The “Arnieville Sleepout” ended today with a celebration of what the participants had already achieved—publicity about budget cuts which threaten the survival of disabled citizens who depend on state support. It was named for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, in the tradition of the Hoovervilles which sprung up around the United States during the Great Depression. -more-

In the news today: Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates and some councilmembers show support for the Measure C pools bond by jumping into a swimming pool, the East Bay Humane Society continues to receive an outpouring of donations and Japanese American Internment survivors receive honorary degrees at UC Berkeley. -more-

President Obama has arrived at San Francisco International Airport for a two-day visit to the Bay Area. -more-

After hearing presentations and public comments at its regular meeting of May 20, 2010, the City of Berkeley’s Design Review Commission gave alternate buffets and praise to a revised design for the North Shattuck Safeway and expressed considerable concern about aspects of a housing development proposed adjacent to the historic Berkeley City Club on Durant Avenue. -more-

BERKELEY, Calif., May 21, 2010 - Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society (BEBHS) suffered a tragic fire during the early morning hours of May 20, 2010, which destroyed much of the building. Although the majority of animals were rescued through swift action by BEBHS staff and volunteers and the Berkeley Fire Department, both the adoption offices and the hospital are now closed due to lack of water and electricity. It is not clear when the organization will be able to resume normal shelter and hospital operations. The Board of Directors and staff are currently developing a comprehensive recovery plan. -more-

On Friday, May 7, 2010 there was a UC Berkeley staff forum on the University budget organized by the Berkeley Staff Assembly. -more-

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This is a letter Library Users Association sent to the Planning Commission expressing concern about the Berkeley Public Library's product and process for carrying out branch library renovations under Measure FF and the consequent concerns about granting the Library special exemptions from the customary scrutiny that its current and future building projects would undergo: -more-

The Berkeley Planning Commission’s usual majority resorted to skullduggery on May 19. They had to, to override the opposition. The only interest groups on their side are realtors and big-property-owning developers. They have money but not many votes. The opposition are a large group of active residents, the Ecology Center, the Sierra Club, the industrial interest group WEBAIC and various of its members, and the Northern California Recycling Association. The votes may be on the opposition’s side, and the city may get the chance to see if they are. -more-

Here is a little clip of some of the protest outside the Helios construction site.
Mainly I got Michael Delacour speaking.
Michael talks about his experiences working as a welder in the oil industry—about unions, and how that the rig that went up in the gulf was not a union rig. -more-

It was with quite some shock that we learned in the press today that incoming freshman for the class of 2014 in the College of Letters and Science will be sent a swab with which to send in a DNA sample. Your website announcement of the program states “(T)he information Berkeley students will glean from their genetic analysis can only lead to positive outcomes.” This is a woefully naïve. The information produced by these tests, even for ostensibly benign purposes, has the risk of increasingly being used out of context in ways that are contrary to the interests of the individual, perhaps even discriminatory and certainly privacy invasive. Having worked for many years on passing the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) I am keenly aware of the number of entities, from pharmaceutical companies wanting to target their marketing to banks and life insurance companies that want to use such information to discriminate, that are actively seeking this information. Many of these uses remain unprotected and unregulated; such testing should not be taken lightly. -more-

Every transit agency in the Bay Area, and beyond, is hurting financially, but AC Transit has more financial resources than many, so if there had been good stewardship of their funds, they may have had to cut some service, but not to the bone. At a recent Financial and Audit Committee meeting they recognized it was to the bone and said after the presently slated cuts, there would be no more in the foreseeable future. -more-

On June 8th you will be asked to vote on Measure C to provide funds to construct, repair and maintain Berkeley’s four public pools – a therapeutic warm water pool to be built at West Campus, repair of the existing West Campus and Willard pools, and repair and expand the King Middle School pool. I’m voting yes on Measure C, and writing this because many people have asked me why. -more-

Recently the U.S. and Iran have been engaged in an intense battle that involves both diplomacy and sanctions. On May 17, 2010 Iran announced a deal that would have Iran ship low-enriched uranium to Turkey in return for higher-enriched nuclear fuel for a medical research reactor. The announcement of the deal was intended by Iran to deter Russia and China from reaching an accord with the U.S. imposing tougher U.N. sanctions against Iran. -more-

When 9/11 occurred, the TV stations played the images of the planes hitting the towers for hours and days, thereby showing it to lots of people, since they couldn't explain it, no one from the government had yet delivered misinformation.The event then sank into the eyes and minds of the watchers as an actual event not a construction of Hollywood. A true disaster has to stay around. How? By repetition. -more-

In a stunning move that targets the poor, the Obama Administration is pushing hard to privatize our nations 1.2 million public housing units, in addition to proposing a radical change to the way 13 major federal subsidized housing programs including the Section 8 voucher program, are being funded by congress. -more-

