There are still some challenges for students and teachers to return to schools and a new normalcy, said Eddie Flores, president of the South San Francisco Unified School District School Board.
He said this has been an unexpected year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, where the lives of students, teachers and other staff are in the hands, and that is why we have a distance education model, which has been in place since the spring.
"It's a model that, while not perfect, we are perfecting as we have many more voices participating with suggestions and recommendations from both the teachers' union and the parents themselves. It's been successful so far," she said.
He said the board made a decision to continue distance learning until the county can return to orange, since they are confident that this is the best way to take care of the health of all the people they represent and that is the most important thing.
They have also developed special learning spaces for groups in need, and have partnered with community centres to provide assistance to specific groups with special needs or even homelessness.
"These are specific groups that we have focused on bringing to these learning centers, which are in physical locations in the South San Francisco community, because we want to avoid it being like an academic avalanche that prevents students from advancing, and we don't want this year to go to waste," he explained.
They have also provided all families who need it with digital devices so that they can continue studying, regardless of whether they have two or three students at home, as well as workshops so that parents can also learn how to use these technologies.
On the other hand, he said that the vaccine for COVID-19 is what will help us prevent the virus and return to a new normal. "We are anxious that the federal government can classify teachers and academic staff at the district level as the next essential group to receive the vaccine.
Because, he said, teachers are key to returning to a new normalcy, so that students can return to schools, even though they have been working either in the offices or through the computers at a distance in this virtual learning.
On Latino representation on the council, he noted that with district elections, which many cities and school districts have adopted as a new form of election, "we are having a new wave of representatives and voices that we value very much in the community.
"I am very happy with what has been happening and the new opportunities that are being had, I think it was time that this had happened, so that we could give a voice to all those people who had not been represented," he added.
He added that there are indeed barriers for Latinos and the doors have not yet been fully opened to these types of positions, but it is a job where they have to support each other and participate, because that is the most important thing and make a difference.
U.S. President Donald Trump signed a new $900 billion stimulus plan for the economy, extending the benefits to millions of citizens facing the pandemic and the crisis it has caused.
This, after almost a week of the outgoing president's refusal to sign this aid, also prevented funds for the Administration from being depleted and hundreds of thousands of employees from having their salaries suspended.
"I sign this bus and COVID-19 package with a strong message that makes it clear to Congress that the wasteful items of the law must be withdrawn," Trump said in a statement.
The president said that, despite signing the bill, he still hopes Congress will approve a change in the item that contemplates sending a one-time payment of $600 to millions of taxpayers to compensate for the ravages of the pandemic.
USA U.S. exceeds 19 million cases of VOCs-19
The country surpassed the 19 million registered cases of COVID-19 this Sunday, according to estimates made by Johns Hopkins University, while in the last week one million cases were registered, due to the end of the year celebrations.
The United States also has a total of 333,836 deaths related to the virus as of this Monday, making the number of cases and deaths the highest in the world.
COVID-19 infections have increased at an alarming rate in recent months. In the U.S., at least one million cases per week have been added since the beginning of November.
COVID-19 vaccination campaign experiences delays
As of last Wednesday, according to Reuters, only one million shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine had been administered in the United States, suggesting a delay in the campaign's goal of 20 million people by the end of the year.
U.S. Army General Gustave Perna reported that some deliveries of the first 20 million doses will continue through the first week of January, while Moncef Slaoui, chief advisor to Operation Warp Speed, said it could take longer.
While hospitals have begun distributing the vaccines - Modern and Pfizer-BioNTech - to date the CDC has not yet reported these data and there may be a delay in reporting the vaccines given for both vaccines.
Suspected explosion in Nashville identified
Nashville authorities have identified the suspect in a vehicle explosion in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, on Christmas Day. They also confirmed that the suspect was killed on the spot.
"We concluded that an individual named Anthony Warner is the attacker, was present when the bomb went off and was killed in the explosion," U.S. Attorney Don Cochran said at a news conference.
The explosion, which occurred at about 6:30 a.m. on Friday, December 25 in Nashville - the capital of the Countryside music - damaged some 40 buildings and injured at least three people, at a time when the area was virtually empty in the early hours of Christmas.
Fair Oaks CommonsA development of 67-unit affordable housing in Redwood CityThe newest building, built by the nonprofit Alta Housing, opened its doors to San Mateo County residents at a time when housing needs are increasing.
