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Oakland North’s 2015 year in review — our top stories

2015 brought another group of student reporters to Oakland North, and they covered the daily news of a changing city: The rising cost of rent and concerns about gentrification, the debate over raising the minimum wage, a controversial plan to ship coal through the Port of Oakland, efforts to stem crime and the lives of those lost to gun violence, the fate of refugees who have resettled here. But they also dug deep into stories about the people, places and ideas that…

Oakland’s Mongolian School enrolls 100th student

Founded in April 2009, the Ger Youth Center is a non-profit organization based in Oakland dedicated to preserving and promoting traditional Mongolian visual and performing arts, culture and language among Bay Area Mongolian and Mongolian-American youth. Its flagship program, the Bi Mongol — or “I am Mongolian” — School operates out of the Oakland Asian Cultural Center. The school offers biweekly classes in art, dancing, Mongolian language, chess, and more. The Ger Youth Center also coordinates a variety of cultural events open…

Oakland trans man endures fraught process for surgery

For the past 8 years, Oakland resident Eliot Daughtry has been trying to get three insurance agencies to approve his request for a hysterectomy. All three have denied him access to the procedure. On September 3, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) began a 60-day public comment period on a proposed rule called “Nondiscrimination in Health Programs and Activities.” If implemented, the Affordable Care Act’s ban on discrimination based on race, color, national origin, disability, or age would be amended to include gender identity.

Through adversity, music programs in OUSD fight to grow

Cal’Vion Evans, an eighth grader at Roots International Academy, begins slowly, tapping the cymbals and toms with two wooden drumsticks. The drum set rests on a mini-stage, a short platform covered by a rug and flanked on either side by guitar stands, each with about 10 guitars leaning in. Cal’Vion speeds up gradually, his head movements changing from a gentle nodding with the music to a swivel as his drumming becomes faster and more furious. Then he slows back down,…