Justin Berton
Oakland, San Francisco
Media strategist. Rarely, if ever, on here. Find me on Instagram!
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Articles by Justin Berton
Four unsolicited tips for new Oakland Police Chief Floyd Mitchell
Last Friday, Oakland announced the hiring of Floyd Mitchell of Lubbock, Texas, to become its next police chief, the 11th person to hold the title since 2009. He’s taking over a department at least twice the size of any he’s managed and inherits a city experiencing year-over-year increases in crime. Here are four suggestions that could help him succeed where all others have failed. Prioritize community engagement: You’re not from Oakland.
Calling it a breakthrough, man pedals across bay
His name is Judah, and on Friday morning, across the glassy surface of the San Francisco Bay, he performed what bicycling evangelicals might call a miracle. Judah Schiller, 41, pedaled a water bike - a bicycle fixed atop a raft and geared to convert pedaling into power - from Oakland to San Francisco in a little more than an hour. He may not have forever altered the commute from the East Bay.
Oakland Expands Free COVID-19 Testing Sites
The City of Oakland announced Monday a partnership with Allen Temple Baptist Church and the emergency relief nonprofit organization Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE) to open a new COVID-19 community-based testing site (CBTS) in East Oakland. This site will also use the Baseline COVID-19 Program platform by Verily, an Alphabet company. Testing will be provided free of charge Monday through Saturday, 1:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Health insurance is not required.
5 hurt in S.F. crash after cab runs red light
SAN FRANCISCO By Justin Berton and Nanette Asimov Published 4:00 am PDT, Tuesday, April 20, 2010 Paramedics take David Dokter, an architecture student from Austria, to an ambulance after he was hit by a car involved an in accident Monday in San Francisco. Paramedics take David Dokter, an architecture student from Austria, to an ambulance after he was hit by a car involved an in accident Monday in San Francisco.
Serial killer Naso sentenced to death
By Justin Berton Updated 4:30 pm PST, Friday, November 22, 2013 Joseph Naso insists he's innocent of the slayings. Joseph Naso insists he's innocent of the slayings. Photo: Anonymous, Associated Press Photo: Anonymous, Associated Press Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Image 1 of 1 Joseph Naso insists he's innocent of the slayings. Joseph Naso insists he's innocent of the slayings.
Underfed pelicans flood coastal areas
Conservation Rescue centers are taking in more emaciated birds A skinny and starving brown pelican that landed on the Golden Gate Bridge last week and held up traffic was more than a wayward bird, wildlife experts said. It was one of thousands of brown pelicans that are barely making land or washing ashore this summer along the California coast.
Fairfield barber held in death of girl
FAIRFIELD Barber arrested in death of 13-year-old whose body was found in park - 200 mourn 7th-grade girl during candlelight vigil The arrest of a local barber Friday in the killing of a 13-year-old girl in Fairfield brought the victim's family and the community some relief, but left them wondering why the teenager was targeted, her nude body dumped in a city park. Anthony Lamar Jones, 32, of Fairfield is accused of killing Genelle Conway-Allen of Suisun City, who was last seen Jan. 31.
Friends mourn Burning Man devotee who hanged himself
A memorial service was held Monday for Jermaine "Jerm" Barley outside Tulsa, Okla., nearly two weeks after the 22-year-old man was found hanging inside a tent at the Burning Man festival. Barley, who was a six-time attendee of Burning Man and went by the DJ name Optic Orange, drove to the event with four friends from Fort Collins, Colo.
Fowler finds 15 minutes of infamy after TV show
Less than a week after a controversial appearance on the ABC reality television show "Wife Swap," San Francisco resident Stephen Fowler was forced to resign from the boards of two nonprofits, allegedly received e-mailed death threats and stood on the sidelines as his wife, Renee Stephens, issued a public statement condemning his behavior and asking him to get "professional help." Thanks to online TV and easy access to private information, Fowler's 15 minutes of fame have snowballed beyond his...
