Voices: River City

A note to all of our listeners: VOICES: River City is moving back to its weekly format, given that all four hosts are working full-time and the world is becoming a terribly busy place again. We will be providing some patron perks in the future, including meet-ups, so we hope you'll continue to support our work! We also take a moment to mention the alarming rise in far-right groups putting up flyers doxxing members of the Sacramento community, and threatening physical harm. For the meat of the show, we're discussing Governor Gavin Newsom's final bill signings of the year:   The big one that stood out to us was how many huge L's the state's law enforcement lobby took this session, with the following new legislation:   - Cops now cannot legally block journalists from covering protests - The state's Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training can now decertify officers for wrongdoing, effectively kicking them out of the profession - Californians now have increased access to police misconduct records -

[To hear/view the full episode, become a patron today!] Today we're discussing:   - A man fleeing California for Texas because it has grown too "communistic"  - Why Christopher Columbus sucked  - Mark Zuckerberg's platform from Hell  And we also have an important announcement. Enjoy!

We're joined by friend and sometimes-host Elliot, a member of the Sacramento Tenants Union, to discuss the lifting of California's eviction moratorium, and what that means for our region and the state's most vulnerable communities. Who is at risk of eviction? More people than our electeds would care to admit. We also touch on the various ways that people have won strong renters' protections throughout the world. 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.

We're unlocking this episode since Councilmember Valenzuela is joining us to discuss a terribly dangerous action by Caltrans that's putting lives at risk. And they're doing it all at the request of District 3 Councilmember Jeff Harris, who doesn't even represent the constituents around the highways. Want to tell Caltrans you don't approve of their behavior? Contact them here. 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.

Want to view/hear the full episode? Become a patron today! The lede is buried deep in this episode, but we have a wildly worthwhile conversation on the way to the good stuff.   We're discussing the disturbing trend of unconstitutional city and state demolitions of unhoused communities throughout the Sacramento region.  But which Sacramento City Councilmember is to blame beyond Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol?

Today, homelessness expert and cohost Shannon Dominguez-Stevens walks us through this year's homeless deaths report, how to support our unhoused neighbors and how a new Sacramento lawsuit could halt the city's $100 million plan to address homelessness.   We also discuss an absurd push poll leveled against Sacramento City Councilmember Katie Valenzuela (here's her letter to constituents about it). The poll, which was sent to registered voters in the councilmember's district, called Valenzuela an "avowed Democratic Socialist" and tried to paint her as an ineffective politician.   Whoever wanted this smear campaign done paid Democratic consultant Jonathan Brown of Sextant Strategies to carry it out.   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 o

[Want to view/hear the full episode? Become a patron today!] A quick update in the post-failed-recall era: Governor Newsom in the last week has addressed three bills that needed signing on his desk, to mixed results. The good? He signed a bill targeting Amazon and protecting employees who want to take breaks--you know, like human beings. The bad? He's fucked farm labor unions who wanted to have vote by mail elections (you know, the kind that state Democrats celebrate in our primary and general elections). Now they're marching across the state to French Laundry, in hopes of finding and speaking with the multimillionaire governor. He also signed a bill tinkering with single-family zoning in the state, which is fine but by no means a game-changer for progressives. (See a list of Newsom's potential progressive bill signings here.) As we look forward to the start of the 2022 election cycle, it's profoundly important for socialists and progressives to identify which state Democrats have been disappointing at t

A Natomas Unified School District high school had a college-credit civics teacher so well loved that they advertised a student-made video about him on their website.   Last spring, that same teacher was voted to deliver the commencement speech to the graduating class.   But today?   Today, Superintendent Chris Evans has scrubbed that teacher's video from the website, posting instead a 30-minute interview he held with a far-right agitator who once said that Jews owned the banks.   We're joined by equity educator Sonia Lewis to discuss the ridiculous story of how a Sacramento school district sided with proto-fascist agitators from Project Veritas in smearing one of the district's most well loved teachers.   We also touch on what Sacramento media got wrong in covering this ridiculous story.   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

[To hear or view the full episode, become a patron today!] Today we do a post-mortem on the absolute drubbing of the California GOP in Governor Gavin Newsom's recall election. Does it mean anything at all for Democrats in 2022? (No.) Is the California GOP beyond repair? (Yes.) Will Governor Newsom make some bold, progressive moves with his new momentum? (Doubtful.) What a way to spend nearly $300 million and nearly a year of our lives.

