Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

In the "now we've seen everything" department, we have former eBay Chairman and CEO Meg Whitman, running for California Governor against Jerry Brown, opening a campaign office in Oakland that shows she and her staff are passive-agressive in their approach to this heavily minority city. The Meg Whitman Oakland campaign office, located near the intersection of Lakeshore and Lake Park and not far from Lake Merritt, is staffed by two young white men; I've not seen anyone of color as of this writing. The gentlemen are nice, but very careful in their communications, almost neurotically so. This reflects Meg Whitman's message to Oaklanders, but even more so is a sign that is placed in three parts of the large bay window. It reads: "SMILE. YOU'RE ON CANDID CAMERA! 24-HOUR VIDEO SURVELLAINCE" Yep. They misspelled "surveillance." So, not only is Meg Whitman afraid of Oakland, she's so fearful she can't even spell "su...

OK, Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin just can't resist putting her foot in her mouth regarding President Obama. She should just admit he's doing a great job and she's got the hots for him. Instead, Palin, who's known for creating new words like "refudiate," had to talk before she realized where she was. According to The Huffington Post , Palin said Obama had no time to be at the U.S. Mexico boarder but was on ABC's The View instead . Now, was Sarah Palin at the U.S. Mexico boarder ? No. She was in Alaska. Alaska. Great. I guess Sarah Palin's going to tell us she can see the U.S. Mexico boarder from her window, right? If Palin were serious, she'd have made her statement from, yep, the U.S. Mexico boarder, but its too late for that. Anyway, going down there is the political kiss of death for any elected official or person running for office. If Sarah Palin is, well, frankly, stupid enough to go down there, she can kiss any idea...

Children's Fairyland and Don Macleay in the Oakland Mayor's Race, have urgent announcements in today's Oakland news. Don Macleay, the Green Party candidate running for for Mayor of Oakland, sent out this email for 100 signatures he needs from you this Saturday: Nomination signatures needed. Sat. July 31 10AM Friends, For the campaign to take the next step I need 100 Oakland voters to sign for me. We are collecting signatures all this week. You can contact me, Jan, Greg or Michael. To make it easy we are going to meet at Cafe Dejena on Saturday July 31st at 10 AM. It is at 3939 MLK corner of 40th right near the MacArthur BART EASY to get to on bike, foot and car and easy to park. http://www.cafedejena.com We will have nomination petitions to sign and voter registration cards if you need them. And, now is a good time to donate because the campaign is now finally officially under way. http://macleay4mayor.org/donate.html Don Macleay Children's F...

Wow. American Idol is in a state of chaos: J-Lo, Jennifer Lopez, is in as a judge; Kara DioGuardi was fired as a judge, and Ellen DeGeneres quit from being a judge after just one season, and less than a year. Now, according to TMZ, it's Randy Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, and Steven Tyler as the three-judge panel. Still, American Idol' s not the same without Simon Cowell; then again, it's ratings were tanking with Simon Cowell. I said "YEAH" when I first got the word Simon was leaving , and I stand by that. Sometimes the dude could be just plain mean. OK, people got a kick out of it and watched, but eventually they tired of his act. Now, American Idol' s real problem is that there are too many freaking American Idol -type shows. The formula has been over saturated. Think about it. We have Britain's Got Talent , America's Got Talent , So You Think You Can Dance , Dancing With The Stars , and a few shows I've left out of my memory. And t...

Montana Fishburne, the daughter of famed actor, Laurence Fishburne, is certainly making her dad an unhappy camper as she's now called "Chippy D" and is a porn star. According to MissJia.com via TMZ.com, Montana Fishburne thanks her hotness Kim Kardashian for the idea. She says it was Kim Kardashian's sex tape that gave her inspiration. Laurence Fishburne is the famous TV and movie actor best known for playing Mobius in the Matrix film series. But what was going on at home? 19-year-old Montana Fishburne told the site CarltonJordan.com that she had a lot of at-home experience in playing a porn actress. Uh...what? No word on what Laurence Fishburne thinks about all of this, yet. And according to her Twitter account, Kim Kardashian's too busy grinding with Dallas Cowboys Wide Receiver Miles Austin to even care: time to shine ;-) RT @MilesAustiniii -@kimkardashian rise and grind. ;) about 24 hours ago via web Stay tuned.

