Oakland promotional outfit Oaktown Indie Mayhem and the graffiti blog Endless Canvas have come together to throw their annual event, Xmas on the Street, a holiday party that’s free and open to all — including Oakland’s most vulnerable residents. The event takes place on Christmas day at 7 p.m. at an undisclosed location that will be announced the day of on EndlessCanvas.com. Local DJs Miggy Stardust (who throws a popular dance party at The Ruby Room every Friday night) and Sake One of Somar’s Ultra Wave will be playing party jams for revelers to dance and be merry to. In the days leading up to the event, those willing can bring clothing and hygiene-product donations for the homeless to 1 AM Gallery (1523 Webster St., Oakland). Showing up with goods to share with those in need — such as warm clothing, socks, Tupperware, and bathroom products — is totally cool, too.
The best way to end the year is to laugh off all of the absurd stuff that happened — from the racist Trump proclamations to the distasteful Airbnb ads. We all need some catharsis before we get ready to restart and repeat. Once again, the annual Big Fat Year End Kiss Off will fulfill that need with a PG-13 night of comedy based on the biggest news stories of the year, this time on December 28 at Freight & Salvage (2020 Addison St., Berkeley). The lineup features Will Durst, a political satirist whose stand up is described as “comedy for people who read, or who know someone who does”; Johnny Steele of Live 105 Morning Radio Show fame; Debi Durst, a local comedian who has, most notably, opened for George Carlin; and Michael Bossier, Mari Magaloni, and Arthur Gaus. Considering the unfortunate frequency with which mainstream media headlines have read like The Onion this year, this show should be hysterical.
1. Police arrested a Richmond man over the weekend for allegedly making bombs with the intent of targeting Muslims, KPIX reports. A bomb squad removed a suspected explosive device from the home of 55-year-old William Celli and detonated it. Celli wrote on his Facebook page that he would follow Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump “to the end of the world.”
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4. A once historic deal to remove four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River in Northern California in order to provide more water for salmon has unraveled due to opposition from hardline Republicans in Congress, the SacBee$ reports. GOP Congressional members refused to fund the removal of the dams. And the issue is now expected to end up in the courts.
Full English breakfast at CommonWealth Micropub.
Credits: Stephen Loewinsohn/File photo
Are you a fan of pint-size watering holes and superlative British pub food? Here’s sad news, then: Emeryville’s CommonWealth Micropub (3986 Adeline St.) will have its last day of business on Saturday, December 19. The sister establishment to the original CommonWealth Cafe and Pub (2882 Telegraph Ave.) in Uptown Oakland was open for less than a year.
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In an email, co-owner Ross Adair said, “We just didn’t quite resonate over there, not sure why.” That’s a shame because the food at the Micropub was delicious. I’ll especially miss the Sunday brunch service, which featured what was probably the best full English breakfast I’ve encountered in the Bay Area.
Earlier tonight, the pub sent out a press release that it also posted on Facebook. “We are actively seeking an alternative solution with the hope that the community can enjoy the space again in the near future,” the statement said.
Would a full-on British breakfast spot be too outlandish a thing to hope for? A person can dream.
Meanwhile, the original Oakland location of CommonWealth will remain open. The Emeryville space will be available for pop-ups and private events, and it will also function as a commissary kitchen for the Telegraph Avenue pub, so it remains to be seen whether some of the more elaborate dishes that were unique to the MicroPub, thanks to its larger kitchen, will migrate over to Oakland.
For now, you’ve got one more night to make your way over to Emeryville for a pint and some Scotch broth or Yorkshire puddings.
Amid a rash of medical marijuana cultivation bans, patients are cheering one potent legal victory this winter. Growing medical marijuana is not a crime, a California appeals court ruled earlier this month in a precedent-setting case.
Cities and counties can cite patients in civil court for what amounts to nuisance violations, but the Health and Safety Code of California is clear: Qualified patients growing medical cannabis are not committing crimes.
Credits: David Downs – Rights Reserved
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The December 2 ruling stemmed from a case involving Fresno amputee Diana Kirby, who cultivated and used the herbal analgesic because she is allergic to pain medications. Fresno enacted one the state’s worst bans in 2014, prohibiting nearly all medical cannabis activity as nuisances or misdemeanors.
