Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

The YouTube video channel Zennie62 has reached 12 million video views and 200,000 channel views as of Saturday, February 20th, and continuing a pattern of rapid growth that started in 2009 and has continued through 2010. Zennie62 on YouTube also has over 4,000 subscribers. The YouTube video channel Zennie62 consists over 800 videos covering everything from politics to news, sports, tech, and entertainment and celebrity gossip. Zennie62 on YouTube is connected to the blog Zennie62.com, also at Zennie2005.blogspot.com. The Zennie62 blog is the center publication of a network of 100 blogs ran by Zennie62.com, of which this blogger, Zennie Abraham, is the executive producer. The idea of Zennie62 is to bring "pure form video blogging" to the viewer. It's the simple practice of talking to the audience through a camcorder to tell a story or share a point of view, or as part of an interview with someone else. As video-blogging does not call for an elaborate set ...

Tiger Woods' speech of Friday has drawn a lot of reactions. In a video, this blogger asked viewers to give their opinion of Tiger Woods speech. While many wrote their perspectives in the comments sections, Steve Saldivar took the time to make a video-blog . Steve Saldivar says Woods could have been more honest: More people can make video blogs, like Steve Saldivar did. This, rather than just comments, is the future of media. It's also more fun. And here's the original video of my view on Tiger Woods speech: ..as well as the ongoing poll" create text & photo polls on pollsb.com

The Winter Olympics has given new light to American athletes who have a good Internet footprint. One of them - Olympics star Gretchen Bleiler - calls her social network home MakeItPro.com . To be sure, the super-hot, super sexy, super athletic and newly married snowboarding star that is Gretchen Bleiler has her own website and any number of blogs, but it's at MakeItPro.com where Bleiler best connects with her fans and friends. But what's MakeItPro.com ? MakeItPro.com is a one-year-old Facebook-style social networking website that's specifically designed for athletes. The site is ran by Founder and President Jill Osur and a 15-person staff based out of Walnut Creek in the San Francisco Bay Area. This blogger has known Jill since 1991 and watched her build the social network from a few pages in a beta format to where it is today. From the start, Jill wanted to feature Olympic athletes, and really admired Gretchen Bleiler. Now, Gretchen Bleiler's featured...

In today's running news, the Oakland Running Festival and Oakland Marathon are set for March 27th and March 28th in Oakland. Oaklanders know that Oakland's had a rich tradition of housing great runners and fostering a healthy running culture. Some, like runner Regina Jacobs, have achieved Olympic fame and stardom. But only once in over two decades has Oakland been the location of a major running event. The Oakland Running Festival and Oakland Marathon will change that when they get going in March. This blogger recently video-interviewed Oakland Marathon and Oakland Running Festival Producer Gene Brtalik at the columns at Lake Merritt on a windy Sunday, and learned about the origins of the running event. Gene Brtalik is from Baltimore and moved in Oakland last year. He worked for running race producer Corrigan Sports in Maryland and wanted to maintain employment with them. Corrigan Sports's representatives told him to check out the running scene in Oaklan...

In today's running news, the Oakland Running Festival and Oakland Marathon are set for March 27th and March 28th in Oakland. Oaklanders know that Oakland's had a rich tradition of housing great runners and fostering a healthy running culture. Some, like runner Regina Jacobs, have achieved Olympic fame and stardom. But only once in over two decades has Oakland been the location of a major running event. The Oakland Running Festival and Oakland Marathon will change that when they get going in March. This blogger recently video-interviewed Oakland Marathon and Oakland Running Festival Producer Gene Brtalik at the columns at Lake Merritt on a windy Sunday, and learned about the origins of the running event. Gene Brtalik is from Baltimore and moved in Oakland last year. He worked for running race producer Corrigan Sports in Maryland and wanted to maintain employment with them. Corrigan Sports's representatives told him to check out the running scene in Oaklan...

Last weekend, UC San Diego was the site of an off-campus party held that mocked Black History Month. The Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity was pointed to as the organization that held the party, but its president says that's not the case. California Assembly Speaker Karen Bass called for an investigation and issued this video statement : In the video, Bass said "It seems as though every single year this situation happens." That, in itself, is a chilling report on the state of race relations on California's college campuses. At the party, called "Compton Cookout" women were given these instructions: "Ghetto chicks have a very limited vocabulary, and attempt to make up for it, by forming new words, such as 'constipulated', or simply cursing persistently, or using other types of vulgarities, and making noises, such as 'hmmg!', or smacking their lips, and making other angry noises, grunts, and faces." Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity P...

YouTuber iyannaw08, who filmed the AC Transit Bus Fight video, makes a new video blog to time to clear up some misconceptions in the wake of the video's viral status. First, she says that she did not take the bag that belonged to the Old White Man. iyannaw08 says that she took the bag to the front of the bus and left it for the authorities when they arrived. Second, she says was not dating or related to the black man in the video "I've never seen these two gentlemen in my life." She ends the video by apologizing to anyone who was offended. But what's offensive are some of the comments left on her video page. They call her terrible names and racial slurs, and present the very racist, crazy people I complained about . YouTube should step up efforts to have settings that erase those words all together if the channel manager so desires. It reenforces a statement I've made that if you want to see just how sick, just how screwed up some people r...