The Crusaders scored 28 points in the first quarter and didn’t look back in a rout of Salinas at home. Despite having four touchdowns called back because of penalties, the San Francisco school had no problem moving the ball against the Cowboys. The lead grew insurmountable in the second half as a running clock initiated in the third quarter. Riordan (10-0) will play Serra (7-4) for the Open Division title next week. – Nathan Canilao
No. 2 Serra 29, No. 7 Archbishop Mitty 13
The Padres rushed for 312 yards and shut down Mitty’s offensive attack to cruise to a 16-point win at home. Speedy receiver Charlie Walsh led Serra with a rushing and a receiving score. Kicker Saul Marks knocked in three field goals and Serra’s defense forced three turnovers.S Serra will get a rematch with Riordan – after falling to the Crusaders in the WCAL regular season finale – in the Open Division finals next week. Nathan Canilao was in San Mateo and has the story here.
CCS Division II
No. 2 Sacred Heart Cathedral 34, No. 7 Wilcox 21
After trailing by two at halftime, the Fightin’ Irish took over the game behind a second-half surge to down visiting Wilcox at City College of San Francisco. Three second half touchdowns from quarterback Michael Sargent charged SHC’s offense, and the San Francisco school’s defense held Wilcox to just one score in the final two periods to seal the win. SHC (5-6) will host another South Bay powerhouse in undefeated Santa Teresa (11-0) next week. – Nathan Canilao
No. 4 Menlo School 17, No. 5 The King’s Academy 7
Menlo earned a hard-fought postseason win, defeating TKA at home. Quarterback Jack Freehill threw a touchdown pass to Chuck Wynn and Trevor van der Pyl’s 82-yard pick-six in the fourth quarter sealed the win for Menlo. Dylan O’ Malley rounded out Menlo’s scoring with a 27-yard first-quarter field goal. Quarterback Jaiden Flores to wide receiver Ricky Gutierrez was the only score TKA had on Saturday. Menlo (9-2) will travel to top-seeded St. Ignatius next week for its semifinal game. TKA ends its season 9-2. – Nathan Canilao
CCS Division V
No. 2 Sobrato 28, No. 7 Santa Cruz 17
Sobrato advanced to the Division V semifinals after defeating Santa Cruz at home. Junior running back Brady Lennon led the way with rushing touchdowns from 35 and 10 yards. Jacob Sorrentino had a 75-yard touchdown grab and senior Jacob Kimerer had a 65-yard touchdown run. Sobrato improved to 7-4 and will host Terra Nova (8-3) next week.
NCS Division V
No. 3 Salesian 38, No. 6 Northgate 33
Quarterback Izeah Buchanan tossed four touchdown passes to lead the Pride to a win over Northgate at home. Basketball star Carlton Perrilliat Jr. caught two touchdown passes while Joseph Tarin had two receiving scores of his own as Salesian will advance to the section semifinals at Ferndale next Saturday. Senior Jahlil Lindsey had a 95-yard scoop-and-score and kicker Roberto Mora knocked in a 27-yard field goal to round out the scoring for Salesian. Northgate (5-6) ends its 2025 season one game under .500. – Nathan Canilao
From professional sports to high school sports, the outpouring of admiration and love for the 66-year-old former Oakland football coach who was gunned down on Thursday at Laney College and died Friday has been non-stop.
Beam coached Skyline High to 15 Oakland Athletic League championships from the 1980s to the early 2000s, then had similar success at Laney College before retiring from the sidelines last year and moving into his role as athletic director.
Along the way, the coach went from Oakland icon to nationally known when Netflix featured Beam’s Laney College program in its “Last Chance U” series in 2020.
Here is a sampling of what the local sports community is saying about Beam:
Bob Ladouceur, former De La Salle High football coach, on X: “John was good for Skyline, good for Laney, good for teenagers/young men. For all who coach college and High School…he was one of the best. He dedicated his life to his profession of making men out of boys.”
Damian Lillard, who played at Oakland High before becoming an NBA star, on Instagram: “This man is a true Oakland (l)egend and a GREAT man. Gave me my first job at Laney football games… Hundred(s) of kids all over Oakland became the type of men they are today because of this dude and for someone from that exact world to randomly come and take his life just ain’t right… this ain’t the Oakland I grew up in. Sh** sad!”
Charlie Ramirez, Pittsburg High football coach: “It’s extremely devastating, and honestly, simultaneously horrific and every other thing you could explain it to be. It was terrible. He was a mentor to me just like he was to so many coaches in the Bay Area. We were at their seven-on-seven this year, he’s come to my coaches clinics, not to mention he recruited the heck out of our guys at Laney, got a lot of them to the next level. Even though we’re out here in Pittsburg, he had a lot of strong ties with our program and he’s going to be extremely, extremely missed.”
Greg Calcagno, St. Francis football coach: “My dad (Ron) knew him really well. St. Francis played Skyline for a long time. And my dad spoke super highly of John. I knew John. He married a St. Francis alum, so I’d see him at the reunions. Just a great quality person, and the number of people that he helped, it’s just so sad to hear the news of his passing. It puts everything in perspective. This is a football game, right? And I get to coach kids that I love and coach with people that I love and against people that I respect. But this is just a football game. We can still smile at the end, sort of. But yeah, just super sad. A lot of our guys, they work out up at Laney, and they know all those guys. And so it was a tough day for them.”
Los Gatos High Head Coach Mark Krail takes part in a moment of silence honoring Laney College coach John Beam, who was killed during a shooting on Laney College’s campus, before the start of their Central Coast Section Open Division I playoff football game against Saint Francis High in Los Gatos, Calif., on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)
Mark Krail, Los Gatos football coach: “I never had the privilege (to meet him), but I certainly knew of him. And it broke my heart when we heard the news break, and then obviously the fact that he had passed was just awful. I mean, football in Oakland, his name is all over it, and it will be for a long, long time. It’s just a tragic, tragic loss for the city of Oakland, because there’s so many people that he helped their life go in the right direction. From what I understand, he was no-nonsense, and he would tell you how it was. A personality like that that is true to themselves, that’s full of integrity, that’s when guys rally around you and want to be a part of what you’re doing. And sometimes you get young kids, especially that have a tough upbringing, to see the light and see the right way of doing things. And he had 20 guys that were in the NFL, or something like that, I read. So that speaks to the success of him as a coach, but I think as a man, he was more highly regarded than that, just for his impact in the city of Oakland.”
