Rising temperatures will potentially alter Alaska's climate so profoundly that experts expect the number of thunderstorms to triple by the end of this century, increasing the risks of widespread flash floods, landslides and lightning-induced wildfires, according to new research.
According to a pair of new papers, a research team led by scientists from the Université des Sciences et des Lettres de Paris and the Centre National de la Recherche Atmosphérique - the French National Centre for Atmospheric Research - is working on a new research project on the subject.NCARThe Colorado-based study showed that sea ice around Alaska could give way to open water in the warmer months, creating an ample source of moisture for the atmosphere.
Such humidity, they said, combined with warmer temperatures that can hold more water vapor, would accelerate summer storms over Alaska by the end of the century under a scenario of high greenhouse gas emissions.
"Alaska can expect three times as many storms, and those storms will be more intense," said NCAR scientist Andreas Prein, co-author of the new papers. "It will be a very different rainfall regime."
Thunderstorms would be widespread throughout Alaska, even in the northernmost regions, where such storms are virtually unknown.
For those regions further south in the state, which currently experience occasional thunderstorms, these weather events would become much more frequent and peak rainfall rates would increase by more than one-third.
To reach such a conclusion, the scientists used a set of advanced computer models and a specialized algorithm to simulate future weather conditions and track sources of moisture in the atmosphere.
The experts also realized that impacts in Alaska could be significantly reduced if society curbed emissions.
Floods are already the costliest type of natural disaster in central Alaska, and lightning-caused wildfires are a major hazard.
"We suspect that the increasing number of thunderstorms could have significant impacts, such as amplifying spring flooding or causing more forest fires," said Basile Poujol, a scientist at the Université des Sciences et des Lettres de Paris and lead author of both studies.
The heat invades Alaska
Alaska is expected to warm by 6 to 9 degrees Celsius - about 11 to 16 degrees Fahrenheit - by the end of the century if society pumps out large amounts of greenhouse gases.
The vast state is already experiencing damaging impacts from warmer temperatures, including longer wildfire seasons, record heat waves, and landslides and sinkholes caused by melting permafrost.
Experts have already warned that melting sea ice and more open water around Alaska will add more moisture to the atmosphere, fueling thunderstorms in warmer weather.
Tests showed that the frequency of storms south of the Yukon River increased from about once a year to every month during the warm season.
Hourly rainfall rates increased dramatically, reaching up to 37 percent more in storm cores. In addition, thunderstorms began to appear in regions that had not previously experienced them, such as the North Slope and West Coast.
The results also showed that moist air masses in the ice-free regions of the Gulf of Alaska, the Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean will provide ample fuel for storms.
Meanwhile, the warmer atmosphere will experience increasingly powerful thunderstorms that are more likely to organize and form large-scale clusters, increasing the potential for heavy rain and lightning.
Colombian government opts for force instead of dialogue as protests continue
By Joshua Collins.
Joshua Collis is a freelance journalist based in Colombia who has reported for Al Jazeera, Vice and The New Humanitarian.
Bogotá, Colombia. Deisy Paricio lights candles at a commemoration ceremony in the Soledad neighborhood for those who have died during the ten bloody days of protest in Colombia. "We are here to denounce the actions of a criminal regime," she says, with a cold cadence in her voice that borders on fury. "We are demanding justice. We are demanding dignity for the victims of this government."
Around them, a few hundred demonstrators hold torches and candles in their hands. They chant over and over again in rhythmic unison: "The people, united, will never be divided!
After a few minutes of silence, a speaker reads the names of the 34 people who have lost their lives since the nationwide protests began on April 28. After each of them, protesters clang the pans they have brought for this purpose, a common protest tactic in Latin America that dates back decades called the "cacerolazo" (pots and pans).
The mood at the commemoration ceremony is very different from eight days earlier, when tens of thousands of people took to the streets singing and dancing in a massive, festive protest march in the city center, where they were quickly gassed by police forces, and street altercations between angry youths and Colombian police spilled into the side streets of Bogotá's labyrinthine downtown.
