Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

The office of Mario Juarez , the real estate business man running for the Oakland City Council District Five currently held by Council Prsident Ignacio De La Fuente, was vandelized. Someone took a hammer and smashed in each of the six windows and doors of the office Friday night at 10:30 PM. I talked to Juarez about this; he said he'd not seen anything like it outside of Mexico City. I also asked him if it was connected to the authors of the " Oakland City Crook " blog that takes every bit of bad news about him and presents it in one blog. I've never seen this happen in an election in Oakland. Sad. Regardless of his past, Juarez should be left alone.

Of all the current Oakland Councilmembers, Henry Chang stands out not just as an elder statesman, but as an honest, principled elected official who I've long admired, regardless of his position. Here's more about him. Henry was born in 1934, the second child of Frances and Henry Sr. He was separated from his parents two years later, when the Japanese attacked his hometown, Shantou. Henry fled to Hong Kong with his Aunt Barbara while his parents escaped to Northern China. Three years later, when the Japanese attacked Hong Kong, Henry returned by freighter back to Japanese-occupied Shantou and was later reunited with his mother and father. Henry's most vivid childhood memories are of the concentration camp his family called home during the occupation of China. There, they witnessed unspeakable torture and brutality. He escaped in 1941 with his brother Thomas by crawling over a wall at night and hiding in a farmhouse. Henry reconnected with his family a year later, whe