A history of social activism in the bay area can be found in a Berkeley man's collection of thousands of political posters, newly documented in the book, All of Us or None by Oakland archivist Lionel Cushing. Today's North Bay Report takes a peek inside.

Lionel CushingIn the heyday of bay area poster art, says historian Lionel Cushing, there was an upwelling of interest and activism that often linked artists, activists, musicians and the community at large.

Lionel Cushing will present a slide show and talk about social justice posters on Thursday evening, February 7 at the Marin History Museum in San Rafael. He says he'll bring a specific local focus to the program.
 

The Bay Area's federally sanctioned Foreign Trade Zone is expanding to include Sonoma, Napa and Marin Counties. It's meant to expedite parts importing and exporting of finished products, but the biggest local benefit is jobs.

Scott TaylorAll but the smallest manufacturing operations stand to benefit from becoming part of the expanded Foreign Trade Zone in the North Bay, elaborates Scott Taylor, virtually independent of the industry they are part of.

A not quite final map of the boundaries for the new ForeignTrade Zone areas in Sonoma and Napa Counties.

 A network of dikes and dams has kept seawater away from an old hay farm near the mouth of Napa River for nearly a century. Now it's close to being returned to its natural condition

Accessible walkways with overlooks, such as this, are among the low-impact visitor facilities that will enable access to the restored Cullinan Ranch property.When the restoration work on the old Cullinan Ranch is completed, early in 2014, there will still be some notable differences from the way that land existed in the 19th century. As Mark Holmes of the Bay Institute explains, the currnet project includes adding recreational access for low-impact visitors.

Much more information about this project, including many additional pictures, can be found on the website devoted to it.

The map below shows the greater region in which the restoration work is happening.

Predictably, a San Francisco video game developer opposes any moves to restrict violence in those games' content. But not for the reasons you might expect.
 

Jason Shankel Jason Shankel adds that if there is one point of widespread agreement surrounding this debate, it is the consensus that there is an acute need for more mental health services.

Yet even among the bad actors in the online gaming world, Shankel says it is not the players of the more violent games who are the worst offenders.

Shankel addressed a computer science colloquium at Sonoma State University Thursday afternoon on the topic, "Interactive Entertainment and Social Responsibility." You can read the paper on which he based that talk here.