Jakob Schiller: 
              
              
              
              Dan and Rita Moy take in the sunset Monday evening following their wedding ceremony at the Berkeley Marina before heading to dinner at Skates On The Bay.
Jakob Schiller: Dan and Rita Moy take in the sunset Monday evening following their wedding ceremony at the Berkeley Marina before heading to dinner at Skates On The Bay.

Page One

City Stands to Lose Millions in Federal Aid By MATTHEW ARTZ

Tuesday March 15, 2005

When Berkeley’s only foster care and adoption agency learned that its office was seismically unsafe, it faced an uncomfortable choice: find money for repairs by May 2006 or face city fines. -more-



City Officials Cite Problems With ‘Bonus Floor’ Building Policies By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday March 15, 2005

Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) members and planning commissioners both wrestled with the same subject last week, the incentives that let builders create larger structures in Berkeley than would otherwise be allowed. -more-



Oakland Parents Not Yet Won Over to New Charter School By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Tuesday March 15, 2005

One day before the cutoff of local registration for Golden Gate Elementary Charter School in North Oakland, only 60 percent of students’ families had signed their children up to attend the new school. -more-



BUSD Placed on State ‘Program Improvement’ List By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Tuesday March 15, 2005

Berkeley Unified School District has been put on a list of 150 California school districts needing “program improvement.” -more-



Spaceship Earth Denied A Landing at Waterfront By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday March 15, 2005

The Berkeley Waterfront Commission rejected landing rights to Spaceship Earth in their bailiwick last week, leaving the 350,000-square-foot blue sphere still in search of a home. -more-



Features

City Creates Catch-22 for Motorists Downtown By MICHAEL KATZ

Tuesday March 15, 2005

If you drive west on Center Street into the Shattuck Avenue intersection, you encountered two permanent signs reading “No Left Turn—Except Buses and Bicycles.” But because of Vista College construction on the next block of Center Street, you also encountered a temporary sign ahead saying “Road Closed Ahead.” -more-


2700 San Pablo Ave. Gets Final Design Review By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday March 15, 2005

Berkeley Design Review Committee will get its final look Thursday at plans for a four-story mixed-use condominium and retail project at 2700 San Pablo Ave. -more-


Richmond Casino Plans Boosted, San Pablo Proposal Dealt Setback By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday March 15, 2005

Fans and foes of East Bay casino proposals have had reasons both to celebrate and to fret in recent days. -more-


Marin Avenue Traffic Plan Challenged By MATTHEW ARTZ

Tuesday March 15, 2005

A vocal opponent of a plan to decrease the number of car lanes on Marin Avenue has filed suit against Berkeley and Albany to stop the project. -more-


City Council to Get First Look at Next Year’s Budget By MATTHEW ARTZ

Tuesday March 15, 2005

After weeks of briefings on the city’s looming $7.5 million shortfall, Berkeley’s City Council today (Tuesday) will get its first look at next year’s proposed budget. -more-


Water Board to Hear Campus Bay Cleanup Report on Wednesday By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday March 15, 2005

San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board members will hear the latest developments at Richmond’s Campus Bay waterfront Wednesday morning in downtown Oakland. -more-


A Forgotten My Lai in the Philippines By STEVEN KNIPP

Pacific News Service
Tuesday March 15, 2005

This week will mark the 36th anniversary of the My Lai massacre in which more than 560 men, women and children, all Vietnamese civilians, were murdered by soldiers of Company C of the U.S. Army 20th Division. -more-


Letters to the Editor

Tuesday March 15, 2005

TEN COMMANDMENTS -more-



Keeping An Ear Out for Intriging Dialogue By SUSAN PARKER Column

Tuesday March 15, 2005

In Michelle Carter’s Writing in the Public Context class at San Francisco State we are to listen for and write down overheard dialogue that intrigues us, or that we find mysterious, impenetrable, or loaded with hidden meaning. -more-


The Continuing Saga of Big Boss Al Greenspan By BOB BURNETT News Analysis

Special to the Planet
Tuesday March 15, 2005

Big boss man, -more-


Fire Department Log By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday March 15, 2005

Hot Time on Adeline -more-


Police Blotter By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday March 15, 2005

