Very sad news of Oakland watchdog's death. Gentle in my view, maybe not always to bureaucrats on whom he often focused, though even at his most strident I'm sure his words never maimed or murdered, as some of their hirelings did...

I have just learned Oakland lost an amazing original. NOW I find more on him and maybe soon from him than I could in recent looking for a week. He was, for me, the gentle person who knew how to find almost anyone, and who to ask for information the City of Oakland couldn't give you for weeks ...if ever. I had just decided to subscribe to his newsletter to get his take on Occupy-related news. He was so refreshing at Oakland meetings- sometimes worth all the hours of previous B.S. you'd sit through just to get to Sanjiv's "for the record" at the end. A widely-publicized service will be held TOMORROW at the Chapel of the Angels at 40842 Fremont Blvd., south of Grimmer Boulevard, at 11 a.m. (Saturday, December 31). I'm hoping there'll be something more later as well...