Golden State Warriors To Get Bigger Under Jerry West?

In a Sunday evening interview with Lawrence Scott of KNTV NBC Bay Area Channel 11, San Francisco, Golden State (Oakland) Warriors new "executive board member," NBA Legend Jerry West, said the one set of words this blogger has wanted to hear for years: the Warriors "need to get bigger."

The Golden State (Oakland) Warriors of owner Chris Cohan and Team President Robert Rowell were known as a small, fast team without the "towers" necessary to compete in tough games down the stretch. And in much of their history since the late 80s, the Warriors were never known for that 'big guy in the middle.'

The last person with the ability required to wear that tag was "The Chief," Center Robert Parish, who left in what was described as a trade that cemented Celtics President, the legendary Red Auerbach's "reputation for thievery," at the expense of The Warriors.

Auerbach dealt the first and 13th picks in the 1980 NBA Draft to The Oakland Warriors and the third pick in the 1980 Draft and Mr. Parish. The Warriors used that pick to get Purdue's Joe Barry Carroll at center.

Joe Barry Carroll never lived up to the lofty expectations set for him, and that was magnified by the success of Parish, paired with then-rookie Kevin McHale with a Celtics team that already had Larry Bird, and went on the be the NBA Champions that year.

That same year, Parish has the same points per game average as Joe Barry Carroll, but Parish had 777 rebounds that year, compared to 437 for Carroll. It wasn't just that Parish was taller, he was only that by an inch. But the observation was that Carroll wasn't 'into' the game, and so didn't play to his seven-foot height.

But I digress.

Warriors new owner Joe Lacob said that West would be "broadly involved in the organization" when he was interviewed by Tim Roye, the voice of the Warriors, last week. That will include marketing, sponsorship, and even arena issues.



And when Roye talked with West, Jerry said that he wasn't there to step on anyone's toes, but he reiterated Labob's statement that West is there to be an adviser.



West, from his conversation with NBC Bay Area and the Warriors interviews, will have a key role in selecting the next coach for the Warriors, and dictating the team's overall characteristics. But from Roye's interview, it's obvious that West will play a large roll in the very shape of the Warriors for years to come.


Yeah!!

Stay tuned.

Side note: If KNTV NBC Bay Area had a real social media strategy, it could have got a lot more mileage out of this Jerry West interview. They put tweets out about the West interview, but without a link to any other type of content. So, when the TV segment is gone, that's it.

KNTV suffers from the same "inny" view of the use of social media that seems to have infected local television stations, causing them to lose out on thousands of dollars in ad revenues.

Oakland Budget Talk At Kwik Way Burger Joint Grand Opening

While open for about a month now, the official grand opening of the new Kwik Way on Lake Park Avenue, just five doors down from the Grand Lake Theater, happened last Sunday. A small group of people consisting of friends of the restaurant's owner Gary Rizzo, people from the neighborhood, and Oakland's District Two Councilmember Pat Kernighan, and this blogger, lined up to order everything from burgers and fries to chicken.

As I approached the eatery, I saw Lakeshore Business Improvement District Executive Director and friend Pam Drake, who explained that Rizzo received a great deal of help from the City of Oakland, and specifically Kernighan's office.

No, the City of Oakland didn't provide money, but did provide help in the way of expediting the permit process for Rizzo. And why not? The Kwik Way is a long dead landmark brought back to economic life. And already has become a place to hang over a decent, old-fashioned bag of fries.

Well, not too old-fashioned.

Someone put up a sign that day which complained that the food at the new Kwik Way wasn't the food at the old Kwik way. To that, I say, good! The old Kwik Way's food was entirely too greasy and that older establishment was accused of cooking a mouse and putting in someone's order of chicken. Thankfully, those days are gone.

The Oakland Budget and Kernighan

While at Kwik Way, I took time to talk with Councilmember Kernighan about the Oakland Budget and the looming $58 million deficit. I wondered if Oaklanders realized the severity of the problem. Pat said that she think's some people "get it," and have been keeping up with what's going on in the budget hearings and town hall meetings around Oakland.

But Pam then chimed in that some Oakland Councilmembers "didn't get it," causing Kernighan to come to the defense of her colleagues, saying that "they're starting to" realize there's a problem. Pat said "I think the resistance we're starting to see from some of my colleagues is that they feel that certain changes need to happen with the city. That they think that, for instance, the police and fire unions need to make their contributions."

Kernighan was quick to add that the Council's not taking an anti-union stance; they just want to see some movement from those organizations in the way of employee contributions to the pension system.

Deficit Illegal?

