In its first six weeks of operation, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) seized enough fentanyl in San Francisco—more than 4.2 kilos—in the Tenderloin and immediate surrounding area of San Francisco to potentially kill 2.1 million people, nearly triple the city's entire population.
Authorities also seized more than 957 grams of methamphetamine, 319 grams of cocaine and 31 grams of heroin, in addition to making 92 felony and misdemeanor arrests, including charges related to fentanyl possession, illegal possession of firearms, driving under the influence and domestic violence.
Así lo informó este jueves el gobernador de California, Gavin Newsom, quien señaló que, según la Administración de Control de Drogas, una dosis letal de fentanilo es de 2 mg.
«Estoy orgulloso de los esfuerzos salvavidas de CHP y CalGuard para cerrar la tubería de veneno de Tenderloin y responsabilizar a los traficantes de drogas. Estos primeros resultados son prometedores y sirven como un llamado a la acción: debemos hacer más para limpiar las calles de San Francisco, ayudar a quienes luchan contra el consumo de sustancias y erradicar el fentanilo de nuestros vecindarios», subrayó.
A medida que CalGuard continúa mapeando las redes de sindicatos del crimen, los miembros del servicio han revisado una cantidad significativa de información policial para ayudar a las agencias locales a construir casos a gran escala.
En ese sentido, se espera que más métricas que cuantifiquen el impacto de CalGuard estén disponibles en el futuro a medida que se desarrollen los casos.
Anteriormente, Newsom ordenó a las agencias estatales tomar otras medidas iniciales para mejorar la seguridad pública y abordar el deterioro en San Francisco.
Entre los esfuerzos, destacan el Control de Bebidas Alcohólicas ‒ABC, por sus siglas en inglés‒ el cual está desarrollando un plan para implementar recursos adicionales para abordar los problemas de deterioro en Tenderloin, incluidos el merodeo y el graffiti, que rodean las licorerías, las estaciones de servicio y los mercados que tienen licencias ABC.
Además, Caltrans dijo estar incrementando sus esfuerzos de eliminación de grafiti, mejorando y reemplazando la señalización y aumentando las medidas de mantenimiento y embellecimiento en los corredores de alto tráfico.
A su vez, se ha asignado personal para ayudar a facilitar el desarrollo del plan estratégico de San Francisco para abordar los desafíos de la ciudad con los mercados de drogas al aire libre.
Lanzada por el gobernador Newsom el 1 de mayo de 2023, la operación conjunta de seguridad pública en San Francisco sirve como un esfuerzo de colaboración entre varias agencias, incluidas CHP, CalGuard, el Departamento de Justicia de California, el Departamento de Policía de San Francisco y el Fiscal de Distrito de San Francisco.
La operación se centra en atacar el tráfico de fentanilo, interrumpir el suministro de la droga mortal en la ciudad y responsabilizar a los operadores de las redes de narcotráfico.
La ciudad de San Francisco volverá a ser sede del World Cup Village ‒Villa de la Copa Mundial‒, en esta ocasión femenil, evento en el cual se proyectarán cuatro partidos de la contienda, además de ofrecer diversas actividades para toda la familia.
The nonprofit Street Soccer USA, in partnership with the City of San Francisco, is leading the production of a public screening of four 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup matches at iconic downtown locations.
En la Villa habrá camiones de comida, comerciantes locales, actuaciones, actividades, música en vivo y más, todo ello alrededor de las pantallas gigantes.
Únase al evento que celebra la diversidad cultural y la vitalidad de San Francisco.
Las sedes y fechas de la Women’s World Cup Village incluyen:
El Cruce, ubicado en el 200 de Folsom st., donde el 21 de julio se transmitirá el encuentro entre los equipos de EE. UU. y Vietnam a las 18:00 horas. Mientras que el 10 de agosto se pasará el partido de cuartos de final en el mismo horario.
Plaza Embarcadero, ubicado en Market st. y Steuart st., donde el 26 de julio se transmitirá en las pantallas la disputa entre EE. UU y Países Bajos en punto de las 18:00 horas.
Paseo JFK en 14th Ave. East Meadow, en el Parque Golden Gate, será la sede para la transmisión de la ronda 16 el 5 de agosto a las 19:00 horas.
Amidst a lion dance, drums and a dinner celebrating the Heroes of API Caucus in San Mateo County, the organization's vice president and also Redwood City Mayor Jeff Gee, called to not only stop hate against the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) community, but to push it back across the area.
