Family members of a Berkeley man who mysteriously died in a California Youth Authority prison last weekend said Wednesday that they suspect foul-play and a cover up. -more-
Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board members authorized a key document last week paving the way for the tallest structure to rise in downtown Berkeley in decades, the nine-story Seagate Building slated to replace four 1920’s era low-rise structures on Center Street. -more-
Berkeley school officials believe that recently-reported “plummeting” state test scores at highly-rated John Muir Elementary School are incorrect and are seeking to have them revised by the state Department of Education. -more-
When Almateen Tweedie heard someone pounding on her front door the morning of Oct. 30, she assumed the guests were friends of her young sons. -more-
Without Sylvia McLaughlin and her fellow “tea ladies,” San Francisco Bay might’ve become just another example of urban sprawl—filled in, paved over and transformed into a flat urban plain. -more-
Commercial parking, landmarks and creeks consumed the lion’s share of the Berkeley Planning Commission’s Wednesday night session, producing lots of talk and no decisive action save for one member’s abrupt walkout. -more-
Berkeley’s fourth murder victim of the year—all in the past two months—has been identified as John Hunt, 40, of Oakland. -more-
Is West Berkeley’s Nexus Gallery headed for the wrecking ball? Bob Brockl, a leading figure in the gallery and collective housed in a pair of buildings at 2701-2721 Eighth St., hopes it isn’t. -more-
Scientists from the Berkeley-based California Department of Toxic Substances Control have discovered the world’s highest recorded levels of a recently banned class of fire retardants in the eggs of seabirds that nest along the shores of San Francisco Bay. -more-
Mekayla Blanck, 11 (right) and Celina Borucki-Gibson, 10, participate in an impromptu candle light vigil at the corner of Ashby Avenue and Adeline streets Thursday night where participants marked the death toll of more than 1,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq. The vigil at Ashby and Adeline, where a few dozen people gathered at 8 p.m., was one of several in the Bay Area, five of which were in Berkeley. The vigils were organized in part by MoveOn.org. -more-
Seeking to undercut a ChevronTexaco legal action to block the sale of Point Molate, Richmond city councilmembers Tuesday reconfirmed in public their closed-door extension of exclusive negotiating rights with a would-be casino developer. -more-
“I think we might have lost her.” -more-
For the next few weeks, the Berkeley Planet will publish lists of alleged violations of human rights by the Bush administration for readers to think about, and perhaps use, in their work on the November election. -more-
Once back South, some years ago, I passed a half-hour or so that could have been used for good fishing time trying to convince an old segregationist about an instance of racial injustice. Afterwards, T.C. Brown, who used to keep me in line, led me out of the meeting by the arm with a quiet lecture on the theory of time-waste. “Boy,” she said, “don’t you know you can’t wake up somebody what ain’t ‘sleep?” -more-
Muslim extremists often cite the Quran, out-of-context and contrary to the Holy Book’s spirit of mercy and compassion, to justify their crimes. Thus, for instance, in the four-page document that investigators found in Muhammad Atta’s luggage in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the terrorist ringleader invoked no fewer than 18 verses from the Quran to exhort his band of brothers to commit violence that took nearly 3,000 lives. -more-
Editors, Daily Planet: -more-
An article recently appeared in the Daily Planet regarding police rights to challenge Police Review Commission findings (“Court Ruling Hamstrings Police Review Commission,” Aug. 31-Sept. 2). The article was somewhat indignant at the idea that the burden of proof should be on the accuser (Police Review Commissions) and not the accused, (even though this is a fundamental principle of American justice). It is implied that the Berkeley Police Department is insensitive to the public because it challenged 32 of 52 “sustained” complaints filed against it at the PRC. It compares this to numbers from Riverside and San Diego. A closer look at the numbers reveals that the Berkeley Police are not insensitive but rather portions of the public are hypersensitive and distinctly anti-police. -more-
Editors, Daily Planet: -more-
You don’t need to be a newly arrived UC Berkeley freshman to be unclear on the concept of Economy Culture: in many years of regular attendance, I’ve been constantly surprised by those interested in opera, for example, but not bothering because “it’s so expensive.” -more-
Two of the area’s orchestras, the Oakland East Bay Symphony and the Berkeley Symphony, will go into high gear unusually early this season. Regional orchestras, as a rule, start up a few weeks after the beginning of the season in San Francisco and nationally, but it’s different this time. -more-
There’s a lot to be said for hard-to-reach places. If Muir Woods had been more accessible to loggers, it wouldn’t be here today. There’s also a lot to be said for vision. If William Kent and his wife Elizabeth Thacher Kent hadn’t seen something worth preserving, Muir Woods National Monument wouldn’t be here today. -more-
From the Richmond/San Rafael Bridge take Hwy 1 south and exit at Hwy 1/Stinson Beach. Follow signs to Muir Woods/Mount Tamalpais. Approx. 25 miles, 45 min.-1hour. Parking limited. -more-
This Sunday, Sept. 12, Solano Avenue in Berkeley and Albany hosts the Annual Solano Stroll, a day-long fun and food festival. -more-
