OAKLAND– As two Burmese families build new lives in a green fourplex with red trim in West Oakland– leaving their past in a Thai refugee camp behind them– they have little doubt about the change they have experienced here. Continue reading
Category Archives: Oakland
Food Banks Experiencing Food Shortage
OAKLAND — Nearly 250 families showed up at Volunteers for America’s doorsteps on Thanksgiving day, in search of food distributed by the Alameda County Food Bank. But this year, the organization didn’t have enough — it only had 50 chickens, and enough cans for 100 people. Continue reading
Officials, Advocates Meet to Help Minority Youth
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Oakland – The “Men and Boys of Color in Crisis” summit drew Bay Area and national advocacy group leaders to East Oakland last week to discuss the sharp challenges facing the country’s minority males.
“What we are talking about today is the unfinished business of America,” said Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums at the opening of a conference attended by about 200 people, including Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, and Assembly members Loni Hancock and Sandre Swanson. “The plight of young men of color is the outward manifestation, perhaps one of the most dramatic evidences, of that lack of commitment and interest,” Dellums said. Continue reading
Downtown Transit Center Unveiled
Oakland – A downtown Oakland street was sectioned off today for the unveiling of a $4.5 million Uptown Transit Center, which will serve as a major new hub for AC Transit buses and BART.
With musical entertainment from the Oakland School of the Arts Ensemble and catered food and refreshments, over 100 people gathered under a white tent at T.L. Berkeley Street (formerly 20th Street), between Telegraph and Broadway, to celebrate the one-block redesign, which provides a transfer point for ten local, rapid and transbay bus routes, right next to the 19th Street BART station. Continue reading
JDSU CFO Denies Wrongdoing in Rare Class-Action Fraud Case
OAKLAND–JDS Uniphase Corporation’s former chief financial officer told an Oakland jury today that he never reviewed the cash flow of companies for which JDSU paid top dollar during the dot com boom. Under cross-examination in a multi-billion-dollar securities fraud case, Tony Muller said that despite the record amount JDSU paid to acquire the companies, no review was needed.
Nursing Schools Feeling the Pinch
OAKLAND — Health care educators said Wednesday that too few faculty and clinical placements are the reasons the state will graduate 50 percent fewer professionals than needed in the next seven years.
“Every program feels maxed out,” said Dr. Arlene Sargent, associate dean of academic affairs at Samuel Merritt College’s School of Nursing. Continue reading
Oakland Set to Officially Oppose Potential Iran Strike
City Council members will vote tonight on an uncontested resolution opposing preemptive U.S. military action against Iran ¬— a measure, that, if passed, will put Oakland among a growing number of cities making public pronouncements about the nation’s foreign policy.
Berkely, Santa Cruz and Portland, Oregon are among the cities that have passed similar resolutions. Continue reading
Covenant House Opens
OAKLAND— Covenant House, a homeless youth shelter, is celebrating its grand-opening on November 8th near Jack London Square in Oakland. Young adults get a warm comfortable bed, three meals a day and all they have to do is go to work or school and save a little money. It’s a good deal, but even before its official opening, the shelter is nearly full.
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Fingerprint Expert Testifies in Bey Trial
OAKLAND — The partial fingerprint that police lifted from Antar Bey’s BMW was left by defendant Alfonza Phillips, forensic criminologist Vincent Deitchman testified on day three of Phillips’ trial in Alameda. Continue reading
A Celebration for All Souls
The streets of Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood will fill with the memories of well-loved souls who’ve passed on to the spirit world at the Spanish Speaking Unity Council’s annual Day of the Dead festival this Sunday. Continue reading
Public Housing Not Meeting Demand
BERKELEY – Taking a break from her daily chores at the Women’s Daytime Drop-In Center, 22-year-old Janika Fleeton, believes that she will get a place in subsidized housing by the time she leaves her fourth temporary home since 2001.
“I’m gonna be OK,” said Fleeton.
But, housing authorities doubt it. Continue reading
Holiday Costumes Range from Spooky to Sexy
By Kiran Goldman and Vianna Davila
Barbie princesses, Harry Potters, and pirates from Pirates of the Caribbean — these are the most popular Halloween costumes for kids this year, according to vendors who have watched the getups fly off the shelves this season.
Each year, the top Halloween costumes garner considerable discussion, if the Internet is any indication. Google the “Top 10 Halloween Costumes” and find getups for twins and the family pet. An MSNBC travel columnist even suggests what not to wear on an airplane (Leave the Osama bin Laden and suicide bomber masks at home, he writes.) Continue reading
Rockridge Merchants Hire Extra Security
Get your Oakland news at The Town
OAKLAND — With the Oakland police department still understaffed by 70 officers, merchants in the upscale Rockridge district have taken matters into their own hands and hired security guards on bikes to patrol College Avenue.
Although the guards provide the appearance of security, they are not armed and cannot make arrests. But in an atmosphere of increasing anxiety about crime, merchants and residents find the presence of the guards reassuring.