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Pornography mogul James Mitchell stunned a Marin County courtroom Tuesday when he testified in his murder trial that not only did he not kill his girlfriend, but on the day of her death he fought off two attackers at her house and never saw her... more »
The Thin Blue Privatized Line
Unsettled by the reality that the cops can't help them, Oakland residents are hiring private patrols. Crime is down. But is the cure worse than the disease? Editor's Note: This is one of many dispatches from Oakland that San Francisco magazine is publishing over the next month, all part of our June "Oakland Issue." To see the rest of the issue's contents, and to read stories as they become available online, click here.
Informant in 'dirty DUI' case tells his story
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John Burris powers Oakland police reforms
After Torry Smith, an East Oakland parolee, was booked into jail for carrying an assault rifle, he called one man: attorney John Burris. Burris was the only person, Smith later said, who would believe Oakland police had planted the rifle in his backyard. Smith testified the officers had used the gun as leverage to gain street intelligence, but that when he had refused to snitch, they cuffed him for a parole violation.
'Gun show loophole' visible in Las Vegas
When gun control advocates talk about closing the "gun show loophole," it's a 70-year-old retiree named Norm from Henderson they want to stop. Norm, who declined to give his full name for fear of getting robbed if it were published, was among the hundreds of private sellers who crowded into the Las Vegas Sports Center on Saturday to exchange guns for cash - no background check needed.
Nine hospitalized after fumes fill BART train
(12-04) 11:52 PST OAKLAND -- A BART train in the Berkeley hills tunnel filled with fumes Wednesday when its emergency brakes engaged, prompting several passengers to seek medical treatment after being stuck onboard the crippled train for an hour, officials said.
Girl, 16, crushes competition in monster trucks and math
Rosalee Ramer knows how people see her. They see the grease smudged across her jeans and they think "redneck." They see a 16-year-old girl from Watsonville who'd rather spend the weekend surrounded by the growls of monster trucks than the squeals of Justin Bieber fans. "I get judged a lot," Rosalee said recently before heading into her father's garage that houses a 10-ton hulk of machinery named Detour. "They think monster truck driving is brainless.
Crab season opens under new law limiting traps
The dash to haul Dungeness crab into San Francisco Bay gets off to a frenzied start early Friday, opening day of the first season for a new state law that gives smaller boaters a better chance at bigger profits. At 12:01 a.m., commercial crabbers will start their annual scramble to pull their traps from the sea floor and race toward port. The first batches of the sweet crustaceans could reach San Francisco by late afternoon.
Typhoon Haiyan task force forms to rush aid
New task force works to expedite funding to regions hardest hit by Typhoon Haiyan Frustrated by delayed relief efforts in regions of the Philippines most devastated by a powerful typhoon, leaders of an alliance of Filipino American organizations launched a campaign Wednesday to ask for donations and streamline those gifts to the islands.
Chronicle president Joanne Bradford leaving
(11-06) 10:08 PST -- Joanne Bradford, the president of the San Francisco Chronicle and SF Gate, will step down at the end of the month, Publisher Jeffrey Johnson said Wednesday. Bradford, who joined the newspaper and website in May, will become head of partnerships for Pinterest, the San Francisco-based content-sharing service, Johnson said in an e-mail announcement to staffers.
Tugboat rises from Davy Jones' locker off Oakland
It was hardly as dramatic as a raising of the Titanic, but when the nose end of the Captain Al, a 105-foot rust bucket of a tugboat, poked above the surface of the Oakland Estuary for the first time in more than 15 years Monday, a few men ashore got lumps in their throats. "I'm pretty excited right now," said Will Duncan, the on-scene coordinator with the federal Environmental Protection Agency, as cranes slowly lifted the tug.
Arms agents shift focus from gangs to individuals
The young man from Richmond said he had a grenade launcher with three grenades to sell for $1,000, so he texted a photo of the goods to Tehran Palmer, a buyer who had approached him through a friend. The budding firearms dealer, 23-year-old Otis Mobley, and two friends arranged a meeting with Palmer in a parking lot near Hilltop Mall. But instead of handing over the military-grade weaponry, one of the men hoisted a semiautomatic pistol to Palmer's head and demanded his cash and car keys.
