East Bay Today • Tue, May 27

• A fire near San Leandro’s BART station halted service for a day.

• Oakland’s top cop wants to ease restrictions on police car chases.

• Local food banks and Medicaid recipients are on high alert over proposed federal spending cuts.

• An Albany group is trying to launch a new community news outlet.

EAST BAY WEATHER

It’s almost summer, and this week’s weather is here to remind you of that. After some chilly and breezy days in the inner East Bay, Friday is forecast to be a scorcher, reaching a high of 81 in Oakland. And watch out, outer East Bay folks, as Friday might get as hot as 97 in the Concord area! Make sure that you, your fellow humans and furry companions stay cool and drink plenty of water before, during and after spending time outdoors. 🐶

GREAT LOCAL DEAL

Summer fashion alert: East Bay Express merch is in! Nothing shows your local love and cred like an EBX T-shirt, hoodie or tote bag. Check out our expanded merch line here — just pick a size and it’ll be shipped to you. 😎

TOP STORIES

1) A fire near the BART station in San Leandro disrupted service for a day

The Mercury News reports that BART service was restored to all 50 stations last Wednesday, following a fire near the San Leandro station the previous day that disrupted operations between the Lake Merritt, Berryessa and Dublin stations. Although all stations remained open, the green line (running from Berryessa to Daly City) remained inactive until 1pm due to track damage, with ongoing delays and reduced train speeds. As a detour, BART advised riders to take alternate routes via blue and orange lines to reach affected destinations. (I suspect this may be the first time many BART riders have even thought about the colors of the different lines on the agency’s service map — I myself can hardly remember which is which!) The disruption began around 5:45am Tuesday and partial service was restored by 5:30pm. The fire’s cause remains under investigation. This marks BART’s second major service interruption in less than two weeks, following a May 9 shutdown due to a network failure. Read more about that service outage, and the technical and financial mountains being moved to fix the underlying problem, in this in-depth investigation by KQED.

NBC also reported on the BART fire last week. (Video: NBC Bay Area via YouTube)

2) Oakland’s police chief wants to roll back restrictions on car chases

Oaklandside reports that the Oakland Police Department may soon rescind Special Order 9212 , a directive from 2022 that restricts officers from continuing vehicle pursuits at speeds over 50 mph without supervisor approval. The policy was enacted by then-Chief LeRonne Armstrong following a string of dangerous chases, including a fatal 2022 incident in which a high-speed pursuit without proper authorization resulted in the death of 27-year-old Lolomanaia “Lolo” Soakai. That year, OPD saw 130 chases — well above its annual average of 80 — prompting the order aimed at reducing injuries and deaths involving bystanders, suspects and officers. At a recent Oakland Police Commission meeting, dozens of residents supported Chief Floyd Mitchell’s proposal to roll back the order, arguing it hinders police effectiveness amid rising property crime and “smash-and-grab” thefts. Mitchell claims that 2022 was an anomaly, and that national best practices support his revisions — although critics, including civil rights attorneys and pursuit policy experts, warn that removing the speed cap and loosening reporting rules could lead to more crashes and reduced oversight, and hinder OPD’s ability to exit federal monitoring. The commission is weighing whether to adopt Mitchell’s recommendations, keep the current policy or propose their own, with no timeline yet set for a decision. Also worth noting: Chief Mitchell has stated that he does not support changing the policy in cases where officers are responding to car robberies or other property crimes.

Watch this KPIX report on the chief’s proposal, including an interview with Oakland City Councilmember Ken Houston. (Video: KPIX CBS News Bay Area via YouTube)

3) Low-income Alameda County residents are bracing for GOP-proposed cuts to Medicare and food stamps