I then asked what would happen if Oakland elected to maintain its deficit rather than close it with cuts and taxes. Pat said that's "illegal," but I asked if that means she and the other Oakland Councilmembers could be sent to jail? She said she didn't know the answer to that question.

But, if the events in Bell, California - where that city charged property tax rates far above the legal state limit, and several Bell officials pocketed a lot of the revenue difference - are any indication of what could happen, the answer is that if Oakland ran a deficit in violation of state law, the Alameda County District Attorney's Office or the office of the State Attorney General could file criminal charges against the Oakland City Council.

In the case of Bell, its own City Attorney worked to determine which Bell official was responsible for the criminal acts, and said that any possible criminal charges would be up to the LA County DA and the Attorney General of California.

That gives a window into what John Russo could have done as Oakland's City Attorney if the City Council resisted him on the medical marijuana issue. In that case, Oakland was flirting with the possibility of violating Federal laws.

Stay tuned.

Vertex Incivek Patient Steve Goodwin On The FDA Approved Drug

In my last blog posts, I introduced the new drug INCIVEK by Vertex as a way to help people suffering from Hepatitis C. As I reported, Hepatitis C is a virus, particularly common among African Americans, and that causes inflammation of the liver.

Hepatitis C effects an estimated 270 million to 300 million people Worldwide, 30,000 people in Santa Clara County, 12,000 people in San Francisco City and County, and 2,400 new cases were reported in 2010.

For this blog post, and as promised, I interviewed the main advocate for the use of INCIVEK. His name is Steve Goodwin.

Steve Goodwin is a chief engineer and a one-person band, talking to anyone who will listen about INCIVEK. In the video, below, Goodwin eloquently explains how he came to find out about INCIVEK via the use of the website Clinical Trials, at clinicaltrials.gov, and how it's helped him to a more normal path of life.



Steve also wrote a paper of INCIVEK and how it's helped him, and all of this has been his doing because he's, frankly, happy to be alive. Here's what he wrote:

I am eternally grateful to Vertex Pharmaceuticals and the UCSF Medical Center, for providing me the opportunity to eradicate the virus that I likely had for over 35-years. I was part of a Phase 2b Study referred to as PROVE 3 in 2007. This study was designed for subjects with Genotype 1 Hepatitis C who had not achieved a Sustained Viral Response (SVR) with a prior course of interferon based therapy. I was most fortunate to be in the arm of the trial that has now been approved by the FDA. This included triple treatment of INCIVEK with the standard of care (SOC) for the first 12-weeks and then a continuation of pegylated interferon alpha 2a and ribavirin for the remaining 12-weeks. All said, my treatment was only 24-weeks compared to the previous SOC of 48-weeks.

Although I was asymptomatic for the approximate 35-years prior to obtaining the elusive cure, I knew that the viral infection was continuing to damage my liver in insidious ways that I was unaware of. I also educated myself on the disease and realized that I could not expect the disease to remain dormant forever. Recent studies have indicated that as an individual approaches the age of 60 and beyond, that the disease begins to progress at a much greater level, as compared to being young. The body’s ability to fight off the infection by replacing damaged liver cells is reduced with advancing age. I did not want to be part of those statistics and decided to do anything and everything I could to get the monkey off my back.

Regarding reported side effects, I would have to say that the worst thing for me was temporarily losing the ability to taste (hypogeusia) chocolate and coffee! As for the reports of rash, I had a slight increase in the sensation of itching (pruritus) but never broke out with any rash. I have inherited allergies and eczema, but found that I only needed to control myself from scratching. I found Gold Bond skin lotion as a great remedy for helping to reduce the itching and I wore white cotton socks over my hands while sleeping. I remembered the days when my daughters were babies! I tolerated the treatment quite well. I continued playing tennis, running the treadmill and traveled on vacation. So much of it has to do with attitude.

2007 was indeed a magical year for me. I was considered to be one of the most difficult groups of subjects to be treated: 1) treatment experienced – meaning that I had previously failed an interferon based treatment, and was a: 2) null responder - meaning that I had not achieved a 2-Log drop within the first 12-weeks of my previous treatment in 2003. I beat the odds and recognize that there are thousands of other people that remain infected today that did not achieve an SVR from a previous attempt at treatment.

Now does Steve's cheerleading benefit Vertex? Hell yes. But lost in that is the simple fact that the job of medicine to is save lives and help make our lives better. That's what happened for Steve Goodwin, and that's why he's so happy.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan In Las Vegas For ICSC, Why Hide It?

This is a bit of news that wasn't in the newspapers, mentioned on blogs (until now), or covered on Twitter, save for one wayward tweet by the Washington DC Economic Partnership at International Council Of Shopping Centers Spring Convention in Las Vegas, and not by the Mayor of Oakland herself.

