Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

Alana Nguyen , the new Executive Director of SFGate.com, has blocked Zennie62 from further blog postings on the website of the San Francisco Chronicle. The exact reason for the sudden action wasn't stated in the email sent to announce it, but emails and conversations the day before pointed to a sudden concern for a blog subject Zennie62 (Zennie Abraham) has covered before: why the mainstream media failed to ask Texas Governor Rick Perry about allegations that he's Gay or had a Gay relationship with the now former Secretary of State Geoff Connor. Nguyen, who was found by SFGate.com while she was managing editor at YardBarker, has a law degree from Stanford, but is best known for her work at YardBarker, and her time as AOL's "Miss Gossip for AOL FanHouse. She started with the website in September, and it seems wants to make changes. But one of the talks Nguyen and this blogger had was regarding the City Brights program. The disclaimer says that City Brights blogge...

In the ongoing story of the City of Oakland, Occupy Oakland, Mayor Jean Quan, and the Oakland Police, comes this interesting new blog post by the Oakland Police Officers Association.   The blog post is all well and good; until the part that reads "Oakland is struggling – we need real leaders NOW who will step up and lead – not send mixed messages."  A big ouch to Mayor Quan Read on: An Open Letter to the Citizens of Oakland from the Oakland Police Officers’ Association 1 November 2011 – Oakland, Ca. We represent the 645 police officers who work hard every day to protect the citizens of Oakland. We, too, are the 99% fighting for better working conditions, fair treatment and the ability to provide a living for our children and families. We are severely understaffed with many City beats remaining unprotected by police during the day and evening hours. As your police officers, we are confused. On Tuesday, October 25th, we were ordered by Mayor Quan to clear out the encampm...

A bit of catching up to do on Oakland News, so here we go. Occupy Oakland Occupy Oakland continues to "occupy" the collective minds of Oakland and much of America, just one week after Oakland's Brutal Tuesday, where police and Occupy Oakland protestors clashed. The result were some injuries to protesters - one fatal and to Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen. After suffering in critical condition for some time, the good new is that Olsen is out of that status, and is recovering. Mr. Olsen was visited by both the Mayor of Oakland, Jean Quan, and Interim Police Chief Howard Jordan. And in related news, Jordan got to the media to defend the actions of the police who hurt Olsen. Jordan said “I want to ensure you that all allegations of misconduct and excessive uses of force are being thoroughly investigated by internal and external investigative sources,’’ Jordan said. “I am confident in our abilities to conduct thorough and fair investigations into the actions of p...

The Oakland News is dominated by the Oakland Raiders trade for now-former Cincinnati Bengals Quarterback Carson Palmer . In case you missed it, here's the first seven minutes of today's press conference at Raiders Headquarters: What cracked me up about the start of the press conference was that Coach Jackson said "There's a report out there that this deal was Hue Jackson's.." And then went on to congratulate the Raiders Organization. At that time, the number one Google News result in a search for " Carson Palmer" was "Carson Palmer Trade To Raiders Has Hue Jackson Mark " - by this blogger! Some of the questions concerned Palmer's quitting the Bengals in protest, and wondered if he still has passion for the game. I think of it as the reverse: the fact that Carson quit in protest means he has passion for pro football. The Lawsuit Against CEDA On Code Enforcement I got this email today that was sent by Gwin Martin and to M...

In Oakland's political history, or at least since Mayor Lionel Wilson, no Mayor of this town has ever been associated with a speech that could even be twisted as having a racial or ethnic bias. And for two basic reasons: 1) it's not in step with Oakland's wonderful melting pot, and the pride of diversity expressed by Oaklanders for decades, and 2), it's just politically stupid to do in California, let alone much of urban America. That's what makes Oakland Mayor Jean Quan's recent speech given before a San Francisco Chinese community organization all the more unfortunate. This blogger cyber-walked over the video today, and while searching for videos regarding Occupy Oakland. The objective was to find any video showing Mayor Quan talking with Occupy Oakland protestors, but the keywords "Occupy Oakland Quan" didn't yield the immediate desired result. But what stopped the presses was a video with this title: "Mayor Jean Quan says Chinese ...

The email from the City of Oakland's media contact had a title that was clear as a bell: "Oakland City Administrator Appoints Howard A. Jordan as Interim Chief of Police." So, this blogger immediately thought it was a misprint. After all, the Oakland City Charter that now-California Governor, and then Mayor Jerry Brown worked hard to get Oakland voters to change to give the Mayor of Oakland the power to make one key appointment and to be responsible for showing "community leadership." To that end, every Mayor of Oakland has presented their choice for Chief of Police, even as it's really the task of the City Administrator. With Jerry Brown and Robert Bobb, the selection was Richard Word. Under Mayor Ron Dellums, Anthony Batts was the choice, and Dellums led the press conference to introduce him: Even though the Oakland City Charter gives the Mayor the power to appoint only the City Administrator, that hasn't stopped Mayors Brown and Dellums from ...