The Week

Christopher Krohn: 
          Boston police donned riot gear for what turned out to be a small protest on Sunday.%
Christopher Krohn: Boston police donned riot gear for what turned out to be a small protest on Sunday.%
 

News

Boston’s Low Protest Turnout Reveals Left’s Hunger for ‘Anybody But Bush’

By CHRISTOPHER KROHN Special to the Planet
Tuesday July 27, 2004

BOSTON — Was it the Boston Common or the Boston Morgue this past Sunday? Only about 1,500 protesters showed up at what was to be the marquee protest event during this Democratic National Convention (DNC). The absence of many protesters at the march may be the greatest indication yet that the American left, if not embracing John Kerry for President, simply does not want to get into any political food fights this year and possibly end up with another four years of George W. Bush. -more-


Union Locals Challenge Production’s Use of Non-Union Work Force

By JAKOB SCHILLER
Tuesday July 27, 2004

Although sure to entertain, Berkeley’s upcoming Cavalia multimedia horse show has some union members pointing to the drudgery behind the dazzle. -more-


Retired Official’s Memories Support Baptist Seminary Neighbors’ Claims

By RICHARD BRENNEMAN
Tuesday July 27, 2004

As the long-running dispute between the American Baptist Seminary of the West and its neighbors threatens to boil over once again, the city Planning Department sought advice from Robert Humphrey, a long-retired city zoning officer. -more-


Berkeley Judge Shakes Up Prison Guards, Governor

By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR
Tuesday July 27, 2004

The first public official to pose a serious public challenge to Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger lives—where else?—in the City of Berkeley. -more-


Democrats Losing Majority Among Bay Area Voters

By RICHARD BRENNEMAN
Tuesday July 27, 2004

The newest addition to the Berkeley political scene, the non-partisan, non-profit Bay Area Center for Voting Research, warns that the Democratic Party is within a hair’s breadth of losing its majority hold on Bay Area voters. -more-


Police Blotter

By RICHARD BRENNEMAN
Tuesday July 27, 2004

Bullet Holes Discovered, Twice -more-


Fire Department Log

By RICHARD BRENNEMAN
Tuesday July 27, 2004

Charcoal Ashes Ignite Deck -more-


Middle-Aged Women Enjoy A Night Out With Pinter and Martinis

From Susan Parker
Tuesday July 27, 2004

At Scrabble last week Rose was telling us about the play she had just seen, Betrayal by Harold Pinter. “It was terrific. I highly recommend it. In fact, I went to see it twice.” -more-


Letters to the Editor

Tuesday July 27, 2004

ACTORS ENSEMBLE -more-


Readers Continue Middle East Dialogue

Tuesday July 27, 2004

NO CLUE -more-


Searching For The Democrats

By BOB BURNETT
Tuesday July 27, 2004

Many readers will ask why anyone in their right mind would go to either the Democratic or Republican convention, why I would willingly submit to endless queues for security checks, only to spend even more hours enduring formulaic political harangues. The answer is that I’m here because at age 63, after forty plus years of voting for Democratic candidates, I still nourish the hope that my party will emerge as the DEMOCRATS—as the unmistakable champions of human dignity, peace and justice, and saving the planet. From my experience at the 2000 convention, held in Los Angles, I know that I will not be alone in nurturing these hopes, that for every professional politician, lobbyist, or celebrity groupie, there will be several participants that want to take back our country, who continue to believe that America can be a beacon of democracy. -more-


Commentary: Cooperation, not Conflict? In Berkeley?

By SHARON HUDSON Special to the Planet
Tuesday July 27, 2004

In this era of university expansion and controversies over damaging encroachments on residential neighborhoods, Berkeleyans might look to how the current illegal use of the campus of the American Baptist Seminary of the West (ABSW) will be resolved to see how Berkeley will protect its neighborhoods. On July 12, the City of Berkeley’s legal and planning staff declared the ABSW to be clearly in violation of both “the intent [and] the letter of [its] existing use permit,” which is solely to educate up to 250 graduate ministry students. The University of California is the other major participant in this violation, which is surely not in keeping with UC’s stated intent to respect municipal codes and enhance community livability. -more-


James Carter Joins Django Reinhardt Project at Yoshi’s

By IRA STEINGROOT Special to the Planet
Tuesday July 27, 2004

When I first heard James Carter, then 26 years old, at the old Yoshi’s on Claremont in 1995, it felt like what I imagine it would have been like to hear Charlie Parker in 1945 or Ornette Coleman in 1960. I was too young to have experienced the halcyon days of bop or free jazz and did not start listening consciously to jazz until 1962, but I did see Roland Kirk in 1965, Archie Shepp in 1966 and John Coltrane in 1967. Carter had that same kind of energy, as if you were present at the birth of something new and exciting, something that could make you begin all over again. My notes from that first Bay Area appearance by Carter include these words: beautiful, remarkable, phenomenal freedom, weird, experimental, totally accessible, unending stream of ideas, incredible, passionate. This was heady stuff. -more-


