The City of Oakland started 2009 with the shooting death of 22-year-old Oscar Grant by former Bay Area Transit officer Johannes Mehserle. But Oscar Grant isn’t the only African American man who has lost his life at the hands of police in Oakland.

On Sept 20th, 2007—almost two years ago—20-year-old Gary King was shot in the back by an Oakland police officer after being pulled over for fitting the description of a “person of interest.” I went to school with Gary and I can remember him being extremely friendly, outgoing, and always surrounded by a crowd of people. Gary and I had mutual friends and the times we spoke it was obvious he was a fun, creative, and playful person--always playing pranks and smooth with the girls. It was shocking to hear someone I went to school with was shot to death by a cop.

The city of Oakland is expected to pay $1.5 million to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by Gary King's family. After two years it’s about time the King family gets some kind of closure.

As this civil suit settles, Oakland waits to see the outcome of another- that brought by Oscar Grant's family against BART.  Former Officer Mehserle awaits to hear if  his criminal trial will be granted a change of venue. Mehserle's attorney argued in a 76 page request that more than 96 percent of nearly 400 Alameda County residents surveyed were familiar with the case. He also added that in the survey he found that 78 percent of blacks and 33 percent of whites believe Mehserle is guilty.  The Town waits with baited breath to see if justice will be served.
 

When Laura Ling and Euna Lee were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor in a North Korean prison camp we asked Josh Wolf- who holds the record in the U.S. for the longest stay in prison for a reporter protecting his source material- about why reporters take risks.

In the wake of the release of Ling and Lee, and the capture of journalist Shane Bauer by Iran,  KQED-FM in San Francisco had writer and editor Andrew Lam on as a guest to talk about the subject. In that conversation Mr. Lam- who works for New American Media- talked about how young freelance journalists are putting themselves into dangerous situations without the same training and resources that reporters who work for the big news organizations have.

We followed up with Mr. Lam today on that topic, and on how the rise of citizen journalism is affecting the quality of information in the media today.