Staff members and patrons of the North Branch of the Berkeley Public Library have been devastated by the loss of Library Assistant Charlene Rochelle Agos, who was killed in a traffic accident in Oakland the night of Aug. 15. -more-
Why did about 400 students at Berkeley High get shut out of classes in one of the school’s most popular programs just eight days before the start of school? -more-
Sally Hindman has made a name for herself in Berkeley as the homeless advocate who co-founded Street Spirit. But if all goes according to plan, her biggest legacy could be in Varna, Bulgaria. -more-
With Berkeley as little as a month away from rolling out a state-of-the-art online system to track homeless residents, some local homeless service providers are wondering if the new technology will catapult them into the 21st century or send them back to 1984. -more-
NEW YORK—There are many stories to tell at this convention. The known storylines inside Madison Square Garden are familiar Republican themes that are repeated over and over: the recycled compassionate conservatism, John Kerry’s misrepresenting his war record, the war on terror, George Bush is the only candidate who can protect you, and of course, Bush will cut your taxes even more. -more-
It’s Tuesday evening on the corner of 34th Street and Sixth Avenue. The sidewalk is packed with protestors hemmed in by a wall of police. Traffic had been diverted. The protestors are chanting and yelling and waiving signs, and have made passage up and down the sidewalk nearly impossible. -more-
Yet another player has joined the ranks of would-be East Bay gambling—and though it’s identity remains obscured, the firm’s sales pitch is breathtaking in the promises it implies. -more-
County education administrators have indicated their intention to certify Berkeley Unified School District’s roughly $90 million budget, ending three years of strict supervision over the cash-strapped school district. -more-
Two major issues come before Berkeley’s land use agencies this week, when the revised municipal landmarks code comes up for consideration by the Planning Commission Wednesday night and the Zoning Adjustment Board conducts its final hearing Thursday on a use permit for the Seagate Building. -more-
“I want a zippered, hooded sweatshirt with the letters SFSU splashed big across the front,” says my friend Corrie. We are in the student bookstore at San Francisco State University shopping for textbooks, but very quickly we have migrated to the other side of the room and are perusing racks and racks of work-out clothes and underwear that sport the logo SFSU in the school colors that, I learn for the first time, are gold and purple. -more-
If you didn’t watch the Republican National Convention, you didn’t miss much. Most of the convention speakers before the president spoke from the same biased script: Republicans are strong on defense; Democrats are not. Republicans are macho action figures like Arnold Schwarzenegger; Democrats are “girlie-men.” George Bush is resolute; John Kerry waffles. For four days viewers across the nation saw the worst face of partisan politics, an event carefully orchestrated to demean John Kerry and to convince voters that only George Bush could keep them safe. -more-
For over 20 years, Berkeley law has required developers of new apartment buildings to offer 20 percent of their units at levels affordable to people with lower-than-average incomes. It’s a trade-off with developers (for which they’re handsomely rewarded) to make sure that, as Berkeley develops, poorer people aren’t steadily forced out of the city. That same law requires those units to be evenly dispersed throughout the building, because poor people shouldn’t be sequestered in special poor sections of apartment buildings. -more-
The dozen or so petitioners at Saturday morning’s Sick Plant Clinic at the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden brought offerings ranging from dried leaves to big branches: a sheaf of photographs, a pear, a Japanese maple twig, an orchid growing on a bark slab. -more-
Most Saturday mornings you can find Marty Schiffenbauer at the counter at Ozzie’s, the venerable soda fountain in the Elmwood Pharmacy at 2900 College Ave. -more-
I just finished a collection of natural history essays by Howard Ensign Evans, a retired entomologist in Colorado. One of the pieces, about a meadow where he and his wife had enjoyed songbirds and wildflowers, concludes with this paragraph: -more-
Faced with a court order blocking them from approving a lucrative Point Molate casino pact with a Berkeley developer, the Richmond City Council did the second-best thing Tuesday night: They voted unanimously to show their intent to sign the deal once legal clouds clear. -more-
Willard Middle School appears headed towards a distinction it could do without: the fourth school in Berkeley to run afoul of President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Law. -more-
Last October Berkeley swimmers—fresh from a six-month campaign of chlorine-infested fundraising—presented the City Council with a gift they couldn’t refuse: cold hard cash. -more-
One of the longest serving police officers in recent Berkeley history will go out as with one of the briefest reigns as police chief. -more-
State environmental officials threw a major stumbling path on the road to a controversial massive high-rise residential complex near the Richmond shoreline this week, halting a crucial excavation and raising the specter that work might not recommence till spring. -more-
