For the sixth year in a row, the Alameda Pipe-athon will be hitting the bars of the Island City on New Year's Eve, Tuesday, Dec. 31, (Hogmanay in Scotland, Hogmabay in the Bay Area!), with Scottish ex-pat and Alameda resident Andy MacKay playing "Auld Lang Syne" on the bagpipes in every bar on the island, raising funds for the American Cancer Society (ACS) and "hitting cancer for six" (a quaint British cricket term).
Parents and students at Love Elementary School held demonstrations on various street corners the morning of Dec. 18 before school started. At the intersections of Willow and Chestnut streets with Lincoln Avenue and Chestnut with Santa Clara Avenue, the most dangerous intersections near the school, residents gathered with posters and signs to remind drivers of the school zone and to drive carefully.
Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft, Vice Mayor John Knox White and Councilmember Malia Vella all joined the demonstration.
The Alameda-based national security cutter Bertholf and crew returned home Monday following a 82-day counter-narcotics patrol to the Eastern Pacific Ocean. The crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf (WMSL 750) returned to its homeport at Coast Guard Island after offloading more than 18,000 pounds of cocaine in San Diego worth more than an estimated $312 million on Dec. 18.
Because of geography, Alameda falls within the scope of the Golden Gate Audubon Society’s Oakland Christmas Bird Count. The count takes place within a 15-mile-diameter circle centered in downtown Oakland. Alameda birders and others who join the Christmas Bird Count (CBC), are part of the Oakland Count. The Oakland Count started in 1938, took a few years off during World War II, and is now in its 79th year.
