Voices: River City

Conflict is brewing at the Sacramento City Unified School District, where members of the teacher's union (SCTA) and other school district workers (represented by SEIU 1021) are planning to strike Wednesday, if the school board does not adequately address their concerns. The demands from the unions are a little complicated, but after they were reviewed by a three-person panel that included a representative appointed by the district, a representative appointed by the teachers union and an independent member, the panel found their demands to be more than reasonable. Signaling that they were fine with the strike moving forward, the district refused to meet with the unions this past weekend. They agreed to meet with teachers on Monday afternoon and, in an astounding snub to the rest of the district's workers, pushed back any negotiations with SEIU 1021 until March 30--a full six school days into the strike.   The SCUSD school board appears reluctant to speak with press--they even snubbed the student journalists a

Today we're joined by Sacramento Bee opinion writer Robin Epley, who discusses a recent piece she wrote on the importance of Sacramento County keeping the Project Roomkey motel program for people experiencing homelessness, which is sure to keep hundreds of people under a roof.   While it is a good thing that Project Roomkey will continue to serve Sacramentans, it should never have been in danger of closing in the first place.   Homelessness is getting to be a bigger issue in the region, as Robin and Yousef Baig noted last week, and it's past time for the county and city to work in tandem on the issue. If they don't, folks in the community will start to take their own initiative. And it won't always be pretty.   For instance, some awful folks in McKinley Village are trying to muster up a recall campaign against Councilmember Katie Valenzuela, using their own brand of vile anti-homeless rhetoric.    We're also taking some time to discuss the new participatory budgeting initiative that the city of Sacramento is

Putin's attack on Ukraine continues, with refugee numbers soaring as Russian troops work to take the country's major urban centers, including the capital city, Kiev. In discussing the effects of this war, we focus a bit on how Americans have been responding. One opinion editor has demanded that Republicans take a hard stance on Putin. Republicans are trying to pin the crisis on Democrats with rising gas prices. Many liberal hawks are hammering the war drums on social media, with the political director of California Young Democrats appearing to suggest that leftists support Putin. Perhaps this shouldn't come as a surprise in a country like ours, where most people believe that Russia is either a socialist or communist nation. (In fact, just like the United States of America, Russia is a capitalist oligarchy, and has been for three decades.) Oh, and just about everyone jumped in to attack the Democratic Socialists of America's statement condemning the war. Some other topics we touch on:   - Media messaging/c

Today we're discussing the lawsuit brought against the Sacramento Police Department from demonstrators who have witnessed, first-hand, the double standard between how police treat them against how they treat white supremacists. Thanks for listening, defund the police and, as always: Twitter: @youknowkempa, @ShanNDSTevens, @Flojaune, @guillotine4you, @aolbites Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/voicesrivercity   Sacramentans can hear us on 103.1 KUTZ Tuesdays at 5 pm and again Wednesdays at 8 am. If you require a transcript of our episodes, please reach out to info@voicesrivercity.com and we'll make it happen. And thank you to Be Brave Bold Robot for the t

Sacramento County Supervisor Sue Frost was caught on Telegram planning anti-vaccine protests with far-right groups such as the Freedom Angels, the Mamalitia, and the violent Proud Boys. After a local activist outed Frost, she claimed to know nothing about the kind of people she was cavorting with on the messaging app that commonly attracts reactionary fringe groups. But folks who pay attention to the supervisor know she has a history of peddling conspiracy theories and standing alongside these kinds of people. Speaking of the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, a grand jury recently called the governing body out for playing shell games with federal CARES Act funding meant to be used for public health purposes at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.   This is the same county that, today, is planning to close three Project Roomkey locations currently sheltering hundreds of unhoused Sacramentans. Can anything be done?   Thanks for listening, defund the police and, as always: Twitter: @youknowkempa, @Shan

