The Institute of Museum and Library Services -IMLSannounced this week that the Redwood City Public Library is among 30 finalists for the 2021 National Medal for Museum and Library Service, becoming the only institution in California selected as a finalist for the award.
"IMLS' revival and reinstatement of the National Medals is another sign of recovery and renewal in very challenging, but very hopeful, times for the nation," said IMLS Director Crosby Kemper.
He added that, with this medal, he is celebrating not only the continued excellence of the best of the nation's museums and libraries, but the "extraordinary efforts through pandemic, recession, racial justice protests and national divisions to serve, heal and unite our communities."
The National Medal is the nation's highest award given to museums and libraries that demonstrate a significant impact on their communities.
Notably, for more than 25 years, the award has honored institutions that demonstrate excellence in service to their communities.
"The Redwood City Public Library has always prided itself on its creative and innovative approaches to fulfilling its mission of nurturing community by welcoming all people to experience the shared joys of literacy and learning," said Diane Howard, Mayor of Redwood City.
He also noted that the library's success in working toward the community's aspirations of inclusion, equity, awareness, safety and education has always been significant to the community, "but the library's services were truly a lifeline for residents during the incredible challenges of the past year."
To celebrate the recognition, IMLS is encouraging members of the Redwood City Public Library community to share stories, memories, photos and videos on social media as part of the campaign. Share Your Storyusing the tag #IMLSmedals.
National medal winners will be announced later this spring, and representatives from the winning institutions will be honored for their extraordinary contributions during a virtual National Medal Ceremony this summer.
For a complete list of finalists and more information about the National Medal, visit https://www.imls.gov/.
Starting Monday, March 22nd, Caltrain will offer free transportation for all those who need get to a vaccination site to receive the inoculation within the counties of San Mateo, Santa Clara and San Francisco.
The Bay Area rail system will provide the benefit free of charge, until further notice, to people who show proof of an immunization appointment or an immunization card, which will allow them to board the train.
"Since the beginning of the pandemic, Caltrain has helped ensure that essential workers and riders who rely on public transportation can stay on the move and get where they need to go," Caltrain's director of rail operations, Michelle Bouchard, said in a news release, which noted the importance on Caltrain for free transportation.
She noted that by offering free transportation to and from the vaccines, she hopes to eliminate cost barriers so that all those living in the three counties will have access to the vaccine.
Caltrain's free service joins VTA and SamTrans, which already offer free rides to vaccination sites in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, respectively.
Mills College, a very prestigious women's liberal arts college with a 169-year history located in Oakland, California, will close to new students to possibly become an institute.
I have been fortunate enough to participate as a guest lecturer at Mills College's Research Justice at the Intersections (RJI) for a year now, and it has been a profound and enriching experience, despite the pandemic and the virtuality.
Unfortunately, due to the economic burdens of the COVID-19 pandemic, structural changes in higher education, and declining enrollment, as well as Mills' budget shortfall, the college will no longer be accepting freshmen beginning fall 2021. That's a real shame.
It was founded in 1852. Mills College provided transformative learning opportunities for many people, broke barriers, forged connections and changed lives.
In recent years, women's colleges have suffered declining enrollment and several have had to close or become coeducational to survive. These colleges top the rankings for the most racially diverse student bodies, and several educate large numbers of low-income and first-generation students.
Mills, for example, has actively recruited students of color, especially those from surrounding areas like Oakland, and has tried to reduce tuition costs. Mills has also worked to provide a safe campus for transgender students.
The group I belong to focuses on interdisciplinary research at Mills College that fosters social justice-oriented research and innovative critical analysis.
RJI encourages scholars to consider new forms of knowledge production that challenge traditional research hierarchies, mobilize the leadership of those directly affected by the phenomena under investigation, and recognize and engage with subaltern forms of knowledge.
This group is just one example of Mills' mission: promote women's leadership, advance gender and racial equity, and foster critical and creative thinking.
