Food
Friday, May 10, 2013
Friday Must Reads: Consultants Criticize OPD’s Failure to Investigate Crimes; Berkeley Schools Slash Acclaimed Cooking and Gardening Program
Law Enforcement & Crime / Food / Education Robert Gammon — Fri, May 10, 2013 at 6:56 AM
Stories you shouldn’t miss:
1. A team of high-priced consultants, led by William Bratton, the former head of the New York and Los Angeles police departments, criticized OPD’s failure to adequately investigate crimes — a problem that has plagued the department for years. Bratton’s team issued a set of recommendations that it promised would reduce crime in the city, calling on OPD to beef up its investigative units and assign detectives to cover smaller areas of the city. As the Express has repeatedly reported, OPD has one of the worst records for solving crime in the nation.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Wednesday Must Read: Assault Weapons Ban Is Dead; Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s Won’t Sell Genetically Modified Salmon
Law Enforcement & Crime / Food / Health & Medicine Robert Gammon — Wed, Mar 20, 2013 at 9:55 AM
Stories you shouldn’t miss:
1. Dianne Feinstein’s proposal for a federal ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines has died in the US Senate, the Chron reports. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told Feinstein last night that he would not bring the proposed ban to the Senate floor because it doesn’t have enough votes to pass. Republicans, who are united in their opposition to the proposed ban, have been joined by conservative, pro-gun Democrats in red states. Reid, however, is pushing forward with a proposal to mandate universal background checks on gun purchases nationwide.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Wednesday Must Read: Berkeley Rents Skyrocket; Proposed Law Would Let Bars Stay Open to 4 a.m.
Politics / Business / Food Robert Gammon — Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 9:59 AM
Stories you shouldn’t miss:
1. Rents have jumped sharply in Berkeley as people are outbidding each other for access to a limited supply of housing, the Trib reports. The median rent for a two-bedroom in the city was $1,850 in the final quarter of 2012, up 8.8 percent from the year before. The median rent for a one-bedroom was $1,325, an increase of 6 percent from 2011. As we noted in this week’s cover story, some anti-growth activists in Berkeley have been using the state’s primary environmental law to block the construction of new housing in the city.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Eating Fruits and Vegetables May Reduce Harm from Air Pollution
Food / Health & Medicine / Environment Virginia T. Guidry of Environmental Health News — Mon, Aug 13, 2012 at 7:06 AM
Eat your fruits and vegetables, especially if you have chronic respiratory ailments. A study of adults with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) found that those with lower levels of certain antioxidants in their blood were more vulnerable to the harmful effects of air pollution. Air pollution can aggravate both asthma and COPD, producing symptoms that can be strong enough to lead to hospitalization. This study is important because it indicates that a healthy diet including fruits and vegetables may protect against the common health threat of air pollution.
Friday, August 10, 2012
State Health Officials Say Avoid Eating Oysters from Farm Backed by Dianne Feinstein
Breaking News / Food / Health & Medicine Robert Gammon — Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 5:19 PM
The California Department of Health is warning consumers not to eat oysters from Drakes Bay Oyster Company, because they may contain bacteria that causes serious illness. Drakes Bay Oyster Company is the same business that's been locked in a nasty dispute with the National Park Service over its oyster farm at Point Reyes National Seashore. As the Express has reported, US Senator Dianne Feinstein is a strong backer of the oyster farm and wants the federal government to extend its lease at Drakes Estero in Point Reyes — a move that would be unprecedented because Drakes Estero has been designated by Congress to become the first marine wilderness on the West Coast.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Wednesday Must Read: Occupy Protests Move to Foreclosed Homes; New Study Confirms that Cannabis Relieves Pain
Food / Health & Medicine / Occupy Robert Gammon — Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 6:59 AM
Stories you shouldn’t miss:
1. Occupy protesters shifted their focus to foreclosures yesterday, as demonstrators throughout the nation, including Oakland, helped those who have lost their homes to re-occupy them, the Chron reports. The Occupy Our Homes demonstrations also included protests at banks and foreclosure auctions on the county courthouse steps. So far, the Obama administration’s feeble attempts to help homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages avoid foreclosure have failed.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Only One More Day to Vote in Our Bars, Clubs, and Coffeehouses Survey!
Food Ellen Cushing — Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 10:22 AM
Show your favorite local bars, clubs, and coffeehouses some love in our second-annual survey, the results of which will be published in a special issue next week. N.B., THERE ARE PRIZES. Specifically, you could win $250 in gift certificates to a handful of local bars — that is approximately one million beers, free of charge, just for you. Polls close tomorrow at noon; scoot on over here to get the proverbial party started.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Oakland Takes First Step Toward Embracing Urban Agriculture
Food Nate Seltenrich — Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 10:23 AM
At last night's city planning commission meeting, Oakland quietly took its first steps toward allowing commercial urban agriculture on private land. Tucked amidst a packed agenda featuring fifteen separate items was a provision to amend the city's Planning Code to allow crop-growing as a home occupation — meaning it would be legal to sell produce grown on private residential land, provided the activity did not result in noise, traffic, or smell nuisances. Three members of the public delivered opinions, all in favor, and the planning commission issued its stamp of approval and moved the item along to city council.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Mushroom-Kit Makers Expand to Huge West Oakland Warehouse
Food Nate Seltenrich — Tue, May 31, 2011 at 1:42 PM
Imagine growing a mushroom from used coffee grounds. Alejandro Velez and Nikhil Arora did just that as Cal undergrads in 2009, experimenting with the procedure in their fraternity house kitchen, and it worked well enough to inspire them to launch a company. Two years later, Back to the Roots’ business selling organic oyster mushroom-growing kits to home consumers is growing quickly, and thanks to a $50,000 grant from MillerCoors, it recently moved from its cramped Emeryville quarters to a 10,000 square-foot warehouse on Adeline Street in West Oakland.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Plum: A New Heavyweight Contender on the Local Brunch Circuit
Food Luke Tsai — Tue, May 17, 2011 at 8:59 AM
Daniel Patterson’s Oakland outpost, Plum, is the latest local gastronomic darling to turn the attentions of its talented chefs — to say nothing of its sous vide immersion circulators and Pacojets — toward that most maligned of meals: the weekend brunch.
Anthony Bourdain, that curmudgeon of the culinary world, has written that restaurant brunches are “a dumping ground for the odd bits left over from Friday and Saturday nights” and “punishment block for the B-Team cooks.” Fortunately, the Bay Area is chock full of restaurants that fly in the face of that kind of thinking — Canteen in San Francisco and Oakland’s Camino immediately come to mind. And at Plum, where Chef Charlie Parker has been heading up the kitchen since December, the brunch menu is just two weeks old and perhaps a work in progress. But the food, already, verges on magical.
