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Theatre group tells labor struggle story - Inside Bay Area : “OAKLAND — A crew of labor organizers and artists turned Latham Square into a stage Sunday afternoon, armed with a wardrobe of 1940s style clothing, some historical research and a cause of labor solidarity. The performance, called "Oakland 1946!," told the true story of a retail workers' strike, organized on that exact site, that eventually ballooned into a general labor strike, shutting down the city for two days. The audience of about 100 people was actively brought into the show. Some were given picket signs and drawn into a dance of celebration.”

New piece of Bailey slaying puzzle surfaces : “The leader of Your Black Muslim Bakery expressed satisfaction on the morning Chauncey Bailey was killed, saying the journalist got what he deserved for taking on the troubled organization in his reporting, a bakery member told Oakland police in a recently discovered account given the day after the slaying. Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV summoned the woman to watch a TV news story about three hours after Bailey, 57, was gunned down on his way to work on Aug. 2, 2007, she told homicide investigators. As they watched the report on the Oakland Post editor's slaying, Bey told her, "That will teach 'em to f- with me," she said. The woman worked at the bakery headquarters on San Pablo Avenue in Oakland and stayed in Bey's room there the night before Bailey was killed, she said. The Chronicle obtained a tape of her account and police notes of her interview, but is not naming her at the request of authorities who say her safety co

Barack Obama On Meet The Press - The Activist President-Elect : “President-Elect Barack Obama appeared on the last "Meet The Press" hosted by Tom Brokaw who filed-in masterfully to take the place of Tim Russert after Russert's untimely death earlier this year. On the telecast, Obama presented a plan which can be summed-up as the "Activist President." The convergence of economic problems and President Bush's horrible performance has paved the way for an economically aggressive agenda by Obama that's the child of necessity.”

Violence is why Oaklanders forsake the city The irony of this column by Chip Johnson of the SF Chronicle is that he and I were talking on Lakeshore the other day and he introduced me to someone he's acquainted with who was complaining to us about how vandals destroy locks on the news stands to get papers to then resell. This person confronted one of the vandals and got into a fight with him. The point is the essense of Oakland's crime problem is it's terrible economic development. Housing was never the way to go.

Hard times hit Bay Area restaurants : “Jojo, a neighborhood French restaurant in Oakland”

Oakland day care center shooter gets life in prison - Inside Bay Area : “OAKLAND — If trying to kill two wives in the past two decades didn't make William "Mookie" Johnson a poster child for domestic violence, his attempt at killing his third wife certainly did, a judge declared Friday as he sentenced the three-time convicted felon to a life behind bars.”

As a preface to what I'm about to write, let me state that I'm generally one of the persons who's been very critical of Mayor Dellums' performance. Indeed, in the case of bringing in a new City Administrator, Dellums is dragging his feet beyond a reasonable degree of time. Thus, Oakland City Attorney John Russo's public charge last week that the Oakland City Charter is such that the Mayor may be violating it by not naming a City Administrator is shockingly sloppy in logic and approach. I'm frankly surprised Russo would take such a brazen road in trying to get the Mayor to act. It's the duty of the media to provide an informational check on these actions. And in this case, Russo's builying tactics cause me to wonder if it's overstepping the normal attorney-client relationship. Not that Dellums doesn't deserve it because it's obvious that he misread the City Charter. The Charter states: Section 502. Acting City Administrator. The

Rachel Maddow's the best choice to replace Tom Brokaw and the late Tim Russert before him. She would carry on Russert's tradition of fairness. As I stated earlier , she's a better choice for the role than NBC News Correspondent David Gregory.

This is one of the main programs that goes under publicized and leads to the feeling that "nothing is happening" -- not always so. Here's the information from the event: The Oakland Green Jobs Corps is a job training program providing green pathways out of poverty for young adults in Oakland facing barriers to employment. The program will provide job-readiness training, ongoing support services, and on-the-job training, enabling trainees to pursue careers in green industries. Graduates will be placed in full time jobs with solar firms and green construction contractors. Elected officials from various levels of government spoke at the press conference to show their support: Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Assemblyman Sandre Swason, Assemblywoman Loni Hancock (CA Senator-elect), Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, Oakland City Councilmembers Jane Brunner and Nancy Nadel. H.R. 6815 the Metro Economies Green Act (MEGA) MEGA will provide targeted fed

This video, created on the early morning of the first day after the election -- like New Year's Day -- captured various Oaklanders who were getting coffee after what was a night of celebration of President-Elect Obama's win. It's cool to watch the day break as this is being made.

