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Category: Bakersfield

Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

Virginia Democrats Enter the War on Maps After GOP Moves to Kill Black Political Power

“Democrats are going to take back control of the United States House of Representatives. It’s the reason why we see Republicans in full-blown panic right now,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries to reporters on Capitol Hill on Oct. 22. Democrats have been strategizing on redistricting strategy with leaders in Democratic states since Republicans in Texas. “We’ve never seen this level of extraordinary gerrymandering attempts take place across the country.

Stefi Mar October 27, 2025
Arts & Culture
Stefi Mar

From Boston to Paris, Art Keeps Disappearing into the Dark

It was just after dawn in Paris when the sirens began to wail through the narrow streets surrounding the Louvre. Soldiers with rifles guarded the courtyard, tourists were turned away, and the great glass pyramid stood silent under a gray sky. Inside, the world’s most visited museum had been stripped of eight priceless jewels once belonging to Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie.

Stefi Mar October 27, 2025
African Americans
Stefi Mar

New Social Security Rules Could Leave Black Retirees Further Behind

The country’s most dependable safety net is changing again, and this time, many fear it will fall hardest on the people who have always leaned on it the most. Across the nation, millions are bracing for the next wave of Social Security changes taking effect this fall and into 2026. What Washington calls modernization and reform, others see as a tightening noose around the necks of working people, especially Black Americans, who for generations have been shut out, shortchanged, and forced to survive on the margins of a promise that was never fully kept.

Stefi Mar October 27, 2025
Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

California Teachers Association Rallies Behind Prop. 50: A Stand for Education and Democracy

In a bold move reflecting the urgency of the times, the California Teachers Association (CTA) has thrown its weight behind Proposition 50, an initiative spearheaded by Governor Gavin Newsom aimed at redistricting. CTA is reaching out to California’s Black voters by activating a campaign utilizing some of the state’s legacy Black newspapers.

Stefi Mar October 27, 2025
Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

On the Brink: Federal Gov’t Shutdown Threatens SNAP/CalFresh, Headstart Programs

A total of 134 Head Start programs in California and across the country will not receive their operational funding if the federal government shutdown extends beyond Nov. 1 These early-learning programs are located in 41 states and Puerto Rico and serve more than 65,000 children, according to the First Five Fund.

Stefi Mar October 27, 2025
Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

Q&A: Why the NAACP Is Suing Edison Over the Eaton Fire

In January 2025, the NAACP and the law firm Singleton Schreiber filed a lawsuit against Southern California Edison Company and Edison International on behalf of Altadena residents whose homes and businesses were destroyed in the Eaton Fire.

Stefi Mar October 27, 2025
African Americans
Stefi Mar

The Walls Remember: Murals and the Unyielding Story of Black America

You can try to bury people. You can rewrite their history books, close their schools, and burn their libraries. You can pass laws that punish truth-tellers and silence teachers who dare speak the name of freedom. But you cannot silence color. You cannot silence the wall. Across this country, in cities both proud and scarred, the story of Black America refuses to die. It is written not in the ink of permission, but in the paint of defiance. It rises on concrete, brick, and steel. The murals speak where the history books fall silent.

Stefi Mar October 27, 2025
Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

Trump’s “Beautiful Black Women” Lie and the Complicity That Betrays Us

Donald Trump’s claim that “beautiful Black women” were begging him to come to Chicago was not flattery. It was a lie that weaponized race and gender to mask a long record of cruelty and contempt. It was a performance designed to seduce the uninformed and comfort those willing to excuse his open assault on the people he pretends to praise.

Stefi Mar October 20, 2025
Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

The Lie About Immigrants and America’s Debt to Them 

There is a lie moving through America. It creeps through congressional halls and across television screens, whispering that undocumented immigrants live freely off the sweat of the American taxpayer. It is a lie told by those who know better and repeated by those who are too ignorant—or too hateful—to care. And while the lie spreads, the truth is being brutalized on the streets.

Stefi Mar October 20, 2025
Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

Report Warns about Shifting Racial Job Trends Across the Nation

A new report from the Brookings Institution warns that the nation’s job market may be entering a period of instability that could worsen racial and economic disparities. While the overall unemployment rate held steady between June 2024 and June 2025, joblessness among Black workers rose by more than half a percent.

Stefi Mar October 20, 2025
Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

Head Start Gave the Author an Early Inspiration to Share Her Story

It did not come as a surprise to Atiya Henley’s parents, alumni of Head Start, that she would become a published author before the age of 10. “Atiya has a BIG imagination,” said her mother, Amy Deanes. “This isn’t her first book, but it’s the first one that we published. She wrote this book because of no experience of her own, but because of her passion to help others.”

Stefi Mar October 20, 2025