Jennifer Courtney is a contributor to the California Beat. She covers Oakland and the East Bay.
She can be reached at jcourtney@californiabeat.org.
Jennifer Courtney
Oakland, Political Beat, San Francisco, The Bay Area »
Welcome to the Political Beat’s Election Night 2012 coverage of the November 6 General Election. We’ll be busy this evening updating results from important Bay Area and California races, including all of the statewide propositions and the Presidential race. Keep refreshing this page for the latest results and projections from the Political Beat team.
Cops & Courts, Oakland, Occupy Protests »
More than 10,000 protesters filled the streets of Oakland Wednesday, marching, chanting, and demanding a better deal for ordinary people as part of a general strike called by the Occupy Oakland movement.
After marching through Downtown Oakland in the afternoon, stopping in front of branches of several large banks to protest, thousands moved toward the Port of Oakland, blocking truck traffic into and out of the area and effectively shutting one of the busiest ports on the U.S. West Coast.
Cops & Courts, Oakland »
Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts announced this morning that he will continue to lead the department of the crime-battered city, after telling reporters last week that he could not commit to staying in Oakland long-term because of what he said was lack of support for police from City Hall.
Batts, who has been Oakland’s police chief for 15 months, said in a statement that he decided to stay in the position after engaging in numerous conversations with Mayor Jean Quan and other city officials.
Cops & Courts, Oakland »
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan announced Monday that the city will hire back 10 of the 80 police officers laid off last July after negotiations between the city and police union failed.
Quan also said she will find the money to improve the department’s patrol cars, radios and computers.
Political Beat, The Bay Area »
SAN JOSE — Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman agreed on Wednesday to pay her former housekeeper back wages of $5,500, a settlement that ends a firestorm created a month before Election Day when the woman, an undocumented immigrant, publicly accused the billionaire of mistreating her and firing her for political ends.
Lawyers for each side hammered out the agreement at the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement in downtown San Jose.
Cops & Courts, Oakland »
Oakland Police released new information today in the killing of an East Oakland barber, telling reporters that the metal object officers saw the man repeatedly reach for near his waistband was in fact an electronic scale, commonly used to weigh drugs. A small jar of marijuana was also found in his pocket, police said.
Derrick Jones, 37, was fatally shot in the chest by two Oakland Police officers Monday evening after authorities responded to a domestic dispute call between Jones and his ex-girlfriend at a corner laundromat next door to the Kwik Cuts barbershop he owns on Bancroft Avenue.
Oakland »
Nearly one hundred people marched to the Fruitvale BART station today to protest the fatal shooting of an unarmed East Oakland barber by Oakland Police earlier this week.
Derrick Jones, 37, was fatally shot in the chest by two Oakland Police officers Monday evening after authorities responded to a domestic dispute call between Jones and his ex-girlfriend at a corner laundromat next door to the barbershop he owns on Bancroft Avenue.
Oakland, Political Beat »
OAKLAND — Oakland mayoral candidate Don Perata, who lost the city’s first ranked-choice voting election by a slim margin to councilmember Jean Quan for the city’s Mayorship, told reporters today that he is disappointed with the outcome but will not contest the race.
Oakland, Political Beat »
OAKLAND — Jean Quan appears to have won her bid to become the next mayor of Oakland, according to semiofficial final results from last Tuesday’s election released Wednesday evening by the Alameda County Registrar of Voters.
“This is really a victory for a grassroots effort in this city,” Quan told reporters at a press conference following news of the results. “And we’re very proud.”
She received 50.98 percent of the vote, beating former state senate president pro tem Don Perata, who garnered 49.02 percent of the vote, according to the Registrar of Voters. In hard numbers, that’s 53,778 votes for Quan compared to Perata’s 51,720 votes.
BART Police Shooting »
LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge sentenced former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle to two years in state prison Friday for the killing of unarmed train passenger Oscar Grant in 2009.
He will get 292 days of credit for time served and good behavior, which could translate to a prison sentence of a little more than a year for the former police officer. It’s possible Mehserle could be eligible for parole after serving half of his sentence — slightly more than seven months.
