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Special Reports
Oakland City Council votes against resolution to prevent disruptive protests at the port
"I'm disappointed we couldn't give port customers the assurance that we value them and Oakland residents the assurance that we will protect them," said Councilmember Libby Schaaf, who co-sponsored the resolution. 

 

Share the Spirit: Concord agency takes pain out of being a kid
Child Abuse Prevention Council provides safety net programs for at-risk children. 

 

The destruction was just the first wave of pain for many survivors of the Oakland hills fire
Teresa Ferguson's nightmare started the day the flames appeared on the skyline above her home in the Oakland hills. Today, 20 years later, the effects of the firestorm still reverberate through every corner of her life.  

 

 

State agency clears Alameda paramedics of wrongdoing
A state agency that regulates paramedics has dismissed complaints that some members of the public filed over the Memorial Day death of Raymond Zack, who committed suicide off Crown Beach while emergency workers remained onshore, city officials announced. 

 

Chauncey Bailey Project reporter's book soon to be released
"Killing the Messenger: A Story of Radical Faith, Racism's Backlash, and the Assassination of a Journalist" by Bay Area News Group digital investigative reporter Thomas Peele will be released Feb. 7 by the Crown Publishing Group. 

 

Mindset of the madness: Mack God rules the streets
Some involved so deeply in street life that experts say they have slipped into a kind of alternate reality in which the rules the rest of society lives by don't apply 

 
Database shows $12.2 billion in Bay Area public employee salaries
A hospital administrator in Alameda County, a deputy police chief in San Francisco and a physician in Santa Clara County grossed more than $500,000 each in pay last year - the top three 2009 salaries in a database containing 200,000 public employees now available online. 

 

Medical marijuana dispensary laws to get state Supreme Court hearing
Justices agree to review lower court rulings on powers of local governments to ban or regulate medical pot dispensaries. Key issue: Can cities regulate an activity that is illegal under federal law 

 

Gay marriage foes weigh their next move
With Proposition 8 scrapped for now, lawyers must decide whether to take fight over same-sex marriage ban to Supreme Court or try again in federal appeals court 

 

Vigil held for Michaela Garecht, 23 years after her disappearance in Hayward
Her mother, Sharon Murch, said the Jaycee Dugard case is a source of hope that her daughter will be found alive. 

 

For refugees, leaving California a gamble
"Secondary migration" pushing newly arrived Bay Area immigrants to other states.

Special Section: Bhutan: A Journey From Conflict  

 

Oakland woman cares for Alzheimer's-stricken husband while educating others about it
Since Gerri Woolfolk's husband was diagnosed 12 years ago, she has worked tirelessly to both care for him and to bring awareness to others about a disease that frequently makes both patient and caregiver feel helpless. 

 

Caution: Crisis ahead
From BART to Caltrain to the Valley Transportation Authority, every Bay Area transit agency has hiked fares and reduced train and bus service to plug deep budget holes. But the changes have produced fewer riders and even less revenue '” leading some to worry that the transit system has entered a death spiral. 

 

Three East Bay ZIP codes, life-and-death disparities
Richard Angelis lives in Walnut Creek on a tree-lined street in ZIP code 94597, where life expectancy is 87.4 years. But 12 miles southwest of Angelis' home, in the Oakland neighborhood of Sobrante Park, there are nights when Calixto Orantes, 53, hits the ground in a cold sweat inside his small rented home as gunfire erupts nearby. He lives in ZIP code 94603, where life expectancy plunges to 71.2 years. 

 

Road to college just got bumpier
California high school students with their sights set on a public university better step up their game, admissions officers and guidance counselors say. An unprecedented time of upheaval and funding cuts in the state university systems will leave less room for narrowly missed deadlines, poor senior-year grades and incomplete course work 

 

Oakland's fallen officers remembered during annual ceremony
A name is read aloud. A date. Then silence, broken only by the sound of heels clicking against the white, shiny floor of the Oakland Police Department lobby. A wife, a mother, a son or a sister — stoic and composed, or blinking back tears — walks past fellow mourners to add a white rose to a badge-shaped display of red carnations 

 

Federal jury rejects brutality claim against former BART officer
A federal San Francisco jury found that former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle and the other officers did nothing wrong when they arrested Kenneth Carrethers two years ago after the Oakland resident criticized the officers for being lazy and then, according to the officers, walked behind a cop with his fist clenched.