Day by day, the mood has grown grimmer as state violence continued to escalate against the mostly peaceful protests. Police have confirmed 34 deaths, although they say seven of them are not related to the protests. NGOs in the region say the real numbers are higher than official statistics reflect. Temblores, a human rights group in Bogotá that has been tracking the violence, reports 37 deaths and more than 300 injured, with a total of 1,728 recorded cases of police violence.
Drummers perform for the marchers at a rally point.
"We have watched the increase in violence with extreme concern," said Alejandro Lanz, co-executive director of Temblores. "Most of the victims we have recorded have been young people protesting peacefully. There is no guarantee of life for anyone."
Social media is flooded nightly with a torrent of graphic and disturbing videos of violence, mostly at the hands of police, as youths fight pitched battles in the streets amid tear gas and stun grenades.
Both Temblores and another NGO, Indepaz, a peace monitoring group in Colombia, have reported receiving indications of indiscriminate police shootings of civilians amid the chaos.
"I have to go," Lanz told Ethnic Media Services at 9 p.m. Friday, interrupting an interview. "As we do every night, we're about to start getting reports of violence happening across the country. Our investigators and lawyers will be focusing their full attention on it over the next few hours."
Activists called for a nationwide strike in Colombia nearly a month ago over rising violence, the continued killings of social leaders, increasing poverty, as well as inequality and what critics see as failed promises by President Ivan Duque's administration regarding the country's 2016 peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - FARC - rebel group.
The agreement ended a 50-year civil war in Colombia, but it was also highly controversial. Duque won election in 2018 promising to dismantle aspects of the agreement, and he has delivered on those promises. Investments promised to rural communities never came, tactics in the drug war escalated, and those who lost their land in the half-century conflict - who hoped peace would mean they could return to their homes - are still waiting.
These issues have been simmering for years, culminating in 2019 with massive protests that were put on hold by the arrival of COVID-19 in Colombia. The protests stalled under extreme blockade measures and a crippled economy that raised the poverty rate to 42.7 percent.
A deeply unpopular tax bill that would have increased the cost of food and basic consumer goods gave the protest movement a big boost in popular support, and was largely reported as the flagship issue driving the movement, but the heavy-handed policing and hardline rhetoric of Duque's party soon displaced taxes as the main target of those on the streets. The controversial bill has since been withdrawn, but the protests have morphed into deeper discontent with the government itself.
Riots in downtown Bogotá. A photographer watches a police riot response vehicle pursue protesters.
The government's response has been mainly hard-line rhetoric against the protesters. Presidential adviser on human rights, Nancy Patricia Gutiérrez, stated in an interview with Semana magazine that "human rights only exist for citizens who fulfill their duties as part of society".
Several politicians from Duque's Democratic Center party have called the protesters "terrorists", "narcos" and have even claimed that the protesters are organized by guerrilla groups. These accusations have been made without evidence.
"The momentum, for now, is clearly with the protesters," said Sergio Guzman, director of Colombia Risk Analysis, a research and consulting group in Bogota. "The government is also aware that it is behind in the narrative and is getting more and more desperate. The administration has offered nothing but fear rhetoric since these protests began. But outside their base, they are not finding a receptive audience."
Meanwhile, the government has militarized multiple cities and has even publicly discussed declaring a state of national emergency, a measure that could mean suspending the right to protest.
The United Nations, Human Rights Watch and the U.S. Embassy in Colombia have called for the escalation to be minimized and for the rights of protesters to be respected.
Back in Soledad, at the ceremony for those who paid the highest price during the protests, Ana, who declined to give her last name, sat with her boyfriend, and the couple held hands as the names of the latest victims were read.
"We just want President Duque to listen to what we have to say," he said. "It seems like all the politicians, all the pundits and all the media want to tell us what we think."
"This violence is so absurd. It could all have been avoided so easily if only they would listen to us."
The international human rights organization dedicated to promoting social, economic and environmental justice around the world, Global Exchange, is calling for participation in the petition to ask U.S. President Joseph Biden to call for a halt to the violence by the State of Colombia, led by President Ivan Duque.
