Permanent East Palo Alto police chief Jeff Liu was appointed to the job last week, city officials said.
Liu, quien comenzó su carrera policial como oficial en el departamento en septiembre de 2000, fue designado para el puesto más alto, dijo el administrador de la ciudad, Melvin Gaines, al Concejo Municipal de East Palo Alto en su reunión del 18 de abril.
Liu was promoted to sergeant in 2009, major in 2015 and acting chief in 2021.
Su nombramiento fue el resultado de un extenso reclutamiento y un proceso de selección que involucró a miembros de la comunidad, personal de la ciudad y el consejo, según funcionarios de la ciudad.
«Con más de 20 años de experiencia trabajando aquí en la ciudad de East Palo Alto, Jeff ha demostrado un compromiso inquebrantable con nuestros residentes», señaló el vicealcalde Antonio López.
Liu es miembro de la junta del Centro de Investigación de Ciencias Forenses de la Universidad Estatal de California East Bay y de Wine Country Marines. También es instructor en el entrenamiento y desarrollo de cadetes de policía en academias de policía en toda el Área de la Bahía.
«Me gustaría tomarme un momento para agradecerles a ustedes, mi comunidad, por su apoyo durante todos mis años en East Palo Alto, durante los últimos dos años cuando serví como su jefe interino y durante mi proceso de selección para el puesto permanente como Jefe de Policía», refirió Liu en un comunicado este lunes.
A su vez, refirió además que la comunidad y el Concejo Municipal «sin duda ayudaron a convencer a nuestro Administrador Municipal de que yo era el mejor candidato para servir como su jefe de policía».
«La semana pasada, el administrador de la ciudad de Gaines lo hizo oficial y me nombró su jefe de policía. Me siento profundamente honrado por la selección y espero construir nuestro departamento en colaboración con usted», puntualizó.
During Peninsula Restaurant Week, Bay Area residents and visitors can enjoy nine days of a wealth of culinary offerings at 62 establishments throughout the area, and everything is ready for that.
From May 19 to 27, food lovers can enjoy Peninsula Restaurant Week, a gastronomic extravaganza that connects locals with neighborhood gems and Michelin-starred restaurants across the peninsula.
The event seeks to bring people new culinary experiences through local restaurants that have won the hearts of those who visit them, thanks to their flavor and service.
After the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic, now is a great time to support restaurant, bar, and winery owners and workers from South San Francisco to Los Altos and the coast.
Additionally, participants will be able to win gift cards to local restaurants, which will be chosen at random.
Among the dishes that diners will be able to enjoy are Californian, American, Asian, Chinese, French, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, and Thai.
While 62 establishments participate, reservations are strongly recommended, but walk-ins are welcome and appreciated.
To make a reservation, diners should contact the restaurants for availability and inquire about Restaurant Week specials. To see the list of participating restaurants in click here.
Man Arrested After Alleged Burglary In San Mateo County, he was arrested early Friday morning, April 21, after he allegedly broke down the door of a stranger's apartment, according to San Mateo police officials.
At about 3 a.m. Friday, a woman called police to say the man, later identified as Robert Najera, 32, was allegedly trying to enter her apartment in the 200 block of East 3rd Avenue and had broken down the door to get in, police said.
Najera allegedly pushed the locked door hard enough to break the frame and damage the lock, entered the apartment and asked the woman if he could stay because someone was chasing him, according to San Mateo police.
The woman told him to leave and called police after he allegedly refused, at which point Najera allegedly fled, police said.
Officers then found him near East 5th Avenue and South B Street and took him into custody.
After the woman identified Najera as the suspect, officers arrested him and booked him into the San Mateo County Jail on suspicion of vandalism, according to police.
Medical abortion remains legal in California and throughout the US.
A preliminary injunction by the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday preserves the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval of the abortion pill mifepristone two decades ago until the high court hears the full merits of the case.
“The U.S. Supreme Court is right to take this action to protect access to medication abortion,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “For now, the Court has followed science, data, and the law rather than an extreme and out-of-touch political agenda.”
Ahead of the Supreme Court's highly anticipated decision, California Democratic lawmakers and members of the state's Abortion Future Council met Tuesday to reaffirm the state's commitment to protecting abortion rights.
"We want people to know that we are here and we remain steadfast in our resolve to respond appropriately," Newsom said during the news conference.