Mike Cable, Liberty High football coach: “Coaching is so much more than X’s and O’s. It’s about the impact that you have in the lives of your players. It’s about the men that they grow up to be. He was the epitome of that.” Herc Pardi, former Pittsburg and Clayton Valley coach, in an email to Bay Area News Group: “UNBELIEVABLE!! My heart is crushed. What a tragedy. One of the more Dynamic coaches/teachers I ever met – period!! … Anytime I saw Coach down the road, we picked up right where we left off — FB chatter and some hearty laughs!! John was a CHANGE AGENT!! So sad.”
Oakland Ballers baseball team on X: “Our hearts are broken. Coach Beam was one of the first people to believe in the Oakland Ballers. He was part of our secret meetings, and he helped us make important connections within the Oakland community. As the Ballers grew, Coach Beam was a mentor, an advisor, an investor, and a friend of the team. We will miss him dearly, but his legacy and impact on the Oakland community will never be forgotten. Rest easy, Coach.”
Las Vegas Raiders on X: “The Raiders Family is tremendously saddened by the loss of John Beam, a coach, mentor, and friend to so many in Oakland and the entire Bay Area. John was an influential and guiding force both on and off the field for young athletes, and his decades of service will forever be woven into the fabric of football in the East Bay. The prayers of the entire Raider Nation are with John’s family, the Laney College community, and everyone else whose life he touched.”
Oakland Roots soccer team on X: “Today, our hearts are filled with tremendous sadness and grief at the passing of an Oakland icon, Coach John Beam. While his name was John Beam, everyone in Oakland knew him as Coach Beam – not only because he commanded deep respect, but because he was, and always will be, Oakland’s Coach. No one cared more about the past, present, and future of this great city and its youth.”
In the fall of 2023, Laney coach John Beam speaks with Oakland Section commissioner Franky Navarro before the Silver Bowl, the annual McClymonds vs Oakland Tech game and the Oakland Athletic League football championship game at McClymonds High School in Oakland. Beam was shot on Thursday and has died at the age of 66. (Joseph Dycus/Bay Area News Group) John Beam, Skyline head football coach, the All-ANG Coach of the Year Dec. 17, 2002. (D. Ross Cameron/ Tribune Archive)
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Darren Sabedra, Justice delos Santos, Christian Babcock
ANTIOCH – A pedestrian was killed in a hit-and-run collision Thursday night in Antioch, police said.
The crash happened just after 6:30 p.m. at the intersection of Marie Avenue and East 18th Street, Antioch police Lt. Gary Lowther said in a news release. Officers arrived to find the victim down in the roadway.
Lowther said the victim, identified only as a 60-year-old Antioch woman, received medical aid but died at the scene.
The police department’s traffic unit is investigating the crash.
Anyone with information related to the case can contact Officer Joshua Egan at 925-204-1587 or jegan@antiochca.gov, or the police department’s non-emergency line at 925-778-2441.
BERKELEY — Police scanners in Berkeley will officially be encrypted starting Thursday morning, officials said Wednesday.
Scanner encryption, the process of shifting officers and dispatch communication to a private channel, will align the city’s police department with other law enforcement offices in the East Bay that began encrypting their feeds in October.
Berkeley’s decision to fully encrypt has been influenced by multiple factors.
A 2020 memo by former Attorney General Xavier Becerra called on agencies to protect peoples’ sensitive identifiable information like their names, addresses, birthdates and social security numbers from scanner traffic that was available to the public.
That directive allowed agencies to keep feeds open while securely sharing sensitive information through other channels. The Berkeley Police Department has argued its dispatch staffing levels are too low to manage multiple feeds and the public feed has put officers in danger or enabled suspects to attempt to flee arrest.
“The Berkeley Police Department appreciates the community’s understanding and continued partnership as we enhance our systems to better serve Berkeley. These changes ensure the protection of sensitive information while maintaining the highest possible level of transparency and accessibility,” the department said in a statement.
As a compromise, the department has developed a real-time call log that will display information from the Computer-Aided Dispatch system including the date and time of the call, incident number, call type, source of call, priority level and general location of the incident. That log will be updated with a 10-minute delay and a 10-minute refresh.
Some incident information can also still be heard through the fire department’s radio feed which will remain unencrypted. Police department updates will also be shared through Nixle, an emergency response communication tool, and on social media, the department said.
An October vote by the Berkeley City Council enabled the department to encrypt by reversing a 2021 policy that prohibited encryption in most cases. All but one councilmember agreed the department needed to silence their radios to the public to ensure Berkeley did not become a target for crime and to keep officers and potential victims safe.
Opponents of the move, including those with Berkeley Copwatch, a civilian police oversight organization operating in the city for more than three decades, said the city was giving away an important tool for holding officers accountable.
OAKLAND — BART passengers were experiencing delays Sunday due to maintenance operations and police activity that hampered trips on sections of the Bay Area transit system.
In one occurrence, a 10-minute delay had occurred Sunday morning at the Coliseum station in Oakland in the direction of Daly City due to police activity. It wasn’t disclosed which law enforcement agency was involved. By 9:30 a.m., that delay had ended.
BART also reported Sunday morning that a 10-minute delay was underway on the San Francisco line in the direction of Berryessa in San Jose, Antioch, and Millbrae due to overnight track maintenance. By 10 a.m., that advisory had ended.
In recent months, BART passengers have suffered through mammoth delays and systemwide shutdowns that snarled the regional transit system.
BERKELEY — Cal has lost two games in a row for the first time this season, again missing a chance to earn bowl eligibility in a 31-21 setback to No. 15 Virginia in front of 30,893 at Memorial Stadium on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
Trailing 24-21, Cal got one last chance after Virginia quarterback Chandler Morris threw incomplete on fourth-and-2 from the Bears’ 14-yard line.
Cal took over with 45 seconds left and on first down Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele threw down the field into double coverage. He was picked off by linebacker Kam Robinson, who returned it 35 yards untouched into the end zone with 29 seconds left.
