The Week

Pacific Steel Casting General Manager Joe Emmerichs defended the company against charges the foundry was polluting West Berkeley with toxins.
          
          photo by Richard Brenneman
Pacific Steel Casting General Manager Joe Emmerichs defended the company against charges the foundry was polluting West Berkeley with toxins. photo by Richard Brenneman
 

News

Pacific Steel Health Hearing Packs Center

By Richard Brenneman
Friday January 11, 2008

Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates and City Councilmember Linda Maio vowed Wednesday night to reopen Pacific Steel Casting’s use permit to force action on odors emanating from the company’s West Berkeley plant. -more-


Crucial State Propositions Fill February Ballot

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday January 11, 2008

The Democratic and Repub-lican Presidential primaries will dominate media coverage for the Feb. 5 California elections, now less than a month away, but several important state propositions are on the ballot as well. -more-


Four Ballot Issues Comprise Referendum On Native American Gaming Expansion

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday January 11, 2008

Four propositions on the Feb. 5 California Presidential Primary ballot—Propositions 94, 95, 96, 97—all deal with identical issues, attempts by citizen groups to overturn recent amendments to gambling compacts between the administration of Governor Ar-nold Schwarzenegger and four individual Native American tribes. -more-


Compromise May Arise in Oakland Affordable Housing Debate

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday January 11, 2008

For the first time since the issuance of the Blue Ribbon Affordable Housing Commis-sion’s report last year on inclusionary zoning and condominium conversion, Oakland City Coun-cil’s Community & Economic Development Committee met this week to try to resolve the year-long deadlock over the two issues. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Friday January 11, 2008

FRIDAY, JAN. 11 -more-


Rebecca’s Books Opens on Adeline St.

By KEN BULLOCK Special to the Planet
Friday January 11, 2008

When Rebecca’s Books, specializing in poetry, opened Oct. 27 at 3268 Adeline Ave. in South Berkeley, the Morning Star Choir came up from the Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church in Los Angeles to sing. -more-


Worker, Customers Capture Suspect in Bank Rampage

By Richard Brenneman
Friday January 11, 2008

Customers and bank employees, aided by a passerby, captured a Berkeley man after he ransacked a San Pablo Avenue bank Monday, attacked two employees with a knife and beat an assistant manager with a telephone. -more-


Man Gets 56 Years for Attempted Murder of Police Officer

Bay City News
Friday January 11, 2008

A Berkeley man with a long criminal record was sentenced Thursday to 56 years in state prison for attempting to murder Berkeley police Officer Darren Kacalek nearly three years ago by shooting at him at least five times. -more-


Court Hears Arguments UC Suit

By Richard Brenneman
Friday January 11, 2008

The courtroom battle over UC Berkeley’s stadium area projects has taken a new twist—arguments over whether or not a judge should gather critical new evidence. -more-


Fire Department Log

Friday January 11, 2008

Fire Chars Grocery, Smog Shop -more-


Solutions to Oakland’s Crime and Violence

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday January 11, 2008

It is perfectly understandable why many citizens in Oakland have not waited to see if the pending Oakland police reorganization makes any changes in the problems of violence and crime in the city. Instead--almost as if the city’s police arbitration victory never happened and Chief Tucker’s reorganization plans were never announced--there have been continued loud cries from many neighborhoods that something must be done about the crime problem, including hiring more police. -more-


Letters to the Editor

Friday January 11, 2008

PERILS -more-


Commentary: KPFA Election Violated Rules and Bylaws

By THE COMMITTEE ON FAIR ELECTIONS
Friday January 11, 2008

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Daily Planet extended an invitation to the Concerned Listeners' group to submit a commentary regarding the KPFA Local Station Board election which would have run alongside this one, with both sides then invited to comment on the other in a later edition. Concerned Listeners did not respond. -more-


Commentary: Tales of Two School Districts’ Approaches to New Fields

By Ann Lehman
Friday January 11, 2008

Albany Unified School District and San Jose Unified School District have both recently gone through a lengthy process to redesign their high school fields. Albany, a small school district with one high school, attempted to develop its high school field, located in neighboring El Cerrito, also a different county. San Jose developed five high school fields all located in San Jose. Both districts planned on putting lights in fields that had previously been unlit at night, causing neighbors to be concerned about increased disruptions to their lives and homes. Each district needed to go through a legal process, producing an environmental impact report for the project. Albany’s process ended up in a very contentious neighborhood battle, which is currently in litigation with neighbors and the nearby City of El Cerrito; no one is happy, not the school board, not the students, not their families, nor the neighbors or the community. San Jose ended up with a relatively smooth process where most folks seemed satisfied with the process and can accept the results. Why this difference? -more-


