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News Observer Bakersfield
Volume 46 Number 49
Serving Kern County for Over 46 Years
Observer Group Newspapers of Southern California
Joe Biden Picks Kamala Harris
California’s Political Leaders Praise Biden’s Selection of U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris as Running Mate
Harris becomes the first Black woman to be a running mate on a major party’s presidential ticket
Sen. Kamala Harris, who ended her run in December 2019, had some celebrity supporters as well. (Chris Carlson/Associated Press)
Tanu Henry California Black Media Political leaders in California are praising presumptive Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden for tapping California’s junior U.S. Senator Kamala Harris to be his running mate. “Harris selection makes me so optimistic. I am thrilled about the conversations Senator Harris will be having with Americans all around the country over the next 83 days until the presidential election,” said Malia Cohen, a member of California’s Board of Equalization and the highest ranking African American woman constitutional officer in the state. Cohen says she remembers doing a precinct walk with Harris when she was a campaign worker and the senator was the underdog in her race for San Francisco District Attorney. After Harris beat the odds and convinced San Franciscans to elect her as the city’s DA, Cohen said she had the opportunity to work with her again on several occasions. At the time, Cohen was a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. “She’s smart. She thinks on her feet. She has the acumen to be an asset to Joe Biden and complement him to achieve the all the things that he stands for,” said Cohen. Dezie Wood-Jones, former Vice Mayor of Oakland, is California President of Black Women Organized for Political Action (BWOPA), a statewide organization committed to getting Black Women involved in the political process. The group also advocates for issues that are priorities for African American women and supports Black women who are political candidates. Continued on page A7
NAACP Sues U.S. Education Secretary
By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior Correspondent The coronavirus pandemic has focused the nation’s attention on the essential role public schools play in families and communities’ lives. The NAACP said it’s also exposed severe racial inequalities that continue to plague the country’s education system and disadvantaged students of color. Rather than addressing those problems, NAACP President Derrick Johnson declared that U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos “exploited the pandemic to promote her personal agenda of funneling taxpayer dollars to private schools and taking resources away from the schools and the students who need it most.” “We simply can’t let this happen. So, we’re taking her to court,” Johnson announced. The NAACP formally filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., accusing DeVos of illegally changing the rules for allocating $13.2 billion in Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) money to benefit wealthy private k-12 schools. “Recently, Secretary DeVos issued regulations that would force public school districts to divert federal emergency relief funds from public schools and send them to private schools. By one estimate, over $1 billion would be lost to private schools under the rule,” Johnson declared. “So, the NAACP filed a lawsuit along with public
school families and school districts across the country, challenging this unfair, unequal, and unjust rule. We’ll fight this as hard as it takes – for as long as it takes – to protect our students, schools, and communities.” The NAACP’s lawsuit suggests that the CARES Act, which was signed by President Donald Trump earlier this year, says explicitly that local school departments are to distribute the fund based on the number of Title I, or low-wealth students, in a particular school. Congress allowed CARES funds to go to institutions that depend on tuition and donations because lawmakers said they recognized that some students from low-income families attend private schools. The lawsuit claims the share going to private schools should have its basis on the number of Title I students attending those schools. DeVos did not follow that rule, the NAACP contends, spelling out that hundreds of millions of dollars in CARES Act funds would immediately divert from public schools to affluent private schools. The controversial education secretary reportedly holds a different interpretation of how local school districts should distribute the money. Her interim final rule allows sharing the money equally with private schools based on the number of students in those schools, regardless of how many are Title I students. “The Rule is as immoral as it is illegal,” NAACP
lawyers argue. The NAACP filed the lawsuit on behalf of a group of parents and their children, who are enrolled in economically disadvantaged public schools. The Pasadena, California, Unified School District, and Stamford, Connecticut, School District, joined the NAACP in the lawsuit asking for an injunction to prevent DeVos from immediately instituting her change to the rule. “In this moment of crushing need for America’s public schools, the Rule directs public school districts to divert desperately needed CARES Act 1 funds to affluent students in private schools or face unlawful limitations on the way that those funds can be spent – both in direct contravention of the Act,” the lawsuit reads. “The Rule harms American children and subverts the will of Congress; it cannot stand.” If allowed to proceed, the DeVos’ rule would change public schools, including some in which “80, 90 and 99 percent” of the students are from low-income families. “She’s trying to increase allocation disproportionately for private schools over public schools in the midst of the debate over whether or not schools should reopen. It’s horrific what she’s doing,” Johnson told ABC News. “What will happen is you further take money away from children who are financially in need to benefit highwealth children.”
