Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

More at SFGate.com : “(01-02) 23:22 PST -- McClymonds senior guard Will Cherry didn't score until the second quarter, but he provided plenty of buckets when the defending state champions finally awoke from an early slumber Friday night. Cherry poured in 26 points and host McClymonds, The Chronicle's top-ranked team, beat Fairfield 66-45 in a physical, turnover-laden game between Division I schools. It was the 45th straight victory for the Oakland school, which improved to 13-0.”

More at Inside Bay Area : “OAKLAND — The trial of Devaughndre Broussard, charged with murder in the August 2007 killing of journalist Chauncey Bailey, is unlikely to begin until late March, it was decided Friday. Broussard's attorney, LeRue Grim, said during a brief appearance in Alameda County Superior Court that he was not yet prepared for trial and asked for a postponement. Judge Joseph Hurley set another hearing for Jan. 30. "Hopefully, we set a trial date at that time," Hurley said. Prosecutor Christopher Lamiero did not object. Broussard, who was working as handyman at the now defunct Your Black Muslim Bakery, stands accused of gunning down Bailey on Aug. 2, 2007. He recanted a confession he now says was false to protect bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV. Broussard is the only person charged in the Bailey case. Bey IV is jailed awaiting trial in an unrelated kidnapping and torture case for which he and three co-defendants face life sentences if convicted. They are also exp

More at Inside Bay Area : “OAKLAND — Henry Chang didn't want a job as an Oakland City councilman. He had served on the Planning Commission and Board of Port Commissioners, but a job on the city's legislative board seemed unappealing. "I always told myself before that I would never be a council member, because it was crazy to be a council member," he said. "You know, people beat you up, all these things. I would rather be on the other side and know the council members ... but I sure did not want to be on their side." That changed when a dying Frank Ogawa made it clear he wanted Chang as his replacement as the city's citywide council representative. Chang was appointed in 1994 to fill the seat when Ogawa died. Fast forward to 2009 and Chang, 74, is retiring after a 14-year stint in the chamber. Voters sent him to City Hall three times following his appointment. Chang will be replaced Monday by Rebecca Kaplan, who, at 38, is barely half his age.” -- Henry C

More at Inside Bay Area : “RICHMOND — News this week of arrests in the Dec. 13 gang rape of a lesbian brought relief to many in the community, some of whom were so outraged that they led police to breaks in the case. But even as the resolution is lauded, gay-rights advocates and local and national crime statistics portray a gloomy truth about hate crimes against people based on their sexual orientation. Until the root causes of bias toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are addressed, "we'll continue to have hate perpetrated against us," said Shawna Virago, a program director for the San Francisco-based advocacy group Community United Against Violence. The group reported 304 crimes against Bay Area gays in 2007, the latest year for which complete statistics were available. That amounted to an approximate 6 percent increase from 2006.” -- What I want to know is who's doing this and why? What's the deal?

I made this 12Seconds.tv video as a quick response to the Brooklyn (Oakland) blogs assertion that John Russo should run for Mayor of Oakland: on 12seconds.tv

More from "BIG VINNY" : “MASS LAYOFFS AT BAY AREA TV/RADIO TO BEGIN NEW YEAR; TED ROBINSON AS NEW 49ER VOICE: CLOSE HAPPY NEW YEAR? AS 2009 hITS, A "HUGE" AMOUNT OF INDUSTRY PINK SLIPS WILL FLOOD THE SF-OAKLAND RADIO/TV MARKET, THE NATION'S 4th LARGEST. AN INDUSTRY SOURCE SAYS RADIO WILL GET THE BRUNT OF THE HITS, PARTICULARY THE "SECONDARY" SOURCES STATIONS USE, LIKE METRO TRAFFIC. KGO RADIO, OWNED BY CITIDEL, WILL SEE SIGNIFICANT LAYOFFS, AS WILL KNBR, OWNED BY ATLANTA'S CUMULUS BROADCASTING. THE SOURCE OF THE LAYOFFS? CONTINUING AD REVENUE SHRUNK TO RECORD LOWS DUE TO A STRUGLING ECONOMY. WATCH FOR DETAILS” Richard Liberman, AKA "Big Vinny", has done a great job covering the Bay Area Media scene. Visit his blog at bigvinnysbayarea.blogspot.com

More at The Oakland Tribune From the Trib: "OAKLAND — Barring any deadly New Year's Eve revelry, Oakland is poised to finish with 124 homicides in 2008, three fewer than the 127 recorded in 2007. Regarding numbers, it is not much of a change. But in a city where homicides seem to get more public interest than other crimes and in a city looking for any kind of good news when it comes to crime, it was reason for optimism. "I'm the eternal optimist," Assistant Police Chief Howard Jordan said Wednesday. "Three less is better than three more. But we are not satisfied with that, and we will work harder to get those numbers down to double-digit reductions." There were eight homicides in December, six fewer than in December 2007. One of the eight was a man who died from a beating in April. Another was a determination through new evidence that what had been considered an accidental killing in July was actually a homicide."

