San Francisco police are asking for the public's help in finding a 14-year-old girl who left home earlier this week and has not been seen since.
The minor, named Katlin Gallaread left home sometime between 8 p.m. Tuesday and 1:30 p.m. Wednesday without telling her family, police said.
Katlin is described as African-American, 5'11" and weighs almost 90 pounds. She lives in San Francisco's North District and is known to visit the Safeway store in the 1300 block of Webster Street, the Target store in the 2600 block of Geary Boulevard and the Japantown area, police said.
Anyone who sees Katlin should contact their local law enforcement agency and should be prepared to provide their current location and description of the clothing.
Also, anyone with information about her disappearance should call the SFPD's 24-hour tip line at 1-415-575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411 and begin the text message with SFPD.
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected every aspect of Silicon Valley's economy and the community at large, so income inequality in the area has grown twice as fast as the state or the nation over the past decade, according to the 2021 Silicon Valley Index, released today by the Institute for Regional Studies at Joint Venture Silicon Valley.
The paper details that, from the health impacts of the virus to its effect on employment, childcare, hunger and housing, the pandemic has spread across all sectors, often with long-term implications.
Problems that had long plagued the region have been magnified as a result of the pandemic, particularly racial and ethnic disparities, as well as the struggle faced by those unable to keep up with rising costs and the huge income and wealth divide, the study says.
And while some people moved easily into remote work, even thriving thanks to the technology sector's staggering market growth, others faced unemployment or worked away from home, risking SARS-CoV-2.
According to Join Venture Silicon Valley, the latest index shows that pandemic-related job losses pushed the unemployment rate to 11.6 percent in April, the highest on record, even higher than what was seen in the Great Recession or the dot.com bust.
Job losses were concentrated in lower-earning occupations, with the greatest accentuation in the accommodation and food services sector --41 percent-, the arts, entertainment and recreation sectors --54 percent- and personal services --54 percent-.
The paper also notes that workers of African descent and Latinos filed initial claims for unemployment insurance at rates 1.5 to two times higher than those of Caucasian workers.
Meanwhile, during the first three months of the pandemic, as many as 44,000 low-income renters were burdened by housing costs due to job losses, while the need for food assistance increased dramatically.
"The fact is that success is creating inequality. Bidding wars, the high price of tech talent and housing prices amplify the disparity. And yet COVID-19 has shown that our region is compassionate, resilient and has an economic engine that performs remarkably well under stress," said Russell Hancock, Joint Venture CEO and president of the Institute.
Among the findings revealed in the paper was that foreign-born residents represent a larger proportion of the region's population than ever before, at 39 percent, a large proportion of whom are tech workers, particularly women.
The study also determined that in Silicon Valley, only 16 percent of households own 81 percent of the wealth in the area; while the bottom 53 percent had only 2.0 percent of investable assets.
Rachel Massaro, vice president of Joint Venture and director of research at the Institute noted that "Silicon Valley's income inequality has grown twice as fast as California or the United States over the past decade. The wealth divide is even more stark, with the top 16 percent of households owning a whopping 81 percent of the wealth; meanwhile, the bottom 18 percent have no savings at all."
On the other hand, he noted that, during 2020, there was a significant decrease in Internet speed, and that while 97 percent of Silicon Valley students had access to a computer and Internet at home, it was not adequate for distance learning.
Graduation rates declined, while high school dropout rates increased by three percentage points, with the most affected being homeless - 50 percent -, English language learners - 28 percent -, Latinos - 16 percent - and socioeconomically disadvantaged students - 16 percent.
In terms of voting, it was noted that voter registration and eligible voter turnout rates reached record levels, reaching 85 and 73 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, turnout among young voters, which is traditionally low, rose to a record 63 percent in the area.
After a video surfaced of an 84-year-old Asian-American senior citizen being brutally thrown to the ground by a hooded man in San Francisco, several people have volunteered to help Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders.AAPIand prevent attacks.