What's interesting to learn about Bay Area venture capital firms, and on the heels of Thursday's TechCrunch Summer Party hosted by August Capital , is that not every one focuses on the United States. In the case of Tano Capital, the San Mateo, California investment firm founded by Charles E. Johnson, the former President of Franklin Templeton investments, who's its managing director , has its investment interests primarily in India and China. The firm, established in 2007, started with a few small investments, but then ramped up its activity considerably in 2009. It started with an investment in AltoBeam Technology, a China-based designer of digital TV chipsets. Then Tano placed $2.2 million in TongXue.com , a Chinese-based social network, that's become one of the 50,000 largest websites in the World (and with a really cool animated activity map). In 2010, Tano Capital's activity increased, to the point that it has now as many deals in play as it did in al...

According to Bob Egelko and Henry K. Lee of the San Francisco Chronicle , the man who terrorized Oakland (causing Adams Point residents to take to online chat rooms about the helicopter and shooting noise) was a parolee named Byron Williams who hated left-wing politicians and had on a bullet-proof vest.  In other words, a Tea Party sympathizer. That he was on the Oakland stretch of 1-580 may have been no accident, considering Oakland's a hot bed of left-wing political activity. Byron Williams also reads like a Tea Party sympathizer, and not exactly the warm and fuzzy kind. More like the kind that wants to harm you if you disagree with him. Rush Limbaugh's a Tea Party hero Is this what we're coming too? A Northern California man who's mother says was upset by "the way Congress was railroading through all these left-wing agenda items." Another Tea Party-type nut? Doesn't that sound something like Joe Stack , the man who flew his plane into the ...

In many ways, Dr. Terrance Candell is a lot like fellow Oaklander Urban Farmer Novella Carpenter , the author of Farm City . Both are energetic, intelligent, engaging, passionate, caring, and committed to Oakland. Both also have facilities they started from scratch: Novella her urban farm and for Dr. Candell, Candell's College Preparatory Academy . The main difference, other than he being black and male, and she being white and female, is that Dr. Candell's running for Mayor of Oakland. Dr. Terrance Candell PhD This blogger visited Dr. Candell at Candell's College Preparatory Academy in East Oakland, right across the street from Eastmont Mall and at 2544 73rd Street. What was great about the talk, as evidenced by the video, was to what high degree Dr. Candell cares about his students and already is the Mayor of East Oakland. In our talk, he hugs his students and even got all over one who dared to jaywalk across 73rd street. He wants to transfer that level of ...

Urban farming is fast catching on as an alternative to shopping in overpriced food stores and worrying about how to feed a family on a challenged budget in a bad economy. Oakland, California has become the San Francisco East Bay Area's center of the urban farming movement. All of this was evident at the City Slickers June fundraiser held at St. Paul's Church near Lake Merritt. Why wait this long to blog about the event? Because everything about the Oakland urban farming effort, from City Slickers and the people involved in it, to the work of Oaklander Novella Carpenter, City Slickers Founder Willow Rosenthal and her friend Laura Pivas and, it's board members including Kelli Saturno, Barbara Lafeete - Olawale and Interim Executive Director Barbara Finnin . And others not in the West Oakland food organization, but an influence on the movement, like UC Berkeley Professor and Activist Michael Pollan (who Rosenthal and Carpenter describe as a "hero" ...