The new four-story residential development is located in San Mateo County's North Fair Oaks neighborhood, which will provide independent living for low-income families, veterans and formerly homeless households earning between 30 and 70 percent of the area's median income.
"We are excited to welcome new residents to this beautiful residential community, which will provide affordable, high quality, permanent housing to many special members of our local community," said Randy Tsuda, president and CEO of Alta Housing Oficial.
"We are grateful to our partners and San Mateo County officials who have worked closely with us, especially during these difficult times, to enable us to deliver much-needed affordable housing in the Bay Area," he added.
For his part, San Mateo County Supervisor Warren Slocum explained that "these 67 new affordable units will allow families to create stability during this unprecedented time and beyond. The partnership with Alta Housing offers San Mateo County families, veterans and homeless people a place to call home.
It is worth noting that Alta Housing has partnered with the Menlo Park Veterans Affairs office, San Mateo County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services, and the San Mateo County Mental Health Association to provide support services to residents.
John Stewart Company will provide site management and service agencies will provide resident involvement, assistance in accessing community resources, job readiness programs, financial planning courses, counseling services and case management services.
Amenities include a community room with kitchen, technology room, laundry and elevator access to each floor. The courtyard has outdoor fitness equipment, a picnic area and a barbecue grill. There are also indoor living areas.
The parking lot has space for 51 cars, including three handicapped accessible spaces. To promote sustainable means of transport, there is an enclosed bicycle parking lot and a bicycle repair station.
The design and technology of the building includes the use of solar panels for preheating the hot water and lighting the common areas. The residential community includes energy-efficient appliances, recycled materials with low VOC content, drought-tolerant landscaping and umbrellas, as well as metal awnings to reduce heat gain.
San Mateo County provided development funding of approximately $42 million through Measure K, approved by the voters, Wells Fargo Bank, NA, Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco and California Community Reinvestment Corporation.
Funding for the acquisition was provided by Housing Endowment and Regional Trust of San Mateo County. The project is also supported by 27 HUD-VASH vouchers and 32 Section 8 vouchers from the San Mateo County Housing Authority.
A Las Vegas man wearing a Donald Trump mask, a long white beard and a Santa Claus hat shot his ex-brother-in-law in Rohnert Park on Saturday morning, police said.
The police went to Manchester Avenue around 11:20 a.m., when a woman said her 77-year-old husband had been shot.
Police quickly spotted a small black compact car with Nevada plates trying to make a U-turn.
The officers blocked the road and arrested the man. Inside the car, the police found a gun in a duffel bag, a rubber mask that looked like President Trump, and a long white, curly beard.
Officials determined that the victim had been shot twice and was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.
While the police were still investigating, they found a suspicious package in the entrance of the victim's house. The area was cordoned off and the Sonoma County sheriff's bomb disposal team responded to dispose of the device.
After evaluation, the device was found to be a towel wrapped in the box.
Police said officials later determined that the suspect, Gerald Jacinth, 75, arrived at the victim's house claiming he had a "special delivery" and then shot the victim twice, once in the back.
The police have not yet revealed the reason for the shooting.
Jacinth was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and imprisoned.
Like millions of other young adults, Cindy and Kenny Dzib Tuz had moved back in with their parents to serve their quarantine during the pandemic.
Kenny, 21, had been attending film school at Cal State Los Angeles and his older sister Cindy, 27, was working in communications. The Dzib Tuz grew up in the Mission District of San Francisco. Their parents, Rafael and Rita, immigrated from Oxkutzcab, Yucatan, Mexico, in the late 1980s and arrived in San Francisco just before the Loma Prieta earthquake.
The entire family identifies as indigenous Mayans, but even in a place as diverse as the Bay Area, they did not always feel represented, even within their neighborhood.
"It's something you don't notice as you grow up," Kenny says from his home in the Mission, "but even within our own community, even though we identify ourselves as Mexican Americans, we don't always feel like Mexicans.
About 15 percent of Mexico's population identifies itself as indigenous, with Mayan being the second most widely spoken indigenous language in the country after Nahuatl.
Rafael Dzib Canul left his municipality in the late 1980s, when many other members of his community were driven to leave in part by Mexico's participation in NAFTA, which led to land reforms that hurt small farmers and the henequen fiber industry, which is fundamental to the state's economy.
