A new book by Oakland writer Thomas Peele called Killing the Messenger just recently hit shelves. The subtitle, "A story of radical faith, racism's backlash, and the assassination of a journalist," sums up well what Peele has done here, which is essentially to begin at the beginning, with the rise of Black Muslims in 1930s Detroit, and trace the line through to the bastardized and radicalized dogma of Yusuf Bey's Your Black Muslim Bakery and the empire/crime syndicate he created in Oakland, which was ultimately responsible for killing a journalist who was investigating them. more ›

Four years after Yusuf Bey IV ordered the murder of reporter Chauncey Bailey, there's finally some closure to the case: Bey, who was convicted on three counts of first-degree murder back in June, was sentenced in an Oakland Superior Court today to three consecutive life terms in prison. more ›

The triple-murder trial of Yusuf Bey IV and Antoine Mackey is nearing its end in Oakland, as the defense begins putting witnesses on the stand today. Defense attorney Gene Peretti, who's serving as Bey's lawyer, says he only plans to call a few witnesses, and expects to rely on the state of evidence as it is now. more ›

The confessed killer of Oakland journalist Chauncey Bailey took the stand today in the trial of Your Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV and his associate Antoine Mackey. The two defendants are on trial for three murders, two of which Bey is said to have ordered and one of which Mackey is said to have committed. more ›

An Alameda County judge has denied a request by accused murderers Yusuf Bey IV and Antoine Mackey to move the trial out of the County, as the Oakland Tribune is now reporting. Bey and Mackey are standing trial for the 2007 murder of journalist Chauncey Bailey, who was at the time investigating the finances of Your Black Muslim Bakery, as well as for the murders of two other men, Odell Roberson and Michael Willis. more ›

Jury selection in the triple-murder trial of Yusuf Bey IV and his associate Antoine Mackey doesn't begin until January, but a number of salient details about the crime spree connected to Oakland's Your Black Muslim Bakery have already come out in pretrial hearings. Among the sensational bits coming from the prosecution that we're sure to be hearing more of on local news in coming months: more ›

New recordings have come to light of conversations between Your Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV, from the Santa Rita jail where he's being held, and his "Number One Soldier" Gary Popoff that suggest we may have a new star player in the upcoming triple murder trial of Bey and co-defendant Antoine Mackey. more ›

The big tabloid-crime news story of the day is the connection being made between a body found last week in a McLaren Park homeless encampment (which was apparently once attached to this severed leg, and was not, as investigators first thought, that of a woman but in fact was a man's) and the murderous folks from Your Black Muslim Bakery in Oakland. The bakery, as you may recall, was connected to the 2007 murder of Chauncey Bailey, a journalist who had been investigating trouble at the bakery. more ›

Much to almost everyone's surprise, the lunatics behind the murder of Chauncey Bailey, health code violations, numerous rape and torture allegations, and the original Your Black Muslim Bakery have, according to East Bay Express, opened up a new retail endeavor. It's called Your Community Café & Bakery. And it's in North Oakland on 4051 Martin Luther King Jr. And guess who's running the place? Jamel Bey, the dick slice who was involved in the 2005 liquor store vandalism spree. And the baker? None other than Yusuf Bey IV's mother, Daulet Bey, who was "one widows of the elder Yusuf Bey, founder of the original bakery who died while facing charges of raping young girls." Banana nut rape muffins, anyone? (Har.) more ›

Chauncey Bailey, former editor of the Oakland Post who was murdered last August while investigating Your Black Muslim Bakery and the Muslim splinter group's shady dealings, received the prestigious George Polk Award last week for local journalism. Congrats, Bailey! more ›

Image credit: Michelle Malkin more ›

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Your Black Muslim Bakery -- the prominent and notorious Oakland setting featured in many a Chauncey Bailey story -- will probably be sold today to Vital Life Services, a nondenominational "nonprofit serving people living with HIV/AIDS and other critical illnesses," founded in 1987. The high bidder NCK LLC, a limited liability corporation, plans on buying the space, then turning it over to VLS. (Aw.) The property was also sought after by several other interested... more ›

-- And then Nancy was all, "Like, what the hell, you guys?" [SF Examiner] -- The Central Subway Project. [Transbay Blog] -- Now you don't have to leave your bedroom to travel. Ever again. Yay! [The Tech Chronicles] -- The seven rules for talking (and not screaming self-righteously) about gentrification. [Neighbors Project] -- Behold: SF Weekly's new food blog. [SFoodie] -- A censure-free DiFi. [SFBG] -- After it was revealed that he was, and... more ›

