Free Republic

OAKLAND -- Eight candidates are vying to replace disgraced ex-Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer including three veteran city politicians and Lockyer's predecessor Gail Steele. The major names in addition to Steele are Union City Mayor Mark Green, who also is running for State Assembly; former Union City Councilman Richard Valle, who also is running to be that city's mayor; and Newark Councilwoman Ana Apodaca, who lost a mayoral bid last year. County supervisors next month are scheduled to appoint Lockyer's successor, who will serve through the November general election, when voters in Hayward, Union City, Newark, Sunol and north Fremont...

Remember when First Lady Michelle Obama stopped by Alameda a few months back, to participate in a commissioning ceremony for a new Coast Guard cutter she sponsored? Well, it turns out the brand-new, half-billion dollar cutter has sprung a few leaks. The Associated Press is reporting that the Dorothy Stratton, one of three massive national security vessels homeported in Alameda, has a trio of “pinholes” and a fourth hole that’s about the size of a golf ball in its hull.

The ex-lover whom former Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer had accused of attacking her Feb. 3 in a Newark hotel room won't face criminal charges, the state Justice Department announced Friday. Communications director Shum Preston said the department "has thoroughly reviewed the matter referred to us by the Alameda County District Attorney's office regarding the Feb. 3 incident at a Newark hotel involving Nadia Lockyer. After reviewing the evidence, the department has determined that it will not file charges." No further details were available, Preston said. Nadia Lockyer resigned her supervisorial seat last week, months after the Feb. 3 brought...

It's easy to dismiss the dramatic fall of Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer as the failings of an addict. But it was much more than that. A system - our political system - created her. Our political system allows one person, like state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, to run for a statewide office, collect millions of dollars in donations and then bestow those funds like a kingmaker in lower-level races - like a county supervisor's race. Our system here in Alameda County allows one party - the Democratic Party - to declare for the rest of us who should be in...

Last month, we told you about the sex/drugs/beating/cheating/porning scandal surrounding the daughter of Santa Ana community activism royalty and wife of California Democratic politics royalty. This weekend, it was not only reported that the scandal led to Nadia Maria Davis-Lockyer's resignation as an Alameda County supervisor but an eye-opening interview where the 41-year-old claimed state Treasurer Bill Lockyer angrily told her to "go ahead and commit suicide" and her rehab lover "bashed my head into the stone floor."The seventh child of the late Wallace R. Davis, one of Santa Ana's first Latino lawyers to stand up for immigrants, Nadia Maria...

It's painful watching the Lockyer family drama spin out of control. The alcoholic 40-year-old Alameda County supervisor, who is also battling drug addiction, checks in and out of rehab, then continues to behave erratically like a typical substance abuser. The codependent 70-year-old elected treasurer of the nation's largest state risks his four-decade political legacy trying to preserve a marriage to a woman who cheated on him with a methamphetamine addict. Then there's their young son, who was dragged along with his mother to the Newark motel where she says her lover beat her up. These folks need help. None of...

John Burton was well on his way to becoming a political icon when he resigned from Congress in 1982 to battle an alcohol and cocaine addiction, but he won't deign to say Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer should follow his example and step down. As a politician who famously climbed back into the public arena, Burton said Friday that whether an addict is a street-sweeper, a county supervisor or the president of the United States, you don't get well until you commit to getting well. Whatever comes next is "her decision," Burton said of Lockyer. "The only person who can...

More drama involving Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer - this time concerning an e-mail from her Web address that was sent to the San Jose Mercury News suggesting she was in serious distress and blaming her husband, state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, for hooking her on drugs. After receiving the e-mail Wednesday, the Mercury News called police in Hayward, where officers and paramedics were promptly dispatched to the Lockyers' home to check on her. According to law enforcement and other sources, Nadia Lockyer insisted she was fine and denied sending the e-mail. However, she did tell a Mercury News reporter who...