And in the wake of an increase in attacks against Asian Americans in the Bay Area, concerns from activists and community leaders have also increased.
The support began when Jacob Azevedo felt that the attacks on the AAPI community had gone too far and upon seeing the videos of the attack, he was "sick to his stomach," he told CNN.
The young man told the news network in an interview that, exhausted by the violence, he offered on social media to walk with anyone in Oakland's Chinatown neighborhood to help them feel safe.
"I didn't intend to be some kind of vigilante. I just wanted to offer people some kind of comfort," the 26-year-old said.
His idea and proposal quickly gained traction in the area, and within days, the young volunteer was joined by nearly 300 people who, like him, seek to protect the AAPI community from further attacks, and who together created the "Compassion" project in Oakland.
According to CNN, Azevedo, who is of Latino descent, believes this is a time for all minority groups to stand in solidarity with the Asian-American community.
"This is important because this community just needs to heal. There are a lot of racial tensions because of the rhetoric of the previous president - Donald Trump - but overall our communities need to heal. This is a problem that has been ongoing for a while," the young man added.
According to Stop APPI Hate, between March 19 and Dec. 31, 2020, more than 2,808 cases of hate attacks against Asians were reported from 47 states and the District of Columbia.
Of those, 7.3 percent of the incidents involved Asian Americans over the age of 60.
The non-profit organization, Urban Instituteprojects an overall poverty rate for 2021 in the U.S. of 13.7 percent, meaning that approximately one in seven Americans will have annual household resources below the poverty line, with communities of African descent and Latinos being the hardest hit.
This is after taking into account all regular safety net benefits, taxes and tax credits, as well as Unemployment Insurance and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits - SNAP or "food stamps" - and additional stimulus controls enacted in December 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He also noted that the projected percentages of people of African descent - 18.1 percent - and Hispanics in poverty - 21.9 percent - are roughly double that of Caucasians - 9.6 percent.
Blacks and Hispanics were more likely than whites to lose their jobs during the pandemic and were less likely to get them back if they did," the organization said in its report.
It also projected that approximately one-third of people with resources below poverty - 4.4 percent - are in "deep poverty," meaning that family resources are less than half of the poverty threshold indicated in the Supplemental Poverty Measurement (SPM) rate.
Considering the results by age group, the projected poverty rates are the same for children, adults aged 18 to 64 and adults aged 65 and over.
Notably, the analysis revealed that working-age adults often have slightly lower SPM poverty rates than children or adults age 65 and older, however, the combination of changes due to job loss and the impact of COVID-19 assistance policies has created nearly identical poverty rates for all three age groups.
Despite the similarity in poverty rates for children and adults, a higher proportion of children - 53 percent - are projected to have family resources below twice the poverty line than working-age adults - 43 percent - or adults 65 and older - 42 percent.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2019, the supplemental poverty measurement rate was 11.7 percent, which was 1.0 percentage point lower than the 2018 SPM rate, when it was 12.8 percent.
In that sense, the report provided by the Urban Institute would show that from 2019 to 2021, the poverty rate would have grown two points in the country, mainly due to the pandemic by COVID-19.
Similarly, the study found that many families may have seen their resources fall below the poverty line due to job loss, while other families may have seen their resources increase because they did not lose their jobs and instead benefited from SNAP increases and stimulus controls.
Notably, at the end of 2020, the number of jobs in the U.S. economy was still 9 million lower than at the end of 2019 - before the COVID-19 pandemic began - and that number had declined rather than increased between November and December 2020.
During the U.S. Census Bureau's 2020 household survey, 12 percent of people responded that they sometimes or often did not have enough to eat in the past seven days - up from 9.0 percent before the pandemic - and about one-fifth of renters reported being behind on their rent.
In order to celebrate the Lunar New Year and the arrival of the Metal Ox, San Mateo County libraries are hosting a variety of events for children and adults to enjoy the ancient culture of China.
