Lamar Thorpe

On this episode of WTF California, we talk about the Oakley Union Elementary School District Board of Trustees and their idiotic comments that have gone national. We also wonder why mainstream media is all over these elected officials, but are ignore Antioch City Councilwoman Tamisha Walkers 9-minute F-bomb laced rant. We also get into the new lawsuit against Antioch Police over the death of a man in December, however, no one in the media is asking Mayor Lamar Thorpe why he is delaying the body camera discussion. We then talk about a variety of other issues from the City of Oakland to Los Angeles Schools ridding themselves of police officers. Finally, we have a Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez segment of two bills she introduced this week.

Show Notes:

• School board members in Sacramento targeted over COVID-19 closures
  SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. — School board members in North Sacramento say their homes are being targeted over COVID-19 school closures in their districts.
• Please don’t kill me’: Family challenges Antioch police account of man’s detainment before death
  ANTIOCH — Saying they trusted the police “too much,” the family of a man who died three days after going unconscious while being detained by Antioch police officers made explosive claims Thursday about what happened — a version of events different from those given by police. Attorney John Burris filed a claim against the city Thursday on behalf of Angelo Quinto’s family, saying that Quinto died because of what Antioch police officers did on Dec. 23, 2020, at the family’s home.
• Contra Costa Extends COVID-19 Vaccine Eligibility to Essential Workers, Including Teachers
  Teachers, grocery workers and other frontline essential workers who live in Contra Costa County can now sign up to receive safe, effective COVID-19 vaccine at no cost to them. Contra Costa Health Services (CCHS) today updated its eligibility policy for COVID-19 vaccine to extend vaccination eligibility to residents who work in the education and childcare sector, food and agriculture workers, and emergency services workers as defined by Phase 1B of California’s vaccination plan.
• Off-Duty Oakland Cops Hired to Patrol Big Retailers Hard-Hit by Thieves
  OAKLAND (KPIX) — Some stores in Oakland are paying upwards of $100 per hour for off-duty police officers to provide security after crime rates spiked in the past few months.
• ‘Oakland looks like a trash can’: Neighbors form vigilante patrols to curb crime
  OAKLAND, Calif. – Residents living near homeless encampments, vandalized and abandoned warehouses, and lines of motorhomes and stripped-down cars say the police department isn’t doing enough, so they have formed vigilante patrols to clean up their East Oakland neighborhood. Those living closest to the defunct plant owned by Owens-Illinois along Alameda Avenue say an uptick in crime has led them to keep watch over their streets and spend their own money to add lighting and security cameras to protect their properties.
• Oakland plan to replace police with mental health workers in disarray
  As protests against police brutality swept Oakland in June, the City Council took a bold step toward rethinking public safety: It set aside $1.85 million for a new program to dispatch counselors and paramedics to mental health crises, instead of armed law enforcement officers. Eight months later, the Mobile Assistance Community Responders of Oakland program has yet to get off the runway. And on Feb. 17, two community-based organizations that were vying for the contract bowed out.
• LAUSD strips $25 million from LAPD, redirects it to help Black students
  In a move aimed at improving campus climate, the Los Angeles Unified Board of Education voted Tuesday, Feb. 16, to keep officers out of secondary school campuses, ban them from using pepper spray on students and to eliminate 133 positions, including 70 sworn officer positions, from the district’s school police department. And by stripping $25 million from the Los Angeles School Police Department — or about a third of its budget — board members voted to redirect those dollars toward a $36.5 million Black Student Achievement Plan, which they also approved Tuesday. The plan will focus on providing resources to 53 schools with high concentrations of Black students and low academic performance.
• EDD employees quitting in droves, loses 14% of workforce since March
  SAN FRANCISCO – It appears that a growing number of beleaguered and disillusioned Employment Development Department workers are hanging up their headphones and walking away in droves.
• Fresno: 6 people lured through Tinder to Fresno locations, robbed at gunpoint
  FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — Fresno Police have arrested two suspects for allegedly luring victims through the dating app Tinder, and then robbing them at gunpoint.
• New Assemblywoman Gonzalez Bill Sends Employers to Jail Who Steal Workers’ Wages
  SACRAMENTO – California State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) introduced new legislation, Assembly Bill 1003, to make sure the consequences for stealing employees’ wages are as serious as the crime itself. The bill would make an employer’s intentional theft of wages punishable as grand theft when collectively greater than $950.
• Assemblywoman Gonzalez Introduces Bill to Protect Warehouse Workers from Hazardous Working Conditions
  SACRAMENTO – Brutal work speeds are widely blamed for soaring workplace injuries of frontline warehouse employees working for online retail giants like Amazon. Today, California State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) introduced Assembly Bill 701 to protect employees in warehouse distribution centers by creating statewide standards to minimize on the job injuries and strengthen workers’ rights against arbitrary and abusive work quota systems.
• New bill would require California agencies to award 25% of state contracts to small businesses
  State Assemblyman David Chiu is introducing a bill Thursday that would require agencies to award 25% of state contracts to small businesses, in hopes of amplifying equity efforts for the business sector left reeling by the pandemic. Chiu, D-San Francisco, introduced AB 915, which asks that all of California’s state agencies, departments, and commissions set aside the contract quota for small businesses, and if agencies do not meet the threshold by 2027, they could be audited starting that year.

Listen & Subscribe

• Apple Podcast – click here
• Google Podcast – coming soon
• PodBean – click here
• Spotify – click here
• TuneIn-Alexa: click here
• Official Website

Do us a favor and hit subscribe and be alerted when new episodes are released.