The protest came just before the Oakland City Council's Community and Economic Development Committee was set to vote on its annual housing action plan, a report that requests funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development toward various grant programs.
Courier California- New report shows billionaires are spending big bucks to win California elections
"Billionaires are funding the 2026 election, and California is home to some of the top political contributors.
A new report from California Common Good found ultra-wealthy donors are buying political power to shape the future of the state. Billionaires and their affiliated companies are pouring cash into politics like never before."
Mission Local- Meet the billionaires behind $336M ‘explosion’ of money in California politics, per new report
"Fifteen billionaires have put a total of $336 million into California and national politics so far this year, a new report released this week shows.
More than half of them are from the San Francisco Bay Area, where organizers on Thursday rallied at the home of the second-biggest individual political spender on state elections, Ripple co-founder and angel investor Chris Larsen, to announce the report’s findings.
The analysis was published by California Common Good, which advocates for the full funding of education and other social safety net services."
Capital & Main- An ‘Exponentially Different Level’ of Billionaire Spending in California
"For most of this 2026 midterm election cycle, the attention around California’s billionaire class has focused heavily on their opposition to a one-time tax on their wealth, money that would be used to help offset massive federal cuts to safety-net health care programs in the state.
That’s fine as far as it goes, but it goes nowhere near far enough. In truth, the billionaires are on an all-time spending spree when it comes to politics at both the state and federal levels — and their interests range far afield from simply defeating a single proposition, no matter how irksome the Billionaire Tax Act is to them.
California’s mega-wealthy are also using their resources to pave the way for them to expand their futures in the cryptocurrency and AI industries with as little regulation or pushback as possible.
“It’s not just putting money into the [billionaire tax] ballot measure. There is a very precise legislative agenda here as well,” said Crystal Zermeno of California Common Good, a coalition of labor and community groups that has been researching this energized round of spending."
KFI Radio- Residents to Demand Closure of Fire-Damaged Warehouse in Boyle Heights
"BOYLE HEIGHTS (CNS) - Community members and advocacy groups plan to rally Thursday in Boyle Heights to demand the permanent closure of the fire- damaged Lineage Logistics cold-storage warehouse, arguing the facility has become an ongoing health and environmental hazard.
The rally comes two weeks after a massive fire at the warehouse burned for more than a week, leaving millions of pounds of spoiled food inside the facility and prompting an extensive cleanup effort.
Organizers said residents will call on Lineage Logistics to permanently close the facility, conduct a comprehensive environmental study and ensure a thorough cleanup of the surrounding neighborhood.
The demonstration is scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday at the corner of Olympic Boulevard and La Puerta Street.
Participating organizations include Eastside Padres Contra la Privatización, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, Centro CSO and Reclaim Our Schools LA. Los Angeles Unified School District board member Rocio Rivas is also expected to attend."
SF Gate- Oakland: Activists And Residents Demand That City Combat Housing Code Violations
"Around 50 people gathered at Oakland City Hall on Tuesday to demand that the city address code infractions in various buildings across the city by fully funding Oakland's Proactive Rental Inspection Program.
"For far too long, landlords have been allowed to have inhabitable conditions within their apartment buildings, leaving tenants with concerns around their own health and their own family stability," said Valarie Bachelor, Oakland director for Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment. "This is completely unacceptable, and we demand change." "
Richmond Confidential- Tenants air long list of grievances at low-income complex that Richmond exempted from rent control rules
"Around two dozen tenants gathered at the leasing office of Monterey Pines Apartments, a low-income housing complex in Richmond, last month, voicing grievances and asking city officials to take action.
Organizers had requested permission to congregate in the community center, but the property manager denied the request. So they stood outside, airing their concerns as children ran around and swung on the fence surrounding the closed community swimming pool.
District City Councilmember Sue Wilson, and Lina Velasco, head of the Richmond Residential Rental Inspection Program, listened to the long list of complaints: mold, rotting balcony posts, broken heaters and windows, pest infestation, and communal areas — including laundry facilities and the pool — in disrepair.
Many of these issues had been going on for months, years, and in some cases, decades, but it wasn’t until last November when the property owners suddenly began charging utility fees in the range of $150 to $300 a month, that tenants began to organize."
SF Gate- San Pablo: Measure Capping Annual Rent Hikes At 3% Qualifies For November Ballot
"San Pablo's City Council this week approved sending a rent protection ballot initiative to go in front of voters in November that would cap annual rent increases at 3% and increase tenant rights in in the city.
The organizations submitted 2,420 signatures, of which the Contra Costa County Elections office determined 1,719 were valid. The measure needed 1,325 signatures to qualify for the ballot.
San Pablo's annual rent increases are currently capped by state law at 5% plus the local cost of living, with a maximum increase of 10% per year. The proposed measure would enforce a hard cap on annual rent increases at 3% or 60% of the U.S. Department of Labor's Consumer Price Index for the region, whichever is lower.
The rent protection measure would be one of the strongest in the state of California, according to ACCE."
OaklandSide- At a ‘die-in’ in East Oakland, protesters slam Trump healthcare cuts
"On Thursday afternoon in East Oakland, dozens of people lay side by side under the beating sun. Above their heads stood cardboard gravestones, some reading, “No suicide hotline,” “Died unhoused,” “Can’t afford insurance,” and “Rural hospital closed.”
Many of the people were hospital and ER staff and recipients of Medicare or Medi-Cal.
More than 100 of these East Bay residents staged a “die-in,” protesting President Donald Trump’s cuts to healthcare funding outside Oakland’s Eastmont Town Center."
