Community

Vocal Rush blurs the line between a cappella and activism

Founded in 2011 at the Oakland School of the Arts, the group is made up of high school students at the charter school. They have won the International Championship of High School A Cappella (ICHSA) three times, including this year in April. In 2013, they placed third on NBC’s The Sing-Off, a televised a cappella competition between some of the best musical ensembles in the country. With the level of success they’ve garnered, the group has decided to use their art as a form of activism: “aca-activism,” that is.

Oakland’s Acta Non Verba brings farm to table

Amid glowing rows of rainbow chard and plump purple eggplants, Kelly Carlisle, founder of Acta Non Verba Farm, is celebrating her sixth community harvest. The farm, which sits on a quarter acre of Tassafaronga Park, offers local children a safe outdoor space to learn the art of farming.

EBMUD changing its short-term financing for borrowing funds

In an abbreviated meeting on Tuesday before Thanksgiving, the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) unanimously passed a proposal to change their short-term financing in order to reduce long-term risk. EBMUD will be moving from “extended” back to “traditional” commercial paper, according to Dari Barzel, EBMUD’s principal management analyst. What does that mean? “Commercial paper is by far our lowest-cost financing,” Barzel told the directors, citing a 30-day interest rate of about 0.09 percent. “You can’t beat it.” Commercial paper…

Thursday morning, 11 am

Oakland North reporters went out to different locations across Oakland on Thursday, October 22, between 11 a.m. and noon to observe what happens throughout the city on an ordinary weekday morning.