July 2020

By Lori Carter, July 1,2020, Press Democrat. Santa Rosa police will begin collecting demographic data on people its officers stop earlier than state law requires in an effort to quantify and ultimately prevent racial profiling. Chief Ray Navarro said Wednesday the department is working to begin gathering certain demographic details about pedestrian and traffic stops by 2021, one year earlier than required by the state Racial and Identity Profiling Act. The law, passed in 2015, gave smaller...

By Michael Burke, EdSource, July 1, 2020 Los Angeles Unified will cut $25 million from its school police, reducing the department’s budget by more than one-third following several weeks of protests from Black students and activists who have called on the district to reform its police force. The district’s school board voted 4-3 late Tuesday to make the cuts, which will take effect immediately in L.A. Unified’s 2020-21 budget and result in the layoffs of 65 officers, in addition to...

By Jill Cowan, The New York Times, July 1, 2020 For Californians, the economic devastation wrought by the pandemic has only deepened existing inequality. When we asked what you wanted to know about how the pandemic is reshaping life in the Golden State, Erin Durham, a former San Franciscan now living in Europe, asked about the kinds of social programs she’s seen there, or whether California might implement one that has recently gained traction: a universal basic income . “I believe that the...

By Betty Marquez Rosales, EdSource, July 1, 2020 With reduced work hours and a baby on the way, Maraya Bermudez stocks up on groceries for the week at the food pantry on her community college campus. She frequented the Fullerton College food pantry sparingly during the school year, but she now goes every week to pick up bags that often include rice, beans, vegetables, fruits, milk and snacks. A former foster youth, she has also been eligible for debit cards from her college that she can use...

By Clyde W. Yancy, MD, MSc 1 , JAMA. Published June 30, 2020. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.12532 E choes of “medicine as the noble profession” continue to resonate, now 35 years since my legendary Chair of Medicine imbued me with this guiding ethos. Nobility in medicine is not obsolete; the selflessness, courage, self-sacrifice, and altruism on gallant display in the response to COVID-19 reassures that at its core, this ethic of egalitarian service remains intact and deeply established in the DNA...