Business
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Tuesday Must Reads: Oakland Goes Green to Fight Crime; State to Nearly Triple the Number of Refinery Inspectors
Business / Law Enforcement & Crime / Environment Robert Gammon — Tue, Jun 18, 2013 at 6:51 AM
Stories you shouldn’t miss:
1. Oakland has begun to replace all 30,000 streetlights in the city with energy-efficient LED bulbs that also could help lower the city’s crime rate because they improve nighttime visibility, the Chron$ reports. The LED lights are 40 percent to 60 percent more efficient than traditional high-pressure sodium bulbs, and city staffers say the energy savings will not only finance the $14.4 million project, but also will save the city an additional $7.7 million over fifteen years. The city also will receive a $2.9 million rebate from PG&E. In addition, city leaders hope that better lighting will result in less crime on Oakland streets.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Tuesday Must Reads: Oakland Schools to Get More Money from State Budget; Apple Agrees to Put Kill Switch in iPhones
Business / Law Enforcement & Crime / Education Robert Gammon — Tue, Jun 11, 2013 at 6:49 AM
Stories you shouldn’t miss:
1. Oakland public schools will receive a funding boost next year under a budget deal reached by Governor Jerry Brown and state legislative leaders yesterday. The Mercury News reports that the deal includes the governor’s proposal to direct more money to schools — like those in Oakland — with high numbers of students from low-income families. The deal also calls for increased spending on social service programs for the poor — a provision that state Democratic lawmakers had pushed for.
Friday, June 7, 2013
NLRB Rules in Favor of Oakland Airport Workers
Politics / Business Shane Bond — Fri, Jun 7, 2013 at 10:23 AM
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has found that multiple restaurants at Oakland International Airport violated federal labor laws, including firing employees for trying to organize a union, interrogating workers about union activities, and cutting the hours of union employees.
Friday Must Reads: Oakland-East Bay Housing Market Is the Hottest Nationwide; The Future of First Fridays Is in Doubt
Art / Business / Education Robert Gammon — Fri, Jun 7, 2013 at 6:49 AM
Stories you shouldn’t miss:
1. A new report reveals that the Oakland-East Bay area is the hottest housing market in the country, the San Francisco Business Times reports. Home prices skyrocketed by 31.2 percent here in the past year — by far the largest increase nationwide. Real estate experts attribute the huge jump to a lack of inventory: There just aren’t enough homes for sale to meet the demand. San Jose ranked second in the nation with a 23.2 percent increase in home prices and San Francisco ranked fourth with a 19.6 percent jump.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Thursday Must Reads: Obama Administration Collects Verizon Phone Records; Costco Frozen Organic Berries Cause Hepatitis A Outbreak
Business / Law Enforcement & Crime / Health & Medicine Robert Gammon — Thu, Jun 6, 2013 at 7:06 AM
Stories you shouldn’t miss:
1. The National Security Agency has been collecting all phone records from Verizon, the Guardian reports, citing a federal warrant that the newspaper obtained. The warrant, approved by the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, shows that the Obama administration is currently collecting the phone records of all of Verizon’s customers regardless of whether they are suspected of wrongdoing, including the phone numbers they call, where they’re making calls, and the time of the calls and their duration — but not the actual phone conversations. Both the White House and Verizon declined to comment but civil libertarians are expressing outrage.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Wednesday Must Reads: Oakland City Unions Schedule Strike Vote; NorCal Farms Struggle to Meet Demand for Rabbits
Politics / Business / Food Robert Gammon — Wed, Jun 5, 2013 at 6:58 AM
Stories you shouldn’t miss:
1. The City of Oakland’s two largest unions — SEIU, Local 1021 and IFTPE, Local 21 — have scheduled strike-authorization votes for early next week in protest over Mayor Jean Quan’s budget proposal, which includes no pay increases. The Trib reports that the unions believe Quan and City Administrator Deanna Santana have greatly underestimated the city’s projected tax revenues for the next two years, as Oakland’s economy continues to rebound. The strike votes would give the unions more leverage at the bargaining table and would authorize leaders to call for a strike should negotiations with Quan’s administration fail to produce a deal. The unions last went on strike in 1946.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Thursday Must Reads: Oakland Council Adopts Transparency Rules for Budget; Berkeley Picks Hayward Supe to be Its New Schools Chief
Politics / Business / Education Robert Gammon — Thu, May 23, 2013 at 7:03 AM
Stories you shouldn’t miss:
1. The Oakland City Council has adopted new rules that would prohibit last-minute budget proposals that the public has not had a chance to review, the Trib reports. The new rules are designed to improve transparency for the city’s budget approval process, and prevent a repeat of recent years in which councilmembers introduced major budget revisions on the night they needed to be approved under city law, thereby giving the public no chance to analyze them. Under the new regulations, proposals must be made at least three days before the meeting in which the budget must be adopted. Councilmembers Larry Reid and Desley Brooks voted against the new rules.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Wednesday Must Reads: Badly Designed Bolts on Richmond Bridge, Too; Santa Clara to Host Super Bowl
Business / Sports / Transportation Robert Gammon — Wed, May 22, 2013 at 7:02 AM
Stories you shouldn’t miss:
1. Caltrans used the same type of badly designed steel rods that have snapped on the new Bay Bridge in its retrofit of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge a decade ago, the Chron$ reports, citing newly released agency documents. Two years before the Richmond Bridge project, Caltrans had banned the use of such high-strength rods on bridges because the bolts can become brittle and snap in an earthquake. But the agency decided to use the bolts anyway on the Bay Bridge, too, after its main supplier, Dyson Corporation, pointed to their use on the Richmond Bridge. However, experts note that the bolts on the Richmond Bridge are much less likely to fail because they are not under the same intense pressure as they are the new Bay Bridge.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
How the IRS’s Nonprofit Division Got So Dysfunctional
Politics / Business Kim Barker and Justin Elliott of ProPublica — Sun, May 19, 2013 at 7:14 AM
The IRS division responsible for flagging Tea Party groups has long been an agency afterthought, beset by mismanagement, financial constraints and an unwillingness to spell out just what it expects from social welfare nonprofits, former officials and experts say. The controversy that erupted in the past week, leading to the ousting of the acting Internal Revenue Service commissioner, an investigation by the FBI, and congressional hearings that kicked off Friday, comes against a backdrop of dysfunction brewing for years.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Thursday Must Reads: Bay Area Housing Market Remains Red Hot; Oakland Council Shelves Plan to Audit the City Auditor
Politics / Business / Environment Robert Gammon — Thu, May 16, 2013 at 7:01 AM
Stories you shouldn’t miss:
1. The Bay Area housing market remained red hot in April, as the median home sales price soared to $510,000 — its highest point in five years and a 30.8 jump over the same month a year ago, the Chron$ reports. A relatively small number of homes on the market are continuing to spark fierce bidding wars. However, the region’s median home price is still short of its peak of $650,000 in the summer of 2007. The low point was $375,000 in March 2009 during the height of the foreclosure crisis.
