As of 10:30 p.m. electrical service has been restored to roughly 45,000 PG&E customers in the East Bay who experienced a blackout caused by a squirrel earlier this evening, according to a PG&E spokesman. -more-

Introduction

Three winds of social concern and discontent are sweeping through the streets of Bay Area cities with a force that is beginning to disrupt the flow of political traffic. The strongest of them is the need and demand for affordable housing. Against the prior plans of various city councils for the construction of fancy high-rise high-income towers (and two such towers, 12 and 18 stories tall, are planned for downtown Berkeley), neighborhoods are organizing, and recognizing themselves in a new way. In Oakland, people took over city council to stop such a tower on public land. In SF, there is a call for a moratorium on market rate housing. In Berkeley, neighbors gather in local townhall meetings to figure out means of defending their communities. -more-

Today, the ACLU of Northern California urged the Berkeley City Council and Mayor Tom Bates to reject a slate of anti-homeless laws proposed in March. In a letter signed by Senior Counsel Alan Schlosser, they wrote, “These ordinances are a step backwards.” -more-

Here's just a quick tip on Fun in Downtown Berkeley tomorrow. First, there's going to be a book festival going on. I won't spoil it by listing all the surprises in store for you, which you can find advertised and written up in the commercial media. The book business is still business, though limping along a bit, and it needs your support, so go downtown and see what's happening, and buy something, please. Second, the Save the Shattuck Cinema fans are planning a demonstration of how tall the extra-tall tower which will be grafted onto the historic Shattuck Hotel site would be if it got built. Suffice it to say it would tower over the various landmarked buildings in its vicinity, including but not limited to the hotel, Berkeley High School and the Berkeley Public Library. If you're already persuaded, you're urged to show up and help out with handing out leaflets and talking to vistors: wear black and show up about 9:30. The event lasts from 10-2, and if you miss it, it will happen again on Tuesday. -more-

Berkeley thinks global – but stays local -more-

The Berkeley Police Department report “Response to Civil Unrest December 6th and 7th, 2014” identifies a series of bad decisions, system failures, skewed priorities and lack of mission clarity that Berkeley Copwatch feels are numerous enough to justify a call for Chief Michael Meehan to resign. The report will be presented tonight at the South Berkeley Senior Center at 6pm tonight and will begin with public comment. -more-

Recently a friend commented to me that he believed an unenforceable good law was worse than a bad law. At the time I wasn't sure I entirely agreed with him, but now his point is coming into additional focus. Here in Berkeley we are witnessing a housing crisis of community-changing proportions: escalating rents are displacing many long-term residents as well as creating a market where only the wealthy need apply. Affordable housing units are an asset that Berkeley's officials and planners should be fighting to protect; instead we are seeing Short-Term Rentals (Airbnb and others) proliferating with the City doing little or nothing to regulate and control the collateral damage. Current Berkeley law prohibits rentals of less than 14 days, yet there are over 1000 such rentals listed every day on short-term rental websites. -more-

I don't know why smokers are let off lightly when they smoke in public places like bus stops or near rehab centers where smoking is prohibited. Smokers are doing such harm to the public and themselves if they come and smoke, for example, on the benches at a bus stop where signs say, "No Smoking within 20 feet of Bus Stop." -more-

There are so many things that are infuriating about the hacking of the Berkeley High yearbook, in which one of the small schools was mocked for training future trash collectors (misspelled by the hacker). One of the most infuriating things was the mockery of people who do difficult and essential work. However, I guess I do hold some stereotypes about trash collectors. They are strong men, often African-American men, who get up before dawn and work long hours at a hard job. They safely and responsibly manage dangerous machinery, narrow streets, and bad weather; they are courteous to impatient drivers, inattentive pedestrians, and rushed homeowners. Probably most of them don’t have education beyond high school, but they were resourceful and energetic enough to take on one of the few relatively good-paying and steady jobs available without a college education. I assume that many of them save their hard-earned money to send their kids to college, and that their children are proud to see a dad who works hard every day. -more-

This piece is partly a response to an article by Lindsay Aikman, who describes the plight of her son who will not accept treatment. -more-

Editor's Note: The latest issue of the Pepper Spray Times is now available.

You can view it absolutely free of charge by clicking here . You can print it out to give to your friends.

Grace Underpressure has been producing it for many years now, even before the Berkeley Daily Planet started distributing it, most of the time without being paid, and now we'd like you to show your appreciation by using the button below to send her money. -more-

As the 2016 Republican presidential hopefuls continue to pummel each other, many Americans wonder if there is a GOP candidate who expresses common sense on any key issue. At the moment, the sole GOP presidential candidate who meets this criterion is Kentucky Senator Rand Paul when he speaks about national security. Unfortunately, Paul is also a bigot. -more-

Many people who have schizophrenia or bipolar sometimes get angry beyond the normal level for a given situation. This anger could be expressed verbally, or, for some people with less insight, may become physical. In my case, I have a history of becoming verbally angry. My tone of voice is enough to cause others to become upset. I have learned to scale back on this. -more-

The next Senior Power column (June 18, 2015 Berkeley Daily Planet) will be devoted to an unusual aging in place project being undertaken jointly by several agencies -- the Area Agency on Aging (AAA), Alameda County Public Health, City Slicker Farms and Satellite Affordable Housing (SAHA.) Low-income senior citizen residents in five Berkeley and Oakland Section 8 housing projects will have the opportunity to participate in gardening and nutrition workshops. I will focus on Berkeley’s Lawrence Moore Manor’s grant-enabled group and individual roof gardening and nutrition workshops. -more-

On May 31st, I saw Eliana Lopez in her one-woman play, "What is the Scandal?” (“¿Cuál es el Escándalo”) at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts in San Francisco. I was impressed with Ms. Lopez's performance. She is a talented, attractive actress who performed with passion with just enough humor. Her experience as a Venezuelan telenovela star showed. -more-

The San Francisco Symphony program for Thursday-Saturday, June 4-6, offered music focusing on Spain, with the orchestra under the baton of Guest Conductor Charles Dutoit. Included in the program were Manuel De Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain and two works by Maurice Ravel: the 7-minute piece Alborada del gracioso (1905), and the one-act opera L’Heure espagnole (1907). -more-