It was organized by Congregations Organizing for Renewal as part of an ongoing show of support for the Dream Act, a bill that would offer a means to get citizenship to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who came to the country when they were children.

According to Matt O’Brien’s story, “The Dream Act would give conditional green cards to undocumented immigrants if they graduate from high school and pursue a college education or military service. After a 10-year waiting period, they could obtain permanent residency if they met all the requirements, and they could eventually apply for citizenship.

They would have to be under 30 years old to qualify and must have arrived in the country before their 16th birthday. According to the latest version of the bill, they will also pay $2,525 in fees for the privilege of legal residency — $525 to apply, and $2,000 five years later to extend the conditional visa.

California is estimated to have about a quarter of the more than 800,000 people who could benefit from the act.”

Read on for the COR press release on last night’s rally. Read the rest of this entry »

A reader tells me there was some electioneering going on at polling places Tuesday, witnessed in the parking lot of Loren Eden Elementry School and at a polling spot near San Felipe Park. Basically, the reader said voters were being approached by people carrying sample ballots with some school board candidate names crossed out, and told something to the effect of “we hope you make the right decision.” Another account had people handing out fliers for some school board candidates in front of a polling place.

It’s against California law to campaign within 100 feet of a polling place on Election Day.

Did anyone see any of this going on out there?

And in case you missed today’s school board election story, here it is.

Here are some links to look at… like I mentioned in a recent comment, I’m off this week but I wanted to open up a new post for election commenting.

HUSD 2-year seat. Here’s our story.

Here’s the smartvoter information page on candidates. Candidate websites: Jesus Armas, Lawrence Fitzpatrick, Annette Walker.

HUSD 4 year seat. Here’s our story.

Here’s the smartvoter information page. Candidate websites: Audie Bock, Lisa Brunner, Sue Lafferty, William McGee, Sheila Sims.

We also had stories on the Eden Township Healthcare District race, Hayward Area Recreation and Park District, San Leandro school board, San Leandro mayor, San Leandro City Council, San Leandro ballot measures, more on San Leandro’s Measure Z, San Lorenzo school board, Fairview Fire  Protection District, Castro Valley Sanitary District, and last but not least, the District 2 supervisor’s race.

Here’s the smartvoter Alameda County page, where you can find more information on many of those races.

The city of Hayward website has a page with links to videos of forums between the supervisors and Hayward school board candidates, but it doesn’t seem to be working for me. Might be my computer.

Catch you all next week!

Tonight’s City Council agenda includes a public hearing on a Styrofoam ban. You can read the entire item here.

Hayward wouldn’t be the first city to pass such a ban, and it wouldn’t be the first city to have said ban opposed by the Chamber of Commerce. According to an e-mail from Councilman Bill Quirk, that opposition is expected at tonight’s meeting.

Save the Bay also checked in and will be there to speak to the importance of such a ban.

Also on the agenda: A work session on regulating hand-cart vendors, which are currently banned from operating but do anyway.

So I’m off this week. Just got back from a short camping trip — don’t much care for publicly announcing when I won’t be home, so I didn’t. But I’m back in town now yet still not actively at work, although I’ll be attending tomorrow night’s forum to gather more thread for the school board candidate story. But I’m officially off until Monday.

Here’s the info on this week’s candidate forums, which ran as a brief in the Review:

CANDIDATE FORUMS: There will be a forum for Hayward Unified school board candidates from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday in room 804 at Chabot College, 25555 Hesperian Blvd.

The event is sponsored by the college’s political science department and Chabot College Foundation.

Organizers said all candidates are expected to attend.

There will be another forum at 7 p.m. Friday at the Westminster Hills Presbyterian Church, 27287 Patrick Ave. That event, sponsored by the Hayward Demos Democratic Club, the Greater Hayward Democratic Club and GLOBE, will be followed by a forum for candidates running for the Hayward Area Recreation and Park District board.

Here’s the gist of things that came out of Tuesday night’s meeting, I’m working on a couple of stories for later this week:

BURGLARY UPDATE: Council heard a report about this summer’s uptick in residential burglaries from Lt. Sheryl Boykins and Lt. Reid Lindblom, who are the community resource officers for the southside and northside, respectively. They had some figures, here are the highlights:

June saw the largest increase, from 78 to 118, a 51 percent increase, while May saw a 28 percent increase and July 13 percent. If you look at the totals for the first seven months of the year, there’s only been a 5 percent spike during that period compared with 2009, so it’s pretty clear the rise began with summer. And it’s not a Hayward thing, there have been increases in surrounding communities and most of those arrested have been from out of town. They’ve arrested 44 burglary suspects in the past three months, what Boykins said is “more than we usually arrest in a year.”

