by Paula Lehman/OAKLAND  Voters in Oakland, where there have been over 100 homicides so far in 2008, on Tuesday turned down a ballot measure that would have put 105 officers and 75 police services technicians on the street over the course of three years. But it wasn’t a lack of campaigning that ruined Measure NN’s chances; instead, many people believe that it was the unfulfilled promise of an earlier crime-fighting measure that killed this year’s initiative.

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By Ali Winston/WEST OAKLAND

Before the long hours of budget wrangling and pleas to save arts program dominated Oakland’s  City Council meeting on Tuesday, council members got an earful from residents.

“There is a problem in our neighborhoods, and his name is Jiminez,” said Scott Candell, an attorney who represents the family of Jody “Mack” Woodfox III, 27, who was fatally shot on July 25 by Officer Hector Jiminez of the Oakland Police Department during an attempted traffic stop. Read the full story