OAKLAND — A former African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church bishop pleaded guilty Tuesday to wire fraud, mail fraud and conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud for transferring church property deeds to an entity he created then using them to obtain loans, prosecutors said. Staccato Powell, a 65-year-old resident of Wake Forest, North Carolina, agreed
Top California Democrats say they’ve averted a worst-case scenario for struggling Bay Area transit agencies — but only for now. Tucked into the $320 billion state budget agreement that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed last week is a $750 million loan for four local transit agencies to keep operating while they face massive deficits. The loan
OAKLAND — Oakland’s interim mayor is delaying the release of a deeply consequential, two-year budget proposal that had been expected to detail how the city would balance a looming $265 million budget shortfall. The move by Interim Mayor Kevin Jenkins comes just two weeks after Oakland’s top finance official quietly resigned from the job she’s
OAKLAND — Nearly six months after Sheng Thao took office, she still owed tens of thousands of dollars to the campaign manager who had helped deliver her a victory. Long-established state law prohibits politicians from using public funds to finance election campaigns, but in newly released records, Thao’s top staffer said her boss had considered