Backed by Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, Sen. Pro Tem Toni Atkins, Attorney General Rob Bonta, Legislative Women's Caucus Chair Sen. Nancy Skinner and other top Democrats, Newsom announced his intention to introduce legislation that would mitigate any future legal action in California.
Newsom intends to introduce legislation to protect pharmacists who dispense abortion pills and strengthen the state's drug supply chain, but he could not offer details Tuesday.
In a joint statement, Legislative Women's Caucus Leaders Skinner and Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry praised the Supreme Court's stay.
“Mifepristone must remain legal and accessible, and we will continue to fight any legal action that seeks to cut off access to this proven and safe medication,” the statement said.
The Supreme Court’s one-paragraph order is a positive signal for the FDA and mifepristone makers, said Henry Greely, a law professor at Stanford University. In considering a stay, the court must weigh four different criteria: the likelihood that defendants will win an appeal, the likelihood that defendants will suffer irreparable harm if the stay is denied, the balance of harm caused to others and the public interest.
"To grant a stay, you're supposed to find all the elements," Greely explained.
Greely was one of 20 FDA lawyers who signed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to grant a broad stay of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals' decision last week to reinstate significant restrictions on mifepristone use pending a full court hearing. The order, however, falls far short of indicating what the high court thinks about the merits of the case, Greely noted.
“We know the Supreme Court is not enamored of abortion. This is not a pro-choice court. That would count in favor of the plaintiffs here, but the court’s conservatives are also concerned about the district court’s broad overreaching opinions,” he said. “But predicting what the Supreme Court will do is about as useful as betting on horses.”
Friday's preliminary injunction halts a lightning round of conflicting rulings that has played out in lower courts over the past two weeks, allowing mifepristone to remain on the market without restrictions. The Fifth District Court has already scheduled a first hearing in the case for May 17.
In a statement, Attorney General Bonta underscored the state's commitment to fighting legal challenges to abortion and offered words of encouragement.
"I hope that this decision is an indication that better days are ahead for our country," Bonta said.
California lawmakers, however, will have a difficult time preventing the original Texas federal court decision from affecting abortion access and providers in the state if it ultimately stands. The Texas court case that precipitated the Supreme Court order challenges the FDA’s authority to approve pharmaceutical drugs for the market — a challenge that transcends state lines, regardless of partisan politics.
"The reality is we are not immune," said Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California President Jodi Hicks.
The recent court decisions have clearly disrupted California’s carefully laid plans to protect abortion rights, with officials scrambling behind the scenes to prepare and react. The state did not join a separate lawsuit by the Eastern District of Washington state in which a federal judge ruled that the availability of mifepristone should remain untouched in the 17 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia that were part of the case.
Bonta said Tuesday that the state's decision was "intentional" and "deliberate" to stay in the FDA's good graces rather than "sue the federal government."
"We believe that there should be states that cooperate with the federal government," Bonta said.
Representatives from the Washington and Oregon attorneys general offices, which are leading the case, declined to confirm whether California was asked to join the suit. However, several FDA legal scholars questioned why California did not join the litigation, which seeks to permanently eliminate the “overly burdensome regulation” that includes additional paperwork and certification requirements for doctors and pharmacies to prescribe the drug.
“To my chagrin, California and New York are not in that lawsuit. I’m dying to know why,” said Jennifer Olivia, co-director of the health law, science and policy consortium at UC San Francisco School of Law. “Sometimes a state decides not to join the lawsuit because the risk might be that the ruling would make the current situation worse, but there really wasn’t a risk of that happening here.”
The Supreme Court's order Friday also avoids creating a conflict with the Washington state ruling, which for a week ordered the FDA to do the opposite of what the Texas ruling mandated.
Bonta, who has signed briefs defending the FDA in the Texas case, said he believes the “best path to defend the FDA’s authority” is through the Texas case.
Olivia, who also signed the FDA legal scholars’ amicus brief, said the outcome of the Supreme Court order is the “best-case scenario” for abortion advocates.
Dr. Jennifer Kerns, an associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at UC San Francisco, said the Supreme Court's decision to uphold broad access to mifepristone was "a huge relief."
“I’m shocked, really shocked. All the different message threads I’m on with people at work, people are speechless,” Kerns said. “Thank God he’s preserving access while this moves through the courts.”