I placed this because in two weeks it's gotten only 13 views total and is an example of what I mean when I report that it's not enough to just stick a video on YouTube and leave it there. It's also a good and rare commercial video on a facility that, after seeing this, is not as bad as I thought it was. This is what they wrote: Going on vacation or taking a business trip? Whether business or pleasure, learn more about the property with a video before you book. MOTEL 6 OAKLAND - EMBARCADERO, located at 1801 EMBARCADERO, OAKLAND, California, 94606, USA. Contact the property directly at 510-436-0103 or visit our homepage.

This YouTuber is involved in a practice called Railfanning. This is what they wrote: Railfanning at Oakland Jack London Square Amtrak Capitol Corridor/Amtrak San Joaquin (Rare catch on the 3rd train) Train 1: Amtrak Capitol Corridor #728 departs Oakland and goes into street running with cab #8308 Train 2: Amtrak Capitol Corridor with F59PHI #2004 and cab #8306 goes through street running at Jack London Square Train 3: Amtrak San Joaquin with Dash 8-32BWH #2051 and cab #6963 goes through street running at Jack London Square Note: The SUPER RARE Pacific Surfliner repainted Superliner coach! Train 4: Amtrak San Joaquin with cab # 6961 and P42-DC #80 departs Oakland and goes into street running Train 5: Amtrak Capitol Corridor #733 arrives into Oakland Jack London Square with F59PHI #2001 and cab #8302 Thanks for watching! Video by Pilotkev170

Oakland A's pitcher and Stockton native Dallas Braden solicited donations from local businesses and individuals to serve 845 pounds of food to the needy at St. Mary's Interfaith Community Services on Nov. 26.

http://www.cbssports.com - The San Diego Chargers dominated the Oakland Raiders on Thursday night, winning 34-7 and keeping their hopes alive of winning the AFC West. Lauren Shehadi has the AFC West rivalry recap.

AC/DC at the Oracle Arena, Oakland, CA 12-4-08

This was on the Yahoo! Message Board:  Volunteer Opportunity Your help is greatly needed to stem the tide of truancy in Oakland .  Our beleaguered school clerks are often responsible for attendance as well as performing many other duties with constant interruptions.  Because of that, calls to parents to follow up on absences are often not made. If you have a daytime hour or two a week, you could help a school clerk make those calls to parents.  Volunteers will be trained and assigned to a convenient school.  A child back in school has great results: 1. The opportunity for learning, 2. Less likelihood of getting hurt or into trouble in the streets, and 3. Increased income for the school which is based on average daily attendance We have at least 10 schools in District 3, and 4 volunteers have signed up already.  It would be great to have 1 person for each day of the week for each school (50 volunteers).  Please share this email with someone you know who would be a trustwo

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide : “Mortgage Delinquencies, Foreclosures Rise to Record ”

If you remember a year ago in November, I went out with my video camera and talked to two groups: SF Women in Black and SF Voice for Israel. If you shop at the Oakland Farmers Market, you remember a man carrying a large Israeli flag in front of the Grand Lake Theater. That man was Dan Kilman. This is that video series: Part One: Part Two Well, the person in the video with the beard is one I came to call a friend; this a key part of Oakland culture, died recently. He supposedly died from falling down an elevator shaft after trying to climb out of a car stuck between floors. According to the website for "SF Voice for Israel" and where Dan was an active member, Kilman was found dead on December 1st at the bottom of an elevator shaft in a building located at 55 New Montgomery Street in San Francisco called the Sharon Building.   But some think fowl-play in the form of a hate crime had been committed. Red County reports that Kilman had been assaulted

My good friend Hala Hijazi  has a firm called " Professionals VIP  " which over the past five years has developed into a kind of meeting place for the Bay Area's movers and shakers and last night's event, held at the Neiman Marcus Rotunda and hosting Morisson and Forrester Partner and Obama For America Northern California Chair Attorney Tony West, was no exception with about 150 people in attendance. At the affair I had the pleasure of talking with both former Mayors of Oakland and San Francisco respectively Elihu Harris and Willie Brown about the chances of Don Perata winning the Oakland Mayor's Race and both gave answers at separate times but said the same thing: that Perata would win the Mayor's Race...if he's not indicted, first.   Sources including those reported earlier this year in the East Bay Express  , believe that the State Senator will be indicted on public corruption charges, but that was as far back as July; it's December and nothin

East Bay Express | Blogs | Dellums Gets Off His Ass. Kinda.