By Tanya Dennis

For nearly four years, Beverly Shaw fought to bring her husband home.

She watched as David Shaw moved through three nursing homes, became increasingly sedated and repeatedly expressed his desire to return to his wife. Last week, that finally happened.

The National Probate Reform Coalition (NPRC), formed by the Post Newspaper Group in January following years of reporting on alleged abuses within the probate court system, helped Beverly secure the return of her husband, along with the couple’s property and assets.

For NPRC, the Shaw case represents its first major advocacy victory. For David, it means something much simpler: He finally got to go home.

In a letter to the court, Beverly raised serious concerns about her husband’s care at Riverview at the Park Nursing Home.

She alleged that David was frequently heavily sedated and questioned whether his medications were properly documented. She said an aide told her medications were sometimes administered without proper charting, although she acknowledged she had not independently verified that information.

Shaw also said she was unable to obtain David’s medical records and questioned medications he was receiving despite previous medical instructions following his 2023 stroke.

“I believe David has been subjected to abuse, neglect, and unnecessary chemical restraint,” Shaw wrote.

The allegations are Shaw’s account and have not been independently established. But they raise questions central to NPRC’s mission: Who is watching when a vulnerable person becomes subject to guardianship? Who is accountable when family members say they are ignored? And who makes sure the person under guardianship, not the professionals surrounding them, remains the priority?

“Please let me go home”

Perhaps the most compelling part of Shaw’s case was David’s own voice. Shaw told the court she possesses recordings in which David repeatedly expressed his desire to return home.

After 45 years of marriage and four years apart, Beverly argued that David deserved the opportunity to spend his remaining years at home with his wife, receiving individualized care.

NPRC responded with a “Request for Compassion” letter-writing campaign to Judge Thomas Inman, Associate Circuit judge for Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri. The coalition also helped Shaw pursue appropriate legal filings and engaged with her attorney to press for action.

The court ultimately returned David to Beverly’s custody and restored the couple’s property and assets.

“What we have here is the power of coalition,” said Alee Carrino, an NPRC planning committee member. “We applied pressure from all sides, and it worked.”

The victory comes during NPRC’s eighth month of organizing for probate reform. The coalition advocates for greater judicial and governmental oversight, court ombudsmen, mandatory mediation, transparency in probate billing and stronger protections for elders and disabled people.

The Shaw case sends a powerful message: Guardianship is supposed to protect vulnerable people, not permanently separate them from those who love and care for them.

David Shaw asked to go home. His wife fought to bring him home. NPRC supported her every step of the way, and this time, the system listened.

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By Gracie Ann E. Dinkins, MD, FACS and Sydney Y. K. Brown, MA, Special to California Black Media Partners

Every breakthrough in cancer care carries a promise: earlier detection, better treatment and longer life. California has helped deliver that promise through world-class cancer centers, a statewide cancer registry and major public-health investments. Yet colorectal cancer still exposes a painful divide: Black Californians are more likely to develop the disease and far more likely to die from it than their White neighbors.

The numbers are stark. From 2014 through 2018, the age-adjusted colorectal cancer incidence rate was 40.2 cases per 100,000 Black Californians, compared with 35.8 among non-Hispanic White Californians. The mortality rate was 25.3 deaths per 100,000 among Black Californians and 17.7 among White Californians—a 43% difference. 

A later state analysis showed that the incidence gap remained in 2021, at 39.0 versus 35.0 cases per 100,000.

These differences should not be treated as an inevitable consequence of biology. The more revealing explanation lies in what happens—or fails to happen—across the cancer-care continuum: prevention, screening, diagnostic follow-up, treatment and surveillance after treatment.

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Colorectal cancer is one of the few cancers that screening can sometimes prevent. Colonoscopy can find and remove precancerous polyps, while stool-based tests can identify people who need further evaluation. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends screening for average-risk adults from ages 45 through 75, with several acceptable options. But a screening test saves no one if it is never offered, never completed or not followed by a timely colonoscopy after an abnormal result.

California’s cancer-burden report shows both the urgency of the problem and a troubling data gap. Nearly six in 10 colorectal cancers were diagnosed at a regional or distant stage among both Black and White patients from 2009 through 2018. The racial difference in stage was not statistically significant. Yet, the registry report did not include screening information, so it could not show who was offered a test, who completed it or who received the necessary colonoscopy afterward. It also did not assess whether survivors completed recommended follow-up. California can count cancers and deaths, but it cannot yet see every missed opportunity that produced them.

The disparities become clearer after diagnosis. A California Cancer Registry study of nearly 27,000 people with stage I through III colorectal cancer found that Black patients had 39% higher odds of receiving less than guideline-recommended treatment and 78% higher odds of waiting more than 60 days for treatment than White patients. Neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage explained part of the substandard treatment, but racial differences persisted even after researchers accounted for where patients lived.

Survival reflects the accumulation of these missed opportunities. Among Californians diagnosed from 2009 through 2013, five-year relative survival was 58.8% for Black patients and 65.1% for White patients. After researchers adjusted for age, insurance, neighborhood income, stage, chronic illness and other factors, the survival difference was no longer statistically significant. That does not make the gap less serious. It identifies much of it as potentially preventable: when access, timing and health conditions are unequal, survival will be unequal too.

