Oakland Post, week of December 21 - 28, 2022

NAACP Demands Voter Education, Recount in Oakland Mayor’s Race

By Carla Thomas

By Carla Thomas

At a December 20 press conference held outside Acts Full Gospel Church, the Oakland branch of the NAACP called for immediate action in voter education and a recount of the ballots in last month’s mayoral election.

Organizers charged that the Alameda County Registrar of Voters failed to adequately inform the public, especially senior citizens and marginalized members of the community, how ranked-choice votes would be counted. Although Oakland has had ranked-choice voting for several years, this is the first time, the organizers say, that there were five choices compared to a maximum of three choices in previous years.

In the November 8 election, Mayor-elect Sheng Thao beat her closest competitor, Loren Taylor, by about 700 votes.

About two dozen people came out to Acts Full Gospel Church at 1034 66th St. in East Oakland to hear an urgent call to action in support of seniors concerned about the ranked-choice voting processes and a request that a recount of the mayoral ballots should be paid for

by the City of Oakland and the Alameda County Office of the Registrar of Voters.

The recount would cost approximately $21,000 a day.

Among the speakers at the press conference were NAACP President Cynthia Adams, educator Dr. Allie Whitehurst, former Oakland mayoral candidate Seneca Scott, and longtime voter Richard Breaux, an Oakland resident of 70 years.

Breaux said ranked choice voting causes “confusion,” comparing the process to the activity of “guessing how many jellybeans are in the jar.”

“I have been an Oakland voter since 1968,” said Breaux. “I have not missed a city, county or any election, but the first year of ranked-choice voting, my ballot was dismissed because I chose the same candidate for the three categories.”

Breaux explained that logically choosing the same candidate should have helped, but it did the opposite, resulting in an ‘overvote,’ a term the organizers say was not readily understood. An ‘overvote,’ which is not counted, occurs

Rep. Barbara Lee Honors Ron Dellums by Including $5 Million for STEM Fellowship in Defense Department Bill

Post Staff

Congresswoman Barbara Lee announced that she included authorized amended language in the Defense Department’s budget that establishes funding for a program for students from underserved communities to pursue careers in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics).

Ronald V. Dellums, former Oakland Mayor, also served as Chairman of the Congressional Armed Services Committee.

She submitted the following language to SEC.1083: SEC. 1083. Ronald V. Dellums Memorial Fellowship in STEM.

Section 4093(f) of title 10, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:

“(3) In coordination with the efforts under paragraph (2), the Secretary of Defense shall additionally establish a program, which shall be known as the ‘Ronald V. Dellums Memorial Fellowship in STEM,’ to provide financial assistance under this section to at least 30 students from communities that are underrepresented in the Department of Defense STEM work-

Holy Names University Says it Will Close; Local Leaders Want Campus to Remain Center for Higher Ed

HNU’s site could become a Historically Black College or University (HBCU) campus, said Post Publisher Paul Cobb

force, not fewer of 50% of whom shall attend historically Black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions.”

As part of such program, the Secretary shall establish an internship program that provides each student who is awarded a fellowship under this paragraph with an internship in an organization or element of the Department of Defense, and to the extent practicable, each such student shall be paired with a mid-level or a seniorlevel official of the relevant organization or element of the Department of Defense who shall serve as a mentor during the internship.”

Questioning the Wisdom of The Oakland Mayoral Election Recall

Responding to the news, HNU students and staff spoke at Tuesday’s Oakland City Council meeting, seeking to rescue the city’s higher-education pipeline. The council, passing a resolution authored by Councilmember Carroll Fife and Vice Mayor Rebecca

HNU’s administration, mostly silent as news and rumors about

By Post Staff

Outgoing Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley attempted to redirect about 20% of the office’s 2023 budget to a nonprofit and a program she has interests in, The San Francisco Chronicle reported on Wednesday.

The county had been inclined to approve the $20 million transfer for domestic abuse victims and their loved ones at the Alameda County Family Justice Center and the CARES Navigation Center, which keeps low-level offenders out of the prison system, when the plan was discovered.

“I am very concerned about such a large transfer of resources from my office,” incoming D.A. Pamela Price wrote in an email to O’Malley on Dec. 16 that was later

By Richard Johnson

People go to the polls to vote for many of the issues that affect their daily lives and safety. However, it gets really complicated and dicey when the vote does not play out as expected. It reminds me of the George Bush v. Al Gore theatrics in 2000 when the call was made to confirm Bush over Gore when clearly it wasn’t the case.

In Oakland’s elections last month, Councilmember Sheng Thao came back from an apparent loss to overtake Councilmember Loren Taylor using ranked-choice vote counting. A recount is being called for by the NAACP and other voters because they feel it is not conceivable that someone can come from behind and win narrowly.

To me, this scenario opens a can of worms because there’s nothing tangible to support a recount. Don’t get me wrong, recounts are a part of the approved voting process when it is not only feasible, but necessary. At the same time, we, as voters, can’t run down every rabbit hole when we think malfeasance is at work. If that be the case, the entire voting operation becomes suspect.

In my opinion, recounts are utilized when there is the appearance of underhanded dealings and not simply when we do not like the

results. What if, for instance, the recount does not render a favorable decision, what do we do then?

Apologize and move on!

When the election process is tainted, it calls into question the entire voting process. I agree that if there’s any shred of evidence that the election was somehow corrupt, then by all means a recount is certainly called for. But, suggesting that Mayor-elect Sheng Thao won a come-from-behind-victory that might have been corrupted, is wrong any way you dress it up.

The mayor’s race was definitely a long battle, and the victor came out ahead. But what if it had been the other way around? Chances are Thao would’ve been called a sore loser making erroneous accusations about the voting process.

I’m sure that many would agree with this analysis.

It’s certainly the people’s right to question the outcome of elections. The key rests with the evidence, not on assumptions and presumptions that the count was in error. Let’s not rush to judgment until the race is deemed in error with credible evidence.

There’s an old Asian proverb that says, “A man who cannot tolerate small misfortunes can never accomplish great things.”

We, as a progressive community, accept the truth and move forward.

work around consumer and environmental protection of Alameda residents.”

She said a predicted recession would impact families who face unfair evictions, price gouging and potential wage theft and the County needed to be prepared to step in.

shared with The Chronicle.

Price, the first Black person elected to serve as the county D.A., will take office on Jan. 3, 2023.

According to a statement obtained by The Chronicle, O’Malley had neither requested nor consulted Price about the proposed allocation.

Staff had already recommended that the Alameda County Board of Supervisors approve the request at its Tuesday meeting.

The money O’Malley wanted to use would have come from a Consumer and Environmental Trust account within general county funds, The Chronicle reported.

“Those funds are from settlements of cases on behalf of Alameda residents,” Price said in her statement to The Chronicle. “They are meant to support the

O’Malley had earmarked the money to expand the CARES Navigation Center and support the Alameda County Family Justice Center, which is overseen by the county but supported by a nonprofit that O’Malley heads.

O’Malley spokesperson Angela Ruggiero told The Chronicle that the outgoing D.A. intends to continue her involvement in the nonprofit after she retires.

According to the agenda notes, O’Malley withdrew the request for the fund transfer by Monday without comment, The Chronicle reported.

The current year’s budget for the D.A.’s office is $92 million, so the proposed allocation by O’Malley would have been a substantial reduction in the amount of funding Price might have expected when her tenure began.

The San Francisco Chronicle and SFist were sources for this report.

“Where

Oakland

Former Oakland mayoral candidate Seneca Scott, NAACP member Dr. Allie Whitehurst, Acts Full Gospel Church leader Bishop Bob Jackson, NAACP President Cynthia Adams, and Oakland resident Richard Breaux, with community elders at NAACP press conference at Acts Full Gospel Church.

Richard Johnson distributed sleeping bags at homeless encampments underneath freeways in West Oakland to help residents combat the extremely cold temperatures. Johnson, of the Formerly Incarcerated Giving Back organization, announced that he and Maryan Mitchell would continue to distribute sleeping bags, blankets and toiletries for men and women.

Photo by Jonathan ‘Fitness’ Jones.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee Dee Mphafi delivers remarks at a World AIDS Day event hosted by the Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU) in Washington, D.C., on December 2, 2022. State Department Photo by Ron Przysucha

Ronald V. Dellums / Flickr.

Aerial view of Holy Names University.

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley (left). Pamela Price will be sworn in as Alameda County district attorney in January. Post file photos.

By Ken Epstein

Holy Names University (HNU), which has served Oakland for 154 years, earning deep respect as one of the nation’s most diverse postsecondary educational centers, offering bachelors’ degrees, training teachers, social workers, and nurses, announced this week it will close permanently at the end

of next semester, leaving the city with no major university since the recent loss of Mills College.

