The Week

Richard Brenneman: Asa Dodsworth, left, and Bill Trampleasure gathered at the over-the-sidewalk arbor at Dodsworth’s 2185 Acton St. home Thursday to discuss the structure’s impending city-ordered destruction..
Richard Brenneman: Asa Dodsworth, left, and Bill Trampleasure gathered at the over-the-sidewalk arbor at Dodsworth’s 2185 Acton St. home Thursday to discuss the structure’s impending city-ordered destruction..
 

News

City Fines Bring End To Arbor On Acton By RICHARD BRENNNEMAN

Friday June 10, 2005

While many who live near the corner of Acton and Addison streets see it as a neighborhood delight, city officials see it as a code violation. -more-


Library Budget Spares Jobs, Sunday Hours By MATTHEW ARTZ

Friday June 10, 2005

In a move that signals a truce in the library’s six-month labor-management war, the Library Board of Trustees approved Wednesday a $12.8 million budget that would avoid layoffs and open the door to restoring Sunday hours. -more-


Former KPFA Employee Charges Sex Discrimination By MATTHEW ARTZ

Friday June 10, 2005

A former KPFA radio employee has filed a sexual discrimination and harassment suit against the station, charging that she was repeatedly harassed by her male supervisor and that station management refused to respond to her complaints and ultimately fired her when she continued to press her concerns. -more-


School Board Postpones Jefferson Name Change By J DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Friday June 10, 2005

The Jefferson Elementary School name controversy did not end with the decision by Jefferson parents/guardians, school staff, and students to change the school’s name to Sequoia. -more-


Hills Fire Station Over Budget, Behind Schedule By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday June 10, 2005

Thirteen years after Berkeley voters approved the Hills Fire Station, the project is within a year of completion, with the final tab estimated at $6.7 million. -more-


Medical Pot Users’ Hopes Dim After Ruling By MATTHEW ARTZ

Friday June 10, 2005

Medical marijuana users have few promising avenues to turn to after Monday’s Supreme Court decision upholding the federal government’s authority to prosecute sick people who use and grow marijuana, according to legal experts and legislative staffers. -more-


County To Consider BUSD Union Contracts By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Friday June 10, 2005

Tentative Berkeley Unified School District contract settlements have been ratified by three school unions, but the agreements must be cleared by the Alameda County Office of Education (ACOE) before going to the BUSD Board of Directors for final approval. -more-


University Senior Housing Construction Set For Fall By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday June 10, 2005

Thanks to $12.5 million in tax credits granted by the state this week, construction can begin on an 80-unit low-income senior housing project at 1535 University Ave. -more-


Homeless Woman Wins Back Truck, Dogs By MATTHEW ARTZ

Friday June 10, 2005

The Berkeley homeless woman who last month asked the City Council for help has recovered her pick-up truck and two dogs taken from her in February. -more-


Students Unearth Old Conservatory On UC Campus By STEVEN FINACOM Special to the Planet

Friday June 10, 2005

At the foot of an oak-studded hillside facing Doe Library on the UC Berkeley campus, a team of UC students is hard at work this month unearthing the remains of what was once one of the most prominent and distinctive buildings in the Berkeley landscape. -more-


Editorial Cartoon By JUSTIN DEFREITAS

Friday June 10, 2005

http://www.jfdefreitas.com/index.php?path=/00_Latest%20Workj -more-


Letters to the Editor

Friday June 10, 2005

MALCOLM X SCHOOL -more-


Column: Undercurrents: Mayor’s Sideshow Proposal Takes an Unexpected Turn By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Friday June 10, 2005

If you were able to stay up well into the early morning hours during Tuesday night’s Oakland City Council meeting, you would have come across some interesting things. -more-


Commentary: The UC-City Settlement: An Angry Rebuttal By DEAN METZGER and DAVID WILSON

Friday June 10, 2005

The Bates/Maio/Capitelli/Anderson article of last Friday defending the private settlement between Berkeley and the University of California is profoundly misleading. Instead of opening a “new era of cooperation,” the agreement effectively gives the Regents an effective veto over development in the downtown area. At the same time it gives the city no voice whatsoever in the university’s expansion plans. -more-


Commentary: What’s In A Name? A Modest Proposal For The Library By ERIC KNUDSEN

Staff
Friday June 10, 2005

Librarian. From the Latin librarius: “concerned with books.” -more-


Playing the Short and the Long of It, Un-Scripted By BETSY M. HUNTON Special to the Planet

