tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73498883072291350052024-02-20T05:02:52.815-08:00Story By Doug OakleyStory By Doug Oakley: An archive of published news, features and investigative journalism by reporter Doug Oakley Doug Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03715233174650627340noreply@blogger.comBlogger418125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7349888307229135005.post-87193256748570367182015-09-21T15:19:00.004-07:002018-05-28T11:46:40.013-07:00Welcome to Doug Oakley's Writing PortfolioHello,<br />
Thank you for visiting my archive of published pieces written for Mills College, the <i>Oakland Tribune</i>, <i>Contra Costa Times</i> and <i>San Jose Mercury News. </i><br />
At Mills College, I wrote news stories, press releases, speeches, op-ed pieces, and donor funding proposals. I am also a professional photographer and photo editor. During my time as an East Bay reporter and photographer, I covered a variety of beats.<br />
Above you will find selected samples of my work broken into several different categories.<br />
<br />Doug Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03715233174650627340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7349888307229135005.post-20774086705197121802015-06-25T14:59:00.001-07:002018-10-07T17:10:08.822-07:00Controversial Oakland Charter School Gets Chilly Response in Quest for Classroom Space<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">By Doug Oakley</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">June 2015</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">OAKLAND -- A controversial charter school struggling to rid itself of a dubious management history is requesting classroom space from Oakland Unified School District, but it is facing resistance from parents, </span></span>teachers<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> and administrators.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">A sign-waving group of teachers and students roared their approval Wednesday as the school board tabled a proposal to house 185 high school students from American Indian Model Schools in eight classrooms at Westlake Middle School on Harrison Street near Lake Merritt. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">And in late May, the school district rescinded an offer it made to the charter school for classrooms at Bella Vista Elementary School on East 28th Street after teachers and parents formed a group to oppose mingling the two groups of students. Teachers are still bitter over the fact that some of their best students were recruited away from the school to American Indian while the struggling students were rejected. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The school district cited safety concerns related to a nearby park and the need to remove portable classrooms there in withdrawing the offer. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"We received a written offer from them for Bella Vista, then at the last minute, they rescinded it," said American Indian school board President Steven Leung. "They offered us Westlake, but that's no good if people are protesting. It's another mess." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Oakland school district spokesman Troy Flint said school groups oppose American Indian's request at Westlake because of the late-in-the-year decision for next school year, "opposition to charter schools on an ideological basis" and objections to sharing space. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"We're legally obligated to find a place for them," Flint said. "They are public school students and they deserve a home that is suitable and conducive to a high-quality education." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">School board President James Harris said Wednesday night that "staff needs to do more due diligence on the relocation of American Indian Model Schools." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Although Superintendent Antwan Wilson, who started a year ago, is an unequivocal supporter of charter schools, there is still bad blood between the two institutions. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The school district in 2013 revoked American Indian's charter after a state audit found former director Ben Chavis siphoned off about $3.6 million from the school in contracts to companies he owned. Chavis left in early 2013. The school fought the charter removal in court and won reinstatement in 2014. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">But with a new superintendent who came from the Oakland Unified School District and new school board members, the school is trying to get out from under Chavis' influence. The school has been paying Chavis $46,000 a month to rent classroom space in three buildings on 35th Avenue but has given notice it will move out at the end of the month. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The school also paid Chavis $7.5 million in 2014 to buy a separate building on 12th Street in downtown Oakland that it had been renting from him for years. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Flint didn't rule out a final decision to house American Indian students at Westlake because the school can hold about 800 students and there are only about 400 there now. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"They have some space in a section of the building that would be separate, and there are some portables in the back lot," Flint said. "There is plenty of room, and it won't be intrusive. And American Indian students are in high school, so there won't be a competition for students." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">At Wednesday night's school board meeting, middle school students and parents at Westlake talked of being "disappointed and disrespected" by the district's proposal, and they complained about possible overcrowding and "having our community ripped apart" by the move. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"I'm not anti-charter; I'm just pro Westlake," said teacher Mary Prime-Lawrence. "These kids deserve our full attention." </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">Teacher Randy Porter complained that the two groups "would be on top of each other" and that the school district wouldn't have floated the proposal if its staff "walked through and actually saw how we use this building." </span><br />
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Doug Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03715233174650627340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7349888307229135005.post-10212057424839663272015-06-08T07:00:00.001-07:002015-09-15T11:27:03.816-07:00Death Threats for Teacher Who Questioned Stephen Curry's Value as Role Model <div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(50, 51, 51); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">By Doug Oakley</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">dooglas96822@yahoo.com</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">HAYWARD -- As local media falls over itself in a worship frenzy for Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry, a high school English teacher here has received death threats for questioning Curry's legitimacy as a youth role model.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Mount Eden High School English teacher Matt Amaral on Wednesday was installing a home security system after receiving death threats on his Facebook instant messenger account for an essay he posted on his Teach4Real blog titled "Dear Steph Curry, Now That You Are MVP, Please Don't Come Visit My High School." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">You can view it at http://www.teach4real.com.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Hayward police confirmed Amaral reported the threats and that they are investigating. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Amaral posted the provocative essay in mid May as part of a 10th-grade English lesson to show how to write an argument and grab attention online. Despite the threats, he said it's been well worth it. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"I'm a teacher, and this is probably my greatest lesson," Amaral said. "My kids have witnessed this thing go to the front page of Yahoo! They've had television cameras in their class and heard me on the radio. It definitely started a dialogue about the role of sports in schools and about having a backup plan in terms of being a student. We know that 99 percent of the people interested in being a professional athlete are not going to realize that dream." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">In the piece, he says it's unfair to tell kids they can be the next Stephen Curry because most of what makes him a star, aside from hard-won talent, was already decided at birth. Curry's height, the luck of having a former NBA star for a dad who could coach him from day one, and money are all things beyond their control, he said. A visit to the school would only reinforce unrealistic expectations. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"They already are very good at dreaming about being rich and famous, what we need them to do is get a little more realistic about what is in their control," Amaral wrote. "We need less of an emphasis on sports and celebrity in high school, because it is hurting these kids too much as it is." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">An NBA spokesman declined to comment on the essay, and Curry's agent did not immediately return an email seeking comment. An email to the Golden State Warriors also went unanswered. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Since he posted his essay on May 14, Amaral and his school have been overrun with media seeking an explanation from the man who dared to question the legitimacy of their anointed hero. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Amaral said in his essay that a visit by Curry to his school would be a huge hit with the kids, but it wouldn't be good for them. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"What you won't see is most of these kids don't have a backup plan for their dream of being you," he wrote. "If you ask the boys on my campus what they are going to be when they get older, the answer will involve a sport. They will claim they are going to play in the NBA or NFL, and seeing you there will make them think they can actually do it." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"You see Steph, once you leave my school, the boys here are not going to run home and finish that essay, which is one thing they could do about their future that is in their control," Amaral continued. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Contacted at home on Wednesday as he was waiting for a technician to install his new home alarm system, Amaral said every kid on campus has read and debated his essay. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"They're stoked, they think it's awesome and they're 100 percent behind me," Amaral said. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">But not everyone agrees including people like Jim Coplan, athletic director at Oakland Technical High School, where Seattle Seahawks star Marshawn Lynch and Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Josh Johnson went to school. Coplan said the two come to campus occasionally, and he is happy to have them as role models. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"If Steph wants to come to our school, he's welcome," Coplan said. "I think it would be inspiring for a kid to see someone with the level of success Stephen Curry has and then say to himself 'I need to buckle down and study in order to be a success.'" </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">He also said athletes as role models are the same as any other successful person who could inspire kids. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"We had Jesse Jackson at Tech a week or so ago, and he's a role model kids could point to and say this is what I aspire to," Coplan said. "We don't turn down bank presidents to come and speak to a class because not every kid gets to be a bank president." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Amaral said being an educator involves getting kids to think critically, consider unpopular views or go against the grain of popular sentiment. That's what he was trying to do with his essay. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"It would be easy to craft a letter to Steph Curry and say 'come to my high school,' but can you craft a letter saying he shouldn't come?" Amaral said. "Evidently I'm the only one doing that." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">As Amaral was having his photo taken outside the school Thursday, the mother of one of his students stopped and gave him unsolicited props. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"I support this teacher," said parent Gabriela Delhoyo. "He's very good. The students say they want to go to the NBA, but they won't get there. A lot of students don't have a Plan B, but you have to have a Plan B. Everybody needs it." </span></div>
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Doug Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03715233174650627340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7349888307229135005.post-83138897022225427332015-06-08T06:56:00.001-07:002015-06-08T06:56:35.065-07:00Warriors to Host to Host Sweetie, 105-year-old Warriors Fan at NBA Finals Game 1<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(50, 51, 51); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">By Doug Oakley</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">dooglas96822@yahoo.com</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">HAYWARD -- Rank has its privileges. If you're nearing your 106th birthday and you're a Warriors fan, rank means a free ticket in a suite Thursday at Oracle Arena for the first game of the NBA Finals matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">After word got out last week that the Warriors had a 105-year old fan named Sweetie who can talk sports just as well as any other fanatic, the team ponied up. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"Well, they heard what I asked for," said Sweetie, whose daughter Lily Toney of Oakland asked this paper not to reveal Sweetie's real name or address because she lives alone. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Sweetie, who was born in Ennis, Texas, and moved to the Bay Area in 1936, will turn 106 on June 12. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Toney, 75, said a team representative called her shortly after this newspaper printed an online article Friday about Sweetie's age and decades-long love for the Warriors. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"She's excited, and I get to be her press secretary," Toney said. "It's all fun. The Warriors are stressing it's a big thing for them too, but they want to make sure she enjoys the game and doesn't have a lot of distractions." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">That will probably mean whisking her from her VIP parking spot up to her suite and out of the way of prying media hordes, Toney said. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Warriors coach Steve Kerr gave a shout-out to Sweetie after last Wednesday's conference title-clinching playoff game against the Houston Rockets. After practice on Monday, Kerr had more to say about his team's eldest fan. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"What a great story ... 105 years old, following the Warriors for all these years," Kerr said. "I loved her message: 'Don't get the swell head.' That's always our message to the guys, but Sweetie had a better way of putting it than I did. "From what I gather, we're going to have her at Game 1, which I'm really excited about." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Interviewed Friday, Sweetie said she enjoyed the final game of the Western Conference finals, and like many fans she was filled with angst. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"Oh, I did like that last game," Sweetie said. "I loved it, but it made me kind of angry because I wanted to slap them boys for playing so sloppy in the first half," Sweetie said. "I enjoyed every bit of it." </span></div>