The Bears (5-4, 2-3 ACC) travel next week to No. 16 Louisville, which improved to 7-1 with a 28-16 win over Virginia Tech. Cal still is one win shy of securing bowl eligibility for the third straight season, and its chances are dwindling to put together the kind of season that will ensure ninth-year coach Justin Wilcox has job security.
Cal fell behind 10-0 early and could not muster enough consistency on offense to overtake the Cavaliers (8-1, 5-0), whose first victory ever in the Pacific time zone gives them seven straight wins this season.
The Bears finished with a season-low 263 yards. Sagapolutele was 19 for 30 for 213 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions. He played turnover-free the two previous weeks. He was sacked three times, contributing to Cal’s net rushing total of 8 yards.
The Bears played much of the game without star linebacker Cade Uluave, who had one pass breakup but no tackles before coming out with an undisclosed injury. He was on the sidelines with his helmet off all of the second quarter and was in a T-shirt after halftime.
The ACC’s leading tackler had a career-best 19 tackles a week ago in the Bears’ 42-34 double-overtime loss at Virginia Tech.
Cal drew within three points for the second time in the second half, thanks in part to a 14-yard punt that skidded off the foot of Virginia’s Daniel Sparks. That set up the Bears at the 25-yard line and they needed just two plays to get into the end zone.
Sagapolutele completed a 24-yard pass to tight end Mason Mini to the 1-yard line, but the Cal freshman QB stayed on the ground afterward and had to come out of the game for one play.
Redshirt freshman EJ Caminong came on and handed off to Raphael Kendrick, who powered in from the 1 for his third touchdown of the game, his sixth in two weeks. That enabled the Bears to close within 24-21 with 12:57 left in the fourth quarter.
The Bears had used some razzle-dazzle to get within 17-14 midway through the third quarter.
Jacob De Jesus set the Bears up at the Virginia 42-yard line with an 18-yard punt return.
Sagapolutele then threw a lateral pass to the left flat to Mini, who uncorked a deep ball down the right side of the field to Raphael, who took it in with 6:08 left in the period.
Virginia answered immediately, assembling an 11-play, 75-yard drive, climaxed by Chandler Morris throwing a lateral pass to tight end Eli Wood, who ran in from the 4-yard line for a 24-14 lead with 1:51 left in the third period.
The Cavaliers scored on their first possession and never trailed on the way to a 17-7 halftime lead.
Cal was down 10-0 when it assembled its only scoring drive of the half a 14-play, 75-yard march that was capped by a 2-yard run by Raphael, who took a direct snap on a first-down play with 13:00 left in the second quarter.
A Sonoma County judge allowed Asia Lozano Morton to await trial outside jail under strict supervision and set her next court date for Dec. 4, according to court records.
Morton must wear a GPS ankle monitor, surrender her passport and get permission from the court before leaving California. She’s also barred from owning guns or using drugs and from contacting her boyfriend, Richard Lund.
Tuesday’s hearing was Morton’s first court appearance since her arrest Friday in the Oct. 3 shooting death of Mark Calcagni.
Lund, 43, remains in custody without bail. Police say he’s accused of shooting Calcagni five times near Calcagni’s home on Brookwood Avenue before driving off in a Toyota RAV4.
Investigators believe the killing was planned and may be connected to Calcagni’s decision to fire Lund and Morton from their jobs at the Condor Club, a North Beach landmark known as the nation’s first topless bar.
Police arrested Lund at his home in Dublin. Morton was taken into custody at San Francisco International Airport when she returned from a trip to Spain.
Police said Calcagni had returned home from work around 5 a.m. when he was shot. A passerby found his body on a nearby sidewalk about 90 minutes later.
James Logan bounced back from a tough loss to San Leandro to seize control of the WACC Foothill race with a convincing win over Bishop O’Dowd, putting itself one win away from a league title.
From classic movies with live music to new tunes from Vampire Weekend and a Grateful Dead Celtic band, there’s a lot to see and hear this weekend in the Bay Area.
Here’s a partial rundown.
Classical picks: Hitchcock + orchestra; New Century
This week’s events light up the classical music scene with an iconic film score, a symphony at the opera, and a tribute to the seasons.
Halloween-appropriate: Scary enough? It has to be, when the San Francisco Symphony’s “Film with Live Orchestra” series presents Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo,” featuring composer Bernard Herrmann’s brilliantly spooky score. With the film on the big screen, conductor Conner Gray Covington will lead the orchestra in a live performance of the spine-tingling music. Come early to see the Symphony’s latest Art Installation, “Dia de los Muertos,” for a pre-show treat.
Symphony at the Opera: Since the start of fall, San Francisco Opera has brought dazzling productions to the stage; now, with “Parsifal” up and running and “The Monkey King” still to come, the company is presenting a concert conducted by company Music Director Eun Sun Kim. This one-night-only event features mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack singing works by Manuel de Falla; Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony completes the 90-minute program.
Details: 7:30 p.m. Nov. 1; War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco; $29-$250; sfopera.com.
New Century, new “Seasons”: The New Century Chamber Orchestra starts the fall season with Vivaldi’s beloved “Four Seasons,” along with works by Dvorak and Bulgarian composer Dobrinka Tabakova; conducted by company music director Daniel Hope, four performances are on the schedule.
Details: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 30 at First Church UCC, Berkeley; 7:30 Oct. 31 at Empress Theatre, Vallejo; 7:30 p.m. Nov. 1 at Herbst Theatre, San Francisco; and 2 p.m. Nov. 2 at Osher Marin JCC, San Rafael; tickets $35-up; ncco.org.
— Georgia Rowe, Correspondent
More movies and music
Fans of classic silent films can catch two of them — “Phantom of the Opera” and “Nosferatu” — at Grace Cathedral this weekend. But the real star of the events won’t be on the screen but seated at Grace Cathedral’s famed 7,500-pipe Aeolian-Skinner organ, which has been a key facet of the church since it was installed in 1934. The organ will be played by musician Dorothy Papadakos, who started out as a jazz pianist in her native Reno and has evolved into a world-renowned organ player, thanks in part to her long stint as organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York as well as her Grammy-winning stint with the Paul Winter Consort (their live album “Silver Solstice” remains a New Age/ambient classic).
