MLK Keynote Speaker Offers the Hope of Restorative Justice as An Alternative to Mass Incarceration
Redemption and Reconciliation Were the Vision of Dr. King – When Bay Area resident Sujatha Baliga, a Senior Program Specialist at the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, where she assists communities in implementing restorative justice alternatives to juvenile detention and zero-tolerance school discipline policies, was asked to come speak, there is little doubt that not many people would have known who she was.
But that was before the New York Times story from early this year, “Can Forgiveness Play a Role in Criminal Justice?” The story told the story of Conor McBride, who was was convicted of shooting his girlfriend of three years when they were both 19.
Earlier this week, actor Conrad Bain passed away. He was best known as the father in the late 1970s and early 1980s sitcom, “Diff’rent Strokes.” Sadly, of the main characters, that leaves only Todd Bridges, better known as “Willis,” still alive. The other two child actors died at tragically young ages.
COMMENTARY – Even a free society has to draw lines. We allow freedom of speech to dictate most rules of elections, and rightly so. However, we also assume that once the voters go into the polling place, they need to be given the time and space to make their own freely-formed decision.
Martin Luther King Day is a holy day of sorts for those who are believers and fighters for social justice. For me, for whatever reason, it is also a time for personal reflection. My life in most respects has drastically changed in the last six years, in ways I never would have anticipated.
Sitting Judge Nominates His Own Wife For a Civic Award – 
by Joe Krovoza – 
Today we will all pause for a moment in our lives to celebrate Independence Day. Aside from the separation from the British Empire, Independence Day embodies the celebration of our most cherished values – freedom, liberty, and equality. And yet even in 2010, some 234 years after the Declaration of Independence that declared, “we hold these truths to be self-evidence that all MEN are created equal…,” the notion of equality is still a work in progress at best.
by Mike Pach – 
Candidate Claimed Such Laws Were Used to Harass Homeless People – 
It had become a burning issue within a segment of the Davis Community, a proposed initiative that would authorize a Co-Op boycott of products made in Israel. Ultimately, the board has unanimously rejected such a boycott in a strongly worded resolution.