Hours before the decision, patients who visited the clinic for abortion medications expressed concern about what might have happened if they had come a couple of days later, Kerns said. The order gives abortion providers a glimmer of hope, Kerns noted, but everyone is still acutely aware of how tenuous abortion access remains.
"We all still think that if this goes to the Supreme Court, it won't go in our favor, but at least there's enough thought that, for now, there may not be enough legal basis to support this latest attack on abortion," Kerns added.
In anticipation of a ruling restricting the distribution and use of mifepristone, several states have also stockpiled the drug to circumvent a law that prevents interstate shipment. But the ruling leaves a gray area over whether pharmacists can dispense pills that are already on hand. Newsom previously announced a state stockpile of up to 2 million misoprostol pills with 250,000 doses currently on hand.
Mifepristone, the drug locked in court battles, blocks the pregnancy hormone progesterone, while misoprostol causes the uterus to empty. Misoprostol can be safely used alone to end a pregnancy, but the medical standard of care for the past two decades has been to use both drugs together for abortions and miscarriages.
Julia Spiegel, Newsom’s deputy legal secretary, said the state intentionally stockpiled misoprostol instead of mifepristone because its legality is not in question. Lawmakers wanted to ensure that medication abortion would remain accessible “no matter what happens in the courts” in case other states’ rush to buy misoprostol leads to shortages, Spiegel said.
On Tuesday, Newsom told reporters that California also has an “ample supply” of mifepristone. A spokesperson later clarified that pharmacies across the state have enough mifepristone on hand to meet demand, but there are no stockpiles.
The state Legislature is considering more than two dozen abortion bills this session, most of which strengthen privacy protections for medical records and abortion providers and prohibit state law enforcement from sharing information with states that oppose abortion. The Future of Abortion Council, a political powerhouse of reproductive rights advocates and lawmakers, supports 17 of this session’s bills.
Last year, the Legislature passed 16 abortion bills, including language for a ballot measure enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution, which two-thirds of voters approved last November.
CalMatters political reporter Alexei Koseff contributed to this story.
En el marco del Día de la Tierra, jóvenes celebraron un seminario web en el que seis organizaciones del condado de San Mateo promueven la acción climática.
«Youth for Climate Policy» –Jóvenes por la política climática– se llevó a cabo con el objetivo de mostrar a los adolescentes la manera en que pueden influir de manera eficaz en los líderes de los gobiernos locales para combatir el cambio climático.
The event was presented by Sustainable San Mateo County y co-patrocinado por 350 Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action, Acterra, Citizens’ Climate Lobby y Peninsula Clean Energy.
En el seminario se presentaron antiguos alcaldes de ciudades locales que dieron consejos y explicaron a los jóvenes cómo se hace la política a nivel local y contaron sus experiencias en la promoción de políticas de sostenibilidad.
En su oportunidad, Shayna Blum, estudiante de Burlingame High, contó su experiencia en distintos proyectos en pro del medio ambiente y señaló que «muchas personas quieren ayudar, pero no saben cómo empezar», evidenciando la necesidad de que los jóvenes sean guiados para realizar aportaciones que disminuyan la huella de carbono en sus comunidades.
Asimismo, Blum señaló que «comúnmente se le dice a los jóvenes que tienen que resolver el cambio climático, pero no se les dan las herramientas necesarias para hacerlo». Y es que aunque es evidente que actualmente existen jóvenes preocupados por el cambio climático, no se les han proporcionado las herramientas que necesitan para lograr un cambio.
Sin embargo, a pesar de ello, en los últimos años se ha observado a los jóvenes realizar protestas, campañas e incluso impulsar iniciativas en pro del cuidado ambiental.
Por su parte, Jayden Wan, estudiante de Burlingame High, animó a los jóvenes a tomar acción y ser partícipes de programas en pro del cuidado ambiental. Además, Wan recomendó que a nivel local, los jóvenes realicen propuestas para atender problemas reales de sus comunidades.
En ese sentido, Christine Kohl-Zaugg, directora ejecutiva de Sustainable San Mateo County —SSMC, por sus siglas en inglés—, explicó los programas con los que cuenta la organización, entre los que se encuentran un reporte de indicadores en el que se lleva a cabo un análisis de resultados de temas de sostenibilidad, unos premios que buscan aumentar el interés sobre temas de sostenibilidad e inspirar a otros a tomar acción, un banco de idas sostenibles para los condados y negocios locales, un tablero de sostenibilidad en el que se observa el progreso anual del Condado de San Mateo y «La hora feliz» en la que cada mes se realizan reuniones virtuales para educar a la comunidad acerca de temas de sostenibilidad.
