Frodo Joe’s, a cafe located in San Lorenzo, CA, though the COVID-19 pandemic is still amongst the community, the small business is trying to preservice through the hardships. 

In March, Frodo Joes had to close its doors to indoor dining, just as many businesses had to across the country. In late June, the business opened up outdoor dining in their parking lot. A new experience for the cafe. 

Frodo Joe’s is a family-owned business with two locations, one in San Lorenzo and the other in Fremont. The business is most known for its delicious savory and dessert crepes. Togo orders continue, but now patrons can sit down for coffee and a fresh crepe.

The San Lorenzo location is managed by Emily, the daughter of the owners, along with her staff behind her, young college students from the community. 

Emily expresses that the brightest side of the whole situation is the support from the community especially online, “A lot of my customers are posting to go and support Frodo Joe’s,” People have been posting to San Lorenzo’s Facebook to help keep business booming. 

New obstacles have popped up as the cafe tries to manage social distance guidelines outside. The landlord of the building granted the cafe four parking spaces for tables and chairs, all six feet apart from each other. “We can’t do parties more than six,” Emily expresses that she can move tables together, but has to stick to guidelines. 

Frodo Joe’s has always been a rather small space, and a seat at a table has always been a tricky task. However, Emily set new rules, “The customers have to pay for their food before they can get a table.” She understands that customers were used to saving their seats, “This way there won’t be any conflicts between customers.”

For the most part, people have been understanding as Emily puts it. Their business depends on being able to keep up with health and safety regulations, “We try to work as efficiently as possible. Inspectors do come to make sure tables are six feet apart, we sanitize all the tables and chairs.” 

Business overall is better, but there are setbacks that are unavoidable. Due to the wildfires that began in early September, outside seating hasn’t been easy. On Sep. 9 the Bay Area skies were dark orange with a thick layer of smoke. In the days following the air quality index (AQI) spiked to over 200 categorized as very unhealthy. 

As of Sep. 21, the AQI is at 42 in San Lorenzo, categorized as Good. Emily says that slowly but surely business is building back up as the weather has improved. She expressed that the cafe is in a better position than before, “It’s better than nothing. At least right now I do have my supportive customers in the area.” 

Frodo Joe’s is located at 17665 Hesperian Blvd, San Lorenzo. The cafe opens from 6 am-5 pm Monday to Saturday and 8 am to 2 pm on Sunday. Emily and her staff are more than happy to see kind faces come by, with face masks while going inside. 

The live-action remake of Mulan premiered on Disney+ On Sep. 4. While Disney attempted to make a more accurate telling of the story, fans were disappointed with every aspect that went into the making of this film.  

Parts of the movie were filmed in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, (XUAR) China, a southern region in the country where over 1mil Uyghur Muslims are currently being detained in concentration camps. Disney had even thanked the Turpan Public Safety Bureau that’s involved with the camps, in the Mulan end credits. 

#BoycottMulan has been all over the media, people are refusing to support the movie, and Disney as a whole. 

A letter has been sent to the CEO of Disney, Bob Chapek, by 19 bipartisan members of Congress to question Disney involvement with this region as reported by Axious news on Sep 12. 

Key aspects of the letter are highlighted in this article including: “that Disney explains its cooperation with XUAR authorities, including what contractual agreements were made, Disney executives’ awareness of the political complexities of the region, what local labor was used and what Disney policies exist on prohibiting relationships with human rights abusers.”

Disney has yet to make any public statement. 

Liu Yfiel 33 is a Chinese born-American actress who stars as the new Mulan. Liu has been under fire as she has been very public of her support for the Hong Kong police that has been on the scene as protests that began Aug. 2019.

Liu stated in her online post, “I support Hong Kong’s police, you can beat me up now. What a shame for Hong Kong.”

BBC News explained the extraction bill that started the protest, “the proposed changes would have allowed for the Hong Kong government to consider requests from any country for the extradition of criminal suspects, even countries with which it doesn’t have an extradition treaty and including mainland China, Taiwan, and Macau.” 

