For some Oakland seniors, a meal is hard to come by

The produce Jessie Mae Brown, 85, leaves on the porch of her East Oakland home helps to feed most of her block.

Some people have potted plants on their front porches. Others have rocking chairs or benches. Walk onto the porch of Jessie Mae Brown’s East Oakland home on any given day and you’re likely to be stepping around 100-pound bags of onions and potatoes or bins of apples and carrots—all fresh for the taking.

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Mourners gather to commemorate victims of Oikos University shooting

Over 800 people gathered Tuesday night at Allen Temple Baptist Church in East Oakland to commemorate the seven killed in Monday’s shooting at Oikos University. The diversity of the victims, who included immigrants from Korea, Nigeria and Nepal, was mirrored in the crowd, which represented all facets of the community. During the two-hour vigil several…

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Community groups voice opposition to city’s bond debt deal with Goldman Sachs

As soon as Reverend Daniel Buford took the podium in the council chambers at Oakland City Hall on Tuesday night, bright, hand-drawn, multi-colored signs with inscriptions like “Stop the Swap,” “Give the $ Back” and “Not another dollar to Goldman Sachs” popped up around the room. Buford, a minister at Allen Temple Baptist Church on International Boulevard, began speaking about the city’s relationship with Goldman Sachs, and a rate-swap deal the city and the bank agreed to in 1997 relating to $187 million in city debt.

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Oaklanders march for peace, to protest city homicide rate

About 600 people marched from Allen Temple Baptist Church in East Oakland to City Hall to protest crime and violence in Oakland on Saturday. Soldiers Against Violence Everywhere, a community and church coalition, organized the march and rally as a response to the 75 homicides reported in the city from January to August, 2011.

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