Kaplan, went on record calling for the university to work with the Oakland community to ensure that the beautiful 60-acre campus can become a home for another university, rather than be sold to a real estate developer to build an exclusive residential enclave.

COMMENTARY: Far-Right School Board Candidates: “We’ll Be Back”

The Gift That Keeps Giving for Your Child This Holiday Season

JP Morgan Chase

Financial education is crucial to long-term success – and that education begins at an early age. Research suggests many of the habits we carry into adulthood are set by age seven. For parents, it’s important to lay a foundation early that children can build on. Gifting a child a bank account this holiday season is one step to promoting financial literacy, empowering them to learn and develop healthy savings goals and budgeting habits that can help set them up for future financial success.

Unlike a regular savings account, a child’s savings account may come with additional perks, including no monthly account fees or opening balance requirements. Additionally, banks often create original content for younger audiences, making it easier for kids to learn responsible money managing basics. Often these learning tools are online/mobile – for example, Chase provides new young customers with The Quest, an animated graphic novel that teaches kids about saving regu-

larly, spending wisely and earning money – to help boost your child’s financial education.

Opening a savings account for your child can:

• Help them learn more about saving money. Teach your kids how to plan and prioritize their costs. Help them develop a realistic budget to build a foundation and monitor their spending.

• Save money for a specific short-term financial goal. Take the opportunity to encourage your child to set aside funds in their savings account to make a special purchase – whether it’s saving up to buy that new game or bicycle they’ve been wanting.

Provide hands-on experience. Kids often learn by doing, so consider opening a child savings account as soon as they start receiving money. Empowering them with a child debit card can help build good money habits.

• Teach them more about banking. Your child can learn how

The Fall of FTX and Renewed Mistrust Signal Disaster for Cryptocurrencies

By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire

The fall of Cryptocurrencies, the recent wave of the investment craze that includes NFTs and trading cards, has not only ruined bank accounts for some but now has the federal government investigating its dramatic downfall.

FTX, the Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange founded just before the pandemic paralyzed America and much of the world, landed in bankruptcy this month, leaving federal authorities perplexed over the fall of the company, which was valued at $32 billion.

Some have compared crypto’s fall to the famed failed Ponzi scheme orchestrated by Bernie Madoff.

“And just as Madoff’s Ponzi scheme fell apart during the 2008 financial crisis, FTX’s collapse arrives amid a broader pullback for the tech industry,” Erin Griffith, a tech writer, penned for the New York Times’s digital newsletter.

“Tech stocks have crashed. Venture capital fund-

to deposit checks in a branch, bank online, and withdraw cash at an ATM by helping comanage their account.

Building a Healthy Financial Future

Opening a kids’ savings account provides a natural avenue for parents to talk to children about their financial wellness and, while they often don’t pay high yields, these accounts are meaningful tools to start a child on a responsible financial path from an early age.

It’s important to provide ways for kids to earn money through chores, an allowance or a summer job. Long-term, the goal is for children to gain real-life experience earning and managing money when they become adults. That way, they will be more equipped to be part of a larger discussion about debit cards, credit cards, auto loans or other financial products they may need as they enter adulthood.

Visit chase.com/parents to discover more tips and tools to teach your kids good money habits.

By Ben Jealous

Back in August, I wrote that getting “back-to-school” this year would also mean getting back to fighting far-right attacks on education. The threats included a rising number of efforts to ban books, and the Right’s efforts to take over local school boards.

So how did the Right do in this fall’s school board elections? Well, as in Congress, there was no conservative “Red Wave.” However, the Right did score just enough wins to keep coming back. And the groups behind those wins are promising to do just that.

According to news reports, about half the candidates endorsed by one national group, Moms for Liberty, and a third of those en-

dorsed by another, the conservative 1776 Project PAC, won in November. Earlier this year Moms for Liberty racked up notable wins in their home state of Florida, where extremist Gov. Ron DeSantis gave them a boost; and in addition to taking over some school boards in their home state, they took over some boards in a few districts in South Carolina.

Their strategy was to try for a repeat performance of the Virginia election in 2021, where Republican Glenn Youngkin won the governor’s race on a similar cynical “parental rights” platform. The platform is code for highlighting culture war battles over issues like COVID mask and vaccine policies, “critical race theory,” and anti-LGBTQ activism. Let’s be clear, despite the marketing behind this movement, it doesn’t represent the views of many parents.

And if the Far Right doesn’t have good ideas, it definitely has plenty of money. The 1776 Project reportedly spent almost $2.8 million on ads and other campaign material for candidates. In Texas, a right-wing cell phone company called Patriot Mobile spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to help right-wing candidates in sev-

eral school districts and called it “just the beginning.”

In the end, this campaign strategy was not the universally successful formula the Right hoped it would be. For starters, the socalled “parental rights” groups don’t speak for all parents — especially Black and brown parents.

In many places, parents and teachers worked together to push back against ultraconservative takeover attempts. Winning candidates endorsed by Moms for Liberty and the 1776 Project were in the few hundreds, far fewer than the thousands endorsed by the National Education Association — of which more than 70% won their races.

This time.

I’m an optimist at heart, and it gives me hope to see that the dishonest and damaging drive to take over school boards did not sweep the nation. It is very good to know that enough parents, teachers — and students — spoke out to prevent that from happening. We want schools where all kids can flourish. We want schools where history lessons are not whitewashed to hide harsh realities about our nation’s troubled past. As a parent, I don’t want my children lied to in

COVID-19 Update: What California

ing is drying up. As a result, nearly 800 tech companies have laid off more than 120,000 workers this year, with cuts hitting Meta, Amazon, and Twitter,” Griffith noted.

In a CBS News interview, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the fall of FTX should warn Americans about investing their money in “extremely risky” financial products traded in a space lacking “appropriate supervision and regulation,” adding, “I think this is a space where investors and consumers should really be very careful.”

“We have very strong investor and consumer pro-

In November 2014, 82% of Oakland citizens voted in favor of Measure FF, a local ordinance that took effect March 2, 2015. The ordinance included provisions for annual increases to the mínimum wage based on the local Consumer Price Index. The other benefits mandated by Measure FF – including paid sick leave and payment of service charges to hospitality workers – remain the same.

Employers are required to inform employees of the mínimum wage increase by December 15, 2022. To assist in notification, the City has posted downloadable posters in four languages at oaklandca.gov/ minimumwage

Notices must be in languages spoken by more than 10% of employees. Resources for employers and employees, including frequently asked questions and interpretive regulations, are also posted on the web page

Several other cities in the region have also enacted minimum wage laws to ensure workers are paid a wage to provide for themselves and their families

As our local businesses are adjusting to this change, it’s important to support our dynamic local business community and in turn support Oakland workers.

For more information for employers and employees: www.oaklandca.gov/minimumwage minwageinfo@oaklandca.gov or (510) 238-6258

Seniors

50+ Need to Know About Latest Vaccine

By Maxim Elramsisy California Black Media

Physicians and public health officials are raising alarms about a “tripledemic” happening as the holiday travel season approaches. Communities around California are susceptible to infection by new COVID-19 variants, the seasonal flu, and the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).

People who are vulnerable to serious infection, especially those over age 50, are encouraged to get the updated bivalent COVID vaccine and this year’s flu vaccine.

“Young babies, our older patients, and of course people who have complications from things like diabetes or heart disease, or people who have obesity, people who have immuno-compromised symptoms, these people are very vulnerable,” said Dr. Sharon Okonkwo-Holmes a Kaiser Per-

manente family practice physician during an informational event at the Yvonne B. Burke Senior & Community Center in Los Angeles. “The CDC is really recommending that you get your flu vaccine at the same time as your COVID vaccine.”

The flu vaccine, which changes every year to protect against the flu strains most likely to circulate in the coming season, appears to be “a very good match” according to Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

However, data shows fewer people are getting vaccinated, including fewer pregnant women, seniors, and children.

RSV is a common respiratory virus that usually causes mild coldlike symptoms. Although it is not dangerous for most people, it can cause serious problems, especially in infants and seniors. No vaccine

is currently available for RSV. COVID-19, flu, and RSV share many of the same symptoms, leading to confusion about which course of treatment to take.

The first action people should take if they are not feeling well is to isolate themselves and do a home test for COVID. An infected person may test negative on the first day of symptoms.

“In early infections, the home test may not pick it up right away, but it will pick it up on day two or day three,” said OkonkwoHolmes. “Keep your mask on, try and stay in your room…On days one to five, you really do want to avoid exposure with everyone else because you are shedding virus… By day five, you’re considered to be OK. If you’re not having fever for two days, go ahead and put your mask on and you can go out

Extremists in the GOP — including former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos — now want to get rid of public education entirely.