Además, en la reunión estuvo presente Josh Becker, senador del Estado de California del distrito 13, quien animó a los jóvenes a tomar acción en contra del cambio climático y señaló que ha estado haciendo grandes esfuerzos en pro del medio ambiente,
En el evento estuvieron presentes Kirsten Keith, Mark Olbert, Terry Nagel y Georgi Laberge, quienes además de contar su experiencia trabajando en pro del medio ambiente, dieron consejos a los jóvenes para presentar sus ideas ante los condados de sus comunidades y que finalmente, animaron e invitaron a seguir haciendo esfuerzos en contra del cambio climático.
In recent years, mortality rates among children and adolescents in the U.S. have risen sharply, raising concerns among experts.
From 2019 to 2021, infant mortality increased by 10.7 percent one year and 8.3 percent the next. However, despite what one might think, the COVID-19 pandemic has not been the main cause of this phenomenon.
Among the most common causes of the increased mortality rate among children and adolescents in the US are drug overdoses, suicide, homicide and traffic accidents.
“One might be tempted to think that this has something to do with COVID-19. That is obviously the time period that this occurred, but our analysis found that COVID-19 actually explained relatively little of this increase, these have been caused by trends that predate the pandemic, in some cases predating the pandemic by many years,” said Steven H. Woolf, professor of Family Medicine and Population Health at the School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. Virginia Commonwealth University.
In a press conference organized by Ethnic Media Services, the expert pointed out that between 2019 and 2021, deaths in children between 10 and 19 years old increased by 39 percent in the case of homicides, 114 percent due to drug overdoses and 16 percent due to car accidents.
Firearms, one of the main culprits
In her opportunity, Kim Parker, director of Social and Demographic Trends of the PEW Research Center, commented that in 2021, 60 percent of the deaths of children and adolescents were caused by homicide, while 32 percent were by suicide, both with firearms.
In this regard, Parker pointed out that there is a big difference between the deaths of children from African-descendant communities and white children, since the majority of deaths of African-descendant children are due to homicide, while those of white children were due to suicide.
"African children and adolescents are much more likely than whites, Hispanics and Asians to die from firearm-related injuries," he said.
Kelly Sampson, senior advisor and director of Racial Justice at Brady United, said that many of the issues facing the U.S. regarding firearms have a lot to do with issues like white supremacy and racism.
Sampson recalled that "for example, the Supreme Court has taken a decision based on centuries of precedent to convert the Second Amendment from a civic right in defense of the State to a private right related to self-defense. And self-defense is racially coded in American culture."
In this regard, he noted that Nature magazine published an article demonstrating how society thinks about people who carry firearms in public.
This showed that society considered white people who carried a firearm to be heroic, while those belonging to communities of color did so because they had to protect themselves.
The need to protect the mental health of children and adolescents increases
Due to recent incidents involving firearms, such as school shootings, parents have expressed concern about their children's mental health.
Parker noted that a PEW Research Center survey found that 22 percent of parents are very concerned that their child might be shot, while 42 percent of Hispanic parents said they were extremely or very concerned — about a third of African-American parents have the same level of concern — and nearly 70 percent of parents are at least somewhat concerned that a shooting might occur at their child’s school.
Mayra Alvarez, president of The Children's Partnership, said that children and adolescents "are dying from preventable causes" and stressed the importance of families having easy access to various basic services, noting that the stress caused by these services is one of the reasons why children die.
"We need to make it easier for families to enroll in public benefit programs and access the health care, food, housing and other support they need because all of these issues affect the mental health of our families, the stress, the depression, the anxiety that occurs when parents can't afford to pay for a child's food, rent or when they can't take their children to the doctor, all of these interconnected issues that relate to the fight against poverty and what that poverty contributes to these numbers today," she concluded.
Two Bay Area schools are among four statewide and 26 nationwide with Green Ribbon honors for their efforts to reduce environmental impacts and improve health and wellness, the Department of Public Safety announced this week. US Education
Bellarmine College Preparatory, una escuela jesuita privada en San José, y Redwood High School in Redwood City received the honor along with elementary schools in San Diego County and Orange County.
