Two people were arrested when police from the University of California at Berkeley and other agencies disbanded the Occupy Cal encampment on the steps of Sproul Hall early today, a university spokesman said. -more-
It appears police in riot gear arrived at the "Occupy Cal" newly established encampment on the University of California at Berkeley campus this morning.
Footage from a livestream video at the campus showed police lined near Sproul Hall around 4 a.m. where Occupy Cal protesters had erected about 15 tents in violation of the university's ban on camping.
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A student who was fatally shot by University of California at Berkeley police on Tuesday after allegedly brandishing a gun appeared to be troubled, university officials said today. -more-
Dozens of protesters have pitched a tent inside a Bank of America branch in downtown San Francisco this afternoon and are refusing to leave.
At about 2:15 p.m., at least 100 protesters rushed into the branch on California Street near Davis Street, taking it over. They stood inside the branch chanting, "We are the 99 percent."
University of California at Berkeley graduate student Elise Youn said one of the aims of the march is to "make the connection" between the business interests of certain UC Regents and their work on the board.
The marchers were focusing on three regents: Richard Blum, chair of Blum Capital Partners; George Marcus, who heads a national commercial real estate brokerage firm; and Monica Lozano, who is a Bank of America board member.
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California State University faculty from throughout the state are pouring in to two of the system's 23 campuses this morning to participate in a one-day strike to protest the cancellation of contractual raises for CSU faculty as tuition increases for CSU students, union officials said. -more-
A commenter on the Daily Cal web site has found a video of Chris Travis, the student who was shot yesterday by UC police for allegedly brandishing a gun in the computer lab at Haas Business School.
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A man who was shot by University of California at Berkeley police after he allegedly brandished a gun at the Haas School of Business on Tuesday has died, university officials said today.
The man, identified by the university as 32-year-old Christopher Nathen Elliot Travis, died Tuesday night at Highland Hospital.
"We're very saddened by this new information," university spokeswoman Claire Holmes said.
Travis was an undergraduate transfer student, according to the university.
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Thousands gathered on Sproul Plaza last night after a day of campus teach-ins and protests to re-ignite the “Occupy UC” movement. The evening “General Assembly” of protesters was preceded by marches through Berkeley that originated on, and returned to, the campus and the arrival of a contingent that had marched from the dispersed Occupy Oakland encampment. -more-
Occupy Cal protesters began setting up tents at Sproul Plaza at the University of California at Berkeley campus again tonight after 88.5 percent of the group's general assembly voted to support the action. -more-
At the latest evacuation of campers Monday from Oakland's Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, the epicenter of Occupy Oakland, a lone protester was able to escape the police evacuation. -more-
Julie Sinai, the long time chief of staff to Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, is resigning to take a job as the new director of Local Government and Community Relations at UC Berkeley. -more-
Shock and Awe is a good description of the mood in the late night hours of last night’s City Council Meeting as a play was made to postpone redistricting until after the November 2012 election. Whether it was a strategy to form two student districts in order to unseat councilmembers Arreguin and Worthingtonm, or an attempt to consolidate two existing districts into one in West Berkeley to leverage development, or some other goal, it was, as Councilmember Worthington stated: “possibly the most thoroughly undemocratic motion ever before Council”. -more-
I’m 70 and on Medicare and Social Security. I still pay-in and I still work. I’m a semi-retired primary care doc now working part time at Alameda County’s Winton Wellness Center. Recently, I’ve spent some hours at the Medic tent at Occupy Oakland. -more-
I am currently on the California State Democratic Party Platform Committee and am chair of the National Security plank. We are in the process of drafting the 2012 platform and I would like to get support for the National Security plank to say that we support reducing the military budget to a level that reflects our true defense requirements, as opposed to a world domination budget – I suggest $200 billion.
Our current projected level of military expenditures for 2012 is $1.03-$1.415 trillion , while the next highest spending county in the world on their military - China - "only" spends about $100B, less than 10% of us. And all other countries are far far less than that, including Russia, at around $50B (still an obscene amount of money but less than 1/20th of what we spend).
