The Week

Richard Brenneman: UC Berkeley Assistant Professor Ignacio Chapela, left, and his attorney Dan Siegel held a press conference on the steps of Hilgard Hall to announce the filing of a lawsuit by Chapela challenging the university’s denial of tenure to the outspoken critic of genetically modified crops and UC’s ever-tighter embrace of corporate funding..
Richard Brenneman: UC Berkeley Assistant Professor Ignacio Chapela, left, and his attorney Dan Siegel held a press conference on the steps of Hilgard Hall to announce the filing of a lawsuit by Chapela challenging the university’s denial of tenure to the outspoken critic of genetically modified crops and UC’s ever-tighter embrace of corporate funding..
 

News

Chapela Files Tenure Suit Against UC Berkeley By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday April 19, 2005

Ignacio Chapela, the UC Berkeley professor denied tenure after his outspoken criticisms of genetically modified crops and corporate/academic ties, filed suit in Alameda County Superior Court Monday against the UC Board of Regents. -more-


Drayage Tenants Refuse to Vacate City Issues Citation, Owner Appeals By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday April 19, 2005

Berkeley Fire Marshal David Orth said four citations representing $10,000 in fines would be mailed this morning (Tuesday) to Dr. Lawrence White, owner of the Drayage. -more-


City Mandates EIR to Cover Proposed West Berkeley Bowl By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday April 19, 2005

Berkeley City Planner Dan Marks has ordered Berkeley Bowl owner Glen Yasuda to prepare an environmental impact report (EIR) on his plans to construct a new Berkeley Bowl at Ninth Street and Heinz Avenue. -more-


With Five Principal Vacancies, BUSD Looks to Revise Selection Process By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Tuesday April 19, 2005

Faced with replacing nearly one-third of its 16 school principals next year, the Berkeley Unified School District is looking to reform its hiring process, including adding more staff and community input. -more-


Closed Meeting Held on West Lake Merritt Plans By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Tuesday April 19, 2005

Representatives of eight Oakland-based public agencies met privately with business leaders and developers last week to discuss development plans in the politically sensitive area between the western shore of Lake Merritt and the estuary. -more-


City Council to Address Budget Deficit, Consider Commission, Event Funding Cuts By MATTHEW ARTZ

Tuesday April 19, 2005

The City Council Tuesday will be devoted to tackling the city’s projected $8.9 million budget deficit, which the council must close by the end of June. On the agenda is a proposal to scale back citizen commission meetings to save staff time and a report on priority projects from the Planning, Housing, Transportation and Economic Development departments. -more-


Peralta to Hold Briefing on Vista Construction By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Staff
Tuesday April 19, 2005

The Peralta Community College Board of Trustees has scheduled a special public meeting Thursday to receive a briefing on the new Vista College building project. The 5 p.m. meeting will be held at Vista College, 2020 MIlvia St., room 210. -more-


BB Gun Shooting Investigated as UC Fraternity Hazing Incident By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Tuesday April 19, 2005

An incident reported last week in the Daily Planet Police Blotter as an emergency room report of a male patient shot with a BB gun has since been identified by University of California representatives as a potential fraternity hazing incident. -more-


Berkeley Author Tells Of Lincoln Brigade Veterans

Tuesday April 19, 2005

Berkeley author Richard Bermack will read Thursday from his just-published volume on American Marxists who volunteered to fight with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War. -more-


By-Right Additions, Setbacks Dominate ZAB Meeting By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday April 19, 2005

The thorny issue of “by-right” additions—those up-to-500-square-foot expansions granted homeowners by right of law—was back before the Zoning Adjustments Board Thursday. -more-


West Berkeley Meeting Addresses Pacific Steel Odor By MATTHEW ARTZ

Tuesday April 19, 2005

Preliminary air quality tests at West Berkeley’s Pacific Steel Castings indicate that the plant that regulators blame for emitting a pervasive smell of burnt rubber meets state toxic emission standards. -more-


Downtown Parking Workshop Thursday By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday April 19, 2005

Berkeley’s Transportation Commission will take up the thorny issue of downtown parking during a two-hour public workshop Thursday evening. -more-



Letters to the Editor

Tuesday April 19, 2005

JEFFERSON SCHOOL -more-


Confronting America’s Addiction to Oil By Bob Burnett

Column: The Public Eye
Tuesday April 19, 2005

America is teetering on the edge of recession. We’ve run up a huge debt and, as a result, have developed startling vulnerabilities. While there are many explanations for our precarious situation—ill-advised tax cuts and wrong-headed administration priorities, for example—the root problem is our dependency on oil. Although we are barely 5 percent of the world’s population, we consume 25 percent of the annual oil production. We produce 6 million barrels of oil per day yet devour 20 million. -more-


Dealing With the Bullies Who Threaten Us By Susan Parker

Column
Tuesday April 19, 2005

I’d been obsessing about bullies and how to deal with them for days when I asked my friend Gary if he remembered being bullied as a child. -more-


Police Blotter By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday April 19, 2005

Armed Backpack Robbery -more-


Fire Department Log By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday April 19, 2005