Liu’s statement left many upset and initially caused one of the first reasons why people wanted to boycott the 2020 Mulan. 

Everyone who worked to create the movie was white. Fans quickly realized that there weren’t any Chinese people telling a Chinese story. 

Disney has proven to be able to tell authentic stories focused on cultures. Pixar Studios (owned by Disney) received massive praise for its creation of the film Coco. The movie centered around Mexican culture and family values. While the film was directed by a white male, Lee Unkrich, he knew he couldn’t tell this story authentically without true representation. 

Unkrich thus brought along co-director Adrian Molina, a man of Mexican descent. The creators of Coco spent countless hours in Mexico, working with artists and musicians, to learn every aspect they could to achieve one of Pixar’s most celebrated films. 

 Mulan costs $29.99 to stream on Disney+. Although the film remains unlocked as long as you are a subscriber to the app, it will be available for free on Dec. 4. Many fans were upset with the pricing considering that they already have to pay to be a member and didn’t believe the film was worth the money. 

Paola Hernandez, a student at UC Berkeley and Disney superfan, was initially excited for the film when the first trailer was released. She was emotional and, “felt a little teary-eyed,” as Hernandez put it. The original Mulan is in Hernandez’s top five favorite Disney movies. 

Songs featured in the original include “Reflection” and “I’ll make a man out of you” which has over 124 mil views on Youtube. These are seen as Disney songs classics. 

The 2020 Mulan had no singing but did quote the lyrics throughout the movie. This left Hernandez unimpressed, “It felt cheesy. Why even use the line if they’re not gonna sing it?” Hernandez felt that all the aspects she enjoyed as a child were taken out of the movie. 

Hernandez does not recommend, and would rather stick to re-watching the original. 

With the pandemic still upon us, mail-in voting is probably the safest method for voting this election. Still, President Trump is making it all the more difficult for the United States Postal Service to get the job done. 

On Jul. 19, Chris Wallace sat with President Trump on Fox News. “I think mail-in is going to rig the election,” Trump responded when Wallace asked if the President is a good loser.

Wallace questioned Trump, “Are you suggesting that you might not accept the results for the election?”

“I have to see,” Trump stated. 

Besides the spread of mail-in fraud by President Trump, he’s been attempting to block donation founds to the UPSP. 

New postmaster general, a top republican campaign donor, Louis Dejoy imposed cost-cutting measures that have pushed mail back by weeks. Dejoy donated over 1.5 million dollars to both of the Trump campaigns. 

On Sep. 4, the Texas Tribune reported on the hypocrisy of Texas republicans trying to stop the expansions of mail-in voting while at the same time encouraging his voters to use it. 

Early mail-in voting is ideal for making sure votes are received on time, especially with the mail’s larger expectancy due to the pandemic.

In the state of Texas, early mail-in voting is only permitted if you meet any of the following:

• 65 years or older;
• disabled;
• out of the county on election day and during the period for early voting by personal appearance; or
• confined in jail, but otherwise eligible.

The article reports that Nathan Hecht, the chief of the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court stated citizens don’t need to prove their disability to request early mail-in voting, “all they have to do is say, ‘I want (a mail-in ballot) because in my view I need one.’”

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called the expansion of the mail-in voting as “A scam by the Democrats,” that would ultimately lead “To the end of America.” Texas Grand Old Party (GOP) spokesperson, Luke Twombly, confirmed to the Texas Tribune that they had sent out ballot applications. But didn’t answer the question of how they could determine that mail-in voting is fraudulent. 

The Texas Tribune wrapped up by stating that, “The Texas Democratic Party is still fighting in court to expand eligibility for mail-in voting for voters younger than 65, though it’s becoming increasingly unclear if that litigation will be resolved in time for the general election.”

The President’s attempts to stop the USPS has caused a large outpour of frustration from both Democrats and Republicans. On Aug. 13 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) tweeted to President Trump stating, “Let’s make a deal, Mr. President: You release your college transcript, I’ll release mine, and we’ll see who was the better student. Loser has to fund the Post Office.” 

