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Fund Drive Special: A People’s Guide to the SF Bay Area; Plus: US unemployment grows, still no relief; and voices from inside California prisons’ COVID pandemic

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0:08 – KPFA Fund Drive Special: A People’s Guide to the San Francisco Bay Area

Rachel Brahinsky is a Professor at the University of San Francisco in Urban Studies. Alexander Tarr is an Assistant Professor of Geography at Worcester State University. Their latest book is A People’s Guide to the San Francisco Bay Area.

1:08 – The latest unemployment filings; stakes are set for COVID relief prospects

Michele Evermore (@EvermoreMichele) is a senior policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project in Washington, D.C. focusing on social insurance.

1:24 – KPFA News: California nurses are outraged about a recent executive order from Governor Gavin Newsom that allows hospitals to temporarily waive state laws on nurse-to-patient ratios. Hospitals insist they need this flexibility to respond to the influx of COVID-19 patients, but nurses say it’s unsafe, and that hospitals are using the pandemic to cut corners and increase profits. KPFA’s Katherine Monahan reports.

1:34 – Inside San Quentin prison during the COVID pandemic

Earlier this summer, San Quentin State Prison was the site of one of the country’s largest COVID outbreaks. Though its official active infection numbers have gone down since then, the prison is now preparing to transfer hundreds of incarcerated people to other institutions, some with potentially many more active cases.

Elsie Lee is a co-founder of Sistas’ with Voices, an advocacy group formed to speak against inhumane conditions in California prisons during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her husband is currently incarcerated in San Quentin. Our reporter Lucy Kang spoke to Elsie about what it’s like to have a loved one inside San Quentin during the pandemic.
1:43 – San Quentin transfers people to higher risk prisons, advocates demand mass releases.
Courtney Morris is an organizer with No Justice Under Capitalism.

Event: Rally at CDCR headquarters in Sacramento *today, Thursday Dec 17 at11am, organized by Sistas With Voices. They’re demanding CDCR and Governor Newsom follow the guidelines offered by health officials and reduce the prison population by 50%, and accomplish this through releases, not transfers.