Crime
In November, Californians passed Proposition 57 by a 64.5 percent vote. Formally known as the California Parole for Non-Violent Criminals and Juvenile Court Trial Requirements Initiative, and strongly endorsed by Governor Jerry Brown, Oakland’s former mayor, the new law attempts to ease prison overcrowding by increasing parole opportunities for inmates and changing how juvenile offenders are charged. Now local and state agencies are grappling with the complexities of putting Proposition 57 into effect and debating the effects it will have…
BART riders are on high alert after a mob of teens robbed passengers two weekends ago. BART Police officials and the agency’s board of directors responded at a board meeting on Thursday with plans to prevent this from happening again.
The family of Ghost Ship fire victim Edmond Lapine II files a wrongful death suit against the Ghost Ship building owner, neighbors, master tenant and promoters for the party where the blaze started.
A recent study suggests that not only do suspensions take a toll on students, they place a financial burden on their communities. In March, the California Dropout Research Project at UC Santa Barbara and the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at UC Los Angeles released a study revealing that school suspensions could cost communities across the state a total of $2.7 billion per graduating class.
On Tuesday night, the council heard reports by working groups created by Mayor Libby Schaff’s Executive Order 2017-1 on January 11, calling for improving building and fire safety in non-permitted spaces while avoiding displacing their residents if code violations aren’t life-threatening. Should tenants have to be relocated, the order calls for the city to provide more relocation assistance. The order also calls for more notice for inspections; strengthening the Just Cause Ordinance, which prohibits landlords from evicting tenants except for specific reasons like failure to pay rent and illegal activities; as well as steps towards legalizing non-conforming spaces and reforming the city’s events permits system.
Praxis Project is suing Coca-Cola and the American Beverage Association for ‘false advertising’ and marketing. The non-profit claims it had to use funds to combat misleading ads by the soda makers.
Tension between residents and city council grew at Tuesday night’s meeting when councilmembers passed controversial resolutions including paying nearly $300,000 a year to city’s new police chief and establishing cell-site simulator which can be used by police officers. Protestors also gathered and spoke against city’s demolishing a self-organized homeless camp by force last Thursday.
2016 brought another group of student reporters to Oakland North, and they covered the daily news of a changing city: The rising cost of rent and concerns about gentrification, the election of a new president and the protests that followed, the legalization of recreational pot use in California and the passing of a controversial city soda tax, the sex scandal that continued to plague the Oakland Police Department, street level efforts to help stem the rising tide of opioid addictions, and the Ghost Ship…
A truck driver in Millbrae chased a Hispanic woman down the street screaming slurs. A university researcher living in Albany, California, was confronted with swastikas on her way to work at UC Berkeley. A mosque in San José received a letter threatening to “cleanse” Muslims from the country. All of these incidents took place after the election—and in each case, the perpetrators explicitly linked their racial hatred to the election of Donald Trump. Following Trump’s November win, the nation has…