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Senior seriously injured in Berkeley carjacking

Keith Burbank (BCN)
Thursday September 01, 2016 - 11:47:00 AM

An elderly woman suffered life-threatening injuries when she was punched, knocked to the ground and dragged by a vehicle during a carjacking Tuesday evening in Berkeley, police said. 

The carjacking was reported at 5:37 p.m. near California and Oregon streets in south Berkeley where officers found the woman on the ground after the incident. 

She was taken to Highland Hospital, where she underwent surgery and is expected to survive. Berkeley police spokesman Sgt. Andrew Frankel said the woman was still in the hospital in stable condition as of this morning. 

The woman told police that as she was parking her car, an SUV pulled up next to her. A suspect punched her in the face, knocked her to the ground and another suspect stole her bag. 

At some point, the suspects got in her car, backed into her and dragged her for a short distance because somehow she got lodged onto the car, police said. 

Eventually she became dislodged and the suspects in both vehicles were last seen driving south on California Street toward Ashby Avenue, according to police. 

An Oakland resident called Oakland police at 8:20 a.m. Wednesday to report that a suspicious vehicle had been dumped at the mouth of a driveway in the 3000 block of Davis Street. Four youths walked away from the vehicle, the resident told police. 

The resident gave police the license plate number of the vehicle and a dispatcher was able to determine that it was the injured woman's vehicle. 

Oakland police officers responded to Davis Street where they were able to detain two of the youths. The others escaped police as they fled into the surrounding neighborhood. 

The detained youths were arrested. The two other youths were still at large as of this morning, Frankel said.


Press Release: Advisory: Berkeley Carjacking Ends in Oakland Arrests

From the Berkeley Police Department
Wednesday August 31, 2016 - 04:17:00 PM

[Editor's Note: This BPD press release originally mentioned the race of the suspects at the point where they were spotted by the Oakland police. The racial adjective has been omitted by the Planet from this posting of the otherwise verbatim BPD press release because it adds nothing useful to the story, since race alone is not enough information to apprehend a suspect without additional descriptors.]

On 8/30/16 at 5:37pm, the Berkeley Police Communications Center received a report of a vehicle versus pedestrian collision near the intersection of California and Oregon Streets in south Berkeley. Officers responded to the scene and found an elderly female victim on the ground with life-threatening injuries. The victim was transported by the Berkeley Fire Department to the Alameda County Hospital where she underwent surgery for injuries and is expected to survive. Initial information was difficult to obtain from the victim due to a language barrier.

It was later determined what occurred was more than a case of hit and run. Through an interpreter the victim shared that as she parked her car an SUV pulled up next to her. She said that after she got out, someone punched her in the face and knocked her to the ground while someone else pulled her bag away from her.  

 

At some point, the victim said she found herself behind her car when one of the suspects backed into her (with the car) and dragged her for a short distance before she became dislodged. The two vehicles were last seen driving southbound on California Street towards Ashby Avenue. 

On 8/31/16 at approximately 8:20am, an Oakland resident called the Oakland Police Dispatch to report a suspicious vehicle had just been dumped in the mouth of a driveway on the 3000 block of Davis Street and four male juveniles were walking away from the car. Dispatch ran the license plate which had been flagged as the carjacking vehicle from the Berkeley case. Oakland Officers responded to the area and attempted to detain a group of four [racial adjective omitted by editor] juveniles who matched the description provided by the resident. The group then fled into the surrounding neighborhood. Two of the foursome were detained after an extensive block search and two remain at large. 

The two juveniles (both Oakland residents) were arrested and transported to the Berkeley Police Department where the investigation remains ongoing. We would like to extend our thanks to the men and women of the Oakland Police Department who conducted this morning’s block search which led to the apprehension. 

We are asking for the community's assistance with the furtherance of the investigation. Anyone with information is encouraged to call the Berkeley Police Department at (510) 981-5742 and can do so anonymously if they wish. 


Berkeley city officials offer $15k reward for information about homicide

Dan McMenamin (BCN)
Tuesday August 30, 2016 - 01:41:00 PM

Berkeley city officials announced today they are offering a $15,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the fatal shooting of a 22-year-old man earlier this month. 

Alex Goodwin, a Berkeley resident, was found when officers responded at 11:58 p.m. on Aug. 19 to a report of a shooting in the area of Burnett and Mabel streets, according to police. 

Goodwin was unresponsive and lying outside of his family's home. He was taken to a hospital, where he later died of his injuries, police said. 

No suspect information has been released in connection with the shooting, which was Berkeley's first homicide of 2016. 

Anyone with information about the case is urged to call the Police Department's homicide detail at (510) 981-5741.


Berkeley City Council passes new minimum wage ordinance at a second try do-over special meeting

Jeff Shuttleworth/ Scott Morris(BCN)
Friday August 26, 2016 - 08:41:00 AM

After failing for months to reach a consensus on the issue, the Berkeley City Council voted unanimously at a special meeting today to raise the city's minimum wage to $15 an hour in two years. 

Council members said they will now ask Berkeley voters to reject two competing ballot measures that are on the November ballot. 

Measure BB, which was put on the ballot by the council's majority earlier this year, would have raised the minimum hourly wage to $15 by 2019, a slightly less aggressive timeline than the Oct. 1, 2018, deadline set in today's vote. 

Measure CC, which was supported by labor groups, was more aggressive and would have called for reaching $15 an hour in 2017. 

City Councilman Laurie Capitelli, who is running for mayor, said the measure approved today "is a consensus document, not a compromise document," and was reached in negotiations that included the Service Employees International Union and the Berkeley City Council. 

City Councilman Jesse Arreguin, who also is running for mayor, said "This is a really important step for economic justice in our city and in avoiding two conflicting ballot measures." 

However, Arreguin said, "I want to see a pathway to a living wage in the future" that would call for an even higher minimum wage down the road. 

The City Council has discussed the minimum wage issue for many months and scheduled a special meeting on the issue on Aug. 11 but the meeting had to be canceled because there wasn't a quorum of council members. 

Currently, Berkeley's minimum wage is set to go to $12.53 on Oct. 1, which is still below the minimum wage in neighboring cities of Emeryville and Oakland. 

The ordinance that was approved today calls for increasing Berkeley's minimum wage to $13.75 on Oct. 1, 2017, and then to $15 on Oct. 1, 2018. It would go up according to the consumer price index after that. 

