Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

As the news that the Oakland, California teacher's union's planned one-day walkout was moved to April 22nd from March 24th, this blogger ran across a paragraph in the East Bay Express that has information that was incorrect. In "Some Hard Truths About Oakland Teachers", Robert Gammon wrote: ...the City of Oakland has nothing to do with teacher salaries. Teachers are employees of the Oakland Unified School District, which is a completely separate legal entity that gets its funding from the state, not the city. So the city has no say in how much teachers make. And thus comparing teacher salaries to cops' salaries, as some commenters want to do, is ridiculous, because they're paid by different entities. Gammon's wrong and he should look at Section 33678 Subdivision (B) of the California Health and Safety Code . The common misconception about California Redevelopment Law and Tax Increment Revenue, is that redevelopment revenue can't be used to prov...

The richest person in the world is Carlos Slim Helu , but who Carlos Slim Helu? The Richest Man In The World reportedly makes $30 million a month. Carlos Slim Helu, who tops The Forbes billionaire list, is the Lifetime Honorary Chairman of Telefonos de Mexico. Mr. Helu, whom the Christian Science Monitor weirdly described as "the portly cigar-smoker", is the first man from a developing country to become Richest Man In The World. That's another way of saying Carlos Slim Helu is the first person of color to top the Forbes billionaire list. How Carlos Slim Helu got there is by purchasing a controlling interest in Telmex in 1990, along with a group of investors, and used that to leverage the buying of as many telecom companies in Mexico and Latin America as possible. Now, his family owns 90 percent of Mexico's telephone lines and 80 percent of its cellphone. He's used that to finance his business operations around the World. Carlos Slim Helu owns almos...

On March 18th The Seattle P.I., the website that was once connected to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, turns one year old. This month of March, and to the total surprise of this blogger, his work turned up on the "City Brights section" of Seattle P.I. It's great to at the Seattle P.I. (as it gives me a reason to focus on a city I love, Seattle) and at SFGate.com , and at Examiner.com , and at Zennie62.com, and the 100 blog network we have there, and on Youtube.com , Blip.tv , and five other video sites, and about 30 social networks and bookmarking sites and on CoLoursTV . The one problem is the Seattle P.I. appears to be using the Zennie62 RSS feed but not formatting the result. Thus, the blog posts come out without paragraph breaks, leaving one long "go" of words all mushed together. The damage is done when it reads "posted by Zennie Abraham" - it wasn't posted by Zennie Abraham. He's me, as you know. Thanks, Seattle P.I.; ple...

Anquan Boldin, a fast yet powerful and sure handed, angry-running NFL wide receiver, was acquired in a trade from the Arizona Cardinals to the Baltimore Ravens during the NFL Free Agency period. The move is yet another score in the storied career of Ravens General Manager Ozzie Newsome. The Ravens gave their third-round and fourth-round draft choices in the 2010 NFL Draft to the Cardinals for Boldin and a fifth-round pick in the same draft. But it's the Oakland Raiders who needed, and should have got, Anquan Boldin. Of all NFL teams, the Oakland Raiders lack an experienced deep threat, sure handed wide receiver who's feared in the NFL. There's no one pass-catcher on the Oakland Raiders squad that has been effective for the Oakland Raiders. And while much of the problem is due to poor coaching in the passing game, Raiders receivers have done little when they've caught the ball. Anquan Boldin would have been the perfect player around which to rebuild the Oakla...

Related searches: u.c. berkeley, california berkeley, uc action day, california education, student protests berkeley, berkeley, california, uc system protests Tomorrow is March 4th, Student Action Day in Berkeley and around the University of California's statewide campus system. Student Action Day is held to protest the dramatic tuition increases and budget cuts that have plagued U.C. system students. In the video below , The Daily Cal asks "Where will you be on March 4?" Many of the students presented said they would be in class or studying for a midterm. But as one looks around the Internet, Student Action Day is a Worldwide happening, just on different days. For example, The University of Toronto had a student action day November 5th, 2008 and there was one November 5th at the University of Ottawa. In fact, the Student Action Day was nationwide in Canada and all over the same issues that the U.C. Student Action Day is about: tuition and budget cuts. ...

Related searches: city of oakland, city and county of san francisco, california crime news, takeover robbery in san francisco, oakland eatery, restaurant news If anyone needs a sign that the economy is not what it used to be, they got one today. According to SFGate.com , a San Francisco restaurant experienced an Oakland-style robbery. Chaya Brasserie on 132 The Embarcadero was robbed by seven people, all men (no description), and all with knifes. They tied up the two people who were there at 12:15 in the morning today, Wednesday, and took money out of the cash register. This is a robbery that, in the past, as little as three years ago, would have happened in Oakland. In fact it did. In April of 2006 Grand Avenue between Lake Park (where the Grand Lake Theater is) and Mandana Avenue was haunted by a robber who first hit Smity's bar, then Bangkok Palace Restaurant. In the c ase of Bangkok Palace, one of the employees, 29-year-old Sonethavy Phomsouvandara, was shot ins...

Mariah Carey, the sultry-voiced singer and actress who performed so well in Precious , in town for a concert at the Oracle Arena Friday night, took time to thank Oakland on Twitter. This is Mariah Carey's tweet : I had so much fun last night! Thank you again Oakland! In Vegas now Baby! Come see me @ Haze @ Aria later..its about 13 hours ago via web The Oakland Tribune called the concert "flawless" and "diva-licious". That's a new one: Diva-licious. A YouTuber at the concert captured this video of Mariah Carey performing H.A.T.E.U and Hero: Stay tuned.