This video by YoutTuber rebeccabelin1 was created at ACote restaurant in Oakland on College Avenue New Year's Eve. It's just people -- hey, no one of color? -- saying some funny things. The camera holder says she looks like a Transvestite. A man says that the Flip Video camera she is using -- I use one -- looks like a cream sickle. I must agree. The only misgiving I have about this fun time is that all of the people in the video are, well, White. And I wonder what goes on where some folks in Oakland don't have racially diverse friendship bases. Undoubtely the person would say they have friends of color, but are they more acquaintances than friends? Friends are people you invite to join you at events like that one. They're the people you make a call to, not just see on the street. I hope the folks in the video make a concerted effort to have a friendship base that's racially diverse in the future. That's the real strength of Oakland, or at least it was.

This is another great "JibJab" video, this one on our California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. As JibJab put it: "This funny video has Arnold Schwarzenegger going after the governor's office, and he won't take no for an answer. Part political satire, part action movie block buster, all hilarious. Hasta La Vista, Davis!" It's a funny retrospective as we head toward the 2010 race for California Governor, one that's paced by California Attorney General Jerry Brown and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

This is shocking and hurtful news.  Diane was a force in the Oakland business community, not just for Blacks, but for Oaklanders.  Her Black Business.  The Globe Newspaper reports: Renowned throughout the Bay Area for her steadfast commitment to the African American community, Howell used Black Business Listings, Black Expo and SEEDS as her platform on which to advocate on behalf of African American businesses. A social and political powerbroker in her own right, Howell used her multifaceted enterprise to promote issues of economic empowerment, education access and political and social activism in every way conceivable. A native of Chicago, Howell was born on July 20, 1950, to Doris Howell and the late William Howell. She was baptized at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., and was confirmed at St. Edmond’s Episcopal Church in Chicago. Ever active in her faith community, Howell was a longstanding member of the Oakland-based East Bay Church of Religious Science, under the l

More at the Tribune From Tribune: ANTIOCH, Calif.—As more and more black renters began moving into this mostly white San Francisco Bay Area suburb a few years ago, neighbors started complaining about loud parties, mean pit bulls, blaring car radios, prostitution, drug dealing and muggings of schoolchildren. In 2006, as the influx reached its peak, the police department formed a special crime-fighting unit to deal with the complaints, and authorities began cracking down on tenants in federally subsidized housing. Now that police unit is the focus of lawsuits by black families who allege the city of 100,000 is orchestrating a campaign to drive them out. "A lot of people are moving out here looking for a better place to live," said Karen Coleman, a mother of three who came here five years ago from a blighted neighborhood in nearby Pittsburgh. "We are trying to raise our kids like everyone else. But they don't want us here." -- Antioch has been known for a kind of c

This really entertaining video brings attention to the work of a group called "The Lost Kids" who hold fundraisers locally in Oakland. This workshop raised $900 for Children's Hospital. For more information, visit http://www.myspace.com/thel0stkids

More at Inside Bay Area and at Piedmont USD : “Three 12-year-old Piedmont boys are waiting to learn their punishment for spray-painting the "N" word across a Havens Elementary School wall. Police are calling it a hate crime targeting teacher Marjorie Lawson, since it was scrawled outside her office. Lawson is one of two African-American educators in the Piedmont Unified School District. It's still not clear why the young suspects came forward on Dec. 4, but Piedmont Police Department Capt. John Hunt said the boys voluntarily gave statements to both school officials and a detective about the crime. "We then contacted the victim (Lawson) again, to let her know what we learned," he said. "She already had some information from Havens, but we wanted her to know we notified the juvenile probation department and it's up to them how they proceed legally," explained Hunt, who couldn't give too many details since the suspects are underage. "I can te

