Posted Wed., April 9—As pro-Tibet groups and supporters of the Beijing Games engaged in a war of words during the Olympic Torch Relay in San Francisco today (Wednesday), Tibetans in Berkeley kept their businesses closed to join in a movement very close to their heart. -more-
Posted Wed., April 9— The United Healthcare Workers-West members who met with the press outside the San Francisco Federal Building Tuesday are in a fight—but this time it’s not with their corporate bosses. -more-
Posted Tue., April 8—A sewage spill discovered at Bayer Healthcare's Berkeley campus at noon Monday prompted the city’s Division of Environmental Health to prohibit human contact with water in a section of the Berkeley Aquatic Park. -more-
A five-year-old city skateboard park that was to cost $200,000 and ended up costing four times that amount today is splitting at the seams. -more-
A small but dedicated crowd turned up to mark the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination by reading aloud his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” at the downtown Berkeley Public Library on Friday. The event coincided with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Youth Council’s National Day of Nonviolence, started nine years ago by the organization’s former director Jamal Bryant to encourage youth to fight against community violence. -more-
A U.S. District Court judge has ruled that the Oakland Police Department’s street strip-search policies are generally constitutional—though portions of it are not—but trials in individual cases must be held before the court can determine whether constitutional rights have actually been violated. -more-
Demolition of the strip mall at the corner of University Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way will begin June 1, said developer Chris Hudson. Some preliminary dismantling of the building is already visible. -more-
The Berkeley Board of Education will discuss a report recommending adaptive re-use of the Berkeley High School Old Gym on Wednesday. -more-
Berkeley-based Disability Rights Advocates settled a seven-year-old lawsuit with the state Department of Education Friday. In the settlement the state agreed to study the pass rate for special education students on the California High School Exit Exam. -more-
Former 16th District Assemblymember Wilma Chan has filed a complaint with the California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) against 14th District Assemblymember Loni Hancock—Chan’s opponent in the race to succeed termed-out 9th District State Senator Don Perata—charging that Hancock has illegally used her assemblymember officeholder account to pay a campaign staff member. -more-
The state agriculture department’s plan to eradicate the light brown apple moth (LBAM) “is like the 9-11 terrorist policy applied to agriculture,” Miguel Altieri, UC Berkeley professor of agroecology and an entomologist, told the Planet Monday. -more-
A federal decision on a plan to create a new North Richmond reservation for a landless tribe of Pomos who want to build a casino is months away, a federal official said Monday. -more-
Berkeley Planning Commissioners face back-to-back meetings this week where they’ll juggle two political hot potatoes on succeeding nights. -more-
Posted Mon., April 7—Former 16th District Assemblymember Wilma Chan has filed a complaint with the California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) against 14th District Assemblymember Loni Hancock—Chan’s opponent in the race to succeed termed-out 9th District State Senator Don Perata—charging that Hancock has illegally used her assemblymember officeholder account to pay a campaign staff member. -more-
Posted Sun., April 6—The City of Oakland will honor the legacy of Paul Robeson—one of the giant figures in American History—with an April 9 City Hall reception on the 110th anniversary of his birth. -more-
Posted Sat., April 5—A small but dedicated crowd turned up to mark the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination by reading aloud his Letter from a Birmingham Jail at the downtown Berkeley Public Library on Friday. The event coincided with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Youth Council's National Day of Nonviolence, started nine years ago by the organization's former director Jamal Bryant to encourage youth to fight against community violence. -more-
Demolition of the strip mall at the corner of University Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way will begin June 1, said developer Chris Hudson. -more-
Commuting Peet-o-philes will no longer have to trudge the block or so from the downtown BART for their morning cup o’ joe. -more-
A state legislator and county officials took sharp issue with the environmental documents prepared in support of a Lake County tribe’s bid to build a casino on industrial land in North Richmond. -more-
After almost a year-long hiatus, the North Shattuck Plaza is back—this time as part of the recently launched public review draft of the Berkeley Pedestrian Master Plan prepared by the city’s Public Works Department Transportation Division. -more-
