Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

The Oakland Mayor's Race is heating up, and with Joe Tuman in the spotlight, yet again. All of this because Tuman has become a serious threat to Mayoral Candidates Don Perata, and Councilmembers Rebecca Kaplan and Jean Quan, the elected officials considered front runners in the Oakland Mayor's Race. Yesterday in this space it was reported that Tuman so frustrated San Francisco Chronicle Reporter Matthai Kuruvali that he placed his head in his hands and on the table in a photo that, until closer inspection, looked like Kuruvali was banging his head. While the full report on the "heated discussion" is coming soon, knowing Tuman and the overall landscape, as well as what information's come in, the tone of the conversation between Tuman and Kuruvali was undoubtedly shaped by Kuruvali's desire to prove that when it comes to Oakland politics and policy, he thinks Tuman's a novice. Knowing Joe, he never relented to Kuruvali's dogged attempt to trip hi...

If you think the Oakland Mayor's Race can't get under the skin of some people who say they're not "getting involved," try looking at this photo of San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer Matthai Kuruvali, who placed his head on the table of the board room at the San Francisco Chronicle as if he'd had enough of something.  In the background is Oakland Mayoral Candidate Joe Tuman, who seems just calm and collected. What's interesting is that Matthai Kuruvali tweeted on Twitter. . matthai matthai kuruvila - Just to be clear, I'm not on the ed board and I'm not involved in the decision, but I'll be there for the interview and will ask questions. Yeah. Right. According to SFGate.com intern Ali Thanawalla, Matthai Kuruvali got into what Ali calls "a heated discussion" and a "funny moment" and Ai reports on both Flickr and on Twitter : After a heated discussion with Oakland mayoral candidate Joe Tuman, writer Matth...

The Oakland Mayor's Race becomes even more fun. Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan (At-Large) got the endorsement of The Oakland Tribune , much to the surprise of some, not here, but how much help it will do is questionable. The Trib's not the power it was in the past, but hey, we're talking about it, right? Indeed, that, combined with the giant Grand Lake Theater sign ads for Joe Tuman, may have boosted him to near-front runner status. Why? Because Tuman was the Tribune's second choice (and The East Bay Express as well), and the same pub trashed Former Senator Don Perata, saying his lack of knowledge of key Oakland issues was "appalling." Not sure the Tribune, and that would be it's editor Martin Reynolds, is correct when he bashes the field of Oakland mayoral candidates as "weak" because when compared to past years, it's actually rather strong. Now, if Marty has some kind of wish list of candidates for this round, he has yet to present ...

Oakland Children's Hospital is being plagued by a nurses strike as this is written. As a fan of Children's Hospital and its staff, the current situation does not reflect how hard they've worked to keep the establishment a going concern in a tough economy. This blogger is not anti-union, but some unions need to be called out when they're not playing to work with administration, but against it. Such is the California Nurses Association. Someone's paying attention. Namely, Nancy Shibata, RN, MSN, Chief Nursing Officer, Children’s Hospital Oakland, who sent this opinion piece to be ran in this space: CNA Nurses Union Out of Touch With Current Economic Realities At Children's Hospital Oakland By Nancy Shibata, RN, MSN Chief Nursing Officer, Children’s Hospital Oakland Ironically, the high cost of health insurance is a difficult problem for hospitals today. Over the past 5 years, health insurance benefit costs have risen for Children's by 80 perce...

San Francisco is fortunate to be hosting not one, but two separate international art shows, one featuring antique, textile and oriental carpets and the other focusing on tribal arts from Africa, Oceania, the Americas, and Asia during this next week October 12th to 17th. It's the 2nd annual Antique Rug and Textile Show at The Motel Capri, at 2015 Greenwich St., in San Francisco’s Marina District. The event features more than 40 internationally renowned rug and textile dealers who will set up their wares in a bazaar-like setting in the Motel Capri. Show Starts Next Week Opening night of the rug and textile show begins at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 12th, and the show continues Wednesday – Sunday, Oct. 13 - Oct, 17, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. The show and sale is free. For more information on this event, visit: www.artaa.org . A number of daily special exhibitions on Tibetan, Chinese and oriental carpets will be held as well as daily lectures for beginners, all offered free. The 6th a...

The first Oakland All Female Bartender Competition at Pican and by Grand Marnier and Zennie62 was held Tuesday night, and by all accounts, was successful. Well, except for this blogger, who's Zennie62 name was given as a sponsor - online marketing work was provided - yet, from the impression I received, no one at the event knew that I sponsored it. That even with the emails exchanged where I did agree to sponsor it, and also agreed to put up the Grand Manier logo on the blog posts.  Plus, I agreed to make a blog about the event and did so . But for all this, didn't even get a bottle of Grand Marnier. United 747 Flight Delayed What was vexing was that my United 747 Flight 973 from Chicago was delayed over three hours, which hampered my plan to show up at 6:30 PM PDT, which was when the event started. Instead, the flight was delayed two hours, then we sat on the tarmac at the gate for another hour . I called and emailed Josh at Pican to explain I would be late; I gue...

There can be no question that the greatest obstacle to rectifying Oakland’s public safety crisis is our grossly understaffed police department. There is a direct correlation between a decrease in the visibility of police officers on our streets and the disproportionate incidences of violent crime that plague Oakland. Simply put, greater police presence decreases the willingness of people to engage in violent crime; less police presence increases that willingness. This is particularly true among those individuals involved in criminal enterprises, such as drug-dealing and other gang-related activities. For these individuals, crime is a business and, like all rational capitalists, they seek the greatest return for the least investment, while attempting to avoid regulatory oversight. In terms of the street-level criminal capitalist, that oversight is provided by patrol officers. A consistently visible police presence inhibits the ability of these criminals to conduct the...