Bakersfield
Political Playback: California Capitol News You Might Have Missed
News You Might Have Missed
Stefi Mar March 31, 2026
News You Might Have Missed
In the aftermath of mass layoffs in 2025, many Black women are turning uncertainty into opportunity by launching businesses, strengthening professional networks and being innovative. Through resilience, creativity and community support, they are carving paths to stability and success in a shifting economy.
On March 25, members of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC), in collaboration with the California Legislative Women’s Caucus (LWC), stood in unity to present a 2026 legislative package aimed at advancing family-centered economic and social equity.
Twelve Inglewood Unified students left a school assembly last week with college acceptances — and for several, scholarship offers — after a visit from Dr. Anthony L. Jenkins, president of Coppin State University.
Last week, members of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC), through their voices and votes, supported Assembly Bill (AB) 2156, which proposed renaming César Chávez Day to Farm Workers Day.
The 2026 NCAA Men’s Final Four is set, and the Big Ten Conference is making a strong statement with two teams—Illinois Fighting Illini men’s basketball and Michigan Wolverines men’s basketball—advancing to college basketball’s biggest stage.
For just the second time in NCAA history, the same four programs have reached the sport’s final weekend in consecutive seasons. No. 1 seeds UConn Huskies women’s basketball, UCLA Bruins women’s basketball, Texas Longhorns women’s basketball, and South Carolina Gamecocks women’s basketball return to the Final Four, bringing with them lessons learned, unfinished business, and a deeper understanding of what it takes to win on the biggest stage.
While the evidence is clear that pre-K makes a meaningful difference for children in the short and long term, children need access to high-quality programs to experience these benefits. Access, however, remains unequal, particularly to programs that provide high-quality experiences.“An Updated Look at Pre-K in Large American Cities,” research findings include:
Russell Simmons is accusing HBO and its partners of ignoring civil rights leaders, burying evidence, and turning his name into a global spectacle, and he’s putting it before a Manhattan court.
By Cecil Egbele | Contributing Writer | California Local News Fellow When NASA’s Artemis II rocket lifts off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, at 3:24
I am also concerned about the gamification of investing and gambling associated with these technologies. This Committee has already examined how trading apps use behavioral designs to turn investing into a game. Tokenization could make those trades faster, always on, and with fewer guardrails.
It’s that time of the year again! Days are longer, and the weather is cooler. Don’t try to explain this to Mother Nature. No one could ever imagine ushering in spring with sizzling weather.
In her latest book, “Living the California Dream – African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era,” author Alison Rose Jefferson provides new insights into how the great migration of Blacks beginning in 1910 from the American South to the urban North, Midwest, and West challenged the prevailing narratives that exclude African Americans and shows their active role in shaping regional identity.
The American Foundation for the University of the West Indies (AFUWI) will honor two outstanding academic leaders whose work has changed access to higher education for many generations of minority students. Dr. Wayne J. Riley, President of SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, and Dr. Wayne A. I. Frederick, Interim President and President Emeritus of Howard University, will be honored at AFUWI’s 29th Annual “The Legacy Continues” Awards Gala, which is scheduled for April 17, 2026, in New York City.
Sherry Tucker Brown’s family roots run deep in New York, and also in a familiar brand of alcoholic spirits.
Nana Gyamfi, Sen. Lola Smallwood Cuevas, Kevin Cosney courtesy photo.
Frederick Douglass did not know the day he was born.
On behalf of the nearly 9 million people who are now in default on their student loans, a coalition of advocates from consumer, civil rights, and education organizations is appealing to the federal Education Department to halt its plans to begin garnishing borrowers’ wages this month. Default status connotes borrowers are 270 days or more behind on their payments.
Nearly 100 members of the Black Press – some still honing their skills as journalists in college classrooms along with seasoned veterans representing Black publications from across the U.S.; and both friends of and corporate sponsors of the Black Press, gathered on the campus of Howard University (HU) on March, 18 for this year’s Black Press Week Reception.
The nation is right to hope and pray for the safe return of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of journalist Savannah Guthrie, co-anchor on NBC’s “Today.” Any disappearance is terrifying. Any family thrust into uncertainty deserves compassion, urgency, and relentless attention. But compassion should never be selective — and that is precisely where the media’s response exposes a troubling, long-standing inconsistency.