It's an election year in California, and conservative Democrats are working to distance themselves from progressive movements with a renewed vigor for tough-on-crime policies. As a result, they're finding themselves with some far-right bedfellows. In San Francisco, Mayor London Breed has issued yet another police occupation of the Tenderloin District. After a high-profile looting of high-end retail spaces in Union Square last November, the mayor flooded the space with officers for three weeks, to the tune of $2.4 million in police overtime expenses. As Chronicle columnist Justin Phillips noted, officials didn't respond with anywhere near the same fire just days before, when shootings took place in the city's poor neighborhoods.   Rather than fund statistically promising initiatives to curb gun violence--such as Oakland's Operation Ceasefire--conservative Democrats facing reelection throughout the state are bending to the will of affluent donors and working to bolster police forces. This comes after two year

Today we discuss the nuances between city and county jurisdictions--using some of our all-time favorites as examples--in a bid to better understand who runs what in our region. Thanks for listening, defund the police and, as always: Twitter: @youknowkempa, @ShanNDSTevens, @Flojaune, @guillotine4you Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/voicesrivercity   Sacramentans can hear us on 103.1 KUTZ Tuesdays at 5 pm and again Wednesdays at 8 am. If you require a transcript of our episodes, please reach out to info@voicesrivercity.com and we'll make it happen. And thank you to Be Brave Bold Robot for the tunes.

On Monday California's Assembly was slated to vote on AB1400, which would have paved the way for the Golden State to become the first in the union to adopt single-payer healthcare. Progressives this week hinted that they weren't messing around on CalCare, and would block any state party endorsement for legislators who vote against it. This meant they would not be able to use state party money in their 2022 campaigns. But in a devastating turn of events, Assemblymember Ash Kalra, who authored the bill, decided not to bring it to a vote. This devastated advocates such as California's nurses and the state party's progressive caucus, forcing them to ask how they might make the establishment Democrats pay for this horrific about-face on the people of California. Will this be a much needed moment showing progressives and moderates within the party just how little they have in common? Speaking of campaigns: Despite the California GOP crowing on Fox 40 about their grand intentions in 2022, last year's failed gover

Today we'll be discussing the launch of the 2022 election cycle, looking at races local to the Sacramento region. As a launching point, we'll talk about Yousef Baig's Sacramento Bee piece on the need for fresh faces on the Sacramento City Council. While we disagree with his ongoing cheerleading for a strong mayor form of government, we do agree that the majority of the current council needs to go. Here are the seats that are up for election this year:   District 3 On Monday, January 24, Karina Talamantes threw her hat in the ring for this newly drawn district, currently represented by Councilmember Jeff Harris. A former Bernie supporter, Talamantes has the support of council's two most progressive members. She also, however, is the chief of staff of current conservative Democrat CM Angelique Ashby.   Also in the running is Michael Lynch, the executive director of Improve Your Tomorrow, who last election cycle put his weight behind Mayor Darrell Steinberg's "strong mayor" ballot initiative.   Oh, and have we

Single-payer advocates in California scored a big win last week when a proposed law passed through the Assembly Health Committee on an 11-3 vote. Now AB1400, introduced by Assemblymember Ash Kalra (D-27), will go to the lower chamber's Appropriations Committee this Thursday. If it passes, the bill will make its way to the Assembly floor for a vote. Fantastic news, right? It would be, if Governor Gavin Newsom hadn't started to show signs of buckling under the pressure from his millionaire friends in the insurance industry. While Newsom ran his 2018 governor's race on a single-payer platform, he suddenly has flip-flopped on the bill, claiming to reporters that he hasn't read it or the accompanying ACA11, which would lay out the funding for single-payer in California. All of this is happening in the backdrop of the state's private health care system's massive systemic failure to the latest surge in COVID-19. Emergency rooms throughout California are already reaching crisis-level capacity. Here in Sacramento