Crash Fatality -more-


Election Section

Up a Berkeley Creek Without a Paddle By FRED DODSWORTH Commentary

Tuesday March 15, 2005

The Berkeley Creeks Task Force has now met five times. According to Planning Director Dan Marks, the task force will meet, at most, only 20 more times. If Berkeley's citizens want input on the final creeks legislation they would be wise to address the task force at the March 21 meeting, held at the North Berkeley Senior Center. This is currently the only remaining scheduled meeting specifically designated to take citizen input. -more-


There is No Quick Fix! By MAXINA VENTURA Commentary

Tuesday March 15, 2005

In 1997 Oakland banned the use of pesticides on city-owned property. Since then, the city has made either two, a dozen, nine (according to an IPM document), or about half a dozen exemptions. It all depends on which day you hear Jean Quan or her policy analyst, Sue Piper, make their pesticide presentation. Bad news. Now there’s a push to employ herbicides in the hills, specifically Glyphosate (Roundup) and Triclopyr (Garlon). We urge people to speak up for alternatives to renewed dependence on toxics, the same old Monsanto snake oil. After pesticides have been applied, goat-herders wait a year plus another rainy season before they’ll let goats graze. Good move, as about 20 goats keeled over and died in the Spring of 1998, in the Carneros District of the Southern Sonoma Valley, immediately after drinking runoff from the neighbor wine grape grower’s vineyard. He is a user of Roundup, as well as other herbicides and other pesticides. Let’s not climb the toxic treadmill. Make weeding community service instead.. -more-



Unusual Plants Displayed at SF Flower and Garden Show By STEVEN FINACOM

Special to the Planet
Tuesday March 15, 2005

The San Francisco Flower and Garden Show takes place this week, replete with rare plants, elaborate and unusual display gardens with themes ranging from high concept to the horticultural equivalent of comfort food, and a myriad of garden-related products and services for sale. -more-


Dennehy Delights in Role of Blacklisted Dalton Trumbo By KEN BULLOCK

Special to the Planet
Tuesday March 15, 2005

When successful Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo refused to testify before the 1947 House Committee On UnAmerican Activities, he became the stuff of legend—one of the Hollywood Ten, imprisoned for 11 months in 1950, condemned to the blacklist—and selling scripts through third-party “fronts.” -more-


SF Jazz Spring Festvial Opens with Tribute to Coltrane By WILLIAM W. SMITH

Special to the Planet
Tuesday March 15, 2005

Saxophonist Branford Marsalis said recently that jazz musicians are scared of playing John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. -more-


Arts Calendar

Tuesday March 15, 2005

TUESDAY, MARCH 15 -more-


Hybrid Ducks Call Definition of ‘Species’ Into Question By JOE EATON

Special to the Planet
Tuesday March 15, 2005

It’s not often that you see a bird that doesn’t match anything in the field guides—even in Sibley’s Bible of bird identification. But there it was, hanging out with a raft of overwintering common goldeneyes and Barrow’s goldeneyes at the Bayward end of Lake Merritt: a midsized duck with a dark head (showing a purple gloss when the sun hit it) and a backswept crest, a dark back, and pale sides with two vertical hash marks. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday March 15, 2005

TUESDAY, MARCH 15 -more-


Editorial

News From Lake Wobegon and Beyond By BECKY O'MALLEY Editorial

Tuesday March 15, 2005

There was no editor’s column in this space last Friday because I was in Concord on Thursday, serving as a judge in the California Newspaper Publishers’ Association’s annual awards contest. Every paper that enters the competition is required to submit a judge for the regional entries, so I went. My assignment, with one colleague, was to review two categories: investigative/enterprise stories and environmental/“ag” reporting, both for less-than-daily papers above 25,000 circulation, the next group above the Daily Planet’s 2004 figures. Next year, we might be in this group, since our circulation is increasing. -more-


Back Stories

Opinion

Editorials

News From Lake Wobegon and Beyond By BECKY O'MALLEY Editorial 03-15-2005

Laney-Peralta Plans Show Up on District’s Agenda By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR 03-11-2005

School Board Mulls New Budget Report, Teacher Labor Action By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR 03-11-2005

News

City Stands to Lose Millions in Federal Aid By MATTHEW ARTZ 03-15-2005

City Officials Cite Problems With ‘Bonus Floor’ Building Policies By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 03-15-2005

Oakland Parents Not Yet Won Over to New Charter School By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR 03-15-2005

BUSD Placed on State ‘Program Improvement’ List By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR 03-15-2005

