Month: September 2025
Standing at an altar decorated with stuffed animals and candles placed around a Bible, Rena Rickles clutched a framed collage of herself and her husband next to images of their dogs. Her husband had given it to her for Valentine’s Day. He called it “Puppy Love.” “This is Huckleberry at four months, where his mom had to go to a bachelor party. We bonded over that weekend, and he was the most loving, loyal, creative dog. We lost him last…
The Oakland Police Commission this week gave police Chief Floyd Mitchell the green light to allow officers to start a car chase without prior approval from a supervisor and to exceed 50 mph in those pursuits. Previously, officers were required to get supervisor approval before chasing any suspects and had to abandon the chase if it exceeded 50 mph. Mitchell has been advocating for a new chase policy for the department for over a year. Though he did not need…
Alameda County officials announced Monday the release of $17 million in emergency grants to more than 370 licensed child care providers across the county. Childcare centers in Oakland, Hayward and Pleasanton started receiving checks Monday, officials said. Quinetta Lewis, director of St. Mary’s Center Preschool in Oakland said the $50,000 her school is receiving will help provide kids with better care. “With these funds we can now focus on better facilities for our children, better wages for teachers, recreation centers…
The Oakland chapter of the NAACP on Monday announced a new collaboration with the Oakland Police Department to recruit more officers from the community, especially Black residents as well as other people of color. At a press conference at the Oakland NAACP west office, retired Alameda County Superior Court Judge Brenda Harbin-Forte, an executive member of NAACP Oakland, spoke about racial patterns she has noticed among crime victims. “I realized that the vast majority of cases, the victims were African…
After a six-hour workday shutdown earlier this month, BART officials say the agency will do cable maintenance only on weekends to avoid another halt like the one that affected 44,000 riders and cost the system $200,000 in lost fare revenue. BART also will do a better job alerting the public about planned cable upgrading work, said Chris Filippi, BART spokesman. “Going forward when this work happens on the weekend, we will notify the public in advance, isolate the area being…
Barry Stenger sweated under a warm sun Saturday as he weeded, mulched and collected trash among native live oaks and cottonwood trees at Barry Place, a small nature preserve along Sausal Creek in Oakland. At 75 years old, he is the fourth generation of his family to live by the creek. Years of clean-up efforts have made people more aware of the creek and its rainbow trout, he said. But a history of illegal dumping and pollution from trash and runoff…
Chanting “ICE out of Oakland!” and “Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go!” protesters demonstrated Saturday near the East Oakland intersection where federal immigration agents reportedly had taken a person into custody three days earlier. They cheered when horns honked and engaged with a few drivers and pedestrians who stopped to talk. “We’re here at the heart of this community to try to show that we’re not intimidated, we stand with immigrant rights, and we will stand…
Children shrieked and ran from puzzle to puzzle, their parents in tow, faces covered in blue cotton candy. Expecting worksheets or practice tests, they were excited to engage in the colorful math activities displayed across seven tables in the Laney College student center Friday evening Among the favorites was a game of colorful plastic shapes that children snapped together to make three-dimensional figures. One child made a hexagonal box with a top that opened and closed so he could put…
For the past year, an exhibit at the Oakland Black Panther Party Museum has educated visitors about the community school model that was launched by the Panthers in 1973 and has since been incorporated into every Oakland Unified School District building. Recently, the exhibit’s reach was expanded, thanks to the efforts of a Madison Park Academy student and the nonprofit Ocelotl, which worked to translate the exhibit into Spanish. “The Black Panther Party, they brought communities together, and I feel…
Thousands of people wore rainbow suits, held colorful flags and danced through the streets Sunday in downtown Oakland to celebrate the annual Pride Festival on its 15th anniversary. Sunday’s festivities kicked off with a parade down Broadway, near 21st Street, to Frank Ogawa Plaza, where a ticketed event featured DJs, live performances and speeches from drag queens and politicians. The festival included more than 100 booths by vendors and organizations, such as sponsors Gilead, a HIV-focused biotechnology company, tequila brand Patrón,…
Thousands of Mexico soccer fans gathered Saturday at the Coliseum, donning the green, white and red colors of the Mexican flag to celebrate the national team as it played against Japan before a sold-out crowd of more than 45,000 people. The sound of trumpets, wooden rattles, and the ringing bells of paleteros, or street vendors, filled the parking lot as fans tailgated before the game. They grilled meat, shared tacos and displayed the Mexican flag on their cars. Grills were…