Two days before students are scheduled to come streaming into the halls and classrooms, two Berkeley public schools showed radically different approaches to preparation this week. -more-
The Berkeley Unified School District is projecting that it will have $346,000 more for the school year than it anticipated last June when the 2005-06 budget was passed, but district officials cautioned that it’s not quite the time to open up the checkbook to more spending. -more-
“Redevelopment is very simple to understand,” said Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby at Sunday’s community meeting on proposed redevelopment in Oakland. “It’s a land grab by corporate interests, big-box retailers and developers to grab land from people like you.” -more-
South Berkeley’s Flying Cottage hit yet another patch of turbulence Thursday night, this time from members of the Zoning Adjustments Board. -more-
Berkeley election activists rallied on the City Hall steps Monday afternoon to call on Alameda County to hire a voting machine vendor that will support independent runoff voting (IRV) and provide a verifiable paper trail. -more-
Life in the tiny Palestinian hamlet of Qawawis seems straight out of the Old Testament, but that doesn’t stop the Jewish settlers in the hilltop outposts that surround the place from doing their best to destroy it. And if something isn’t done soon about the settlers’ latest threat—denying Qawawis’s shepherds access to watering holes their flocks depend on—the villagers might have no choice but to abandon their ancestral homes and lands. -more-
CARACAS, Venezuela—“I support Chavez for standing up to U.S. imperialism,” said Sean, a 16-year-old Canadian. He was one of 15,000 youths representing 144 countries at the recent 16th World Festival of Youth and Students, a communist splurge organized by Venezuela’s president and self-proclaimed revolutionary Hugo Chavez. -more-
If every working California adult is “headed over the cliff” for lack of affordable health insurance, as the co-author of a new statewide study contends, then Latinos will be the first to go. -more-
I knew I didn’t have long before they would spot me in my hiding place. There were so many that someone was bound to see me. There must have been 40 or 50 of them hanging around the fence and peering through the trees to the spot where I sat breathlessly. They seemed to be searching for wildlife—they found it all right. -more-
http://www.jfdefreitas.com/index.php?path=/00_Latest%20Workj -more-
When 79 percent of Berkeley voters nixed Measure P, a.k.a. the Building Height Initiative, in November 2002, were they expressing satisfaction with the current state of planning and development in this city? That’s what some prominent individuals have been saying ever since that bitterly contested election. -more-
If I didn’t have this column to write I could deal with Ralph’s broken wheelchair. It hasn’t worked in over five weeks, forcing him to stay in bed except for the occasions when he must go to doctor appointments and attend meetings at the Center for Indep endent Living, in which case he and chair must be pushed, not an easy task considering their combined weight tops 300 pounds. -more-
Bob Baldock’s commentary in last weekend’s edition is astonishing. It is a combination of contempt of court and frank admission that the entrenched staff at KPFA has no use for the democracy its broadcasts preach to the world. -more-
A recent guest editorial in your paper inaccurately criticized Secretary of State Bruce McPherson about the latest developments in California’s move to electronic voting machines. The piece misused several figures reported by the Associated Press and Con tra Costa Times about a recent testing of Diebold Election Systems, Inc.’s (DESI) AccuVote-TSX with AccuView Printer Module election voting machines. The author also sarcastically accused a respected public official of poor math skills. One of the misstated facts claimed that during the dry-run test of the Diebold election system, McPherson’s office reported a 10 percent failure rate (the guest writer wondered if the failure rate was actually higher, which it was not). In fact, in that test, 10,720 votes were recorded on 96 voting machines with 100 percent accuracy. Despite 11 paper jams and 21 other problems on the new machine-printer combination, not a single ballot was lost. -more-