Photo: P360P
In that sense, Gee invited the community to stand up against acts of hate to make San Mateo County a better and safer place to live.
San Mateo County API Caucus is an organization founded in 2018 that seeks to support the API community and elected and appointed API officials, and also advocates and supports policies that promote the goals and aspirations of the API community in San Mateo County.
On June 9, the San Mateo County API Caucus held its first Caucus Heroes Awards Dinner, where the lucky winners of the Ashland Award were recognized.
Photo: P360P
«Ashland was 14 when she founded the first anti-Asian hate rally in San Mateo", Jeff Gee recalled.
Also honored at the event were Supervisor Dave Pine and former Peninsula Healthcare District CEO Cheryl Fama, who launched a hepatitis B campaign in San Mateo County..
Photo: P360P
And, he said, talking about hepatitis in the county is an important topic since it ranks fourth in terms of the number of hepatitis B cases in all of California.
Likewise, the work of other organizations such as the Chinese-American Association of American Citizens (OCA) was recognized for its 50th anniversary, during which time it has advocated not only for the Chinese-American community, but for the entire API community.
Photo: P360P
The mayor of Redwood City recalled the work done by the API legislative group in California, which has managed to obtain resources to track hate crimes, not only against the API community, but in general.
Another important organization that has been working hard in recent years is Stop AAPI Hate, which was recognized for its fight against hate in the Asian American and Pacific Islander community.
At the event, attended by around 200 people, to discuss what can be done together for the API community and for San Mateo County, Jeff Gee called for joining forces to continue implementing measures that support a society of respect and unity.
Photo: P360P
«I am very honored to be the Mayor of Redwood City and to be part of the API Caucus, I am also honored to be part of Casa Círculo Cultural and the best thing we can do to push back on hate and make San Mateo County a great place to live is to work together across demographics, across the Latinx community, across the Jewish community, across the API community, across the Black community, and across the LGBTQ+ community, to be able to have conversations, work together and know where there are issues and incidences to push back on hate together.", he pointed out.
The API Caucus Heroes Night in San Mateo County becomes a memorable event by bringing together so many people who seek to end acts of hate for the API community but also for all communities that may feel vulnerable to racism, harassment or violence.
This publication was supported in whole or part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.
Throughout Latin America, writers who once relied on magical realism to capture the region's realities are increasingly turning to science fiction and fantasy.
For countries in the Global North, the term polycrisis has become something of a dark cloud over the horizon. The concept is increasingly the stuff of dystopian fantasies about a future in flames due to the convergence of multiple global and existential challenges.
In Latin America, the polycrisis has defined much of its history, and where writers once turned to magical realism, many are increasingly turning to science fiction to describe that reality.
Speculative, fantasy or imaginative literature – in other latitudes called science fiction – has a series of young representatives throughout Latin America who write to explore, from a different point of view, the harshest and most difficult realities of a continent accustomed to crises, poverty and corruption.
“A very common mistake is to confuse what we are doing in Latin America in terms of non-mimetic literature with magical realism,” explains, not without a hint of irritation, Mexican writer and editor Libia Brenda. “Many in the North think that if it is not the science fiction they know, then it must be magical realism.”
What writers like Alberto Quimal and Gabriela Damián Miravete (Mexico), Fernanda Trías and Mariana Enríquez (Argentina), Ignatio de Loyola Brandao (Brazil), or Liliana Colanzi and Edmundo Paz Soldan (Bolivia) are doing as literature today, has little to do with what Gabriel García Márquez, the greatest exponent of Latin American magical realism, did.
Writers like García Márquez, whose most emblematic novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, takes place in the fictional town of Macondo, always said that their literature was imbued with their reality, lives, stories, past, with the magical and extraordinary element that is not explained or commented on, it only exists in a natural form. In contrast, the current boom in Latin American literature delves into themes as varied as horror and environmentalism, technology, dystopia and fantasy.
According to some observers, these new works focus less on reconciling the past than on making sense of a tense and uncertain future.
"The region is finding in its literature the futures that its politicians are unable to imagine," writes writer Jorge Carrión in an essay in the New York Times. The title of the essay is "Latin American Literature Takes a Turn Toward the Future."
In other words, Brenda says, “we do our own thing here.”
A “fantastic literature of another order”
This speculative literature, also known in other circles as "science fiction" - although this term is used more in the English-speaking world than in the Spanish-speaking world, at least to define what is done locally - is also quite different from what is done in the English-speaking world.
