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Watch for some interesting discussion at the Port of Oakland commission meeting today.
The commission, which oversees both the port and the Oakland airport, will consider a proposal to change the formal name from the Metropolitan Oakland International Airport to San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport. Proponents say the new name would more accurately reflect Oakland’s location, particularly for travelers unfamiliar with the area. Presumably “metropolitan” is designed to reflect the broader area, but it fails.
San Francisco city officials and San Francisco International Airport leaders quickly came out opposing the idea, arguing—with some cause—that it would be confusing. The city attorney threatened legal action if the commission moves ahead with the plan.
Personally, I’ll always fly Oakland if I have a choice. And for people headed for San Francisco, BART from the Oakland Airport is nearly as convenient and time efficient as BART from SFO. San Francisco typically is necessary for international travel and we’ll leave it at that.
Stay tuned to see whether the commissioners stand for Oakland and move ahead or bow to the San Francisco pressure.
The Pleasanton-based Global Initiative for Boys and Men will hold a town hall at St. Michael’s Church in Livermore on the state of education for boys in the Livermore school district and statewide. It runs from 4:45 to 6 p.m. on Sunday, April 21.
Initiative founder Sean Kullman dove deeply into the suspension of a 14-year-old Granada High student last November. It was based on his comment, about a fellow student he had known for years, that “he used to be a girl.” The school administration deemed that his words had created an “unsafe environment.”
In addition to the suspension, he also was removed from his classroom and sat elsewhere during his school day after returning.
Kullman uses the suspension to launch into the findings of statewide research into 50,000 students based on the state’s achievement tests. The results are damning for the educational establishment’s instruction of boys. In English proficiency, 3rd grade boys trail girls by 10%–it’s even worse in 8th and 11th grades at 19% and 18%. Livermore’s numbers are similar.
In one of his blog posts discussing the issue, he points out that girls often can learn by sitting and listening—doing that drives many boys crazy.
The workshop is free, but registration is encouraged at the institute’s website.
It’s not a great surprise that Stanford’s record-breaking women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer announced her retirement this week.
Times have changed dramatically in Division 1 college athletics and the highly selective Stanford has been slow to adapt and challenged to adapt. With players easily able to move through the transfer portal and eligible to sign sponsorship deals for their name, likeness and image (NIL), it’s a brave new world.
At Stanford, once you recruited and player and got them into school, they stayed for three or four years. Now the recruitment continues day-to-day throughout their career. The changing game spoiled the career of Stanford’s winningest football coach David Shaw, who built them into a power and then saw the wheels fall off in his final two years and resigned.
I suspect that VanDeveer, like Alabama legendary coach Nick Saban—the best college football coach ever—saw the changes and decided to retire.
VanDeveer spent 38 years at Stanford and won the most games ever in Division 1 college basketball, topping Duke’s legend Mike Krzyzewski earlier this year. She leaves with 1,216 victories. Ironically, barring something unexpected, she will only hold the record until the 2025-25 season begins. University of Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma is just three wins behind at 1,213 wins.
