Thanks, Cindy Sheehan, for giving us a nice hook for one of our periodic lectures on why everyone should love the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Here’s what it says: -more-
Historic resources will be on the agendas of two city commissions meeting this week. -more-
To view Justin DeFreitas’ latest editorial cartoon, please visit -more-
I am a member of the Steering Committee of Neighbors on Urban Creeks and a member of the Claremont Elmwood Neighborhood Board. I have spent considerable time attending meetings, studying this complex issue and speaking to people about it. Because I don’t live on or near an open or culverted creek that is regulated under the city’s current Creeks Ordinance, you might well ask why I spend my time this way. I do it because besides being a creeks issue, it’s also a people and neighborhood issue. -more-
District 3 representative Max Anderson has placed a resolution on the Tuesday, Feb. 7 City Council agenda specifically excluding declaration of a Transit Village Development District or a Redevelopment Area, or exercise of eminent domain, as part of Ashby BART development. That’s good. (That resolution, and the other documents mentioned below, can be found on nabart.com.) Anderson’s resolution also reaffirms support for the city’s Caltrans grant application. That’s bad. Here’s why: -more-
To view Justin DeFreitas’ latest editorial cartoon, please visit -more-
Ongoing investigations into cloning researcher Hwang Woo Suk’s apparently fraudulent results are seeing American researchers and bioethicist apologists disavowing any connection between Korea’s scandal and the integrity of embryonic stem cell research more generally. Hwang, so recently honored as a hero in the field, is an aberration we are told now. The scientific community bears no taint. Distancing Hwang’s project from the larger cloning effort, Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology scolds that “while (Hwang) played his games…” cures have been held up. Biotech-industry favored bioethicist Laurie Zoloth soothes that “We can hope that with good codes…, good oversight…, good law and a good scientific process …the story (scientists tell us) is true.” -more-
The Berkeley Daily Planet reported on the joint Planning Commission-Creeks Task Force (CTF) workshop that took place on Jan. 25. As a member of the CTF who has attended every CTF meeting—save one—over the past year, I found myself surprised at some of the conclusions and opinions that were expressed by those interviewed for Richard Brenneman’s Jan. 27 article. Speaking only for myself and not the Creeks Task Force, allow me to point out where I think Mr. Brenneman and those he interviewed are either wrong or have mischaracterized what we have so far achieved on the CTF. -more-
Around noon on Sunday, Jan. 29, I watched two laborers with apparently no arborist credentials in the process of cutting down a large coast live oak in the Fulton Street yard of the historic Bartlett house at 2201 Blake St. When I arrived on the scene, the trunk was still there, but the majority of the upper branches and most of the canopy were gone. -more-
Once there was a kindly old elf named Santa Claus, who knew when everyone was sleeping, who knew when they were awake and who knew whether they’d been bad or good, and would leave them a gift if they’d been good, and nothing if they’d been bad. Thus he was the one who set up the first performance-based contract. -more-
(and please support Grace Underpressure with a donation :-)