The demonstrations in Colombia are due to tax proposals stemming from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy. Colombian President Iván Duque insisted that the reform "is a necessity" and not "a whim"; the protests led to the resignation of the head of Colombia's finance ministry, as reported by Article 19.
Through the testimony of Alex Sierra, representative of Global Exchange in Colombia, he denounces that there have been "more armed confrontations and many more deaths" due to the protests that are taking place throughout Colombia to which the government of Ivan Duque has responded with the use of public force, violating human rights and restricting freedom of expression.
"The level of popular mobilization is unprecedented even in the face of deadly police repression, especially in Cali, where a sustained protest in the largely Afro-Colombian neighborhood of Siloé has been attacked with deadly fury," Sierra notes.
Alex Sierra, Global Exchange points out, was the organizer of the Caravan for Peace and Life and Justice that, in 2016, was responsible for linking the problem of the drug war in several Latin American countries - Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico - and whose discussion reached the headquarters of the United Nations in New York.
The activist accuses Trump of "undermining the peace accords" in the U.S.; however, he is confident that the United States should again take "the side of peace in Colombia".
Therefore, through Global Exchange, Alex Sierra calls on U.S. President Joe Biden to "publicly condemn police and military violence," as well as "support the rights and safety of journalists who risk their lives" while covering the events taking place in Colombia, which Sierra notes are "critical moments in our national evolution.
After months of closure, the San Francisco Symphony returned to delight the ears of its fans, as yesterday, May 6, Davies Symphony Hall hosted a small audience to start with live performances.
Thus, dozens of instrumentalists happily returned to a stage that was eagerly awaiting them after the San Francisco Symphony announced in March 2020 that it would cancel its concerts, at least until April 30, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Things didn't go as planned and the cancellations continued.
However, thanks to progress in vaccinating San Francisco residents, the drop in COVID-19 positive cases, and thus the city's turnaround to yellow, live concerts are back!
Just this past May 4, the San Francisco Symphony announced increased audience capacity for live concerts at Davies Symphony Hall during the fifth-sixth month of this year, following the City's approval of the Symphony's Health and Safety Plan.
While the majority of tickets for the May 6 and 7 concerts were reserved for health care professionals and community partners who have been on the front lines supporting the people of our city in critical ways during the pandemic, a limited number of additional tickets were available to San Francisco Symphony donors and subscribers.
Audience capacity for performances May 13 through June 25 will be increased to 35 percent of Davies Symphony Hall's full capacity.
There will be two seating areas: a vaccine-only area with limited social distance on the orchestra level and side boxes, which will require proof of vaccination, and a social distance area in the lobby, first level and second level for those who have not been vaccinated - but have a negative COVID-19 test - as well as vaccinated patrons who prefer to maintain social distance.
It should be noted that, since San Francisco has gone yellow, concert capacities are expected to increase to 50 percent of the venue's capacity.
Members of the general public may purchase tickets for the May 13 - June 25 concerts beginning May 6 at 10 am by calling the SF Symphony Box Office at 415-864-6000.
The programme is now available for all concerts in May and June.
The May 27-28 concerts, conducted by Ken-David Masur, include performances of Somei Satoh's Saga, Qigang Chen's L'Eloignement, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings.
Kicking off the month of June with concerts on June 3 and 4, Joseph Young leads Jessie Montgomery's San Francisco Symphony in Banner; Carlos Simon's An Elegy: A Cry from the Grave; and Rodion Shchedrin's arrangement of George Bizet's Carmen, a suite for string orchestra and percussion.
On June 10 and 11, Joshua Weilerstein conducts the orchestra in the Double Concerto for two string orchestras, piano and timpani, by Bohuslav Martinů; the movement Andante moderato from the string quartet in G majorby Florence Price, arranged for string orchestra; and Serenade for stringsby Antonín Dvořák.
Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen returns to conduct the final two weeks of concerts in June, leading the orchestra in the U.S. premiere of Daniel Kidane's Be Still, Serenade by Leonard Bernstein and the Brandenburg Concerto No. 3by Johann Sebastian Bach, with violinist Augustin Hadelich, on June 17th and 18th; and Adagiettoby Gustav Mahler from the Symphony number 5Strum by Jessie Montgomery; and Metamorphosenby Richard Strauss, from 24 to 25 June.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris met virtually Friday with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to discuss ways to deepen cooperation between the two nations and to address the root causes of migration from countries like Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, in addition to announcing that she will visit the neighboring country on June 8.