The tragic unraveling of Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer took a disturbing turn this week when a message from her personal email account landed in a reporter's in-box: Her husband, California's Treasurer Bill Lockyer, the message claimed, bought and gave her drugs years before she met her drug-addicted former lover. . In an apparent call for help, the message also said she could no longer stand the torture and harassment of the ex-lover who she says beat her in a motel room two months ago. "I simply can't bear this any longer,'' the email said. "Goodbye to everyone.'' Fearing for...

A 12-year legal battle over an Alameda County ban on gun shows on public property may end with a soft pop instead of a bang. With a scathing dissent from the chief judge, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday ordered county lawyers and gun show promoters Russell and Sally Nordyke into settlement talks to resolve a case that was expected to break new ground in Second Amendment law. The brief order, signed by nine judges, would leave unresolved questions about the constitutionality of local laws banning gun shows on government property. The 9th Circuit order was prompted...

Despite a trip to rehab and an ongoing investigation into her accusation that she was assaulted by an ex-boyfriend in a Newark hotel room, Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer allegedly has continued to contact her former lover, Stephen Chikhani. Most recently, she supposedly left him a voice mail message declaring, "Miss you beside me." According to a source familiar with the recording, Lockyer made the nine-second call to Chikhani just 10 days ago at 4:59 a.m. on March 25.The message is among the audio recordings turned over to the state attorney general by Chikhani's lawyer."I just want the attorney general's...

"All governments lie," the late muckraker I.F. "Izzy" Stone used to preach. Let's add this: They also deny. Denial of access is a government lie in and of itself -- especially when a bureaucrat tells the public it has no right to view the writings of top officials, particularly when those officials are in trouble. A pair of recent controversies shows how quickly governments become recalcitrant for fear of embarrassment, denying access to information that may further public understanding and full accountability. In one, lawyers have denied access to records involving a California power couple, state Treasurer Bill Lockyer and...

Sobering photographs of her bruised forehead and neck, new text messages of a tempestuous affair and a police report of a volatile marriage all emerged this week, adding new layers of recklessness and despair to the public fall of Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer. In her first descriptions of the night that made her private troubles public, Lockyer told this newspaper this week through a series of emails that she was "violently assaulted" at a Newark hotel by her ex-lover, Stephen Chikhani, who sent text messages trying to woo her back. "I'll have the room warm candles lit and I'll...

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- Embattled Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer made her first public appearance Tuesday since returning from drug rehabilitation. Lockyer attended Tuesday's regularly scheduled supervisors meeting. She returned to work last week after treatment for alcohol abuse, which followed her claim that she was assaulted by her ex-boyfriend...

Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer is lying when she says she visited ex-lover Stephen Chikhani in jail last summer in her professional capacity as an lawyer, Chikhani's attorney said Wednesday. "I know she signed in as a lawyer, but they were not legal visits," said attorney Adrienne Dell, of San Jose. "She definitely abused that; there's no question in my mind. They were still in a relationship." The Bay Area News Group's public-records request uncovered jail logs denoting two of Lockyer's visits to Chikhani in Santa Clara County's Elmwood jail in Milpitas, on June 15 and June 22, 2011. Dell...

A little more than a month after enrolling in a substance-abuse program following a violent clash with an ex-boyfriend in a Newark hotel, Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer unexpectedly showed up for work Tuesday at a board retreat - and stepped right back into a controversy. Her husband, state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, accompanied her to the Alameda County Conference Center in downtown Oakland and returned later in the day to pick her up. The supervisor's return, however, was marred by a new report that she had visited her ex-boyfriend, Stephen Chikhani, three times last summer while he was in lockup...

Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer visited her ex-lover in a Santa Clara County jail twice last year and signed in as his lawyer, allowing her to see him more privately and for a longer time than if she were a friend or family member. Lockyer faced questions from the Bay Area News Group -- which learned about the visits through a public-records request -- when she returned to work Tuesday, more than a month after announcing she was entering rehabilitation for an undisclosed addiction following an purported assault by the former lover in a Newark hotel room. "His dad asked...

