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Tom Gonzales, has filed a lawsuit to against East Bay Community Foundation of Oakland and to regain control of his son's charitable bequest in order to ensure that the tens of millions of dollars are spent as the younger Tom Gonzales wished. In this, the image of the East Bay Community Foundation has been damaged. The East Bay Community Foundation was originally the receiver of a bequest of $23 million from the Gonzales Foundation,and it was to be controlled by EBCF. But distribution of the money has been on hold until various tax claims involving the Gonzales estate are resolved. In a kind of fit, EBCF elected to sue the family just because EBCF has not received all of the money. I guess they forgot who it belonged to. But in doing this, the reputation of the East Bay Community Foundation has been damaged because it seems like an awardee can't trust the East Bay Community Foundation to simply hang on and be a team player. Stay tuned.

This video covers the events outside San Francisco City Hall involving the first day of legal same sex marriage in San Francisco: Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 5:38 PM. A historic news and politics event. I went with the objective of determining the opinions of people in the crowd. I even met a woman from Oakland holding a sign that read "Hetero Couples For Gay Marriage".

Ok, how does one explain an unprecedented KTVU video report on Mayor Ron Dellums spending and "high life" habits as leader of our City? Hey, Jerry Brown's not cheap either, but he never got that kind of coverage at all. Someone's out to get Dellums, and what's blocking his ability to recover his image is the fact that he does not believe in working with image-makers, the press, or PR people. That's a fact, folks. Dellums' staff has asked him to "get help" in this area, but he's resistant to the whole deal. Now, I think someone sees Dellums as vulnerable to bad press, so they piled it on. But the simple fact is that Jerry Brown also "lived it up" you just didn't read about it much, or cared. Mayor Elihu Harris didn't do that. It's not his style and he really cares about the office and what people would think. So it's not a case of someone picking on Dellums for reasons of race, just to get that out of the way, b

Javon Walker, the wide receiver the Oakland Raiders attracted from the Denver Broncos, and to which the hopes of a revived passing game were placed, was found in Las Vegas unconcious according to MVN.com . The report states that... The main problem for the Raiders is that he has an orbital fracture and this could be a serious injury. Kirby Puckett, the great Minnesota Twin outfielder had his career ended by an orbital fracture in the early 90’s due to double vision. Besides his legs and his brain, Javon Walker’s eyes are very important if he plans on being an NFL receiver. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Walker was last seen dousing patrons of the club Tryst with 15 bottles of Dom Perignon. Tryst is located at the Wynn casino. Walker, the former Bronco who was in the back of the SUV that Darrent Williams was shot and killed in was thought to have been an innocent bystander in the incident. Over this summer, rumors have leaked out that the entire scuffle had been started by

I found a website by Conde Nast called Portfolio.com and which shows the baseball stadiums that have the best -- and worst -- heath code records. The title of the article is "Foul Ballpark" and the subheading is "even the rats and flies have pretty good seats". If that's the case then one of the places with the best seats for Rats and Flies is The McAfee / Oakland Coliseum, home of the Oakland A's and the Oakland Raiders. According to the article, the home of these great teams had 493 Heath Code Violations In 2007. The website points to various online articles as the source for its conclusions. The website has Oakland front and center as a major violator in this area. It reports that food storage was so bad that food was exposed to "overhead leakage" and that "dirt, insects, rodents, and chemical contamination" was found. What's so embarrasing about this is that it happened 493 times in one year. There are only 365 days in the

One good thing about being around here for awhile with an active memory is history. I remember when Dreyer's Ice Cream proposed its giant facility for Rockridge, and many, including for a time me, were against it. One reason for this was that the original plan called for a visible College Avenue presence that was just too out of scale with the neighborhood. I say that's true for the Safeway proposal before us. This is one of those stories that needs a video and one will be up soon, but for the present, what's neat about Rockridge is that there's not one long wall of building walls hugging the street. It's a parade of structures of varied heights, allowing Sun to reach the street and giving a small-town-in-Oakland feel. But Safeway's current proposal will destroy that feeling in my view. It calls for a building that does what's not cool: hugs the street and looms over it. It would drastically alter Rockridge and make it seem more like a retail downtow

I met with Oakland's elected City Attorney and my friend John Russo the day after election day to talk about his unopposed win for a third term, how Oakland has changed, Oakland Politics and the District Three Council race, who Senator Obama should pick as his VP, what Russo's is proudest of with the evolution of his office, and the talks between the City of Oakland and the Oakland Raiders. Russo explains that the talks are between the Raiders and the Oakland / Alameda County Joint Powers Authority and that they're going well. He also confirmed that Raiders Manager of The General Partner Al Davis is not in good health and has not attended all of the meeting. As to the possibility that the Raiders would get a new stadium, he said no, but they're in agreement on the matters of concern to the Raiders. Given what I know from trying to bring the 2005 Super Bowl to Oakland (we lost to Jacksonville), that means we should expect to see an upgraded Coliseum at some point i

Oil Prices hit another record today as the price for a barrel of crude oil hit $139.12 just one day after a record of $135.09 was reached. I can't even find a gas station with a price for gas less than $4 a gallon and generally the cost is between $4.30 and $4.50 per gallon. I drive around to find the cheapest price I can, but maybe it's better not to drive at all!

