When patrons of the Claremont Branch Library walk through the doors of the reopened facility Monday morning, they’ll find wider aisles, more accessible restrooms and improved wheelchair ramps and railings. -more-
By allowing the construction with virtually no public process of an immense industrial-style tower on McKinley Street, our highly competent City staff has created a huge, needless problem for itself. The thing is a desecration of the Civic Center in general, of Old City Hall in particular, which it looms over like a giant oil derrick, and an almost inconceivable affront to the residential neighborhood in which it stands. Because I have the highest respect for our staff, I am dumbfounded that they would commit such a foolish blunder. But there it is. They’ve done it. Their job now is to remove it with as little further disruption as possible for the rest of us. Neither Council nor residents should have to waste another minute assisting them out of their blunder. -more-
Just one day after Kevin Brown and Randy Johnson pitched a near-perfect eight innings apiece in the much-anticipated National League baseball showdown, Berkeley High’s Lilli Bermeo and Granada’s Sylvia Moses set out to make Thursday’s East Bay Athletic League softball matchup just as classic. -more-
OAKLAND – The trial of middle-school teacher Kahlil Jacobs-Fantauzzi, charged with obstructing a police officer in the course of duty, opened in superior court Thursday morning. -more-
With Thursday’s three-game sweep over East Bay Athletic League rival California High in the bag, the Berkeley High boys volleyball team can only sit back and play a different game until Sunday’s playoff seeding meeting: namely, the waiting game. -more-
Officially, no one from the Berkeley Unified School District or the Berkeley Federation of Teachers cannot discuss “all matters” surrounding the current state of mediation between the two sides. -more-
A proposal to raise fees for some planning and development permits will be the topic of a public hearing during next week’s City Council meeting. -more-
The Berkeley Civic Arts Commission will present a public forum Saturday to review new guidelines and grant applications for the Arts Grants Program. -more-
There’s a twist some might call “ironic” in the case of Kahlil Jacobs-Fantauzzi, accused of obstructing a police officer during the summertime height of the conflicts between KPFA “free-speech” radio and its governing board. Jacobs-Fantauzzi’s attorney Richard Krech subpoenaed photographs taken by The Oakland Tribune the morning of the arrest, but the newspaper’s chief photographer, Ron Riesterer, is refusing to turn them over. The Trib’s attorneys are evoking California’s shield law, which protects journalists, including photographers, from having their work used in behalf of a particular party. -more-
Another protest. Another forcible ejection by the authorities. Yet another opportunity for outsiders to exclaim “only in Berkeley” (perhaps condescendingly, perhaps not). Another odd amalgamation of anger, hope and happiness. -more-
At the School Board meeting on May 3rd, the board excepted the challenge of PFIST (Parents For Increased Salaries for Teachers) for a forum on May 16th, where both the union and the board could give some real answers to the community. Board President Joaquin Rivera, (a teacher himself) advised the community to put pressure on both parties, the board and the union, or the forum could be blocked. He pointed out that both sides would have to allow the mediator to lift the vow of silence that has kept us uninformed up until now. He also said that the public had a right to hear both sides, and that the board wanted for that to happen. The board spoke more freely that night than I have ever witnessed in my 5 years as a PTA officer, and I think they enjoyed that freedom. -more-
The Berkeley High girls lacrosse team finally got the mixture of offense and defense it’s been searching for all year in Wednesday’s first-round playoff matchup with Monte Vista. But even the Yellowjackets’ best game against their league nemeses in three meetings wasn’t enough, as Monte Vista advanced to the second round with an 8-5 win. -more-
Scores of protesters used Wednesday’s appearance by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright as an opportunity to denounce this country’s foreign policy in several regions of the world. -more-
The Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste (CMTW) wishes Gordon Wozniak (Perspective, April 29) would do some thinking about a more serious radioactive problem instead of trying to distract the public with a sermon of his beliefs about tritium-filled exit signs. -more-
