Steven Luo is the Political Director for the California Beat. He covers state and local politics and public policy.
He can be reached at sluo@californiabeat.org.
Steven Luo
Political Beat, Silicon Valley, The Bay Area »
Want to see the President speak during his latest fundraising swing through the Bay Area? Be prepared to pay up.
President Barack Obama will attend three Silicon Valley events in support of his 2012 re-election bid and the Democratic Party on May 23, including a Redwood City rally expected to draw hundreds of supporters, the Political Beat has learned.
The President will speak at a 6 p.m. rally at Redwood City’s 1,348-seat Fox Theater. Tickets for the event start at $250 per person; seats closer to the stage are priced at $1,000, and for $7,500, guests can be photographed with the President backstage.
Berkeley, Cops & Courts »
A UCPD officer shot and killed a Cal student who brandished a gun at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business Tuesday afternoon in the first campus shooting in decades, police said.
Witnesses reported that police entered a computer lab at the business school at 2:19 p.m. and shot an unidentified man who was carrying a gun. The suspect was wounded and was taken to Highland Hospital in Oakland.
UC Police officials said Wednesday morning that the man had died from the injury. No one else was hurt in the incident.
Berkeley, The Bay Area »
Dozens of riot-gear clad police officers prevented an Occupy Wall Street campsite from forming in front of the UC Berkeley administration building Wednesday during a day-long series of protests by students who said they were fighting double-digit tuition increases in the University of California system.
UC Police and sheriff’s deputies from the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office arrested 39 Occupy Cal protesters, seven from an afternoon raid of the campsite, and 31 more during a contentious nighttime skirmish between an estimated crowd of more than 1,000 protesters.
Political Beat, San Francisco, The Bay Area »
Welcome to the California Beat’s live coverage of tonight’s municipal elections in San Francisco and around the Bay Area. We’ll bring you the latest returns and reaction from the candidates; keep refreshing this page for the latest.
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.
Political Beat, Silicon Valley »
(9/26) — UPDATED 13:45 PDT — MOUNTAIN VIEW — President Obama fielded questions from members of the social networking site LinkedIn on how to stimulate the ailing economy Monday morning, at the end of a 21-hour visit to the Bay Area which also included two big-money Silicon Valley fundraisers.
At an intimate town hall meeting, held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View and hosted by LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, Obama called on wealthier Americans to pay higher taxes so that the nation could invest in education and infrastructure.
Cops & Courts, San Francisco, Traffic & Transit »
BART’s decision to shut down cell phone service in its downtown San Francisco stations August 11 in order to disrupt a planned protest has drawn howls of outrage from civil libertarians and many riders.
The American Civil Liberties Union called the move “glaringly small-minded” and “dangerous to democracy.” San Francisco mayoral candidates Phil Ting and Leland Yee were among those who joined the chorus of condemnation.
But was the move actually unconstitutional, as many say it is? Probably not, according to California Beat legal analyst Preston Thomas.
BART Police Shooting »
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has ordered that former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle, convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting of Oscar Grant New Year’s Day 2009, be released Monday, after serving just over 11 months of his two-year sentence.
“As of June 13, 2011, the defendant’s mandated custody credits will be equal to or exceed the sentence imposed,” Judge Robert Perry wrote in his order, posted to the court’s website Friday. “It is hereby ordered that defendant Johannes Mehserle be released from custody on Monday, June 13, 2011.”
Cops & Courts »
Two Stockton children who were the subject of an Amber Alert Saturday afternoon were never kidnapped, authorities now say.
Rockelle Moore, 29, told police that his two children were taken when a man stole his pink and red Buick Park Avenue. But after hearing about the report, the mother contacted authorities to say that the children had been with her the entire time.
Political Beat »
Former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is postponing his movie comeback in the wake of the revelation that he had a child with a member of his household staff, according to a statement released today by his lawyer.
“Schwarzenegger is focusing on personal matters and is not willing to commit to any production schedules or timelines,” said the statement released by Patrick Knapp, his entertainment counsel.
