Drivefile is a free, non-profit app built in hopes of establishing what the organization feels will be a new standard of police accountability. Drivefile (available for both Android and iPhone smartphones) generates anonymous traffic stop data that could be utilized on its own or cross-referenced with law enforcement records, enabling the scrutiny of police performance on a granular level.
Perhaps 200 years from now, someone doing research, will view this time period as a turning point in American History. It is, in fact, November, 2020 and Joe Biden will become the 46th President of the United States, and Kamala Harris makes history, on several fronts, as the first woman and person of color voted into the Vice-Presidential office.
A new video released by the attorneys of Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri appears to show an Alameda County sheriff’s deputy initially shoved him twice leading to an altercation moments after his team had defeated the Golden State Warriors in last year’s NBA championship.
The Raptors had just won their first title at Oracle Arena in Oakland on June 13, 2019, when Ujiri went onto the court to join his celebrating team.
Biden reportedly had called Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), former Ambassador Susan Rice, and three other candidates to inform them on Tuesday morning that they were not his pick. Harris had routinely been seen as the top pick, but her clashes with Biden during the Democratic debates appeared to give Biden pause.
The state of California started recognizing Juneteenth or Black “Freedom Day,” marking the emancipation of enslaved African Americans, back in 2003 as an official state observance. That was 17 years before Juneteenth became a household word across the United States this year.
For Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza, the widespread global protests and activism that followed the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by Minnesota police have been heartening — and they make her feel hopeful for the future. At the same time, she said, “It’s bittersweet that it takes someone being murdered on camera to get to the point of conversation that we’re in.”
Former NBA basketball star Al Harrington has been relentlessly working in the community to foster awareness around social equity and provide initiatives for marginalized communities through his cannabis company VIOLA. Since the inception of COVID-19, the cannabis industry has quickly expanded; as vulnerable communities rush to find alternative methods to the disproportionate healthcare system, the cannabis industry has been a source of support. VIOLA launched a recent collaboration with AKOO Clothing, owned by rapper and entrepreneur Tip Harris, on April 20. Proceeds of the capsule’s launch have been donated to the Root and Rebound’s COVID-19 Relief effort, an initiative to give back to the families affected by incarceration and injustice.
According to a March 2019 study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), more than 135,000 Black and Hispanics around the nation were displaced between 2000 and 2012. Gentrification and displacement of long-time residents were most intense from 2000 to 2013 in the nation’s biggest cities, and rare in most other places, according to the study. During those years, gentrification was concentrated in larger cities with vibrant economies but also appeared in smaller cities where it often impacted areas with the most amenities near central business districts.
Sounds of L.A., the Getty’s annual concert series exploring the city’s varied musical landscape, kicks off the 2020 season on January 18. Each month features two concerts by charismatic musicians who combine global influences in unexpected and original ways.
Celebrating its fourth anniversary, Blavity, Inc. – home to the largest network of platforms and lifestyle brands serving the multifaceted lives of Black millennials, today announced the relocation of AfroTech – the nation’s largest technology conference for African American techies and entrepreneurs – to Oakland, California. AfroTech 2019 will take place November 7 – 10, 2019 at the Oakland Convention Center and surrounding venues located in the heart of Oakland.
The film – with sentimental flashbacks of a bygone era – centers on the ongoing gentrification in California’s largest city and how it has sapped the blackness out of The Fillmore neighborhood in San Francisco, once a thriving African-American political and cultural hub in the Bay Area.
Other policies in the plan to overhaul the country’s criminal justice system include introducing a national standard for police use of force; providing incentives for states to get rid of mandatory minimums; equalizing sentencing for possession and distribution of crack and cocaine; mandating prisons to offer educational courses, vocational training as well as mental health and addiction treatment. Harris also wants to end federal laws that prohibit formerly incarcerated people from accessing housing, loans, food stamps and other public services.
In February, Gov. Newsom asked Tony Thurmond, Superintendent of Public Instruction, to set up a task force charged with looking at the impact public charter school funding has on district-run public school finances.
With the conclusion of the premium and general seating sales process for current season ticket and wait list members, the Los Angeles Chargers today announced that suites and 2020 general seating season tickets inside the team’s new LA Stadium home are now on sale to the public.
Assemblymember Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles), who is a joint-author of the Public Banking Act, responded, saying: “Californians from the grassroots to the halls of power are weary of a corporate banking system that doesn’t work for them. Wall Street needs people-powered competition, and a public bank for public good is the right place to start. Council President Herb Wesson has been a bold champion of public banks for many years, and I couldn’t be more grateful for his leadership and the support we’ve seen from so many others across the state.”