When pinball was invented nearly a century ago, machines had no flippers, and the game was based mostly on chance — meaning low-down, hooch-swilling plunger-pullers often used it for gambling. In the 1930s, the city of Oakland, California tried to rid itself of this scourge and officially outlawed the game.

A reporter had to cancel her credit cards after her purse was stolen while she was doing a story about a robbery spree—wait, it gets more ironic— outside a police station.

It started with a local news piece about illegal dumping in east Oakland, and ended with the reunion of two musical greats: Carlos Santana and his former Blues Band drummer Marcus "The Magnificent" Malone.

Crooks broke into a KGO-TV news van outside an Oakland art gallery on Tuesday, but that's become common in California's city of constant crime. What's weird is that the burglars also broke into the private security vehicle assigned to protect the news van.

Oakland is a world-class city with world-class terrible crime and a forever scandalized police force that often does more harm than good. Meet new OPD Chief Anthony Toribio and then say good-bye, because he's out after two days on the job.

For six months, a new lawsuit alleges, Chau Van (pictured), was one of Oakland's "most wanted criminals," according to the Oakland Police Department. The only problem? He wasn't actually wanted for anything—even though his name and photograph were published on a KTVU feature about Oakland's most wanted.

The gunman who opened fire at a Christian college in Oakland has been identified as 43-year-old One Goh. It was previously reported that he was a former nursing student.

Oakland police are searching for an unidentified gunman after he walked onto Oikos University campus, a small religious nursing college in Oakland, California, and opened fire. The shooting spree began this morning at approximately 10 am and left several wounded and dead. Both the whereabouts of the shooter and the…

The number keeps rising, but Reuters is now saying more than 400 Occupy Oakland protesters have been arrested as Saturday night's protests continue into Sunday. That's obviously a pretty significant number, and it trumps the "between 200 and 300" number authorities gave earlier in the day. As has been the case…

Consider Jean Quan's Facebook successfully occupied. The Oakland mayor has officially given up her would-be "fan page" after it was overwhelmed with critics of her handling of Occupy Oakland protests.

Calling all unemployed Okies with underutilized graduate degrees! Many government positions have opened up in Oakland, California, in the past few weeks as one city official after another has abandoned Mayor Jean Quan's administration. Several new positions are waiting to be filled!

Hundreds of riot police booted Occupy Oakland from their camp early this morning, arresting about 25 people. Occupy Oakland protesters are now homeless, like their Portland counterparts. This is what happens when you fuck with Whole Foods in Northern California.

Sounds like last night was another eventful one for the demonstrators of Occupy Oakland. After yesterday's general strike, during which anarchists who seem to hold a grudge against $10 tempeh loaves defiled the sanctity of a local Whole Foods, protesters occupied the local Travelers Aid building, danced in the…

Occupy Oakland is calling for a general strike today, the first since 1946, according to the New York Times. A few thousand people have gathered in downtown Oakland for a march, and the San Francisco Chronicle reports 260 Oakland public school teachers didn't show up to work, not to mention the stark solidarity shown…

Oh no: violent protesters! An NYPD police association is threatening lawsuits against protesters who assault police officers and is warning of "growing violence," even as Occupy Wall Street has proven its non-violence time and again.

A tense scene unfolded in Oakland last night as protesters, attempting to reclaim the plaza from which they were evicted early Tuesday morning, faced off with police—who used tear gas and percussion grenades on the occupiers.