All those over the age of 16 can enjoy a Chinese reading club, which takes place every third Wednesday of the month at 4pm through the Zoom videoconferencing platform.
The reading can be in Chinese or English; however, the discussion is mainly in Mandarin Chinese.
This Wednesday, February 17, the book to be read and discussed will be A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles.
"Join our monthly virtual Chinese book club on Zoom! We meet online every third Wednesday of the month at 4 pm and is open to everyone 16 and older, regardless of where you live. Registration is required to attend. Feel free to read the book in Chinese or English, but the discussion is primarily in Mandarin Chinese. We hope to see you soon!" noted the San Mateo County Libraries group.
A two-day vaccination clinic at San Francisco International Airport will provide COVID-19 vaccines for all San Mateo County residents 65 years of age and older, regardless of insurance.
COVID-19: SFO Clinic will vaccinate 65 year olds; held Wednesdays and Fridays in the SFO long term parking lot, 806 S. Airport Blvd.
Residents 65 and older can sign up for an appointment on the site https://crbn.app.link/e/covid-vax-sf-airport-first-dosewhere appointments are available from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesday and from 9 a.m. to noon on Friday.
Individuals must register in advance and bring a photo ID showing date of birth. Walk-in registration is not available and individuals who do not meet the eligibility criteria will be turned away or have their appointments cancelled, according to the county.
SFO clinic to vaccinate 65-year-olds for COVID-19, which began Feb. 12, was previously limited to residents covered by the San Mateo Health Plan or those who had no other access to the vaccine; however, county officials decided Sunday to expand the clinic's reach to cover the remaining appointments.
Preston Merchant, spokesman for San Mateo County Health, said the county anticipates 12,000 residents will be vaccinated at the SFO clinic by the end of Friday.
As of Monday, 109,793 San Mateo County residents have received at least the first dose of the vaccine, representing 17.1 percent of people 16 and older in the county.
San Mateo County is focusing on vaccinating health care workers and people 65 and older right now. Vaccination for the next eligible groups - teachers, child care workers, farm workers and first responders - will begin Feb. 22, the county announced last week.
Alex Padilla, D-California, the son of Mexican immigrants, will become the first Latino to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration in the 117th Congress, whose priority will be to restore humanity, dignity and respect to the immigration process.
Senator Alex Padilla, first Latino on Senate Immigration Subcommittee said: "As a proud son of immigrants from Mexico, I am honored to be the first Latino to serve as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship and Border Security," said Senator Padilla.
The official noted that while no state has more at stake in immigration policy than California, the entire nation will benefit from thoughtful immigration reform.
"I am committed to bringing the urgency to immigration reform that this moment demands and that millions of hardworking immigrants have earned. I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to restore dignity and humanity to our immigration policies and respectfully defend America's legacy as a nation of immigrants," he added.
Padilla plans to address the pressing needs of immigrant communities in California and across the country, particularly the essential workers who have been on the front lines of the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
That, he said, includes everything from reuniting families and fixing the asylum system to streamlining the legal immigration process and creating a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the country.
The subcommittee has jurisdiction over a wide range of immigration issues, including citizenship, border security, refugee law, and oversight of immigration functions in various departments.
The departments include: Department of Homeland Security - DHS, including U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services -.USCISU.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman (CISOMB).
As well as the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Department of State (DOS), and the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) and the Department of Labor (DOL).
The mythology and grandeur of China is on display each lunar year when large, ostentatious figures with dragon and lion heads this Lunar New Year dance around the homes and businesses of people of the Asian culture in the belief of attracting good fortune and warding off evil spirits that could fill the coming year with decay.
The Lion Dance is the most popular folk dance in China. Its origin comes from the Tang Dynasty -618 to 906 AD- and it is believed that its aim was to celebrate the victory of good over evil.
This dance, together with the Dragon Dance, is very important in all traditional festivals, especially in the celebration of the Chinese New Year.
