Election 2016
The American Beverage Association has historically invested millions of dollars to defeat public health initiatives aimed at lowering sugary drink consumption, but Oakland’s pro-tax measure recently received a financial boost.
The Oakland Unified School Board meeting Wednesday night was packed—and then it wasn’t. Hundreds of parents and children wearing pro-charter school t-shirts and waving roses filled the left hand side of the gym at La Escuelita Learning Center, spilling over onto the right side where union members from the Oakland Education Association sat. Over twenty cards for public comment had been filed on an item that did not appear on the agenda. But as the board opened the floor to…
Thirty-five years ago, Abdul Talev’s grandfather opened a small grocery store in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland. Today, with the family business in his care, Talev is worried a new soda tax will cause him to lose business, or even worse, force him to close his doors. The controversial tax Talev is referring to is Measure HH on Oakland’s November ballot. Measure HH would impose a one cent per ounce tax on the distribution of sodas and other sugary beverages….
While a “grocery tax” or “soda tax” by another name may not sound as sweet, there’s no denying the battle surrounding Measure HH relies heavily on semantics.
Union members from Oakland and surrounding cities came to Alameda Point Park on Monday to enjoy some free hot dogs and to celebrate their solidarity at the annual East Bay Labor Day picnic. Political activity was not on the official program, but talk of the election could be heard coming from nearly every tent.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made two visits to Oakland last week as part of her campaign for the presidency. Clinton made her first stop in California to her campaign office at 1408 14th Street in downtown Oakland in advance of the California Democratic Primary Election on June 7. The office is filled with placards and homemade signs, and volunteers busily working phones. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf was on hand to greet Clinton. Clinton has made trips to Oakland…
After Hillary Clinton’s Oakland rally, Kayla, 17, had tears running down her cheeks. She was upset. Kayla, an 11th grader at MetWest High School, had walked to the rally site Friday with some classmates and at least one teacher. It wasn’t far: The event was held nearby in their campus gym. Clinton, the leading Democratic presidential contender, addressed the crowd of several hundred people, who chanted, “HILL-UH-REE! HILL-UH-REE!” Kayla and her friends—and a few others in the crowd—chanted “BER-NEE! BER-NEE!”…
The proposed tax would charge an extra 1 cent per fluid ounce of sugary beverages, just like the one approved in Berkeley in 2014. The revenues from the tax would go to the city’s General Purpose Fund and are estimated to range from $6-12 million annually.
As voters went to the polls in South Carolina, and with Super Tuesday looming on March 1, about 300 people rallied for Bernie Sanders in downtown Oakland on Saturday. Local group SambaFunk provided a pulsating drum soundtrack as Sanders supporters, many with children, rallied at Frank Ogawa Plaza before marching to a CitiBank branch to call attention to Hillary Clinton’s Wall Street donations. Held at the same location as the Occupy Oakland protests of 2011, Saturday’s rally also focused on…