Alameda News - Local Alameda County News

Highwire Coffee expands to new Walnut Creek location

Wed, 07 Aug 2024 04:44:25 +0000

Highwire Coffee, a small East Bay-based coffee house chain with Oakland roots, kickstarted the soft launch of its new Walnut Creek location July 22.

Situated inside The Waymark, a new apartment complex just outside the Walnut Creek BART entrance, this is Highwire’s first foray east of the Caldecott Tunnel.

At the Walnut Creek location, they’re putting an added emphasis on offering cold, refreshing drinks, says co-owner Robert Myers, because, well, “it’s notable how much hotter it is (than) on the other side of the tunnel.”

Those cold drinks include a seasonal iced lavender latte, as well as their “Cruel Summer” iced tea, a variation on the Arnold Palmer featuring lemonade, watermelon syrup and lychee flavors, and cold sparkling tea drinks. The cafe’s pastries come from croissant and viennoiserie specialists Starter Bakery and Third Culture Bakery, which specializes in mochi-based baked goods. They also offer chai sourced from Tipu’s Chai.

Rich Avella and Robert Myers, owners of Highwire Coffee, sit inside the lobby of Walnut Creek’s new Waymark building, home to the coffee house’s newest location. (Courtesy Highwire)

Myers started the first Highwire in 2011 with Rich Avella and Eric Hashimoto (who has since retired), who all worked together at Peet’s in the 1990s. The Highwire name was inspired by the idea of finding balance along a tightrope that spanned Peet’s and Starbucks-style dark roasts and lighter roasts that had become popular during that era, serving up high-quality coffee while remaining inclusive and unpretentious.

“I really wanted something more approachable, something we could bring our families, parents and friends to and not worry about whether you were cool or not,” Myers says.

Details: Open weekdays 6:30 a.m.-3 p.m. and weekends 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m. at 200 Station Way (outside the Walnut Creek BART station at the Waymark Transit Village); highwirecoffee.com.

Highwire Coffee expands to new Walnut Creek location

Wed, 07 Aug 2024 04:44:21 +0000

Highwire Coffee, a small East Bay-based coffee house chain with Oakland roots, kickstarted the soft launch of its new Walnut Creek location July 22.

Situated inside The Waymark, a new apartment complex just outside the Walnut Creek BART entrance, this is Highwire’s first foray east of the Caldecott Tunnel.

Rich Avella and Robert Myers, owners of Highwire Coffee, sit inside the lobby of Walnut Creek’s new Waymark building, home to the coffee house’s newest location. (Courtesy Highwire)

“I really wanted something more approachable, something we could bring our families, parents and friends to and not worry about whether you were cool or not,” Myers says.

Details: Open weekdays 6:30 a.m.-3 p.m. and weekends 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m. at 200 Station Way (outside the Walnut Creek BART station at the Waymark Transit Village); highwirecoffee.com.

‘Why would you do this to me?’ Southwest Airlines allegedly fired Black supervisor for complaining about racism at SFO

Wed, 07 Aug 2024 04:40:01 +0000

Joseph Pitts wakes up in the night reliving what he says was the blatant racism he experienced working for Southwest Airlines at San Francisco International Airport.

Further troubling Pitts’ sleep are the financial struggles for his family that came because Southwest, instead of stopping the anti-Black racism he persistently reported, fired him instead, he alleges in a lawsuit accusing the airline of racial discrimination and harassment, wrongful firing and retaliation.

“It makes me have this anxiety, it makes me feel, ‘Was it the right thing that I did?’ Because you’re jobless, you don’t have any income,” Pitts, 53, of Oakley, said in an interview.

Southwest declined to comment on the lawsuit, which Pitts filed last week in San Mateo County Superior Court. Pitts is seeking unspecified damages.

Pitts started working for Southwest in early 2022 as a ramp agent at San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport. The racism, he alleged in the lawsuit, started when he was promoted to supervisor of ramp agents and transferred to San Francisco International Airport in August 2023.

He was still in training when a Black ramp agent first directed the n-word at him, the lawsuit said. A fellow supervisor reprimanded the man, noting he had used the slur at work before, the lawsuit said. But after the meeting, the man said the word to Pitts again, and when Pitts told him he did not like it, the man said he would not do it again, but almost immediately did, the lawsuit said.

