It was almost 11 a.m. on Wednesday and Tony Lacayo, seated in a van on Hearst Avenue, hadn’t received a single call from someone needing workers. -more-
More than a hundred adults and uncountable children braved the elements to attend the 11th Annual Youth Arts Festival at the Berkeley Arts Center at 1275 Walnut St. in north Berkeley Wednesday evening. -more-
Under pressure from activists this week, Emeryville pulled out of a high-profile legal fight pitting over 200 American cities against disability rights advocates in a battle over sidewalk accessibility. -more-
Former news director at the old Jive 95 radio station, KSAN, and later at KFOG, Wes “Scoop” Nisker, will speak at Cody’s Books on Telegraph Avenue Monday evening to discuss his new book, “Big Bang, The Buddha and The Baby Boom: The Spiritual Experiments of My Generation.” -more-
The stated purpose of the war in Iraq was to defend the United States from Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. Thus far no weapons have been found. Moreover, according to United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix and two top Iraqi scientists who have given themselves up, there are none of any significance to be found. -more-
Despite stiff warnings from the Department of State, and increasingly hostile rhetoric from the Bush Administration, a group of city employees and a former city council member leave for Iran today to deliver 1,200 badly needed wheelchairs. -more-
As individuals struggle with personal finances and businesses ponder their bottom lines, state and local governments face budget deficits of historic proportions. Over seven million Californians, about one in five, have no health insurance whatsoever. Many others are underinsured. Hospitals and health plans are closing and merging, making access to health care more difficult. The cost of health care continues to explode. -more-
For most of her life Alanna Baeks, a junior at Berkeley High School, has been told all she needed to do to get her diploma is accumulate the necessary course credits and eke out a C-minus average. Now she isn’t sure she’ll graduate, even though she’s taking the required classes and making reasonable grades. -more-
Write a letter of support to State Senator Sheila Kuhl for SB 921—Health Care for All Californians Act, scheduled for a hearing before the Senate Insurance Committee, at 9 AM on April 30. The more letters of support she receives, the better the chances of the bill passing. Local co-sponsors are Don Perata, Wilma Chen and Loni Hancock. -more-
Local scholars met this week to discuss the antiquities looting in Iraq, calling it a devastating blow to the world’s cultural heritage. -more-
If there’s a favorite city program you want to save from next year’s looming budget cuts, the best way to do it is to start making noise, and lots of it, according to the League of Women Voters. -more-
The Wheelchair Foundation was established in 2000 by Bay Area philanthropist Kenneth E. Behring. The goal of the organization is to provide wheelchairs to as many of the estimated 130 million people who need them worldwide. -more-
My editor suggests that a subtext of desperation in my previous columns might be getting a tad repetitious; that any dwelling on our parlous circumstances (War! Coup! Aging!) is perhaps a trifle tiresome. -more-
Due to concerns about severe acute respiratory syndrome, the University of California has suspended education abroad programs to Beijing, China, and ordered students already there to return home immediately. -more-
I was on my way home from school (fourth grade?) when this treeful of dapper little birds stopped me in my tracks. I’d never seen anything like them: backswept crests, black masks, subtly colored brown and yellow plumage with vivid red markings on their wings. They were carrying on in high-pitched sibilant voices, ignoring me completely. -more-
Since 1966, Essex Street in south Berkeley has been home to Bruce Arnold and his phantasmagoric, multicultural front yard sculptures. -more-
Women in Black Vigil, held every Friday from noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph. -more-
“We are challenging the memory that Black Panthers were brutal, the memory that they were violent, and the memory that they were criminal,” said UC Berkeley professor Percy Hintzen at a lecture Sunday. -more-
Frank Rich, the longtime New York Times drama critic, couldn’t seem to find anything good to say about Harry Kondoleon’s “The Vampires” when it appeared 14 years ago in New York. Judging by the production of Shotgun Players that opened Saturday night at La Val’s Subterranean, it looks as if Rich was just having a bad night. -more-
Among Berkeley’s few remaining original downtown residences is the John M. Doyle House, located at 2008 University Avenue. It was built as a duplex with a workshop in 1890; the storefront facade was added in 1947, but the Victorian house has remained in the rear. -more-
TUESDAY, APRIL 15
City Council’s effort to rename a major Berkeley street in honor of labor leader Cesar Chavez may be headed for a bump in the road. -more-
Pinball machines, beer and pizza stand guard while below, in the dungeon of La Val’s Pizza Parlor on Euclid Avenue, Berkeley’s 10-year-old phenomenon, The Shotgun Players, launch their latest theatrical offering: Harry Kondoleon’s “The Vampires.” -more-
The following letter was sent to Chancellor Robert Berdahl in response to a protest held April 9 at UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza: -more-
As the world watched, spellbound, the spectacle of massive looting in the cities of Iraq, the tragedy proved particularly wrenching for those whose lives have been devoted to the study of the ancient land considered the cradle of Western culture. Hardest to bear were scenes of looting at Baghdad’s Iraqi National Museum, until Friday home to one of the world’s greatest collections of antiquities. -more-
Nothing could be more indicative of America’s innocence abroad than the outraged statement by one of the officers in Operation Iraqi Freedom. -more-
A woman walking her dog along the Point Isabel Shoreline in Richmond Monday discovered the decomposed body of a woman at water’s edge, about a mile from where the body of a full-term male fetus was found the day before. -more-
On April 18, I and other stunned neighbors from the Benvenue and Willard neighborhoods watched in dismay as eight members of City Council voted swiftly and mercilessly to destroy a fine old apartment building at 2500 Benvenue Ave. at Dwight Way. This building is just one part of the expansion plans of the American Baptist Seminary of the West. However, much to the community’s relief, the council also voted 6-2-1 to require an Environmental Impact Report (ERI) for another part of the project, a proposed massive new building slated to replace two historic homes. The purpose of the entire project is in question, since the seminary has only 40 full-time students and currently rents half its space to UC Extension. -more-
It’s a classic switcheroo — a four-way building swap that is leaving West Berkeley residents a little dizzy. -more-
Dozens of new banners honoring UC Berkeley’s 18 Nobel Laureates were installed along Telegraph Avenue last week to promote the area as a center for ideas. -more-
A few weeks after 9/11, I hung an American flag in the upstairs bedroom window of our home. It stayed there for almost 16 months, fading in the sunlight that faces Dover Street. -more-
A group of teachers and parents at Jefferson Elementary School are pushing to rename the building, citing concerns with Thomas Jefferson’s slaveholding past. But critics, including some parents, call the move shortsighted. -more-