Whether it’s searching for a new animal shelter site, preserving Berkeley’s architectural heritage, scrutinizing police conduct or making sure schools have emergency caches, commissions do much of the city’s hard work, city staff, commissioners and several councilmembers told the Planet Thursday. -more-
The ten-day strike of registered nurses (RNs) at Sutter Health’s Bay Area hospitals ended Monday with the start of the 7 a.m. shift. -more-
Under “friendly” but pointed pressure from community activists to fulfill a campaign pledge, Oakland Mayor Dellums has set a May 31 deadline to begin removing barriers to the hiring of formerly incarcerated people for City of Oakland jobs. -more-
Advocates for tenants’ rights are hopeful that the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) will keep the water running permanently in multi-family rental properties in foreclosure status and adopt a lien system to collect unpaid bills from landlords. -more-
The company that owns Golden Gate Fields is splitting from its corporate parent, whose directors have been eager to strip their successful firm of its ties with the money-hemorrhaging gambling subsidiary. -more-
The Berkeley-Albany-Emeryville NAACP Youth Council will mark today (Friday) the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King by reading his Letter from a Birmingham Jail at the Berkeley Public Library on Kittredge Street. -more-
UC Berkeley officials have called for new designs to transform the face of Lower Sproul Plaza, the less familiar portion of the university’s most famous public space. -more-
Code Pink had the last laugh on April Fool’s Day, but the anti-war group preferred to call their little prank a “hope” instead of a hoax. -more-
Bay City News -more-
Reminders of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, 40 years ago on Friday, were everywhere last week. His sonorous voice was replayed again and again on every radio station—his picture was in every paper. For me, the most immediate and vivid memories of that dreadful week in 1968—indeed, of that whole dreadful year—came flooding back at the Tuesday farmers’ market, to which Full Belly Farms brought huge fragrant bunches of lilacs. -more-
Habits die hard. For almost all of my adult life, or at least as soon as the kids were old enough to fend for themselves at breakfast, I’ve enjoyed taking to my bed with a cup of coffee and the morning paper while it’s still too early to talk to anyone in a civilized way. Of necessity, we’ve stuck with the San Francisco Chronicle all these years, since we just aren’t that interested in reading a lot about Contra Costa County or San Jose. The New York Times is fine for national news, but the last time we subscribed it was delivered at 10 at night, tempting us to stay up too late reading it, and now it’s easier to read it on the Internet anyhow. -more-
The either/or alternatives of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) vs. no-project is a false choice. But before I suggest another choice let us step back and look at the goal of BRT and what we can learn from the current BRT dry run. -more-
This is a people-friendly, eco-friendly plan to increase riders and decrease congestion and pollution. It will save millions for transit improvements. -more-
Even though AC Transit began planning for Bus Rapid Transit 18 years ago, in Berkeley we’re still only about half way to deciding whether to build such a system in south Berkeley along with neighbor cities Oakland and San Leandro. -more-
The architect Frank Lloyd Wright is supposed to have said that the right angle is a fascist symbol. That observation may be apocryphal, but it well applies to some of the newer buildings on Berkeley’s commercial corridors, big square apartment complexes that dwarf adjacent residential properties. Currently, the boxes are creeping north along San Pablo Avenue and threatening to change the character of West Berkeley. -more-
When figures like $16 billion and $8 billion and $5 billion are tossed about on a regular basis it’s fair for a person to wonder how Gov. Schwarzenegger’s budget proposal for next year affects the average citizen. What can I do, one might ask, about a gaping deficit of billions of dollars, and why should I care? -more-
The trial phase of the lawsuit brought by the City of Berkeley, the Panoramic Hill Association and the California Oaks Foundation against the University of California to stop the building of the new office/gym facility (SAHPC) and a mostly new Memorial Stadium heard its final arguments on March 20. The case is now in the hands of the judge who will give her decision within two months. The stakes couldn’t be higher. We have just seen in our newspapers a study of the probable damage from the severe earthquake expected at any time on the Hayward Fault. These experts are predicting staggering losses to homes and businesses of at least $165 billion. The magnitude of the damage and the rebuilding is hard to imagine. -more-
