Berkeley said goodbye to Meleia Willis-Starbuck Friday. -more-

A deal is in place to sell the illegal West Berkeley warehouse where several long-time residents have refused to leave their homes, owner Lawrence White said Friday. -more-

Six months into its tenure, the newly constituted Peralta Community Colleges Board of Trustees has gotten mixed reviews. -more-

The young man who police say shot and killed Meleia Willis-Starbuck telephoned the former Berkeley High boys’ basketball coach over the weekend as he continued to hide from the law. -more-

The deal that ended the city’s lawsuit against the UC Berkeley’s Long Range Development Plan has survived yet another challenge. -more-

A panel of citizens, government officials and community activists appointed to advise the state on toxic waste cleanups in south Richmond will hold its second session Thursday. -more-

The fate of two landmark structures located just east of Telegraph Avenue rests in the hands of three Berkeley developers, two of them planning major developments and the third planning a new home for the vintage dwellings. -more-

A group of neighbors that unsuccessfully fought an affordable housing project all the way to the state appeals court learned Wednesday that Berkeley would have to pay for part of their legal costs. -more-

With the annual August recess approaching, the city’s land use panels will be voting this week on several major hot button planning issues and development projects. -more-

The article “Arsenal Found in Adeline St. Apartment” in the July 22 issue incorrectly reported that Black & White Liquor Store owner Sucha Singh Banger also owned Grove Market at 2948 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. -more-

One of Oaxaca, Mexico’s two major newspapers suffered a violent attack by a group of union enforcers in what some say is a part of the state government’s attempt to shut the paper down. -more-

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

GROVE MARKET -more-

Popular culture has given us a series of memorable duos—Laurel and Hardy, Sonny and Cher, Batman and Robin. Now the Republicans have produced George Bush and his alter ego, Karl Rove. Because of “Plamegate,” the relationship of the GOP’s dynamic duo dese rves close attention. -more-

Last week, as I was reluctantly writing a $1,500 check to send my two kids to a Berkeley summer camp, I started to think of what my parents, uncles and aunts did in the 1950s and ‘60s to provide childcare for their families during the summer months when school was out full-time. -more-

Saturday night I’m upstairs lying on my couch, which is also my bed, when my computer makes a little pinging sound alerting me that a new e-mail has arrived. I can barely get myself disengaged from the covers but since I’ve been secretly hoping that something might entice me off the couch, I get up and check my inbox. It’s a rant from my friend Karen and a part of it reads, “I’m SO useless. It’s Saturday night and I’ve got nothing to do. No life, no energy, nada. I’m reading New Yorkers dating back to March 28. What are you doing?” -more-

Reason for running -more-

On July 13 at their monthly meeting, the Berkeley Board of Library Trustees announced a forum to be held Aug. 1 at the South Berkeley Senior Center, titled “RFID: What’s it all about?” The supposed aim of this forum is to assemble a group of experts who will discuss the pros and cons of radio frequency identification (RFID) equipment and the appropriateness of its installation in the Berkeley Public Library system. -more-

The installation of radio frequency identification devices in the Berkeley Public Library is a complex issue that deserves everybody’s attention. The devices are comprised of an antenna and a microchip embedded in a 2x2 inch square tag. The microchip contains information and the antenna conveys this information to readers/scanners/sensors that are within a distance of 18 inches. Often described as promiscuous, the tags will “talk” to any reader. So, if you were to borrow a book from the Central Branch and then walk into the Ross Dress for Less Store a block away, the readers in the security gates at the door will read whatever information is on the microchip that is embedded in your library book. Privacy, health, labor and costs issues come with the application of RFID in libraries. Privacy advocacy groups like Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU ) are opposed to RFID in libraries because its application is new and untested. Both groups are convinced that the privacy of library users will be compromised. For more information you can visit their websites at www.eff.org and www.aclu.org. -more-

While Bush’s mantra is “WMD,” the Berkeley Board of Library Trustees’ is “WCC” (workers compensation claims for repetitive stress Injuries). Expect to hear more about the radio frequency identification (RFID) system having been installed in the Berkeley Public Libraries to reduce WCCs for RSI; that is, unless the trustees change their minds about having Councilmember Gordon Wozniak as the panelist on RFID safety issues at their Aug. 1 RFID community forum. -more-

The recently recommended revisions to the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance are basically intended to simply and clarify a process that is currently very interpretive, often ambiguous, creating landmarks that are later overturned by the City Council. Clarifying the ordinance would help everyone by creating standards everyone understands. This would improve the functionality of the commission, assist historic preservationists in preserving unique Berkeley buildings and clarify to builders what’s an appropriate site to build on. -more-

Zelda Bronstein’s “Planner’s Alchemy” column opinion correctly pointed to a problem that’s salient in our own Planning Department—staff’s interest in having greater independence and authority even while staying professionally committed to objective service and communication. But it would be helpful to separate that from the speculation about an embedded political agenda in favor of growth at any price—what she might deplore as “dumb growth.” The two dynamics are probably not connected. -more-

I scarcely believed my ears last week when I heard Councilmember Wozniak ask staff if there was a list of all the landmarks designated thus far in Berkeley, including their dates of designation. -more-