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Trial Opens in Killing of Former Muslim Bakery CEO
Get your Oakland news at The Town
OAKLAND — Eye witnesses, video surveillance and fingerprints put Alfonza Phillips at the Oakland gas station where in October 2005 the former CEO of Your Black Muslim Bakery, Antar Bey, was gunned down, prosecutors told a jury Monday.
“He had his eyes on Antar from the gas station across the street,” said Colleen McMahon, Alameda County deputy district attorney. “He had his eyes on that fancy car with those fancy rims.”
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Oakland Murder Case Involving Childhood Friends Set to Go to Jury
OAKLAND – Are Willie “W.L” Thompson and LaVar “Mooney” Coleman cold-blooded murders, or did they act in self-defense when they killed two childhood friends from their East Oakland neighborhood? Now the jury must decide in a case that has seen neighbors, former friends, some who are family through marriage grieve on opposite sides of the aisle, divided like two families sitting on the bride or groom’s side of a church at a wedding.
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Forum Focuses on Domestic Violence, Sexual Exploitation
Get your Oakland news at The Town
OAKLAND – Police are getting more cases of domestic violence and sexual exploitation in recent years, and the victims are younger, according to a city coalition that gathered Monday to report on what is being done about the problem.
More domestic violence incidents are reported in Oakland than in any other city in the nine-county Bay Area, said Jean Quan, City Council president pro tempore. And prosecutors say Internet prostitution has caused sexual exploitation cases to skyrocket.
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North Oakland Experiences a New Gentrification
OAKLAND – Diane Strong has lived most of her 62 years in North Oakland a place that unlike the rest of the city, she says, “always has been a quiet zone.”
The neighborhood reflects the ebb and flow of the city’s history; the influx of African-Americans in the late 1960s, the black power movement of those years and the drug wars of the 1980s.
Now, with the real estate boom that began in the mid-1990s, a new gentrification has taken place. Continue reading
Domestic Violence Survivors Celebrate Progress, Mourn Loss
Officials and survivors gathered Friday to champion those who fight against domestic violence. Continue reading
Heroin Ring Busted in Oakland After Two Years of Investigation
OAKLAND–Federal and local law enforcement officials simultaneously raided 26 locations in Oakland early Wednesday, arresting 30 people and confiscating an estimated $1 million in drugs.
The raids were the result of a two-year joint operation involving the Oakland Police and the FBI, IRS, DEA and San Francisco Police, culminating in the indictment of numerous members of a local heroin ring. Continue reading
Two Hospital Bond Measures Headed to February Ballot
On Tuesday morning, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors voted to put two very similar measures on the February Presidential Primary ballot. Both involved increasing property taxes for Alameda County residents to help fund a new, expanded Oakland Children’s Hospital. Both were reluctantly approved by the Supervisors, even after one supervisor called one of the two measures “confusing,” and misleading.” Continue reading
New Development Project at Jack London Square First of Its Kind
Politicians and developers were optimistic, though risk was on everyone’s mind as they broke ground Monday on a $65 million giant new retail and office development that they hope will bring an influx of shoppers and workers to the mostly vacant Jack London Square.
Jack London Square has never had a shopping destination like the ambitious six-story Market Hall. Developers hope it will draw foodies, like the Ferry Building in San Francisco. They are betting that a massive retail space with attractive tenants will stabilize and revitalize flagging business in the waterfront district.
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Friends, Family Remember 9-Year-Old at Somber Ceremony
OAKLAND—When a neighbor of Misti and Amir Hassan glanced out his window last week, he saw Amir dressed in a cape and holding a rail spike in one hand. Amir peered over the balcony of his apartment and then tossed the spike, which was attached to a long rope, into the yard below.
The neighbor went outside and asked Amir what he was doing.
“I’m an elf, and I’m doing magic,” Amir replied.
From Global to Local, Film Fest Hits Grand Lake
OAKLAND—The Oakland International Film Festival, which starts Thursday at the Grand Lake Theater, may bring together international movies from Namibia to the Basque country of Spain, but a closer look shows that many of the films reflect Oakland itself. Continue reading
Oakland City Attorney to Combat Predatory Lending, Foreclosure
OAKLAND—More than 375 Oakland property owners lost their homes to foreclosure during the first eight months of the year, victims of increasingly prevalent predatory-lending schemes in the city—and Oakland City Attorney John Russo says he won’t allow it any longer.
On Thursday he plans to introduce a citywide program that will include a telephone hotline, a public-education campaign and a foreclosure-assistance workshop. Continue reading
Smoking Ordinance Creates Confusion At Oakland City Council Meeting
OAKLAND- Smoking on city-owned golf courses could soon be illegal in Oakland, since the City Council preliminarily approved a comprehensive no-smoking ordinance for public spaces – including bus stops, recreation areas like parks, and common areas of multi-unit housing complexes – at Tuesday’s City Council Meeting.
However, figuring out that this was the Council’s decision was not easy for anyone – Council members included. Continue reading