Given the kind of year we've had, celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King's memory and purpose this weekend in Oakland, CA seems like a pretty good idea.  Deep in the middle of a tough economy, city budget cuts,  a disaster in Haiti, and many local folks having a tough time getting by, celebrating King's purpose and spirit--and our own understanding of his work, might be just the thing.  Oakland Local takes a look at what's happening around town and hopes that at least one of these events can rock your world enough to get you out and into the spirit of the day.

As young teenagers continue to be peddled for sex on Oakland's International Boulevard, a neighborhood idea of sending warning letters to the "johns" who prey on kids and buy sex with them is being scuttled for legal reasons.

By Barbara Grady

A missing 17-year-old girl for whom relatives and neighbors have been searching for - for about a month - and feared was kidnapped has been heard from by telephone, said her godmother Mona Webb.

"She is alive, she is safe," Webb said after hearing from her goddaughter Jacques Danielle Hollins who goes by the name "Danny."

For the first time ever, Xicana Moratorium Day – an event that highlights the current issues that affect the RAZA community - will take place at Oakland's Read the whole story...