It's funny what one finds about themselves. In this case, I happened to see a post from some White Supremacist guy named Chris , who has a page on something called "Podblanc", which describes itself as: About Podblanc Podblanc was founded in April 2007 as a media outlet specifically tailored to White Interests, White Culture, and White Politics around the globe. Podblanc is the leader in online video, and a premier destination to watch original videos worldwide. Everyone can watch videos on Podblanc. People can see first-hand accounts of current events, find videos about their hobbies and interests, and discover what it means to be White. As more people capture special moments on video, Podblanc is empowering them to become tomorrow’s media. Podblanc is 100% viewer and member supported. Our mission is to enlighten, educate and entertain our people. Craig Cobb, as one of the founding members, has taken the lead as Chief Content Officer. Okay! His title is: Negro Zennie A

Here's a full rundown of who-won-what on Tuesday for Alameda County races. Congrats to Supervisors Nate Miley and Keith Carson. Primary election results from Tuesday The Oakland Tribune Article Created: 06/04/2008 05:33:06 PM PDT Public-interest attorney Dennis Hayashi and prosecutor Phil Daly are headed to a November runoff for an open Superior Court judge seat in Alameda County. Hayashi and Daly were the top two vote-getters in Tuesday's election for the seat vacated by retired Judge Kenneth Kingsbury. Hayashi finished with 43 percent of the vote, while Daly received 26 percent, according to unofficial final results. A runoff is necessary since no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote. Hayashi, 55, said his candidacy was based on his beliefs in a judiciary that is independent and accessible to all while being fair and unbiased. Daly, 52, has nearly 23 years of courtroom experience and his candidacy was supported by 20 current Superior Court judges along with A

Lonnie Hancock Beat Wilma Chan For Assembly Seat And I can't say that I was totally surprised, only mildly so. It was certainly a race that benefited incumbents and Hancock, even though she's moving from Assembly to Senate, certainly is that. Good luck to you, Lonnie.

I have to admit I've seen this too many times before, including myself. Someone's upset that Nancy Nadel won District Three. (Or at least as of this writing -- hence the (*) -- it looks like she did. She had 51.7 percent of the vote, BUT there are still thousands of absentee ballots to be counted . If Nancy falls below 50 percent, then Sean Sullivan gets to challenge her again for a November do-over. But here's the next BUT: absentee ballots tend to follow the Election Day voting trend , so I continue...) In the past, it was Clinton Killian, who ran against her and lost in the 90s. Then Hector Reyna. Someone once tried to get me to run against her, but even though I thought Nancy was neglecting the area of Grand Avenue between Mac Arthur and Harrison, I know that I've never wanted to run for office and have always enjoyed the role of King / Queen Maker. Knock it off with the "Oh Brother" comment, will ya? Look. I can't remember a time when every

Ignacio De La Fuente, the Oakland District Five Councilmember and President of the Oakland City Council and whom was endorsed by this blog and blogger in his campaign run against a worthy challenger in Mario Juarez, won the votes to not only remain in office, but in getting over 50 percent of the vote, avoided a run-off against Juarez. Still, De La Fuente was not able to be there at "Guadalahara" restaurant in the Fruitvale area to celebrate the victory last night. As it was told to me -- I was there -- his uncle was very ill so Ignacio went to Mexico to be with him. My prayers go out to him.