YouTube , Metacafe , Blip.tv and Viddler A group of wandering musicians playing The Beatles Norwegian Wood on a San Francisco BART train bound for Oakland last week, Thursday. The musicians, who appeared to be a family consisting of a man and three boys, one an older teenager of about 16, and the other two between the ages of 12 and 14, went from car to car singing The Beatles Norwegian Wood , and really not badly, all things considered - for whatever money the BART riders would give. I gave two bucks. It's sad that taking on such activities as singing The Beatles Norwegian Wood on a Bay Area Rapid Transit Train at rush hour is what some have to do to make money. While BART has a "no-panhadling" policy, groups like this one should be given some leeway as they provide entertainment after a long day and a little levity in a San Francisco Bay Area than can take itself a little too seriously.

NewMediaAge thought it was pulling a fast one by offering a study that reads "Almost two-thirds of people are happy to pay for quality journalism but not online, according to a YouGov survey," for a fee behind a paywall, when the same study results are actually available online without charge . Thus, NewMediaAge proved why paywalls don't work, even as it was using one: all you have to do is search around to get the same content for free. And where you can get the study results summary is the very YouGov site that produced the study , here: media paywalls don't work .  That reports: A vast majority (83 percent) replied that they would refuse to pay, with only two percent of respondents willing to shell out for online content in the current format. Only four percent would pay for online even when the content in question was not available anywhere else. NewMediaAge must think the online consumer is stupid. The study claims : The Daily Mail is read onli...

On Thursday night July 15th, a change in flight plans enabled this blogger to attend the Oakland Mayoral Forum on Public Safety. Here are some thoughts from the distance of Georgia before the forum videos go up. First, former California State Senator Don Perata's making a huge mistake by not showing up to the debates. As I've explained to Perata, and the other Oakland mayoral candidates when I've talked to them, its very important to have as much internet exposure as possible that's self-generated. Instead, Perata's allowing others - once again - to write his script for him. Come November, it's going to cost him dearly. As a joke, someone - perhaps longtime Oaklander Pam Drake, since she took that photo - placed a chair next to the candidates panel with the words "Don Perata" on it. While they also should have had one for Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, because Dellums is just that he's making his own media just by working at being Mayor, ev...

Joe Tuman  The Oakland Mayor's Race added its 11th candidate: San Francisco State University Professor of Communications and Legal Studies and 25-year Oakland resident Joe Tuman. Tuman came from out of nowhere Wednesday to a formidable media splash suitable for, well, for someone who worked in the media. In addition to teaching at SFState, Joe Tuman's other title was "CBS 5 Eyewitness News Political Analyst," a job he gave up to run for Mayor of Oakland. Joe Tuman and I talked twice: the first time briefly at his campaign kickoff by Lake Merritt and the second time at Cafe DiBartolo on Grand Avenue (a video that will come later). Tuman says he simply felt that it was time for the right leadership at Oakland City Hall and he believes he can provide that. In that way, Tuman is no different that Terrance Candell or any of the other candidates in the Oakland Mayor's Race, except that Tuman and Candell point to the leadership problem as they see it more...

Joe Tuman  The Oakland Mayor's Race added its 11th candidate: San Francisco State University Professor of Communications and Legal Studies and 25-year Oakland resident Joe Tuman. Tuman came from out of nowhere Wednesday to a formidable media splash suitable for, well, for someone who worked in the media. In addition to teaching at SFState, Joe Tuman's other title was "CBS 5 Eyewitness News Political Analyst," a job he gave up to run for Mayor of Oakland. Joe Tuman and I talked twice: the first time briefly at his campaign kickoff by Lake Merritt and the second time at Cafe DiBartolo on Grand Avenue (a video that will come later). Tuman says he simply felt that it was time for the right leadership at Oakland City Hall and he believes he can provide that. In that way, Tuman is no different that Terrance Candell or any of the other candidates in the Oakland Mayor's Race, except that Tuman and Candell point to the leadership problem as they see it more of...