Books: EBMUD Advises on Bay Area Water-Wise Gardening

By SHIRLEY BARKERSpecial to the Planet
Tuesday July 27, 2004

There is a commodity in life that is more precious than gold, and that is water. In the Golden State of California water is more than precious, it is endangered, because we have but two seasons, wet and dry, and in some years the wet season is a dry one too. -more-


Avenue Books Reborn as Mrs. Dalloway’s

By RICHARD BRENNEMAN
Tuesday July 27, 2004

When Avenue Books, long a favorite on College Avenue in Elmwood, fell victim to the post-9/11 economic crunch, neighbors mourned the loss. -more-


Bookstores Can’t KeepGripping 9/11 Report On the Shelves

By CAROL POLSGROVESpecial to the Planet
Tuesday July 27, 2004

The number one seller on Amazon.com, The 9/11 Commission Report, is flying off the bookstore shelves across the country. A bookstore in my little Indiana town sold out its first 100 copies in two days. Barnes and Noble on Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley is out, too. -more-


Pocket Bird Guide Informs Sierra Hikers

By JOE EATON Special to the Planet
Tuesday July 27, 2004

It’s my firm conviction that you can’t have too many field guides. They’re indispensable to anyone who’s intrigued by the names and relationships of living things: birds, trees, dragonflies, mushrooms, whatever. Although you can find guides for almost every group of organisms (with some gaps; I know a park ranger who was so frustrated by the absence of a guide to freshwater invertebrates that she wrote and published her own), the bird books far outnumber the rest. -more-


Handy and Inexpensive, Guidebook Helps ID Common Western Trees

By RON SULLIVAN Special to the Planet
Tuesday July 27, 2004

The National Arbor Day Foundation has issued a pocket-sized booklet titled What Tree Is That? that’s worth the modest investment if you order in bulk—$3 for one, $25.25 for 35, $189.00 for 270, plus $4.95 for shipping and handling of any quantity. It calls itself a guide to the more common trees found in the western United States, from the Rockies to the Pacific shore. It’s one of those dichotomous keys—“If A, go to 13BS”—that drive me nuts to use but are useful for things that sit still for examination. -more-


Arts Calendar

Tuesday July 27, 2004

TUESDAY, JULY 27 -more-


Swifts Hold Screaming Parties, Suffer Silent Dreads

By JOE EATON Special to the Planet
Tuesday July 27, 2004

You can hear it over the traffic on Shattuck Avenue: a high-pitched chittering, coming from somewhere overhead. Looking up, you may be able to spot a couple of small, torpedo-shaped black-and-white birds with an elegant Art Deco look, looping through the air above the downtown buildings. They’re white-throated swifts, foraging the urban canyons for airborne insects. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday July 27, 2004

TUESDAY, JULY 27 -more-


Berkeley-Albany YMCA Workers Win Union Vote

By JAKOB SCHILLER
Friday July 23, 2004

After a 46-12 vote early Thursday evening, Berkeley-Albany YMCA Head Start teachers officially have their first union. -more-


Berkeleyan Leaks Prompt Second Kennedy Lawsuit

By RICHARD BRENNEMAN
Friday July 23, 2004

Alleged construction defects at a second of Patrick Kennedy’s stucco-clad downtown apartment buildings have triggered another lawsuit pitting the developer against his architect and Berkeley contractor Kimes Morris. -more-


Norine Smith Will Challenge Betty Olds for Council Seat

By MATTHEW ARTZ
Friday July 23, 2004

Councilmember Betty Olds will face a familiar challenger this November. Norine Smith, a waterfront commissioner who in 2000 barely managed to garner one third of Olds’ vote in a three-person race, is taking another run at the District Six council seat Ol ds has owned since 1992. -more-


Environmental Review Questions Delay Richmond Project

By RICHARD BRENNEMAN
Friday July 23, 2004

Developers of the proposed massive Campus Bay waterfront residential development in Richmond have put their plans on hold pending completion of a key environmental review by the California Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB). -more-


UC Responds to Lab’s Security Woes

By MATTHEW ARTZ
Friday July 23, 2004

The University of California has placed 19 employees at the Los Alamos National Laboratory on paid investigatory leave pending a federal probe into missing classified material at the lab, George “Pete” Nanos, the lab director, announced at a Thursday pre ss conference. -more-


Controversy Looms Over Council Ballot Vote

By MATTHEW ARTZ
Friday July 23, 2004

The City Council Tuesday placed three controversial measures on the November ballot, but not before tweaking their wording and going on record opposing their passage—all in a manner one councilmember thought might violate state law. -more-


Berkeley Property Tax Base Edges Over $90 Billion Mark

By RICHARD BRENNEMAN
Friday July 23, 2004

The assessed value of privately owned property in Berkeley jumped 7.5 percent during the past fiscal year, from $9,048,160,060 to $9,724, 464,361, reports Alameda County Chief Deputy Assessor Russ Hall. -more-


Appeals Court to Rule on Senior Housing Project

By MATTHEW ARTZ
Friday July 23, 2004

A Berkeley Housing Commissioner and her supporters Tuesday took their concerns over a planned affordable senior housing complex before the California Court of Appeals. -more-


