.Waste Management to pay $7.9 million in Oakland trash dispute

Waste Management, Oakland’s trash hauler, has agreed to pay $7.9 million to settle a lawsuit the city filed during last year’s garbage lockout, according to the Oakland Tribune and the San Francisco Chronicle. The deal marked another victory for Mayor Ron Dellums, following a string of recent accomplishments. Last week, the City Council unanimously approved his plan for beefing up the city’s police department and agreed to protect most of the city’s industrial land as he requested. Last summer, the mayor brokered an end to the nasty garbage lockout in what was widely viewed as his first major accomplishment since taking office in January 2007.