Health officials are recommending that people over 50 years of age stay up to date on COVID-19 and regular flu vaccines and a shingles vaccine for good measure if they had chicken pox in childhood. Photo courtesy of California Black Media.

Erin Griffith, a tech writer, wrote in the New York Times newsletter that it would take time and multiple federal investigations to entirely understand what happened behind the scenes at FTX.

Will Smith Returns in Apple Original Films’ Drama “Emancipation”

Payments

By Maxim Elramsisy California Black Media

Relief is available for homeowners struggling to pay their mortgage due to financial hardships caused by the pandemic.

The California Mortgage Relief Program is providing a lifeline for qualifying California property owners, especially in underserved communities. Proponents of the program regard it as a safeguard to protecting generational wealth and assets.

“If you are deemed eligible and approved, we send the payment directly to your servicer or the county in which the home resides

for the property tax payment, and then they’re caught up,” said CalHFA Homeowner Relief Corporation President Rebecca Franklin, who was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The California Mortgage Relief Program is giving grants that are funded by $1 billion in federal funds from the American Rescue Plans Homeowner Assistance Fund. Grants up to $80,000 for past due mortgages, and up to $20,000 for missed property taxes, will be distributed to households facing pandemic-related financial hardship. There are NO FEES to apply, and the GRANTS NEVER

Why High School Students Don’t Need the

By Akil Bello and Harry Feder AFRO American Newspapers

College admissions is undergoing a sea change.

The pandemic accelerated the already fast-moving trend of colleges reconsidering the value of SAT and ACT scores in the admission process.

Many colleges have stopped considering test scores at all (test blind/free) or have allowed students to decide whether they want to include test scores as part of their applications (test-optional).

While the change in testing policy seems new to some, this movement is more than 50 years old. Almost half of all bachelor’s degree-granting colleges had adopted test-optional or free policies before the pandemic.

Spurred by the difficulty of access to testing due to COVID but also prompted — and certainly sustained by — research on the minimal value and detrimental impact of standardized tests, more than 700 colleges have adopted a test-optional or test-free policy since 2020.

Currently, more than 1,800 colleges (roughly 80% of bachelor’s degree-granting colleges) have test-optional or test-free policies

for those applying in 2023. These colleges range from Hampton University to CalTech to Michigan State University.

New testing policies — combined with changing demographics and the impacts of the pandemic — have changed the normal calculus of college admissions.

Some colleges have seen significantly more applications, some haven’t. Some families and students feel less certain about the advantage that a high test score provides, some are thankful that they don’t have to worry about testing.

Some test prep businesses are worried about fading clientele, some are grateful to see the end of overtesting and test misuse. Some college counselors are happy they can recommend their strong students but poor test takers to colleges that might have rejected them because of a lower test score, some bemoan the loss of a potential advantage for the students they serve that test above their in-school performance.

Change brings uncertainty. Change will benefit some and disadvantage others. In this case, those who have historically benefited from testing have been wealthy white males with college-educated parents, and these

Apple Original Films’ “Emancipation,” directed and executive produced by Antoine Fuqua and starring and produced by Will Smith, premiered in theaters Dec. 2, 2022.

Atlanta Daily World

Apple Original Films’ “Emancipation,” directed and executive produced by Antoine Fuqua (“Training Day,” “The Equalizer”) and starring and produced by Will Smith (“King Richard,” “The Pursuit of Happyness,” “Ali”), premiered in theaters on Dec. 2, 2022, and aired globally on Apple TV+ on Dec. 9, 2022.

“Emancipation” tells the triumphant story of Peter (Smith), a man who escapes from slavery, relying on his wits, unwavering

changing policies threaten that advantage. For those traditionally disadvantaged by testing, minimizing the role of tests in admissions gives a sense of relief.

“There was a misconception that the number you get determines where you’d go to college,” said Star-Angel Oppong, a senior at Freedom High School in Virginia, who is currently applying to colleges. “The test instilled a lot of fear in me that I would not be successful without doing well on it.”

faith, and deep love for his family to evade cold-blooded hunters and the unforgiving swamps of Louisiana on his quest for freedom.

The film is inspired by the 1863 photos of “Whipped Peter,” taken during a Union Army medical examination, that first appeared in Harper’s Weekly.

One image, known as “The Scourged Back,” which shows Peter’s bare back mutilated by a whipping delivered by his enslavers, ultimately contributed to growing public opposition to slavery.

Oppong says some adults in her life, both intentionally and accidentally, conveyed that a student who “didn’t do well on the test, they might as well not go to college at all.”

The ‘test optional’ policy has changed that.

The widespread adoption of these policies has created more opportunity.

Amily Sylla, a first-year student at Virginia Commonwealth

Rebecca Franklin, EdD, president of the CalHFA Homeowner Relief Corporation. Photo courtesy California Black Media.

Pharaoh Mitchell, CEO of the Community Action League. Photo courtesy California Black Media.

For many qualified students, optional testing policies relieve a major application barrier. iStockphoto / NNPA.

Egyptsia McGillvery (left) has many layers. Aside from being the leader of the Black Vendors Association, which promotes Black business development, she says, “I am an artist, designer, activist and a priestess. I am a leader, but more importantly, I am a mother. I’ve been featured in local artists and also Grammy award-winning Fantastic Negrito videos in movie clips. I enjoyed the arts as well as helping to support my community. I will be doing more to help my community. I will be helping others start and run their own businesses. I can be reached at 510-395-3641.

Holiday Gifts By Black Vendors Association Members

By Marvin X, Founder, Organizer, The Black Vendors

The Black Vendors Association (BVA) has been organized to support North American African Street Vendors.

Part of the funding that was received to help with the organizing of the BVA came from the executive actions of former Governor Jerry Brown when he signed into law SB946 which established rules for street vending statewide. He did so after protests by 30,000

The BVA also agreed with the initiative of the Los Angeles Street vendors and decided to also take advantage of SB946.

The BVA also received a generous grant from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation to help organize Black Street Vendors Association.

The BVA is supporting Black Vendors at Lake Marriott and recently subsidized Vendors at the African American Business Exchange Kwanzaa Holiday Gift

Show where the BVA supported the booth fees for 20 Vendors and covered their insurance after they paid the nominal annual membership fee of $50,00. Members have also received Promotional and marketing assistance from the Post News Group. Throughout the holiday observances of Christmas, Hannukah, and Kwanzaa and into Black History month and other culturally significant events, the Post News Group will continue to feature the members and their products..

Lend A Hand Foundation’s “Joy of Giving” Celebration

By Dee Johnson

The faces of the participants and the volunteers all reflected the overwhelming joy of the season at the Lend A Hand Foundation (LAHF) 23rd Annual ‘Joy of Giving’ Holiday Celebration for children, youth, and families held on December 17 at Cypress Mandela Training Center.

LAHF is also still celebrating its 25th year of service providing support to families in many ways.

Many thanks go out to Eric Shanks, executive director of Cypress Mandela Training Center, and his phenomenal students, for sharing with us the great venue at 977 66th Ave. in East Oakland. We are also grateful to our top sponsors (Ernst & Young, Kazan McClain Partners’ Foundation,

the 100 Black Men of the Bay Area, Kaiser Permanente, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., Alameda Health Systems, Oakland Police Department, One Toyota of Oakland) who made sure over 290 children (ages 1-11), 75+ youth (ages 12-17), and 137 parents received gifts.

Not only did the children receive coats, pajamas, toys, and school supplies, they also received gift cards, food, and much more including an opportunity to do some horseback riding. The decorator, Traci Joy Designs, made sure the room was filled with beautiful attractions including inflatable characters that all came to life.

There was also a boutique full of great, free items. We also were honored with the presence of Paul and Gay Cobb of the Oakland Post,

Dave Clark of KTVU Fox 2 and his lovely wife, Lucretia Clark, Dr. Rita K. Ng, physician-in-chief at Kaiser, Oakland Councilmember Loren Taylor, and KCBS Radio also attended.

The venue was full of many volunteers including Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., the Black Cowboy Coalition, UPS, Target, and our caterer, Delores Mouton.

“Oh, what joy it was for all of us. We look forward to continuing our legacy to do all that we can” said Dee Johnson, executive director of LAHF.

For more information on how you can lend a hand by donating or volunteering – info@lendahandfoundation.org. Thank You and Happy Holidays

Jabari Hopkins

Photo by Jim Dennis.

Native Clothing; Jabarihopkins@aol.

