Free Republic

A battle is brewing over an Oakland neighborhood's do-it-yourself solution to stopping speeders and sideshows. Residents said they were fed up and fought back with their own speed bumps, but the city said that fix won't fly. Earlier this week, the city's Department of Transportation (DOT) tore up the homemade speed bumps at East 21st Street and 19th Avenue. Residents installed them out of desperation eight months ago after claiming they pled with the city for four years to address dangerous sideshows in the area and nothing was done. "We've had peace for the past eight months, a hard peace,"...

hey say no good deed goes unpunished. An Oakland, California, City Council candidate, who is running for office on a platform of addressing the city’s homeless crisis and "skyrocketing levels of crime," said she had a bag full of donations stolen by a homeless woman during her campaign kickoff event on Sunday. To make matters worse, she said the police never showed up when she called 911. Charlene Wang, who is running for the at-large seat in the California city, says the homeless woman grabbed the bag — which contained about $1,000 — at Clinton Square Park at around 4...