ZZA's Enoteca in Oakland  This installment of Oakland News, or news about what's going on in Oakland, California from very reliable sources, is a sad one. ZZA's Enoteca at 550 Grand Avenue in Oakland's Adams Point District and next to Lake Merritt, the popular food and wine bar next to ZZA's Restaurant on Grand Avenue, was closed down by the Oakland, California representative of the State of California Alcohol and Beverage Control (ABC). The reason that this blogger was given was that it "had something to do with a change or 'unraveling' of ownership" according to a very good, but unnamed source. ZZA's Enoteca has been closed since last Friday. ZZA's Enoteca was a welcome addition to not just the ZZA's space, but the growing Grand Avenue restaurant scene. It offered something rare: an ability to work online on your computer over a glass of wine. The free WiFi aspect of ZZA's Enoteca made it a must-be-at for this blogge...

The Bohemian Grove is hosting its 99th Annual Monte Rio Variety Show (website:  http://www.monterioshow.org  ) to benefit local charities on July 29th. Here's the press release: Monte Rio, Calif. – The Bohemian Club will hold its 99th annual “Monte Rio Variety Show” on Thursday, July 29, offering an evening of music, comedy and theater to celebrate the friendship and connection with the Monte Rio and Russian River communities and to raise funds for local charities. Last year’s show raised more than $30,000 for local charities. In recent years the event has featured Bohemians such as country music star Clint Black, rock legend Steve Miller and Grateful Dead icon Bob Weir. This year’s Monte Rio Variety Show will begin at 7 p.m. at the Monte Rio Amphitheater. A pre-show barbeque, hosted by the Monte Rio Volunteer Firefighter’s Association, begins at 4:30 p.m. Anyone attending the show is encouraged to bring lawn chairs, folding chairs or a blanket. These items can be...

Lake Chalet Patio in Oakland An Oakland news roundup of things told to this blogger by a number of reliable sources. First, Lake Chalet, the favored eatery of this space in Oakland, has reportedly elected to part with its executive chef Jarod Gallagher. This word comes from people who worked at The Lake Chalet, but now are with other new restaurants in Oakland. While I personally liked Jarod Gallagher and his food offerings, the one issue that has plagued The Lake Chalet is how the food was regarded considering its price points. Jarod did work to change the menu a few months ago, so one can't say he wasn't trying. But the word is that The Lake Chalet's going in a different direction. Business has reportedly been good and the establishment survived the Oscar Grant verdict, so full steam ahead for Lake Chalet. Strip Clubs in Oakland? There's talk by some that if Oakland had more strip clubs it would get more convention business. And the people saying th...

Lake Chalet Patio in Oakland An Oakland news roundup of things told to this blogger by a number of reliable sources. First, Lake Chalet, the favored eatery of this space in Oakland, has reportedly elected to part with its executive chef Jarod Gallagher. This word comes from people who worked at The Lake Chalet, but now are with other new restaurants in Oakland. While I personally liked Jarod Gallagher and his food offerings, the one issue that has plagued The Lake Chalet is how the food was regarded considering its price points. Jarod did work to change the menu a few months ago, so one can't say he wasn't trying. But the word is that The Lake Chalet's going in a different direction. Business has reportedly been good and the establishment survived the Oscar Grant verdict, so full steam ahead for Lake Chalet. Strip Clubs in Oakland? There's talk by some that if Oakland had more strip clubs it would get more convention business. And the people saying th...

San Francisco's Club Fugazi, which hosts Beach Blanket Babylon , has an exciting event tonight, Monday night only at 7:30 PM featuring Young Frankenstein and Wicked cast members! It is the Richmond Ermet AIDS Foundation (REAF) presentation of "Wicked fun with Young Frankenstein." REAF's "One Night Only" benefit cabaret series are always great fun featuring cast members from hit Broadway shows in original cabaret performances in intimate theaters. Each show takes on it's own character based on the the make up of the touring cast for each show. The cast of "Wicked" has participated in three of REAF's "One Night Only" benefit cabarets over the past year and they always put together fun and exciting numbers for these benefits. Add cast members from the hit show, "Young Frankenstein," which is opening this week at the Golden Gate Theatre, plus special guest MC, comic Bruce Vilanch, and you've got a recipe for a ...

