Public Policy
After two years of being threatened with complete funding cutoffs from the state, some of California’s adult day health care centers are finally seeing a ray of hope. In the recent culmination of a lawsuit challenging the funding cutoff, the State’s Department of Health Services has announced a new 2012 adult care program that will close some centers but allow others to stay open with continued state support.
Metropolitan Transportation Commission debates proposal to create new seats for Oakland and San Jose
At its last meeting of the year, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) debated over whether a controversial proposal to create two new commission seats for Oakland and San Jose should be included in the commission’s 2012 legislative program—a package of proposed measures that the commission seeks to support or sponsor in the coming year. The proposal, AB 57, would add two seats to the MTC board to increase representation of the region’s most populous cities—Oakland and San Jose. The new…
Nearly two months after the first major confrontation between police and Occupy Oakland protesters, when downtown Oakland was blanketed with tear gas, city officials have commissioned an independent team of law enforcement experts to investigate how police handled their interactions with protesters.
After waiting for more than five hours for their chance to voice their opposition to a resolution intended to prevent another shutdown of the Port of Oakland, a large contingent of Occupy Oakland supporters weren’t going to go away just because the Oakland City Council decided against even hearing the measure.
Following a confrontation with police last Thursday at Frank Ogawa Plaza after being denied a permit for a canopy, Occupy Oakland protesters and local clergy members who had organized the Interfaith Tent at the former Occupy camp site had called for an “umbrella action” during which they would confront City Administrator Deanna Santana—in song and dance—about recent events.
Twelve years ago, the arrest of four police officers known as the “Riders” who were accused of planting evidence and making false arrests, shocked Oakland residents and prompted a civil lawsuit against the city. Now, the long legal process that the case set in motion is reaching its final stages.
Union members and labor leaders gathered at the Alameda County Labor Council office on Monday to voice their support for Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and their opposition to the effort to recall her.
Two ordinances aimed at reducing waste in Alameda County moved a step closer to implementation on Wednesday afternoon. The Alameda County Waste Management Authority board voted unanimously to introduce an ordinance at a planned meeting January 25 that would ban single-use checkout bags for many retailers in the county. The board also voted Wednesday to introduce a mandatory recycling ordinance which would require businesses and managers or owners of multi-family buildings to recycle at that meeting and put it before a vote.
More than a hundred parents and teachers packed the Oakland Unified School District’s boardroom for Wednesday night’s meeting, with dozens more watching from the 4th floor overflow room, following a march from Laney College earlier that afternoon. The topic of contention: school closures.