Success in life is a wonderful thing, but it's always sweeter when you earn it. Nadia Lockyer, an Alameda County supervisor currently enrolled in a substance abuse treatment program, has yet to earn the success she has enjoyed in the political world. The goodwill that's been extended to her by voters, colleagues and employers, and even her annual $143,000 salary, seem more like an honorarium paid on behalf of her husband, state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, one of the state's most powerful Democrats. Supervisor Lockyer has attended only 17 of the 31 board meetings held since she took office in January...

To understand why state Treasurer Bill Lockyer is considered such a heavyweight in East Bay politics, look no further than the $1.7 million he pumped into his wife's 2010 campaign for the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. In a spending spree that shattered all records for the board, Nadia Lockyer - now embroiled in a sex and substance-abuse scandal - spent more than 40 times what her predecessor, Gail Steele, spent in any single campaign for the south county seat in nearly two decades in office.The $1.7 million from Bill Lockyer's campaign fund obliterated any chance his wife's election rival...

In the past week, producers for "Inside Edition" and the "Dr. Phil" show have reached out to state Treasurer Bill Lockyer. They were not asking about his $1.9 billion refinance of state bond debt. Lockyer, a 70-year-old elder statesman of Capitol politics, finds himself mired in personal controversy and the subject of media attention after his wife said she was injured in a violent assault and acknowledged undergoing treatment for chemical dependency. The latest twist: She also made a sex tape with the methamphetamine user she says attacked her, a development reported by the San Francisco Chronicle and confirmed by...

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – State Treasurer Bill Lockyer, a fixture in the capital for 40 years, is at the center of an emerging sex scandal between his wife, who’s an Alameda County supervisor, and another man. The San Francisco Chronicle reports Treasurer Lockyer was sent a sex tape of his wife with the man. Thinking he was being blackmailed, Lockyer called the Alameda DA to his wife a stay-away order imposed against the man, identified by the Chronicle as 35-year-old Stephen Chikhani, a construction worker from San Jose. But the DA’s investigation concluded her relationship with the man was consensual and...

<p>The man at the center of the sex and substance-abuse scandal engulfing Nadia Lockyer is "not a stalker" and never assaulted the Alameda County supervisor, contrary to what her state treasurer husband has told the press.</p> <p>That was the assertion Tuesday of Adrienne Dell, the attorney representing Stephen Chikhani in a recent arrest for allegedly being under the influence of methamphetamine.</p>

The man at the center of the drug-infused, sex-laced scandal that has rocked the political careers and shaky marriage of state Treasurer Bill Lockyer and his wife, Nadia, strode into a San Jose courtroom Tuesday, his hair slick, his shirt untucked and told a reporter, "There's a way bigger story than the sex tapes." Before he had a chance to explain much more, his private defense attorney interrupted: "Do you want me to be your lawyer?" It was Adrienne Dell, a no-nonsense lawyer in a St. John Knit, telling him to clam up. Stephen Chikhani, 35, with wraparound dark glasses...

There's a shocking twist in the saga of Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer and the incident at a Newark hotel that landed her in the hospital and a male acquaintance under police scrutiny. We're told that a sex tape of Nadia Lockyer and the man was given to her husband, state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, about six weeks before the Newark incident. The treasurer believed that the man, who has a history of arrests for alleged methamphetamine use, might make the tape public if forced to break off a romantic relationship with the supervisor.Here's the story, as we've pieced it together...

One of the disturbing revelations about the evolving Nadia Lockyer case involve the timing and circumstance of her introduction to a man accused of assaulting her. Matier & Ross have quoted sources as saying that Lockyer met the man, who has a long history of methamphetamine arrests, at a drug rehabilitation program in 2010 - the same year she was elected to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. The possibility that Lockyer had a serious enough substance-abuse problem to merit treatment raises unsettling questions for the benefactor whose connections and contributions made her election possible: state Treasurer Bill Lockyer. Namely:...

