The Chabot Space and Science Center will take on climate change in a big way this month when it opens a new exhibit with the help of a little scientific star power. Science educator Bill Nye, popularly known as “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” came to Chabot on Friday to introduce the new “Bill Nye’s Climate Lab,” which opens to the public on November 20.

Mayor Ron Dellums and Police Chief Anthony Batts spoke to reporters before demonstrations turned ugly Friday afternoon.

Amid a wave of Democratic victories in California that defied major gains for Republicans in the rest of the nation, the race to become the state’s next attorney general is so evenly split—between Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and Republican Steve Cooley—that its winner may not be known for weeks.

Despite a hotly contested gubernatorial race and a controversial ballot initiative that would have decriminalized marijuana throughout California, voter turnout in Alameda County for Tuesday’s election dropped to its lowest level in at least a decade.

Not all Oaklanders will be looking at the same ballot tomorrow: while every resident is eligible to vote for citywide offices, the winners of several local offices will be determined by voters in specific districts. To see which offices and candidates you’ll have a chance to vote for, check out Oakland North’s political district maps.

This information helps voters make informed decisions, and helps the public detect any potential conflicts of interest that might tempt an official to use her office for personal gain. In California, this information is recorded on a document called the “Statement of Economic Interests,” or Form 700 under the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission.

Of the ten people running for mayor in Oakland this fall, Arnold Fields—Arnie to his friends, and if you’re voting in Oakland, he considers you a friend—may be the candidate whose campaign most resembles his life before politics. Between appearances on the campaign circuit, Fields still pulls double duty as a real estate broker and as the owner and operator of Revolution Café, a West Oakland coffee shop and bar that doubles as his campaign headquarters.

After more than two decades of debate and a recent sprint for the final bits of funding, on Wednesday a group of local, state, and federal officials broke ground to mark the start of construction on BART’s long-awaited Oakland Airport Connector. A dozen local political officials donned hardhats and gathered around a mound of dirt tidily piled in a corner of the station’s parking lot; in unison, they sank the golden blades of their ceremonial shovels into the earth.

In an effort to increase its drooping ridership, BART has declared this week “Try BART Week.” All week, the transit district will be giving away free prizes including BART passes, airline tickets, and ice cream parties to a few lucky BART customers. Over the course of the week, BART will be awarding 1,300 prizes, collectively worth over $60,000

For East Bay residents who don’t already ride BART, today may be the day to start. In a bid to win back the riders it has lost during the slumping economy of the last several years, BART has declared this week “Try BART Week,” and is offering a wide array of valuable prizes to lure riders to their trains—starting right here in Oakland.

If you have a car—preferably one that’s insured, reasonably new, and clean—starting in January, it could make you money every time you park. All you have to do is let a few strangers drive it. This kind of car-sharing is not unheard of in California, but a new state law is about to make it easier to rent out your car when you don’t need it.

Bicycles have long been ingrained in the Bay Area’s transportation culture, so it’s no surprise that fixed-gear bikes—single-gear bikes with no rear freewheel, making it impossible for the rider to coast—have found a home in Oakland.

Think your Chardonnay has an oaky aftertaste? Try Oakland’s! Wine connoisseurs may focus on the vines of Napa County when touring California, but this weekend one group of out-of-towners found out the East Bay has a few wineries of its own.

For those who can’t decide between a Sunday morning bike ride and dutifully going to church, Manifesto Bicycles has been helping Oakland cyclists have it both ways. Since 2008, the locally owned bike shop on 40th Street has been hosting “Bike Church,” an irregular Sunday morning gathering at Manifesto, where attendees can listen to music, enjoy street food and catch up with one another.

Trees, plants, benches and grass (or something like it) popped up around Oakland on Friday on stretches of concrete usually reserved for cars.