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A’s Fall To Orioles
Oakland, CA – After an emotional and joyous ceremony celebrating the A’s 25th anniversary honoring the 1989 World Series club. Oakland could not dig themselves out of the hole that was dug early. In his home debut, Jason Hammel’s outing lasted only two plus innings after he yielded five runs in the first two frames.
Hammel found himself getting boo’d in front of the sellout crowd. The A’s fell 8-4 to the Orioles who evened the series snapping Oakland’s six-game winning streak at home. In his first home start, Hammel gave up a single to Nick Markakis who leadoff the first and walked Steve Pearce putting two on with no outs.
“I played with those guys for two years, so they know me pretty well, I know them,” said Hammel. “Just bad execution on my part. Bottom line is I have to do better.”
Adam Jones followed with a three-run homer making it a 3-0 game. After settling in, he struck out the next two batters but yielded a solo home run to J.J. Hardy. In the third Hammel issued a free pass to Jones to leadoff the frame. Allowed a single to Nelson Cruz and a RBI double to Chris Davis extending Baltimore’s lead 5-0.
Dan Otero came in forcing the next batter to ground out but walked Manny Machado. Nick Hundley grounded out to end the bases load threat. The damage had been done and the A’s had work to do but the Orioles wouldn’t make it easy especially since they took advantage of their ex-teammate.
“Trust me, we had Ham… he’s good people and a good pitcher,” manager Buck Showalter said. “They made a good acquisition and they’ll like him. We were just fortunate on the mistakes he made. He’s one of those guys you’ve got to get something early off of.”
Brandon Moss woke up Oakland’s offense with a solo blast to right field making it a 5-1 game. Nate Freiman singled but Nick Punto hit into a double play and Coco Crisp struck out to end the inning. But the A’s kept fighting back, they added two more runs in the fourth and one in the sixth cutting the lead down to three.
“That’s an attribute that this team takes pride in,” said manager Bob Melvin. “That no matter what happens early on, we’re going to try to peck away a little bit and get the tying run at the plate.”
The Orioles offense continued with their hits, Markakis hit a single, Pearce followed with a double and Jones brought in two with a two-run RBI single. Oakland’s bullpen shutout the Orioles for the next four innings giving the A’s a chance to get back in this game. But closer Jim Johnson surrendered a solo home run to Chris Davis.
Notes – The Oakland A’s celebrated the 25th anniversary of the club’s 1989 World Series title, a four game sweep over the the Bay Area rivals, the San Francisco Giants. The reunion ceremony brought out the entire team including four current coaches who appeared via video tribute that included Dodgers coaches Rick Honeycutt and Mark McGwire.
All of the players including manager Tony La Russa walked down the red carpet on the field with the current A’s players, coaches and staff to greet them. At the end of the journey they were handed a single yellow rose to be placed on the mound where former teammate Bob Welch’s number 35 was etched.
Proceeds from the two-day event will benefit the Angelman Syndrome Foundation, the preferred charity of Dave Henderson. The A’s raised $40,000 for the foundation. Henderson’s son is afflicted with the severe neurogenetic disorder. The proceeds came from an autograph session and pre-game reception that was sold out.
Activism
Gov. Newsom Approves $170 Million to Fast Track Wildfire Resilience
AB 100 approves major investments in regional conservancies across the state, including over $30 million each for the Sierra Nevada, Santa Monica Mountains, State Coastal, and San Gabriel/Lower LA Rivers and Mountains conservancies. An additional $10 million will support wildfire response and resilience efforts.

By Bo Tefu
California Black Media
With wildfire season approaching, last week Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill (AB) 100, unlocking $170 million to fast-track wildfire prevention and forest management projects — many of which directly protect communities of color, who are often hardest hit by climate-driven disasters.
“With this latest round of funding, we’re continuing to increase the speed and size of forest and vegetation management essential to protecting communities,” said Newsom when he announced the funding on April 14.
“We are leaving no stone unturned — including cutting red tape — in our mission to ensure our neighborhoods are protected from destructive wildfires,” he said.
AB 100 approves major investments in regional conservancies across the state, including over $30 million each for the Sierra Nevada, Santa Monica Mountains, State Coastal, and San Gabriel/Lower LA Rivers and Mountains conservancies. An additional $10 million will support wildfire response and resilience efforts.
Newsom also signed an executive order suspending certain regulations to allow urgent work to move forward faster.
This funding builds on California’s broader Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan, a $2.7 billion effort to reduce fuel loads, increase prescribed burning, and harden communities. The state has also launched new dashboards to keep the public informed and hold agencies accountable.
California has also committed to continue investing $200 million annually through 2028 to expand this effort, ensuring long-term resilience, particularly in vulnerable communities.
Activism
California Rideshare Drivers and Supporters Step Up Push to Unionize
Today in California, over 600,000 rideshare drivers want the ability to form or join unions for the sole purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid and protection. It’s a right, and recently at the State Capitol, a large number of people, including some rideshare drivers and others working in the gig economy, reaffirmed that they want to exercise it.

