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As this blog post is written, President Barack Obama's undoubtedly holding court in San Francisco's Masonic Auditorium . And while a substantial crowd turned out to see him, well into the 2,000 range if not more by estimate, there were some protestors. Frankly, only a handful of them and far out-numbered by Obama supporters. Including this blogger. The San Francisco Police officers I talked to said that everything was orderly, or as one cop put it: "Well, we haven't had to arrest anyone and take them to jail." Which makes an officers job easy: all they had to do was stand around and watch, and there were a lot of them who did that. Police and security were all around the Masonic and the Nob Hill area, from two blocks uphill to two blocks downhill, and even on the roof of the theater itself. Everywhere you looked, security was superbly visible. I didn't stay long enough to get a glimpse of the President's vehicle, but I did have a number of...

This, in a strange way, is a follow-up to my blog of Sunday called Oakland Rapper Alleged Sex Predator? It started with a totally unrelated phone call from a friend, who asked me to cover a rally planned for the Wednesday of this week; the rally featured in the video that was made today. Oakland's faced with an enormous problem: human trafficking. Human trafficking is where children, girls, are literally bought and sold for sex. According to the FBI, Oakland has been a hotbed for this activity, and has maintained this distinction since 2003. The rally, organized by Nola Brantley, the Executive Director of Missey.org , (in photo) met at 19th and International Boulevard today, and drew a crowd of about 200 people, including Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, who then marched down the street, some carrying signs of protest against the activity. How bad is it? It's so bad that a prostitute was seen on that corner at about 10:30 AM that morning, and one onlooker said he could not...

Just about five minutes ago, the office where I work out of my home shook just enough for me to wonder if it was a bus crash into the building or an earthquake. One check of Twitter revealed it to be the latter: CesarQuintero Cesar Quintero RT @beckyfc: @moshbrown Well, it IS the 105th anniversary of the earthquake that destroyed SF in 1906. Perhaps it was a commemoration quake. 42 seconds ago Favorite Retweet Reply Yep. On the day when the Bay Area remembers the giant 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, the earth shook, and it wasn't planned. It was small, some felt it, others did not: amandamaiyang amanda mai yang i didn't feel the earthquake, because i have been convulsing from coffee withdrawl 2 minutes ago Here are the details right from the website of the U.S. Geological Survey: Magnitude 3.8 Date-Time Monday, April 18, 2011 at 21:57:19 UTC Monday, April 18, 2011 at 02:57:19 PM at epicenter Location 37.597°N, 122.455°W Depth 13.6 km (8.5 miles)...

A shocking and unfortunate story was relayed to this blogger by a source recently. A very famous, well-known Oakland rapper is accused by two sources of being a sexual predator, who asks young women, in some cases underaged, if they need a ride in his car, then he "talks sex talk" to them, takes them to his home, where he proceeds to try and have sex with them - to allegedly rape them. As bad as that story reads, it doesn't always go well for him. The Oakland Rapper's last alleged victim was very talented at protecting herself, and is the daughter of the friend of my source who came forward with the story. My source talked to the friend just two days ago. Her daughter, to protect herself from the Oakland Rapper who tried to rape her, was said to have hit him over the head with a fire hydrant, then tazed him, and finally kicked him in the private area. The Oakland Rappers is also said to "hang out" at a media facility in downtown Oakland. It...

Today is undoubtedly the quietest Saturday this video-blogger has enjoyed in quite a while. And since it's the day before Palm Sunday and Holy Week, it's fitting. The idea of a visit to church is at least in my head; let's see if I will at least translate it to action. Frankly, the feeling of not being pressured to be somewhere at a certain time - for an event or a plane flight - is a nice one. I think God will forgive me. If memory serves (and it should serve well, even after one-too-many glasses of scotch on during a fun Thursday evening I can still remember - can't do that anymore - and courtesy of my friend Mr. Tagami), two weeks ago, Thursday, I hit the ground, running: 1) Got off a plane from Georgia, where I was visiting Mom and has become my second home, and was off to a Flip Video Camera presentation meeting that I was told was cancelled via email, and as I was in the air. And we now know what happened to Flip Camera at the hands of Cisco. (Save Fli...

Well, congratulations are in order for Oakland City Attorney John Russo, who was just offered the Alameda City Manager position, and considering the climate in Oakland, that he got the job at all was a blessing for him. Russo was painted into a corner in several ways. First, Oakland's enormous budget problems caused him to pair down the City Attorney's Office. Second, the election of Oakland Councilmember Jean Quan as Mayor of Oakland gave him a person more an adversary than an advocate to work with. Third, the counter-reaction to the Oakland Gang Injunction Program threatened to give Russo the first serious challenge to his office in the next election, should he have remained in Oakland. Plus, John's in his 50s with two twin boys; he's not getting younger and it's time to be at a place where there's just less stress and bullshit. And frankly, Oakland City Hall was becoming more like a high school than a government office, with factions, cliques, games, ...

This really hurts. Discovering the passing of this blogger's long time friend Richard Winnie via social media leaves a mix of emotions. Richard, Mr. Winnie to some, boss, to others, Alameda County Council to more, and godfather and friend to many, was and always will be my friend. Richard represents a good 20 years of my 48 years life, and most of that talking about the politics of Oakland. But that was a subset. A side event. Richard spontaneously remembered my birthday, and about a few weeks before August 4th, made sure to call, or have his secretary call, me to set his schedule so we could meet. And we did, and always at 7:30 AM. For anyone who knows how much that time of morning is a pain in the butt to deal with for me, it was a pleasure knowing I was going to meet Richard. Richard Winnie was one of the few people who actually bothered to take me aside and be a mentor. I didn't have to ask him or approach him, or drop a name. It was just the way he was.   ...