Kirby’s constitutional challenge went to the Fifth District Court of Appeal, which ruled that Fresno’s bans are valid under zoning powers, but medical pot growing isn’t a crime. It’s more like having a barking dog or playing loud music late at night.
According to reports:
Fresno patient Diana Kirby.
Credits: (via GoFundMe)
“Kirby lost her left leg in a serious accident in 1972 that also took her vision in her left eye, broke her back in three places and shattered her face. She uses cannabis to manage her chronic pain, as recommended by her physician.
Though the superior court found that Fresno’s law did not conflict with the Compassionate Use Act and the Medical Marijuana Program, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Appellate District found Tuesday that Kirby has a narrow cause of action challenging the validity of Fresno’s classification of marijuana cultivation as a misdemeanor.”
Part 11362.71 of California’s Health and Safety Code, imposes an “obligation” on local officials not to criminalize medical possession and cultivation. Sen. Mark Leno’s Medical Marijuana Program immunizes card-holding patients from criminal arrest, the court ruled.
“The Supreme Court’s clearly expressed position is exactly the opposite of the county’s view,” Judge Donald Franson wrote for the panel.
The legal team at the office of Henry G. Wykowski & Associates celebrated the partial victory:
“We are gratified the Court of Appeal has stated clearly that the Fresno ordinance was an overly broad attack on medical marijuana patient rights. Importantly, the Court decided that cultivating medicinal marijuana in California can never be deemed a criminal act. As far as the remainder of the decision, we are evaluating our client’s options in regard to further rectifying the invidious effects of the County’s ill-conceived ordinance.”
The state’s ban apparatus — a nexus of conservative police chiefs, city attorneys, and legal firms centered around The League of California Cities — is holding online and in-person seminars on how to ban before a March 1 deadline.
Thursday, Assemblymember Jim Wood begged cities to slow down, saying the deadline will be rolled back by the legislature or the Marijuana Bureau itself.
“An open letter to County and City Government Officials: …. Over the past several weeks, I have learned that cities and counties are scrambling to put regulations regarding medical marijuana in place ahead of a March 1st deadline that was inadvertently included in AB243 of the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act (MMRSA). … I have already amended one of my bills with language that will strike the deadline and maintain a local jurisdiction’s ability to create their own regulations. As an urgency measure, the law will go into effect as soon as it is signed by the Governor. My intent to remove the deadline has bi-partisan and stakeholder support. The Governor’s office is prepared to partner with my office to ensure local control on this issue.
“[Even if the bills are held up] the Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation (BMMR), .. currently exists on paper only.”
The BMMR isn’t ramming pot farms down locals’ throat — now or ever. Wood’s quick legal fix is the first instance of flexibility afforded by legislation, as opposed to initiatives. Plenty more tweaks are to come.
Meanwhile, patient and industry advocates are scrambling to offer patient-friendly model regulations to localities.
In Sebastopol, Robert Jacob, a councilmember and dispensary operator, led the city council this week in pushing for local rules regulating the county’s world-class growers.
The Sebastopol City Council passed a resolution calling for Sonoma County to issue permits for the community’s cultivators. Jacob urged the county and all its jurisdictions to jump into their local role in new state regulations.
‘Start small,’ the council urged, with permits and inspections for farms less than 5,000 square feet (about the size of a large house).
“The Sebastopol City Council has made its position abundantly clear: solutions come from regulation, and regulation begins with permits,” stated California Growers Association Executive Director Hezekiah Allen.
There could be 40,000 marijuana farms in California, Fish and Wilfdlife staffers have estimated.
In a statement praising Wood, Allen stated, “[W]e hope that local governments still recognize the urgent need to address the crisis of unregulated cultivation throughout the state. Regulation will solve problems and participation in the regulated marketplace begins with local permits; we strongly encourage all local governments to agendize this item immediately in the new year.”
Alameda County is contemplating local cultivation regulations of their own.
In Humboldt this week, farmers and conservationists began squaring off. “We still have a very daunting task ahead of us,” Second District Supervisor Estelle Fennell told the crowd this week.