As you can tell by the photo with Washington DC Mayor Mayor Vincent C. Gray and the attendance registration image, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan was in Las Vegas for the same International Council Of Shopping Centers Spring Convention on Monday.

As one of four people who started the annual trend of the City of Oakland having a presence at ICSC to promote development in Oakland in 1997, it's great to know that Mayor Quan was there, but sad to know she's trying to hide the fact she attended.

Her name's on the file published by ICSC and you can see here, in addition to the photo.

And in the Twitter tweet, it's reported that Quan was at the Washington DC booth. Here's the tweet:

wdcep wdcep
DC's Mayor Gray and city of Oakland Mayor Quan at DC's booth #lasVegasICSC http://yfrog.com/h68f9opj

What happened in Vegas was that, according to sources, Oakland's Community and Economic Development Director Walter Cohen held a staff meeting this week and made what were described as "vague comments about the overwhelming size of the (Las Vegas) Convention Center and that some good things happened," and the source added "which of course means very little." Then one source added:

Don't expect anything solid to come out of this. The City, frankly, was unprepared to offer any opportunities / incentives that were particularly appealing. We were told by retail brokers that the Mayor should have been prepared to combat crime perceptions -- that if she were to dent these perceptions in any small way, it would be considered a success.

But at least he was there with Mayor Quan. But Walter should not be "media quiet" about such trips and efforts, because it's all good news that no one knows about.

Oakland's ICSC Started With Me, Sort Of

Now, all of that said, there's nothing wrong with the Mayor of Oakland attending ICSC, but everything wrong with hiding the trip. In 1997, California Capital Group Managing Partner Phil Tagami, Kofi Bonner, who was then Oakland's Economic Development Director, Oakland Councilmember (District Two), now former City Attorney, and now Alameda City Manager John Russo,  and I as the Economic Advisor To Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris, started Oakland's short, annual habit of attending the 32,000-strong event in Vegas.

The first year, we, Oakland, didn't have a booth, but by 1998, we did. And that year at Las Vegas ICSC, and with Mayor Harris, Councilmember Larry Reid (District Seven), Mr. Bonner, and Mr. Tagami, then-new City Manager Robert Bobb, Albert Ratner, Co-Chairman Of The Board of Forest City, and several staff members from both the City of Oakland's Office of Economic Development and Employment and Forest City in the room, I made a presentation to bring Forest City to Oakland, but not to do housing - to do retail development in the form of a "Times Square Of The West."

What happened can be described in two words: Jerry Brown.

It was clear then, that Brown was going to be Mayor of Oakland, and has this idea that became the "10,000 housing units in downtown" or "10K" project, but didn't share that with me at the time, as he wasn't officially Mayor.

But that year he won the primary election, and by November, because he had won by such a large margin there was no need for a runoff election.

Oakland had a new Mayor named Jerry Brown.

So, by the time in late September of 1998 Forest City's then-representative Greg Vilkin (who's now with real estate developer MacFarlane Partners as Managing Director) and I took a tour of what is now the Uptown District, and was then called The Uptown Entertainment District (a named coined by Mayor Harris), Greg popped up with "Actually, we were thinking about housing," after first agreeing that the retail plan we initiated was "exciting" while in Las Vegas, I figured that Jerry stuck his nose in my deal in some kind of way.

I was major league pissed off, but that's another story for another time.   The point is, we made a big effort, and we didn't hide the fact that we were in Las Vegas from the newspapers then.  I personally called the Oakland Tribune to tell them about it.

Tagami, Bonner, and I worked to do promote Oakland at ICSC way back in 1997 and in the late 90s. What's going on that Oakland has to reinvent the wheel 14 years later?

Considering that Walter Cohen was an occasional consultant to Mayor Harris in 1996, it's clear he learned nothing from watching what we did back then.

Walter, I'm disappointed in you, man.

ICSC is a place where real estate developers show off their latest shopping center and retail projects to potential retail tenants, investors, and cities. And cities show off their latest economic development projects for the same reasons.  It's all for business and economic development.

Many Oakland business friends I talk to say that Quan doesn't talk to the business community.  I don't think she's being mean about it, just that she may be afraid to do often so because she doesn't know how.

It seems Jean's more comfortable dealing with battling Oakland's social problems, than negotiating with businesses to come to Oakland, build the economy, and reduce the welfare state.

It's clear that Mayor Quan needs to know that a trip to Las Vegas ICSC is not only something a Mayor of Oakland should do, but Oakland itself should be do to.

It's too bad that what we -Tagami, Bonner, and I - started 14 years ago, an economic development effort for the city, hasn't continued into the 21st Century.

While it's true that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, the Mayor of Oakland can't afford such secrecy.

