Public Policy
It’s become an increasingly common scenario this fall: a parent loses his job, and his child suddenly stops showing up at school. Oakland United School District officials say this is largely due to a recent policy change at AC Transit.
Oakland City Council members Jean Quan and Rebecca Kaplan, candidates in the mayoral race, were unable Thursday to prompt amendments to the city’s campaign finance laws before the November 2 election. The proposed changes targeted fellow candidate Don Perata, whose campaign has already exceeded the $379,000 spending cap.
After October 30, the more than five million Americans born on the island of Puerto Rico—1.4 million of them on the US mainland, the rest still living in Puerto Rico— will have to reapply for their own birth certificates.
Don Perata, one of 10 candidates for Oakland mayor, has had a long history of public service, having spent 16 years teaching in Alameda County and 12 years as a Sacramento politician. But his record has also been marred with controversy over issues such as campaign finances.
Under current law, illegal immigrants are not eligible for state administered student aid or in-state tuition, making college seem out of reach for undocumented immigrant youth. But that could change if the state passes the DREAM Act.
This November, Oakland voters won’t just be choosing the city’s next mayor—they’ll be changing the balance of power in the city’s legislature as well, as Jean Quan steps down from her city council position of eight years in order to run for mayor. Quan currently represents the wildly diverse swath of Oakland marked as District 4, and with seven new faces contending for her position, voters in that area face a range of candidates not seen in over a decade.
Mayoral candidate Joe Tuman opened a new campaign office at 3219 Grand Avenue only a few weeks ago—not entirely because he wanted one, but because his participation in an upcoming mayoral forum depended upon it.
Local drug abuse treatment patients and providers are pushing the legislature to keep Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger from cutting Medi-Cal funding for state-supported addiction services.
Meg Whitman’s Oakland campaign office is a modest white building, tucked between a Subway restaurant and an unrented space on Lakeshore Avenue, distinguished only by the “Meg 2010” signs in every window. The Republican gubernatorial candidate’s office has turned heads and raised questions about the strategy of establishing a campaign headquarters in Oakland, opponent Jerry Brown’s home turf.