The City of San Leandro and the San Leandro Chamber of Commerce will host the annual State of the City address with Mayor Stephen Cassidy Thursday, March 28 at 6 p.m. at the San Leandro Senior Community Center, 13909 East 14th St., next to San Leandro Hospital. “This is a dynamic and challenging time...
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The San Leandro Police Officers Association and the City of San Leandro have agreed to a three-year labor contract. The 2013-2015 agreement provides wage increases to retain officers and to recruit qualified new officers, while keeping the city financially sustainable for the long term, according to city officials. “We commend the San Leandro Police...
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By Terri Schlichenmeyer, The Bookworm Sez The dirty glasses haven’t quite made it to the kitchen yet. They’re still communing with last weeks’ newspaper in the living room, while dust bunnies dance with cookie crumbs strewn on the carpet. Forgotten toys lie everywhere and your sweatshirt is right where you left it, balled up...
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New research conducted by USF’s Human Rights in Criminal Sentencing Project reveals that U.S. criminal sentencing practices are out of step with 193 nations. Criminals in the U.S. receive longer sentences for lesser crimes, including life without parole (LWOP) for nonviolent offenders and for juveniles, putting the country at odds with sentencing practices in...
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By Uche J. Uwahemu Given the toxic nature of our ongoing national debate on gun control, it is prudent to tackle an element that is seldom discussed: the economy of the gun business. So far the debate has largely centered on the Second Amendment right to bear arms. In order to have a successful...
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Union protesters joined whistleblower Stacie Plummer at a City Council meeting this week to demand the firing of Human Resources Director Leslie Knight after an investigation funded by the city found she had violated several city policies.
Holding signs that read “Hold power accountable” and “Richmond needs accountability,” protesters at Tuesday’s meeting called for the removal of Knight and City Manager Bill Lindsay because he has not fired her.
The investigation concluded that Knight had “improperly received $400 monthly in car allowance while also using a city vehicle, used paid city staff to make trinkets and ordered a subordinate to access Plummer’s emails after Plummer lodged a complaint against her,” according to the Contra Costa Times.
Plummer, the city’s finance manager for the library and cultural services department, said Knight had asked her to design logos and postcards for Knight’s jewelry and gift business, which Plummer refused.
Speaking at Tuesday’s council meeting, Plummer alleged that Knight “bullied” her, moving her to different positions throughout the city.
Although the investigation concluded that Knight did not profit from the trinket making, Plummer and supporting protesters have insisted that City Manager Lindsay fire her.
However, Lindsay has said, “The problems did not merit termination of any employee.”
In a statement released following the complete investigative report, Knight admitted to making mistakes. She was unavailable for comment at press time.
Left to right: Kathleen Sullivan, President BWOPA; Stacie Plummer, Whistleblower; and Pam Bilbo, President Men and Women of Valor. Photo by Joe L. Fisher, Black American Political Action Committee
By Danielle Savage From an early age, Jael Myrick seemed destined for a life in politics. He remembers how his mother signed him up for the debate team before his freshman year at Kennedy High School in Richmond. “That summer I wanted to go to KMEL Summer Jam, but my mom made me go...
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By Kyra Worthy Dr. Sylvia Greenwood often remembers a quote her father kept on his desk as a teacher, principal and later interim superintendent of West Contra Costa Unified School District: “It is better to build children than to repair men.” It’s a phrase that the longtime Richmond educator carries with her when...
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By Kia Croom Longtime Richmond resident and former Harlem Globetrotter Leroy Walker recently celebrated his 70th birthday, at the Rockefeller Lodge in San Pablo where friends and relatives shared childhood memories, basketball stories and fish tales about the local businessman. Among those attending were Elzer Minor, Joe Fisher of BAPAC. Carl Adams and Donald...
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The Oakland Athletic League (OAL) held a Hall of Fame induction ceremony last Saturday at the Oracle Arena to honor some of the stars who represent the city’s rich athletic heritage. The inaugural event honored Oakland’s homegrown high school athletes who became national and global icons in their respective sports. Inductees were Don Budge...
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Three local high school students joined Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) in the recent 13th Congressional Civil Rights Pilgrimage. The pilgrimage of more than 20 Members of Congress included events, meetings and tours in Birmingham, Selma and Montgomery, Alabama. This three-day passage, March 1-3, through living history demonstrated the powerful role that non-violence and courage...
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By Conway Jones Federal Small Business Administration-backed lending is rising to record levels in Northern California, according to SBA Regional Administrator Elizabeth Echols. Echols, who met recently with the Post, talked about what President Obama is doing to help businesses to grow or get off the ground. “Under his watch, we have had two...
