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More at Inside Bay Area : “BERKELEY — About 40 UC Berkeley students braved a steady drizzle Friday for a protest march to call attention to the killing of Oscar Grant by a BART police officer on New Year's Day. The group picked up a few more protesters on its way from Sproul Plaza at the university to the downtown Berkeley BART station. A small group of King Middle School students from Berkeley was set to join them for a walk from the downtown station to the Ashby BART station. The protesters, shadowed by UC Berkeley police, BART police and Berkeley police, passed out petitions that demanded prison for officer Johannes Mehserle and other BART police present at Grant's killing, an open investigation of the incident, disarming the BART police and dropping charges against people involved in previous protests in Oakland. The protest, sponsored by the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality by Any Means Necessary, was peaceful

Oaklander and YouTuber rubymsw created this very cool video where people around Lake Merritt were asked to give their own recital of the words that President Obama said when he took the Oath of Office.

I was in the middle of finishing an interview in front of the Capital on the night before the Inauguration, when this man came up and said "Hey. You're Zennie. I read yout blog." It turned out he was from Oaklland, and is active in the North Oakland political scene. That led to this video conversation I recorded with Jeff from Oakland.

According to The Huffington Post, MSNBC's Chris Matthews tried to make "Bloggers" a perjorative on his show when he denounced Bloggers as a source for news. This is what was written: Earlier in the segment Matthews speculated that the 'personal problem' that was given as Kennedy's reason for withdrawing was her marriage to Edwin Schlossberg. But when Benjamin said that the "affair question" was surfacing on blogs, Matthews abruptly cut her off: "Let's stick to journalism. I don't do that here. If it's just blogging let's drop it." Chris does not understand the term "Blogging" or that journalists can blog to, thus my video:

Major Oakland developments default on loans - Inside Bay Area : “OAKLAND — At least three major residential-retail projects deemed to be important catalysts for the downtown's revival have toppled into separate mortgage defaults that together total $140 million. The loan defaults have jolted the financial prospects for the downtown Oakland projects that, combined, would bring nearly 300 residential units to the city's urban center. The projects were all originally devised as for-sale condominium developments. "Clearly Oakland is not immune to the soft economy, the problems with the credit markets and the slow housing sector," said Ken Meyersieck, managing partner with the Oakland office of commercial realty brokerage Colliers International.”

Well, after another big large air traffic event, here I am stuck at another airport wating standby -- the byproduct of last-minute travel. This time Dulles Airport. But I'm not alone as I see the same people from flight to flight, trying to return to the SF Bay Area.

Oakland's California Assemblyperson Sandre Swanson took time to talk with me at BSmith's event on Saturday as part of the Obama Inauguration Celebration. He explained what the then-moment-to-come meant to him.

More at Inside Bay Area : “The Raiders are making another run at Al Saunders. This time, it will be for the offensive coordinator vacancy created by the departure of Greg Knapp to the Seattle Seahawks. Saunders was just fired by the St. Louis Rams as part of the purging of the Rams staff by new coach Steve Spagnulo. He is scheduled to interview with the Raiders as soon as today. "We anticipate giving him an interview within the next day or two," Raiders senior executive John Herrera said Tuesday afternoon. Raiders managing general partner Al Davis interviewed Saunders for the head coaching vacancy before he settled upon Art Shell. Saunders was hired by the Washington Redskins that season. He returned this season to the Rams franchise that he helped reach the Super Bowl in the 2000 season. However, new coach Steve Spagnuolo already is interviewing prospective replacements for Saunders. Saunders is regarded by many as one of the most innovative and gifted offensive coordinators

More at Inside Bay Area : “Oakland — Police are seeking a gunman who wounded a 22-year-old East Oakland man Sunday night during an apparent gang-related confrontation at Frank Ogawa Plaza near City Hall. The man, whose name was not released, was wounded in the abdomen and is expected to recover. The shooting happened about 8:30 p.m. Sunday in the 300 block of Frank Ogawa Plaza. Police said members of a West Oakland gang apparently got into a confrontation with another group that included the 22-year-old man. Fighting broke out, and at least one person believed to be associated with the gang pulled a gun and began shooting. The 22-year-old man told police he was running away and did not realize immediately that he had been shot. Police found him near the intersection of 15th Street and Broadway. Several other people were with him at the scene but refused to talk to officers.”

