Oakland Tribune, CC Times Layoff 24 Reporters: Bill Soliday, Dave Del Grande Some of The Notables

Long time Oakland Tribune reporters Bill Soliday and Dave Del Grande were two of the 24 Oakland Tribune and Contra Costa Times reporters let go for "financial reasons" as the newspaper industry continues to fall with the steady transfer of ad dollars from print media to online sources.

I leaned of the two reporter's demise while out with friends. This story on the blog Mediafade, fills in some blanks. One reporter thinks their layoffs have to do with support of the union, The Newspaper Guild.

Ha.

She does not get it. Many old media folks don't get it. Just last year, the top ad buyers shifted $1 billion away from print and TV and to the Internet. It giving way to publicaions like, for example, Zennie's Zeitgeist, which is rounding up sponsors for its DNC Convention coverage.

The times are a changin.

City of Oakland to Pay $2 Million To 16 Asian American Women Groped By Officer Richard Valerga

According to ResistRacism and SF Gate, the City of Oakland will pay $2 million to settle a case where Oakland Police Officer Richard Valerga sexually harrassed 16 Asian American women under the color of his role as police officer.

Hopefully, the officer spends six-months in jail at least. But here's his lawyer's argument against that:

When Valerga entered his no contest plea, his criminal defense attorney, Paul Brennan, said he could ask that Valerga not receive any jail time because he has no criminal history and had distinguished records as a police officer for six years and as a member of the U.S. Navy.

The problem with this argument is the officer's admission of "no contest" is that it throws open to question just what he was doing during his six years of police work, and how many other women were harrassed -- I don't mean comments, but GROPING -- over that time?

Come to think of it. What was he doing in the U.S. Navy?