January 21, former California district attorney and Oakland native, Kamala Harris announced that she was going to be running in the 2020 presidential race on “Good Morning America.” She asked for the people to support her by attending her first rally in Oakland.

“Truth, justice, decency, equality, freedom, democracy: these aren’t just words, they’re the values we as Americans cherish. And they’re all on the line now.” Harris put in her announcement video, which was posted to all social media platforms, highlighting her slogan Kamala Harris, for the people.

If elected Kamala Harris would be the first African-American Asian woman to become president. Although Kamala Harris is very aware of her platform and what she represents she chooses to still brand herself as just American to get away from those labels.

Kamala Harris’s first rally for her official event announcement was in Oakland on Jan. 27. Over 20,000 people rallied from different areas over the bay just to hear her speak and show their support. While waiting in line to hear Kamala Harris speak, I noticed there was so much diversity and so many African-American supporters. I just wondered if they’ve got the full story.

Harris has always said that in her years as a district attorney in California that she considers herself to be a woman who was just in the decisions she made. However, some people feel that she was not the “progressive prosecutor” she claimed to be. At one point when asking Kamala Harris to take a bolder approach to ensure accountability and impartial investigations for cases, but they said: “Miss Harris opposed them or stayed silent.” Kamala Harris is also in favor of the death penalty and in one case she opposed the DNA testing of a death row inmate whose trial was shown to be unjust and biased in their treatment.

“I’m not really sure if people have done research on her. The Presidential race is barely starting and even though she sounds like the best candidate we still need to be open to the idea of new people,” A’nhiya Gaines, SFSU student had said after the rally in Oakland. Through the years, Kamala Harris has seemed to change her views on the legalization of marijuana in the US. Initially opposing legalization completely then switching her ideals as the times changed. Everyone deserves a chance to evolve their ideas through learning experiences.

Currently, California follows the biannual ritual of moving the clocks forward an hour in spring and turning the clocks back in fall. With the 2018 election, California is deciding if the Legislature could use prop. 7 to change the daylight saving time law for itself as allowed by federal law.

California voted to join federal daylight saving time with 1948 passing Proposition 12. The wording of the proposition allowed Californians to decide if we would continue to adhere to daylight saving time, by voter approval every two years.

Prop 7 will change the daylight saving time law to allow the state legislature to make changes to daylight saving time, within the confines of federal law, with a two-thirds majority. This is how most laws are passed in California.

The proponents took some time to write about the dangers of changing our clocks both internally, and externally, in the voter information guide. Arguments for prop 7 mention how road collisions, and on the job, accidents increase by a few percentage points with the time change.

They also mention the risk of heart attacks increasing when we “spring forward” by 25 percent. They do admit that the inverse is also true when we “fall back” and the chance of heart attacks drop by 21 percent.

The opposition argues that it would be dark in the morning and that would be harder on people’s morale than just changing their clocks. They cite the decision by President Nixon, in 1974, when he declared emergency full-time daylight saving time. The emergency daylight saving time was supposed to last 12 months but was ended after 10 months.

They follow up by saying that those who have religious services will be doing them when it is dark rather than when it is light. That children will be waiting for the bus to school in the dark.

The law does state that the plan is to try to get California on daylight saving time all year round. More importantly, it leaves a way out if it doesn’t work so that voters wouldn’t have to wait two years to vote to fix the problem.

The proponents talk about prop 7 as if voting yes will change the time rules of daylight saving time immediately. They talk about the benefits of one time all year round, and the deficits of having daylight saving time.

If it is a matter of convenience as the opposition says, wouldn’t it be best to start experimenting and seeing how voters feel after the changes are being tried? If having the clocks ahead by an hour all year round is so bad, is having standard time all year round any worse?

Shouldn’t the arguments of either side be more directed toward giving California Legislature the power to change our daylight saving time with a two-thirds majority vote? The benefits and deficits of giving California Legislature more power vs leaving it in the hands of the voters is what this proposition is really about. That is for the California voters to decide this election.

Measure T, to protect Hayward’s future is an increase in the ownership-transfer tax on real estate transactions and the city of Hayward wants its voters to consider adopting this measure in our upcoming midterm election.

Hayward’s Real Property Transfer Tax (RPTT) currently has a rate of $4.50 per $1,000 of property value which is the lowest in Alameda County. Oakland/Berkley’s RPTT is at $15 per $1,000 and Piedmont is currently at $13 per $1000.

