How has life in the Bay Area changed over the last 20 years? These stories straight from our Bay City News archives capture news of the day from 5, 10, and 20 years ago – as originally published at the time. Explore these history snapshots and ponder how today’s news compares to that of years past.
JUNE 8, 2021
Kaiser Permanente expanded COVID-19 vaccine trials to children ages 5 to 11 at sites including Oakland and Santa Clara. The trial remains relevant to current public-health debates over pediatric vaccination, parental trust and how local research networks support national emergency response.
Bay City News Reported:
“Kaiser Begins Child COVID Vaccine Trials In Bay Area”
Kaiser Permanente officials announced Tuesday that they are expanding COVID-19 vaccine trials to include children ages 5-11 in Oakland, Santa Clara and Sacramento. The three trial sites on Monday began enrolling roughly 75 children in the 5-11 age range. Kaiser’s Vaccine Study Center and Division of Research, both based in Oakland, are conducting the trial in concert with Pfizer and BioNTech, which co-developed the vaccine that will be used in the trial. The Pfizer vaccine is currently the only COVID-19 vaccine approved for minors. Roughly 4,600 children are participating in trials across the country to determine the vaccine’s safety and efficacy in children under 12.
“There’s a lot of vigorous interest right now in terms of availability and there’s limited availability” for the study, said Vaccine Study Center Director Dr. Nicky Klein. Kaiser’s Vaccine Study Center also participated in the clinical trials to determine the safety and efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine both in adults and children ages 12-17.
In the coming weeks, trials are also likely to open for children under age 5, Klein said, as logistics and finer details are still being worked out. Eventually, she said, medical experts intend to recommend that all children receive the vaccine once it is available to them. On the trial’s current timeline, Klein said Pfizer could submit an emergency authorization for children 5-11 as early as September, provided the trial’s data shows the vaccine is as effective as it has been for other age groups. “It may be around the start of school,” she said. “(That’s) probably the best-case scenario, but I think that’s still up in the air.”
JUNE 8, 2016
San Francisco considered allowing non-citizen parents and guardians to vote in school board elections. The proposal remains tied to current debates over immigrant civic participation, school governance and who should have a formal voice in public education.
Bay City News reported:
“San Francisco Weighs Non-Citizen School Board Voting“
San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar on Tuesday introduced a charter amendment that would allow parents, caregivers and legal guardians of city students who are not U.S. citizens to vote in school board elections. The measure, which is expected to go before voters on the November ballot, is not the first to attempt to win voting rights for non-citizens in local elections. Similar measures were rejected by voters in 2004 and 2010.
“The time is right for San Francisco to make history, to pave the way for immigrant parents to have a say in the policy decisions that impact their child’s education and who gets to sit on the Board of Education,” Mar said in a statement.
Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, who was the sponsor of the 2010 ballot measure, said it was important to stand up for immigrant communities in an election year dominated by anti-immigrant rhetoric. “In a school system where one of three children has an immigrant parent, allowing immigrant parents to vote in school board elections is a common sense measure to empower parents to fully participate in our children’s education,” Chiu said in a statement. The measure is backed by a coalition of community and social justice groups, and cosponsored by Supervisors David Campos, Malia Cohen and Scott Wiener.
JUNE 8, 2006
Alameda County supervisors approved a new paper-ballot and optical-scanning voting system after an emotional public debate. The decision remains relevant as election offices continue to balance accessibility, auditability and confidence in voting technology.
Bay City News reported:
“Alameda County Approves Paper Ballot System“
The Alameda County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 at an emotional and lengthy meeting today to approve a $13 million contract for a blended paper balloting and optical scanning system for counting votes. The contract with Sequoia Voting Systems of Oakland calls for most voters to cast their votes on paper ballots, which election workers then place into an optical scanner, which in turn feeds the information to a central computer.
Sequoia also is to place at least one touch-screen voting terminal at each of the 830 polling places in the county to accommodate people with disabilities. That computer will produce a printout of each voter’s choices, but it also will cycle back into the machine for safekeeping.
Supervisors hope the new system will be in place by the November election and will provide faster results than were provided this week, when Alameda County had one of the slowest vote counts in the state. Election workers spent 15 hours hand-feeding nearly 200,000 paper ballots into low-speed scanners. Supervisors also hope the new system will address concerns that electronic voting can be manipulated. But most of the dozens of people who spoke at today’s nearly four-hour meeting said they’re still concerned about the security of voting in Alameda County.
Allen Michaan, the owner of the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, said the contract with Sequoia will mean “the continued theft of elections,” stating that he’s upset by “the voter fraud the Bush regime has brought to America.” Michaan said voting machine vendors such as Sequoia “are highly partisan corporations” and said Sequoia wouldn’t leave a valid paper trail. He said the board majority ignored the comments of most of the speakers at the meeting.
Supervisors Alice Lai-Bitker, Gail Steele and Scott Haggerty voted in favor of the contract with Sequoia and board president Keith Carson and Nate Miley, who favored a different system, voted against it. The board wound up voting for the Sequoia contract twice because there was confusion about some of the amendments that were attached to the contract.
Some of the supervisors appeared overwhelmed by the highly technical details of the voting system. Haggerty left the board chambers after the first vote and when he returned a few minutes later, he said, “I have no idea what’s happening here – I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Before any votes were taken, Steele said, “I must admit I don’t have a clue what to do” and “I feel like I’m in the twilight zone.” After the meeting, Michaan said, “Steele admitted she doesn’t understand the system so she should have recused herself.”
Editor’s Note: All the reporting, writing, and editing of this content was done by human journalists at the time of initial publication. AI tools were used to surface these stories from our internal Bay City News archives and provide the introductory context.