Latino and Latina Vendors in Los Angeles.

The Moore Family and Dee Johnson with David Tolson of Target in the background. Photo courtesy of Lend A Hand Foundation.

School supplies. Photo courtesy of Lend A Hand Foundation. From left to right: Executive Director of Cypress Mandela Training Center Eric Shanks, Gay Cobb, LAHF Executive Director Dee Johnson, Oakland Post Publisher Paul Cobb. Photo courtesy of Lend A Hand Foundation.

Jeanette Brumfield & Family with a Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. volunteer. Photo courtesy of Lend A Hand Foundation.

Dave Clark KTVU Fox 2 (center), his wife, Mrs. Lucretia Clark (left), and Adonna O’Sullivan (right) of Kaiser. Photo courtesy of Lend A Hand Foundation.

Diane Sawyer

Photo by Jim Dennis.

Jamal’s Jewels

Handmade, semiprecious stone bracelets. Jamalsjewels IG dianejsawyer@gmail.com

HAVE TO BE PAID BACK.

The relief payments are distributed on a first come, first served basis.

“This is an awesome program that reminds me of Keep Your Home, California,” said HUD certified housing counselor Linda Jackson. “Keep Your Home, California did have restrictions, you had to stay in the house for a period of time, so that that loan could be forgiven. I say to everyone, this is free money, y’all. So, we got to get the free money because you don’t have to pay this back. If anyone charges you for this program, run, because it’s at no cost.”

The application is at www. CAMortgageRelief.org and it includes a calculator to help you see if you qualify. The website also provides resources to help fill out the application. To complete the process, you will need some basic documentation like a mortgage statement, property tax bill, or utility bill.

The application typically takes less than 20 minutes to fill out online. For help completing it, con-

tact the program center at 1-888840-2594. Additional help with this program and others is available from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development certified counselors at 1-800-5694287.

“One of the biggest issues is a lot of our community members are older community members that don’t know how to use computers,” said Community Action League CEO Pharaoh Mitchell. “They come in and they’re frustrated, and we literally have to be counselors to them, to [tell them] ‘calm down, we’re here to help you. This is a friendly process. Let’s get you through it.’”

“I’m proud that they’re making a conscious effort to really reach into the Black community and make sure our underserved community is served,” Mitchell added.

The program is designed to help low and moderate-income households. It has a cap for people earning more than 150% of the median income in their county, adjusted for the number of people in the household. Officials say it was created to assist people who are behind on payments, specifically those who have missed at

least two payments and currently have a past due balance as of Dec. 1, 2022.

Aside from the income requirement and the delinquent payment criteria, there are almost no additional qualifiers (properties must be owner-occupied, though, but some multi-unit properties may be eligible).

Homeowners with fully paid mortgages may be eligible for relief as well. Those having trouble paying their property taxes because of the pandemic may be eligible for Property Tax Relief. To qualify for the property tax relief, individuals must have missed a previous property tax payment last spring and fallen into delinquency.

Thanks to the program, to date 8,302 households have received relief. Officials anticipate the funding will reach 20,00040,000 more homeowners. A total of $246,538,132 has already been disbursed, leaving more than 75% of the allocated funds still available. The average amount granted across the state was $29,696.

For more information or general questions email info@ CAMortgageRelief.org or call 1(888)840-2594.

into the community, but we’re still asking you to keep your mask on until day 10.”

People over 50 should strongly consider getting vaccinated for shingles, a viral skin condition causing blisters and a burning or tingling sensation that can last for weeks.

Shingles and associated inflammation can cause complications, including long term nerve pain, vision loss, and has also been linked to increased risk for stroke and dementia. The two-dose shingles vaccine, Shingrix, is recommended for all people over the age of 50 and people who are 19 and older with a weakened immune system due to disease or medication.

“If you’ve ever had chickenpox as a kid, when you’re 50 you should ask your doctor for your shingles shot,” said OkonkwoHolmes.

Doctors know that three shots at the same time can be too much for some patients. But due to the urgency of the situation, doctors are recommending getting the flu and COVID vaccine together.

“Right now, we’re seeing more COVID, number one, flu, number two, then shingles. So, if you want to put off that third one, then go ahead and put off the shingles one…Get your COVID and flu shots at the same time,” OkonkwoHolmes said.

Communities of color have been hit especially hard by the pandemic because of “social determinants of health,” like where we live, the types of jobs we have, and our level of the stress hormone cortisol.

“The stress that we endure in America, it has an impact on our cells,” said Okonkwo-Holmes. When society treats you differently, when you are profiled, when the police are following you, when you hear bad news in the media about another person who has been killed who looks like us…It raises our blood pressure; it also raises a [stress] hormone in our bodies called cortisol…It makes us more susceptible to things like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, [and] stroke…So, I would argue that a lot of the systemic racism and microaggressions in our society are directly impacting our DNA and impacting our health…The racism is making us sick.”

For our communities to stay healthy, we must take action. “For me, action means trying to sleep well, avoiding alcohol, avoiding smoke [including] marijuana, trying my hardest to eat well.”

As for stress, OkonkwoHolmes recommends laughter. “Go ahead and laugh out loud and have some enjoyment, go on long walks 30 minutes a day and spend time with people who make you feel good.”

As Black communities continue to navigate the pandemic, it is important to use the tools available to keep us as healthy as we can.

Okonkwo-Holmes believes people should wear masks indoors, even though it is not currently a requirement in many places, we should stay up to date with vaccinations to prevent serious illness and hospitalization, and if a COVID infection is acquired, get one of the available treatments, which most seniors will qualify for and usually tolerate well.

“None of my patients have had severe complications at all from treatments,” said Okonkwo-Holmes. “You don’t want to stay really sick. If you don’t feel well and you’re having difficulty breathing. You want to get to the hospital right away or call 911.”

Far Right School Board Candidates

school. That won’t help them succeed in school or in life. As a lifelong student of history, I know that we can’t understand our present reality or begin to shape a more inclusive future without being grounded in the complexity of our past.

But I also know the Far Right wants to make school board races a steppingstone to bigger things. Investing in school board takeovers is a power-building strategy. Ultraconservative activist Steve Bannon said it himself when he claimed the path to “save” the nation will “go through the school boards.” Not only that, but extremists in the GOP — including former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos — now want to get rid of public education entirely. And yes, many public schools, including those in Black and brown neighborhoods, need to get better. But privatizing education is not the way to get there.

So, we need to stay alert to the Right’s efforts to get control of school boards, because they’ll be back. We who care about honest teaching and inclusive public schools should go to school board meetings. We should pay attention to school board races and candidates. And if we can, we should run for the school board ourselves. Our kids’ educations, and their futures, depend on it.

Ben Jealous serves as president of People For the American Way and Professor of the Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. A New York Times best-selling author, his next book “Never Forget Our People Were Always Free” will be published by Harper Collins in January 2023.

Medicare wants to remind you that flu and COVID vaccines are available at no cost to you and will help prevent you from getting seriously ill. Get vaccinated today.

Paid for by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

COMMENTARY: It’s the Season of Love, But it Hasn’t Always Been for Same-Sex and Inter-Racial Couples

there is racism, there will always be enough hate to make an interracial union blasphemous.

Historically, mixed race has always been the original hate double take. More so than same-gender. Remember the LGBTQ were often closeted. Only in the last few decades has the closet door been swung wide open in the fight for LGBTQ rights.

ment based on the Virginia Racial Integrity Act of 1924.

Han Say Naim, concerned for his immigration status, sought to block the annulment, and challenged the Virginia law all the way to the Virginia Supreme Court.

By Emil Guillermo

We talk of joy during the holidays. And we hope there’s a little bit of love sprinkled in too.

Writing about news and politics is a hard thing to muster, especially given the season.

But this year, we’ve been given a gift — the passage and signing of the Respect for Marriage Act, which grants federal protections to same-sex AND interracial marriage couples.

I know some people may see the “interracial” part as a strange add-on. I saw someone comment, “No one thinks anything about an interracial marriage these days.”

Really?

There are no “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner Moments” in 2022? Tell that to a white supremacist MAGA-type who falls in love with my mixed-race daughter.

Or my trans daughter.

Tell that to groups that insist on marrying within their group and are quick, in their minds, to benignly “other” you should you come courting. Perhaps the surprised commenter I noticed the other day was a person who sees Kim and Kanye (now divorced), or even Harry and Megan, Kamala and Doug, and just shrugs. Interracial marriages? No big deal, right?

But what if you aren’t on a first name basis with the world? And legal circumstances block you from the love of your life?

Here’s the truth. As long as

But we know gay or straight, there’s still a lot of hate out there coming from all directions.