“I didn’t want to come to work and hear that,” Pitts said in an interview, adding that many of the ramp agents had worked in the facility for years. “I knew it was going to stir up a pot, but these working conditions are not right. For a Fortune 500 company, I wouldn’t think they would have this going on.”

After Pitts made several complaints to his bosses about ongoing use of the racial slur by workers of all races, a supervisor told him a ramp agent threatened to file frivolous grievances against him to “get him out,” the lawsuit said.

Pitts’ lawsuit echoes claims against other Bay Area companies. Last month, a Black former worker for an airport-services firm at San Francisco International Airport filed a lawsuit claiming a company locker had a sticker on it showing Adolf Hitler and a swastika, and that his supervisor made him dine alone in a dirty-laundry storage area known as “the cage.”

Tesla is facing a host of legal actions, including a class-action lawsuit alleging Black workers at the company’s Fremont electric car factory have been subjected to abuses including rampant racist slurs and graffiti. Two judges have pointed to widespread racism at the Fremont plant.

The law firm representing Pitts is suing Southwest on behalf of three other Black ramp agents making similar racism claims.

When a Southwest administrator came to SFO to deliver training in October of last year, Pitts asked him if he knew about the frequent use of the slur at the airline’s facility, the lawsuit said. When the man told him he had heard about it, Pitts related his experiences, and identified three employees he believed were targeting him, the lawsuit said.

The alleged abuse and failure of Southwest to halt it gave Pitts chest pains, and a doctor advised him to take some time off work, he said. Pitts provided a note from the doctor to his managers, he said.

Still, one manager expressed concerns about Pitts’ attendance and threatened to fire him, the lawsuit alleged. She told him if he was unhappy at SFO he could be transferred to another airport, but would be demoted, the lawsuit claimed. Such a demotion would have slashed his pay by about a third, to $20 an hour, Pitts said.

In mid-November, Pitts and another supervisor were talking in the supervisors’ office, next to the break room, with the door open, and a ramp agent walked into the break room and loudly complained that workers could not “say the b-word and the n-word anymore,” then swore and said the n-word, the lawsuit said. When Pitts came into the break room afterward, he was met with hostile glares, the lawsuit said.

In early December, tension between Pitts and Southwest ramp agents escalated, with two agents blocking him from helping another agent load baggage onto a belt, the lawsuit said. One of the men told a manager he had gathered 50 signatures from ramp agents pledging to file grievances against Pitts, the lawsuit said.

Soon after, the manager said Southwest had decided to put a sign in the break room telling workers not to use the racial slur, according to the lawsuit. The next day, the manager told him the airline had finished its investigation into his reports of a hostile work environment and retaliation by workers against him, the lawsuit said. Then the manager fired him on the grounds that he had failed to assist in the investigation, the lawsuit claimed.

Pitts had to dig into his retirement funds after losing his position in December as primary breadwinner in the home he shares with his wife and their adopted children — a son, 10, and daughter, 9, he said. Health insurance for him and his family via the Southwest job is gone. His wife, currently ill, is putting off a visit to the doctor because of the cost, and he has yet to find work since his December termination, Pitts said.

“Why would you do this to somebody who was trying to make changes, who was trying to tell you that these people are violating company policy?” Pitts said. “Why would you do this to me?”

‘Why would you do this to me?’ Southwest Airlines allegedly fired Black supervisor for complaining about racism at SFO

Wed, 07 Aug 2024 04:39:56 +0000

Joseph Pitts wakes up in the night reliving what he says was the blatant racism he experienced working for Southwest Airlines at San Francisco International Airport.

“It makes me have this anxiety, it makes me feel, ‘Was it the right thing that I did?’ Because you’re jobless, you don’t have any income,” Pitts, 53, of Oakley, said in an interview.

Southwest declined to comment on the lawsuit, which Pitts filed last week in San Mateo County Superior Court. Pitts is seeking unspecified damages.

The law firm representing Pitts is suing Southwest on behalf of three other Black ramp agents making similar racism claims.