Veterans Writing Group Fundraiser Sunday

By Ken Bullock
Friday January 11, 2008

Author Maxine Hong Kingston, an Oakland resident and UC Berkeley teacher, will appear with members of the Veterans Writing Group she helped found in 1993 on Sunday at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists as a benefit reading for the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. -more-


‘Running with Arnold’

Friday January 11, 2008

Say what you will about the quality of his achievements, from the silver screen to the governor’s mansion, there’s no doubting the ambition of Arnold Schwarzenegger. -more-


Arts Calendar

Friday January 11, 2008

FRIDAY, JAN. 11 -more-


Grocer-Politician Fred Koerber Left a Double Legacy

By Daniella Thompson
Friday January 11, 2008

The grocery business used to be a very lucrative one in the early days of the 20th century. Some East Bay retail grocers amassed considerable wealth, not to mention social prestige. Stephen J. Sill was one of them (his store building, designed by James Plachek, still stands at 2145 University Ave., now occupied by Berkeley Ace Hardware). Another was Frederick Charles Koerber (1876–1953), who owned several grocery stores in Oakland and Berkeley before branching into real-estate development, mortgage banking, and municipal politics. -more-


More than a Walk in the Woods: Woodland Gardening

By Ron Sullivan
Friday January 11, 2008

On Boxing Day we took a stroll with friends through the Blake Estate gardens. Allen had had the very good idea to go there; the place was devoid of humans except for brief walk-ons—one groundskeeper with a wheelbarrow, one woman with a dog—and the four of us. -more-


Being Your Own General Contractor

By Matt Cantor
Friday January 11, 2008

A woman I’ve been working with is toying with the notion of being her own general contractor on a rather large remodel she doing here in the Berkeley Hills. I have to admit that when she first told me this, I blanched a bit. I know what it means to do this job and it’s so much more than most people think that it was hard not to start shaking my finger at her right there and then. -more-


Storm Leads to Fatal Fire, Flooded Streets

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday January 08, 2008

A power outage caused by the heavy storm that swept through Northern California led to a Saturday morning fire that claimed the life of a Berkeley man. -more-


Oakland Development Issues Continue Into 2008

By J. Douglas Allen Taylor
Tuesday January 08, 2008

While no one knows everything the new year will bring, there are at least two major Oakland development issues and controversies we know are coming up, unresolved in the old year and therefore carried over to the new. -more-


Stabbing Victim Berkeley’s First Murder of Year

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday January 08, 2008

Berkeley logged what may be the first murder of the year when a 44-year-old man died Thursday at Highland Hospital, 12 days after he was stabbed outside an Adeline Street bar. -more-


Bayer Leasing Agreement Worries West Berkeley’s Alliance Graphics

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday January 08, 2008

Bayer’s plans to close a parking lot used by artists and clients of West Berkeley’s Sawtooth Build-ing follow the company’s lease of an adjacent building. -more-


Locals Stump for Iowa Caucus Campaigns

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday January 08, 2008

What would it take to get Bay Area folk to trudge through Iowa snow in the heart of winter? -more-


Remembering Louis Flynn, Pillar of East Bay Theater

Tuesday January 08, 2008

Actor, director, playwright, and pillar of the East Bay’s vibrant community theater scene for half a century, Louis Flynn is dead at the age of 86. Few individuals have touched so many others through the arts—not only participants in theatrical productions and other programs, but audience members as well. Flynn, or “Louie” as he was known affectionately to generations of theater people onstage, in the front of the house, and behind the scenes, died in El Cerrito on Jan. 4 following a brief illness. -more-


Open House for Middle-Eastern Studies Series at Berkeley City Club

Tuesday January 08, 2008

Horizon Studies, a lifelong-learning institute at the Berkeley City Club, will be offering two six-week classes that give historical background on Islam and the volatile situation in the Middle-East: “The Spirit of Islam: Past and Present" and "Iran and the U.S.—An Anthropological Perspective.” -more-


