The May 7 hearing for Johannes Mehserle, the former transit cop who killed Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day of 2009, settled several key issues prior to the beginning of the trial scheduled for June 2010.  The waters have been somewhat muddied, however, due to much of the media coverage surrounding this case, both before and after the May 7 hearing.  This essay, by the reporter covering

Oakland Police Department investigators arrested two 18-year-olds last night in connection with the beating last week of a father and son in Oakland's Uptown area, authorities reported this afternoon.

The father, Tiansheng Yu, succumbed to his injuries this morning, April 20, at 11:27.

A birthday is suppose to be a celebration of your forward progression, one chapter of life ending so that another can begin. I guess that's not the case if you live in the city of Oakland. Eric Toscano turned 18 on March 13, and didn't even make it two weeks before having his young and promising life ended.

I wrote earlier this weekend about Oakland's first homicide of the year. Soon after we experienced our second, followed by the freeway shooting on Interstate 80.