Friday June 10, 2005

Probably one of the toughest jobs an improvisational theater company has in putting on a show must be figuring up a title. Think about it: Since nobody knows what the actors are going to do on any given night, how on earth do they find a title encouraging people to give it a try? -more-


Arts Calendar

Friday June 10, 2005

FRIDAY, JUNE 10 -more-


Challenge Yourself in the East Bay Regional Parks By MARTA YAMAMOTO Special to the Planet

Friday June 10, 2005

January was the time for resolutions: get outside, exercise, eat better food, reduce stress and get healthy. Half way through the year, your resolutions may remain on paper only. If you’re still waiting for the right motivation, an easy solution may be at hand. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Friday June 10, 2005

FRIDAY, JUNE 10 -more-


Berkeley’s Synagogue Building Boom By MATTHEW ARTZ

Tuesday June 07, 2005

After 16 years of wandering through the desert of homelessness, Berkeley’s only conservative Jewish congregation, Netivot Shalom, finally took shelter in their half-acre of promised land Friday on University Avenue. -more-


Brower Center Over Budget, Seeks Grant For Contaminated Sites By MATTHEW ARTZ

Tuesday June 07, 2005

In order to get enough money to build what has been billed as the greenest project in Berkeley, the city may have to ask federal officials to designate part of the downtown as a brownfield—a term that typically applies to contaminated industrial sites. -more-


Supreme Court Rules Against Protection for Medical Pot By MATTHEW ARTZ

Tuesday June 07, 2005

In a setback for medical marijuana users, on Monday the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against a seriously ill Oakland woman seeking to grow and use marijuana without fear of federal raids. -more-


BUSD Settles Berkeley High Discrimination Expulsion Suit By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Tuesday June 07, 2005

The Berkeley Unified School District notified families last week that it has reached a settlement in the Smith v. BUSD Board of Education case, a 2004 class action suit filed on behalf of three minority Berkeley students—two African-Americans and one Latino—who claimed that their education at Berkeley High was disrupted by improper expulsions. -more-


Patient Shifts, Contract Spark Alta Bates Protest By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday June 07, 2005

Tensions are heating up over impending changes at both East Bay Alta Bates hospitals. -more-


BUSD Board to Consider Set of Proposed Budget Cuts By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Tuesday June 07, 2005

Two weeks after the Berkeley Unified School District reached tentative contract agreements with three of its five unions, the BUSD Board of Directors on Wednesday will get back to the business of finding the money to pay for those pacts. -more-


Mayor Promises Help for West Campus Neighbors By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday June 07, 2005

An aide to Mayor Tom Bates promised Thursday to help neighbors of BUSD’s West Campus who have fought plans to move some district services and added parking lots to the University Avenue site. -more-


ZAB Considers Additions To Landmark on Adeline By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday June 07, 2005

The Zoning Adjustments Board on Thursday will consider the addition of a fourth story to the recently landmarked Frederick H. Dakin Warehouse at 2750 Adeline St. -more-


Back to the Drawing Board For the European Union By PAOLO PONTONIERE Pacific News Service

Tuesday June 07, 2005

French and Dutch voters’ rejection of the European constitution wasn’t a fluke, as some European statesmen would have us believe, but it isn’t the death of the European Union either, as some doomsday prophets on both sides of the Atlantic predict. It is, however, the most serious crisis the union has faced since its inception in 1995. -more-


Corrections

Tuesday June 07, 2005

A photograph caption for the June 3 article about Adagia restaurant mistakenly described a meal among workers from Cal Performances as a good-bye meal for Matt Patrone. Another co-worker was leaving the company; Patrone said he intends to stay with Cal Performances for a long time to come. -more-


Letters to the Editor

Tuesday June 07, 2005

Due to a copyediting error, the following letter ran incorrectly in the June 3-6 Daily Planet. -more-


Column: A There There, a Story Where: Deep Throat in Manhattan By SUSAN PARKER

Tuesday June 07, 2005

Back in New York last week, I thought I wouldn’t have a problem finding literary inspiration. I went to the Catskills to look for excitement, adventure, and column topics. No surprise though, there wasn’t any there there—not even a piece of borderline artwork to recognize the condition. -more-


Police Blotter By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday June 07, 2005

Party Potshots -more-


Fire Department Log By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday June 07, 2005

Arsonist Targets Student -more-


Commentary: Perception is Reality: The New Berkeley By BONNIE HUGHES

Tuesday June 07, 2005

Berkeley once was a place where ideals were pursued, where movements to make the world greener and more just were rooted, where openness and free speech were championed. -more-