As everyone certainly knows, government, families and individuals are facing catastrophic loss of assets and income, a situation deemed by most experts as the most serious since the Great Depression. There is no sure end in sight and there is a reasonable chance that the situation could even worsen. -more-

How to report the news continues to be a question. Today (Friday) we’ve been flooded with interesting press releases, and even with Riya’s help I can’t possibly re-write them all to appear that we did original reporting to dig up the information. And besides, I’m thoroughly bored with that technique, a staple of conventional reporting in the many years since I started as a journalist. So what I’ve done instead, thanks to the magic of modern word processing, is simply to swallow them whole: to post full releases, and rely on the good sense of the readers to ignore any hype the senders might have added. -more-

Looking for something entertaining to do on Memorial Day this year? How about attending at least a hundred garage sales? -more-

Here's a book about the right you don't have to read, because Jenny Diski deftly disembowels it in the London Review of Books. -more-

Trying to sort out the tides and cross currents sweeping across Central Asia in the aftermath of the March revolution in Kyrgyzstan is to revisit the politics of 6th Century Constantinople that led to the adjective “Byzantine.” -more-

It’s fortunate for President Obama that domestic events swamp international concerns because most voters don’t care about what happens in countries other than Iraq and Afghanistan. For those of us who do, Obama’s foreign policy stances often bewilder both the left and right – they are the international equivalent of the Third Way domestic policies of the Clinton Administration. -more-

The word "scrip" may be unfamiliar; it is sometimes heard as "script". The noun scrip refers to a temporary substitute for currency. Scrips originated as payment of employees and where regular money was unavailable, such as remote coal towns and occupied countries in war time. Some communities provide discounted coupons or vouchers, referred to as taxi scrip, for registered persons who are unable to access regular transit. -more-

Pay your last respects.Say your farewells. A strange gem yet dog yet gem of a building is departing downtown Berkeley, once and for all.Demolition is well under way. -more-

If you've lived in London for extended periods of time, as I have, you know that the British are slavishly addicted to tea. How they do love their tea! It starts at breakfast (God forbid you should ask for coffee!) and continues throughout the day -- midmorning, lunch, early afternoon and then high tea. Now high tea, if you don't know, is something special, one you might enjoy at Harrod's or Selfridges Department Stores. There you're served from a two-tiered tray with dainty cucumber and watercress sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam, and, of course, a large pot of tea. Servings are small, mind you, so one often goes away a bit hungry. (At this point I think longingly of a Carl's Jr. Whopper.) -more-

It’s a simple tale with a poignant, comedic story line (just like a dog!): NYC middle-aged, upper-middle-class, work-disgruntled shlub meets stray dog in the park and brings her home.Wife—who is filling her empty nest with teaching Shakespeare to inner-city children and relishing her freedom—does not like this mutt, and, not without reason, views her as a rival for her husband’s affections. -more-

Hey! You may be living in a Golden Age of Theatre right here in Berkeley! Wake up and go buy a ticket! -more-

During radio's golden age, there was a surfeit of mysterious men who stalked the airwaves. The Shadow clouded men's minds as he battled big-city crime; the macabre punster Raymond opened a creaking door to reveal each chilling tale from the Inner Sanctum; and every week The Mysterious Traveler invited listeners to "journey into the strange and terrifying." -more-

Larry Reed with his Shadowlight Productions has spent decades expanding on the art of shadow puppetry, which he learned in Bali, with techniques from cinematography (which he studied at the SF Art Institute), live music and stories from cultures all over the world, and an international cast of collaborators. Shadowlight shows always have a new wrinkle, using projections, live actors in specially-made masks as shadow actors. This weekend only, at Cowell Theater in San Francisco's Fort Mason, Shadowlight presents THE GOOD-FOR-NOTHING LOVER, from a Ming Dynasty folk song cycle, as translated by Beat Era San Francisco Poets C. H. Kwock and Vincent McHugh, with live music (on stand-up bass and Guo Qin, fretless zither), modern and traditional dance, singing and dialogue in Chinese and English, calligraphy and Abstract Expressionism ("Action Painting")--and a new fluid, experimental storytelling theatrical form, by an international troupe, from a company that never stops experimenting. -more-

On an expressionistic set by Lisa Clark that seems poised to feature THE SNOW QUEEN, a talkative, dysfunctional family plays out what would be a whimsical, if tortuous, opera comique of words, words, words—the vernacular, ever in flux--with attendant ballet, if the occasion wasn't the drowning of a son, with the verbal upshot from grotesque strangers and fantasy figures spiraling around other lost boys ... -more-