Rocho MPOTUS the Press Will Never Give UP

Angels Otani

O.C. Women's March's

Alabama reporter discovers possible wreckage of the Clotilda, the last slave ship to reach the U.S.


Experts said the wreckage may be the Clotilda, the last known ship to bring slaves to the United States.

In 1860, the Clotilda and its crew traveled to what is now Benin, loaded up the 110 passengers, and returned to Alabama in secrecy. After the captives were unloaded from the ship, Foster set the Clotilda ablaze to cover his tracks, though the ship's remains were reportedly visible for decades afterward.

The Africans were enslaved, then freed five years later at the end of the Civil War. They formed a community called Africatown on the outskirts of Mobile that still exists today.

The story of their journey spread over the decades, eventually attracting the attention of luminaries like Booker T. Washington and Zora Neale Hurston, who interviewed the last survivor of the group of slaves, Cujdo Lewis, who would die in 1935. The community's experience became a valuable piece of history.

"When people owned slaves, it's not like journalists were going around interviewing slaves," said historian Sylviane A. Diouf, who wrote a definitive account of the saga in her 2007 book, "Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America." "The fact they arrived so late, and they were free five years later — that was what enabled them to be interviewed and for other people to go and see them."

Once the year's lowest tides came in January and the winds of the "bomb cyclone" blew more of the river's water out to sea, Raines boated out to the site with a friend — and there they found the wood of a schooner sticking out of the mud "like a dinosaur backbone."

Raines' story excited one of the most famous descendants of the Clotilda's captured passengers: Roots drummer Ahmir Thompson, best known to millions of fans as Questlove, who recently discovered his ties to the ship on PBS' "Finding Your Roots" with Henry Gates. "My Great Great Great Grandfather was one of the 110!" Questlove tweeted at Raines.

Alabama reporter discovers possible wreckage of the Clotilda

Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa debuted its first official food pantry Monday morning, offering fresh fruits, non-perishable items and basic necessities to help students fill their food needs.

A few days ago, Blake said, she was at a supermarket and overheard three college students excitedly discussing a sale on Cup Noodles.

She discreetly lingered to hear the conversation and watch them load their carts with the microwavable noodles as she recalled her "Top Ramen years."

"Why do we think these years are an acceptable rite of passage for college students?" she said.

Campuses across the University of California system have created food pantries as a way to address food insecurity among students.

Culinary arts student Megan Lattimer, 32, used the old pantry when she started at OCC in 2015.

Soon after, Lattimer said, she became homeless with her two children, and visiting the pantry became a necessity. In 2016, her car broke down and she "used every penny" to take Uber to school, she said.

"Having this Pirates' Cove … is amazing," Lattimer said. "Literally a granola bar or orange will make that difference on how you do on that test."

The pantry is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays in Journalism 108. For more information, call (714) 432-6844.

012518 OCC Food Pantry

Widespread legalization in the U.S. is killing Mexico's marijuana business, and cartel leaders know it. 

Inside the U.S., there is little consistency on marijuana regulation. While the legal pot trade is now a billion-dollar business and one of the country's fastest growing industries, the federal government still classifies cannabis as a Schedule I drug, the same classification given heroin.

Dennis Bress