An Alameda County Superior Court judge Tuesday dismissed a challenge filed by the conservative Pacific Legal Foundation that threatened to undo Berkeley’s plan for integrating its schools. -more-
On the first anniversary of the bloody waterfront confrontation between Oakland Police and antiwar protesters, officers did their best to stay out of the way of several hundred anti-war protesters—including a large group from Berkeley—who demonstrated Wednesday along the docks of the Port of Oakland. -more-
The Planning Commission’s UC Hotel Task Force’s final public input session Wednesday focused on the project’s likely impact on the downtown business community. -more-
Lawrence McGrew, a Berkeley High football standout who finished his NFL career a Super Bowl champion, died last Friday of a suspected heart attack. He was 46. -more-
Inebriated student sparks campus hazing probe -more-
Recently-circulated reports of a ban on the sale of bio-diesel in California are not true, according to Dave Williamson of the Ecology Center in Berkeley. -more-
SAN PABLO —A hospital that provides the majority of emergency care to West Contra Costa County residents could be shut down unless voters approve Measure D, a $1 per week parcel tax that would fund hospital operations, Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia and West Contra Costa Healthcare District officials said in a news conference on Thursday. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO—A civil lawsuit filed against a Berkeley landlord by four natives of India who claimed they were sexually abused or exploited for cheap labor was settled in federal court in San Francisco on Wednesday just before the start of a trial. -more-
A friend and I were speaking this week about events in Iraq—what else?—and she posed the questions that haunt many Democrats who came of age in the Vietnam war era: If John Kerry wins in November, how does he extricate the country from the Iraqi war? Even under a Kerry presidency, aren’t we looking at months—perhaps even years—of continued American military occupation while the new administration seeks out that elusive “peace with honor”? -more-
As a gray-haired 60-year-old whose activism, such as it is, started with Free Speech Movement sit-ins, I find it ironic to be back to civil disobedience. -more-
When Jon Alff generalizes about Europe based on what he has seen in Bilbao and says that removing parking increases congestion, he is just plain wrong. (Letters, Daily Planet, April 6-8) -more-
Months before Mel Gibson’s picture The Passion of the Christ was even released, the public was counseled by a plethora of spiritual mentors to avoid autonomic assumptions that the Jews were responsible for Christ’s death. Although there is little coherent evidence that has put the issue of culpability to irrefutable rest, there is nothing inductively impossible in the gospels’ telling of the social-political denouement leading to the crucifixion of the Nazarene, Jesus Christ. -more-
Richard Clarke’s recent televised apology during the commission investigating 9/11 was a rarity in public American life. It not often that a high ranking public leader takes responsibility for the failure to protect the American people and for the ultimate disaster of 9/11. The issue, however, goes way beyond 9/11. It speaks about our inability to act humanely and decently in a variety of situations. No one, especially our leaders, wants to be seen as “weak.” Somehow we’ve come to confuse apology with weakness. The myth is that real men and women do not make large and serious mistakes, and that the effort to deal with these errors will only compound the sin. For a variety of reasons the act of apology is taboo. It has been in serious disrepute for as long as we can remember. -more-
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Berkeley Daily Planet extends a hearty welcome to Beyond Chron, (www.beyondchron.org) the Voice of the Rest, a new online publication launched by Randy Shaw, the director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic. His announced goal is to “provide coverage of political and cultural issues often distorted or ignored by the Bay Area’s largest newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle... with a critical look at the cutting edge issues of the day.” The Daily Planet has agreed to provide a newsprint outlet from time to time for interesting articles from Beyond Chron. We are pleased to launch this collaboration with part one of an article on spam blocking by Berkeley resident and technology expert Henry Norr. Part two will appear next week. -more-
No question but that the Shotgun Players are on a roll. Ever since last summer’s terrific production of Mother Courage they’ve been showing their stuff by leaping from one high point to another—all equally fine shows, but extraordinarily different in content and style. -more-
Q. I hired a contractor to remodel my bathroom and expected it to be finished while I was out of town. When I returned, the job was not completed and the contractor keeps stalling. I’m really frustrated. What should I do? -more-
Each no bigger than a poppy seed, a host of minuscule critters lurks in Northern California woodlands, loaded with bacteria capable of inflicting misery on campers, hikers and picnickers who take to the woods this spring. -more-
