Bay Area

Fair Pay to Play Act: California Skeptical of NCAA Rule Changes

Published

5 years ago

May 6, 2020

The National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) highest governing body announced last week that it is moving toward allowing student-athletes to receive compensation for endorsements and promotions.

The NCAA’s Board of Governors says it now supports lifting longstanding restrictions on student-athletes that ban them from getting compensation for third-party endorsements both related to and separate from athletics. The new guidelines pave the way for college student athletes around the country to earn compensation without affecting their scholarship eligibility.

The board is also giving its consent for other student athlete compensation opportunities, such as social media promotions, business ventures they have launched and personal appearances. But colleges and universities still cannot give student athletes paychecks.

“Throughout our efforts to enhance support for college athletes, the NCAA has relied upon considerable feedback from, and the engagement of, our members, including numerous student-athletes, from all three divisions,” said Michael V. Drake, chair of the Board of Governors and president of Ohio State University.

California state Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Gardena), who is African American, co-authored and introduced legislation last year that will give student athletes in California the green light to earn money for endorsements and more while retaining their NCAA eligibility. Gov. Newsom signed the bill, Senate Bill 206 (SB 206), into law last fall. The first legislation of its kind in the United States, SB 206 will go into effect in January 2023.

“I commend the NCAA governing board for their decision to allow college athletes the opportunity to monetize their name, image and likeness through sponsorships and endorsements,” Bradford said. “This is an issue that has been long debated, and its time has come.”

Bradford and Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) co-authored SB 206, the Fair Pay to Play Act. Supporters of the policy say the California student-athlete law was the catalyst that put pressure on the NCAA.

In a conversation with California Black Media, Bradford expressed some lingering concerns about how the country’s premier college sports institution will roll out its plan by the 2021-2022 school year.

Bradford said, while he likes some changes the NCAA plans to implement, there are others he doesn’t care for, pointing out that a few key changes come with a litany of restraints.

“I’m not fond of the fact they are going to try to limit how much a student can make per year. I think that should be dictated by the market and not by the university,” he said.

In addition, Bradford says he has an issue with a proposal that would allow the NCAA to ask the U.S. Congress to side with colleges and universities in a decision that would reclassify student athletes as school employees.

“The NCAA adding the Congress equation to the issue,” Drake countered, “is to build a legal and legislative landscape that would not undermine college sports and to meet the needs of college athletes as they pursue a higher-education degree.

“We must continue to engage with Congress in order to secure the appropriate legal and legislative framework to modernize our rules around name, image and likeness,” Drake said. “We will do so in a way that underscores the Association’s mission to oversee and protect college athletics and college athletes.”

The changes also prevent student athletes from using schools’ team uniforms or logos for personal endorsements. These specific changes do not satisfy the student athletes’ needs, Bradford said.

Popular college student athletes say their schools often sell sports merchandise that bears the athletes’ names or likeness. Under the new NCAA rules, universities can still cash in on selling items such as jerseys.

“Some of these things are red flags to me,” Bradford told CBM.

The NCAA is also setting up rules to ensure that sports agents and other representatives do not influence high school prospects to choose a school because it offers them prime benefits.

But the athletes can hire sports agents and attorneys.

“To be able to hire an agent or lawyer apart from the universities are good guidelines because we don’t want any conflicts between what might be university involvement and enticing an athlete to attend,” Bradford said.

Since California laid the groundwork for other states to draft legislation similar to SB 206, New York, Illinois, Florida, and up to 10 other states have introduced their versions of “Fair Pay For Play” laws.

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Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

Published

20 minutes ago

May 25, 2025

Oakland Post

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Chevron Richmond Installs Baker Hughes Flare.IQ, Real-time Flare Monitoring, Control and Reduction System

While the sight of flaring can cause concern in the community, flares are essential safety systems that burn pollutants to prevent them from being released directly into the atmosphere. They activate during startup and shut-down of facility units or during upsets or equipment malfunctions. The typical flare stack is about 200 feet high so that vapors are well above street levels.

