Category: CNN Regional

By Andrea Nakano

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    SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) — A Bay Area woman has made it onto the USA national team to represent her country in the first World Cup of cricket in India.

She’s played sports all her life, but she hasn’t always been on a level playing field until now.

Asanda Pavlacka is a multi-sport athlete with a background in martial arts, running, swimming and gymnastics. While she has overcome many hurdles, her biggest challenge came about 28 years ago when she lost her sight.

“I had a degenerative eye condition when I was born, so I was able to see up through my teens,” Pavlacka said. “Then diminished a little by little. Then I ended up having nothing.”

Losing her vision hasn’t stopped Pavlacka from playing sports.

“That’s how I live my life,” she said. “I don’t let too many things stop me and if they do, I figure it out and find a different way.”

That’s what she did when a fellow blind athlete approached her about playing cricket.

“For blind cricket, we’re actually kneeling down to the ground and using the full length of the bat,” Pavlacka said.

After several training camps across the country, Pavlacka was selected to represent Team USA in India.

“In November, we’re going to the first-ever blind World Cup for cricket,” she said.

Pavlacka said that playing cricket is the easy part. The challenges have come off the pitch, from getting their visas to making sure expenses are covered while they are away. She started an online fundraiser to help her and four other teammates.

“There’s five of us on the team that’s kind of flying solo in a sense,” she said. “We don’t have a lot of at-home support.”

Pavlacka said that while the goal is to bring home the gold, it’s a big win to be invited to play a sport on the world stage. If anything, she hopes to use this as a learning experience to improve her skills and go back next year a better player.

“Knowing that I’m not the awesomest awesome person doing something like that is a little ego blow,” she said. “I mean, it’s all about sticking with it and getting better every day and not comparing yourself. Comparing yourself to me.”

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

KPIX

By Andrea Nakano

Click here for updates on this story

    SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) — A Bay Area woman has made it onto the USA national team to represent her country in the first World Cup of cricket in India.

She’s played sports all her life, but she hasn’t always been on a level playing field until now.

Asanda Pavlacka is a multi-sport athlete with a background in martial arts, running, swimming and gymnastics. While she has overcome many hurdles, her biggest challenge came about 28 years ago when she lost her sight.

“I had a degenerative eye condition when I was born, so I was able to see up through my teens,” Pavlacka said. “Then diminished a little by little. Then I ended up having nothing.”

Losing her vision hasn’t stopped Pavlacka from playing sports.

“That’s how I live my life,” she said. “I don’t let too many things stop me and if they do, I figure it out and find a different way.”

That’s what she did when a fellow blind athlete approached her about playing cricket.

“For blind cricket, we’re actually kneeling down to the ground and using the full length of the bat,” Pavlacka said.

After several training camps across the country, Pavlacka was selected to represent Team USA in India.

“In November, we’re going to the first-ever blind World Cup for cricket,” she said.

Pavlacka said that playing cricket is the easy part. The challenges have come off the pitch, from getting their visas to making sure expenses are covered while they are away. She started an online fundraiser to help her and four other teammates.

“There’s five of us on the team that’s kind of flying solo in a sense,” she said. “We don’t have a lot of at-home support.”

Pavlacka said that while the goal is to bring home the gold, it’s a big win to be invited to play a sport on the world stage. If anything, she hopes to use this as a learning experience to improve her skills and go back next year a better player.

“Knowing that I’m not the awesomest awesome person doing something like that is a little ego blow,” she said. “I mean, it’s all about sticking with it and getting better every day and not comparing yourself. Comparing yourself to me.”

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Kara St. Cyr

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    SAN BRUNO, California (KPIX) — Satsuki Ina’s earliest memories are of barbed wire and internment camps.

“We went from Tule Lake, my father went to Bismarck, North Dakota,” Ina said, thumbing through a photo album.

Her family, like 125,000 other Japanese Americans, was hauled off to camps across the United States during World War II. Ina was born while her parents were already incarcerated, but the family wouldn’t stay together for long.

After denouncing U.S. citizenship out of fear, her father was sent to several other camps around the country. The Inas would remain separated for more than four years.

“We were reunited in 1946. This is after the war. We’re still in prison and reunited in Crystal City, Texas,” Ina said.