Spaceship Earth Denied A Landing at Waterfront By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 03-15-2005

City Creates Catch-22 for Motorists Downtown By MICHAEL KATZ 03-15-2005

2700 San Pablo Ave. Gets Final Design Review By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 03-15-2005

Richmond Casino Plans Boosted, San Pablo Proposal Dealt Setback By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 03-15-2005

Marin Avenue Traffic Plan Challenged By MATTHEW ARTZ 03-15-2005

City Council to Get First Look at Next Year’s Budget By MATTHEW ARTZ 03-15-2005

Water Board to Hear Campus Bay Cleanup Report on Wednesday By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 03-15-2005

A Forgotten My Lai in the Philippines By STEVEN KNIPP Pacific News Service 03-15-2005

Letters to the Editor 03-15-2005

Editorial Cartoons By JUSTIN DeFREITAS 03-15-2005

Keeping An Ear Out for Intriging Dialogue By SUSAN PARKER Column 03-15-2005

The Continuing Saga of Big Boss Al Greenspan By BOB BURNETT News Analysis Special to the Planet 03-15-2005

Fire Department Log By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 03-15-2005

Police Blotter By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 03-15-2005

Up a Berkeley Creek Without a Paddle By FRED DODSWORTH Commentary 03-15-2005

There is No Quick Fix! By MAXINA VENTURA Commentary 03-15-2005

Readers Respond to Derby Street Field Vote 03-15-2005

Unusual Plants Displayed at SF Flower and Garden Show By STEVEN FINACOM Special to the Planet 03-15-2005

Dennehy Delights in Role of Blacklisted Dalton Trumbo By KEN BULLOCK Special to the Planet 03-15-2005

SF Jazz Spring Festvial Opens with Tribute to Coltrane By WILLIAM W. SMITH Special to the Planet 03-15-2005

Arts Calendar 03-15-2005

Hybrid Ducks Call Definition of ‘Species’ Into Question By JOE EATON Special to the Planet 03-15-2005

Berkeley This Week 03-15-2005

Plan for Baseball Field Must Wait, Says Board By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR 03-11-2005

City Looks to Boost Tax Base as Auto Dealer Announces Departure By MATTHEW ARTZ 03-11-2005

BUSD Board Expels Student For Bringing Gun to School By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR 03-11-2005

Hambleton Ready to Take Top Police Post By MATTHEW ARTZ 03-11-2005

Bombs Fly During Heated Landmarks Meeting RICHARD BRENNEMAN 03-11-2005

Library Staff Criticize Director, Trustees Over Layoff Plan By MATTHEW ARTZ 03-11-2005

City Demands UC Collect Parking Tax By MATTHEW ARTZ 03-11-2005

Planners Tackle Brower Center, UC Parking, Sports Fields By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 03-11-2005

Letters to the Editor 03-11-2005

Editorial Cartoons By JUSTIN DeFREITAS 03-11-2005

Lula Lets Down Greens in the Amazon By MARCELO BALLVE News Analysis Pacific News Service 03-11-2005

Police Blotter By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 03-11-2005

Looking Through the Lens of the Lake Merritt Channel By J.DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR Column UNDERCURRENTS OF THE EAST BAY AND BEYOND 03-11-2005

Column Misrepresented North Oakland Shooting By DON LINK Commentary 03-11-2005

The Questions Peter Hillier Wouldn’t Answer By ZELDA BRONSTEIN Commentary 03-11-2005

Doomed to Fail: Parking Lot Under Brower Center By JAMES DOHERTY Commentary 03-11-2005

Academic Choice Will Lead to a Better Berkeley High By MARILYN BOUCHER Commentary 03-11-2005

What They Don’t Tell You in the Smoking Ads By JOHN SLAMA Commentary 03-11-2005

Where Are They Now: Peter Wright By JONATHAN WAFER Special to the Planet 03-11-2005

Octavio Romano, Publisher of Mexican-American Literature By OLGA ROMANO Special to the Planet 03-11-2005

La Peña Celebrates Women in Music With ‘Mujeres’ Series By FRED DODSWORTH Special to the Planet 03-11-2005

Arts Calendar 03-11-2005

Rockridge’s Bittersweet Chocolate Cafe Offers a Taste of the Sweet Life By KATHRYN JESSUP Special to the Planet 03-11-2005

Berkeley This Week 03-11-2005