California Voters Will Decide Whether or Not
Parolees are Allowed to Vote Quinci LeGardye California Black Media In November, Californians will vote on a proposition that could expand voting rights to include parolees. If passed, Proposition 17, which passed the State Senate as ACA 6 June 24, would amend the state constitution so that any otherwise eligible person who is not currently incarcerated can vote. The current law in California prohibits previously incarcerated persons from voting while on parole, though they can vote while on probation, county PostRelease Community Supervision and federal supervised release. Allowing parolees to vote would enfranchise over 40,000 Californians currently on parole. According to Ballotpedia, as of 2020, California is one of three states that require people convicted of felonies to complete their prison and parole sentences to regain their right to vote. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia restore voting rights to people convicted of felonies after they complete their prison term. Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento) introduced the bill in the California Legislature. It was sponsored by the California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of California, and Initiate Justice, an advocacy group focused on ending mass incarceration. The bill was also a priority bill of the California Legislative Black Caucus. “ACA 6 gives Californians the chance to right a wrong and restore voting rights for a marginalized community and people of color,” McCarty said June 24. “This is good for democracy and good for public safety.” Parole is the re-entry period after serving a prison term that allows a convicted felon to be released from prison with restrictions. The ballot measure brings up the question of whether the right to vote is a necessary restriction that’s integral to the parole process. Supporters of Prop 17 argue that previously incarcerated persons contribute to society while on parole, through working and volunteering. They say because of those contributions, parolees should have a say in the legislative process. “This bill says once you have paid your debts to society and have returned to society to work and pay taxes and contribute, that you should also have the right to voice your opinion about your elected representative,” argued Senator Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles). Opponents of the ballot measure argue that withholding the right to vote as part of the re-entry process is meant “to incentivize further appropriate behavior.”
Free!
Wednesday, August 12, 2020
Ex-deputies Plead No Contest to Stealing Seized Pot BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (AP) – Two former Kern County sheriff’s deputies have entered pleas and will serve jail time for conspiring to sell marijuana that had been seized by law enforcement, prosecutors said. Derrick Penney and Logan August had previously pleaded guilty to federal drug conspiracy charges. The former deputies with the Kern County Sheriff’s Office were sentenced to probation. But a separate investigation by the county’s district attorney’s office revealed that about 350 pounds (159 kilograms) more marijuana was stolen than was originally believed, according to prosecutors. In addition, investigators discovered that August concealed the theft by falsifying evidence destruction forms and police reports, KBAK-TV reported. The false reports might have been noticed by a supervising deputy if they had not been signed for approval in the department computer system by Penney, officials said. August entered a plea of no contest Thursday to all 15 charges against him. He could face up to 10 years behind bars when he’s sentenced Oct. 13. Penney entered a no contest plea to two felony counts of falsifying a police report. He will serve 90 days in custody and be placed on probation, KBAK reported.
