The Week

Jakob Schiller
          Professor Donald Glaser in his classroom on the UC Berkeley Campus?
Jakob Schiller Professor Donald Glaser in his classroom on the UC Berkeley Campus?
 

News

UC Professor Joins 47 Laureates For Kerry

By RICHARD BRENNEMAN
Friday June 25, 2004

“I’m 77 now, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said UCB Professor Donald Glaser. “I’ve never gotten so involved with politics before. I’ve given money to candidates in the past, but this year we’ve stretched ourselves financially.” -more-


Black Math PhD’s Hold UC Meet To Swell Ranks

By JAKOB SCHILLER
Friday June 25, 2004

Kimberly Sellers says that one of her most vivid memories from childhood is of helping her father, every year, track the number of African Americans graduating with doctorates from American universities. She remembers it so well, she says, because the nu mbers were always dismally low, usually in the single digits. -more-


Council Squeezes Unions, Passes Budget

By MATTHEW ARTZ
Friday June 25, 2004

The City Council Tuesday easily adopted a budget that erases Berkeley’s $10.3 million general fund deficit without laying off a single employee. -more-


Businesses Say Ashby Changes Hurt Safety, Sales

By ZELDA BRONSTEINSpecial to the Planet
Friday June 25, 2004

Three West Berkeley businesses say that recent changes in the signage, traffic signals and road striping at three Berkeley intersections—Ashby and 7th, Ashby and 9th and 7th and Murray—have created hazards for drivers and pedestrians and at the same time made it extremely difficult to get to their stores without breaking the law. -more-


Walters Selected As Interim Vista Head

By MATTHEW ARTZ
Friday June 25, 2004

The Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees, still reeling from allegations made by outgoing Vista College President John Garmon that he was ousted by a black racial conspiracy, named a district veteran to replace Garmon on an interim basis. -more-


9/11 Commission Overlooks FBI-Quaeda Coverup

By PETER DALE SCOTT Pacific News Service
Friday June 25, 2004

It is clear that important new evidence about al Qaeda has been gathered and released by the 9/11 Commission. But it is also clear that the commission did nothing when a Justice Department official, in commission testimony last week, brazenly covered up the embarrassing relationship of the FBI to a senior al Qaeda operative, Ali Mohamed. By telling the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to release Mohamed in 1993, the FBI may have contributed to the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kenya five years later. -more-


Governor’s New Prison Chief Faces Trouble At Hearings

By JULIA REYNOLDS Pacific News Service
Friday June 25, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO--She's been called "The Good Jailer" by the New York Times and hailed as a reformer. -more-


Sex, Drugs And Bark Set For Berkeley Ballot

By MATTHEW ARTZ
Friday June 25, 2004

Berkeley voters will likely face landmark ballot initiatives that would make the city the friendliest place in California for medical cannabis users, sex workers and some trees. -more-


Landmark Move May Not Fit

By RICHARD BRENNEMAN
Friday June 25, 2004

Berkeley real estate agent and developer John Gordon is floating before the Zoning Adjustments Board the notion of relocating two landmarked buildings onto a lot he owns. Whether the two buildings will actually fit on the small lot remains an open question. -more-


Blacks Still More At Risk For Cancer

By HAZEL TRICE EDNEY Pacific News Service
Friday June 25, 2004

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – The overall cancer death rate has decreased slightly over the past decade, but African-Americans continue to suffer higher rates of death from every major form of cancer than their white counterparts, according to a joint report issued this week by four leading health agencies. -more-


Berkeley Native Murray Shows Jazz Isn’t Dead

By IRA STEINGROOT Special to the Planet
Friday June 25, 2004

When I first heard the Gwo-Ka Masters debut album, Yonn-dé, I was, in a manner of speaking, blindfolded, even hoodwinked. A friend played it without showing me the cover and I said, with a bittersweet feeling, “Now we have to go to the West Indies to hear great jazz saxophonists.” I’m always lamenting the death of jazz. In this case I was wrong. The remarkable tenor saxophonist and bass clarinetist embedded within the olla podrida of jazz players and Guadeloupean musicians was Berkeley’s own David Murray, among the greatest of all living jazz musicians. -more-


Cooking Classes At Farmers’ Market

Friday June 25, 2004

For Farmers’ Market shoppers who have been wondering what to cook with the array of interesting and unusual produce to be found at the Berkeley Ecology Center Farmers’ Market, the Market will present the first program in its Ethnic Food Festival, Latin American Cuisine, this Saturday, June 26. Three popular market food purveyors will demonstrate the tricks of their trade. Amigas, a Mexican caterer, Flaco’s, with vegan Mexican food, and Sofrito Puerto Rican Cuisine will give cooking demonstrations at the market, located next to the Berkeley City Hall on Center St. at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. -more-