The City Council will have a second reading on the issue at another special meeting on Monday morning but because today's vote was unanimous it's expected that it will be approved again. 

For youth job training program participants, the minimum wage will rise to $12 an hour on Oct. 1, 2017, increase by $1.25 on Jan. 1, 2019 and by the same amount annually until it equals the general minimum wage. 

Oakland, Emeryville and San Francisco have passed faster schedules to raise the minimum wage in their cities. Oakland's is currently $12.55 and set for an increase based on the consumer price index on Jan. 1, Emeryville's is $13 an hour for businesses with 55 or fewer employees and $14.82 for businesses with more, and San Francisco's is set to rise to $15 in 2018. 

In March, Gov. Jerry Brown announced a deal that would bring the statewide minimum wage to $15 by 2022. 

Many labor leaders and community activists praised the council's vote today but many small business owners and nonprofit groups said the faster increase in the minimum wage will hurt them and the community at large. 

Gina Moreland, who founded the Habitot Children's Museum at 2065 Kittredge St. in downtown Berkeley in 1992 and serves as its executive director, said 14 of her 32 employees currently make less than $15 an hour and increasing their pay to that level would cost the nonprofit $20,000, an amount that she said will be difficult to raise. 

Moreland told the council, "Think hard about the rollout (of the wage hike) and its impact on nonprofits like us." 

Kristine Seinsch, the owner of the Jazz Café at 2087 Addison St., said the wage increase will hurt small businesses such as hers and result in an influx of more big businesses such as Target and Panera Bread that can afford to pay their workers more money. 

Mary Canales, the owner of Ici Ice Cream at 2948 College Ave., said in an email, "Such proposed increases in wage will force us to close and lay off 30-plus people." 

Canales said she has employed more than 200 people in her 10 years running her business, including several people for whom it was their first job and "went on to other, higher-paying work or started their own businesses." 

Canales said, "Margins are very thin in the food world. The wage increase is putting pressure on our business and will likely turn it into a money-losing endeavor." 

Capitelli said that if the council approves the wage hike at its second reading Monday morning it will ask a judge later in the day to approve changes in the ballot arguments for the two minimum wage measures to make it clear that it's now asking voters to vote against both of them.


Press Release: A milestone anniversary for Berkeley's beloved fountain

Michael Gray
Friday August 26, 2016 - 11:32:00 AM

On Sept. 15, 1996, thousands of people gathered at The Circle in Berkeley’s Northbrae neighborhood to celebrate a landmark occasion: the dedication of the restored Fountain at The Circle, the sparkling centerpiece of the city’s first public art project.

Designed by famed architect John Galen Howard and erected in 1911, the original fountain had been gone from The Circle for nearly 40 years, after being struck and destroyed by a runaway truck in 1958. Meanwhile, Howard’s adjacent Fountain Walk had become overgrown and fallen into serious disrepair.

This month, the fountain celebrates another landmark: its 20th birthday – a milestone reached thanks in large part to neighbors and friends near and far who have donated generously to keep it smoothly functioning and flowing over the years.  

 

Those donations have supported the work of Friends of the Fountain and Walk (FOFW), the small, all-volunteer neighborhood nonprofit that was created in the early 1990s to bring the fountain and Fountain Walk back to life. 

Now, 20 years on, FOFW is, like these historic treasures, still an everyday presence in the Northbrae neighborhood, working diligently in partnership with the City of Berkeley to keep these beloved landmarks operating and preserved for future generations. 

With the help of volunteers and the support of tax-deductible donations, FOFW has been able to make numerous improvements to the fountain and walk over the years, most recently overhauling the aging pump system that powers the fountain. 

Other projects have included restoring crumbling elements of the classical balustrade surrounding The Circle and along Fountain Walk; replanting lower Fountain Walk; resurfacing the fountain’s main pool; adding cast-stone benches around The Circle; and making 3-D images of all the elements of the fountain structure in order to easily replace any that might become damaged or worn. 

Volunteer work parties, meanwhile, are held the first Saturday of every month to do cleanup and regular maintenance on The Circle and walk, while another crew of volunteers regularly inspects and maintains the fountain works. During the winter holiday season, volunteers add lights around the fountain and place wreaths on the bears.  

For years, all these efforts have been led by two neighbors: Sara and Harvard Holmes. They helped shape the role of FOFW as a true partner with the City of Berkeley – making it the first community organization of its kind in the city. Whether raising funds, enlisting volunteers, working alongside city staff, or dropping everything to attend to a fountain emergency, the couple has done anything needed to ensure that the treasure they helped rebuild remains a valued and viable hallmark of our city. 

Now, after more than 20 years of leading FOFW, they are stepping down from their roles as FOFW president and treasurer, respectively. Having been the heart and soul of the organization from its inception, their decision marks another major milestone for FOFW. Former Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean, who helped establish FOFW and served on the board for many years, has also stepped down from her post as a director. 

Fortunately, other neighbors dedicated to FOFW’s mission have stepped forward to help carry on their work. As of July, an expanded board of directors has been seated, and new officers of the organization have been elected. They are: 

Michael Gray, president; Charles Wilson, treasurer; Patricia McKee, secretary; Scott Dunlap, Harvard Holmes, Sara Holmes, Jim Reynolds, Holly Rose, Steve Weindel, directors. 

Twenty years is a true milestone. FOFW plans to mark it simply, erecting a banner noting the anniversary – and seeking continued support for its efforts -- on The Circle. Look for it to go up in September. It will also present an exhibit on the fountain and walk in a month-long display opening Sept. 1 at the Albany Public Library. 

You can find more about the history of the fountain and walk, the work of FOFW, and how you can donate or volunteer on our newly redesigned website: http://www.friendsofthefountainandwalk.org

You can reach FOFW by email at fountainandwalk@gmail.com, and connect on Facebook at facebook.com/friendsofthefountainandwalk.


Opinion

Editorials

Updated: Full speed ahead, and damn the facts! CEQA in operation in Berkeley

Becky O'Malley
Monday August 29, 2016 - 04:42:00 PM

“What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

.Weed: a wild plant growing where it is not wanted and in competition with cultivated plants.”

--Google

“A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, "a plant in the wrong place".

--Wikipedia

Last weekend I had two more lessons in how powerless the California Environmental Quality Act is to inform politically-based decisionmaking. One was at the Wellstone Democratic Club's endorsement meeting and the other was the Superior Court hearing on the EIR for 2211 Harold Way. 

