CatchLight Local’s March 2023 Month in Pictures features women leaders across California, a colorful immersion in cultural celebration, and ongoing coverage of communities amid a season of storms unleashed by atmospheric river events.
Three-Year Winning Streak: A High School Basketball Dynasty
📍 SACRAMENTO, CA
Sophia Askew-Goncalves and Marticia Pollard of Oakland Tech High School’s Lady Bulldogs celebrate their win against Santiago High School’s Lady Sharks for the California Interscholastic Federation State Division I Basketball Girls Championship at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento on March 10, 2023.
Read more on The Oaklandside »
First Vietnamese American Woman Mayor Makes History
📍 SAN BERNARDINO, CA
Mayor Helen Tran poses for a portrait in her office in San Bernardino on February 7, 2023. She was officially sworn in on January 25, 2023, making Tran the first woman of Vietnamese descent elected to mayoral office in the United States and the first Asian American mayor in San Bernardino history.
Read more on Black Voice News »
Student Becomes Teacher: Taking on the Fentanyl Crisis
📍 BERKELEY, CA
Berkeley High School junior, Nina Thompson, leads the harm education and reduction organization, or HERO, at her high school. Today, the student-led group is focused on education and advocacy related to the state’s fentanyl overdose crisis. Thompson says she knows students who have inadvertently taken drugs laced with fentanyl.
Read more on Berkeleyside »
Festival of Color Marks the Start of Spring
📍 SAN JOSE, CA
Community members relish in music, dance, and colorful powder during a celebration of Holi, the Hindu festival marking the beginning of spring, at the Association of Indo Americans and Bollywood FM 92.3’s Holi Fest at Discovery Meadow Park in San Jose on March 11, 2023.
Read more on India Currents »
Californians Navigate Extreme Weather
CatchLight Local Fellows reporting from the Central Valley continued their coverage of the state’s struggles with flooding, high winds, and unusual snowfall in locations under-equipped for extreme winter weather.
📍 CUTLER, CA
Christina Cabrera cleans water and mud from her family home after a series of storms on March 12, 2023. Cabrera said that the home has been in her family for decades, and she hopes to salvage it.
📍 ALLENSWORTH, CA
Roads and farmland along Highway 43 in Allensworth, California, were flooded following a winter downpour on March 20, 2023.