Mayor-elect Jean Quan announced at a City Hall press conference Thursday afternoon that she has selected longtime Bay Area government administrator Henry Gardner to chair her transitional committee. Quan also revealed a list of 24 people she has tapped for the transition committee, which included names of other longtime politicians, as well as members of local businesses and non-profit organizations.

With its daytime temperatures peaking in the 60s, San Francisco seemed like an unlikely place for outdoor ice skating last Wednesday. Yet there they were, almost a hundred visitors from all over California—skating in a circle around a frozen swath of Union Square.

After cancelling a public speech initially planned for Wednesday, Oakland mayor Ron Dellums presented his final State of the City address as a 68-page written document and a video posted on his official website.

The last state of the city address by outgoing Oakland mayor Ron Dellums, scheduled for this Wednesday, was cancelled on Monday. Instead of a public speech, the mayor will deliver his closing remarks on his four year term in a speech posted online in text and video form.

At Tuesday night’s meeting, the Oakland City Council approved a major contractor to implement a municipal ID card system, almost a year and half after passing an ordinance allowing the city to issue the cards, and also voted to increase the number of cannabis producer permits in the city from four to eight.

Jerry Brown made his first public appearance as governor-elect Wednesday morning, telling a roomful of reporters at a press conference in Oakland that he has no plans to move permanently to Sacramento. Brown went on to address issues ranging from government transparency to state worker pensions.

Democratic candidate Jerry Brown has taken the lead in California’s gubernatorial race, and has claimed victory as the state’s new governor. According to the California Secretary of State’s website, as of 11:26 pm, with 39 percent of precincts counted, Brown led opponent Meg Whitman by 8.7 points.

Bullets hit nine party-goers at a Halloween party in downtown Oakland just after midnight on Sunday, according to several media reports. At 12:01am, a gunman opened fire and hit several bystanders.

Councilmember Jane Brunner, a group of laid off Oakland police officers, and Youth Uprising are rallying support for local ballot Measures BB and W at an event at 5pm tonight. You can find them at Chabot Elementary School, located at 6686 Chabot Road, Oakland. Measure BB is the “Measure Y Fix” that will strike the police staffing requirements that currently prevent the city from collecting The Fire Safety and Violence Prevention tax. Measure W is a telephone line tax of $1.99…

Two measures on the ballot this November give voters the chance to decide the future of public safety funding in Oakland. If either Measure BB or Measure X passes, the city can again collect funds for a slew of public safety programs that currently have no revenue to support them.

If you had to use ranked choice voting today, would you know what to do? That’s the question Oakland North asked voters in the lobby of the Grand Lake Theater last Sunday, and even after watching a two-hour spy flick, theatergoers explained the process admirably.

A short hearing on the status of North Oakland’s gang injunction this Thursday served as a backdrop for protest and legal maneuvering by groups opposed to the city’s newest tactic for curbing violence.

The run-off election between John Creighton and Victoria Kolakowski for a seat on the Alameda County Superior Court shows how complicated choosing a judicial candidate can be. From evaluating each candidate’s credentials to speculating about how each might act from the bench, Alameda County voters have a lot of thinking to do if they want to avoid the dartboard approach this November.

Many Oaklanders have heard mayoral candidate Joe Tuman talk about politics, but they might not know it. Before he declared himself a candidate in Oakland’s most hotly contested race, he spent over twenty years as a political analyst and a talking head on TV, making him a familiar yet nameless voice in the region’s politics.

With one candidate refusing to participate, nine of the ten contenders for the job of Oakland mayor addressed a room packed beyond capacity Thursday night, stating their positions on public safety, the city budget, and local ballot measures.