“Why would you do this to somebody who was trying to make changes, who was trying to tell you that these people are violating company policy?” Pitts said. “Why would you do this to me?”

$1 million debt led to fallout, spat between apparent targets of FBI’s Oakland probe, records say

Wed, 07 Aug 2024 04:34:57 +0000

OAKLAND — A key figure in the federal government’s sprawling public corruption probe here also faces accusations that he stiffed the embattled and politically-connected Duong family out of $1 million over a failed housing venture, newly obtained records show.

The allegations against Mario Juarez — a two-time Oakland City Council candidate and longstanding political operative — shed new light on the close-knit ties that he shared with the Duong family, who own Oakland’s recycling contractor. And the new details offer fresh insight into a dispute that turned physical in early May between the two sides claiming the other owed them money.

A month later, the FBI raided addresses tied to David Duong and his son, Andy Duong, as part of a wide-ranging investigation that also included a raid of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s house in the Oakland Hills. The headquarters of the Duong family’s city-contracted trash recycling company, California Waste Solutions, was also targeted in the raid.

Federal authorities have said little about the scope of the investigation since the June 20 raids. But federal grand jury subpoenas sent last month show that investigators appear to be casting a wide net by ordering the city to produce records relating to Mayor Thao’s significant other, Andre Jones, the former Oakland Army Base, Thao’s own calendar and Oakland Police Department phone directories.

Among the entities targeted in the federal probe is an obscure housing developer named Evolutionary Homes that was founded by Mario Juarez and David Duong in 2022. The company appears to have fizzled amid a growing rift between Juarez and members of the Duong family.

Juarez approached the Duong family with the idea of building homes out of revamped shipping containers for homeless women and children. The company shared a business address with the Duongs’ main business venture, CalWaste Solutions, and had a show room on another floor of that same Oakland waterfront office building.

Evolutionary Homes appears to have garnered attention among local Oakland officials this past winter, as Juarez sought to secure government funding for the company. The shipping container-like homes were to be built in Mexico and shipped or trucked up to the Bay Area.

Yet the deal appears to have gone sour, authorities say.

Andy Duong, California Waste Solutions Director. (Facebook photo)

Andy Duong told an Alameda County District Attorney’s Office inspector that his family initially invested $800,000 into the venture for 50 container homes, and that their commitment ultimately rose to $1 million. But they claimed that Juarez failed to deliver on that investment, providing only two homes before the family decided to walk away from the project, according to investigative records obtained by this news organization.

When the Duongs pressed Juarez, he “would make excuses about being close, or that worker or material costs were slowing things down,” the investigative records say.

The soured business relations came to a head on May 3, when Juarez arrived at the Duongs’ office space at 1211 Embarcadero to confront them with claims that the family still owed him money to pay his workers in Mexico, authorities said. A member of the family told the district attorney’s office that Juarez “held them for hours demanding money and they feared for their safety, because he is known to carry weapons,” the documents say.

Juarez’s attorney later said that Juarez had been assaulted during the encounter, which was reported to the Oakland Police Department.

Barely a month later, Juarez claimed he was the target of an assassination attempt when gunmen unloaded an estimated nine shots at Juarez while he was outside his East Oakland house, according to police records. Juarez ducked for cover and fired off four rounds from his registered .40-caliber Glock pistol — ending what he claimed to police to be an attempt on his life as “retaliation” for his involvement in a criminal investigation, according to the report.

The Evolutionary Homes saga isn’t the only business deal that has come to the attention of local authorities involving Juarez, a prolific businessman who dabbled in entertainment, clean energy and real estate. He was forced to surrender his real estate license in 2015 amid allegations of wrongful business dealings, state records show.

The district attorney’s real estate fraud unit is investigating whether Juarez defaulted on a quarter-million dollar loan with a prominent Chinatown leader nearly three years ago, while misrepresenting key aspects of the collateral that was used to secure that line of credit, investigative records show.

Stewart Chen, who heads the Oakland Chinatown Improvement Council, told investigators that he started doing business with Juarez after Andy Duong vouched for him.

At first, Juarez sought a $100,000 high-interest loan from Chen in December 2021 that he fully repaid, the records say.

