Politics
Attorneys representing the City of Oakland and developer Phil Tagami faced off in a packed San Francisco courtroom over whether or not coal could be transported in Oakland.
Activists and Alameda County representatives want people held in Santa Rita Jail to be able to get Medi-Cal coverage prior to their release.
A new plan outlines ways to drastically reduce Oakland’s greenhouse gas emissions in the next 10 years. At a town hall in November, city residents debated just how to do that.
Oakland residents gathered to contribute to the Global Day of Resistance for Rojava.
For the last three Oakland school board meetings, protesters from the newly-formed Oakland Is Not for Sale Coalition have tried to prevent the meetings from taking place, chanting, raising banners and attempting to take over the stage where board members are seated in order to hold what they call a “people’s board meeting.” The group is protesting the “The Blueprint for Quality Schools,” a district-run plan that supports the closure and merger of under-enrolled and underperforming schools. The protests coalesced…
Tuesday night’s Oakland Public Safety Committee meeting’s main agenda item—reviewing a report about holding a special election to amend the regulations that govern the Oakland Police Commission—was initially upstaged by jarring testimony from former Councilmember Wilson Riles Jr. about his arrest last week. Councilmember At-Large Rebecca Kaplan introduced the issue for the committee to address. “Our colleague, former Councilmember Wilson Riles, was arrested—” Kaplan began, but was interrupted by members of the crowd yelling, “brutalized!” “And brutalized, and improperly treated,…
Over 1,100 people from 86 different countries took the oath to become United States citizens at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland on Wednesday. In a warm and thunderous atmosphere, with friends and family whistling and singing, California Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Oakland), the keynote speaker, said, “I am so grateful to welcome all of you, my fellow Americans. I am one of you. Look at me, I made it. To those of you who say you can’t, I say you can.” …
On Tuesday night, about 40 people gathered at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle in downtown Oakland to watch the Democratic presidential debate. The debate started at 5 pm, so most people came in business attire, which underscored the formality of the white tablecloths and stately white columns in the room. Attendees sat in rows facing a large projection screen, balancing on laps and tables their glasses of wine and paper plates limp from generous portions of fish, chicken, mac and cheese, beans…
In Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood, tension has been brewing as neighbors push city officials to evict people from a homeless encampment, which they say endangers children walking to school and creates health hazards. The camp on Bond Street, where around 12 people live, sits between 42nd and High Streets. The camp consists of a mix of canopies and camping tents shielded from the street by a row of old cars. It abuts the fenced yards of people’s homes and is across…