It was disappointing, but not surprising, to hear both candidates for Berkeley’s District Five City Council seat who spoke at the Wellstone Democratic Club meeting on Saturday endorse the ongoing plan to cut down many of the blue gum eucalyptus trees in the East Bay Hills and kill off the stumps with Roundup. Coincidentally or not, both are trained as lawyers. 

This is a controversy that has been going on for quite a while now, all over the country in many contexts. For my money, the best analysis of the politics involved, with a side of science cites, can be found in a story which ace reporter Andrew Cockburn wrote for Harpers Magazine last year: Weed Whackers: Monsanto, glyphosate, and the war on invasive species. It’s well worth reading end to end, and you can do it online for free. 

A lot of environmental decision-making is mistakenly based on the Sesame Street principle: Which one of these things is not like the other? When the eucalyptus tree has been scrutinized, a lot of the analysis comes down in the end to personal preference: love ‘em or hate ‘em: natives good, introduced bad—or maybe it’s the other way round. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. 

We attempt, with inadequate data and cumbersome legalistic processes, to make decisions which are more properly scientific, or would be if the data existed. For a decent view of what facts we have, see Management of blue gum eucalyptus in California requires region-specific consideration in the January issue of California Agriculture

As near as I can determine, the Achilles heel of the East Bay Regional Park/FEMA scheme is the promised “restoration” plan: what will happen in the park after the trees have been chopped down and the stumps nuked with Roundup. We just don’t know enough to be sure that the lovely native grasslands which preceded the trees can be sure to come back as before, and some park users might prefer woodlands to grass, an even more difficult goal. In situations like this one, the paper’s authors suggest, eucalyptus roots may have altered the soil in which they grow with persistent chemicals which kill other plants. 

A professor of environmental studies of my acquaintance tells me that “restoration is a moving target, an evolving field”. It’s frequently a promised mitigation in an environmental impact study, but more often than not it just doesn’t happen as planned, either from unforeseen scientific impossibility or lack of funding. And sometimes it’s cynically promised by governmental bodies with no intention of enforcing compliance. In Santa Cruz there’s a “restored wetland” which was promised to mitigate a building project elsewhere that is routinely clearcut by city officials worried that criminal activity might thrive among those “weeds”. 

Another manifestation of the flaws in our environmental decision-making was on view Friday in Oakland in the court of Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch, hearing the challenge to the environmental impact report on the project for 2211 Harold Way in Berkeley, which was approved on December 8 by Berkeley’s clownish City Council. Petitioners were citizens James Hendry and Kelly Hammargren, appearing individually on their own without benefit of lawyers, a Herculean task which they executed remarkably well, all things considered. 

Next time you hear Governor Jerry Brown whining that his developer pals are suffering mightily under the heavy burden of the California Environmental Quality Act’s reporting requirements, please laugh out loud with me. Here we have a multi-million-dollar project to construct 18 stories of luxury apartments, tearing down in the process a film center which is a mainstay of the downtown Berkeley economy, tunneling under a historic building which is built on infill on a creekbed with a ceramic foundation. 

(Some of you may have seen the reports of a building in San Francisco also built on fill which has started to sink…) 

Despite CEQA, we were in the last round on Friday, and the chances of two private citizens stopping the project were slim. 

In the developer’s corner: the Manatt law firm, the great big one which has historically represented all the bigtime Democratic pols. 

Representing the public interest: a retired nurse and an economist, doing their damndest to figure out what CEQA should have done to inform the decision-makers adequately. 

Here again, it’s a matter of separating the weeds from the flowers. CEQA is supposed to do that, but it fails. 

Judge Roesch did a kind and sympathetic job of explaining to the petitioners that the merits of the project cannot be considered in an appeal like this one. All that can be done by the time it gets into court is to determine whether the council knew what they were doing when they decided to approve it, no matter how bad it is. So the judge had the unenviable responsibility of rejecting most of the petitioners’ heartfelt pleas as “political” arguments, though he read them through and heard them out courteously before delivering the bad news. 

The decision wasn’t out at the time of writing, but from my audience perspective a couple of items seemed to show some modest promise for petitioners. The judge had clearly had read the transcript of the December 8 meeting, a disgraceful rout even by the ever-lower standards of the majority of the Berkeley City Councilmembers. 

Choleric Mayor Tom Bates, whose lifetime supply of patience seems to have run out about five years ago, rammed through a last-minute draft of required findings that overriding considerations justified a decision that had bad environmental impacts. He overlooked taking a vote of councilmembers to add his draft to the council’s agenda, which their rules require. 

Jim Hendry, an economist who deals with EIRs in his day job, did a lucid job of explaining what had happened. I was there that night, and it was yet another instance of the“slam-bam-thankyou-ma’am-and-the-public-be-damned” style of governance which Bates and his allies favor. That meeting ended, as many do, in chaos. 

Most remarkably, Berkeley City Attorney Zack Cowan nonchalantly told the judge that he’d drafted significant parts of the reported findings after the meeting was over, without a request from the council to do so and without returning the language to them for final approval. 

Judges traditionally defer to even the worst decisions of elected officials, but they tend to look more harshly on bodies not following their own rules. The judge could decide to send this matter back to the council to be voted on properly, though it would be a fast fix for the council simply to re-vote. He might well decide that it’s not worth the trouble. 

The other fishy fact situation which got the judge’s attention was the economic information which the developers had presented in order to persuade the decision-makers that there was no financially feasible alternative. To grossly oversimplify the complicated facts, they’d claimed that the whole parcel, for which according to county records they’d paid $20 million, was a $40 million investment. 

The interesting part of this discussion was the new city manager’s on-the-record admission at the council meeting that the city staff had not actually reviewed this claim, so she couldn’t vouch for its accuracy, even though Hendry had challenged it in several prior meetings. The question is, what is the effect of her admission? 

Does it prove that the councilmembers were informed that they had funky data, and chose to go forward anyhow? And is that okay by CEQA? 

