Noelia González

On Earth Day 2015, a look at the wild species that live in the East Bay regional parks

The California Grizzly bear has been immortalized on the state’s flag, but the four-leg symbol is not around California anymore—at least not since 1924, when the last specimen was spotted in Santa Barbara County. However, other creatures inhabit California’s land, water and sky. The East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) includes more than 100,000 acres, 65 parks and more than 1,200 miles of trails in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. These parks, like the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline in Oakland, or the…

After measles outbreak, interest in vaccines increases

It’s not over yet. The measles outbreak, which started in December, 2014, at a Disneyland theme park in Orange County, is still ongoing in the United States, and has now reached Mexico and Canada, where more than 100 people have been reported to have the disease. By March 6, 17 US states and the District of Columbia reported measles cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) website. The CDC is only one of the many health…

Measles outbreak reaches East Bay

In late December, someone contracted measles. Then, he or she went to Disneyland. Now, thanks to the transfer of the measles virus at either Disneyland or its neighbor, Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim, California, an outbreak is spreading across the state. By January 26, 73 cases of measles had been confirmed among California residents, according to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). Among those cases, 50 have been linked to an initial exposure at a Disney park. By January 21,…

Robert Rodgers, driver and friend to Richmond’s elderly

“Could you stay until my birthday?” the passenger kept asking her driver. The rider, an elderly woman with short gray hair and a faint voice, didn’t want Robert Rodgers to leave the driver’s seat of her daily van. But Rodgers had his future planned: he would retire from the van service when he turned 62. “Born and raised in Oakland,” Rodgers had been in the driver’s seat for a long time. Even when he enlisted to the army for six…