As Jimmy Rogers, 67, sat through a screening of the landmark civil rights documentary Eyes on the Prize Tuesday night in Berkeley, he was quick to point out the faces and names of the people he recognized from the time he spent in the south as a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. -more-
Charging that the Lytton Band of Pomos acquired Casino San Pablo “the wrong way,” maverick Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain announced Thursday evening that he’ll hold hearings on a law that would reverse part of the tribe’s special status. -more-
The states’ leading toxics agency has ruled that Campus Bay poses “an imminent or substantial endangerment to the public health or welfare or to the environment because of a release or threatened release of a hazardous substance.” -more-
Berkeley’s newest landmark—technically a structure of merit—poses a potential hitch in plans to build a square block of condos at the University Avenue gateway to the city. -more-
Barring a sustained surge in the stock market, city leaders said Tuesday that Berkeley’s employee pension fund will continue to drain the city’s budget. -more-
The battle of the Berkeley Bowl—centered on the proposed cloning of the city’s most popular grocery store—heads to yet another round before the city Planning Commission. -more-
For months they stood before the City Council trading barbs and doing battle. -more-
During a week when steel foundation girders had only reached the second of floor above the gaping construction hole on Center Street in downtown Berkeley, Vista College president Judy Walters announced the kickoff of a five-year $10 million fundraising drive for money projected to be used in Vista’s new headquarters. -more-
Motorists speeding down Telegraph Avenue, beware. Officer Bob Rollins and, on occasion, his partners are lurking on side streets, their radar guns firing. -more-
Berkeley High’s new small-school SSJE (School of Social Justice and Ecology) is scheduled to open this fall with a curriculum that emphasizes “critical thinking.” Though it’s a good idea, “critical thinking” is one of those terms that has lost all meaning by repeated overuse. Plainly put, it simply means not necessarily accepting the conclusions put before you, but assembling (or re-assembling) the available facts, looking for the “contradictions” (another useful but much abused word), and making up your own mind as to what it all might mean. -more-
On Feb. 1, King Gyanendra of Nepal dissolved the government, declared a state of emergency, and claimed absolute power. Political opponents were arrested, including Prime Minister Deuba who was placed under house arrest. Army troops are patrolling the st reets and have occupied the parliament building, radio stations and newspaper offices. Freedom of the press and other forms of free speech, such as the right of assembly and the right to criticize the government, no longer exist according to announcements from the palace. -more-
President Bush’s program to privatize Social Security gives progressives an opportunity to advocate for an alternative approach, one which will instead increase the economic security of working people rather than fan their anxieties. It would also lift the benefits for all retirees without undermining the soundness of the social security trust fund. Indeed, rather than our energies being completely absorbed in defensive battles, it is incumbent upon us to project a progressive vision. Otherwise, we are allowing conservatives to define the issues, which lock us into a poverty of low expectations. -more-
I don’t normally comment on projects in other neighborhoods, as I don’t like people outside my neighborhood telling me what’s best for mine. I feel we each know our area the best. However, with the “expansion” of the Berkeley Bowl I will take an exception. -more-
With a little more than a week to go before their biggest challenge of the school year, members of the Berkeley High Debate Squad sit through their lunch period in an upstairs classroom, munch sandwiches, and plot strategy for the 32nd Annual Cal Berkeley Invitational Debate Tournament. -more-
It may appear small-minded to dwell on the point, but it does feel good to know that in Berkeley, you can actually see live drama for 10 (count’em 10!) bucks in a perfectly charming, completely traditional, theater. This seeming piece of magic occurs with absolute regularity in the Actors Ensemble productions at the Live Oak Theater in the Arts Building at 1301 Shattuck Ave. at Berryman. -more-
Lovers of Caribbean sounds, and world music listeners in general, are in for a pre-Valentine’s Day treat when Andy Narell brings the 14-piece steel drum band Calypsociation from Paris to the Chabot College Little Theater in Hayward for two shows Sun. Feb. 13 (at 2 p.m. and 7 p. m.) with local steel drummers The Chabot Panhandlers, under Jim Munzenrider’s direction, opening. -more-
It’s a tantalizingly warm winter day. I’m walking toward the sound of power—water tumbling down, around and across a series of rocks. Is this a canyon at 6,000 feet in the Sierras? No, I’m just one hour from home, approaching Little Yosemite, one of many natural wonders to discover at Sunol Regional Wilderness. -more-
A remarkable cross section of Berkeley gathered beneath a gingko tree Saturday morning to mourn the death of Carla-Helen Toth and celebrate her remarkable life. -more-
Father George Crespin abruptly retired from his post as pastor of Berkeley’s St. Joseph The Worker parish last week amid an accusation that he sexually abused a parishioner 30 years ago. -more-
A former employee at the Oakland Animal Shelter has detailed what she says are systemic abuses by shelter management. The list of wrongdoings include euthanizing dogs that were cleared for adoption, euthanizing dogs without sedatives and in one case mistakenly leaving a live dog in a freezer in a barrel with dead dogs. -more-
North Oakland and South Berkeley residents got their first glimpse Saturday of a little-known tribe’s plans to build a major casino next to an environmentally sensitive stretch of shoreline near Oakland International Airport. -more-
