Updates

Police Officer Kills Berkeley Woman

From Bay City News and news reports
Friday February 15, 2008
Posted Mon. Feb 18, 2008--An officer responding to reports of a domestic disturbance at a south Berkeley apartment building Saturday night used deadly force on a woman who allegedly confronted the officer with a knife, according to the Berkeley Police Department. -more-

Children's Hospital Representatives Meet with North Oakland Neighbors; No Resolution in Sight

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday February 15, 2008
Posted Sun., Feb. 17—Representatives of Oakland’s Children’s Hospital and many of the hospital's North Oakland neighbors danced around each other at a North Oakland Senior Center community meeting for two hours last Wednesday night, with neither side seeming to be sure what music was being played, or even if the band had stopped altogether. -more-

Council Begins November Ballot Tax Measure Discussions

By Judith Scherr
Friday February 15, 2008
Posted Sat., Feb. 16—Pools, police, pipes, fire prevention, youth services: fulfilling city needs will take new funding—perhaps $30 million. And that greatly surpasses the dollars flowing into Berkeley’s coffers. -more-

News

Facing Cheers, Jeers, Council Softens Anti-Marine Stance

By Judith Scherr
Friday February 15, 2008
A Move America Forward supporter with an American flag and a veterans cap has a heated exchange with a vet from Veteran’s for Peace early Tuesday morning in Civic Center Park at the beginning of a day of debate over the war and the downtown Marine Recruiting Center in Berkeley.
After being called “idiots,” thanked profusely, having their manners upbraided, told alternatively during a three-hour public hearing that they were unpatriotic and true patriots, the Berkeley City Council softened rhetoric of a Jan. 29 council item that would have had staff write the Marines, saying their recruiters are “uninvited and unwelcome intruders” in Berkeley. -more-

Heavy Police Presence Felt At City Hall Marine Protests

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday February 15, 2008
Police in riot gear stand in the middle of Martin Luther King Jr. Way, dividing the opposing protesters.
For a brief moment Tuesday, the warpaint and angry threats outside Maudelle Shirek Old City Hall gave way to sporadic bursts of festivity. -more-

Pacific Steel Workers Urge City to Defend Plant’s Presence in Berkeley

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday February 15, 2008
The angry cries of several hundred Pacific Steel workers eclipsed the sound of bullhorns and jeers from the pro- and anti-war demonstrators outside the Old City Hall Tuesday to hear the Berkeley City Council rescind their resolution on the Marine Recruiting Center. -more-

Council Drops ‘Insensitive’ Language, Refuses Apology

By Judith Scherr
Friday February 15, 2008
At around 1:15 a.m. Wednesday, a weary council passed a motion 7-2 which effectively reversed the council’s vote to tell the Marines they are “unwelcome intruders.” They refused, however, to issue an apology to the Marines. -more-

Oakland May Deadlock On Affordable Housing

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday February 15, 2008
One of the councilmembers most associated with the drive to increase affordable housing in Oakland believes that after more than a year, the council may be deadlocked on the issue and unable to make any changes. -more-

Density Bonus Fracas Flares at Planning Commission

By Richard Brenneman
Friday February 15, 2008
A sharp schism between city staff and veterans of the panel charged with formulating policies for a new city density bonus law revealed itself at the Planning Commission Wednesday night. -more-

BRT, Parks, Southside Evoke Heated Response

By Richard Brenneman
Friday February 15, 2008
Southside Berkeley residents came to the Planning Commission Wednesday to call for more parks and protest Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). -more-

Hamill Talks About Rumors of Running for Oakland Council

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday February 15, 2008
The longtime District One (North Oakland) representative on the Oakland Unified School District board confirmed that she is not running for re-election but denied rumors that she is running for the Oakland At-Large City Council seat. -more-

Council Nixes Preserving Property for Industrial Use

By Judith Scherr
Friday February 15, 2008
Rich Robbins of San Rafael-based Wareham Properties won one more victory at City Hall Tuesday, when the City Council voted 5-1-3 to demolish structures at Robbins’ property at 1050 Parker St. -more-

Fire Log

By Richard Brenneman
Friday February 15, 2008
A Molotov cocktail hurled at a UC Berkeley fraternity forced the evacuation of 50 residents from the Sigma Pi house during the predawn hours Saturday. -more-

A shrine has been set up on the Ward Street porch where Anita Gay was shot and killed by a Berkeley police officer.
By Mike O'Malley
A shrine has been set up on the Ward Street porch where Anita Gay was shot and killed by a Berkeley police officer.