Discrimination due to sexual orientation is real. But racism doesn’t go away. Its effects are not diminished. Interracial marriage remains taboo to those who prefer hate.

For mixed-race love fans like myself, June 12, 1967, was our gift of love, the day the Supreme Court ruled in the Loving case.

It involved Richard Loving, a white man from Virginia, who married Mildred Jeter, an African American woman, in Washington, D.C. in 1958.

And when they went home to Virginia, they were arrested for love.

But the law against interracial marriage wasn’t just Black and White. It was also white and anything else. Marriage has always been the way racists misused love to inspire hate and enforce racial purity.

Phil Hirschkop, the lawyer who argued for the Lovings, told me in the court papers he included a case involving a Chinese sailor named Han Say Naim.

In 1952, Naim met a white woman living in Virginia who became his wife, Ruby Naim. When the two couldn’t marry in Virginia due to the ban on all interracial marriages, they went to North Carolina, where there was no ban.

The Naims returned to live in Virginia as husband and wife. But then Ruby Naim filed for an annul-

To read the Virginia opinion makes clear the racist underpinnings of the law, which saw nothing in the Fourteenth Amendment to prevent a state from preventing society from having “a mongrel breed of citizens.”

The Virginia High Court protected against “the corruption of blood” and ruled in favor of Mrs. Naim. And so from June 13, 1955, Asian and white marriages were also banned.

“Naim was a terrible opinion,” said Hirschkop, who called it the “linchpin” of the Loving argument. “The same ugly reasoning, same ugly language that the court applied to black/white was definitely applied to Asian Americans.”

When the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately sided with the Lovings in 1967 based on a violation of their Fourteenth Amendment rights, it was the only law that made marriage freedom based on race concrete nationally. It struck down existing anti-intermarriage laws in 17 states, as well as nearly 200 ancillary other laws.

In these times, when a conservative court could rule on the Dobbs decision, which undid Roe and a woman’s right to an abortion, they could do the unthinkable and undo Loving.

So, same-sex, sure, but don’t forget the original race mixers. It was more than an add-on in the Respect for Marriage Act, it was a necessity, and a reassurance of our inalienable right to love, no matter what the season.

Emil Guillermo is journalist and commentator. He does a show on www.amok.com

Students Don’t Need the SAT Anymore

Continued from page 3

University, said, “It was a relief to not have to take a test and to not have the test be the reason why you didn’t get into college.”

Having seen the challenges her sister faced the previous year preparing for and taking the SAT, Sylla was happy to forgo the preparation and testing process and spend her time focusing on more important things.

The smoother pathway the new policy created can be seen in data from Common App, the organization that runs a popular application by the same name used by over 900 colleges. Common App members have seen an increase in applications of more than 20% since the 2019-2020 application season, with the greatest increase coming from underrepresented students.

Even more dramatic than the growth in applications is the drop in scores submitted. In 2022, only 5% of Common App member schools required SAT or ACT tests to be submitted, and only 48% of applicants submitted scores.

But while these new policies decrease barriers for many, change can increase uncertainty. Some students and their supporters feel more uncertain about being able to predict the outcome of the admission process.

This nervousness is especially pronounced among those who have long relied on presenting test scores as the “key” to admissions and scholarships.

Test makers, test prep companies, and independent college counselors have contributed to the anxiety by stoking fears, despite the assurances of colleges, that not testing creates a disadvantage in either admissions or access to scholarships, even at colleges that are test optional.

According to Ericka M. Jackson, senior director of Undergraduate Admissions for Wayne State University, “Many students and parents didn’t trust that they would really get a fair evaluation if they didn’t submit a test score. As college admissions officers, we spent a lot of time during that first testoptional admissions cycle explaining what test optional means at our institution and reassuring students, counselors, and parents that students would not be disadvantaged if they applied test-optional.”

Since 2020, test publishers College Board and ACT have become particularly aggressive about marketing their tests as the key to “standing out” in the application process, suggesting that taking the test is intrinsic to securing admissions and “merit” scholarships.

But this narrative is misleading, if not outright false.

Candice Mackey, a college counselor at Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies, said that “although all Cal-States and UCs are test-free, my students and families are ‘programmed’ for testing. It’s actually a little difficult at times to convince them otherwise that testoptional means optional.”

Making matters worse is the national media’s focus on highly rejective colleges, which make up less than 4% of colleges. News reports and prep company advertisements hyper-focus on scores as the reason for admission or rejection, even though these institutions almost always review applications holistically, considering many factors beyond test scores. This causes families to put undue mis-

placed pressure on testing.

Even in California, where public universities will not look at test scores even if submitted, the legacy of having required scores for 50 years casts a shadow on the current process. Mackey notes that “there is a lot of re-educating, explaining, and reframing what test-optional means and how testing factors into admissions.”

The confusion about how these policies play out in practice is evident in the lived experience of applicants. Wendy Jefferies, a knowledgeable graduate admissions coach, and her daughter, now a first-year student at Indiana University, still struggled through what was essentially two parallel admissions processes, one with scores and one without.

Jefferies expressed the uncertainty that many families face.

“We didn’t know what was good or bad as a test score,” she said.

Jefferies and her daughter, who had a 27 ACT score (better than almost 90% of test takers nationally) and a 3.5 GPA, decided to apply with testing to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and without to predominantly white institutions.

This strategy was largely informed by popular narratives that suggested that scores would provide access to scholarships at

Read the full story at postnewsgroup.com

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The Fall of FTX

tection laws for most of our financial markets, but in some ways, the crypto space has inadequate regulation.”

Yet, the crypto space has lured not just financial bigwigs but heavyweights in entertainment like Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, Russell Simmons, and Ja Rule.

Along with friend and business partner Herb Rice, Ja Rule cofounded The Painted House and launched the NFT collection Black Is Beautiful, with a charitable component benefiting historically Black colleges and universities.

Earlier this year, Ja Rule told the Black Press that he wanted to create a space for people of color in the crypto world.

“That’s important. We need to be at that table,” Ja Rule said.

Simmons, the hip-hop architect, and successful businessman said he leaped into the NFT market because he wanted hip-hop pioneers to get their flowers and much-deserved money while still alive.

In collaboration with NFT marketplace Tokau, Simmons’ NFT honored individuals like D.J. Hollywood, Bizzy Bee Starski, and Grandmaster Caz.

Snoop Dogg agreed to curate the NFT collection.

“This is a multi-billion-dollar industry, and so many of the younger generation don’t know the shoulders on whom they stand,”

his launch party.

“Some of these guys [founders] don’t even have bank accounts, but we have to consider, all of us have to consider. None of us would be here without them.”

Simmons insisted that Snoop Dogg “gets it.”

“He wants to be a part of this. That’s why I love him so much,” Simmons asserted. “Snoop has such a big heart; he cares about these guys.”

In June, Jay-Z announced that he teamed with Twitter Founder Jack Dorsey to launch a new “Bitcoin Academy” for underserved residents – particularly those in Brooklyn, New York’s Marcy Houses.

The plan included adding other locations for the program designed in collaboration with Crypto Blockchain Plug and Black Bitcoin Billionaire.

Jay-Z and Dorsey said their mission included providing education and empowering the community with knowledge.

Program participants were promised MiFi devices, a one-year limited data plan, and smartphones if needed.

Each of the artists has yet to speak on the current state of the crypto space.

This week, a new study found that the District of Columbia topped the list of American states and places that have demonstrated the most interest in NFTs and cryp-

The study found that Bitcoin sold for a record $68,000 in November 2021, while NFT sales peaked at $12.6 billion in January 2022.

Both have since dropped precipitously.

“Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here,” John Ray III, the new CEO of FTX, told MSN as he laid out “a damning description of FTX’s operations under its founder Sam Bankman-Fried, from a lack of security controls to business funds being used to buy employees homes and luxuries.”

“From compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad to the concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated, and potentially compromised individuals, this situation is unprecedented,” said Ray.

He performed cleanup work in the aftermath of the disastrous Enron scandal.

Griffin wrote in the New York Times newsletter that it would take time and multiple federal investigations to entirely understand what happened behind the scenes at FTX.

However, the impact is already evident.

“Lawmakers are calling for more oversight,” Griffin wrote.

“Crypto die-hards are trying to distance themselves. Critics of this sector of finance are crowing. And for those of you who had, until now, managed to ignore the rise and rise and rise of crypto as a phenomenon? First of all, good for you. And second, you may want to

2022 Movers & Shakers Year in Review — Marc Philpart

By Edward Henderson California Black Media

Marc Philpart was named executive director of the California Black Freedom Fund in April 2022.