San Francisco has become home to thousands of Maya people since Rafael arrived. UC Berkeley researchers estimated that about 25,000 Yucatecan immigrants lived in the Bay Area in 2018, but there is still no indication of how the pandemic has impacted these numbers.
Despite its historical legacy, one of the most prominent physical symbols recognizing the Maya in San Francisco was erected only a few years ago: a new park called "In Chan Kaajal" - "Mi Pueblo" or "Mi Pueblito" - which opened in 2017. Murals and public art with Mayan images now appear in San Francisco's Mission District, and annual celebrations such as Carnaval have space for their artists.
"I felt identified; I felt recognized," says Cindy. "You can see how the community is changing. It's like when you go to Chinatown and you see those names.
Cindy and Kenny wanted to help spread the word. During the summer, they began discussing a possible project for National Hispanic Heritage Month, an institution they believe is still missing the presentation and the indigenous nuance. That's when they started "Mundo Maya", a documentary series on YouTube that mixes anthropology, linguistics, personal and family testimonies to preserve the personal stories of San Francisco's Mayan community.
They've released five episodes of the seven planned, with characters like Don Jaime, whose serene tale tells how he left Mexico when his young daughter became ill and finally got a job at the Cliff House.
Elvia Guadalupe López Cano had to sell her pig to buy her first bicycle, with the purpose of getting on a bike someday. She came to the United States at age 19 to save for a hot rod to transport her home, but then fell in love, married and raised her family in the Bay Area.
When Gonzalo Dzay Ix arrived in San Francisco in 1979, he says he was afraid to leave and be detained by the immigration police before he received his residency. After 25 years as a bus driver, he now wants to return to his homeland and his immediate family.
All episodes are subtitled in English and Spanish. Cindy and Kenny are not fluent in Mayan, so their father needs simultaneous interpretation, a topic of conversation within his own family.
"This was an idea I had in mind, to explore my own roots. I've always lived between these two or three worlds," says Cindy about reconciling her American education with her Mexican heritage, and her Mayan heritage within both. Many others like Cindy feel the weight of living between worlds shaped by culture, language, and geography. "We do this to elevate that identity, and it may not be there anymore. The goal of our content is to initiate debate in viewers' homes. How does identity change in the U.S. versus Mexico? It's a complex thing."
And it is. In the series, they all come from Oxkutzcab, but they live very different lives. Ignacio Maldonado, the youngest of the group and the only subject who has so far conducted his interview in English, speaks very frankly about how his identity is represented by a Venn diagram.
He arrived in San Francisco as a teenager and therefore attended school, which exposed him to a spectrum of Latino identities and one of his lifelong passions: capoeira. Like Kenny, he has not always felt that he belongs with his peers.
"I identify myself as Mexican," Maldonado says in the video, "but when I'm around other Mexicans I feel that I'm not Mexican, I'm more of a Yucatecan," whether because of their humor, their dialect or their cultural norms.
So far, the reception of the "Mundo Maya" series has been overwhelmingly positive.
"I was very nervous about premiering the first episode," says Kenny. "I was very worried about the non-Latinos: Would they care to hear these stories? That definitely surprised me. The opportunity to uplift my own community is always a goal of mine, and you don't have to be Mexican to relate to these issues.
Most of the argument is based on the people Cindy and Kenny interacted with as children: nannies or family friends whose stories are now coming back to life. As the introduction to the series says, "We're still here... we're still here.
Palo Alto officials announced that free trials of COVID-19 will be offered every Tuesday, from 10 am to 4 pm, in the parking lot of the Mitchell Park Library, at 3700 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto.
Such tests are available to both individuals and families regardless of insurance status. These tests are sponsored by a local company Curativewhich is also offering similar programs in Menlo Park and East Palo Alto.
No es necesario declarar su situación migratoria. Visite https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/news/displaynews.asp?NewsID=5065 para obtener más información y obtener una cita. Se ofrecerán pruebas adicionales en dicho sitio cada dos miércoles a partir del 13 de enero.
Testing is also available by appointment twice a month at Mitchell Park Community Center, in partnership with Santa Clara County.
The singer and composer Armando Manzanero Canché died in Mexico City. He was admitted on December 17 to a hospital because of COVID-19, which is why he was intubated, and who despite showing improvement in his lungs, suffered complications in his kidneys.
