Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

More at Inside Bay Area : “U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder swore in Oakland attorney Tony West today as Assistant U.S. Attorney General in charge of the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Division. President Barack Obama nominated West to the post Jan. 22; his confirmation hearing last month went off without a hitch; and the U.S. Senate confirmed him Monday on an 82-4 vote. West, 43, most recently a litigation partner at Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco, has served as a Clinton Administration Justice Department official; a federal prosecutor in San Francisco; and a special assistant California Attorney General tasked with troubleshooting difficult issues. A candidate in the 23rd Assembly District's 2000 Democratic primary, he later served as a delegate for John Kerry at the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004 — meeting Obama there, soon after the speech that put the future president on many Americans' radar for the first time — and then for Obama in D...

This video of a fight that started between a group of women at the Britnet Spears concert at the Oracle Arena on April 22nd was posted Thursday evening April 23rd. I have no idea who the people are but the YouTube channel it came from is called two28svn5. (For the record, I was not at the concert, nor in the Bay Area. I was in Georgia and now New York City.) If you listen to the video, at 1:31 someone says "back there by a partrol officer" so one can assume police stepped in.

An event for this " News Bash " at Spot.us Host: Spot.us Type: Causes - Fundraiser Network: Global Start Time: Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 9:00am End Time: Friday, May 1, 2009 at 2:00pm Location: New Delhi Restaurant Street: 160 Ellis Street, SF 94102 City/Town: San Francisco, CA Phone: 5103840788 Email: kara@spot.us

I just got a message about this: Host: Save The Parkway Speakeasy Theatre In Oakland Type: Other - Festival Network: Global Date: Sunday, April 26, 2009 Time: 1:00pm - 5:00pm Location: FM Smith Park (just up Park Blvd. from the Parkway) http://bit.ly/fmsmithmap Email: bbq@iliketheparkway.com On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=92788939965

  More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! Have you ever walked by a group doing something interesting and yet never stopped to, or perhaps feared to, inquire what they were doing?  If so, this video-blog is for you .  I'm in Georgia as I write this and visiting my Mom, but two Saturdays ago I saw a YouTube video of people playing drums under the "Columns" at Lake Merritt in Oakland, where I live for those of you reading this in, er, Japan.  I said to myself, and wrote on the Oakland Focus Blog , that if I ever encountered that group I was going to have my camera at the ready and interview them (if they let me of course). Well that's what I did on that Saturday morning.  The group is called "Emeryville Taiko" at www.etaiko.org , and as Sensei Susan Horn informs us in the video, they were located in Emeryville, but are now at 27th and Harrison St, near the Whole Foods Market and near Lake Merritt.   But on Saturday's they have this Taiko...