Politics

Oakland council votes to support worker co-ops, 100 Cameras campaign

At the Oakland City Council meeting Tuesday night, the council voted to assist the development of worker cooperatives and voted unanimously to support the 100 Cameras campaign, which encourages the public to film police activity. Much of the meeting time was spent hearing public comments from a handful of activists from the civil rights coalition By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), who criticized the Oakland Police Department (OPD) for the number of officer-involved shootings of African American men in the city….

We’re off for the summer — see you in September!

Oakland North is a project of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and now that it’s summer, our students are on break to work internships at other publications. We’ll be back to train a new class of student reporters in early September. If you’ve found us over the summer, here are a few highlights from the coverage done by the 2014-15 Oakland North news crew: A world of hope: Treating international patients with rare diseases at Children’s Hospital Oakland by Melina Tupa…

California considers a new law for cheerleader pay, in wake of three suits against Oakland Raiders

A state bill to grant professional cheerleaders a minimum wage, workers’ benefits and overtime compensation, sponsored by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, has passed the Assembly and is now in the state Senate for a vote. Among those watching the outcome are the Oakland Raiderettes. Gonzalez, a Democrat from San Diego, introduced AB 202, an amendment to the state’s Labor Code, in January after cheerleaders complained of unfair compensation and filed lawsuits against California-based professional sports teams and the National Football League….

Lack of benefits and work continuity weighs heavily on temporary part-time city workers

For the last three years, Connor Crabb has been working as a recreation leader at Studio One, a city-run center in Oakland that offers afterschool and summer art classes to children. The 24-year-old Oakland native starts his day at the center around 1:30 pm, going from school to school, gathering students from different sites, then riding back to Studio One with a bus driver. He coaches elementary school students in flag football and basketball, and he helps make sure they…