OaklandNews - Oakland news from blogs, newspapers and other media

For a little over two years I've watched Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums' office like a hawk and commented on everything from his impressive wardrobe and rhetorical style to his policy and personnel decisions and leadership skills. Let's face it. I've even written...

Oakland's State of the City address on Monday night was supposed to be a festive event where Mayor Ron Dellums highlighted his accomplishments, identified the city's priorities and provided a sobering plan about what would be needed to achieve them in the...

Former City Manager Robert Bobb withdrew his name as a candidate to fill the long-vacant Oakland city administrator's position. Instead, he accepted the newly created state post of emergency financial director for the Detroit public schools. Under Michigan...

I can't speak for the millions of African Americans who watched President-elect Barack Obama take center stage in Chicago's Grant Park in November, but for me it conjured up images of a 40-year-old memory I thought was long forgotten. For some reason, I...

The contradictions between Ron Dellums' storybook congressional career on Capitol Hill and his rocky performance as a big-city mayor are too stark to ignore. He left Washington after 27 years in office as the liberal lion in the House of Representatives, a...

In Richmond, a city that has traditionally struggled with poverty and high crime rates, a community policing plan implemented 2 1/2 years ago is beginning to take hold in some of the city's most troubled neighborhoods. It has come down to a two front war: a...

For law-abiding Oakland residents already besieged with violence and high crime rates, Wednesday night's demonstration to protest the shooting death of a young man at the city's Fruitvale BART Station was mayhem masquerading as social justice. Well-meaning...

Art really does imitate life. A few well-meaning Oakland city officials reacted rather badly to news that HBO will soon begin production of its latest edgy urban drama, the story of a middle-aged pimp struggling to leave street life behind. The series, "...