Local regulators have cited West Berkeley’s Pacific Steel Casting for releasing foul smelling air from its factories, plant General Manager Joe Emmerichs confirmed Thursday. -more-
Tupper & Reed Music—downtown Berkeley’s oldest business—is closing its doors after 99 years. -more-
When it came down to whether or not Terri Schiavo should live or die, many in Berkeley’s famously left-wing disabled community found themselves in lock step with the Christian Right. -more-
The task force charged with rewriting Berkeley’s contentious creeks law is scheduled to approve a plan Monday that will ask the city to grant it up to $200,000. -more-
The Berkeley Historical Society announced the winning photographers for its Life Magazine-Style Photo Essay Competition this week. -more-
City-mandated upgrades to Berkeley Iceland will be delayed by six months, according to rink owners, after city officials rejected the rink’s initial proposal to upgrade its facility. -more-
Despite the recent city decision to landmark one of the buildings he plans to demolish, developer Dan Deibel is pushing ahead with plans for a major residential and commercial block in West Berkeley. -more-
In this small, sad space where the overwhelming emotions seem to have temporarily waned with the death of Terri Schiavo, and before we have forgotten this issue entirely and moved onto other things, it seems appropriate to take some time to talk calmly and quietly about the issues that have been raised. This is an issue which ought to rise above partisan politics. -more-
The defining moment for me in the O.J. Simpson trial was not Simpson’s acquittal and the firestorm that it ignited nationally. It was a note I got from an associate in Johnnie Cochran’s law firm. He said that Johnnie wanted me to know that he admired my comments about the case. I was one of the legion of talking heads during the trial, and like many of the other analysts, I was critical of some of Cochran’s legal maneuvers. -more-
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands—After a 19-year-old man of Moroccan descent was run down and killed in January by a Dutch woman driver trying to recover her stolen purse, mourners blamed Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk for the death. -more-
American culture is driven by consumerism. As a result, from time to time our favorite brands get new packaging: the Coca-Cola can features a new paint job; the New York Times gets a facelift; Cadillac introduces an SUV. This process has even affected that venerable institution, Christianity. -more-
In the March 25-28 Daily Planet, Heath Maddox, a city staffer and union member, replies to my query—given that the city’s current contracts with unionized employees grant salary increases of 28.5 percent or (for fire and police) 31.5 percent over six yea rs, how is budgeting zero raises for two years after the current contracts expire asking city workers, in the words of a Planet reporter, “to sacrifice”? -more-
I hope you assign some of your reporters to follow up on the statements summarized below made in a letter by SEIU union member Heath Maddox published in your March 25-28 issue. In his letter, Mr. Maddox lists a number of “sacrifices” city employees have made to reduce city expenses. -more-
The commentary by Bill Hamilton (“Disarming Violence: Three Choices,” March 29-31) presents a nice convenient package for commenting, but fails to accurately portray important aspects of the situation. It is but the latest from among the people who pontificate between lattes, cop-bashing, and massage appointments. Far from being illuminating, it muddles the controversy by framing incongruous circumstances as the same. It also shows a bit too much of the self-righteousness hypocrisy the Bay Area is renowned for. Much like other cases of officious largesse, the choices proffered don’t fit the actual situation. I’m getting used to people who, by age alone, should know better. More than one professional writer, among them inappropriately anointed and self-appointed spokespersons for the Black community, have wrongly referred to my act of self-defense as vigilantism, in spite of the fact that the word choice is obviously incorrect and that I have publicly criticized vigilante acts. -more-
If you’d like a preview of the university’s expanded future—the big dog that already wags the tail that is Berkeley, drive or walk up to Channing Way and Bowditch, stand on the end of the grand old Anna Head site, and take in the dramatic transformation from a sea of boring temporaries to gleaming, state-of-the-art architecture. -more-
“From the Hills to the Bay” might have been an appropriate theme for the Berkeley Historical Society’s spring series of history walking tours starting this weekend. -more-
To attend the 10 a.m. tour this Saturday morning, gather at Founder’s Rock—Gayley Road and Hearst Avenue—and purchase tickets then. Wear good climbing shoes for the steep hike. -more-
Warm spring days beckon us out of our homes like monarchs emerging from their cocoons. Time to brighten our views and feel the touch of the sun. Time to renew our dreams of travel to destinations far and away. -more-
A page 2 headline in the March 29-31 issue for an article on a hazardous waste pickup contained errors. The program is not free, but requires a $10 copay. Also, it is a door-to-door program, not a curbside program. -more-
Six months after a hacker broke into a UC Berkeley research computer containing the names and Social Security numbers of more than 600,000 health care workers and patients, the university has suffered another embarrassing security breach: the theft of a laptop containing personal information on nearly 100,000 graduate students. -more-
The West Berkeley warehouse, declared a fire hazard by city officials, could have a potential buyer who wants to preserve the building as a live-work space for artists. -more-
Forget the gaping, empty stare and the gross green garb. New owner John Gordon said that when he is finished, the bedraggled old Victorian on College and Ashby avenues is going to make a dramatic comeback. -more-