Where regulations are in place, pot businesses are well tolerated and thrive.
The Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) staff recommends increasing the number of retail marijuana stores from the current cap of 334 to a new cap of 556 in 2016. Washington’s marijuana market is valued at $1.3 billion annually. California is more than five times more populous.
Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper — who feared a horror show after legalization — now says:
“After the election, if I could’ve had a magic wand, and I could’ve waved it and reversed the outcome of the election, I would’ve done it,” he said. “Now if I had that same magic wand, I’m not sure I’d wave it.”
“Most people who were not smoking marijuana before it was legalized still don’t,” he told reporters.
“We’ve got all these young people, and they’re here, they’re starting businesses, and they’re driving our economy,” Hickenlooper said.
“My biggest fear was that kids would think since it’s legalized, it’s less harmful,” he said. “We now have the money to [stamp] that out.”
Marijuana had a huge influence on Colorado tourism, according to a Colorado Tourism Office survey that found 48 percent of summer travelers were at least partially attracted by legal recreational cannabis.
Last weekend, about 21,000 attendees at The Emerald Cup pumped tens of millions of off-season dollars into the Sonoma County tourism economy.
By contrast, critics note Fresno’s law has cost the impoverished county un-counted hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and staff time, and is likely to be invalidated.
Like Kourtney Kardashian and Justin Bieber’s alleged relationship mythologized this week, the weekend is fleeting. Catch it before it’s gone. Here’s how:
Ghostface Killah.Ghostface Killah
As Method Man put it in an interview clip at the end of Wu-Tang Clan’s “Can It All Be So Simple,” Ghostface Killah is “on some ‘Now you see me, now you don’t.’” Method Man was presumably referring to his collaborator’s dexterous rap flow and ability to seamlessly change between various styles. Since Wu-Tang’s debut album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) came out in 1993, Ghostface has cemented himself in rap history as one of the greatest East Coast MCs. His work has spawned countless imitators, including Action Bronson, a younger rapper whose style is so similar to Ghostface’s flow that Ghostface even once mistook Action Bronson’s voice for his own. After a beef between the two artists raged for several years, Action Bronson took to Twitter in 2015 to acknowledge that he was in the wrong for feuding with his elder. Rap beefs notwithstanding, Ghostface has managed to stay prolific since his Wu-Tang days. To promote his latest album, Sour Soul, he performs at The New Parish on December 18 with Oakland rapper Raw-G among other artists. — Nastia Voynovskaya
Fri., Dec. 18, 8 p.m. $27.50. TheNewParish.com
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Metal Mother.Metal Mother and Violent Vickie
Singer-songwriter Metal Mother is a purveyor of dark, synth-driven pop who made a name for herself in Oakland’s DIY warehouse party scene before relocating to Los Angeles to work on her forthcoming album. She describes herself as an “acid-drenched techno pagan” and fills her music with haunting vocal harmonies and distorted keyboard melodies that call to mind current left-field pop stars such as FKA Twigs and Grimes as well as earlier acts such as the Eighties industrial band Skinny Puppy. She returns to the Bay Area for her December 18 show at El Rio in San Francisco. Violent Vicky, another Southern California-based singer, shares the bill. While Violent Vicky has a similar penchant for ominous yet danceable sounds, her work is rooted in house and disco, with pulsating, four-to-the-floor beats that foreground looming synth lines and gritty, punk-inflected vocals. Her lyrics are often about seduction, but Violent Vicky uses her blunt humor to rail against capitalism and the male gaze. — N. V. Fri., Dec. 18, 8 p.m. free. ElRioSF.com
A shot from The Plan.DeMareon Gipson and ‘The Plan’
DeMareon Gipson is a young writer, poet, and activist originally from Vallejo. His first collection of poetry, Looking Forward: A Collection of Perceptions, lyrically deals with systemic racism and the variety of ways it can manifest — in everything from institutional discrimination to food injustice. But it’s also emotional and personal at times, such as when navigating the difficulties of expressing self love as a Black man. In collaboration with Gipson, local filmmaker Lala Openi has made The Plan, a short film that visualizes poetry from Looking Forward. On Friday, December 18 at E. M. Wolfman General Interest Small Bookstore (410 13th St., Oakland), there will be a free screening of The Plan followed by a poetry reading by Gipson. The event will be the first in a new series called GODDESSFLOW, produced by local artist Brooke Doaks, which aims to highlight the power of Black femininity. — Sarah Burke
Fri., Dec. 18, 6:30-8 p.m. Free. WolfmanHomeRepair.com
A shot from Cloyne Court.Cloyne Court: The Documentary
Cloyne Court is one of the world’s largest communal living spaces. Located a mere block from the UC Berkeley campus, the student housing cooperative is home to 150 students and has been a hub for counterculture movements since the 1960s. Cloyne Court: The Documentary, a new short film made by recent Cal grads Anya Schultz and Shirin Ghaffary, tells the story of the unconventional communities that thrived there and follows their fight to stay put as a lawsuit threatens to kick them out. The film is a tragic portrait of a group of students grappling with being forced to let go of their idealism as the murals that mark the rich history of the house are threatened with erasure, along with the coop’s community and idiosyncratic culture. Cloyne Court will premier with a free screening at the Omni Commons (4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland) on Friday, December 18 at 7:30 p.m. The half hour screening will be followed by a Q&A with the directors. — S. B.
