Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

Once upon a time in America, young people, workers, and fighters for social justice coined a phrase, “speak truth to power”. Most of us have settled for the media’s insistence that we now “speak only power to truth” or no truth at all. From the so-called energy crisis which was a Dick Cheney-Enron-induced cataclysm from which California has yet to recover, to the so-called mortgage meltdown, we have accepted lies and bullshit in place of research and another 60’s throwback, telling it like it is. Since those tumultuous days (lots of young people look back nostalgically to that time. Fear not, they are returning but with facebook, vimeo and all the repression, violence and STDs of that period) right wing think tanks have spent lots of their largess redefining the terms of our society and dictating them to the 90% of us who don’t control the wealth of our corporatocracy. These think tanks have developed the terms which define and then limit the debate to fighting a rear-actio...

Hello Your Fit Day Friends! I have to admit, this warrior woman had been suffering pain for the past 3 months or so. It started back in June 2010 when I pulled my inner thigh muscles (called adductors in fitness speak) most likely doing dead lifts. After rolling it out using the foam roller, and taking it easy on the lifting for a couple weeks, I was soon back to running, as well as training hard for a figure competition I had penciled into my schedule for the June of 2011. The show must go on you know! But by the time August 2010 rolled around I was starting to feel tightness in my glutes (called the butt in plain speak) and I noticed that running stairs (a great plyometric and fat burning workout by the way) were becoming a little painful with the high – knee lifts. So, in September I decided to lay off the stair-running for a few weeks. Trail running, however, didn’t seem to bother me. Thank the universe, since I live for those East Bay trails! Then, when even long strides star...