But trouble allegedly started after Juarez secured a second, $250,000 high-interest loan from Chen just weeks after repaying the first loan. When Juarez allegedly ran late on his payments, Chen realized an issue with the property Juarez had used as collateral for the deal: it had already been used to secure a loan more than 10 times as large from someone else, the records show.

The East Oakland property at the center of Chen’s loan had already been used as collateral for a $3 million loan that Juarez sought in November 2021 from a company called Balboa LLC, according to the records. Chen told investigators he wouldn’t have agreed to the loans had he known this information, and that Juarez became “antagonistic,” “dismissive” and “threatening” when pressed to make good on the deal, records show.

OAKLAND, CA – AUGUST 22: President of the Oakland Chinatown Improvement Council Stewart Chen speaks to the media during an Anti-Asian Hate rally held at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza in Oakland, Calif., on Monday, Aug. 22, 2022. The rally was in response to the killing of a 60-year-old woman named Lili Xu around 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon in Little Saigon. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

In an interview, Chen confirmed the loan wasn’t paid back. “It sucks,” Chen said. “It’s my money that I’m counting on for retirement. I don’t know if I’m ever going to see a dime of it.”

Juarez appears to have defaulted on that initial $3 million loan from Balboa, and the property was foreclosed upon in early December 2022. As a result, the deal cost Balboa LLC closer to $4 million, the records show.

As part of their inquiry, the DA’s real estate fraud unit has begun delving into Juarez’s financial holdings and have signaled their intent to pull his bank records, records show. His attorney, Ernie Castillo, declined to comment on the active investigation. No charges have been filed.

Juarez was already in legal peril concerning another allegation of unpaid debt.

Alameda County prosecutors in January charged him in a felony fraud case that stemmed from election mailers Juarez allegedly orchestrated against Thao’s chief political rival — mayoral opponent Loren Taylor — during the final 10 days of the 2022 mayoral campaign. His attack ads also targeted mayoral candidate Ignacio De La Fuente and former Mayor Libby Schaaf.

Prosecutors say Juarez commissioned the flyers from a family-owned Oakland mailing company by writing nearly $53,600 in checks that bounced because he had less than $215 in this bank account at the time, court records show. He has since pleaded not guilty. His attorney, Castillo, has previously framed the charges by District Attorney Pamela Price’s office as “politically motivated and unfortunate.”

A hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence to bring the case to trial has not happened yet.

Castillo last week asked a judge to delay it, citing plans to file a motion seeking to recuse the DA’s office from the case, due to “vindictive” and “outrageous” behavior. That motion had yet to be filed as of Tuesday afternoon.

Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.

Oakland police union calls for Mayor Sheng Thao’s resignation

Wed, 07 Aug 2024 04:33:17 +0000

OAKLAND — In their most forceful comments to date, leaders of the Oakland police union on Tuesday called for Mayor Sheng Thao to immediately resign and said they would back the recall effort if she doesn’t step down.

The four-person executive board of the Oakland Police Officers Association, led by President Huy Nguyen and Vice President Tim Dolan, voted unanimously to demand Thao’s resignation, according to a letter addressed to the mayor and shared publicly Tuesday.

“We’re a joke and not just in the state but in the country and world. We need to change the state of the city,” Sgt. Nguyen said at a press conference Tuesday.

Nguyen and Dolan, also a police sergeant, cited bouts of violent crime, understaffing in the police department, an unclear future financial future for the city and the recent FBI raid of Thao’s Oakland home as reasons why Oakland needs new leadership.

The department currently has 678 officers, but it needs between 1,000 and 1,200 officers to be fully staffed and equipped to respond to the number of calls they receive on a daily basis, according to the OPOA’s letter to Thao.

In a statement, Thao said the budget adopted last month “prioritized public safety by funding two new police academies and prevented the elimination of over 80 police officer positions.” The mayor also touted “significant reductions in robberies, shootings, and homicides.”

“I urge the four-member executive team of the Oakland Police Officers’ Association to join me in celebrating this achievement rather than attempting to scare the public with misinformation and falsehoods,” Thao’s statement said.

A spokesperson for Thao said “the mayor has no plans to resign.”

If Thao does not step down, Nguyen said the association plans to fully back a recall campaign that qualified for the Nov. 5 ballot after enough required signatures were gathered and verified.