Papadakos is, among other things, considered a talented improviser, which will come in hand in these gigs. She’ll accompany the 1925 silent version of “Phantom of the Opera” starring Lon Chaney, at 8 p.m. Oct. 30, and the 1922 version of “Nosferatu” — a film that was once ordered destroyed because it was deemed to be an unauthorized adaptation (read: ripoff) of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” — at 8 p.m. Oct. 31. The church — which is a San Francisco landmark and always worth a visit — is at Taylor and California streets in San Francisco. Tickets are $34.50-$44.50; go to www.sfjazz.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
Cool shows, great album
In late October of last year, Vampire Weekend performed two memorable sold-out shows — an evening gig, followed the very next day by a matinee performance — at the legendary Madison Square Garden in New York City. The shows included many longtime Vampire Weekend fan favorites, of course, such as “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa,” “A-Punk” and “Oxford Comma.”
Yet, the NYC-born indie-pop act — led by vocalist-lyricist-guitarist Ezra Koenig — also performed a wonderful assortment of cover songs during those two shows. The list includes a number of Big Apple-appropriate tunes, such as the easily recognizable “Seinfeld Theme,” the Frank Sinatra favorite “Theme From New York, New York,” the Ramones’ blistering “Blitzkrieg Bop” and Billy Joel’s classic “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant,” the latter of which was reportedly performed with a candlelit table and waiter in a tux on the Garden stage.
Other cuts to make the Vampire Weekend setlist were The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside,” Talking Heads’ “Burning Down the House,” The Surfaris’ “Wipe Out,” Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights” and Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back in Town.”
Now all VW fans can experience the shows thanks to “Weekend at the Garden,” a limited edition double-LP recorded during that epic NYC stand. The offering, which includes portions of the two performances rather than the complete shows, is part of the band’s Frog on the Bass Drum vinyl series.
The Shaker Theater is showing the original 1968 “Night of the Living Dead” in a warehouse with a haunted maze in October 2025 in Oakland. (Shaker Theater)
Pop-up theater brings scares to Bay Area
This Halloween, you can see a scary movie in your local AMC theater. Or you can watch one as perhaps it was meant to be watched: In a dark warehouse full of horrific decor, where it feels like zombies could break down the door any minute.
The Shaker Theater is a new underground pop-up cinema in a residential part of northern Oakland. For its inaugural run, it’s been playing George Romero’s 1968 “Night of the Living Dead” during October, with final runs up until Halloween evening. It’s the uncensored, 96-minute original preserved on real celluloid. There will be popcorn and soda and, for more fun, before the movie the theater is playing clips from its “deep archives of rare and bizarre material.” Think Halloween safety films, forgotten trailers and classic monster-movie moments.
To get into the screening, visitors must first navigate a “Corridor of Horror” designed by local artist Rob Vertigo. Picture a classic haunted house, but turned into spooky-maze form. Did your group just lose a member? It’s probably nothing to worry about, they’re no doubt right behind you …. Wait, that’s not Chad! (Screams.)
Details: Preshow begins at 6:30 p.m. and movie starts at 8 p.m.; 950 54th St., Oakland; $18 online or $20 at the door; instagram.com/shakertheater.
— John Metcalfe, Staff
Freebie of the week
We tend to think of great film experiences as those that expose us to brilliant camerawork, incisive dialogue, or a poignant or hilarious reflection on the world at large. But let’s not forget the joys that await us at the other end of the spectrum. There is nothing quite like experiencing a truly terrible film with a room full of gleefully derisive bad-movie fans. There’s a reason why “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” spawned three sequels and too many spoofs and homages to count, and it wasn’t John K. Culley’s nuanced cinematography. Halloween, it seems, is a favorite time to indulge in bad-movie bliss, probably because violent mutant vegetables and irritable aliens fit most comfortably in the horror genre.
And so it is that this week delivers the opportunity to view one of the most glorious and beloved bad movies of all time, “Robot Monster.” The film, in case the clever title doesn’t make it obvious, is about an alien robot sent to destroy Earth but who defies its orders when it saves an imperiled woman from certain death. The 1953 film took four days and $20,000 to make, $4,000 of which was spent on incorporating 3D technology. One of the stars was cast because he already owned a gorilla suit and therefore didn’t need to be costumed. So, yeah, this was not an extravagant production. Yet, it grossed $1 million in its first year and has gone on to be a favorite among those who revel in the wonders of wretched filmmaking. If such a buffet of bad moviemaking – in 3D!! – is your thing, “Robot Monster” will screen at 6 p.m. Oct. 30 at the Internet Archive, 300 Funston Ave., San Francisco. The screening is free but if you feel like making a donation to the Internet Archive or co-presenter the Golden Gate Stereoscopic Society — both of which are dedicated to preserving humankind’s digital history — certainly no one would hold it against you.
When you think about it, Wake the Dead would be a tremendous name for a screeching-loud punk band or maybe a Goth band. But the real Wake the Dead is neither of those things. It is a collection of very talented Bay Area musicians merging two of their musical passions – Grateful Dead classics and Irish/Celtic music. The name is certainly appropriate, as it references the Dead as well as Irish wakes, which are known to be deeply heartfelt and celebratory affairs. The moniker also mirrors the title of the Dead’s 1973 album “Wake of the Flood,” the first recording the band released acting as its own label. Adding to the plays on words, the band’s annual gig at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley celebrates the Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos), the holiday widely observed in Mexico, in which family members and friends gather to honor loved ones who have passed away.
If all this is simply too much to ponder, just know that Wake the Dead will, per tradition, return to the Freight & Salvage on Nov. 1 to perform a Day of the Dead-themed show at which you are likely to hear high-energy Celtic takes on such Dead classics as “China Cat Sunflower” and “Eyes of the World.”
