By John Geluardi
East Bay newspaper employees who have been alarmed at the declining quality of journalism took responsibility for their own futures on Friday by asking to be formally recognized as a union.
Union organizers launched their campaign in October and after seven months of after-work meetings, thousands of e-mails and a lot of beer drinking, they were able to get a strong majority of the 250 eligible employees to sign guild cards. If the union is finalized by ballot, the organizers will have succeeded in unionizing the largest newspaper chain in the Bay Area, which includes the Contra Costa Times, the Oakland Tribune and The Argus.
Organizers Sara Steffens and Karl Fischer, both award winning Contra Costa Times reporters, went to the Oakland office of the National Labor Relations Board to petition for formal recognition as a union. The petition will trigger an official workplace ballot, which is expected to take place some time in June.
In what may be the most unintentionally hilarious local headline-photo matchup since the Oakland Tribune obituary for former U.C Berkeley coach Nibs Price featured the headline "Death Calls Nibs Price" — and a photo of him on the phone — take a gander at the instant masterpiece from SFgate.com below:
Apparently Star Jones once roamed Yosemite! In fact, isn't that a picture of Star now? And to think: Star Jones has had an impact on the local ecology (in fact, wow! Star Jones has had an impact on anything!)
Whoever is responsible for this — thanks! You made our day.
Enjoy the weekend. And if you see Star Jones, jump up and down, make a lot of noise and maybe even throw your keys at her. Whatever you do, don't run. She can't resist the instinct to chase (especially if you're pointing a camera at her).
— Joe Eskenazi
The audit of his signature homelessness program, Care Not Cash, is a chance for Gavin Newsom to preen extra hard. “Mayor’s Care Not Cash Achieving Its Goals” trumpets the city’s website. The Examiner offers a glowing testimony to the power of the program, only noting right at the end of the graphic that the source is the City Controller’s office, rather than an independent study.
To be fair, the results of the audit are legitimately good news, as far as they go. It’s just that they don’t go very far at all. Let’s peer behind the looking glass:
The Bad News is Bad
First off – and this is important – the only thing the audit tells us … the only thing … is that Care Not Cash placed 2,217 people in single room housing. That’s it.
Are they better off? Well, that it doesn’t say.
Today marks the sixtieth anniversary of a bloody escape attempt from prison turned tourist attraction, Alcatraz.
During the afternoon of May 2nd, 1946, five prisoners put into action a series of carefully planned events which all came to naught when some prison guard flouted institutional rules and failed to return a key to its rightful spot. The key happened to be the one that would release the prisoners from the recreation yard. Thus began a two day siege during which the help of the marines and FBI were enlisted, grenades were lobbed and lives lost.
Three of the prisoners who helped spearhead the breakout were killed in the fight, two others were tried, convicted and executed two years later, and one received a life sentence but was granted his freedom in 1973. The event inspired a Burt Lancaster movie called "Brute Force" that is billed as "unusual at the time for the level of violence it portrayed." Happy Friday!
UPDATE: It has come to my attention that today is also the birthday of Dwayne Johnson, AKA "The Rock", which is also the nickname of our famed landmark! Eerie.--Andy Wright
