When customers arrived at Maggie’s Coffee House in El Cerrito Tuesday morning, they were surprised to see a regular customer standing his ground between a tree and three men, one of whom was carrying a chainsaw. -more-

Early Monday evening a running gun battle left one man critically injured and police searching for a lime green car that struck several cars during an exchange of gunfire with a pedestrian. -more-

The state Senate Environmental Quality Committee unanimously passed a resolution Monday calling for a moratorium on aerial spraying for the light brown apple moth (LBAM) until the state agriculture department “can demonstrate that the pheromone compound it intends to use is both safe to humans and effective at eradicating the light brown apple moth.” -more-

Sunday brunch at the Berkeley Thai Temple could soon become a thing of the past. -more-

It’s the only place in Berkeley where you can pet a Komodo dragon. And if you are lucky, watch in bug-eyed wonder as tarantulas perform handstands and Burmese Albino pythons bask in the afternoon sun. -more-

If the City Council gives its OK, the UC Berkeley College Republicans may have a parking space of their own on Shattuck Avenue on Wednesday afternoons, directly across the street from the Code Pink anti-war, anti-recruitment demonstrations in front of the Marine Recruiting Center -more-

The tangled ties between UC Berkeley and the agro-chemo-pharmaceutical industry grew gnarlier this week, with GMO and herbicide giant Monsanto thrown into the equation. -more-

A plan to support the proliferation of solar panels in Berkeley, approved in concept by the City Council last year, is neither quick nor cheap to implement, city officials have found. -more-

If Mayor Tom Bates and councilmembers Laurie Capitelli and Dona Spring have their way, free evening parking in downtown Berkeley may be a luxury of the past. -more-

Members of the Housing Advisory Commission (HAC) today (Thursday) will look at efforts to rehabilitate the low-income housing building located just across the street from People’s Park. -more-

An Alameda County jury on Tuesday convicted Christopher Hollis of voluntary manslaughter for the death of 19-year-old Meleia Willis-Starbuck, who was fatally shot near the intersection of College Avenue and Dwight Way in Berkeley in the early morning hours of July 17, 2005. -more-

Berkeley Police are seeking a dapper-looking credit card thief who has managed to steal nearly $20,000 in cash and illegally purchased goods. -more-

The power of incumbency brings with it two major political pluses: the ability to raise campaign money and the ability to gain endorsements. -more-

In the race to succeed Don Perata in State Senate District 9, candidates Loni Hancock and Wilma Chan are virtually dead even in large campaign contributions in the last month and a half. -more-

Three Bay Area marches on May Day—and an eight-hour shutdown of West Coast ports—will merge traditional calls for better pay and benefits with support for the rights of immigrants and a call to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. -more-

The flood of beer commercials for the coming Cinco de Mayo would make one think that the event signifies Cinco Cervezas. Swamped in suds is the actual meaning, which is the commemoration of the battle at Puebla in 1862 where a hastily collected Mexican army stopped invading troops on their march to Mexico City to establish a colonial empire funded by Emperor Napoleon of France for Austrian Archduke Maximillian. -more-

The Berkeley Organizing Congregation for Action (BOCA) will partner with the First Congregational Church of Berkeley Saturday to deconstruct myths, fears and assumptions about immigration. -more-

“The people want public parks where we can all go, and be free.” One hundred years ago in late April, 1908, that was the sentiment at a meeting where voters gathered to urge the passage of bonds to purchase undeveloped land for public park use in north Berkeley. -more-

Campus police are looking for two different groups of young men who harassed and sexually groped young women last weekend. -more-

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Could the tragedy of Christopher Wootton’s death have been avoided if we had been more proactive with prevention and enforcement efforts in our community? Sadly, we think it’s possible that might be the case. We are a group of neighbors who have volunteered our time for over two years on the Chancellor’s Task Force on Student/Neighbor Relations working on issues of alcohol-related behavior in the Southside. -more-

