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Yep. Organizers for Senator Barack Obama's rally at 3 PM today, told me that over 10,000 people signed up to attend his rally at the website of the campaign. If they all show up, it will be the largest gathering of its kind ever held at City Hall Plaza. I'll be there and part of the video-blogger network the campaign has assembled.

Man arrested in threats to City Hall employee Suspect had gone to Mayor Dellums' office looking for a job By Heather MacDonald , STAFF WRITER - OAKLAND TRIBUNE Article Last Updated: 03/17/2007 02:47:15 AM PDT OAKLAND — A 26-year-old man was arrested Friday morning on suspicion of making criminal threats against a member of Mayor Ron Dellums' staff after he created a disturbance outside the mayor's City Hall office, police said. Ronald Nalls, who has lived in Dublin and Oakland, went to the mayor's office seeking a job with the city after volunteering in Dellums' transition office, said Karen Stevenson, a spokeswoman for the mayor. Nalls is on probation for disturbing the peace and making criminal threats, officials said. He ran errands and stuffed envelopes for the mayor's transition team, said Stevenson, who added that he had been pleasant and had caused no problems. While Nalls was waiting to see a member of the staff in the office's small reception area a

I just read Frank Russo's account of the Sunday planning meeting for Saturday's rally for Senator Barack Obama. The Sunday meeting alone drew 500 people. Think about that. It's about half of the number that came to see John Edwards in Berkeley, and he was there. This is a planning meeting! I'm sorry I missed it, but I'm involved in planning the Saturday fund-raiser. Too much on my plate, too!

Ok, I found the rest of the info on the hostage story. ....It's in the Chron, so I guess I missed this... (03-10) 16:36 PST -- Oakland police hostage negotiators peacefully talked an armed customer out of Cybelle's Pizza at the corner of Piedmont Avenue and West Macarthur Boulevard after a one-hour standoff Saturday afternoon. Employees called police after 2 p.m., when the man approached the counter with a handgun sticking out of the waistband of his pants, said Capt. Frank Lowe. The customer didn't threaten anyone, but refused to leave the restaurant when patrol officers arrived and evacuated the employees and eight customers out the back door. The SWAT team was called and police blocked off streets. Neighboring businesses were ordered to shut their doors and keep workers and shoppers inside. A man who was with the armed suspect told police the two men had been up all night taking methamphetamine. After an hour, the pizza customer came out and kneeled on the sidewalk wi

Senator Obama is coming back to the San Francisco Bay Area. The Bay Area Democrats are one of the hosts of a fund-raiser at The Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco, on Saturday, March 17th at 5 PM. The contribution levels are $1,000 (for the 6:30 reception), $2,300 (for the 8 PM dinner), and one TBD but lower level for a grassroots event in Oakland at 3PM on the same day. To sign up for both or either event, click here: http://www.obamainsf.com I'm a co-chair for the evening event, so don't hesitate to ask any questions. You may also call at 510-387-9809.

I was told by a couple of friends that CyBelle's Pizza on Piedmont Avenue was taken over by a man with a gun on Saturday, making hostages of the patrons inside at the time. I don't know why he did this, or what the eventual outcome of the horror was. I'll report more as I get information on the incident.

I felt this one and told someone it was a 4.3; I was close. This earthquake hit in Lafayette, CA as its center. While in the report below, the research claims there's no cause for alarm, I disagree. These things are coming more frequently, and its a matter of time before we get a good sized one and its not far off. LAFAYETTE 4.2 quake jolts Bay Area -- no link to last week's temblor Keay Davidson and Wyatt Buchanan - SFGate.com Thursday, March 1, 2007 (03-01) 22:02 PST -- A 4.2 magnitude earthquake near Lafayette shook the Bay Area, just one week after a smaller quake in the same region. There's no cause for alarm, however, and judging by preliminary evidence, the Thursday evening quake is just another reminder of continual slippage on Bay Area faults, a leading U.S. Geological Survey expert said. "This is just a reminder that we all should ask ourselves, 'Do we have an earthquake kit in the car?' " USGS geophysicist Ross Stein told The Chronicle lat

