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OAKLAND (CBS SF) — A paroled felon was sentenced Thursday to 35 years and eight months in state prison in connection with the fatal shooting death of a man near the former Occupy Oakland encampment in November 2011 and for a sexual assault that occurred five days later. Issac McDaniels, 32, of Oakland, had faced a potential life term for sexually assaulting a woman on 13th Avenue in Oakland on Nov. 15, 2011, but prosecutors dropped a kidnapping charge against him last November in exchange for him pleading no contest to four felonies. The charges are forced oral copulation and...

If progressive politics is all about innovation and applying nontraditional solutions to long-standing social problems and political issues, and Oakland is all about progressive politics, why are its elected officials so hesitant to try a wide range of ideas to address the city's most intractable problems? It's because some of the same progressives who advocate change also have narrow litmus tests for what ideas should be proposed. That test is so unforgiving that Bishop Bob Jackson, pastor of Acts Full Gospel Church in Oakland, ran up against it this week. Jackson waited four hours on Tuesday for the chance to...

OAKLAND -- Thieves smashed a window of a KTVU news van parked in West Oakland for an assignment Thursday and stole roughly $20,000 worth of laptops and other electronic equipment, the latest in a long string of heists against reporters and photographers. --SNIP-- News photographers and reporters have been robbed and burglarized so many times since last spring that some stations are sending armed guards with media crews doing stories in Oakland.

On more than one occasion I've heard politicians dredge up the old adage "You cannot arrest your way out" of a crime problem. In Oakland, it's apparently become city policy. There's been a precipitous decline in arrests in Oakland - a 44 percent drop from 2008 to 2011, according to a Chronicle investigation. And even as arrests have bottomed out, the city's crime rate has climbed in each of the past two years, including an overall 23 percent increase this year. One of the most startling statistics, the Police Department's homicide clearance rate, is particularly troubling. Through October, the department...

Burglaries are up a startling 43 percent in Oakland this year compared to last, part of an ever-growing crime problem in the city. According to the latest numbers from the Oakland Police Department, more than 11,000 homes, cars or businesses have been broken into so far this year – translating to about 33 burglaries a day. The most popular targets have been cars with more than 5,700 burglarized so far this year. One of the most likely reasons for the sharp uptick in crime – city officials said they believe it’s the gradual loss of police officers from the force....

The violent robbery of a television news crew outside an Oakland school last week was the latest in a series of similar incidents in a city where the rate of strong-arm robberies and holdups is surging. But the brazenness of the attack - which occurred during a live broadcast in the middle of the day - has brought fresh urgency to the problem. Union officials who represent reporters at most of the Bay Area's major television and radio stations said Tuesday they had asked the broadcasters to immediately hire security guards to accompany news crews when they are in Oakland....

Stuck in a standoff with teachers unions, the San Francisco and Oakland school districts have abandoned efforts to bring in up to $15 million each to develop high-quality math classes for upper-elementary and middle school students. The two districts spent months preparing a joint application for the next round of federal Race to the Top funding - which required districts to incorporate student test scores, among other criteria, in teacher evaluations. And because of that critical clause, union leaders refused to sign, as required by the federal application.

(10-18) 09:59 PDT OAKLAND -- An Oakland City Council candidate was robbed at gunpoint Wednesday night near his home after he attended a neighborhood anti-crime meeting, authorities said. Dan Kalb, 53, an environmental policy director who is one of seven candidates vying for the District 1 seat that represents North Oakland, said he had parked his car near his home on the 5100 block of Manila Avenue when he was accosted about 8:35 p.m. A man pointed a gun at him, demanded his iPhone and wallet and fled in a car, said Kalb, who was not hurt. The robbery happened...

OAKLAND -- A flier disseminated downtown is urging people to bring bats to next Thursday's Occupy Oakland anniversary protest, not to smash bank windows, but to "beat the (expletive)" out of anarchists and vandals. The flier asks residents to "stand up and defend the great city of Oakland" and specifically calls for violence against "black-clad" Caucasians that "use our city landscape as a canvas for their divisive and violent message." No one has taken responsibility for one-page post, which leaves no contact information. It claims to be from a group calling itself DOOM -- Defend Our Oakland Movement.

A high-ranking Port of Oakland official is in hot water for throwing down $4,500 in public funds for a party at a Houston strip club. "Port commissioners take this matter very seriously," board President Gilda Gonzales said in a statement after their meeting. Kwon's strip-club spending spree didn't come to port officials' attention until just recently. The timing is especially terrible for the port, which is in the midst of a protracted labor fight with maintenance and other workers over terms of a new contract. Now, officials are scrambling to get a handle on the strip-club visit and to determine...