Her family endured violence, isolation and hopelessness during internment, which she said she doesn’t believe they’ve ever recovered from. Now, nearly 80 years later, she said the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids are forcing her to relive that history.

“It took a lifetime for me to figure out, put all these pieces together and look at what happened to my family and my community, to see that the trauma effect continues today,” Ina said.

In January, the Trump administration removed the sensitive locations policy that kept ICE agents from entering churches, schools and hospitals.

Ina said there’s a connection between WWII internments and ICE raids. That’s why she’s helped gather a community of Japanese Americans to demonstrate for No Kings Day, a nationwide protest, at the Tanforan Assembly Memorial in San Bruno, California.

“When we were being removed, we essentially disappeared, and there were no marches or petitions or advocates on our behalf. So it feels like we’re being called to respond,” Ina said.

To her, it’s an act of solidarity and defiance, but Nick Berg, the vice chair of communications for the San Francisco GOP, doesn’t see the protest this way.

“Nobody is advocating for a return to monarchy in this country, not even Trump. So I think that it’s really a false narrative,” Berg said. “We have Democratic mechanisms in this country. They are still intact.”

Berg said the No Kings protests misrepresent the Trump administration and that internment camps are an unfair comparison. He condemned the actions taken against Japanese Americans during the war but still said the ICE raids are different.

“I mean, California is still part of the United States. It’s subject to federal law,” Berg said. “And so, federal immigration activity needs to happen, and I don’t know why states, including California, think that they can pass special laws to exempt themselves from enforcement of federal law.”

But Ina is worried that what happened to her family may happen again if the connection between the two events is not made.

“Want to educate people, and this is not an exception in our American history,” she said.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

KPIX

By Kara St. Cyr

Click here for updates on this story

    SAN BRUNO, California (KPIX) — Satsuki Ina’s earliest memories are of barbed wire and internment camps.

“We went from Tule Lake, my father went to Bismarck, North Dakota,” Ina said, thumbing through a photo album.

Her family, like 125,000 other Japanese Americans, was hauled off to camps across the United States during World War II. Ina was born while her parents were already incarcerated, but the family wouldn’t stay together for long.

After denouncing U.S. citizenship out of fear, her father was sent to several other camps around the country. The Inas would remain separated for more than four years.

“We were reunited in 1946. This is after the war. We’re still in prison and reunited in Crystal City, Texas,” Ina said.

Her family endured violence, isolation and hopelessness during internment, which she said she doesn’t believe they’ve ever recovered from. Now, nearly 80 years later, she said the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids are forcing her to relive that history.

“It took a lifetime for me to figure out, put all these pieces together and look at what happened to my family and my community, to see that the trauma effect continues today,” Ina said.

In January, the Trump administration removed the sensitive locations policy that kept ICE agents from entering churches, schools and hospitals.

Ina said there’s a connection between WWII internments and ICE raids. That’s why she’s helped gather a community of Japanese Americans to demonstrate for No Kings Day, a nationwide protest, at the Tanforan Assembly Memorial in San Bruno, California.

“When we were being removed, we essentially disappeared, and there were no marches or petitions or advocates on our behalf. So it feels like we’re being called to respond,” Ina said.

To her, it’s an act of solidarity and defiance, but Nick Berg, the vice chair of communications for the San Francisco GOP, doesn’t see the protest this way.

“Nobody is advocating for a return to monarchy in this country, not even Trump. So I think that it’s really a false narrative,” Berg said. “We have Democratic mechanisms in this country. They are still intact.”

Berg said the No Kings protests misrepresent the Trump administration and that internment camps are an unfair comparison. He condemned the actions taken against Japanese Americans during the war but still said the ICE raids are different.

“I mean, California is still part of the United States. It’s subject to federal law,” Berg said. “And so, federal immigration activity needs to happen, and I don’t know why states, including California, think that they can pass special laws to exempt themselves from enforcement of federal law.”

But Ina is worried that what happened to her family may happen again if the connection between the two events is not made.

“Want to educate people, and this is not an exception in our American history,” she said.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Michele Gile

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    HUNTINGTON BEACH, California (KCAL, KCBS) — A youth-restricted area containing books Huntington Beach city leaders deemed too obscene for children remains at its Central Library despite a judicial order to eliminate the section.

