Educators in Oakland met in an electronic town hall on Saturday, April 25, to discuss a raft of problems caused in large measure by the novel coronavirus. Around 80 faculty, staff and community members chatted via Zoom in a conference organized by the Oakland Education Association to organize participation in

I got sick last week. It wasn’t the kind of sick that under most circumstances would raise even half an eyebrow. At most, I would have probably missed two days of work. Of course, last week wasn’t anywhere near the 48 contiguous states of normal. But I decided to call

A Big Change to This Year’s Voter Guide We’ve been doing voter guides for a really long time. I’m pretty sure we put our first one out in like 2010 or something. And I know that thousands of you rely on our voter guides to help you make decision. But

The Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees voted unanimously Tuesday to ratify a tentative contract agreement between the district and the Peralta Federation of Teachers, upping pay for part-time faculty. The district represents Berkeley City College, Laney and Merritt colleges in Oakland and College of Alameda. The move brought

There’s an old Yiddish joke about restaurants I like. It varies depending on who’s doing the telling, but basically it goes like this. A married couple comes out of a restaurant, both disgusted by the meal they just ate. The husband says, “Can you believe that? The food was terrible!”

UPDATE: Oakland has now officially decriminalized psychedelic mushrooms. They are the second city in the US to do so. The city of Oakland moved one step closer to deprioritizing arrest and prosecution of adults who use entheogenic plants. At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Oakland’s Public Safety Committee adopted a resolution

Oakland’s educators voted to ratify a new contract on Sunday, turning the page on the latest chapter in a book of teachers’ strikes across the country. Much of the past week and a half was marked by hot talk in the press, with leadership from the Oakland Education Association accusing

Oakland’s teachers and supporters hit the picket lines for a third day on Monday.  Around 3,000 Oakland educators went on strike last week, picketing Thursday and Friday outside many of the city’s 86 schools. No new details on contract negotiations were available Monday evening, with spokespeople for both the Oakland

Thousands of teachers began an official strike Thursday over a raft of disputes with the Oakland Unified School District. Officials with the Oakland Education Association, the union which represents OUSD teachers and support staff, declared the strike after the release of an independent fact-finding report six days ago. Citing a