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Doug Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03715233174650627340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7349888307229135005.post-70341533242508149912015-06-08T06:54:00.001-07:002015-06-08T06:54:24.791-07:00105-Year-Old Warriors Fan on the Edge of Her Seat<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(50, 51, 51); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">By Doug Oakley</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">dooglas96822@yahoo.com</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Age and experience are one thing, but youthful energy is the real stuff. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Just ask Sweetie, a 105-year-old Golden State Warriors fan who believes the team has the key ingredients needed to beat LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers for the NBA championship starting Thursday in Oakland. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"It's going to be a tight fight because Cleveland is older and they know a lot of tricks these Warriors don't know because they haven't gotten to that stage yet," said Sweetie, whose daughter Lily Toney of Oakland asked this paper not to reveal her full name or city because she lives alone. "But the Warriors are going to win because they have more energy than those older guys. I can't hardly wait to see it." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">A young team like the Warriors probably doesn't get paid as much as an older, more experienced bunch, but that will be a part of the Cavaliers' downfall too, she predicted. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"Money is the root of all evil and it gives you the swell head," Sweetie said. "They think nobody can do nothing to them because they have all this money. The Warriors are just starting to get the money, so they are a bit more eager to please the public than they would be later on." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Sweetie has been a fan a long time. When the Warriors won their last championship in 1975, she was a young woman of 65 and still had her husband. He died in 1999 at age 89. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Sweetie played forward on her high school team in Ennis, Texas, in the mid-1920s and she's been a basketball fan ever since. She's also been a teacher, raised a family with three children and now has four grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Ask Sweetie for her perspective on living such a long time and she's happy to oblige. Exercise was never her thing, and she believes longevity is due to luck. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">But it's basketball she really wants to talk about. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Wednesday night's final game for the Western Conference title against the Houston Rockets had her on the edge of her seat. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"Ooooooh, that first half was touchy," Sweetie said. "You didn't know which way they were going. However, I have been watching the Warriors long enough. They play hard in the last half and they played some ball (Wednesday) night. When they won, I was so happy to know my dream was coming through. I was just dumb with it." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">In the postgame news conference, Warriors coach Steve Kerr gave a shout out to Sweetie, saying "she's been following the Warriors forever and loves the Warriors. I'm happy for all the fans and especially Sweetie, so congrats." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Asked if she would go to one of the championship games if someone -- say a head coach -- could get her a ticket, Sweetie didn't waste any time in answering. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"I would love to see that game in person," she said. </span></div>
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Doug Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03715233174650627340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7349888307229135005.post-17816800791143355702015-06-08T06:51:00.001-07:002015-09-18T12:03:51.150-07:00Supreme Court: Big Pharma Must Pay for Prescription Drug Disposal<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(50, 51, 51); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">By Doug Oakley</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">dooglas96822@yahoo.com</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">OAKLAND -- A groundbreaking law that forces the pharmaceutical industry to pay for collection and disposal of unused drugs passed its final test at the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">And Alameda County officials who wrote the law predict the concept will spread across the country. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Without comment, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider the industry's challenge of Alameda County's law, which is intended to keep drugs out of the bay, the groundwater basin and the hands of abusers. A federal appeals court had earlier upheld the ordinance. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"This was the pharmaceutical industry really trying to put the genie back in the bottle," said Art Shartsis, an outside attorney who defended a lawsuit filed by the pharmaceutical industry against Alameda County. "This is an innovative ordinance where a county required a particular industry to take responsibility of a post-consumer use that is dangerous to dispose of. I don't think there was another program like this in the country." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Shartsis and Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley, who authored the law, said similar programs are expected soon in Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Francisco counties and in King County in Washington state. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The pharmaceutical industry estimated it will have to pay $1.2 million a year in Alameda County alone to follow the law. The county estimated the cost at about $330,000 a year. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"But the cost is really insignificant," Shartsis said. "It will cost one penny for every $10 in drugs they sell in the county. It's about as minimal as you can get." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The plaintiffs in the case, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the Generic Pharmaceutical Association and the Biotechnology Industry Organization, argued that the law interfered with the free flow of goods guaranteed in the Constitution's Interstate Commerce Clause. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">But they weren't able to find a court to go along. "We won at every stage," said Alameda County Counsel Donna Ziegler, who added that legal fees were over $500,000. "We're ecstatic, and we are looking forward as additional jurisdictions follow the lead of Alameda County." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Ziegler said two plans already have been submitted by pharmaceutical industry groups to collect and destroy the drugs. Those plans are being reviewed by the county department of environmental health, which will oversee the program. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The program run by the pharmaceutical industry in Alameda County will be rolled out over three years, and officials estimate there will be 110 sites for drug collection at police stations, pharmacies and hospitals, funded by the pharmaceutical industry. There are currently 30 drug take-back sites run by the county. For a list of the existing sites, go to http:// . </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Miley said he wrote the law at the urging of a now defunct organization that focused on drug abuse. The law also is designed to prevent contamination of the environment when pills and elixirs are flushed down the drain or thrown into garbage cans whose contents end up in landfills. It was modeled on legislation governing the safe disposal of tires, batteries and other potentially harmful goods. It prohibits drug companies from charging fees to pass the costs to local consumers. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"People hold on to drugs and they don't know what to do with them," Miley said. The responsibility to dispose of them should be on business, he said. "Taxpayers should not have to pay for this." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley said the need in the county is great. In September, her office participated in a drug take-back event and collected 799 pounds of pills in one day. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"I have talked to mothers and fathers of children who have become addicted to prescription drugs," O'Malley said, "and when they run out, they turn to street drugs, and many of those children have died." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The plaintiffs in the case issued a joint statement Tuesday that said the industry would "continue to actively work to educate consumers on the appropriate use of medicines, including providing information about safeguarding medicines in the home and promoting safe, secure and effective methods for disposal." </span></div>
Doug Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03715233174650627340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7349888307229135005.post-50466973173184052902015-06-08T06:49:00.002-07:002015-09-15T11:34:43.941-07:00Fresh Food: Urban Farms Growing in West Oakland<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(50, 51, 51); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">By Doug Oakley</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">dooglas96822@yahoo.com</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">OAKLAND -- In most places in West Oakland, it's easier to get a 40-ounce bottle of beer and a candy bar than a fresh tomato. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">But urban gardens and small farms are experiencing a growth spurt on vacant lots and backyards, the product of a slow but persistent effort to bring in more fruits and vegetables to a vast food desert and teach people much needed business skills and healthy eating. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"It's no secret that West Oakland is one of the premier food deserts in the city," said Bennie Patterson, community programs manager at Alternative in Action's McClymonds Youth and Family Center, which reopened a school garden at McClymonds High School this month. "It's difficult for students to go to one of these corner stores and have access to quality produce. They should have as much access as anyone else." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The relaunched school garden, which started in 2009 and died out after a key staff member left the school, now grows pumpkins, herbs, scallions, tomatoes, kale, bell peppers and zucchini. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Patterson said students work in the garden and learn concepts like "tomatoes don't just come from Safeway." The food it produces is distributed free to students, parents and staff whenever there is a harvest, he said. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Probably the largest growing concern in West Oakland is City Slicker Farms, which is breaking ground next month on a $5 million public park and farm at Helen and Peralta streets, courtesy of a grant from the state of California. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The organization has been growing food at a variety of borrowed locations and selling it on a sliding scale for 14 years now and building backyard gardens -- 250 free of charge so far -- for area residents. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">After years of moving from one plot to the next as arrangements changed, the organization will have a permanent grow space it will call the West Oakland Urban Farm and Park on a 1.4 acre lot. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Funded with a $4 million grant and donations, the site will include a kids play area, a grass field, a picnic area, farm stand and a community garden that will allow it to double its current harvest to about 20,000 pounds of food a year. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"The park is going to be a part of everyone's lives here," said Ariel Dekovic, interim executive director of City Slicker Farms. "You'll be a kid going to the park and there will be a food forest there. That's what excites me about that site." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Dekovic said the park is slated for completion at the end of this year. Organizers still need to raise another $500,000, but will begin construction with the money they already have. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Patricia Johnson, executive director of Game Theory Academy which launched in 2009, said her two plots of land in West Oakland produce flowers and vegetables that students sell to restaurants and florists. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The idea of running the two farms -- one at 7th and Peralta streets and one at Wood and 16th streets -- is not so much to get fresh produce to the people of West Oakland, but to educate youth on how to become business people. Along the way, students learn the importance of access to fresh produce. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"We call our farms a laboratory for job skills," said Johnson, who works with about 30 high school kids a year. "They learn the importance of showing up to work on time, filling out a time sheet, communicating professionally with adults, reading marketing plans and filling out invoices. It's also about financial and economic literacy, money management and strategic thinking." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Another garden that sprouted last fall at 7th and Campbell streets is the Oakland & The World Enterprises project run by Elaine Brown, a former Black Panther Party leader who works for Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Brown is renting a three-quarter-acre lot from the city of Oakland for $1,100 a month, she said. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">That project currently employs formerly incarcerated area residents at $20 an hour to grow vegetables and flowers that they sell to restaurants and florists. She has been selling beats, kale, lettuce and onions to Picán restaurant and selling the flowers to Everett and Jones barbecue. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"While we figure out what to do with the rest of the property we have a deal with the Oakland Food Pantry to distribute free food," Brown said. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Carson has funded the project to the tune of $350,000, he said. But that is just a "drop in the bucket," for the bigger plans Brown has for the site. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">She wants to build affordable housing for people coming out of prison and open a grocery store, a shoe and clothing manufacturing business and maybe a juice bar; a place where former prisoners can live and work. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"There is no real pathway for people coming out of the joint," Brown said. "You come out, get $200 and good luck. If you are black and have a sixth-grade education and you come out of prison, you can kiss your life goodbye. You are not going to get a job." </span></div>
