foundation, to the podium to introduce tonight's speaker, gleaves. thanks for.

gleaves. and good afternoon, everyone. i take a quick moment to thank the foundation as they have the better part of. 30 years, inviting me to be part of these very special events. and this one, i promise you, will be extraordinary. after listening to the conversations that had since i've been here and a special thanks to the ford family, because they too have allowed me to do things that most reporters don't get a chance to do, and particularly susan, who we spent so much time together between the ship, some of these events and it's always great you're back in town. and so it's nice to you all here. and let's get started. i want you to think for a minute about these two remarks. all women, we all know them. we can think of the high points, but think about what they did, how they did it, and when did it. and think about this title. lives of leadership, courage and both of these women had very distinct examples of all three of those wonderful traits. think about being a relatively young mother in the 1950s, when women didn'

the very now, i'd like to invite gleaves whitney, executive director of the gerald dar ford presidential foundation, to the podium to introduce tonight's speaker,

the very now, i'd like to invite gleaves whitney, executive director of the gerald dar ford presidential

, to the podium to introduce tonight's speaker, gleaves. thanks for. as joel, just said, we're back. look at this. this is great to have all these people in the auditorium after all those months of covid. so i applaud you for being here. you came for a great program this evening. as as you all know, we've been bringing bill brands back to grand rapids, west michigan, for many years, almost two decades. and i'll introduce him in just a minute. but first, i want to welcome our c-span, our viewing audience. i want to welcome all of you who are here in person. i think we have some trustees from the gerald ford presidential foundation to recognize. i think i see bob hooker and i think j.c. rising is here. we have one of the ford president ford's family members, greg ford, a nephew of president. mrs. ford, welcome. glad you're always glad you're here. so, yeah, go ahead and applaud. absolutely absolutely. now, those of you who have been to this gig before know that i have tried every which way possible humanly possible to introduce bill in a new

. >> the mayor's news letter did address issues that can lead to crime but george gleaves says the oakland police department remains the largest line item in oakland's general fund and that, he says, remains a problem. >> the biggest concern that i have is that once again we're throwing more funds at a law enforcement department that has proven to be disorganized and dysfunctional. >> he wants to see more money put towards prevention. he doesn't excuse the violence he's seeing on the free-throws but agrees with the mayor that investments of viable employment and educational opportunities trample things from the grounds up. in oakland, abc 7 news. ama: and a reminder, our abc 7 news neighborhood safety tracker is available to give you a picture of public safety where you live. we have tata for oakland as well as san francisco and san jose. dan: coming up next, tax and teachers. see how an appeals court resolved the issue in alameda. ama: and we put a cruise car for the test. see how it does for a every buss deserves a great deal. that's why comcast business is launching the mobile made free