John Russo - City Of Oakland Debt Plans Point To Bankruptcy

Originally, this blogger was planning to run Part Three of this video recap last Wednesday, but frankly elected to stretch out the content production opportunity. The video is over 38 minutes long, and only a handful of people will watch the whole presentation at once.

But for those who do, the video interview with John Russo has a lot of information, and that it's being both referred to by some media types, and ignored by others is a clear example of how personal issues, jealously, and prejudice can block the efficient reporting of a story.

Articles referencing this video should be on the front page of both the San Francisco Chronicle and The Oakland Tribune, but that's not the case.

Just telling the truth.

Ask yourself why. Then ask yourself why print media's losing out to blogs, video, and even some Twitter accounts for ad dollars.

But I digress, though I could go on for a book-length diatribe on that issue.

Where We Left Off:

The last blog post on the Russo interview concluded with this paragraph:

Russo says that Oakland's problems in public safety and finance are "gripping the city," and he's totally opposed to the debt-based solutions being considered. And he said "The directions that the government is moving now are morally...not..uhm... They are, I think, morally questionable, and I could no longer serve, ethically, as City Attorney..." Russo, struggling to find the right words, said.

That's essentially why John left the City of Oakland. He says that while the issues of public safety and finance are "gripping" Oakland, and while he disagrees with the direction of policy and the ethical standing of the decision makers, he felt he could not work in a way he described as "ethical."

Russo says that there are "contracting" and "budgetary" issues that have been in the news and that lay out his complaints, in long form. He points to the battle over the production of weed, and some Oakland elected officials who apparently wanted to push forward in defiance of the Federal Government. And he points to the issues surrounding the police and fire retirement system.

That was where he started to think about getting another job.

Russo says the police and fire retirement system is such that it was closed to new members 35 years ago. Not that everyone was retired 35 years ago, it meant any police or fire fighters hired after 1976 will go into the big state pension system - PERS, as it's called.

But anyone who was hired before '76 was in the Police And Fire Retirement System, or what John calls "PFRS." "The public has been paying, for thirty years, a special tax override that was supposed to cover pee-fers, Russo explained. "That (revenue) has either been inadequate or not placed into the system, and the system in under-funded."

As to where that money went if it was not, to quote John, "placed into the system," Russo says "You'd have to look." When I asked if that was legal to do, Russo said "I can't comment."

But he's not saying the money was stolen. Got that.

John continues: "In 1997, the city (of Oakland) voted on a split vote, where I voted 'no', to issue bonds for 15 years that would pay the city's annual pee-fers contribution. (And) basically on the idea that we will borrow money and we'll pay the stock market, then we'll make more money in the stock market than the interest we're paying on the bonds, we win, and get 15 years where the City's General Fund isn't called upon for pee-fers."

It didn't work out at all, because of the two stock market crashes.

But in retrospect, I remember that episode in the City of Oakland's history, because the bond issue was a large business deal for a number of investment banks, and I was then-Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris' Economic Advisor, when Russo was on the Oakland City Council.

What happened was that the city's then treasurer, Jan Mazyck, was then pushing a proposal by Goldman Sachs that I did not favor and advised the Mayor not to support. And for two reasons: first, after building a system dynamics model of the proposed swap-option to evaluate Goldman's proposal, I wasn't convinced that the swap-option derivative would be enough to protect Oakland in the case of a crash, and I preferred the selection of a minority investment banking firm to handle the deal, rather than Goldman, and in an entirely different way that offered better protection with redevelopment revenue as a "backing."

Elihu listened to me, and voted against the deal.

Eventually, the Council - but not Russo, Mayor Harris, and Councilmember's Dick Spees and Nancy Nadel from Districts Four and Three, respectively, selected Goldman to handle the deal and do the derivative financing system they proposed.

Back to Russo.

"It turns out, according to the (current) City Auditor (Courtney Ruby), that that decision cost the City (of Oakland) a quarter of a billion dollars," Russo continued. "The reason I wrote about it, is the city's 15 year payment holiday is up, next year. And what is the City's solution to that, according to the Mayor and the city staff? Float more debt. Use more debt, so use another credit card, to pay the interest on the second credit card, that was paying the interest on the first credit card. There's only one ending for that pyramid of debt, and it's bankruptcy. There's no other way out of it.

So what they're proposing is another five to seven year holiday, which is great because we don't have to pay the bill. Another five to seven years, we'll just push it off, push it off to the next generation, really."

Russo says that even if the City of Oakland makes a seven percent return, the City would still end up onwing $141 milllion in each year 2024, 2025, and 2026 - a total of $423 million.

