Striking UC graduate students picket human resources headquarters in Riverside

The ongoing strike is starting to disrupt undergraduate classes, research and grading at the University of California system's 10 campuses as they move toward final exams and holiday breaks. At the system's second-largest school, UC Berkeley, hundreds of striking academic workers picketed a main entrance while passersby cheered, and a supportive band jammed on the lawn.

Book Review: Winning the War to Secure Multiracial Democracy

When "What are you?" does come up — via strangers at the gym, on the bus, in Walmart — I take a deep breath and dive in. "Well, my mother's paternal grandmother emigrated to the U.S. from what would now be called Iberia," I begin, to the dismay of everyone involved.

As America becomes more racially diverse and social taboos against interracial marriage fade, a new Pew Research Center survey finds that majorities of multiracial adults are proud of their mixed-race background (60%)  and feel their racial heritage has made them more open to other cultures (59%). 

SLO County students’ test scores fall after COVID pandemic

For virtually every societal problem, there is likely to be a corresponding public policy. For example.
SLO County students’ test scores fall after COVID pandemic 

2023 Grant Round Open: African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund

2023 National Grants Now Available!
African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund
Today, the National Trust’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund opened the Letter of Intent (LOI) period for its 2023 National Grant Program. Grants provide a range of funding from $50,000 to $150,000 for ongoing preservation activities for historic places like sites, museums and landscapes that represent African American cultural heritage. Learn more about the 2022 grantees.

Through its National Grant Program, the Action Fund supports projects focused on African American cultural heritage, including capital projects, organizational capacity-building, project planning, and programming and interpretation. There are new priorities for this grant round. 

Apply here: African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund #TellTheFullStory

Last day to Register, California!

Today, October 24th, marks the last day to register. However, same-day voter registration will still be available on Election Day.

As we experience constant attacks on our democracy, it's so very important that we get everyone to the polls, and elect pro-choice candidates who are committed to fighting for our fundamental rights. 

Mail Ballot Drop-Off Map – San Bernardino County Elections – Registrar of Voters 

Hard truths about deinstitutionalization, then and now

By1975 board-and-care homes had become big business in California. In Los Angeles alone, there were “approximately 11,000 ex-state-hospital patients living in board-and-care facilities.” Many of these homes were owned by for-profit chains, such as Beverly Enterprises, which owned 38 homes. Many homes were regarded by their owners “solely as a business, squeezing excessive profits out of it at the expense of residents.” Five members of Beverly Enterprises’ board of directors had ties to Governor Reagan; the chairman was vice chairman of a Reagan fundraising dinner, and “four others were either politically active in one or both of the Reagan [gubernatorial] campaigns and/or contributed large or undisclosed sums of money to the campaign.” Financial ties between the governor, who was emptying state hospitals, and business persons who were profiting from the process would also soon become apparent in other states.

The majority of mental hospitals in California closed in the late 1990s, when former Republican Governor Pete Wilson formed a task force to examine state hospitals operations. The task force discovered that the populations of many state hospitals had dropped drastically and the per-capita cost had skyrocketed to over $100,000 annually. 

SB 145 Myths and Facts

California's 2020 Senate Bill 145 aims to eliminate inequality in sex offender registration requirements, fact-checkers report

In September, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 145 into law. The bill prevents young adults engaging in non-vaginal sex with a minor within 10 years of their age from being automatically added to the sex offender registry, and allows a state judge to make that decision instead, PolitiFact explains. The bill was described by Senator Scott Weiner as an "anti-discrimination law" as it protects LGBTQ people from facing automatic registration as sex offenders. Senate Bill 145 does not legalize pedophilia, fact-checkers from The Associated Press, Reuters, PolitiFact and Snopes report.