Free Republic

Oakland, Calif. -- After nearly two weeks of ballot counting, former Rep. Ron Dellums emerged as the winner of the Oakland mayor's race Saturday when his chief rival said he would not challenge the election results. City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente called Dellums at home to concede, said Mike Healy, a spokesman for Dellums' campaign. "Ignacio was very gracious," Healy said. "He said he wants to work with Ron for a better Oakland, and that it was a great campaign." De La Fuente campaign officials would not confirm that he made the concession call, but they scheduled a...

Editor's note: This is the first of two profiles on the Democratic candidates for state attorney general. He's served as California's governor and secretary of state, run for president three times and gone from political insurgent to Democratic elder statesman and back over the past 32 years. So why -- at age 68 -- does Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown want to be California attorney general? The official answer is that Brown wants a bigger bully pulpit, along with 1,000 prosecutors to fight crime -- a topic he has become all too familiar with as Oakland's mayor since 1998. But the...

On July 1, Oakland took possession of two properties that housed two viable businesses -- Revelli Tires and Autohouse, which provided the livelihoods of John Revelli and Tony Fung -- by eminent domain so that a private developer can build apartments in the redevelopment zone. On Aug. 1, Oakland took possession of a parking lot about one block away -- on which owner Alex Hahn says he wants to build housing -- so that Sears can relocate its Auto Center on that lot. If you had to re-read the above paragraph, it is because this story makes no sense. Oakland,...

A letter on the front of what used to be Revelli Tires in Oakland warns: "Eminent domain unfair. To learn all about the abuses of eminent domain, please go to www.castlecoaliton.org. Educate yourself. Pay attention. You could be next." John Revelli wrote the note after the city of Oakland evicted him on July 1 from his own property — and a business run by his family since 1949 — so that a private developer could build apartments on his land. It especially galls him, Revelli told me over the phone Tuesday, that while he has been forced away from his...

Move over, Moonbeam -- Moonblog has arrived. With a click of the mouse, Jerry Brown -- Oakland's mayor turned aspiring law-and-order attorney general candidate -- kicked off his very own blog this week with a slam at critics of his city's new 10 p.m. curfew for parolees. "These zealots can't accept the fact that strategic police work is saving lives in our city,'' Brown wrote in a barbed, 245-word stream of consciousness that was beamed to the world at www.jerrybrown.typepad.com. The blog was picked up on the popular "Instapundit'' site. Within 24 hours, the mayor's missive had logged more than...

The city of Oakland, following a court order obtained by the Times, has released information on more than 800 employees who made at least $100,000 last year. Oakland paid about $97 million to 811 city employees who earned at least $100,000 between July 2003 and June 2004. About three-quarters of them work in the police and fire departments. "I think that the police department doesn't think it needs to live within its budget," said Councilwoman Jane Brunner. "Sometimes you need overtime, but now it's out of control." City leaders announced last week that they have hired an independent auditor to...

<p>After an eight-year experiment in communal living that included a recovering drug addict and a renowned philosopher as roommates, Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown is going conventional.</p> <p>He's putting his cavernous, corrugated metal-clad loft on the market -- for a cool $4.37 million -- and moving in with his longtime girlfriend, Gap executive Anne Gust, to an apartment one-tenth the size of his current digs in a decidedly less upscale neighborhood.</p>