While Oakland has faced budget woes and high crime rates before Thao took office early last year, Nguyen said the city’s fumbling of a state retail theft grant happened under Thao’s watch, as have a number of violent crimes including a shooting that injured four people at a large sideshow this past weekend. And while crimes against people are down compared to prior years, Nguyen asserted that property crime data is at least four months out of date.

The leaders of the police union, who represent hundreds of rank-and-file officers, called the FBI raid of Thao’s home on June 20 a “turning point.” Since the June 20 raids, Thao has faced similar calls for her resignation from the leaders of the recall effort. Thao has repeatedly said she is innocent and not a target of the federal investigation, which remains ongoing.

The union leaders on Tuesday were joined by the association’s spokesman, Sam Singer, who also represents LeRonne Armstrong, the Oakland police chief fired by Thao last year. Armstrong is running for the city’s at-large council seat in this fall’s election.

“On top of the devastating, out-of-control violence and crime, the City of Oakland is currently in a fiscal crisis, and should it result in bankruptcy, this will only lead to a further deterioration of public safety,” read the letter to Thao. “Every day you are in office, Oakland is less safe. Your administration has turned Oakland into an international embarrassment.”

Oakland police union calls for Mayor Sheng Thao’s resignation

Wed, 07 Aug 2024 04:33:12 +0000

“We’re a joke and not just in the state but in the country and world. We need to change the state of the city,” Sgt. Nguyen said at a press conference Tuesday.

A spokesperson for Thao said “the mayor has no plans to resign.”

If Thao does not step down, Nguyen said the association plans to fully back a recall campaign that qualified for the Nov. 5 ballot after enough required signatures were gathered and verified.

Letters: Unattainable dream | Opponents unite | Out of touch | Organ harvesting | Project 2025 | Netanyahu’s war

Wed, 07 Aug 2024 04:32:19 +0000

Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.

American dream isunattainable for most

Re: “Wealthy buyers dominate market” (Page A1, July 30).

If, as suggested in your article, “only the wealthiest” in the Bay Area can buy a home, what exactly does that mean?

Left unsaid is the unfortunate truth: Regular people with regular jobs cannot afford to buy a home in the Bay Area. Your article notes that a person buying a house today at the median price would have a mortgage of $7,287. According to standard home-buying metrics, that person should have a monthly income of about $25,000. Most I know are closer to making $25,000 a year than $25,000 a month.

Is it now acceptable that the American dream is unattainable — if only by the vast majority?

Philip RapierOakland

Political opponentsmust find way to unite

No matter who wins in November, the future of this nation depends on Americans respecting each other and working together, despite our differences. The challenge today is that our differences are greater than ever in our most basic beliefs about the nature of humanity, the universe and God; and, because of this, on most issues.

But for freedom and democracy to survive we must not succumb to the temptation to hate those on the other side from us on the issues and to want our side to have complete domination. History shows that single-party domination always leads to corruption and oppression.

Braver Angels is a civic organization that for the past 20 years has been successfully bringing Democrats, Republicans and Independents together for constructive engagement and cooperation. If you want to be part of the solution to our polarization rather than part of the problem, check it out.

Christopher AndrusDublin

Trump comments onHarris’ race out of touch

Re: “Trump suggests VP Harris misled voters about her race” (Page A3, Aug. 1).

Donald Trump is sounding more and more like the crazy uncle who says ridiculous things after drinking too much.

Of course, he has a history of making outrageous statements and making false statement. It is surely time to take away his car keys.

Ed GreenOakland

Support bills to stoporgan harvesting

On June 25, the U.S. House unanimously passed HR 4132, the Falun Gong Protection Act. This bill marks the first U.S. legislative initiative to combat the forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners in China. Falun Gong is a traditional Chinese practice grounded in the principles of truthfulness, compassion and forbearance. In 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began a brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, which later escalated to the forcible removal of their organs for profit.

Members of Congress, including Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, deserve gratitude for unanimously passing HR 4132. We urge Sens. Laphonza Butler and Alex Padilla of California to co-sponsor the Senate companion bill (S. 4914). This legislation aims to help end forced organ harvesting in China and prevent American medical centers and patients, including those in the East Bay, from becoming unwitting accomplices to these crimes.