Opinion

Editorials

Handicapping the Front-Runners

By Becky O’Malley
Friday January 11, 2008

Comments based on the meager amount of hard data emerging from the Iowa and New Hampshire Democratic primaries have offered a lot of speculation but few facts. This is primarily because the commentators, as they themselves will tell you, prefer to report the horse race (“as they come around the bend, Obama is gaining on the left...”) rather than the track statistics which experienced bettors actually use. Or at least that’s the theory. -more-


Editorial: All Change Is Not Progress

By Becky O’Malley
Tuesday January 08, 2008

Despite my announced official position on the race for the Democratic nomination for president—that I’m happy to let those who care passionately decide who it will be—I occasionally sneak a peek at the campaign propaganda. Watching the thrust and counter-thrust in the battle of slogans, and how the press reports on it, you can get a pretty good picture of what Americans care about, or at least what the people in power or aspiring to power hope they care about. -more-


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Tuesday January 08, 2008

KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN -more-


Commentary: Recall Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates

By Julie Dickinson
Tuesday January 08, 2008

In December a recall petition was begun against Mayor Tom Bates of Berkeley. -more-


Commentary: Jane Brunner—The Teflon Incumbent

By Robert Brokl
Tuesday January 08, 2008

When Jane Brunner ran against then-Planning Commissioner Peter Smith in 1996 for the Dist. 1 (North Oakland) open seat vacated by Sheila Jordan, one of her most pointed criticisms of Smith was his “ambition.” She charged that Smith, whose father worked on disarmament issues in the Clinton administration, would use the council seat as a stepping stone to higher office, such as Congress. -more-


First Person: Living in the Last Days of the American Republic

By Marvin Chachere
Tuesday January 08, 2008

Many distinguished scholars agree in general that we are witnessing “the last days of the American Republic.” But, ordinary people don’t need to rely on scholarly insights because the evidence that our republic is failing hits us almost every day, evidence summarized in the record low job approval ratings of both President Bush and Congress. -more-


Columns

Column: The Public Eye: Steroid America

By Bob Burnett
Tuesday January 08, 2008

Throughout 2007 Americans were warned of a looming steroid scandal in major league baseball. Nonetheless, many fans were surprised when Barry Bonds and 88 other players were identified as steroid users in the Mitchell Report. Sadly, indications are this is only the tip of the drug iceberg, as steroids are said to be an issue at all levels of American sports. Recent estimates suggest two to three percent of high school athletes use steroids, a number in the tens of thousands. -more-


Green Neighbors: Going Medieval on the Streets of Berkeley

By Ron Sullivan
Tuesday January 08, 2008

I was at that footsore stage where one’s mind settles fixedly on the goal—getting home and barefoot—but the shrub by the sidewalk stopped me anyway. It looked apple-ish but different; its leaves were longer and larger, and it was bearing fruit I didn’t recognize. It was obviously something in the rose family, but half the fruit-bearing trees I meet are roses: not much of a distinction. -more-


Arts & Events

Arts Calendar

Tuesday January 08, 2008

TUESDAY, JAN. 8 -more-


The Sculpture of Louise Nevelson at the de Young

By Peter Selz, Special to the Planet
Tuesday January 08, 2008

Few sculptors worked in wood in the late 1950s and ‘60s when Louise Nevelson made her great wooden walls. By the time she produced her Sky Cathedral in 1958, which was shown at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, she was 60 years old. -more-


Benny Green Brings Monterey Jazz All-Stars to Zellerbach Hall

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Tuesday January 08, 2008

“I grew up in Berkeley in the 1970s,” said jazz pianist and composer Benny Green, who leads the acclaimed Monterey Jazz Festival All-Star Band this Saturday at Zellerbach Auditorium, after playing the Rio Theatre in Santa Cruz Thursday. “It was a wonderful time to be in Berkeley—which looks a little different these days, but whenever I think of it, I go back in my mind to those days of the post-Flower Child generation.” -more-


Green Neighbors: Going Medieval on the Streets of Berkeley

By Ron Sullivan
Tuesday January 08, 2008

I was at that footsore stage where one’s mind settles fixedly on the goal—getting home and barefoot—but the shrub by the sidewalk stopped me anyway. It looked apple-ish but different; its leaves were longer and larger, and it was bearing fruit I didn’t recognize. It was obviously something in the rose family, but half the fruit-bearing trees I meet are roses: not much of a distinction. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday January 08, 2008

TUESDAY, JAN. 8 -more-