[sorry we're late today!] more ›

The violent melodrama characterizing the recent murder of a journalist investigating "Your Black Muslim Bakery" has conjured the entire Bay Area history of political violence into our memories. Dan White, James P. Casey, David S. Terry... the list is long and impressive. The anniversary of one of our bloodier favorites is coming up this Thursday -- it's hard to believe that a mere 128 years have passed since the editor of the San Francisco... more ›

Devaughndre Broussard, 19 -- the infamous handyman at Your Black Muslim Bakery who is/was at the top of the list of Bailey's murder suspects -- says that he was "ordered by someone" to say that he killed Chauncey. At least that's what his lawyer, LeRue Grim, now claims. more ›

-- The very attractive Yusuf Bey IV, Your Black Muslim Bakery chief and sudden media darling, now faces real-estate scam charges. Gulp again, dude. [Chron] more ›

Your Black Muslim Bakery update: the business is being liquidated in an involuntary bankruptcy proceeding (they have almost $1 million in debt) after a number of unnamed potential buyers dropped out, and the 19-year-old arrested for shooting journalist Chauncey Bailey now says (video clip) he was beaten and coerced into a false confession to the murder. The Oakland PD homicide officer assigned to the case says that's false and they have a taped confession where alleged shooter Devaundre Broussard calmly and openly discussing the facts of the case. Meanwhile, Rep. Barbara Lee is now saying she regrets having supported Your Black Muslim Bakery in the past. more ›

The Chronicle reports that Yusuf Bey's son-in-law, Saleem Bey, 43, who worked at Your Black Muslim Bakery for ten years, was the main source for journalist Chauncey Bailey's unpublished stories about the bakery. It seems that he told Bailey about "illegal bankruptcy and plans to liquidate the bakery," as well as Yusuf Bey IV's numerous arrests and overall lunacy. more ›

Okay, we're kind of scared to say anything about the Your Black Muslim Bakery now, so let's just leave it at the handyman confessed, Chauncey Bailey's source has come out, and the bakery didn't do so well in health inspections last year. Oh, and the handyman was arrested in SF for mugging someone on a MUNI on Halloween 2005, but was spared jail time (see comments for clarification) by the DA's office for lack of evidence. more ›

What a day, what a day, what a day... more ›

Just as previously thought, Oakland Tribune reports that the evidence (i.e., a shotgun) found during this morning's raid at Your Black Muslim Bakery is most likely linked to yesterday's gang-style killing of Chauncey Bailey. Yikes. more ›

As already mentioned in Blotter's comments and in our tips section, Your Black Muslim Bakery on San Pablo Avenue (hot fish sandwiches -- mmm) was raided this morning, resulting in the arrests of over a dozen people. Police, bomb units, and SWAT teams came down on the bakery and several other "related locations" in North Oakland and Emeryville at 5 a.m. (Read Chron's article about it here, Examiner's here.) more ›

Police are reporting that the man who caused the horrific Castro car fires last week may have suffered a seizure while driving down the Castro Street hill. He was still driving, even though he'd had a seizure three months earlier. That's really not good. Police haven't named him, but ID him as a 50-year old wine merchant from Paso Robles. more ›

Over the last week in Oakland, shops have been laid waste, a store has burned to the ground, and a controversial religious organization has been implicated but denied its involvement. While our headline could be all too common, our personal experience makes the recent crimes all the more troubling. more ›

The Oakland PD has arrested a man for the shooting of Antar Bey, the 20-year-old leader of a Black Muslim organization in Oakland. The police had been working to rule out any possible assassination attempts, in light of the fact that after the death of its founder and Antar Bey's father, Yusuf Bey, two other members of the Black Muslim group had been shot under mysterious circumstances in the last two years. The president and CEO of Your Black Muslim Bakery was found in a shallow grave in the Oakland hills in 2004, and Bey's adopted brother was wounded by a gunman outside his house just this June. Antar Bey's killing appears to be just a random carjacking, and unrelated to any political strife in the organization. Well, in lighter news, a guy in Blackhawk (near Danville) was driving along and thought he hit a deer. He pulled over to see what happened. No deer..... -- until a second car drove by, and hit the deer a second time. The deer went flying -- and hit the first driver. First man broke his ankle. Cops are still looking for the second driver. Deer was pronounced dead on the scene. And in the wake of the Yes on I vote in SF (disapproving of military recruiting in schools), Bill O'Reilly's called for terrorists to destroy Coit Tower. Why call for terrorists to do it when we can use budget cuts to do the same thing? Mayor Gav brushed it off, saying, "remember that guy wanted to have me arrested last year?" (for the gay marriages). And after the jump, a recap of all the blotter pictures since June. Previous updates here and here. more ›