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Live Wire Presents Int’l Kids Festival and High School Video Winners

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Live Wire Presents Int’l Kids Festival and High School Video Winners

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This week on LiveWire Host Ray Tatar presents the International Kids Festival and Access Sacramento‘s  High School Public Service Announcement (PSA) Contest Winners.

Tune in Wed. May 23 at 5pm on Access Sacramento’s channel 17.

Looking for a fun way to spend the Memorial Day Weekend with your kids?

Join the International Kids Festival and enjoy pony rides, jumbo inflatables, rock climbing wall, miniature train rides, trampolines, face painting and more. Try some amazing food from a parade of local food trucks while you watch spectacular stage entertainment by professional dancers, gymnasts, and athletes.

Don’t miss free fun for the entire family! Saturday, May 26, from 10 am to 4 pm, at William Land Park Amphitheater across the Zoo and Fairy Tale Town!

Also joining us this week Access Sacramento presents its winners in our 4th annual High School Public Service Announcement (PSA) Contest.

Click the Image to see “Pooch Protection”

Franklin High School Animation and Video Production Teacher Brad Clark will be presenting the winners including Sara Pogemiller from Franklin High School for her video “Pooch Protection” promoting Bradshaw Animal Shelter.

Click the image to see “Your Vote”

Also Alondra Santana-Isidro  from Sacramento New Tech High School for her PSA “Your Vote” for The League of Women Voters.  Her video is presented with both English and Spanish versions.

Click the Image to see “Fire Safety Tips’

The 3rd Place winners are J Dirain, Sydney DeHaro and Juliana Elsberry from Center High School for their PSA “Fire Safety Tips” supporting the American Red Cross.

Access Sacramento’s Executive Director Gary Martin will join the show to present the prize winners with cash awards and certificates.

Watch Live Wire on Comcast or Consolidated Communications cable channel 17 or AT&T channel 14 or live steaming by clicking HERE.

 

Research Shows that Young Minorities Suffer More from Police Shootings

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Research Shows that Young Minorities Suffer More from Police Shootings

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A study published by researchers Anthony Bui, Matthew Coates, and Ellicott Matthay of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health found a new way to encourage police shooting accountability by calculating the average number of years lost in the lives of police shooting victims.

“Framing police violence as an important cause of deaths among young adults provides another valuable lens to motivate prevention efforts,” researchers wrote. “ [Years of Life Lost will] highlight that police violence disproportionately impacts young people, and the young people affected are disproportionately people of color.”

The researchers pulled data from the Guardian’s police shooting death database, The Counted, and found that in the 1,146 police killings in 2015 and the 1,092 in 2016, 51.5% were people of color. Different studies indicate that Black males between 15 and 34 years of age are 9 to 16 times more likely to be killed by police than any other race. Based on the ages and life expectancies of the victims, an average of 57,375 years of life was lost in 2015 and 54,754 in 2016.

In the wake of the death of Stephon Clark, the unarmed 22-year-old black man killed in his own backyard by Sacramento PD over a month ago, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg introduced an initiative to reintroduce community police procedure to rebuild the relationship between the community and police officers.

But some people feel as though the relationship between the community and law enforcement is too strained to repair.

Black Lives Matter Sacramento leader, Tanya Faison, feels that the community needs to focus more on self-empowerment and is organizing a cop-watching group with volunteers to help citizens with their inactions with police, believing that these practices will lessen the number of black and brown deaths by police officers.

Whatever way the city decides to handle police shootings, both the city council and advocacy groups seem to agree that police shootings in Sacramento police shooting deaths have gotten out of control.

PODCAST: How To Fight Hate

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PODCAST: How To Fight Hate

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Wpodcast-pic[1]elcome to another episode of the AccessLocal.Tv Podcast. On this show, the Neighborhood News Correspondents discuss how to fight hate. Their comments and opinions may surprise you! Feel free to chime in with your thoughts on the discussion in the comment section below!

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Winning Scripts Named in 2018 “A Place Called Sacramento” Film Competition

2018 A Place Called Sacramento Film Festival/ Access Sacramento/ AccessLocal Film/ Neighborhood News/ Top News!

Winning Scripts Named in 2018 “A Place Called Sacramento” Film Competition

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Access Sacramento‘s 19th annual “A Place Called Sacramento” Film Festival named 10 winning writers today during a huge volunteer cast and crew call at Sacramento’s Coloma Community Center.

The winning writers prepare to describe their films to volunteers at the 2018 Cast and Crew Call.

The announcement by Gary Martin, Film Festival Director and Access Sacramento Executive Director, revealed the names of the projects and writers who will produce their films over the summer, with a world premiere red carpet showcase for the ten projects on Sat. Oct. 6 at Sacramento’s historic Crest Theatre.

