Community

County board of supervisors urges governor to keep shelter law on the books

Angie Markle is proud of her dog, Regie, a small, black Chihuahua Terrier mix. Regie is a social therapy dog with Paws for Healing, a nonprofit that provides canine assisted therapy. Markle takes him around to visit children and veterans in the hospital, and sits with kids when they’re reading in the library or nervous because they’re in court. Markle carries around business cards with a picture of Regie sitting like a good boy on the front, and information about his breed, and his story, on the back.

Girls Inc. headquarters moving to Oakland, rehabbing downtown building

Last June, Girls Inc. of Alameda County purchased a five-story building as the site for their new headquarters located in downtown Oakland. The 34,000 square foot structure is strikingly different from their current headquarters in a 1950s warehouse in San Leandro, and it will include staff and administrative offices, a mental health clinic, fitness center, teaching kitchen, and other amenities for the 145 teenage girls who are served by the organization.

Spoken Word in the Bay Area

Spoken word, a form of poetry that expresses social commentary,  life experiences, and emotion has become particularly strong in the Bay Area where performances happen almost every night. Youth development programs such as Youth Speaks have flourished over the years attracting thousands of teenagers around the nation to take the stage and perform. Spencer Whitney got an inside look at how spoken word poetry groups are giving youth a voice in the Bay Area.

Tech girls fall in first round of NorCal basketball playoffs

The Oakland Tech girls basketball team couldn’t pull through on Wednesday night, losing 52-46 to visiting Heritage High School of Brentwood in the first round of the Northern California playoffs. The loss ended Tech’s season and eliminates the Lady Bulldogs from the state tournament.

Quan, city officials roll out ambitious Coliseum plan in effort to keep three pro teams in Oakland

In an effort to prevent the Oakland A’s, Oakland Raiders and Golden State Warriors from being lured away to places like San Jose, Los Angeles and San Francisco, a group of city officials, business leaders and developers rolled out an ambitious “public-private” partnership plan on Wednesday morning that would transform the Coliseum site and bring up to 32,000 jobs to the area, Mayor Jean Quan said. The City of Oakland is in a “position of strength” to keep its three…