Local News & Views

"Mother Wright's giving spirit transcended the city of Oakland. She traveled across the globe, going as far away as Russia to feed the hungry and nurture the poor. Even with her work abroad, Mother Wright's heart remained in Oakland. And while her work in the community brought her many honors and broad recognition, Mother Mary remained humble and committed to working on the behalf of those most in need.

A family of Section 8 landlords, Riaz, Maryam and Mark Patras of Antioch, who have rented several homes to Section 8 families, are suing the City of Antioch and five members of its Police Department in federal court for civil rights violations, including loss of rental income, emotional distress, humiliation and loss of privacy. They are also alleging that the police department's Community Action Team (CAT) used rough and illegal tactics to force the landlords to evict their Section 8 tenants, all of whom are African-American.

by D'Andre Moore I hear your cry, sista. I see the tears in your eyes, sista. I know. You look like my own sista. Seventeen years old when she cried, When she lost me. Not to a policeman's bullet But to a...

The female BART officer that was on that platform even stated in her testimony that she supposedly feared for her life, and she just knew that she was going to have to shoot somebody or kill somebody that night. Those were her words in court. The judge said: "Hold up. Wait a minute, who were you going to shoot first?"

Sen. Mark Leno's Senate Bill 792 would give clean parkland at Candlestick Point to Lennar and replace it with toxic land. Lennar, the "toxic dust developer," plans to build 10,000 luxury condos at the Hunters Point Shipyard. This toxic trade bill is now in the California Assembly, so calls opposing SB 792 should be made immediately to Fiona Ma, (916) 319-2012, and Tom Ammiano, (916) 319-2013.

Ever since the police murder of Lovelle Mixon, after he allegedly murdered four Oakland police officers in East Oakland on March 21, the SF Bay View newspaper website, sfbayview.com, hundreds of messages have been written in the comment sections at the end of the articles by people who are undercover cyber police and people with strong pro-police sentiments, with some coming right out and saying they are members of police departments.

I surveyed a bunch of high-school-aged teens between 15 and 17 to find out what are the new drugs they're using to get high. As a teen I struggled with some drug addiction, but many of the new drugs teens are getting high off of are crazy and can lead to brain damage and even death. I put together a list of the top five drugs that teens are doing in the year 2009. It's time to put a stop to this .

It's Memorial Day, and I was just harassed and detained with unnecessary force right in front of my house on Pine Street by a Sgt. D. Ming, serial number 8493, for about an hour. He called four additional squad cars to back him up.

Marcel Diallo is a legend in Oakland for having put in over a decade of cultural work with the Black Dot Artist Collective, and now he is the main architect of a Black cultural district, the Village Bottoms Cultural District in the Lower Bottoms of West Oakland, near the old Army base.

Signs reading "Justice for Oscar Grant," "Abolish the Three Strikes Law" and "Demandamos Justicia Ya!" floated above a sea of ralliers of different ages, religious beliefs, genders and ethnicities. From Bakersfield up to Sacramento, activists, teachers and family members came together to rally against laws that have failed to serve the betterment of their communities.

On New Year's morning BART police officer Johannes Mehserle fired his gun at point blank range into Oscar Grant's back, killing him as he lay face down on the train platform, hands behind him. A preliminary hearing is now underway to determine whether Mehserle will be charged with murder or whether the charges against him will be lowered.

"Our success here to secure justice for Oscar Grant will no doubt be that line in the sand that will say to all police officers, ‘If you kill or break the law, you will go to jail,'" wrote Oscar Grant's Uncle Bobby, Cephus Johnson, in a message of thanks to supporters. Watch Davey D's video on the week's events. Oscar Grant's family asks supporters to return to the courthouse next week.

"The alarming thing about phasing out is that the district is closing schools that have just opened," said Jayeesha Dutta, a co-director at Oakland-based Youth in Focus. "If this is a reform tool, we're never going to make progress."

Build the new civil rights movement to stop police brutality. Rally Monday, May 18, 8 a.m., at the Rene C. Davidson Courthouse, 12th Street and Oak, near the Oakland City Center and the 12th Street BART Station.

Everybody out Monday, May 18, 8am-5pm, when the cop who killed Oscar Grant goes to court at 12th & Oak, Oakland, and Thursday, May 21, for Minister of Information JR Valrey's next hearing in the trumped up felony arson case from Jan. 7, when he was covering the first of three Oakland Rebellions protesting the police murder of Oscar Grant.

The United States is in the midst of the most radical privatization agenda in its history. We see this in schools, health care, prisons and certainly with the U.S. military/ national security/ intelligence apparatus.

On a windy April 24th, hundreds gathered into Humanist Hall on the periphery of downtown Oakland to celebrate the 55th birthday of Mumia Abu Jamal, a former Black Panther who has been a political prisoner for the last 28 years, as well as celebrate the release of his newest book, "Jailhouse Lawyers," published by City Lights (www.citylights.com).

If you're a Black man working security for Lucasfilm at the Presidio, Darth Vader will get you for cheerfully greeting employees in the morning with a friendly "God bless you."

The outbreak of swine flu worldwide captured immediate attention because it is a new strain - a combination of a virus found in pigs that changed enough to cause infections in farm workers in Mexico with other known flu viruses including influenza A. Billions of people on earth have no "herd immunity" to a new virus.

The City of San Francisco has applied for a $14.6 million grant to fund the infrastructure for dirty developer Lennar to build 10,000 luxury condominiums and a stadium on the Superfund site of the Hunters Point Shipyard and Candlestick Point. Tell the state to just say NO!