The Bay

California Proposition 22 was a big win for tech companies. Its passage allows a handful of corporations — like Uber and Lyft — to create a new "gig" contractor category for their workers that doesn’t have to include employee protections and benefits, like unemployment insurance and workers compensation. Now, those same companies that won in California want to expand beyond the state. Read the tr...

The Bay Area passed a number of local measures related to civilian oversight of police this election. This means an increase in access for what citizens get to know, and get to do, about issues within their local police departments – including policy changes and police misconduct.  We look at the recently passed Measure P, out of Sonoma County, which increases the powers of the Independent Office...

Things are still really stressful right now. But comedian Luna Malbroux navigates that stress but choosing laughter and joy in a time of extreme anxiety. Today, we're sharing an interview with Luna on an episode of Rightnowish, hosted by KQED columnist and host Pendarvis Harshaw. Read the transcript: https://bit.ly/3kb2Qze Sign up for The Bay's newsletter: https://bit.ly/2Ij412e Learn more about y...

Voting in the Bay Area seemed to go smoothly on Tuesday, thanks in part to California's efforts to get people to vote early and by mail. That says a lot, in an election where there's been so much misinformation about the process, and where a pandemic threatened the health and safety of people voting in person. Guest: Guy Marzorati, KQED Politics and Government reporter Guy is following up with Bay...

California may have mailed all voters a ballot, but a lot of people still chose to cast their ballots in person. And thousands of people worked long hours to make sure voters could do just that. Today, we're bringing you the stories of three poll volunteers from different corners of the Bay Area. Guests: Amy Mar, Thuc Nguyen, and Ronak Chakraborty, poll volunteers in Hayward, San Jose, and San Ram...

The killing of George Floyd led to protests in South San Francisco, and the creation of a youth-led activist group called Change SSF. These last few months have also exposed a generational divide about how quickly the city should make changes — and how sweeping they should be. And that divide is also showing itself in South San Francisco's race for city council, where a 22-year-old political newco...

Martinez isn't known for its activism. But after George Floyd was killed, and after a white couple defaced a Black Lives Matter mural in Martinez, many residents decided it was time for that to change. Now, they've started a conversation about race in Martinez that hasn't really happened in public before. That conversation has been difficult, especially with local leaders — but activists say this...

Miles Hall was shot and killed by Walnut Creek police a year before many residents joined national protests supporting Black lives this past summer. The Hall family and friends have been showing up at City Council meetings demanding justice for a year, but it wasn't until George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police that more people began pressuring local politicians. Now half of the eight City C...

Bela Gonzalez and Louie Licea are 15. Both of their parents are essential workers and need to leave the house every day. It's all pretty stressful. And it's also brought more responsibility: while their parents are gone, Bela and Louie take care of their little sister, Mia. Guests: Sasha Khokha, host of The California Report Magazine, Bela Gonzales and Louie Licea This episode originally ran in Ap...

On Tuesday, a California court ruled that officials at San Quentin State Prison have to either transfer or release half of the facility's population. That's because the outbreak at San Quentin got so bad that roughly 2,200 people got sick with COVID-19. 28 people have died. Today, we're revisiting how the outbreak first started at the beginning of the summer — and what incarcerated people and thei...

Housing is not a human right in the United States. But more people are saying it should be. That growing movement has roots here in the Bay Area, where it's been nearly a year since the mothers behind Moms 4 Housing first occupied a house on Magnolia Street in West Oakland. Earlier this month, the moms announced that the home would soon be used for transitional housing. In the latest episode of th...

Generations of Armenians and descendants of those who escaped the Armenian Genocide have found refuge in San Francisco. That’s the epicenter of a robust church community center and where Armenian Americans can celebrate their culture, history and heritage. It’s also where a recent spate of suspected hate crimes are raising fears about the current border conflict — and painful memories of violence....

