Within one week in June, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases at San Quentin State Prison grew more than 700 percent. Prison authorities have now reported that more than 500 incarcerated men have the virus, and that doesn't even count the dozens of guards who have contracted it too. Between prison over-crowding and prison employees entering and leaving, the implications of the outbreak at the state's oldest correctional institution could extend beyond its walls.

Guest: Kate Wolffe, reporter and weekend host for KQED

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In Oakland, a city that’s seen school closures and a rapid rise in homelessness in recent years, the police budget takes up around 44% of the general fund. Among those calling to defund the police there are artists in Oakland who have plenty of ideas about what a police-free Oakland would look like if that money were reinvested into the community.

Guest: Nastia Voynovskaya, reporter and editor for KQED Arts and Culture

See photos of art around Downtown Oakland here.

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Growing up, Sarah Mizes-Tan's father encouraged her to always stand up to anti-Asian racism whenever she saw it. That's because he had experienced discrimination in the U.S. since immigrating from Singapore as a kid. After the death of George Floyd and protests for Black lives, Mizes-Tan knew the racism her dad experienced, and the racism Black folks experience, are connected struggles. So they talked about it. But depending on one's class, education, or citizenship status, Asian Americans are relating to the Black Lives Matter protests in different ways.

Guest: Sarah Mizes-Tan, Capital Public Radio reporter covering race and communities of color

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You can’t separate labor from the police violence and oppression that’s being called out this Juneteenth - the day that commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S. That’s why local Bay Area dockworker unions in San Francisco and Oakland are joining other local unions in shutting down the West Coast ports on Friday. This kind of action isn't new. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union has fought against racism and police violence here in the Bay Area for decades.

Guests: Clarence Thomas, retired leader of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10 and co-founder of the Million Worker March Movement and Peter Cole, professor of history at Western Illinois University and author of Dockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area

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In January, the Anti Police-Terror Project launched a community first responder program in Sacramento called Mental Health First. Throughout the night, Friday through Sunday, Mental Health First volunteers respond to people in crisis — all without police.

Guests: Niki Jones, Peer Crisis Counselor/Volunteer Coordinator with Mental Health First and Asantewaa Boykin, co-founder of Anti Police-Terror Project

Read the transcript here.

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Lisa Fagundes is a San Francisco librarian who also helps track and prevent the spread of COVID-19. As more Bay Area residents leave their homes, the state is hiring thousands of people like Lisa to contact people who have tested positive for the virus. Health officials expect the work of contact tracers to become increasingly important as shelter-in-place orders loosen and mass protests continue.

Guest: April Dembosky, KQED health correspondent

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There have been dozens of Bay Area cities protesting against police violence since the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Most of the protests have taken place in the suburbs or smaller Bay Area cities not known for heavy activist scenes. But some of these cities have their own histories of police violence and activists are demanding changes to police policies. KQED Arts Senior Editor Gabe Meline lives in Santa Rosa and he covered eight straight nights of protests in the city. Today, what the national movement looks like in Santa Rosa.

Guest: Gabe Meline, KQED Arts and Culture senior editor

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Oakland Unified is the only school district in Alameda County with its own police force. And for nearly a decade, activists with the Black Organizing Project have tried to get police out of Oakland's public schools.

It hasn't happened. But now, with more calls nationally to defund the police, supporters are raising the issue with OUSD's school board once again.

Guest: Ashley McBride, education equity reporter at The Oaklandside

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Vallejo Police killed another person of color last week. Sean Monterrosa of San Francisco was shot after police say they mistook a hammer for a gun.

Days later, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra issued an "expansive review" of the Vallejo Police Department, citing the recent spate of high-profile police shootings and calls from the community.

We checked back in with the families of loved ones shot by Vallejo police, which we featured last year in our special series on policing in Vallejo.

Guests: Alicia Saddler, sister of Angel Ramos and David Harrison, cousin of Willie McCoy

Click the episode links below to read and hear our three-part series about policing in Vallejo

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

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Californian police officers are rarely disciplined, even internally, when they do something wrong. That's what KQED reporters have learned by looking at records released under a law passed in 2018. The records show a system designed to protect police and discourage citizens from filing complaints in the first place.

Guest: Sukey Lewis, KQED criminal justice reporter

Tap here to see the California Reporting Project. 

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