The five-year, $100 million fund is an initiative to ensure that Black power-building and movement-based organizations have the sustained investments and resources they need to eradicate systemic and institutional racism.

On Dec. 13, 2022, the fund announced $1 million in general operating support to be distributed to five Black power-building organizations in Los Angeles. This is the fund’s fifth round of grants to date, with a total of approximately $26 million in investments that are building Black power across the state. Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN), Dignity & Power Now, Students Deserve, The Hub at LA Black Worker Center, and Youth Justice Coalition were recipients of the funding to supercharge their organizing efforts in 2023 and beyond.

California Black Media asked

2023.

With the work you do advocating for African Americans in California, what was your biggest accomplishment in 2022?

The California Black Freedom Fund is a five-year, $100 million initiative to ensure that Black power-building and movement-based organizations have the sustained investments and resources they need to eradicate systemic and institutional racism.

The first state-based fund of its kind, the California Black Freedom Fund prioritizes investments in the courageous and visionary grassroots advocates and community leaders who are transforming our cities, our state — and our world.

In 2022, across three rounds of grants, the California Black Freedom Fund invested approximately $11.8 million in Black-led, power-building organizations and networks across California.

What did you find most challenging over the past year?

Part of our work is to organize and educate the philanthropic sec-

tor on the giving gap and needs facing Black power-building organizations in California.

Philanthropy has a shared opportunity and responsibility to marshal our resources in order to tackle systemic racism and antiBlackness in communities across California.

We believe that private and corporate philanthropy has a huge opportunity to prioritize building the power and capacity of Blackled organizations as a strategic imperative.

I look forward to working with philanthropic leaders throughout California in the next year and beyond on this goal.

What are you most looking forward to in 2023?

We are excited to develop programs that can support the advocacy, research, and programming needs of Black power-building organizations throughout California. By creating and accelerating a new statewide ecosystem of Black-led organizations confronting racism and anti-Blackness, this fund aims to affect the culture, policy, and systems changes necessary to realize equity and justice in California.

What’s the biggest challenge Black Californians will face next year?

Our communities must prepare for a mass civic engagement effort that will dramatically expand the Black electorate in the 2024 election. Black power building organizations will need to advocate for new laws, educate and register voters, and innovate new approaches to voter turnout.

What’s your wish for this holiday season?

My one wish is that people keep ever-present the threat that Black communities face with so much injustice in the world and give to Black-led, power-building organizations in their communities or to the California Black Freedom Fund to support the critical work happening throughout the state. You can give to the fund at https:// cablackfreedomfund.org/

2022 Movers & Shakers Year in Review —

Carol McGruder

port cities and states across the nation as they adopt and implement policies to stop this cycle of death through nicotine addiction. We will continue to be a resource for our community as we remind Californians that the responsibility of the tobacco ban is placed on retailers, not individuals.

Qualified Contractors

Where

California the second state after Massachusetts to pass legislation to take menthol and all flavored tobacco products off the market. The tobacco industry’s cynical use of California’s proposition system was resoundingly defeated.

The bigger benefit of Senate Bill 793 is when Californians move to enact legislation that protects us, we advance the health and safety of Black children and communities across the country.

Another accomplishment was our lawsuit against the FDA to compel them to do what they were mandated to do in 2008, which was to take menthol tobacco products off the national market. Because of our lawsuit, the FDA has finally initiated steps to remove these products. They are in the second stage of the rule-making process, and we look forward to having a national sales ban in place in the next few years. In the meantime, we keep plugging away at local and state levels.

What did you find most challenging over the past year?

My biggest challenge was juggling all of the balls of 2022. We worked on local, state, and national fronts and fought hard to get here and make it count. I am proud to see that we did.

What are you most looking forward to in 2023?

I am feeling so grateful and looking forward to many things in 2023. In our mission to save the 45,000 Black souls who die each year from tobacco-induced diseases, we will continue to sup-

We are also looking forward to working with Los Angeles Madam Mayor Karen Bass who has supported us and worked with us throughout her political career. Her hard-fought win to become mayor of Los Angeles couldn’t have come at a better time for our movement and state. We know that she “gets it,” and profoundly understands the inter-relatedness of these issues. As we move forward to implement the removal of menthol and flavored tobacco products in our Black communities, Los Angeles will play a pivotal role.

What’s the biggest challenge Black Californians will face next year?

I am fresh back from Cuba where I had the opportunity to study their public health system. I was inspired by how they have done so much with so little. They have eradicated illiteracy. And it is safer for a Black baby to be born in Cuba, than in the United States. We face so many challenges, but our biggest challenge is us. Rededicating ourselves to our families and communities. Putting the health, education, and well-being of our families and communities first. Let’s look forward to 2023 with power and optimism. Bring IT!

What’s your wish for this holiday season?

I wish that we all get some rest and come back in 2023 ready to move our agenda forward. While we face many challenges, we also have so many opportunities to begin...again.

Philpart to reflect on the past year and share his plans for

Marc Philpart was named executive director of the California Black Freedom Fund in April 2022.

CALMATTERS:

$24 Billion Projected Budget Deficit May Test California’s Resolve to Grow Safety Net Amid Recession

the state Department of Finance, declined to comment on whether social spending cuts might be proposed.

He did say, however, that the governor’s priority was to not scale back programs that people have come to depend on, or to begin new ones. Some program expansions in later fiscal years could be delayed if there isn’t enough revenue to support them, he said. The goal is to avoid the kind of drastic program reductions enacted during the Great Recession that took years for the state to restore.

Building reserves

The state’s Democratic legislative leaders have said they are not inclined to cut recently expanded programs, such as the extension of free health care to low-income undocumented immigrants, which began with older adults this year and is slated to open up to all ages in January 2024. The expansion is expected to cost more than $2 billion annually.

pand free transit programs for California students and create grants for graduate students in mental health who commit to working at certain California-based nonprofits.

Newsom, whom voters elected to another four-year term, has used surpluses to pay down debts, build reserves and provide direct payments to millions of Californians.

Recently, Moody’s Analytics rated California one of the states most prepared for a recession, citing its reserves.

Nevertheless, California’s budget enacted in June 2021 committed to $3.4 billion in new ongoing spending and is expected to grow to $12 billion in the 2025 budget year. The budget enacted in June of this year committed an additional $2.3 billion, expected to grow to nearly $5 billion by the 2026 budget year, the Legislative Analyst’s Office said.

Photo of author Sam Roberts by Marie Salerno.

By Alejandro Lazo and Jeanne Kuang CalMatters

California faces a projected deficit next year even if the U.S. avoids a recession. Despite the expected shortfall, policymakers say they’ll maintain spending on social programs though advocates are calling for more.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office recently said in its annual forecast that Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Democratic Party-controlled Legislature are facing a $24 billion projected budget deficit for the next fiscal year.

If the state enters a recession the outlook is even worse, with revenues predicted to fall short by $30 billion to $50 billion. The

governor signed a record-breaking $308 billion budget in June.

The legislative analyst attributes the projected shortfall to California’s reliance on those whose incomes often ebb and flow with the price of stocks, real estate and other investments.

“Those are the same people who get a lot of their income from financial investments,” said Legislative Analyst Gabriel Petek. “That volatility then gets transmitted directly to the state budget.”

The governor will present a proposed budget in January and then a revision in May. The budget, which the Legislature must approve, will fund state government for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

H.D. Palmer, spokesperson for

CHBA Scholarship Gala 2022 Raises $250,000

The budget is in a much stronger position than it was during the state’s last fiscal crisis, said Phil Ting, the Assembly budget committee chair from San Francisco.

“We have a significant amount of cash available, both in terms of reserves, but also in terms of liquidity,” Ting said. “So this is a very different situation than the state faced in 2008-2009, where they were running out of cash.”

The governor, nevertheless, has signaled he is being cautious. Newsom in October said he had vetoed 169 bills and saved taxpayers billions. Seventy-five of those vetoes were directly budgetrelated, with many including boilerplate language that the state was facing “lower-than-expected revenues” and that it was “important to remain disciplined when it comes to spending, particularly spending that is ongoing.”

Among the bills vetoed by the governor earlier this year were proposals to expand governmentfunded care for new mothers, ex-

The state has $37 billion in specific reserve funds. That includes about $23 billion in a rainy-day fund voters agreed to strengthen in 2014 at the urging of then-Gov. Jerry Brown. The state also has $900 million in a reserve account for safety net programs. The rest of those reserve funds are in schoolspecific and general operating reserves.

But, Palmer noted, the state can only draw down the rainy-day fund by half in any year. The Legislative Analyst’s Office has advised the Legislature to slow down or pause program expansions before dipping into reserves.