But major changes are coming. "Mills must begin to move away from being a degree-granting college and become an institute that upholds the Mills mission," said Mills College President Elizabeth Hillman. The "transformation" of Mills College is a blow to fair and equitable education, as it will close to new students to become an institute.
The closing of universities like Mills is part of a crisis of values in the United States in general, manifested in the cruelty of the use of excessive violence towards certain specific groups - African Americans, Asian Americans, Native American Indians, women, people of the LGBTTTIQ+ community - as we saw with the murder of George Floyd, the massacre of Asian women in Atlanta, the indigenous women in Montana who continue to disappear.
Just when the recognition of ethnic diversity and the fight against white supremacism and sexism is more necessary than ever. Just when the best weapon and defense against racism and sexism is education; the closing of Mills College, as a center of educational specialization whose priority is social justice, does not contribute to the formation of a more just society. This loss is regrettable.
Today's news marks the end of an era in Mills College history. "It is likely to provoke a variety of reactions and emotions in you, as it has in me," wrote Elizabeth Hillman.
The statement has sent shock waves through students, teachers and my colleagues at RJI. It is sad.
"We're all devastated but the students are really hurting."
said an associate professor of Ethnic Studies.
In the coming months, faculty, administrators, staff and others will discuss the future Mills Institute that will be grounded in the principles of the college, prioritizing racial justice and the voices of women and people of color.
Hosted by Connie Guerrero and Rudy Espinoza Murray, this time on We Vote: Ever Rodriguez. However, before giving way to the guest, Peninsula 360 Press, in their live broadcast, the anchors offered a moment of silence due to the unfortunate massacre that occurred in Cherokee County, Atlanta, Georgia, where eight people lost their lives - seven of them women and, in total, six of Asian origin.
Peninsula 360 Press, from its We Vote broadcast, condemns any act of violence, as We Vote broadcasts are characterized by the inclusion of the opinion and message of members of different ethnic communities.
In this edition of We Vote, we had the presence of Ever Rodriguez, president of We Vote. North Fair Oaks Community Alliance and North Fair Oaks Council Member to discuss the urgent issues in managing the non-San Mateo County city's COVID-19 response, noting that at the last health issues session, North Fair Oaks had only 10 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began and the number suddenly increased by 500 cases.
Ever Rodriguez told We Vote that North Fair Oaks, with a population of about 15,000, is home to 75 to 80 percent of the Latino community, he said. Ever Rodriguez told We Vote that he was disappointed by the response of health authorities in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Ever Rodriguez said on We Vote that he has repeatedly lobbied health officials for resources such as SARS-CoV-2 testing and updated data to effectively serve the North Fair Oaks community.
We Vote is produced live by Peninsula 360 Press on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. on all of our social media platforms. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to follow live broadcasts of We Vote, with Connie Guerrero and Rudy Espinoza Murray.
Every day, fear and uncertainty grows among members of the Asian-American community throughout the country, as xenophobic and racist attacks against them are increasingly continuous, due to the ignorance of many, who believe that because they are from the continent where the SARS-CoV-2 virus emerged, they are responsible for the pandemic that today afflicts the world.
The recent attack at a spa area in Atlanta, Georgia, that left eight people dead, including six women of Asian descent, has reignited the debate in the country about hate crimes against people with Asian roots, which have reached nearly 3,800 nationwide since the pandemic began, according to a report released Tuesday by the organization Stop AAPI Hate.
The San Francisco State University-based project, which asks members of Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities across the country to self-report acts of hate and discrimination, found that, of those attacks, 1,226 incidents occurred in California and 708 in the Bay Area alone.
The organization also notes that the most incidents in the Bay Area -292- took place in San Francisco, while the cities with the second and third highest number of attacks were San Jose -58- and Oakland -55-.
