Coliseum Sale Funds from AASEG Will Help Police, Fire, City Pensions By Post Staff
income for the city.
The Oakland City Council cast its final vote this week approving the sale of the Oakland Coliseum complex to Oakland-based African American Sports and Entertainment Group (AASEG) for $125 million, which supporters say will bring immense benefits to city residents including billions of dollars in future development, new jobs and housing to East Oakland, and generate much-needed
Mayor Barbara Lee thanked the City Council for approving the deal and city staff for the hard work negotiating the final agreement. “This agreement is one step forward toward creating jobs and economic opportunity in East and Deep East Oakland… communities that have been historically underserved,” Mayor Lee said in a Continued on page 8
Left to right: Zac Unger, John Jones III, Charlene Wang, Janani Ramachandran, Noel Gallo, Mateo Ridge, Ken Houston and Jonathan ‘Fitness’ Jones. Photo by Carla Thomas.
Oakland Post “Where there is no vision, the people perish...” Proverbs 29:18
63nd Year, No. 29
Weekly Edition July 22 - 28, 2026
postnewsgroup.com
Mount Zion MBC, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Partner to Bring 29,000 Meals to Alameda County
The interfaith community effort commemorates the 250th anniversary of the U.S.
Pastor Michael Wallace of Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church provides instruction as volunteers unpack pallets of food to be distributed. “We believe that having food is a basic human right and to address it is our Christian duty,” Wallace said. “That’s what makes this partnership so meaningful.” Courtesy photo. Special to The Post munity Food Bank (ACCFB), Mt. Tuesday, July 21. This was one of The need for food is significant. Young, executive director of Al- items on these lists, so we are exMore than 29,000 meals were Zion Missionary Baptist Church 250 trucks the LDS church is send- According to the ACCFB, 1 in 4 ameda County Community Food tremely grateful for this donation received and distributed at the his- (MZMBC), and the Church of ing throughout the United States. members of the community they Bank. “Our community and our to help more families stretch their toric Mount Zion Missionary Bap- Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints By the end of the year 10 million serve is experiencing or at risk of food bank face similar challenges budgets and get through these chalaccessing some of the highest qual- lenging summer months,” Young tist Church in West Oakland as part (LDS) partnered to address food pounds of food will be donated. hunger. insecurity throughout Alameda Each truck carries approximately “The challenges get much ity and high demand foods because said. of an interfaith community effort to 40,000 pounds of shelf-stable pan- harder during the summer when they are typically also the most exTwo days later, on July 23, ancommemorate the 250th anniver- County. A semi-truckload of food ar- try staples that can feed 1,400 fami- children no longer have access to pensive. sary of the United States. other semi-truck, this one bearing Continued on page 8 The Alameda County Com- rived at MZMBC in Oakland on lies for one week. healthy meals at school,” says Regi “Fresh milk is among the top
Enoch Shin, left, operator of an auto body shop on International Boulevard in Oakland, with City Councilmember Ken Houston, right, at the Oakland City Council meeting on Tuesday.
Councilmember Houston Helps Deter Trend to Award Contracts to Suburban Companies
Pushes for Oakland-based Firms to Provide Repair for City-Operated Vehicles
Part 1 By Post Staff Concerned about how Oakland-based and/or minority firms have been “systematically omitted from bidding on millions of
dollars of city work through the ‘waiver process’ and through neglect,” Oakland City Councilmember Ken Houston challenged an agenda item at Tuesday’s council meeting that would have
awarded more than $6 million to suburban contractors for body and fender work on City vehicles. Houston said, “I was concerned that, of the contracts presented, only one was awarded to a small, homegrown Oakland business—Quality Body & Fender located on Martin Luther King Jr., Way. The remaining contracts—with the exception of one additional contract added—were awarded to vendors located outside of city of Oakland (Dixon, Concord and San Leandro), leaving out certified Oakland businesses, some whom have been here for over 30 years. “As both a City Councilmember and someone who was born and raised in Oakland, I believe we have a responsibility to invest in the businesses that invest in our community. When qualified local companies have the expertise and capacity to perform the work, they deserve a fair opportunity to compete for City contracts. “I am proud to see Oakland’s Continued on page 8
NPRC to Meet with California Attorney General’s Office to Urge Guardianship Reform By Tanya Dennis The National Probate Reform Coalition (NPRC) has announced that Bernard ‘Bernie’ Black, a nationally respected legal scholar, will meet with California Assistant Attorney General Eleanor Blume on July 27 to discuss the urgent need for guardianship, conservatorship, and probate reform. The meeting marks another important step in NPRC’s effort to encourage California’s governor and attorney general to take a leadership role in addressing systemic
By Post Staff
Staff and family members of patients at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland in Oakland, Calif., hold signs during a rally on Thursday, July 9, 2026. Rally participants protested the relocation of specialized care clinics to the hospital’s San Francisco campus. Photo by Kayla Chan/Bay City News. Paola Portillo, a social worker, said the hospital started transferring the clinics a year ago when UCSF Health integrated with the
Children’s
Hospital
Oakland,
located at 747 52nd St. in North Oakland.
Continued on page 8
Bernard ‘Bernie’ Black. Courtesy photo.
ground. Even Congressional Rep. Garamendi, House Republicans have expressed resDemocrats Demand Trump ervations and attempted to keep money appropriated to the DeAdministration Abandon partment within the Department, Illegal Plans to Dismantle Civil rather than being outsourced through IAAs…,” the members Rights, Special Ed Offices of Congress wrote.
Oakland Children’s Hospital Workers and Patients Rally for Pediatric Medical Care Staff, families of patients and supporters held a rally recently at the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland to protest the hospital’s decision to relocate specialized treatment clinics to San Francisco. Protesters said the move is creating barriers for patients to access care and raised concerns over whether the hospital was appropriately using funds partially designated for pediatric services. In response, hospital officials say they are concentrating resources for highly specialized procedures so patients can receive the highest quality of care. One of the speakers at the rally,
abuse, financial exploitation, and the lack of meaningful oversight within probate and guardianship courts. Black has been a professor of law and finance at Northwestern University and Northwestern Pritzker School of Law since 2010. Before joining Northwestern, he served on the faculties of Stanford University, Columbia University, and the University of Texas at Austin, earning international recognition as one of America’s foremost Continued on page 8
Rep. John Garamendi. Courtesy photo. By Post Staff Congressman John Garamendi (CA-08) joined 85 House Democrats this week calling on the Department of Education to immediately abandon its plan to transfer the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative
Services (OSERS) to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to the Department of Justice (DOJ). In their letter, the members argued that the Trump Administration’s plan to dismantle OCR and OSERS through Interagency Agreements (IAAs) is unlawful because Congress established both offices and only Congress has the authority to eliminate them or alter their responsibilities. “The law is clear: Congress created OCR and OSERS and Congress alone can eliminate them. The use of Interagency Agreements to accomplish your ‘final mission’ – to eliminate the Department in all but name – is counter to the will of Congress and rests on questionable legal
The members also warned that transferring OCR and OSERS functions would weaken services for students, families, and individuals with disabilities because DOJ and HHS are illequipped to carry out the offices’ core functions. “The movement of OCR and OSERS also disrespects the very people who rely on those services. Specifically, these moves effectively segregate special education from the rest of the education system, moving it to an agency that has indicated it intends to treat disabilities as a health issue to be remedied, against the wishes of groups that advocate on behalf of disabled children and their families. Such action is particularly concerning given the inaccurate and harmful comContinued on page 8