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Councilmembers Nancy Nadel and Pat Kernighan are hosting a Lake Merritt Town Hall Meeting on Wednesday, January 31st at 666 Bellevue in the Lakeside Park Garden Center, 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm. This notice was posted on the Yahoo Message Board system and seems to have appeared without commentary of any kind. There may be a reason for this, and it may be that the group members are just being nice, but the town hall meeting is out of touch with what's happening around the Lake. The topics will be on zoning and high-rise issues around the Lake, which is interesting. In fact, their notice states the meeting will focus on: o Blocked view corridors - for pedestrians, autos, and residents o Creation of wind corridors o Light/glare o Shadows on open space and the lake o Adverse impacts to existing visual/neighborhood character o Community input on height standards/alternatives But I really think they need to focus on the crime problem and right now. With

Police report robbery spree through Oakland From Staff Reports - Oakland Tribune Article Last Updated: 01/16/2007 01:04:09 PM PST OAKLAND _ Three men took a car at gunpoint Monday night and then used the vehicle to commit at least four robberies and possibly more, police said Tuesday morning. The carjacking and four confirmed robberies by the same suspects were among 13 robberies across the city between 6 p.m. and midnight. Investigators were still waiting for reports Tuesday and details were sketchy. The carjacking happened at 5:48 p.m. in the 3000 block of Capp Street when the three men took a Toyota Camry at gunpoint from the owner. In the next two hours or so the men used the car to rob people on the street in East Oakland. Those robberies occurred in the 1900 block of 69th Avenue, the 1600 block of 80th Avenue, the 4000 block of Foothill Boulevard and the 2300 block of 86th Avenue. Each of the victims lost personal items, police said. Other East Oakland robberies happened in the 4

Occasionally we get and allow comments from "Anonymous" poster. Well, as of today, we're not allowing them any more. Not at all. The reason for this is about 82 percent of the time, the posters write something insulting or nasty..or racist. That happens a lot and comes from so-called Oaklanders. What a joke they are. The very act of this is cowardly to me. I've come to the belief that the people who do this have nothing better to do than to waste time. Thus, the party is over. If one wants to make a comment, they'll have to identify themselves.

Renowned barber college still stylin' in new location Moler transplanted to Telegraph Avenue By Cecily Burt, STAFF WRITER - OAKLAND TRIBUNE OAKLAND — The spacious Moler Barber College salon on Telegraph Avenue was crowded with would-be barbers and stylists giving shaves and facials early one recent morning. Despite being a normally talkative bunch, no one uttered a peep. For a full hour, the students silently honed their straight-razor shaving techniques, folded hot towels in the precise way and perfected the art of rejuvenating facial massages — all in preparation for rigorous practical state board exams in March. That this scene happened at all is amazing, because it wasn't so long ago that Oakland's 95-year-old barberschool — one of the few in the Bay Area — was in danger of closing for good. Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, which is expanding its North Oakland campus, had purchased the storefront building on Broadway, where Moler students had shampooed, shaped and styl

Click here to read my post on this over at SBS NFL Business Blog.

This was from the Yahoo! Message board today I wanted to report an armed robbery. My husband and I were robbed at gun point at 1:20A this morning in front of our apartment building at 376 Staten Avenue . Three young black youths dresses in Black-hooded sweatshirts and baggy jeans, with shoes with rubber soles. They held a gun on my husband, took his wallet, and took my purse with wallet, cell phone, make-up, etc. inside. We did call the police, they came out, we made a report. The youth used two of our credit cards at three gas stations: An Oakland 76 Station, A McArthur Valero, and Son T. Nguygen station at 3:00Am, 3:05 AM, and 3:15 AM. Hopefully this will give the police something to go on. We want to let you all know.

As a note, I ran into Rep. Barbara Lee at the Montclarion Albertson's while shopping late with my mother. Rep. Lee informed us that she'd been flying the red-eye back and forth from here to Washington DC. Lots of work to be done, as this article will reveal. Lee hits ground running in 110th Congress By Josh Richman MEDIANEWS STAFF Rep. Barbara Lee clearly doesn't believe in starting slowly. While five Bay Area members of Congress have yet to introduce a bill in the 110th Congress convened last week and four more have introduced one bill each so far, Lee already has introduced 17 pieces of legislation. For Lee, D-Oakland, the early blitz is partly a matter of staking out her turf. "These are critical issues, not only to the people of my district but to the entire nation, and I am not going to wait for an invitation to stake out my position or take a leadership role," she said Tuesday. "These are issues that I have been working on, many of them for years, an