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Doug Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03715233174650627340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7349888307229135005.post-17232144159536230372015-06-08T06:37:00.001-07:002015-09-15T11:38:18.602-07:00High Drama as Oakland Charter School Cuts Ties with Unsavory Past<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(50, 51, 51); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">By Doug Oakley</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">dooglas96822@yahoo.com</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">OAKLAND -- In the 2½ years since American Indian Model Schools leader Ben Chavis left after a state audit showed he directed at least $3.8 million from the school to companies he owned, the school continues to pay him millions in rent and building purchases.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Now, new leaders at the high-performing charter school are attempting to get out from under Chavis' shadow by moving out of two classroom buildings and an office he rents to the school on 35th Avenue for $46,000 a month and by orchestrating the removal of three board members. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">But the impending changes have caused turmoil at the school, including student walkouts over school board politics, a restraining order against a former board member, police intervention at a school board meeting, and teacher and staff turnover. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"We are trying to separate the school from Chavis," school board President Steven Leung said. "The school district would like to see us not be associated with him. I think we're in good hands." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Founded in 1996 and currently serving about 1,000 students, the American Indian Model Schools have established a strong record of academic success with a strict, test-oriented approach but have struggled in recent years with allegations of mismanagement and fraud. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Last year, the school paid Chavis $7.5 million to buy a building that houses a K-8 campus on 12th Street in downtown Oakland. Leung said the school had no choice but to buy because it didn't have anywhere else to go at the time. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">An investigation and finding by the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights that the 35th Avenue campus does not meet disability access requirements, coupled with a stalemate over who would make repairs, prompted plans to move from that facility. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">New Superintendent Maya Woods-Cadiz, a former Oakland school district principal and administrator, and Leung hope that by moving 300 high school students to the 12th Street building and by moving 150 middle school students to Oakland's Bella Vista Elementary school for rent of just $38,000 a year, they can save money and fix their disability access problem without having to continue hounding Chavis to make repairs. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"Mr. Chavis has known about the conditions at that school for quite some time, but he doesn't want to fix it," Leung said. "The Office for Civil Rights has asked us to either fix it or move. We've sent multiple notices to Mr. Chavis." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">But Chavis, who is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation by the IRS and FBI relating to his financial dealings with the school, called Leung's comments about his refusal to make repairs at the school a "damn lie" and referred to Woods-Cadiz as a "(expletive) loser." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Chavis, who lives in North Carolina, said he never received any notice from the school's lawyers asking him to make disability access repairs. He also acknowledged the rent at the 35th Avenue campus is high. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"I did charge them high rent, but when I was there I gave it all back so I could send the illegals to college," Chavis said. "I did work the system, but then I took my salary and donated it back to the school. If I'm a crook, we need more crooks, it sounds like to me." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The former AIMS leader said moving the 35th Avenue high school students to the school's 12th Street building and putting the middle school students at Bella Vista is "a stupid idea" because they will lose a gymnasium in his building and there won't be enough room for the high school students at the 12th Street building. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Leung and Woods said moving out of the campus will help the school move on from Chavis. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">There is "no more Mr. Chavis, and we have a really strong board now," Woods-Cadiz said. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The school originally was primarily oriented toward American Indians. Chavis was hired in 2001, and soon after the student demographic started to change to a broader community. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">For the next 10 years, the school's academic performance soared and it attracted more mostly low-income students of other ethnicities, but by 2012, things started to go wrong. An investigation by the state Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team reported finding evidence of fraud, misappropriation of funds and conflicts of interest. The investigation found that from 2007 to 2011, Chavis had directed $3.8 million from the school to companies he owned for contracts not approved by the school board. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">In 2013, the Oakland Unified School District yanked the school's charter and Chavis stepped down. After Chavis left, the school fought back in court and won reinstatement of its charter last year. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Under Woods-Cadiz, the charter school has seen many changes, including the planned move of the 35th Avenue campus, the removal of one school board member, the resignation of two others and the firing of a beloved physical education teacher -- all of which has led to increased tensions at the school. Students have walked out of classes four times since March 24, when the school board ousted one of its members, Nedir Bey. Bey became a board member in 2012 after Chavis left the school, Chavis said. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Bey, who does not have any children at the school, came on campus April 20 and started yelling at staff, according to legal documents related to a restraining order against him. He returned on April 21 to a school board meeting and incited the crowd against Woods-Cadiz and board members in a way that "created the potential of physical harm and actual emotional harm," an initial petition for the restraining order said. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"We had to call the police because the meeting got very disruptive and unsafe," Woods-Cadiz said. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">On advice of the school's lawyer, she declined to talk about the events leading to the restraining order. The school's attorney did not return a phone call seeking comment. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The restraining order protects Woods-Cadiz and 11 administrators and school board members from Bey. He is ordered not to harass, make violent threats, stalk, contact, come on campus or have any personal contact with those listed on the order. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"The reason we got the restraining order is for Ms. Woods-Cadiz's safety and her family's safety," Leung said. "He also got involved with the operation of the school, meaning he was trying to go to the office and wanting to see files and not going through proper channels. There were other incidents where staff did not feel comfortable with him." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The school also has hired a private security firm to make sure Bey does not come on campus. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Bey's attorney, Chris Dobbins, a former Oakland Unified School Board member, said Bey denies the allegations in the restraining order. A hearing over the allegations to make the order permanent, throw it out or modify it could come in a couple of months, Dobbins said. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"There were no threats or harassment," Dobbins said. "They also listed all the board members as being protected and there is no verification that Mr. Bey made any threats to them." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Bey, a former associate of Your Black Muslim Bakery, was charged in 1994 with abducting and torturing a man who ran afoul of the bakery. He pleaded no contest to felony false imprisonment and served a home detention sentence. In 1996, Bey launched a failed health care company with more than $1.5 million of city money that he never repaid. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Recent interviews with teachers and staff at the 35th Avenue campus reveal resentment and distrust over Woods-Cadiz's changes and support for Bey. Woods-Cadiz blames Bey for the student walkouts. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Teacher Daniel Eng, who has worked at the school for nine years, is quitting at the end of the year. This year, he said, has been the worst, with the planned move of the campus, the changes on the board and the student walkouts. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"Leaving without a job to go to, this speaks volumes for me if I lasted through all the other stuff the last few years," Eng said. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">First-year teacher Cris Bautista, who teaches eighth-grade math, science, English and history at the school, replaced another teacher who quit in November, shortly after Woods-Cadiz arrived. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"It's been hard to teach in this atmosphere, with the student walkouts and the administrative turnover," Bautista said. "There are a lot of problems with the board and the administration, and it trickles down and it's harmful to the students. Every day something crazy happens." </span></div>
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Doug Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03715233174650627340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7349888307229135005.post-41451352951398245792015-06-08T06:35:00.000-07:002015-06-08T06:35:13.732-07:00Community College Degrees Offered at Oakland's Skyline High School<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(50, 51, 51); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">By Doug Oakley</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">dooglas96822@yahoo.com</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">BERKELEY -- Skyline High School students in Oakland will have the chance to earn an associate of arts degree at Berkeley City College before they graduate from high school under a new program starting in the fall, school officials announced Tuesday. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"Students always have always been able to take community college classes in high school, but this gives them a real, dedicated structure to do it," said Mark Frey, director of Skyline High School School's Computer Science and Technology Academy. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Frey said the nonprofit Career Ladders Project "did some matchmaking" and put his program at Skyline together with Berkeley City College. A $400,000 grant from software company SAP will help with curriculum development, policy, schedule integration, data sharing and academic support services. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"The kicker is that you get mentors with SAP and job shadowing," Kristina Palmer, director of program development at Career Ladders, told a group of Skyline High students at Berkeley City College on Tuesday. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Palmer said Skyline High School was chosen because its Computer Science and Technology Academy under Frey is best suited for the goals of getting kids involved in computer science and multimedia education. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"Think of Oakland and Skyline High as an island, and to get from one place to the next, like community college, you used to have to swim," Frey told students at the information session Tuesday. "Now you have a bridge to get there." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Katie Morgan, head of corporate social responsibility for SAP, said the company has offered grants, mentors and job shadowing in similar high school-to-community college or college programs in New York, Boston and Vancouver with similar funding amounts. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The $400,000 for the Skyline High School program will stretch over two years, she said. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"A lot of kids when they graduate, go 'What do I do now'?" Frey said. "If they get a two-year degree while in high school, they can keep going and transfer to a four-year college." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Frey said it would take plenty of focus for a high school student to get a two-year community college degree while still in high school, but it is certainly not impossible. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"More than likely they will take five or six classes and then when they graduate they just keep rolling," Frey said. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">He said about 200 students will be involved in the program to start and then it will quickly move up to about 400 students the following year. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Berkeley City College President Debbie Budd told students if they are motivated enough to join the program during high school and get a degree from her school, they will have a leg up on other students. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"There are 112 community colleges in California, and we have the highest transfer rate to four year-colleges," she told students Tuesday. "And while you are in high school, your classes here are free." </span></div>
