Economy
Alameda County’s looming budget crisis led the county to cut off about 2,400 people from the county’s General Assistance fund, or GA, a safety net cash program provided to indigent adults without dependent children who have little or no savings and no source of income. Teague Briscoe, a staff attorney at the Homeless Action Center, has engineered a pilot program called GA Mass Defense to help people get their funds restored.
Thirty-five people showed up at Wednesday night’s school board meeting in downtown Oakland to speak on non-agenda items—a significant turnout given that there was no union-organized rally or charter school petition on the agenda.
First time homebuyer Itoco Garcia says the federal tax credit made it possible for him to buy his home in North Oakland’s Golden Gate neighborhood. But will the new California homebuyer tax credit provide the same opportunities?
Jurena Storm is back in school at age 35 and said the recent legislation supporting student loan reform is “a relief.” A student at College of Alameda, Storm told her story Tuesday at an Organizing For America press conference held at Laney College to highlight the local impact of the student loan reforms signed into law by President Obama last month.
Anyone who has shopped for food in a poor urban neighborhood, in Oakland or elsewhere, knows how it goes: Twenty varieties of malt liquor, potato chips, and frozen burritos and one bruised-up, waxy apple. Maybe a half-peeled onion. It’s so common that it’s almost a fact of life in America. Unhealthy food is as intrinsic to poor communities of color as are midnight gunshots and Newport cigarette billboard ads. Click HERE to see the special project
How’s the recent spate of bad weather effecting Oakland’s outdoor farmers markets? Take a trip to the Old Oakland Farmer’s Market with Patrick Kollman on a wet, windy day to find out.
When is a homeless person a vagrant nuisance? And when is a homeless person just a fellow human being victimized by circumstance and bad luck? Sometimes with the indigent, there’s more than meets the eye.
Oakland’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions were the focus of a special City Council workshop last night, marking another milestone for the city’s forthcoming climate action plan that has been in the works since July 2009.
Like Oakland Unified School District’s K-12 system, Adult Education is facing massive cuts and administrators have had to narrow the program’s focus to the district’s highest needs: foundational literacy, basic skills and workforce training.