Details: The show begins at 8 p.m.; tickets are $26.50-$44; or you can livestream the show for $25; more information is at thefreight.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
Celebrating Día de los Muertos
The skeletons are dangling from the windows and looming merrily overhead the staircase in the festive lobby of Davies Hall, as the San Francisco Symphony gears up at 3 p.m. Nov. 1 to mount its 18th annual celebration of the Day of the Dead, the joyous Mexican tradition held to pay love and respect to ancestors who have passed on. The centerpiece of the festivities is a symphony concert, but multiple preconcert family-friendly activities are planned in the lobby and upper floors, including marigold flower making, offering-altar installations, a mariachi instrument petting zoo, sugar skull decorating and costumed dancers from Casa Círculo Cultural. The Symphony, conducted by Lina González-Granados, will perform traditional and contemporary Latin American music associated with the holiday, including Gabriela Ortiz’s “Kauyumari,” selections from Arturo Márquez’s “Espejos en la Arena,” the Intermezzo from Ricardo Castro’s “Atzimba” opera, Paul Desenne’s “Hipnosis Mariposa,” Jimmy Lopez’s “Loud,” Márquez’s popular Danzón No. 2 and Gabriela Lena Frank’s “The Mestizo Waltz.”
Details: Tickets, which are 50 percent off for those under 18, range from $27.50-$175; go to www.sfsymphony.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
An orchestral showcase
The San Francisco Opera takes a breather from its usual regimen of presenting full-fledged and lavish operatic productions to let Music Director Eun Sun Kim shine a solo spotlight on her instrumentalists in a single night concert of music by Ludwig van Beethoven and Manuel de Falla at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 1 in War Memorial Opera House. The program opens with “Siete Canciones Populares Españolas,” a set of songs inspired by de Falla’s home country of Spain, sung by mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack, and continues with the second orchestral suite from the same composer’s ballet “El Sombrero de Tres Picos” (“The Three-Cornered Hat”). Following the intermission, the concert will conclude with Beethoven’s mighty Fifth Symphony. Tickets, $29-$250, can be purchased through www.sfopera.com.
OAKLAND – A person was arrested in connection with a shooting Monday in Oakland, police said.
The incident happened around 8 p.m. in the 1400 block of 18th Avenue, according to the Oakland Police Department. Officers arrived to find evidence of a shooting but no victims.
Surveillance cameras captured both the incident and the suspect vehicle, police said.
Roughly an hour and a half after the shooting, officers found two people inside the suspect vehicle in the 1400 block of 13th Avenue.
In addition to arresting one of the occupants, officers recovered two unregistered firearms, police said.
BRENTWOOD – After a nationwide search and careful review of candidates, the Brentwood City Council unanimously approved the appointment of G. Harold Duffey as the next city manager.
He stated that integrity and transparency are principles he follows in his role as city manager.
“If I lose the trust of the council, I’ve lost the council,” Duffey, who has three decades of local government experience, said.
As city manager, part of his role is to ensure that he and city staff fulfill their obligations and responsibilities by providing councilmembers with relevant information that enables them to make informed decisions.
“I’ve, of course, have had great projects, the best projects of all available. And the council tweaks it, changes it,” said Duffey. “I say to my staff, OK, the train is leaving. Get on the train. Let’s make sure we get this thing done.”
Public concerns related to Duffey’s appointment have centered on his background and qualifications, prompting councilmembers to address the matter on Tuesday night.
Mayor Susannah Meyer said the City Council is not a “rubber stamp” and “does not blindly” approve matters, adding that they spend a lot of time researching issues before every meeting.
“We are not stupid; we are not blind. People are sending us things that we’ve already seen,” said Meyer, in reference to social media posts about Duffey. “In fact, Mr. Duffey shared these things with us before anyone did. He was transparent with us before anyone told us or showed us.”
Vice Mayor Pa’tanisha Pierson said residents may question a city manager’s qualifications, but must ensure their information is accurate and not based on assumptions or stereotypes.
The concerns over Duffey’s appointment revealed “bias,” said Pierson.
“As a Black woman from Oakland, I’ve spent my life navigating spaces where excellence is simply because it doesn’t fit a certain mode,” said Pierson. “I know what it feels like to have questions and qualifications scrutinized more harshly and contributions minimized way too quickly, and I also recognize a pattern in our city.”
She said previously, residents have also spoken against “highly qualified Black professionals” in leadership roles.
“When excellence continues to be met with skepticism only when it comes in Black skin, it’s not a coincidence; it is a bias,” said Pierson. “So, when I hear statements that amount to, ‘I don’t want him because he’s Black,’ I feel a responsibility to call that mess out.”
Councilmember Faye Maloney said Duffey’s hiring was “the most intricate process” she’s been part of, as it took a lot of time, collaboration, and discussions.
She also had high praise for Duffey, adding she was impressed with him during the interview process. Maloney apologized to Duffey on behalf of the community.
“Some people’s comments were very derogatory. I am sorry that you have to go through and experience that,” said Maloney, adding she was appalled by them.
She hoped residents would give Duffey a chance to prove his skills and help further build Brentwood.
BERKELEY — Significant bicycle and pedestrian improvements have been completed at the North Berkeley BART Station, paving the way for better connections for hundreds of future neighborhood residents.
Berkeley councilmembers, electeds from neighboring cities, city staff and community members gathered Monday to celebrate the completion of the North Berkeley Bicycle and Pedestrian Access Project.
As part of the project, a section of the Ohlone Greenway, a 5.3-mile bike and pedestrian path, was widened between Acton and Virginia streets. Also added were separate two-way cycle tracks leading to BART entrances from Acton and Sacramento streets and two new bike lockers in the plaza, among other improvements.
The project was funded partly by the transportation agency’s Safe Routes to BART grant program which is supported by BART Measure RR funds, a tax measure approved by voters in 2016. An additional $3.4 million in grants were awarded to the project through the state’s Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities program.
“As Senator, I am proud that the state supports sustainable transportation projects,” State Sen. Jesse Arreguín, D-Oakland, said in a statement. Arreguín also noted his support for similar projects when he served as Berkeley mayor.
About 61% of all trips made to the North Berkeley BART Station are done by walking or biking, according to the agency’s 2015 Station Profile Study. The improvements are meant to support those already walking and biking to the station while making those modes of transportation more appealing to others.
BART Director Barnali Ghosh said he’s “thrilled” to see the project complete.