During the talk, the promotion of economic development in the south of Mexico and the Northern Triangle of Central America was also discussed, as well as the important partnership between our two countries.
The need for the two countries to work together to recover from the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic, build climate resilience, and expand economic opportunities and security cooperation was also recognized.
Both leaders agreed to work together to establish a strategic partnership to address the root causes of migration from countries in the Northern Triangle region.
Thus, through the joint initiative, the U.S. and Mexico will leverage their expertise and resources to address a variety of challenges, including lack of jobs, limited market access, and deforestation and regional instability caused by climate change.
Vice President Harris underscored the U.S. commitment to work with Mexico to promote economic development in the Northern Triangle and southern Mexico, to protect the rights of workers to organize or join a union, and to expand opportunities for U.S. business collaboration.
To that end, the United States has developed a package of measures that includes trade and business development missions to the region facilitated by the Commerce Department and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency and investments through the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, the White House said in a statement,
This package, he said, follows previous investment in the region and is emblematic of the partnership with Mexico, as well as being one more step of many to come in the field.
Finally, the governments discussed their desire to advance a bilateral effort against migrant smuggling and human trafficking that will bring together law enforcement from both nations to dismantle criminal networks.
As part of this effort, the United States and Mexico will share information and expertise to jointly secure our borders and strengthen human rights protections.
The vice president expects to visit Mexico on June 8.
San Mateo is about to celebrate 165 years of tradition and culture, so the County Historical Association has announced that it will hold the first annual "Happy San Mateo County Day."
"Happy San Mateo County Day" will feature online activities. Historical Association President Mitch Postel will present a webinar for adults about the county's beginning on Wednesday, May 12, at 3 p.m.
Para poder acceder a dicho seminario, las personas interesadas podrán registrarse a través del siguiente enlace web: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/9016071096403/WN_-4sRa-YWQ3iUDRK8WjSlhA.
The seminar, titled "Legacy of Corruption," will give a tour of county politics, for while San Mateo County politics today are clean and docile, when the county was first formed in 1856, things were dirty and wild.
"Exactly 165 years earlier, the polls were open and the county's first elections were taking place. A group of shrewd San Francisco politicians, in league with criminal gangs, was trying to take over the new county before it could be organized in an orderly fashion," the historical association said.
So Mitch Postel will tell about the ballot box, voter intimidation and other corrupt tricks perpetrated 165 years ago.
But that's not all, as the festivities will include hands-on activities.
Thus, on May 12, online crafts for children will also be published on the website: https://historysmc.org/. Crafts from the 1850s will include a button whisk, a paper horse, and a carriage.
Not sure if you have the materials to make the crafts at home? Don't worry, there are free kits available for the first 100 registrations.
There is a limit of 3 kits per family. Kits will be available for pick up at the History Museum. And to maintain social distancing, pick-up times will be staggered, so you will receive an email from museum staff confirming your materials pick-up time.
The international non-profit organization for freedom of expression, Article 19, published a bulletin where international civil society organizations demand that the Colombian government immediately stop the repression of the right to protest and guarantee that human rights and technology are respected.
Given the mobilizations that took place on April 28th, Article 19 points out that there has been a process of militarization in the main cities of Colombia where there have been cases of repression by military forces, as well as by the police. Article 19 points out that such acts "threaten the guarantees to life and well-being of Colombian civil society". It therefore "firmly rejects the violent repression in Colombia".
In addition, he noted that, as in any other state, Colombia has the obligation to enforce the right to freedom of association, freedom of expression on social networks as well as in the streets.
The demonstrations in Colombia are due to the proposals in fiscal matters arising from the effects on the economy because of the pandemic by COVID-19. Colombian President Ivan Duque insisted that the reform "is a necessity" and not "a whim" which led to the resignation of the head of the Ministry of Finance of Colombia.
