Laith Agha

A’s players cheer young fans at East Bay holiday events

With no baseball games for Oakland A’s fans to go see until the season starts in April, A’s players are spending some time this offseason going to see their fans. The A’s began their four-day Holiday Caravan Thursday at the Oakland Zoo, where three A’s pitchers—Brett Anderson, Trevor Cahill and Oakland native Tyson Ross—signed autographs for students from Thurgood Marshall Elementary School. Joined by the A’s mascot, Stomper, the players have been whipping around the East Bay to different charity…

Fifty-five foot Christmas tree raised in Jack London Square

The average Christmas tree can be brought home in the back of the family station wagon, with the top of the tree hanging out the back window. Oakland’s Christmas tree was a bit too big for that. A Peterbilt truck hauled the 55-foot, 8,000-pound red fir from to Oakland Shasta County in a 50-foot trailer—with the top of the tree hanging out the back.

Turkey talk: Oaklanders share Thanksgiving cooking tips

Cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie – Thanksgiving calls to mind a literal cornucopia of foods. But the pièce de résistance of a traditional Thanksgiving meal won’t be found among the side dishes. There’s a reason they call it Turkey Day.

East Bay Pop Warner teams struggle to fund flights

Fredrick Pugh has a good problem. The president of the East Bay Warriors Pop Warner football and cheerleading program is trying to figure out how to get up to 178 little football players and cheerleaders to Orlando, Florida, next month for the Pop Warner national championships. It’s a good thing, Pugh said, to have so many children to accommodate because it means the Warriors program has had a successful season.

Africa Channel reveals lost lineage for guests at launch party

About 200 people attended the long delayed launch celebration for the Africa Channel-a digital station that focuses entirely on Africa programming- Tuesday night at Oakland’s Chabot Space Center. At the event, an Africa Channel executive announced the results of DNA tests revealing the ancestries of three African-American attendees.

Beards, panda hats and a citywide party

San Francisco threw a giant party Wednesday, as hundreds of thousand of Giants fans flooded downtown to celebrate their baseball team’s first World Series title since moving to the Bay Area more than a half-century ago.

Giants win game 1 of World Series, 11-7

The San Francisco Giants handily won the first game of the World Series, 11-7, chasing vaunted Texas Rangers pitcher Cliff Lee from the game during a six-run fifth inning.

Second baseman Freddy Sanchez led the Giants with four hits and three runs batted in, becoming the first player in major league baseball history to double in his first three World Series at-bats.

Laney College running back shows why he’s number one

On the stat sheet, the play looks like any other four-yard gain, a positive but unremarkable advancement on the football field. But it was how Laney College running back C.J. Anderson gained those four yards last Friday night that shows why he is one of the best junior college running backs in the state.

New Oakland gang injunction sought for Fruitvale neighborhood

City officials announced Wednesday that an injunction is being sought against 42 alleged Norteño gang members in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood, the second such action this year to fight the city’s gang problem. If approved, the injunction would allow police officers more rein in arresting the named gang members for engaging in activities—mostly illegal already—considered consistent with gang behavior.

Sea lion recovering after muzzle surgery

Sgt. Nevis, a 650-pound California sea lion that was shot in the face 10 months ago by a fisherman on the Sacramento River, is recovering from a 2-hour facial reconstructive surgery performed Friday morning at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, according to a statement on the Marine Mammal Center website. The center rescued Sgt. Nevis at Knight’s Landing in Yolo County in December. The sea lion was named after Sgt. Michael Nevis, a member of Yolo County Sheriff’s Office…

League of Women’s Voters goes over November ballot.

This year’s Oakland ballot is jam packed with more than twenty state and local elections plus fifteen propositions.  Oakland residents will have to vote on each of these using a new voting system this November. At their fall meeting, the League of Women Voters will present an un-bias look at all these measures and go over exactly how you will physically be voting according to the new system of ranked-choice voting.

After long journeys, Bobby Cramer and Justin James join the A’s

Major League Baseball had all but given up on pitchers Justin James and Bobby Cramer, who joined the Oakland Athletics in September at the unusually old (for baseball) ages of 29 and 30. But the A’s, known for their unconventional scouting, saw their potential, not their ages.

Teens pushed to limit during 48-hour black belt test

On a recent Friday night, four students from Oakland’s Studio Naga began their black belt test in poekoelan, an Indonesian martial art that borrows its graceful movements from wild animals. The test’s many stages included meditation, a 10-mile run, and fending off fellow students over a sleepless 48-hour period.

Indoor trampolines bring a bounce to the Bay Area

They come in droves to jump on the massive trampolines. They do backflips, play dodgeball, and dunk on a basketball hoop they couldn’t otherwise reach without some catapulting aid. Oh, and children can also be found doing these things at the House of Air, San Francisco’s first indoor trampoline park.