Editorials

Editorial: Much Ado About Not Much In the End

By Becky O'Malley
Friday February 15, 2008
One benefit of being a woman of (or even over) a certain age is that you can be invisible when you want to be. Women sometimes complain that after they pass 55 no one notices them, which is often true, but the good news is that this phenomenon allows you to assume a “cloak of invisibility” worth of a Harry-Potterish heroine when you’d like to know what people are up to. Wearing nondescript clothes and not too stylish glasses, you can go anywhere and overhear anyone. -more-

Reader Commentaries

Letters to the Editor

Friday February 15, 2008

Readers Respond to Council-Marine Recruiters Controversy

Friday February 15, 2008
The Planet is only printing letters from locals regarding the ruling on the Marine Recruitment Station. Some of these letters were sent prior to the Feb. 12 City Council meeting and thus do not reflect the council’s most recent ruling. -more-

Commentary: The Death of Sgt. Van Dale Todd

By Daniel Borgström
Friday February 15, 2008
Back in 1972, near the end of the Vietnam war, I was living in San Francisco, and my close friend, ex-Sgt. Van Dale Todd, a combat veteran of the 101st Airborne, lived next door in the same building, a Victorian on 29th Street. Sometimes Van would take a notion to hit the wall which separated our apartments with his fist and shout, “Who the fuck would join the Marine Corps?” I’d yell back, “Airborne sucks!” “The Marine Corps sucks!” Van’d shout. “Only two things come out of the sky,” I’d yell back again, “Bird shit and fools!” That was how we said good morning to each other. It was our ritualized greeting. -more-

Columnists

Column: Dispatches From the Edge: Challenging a Unipolar World

By Conn Hallinan
Friday February 15, 2008
One of the more interesting phenomena to emerge from the U.S. debacle in Iraq is the demise of the unipolar world that rose from the ashes of the Cold War. A short decade ago the U.S. was the most powerful political, economic and military force on the planet. Today its army is straining under the weight of an unpopular occupation, its economy is careening toward recession, and the only “allies” it can absolutely depend on in the United Nations are Israel, Palau, and the Marshall Islands. -more-

Column: Undercurrents: A Proposal to Close the ‘Blue Gap’ Becomes a Political Struggle

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday February 15, 2008
We have come to an odd turn in Oakland’s Police and Crime and Politics novel, as if a master storyteller—Arthur Conan Doyle or Scott Turow, perhaps—has suddenly introduced an unexpected twist that makes the reader have to throw out many earlier assumptions, and even go back and revisit some of the first few chapters to see exactly how this spot was reached. We are in the middle of the story, now, so it is difficult to sort out all the narrative threads. I will do my best and if I err, forgive me, as this is being done as things are still developing, and new information is coming forth. -more-

Garden Variety: Deer Friendly in Fairfax

By Ron Sullivan
Friday February 15, 2008
O’Donnell’s Fairfax Nursery is an old favorite of mine, though I pass it maybe 20 times for every time I go in to visit. It’s right on one of our two usual routes to Point Reyes, though over the last five years or so it’s the route we take coming back and they’re often closed by that hour. Besides, on the way out we’re generally in a big fat hurry to go see some birds; on the way back, we’re tired and grouchy and unfit for civilized company. -more-

Arts & Entertainment

Arts Calendar

Friday February 15, 2008
FRIDAY, FEB. 15 -more-

The Theater: ‘Savage Arts” at the Marsh

By Ken Bullock, Special to The Planet
Friday February 15, 2008
Savage Arts, a solo piece written and performed by Berkeley playwright Sharon Eberhardt, which concerns an actual murder and trial that focused on witchcraft and Native American beliefs in 1930 Buffalo, N.Y., will have its final performances 8 p.m. tonight (Friday) and tomorrow night (Saturday) at The Marsh in San Francisco’s Mission District. -more-

Hope Briggs Brings ‘A Musical Valentine’ to Herbst Theatre

Friday February 15, 2008
Hope Briggs
Celebrated soprano Hope Briggs will return to the Bay Area for an intimate musical afternoon following rave reviews for starring roles in opera houses and recital halls throughout the U.S. and Europe. “A Musical Valentine” takes place on Sunday, Feb. 17, at 3 p.m. at San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Ave. Tickets are $50, $40 and $25. Call City Box Office at (415)392-4400 or visit www.cityboxoffice.com. -more-

Events Calendar

Berkeley This Week

Friday February 15, 2008