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This is a video of the recent June 19, 2008 meeting to present Safeway's controversial plan to dramatically move and expand the current Safeway store at College Avenue and Claremont. The new store will be at 6310 College Avenue and roughly at what is now a corner gas station. The new 75,000 square foot store -- three times the size of the current facility -- will undoubtefly bring more traffic and also foot traffic closer to the center of Rockridge in North Oakland. That's the concern of the over 300 people who packed the room on that hot Thursday June 19th evening. The video features incumbent Councilmember Jane Brunner's presentation of the meeting, a talk with Patrick McCullough, who was Brunner's challenger in the last election primary (2008), a presentation by Dan Metzger of the Claremont / Elwood Neighbor Association, Stu Flashman of The Rockridge Community Planning Council, and Elizabeth Jewel, the planning consultant, as well as Todd Paradis, of the Safeway Rea...

I created this "vlog" (video-blog) to deal with and talk about a problem I've had with certain friends. Perhaps you've had the same problem where some of your, in my case, friends who are White (or the reverse or generally interracial) don't give you proper "consideration" in your friendship, where consideration is a kind of contract that all friendships have -- a contract of basic expectations of treatment. In other words, while you call them, they don't call you, or if you are dealing with someone who's racist, they tell you that you "see racism" rather than coming to your aide. Or they are your friends as long as they're able to take advantage of you or get information from you, but when they get around their friends, you suddenly don't exist. I'd like to know your response to my video and your view. Thanks.

The Hot Pink Feathers Dance Troupe Is introduced by Peter Van Kleef just before their performance at Cafe Van Kleef in the Updown District of Downtown Oakland. You can learn more about the popular dancers at their website at HotPinkFeathers.com or by just visiting Cafe Van Kleef on the first Saturday of the month at 9 PM. Video is also on MetaCafe , and Google , as well as MySpace , Crackle , and other sites.

Liza Zimmerman, AKA "Liza The Wine Chick" took me and a bunch of others to the C. Donatiello Winery , a great winery in Sonoma, just outside of Healdsburg, California. The full account is covered in The SF Examiner , but I can report that the limo ride and the winery and company were fun. Stay tuned for the video of the trip. If you want to learn more about Liza The Wine Chic, visit her website at http://lizathewinechick.com

Yesterday, I reported a rumor that Deborah Edgerly, Oakland's Chief Administrative Officer, was going to be placed on Administrative Leave . Today, that rumor has been confirmed by the Oakland Tribune and SFGate.com . From the Trib.. Mayor Ron Dellums sent Edgerly notice at 1:24 p.m. Friday that she had been placed on paid administrative leave until her July 31 retirement date amid allegations that Edgerly interfered with a police investigation. Dellums' move came just three days after he joined Edgerly at a City Hall news conference to announce that Edgerly would be allowed to serve through the end of July, as the two had previously agreed, even as Edgerly faced mounting criticism. My comments from before, stand. I feel the Mayor should have stuck to one decision -- the first one -- and not given in to pressure. I continue to feel sorry for what "MissE" is going through and feel that, while she's certainly made mistakes, her counterparts before her have as ...

Larry Bowoto, the Nigerian Accuser who claimed that Chevron hired people who then shot him and violated his human rights, is the focus of a court hearing that starts today according to the SF Sentinel, and which seeks to learn why Bowoto dropped half the charges that he brought before Chevron. Chevron has claimed that Bowoto and more than 100 members of his paramilitary group stormed the Parabe oil platform, 9 miles off the Nigerian coast and held its employees hostage until Nigerian police and military intervened and helped save the Chevron Nigeria employees. It reads like another version of the Ecuador Shakedown. I am getting updates on this via the Internet so visit this blog for more news on this investigation.

I just came from a dinner and during that event, learned that Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Deborah Edgerly may have been placed on administrative leave, but David Shea, Chief of Staff for Mayor Ron Delums would not confirm that a high-level meeting took place today or that the outcome was indeed to change the CAO's status from "retiring July 31st but still working" to "paid administrative leave." In my view, swaying from one decision to another is not a sign of good leadership. It's not the Mayor Dellums can't be a good leader, but I think what's happened is that Dellums made a bet that Senator Hillary Clinton would be the next step in his occupational life, lost that bet when he failed to back Senator Barack Obama, who's going to be the next president, and now is concerned about maintaining the job of Mayor. Thus, the back-and-forth indecision.

I will be a guest and part of a panel on the matter of Deborah Edgerly, Mayor Dellums, and the "state" of The City of Oakland, Thursday Morning June 25th on KQED's "Forum," 88.5 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area. It's a call-in show. I don't -- yet -- know who the other panelists will be.

