The Bay

Bay Curious is exploring the 12 statewide ballot propositions with its Prop Fest series. Today, we're sharing their guides to Props 16 and 17, which make big decisions on affirmative action and voting while on parole respectively.

For more on Bay Curious’ Prop Fest, click here.

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Latino and immigrant workers keep the economy of "wine country" going. And while many in the Bay Area sheltered in place at the start of the pandemic, farmworkers in Napa and Sonoma counties continued working.

Now, the Glass Fire is threatening their livelihoods. Many workers have evacuated, and likely won't get much support from the government to help stabilize their lives.

Guest: Farida Jhabvala Romero, KQED immigration reporter

These organizations offer cash assistance to undocumented immigrants in Sonoma, Napa and Lake counties:

Find a full list of organizations providing assistance in Northern California here via the California Immigrant Resilience Fund.

Find COVID-19-related resources from the state of California for immigrants in Spanish, Vietnamese and other languages here.

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Berkeley recently renamed a street after a South Asian activist Kala Bagai. But her story isn’t the typical one you hear about people who get streets or monuments named after them.

Nearly 100 years ago, Bagai and her family were driven out of town by racist neighbors who didn’t want them to move in. She and her family eventually left the Bay Area, and a lot of her later activism was the kind of work that didn’t make the headlines. But that’s exactly why some people feel like she’s the perfect person to represent the past and the present.

Guest: Barnali Ghosh, curator and community historian with the South Asian Radical History Walking Tour

Click here to read a Mar. 12, 2020 op-ed in Berkeleyside by Kala Bagai’s granddaughter, Rani Bagai, about her grandmother’s story.

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North Bay journalist Sarah Stierch has become a resource for locals looking for critical fire information, down to their specific block. That’s because when the North Bay was burning in 2017, she knew the streets and roads and homes intimately enough to gain the trust of her neighbors seeking information. But aside from the latest fire reports, she’s also been a compassionate voice for many people during these traumatic times.

Guest: Sarah Stierch, writer and freelance journalist in Sonoma

Consider supporting Sarah’s work by donating to her Venmo or PayPal accounts.

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There are still Californians who need to be counted for the 2020 Census. Here in the Bay Area, there’s the extra challenge of making sure we count people who don't have housing and families whose homes have been affected by wildfires. And this matters a lot, because who gets counted will help determine Congressional representation, federal funding, and how we define Bay Area identity for the next 10 years.

Guest: Tyche Hendricks, KQED editor and reporter covering immigration and the 2020 Census

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California wasn’t ready for the spike in unemployment since the pandemic. And one big reason is because the agency that handles unemployment benefits has had a lot of problems: dated technology, lack of staffing, and a system that focuses more on stopping fraud than getting people the money they need now. Today, that means 1.6 million Californians are waiting for help while the pandemic rages on.

Guest: Mary Franklin Harvin, reporter and producer for KQED’s The California Report.

Recommended Reading:

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This week, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that the state plans to eliminate the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035 in order to keep cutting California's greenhouse gas emissions.

Many environmentalists say we need to move even faster — and take bolder steps to ban fracking in our state. So what does this all mean for our climate future? And is this ban a big deal?

Guest: Kevin Stark, KQED science reporter

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Before the coronavirus, orange skies from wildfires, and huge protests against police violence, housing was the issue in California. But still, even with multiple crises happening at once, so much of what's going on comes back to where we live.

In the new podcast 'SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America,' KQED's Molly Solomon and Erin Baldassari explore some of the solutions to our housing shortage that would make a meaningful difference — because we can't afford to wait.

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

Help KQED by telling us about your podcast listening habits! Take our podcast survey here.

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Since the 90s, law enforcement groups like police unions, correctional officer unions, and sheriffs' associations have had a huge influence on policing and criminal justice legislation, both in Washington and in Sacramento. This led to laws like the 'three strikes' rule and the 1994 Crime Bill that passed through Congress and was signed by President Clinton.

But law enforcement officials aren't speaking with one voice anymore. Some district attorneys want to focus on changing the system and focusing on rehabilitation. And now, a new group of progressive-minded district attorneys in California want to counter the 'tough on crime' voices that have usually held sway.

Guest: Marisa Lagos, correspondent for KQED’s California Politics and Government Desk and co-host of the Political Breakdown podcast

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After the Tubbs Fire in 2017, Lil Milagro Henriquez felt she had to do more than just tell her students to mask up for the smoky air. She wanted to empower her students to face the challenges of climate change head on. That’s what moved her to found the Mycelium Youth Network, which provides programs that empower Black and brown youth to tap into indigenous ways of living with the land.

Guests: Lil Milagro Henriquez, founder and executive director of Mycelium Youth Network, and Phoenix Armenta, educator

Recommended Reading:

• Helping Kids Protect Themselves From Dirty Air, One DIY Filter at a Time

More information on Mycelium Youth Network's Apocalyptic Resilience Conference here.

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