Business
It’s close to 3 p.m., and Bakesale Betty sold out of its last sandwich a little over an hour ago. The shop’s co-owner, Alison Barakat, who also goes by “Betty” while she’s working, is not wearing the trademark blue wig that customers have come to recognize.
This weekend’s Oakland Underground Film Festival (OUFF) showcases local, independent films and new international works. The four-day festival begins Thursday at the Grand Lake Theater and continues at two other venues throughout the weekend. About 60 films will be screened, a mix of shorts, features and documentaries.
McDonald’s started posting calorie information on its menus at restaurants and drive-thrus around the country. In California, this practice began in January 2011.
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.