Oakland

By Robert Gammon

The civil rights violations committed by BART in its controversial Oakland airport connector project has prompted a new federal probe into the state agency that oversees BART — the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. In an August 12 letter to MTC, the Federal Transit Administration expressed concerns that MTC has failed to adequately monitor other Bay Area transit agencies, which might have committed civil rights violations, too.

In a press conference outside the Los Angeles courthouse immediately after the verdict was announced, Oscar Grant's family spoke out about the verdict, calling it a "great disappointment." Oscar Grant's mother Wanda Johnson said ex-BART cop Johannes Mehserle's conviction of involuntary manslaughter felt like being "slapped in the face by a system that has denied us true justice."

Johnson spoke unexpectedly, adding her thoughts at the close of the family's press conference. "My son was murdered. He was murdered. He was murdered. He was murdered," she said, calm but forceful, enunciating every word and looking straight into the dozens of news cameras that had gathered outside the courthouse.

On New Year's Day 2009, Mehserle shot the 22-year-old Oscar Grant in the back while he lay face down on a BART train platform. Grant, who had his arms behind his back when Mehserle shot him, was unarmed.

As of November 2009, at least 139 cities in the United States had climate action plans, including Portland and Chicago. Oakland doesn’t have one yet, but it does have a goal: by 2020, the city seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 36 percent of what they were in 2005. That goal is more aggressive than those of either San Francisco or Berkeley, which both have climate action plans.