The as yet unwritten and not covered story of this election and of Oakland politics is the steady and sure success of Oakland's first elected City Attorney John Russo. Russo just won his third term as Oakland City Attorney unopposed. John was my friend long before he became either councilmember or the city's lawyer, so I have watched and witnessed the principaled moves that got him to his current level of success. Moreover, the simple fact that I have been and still am his friend speaks volumes for his loyalty to those he's known for a long time, even as he rises in political circles. It also means that we haven't done anything to really piss off each other over 17 years. Wow, that long? Russo's had few misteps, the only one being his decision to challenge Sandre Swanson for the California Assembly seat Swanson has filled well and just successfully retained. Otherwise, John's success has been remarkable. But where John could have failed while if office, he

Oakland District Three Councilmember Nancy Nadel retained her seat and assured that there would be no November runoff election, as she captured over 50 percent of the vote. Here are the totals, below: Contest # of Votes % of Total Nancy Nadel 3576 51.65 Sean Sullivan 1873 27.05 Gregory Hodge 1435 20.73 Write-in 40 0.58 As I wrote earlier, the low voter turnout favored incumbents like Nadel. As this study by the Institute of Research On Public Policy shows, areas that have high income, university-educated people, and where the unemployment is higher and the immigrant populations are largr, it can be argued that Oakland, even in Adams Point, has it's share of problems that caused this low turnout. Also, the challenging candidates didn't do enough to tell their stories to people around them, like me. And they didn't have Nancy's track record of doing "nuts and bolts" constituent work. For example, I backed Nancy and

The split primary proved to be a major disappointment to those hoping for another large election turnout. Without the excitement of the Presidential Race, where Barack Obama gave a rousing speech after he became the presumptive Democratic Nominee, and perhaps due to a desire to stay and home and see history in the making, only 24 percent of registered voters participated in this election yesterday (it's about 3 AM now.) Here are the numbers: Reg / Turnout Percentage Total Registration 725098 Election Day Reporting Ballots Cast 69642 9.60 Absentee Reporting Ballots Cast 106093 14.63 Total Ballots Cast 175735 24.24 Normally, such low turnout numbers favor incumbents, and that's what happened today.

Ok, here's the Oakland Focus endorsement list for Election Day, today. The difference between Oakland Focus and Oakland Tribune is that the Tribune just stamped in the council incumbents, whereas we think it's time for change in some districts. - State Senate District 9: (Richmond and stretches south through Berkeley, Piedmont, Oakland and eastward to Castro Valley, Dublin, Livermore and the county line) This is termed-out Sen. Don Perata's district. Democrat nomination: Wilma Chan. - Assembly District 14: (Richmond, Berkeley and stretches eastward to Pleasant Hill, Lamorinda) Democratic nomination: Tony Thurmond. - Assembly District 18: (Dublin, portions of Pleasanton, Castro Valley, Hayward and Sa - Leandro) Democratic nomination: Mary Hayashi (I). - Alameda County Board of Supervisors, District 4: (East Oakland, Oakland Hills, Castro Valley, Ashland, Cherryland, Fairview and Dublin) Nate Miley (I) - Alameda County Board of Education District 3: John Bernard; District 2

Here are the Oakland Tribune endorsements released today, election day: Oakland Tribune endorsements Article Created: 06/02/2008 01:38:10 PM PDT - State Senate District 9: (Richmond and stretches south through Berkeley, Piedmont, Oakland and eastward to Castro Valley, Dublin, Livermore and the county line) This is termed-out Sen. Don Perata's district. Democrat nomination: Wilma Chan. - Assembly District 14: (Richmond, Berkeley and stretches eastward to Pleasant Hill, Lamorinda) Democratic nomination: Tony Thurmond. - Assembly District 18: (Dublin, portions of Pleasanton, Castro Valley, Hayward and Sa - Leandro) Democratic nomination: Mary Hayashi (I). - Alameda County Board of Supervisors, District 4: (East Oakland, Oakland Hills, Castro Valley, Ashland, Cherryland, Fairview and Dublin) No Recommendation - Alameda County Board of Education District 3: John Bernard; District 2: Conchita Tucker - Alameda County Superior Court Judge: John Bernard OAKLAND - Oakland City Council Distri

IT'S ELECTION DAY - GO VOTE We will have recaps late Tuesday and into Wednesday morning. And also a brief on who and what to vote for in local SF and Oakland races. ...That is all.

I saw today's Adams Point Yahoo Message Board email to me and this bit of news stuck out like a sore thumb: I don't have a lot of details, however, here's what I heard from my neighbor (who doesn't have internet) My neighbor, a young woman, was waiting for a ride from friends at @ midnight on Weds at the corner of Jayne & Lee. A foreign make car (Corolla?) drove up Lee from Vernon, turned onto Jayne and doubleparked. Two young men got out of the car and chased the young woman who tried to hide out in one of the apartment buildings on Lee. They caught her and took her purse at gunpoint, ran back to their car and drove away. My neighbor describes the attack as opportunistic--the guys in the car saw her and decided to relieve her of her cash, cards and keys. The assault and robbery have been reported to the police The good news: She's not hurt--just scared. The bad news: she lost her purse we have armed robbers cruising the neighborhood. Please be careful. and this