A key state official with a vital say over the funding of the planned Ed Roberts Center says he can’t make his decision and placed the blame this month on city officials. -more-
Many Berkeley residents looking for a cheap and easy way to dispose of computer monitors, televisions, herbicides or other toxic substances lying around their house can now have the items picked up at their doorstep. -more-
The assistant Alameda County district attorney in charge of juvenile prosecutions says that he has not yet seen a report on a female student accused of bringing a gun on to the Berkeley High campus one month after Berkeley police officials say they sent it to the district attorney’s office. -more-
The 16-year-old girl who authorities say slashed the throat of a Berkeley woman near the Rose Garden was with a county worker, assigned to juvenile hall, at the time of the attack, said County Supervisor Keith Carson. -more-
The Berkeley Federation of Teachers has publicly rejected the Berkeley Unified School District’s offer of a 1.2 percent teacher pay raise, saying that the contract offer would actually amount to a $2,000-a-year net loss to teachers when coupled with the district’s medical benefits proposals. -more-
A Berkeley developer’s plans for a $700 million luxury casino resort at the foot of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge will move another step closer to realization Thursday night. -more-
Dateline New York, Spring Break, 2005: Now that I’m a coed, after a 31 year hiatus, I get to celebrate spring break with my fellow party-going students. I don’t remember spring break being a big deal when I was an undergraduate, or if we even had spring break, but then I don’t recall much about 1970 through ‘74. -more-
There is a dire need for more foster parents, as well as for “fost-adopt”” parents (adults who are approved to pursue the adoption of foster children), throughout the county and state, and in many other parts of the country. -more-
Have you smelled it? For more than three decades, Berkeley residents have told stories about encountering the mysterious, Oceanview burnt pot handle smell. These citizen accounts often describe this nauseous odor as “burning rubber” and “toxic.” In fact, this northwest Berkeley phenomenon of the burnt pot handle smell has generated more nuisance phone calls to city officials and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) than any other environmental concern in Berkeley. -more-
Sometimes news consumers should take a breather, stand back, and try to make sense out of what we are hearing. By juxtaposition maybe we can learn more than facts. I would like to consider three stories side by side: the 59th Street/ Shattuck Avenue neighborhood activist, Patrick McCullough, who shot and wounded a young neighbor who was allegedly part of a North Oakland drug gang; the young Ashley Smith who “disarmed” the Atlanta gunman with religion and pancakes, and my own story. -more-
In 1965, the late Hunter Thompson got his first break as a journalist when he was asked to write an article for the venerable Left journal The Nation, about Berkeley after the Free Speech Movement. -more-
At the height of the “Berkeley insurrection” press reports were loaded with mentions of outsiders, nonstudents and professional troublemakers. Terms like “Cal’s shadow college” and “Berkeley’s hidden community” became part of the journalistic lexicon. These people, it was said, were whipping the campus into a frenzy, goading the students to revolt, harassing the administration, and all the while working for their own fiendish ends. You could almost see them loping along the midnight streets with bags of seditious leaflets, strike orders, red banners of protest and cablegrams from Moscow, Peking or Havana. As in Mississippi and South Vietnam, outside agitators were said to be stirring up the locals, who wanted only to be left alone. -more-
Edward Rowland Sill was once as well known as Mark Twain or Bret Harte. He was certainly important here in Berkeley—the first star to appear in the galaxy of poets we’ve come to associate with our city. -more-
This jewel box of a bookstore/newsstand sits a half-block north of the UC Berkeley campus, where it serves a select clientele. The person browsing beside you might be a nationally renowned author who teaches at the nearby UC journalism school, or a Los Angeles Times or San Francisco Chronicle columnist who lives nearby. -more-
There are only a few fernleaf Catalina ironwood trees in public places in Berkeley. These include a couple on the west end of Ohlone Park; in Strawberry Creek Park, where the creek was daylighted, near Bonar; and a row of them against a wall on the Camellia Street side of REI’s San Pablo Avenue store. Once you’ve seen this distinctive small tree, you’ll likely start noticing more. -more-
If the front page looks a bit brighter to you today, it’s because we’ve made a few small changes to what’s called “the flag” by newspapers insiders. The dictionary and many civilians still call it the masthead, but these days the pros seem to reserve that term for the place on the inside that lists the address and the staff. In any event, it’s that strip across the top of the paper that lets you know what you’re getting when you pick the paper up. -more-
The only dignified voice to appear in the midst of the outrageous media circus which has been created around the slow death of Theresa Marie Schindler Sciavo has been that of the disabled community. Ms. Schindler Sciavo is familiarly called in the media by her childhood nickname, Terri, reflecting her dependent status in recent years as a childlike love object for her birth parents and as the legal ward of the husband she married at a young age. Since she can no longer speak for herself, a great deal of space has been devoted to speculation about what she “would have” or “might have” wanted, with no concrete information available to answer this question. -more-
