The San Francisco Unified School District is dropping the word “chief” from job titles (“chief technology officer,” “chief of staff,” etc.) for its 10,000-strong workforce because — you guessed it — the word is associated with Native Americans. According to spokesperson Gentle Blythe, “While there are many opinions on the matter, our leadership team agreed that, given that Native American members of our community have expressed concerns over the use of the title, we are no longer going to use it.” No substitute has been agreed upon, which suggests how much thought was put into the decision. Not only is this cultural erasure of Native Americans in the service of supposedly removing a source of offense, it is also a symptom of the educational illiteracy of our educators. As Chris Pandolfo at the Blaze notes, “The word ‘chief’ does not have Native American roots. It is an English word borrowed from an Old French word (chef) meaning ‘leader,’ derived from the Latin ‘capus,’ which means captain or chieftain.”

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Elon Musk is demanding that his workers return to the office.

Mr. Musk, the world’s richest man, sent a pair of similar memos on Tuesday to push his employees at SpaceX, the rocket company he runs, and Tesla, the electric carmaker he leads, to spend time in the office.

In his email to SpaceX employees, Mr. Musk told workers that they were required to “spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week.” Those who did not do so would be fired, he wrote in the memo, which was obtained by The New York Times.

“The more senior you are, the more visible must be your presence,” Mr. Musk said. “That is why I spent so much time in the factory — so that those on the line could see me working alongside them. If I had not done that, SpaceX would long ago have gone bankrupt.”

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Do you agree or disagree?

Every day in America, there is senseless gun violence. Shootings in our homes, places of worship, schools, and on our streets repeatedly threaten our health and safety. No one is immune to the impact.

We, the physicians, care teams, and staff of Kaiser Permanente, see firsthand the devastating aftermath of gun violence and bear witness to the intergenerational trauma that has both short- and long-term effects on physical and mental health.

Through the Kaiser Permanente Task Force on Firearm Injury Prevention, established in 2018, we are supporting research studies and testing firearm screening tools and counseling interventions that focus on how physicians and clinicians can help prevent firearm injuries. This is important work, and yet it is not enough.

Together with all health care organizations, we must do more to prevent gun violence and educate on its health implications in our society.

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California's first-in-the-nation task force on reparations will release a report Wednesday documenting in detail the harms perpetuated by the state against Black people and recommending ways to address those wrongs. The recommendations include expanding voter registration, making it easier to hold violent police accountable and improving Black neighborhoods. The report to be released by the state Department of Justice marks the halfway point for the two-year reparations task force. The task force voted in March to limit reparations to descendants of Black people who were in the United States at the end of the 19th century.

The report marks the halfway point for the two-year task force’s work. The draft report does not provide a comprehensive reparations plan, which is due to lawmakers next year.

The report is expected to lay out how California supported slavery before it was technically abolished and oppressed Black residents through discriminatory laws and practices in education, home ownership, employment and the courts.

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Hillary Clinton’s campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann was acquitted Tuesday of lying to the FBI, in the first trial of special counsel John Durham's investigation.

The verdict is a major defeat for Durham and his Justice Department prosecutors, who have spent three years looking for wrongdoing in the Trump-Russia probe. He claimed Sussmann lied during a 2016 meeting in which he passed a tip to the FBI about Donald Trump and Russia.

The Washington, DC, federal jury deliberated for six hours over two days before reaching its verdict.

The Sussmann case revolved around his September 2016 meeting with James Baker, a friend who was the FBI's general counsel. Sussmann passed along a tip that led to a four-month FBI inquiry into a possible internet backchannel between the Trump Organization and Kremlin-linked Alfa Bank. Both companies denied the claim, and the FBI didn't find any improper cyber links.

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After previously banning 1,500 types of military-style assault weapons, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced a new bill on Monday that would put a nationwide freeze on importing, buying or selling handguns.

Democrats are expressing cautious optimism and looking for a deal following the recent elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas -- suggesting that this might be the tragedy that breaks a decades-long stranglehold on new gun legislation and proves to Republicans "that the sky will not fall politically for them" if they vote to change gun laws, according to Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, the top Democratic negotiator.

Other Democrats are trying to capitalize on momentum even if they don't think a deal will solve the problem of gun violence.

President Joe Biden had kind words for the "rational Republicans" Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, noting "there's a recognition on their part they can't continue like this."

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said on CNN on Sunday he senses "a different feeling among my colleagues after Uvalde."

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York has given a bipartisan group of lawmakers a week to make some headway.

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Jim Pugh, executive director of Little Village Records speaks with Kim about the upcoming show at Freight & Salvage June 2.

Little Village Presents 5 World Premieres on Thursday, June 2, 2022 8:00 p.m. Freight & Salvage 2020 Addison St. Berkeley, CA 94704 Tix: $20-$24  Freight Website: https://thefreight.org/  510.644.2020       Littlevillagefoundation.com

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As details of the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, continue to unfold, San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler on Friday wrote that he is "not okay with the state of this country" and that he "felt like a coward" for not protesting "the lack of delivery on the promise of what our national anthem represents. "Moving forward, Kapler told reporters on Friday that he doesn't plan on taking the field for the national anthem "until I feel better about the direction of our country" and that he needs more time to consider specific actions he might suggest be taken to prevent more tragedies of this type, such as stronger gun control laws.

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Nearly a decade ago, the massacre of 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school threw the politics of gun violence into a state of suspension for a full week, as conservative politicians waited to hear from the powerful gun lobby, the National Rifle Association, before taking a stand.

This week, after another rampage, at a Texas elementary school that left 19 children and two teachers dead, Republican lawmakers didn’t wait for the NRA as they lined up within hours to rebuff any proposed gun-control measures.

That dynamic reflects both the recent decline of the NRA’s power and the logical conclusion of its own increasingly hard-line messaging thatguns and liberty are inextricable from patriotism and that all gun control is a plot to seize weapons and leave owners defenseless. The NRA, which hosted former president Trump at its annual convention today in Houston, has been embroiled in lawsuits and infighting for the last four years, taking a toll on its budget and standing in Washington — and also creating space for more-extreme groups to gain traction.

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Dr. Jeffrey W. Swanson Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Duke University

California is one of at least 19 states and Washington, D.C. with laws that can temporarily seize guns by court order if someone makes a threat to use them. The use of these so-called "red flag" laws depends upon the public saying something before it's too late.

Whether it's Uvalde, Buffalo or San Jose, mass casualty shooters have sometimes sent out warning signals before resorting to gun violence. However, those red flags can be ignored or missed.

California has had a red flag law on the books for six years that allows family, friends, co-workers or neighbors to alert police and the district attorney's office anonymously of a potential threat by a gun owner."Within a few hours, we can go in front of the judge and temporarily remove those weapons," said Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen. "I know that these restraining orders have saved hundreds of lives in our county. "Rosen says more than 200 restraining orders have been issued in the past year, double the number from two years ago. Earlier this week, the law allowed San Jose police to seize guns from someone who had made threats.

"The response from the police and the DA's office is not always going to be a gun violence restraining order and taking the person's guns away," said Rosen. "It may also be a referral to mental health, to drug treatment or to workplace mediation. "He says there's reluctance by individuals to step forward but the process is anonymous and is central to intervention.

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