In 2023, the City Council ordered librarians to move materials with “sexual content” from the children’s section to the youth-restricted area on the fourth floor of the library. The action met stiff resistance, leading the American Civil Liberties Union to join a lawsuit filed by residents, including former librarian Erin Spivey, who left her job following the order.

“The instructions we expect the city to follow are returning the books to the children’s section, taking down the signs about restricted books, establishing the teen section and making sure that employees are protected from any pushback from the City Council,” Spivey said.

Spivey’s lawsuit accused city leaders of a censorship scheme that violates California’s Freedom to Read Act, which prohibits removing public library books from shelves solely because of their content. The judge ruled in her favor in September. The city filed an objection to the judge’s order to move the books.

Huntington Beach’s Susie and Tom Davidson consider themselves to be conservative and are against kids having access to sexual material, yet they want the city to comply with the judge’s order.

“I just think they kinda jumped the gun on all the restrictions,” Susie Davison said. “Now, they’re finding out that it’s not working, but they should be listening to the government and let’s get it back in there.”

The city said it will discuss the issue during a closed session meeting, but couldn’t comment further.

In June, voters rejected Huntington Beach’s library review board and approved a measure to eliminate the panel.

In the weeks leading up to the special election, Councilman Chad Williams’ political action committee paid for “Protect Our Kids from Porn” signs to be placed across Huntington Beach, sparking outrage from some parents.

Williams claimed the city’s libraries contained pornographic content. It’s a similar allegation made by the former mayor, which led the council to approve an appointed committee to oversee which books are allowed in the children’s section.

“Children should not have access to these books,” said former Mayor Gracey Van der Mark. “If you’re an adult go for it; you can read whatever you want. But, it is our job and our responsibility to protect children from material that could be harmful for them and if they’re not mentally mature enough to read these books we shouldn’t be exposing them and only the parents can decide that. The government should not be deciding if this is appropriate for their children.”

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

KCBS

By Michele Gile

Click here for updates on this story

    HUNTINGTON BEACH, California (KCAL, KCBS) — A youth-restricted area containing books Huntington Beach city leaders deemed too obscene for children remains at its Central Library despite a judicial order to eliminate the section.

In 2023, the City Council ordered librarians to move materials with “sexual content” from the children’s section to the youth-restricted area on the fourth floor of the library. The action met stiff resistance, leading the American Civil Liberties Union to join a lawsuit filed by residents, including former librarian Erin Spivey, who left her job following the order.

“The instructions we expect the city to follow are returning the books to the children’s section, taking down the signs about restricted books, establishing the teen section and making sure that employees are protected from any pushback from the City Council,” Spivey said.

Spivey’s lawsuit accused city leaders of a censorship scheme that violates California’s Freedom to Read Act, which prohibits removing public library books from shelves solely because of their content. The judge ruled in her favor in September. The city filed an objection to the judge’s order to move the books.

Huntington Beach’s Susie and Tom Davidson consider themselves to be conservative and are against kids having access to sexual material, yet they want the city to comply with the judge’s order.

“I just think they kinda jumped the gun on all the restrictions,” Susie Davison said. “Now, they’re finding out that it’s not working, but they should be listening to the government and let’s get it back in there.”

The city said it will discuss the issue during a closed session meeting, but couldn’t comment further.

In June, voters rejected Huntington Beach’s library review board and approved a measure to eliminate the panel.

In the weeks leading up to the special election, Councilman Chad Williams’ political action committee paid for “Protect Our Kids from Porn” signs to be placed across Huntington Beach, sparking outrage from some parents.

Williams claimed the city’s libraries contained pornographic content. It’s a similar allegation made by the former mayor, which led the council to approve an appointed committee to oversee which books are allowed in the children’s section.

“Children should not have access to these books,” said former Mayor Gracey Van der Mark. “If you’re an adult go for it; you can read whatever you want. But, it is our job and our responsibility to protect children from material that could be harmful for them and if they’re not mentally mature enough to read these books we shouldn’t be exposing them and only the parents can decide that. The government should not be deciding if this is appropriate for their children.”

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.