In response, Article 19 reports that, since the protests began as of May 4, 1,443 cases of police violence have been reported, 239 cases in which the police intervened by public force, 56 complaints of disappearances, 256 people who have been injured by the police, according to information gathered by Temblores, a Colombian non-profit organization for the protection of human rights.
"We are concerned about the reports of local activists, who point out that the militarization of the main cities and the abuse of public force is added to the kidnapping of digital devices"; however, Article 19 also denounces the kidnapping of journalistic work material, aggressions directed at journalists and independent communicators.
They point out that "there are records of undue exclusion" in Colombia that modify the information on social networks and the impossibility of the population to make live broadcasts.
Article 19 recalled that the State of Colombia is bound by international instruments such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the American Convention on Human Rights.
The following is a list of the Article 19 appeal to the state of Colombia:
Immediately stop the excessive use of force by the police and the army, end the repression in the main cities and small towns of the country and fulfil its responsibility to guarantee the right to protest.
Ensure the free flow of information and establish all the necessary guarantees for independent and citizen media to do their job of covering the protests without
Strengthen the rights of civil society to make use of digital technologies to exercise their right to protest, online and offline.
Ensure that the application of exceptional measures is carried out in strict compliance with international and national human rights standards and in line with the principles of proportionality, necessity and non-discrimination.
Investigate the facts related to the use of force by State security agents, following the call of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression.
Article 19, on behalf of 76 signatory organizations and 8 individual endorsements from around the world, express "heartfelt solidarity to activists, human rights defenders, organizations and all social actors in Colombia who, from different spheres, are resisting and working in defence of democracy".
Finally, Article 19 regrets that year after year, this type of violence continues to occur in Latin America. "We will not rest until all Latin American governments guarantee the full protection of the fundamental rights of all its inhabitants," concluded the bulletin.
The City is looking for Redwood City residents to serve on the Redistricting Advisory Committee (ARC) to advise on the establishment of election boundaries for City Council districts.
This eleven-member body will be responsible for advising the City Council on the establishment of election boundaries for City Council districts after the 2020 U.S. Census.
Those wishing to become members may apply to serve on the Redwood City Redistricting Advisory Redistricting Committee (ARC) now through June 6, 2021.
The Committee will work together to learn about legal requirements and best practices for redistricting, engage the public in providing testimony on communities of interest, and to create draft maps for City Council consideration.
The city detailed in a release that candidates may have knowledge or experience in, but not limited to, the following areas: data and analytics, GIS and mapping, Redwood City's diverse communities, working collaboratively to achieve a common goal and community engagement strategies.
After the deadline, all applications will be reviewed for eligibility.
The City Council will conduct interviews for the Redistricting Advisory Committee and make appointments at the June 28 City Council meeting. The Committee will meet approximately 15 times during the redistricting process, which must be completed no later than April 17, 2022.
Interested applicants can apply online, in Spanish, at the site https://form.jotform.com/211235979865065or contact the city clerk's office to receive a hard copy in the mail.
In March 2019, Redwood City moved from a general election system to a district-based election system for the election of City Council members.
Given this, the City Council adopted a final District Election map that was comprised of seven districts. The first City Council election under the new District election map was held on November 3, 2020, and four Council District seats were on the ballot.
Pursuant to the requirements of the Federal Voting Rights Act and California, the City must now undergo a redistricting process based on the new demographics of the 2020 U.S. Census.
It is necessary to strengthen the efforts, from the legislative point of view, to guarantee the right to vote, said experts at a conference held by Ethnic Media Services.
The growing racism in the U.S., attacks against the Asian-American community, language barriers, among other problems, have been imperative for millions of immigrants and people of color have not been able to exercise their vote safely in recent years, so it is necessary to strengthen efforts, from the legislative point, to ensure the right to vote, experts said.
Enacted in 1965, the Voting Rights Act (VRA) prohibits racial discrimination in elections and has been considered a landmark achievement of the civil rights movement.
However, the 2013 Supreme Court ruling in Shelby v. Holder significantly weakened VRA protections, clearing the way for states to pass a series of laws that disenfranchise voters and discriminate against voters of color.