This was tweeted out after a conference with President Trump was released with him staging, “AOC was a poor student … this is not even a smart person, other than she’s got a good line of stuff. I mean, she goes out and she yaps.” 

Republican Party chairman in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, Rohn Bishop stated, “What the president is doing when he keeps saying that this mail-in balloting thing is fraudulent.” Bishops claim this only hurts themselves.

Despite proof that social distance guidelines have been effective with slowing the growth rate of the COVID-19 virus, Americans are protesting for stay at home orders to end.

On April 30, protesters gathered around the state capitol in Michigan after the news that Governor Gretchen Whitmer plans to extend the stay at home order. Protestors also gathered around the Governor’s home right outside her driveway.

Protestors spoke and shared their concerns with their small business and the Governor’s lack of prioritizing them.

FOX News spoke with Charlie Hurt, opinion editor for the Washington Post and FOX News contributor. “The problem comes when you have politicians who appear to be acting in their political best interest.”

Hurt questions Gov. Whitmer’s true intention to extend the stay at home order and believes it’s a tactic for convincing Joe Biden to select her as his Vice President.

A study done at the University of Kentucky (UK) had been released by the Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise suggests that social distancing and stay at home orders are working.

The report was done by professors of Gatton College of Business and Economics at the UK, as well as fellow professors working in the department of economics. 

The report, Did Social-Distancing Measures in Kentucky Help to Flatten the COVID-19 Curve?, takes confirmed cases of COVID-19 in counties of Kentucky, comparing them to neighboring counties, such as counties in Tennessee. 

The report describes the matters of how a region would have been affected by the virus with no official government restriction in place, with only strictly voluntary self-distancing, or if the region was put under restrictions. 

Aaron Yelowitz, one of the Kentucky professors who worked on the report spoke with LEX18 News on May 1. “The social distancing measures, the stay at home orders, the closing of dining at restaurants, dramatically bent the curve and saved lives,” Yelowitz stated in regards to the spread of COVID-19.

The report states that instead of 4,000 confirmed cases of the virus by April 26, it would have been up to 45,000 with an additional 2,000 deaths. 

Yelowitz told LEX18 News that there’s something to learn from neighboring states as Kentucky will begin to reopen business on May 11, “I think it’s too early.” 

On the widely known app TikTok, users are using this outlet to express their frustrations with people not wanting to comply with social distance guidelines. 

Samantha Lee Hager began her video by briefly explaining the Michigan protests, “but that’s not even the part that pisses me off,” the woman goes into listing peaceful protests against social injustice that were all shut down by police and or faced charges. 

Hager ends her video with her frustrations with the fact that Michigan protesters were being aggressive, ignoring social distance guidelines, forcing themselves into the capitol building while carrying firearms. 

“None of them are arrested and if that isn’t discrimination I don’t know what is,” Hager said. 

@lakewoodpapi shared his belief in the selfishness of the people wanting states to reopen, “it was to force everyone else to go back to work, so they (conservatives) could enjoy life again.” The young man also adds that the majority of the people who would be at risk of the reopenings would be people of color. 

The Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) have detailed tips on how to social distance:

• Follow guidance from authorities where you live.
• If you need to shop for food or medicine at the grocery store or pharmacy, stay at least 6 feet away from others
• Use mail-order for medications, if possible.
• Consider a grocery delivery service.
• Avoid using any kind of public transportation, ridesharing, or taxis, if possible.

More information on the CDC website:

Link for the full UK report: 

Privacy concerns rise as measures become more desperate to help people through the pandemic. As not everyone is following the social distance guidelines, questions on how to ensure the public health have brought in government surveillance as an option.

In California, there are over 43,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19,  in Los Angeles County alone there are nearly 20,000 confirmed cases. Strict social distance guidelines have been placed to help ensure safety, especially in heavily populated areas.

Governor Greg Abbott of Texas has set the stay at home order to expire on Apr. 30 at midnight. Not all businesses will reopen and those that do won’t be at the normal capacity.