The saddest thing about this whole process is that though I’d been to many, many of the Berkeley hearings (the developer’s attorneys said there were 37) I’d never heard a single member of the 200+ citizens who showed up to protest given more than 5 minutes to explain their analysis of these complicated questions. And as often as not, when the matter came to the city council they were bullied by the presiding mayor, 

In Roesch’s court, they finally had a bit of an opportunity to be interrogated by an intelligent and fair-minded person, to speak at a reasonable length so they could make their points without being shouted down, but it was probably too late. The problem with CEQA is that most of the time it’s used to rubberstamp governmental indifference to facts which have been provided but are ignored. The Berkeley City Council’s performance on December 8 was no exception. There’s not much the courts can do about that. 

There is an election in November. A better city council might be the only way to prevent future travesties like this one.  

 


Public Comment

Self-driving Vehicle Blues (3/4 time,written on Route 79 on the way to the Augusta Music Heritage Festival)

Carol Denney
Friday August 26, 2016 - 11:45:00 AM

a self-driving car tried to take me

to a place I did not want to go

it kept going faster and faster

when I wanted to go really slow

that self-driving car was annoying

it just had a mind of its own

it wanted a clear destination my dear

and me I just want to go home

 

Chorus: I'll take me a self-shooting shotgun 

and I wouldn't mind self-tying shoes 

but the self-driving car 

is going too far 

got the self-driving vehicle blues 

 

sometimes we're beyond understanding 

sometimes we are lost now it's true 

and sometimes we know we don't know where to go 

even though we keep thinking we do 

but I'm trying to steer clear of computers 

I got one at home I can't stand 

on the information highway I look 

just like the road kill I am (chorus) 

 

Bridge: 

if you don't wanna drive you don't have to 

you can hop yourself up on a bus 

the only thing that will be different 

is accepting you're just one of us 

if you don't wanna drive you have choices 

in a taxi you sit at your ease 

if Aunt Sally's around she will sit herself down 

at the wheel if you give her the keys 

 

 

if a self-driving car has to get me 

it can take me the day that I die 

there won't be a lot of folks weeping 

and nobody waving goodbye 

when I cash it in it can take me 

for the better my friend or the worse 

on the day that I die they will be sending by 

a beautiful self-driving hearse (chorus) 



The Political Dilemma of African Americans: From the 1960s to Now

Harry Brill
Friday August 26, 2016 - 11:48:00 AM

Consider the major differences in the political life of African Americans during the 1960s and now. Let's take the very important issue of voting rights. Among the major achievements then was the voting rights bill in 1965, which gave African Americans their long overdue right to vote. Also, suffrage has served for some as a springboard for political office. Over 40 African Americans, for example, now serve in the House of Representatives. Many others have been elected to State and local government positions. 

Although the inclination of the southern establishment to enforce the law was spotty, the gains made were substantial. And the courts not only supported the Voting Rights Law. They even strengthened it. The three branches of government were on the same page. They leaned toward building a more democratic society. 

However, in 2013 the Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights law. Specific states where past discrimination was egregious had been required to obtain federal approval before it altered a voting law. The court eliminated this requirement. Only a few hours after this notorious decision, Texas enacted measures that restrict African Americans from voting. Other states followed the leader soon after.  

Because African Americans and low income citizens tend to vote for Democratic Party candidates, the attempt to stack the deck has been engineered by the Republican Party. Although some of the racially discriminatory clauses have been successfully challenged in court, a substantial number of black citizens will be denied the right to cast a ballot in the November election. 

In the 1960s, despite the persistence and militancy of the civil rights movement, the major decision makers in the southern states refused to grant suffrage to African Americans. However, the federal government had broader concerns that it could not ignore. The United States was involved in a cold war with the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was relentless in its efforts to turn public opinion against the United States. It understood that racism in the United States was its Achilles heel. By broadcasting to listeners in Africa, Asia, and South America, the Soviet Union continually publicized the racist practices occurring in the United States. Particularly worrisome to the State Department was the claim that the United States was also contemptuous of minorities abroad. 

Indeed, foreign diplomats who are Blacks or Asians were humiliated by the racism they experienced when setting foot in the United States. In 1964, 55 UN representatives from Africa and Asia submitted a petition asking the United Nations to relocate to another country where they would be treated as equal human beings. Undoubtedly they shared their experience with others including citizens in their own country. 

The internationally publicized racist problems in the United States made the business community very nervous. Business was concerned about protecting and expanding its market abroad and also having access to foreign resources. It did not want to unnecessarily create tensions abroad. As a result, the business establishment lobbied in favor of the Voting Rights Bill. 

Among the major corporations that lobbied for the legislation were CBS, Eli Lilly, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Walt Disney Co. and the Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. The business umbrella organization, the US Chambers of Commerce, lobbied Congress as well. The civil rights veteran, John Lewis, who is an African American Democratic Party Congressman representing Georgia, remarked that he has never seen anything like it from U.S. corporations before.  

The civil rights movement certainly won major victories. But ironically, the gains it made precipitated a major assault on African Americans and their achievements. Beginning with President Nixon, the consensus in the establishment was to do what it could to frustrate any serious attempts by African Americans to recreate another formidable grass roots political movement. The brilliant black professor, Michelle Alexander, calls it "The New Jim Crow". The establishment manufactured the "Drug War" mainly to criminalize black Americans and also the antiwar left.  

In an interview with one of Nixon's former top aides, John Ehlichman of the Watergate scandal, confirmed our worse fears: “You want to know what this war was really all about. The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. By getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."  

To make matters worse, Bill Clinton signed into law a very punitive crime bill that includes a federal mandate of life imprisonment for three felony convictions including of drug crimes. As a result of the racist policies of both the Democratic and Republican parties, the prison population, disproportionately blacks, exploded from several hundred thousand in the early seventies to over two million currently. As prison inmates. they are deprived of the right to vote. And almost 6 million African Americans who had been convicted of felony crimes are barred from voting when they get out of jail.  

Especially troublesome, the refusal to indict cops who unjustifiably kill blacks is tantamount to giving the police the license to kill. Take Oakland, for example. The East Bay Express reports that although blacks represent 28 percent of the city's population, 74 percent of the 90 who were killed by cops since 2000 were black. 

Many African Americans, who have been protesting the murders by police, have been building the Black Lives Matter movement. Although it doesn't replicate the 1960s Civil Rights movement, at least not yet, these morally indignant and courageous activists have been holding rallies and marches to inform the public of their concerns and to put an end to police brutality. Progressive whites must ally with this movement to make sure that they are not isolated.  

Clearly, we need to build jointly a genuinely democratic and just society so that all minorities as well as the rest of us will experience government as our democratically elected ally rather than as an enemy of the people.