I literally ran into Joe Scarborough, the host of MSNBC's Morning Joe as I was walking into the lobby of a hotel for the sole purpose of warming up from the cold weather after President Barack Obama's great Inauguration acceptance speech. Joe was good enough to share his view of that speech with me, saying that it was the best one since John F. Kennedy's speech in 1960.

The Daily Cal's Erika Oblea and Keen Batti report on the gathering of students, faculty, and residents in Berkeley and Oakland for the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

I attended this awesome house party thrown by Brad and Leah, two Obama campaign volunteers who live in the Columbia Heights section of Washington DC. There, we talked about the meaning of President-Elect Barack Obama's Inauguration, and well, just had a great time on the eve of the big day!

As I walked along the Capital Mall the night before The Inauguration of Barack Obama as our 44th President, a young woman came up and asked -- and I kid you not -- "Are you a CNN reporter". I explained that I am an iReporter and we created this video of her message. Pretty funny but she had something to say and I wanted to help her say it.

While In Washington DC for the Inauguration, I was invited to a great premier of a cool new movie called "Gospel Hill". Directed by Giancarlo Esposito, it stars Angela Bassett, Danny Glover, Esposito, and others including South Carolina Charles James essentially playing himself. I talked to them about not just the movie, but the Obama Inauguration and the festivties held to that point in time.

This was an incredible Sunday concert experience as part of Obama Inauguration festivities, even if, like me, you got their around 2 PM and thus were not able to get close to the Lincoln Memorial, let alone past the Old War Memorial. I estimate the crowd at about 2 million. I've not seen a written estimate yet, but if it's in the thousands, it's just plain wrong!

I was walking to the Willard Hotel when I happened on a man who looked just like current President George W Bush. His name is Ed Thebility, and he says he's got a few pounds on President Bush but that he does get the "You look like" comment alot!

I attended the swanky affair at B Smith's Restaurant in Washington's Union Station. Produced by Stelfana Broadhead, the event attracted such illuminaries as Actor Delroy Lindo, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, City Manager Robert Bobb, and B Smith herself, who took time to talk with me about what Obama's Inauguration means to her.

Hey everyone.  I'm in Washington DC at the last minute just to really cover the experience of it all -- no tickets to events, but then I'm press, so I need a credential.  Didn't think I would be here as recently as Wednesday, but things happen fast:   So with that, if I were in Oakland, what would I do?  Wow, a lot.  There are a ton of events today, Sunday, and through Tuesday.  There's the Tuesday evening event called "Barack and Roll" at ZCafe, and produced by the East Bay Young Democrats (here's their Facebook Page  ).  Then there's the giant event at Oracle Arena that Tuesday morning. There's also an event at The Uptown Nightclub, and again on Tuesday night, and here's their Facebook Page  .  At any rate, there's more than I have time to post.  But the Berkeley Daily Planet has a great breakdown of events  , here's a list of some of them: • Sunday, Jan. 18, 4 p.m., Beebe Memorial Cathedral, 3900 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. •

Once I got my bags, got the Super Shuttle, and made to the house that my friend Teka has, I was able to meet our housemates. It turns out they played a big grass roots role in the Obama campaign in rural California. "Take back Red California."

More at Inside Bay Area : “OAKLAND — The Oakland Police Department wants to fire 11 officers at the center of the department's search warrant controversy, pending an administrative hearing, police and city officials confirmed Thursday. The officers were told of the department's plans earlier this week through a letter sent to their homes. The group includes two sergeants but no command staff. Another officer, Karla Rush, was given notice last year that the department wanted to fire her. The department also wants to suspend at least one officer and cleared several others, sources said. In total, 18 officers were under investigation in relation to the search warrant imbroglio. The department wants to fire the officers because of false statements made on sworn affidavits given to judges in hopes of securing search warrants for the homes of mostly suspected small-time drug dealers in East Oakland. Some officers also were given notice because they gave untruthful statements to inter