With the writers now becoming producers, more than 250 volunteers turned out at the Coloma Community Center in hopes of being select help as an actor or as a member of the technical crew on one of the 10 films.

Six of the writers come from Sacramento with others from Davis, Granite Bay, Roseville and Stockton.

Volunteer Actors and Technical Crew line up to meet this year’s winning writers.

“A Place Called Sacramento” awards 10 family-friendly scripts each year with the opportunity to have the script turned into a movie with a guaranteed big screen world premiere, cable distribution of the Access Sacramento public access cable channel and credit listings on the prestigious Internet Movie Database (IMDB.com).

Click on the writer’s name to email the writer and to volunteer for their project. The winning writers with their project descriptions are:

“Delta Breeze” by Aldo Cocco (Sacramento) – In life or love, listening is a strong force behind great change.

“The Disappeared” by Thalia Caraveo (Sacramento) – A grieving woman dealing with the loss of her mother to Alzheimer’s learns a beautiful lesson about love, loss and acceptance.

“Swipe Right” Writer Nathan Reedy (Far Left) and his team meet volunteer Tony ‘The Tiger” Lopez at the “A Place Called Sacramento” Cast & Crew Call.

“The Engagement Ring” by Romeo Trocino (Stockton) – Jason is ready to propose to the love of his life. When the big moment arises, the outcome is not what he pictured it would be.

“Escargot” by Judith Plank (Davis) – Just your average everyday family, making big progress at a snail’s pace.

“The Gift” by Ritu Atwal (Granite Bay) – It’s her first wedding anniversary, but the most precious gift a young woman receives, is not the one from her husband.

“Justin Time” by William Mendoza (Sacramento) – Leslie hates deadlines, but delivering newspapers late today could have a deadly penalty.

Winning “Never Too Latte For Love” Writer Amy Lawrence greets volunteer actors and crew.

“Never Too Latte for Love” by Amy Lawrence (Sacramento) – She’s starting to lose hope, but love may be just a scone’s throw away.

“The Story of Jane and Joe” by Eric Sanderson (Sacramento) – Jane and Joe may see each other every day, but will they ever hear the music of their hearts?

“Swipe Right” by Nathan Reedy (Sacramento) – The very single and amused Will banters with the very committed and disenchanted Vanessa about the challenges of relationships and finding true romance in the hyper technological world of online dating.

Volunteers create an instant Audition Reel for the Place Called Sacramento Cast & Crew Call.

“Tono Sommesso” by Danya Barrows (Roseville) – When a blind woman with heightened senses pursues her dream of becoming a Master Sommelier, she discovers a family secret that could keep her from ever reaching her goal.

Access Sacramento is a local non-profit foundation operating two cable television channels and cablecast/internet radio station KUBU-LP 96.5 FM on Comcast and Consolidated Communications Cable Channel 17, and AT&T U-Verse channel 14.

For more information about Access Sacramento, visit our website AccessSacramento.org or contact Executive Director, Gary Martin at 916-456-8600.

Access Sacramento is a 501(c)3 non-profit foundation

 

 

 

VIDEO: UK Reports States That Instagram Is The Most Detrimental App to Youth Mental Health

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VIDEO: UK Reports States That Instagram Is The Most Detrimental App to Youth Mental Health

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Royal Society for Public Health in the UK released a report listing the top five social networking platforms that were damaging to youth’s mental health. Instagram was listed as number one, followed by Snapchat for impacting youth through anxiety and depression, as well as generating uncertainty about self-identity and body image. AccessSacramento talked to five teens who use Instagram regularly about their experiences with the app.

The Human Side of Stephon Clark

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The Human Side of Stephon Clark

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The death of Stephon Clark has been a national hot-button issue for the past month.

 

On March 18th 2018, two Sacramento police officers shot at Clark 20 times and killed him in his grandmother’s backyard.

 

Since then, protests have flooded Sacramento’s streets–stopping highway traffic and blocking access to the Golden One Center, home of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings.

 

On the night of the Kings vs Celtics game, both teams were seen openly showing solidarity with Clark’s family by wearing black t-shirts stating “Accountability, We Are One” on the front, referring to accountability for police officers and the district attorney, and “#Stephon Clarke” on the back.

 

The Rev. Al Sharpton flew in on March 29th to give the eulogy for Clark’s funeral at Bayside of South Sacramento Church in front of Clark’s family and loved ones–as well as camera crews and hundreds of thousands watching live.

 

“They have been killing black men all across the country,” Sharpton said, clutching Clark’s grieving brother, Stevante, to his chest. “It’s time to stop this madness.”

 

After nearly a month since his death, it seems as though everyone has an opinion on Stephon Clark’s death.

