Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

Zennie62.com is proud to officially announce that the legendary Hip Hop Journalist and Oaklander, Davey D (Dave Cook), has joined Zennie62.com as a featured blogger. Davey D has his own area called "Hip Hop News with Davey D." Frankly, for the number of people Davey D knows and has known in the Hip Hop community, from Mos Def to Oakland's Too Short, and Tupac Shakur, it's almost tragic that Davey D's work and voice has not been promoted and celebrated. That's coming to an end.  Davey D is a living legend in Oakand. Check out Davey D at Zennie62.com

Tony Bruno , the legendary sports talk radio host, briefly talked with this blogger about The Reggie Bush Scandal and his new Comcast SportsNet California television show with Gary Radnich this Sunday, September 12th at 9 PM EDT. First, for those of you who are saying "Isn't Tony in Los Angeles?" The answer is "Yes." But Bruno will, as he put it, "fly back and forth from LA" to do a show in San Francisco - one that he's talked with Radnich about doing for a long time. "Gary and I have been doing radio for a long time," Bruno said, "and we enjoy doing it together. So we've kicked around the idea of doing something up here on television. And we're finally gonna give it a try." As to Reggie Bush, who's Heisman hasn't been formally taken from him, even though a rumor surfaced to the level of truth two days ago, Bruno said "It didn't surprise me. The Heisman group was talking about it. I know Regg

Oakland, CA - This evening at about 4:55 PDT, and as this blogger was walking to Grand Avenue, there was far more than the usual level of traffic on Mac Arthur Blvd off the I-580 Freeway toward Grand Avenue. It wasn't exactly clear what happened until, as I walked closer, it was obvious a large truck with a reddish brown bed was at the center of what appeared to be a giant four-car pile up. What happened, according to the California Highway Patrol Officer I talked to, was that the truck's breaks went out and it slammed into what appeared to be a silver Honda. Apparently, the Honda was stopped, waiting for the light to change at the intersection of Mac Arthur and Grand near Lake Merritt. When the truck hit the car, it caused a chain reaction vehicle accident, with four cars slammed into each other. Thankfully, though there were several injuries, no one was killed. Moreover, the car in front of the rest of the group was pushed to the side on impact, and not into Gr

President Obama is joined by this blogger in wishing you a Happy Rosh Hashanah. Here's Obama's video from yesterday: Prof. Stephen Hawking Come to think of it, since Stephen Hawking elected to introduce his book The Grand Design and declare that God did not create the Universe , it's fair to say that for him, Rosh Hashanah's not good, eh? You'd think Hawking would show some respect for Jews by not releasing his book just a day before Rosh Hashanah, right? Talk about flunking his performance review. Geesh. This blogger still can't understand why Stephen Hawking would write a book trying to debunk the existence of God, but not The Devil. Makes you wonder if his book itself's the Work of The Devil. From this vantage point, Stephen Hawking looks just like the religious zealots he and his fans rightly criticize. Two sides of the same coin. I prefer the edge. It rolls, if you know what I mean. Happy Rosh Hashanah

Cal Women's Rowing Team member Jill Costello passed away from complications due to lung cancer on June 24th 2010 and at the age of 21. A San Francisco event and run called Jog For Jill has been established and will be held this Sunday, September 12th at 5 PM. Two members of the Cal Women's Crew team were at the Cal vs. Davis football game wearing Jog For Jill shirts, and were kind enough to provide the video interview above. Below are the other details from the event website, where you're encouraged to pre-register here CLICK FOR SITE : Pre-Registration: Online/$25 Day of Registration: 4:00 p.m./$30 Shotgun Start: 5:00 p.m. After run/walk celebration: 6:00 p.m.- 8:30 p.m. Event Location: Golden Gate Park Music Concourse Bandshell S Tea Garden Drive San Francisco, California 94118 Participants are encouraged to pre-register. Only pre-registered participants will be guaranteed a walk/run T-shirt. T-shirts will be limited to the first 2500 day of regis

The latest news in the Oakland Mayor's Race has the Oakland League of Women Voters still sticking to it's decision to exclude Oakland Mayoral Candidates from its September 23rd forum and for a booya-boogie list of reasons explained before in this space . This, after the Sierra Club opened its previously restricted forum to all candidates. The lack of Oakland League of Women Voters cooperation to open its September 23rd Forum leads this blogger to ask if the LVW is being paid off by certain elements of the Oakland Business Community, specifically, the Oakland Chamber of Commerce, not to have an open forum? Given my conversations with a number of people, payoff can come in different forms, like forum sponsorship. Since I was told that the League Of Women Voters was approached by the Oakland Chamber of Commerce to have a restrictive forum, it's fair to assert that for all practical purposes a payoff was in play. Otherwise, the LVW would have said "no" to t

Blogging random thoughts on Labor Day 2010 in Oakland. First, say Chip Johnson, my friend, can you name all of the candidates running for Mayor of Oakland without a list to assist you? A bottle of wine says you can't do it on video . Talking to Don Perata is great, and it was a great column, but we need more coverage from you - try doing all of them! Besides, Don skipped the Forum. He had a reason, but Perata's not Mayor; acting like he is will not win the prize. ...Still, I'm starting to see Perata lawn signs... Second, this blogger has video from the Oakland Mayor's Race Forum on Jobs from last Thursday, but thankfully so do a number of Oakland blogs. That means I can wait and take my time. Yeah! In fact, I have a backlog of videos that are of a higher priority than the Forum, and I will explain why below. But interviews with Oakland District Two Councilmember Pat Kernighan and her challenger Jennifer Pae, and an upcoming interview with Joe Tuman hav