“These improvements make it safer and easier for people to walk, bike, and connect to BART. Delivering these community benefits years before the first North Berkeley TOD building opens reflects BART’s strong and lasting commitment to North Berkeley,” Ghosh said in a statement.
The project is part of a larger overhaul of the North Berkeley BART Station property. Working with the city and a team of housing developers, the transportation agency plans to welcome nearly 750 new homes on about 5.5 acres of land currently being used for station parking.
North Berkeley Housing Partners, the development team, is made up of three affordable housing nonprofits – BRIDGE Housing, East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation and Insight Housing – and one market-rate housing developer, AvalonBay Communities.
The new homes will be spread across five buildings that will be developed in phases. Construction was expected to begin in either 2025 or 2026. Half of the new units will be listed as affordable to people making up to 80% of the area median income. That’s about $127,000 annually for a family of four living in Alameda County, according to the state’s 2025 income limits.
Bound by Delaware, Sacramento, Virginia and Acton streets, the project site will also feature about 60,000 square feet of open space, a diagonal connection to the Ohlone Greenway that cuts through the center of the site and ground floor retail and childcare.
“The North Berkeley access improvements are just the beginning,” Mayor Adena Ishii said in a statement. “With more than 700 homes approved at North Berkeley BART and a similar number planned at Ashby, we’re showing that Berkeley can build more housing while making it easier for everyone to move safely and sustainably through our community.”
In 2010, Californians voted to create a nonpartisan Citizens Redistricting Commission to stop decades of gerrymandering. That reform was meant to restore fairness and ensure that all Californians — regardless of political affiliation — had a meaningful voice in representation.
Today, Proposition 50 threatens to undo that progress. If passed, it would allow California’s Democratic supermajority to tighten its control even further, reducing Republican representation in Congress from an already disproportionate 17% to just 8%, despite conservatives about 28% of likely voters.
Gov. Newsom’s support for this measure shows a willingness to suppress representation in pursuit of partisan gain. Such actions contradict the very principles of democracy and reveal a troubling hypocrisy. California deserves fairness — not one-party rule masquerading as reform.
Allowing private donors to pay government expenses — and especially allowing them to specify which government expenses they pay — is a terrible idea, regardless of its legality. (It’s probably illegal, as noted in the article.) That’s true whether it involves military salaries or a new wing on the White House.
Congress controls how much the government spends and on what. If the people don’t approve of the way Congress appropriates tax dollars, they can complain to their representatives or vote them out of office. Acknowledging that Congress isn’t functioning particularly well right now, if ultra-wealthy individuals fund government and the people don’t approve, what recourse do we have? That’s government by the wealthy, for the wealthy (aka, oligarchy), and the rest of us will be left with even less power than we have now.
There’s a reason that government agencies are allowed to spend only amounts appropriated by Congress.
Phil Sanders Fremont
Hegseth and Trump celebrate a slaughter
On Dec. 29, 1890, 300 Lakota Indian men, women and children were massacred by the United States Cavalry at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. A few days later, they were buried in unmarked graves. The soldiers who took part in the massacre were awarded Medals of Honor. The myth was that Wounded Knee was a battle when, in reality, it was a massacre.
There was an attempt by Joe Biden’s Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, to revoke the medals from the soldiers by ordering a review. However, the current Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, stopped the review, saying that the soldiers should keep their medals. For his action, Hegseth, along with his boss, President Trump, are celebrating the massacre of American Indians.
Republicans claim they cannot provide SNAP benefits on Nov. 1 if the government remains shut down. That’s not true. SNAP has a $5 billion-$6 billion contingency fund. Republicans are shamefully using the more than 40 million Americans who rely on SNAP as pawns, creating a hunger crisis to pressure Democrats to submit to Donald Trump’s will.
However, Democrats should not give up their fight to save our health care. Congress only has two weeks left to extend the ACA premium tax credits. Once open enrollment ends, the dramatic increases in health insurance premiums will be locked in — even if Congress acts later.
Meanwhile, this shutdown is really expensive. According to White House’s Council of Economic Advisors, this shutdown could cost the U.S. economy $15 billion a week.
What are we doing? Trump and Congress need to start negotiating on a bipartisan basis in good faith to reopen the government and extend ACA premium tax credits.
Jennifer Huber El Sobrante
In fact, GOP isn’t so tough on crime
The Trump administration is now using the National Guard for law enforcement in cities with shrinking crime statistics, in direct conflict with local officials and likely even federal law.
The president also pardoned 1,500 people for assaulting local and federal police officers while storming our nation’s Capitol and threatening to execute elected federal officials. Similarly, Trump commuted most of George Santos’ sentence and the administration granted favorable treatment to Ghislaine Maxwell.
All this while firing many senior officials in the Department of Justice, reducing federal funds for local law enforcement and prosecuting political enemies.
That is under the leadership of a draft-dodger, adjudicated sex offender and convicted fraudster. Don’t forget the never-completed efforts to prosecute him for election fraud and classified document cases.
Yet, the president has faced no resistance or objection from a Republican-controlled Congress. Are they strong on crime? I don’t think so.
Jim Kenna Brentwood
We should make health care a human right
Health care access and affordability has been an ongoing ethical issue. Millions of people are having a difficult time affording medical care, insurance and medication, and it is affecting their overall health and quality of life.
A couple of factors that are limiting their access to health care are income and location. I strongly believe that to prevent suffering, health care should be a human right and not a business for profit.
Health care access, affordable medication, health programs and insurance should be prioritized for our well-being, as well as protecting everyone, promoting public health and building strength in our communities.
San Leandro City Councilmember Bryan Azevedo was charged Tuesday by federal prosecutors over allegations he was wrapped up in a bribery and kickback scheme involving an Oakland-based housing developer.
Azevedo is facing one count each of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and lying to federal investigators. He has not been arrested and didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday afternoon.
Prosecutors believe Azevedo accepted a $2,000 cash bribe from an unnamed owner of the housing company that had business interests with the city, according to documents filed by the U.S. Department of Justice in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in Oakland.
During the fall of 2023 and spring of 2024, Azevedo took steps to benefit the company, including advocating for an emergency shelter ordinance with San Leandro government officials, taking city officials on a tour of the company’s model units and advocating for the purchase of units by the city of San Leandro, according to court documents.
