Covered California announced that it has begun the New Year with a record number of people who have signed up for coverage amid a severe spike in COVID-19 cases across the state. A record 1.6 million Californians had either renewed their coverage or selected a plan during open enrollment for health insurance coverage starting Jan. ...

By Quinci LeGardye California Black Media Two weeks into January, California has not distributed as many COVID-19 vaccines as previously estimated. Gov. Gavin Newsom first acknowledged on Jan. 4 that the state’s vaccine rollout was “not good enough.” As of Jan. 8, less than a third of the over 2 million doses of vaccines that ...

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhuman.” — Martin Luther King Jr.   Three African American health leaders — advocates for expanded health care who are on the frontlines of the battle against COVID-19 raging across California — took a moment to reflect on the state of ...

By Dianne Anderson With COVID-19 surging off the rails and hospital beds filled to capacity, everyone is being asked to give what they can, and almost everybody can give blood. Over the years, LifeStream had presented its annual Blood of the Martyrs blood drive under the lead of community advocate Lois Carson to commemorate Blacks ...

By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Sr Nat’l Correspondent The lack of a quiet place to work and resources like internet service often hamstrings students of color’s ability to adequately learn during the pandemic, according to education experts who share their frustration about the inequities in education faced by minorities and those in underserved communities. ...

Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) released this statement after President Trump signed H.R. 5983 into law, legislation Rep. Takano introduced to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 4150 Chicago Avenue in Riverside as the “Woodie Rucker-Hughes Post Office Building.” “I am thrilled that my bill to rename the Riverside Post Office after the ...

By Debra Furr-Holden Dr. Anthony Fauci and other national health leaders have said that African Americans need to take the COVID-19 vaccine to protect their health. What Fauci and others have not stated is that if African Americans don’t take the vaccine, the nation as whole will never get to herd immunity. The concept of herd immunity, ...

Senator Steven Bradford (D-Gardena) has been elected as Chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC). The Caucus has had over a 50-year legacy of advocating for transformative legislation on behalf of African Americans and other marginalized people in California. Senator Bradford was elected to the legislature in 2009 making him the longest serving member ...

By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Sr Nat’l Correspondent Bianca Smith, an African American woman, has made baseball history. Smith, who most recently served as an assistant baseball coach and hitting coordinator at Wisconsin’s Carroll University, was named a coach in the Boston Red Sox minor league system. Smith, 29, becomes the first Black woman ...

History will rightly remember today’s violence at the Capitol, incited by a sitting president who has continued to baselessly lie about the outcome of a lawful election, as a moment of great dishonor and shame for our nation. But we’d be kidding ourselves if we treated it as a total surprise. For two months now, ...