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By Mieasha Harris It was Black Friday in November, and like many other holiday shoppers, Sharon A. Kidd-Lewis, was standing in line with hundreds of other people waiting to buy one of the latest electronic gadgets that was at the top of the lists of a lot of children. Reaching the front of the...
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Robert Chrisman, co-founder and editor of the internationally acclaimed journal, “The Black Scholar,” died March 10 in San Francisco. He was 75. Under Chrisman’s leadership, The Black Scholar – founded in 1969 by Chrisman and Nathan Hare – was a beacon of achievement and hope within the movement to create Black Studies departments and...
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By Tanya Dennis Internet payday loans that offer money due by the next pay day can cost up to $30 per $100 borrowed. The consumer, already on shaky financial ground, typically faces annual interest rates (APRs) of 650 percent. which is among the reasons why these loans have been controversial since their inception 20...
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By Post Staff Supporters of the American Indian Model Schools (AIMS) are pledging to carry their fight to the county and Sacramento after the Oakland school board voted this week to shut down their charter schools, which have gained a wide reputation for providing top quality urban education. The board voted 4-3 to close...
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By Ken A. Epstein A proposed decision on how to divide up federal job money for youth for the next two years is stirring charges that nonprofits that provide services to Latinos and young people in West Oakland are excluded and that the decision favors the bigger, better-funded agencies. “When do you show fairness?”...
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Part II By Babatunde Harrison In the ancient African empires of West Africa, the Griot was the custodian of the histories and genealogies of the people of West Africa. Through epic songs and poetry, the Griot told and preserved the traditions and memories of ancient Mali, Songhai and Ghana.. Since the arrival of the...
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Part II By Kayode Gbadebo According to historian John Ridpath, “Observers of traditional African culture, so inevitably influenced by Western style of thought and intellectual traditions, failed to understand and interpret the culture.” This may be because, according to writer John Bascom. “The Yoruba way of life is traditional, dating back well before the...
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Authorities are offering a reward up to $100,000 for information leading to the arrest of 31-year-old Isaac Don Burks, who has been accused of intentionally infecting hundreds of men and women in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania with HIV. Police say his potential victims could date back as far as 2003. He has...
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Reba Williams, a 106-year-old woman from Columbus, Ohio, is finally receiving her high school diploma. She never graduated from Mount Vernon High School even though she completed all 12 years. Apparently, she was being punished for being in “academic rebellion,” when she refused to read the final book assigned by her teacher during her...
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Security officers who work at Kaiser rallied this week in Oakland and Los Angeles calling on the state’s largest health care provider to provide more sick days and family medical benefits. The workers are members of SEIU USWW, which represents more than 1,800 contracted security officers at Kaiser facilities throughout California. The officers are...
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The Nubian Academy for Girls, which is opening on April 6, will host a Saturday school every weekend until the summer. The Saturday school will serve up to 50 girls from sixth through eleventh grades and will be hosted by several community centers, churches, public schools and colleges. Activities will include homework help, cultural...
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Wells Fargo Bank has announced it will lend a total of $55 billion to women-owned businesses by the year 2020. The announcement was made recently by Lisa Stevens, Wells Fargo lead executive for Small Business and West Coast Regional Banking president, at the Hispanas Organized for Political Equality (HOPE) 22nd Annual Latina History Day...
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By Lauran Neergaard, Associated Press A baby born with the virus that causes AIDS appears to have been cured, scientists announced Sunday, describing the case of a child from Mississippi who is now 2 1/2 and has been off medication for about a year with no signs of infection. There is no guarantee the...
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By Jesse Brooks National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day is a time to share knowledge and shed light on the often-overlooked impact of the disease on women and families in our communities. The official commemoration was March 10, but events happen all month. Often buried within the data on the general AIDS population...
Read more →The Africana and African American Studies and Friends of the Library group at Contra Costa College presented a book signing this week with Rufus Battle, author of “One Man’s Battle: An African American Journey.” The book, a tale of struggle and redemption, tells his story of living in a “sharecropper’s shack near a Louisiana...
Read more →Contra Costa College and Community Engagement Initiatives (CEI) are presenting a “State of Emergency” conference Saturday, April 6 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. to “discuss challenges and issues facing under-performing children, their families and communities.” The conference, which will be held at Contra Costa College at 2600 Mission Bell Drive in San Pablo,...
