EPA pulls tugboat from depths of Oakland Estuary

There’s something in the water in Oakland.

But thanks to several local, state and federal agencies, it’s being cleaned up. On Monday, a 105-foot tugboat, nicknamed “Captain Al,” emerged from the depths of the Oakland Estuary where it had been resting – and rusting – for over a decade.

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Oakland celebrates groundbreaking for renovation of historic California Hotel

The sound of jazz—a melody, harmony, rhythm, or timbre—hadn’t filled the lobby of the California Hotel, just off San Pablo Avenue, for more than a decade. And as over a hundred people filled into the hotel on Wednesday—Billy Strayhorn numbers setting the mood—for a groundbreaking marking the city’s decision to revitalize the historic hotel, passersby, many of them with iPods, didn’t know the hotel was a venue for the most preeminent figures on their playlists: James Brown, Ray Charles, Billie Holiday, Sly Stone, Aretha Franklin and Big Mama Thornton.

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