Sima Ladjevardian immigrated to the United States from Iran as a child and embraced the American dream. She hopes to take that dream to a higher level by defeating 1st term Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw in November. It won’t be easy! The 2nd has been the district where opponents of former Congressman Ted Poe routinely lost by huge margins. Crenshaw, in his first run for congress in 2018, beat Todd Litton by 7 percentage points and Democrat Ladjevardian sees an opening. “He campaigned on bringing down non-prescription drug prices,” she said. “He went to D.C. got Pharma money, voted against it and scrubbed it off his website and as a cancer survivor it’s really important to me and I just realize he’s left people behind.” See more of her interview on Houston Newsmakers and on this week’s Houston Newsmakers EXTRA.

Local Attorney fights lawsuit to force in person special Education Learning

The pandemic has drastically changed the way our children are being educated, forcing many to utilize virtual online teaching as a temporary norm. A national lawsuit filed in New York says that’s not good enough and says the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) forces education agencies across the country to provide in-person instruction or use tax payer money and apply it to private schools. Geneva Jones Taylor is an equity partner with Powell Youngblood & Taylor LLP, and says that won’t fly. “They’re suing under that law and then they’re saying, by the way we want you to take that law that doesn’t apply to private schools, potentially give us vouchers so we can go to a private school that doesn’t have to follow the law we were suing you for in the first place.”

Madd Hatta is back!

For more than 20 years The Madd Hatta morning show was a staple in Houston. Until it wasn’t. The Madd Hatta morning show ended earlier this year but now the man behind that show is now Content Manager of public radio’s VIBE Houston at KTSU on the campus of Texas Southern University. He says the entertainment will still be great but with an underlying worthy cause. “We’re going to be instituting a lot of hip hop, R & B, Neo Soul, Gen Z and the Millennials are going to love everything that we’re doing over here.” Hatta (Benjamin Thompson) says community involvement will be a key to their success.

ALSO:

The 2020 Census will finish at the end of September. Dennis Johnson is the Deputy Director of the Denver Region of the U.S. Census Bureau and talks about its importance for all Americans.

Watch this week’s Houston Newsmakers Sunday morning at 10:30am

More Information:

Sima Ladjevardian, (D) Candidate, 2nd Congressional District

· Website: https://www.simafortx.com/

· Twitter: @SimaforTX

· Email: Info@simafortx.com

Geneva Jones-Taylor,

· Website: https://bit.ly/3h3GY7B

· Phone: 713-779-7500

· Twitter: @pyt_law

· Email: gtaylor@pytilaw.com

Madd Hatta

· Website: https://vibehouston.com/

· Website: https://bit.ly/2QWRbYy

· Phone: 713-313-7591

· Twitter: @TheVibeHouston

· Email: request@vibehouston.com

Dennis Johnson, Deputy Director, Denver Region, United States Census Bureau

· Website: https://www.census.gov

· Twitter: @uscensusbureau