Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com The latest news in the Chevron / Richmond oil refinery issue is that California Attorney General Jerry Brown wants to step in and mediate the negotiations between the oil giant and the City of Richmond. In working to do this, Brown's scored a point on San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in the California Governor's race. According to the San Jose Mercury news and Contra Costa Times (yeah, I know they're merged), Brown appeared before the Richmond City Council and a "standing-room-only" crowd of 350 people, most reportedly laid off union workers from the Chevron facility, who's reconstruction effort was halted by court order in the wake of a lawsuit by environmentalists challenging the environmental impact report for the venue, costing them their jobs (I wonder if Dennis Roos was there ?). The Richmond electeds passed a resolution supporting the involvem

  More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! On Saturday, May 3rd, my new television show starts. It's called "The Blog Report With Zennie62" and features the use of my video blogs in a weekly 30-minute format broadcast and co-produced by CoLoursTV in Denver and on Channel 9407 nationwide on the DISH Network , but it's on Comcast in Florida, and Fox and Insight cable systems. The start time is 3:30 PM Pacific Time, 6:30 PM Eastern Time and the show is replayed at 11:30 PM and 2:30 PM respecfully. If you don't have a TV you can see the live stream at CoLoursTV.org . or Zennie62.com This first show focused on selected events that occured after the shooting of Oscar Grant by BART Officer Johannes Mesherle on New Year's Day. It opens with my walk through a riot-ravaged downtown Oakland where I talked with many people about what happened, including a group of kids who were some of the rioters and that was eye-opening. Then we focus on the words

more at www.sfexaminer.com : “SAN FRANCISCO – In a thinly veiled shot at Mayor Gavin Newsom, former Oakland Mayor and California Attorney General Jerry Brown — who has said he is considering a run for governor in 2010 — said in a radio interview that there are “characters” traveling around the state campaigning for governor while their city is a mess. Speaking on KGO’s morning talk show Thursday, Brown’s comments appeared to refer to criticism that Newsom has been spending too much time traveling to town hall-style meetings across the state while missing budget talks at home." -- I'm wondering who's doing Gavin' PR, because he's not taking the offensive at all. Jerry's a master politician and is not a afraid to deliver a velvet glove punch.

Tagami's Fox Project Team Takes a Bow , originally uploaded by kwikway . This was but one of the many great scenes at this terrific event!  The Oakland Fox construction team is on the stage of the building they brought back to life with Phil Tagami of California Commercial Investments introducing them.  Congrats to all including Tagami, Jeff Chew of the Community and Economic Development Agency, The Friends of The Oakand Fox Theater, and our videos -- lots of material -- will start here on Sunday.    The Gala was a complete blast. 

Comcast Cable has enjoyed a long standing franchise agreement in Oakland, which is why it seems every apartment has the service at the exclusion of any alternative.  That monopolistic setup has led to some very bad behavior on the part of the cable giant.   For example, Comcast has a system where if one is late for a payment, then pays it to get current, they still count a penalty charge for the number of days the payment was late, which is charged on top of what is owed but does not show up until months later.   In other words, you could late pay, think your bill is current, then three months later be informed that you still owe them for past months, even if you thought and they told you that you were current. It's a very weird billing system that does not serve customers well and could cause customers to think Comcast was scamming them.   That's why I stopped Comcast and went to satellite service.  I'm of the view that I should not have to pay to get a communication

Harry arrives at the Balboa Cafe From San Francisco Scene / SF Politics If you'd have told me that I'd end my evening into very early morning trying to convince the legendary Harry Denton not to lay down in the middle of the intersection of Filmore and Greenwich after what he admits was a drunken bender, I'd have said you were nuts. Well, you weren't. What I saw was the embodiment of Old San Francisco in action. Harry Denton's a throwback to the days of a bar called "Henry Africa" and Herb Caen and the Three Martini lunch, and Carol Doda. Denton is fun, San Francisco style. But what I now understand that to mean is a kind of ultimate freedom we don't see today. And when we do see it, we just don't know what to do. Ok. This is what happened. I decided to visit the Balboa Cafe in San Francisco, really because I'm used to the place and thought that the Olympics would be on television and I could watch the games with a crowd that may be ye

Yep. I just returned from a week-long trip to Miami, Florida and to attend my fifth Super Bowl game, Super Bowl XLI. For more on my trip and videos, check out our NFL Super Bowl Game blog. More on Oakland soon. Frankly, I was glad to get away from all of the bad news around town. Geez. Now, I learn that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's bearing his sole for all to see. Maybe that's a good turning point and a good example for politicians in Oakland and all over the World. Full emotional disclosure.