The news was announced this morning by the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, during his morning conference, who was moved to give a few words about the famous artist from Yucatán.
"I am being informed of the death of Don Armando Manzanero. It's very sad. Don Armando Manzanero, a great composer, one of the best in the country, and also a sensitive man in social matters," said the Mexican president.
"We send our condolences to his family, friends, artists and all singer-songwriters, our embrace for this loss so unfortunate for the artistic world and for Mexico," he said.
The composer of songs like "We're sweethearts", and "With you I learned" He was born in the city of Merida, Yucatan, on December 7, 1935, and throughout his career he worked as a musician, composer, singer, pianist, television actor and record producer.
Various personalities from the entertainment world have reacted to the artist's unfortunate death and have expressed their condolences through their Twitter accounts. They have also been joined by several politicians, including Mexico's foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón, who wrote "He regretted the sensitive death of Armando Manzanero, my condolences to family and friends. May he rest in peace".
Tennessee officials release the photo and name of Anthony Quinn Warner as the alleged suicide bomber responsible for the explosion in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, on Friday, Dec. 25.
The explosion, which caused extensive property damage and injured several people, took place at 166 Second Avenue North.
After the attack, Nashville Mayor John Cooper said that at 6:32 a.m. on Christmas morning, the city's police and fire departments responded to the scene of an explosion on 2nd Ave, approximately one block north of Broadway.
The authorities describe Anthony Warner as a lonely man who worked in computer repair and about whom his neighbors knew very little.
While authorities recognize Quinn as the alleged perpetrator of the explosion of his RV in Nashville, with the aim of causing further damage to a section of the population.
However, neither the authorities nor the corporate media in the United States use the term terrorist to refer to Quinn, a fact that has attracted the attention of a large number of users on social networks.
"AP [Associated Press] is really deploying phrases like 'the man behind the mysterious explosion in which he died' to avoid the term 'suicide bomber,'" the @southpaw account said on the social networking site Twitter.
According to users on Twitter, what Quinn did was an act of local terrorism but authorities and the corporate media do not call him that because he is a white man.
"Anthony Warner was a suicide bomber. When does the travel ban on white men come into effect? When did we start profiling and discriminating against the sad white men in the caravans as we do with our Muslim friends and neighbors since 9/11?" said @ImSpeaking13
The Redwood City Public Library offers free, expanded outdoor Wi-Fi coverage at three different locations to provide better access to the community while the library is closed due to the VOC-19 pandemic.
Through its website, it mentions that the Center Library's coverage area includes Lot B, a large parking lot at the corner of Jefferson and Middlefield that has five reserved parking spaces offering free wireless Internet.
In this place, Wi-Fi is offered from Monday to Saturday, from 10 pm to 6 am, with a two-hour limit for those who need it.
In addition, the Redwood Shores branch library covers the parking lot on the community room side of the building and the Fair Oaks branch library, which offers Wi-Fi throughout San Mateo County, extends into the parking lot.
Wi-Fi networks at these locations are available from 6am to 11pm.
Finally, it should be noted that the Schaberg library has no adjacent parking and does not offer outdoor Wi-Fi.
It should be noted that the city council and most of the city's facilities are closed to the public due to new health measures imposed in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, operations continue remotely by phone and email. For more information, updates and resources, visit the library's website at https://www.redwoodcity.org/departments/library/.
After agreement was reached Sunday night on a second COVID-19 pandemic stimulus bill, $900 billion of which includes enhanced unemployment benefits and direct cash payments, U.S. House member Ted Lieu said that, while not much, "it's better than nothing.
"I just don't think it's big enough to deal with a scale of this pandemic, but there are some really good provisions in it. For example, he said, $25 billion in rental assistance for people who lost their source of income during the pandemic.
As well as $284 billion in forgivable check protection loans for small businesses, $7 billion for broadband and $8 billion to ensure distribution and delivery of vaccines.
He added that the $600 stimulus checks to citizens are too small. "In my opinion, it's not enough, and that's why I look forward to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris arriving on January 20, and then we'll try again with another round of stimulus next year.
The also Democrat stressed that there is no good explanation for the fact that undocumented immigrants did not get the aid, except for opposition from the Republicans, however, mixed status families are included in this bill.