According to various friends and news sources, Oakland City Administrator Deborah Edgerly will retire July 31st 2008 . But from what I here, the embattled CAO's (Chief Administrative Officer) situation is such that it's Civil War (in capital letters) and foks have chosen sides. I personally stand by this view: that Miss E's phone call to help out her nephew set in motion a perfect storm of events and a clash between the following "agenda groups" 1) Professional / executive class African American female City of Oakland Employees This group is paced by the CAO, and is a loosely formed set of tight relationships, that one friend once described as "The Black Female Mafia.) 2) City of Oakland Employees who are not part of group one and specifically don't like the CAO. This includes people in the Oakland Police Department, but also other City of Oakland departments and personnel who I can't mention. This includes African Americans, male and female. It...

Some other SF Bay Area columnists who are friends of mine and just enjoyed an evening out with -- without talking about Oakland politics -- are still way wrong regarding Deborah Edgerly and the Edgerly Family. Specifically, my friend Chip Johnson , who presents a picture of an Oakland that was transformed by Deborah Edgerly into a sea of people who are related to her. If you believe that, you're a totally big fool. You're also all the more foolish if you think favoritism started with her. Hell, one major reason I accused former Mayor Jerry Brown of racism in 2000 was that I believed he picked those he was most comfortable with -- young white professionals -- over equals like myself who are Black. In my view, what Jerry Brown would do is relegate all of the young Black employees who should be in his office to then-City Manager Robert Bobb's office and, pointing at a young African American woman in his office, say -- as he did to me during our dispute over my treatment...

The SF Sentinel now reports a story we first broke at this blog where Larry Bowoto , the Nigerian man who claims he was shot by persons employed by Chevron, and whom Chevron points to as the person who held their employees hostage for several days, has dropped his lawsuit claim of human rights violations. The Sentinel observes: It is looking more and more likely that Bowoto and 150 of his compatriots took over the Chevron oil platform off Nigeria in a hostage takeover — which is far different from their claims of human rights abuse. The trial is in September.

Look, now Cal's being down right silly and arrogant. On Sunday, I understand that there was another rally -- I was resting from a busy week -- and that even Berkeley Councilmember Donna Sprng got involved. Now, UC Spokesperson Dan Mogulof seems to imply that the University doesn't want to talk to anyone. Dan Mogulof, just do it. Let's stop this silly game, find something clever and political to say to get them to go home. Why not offer the protesters a chance to be part of the action of planning? It's called a Citizen's Review Commitee. Look, I know Cal can do better. The way Cal's behaving is not what I learned at the Department of City and Regional Planning, where I got my Master's Degree...at Cal. Cal needs to grow up.

I just saw the SFGate online article about Oakland City Admininstrator Deborah Edgerly and it has the headline, "Paid to do nothing". That's an insult and a smear, especially since the same article explains that Edgerly ran a meeting because Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums was late to attend it. The Chronicle's Chris Heredia wrote: On Friday, Dellums asked all city department heads to report directly to him until further notice. Edgerly, however, ran the first half of a weekly meeting of city department heads on Monday when Dellums was running late. So that means she's not paid to do nothing -- she's doing something . But most SFGate readers will just see that stupid headline and then make dumb comments in the comments section. Then they will communicate that to others and the public will have the wrong view of Miss E. Look, I don't think the SF Chronicle should do that. It's not right and it's certainly a smear of the first order.

Sf Chroncle's scribe and my cantankerous friend Chip Johnson wrote an article that saw the light of day , and then was forgotten -- until now. It involves Larae Brown, who was a Controller with the City of Oakland and according to Johnson, doing her job, which was finding flaws in bookkeeping. Seems she found a huge one: Chip Johnson reports: The trouble began in 2006 when Brown completed a reconciliation of more than 100 city bank accounts, a task she alleges had not been performed since 1999 - and what she found was extremely troubling. In her review, she discovered the city's cash balance was overstated by $172 million and 77 of 111 city accounts showed negative fund balances. By her estimates, all that was left in city coffers were bond funds, whose use is restricted by state law. When she raised concerns with her superiors, the suit claims, she was told that City Administrator Deborah Edgerly had devised a 10-year repayment plan to cover a half-dozen negative fund balan...

Well, when the Cody's Books on Telegraph closed, that was it for me. It was the end of a long era. A Berkeley tradition of reading and learning and flirting. Yes, flirting. Say, Cody's Books on Telegraph played host to some totally hot women during my days and even up to its closing. Speaking, er, writing of hot women, Cody's played host to someone who's kind of an expert on the subject: Former President Bill Clinton. Clinton came to Berkeley to present and sign copies of his then-new book "My Life". It was no surprise to me that of all the book stores in America, President Clinton would choose Cody's Books to visit. He drew about 5,000 people. Now, having closed the famous Telegraph location for a new place on Shattuck, that's going to the past too, closing today . Where will Bill go now?