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Carol Denney, a frequent contributor to these pages, is fond of saying that the reason the Free Speech Movement took place at the University of California at Berkeley was NOT because free speech flourished on this campus. Quite the contrary: it’s been the tradition at Cal, going way back in pre-history before I was an undergraduate, for arrogant administrators to try to keep the lid on student speech. It could be described as a form of hubris (a ten-dollar word I learned in Cal’s English department): “we’re the top …students are damn lucky to be here…so they should shut up and drive.”
At the University of Michigan, another school I had the opportunity to observe in the 1960s after I graduated from Cal, the bosses took the opposite tack. By and large, they ignored student protests, so there were never any major riots on the part of either students or police. Eventually the more radical students got bored, founded first SDS and then the Weathermen, and went off to tear up Chicago instead, which was much more satisfying—and now like Bill Ayres they’re almost all professors somewhere or other.
But at Cal, as we called it back in the day before the name of the town was appropriated by the university’s PR department, decision-makers have always provided satisfying opposition to student action which has historically stimulated more student action. And the current crop of well-paid administrators is keeping up the tradition. Lots and lots of them, including Chancellor Birgeneau ($428,712.84) who okayed the police action last Wednesday where heads were bashed and stomachs jabbed with batons, are firmly part of the richest 1%, and they have no qualms about asserting their power over impecunious and mouthy students because of it.
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The Budget Control Act of 2011created the 12-member, bi-partisan Super Committee with extraordinary powers with the goal of achieving at least $1.5 trillion in budgetary savings over 10 years. What they ultimately decide -- or fail to decide -- by the deadline of November 23, 2011, will shape the economic future of this country for many years to come. Thus, it is important to know the identity of interest groups seeking to influence the Committee members. -more-
Someone once asked the science fiction writer Barry Longyear where his ideas came from. “Schenectady,” he replied. I think he eventually published a book called It Came From Schenectady. The column-writing process is similar. Ron and I recently had an article on the autumnal florescence of garden, AKA pumpkin, spiders in another publication. It drew a fair amount of reader response, one of which could be paraphrased: “If you know so much about spiders, how do birds manage to stand on one leg?” -more-
Around & About Theater: 'Rumi x 7' in Oakland; Beckett's 'Endgame' & 'Watt': Dublin's Gate Theatre in Berkeley; Virago's 'Shoot O'Malley Twice' at Stagewerx -more-
Will Berkeley's Occupy Cal Save the World? 11-16-2011
What Would You Do if You Ran UC Berkeley? Suggestions... 11-14-2011
UC Executive Salaries 11-14-2011
Whose Oakland? (Whose Berkeley?) 11-14-2011
Blogging Occupy Cal 11-10-2011
Cartoon Page: Odd Bodkins By Dan O'Neill 11-16-2011
Shock and Awe: Berkeley Mayor and Councilmembers attempt late-night switch in redistricting plans By Jacquelyn McCormick 11-16-2011
Watch the Berkeley City Council's Discussion of Redistricting Proposals 11-16-2011
To Occupy or Be Occupied---a bird’s eye view By Marc Sapir 11-16-2011