BART riders get short shrift at Addfare kiosk
At some point in their commuting lives, every BART rider trying to exit the system has suffered rejection by fare gate. The ticket slides in, it pops back out and the small blue screen at the right scolds, "Underpaid: Go to Addfare." It's time to make the sheepish backpedal through the thicket of fellow riders - all of whom, assuredly, have the proper fare amount on their tickets - and seek out an Addfare vending machine.
Marin home in bitter feud goes up in flames
(10-24) 15:26 PDT SAN RAFAEL -- On a hill in San Rafael with a postcard view of the bay, fire investigators picked through a gutted $2 million home Thursday in search of the cause to a fire that broke out on a noteworthy day. The residents, a software entrepreneur and his wife, had been ordered to vacate the Sea View Drive property by Tuesday.
As Mid-Market develops, so do problems nearby
To walk outside Aman Jabbi's front door on Minna Street, an alley in a fast-changing part of downtown San Francisco, is to move with lips sealed, breath held and eyes peeled for the human-waste land mines below. "The odor of urine is so bad you can barely breathe some days," said Jabbi, who has lived in the same South of Market loft near Seventh Street for 14 years. "But it's gotten so bad recently, I'm ashamed to have visitors here.
Fairfield blaze's smoke billows across Bay Area
A grass fire whipped by high winds east of Fairfield burned more than 1,000 acres Friday, sending so much ash and smoke across the Bay Area that pollution regulators advised people as far away as San Francisco and the Peninsula to avoid breathing the stuff. The blaze broke out around 12:15 p.m. south of Highway 12, snarling traffic along Interstate 80 to the west. While the wildfire was 70 percent contained by the evening, officials said residents should prepare for smoke-filled days ahead.
Park-goers, poor will be first hurt by shutdown
If the federal government isn't open for business as usual Tuesday, park gates from Muir Woods to Yosemite National Park will slam shut. Many of the 169,000 federal employees in the Bay Area will be furloughed without pay. Those who rely on food programs for the poor could feel the effects within days.
Fire kills girl, father, grandfather in SF Sunset
(09-27) 20:03 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A house fire killed a 1-year-old girl, her father and her grandfather in the Sunset District early Friday and left neighbors describing a horrific scene where firefighters' attempts to enter the inferno - as the baby's mother looked on - were stalled by metal security gates on the home's doors and garage. The blaze started about 1:30 a.m. on the second-floor of the multiple-unit residential building on the 1900 block of 18th Avenue.
Calling it a breakthrough, man pedals across bay
His name is Judah, and on Friday morning, across the glassy surface of the San Francisco Bay, he performed what bicycling evangelicals might call a miracle. Judah Schiller, 41, pedaled a water bike - a bicycle fixed atop a raft and geared to convert pedaling into power - from Oakland to San Francisco in a little more than an hour. He may not have forever altered the commute from the East Bay.
Calling it a breakthrough, man pedals across bay
(09-27) 12:02 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- His name is Judah, and on Friday morning, across the glassy surface of the San Francisco Bay, he performed what bicycling evangelicals might call a miracle. Judah Schiller, 41, pedaled a water bike - a bicycle fixed atop a raft and geared to convert pedaling into power - from Oakland to San Francisco in a little more than an hour. He may not have forever altered the commute from the East Bay.
When passions for teams get out of hand
For fans, rivalries are what make sports great. But when those intense loyalties for a team descend into fatal altercations, researchers say, the culprits almost always deeply regret their actions afterward. One group "goads the other, and then it escalates," said Donelson Forsythe, a psychologist at the University of Richmond who studies fan violence.
When passions for teams get out of hand
(09-26) 21:05 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- For fans, rivalries are what make sports great. But when those intense loyalties for a team descend into fatal altercations, researchers say, the culprits almost always deeply regret their actions afterward. One group "goads the other, and then it escalates," said Donelson Forsythe, a psychologist at the University of Richmond who studies fan violence.
