Crowds gather, businesses shutter for Occupy Oakland general strike

Click here to access article by Cecily Burt, Kristin Bender, Sean Maher, Thomas Peele of the Oakland Tribune. (I normally cite the original sources, but can' t locate this at the Oakland Tribune site--may be due to the strike. The Mercury News is located in nearby San Jose, California.) 

Today's planned strike will be the first of its kind since in Oakland since 1946, and it could potentially turn out to be the biggest demonstration in the East Bay since the Vietnam War.

The demonstration aims to shut down the city by targeting banks, corporations and the Port of Oakland in solidarity with worldwide Occupy movement that decries the economic wealth of the very rich 1 percent while 99 percent of the population struggles to find jobs and pay the bills. 

For more current details of what is happening in Oakland, I recommend this link.