The General Fund of Oakland will have to pay $141 million a year by that time. "It will break the bank," Russo says. It's also far beyond the revenue-producing capacity of the City of Oakland, given the population size and level of assessed value of property now, and into the future.

In this what Russo calls "paroxism of irresponsiblity," he claims we have the Oaklanders of the 2050s paying for people who worked for the City of Oakland in the 1950s.

A big mess, getting messier.

Russo House Cleaning

Before I end this segment of the blog posts on the Russo video interview, there's a small controversy that John did not attend City Council meetings and that he's in violation of the City Charter. He's not.

The City Charter does says that if the City Attorney misses ten meetings without being excused, he or she is in violation of the Charter, but the City Charter lacks a definition of what a meeting is. Plus, the second of the City Charter on the Police and Fire Retirement Board, which the City Attorney sits on, allows the City Attorney to send a representative.

So why doesn't that apply to the City Council? Well, by practice, it does. As not only Russo, but Jayne Williams before him, regularly appointed a representative for Oakland City Council meetings.

Also, we next look at Oakland Sports and we look at the observation that Russo bought his way into his job as Alameda's City Manager.

Stay tuned.

Lakesode Park and 565 Bellevue at Lake Merritt

Salsa By Lake Merritt On Sunday

Kwik Way Grand Opening

A Ratty Tree House On Euclid In Oakland

Troy is Captain America

America has too many captains!

The Golden Gate Bridge from the yacht America

Beth and Liza drive America the yacht

Chrissy D and Brad on America the yacht

Beth, Hana, Christine, and Carol at Golden Gate Yacht Club

Swedish Women's Congregation at Golden Gate Yacht Club

The Golden Gate Bridge

Capt Troy Sears

Liza and Kathy on America

The Yacht America. Set to sail today in San Francisco

Oakland Coliseum Vs. Golden State Warriors Litigation Update

The interesting news of litigation between the Oakland Coliseum and the Golden State Warriors mentioned in my last blog post just became more interesting. It was hard to get any good intel from what has been a closed-session conversation as of Apr 15, 2011. And one document that was, at one point on the Coliseum's website and referring to this legal battle, was interestingly removed.

But some light emerged at the website of Keker &Van Nest, and one lawyer named Daniel Purcell, who claims:

Golden State Warriors v. Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum: We represented the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority in a series of disputes with the coliseum's professional basketball team. These disputes, involving tens of millions of dollars, arose over more than ten years and involved miscellaneous claims and cross-claims. Over the course of four arbitrations, we collected $32.25 million for our client.

And I put that in image form, in case Mr. Purcell was urged to take down the text by his client (and the same text appears on the profiles of three other Keker lawyers too). It's here now.

So the Coliseum got $32.25 million from the Warriors? What was it used for?  What was the problem to start with? 

Thanks to Keker's lawyers, we have some new information not noted anywhere else online, at least thus far.

Stay tuned.

Overstock Oakland Coliseum Naming Rights Controversy Update

UPDATE: Oakland Coliseum vs. Golden State Warriors new litigation information.

The title above is about perfect because the City of Oakland and the County of Alameda allowed the Oakland - Alameda County Coliseum Authority to take just $7 million for a naming rights agreement for the Oakland Coliseum that was worth much more, and let them do it even as Overstock.com is involved in, to this day, and with the same County of Alameda in a court battle where the County seeks $15 million in damages over alleged fraudulent pricing practices by the company.

The deal - which in a very irresponsible editorial, the Oakland Tribune actually, strangely, praised - was done netting no better monies than were raised in 1998 for the Network Associates Coliseum naming rights deal.

That was at $7 million.

If now former Oakland City Attorney John Russo is correct about the City of Oakland taking actions and making decisions that are "morally questionable," then it seems the Overstock.com naming agreement falls into that category.

Something is clearly wrong. This blogger has asked not one, but three Oakland City Auditors to look at the Oakland Coliseum, and each one, from Norma Lau to currently and sadly Courtney Ruby has come up with some kind of excuse.

Ruby's claim is lack of resources, but that didn't stop her from looking at the ABC Security issue, or fiscal issues over at the City Administrator's Office last year.

For some political reason, the Oakland Coliseum is shielded and protected from real scrutiny from most organizations, save for the Alameda County Grand Jury.

Last year, the Grand Jury looked at the Coliseum, but only from the narrow point of view of the failure to hire a full-time executive director. The Coliseum Authority balked at the need for one, and also brushed off calls for the kind of long range planning that was done by the Oakland Coliseum before the Authority existed.

Really, it did.

