Upwards of 70 people rallied today in front of the entrance to the Main Library in downtown Berkeley to protest the "weeding" of over 39,000 books, CDs and other items from the library's collection and the treatment of librarians who have raised questions about the wisdom of current Library Director Jeff Scott's approach to this process.

Those in attendance were urged to return to the Main Library on August 26 at 5:30 p.m. to rally again before the August 26 meeting of the Board of Library Trustees which begins at 6:30 p.m. During the Closed Session portion of this meeting, the Board will evaluate the performance of the library director, who started work in November, replacing Donna Corbell who resigned on October 3. -more-

Mr. Bush — or Jeb if you don’t mind — I was greatly disturbed to hear that if you became president you won't rule out the resumption of the use of torture arguing that brutal questioning methods might be justifiable and necessary in some circumstances. Jeb, torture is never justifiable. -more-

Sometimes, so-called “Smart Growth” construction of residential, high-rise buildings is not smart at all. In fact, it actually can turn out to be “Dumb Growth”—and in some urban locales, such as much of the Bay Area, very dumb growth indeed. It is a complicated story:

The simple explanation for this comes out of an Economics 101 course—it is a phenomenon called “inelasticity of demand as it relates to price”. In an extremely land-scarce, highly desirable(climatologically and topographically) urban locale such as San Francisco, or even Berkeley, all we do when we build skyscrapers is, in effect, to provide more surface area for habitation in a given square yard of land.

Normally, in land-abundant, modestly desirable urban locales, this increase of supply, in the face of a constant LEVEL of demand for the commodity, will result in declining ability of the sellers of the commodity(in this case real estate) to maintain prior price levels, all other factors being equal. This means general purchasing power affordability levels for all real estate goes up. But what happens, in land-scarce, highly desirable locations, is that the very construction of these high-rise structures in itself creates a new, even more intense “vibe” that makes more and more people intensely want to live there. -more-

Promise are made before elections by prospective candidates, but what happens in reality? After they are elected for public office, we suffer the effect of their broken promises. Mostly the poor and the needy suffer. -more-

In a startling new development, Henry Siegman, the former executive director of the American Jewish Congress, stated recently that Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel is the main impediment to peace. He urged Palestinians to affirm Israel’s legitimacy, provided Israel is prepared to affirm the legitimacy of a Palestinian state along the pre-’67 borders." -more-

How would the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor statistics (BLS) report the following? Simple arithmetic would tell us that If employers convert, say, 1000 jobs into half time positions, the outcome would double the number of jobs even though not even a single hour of work has been added. Yet the BLS in its employment and unemployment reports would interpret this change without explanation as a 100% improvement. Although the new, part time jobs very likely will offer fewer benefits or no benefits at all, anyone reading just the reported numbers, which is only the number of new jobs created, would conclude understandably that things are getting much better. -more-

Nine water lines broke in the East Bay on Monday following the 4.0-magnitude earthquake that struck in Oakland, an East Bay Municipal Utility District spokeswoman said. -more-

Several small aftershocks have been reported following a 4.0-magnitude earthquake that struck in Oakland this morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. -more-

At 5:45 A.M. 6-8 trucks were responding to a fire a short bit south of junction of Centennial on the top edge of Strawberry Canyon. The fire was visible from the Space Sciences building back parking lot at the top of the Jordan fire trail. Smoke was still visible an hour later from the lower canyon area. Also Berkeley Police Department officers at the bottom of the fire trail were looking for a naked man who had been seen by others and may or may not be related to the fire.

A spokesperson in the East Bay office of the state fire agency, CalFire, confirmed that there was a fire in a pile of chips from eucalyptus trees which had been cut down, and said that Oakland and Berkeley firefighters and other departments were on the scene. -more-

It might be time to give up on Berkeley. Last night’s meeting of the Landmark Preservation Commission was profoundly depressing, a graphic demonstration of how the city is slipping into the clutches of the corporate capital which is now taking cities around the world away from their citizens.

Just to get the bad news out of the way quickly: the Landmarks Preservation commission voted 6-3 to rubberstamp the recommendations of the City of Berkeley’s hired planning staff, the very same department that was trained and managed by Mark Rhoades, who’s now stepped through the revolving door to promote RatBP (The Residences at Berkeley Plaza, aka 2211 Harold Way). And so it goes. Cynics among you can stop reading here.

There were two things remarkable about last night’s meeting. First, the number and quality of the citizens who spoke in opposition to demolishing the structures on the landmarked site, which was the putative principal decision before the commission. Large, and impressive.

Second, the number and quality of the project's supporters, including and especially the commissioners who supplied the needed votes in lockstep with their City Council appointers. Let’s just say minimal and I wasn’t impressed. -more-