“Ladies and gentlemen, you could be taking dance lessons in Jack London Square or having a drink. But no, we’ve had too important a week, haven’t we?” With that, Aimee Alison, host of the KPFA Morning Show and founder of OaklandSeen.com, opened the Oakland mayoral forum on public safety held Thursday evening, July 15th at the Lakeshore Baptist Church.

The Oakland police union began robo-calling Oakland residents yesterday, blaming Councilwoman Jean Quan for the city’s plan to lay off cops — even though she is not the driving force behind the layoff plan.

The most revealing part of Thursday night's mayoral debate may have come when the candidates were asked about Oakland's new ranked-choice voting system.

For a time, it looked as if this year's Oakland mayoral campaign might become a victim of big-money politics. First, City Attorney John Russo proposed to double the city's campaign contribution and expenditure limits. But when his plan failed to garner enough support, Councilmembers Ignacio De La Fuente and Jane Brunner backed a "compromise" proposal to raise the donor cap from $700 to $1,000. The new proposal also would have increased the contribution limit on political committees from $1,300 to $1,600, but it died last week when it too failed to earn enough votes.