Police Blotter

By RICHARD BRENNEMAN
Friday June 25, 2004

Education Briefs

Matthew Artz
Friday June 25, 2004

School Board Backs Community Park -more-


UnderCurrents: Brown Giving Away The Store On the Way Out

J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR
Friday June 25, 2004

Mr. John Protopappas, the President of the Port of Oakland Commission, informs us of an interesting new math being practiced over there at the commission’s glass palace by the bay. The new executive director for the port started this week. Meanwhile, the outgoing executive director—Mr. Tay Yoshitani—will be allowed to stay on the payroll for three more months as something called “Extra Position No. 1” (no, I am not making this up) at his regular salary of $20,650 per month, complete with full benefits and an office of his own, even though Mr. Yoshitani may actually have left Oakland and is already on his way back to Baltimore. -more-


Looking for a Little Hope and Optimism

By JAMES DAY
Friday June 25, 2004

It’s a safe bet there weren’t many buses of Reagan mourners leaving Berkeley for Simi Valley or Washington the other week. We understand that behind the soaring rhetoric was a cruel reality, an indifference to people in need, foreign policy by death squad. -more-


AC Transit Evaluates Telegraph Avenue Alternatives

By JOHN CANER
Friday June 25, 2004

Virtually everyone agrees on the goal of getting more people to take public transit. And this past March voters passed Regional Measure 2 to fund more mass transit projects. However, when it comes to how and where there are some differences of opinion. -more-


When Every Second Counts

By CAROL POLSGROVE
Friday June 25, 2004

At first, to the doctor who checked her over, the illness that struck my daughter, Cora, looked like a virus. Even the blood test suggested a virus. That was because I had taken her in so quickly when she started shaking with chills. -more-


Letters to the Editor

Friday June 25, 2004

MEANS TESTING -more-


Tea Party Combines Storytelling with Ecology

By SUSAN PARKERSpecial to the Planet
Friday June 25, 2004

A few weeks ago my friend Jernae and I attended a tea party in the middle of Addison Street in downtown Berkeley. This wasn’t just any tea party. This was a tea party with an environmental agenda. Entitled “A Tea Cup Give Away Storytelling Tea Party,” it was sponsored by the Berkeley Art Commission’s Addison Street Windows Gallery. In association with the Urban Creeks Council, local interdisciplinary artist/performer Patricia Bulitt has put together the current window exhibit that includes photo imagery, text, poetic prose, costumes, hats, and recycled kettles. -more-


Shotgun’s “Quills” Is A Long, Sadistic Evening

By BETSY HUNTONSpecial to the Planet
Friday June 25, 2004

Playwright Doug Wright, who won this year’s Tony, as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his current Broadway hit, “I Am My Own Wife,” apparently has learned a lot about playwriting in the years since he wrote the play, which is currently being perf ormed at the Julia Morgan Theatre. -more-


Arts Calendar

Friday June 25, 2004

FRIDAY, JUNE 25 -more-


Railroad Museum Rides Into California’s Past

By KATHLEEN HILL Special to the Planet
Friday June 25, 2004

Even non-railroad buffs of all ages will find adventure at the California State Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento State Historic Park. -more-


“We Support John Kerry”

48 Nobel Laureates
Friday June 25, 2004

June 21, 2004 -more-


Berkeley This Week

Friday June 25, 2004

FRIDAY, JUNE 25 -more-


County Welfare Recipients Protest Supervisors’ Proposed Budget Cuts

By JAKOB SCHILLER
Tuesday June 22, 2004

Social services organizations and welfare recipients from around Alameda County helped pack the Alameda County Board of Supervisors Monday morning meeting to protest proposed budget cuts that might leave almost 1,500 people cut off from their General Assistance (GA) welfare benefits for nine months out of the year. -more-


D.A., Police at Odds Over Arrests In Tsukamoto Murder

By RICHARD BRENNEMAN
Tuesday June 22, 2004

Berkeley Police homicide investigators dispute an Alameda County deputy district attorney who said they lacked sufficient evidence to charge two sisters as accessories to the 1970 murder of a Berkeley policeman. -more-