If the measure is approved by Hayward voters, Measure T would increase the city RPTT to $8.50 per $1,000 of property value which would be an increase of $4.

The Real Property Transfer Tax or RPTT is paid when you purchase or sell real estate. It’s generally paid as part of the transaction closing costs. It’s the buyer and sellers responsibility for payment of the tax. There will be exemptions in some cases, such as when a property is gifted, donated or inherited.

So now you’re asking yourself how will Measure T affect me and what will the city do with all the funds collected? All revenue would go directly to Hayward’s general fund that pays for essential services. This includes our police and fire protection, fast paramedic response, local libraries, and after-school programs.

Measure T is supported by many Hayward residence and homeowners. The city of Hayward will benefit tremendously. They will use the funds to fill potholes, maintain our streets and keep them clean and free of trash which has been an issue in the recent months. The money could also be used to remove graffiti in our neighborhoods and businesses.

There are some people against Measure T, they believe the City of Hayward doesn’t know how to spend its funds once they obtain them and they’re worried that Measure T will increase our housing crisis by making homes more expensive. Some Residents are concerned that the new RPTT will make it too expensive for most first time homebuyers.

I spoke Justin Moore, Business Major and I asked him what were his thoughts on Measure T and he said that “If the funds are used to improve our communities in Hayward that’s a great thing” he went on to talk about how he would like to see public safety become a top priority of the city of Hayward.

With so much information out their and different opinions, One thing is for sure that when it comes to election time its always best to do your research on each topic being proposed and a way to do that is by following the money trail, check to see who is endorsing the measure and if there are any conflicting factors. Always get both sides of the story if your for something you should check up on who’s against it and why.

Then after you complete your due diligence make your decision based on what fits your beliefs the most. With the election coming up and a lot of major changes being proposed that could really affect and change things in Hayward it puts things in perspective as to how important it is for you to vote, so whether you’re for Measure T or against it, just make sure to go out and vote and make a difference.

For the state of California, water is an invaluable resource. So much so, that California has passed eight statewide bond measure since 1996 on water alone. Prop 3 will be the ninth.

Prop 3 authorizes $8.9 billion in the form of general obligation (GO) bonds to fund various water infrastructure projects around California. The projects will help the environment, water storage, and water safety.

A GO bond is like an I.O.U. that the state of California gives to a company for work. The state then pays back the debt from the general fund, which is revenue from tax dollars.

Most projects are funded by local government agencies to provide clean water to residents, water to irrigate crops, and flood protection. The majority of the money spent by local governments is paid by residents when they pay their water and sewer bills, but the state will also offer grants and loans to local government agencies to pay part of the costs.

Prop 3 lays out how the $8.9 billion in bonds is to be spent in six broad categories. The categories are Watershed lands, water supply, fish and wildlife habitat, water facility upgrades, groundwater, and flood protection.

$2.4 billion is set aside for protecting, restoring, and improving the watershed lands to increase the amount and quality of water.

$2.1 billion is set aside to increase the amount of water that the people of California have access to. The sources include gathering and cleaning rainwater, improving the quality of drinking water, and recycling wastewater. This category of the bill also sets aside $300 million specifically for water conservation.

$1.4 billion shall be set aside to fish and wildlife habitats improvement and preservation. This covers projects like bringing more water into a system that would have had it before human intervention. This money will also be spent to buy unowned land to keep it in its natural state.

$1.2 billion dollars shall be set aside specifically for four projects to upgrade Water Facilities. These projects include repairing federal Madera and Friant-Kern canals, building more canals to better connect reservoirs to communities in the San Francisco Bay Area, repairing the Oroville Dam located in Butte County, and planning the changes to the North Bay Aqueduct.

$1.1 billion will be reserved for groundwater preservation. The projects include cleaning and recharging the groundwater. Recharging groundwater is when water is helped to soak into the ground.

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A resident of Fairview, Nicholas Harvey is an avid cyclist and uses the AC buses often. Harvey has been fed up with the poor conditions of Hayward and Fairview roads, sidewalks and the efficiency of the bus lines.

Harvey decided to run for office because he felt the unincorporated areas surrounding Hayward (such as Castro Valley and Fairview) were not being properly represented. This has led to potholes, damaged or missing sidewalks, and poorly run busses.

