Public Policy
Every sunny weekend since mid-January, volunteers have been building houses for the unsheltered residents of a local homeless encampment called The Village. Despite construction being pushed back due to rain, they are almost ready to move their first resident into a home. The Village is an activist-led group that’s been working to provide transitional housing to the homeless by building tiny homes on a plot of land at East 12th Street and 23rd Avenue, under a highway overpass in Oakland….
Monday night local and international support groups gathered to discuss decriminalizing sex work and protecting workers’ rights.
Over 200 undocumented immigrants were arrested and detained across Northern California during ICE Raids two weeks ago. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf gave an unprecedented public warning before the raids and has come under the national spotlight for her actions.
On a chilly Wednesday morning outside the Hayward Hall of Justice, a group of about 100 people gathered in support of long-time community activist Frances Moore, affectionately known as Aunti Frances, who has been feeding homeless and low-income people in North Oakland since 2009. Outside the courthouse, a group of Oakland activists set up two tables filled with fresh vegetables, fruit, pastries and coffee. Their rally in support of Moore began at 8 o’clock in the morning, just as the…
Since recreational marijuana sales became legal in California on January 1, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has rescinded Obama-era guidelines which called for less federal regulation. With marijuana still categorized as an illegal substance under federal law, cannabis advocates are now on high alert.
Oakland Councilmember-at-large Rebecca Kaplan hosted a community meeting on homeless solutions Monday to address what she believes is the city’s number one concern: the number of unhoused people living on Oakland’s streets.
Noam Chomsky received a rock star welcome at the Middle East Children’s Alliance’s 30th anniversary event, hosted at Oakland Tech. The famed linguist and political activist lectured about the state of American foreign policy and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule this summer on whether its third version violates federal immigration law or the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against religious discrimination
Proposition 64, which voters passed in November 2016, not only legalized the adult use of cannabis, but also established protocols for reducing, dismissing and sealing old marijuana-related convictions. That means Californians convicted of cannabis crimes can wipe them away—if they file a petition.