An early windfall courtesy of Sacramento and Wall Street could erase a chunk of the city’s looming budget deficit. -more-
A memorial service for Karl Linn is planned for March 20 at Northbrae Community Church on The Alameda in Berkeley from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. -more-
The City Council Monday named Sara Cox as Berkeley’s new city clerk. -more-
There were few dry handkerchiefs Friday evening as Berkeley firefighters said their final goodbyes to their loyal partner and best friend. -more-
A controversial proposal to develop Laney College properties and the Peralta Colleges Administration Building land ran into a significant setback last week when a meeting designed to win over Laney College support instead appeared to stiffen opposition. -more-
Planning commissioners will conduct their third hearing Wednesday on plans to build a second Berkeley Bowl near the heavily traveled intersection of Ashby Avenue and Ninth Street. -more-
Following approvals by the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, marsh excavations have resumed at the waterfront edge of Richmond’s Campus Bay. -more-
Three days before Christmas I had to fire the two people who helped me with my husband’s care. I broke out in hives the moment I asked them to leave. It was not a good sign. -more-
Blaze Erupts During Concert -more-
The Berkeley Daily Planet, in the Feb. 1-3 edition, ran two lengthy opinion pieces critical of the attempts to close Derby Street by the School Board and city in order to accommodate a full size baseball field. -more-
With regard to closing Derby Street, it doesn’t serve the community to have the Berkeley Daily Planet highlighting letters (such as Dorothy Bryant’s and Peter Schorer’s) which give the illusion of informed knowledge but in truth are factually inaccurate. Given that the Daily Planet is used by many of us to become educated about local issues, letters like these do us all a disservice. -more-
What’s so impossibly sad about the vitriolic editorial comments in the Daily Planet about the East Campus/Derby Street project, attacking the city, the School Board, and the writers’ fellow Berkeley citizens, is not just that their listed objections have almost no basis in reality. In fact, there is no intended “commercial” use of the proposed facilities, other than of course the use for a commercial “Farmers Market” by a private business, the Ecology Center (which everyone agrees should stay on site); t here are no planned night games or night field lighting; there is no plan for any amplified sound system (other than the Farmer’s Market request for an “entertainment” space to host music); any field, of any size, will need to be fenced for safety reasons; any field, of any size (including a regulation baseball diamond that includes a multi-purpose field) will be available for all of the dozens of sports that boys and girls play in this city; any field, of any size, will bring according to the city’s Envi ronmental Impact Report only a minimal increase in traffic; replacing the dilapidated, vermin infested portables on site now with a field of any size can only increase, not decrease, property values. -more-
The February-March issue of Nick Jr., the national educators’ magazine operated by Nickelodeon children’s channel, lists Berkeley’s LeConte School as operating one of the 10 best elementary school cafeterias in America. -more-
In Mary Shogren’s kindergarten class at LeConte Elementary School, some students can’t understand a single word she says. Sitting on the floor with wide-eyed gazes, they stare at her as she reads a children’s book aloud. Some seem to understand everything, while others look puzzled. -more-
The title for this piece is taken from the Fêtes de la Nuit that I saw in the gardens at Versailles several years ago—fetes that were supposed to recall the sorts of entertainments that Louis XIV staged for his own pleasure ... full of huntsman, hunting dogs, courtiers, ballet dancers, and fireworks. Needless to say, my Fêtes are very different: they are the modern world, the democratic world, the world as seen, not through the eyes of a king, but through the eyes of a citizen. -more-
The San Pablo City Council meets Wednesday at noon to consider building plans from the Lytton Band of Pomos for the 2,500-slot machine casino they plan to build at the site of the current Casino San Pablo card room. -more-
I’m interrupting the trees-of-Berkeley series for a short rant. Nice words about our city’s trees will resume in two weeks. -more-
Ash Wednesday was this week, the traditional opening day of six weeks of reflection for Christians. And today an old friend e-mailed a link to a website, rememberthesechildren.org, which lists the names and ages of children killed in the ongoing dispute between the Palestinians and the Israelis. The numbers alone are sobering. Since the first of this year, one Israeli child and 16 Palestinian children have died. Since September of 2000, dead Palestinian children number 671, with 118 Israeli kids dead. We’ll get letters, undoubtedly, pointing out that more children have probably died in Darfur, and in the tsunamis, and the letter writers will perhaps therefore try to minimize the impact of the deaths of the children in Israel. Or perhaps they will try to blame the adults who are associated with the dead children, and accuse them of negligence or of fomenting the strife which produced the deaths, or even of sending children on suicide missions. Such partisan argument misses the point: As long as the rest of us in the rest of the world acquiesce in the death of any child anywhere, we are participating in some way in causing these deaths. And in the words of John Dunne, “any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.” -more-
A Berkeley High School student found with a gun last week on campus was arrested and has been expelled, said district officials, who added that the student’s actions were apparently inadvertent and it did not appear that the student intended to use the weapon. -more-