Kenneth Eng took the fall for this, but AsianWeek's editors are the ones to blame. They too should be fired. "I don't hate asians, but after this doofus, I know there is at least ONE asian I dislike intensely. Posted by: Brian Schlosser | Feb 26, 2007 2:58:04 PM - WIRED Message Board" SAN FRANCISCO 'Hate Blacks' writer dismissed by AsianWeek Leslie Fulbright, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, March 1, 2007 The 22-year-old author of a column titled "Why I Hate Blacks" in the regional newspaper AsianWeek has been dismissed, and the paper's editors said Wednesday that they suffered "a serious lapse in editorial judgment" when they published his column. Editor at large Ted Fang said Wednesday at a news conference organized by the San Francisco branch of the NAACP that Kenneth Eng, who lives in New York, will not write again for the free weekly. "The failing of our editorial process in allowing this piece to go forward w

Shattuck Barnes & Noble May Be Closing Doors Major Chain’s Potential Closure Follows Departure of Independent Telegraph Icon Cody’s Books in July BY Sameea Kamal Contributing Writer - Daily Californian Thursday, March 1, 2007 One major chain bookstore in Berkeley could soon close because of some of the same factors that have led smaller independent bookstores to close their doors. The Barnes & Noble on Shattuck Avenue will close, store department manager Jeff McGinnis said. Company representatives did not return calls for comment and McGinnis did not comment on when or why the store was closing, but city officials said that the bookstore may have been struggling to stay afloat with the current expansion of online book retailers. In July the iconic Cody’s Books closed its primary location on Telegraph Avenue, while the owners of Black Oak Books, also on Shattuck, put the store up for sale in January. City officials said they were unsure about the reasons for the closure, and Mic

In its February 26th edition, Asian Week ran a column by writer Kenneth Eng called "Why I Hate Blacks." The hate work -- it can't be called anything other than that -- has been denounced by Bay Area Political Leaders. But whiile this happens, Asian Week has gotten off scot-free. Just Google "Kenneth Eng and Asian Week" and you'll find a collection of "hate columns" he's posted that comes off almost as a firing squad of work against Whites and Blacks. It's not just that Kenneth Eng writes this, but Asian Week give him a forum to express his hate. Of course, his behavior doesn't speak for every Asian person. But it must be reported here that Oakland tenant lawyers have told me more than once that Asian landlords do discriminate against Blacks. And in my legal battles with my now-ex landlord Lillie Jue, her own apartment manager wrote a email to me explaning that she didn't not want more Blacks in her apartment complex and was r

The USGS Website reports this: Magnitude 3.4 - local magnitude (ML) Time Friday, February 23, 2007 at 3:46:15 PM (PST) Friday, February 23, 2007 at 23:46:15 (UTC) Distance from Berkeley, CA - 3 km (2 miles) ESE (105 degrees) Piedmont, CA - 5 km (3 miles) N (350 degrees) Emeryville, CA - 5 km (3 miles) NE (52 degrees) Albany, CA - 6 km (4 miles) ESE (122 degrees) San Francisco City Hall, CA - 19 km (12 miles) ENE (57 degrees) Coordinates 37 deg. 51.9 min. N (37.865N), 122 deg. 14.4 min. W (122.241W) Depth 11.4 km (7.1 miles) Location Quality Good If you felt it, tell them here!

The USGS Website reports this: Magnitude 3.4 - local magnitude (ML) Time Friday, February 23, 2007 at 3:46:15 PM (PST) Friday, February 23, 2007 at 23:46:15 (UTC) Distance from Berkeley, CA - 3 km (2 miles) ESE (105 degrees) Piedmont, CA - 5 km (3 miles) N (350 degrees) Emeryville, CA - 5 km (3 miles) NE (52 degrees) Albany, CA - 6 km (4 miles) ESE (122 degrees) San Francisco City Hall, CA - 19 km (12 miles) ENE (57 degrees) Coordinates 37 deg. 51.9 min. N (37.865N), 122 deg. 14.4 min. W (122.241W) Depth 11.4 km (7.1 miles) Location Quality Good If you felt it, tell them here!

Residents advised to join forces Mayor urged to focus on community policing, respond to violence on block-by-block basis By Heather MacDonald , STAFF WRITER Article Last Updated: 02/19/2007 02:43:25 AM PST OAKLAND — Mayor Ron Dellums should make the implementation of viable community policing his highest public safety priority, according to two of the task forces formed by the mayor to set his administration's agenda. Released two months after the task forces finished the first phase of their work, the 30 recommendations urge the mayor to reach out to the community in an effort to stem the violence that claimed 148 lives last year and has shown no sign of lessening this year. The community policing task force urged Dellums to lead an effort to organize the city block by block as part of a "proactive partnership between residents, businesses and policeto improve and maintain quality of life in Oakland," where every officer regardless of assignment is a community police off