A husband and wife who headed an antipoverty program in Alameda County were indicted Tuesday for allegedly misusing more than $200,000 in taxpayer money, which prosecutors say they spent on travel, meals and home repairs. Nanette Dillard, who headed the Associated Community Action Program, and her husband, Paul Daniels, the program's former grant administrator, were charged with one count each of grand theft, conspiracy and crime by a public officer. Although the couple are charged with misspending $200,000, "the final bill" was probably in the neighborhood of $1.5 million, said Robert Lieber, an Albany city councilman and former chairman of...

The man described as the ex-boyfriend who allegedly assaulted Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer at a Newark hotel two weeks ago has a history of methamphetamine arrests dating back 15 years and is facing drug charges in a separate case in San Jose, law enforcement records show. The 35-year-old San Jose resident is the focus of the investigation into the possible battering of Lockyer, wife of state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, at the Homewood Suites on Cedar Boulevard early Feb. 3, according to Newark police. We're withholding his name because he has not been arrested. Nadia Lockyer said last week that...

At 2:40 a.m. Feb. 3, police in Newark responded to a 911 call from the Homewood Suites Motel. A distraught woman said she had been attacked by an ex-boyfriend. Her head and neck injuries required medical treatment. Sounds like your classic domestic violence complaint. Only, the victim was Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer. Lockyer is married to state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, 70, who has been prominent in state politics for four decades. His wife, 40, is viewed as a rising star. Which makes this one hot political mess. The incident had been hush-hush until a report appeared last Sunday in...

Over the years, Bill and Nadia Lockyer's neighbors watched the couple walk their young son up and down their Hayward street at Christmastime, admiring the festive lights. The image of this political power couple seemed as perfect as a campaign commercial. Everything seemed "hunky-dory" between the 70-year-old state treasurer and the 40-year-old Alameda County supervisor, said neighbor Stephen Welch. "He seemed happy. She seemed happy. I've never seen conflict or strife or anything," he said. But this week, after stories emerged of Nadia Lockyer's substance abuse, extramarital affair and alleged beating by a former lover in a Newark motel room,...

Just days after a mysterious incident in which she was reportedly attacked at a Newark motel by an ex-boyfriend, Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer said Tuesday that she has enrolled in a program to be treated for chemical dependency. Lockyer, 40, the wife of state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, said in a statement that she entered a “wellness and recovery center” last week for treatment of the unspecified chemical dependency and “my injuries from the assault.”She also said she was being treated for “chronic pain from a past debilitating car accident,” without giving specifics.“Alcoholism and addiction are diseases from which many...

A federal appeals court on Monday once again decided to weigh in on an epic 12-year-old gun rights showdown over an Alameda County ordinance banning guns and ammunition on public property. In a brief order, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to rehear a legal challenge to the 1999 law, which restricts gun shows on county property, including Alameda County's fairgrounds. The order, which calls for an 11-judge 9th Circuit panel to hear the case, wipes out a ruling last May by three 9th Circuit judges who unanimously agreed to uphold the legality of the ordinance.

An Alameda County medical marijuana patient is reeling after sheriffs raided his garden and threatened to kill his pet dog today. Jason Rivera, a paraplegic who suffers severe chronic pain, was detained by sheriffs presenting a warrant at his recording studio. The warrant was based on the tip of an anonymous informant, said Rivera, recounting the statements of deputies on the scene. As sheriffs executed the warrant at the studio, one asked Rivera about searching his home. Rivera says the deputy threatened to kill his dog if he didn't cooperate. "We can do this the easy way and you can...

Chefs at the Alameda County Fair will attempt to grill a 625 pound hamburger on July 2. They'll cook up the gigantic ground beef patty on the world's largest barbeque. It will contain a whopping 1,375,000 calories and will be served up in 99 cent bites.

