The office for Green Cab, which has been downsized from 19 to six members. (Sam Harnett/KQED)
I took a taxi last summer for the first time in a long time. I was visiting Washington D.C., and I’d forgotten that there was this whole industry full of people who know their cities like the back of their hands and don’t need an app or GPS to get us where we need to go.
But in the age of Uber and Lyft, that knowledge doesn’t pay much. KQED’s Sam Harnett talked with cabbies in San Francisco who are really struggling. They say retirement is a pipe dream, some of them are on welfare, and there’s no end in sight.
The “Lady Bird” walking tour group poses in front of the stately blue home from the film. (Allen Young/KQED)
In the same way that ‘Black Panther’ made me well up with pride for Oakland even though I’ve never lived there, ‘Lady Bird’ had me smitten with Sacramento.
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And Sacramento is definitely smitten with ‘Lady Bird.’ You can even take a ‘Lady Bird’ walking tour through the city, hitting all the classic spots from the film and some from director and Sacramento native Greta Gerwig’s life.
The quote that really showed me how much this movie could mean to our state capital was from 67-year-old Quincy Brown, Sacramento born and bred: “I think we’re a good cow town. I’m OK with that. But I think this is a great town, and I think even a great city, that hasn’t gotten the credit it deserves. This movie gave us the hug that we needed.”
Children’s librarian Mahasin Abuwi Aleem reads to children at story time at Oakland’s main library. (Andrew Stelzer)
How were the police portrayed in the books you read as a kid? The good guys? Friendly and trustworthy? Unfortunately, the reality isn’t that simple, especially for communities of color that have seen so many of their friends and family members killed by police.
Librarians in Oakland have created a toolkit to help other librarians and educators examine how books portray police and the law.
The toolkit doesn’t review specific books. Instead, it provides questions, like: Does this book explain children’s rights to have a parent or other adult present during questioning? Does it imply that children will always be safe if they follow officers’ instructions? Does the book make a distinction between prison and jail?
Any time my boyfriend takes a long shower or leaves the water tap running, I jokingly yell at him, “We’re in a drought!” He always shoots back that we technically aren’t in a drought anymore.
Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas during official portrait session in June 2017. (Saul Loeb/AFP-Getty Images)
The U.S. Supreme Court did something it does all the time this week: it chose not to review a case. The case was a challenge to a California law requiring a 10-day waiting period on gun purchases, even if the buyer had already cleared a previous background check.
This did not sit well with Justice Clarence Thomas. He wrote a scathing 14-page dissent railing against the decision, saying the court doesn’t respect the Second Amendment as much as other civil liberties.
Here’s a taste of Thomas’ displeasure, directed at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the federal appeals court that covers California:
The Ninth Circuit struck down a county’s 5-day waiting period for nude-dancing licenses because it “unreasonably prevent[ed] a dancer from exercising first amendment rights while an application [was] pending.” The Ninth Circuit found it dispositive there, but not here, that the county “failed to demonstrate a need for [the] five-day delay period.” In another case, the Ninth Circuit held that laws embracing traditional marriage failed heightened scrutiny because the states presented “no evidence” other than “speculation and conclusory assertions” to support them. While those laws reflected the wisdom of “thousands of years of human history in every society known to have populated the planet,” they faced a much tougher time in the Ninth Circuit than California’s new and unusual waiting period for firearms. In the Ninth Circuit, it seems, rights that have no basis in the Constitution receive greater protection than the Second Amendment, which is enumerated in the text.
