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More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! In just less than an hour ago, comedian Ellen DeGeneres has started a Twitter / email campaign informing her 1.9 million Twitter followers to email California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger en masse in an effort to stop him from reducing the time animals are kept in shelters from six days to three days. Important: Tell Gov. Arnold not to limit time animals are kept in shelters from 6 days to 3. Email him: http://www.gov.ca.gov Pass it on.   In other words, what the Governor's proposing is that an animal that currently has just six days time in an animal shelter before it is sentenced to death by euthanasia would have only three days time if the Guv gets his reported wish, which, as Franny Syufy informs us on her blog is ... barely time for owners to discover their cat missing, track him down to a local shelter, then arrange for his release. Why the Governors' people decided to pick on defenseless a...

In today's SF Chronicle, Chip Johnson explains that the City of Oakland is considering a number of solutions to the estimated $100 million budget shortfall, just not the ones Mayor Ron Dellums has suggested, like borrowing $24 million from the city's reserves. I'm surprised the Oakland Redevelopment Agency Budget's not a target for borrowing. Hmmm..

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! The "Save The Parkway Theater" movement, once a seemingly happy collection of like-minded Oaklanders, has rapidly degenerated into the same kind of feckless factionalization that's doomed the effort to keep the Athletics baseball team in Oakland. Yes, once again, we have groups that don't talk to each other and with different agendas and a common problem: a lack of leadership from the elected officials involved. In the case of the Athletics , it was Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums (until he began to really insert himself into the process and call for meetings) and now it's Oakland's District Two Councilmember Pat Kernighan. (A bit of housecleaning: I like Pat; I really do. Always have. But I don't like the way she handles community controversy and this is an example.) Four Factions When the Parkway Speakeasy Theater closed after its last show on March 22nd 2009, a rag-tag group of ...

From amkniss1 on YouTube - Fight breaks out at an Oakland beauty salon.

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! Ok. As of this writing I have over 3,500 Twitter followers . Normally one follows those with more Twitter followers, unless the Twitter account has quality Twitterers following them; that's true for me. I've learned that such a position attracts the larger Twitterers, like Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger , who has over 200,000 Twitter followers himself. Now, he's following me! What? You've got issues with him? Hey, it's Ahhhold, baby! Yah know? Of course I followed him back, which means we're Twitter friends. Very cool. A pipeline to California's governor who has a pipeline to this blogger - nothing to sneeze at. It's prized. It doesn't mean I voted for his initiatives in the last election; I didn't. But truth be told I voted for him twice in the California gubenatorial races starting in 2002. Why? Because as a Dem, I felt the California Democrats needed a shakeup,...

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! Tuesday morning's funeral for the late Oakland Tribune columnist Peggy Stinnett was sad as one could understand just how much a part of the soul of Oakland she was by listening to the words spoken about her. As if to underscore that, a number of Oakland's long-time journalists were there, especially people from the Tribune staff both former and current, like sportswriter Dave Newhouse and Oakland Historic Preservation expert Annalee Allen. Oakland Post Editor Paul Cobb, a friend of the Stinnett family for 45 years, gave an excellent speech worthy of posting here when I can get a copy of it. (I asked) And there were a good share of politicos there, lead by Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates and former Oakland City Manager Henry Gardner. As one can imagine with this assembly of people there was more than the usual talk about what's happening in Oakland. A few people I kibitzed with at the reception following ...

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! On YouTube.com This morning, I'm attending a funeral for my friend Oakland Tribune Columnist Peggy Stinnett at Our Lady of The Lourdes Church at 2809 Lakeshore here in Oakland. I think I'll walk and remember Peggy as I do. This is hard as it's the fifth funeral of a friend or family member this year and it's just June. Too much for me. At any rate, I met Peggy in late 1993 at the Lakeside Park Garden Center on 666 Bellevue Avenue next to Lake Merritt. I kid you not; that's the address. The Oakland City Council meetings were there because the City Hall was being rebuilt after considerable damage due to the Loma Piereta Earthquake in 1989. But the Garden Center, with its small size litterally brought everyone close together and made for a kind of government / community togetherness not seen since. Peggy was at the center of it. The dean of Oakland Columnists. We'd get together...