Detention Center COVID-19 Tests
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – A federal judge Thursday ordered coronavirus testing of everyone held at a California immigration detention center, saying authorities had shown “deliberate indifference to the risk of an outbreak.” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has “lost the right to be trusted” that the agency will take safety measures at the Mesa Verde Detention Center in Bakersfield, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria said, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment, the newspaper said. Mesa Verde is owned by a private ICE contractor and houses 121 men challenging or awaiting deportation proceedings. At least nine detainees and 14 staff members have tested positive for the coronavirus, Bree Bernwanger of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights in San Francisco told the Chronicle. Several judges have ordered the release of detainees who may be medically vulnerable to the virus from Mesa Verde and other facilities. However, emails from ICE officials to the contractor, GEO Group, said the agency wanted to avoid universal testing because it didn’t have room to quarantine all those who might test positive, the Chronicle reported. The judge said evidence shows that officials “have avoided widespread testing of staff and detainees at the facility, not for lack of tests, but for fear that positive test results would require them to implement safety measures that they apparently felt were not worth the trouble.” Chhabria issued a temporary restraining order requiring weekly tests of all detainees with methods that provide rapid results. The judge also banned new admissions to Mesa Verde and ordered ICE to set aside a dormitory for people who test positive for COVID-19. An Aug. 21 hearing was scheduled for the judge to decide whether to extend the order.
17 Drug Traffickers
VENTURA, Calif. (AP) – Seventeen members of an alleged local drug trafficking organization were arrested and accused of importing methamphetamine from Mexico and distributing it in southern California, authorities said. Ventura County sheriff’s deputies seized 192 pounds (87 kilograms) of methamphetamine, 5 pounds (2 kilograms) of heroin, 500 fentanyl pills, $208,000 in cash and a firearm during the arrests, the Ventura County Star reported. The drugs had a combined value of more than $700,000. The arrests took place from March to July during a four-month investigation by state and federal authorities. Those arrested range in age from 20 to 56, and include residents of Oxnard, Ventura, Santa Paula, Bakersfield and Porterville. Some of those arrested have since been released. Some of those arrested allegedly coordinated drug shipments in Mexico for delivery into the United States, employed people to transport the drugs into Ventura County and then distributed them to local dealers, investigators said. Investigators identified stash houses, transportation routes and co-conspirators after conducting surveillance, serving search warrants and conducting interviews, authorities said. The investigation was conducted by multiple agencies including the Ventura County Combined Agency Team, Ventura County sheriff’s office, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The case was submitted to the Ventura County district attorney’s office for criminal filing, authorities said.
Botched HS Rail Bridge Project
Election Integrity Project California, a voter roll watchdog group, submitted a letter opposing ACA 6 to the state legislature. “While on parole, the individual’s liberties, such as movement, association, activities and even ownership of certain items are still heavily restricted and regularly monitored by the system. Any misstep results in immediate re-incarceration. In other words, an individual on parole has not regained the full trust of the society at large, nor the privilege to participate as a full member of that society,” the letter read. Prop 17 disproportionately affects Black and Brown Californians, who comprise most incarcerated people in the state. According to the Public Policy Institute of California,
Black people make up 26% of parolees. About 6% of the population of California is Black. “People on parole are our family members, our colleagues, our neighbors, our friends,” said Senator Steven Bradford (D-Gardena). “They go to work every day. They pay taxes. They do their part to successfully reintegrate themselves back into society, yet the stigma exists for them.” “The removal of the right to vote is not based in an interest in public safety. Rather, it is rooted in a punitive justice belief system that intentionally attempts to rob marginalized people of their political power,” said Taina Vargas-Edmond, Executive Director of Initiate Justice.
MADERA, Calif. (AP) – A series of errors by contractors and consultants caused support cables to fail on a massive bridge in central California that’s key to the state’s bullet train project, according to a newspaper report on Monday. Documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times reveal steel supports snapped as a result of neglect, work damage, miscommunications and possible design problems. The problems triggered an order to stop work on the bridge in Madera County that further delayed the bullet train project that’s already years behind schedule, the Times said. The bridge is part of a 31-mile (50-kilometer) stretch of construction under contract to Los Angelesbased Tutor Perini Corp. The company declined to answer a series of written questions or make a statement. bHigh-strength steel strands supporting the 636-foot (194-meter) structure began to snap on Oct. 22. A forensic engineering analysis obtained by The Times found that the strands corroded from rainwater that had leaked into the internal structure of the bridge. The bridge is needed to shuttle vehicles over the future bullet train right of way and existing BNSF freight tracks. Late last year, crews installed temporary steel supports to prevent it from collapsing. The span is part of a planned $20 billion bullet train operation from Merced to Bakersfield.