Published

6 days ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

Image courtesy The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

Chevron Richmond recently installed flare.IQ, a real-time, automated system that will improve the facility’s flaring performance.

The technology, developed by Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business, uses sensors to monitor, reduce and control flaring in real time. It collects and assesses data on refinery processes, such as temperature, pressure, gas flow and gas composition, and adjusts accordingly to ensure flares burn more efficiently and cleanly, leading to fewer emissions.

“The cleaner the flare, the brighter the flame can look,” said Duy Nguyen, a Chevron Richmond flaring specialist. “If you see a brighter flame than usual on a flare, that actually means flare.IQ is operating as intended.”

“A key element in Baker Hughes’ emissions abatement portfolio, flare.IQ has a proven track record in optimizing flare operations and significantly reducing emissions,” said Colin Hehir, vice president of Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business. “By partnering with Chevron Richmond, one of the first operators in North America to adopt flare.IQ, we are looking forward to enhancing the plant’s flaring operations.”

The installation of flare.IQ is part of a broader and ongoing effort by Chevron Richmond to improve flare performance, particularly in response to increased events after the new, more efficient hydrogen plant was brought online in 2019.

Since then, the company has invested $25 million — and counting — into flare minimization. As part of the effort, a multidisciplinary refinery team was formed to find and implement ways to improve operational reliability and ultimately reduce flaring. Operators and other employees involved in management of flares and flare gas recovery systems undergo new training.

“It is important to me that the community knows we are working hard to lower emissions and improve our flaring performance,” Nguyen said.

Also evolving is the process by which community members are notified of flaring incidents. The Community Warning System (CWS), operated by Contra Costa County is an “all-hazard” public warning system.

Residents can opt-in to receive alerts via text, e-mail and landline. The CWS was recently expanded to enable residents to receive notifications for “Level 1” incidents, which are considered informational as they do not require any community action.

For more information related to these topics, check out the resources included on the Chevron Richmond, CAER and Contra Costa Health websites. Residents are also encouraged to follow @chevronrichmond and @RFDCAOnline on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), where additional information may be posted during an incident.

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Oakland Hosts Town Hall Addressing Lead Hazards in City Housing

According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

Published

7 days ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department hosted a town hall in the Fruitvale to discuss the efforts being undertaken to remove lead primarily found in housing in East and West Oakland.

In 2021, the city was awarded $14 million out of a $24 million legal settlement from a lawsuit against paint distributors for selling lead-based paint that has affected hundreds of families in Oakland and Alameda County. The funding is intended to be used for lead poisoning reduction and prevention services in paint only, not water or other sources as has been found recently in schools across the city.

The settlement can be used for developing or enhancing programs that abate lead-based paint, providing services to individuals, particularly exposed children, educating the public about hazards caused by lead paint, and covering attorney’s fees incurred in pursuing litigation.

Most of the homes affected were built prior to 1978, and 12,000 of these homes are considered to be at high risk for lead poisoning.

City councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents a few of the lead-affected Census tracts, said the majority of the poisoned kids and families are coming directly from neighborhoods like the Fruitvale.

“When you look at the [kids being admitted] at the children’s hospital, they’re coming from this community,” Gallo said at the town hall.

In order to eventually rid the highest impacted homes of lead poisoning, the city intends to create programs and activities such as lead-based paint inspections and assessments, full abatement designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint, or partial abatement for repairs, painting, and specialized cleaning meant for temporary reduction of hazards.

In feedback for what the city could implement in their programming, residents in attendance of the event said they want more accessibility to resources, like blood testing, and information from officials about lead poisoning symptoms, hotlines for assistance, and updates on the reduction of lead in their communities.

Attendees also asked how they’d know where they are on the prioritization list and what would be done to address lead in the water found at several school sites in Oakland last year.

City staff said there will be a follow-up event to gather more community input for programming in August, with finalizations happening in the fall and a pilot launch in early 2026.