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![\"Sheng](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/20250827-174557.webp.webp\")
Sheng Thao, center, exits the Federal courthouse on Clay Street in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez<\/p>\nLook, we get it: you\u2019re dying to move on from 2025.<\/p>\n
Before we turn the page on this roller coaster of a year, let\u2019s take a moment to remember everything Oakland went through: the FBI dropping indictments on our recalled mayor, a legendary coach gunned down at Laney, peaceful protestors pepper-sprayed on Coast Guard Island, and somehow, improbably, the Oakland Ballers winning a championship in their second season.<\/p>\n
It was the kind of year that makes you want to laugh and cry at the same time, maybe nursing a pint of Loard\u2019s butter brickle while weeping on Scrappy\u2019s shoulder?<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s your complete guide to the biggest Oakland news in 2025, including moments that remind us why we love our embattled, confounding, gorgeous city.<\/p>\n
JanuaryThe feds finally unseal the Sheng Thao indictment
\nSheng Thao, center, exits the Federal courthouse on Clay Street in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez<\/p>\n
Remember those FBI raids last June? It was all building to this. Federal prosecutors unsealed corruption charges against former Mayor Sheng Thao, her partner Andre Jones, and David and Andy Duong, the father and son whose family runs California Waste Solutions \u2014 Oakland\u2019s recycling contractor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The alleged scheme reads like a Sopranos plotline. Prosecutors claim Thao and Jones were bribed by the Duongs, who were seeking a multi-million dollar deal with Oakland to build shipping container housing units for the homeless. They also allegedly wanted their lucrative recycling contract extended. In exchange, Jones allegedly landed a cushy \u201cno-show job,\u201d and the Duongs allegedly paid for attack mailers against Thao\u2019s opponents in the 2022 mayor\u2019s race.\u00a0<\/p>\n
All four defendants pleaded not guilty. Trial\u2019s set for October 2026 \u2014 yes, over two years after those fateful summer raids. This show is far from over.<\/p>\n
Read the story<\/a><\/p>\n April: Samuel Merritt downtown, more Thao intrigue, OUSD superintendent changeThree words upend a political career<\/p>\n A handwritten note from a March 2024 anti-recall strategy meeting came back to haunt Leigh Hanson, Sheng Thao\u2019s chief of staff, who\u2019d somehow survived the recall and stayed on under interim Mayor Kevin Jenkins.\u00a0<\/p>\n The note, revealed in FBI subpoena documents and published by The Oaklandside, read: \u201cCM Fife can reach out to NAACP. Use BP as tokens.\u201d BP meant Black people. Hanson claimed it was taken out of context, that she was documenting Thao\u2019s observation about what recall opponents were doing, not proposing they do it themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n The NAACP Oakland branch wasn\u2019t buying it and demanded she be fired. Jenkins obliged.\u00a0<\/p>\n The note crystallized Oakland\u2019s messy political moment, where everyone was accusing everyone else of tokenism and corruption, and nobody looked good.<\/p>\n Read the story<\/a><\/p>\n Samuel Merritt\u2019s quarter-billion-dollar bet on downtown While everyone was doom-scrolling about Oakland\u2019s downtown apocalypse, Samuel Merritt University was quietly planning a $240 million, 10-story campus at Broadway and 11th \u2014 the biggest post-pandemic investment in the heart of the city.<\/p>\n The health sciences university broke ground on its 99-year lease in 2025 and will open in January 2026, bringing 2,000 students and hundreds of faculty back to a part of town that desperately needs foot traffic.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s a massive boost to Oakland higher education after Holy Names\u2019s shuttering and Mills College\u2019s merger with Northeastern.\u00a0<\/p>\n Read the story<\/a><\/p>\n OUSD parts ways with its superintendent <\/p>\n The same week Oakland Unified announced it was finally leaving state receivership after 22 years \u2014 having just paid off a $100 million loan from 2003 \u2014 the school board ended Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell\u2019s employment contract much earlier than expected.\u00a0<\/p>\n She\u2019d led the district since 2017 through three teacher strikes, a pandemic, school closures, and constant fiscal crises. Under her watch, graduation rates climbed to 80%, enrollment went up for the first time in eight years, and the district finally escaped state oversight.\u00a0<\/p>\n The board had just extended her contract through 2027 a few months earlier. But some board members apparently became convinced that they needed to change course; the full story still isn\u2019t clear.<\/p>\n Read the story<\/a><\/p>\n Barbara Lee comes home to Oakland After 27 years representing Oakland in Congress \u2014 including that legendary lone vote against the Afghanistan war after 9\/11 \u2014 Barbara Lee came home to City Hall.