Everyone who contributed to the violence and mayhem at Occupy Oakland protest marches should be held accountable - in one way or another - for their actions. Unfortunately, that's not how it works here in Oakland. On Friday, Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan meted out punishment to 44 police officers for misconduct connected to Occupy demonstrations over the past year. The discipline ranges from recommendations to terminate two officers to 30-day suspensions, written reprimands and counseling. In comparison, 106 protesters have been charged with felonies and misdemeanors during all Occupy actions in Oakland, according to the Alameda County district attorney's...

OAKLAND -- A protest at City Hall that surprised both the Police Department and top city officials caused more than $12,000 in damage to public buildings and thousands more to private businesses, city officials said Monday. A day after about 200 protesters roamed downtown streets with no consequences, smashing windows of businesses and city offices, city officials were still trying to explain why no one was arrested and why police were unprepared. The protest was billed on Facebook as an anti-imperialist rally and march, timed to coincide with the 11th anniversary of the start of the U.S. war in Afghanistan....

Occupy protesters are like a bunch of neighborhood kids who've figured out which houses they can pelt with eggs and rocks and get away with it. And in the Bay Area's thriving anarchist/protest community, everybody knows the answer to that one: Oakland City Hall. It's an unrestricted public space with little police presence, even less common sense from its elected leaders and easy access to the rest of downtown. The place is perfect. Sunday night, a group of about 200 protesters gathered outside City Hall and proceeded to march through downtown shattering store windows and car windshields and tossing paint...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Lawyers overseeing the terms of a settlement stemming from a decade-old Oakland police corruption scandal filed a motion Thursday requesting that the federal government take over the embattled department. Attorneys John Burris and Jim Chanin filed the motion in U.S. District Court in San Francisco asking Judge Thelton Henderson for a federal receiver to oversee the department.

OAKLAND -- The Oakland school board on Thursday night unanimously approved an agreement with the Office for Civil Rights to reduce the number of out-of-school suspensions of its African-American students. Parents, community organizers, district staff members and other leaders spoke passionately about the need to pass -- and to fully realize -- the plan, and to involve students, families and teachers in the push for change. "We're here today to ante up and reclaim our children," said Chris Chatmon, director of the district's African American Male Achievement initiative. Chatmon said the resolution will give the system the sense of urgency...

The Oakland City Council can no longer control its own meetings. When trouble erupted on Tuesday - at the first council meeting after a six-week recess - there was hardly an attempt to stop it. "I'm going to have this council chamber cleared in a second," warned council President Larry Reid, speaking over shouts, jeers and obscenities. "You watch. Watch me. Watch me." They did watch. They watched Reid adjourn the meeting and walk out. The protesters stayed. This has been coming for some time. Tuesday was just the tipping point, but it sent a clear message to anyone who...

Oakland’s long-running fight with the federal courts over its Police Department has taken a bizarre turn: The city administrator says the monitor who was sent to the East Bay to evaluate the cops tried to hit on her. Sources tell us the city alerted the federal judge who has ordered police reforms that the city is investigating the matter. They say his monitor, Robert Warshaw — a former police chief and antidrug official in the Clinton administration — made remarks in private conversations with City Administrator Deanna Santana that she took as inappropriate. In one case, Warshaw allegedly took the...

Escalating tensions over contract negotiations for about 250 workers could disrupt, or even shut down, operations this fall at Oakland's airport and seaport, the fifth-largest container shipping facility in the country. The Port of Oakland, the agency operating the two public facilities, must rein in rapidly increasing compensation costs. While it projects revenues will increase 9 percent from 2011 to 2015, it forecasts personnel expenditures to climb 30 percent if no action is taken. Moreover, the agency's pension and retiree health care programs are underfunded by at least $269 million, a staggering sum equal to 5½ years of payroll. It's...

OAKLAND -- A protest at the Barack Obama campaign headquarters in downtown Oakland ended peacefully late Thursday, with a handful of arrests but no reports of violence. At least 60 protesters rallied at the building at 17th Street and Telegraph Avenue around 5:30 p.m., when police were summoned to guard all entrances. But seven protesters found their way inside the building, linked arms and refused to leave, police said. Officers unsuccessfully negotiated with the group for several hours to leave the building, but they remained there until 9:12 p.m., when one of them voluntarily decided to leave. The remaining six...

Oakland Protesters in the streets without a permit, Smashes windows at Obama Campaign HQ