At least four teachers will be transferred involuntarily from Rosa Parks Elementary School next year—and many more might follow them willingly—two months after more than three-quarters of the faculty signed a letter of no confidence in their principal. -more-

For a city whose downtown recently has been characterized more by empty storefronts than thriving shops, Longs Drugs offers Berkeley an enticing opportunity. -more-

A recent speech delivered by a UC Berkeley lecturer during an impromptu anti-war protest in San Francisco has set off a firestorm of criticism around the country, including death threats and calls for his removal from the university. -more-

TUESDAY, MAY 25 -more-

Richard Register and other Berkeley proponents of daylighting Strawberry Creek have come to San Luis Obispo so often that they’re “becoming a new type of economic tourism,” quipped San Luis Obispo City Councilmember Kenneth Schwartz. -more-

Pedestrian Killed in I-80 Accident -more-

The biggest news swirling around tonight’s (Tuesday, May 25) City Council meeting isn’t on the agenda. -more-

It was two in the afternoon and I was unloading groceries from my car. On the second trip out the front door I saw her rounding the corner and coming toward me: a small, waif-like woman dressed in flannel pajama bottoms and a bubble jacket. I knew what was coming. I was going to get nailed. -more-

On May 22, more than a quarter of the graduating class of Boalt Hall law students protested actions taken by Boalt law professor John Yoo during his tenure as deputy assistant attorney general for the Bush administration. In January, 2002, Professor Yoo authored a 42-page memo for the Department of Justice advising that the U.S. is not constrained by the Geneva Conventions in its treatment of Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners captured in Afghanistan. The State Department vigorously opposed this position on several grounds, arguing that it could do great damage to our international standing and the legitimacy of our foreign policy. Subsequent events in both Iraq and Afghanistan and have borne out these concerns. -more-

LAKOFF LECTURE -more-

Staff proposals for implementing the University Avenue Strategic Plan (UASP) are so confusing that the public, the commission, and even staff find it difficult to understand them, as is shown by each succeeding draft having additional mistakes and inconsistencies. The drafts have come so quickly that issues presented weeks ago have not been resolved, and have been buried by many new questions raised by the later revisions. Staff is pushing the commission to complete a final draft before the City Council recess in July, but neighbors and merchants are not convinced that the proposed zoning code changes will lead to the viable and vital University Avenue that the UASP promised. -more-

The season of political sophistry is well underway in Berkeley as it is across the nation. Evidence of this can be seen in John Koenigshofer’s less than rational, less than honest anti-rent control rant. The latest thoughtless tirade appeared on the op-ed page in the weekend edition of May 11-13. Mr. Koenigshofer signed his piece as “a Berkeley resident.” Perhaps modesty prevented Mr. Koenigshofer from revealing that he is a Berkeley landlord and realtor who works out of George Oram’s firm, one of Berkeley’s largest real estate interests. -more-

Jesse Arreguin recently wrote in this newspaper (Letters, Daily Planet, May 14-17) that “Costa Hawkins and excessive rent levels led to the lack of housing in Berkeley.” I doubt that Mr. Arreguin was living in Berkeley when rent control began in 1979, or that he has taken the time to study the history of this issue. -more-

Last week, San Francisco’s City Arts & Lectures offered a tantalizing twofer at Herbst Theatre: renowned urbanist Jane Jacobs was interviewed by Paul Goldberger, architecture critic for the New Yorker and, before that, for the New York Times. Jacobs, 88, lives in Toronto and seldom ventures into these parts. Not surprisingly, the event sold out. -more-

John King’s review of Jane Jacobs in the May 20 San Francisco Chronicle concluded with a swipe at the UC Hotel Task Force. -more-

For a nation created in part as a rebellion against corporate power, the United States has embraced the corporation to a degree unprecedented in history, enshrouding it with the protections Jefferson enshrined to shelter the individual from the undue intrusion of government. -more-

Sayre Van Young’s face and name are familiar to many Berkeley residents. For nearly four decades, she’s worked for the Berkeley Public Library, helping to answer the most common and esoteric questions posed at the reference desk. -more-

TUESDAY, MAY 25 -more-

Melaleucas are blooming now; there’s a double row of Melaleuca linariifolia on Jefferson Street, on both sides of its intersection with Bancroft, and a nice row of them by the BART tracks on Masonic in Albany, among others. They look nifty in rows, with their profusion of tiny white flowers mounding the edges of the rounded crowns. One of their English names is “snow-in-summer,” a name shared with an easy herbaceous groundcover, Cerastium tomentosum. They look a little odd together, though, because they have such different color palettes: The tree is pale tan and slightly olive-ish green with creamy flowers, and the herb is silvery and cold white. -more-

Cartoon by Justin De'Freitas -more-