Bay Area
‘Ms. Martha’ Humphrey is Oakland’s 2024 Mother of the Year
Oakland Parks, Recreation & Youth Development (OPRYD) honored Martha Humphrey as Oakland’s 2024 Mother of the Year. Affectionately known as “Ms. Martha,” Humphrey was recognized during the 71st Oakland Mother of the Year Award Ceremony held at Morcom Rose Garden, May 11. Nestled in an Oakland hillside above Lake Merritt, the garden event was hosted beneath a white tent beside a reflection pool surrounded by fragrant flowers and greenery. Councilmember Nikki Fortunato-Bas, District 2, provided the welcome and 2005 Mother of the Year Naomi Schiff served as mistress of ceremonies.

By Carla Thomas
Oakland Parks, Recreation & Youth Development (OPRYD) honored Martha Humphrey as Oakland’s 2024 Mother of the Year.
Affectionately known as “Ms. Martha,” Humphrey was recognized during the 71st Oakland Mother of the Year Award Ceremony held at Morcom Rose Garden, May 11. Nestled in an Oakland hillside above Lake Merritt, the garden event was hosted beneath a white tent beside a reflection pool surrounded by fragrant flowers and greenery.
Councilmember Nikki Fortunato-Bas, District 2, provided the welcome and 2005 Mother of the Year Naomi Schiff served as mistress of ceremonies.
Oakland Deputy Mayor Dr. Kimberly Mayfield-Lynch and Councilperson Carroll Fife, District 3, commended Humphrey for her impact on the community and her various accomplishments.
“So often the sacrifices that our elders make go unacknowledged and I think that it is so fitting to be at the Rose Garden to give roses to Ms. Martha while she is still here,” said Fife.
Humphrey is an inspiration who provided family and structure to so many foster youths, Fife added.
“Ms. Martha giving that to so many children is like planting seeds that will last forever. We are so grateful for you. We love you and we appreciate you. Happy Mother’s Day,” said Councilmember Dan Kalb, District 1, who presented Humphrey with roses.
Marilyn Reynolds of the City of Oakland Head Start program said, “It’s wonderful to see her recognized.”
OPRYD Special Events Coordinator and organizer Zermaine Thomas ensured the program ran smoothly and was excited to congratulate Humphrey and provide closing remarks.
Dressed in a royal blue satin suit with a matching hat accented with rhinestones, Humphrey was elated to be the lady of honor flanked by family members, foster children, government officials, and members of the community.
“I’m grateful to God,” she said as attendees took photographs with her.
Humphrey began caring for children at 8 years old, starting with her youngest sibling. At an early age, Humphrey decided that caring for children delighted her. When she reached adulthood, she began housekeeping, which would often include caring for her employer’s children. She accepted a job as a nanny caring for the four children of a lawyer and his wife at their home in Houston, Texas. When the family relocated to San Francisco in March of 1950, Humphrey came with them to assist in the caring of their four young daughters. When the last daughter had completed high school and went to college, Humphrey moved out of their home and moved to the Fillmore Center.
In the early 1970s, Humphrey acquired a home with two large bedrooms and decided to start a foster home. She contacted a foster care agency, became certified to work with foster children, and began her ministry.
Humphrey put two cribs in one bedroom and set it up as a nursery. It was not long before she got a call about parenting and began caring for her first foster child.
Over time, she received more and more calls from foster agencies and hospital social workers who begged her to take infants in fragile health because of her excellent reputation. For over 50 years, Humphrey has fostered over 300 children and continues to this day.
“Ms. Martha has been known throughout her community as the person that wants to ‘just serve’ by being a caretaker and a guide for vulnerable children and youth over the past 50 years,” said Post News Group Publisher Paul L. Cobb, who initiated the nomination.
Oakland’s Mother of the Year Award was created by the OPRYD in 1954 to publicly honor an Oakland resident whose contributions to the community symbolize the finest traditions of motherhood.
Past honorees have included hard-working, dedicated community servants whose volunteerism has been exemplary.
Bay Area
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.

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.”
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.
“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.
Activism
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.

