Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com Last night, Wednesday, August 19th at 6 PM (well, I got there ay 6:38 PM) Paul Grabowicz, the Associate Dean and New Media Program Director at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, hosted the second meetup of local bloggers in the school's library. It was a great event. The idea of these meetings is, as the email put it, ... "so people can get together to socialize, share ideas, solve common problems and explore ways we might collaborate. We also want to find out what kind of training people might be interested in through the UC Berkeley J-School's Knight Digital Media Center" And really that's what happened. The meeting itself, which I did not video as some people don't want to be on camera, started with the idea of breaking into groups around "editorial" concerns and "business" issues, but that was jettison...

The East Bay Express reported on an incident at Berkeley High earlier this year, that happened because a white student wrote the word "nigga" on their Facebook page. While some see it as an issue of lack of diversity training, and I agree, I think something else is at play: the impact of hip-hop culture. In the multi-racial world of Hip-Hop blacks using such a term is so common that whites who are consumers of the music think everyone who's black uses the term. Of course, that's not true at all. The reality is that it's has a lot of negative images and many blacks, myself among them, don't want the word to be uttered by anyone. Period. This can be confusing to anyone white who's parents aren't giving them the proper training. Couple that with the fact that there are people who still use the word offensively and you've got a real powderkeg problem. The best solution is for people to learn that even if you hear it, it's not right to use it,...

More at Inside Bay Area : “BERKELEY, Calif.—City officials say a student at the University of California, Berkeley has been diagnosed with tuberculosis. The Berkeley Division of Public Health and the University's health services are contacting about 225 students and faculty who may have been in close contact with the infected student. Health officials say tuberculosis can spread when someone with the disease coughs or sneezes and people in close contact "directly inhale the TB germs over an extended period of time." Officials say brief or casual contact with an infected person does not spread the disease.”

More at The Eaten Path : “No well meaning trip to the reality resistant bubble of Berkeley is complete without a visit to one of its three major restaurant rows. In the city’s southeast corner, bordering the upscale settlements of North Oakland, is Elmwood, home to such neighborhood favorites as Trattoria La Siciliana and Ici. On the northern edge of the city is Solano Ave, where university and downtown dwellers can escape central Berkeley to a sunny afternoon of brunch and shopping. Between the two upper crusts of Berkeley stands the Gourmet Ghetto, the foundation of Berkeley’s reputation for delicious food in every form. Anchored by Alice Waters’ universally acclaimed Chez Panisse, the world’s first Peet’s Coffee and a collection of other culinary offshoots and institutions, this is where organic, locally grown ingredients are granted full license to gratify the taste buds of hundreds on a daily basis.”

Hey, if you've never visited Saul's at 1475 Shattuck Ave in Berkeley, this week's the time to do it.  They've got a Hanukkah Dinner special I'm told is really great.  It has: Goat stroganoff (Niman's Ranch goat), Matzo crusted rock cod with fish from Monterey Market and a local fishery, Moroccan chicken tagine with organic chicken from Petaluma Farms, vegetarian tagine, spinach cumin latkes, traditional potato and onion latkes, and Niman Ranch braised. It's through December 28th.    

Body found - Inside Bay Area : “BERKELEY — A wooden coffin containing human bones, found entombed behind a false wall in a Berkeley apartment building, was hauled out this morning by police and firefighters during a follow-up investigation of a suicide earlier this week, authorities said. The remains are apparently a man's, according to police, but no other information has been released about a possible identity, age or how long the coffin may have been there. Wearing hazardous material suits and oxygen masks, firefighters were going into the Ashby Avenue complex with shovels today and hauling out red trash bags full of unknown materials and huge pieces of wood, including a 6-foot box that looked like a homemade coffin.”

Undercurrents: The Bay Area’s Lack of Local Day-to-Day Media Reporting. Category: Columns from The Berkeley Daily Planet - Thursday June 19, 2008 : “By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor Thursday June 19, 2008 One of the great ironies of these times—something historians in our grandchildren’s time will probably better be able to understand and explain—is that we are experiencing an explosion of information and internet discussion concerning local events while simultaneously seeing a drying up of direct news media reporting on those events. The Berkeley Daily Planet, bless our hearts, has two reporters covering Berkeley city government, and another to cover the Berkeley Unified School District and the various dealings of the Berkeley School Board. But that is a rarity. Across the border in Oakland, no media outlet—aside from the East Bay News Service’s Sanjiv Handa—regularly covers Oakland City Council or Oakland city government, no media outlet at all regularly covers the Oakland Unified School D...