Fri., Dec. 18, 7:30 p.m. Free. CloyneTheMovie.com
Tony! Toni! Toné!Tony! Toni! Toné!
Oakland trio Tony! Toni! Toné! emerged in the late Eighties as an R&B sensation and then released several platinum albums during the early Nineties. Composed of brothers Dwayne Wiggins and Raphael Saadiq and their cousin Timothy Christian Riley, the group was known for syrupy harmonies that often harked back to traditional gospel music. In addition to having impressive vocal chops, unlike other groups of the same ilk, the members of Tony! Toni! Toné! also played musical instruments, and their tracks often prominently featured Wiggins’ elaborate guitar playing. Though the group disbanded in 1996 after the release of its critically acclaimed final studio album, House of Music, Wiggins and Riley began performing together again in 2006, this time with another cousin, Amar Khalil, on lead vocals. While fans wait for Tony! Toni! Toné!’s forthcoming reunion album, they can catch these hometown heroes live every night at Yoshi’s from December 18 through December 21. — N. V. Fri., Dec. 18, 7:30 & 9:45 p.m., Sat., Dec. 19, 7 & 9:15 p.m., Sun., Dec. 20, 6:30 & 8:45 p.m. and Mon., Dec. 21, 7:30 & 9:45 p.m. $34+ Yoshis.com
If your pockets are feelin’ light and you’re still yearning for more suggestions, we’ve got a ton, and these ones are all FREE! We’re Hungry: Got any East Bay news, events, video, or miscellany we should know about? Feed us at Sa*********@************ss.com.
Measures that many hope would keep tar sands out of the Bay Area are still in limbo after Wednesday’s meeting of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. In that meeting, however, the air district board did approve three plans to reduce toxic emissions from specific processes within oil refineries.
Phillips 66 refinery in Rodeo.
Last month, the board decided to remove a scheduled vote on more comprehensive regulations of refinery emissions from its December 16 agenda, to give staff more time to meet with stakeholders. Controversy over the proposed rules has been ongoing since the rulemaking process started more than four years ago. When the board postponed the vote, it did not adopt a new timeline, but there was discussion of setting one in December. The agenda for Wednesday’s meeting, however, included no mention of this item.
Despite that omission, members of community and environmental organizations flooded the meeting, filling the boardroom and all three available overflow rooms. About seventy people gave public comments urging the board to act quickly to cap refinery emissions at their current level. That would make it impossible to refine oil from Canadian tar sands, which generates much higher levels of pollution and greenhouse gases.
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Benicia resident Marilyn Bardet voiced a fear many share — that new projects aimed at bringing tar sands crude into the Bay Area will be approved before the board adopts new rules. The Valero refinery in her town is now seeking permission to build a rail terminal to bring in “North American crude” — tar sands from Canada and fracked crude from North Dakota. This year the air district approved new projects at Chevron and Phillips 66 that environmental scientists say will result in the refining tar sands oil.