 

Some people assumed he was a thug and that he’d “deserved what he got”. Many sympathized with police, believing that the two armed officers, who’d never announced themselves as such, should be excused for their actions because of their fear. Others look to Clark as though he was a martyr, seeing his death as a way to push for reform social policies and police procedures.

 

But aside from that, Stephon Clark was a 22 year-old man with two young boys who will grow up without their father. The people who were closest to him are most affected by this tragedy and will never look at his picture and see him as a thug, or a martyr, or a statistic.

 

Patrick Durant, Vice Principal at Sacramento Charter High School, remembers Stephon from when he attended during his sophomore and junior years. Durant claimed he first heard of Clark because he was close to the daughter of a family friend and got to know him through conversations about college and sports. What Durant remembers most about Clark when he was alive was that he was a “very friendly kid with good manners and a great smile” and that he felt disturbed when he read text messages from community leaders sharing that Clark had been shot.

 

Clark’s former History teacher, Paul Schwinn, described Stephon as “bright” and “funny” when he was in his class.

 

“He got an A on every single test I gave him,” Schwinn said. “Every time he spoke in class he had the right answer and always explained history in a funny, accessible way. He was someone who made first period fun for me and his classmates.”

 

Overall, Durant knows that many of his students face challenging environments outside of school that staff simply can’t shield them from. “The more we can help to improve that environment, the less Stephon Clark stories we hopefully will have to endure,” Durant believes.

How “LA 92” Matters in Sacramento in 2018

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How “LA 92” Matters in Sacramento in 2018

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The verdicts of Rodney King’s trial and the Latasha Harlins murder trial turned Los Angeles on its head in the Spring of 1992. Five days of rioting that blocked streets, looted stores, and set fires to buildings killed 63 people, injured 2,383 and led to the arrest of 12,11. This is the subject matter of a powerful documentary now streaming on Netflix titled “LA 92”.

Citizens of LA were outraged when a video filmed by a witness was released to the media showing four LAPD officers brutally beating King with batons, kicking, and tasing him for several minutes while King lay on the ground.

After a three month trial, an all-white jury found the four defendants not guilty.

Tensions rose even higher between the Korean and Black communities after the death of 15-year-old Latasha Harlins two weeks after King’s confrontation with police. Video footage shows Soon Ja Du, owner of a convenience store in Harlins’s area, shoot Harlins in the back of the head after grabbing her backpack and trying to peer inside with the suspicion that the teen had stolen a bottle of orange juice.

Du was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in 1991 for the murder of Latasha Harlins.

Former Judge Joyce Karlin was condemned for sentencing Du to a  $500 fine, 5 years of probation, and 400 hours of community service and no prison time justifying that she “knows what a criminal looks like” and “believes that Du will not offend again” in an interview.

For many LA residents, the two videotapes and the lax sentencings that followed were symbols of racial injustice reflected in the community and politics and many also considered Du’s verdict a catalyst to the riots that followed. Many people chose to express their anger by attacking the residents of LA’s Koreatown as 65% of the arsons and looting targeted Korean-run businesses.

Comparisons have been made between the Rodney King case and now, the Stephon Clark case. Both high profile cases received national attention involved young Black men that were either beat or killed by white officers convicted of using excessive force.

Protests prior to the defendants in King’s case mirrored Clark’s: highly emotional, sporadic, but relatively peaceful before the riots.

Sacramento Police Chief Han explained in an interview with Fox 40 how law enforcement plans to stay dynamic in case riots break out. 

The independent autopsy of Clark’s injuries revealed that Clark was shot 6 times in his back, contradicting police’s alibi, and the recent incident in which a patrol car hit a protester and drove off has concerned many residents as heated tension grows larger in the streets of Sacramento.

Access Sacramento/ NNC Stories/ Top News!

Is Sacramento a “hot bed” for Human Trafficking?

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Sacramento has a human trafficking problem.

Four years ago, the Human Rights Society dubbed Sacramento with the title of “Second Worst City in the US for Human Trafficking.”

In December of last year, Elan Seagraves, a soccer coach at John  F. Kennedy High School, was arrested on human trafficking charges and for pimping at least two minors.

In early February, 58-year-old Yun Escamilla was booked into Sacramento County Jail on five counts of felony pandering–the act of persuading/forcing someone to become a prostitute. Escamilla housed five young women, constantly transporting them between three different Sacramento residences. It was reported that some of the women being prostituted were from Hong Kong and all were of Asian descent.

“Sex trafficking”, as it is called, is a global epidemic.

Thousands of people worldwide have been sold into, coerced or manipulated into sex-slavery. It has poisoned countless communities, but how big is Sacramento’s human trafficking problem?

