Last minute push: “Sí en Prop 19”

Just Say Now, a collaboration of activist blog Firedoglake.com and Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) working to pass marijuana legalization, is spending the final hours before the election reaching out to Spanish-speaking Latino voters. “We’ve received urgent requests from Hispanic community leaders,” Michael Whitney, the blog’s digital strategy director, said in a press release. The Spanish speaking Latino community is not well informed on Proposition 19, the ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana in California, according to Just Say…

Halloween goes DIY at Rock Paper Scissors trunk show and burlesque

It was hard to know what to expect. This was Thursday evening, three days before Halloween.  The title of the event was only semi-instructive: The D.I.Y. Emporium: A Benefit for Rock Paper Scissors, an art collective in Oakland. The entry fee was five dollars, proceeds to go to the collective. Samantha Stevens, a filmmaker and event planner from Oakland, put the show together. A deep maroon carpet, faded after years of use, covered the floor of the entryway and continued…

Pot possibilities: Locals imagine a state with legalized marijuana

Oakland North reporters Abby Baird and Teresa Chin asked a former Bay Area police officer, a smoke shop employee, a retired emergency physician, and a Berkeley parent to share their best guesses about what will happen if California passes Proposition 19, the measure to legalize marijuana for recreational use.

Pot by the numbers

These marijuana numbers and statistics can provide an important general overview of what our country is facing with pot and Proposition 19, the California measure to legalize marijuana on the November 2nd ballot. To take you through trivia about drug arrests, marijuana use, and our attitudes about legalization, Oakland North built this interactive overview of doobie data.

“Emporium” event showcases locally made Halloween costumes, risque performers

“Back in the day, your mom made your Halloween costume,” says Samantha Stevens, a filmmaker and event planner, and the creator of Thursday night’s D.I.Y. Emporium: A Benefit for Rock Paper Scissors. “That was so much better than the little dinosaur costume you would buy at Wal-Mart.” The Emporium is a combination showcase and sale of clothing, jewelry, hats and homemade costume pieces, some of which would make a mother blush.

Film profiles The Trust, San Quentin inmates working to better themselves

An eclectic group gathered last Thursday at the Oakland Cultural Center to view the Oakland premier screening of the work in progress, THE TRUST: Reclaiming Community In the Heart of the Prison Crisis. Produced and directed by yoga teacher Tamara Perkins, the film puts faces on the incarcerated and brings light to the issues they confront.