Community fridges have been popping up all over the Bay since the pandemic began as a form of mutual aid, which has deep roots here. There's a long history of this kind of community care, especially around food insecurity. Private companies have also used similar language to describe some of their own efforts. But KQED food writer and columnist Ruth Gebreyesus writes that the values of mutual aid...

Proposition 25 is the culmination of a long fight over the bail system in California. A win for the "Yes" vote would uphold a law that abolishes cash bail and replaces it with a system that uses "risk assessment" algorithms to help judges decide whether to keep people locked up before trial. A win for the "No" vote would stop these changes and keep cash bail in place. The bail industry is in the "...

Distance learning is hard enough. And once you get past acquiring the technology needed to make it happen, there’s an additional step for many immigrant families and Indigenous-language speakers: figuring out how to log on and communicate with your teachers. In Oakland Unified School District, where about half of students speak a language other than English at home, supporting all students has bee...

Bay Curious is exploring the 12 statewide ballot propositions with its Prop Fest series. Today, we're sharing their guides to Props 16 and 17, which make big decisions on affirmative action and voting while on parole respectively. For more on Bay Curious’ Prop Fest, click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Latino and immigrant workers keep the economy of "wine country" going. And while many in the Bay Area sheltered in place at the start of the pandemic, farmworkers in Napa and Sonoma counties continued working. Now, the Glass Fire is threatening their livelihoods. Many workers have evacuated, and likely won't get much support from the government to help stabilize their lives. Guest: Farida Jhabvala...

Berkeley recently renamed a street after a South Asian activist Kala Bagai. But her story isn’t the typical one you hear about people who get streets or monuments named after them. Nearly 100 years ago, Bagai and her family were driven out of town by racist neighbors who didn’t want them to move in. She and her family eventually left the Bay Area, and a lot of her later activism was the kind of wo...

North Bay journalist Sarah Stierch has become a resource for locals looking for critical fire information, down to their specific block. That’s because when the North Bay was burning in 2017, she knew the streets and roads and homes intimately enough to gain the trust of her neighbors seeking information. But aside from the latest fire reports, she’s also been a compassionate voice for many people...

There are still Californians who need to be counted for the 2020 Census. Here in the Bay Area, there’s the extra challenge of making sure we count people who don't have housing and families whose homes have been affected by wildfires. And this matters a lot, because who gets counted will help determine Congressional representation, federal funding, and how we define Bay Area identity for the next...

California wasn’t ready for the spike in unemployment since the pandemic. And one big reason is because the agency that handles unemployment benefits has had a lot of problems: dated technology, lack of staffing, and a system that focuses more on stopping fraud than getting people the money they need now. Today, that means 1.6 million Californians are waiting for help while the pandemic rages on....

This week, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that the state plans to eliminate the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035 in order to keep cutting California's greenhouse gas emissions. Many environmentalists say we need to move even faster — and take bolder steps to ban fracking in our state. So what does this all mean for our climate future? And is this ban a big deal? Guest: Kevin Stark, KQED science repor...

Before the coronavirus, orange skies from wildfires, and huge protests against police violence, housing was the issue in California. But still, even with multiple crises happening at once, so much of what's going on comes back to where we live. In the new podcast 'SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America,' KQED's Molly Solomon and Erin Baldassari explore some of the solutions to our housing shortag...

Since the 90s, law enforcement groups like police unions, correctional officer unions, and sheriffs' associations have had a huge influence on policing and criminal justice legislation, both in Washington and in Sacramento. This led to laws like the 'three strikes' rule and the 1994 Crime Bill that passed through Congress and was signed by President Clinton. But law enforcement officials aren't sp...

After the Tubbs Fire in 2017, Lil Milagro Henriquez felt she had to do more than just tell her students to mask up for the smoky air. She wanted to empower her students to face the challenges of climate change head on. That’s what moved her to found the Mycelium Youth Network, which provides programs that empower Black and brown youth to tap into indigenous ways of living with the land. Guests: Li...