Jinchi LuWalnut Creek

Project 2025 shouldguide your vote

Every citizen must read the contents of Project 2025 before voting in November.

The Republican vice presidential candidate, JD Vance, wrote the foreword to a new book by Project 2025 leader Kevin Roberts. Vance states, “We are going to circle the wagons and load the muskets.” This is the MAGA-nominated vice presidential candidate speaking. I want to know who he plans on shooting with his muskets, don’t you?

Please read the entire Project 2025, or visit Hungary to live the life Project 2025 outlines for you. Then go vote.

Robert CelesteFremont

Netanyahu’s war isreal act of terrorism

There is a second holocaust going on in Gaza. Tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians have been slaughtered, mostly children and women. Their entire homeland has been obliterated, including homes, schools, hospitals, places of worship, cultural monuments, treatment plants, water and waste infrastructure and arable land. All this has happened with U.S.-supplied weapons. The entire surviving population of millions has been rendered refugees with no place to go. Starvation and disease are rampant. United Nations orders for a cease-fire have been ignored.

Meanwhile, Benjamin Netanyahu lectures us about the triumph of civilized vs. uncivilized people. He is committing this genocide. He is the terrorist.

Jon HarwayneWalnut Creek

Letters: Unattainable dream | Opponents unite | Out of touch | Organ harvesting | Project 2025 | Netanyahu’s war

Wed, 07 Aug 2024 04:32:16 +0000

Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.

American dream is
unattainable for most

Re: “Wealthy buyers dominate market” (Page A1, July 30).

If, as suggested in your article, “only the wealthiest” in the Bay Area can buy a home, what exactly does that mean?

Is it now acceptable that the American dream is unattainable — if only by the vast majority?

Philip Rapier
Oakland

Political opponents
must find way to unite

Christopher Andrus
Dublin

Trump comments on
Harris’ race out of touch

Re: “Trump suggests VP Harris misled voters about her race” (Page A3, Aug. 1).

Donald Trump is sounding more and more like the crazy uncle who says ridiculous things after drinking too much.

Of course, he has a history of making outrageous statements and making false statement. It is surely time to take away his car keys.

Ed Green
Oakland

Support bills to stop
organ harvesting

Jinchi Lu
Walnut Creek

Project 2025 should
guide your vote

Every citizen must read the contents of Project 2025 before voting in November.

Please read the entire Project 2025, or visit Hungary to live the life Project 2025 outlines for you. Then go vote.

Robert Celeste
Fremont

Netanyahu’s war is
real act of terrorism

Meanwhile, Benjamin Netanyahu lectures us about the triumph of civilized vs. uncivilized people. He is committing this genocide. He is the terrorist.

Jon Harwayne
Walnut Creek

Harris taps ‘down the middle’ Midwestern running mate to foil GOP’s ‘San Francisco liberal’ jabs

Wed, 07 Aug 2024 04:31:00 +0000

When Kamala Harris picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate Tuesday, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised him as a “heartland of American Democrat” and a “down the middle” Midwesterner who will appeal to working class families and rural Americans.

In other words, a perfect balance to Oakland-born and Berkeley-raised Harris, the daughter of 1960s Berkeley civil rights activists.

Ninety days to the presidential election, Harris and Walz appeared at their first rally together Tuesday afternoon at Temple University in Philadelphia. The indoor arena was bursting with a capacity crowd of about 10,000 people, a stark contrast to a joint Philadelphia rally with Biden and Harris in late May when they filled one-third of a school gym.

In front of the deafening crowd, Walz talked about Harris’ career as a prosecutor and attorney general in California and how she “fought on the side of the American people.” Then he launched into his own Midwest upbringing, how he spent summers working on the family farm in Nebraska.

“These same values I learned on the family farm and tried to instill in my students, I took to Congress and the state capital, and now, Vice President Harris and I are running to take them to the White House,” he said.

He also took a shot at Trump.

“Donald Trump — he sees the world differently,” Walz said. “He doesn’t know the first thing about service — because he’s too busy serving himself.”

