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• 'A Tsunami of Evictions' If California Doesn't Act Now, Warn Housing Advocates

  Posted by Dan Fritz at Wednesday, August 12th, 2020 8:17pm

  A coalition of housing advocates, labor and business groups and political allies sounded the alarm this week as pandemic eviction protections expire.

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• Marginalized Communities Could Be 'Shortchanged' for Decades to Come by Trump's Abrupt Change to Census Deadline, Critics Say

  Posted by Julia Conley at Tuesday, August 11th, 2020 8:00am

  Last week, the Trump administration shortened the Census deadline by a month as the government scrambles to get an accurate count amid the pandemic.

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• Is Trump Sabotaging U.S. Postal Service Ahead of Election as Part of His Attack on Mail-in Voting?

  Posted by Democracy Now! at Monday, August 10th, 2020 12:19pm

  Democratic lawmakers say the Trump administration is sabotaging the United States Postal Service ahead of the November election

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• My Hometown Hero: Cori Bush

  Posted by Alan Minsky at Sunday, August 9th, 2020 11:39am

  Cori Bush's arrival in Congress is a historic event. In this era of tremendous wealth inequality - with a massive racial wealth gap - almost no members of the working class are elected to office. This, of course, speaks volumes about how our political system serves the wealthy and not the many. Cori Bush will be demanding something different, something more.

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• You Must Know Everything: Hiroshima Day 2020

  Posted by ANDREW TONKOVICH at Thursday, August 6th, 2020 2:25pm

  On the 75th anniversary of the only first-strike nuclear attack in history, or what passes for history, you’ll need to work hard to locate what were already dwindling annual street-corner public witnesses, expressions of collective memory, remnants of a once-strong mass movement.

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• Protest Over the Killing of Andres Guardado Taken to Deputy’s Suburban Home

  Posted by Ernesto Arce at Tuesday, August 4th, 2020 8:22pm

  Three people were arrested in relation to a protest at the San Gabriel Valley home of LA County Sheriff’s deputy Miguel Vega, according to the Covina Police Department. Police watchdogs are demanding Deputy Vega's arrest for shooting 18 year-old Andres Guardado five times in the back. They say Vega should not be able to go back home to peace and quiet while Guardado's family mourns.

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• Community Groups Push Back Against LA Mayor Garcetti's LAPD Reform Committee

  Posted by Dan Fritz at Tuesday, August 4th, 2020 7:00pm

  A coalition of community groups blasted Garcetti's effort Tuesday in a virtual news conference, accusing him of co-opting the movement to defund police and instituting thin reforms instead.

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• All-in for KPFK! The Station Has Survived. Now, We All Need it to Thrive

  Posted by Alan Minsky at Sunday, August 2nd, 2020 11:23am

  KPFK should continue as an unabashed journalistic champion of social, economic, racial, and environmental justice at the local, state, national, and international levels. That's the right thing to do, of course, and it suits the region's politics, which have been shifting dramatically to the left over the past quarter-century. Since no other 24/7 media outlet presents itself as an unapologetic champion of social justice, this should be a winning strategy - a slam dunk even.

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• L.A. County Residents to Vote on Community Investment Charter Amendment

  Posted by Dan Fritz at Wednesday, July 29th, 2020 5:05pm

  Residents of L.A. County will vote on a new charter amendment to require a minimum of 10% of the county's general budget go towards direct community investment and alternatives to incarceration.
  
  The L.A. County Board of Supervisors gave the ballot measure final approval Tuesday in a 4-to-1 vote.

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• Black LA Protest Movement Says Aggressive Tactics Reveal Police are Losing Patience with Free Speech

  Posted by Ernesto Arce at Wednesday, July 29th, 2020 3:50pm

  Black Future Project says Beverly Hills, its police force, and LAPD responded swiftly to its recent protests with aggressive measures reflecting intolerance of its free speech-protected actions. Activists reported that instead of being cited for a misdemeanor and released, they were handcuffed, held on the street for a long period of time, and then booked at the police station in a manner meant to intimidate them.
  