In light of this, two bills could mark a turning point in the upcoming elections, guaranteeing access for all those who seek to exercise their right to vote in a secure manner and away from racial discrimination at the polls.
Thus, the People's Act and the John L. Lewis Voting Rights Promotion Act are initiatives that seek to prevent foreign interference in elections, limit the influence of money in politics, and modernize infrastructure to increase election security.
The legislation also establishes nonpartisan redistricting commissions, a 15-day early voting period for all federal elections, and expanded access to vote-by-mail voting and automatic voter registration, among other provisions.
For Wendy Weiser, vice president for Democracy at the Brennan Center for Justice, "these bills are critical to stopping the scourge of voter suppression facing our country today and to protecting voting freedom in the future."
He said this during a briefing by Ethnic Media Services, where he noted that voting rights in the U.S. are under attack in a way they haven't been since the Jim Crow era, as "the push to restrict voting access in state legislatures is unprecedented in both volume and intensity.
He noted that as of a month ago, there were 360 bills seeking to restrict voting rights, which have been introduced by legislators in 47 states, "that's a dramatic increase over any previous year, and these bills have been moving aggressively through the legislature."
He further explained that there are seven significant voter suppression bills that have passed, and there are others moving aggressively through state legislatures in Arizona, Texas, Michigan, and New Hampshire, while about a dozen other states, at this point, have the potential to drastically reduce access to voting, especially for voters of color.
Given that, he said, "Congress can and should stop this legislative campaign across the country to suppress the vote. It has the power to do things under the Constitution, and there are some very strong provisions.
That is why, he reiterated, the two bills "are key pieces of federal legislation that, taken together, have all the key reforms we need to protect voting rights and strengthen democracy in the United States.
In that sense, Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), explained that the bills to restrict voting "seek to tighten voter identification requirements, make registration more difficult and expand voter list purges.
In this regard, he clarified that all these measures particularly affect ethnic communities.
And, he said, "in most cases, these local initiatives have been justified by false narratives of alleged electoral fraud without the slightest evidence.
Latino vote is decisive
Saenz noted that the growth of the Latino vote is significant in many of the largest states in the country.
"Latinos are now more than a quarter of the registered voters in the state of California, and more importantly, Latinos and the growth of the Latino vote is what has contributed significantly to a shift in politics in a number of states, starting with California."
"California politics has changed permanently, as we've seen over the last quarter century, and that's been largely contributed to by the Latino vote. We've seen more recently changes in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and Colorado, states that have gone from being purple or even red to being more consistently blue," he said.
However, he stressed that the big problem is Texas, which could also turn around with the growth of the Latino population, as this community represents 40 percent of the population in that state.
"They are the second most populous state, a state that just gained two more representatives in the House of Representatives this week, and whose power is only projected to grow in the future. But growth of Latino turnout in Texas elections is a threat. If Texas flips the way these other states have flipped, the whole calculus of presidential elections will change permanently. That's the threat perceived by certain political forces behind efforts to suppress the vote for everyone, but particularly in communities of color," he added.
Thomas A. Saenz pointed out that, even at a micro level, in localities across the country where the Latino community is reaching majority proportions of the vote, leaders seeking to retain power know that, if they do not gain the support of the growing Latino community, they will take steps to suppress the vote.
Currently, he noted, legislation is pending in Texas that would allow poll watchers inside polling places to take cell phone videos of voters who are receiving assistance in the voting process.
"This is nothing more than intimidation. This is a measure of why we need Congress and the president to step in to protect us against these depredations of voting rights."
He noted that there is currently an Administration that supports voting rights and facilitates the participation of broadening voter participation in communities, such as the Latino community.
However, that was not the case before Jan. 20 of this year, as then-President Donald Trump blamed Latino voters as fraudulent and their failure to win a majority of the popular vote in 2016.
He explained that Latinos are often implicitly or explicitly the ones who are accused by leaders like Donald Trump of engaging in voter fraud "without a shred of evidence."
The expert noted that in the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which he hopes will soon be considered in the House and then in the Senate, there are important provisions to recognize.
