Audio Academy 2020

California lawmakers returned to work today after an extended summer recess. Officials were originally scheduled to resume the session on July 13 but postponed their return due to the pandemic.

The Oakland City Council recently approved the city’s mid-cycle budget, which goes into effect tomorrow. Though it fell short of calls to defund the Oakland Police Department, it did move roughly 3% of OPD’s budget, $14.3 million, to alternative safety measures. 

The National Weather Service issued a red flag fire warning for parts of the Bay Area on Sunday. The warning runs through 8:00 p.m. Monday, June 29 and covers mountain areas in Marin, Sonoma and Napa counties.

John Taylor, also known as One Shot Johnny, is a mobile butcher. He’s always considered himself essential. But as some of the largest COVID-19 outbreaks have forced some large slaughterhouses to temporarily close, John has never been busier. In this installment of "The Essentials," John gives KALW's Victor Tence an intro to mobile butchery. 
 

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Five Bay Area counties should be forced to repay millions to a state education fund, according to the California Department of Finance. What was once a windfall for several Bay Area counties may now be a curse as California seeks to reclaim the millions in the midst of a COVID-19 induced fiscal nightmare.

The California Judicial Council voted Wednesday to end a policy setting the baseline bail at $0 for people accused of nonviolent crimes.

Muni tweeted, Tuesday, that it wouldn’t carry officers to demonstrations protesting police brutality anymore. The police union tweeted back, telling Muni officials “to lose our number” and to look elsewhere for help when it comes to fare evasion and removing unwanted passengers. So San Francisco agencies — let’s settle down and figure out what you can actually do here.

 On Tuesday afternoon BART officials released a statement, saying that another of their employees has tested positive for the coronavirus.

Around the Bay Area and the state, lawmakers and police departments are starting to consider changes to their use-of-force policies.

COVID-19 has spread to San Quentin State Prison, where over a dozen people incarcerated there have now been diagnosed with the virus.

Summer may have just begun but parents and students around the Bay are already looking forward to returning to school and some sense of normal this fall. And it’s official, normal’s going to be different.

Bay Area residents have been holding significant protests all over the region in the past week. Here's the story of an important demonstration in Los Gatos that almost didn’t happen.

A federal appeals court on Wednesday said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency shouldn’t have approved a weedkiller called dicamba.

This new budget is a balancing act. One that needs to bridge a $246 million dollar deficit. In order to get there, the city will withdraw half of the general fund reserve and reduce funding for capital projects.

National outrage over the police-related death of George Floyd continues into a second week. In San Francisco, some are ignoring city wide curfews in peaceful protest.

Yesterday, around 4 p.m., about 50 protesters gathered at San Francisco City Hall. Surrounded by police officers, they chanted, "Black lives matter!" and "no justice, no peace, defund the police!”

Local curfew orders remain in effect throughout much of the Bay Area, as the region deals with the demonstrations and civil unrest sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

District 4 Supervisor Gordon Mar stood on a sand dune at Ocean Beach as he led a gathering crowd of protestors in a chant. He called the march, which began at the intersection of Sloat and Great Highway, the first of its kind. 

Around 4:00 p.m. Monday, protesters gathered in front of Oakland Technical High School on Broadway. Tupac blared on loud speakers as they prepared to march in memory of George Floyd and against police violence.

Both local and statewide government officials pressed ahead with police reform efforts on Monday amidst nationwide protests over the police homicide of George Floyd in Minneapolis, as well as systemic racism.

Tensions between local law enforcement and people protesting the death of George Floyd continued to escalate through last night and this morning. 

Santa Clara’s top health official told the county board of supervisors, Tuesday, that statewide changes to shelter-in-place create a significant risk of coronavirus spread.

Earlier this year, the Governor made it clear he wanted to close one state prison in the next five years. Now, a revised budget plan proposes the closure of two, in three years. Either way, this would be the first California prison to be shuttered in more than two decades.

The Spare the Air season normally begins on May 4. But the district said at that time, so few people were driving because of shelter in place that the air quality was actually really good.

Now as stay at home orders relax. More people are driving. 

Over the holiday weekend, there was a back and forth about whether or not places of worship should reopen right now. 

Superintendents of six California school districts sent a letter to state legislators on Monday after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he would cut school budgets by $7 billion.

Bay Area counties reported a total of 263 confirmed COVID-19 hospitalizations over the weekend. That’s a more than forty percent decrease in the number of cases since last month, when the region was at its peak.

A big question looming over counties’ re-opening is how small businesses are going to operate.

A new survey from a San Francisco restaurant trade group finds that they can’t survive by doing takeout and deliveries alone.