9 Stories You Should Know About Today: Monday, Jan. 19

Protesters gathered outside the home of Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf before dawn Monday, saying they were giving her a “people’s inauguration” on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Around 50 demonstrators descended on the home around 5 a.m. to express frustrations that the newly elected mayor spent her first day on the job with Oakland police. They also said her time on the City Council had contributed to gentrification. Full story

About 150 people marched through Oakland on Sunday evening, capping a weekend of Bay Area demonstrations aimed at highlighting injustices against African Americans.
The demonstration, which began around 7 p.m. at 14th Street and Broadway, was one of several events around the Bay Area timed to coincide with the Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend. Full story

The A's and Raiders will soon get to compete against each other for a chance to redevelop their sprawling East Oakland home. In a move intended to placate both teams, but which could pit them against each other, Mayor Libby Schaaf is proposing to allow the A's and Raiders to make their own proposals for a development project that could include at least one new stadium and a mix of homes and businesses on the 120-acre Coliseum complex. Full story

Amid a growing push to grant mothers and fathers paid time off for parental duties, Intel on Friday said it will begin offering "bonding leave" to its male and female employees who have new children. "New moms and dads can now enjoy eight weeks of paid time off with their family," the Santa Clara chipmaker said in a news release. "This is in addition to our existing pregnancy leave program that allows new moms fully paid time off generally for up to 13 weeks." Full story

Turlock welcomed beleaguered comic Bill Cosby like an old friend Sunday evening. The 77-year-old former star of “The Cosby Show” was greeted warmly and left with a standing ovation at the Turlock Community Theatre, his first appearance in California since allegations of past sexual assault made national headlines. Only one protester showed up to protest, while many more news crews waited outside the 1,000-seat theater to report on what has become a nationwide story. Full story

A tense contract dispute between Blue Shield of California and the Sutter Health network of doctors and hospitals may leave nearly 280,000 Northern and Central California consumers searching for someplace else to get health care. Blue Shield notified more than 139,000 customers last week and plans to tell 140,500 more later this month that they should be prepared to find health care providers outside the Sutter Health system. If a contract agreement isn’t reached, those policyholders would have to pay higher out-of-network rates if they choose to stay. Full story

Across the 13 counties analyzed, the proportion of children who’d missed one or more shots increased from an average of 8 percent at the beginning of the study period to 12.4 percent at the end. But that’s a broad geographic range. When the researchers drilled down to the county level, they found pockets of even higher rates of under-immunization ranging from 9.2 percent in Santa Clara County to 17.9 percent in Marin County between 2010 and 2012. Full story

Animal rights activists in San Francisco are holding the leashes to their dogs a little tighter when they see city buses roll by with colorful ads promoting tourism in China's Guangdong province. Andrea Gung wants to stop the dog meat trade in and near Guangdong. She is organizing a noon rally in San Francisco's Union Square on Feb. 19 -- Chinese New Year -- to encourage California Gov. Jerry Brown to speak out against the practice of slaughtering and eating dogs in China's southeastern provinces. Brown signed a sister state agreement with Guangdong last fall to strengthen economic ties. Full story

Last year a record number of sea lions washed up on Central and Northern California beaches, according to The Marine Mammal Center, the organization that treats wounded wild marine animals. Usually the center near Sausalito treats fewer than 20 sea lion pups a year, but in 2014 that spiked to 245. Older sea lions also stranded themselves in record numbers last year, 449 up from 176 in 2013. A neurotoxin found in algal blooms affected 34 percent of the adults. Full story