Ting’s office contends that the state has billions in unspent federal and state dollars in its coffers that could address a potential deficit. Using that money would avoid cuts to programs but delay other projects.

Is it time to spend?

Anti-poverty advocates said in interviews they plan to continue pushing for program expansions, arguing the precipice of a down-

Read the full story at postnewsgroup.com

By Eli Walsh Bay City News Foundation

The White House announced its plan to help protect Americans from COVID-19 transmission during the winter season, with an emphasis on widespread availability of vaccines and at-home testing.

The Biden Administration’s COVID-19 Winter Preparedness Plan, announced Thursday, includes making at-home COVID tests available once again via the COVIDTests.gov website or by calling 1 (800) 232-0233.

All households in the country are eligible for four at-home tests, which they will receive for free in the mail. COVID tests are expected to start shipping this week.

The federal government will also distribute test kits to food banks and more than 6,500 senior households that receive rental assistance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“While COVID-19 is not the disruptive force it once was, the virus continues to evolve, and cases are on the rise again as families are spending more time indoors and gathering for the holidays,” the White House said in a statement.

The White House said it plans to work with state and local governments and medical providers to set up mobile and pop-up vac-

cination clinics, particularly in an effort to encourage uptake of the updated COVID booster vaccine.

The bivalent boosters target both the initial COVID-19 strain and the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of the highly contagious omicron variant. Since their approval by federal regulators, they are now used for all booster vaccinations in any age group.

As of Monday, just 14.1 percent of all Americans aged 5 and up have received the updated booster.

The federal government is also planning to disperse clinical personnel where COVID cases and hospitalizations increase the most in an effort to reduce the strain on local hospitals and other health care providers and to work with nursing homes and other congregate care facilities to protect those who are at high risk of serious illness.

The CVS Drugstore on Mountain Blvd. in Oakland, Calif on Dec 8, 2022, offers vaccination and COVID test kits to customers. (Anna Moseidjord/Bay City News)

The Charles Houston Bar Association (CHBA) celebrated its 67th Anniversary in an annual scholarship gala, dinner, and awards event at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco. This year’s theme was Advancing Civil Rights Today, Tomorrow, and Forever. CHBA’s president, Terrance J. Evans, is a Partner at Duane Morris LLP in San Francisco and under his leadership, the organization filed an amicus brief in defense of Affirmative Action with the U.S. Supreme Court, which 24 other civil rights organizations joined. This was the first appearance of CHBA before the U.S. Supreme Court in decades.

This year’s scholarship gala had a record number of more than 550 people in attendance, and an unprecedented number of scholarships were given out of $95,000. In addition, at this year’s gala, CHBA raised its highest amount of money for future scholarships, mentorship programs, civil rights programs, and diversity, equity, and inclusion programs — approximately $250,000.

Venus D. Johnson, Chief Deputy Attorney General, delivered a riveting speech on her perspective of the Civil Rights Movement and how her work in Alameda and Contra Costa County over the last 15 years continues to drive her passion for what the movement stands

for. The Honorable Judge Jennifer Madden, who was elected to the Alameda County Superior Court bench in 2016, received the Thelton Henderson Award at this year’s celebration.

Honorable Judge Demetrius Shelton, Administrative Law Judge for the California Dept. of Social Services, and previous City Attorney for the City of Oakland for over a decade, received the Hall of Fame Award. Judge Shelton has the distinction of having been elected to the Board of governors in 2003 and, in his victory, became the first African American in the history of the State Bar of California to be elected to represent the 3rd District. These are just a few of many individuals who received recognition from the Charles Houston Bar Association.

CHBA is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization of lawyers, judges, and law students throughout northern California. Named in honor of the legendary civil rights practitioner Charles Hamilton Houston (1895 – 1950), CHBA continues his legacy by working to address the unique challenges facing the African American community.

To learn more about CHBA visit www.charleshoustonbar.org.

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Federal Government to Ship Free AtHome COVID Tests as Part of Winter COVID Mitigation Strategy

The CVS Drugstore on Mountain Blvd. in Oakland, Calif on Dec 8, 2022, offers vaccination and COVID test kits to customers.

By: Y’Anad Burrell

Before serving on the bench, Judge Madden served as an Asst. District Attorney and a Deputy District Attorney at the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office for 19 years.

Read the full story at postnewsgroup.com

City of Oakland Measures Oakland Voters Passed on the November 8th Ballot

By Barbara Parker From her newsletter

This year, Oakland voters passed all nine of the City of Oakland measures that were on the November 8, 2022 ballot. Eight of the measures were initiated by the City Council, and one, the Oakland Zoo Parcel Tax (Measure Y), was placed on the ballot by a qualifying voter initiative petition.

As Oakland’s City Attorney one of my most important duties is to: 1. draft the question that appears on the ballot; and 2. prepare the summary and an impartial legal analysis of the measure that appear in the ballot pamphlet.

The summary and impartial legal analysis must describe each measure in an unbiased manner and show the effect of the measure on the existing law. The summary and impartial legal analysis of the November 2022 City of Oakland ballot measures are available here. Please see below a brief, plainlanguage explanation of how these new laws will impact Oakland residents.

Measure Q: Affordable Rental Housing

Oakland voters approved this measure authorizing the City to develop, construct, or acquire up to 13,000 low-rent housing units in social housing projects within Oakland. Berkeley and South San Francisco residents passed similar ballot measures to allow their cities to build more affordable housing, although Berkeley residents did not pass a bond measure that would have provided $200 M toward the construction of affordable housing.

Voters’ permission is necessary due to Article 34, a 72-year-old provision of the California Constitution, which prohibits state public bodies and cities from developing, constructing or acquiring any “low rent housing project” unless voters approve the project. Article 34, which was passed by a statewide voter initiative in 1950, has racist roots as it was sold to voters on the basis of propagating fear of public housing and integration of neighborhoods. This past September, the California Legislature voted to place a measure repealing Article 34 on the 2024 ballot. Co-author of the repeal ballot measure, State Senator Scott Wiener, aptly declared that, “Article 34 is a scar on the California Constitution - designed to keep people of color and poor people out of certain neighborhoods - and it needs to be repealed.”

Measure R: Using GenderNeutral Language in the City Charter

Voters amended the City Charter in its entirety to replace gender-specific language with gender-inclusive language, including gender-neutral terms and pronouns to avoid gender stereotyping and discrimination and promote inclusivity.

Measure S: Non-citizen Oakland Residents Voting for Oakland School Board Directors

Voters amended the City Charter to authorize the City Council to adopt an ordinance that would

allow non-citizen residents to vote for Oakland School Board Directors if they are otherwise eligible to vote under California law and parents, legal guardians, or legal caregivers of qualified minor children. Currently only U.S. citizens can vote in Oakland School Board elections.

Measure T: Creates a Progressive Tax Rate Structure for Oakland Businesses

Oakland voters amended the City’s business tax code to create a progressive tax structure for businesses. Businesses with gross incomes of $1 million per year or higher will pay more than companies with $1 million or less in gross receipts going forward. This measure is estimated to generate $124 million a year in additional revenue for the City.

Measure U: $850 Million in General Obligation Bonds to Fund Affordable Housing and Housing Preservation Projects, Transportation Projects Including Street Repaving

Oakland voters approved issuance of $850 M in general obligation bonds, raising about $85 million annually. Funds generated will be directed to affordable housing and homelessness services, street repair, traffic and pedestrian safety improvements, and updates to public facilities. The measure imposes a tax on real property based on the value of the real property and improvements to pay the principal and interest on the bonds.

Measure V: Additional Eviction Protections for Oakland Tenants

Voters amended the City’s Just Cause for Eviction Ordinance (“Just Cause Eviction Ordinance”) to provide additional eviction protections for Oakland residential tenants to:

1. prohibit no-fault evictions of children and educators during the school year;

2. specifically provide eviction protections for vehicular residential facilities such as recreational vehicles (“RVs”) and tiny homes on wheels rented for residential use;

3. prohibit eviction of tenants for failure to execute a new lease agreement;

4. remove the exemption from the Just Cause Eviction Ordinance for residential units built after 1995 and instead exempt units that were built “from the ground up” within the past 10 years;

5. clarify tenants’ right to re-occupy a unit if an owner evicts them to facilitate an owner move-in eviction but the owner doesn’t reside in the unit for the time period the ordinance requires; and

6. make other changes to the ordinance to enhance protections for low-income renters from eviction.

The Just Cause Eviction Ordinance protects residential tenants from “arbitrary, unreasonable, discriminatory, or retaliatory evictions” by limiting the reasons a tenant may be evicted.