On Apr. 30 protesters gathered around the Michigan State Capitol to end social distancing guidelines. Pictures that were uploaded to the UpNorthLive website show that the protesters were not staying six feet away from each other or wearing any form of face covers. 

USA Today reported on Apr. 28 that Apple and Google would be setting up apps in mid-May to help track who has been infected with the COVID-19 and if you have been in close proximity with a person who has the virus.

However, this leaves a lot of worry for potential users and their private information. People worry about who will have their direct information, and for how long.

Australia has already begun using this technology and about two million people have downloaded the app, COVIDSafe. Philip DeFranco, a popular YouTuber, recently posted a video to his channel discussing the progress Australia has made with digital tracking of the virus.

“Very notably here the app is not mandatory. If you want it you can get it and the Australian Government will not collect location data,” DeFranco stated.

The Australian Government pointed out that because it uses Bluetooth, the information is encrypted into the phone and no one, not even the user, can log into private information. The system will erase all data that’s been collected after 21 days on a repeated cycle.

The COVIDSafe app has no power to enforce isolation, restrictions, or any laws. All information concerning the app itself was given out by the health administrator of Australia and nothing has been set in law. 

“The app is already extremely popular,” DeFranco added as Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison tweeted out on Apr. 27 that over 2 million people have downloaded the app.

DeFranco added the fact that the Australian government stated that in order for the app to become effective in slowing the spread of the virus, 40% of the population need to download the app. The Prime Minister also noted that the more people download the app, the sooner economical restrictions would be lifted.

The country reported that the daily infection growth-rate is less than 1%.

Google and Apple have stated that all apps would be completely voluntary, “Google says access is granted only to public health authorities whose apps have to meet standards for privacy, security and data control,” as reported on USA Today.

The tracking app would work similarly to the COVIDSafe app in Australia, in that it uses Bluetooth. The app would also delete information, or “codes” as it is referred.

All apps will be reviewed before being accessible to the public.

Social distancing has allowed for a lot more downtime. TikTok is blowing up with more users and views joining the platform.

TikTok originally came out in 2016. It is an app where users can upload short videos for entertainment.

Musical.ly was a similar app that came out in 2014, the two apps were direct competitors.  Musical.ly was originally the more preferred until TikTok’s creators announced that they had over 500 million users a month in 2017.

The two apps merged under one name, TikTok. In 2018 Musical.ly officially shut down with its content being transferred to TikTok.

When first downloading you may find it a little boring or repetitive. But since you start liking and skipping over what you don’t like, it can become pretty addicting. With a wide variety of content, there’s a little bit of something for everyone. 

Tips for TikTok:

• Like Posts!: Millions of people may view a video, but only thousands may actually like the post. The app recommends similar videos to the ones you’ve liked under the “For You” page.
• TikTok highlights its top creators, leaving its smaller creators in the dark. Liking the content of the smaller guys helps them get noticed.
• If you want to upload videos to TikTok, there really isn’t much work to it. People post videos about everyday things. All that matters is what you want to post.
• For editing TikToks, many users would recommend using apps or another platform outside of TikTok for the best edits.

Jera Foster-Fell, a social media influencer, uploads tips on how to make TikToks. She shares tips on how to catch more attention and make videos more appealing. Her page is @jera.bean with 238.3k followers.

Many smaller creators have been uploading their talents on the app to show what they’ve been doing since the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Sarah, who goes by @officalhambly is currently at 1.8 million followers and growing. She’s been making short videos on her latest project, Elsa’s dress from Frozen 2. 

Koalipops is run by @johndenim who makes cake videos. Some of his most famous uploads are of the Baby Yoda cake or the KFC bucket chicken. One of their most recent videos was of a cake modeling the COVID-19 Virus. 

TikTok has created large opportunities for its creators, who are now gaining attention from mainstream media. Charlie D’Amelio is only 15 years old and has acquired over 40 million followers within a year. She has gotten to know big celebrities like Jennifer Lopez and been invited to speak on various talk shows.

