businesses, encouraging them to shift their dollars from corporations like Target to Black enterprises. Bryant closed by urging the audience to register at targetfast.org, which will soon be renamed to reflect the expanding boycott movement. “They played on our sympathies in 2020. But now we know better,” Bryant said. “And now, we move.”

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The Department of Education is Collecting Delinquent Student Loan Debt

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — the Department of Education will withhold money from tax refunds and Social Security benefits, garnish federal employee wages, and withhold federal pensions from people who have defaulted on their student loan debt.

Published

4 days ago

April 23, 2025

Oakland Post

By April Ryan

Trump Targets Wages for Forgiven Student Debt

The Department of Education, which the Trump administration is working to abolish, will now serve as the collection agency for delinquent student loan debt for 5.3 million people who the administration says are delinquent and owe at least a year’s worth of student loan payments. “It is a liability to taxpayers,” says White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt at Tuesday’s White House Press briefing. She also emphasized the student loan federal government portfolio is “worth nearly $1.6 trillion.” The Trump administration says borrowers must repay their loans, and those in “default will face involuntary collections.” Next month, the Department of Education will withhold money from tax refunds and Social Security benefits, garnish federal employee wages, and withhold federal pensions from people who have defaulted on their student loan debt. Leavitt says “we can not “kick the can down the road” any longer.”

Much of this delinquent debt is said to have resulted from the grace period the Biden administration gave for student loan repayment. The grace period initially was set for 12 months but extended into three years, ending September 30, 2024. The Trump administration will begin collecting the delinquent payments starting May 5. Dr. Walter M. Kimbrough, president of Talladega College, told Black Press USA, “We can have that conversation about people paying their loans as long as we talk about the broader income inequality. Put everything on the table, put it on the table, and we can have a conversation.” Kimbrough asserts, “The big picture is that Black people have a fraction of wealth of white so you’re… already starting with a gap and then when you look at higher education, for example, no one talks about Black G.I.’s that didn’t get the G.I. Bill. A lot of people go to school and build wealth for their family…Black people have a fraction of wealth, so you already start with a wide gap.”

According to the Education Data Initiative, https://educationdata.org/average-time-to-repay-student-loans It takes the average borrower 20 years to pay their student loan debt. It also highlights how some professional graduates take over 45 years to repay student loans. A high-profile example of the timeline of student loan repayment is the former president and former First Lady Barack and Michelle Obama, who paid off their student loans by 2005 while in their 40s. On a related note, then-president Joe Biden spent much time haggling with progressives and Democratic leaders like Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer on Capitol Hill about whether and how student loan forgiveness would even happen.

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VIDEO: The Rev. Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. at United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent

https://youtu.be/Uy_BMKVtRVQ Excellencies: With all protocol noted and respected, I am speaking today on behalf of the Black Press of America and on behalf of the Press of People of African Descent throughout the world. I thank the Proctor Conference that helped to ensure our presence here at the Fourth Session of the […]

Published

4 days ago

April 23, 2025

Oakland Post

https://youtu.be/Uy_BMKVtRVQ

Excellencies:

With all protocol noted and respected, I am speaking today on behalf of the Black Press of America and on behalf of the Press of People of African Descent throughout the world. I thank the Proctor Conference that helped to ensure our presence here at the Fourth Session of the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent.

The focus on AI and digital equity is urgent within the real time realities today where there continues to be what is referred to as the so called mainstream national and international media companies that systematically undergird racism and imperialism against the interests of People of African Descent.

We therefore call on this distinguished gathering of leaders and experts to challenge member states to cite and to prevent the institutionalization of racism in all forms of media including social media, AI and any form of digital bias and algorithmic discrimination.

We cannot trust nor entertains the notion that former and contemporary enslavers will now use AI and digital transformation to respect our humanity and fundamental rights.

Lastly we recommend that a priority should be given to the convening of an international collective of multimedia organizations and digital associations that are owned and developed by Africans and People of African Descent.

Basta the crimes against our humanity!

Basta Racism!

Basta Imperialism!

A Luta Continua!

Victory is certain!