Today we're joined by Kula Koenig and Andi Bianchi of Social Justice Politicorps to discuss their new political report card. Kula and Andi are asking Sacramento county residents--particularly those from marginalized and underrepresented communities--to grade city and county electeds on their performance this year. Ready to grade your electeds? You can find the survey at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/socialjusticeSac2021 You can also learn more about the region's political arc at SJPC's blog. 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.

[Want to get the full episode? Become a patron today!] While Mexico has followed Argentina as the most recent Latin American nation to decriminalize abortion, the United States Supreme Court kicked the can on a new Texas abortion law that poses a serious threat to Roe v. Wade. We discuss what this means for Americans, and how folks can fight back. We also discuss the devastating killing that took place last weekend in Land Park. As a community grieves, right-wing media like the California Globe are already turning tragedy into politics. Did you know that, if California were a country, it would be the third most carceral nation in the world? So then why are right-wingers still trying to pack our jails?

This episode was originally published for patrons on 4.22.2021. We were joined by Aaron Ziemer of Sunrise Sacramento to discuss the confluence of labor and climate justice. Last spring a bill to end fracking--a practice Governor Gavin Newsom claimed he was against as recently as September 2020, before going silent in the early days of the recall effort--died in the state Senate's Natural Resources and Water Committee, with key Democrats refusing to cast their votes. One of those senators was Bob Hertzberg, who screamed at Sacramento City Councilmember Katie Valenzuela last session when she rose in support of a bill to create buffer zones around wells (a provision also included on this fracking bill). Why do these Democrats hate fighting climate change? We know Newsom was responding to the recall effort. But others are fearful of stepping on the toes of building trades labor groups, which formed an unholy alliance with Big Oil in recent years. Then there's the money. The state Democratic Chair Rusty Hicks t

[Patrons who prefer to view/listen to the full episode can find it here!] Today we cannot help but ask the age-old question: Sacramento or San Francisco?

Today we're joined by Jen Abreu, president and CEO of Redemption Row California.   We discuss Friday's hearing for Sirhan Sirhan, who was convicted of killing Senator Bobby Kennedy in 1968. Thanks to the Redemption Row team, Sirhan was recommended for parole by a two-person panel--a hugely important step that may soon result in his release. We discuss two perspectives on his ruling:   - This Los Angeles Times piece in favor of his release by Nicholas Goldberg, and - This Sacramento Bee piece by cartoonist Jack Ohman against his release   The RRC leadership includes a number of high profile inmates, such as Suge Knight, the founder and CEO of Death Row Records who is now serving 28 years after pleading no contest to voluntary manslaughter in a 2015 hit-and-run. He's one of two vice presidents of RRC. The other is Artie Guzman, former leader of the Mexican Mafia prison gang. The COO is a man named Joel Baptiste.   Every person involved in this work has a complex story and is working toward rehabilitation in spi

[To view/listen to the full episode, become a patron today!] Today we discuss the commutation of San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin's father, David GIlbert, who has been serving a sentence of 75 years to life in prison for his role in a 1981 robbery of a Brink's armored truck turned violent. Gilbert and his wife, both members of the Weather Underground, had been acting as getaway drivers for members of the Black Liberation Army. (Watch the award-winning 2002 documentary on it here). We also touch on last week's release by the Gravel Institute of a short documentary on the various gangs in the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. Much of the work in this piece comes from the reporting of Cerise Castle, a Los Angeles-based journalist who began digging into the story after sheriff's deputies sent her to the hospital while she was reporting on 2020's George Floyd protests.