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• California’s Plan B for Unemployment Benefits

  Posted by EMILY HOEVEN at Wednesday, July 29th, 2020 2:05pm

  Could lose billions of $, thousands of jobs

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• LA March in Defense of Portland Protesters, Black Lives Matter

  Posted by Mark Friedman at Sunday, July 26th, 2020 8:59pm

  As the world watches the escalation of federal troops, harassment, arrests, and beatings of Portland protesters, thousands in Portland, Los Angeles, and around the country demonstrate in solidarity, demanding “US Troops out of Portland”.

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• Rashida Tlaib and the Struggle to Redeem American Democracy

  Posted by Alan Minsky at Sunday, July 26th, 2020 11:15am

  There is scant faith among the general public that meaningful change can be achieved through electoral politics. The entire project of The Squad is intended to alter that perception... These young radicals are setting out to redeem the U.S. political system by using the electoral process to implement desperately-needed systemic changes to American society.  

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• CSU Board Approves New Ethnic Studies or Social Justice Course Requirement, Over Objections That it Waters Down Intent of Ethnic Studies Proposal

  Posted by Dan Fritz at Wednesday, July 22nd, 2020 6:56pm

  The CSU opted for a course requirement that would allow traditional ethnic studies, or a social justice class that focuses on other populations, including studies about the Jewish, LGBT, disabled or gender minority communities.
  
  Opponents on the Board of Trustees said the CSU-backed option waters down the effort for ethnic studies to be a general education department; students would still be allowed to graduate without ever taking a traditional ethnic studies class.

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• 'Flagrantly Unconstitutional': Trump Issues Order to Block Undocumented Immigrants From Being Counted in Census

  Posted by By Andrea Germanos at Tuesday, July 21st, 2020 5:40pm

  "This is another attempt by Trump to use scaremongering against immigrants and rig the system," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

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• Parents Scramble for Alternatives

  Posted by EMILY HOEVEN at Monday, July 20th, 2020 11:17am

  It’s official: At least 90% of California students will begin the school year with online learning.

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• The Two Most Important Elections that You Probably Haven't Heard About

  Posted by Alan Minsky at Sunday, July 19th, 2020 9:13am

  There is simply no path forward for the GOP to remain competitive in the U.S.House of Representatives or in most States without maintaining control of State Legislatures, which allows them to continue their regime of gerrymandering, plus voter suppression. Absent these two anti-democratic practices they will enter a phase of terminal decline. But this year, 2020, is probably the only chance in the next twenty years for Democrats to deliver such a defeat to the GOP...

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• Orange County Board of Education Ignores State Health Officials in School Reopening Guidelines

  Posted by Ernesto Arce at Thursday, July 16th, 2020 12:56am

  The Orange County Board of Education released a series of recommendations this week to reopen schools for the fall during the coronavirus pandemic. But members of the medical community, health experts, and even districts within its purview called the board’s guidelines bizarre and troubling.
  The white paper titled “Opening Schools in Orange County” appears to be part of a regional trend to defy medical experts during the pandemic.
  

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• On the Brink of Another Full Shutdown, Los Angeles Expands Coronavirus Testing in Hardest-Hit Areas by 65%

  Posted by Dan Fritz at Wednesday, July 15th, 2020 5:48pm

  By all metrics, community spread of coronavirus is rising across Los Angeles County. Tuesday was the single day with the most cases reported so far since the pandemic began. It was also nearly the most deadly, with 73 reported deaths. 'This crisis has intensified. It is getting worse and it's affecting people of all ages,' said Supervisor Hilda Solis at Wednesday's update.

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• Newsom vs. Orange County — again

  Posted by EMILY HOEVEN at Wednesday, July 15th, 2020 8:50am

  The county’s board of education recommended Monday that students return to school without face masks or physical distancing, contradicting guidelines from the state Department of Education, and testing Newsom’s avowed commitment to allowing local districts to decide for themselves whether to reopen schools in the fall. 

