Voters decided less than four years ago to establish an independent Oakland Police Commission as an extra level of oversight on the police department, which would have had some teeth if allowed to do the job they were sent in to do. With the overwhelming passage of Measure LL, the

The city of Oakland took their ban on use of facial recognition software a step further Tuesday with another unanimous vote in city council. The ordinance barring municipal use of the software will be voted on once more in September and is expected to pass without objection, making Oakland the

I’ve got some awesome news! We received a grant from the Civic Joy Fund to put out a literary magazine celebrating SF and acting to counter the stupid “Doom Loop” narrative. It’s a gift to the people of San Francisco. And after months of working on this project it’s now available

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and team penned out how she thinks Oakland’s financial resources should be budgeted but City Council President Rebecca Kaplan and supporters have different ideas about where the city should, and shouldn’t, spend its cash. As the month-end deadline nears for the city to approve a 2019-2021

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

An Oakland City Council vote does not carry weight to immediately fix all that is wrong with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office and Santa Rita Jail, but it does move the conversation forward. Councilmembers unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday aimed at applying pressure on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors

The people at Oakland’s Housing and Dignity Village were treated with anything but dignity when the city of Oakland gave them the boot Thursday. The “homeless” encampment at Edes Avenue and South Elmhurst Avenue was a safe and sober tiny-house community to at least 13 women and children, but it also acted

This was a tough week in the Bay Area, period. We’ve chosen to leave all the national news alone for this wrap, although there is plenty to report on there, including today’s deadline for family reunifications. But there is enough for us to digest here closer to home that speaks

Below are some highlights, lowlights and oddities from this week in local news. A recipe for destruction What do you get when you mix a bottle of Hennessy, meth and loaded guns? Nothing good, ever. But two people found out Sunday that such a cocktail can definitely get you arrested.