Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

Yes 59933 54.95 No 49145 45.05

Rebecca Kaplan 61431 61.95 Kerry Hamill 36845 37.16 Rebecca Kaplan finally scored a victory she's worked hard to get for years; she deserves it.  More on her victory later. 

Yes 66828 61.46 No 41903 38.54 Data from the Alameda County Registrar of Voters.. Measure N increases teacher pay in Oakland to attract and retain instructors.  

DEM - Loni Hancock 183253 76.59 REP - Claudia Bermúdez 37376 15.62 PF - Marsha Feinland 18075 7.55

 Dennis Hayashi 222457 61.36  Phil Daly 136806 37.74 According to the registrar of voters, here's the results of the race for Alameda County Superior Court Judge.  Dennis Hayashi, whom I endorsed, won. 

According to the Alameda County Registrar of Voters  , Alameda County had 803, 009 registered voters, and 448, 597 cast ballots.  That's over 55 percent, 55.86 percent to be exact, and a record turnout.  That means just over 1 of every two people registered in the county, voted.  

Looking for an election party in Oakland or the East Bay?  Thanks to " The O-Scene  " there's a full list.  Look below: Everett and Jones Election Block Party They’ll be dancing in the streets or crying in their barbecue around Jack London Square. The street in front of Everett and Jones will be closed off for music and dancing, and various elected officials are scheduled to address the crowd. “American Idol” singer LaToya London, R&B singers Avant and D’Wayne Wiggins and hip-hop reggae artist Trinidad headline the event. Free 6pm-1am Everett and Jones 126 Broadway, Oakland West Oakland Election Party So you live in West Oakland and think there’s nothing going on Election Night? Think again! Watch the elections on two big screens, music by DJ Reggie and Bruno Zaire of the Full Moon DJ Crew, catered by Popo’s Pizza, featuring specialty pizzas & mouth watering barbecue. Volunteers welcome. Free 5:30-11pm Continental Club 1658 12th St, Oakland 510.444

My endorsements are "right down to the wire" but here they are and I explain my selections in my video above and I will update the text with my reasons. Barack Obama / Joe Biden - President of the United States Barbara Lee - Congressperson District Nine Loni Hancock - California State Senator Sandre Swanson - California State Assemblyperson Dennis Hayashi - Alameda County Superior Court Judge Rebecca Kaplan - City of Oakland At-Large Council Seat Chris Peebles - AC Transit Board Greg Harper - AC Transit Board Proposition 1A - NO on High Speed Rail Proposition 2 - NO Proposition 3 - Yes Proposition 4 NO (What about homeless kids) Proposition 5 - Yes Proposition 6 - Yes Proposition 7 - NO Proposition 8 - BIG NO Proposition 9 - NO Proposition 10 - YES Proposition 11 - NO Proposition 12 - Yes Oakland Measures Measure N - Yes Measure MM - Yes Proposition OO - Yes Proposition VV - Yes Proposition WW - Yes

This is said.  Only 31 years old, Skakir Stewart, the 31 year old vice president of Def Jam Records, died outside of Atlanta, GA of a "self-inflicted gun shot wound."  Why he would do that is anyone's guess.  He seemed to have the World on a string. This is a kind of bio on him: Shakir Stewart was born in Oakland, California and realized very early that the music "business" was his destiny. In 1989, Shakir worked the neighborhood music scene as a club promoter. Recognizing that his flair for marketing and promoting had limitless potential, Shakir enrolled in Morehouse College, in Atlanta, Georgia and in 1996, graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Marketing. During his years at Morehouse, Shakir became known in the then, budding, "dirty south", as a concert promoter; promoting for top notch talents like Luke, Scarface, Nas, Too Short to name a few. Immediately after graduating, he incorporated the art of negotiating into his marketing & p

Senator Obama in the last stretch of his nearly two years campaign goes back to his message of uniting America between the Red States and the Blue States. It won't be an easy task, especially after the divisive campaign of Sarah Palin. She has being on the trail calling her supporters " real Americans ". The healing process will take time. read more | digg story

The rise this year of a host of new Web video sites targeting high-minded, edifying content suggests that today's marketplace of ideas is rapidly moving online. From interviews with obscure geniuses to splashy marquee names and hoary conference proceedings, an entire back catalog of cerebral Web video is steadily accumulating online. read more | digg story

I feel I'm more qualified than most to make this assertion: Mayor Ron Dellums YouTube page channel is a year late and lousy.  Why a year late?  Because I'm the person who told the Mayor's communications staff they needed a YouTube channel, among other things.  This came at a lunch I had last year with one of Dellums' communcations staffers who would regularly contact me.   I had considered writing a proposal for my company to be their new media consultant, but then thought better of it when I realized I may be giving up this blog's ability to write what it pleased unless I contractually asked for it.  Then I also pondered that writing such a proposal may just give them basic answers for free.  So I pulled back.   But over lunch, this YouTube page is one idea I said was basic.  But it's not enough to have one, and there's a lot of problems with the channel. For example the video on Dellums speaking at the Cathedral of Christ the Light has only 101 view

