Opinion

It’s been just about a year since we started gearing up in earnest for the first issue of the new Berkeley Daily Planet. Anniversaries inevitably prompt deep thoughts about the meaning of life. Who are we, why are we here, now, doing this? And increasing ly, in the age of hot media, we think, why a newspaper? My friend the journalism professor, who told me this was going to be a lot of fun, has been here for the week. She taught a class last semester that entailed supervising students putting out one issue of a tabloid, and she is now much more realistic about the amount of work involved. We had dinner with another younger friend who hopes to launch a quarterly magazine, and he’s full of (probably warranted) optimism, typical of the pre-publication mood. -more-

Berkeley’s beleaguered Quarter Meal program got an unexpected boost last week from an unexpected source: $2,500 from the student council at a private middle school in the Berkeley Hills. Quarter Meal supporters, which announced it might close this summer due to funding problems, are expressing optimism that the program can be saved for the balance of the year through help from local community organizations. -more-