Staff members and patrons of the North Branch of the Berkeley Public Library have been devastated by the loss of Library Assistant Charlene Rochelle Agos, who was killed in a traffic accident in Oakland the night of Aug. 15. -more-
Why did about 400 students at Berkeley High get shut out of classes in one of the school’s most popular programs just eight days before the start of school? -more-
Sally Hindman has made a name for herself in Berkeley as the homeless advocate who co-founded Street Spirit. But if all goes according to plan, her biggest legacy could be in Varna, Bulgaria. -more-
With Berkeley as little as a month away from rolling out a state-of-the-art online system to track homeless residents, some local homeless service providers are wondering if the new technology will catapult them into the 21st century or send them back to 1984. -more-
NEW YORK—There are many stories to tell at this convention. The known storylines inside Madison Square Garden are familiar Republican themes that are repeated over and over: the recycled compassionate conservatism, John Kerry’s misrepresenting his war record, the war on terror, George Bush is the only candidate who can protect you, and of course, Bush will cut your taxes even more. -more-
It’s Tuesday evening on the corner of 34th Street and Sixth Avenue. The sidewalk is packed with protestors hemmed in by a wall of police. Traffic had been diverted. The protestors are chanting and yelling and waiving signs, and have made passage up and down the sidewalk nearly impossible. -more-
Yet another player has joined the ranks of would-be East Bay gambling—and though it’s identity remains obscured, the firm’s sales pitch is breathtaking in the promises it implies. -more-
County education administrators have indicated their intention to certify Berkeley Unified School District’s roughly $90 million budget, ending three years of strict supervision over the cash-strapped school district. -more-
Two major issues come before Berkeley’s land use agencies this week, when the revised municipal landmarks code comes up for consideration by the Planning Commission Wednesday night and the Zoning Adjustment Board conducts its final hearing Thursday on a use permit for the Seagate Building. -more-
“I want a zippered, hooded sweatshirt with the letters SFSU splashed big across the front,” says my friend Corrie. We are in the student bookstore at San Francisco State University shopping for textbooks, but very quickly we have migrated to the other side of the room and are perusing racks and racks of work-out clothes and underwear that sport the logo SFSU in the school colors that, I learn for the first time, are gold and purple. -more-
If you didn’t watch the Republican National Convention, you didn’t miss much. Most of the convention speakers before the president spoke from the same biased script: Republicans are strong on defense; Democrats are not. Republicans are macho action figures like Arnold Schwarzenegger; Democrats are “girlie-men.” George Bush is resolute; John Kerry waffles. For four days viewers across the nation saw the worst face of partisan politics, an event carefully orchestrated to demean John Kerry and to convince voters that only George Bush could keep them safe. -more-
For over 20 years, Berkeley law has required developers of new apartment buildings to offer 20 percent of their units at levels affordable to people with lower-than-average incomes. It’s a trade-off with developers (for which they’re handsomely rewarded) to make sure that, as Berkeley develops, poorer people aren’t steadily forced out of the city. That same law requires those units to be evenly dispersed throughout the building, because poor people shouldn’t be sequestered in special poor sections of apartment buildings. -more-
The dozen or so petitioners at Saturday morning’s Sick Plant Clinic at the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden brought offerings ranging from dried leaves to big branches: a sheaf of photographs, a pear, a Japanese maple twig, an orchid growing on a bark slab. -more-
Most Saturday mornings you can find Marty Schiffenbauer at the counter at Ozzie’s, the venerable soda fountain in the Elmwood Pharmacy at 2900 College Ave. -more-
I just finished a collection of natural history essays by Howard Ensign Evans, a retired entomologist in Colorado. One of the pieces, about a meadow where he and his wife had enjoyed songbirds and wildflowers, concludes with this paragraph: -more-
It’s hard to believe that it’s been only three years since Saudi Muslim extremists commandeered commercial aircraft and crashed them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. What was before September 11, 2001, a small fire fanned by a few fanatics has become a firestorm which threatens to engulf the world. The historic willingness of human beings to kill and be killed for a religious ideology has been demonstrated again and again since 9/11, most recently in the appalling occurrences in North Ossetia, now part of Russia, where men and (most tragically) women were willing to kill defenseless children who had done nothing to harm them, in support of an abstraction which is essentially meaningless to non-believers. -more-
Last Friday night after work I went down to Orchard Supply Hardware to buy a couple of small items. (Only chain stores are open on Friday nights in Berkeley.) As I was driving back up Ashby Avenue on my way home, I saw a white van marked “Crime Scene Unit” parked on the southeast corner of Ashby and California. There were three or four Berkeley police cars parked on the north side of Ashby, and I saw several police officers. Since that’s a neighborhood which has had several shootings in the last year, I wondered what might be going on. -more-
