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Oakland Raiders Manager of The General Partner Al Davis recently announced that 10 percent of the organization was for sale . That news started a small set of media speculation web posts on the value of the organization based on Forbes annual blast about NFL team values. From Forbes, the Oakland Raiders are worth $797 million, which would put the 10 percent chunk at $79.7 million. Mr. Davis, I'll give you $35 million for that 10 percent But the Forbes estimate is wrong. Way wrong. It's wrong because the number's based on 2008 information, yet presented in this year: 2009. Moreover, media discussion on the Raiders value mentions the credit crunch, and the national economy, but fails to include the local employment situation. People need income to buy tickets and that money comes from jobs. In September 2008, California's unemployment was just 7.7 percent , and we thought that was terrible at the time. Now the rate is at 9.6 percent as of October , and ...

I happened to make a cyber trip over to the Oakland blog 38thNotes.com , where the posts are always interesting, if off-beat. This one on a video called "Oakland b Mine" is certainly that. Reportedly the video was created to be shown at the baggage claim at Oakland Airport. It's in the perfect place for out-of-town visitors to get an immediate idea of what Oakland's all about: diversity. The video features a man who appears to be Latino chasing after an attractive African American woman he sees in Oakland's airport. While he goes through lengths that are extraordinary to say the least, it's a cute video. I would classify it of the "don't try this at home" variety. You know? The camera takes us through many familiar spots in Oakland, including the Lake Merritt Farmer's Market, which means it was created on a Saturday. The video is cool for the cinematography and the music. Check it out, and pass it on!

According to Sanjiv Handa of the East Bay News Service the enormous Oakland Barnes and Noble bookstore at 98 Broadway in Jack London Square may close Jan. 31, 2010. Barnes and Noble is expected to make an official disclosure next week, baring any intervention from the City of Oakland to persuade them to remain open. Sanjiv Handa reports that the anticipated closure will cost the City of Oakland's government $125,000 in annual general fund revenue. (He forgot the additional revenue from the predatory parking ticket policy, but admits its harder to quantify.) The closure of Barnes and Noble is a blow to Oakland but the problem of its low profitability comes as no surprise. Chain bookstores around the Bay Area and around America have closed under the weight of the transition to online sources for news and information and the growth of online booksellers like Amazon.com.  San Francisco's Stacey's Book Store on Market Street closed in 2008 for similar reasons. Thi...

OSCAR ALERT. You have until December 1 to get your Screen Credits and Music Entry Forms in to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) if your movie is to be considered for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards. From the press release, AMPAS explains: For a feature film to be considered for the 2009 Awards, the film’s distributor or producer must file an OSC form with the Academy by 5 p.m. PT on December 1. If a feature film is released in 2009 and the completed OSC form is not submitted by the deadline, the film will be ineligible for Academy Awards in any year. OSC forms may be submitted online only, at http://aiwosc.oscars.org/aiwosc/ . Information about submission and feature film eligibility can be obtained by contacting Credits Coordinator Howard Loberfeld at (310) 247-3000, ext. 113, or via e-mail at hloberfeld@oscars.org . For an achievement to be considered in the Original Score or Original Song category, the principal music writer(s) for a feature film must su...

There are two issues on my mind as we approach Thanksgiving Day. One is why the great University of California at Berkeley would police to surround and beat defenseless students? The other is why we seem to applaud police brutality. I'm chaffing a bit that some local San Francisco Bay Area columnists seem afraid to point out police misconduct, writing instead that in one case - the case of the BART Police officer who slammed the drunk BART rider's face into the window at West Oakland or at least seemed to want to do that - the police officer was "just doing his job". The job of a police officer is dangerous, we know this. But to allow or expect police violence in that case - or in the more awful example of the police called in at Berkeley for the protest - calls the very values of our society into question. This video set collected and presented at the blog Millicent and Carla Fran is what got me. The good news is that protesting students were only ci...

There are two issues on my mind as we approach Thanksgiving Day. One is why the great University of California at Berkeley would allow its police department to surround and beat defenseless students? The other is why we seem to applaud police brutality. I'm chaffing a bit that some local San Francisco Bay Area columnists seem afraid to point out police misconduct, writing instead that in one case - the case of the BART Police officer who slammed the drunk BART rider's face into the window at West Oakland or at least seemed to want to do that - the police officer was "just doing his job". The job of a police officer is dangerous, we know this. But to allow or expect police violence in that case - or in the more awful example of the police called in at Berkeley for the protest - calls the very values of our society into question. This video set collected and presented at the blog Millicent and Carla Fran is what got me. The good news is that protesting ...

Even though I pay attention to national cultural issues, I've not forgot about Oakland. I scanned the blog post on the Oakland Taxi Cab problem with a chuckle because neither the Oakland North newsite or A Better Oakland blog actually hits on the real problem. (A momentary aside. It's time to call Oakland North what it is, a news website. It's not a blog. A blog contains opinions and adheres to a blogger's code of ethics . Oakland North is a site for journalists. I don't go there to get the views of one of their writers; I go there for the news. What's annoying is that as more journalists and journalism students discover new media, they call whatever they do online a blog. Wrong. I cry foul on this. If you're going to blog, let me know what you think , not what someone else thinks; but if not, then its a news website, period. Ok, back to the issue.) The City of Oakland let Friendly Cab have a monopoly role in the industry in Oakland. Fri...