Business

As Gov. Jerry Brown decides whether he will sign the California Domestic Workers Bill of Rights (AB 889), reactions to the bill and the prospect of monitoring and enforcing its stipulations —which include overtime pay, mandatory rest and meal breaks, and fair sleeping conditions for workers—remain mixed.

Should California end up following the guidelines used for the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in New York, the only other state in the country to adopt such a law, then private employers of full-time babysitters and caretakers will need to follow some new rules.

After a July 8 fire forced CommonWealth Café and Pub’s owners to close their business for repairs, other Oakland bar and restaurant owners stepped in to help. In the months since the fire CommonWealth’s owners have collaborated with a number of these local businesses on food and beer events that have benefited the pub and kept their employees working.

Foodies and gourmands alike flocked to Jack London Square this weekend for the fourth annual Eat Real Festival.

At the Oakland City Planning Commission meeting on Wednesday at City Hall, the commission voted against conditional use permits requested by Beverages and More (BevMo!) which has leased space on Piedmont Avenue at Montell Street to open a specialty liquor store. Approximately 60 residents and merchants from Piedmont Avenue attended the meeting, urging the commission to decline BevMo’s permit applications, which were submitted in June. A smaller group of BevMo! employees and neighbors urged them to approve the permits. In…

SoundWaves continues this Thursday with pop music by Young Digerati, from 5:30 to 7:30pm, on the waterfront of Jack London Square.

In May, Rob “Reason” Silver, a part-time record producer from Oakland, and Jason Samel, the owner of a small insurance brokerage in New York, announced their nearly identical but independently conceived plans to bring a new element into the national Occupy protest—marketability. Both had come to the conclusion that there was potential within the anti-capitalistic, determinedly decentralized protest to sell a product that could help raise funds and draw in new supporters. In May, both men launched Occupy benefit albums.

With less than 60 days before Americans vote for President, Oakland North reporters Theresa Adams and Aaron Mendelson asked small business owners on Broadway to deliver a message to the presidential candidates. Click on the video above to hear business owners at Downtown coffee shops, clothing stores, cannabis dispensaires and news stands deliver a message to Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Owners reactions ranged from supportive to critical of the President, but business owners were eager to make their voices heard.