D’Amelio had received criticism in February for not crediting a popular dance, the Renegade, to its original creator Jalaiah Harmon. D’Amelio had received enormous amounts of fame for this dance, but Harmon had received her credit after D’Amelio’s backlash.  

Harmon was welcomed onto The Ellen DeGeneres Show and performed the Renegade in front of millions of viewers.

TikTok is simple and fun. While the world is going through this pandemic, there are still little outlets people can look towards for some pass time.

With growing rates of COVID-19, Amazon employees are demanding the company have stricter regulations regarding the virus. 

Strikes across the US have emerged as workers have said that Amazon hasn’t met their demands:

• Stricter health regulations
• Closing facilities with confirmed cases of COVID-19 
• Expansion in health benefits
• Clearer transparency on the state of current virus cases 

On March 30, Chris Smalls, an Amazon employee, had led a protest and was fired. This, in turn, led to more strikes emerging. 

Some Amazon corporate employees are planning a walk-out on April 24 to protest against the layoffs of workers who have spoken out on the company’s failure to ensure safety to workers. Amazon has stated that layoffs were due to “internal policies,” as reported by CNBC.

Emily Cunningham was one out of two tech employees for Amazon that was also fired for criticizing the company on how they’ve dealt with COVID-19. Cunningham had stated on Twitter that Amazon has put themselves and the public at risk. 

On April 13, Amazon stated to CNBC that they would begin to allow third parties to ship nonessential materials to their warehouses again. Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service that allows third parties to store their products in Amazon warehouses that then would be sent out to consumers.  

Amazon had always allowed nonessential items for sale throughout the pandemic but faced shipment delays in order to get out essential goods first. 

Since the epidemic, Amazon has hired thousands of new employees. The company stated in their COVID-19 update, “We continue to see increased demand as our teams support their communities, and are going to continue to hire, creating an additional 75,000 jobs to help serve customers during this unprecedented time,”

“Now they’re hiring new employees to add. I’m seeing a lot of new faces.” David Rosario, an Amazon warehouse worker from Skokie, Illinois stated.  Rosario went to the Amazon warehouse in Chicago to show support for their protest. 

On April 3, Chicago workers stepped outside chanting, “Clean it up! Shut it down!” Local news, South Side Weekly was on the scene speaking with employees. 

Employee safety concern has also been an increasing factor among the business.

Rosario added that they don’t have masks to work with. Amazon sent out emails to the Skokie warehouse employees that they would have a limited quantity of masks to hand out. 

The Chicago and Skokie employees felt that they didn’t properly receive information on the COVID-19 cases in their facilities. Tomas Uriostegui, an Amazon associate at Skokie stated that he had only heard about the first case of the virus from other workers.  

Amazon associate from the Chicago warehouse Laccoma Scott stated, “How can we be essential workers, but our lives aren’t essential?”

Amazon posts to their blog on how they’re ensuring safety and help to their workers. The last post was made on April 13 stating, “We continue to evaluate all options to ensure the support of our teams during this unprecedented time.”

The company has begun temperature checks on its employees, as well as conducting daily audits of the new health and safety measures, and increasing measures of social distancing within the workplace. 

Workers diagnosed or in close contact with COVID-19 will have time off for 14 days with pay. 

Amazon employees are still encouraging their coworkers for the strike on April 24. 

Small businesses across the country are experiencing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Local San Lorenzo cafe, Frodo Joe’s has also had to readjust.

Frodo Joes is a family-owned cafe, with a second location in Fremont. They offer breakfast, lunch, and dessert. Frodo Joe’s is known for their delicious crepes and the adorable pug on its logo.

Though coffee and tea are advertised on their logo, crepes are the main attraction. From sweet strawberry and banana crepes to a savory chicken pesto crepe, there’s something for everyone to try out.

The San Lorenzo location is the original cafe. Emily, the manager, is the daughter of the owner. Her father opened the location in 1999.

