North Oakland Now: May 1st, 2009

Here’s some of today’s top OakNorth news:

It’s May 1st, and Immigrant rights and labor groups across the Bay Area are mobilizing for International Workers Day. In Oakland, groups will be assembling at Fruitvale Plaza at around 4pm, and Marching to City Hall from 4:30-6:30.  Here’s a quick history lesson on May 1st. Stay tuned for Oakland North’s coverage of the day’s mobilizations.

In an update on the Oscar Grant case, the Alameda County Superior Court rejected Officer Johannes Mehsherle’s request for a reduction in his bail from $3 million to $100,000. The Judge defended the $3 million bail, citing Mehserle’s escape to Nevada following the shooting as reason to consider him a flight risk.

Oakland police Chief Howard Jordan said on Thursday that his assignment of Sgt. Derwin Longmire to the investigation of Oakland journalist Chauncey Bailey’s murder was a mistake. Jordan says  Longmire’s connections to Your Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Ali Bey IV had clearly affected his ability to dutifully investigate the murder. On April 29th a grand jury voted to indict Bey IV in connection to the 2007 murder. For more on the investigation into the murder, check out the Chauncey Bailey Project.

Swine Flu: More school closings, more hysteria, more deaths in Mexico. But don’t freak out! Just wash your hands, cover your mouth when you sneeze like your momma taught you, and we’ll be OK. By the way, the pork lobby won. The government is calling it by its scientific name, the H1N1 flu, and not the swine flu. The latter was bad PR.

And that East Coast juggernaut, the NY Times, flipped coasts for a minute and momentarily set its eyes on our very own OakTown, giving outsiders the 36 hour tour. Are these the places you’d tell your folks to hit up if they were in town for 36 hours? What did the Times miss? Let us know!