SF News Smash-and-Grab Burglars Ram Car Into Montclair Lucky Supermarket, Make Off With ATM A string of car-ramming burglaries continued in Oakland early Thursday morning, as the Lucky Supermarket in Montclair was rammed into with a vehicle by a team of thieves who went straight for the ATM.
SF News Man Dies After Saving His Family From Early Christmas Morning Fire In Oakland The Christmas morning actions of 37-year-old Steven Weatherford saved the lives of his aunt, uncle, and brother when their Oak Knoll house caught fire Christmas morning, but Weatherford himself would perish after saving his family.
SF News Oakland Catholic Diocese Accused of Hiding $106 Million in Assets So They Wouldn't Have to Pay Sex Abuse Victims The Oakland Diocese declared bankruptcy in 2023 when forced to pay settlements to 330 victims of sex abuse at the hands of priests. Now victims’ attorneys say the church transferred more than $100 million into an inactive nonprofit to hide their assets.
SF News Burglars Ram Cars Into as Many as Ten Oakland Businesses In Weekend Smash-and Spree There are reports that as many as ten Oakland businesses had their storefronts rammed into by cars over the weekend, stealing ATMs and more, and police say surveillance video suggests each smash-and-grab was pulled off by the same crew.
SF Politics Oakland City Council Approves Slashing Police, Fire, and Arts Departments to Trim $130 Million Deficit With the City of Oakland drowning in about $129 million in red ink, Oakland City Council voted to approve a plan to cut police overtime, close a few fire stations, and eliminate some arts programs in hopes of closing the deficit.
SF News An Oakland BART Station Might Be Renamed, If Someone Pays $750k A recent BART Board of Directors meeting saw the unanimous approval of a motion to rechristen the station as the Oakland Chinatown Station, provided a third-party fronts the capital required to do so.
SF Politics Is This Why the FBI Raided Sheng Thao’s Home? Filings Allege High-Rollers Traded Campaign Donations for City Contracts A new set of filings allege that a recycling company and a security firm funneled nearly $300,000 to a Sheng Thao political operative in exchange for lucrative city contracts, and now that political operative may have flipped and could be cooperating with the feds.
SF Politics Oakland City Council Weighing Drastic Cuts as $130 Million Deficit Looms Layoffs, pay cuts, and reductions to the police and fire departments are all on the table in Oakland, as the City Council looks for ways to slash the city's budget as they confront a deficit of nearly $130 million.
SF News Sideshow In Oakland Ends With BMW In Flames A roving sideshow early Sunday morning that moved from North Oakland closer to downtown, drawing hundreds of spectators, ended with one car fully engulfed in flames.
SF Politics FBI Probe That Brought Raid of Sheng Thao’s Home Has Witnesses Giving Closed-Door Testimony The FBI appears to be making progress in whatever investigation resulted in the June raid of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s home, as witnesses are being subpoenaed, but we still don’t know why the raid happened or who the FBI’s suspects are.
SF Politics President of Oakland City Council, Nikki Fortunato Bas, Declares Victory In County Race, Complicating Mayoral Transition Who will be interim mayor of Oakland? That's a more open question now as City Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas announced victory in her bid to become an Alameda County supervisor.
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink Acclaimed Oakland Restaurant Daytrip Is Calling It Quits, Owners Say Costs Are Too High In another disappointing end-of-year closure announcement in the local restaurant world, a restaurant that won national accolades is shutting its doors in Oakland after three years in business.
SF News Giant Oakland Apartment Fire Displaces 13, Thick Smoke Was Visible for Miles A Fruitvale District fire early Sunday afternoon destroyed one residential building and damaged another, displacing 13 residents in the two-alarm fire whose smoke was visible from nearly five miles away.
SF News Man Who Claims Pamela Price Tried To Extort $25,000 Out of Him Produces Small Shreds of Evidence An Oakland businessman with a checkered past and connections to the Sheng Thao raid claimed this month that Alameda County DA Pamela Price tried to shake him down for $25,000. His attorney just produced some documents that kind of, sort of support his claim.
SF News Here Is the Affordable Housing Project Slated to Rise on the Site of Oakland’s Ghost Ship Fire Nearly eight years after the Ghost Ship fire killed 36 people, we have our first look at the plans for the two-building, five-story affordable housing complex being built to replace it in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood, and it will have an on-site memorial.
SF Politics Recall Sheng Thao Rally Devolves Into Chaos When Passerby Gets Called Out by Name, Tries to Grab Microphone There may not have been many people attending a Recall Sheng Thao rally on Tuesday in Oakland, but it’s making headlines anyway, as a businessman walking past was yelled at from onstage, confronted the speaker, and mayhem ensued.
SF News Biden Announces $322 Million Package for Port of Oakland to Bolster Zero-Emissions Infrastructure The Biden Administration just announced a $3 billion package to make US ports more climate-friendly, and $322 million of that is going to the Port of Oakland to buy clean-energy, electric- and hydrogen-powered cargo handling systems.
SF News Oakland Woman Attacked by Violent Group in Downtown Oakland, Says Bystanders Refused to Help A woman who was the victim of an unprovoked attack five blocks from Lake Merritt in the wee hours Saturday morning says the attackers did not even take anything from her, though left her concussed and brutalized, and she adds that multiple bystanders simply ignored the incident.
SF Politics Sheng Thao Touts Drop In Oakland Crime and $2 Million Crime-Fighting Grant, as Recall Election Looms Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao is trumpeting a 33% drop in crime and a new $2 million federal grant to the city's crime-fighting ceasefire strategy, but a couple major Bay Area newspapers just endorsed recalling her.
SF News [Updated] Four-Alarm Wildfire In Oakland Hills Damages Two Homes A vegetation fire in Oakland quickly grew to 13 acres Friday afternoon, amid a Bay Area-wide Red Flag warning, and has damaged multiple homes in the Caballo Hills neighborhood and prompted 500 residents to evacuate.
SF Politics Sheng Thao Insists She Was Not a Target of FBI Raid in Fiery Chronicle Interview Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao gave an interview to the Chronicle, claiming the FBI has informed her she was not a target in the raid on her home, and insisting that the recall effort against her is 80% funded by one donor who does not even live in Oakland.
SF Politics Minor Figure in Sheng Thao FBI Raid Claims DA Pamela Price Tried to Shake Him Down for $25,000 Bribe Two of the East Bay’s strangest political stories just collided head-on, as a very colorful character from the FBI probe that led to the Sheng Thao raid now says that Alameda County DA Pamela Price tried to shake him down for $25,000. But oh, this fellow has credibility issues.
SF News Oakland City Council to Decide Whether to Renew Controversial ShotSpotter Gunfire Detection System Several US cities have recently ditched the police surveillance tool ShotSpotter that’s used to detect gunfire, and Oakland could become the latest, as critics say it bogs police down with false-positive notifications.
SF News Dramatic Video Shows Oakland Police Rescue Drowning Man From Lake Merritt Channel Bodycam video from the Oakland Police Department shows a high-stakes drowning situation in the Lake Merritt Channel, but officers were able to rescue a man by jumping into the water themselves to pull him ashore.
SF News Oakland Mother and Five-Year-Old Son Have Been Missing For Nine Days, Police Asking Public’s Help 29-year-old Mikala King, and her five-year-old son King Scott, were last seen in Oakland on September 24. Both have disappeared since, and the Oakland Police Department is asking for the public’s help in locating them.
