Results tagged “alameda”

BART Cop Trial Moved Out of Alameda County

Declaring that he couldn't get a fair trial because of public outrage and we-are-all-Oscar-Grant fetishism, Judge Morris Jacobson ruled that Officer Johannes Mehserle, the BART cop accused of murdering Oscar Grant on New Year's Day, will get to have his trial moved out of Alameda County. In a court order, Jacobson wrote, "This case ... presents a grouping of factors that foreclose any real hope of insulating jurors from the pressure of the public outrage in Alameda County," Jacobson wrote in a 28-page order. "Defendant has met his burden of showing there is a reasonable probability that he cannot get a fair trial in Alameda County." A hearing at a later date will decide where, exactly, the trial will take place.

Bay Bridge Expansion Update

Over at Curbed, we came across Flickr photog sirgious' spectacular industrial age-ish photo of the new Bay Bridge expansion in progress. Above is the "temporary structure that will support the new bridge before the suspension cable is installed." And you can almost picture a daredevil doing the Charelston on top of it.

Alameda Schools Approve Curriculum on Gay Tolerance

Parents of students in the Alameda School District are split down the middle regarding the district's decision to proceed with a new set of classes aimed at curbing anti-gay bullying. Starting next year, students in kindergarten through fifth grade will take one 45 minute class per year based on the GroundSpark curriculum. Fifth graders will read And Tango Makes Three, the true story of a pair of male penguins at the Central Park Zoo who successfully hatched an egg and raised a chick.

IMG00144.JPGThis just in: A fire larger than a city block is burning on Alameda's Naval Air Station Alameda Point.

Flames are burning structures at least three stories tall as firefighters work to contain the blaze.

A tall, dense column of smoke is rising from the fire, visible as far south as San Leandro.

Word from the scene by Eli Rosseter:

We're sitting at Jack London Square and it's pretty much the center third of our visual range.

Crown State Memorial Beach Park in Alameda closed down after "quarter-sized tar balls and an oil sheen" were found along the shoreline, stretching about half-mile long. No one knows yet where the oil is coming from, but many have speculated that it stems from the Cosco Busan (which, as you may remember, dumped over 58,000 gallons of oil in the SF Bay last year.)

Students at Encinal High School walked out of their classrooms today in response to proposed budget cuts. Last night the school board held a tense meeting that went well into the wee hours of the morning, voting to increase class sizes by cutting advanced placement classes, most high school sports, music in the elementary schools, and counselors in the middle schools, reports NBC 11. Students walked out today, marching straight over to the school district's headquarters. They carried signs reading "No Us No Future," "No Sports No School" and "You're Tearing Down Our Future." According to the high school principal:

The three boys who took part in the shooting death of Ichinkhorloo "Iko" Bayarsaikhan in Washington Park in Alameda last Halloween, and then reportedly boasted about it, were sentenced in juvenile court today. One of the teenagers, the 16-year-old, will spend seven years behind bars, but the other two first-degree killers, the unidentified 15- and 13-year-old, were ordered to attend the Rites of Passage program, which is "a structured camp in the Nevada wilderness."

Sure Jager makes things all surreal, tequila makes you do things you normally wouldn't do, and whiskey makes things all sh---kicking but if you really want something that brings the crazy, there's absinthe. Absinthe was a drink popular at the turn of the last century but was banned supposedly for "making people insane" and by insane we mean too fin de siècle, you know-- into impressionism, dressing colorfully, chopping of one of their ears, and being gay. But now it's making a comeback, thanks to a heroic lawyer who got the prohibition in the U.S. revoked and thanks to that lawyer, a distillery in Alameda is going to start making some. Hell, if people thought they needed it to make it through the turn of the last century how do they expect us to make it through this turn of the century?

Demian Bulwa at the Chronicle reports on some depressing info found in the search warrant affidavits filed in court by police in the Halloween murder of Ichinkhorloo "Iko" Bayarsaikhan. The teenagers who supposedly gunned down "Iko" bragged about shooting her soon after they fled the scene on an AC Transit bus back to Oakland. According to the story: As the youths rode an AC Transit bus back to Oakland afterward, one of the suspects...

Three boys -- possibly ruining their lives at the wee ages of 15, 16, and 17 -- were arrested yesterday, all of then booked on suspicion of murder. The fuzz believes that the three of them were among the five boys who tried robbing a group of friends hanging out at Washington Park in Alameda, killing one of them. "One of the assailants fired several shots in the air and then shot Ichinkhorloo in...

If you remember way back last week, 15-year-old Ichinkhorloo Bayarsaikhan was shot and killed at Washington Park during a botched robbery attempt while kicking it with some friends. The group of boys responsible for her shooting escaped on a bus, but now it seems that some or all of them have been caught. We'll update in the arrests when we know more.

Last night at Washington Park in Alameda, a 15-year-old girl was shot and killed in a robbery. According to the the Chron, "the girl was with about 10 friends when five or six teenage boys whom they didn't recognize approached them." One of the guys in the approaching gaggle shot five shots into the air, and then one in her back. She was pronounced dead at Highland Hospital in Oakland. No arrests have been made in connection with her murder. (Don't they draw the bridges, or something like that, when a serious crime happens on the island?)

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