Mayor Tom Bates has taken the first step in implementing the “most pressing” recommendation of his Task Force on Permits and Development—amending Berkeley’s obscure “ex parte” communications rule. The rule, adopted by the City Council in 1985 and strictly interpreted by City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque, places restrictions on communications with city councilmembers on pending construction developments. Presently, it bans all but written communication outside of a public hearing with councilmembers who are presently deciding—or might possibly decide in the future—on an application or appeal on a pending city development project. -more-
For the second year in a row, the Berkeley High Jazz Band came away as winners of the Monterey Jazz Festival’s Annual National High School Jazz Competition. The event, held last weekend in Monterey, is the premier jazz band competition nation-wide and featured jazz band from across the country. -more-
The stumbling economy has brought good news to Berkeley apartment dwellers. Although hard numbers are difficult to find, it appears that rental rates are dropping in the city at the same time home prices have been tracking upward. -more-
Jakob Schiller
It’s not walking and it’s not biking, but it’s transportation that doesn’t hurt the environment. Many say it’s the newest invention that promises to revolutionize the 21st century. -more-
GALENA, Alaska—The Nuclear Regulatory Commission hasn’t issued a permit for a new commercial nuclear power plant in the United States since the late 1980s, when the technology topped the list of energy industry taboos following the infamous meltdown of the Chernobyl reactor in the U.S.S.R. But if Japan’s Toshiba Corporation has its way, the prototype for a new generation of “micronuclei” power plants will be constructed on a remote stretch of the Yukon River in Alaska before the end of the decade. -more-
On Sunday I attended my friend Jernae’s fourteenth birthday party. It was held at the Martin Luther King Pool, located at Bayview Playground on Third Street in Hunter’s Point. Behind a chain link fence, her mother and relatives had dragged a portable barbecue across a grassy field and cooked up a pile of ribs and wings. They covered a picnic table with enormous square pans filled with potato salad, coleslaw, deviled eggs and macaroni and cheese. Paper plates overflowed with chips and dip, pickles and pork rinds. Coolers sat on the ground, packed with soda pop and ice tea. -more-
Editors, Daily Planet: -more-
Seagate Properties breezed through the Civic Arts Commission recently with a density bonus proposal that should have raised the eyebrows of more than the three commissioners who voted it down. -more-
If you’ve ever used a moisturizer that left your skin feeling soft and smooth instead of greasy, you have Libby Labs, one of West Berkeley’s major light manufacturers, to thank. “We brought that technology into the industry,” says the company’s founder and guiding spirit, 85-year-old Henry (“Hank”) Libby. Today, Libby’s daughter Susan, 56, and son Gordon, 59, run the company, which makes both cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. -more-
The last time bartender Joshua Cluff had to toss people out of the Albatross pub was because they were arguing too loudly about the Iraq war. Last Saturday, the Albatross froze as a woman yelled in triumphant glee, not because the University of Connecticut had made it to the NCAA finals, but because she had just won a game of trivial pursuit on an obscure geography question. At the table to the woman’s right, Liz Guneratne and Tajma Evans sat drinking a flask of wine while their dog Luke munched on popcorn crumbs. -more-
The Ohlone, who were living in the Bay Area when the first Europeans arrived, left only a few scraps of oral tradition to puzzle over. One is a song, or part of a song, that goes: -more-
The most arresting fact so far uncovered in Richard Brenneman’s ongoing series on rental vacancies in Berkeley was this quote from Ted Burton, the city’s Economic Development Project Coordinator: “The last update I had was a year ago, and we were running about 10 percent [commercial] vacancies downtown then.” This is the reason that Berkeley observers of the hectic pace of building projects to which Berkeley has been subjected in the past four years are tempted to call the city’s planning department “The Department of Data-Free Development.” We have no current data showing that we need more commercial space, and in fact our old data shows that we don’t, but let’s just build some anyhow. -more-
No other article in the Daily Planet has produced as much response from readers as our recent article on a child who experiences bullying in a Berkeley public school. Many of the letters were heartfelt reminiscences about the writer’s own childhood struggles with bullies, or were from parents whose children have been bullied. Our piece was written primarily from the perspective of the victim and her anguished parents. Today’s commentary page includes a letter from a Berkeley Unified School District teacher and administrator who is trying to work on ways to solve on-going problems. -more-