«Nuestras Escuelas Green Ribbon del Departamento de Educación de EE. UU. de 2023 han elevado el nivel de prácticas sostenibles, eficiencia energética, salud y bienestar, y experiencias de aprendizaje práctico que mejoran las habilidades de resolución de problemas de los estudiantes y fomentan un sentido de administración ambiental y responsabilidad cívica», dijo el secretario de Educación, Miguel Cardona, en un comunicado.
Los ganadores del premio, que serán invitados a una ceremonia en Washington, DC para celebrar, también fueron elogiados por el Superintendente de Instrucción Pública de California, Tony Thurmond, quien dijo que «ejemplifican modelos de vanguardia para mejorar la calidad del aire interior, las aulas al aire libre y toda la educación ambiental escolar».
La directora de Bellarmine, Sonya Arriola, dijo que «está enormemente orgullosa de nuestro compromiso institucional con la sustentabilidad ambiental… Es nuestro deseo más profundo que nuestros estudiantes y la comunidad vean este reconocimiento como un llamado continuo a la acción: usar sus talentos colectivos para estudiar y en última instancia, abordar los complejos desafíos que enfrenta nuestro mundo en torno al clima y la sostenibilidad».
Bellarmine señaló que su campus incluye un jardín para la instrucción de cursos al aire libre, utiliza productos biodegradables y otros productos ecológicos en el campus y tiene sistemas de paneles solares en la azotea.
Redwood High School fue honrada por sus programas, incluido el hecho de tener un compañero de educación al aire libre que trabaja a tiempo completo para administrar el jardín escolar e integrar las ciencias ambientales en el plan de estudios de la escuela. La escuela también cuenta con un bosque de alimentos orgánicos con un invernadero y un gallinero diseñado y construido por los estudiantes.Puede encontrar más información sobre el programa Green Ribbon Schools en el sitio web https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/fa/sf/greenribbonprog.asp.
These are the local news from April 15 to 21 that you need to know to stay up to date.
The weather has warmed up, making it perfect for outdoor activities. There are plenty of reasons to enjoy the parks, trails and forests throughout the Bay Area. Don't miss out on the many activities to enjoy with your family, partner or alone.
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The San Mateo Police Department (SMPD) is investigating a shooting in the city of San Mateo that occurred during the early morning hours of Friday, April 14.
At approximately 12:58 p.m., SMPD patrol officers responded to a call in the unit block of 37th Avenue for the report of a shooting. Upon arrival, officers located a 26-year-old male victim who had a minor graze on his ankle after being grazed by a gunshot.
SMPD launched an investigation and quickly learned that this was an isolated and specific incident, and is now working to bring all those responsible to justice.
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The San Mateo Police Department is investigating a robbery at a local business on Friday, April 14.
That day, at approximately 9:19 a.m., San Mateo Police officers responded to the 1900 block of S. El Camino Real for a reported robbery. Upon arrival, officers learned that two unknown subjects wearing ski masks robbed a male victim at gunpoint.
The victim was uninjured. Officers quickly determined that the suspects fled the scene prior to their arrival.
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Elementary teacher in San Bruno is accused of sexually assaulting two elementary schools, he was arrested Friday on suspicion of assaulting at least three of his students.
Jeremy Yeh is charged with one felony count of lewd acts with multiple students between 2016 and 2019, according to San Bruno police.
Three victims have been identified and interviewed by detectives and police believe there may be additional victims.
Yeh has been a teacher at Allen Elementary School and El Crystal Elementary School since 2016. El Crystal Elementary School closed in 2018 due to budget issues.
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San Jose police broke up an alleged illegal street race Sunday night and arrested several people.
The spectator event, also known as a sideshow, took place at Almaden Road and Curtner Avenue, according to police.
Air support was used to help coordinate a response by patrol officers, who swarmed the area around 11:20 p.m.
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The San Mateo County Sheriff's Office is looking for a man who displayed a firearm in the parking lot of a Safeway supermarket in Millbrae to intimidate a person in his vehicle.
And it is that, on Friday, April 14, at approximately 11:00 p.m., agents from the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office were sent to the Safeway convenience store, located at 525 El Camino Real, under a report of a man with a gun.