Smoker Ignites Blaze -more-


Berkeley’s Insidious Incinerator By LA WOOD

Commentary
Tuesday April 19, 2005

Gilman Street and I-80 mark the entrance to Berkeley’s Oceanview District. The highway exit is also delineated by the puffing white smokestacks of Pacific Steel Castings, one of Berkeley’s last remaining foundries. All who drive through northwest Berkele y knows it’s time to roll up the car windows because of the burnt smells that permeate the area. -more-


Oakland Special Election: A Better Way By AIMEE ALLISON

Commentary
Tuesday April 19, 2005

Elections should ensure majority rule and give citizens confidence that every vote counts. In Oakland, we could be using the best that democracy has to offer. -more-


Jefferson Elementary School, and Other Excuses for the Achievement Gap By MICHAEL LARRICK

Commentary
Tuesday April 19, 2005

Black Americans and their leaders would be far better served if they would address the real problems in black education instead of the superficial and misleading issue of the name of a school. The name of a school has absolutely nothing to do with academic achievement. The real reasons for the “achievement gap” are uncomfortable for many to discuss so the portrayal of blacks as perennial victims is used to absolve them from having to accept responsibility for their own actions and bad choices. Racism is not dead, but as racism recedes as a serious obstacle to black advancement, most black American leaders continue the self destructive ideology of victimhood. They treat victim hood not as a problem to be solved but as an identity to be nurtured. Victimhoo d is seductive because there is an ironic and addictive contentment in being the underdog. However it inherently gives failure, lack of effort and even criminality a tacit stamp of approval. Many young blacks, born decades after the heyday of the civil ri ghts movement, and who have few if any obstacles to success, see victim hood as the defining element of their existence. -more-


The Art That Saved the Irish From Starvation By ZELDA BRONSTEIN

Special to the Planet
Tuesday April 19, 2005

Anyone who doubts that art can change the world should visit the Irish crochet lace show that just opened at the new Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles in Berkeley. The first thing you’ll notice is the intricate, often fanciful, beauty of the hundred-plus pieces on display; the second is their amazing history. -more-


Arts Calendar

Tuesday April 19, 2005

TUESDAY, APRIL 19 -more-


Following the Flight of the Painted Lady Butterflies By JOE EATON

Special to the Planet
Tuesday April 19, 2005

We were somewhere in the foothills east of Bakersfield when the first of the painted ladies showed up. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday April 19, 2005

TUESDAY, APRIL 19 -more-


UC Strikers Demand Good-Faith Bargaining By JAKOB SCHILLER

Friday April 15, 2005

University of California service workers from the system’s nine campuses, five medical facilities and the Lawrence Berkeley Labs held a one-day strike Thursday to protest what they said is UC’s disrespect for their jobs and its refusal to bargain in good faith for a new contract. -more-


No Layoffs At Library By MATTHEW ARTZ

Friday April 15, 2005

Unanticipated revenues have halted plans to lay off workers at the Berkeley Public Library, the library’s Executive Director Jackie Griffin said. -more-


Council Can’t Help Evicted Artists By MATTHEW ARTZ

Friday April 15, 2005

Lacking the authority to keep more than two dozen tenants in their West Berkeley live/work complex that city officials have declared a fire hazard, the City Council Tuesday urged the residents of the Drayage Warehouse to comply with an April 15 evacuation order. -more-


Peralta Chancellor Reopens Dones Negotiations, Temporarily Pulls Back on Art Annex Contract By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Friday April 15, 2005

Peralta Community College Chancellor Elihu Harris is close to an agreement in principle with Oakland developer Alan Dones on a controversial Peralta-Laney College land development proposal, but plans to present the agreement to Peralta Trustees in coming weeks without his recommendation. -more-


BUSD Launches Long-Range School Planning Initiative By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Friday April 15, 2005

In the midst of continuing uncertainty about how much education money will be coming out of Sacramento—and what strings will be attached—the Berkeley Unified School District has launched a long-range initiative to identify the “essential components of quality schools” and reliable ways to fund them in Berkeley. -more-


Planning Panel Sets Landmarks Law Hearing, Approves Creeks Proposal By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday April 15, 2005

Planning commissioners Wednesday voted unanimously to approve the proposed workplan and timeline of the Creeks Task Force and to schedule an April 27 hearing on the city’s Landmarks Preservation Ordinance (LPO). -more-


UC, Developer Extend Downtown Hotel Talks By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday April 15, 2005

UC Berkeley’s plans for a hotel, conference center and museums complex aren’t dead, merely delayed, said Kevin Hufferd, the university’s project manager. -more-


Property Auction Augments City’s General Fund By MATTHEW ARTZ

Staff
Friday April 15, 2005

Berkeley is $773,000 richer after auctioning off two residential housing lots on McKinley Avenue behind the public safety building Tuesday. -more-


Hancock Waste Site Bill Set for Assembly Hearing By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday April 15, 2005

At least two East Bay residents will testify later this month on two bills that would transform regulation of toxic waste sites. -more-


