GROUNDBREAKING OF MEMORIAL LAUDED Bill would require shot for all workers

Assembly member Wicks unveils the rst-of-its-kind proposal

By Emily DeRuy ederuy@bayareanewsgroup.com

Under a sweeping new bill unveiled Friday, California would require businesses big and small to make sure all their workers, from employees to independent contractors, are vaccinated against COVID-19.

The proposal, from a group of Democratic lawmakers, is part of a broader package of legislation aimed at limiting the spread of the deadly virus.

“People are craving stability,” said Assembly member Buffy Wicks, an Oakland Democrat who is one of the bill’s lead authors. “We can make that stability happen together.”

The move comes after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked a nationwide vaccine mandate for large employers President Joe Biden’s administration had hoped to implement, leaving vaccine rules up to states to implement. That decision, Wicks said, put the onus on Sacramento to act.

“We feel very strong about our legal footing here,” Wicks said.

The new exhibit will honor Japanese-Americans who were imprisoned at Tanforan Racetrack during World War II

By Aldo Toledo atoledo@bayareanewsgroup.com

SAN BRUNO

» Dozens of people crowded inside the San Bruno BART station Friday morning to celebrate the groundbreaking of a new memorial for Japanese Americans who were imprisoned at the Tanforan Racetrack during World War II, permanently cementing the infamous history of internment into the city’s memory.

The memorial will feature a bronze-cast statue depicting the famous Dorothea Lange picture of two children of the Mochida family who, with their parents, are awaiting an evacuation bus at Centerville, a reminder for all who walk past it that 8,000 Bay Area residents of Japanese an- cestry were forcefully and unjustly detained and processed at the Tanforan “Assembly Center” for internment in Utah.

It took nearly a decade to get all the funding and planning together to build the statue, an endeavor that was taken on by the Tanforan Assembly Center Memorial Committee led by President Doug Yamamoto starting in 2012. But for the many Japanese American victims of human rights abuses by the U.S. government, the memorial is really 80 years in the making.

“The committee has been waiting I don’t know how many years,” said committee member Steve Okamoto. “We’ve faced years of frustration, obstacles and delays. So this is a truly spe-

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‘THIS KIND OF STUFF MEANS THE WORLD TO ME’

Who are the Oakland school district hunger strikers?

By Kayla Jimenez and Ray Chavez

Sta writers

On day 10 of a hunger strike against Oakland Unified’s move to close and merge several neighborhood community schools that primarily serve Black and Brown students, Maurice André San-Chez, a Westlake Middle School choir director and liaison of the campus’s Gay Student Alliance, celebrated their 10-year anniversary in Oakland on the lawn of Westlake Middle School.

At dusk the night before, surrounded by supportive community members, loved ones, an altar and a drum circle, San-Chez said they didn’t know when they moved to Oakland in whether they’d feel accepted by the community.

San-Chez and fellow hunger striker Moses Olanrewaju Omolade, a community schools program manager and teacher at Westlake Middle School, have gotten communitywide support and the national spotlight since they embarked on their hunger strike Feb. 1, saying they are willing to risk their lives for the future of Oakland schools.

On Wednesday, San-Chez showed off colorful cards of support, a watercolor-painted flower with the words “There is beauty in destruction,” and drawings from Westlake students, school alum and people

Assembly Bill 1993 would allow for limited medical or religious exemptions but require testing for anyone who remains unvaccinated. The bill would require new hires to have at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by the time they start, and a second dose within 45 days. Businesses

SAN JOSE Research and o ce complex land a tech company buyer

By George Avalos gavalos@bayareanewsgroup.com

SAN JOSE » A big o ce and research complex in north San Jose have been bought by a real estate company, a property deal that enables the company to lease space from the new owner on a long-term basis.

South Bay Development, acting through its a liate McKay Ringwood San Jose, paid $58 million for a complex that totals four buildings, documents filed Wednesday with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s O ce shows.

Synaptics, which provides touchscreen controls for makers of mobile phones, notebooks and hand-held computers, sold the buildings to the real estate developer.

Wells Fargo Bank provided a loan of $46.1 million to South Bay Development at the time of the real estate company’s purchase, according to the county property records.

The buildings involved in the property deal have addresses of 1109, 1151 and 1251 McKay Drive and 1140 and 1150 Ringwood Court, county documents show.

that do not comply would face a penalty, although the specifics still are being worked out.

“We haven’t determined that yet,” Wicks said, adding that she wants to have a conversation with members of the business community to create a strong bill.

“Workers deserve to be safe,” she said. “There are many jobs that can’t be done remotely.”

The bill already is generating pushback from Republicans and conservatives who have chafed at policies they say limit personal freedoms and sow partisan divides.

“I have a whole bunch of problems with this,” said Matt Shupe, chair of the Contra Costa County GOP.