Sloppy Ridgemont repaving irks Oakland neighbors
Oakland resident Jeff Franzen waited more than two decades to see his Ridgemont neighborhood streets repaved, and when the trucks arrived this month he thought he was in for a smooth ride. "It just seems if you're going to go through the trouble of paving a road, you should do it right," Franzen said. He spoke this week as he drove his Mercedes sedan over dips and ruts along Campus Drive, the main road through the hilltop neighborhood that stretches from Merritt College southeast to Keller Avenue.
49ers' Aldon Smith booked for DUI, pot possession
(09-20) 11:33 PDT SAN JOSE -- San Francisco 49ers linebacker Aldon Smith was arrested Friday morning in San Jose on suspicion of drunken driving and marijuana possession, authorities said, marking the latest trouble for the star player. Sgt. Heather Randol said officers responded at 7:02 a.m. to the Silver Creek area in southeastern San Jose. Smith, who lives nearby, had collided with a fixed object while driving alone in a pickup truck, she said. Smith was not injured.
UC's twist on crowdfunding inspires students
Gov. Jerry Brown and Aimee Dorr, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, attend the program launch. University of California regents have come up with a novel approach to raising scholarship funds: have students dress in a cow suit for a week. Or swim 3 miles nonstop. Or wear a horse's head in public.
UC's twist on crowdfunding inspires students
University of California regents have come up with a novel approach to raising scholarship funds: have students dress in a cow suit for a week. Or swim 3 miles nonstop. Or wear a horse's head in public. Those are just some of the adventures pledged by UC students in a novel crowdfunding campaign that calls on anyone - including students - to tap into their social media networks for a donation.
Guilty plea expected in Conta Costa 'dirty DUI'
(09-12) 19:29 PDT CLAYTON -- A divorce attorney linked to the private investigator at the center of Contra Costa County's "dirty DUI" scandal is expected to plead guilty later this month to charges that she hired him to plant listening devices inside the car of a client's ex-husband. Mary Nolan, 61, was indicted by a grand jury last year on four counts of tax evasion and allegedly paying former private investigator Christopher Butler to bug cars on her behalf.
Rural Californians rekindle secession movement
They're fed up with the state legislators who focus on California's big-city needs. They're tired of bureaucrats in Sacramento who govern from afar and by decree. And they're still miffed they didn't win their sovereignty when they had the chance more than 70 years ago. So on Tuesday, supervisors in the far northern province of Siskiyou County decided to make things right: They voted to secede from California.
Traffic decent despite bridge closure
(08-29) 08:04 PDT OAKLAND -- Traffic in the Bay Area was moving smoothly Thursday morning in the wake of the closure of the Bay Bridge, signs that commuters had planned ahead, authorities said. The five-day closure of the span that began Wednesday night had prompted fears of mass gridlock, frayed nerves and congestion onother bridges, but nothing like that seems to have materialized, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Fairfield grass fire contained, but 5 homes burned
(08-27) 18:58 PDT FAIRFIELD -- Two homes were destroyed and three were severely burned Tuesday evening by a massive blaze in Fairfield that started as a grass fire, authorities said. Shortly after 6 p.m. the fire was 70 percent contained, said Fairfield police Sgt. Rob Lenke, who added that about 200 firefighters from four counties are on scene mopping up. About 50 people were evacuated and no injuries have been reported, he said.
Inmate says he and Sandra Coke planned to marry
The career criminal jailed after a defense investigator from Oakland disappeared said Wednesday that he had nothing to do with her killing - and that the two had carried on a long-term relationship and had been planning to marry. Randy Alana, 56, wept in a Santa Rita Jail interview room as he described Sandra Coke as "the best thing that ever happened to me." Alana is being held on a parole violation and has not been arrested in the death of Coke, 50, whose body was found Aug.
Inmate says he and Sandra Coke planned marriage
(08-21) 17:01 PDT DUBLIN -- The career criminal jailed after a defense investigator from Oakland disappeared said Wednesday that he had nothing to do with her killing - and that the two had carried on a long-term relationship and had been planning to marry.
