The Lost Kids Fundraiser at Children's Hospital Oakland

This really entertaining video brings attention to the work of a group called "The Lost Kids" who hold fundraisers locally in Oakland. This workshop raised $900 for Children's Hospital. For more information, visit http://www.myspace.com/thel0stkids

Piedmont boys await punishment in racial hate crime case at Havens Elementary School - Inside Bay Area

More at Inside Bay Area and at Piedmont USD: “Three 12-year-old Piedmont boys are waiting to learn their punishment for spray-painting the "N" word across a Havens Elementary School wall.
Police are calling it a hate crime targeting teacher Marjorie Lawson, since it was scrawled outside her office. Lawson is one of two African-American educators in the Piedmont Unified School District.
It's still not clear why the young suspects came forward on Dec. 4, but Piedmont Police Department Capt. John Hunt said the boys voluntarily gave statements to both school officials and a detective about the crime.
"We then contacted the victim (Lawson) again, to let her know what we learned," he said.
"She already had some information from Havens, but we wanted her to know we notified the juvenile probation department and it's up to them how they proceed legally," explained Hunt, who couldn't give too many details since the suspects are underage. "I can tell you the three, white, male juveniles have not been arrested and not charged with anything."
Hunt said the district attorney's decision of whether to file charges depends in part on what the victims involved want "and in this case we have two (victims) — the school, of vandalism, and the woman, of a hate crime. These kids are first-time offenders. The school district and the victim have both made it clear they do not want to press any charges against these boys."”

-- And this is the statement of Piedmont Superintendent Constance Hubbard:

Dear Families of Piedmont Students:

On November 3rd, the day before the national election, a hate crime was perpetrated upon one of our teachers at Havens Elementary School. Specifically, a racial epithet was written on the wall outside of the teacher’s office. To respect the victim’s privacy, this information was not shared until now. A police report was filed within the hour, and the District is continuing to investigate. Although the offending word was removed within 20 minutes of being reported, the effects of this crime continue to reverberate; this event has hurt our community.

The Piedmont Unified School District will not allow the benign acceptance of hate crimes. In the coming weeks, we will examine how we as a District and community can work together to strengthen our collective response to hate crimes in Piedmont. The Appreciating Diversity Committee has already met to support this work and discuss with us a course of action. We ask for your input and your active participation in our work ahead. On behalf of the District, though saddened by this incident, I look forward to working together to move us forward in a positive way.

Sincerely,

Constance Hubbard
Superintendent

-- My concern is for and about the parents of the boys. What kind of home life did they construct? Was the "N" word used in it? What kind of punishment will they give out?

Kevin Gilbride to Coach The Oakland Raiders?

By The Blue Screen - NY Daily News: “The Giants have won 22 games in two seasons, and followed up a Super Bowl championship by earning the No. 1 seed in the NFC. So really it’s no wonder that other NFL teams would be interested in raiding their coaching staff.
And apparently defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo isn’t the only one drawing interest. The Oakland Raiders are reportedly going to contact the Giants about speaking to offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride, too.
Gilbride, who was the Giants’ quarterbacks coach from 2004-2006 before stepping up to offensive coordinator last season, was instrumental in the development of Eli Manning and helped turn the Giants into one of the most powerful and diverse offenses in the NFL.He also has head coaching experience, with the San Diego Chargers in 1997-98.”

-- For some reason I'm not excited about Gilbride and that's because I view his offenses as static and inflexible. I also don't think he has the right temperment to coach Raiders QB Jamarcus Russell.

BLESSED TO BE A BLESSING - PRAY FOR THE HOMELESS | Jaeson Ma

See Jaeson MaThis is a touching account by Ma and has a great video at the site as well:

“This past weekend after Christmas, I went with my sister to West Oakland to pass out food, clothes and prayers to the homeless. We went to Wal-mart the day before and bought a bunch of warm sleeping bags, got warm clothes from Goodwill and loaded up our car to do what we could the next morning. When I got out to the streets, my heart was shocked and broken at the same time. People were lined up waiting for us to give them any kind of help they could get.

As I opened up my bag full of clothes the homeless swarmed quickly to take what was best for themselves. All the clothes disappeared in a matter of minutes. I was sad, because I wish I had more clothes to give but I only had so much.”

The Late Jeannette Sherwin's Open Letter To Councilmember Jean Quan

See: OaklandNews: An open letter to Jean Quan I really miss Jeannette Sherwin's candor, regardless of who it was aimed at. In this case, it was in an "Open Letter To Jean Quan" that bears repeating because Councilmember Quan thinks she's going to be Oakland's next Mayor and because what Ms. Sherwin wrote below still applies today, unfortunately. I think Councilmember Quan would do well to follow what's written here:

“Dear Jean,
If you want truly fair and democratic processes, and if you want to feel less defensive, then you might do these things:

An Open Letter to Jean Quan

1) Don't make up your mind in advance about development in your district, such as a replacement for the Hillcrest Motel. Residents have very, very good instincts and ideas about what they want and what will work Trust your constituents.
2) Don't take credit for things you haven't done. It pisses the real workers off.

3) Stop talking.

4) Listen.

5) Demand that the city council return to meetings every Tuesday so that the
public has a fighting chance to attend the meetings and stay awake long
enough for their items to be heard.

6) Stop balancing the city budget with new taxes. Sewers, libraries, police and fire are all basic city services which should come from the General Fund, not from new taxes -- and that includes maintaining buildings, instead of letting them decay.

7) Admit when you are wrong. The first 12,783 times are difficult, but after that it gets easier -- I know.

Sincerely,

Jeannette Sherwin
Editor
OaklandNews.com”

De La Fuente Attacks Dellums In SF Chron Article - Mayoral Run Again?

From - “At midterm, Dellums faces growing criticism”: Of all of the people who tossed grenades at Mayor Ron Dellums, we have Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente saying this:

“City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, who ran against Dellums in 2005, said the mayor has shown an unwillingness to make decisions. While the two men meet weekly, De La Fuente said many of his suggestions fall on deaf ears.

"It's our job to manage and respond with more or less money," De La Fuente said. "Until someone says 'I want it tomorrow,' it won't happen."”

-- Ok. This means that Ignacio is gearing up to run for Mayor again. Yes, he's shooting from the hip and that was not a calculated statement, but I know Ignacio well enough to assert that he feels Dellums is vulnerable, Perata would give his blessing, and the Mayoral prize would be his. Now if Robert Bobb were to run against him, Bobb would win. City Attorney John Russo could beat both of them. But I personally think John's the most powerful elected official in Oakland now. Why give that up?

Bay Bridge Seismic Retrofit Stopped By Labor Issues - Inside Bay Area

More at Inside Bay Area: “Essential work in the Bay Bridge Seismic Retrofit Project will not go forward today while a Port of Oakland labor dispute is negotiated, according to the California Department of Transportation.
A ship carrying steel supports for the project has remained unloaded at Pier 7 since its arrival in Oakland on Friday, Caltrans reported.
Members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union blocked the unloading work at about 5 p.m. Friday, protesting that Caltrans and its construction partner, American Bridge Fluor Enterprises, awarded the job to other port workers in violation of longshoremen rights, a union member said.”

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Mike Honda: California Congressman (D) 15th District - DNC

This brief interview with Congressman Honda is interesting to me because he talks about who he thinks the next Asian American elected official to rise to stardom will be: California Controller John Chiang.