Oaklandside reports that service providers in Alameda County are readying themselves for potential impacts from a federal spending bill that was just narrowly passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, and now heads to the Senate. The bill, backed by President Trump and dubbed the “big, beautiful bill” by Republicans, proposes steep cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, with the potential to leave millions uninsured and food-insecure. It includes $267 billion in cuts to SNAP (also known as food stamps) and introduces strict work requirements for both SNAP and Medicaid recipients. In Alameda County, around 170,000 people reportedly rely on CalFresh, and over half a million are enrolled in Medi-Cal. Local food bank leaders and patients interviewed by Oaklandside at Oakland’s Asian Health Services warned that the changes could devastate low-income communities and overburden safety-net organizations. Special attention is being paid to how the bill shifts SNAP costs onto states starting in 2028, potentially costing California taxpayers billions. Though the bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate, local officials are mobilizing — with a new county committee formed to monitor federal threats, and newly sworn-in Mayor Barbara Lee pledging to advocate for Oakland amid increasing hostility from the federal government toward “sanctuary cities.” Fun fact: While the Republican party touts the bill as part of its brand of “fiscal responsibility,” the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reports that the bill would increase the federal budget deficit by roughly $3 trillion, potentially reaching 130% of Gross Domestic Product (a measure of the nation’s economic output) by 2034.

Quick aside: I’m not all that old, but I’m old enough to remember when regressive tax cuts passed under President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003, likewise increasing the government’s budget deficit while failing to spur economic growth as promised. Perhaps it’s like the old saying goes: The more things change, the more things stay the same.

Watch this CBS report on the bill and its uncertain future in the Senate. (Photo: CBS News via YouTube)

4) A new local news outlet may be coming to Albany

The Berkeley Scanner reports that a grassroots group of Albany residents is working to launch a new local news site, and is circulating a survey to gather input on what the community wants to read. The all-volunteer team, many of whom are longtime locals with backgrounds in journalism or civic engagement, hopes to support a general-interest news outlet that offers traditional coverage alongside community dialogue through comments and op-eds. Citing a lack of dedicated Albany reporting since the decline of outlets like the Albany Journal and the Albany Patch, the group is seeking feedback on coverage priorities, potential funding models and even possible names for the site. Berkeley Scanner founder Emilie Raguso, a former Albany Patch editor, has joined the effort as an informal advisor, lending her recent experience launching the Scanner. The initiative remains in its early stages, with organizers hoping to attract a seasoned journalist to lead the project as plans take shape.

In my humble opinion, local news is one of the most important and overlooked institutions in our society, and the lack of dedicated local news coverage is an imminent threat to democracy. Just take the example of my former classmate and one-time Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs, who lost his reelection bid after extremist right-wing bloggers subjected him to a targeted disinformation campaign (also known as “lying repeatedly”), and there was no professional local news outlet out there to fact-check them. In light of recent reporting that Democratic party strategists are dropping millions of dollars on sophisticated media strategies to fix the party’s publicity issues, it’s especially galling to hear so little from our leaders at the national level about the dearth of local journalism. We need many more efforts like this one in Albany, and they can’t come soon enough. Simply put, I’m not interested in a “liberal Joe Rogan,” as much as some might enjoy that — what we really need is at least 3,244 Emilie Ragusos, one for every county in the United States. Maybe you can be one of them.

Also, I’ll add: While the East Bay Express works day and night to cover Albany along with the rest of the East Bay, our dedicated team of reporters and editors can’t do it all — they might seem superhuman to us, but I’m told they do, in fact, need to sleep sometimes. Even though we’re hardly in a news desert, it’s not quite sufficient to aspire for a news oasis. For democracy to thrive, we need a veritable rainforest of local news, lush with nuance and primary sources, with fact-checking reporters propagating like pollen across the land. Bring it on!

Learn more about why we need local news in this segment from PBS News Hour. (Video: PBS via YouTube)

CLIP OF THE WEEK

Hey, Oakland — your new mayor, Barbara Lee, was just sworn into office! Watch her give a speech at this historic ceremony, as she becomes the first Black woman to lead the city. (Video: KPIX CBS News Bay Area via YouTube)

That just about wraps it up for me this week. Don’t forget to support local journalism, and if you must be a part of local news yourself, do try to make sure it’s a good story!

Take care,

— Diego Aguilar-Canabal

About me: I was born and raised in Silver Spring, MD, and have also lived in Mexico City. After coming to the Bay Area in 2010, I have dabbled in fields such as journalism, music technology and social services, but I most recently served as a legislative assistant with the City of Berkeley. I am currently studying accounting because I enjoy learning about how things work. 

Please send any questions, comments, criticisms, tips, cool photos or curry recipes to me directly at d.aguilarcanabal@gmail.com.