When a fully clothed, apparently suicidal man walked into the San Francisco Bay from Shoreline Drive, in Alamdea County, all the would-be rescuers could do was watch. For about an hour. Why their boots stayed dry is a matter of debate Wednesday, the day after 57-year-old Raymond Zack was pronounced dead at an Alameda County hospital. The water's depth and temperature may have played a role. As did budget cuts. The Alameda Fire Department's water rescue program was discontinued in 2009 because of budget cuts. "(The) Alameda Fire Department does not currently have, and is not certified, in land-based water...

OAKLAND -- An Alameda County court panel has overturned an anti-abortion pastor's convictions for illegally approaching patients outside an Oakland clinic, saying a judge's flawed instructions could have allowed jurors to find him guilty for conduct that was legal. Walter Hoye of Union City, a pastor at a Berkeley church, was the first person convicted under a 2008 Oakland ordinance that created an 8-foot "bubble" around patients entering reproductive health clinics. The law prohibited knowingly entering that zone to harass a client or offer counseling without the person's consent.A Superior Court judge sentenced Hoye to 30 days in jail in...

Alameda, an island long resistant to growth, threw a warm embrace around an unlikely suitor last year. The Southern California developer SunCal Companies proposed to build thousands of homes, sports fields, offices and a ferry terminal on 770 acres of a decommissioned naval base. The project promised to transform the island city, and its leaders lined up in support. City Manager Ann Marie Gallant and her staff homed in on the fine print of the ballot initiative. Their report raised concerns about an annual $4.8 million hit to the city’s general fund for city services; breaks on more than $82...

Victoria Kolakowski, who's running for Alameda Count Superior Court judge in a November runoff election, declares on her campaign Web site that she hopes to make history."If I am elected, I would be the first openly LGBT superior court judge elected in Alameda County, the first openly LGBT person elected countywide, and the first transgender trial court judge in the United States," it states. The question is how much it should matter. Kolakowski, 48, transitioned from male to female in 1989 during her last year in law school and had sex reassignment surgery in 1991. She has 21 years of...

Alameda voters embark today on a monthlong, mail-only election to decide whether taxes will be raised to support public schools. Both sides describe the outcome as Armageddon for the quiet island city. Measure E is a parcel tax that would give Alameda some of the highest school taxes in the Bay Area: Homeowners would pay $659 a year and business owners would owe up to $9,500 annually per parcel. If it passes, many small business owners, already struggling with the recession, say they'll be forced to close, stripping Alameda of its mom-and-pop charm. If the measure fails, the district's superintendent...

A dangerous dog and the people who allegedly helped break into the Alameda Animal Shelter and sprung him from doggie death row are all in police custody. Max the pit bull's 57-year-old owner was arrested Thursday on suspicion of stealing the dog from the shelter, Alameda police said. Max had been declared a dangerous dog and was condemned to death after biting two people. Richard Cochran was arrested on suspicion of burglary and conspiracy. He told investigators that he planned to steal the pit bull with his girlfriend, Melissa Perry, who was with the dog in Nevada. Reno police later...

OAKLAND — Health care workers at both jails in Alameda County were not allowed to return to work today after they took to the picket lines Tuesday to protest six months of stalled contract negotiations and what they call unfair labor practices. Workers at the Dublin jail this morning told news outlets they were turned away by their supervisors. The workers, members of the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, approved the one-day strike last month after working more than two months without a contract and making minimal headway on a new one with Tennessee-based Prison Health Services. That...

There are three kinds of faith: faith in God, faith in oneself, and faith in life. Think of these as building blocks. When the United States was founded, the big block on the bottom of the pile was faith in God. However, something happened through the course of American history: The blocks got restacked, and faith in self, or egocentrism, settled into the first position. Faith in self is very important, but it makes a poor foundation because it is not a perception of perfection. And the ego is shifty, so the other blocks tend to become unstable or fall...

ALAMEDA, Calif. – The school board blinked. Under the duress of a lawsuit and threats of recall, the Alameda Board of Education has voted to phase out an elementary school curriculum it adopted in May to prevent anti-gay bullying. The so-called Lesson 9, which had become an opposition centerpiece in a national anti-gay marriage campaign, will be replaced by a more generic anti-bullying message. But the board's action Tuesday night did little to ease the tension between gay parents, who want their children protected, and parents who who think elementary school is too early to talk to students about gay...

