Politics
Under the morning clouds, the Frank Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland was chilly as organizers got ready for the 20th Annual Oakland Earthexpo Environmental Sustainability Fair. At 9 am on Wednesday, around 100 tables were in place to start the fair, but most of them were empty. Slowly, vendors began to drift in, setting up their signs, merchandising and sign-up forms, as the sun started to warm the place and curious people began to visit the stands. But by noon,…
The Oakland City Council chambers were filled to capacity on Tuesday evening for a special meeting of the Oakland Redevelopment Successor Agency, which is responsible for creating and enacting urban redevelopment plans in Oakland. Some of the most-discussed items on the agenda were the treatment of the city’s temporary part-time workers, a resolution in support of Assembly Bill 65, a proposed state bill that would fund body-worn cameras for local law enforcement agencies, and the development in the Oakland Coliseum…
For several months, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights has urged the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to allocate 50 percent of their public safety funds to community organizations that assist people who have recently been released from incarceration. Their campaign is called “Jobs Not Jails.” Their effort paid off Tuesday, when the board passed a motion requesting of the allocation of 50 percent of its 2015-16 public safety budget towards re-entry programs and services. These funds come from…
On an early October morning in 1990, Ralph Spinelli swung open the back door of a large restaurant as he shoved his other hand into the pocket of his lightweight windbreaker, pretending to hold a gun. He had eaten at the restaurant several times before and knew that the door was unlocked around that time for deliveries — it was his habit to notice the weaknesses of an establishment. The three workers in the restaurant stared at Spinelli in bewilderment…
Oakland workers earning minimum wage will see an increase on their checks next payday due to a citywide wage increase that took effect Monday. The boost from $9 to $12.25 an hour may sound great to employees, but it wasn’t an easy change for some small business owners. The minimum wage increase was initiated by a group called Lift Up Oakland, which collected over 33,000 signatures to place Measure FF on the November ballot. It passed with 81 percent of the…
Vitamin D and Omega-3 fatty acids improve cognitive function and behavior in people with certain mental disorders, studies have shown. But scientists haven’t been sure how. Now, researchers at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI) have come up with a possible explanation. After extensively reviewing the scientific literature, Dr. Rhonda Patrick and Dr. Bruce Ames tried to connect the dots to find what is responsible for linking two micronutrients—Vitamin D and Omega-3 fatty acids—to behavior and even to psychiatric disorders,…
In her first appearance as Oakland’s mayor-elect, Libby Schaaf held a press conference wearing a striking red dress, a necklace of the Oakland tree, a bamboo earrings and riding — unforgettably — in a fire-snorting snail-shaped chariot. All of these were made in Oakland, and all of them had a story.
The fire-engine red sheath on our mayor-elect: it was Made in Oakland too, just as Libby Schaaf said. But the character who gave the dress its name would make for a slightly terrifying chief city executive.
The assembly of those bamboo trees on the new mayor’s earlobes was an Oakland production, start to finish — and one small product of the local “maker” culture that inspires the earrings’ designer.