\u00a0<\/p>\n She won the special mayoral election with 53% of the vote, besting Loren Taylor and 8 other candidates. But she inherited a more than $100 million budget deficit, 200 fewer cops than the city arguably needs, federal oversight of OPD, ongoing corruption investigations, and a persistent trash crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now she actually had to govern through the chaos.\u00a0<\/p>\n Read the story<\/a><\/p>\n Listen to the podcast<\/a><\/p>\n Oakland gets a nostalgic big-screen treatment \u201cFreaky Tales\u201d hit theaters nationwide, and if you grew up in Oakland or the East Bay in the \u201980s, it hit different. In a year when Oakland\u2019s image was getting pummeled, here was a film that celebrated the city\u2019s culture, music, and people \u2014 the Oakland we love.<\/p>\n Directors Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden (both Berkeley-raised) created a love letter to 1987 Oakland through four interconnected stories, including punks fighting Nazi skinheads at 924 Gilman and Jay Ellis playing Sleepy Floyd settling scores. Too $hort executive produced, narrated, and made a cameo.\u00a0<\/p>\n The film was shot at actual Oakland locations \u2014 Grand Lake Theatre, Telegraph Avenue, Loard\u2019s Ice Cream, 1\/4 Pound Giant Burgers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Read the story<\/a><\/p>\n MayMarvin Boomer is killed, an innocent bystander during a police chase Marvin Boomer, 39, was a beloved Castlemont High School teacher who ran the career program and a community farm where students grew food.\u00a0<\/p>\n On a May evening, he was taking a walk with his partner when an 18-year-old who was being chased by California Highway Patrol lost control of his car and crashed into a fire hydrant. The hydrant broke off and struck Boomer. In his final act, he pushed his partner aside, saving her life.<\/p>\n Over 100 people showed up to Boomer\u2019s vigil. That same week, Castlemont held its graduation while grieving. Boomer\u2019s death put a face on Oakland\u2019s ongoing debate about police pursuits \u2014 and forced people to reckon with the real human cost of high-speed chases.<\/p>\n Read the story<\/a><\/p>\n June: Ice cream victory, coal terminal defeatLoard\u2019s is back, baby The Dimond District institution that\u2019s been slinging ice cream since 1950 reopened its original location after a four-year pandemic closure. In a year when Oakland kept losing beloved businesses, here was one that actually came back, reviving 75 years of history with it.<\/p>\n New owners Winnie Tam and Willis Yu completely renovated the building, which had been broken into during the shutdown. They delayed the reopening so the spot could be used as a filming location for \u201cFreaky Tales.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Now it\u2019s in full swing with 45+ ice cream flavors, including old classics burgundy cherry, butter brickle, and black raspberry marble.\u00a0<\/p>\n Read the story<\/a><\/p>\n Oakland keeps losing battles in the coal war<\/p>\n California\u2019s First Appellate District Court upheld a 2023 ruling that Oakland breached its contract with developer Phil Tagami\u2019s coal terminal project.\u00a0<\/p>\n The judge said Tagami could either keep his lease to city-owned waterfront land (and extend it to actually build the thing) or abandon the lease and sue for damages.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now the city faces the prospect of 12 million tons of coal rumbling through West Oakland on trains each year while also dealing with a separate federal bankruptcy case that could cost even more.\u00a0<\/p>\n Read the story<\/a><\/p>\n JulyKen Houston tries to make camping illegal for homeless people<\/p>\n District 7\u2019s brash councilmember, Ken Houston, proposes letting the city sweep homeless camps without offering people shelter first, a radical change to Oakland\u2019s current approach.\u00a0<\/p>\n Critics said his plan would criminalize homelessness and violate federal law. Supporters say it\u2019s time for the city to get tough on camps and remove more of them. After fierce opposition through multiple hearings and even pushback from the state\u2019s homelessness agency, Houston pulled the proposal in December. But Houston says he\u2019ll likely reintroduce the plan early next year.<\/p>\n Read the story<\/a><\/p>\n SeptemberThe Ballers win it all The scrappy independent baseball team that formed after the A\u2019s abandoned Oakland won the Pioneer Baseball League championship in only their second season with a record-breaking 73-23 record \u2014 the best in league history.\u00a0<\/p>\n They beat the Idaho Falls Chukars 4-3 at Raimondi Park, giving Oakland its first baseball championship in 35+ years.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the same year the A\u2019s officially left for Vegas, Oakland\u2019s upstart community-owned team won a championship. It was peak Oakland \u2014 resiliant, community-driven, and improbably successful.<\/p>\n Read the story<\/a><\/p>\n The coal terminal battles ends (for real this time)<\/p>\n The California Supreme Court declined to review the lower court ruling in favor of Phil Tagami, officially ending the decade-long state court fight. Tagami can now extend his lease and build the marine export terminal at the old Army Base. The terminal could be operational by 2028, exporting up to 12 million tons of coal annually to Asian power plants.