Press Release: Community Presentation by The TreeSpirit Project: Why are Berkeley & Oakland forest being cut down, then herbicides? And what you can do about it!

Jack Gescheidt, Founder, The TreeSpirit Project
Friday August 26, 2016 - 11:37:00 AM

Hundreds of thousands of healthy trees are targeted for eradication; precious SF East Bay forests that mitigate global warming, create oxygen, sequester carbon, are home to wildlife and provide renewal for you, your children and your grandchildren. Thousands of gallons of Monsanto Roundup and Dow Garlon will follow the deforestation, poisoning plants, land, waterways, wildlife, pets, children and adults alike. 

LEARN MORE about the environmentally devastating plan to deforest — then apply herbicides across 2,000 acres of Berkeley & Oakland hillsides for the next 10 years.  

INCLUDES: “Native” vs. “non-native” trees FIRE DEMO; Q&A; videos, and more. 

WHEN: 2pm-4pm, Sunday, August 28, 2016
WHERE: Redwood Gardens Apartments Community Room, 2951 Derby St. (at Claremont Blvd (NOT Claremont Ave.; also near Belrose Ave.), Berkeley, CA. 


Pig!

Ron Lowe
Friday August 26, 2016 - 11:42:00 AM

You can put lipstick on a pig and it's still a pig. This is a perfect description of Donald Trump, who marches to his own drummer, adheres to his own set of morals, and has seduced millions of Americans into believing that his tremendous brain and business acumen are just what the country needs. 

Now Donald Trump is playing on the fears of Republican gun owners saying that a President Hillary Clinton would take their guns away. Liar, liar, pants on fire! But, the worst part of Donald's lie is that some loner could believe it, act on it, creating a tragic reality.  

At the end of the day, when Trump takes the lipstick off his expressive, puckery lips, he's still an amoral liar, bigot and con man. Do you really want this man to be president of the United States and representing you?


Can we regain our reputation as decent Americans?

Romila Khanna
Friday August 26, 2016 - 11:35:00 AM

Can we accord priority to the most important issue? It seems we don’t give sufficient importance to values-orientated education. By ‘education’ I don’t mean the acquisition of book knowledge or perfection in sports. I mean awareness of our responsibilities towards other human beings as I was shocked to learn about how some American athletes behaved in Rio. Winning a gold medal should not entitle an athlete to behave badly. I wish our team had the character to act responsibly while they were guests. Can we regain our reputation as decent Americans? 

We should emphasize character-building education from early schooling on. We should encourage the practice of thinking well of others. As teachers, we should dwell on the positive in our students, and encourage them as students to recognize the positive in one another. 

We all are connected to other human beings. Our behavior must express how much we owe for our survival and privilege to the human web.


Columns

SENIOR POWER: Looking back ahead

Helen Rippier Wheeler,pen136@dslextreme.com
Sunday August 28, 2016 - 02:34:00 PM

Women finally got a piece of the action in 1920. Passage of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution provided American women with full voting rights fifty years after all American men were enabled to vote. Sixteen other nations had already guaranteed women this right.

August 26th is designated as Women's Equality Day to commemorate this event. Women’s Equality Day is officially proclaimed in some locales. It was instituted by Congressional Representative Bella Abzug (1920-1998) when she was 60 years old. Women and girls have come a long way but there is still much work to be done to achieve true equity. Women’s Equality Day is not on the calendars of the Berkeley public library, the City of Berkeley, nor Berkeley senior centers.  

What does this have to do with senior power, with old Americans? One might also ask whether old women vote. Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election. Just who is or is not eligible to vote varies by country. Some nations discriminate based on sex, race, and/or religion; age and citizenship are usually among the criteria. Low senior voter turnout has been attributed to a variety of factors, and it may be due to disenchantment, indifference, or contentment.  

In 1995, then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton (1947- ) made international news in her speech at the Fourth World Conference on Women. She declared, "It’s time for us to say here in Beijing, for the world to hear, that it is no longer acceptable to discuss women's rights as separate from human rights."  

Quingrong Ma (1943- ), Chinese women’s rights advocate and Nobel Peace Prize recipient believes that “The only way to solve the problem of women’s subordination is to change people’s mindset and to plant the new idea of gender equality into every mind.” 

Mahnaz Afkhami (1941- ), Executive Director of the Foundation for Iranian Studies, and former Minister of State for Women's Affairs in Iran, sees “The connection between women’s human rights, gender equality, socioeconomic development and peace … increasingly apparent.”  

The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), an international treaty adopted in 1979 by the United Nations General Assembly, has not been ratified by the U.S. A coalition of 100+ organizations signed a letter urging the U.S. Senate to ratify this treaty. President Obama endorses ratification, and has identified the Convention as a multilateral treaty priority. Opponents claim that the Civil rights Act of 1964 protects women from discrimination. It has been downgraded in a sense to a Committee.  

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“Housing is a human right,” declared labor and senior-rights advocate Helen Corbin Lima (1917-2005). She was a resident of Strawberry Creek Lodge (SCL) senior housing. Strawberry Creek Lodge -- referred to locally as The Lodge or Strawberry -- was built in 1962 in Berkeley, California. Its purpose was affordable rental housing for lower to middle income senior citizens. Three adjoining buildings in a park-like setting provided 150 units—most were studios, some one-bedroom apartments, each with a bathroom and kitchenette. An elective, not-free evening meal was introduced when there no longer was a supermarket within walking distance.  

Housing problems especially for low-income and disabled seniors in Berkeley were and are in the news. At SCL (1320 Addison) and Redwood Gardens (2951 Derby), for example. (December 19, 2014 PlanetTroubles in Berkeley's Redwood Gardens.”)  

In 1991, when Lima moved into a tiny SCL studio, her only income was Social Security. She applied for Section 8 housing, and a whole new realm of political activity opened up for her. From then until her death, she was active in the fight for so-called affordable housing (which differs from low-income housing) and to save Section 8, which was threatened. Until her deteriorating health made it no longer possible, she was also actively involved in a SCL Tenants Association.  

Section 8 refers to Section 8 of the Housing Act as repeatedly amended. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) manages Section 8 programs. It authorizes the payment of rental housing assistance to private landlords on behalf of millions of low-income households in the United States. The largest part of the Section is the Housing Choice Voucher program which pays a large portion of the rents and utilities of households. 

