Today two-term Berkeley City Councilmember and longtime community leader Jesse Arreguin announced he will be a candidate for Berkeley Mayor in the November 2016 election. Councilmember Arreguin launched his candidacy with an email to supporters this morning and with a new campaign website at www.Jesse.vote.

“We need a Berkeley that works for everyone,” said Councilmember Arreguin. “That’s why I’m running for Mayor. As I’ve done on the City Council and throughout my career, I’ll bring our city together and get results, so Berkeley moves forward and carries on our tradition of strong progressive leadership.”

Arreguin cited the affordability crisis as the number one challenge facing the next Mayor. -more-

In the wake of the tragic balcony collapse at 2020 Kittredge Street in Berkeley that claimed the lives of six people, the California State Building Standards Commission, which has authority over all state building codes, is considering changes to strengthen standards for balconies and other exterior elevated elements. -more-

A motorcyclist was killed when he rear-ended a minivan on Interstate Highway 80 in Berkeley this morning, according to the California Highway Patrol. -more-

I have a couch that I want out of my apartment.

It's not the best couch, it's kinda ugly and a bit weathered down. Needs a makeover of sorts. Not gonna lie: it's kind of not the greatest couch. Kept it for so long because of sentimental (though mostly financial) reasons, but absolutely ready to let it go as much as it (doesn't) pain me. -more-

One of the most secretive military campaigns in U.S. history has come under intense scrutiny by investigative reporters of the Intercept who recently published its report, “The Drone Papers”

The White House assassination program commenced in 2002 with the drone strike that killed six civilians in Yemen including one US citizen. Condoleezza Rice, a senior advisor to President George Bush alleged that the White House reserved the right to assassinate anyone in the world based on actionable intelligence “that the president could never reveal in public”. Thus, nobody could ever be held accountable - how convenient! Under the Obama administration, drone attacks in Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan have intensified with hundreds of civilians, including many children, being blown apart – using highly faulty intelligence as the Intercept report revealed. -more-

By refusing to pass paid sick leave legislation for working people, the majority of the Berkeley City Council have been jeopardizing your health. Many low income workers, who cannot afford to lose any pay, feel compelled to come to work sick. Whether customers are exposed to a sick waiter or waitress, eat from dishes set by a sick employee, or eat the food prepared by an ill cook, customers are unknowingly endangering themselves by being exposed to contagious diseases. -more-

Jeffrey Sterling is the first African-American case officer to file a suit against the CIA for racial discrimination. The CIA countered with its own suit charging Sterling with nine felony counts including espionage. They accused Sterling of passing on details of a botched up CIA effort to derail the Iran nuclear program to James Risen of the New York Times. Risen reported that the CIA details may have actually aided the Iranian government nuclear program and stubbornly refused to reveal his source. The CIA counter-suit appears to have little to do with protecting national security but more to do with punishing Sterling for filing his discrimination suit. Sterling’s case is the subject of the documentary short, ‘The Invisible Man’. -more-

It is very important for members of Congress to recognize that the speaker has a difficult job. A good speaker must have the capacity to unite its members behind legislation that will be good for the nation. But we have had a divided congress for the past many years and the speaker could not get the members of his own party to agree. It may be a lesson for the person will put on former speaker John Boehner's hat. -more-

George Stickle Oram, Berkeley, California, died on Saturday October 3rd. He was just three weeks shy of his 80th birthday.

My dad was a big man with a big heart. It was probably the muscle he exercised the most often. Those who knew him well could recount many stories in which he took a chance on a person or a place and threw his entire trust into that endeavor because his heart told him to do it. When describing him to friends, I say he’s like Forrest Gump. He lived a long life and was around for a number of pretty remarkable things. He is going to be severely missed by his family, friends, and the large community that grew around him. -more-

Alameda Sounds a Lot Like Berkeley

Comment Deadline on Delta Tunnel Plan is October 30

The NorthEast Berkeley Association knows where all the Berkeley bodies are buried. -more-

If someone is stuck in a delusional system or otherwise psychotic, or is in a severe manic or depressed state, it is too much to ask, if you are expecting them to come out of it, medicated or not, if their environment is adverse. -more-

As Turkey gears up for one of the most important elections in its recent history, the country appears, as one analyst noted, to be coming apart at the “seams”: -more-

The latest Huffington Post Poll of Polls estimates that three “outsider” Republican presidential candidates (Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, and Donald Trump) account for more than 50 percent of primary votes. We’re witnessing a civil war within the GOP. Is this the end of the Republican Party? -more-

Opens October 30 at the Landmark Shattuck Cinemas

Taking in Jafar Panahi's relaxed manner and sweetly smiling face, you wouldn't judge him to be an enemy of the state. You might not take him to be a world famous film director, writer and producer either. The truth is, Panahi is Iran's most renown film artist. The rest of the truth is deeply ironic: most Iranians have never seen his work. It's been banned.

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This week, on Wednesday, Oct. 28, Le Bateau Ivre welcomes The Dazzling Divas. -more-

Free Concert on Sunday

On their first Main Stage program of the season, concertmaster Robin Sharp takes center stage to perform Leonard Bernstein's 1954 Serenade, inspired by Plato's famous symposium on the nature of love. An earlier experiment in sound and color was Claude Debussy's 1904 Danses Sacrée et Profane, written for harp and strings. Three short, captivating works for multiple percussionists round out this wide-ranging program.

Benjamin Simon, conductor, Robin Sharp, violin, Meredith Clark, harp

Sunsay, Oct 25, 3pm @ First Congregational Church, Berkeley -more-

Opens October 23 at the Century 9 and Sundance Kabuki in SF

Opens October 30 at the Shattuck Landmark in Berkeley

As if Jeb Bush didn't have enough to worry about, Sony Pictures has started airing TV commercials reminding America that his brother, W, "may have gone AWOL from the military," "He never even showed up." The ads are promoting a new movie called Truth that examines how George W. evaded serving in Vietnam and how a CBS exposé wound up taking down the most respected journalist in America.

Screenwriter and first-time director James Vanderbilt signals his intensions from the first scene: Get ready for some intense verbal clashes in a high-stakes clash between political power and the First Amendment. The film starts with a combative meeting between embattled 60 Minutes producer Mary Mapes (Cate Blanchett) and her attorney. Blanchett quickly gets ticked off and angrily pops a Xanax. It's a Blue Jasmine moment. Like her Oscar-winning performance in Woody Allen's 2014 film, this is Blanchett in another rip-roaring, pedal-to-the-metal, emotional road-race. Robert Redford (as iconic CBS anchor Dan Rather) is just along for the ride.

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Celebrating their 20^th Anniversary as a group, the Cypress String Quartet opened their 2015-16 season with two concerts at Berkeley’s Maybeck Recital Hall in their salon series. The first concert, on Friday, October 16, featured String Quartet No. 6 by George Tsontakis and Beethoven’s majestic Op. 130 Quartet, which latter was performed with its original finale, Die Große Fugue. For the second concert, which I attended on Friday, October 23, Beethoven’s Op. 18, No. 1 Quartet replaced the Tsontakis and was followed after intermission by the Op. 130 Quartet. -more-