Think Progress » Who Is Steven Chu? A Nobel Physicist Who Believes In Bold Energy Transformation : “Numerous media outlets are reporting Dr. Steven Chu will be President-elect Obama’s choice to head the Department of Energy. Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, is the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California where he has been addressing the climate crisis by pushing breakthrough research in energy efficiency, solar energy, and biofuels technology. Colleagues who know Chu best say “he’s not a manager, he’s a leader.” In an interview with the Wonk Room, David Roland-Holst, an economist at the Center for Energy, Resources and Economic Sustainability at UC Berkeley, described Chu as a “very distinguished researcher” and “an extremely effective manager of cutting edge technology initiatives.””

Chris Young of the Northern California staff of Obama for America gives a speech in Berkeley, Ca, September 4th 2008. Then I talk with Young about the campaign to that date, and a then-new new threat, GOP VP Candidate Governor Sarah Palin

Apparently Arab-Israeli aggressions are heating to boiling point in Berkeley.  The Daily Cal reports a Thursday night fight police may call a hate crime: A fight that broke out last Thursday in Eshleman Hall may be classified as a hate crime pending further investigation by police. Police said racial remarks were made during the altercation-a result of Palestinian flags that were hung from a second-floor balcony overlooking a pro-Israel concert-that may cause investigators to classify the fight as a hate crime. "We're looking into the possibility of it being a hate crime, based on the statements (made to police by) Palestinian students," said UCPD Assistant Chief Mitch Celaya. "Clearly these two groups have some conflict."

In the At-Large Oakland City Council race,  Kerry Hamill's switch from supporting to opposing Measure NN to establish a new tax for police may have been the nail in the coffin of her backing from some persons and news groups. That's certainly true for the East Bay Express, which backed Hamill in the primary but then switched to Kaplan for the general election.  The Express also backed Tom Bates for Mayor of Berkeley.   I will make my video explaining my endorsement choices on Saturday.   

This video was created at a rally for Barack Obama in Berkeley Thursday that drew 1,000 people. I asked Obama supporters why they backed Obama and what they thought about the GOP VP Candidate Sarah Palin.

We hear alot about Michael Phelps and Natalie Coughlin, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Natalie's a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley -- Cal! But we don't hear alot about heroes like Emily Silver, Natalie's teammate , fellow Cal-grad, and friend. Emily planned and trained to race in the 100 free, 100 fly, 200 free, and 50 free, but because she broke two fingers, Emily qualified for the 4 by 100 relay, where she played a major role in the United States taking the silver medal in that category. Congratulations Emily and GO BEARS!

Well, the war for the right to alter Cal's Memorial Grove continues; score this battle in the war as a win for U.C. Berkeley . Alameda County Judge Barbara Miller granted Cal the right to replace the trees on Tuesday, but also gave their opponents one week to file an appeal. This has been a long, hard, emotional battle between Cal and The Tree Sitters, who still remain in the trees. I captured part of that battle in a three-part video series . For their part, the Oak Grove Tree Sitters plan a march to Berkeley City Hall Thursday. Here's the schedule from their website (with spelling corrections) : Oak Grove Supporters Plan March to City Hall Thursday July 24th On Thursday the Berkeley City Council will presumably make it’s final decision on pursuing an appeal in the UC stadium case. Supporters plan a rally in front of the City Counsel. The plans include: 3:33 pm Meet at Oak grove 4:00 pm March from grove to Council 4:44 pm Rally in front of Counsel Building 5:00 pm...

I got an email from a friend who's homeless and reports that a man by the name of "ED" decided to end his life by walking in front of a train one morning at 711 Harrison St, near where she sleeps in her car. She reports that this happens a lot. My fear is that the cities of Oakland and Berkeley are doing nothing to curb the real source of new homeless people: landlord activity in those cities. Just look at the California Hotel matter, which the City of Oakland seems to be a partner in with Oakland Community Housing. It's an outrage.

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.

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...

This is a 20 minute movie on the dramatic event that was the convention held in Oakland, CA to elect delegates to represent the 9th Congressional District in Oakland and Barack Obama. It drew 2,000 people. If you live in Oakland and are politically involved, you're going to see someone you know in this video. It was really a kind of homecoming for people in Oakland politics and of course Oaklanders who have been involved with the Obama campaign. I thank the people in the video from Peralta Community College District Chancellor Elihu Harris to my friends, all of whom are in the movie and listed, and the delegate winners in this movie who are just some of the Oaklanders that will represent Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention, Jennifer Pae, Fred Feller , Mark Friedman, Ayelet Waldman , and Darlene Brooks. The estimate of 2,000 people was my own and came from first, eyeballing the event, second from figuring that of 101 candidates, each had perhaps 10 people aver...

Oakland Personal Injury Lawyer Bob Schock talks about personal injury law and the construction site. See his vlog show at http://oaklandpersonalinjurylawyer.blogspot.com