Rapid buses along regular streets versus dedicated high-speed bus lanes, finances, safety, driver accountability, air quality, and dwindling bus routes are expected to be some of the issues that will shape two contested AC Transit Board races this November. -more-
It felt perfectly appropriate when Raul Cardenas bent down and kissed the stairs of San Jose’s Superior Court. Twice. State Drug Agent Michael Walker, the killer of his brother Rudy Cardenas, had just been indicted for voluntary manslaughter after a week-long open grand jury session. -more-
Iran is the main motivational force behind the political ambitions of fiery Shi’ite cleric Muqtada Al Sadr, whose militants recently engaged U.S. and interim government forces in bloody battles in Najaf. Al Sadr, who lacks political stature, rebelled to ensure a place for himself in the new Iraq before the January elections. Indeed, through the fighting he escalated, his prestige rose, and the interim Iraqi government had to negotiate with him to end the fighting. Not bad for Iran’s main ally in Iraq. -more-
Scores of University of California officials, alumni, and friends and admirers of Berkeley alumnus and pioneering African-American educator Ida Louise Jackson packed the sun-filled courtyard of a recently built university apartment building mid-day on Monday, Aug. 30, to celebrate its naming in honor of Jackson. -more-
NEW YORK—The streets on day two of the Republican National Convention belonged to the A-31 coalition of affinity groups. A-31, or Aug. 31, was organized to create “a day of nonviolent civil disobedience and direct action,” according to their website. -more-
Outfoxed, a recent documentary by filmmaker Robert Greenwald, is a scathing critique of how Fox News conducts its business. It includes many interviews with former Fox employees as well as a few prominent media analysts like Walter Cronkite. Greenwald paid a visit to what was billed as a “Bill O’Reilly Shut Up-athon” this past Tuesday outside of Fox News headquarters in New York City. The Daily Planet stuck a tape recorder in his Greenwald’s face and started asking questions. -more-
Leslie Cagan is the National Coordinator for United For Peace and Justice, the group that organized Sunday’s massive anti-Bush rally in New York City. Cagan had been involved in negotiating with city officials to hold a rally in Central Park. She lost that battle, but was feeling exceedingly pleased at the outcome of Sunday’s large showing of protesters. The Daily Planet met Cagan at her cramped ninth floor office at UFPJ’s rabbit warren-like headquarters a few blocks from Madison Square Garden where the Republican National Convention is being held. Cagan was visibly exhausted, yet appeared almost giddy at the success the coalition’s organizing efforts have reaped. On the third day of the convention, activity was everywhere. Phones rang, banners were being made for other rallies, and protest paraphernalia of all kinds was being unpacked and repacked in boxes to be sent out to the next site. Cagan is a busy person and much in demand, even before Sunday. Her phone rang five times during our 20-minute interview. -more-
Vietnam has risen again—not as a country but as a metaphor, a code word to symbolize, a bucket, overturned, its water running out into the various crevices of our national life. War. Courage and cowardice. Death and life. Service. The nature of our obligations—to our country, to our friends and family, to our beliefs, to ourselves. Its essence remains, but its original form has long-since been irretrievably lost, spilled along with the innocence of our youth. -more-
Berkeley Man Charged with Date Rape -more-
Editors, Daily Planet: -more-
In an effort to “put people first”, Gov. Schwarzenegger recently convened the California Performance Review (CPR). The CPR undertook a “total review” of state government and issued a voluminous report recommending hundreds of cost cutting measures. While Schwarzenegger supports the CPR’s recommendations on the grounds that they will rid the state government of fraud and inefficiency, he does not mention that when it comes to defrauding ordinary Californians, the real harm often takes place beyond the corridors of state government and in the boardrooms of the private sector. And there is no better example of this defrauding, and of Schwarzenegger’s unwillingness to address it, than the $9 billion rip-off of Californians executed by Enron et al during California’s energy crisis. -more-
Republicans are converging for their quadrennial convention in New York this week, but the closest most Bay Area voters will ever get to a prominent Republican is on their living room television set. -more-
After chewing its title over for a while I’ve decided that Fluffy Bunnies in a Field of Daisies is about as good as you could get for Impact Theatre’s new production. The only question that remains for me is, now that I think that I’ve figured out what it has to do with the play, should I blow the secret? -more-
For those who lived through those times, there is a point in the meandering hallways of the Oakland Museum’s “California And The Vietnam Era” exhibit that observation and objectivity give way to experience, and the roped and plyboard partitions morph into corridors of your own mind. -more-
Celery seedlings can be difficult to find locally because it is considered hard to grow here. In fact, especially where the water table is high (and where in Berkeley is it not?), this marsh-loving member of the Umbelliferae family is one of the many vegetables that reward the home gardener. -more-
and
The March Issue and
The February Issue and
The January Issue and
The December Issue and
The November Issue and
The bit old October Issue
(and please support Grace Underpressure with a donation :-)
