While anyone can fall prey to a scam artist, officials say immigrant, low-income and minority communities in the Central San Joaquin Valley are among the most frequently targeted by fraud. Language barriers and unfamiliarity with the U.S. government make them attractive targets for would-be scammers.
Undocumented communities are especially vulnerable, with fears of deportation preventing victims from interacting with authorities.
According to the University of the Pacific’s Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry, which operates the Virtual Dental Home pilot program, more than 30 percent of Californians are unable to meet their oral health needs through the traditional dental care system. Some 54 percent of Medi-Cal-enrolled children received no dental care in 2012 and even fewer received preventive care services.
According to a new study by the San Francisco-based Young Minds Advocacy Project (YMAP), as many as 70 percent of the kids in California’s juvenile detention centers are in need of mental health care, and most of them are not getting it. Patrick Gardner, YMAP’s founder and one of the report’s authors, says many of these youth would not be in detention in the first place if there were more home and community-based mental health services available.
So my question is, if law enforcement knows ECWs are too risky to use even in very controlled training circumstance, why the heck would they want to use it on unarmed citizens in uncontrolled street situations? The question I would put to [Police Chief ] Greg Suhr is, are you willing to use these on your own officers in controlled settings to show that they’re safe? If he’s telling the truth, he’s going to say, “No, we’re not going to do that.”
Bottom line: They’re not safe to use on unarmed people and they’re not safe for police to use against armed suspects.
The Ortiz family migrated from Mexico to the Coachella Valley in 1915, where the family patriarch, Esabel Parga Ortiz and his wife Maria Montoya Ortiz, first worked as fieldworkers.
Esabel Parga’s sons, Pete and Joseph were the first family members to join the armed forces, and since World War II, members of every generation in the Ortiz family have served in the United States military.
Now, five generations later, the Ortiz family has built a lasting legacy in the Coachella Valley, boasting more than 50 service members in four different branches of the military.
California is also where many of the most pressing issues raised by the pontiff – from climate change to LGBTQ rights and immigration – remain at the fore of political debate. YouthWire asked its youth reporters to weigh in on some of the Pope’s positions on climate change, gay rights and immigration, and what his message might mean for their communities.
Aceves says she never thought about her Hispanic identity or the fact that there are relatively few Hispanics in science until recently, when she perused the names and faces of others in her program. “There was no one that looked like me,” she remembers. Indeed, according to the National Science Foundation, Hispanics account for only 10 percent of all STEM-related degrees. Census data from 2011 show Hispanics make up only 11 percent of the STEM workforce. The number of Latinas within these groups is even smaller. It’s something Aceves is hoping to change.
Escobedo was in middle school when his family settled in the mostly agricultural town of Atwater, located 8 miles north of Merced up Highway 99, six years ago. His father landed a job that offered better benefits and a better salary, he explains, allowing his mom to remain at home and focus on helping Escobedo and his younger sister with their studies. The effort paid off. When it came time to apply for college, Escobedo received acceptance letters from three UC schools – Davis, Irvine and Merced. He chose the latter, he says, for a variety of reasons, including the school’s smaller size and its proximity to a community he was just then beginning to discover.
California is really the engine for the United States, and in some respects for the world. And the University of California is a big engine for the state. The demographics of California are changing … 45 percent of [UC] students are now first generation [immigrants]; 30 percent are from historically underrepresented groups; we have more people receiving financial aid at four of our campuses than the whole Ivy League combined.
Data shows that one in 9 students are suspended nationally, with racial disparities widening. The Central Valley city of Fresno, CA. is among districts seeking to reverse this trend. Under a zero-tolerance school discipline policy, the district has long seen high numbers of both suspensions and expulsions. But in a major reversal last week, Superintendent Michael Hanson announced that he would begin funding district-wide restorative justice programs. Jane Stevens is founder and editor of ACES Too High, which focuses on adverse childhood experiences (ACE). Stevens, a journalist who has long covered school discipline practices in Fresno, spoke with New America Media about decision.