According to authorities, the caller reported that he was parked in the Safeway parking lot when an unknown suspect stepped in front of his car, lifted his shirt, exposing his waistband, and a black handgun was visible.
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This Saturday, April 15, the largest and oldest farmers market on the Peninsula, Kiwanis, began its 2023 season, bringing together local producers and artisans who offer a wide variety of high-quality products.
On this occasion, the market created in 1979 by four members of the community, has extended its hours to be open every Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on the 500 block of Argüello Street.
The farmers market offers a great opportunity to support local farmers and artisans.
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This Tuesday, at 5:12 a.m., the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management (DEM) and local authorities gathered at the historic Lotta Fountain in the center of the city to commemorate the 117th anniversary of the 1906 earthquake, an event that marked the beginning of a series of activities to prepare society for disasters of this nature.
Thus, starting today and until April 22, there will be a series of activities that include preparation workshops, culminating in a fair that will feature an earthquake simulator, gifts, and a lunch for the first 350 participants.
The commemoration of the anniversary of the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906 at Lotta's Fountain, which is where many San Franciscans gathered 117 years ago for support after the devastating earthquake, began at 5:12 a.m., the exact time the earthquake struck back then.
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A 29-year-old man has been sentenced to 90 years in prison for raping 3 different women in San Mateo County in 2020, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Alejandro Guevara was convicted in December on multiple counts of forcible rape and other charges for sexual assaults that took place in June, July and August 2020, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office.
Guevara was arrested at his mother's home in Redwood City following an August 2020 case in which a woman in her 60s was found raped and beaten unconscious along El Camino Real in San Mateo.
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San Mateo County officials on Tuesday cut the ceremonial ribbon to celebrate the opening of the Navigation Center, which will provide 240 safe, temporary housing spaces for homeless individuals and couples.
Located in Redwood City, the Navigation Center is designed to serve up to 260 homeless San Mateo County residents who may be reluctant to go to traditional shelters.
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San Mateo Police Department (SMPD) officers arrested a man for vehicle theft and possession of a firearm after initiating a pursuit of the 26-year-old suspect, a resident of Oakland.
On April 17, at approximately 8:42 p.m., SMPD officers learned of a stolen vehicle traveling westbound on Peninsula Avenue, which they later located parked on Woodside near Studio Circle, where officers attempted to contact the driver, but the driver fled.
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The Oakland Police Department has alerted residents and visitors to a wave of armed robberies and carjackings that has been occurring throughout the city and is urging them to take precautions.
The Oakland Police Department (OPD) has been receiving an increased number of reports of these two crimes, so they issued a security notice to inform about this alarming change.
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San Francisco Police Department officers from the Tenderloin station arrested Joseph Benjamin, a man involved in hate crimes on the city's public transportation system, better known as Muni.
Officers then arrested Joseph Benjamin, 44, who was booked into San Francisco County Jail on two counts of assault against a transportation worker or passenger and two counts of hate crimes.
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The director of a math tutoring center in south San Jose has been arrested for alleged possession of child pornography depicting the sexual abuse of children, police said Thursday.
Deoel Credo Noveno, 30, was arrested April 11 after an investigation by the Silicon Valley Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force determined he possessed and distributed the abusive materials using various social media applications, San Jose police said.
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The state Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) has officially approved Redwood City’s recently adopted Housing Element, leading Governor Gavin Newsom to grant the city a Pro-Housing Designation.
“Under the strong leadership of the City Council and the diligent work of staff, I am pleased to share that Redwood City is the first city in San Mateo County to officially have an approved housing element,” said Melissa Stevenson Diaz, City Manager of Redwood City.
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Millbrae police officers arrested a Taylor Middle School sixth-grade teacher on Thursday on multiple charges of sexually assaulting minors who are or were students at the school.
On Thursday, April 20, Sheriff's detectives arrested Matthew Garrett, 54, at his home in San Francisco, and he was booked into the Maguire Correctional Center on the above charges, with bail set at $5 million.
The Governor Gavin Newsom has directed the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and the California National Guard (CalGuard) to identify personnel and resources to disrupt fentanyl trafficking in San Francisco, strengthening police presence and public safety.
In this regard, CHP, CalGuard, and the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) will be working together to address this serious health problem.
