North Oakland Now: April 8, 2009
on April 8, 2009
Good morning, all. Your daily dose: At last night’s City Council meeting, a four-member committee voted unanimously in support of a proposal to increase the tax on Oakland’s medical marijuana dispensaries. It’s one way to start increasing what will likely be an $65 million budget deficit in the coming fiscal year. Though they’d see a relatively large jump in their tax rate, from $1.20 per $1,000 in receipts to as much as $24, dispensary owners seem to be on board.
Here in North Oakland, plans continue to improve service on the 51 bus line. And the folks over at Fight Blight are taking on the potholes on Shattuck Avenue. Up for repaving sooner is a stretch of Jackson St. downtown.
And finally, what’s a day without pirates? A US ship carrying 20 crew members was hijacked today by Somali pirates, and national security officials say cyber-pirates have infiltrated the US electrical grid. So far, no reports of damage to the crew or the grid.
Oakland North welcomes comments from our readers, but we ask users to keep all discussion civil and on-topic. Comments post automatically without review from our staff, but we reserve the right to delete material that is libelous, a personal attack, or spam. We request that commenters consistently use the same login name. Comments from the same user posted under multiple aliases may be deleted. Oakland North assumes no liability for comments posted to the site and no endorsement is implied; commenters are solely responsible for their own content.
Oakland North
Oakland North is an online news service produced by students at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and covering Oakland, California. Our goals are to improve local coverage, innovate with digital media, and listen to you–about the issues that concern you and the reporting you’d like to see in your community. Please send news tips to: oaklandnorthstaff@gmail.com.