He also explained that in terms of paycheck or small business loan (PPP) protection, there were abuses in the past by businesses that did not have to receive the aid, so the House of Representatives created an Oversight Committee to see how their stimulus funds are spent.
In view of the probable tsunami of evictions that the state could have, he stressed that, although there is a fund for 25 billion dollars for this item, it will be difficult to make the funds available because there are many different provisions that apply to each circumstance.
Farmers and people in rural areas can also benefit from support, either through PPP or through a personal loan (PPP), in addition to accessing the Farm to Food Bank Program, where they can bring their crops and are paid for distribution, so they do not have to destroy their crops.
"We have a lot of unemployed people. We have people showing up in long lines at food banks. And that's why the progressive group fought for the stimulus checks. It's just too small, but something is better than nothing. But I hope we can put in place an additional stimulus for the American people next year," he said.
Lieu pointed out that many of the $600 aid checks will be deposited electronically, while those unable to receive them that way will get their stimulus later, he said during the virtual panel "The Income Gap is Hovering for Millions - No Adequate Relief in Sight," conducted by Ethnic Media Services.
Chad Stone, chief economist of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said he agreed with the economic stimulus that Congress has approved, but "more will be needed.
"The people who are bearing the brunt of unemployment in the housing crisis are those working in jobs that require face-to-face contact, most of which pay low wages," he said.
Of these, he explained, there are a disproportionate number of people of color seriously neglected by the old unemployment insurance system until before the crisis, when the proportion of unemployed workers was at an all-time low.
After the $600 a week received by those who lost their jobs due to the pandemic was eliminated at the end of July, "there was no more stimulus to sustain the recovery and the economy slowed down.
"Unemployment is still high, the number of jobs is still huge, and UI benefits were woefully inadequate without that $600 for those who needed it most," he added.
According to their report, in November the unemployment rate was three points higher than in February of this year, however, for African Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans, the figure rose to four or 4.5 points higher compared to the second month of 2020.
In this regard, he noted that there is a legacy of racism in the country, "the discrimination continues, the workers we are talking about, they are the last to be hired and the first to be fired. There are still many disparities in the issue of hiring".
Now, the enhanced federal unemployment benefit will offer $300 instead of $600, for up to 11 weeks (March 2021). "It's good that they've spread, but the economy is not going to get back to where it should be."
"Congress and President Biden, as well as Vice President Harris, will need to work, among other things they are doing, to make sure we have the stimulus we need to alleviate the difficulties. That will be necessary to generate a robust, sustainable and equitable recovery in the future," he said.
For Peter Hepburn, assistant professor of sociology at Rutgers University and also a researcher in the Princeton Eviction Laboratory, the United States faced a rental housing crisis long before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, according to data extracted from the Eviction Tracking System (ETS), it is estimated that the protections implemented during the pandemic have prevented at least 1.6 million eviction requests throughout the country, cases that in the absence of new protections will be reflected in 2021.
This, he said, would cause an increase in the number of homes on trial, and risk displacing an untold number of families.
"I think, however, that unless there are sufficient rental assistance programs, we have every reason to expect that you will face a large number of evictions. The scale of the problem is also evident when we look at the amounts that landlords claim for eviction cases," he said.
He added that those belonging to the African-American community are the most affected by the eviction crisis, as they receive more than 35 percent of all eviction requests.
"The history of housing in this country is a long history of systematic racial dispossession and exclusion. We continue to see that in rental housing today there is a risk of displacement through eviction," he said.
Because, he said, wages, especially for low-skilled workers, have basically stagnated over the past 20 years, while at the same time rents have increased dramatically. "So there's a growing proportion of tenants who are burdened by housing costs and haven't really seen their salary increase in decades.
In California, the moratorium on evictions is scheduled to expire on January 31; however, the moratorium is expected to be extended for one month, since the situation is in the middle of winter. However, he said, much will depend on what the Joe Biden administration does starting January 20, with the potential to extend the federal moratorium on evictions.
"I think it's very important that the federal government get busy on evictions in order to achieve broader structural reforms. I hope you know that at a time when we are thinking critically about eviction, some of the changes that are being implemented now in response to the pandemic are carried over into the future so that when we come out of this terrible time, we can take some of the policies that have worked well," he concluded.
