Politics
Detention Dialogues is the first immigration detention visitation program in California. Each week one of 40 trained volunteers visits detainees, mostly from Central and Latin America. Their hope is to bridge the gap of isolation by visiting detainees on a regular basis and supporting them throughout their detention by contacting family members on their behalf, connecting them to attorneys and forging a bond with the outside American world.
The Golden Gate Recreation Center could be close to receiving a much-needed upgrade to its facilities after securing a grant from the city, with more money from the state on the way if an application is approved.
Animal activists are up in arms over the budget cut they say turns back the clock on animal welfare over 100 years. Governor Brown recently proposed repealing the Hayden Act which guarantees animals will be held in shelters 4-6 open business days. The repeal would mean municipal shelters would only be required to hold stray animals and pets for 72 consecutive hours from the moment of impound and shelters would not be required to treat animals with medical care.
The Oakland Green Party held a public forum Friday evening at Humanist Hall in downtown Oakland, where members of other political parties as well as members of the public were invited to brainstorm ideas for Oakland’s future and form an alliance before the next city government elections.
Immigration has become one the most divisive, controversial and compelling topics of our time. It is also one of the most underreported and misunderstood issues in the country. More than half of the Bay Area population is estimated to be foreign-born, according to data by the Census Bureau, which increases the need for more balanced coverage of immigrant communities in our neighborhoods.
As soon as Reverend Daniel Buford took the podium in the council chambers at Oakland City Hall on Tuesday night, bright, hand-drawn, multi-colored signs with inscriptions like “Stop the Swap,” “Give the $ Back” and “Not another dollar to Goldman Sachs” popped up around the room. Buford, a minister at Allen Temple Baptist Church on International Boulevard, began speaking about the city’s relationship with Goldman Sachs, and a rate-swap deal the city and the bank agreed to in 1997 relating to $187 million in city debt.
A variety of programs that the state once funded—focusing on, among other things, criminal justice, mental health and social services—will now be the responsibility of local jurisdictions, usually the county, because of state budget cuts. Just how these cuts will play out in Alameda County, and what to do about the “financial tsunami that is coming our way,” as County Supervisor Keith Carson called it, was the topic of a budget forum hosted by the county supervisors on Tuesday morning in downtown Oakland.
Late last year, Pacific Steel Casting, the country’s fourth largest steel foundry, fired 200 workers. The reason: Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted a workplace audit on the company, and could not verify that they could legally work in the US
On Tuesday, Terence Candell was out in front of Grocery Outlet on Broadway collecting signatures for a recall Mayor Quan petition, while later that night, volunteers for two groups collected signatures side-by-side in front of the Grand Lake Theater.