Section 8 also authorizes a variety of "project-based" rental assistance programs, under which the owner reserves some or all of the units in a building for low-income tenants, in return for a federal government guarantee to make up the difference between the tenant's contribution and the rent in the owner's contract with the government.  

In 1997 Lima founded Save Section 8, a nonprofit self-help, grass-roots effort in behalf of American seniors who need rent-subsidized apartments. No admission or membership fees were charged to attend meetings. Activities included picketing, petitions, meetings, newspaper publicity, publications, presence at California’s annual senior rally, counseling individuals and providing speakers. Income came from voluntary contributions.  

Rent was and is charged for non-senior related events held in Berkeley senior centers rooms. Save Section 8 meetings in the large meeting room of the North Berkeley Senior Center were not always viewed by the City fathers as senior events. I corresponded with the City Manager’s office about this perception and Save Section 8 was finally able to hold monthly meetings without paying rent. Collecting contributions within the senior center towards Save Section 8 expenses was prohibited. Center Rules prohibit soliciting. Some gutsy seniors resorted to standing outside on the corner with tin cans, but this was discouraged.  

Lima was responsible for the production of a video, Housing is a Human Right: Seniors and Section 8 (22 minutes, closed captioned). The Santa Clara City Library had it in its collection; the Berkeley Public Library did not. (It appears no longer to be in libraries, possibly attributable to public libraries discarding VHS’s in favor of DVD’s. I have a copy, and film director Anahita Forati may have copies.)  

It was generally agreed that SCL buildings were in poor shape when, in August 2009, it received a 66.69 inspection score, which was 23.2% worse than the average HUD inspection score (100=best) for all Section 8.  

By 2012, the Lodge was a not-for-profit complex governed by a Board of Trustees whose meetings were attended by a Tenants Association representative. SCL was managed by Church Homes of Northern California (CCH). Income was derived from residents’ rents and HUD subsidies under Section 8.  

Most recently, Satellite Affordable Housing Associates – SAHA – “acquired SCL and is partnering with Strawberry Creek Lodge Foundation to refinance and remodel the Lodge including seismic and building upgrades. SAHA … also provides property management services, as well as … on-site service coordination.” [Internet]  

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BOOK REVIEW: "Living past 100 will force us to rethink retirement," a review of The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity, by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott, reviewed by Justin Fox (Bloomberg News via Chicago [Illinois] Tribune, August 23, 2016).  

TV REVIEW: “Better Late Than Never sends (William) Shatner, (Henry) Winkler, (Terry) Bradshaw and (George) Foreman on adventure through Asia and tired old tropes," by Robert Lloyd (Los Angeles Times, August 23, 2016). NBC 10 PM Tuesday. 

The Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times may require free registration before providing articles. I recommend reading this book review! I do not recommend Better Late Than Never.  


THE PUBLIC EYE:Donald Trump’s Heart of Darkness

Bob Burnett
Friday August 26, 2016 - 11:26:00 AM

On August 17th, Donald Trump once again shook up his campaign. While there were early indications that Trump would “soften” his image, these were refuted by the August 19th release of his first general election campaign ad “Two Americas: Immigration”. This TV ad stems from the same darkness that fueled Trump’s acceptance speech: bigotry and hate. 

Trump’s ad packs four lies into 30 seconds. It begins with a familiar Trump assertion: “In Hillary Clinton’s American the system stays rigged against Americans.” (It goes on to proclaim that immigrants are gaming the system.) Politifact notes that Trump has often claimed “the US election system is rigged.” It rates these claims totally false (“Pants on Fire”). More specifically, The Dallas Morning News reported that immigration has “slowed sharply” and illegal immigration “is near record lows.” 

Trump’s next assertion is that “Syrian refugees flood in.” According to the New York Times the US plans to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees this year but as of the end of April had only take 1726. While Donald Trump asserts, “there is no system to vet Syrian refugees,” Politifact states this is another Trump lie; the process takes one to two years. Most of those accepted have been women and children. 

The ad follows with a three-part assertion: “Illegal immigrants convicted of committing crimes get to stay, collecting Social Security benefits, skipping the line.” Huffington Post acknowledges that “Some people convicted of crimes considered minor are able to avoid deportation, and others stay because their home countries won’t take them back.” However, the number of these cases pales in comparison to the deportations – 460,000 in fiscal 2015. 

The most controversial part of the Trump ad is the assertion that illegal immigrants get to collect social security benefits. The Washington Post gives this claim “four Pinocchio’s” for extreme falsehood. Most undocumented immigrants pay into Social Security but receive no benefits. 

The reference that Trump gives for his “illegal immigrants get to collect social security benefits” assertion is an April paper by The Center for Immigration Studies a right-wing anti-immigration organization. MSNBC commentator Rachel Maddow reported: 

The Center for Immigration Studies, for example, will distribute essays from Holocaust deniers every now and again… They keep finding themselves digesting and sending around work by white nationalists… You slip back into that really fast when you're circulating arguments like, "the native ethnic stock that founded and built the U.S. is systematically being replaced through massive third world immigration."
That’s right. In his first ad, Trump cites a racist organization. 

The ad’s fourth assertion is “[Under Hillary Clinton] our border [would be] open.” In her web site Clinton calls for a continuation of the Obama border-security, “Hillary will focus resources on detaining and deporting those individuals who pose a violent threat to public safety, and ensure refugees who seek asylum in the U.S. have a fair chance to tell their stories.” (Unlike Trump, Clinton is for “comprehensive immigration reform.”) Factcheck.org says the Trump ad, “misleads the viewer.” 

In her August 25th Reno speech, Hillary Clinton addressed Trump’s hateful rhetoric. “Donald Trump has built his campaign on prejudice and paranoia. He is taking hate groups mainstream and helping a radical fringe take over the Republican Party.” “This is not Republicanism as we have know it. These are race-baiting ideas, anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant ideas, anti-woman –– all key tenets making up an emerging racist ideology known as the ‘Alt-Right.’” “We need good debates. But we need to do it in a respectful way, not finger pointing and blaming and stirring up this bigotry and prejudice.” 

Hillary Clinton observed that Trump’s real campaign slogan is, “Make America hate again.” 


