Economy
Oakland resident Sableu Cabildo was diagnosed at the end of 2011 with a kind of brain cancer known as an astrocytoma. It originated on the right side of her thalamus, the lobed mass under the cerebral cortex that acts like the brain’s switchboard, regulating sensory perception and motor functions. Because of the cancer, Cabildo has been steadily losing her short-term memory and her balance. She stutters sometimes, and to be on the safe side, doesn’t drive at night anymore.
To alleviate some of the symptoms of her cancer and the harsher side affects of her medications, Cabildo, 34, has a medical marijuana prescription. It’s helped to calm her mood swings and improve her diminished appetite. It also dulls the pain from the migraine headaches caused by her disease. It lets her sleep at night.
Some 250 workers rallied on City Hall steps ahead of Tuesday’s City Council meeting to protest the mayor’s proposed budget, which focuses on investments in public safety, job creation, economic development, and job training. But union members felt some of the most hard hitting cuts were proposed to service programs–many of the jobs they do in the city of Oakland.
As the days get longer and the temperature begins to rise, school will end in just a few short months. In the Oakland Unified School District, the last day of school is June 13 and classes will resume August 26, giving students almost two months without classes. Because of the enormous amount of free time students will inherit during their summer vacations, local programs and businesses are looking to hire students. In order to prepare students at Oakland Technical High…
Employees at the East Bay chain restaurant Lanesplitter Pizza have taken conflicts with ownership to the public and the Internet, leading to a public debate about their pay, health care and management.
Community activists and environmentalists want the City of Oakland to permanently block a proposed giant crematory proposed near the airport.
Old Oakland’s downtown business district is getting a facelift. Brick and mortar stores are making a comeback. New establishments are showing up in neighborhoods where there were once empty storefronts. One company has found a way to invest in people and add a little pop to the community.
Allison Briscoe-Smith, the director of the Center for the Vulnerable Child at Children’s Hospital in Oakland, sees consequences in Oakland’s violence that extend far beyond the victims to become a public health issue for the entire community.
He might direct the largest medical marijuana dispensary in the country, but Steve DeAngelo isn’t scared of the government’s attempts to shut it down.
“The federal government has thrown everything they had at us and we met them and we pushed back,” DeAngelo said, referring to Harborside Health Center, where he serves as founder and executive director. “It’s a drug war machine that’s bound for extinction.”
Following the federal raid on Oaksterdam University last April, Dale Sky Jones found herself with an incredible task: rebuilding the school from the ground up. Not only had Richard Lee, Oaksterdam’s founder and director, just stepped down—assigning Jones to take over his role—but during the raid, federal agents had gutted the university entirely. As Jones took on the responsibility of providing for the students, staff and volunteers who had already signed on for the spring semester, the rest of Oakland’s burgeoning pot industry was left wondering what lay ahead for their businesses and whether they, too, were vulnerable to raids or legal action from the federal government.