Local News & Views

The Community-Labor Coalition to Save the People’s Post Office rallied, marched and occupied the Civic Center Post Office in downtown San Francisco to stop threats of eliminating 220,000 living-wage jobs and closing 3,700 post offices, including four in San Francisco - most in poor neighborhoods and rural areas.

All of Us or None’s 13th Annual Community Giveback in honor of Robert Moody held at the Onetta Harris Community Center in Menlo Park on Saturday, Dec. 8, was a great success. Children traveled from throughout the Bay Area and beyond with their families and caregivers to receive new bicycles and toys given to them on behalf of their parents who are incarcerated.

It has been years since large numbers of people marched to protest wars at home and abroad. I think people stopped coming out when they saw that our marches had little impact on spending priorities in Washington. Massive military spending and unchecked sales of arms to other countries have not produced peace. Instead, violence and terrorism increase around the world. March with us. More than 100 Bay Area organizations have endorsed the April 15 rally and march in Oakland.

Commemorating George Jackson’s life and legacy keeps the fires lit and strikes new energy in the protracted struggle for freedom and also demands the release of the now-Elder freedom fighters from the modern slave plantations.

The killing continues by the corporate government of California.

Here were men just like me with a little of nothing making a way for others and doing a good job. Positive Directions’ intentions were real, not for show. I knew that was where I wanted to be.

"Those policies of either marginalizing or outright demonizing of the city's dark-skinned youth lie buried under Oakland like so many kegs of explosive, primed to blow," writes J. Douglas Allen-Taylor. Hear audios from the last Town Bizness Townhall. PACK COURTROOM 112 MONDAY, Feb. 23, 9am, 661 Washington, Oakland, to support POCC Minister of Information JR, liberation journalist charged with a bogus felony in the Oakland Rebellions.

No notice has been paid to the root causes of violence in the Black community. On CBS5, I suggested unemployment in the Black community is directly related to Black people being locked out of the public works construction and that white people might be in danger working in a Black community without a diversified crew.

There’s a good old-fashioned muckraker’s war going on in Richmond, Calif., and Chevron’s “community-driven” news site Richmond Standard is the latest fighter to step into the ring. This sprawling city east of San Francisco is home to Chevron’s oil refinery, which has made it a battleground between the company’s business interests and environmental activists who are calling for checks on air quality and safety.

Nearly 800 community members, public officials, faith and thought leaders packed the pews of Third Baptist Church on Sunday to hear remarks from Mike Brown Sr., father of the 18-year-old shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer. The event comes amid a storm of local protests decrying police brutality that have gained national attention. A somber Brown had little to say, but expressed gratitude to attendees for their support.

This evening at 5:00 pm, Dennis Bernstein, host of KPFA’s award winning news magazine Flashpoints, interviews former Treasure Island employee Asia Marie William and investigative reporter Carol Harvey about the poisoning of poor and people of color on Treasure Island. Today's wind storm is intensifying the danger.

Sumiko Saulson honors her friend and her legacy.

Using footage from local policing activity in Oakland, intimate interviews with marginalized residents who have been imprisoned or impacted by the imprisonment of close family members, "Oakland Lockdown" brings to light the trauma, destruction and frustration experienced by those who remain repetitively wreaked by the economic, psychological, social and moral stigmatization of criminalization.

In a victory for Bayview Hunters Point community and environmental justice groups, a Superior Court judge ruled today that the City of San Francisco’s redevelopment plan for the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard failed to properly evaluate the environmental and health risks by allowing the Navy to transfer ownership of the contaminated Superfund site before the cleanup of the area was complete.

In another step to privatize Berkeley’s 75 occupied public housing town-homes, billionaire Stephen M. Ross, CEO and founder of The Related Companies and 95 percent owner of the Miami Dolphins, is in talks with the Berkeley Housing Authority (BHA) to buy Berkeley’s occupied public housing through one of his companies.

We finally have legislation that benefits the taxpayers of Oakland. Desley Brooks took a giant step to bring economic parity to the community of the poor. What she has done will slow down the Oakland process of importing labor and exporting capital. Pack the Oakland City Council meeting Tuesday, Feb. 7, regarding local hire and a Jobs Center.

An African proverb says: “When spiders unite, they can tie down a lion.” In this very critical election year, we must unify to defeat the forces that conspire against us. It is for that reason that I invite you to join me this November in healing Richmond by supporting Melvin Willis and Ben Choi for the Richmond City Council. The 2016 election is right around the corner. Some may say there’s not much that they can do to create the change we need locally, let alone nationally. I beg to differ.

The ability to express myself across multiple mediums is my birthright. It’s a generational blessing in my tribe. Writing, public speaking, singing etc is something I have done from the moment I have been able to.

A young man who was accused of the theft of an iPhone was acquitted, San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi announced. “This case shows how easy it is for an innocent person to find themselves charged with a crime. Studies have shown that mistaken identification is the greatest cause of wrongful convictions,” Adachi said.

By a 4-1 vote, the City of Richmond passed a rent control and just cause eviction law on Tuesday, July 21. A broad coalition of tenants, labor allies, homeowners and progressive community groups packed the hearing chambers as Vice Mayor Jael Myrick joined Councilmembers Jovanka Beckles, Eduardo Martinez and Gayle McLaughlin in casting the votes to pass rent control.