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The Oakland Coliseum is continuing a tradition of bad naming rights deals that goes all the way back to when it was called Network Associates Coliseum for just $6 million in 1998. This time, over a decade later, the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum authority approved a deal for Overstock.com to place its name on the stadium where the Oakland Raiders and Oakland Athletics play for just $7 million for six years. Let's see, just a million bucks more over that time? Overstock.com Chairman and CEO Patrick Byrne said, "Overstock.com is thrilled to become a part of Oakland and Alameda County, and to be associated with the Raiders and the A’s—two globally-recognized championship teams" What Byrne should have said is "I'm so happy to deal with an organization that routinely gives so much globally-recognized value away for so little money." Overstock gets to put its name on stadium signage, internet, television, radio and print promotion, and all for just $...

Osama Bin Laden Is Dead. President Barack Obama made the stunning announcement at 11:39 PM EDT Sunday, as this blogger sat in a position of stasis. For almost 10 years, the name Osama Bin Laden had become an indelible part of American Culture, and with an image just equal to that of Adolf Hitler. The Mastermind of the September 11th 2001 events we call 9-11 and that led to the total destruction of the twin towers of The World Trade Center in New York City was on the run, seemingly forever. Not any more... And while the media points to a intelligence gathering process that started back in 2001, the truth is that America's political leaders in charge for much of that time wrongly focused American military resources on Irag, and not Afghanistan and Pakistan. Now, almost a trillion dollars, and 4,000 lost lives by 2007, then-Senator Barack Obama, just starting what would become his successful presidential run, said that he would end the Iraq War, and go on the hunt for...

As this blog post is written, President Barack Obama's undoubtedly holding court in San Francisco's Masonic Auditorium . And while a substantial crowd turned out to see him, well into the 2,000 range if not more by estimate, there were some protestors. Frankly, only a handful of them and far out-numbered by Obama supporters. Including this blogger. The San Francisco Police officers I talked to said that everything was orderly, or as one cop put it: "Well, we haven't had to arrest anyone and take them to jail." Which makes an officers job easy: all they had to do was stand around and watch, and there were a lot of them who did that. Police and security were all around the Masonic and the Nob Hill area, from two blocks uphill to two blocks downhill, and even on the roof of the theater itself. Everywhere you looked, security was superbly visible. I didn't stay long enough to get a glimpse of the President's vehicle, but I did have a number of...

This, in a strange way, is a follow-up to my blog of Sunday called Oakland Rapper Alleged Sex Predator? It started with a totally unrelated phone call from a friend, who asked me to cover a rally planned for the Wednesday of this week; the rally featured in the video that was made today. Oakland's faced with an enormous problem: human trafficking. Human trafficking is where children, girls, are literally bought and sold for sex. According to the FBI, Oakland has been a hotbed for this activity, and has maintained this distinction since 2003. The rally, organized by Nola Brantley, the Executive Director of Missey.org , (in photo) met at 19th and International Boulevard today, and drew a crowd of about 200 people, including Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, who then marched down the street, some carrying signs of protest against the activity. How bad is it? It's so bad that a prostitute was seen on that corner at about 10:30 AM that morning, and one onlooker said he could not...

Just about five minutes ago, the office where I work out of my home shook just enough for me to wonder if it was a bus crash into the building or an earthquake. One check of Twitter revealed it to be the latter: CesarQuintero Cesar Quintero RT @beckyfc: @moshbrown Well, it IS the 105th anniversary of the earthquake that destroyed SF in 1906. Perhaps it was a commemoration quake. 42 seconds ago Favorite Retweet Reply Yep. On the day when the Bay Area remembers the giant 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, the earth shook, and it wasn't planned. It was small, some felt it, others did not: amandamaiyang amanda mai yang i didn't feel the earthquake, because i have been convulsing from coffee withdrawl 2 minutes ago Here are the details right from the website of the U.S. Geological Survey: Magnitude 3.8 Date-Time Monday, April 18, 2011 at 21:57:19 UTC Monday, April 18, 2011 at 02:57:19 PM at epicenter Location 37.597°N, 122.455°W Depth 13.6 km (8.5 miles)...

A shocking and unfortunate story was relayed to this blogger by a source recently. A very famous, well-known Oakland rapper is accused by two sources of being a sexual predator, who asks young women, in some cases underaged, if they need a ride in his car, then he "talks sex talk" to them, takes them to his home, where he proceeds to try and have sex with them - to allegedly rape them. As bad as that story reads, it doesn't always go well for him. The Oakland Rapper's last alleged victim was very talented at protecting herself, and is the daughter of the friend of my source who came forward with the story. My source talked to the friend just two days ago. Her daughter, to protect herself from the Oakland Rapper who tried to rape her, was said to have hit him over the head with a fire hydrant, then tazed him, and finally kicked him in the private area. The Oakland Rappers is also said to "hang out" at a media facility in downtown Oakland. It...

Today is undoubtedly the quietest Saturday this video-blogger has enjoyed in quite a while. And since it's the day before Palm Sunday and Holy Week, it's fitting. The idea of a visit to church is at least in my head; let's see if I will at least translate it to action. Frankly, the feeling of not being pressured to be somewhere at a certain time - for an event or a plane flight - is a nice one. I think God will forgive me. If memory serves (and it should serve well, even after one-too-many glasses of scotch on during a fun Thursday evening I can still remember - can't do that anymore - and courtesy of my friend Mr. Tagami), two weeks ago, Thursday, I hit the ground, running: 1) Got off a plane from Georgia, where I was visiting Mom and has become my second home, and was off to a Flip Video Camera presentation meeting that I was told was cancelled via email, and as I was in the air. And we now know what happened to Flip Camera at the hands of Cisco. (Save Fli...