Bob Burnett is a Berkeley writer. He can be reached at bburnett@sonic.net 


ECLECTIC RANT: Devastating Louisiana Flooding

Ralph E. Stone
Friday August 26, 2016 - 11:39:00 AM

By mid-morning on August 12, more than a foot of rain had fallen near Kentwood, Louisiana, in just a 12-hour stretch — a downpour with an estimated likelihood of just once every 500 years, and roughly three months’ worth of rainfall during a typical hurricane season. It’s the latest in a string of exceptionally rare rainstorms that are stretching the definition of “extreme” weather. It’s exactly the sort of rainstorm that’s occurring more frequently as the planet warms.  

The rain fell for days, sometimes 3 inches or more in a single hour, as streets became rivers and rivers ate up entire neighborhoods in southeast Louisiana. Between Aug. 11 and Aug. 14, more than 20 inches of rain fell in and around East Baton Rouge, one of the hardest-hit parishes. And in some parishes in the region, as much as 2 feet of rain fell in 48 hours. Just west of Baton Rouge the town of Livingston, for example, received a total of 25.5 inches in the four days, according to weather service data. That would mean for the town with just over three square miles, over one billion gallons of water fell. 

While it is a little like comparing apples and oranges, San Francisco's annual rainfall for all of 2015 was 23.26 inches. 

After the floods recede, residents may have no choice but to leave. Thirteen people died in the flooding and more than 60,000 homes are estimated to be damaged by flooding and many are not insured. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has already paid out $127 million in assistance and more than 116,000 have registered with FEMA for support, including temporary shelter, rental assistance and emergency repairs. 

Louisiana already has the fourth highest unemployment rate in the U.S. at 6.3%; it has lost 2,000 oil and gas drilling jobs in the last two years. If Louisiana loses population, this will mean loss of money spent on businesses and taxes. For example, the population of Louisiana slipped 6% in the year after hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the area in 2005, and it took more than five years for the population to come back to pre-storm levels. 

Rick Ramsey, mayor of Walker, Louisiana -- about 20 miles from Baton Rouge -- has threatened to sue the State of Louisiana and the federal government, saying they were the cause of the flooding. He blames the construction of Interstate 12 for the rising waters. Ramsey said he warned officials about the chance of flooding because of the road's construction. About 80 percent of homes were flooded in the area. Ramsey expects many insurance companies will want to join the potential lawsuit because they now face having to pay billions of dollars in claims. 

Unless we take immediate action to reduce global warming, these impacts will continue to intensify, grow ever more costly and damaging, and increasingly affect the entire planet.


ON MENTAL ILLNESS: More Rehashing of Employment

Jack Bragen
Friday August 26, 2016 - 11:11:00 AM

If you have a life-changing psychiatric illness, the expectation that you can't work a job can be bad for you, yet so can the expectation that you can. Either way, you are dealing with some type of expectation that affects how you perceive yourself. Expectations or judgments that we can or can't work could come from family, from mental health workers or from oneself. 

If mental health practitioners and others tell you that you cannot work, this detracts from work attempts, and it may "program" you to be unemployable. Other people's judgments may affect our level of confidence. We might not even try to get a job, and our outlook, as a result, could become a lot less hopeful. In our culture, the bulk of a person's supposed worth is based on their job. 

On the other hand, if you work in unskilled positions, it won't bring much respect. People might be valued more if they are an unemployed "professional", who is "between jobs" as opposed to someone who works in a car wash, a job many people would believe to be worthless. (It isn't worthless.) 

Some mental health practitioners told me I couldn't work. Yet, for a number of years I did do fairly well at some of the jobs I obtained. Later on, it is possible that my illness got worse and/or that the medication I was on (and still am) took a toll. I experienced a number of employment fiascos. 

I also tried self-employment. At times, I was moderately successful at that. By twenty-five, I was looking at throwing in the towel, at least for the time being. I needed income, and I conceded that the job situations weren't working out. So, I obtained SSDI and SSI. 

The admission that I needed Social Security to live on was both good and bad. The good part was that I had income, and I didn't have to work to survive. I was, and continue to be, grateful for that. Yet, it came with a number of drawbacks. 

Trying to meet a self-imposed or externally imposed "work ethic" can be as bad as wanting to work and being told you can't. Some psychiatric medications do a lot to hinder one's energy level; and this may prevent keeping up a competitive pace of work. Yet, without medication, we could have uncontrolled symptoms, and this will prevent functioning in a job, much more so.  

People of my age are starting to become grandparents and are starting to think about retirement in the not too distant future. People are enjoying the fruits of decades of work, may have income from investments, and may be enjoying many of the good things life has to offer at this age. It hurts to be deprived of that. If I'd had a chance to do it over again, maybe things would have turned out better. Then again, when I was younger, I lacked the basic clarity that most people probably take for granted.  

(However, it might be unfair to compare myself to those who do not have a disability. For someone with my condition, my outcome is probably as good as can be expected. Probably, many people who knew me twenty or thirty years ago, would be surprised that I am even alive and not incarcerated or institutionalized.)  

For most people with a psychiatric illness, there is a lot of emotional baggage in the area of work. This affects our ability to become employed and maintain employment. Not all of it comes from ourselves.  

I haven't tried to do conventional employment in the past fifteen years. It is not a "fit" for me. I do not feel able to punch a time card every morning, try to keep up with an expected work pace, and even fit in interpersonally, among coworkers. Perhaps the most daunting part of this is that I would be expected to adapt to a very different environment. I no longer feel very adaptable. If I did do employment, it would have to be self-employment, possibly an eBay business. 

I have decided to only pursue writing as my career, even with the knowledge that most published authors are unable to make a living at it. I'm doing better as a writer than I did at technical positions and unskilled positions. 

I know of someone who has run a small business doing physical work, and that person, due to health problems, is not able to continue. Psych meds can do a lot to limit a person. Furthermore, the health problems triggered by psych meds can make someone physically disabled--in some instances before reaching thirty.  

If wanting to work, it is important to have a support system, preferably one unrelated to the mental health treatment system. I was given emotional support by individuals in the mental health treatment system during several jobs I held. When I got closer to becoming substantially successful, the rug was pulled out from under me--the programs were terminated.  

However, receiving support and encouragement from others is important. The best way to obtain the emotional support needed in order to stay in a job, is from supervisors and coworkers at that job. When you have that, going to work becomes a good thing as much as it is a difficult thing. 