By Antonio Ray Harvey
California Black Media
On July 5, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into federal law the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Also known as the “Wagner Act,” the law paved the way for employees to have “the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations,” and “to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, according to the legislation’s language.
Today in California, over 600,000 rideshare drivers want the ability to form or join unions for the sole purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid and protection. It’s a right, and recently at the State Capitol, a large number of people, including some rideshare drivers and others working in the gig economy, reaffirmed that they want to exercise it.
On April 8, the rideshare drivers held a rally with lawmakers to garner support for Assembly Bill (AB) 1340, the “Transportation Network Company Drivers (TNC) Labor Relations Act.”
Authored by Assemblymembers Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) and Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park), AB 1340 would allow drivers to create a union and negotiate contracts with industry leaders like Uber and Lyft.
“All work has dignity, and every worker deserves a voice — especially in these uncertain times,” Wicks said at the rally. “AB 1340 empowers drivers with the choice to join a union and negotiate for better wages, benefits, and protections. When workers stand together, they are one of the most powerful forces for justice in California.”
Wicks and Berman were joined by three members of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC): Assemblymembers Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood), Sade Elhawary (D-Los Angeles), and Isaac Bryan (D-Ladera Heights).
Yvonne Wheeler, president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor; April Verrett, President of Service Employees International Union (SEIU); Tia Orr, Executive Director of SEIU; and a host of others participated in the demonstration on the grounds of the state capitol.
“This is not a gig. This is your life. This is your job,” Bryan said at the rally. “When we organize and fight for our collective needs, it pulls from the people who have so much that they don’t know what to do with it and puts it in the hands of people who are struggling every single day.”
Existing law, the “Protect App-Based Drivers and Services Act,” created by Proposition (Prop) 22, a ballot initiative, categorizes app-based drivers for companies such as Uber and Lyft as independent contractors.
Prop 22 was approved by voters in the November 2020 statewide general election. Since then, Prop 22 has been in court facing challenges from groups trying to overturn it.
However, last July, Prop 22 was upheld by the California Supreme Court last July.
In a 2024, statement after the ruling, Lyft stated that 80% of the rideshare drivers they surveyed acknowledged that Prop 22 “was good for them” and “median hourly earnings of drivers on the Lyft platform in California were 22% higher in 2023 than in 2019.”
Wicks and Berman crafted AB 1340 to circumvent Prop 22.
“With AB 1340, we are putting power in the hands of hundreds of thousands of workers to raise the bar in their industry and create a model for an equitable and innovative partnership in the tech sector,” Berman said.
Activism
California Holds the Line on DEI as Trump Administration Threatens School Funding
The conflict began on Feb. 14, when Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), issued a “Dear Colleague” letter warning that DEI-related programs in public schools could violate federal civil rights law. The letter, which cited Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the 2023 Supreme Court ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which ended race-conscious admissions, ordered schools to eliminate race-based considerations in areas such as admissions, scholarships, hiring, discipline, and student programming.

By Joe W. Bowers Jr
California Black Media
California education leaders are pushing back against the Trump administration’s directive to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in its K-12 public schools — despite threats to take away billions in federal funding.
The conflict began on Feb. 14, when Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), issued a “Dear Colleague” letter warning that DEI-related programs in public schools could violate federal civil rights law. The letter, which cited Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the 2023 Supreme Court ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which ended race-conscious admissions, ordered schools to eliminate race-based considerations in areas such as admissions, scholarships, hiring, discipline, and student programming.
According to Trainor, “DEI programs discriminate against one group of Americans to favor another.”
On April 3, the DOE escalated the pressure, sending a follow-up letter to states demanding that every local educational agency (LEA) certify — within 10 business days — that they were not using federal funds to support “illegal DEI.” The certification requirement, tied to continued federal aid, raised the stakes for California, which receives more than $16 billion annually in federal education funding.
So far, California has refused to comply with the DOE order.
“There is nothing in state or federal law that outlaws the broad concepts of ‘diversity,’ ‘equity,’ or ‘inclusion,’” wrote David Schapira, California’s Chief Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction, in an April 4 letter to superintendents and charter school administrators. Schapira noted that all of California’s more than 1,000 traditional public school districts submit Title VI compliance assurances annually and are subject to regular oversight by the state and the federal government.
In a formal response to the DOE on April 11, the California Department of Education, the State Board of Education, and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond collectively rejected the certification demand, calling it vague, legally unsupported, and procedurally improper.
“California and its nearly 2,000 LEAs (including traditional public schools and charter schools) have already provided the requisite guarantee that its programs and services are, and will be, in compliance with Title VI and its implementing regulation,” the letter says.
Thurmond added in a statement, “Today, California affirmed existing and continued compliance with federal laws while we stay the course to move the needle for all students. As our responses to the United States Department of Education state and as the plain text of state and federal laws affirm, there is nothing unlawful about broad core values such as diversity, equity and inclusion. I am proud of our students, educators and school communities who continue to focus on teaching and learning, despite federal actions intended to distract and disrupt.”
California officials say that the federal government cannot change existing civil rights enforcement standards without going through formal rule-making procedures, which require public notice and comment.
Other states are taking a similar approach. In a letter to the DOE, Daniel Morton-Bentley, deputy commissioner and counsel for the New York State Education Department, wrote, “We understand that the current administration seeks to censor anything it deems ‘diversity, equity & inclusion.’ But there are no federal or State laws prohibiting the principles of DEI.”
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