Waste Management of Alameda County is suing Oakland in Alameda County Superior Court over a complex contractual dispute with millions at stake. Oakland has used Waste Management to collect trash for many years. In 2015, the city inked a deal with the company to collect and process trash and compost from residences and businesses. The City Council selected a different firm, California Waste Solutions, to handle recycling.
Oakland's Morcom Rose Garden, a collection of thousands of showy shrubs and vines tucked away in an amphitheater setting in the Grand Lake neighborhood, was recently vandalized by thieves who stole 51 rose bushes. The Oct. 16 theft wasn't the first time plants at the city park have been damaged or stolen. However, according to Nancy Friedman, a volunteer gardener who helps tend and prune the collection, this most recent incident was especially upsetting.
Polls open today at 7 a.m. for a special election in which voters have one decision to make: how to vote on Proposition 50, a Congressional redistricting measure.Polls close at 8 p.m. The Alameda County Registrar of Voters provides a map of voting centers. Oakland polling sites include: Sankofa United Elementary School, 581 61st St. Parks Chapel AME Church, 476 34th St. Beth Eden Baptist Church, 1183 10th St.
As immigrant raids by federal agents have ramped up this year, Bay Area residents have sought assurances from city governments and local law enforcement agencies that they will not cooperate with these efforts. Mayor Barbara Lee, for example, has reaffirmed that Oakland is a sanctuary city, which bars police from cooperating with ICE and prohibits contracts with companies that work with the agency.
Daylight Saving Time has ended and with that comes an inevitable uptick in crime. Statistics suggest that as evenings get dark earlier, robberies and burglaries increase under cover of night. It was one of the many safety issues that Oakland police Capt. Aaron Smith discussed with citizens at Sunday's "Coffee with a Cop" event at Peet's Coffee & Tea in the Oakland hills' Montclair Village district.
In 1982, the man-made island between Oakland and Alameda played a role in "Project Jobs," an initiative launched by President Ronald Reagan's Immigration and Naturalization Service that deported thousands of undocumented workers to Mexico. In late April and early May, during a recession and a period of high unemployment, federal agents swarmed factories, marched into vineyards and mushroom farms and raided sheet metal plants to arrest undocumented workers who held "high-paying" jobs
Between Monday and Wednesday last week, students learning English averaged about 700 absences each day. On Thursday, the day agents began arriving at Coast Guard Island in the Oakland Estuary, absences spiked to more than 1,100, said Nicole Knight, executive director of the English Language Learner and Multilingual Achievement office that supports immigrant and newcomer families. For newcomer students, Monday through Wednesday saw about 200 daily absences, while on Thursday they shot up to 427, Knight said.
"There are too many cliffs that our young people are prone to falling off," Aboelata said during a groundbreaking event on Wednesday. "They leave the school setting, they graduate, or they become disconnected from school. They drop out. At 18, they fall off with certain benefits, or at 21 or 24. Because of the way our resources and systems are set up, young people fall through the gaps."
At 78 years old, Ranii was used to competing against younger opponents, but this one was especially boyish; no older than 12 by her estimation. If she leaned on him a little harder, she thought she could leave with a clean sweep. But after dropping the first two sets, the boy began to listen to advice from his parents, who had coached him throughout the match.
The city of Oakland has hired the former at-large councilmember as a project manager in the city administrator's office. Kaplan started on Sept. 29 as an exempt limited duration employee and her job is to perform policy research with an emphasis on illegal dumping and blight, city spokesperson Sean Maher told The Oaklandside. It's unclear how long she will be in this role.
Stuck in contentious negotiations over new contracts, two West Contra Costa Unified School District unions have overwhelmingly voted in favor of striking if district leadership cannot adequately meet their demands. More than 95% of members represented by the United Teachers of Richmond and Teamsters Local 856 separately voted recently to authorize strikes. That means about 3,000 district employees, from teachers and education specialists to maintenance and food service workers, could walk off the job if deals aren't struck in the coming months.
The California Highway Patrol says a suspect who had committed a vehicle code violation - failing to display license plates - and then fled officers was chased throughout Oakland on Tuesday night, leading to a dangerous collision on a busy arterial street. The suspect, identified by an Oakland police officer's radio broadcast only as a Hispanic male, sped away from the intersection of 73rd Avenue and San Leandro Street, at the Coliseum BART station,
Editor's note: Nosh covers food and restaurant news across the East Bay, and each week we publish one article covering all the restaurant openings and one article covering closings. Have a tip for Nosh? Submit it here. After serving Alameda for 22 years, Feel Good Bakery is hanging up its chef's hat for good. The bakery's last day of business will be Oct. 31, and pre-orders and online orders are no longer being accepted.
Classy waterfront dining has returned at Eve's Waterfront. After a kitchen fire prompted the restaurant to close for several years, Eve's will celebrate its grand reopening this weekend. The restaurant is rolling out new brunch offerings - including a raffle that promises to award the winner comped brunch for an entire year - plus indulgent dishes like Moroccan wings, smoked trout salad and crème brûlée French toast. Eve's Waterfront, 15 Embarcadero West, Oakland
An estimated 31,000 registered nurses and other front-line Kaiser Permanente health care workers went on strike Tuesday to demand better wages and staffing from the Oakland-based health care giant. Organizers say the five-day strike across 500 medical centers and offices in California, Hawaii and Oregon is the largest in the 50-year history of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals. The strike could grow to include 46,000 people.
The city of Oakland's Department of Violence Prevention is working with the Urban Peace Institute, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit, to create a training program for violence interrupters, unarmed civilians who de-escalate situations and prevent retaliation after shootings and other forms of violence. The first training cohort will launch in 2027. Oakland's violence intervention academy will be modeled after Urban Peace Institute's peace academy, which was established in 2008.
One member of the fire crew died, crushed by the overturned truck, and seven firefighters were injured, along with scores of passengers on the streetcar. An old tree in front of the playground was demolished but probably prevented the car from plowing full into the playground yard where many children were playing, the Berkeley Daily Gazette reported. A Berkeley woman, Cecelia Gollum, was credited with saving children in the playground by blowing her whistle when she saw the crash occurring.
Matthew John, 21, had been charged with fatally shooting 22-year-old Joshua Hopkins on Feb. 22, 2023, as the two argued on the 2200 block of Seminary Avenue. In September, prosecutors dropped the murder case, but John isn't completely out of hot water - he pleaded no contest to robbing a Berkeley jewelry store with two others in a $98,000 takeover heist, and will serve three years in state prison, court records show.
This morning, Lee's office sent a heads-up to reporters about Tuesday's 3:30 p.m. speech at City Hall. Atop the press release was an image of the seat of Oakland's government - one clearly generated by artificial intelligence. Immediately, journalists in our newsroom, who've collectively spent hundreds of hours at meetings and interviews in City Hall, noticed some key elements missing and fabricated in the image of the Beaux-Arts building.