After getting beat physically on the road by the Baltimore Ravens, the Raiders came home to face the Atlanta Falcons. The results were even worse. The Raiders offense put up a performance worse than anything conjured up during the heyday of the Tom Walsh "Bed and Breakfast" offense. read more | digg story

My friend Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey was murdered by a person dressed in Black in a ski mask while walking to work at 7:30 AM August 2nd, 2007.  While one person claimed that he was the murderer, this has not been confirmed via evidence and a coverup is said to have occurred either by an Oakland Police officer or officers and member of Your Black Muslim Bakery -- or both.  Or the story is more complicated than that.  Regardless, it's been over a year, and we're not closer to a resolution of this question of who murdered Bailey.   The Chauncey Bailey Project CBP has done work on the matter, but seems more interested in applying for awards than solving the crime.  The CBP staff page includes links to "old media" people in newspapers, but no blogs or bloggers.    So with that, I'm starting The Chauncey Bailey Blogger Project.  The main objective of this project is to increase the number of works on this matter and build a list of evidence elements and

In the matter of determining just really who murdered Chauncey Bailey last year and why, I just talked with another source who personally w as ups et that Sargent Derwin Longmire was being accused of wrong doing.  "Longmire was interfering with the case of another investigator who was over the Yusuf Bey case (where Bey is the CEO of Your Black Muslim Bakery), and who was very upset with him because of his actions.  This other investigator told Longmire that it was not his case to be involved with" said my source, who talked on condition of   anonyimity .    The question is why did Longmire get involved with the Yusuf Bey case?  The Oakland Tribune reported that the persons involved would not talk with them.  But what they mean is they would not speak on the record.   My source contends with vigor that Longmire "is a good, upstanding police investigator.  A good man".   The source says that the entire matter has been turned over to Oakland Police's Internal

You can vote early in the 2008 General Election with a visit to the Alameda County Courthouse at 12225 Fallon Street in Oakland from 10 am to 5 pm Sunday and 8:30 am to 5 PM Monday.  Click for the map here  :

I've not yet confirmed this with Robert Bobb himself, but two sources have explained to me today that former Oakland City Manager Robert Bobb has resigned from his position as a consultant with  Public Financial Management Inc.  -- the assertion from one source is that he did so to become Oakland's next City Administrator, replacing former City Adminstrator Debra Edgerly, who was fired in July of this year.   Bobb has been going back and forth, in and out of Oakland as part of a consulting engagement that saw the public service veteran analyze various aspects of Oakland management and operations in an effort to determine why the government's not working as it should and why service delivery has been so poor.   The possibility of Bobb's return was a focus on a recent debate between the two At Large City Council candidates Rebecca Kaplan and Kerry Hamill.  Both were rather lukewarm to the idea of his possible return, with Hamill more along the commentary of "I

In the ongoing, but not well-progressing process of determining who killed Chauncey Bailey ( see my conversation with Paul Cobb of the Oakland Post  ) and why, The Chauncey Bailey Project has uncovered a problem: the alledged actions of Oakland Police Sargent   Derwin Longmire that are related to Yusuf Bey, the former CEO of Your Black Muslim Bakery.  The Oakland Tribune Reports: OAKLAND - Well before the August 2007 killing of journalist Chauncey Bailey, detective Sgt. Derwin Longmire twice interfered in felony investigations of former Your Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV, according to police documents obtained and interviews conducted during a yearlong investigation by the Chauncey Bailey Project. In both cases, Bey IV was charged with crimes despite Longmire's actions. In one, he continued to talk to Bey IV about one case after an investigator told him not to, according to police documents. In the other case, he tried to get evidence returned to the Bey family be

  Paul Cobb is a long-time Oakland, California writer, activist, community organizer and now publisher of the Oakand Post. I met Paul at his office in Downtown Oakland to talk about a wide range of subjects, but the two I was most interested in talking about were who killed Chauncey Bailey and what Paul thought about the current Mayor of Oakland, Ron Dellums.   Bailey was an Oakland journalist who was supposedly murdered by people associated with Your Black Muslim Bakery (YBMB) on August 2, 2007.  But Cobb and others believe that the chain of events that led to someone, perhaps Devaughndre Broussard of YBMB,  murdering a journalist in the line of duty is more complicated and may lead to people and institutions one would not expect. Cobb's assertions regarding the relationship between Bailey and members of the Oakland Police Department would seem to match the concerns expressed in this website article by the Chauncey Bailey Project .  The person who shot Bailey was wearing a s