The agreement will lead to the formation of a new collaborative operation between the four agencies focused on dismantling fentanyl trafficking and disrupting the supply of the deadly drug in the city by holding operators of large-scale drug trafficking operations accountable, the state government said.
“Two truths can coexist at the same time: San Francisco’s violent crime rate is below comparably sized cities like Jacksonville and Fort Worth, and we must also do more to address public safety concerns, especially the fentanyl crisis,” said Governor Gavin Newsom.
“We are taking action. Through this new collaborative partnership, we are providing more law enforcement resources and personnel to crack down on crime related to the fentanyl crisis, holding street vendors of poison accountable, and increasing police presence to improve public safety and public trust in San Francisco,” he added.
For her part, the mayor of San Francisco, London Breed, said that although the Police Department and the District Attorney have partnered to address the problem and increase law enforcement, local agencies may need more support.
As part of this agreement, the Governor has directed CHP to identify ways to assist SFPD, including by allocating CHP personnel and resources to assist local law enforcement in combating the fentanyl crisis through technical assistance, training, and drug trafficking enforcement in key areas of the city, including Solomillo.
Additionally, Newsom has directed CalGuard to identify specialized personnel and resources to support the analysis of drug trafficking operations, with a particular focus on disrupting and dismantling fentanyl trafficking networks. Following the identification of personnel and resources, a multi-agency operation will be initiated.
Today's partnership will not seek to criminalize those struggling with substance abuse and will instead focus on holding drug suppliers and dealers accountable.
San Francisco has seen an alarming rise in fentanyl-related deaths, with overdose deaths up more than 40 percent from January to March of this year alone.
Fentanyl-related deaths have been largely concentrated in or near the city's Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods.
According to a recent analysis of large U.S. cities and urban counties by the San Francisco Chronicle, of the places examined, San Francisco had the second-highest overdose rate in the country along with the second-highest fentanyl overdose death rate in 2020.
Mexico and the United States are not only united by economic relations or migration: violence also mercilessly plagues both territories, which, in addition to a common history, share murders, shootings, kidnappings and forced disappearances.
That is why a delegation of activists and social organizations from both countries met on April 17 and 18 with congressmen and senators from the United States, as well as with the federal undersecretary of health, Rachel Levine.
At the meeting, María Herrera, a mother searching for children, and Marco Castillo, co-director of Global Exchange, discussed the problem of violence on both sides of the border and urged the need for the United States Congress to approve in the coming weeks the Weapons Law that would stop the legal export of weapons to police and military units that have proven links to corruption.
In turn, they presented to the U.S. representatives the 12 demands that bring together more than 300 organizations that met last February in Mexico City, on the occasion of the "Peace Summit," where activists and organizations of women, Afro-descendants, migrants, mothers and fathers of missing persons, human rights defenders and lawyers, discussed at length the problem of violence in the United States and Mexico.
Among the demands are the creation of a binational body to monitor and oversee compliance with Human Rights; stopping the legal and illegal flow of weapons from the United States; joint work between the United States and Mexico to guarantee a dignified quality of life where security, peace and justice prevail in their places of origin, transit and destination; as well as reducing the need for people to make the decision to migrate, among others.
"We can no longer remain silent, we can no longer tolerate so much violence on both sides and the idea is to promote this Peace Summit, to put it on the binational agenda and that is our fight," said José Ugalde, father of a man who disappeared in September 2015 and whose remains were found on the outskirts of the state of Querétaro, Mexico, in December of that year.
For his part, Marco Castillo reported during a press conference to announce the results of the meeting with the American legislators, that they showed great openness and recognized that violence derived from weapons is a serious problem that affects both countries.
«Eighty percent of weapons come from the United States and in that sense the United States government has a huge responsibility. In the coming weeks, the United States Congress will be discussing the Weapons Law; it is a law proposed by Congressman Joaquín Castro, which would have the mandate of stopping the flow of weapons from the United States to Mexico, stopping the legal export of weapons to police and military units that could have links to corruption or organized crime,» said Castillo.
The organizations and activists who met at the “Peace Summit” will continue to discuss in the coming weeks how to make the demands that unite them widely known; in addition, they will seek to meet with the presidential candidates from Mexico and the United States who will challenge each other at the polls in 2024.
"We are certain that 2024 must be our year, the year in which all these just and historic demands of civil society are at the forefront of the minds of those who aspire to govern us in each country," concluded José Ugalde.