The Berkeley High Yellowjackets aren’t big disco fans, but “Stayin’ Alive” will be No. 1 on their list of priorities, when they battle league rival California High in today’s regular-season volleyball finale. -more-
Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent Jack McLaughlin will meet with the San Francisco school board sometime this weekend for a second interview for that district’s top job. -more-
The Cal basketball program recognized walk-on forward Ryan Forehan-Kelly’s 1999-2000 contributions on Wednesday, granting him a scholarship for the 2000-2001 season. -more-
Opponents of a proposed University Avenue housing project aimed at housing persons with disabilities and limited income say they’re not NIMBYs – Not-in-My-BackYarders. -more-
Former Cal football star Deltha O’Neal was awarded with a Pac-10 conference medal for his athletic and academic career on Tuesday afternoon, at the athletic program’s annual Academic Honors Celebration Luncheon. -more-
A passenger riding in the rear seat of a Saturn sedan was killed early Tuesday morning when the car collided with a bread truck at the intersection of University Avenue and Sixth Street. -more-
The owner of the Raja Restaurant at 2160 University Ave. was shot in the leg early Wednesday morning in an attempted robbery. -more-
A 10-year-old girl crossing the intersection of Alcatraz Avenue and Ellis Street on her bicycle around 3 p.m. Wednesday was hit by a driver in a Ford van but was not seriously injured. -more-
Police have noted a rise in the number of compact discs stolen from apartments and houses in recent burglaries. -more-
The U.S. Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Section 8 Housing Assistance Payments Program was established in 1974, providing project-based and tenant-based housing assistance to low-income persons who rent. When both tenant and landlord qualify under Section 8, tenant pays one third of her/his income for rent, with the balance subsidized. It has been one of the best possible uses of federal funds, because it countermands need for costly welfare-type expenditures associated with sheltering persons with small incomes who are willing, able, and eager to live independently. And yet when conservatives’ attempts to eliminate HUD failed, they were able to focus on the Section 8 program and its various components. Seniors currently receiving Section 8 rent subsidies in project-based buildings, for example, have been receiving annual notices of possible loss of their status. -more-
The “belly-itcher” in the well-known ballyard chant was nowhere to be found on Tuesday afternoon – just two great pitchers – as the Berkeley High softball team took on league powerhouse Livermore at James Kenney Park. -more-
In a surprising twist, a state mediator issued a “total press and information blackout” Tuesday in connection with the contract negotiations between the Berkeley Unified School District and the Berkeley Federation of Teachers. -more-
St. Mary’s High 1998 graduate Jerriod Mack, who helped establish the Panthers as a boys track and field powerhouse before moving on to Cal, was recognized by the Pac-10 conference on Tuesday as the Men’s Field Athlete of the Week. -more-
With four days remaining in the 2000 boys volleyball season, there’s still a chance that somebody in the East Bay Athletic League will beat league leader Foothill. But it won’t be Berkeley High. -more-
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, one of the most prominent women in American public life and the outspoken advocate of President Clinton’s foreign policy, is the lead speaker at the UC Berkeley commencement today. -more-
Berkeley Schools Superintendent Jack McLaughlin has kept his word – in a manner of speaking. -more-
Neighbors have started calling the 170-foot triangular structure at McKinley and Addison streets the “tower of power” or the “oil rig.” -more-
Kudos for your front-page coverage of Rick Young’s sit-and-sleep-in on the University’s Underhill parking lot (Wednesday, May 3). Rick’s dramatic action underscores the University’s unwillingness to listen to and engage the larger Berkeley community beyond a vocal minority of parking-obsessed faculty on the Academic Senate’s Sub-Committee on Parking and Transportation. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO – Margaret Edson’s rich and powerful 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Wit” opened last week at San Francisco’s Curran Theater in a strong touring production starring Judith Light, best known from television’s “Who’s the Boss?” -more-