Jeff Kilbreth of 350 Bay Area said he wasn’t satisfied by a promise that “new rules are coming down the pike. We’ve been seeing ‘new rules coming down the pike’ for three years.”
Air District Executive Director Jack Broadbent responded that staff needed more time “work with the community” to develop a revised proposal. He said a new rule on tracking refinery emissions would by ready in “the first quarter” of 2016, and a rule on actually regulating emissions in the “second quarter.” At the end of the meeting, Supervisor John Gioia, who represents Contra Costa County on the Air District board, bargained with Broadbent for a more specific deadline. They agreed on May.
Despite Broadbent’s continued insistence that the air district does not have the authority to set caps on emissions, community representatives said they are needed. Walter Pope of the San Francisco Sierra Club argued for immediate caps on greenhouse gas emissions, saying, “We are in apocalyptic times.” Several health care providers said caps are also needed on harmful pollutants that sicken and kill people living near refineries. One gave a vivid description of the “minute to minute terror” of patient with damaged lungs “struggling for every breath.”
Carla West of 350 Bay Area suggested that fear of being sued by the oil industry was holding the air district back from taking strong action. “If you’re not being sued by the oil industry you’re not doing your job,” she said. Later in the meeting, board member Gioia assured the audience that the industry had sued the air district many times.
In the discussion of the rules adopted on Wednesday, which called for measures to reduce leaks of harmful pollutants from three specific refinery processes, a series of representatives from Bay Area refineries called on the board to delay approval until the rules could be revised. They cited a variety of technical problems they said would make the rules unworkable. In the end, the board adopted the rules but agreed to give refineries a longer time to implement one of them.
These rules, said Broadbent, will go a long way toward meeting the goal set by the board last year — to reduce emissions of certain pollutants by 20 percent by 2020. He said the three rules passed on Wednesday would reduce emissions by 14 percent.
Federal investigators have said PG&E shoddy record keeping was a factor in the deadly 2010 San Bruno pipeline blast.
1. PG&E lacks federally required safety records for 1,000 miles of natural gas pipeline in Northern California, the Chron reports, citing a new filing by the watchdog arm of the state Public Utilities Commission. The CPUC’s Office of Ratepayer Advocates is recommending a $163 million fine for PG&E’s “intentional misrepresentation” of its pipeline safety records. Federal investigators in the deadly 2010 San Bruno blast have blamed PG&E’s shoddy record keeping as a factor.
4. Comcast has agreed to pay a $26 million fine in Alameda County Superior Court for illegally dumping hazardous waste, the Bay Area News Group$ reports. The fine stemmed from legal action brought against Comcast by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office and the state Attorney General.
Welcome to the Mid-Week Menu, our roundup of East Bay food news.
1) With Commis having garnered its second Michelin star and Hawker Fare humming along like a well-oiled machine, James Syhabout continues to turn his attention to his third restaurant, The Dock (95 Linden St.), which has undergone a series of menu changes and concept tweaks in the past couple of months. Earlier in the fall, the restaurant had introduced a new prix-fixe option. It’s unclear whether Syhabout and chef de cuisine Geoffrey Davis will keep that option moving forward, but Inside Scoop reports that The Dock will now shift away from its original small plates focus, moving toward a “supper house” menu format that’s set up more traditionally, with starters, entrées, and so forth. The restaurant is also now baking its own bread and biscuits in-house.
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2) Tablehopper has the scoop on a new Italian restaurant and pasta shop coming to Rockridge. Run by Michele Belotti, who until recently was the chef at San Francisco’s Ristobar, Belotti (5403 College Ave., Oakland) will be both a 35-seat restaurant and a to-go market where customers can buy housemade pastas and sauces to cook at home. This is the former I Squared/Homespun Fare space.
3) Downtown Berkeley has a new “sushi burrito” place, Berkeleyside Nosh reports. Sushinista (2235 Milvia St.) is now softly open in the former Mix Plus/Sumo Grub space near Berkeley High School. Unlike the other popular purveyors of these giant, uncut sushi rolls, Sushinista specializes in “burritos” centered not on raw fish, but rather the typical ingredients you might find in a Japanese bento box.