Emeryville Pixar Expansion May Go To Voters

By JAKOB SCHILLER
Friday July 23, 2004

Honoring their promise to not drop the issue, a group of concerned citizens along with the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE) have—at least temporarily—halted the expansion of Pixar animation studios in Emeryville. -more-


Pundit Reveals Polling Secrets

By PETER SOLOMON Eminence Grise
Friday July 23, 2004

In a rare and exclusive interview, Mark Chain, a leading analyst for the Penultimate Pundits Poll, spoke with our correspondent about what to look for in the coming election season. -more-


Democratic Party to Commit More Ground Troops

By CHRISTOPHER KROHN Special to the Planet
Friday July 23, 2004

Won’t you please come to [Boston], -more-


BART Adds Bomb-Sniffing Dogs, Cites Convention Terrorism Alert

By RICHARD BRENNEMAN
Friday July 23, 2004

Critics of the Bush administration have taken to accusing Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge of whipping up periodic terrorism alerts to keep us all off balance until the election. -more-


African Americans Propose Immigration Reform

By DAVID BACON Pacific News Service
Friday July 23, 2004

OAKLAND—If you listen to President George Bush, the only way Mexicans can avoid the illegal and sometimes deadly trip across the U.S. border is to come as guest workers—temporary contract laborers for U.S. industry and agriculture. The 14 million immigrants already living in the United States without visas, Bush says, must become guest workers too, if they want to get legal documents. -more-


Bolivia Charts Course Between Popular Anger and Big Business Threats

By RAUL VASQUEZ Pacific News Service
Friday July 23, 2004

A historic, five-question referendum on Bolivia’s energy resources, approved by Bolivians on July 18, reveals the risky middle path many Latin American leaders now tread as they try to translate popular discontent into real political change. -more-


Police Blotter

By RICHARD BRENNEMAN
Friday July 23, 2004

Berkeley Man Fatally Shot in Oakland -more-


UnderCurrents: ‘Girlie-Men’ Remark Obscures Governor’s Non-Solution

J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR
Friday July 23, 2004

Jealous, perhaps, of this summer’s box office success of political documentaries, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has recently provided us with a bit of political theater on his own. You could see where the script was leading. You just couldn’t figure—in advance—how the main character would react, and therein lies the entertainment factor. -more-


Letters to the Editor

Friday July 23, 2004

POLICE BLOTTER -more-


Growing Soil And Community

Friday July 23, 2004

Editors, Daily Planet -more-


A Modest Proposal for Patrick Kennedy

By CAROL DENNEY
Friday July 23, 2004

The Berkeley City Council and the Planning Department allowed local developer Patrick Kennedy to put extra stories in several of his building projects in exchange for ambiguously defined “cultural amenities” which never materialized, went bankrupt, or didn’t “pencil out.” -more-


Care for a Little Redevelopment in Your Area?

By MERRILIE MITCHELL
Friday July 23, 2004

The Berkeley City Council also serves as the Berkeley Redevelopment Agency (BRA). It is scheduled to meet quarterly on the second Tuesday of the month, at 6:30 p.m. But meetings are subject to change, and there have been lots of changes since Tom Bates became mayor. -more-


Actors Ensemble Launches Albee’s ‘Delicate Balance’

By BETSY HUNTON Special to the Planet
Friday July 23, 2004

Mikel Clifford, long a well-known figure in the Bay Area theatrical scene, has been brought in by Berkeley’s Actors Ensemble to direct Edward Albee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning A Delicate Balance. -more-


Arts Calendar

Friday July 23, 2004

FRIDAY, JULY 23 -more-


LIVABLE BERKELEY

Alan Tobey
Friday July 23, 2004

Editors, Daily Planet: -more-


Catalan Festival is Weekend’s Best Excursion

By KATHLEEN HILL Special to the Planet
Friday July 23, 2004

Traveling close to home this weekend, try the Catalan Festival at Gloria Ferrer Champagne Caves just south of Sonoma. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Friday July 23, 2004

FRIDAY, JULY 23 -more-


Opinion

Editorials

Kucinich Can’t Stop Campaigning, Launches Progressive Dems of America

By CHRISTOPHER KROHN Special to the Planet
Tuesday July 27, 2004

BOSTON — The air inside St. Paul’s Church next to Boston Common was sultry on Monday, laden with east coast humidity and heat from national progressive politics. United States Rep. Dennis Kucinich from Ohio and several featured speakers including Reverend Jesse Jackson, James Zogby, President of the Arab-American Institute, Margaret Prescod of Pacifica’s KPFK and co-coordinator of the Global Women’s Strike and actors Mimi Kennedy and James Cromwell kicked off four days of political dialogue. -more-


Editorial: The Dog Days in Berkeley

Becky O’Malley
Friday July 23, 2004

Now begin the City of Berkeley’s dog days. The expression derives from the rising of Sirius, the Dog Star, which takes place between early July and early September. But since it coincides with hot and humid in a large part of the northern hemisphere, the image of lazy dogs lying around in the shade comes to mind. -more-