The report issued by the organization in February this year highlighted that, from March 19 to December 31, 2020, the attacks reported across the country amounted to two thousand 808; while, as of February 28, 2021, the incidents grew to 3 thousand 795, which means an increase of 987 more cases in just the first 59 days of this year.
This reflects that, despite the efforts made, even from the White House, to contain the hatred against the Asian community, they have simply not been enough, because every day the acts are more frequent and violent.
At the beginning of the year, the people of San Francisco and the country were outraged by the attack suffered by a 91 year old man who was violently pushed to the ground in public, a situation that became known due to the enormous diffusion of a video that captured the moment.
At that time, the co-founders of Stop AAPI HateManjusha Kulkarni, executive director of the Asian Pacific Planning and Policy Council, Cynthia Choi, co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, and Russell Jeung, professor of Asian American studies at San Francisco State University, said they were outraged by the "disturbing" incidents that the community has suffered.
"These violent assaults have a devastating impact on our community, as they are part of an alarming rise in anti-Asian American hatred during the COVID-19 pandemic," they said.
Such incidents, they said, are stark reminders that urgent action must be taken to protect the AAPI community from hate, discrimination and violence.
"It is up to all of us - business, government and community partners - to come together and immediately support the victims and families affected by these incidents, and to work together to create lasting solutions that empower our communities with resources, support and education," they stressed.
One by one, the cases have shown the hatred that exists against a community that has also been strongly affected by COVID-19.
Cynthia Choi said one of the reasons the numbers of attacks are high statewide in California is because the state has large concentrations of Asian-American communities.
He also told KQAD that the Asian-American community has reported that the actions taken by law enforcement agencies to prevent further incidents are insufficient, "we believe that the reporting of such incidents is insufficient in general".
Choi noted that there is often a distrust among affected communities to report hate crimes in order to avoid trouble.
"In general, it goes unreported because there is distrust of government, including law enforcement. And there is data showing that even when people report crimes or incidents that could potentially be racially motivated, their experiences have not been positive," she stressed.
The expert pointed out in the interview that most of the incidents with the community have been hate speech and harassment, problems that do not reach the level of a hate crime, but still have long-term damaging impacts on people.
"Just because it's not a crime doesn't mean it doesn't cause harm. We received reports from families who reported that their elderly parents were walking around the neighborhood as they traditionally did ... being harassed, accosted and, in some cases, assaulted," he concluded.
San Mateo County is targeting its efforts to bring the COVID-19 vaccine to communities most affected by SARS-CoV-2 by moving away from mass vaccination sites and placing doses in smaller, targeted clinics.
"Census district data shows us exactly which neighborhoods are being most affected by COVID-19. That's why we are focusing our vaccination efforts by providing clinics in hard-hit zip codes and getting a greater number of doses in the neighborhood they live in and in the language they speak," said Board of Supervisors Chairman David J. Canepa.
And, community clinics will generally operate on regular hours, which will allow for better outreach to residents and more opportunities to schedule appointments. So many clinics will also be able to vaccinate eligible residents without pre-scheduled appointments.
"We look at the data and want to focus on neighborhoods where vaccination rates are lower than the county overall," said Anand Chabra, chief of the county's COVID-19 Immunization Division.
"We're trying to reach people where they live and in a format that makes sense to them. As much as possible, we want to remove barriers to getting vaccinated," she added.
This week, county-sponsored or supported community immunization events will be held in East Palo Alto, South San Francisco, Belle Haven and North Fair Oaks. County Health is planning community clinics next week and expects to announce additional locations soon.
This focus on community clinics will allow the county's Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to plan for expanded mass vaccination sites when more doses become available.
Notably, since January, clinics at the San Mateo County Event Center and San Francisco International Airport have often vaccinated between three and four thousand residents per day, according to the immunization supply.
However, the county stressed in a statement that it expects to be able to increase daily capacity at these sites significantly when vaccine supplies improve.