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Doug Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03715233174650627340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7349888307229135005.post-80234571885595533542015-06-08T06:32:00.002-07:002015-06-08T06:32:36.875-07:00Oakland Port Commissioner Fined $2,500 for Not Reporting Income<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(50, 51, 51); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">By Doug Oakley</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">dooglas96822@yahoo.com</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">OAKLAND -- An appointed commissioner at the Port of Oakland has agreed to pay a $2,500 fine to the state Fair Political Practices Commission for failing to report his income from 2010 through 2014. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Victor Uno, who was appointed to the commission by Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums in 2007, agreed to the fine and waived his rights to challenge it. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Uno, who was business manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers during the time he failed to report his income, earned "annual income in excess of $100,000" during that time, according to documents in a stipulated decision and order from the FPPC. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Uno said he has no excuse and takes full responsibility for the omission. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"I wasn't trying to hide any income, and this is terribly embarrassing," Uno said. "I didn't do what I was supposed to do, and I had to pay a fine." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">He said he filed the Statement of Economic Interests required of elected and public officials with the FPPC each year without stating his income and thought that was fine. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"It's nothing to be ashamed of from my viewpoint," Uno said. "Nobody is perfect." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The FPPC is set to approve the fine and stipulated order at its May 21 meeting. According to the complaint, Uno already has written a check for the fine, which will be cashed when the commission approves the order. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">According to documents accompanying the FPPC complaint against Uno, political appointees must report income while in office "to provide transparency and prevent conflicts of interest. Failure to report deprives the public of important information about a public official's economic interests and has the potential to conceal conflicts of interest." </span></div>
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Doug Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03715233174650627340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7349888307229135005.post-54222768973672666302015-06-08T06:30:00.002-07:002015-06-08T06:30:30.098-07:00Oakland Schools Pull Down $5 Million Grant for Computer Science Program<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(50, 51, 51); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">By Doug Oakley</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">dooglas96822@yahoo.com</span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">OAKLAND -- McClymonds and Oakland Technical high schools will share a $5 million grant over five years to grow computer science and engineering programs, courtesy of tech giant Intel, the school district announced Tuesday. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">With the Intel grant, the Oakland Unified School District this year has accepted about $28 million from organizations interested in sponsoring different programs this year including an $11 million grant from the Atlantic Philanthropies to develop pathways to careers in the health industry and a $5 million grant from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation for early learning. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Intel will help the two schools develop curriculum, buy computers, train teachers and offer employee mentors and job shadowing programs. Officials hope it will produce 600 college ready graduates who will seek college degrees and careers in engineering and computer science. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">In a statement, an Intel official who did not attend a Tuesday news conference announcing the grant, said students successful in the high school program in Oakland will receive further help with college scholarships and jobs. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"We want parents to know the importance of careers in computer science and engineering," said Barbara McAllister, Intel's diversity in technology deputy director. "If we encourage kids to start and stay with these career pathways, then there is a job waiting for them." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">McClymonds Principal Tinisha Hamberlin and Oakland City Council President Lynette McElhaney both talked about disadvantaged youth of color in Oakland needing access to the opportunity that is enjoyed by the mostly white workforce of Silicon Valley. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"A lot of our students live in the shadows of economic success," Hamberlin said "I'm excited our students will have access to an industry that will help them achieve their dreams." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">McElhaney said children in Oakland who are born into poverty have "no less ability than a child born into affluence. The difference is access." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Oakland schools Superintendent Antwan Wilson said the grant goes hand in hand with the school district's mission. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"We want students to experience joy and be fully informed critical thinkers," Wilson said. "Investments such as this support that." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Other grants the Oakland school district won this year include: a $2.9 million federal grant to start restorative justice programs at six high schools; a $2.6 million federal grant to transform school culture and do behavior intervention, a $2.4 million federal grant to create better elementary-to-middle school transitions; $1.7 million grant from the Kenneth Rainin Foundation for professional development in early learning and $720,000 from the Rogers Family Foundation to integrate technology in classrooms. </span></div>
Doug Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03715233174650627340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7349888307229135005.post-72870871376483491852015-05-11T11:41:00.001-07:002015-09-15T11:40:20.970-07:00Livermore Officials Try to Block Charter School Financing Bond<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">By Doug Oakley</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Staff Writer</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">LIVERMORE -- A charter school operator here is selling investors a $30 million municipal bond to finance the purchase of a new high school building, a seldom-used tactic for charters that has drawn the ire of the local school district which tried to block it.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The bond offering to individual and private investors is the second multimillion offering for building purchases undertaken by Tri-Valley Learning Corporation in three years. It already is paying off a $27 million bond it floated in 2012 for the purchase of its elementary and middle school campus here. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Tri-Valley CEO Bill Batchelor said borrowing money from investors and paying about 6 percent interest frees up the charter school from having to lease old, dilapidated buildings from the school district, buildings that have often been closed for some time. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"We don't have the ability to levy taxes like school districts do, so that's why we do these bonds," Batchelor said. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Officials from the Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District, which authorized Tri-Valley's charter, worry the school is taking on too much debt and will end up diverting its operating budget to bond payments. In an attempt to scuttle the deal, the district paid an outside lawyer to speak against the bond issuance during a hearing to certify the bond's tax exempt status at the Alameda County Board of Supervisors earlier this week. Supervisors ignored the pleas, however, and unanimously approved the bond. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"We're not opposed to them at all," insisted Chris Van Schaack, assistant school district superintendent who was interviewed after the hearing. "The only problem we have is if they get themselves in too much debt it becomes our problem. We authorized their charter, and if they are paying $1 million in yearly payments, they might not have money to pay for textbooks and to provide the academic program they promised in their charter petition. And the fact that they told us nothing about it, that kind of scared us." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Batchelor counters that the school district just "doesn't like charter schools." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"I was surprised to see them publicly oppose this," Batchelor said. "They have never formally come to us with questions or concerns about the financing that they have been aware of for a long time. I have to speculate that their concerns are just about our permanence in the community." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The money from the bond money will go to purchase a building for the Livermore Valley Charter Preparatory, a high school which is currently in a building owned by the Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District. And in a complicating twist, the bond will be partially paid back by a separate private school Batchelor is partnering with that will share the new building. Batchelor said he will manage the private school for which he does not yet have a name. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Batchelor's Tri-Valley Learning Corporation also runs two charter schools in Stockton and one in San Diego. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Batchelor said his Livermore charter schools, which have about 1,500 students, exist because parents want an alterative to the school district. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"In places where school districts are doing well, there are no charter schools," Batchelor said. "Charters come in to these areas where parents believe an additional education choice is a necessity." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Van Schaack said that if his district truly didn't want the charter in Livermore, it would not have included it in a recent parcel tax which brings them about $375,000 a year. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Nicolas Watson, senior facilities adviser for the California Charter School Association, said about 40 charter schools out of about 1,200 in the state have used municipal bonds to buy facilities in the last year. That's a little over 3 percent of the total. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"But it's grown in popularity in recent years," Watson said. "I think the bond market and investors are getting more comfortable with charter schools and how they are funded. There are not a lot of options for charter schools that want to buy or build buildings." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Watson said school districts that worry about charter schools taking on too much debt should help out more financially. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"They could spend some of their revenue to help with charter school facilities if they are opposed," Watson said. "We don't have any dedicated funding for buildings. We don't want schools to have to spend money on buildings that they could be spending on academics. There's no doubt we would prefer to have a steady spending mechanism for facilities, but that's not the way government works in California." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Follow Doug Oakley on Twitter at www.twitter.com/douglasoakley</span></span>Doug Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03715233174650627340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7349888307229135005.post-67295855185713359282015-05-11T11:37:00.000-07:002015-05-11T11:37:23.592-07:00Emeryville Passes Minimum Wage Law in Line with Oakland and San Francisco<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">By Doug Oakley</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Staff Writer</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">EMERYVILLE -- The City Council raised the minimum wage to $14.44 an hour for large businesses and $12.25 an hour for smaller ones starting July 1 with a unanimous vote Tuesday night. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The $12.25-an-hour rate for small businesses with fewer than 55 employees matches Oakland and San Francisco, whose voter-passed laws cover all workers. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"The gap between the richest and the poorest is growing and it's out of control," Emeryville Mayor Ruth Atkin said during the meeting. "People who work 40 hours a week should not have to be eligible for any public assistance." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Emeryville's new wage of $12.25 an hour for small businesses will rise each year in July to $13 an hour in 2016, $14 in 2017, $15 in 2018 and $16 in 2019. After that it will rise based on the local consumer price index. For business with more than 55 employees in Emeryville, the minimum wage will start at $14.44 July 1 and rise every year based on the consumer price index. By 2019 it will be set at $16 an hour with more yearly indexed increases. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Maribel Martinez, a janitor who works in Emeryville, urged the City Council to pass the new law. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"I think the minimum wage should go up because everything is expensive -- food, rent," Martinez said. "And then we have to pay for people to take care of our kids. So at end of the month, we don't have money left to pay all our expenses." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">In Oakland, the minimum wage will increase each calendar year with the consumer price index. In San Francisco, the minimum wage will increase to $15 an hour by July 1, 2018, with cost of living increases after that. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Emeryville's minimum wage beats rates already set by the state of California, Berkeley and Richmond. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The statewide minimum wage is $9 an hour and will rise to $10 by Jan. 1. Berkeley's minimum wage is currently $10 an hour and will rise to $11 an hour Oct. 1 and then to $12.53 an hour Oct. 1, 2016. Richmond's minimum wage is $9.60 an hour and will rise to $13 an hour by Jan. 1, 2018. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Cole Tibbetts, general manager of the Oaks Card Club on San Pablo Avenue in Emeryville, spoke against the new ordinance. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"I'm here to ask the council to delay implementation and conduct an economic impact study," Tibbetts said. "An increase of this size and speed is going to be too much for businesses to handle in such a short time." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">City Councilwoman Dianne Martinez said she was confident businesses could handle the increase. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"I want to show my gratitude for the small business owners who have dealt with what might be a financial blow," Martinez said. "Our workers are creative enough to figure out how to support their families on a minimum wage, and our businesses are creative enough to make it work for themselves." