Latest news with #MillsCollege
Epoch Times
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
Barbara Lee Wins Tight Race for Oakland Mayor in Special Election
Former U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee has won the special election for mayor of Oakland in the San Francisco Bay Area to replace former Mayor Sheng Thao, who was recalled by Oakland voters and indicted by federal authorities for alleged bribery offenses. The former congresswoman Lee's main opponent, former councilman Loren Taylor, called Lee the morning of April 19 to concede the race, she said in a 'I accept your choice with a deep sense of responsibility, humility, and love,' Lee, a Democrat, said in a statement posted to her campaign website. 'Oakland is a deeply divided City, and I answered the call to run, to unite our community—so that I can represent every voter, and we can all work together as One Oakland to solve our most pressing problems,' she said. Lee credited a coalition that includes faith, labor, and businesses for her victory. She pledged to govern with transparency, integrity, and accountability. Related Stories 4/14/2025 4/21/2025 'I will do the hard work and make the tough decisions, knowing that we will all be doing this together,' she said. 'While the challenges are many, the opportunities are great.' Taylor, also a Democrat, 'We gained the support of nearly half the voting population despite having political insiders and labor unions spend heavily, spread lies, and rally against our efforts, and your hopes for the city,' Taylor said. 'I pray that Mayor-Elect Lee fulfills her commitment to unify Oakland by authentically engaging the ... Oaklanders who voted for me and who want pragmatic results-driven leadership,' he wrote. Lee, who was born in El Paso, Texas, and served as a U.S. representative from 1998 to 2025. She also served in both houses of the California State Legislature from 1990 to 1998. While a student at Mills College, which merged with Northeastern University in 2022, she was involved with the Black Panther Party. In the House, she chaired the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus and was a founder of the LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus. In the lead up to the Iraq War, Lee was the only congress member to vote against authorizing the use of force in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. Lee ran on a platform of improving public safety, homelessness, and accountability, and reducing corruption.
CBS News
16-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Lena Herzog on her husband Werner Herzog's acting career
In the mid-1990s, Lena Herzog was a student in California, studying philosophy at Mills College and taking classes at Berkeley. When she first met Werner Herzog, a renowned filmmaker by then, she didn't know who he was and hadn't seen any of his films. Rather than out himself as a famous movie director, Werner Herzog made up a backstory. "He told me he was a stuntman," Lena told Anderson Cooper. He kept up the ruse for months. The couple even moved in together before Werner revealed who he really was. "And I thought, 'My God, I'm falling in love… It's too bad he's a stunt man. What am I gonna say to my mother?'" Lena told Cooper. Today, the couple lives in California, a paradoxical stomping ground for an eccentric auteur who has defied Hollywood conventions throughout his career. "I live in Los Angeles because I fell in love," Werner Herzog explained to Cooper. Lena Herzog is a visual artist and photographer working across multiple mediums. She's taken photographs on the set of her husband's films, snapping documentary-style shots that feature actors, including Nicolas Cage, Chrisitian Bale, Chloë Sevigny, and Michael Shannon. She told Cooper that traveling with Werner for his film shoots is something that works for her career as an artist as well. "Wherever he goes, I find a subject," she told Cooper. "And some of what I shoot is documentary photography because that was my original medium… I do stills for his films." Cooper wanted to know what Lena thought of her husband's career as an actor, playing villains in the "Star Wars" series "The Mandalorian" and "Jack Reacher." "He's very proud of it. He brags about it," she said. In "Jack Reacher," Werner plays the role of Zek Chelovek, a menacing, cold-hearted leader of a Russian gang who lost his mind after spending decades in Soviet gulags. "I had friends in Paris who, in a panic, called me and said… you're married to that man. Remember we're only one flight away," Lena told Cooper. "I think he's absolutely unafraid to make fun of himself and to allow other directors to cast him in a way that almost is a caricature of him." Lena Herzog thinks her husband's public perception as an obsessive filmmaker who will do anything for his art has set him up for these roles. "Werner sort of plays into this perception of him… that he's this kind of wild man and capable of anything." But those perceptions are misleading, Lena argued. "He's the sweetest man… He's a really, really sweet, good man."