"The new mythologies, which readers undoubtedly need, are constructed by writers through hybridization... of indigenous worldviews with the masters of feminism, of technology with humor, of the essay with science fiction," Carrión's essay continues.
"A distinctive feature of Latin American science fiction is the combination of elements that we experience and therefore write about very naturally," explains Brenda.
"Something that is done a lot is mixing fantasy with science fiction and fantasy not understood in the framework of unicorns or dragons, but rather fantastic literature of a different order," he adds.
An example in the Mexican context is the story by Gabriela Damián Miravete, “Soñarán en el jardín” (They will dream in the garden), which can be read on the pages of the online magazine latinamericanliteraturetoday.org.
In the aforementioned garden live the pearly silhouettes ‒the “holographic memorial”‒ of women and girls murdered and disappeared in Mexico, in a past that, by the time of the story, has already been overcome.
In a country where at least ten women and girls die or disappear every day due to gender-based violence and domestic violence (official figures are rather conservative), Damián Miravete's story imagines a future in which women organize themselves and stop the murders.
Ursula K. Heise, a professor in the Department of English at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), points out that in Latin America, "what has attracted attention has been the attention paid to social scenarios rather than to science and technology" in so-called science fiction or "speculative" fiction, which is what many prefer to call this type of narrative.
Artificial Intelligence interpretation of the holographic garden from the work “They will dream in the garden”, by Mexican writer Gabriela Damián Miravete, via Ethnic Media Services.
“If you think of people like Ignatio de Loyola Brandao in Brazil, science fiction becomes a way of articulating political critique, right?” Heise explains. “His great novel from 1981, Nao Verais Pais Nenhum, is about a somewhat futuristic Sao Paulo, where the whole Amazon has been deforested. It’s incredibly hot, and it’s all a metaphor for the military dictatorship of the time.”
Heise also refers to the Bolivian Edmundo Paz Soldán who "has thought about a lot of science fiction that arises in the context of having to write about oppressive forms of government under conditions of censorship."
Paz Soldán has written about what is apparently a future society or a society on another planet, but is in fact a veiled criticism of the conditions in her own country at the present time.
In 2005, Argentine Pedro Mairal wrote a novel that has become a cult classic, "The Year of the Desert," in which a force called the elements attacks the city of Buenos Aires, "where chaos reigns, food rots, epidemics break out, and women see their rights curtailed."
"It's hard to know exactly what this is referring to," Heise explains. "But the most plausible interpretation is that it refers to the collapse of the Argentine economy in 2001 and perhaps an indirect way of dealing with the dictatorial past and European colonialism."
looking for answers
Argentine writer Mariana Enríquez, known as "the queen of gothic realism" and winner of multiple awards in Spanish and English, explained it this way during an interview with El Economista de México:
"What is happening in the region, and it is a problem for many horror writers, is that the volume is already very high. We are experiencing a horror that is quite difficult to explain from a realistic perspective. It seems to me that fiction, and especially horror fiction, helps to obtain answers," he says.
The dystopian futures present in much Anglo-Saxon science fiction reflect the growing anxieties that many Latin Americans have long grappled with, Heise says.
"People in the Third World, in the developing world, in the Global South, so to speak, are already experiencing the problems of widespread waste, of climate change, of poverty, of hunger, of desertification, in a way that the Global North is just beginning to experience, but not yet," Heise notes.
And it is there, in that literature born from a complicated present, an uncertain future, and a tradition of fantasy and imagination that goes back to indigenous traditions and colonial and imperialist influences, where perhaps one can feel some echoes of other literary traditions such as magical realism and the inevitable extinction of Macondo.
This report is part of a special series exploring how global societies and diaspora communities in the US are coping with the “polycrisis», a term increasingly used to describe the confluence of current and emerging global crises. It has been funded by a grant from the Omega Resilience Awards.
Photo: Courtesy of the Redwood City Library Youth Center
The Youth Center of the redwood city library has unveiled a new mural, which is a work by artist Misha, a Woodside High School student who won the contest to decorate one of the walls of the space.
“We couldn’t be happier with our new Teen Center mural!” the Redwood City Library said in a statement.
The educational and recreational space thanked its collaborators and the judges from the Redwood City Arts Commission and the art department at Sequoia High School.
Last but not least, she thanked Misha for her inspiring vision of reading, creativity and the world they both encompass.
“We love our new mural! Stop by the Teen Center to see it in person.”
