Photo of Oakland Raiders Quarterback Derek Carr

Raiders Rebound in Year 2 Under Gruden to Become Contenders

ALAMEDA — Not much went right for the Raiders in the first season of coach Jon Gruden's return to Oakland with stars getting traded, losses mounting, and questions raised about whether Gruden still had it after nine seasons in the broadcast booth. "You have...
Photo of Gavin Newsom signing AB1482

Newsom Signs Statewide Rent Cap Law

SACRAMENTO — California will limit rent increases for some people over the next decade after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law Tuesday aimed at combating a housing crisis in the nation's most populous state. "He wasn't wrong to highlight a vulnerabi...
Photo of linebacker Vontaze Burfict

Gruden’s Rabble-Rousers Are Diminishing in Numbers

Jon Gruden tried retrofitting the Raiders into their renegade, rabble-rousing best for one final season in Oakland. Harkening to the time when Jack “The Assassin” Tatum patrolled the defense with a menacing st...
Photo of the Conception being brought out of the water by a salvage team

California’s Dive Boat, Ghost Ship Fires Share Legal Lessons

LOS ANGELES — One was a ship in name only, an artist commune set up in an Oakland warehouse. The other was a bona fide boat afloat on the ocean off Santa Barbara. Both became fiery death traps for a combined 70 souls, two of the worst disasters in modern Ca...
Photo of makeshift memorials to the victims of the Ghost Ship warehouse fire

California Warehouse Fire Limps on After Hung Jury

OAKLAND — An emotionally taxing criminal case over the deaths of 36 people trapped in a fire inside a San Francisco Bay Area warehouse nearly three years ago will continue after a jury acquitted one defendant a...
Photo of magic mushrooms

Oakland Becomes 2nd US City to Legalize Magic Mushrooms

SAN FRANCISCO — Oakland on Tuesday became the second U.S. city to decriminalize magic mushrooms after a string of speakers testified that psychedelics helped them overcome depression, drug addiction, and post-traumatic stress disorder. The City Council vote...