You may have heard by now, if you follow East Bay headlines, that Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums has decided not to seek re-election. This comes as a great surprise, and disappointment to CityBrights blogger Zennie Abraham. " This blogger predicted he would run and this blogger was way wrong... It's too bad and really sad to see a man I've admired over my life go out this way." more ›

While we love to poke fun at Mayor Gavin Newsom now and then (which we're sure he finds nothing short of adorable, right?) we can all agree on one thing: at least he's no Ron Dellums. With a lien on the Oakland mayor's property for failing to fork over $239,000 in taxes (from 2005 to 2007) to the Internal Revenue Service, the Dellums are now facing a second lien for more than $13,000. Dellums, and his wife, Cynthia, are "named in an IRS lien filed with the Alameda County recorder's office Dec. 23 in the amount of $13,638," reports SFGate. This comes on the heels of Oakland being... well, being Oakland. more ›

City Attorney Dennis Herrera is hinting that he might file suit against the Oakland A's to keep them from moving to San Jose, which is technically part of SF Giants' territory, reports the East Bay Express. If the A's went through with their proposed move, Herrera argues, it would financially hurt the Giants, and therefore hurt the City of San Francisco as well. more ›

The feud between San Francisco and Oakland just got hotter. Oakland, thinking it's all that, creams San Francisco when it comes to having an absent mayor. SFGate's Chip Johnson boasts, "While everyone was talking about Newsom's absence, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums slipped away from the office for most of November soon after the disclosure of a tax lien for nearly $240,000 levied on Oakland's first family." more ›

Oh oh. Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums owes the IRS in back taxes. Lots and lots of back taxes. more ›

The state and our fair city have their share of budget woes, but Oakland is now considering pulling a Vallejo and filing for bankruptcy in the face of $100 million budget deficit in the coming year. Council member Ignacio De La Fuente told Chip Johnson that yes, shit has actually gotten that bad and they're taking into consideration. Oakland's troubles probably largely stem from property tax reassessments (with home value changes a bit more dramatic than in San Francisco County) and a lot of bad budgeting that occurred while the markets were still high. Just last month we heard of Mayor Dellums' proposal to lay off 140 of Oakland's 803 police officers in order to meet the budget shortfall -- which must not have gone over so well. Still no word on that federal grant... more ›

-- Alameda County judge tells Berkeley tree squatters, like the scrappy Ninjah and Stork here, to climb down. For good. [SFGate] more ›

They settled the Alameda County garbage strike lockout! After a nine-hour mediation, Oakland mayor Ron Dellums announced late yesterday night that all the parties had managed to resolve the four-week dispute. No one can disclose the details, but the union will vote on whether to accept the proposal this Saturday. If the union approves the deal, regular garbage pickup could resume as early as Monday. Meanwhile, the Chron, giving us all the news from the animal perspective, reports that a woman is suing the garbage company for making her dog sick when he ate trash they hadn't picked up. more ›

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Here's todays news more ›

Gavin Newsom, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums tried to out-macho each other last night at the MacArthur Maze. more ›

Here's todays roundup of the news more ›

-The Oakland Tribune starts a three-part series on how all this Global Warming stuff is beginning to affect us locally. more ›

Last week's winner, the East Bay Express: Well, this is interesting! Bottom Feeder Will Harper is leaving the EBX to become the executive editor of the SF Weekly. We're sorry to see Harper leave, but we're excited to see what he does at the sister SF publication! Plus, this collection of Bottom Feeder's greatest hits is pretty exciting. We may not be making as much money off stem cells as everyone says we will -- and there's an online-only article about the clash at Dellums inauguration. Cover article: Emeryville hotel fires illegal immigrant workers to avoid a minimum wage law. People are walking out of the Berkeley Rep's production of a play about a child murderer. Indian pizza in Fremont, and the Wineau calls out some errors made. The Bluegrass Festival. And Ron Dellums's horoscope: Define your short-term goals. (Horoscope online is different from the one in the paper. Dellums's horoscope in the hard copy is "be your usual loquacious self.") more ›

-The Chron plays "I Love the Radical '70s" -As Ron Dellums isn't in Davos, he'll be at the U.S. Conference of Mayors. more ›

-Cecilia Vega loves those chickens. more ›

-Pelosi starts right in with the San Francisco values: bans smoking. -The Governor's health care plan could supercede San Francisco's health care plan. more ›

-The Governator has a health care plan and the Chron breaks it down. Arnie's actually getting good press from this, except with these guys. Or these guys. more ›

It's a bad sign when the Oakland City Council (and its participating public -- see notes in the comments below) takes the "worst behaved political activity" award on a day where not only were Chris Daly and Gavin Newsom scheduled to be in the same room but there was a Taiwanese political protest in town. (We didn't think anyone could outfight a Taiwanese politician!) more ›

-Oakland is ready to party, Ron Dellums style. -Over 1,000 people go to the beach to say impeach, put Cheney in reach. more ›

We're tired of mojito-mixing Gavin Newsom now -- bring on the new guy in Oakland! Over on the sunnier side of the San Francisco Bay, former Congressman Ron Dellums is settling on in at 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza for his first full day on the job today. more ›

-Shootout on 880 leads to one death, one injured and major traffic. -The search for the lost family continues on more ›

-Being a new state legislator involves lots of learning. more ›

. Oakland politicos, please correct us in the comments. What was third-placer Nancy Nadel running about, then?) more ›

Last week's tie winners, the Bay Guardian and the East Bay Express! For some reason, though, the only weekly that's updated its site for this week is the Metro, so we're going with their cover as the picture this week. Sorry for the linklessness, folks. more ›

Apparently the "Draft Dellums" posters can come down in our neighborhood now, as we see that Ron Dellums has announced his candidacy to replace Jerry Brown as Mayor of Oakland. Until today it seemed that City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente was a shoe-in for the job, despite the fact that nobody was particularly excited by the idea, aside from Jerry Brown himself (who has endorsed De La Fuente). Dellums, who once sat on the Berkeley City Council and represented Oakland (and nearby locales) in Congress for 28 years until local hero Barbara Lee took over, now seems the immediate front-runner. "If Ron Dellums running for mayor gives you hope, let's get on with it,'' he said today, and quite frankly, after the terrible (but predictable) disappointment of Jerry's eight years as Mayor, we're feeling pretty hopeful in Oakland this afternoon. more ›