Those interested in seeing the mural can go to the Teen Center located on the second floor of the Redwood City Library located at 1044 Middlefield Rd, Monday through Thursday from 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., and Saturdays from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
In the space, teens can find new gaming consoles and free use of headphones, controllers and chargers, as well as study supplies, printers and free-to-use computers.
Likewise, young people can be part of the Anime Club, Teen Makers Club, game tournaments, courses and more.
The contest was sponsored by Friends of Redwood City Public Library, a volunteer organization that sorts, scans, and prices thousands of books, manages online book sales, and operates bookstore and other sales to support library programming or other library goods and services.
It also funds community and library programs such as Summer Learning Challenge, Authors, Traveling Storytime, Little Learners, Baby/Children/Teens, Arts and Crafts, Cultural Events, Job Seeking, Music and more.
With a career spanning 22 years in San Mateo County, Captain Mark Myers has been named the new City of San Carlos Police Chief, who will bring his wealth of experience and deep understanding of the needs of the community to the attention of the residents of the town.
«Estoy realmente emocionado de embarcarme en este nuevo viaje como el Jefe de la Policía de San Carlos. Como residente del Condado de San Mateo, la oportunidad de servir en este papel me llena de un profundo sentido de propósito. Me siento honrado de haber sido confiado con esta responsabilidad y estoy y estoy comprometido a mantener los más altos estándares de profesionalismo, integridad, y la comunidad compromiso con la comunidad», subrayó el capitán Myers.
EL capitán Myers ha sido una parte integral de la Oficina de Policía de San Carlos desde su creación en 2010, cuando la ciudad seleccionó a la Oficina del Sheriff para los servicios de policía.
The San Mateo County Sheriff's Office, quien anunció el nombramiento, refirió en un comunicado que Myers ocupa un lugar importante en la historia de la aplicación de la ley en San Carlos, siendo uno de los primeros ayudantes del alguacil asignados como ayudante de patrulla en la ciudad.
Agregó que, a lo largo de su carrera policial, ha desempeñado diversas funciones cruciales, demostrando su versatilidad y compromiso con la seguridad pública.
Desde patrulla y correccional, hasta oficial de entrenamiento de campo y miembro de la Unidad de Supresión del Crimen y SWAT, el capitán Myers ha demostrado constantemente habilidades excepcionales y profesionalismo en cada esfuerzo, abundaron las autoridades.
«Quiero dar mi más sincera enhorabuena al capitán Myers por su excepcional trabajo y su merecido nombramiento como Jefe de la Policía. Y bien merecido nombramiento como Jefe de los Servicios de Policía de la Ciudad de San Carlos», refirió la sheriff Christina Corpus.
La alguacil destacó que, a lo largo de su mandato, «el capitán Myers ha demostrado constantemente inquebrantable una dedicación inquebrantable, un liderazgo excepcional y un profundo compromiso con la seguridad pública».
Tunitas Creek Beach. Image from San Mateo County Parks Department YouTube video.
The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will consider awarding a construction contract that would transform the 58-acre Tunitas Creek Beach into San Mateo County's new regional coastal park.
The project was long planned for a scenic stretch of sandy beach framed by cliffs visible from Highway 1.
Turning Tunitas Creek into the new coastal park involves creating trails and scenic overlooks, as well as adding picnic tables.
Additionally, plans include improved parking and the construction of public restrooms, ranger facilities, and interpretive displays and signage.
Tunitas Creek Beach is located about eight miles south of Half Moon Bay and was purchased from a private owner by the Peninsula Open Space Trust in 2017 and sold to the county in 2020.
It is worth noting that through donor support and ongoing fundraising, Peninsula Open Space Trust has contributed millions toward development and construction costs.
Following an extensive public outreach process, County Parks along with partners Peninsula Open Space Trust and Coastal Conservancy unveiled a preferred design that seeks to balance recreation with environmental stewardship.
Project design and permitting costs were funded through a grant from the California State Coastal Conservancy.
The county received three bids for the project, with the lowest being $11,593,710. The project would be paid for with funds from the county's Capital Projects Fund, San Mateo County Measure K funds and a Proposition 68 grant from the California Department of Parks and Recreation.
The Board will consider the contract at its regularly scheduled meeting at 9:00 a.m. this Tuesday, June 13, where members of the public will be able to participate in the meeting in person or remotely via the Zoom platform.
The meeting will be held in the Board Chambers at 400 County Center in Redwood City.