The World Cup 2010 is history. Spain has beaten the Netherlands. And all we have are memories. What's cool about online video and video-blogging is the ability to capture special moments from the point of view of the vlogger. The Republic, San Francisco In this case, those videos from this space were created just walking down the street in Oakland's Adams Point District , at Era Art and Design Bar for the USA's dramatic win against Algeria , and for the sad loss to Ghana , and today at The Republic Bar and Grill at Scott and Lombard in San Francisco's Marina District . The Republic visit happened because my friend Brian Zahn's a bartender there (as well as at Kel's Irish Bar, also in San Francisco), and also a Facebook friend. He sent a message extending an invitation to watch the Spain v. Netherlands World Cup Final match there. The temptation to get up and go from Oakland to San Francisco and not via car (since a bar was the destination) was...

Today, Oriana Bolden, someone not known to this space, sent a video she created in downtown Oakland on Thursday that gives a very comprehensive view of the reactions of the crowd after the Oscar Grant / Johannes Mehserle verdict, and the events leading up to the Oakland riot. It opens with comments from some of the mass of people that gathered at Oakland City Hall Plaza. I was there, but was struck by the number of personal media members there. About one-fifth of the crowd had video cameras of some kind. We also see a silent Councilmember Nancy Nadel as the camera pans through the crowd. Here's the video: Reaction to Mehserle Verdict: Oakland, CA: 8 July 2010 from Oriana Bolden on Vimeo . The video has some shocking events, foremost being how a deaf woman was ran over by a police car. It was not clear where at all the police car was going. We see the angry crowd decent on the police car after it ran over the deaf woman. Also, the crowd tries to make room for an am...

Just after 9 PM on the Thursday night after the involuntary manslaughter verdict in the Oscar Grant / Johannes Mehserle trial, this blogger got off at 12th Street, Oakland City Center BART Station after uploading the first set of videos of the peaceful protest at 14th and Broadway, and expecting more of the calm that existed around 8 PM. That was not the case. Instead, the police, from not just Oakland, but the California Highway Patrol, and cities like Fremont, had closed into the once safe intersection of 14th and Broadway and had been in the process of carrying out orders to have the crowd leave the area. The result was more police than people, and who did I run into but Oakland lawyer Dan Siegel and two of his friends, who complained in detail about what they saw as runaway police misconduct. One friend said "OPD (Oakland Police Department) had to put us in this vice. (Councilmembers) Jean Quan, Rebecca Kaplan, and I decided we were going to be the police line. W...

Oakland, California is now what it hates most: the center of attention in America for a reason it does not want: the Oscar Grant verdict. Former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and not 2nd degree murder, or 1st degree murder as many had desired. The announcement of the ruling had many looking for Oakland to erupt in a wave of violence and property damage that didn't happen while the Sun was up. These three videos below show the giant, peaceful protest, which started on the corner of 14th and Broadway and with one-fifth of its ranks being members of the media, and was moved into the middle of 14th and Broadway. The result was the largest peaceful, traffic-stopping protest ever held in downtown Oakland. This first video shows what happened just before the street protest: The second video is from the middle of the protest at 14th and Broadway: The third video features a the dramatic raising of an enormous flag on ...