An Oakland man is expected to face an attempted murder charge after he stabbed another man in the heart during a fight inside a popular downtown restaurant early Sunday morning, police said. What sparked the argument inside La Piñata on Park Street — where another man was also stabbed multiple times and one hit on the head with a drinking glass — remains unclear, according to investigators. The melee among six men happened at the end of the Park Street Pub Crawl, an informal, non-city event that traditionally takes place among patrons of Alameda bars and restaurants on the first...

The Unified School District in Alameda California has passed a curriculum by a 3-2 vote that includes includes a compulsory 45-minute Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) lesson for kindergarten through fifth grade. The kindergarten lesson will study sexual orientation stereotypes with childrens books like "And Tango Makes Three" a story about two gay male penguins. School Officials say they will not allow parents to opt their kids out of the program because it falls under "anti-discrimination provisions of California law.Here is a video of the School Board Meeting. 3:03 Same Sex Lessons for Kindergartners! Gay penguins?Here are the Members...

ALAMEDA — School district leaders have approved lesson plans for kindergartners through fifth graders that aim to curb anti-gay bullying. Trustees voted 3-2 on Tuesday to adopt the Safe Schools curriculum, which supporters say will help children of gay parents feel welcome at school and help end anti-gay teasing and bullying on the playground. The lessons also aim to provide a safe environment for children to learn, as well as to offer a framework for teachers to break down stereotypes and teach kids about different types of families. "The need for this is real," said Beth Kromer, a fourth-grade teacher...

Utility’s cable television and Internet service has been sold to Comcast by the city council of Alameda, California. The reason for the sale was due to a listless growth of the company due to decline in cable subscription. The sale will help to clear off the Alameda Power & Telecom’s debt of $33 million.

Eight months ago, a Media News series detailed in shocking fashion how Oakland has become a booming hub for child prostitution. The Oakland Police Department found that during a 36-month period alone, 293 children under age 18 were being prostituted by at least 155 pimps. Of course, the trafficking of children isn't just an Oakland problem. A recent nationwide FBI sting targeting child prostitution ensnared 642 suspects in 29 cities. Forty-seven children were rescued, ranging in age from 13 to 17. It is a stomach-churning example of the law of supply and demand. Adults are willing to pay hundreds of...

Oakland, in the Jerry Brown years, practiced an unofficial policy of what might be called “community cleansing.” This is not to be confused with “ethnic cleansing,” the horrific activity in parts of, say, Eastern Europe or Central Africa where whole ethnic populations are violently and bloodily removed, either through exile or actual genocide. No, Mr. Brown’s “community cleansing” policies were far more genteel, involving little violence (though some—that’s what the whole Oakland Riders police scandal was about) and targeting not whole ethnic groups, but rather portions of the population that were considered as being “undesirables.” Part of this involved harassment,...

OAKLAND — Leon Wiley laughed as an Alameda County Superior Court Judge today ordered the 30-year old to spend the rest of his life in prison. The former member of the notorious "Nut Case Gang" chuckled some more when family members of one of the three people he either killed or ordered to be killed talked about their loved ones. And, as Wiley was led out of the courtroom after a stern talking-to by Judge Joseph Hurley, he made sure to look both the judge and then family members in the eyes as he shouted his allegiance to the gang...

Michael Dellums, the son of Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, was denied parole once again today for his second-degree murder conviction for killing a reputed drug dealer in Oakland in 1979, according to Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Bill Boselli. Michael Dellums, 50, has been denied parole numerous times, most recently on Jan. 8, 2007, the same day that Ron Dellums was sworn in as Oakland's mayor. The California Board of Prison terms panel that presided over Michael Dellums' hearing today at the California State Prison, Solano, in Vacaville, where he is being held, decided he won't be eligible for another...