Since the shelter-in-place regulations have been taken into action, Frodo Joe’s can no longer allow dine-in customers. All their food and drinks are available for take-out.

Frodo Joe’s in Fremont is temporarily closed. Emily stated that because that location depends heavily on the dine-in customers, they couldn’t remain open. The San Lorenzo location is a smaller location and has a good flow of to-go orders.

“There is not much we can do,” Emily stated, “We do have a  community here who supports us and helps us.” Emily feels really grateful for the customers. 

Unfortunately, employee hours have been cut down due to the smaller revenue. However, the staff tried to remain positive.

Frodo Joe’s is heavily complying with all safety and health regulations. Their employees all have masks and gloves. When first walking into the cafe, you see that there are tables and chairs blocking the counter so customers aren’t anywhere near food preparation.

They even set up a station for signing your receipt. One bin holds sanitized pens, and the other holds the used ones to be cleaned later.

When asked if she was aware of grants that were being given to small businesses in Hayward, Emily replied that she wasn’t aware until after they were distributed. “If you don’t tell me about it, I wouldn’t know about it.” Emily referred to how information about grants and loans is being reached out.

She isn’t too sure about where to look for information, since San Lorenzo is under Alameda County, but borders Hayward.

She also is concerned about whether or not the money is in a grant or a loan. She doesn’t believe small businesses should be looking into loans because there is no guarantee when the business will be at the same revenue it was before the pandemic.

“You’re just digging yourself deeper in the hole.”

Emily stated that the cafe feels lucky they can remain in business and hopes for the day when everything goes back to normal.

Frodo Joe’s location and contact:

17665 Hesperian Blvd.

San Lorenzo, CA 94580

510-481-1844

Chabot College and Las Positas College have moved their classes online. Chabot’s campus will be closed during spring break March 23-27, online classes will resume March 30. 

On March 20, Interim Chancellor Ronald P. Gerhard of the schools had sent an email to the Chabot-Las Positas students regarding online classes. 

He stated in his email that, “your student education is important to us. We want you to continue your classes and achieve your educational goals.” The current plan is to continue all courses online for the rest of the semester. 

Dr. Susan Sperling, President of Chabot stated that lab classes and career technical classes are, “moving wherever possible to distance and remote forms of education our most important job is to support the continuity of your learning, your education.” This was presented in a video sent out by the school and on Chabot’s website. 

Gerhard brought up the importance for students to communicate with their instructors or counselors if feeling overwhelmed or stressed with these new circumstances. Services for students such as the Admissions & Records, Financial Aid, and Counseling are still available through email. Email addresses can be located on the schools’ websites under the faculty directory.

“Campuses are physically closed Spring Break and until further notice,” Gerhard stated leaving the possibility of the campus remaining closed past expected up for question. 

This news is concerning for Lucia Belloso, a music major at Chabot College. 

Belloso expressed she’d feel frustrated if the school remained closed for the rest of the semester, she feels material has been pushed back. “I would have probably preferred if the school was closed for about a month and then extend whatever was missed into the summer.”

Belloso stated that she’s been much more comfortable having classes from home and that it takes away some of the stress that comes with having to get ready and drive to the campus. 

“It feels like a group effort,” stated Belloso referring to the fact that both students and teachers are working together to take the next steps necessary for their online classes. “It doesn’t feel too overwhelming. We go step by step.” 

The biggest cons for Belloso is the face-to-face interactions with other students and instructors. She mentions that her math class would work together in groups and that it was easier getting things done when they were all in the same room than online. 

The biggest shift was how Belloso’s music class has shifted, “ we now have to send recordings of ourselves playing instruments instead of rehearsing as a group.” She hopes it won’t be too overwhelming for the instructors to have to listen to everyone individually. 

Emails continue to be sent out as new details are being settled for the school. Like Gerhard, Dr. Sperling also encouraged her video for students to communicate with faculty for any questions or concerns. 

Admission & Records Office:

email: [email protected] 

For transcript information:

email: [email protected]

Financial Aid Office:

email: [email protected]

Counseling Office:

email: [email protected]