Politics
When he turned 23, Army veteran Peter Y. Liu came home from Iraq and found that there wasn’t a job waiting for him in his military specialty, journalism. The largest metropolitan newspapers on the West Coast were in the midst of downsizing. Now at 33, after a decade of working in the nonprofit, insurance and real estate sectors, Liu has declared his candidacy for Oakland mayor. He is running a frugal campaign, limited to $1,000 of his own funds, highlighting…
Tax specialist Nancy Sidebotham, 69, said she’s run for the Oakland City Council six times. She’s never won a seat. But, to her mind, she’s never lost either. “There’s not too many candidates that lose, and stay involved,” said Sidebotham, who’s lived in Oakland for more than 50 years, and served on the Community Policing Advisory Board, Neighborhood Watch and Shop Oakland boards, among other organizations. “I continue to stay involved and continue to work for my community.” The East Oakland…
Former Occupy spokesperson Jason ‘Shake’ Anderson, a U.S. Navy veteran, artist and activist, is a candidate for Oakland mayor. “What I see in the city is a lot of dysfunction, a lack of leadership and a lack of direction,” said the 38-year-old Oakland native, citing the resignation of the city administrator and multiple police chiefs in recent years. Under his “new and fresh leadership,” he said, the government could hire the best people for the “two most important jobs in…
Attorney and Oakland mayoral candidate Dan Siegel has some big plans for the city. And he wants your vote. “I have the ideas, experience, and ability to be a great mayor of the city of Oakland,” Siegel said. He faces a tough field that so far includes 14 other competitors for the city’s top job. The longtime civil rights lawyer and independent candidate has a detailed proposal to combat what he feels is the biggest issue facing Oakland: the threat…
Bryan Parker embraces being an outsider. Although Jean Quan appointed him to the Port Commission in 2012, most know him as a former healthcare and tech executive. He sees his lack of political experience as an advantage in his run to become Oakland’s next mayor. Parker pointed to his record of business leadership, saying that as vice president, general manager of real estate and internal growth at healthcare company DaVita Inc., he grew his division’s budget from $400 million to $800…
After serving for a year as interim police chief, Sean Whent, an 18-year veteran of the force, was named permanent chief of Oakland Police Department by Mayor Jean Quan at Oakland City Hall Wednesday. “As a no-nonsense chief, he has led the Department’s reorganization, built a strong leadership team and strengthened police collaboration with neighborhood leaders,” Quan said in making the appointment. “We’ve made significant progress in the last year, reducing crime and completing mandated federal reforms. We have much…
Antwan Wilson was unanimously approved as the Superintendent of the Oakland Unified School District by Oakland Board of Education, succeeding acting superintendent Gary Yee. Wilson previously served as Denver’s Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Education where he achieved success increasing both graduation rates and the number of students entering college. “Start[ing] as a teacher, he worked his way through the system and understands how to be an educator at every level,” director Jody London said. The new superintendent’s appointment, following a…
Volunteers rolled up their sleeves to clear trash, weed, plant, and restore creek beds at Oakland’s 20th Annual Earth Day event on Saturday. They joined more than a billion people worldwide in what environmentalists call the largest civic observance in the world.
Two U.S. Congresswomen stood shoulder-to-shoulder with sexual assault survivors on the U.C. Berkeley campus on Tuesday to call for federal legislation that would toughen laws on sexual harassment and violence on college campuses.