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Oakland Artist and friend Gabrielle Teschner is no stranger to my videos. She starred, with the setting and the great food and hospitality, during the opening of The Lake Chalet Restaurant in August of 2009 . This time, hard at work at creating art, Gabrielle took time to share with this blogger and viewers her latest creations. She's a specialist in arches and also made a series of blocks around African nations. She calls them "kits." Thus we have "Kit Benin" and so on, after each nation. For more information, Gabrielle Teschner's website is here: http://www.gabrielleteschner.blogspot.com/

If one looks at the statistics for the 2010 Oregon Ducks, it's better for Cal fans with game tickets to go for a half, then make way for The Bears Lair, or Henry's for a session of cocktailing and socializing. Just make sure not to drive. In other words, it looks like it's going to be that kind of day. It's rare to see an opponent that has an average game score of 54.7 points, versus just 17 points allowed. Oregon is first in not just the Pac-10, but the nation in total offense, with 567.2 yards per game. That's totally insane. However, there are some notable statistical openings for Cal. First, Oregon allows a total 329 yards of total offense per game, which can be divided into 229 yards passing and 100 yards rushing. That's enough to be effective, and means that Oregon's pinball scoring machine forces opponents to try and play their game. Few teams can beat Oregon in a track meet, and none in the Pac-10 so far. What's the weakness?

View Larger Map Atlanta, GA - When this blogger got the email announcing Oakland Mayor-Elect Jean Quan's Banquet, the first name that jumped off the page was "King of King." King of King is an excellent Chinese Restaurant at 1139 East 12th Street not far from Lake Merritt, yet more in Central East Oakland than the San Antonio District. The last time I visited this place where the Mongolian Beef is to die for was when Alameda County Treasurer Don White ran for Mayor, only to give way to Ron Dellums, who would become Oakland's Mayor. The management of King of King was gracious and prompt. It's no wonder the eatery has been the choice of Oakland insiders for at least the last 15 years. No, it's not the "most best" Chinese food in the Bay Area, OK. But what it has is a hard-to-beat combination of service, price, and local familiarity. King of King is a slice of Oakland everyone must experience at least twice. It's great that Jean's h

The political career of former State Senator, Assemblyman, and Alameda County Supervisor Don Perata is over. After a miraculous loss to now former Oakland Councilmember Jean Quan, Perata met with the media in Oakland today. According to the blog Oakland North , who's Berkeley J-school students do a great job of covering the part of Oakland that's north of Lake Merritt, Perata said he would not seek a recount, and stood ready to help Oakland's new Mayor-Elect Quan, and any other elected official. From the distance of 2,600 miles, where I am to visit my Mom, the announcement of Perata's decision not to legally challenge the Ranked Choice Voting count was a bit of a surprise, but given the hours that passed between last night and now, it's apparent cooler heads prevailed. That's a good thing.  Jean should be allowed to enjoy her win, and Don should call her ASAP, rather than at some point in time. The bottom line is that Jean Quan won fair and square. More

The Oakland Mayor's Race is both over and heating up yet again. First, big congratulations to now-former Oakland Councilmember and Oakland Mayor-Elect Jean Quan, who won the Ranked Choice Voting mayoral election by 50.98 percent to 49.02 for Former State Senator Don Perata. This after all absentee and provisional ballots were counted today by the Alameda County Registrar of Voters, Wednesday. Jean becomes Oakland's first female and first Asian mayor.  That, alone, is massively cool. Second, the outcome has rankled the Perata Campaign, which has put out strong signals that it plans to file a lawsuit to have the vote count "reconsidered." As Perata Campaign Manager John Whitehurst has said to the media "It's a travesty that a candidate that wins 78 percent of the precincts and leads by more than 11,000 votes (after first-choice votes are counted), with a margin of nearly 10 percent, loses the election. In any other contest it would be a landslide win,

As of this writing, The KPFA Morning Show is no more, but you can attend a protest of the action at 11 AM at KPFA on 1929 Martin Luther King Jr Way, near the intersection of Martin Luther King and University Avenue in Berkeley. On Monday, four employees of The Berkeley, CA-based, Pacifica-owned KPFA Morning Show , KPFA's most popular locally-produced program - were fired as part of what was called a "cost-cutting" move. The staff includes the two KPFA Morning Show hosts Aimee Allison and Brian Edwards-Tiekert, and Morning Show Executive Producer Laura Prives and Esther Manilla. Many Oaklanders know Aimee Allison as the local personality for Comcast, as well as a former candidate for the Oakland District Two Council Seat that's currently occupied by Pat Kernighan, who won another four year term on election day. Meanwhile, according to a source via email, Brian Edwards-Tiekert was pointed to as the person who made "enemies" on the KPFA Board of Direct

The much-anticipated final Oakland Mayor's Race ballot count that was to take place at 4 PM today (and had television media rushing to the Alameda County Registrar's Office at 4 PM just as this video blogger was leaving) has been delayed around 24 hours. According to David Mac Donald, who was the hero of the Alameda County effort to handle the massive turnout for the 2008 Presidential Election that saw Barack Obama elected the first African-American President of The United States, the reason is a "crowded election." "We've had more ballots to process in this election, than in any election in history," Mac Donald said. "And the reason is because with Ranked Choice Voting, every voter in Oakland, Berkeley, and San Leandro got three ballot cards. And so it's triple the amount of paper that we have to handle. So it's been a big effort, but we're making a lot of progress. We're getting there." Mac Donald said that he