Governor Gavin Newsom has three weeks to decide if he will sign off on a parole panel's recommendation to release 77-year-old Sirhan Sirhan, the man who has spent over half a century in federal prison after being convicted for the killing of Senator Robert F Kennedy in 1968. This story is proving itself to be a case study on the question of mainstream Democrats actually practicing what they preach. By all legal and personal accounts, Sirhan has proven himself rehabilitated, and is ready to spend his final years with his brother in California. Indeed, two of RFK's sons--as well as Paul Schrade, an old friend of the late senator and the last surviving victim from the shooting 53 years ago--agree with the parole panel's ruling. But others do not, such as Kerry Kennedy, who is both RFK's daughter and the president of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. While her nonprofit insists it is against mass incarceration, Kerry doesn't seem to think that principle applies to at least one septuagenarian. Last month the Sac

  Last week the City of Sacramento, led by District 3 Councilmember Jeff Harris, launched a widespread, violent sweep against hundreds of unhoused folks living in trailers and cars on Commerce Circle. Since City Manager Howard Chan is less likely to commit to sweeps these days unless a councilmember tells him to do it in their district, it's safe to infer that Harris was the mastermind behind this move, which tore families apart and forced people to lose some of their only belongings just two weeks before Christmas and days before a massive storm hit the region. Harris confirmed as much in a public meeting that week.   Not only that, he's currently pushing the American River Flood Control District to terrorize these folks even further, using a loophole in the landmark Martin v. Boise decision, which deemed homeless sweeps without sufficient shelter/housing options to be cruel and unusual punishment.   The ultimate irony? In the midst of Harris's reign of terror against unhoused folks, he found himself

 For episode 200, we discuss all our favorite things about our favorite town :) Thanks for listening, defund the police and, as always: Twitter: @youknowkempa, @ShanNDSTevens, @Flojaune, @guillotine4you, @aolbites Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/voicesrivercity   Sacramentans can hear us on 103.1 KUTZ Tuesdays at 5 pm and again Wednesdays at 8 am. If you require a transcript of our episodes, please reach out to info@voicesrivercity.com and we'll make it happen. And thank you to Be Brave Bold Robot for the tunes.

Remember when Sacramento's neoliberal consensus teamed up with conservative ghouls to blame unhoused folks for the rise in E. coli in the American River, and used it to harass them with more frequency?   Turns out that was all a massive lie, and that bird and dog droppings were to blame.   It's a tale as old as California capitalism, using specious conservation concerns to mask one's disdain for people experiencing homelessness (See: Friends of Ballona Wetlands in this LAT column). It also speaks to a larger concern over the convergence of neoliberal and conservative voices in the "right to housing" discourse (See: that same LAT column).   A recent Sacramento shooting that resulted in the accidental death of a 7-year-old girl has left many in the region asking questions about how and why something like this could happen. In 2020, homicides--three-quarters of which involved firearms--jumped 30% in California from the year before. But why?   Thanks to the passing of Assembly Bill 173 last September, public he

Today we're discussing two enigmatic newcomers to state and local politics: Sacramento City Councilmember Sean Loloee and SEIU Local 1000 president Richard Louis Brown. Loloee, who represents Sacramento's District 2, recently made headlines when he admitted in the middle of a council meeting that he was "not a fan of affordable housing." We all know that conservative politicians actively work to gentrify their districts, but it's always fun to hear them say the quiet part loud. From his comments on local media coverage of the Sacramento Police Department, to his outlandish businessman's ruminations on homelessness from the dais, Councilmember Loloee regularly breaks the monotony of city government meetings. We take a few minutes to discuss Mayor Darrell Steinberg's "right to housing" effort here in Sacramento, which is garnering attention throughout the state, before moving on to our second character. You might remember when SEIU Local 1000's board of directors stripped president Richard Louis Brown of m

