There still is time to vote in the City of Oakland’s special mail ballot election. Voting ends tonight for three ballot measures – two of which are intended to help the city balance its budget, and the other to change the city attorney position from one that is elected by the voters, to one that is named by the city council.

On Tuesday night, the Public Safety Committee heard a report by the Oakland Police Department on the efficacy of the North Oakland gang injunction, meant to provide more insight into the effects of injunctions before the city implements additional ones. It concluded that violent crime had risen in the gang injunction area, while other crimes were down.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan released an official statement Monday about the efforts of Oakland residents to recall her, saying that the city did not need a “divisive and expensive” recall election and listing her accomplishments during her 294-day tenure as mayor.

By 6:30 Wednesday morning, only about 10 protestors remained near Oakland’s Frank Ogawa Plaza, the site of a clash between Occupy Oakland protesters and police that began Tuesday evening and carried late into the night, but more people were slowly trickling in.

Oakland voters began mailing in ballots this week to decide the fate of a controversial $80 parcel tax that is being promoted as vital to help Oakland’s budget crisis and assailed as an unnecessary burden on homeowners, with no binding resolution to determine where it would be spent. Measure I would raise $60 million for the city over a five-year period.

Amidst accusations of electioneering, the Oakland City Council approved legislation that would determine how funds from a proposed $80 parcel tax would be spent if Measure I passes next month. The legislation, authored by Councilmember At-Large Rebecca Kaplan, Councilmember Pat Kernighan (District 2) and Council President Larry Reid (District 7), determines how the $60 million collected from the tax under Measure I would be spent over the next five years, and allocates a majority of the funds toward public safety items.

Cheerleaders hooted and waved pom-poms. School bands marched to the thunderous beats of drums. This was the 37th Black Cowboy Parade held in Oakland, and as usual, it was a big one.

Dozens of Oakland residents approached the podium at the city council meeting Tuesday night to voice their displeasure with three items on the agenda intended to curb violence in the city –  an anti-loitering law, a teen curfew, and more gang injunctions. However, the council deferred voting on these measures by sending them to the public safety committee for more in-depth review. Proponents of these hotly-debated items argue they would be valuable tools for the Oakland Police Department to clamp…

In vintage crocheted frills and elaborately designed hats reminiscent of early 20th century fashions, on Sunday Oakland women celebrated the centennial anniversary of the passage of women’s voting rights at Lakeside Park with a reenactment of the first suffrage parade.

City Council’s Public Safety Committee approved a contract renewal during a meeting on Tuesday to install a new version of the sound monitors that would help police pinpoint gunshots in Oakland. With the Shotspotter technology, the Oakland Police Department will receive notifications of gunshots and explosives through devices installed on rooftops across the city.