Then, in June of 2024, prosecutors say Azevedo allegedly voted “in furtherance of an emergency ordinance that would have benefitted” the company.
During an investigation into the scheme, Azevedo allegedly lied about it to FBI and IRS agents, according to prosecutors.
Court documents show that prosecutors believe Azevedo worked on the alleged scheme with two unnamed “coconspirators,” owners of the unnamed affordable housing company, for about a year starting in August of 2023.
The company was building and selling prefabricated modular homes made from shipping containers.
If convicted, Azevedo could face up to 25 years in prison and fines of up to $500,000.
The case is being prosecuted by Abraham Fine, the assistant U.S. attorney who is also prosecuting former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and her partner Andre Jones on several federal corruption and bribery charges.
Also facing charges in that case are David Duong and his son Andy, who own a recycling company, California Waste Solutions, that does business with Oakland.
The Duongs also ran a company that was trying to build and sell modular homes made from shipping containers to help with local homelessness issues.
Azevedo is a fourth-generation San Leandro resident, graduated from San Leandro High School in 1995 and works as a sheet metal foreman, according to his biography on the city website.
He was first elected in 2020 and reelected in 2024. His current term expires in December of 2028.
OAKLAND — The Raiders may have departed Oakland years ago for Las Vegas, but Carol Davis had remained nearby in Piedmont, at a longtime home of the family that reigned over one of sports’ most memorable teams.
Indeed, the storied NFL franchise’s “First Lady” kept a residence on Mountain Avenue up until her death Friday at 93. It was the culmination of a life linked intrinsically to the East Bay and football alike, the kind that her son, Mark Davis, described Sunday as “wrapped in a cloak of immortality.”
“I love you mom; you will be missed,” said Mark, who shared a “controlling interest” in the now-Las Vegas Raiders with Carol, a stake inherited from the family patriarch, Al Davis, one of the iconic figures in the history of American sports.
Carol Davis was omniscient in the owners’ suite at games; she gave the team’s star players and executives a hug “hello,” they remembered, and would demonstrate a watchful eye about everything happening in the organization — even, for instance, a team employee’s divorce that Davis would not be expected to know about.
Her passing was the latest notable death among memorable Raiders figures from the team’s history. George Atkinson, the last member of the team’s beloved defense in the 1970s known for its unprecedented physicality, died Monday at 78.
Al Davis, a swashbuckling head coach with an unmistakable Brooklyn accent, simply “adored” his wife, the legendary Raiders quarterback and head coach Tom Flores remembered. Al and Carol ran in a tight inner circle of team officials and Bay Area businessmen, even amid the Raiders’ 13-year stint in Los Angeles.
Al Davis ended his long streak of joining the Raiders on road trips to work out of the Oakland hospital while Carol recovered from a massive heart attack and stroke in 1979 that kept her in a coma for 23 days. Carol miraculously recovered, earning a reputation for toughness that the Raiders themselves rallied behind on the football turf, winning the Super Bowl the very next season.
“She was a very intelligent and very dedicated woman,” recalled former Raiders executive John Herrera, an Oakland native who began working for the franchise as a teen in the 1960’s and finally departed in 2012. “She was a very interesting person to be around — and she kept up with everything that was going on, not just in sports but in the world.”
Through it all, Carol Davis remained committed to the idea of the Raiders as a model of teamwork, the kind of ideal that made the football team a storied fixture of NFL history, but an ambition that slumped in the 21st century before the team limped to a sleek new stadium in Las Vegas.
“She was a strong behind-the-scenes figure,” said Ignacio De La Fuente, the former Oakland City Council president who in 1995 recruited the Raiders back for their second stint in Oakland. “My perception was that she would keep Al realistic about things in our negotiations.”
Born Carol Sagal in New York City, she had been a buyer for retail stores even after Al finished military service and before his start as a pro football coach. The couple married in a Brooklyn synagogue but quickly formed roots in the East Bay once Al began with the Raiders ahead of the 1963 season.
During the team’s most storied years — an AFL championship in 1967 and a pair of Super Bowl victories in 1976 and 1980 — Carol stayed mostly behind the scenes, those who knew her recalled, though she always demonstrated an awareness of what was happening on the field.
“There were so many instances where she would say something that would cause me to giggle, at times where I should not have been,” said Amy Trask, a longtime former Raiders executive and the first former woman to serve as an NFL team’s CEO.
“They tended to be at Raiders business dinners,” Trask added about these occasions, “and usually involved a wise, keen observation about someone in attendance.”
Carol read newspapers every morning, always offering fresh insight about the country’s politics or society at large, friends remembered — a fitting description of a woman who led a team that broke new ground in diverse hiring.
Flores, the league’s first Mexican-American quarterback and head coach, recalled the warmth that Carol showed the team’s players, despite her and Al’s penchant for keeping their business private.
“To them, people were Raiders — it didn’t matter which color you were, what ethnic group you belonged to,” recalled Flores, who is 88 and lives in Palm Springs. “She was just very proud of you when you finished your journey.”
Al’s passing in 2011, seen as a pivotal moment in the franchise’s history, had Carol lined up in the succession plan as controlling owner. Trask, though, found herself notifying the league that Carol’s son, Mark, would take over operations instead, the outcome of discussions between mother and son that altered how the torch would be passed.
Trask departed from the franchise not long afterward, and the Raiders — fed up after stalled talks with Oakland for a new stadium — departed for Vegas.
Carol, though, stuck around in the house in Piedmont that Herrera had helped the family secure.
“I never tried to impose any of my beliefs on Carol — it wouldn’t have done any good either way,” Herrera said. “She was very strong in her opinions and she did exactly what she thought was right.”
Still, until her passing last Friday, those who knew her remembered her the way they do the Oakland Raiders: a football team with tall aspirations and a swagger.
“As the originals, we all had the same dream, but we didn’t know how to get there,” Flores said. “Al and Carol had that dream — and they knew how to do it. They brought us where we wanted to go.”
A planned increase in federal immigration enforcement in the Bay Area is now on pause throughout the region and in major East Bay cities, not just in San Francisco, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee said Friday.