Measure W: Public Financing for Candidate Election Campaigns

Voters approved this campaign reform measure, which establishes resident public financing for City of Oakland and Oakland School Board candidate election campaigns, making public financing available to candidates for City and School Board elected offices. The measure will establish public financing for candidate campaigns by giving every voter four $25 vouchers to assign to their choice of candidates. The measure expands disclosure requirements on campaign advertisements, including on social media, and provides more funding for the Public Ethics Commission for implementation

NAACP Demands Voter Education, Recount

of the measure.

Measure W will increase transparency regarding independent spending in City elections and provide additional restrictions on former City officials acting as lobbyists.

Measure X: Charter Amendments Reforming Certain Procedures and Requirements

Measure X amends the City Charter in a number of ways, including, but not limited to: 1. establishing three consecutive term limits for Councilmembers;

2. requiring two hearings before the Council places general obligation bonds, parcel taxes or Charter amendments on the ballot;

3. authorizing the Public Ethics Commission instead of the Council to set the salaries of the City Attorney and City Auditor based on comparable positions in other California local jurisdictions and taking into account the salaries of other City department heads and the salaries of the highest paid professional employees in their offices;

4. providing that the City must budget sufficient funding for at least 14 full-time employees in the City Auditor’s Office; and 5. establishing additional qualifications and additional duties for the City Auditor.

Measure Y: Parcel Tax to Fund the Oakland Zoo

Voters passed the “2022 Oakland Zoo Animal Care, Education and Improvement Ordinance,” which imposes a 20-year parcel tax to fund zoo operations, staffing, maintenance and capital improvements. With some exceptions, residential property owners will pay an annual rate of $68 per single family unit and per unit in multiple unit residential parcels. The rate for non-residential parcels varies depending upon the type of use, the parcel’s frontage and square footage, based on a formula specified in the measure. The City Auditor’s financial analysis says the City estimates it will receive approximately $14 million in the first year based on the initial tax rates.

votes,’ terms the NAACP deemed unfamiliar to the average citizen of impacted precincts.

The NAACP is also requesting more voter education.

Scott said more voter education will “help clear up if there was disenfranchisement. Because the contrasting misinformation is that rank choice benefits voters, and it does not. So, we want to restore faith and trust in the system.”

Holy Names University Says it Will Close;

So far, the HNU administration has not responded to city leaders who have reached out with offers to help.

Many HNU staff and students as well as local residents spoke at the Council meeting calling for the university to work with the community to continue higher education at the site.

Student Kayla Argueta said, “(Closing HNU) is uprooting lives. I am urging the Council and the community to make sure this stays an education institution. To see HNU closed down or sold to developers is terrifying to think of. It is an incredibly important part of Oakland, and something must be done to make sure the legacy lives on.”

the university’s swirled around campus for the past few months, deeply worrying staff and students, made the announcement after the school closed last Friday for a holiday break, and no students were around.

The university’s Board of Trustees revealed their plans Monday in a press release produced by Sam Singer public relations. Singer has a long history as an aggressive representative of corporate clients, including Chevron in its legal battle with indigenous communities in Ecuador’s Amazon forests, and Wedgewood, the real estate company that owned the home in West Oakland taken over by Moms for Housing.

According to the press release, the Board of Trustees blamed COVID-19 and an economic downturn that disproportionately impacted HNU students for the university’s predicament.

“HNU has worked tirelessly to find pathways to help continue its mission but was forced by financial circumstances to cancel its NCAA sports programs as of the end of spring season, issue WARN ACT notices to staff beginning Dec. 1, and give layoff notices to 32 employees effective at the end of January/early February,” the press release said.

“We have been doing our best to find a partner to keep the university functioning and continue HNU’s mission,” said HNU Board Chairperson Steven Borg in the press release. “While we’ve had interest in long-term collaboration from potential partners, we do not have the type of interest that would sustain HNU in continuing to offer its own programs and services, so we are forced to make the difficult decision to close and designate a transfer institution in the best interest of our students.”

The press release said HNU is working with Dominican College in San Rafael to offer “specific pathways for students to complete their degrees at Dominican.”

Jim Stryker, chair of the HNU Faculty Senate, told the Council, “Thank you for the resolution. It is deeply appreciated by the faculty, staff, and students.”

Polly Mayer, vice chair of HNU ‘s Faculty Senate, said she was “saddened by the opportunities we are taking away from our students and faculty. It’s really a tragedy to see this educational institution close.”

Oakland Post Publisher Paul Cobb said, “I would hope the City Council and City of Oakland would work closely with the County of Alameda to support the educational infrastructure of the City of Oakland with hundreds of millions of dollars, like they are now spending on infrastructure for a stadium.”

“Since HNU is the most integrated university in the country right now, it can partner” with a

Historically Black College or University at the site, he continued.

Rev. Cheryl Ward called for the facility and property to be used for higher education purposes. “We all know there is a lack of education institutions that provide housing. The numbers of students who are unhoused is unconscionable in

when a voter gives one candidate the same ranking more than once.

Breaux also brought attention to votes being thrown out due to signatures not matching.

“Over time, especially an elder’s signature can change for health reasons, creating a shaking hand altering the signature due to arthritis or a number of health issues,” Breaux said.

Former Oakland mayoral candidate Seneca Scott believes the wording on the ballot and instructions were ambiguous at best and amount to “another variation of voter suppression.” “Our Black people are being disenfranchised and misled,” he said.

The local activist cited the June 21, 1915, case of Gwinn vs. the U.S., filed and won in the U.S. Supreme Court by the NAACP where literary tests that had barred Blacks from voting were deemed unconstitutional.

“Even though it took decades

for Blacks to have the right to vote, here we are now with the first time in Oakland history where you can choose five candidates on the ballot.” According to Scott, the registrar of voters’ website pages from 2017 -- where there were three choices – is quite different from five choices in 2022.

“How difficult is it to delete a web page?” Scott asked rhetorically, inferring that the outdated information was misleading and that he, a Cornell University graduate, and a colleague who is a New York judge found the ballots complicated.

Whitehurst said the recount is about the process and the terminology is confusing.

The NAACP is asking the City of Oakland and Alameda County to pay for the recount because of the many complaints from elders of disenfranchised communities and that a preliminary data review showed that of 20,000 votes that were thrown out over 3,000 were blank, exhausted, or ‘over-

Acts Full Gospel Church leader Bishop Bob Jackson, who opened and closed the press conference with prayer, stated the importance for the public to hear the truth about how seniors in the Black community have been impacted by unclear instructions for placing a vote with a ranked-choice voter ballot. “We simply want to find out the truth,” said Jackson.

For those questioning the NAACP’s motives since the Oakland mayoral race outcome was determined by 1% of voters with 20,000 being thrown out, and unclear ballot instructions, both Whitehurst and Adams emphasized that the recount request is more about processes and the system that supports it.

“If Martin Luther King had turned his back on the Civil Rights Movement, where would we be?” said Adams. “We are asking the County and City to do what they are supposed to do. And in the words of Congressman John Lewis, if you feel something isn’t quite right, ‘get into good trouble.’ We are going to make Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks proud of us by fighting to the end.”

A Bay City News Foundation report contributed to this story.

HNU is also talking to other institutions to support the school’s Kodály Music Program and the Raskob Learning Institute and Day School, which “will either operate independently or in partnership with a new institution after this school year,” the press release said.

Explaining the financial hole that is crippling HNU’s operations, Borg said that there is “$49 million in debt on HNU’s property, but as a 65-year-old campus, the costs of deferred maintenance and compliance upgrades could be over $200 million.”

Tuesday’s City Council resolution, written originally while Council members and community leaders still hoped to reach out to the HNU administration to help avert the school’s closure, was modified to emphasize the need to save the campus as a site for a different institution that will graduate Oakland students and provide trained staff for local employers that need well-trained workers who are culturally competent.

The revised resolution said the Council and the community would work with HNU “to ensure that higher education continues at the current site.”

this city. Should we consider dismantling higher education in that space, since it provides housing?”

HNU staffer Nancy Schulz said “HNU is a university that really walks its talk. We have community partners and discounted tuition” and have provided the region with trained mental health workers.

In her remarks, Councilmember Fife, who attended HNU, said, “It’s an amazing school. It was a safe place and sanctuary for me as a working mom.”

In September, Fife was recognized as the institution’s Alumni of the Year.

Vice Mayor Kaplan said, “It would be incredibly problematic for the community to lose access” to the institution that provides the city with educational opportunities and a well-trained workforce.

NAACP and community senior citizens attend a press conference in front of Acts Full Gospel Church of God in Christ in East Oakland.

Oakland Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan.

Oakland City Councilmember Carroll Fife.

Barbara Parker