Salary Givebacks Spark Battle Between City, Unions

By MATTHEW ARTZ
Tuesday June 22, 2004

With battles raging over how much and in what form city workers will contribute to erasing Berkeley’s $10.3 million budget shortfall, the City Council will consider adoption of the city manager’s Budget Reduction Plan for fiscal years 2005 and 2006 at tonight’s (Tuesday, June 22) regular meeting. -more-


Kamlarz Urges Support For Amos Cottage Demolition

By RICHARD BRENNEMAN
Tuesday June 22, 2004

A plea to save a home built the year Berkeley became a city goes before the City Council tonight (Tuesday, June 22), more than two months after the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) voted to permit demolition of the Amos Cottage at 2211 Fifth St. -more-


Strange Silence in Arab Media Over Paul Johnson’s Death

By MAMOUN FANDY Pacific News Service
Tuesday June 22, 2004

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia—Paul Johnson’s beheading sent a shiver of disgust throughout the world. Except the Arab world, that is. -more-


Firefighters Investigate San Pablo Blaze

Richard Brenneman
Tuesday June 22, 2004

Berkeley firefighters summoned to 1275 San Pablo Ave. early Monday morning found a laundry room ablaze behind the recently opened Meal Ticket restaurant. -more-


Police Blotter

By RICHARD BRENNEMAN
Tuesday June 22, 2004

Strongarm Bandits Create Wednesday Woes -more-


From Susan Parker:World Affairs According to the Scrabblettes

FromSusan Parker
Tuesday June 22, 2004

Last week I was playing Scrabble with my three friends, the Scrabblettes. At 52-years-old I was the youngster in the room by over two decades. Louise, Pearl and Rose lived through the tail-end of the Depression, World War II, the Korean Conflict, Vietnam, the Gulf War, and the terms of 13 United States presidents. Rose’s family was interned during World War II, taken from their farm in the California Central Valley and sent to a camp for Japanese-Americans in Arkansas in 1942. Louise’s family moved from Louisiana to Berkeley at around the same time period, a part of the great migration of southern blacks seeking work on the West Coast. Pearl recently returned to the Bay Area after a two-year stint with the Peace Corps in Uzbekistan. -more-


The Politics of Self-Criticism: Cosby Gets Cheers, Lerner Gets Threats

By DAVID SIEGEL
Tuesday June 22, 2004

As a Jew who is critical of Israeli policy, I am no stranger to confrontation. Despite the strain I’ve placed on my personal relationships, despite having to stand alone in political debates, I have always been vocal in my defense of the cause of Palestine. A few weeks ago, however, I began to feel as though I was fighting a losing battle. It began to seem natural that everyone sticks by their group, right or wrong, as a simple matter of survival. Who was I to defy this basic law of human relations? This feeling nagged me until June 2, when I picked up an article entitled “Hooray for Bill Cosby.” -more-


A Solano Avenue Vacancy

John Kenyon
Tuesday June 22, 2004

Editors, Daily Planet: -more-



Letters to the Editor

Tuesday June 22, 2004

DEDICATION -more-


Elmwood Struggles With Business Quota System

By RICHARD BRENNEMAN
Tuesday June 22, 2004

What began as a seemingly simple request to city planning staff turned the June 12 Zoning Adjustment Board meeting into a spirited debate about the future of Berkeley’s Elmwood Commercial District. It ended with a sharply-divided ZAB unable to reach a conclusion on what direction Elmwood should take. -more-


Arts Calendar

Tuesday June 22, 2004

TUESDAY, JUNE 22 -more-


It’s Time for the Jacaranda’s Purple Reign

Staff
Tuesday June 22, 2004

We’ve almost missed the jacaranda show in Berkeley, especially with a few recent windy days that knocked down a lot of flowers. We have only a token representation of the species anyway, with a short row on Gilman a few blocks east of Westbrae Nursery, a few scattered on other streets and in private yards. They’re hard to miss right now; just look for a mass of grape-sherbet color. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday June 22, 2004

TUESDAY, JUNE 22 -more-


Opinion

Editorials

Threats and Intimidation

Becky O’Malley
Friday June 25, 2004

A couple of weeks ago metropolitan papers carried a story about a North Beach incident in which a gallery owner reported that she had been spat on (punched in the face in some accounts) because her shop window displayed a painting derived from photographs, which depicts in graphic comic-book style the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. military. The painter was a fairly well-known Berkeley figure, and we intended to report on the incident or perhaps comment on it in this space, but we never got around to it. -more-


Paperless Touchscreens Lose Support

Tuesday June 22, 2004

Women Voters Reverse at Convention -more-