Jamie Lee scored seven goals to lead an offensive field day for the Berkeley High girls lacrosse team on Saturday, as the Yellowjackets closed out the 2000 regular season with a 16-2 annihilation of Robert Louis Stevenson, at the BHS home field. -more-
At least 500 parents, teachers and community leaders from Berkeley joined thousands of other people in Sacramento on Monday to urge the governor to make public schools a top priority when decided how to spend the state’s estimated $13 billion budget surplus. -more-
The North Coast Section has always rewarded two things when choosing its at-large seeds for postseason boys volleyball: Quality of competition and late-season improvement. -more-
More than 1,000 pages of briefings on 72 agenda items will be before the City Council for possible discussion or action tonight. -more-
OAKLAND – Some 50 people showed up Monday morning to support Kahlil Jacobs-Fantauzzi, on trial for obstructing a police officer during the height of the summertime conflict between KPFA and the Pacifica Foundation, which holds the license to the community radio station. -more-
A woman walking home with her infant son in her arms about 7 p.m. Sunday on 10th Street near Bancroft Way was robbed by a man who held his hand under his jacket as if he were holding a gun. -more-
Smokers who want to quit the habit may want to consider changing jobs. -more-
The big green buses that travel on San Pablo Avenue from downtown Oakland to the Hilltop Mall are precursors of what nine East Bay communities are eyeing as the wave of the future. -more-
For more than 20 years fire safety has had a low priority in the Berkeley City Council, particularly for the hill area, where there is the greatest danger that a firestorm like the one in 1991 might develop. In the 1980s the city even considered closing the only fire station in the hill area, which is also the only one east of the Hayward Fault. Over this period while the total number of city employees was rapidly increasing the number of firefighters was being steadily decreased. Even in the year right after the 1991 fire disaster in Oakland and Berkeley, the Berkeley Fire Department was forced to make a further cut in personnel. Because of these cuts it is now only possible to have three firefighters assigned to each engine company, which is far less effective than the standard number of four. -more-
For seven out of the eight track and field squads competing at Saturday’s league qualifying meet, “EBAL” stood for East Bay Athletic League. For the ambitious Berkeley High girls squad, however, that anagram could have stood for its minimalist approach to the meet: that is, “Eke By At Least.” -more-
A community advisory committee was unable to offer any solid recommendations to help the Berkeley Unified School District with its financial crisis, and the main culprit was time. -more-
Mr. Jeffrey M. Hannan expresses his feelings best in his opening paragraph (Perspective on teachers’ union, May 5) in which he details his 30-35 hours of work in a period of three days: In contrast to Mr. Hannan, we are all wimps who are “ignorantly giving in to the manufactured battle of the BFT leadership.” Mr. Hannan’s well thought out, “reasoned” approach on the situation paralleled that of board member Shirley Issel, whose quiet, detached, analytical scolding is first-rate rhetoric, but to those of us in the trenches, brings to mind Luther’s words, “the whore, Reason.” -more-
As the 2000 season winds down, the pace has been picking up for the Berkeley High girls varsity crew, which competed in its first race in two weeks at Oakland Estuary Sunday, in a tri-meet with Pacific and Serra/Notre Dame/Mercy, a combined squad. -more-
Who ordered the rain? -more-
Mr. Walter Wood says (Perspective, May 1) that our quality of life will suffer if 30 units of affordable housing replace an empty paint store in his neighborhood. He accuses of Berkeley of building housing developments that are “too large, too dense, too detrimental and too numerous.” -more-
I am writing to support the comments made by Councilmember Armstrong (Perspective, May 1). I too believe that Berkeley is a unique community with unusual resources and profound complexity. I would like to see our paper celebrate our diversity and our triumphs. I know there is a lot of political infighting. I believe that is one of the reasons that our schools are in such poor shape. A community such as ours, with the amount of brilliant people, both adults and school age children, should be able to produce a scholastic system that functions far better than the model we currently have. At the same time, I would like to read about our efforts at improvement. Bad news is so very easy to access. The Berkeley Planet can perhaps help us define ourselves in a format different from the usual barrage we have been accustomed to turning off! -more-
