Month: June 2025

A black and white Oakland police car is seen close up, parked to the right of the Oakland police building, which has glass doors over which are the words Oakland Police. Part of the first floor of the building is visible to the right of the doors, in a row of glass panels.

Oakland budget ups police overtime; many officers make six figures in extra hours alone

Oakland leaders closed a $265 million city budget deficit by cutting spending across many departments and programs earlier this month in what Councilmember Zac Unger called a “nobody’s happy budget.”  But one controversial area of spending is seeing a substantial increase in the new budget: police overtime. Over the last decade, the Oakland Police Department has consistently overspent its overtime budget by tens of millions of dollars each year. Last year, as the city’s fiscal crisis deepened, the police department overspent…

By on June 25, 2025
A group of about 50 people, many with signs, stand on a busy street under intersecting signs that say 22nd Street and Broadway

The Stakes: Oakland immigrant blindsided by loss of Social Security benefits

“The Stakes” is a UC Berkeley Journalism project on executive orders and actions affecting Californians and their communities.  After turning 66 in January, Oakland preschool teacher Rosa Carranza applied for Social Security benefits, receiving $1,126 a month in February and March. But in April, an alarming letter arrived in the mail from the Social Security Administration.  “Based on the information we have, we cannot pay benefits beginning March 2025,” the letter said. “We cannot pay you benefits because you are…

By on June 2, 2025