Our self-worth ought not to be dependent on work. Self-worth consists in large part of the thoughts we generate that we use to describe ourselves. If we find we are getting too many "self-trashing" thoughts, perhaps we could just find ways to stop those thoughts. Doing that is an easier approach than trying to make our lives match improbable expectations.  

If you are upset about where you are or aren't in life, you could mentally shift away from the big picture and focus on what you are doing in the moment. The self-talk on the issue of valuing ourselves or not valuing ourselves can be stopped, and we can get some enjoyment from what is happening today.  


Arts & Events

AROUND & ABOUT Opera: Fresh Voices XVI: Two New Operas Closing This Weekend at the Lesher Center

Ken Bullock
Friday August 26, 2016 - 11:23:00 AM

Fresh Voices XVI, Memories & Desires, the always fresh, always entertaining ongoing program of new opera, artsong and composition, is closing this weekend, with two shows—Friday the 26th and Saturday the 27th, both at 8:15—at the Lesher Center, 1601 Civic Drive in Walnut Creek. 

The two hour program includes 'Rosetta's Stone,' "one man's descent into Alzheimer's," music by John G. Bilotta and Jostein Stalheim (of Norway) with lyrics by John F. McGrew and Odded Ben Horen—and an epigraph from Emerson: "Every man's condition is a solution in hieroglyphic to those inquiriess he would put.He acts it as life before he apprehends it as truth"—and Mark Alburger's ''Alma Maria Schindler Mahler Gropius,' "an opera in 85 years," with libretto by the title character ("as her autobiography has increasingly been revealed to be false, misleading and unreliable—so the opera")", which also sports an epigraph, from Emerson's admirer Nietzche: "Whoever falls should also be given a push." $35 (discounts available). www.goat-hall.org/


AROUND & ABOUT THEATER: Solo Show About Dr. Carlton Goodlett

Ken Bullock
Friday August 26, 2016 - 11:16:00 AM

AfroSolo: Black Voices Performance Series, with a Solo Performance About Dr. Carlton Goodlett

Dr. Carlton Goodlett (1914-97), publisher of the Sun-Reporter, the California Voice and seven other Northern California black weekly newspapers, was a seminal figure, from the late 40s until his death, for the Californian black community—as well as union, progressive and left causes, including Anti-Vietnam action and the student strike at SF State. Goodlett also traveled internationally, including to East Germany and the Soviet Union, at a time when that was highly unusual, in pursuit of journalistic and socio-political goals. 

Goodlett, a very active physician in the community, was also one of the first black American psychologists, receiving his PhD from UC Berkeley in 1938. 

This weekend, Thomas Robert Simpson, founder of AfroSolo, will perform a solo piece about Goodlett and his work, in a program with several other performers of various arts, part of "a community program." 

In a phone conversation, Simpson said he was inspired by remembering Goodlett's kind recognition of AfroSolo at its inception 20 years ago, writing personally to Simpson with his congratulations. 

Simpson also said he hoped—and had some indications—that his Goodlett piece would be performed again for community events. 

The program—with performances also by dancer Antoine Hunter, poet Aquiella M. Lewis and comedienne Luna Malbroux—will be at 8 on Friday, August 26 ($25) and Saturday, August 27 (gala reception with light refreshments at 7—$35 inclusive) and Sunday the 28th at 3 ($25) at the African-American Cultural Complex, 762 Fulton Street (between Laguna and Webster, four blocks west of War Memorial Opera House), San Francisco. afrosolo.org


Who knew? Marty Nemko’s “Odd Man Out” reveals, entertains, and moves!

John McMullen
Friday August 26, 2016 - 11:13:00 AM

When I was in graduate school, our professor Mel Shapiro—who was a two time Tony winner-- wrote an important book on Acting. The first exercise was to tell your life story in ten minutes. But you couldn’t just talk about it. You had to act it out, use props, add whatever you like. 

Marty Nemko is an important figure in the Bay Area. The San Francisco Bay Guardian named Nemko "The Bay Area's Best Career Coach." He has been a frequent guest on CNN, ABC, PBS, and NPR and has appeared on the Today Show (twice), CBS's Early Show, Oprah and Friends, and NPR's Talk of the Nation (twice.), ABC-TV's 20-20, and the New York Times and Wall Street Journal described him as "job coach extraordinaire.” You can hear his New York accent and expertise on KGO and KALW in his weekly show “Work with Marty Nemko.” 

He and I have collaborated on a couple of projects. He is a piano player “extraordinare” also. 

He plays (by ear) with 7 fingers since a rare (but painless) disease has disabled three digits.  

The intersection of these tidbits connect in his show, “Odd Man Out,” in which he tells—and enacts—for his audience his story, interspersed with his playing—and accompanying Dani Bee, an extraordinary singer and Bay Area Theatre Critics perennial award-winner.  

I drove to Napa to see it in the Lucky Penny theatre, a charming black box theatre in an office park. 

The house was packed.  

Sometimes one’s persona does not match the background. Woody Allen was the president of his high school, the first one to be picked for stick ball, and earning $500 a month writing jokes while he was still in high school. Unlike his neurotic, mewling, Jewish/NYC mask. 

Marty stands that on its head. As prolific as Woody in his own field, Marty is a serious counselor, first class interviewer, and outgoing hail-fellow-well-met. But his background in Queens was torturous as the ultimate wimp who refused to do anything except that which he wanted. The teachers nearly failed him. What a laugh on them when he got a Ph. D. from UCB.  

Acting along with him is his actress wife Barbara who doubles as Superintendent of Schools for Napa County. 

It is an evening of laughs, jaw-dropping personal history and charming music.  

At the final curtain, he got a standing ovation from a tearful, joyful audience. 

Go see it.  

“Eventbrite” is producing it at San Francisco Public Library on Saturday, September 17, 2016 from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM. 

AND…if you want a charming weekend evening, drive up to Napa, and instead of ingesting all world-class comestibles and getting tipsy on the vintage (since that is precursor to snoozing) and go see a show at the Lucky Penny. Better yet, stay over at a B&B so you can indulge the next day! Lucky Penny’s season line-up includes The Miracle Worker, I Wanna Be Bad, Big River, A Little Night Music, Maple and Vine, and more in the eight production season.  

The Lucky Penny Community Arts Center is located at 1758 Industrial Way, with the main entry at Suite 208. Tickets and info at http://www.luckypennynapa.com/ or call 707-266-6305