Lee said in a statement that Alameda County Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez had “confirmed through her communications” with federal immigration officials that the planned operations were “cancelled for the greater Bay Area — which includes Oakland — at this time.”
The announcement followed lingering concerns about ramped up immigration enforcement among East Bay leaders after President Trump and San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie announced Thursday that a planned “surge” had been called off in San Francisco.
Trump and Lurie had very specifically addressed San Francisco, even as additional Border Patrol agents were being staged across the bay on Coast Guard Island, which is in the waters between Alameda and Oakland.
At a press conference following Trump’s annoucement about San Francisco, Lee had said the situation remained “fluid,” that she had received no such assurances about the East Bay and that Oakland was continuing to prepare for enhanced immigration enforcement in the region.
Alameda County Dist. Atty. Ursula Jones Dickson had previously warned that the announced stand down in San Francisco could be a sign the administration was looking to focus on Oakland instead — and make an example of it.
“We know that they’re baiting Oakland, and that’s why San Francisco, all of a sudden, is off the table,” Jones Dickson said Thursday morning. “So I’m not going to be quiet about what we know is coming. We know that their expectation is that Oakland is going to do something to cause them to make us the example.”
The White House on Friday directed questions about the scope of the pause in operations and whether it applied to the East Bay to the Department of Homeland Security, which referred The Times back to Trump’s statement about San Francisco on Friday — despite its making no mention of the East Bay or Oakland.
In that statement, posted to his Truth Social platform, Trump had written that a “surge” had been planned for San Francisco starting Saturday, but that he had called it off after speaking to Lurie.
Trump said Lurie had asked “very nicely” that Trump “give him a chance to see if he can turn it around” in the city, and that business leaders — including Jensen Huang of Nvidia and Marc Benioff of Salesforce — had expressed confidence in Lurie.
Trump said he told Lurie that it would be “easier” to make San Francisco safer if federal forces were sent in, but told him, “let’s see how you do.”
Lurie in recent days has touted falling crime rates and numbers of homeless encampments in the city, and said in his own announcement of the stand down that he had told Trump that San Francisco was “on the rise” and that “having the military and militarized immigration enforcement in our city will hinder our recovery.”
In California and elsewhere, the Trump administration has aggressively sought to expand the reach and authority of the Border Patrol and federal immigration agents. Last month, the DOJ fired its top prosecutor in Sacramento after she told Gregory Bovino, chief of the Border Patrol’s El Centro Sector, that he could not carry out indiscriminate immigration raids around Sacramento this summer.
In Oakland on Thursday, the planned surge in enforcement had sparked protests near the entrance to Coast Guard Island, and drew widespread condemnation from local liberal officials and immigrant advocacy organizations.
On Thursday night, security officers at the base opened fire on the driver of a U-Haul truck who was reversing the truck toward them, wounding the driver and a civilian nearby. The FBI is investigating that incident.
Some liberal officials had warned that federal agents who violated the rights of Californians could face consequences — even possible arrest — from local law enforcement, which drew condemnation from federal officials.
Deputy Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche responded with a scathing letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom and others on Thursday in which he wrote that any attempt by local law enforcement to arrest federal officers doing their jobs would be viewed by the Justice Department as “both illegal and futile” and as part of a “criminal conspiracy.”
Blanche wrote that the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution precludes any federal law enforcement official to be “held on a state criminal charge where the alleged crime arose during the performance of his federal duties,” and that the Justice Department would pursue legal action against any state officials who advocate for such enforcement.
“In the meantime, federal agents and officers will continue to enforce federal law and will not be deterred by the threat of arrest by California authorities who have abdicated their duty to protect their constituents,” Blanche wrote.
The threat of arrest for federal officers had originated in part with San Francisco Dist. Atty. Brooke Jenkins, who had written on social media that if federal agents “come to San Francisco and illegally harass our residents … I will not hesitate to do my job and hold you accountable just like I do other violators of the law every single day.”
UNION CITY – An investigation is underway into the attempted kidnapping of an 11-year-old student in Union City, police said.
The incident happened around 8:15 a.m. Wednesday in the area of Dyer Street and Meteor Drive, according to the Union City Police Department.
Police said the student was riding her scooter to Itliong-Vera Cruz Middle School when the suspect approached her, grabbed the hood of her sweatshirt and tried to pull her.
The girl escaped uninjured and reported the incident to school employees, who in turn notified authorities.
The suspect is described as a tall, heavy-set male wearing a black hoodie with the hood pulled up and a mask covering his face, police said. He may be associated with a dark-colored car.
Police said officers are canvassing the area and reviewing potential surveillance footage.
Anyone with information related to the case can contact Detective D. Ayala at 510-675-5259.
Ruby Ibarra, the East Bay’s Filipina rapper, singer and songwriter, will be releasing new music later this year after winning this year’s national NPR Tiny Desk Contest and going on a summer tour.
NBC Bay Area’s Gia Vang sat down with Ibarra at her home and got a more personal look at her life as a mother, daughter and artist.
Inside her home is a room-turned-recording studio. It’s where Ibarra writes and records her music, including “Bakunawa,” a dragon in Philippine mythology.
The song crowned Ibarra and her all-Filipino band the winner of NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest out of more than 7,500 submissions. This summer, the group hit the road on a 10-city tour that included a stop in Petaluma.
“For us to also deliver my music and my stories authentically and show up as ourselves was just a dream come true,” Ibarra said. “One of the goals going into the tour was to share my story with people that might not be familiar with what the Filipino American experience is, what immigrant people might experience.”
Ibarra honors her family and heritage, rapping in Bisaya on “Bakunawa.” The song also has another special meaning for her.
“A lot of people actually don’t know, but underneath that Bisaya spoken word is my daughter’s heartbeat,” she said.
Ibarra is working on new music she expects to release this year that collaborates with other Filipino American artists. It’s being released through Bolo Music Group, an independent record label she co-founded in 2023.
“We’re trying to build a foundation and a safe space for Filipino American artists to pursue the arts and to also, I think, be able to find a pipeline to start a music career, a creative career,” she said. “I continue to make music that’s 100% honest and 100% me.”