AC Transit Zero Emission Bus  In Monday's Bay Area News Group websites The San Jose Mercury News and the Tri Valley Herald in San Jose, California and Southern Alameda County, AC Transit Interim General Manager Mary King explained why the East Bay California public transit service provider is asking the 1,750 member Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) to accept a contract it imposed on them. King starts by explaining that "Our future — and the future of affordable and environmentally sound transportation for Alameda and Contra Costa counties' riders — is in jeopardy," then tells the reader what this space has been trying to drill into the collective heads of many for some time: revenue froms sales and property taxes has decreased. But what King does not explain in numbers is that AC Transit's total operating revenues have dropped by $12 million in one year, and all one has to do to understand this is download and read the AC Transit budget here: BUDGET . ...

Terrance Candell Oaklander and St. Mary's graduate, Director of Candell's College Preparatory Academy, and CNN Roland Martin look-alike Dr. Terrance Candell , smarting from what he views as an apparent slight on the part of The Oakland Tribune , and regarding the Oakland Seen-produced Mayoral Forum of three weeks ago, issued a provocative video entitled "Candell Crushes Quan & Kaplan At Mayoral Forum pt.1." While this blogger attended the San Francisco Dress for Success event that evening, there was a hired video spy in the building. From the video of the forum, Terrance Candell was the crowd favorite, even as the Oakland Tribune failed to note that fact until down in the depths of the page, and even then giving the appearance that it wasn't real but planted by him. So, since Candell and company thinks he wasn't well-reported by the Oakland Tribune , they issued this video: Candell's style is a crowd pleaser if you're looking for sp...

Oakland District Four Councilmember Jean Quan met with this blogger for a requested redo of an interview conducted with her just after her kickoff event for the Oakland Mayor's Race. The request came from this space simply because the first interview video was so long, 41 minutes long, it was at least 12 minutes beyond the length of the Don Perata Interview of a month ago, and 18 minutes longer than the interviews with mayoral candidates Don Maccley and Greg Harland. Jean Quan  The desire was for a more uniform length that showed the candidate in a good light so that you, the viewer, could make a good evaluation. The result is this 29 minute-plus video that's light-years better than the first one. Rather than meet in a cafe, as before when we met in the upstairs nook at the Lake Merritt Cafe, we met at the Law Offices of Siegel and Lee, the same firm in Oakland City Center where Oakland City Council Vice Mayor Jane Brunner is a partner. Like many of my visits her...

If The Oakland 209 Gin Cocktail Competition at Sidebar Oakland felt like a small town reunion of friends, the Bloggers and Boosters party we held for my friend Libby Schaaf was even more so. The event was held at Era Art and Design Bar on Grand Avenue near Broadway in downtown Oakland, and was very well-attended, with a mix of Oakland City Council members like Oakland Council District Five's Ignacio De La Fuente and Pat Kernighan from District Two (who's in a tough re-election battle against Jennifer Pae ), to local notables like Bill Wong, to Libby's family and friends, and their friends. A good, intimate mix. Libby Schaaf  Libby is running for the Oakland City Council Seat currently held by Councilmember Jean Quan, who's running for Mayor. But, and nothing against Councilmember Quan, Libby really should run for Mayor of Oakland. Ignacio said it best: "One of the things I'm absolutely convinced of is that Libby Schaaf is the most well-train...

Sidebar Oakland  You know the Oakland Restaurant Scene has picked up when Sidebar Restaurant on Grand Avenue holds what was the Adams Point District's first cocktail competition. The 209 Gin Oakland Bartender Cocktail Competition was held last Wednesday night at the Lake Merritt bistro-style eatery known for its good food and warm atmosphere. The idea was to learn who could make the best drink creation based on 209 Gin - the makers of which did not endorse this blog post. The competition featured great bartenders making great cocktails and from some of Oakland's hottest eateries: Matt and Brian from Sidebar , Marjon from Era Art and Design Bar , Josh from Pican , Alex from Marzano, Matt from The Wood Tavern , Brian representing Levende East , and Jon who's at Grand Tavern, and Eric from Adesso . (As an aside, the only problem was all of the Oakland 209 Gin Cocktail Competition bartenders were men. There are some great female bartenders, like Britt at Pican,...