Nearly 3,500 voting centers are being prepared for the upcoming presidential elections in Guatemala. Photo: TSE Guatemala
Judges of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) of Guatemala announced the list of the 3,482 voting centers enabled in the country, which will have 24,000 polling stations for the population to cast their vote on June 25, when the presidential elections will be held.
In addition to this number of voting centers, there are those for voting abroad, where registered Guatemalans will be able to go to the electoral districts defined in the United States. In total, there are 24,585 polling stations available for the 2023 general elections.
According to the presiding magistrate of the TSE, Irma Elizabeth Palencia Orellana, the majority of the voting centers will be located in the department of Guatemala, with more than 400 centers.
And, just for the municipality of Guatemala, 123 voting centers and 5,336 tables were allocated, since it is the one with the most registered people, with 2,115,260 citizens who can cast their vote.
The voting centers will be set up in schools, colleges, municipal halls, sports centers, among others, the Electoral Court itself reported in a statement.
Likewise, the electoral authorities indicated that they have carried out the verification process so that the places comply with accessibility for the inclusive casting of votes and provide proper attention to people with disabilities.
At the moment, the TSE is finalizing the details to announce the location of the voting centers that will operate in the United States, covering 15 cities, where compatriots will be able to cast their vote to elect their next president and vice president of the Republic of Guatemala.
It should be noted that since June 1, the information has been published on the website https://elecciones2023.tse.org.gt/, in the “WHERE YOU VOTE” tab, so that citizens can consult the voting center that corresponds to them to cast their vote.
Acts of hate and racism have existed in many forms throughout history, they continue to grow and claim millions of innocent lives, and although it is impossible to repair the loss of a loved one, it is necessary to seek measures to form a society more sensitive and exchange hatred for acts of healing and compensation that manage to ensure a better future for anyone.
This is what experts pointed out during a press conference organized by Ethnic Media Services, who They pointed out that documenting and validating the acts that cause trauma to the people affected are key to raising awareness in society and generating change.
Helen Zia, author and founder of the Vincent Chin Institute, said that acts of hate should be taken as a learning and change process, as was the case of Vincent Chin, a young man who was beaten to death by two men who blamed him for his economic situation. It was an act of hate towards Japan, but it claimed the life of an innocent Asian-American.
For Zia, the healing process came about through a community strengthened by creating new organizations, forming new generations of activists working together against racism, injustice and hatred. “That’s what has been generated as an act of unity.”
“Today I am starting to do something, it is part of my job to document this. But also to be an active agent for change, using my journalistic skills to make the community heard, to help Vincent Chin’s mother who was willing to speak out through her suffering and became an example for the Asian American community,” she stressed.
James Taylor, Professor of African American History, spoke about acts of hate that have harmed communities throughout history, such as slavery, which lasted for many years. But this is only one of many acts suffered by African descendants, which is why there must be legal measures that seek to repair these acts, not as a favor but as compensation for the damage done.
"Reparations are about healing and reconciliation, fixing what has been broken. And the truth is that people of African descent always seem to be hurting," she said.
For Professor Taylor, acts of reparation are already taking place in society and today there is nothing that can stop them. All communities must be supported to continue moving forward, not only in society but also legally before governments.
For his part, Nestor Fantini, editor and sociologist, former political prisoner in Argentina, shared his experience in the South American country and how he experienced inhumane acts during this time.
"People were kidnapped and taken to concentration camps. There were more than 300,000 missing people and 500 babies who were kidnapped," he said.
The sociologist shared a saying he heard at a conference in South Africa: “Only the individual who suffered harm has the authority to forgive, no one but him. Forcing a victim to make a certain decision is re-victimizing the victim. Not the state or the judge, only the individual can forgive,” he said.
For Fantini, acts of reparation are necessary, however, one cannot repair the life of someone who has already lost it, one can never repair the absence of a loved one, but society cannot be locked into these events, one must speak about what has been experienced so that others know what is happening and the guilty are punished before the law.
The experts agreed that reparations are not the result of acts of hate, but rather the consequences of what has been experienced. Therefore, it is necessary to document, expose these acts and analyze them throughout history in order to better understand them and thus seek measures that restore the injured communities.
Compensation to repair acts of hate is necessary; ignoring or forgetting would only leave more room for continuing to hurt innocent people. However, the issue should not focus on how to compensate society. It is necessary to generate acts that prevent hatred towards vulnerable communities, form a society based on respect, have measures that guarantee legal justice, support associations that promote equality and get governments involved to be part of the solution. This is what we must focus on as a society.
This publication was supported in whole or part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.
