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Since April 15, the Alt-Right has been declaring a victory over antifascists in Berkeley, where a mix of Trump supporters, militia members, far-Right bikers, and neo-Nazis gave fascist salutes, held anti-Semitic signs, carried Alt-Right flags, and listened to white nationalist speakers. But the leader of the rally, Richard Black, a part of the Alt-Right himself, paints a much different picture. Black claims that without the coordinated help of the Berkeley Police Department, who worked with Alt-Right organizers, antifascists would have overrun and shut down the rally before it even began.

On October 10, 2005, Diallo Neal was murdered in Oakland when a California Highway Patrol (CHP) motorcycle officer struck the rear end of Diallo's motorcycle, launching Diallo into a bus stop, pole, and concrete bench. CHP fled the scene. After his mother, Gilda Baker discovered that the accounts of eyewitnesses and investigation documents did not match the official police report, she set out to uncover the real circumstances surrounding her son's death. On April 22, Ms. Baker and supportive community members rallied at Oakland City Hall calling for an investigation to take place and demanding justice for Diallo.

California warehouses thousands of people in jails while they await their court dates — simply because they can’t afford to post bail. Meanwhile, wealthy people can easily buy their freedom. Research shows that Black people are assigned higher bail amounts than white people accused of similar offenses. People who can’t post bail are at a higher risk of being convicted, pleading guilty (even if they’re innocent), and receiving harsher sentences. The California Money Bail Reform Act, however, will create a system that prioritizes pretrial services and prevents people from being held in jail simply because they can't make bail.

Across California, and nationally, trans people are funneled into state prisons, detention centers and county jails. While incarceration is violent and unsafe for everyone, trans people face extreme conditions while locked up, including unsafe housing, physical/emotional/sexual assault, lack of access to basic transition health care and a refusal to be recognized by chosen names and genders. SB 310 would make it possible for trans people in custody to file for a legal name and/or gender marker change on their identification documents and would ensure that they are recognized as such while incarcerated.

On April 15, students, anti-racists, anti-fascists, and other residents of the Bay Area clashed in the streets of Berkeley against an array of organized white supremacist and far-right forces. Trump supporters openly carried anti-Semitic signs, fascist symbols, and raised their arms in sieg heil Nazi salutes. Unlike most events and actions the far-right has organized in recent past, this time members of the Right were able to take the streets in a city regarded as a leftist stronghold. The far-right is now bragging that if it can take over Berkeley, it can do the same in any city. Meanwhile, much of the Left focused on marches around Trump's tax returns.

Pacifica Foundation is a non-profit organization which owns five independently operated, non-commercial, listener-supported radio stations known for their progressive/liberal political orientation. Its national headquarters adjoins station KPFA in Berkeley. Bill Crosier, Pacifica Foundation's interim Executive Director, addressed members of the 5-station radio network after it became known that at least one of the KPFA Local Station Board members, with others, has secretly contacted celebrities and prominent supporters of progressive causes, falsely claiming that Pacifica is “collapsing”, and asking them to be on the board of a new nonprofit organization which would seek to acquire Pacifica's assets, or at least those of station KPFA.

Valerie Corral and her former husband founded Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM) in Santa Cruz, the nation’s oldest continuously operating medical cannabis collective that provides free cannabis for 30 percent of its members. She also helped write and pass Proposition 215, California’s revolutionary medical marijuana law. She has helped build the medical industry and seen it change into what it is today. Now, another twenty years later, the financial climate around cannabis in the United States has changed into a million dollar industry, but Valerie still isn't interested in making money from cannabis.