Occupy the Pentagon: Add Your Voice to Reducing the Military Budget By Nick Carlin 11-16-2011
Have Yourself a Slice of Occupy, a ragtime salute By Carol Denney 11-15-2011
Whose Streets? Oakland’s Shadow Government Presses City Hall to End the Occupation by Adrian Drummond-Cole and Darwin Bond-Graham 11-14-2011
Press Release: UC Students Oppose Regents Decision to Cancel November Meeting Darius Kemp, UCSA Communications and Organizing Director 11-14-2011
Exchange of Letters about Occupy Oakland By Rabbi Michael Lerner, Jordan Ashe 11-14-2011
Call for Open University Strike and Solidarity Actions on November 15th Issued by Occupy Cal 11-14-2011
An Open Letter to Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau from a Madison Mother By Corinne Heath, Madison, Wisconsin 11-12-2011
Labor Activists Issue Urgent Call to Alameda Labor Council for Labor Defense of Occupy Oakland 11-12-2011
An Open Letter To the Berkeley and University Community and Friends of Nonviolence Everywhere Kriss Worthington, Councilmember, City of Berkeley, District 7 11-12-2011
UC Berkeley Policy on Civil Disobedience By James Alnas-Benson 11-12-2011
OPD Turns Off Lights Then Complains About Crime By Steve Leibel 11-12-2011
What Are the Occupy Protestors across the Nation Saying? By Romila Khanna 11-12-2011
Occupying: the UC Experience By Steve Martinot 11-11-2011
Statement on UC Police Violence from Veterans of the 1964 Free Speech Movement Members of the Free Speech Movement Archives (www.FSM-A.com): Bettina Aptheker, Robby Cohen, Susan Druding, Lee Felsenstein, Barbara Garson, Lynne Hollander, Anita Medal, Jack Radey, Gar Smith, Jackie Goldberg and Barbara Stack 11-11-2011
To Oakland City Council: Occupy Group FINALLY Brings Business and Renown to Oakland By Virginia Browning 11-11-2011
About Ted's Position By Thomas Lord 11-09-2011
"Some things never change": Student Protests at UC Berkeley By Jane Stillwater 11-09-2011
Student Non-Violence Succeeds in Berkeley By Gar Smith (Free Speech Movement Veteran) 11-10-2011
Call Yudof and Brown re Occupy Cal By Mary Rose Kaczorowski 11-10-2011
Updated: Two Arrested in Berkeley Raid on Occupy Cal By Jeff Shuttleworth 11-17-2011
"Occupy Cal" Tents Torn Down by UC Berkeley Police-- Arrests Reported By Sasha Lekach (BCM) 11-17-2011
Updated: Police Say Man Fatally Shot by UC Berkeley Police Officer Was "Troubled" By Jeff Shuttleworth (BCN) 11-16-2011
ReFund Education March Takes over Bank of America--UC Berkeley Students Participate, Tents Pitched By Dan McMenamin (BCN) 11-16-2011
Cal State University Faculty on Strike Today ScottMorris 11-17-2011
Student Shot By UC Police Featured in YouTube Video 11-16-2011
Student Fatally Shot by UC Berkeley Police Identified By Jeff Shuttleworth (BCN) 11-16-2011
Thousands Gather on Sproul Plaza, Vote to Continue to "Occupy Cal" at UC Berkeley By Steven Finacom 11-16-2011
After Rally, Protesters Set Up Tents in U.C. Berkeley's Sproul Plaza By Jeff Shuttleworth (BCN) 11-16-2011
Berkeley's Running Wolf Now the Lone Wolf at Frank Ogawa Plaza; The Indian Lore That Empowers Him By Ted Friedman 11-16-2011
Pictures from a Day of Protest By Ted Friedman 11-16-2011
New: Mayor's Chief of Staff Leaves City of Berkeley, Joins UC Berkeley's Community Relations Office 11-17-2011
Flash: U.C. Berkeley Police Shoot Person Alleged to Have A Gun in the Computer Lab at Haas Business School By Becky O'Malley and Bay City News 11-15-2011
Protestors Block Traffic on Bancroft in Berkeley By Jeff Shuttleworth (BCN) 11-15-2011
New: Students to Visit UC Regents' Corporate Offices in San Francisco on Wednesday From Emma Woods 11-15-2011
