Jakob Schiller:
               
              THE NOTES OF SPRING: Brooklyn-born street musician Jeffrey Shackleford plays the trumpet outside the Downtown Berkeley BART station Monday afternoon.w
Jakob Schiller: THE NOTES OF SPRING: Brooklyn-born street musician Jeffrey Shackleford plays the trumpet outside the Downtown Berkeley BART station Monday afternoon.w

Page One

HUD Report Finds Big Problems With City’s Section 8 Program

By MATTHEW ARTZ
Tuesday May 11, 2004

The Berkeley Housing Authority’s Section 8 program is mismanaged, poorly staffed, and on the brink of insolvency, according to a sweeping independent study delivered to BHA board members Friday. -more-



Board Turns Toward A More Moderate BSEP

By MATTHEW ARTZ
Tuesday May 11, 2004

What promises to be the biggest local tax on the November ballot is looking like it will be a little less costly to Berkeley taxpayers. -more-



City Tax Burden Skips UC Properties

By RICHARD BRENNEMAN
Tuesday May 11, 2004

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first of a two-part series. Part two will appear in the May 14 edition. -more-



Remembering Wendell Lipscomb

By JAKOB SCHILLLER
Tuesday May 11, 2004

According to friends and family, Berkeley’s Wendell Ralph Lipscomb was a renaissance man in the true sense of the word. A former instructor for the Tuskegee Airmen, a physician, musician, and teacher, those who knew him best said he was good at whatever he did. -more-



Berkeley This Week Calendar

Tuesday May 11, 2004

TUESDAY, MAY 11 -more-



Features

Briefly Noted

By RICHARD BRENNEMAN
Tuesday May 11, 2004

Planners To Get Hotel Task Force Report -more-


School’s Chicken Pox Dispute Spreads to Health Department

By MATTHEW ARTZ
Tuesday May 11, 2004

Berkeley Arts Magnet Elementary School is learning that despite a new vaccine that promises to one day vanquish the disease from the face of the earth, the chicken pox can still pack a wallop. -more-


School Board Asks Council To Close Block for Derby Field

By MATTHEW ARTZ
Tuesday May 11, 2004

The Berkeley School Board is asking the City Council to step up to the plate and dig up a Berkeley street so that the district can build a new home for the Berkeley High baseball team. -more-


Fire Department Log

By RICHARD BRENNEMAN
Tuesday May 11, 2004

Four Berkeley engine companies battled a blaze fanned by 35-mile-an-hour winds atop Grizzly Peak after Oakland firefighters issued a call for mutual assistance at 10 minutes after midnight Monday morning. -more-


From Susan Parker: Mother’s Greatest Fear: Naked in California

Susan Parker
Tuesday May 11, 2004

My mother thinks that everyone in California runs around naked. It’s one of her theories left over from the ‘60s, when Life Magazine was delivered weekly to our house in New Jersey. In each issue were big photographs of pain and tragedy: train wrecks, car crashes, runaway children, missile crisis, racial strife and a war somewhere across the Pacific. In-between these articles were snippets of life in California: tan surfer girls shopping in bikinis at the grocery store; movie stars in group therapy; common housewives primal screaming; nude people on the Big Sur coast, sitting in hot tubs discussing their feelings; naked folks in communes having sex with one another; hairy kids in the desert doing god knows what without their clothes on. That’s how mother got the idea that everyone in California was naked, including her daughter: Life Magazine told her so. -more-


Letters to the Editor

Tuesday May 11, 2004

STRANGE RINGING -more-


Cars? In Berkeley? Not a Bad Notion!

By Kevin Powell
Tuesday May 11, 2004

A friend of mine just put a new bumper sticker on her car. It says “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention!” When I first saw it, I quipped, “Or, if you are outraged, stop paying attention!” -more-


Kill City Rent Control Panel, Fatten City Coffers, Build Needed Housing

By John Koenigshofer
Tuesday May 11, 2004

As our city struggles with budget shortfalls, one fat sacred cow continues to gorge itself at the public trough. The mayor and the City Council willfully ignore it, tip-toeing around this bloated bovine for fear of awakening a stampede of crushing political correctness. -more-


Reader Aims Satirical Eye at Comparisons Between Sharon’s Plan and Warsaw Ghetto

By PETER KORET
Tuesday May 11, 2004

I am writing in response to the recent letter to the editor in your newspaper (Daily Planet, May 4-6) entitled “Warsaw Ghetto” by Jane Stillwater. I would like to commend her on her particularly clear-sighted comparison between the situation of the Palestinians in Gaza and the state of the Jews in Warsaw prior to the Second World War. She is scathingly accurate in writing that the “independent” Gaza that Ariel Sharon would create would be “an exact re-creation of the spirit and mood of the ghetto at Warsaw—no more, no less,” and that “being an Arab these days is chillingly similar to being a Jew in 1939,” with “the only difference” that she can see being the source of the financing of such genocide. -more-


Renaissance Woman Combines Music and Journalism

By DOROTHY BRYANT Special to the Planet
Tuesday May 11, 2004

She steps out onto the platform, looking about 16—rail thin and pale—flashes a shy smile, and sits down at the piano. Her long, straight red hair cascades over her shoulders as she focuses, placing her hands on the keys, then begins some hesitant modal runs that become buoyant, lively evocations of Irish dance, then—CRASH!—her right forearm smashes down across the treble keys—CRASH!—her left forearm across the bass, right, left, right, relentlessly, and all illusions of timidity and frailty explode into bursts of joy. -more-