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By Shaveela Raniga Award winning director Damon Jamal and executive producer Haqq Shabazz of InYoFaceFilm are coming out with “White Boy Faded,” a light hearted comical music video on getting faded by up and coming artist Danny A. The video features an appearance by hip-hop’s Droop-E, the son of the Ambassador of the Bay,...
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By Lee Hubbard The Ernest Ingold Boys and Girls Club at 1950 Page St. in San Francisco is holding its annual crab feast, Saturday, March 30 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Proceeds will support the San Francisco Rebels basketball program, which has been in existence for the past 21 years. The program operates...
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By Danielle Savage About 80,000 American prisoners spend 23 hours a day in closed isolation units for 10, 20 or even more than 30 years. Now, there is growing evidence that such isolation causes mental breakdown, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons has decided for the first time to review its policies on solitary...
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By Kia Croom Richmond resident Myrtle Braxton’s life gives meaning to the word “service.” She is known and loved throughout the city and West Contra Costa County for her selfless volunteerism, generosity and goodwill. On an ordinary day, Braxton can be found at one of many board or committee meetings, networking at a community...
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By BAPAC Staff Jael Myrick knows a difficult job lies ahead. But if the recently appointed city councilman ever had a doubt about the size of his community support, Thursday night’s welcome reception at Salute e Vita Ristorante likely erased it. “We have a lot of work to do,” Myrick told a packed reception...
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Dr. David Satcher, former U.S. Surgeon General and former CDC director, and Dr. J. Michael McGinnis, a top health official who served under four U.S. presidential administrations, are receiving the 17th annual Public Health Heroes Award this week from the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health. The awards were presented Thursday, March...
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“The Albino,” a painting by Keli Walker, is now on display at Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th St. in downtown Oakland. “This is one of the best exhibits we have had,” said gallery owner Joyce Gordon, The artwork will be on display until April 28. Photo by Babatunde Harrison.
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By Randie Ellington On Tuesday Jan. 12, 2010, a little over three years ago, at 4:53 p.m., a catastrophic 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti, 16 miles from its capital city of Port Au Prince. In less than 45 seconds, more than 200,000 people were killed. One of the survivors, Séphora Pierre-Louis, found herself mourning...
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“There are not enough Griots to tell the stories of the brave men, women and children who lived through the pain and stench of the dungeon castle. This castle holds millions of intangible horror stories. And, annually, thousands of descendants of the millions gone, return to pass through this dungeon to imagine and relive...
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By Post Staff Police Chief Howard Jordan spoke last Sunday at Evergreen Missionary Baptist Church, seeking community support for his efforts to curb the high crime rate in Oakland. Speaking to the congregation, the chief emphasized that he is committed to “reducing crime and providing a safer Oakland through ways and means that increase...
Read more →“Are You Positioned for Success?” – The second in a free series of workshops of the 2013 Model Built on Faith Capacity Building Series VI - will be presented Thursday, March 21 at the First Unitarian Church, 685 14th St. from 9 a.m. to noon. The workshop will look at answers to the questions:...
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Pope Francis Becomes the first pontiff from the Americas By Sylvia Hui and Raphael Satter, Associated Press World leaders sent in their congratulations, and Catholics around the world were celebrating Wednesday after the Vatican announced the election of Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio to the papacy — making him the first pontiff from the Americas....
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By Jesse Douglas Allen-Taylor Oakland City Councilmember Larry Reid blasted Oakland developer Phil Tagami’s and Oakland city staff’s handling of the removal of small business tenants from the old Oakland Army Base this week, telling members of the Council’s Community and Economic Development Committee that Oakland was operating a “double standard” between the small...
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By David Scott The Bay Area Gospel trio Inspired Catholic Voices – Leona Powers, Luana Striplin, and Leila Bellow – recently won the Best Female Group of the Year Award and Best CD Project of the Year for their album, “Praise Him Forever” at the Texas Gospel Music Excellence Awards in Houston, Texas. The...
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Hannigan on the returned $600,000 jobs fund said, “I was the chair at the time . It happened on my watch. It’s a problem that is not going to be repeated.” By Ken A. Epstein Some representatives of nonprofits agencies and community leaders are calling for a sweeping discussion and overhaul of the...
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Dr. Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate for Literature, visited his relatives Alice Arthur, Dr. Folarinde Christiana Harrison and a Babatunde Harrison on a trip to the Bay Area.
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Egungun Festival of Nigeria’s Yoruba Ancestors The Egungun is a secret society among the Yoruba people of Ibadan, Oyo, and Modakeke, Gbongan Osun State, Nigeria. The major Egungun festival takes place in June, when members of the society come to the market place and perform masked dances. The masks represent ancestral spirits. It is...
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