New: UC Berkeley Students Rally, Teach, March in Support of Occupy Cal Strike By Patricia Decker (BCN)and Planet 11-15-2011
Cal Protestors Announce Lawsuit Against UC Berkeley, Campus Police By Laura Dixon (BCN) 11-14-2011
Press Release: St. Mary's College Student Arrested Wednesday at Occupy Cal Plans to Address Rally Off-Campus in Berkeley Tomorrow From Zack Aslanian-Williams 11-14-2011
Press Release: Police Brutality Doesn't Add Up! Mathematicians Speak Out From Nathan Ilten 11-14-2011
Regents Cancel Meeting Because They Fear Violence By Jeff Shuttleworth (BCN) 11-14-2011
Press Release: Berkeley Students, Faculty to Strike Tomorrow to "Make Banks Pay" to Refund Higher Education, Reject Police Violence Against Peaceful Protestors From Emma Wood 11-14-2011
Oakland Chief: Raid Went Smoothly;
Berkeley's Running Wolf Still in Tree
By Jeff Shuttleworth
11-14-2011
Updated: Oakland Protestors Meeting Tonight By Bay City News 11-14-2011
Police Arrested 32 in Occupy Oakland Raid By Zack Farmer (BCN) 11-14-2011
Mario Savio Memorial Lecture on Tuesday in Berkeley Will Be Moved to Sproul Plaza 11-14-2011
Flash: Police Tear Down Occupy Oakland Encampment, Arrest Protestors--Now Withdrawing from Ogawa Plaza By Scott Morris (BCN) 11-13-2011
Man Killed Near Occupy Oakland Identified, Confirmed as Camp Resident By Sara Gaiser (BCN) 11-13-2011
Oakland Issues 3rd Vacate Notice to Protestors--Police Say Shooting Linked to Camp By Sara Gaiser (BCN) 11-12-2011
On the Ground with the Movement against Mountaintop Removal (Review) By Carol Polsgrove 11-12-2011
Will The Real Occupy Berkeley Please Stand Up? (News Analysis) By Ted Friedman 11-11-2011
UC Berkeley Police Defend Response to "Occupy Cal" Protests By Bay City News 11-11-2011
Veteran's Day In Berkeley: Did You Notice? By Steven Finacom 11-11-2011
Fatal Shooting Near Occupy Oakland Apparently Unconnected By Bay City News 11-10-2011
Updated: Thirty-Nine Protesters Arrested Yesterday at UC Berkeley--Meeting at 6pm Today By Scott Harris (BCN) 11-10-2011
Press Release: City of Berkeley Police did not Participate in Campus Actions re Occupy Cal From Sgt. Mary C. Kusmiss,BPD Public Information Officer 11-10-2011
UC Berkeley Police Remove Tents, Protest Continues By Erika Heidecker (BCN) 11-09-2011
Flash: Video of UC Berkeley Police Beating Up "Occupy" Students By Miles Matthews 11-09-2011
Scenes from a Protest By Ted Friedman 11-10-2011
“Occupy” Protests Come to UC Berkeley Campus By Steven Finacom 11-09-2011
Chronology of a Protest By Steven Finacom 11-10-2011
Creative Cal Tuition Protest Signs By Steven Finacom 11-09-2011
New: Eclectic Rant: Will Contributions Negatively Influence Super Committee? By Ralph E. Stone 11-17-2011
Wild Neighbors: At Least One Leg to Stand On By Joe Eaton 11-16-2011
Eclectic Rant: Thoughts on the Penn State Pedophile Scandal By Ralph E. Stone 11-14-2011
My Commonplace Book (a diary of excerpts copied from printed books, with comments added by the reader.) By Dorothy Bryant 11-14-2011
The Public Eye: Why Occupy Wall Street Won’t Make a Difference By Bob Burnett 11-11-2011
On Mental Illness: Relapses, Big and Small, Revisited By Jack Bragen 11-11-2011
Senior Power: Alone By Helen Rippier Wheeler 11-11-2011
Around and About Theater By Ken Bullock 11-16-2011
Eye From the Aisle: THE CHALK BOY at IMPACT---Go See Four Very Good Actresses By John A. McMullen II 11-14-2011
Don't Miss This after Thanksgiving By Dorothy Snodgrass 11-14-2011
Comprehensive William Keith Art Exhibit At Saint Mary’s By Steven Finacom 11-11-2011
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