The lieutenants said the most affected neighborhoods are Darwin, Leeward, Bell Harbor, Palma Ceia, Fairway Park, and Silver Maple in S. Hayward, while in N. Hayward it’s Prominence, Bailey Ranch, area around Atherton and the area around Pinewood and Farm Hill.

They said they’ve increased presence in those areas but more importantly have worked with the community to let them know what’s going on and what they can do to prevent it, most notably helping watch over the neighborhood.

“We make way more arrests by networking with the community than we do by being in the right place at the right time,” said Lindblom. Read the rest of this entry »

Good news! We have some additional hands around here these days: Chris Metinko, who was covering Alameda County issues for the Oakland Tribune, joined us to take over the unincorporated areas beat.

That includes Castro Valley, San Lorenzo, Fairview, Ashland and Cherryland. Like the rest of us, he’ll tackle all aspects of the areas, including schools, crime and planning/land use/neighborhood issues. In addition, he’ll be taking on stories out of Cal State East Bay and Chabot College.

Chris is a very welcome addition. If you have stories out of our neck of unincorporated AlCo, let him know. He’s at 510-293-2479 or cmetinko@bayareanewsgroup.com.

Find a preview of tomorrow’s story below for the nitty-gritty on all the elections with extended filing periods.

Both former city officials said they have a lot of other community service opportunities, as well as professional and personal goals.

“I definitely believe in Hayward, and schools are a priority,” said Greg Jones. “I’m certainly interested in using leadership however I can. I thought this would be a good way to serve but it did not turn into that in my mind.”

Jones added that he is a flexible man, and has no regrets about leaving the city to pursue other goals. May said the same about her departure from the City Council, adding that the atmosphere could be “stifling.”

She quoted a line from her Facebook page: “The right team can make the most mundane task worthwhile. Similarly, the wrong team can make the most meaningful endeavor a complete waste of time.”

Here is the election update story:

 By Eric Kurhi and Jason Sweeney
Staff writers
ALAMEDA COUNTY — An anticipated run for the Hayward school board by former City Councilwoman Anna May and her fiance, former City Manager Greg Jones, did not materialize as the Wednesday deadline passed and they decided not to file.
In addition, two candidates for Hayward Unified — Sabrina Becerra and Gabriel Jimenez — withdrew from the race, leaving a field of Audie Bock, Lisa Brunner, Sue Lafferty, William McGee and incumbent Sheila Sims seeking two available seats. Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE #2: May, Jones NOT running. New post to come.

UPDATE: Becerra, Jimenez have withdrawn. Will update after 5 p.m. with final list of candidates.

According to the Registrar’s list, we have a field of three for the two year term, six so far for the four. Deadline is up for the shorter term race, but because incumbent Paul Frumkin III did not file for the four the period  is extended until 5 p.m. Wednesday. Here’s that field right now:

Hayward Unified School District VOTE FOR: 2
Filing Agency: Alameda County
1 SABRINA BECERRA  Filing Completed
2 AUDIE BOCK  Filing Completed
3 LISA G. BRUNNER, Papers filed
4 GABRIEL A. JIMENEZ Filing Completed
5 WILLIAM L. MCGEE, Papers filed
6 SHEILA SIMS Incumbent, Filing Completed

For the two year term, vote for one:
1 JESUS ARMAS Incumbent  Filing Completed
2 LAWRENCE M. M. FITZPATRICK, Papers filed
3 ANNETTE WALKER, Papers filed

At this point, there is no sign of the Anna May-Greg Jones “MayJo” bill. And remember, they were talking about getting a third person on that slate. Suspense, you end on Wednesday.

UPDATE: According to the AlCo Registrar of Voters, if an incumbent does not file for re-election the deadline is extended by five calendar days. That would mean the filing for the four-year HUSD seat will be open until 5 p.m. Aug. 11. While filing is free, there is a cost for candidates to get their name and statement on the sample ballot, related to how many mailings must go out to registered voters in the area. According to the registrar, that will be $1536.00 for Hayward Unified races. It’s considerably higher than in years past because there are a lot more people registered to vote – the result of the very popular 2008 presidential election.

Hayward Unified board President Paul Frumkin III announced he will not be running for re-election come November, in part because of the unpleasant tone that board meetings have taken.

“In the last 18 months, I have found myself becoming increasingly frustrated with the inappropriate behavior and antics (including some name calling) that occurs behind the dais during the board meetings,” he wrote in an e-mail. “This is no way to conduct business! … I am also disappointed that no one from the Hayward community has publicly come forward to challenge and denounce this behavior. What is conveyed to our children when ‘silence’ is the message?”

Read the full e-mail after the jump. There are two four-year seats and one two-year seat that will be available come November.  As of Tuesday morning, the field looks like this:

Four-year seat:

SABRINA BECERRA and GABRIEL A. JIMENEZ have filed papers as challengers to incumbent SHEILA SIMS.