OAKLAND CITY ATTORNEY John Russo and City Auditor Courtney Ruby held a press conference last week unveiling their five-point reform package aimed at restoring public confidence in local government in the wake of allegations of nepotism and interfering with an ongoing police investigation by the  

IT IS ABOUT this time, every four years, when the chattering class besieged by boredom, caught between the nothingness of a post-primary season and pre-convention coverage searches for relevant political stories.  

THE NEWLY released report by the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice can lead the staunchest supporters of capital punishment to only one conclusion: In its current form, the California death penalty policy does not work.  

AS THE NATION commemorates the 232nd anniversary of declaring its independence from British rule, I can think of no better time to ask: what is patriotism?  

IMAGINE for a moment that you're the mayor of Oakland and that you've discovered that the city administrator has been accused of involving herself in an ongoing police investigation that centered on one of her relatives.  

There are times when the Supreme Court is challenged not only to offer a legal ruling, but such rulings may require the court's moral force. That was the case when the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 to overturn the de jure segregation of Plessy v.  

BACK IN FEBRUARY, during the California primary, I received a phone call from an irate friend. With his decibel level far exceeding what reasonable persons would view as acceptable for a constructive phone conversation, he demanded that I immediately turn to C-SPAN — the cable-sponsored  

FOR ALL the attention that 1968 justifiably has garnered this year, let us also remember the acrimony and upheaval that existed in 1963.It was 45 years ago that the door officially closed on any notions that we lived in an Ozzie-and-Harriet society.