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the runup to the spring mayoral election, Barbara Lee signed a pledge to oppose the coal terminal and support \u201cevery feasible strategy\u201d to stop it. Now, as mayor, she said the city would follow the court\u2019s ruling.\u00a0<\/p>\n Read the story<\/a><\/p>\n October: Mitchell resigns, OMCA heist, Coast Guard IslandOakland loses yet another police chief<\/p>\n Police Chief Floyd Mitchell announced his resignation, making him Oakland\u2019s second chief to leave in less than two years \u2014 and the ninth chief or interim chief in the past decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n During his 18 months, crime fell 25% (though it was following a national trend). But OPD kept struggling with federal oversight compliance, and Mitchell made it clear he wasn\u2019t pleased with the Police Commission and what he called the \u201cweaponization of the disciplinary process.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n His decision is further evidence that being Oakland\u2019s police chief might be the most impossible job in law enforcement.\u00a0<\/p>\n Read the story<\/a><\/p>\n Listen to the podcast<\/a><\/p>\n Oakland Museum\u2019s artifacts stolen Just before 3:30 a.m. on October 15, thieves broke into the Oakland Museum of California\u2019s off-site storage facility and stole 1,000+ artifacts, including Native American baskets, 19th-century decorated walrus tusks, and much more.<\/p>\n The FBI\u2019s Art Crime Team joined the investigation, but as of year\u2019s end, no arrests, no recovered items.\u00a0<\/p>\n It happened just four days before the Louvre got hit for $100 million in jewels. But this wasn\u2019t Ocean\u2019s Eleven \u2014 investigators think it was a crime of opportunity where the thieves didn\u2019t even realize it was museum storage.\u00a0<\/p>\n Read the story<\/a><\/p>\n Federal Agents gather at Coast Guard Island. All hell breaks loose \u2014 and then doesn\u2019t The Trump administration said it was dispatching 100+ federal agents (Customs and Border Protection and ICE) to Coast Guard Island in the Oakland Estuary as a staging area for a \u201csurge\u201d in immigration enforcement operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hundreds of protesters showed up at dawn to block the single road onto the island. Oakland Unified sent alerts to families, clergy held vigils, and protesters, including a few in Wonder Woman and Batman costumes, made shows of defiance.\u00a0<\/p>\n Things got ugly fast: federal agents deployed chemical spray at a clergy member at point-blank range and used flash-bang grenades and pepper spray on demonstrators.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mayor Barbara Lee, Rep. Lateefah Simon, and local officials publicly reaffirmed Oakland\u2019s sanctuary city status. Then, suddenly, Trump called off the whole operation, citing conversations with San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and several tech industry titans.<\/p>\n This was Oakland\u2019s resistance moment in the first year of Trump 2.0 \u2014 proof that our city will still show up to protect vulnerable communities even if it meant getting pepper-sprayed.<\/p>\n Read the story<\/a><\/p>\n Listen to the podcast<\/a><\/p>\n Oakland fears owing nearly $700 million for saying no to coal<\/p>\n A Kentucky bankruptcy judge ruled that Oakland \u201ctortiously interfered\u201d with an insolvent company\u2019s plans for the coal export terminal, preventing the company from getting financing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Potential damages ranged from $230 million (Oakland\u2019s expert\u2019s estimate) to $674 million (what the company was claiming).\u00a0<\/p>\n This was separate from the Phil Tagami case Oakland already lost. The city was now facing massive financial exposure in federal court while already drowning in a budget crisis.<\/p>\n In November, though, a federal district judge vacated the ruling, saying the bankruptcy court didn\u2019t have authority to make a final judgment. But the case continues, and Oakland\u2019s still facing potential hundreds of millions in liability.\u00a0<\/p>\n Read the story<\/a><\/p>\n November: FBI case drama, Coach Beam is goneThe FBI\u2019s star witness is revealed to be\u2026problematic<\/p>\n Lawyers for David Duong filed a motion to suppress evidence from the June 2024 FBI raids of his house and office, arguing that the feds had relied on a deeply unreliable informant with a \u201cdecades-long history of fraud\u201d \u2014 Mario Juarez, aka \u201cCo-Conspirator 1\u201d \u2014 and withheld that information from the judge who issued the search warrant.\u00a0<\/p>\n Then, in December, Sheng Thao, Andre Jones, and David\u2019s son Andy joined the motion with further accusations against the informant: the FBI had also omitted Juarez\u2019s racist text messages about Jones, including messages citing \u201cstupid black shit.\u201d The defense argued that a relatively inexperienced FBI agent took the word of an unreliable source.\u00a0<\/p>\n If the evidence gets suppressed, the entire corruption case could collapse.<\/p>\n Read the story<\/a><\/p>\n Listen to the podcast<\/a><\/p>\n Oakland loses Coach John Beam On a Thursday morning, John Beam was shot and killed in the field house at Laney College.