"We must protect not only against the typical long-time vote suppressors in parts of our country, primarily the South, including the state of Texas, but we must also anticipate that wherever a new community is reaching a critical mass to threaten the powers that be, protections must be put in place."
This, he said, to ensure that the new vote suppressors engage in voter intimidation simply to preserve their own power in the face of a growing community, such as Latinos or Asian-Americans.
"We have to make sure that we're targeting, not just serial vote killers, but copycat vote killers. And the legislation, which has to be considered in Congress, will ensure that we do that."
It's worth noting that while the Latino community went to the polls in large numbers in the last election, there are still very low levels of registration, "so as a percentage of all eligible voters, we are still lagging behind and those are some of the reasons why we need to facilitate registration and actual voter turnout in the Latino community.
Minority communities most affected
Hilary Shelton, senior vice president of advocacy and policy for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), said the United States is one of the few countries that does not automatically register its citizens on the voter rolls when they turn 18, but does register them for the draft.
According to Jacqueline De León, an attorney with the Native American Rights Fund (NARF), the situation has severely affected Native American voters, as her organization has challenged North Dakota's voter ID law in court for the past four years.
Also, Montana's ballot collection ban, Alaska's witness signature requirement for voting during the pandemic, and the refusal to open an in-person polling place on the Blackfeet Reservation, which would have forced tribal members to travel up to 120 miles to vote.
He added that many Native American reservations do not have polling places and post offices can be hundreds of miles away.
"Because of continued discrimination and government neglect, many Native Americans live in overcrowded homes that have no address, receive no mail and are located on dirt roads, which can be impassable in winter November," De León added.
The Asian-American community has also been heavily targeted and affected when it comes to casting their vote, as language barriers are also used as an excuse for these people not to exercise their right to vote, said John C. Yang, president and CEO of Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC).
"Language barriers are one of the biggest impediments to the Asian-American vote, with one-third of Asian-Americans having limited English proficiency," he said.
He added that, in all election polls, monitors have noted a lack of Asian language signs and interpreters, which limits this community's access to the ballot. "Ensuring effective language assistance is critical to closing this ongoing barrier in national and local elections."
Redwood City City Manager Melissa Stevenson Diaz announced that Ray Iverson will serve as Chief of the Redwood City Fire Department brigade that currently serves both Redwood City and San Carlos, reaching a population of nearly 120,000.
A press release states that the Redwood City Fire Department "provides emergency medical services, fire prevention, disaster planning and community-based training services."
"Ray is a very competent and experienced fire service leader and I am very pleased to have him join our team," said Melissa Stevenson Diaz, Redwood City City Manager. "We welcome her depth of experience in fire prevention as both Redwood City and San Carlos experience strong development interest. His collaborative leadership and strategic thinking will help us reimagine services to meet changing community needs and support financial sustainability," she said.
The statement released by the Redwood City Administration office notes that the selection process conducted in 2020 was intended to be more inclusive and supportive of diversity as a "fundamental guiding principle".
"I look forward, with Ray's leadership, to increasing diversity in the Fire Department to advance the commitment to a city with equity and inclusion," said Melissa Stevenson Diaz.
Iverson holds a bachelor's degree in Fire Management from Columbia Southern University and an Associate's degree in Fire Technology from Solano Community College, as well as numerous professional certifications. He is also enrolled in Columbia Southern University's Master of Public Administration program. Additionally, he has been in the fire profession in California since 1991 and has experience in both the public and private sectors of the fire service.
He currently serves as the Fire Chief for the San Mateo Consolidated Fire Department, having risen through the ranks of the City of San Mateo Fire Department, where he also served as Deputy Fire Chief.
He has extensive experience in the fire service with various departments in Northern California, serving as Deputy Chief, Fire Chief with the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District; Battalion Chief and Fire Chief with the City of Benicia Fire Department; Fire Inspector with the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District and the City of Vacaville Fire Department; and lastly, he served as a firefighter with the City of Union City, the City of Vacaville and the American Canyon Fire Protection District.
Ray Iverson is expected to take office on June 7, 2021.
