Protesters marched in their thousands in towns and cities across America, part of a wave of demonstrations that have followed the killing of George Floyd
Continue reading...Category Archives: Oakland
Half of Oakland students lack access to computers. Jack Dorsey is stepping in
Twitter CEO’s $10m pledge will immediately help ‘put a device in the hand of every single kid’ in Oakland’s public schools
Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter and Square, has announced that he will donate $10m toward computers and internet access for public schools in Oakland, a city where half of students lack reliable access to either.
Dorsey dropped the news after the Oakland mayor, Libby Schaaf, tweeted a video of one those 25,000 students without access to the technology. “Every student deserves the ability to learn from home,” wrote Schaaf.
Continue reading...Changing violence requires the same shift in understanding given to Aids
Violence is a contagious and epidemic health problem and those exposed to it deserve treatment, compassion and care, writes Gary Slutkin
When the Aids epidemic first hit in the early 1980s, I was beginning my career in epidemiology at San Francisco general hospital. There was fear everywhere, especially in cities with large LGBT populations such as San Francisco. People didn’t understand what was happening and where Aids would strike next.
Today, Aids remains a major public health threat, but anxiety over the spread has largely abated. The thing that made the biggest difference in getting us here was the shift in how the world looks at people affected by Aids: from immoral people or bad people, to people with a contagious health problem who deserve to receive compassion and care.
Continue reading...San Francisco transit boss apologizes to rider detained over a sandwich
Encounter between police officer and man eating on Bart platform prompts protests and allegations of racism
The head of a San Francisco Bay Area commuter train system apologized to a black rider who was detained and cited by police for eating a breakfast sandwich on a train platform. The official promised an investigation after an outcry from people who assailed enforcement of a no-food rule as racist.
More than two dozen people staged an “eat-in” at a Bay Area Rapid Transit (Bart) station over the weekend and others continue to protest the 4 November encounter, which ended with a 31-year-old man who was headed to work in handcuffs and unable to leave until he had told Bart police his name.
Continue reading...Thirty years after devastating quake, is San Francisco ready for the next?
The 6.9-magnitude Loma Prieta quake killed 63 in 1989. Decades later, the Bay Area is still plagued by structural threats and flammable fuels
On the afternoon of 17 October 1989, a 6.9-magnitude earthquake rocked the San Francisco Bay Area, killing 63 people and causing $13bn in damages as it toppled a chunk of the Bay Bridge, colapsed a section of freeway in Oakland, and crumbled thousands of buildings from San Francisco to Santa Cruz.
Thirty years later, California will launch an earthquake early warning app, the first to cover the whole state, developed by UC Berkeley and the California Office of Emergency Services. The decades since the Loma Prieta quake have been remarkably quiet – yet it’s not a matter of if, but when, the next large earthquake will rattle the Bay Area, and the consequences will undoubtedly be severe.
Continue reading...‘There’s no way to stop this’: Oakland braces for the arrival of tech firm Square
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has signed a deal to move his payments company to Oakland – which activists say will only exacerbate an already brutal housing crisis
Photographs by Jason Henry
The knocks on Maria Espinoza’s front door became a nightly occurrence.
If the 60-year-old Oakland woman wasn’t home, her frightened partner would turn off the lights and TV and remain silent. On evenings Espinoza did answer the door, her new landlord would be outside with the same question: When are you moving out?
Continue reading...Oakland teachers reach tentative deal to end week-long strike
The city’s 3,000 teachers walked off the job to demand higher pay, smaller classes and more school resources
Striking teachers in Oakland, California, reached a contract agreement Friday with district officials to end a week-long walkout.
The Oakland Education Association, which represents the city’s 3,000 teachers, said that union leaders reached a four-year agreement that calls for teachers to receive an 11% salary increase and one-time 3% bonus. The deal also requires the district to reduce class sizes and hire more student support staff, including special education teachers and counselors, the union said in a statement.
Continue reading...Kamala Harris kicks off 2020 campaign with hometown Oakland rally
- Opinion: Don’t assume black women will support Kamala Harris
- Books: how does Kamala Harris’s 2020 tome stack up?
If estimates are correct, Kamala Harris drew a bigger crowd at her presidential campaign launch in Oakland than Barack Obama did when he announced his run for president in Illinois in 2007.
Harris, the second African-American woman elected to the US senate, has drawn comparisons to Obama since early in her political career. And on Sunday, at least 20,000 people flooded the streets of downtown Oakland to hear the California senator outline her plan for winning the White House in 2020, according to an estimate from local police. Obama’s 2007 campaign launch attracted an estimated 15,000 people.
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