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Follow Doug Oakley on Twitter at www.twitter.com/douglasoakley</span></span>Doug Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03715233174650627340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7349888307229135005.post-68183614123055843852015-05-11T11:35:00.001-07:002015-05-11T11:35:09.340-07:00Sexual Harassment: Feds Interview Berkeley School Officials<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Doug Oakley</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Staff Writer</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">BERKELEY -- Federal investigators are interviewing staff and administrators about sexual harassment at Berkeley High School following the discovery of an Instagram page, created by male students last fall, that included photos of female students accompanied by disparaging sexual comments. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Five boys were suspended in October for their involvement in the page. Parent Heidi Goldstein filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights in December, saying that incident, as well as others, led her to bring the action. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">On Thursday, she said the school district was barring students from being interviewed by investigators this week. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">School district spokesman Mark Coplan denied that claim but was unsure whether any students had been interviewed. A spokesman for the Office for Civil Rights was not immediately available for comment. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The investigation is the second such inquiry by the federal government around sexual harassment at the school in five years. An investigation in 2010 was started after a 16-year-old student sued her counselor for sexual harassment and filed a complaint with the office. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">A settlement in that case led to the formation of a parent-led sexual harassment policy subcommittee. The counselor also agreed to keep his door and window blinds open when students are in his office as part of the settlement of the separately filed lawsuit. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">In a letter emailed to parents late Wednesday night, Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent Donald Evans and school board President Judy Appel said the school district has provided more than 1,000 pages of documents to investigators "in order for them to evaluate our best practices." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Coplan said some parents at the school were "putting up posters saying BUSD is blocking the investigation and not letting kids talk to them." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">In the letter to parents, Evans and Appel said they worried the interviews would get in the way of teaching and they wanted parents to be notified beforehand. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"We have raised these concerns with the office of civil rights, and we hope and expect that they will be resolved so that the investigation can be conducted and completed in a timely manner," the letter said. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Goldstein said the school district has denied any student an interview with investigators. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"The office of civil rights has asked to talk to students, but so far the district has not come forward and cooperated at all," Goldstein said. "Every proposal the office of civil rights has made with regard to how they engage with students, the district has said no." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Rebecca Levenson, a parent on the school district's sexual harassment subcommittee, said the group worked for 38 months following the 2010 sexual harassment complaint to craft a new sexual harassment policy that included training for students and accountability for behavior. But the school board ignored the subcommittee and this month instead adopted a watered down "boilerplate" policy that did not include training or consequences. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"We have a smart school board, but they are really just trying to cover their (expletive) instead of doing prevention work they are supposed to," Levenson said. "We begged each member separately and gave public testimony, and instead they turn around and adopt a boilerplate policy." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Follow Doug Oakley on Twitter at www.twitter.com/douglasoakley</span></span>Doug Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03715233174650627340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7349888307229135005.post-20991689851617722392015-05-11T11:33:00.000-07:002015-09-15T11:42:22.668-07:00Bayer to Spend $100 Million on Berkeley Facility<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">By Doug Oakley</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Staff Writer</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">BERKELEY -- Bayer HealthCare is spending $100 million over the next two years to build a product testing facility here for a new hemophilia drug, a project that will create 325,000 hours of construction work, officials said in a news conference Wednesday. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Bayer's Berkeley campus, which spans three city blocks on 7th Street between Dwight Way and Grayson Street, manufactures a drug for people with hemophilia A called Kogenate. It is expecting FDA approval late this year or early next year on a second hemophilia drug called Kovaltry to be produced at the same site. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Kogenate is the company's second-best selling drug with $1.2 billion in sales last year behind Xarelto, a blood thinner, that had $1.86 billion in sales in 2014. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Joerg Heidrich, Bayer Berkeley site head, said the new building will be about 80,000 square feet on three stories. He said it costs so much because "it is a facility that complies with the regulations on human drug testing." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Heidrich said the company invested an additional $100 million at the same 45-acre site in Berkeley in 2009 for a lab to produce the second hemophilia drug for which it is waiting for approval. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">He said Bayer has been producing hemophilia drugs in Berkeley for 25 years. Last year the Berkeley site paid $71.3 million in local, state and federal taxes. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The new building, with an array of extremely expensive scientific equipment, will be used to quality test both drugs during the manufacturing process, a spokeswoman said. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Hemophilia A is a genetic disorder that prevents blood from clotting. According to the National Hemophilia Association website, the disorder affects about 20,000 people in the U.S. People with the disorder often bleed longer and can bleed internally or externally from cuts. Bayer's current hemophilia drug is shipped to 80 countries around the world from Berkeley. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Bayer HealthCare is the largest private employer in Berkeley, with 1,500 employees. Aside from the construction jobs to build the new facility, the company will not be adding permanent jobs. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Mayor Tom Bates said Wednesday at a groundbreaking event for the new building that Berkeley is "just so lucky to have Bayer." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"When they came to us and said, 'We want to build a $100 million building on our property,' we said 'Great,' " Bates said. "We will have union labor and, hopefully, we will see this campus grow and create more of this wonderful product." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Follow Doug Oakley on Twitter at www.twitter.com/douglasoakley</span></span>Doug Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03715233174650627340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7349888307229135005.post-90153327107729049812015-05-11T11:30:00.001-07:002015-09-15T11:45:07.604-07:00In Dying Market, Utah to Invest $53 Million in Oakland Coal Exports <span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">By Doug Oakley</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Staff Writer</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">OAKLAND -- Faced with rapidly diminishing demand for coal in the U.S., Utah has approved a $53 million investment in an Oakland shipping terminal with the hopes of exporting it to less environmentally stringent markets overseas. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The move has enraged environmental groups, and city leaders are also raising concerns. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Earlier this month, Utah's Community Impact Fund Board endorsed the investment in Oakland's Terminal Logistics Solutions on behalf of four counties, three of which produce all of the state's 16 million tons of coal each year.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Terminal Logistics will start building the $250 million Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal at the Oakland Global Trade & Logistics Center later this year and hopes to finish the 35-acre project in 2017. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"We know Oakland doesn't want coal coming through the city," said Jess Dervin-Ackerman, conservation manager for the San Francisco Bay Chapter of the Sierra Club. "We're ramping down the use of coal in the U.S. because we recognize it's a horrible source of pollution, and it contributes to climate change. This is city-owned land, and to us, it's the responsibility of the city to not let coal be exported." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">But Phil Tagami, the city-designated developer of the project, said his seven years of approvals and environmental entitlements secured to develop the former Oakland Army Base allow him to lease the space to a private company that can export just about anything except "nuclear waste, illegal immigrants, weapons and drugs." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"It's not for me to determine," Tagami said. "We are entitled to have a bulk commodities terminal, and beyond that it's up to the market to determine what we export." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Tagami said environmentalists opposed to coal exports are focusing on the wrong thing. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"If people took a hard look at the household products they have under their sinks, they would freak out if they saw things like ammonia and chlorine in 55-gallon drums or in a rail tank car," he said. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said she opposed the export of coal from Oakland. While on the City Council last May, she voted in favor of a resolution opposing the transportation of coal and crude oil through the city. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"Obviously, we're going to work with our business partners to try and reach a mutually acceptable way of moving forward," Schaaf said. "This is a very important project for the city of Oakland, and this policy resolution is important also." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Jeremy Nichols, climate and energy program director for WildEarth Guardians, which is fighting expansion of coal mining rights on federal land in Utah, called the state's investment in the Oakland export terminal a "misguided last-ditch effort to keep their industry alive." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"If we are serious about cutting carbon emissions, we have to do more than cap carbon at the smokestack," Nichols said. "We can't just ship it to someone else's backyard. That doesn't solve our climate problem. You factor in the carbon impact of shipping it by rail and then boating it oversees, and that's extremely energy intensive. It's the last thing we should be doing." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">In return for Utah's investment in Oakland, Utah will get a guarantee that it can send a certain amount of goods annually through the bulk shipping terminal. In addition to coal, Utah could also use it to export potash, limestone, salt and hay cubes. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Utah is the country's 14th-largest coal producer in the United States with about 16 million tons each year. Coal mines in Utah and across the country are facing a bleak future if they don't find international markets, as domestic power plants switch over to natural gas or close because of upcoming federal regulations. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"We're seeing power plants switching over to natural gas or closing because pollution control for coal-fired plants is too expensive," said Dave Tabet, energy and program manager for the Utah Geological Survey. "It was always a hope there would be a market in Asia because there is tremendous demand over there." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Of the 16 million tons of coal produced in Utah each year, only about 1 million tons is currently exported internationally, Tabet said. Those exports currently go through the Port of Stockton, a privately owned port in Richmond called Levin-Richmond Terminal Corporation and through the Port of Long Beach, he said. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The Levin-Richmond Terminal in Richmond currently exports 1.2 million tons of coal a year from Colorado and Utah, a spokeswoman said. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">In Utah, the Community Impact Fund Board, under the state's Department of Housing and Community Development, approved the investment with no written reports or studies, just the oral testimony of officials in the four counties requesting the money. County representatives told the board the money needed to be approved quickly with a June deadline to sign agreements with Terminal Logistics Solutions. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Jerry Bridges, president of Terminal Logistics Solutions, said the deal with Utah is still being negotiated. He said any product moved into the facility will be covered, so if it's coal there won't be coal dust blowing around from Utah to Oakland in open railroad cars. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"None of it will ever see the light of day," Bridges said. "I'm not in the business of defending coal, I'm just saying if coal is a commodity that we allow through this facility, it's the cleanest coal available in the world marketplace. We want to make this terminal the most efficient, the most environmentally friendly one there is, so we don't get sideways with the environmental community. We want to make money, but we want to minimize the impacts on the environment." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Follow Doug Oakley on Twitter at www.twitter.com/douglasoakley</span></span>Doug Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03715233174650627340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7349888307229135005.post-1595225716719827882015-05-11T11:27:00.000-07:002015-09-15T11:47:29.576-07:00Poll: Parents Clueless about New School Tests <span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">By Doug Oakley </span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Staff Writer</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">OAKLAND -- A majority of California parents have no clue their kids are taking new online tests this spring to measure what they've learned, according to a poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Results of the telephone poll of 1,706 state residents released Wednesday revealed that 55 percent of parents didn't know their elementary- and high school-age kids have been taking the Smarter Balanced tests, which ask students to write analytically, think critically and solve problems using a computer. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The California Department of Education issued a statement responding to the poll that said, in part, "With any new endeavor, it takes time to get the word out, and so far the test has been given to fewer than one-third of the students who will take it this spring." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The statement also said the department and school district officials are "working hard to inform parents about this new era of online testing, which helps learning in every school by giving teachers and parents a more accurate measure of student progress toward college and career readiness." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The poll also found that about one-third of parents did not know anything about the new Common Core state standards, which kids started learning in the fall of 2014 in 48 states while 66 percent had heard of it. Another 2 percent didn't know enough to give an answer. The curriculum emphasizes evidence-based learning using lots of writing to get kids thinking critically so they can be more prepared for college. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The online tests, offered for the first time this year, replace multiple choice tests students took in years past using a pencil to fill in bubbles on a piece of paper. The new tests are adaptable to how kids answer the questions. Students who do well on the questions are asked increasingly more difficult ones, while students who struggle with answers are asked fewer. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">As of Monday, 951,396 students in California already had taken at least one of the tests this year in English and math, according to the state Department of Education. About 3.2 million kids will take the tests this year. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"It surprises me that so many parents don't know about the tests because all the kids in grades three through eight and in high school took the test last year as part of a state pilot program," said Debbi D'Angelo, director of evaluation, research and assessment at Berkeley Unified School District. "Here in Berkeley we've done a very thorough, almost overwhelming, job of educating parents about the Common Core and the new tests." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">In the poll, 55 percent said they had never heard of the Smarter Balanced tests, while 36 percent heard "a little" and 8 percent have heard "a lot." Because of rounding in data by the poll sponsors, the percentages do not add up to 100. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Oakland school board Director Shanthi Gonzales said she worries students who don't have computers at home will struggle with the new online tests. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"I feel like were just going to have to get through this first year," Gonzales said. "A lot of kids in my district don't have a computer at home, and they might not have enough exposure to them or be expert typists, especially the young kids. All of that is going to affect how this first round goes." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Follow Doug Oakley on Twitter at www.twitter.com/douglasoakley</span></span>Doug Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03715233174650627340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7349888307229135005.post-19578441803307463752015-05-11T11:22:00.002-07:002015-05-11T11:22:51.766-07:00Unpoetic Justice: Emeryville Planning Official Boots City's Poet Laureate With Huge Rent Increase<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">By Doug Oakley</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Staff Writer</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">EMERYVILLE -- If the story of rising rents and the exodus of artists from Bay Area communities could be told in verse, Emeryville's poet laureate has one for you. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Appointed to the poetry post in 2013, Sarah Kobrinsky was forced to pack up her family and leave town recently when her landlord, who also happens to be a city planning commissioner, suddenly raised her rent 38 percent. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">But her housing trauma -- she, her artist husband and their 4-year-old son are now residents of cheaper digs in Point Richmond -- inspired a new poem Kobrinsky calls "Aftershock." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">In another time and place, </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">we are better people. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">No one lies. The Earth </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">never shakes. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Somewhere else, </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">we are stronger still -- </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">When we say we are sorry, </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">we honestly mean it. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">As an artist, Kobrinsky said she understands the Bay Area rental market benefits some at the expense of others. But she expected more from her landlord Kairee Tann, a city official who votes on development proposals that directly affect the housing market including single family homes and apartment buildings. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Tann also is on the city's Housing Advisory and Appeals Board, which hears complaints about potential violations of the housing code. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Kobrinsky's rent in Emeryville went from $1,300 to $1,800 a month for a 1 ½-bedroom unit. Even though she lived on the same lot as her landlord in a separate unit, she said when she was notified of the increase there was no conversation, just a certified letter. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"It was just shocking because as a member of the planning commission, she clearly has a bias for landlords, as opposed to tenants," Kobrinsky said. "It felt really gross that it happened so suddenly. I would have understood if they tried to increase it incrementally or something. But we were essentially muscled out." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Still, she plans to continue writing poems for Emeryville through the end of her two-year term as laureate, for which she is paid $750 a year. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Since starting her term in 2013 she's composed verse for the ribbon cutting at Temescal Creek Park; oversees submissions for the Poetry in Motion program on the Emeryville commuter shuttle; conducts poetry workshops in Emeryville schools; the senior center and library; and reads at a minimum of four city events a year. She also maintains her own blog called Poet Laureate of E'ville. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">She will be reading Tuesday when the City Council introduces a proclamation celebrating National Poetry Month. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Tann called the rent increase, in which she gave Kobrinsky 60 days notice to pay or leave, "standard operating procedure" and added that she and her husband were not "aware of any issue regarding the rent increase." Public records show she and her husband own properties in Emeryville, Berkeley and Santa Rosa. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Emeryville Mayor Ruth Atkin said she is glad Kobrinsky will continue writing poems for the city, and she sympathizes with her. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"It's terrible what happened to Sarah," Atkin said. "The rental market is completely out of control. The city is caught up in some macro economic conditions. These market influences can and do hurt people. When Sarah's situation came to light, we on the City Council decided to grapple with some kind of tenant protections. We're quite concerned about that." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Atkin said rent control would be difficult in Emeryville because the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act prohibits it on units built after 1995, and much of the city's housing stock was built after that. The city could, however, codify a process for landlord-tenant dispute resolution, Atkin said. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">All that is fine, Kobrinsky said, but it won't bring the poet laureate of Emeryville back to Emeryville. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Follow Doug Oakley on Twitter at www.twitter.com/dougoakley</span></span>Doug Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03715233174650627340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7349888307229135005.post-7615684633935944242015-05-11T11:14:00.000-07:002015-05-11T11:14:38.596-07:00Plentiful Deals for Home Buying Veterans Who Dig<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">By Doug Oakley</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Staff Writer</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">DANVILLE -- As a Navy veteran who served in Vietnam, Paul Conner didn't know that his physical disability qualified him for a break on his property taxes or that he could get a home loan with no down payment, courtesy of Uncle Sam. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The 72-year-old Richmond veteran is not alone. Many veterans don't know there are homeownership and credit card programs available to them. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Conner had heard about the Veterans Affairs loan program but didn't know the details until he dropped into the Veterans Housing Summit in Danville on Saturday, hosted by the Bay Area chapter of the Veterans Association of Real Estate Professionals. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"Everybody talks about how we've served and the pitfalls of being disabled," said Conner, who uses a cane to compensate for his weak knees and ankles. "I'm trying to find out some of the programs they are offering that could benefit us." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Conner said he wants to refinance his Richmond home using a VA loan, but it's been hard finding the right lender who knows the product. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Joe Jacobs, a Sonoma County real estate agent who works with vets and who spoke at the summit, said it's just a matter of finding the right people to work with. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"If you're a vet and you're looking to buy a home, you need to find both a real estate agent and a lender who have experience doing VA loans," Jacobs said. "And make sure there is good communication between your agent and the bank." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Catherine Banks, a Marines corporal from 1988 to 1992 who organized Saturday's event, agreed that vets need to find a bank familiar with the VA loans. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"There is some discrimination in VA lending and getting offers," said Banks, who is a loan officer in Santa Rosa. "Sometimes, if a veteran has a VA preapproved loan, that loan may be put on the bottom of the pile." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The biggest benefit of VA loans is the no-down-payment feature. But it also comes with lower interest rates, which currently range between 3.6 and 4 percent, Jacobs said. It also has low closing costs, no mortgage insurance if there is no down payment, and it can be applied to single-family homes, two- to four-unit apartment buildings, manufactured housing and condominiums. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">If the homebuyer wants to make a down payment, a gift of money from someone else can be used. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Banks said her national organization has a program, which she hopes to bring to the Bay Area, in which banks donate dilapidated, foreclosed homes to qualified vets for free. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"When the bank gives them to us, we go in and rehab them and make them livable through volunteer donations," Banks said. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The nationwide Mortgage Free Property Donation program requires vets or their surviving spouses to have enough money for utility bills and property taxes, and they have to complete a three-year financial literacy course. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Financial literacy is probably the single biggest barrier between vets and homeownership, Banks said. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"If you go into the military and you're 17 and you live on base, you're not paying rent, and when you come out, you're still not adjusted, and some people may still be living in the world of combat," Banks said. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Porus Engineer, director of operations for National Budget Planners, a free nonprofit credit-counseling service, said vets need to first get educated on the basics then dig for the deals available to them. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"The problem is that while they were away, they put things on their credit card, and they didn't know how to manage the debt when they got out," Engineer said. "They may not know, for example, that every credit card company has a program where they will reduce your interest rate, so if it's at 18 percent, it could be reduced to 9 percent or even lower." </span></span>Doug Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03715233174650627340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7349888307229135005.post-13058640476486895912015-05-11T11:11:00.003-07:002015-05-11T11:11:49.861-07:00Electric Wind Company Gave Thousands to Politicians Who Voted For It in Bird Death Issue<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">By Jeremy Thomas and Doug Oakley</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">OAKLAND -- A wind farm operator donated more than $25,000 to three Alameda County supervisors who ignored strong environmental opposition and voted to allow the company to continue operating Altamont Pass turbines that have been blamed for scores of bird deaths. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Altamont Winds has been a significant donor to Supervisor Scott Haggerty, and to a lesser extent Nate Miley and Richard Valle, according to campaign contribution records. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Haggerty, Valle and Miley on March 24 voted in favor of extending the company's permit until 2018 in a controversial 3-2 decision. Estimates suggest the company's outdated windmills will kill thousands of birds over that period. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Miley now says he wants to revisit the issue. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Haggerty, whose district covers the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area, vehemently denied that the campaign funds had anything to do with his vote. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"I've voted on a lot of stuff over my career as a county supervisor, and never once has it ever been influenced by how much money a (company) has given me," Haggerty said. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">He said his decision was swayed most by the need for clean energy, maintaining local jobs and helping ranchers keep their lands through leases with the wind companies. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Miley said the money had no influence over his decision either, and that he gave the company the "benefit of the doubt" on its claims that birds are dying from other causes. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Haggerty received a total of $19,750 from Altamont Winds for campaigns in 2008, 2012 and 2016, including $5,000 for his 2016 run for re-election. Miley received $5,306 in increasing amounts since 2006, including $2,325 for his 2016 re-election. Valle accepted $764 from the company in 2013. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Supervisor Keith Carson, who voted against the appeal, received $2,500 from Altamont Winds for his 2009 campaign, and $250 for his 2006 run. Wilma Chan, the other no vote, did not take any contributions from the company, according to county records. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The supervisors' vote was slammed by opponents such as Audubon California and the East Bay Regional Park District. They say the extension means three more years of disastrous effects on the golden eagle population, which has seen a massive decline since turbines were first installed in the Altamont Pass in the 1980s. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Miley said he relied on the company's report -- not the county's official numbers -- about bird deaths and expects the county will be sued over the decision. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"I'd be willing to sit down and hear from these researchers and have them give me their concrete information around why they feel the information we received from AWI is erroneous," he said. "Maybe I just needed to have done more homework." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Valle could not be reached for comment. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Altamont Winds, along with other wind energy companies, has been told to replace outdated turbines with newer turbines the county says would reduce eagle deaths by up to 80 percent. Altamont Winds says its needs three more years to accomplish that and sought an extension until 2018 because it needed the revenue to fund the project and prevent layoffs. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Carson said he believed the company has had plenty of time to meet the same obligations as the other operators who have committed to replacing all their older-generation turbines by October of this year. "The owners of the wind farm do make a lot of money, and they need to stand up to their obligations in a timely manner as their competitors did." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Carson said he didn't think the votes were based on campaign contributions but did say there was hard lobbying by unions to approve the deal. The Boilermaker-Blacksmith National Pension Trust is heavily invested in Altamont Winds, according to company President Rick Koebbe. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The county estimates that 4,620 birds died on average each year in the Altamont area from 2005 through 2011, including 768 raptors -- golden eagles, American kestrels, burrowing owls and red-tailed hawks. Officials say there's no way to tell how many deaths were directly related to turbine collisions but say the single-biggest contributing factor is birds striking the turbines. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">According to a recent environmental report prepared by the county for the Altamont Winds extension, the company's turbines could kill more than 300 raptors over the next three years, including up to 15 golden eagles, 82 red-tailed hawks, 108 American kestrels and 142 burrowing owls. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Koebbe called the county's numbers flat out wrong and said birds also die from other causes, such as from eating poisoned squirrels. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"Our turbines don't kill birds," he said. "The birds accidentally run into the turbines. I don't care if the scientists disagree." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Koebbe refused to answer specific questions related to the company's campaign contributions. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"There's nothing wrong with donating to campaigns," Koebbe said. "There's nothing tied from donating to votes; that's ridiculous. It's illegal. There's no reason to talk about it." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Audubon California's director of public policy, Mike Lynes, said he believed supervisors disregarded science in favor of economic considerations and bowed to pressure from labor unions. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"It's clear that Alameda County cannot be relied upon to live up to its own statements about what it's going to do to protect birds while it provides wind energy in the Altamont," Lynes said. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Dr. Shawn Smallwood, an independent researcher from UC Davis who has counted dead birds for Altamont Winds and the Scientific Review Committee, a five-member team that reviews bird deaths and makes recommendations to the county, said he was baffled by the decision. He estimated the decision would cause 10 golden eagle deaths per year. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"Of course the wind turbines are killing a lot of birds out there," Smallwood said. "It's just preposterous to propose that the mortality caused by background factors is significant. Most of the birds we find dead in the Altamont are from wind turbines." </span></span>Doug Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03715233174650627340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7349888307229135005.post-9212853174197496792015-05-11T11:04:00.001-07:002015-05-11T11:04:08.518-07:00Trailing All Teachers in County, Oakland Teachers March for Better Pay<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">By Doug Oakley</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">OAKLAND -- A 13.5 percent raise offered to Oakland's 2,400 teachers still leaves them wallowing near the bottom in pay compared with the other school districts in Alameda County, say teachers frustrated with the pace of negotiations. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The average salary without benefits in the district is $55,000 a year, well below any other school district in the county, according to the California Department of Education. The closest to Oakland is Albany, at $67,193 a year. The highest in the county is Pleasanton, where teachers get an average $85,595 a year. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">On March 30, about 500 teachers, parents and students rallied at San Antonio Park and then marched to school district headquarters, on Broadway, to show their displeasure with what teachers are being offered. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"I'm here to show the school district that they need to bargain fair and give teachers a good contract," said Kathleen Boergers, the parent of a child at Cleveland Elementary School. "I have a good friend who was recruited to teach in Oakland from another district in the county, and in order for her to come here, she would have to take a $20,000 pay cut. The teachers who stay are sacrificing." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">When you factor in benefits, Oakland teachers are closer to their peers in the county but still near the bottom. With benefits, an Oakland teacher with five years of experience makes $57,990 a year, coming in on top of San Lorenzo and Alameda teachers, according to the Oakland Education Association. The highest salary in the county for a teacher with five years of experience, including benefits, is Albany, at $71,956. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">In addition to Tuesday's march, teachers at 38 of the 86 schools are "working to rule," meaning they are doing the bare minimum amount of work called for in their contracts. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Both schools spokesman Troy Flint and Oakland Education Association President Trish Gorham said the 13.5 percent raise offered over 18 months has a lot of catches. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The offer includes a base raise of 10.5 percent. An additional 1.5 percent is based on 30 minutes extra work a week for teacher collaboration. And the last 1.5 percent is contingent on state funds and on a portion of teachers transferring their medical benefit provider from Health Net to Kaiser. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"To call this a 13.5 percent raise is disingenuous," Gorham said. "There is increased work time, which is simply getting paid for more work, so I don't consider that a raise. This salary increase does not move us forward. The surrounding districts continue to move forward, but we stay in the same place." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Flint said the district must break from making "emotional decisions" on finances, because that's the kind of thinking that put it in bankruptcy followed by years of decline. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"We have to be very focused on making decisions that are going to benefit the kids," Flint said. "That's how we organized our contract offer. We have to be very fiscally prudent." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">He said he is optimistic "we can get the deal done by the end of the school year." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">In the negotiations, which have gone on well over a year, the two sides have agreed on reducing class sizes in transitional kindergarten through third grade to lower the average student-to-teacher ratio of 27"'to"'1 to 24"'to"'1, and increasing the starting salary for teachers. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Whitney Lee, a transitional kindergarten teacher at Madison Park Academy, who attended the Tuesday march, said reducing her class size from 27 to 24 students is not going to help that much. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"This school is in the middle of Sobrante Park, one of the most dangerous places in Oakland," Lee said. "Many of my kids have experienced trauma, so our biggest issue is safety and keeping them from hurting each other. Some of them are volatile, and you really have to watch them. For me, the issue is definitely class size." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">In addition to pay, the two sides remain apart on class size caps for teachers leading special education classes and on involuntary transfers from one school to another. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Flint said the district cannot commit to capping special education class sizes because it would cost too much. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"We have the same goal as the teachers, which is to reduce caseloads and get special education class sizes down, but we can't commit to hard caps because that locks us into expenditures without knowing if we will have the revenues to cover it," Flint said. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Gorham said teachers and the district have five more bargaining meetings scheduled before the end of the month. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"At that time we will schedule a membership meeting to decide whether we are moving toward an agreement or an impasse," Gorham said. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Follow reporter Doug Oakley on Twitter at www.twitter.com/douglasoakley</span></span>Doug Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03715233174650627340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7349888307229135005.post-36445289282048535572015-03-29T18:08:00.001-07:002015-03-29T18:08:26.292-07:00Despite Bird Deaths, Electric Wind Farm Wins Permit Extensions<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">By Doug Oakley</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">doakley@bayareanewsgroup.com</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">OAKLAND -- An electric wind turbine company at the Altamont Pass can continue running 828 older generation windmills until 2018 despite estimates they will kill an estimated 1,600 birds during that time, following a 3-2 vote by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The board overrode a vote of the East County Board of Zoning Adjustments to deny Altamont Winds, Inc., the right to run the older windmills. It also went against its own staff recommendation, the wishes of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the state Attorney General's office, Audubon California and others. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Those opposing the permit extension for the company argued that the older wind turbines are killing too many birds. But Altamont Winds argued rodent poison and other factors are killing more birds than people think. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"There is a significant amount of unknown bird death reasons," said Altamont Winds President Rick Koebbe, who added that if his permits were revoked, his company would go out of business. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The Fish and Wildlife Service said 31 golden eagles have been killed by Altamont Winds' turbines since 2010. In a letter to supervisors, the agency said an extension would likely result in more eagle deaths, increase the company's liability and subject the county to increased scrutiny. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">And a statement from the state Attorney General's office said a permit extension would "create serious inequalities for other turbine operators and will undercut current efforts to repower." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">But County Supervisor Nate Miley said he was not convinced. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"What people are saying is Altamont Winds is responsible for avian mortalities," Miley said. "I find that incredulous. Even when the turbines are turned off, the birds are still dying. I don't understand why folks are putting all that responsibility on them. It baffles me. I don't understand why people want to put this company out of business." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">County planners say the company's turbines are at least 20 years old and that newer windmills, which are taller and more out of the bird flyway, will kill fewer birds. Just one newer model turbine can produce the same amount of electricity as 18 to 20 older ones, industry representatives say. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Audubon California estimated a three-year extension of the permits would kill up 1,600 birds, including golden eagles, burrowing owls, American kestrels and red-tailed hawks. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Cindy Margulis, executive director of Golden Gate Audubon Society, argued against giving the company more time to swap its older turbines for newer ones. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"We believe it is possible to do wind power properly, and the time has come to end this 1980s technology in the middle of the Bay Area," Margulis said. "It means a huge net gain for jobs in Alameda County when you take 828 old turbines and build new ones. You need all kinds of people for that." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">According to an agreement with Altamont Winds and Alameda County, the company was supposed to have finished the job by Oct. 31 of this year. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"We knew there was a possibility we couldn't get everything done because of all the variables," Koebbe said. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Alameda County's portion of the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area, a 14,000 acre area between Livermore and Tracy, is in the midst of a major decommissioning of old turbines, with companies such as NextEra Energy and EDF Renewable Energy making progress on replacing old turbines with new ones. In 2007, the wind companies, Alameda County and several environmental groups settled a lawsuit and agreed to cut bird deaths in half and replace turbines by 2015. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Altamont Winds did not participate in the agreement. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">In 2013, the East County Board of Zoning Adjustments agreed to allow Altamont Winds to continue operating all of its old turbines on the condition it would shut them down completely by Oct. 31, 2015. The company requested an extension in 2014. The zoning board unanimously rejected the request on Feb. 2. Altamont Winds appealed. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Follow Doug Oakley on Twitter at www.twitter.com/douglasoakley</span></span>Doug Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03715233174650627340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7349888307229135005.post-40468363948957915202015-03-25T10:04:00.002-07:002015-03-25T10:04:41.075-07:0010 year old Eyes World Record in Half Marathon<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">By Doug Oakley</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Staff Writer</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">doakley@bayareanewsgroup.com</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">OAKLAND -- When he grows up, 10-year-old Elliot Daniels wants to run the 10,000-meter race in the Olympics and break the world record. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">For now, though, the Campbell kid has his sights on the world record for 10-year-olds in the half-marathon Sunday (March 22) at the Oakland Running Festival. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">This will be his first half marathon. The longest he's run was in the 10K Valentine Fun Run in Campbell in February when he clocked in a personal best 38 minutes, 22 seconds. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"I feel ready," Elliot said of Sunday's 13.1"'mile race, in which he needs to best a time of one hour, 31 minutes, eight seconds -- or just under 7 minutes per mile -- set March 7 in Davis by fellow 10-year-old Jack Butler, according to the Association of Road Racing Statisticians. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">In its sixth year, the Oakland Running Festival is expected to draw 10,000 runners, who will compete in a marathon, a four-person marathon relay, a half-marathon, a 5K, a combination race of a 5K and a half-marathon, and a kids fun run that tops out at a quarter-mile. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Online registration is closed, but runners still can register at the Oakland Marriott City Center from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Elliot will be wearing No. 2004, the year of his birth, festival spokesman Dave Gell said. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"I really like running because it's something I'm good at," he said. "It's something I enjoy, because it keeps me from being bored. It keeps me out of trouble." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Elliot, who loves to run and whose small and light body type lends itself to the sport, ran about 1,560 miles last year, according to his father, Brian Daniels. He's only been running competitively for a year but has already tallied about 30 races. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"I was teaching a running club at his charter school," Daniels said, "and he asked if he could hang around with me and the rest of the kids, and the head coach of the club said, 'Hey, he's a runner.' " </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Elliot, who is motivated by an older cousin, who also runs, hasn't stopped hitting the pavement since. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"He ran and won a 5K (in his age group) at an Oktoberfest down here in Campbell," Daniels said. "Then last summer we brought him to an open track meet at Los Gatos High, and he ran some races, and everybody in these running clubs was asking him to run with them." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Daniels said his son will "destroy" the latest world record in the half-marathon. During training, he has clocked Elliot at one hour, 28 minutes. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"He also wants to break his older cousin's time of one hour, 24 minutes, 42 seconds that he ran in 1984," Daniels said. "Running is our family gift. It's our thing." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Having a 10-year-old run 13.1 miles is not worrisome to Elliot's dad, who said he's had "people bug me about pushing him and all that, but it's him. He wants to do it. If he couldn't run, he'd cry. It brings him joy. It's the most satisfying thing in his life." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Daniels added that his kid probably knows "more about fitness than 90 percent of the adults out there." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">For the race Sunday, Elliot plans to eat some pasta, vegetables and juice the night before, then the day of the race he will eat "a little oatmeal, a little bit of sweet potato and some more juice." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">While he's running on Sunday, Elliot said he likely will be thinking "about how much time I have until my next race." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Follow Doug Oakley on Twitter at www.twitter.com/douglasoakley</span></span>Doug Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03715233174650627340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7349888307229135005.post-4565758869771376162015-03-25T09:59:00.002-07:002015-03-25T09:59:50.335-07:00Oakland Funeral for Slain 14 Year Old Draws More Than 1,000<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">By Doug Oakley</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Staff Writer</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">doakley@bayareanewsgroup.com</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">OAKLAND -- The open casket of 14-year-old Davon Ellis drew gasps from the throngs of teenage girls who filed by, hands over their mouths. Young men, wearing sunglasses and dressed in white from head to toe, tried to keep it together. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Adults paused and wept; others stopped for only a second or two and kept on going. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">More than 1,000 people attended the funeral Tuesday in East Oakland for Davon, an Oakland Technical High School honor student and football player who was shot to death Feb. 28 on Brookdale Avenue in the Fruitvale district as he and two friends walked to a store. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The high-profile funeral brought family and friends, a representative from Rep. Barbara Lee's office, Oakland school board member Nina Senn and Oakland Councilwoman Annie Campbell Washington. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"He should not be in that casket," his father, Christopher Ellis, said during the funeral. "No family should go through this. It doesn't make any sense. We need to work as a community to clean up these streets. I'm going to spend the rest of my days to clean up the community." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">A peace march is planned for Davon 1:30 p.m. Sunday starting at Mosswood Park to Oakland Technical High School. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"It's for all the kids," said Todd Walker, a close friend of the family. "We're tired of losing our kids. There's going to be a lot of kids there. And it's a march, not a protest." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Christopher Ellis, at times overcome by tears, said that his son was "everything" to him and that he dedicated his life to making sure "everything was right for Davon." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Like many of the other speakers at the funeral, held at Acts Full Gospel Church, Ellis called for an end to the violence. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"At one point in time, black people had love for each other," Ellis said. "We gotta get back to that. There's too much fighting and too much shooting. We need to start showing more love and compassion toward each other." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Police have not made any arrests in the case, but last week they did have a person of interest who was in custody for an unrelated crime, said Oakland police Chief Sean Whent. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Russell Winston Jr., who coached Davon on the Bay Area Spartans football team, said he knew him from the time he was "this little chocolate boy, just galloping all over the place." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"Davon was what us coaches call a coach's player," Winston said. "He never talked back. If Davon made a mistake, he'd say, 'My bad, coach. I got you.' He was the true meaning of an all-star player. He was an all-star in the classroom as well." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Winston said Davon was a feared football player on defense. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"You better not throw to his side; he's going to take it out of the air," Winston said. "On offense he played running back, wing back, right end, left end and receiver." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">LaKisha Ellis, Davon's stepmother, said she is going to miss Davon's friends coming over to her house and eating everything in sight. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"Davon had a lot of friends who would come to my house, raid my refrigerator, raid my snack cabinet," Ellis said. "You guys are welcome to come to my house and still raid my refrigerator because that's what's going to keep him alive." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Follow Doug Oakley on Twitter at www.twitter.com/douglasoakley</span></span>Doug Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03715233174650627340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7349888307229135005.post-10329986391861207442015-03-25T09:57:00.001-07:002015-03-25T09:57:33.705-07:00Oakland to Open School Closed in 2012<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">By Doug Oakley</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Staff Writer</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">doakley@bayareanewsgroup.com</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">OAKLAND -- Parents pushing the school district to reopen Santa Fe Elementary School on 54th Street got their collective foot in the door Wednesday night with a nod from the school board. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The board voted unanimously to reopen the school for two years starting in fall of 2016 to accommodate students displaced from Glenview Elementary School by a two-year seismic rebuild. In addition, the school district will allow students from the Santa Fe neighborhood to attend. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"We're very happy," said Megan Low, who lives across the street from Santa Fe with her 3-year-old son and is expecting a second child. "We think it's a huge steppingstone for our goal, which is to have the school 100 percent dedicated to our community." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Parents in the area want to reopen the school because their nearest options are over a mile away, and if they walk, they must cross busy streets to get there. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The board's Wednesday night decision did not say whether the school will remain open permanently after Glenview is rebuilt and its students return there. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">But Oakland schools spokesman Troy Flint said the district is leaning toward keeping it open to neighborhood families. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"While there was no decision on whether Santa Fe will remain open, the general tenor of the conversation of the board and the superintendent shows they are in favor of it," Flint said. "I would say they are open to the idea." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">While Glenview is closed for construction, the school district will offer busing for students in the Glenview neighborhood to Santa Fe, which is a distance of almost 5 miles. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"We are absolutely looking into busing, and it's my full intention to make that available," said schools Superintendent Antwan Wilson. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Santa Fe Elementary closed in 2012. At the time, there were about 400 school-age kids in the neighborhood, but only about 100 were choosing the school, which had an academic performance index score of 713 on a 200 to 1,000 scoring scale. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Administrators hope that opening the school to neighborhood students does not draw down attendance at three other nearby schools: Sankofa, Emerson and Hoover elementary schools. The school district will help those schools financially with marketing materials to sell themselves to area families to try to prevent that scenario from happening. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"This is a good opportunity for those schools to go through a self-examination process to decide what they want, and I'm glad we are going to do some promotion for them," said school board member Jody London. "Emerson and Sankofa would benefit from the resources the superintendent and staff can bring to them." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Low and other members of the Santa Fe Education Committee who say the neighborhood is teaming with new families that could fill up the school spoke about the need for a school in their neighborhood at Wednesday night's board meeting. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"We have a lack of accessible public schools in our area," Ben Brunetti said. "It's a school desert, and the charter schools are either not appealing because they focus on a specialty or they have difficult lotteries to get in. I have five friends who moved to the neighborhood with kids under age 4." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The committee envisions restarting Santa Fe with kindergarten through third-grade classes in 2018, then adding one grade each year. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Low is confident the neighborhood will have enough students to eventually fill up the school with classes from kindergarten through eighth grade. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">"We want the school district to take a closer look at the baby boom happening in this area," Low said. 'When we talk to our community, a lot of people are saying they have moved in since 2012." </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Follow Doug Oakley on Twitter at www.twitter.com/douglasoakley</span></span>Doug Oakleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03715233174650627340noreply@blogger.com0