"The county's priority, especially through an equity lens, is to vaccinate all residents when they're eligible, and that means we need to take the fight to where the battle is," stressed Warren Slocum, whose fourth supervisorial district includes East Palo Alto, North Fair Oaks and Belle.
Through various health care providers, community clinics, partner organizations and County Health, the County has successfully immunized one-third of adults in San Mateo County with at least one dose.
"Ensuring equitable access to vaccines must be our top priority," Supervisor Dave Pine said. "Administering additional vaccines within our vulnerable communities is key to stopping the spread of the virus."
In addition to the additional focus on community clinics, County Health will continue to support vaccination for homeless, prisoners, and those with state-identified medical conditions, as well as the other groups eligible under state Phase 1A and 1B.
Eligible residents of the selected communities or groups will be contacted by the county or outreach partners.
Those who wish to be vaccinated should register on the county's notification tool, as well as the state's MyTurn, to be informed of vaccination opportunities when eligible.
San Mateo County, led by the Office of Emergency Services, has begun developing the updated Multi-Jurisdictional Local Hazard Mitigation Plan to address hazards such as earthquakes, flooding, extreme heat and landslides.
In response, the county has asked for residents' help in identifying solutions to problems associated with natural hazards.
For Phase 1, the County invites the public to participate in the hazard mitigation plan by completing a survey about natural hazard risks in San Mateo through the link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RG5GTPS, and then attend the first virtual public workshop on Thursday, March 25 at 4:00 p.m. at https://cmo.smcgov.org/events/march-25-2021-preparing-hazards-san-mateo-county-local-hazard-mitigation-plan-public-workshop.
The county detailed in a release that an updated Multijurisdictional Local Hazard Mitigation Plan will serve as an important foundation for a more resilient and sustainable area.
"The plan looks at how San Mateo County and its planning partners can reduce the impact of natural hazards such as earthquakes, flooding, extreme heat and landslides," he said.
He added that once approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the plan ensures that San Mateo County and its partners remain eligible for grant funding for pre- and post-disaster mitigation projects.
This, he said, through FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Assistance programs and other non-emergency disaster assistance, such as the agency's new Building Resilient Communities and Infrastructure (BRIC) program.
The current San Mateo County Multi-Jurisdictional Local Hazard Mitigation Plan expires in September 2021, as each plan is updated every five years.
The planning process will be organized in three phases and each phase will include opportunities for public comment and input.
Phase 2 will begin in May-June, with an evolving and interactive component of the project website. In addition, there will be a Steering Committee meeting on May 24, 2021 and June 28, 2021 at 2:00 pm. To which residents are also invited.
For Phase 3 to be held in July-August, it will be possible to attend the second public workshop on July 22, 2021 at 4:00 pm, as well as attend another Steering Committee meeting on July 26, 2021 and August 23, 2021 at 2:00 pm.
Without the recently approved U.S. bailout plan that includes the $1.9 trillion financial relief package pushed by President Joseph Biden, the substantial hardship and uncertainty in the national economy that millions of Americans have endured over the past year would have worsened even more, especially among African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans.
So said Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Chief Economist Chad Stone, who added that the economic relief plan will address three points: First, getting the SARS-CoV-2 virus under control so that the economy and life in general can operate more safely and normally.
Two, to alleviate the uncertainties and hardships that have been experienced by many Americans over the past year, and which would have worsened had this relief not been enacted; and third, it provides a substantial stimulus to an economic recovery that, frankly, has stalled halfway back to full employment.
During a briefing held by Ethnic Media ServicesThe expert stressed that programs that alleviate hardship and give money to people who will spend it quickly, such as unemployment insurance and nutrition assistance, are very useful in stimulating economic activity and employment once it is safe to return to work.
"Controlling the virus is the most important thing to deal with the difficulties, but there will also be stimulus that will put us back on the path to recovery," Chad Stone stressed.
This law, he said, expands the availability of nutrition assistance to help address extraordinarily high levels of hunger and poverty, in addition to making comprehensive health coverage more affordable and accessible to millions of people during the current crisis.