Here are some of the things that I learned at the Aug. 1 “community forum” on radio frequency identification devices (RFID) sponsored by the Board of Library Trustees: Patrons’ reading materials cannot be protected from prying eyes, and anyone can buy a reader/scanner for $150. I learned that there are many studies showing that radiation from radio frequency poses a threat to public health, and I discovered that Councilmember Gordon Wozniak studied none of these before he became an expert panelist for the forum. Moreover, Checkpoint (the RFID company that the library contracted with) is negligent in repairing its equipment, and the Berkeley Public Library and its board were, and continue to be, even more negligent in researching the claims of RFID’s efficacy in reducing both repetitive stress injuries and theft of library materials. As well I learned that Checkpoint is not a new company, but one that’s been around since the 1960s. -more-
The Bay Area will play host to an abundance of great jazz this fall. The single most important event of the next few months is the San Francisco Jazz Festival with almost 50 events scattered around the city. In Oakland, Yoshi’s continues to bring some of the best jazz musicians in the world to their restaurant/nightclub, while in Berkeley, there will be great jazz offerings at the Jazz-school and at Anna’s Jazz Island. -more-
A few years ago I attended a performance of a new opera The Aspern Papers, after the Henry James novella. The composer had, of course, taken liberties with the story, juggling generations of time, changing some names, changing the dead poet to a dead composer, changing the setting from Venice to Lake Como so that the poet-cum-composer could drown while taking a midnight swim home from his lady-love’s villa (if you tried to swim down a Venice canal, you’d probably get a nasty case of dysentery, but you couldn’t drown). I accepted these changes, but I became uneasy when private letters were changed to the only copy of a lost opera. And when the finale featured Tina as a woman scorned, burning this manuscript of the last opera by the great composer, I left the hall sputtering condemnations to my bemused companions, who shrugged, “Guess he wanted to make it more dramatic, more operatic.” -more-
Alert reader Hal Hoffman called the Daily Planet to note that I’d sent the last tree column, published on Aug. 16, without mentioning the tree’s species epithet. He’s entirely correct, and I’m grateful and abashed; getting that Latin-ish binomial in is a principle of mine. Knowing the scientific name of anything is a key to learning what there is to know about it, from every possible source. -more-
The student co-operative long derided as Cal’s version of Animal House has been given a new name and a facelift that has it looking on par with the homes of neighbors who last year filed a nuisance suit against the property. -more-
The Berkeley school board kept the option of closing a portion of Derby Street alive for its East Campus properties Wednesday night. -more-
Foes of plans to create a new Oakland redevelopment district just south of the Berkeley border are holding a public meeting Sunday to confront a central feature of the proposal—eminent domain. -more-
Berkeley broke ground Tuesday on its newest bicycle-pedestrian trail—a four-block path the city hopes will one day connect to the Ohlone Greenway and improve access to the I-80 Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge. -more-
Wednesday night the Elmwood Theater had its underground pre-opening. -more-
Agreement May End Greek Alcohol Ban -more-
The Alameda County Board of Supervisors Tuesday will consider accepting bids for new voting machines to replace the controversial Diebold touch-screen voting systems. -more-
Last week, we began a discussion on a troubling aspect of Oakland’s veneration of the writer Jack London, the Oakland native who is probably the most honored person in the city (Mr. Knowland has himself a park, Mr. Ogawa a plaza, Mr. Harris a building, but Mr. London has a whole square). The troubling aspect to which I refer is that some of Mr. London’s writings reflect bigotry against Asian-Americans and African-Americans (haven’t run across any anti-Mexican passages, but I’m still in the preliminary stages of my research). -more-
The story “Bayer Corp. Janitors Hold on To Their Jobs,” in the Aug. 19 edition of the Daily Planet incorrectly reported that ILWU Business Agent Donald Mahon said Bayer had not asked janitors to take a pay cut. In fact, Mahon said that Bayer had asked janitors to accept lower pay.› -more-