Slasher Companion Resigns By MATTHEW ARTZ

Friday April 15, 2005

The accused accomplice of the 16-year-old girl who has been charged with slashing a Berkeley woman outside the Rose Garden has resigned from her job at Juvenile Hall, Alameda County Counsel Richard Winnie said. -more-


Tax Activists: Big Buisness Must Pay its Fair Share By LUCY KOMISAR

Pacific News Service
Friday April 15, 2005

As Americans fret over their personal income taxes, there is a movement afoot to reduce the tax burden on ordinary people by getting corporations and wealthy individuals to pay their fair share. -more-



Letters to the Editor

Friday April 15, 2005

WHAT’S HAPPENING? -more-


Looking for Love From Oakland’s Next Mayor J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

UnderCurrents
Friday April 15, 2005

A friend from out of town asked the other day if Oakland had a convention center. -more-


The Meaning of Manliness: A Cosby Kid in the ‘Hood By P.M. Price

The View From Here
Friday April 15, 2005

Not long ago, my 10-year-old son, Jason, came limping into the kitchen, a doo-rag (scarf) on his head, some bling (an over-sized, shiny but fake medallion) around his neck and wearing—just barely—a pair of pants about two sizes too large, his plaid boxers peeking out over his backside. -more-


Police Blotter By MATTHEW ARTZ

Friday April 15, 2005

Combat Victim -more-


Community Supports Work-To-Rule, Teacher Says By GEN KOGURE

Commentary
Friday April 15, 2005

In the encounters I have had with the parents and children of Berkeley, I have found that the overwhelming majority of them support the work to rule action. I know that they don’t find it easy, but all of them understand the fundamental human right that people should be paid for the hours they work. -more-


Arrested for Attempted Murder: Don’t You Hate it When That Happens? By CAROL DENNEY

Commentary
Friday April 15, 2005

I was arrested a couple weeks ago for attempted murder. The police take me to jail a lot for sport. I’m starting to think they should thank me for providing some recreation in their day. -more-


Berkeley’s Best: Jump’n Java By BECKY O'MALLEY

Friday April 15, 2005

Jump’n Java -more-


East Bay’s Little-Known Russian Community Celebrates Diversity By FRED DODSWORTH

Special to the Planet
Friday April 15, 2005

It’s easy to miss the East Bay’s immigrant Russian community. Typically they are poised, neatly dressed Caucasians with lilting accents that can be mistaken for anything from French to Eastern European to Israeli. -more-


Point Richmond’s Masquers Mark 50 Years with ‘Proof’ By BETSY M. HUNTON

Special to the Planet
Friday April 15, 2005

The Masquers of Point Richmond, housed for the last 40 years in one of the most charming theaters in one of the most charming areas in the Bay Area—we’ll get to that later—are celebrating their 50th anniversary with their usual eclectic selection of plays. The company started the season with a bubble entitled The Farndale Avenue Dramatic Society’s Production of MacBeth and has now moved on to one of Broadway’s recent and best-known block-busters. -more-


Wilde Irish’s ‘Ariel’ Explores the Battleground of Family By KEN BULLOCK

Special to the Planet
Friday April 15, 2005

So the Platonic Year/Whirls out new right and wrong,/Whirls in old instead;/All men are dancers and their tread/Goes to the barbarous clangour of a gong. -more-


Arts Calendar

Friday April 15, 2005

FRIDAY, APRIL 15 -more-


Garden Tour Focuses on East Bay’s Native Plants By RON SULLIVAN

Special to the Planet
Friday April 15, 2005

On Sunday, May 1, the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour will open 50 gardens in the East Bay for free tours. Tours include guides, who along with the garden owners can answer questions and point out subtle features of the gardens; at some gardens, plants will be available for purchase or for free. The gardens are maintained with minimal supplemental water—some get no irrigation at all, just our usual winter rain—and also minimal or no pesticides. This fosters a lively ecosystem; many gardeners have long lists of the wildlife they encounter in their gardens, from mammals to birds and butterflies. Thirteen of these gardens are in Berkeley, and for an example of the range of possibilities in a California native plant garden, here are three. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Friday April 15, 2005

FRIDAY, APRIL 15 -more-


Opinion

Editorials

Protecting Berkeley From Mothers With Babies By BECKY O'MALLEY

Editorial
Tuesday April 19, 2005

All good Berkeleyans know that police harass innocent minority people in places like Orange County or Texas, right? It doesn’t happen here in Northern California—well, maybe in Oakland or even San Francisco, but certainly not in Berkeley, right? We have a Police Review Commission. Our cops all went to college. They know better. Uh-huh. -more-


Penny-Wise, Pound-Foolish By BECKY O'MALLEY

Editorial
Friday April 15, 2005

Next week’s Berkeley City Council agenda contains a proposal from City Manager Phil Kamlarz, generated at the City Council’s behest, for cost-cutting by cutting down on a large percentage of Berkeley’s commission meetings. For example, he recommends that the Commission on Disabilities should meet only quarterly, instead of monthly, and that the Public Works Commission should meet only every other month. If adopted, this proposal would cause a dramatic change in Berkeley’s long and proud tradition of citizen participation in government. -more-