Dallas Cowboys Head Coach Wade Phillips posted one of the most pathetic post-game speeches this blogger has ever heard by an NFL coach after the Cowboys were slammed 45 to 7 against the Green Bay Packers. Now, with a 1 and 7 season so far, the media's calling for Coach Phillips head to be rolled. Indeed, Dallas Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones, who must feel like he's being cursed for making fun of the idea of drafting Tim Tebow, said that people would feel a change. The Cowboys lost to a good team in the Packers and an excellent quarterback in Aaron Rogers, but the collapse of Dallas was shocking. It started with a 28-point second quarter, and that's when it was apparent the Cowboys were going to be blown out of the building. They were. The Cowboys suffered their most embarrassing loss of the season, and then on NFL Network Sunday night, Coach Phillips took the podium. Afterward, NFL Network analysts Deion Sanders, Michael Irvin, and Steve Mariucci got into a live

Last Tuesday night, the night of the 2010 Midterm Elections, as now Governor-Elect Jerry Brown was making his way through the audience of media and well-wishers, and this video blogger was filming the action, Brown turned right, and into my camcorder's lens. The first thing out of Jerry's mouth - well the second thing after "there's that blogger" - was referring to the comments that Arnie Fields made about him during our interview. Arnie Fields ran for Mayor and lost, again, big time. Arnie knows in his heart of hearts that he's not going to be the Mayor of Oakland unless he makes a concerted effort. But that's another blog post. Arnie's ran twice because he's got Jerry Brown on the brain, and doesn't like the "10K" - Jerry Brown's project that brought thousands of units of apartment and condo housing to downtown Oakland, and helped transform Oakland's population. Ok, we've been through that discussion. But i

The news that Oakland Councilmember Jean Quan may be the next Mayor of Oakland has outraged Oakland Police Officers. This blogger just got a call this evening from a long time friend who's name I will not reveal and who's working "out in the field" on the streets of Oakland after the Mehserle verdict, who said "Hey. It's busy out here, people on the street, but we've got it really well contained. We're way over-prepared for this, this time."  (Which explains why he was able to take time to call this blogger.) Then his tone changed. This is someone who doesn't get that upset a lot; not this time. He said "You know me. I generally don't pay attention to politics, but whoa! This shit out here is nothing compared to what I was told. You're politically in the know, so I call on you. Is it true, we're going to have Jean Quan as our Mayor!? If that's the case, I'm outta Oakland, and I'm taking as many people as

The unthinkable just happened. Oakland District 4 Councilmember Jean Quan outpaced Former California State Senator Don Perata 51 percent to 48 percent and unofficially won the Oakland Mayor's Race.  If the results hold, Quan becomes Oakland's first female mayor and its first Asian mayor. This news is according to the Alameda County Registrar's Office . Congratulations to Mayor-Elect Jean Quan, if these results hold up. The numbers are really, really close. The results, the product of the new Ranked Choice Voting system, went through 10 computerized rounds. Oakland Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan and Councilmember Kaplan transferred the largest number of votes, so it must be surmised that their strategy of supporting each other actually worked. If you think about it, and look at the numbers, that means three-fourths of the second choice results were for Jean Quan. That's amazing. This is really funny, in a good way. It means the system worked, even if some may n

In a small press conference Thursday, Oakland Councilmember and City Council President Jane Brunner and Oakland City Administrator Dan Lindheim sat down to talk about the election and the status of Oakland Police staffing. Well, it was really all about Oakland Police staffing, and not so much about the ranked choice voting election. Oakland Mayor-Elect Don Perata (which we can say because his 11 point first vote lead coupled with the first and second choices yet to be counted puts him closest to the needed 50 percent majority), said at his election party that his first action as Mayor of Oakland will be to reinstate the 80 police officer positions eliminated to trim Oakland's huge budget deficit. Here's the video containing Perata's comments at the 4:28 mark: Don Perata's proposed action was met with some hesitation from new Oakland District 4 (Montclair - Oakland Hills) Councilmember Libby Schaaf, who said that she wasn't willing to rubber stamp Pe

If first choice results hold under Ranked Choice Voting, and given his 11 percent lead, there's little reason to think otherwise, Don Perata will be Oakland's Mayor-Elect. Mayor-Elect Perata got 35 percent of the first choice votes; the full results will be by Friday, but his lead's large enough to pull the top Oakland politicians, from Councilmember Larry Reid to AC Transit Executive Director (and former Alameda County Supervisor) Mary King to his party at Z-Cafe on 27th and Broadway. But in apparent victory, Perata set up what will be his first political battle of his mayoral term: the reinstatement of 80 Oakland Police Officers. Laying off 80 Oakland Police Officers this year was a controversial move to cut the City of Oakland's budget, and caused a packed City Council meeting where police officers listened to a community that didn't seem to like them very much. Not so Don Perata. Asked on video to come by this video-blogger what his first move will b