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To the Oakland City Council re its $250,000 corporate cop contract
by Ann Garrison Oakland’s voice of reason, Desley Brooks, told fellow Oakland City Councilors that the Bratton police consulting contract was a gimmick and that people had been frightened into...
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HUD housing programs at risk locally and across the nation
by Lynda Carson Oakland – The Oakland Housing Authority administers 13,259 Section 8 voucher units in Oakland, owns and operates around 3,300 conventional public housing units, and assists about 10...
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‘Fruitvale’: an interview with screenwriter Ryan Coogler
by The People’s Minister of Information JR Valrey “Fruitvale,” the award-winning movie about the last 24 hours in the life of Oscar Grant, is one of the most anticipated films of the year and is set to...
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Having the foresight to end all hostilities
by Mutope Duguma In my 29 years of incarceration, I had never seen what I would witness on Sept. 24, 2013, on our way back to Pelican Bay State Prison’s solitary confinement torture chambers after our...
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The human cost of rising rents in Richmond
by Richmond Vice Mayor Jovanka Beckles As gentrification increases in the Bay Area, low- and moderate-income renters are finding it increasingly difficult to find housing at affordable rents. Renters,...
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Congresswoman Maxine Waters condemns RAD public housing privatization scheme
by Lynda Carson Oakland – Public housing is home to over 1.2 million families across the nation, mostly the elderly, disabled and low-income women with children. The Bay Area is home to thousands of...
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Bay Area residents hold Air District accountable for protecting health and...
Richmond, Calif. – Communities across the region’s oil belt stood up to industry pressure to demand that air officials clean up refinery pollution instead of letting it worsen at a news event and air...
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Filmmaker Pendarvis Harshaw talks about graf legend Mike Dream in ‘Dream...
TDK, which originally stood for Those Damn Kids, describing Mike “Dream” Francisco’s crew, later morphed into Tax Dollars Kill as Mike matured. His surviving murals are strictly off-limits to tagging...
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Writer coaches make a positive social impact!
by Terri Lynn Sullivan After a WriterCoach Connection volunteer offered words of praise to a Korematsu Middle School seventh grader on a writing assignment, the youngster told the coach, “Nobody has...
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Wanda’s Picks for April 2015
Happy Spring Season … Happy Jazz Appreciation Month, National Library Week, Poetry Month. ‘Tales of the Grim Sleeper’ on serial murders in South LA over 25 years, 250 Black women missing – a review...
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Richmond asks, ‘Who killed DMC?’
by Jovanka Beckles A quarter of a million people in Richmond and West Contra Costa County, a majority people of color community, will be without a community hospital as a result of the decision made...
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Win transit justice: Lateefah for BART!
by Lateefah Simon for BART Board District 7 Campaign Over 200 community members, activists, union members, transportation experts, family and friends flocked to Oakland’s New Parish for non-profit...
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Wanda’s Picks for December 2015
by Wanda Sabir It is amazing how time flies whether one is moving or standing still. One looks up and sees, suddenly it seems, friends celebrating 70 and 75 or 80 or even 90-plus milestones. Wow! What...
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California Apartment Association is stalking the tenants’ movement
by Lynda Carson Oakland – On March 3, the same day that Oakland tenant activists filed a ballot initiative to strengthen renter protections called the “Renters Upgrade,” the California Apartment...
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Dr. Raymond Tompkins: How and why does pollution poison Bayview Hunters...
by The People’s Minister of Information M.O.I. JR Valrey Read the transcript of the first part of the interview here: Dr. Raymond Tompkins: How and why does pollution poison Bayview Hunters Point? Part...
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HUD policies threaten poor, elderly and disabled tenants with eviction
by Lynda Carson Policies that could be used to assist the African-American community with preferences for obtaining subsidized housing are being shredded in the name of fair housing laws used, under...
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Fight over skyrocketing Bay Area rents to hit the ballot box
Stakes high as tenants push back against landlords and real estate lobbyists on Nov. 8 by Lynda Carson Many long-time Bay Area residents have been displaced over the last several years. The stock of...
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Why Oakland needs a multi-unit smoke free housing policy
by Marlene Christine Hurd To educate our entire Oakland community, I’m writing to explain why Oakland needs a smoke-free multi-unit housing policy. This is a social justice issue. Smoking and tobacco...
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SF Mime Troupe’s 2017 production ‘Walls’ decries immigrant criminalization
Review by Wanda Sabir What makes San Francisco Mime Troupe the award-winning theatre it is is its amazing work, which is always topical and timely. Its current production, July 1-Sept. 10, “Walls” is...
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Low-wage workers push for fair wages at town hall in Bayview Hunters Point
by the Living Wage Coalition Low-wage workers gathered in a town hall meeting in Bayview Hunters Point on June 29 to denounce the growing income inequality in the Bay Area and declare that if their...
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