From the beginning, the idea of converting an industrial property in the middle of our manufacturing district to recreational fields and a skate park, was pure folly. Like the lie that requires another to cover up its dishonesty, the planning and rezoning of the park complex have led to a series of outrageous decisions, and of course, more of our tax dollars being spent to “fix” a multitude of mistakes. -more-

Over the past week top Pentagon officials have upped the Bush regime’s verbal attacks against Iran in what may be a prelude to actual military attacks. On April 21, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates delivered a speech at the West Point military academy where he accused Iran of being a rogue nation that supports “terrorism; that is a destabilizing force throughout the Middle East and Southwest Asia and, in my judgment, is hellbent on acquiring nuclear weapons.” He went on to say, “Another war in the Middle East is the last thing we need. And in fact, I believe it would be disastrous on a number of levels. But the military option must be kept on the table, given the destabilizing policies of the regime and the risks inherent in a future Iranian nuclear threat – either directly or through nuclear proliferation.” Gates and all other top Bush administration officials, including the president, continually emphasize that the military option is always on the table in regard to Iran. -more-

Many people familiar with the Berkeley City Council’s resolution calling the Marines Corps Recruiters unwelcome intruders and the resulting protests might be surprised to learn that they had been deliberately bamboozled into believing that the Berkeley leaders were insulting the men and women who serve in the Marines. The mass hysteria was fanned by the nation’s mostly pro-war media who were willingly led by the nose by Republican war hawks. Their goal was to paint war critics like Berkeley as unpatriotic haters of the troops and to deflect attention from the disgraceful behavior of the Marine Recruiters which was the topic of the Berkeley resolution. -more-

This is in response to Laurie Capitelli’s April 18 commentary in the Daily Planet. He begins his commentary standing at Vine looking south “down a vibrant Shattuck Avenue thronging with pedestrians…spilling out across traffic to claim and use the grass median strip.” What he does not say, is that this thronging mass of pedestrians does not continue down Shattuck Avenue or continue into the real downtown of Berkeley. -more-

Why would a moth that has probably been in California for at least a decade, that is not spreading as rapid as California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) demographic models predict and that has not devastated the agriculture in the countries where has been established for decades, suddenly become the target of the state agriculture’s department and agribusiness? This little insect is simply being used as an excuse to protect California’s big agriculture interests and to justify the continuation and expansion of the budgets of the state’s agricultural bureaucracies. For this strategy to work, it is necessary to resort to the well known terror campaign, so familiar to us as it is daily used by the current U.S. administration as a mechanism to justify the war that enriches a few big military industries and oil companies and impoverishes the vast population now subjected to increasing home foreclosures, unemployment, increased oil and food prices and cuts on education and other basic services. -more-

Oakland crime is out of control. Our city is in crisis and our residents are in shock. Oakland is one of the 10 most dangerous cities in the country. Our 2008 murder rate is nearly 60 percent higher than at this same time last year. Recently, a young East Oakland mother was killed while she slept in her bed; she was struck by a bullet intended for a group of people outside her home, a 10-year-old boy was permanently disabled when a bullet ripped into him while he took piano lessons in Montclair, diners were robbed at gunpoint at six restaurants in just the last two weeks, and many residents have been assaulted on the streets, and subjected to car-jackings and other personal and property crimes. -more-

On April 23, the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) unanimously approved a resolution, brought by School Board Director Karen Hemphill, in opposition to the aerial pesticide spraying proposed for the Bay Area. (The current CDFA plan is to spray every 30 days for nine months of each year for up to five years or longer.) The board’s resolution requests that the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) act to protect the health and welfare of the residents and natural environment of Alameda County by immediately shifting its light brown apple moth (LBAM) control methods to least-toxic Integrated Pest Management methods. The resolution also urges BUSD to join neighboring jurisdictions, including other school districts and local governments, to oppose the spray and requests that the Alameda County School Board and other local school districts take a similar stand. -more-

