Workers at the Caliornia College of the Arts walking a picket line. (Photo: SEIU Local 1021)California College of the Arts employees with the Service Employees International Union Local 1021 went on strike today (Feb. 8) at the private college’s Oakland and San Francisco campuses. The CCA strike is the first such labor action at a private college in California since a brief a one-day work stoppage at Pepperdine 46 years ago.
Police at a Vallejo crime scene, where three people were shot during an armed robbery. (Photo: Francis Arrostuto, via Shutterstck)Preliminary numbers from California’s biggest cities suggest that 2020’s stunning 30-percent increase in the statewide murder rate – the largest since 1960 – has continued to rise this year, and crime experts have as many questions as answers. “We’re seeing a continued trend” in rising murder rates throughout 2021, said Mangus Lofstrom, a policy director and senior fellow at the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.
Historical building of Wells Fargo in San Francisco's financial district. Photo: Takako Hatayama-Phillips, via Shutterstock)San Francisco has taken its first major step toward establishing a public bank, and other California municipalities are also moving forward in exploring public banking, including a regional effort by cities and counties on the Central Coast. The California statute reportedly is adding fuel to a nationwide public banking effort.
A view of the sky on Sept. 9, 2020, from a home in Berkeley.(Photo: Eric Furth)The sky was rust-colored, ashy, Blade Runner-esque, the result of northern state wildfires that had drifted for days into the Bay Area. It was Sept. 9, 2020 in south Berkeley. Six months into the pandemic, the joy of simply walking outside and escaping domestic confinement was suddenly stripped away.
Beachgoers in April at Huntington Beach, despite stay-at-home orders. (Photo: Matt Gush, via Shutterstock)California, like the rest of the nation, is seeing a dramatic rise in COVID infections and deaths — and Los Angeles County has some of the most dire statistics. Health officials reported more than 7,500 new cases in the county on Tuesday, shattering the old record, set last week.
An illustration of the electorate. (Image: M-SUR, via Shutterstock) With Election Day less than two weeks away, Californians remain divided on a ballot measure that would change how commercial property is taxed. On another closely watched ballot measure, reinstating affirmative action in the public sector has gained slightly since September, but still has less than majority support.
A volunteer cleanup worker plucks a disposable mask from the water. (Photo: Tatyana Aksenova, via Shutterstock)Nearly every morning for the last 12 years, San Francisco native Eva Holman has walked Baker Beach and collected trash. Located near the mouth of the Golden Gate, Baker is the iconic beach where the Golden Gate Bridge’s graceful red arc has provided the dramatic background for innumerable iconic photographs. Holman grew up nearby, and she lives so close to Baker Beach now that it’s essentially her backyard.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom just before a meeting in Sacramento. ((Photo: Matt Gush, cvia Shutterstock)Gov. Gavin Newsom, long a supporter of the California stem cell agency, today endorsed Proposition 14, the November ballot measure to give the agency $5.5 billion more and save it from financial extinction.
The state Capitol in Sacramento, the seat of California government. (Photo: Always Wanderlust, via Shutterstock)Landmark legislation to improve California’s notoriously fractured mental-health system has been passed and sent to the governor in the waning days of a chaotic legislative session disrupted by the COVID pandemic. “This package of legislation is a game-changer,” said Maggie Merritt, executive director of the Steinberg Institute.
Tom Ammiano at a gay rights rally in 2011. (Photo: Pax Ahimsa Gethen, Wikipedia Commons)Tom Ammiano is a San Francisco icon. The first openly gay teacher in San Francisco, he served on the board of San Francisco Unified School District and in the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, with future mayor, lieutenant governor and governor Gavin Newsom. He ran unsuccessfully for mayor several times and made his way to Sacramento, where he served in the Assembly from 2008 to 2014.