The Virginia-based Whitaker Foundation has awarded $15 million to the two-year-old Department of Bioengineering at UC Berkeley, boosting work on biomedical advances to diagnose and treat disease and prolong healthy life. -more-
I refer to the Perspective by L.A. Wood in the April 27 edition of the Daily Planet. Wood tries to build a case that folks on the UCB campus should be concerned about past radionuclide releases on the Central Campus, originating from Department of Energy research activities. When discussing the Melvin Calvin labs, he maintains that “Environmental reports from the mid-’70’s document releases of hundreds of curies of tritium annually in that area of the Central Campus.” I have recently reviewed the 1970-1980 Radioactive Effluent Monitoring Reports from the Berkeley Lab which have been provided to the City of Berkeley’s independent reviewer (Bernd Franke, IFEU). These reports show that less than 6.6 curies of tritium was released from the Calvin Lab over these 11 years, with less than 25 millicuries in the period 1974-1980 - maybe a factor of 1,000 less than Wood’s claim. Maybe Wood misread these reports, or maybe he has other reports I don’t know about. If so, he should bring copies to the Department of Energy so everybody can discuss the same information. -more-
Formed in 1996, and producing about four shows a year, Berkeley’s indigenous Impact Theater specializes in affordable original plays that speak to a younger generation that may have grown up on television, movies and music, without experiencing much live theater. -more-
Providing health, nutritious, organic food to children in the Berkeley public schools is a noble and worthy goal, but it’s also a costly one, the school board was reminded this week. -more-
Anyone strolling past a school playground roundabout lunchtime is quite familiar with the great debates that permeate early school life: -more-
The opinion piece by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) scientist Howard Matis (May 2) is not accurate regarding what occurred at the Alameda County Board of Education meeting (April 25) when they agreed to review their decision to advise parents and schools about the radioactive contamination at the Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) museum. -more-
The St. Mary’s High track team continued its leisurely stroll through the Alameda-Contra Costa Athletic League schedule on Thursday afternoon, taking first place in 10 of 14 events on both the boys’ and girls’ sides to win the respective meets, 123-43 and 128-53, over its closest competition, El Cerrito. The Panthers’ effort also yielded comfortable victories over Albany and Salesian at the quad-meet. -more-
Rotarians will gather on the USS Hornet on Saturday night to do what they do best – raise money to help people around the world. -more-
Having already addressed its void in the frontcourt with the spring signing of Gabriel Hughes and Saulius Kuzminskas, the Cal men’s basketball team went to work on the backcourt Friday, announcing the signing of Alhambra High guard Michael Lawson. -more-
An armed robbery was reported about 11 p.m. Thursday by a woman who was accosted by a gunman as she sat in her car in the 2300 block of Woolsey Street. -more-
Berkeley High track and field coach Darrell Hampton couldn’t decide which was more important between today’s East Bay Athletic League qualifiers and the Sacramento Meet of Champions. So he’s bringing his ’Jackets to both. -more-
A bomb threat at 7:30 p.m. Thursday forced the occupants of a drug rehabilitation program on Scenic Avenue to evacuate the building they occupy. -more-
The legacy of musician, professor and minister W. Hazaiah Williams will be honored during a memorial concert Saturday night at the Scottish Rite Auditorium in Oakland. -more-
A man was robbed in his apartment building on the 2500 block of Piedmont after returning home from a card club in Oakland about 2:40 a.m. Tuesday. He drove home and walked up to the second floor and was about to enter his apartment when he was suddenly accosted by two men in the hallway. -more-
The usefulness – of utter lack thereof – of tracking the nation’s average wage was demonstrated in a big way Tuesday night by a little guy – former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich. -more-
A UC Berkeley law student protesting development plans for the Underhill area is about to make a sacrifice for his cause: He’s going to miss an in-class final instead of leaving his site in the Underhill parking lot. -more-