Although these dances are often performed together, they are different, because for the Dragon Dance at least a dozen dancers are needed, while for the Lion Dance only two are needed: one to hold the head and one more to handle the body, which often are practitioners of kung-fu, as they must be very agile because they perform a lot of acrobatic movements during the performance.
Around the world, these dances have become very popular and have evolved both in their movements and in the materials with which the costumes are made.
The typical colors for the Lion costume are red, which represents courage, green, which represents friendship and goodwill, and gold, which represents vitality and a dynamic spirit. On the forehead, the mythical animal - Nian - carries a mirror, with the purpose that the evil spirits are frightened and withdraw when they see their own image reflected.
During the Chinese New Year celebrations, the lion dances to the rhythm of drums, gongs and cymbals and parades through the streets bringing good fortune to all who meet him.
Performances are held in shops, restaurants and businesses, which hang from the ceiling a head of lettuce or some vegetables with a red envelope inside, which contains money. The lion collects the "harvest" during the dance and usually "eats" the money and spits out the lettuce, scattering the fresh leaves to spread good luck.
The Dragon Dance is a highlight of the Lunar New Year celebrations. The Chinese Dragon represents wisdom, power and wealth and is a very important aspect of Chinese culture.
Like the Lion, the Dragon is considered to drive away evil spirits and take bad luck with them.
Dragons vary in length, as some reach up to 100 meters long, which is not unusual, especially when you think that the longer the figure is, the luckier the New Year will bring.
This time, to celebrate the close of the New Year, we will be celebrating big in Redwood City. Saturday, February 20th at 5pm at the following link: peninsula360press.com/lunarnewyear2021
The Palo Alto Unified School District will become one of the first school districts in the Bay Area to return to face-to-face classes after its board decided at its last meeting that middle and high school students will be able to return to the classroom starting March 1.
Don Austin, superintendent of the Palo Alto Unified School District, said on his Twitter account that the school board presented a reopening plan that also agreed to have sixth-graders return during the week of March 1.
And that is, students in grades seven through 12 will be in the classroom as soon as Santa Clara County moves into the red on mobility and openness restrictions regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, and stays there for more than five days.
However, even though the level of restriction could change in the next few days, the Board agreed that the return to school will not happen before March 1.
The school official also said the Palo Alto Unified School District will soon be sending out surveys in a few weeks to plan for the 2021-2022 school year.
It should be noted that the Mountain View Los Altos School District is also considering a similar plan, where seniors can go to the classroom next month.
According to the Mercury News, Austin noted that only a fraction of students who said they would like to return to face-to-face classes are expected to actually do so.
This, he said, after approximately 58 percent of Palo Alto parents at the three middle schools surveyed said they would return for in-person instruction.
Virtual classes will not end even though children and youth return to school, as students are expected to stay in what Austin called "Zoom rooms" with a teacher.
In addition, classes are expected to be 10 students or less. While those students who prefer to stay at home will be able to do so and continue with the online classes from home.
"They can attend either way and don't have to commit for the whole year," Austin said. "That would alleviate some anxiety around what seems like a high-risk decision. It allows students to easily stay home if they don't feel well or don't want to travel, and it should reduce the instances of people coming to school."
The announcement comes amid protests both for and against the children returning to the classroom, especially when there is no guarantee that they will follow protocols that will help them avoid bringing the virus home or contracting it.
While many of the teachers have not yet been vaccinated and there are no changes in the ventilation systems in the schools.
After its launch was postponed twice, and after almost seven months of travel, the Perseverance rover will finally reach the surface of Mars in order to explore whether there is or ever was life on the red planet, a mission that has its own Latin stamp, as several engineers from Latin America participate in the NASA project.
At an estimated cost of $2.1 billion, the Mars 2020 rover is equipped not only with pioneering technology, but also with the experience and dedication of a team of engineers and scientists, including several talented Latino professionals.
Fernando Abilleira
Originally from Madrid, Spain, Fernando Abilleira, 42, who worked on the Curiosity and InSight missions, was the director of Perseverance's mission design and navigation team.