Long-time Berkeley resident Marc Sapir, not a man hesitant to declare his views, chose last week to advance instead in the Daily Planet the words of KPFA manager Roy Campanella, Jr, and two of Campanella’s supporters on KPFA’s Local Station Board. In doing this, Sapir dismissed, or certainly tried to, the sexual harassment claims of eight KPFA women workers—all against the manager, all now filed with the state—by ignorantly belittling them and then by insinuating the claims all have a common and ulterior motivation. This is unbelievably insulting to the women and to those who care about them. In my judgment, each of the women and each of their claims must be taken very seriously. -more-
Since May 21, 2005, the KPFA Local Station Board (LSB) has been actively examining the situation at KPFA regarding the conduct of its general manager (general manager), Mr. Roy Campanella II. The LSB was asked to investigate these matters at the invitation of Mr. Dan Coughlin, the former executive director (executive director) of the Pacifica Foundation (parent corporation of KPFA) and Mr. Campanella’s direct supervisor. -more-
The greatest political issue of 2005 is flying under the publicCs radar: how shall we decide who gets to be on the November 2008 ballot? Ah! To nominate or not to nominate, that is the question! -more-
While AirBears, UC Berkeley’s wireless Internet connection for students, faculty and staff, offers Wi-Fi on and around the campus, the city of Berkeley and nearby environs offer dozens of restaurants and coffee shops featuring wireless connections for everybody. -more-
The Bay Area is home to an enormous number and variety of classical musicians. The Arts Calendar in every issue of the Daily Planet lists unusual small concerts by local artists, some with international reputations, which are easily accessible and affordable for music lovers in the Greater Berkeley area. One which is typical of the rich selection available will take place this Sunday afternoon at Oakland’s Chapel of the Chimes, part of the “Sunday Afternoon Musicale and Tea Series” presented this fall by the Oakland Lyric Opera organization. OLO’s goal is “to preserve the art form of opera by working with young, local, classically-trained performers who are on a career track and to make high-quality, affordable opera available to everyone.” -more-
Berkeley is many things, but a San Francisco suburb it is not. Berkeley has its own symphony, its own theater district and an assortment of restaurants that rival any town in North America. -more-
If you’ve driven around California, you’ll no doubt have seen the ubiquitous signs that grace the entrance to various cities, directing you to the historic district (often downtown) or what’s left of it. Berkeley has no such sign—probably because it’s preserved more of its historic heritage than most cities, and because our landmarks aren’t confined to one area but can be found all over town. -more-
At first blush one would think of Berkeley as a Mecca for vegetarian eateries. But, alas, free speech and soy protein do not always go hand-in-hand. -more-
Despite grant funding drying up and the competition of movies, video and other cheaper, often in-the-home competition, live theater performance continues to thrive, even spill over in the Bay Area—and Berkeley is no exception. -more-
Most adults know that being a high school student isn’t easy. However, many would be surprised to learn that the vast majority of teenagers are becoming depressed and losing sleep over problems that are much less superficial than fashion or the high scho ol social scene. -more-
For those of us who have spent a substantial part of our lives in or near educational institutions—and that’s most of us in Greater Berkeley—the approach of September always feels like the real New Year. Even for small children it’s the chance to start over again and to get it right this time. Over the weekend we attended a small gathering marking the tenth anniversary of the deaths of Page and Eloise Smith, who 40 years ago spearheaded some significant attempts to get education right. -more-
This issue of the Berkeley Daily Planet contains the second of two special “Back to Berkeley” pullout magazine sections. Like the first one (which is still being distributed around town as well) it’s full of insider tips from local residents on how students and other newcomers can make the most of their Berkeley experience. For those of you who can’t find a copy of Part One, we’ll just repeat a bit of what we said earlier. The Planet is the publication for what we call Greater Berkeley: people who live in Berkeley, but also people who work in Berkeley, shop in Berkeley, go to school in Berkeley, or even just wish that they lived, worked or shopped in Berkeley. We believe that Berkeley is a state of mind which has expansive boundaries. Those of us who are lifers here are happy to welcome most of the new faces we see every August. -more-
