Amabelle Ocampo

Mayoral candidate: incumbent Mayor Jean Quan

Undaunted by critics of her leadership, incumbent Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, the first Asian American woman elected to lead a major U.S. metropolis, is fighting to keep her job at City Hall.  Her platform stresses a lifetime of service, from her days as a councilmember working to keep libraries open, to her Peace in the Parks program aiming to unite families in East and West Oakland. Raised by a single immigrant mother, Quan was an activist in the Third World Liberation Front Strike and…

Mayoral candidate: Peter Liu

When he turned 23, Army veteran Peter Y. Liu came home from Iraq and found that there wasn’t a job waiting for him in his military specialty, journalism.  The largest metropolitan newspapers on the West Coast were in the midst of downsizing. Now at 33, after a decade of working in the nonprofit, insurance and real estate sectors, Liu has declared his candidacy for Oakland mayor. He is running a frugal campaign, limited to $1,000 of his own funds, highlighting…

Oaklanders clean up on city’s 20th Annual Earth Day

Volunteers rolled up their sleeves to clear trash, weed, plant, and restore creek beds at Oakland’s 20th Annual Earth Day event on Saturday. They joined more than a billion people worldwide in what environmentalists call the largest civic observance in the world.

Congresswomen stand by sexual assault survivors

Two U.S. Congresswomen stood shoulder-to-shoulder with sexual assault survivors on the U.C. Berkeley campus on Tuesday to call for federal legislation that would toughen laws on sexual harassment and violence on college campuses.

West Oakland fired up at The Crucible

The Crucible in West Oakland will commemorate 15 years of teaching community welding and other fire arts with an open house on April 12 exhibiting the works of teachers, artists and students who use the space for creating public art.

Oakland barbers give school kids a literal head start

Oakland barbers pitched in with free haircuts and backpacks to give kids a literal head start for the first day of school. The event at the E Cuts salon in Temescal was one of a group of back-to-school events to help ease low income families into fall and display community good will.

Asian Health Services opens new clinic

Last week, Asian Health Services (AHS) embarked on its largest capital project in the center’s history, the grand opening of an $11-million clinic in the heart of Oakland’s Chinatown, located at 835 Webster at the site of the former Silver Dragon Restaurant. For Justin Tran, an Oakland resident who brings his mother in for regular doctor visits, the new clinic, opened across the street from the original facility, is a welcomed expansion. “I come here with my mom to take…

Friends and relatives remember Judy Salamon

Salamon, 66, was fatally shot while driving in front of the Home of Peace Cemetery, a 113-year-old Orthodox cemetery on the 2400 block of Fern Street in Oakland in the afternoon of July 24. For her life to end at a place where six million Jews are remembered for eternity is symbolic of her fighting spirit.

Oakland celebrates “National Night Out”

Residents came to shake hands, share food and build new friendships in their neighborhoods Tuesday night, banding together with their Neighborhood Watch Groups to host “National Night Out” block parties throughout the city.

Getting away from it all at Massive

For a week in July, hundreds of people gather in a small community camping out creekside in the foothills of Placerville to get away from it all. Enlightenment seekers call it Massive, though the movement is better known as Alt Blues Recess making its way through the Northwest, Aspen, Portland, London, Drift Creek and now California.