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California High Speed Rail Authority Bypasses Oakland After My Work to Avoid This California High Speed Rail , an issue I birddogged for Elihu Harris when he was Mayor of Oakland, is still alive and kicking. One of my major objectives was making sure Oakland was not bypassed in the formation of the route; something I also warned Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown about when he took office in late 1998. At the time I encouraged Mayor Harris to hand off the issue to Jerry Brown, which led to the pair arriving at a "Mayor's meeting" to advocate for Oakland's inclusion in the route system. In 1997, I successfully pushed for this article to be developed and ran in the SF Chronicle, to get the "Oakland View" in the public eye. At the time, Mayor Harris didn't believe the system would ever be funded, and so viewed it as a lost cause. But I argued that we could not afford to take a chance on that outcome and that at least Oakland should be considered. Mayor Harr...

Oakland City Attorney John Russo and Oakland City Auditor Courtney Ruby held a press conference calling for reforms in City of Oakland personnel and ethics policies on Wednesday, July 9th in Hearing Room Two at Oakland City Hall. Russo and Ruby (sounds like a law firm) put together a press package that's quite extensive and calls for more study than most press people will give it. But the initiatives are broken down into the following categories: 1) Strengthen Anti-Nepotism Rules 2) Reform Personnel Department Procedures 3) Fix Records Management 4) Protect Whistleblowers 5) Establish Employee Ethics Program Press from KGO Radio, KTVU, KPFA Radio, NPR, and others were there. But this is the only full video of not just the press conference speakers, but the questioners as well. The press conference was well-attended, and even drew people like Pat McClough, who ran against incumbent Councilmember Jane Brunner in this year's election battle for the Oakland District One City Coun...