It’s unfortunate that the concept of visualization has gotten such a bad rap. Because of its connection with what turned out to be mushy-brained 1960s social science, or perhaps because it has become the butt of so many jokes (e.g., the bumper sticker “Visualize Whirled Peas”), it now languishes in history’s big dustheap, somewhere between encounter groups and last week’s coffee grounds. As it turns out, we probably cannot change reality simply by “visualizing” an alternative one. -more-

Most Berkeley residents are aware of the encampment in the oak trees by the University of California’s Memorial Stadium. -more-

To protect and to serve” has never been UC Police policy when it comes to student protest. Back in 1969, UC Police enforced UC policy on People’s Park. UCPD failed, and today we have a park, not a parking lot. In 1999, when hunger strikers defended Ethnic Studies, UCPD beat the protesters. Again they failed, and today Ethnic Studies has tenured faculty. -more-

Mayor Bates, at the April 14 meeting of the City Council Agenda Committee, declared that the City Council would proceed with an April 22, 2008 Public hearing on the Draft Sunshine Ordinance left behind by the city’s former city attorney. This, despite the City Council’s receipt of a letter (from the very prestigious panelists that the City Council itself had invited to participate in a March 2007 Sunshine Ordinance Workshop) requesting that the public hearing be postponed in order that a Sunshine Ordinance draft in process by a citizens’ group could also be subject to public review and consideration. This citizens’ group was initiated by, and participated in by, the very panelists whom the mayor and councilmembers had encouraged to do just that. -more-

It has been a year and a half since the Memorial Stadium oak trees—now part UC Berkeley protest fame—have had to call a new kind of longhaired species resident. Perched on limbs, sitting on the sidewalk or frequenting the I-House Café, protestors continue to sit even though student support is clearly on the wane. As an athlete at UC Berkeley, I probably spend more time inside cracked and unsafe walls of Memorial Stadium than any other lecture hall, coffee house, or library on campus. The oak grove is part of my campus, and if I have learned nothing else from Berkeley’s history, I have learned that if someone is doing something I do not agree with, it is my turn—my responsibility—to stand up and have myself be heard. -more-

In the six weeks between the Mississippi and Pennsylvania primaries, the campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination deteriorated into trench warfare. When the dust cleared, Hillary Clinton won a nine-point victory in Pennsylvania, one that moved her no closer to securing the nomination. And the struggle between Clinton and Obama left a trail of bitterness. -more-

There was a time, many years ago, when I was embarrassed to admit that most of my clothes came either from second-hand stores or thrift shops. -more-

If the junior United States senator from Illinois—Barack Obama—is seeking guidance from the life of Illinois’ most famous politician in his quest for the presidency, replicating Abraham Lincoln’s Civil War “knockout blow” is the wrong place to look. Instead, it is the Civil War’s “terrible math” that is a better guide for this particular moment. -more-

Old Berkeley may have been solidly Republican, but it never lacked for colorful and even eccentric characters. How else to explain the flights of fancy some early Berkeleyans commissioned when building their homes a century ago? -more-

Almost from the beginning of the medium, filmmakers sought to exploit cinema’s unique properties. From the moment they could, directors were eager to transcend the limits of traditional theater by putting the camera in motion, by sending it racing, swooping and soaring; by using a variety of lenses to shape the image, to magnify, distort and exaggerate; and by using the editing process to suggest, startle and surprise. -more-

My two previous columns provided background on planned major construction by the University of California and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in undeveloped areas of Strawberry Canyon, and discussed a state and federally listed species, the Alameda whipsnake, which very likely inhabits the area to be developed. (Since last week I’ve received a credible report of a whipsnake sighting in the UC Botanical Garden, near the proposed site of the Helios Facility.) -more-

Some days I feel like I’m juggling so may balls that I ought to be on the Ed Sullivan show (this is an age test, folks). You remember that guy who had a dozen plates all spinning high in the air on little wooden dowels? Perhaps that’s a better analogy, since I’m quite sure that, if I were to rest for a minute or two, I’d be surrounded by shattered china. I’m sure you know the feeling? -more-