The GOP messaging against Walz started almost immediately: Walz is a “West Coast wannabe,” the Trump campaign said in a statement, who is “obsessed with spreading California’s dangerously liberal agenda far and wide.”

Trump’s running mate JD Vance quickly portrayed Walz as a “San Francisco-style liberal.”

As each side scrambled Tuesday to define the largely unknown Minnesota governor in an ever-tightening presidential race, California and the Bay Area have, once again, become the bogeyman of presidential election politics, would-be examples of progressivism run amok.

“Republicans have clearly discovered that California is a bad brand in the Midwest for Midwest voters,” said UC San Diego political science professor Thad Kousser. “So they’re trying to do everything they can to tie someone to this brand, as if Kamala Harris chose (Gov.) Gavin Newsom as her running mate.”

(Newsom, for his part, sent out a press release Tuesday, describing Walz as “a brilliant choice” and seeking donations to their campaigns.)

Among the finalists Harris considered for the vice president role — including Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona — Walz can be seen as the most liberal. He championed a free lunch program for all Minnesota students, was an early supporter of gay rights, and has championed tighter gun controls.

Harris’ choice is a risk, said Dan Schnur who teaches political communications at UC Berkeley and USC.

“Generally, when you have a more progressive candidate, you want to balance the ticket with someone more centrist,” Schnur said. “Harris has benefited over the last few weeks from this tremendous, tremendous enthusiasm and excitement from the Democratic base. They may be calculating that keeping that excitement going is their best bet.”

California became a foil to Donald Trump in 2015, when he was running for president the first time and an undocumented immigrant killed a young San Francisco woman with a stolen gun. Trump assailed San Francisco’s “sanctuary city” policies. The city, as well as Pelosi, have become favorite GOP targets ever since. Some believe that Pelosi, who still represents San Francisco in Congress and recently published “The Art of Power,” may well have exerted her legendary influence over Harris’s selection.

“Pelosi clearly has been a driver of this,” said Sonoma State Political Science Professor David McCuan. “She is someone who clearly is the political godmother of the vice president in a positive way, in a mature way, because she gives her the running room to make her own decisions.”

Despite Trump’s characterization of Walz as spending his governorship “trying to reshape Minnesota in the image of the Golden State,” Walz brings personal assets that tend to appeal to more moderate voters — the ones the Harris-Walz campaign will be taking to the swing states in the three months running up to the Nov. 5 election.

Walz is the highest non-commissioned officer ever to serve in the U.S. House, he is an avid hunter and fisherman, a former history teacher and football coach. And ay 60, he’s a white middle-aged man.

As U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips, the Minnesota Democrat who ran against Biden in the Democratic primaries, put it: “Tim Walz can fix a lawnmower, fire a cannon, and fiercely protect women’s freedoms. All in one day.”

Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during a campaign rally with Democratic presidential candidate, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris at Girard College on Aug. 6, 2024 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Harris ended weeks of speculation about who her running mate would be, selecting the 60-year-old Midwestern governor over other candidates. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Lyndsey Schlax, a Democrat and history teacher from the East Bay city of Alameda, says that while she doesn’t agree with everything about Walz — or Harris for that matter — she is looking for a little levity in the presidential campaign that the ticket can bring.

She’s been watching memes her friends sent her all morning.

“There’s a lot of laughter. There’s a lot of jokes. There’s silliness. There’s all these pictures, like Walz holding a piglet and laughing his head off, or posting a picture of his cat being upset that the cat didn’t get Taylor Swift tickets,” Schlax, 43, said. “That so just taps into this kind of feeling of joy and hope.”

But will any of it matter on election day in November? Vice presidential candidates rarely move the needle much, although there’s potential to lose voters if they mess up, like some suggest Vance has by denigrating women without children who love cats.

“Really, what Kamala Harris did is a safe pick that she hopes solidifies her support in Minnesota and extends to places like Michigan and Wisconsin,” said Kousser from UC San Diego. “And if it just does that and doesn’t get her in trouble, that’ll be a successful VP pick.”

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris aposes for a photo with supporters at a campaign rally in Philadelphia, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Harris taps ‘down the middle’ Midwestern running mate to foil GOP’s ‘San Francisco liberal’ jabs

Wed, 07 Aug 2024 04:30:55 +0000

In other words, a perfect balance to Oakland-born and Berkeley-raised Harris, the daughter of 1960s Berkeley civil rights activists.

