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At a press conference Sunday evening, Don Macleay, head of the Oakland Green Party, Wilson Riles, long-time Oakland activist, Vicki McGuire, mental health professional, and Naomi Shiff, Oakland architect and preservationist, all called for Oakland Mayor Jean Quan to avoid what will almost certainly be a violent removal of the Occupy Oakland encampment.  Here are videos from the press event held at the Oakland City Hall Steps, Sunday at 4:30 PM. Occupy Oakland protestor and encampment dwellers received a third eviction notice on Sunday.  Stay tuned.

Oakland Activists Call Occupy Oakland Press Conference At City Hall Today Oakland Green Party Head Calls For Stop To Planned City Of Oakland Eviction at 4:30 PM PST For Immediate Release Contact: Don Macleay at 510-290-1200 Sunday, November 13th, 2011 Oakland Green Party Head and 2010 Oakland Mayor's Race Candidate Don Macleay, and long time Oakland Activists Wilson Riles, and Vicki McGuire will hold a press conference today, and will be joined by other Occupy Oakland participants on the steps of Oakland's City Hall.   They will assemble right in front of the Oakland City Hall steps, just 150 feet from the main Occupy Oakland General Assembly Meeting Area at Frank Ogawa Plaza, near 14th and Broadway.  Here's Mr. Macleay's prepared statement: <blockquote>We the undersigned are making a proposal to the General Assembly calling for a PUBLIC FORUM on Thursday Nov. 17 on the subject of HOW TO HARMONIZE THE OCCUPY OAKLAND PROTEST WITH THE OAKLAND COMMUNITY AT LARGE The

A video blogger named OakFoSho is running an Occupy Oakland Live Stream now, today, Saturday November 12, 2011.  He's covering the activities of the day, even as the encampment at Frank Ogawa Plaza just received its second eviction notice from the Oakland Police, and for the second straight day.  He says that UStream.tv set them up "for free" and are some "really down people" over there at USTream headquarters.  He said that the reason UStream dropped in was that on the night of the police raid on October 25th, 35,000 people saw his live stream of the happenings, as broadcasted via his cell phone.  So, the UStream people saw that, and worked to set Occupy Oakland up with a brand new system.  The first one for the Occupy Movement. So far, it's attracted over 200 views.  Right now, the live stream focus is on a teach in. For UStream this is more than a good-will effort; it's business.  If the Oakland Police and Alameda County Law Enforcement take

In an amusing blog post (and for its pure hubris), The Oakland Police Association has stated in a new blog that it's time for Occupy Oakland to go. Frankly, releasing this blog post was one of the dumbest actions any Oakland public organization outside the Mayor could have made. It just shows how little respect the Oakland Police have for the Mayor of Oakland and the chain of command. Here's the blog post: November 11, 2011 On behalf of the 645 Oakland police officers we represent, this letter comes to you out of duty to protect the Oakland community and its citizens. Oakland police officers are the 99% and we understand and sympathize with your message. We respect your right to peaceful protest. We are also sworn to protect the citizens of Oakland. Right now, Oakland is in a state of emergency. Our police officers are the 99% struggling in Oakland neighborhoods every day to contain the 1% who rob, steal, rape and murder our law-abiding citizens. The Occupy Oakla

For the many who never knew Oakland Mayor Lionel Wilson, who was Oakland's last three-term Mayor, and its first African American Mayor, serving from 1977 to 1991, when he lost to Elihu Harris.  During his time, Mayor Wilson was a tireless promoter of Oakland.  The video below has Mayor Wilson making a video to announce the State Urban Economic Development Conference to help prospective developers and business owners build and relocate in Oakland.  In the video, Wilson presents different views of Oakland, showing everyone what a great city it really is. By contrast, Oakland doesn't have such events in the present day.  Instead, we have meetings to present our public safety plans to residents.  It's all fear-based, not economics based, and at a time when Oakland needs to create more jobs. Mayor Wilson died of cancer in 1990

The Cal - Stanford Big Game is next week, and promises to be another memorable college football contest. As usual, there will be a number of parties, but there's one event that you really must come to: a benefit for Jill's Legacy . Jill's Legacy is a non-profit organization based around Cal Crew Team Member Jill Costello, who lost her battle with lung cancer at the age of 22. The website describes the organization in this way: Jill's Legacy is an Advisory Board to the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation made up of promising young professionals who have each been personally touched by Lung Cancer. The Board has been called Jill's Legacy in memory of 22-year-old college student and athlete at U.C. Berkeley, Jillian Costello, who lost her battle with Lung Cancer in June of 2010, just one year after being diagnosed. With its oldest member just 24, this Board of empowered young adults is largely made up of Jill's closest friends and loved ones. The grou

Occupy Oakland has revealed one thing: just how basically ignorant so many people can be at once.  There are many examples here, but the latest one is the shooting and death of a person at 14th and Broadway, and all over a "bag of weed."  That's Oakland for ya.  There's way too much media around Occupy Oakland, which is a good thing because offers just enough information to be able to make a sound determination of what actually was going on out there.  First, because the shooting happened at 14th and Broadway, which is next to the encampment at Frank Ogawa Plaza, conservative blogs like Big Government by Andrew Brietbart and also HotAir, have jumped all over the incident as evidence that the occupation needs to end.  That's even though many say it had nothing to do with the movement at all.  See this AP Video: The sad fact is that 14th and Broadway has long been a place where you could run into drug dealers and vagrants, and possibly be robbed by them.  O