The Spaniard, who has been working for more than 15 years at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on the Mars 2020 mission, plays a fundamental role, as he leads the team that designs the launch period and optimizes the interplanetary trajectories, as well as the rover's entry, descent and landing trajectories.
Its team is in charge of orbit determination studies, designing trajectory correction maneuvers and developing plans for the activities to be carried out during the interplanetary journey and the arrival at Mars.
Eric Aguilar
Born to a Costa Rican father and Mexican-American mother, Eric Aguilar is the director of the Perseverance testbed and assistant product delivery manager for the Mars mission sample collection system.
His responsibilities range from system engineering, integration, testing and verification of the subsystem, ground support equipment, design, and subsystem protection, among other things.
In short, he led a team of engineers who were charged with designing the robotic arm that will drill into the Martian surface to collect samples of Martian soil to find signs of past microbiotic life.
Christina Diaz Hernandez
Christina Diaz Hernandez is an engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who worked on three of Perseverance's seven instrument systems.
Of Mexican parents, but born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Christina, 29, worked on the MEDA system, which is in charge of taking climatological measurements of Mars; on the PIXL instrument, which measures the chemical composition of rocks and takes pictures of them and the texture of the Martian soil; and on RIMFAX, an instrument that can observe the geological features that lie beneath the surface of Mars using radar waves.
Luis Dominguez
Born to a Honduran father and Mexican mother, Luis Dominguez was one of the engineers who worked on the assembly of the Perseverance inside the JPL facility.
The mission of the graduate of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, was to integrate all the components of the vehicle and make sure they worked well.
Dominguez, 31, who has worked for more than a decade at NASA, is involved in distinctive social initiatives in the city of Los Angeles, and puts his work at the U.S. space agency on the same terms as the small gardening business he founded to subsidize his college years.
Jessica Samuels
A graduate of aeronautical and mechanical engineering from the University of California-Davis, the specialist with a Cuban mother and Canadian father is the director of surface sample collection operations and the lead engineer for Perseverance's flight systems.
On this NASA mission to the Red Planet, Samuels must cover several areas, from leading sample collection operations on the surface to being the lead engineer for the rover's flight systems, ranging from the vehicle's ability to drive itself autonomously to its ability to manipulate the robotic arm and collect samples of Martian soil.
Samuels also worked on the Curiosity mission.
Diana Trujillo
The aerospace engineer from Cali, Colombia, is the Mars 2020 surface leader and is in charge of making sure all parts of Perseverance work independently and together.
With a degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland, Trujillo, 36, has worked at NASA on human and robotic missions to space, as well as being a leader on the Curiosity project.
These Latinos are just a part of the explorers and dreamers who are always willing to give the best of themselves to go further, even in difficult times, and move forward with perseverance to reach goals outside of our planet.
NASA invited the Latino community to join this February 18th to experience, from the comfort of their homes, the landing of the Rover Perseverance on the planet Mars, with a program entirely in Spanish that will highlight the Latino contribution to this mission.
Through a special broadcast, NASA will transport everyone to the mission control center at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, where they will be able to witness, accompanied by the engineers and scientists working with the rover, the exact moment when Perseverance arrives at Mars and begins its exploration mission.
Thus, this February 18 at 11:30 Pacific time or 14:30 Eastern time, through NASA's social networks -Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram: NASA_ES and on Facebook: NASAES- we will be able to witness one of the moments that will make history in space aeronautics.
It is noteworthy that the Mexican singer Carla Morrison will be collaborating with NASA this coming Thursday, as it will participate in the transmission in Spanish of the landing of the robot explorer Perseverance on Mars.
The native of Tecate, Baja California, said through her social networks, feeling "super excited" because this will be the first time that a NASA mission landing will be narrated in Spanish.
"The space agency "invited me to collaborate with them for this. I hope you can join me in this countdown... Many of us will be able to understand it better, live it, experience it and get excited. Join me for this countdown," the performer said.
