The ONME Network · Julia Ann Dudley Najieb

Listen to part two of the '2023 Summer Review California Headlines' featuring top news

November 2, 2023·57 min·4 clips

Ten Antioch and Pittsburgh police officers face federal indictments for excessive force, fraud, and racist text messages.

1. ONME Network host Julia Dudley Najib continues her review of California headlines from June 21 through September 22, 2023 in part 2 of a multi-part summer recap. 2. Najib is the sole primary host; an AI news anchor named Marcus Rain presents an excerpt on the Reedley biolab story, and a separate ONME segment by host Jordan Murphy covers a Top 10 self-care list between news segments. 3. The episode opens with Governor Newsom's Racial Equity Commission: established by executive order in partnership with Senator Dr. Richard Penn and SB 17 sponsors, backed by $3.8 million in 2023-24 and $3.1 million annually through 2029-30. 4. Prop 209, passed by California voters in November 1996 with 55 percent in favor, banned race and gender as factors in public university admissions, employment, and contracting — Najib argues it failed to address pre-existing structural racism. 5. California state prisons recorded 274 overdoses between March 2019 and February 2020; the Inspector General audit found the Department of Corrections had weak contraband prevention and recommended more staff searches and narcotic-detecting canines. 6. Nearly 60 percent of California's third graders could not read at grade level in the year following the pandemic, according to data Najib presents alongside national NAEP score declines. 7. Hurricane Hillary made landfall in Southern California on Sunday or Monday, August 19-20, 2023 — the first tropical storm to hit the state in decades — causing power outages, road damage, and a state of emergency declaration; California National Guard troops were deployed. 8. Six tenured community college professors at three campuses in the State Center Community College District in Fresno sued the California Community College system in August 2023, claiming DEIA implementation requirements violated free speech rights. 9. A federal grand jury in San Francisco returned four separate indictments on August 17, 2023 against 10 current and former Antioch and Pittsburgh police officers for crimes including civil rights violations, wire fraud, steroid distribution, and obstruction of justice. 10. The California Attorney General's May 2023 civil rights investigation into Antioch PD uncovered text messages in which officers called Black suspects racial slurs, compared them to animals or apes, discussed using violence, and explicitly coordinated how to alter crime reports. 11. Specific charges in the indictments include: conspiracy to commit wire fraud (20 years/$250,000 fine), steroid distribution (10 years/$500,000 fine), and obstruction/falsification of federal records (20 years). 12. Named officers in the indictments include Amira Burhan, Raleigh Rodriguez Jalapa, Ernesto Juan Maya Mejia, Samantha Geneva Peterson, and Daniel Harris, among others from both Antioch and Pittsburgh departments. 13. The Reedley, California biolab was discovered in July 2023 by a code enforcement officer investigating a garden hose code violation at 850 I Street; the officer found unlicensed lab mice, biological agents including HIV, hepatitis, measles, rubella, and genetically engineered mice designed to carry COVID-19, with no permits. 14. The lab owner lives in China, and the company operating in Reedley was not the same legal entity as one that had previously operated in Fresno — creating jurisdictional confusion among the city, county, state health department, CDC, FBI, and Department of Toxic Substances. 15. The Fresno City Council passed an infectious disease lab transparency ordinance 6-0; violations carry up to one year in county jail and a $1,000 fine; the Reedley site was posted with an 'unsafe to occupy' notice. 16. Research cited in the episode links chemical hair relaxers (used by an estimated 85-90 percent of Black women to straighten naturally textured hair) to ovarian, uterine, and breast cancer; California became the first state to ban race-based hair discrimination in 2019. 17. A group of Southern California Black women stated in reporting that they planned to continue using chemical straighteners despite the cancer risk, which Najib attributes to lifelong cultural conditioning. 18. Simone Biles won her 8th US gymnastics all-around title at the Xfinity US Gymnastics Championship in San Jose, becoming the oldest woman (26 years, 66 days) to win the title and surpassing the previous record held by Linda Metheny in 1971. 19. In September, California's new Distressed Hospital Loan Program offered up to $52 million interest-free to Madera Community Hospital and $240.5 million more to 16 other troubled hospitals including Beverly Community Hospital and Hazel Hawkins Memorial. 20. The episode also covers the growth of college-degree programs in California prisons: since 2016 when Cal State LA became the first to offer bachelor's degrees to incarcerated people, eight of the state's 34 adult prisons have started programs, with a new master's degree program debuting at Chino via CSU Dominguez Hills.

As heard by us

A summer wrap that balances California civic reporting with clear local detail.

The piece moves cleanly from the state's Racial Equity Commission to Fresno's response to the illegal Reedley lab, with a steady focus on transparency.

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Why you'd press play

Follow California news that ties policy, public safety, and local accountability together.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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