\u00a0<\/p>\n Beam was a legend. He\u2019d been coaching Oakland kids since 1982, starting at Skyline High School before moving to Laney in 2004. Over 100 of his players went on to Division I college football; more than a dozen made it to the NFL. He led Laney to the 2018 State Championship and maintained a 90% graduation and transfer rate.\u00a0<\/p>\n Netflix featured him in Season 5 of \u201cLast Chance U\u201d in 2019. People who knew him described his \u201ctough love\u201d approach, saying he didn\u2019t just coach football; he helped young men navigate life.\u00a0<\/p>\n The shooting happened the day after a shooting at Skyline (his old school), and Skyline students were on Laney\u2019s campus when it happened.\u00a0<\/p>\n Read the story<\/a><\/p>\n Listen to the podcast<\/a><\/p>\n December: Flock fight, OUSD cutsThe Flock camera fight gets wierd<\/p>\n Privacy advocate Brian Hofer sued OPD (again) for allegedly sharing license plate reader data with ICE, the FBI, and agencies in \u201cdeep red states\u201d \u2014 despite Oakland being a sanctuary city.\u00a0<\/p>\n He filed the lawsuit the same day the City Council\u2019s Public Safety Committee was considering a $2.25 million contract with Flock Safety, a company that operates police surveillance cameras, including license plate readers. Over 100 people spoke against the contract, and the committee deadlocked 2-2, seemingly killing the proposal.\u00a0<\/p>\n But then the Rules Committee fast-tracked it directly to the full council, bypassing the usual process. On December 17, the full council approved the surveillance camera contract; Carroll Fife was the lone \u201cno\u201d vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n The contract includes new safeguards, but critics remain skeptical, especially as new and worrying information about Flock\u2019s data sharing keeps popping up around the country.<\/p>\n Read the story<\/a><\/p>\n OUSD greenlights $100 million in devastating cuts<\/p>\n The Oakland school board approved a plan to slash $102 million \u2014 roughly 20% of the district\u2019s unrestricted general fund \u2014 from next year\u2019s budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n And this time, school sites aren\u2019t safe; they could lose up to 10%. That could mean fewer teachers, fewer counselors, fewer after-school programs, dirtier classrooms, and fewer Chromebooks.\u00a0<\/p>\n How did we get here? The district spent years running deficits and relying on one-time COVID money that\u2019s now gone. Enrollment has dropped by 3,000 students over the past decade. And the district\u2019s cash reserves collapsed from a projected $27 million in June to just $1.3 million by the end of October.\u00a0<\/p>\n Interim Superintendent Denise Saddler is pushing for \u201cfull restructuring\u201d\u2014including school closures and mergers\u2014but past closures haven\u2019t proven they actually save money.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/large-Samuel-Merritt-University-construction.jpg\")
Construction began in 2023 for a new campus for Oakland\u2019s Samuel Merritt University, and is expected to finish in 2025. Credit: Ashley McBride\/The Oaklandside<\/p>\n
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Barbara Lee was sworn in as Oakland mayor on May 20, 2025. She gives her first State of the City speech today, Oct. 7, 2025. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/FT_01151RC2-1600x1067.jpg\")
Jay Ellis as Sleepy Floyd, Normani as Entice, Jack Champion as Lucid, Dominique Thorne as Barbie, and Ji-young Yoo as Tina in Freaky Tales. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Lionsgate Credit: Courtesy of Lionsgate<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_6471-1600x1200.jpg\")
Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee speaks during a service for Marvin Boomer. Credit: Jose Fermoso<\/p>\n
\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Loards-exterior.jpg\")
The original location of Loard\u2019s Ice Cream in upper Dimond, first opened in 1950, reopened in June 2025. Credit: Tovin Lapan\/The Oaklandside<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/20251006_Baller_EG_04-1600x1067.jpg\")
Tafari Tariq, 34, and daughter Xiere, 1, pose for a portrait in their Baller gear during a parade celebrating the Oakland Ballers near Raimondi Park in Oakland on Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/OMCA-stolen-items-2-1600x900.png\")
Artifacts police say were stolen from the Oakland Museum of California\u2019s off-site storage facility the morning of Oct. 15, 2025. Credit: Courtesy of the Oakland Museum of California<\/p>\n
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An unidentified federal agent fires a chemical weapon into Rev. Jorge Bautista\u2019s face during a protest outside of Coast Guard Island in Oakland on Thursday Oct. 23, 2025. Credit: David Bacon<\/p>\n
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Coach John Beam influenced and changed the lives of countless young people in Oakland through his illustrious four decade career. Credit: Clockwise from top left: Deon Strother, Shawn Granberry (Frick photo), Felicia Carr, Peralta Community Colleges, newspapers.com, Peralta Community Colleges, newspapers.com, Tony Ray Parnell, newspapers.com; Photo illustration by Alejandra Armstrong<\/p>\n