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• 30 Counties in California Will Now be Required to CLOSE INDOOR OPERATIONS

  Posted by Anyel Z Fields at Monday, July 13th, 2020 12:45pm

  California Governor Gavin Newsom gives a COVID-19 update as cases continue to rise

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• Attempted Lynching in Indiana. No Arrests? Meet the Survivor: Human Rights Commissioner Vauhxx Booker STORYJULY 13, 2020Watch Full Show

  Posted by Democracy Now! at Monday, July 13th, 2020 11:00am

  African American human rights commissioner for Monroe County, Vauhxx Booker, says he survived an attempted lynching when a group of white men pinned him against a tree over the Fourth of July weekend.

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• Thoughts about Life in the Age of COVID-19 on the Occasion of My Daughter's 13th Birthday

  Posted by Alan Minsky at Saturday, July 11th, 2020 10:58pm

  What breaks me out of my routine, and brings me to write these observations is that today is the only day in my daughter's life that she will become a teenager. On this occasion, I can't help but consider how much damage this all might be doing to the person I love most in life; and what I can do to better protect her, and provide an adequate environment with everything so dramatically altered.

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• Massive Black Lives Matter Tribute Mural Unveiled in Hollywood

  Posted by Dan Fritz at Wednesday, July 8th, 2020 1:13pm

  Five Black artists collaborated on the project: Alexandra Allie Belisle, PeQue Brown, Amanda Ferrell Hale, Noah Humes, and Shplinton. 'It's disgusting and outrageous that there is a need for such a mural in 2020,' Brown said Tuesday.

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• Reflections on the 244th Birthday of the United States of America

  Posted by Alan Minsky I KPFK at Saturday, July 4th, 2020 3:08pm

  Our "country tis of thee, sweet land of liberty" is now acknowledged by an increasingly large portion of the population as a project rife with cognitive dissonance... Most significantly, tens of millions of our fellow citizens openly proclaim that American society is, in its essence, built upon genocide and human bondage.

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• Survivors of Military Sexual Assault and their Supporters Rally For Vanessa Guillen in SoCal

  Posted by Ernesto Arce at Friday, July 3rd, 2020 3:50pm

  Survivors of military sexual assault and their supporters in East LA and Pomona are rallying at military recruitment centers to call attention to what they describe as an epidemic of sexual assault and abuse among service members.
  Most news coverage of the tragedy hasn’t mentioned letters that Vanessa sent to her mother complaining that a sergeant was sexually harassing her and that she feared retribution. In that correspondence she described Ft. Hood as "an evil place".

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• "After-Action" Report Ordered to Review Allegations of Police Abuse by LAPD During Recent Mass Protests

  Posted by Dan Fritz at Tuesday, June 30th, 2020 6:34pm

  The review will include investigations into incidents of excessive force, including the firing of rubber bullets, the use of tear gas; and, the review will include an analysis of whether the police took adequate precautions to stop the spread of COVID-19.

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• Disclosure: As We Celebrate the Victories of the LGBTQ+ Movement, the Struggle Continues

  Posted by Alan Minsky at Sunday, June 28th, 2020 12:05am

  Disclosure is one of those rare films that effectively transforms the viewer. Afterwards, you will see the world with new eyes.

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• Trumpism: A Viral Metaphor

  Posted by James Preston Allen at Thursday, June 25th, 2020 9:44pm

  It has never been more apparent in my lifetime just how interconnected we all are. This is not just because of the novel coronavirus pandemic and its ability to infect all of us regardless of age, race, religion or sex or that we are interdependent on each other to stem the tide of this infectious disease without a cure. Nor is it just because we have become intensely aware of how dependent we are upon essential workers who have previously gone unrecognized. And then even further, as we come to realize that the collective buying power of the working classes, which spends some $13.4 trillion a year is the real engine that makes our economy work, not so much Wall Street. The latter is more of a barometer than a thermometer of economic health

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• Voters to Weigh in on Affirmative Action

  Posted by EMILY HOEVEN at Thursday, June 25th, 2020 12:25pm

  November’s ballot will feature ACA 5, a landmark amendment that would reinstate affirmative action in California. Parolee voting rights will also be decided. Voters to weigh in on affirmative action
  

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