It's the same story on the national and state level: Rural regions with lower vaccination rates and vastly smaller medical infrastructure are seeing surges in COVID-19, forcing them to try and find beds for patients in far-off regions with larger medical centers. At least six rural counties in California are seeing record numbers in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations.   The Sacramento region's hospitals are among those feeling the pressure of the surge, with beds filling up quickly throughout the region. For their part, Sacramento City Council is mandating that all employees under their purview get vaccinated. Will other political bodies and/or businesses in the region follow suit? Already we're seeing cops and firefighters--all of whom face residents in person with regularity--fighting against vaccine mandates.   As the delta variant barrels through the nation's redder regions, many folks who are seeing their loved ones fall ill have decided to get vaccinated. Will this week's official FDA approval of t

[To view or hear the full episode, become a patron today!] Far too often we hear about police treating people of color like they're second-class citizens, such as last year, when Solano County Sheriff's deputies knocked a Black woman unconscious in front of her children when she was changing seats with her father on a day-trip outside of Dixon.     We also see how horrible the system can be for folks within the system. Here in Sacramento, the sheriff's department doesn't let the public know when someone dies in their custody.   We also discuss the hundreds of thousands of people in the northern California impacted by the Caldor and Dixie fires.

After two decades of military occupation and over $2 trillion in spending, United States troops are leaving Afghanistan as the Taliban regains control of the country.   Who could have seen this coming? According to a 2019 Washington Post investigation, just about every US military and political official with knowledge on Afghanistan knew that the war was an utter disaster, despite bald-faced lies to the American people. Maybe if President George W Bush had accepted the Taliban's surrender offer in December 2001, things might have ended differently, but hindsight is 20/20, and at that time even Saturday Night Live was manufacturing consent for more bloodshed in the Middle East nation.   Devastating images of desperate Afghanistan citizens clinging for their lives onto the gear of US military planes as they fly out of Kabul's airport are already evoking comparisons to the United States fleeing Vietnam in 1975. More bloodshed is expected in the coming months. It's obvious that this was a botched withdrawal, but

[To listen to/view the full episode, become a patron here today!] On the four-year anniversary of his swearing in as chief of the Sacramento Police Department, Daniel Hahn has filed his intent to retire to Sacramento City Manager Howard Chan. This comes at the end of a complicated tenure that included the police killing of Stephon Clark, police violence during 2020's George Floyd protests, and a 2021 report showing racial bias within the ranks of Sac PD. The crew discusses Chief Hahn's time as police chief, as well as what this means for the future of Sac PD. [Also read: journalist Jorden Hales's essay in V:RC on Chief Hahn] At times it feels as if the region has made headway in the fight to rethink public safety--two Sacramento City Councilmembers ran on platforms in 2020 pledging to not take money from cops--but then we look at the federal level and see just how far we have to go. What else can be done on the ground here in northern California? And how can we hit the ground running in removing harmful

Sacramento is finally moving forward on a vote to enact its $100 million master plan addressing homelessness, a move that could potentially help a good percentage of the estimated 11,000 people in Sacramento County who find themselves without housing over the course of a year (most of them live within city limits), with identified sites for shelter throughout the city.   While this may seem like a local issue, the entire state of California is watching to see what Mayor Darrell Steinberg is willing to do in his city, and what that means for his plans as the state's homelessness czar. Meanwhile, Steinberg is getting national attention for his crowing over a future "right to housing" policy, which is not necessarily related to Tuesday's plan, but is certainly piquing the attention of concerned homeless advocates.   On Sunday, councilmembers Katie Valenzuela (District 4) and Mai Vang (D8) co-published an op-ed in the Sacramento Bee stressing the importance of this plan. In it, they lightly admonish councilmembe