By The Blue Screen - NY Daily News : “The Giants have won 22 games in two seasons, and followed up a Super Bowl championship by earning the No. 1 seed in the NFC. So really it’s no wonder that other NFL teams would be interested in raiding their coaching staff. And apparently defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo isn’t the only one drawing interest. The Oakland Raiders are reportedly going to contact the Giants about speaking to offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride, too. Gilbride, who was the Giants’ quarterbacks coach from 2004-2006 before stepping up to offensive coordinator last season, was instrumental in the development of Eli Manning and helped turn the Giants into one of the most powerful and diverse offenses in the NFL.He also has head coaching experience, with the San Diego Chargers in 1997-98.” -- For some reason I'm not excited about Gilbride and that's because I view his offenses as static and inflexible. I also don't think he has the right temperment to coach

See Jaeson Ma This is a touching account by Ma and has a great video at the site as well: “This past weekend after Christmas, I went with my sister to West Oakland to pass out food, clothes and prayers to the homeless. We went to Wal-mart the day before and bought a bunch of warm sleeping bags, got warm clothes from Goodwill and loaded up our car to do what we could the next morning. When I got out to the streets, my heart was shocked and broken at the same time. People were lined up waiting for us to give them any kind of help they could get. As I opened up my bag full of clothes the homeless swarmed quickly to take what was best for themselves. All the clothes disappeared in a matter of minutes. I was sad, because I wish I had more clothes to give but I only had so much.”

See: OaklandNews: An open letter to Jean Quan I really miss Jeannette Sherwin's candor, regardless of who it was aimed at. In this case, it was in an "Open Letter To Jean Quan" that bears repeating because Councilmember Quan thinks she's going to be Oakland's next Mayor and because what Ms. Sherwin wrote below still applies today, unfortunately. I think Councilmember Quan would do well to follow what's written here: “Dear Jean, If you want truly fair and democratic processes, and if you want to feel less defensive, then you might do these things: An Open Letter to Jean Quan 1) Don't make up your mind in advance about development in your district, such as a replacement for the Hillcrest Motel. Residents have very, very good instincts and ideas about what they want and what will work Trust your constituents. 2) Don't take credit for things you haven't done. It pisses the real workers off. 3) Stop talking. 4) Listen. 5) Demand that the city counci

From - “At midterm, Dellums faces growing criticism” : Of all of the people who tossed grenades at Mayor Ron Dellums, we have Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente saying this: “City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, who ran against Dellums in 2005, said the mayor has shown an unwillingness to make decisions. While the two men meet weekly, De La Fuente said many of his suggestions fall on deaf ears. "It's our job to manage and respond with more or less money," De La Fuente said. "Until someone says 'I want it tomorrow,' it won't happen."” -- Ok. This means that Ignacio is gearing up to run for Mayor again. Yes, he's shooting from the hip and that was not a calculated statement, but I know Ignacio well enough to assert that he feels Dellums is vulnerable, Perata would give his blessing, and the Mayoral prize would be his. Now if Robert Bobb were to run against him, Bobb would win. City Attorney John Russo could beat both

More at Inside Bay Area : “Essential work in the Bay Bridge Seismic Retrofit Project will not go forward today while a Port of Oakland labor dispute is negotiated, according to the California Department of Transportation. A ship carrying steel supports for the project has remained unloaded at Pier 7 since its arrival in Oakland on Friday, Caltrans reported. Members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union blocked the unloading work at about 5 p.m. Friday, protesting that Caltrans and its construction partner, American Bridge Fluor Enterprises, awarded the job to other port workers in violation of longshoremen rights, a union member said.” --

This brief interview with Congressman Honda is interesting to me because he talks about who he thinks the next Asian American elected official to rise to stardom will be: California Controller John Chiang.

More at Big Vinny's Bay Area : “A 'good tip' from someone in the biz: not confirmed, but developing...Monday, Dec. 22, 2008 Ted Robinson, a prominent national and Bay-Area broadcast veteran, is set to become the new radio voice of the San Francisco 49ers, according to an industry source. Robinson, who is NBC's lead announcer at Wimbledon and who also covers the US Open Tennis Championships for USA Network, is set to take the prestigious spot vacated by Joe Starkey, who announced he is leaving after the conclusion of this season, Starkey's 20th year. He will continue to announce Univ. of California college football.” -- Big Vinny's the source for all that's happening in Bay Area media! Check him out!