Barbara Lee said this recently in regard to Bush’s war/occupation in Iraq: -more-
In my young adulthood, I fought valiantly against the notion that I would be disabled, unable to work, and dependent on the medical establishment and on public benefits. I tried exceedingly hard to work at jobs, at first by quitting prescribed medication against medical advice, and then tried to work while taking these medications which I had little choice but to take. -more-
The City of Oakland will honor the legacy of Paul Robeson—one of the giant figures in American history—with an April 9 City Hall reception on the 110th anniversary of his birth. -more-
The Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) will consider an expansion permit for Jupiter Restaurant on Thursday. -more-
Joe and I spent the other afternoon moving dirt and reshaping the malva rosa by the garage, to allow some sun on the pile we were making. This isn’t the first time we’ve radically reshaped the thing, and it won’t be the last. Except for the fact that it’s so inherently bewildering, I’d call this plant the ideal first thing to learn pruning with: it’s woody but soft; it puts out lots and lots of branches to choose from, and it can take a severe pruning and recover. -more-
With the sad, slow decline of the Oakland Tribune as a newspaper of substance over the past several years, Oakland has begun to depend more heavily on the San Francisco Chronicle for coverage of city issues and events. With that dependence have come expressed concerns—jelling in the Jerry Brown years, escalating during the one year of the Ron Dellums administration—that Oakland is being “unfairly” covered, for want of a better word. -more-
Since the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, standards for accessible design have guided new construction and building retrofits. A plethora of products, from doors to bathroom fixtures, are especially designed with accessibility in mind. -more-
I owe a personal debt to Jenny Fleming, and so do you. Mine is perhaps more specific: Jenny was one of a group of people who saved my sanity after I crashed and burned out of nursing. -more-
I’m actually a very sensitive person. My feelings are easily hurt and I prefer to have an exchange of kind words: “I like you” is nice. On a good day someone might say “I like you, too.” Isn’t that nice. Then I wake up and realize, once again, that I’m a home inspector and no matter how I try to slice it, I have to criticize a few dozen things every day and, invariably, I’m going to have hurt someone’s feelings, made them angry or maybe a little scared. Well, at least I’m not in politics. -more-
Empathy—it’s a muscle. If you don’t use it, it wastes away.” What “society’s monsters”—that is, child molesters—experience, in Stephen Brown’s play Future Me at the Berkeley City Club, seems to have little to do with empathy—with their victims, from society, with themselves. -more-
Future Me is about how society deals with its monsters,” said British playwright Stephen Brown, “what we do with people who’ve done terrible things.” -more-
You may ask, Why another Rolling Stones concert film? Aren’t they a tad past their prime? And haven’t these guys had enough camera time over the past 45 years? -more-
Joe and I spent the other afternoon moving dirt and reshaping the malva rosa by the garage, to allow some sun on the pile we were making. This isn’t the first time we’ve radically reshaped the thing, and it won’t be the last. Except for the fact that it’s so inherently bewildering, I’d call this plant the ideal first thing to learn pruning with: it’s woody but soft; it puts out lots and lots of branches to choose from, and it can take a severe pruning and recover. -more-
Baritone Robert Sims and Soprano Alison Buchanan, who originally sang together in 1998, will give a joint recital for Four Seasons Concerts on Saturday at Holy Names University. -more-
“Future Me is about how society deals with its monsters,” said British playwright Stephen Brown, “what we do with people who’ve done terrible things.” -more-
Since the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, standards for accessible design have guided new construction and building retrofits. A plethora of products, from doors to bathroom fixtures, are especially designed with accessibility in mind. -more-
I owe a personal debt to Jenny Fleming, and so do you. Mine is perhaps more specific: Jenny was one of a group of people who saved my sanity after I crashed and burned out of nursing. -more-
I’m actually a very sensitive person. My feelings are easily hurt and I prefer to have an exchange of kind words: “I like you” is nice. On a good day someone might say “I like you, too.” Isn’t that nice. Then I wake up and realize, once again, that I’m a home inspector and no matter how I try to slice it, I have to criticize a few dozen things every day and, invariably, I’m going to have hurt someone’s feelings, made them angry or maybe a little scared. Well, at least I’m not in politics. -more-