Credits: Chris Duffey/File photo
4) Free food alert: Next Wednesday, December 23, the Filipino takeout joint Lucky Three Seven (2868 Fruitvale Ave., Oakland) will be serving free food all day. You can read all the details here, but, in a nutshell, there will be sinigang, and the restaurant will also accept optional donations of school supplies, which the owners will pass on to a local elementary school.
5) It’s holiday pie season at PieTisserie (1605 2nd Ave., Oakland), which means flavors such as chocolate cream peppermint and yam ginger. In addition to PieTisserie’s permanent Lake Merritt location, the bakery is also hosting a pop-up shop at 35 Lafayette Circle in Lafayette, through December 31.
6) Just in time for Christmas, Homestead (4029 Piedmont Ave., Oakland) is doing a special goose dinner for its weekly Sunday Supper prix-fixe on Sunday, December 20, 4:30–8:30 p.m. Included on the $65 (service-inclusive) family-style menu will be many different forms of goose: roast breast, cracklings, confit, pate, sausage, and more. Dessert will be Bûche de Noël.
After the last bit of goose has been eaten, Homestead will close its doors through Christmas Day, but the following week the restaurant will host a swanky New Year’s Eve bash: a $100 four-course meal for the first 5–6:30 p.m. seating, and $130 for a five-course dinner for every seating after that. Featured menu items will include caviar, Maine lobster, black truffles, foie gras, and grilled ribeye — so you have some idea of what to expect.
7) Looking to celebrate Christmas Eve the traditional Italian way — with a ton of seafood? At least three Oakland restaurants have put together Feast of Seven Fishes prix-fixe menus on Thursday, December 24: Lungomare (1 Broadway), A16 Rockridge (5356 College Ave.), Bocanova (55 Webster St.), and Desco (499 9th St.).
8) ICYMI, a Hayward craft beer pioneer wants to start a tiny brewery modeled after pop-up restaurants, and AS B-Dama’s Chikara Ono is opening a new sushi restaurant.
Got tips or suggestions? Email me at Luke (dot) Tsai (at) EastBayExpress (dot) com. Otherwise, keep in touch by following me on Twitter @theluketsai, or simply by posting a comment. I’ll read ‘em all.
The Oakland City Council Public Safety Committee on Tuesday greenlighted three gun control measures that were proposed following the massacre in San Bernardino and a rash of car burglaries in which guns were stolen. The full city council is scheduled to take up the measures on January 5.
Dan Kalb.
The ordinances were authored by Councilmembers Dan Kalb, Annie Campbell Washington, and Rebecca Kaplan and would require licensed firearms in homes to be stored in a locker or fitted with a trigger lock, would forbid high-capacity magazine clips, and would ban unsecured firearms in unattended vehicles.
Kalb equated the proposed gun restrictions Tuesday evening to the increased use of automobile seat belts following legislation a generation ago requiring its use. “When a law is passed, more people will comply with them,” said Kalb. “Will everybody comply with this automatically? No. Will more people comply than otherwise? Yes. And if that means fewer guns are stolen from homes or fewer guns are picked up and shot off and hurt somebody, then great, we’ve done an awesome thing and thank god we’re taking action… If we save a few lives, then it makes it all the better that we do this as soon as possible.”
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Federal gun legislation is still needed, said Kalb, and the impetus for Oakland’s gun proposals include Washington, DC’s inability to address the nationwide issue of gun violence. Councilmember Abel Guillen said: “This is another example of Congress and the feds failing to act and the City of Oakland taking responsibility.”
Vice Mayor Kaplan, the author of the bill requiring firearms are safely secured in unattended vehicles, said many guns in Oakland used to commit crimes are obtained during home and car burglaries. “This shuts down the way criminals are getting their hands on guns,” said Kaplan, “and makes it clear you may not leave a gun where it can be easily stolen.” Several community organizations and gun control activists voiced support for the proposed gun restrictions.
Despite a call by the National Rifles Association to its members last week to voice opposition to Oakland’s proposed gun ordinances, little dissent was heard Tuesday evening. Ron Hermanson, an Oakland resident and gun owner, said the council’s proposed gun restriction criminalizes law-abiding residents. “I keep my guns locked up. People that I know do the same thing,” said Hermanson. “People got killed in [San Bernardino] because there are nuts on the streets.”