“It’s been highlighted that there is more human trafficking in Sacramento than in other jurisdictions, but I think that it is equal to other jurisdictions,” Cindy Stinson, Lieutenant for the Sacramento Police Department and co-founder of Community Against Sexual Harm or CASH, told AccessLocal.Tv in an interview. “One reason that, if there is more human trafficking on Sacramento is because we have lots of freeways that run through Sacramento and there’s something called the circuit, where women will be driven to different cities where the freeways are close.”

Lt. Stinson thinks that another one of the reasons human trafficking in Sacramento is so highlighted is because the city is so informed on the issue and strives to do more about it through nonprofit organizations like CASH and WEAVE.

But is there any way individuals can fight against human trafficking in Sacramento?

“One way we can fight against sex trafficking in Sacramento is to focus on the demand,” Lt. Stinson explained. “So instead of going out and arresting the women or focusing on forcing action on the women who really are the victims, we can really focus on the men who are creating the demands to buy women–who are trolling around looking to buy girls and women for sex.”

“If all the law enforcement agencies in Sacramento got together and decided, ‘Hey, we’re not going to put as much of our effort on arresting the women, we’re going to put a lot of our effort on arresting the men who are pimps, who are trafficking the women, that would have a huge impact. It would also deliver the message that Sacramento is not a place that you want to come to buy women or traffic women.”

If you or someone you know is or might be a victim of human trafficking, please encourage them to call 1-888-373-7888, or text HELP to 233733.

Access Sacramento/ NNC Stories

Can Sacramento Do Anything About Rising Rents?

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Sacramento tenants have suffered one of the highest rent increases in the country during the past year. Rents in Sacramento have increased nearly 10 percent in 2017, making it the highest rental market of any city in the entire nation.

Renters have had enough. Housing advocate group Organize Sacramento intends to collect signatures to have a measure added to the November ballot that would encapsulate the tempest that has become Sacramento’s housing market.

“How many years can we have nearly 10 percent average rent increases?” said Michelle Pariset, one of the ballot’s authors and a board member with Organize Sacramento told the Sacramento Bee. “Who making minimum wage can deal with 10 percent year-over-year rent increases?”

The measure named the Sacramento Renter Protection and Community Stabilization Charter Amendment, would cap annual rent increases on older buildings at 5 percent, implement “just cause” protections for tenants, and require financial relocation assistance for renters that are forced to move out.

This measure could be very helpful to elevate Sacramento’s growing homeless population, as many of renters, particularly those who are low income, suffered greatly from the rent increase.

However, a lot of landlords feel as if the measure will do more harm than good.

“Rent control is the wrong solution to our shortage of affordable housing in the region,” senior vice president of the California Apartment Association, Jim Lofgren, expressed on the CAA website. Lofgren believes that the measure will only discourage investors and developing companies from building in Sacramento. “We’re sympathetic to the plight of renters, we recognize there is a problem, but this is the wrong solution. We need to attract more investment in housing, and rent control only scares it away. It’s counterproductive.”

Many other California cities have already adopted rent control measures like Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco. Organize Sacramento has until May to collect nearly 40,000 signatures to put its proposition on the November ballot.

School Shooting Sparks Nationwide Youth Movement

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School Shooting Sparks Nationwide Youth Movement

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The NRA and US government couldn’t see it coming.

Never before has youth activism like that seen after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting in Parkland, Florida been this elaborate, efficient, or monumental.

Students are angry, as can be expected, by the horrific shooting that took place two weeks ago. They were further angered to learn that the gunman was able to buy a semi-automatic assault rifle legally and easily.

Regardless the shooters frequent threats of violence, social media posts of him posing with various weapons, and later unveiled allegations of domestic abuse toward his partners, many politicians are preferring to focus on the shooter’s mental health and the United States’ “mental health issue” rather than on gun control. But the survivors of one of the worst school shootings in recent history refuse to allow politicians to ignore the elephant in the room.

“This is something that people can not get used to,” said student David Hogg to ABC News. “This is something that we can’t (let) keep happening. If we do, and we get used to it, it’s going to happen again.“

Marjory Stoneman Douglas students like Emma Gonzalez and Cameron Kasky have worked together to help launch the #NeverAgain movement and the March for Our Lives protest on March 24th to “demand that a comprehensive and effective bill be immediately brought before Congress to address these gun issues,” according to their mission statement.

Three million people viewed the CNN town hall meeting in Florida, Marjory Stoneman Douglas students had their opportunity to talk to  Senators like Marco Rubio and ask them bluntly “will you continue to accept donations from the NRA?”

Youth activist groups have never gained publicity like this before but Never Again MSD, founded by Cameron Kasky, have already raised nearly $3 million in just one week for March for Our Lives. And the publicity keeps growing.

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