Commentary: Mudflat Sculpture:Art to Remember By DOROTHY BRYANT

Tuesday June 07, 2005

Reading the May 31 article and seeing the photo of driftwood/junk structures which might be removed if the Albany Bulb becomes part of the Eastshore State Park, I was taken back years and years to—does anyone remember?—the Mudflat Sculpture in the tidela nds beyond the Eastshore Freeway before it was expanded and “improved.” -more-


Commentary: ZAB Ratifies Right to Pave By ROBERT LAURISTON

Tuesday June 07, 2005

On May 26, the Zoning Adjustments Board ruled that an application to construct a three-story mixed-use building with two apartments over ground-floor commercial space at 3045 Shattuck Ave. (aka the “Flying Cottage”) could be approved by city planning staff on a zoning certificate. This type of staff-level approval requires no public hearing and cannot be appealed by neighbors to ZAB or City Council, as would be the case if ZAB had ruled that one or more use permits were required. -more-


Commentary: Why the Emmett Till Murder Case Still Matters By EARL OFARI HUTCHINSON Pacific News Service

Tuesday June 07, 2005

The mood was somber when FBI officials recently dug up the body of Emmett Till in suburban Chicago. The mood should have been downright grim. If ever there was a racial lynching case that screamed for federal action it was the Till case. And there are more. -more-


Reflections on the Making of La Peña By FERNANDO A. TORRESSpecial to the Planet

Tuesday June 07, 2005

Two years after La Peña was founded in the same place where it is today in South Berkeley, I arrived to the East Coast as an exile. Not escaping but expelled from Pinochet’s Chile, one of the bloodiest military dictatorship in the continent. I was a youn g rebel, a bit of poet and musician who loved the political process that in 1970 opened minds giving us a deep sense of latinoamericanismo. -more-


La Peña Hosts Anniversary Bash By BETSY M. HUNTON Special to the Planet

Tuesday June 07, 2005

On Saturday La Peña Cultural Center will celebrate its 30th anniversary with a free street festival at the corner of Prince Street and Shattuck Avenue. -more-


A Triangle of Love and Jealousy Play Out in ‘Honour’ By KEN BULLOCK Special to the Planet

Tuesday June 07, 2005

“Perhaps we exploit the past for what the present lacks.” ... -more-


Mozart Festival Opens with Preview at El Cerrito Garden Party By IRA STEINGROOT Special to the Planet

Tuesday June 07, 2005

This year’s Midsummer Mozart Festival kicks off a month ahead of schedule with a sneak preview Mozart at a garden party this coming Sunday from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at 1140 Arlington Blvd. in El Cerrito. -more-


Arts Calendar

Tuesday June 07, 2005

TUESDAY, JUNE 7 -more-


Following the Efficient Migration Mechanism of Oak Trees By RON SULLIVAN Special to the Planet

Tuesday June 07, 2005

When we import all those magnificent oaks—gracious eastern red oaks, ziggy little pin oaks, stately English oaks—to line our streets and grace our gardens and public places, we’re joining an old tradition. It’s a globalization that dates back to some of the earliest human explorations: we’ve moved taro, breadfruit, and later pineapples throughout Polynesia; coffee between Africa and Asia and South America. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday June 07, 2005

TUESDAY, JUNE 7 -more-


Opinion

Editorials

Guest Editorial: BUSD Must Act to Save Warm Pool By DONA SPRING

Friday June 10, 2005

EDITOR’S NOTE: Councilmember Dona Spring has contributed the guest editorial below, which she also sent as a letter to the Berkeley School Board. Keeping a warm water pool available for Berkeley citizens was a major project of the late Fred Lupke, a valued participant in reviving the Berkeley Daily Planet two years ago, so we are happy to have the opportunity to concur with the concerns expressed by Councilmember Spring. We would also like to remind Berkeley citizens that all of us, students and non-students, are just an accident away from disability. When I experienced a painful and lingering knee injury a few years ago, swimming at the Warm Water Pool was the way I finally recovered, after conventional medical therapy hadn’t worked very well. We need to preserve and maintain this valuable city resource for everyone, not allow it to vanish because of the school district’s careless maintenance. -more-


Editorial: How Oxford Plans:Lessons for Berkeley By BECKY O'MALLEY

Tuesday June 07, 2005

In Oxford as in Berkeley, housing has become a major political issue. Decisions on how many new homes are needed in Britain start with the central government, with quotas being set by regional planning groups similar to the Association of Bay Area Govern ments. The South East England Regional Assembly is putting together a 20-year plan in consultation with the Oxfordshire County Council, but the County Council’s plan is now facing opposition from Oxford City Council’s Administration. -more-