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East Bay Express | News | Darkness on the Edge of Town : Express: “Aaccording to a hard-hitting recent audit obtained by the Express, Oracle Arena remains an "underutilized" and "underperforming" public facility that falls short of expectations for a major event center in the middle of the nation's fourth-largest market. "The arena should be a 'must-play' by promoters of touring shows, including concerts, family shows, and special entertainment events," the audit stated. The arena also has fallen short of expectations in terms of offsetting the $20 million public subsidy that Oakland and Alameda County give to the arena and coliseum complex each year to keep it afloat. According to the audit, which was requested by the Golden State Warriors and completed last month, Oracle Arena has averaged just 99 events a year over the past three years, including 43 basketball games annually. By contrast, HP Pavilion drew 169 events last year alone, includin

Oakland forum tonight to address police-involved shootings - Inside Bay Area : “Forum on officer-involved shootings: Oakland's Citizens' Police Review Board will hold a public forum tonight on officer-involved shootings after the city saw a string of them earlier this year. The event begins at 6:15 p.m. in City Council chambers at 1 Frank Ogawa Plaza. Patrick Caceres, Citizens' Police Review Board analyst, said the forum will include presentations from the Oakland Police Department on use of force and what procedures the department goes through when officers do fire their weapons. Also scheduled to attend is Jim Chanin, an attorney who has represented clients in a number of police misconduct cases. "The main reason this was organized is because there were a number of high-profile officer-involved shootings at the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008," Caceres said.”

Don Perata shifted $1.5 million from PAC to his legal defense - Inside Bay Area : “By Josh Richman Oakland Tribune Contributors to Don Perata's political action committee this year might have thought their money would bankroll the attempted recall of state Sen. Jeff Denham or opposition to a legislative redistricting reform measure. But a day after the Nov. 4 election, and with only a few weeks left as state Senate President Pro Tem, the Oakland Democrat moved $1.5 million from Leadership California into his own legal defense fund, formed to counter a years-long FBI corruption probe. This sum dwarfs the California Democratic Party's $450,000 contribution to Perata's legal fund over the past year, which had caused an outcry from some party activists. It also towers above the $555,000 Perata had moved from his Taxpayers for Perata committee — ostensibly created for a 2010 Board of Equalization run — into his legal defense fund in several chunks since 2005. The transferred amo

llinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been indicted for ethics violations connected with a string of actions, including attempting to sell the now vacant Senate seat held by President-Elect Barack Obama. Of the persons considered for the seat, it's reported that Senator #5 offered to raise over a million dollars for the Governor -- it's rumored that the person is Illinois Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. Jackson moved swiftly to address this issue, holding a press conference where he said that he did meet with the Governor, and for 90 minutes. But he did not offer anything in the way of money. That press conference is here.

http://www.buffithegymgirl.com -- Jose Mercado is the general manager of Gold's Gym on 600 Grand Avenue in Oakland, and the place where "Buffi The Gym Girl" was created. Jose was kind enough to take time to talk about the business of running a gym. In the video he emphasizes something one would not expect to hear: the need to listen.

Think Progress » Who Is Steven Chu? A Nobel Physicist Who Believes In Bold Energy Transformation : “Numerous media outlets are reporting Dr. Steven Chu will be President-elect Obama’s choice to head the Department of Energy. Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, is the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California where he has been addressing the climate crisis by pushing breakthrough research in energy efficiency, solar energy, and biofuels technology. Colleagues who know Chu best say “he’s not a manager, he’s a leader.” In an interview with the Wonk Room, David Roland-Holst, an economist at the Center for Energy, Resources and Economic Sustainability at UC Berkeley, described Chu as a “very distinguished researcher” and “an extremely effective manager of cutting edge technology initiatives.””

Opening: Ozumo Oakland : “Ozumo, the popular Japanese restaurant on San Francisco's Embarcadero, has crossed the bay with a new location in Oakland's Uptown district. The team: Jeremy Umlaud, who opened the San Francisco Ozumo in 2001, has brought two chefs to the Bay Area. Executive chef Jennifer Nguyen apprenticed with "Iron Chef" Masaharu Morimoto and most recently worked at Chicago's Aja Steak, and chef de cuisine Christian Geideman has returned to his native Bay Area after seven years cooking in Santa Fe. Ozumo Oakland, 2251 Broadway (at Grand), Oakland; (510) 286-9866 or ozumo.com. Dinner nightly. Starters, $5-$14; small plates, $5-$18; sushi and sashimi, $6-$42; entrees, $28-$36; desserts, $8-$10. Full bar. Reservations and credit cards accepted.”

City to settle lawsuit over public housing - Inside Bay Area : “OAKLAND — The city will settle its public-nuisance lawsuit against the Oakland Housing Authority today, hoping the agreement ultimately will improve the conditions of the city's public housing. City Attorney John Russo and Housing Authority Executive Director Jon Gresley are scheduled to sign the agreement at a 10:30 a.m. news conference at a Housing Authority property in the 2100 block of East 28th Street. When the city sued the Housing Authority in February 2007, Russo described the agency as the city's largest slumlord and said rundown housing units posed problems for public health and safety. Russo said Tuesday the number of complaints his office has received about Housing Authority properties has declined, and he believes the settlement will put the city in a stronger position to help people living in public housing. "I'm confident that this is the beginning of a much better coordination and approach

Oakland internal affairs wants state to take over Bailey probe - Inside Bay Area : “OAKLAND — Police internal affairs detectives investigating the handling of journalist Chauncey Bailey's slaying will have state investigators present when they interview members of their department's command staff. Investigators from the attorney general's office will be there to monitor the interviews, according to a letter the Department of Justice sent to Mayor Ron Dellums in November. But the Justice Department won't take over the whole investigation — which is apparently what Oakland internal affairs investigators wanted, the letter stated. "We do not believe, as has been suggested by the Police Department's Internal Affairs investigator, that the Police Department investigation be halted or postponed pending our review," George B. Anderson, Director of the Division of Law Enforcement, wrote to Dellums on Nov. 26. While urging the mayor to order police to keep probing

Morning fire damages West Oakland home - Inside Bay Area : “OAKLAND - Firefighters extinguished a blaze in a single-family West Oakland home this morning less than half an hour after it was reported, officials said. The one-alarm fire at 949 W. MacArthur Boulevard was reported just before 6 a.m. and under control by 6:30 a.m., according to dispatchers. Nobody was reported injured and investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the fire.

An Insurmountable Task , originally uploaded by 4horsemen . This is a totally funny photo that shows that the unexpected can happend when an unusual event is held. In this case, that even is the Thursday, December 4th grand opening of Ozumo Restaurant on the corner of West Grand and Broadway. I don't know what this kid was thinking!

Living in the O reports - Safeway stakeholders meeting canceled (or postponed?) « Living in the O : “I’ve been planning to write another long post about the College Avenue Safeway rebuild, but haven’t quite found the time. I did want to alert everyone who’s interested that the meeting that was planned for this Tuesday, December 9th has been canceled. Unfortunately, there’s no further info on Safeway’s site about when the next meeting will be or if there will be one so that’s all the information I have.” -- The main problem is still the scale of the development proposed. Plus, the process of design did not include the residents from the start, so in perfect Oakland fashion, they're going to clobber it until Safeway understands and changes the process.

Dance This Mess Around! Benefit Concert : The Bay Bridged - San Francisco Bay Area Indie Music : “he Mills Dance Collective are putting on a benefit fundraiser show this Tuesday at the Uptown Nightclub in Oakland. Proceeds will go towards the Mills College dance program and their scholarships, as well as the local music scene.”