In a report that you can see with a click here, the Coliseum Authority wrote:

The Authority disagrees with this finding. This recommendation will not be implemented directly by the Authority for the following reasons: The Joint Powers Agreement under which the Authority operates by agreement of the City of Oakland and The County of Alameda as well as the Management Agreement among the Authority, the County and The City, delegates limited power to the Authority. The Joint Powers Agreement's stated purpose is to issue bonds to construct and acquire public capital improvements at the direction of the City and The County...

Let's stop there for now.

Doesn't "The Joint Powers Agreement's stated purpose is to issue bonds to construct and acquire public capital improvements at the direction of the City and The County" call for long range planning? Of course it does.

It's too bad the Alameda County Grand Jury didn't call on this blogger to testify, not that I asked them to do so. But, when I worked as Economic Adviser to Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris, Bob Quintella, who was then the President Of The Oakland Coliseum, with Peerless Coffee head George Vukasin as chair of the Coliseum Board, took me on a mini-tour of his office, complete with a presentation of a large map of the property the Coliseum owned, and future plans for its use.

The Business Plan written by Ezra Rapport, the Oakland Deputy City Manager who brought the Raiders back to Oakland, that was prepared for the Coliseum Authority in 1996, and read religiously by this blogger, called for not just an executive director, but for some kind of planning activities to be done.

Also, the original resolution that formed the Coliseum JPA, called for the addition of a 20-person board of private sector people, on top of the current eight public officials. But that part of the resolution has never been enabled.

In other words, the elected officials don't seem to want the input of Oakland and Alameda County's private sector. Otherwise, why have such a provision go 15 years without being implemented?

The operation of the Oakland Coliseum Complex raises a lot of questions, and another is this: why is documentation referring to "ongoing litigation" with the Golden State Warriors no longer available online?

Just another question.

Stay tuned. This is a mess.

Lafayette, CA Event: Empowering Women & Girls on May 24, Veteran's Memorial Hall

An email was sent to me announcing a very important event for the evening of May 24th:

Unfinished Business: Empowering Women & Girls on May 24, at the Veterans Memorial Hall in Lafayette at 3780 Mt. Diablo Blvd, from 7 PM to 9 PM.  RSVP at UnfinishedBusinessRSVP@gmail.com

Featuring Gina Otto (photo), bestselling author or Cassandra's Angel. Cassandra's Angel is about the stories we've been given by the people in our lives about who they think they should be....and dropping those stories to become who you were meant to be. The evening will be dedicated to discussing empowerment among women and girls, focusing on a process of mentorship and self expression as told in the book, to achieve personal growth and self esteem.

This program is open to all girls and women, but is also a really great Mother/Daughter event! Our mistress of ceremonies will be actress Nicole Ari Parker, (http://www.nicoleariparkeronline.com/) who in addition to her work on screen, has received the 2010 "Maverick Award" Women Empowering Women, and the 2010 "Renaissance Woman of the Year Award" from Collective Renaissance.

Nicole is the founder of Sophie's Voice Foundation, a 501c3 dedicated to research, education and eradicating Spinda Bifida, a preventable birth defect.

This will be an inspiring evening that will catalyze the attendees to become young girls and women of consequence.

The event is FREE and it would be a shame to have an empty seat in the house. Please share this with your friends, family and networks. Thank you for helping get the word out.

Please, take time to attend this very worthwhile event!

Lakeside Park at Lake Merritt in Oakland

Steve Mariucci at NFL Draft

Sam, Stephanie,and Courtney - masters of Bay To Breakers PR and media

John Russo: City Of Oakland "Morally Questionable"; Part One

As of June 13th, John Russo 'transforms' from Oakland City Attorney to Alameda County City Manager, under a five-year contract that immediately give the hope of stability to a small island town that's seen a lot of instability, with five interim executives over the last six years, alone. In moving across the Oakland Estuary, Russo ends a period of both living and working in Oakland that started when he was 28 years old; he's now 52 years old.

It also ends a long string of City of Oakland-related video interviews with this blogger, that totals 15 and together have been seen, as of this writing, 21,307 times.

The next video interview will be after June 13th, when Russo sits down as Alameda, California's CEO, or more normally called, City Manger.

But on Monday, Russo, in conversation that produced the 38-minute-plus, video, had a lot to say about why he's leaving Oakland. He was relaxed, especially since cases and office management c decisions now fall to his three chief deputies, Randy Hall, Barbara Parker, and Vicky Laden, who handle litigation, Oakland City Council matters, and personnel decisions, respectively.

On that Monday, they didn't need to check in with Russo, but he was on hand to provide advice, and to finish projects and prepare for his move to Alameda.

