MONDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2014 - DECEMBER 21, 2014
riversideindependent.com
VOLUME 1, NO. 33
Ride-Sharing App Uber: Sexual Offenses Downtown Against Passengers and Lawsuit for Protesters Insufficient Background Checks Say They’ll Gather by jennifer schlueter Again By Vickie Vértiz
the nation at the second White House College Opportunity Day of Action. Attendees included: •Kenneth M. Young, Riverside County Superintendent of Schools •Dr. Judy D. White, Superintendent, Moreno Valley Unified School District •Timothy Ritter, Superin-
Like many other seasonal activities across the country, the Festival of Lights was interrupted by civil unrest after a grand jury failed to indict police officer Darren Wilson who gunned down unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Demonstrators are bringing attention to the hundreds of black men who have been killed at the hands of law enforcement officers who have gone unpunished in this country. At a recent Riverside demonstration, a crowd of at least fifty protesters were marching down Main Street and into a busy intersection when a driver barreled through the crowd. While no serious injuries were reported, video available on various websites shows a car aggressively pushing through a crowd of innocent bystanders. According to The Press-Enterprise, Riverside police say they have little information about the driver or the car they are looking for. The Enterprise talked to protestor David Mukuria, who held a megaphone and led the crowd in some of the chanting. He told the paper that the diversity of the crowd showed that the issues of state violence are beyond issues of race. “We [are] here to protest police accountability,” he told the paper. “It [is] not a
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Travis Kalanick, founder-CEO of Uber, at the 2014 Launch Festival .
While Uber has been banned in Portland, Nevada, Delhi, Spain, Thailand, etc. for unfair and illegal business practices as well as a rape incident, several other cities and countries are also investigating a potential
boycott of the app that is competing with taxi services. According to the official website, Uber currently provides 52 countries with a (mostly) cheaper alternative for cab rides with private drivers and their cars. As convenient
- Photo by JD Lasica
as the services are, stories about (sexual) assaults and kidnappings by Uber drivers, some of them with a felony background, are surfacing from numerous viPlease see page 4
President Obama Praises Riverside County Education Collaborative In comments at today’s White House College Opportunity Day of Action in Washington, D.C., President Obama recognized the Riverside County Education Collaborative (RCEC)--an innovative partnership in the Inland Empire that was formed in response to the White House request to help more students prepare for and graduate from college. “The Riverside County
Education Collaborative in California has set a goal of increasing FAFSA completion by 30% and they are working to ensure that fewer students need remedial classes when they get to college,” President Obama said. A contingent of seven Riverside County educators joined President Obama, Vice President Biden, the First Lady, college presidents, and hundreds of education leaders from around