In response to these problems, he decided to run for not one, but FIVE offices.

He has interests in each of these, particularly EBMUD, as he is concerned with rate increases. He studied desalination processes in Israel and plans to advocate for that process here in the Bay Area.

In AC transit, Harvey would like to decrease bus size for some lines, but increase bus service, which he says would support the community better. “I would advocate for more bus service in general and specifically having more forms of on-demand service for less traveled routes. However, the 22 was known as a well-used route so it confounds many people as to why it was eliminated in the first place. The motto for the new rollout of AC Transit is “better, smarter, faster service” and this could not be further from the truth for residents of South Hayward.” Harvey said.

Harvey is running for a seat on the school board because the sidewalk issue near the school falls under their jurisdiction, not AC transit, or the Department of Transportation.

Harvey has been challenged by opponent Frank Mellon, the incumbent from EBMUD, who has run unopposed since 1994. Mellon claims Harvey is running for too many offices, hasn’t released candidate statements, and if he wins more than one, might be in conflicting roles, which would require a special election, which could cost the city over $1 million.

Harvey responded that “Mudslinging Mellon is just upset that someone less experienced is challenging his position on the board, and none of the offices I’m currently running for will conflict.”

Mellon refused to comment further on the issue.

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The California Department of Motor Vehicles incorrectly registered 23,000 voter registrations.

As reported by Fox News and The Sacramento Bee, the DMV submitted all these incorrect registrations to the Secretary of State on Wednesday, September 5. The fault as it seems falls on the technicians because while switching between different screens, information of California residents was incorrectly merged.

It doesn’t stop there though as on Monday, October 8, 1,500 more people were found to be improperly registered to vote by the DMV.

The DMV director told the Sacramento Bee, “agency officials have worked quickly with the Department of Technology to correct these errors and have also updated the programming and added additional safeguards to improve this process.”

California Secretary of State, Alex Padilla added that he’s “deeply frustrated and disappointed that persistent errors by the DMV and CDT have undermined public confidence in your basic responsibility to collect and transmit accurate voter registration information, as has been required by federal law for 25 years.”

“You’re setting the state up for a disaster,” Catherine Engelbrecht, founder of True the Vote, told Fox. “They don’t seem to have a process in place to verify that people are who they say they are.”

When asked her opinion on the matter, Rosa, a Hayward resident stated, “it’s definitely a big deal, you’d expect them to know what they’re doing. Then when they go ahead and make these types of mistakes, it’s just shocking.”

When asked if she was one of the improperly registered voters she said no. But she added, “I would definitely not be happy if I was.”

According to Fox News, the program concerned a lot of people right from the start because they feared illegal immigrants would be able to vote. However, that is not a worry anymore as none of the people improperly registered were illegal immigrants.

“It’s incredibly important because elections are determined by the people who show up and vote, it may seem like it doesn’t matter who votes and that the outcomes will be the same but this last election shows how misguided that perception is.” This is the message Political Science teacher Jessica Gallucci, had for students at Chabot College with regards to registering to vote.

Gallucci offered possible reasons for people not voting, “I think that there are many reasons why people don’t vote, they don’t because they feel one vote won’t make a difference, people feel that the system is rigged.”

Gallucci continued, “People are unhappy with candidates, logistical differences in actually going out and voting, but I think that what we don’t understand is that certain populations are more likely to vote than others and those benefit more in the political process because they participate and that can be an eye-opening realization for folks and hopefully that motivates them.”

With the midterm elections coming up Tuesday, November 6. We asked students about the importance of voting and the impact it has.

Voting is important to students at Chabot. Most of the students asked, said they are registered to vote. Those few who aren’t registered said that people who are registered should vote because it impacts everyone in some form even if you might not realize it.

“Even if you don’t think it means anything, just know your vote counted in some way. It was tallied,” said Dee Collins, a student who is registered to vote.

Jessica Gallucci commented on students learning the importance of voting, “There are many places on campus where students are being exposed to the importance of voting in courses and extracurricular activities and hopefully we will continue to do this in the future.”

If you want to vote but didn’t get a chance to register by the deadline, the state of California must provide provisional ballots when asked, even if you didn’t register. Go to the California Secretary of State, Alex Padilla’s website for more information.