At 3:30 on a blustery Friday afternoon a group of Cragmont Elementary fourth graders are lining up in the hallway in front of Room 209 for the second part of their educational day. -more-
With a week-long teacher work slowdown “having an effect,” according to Berkeley Unified School District Public Information Officer Mark Coplan, Superintendent Michele Lawrence has sent out a letter to teachers and community residents explaining the district’s position in the dispute. -more-
Residents gathered Saturday in a meeting room in a building named for one of the heroes of the African American struggle for freedom and equality to dine and celebrate Black History Month. -more-
Before setting out to buy groceries for his wife and 8-year-old son two Fridays ago, North Oakland resident Patrick McCullough made sure he had his wallet, keys and pistol. -more-
Facing the loss of one quarter of its four-person staff, Berkeley’s Police Review Commission (PRC) is positioning itself for a fight. -more-
For the second time, city Design Review Commissioners have expressed their unanimous disapproval of designs for South Berkeley’s “Flying Cottage.’ -more-
Fuzz Get Charity Clipping -more-
Israeli Air Force pilot Yonatan Shapira calls himself a patriot. After 11 years as part of a elite helicopter unit, he though he had proved his commitment to his country. Yet since 2003, Shapira has more often referred to as a traitor, than a patriot. -more-
Two weeks after the Berkeley Unified School District dropped its budget rating from positive to qualified and the announced start of a teacher work slowdown over a pay raise dispute, fiscal issues dominate this week’s BUSD board meeting. -more-
It’s been more than 30 years since the Free Speech Movement and the battle over People’s Park, but in the eyes of conservative pundits, Berkeley has once again become the center of the progressive universe. Just ask New York Times columnist, David Brooks, who in his Feb. 5 column deplored the ascension of Howard Dean to the position of chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and argued that it’s Berkeley’s fault. -more-
Most observers of the Middle East sensed that the U.S. invasion of Iraq, instead of bringing stability, would bring chaos to the region. The most recent signal of this unraveling was the assassination of Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, a Sunni billionaire with ties to Washington and Riyadh, who had been credited with much of Beirut’s reconstruction. Popular protests have now led to the resignation of the country’s pro-Syrian government. -more-
The short-lived labor action at the Oaks Theater has ended in a settlement, and the picket line has vanished outside the Art Deco showcase at 1875 Solano Ave. -more-
In Michelle Carter’s San Francisco State workshop entitled “Writing in the Public Context,” we are to develop a project that requires us to step out of our daily routines and do something we wouldn’t normally do. -more-
This March marks the beginning of a third year of negotiations between the Berkeley Federation of Teachers and the Berkeley Unified School District, and we have yet to reach a settlement. Over 25 negotiations sessions occurred before impasse was declared in June of 2004, and now the process is directed by a state mediator. Because progress has been minimal, extremely slow and frustrating, Berkeley teachers have worked without a salary increase for the past two years. At the same time, our working conditions have deteriorated. Class sizes have increased dramatically in grades 4-12, as has the amount of assessments and paperwork that we are required to submit. Despite limited and inadequate instructional supplies, we have been asked to assume a range of new responsibilities, well beyond our workday. -more-
During the last four years I have believed it inappropriate, as superintendent of Berkeley schools, to engage in newspaper debates, so I have refrained from ever responding to letters to the editor. However, because the recent attack by Michael Larrick (Letters, Feb. 25-28) on public education and Berkeley teachers was so ill considered and uninformed, I am compelled to respond. -more-
Although not a Christo groupie, when I got the offer of a free place to crash on Manhattan’s Upper East Side I couldn’t resist Jet Blueing to the Big Apple to take in “The Gates.” I wasn’t the only Berkeleyite who made the pilgrimage to the Central Park saffron spectacle staged by Christo and his wife, Jeanne-Claude. In my week-long whirlwind adventure of Gates-gazing and copious noshing, I kept bumping into Berkeley folks—at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, at the Stage Deli, on Broadway and in the park itself. -more-
Deep in the recesses of LaVal’s Subterranean, Philip Wharton is about to unlock his word-hoard. Dressed simply as a scop or scald, ancient bard and reciter, he begins alliteratively in Anglo-Saxon, then switches seamlessly into Modern English, his translation of Beowulf, heroes and monsters sketched in with graceful gestures and quick grimaces. -more-
After that long siege of rain, it’s been warm enough this week for the turtles to be out basking. You can see them at Jewel Lake in Tilden Regional Park: the larger, darker ones are western pond turtles, the Bay Area’s only native chelonians; the green stripy ones with red patches on their necks are red-eared sliders, the descendants of inconvenient pets who were released in the lake. (“Slider” here pertains to a group of freshwater turtles, not to a curving fastball or a small hamburger.) Their lives appear peaceful, apart from the occasional jostle over the best spot on the log. -more-
