Opinion

Heads up! According to the pundits slavishly following the statewide races, we’re within 100 days of the November election. The question in everyone’s mind is whether two recycled female executives, one a definite loser, both with histories of ignoring the political process, can buy state and national office with the ill-gotten proceeds of a career in corporate crime? It’s a puzzlement. -more-

No tickets are supposed to be given for expired residential parking permits in Berkeley until October 1, according to a notice on the city of Berkeley’s web site. -more-

An LA Times business columnist wonders why Berkeley lets BP get away with it.

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A Note On Yiddish; Scapegoating; Syria; Meg Whitman; Spay and Neuter; The History of BP; Country or Empire; Send Them Home -more-

As a former janitor and member of SEIU Local 87 for 19 years from 1980-1999 including my having been a shop steward, I found Teresa Mina's story "This Law is Very Unjust!" about the feds removing her from her job very heartbreaking. I am strongly opposed to immigrant bashing. I support legislation to allow undocumented immigrants to pay their fine and to become American citizens, and the process for people to become citizens must be speeded up. However I do believe that Local 87 and I suppose other unions are doing very little to encourage their members to learn English, to become American citizens, register to vote, and learn about the unions that they belong to. I certainly found this to be the case with Local 87. Why didn't the Local 87 officials help members like Teresa Mina fill out their employment applications with the contractors, and see to it that they had the documents that they needed to present? -more-

Latest issue of the Pepper Spray Times. -more-

As the editor of the Planet has pointed out on several occasions, the “greenest” building project is a renovation, not a replacement. This is exactly what will happen with two of Berkeley’s four branch libraries with the money from Measure FF. But two of the branches must be replaced. Here is why: -more-

On July 27, California Watch reported that Senator Wannabe Carly Fiorina accepted $25,000 in donations from Murray Energy Corporation of Cleveland, a major coal producer, whose CEO Robert Murray called global warming "hysterical global goofiness." Murray has an economic interest in the global warming debate because global warming legislation will probably restrict the burning of coal and thus, effect his economic interests. -more-

When Rabbi Michael Lerner started Beyt Tikkun Synagogue in San Francisco, it was a featured news story in the S.F. Chronicle. Rabbis who thought his brand of critique of Israel might be destructive to the Jewish community, while others thought it more appropriate to welcome him. -more-