Oakland Councilmember Jean Quan  The latest Oakland Election News has Oakland Mayor's Race candidate Jean Quan and Oakland City Council District Two Candidate Jennifer Pae and Oakland's current City Auditor Courtney Ruby landing the endorsement of The Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club of Oakland. The Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club's (WDRC) endorsement process started with a meeting last Thursday night, where members nominated candidates for consideration. For Oakland Mayor, only two candidates were named for consideration: Councilmembers Rebecca Kaplan and Jean Quan. For Oakland City Council District Two, only Jennifer Pae was named for consideration and not the incumbent Pat Kernighan. For City Auditor, only Ruby was named for consideration. The WDRC counted ballots and on Monday announced the votes for endorsements, and released the results on its website on Monday. Here's the full list of Oakland and Berkeley WDRC endorsements: Oakland Propositio

Regular readers of this space know this blogger travels to Atlanta, Georgia to help Mom and just keep her company almost every month. My mother lost her husband and my stepfather in 2005 and to prostate cancer. (In fact, my Mom had breast cancer, and my father and stepfather passed away from prostate cancer in 2005, so that was a hard year.) Fortunately between good friends nearby and my aunts and uncles just four hours by drive in Tennessee, and then me, she's not without company. Even though it's hard on me as an only child, and I'll explain why later in this post, I do enjoy my company with my Mother and for several reasons. First, she knows who I am as a person. Second, I don't know how much life I have to share with her, she's a breast cancer survivor, so things she may said or done that have bothered me in the past, don't impact me anymore. Third, she's my only family member. And finally, my stress goes away when I'm here. We're out in

 Berkeley Prof. Michael O'Hare  The UC Berkeley Letter To Students On California by Berkeley Professor Michael O'Hare is one that California Gubernatorial Candidates Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman should see because both are part of the generations that Michael O'Hare points to as essentially responsible for the decline of California, but for different reasons. Jerry Brown was Governor of California when Prop 13 (also called AB 8), the legislation reducing property taxes to 1 percent, was passed in 1978. Prop 13 us widely pointed to as the legislative device that robbed California of the tax revenue is used to provide the public services it was known for. Meg Whitman never voted or bothered to register to vote, or participated in California Government and politics , but now thinks she can run the state.  The idea of running for governor somehow entered her head 26 months ago. Who Is Michael O'Hare? Michael O'Hare is Professor of Public Policy At The UC

20-year-old 5 feet 7 inch, 240 pound, brown eyed and black haired Andrew Barrientos is armed, dangerous, and on the run after shooting a Fremont police officer who was trying to serve a search warrant at an East Oakland house at 2009 Auseon Ave, according to Oakland Police Spokesperson Jeff Thomason. Fortunately, the unnamed Fremont Officers's injuries are not life threatening. He's being treated for a leg wound at Highland Hospital. Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums issued this statement: Our hearts and prayers are with the Fremont police officer shot this afternoon, his loved ones, his fellow law enforcement officers and the City of Fremont family as they cope with this latest incident of senseless violence. On behalf of the Oakland community, I thank him for his law enforcement service and express my deep regret that this dedication has resulted in injury on our streets. I support Chief Batts and the men and women of the Oakland Police Department in pursuing every lead to

According to an email from Richard Lieberman, KPIX Channel Five in San Francisco has suffered a rash of departures due to the terrible economy. Richard's become the recorder of change in San Francisco Bay Area Media via his blog Rich Lieberman Report . In fact, Rich's so good some of the local newspapers and news websites quote his scoops without crediting him . Not here. Anna Duckworth  Here's Richard's info: Jeffrey Schaub sent me a list of the prime talent that have left or were removed from KPIX these past two years-- Manny Ramos Tony Russomanno Bill Schechner John Lobertini Rick Quan Barbara Rodgers Jeffrey Schaub Hank Plante Anna Werner Lisa Chan Sue Quan Anna Duckworth John Kessler Sydnie Kohara? Wendy Tokuda as anchor Wow, I wasn't aware so many people left, especially Anna Duckworth and John Kessler? But that's what I get for being on planes back and forth to Atlanta and New York City so much. Also sad to read of the pa

In an effort to keep you as consistently informed about the Oakland Mayor's Race as possible, this blogger assembled the first playlist of interviews of Oaklanders running for Mayor. Don MacLeay  This playlist, however, is not complete and but it will be, and soon. As of this writing, it contains 8 videos of seven of the 10 candidates, totaling approximately 140 minutes, and 6,051 views (and counting). So far, Terrance Candell, Greg Harland, Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, Don MacLeay, Councilmember Jean Quan, and Joe Tuman (with an asterisk), have been interviewed. Kaplan represents two videos with one more to be added. Tuman and Harland both have one more video each coming to the set, and in Tuman's case a full 30 minute conversation. And I have to talk to Marcie Hodge, Arnie Fields, and Larry Lionel Young. The playlists do not include forum videos or Oaklanders impressions of the candidates, or the race itself. That will be in a separate playlist. As to h