California already has proof that a better system can work. Kaiser Permanente Northern California built an organized program that identified eligible patients, mailed annual home stool tests to those overdue, offered colonoscopy as an alternative, and tracked abnormal results through follow-up. Screening among Black members rose from about 40% in 2009 to 80% in 2019. Over the same period, their colorectal cancer death rate fell from 54.2 to 20.9 per 100,000, essentially eliminating the Black-White mortality gap within that health system.

The lesson is not that every Californian must join one health plan. It is that equity requires organized care rather than reliance on chance encounters. Mailed screening outreach, patient navigation and guaranteed follow-up colonoscopy should become standard across Medi-Cal, county health systems and community clinics. Health systems should publicly report screening completion; time from a positive stool test to colonoscopy; time from diagnosis to treatment; receipt of guideline-concordant therapy; and completion of post-treatment surveillance—each stratified by race, insurance, and neighborhood.

Transportation, paid time off, bowel-preparation costs, childcare and distrust are not side issues; they determine whether patients can complete care. Community organizations, churches, clinicians and public hospitals should help design outreach from the beginning, not merely deliver messages created elsewhere. Survivors should leave treatment with a clear surveillance plan, navigation support and reminders that do not disappear when active therapy ends.

Closing California’s colorectal cancer gap is achievable. The state has the tests, specialists, data systems and proof of concept. What it needs is the will to connect them. Success should be measured not only by how many cancers we treat, but by how many we prevent, how quickly we act and whether every Californian has an equal opportunity to survive.

About the Authors 

Gracie Ann E. Dinkins, MD, FACS, is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery and Surgery Clerkship Director at the Charles R. Drew University College of Medicine, Department of Surgery. Her mission is to help realize the CDU vision: Excellent health and wellness for all in a world without health disparities.

Sydney Y. K. Brown, MA, is a medical student at the Charles R. Drew University College of Medicine whose work focuses on clinical research, community engagement, and health equity. She is committed to advancing equitable access to high-quality care and improving health outcomes in underserved communities.

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LOS ANGELES — Mario relied on his job in the car wash industry to raise his three children. It was during a shift at a Santa Ana car wash last August that he was arrested by federal agents, taken to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center and held for two months.

“They made me sleep on the cold floor for a week without a blanket, a toothbrush or basic medical care for the injured man next to me,” Mario, a 33-year resident of the United States, said at a news conference earlier this summer at Inglewood’s Crenshaw Imperial Car Wash, which is now closed after being raided by federal agents.

Mario, who is being identified only by his first name for safety reasons, is among hundreds of car wash workers detained across Southern California in the year since the Trump administration began an aggressive immigration crackdown in the region, according to the CLEAN Carwash Worker Center.

News of raids by masked agents has faded from the headlines, but the effects still linger for those caught in the crosshairs. Family members have been deported or left to languish in detention, and many who remain live with the fear of being hunted down by immigration officers.

At least 373 car wash workers have been detained at car washes across Southern California since the raids began last summer, according to figures compiled by CLEAN. The group’s data also shows federal agents raided or attempted to raid at least 106 car washes in communities across Los Angeles, Orange County and surrounding areas, including Inglewood, Culver City, Westchester, Bell and Whittier.

CLEAN, an advocacy group founded in 2007, has been fighting to protect car wash workers from exploitation and unsafe conditions. When the raids began last year, the group sprang into action, working around the clock to help detained workers and provide their families with legal and financial support.

“We gathered our information from workers, managers, and owners of the car washes that were being raided,” CLEAN Deputy Director Andrea Gonzalez said. “We also gathered information from rapid response teams who were on the ground responding to the raids.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment on the group’s findings.

Mario said he was one of seven workers at the Harbor Blvd Car Wash detained on the same day last August, but the only one who has been released. He said he refused to sign deportation papers and is fighting to stay in the United States, a process that has drained his family emotionally and financially.

“Being released is not the same as being free,” he said.

During Mario’s detention at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, his wife and children struggled to cope with his sudden absence while fighting for his release, his wife Alejandra said.

“The employer gave us a video showing my husband being taken away under arrest, treated worse than a common criminal, with chains binding his legs, arms and waist,” Alejandra said. “It wasn’t right.”

The experience of a car wash worker named José was recounted at the news conference by the Rev. Andy Schwiebert of Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, who said agents “took him” from the La Cienega Car Wash last August.

José’s wife is a U.S. citizen, Schwiebert said, and José had a pathway to gaining citizenship before he was detained. By the time a judge ordered his release on bond, the car wash had shut down, Schwiebert said, leaving José without a job.

“These raids did not just target workers; they destabilized families, congregations, workplaces and entire communities,” Schwiebert said.

The administration’s aggressive enforcement operations have continued across the nation in the months since José’s and Mario’s detention, with ICE arrests in July surging to their highest rate so far under President Donald Trump.

Last month, ICE agents shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old father of three in Houston. Less than a week later, an immigration officer fatally shot 26-year-old Johan Sebastián Duran Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine.

Back in Inglewood, Mario said he was grateful to share his story and that, even though he was released, his experience in detention stays with him.

“I still feel frustrated and traumatized,” Mario said, “because my life is no longer the same as it used to be.”

Ernesto Ureño is a Loyola Marymount University journalism major and intern at Capital & Main, a nonprofit publication focused on inequality. It is published here with permission.

Based on reporting by Wave Community Newspapers.

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