Today we're joined by friend of the show Jackie Fielder, who shocked California with her 2020 state Senate run flanking Scott Wiener from the left. The arc of today's discussion covers the growing importance of the chasm between the state Democratic Party's moderates and progressives. Jackie also talks with us about her new political action committee, Daybreak PAC, and how she hopes to help change the state's political landscape with it. So far for 2022, Daybreak is supporting four progressive candidates for state Assembly: David Campos - AD 17 - This district is DEM +59.7, and Campos will be running against the San Francisco Board of Supervisors' Matt Haney, among others. Jennifer Esteen - AD 20 - At DEM +42.7, this is another blue stronghold, but the labor leader will surely give Democratic incumbent Bill Quirk a run for his money. Pilar Schiavo - AD 38 - This district is only DEM +5.1, but Schiavo has serious labor support in her endeavor to take down Republican Suzette Valladares to claim what was o

Listen, we get it. It's daylight saving's and we're all trying to recover from the changing of the clocks (something we can apparently blame the Nazis for). But there are bigger fish to fry. Such as the big question: Where is Governor Gavin Newsom, who has disappeared since getting his booster shot last month? After chatter started up about the California executive's absence, his partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom came out with an amusing tweet admonishing 'haters'. But people have been genuinely curious about the governor's absence. The latest news has Governor Gavin Newsom attending the wedding of the great-granddaughter of a billionaire oil baron. The wedding was officiated by Nancy Pelosi. Capitalism. We also discuss the rise of the the Asatru Folk Assembly, a white supremacist cult just north of Sacramento. Thanks to Antifa Sacramento (at least according to the Sacramento Bee article), these racists continue to be outed to the public. Thanks for listening, defund the police and, as always: Twitter:

In a welcome rarity, we've got a full house today! Resident epidemiologist Dr. Flo talks us through the big news of the week related to COVID-19. Here in California, the state is setting up 4,000 sites to give out 1.2 million vaccines for kids aged 5-11 in the first week of availability. Meanwhile, the Center for Disease Control is recommending that every adult who has had a Johnson & Johnson shot (as long as they're at least two months removed) get a booster of any kind. Kempa went with Pfizer for round two. It was nice.  We also discuss the 'Striketober' phenomenon last month, in which Americans saw an incredible number of workers (by our current standards) stand up after nearly two years of risking their lives working through the pandemic. American billionaires got some $1.2 trillion richer since coronavirus hit. And don't think the workers haven't noticed. The big question: Is this the start of a mass movement, or just a moment? Thanks for listening, defund the police and, as always: Twitter: @y

The California Democratic Party's executive board voted Sunday on a plan to permanently stop taking money from both Big Oil and cops. It ultimately failed, due to resistance from establishment Democrats.   We're joined by Amar Singh Shergill, chair of the Democrats' Progressive Caucus, to walk us through the vote, and why the party's decision to make no decision for another four months was a massive disappointment to the party's left flank.   A 100-year storm hit northern California on Sunday, with Sacramento receiving the most rain in a 24-hour timespan ever recorded.   While the storm impacted many, it was our unhoused neighbors who fared the worst in the elements during the historic tempest. We discuss the impacts felt by folks outside, how the county and city must do better during future weather events, and who in the community stepped up to care for those in need.   For further reading on what folks endured and what needs remain to be met, follow the Sacramento Homeless Union's Twitter feed.    Thanks f

Over the weekend board leaders in SEIU Local 1000--one of the most powerful unions in California--took the remarkable steps to strip its controversial president, Richard Louis Brown, of most of his powers. In a meeting called against Brown's wishes (and under fire of threats that he would punish anyone who attended), a majority of the union's board members put new bylaws and rules into place that would disperse power among union leadership and amend the disciplinary process. We're joined by SEIU Local 1000 member leader (and longtime friend of the show) Bobby Roy to discuss the pros and cons rising from this meeting. We also take a moment to discuss the state-sanctioned replacement of colonizer Junipero Serra's statue with a monument celebrating indigenous people in Sacramento's Capitol Park, and why Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert--who is running for state Attorney General--feels the need to press draconian charges against a trans person of color over the statue's much needed remov