Last summer, confirmed COVID-19 cases ballooned inside San Quentin State Prison. Now, with many incarcerated people and staff now vaccinated, infections are very low and the worst of the outbreak seems to be over.

But the programs that many relied on before the pandemic still haven't returned — and incarcerated people are still coping with the scars of a traumatizing year.

Guest: Kate Wolffe, KQED reporter

Read the episode transcript here.

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The state legislature last week confirmed East Bay assembly member Rob Bonta California’s new Attorney General. His confirmation happened the same week Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd. Bonta, the first Filipino American to take the position, has been a longtime supporter of more police accountability and takes over the AG role at a time when there’s momentum around police accountability in California and across the country. While there’s a lot of power in the AG position, there are also limits to the job. 

Guest: Marisa Lagos, KQED politics correspondent

Episode transcript here: https://bit.ly/3vyGnT5.

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Oakland has been the epicenter of on-the-ground anti-policing efforts since Oscar Grant was killed by BART police in 2009. That same movement saw its latest iteration after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and months of protests and organizing culminated into a rare conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. So what does the verdict mean now for Bay Area efforts against policing?

Guest: Cat Brooks, executive director of the Justice Teams Network and co-founder of the Anti Police Terror Project

Episode transcript here: https://bit.ly/3neytLi.

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A jury has convicted former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin of all three charges for murdering George Floyd. There’s a lot to process, so today we don’t have a new episode — just a short message.

Episode transcript here: https://bit.ly/3n6nLGR

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San Francisco Unified School District has been mired in several controversies over this past year, and the politics around its school board have been especially tense. Whether it's the attempt to rename 44 schools, the debate over Lowell High School's admissions process, or tweets by Commissioner Alison Collins, adults have been taking up the most space in these public debates. And some student leaders say that the way these adults have been handling these conversations needs to change.

Guest: Holly J. McDede, KQED reporter

Episode transcript here: https://bit.ly/3emvZGK

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About 9,000 nursing home residents in California have died of COVID-19. At the height of the winter surge, more than 80 residents were dying every day.

But now, thanks to the COVID-19 vaccines, there are now fewer than 20 confirmed cases daily. And now, many families are reuniting with loved ones after more than a year apart.

Guest: Barbara Feder Ostrov, contributing writer for CalMatters

Episode transcript here: https://bit.ly/3wY0LhK

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Oscar Grant’s name has been circulating after police in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center claimed that 20-year-old Daunte Wright was “accidentally” killed after a veteran officer shot him with a gun instead of her taser. It's similar to what BART police claimed after an officer shot and killed Oscar Grant in 2009.

Cephus Johnson, Grant’s uncle, talked with us last September following a summer of protests against police violence about what it’s like for family members who are thrust into activism after losing loved ones to police — and how to heal through resistance.

Guest: Cephus Johnson, aka Uncle Bobby X, founder of the Oscar Grant Foundation and Love Not Blood Campaign.

Episode transcript here: https://bit.ly/3uLnCLy

This episode originally aired on September 4, 2020.

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A corporation known for flipping houses in the Bay Area has been buying even more homes at foreclosure auctions during the pandemic. Jocelyn Foreman lives in one of these homes and is now trying to compete with Wedgewood’s bid. She has the help of a new state law, which gives potential homeowners more time to match any bid made at a foreclosure auction. But the law doesn’t include financial help. So what does it take for regular people to compete against all cash bids by corporations?

Guests: Molly Solomon and Erin Baldassari, KQED housing affordability reporters and co-hosts of SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America

Episode transcript here: https://bit.ly/3sbRcs1

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On Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that California’s economy will ‘reopen’ by June 15, as long as there’s enough vaccine supply for everyone 16 and older and COVID-19 hospitalizations across the state remain low.

This doesn’t mean all precautions — like the state’s mask mandate — will get scrapped. But it is a big step towards businesses and public spaces operating like they were before the pandemic.

So what’s it going to take to stay on track for “reopening” by June 15?

Guest: April Dembosky, KQED health correspondent

Episode transcript here: https://bit.ly/3t8oNnW

Subscribe to The Bay to hear more local Bay Area stories like this one. New episodes are released Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 3 a.m. Find The Bay on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, NPR One or via Alexa.

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After months of local and national attacks against people in the AAPI community, Oakland Chinatown has rallied together to support their elders and businesses.

But the community is divided — and a generational gap exposed — over whether they want more policing to be part of the solution or not.

Guest: Julie Chang, KQED reporter

Episode transcript here: https://bit.ly/3dHToSN

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