Prosecutors plan to file murder charges in a brutal attack that left a Berkeley homeless woman dead. -more-
Berkeley filed suit Wednesday against UC Berkeley, charging that the university’s Long Range Development Plan violated state law and would sanction a university building boom, leaving residents to pay for strained city services and clogged roads. -more-
A former El Cerrito mayor’s small claims court action has ended in a ruling that the city has been collecting an illegal tax for the last seven years. -more-
Federal housing officials have given Berkeley-based non-profit developer Jubilee Restoration a March 1 deadline to show how it will repay approximately $200,000 in misspent federal funds. -more-
The battle over a tribe’s plan to build a Las Vegas-size casino in San Pablo heated up this week in City Council chambers and competing press conferences. -more-
Despite a plea by the Berkeley High men’s baseball coach for opening the discussion of a baseball field on Derby Street, Berkeley Unified School District officials continue to keep that issue off the table until the City Council weighs in. -more-
The City Council gave the final go ahead for a first-of-its-kind disability services center, but not before a last-second scare. -more-
The Oakland-based developer seeking to develop portions of Laney College and Peralta Community College District properties has apparently neglected one of the most powerful stakeholders in the area: the Bay Area Rapid Transit District. -more-
Getting some time to eat in the middle of the workday sounds simple. In reality, many restaurant workers put in their entire shifts without stopping. -more-
Dame Stella Rimington finds the whole idea of a “war on terror” a little puzzling, and when Stella Rimington is confused the intelligence community should pay attention. -more-
Like a train on a one-way track, the Oakland Unified School District is barreling down what seems to be a pre-determined course, with the faces of worried passengers appearing at every window, wondering where all of this is supposed to end up. -more-
Less than a week after being elected chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Howard Dean met with a group of activists in San Francisco. -more-
The Feb. 22 article “City Wants to tax University, File Lawsuit on LRDP” incorrectly reported the reason why Jim Chanin requested that the City Council review memorandums of understanding between Berkeley police and other law enforcement agencies. He requested the review because they are required by law, not because he feared that the Berkeley department was sharing information about his clients. Chanin has had those concerns involving the Oakland Police Department. -more-
Berkeley and Albany share a friendly border in our northern corner of Alameda County. The border zig zags through multiple residential, commercial, mixed use/light industrial, and industrial neighborhoods. Usually a “Welcome to ____” sign is the only obvious marker of a change in municipality. Many of North Berkeley’s residents are immediately adjacent to Albany to the north and west. We share friends, favorite restaurants, and cherished artists with Albany residents. -more-
Public libraries in the United States stand on three principles: The first is patron confidentiality, the idea that every one may use the library in privacy, that everything you read is personal and private. The second is intellectual freedom, the idea t hat you may read, view and listen broadly: that all ideas should be available to discuss and to learn from, even those which are repugnant to society as a whole. The third principle is equal access to information. In the U.S., this means that public libra ries are free, that all may use the library regardless of economic, social or other barriers. Librarians and library supporters have felt so strongly about these ideas that we have written them into state law. In California, libraries are forbidden from sharing information about a library user’s record unless presented with a subpoena; and libraries may not charge fees for basic services. -more-
“The hope for success in promoting the whole truth about our race lies with open-minded school administrators.” -more-
“At the foundation of every culture,” composer William Bolcom insists, “is how words and music marry. It’s our patrimony, it’s ours—it’s what makes us.” -more-
The Impact Theatre company, housed in the tiny black basement of La Val’s Pizza and encouraging their audiences to bring “a slice and a pint” downstairs to munch on during their shows, bills itself as offering “Theatre that doesn’t suck.” -more-
Vintage Berkeley refills the wine-store niche that ran dry in the North Shattuck district a couple of years ago when North Berkeley Wine moved west to Martin Luther King Jr. Way. But this new arrival may be a bit different from any wine store the Bay Area has seen before. -more-
A margarine commercial of yore featured the catch phrase “you can’t fool Mother Nature.” We can no longer remember why this was supposed to prompt viewers to buy the featured brand of margarine—perhaps it contained some butter—but the concept seemed true then, and it still does. -more-
In the olden days, when women used to hang their laundry in the back yard on clotheslines, a lot of neighborhood news was spread over the back fence. The telephone increased the range of gossip transmission, and made it possible for eager consumers to find out what was going on in the next town as well. The contemporary substitute for the back fence is e-mail, a way of finding out what’s become of friends and acquaintances in distant places with little effort. -more-
