You are looking at posts that were written in the month of December in the year 2010.
Newer »« Older| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Nov | Jan » | |||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | ||
… I’m telling you, it really bothers me to see so many drunks on the road,” Rodrigues said. “The carnage when they get into wrecks is terrible. You think you’re having a good time in a bar, having a couple drinks, and then suddenly you’re moving a 4,000-pound projectile down the road that can injure or kill someone like that.”
The campaign, which is part of the statewide “Avoid” program, began last Friday with 80 officers from 15 agencies swarming Oakland in what they called a “saturation DUI patrol.” By morning, they had made 30 arrests.
Among the most heavily patrolled areas were east-side stretches of MacArthur Boulevard with clusters of bars and street prostitutes.
“When you get a lot of prostitutes walking the street, you also get a lot of johns liquored up, so that keeps us busy,” Rodrigues said.
When Diggs took out the permit for the theater, some people could still recall seeing a movie in 1913 about the “white slave hearing” at the old Pantages theater on 12th Street. It was one of the first moving picture features to be shown when the old Vaudeville house switched to films.
“Well, it was a national scandal,” said Biringer, who as a boy sat quietly at his family’s dinner table listening to Diggs and his dad talk about racehorses and tracks.
Maury and Marsha would come to Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners at his home because no one else invited them, Biringer said.
Marsha attended his college graduation, Biringer said, “and she was an absolute lady.” Diggs, however, never stopped chasing women. In fact, Biringer said his father took Diggs to a Sausalito houseboat brothel. His mother didn’t much like Diggs, Biringer said. “He just had that twinkle in his eye.”
Oakland Fining Hotels for Tolerating Prostitution, Sex Trafficking
Whipping out a law that’s been on the books since 1914, the City of Oakland is assessing penalties of up to $25,000 on the owners of three ghetto hotels — the National Lodge at 17th and International Blvd., the Economy Inn at East 12th and 1st, and the Sage Motel at Macarthur and High Street — for turning a blind eye to all the hookers traipsing in and out of their properties. City Attorney John Russo is clearly trying to make an example of these hotels in an effort to curb Oakland’s longtime prostitution problem, where at least 10% of working girls/boys arrested each year are minors.
Hiral Patel, owner of the National Lodge, rejects the notion that he turns a blind eye, and says he often calls the cops to report prostitution across the street. “We do our best,” he says.
See the full article from “SFist”
On our (admittedly non-comprehensive) list of Mill Valley titles, some are written by locals, some by ex-locals that we still like to call our own, and some by literary giants who called Mill Valley home at pivotal times in their careers. Whichever way you go, you’ll be making someone’s life a little scarier, a little tastier, a little more thrilling – and a whole lot richer.
Of course, we suggest you make your way down to the Depot or the Tyler Florence Shop to look for most of these titles, but we’ve linked to a certain online bookseller in case we all end up homebound by the rain.
New Releases from Longtime Locals
Three Stations, by Martin Cruz Smith. Smith’s seventh novel to feature Arkady Renko finds the Russian police detective investigating the murder of a young prostitute in Moscow’s Three Stations, and reminds readers that Smith has been one of the most astute chroniclers of contemporary Russian society over the last three decades.
See the full article from “Patch”
… BLACK SWAN” HHH1/2 (R) Century Regency, CineArts Marin, Tiburon Playhouse. Natalie Portman in a bravura performance as a driven perfectionist, a young ballerina up for a starring role at Lincoln Center. Her life is shadowed by a smothering mother (Barbara Hershey), an autocratic director (Vincent Cassel), a venomous rival (Mila Kunis) and her deposed predecessor (Winona Ryder). A full-bore melodrama, told with passionate intensity, gloriously and darkly absurd. Directed by Darren Aronofsky. From Roger Ebert. 108 minutes.
“BURLESQUE” HH (PG-13) Century Northgate. Christina Aguilera plays the proverbial small-town girl from Iowa who gets on a bus and travels to Los Angeles hoping for stardom. She finds it in the Burlesque Lounge, a Sunset Strip club run by Cher. With a cornball story to showcase their musical numbers, it’s a cheesy entertainment of interest primarily because of the embedded music videos. From Roger Ebert. 116 minutes.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Thursday Must Read: Oakland Targets Motels for Prostitution; OPD’s Videotaped Confessions Are Working
Stories you shouldn’t miss:
1. Oakland City Attorney John Russo has filed lawsuits against three motels in the city that police say have become havens for prostitution, the Trib and Chron report. The lawsuits request that the motels be shut down for a year and each pay $25,000 fines unless they solve their prostitution problems. The worst of three, according to Russo, is the Economy Inn at 122 E. 12th St., near Lake Merritt. The other two are the Sage Motel at 4844 MacArthur Blvd., near Mills College, and the National Lodge at 1711 International Blvd.
2. For years, Oakland police refused to videotape interviews with suspects, claiming that doing so would hurt their ability to solve crimes. But then in late 2008, the department changed course after a scandal involving its failure to videotape an interrogation involving the alleged killer of journalist Chauncey Bailey. Now, two years later, videotaping has proven to have no effect on the department’s ability to obtain confessions. In fact, the Trib reports, its helping county prosecutors obtain convictions.
There’s so much going on in Oakland, it’s hard to represent it all in just one blog post. The Oakland City Council approves use of up to $750,000 for an environmental study for a baseball stadium for The Oakland A’s. The City of Oakland sues three sub-standard hotels said to be prostitution dens. The Oakland Raiders get ready to host The Indianapolis Colts. It’s all here, and more.
See the full article from “Seattle Post Intelligencer (blog)”
… 12-22) 18:27 PST Oakland, Calif. (AP) — The city of Oakland is filing suit to close three hotels that police say are hot spots for prostitution. City Attorney John Russo said Wednesday the public nuisance suits ask…
There’s so much going on in Oakland, it’s hard to represent it all in just one blog post. The Oakland City Council approves use of up to $750,000 for an environmental study for a baseball stadium for The Oakland A’s. The City of Oakland sues three sub-standard hotels said to be prostitution dens. The Oakland Raiders get ready to host The Indianapolis Colts. It’s all here, and more.
Oakland sues to close three hotels, claiming prostitution occurs on their property
…
Joshi, who worked for years in the department’s human trafficking task force, said calls reporting prostitution are second-tier priority, coming after more urgent crimes like robbery, assault, or a break-in in which the victim is at home.
However, if a caller reports that a minor may be involved in the prostitution, that bumps the priority of the call to the upper tier, Joshi added.
The problem certainly isn’t limited to the three named hotels, officials agreed, as prostitution is a huge problem all along “The Track,” which runs along International Boulevard from 1st Avenue to the San Leandro border. The stretches with the worst child prostitution problem run roughly from 1st to 18th avenues and from High Street to about 54th Avenue.