Deputy's partner recounts "Dirty DUI" scam
(08-20) 14:40 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A former reserve sheriff's deputy in Contra Costa County testified Tuesday that his partner laid out an unusual plan for their shift one night. Rather than cruise around looking for drunk drivers, they parked in front of a Danville wine bar, waiting for a targeted man to emerge intoxicated and get behind the wheel, said the reserve deputy, William Howard.
Federal trial opens in "Dirty DUI" scandal
(08-19) 19:05 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A former Contra Costa County deputy sheriff accused of making prearranged arrests of men for drunken driving - so-called "Dirty DUIs" - had affection for cocaine and guns, federal prosecutors said Monday on the first day of his trial. Stephen Tanabe, 50, of Alamo, allegedly made the arrests at the behest of a longtime friend, disgraced private investigator Chris Butler, in exchange for $200 worth of cocaine and a pistol.
Tiny casket symbolizes new low for Oakland crime
It was the size of the casket that shook Demarco Coney. Coney, 19, stood near a wall inside an Oakland funeral home Friday and considered the contents of the open box from a distance: 16-month-old Drew Jackson, dressed in a sweater with white and teal stripes, white pants and white shoes. "Funerals don't even hit me anymore," said Coney, Drew's uncle, who grew up in Richmond and Oakland before he moved to Benicia this year.
A funeral too soon for Oakland's "Baby Drew"
(08-16) 15:15 PDT OAKLAND -- It was the size of the casket that shook Demarco Coney. Coney, 19, stood near a wall inside an Oakland funeral home Friday and considered the contents of the open box from a distance: 16-month-old Drew Jackson, dressed in a sweater with white and teal stripes, white pants and white shoes. "Funerals don't even hit me anymore," said Coney, Drew's uncle, who grew up in Richmond and Oakland before he moved to Benicia this year.
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A Contra Costa County sheriff's deputy told two colleagues he was making "dirty DUI" arrests on behalf of a private investigator who was setting up men to damage their reputations in legal fights, an investigator said in court documents. Deputy... more »
Car no home in Palo Alto - council votes ban in '14
Jagoda, who has been in Palo Alto for four years, cleans out his car, that is also his office, after spending the night in it. Each night Chuck Jagoda flashes his version of Silicon Valley innovation, converting his 1989 Dodge Spirit into a one-bedroom studio in desirable Palo Alto. Jagoda, 70, shifts boxes from the backseat to the front. He hides his laptop under the driver's seat. Food goes in the trunk to stay cool. A sweatshirt wrapped in a towel becomes a pillow.
Woman, 66, slain driving near Oakland home
(07-24) 18:39 PDT OAKLAND -- A 66-year-old woman was fatally shot Wednesday afternoon as she drove near her home in East Oakland, stunning neighbors who described her as a fixture in the area - a friendly dog walker and pet sitter who lived alone with her animals. The slaying was the city's 56th this year, but it provided a fresh horror just a week after an 8-year-old girl, Alaysha Carradine, was shot dead while at a friend's sleepover by an assailant who rang the doorbell and then opened fire.
Woman slain while driving in Oakland
(07-24) 17:03 PDT OAKLAND -- Oakland police are investigating the daylight slaying of a woman who was shot and killed Wednesday as she drove on a residential street, causing her to crash into a parked car. The victim, whose name was not immediately released, was driving a Subaru Outback on Fern Street east of High Street in the city's Fairfax neighborhood when shots rang out at 1:24 p.m., police said.
Trayvon Martin resonates with black Oakland youth
Tahj Joseph, 16, doubts that the Trayvon Martin killing and its aftermath will change anything. Far from the boarded windows of downtown Oakland and miles from the roar of activists protesting the acquittal of George Zimmerman, Askari Mwari, 24, walked with his two young sons near his home on 79th Avenue at MacArthur Boulevard and said he felt disgusted by the verdict. But he was not surprised.
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