And, he recalled, the support includes critical housing assistance for millions of people struggling to pay rent and avoid evictions, as well as providing much-needed funds for communities to cope with homelessness during the pandemic, and emergency funds to help families with the lowest incomes.
"I should stress that all of these provisions are short-term, they are not permanent. But they provide guidance on the kind of policies that we might want to see in the future on a permanent basis," he stressed.
Regarding unemployment insurance, he said the expansions in unemployment benefits in the pandemic have been "an imperfect miracle," as they have been substantial, but temporary.
In that regard, he explained that the rescue plan extends through September 6 three key unemployment programs: The first, additional weeks of benefits to people who exhaust their regular state benefits; The second, called the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Program, which is really important for people who don't qualify for regular state benefits; And the third, a federal supplement of $300 a week to regular benefits for all unemployment programs.
"These measures ensure that no one is at risk of running out of unemployment benefits before finding a job, but only through the week ending Sept. 6," he said.
Finally, he pointed out that it will be necessary to wait for Congress, before going on its summer recess, to analyze the economic conditions and decide whether it is reasonable to let these benefits expire on September 6 or to extend them.
Healing and moving forward
Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, who represents Illinois' 8th District, said the package "will help our economy heal and, of course, help America recover from the health crisis, and I think it's a great victory for the American people.
He further stated that local aid is basically necessary for two reasons: one, because sales tax revenues and other sources of tax revenue have declined dramatically for many states and local municipalities in the jurisdictions.
He noted that those governments, in particular, face one of two choices: raise taxes or cut services, or potentially do both, "but neither of those options is acceptable during a pandemic.
"Yet because of our inaction to this point at the federal level, 1.4 million government workers have been furloughed, many of whom are first responders needed to fight COVI-19," he stressed.
He said the reality is that many of these governments need additional revenue and to fill gaps, so taxpayers should be spared tax increases or cuts and services.
A Plan that gives children a hand
At the meeting, Elaine Maag of the Urban Institute Policy Center noted that economic impact payments, sometimes called clawback rebates, and an increase in the child tax credit are cash benefits that will help a large share of low-income families.
He explained that in 2021, researchers at the Urban Institute estimated that poverty would be around 14 percent unless action is taken. This figure hides some important differences, because while white families would have a poverty rate of less than 10 percent, black families would have a poverty rate of 18 percent, while in the case of Hispanic families the percentage rises to 22 percent.
In that sense, he said that the American Rescue Plan will reduce these rates substantially. The poverty rate for white families would be reduced by 26.4 percent, for black families by 10.5 percent and for Hispanics by 13.3 percent.
"In other words, the law would reduce the poverty rate for children by 7.0 percent, which is a larger cut than that projected for adults 18 to 64 or for those 65 and older."
He added that poverty harms children throughout their lives, as early brain development is affected, resulting in slower and stunted growth. "They get worse jobs, their health is worse and they live shorter lives."
He said all of those things are bad for the children affected, but also for society, because before the pandemic, child poverty was 11 percent. "So it's gone up during this pandemic, but the American Rescue Plan would bring the poverty rate for children well below pre-pandemic levels.
However, he stressed that it is not just a question of relatively high poverty, as the situation has exacerbated other problems, such as financial and food insecurity, which has almost doubled in the case of families with children.
"Nearly a quarter of families with children report not eating a balanced meal or skipping meals or reducing portion sizes because they don't have enough money to eat."
The story is worse for families with African-American or Hispanic parents, where about four in 10 families reported being food insecure, and about 17 percent of renters reported being behind on their payments.
"The problem is the lack of cash, people need unrestricted funds to catch up."
Elaine Magg stated that President Biden's American Recovery Plan expands the credit in four important ways: number one, the credit will be fully refundable. Families will receive the full value of the credit, even if they don't work; number two, the credit will now include children who are 17; and number three, the maximum credit will increase for most families from two thousand dollars per child to three thousand six hundred dollars per child under the age of 6.