Arts Calendar

Tuesday May 11, 2004

TUESDAY, MAY 11 -more-


The Good and the Bad About Alien Eucalyptus

By RON SULLIVAN Special to the Planet
Tuesday May 11, 2004

I never thought I’d find myself writing in defense of eucalyptus, but here I am. Go ahead, quote me: Eucalyptus is not the devil. -more-


The Good and the Bad About Alien Eucalyptus

By RON SULLIVAN Special to the Planet
Tuesday May 11, 2004

I never thought I’d find myself writing in defense of eucalyptus, but here I am. Go ahead, quote me: Eucalyptus is not the devil. -more-


Cartoon

Justin DeFreitas
Tuesday May 11, 2004

Cartoon by Justin DeFreitas* -more-


Editorial

Editorial: The Anti-Boxer Rebellion

Becky O'Malley
Tuesday May 11, 2004

Sunday afternoon was lovely, as Berkeley afternoons in the spring often are, and like another 200 or so lovely Berkeley residents we attended a lovely garden party at a lovely home in one of Berkeley’s loveliest (and most expensive) neighborhoods. The purpose of the event was to raise money for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, and since all of us in Berkeley are pretty smart and know that we’re really at the water’s edge this time, we were all on our very best behavior. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who’s been wintering in Berkeley, gave a stirring speech, complete with convincing pragmatic answers to a few challenging questions about Kerry’s somewhat pallid campaign to date. A pitch was made, with the comment that Marin Republicans has already raised, was it $80k, for Kerry at one party, and couldn’t Berkeley Democrats do as well? Eyeballing the crowd, with some knowledge of the net worth of some attendees from Piedmont, the goal seemed possible. Checks and credit cards were accepted. Everyone went home smiling: a lovely event. -more-


Back Stories

Opinion

Editorials

Editorial: The Anti-Boxer Rebellion 05-11-2004

Editorial: Clash of Titans: Moore vs. Mouse 05-07-2004

News

HUD Report Finds Big Problems With City’s Section 8 Program By MATTHEW ARTZ 05-11-2004

Board Turns Toward A More Moderate BSEP By MATTHEW ARTZ 05-11-2004

City Tax Burden Skips UC Properties By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 05-11-2004

Remembering Wendell Lipscomb By JAKOB SCHILLLER 05-11-2004

Berkeley This Week Calendar 05-11-2004

Briefly Noted By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 05-11-2004

School’s Chicken Pox Dispute Spreads to Health Department By MATTHEW ARTZ 05-11-2004

School Board Asks Council To Close Block for Derby Field By MATTHEW ARTZ 05-11-2004

Fire Department Log By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 05-11-2004

From Susan Parker: Mother’s Greatest Fear: Naked in California Susan Parker 05-11-2004

Letters to the Editor 05-11-2004

Cars? In Berkeley? Not a Bad Notion! By Kevin Powell 05-11-2004

Kill City Rent Control Panel, Fatten City Coffers, Build Needed Housing By John Koenigshofer 05-11-2004

Reader Aims Satirical Eye at Comparisons Between Sharon’s Plan and Warsaw Ghetto By PETER KORET 05-11-2004

Renaissance Woman Combines Music and Journalism By DOROTHY BRYANT Special to the Planet 05-11-2004

Arts Calendar 05-11-2004

The Good and the Bad About Alien Eucalyptus By RON SULLIVAN Special to the Planet 05-11-2004

The Good and the Bad About Alien Eucalyptus By RON SULLIVAN Special to the Planet 05-11-2004

Cartoon Justin DeFreitas 05-11-2004

Residents Say UC Should Slow Growth By MATTHEW ARTZ 05-07-2004

ELP Closes Amid Worker Complaints By MATTHEW ARTZ 05-07-2004

Cal Grad Proposes Touchscreen Alternative By JAKOB SCHILLER 05-07-2004

City Budget Spares Fire Services, Crossing Guards By MATTHEW ARTZ 05-07-2004

Berkeley This Week Calendar 05-07-2004

Nabalom Bakery Collective Struggles to Survive By JAKOB SCHILLER 05-07-2004

PERS Explosion Causes Berkeley Budget Woes By MATTHEW ARTZ 05-07-2004

Police Blotter By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 05-07-2004

UnderCurrents: Representing The America That We Know J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR 05-07-2004

Letters to the Editor 05-07-2004

Ghastly Prison Photos Shred America’s Credibility By Ramona Shashaani 05-07-2004

Fire Station Foes Ignore History, Wildfire Fighting Reality 05-07-2004

Youth Violinist Has Fun On The Way to Excellence By Ben Frandzel Special to the Planet 05-07-2004

Strong Cast, Pizza, Beer Lift up ‘Money and Run’ By BETSY HUNTON Special to the Planet 05-07-2004

Arts Calendar 05-07-2004

Patchwork Wonderpieces Displayed in Library Show By SUSAN PARKER Special to the Planet 05-07-2004

Cartoon Justin DeFreitas 05-07-2004