He also took a shot at Trump.

“Donald Trump — he sees the world differently,” Walz said. “He doesn’t know the first thing about service — because he’s too busy serving himself.”

Trump’s running mate JD Vance quickly portrayed Walz as a “San Francisco-style liberal.”

(Newsom, for his part, sent out a press release Tuesday, describing Walz as “a brilliant choice” and seeking donations to their campaigns.)

Harris’ choice is a risk, said Dan Schnur who teaches political communications at UC Berkeley and USC.

She’s been watching memes her friends sent her all morning.

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris aposes for a photo with supporters at a campaign rally in Philadelphia, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

White Sox beat A’s to end AL record-tying losing streak at 21 games

Wed, 07 Aug 2024 04:24:04 +0000

OAKLAND — Andrew Benintendi hit a two-run homer and the Chicago White Sox snapped their American League record-tying losing streak at 21 games on Tuesday night, beating the Oakland Athletics 5-1.

Jonathan Cannon gave up one run over six innings to end his personal drought while helping the White Sox to their first victory since early July.

“It was just really good to get this behind us. I thought we played a clean game today,” White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. “Any time you win it’s great. Any time you win when you lose 21 in a row it’s even better. I’m proud of these guys.”

Chicago on Monday matched the longest losing streak since the 1988 Baltimore Orioles lost 21 in a row, falling to the Athletics 5-1. The NL record since 1900 is held by the 1961 Philadelphia Phillies, who lost 23 straight.

The major league low belongs to the 1889 Louisville Colonels, an American Association team that lost 26 consecutive games during a 27-111 season.

Even with the victory, the White Sox did little celebrating. They exchanged high-fives leaving the field then had soft music playing in the clubhouse afterward.

“I think it’s just a sigh of relief,” Cannon said. “We’re all major league players, we got a lot of confidence in ourselves to go out and do our jobs every night. Just wasn’t working out for us. Proud we could put it together tonight. It was a team effort all around.”

Benintendi hit his second two-run home run in three days off a fastball from A’s starter Ross Stripling down the right field line into the stands in the fourth inning. Benintendi also doubled and scored in the ninth.

After Zack Gelof cut the lead in half with his 14th home run of the season in the fourth, the White Sox scored twice in the sixth to pull away.

Brooks Baldwin singled and scored on a wild pitch, and Andrew Vaughn hit an RBI single to make it 4-1.

Cannon (2-5) had been winless in six road starts this season. The rookie right-hander allowed six hits and had five strikeouts with two walks for the win, his first since July 10.

“I think Cannon’s got that ‘it’ factor, and what I mean by that is he’s got that will to succeed,” Grifol said. “It almost looked like this wasn’t going to continue on his watch. That’s what it felt like.”

Dominic Leone and Chad Kuhl retired all six batters they faced, and John Brebbia pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to finish it.

Stripling (2-11) allowed four runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings.

During warmups, Taylor Swift’s song “22” played over the loudspeakers at the Coliseum in a taunting fashion as a crowd of 5,867 danced and sang along.

Chicago, which had last won on July 10 in a doubleheader opener against Minnesota, moved to 28-88. The White Sox have been held to one run or none 32 times this season.

“They played a good, clean game tonight and we didn’t generate any offense,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “For that club over there, I’m sure they’re excited about ending their losing streak and getting a win.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Athletics: Closer Mason Miller is expected to be activated on Wednesday, according to manager Mark Kotsay. Miller has been sidelined with a broken finger on his left hand since July 23. … RHP Dany Jiménez (strained left oblique) began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Las Vegas.

UP NEXT

Athletics RHP Joey Estes (5-4, 4.77 ERA) faces the White Sox for the first time in his career Wednesday. Estes is unbeaten in six starts this season at the Coliseum. Chicago RHP Davis Martin (0-1, 7.11) will make his second start since missing all of 2023 following Tommy John surgery.

White Sox beat A’s to end AL record-tying losing streak at 21 games

Wed, 07 Aug 2024 04:24:00 +0000