Local Issues
Pursuing Justice
BY EDGAR SANCHEZ Thongxy Phansopha feels lucky to be alive this Christmas. “I am so grateful” not to be dead, the 32-year-old queer nonbinary Laotian American said in a recent interview. Then, in a pained […]
Cal Endow 2020
Local Issues
A Dialogue Begins
BY EDGAR SANCHEZ Delphine Brody, a queer transgender woman who lives in Sacramento, is terrified of the city’s police force. “During emergencies, I avoid calling 911,” Brody told this column on Nov. 21. “I fear […]
Local Issues
Taking Root
BY EDGAR SANCHEZ In March 2016, Alfred Melbourne walked out of Wasco State Prison in Kern County—free at last. He had served 18 years for assault with a firearm and assault with a deadly weapon. […]
Environment
Seeds of Change
BY EDGAR SANCHEZ Rubie Simonsen has worn many hats. The 30-year-old Sacramentan has been a yoga instructor, a community volunteer, a poet, a website designer and a youth program manager. But the role Simonsen values […]
Environment
Environmental Justice
BY EDGAR SANCHEZ As wildfires and a merciless pandemic convulsed California, a Sacramento conference explored 2020’s perils and how minorities are bearing the brunt of COVID-19. The Oct. 15 virtual event—entitled “The World on Fire: […]
Local Issues
AGGIE SQUARE
BY EDGAR SANCHEZ In mid-2018, Bill Motmans received an invitation he couldn’t refuse. The Tahoe Park resident was asked to serve on a committee that would help guide development of Aggie Square, the cutting edge […]
Local Issues
Get Out the Vote
BY EDGAR SANCHEZ The long, hot summer of 2020 was unlike any Josh Harris had ever experienced. Once it began, he repeatedly took to the streets to demand that police treat Black people like him […]
Local Issues
Be Counted
BY EDGAR SANCHEZ Abelardo “Abe” Ruiz believes in the power of the census. The proud Sacramentan has participated in every decennial population count since 1980, when he was a new immigrant from Mexico. This year […]
Local Issues
Latinx Support BLM
BY EDGAR SANCHEZ Three months ago, a Sacramento teen faced a decision: To be or not to be at a local march against police brutality? A young Chicano, Roger D. Zapata, concluded he had to […]
Local Issues
Diverse Voices Ask for Change
BY EDGAR SANCHEZ As a newcomer to Sacramento, Katherine Moua admits to not knowing much about Mayor Darrell Steinberg – except that he wields power and influence at City Hall. But when she learned that […]
Local Issues
A crisis-resolution option
BY EDGAR SANCHEZ People of color increasingly think twice before dialing 911 to report an emergency, be it on the road or at home. This reticence reflects a profound fear of police among growing numbers […]
Local Issues
Defunding School Resource Officers
BY EDGAR SANCHEZ For 20 years, some members of the Sacramento Police Department had one mission: to help provide security for the Sacramento City Unified School District in their role as school resource officers, or […]
Local Issues
Black Lives Matter
BY EDGAR SANCHEZ The 2018 killing of Stephon Clark by Sacramento police deeply impacted Josh Harris, an American River College student. Shocked and angry, he became an activist against police brutality and has joined protests […]
Local Issues
Tale of Two Cities
by Edgar Sanchez Sacramento, one of America’s most diverse urban areas, is fraught with racial and economic fault lines that make it a city of the haves and the have-nots, where race and income can […]
Local Issues
Racial Discrimination in the Time of COVID
by Anne Stokes While COVID-19 is a global pandemic, its origin in China has caused an increase in hate crimes committed against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI). In response, the Asian Pacific Policy and […]
Local Issues
Correcting Inequities
by Edgar Sanchez Aaron Howard obeys the rules. And now that he’s trying to get back into Sacramento’s legal cannabis sector, he has a partner in his brother Julian, a truck driver who will deliver […]
Local Issues
Emergency Response
by Edgar Sanchez When COVID-19 hit greater Sacramento, causing unemployment, hunger and dozens of deaths, one local nonprofit did something about it. Sacramento Area Congregations Together, or Sac ACT, created a COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund […]
Local Issues
Staying in Place
By Anne Stokes COVID-19 has changed the way people live their lives across the globe and California has not escaped the pandemic’s health or economic effects. Unemployment rates are at record levels and millions are […]
Education
Facts Matter
By Edgar Sanchez Ivan Caballero has thick skin. That would explain why the Sacramento City College freshman recently revealed he doesn’t care what President Donald Trump says about news reporters. Trump has labeled journalists everything […]
Local Issues
Not your ordinary nonprofit
By Edgar Sanchez Christmas 2019 came early for Julius Thibodeaux. Fifteen days before the holiday, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg announced during a City Council meeting that City Manager Howard Chan had reached a decision on […]
Local Issues
2020 Census Op-Ed
BY ELEANOR LOVE As a 15-year-old high school sophomore in Sacramento, I like to think I’m well-informed. I follow the news. I’m active on social media. I have still-developing but strong political opinions that I […]
Local Issues
Fighting for Family
BY EDGAR SANCHEZ Three years ago, Lan Nguyen, then a UCLA grad student, needed a subject for her Master’s Thesis in Asian American Studies. Rather than pen a traditional research paper, Nguyen undertook something more […]
Local Issues
Activists Seek Justice Reform for Youth Sentenced as Adults
BY EDGAR SANCHEZ As a youth, Kirn Kim made one good decision after another — eventually becoming an honors student at Sunny Hills High in Fullerton, Orange County. “I was in the National Honors Society. […]
Local Issues
Youth Campaign for More Funding
BY EDGAR SANCHEZ Four years ago, Dexter Niskala, then a junior at Luther Burbank High, campaigned for Measure Y, which would have created a new tax to fund children’s programs in Sacramento. “I asked hundreds […]
Local Issues
Keeping People Out of Jail
BY EDGAR SANCHEZ An activist group that stopped an $89 million expansion of Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center in Elk Grove says its fight for criminal justice reform is not over. Construction bids for the RCCC […]
Local Issues
One Woman of Color is Making History in Sacramento’s Growing Cannabis Industry
BY EDGAR SANCHEZ Betty Mitchell’s uncle was a pioneer in developing medical cannabis in Arkansas. Now, Mitchell herself is being called a pioneer in Sacramento’s emerging $4-billion-a-year legal marijuana industry. Her uncle, Dr. Ulysses Hunter, […]
Local Issues
Greater Sacramento Urban League Program Welcomes People of Color into Booming Cannabis Industry
BY EDGAR SANCHEZ Thirteen people of color made history recently by mastering the skills to enter Sacramento’s legal cannabis industry—with the city’s blessing. The eight men and five women became the first to graduate from […]