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.
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.
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.
Alameda County
Oakland Begins Month-Long Closure on Largest Homeless Encampment
At 8 a.m. sharp, city workers began piling up trash and dismantling makeshift homes along the nearly five-block encampment. City crews blocked off streets from 14th Ave to 17th Ave, between E. 12th and International Blvd, due to the Safe Work Zone Ordinance that was passed by the city council in 2022 to protect workers from harassment during cleanings, according to a city spokesperson.

By Magaly Muñoz
The City of Oakland began a three-week-long breakdown of the largest homeless encampment in the city on E. 12th Street on Monday morning. Residents and advocates said they are devastated about the displacement of dozens of people.
At 8 a.m. sharp, city workers began piling up trash and dismantling makeshift homes along the nearly five-block encampment. City crews blocked off streets from 14th Ave to 17th Ave, between E. 12th and International Blvd, due to the Safe Work Zone Ordinance that was passed by the city council in 2022 to protect workers from harassment during cleanings, according to a city spokesperson.
Jaz Colibri, one of the many advocates at the closure, said the encampment sweeps were “intense and terrifying” to witness. They claimed that several residents, many of them non-English speakers, had not been aware that the sweep was happening that day because of a lack of proper communication and outreach from Oakland.
Colibri added that the city had done a Census “many months ago” and “had not bothered to count people since then”, meaning dozens of individuals have missed out on housing and resources in the last few weeks because the city doesn’t offer outreach in multiple languages.
“Basically, [Oakland] dropped the ball on actually getting to know everybody who lives here and then creating a housing solution that meets everyone’s needs,” Colibri said.
City spokesperson Jean Walsh told the Post that notices of the closure operation were posted in Spanish and Chinese prior to Monday, but did not clarify if outreach was done in those languages as well.
Nearly a dozen Oakland police vehicles, California Highway Patrol officers, and Oakland Public Works staff were gathered along E 12th waiting for residents to pack up their belongings and move away from the area.
Advocates said residents “felt unsafe” due to the hefty law enforcement presence.
One city worker, who was picking up debris near 16th Ave, said, “They’ve known we were coming for a long time now” in reference to resident confusion about the sweeping.
The state doubled down on its requirement to get cities and counties to deal with their homelessness crisis at a press conference Monday afternoon. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office released a “model ordinance” that is intended to provide a starting point that local municipalities can use to build from and adjust in creating their own policies on encampments, if they haven’t done so yet.
Newsom said “No more excuses, time to deliver” after the state has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into solving the issue.
Oakland was awarded a $7.2 million grant from the state in 2024 to close long-standing encampments in the city, including camps at Martin Luther King, Jr. and 23rd Street, and Mosswood Park.
Residents at these encampments were offered wraparound supportive services, temporary shelter, and eventually will be transitioned to permanent supportive housing, according to a city statement from last year.
Residents who accepted housing at these three encampments were moved into newly acquired property, formerly the Extended Stay America Hotel in West Oakland, which will first serve as interim housing for up to 150 individuals and couples in 105 units, and in the coming year, will be converted into 125 units of permanent housing.
Walsh said as of May 2, “32 residents of the recently closed Mosswood Park encampment moved into the Mandela House program” and as of May 12, “41 residents of the East 12th Street encampment have already accepted offers to move to the Mandela House.” The city will provide final numbers of how many accepted and moved into housing after the closure operation is over.
-
Activism4 weeks ago
AI Is Reshaping Black Healthcare: Promise, Peril, and the Push for Improved Results in California
-
Activism4 weeks ago
Barbara Lee Accepts Victory With “Responsibility, Humility and Love”
-
Activism4 weeks ago
ESSAY: Technology and Medicine, a Primary Care Point of View
-
Activism4 weeks ago
Newsom Fights Back as AmeriCorps Shutdown Threatens Vital Services in Black Communities
-
Activism4 weeks ago
Faces Around the Bay: Author Karen Lewis Took the ‘Detour to Straight Street’
-
Arts and Culture4 weeks ago
BOOK REVIEW: Love, Rita: An American Story of Sisterhood, Joy, Loss, and Legacy
-
#NNPA BlackPress4 weeks ago
The RESISTANCE – FREEDOM NOW
-
Alameda County4 weeks ago
OUSD Supt. Chief Kyla Johnson-Trammell to Step Down on July 1