On The Decision To Leave: Mixed Feelings

Russo says he has "mixed feeling" about the decision to leave Oakland. Not that he's unhappy about it, but, as explained above, he's leaving Oakland professionally for the first time since he came here from St. Louis in 1987, and before than from Brooklyn, where he's from. I've known John since 1990, and his entire life has been devoted to Oakland, so this move's a huge deal, for him and for his supporters. Like me.

While I have had different feelings, Russo doesn't feel he was "pushed out," of Oakland as we talked about in the video. "There are some people who are opposed to the gang injunction, there are other people who are opposed to the Fed's position on pot farms," he said. "Which was not my position; it 3was the Fed's position. There are some people who are opposed to the gang injunction who have this fantasy that 'The voice of the people has spoken,' and I have left as a result. That's really an ignorant position on so many levels. But on a private level, I can tell you, it's totally not the case."

John says that contrary to the views of some the gang injunction ordinance, which sets up boundaries and cracks-down on targeted gangs in Oakland, is "very popular. Particularly in the neighborhoods where we are seeking them."

John says he's leaving because he has "strong fundamental legal disagreements with the new leadership. (Oakland Mayor Jean Quan) and those who are speaking most loudly at the Council. And because I have fundamental moral disagreements with the direction that this government is taking in dealing with the crises that face Oakland."

Why Russo Did Not Stay And Fight

As I said in the video, Russo could "throw a punch that would be a nuclear bomb." Russo could publicly call out Oakland officials, and, in the most extreme case, bring a lawsuit against his own government. (And Russo did not, I stress, NOT, offer those as options; that's strictly from me).

But he didn't do that.

"Yeah, there's no doubt, if I wanted to stay here, and wanted to do what some of those opponents of mine claim I'm doing, If I wanted to gum-up the works. Somebody in opposition to what the government was doing in this role, could bring the government to a dead halt. And on certain issues, believe me, I'd love to take a different posture than this government has taken," he said.

"I think it's ethically inappropriate, because the city attorney has to follow the policy of the Council. It doesn't mean we have to tell the council what they want to hear about the law, but we have to enforce the policy of the council," he said, and by extension, the administrative policy of the Mayor of Oakland.

Russo says he's not the right person for the job.

Russo says that Oakland's problems in public safety and finance are "gripping the city," and he's totally opposed to the debt-based solutions being considered. And he said "The directions that the government is moving now are morally...not..uhm... They are, I think, morally questionable, and I could no longer serve, ethically, as City Attorney..." Russo, struggling to find the right words, said.

That's part one; part two on Wednesday.

Ridoune Harroufi, Bay To Breakers winner, with Josh Muxen, Angela Fang, and Katie Harrar

Allison, Courtney, and Stephanie: Media PR Rock Stars

IMF's Dominique Strauss-Khan proves that having a big title does not mean you have common sense.
Married dude accused of rape.

One day after The Zazzle Bay To Breakers, that he was not in but holds the record for Samuel Wanjiru dies at 24. b2b100

Bay to Breakers winners with Angela Fang

More runners coming in from Bay To Breakers

Lineth Chepkurui with KRON's Vern Glenn after Bay To Breakers

Lineth Chepkurui beat Mamitu Daska in Zazzle Bay To Breakers by 1 second

Lineth Chepkurui and Ridouane Harroufi win 2011 Bay To Breakers. Harroufi first non Kenyan to win in 20 years

Bay To Breakers finish line

Bay To Breakers finish line...waiting...

Bay To Breakers we pass Sharon Meadow in Golden Gate Park

Bay To Breakers mile mark 5

Bay to Breakers at top of Hayes Street Hill

Bay To Breakers security

Bay To Breakers elite runners warming up.

Bay to Breakers start line!

Vern Glenn and Officer Carcelen

Waiting for porto potties at Bay To Breakers

Zennie62Media on the Red Carpet At Night Of 100 Stars Oscar Party

AT&T Fraudulently Shoves DIRECTV Cutomer To U-Verse; Forget T-Mobile

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson has to take care of his current customers and stop some really disturbing practices before AT&T takes over T-Mobile.

Given what happened to this blogger today, God forbid any T-Mobile user that winds up in the clutches of AT&T.

There's evidence that AT&T tries to fraudulently push customers into buying their U-Verse television service and it comes in the form of this blogger's experience, which ended - for now - just seven minutes ago.

It started when I called to order AT&T High Speed Internet service on Wednesday of this week (May 11th). The AT&T agent who took my call and set up my order, Chrissy, said that I was in an area "Where they're targeting AT&T U-Verse for service."

I told her that I had (and have) DIRECTV and was happy with it. I didn't want AT&T U-Verse, and asked her not to add it.

After that was done, Chrissy was to call me back at 1:30 PM PST to finalize the order on Thursday. It was to cost $250, including the set up fee. Fine.

