Feature Archives

Oakland's new Mayor, Ron Dellums, has been holding a week of inaugural events from January 8th through 14th. On Saturday morning January 13th, people gathered for a "Hands Around the Lake" unity event to celebrate Oakland's multicultural diversity. Participants were encouraged to wear white t-shirts and bright colored gloves. Mayor Dellums was scheduled to speak at 9am as the walk around the lake started. People planned to link hands around the lake at 10:30. Later in the day, Asian/Pacific Islander, Fruitvale, and LGBT community inaugural events were held around the city.

IWW Curbside Recyclers at the Berkeley Ecology Center won a small, but important victory Friday, January 5 by refusing to let management violate their IWW union contract.

After their successful effort to stop Andronico's Market from selling battery-caged eggs in 2006, East Bay Animal Advocates (EBAA) is now campaigning to stop Andronico's lead competitor Lunardi's Supermarket from doing the same. Lunardi's still relies on egg supplier Ranch Pak which utilizes intensive battery cages in massive warehouses. EBAA launched its outreach campaign against Lunardi's Supermarket on Saturday, December 23 with a demo in Danville.

Proposals to weaken Oakland's condo-conversion protections have been put on hold. On December 6th, Councilwoman Brooks, who had backed the proposals, pulled the plug on the scheduled vote before it occurred, as it had become apparent that there were not enough votes to support its passage. Councilwoman Brooks referred the controversial matter over to a blue-ribbon committee, for a study on increasing more affordable housing in Oakland, and the report is expected to be submitted back to the council in around 3 months.

Just 10 days before Christmas, the Woodfin Suites hotel in Emeryville fired 21 immigrant workers who have been involved in a campaign to enforce the city's living wage law. On Friday, December 15th, Woodfin management placed the workers on two weeks suspension with pay and terminated them effective December 29th due to Social Security "no-matches".

On December 18th, dozens of community organizations joined with the workers to announce a boycott of the Woodfin Suites. Photos The workers are seeking an injunction to stop the retaliatory firings. A hearing is scheduled on Thursday in Alameda County Superior Court.

On January 2, 2007, shortly after her appearance on Democracy Now, journalist Sarah Olson received word that the U.S. Army was backing off of its demand that she testify at the January 4 pre-trial hearing in the court-martial of Lt. Ehren Watada. The Army subpoenaed Olson in December to testify about her interview with Watada, the first commissioned officer to refuse his orders to deploy to Iraq and the first military officer charged with public dissent since 1965. Olson remains under subpoena to testify at the full court-martial of Lt. Watada scheduled for early February at Fort Lewis in Washington State.

On December 14th, a US Army prosecutor subpoenaed independent journalist, radio producer and former Indybay volunteer Sarah Olson, seeking her sworn testimony at the court-martial of First Lieutenant Ehren Watada. Watada refused deployment to Iraq earlier this year.

In the early morning hours of Saturday, December 2nd, one University of California (UC) student and at least 2 local residents, including former mayoral candidate Zachary Running Wolf, climbed and occupied trees in a grove of Oaks that UC plans to cut down. UC is planning destroy the last grove of coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia) in the Berkeley lowlands in order to build a parking lot and sports training facility. Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6