Patrick McCullough, a former mayoral candidate in Oakland who has a unique history with firearms, said the gun ordinances are political grandstanding in the wake of the shootings in San Bernardino and other US cities. “It’s interesting that all of sudden were in a crisis and gun control issues are needed,” said McCullough. In 2005, McCullough shot a 15-year-old while the youth was allegedly reaching for his gun in McCullough’s front yard. The district attorney did not press charges.
Kalb insisted that the three gun ordinances are not reactions to the San Bernardino shootings, and that councilmembers have been working on them for months. A similar gun ordinance banning high-capacity magazines exists in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Another in Sunnyvale challenged by the NRA in the courts had been closely watched by the Oakland City Attorney’s office, said Kalb. A federal appeals court last March sided with the city.
Oakland promotional outfit Oaktown Indie Mayhem and the graffiti blog Endless Canvas have come together to throw their annual event, Xmas on the Street, a holiday party that’s free and open to all — including Oakland’s most vulnerable residents. The event takes place on Christmas day at 7 p.m. at an undisclosed location that will be announced the day...
The best way to end the year is to laugh off all of the absurd stuff that happened — from the racist Trump proclamations to the distasteful Airbnb ads. We all need some catharsis before we get ready to restart and repeat. Once again, the annual Big Fat Year End Kiss Off will fulfill that need with a PG-13...
Stories you shouldn’t miss:
1. Police arrested a Richmond man over the weekend for allegedly making bombs with the intent of targeting Muslims, KPIX reports. A bomb squad removed a suspected explosive device from the home of 55-year-old William Celli and detonated it. Celli wrote on his Facebook page that he would follow Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump “to the end...
Full English breakfast at CommonWealth Micropub.
Credits: Stephen Loewinsohn/File photo
Are you a fan of pint-size watering holes and superlative British pub food? Here's sad news, then: Emeryville's CommonWealth Micropub (3986 Adeline St.) will have its last day of business on Saturday, December 19. The sister establishment to the original CommonWealth Cafe and Pub (2882 Telegraph Ave.) in Uptown Oakland was...
Amid a rash of medical marijuana cultivation bans, patients are cheering one potent legal victory this winter. Growing medical marijuana is not a crime, a California appeals court ruled earlier this month in a precedent-setting case.
Cities and counties can cite patients in civil court for what amounts to nuisance violations, but the Health and Safety...
Like Kourtney Kardashian and Justin Bieber's alleged relationship mythologized this week, the weekend is fleeting. Catch it before it's gone. Here's how:
Ghostface Killah
As Method Man put it in an interview clip at the end of Wu-Tang Clan’s “Can It All Be So Simple,” Ghostface Killah is “on some ‘Now you see me, now...
Measures that many hope would keep tar sands out of the Bay Area are still in limbo after Wednesday’s meeting of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. In that meeting, however, the air district board did approve three plans to reduce toxic emissions from specific processes within oil refineries.
Last month, the board decided to remove a scheduled vote...
Stories you shouldn’t miss:
1. PG&E lacks federally required safety records for 1,000 miles of natural gas pipeline in Northern California, the Chron reports, citing a new filing by the watchdog arm of the state Public Utilities Commission. The CPUC’s Office of Ratepayer Advocates is recommending a $163 million fine for PG&E’s “intentional misrepresentation” of its pipeline safety records. Federal investigators...
Welcome to the Mid-Week Menu, our roundup of East Bay food news.
1) With Commis having garnered its second Michelin star and Hawker Fare humming along like a well-oiled machine, James Syhabout continues to turn his attention to his third restaurant, The Dock (95 Linden St.), which has undergone a series of menu changes and concept tweaks in the past...
The Oakland City Council Public Safety Committee on Tuesday greenlighted three gun control measures that were proposed following the massacre in San Bernardino and a rash of car burglaries in which guns were stolen. The full city council is scheduled to take up the measures on January 5.
The ordinances were authored by Councilmembers Dan Kalb, Annie Campbell Washington, and...