According to today's NY Times , the newspaper industry is in trouble, as papers suffer from competition from the Internet. The SF Chron has been losing $1 million a week since last year. As Tim O'Reily wrote last year, he reads the online version of the SF Chron 95 percent of the time, and the "offline" version about 5 percent of the time. That's probably true for me, as well, but Tim and I are both in the Internet business. What can be done? Well, my answer is "nothing" -- the offline news people have to adjust to this New Media world, as do institutions and PR people who have been oriented toward using offline newspapers to get the news out. This also includes sports leagues like the NFL, which has a long standing relationship with such organizations as The Associated Press, but not the Huffington Post , which draws 14 million visitors a month. The SF Chron seems to be trying to find its way on The Internet, where it gets about 5 million visitors...

I appreciate that you are friends with Deborah Edgerly , and take your comments with that grain of salt. I also agree that there is no doubt more to this story, and it may play out in her favor. We will all have to see what happens, and I for one await further insights and will suspend judgment. However, 2 thinhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifgs regarding her being a scapegoat for nepotism: 1. Just because it happens a lot doesn't make it right. You know this, as does everyone who's made it out of the 3rd grade. 2. I'm trying to think of anyone else who could or WOULD call the OPD repeatedly to make sure that their child gets preferential treatment. Can't think of anyone. Certainly no elected official would risk that - assuming that they carried that much political weight. And certainly only a few appointed individuals have the clout to force something like that. So to suggest that everyone does it strikes me as a bit of a mis-characterization. At least you're ...

What I find so "funny" -- and by that I mean strange -- about the entire rush to oust Oakland City Administrator Deborah Edgerly , is that she not only does have the City Charter-endowed right to impact what City staff -- including the police department -- but she'e being scapegoated for an action that certain City Council members have been known for: calling city staff to have them act on something. The difference is that Miss E can do that, but City Councilmembers can't do that. But it happens on a regular basis. I think this is a real flaw in the City Charter in that Councilmembers should be able to have some sway over what is done by City Staff, but only to a certain extent. But the fact is that at least one Councilmember was known to call city staffers and push through contracts for relatives. That's a fact. The East Bay Express , and some other bloggers just don't know Oakland at all.

For me, covering what turned out to be this three-part video documentary started with a call from a friend and fellow Cal Alum who said that I should get "down there" with my camera because there was no video on what was happening. So, fresh from a meeting, and with two hours to spare, I went over to the Grove in front of Cal Memorial Stadium, the site of the clash between the Cal Tree Sitters and the UC Administration and Police. The overall story is that we -- Cal -- needs an upgraded stadium facility and the plans for this have been in the works for almost ten years. With the success of Cal Coach Jeff Tedford, it became easier to raise money toward this objective. As part of the effort , the University of California was able to secure $500 million from British Petroleum, most of which would go to the creation of a new research institute, and the rest toward what will be an athletic facility upgrade -- a new training center where the Grove is. (CORRECTION - The BP D...

Ok. Here's another reason why Mayor Ron Dellums and other Oakland Officials should think twice before firing or forcing out Oakland City Administrator Deborah Edgerly regarding her alledged interference with a police investigation is this: she's protected by the Oakland City Charter and such an action is blocked and considered a crime itself -- Section 1208. Violation. The violation of any provision of the Charter shall be deemed a misdemeanor and be punishable upon conviction in the manner provided by State Law, unless otherwise expressly provided for in this Charter. (Amended by: Stats. November 1988 and Stats. November 2000.) One thing I learned from working for Mayor Elihu Harris was to ask what the Oakland City Charter says. So I did. This is the section of the Charter that governs "Miss E": ARTICLE V THE CITY MANAGER Section 500. Appointment. The Mayor shall appoint a City Administrator, subject to the confirmation by the City Council, who shall be the c...

UPDATE: Deborah Edgerly Protected By Oakland City Charter UPDATE: Chip Johnson's Right About Favoritism in Oakland UPDATE: Delums Fires Edgerly UPDATE: Rumor: Oakland Police Wiretapped Deborah Edgerly UPDATE: John Russo and Courtney Ruby present reform package There's a bit too much desire to throw Oakland City Administrator Deborah Edgerly under the bus regarding her alledged interference with a police investigation of an Oakland Gang. Knowing "Miss E" as I have since 1993, I'm going to come to her defense. In 15 years I'm never known Miss E to do anything but play by the book. Sometimes that's frustrated my efforts, particularly when I worked to bring the 2005 Super Bowl to Oakland, but even in my worst moments during that time between 1999 and 2001, I understood her position. But I've always respected and regarded her as a custodian of the City's budget and procedures. So this new story sound like just that -- I don't believe for ...

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...