But then she never called back at the time she asked for; I wanted 2 PM.

So, wanting a faster Internet service set up ASAP, I called today, this afternoon, to learn what happened to the call back I was expecting and to get the order done.

I end up talking to an AT&T agent named "Rosalind." This was at 6:45 PM, or about less than an hour ago from now. She was asking questions as if she was about to do the order all over again; I asked her not to do that, and said "Just look at your notes. It's all there."

Rosalind said she found the account information and my order. She then, in claiming she wanted to make sure I got the right price, asked me what connection I wanted. I told her "it's all there." She said "I'm just making sure that you get the right price."

So, she set up a price that was $315 but with me paying $100. That didn't seem correct compared to what I had originally ordered, but thinking that I may have forgot something, went ahead with the order.

Remember that I never said I wanted AT&T U-Verse. I have DIRECTV and like it. I just need high-speed Internet service.

So, I copy my account number down and store it. Then, an email pops up informing me that I ordered, you guessed it, AT&T U-Verse.

I hit the ceiling.

So, I immediately called back and got some AT&T agent who acted like he didn't understand what I was saying. So, rather than waste time with him, I asked for his supervisor.

The supervisor, named "Darby" and with the employee number NR8576 (or so he says), said that "You'll have to call cancellation department, but they're closed as it's past business hours."

I asked why Rosalind could take up the issue of completing my account and taking my money, but he could not change the order? He said there was nothing he could do.

I don't believe it.

He did offer the customer service number, and of course, the recording said it was closed. Personally, it's a total shame the local governments don't allow more Internet service provider competition so the choices are broader than AT&T and Comcast. In fact, the current environment should be illegal.

But what is illegal, is the bait-and-switch tactic that AT&T is employing.

But apparently, both AT&T and DIRECTV are practicing such an activity according to the quick Google search I conducted. Looking up "u-verse, directv, bait and switch," I found a slew of results, but of the list on the first page, the majority (6 of 10) were against AT&T, and for a pricing practice that causes U-verse customers to be charged for more than what was printed on their plan statement.

Regardless of the way the bait-and-switch happens, it's not right. It's a practice that must stop.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson must place this at the top of his agenda, even over his visit to Capital Hill in Washington, this week.

SF Public Defender Jeff Adachi Has Video, Alledges SF Police Misconduct

SF Public Defender Jeff Adachi With Fernado Santana, a photo by zennie62 on Flickr.

In a press conference today, San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi showed a series of videos that, his office holds, shows the San Francisco Police Department conducting illegal searches and committing police brutality.

This is the second time in three months the San Francisco Public Defender has stepped forward with video showing SFPD misconduct. The first time resulted in a still-ongoing Federal investigation.

Mr. Adachi's department has provided this blogger with the videos, which were segmented. They are, as this is written, being put into sequential order to run as one video. That video will be ready this afternoon.

Adachi, along with his Chief Attorney, Matt Gonzalez, called for a zero-tolerance policy for police officers who commit perjury in San Francisco.

As to what happened, on December 30th, four San Francisco police officers - Ricardo Guerrero, Peter Richardson, Robert Sanchez, and Sergeant Kevin Healy - entered the residential hotel called The Jefferson Hotel. They were in plain clothes, without badges, and looked like, "thugs" to quote a person at the scene.

There, they illegally (without a warrant) searched the room of 48-year-old Fernando Santana, and in the process, they say, stole his property.

The officers claimed that crack cocaine was in his hands, outstretched, but the video shows Santana's hands in his pockets.

A bystander named "Joe," walked up to see what was going on. As the video shows, officers Ricardo Guerrero and Peter Richardson race to catch the man, after he realized he was going to be beaten up, as he believed. Remember, and he told this blogger, he did not know they were cops.

They caught him,and as the video shows, roughed him up and at one point choked him. They searches him and found nothing. The police report does not go into detail, calling it a brief "detention."

The main problem for the SFPD is explaining why Guerrero walked out of Santana's room with a black duffel bag. The bag was never booked as evidence.

Also, Guerrero found Santana not after "seeing him conducting a narcotics transaction" but after "casing the joint" that is the hotel, going from floor to floor, looking for trouble, armed with a residential master key that allows him to just walk into any room of the building.

This is the latest in a string of incidents where videos show a reality different that what is in the SF police reports.

Stay tuned.

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@YouTube must block use of the N-Word in the comments of videos. It is out of hand.

Recalling an excellent salmon salad at the Capital Grill across Broadway and 1/2 down 50th from Radio City in NYC

Microsoft Acquires Skype for 8 billion! I remember when Skype was a small startup with a handful of users.

United Airlines B Concourse photo