Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

Exodus of blacks saddens Oakland - Inside Bay Area : “If new estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau last week are correct, Oakland has about 27,000 fewer African-Americans than it did in 2000. Many local experts and officials question the magnitude of that decline, and the methods census officials use for measuring it, but few doubt that the actual drop has been significant. In 1980, the census counted about 47 percent of Oakland as African-American, the highest census rate reported after a four-decade growth spurt. Today, after three decades of decline, the estimate is closer to 31 percent.”

Daughter of "Real Housewife" adjusting to Berkeley - Inside Bay Area : “By Kristin Bender. Oakland Tribune BERKELEY — After "The Real Housewives of Orange County" aired on Tuesday night, UC Berkeley student Kara Keough said she had more than 200 friend requests on her Facebook page. She ignored most of them but accepted the people who go to Cal. "You never know, I might meet some of them some day," she said sitting in a coffee shop in the shadow of UC Berkeley this week. Keough, 20, has changed her stance on Berkeley after angering some people last month when she bashed Berkeley on the reality television show that features five "housewives" living in an Orange County gated community.”

Oakland families get homes for the holidays : “Santa paid an early visit to East Oakland on Saturday, when nine low-income families received keys to homes they helped build themselves. "I know I was somebody before, but now I've got a piece of the rock," said Lynette Knight, 58, a Wells Fargo manager who now owns a three-bedroom home on Edes Avenue. "I told the kids, 'We're going home. This is ours.' " The homes are part of a 54-home Habitat for Humanity development on a former auto junkyard near the San Leandro border. So far, 26 homes in the development - the largest Habitat for Humanity project ever in the Bay Area - have been completed, and the rest are due to be finished next year.”

Undercurrents: The Bay Area’s Lack of Local Day-to-Day Media Reporting. Category: Columns from The Berkeley Daily Planet - Thursday June 19, 2008 : “By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor Thursday June 19, 2008 One of the great ironies of these times—something historians in our grandchildren’s time will probably better be able to understand and explain—is that we are experiencing an explosion of information and internet discussion concerning local events while simultaneously seeing a drying up of direct news media reporting on those events. The Berkeley Daily Planet, bless our hearts, has two reporters covering Berkeley city government, and another to cover the Berkeley Unified School District and the various dealings of the Berkeley School Board. But that is a rarity. Across the border in Oakland, no media outlet—aside from the East Bay News Service’s Sanjiv Handa—regularly covers Oakland City Council or Oakland city government, no media outlet at all regularly covers the Oakland Unified School D...

Raiders' losing becoming historic - Inside Bay Area : “The Raiders went 33-15 in their 48 regular-season games from 2000-02. They enter today's game against the New England Patriots enmeshed in a 22-71 tailspin that isn't losing much, if any, of its momentum. By comparison, the Patriots are 74-19 during the same period. A loss today by the 3-10 Raiders, or in any of their final three games, would cement their place in the annals of the Advertisement NFL as the first team with six straight seasons of at least 11 losses.” -- The Raiders are an organization in search of true leadership. The problem starts in the front office and from what I'm told, a culture that fosters fear and backbiting.

Bakery leader embraced guns long before editor's killing - Inside Bay Area : “OAKLAND — Yusuf Bey IV was heavily involved in guns and gun violence well before the killing of journalist Chauncey Bailey last year — a killing he is suspected of ordering — despite his claims to police that he didn't allow weapons at Your Black Muslim Bakery and disavowed their use. Recorded jailhouse telephone calls and three statements given to police before and after Bailey's Aug. 2, 2007, killing implicate Bey IV in a 2006 shooting of a car belonging to the former boyfriend of a woman with whom he was involved and a June 2007 shootout at a San Francisco nightclub. He was not charged in either incident.”

llinois Governor Rod Blagojevich paid the price for defying President-Elect Barack Obama. In setting-up a pay-to-play scheme for Obama's vacated Senate seat, he rejected Obama's choice Valerie Jarrett and in doing so, caused Obama to pull the strings to have Rod Blagojevich arrested.