Reparations group gets started on possible compensation for Black residents

A picture of the County of Alameda California seal, with includes those words in blue, and photos in white at the center of three closed books and an open book with a dagger on it as well as a scroll of paper.

The Alameda County Reparations Commission held its first meeting this week to address the impacts of slavery and racial discrimination on the county’s Black residents.  The meeting on Monday came about eight months after the Board of Supervisors approved a reparations commission to hold listening sessions, conduct research and draft a plan for repairing these…

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SEIU tells Alameda County to ‘staff up,’ as more than 2,000 vacancies weigh on workers

SEIU rally

Over 300 public service workers marched from the Lake Merritt Amphitheater to the Alameda County Administration Building Monday, demanding that county officials fill thousands of vacant positions.  “Staff up Alameda County. Alameda County staff up!” chanted members of Service Employees International Union, which represents about 4,200 county workers.  The picketers included nurses, clerical and library…

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How are Oakland schools responding to Prop. 16 failing?

California voters have decided not to restore affirmative action in schools. Proposition 16, which failed by a margin of 12 percentage points, would have reversed a 1996 ban on considering race, gender or ethnicity in public education systems and public contracting.  State lawmakers—motivated by high-profile racial injustices, such as the police killing of George Floyd—voted…

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CA Proposition 15 could bring millions to Oakland Schools, new burdens to businesses, tax assessors

The Elmhurst School campus that Elmhurst Community Prep currently shares with Alliance Academy

Voters will decide next month whether to approve a ballot measure which could provide a windfall for schools and local governments, but a far greater burden on businesses and tax assessors.  The existing property tax law is governed by a 1978 ballot measure, Proposition 13, which significantly limited state property taxes. But the new measure,…

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