The need for a minimum wage
ROC United President and CEO Dr. Sekou Siby explained that 27.1 million service workers are women, people of color and immigrants, while more than one-third of the nation's service workers do not have enough money to make ends meet.
12 percent of service workers live below the poverty line, of which 85 percent are, again, women, people of color and immigrants. Overall, 17 percent of all service workers rely on public strategies, such as food stamps and Medicaid, while working longer hours just to make ends meet, she said.
The minimum wage in California is $12 per hour on average, in Mississippi it is $17.25, however, for those who work in the service area, he noted, in California it is $13 on average, and in Mississippi it is $9, while a living wage in California is $18.66 and in Mississippi it is $13, "you can see the gaps".
"We have a huge gap between what people need to live on and what they're actually getting, which is why there's such a high dependency on government subsidies."
With the American Rescue plan, 553,000 children will be lifted out of poverty and 460,000 restaurant workers who are parents will also benefit from the rescue package, "so it's a great deal nationally," he said.
In that regard, she stressed that to see meaningful and impactful change in the country's society, it is necessary to increase the wages of all workers and "build a ladder" by creating upward mobility and opportunity for all, especially women of color and immigrants."
And, he noted, "it's not dignified for workers to work full time and still rely on public assistance. He said that, because of the pandemic, paid sick days have become a priority for workers.
While small businesses will begin to pick up the slack after the COVID-19 pandemic closures, wage increases are intended to be gradual until there is a win-win situation for both parties.
Finally, he noted that the wage increases for service and agricultural workers will help undocumented people also receive help, since the U.S. Rescue Plan will not support them.
Bay City News. [BCN]. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
California's COVID-19 rental support application website is available starting Monday, which will help eligible landlords and tenants cover last year's unpaid rent.
Funding for the support comes from the $2.6 billion in rental support California's federal share of the U.S. Treasury Department's emergency rental assistance program.
Although some counties or cities have their own application portal for administering rental assistance, Russ Heimerich, spokesman for the California Housing, Consumer and Business Services Agency, said you can apply at any portal. The California state website will direct people to the appropriate website by city or county.
Eligible landlords and tenants may apply for reimbursement of 80 percent of the tenant's outstanding rent between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021 if they accept the remaining 20 percent remission.
Tenants may also apply on their own if their landlords choose not to participate. Those who meet the eligibility requirements can receive 25 percent of the rent in forgiveness accrued between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021. This is the amount tenants must pay by June 30 to avoid eviction under California's COVID-19 Tenant Relief Act (Senate Bill 91).
Some tenants may also receive assistance to cover 100 percent of utilities for the past year and 25 percent of future rent when these protections expire to stop evictions.
Applications are not assigned on a first-come, first-served basis, but will be accepted on a rolling basis. Eligible tenants must earn 80 percent or less of the area median income (AMI) for their location and the state will give priority to those earning less than 50 percent of the AMI for their location.
Community organizations in each county are also available to assist with such requests. A list of support organizations and their contact information is available at https://housing.ca.gov/covid_rr/partner_resources.html.
For more information and eligibility requirements, you can visit HousingIsKey.com or call toll-free (833) 430-2122.
The form will be available in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Chinese and Korean. Support is available in over 200 additional languages via telephone.
Police have arrested Nestor Lopez, 66, in Redwood City for allegedly making threats with a gun Friday night in the 500 block of Shorebird Circle.
Police responded to a call at 8:46 p.m. for a report of a domestic disturbance involving, they say, a suspect with a gun.
Police arrested Lopez on suspicion of threatening bodily injury with a firearm and injury with a firearm. They also recovered a .38 caliber handgun.
Police urge anyone with information about this incident to contact Detective Sergeant Nick Perna at (650) 780-7672 or the department's communications line at (650) 780-7107.