I sure learned a lot about guns and those who love them from the recent letters to the Daily Planet that were prompted by the slaying of Meleia Willis-Starbuck and the editor’s subsequent commentary on gun control. One letter writer claims that all women should be armed with handguns in order to fend off would-be rapists. Presumably gun possession would also help prevent muggings; thus men should pack heat every time they leave the house too. While it’s true that with everyone carrying guns the potential for the damn things to go off increases and they may be used in anger rather than self defense and their proliferation will increase the possibility of them finding their way into the hands of children, drunks and the mentally impaired, it will not be the gun’s fault if someone is killed or wounded in error (that is little solace to any victim’s family, I’m sure). -more-

You know the answer to the riddle: Where does a 900-pound gorilla sit? Anywhere he wants. Forty-one years ago, during the Free Speech Movement (FSM), we learned that there is indeed a gorilla in town, but camouflaged in Blue and Gold and crying out “Go Bears!” Questions about nuclear weapons labs, the treatment of UC workers and teachers’ assistants, or deals with the City of Berkeley are finessed by the administration ultimately down—or up—to the Regents, the university’s own college of cardinals. -more-

I was standing in a gallery in the New York MOMA in April when I saw it. “Invisible Man?” I went straight across the room toward the huge photograph of a young black man, seated on a stool, hunched over a pad of paper, writing, as hundreds of electric li ght bulbs glared yellow from the walls and ceiling only an arm’s length from him. -more-

“Our Father who art in heaven ... how, how ... how?” -more-

TUESDAY, JULY 26 -more-

Standing on a West Berkeley sidewalk, I watched three young barn owls jostling around in an Atlas cedar near the palm tree where they had hatched. The light was fading, but you could still see their ghostly shapes among the branches. And you couldn’t miss their incessant “feed me” calls—a vocalization described by ornithologists as the “snore.” The parents were nowhere in sight; maybe out hunting, more likely roosting nearby, away from the racket. -more-

Federal agents seized a major arms cache that included explosives, machine guns, assault rifles, and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition discovered as Berkeley firefighters battled a blaze in a 3027 Adeline St. liquor store early Wednesday. -more-

Today (Friday) when loved ones attend a memorial for 19-year-old Berkeley High graduate Meleia Willis-Starbuck, one of her best friends will be facing arraignment in connection to her murder. -more-

Berkeley peace activists are fuming over a hostile takeover, but not by Republicans in Washington, D.C. or corporations abroad. -more-

A Superior Court Judge in Oakland has tentatively ruled that while the Berkeley Daily Planet is entitled to see some 17,000 Wal-Mart documents related to an employee lawsuit, the newspaper or its attorneys must pay $76,000 for the privilege of doing so. -more-

Thanks to the combined efforts of sports fans and of East Bay cities from Emeryville to Richmond, a new ball field complex in Berkeley is nearing reality. -more-

Calling some Berkeley staff recommendations “chicken poop,” Councilmember Dona Spring escalated the war of words over city land use and affordable housing at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. -more-

A parking dispute between Congregation Beth-El, Berkeley’s largest Jewish congregation, and its soon-to-be neighbors will now be decided by city staff. -more-

A West Berkeley senior housing development slated to open next year will bear the name Margaret Breland Homes, in honor of the former city councilmember and longtime West Berkeley resident who died earlier this year. -more-

High on a hilltop above the city, the researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab are working every day to contribute to both the scientific and world communities. -more-

Responding to a plea by UC Berkeley Boalt Hall Law School Dean Chris Edley Jr. that “if we don’t get these fees, we will be out of money,” University of California Regents this week approved increases up to 7 percent in professional school fees beginning in the second half of the 2005-06 school year. -more-

Community members are invited to join Berkeley Civic Arts Commission (CAC) Chair David Snippen for a Sunday afternoon tour and discussion of the proposed location for Spaceship Earth. -more-

Botched robbery -more-

Berkeley developer James D. Levine’s plan to build a posh gambling resort on the Richmond shoreline has inched closer to reality with the release of key environmental review documents. -more-

The strongest immediate concerns to the siting of a massive casino complex at Point Molate were raised by two state agencies with oversight over cleanups at chemically contaminated sites. -more-

When asked why the religious right is so much more powerful in American politics than the religious left, a political observer quipped that it is because the religious right consists of cows, docile and easily led, while those on the left are cats, difficult to herd under any circumstances. While that may prove be the case, on Wednesday more than 1,200 of those cats gathered on the UC campus to attend a four-day conference on spiritual activism. -more-

Late last winter, a story on Oakland’s sideshows appeared in the Los Angeles Times. “Virtually every night, from midnight to dawn,” the story reported, “hundreds of young people gather at intersections throughout this city to watch cars spin and swerve wildly, the drivers and passengers often dangling halfway out of open doors as the vehicles burn rubber. Some drivers like to spew sparks by wearing their tires down to the steel belts. The people of Oakland have survived epidemic drug use, soaring murder rates and police corruption scandals, but now they face an increasingly violent homegrown movement that has police chasing one spontaneous driving exhibition after another at a cost of $500,000 a year.” -more-

RESPONSIBILITY -more-

As a great admirer of the work of Dorothy Bryant I was disappointed to read her July 19 letter to the editor, in which she spoke so casually and dismissively of the artwork at the Albany Bulb. On the basis of a single “afternoon hike” in this most complex and nuanced environment, she has seen fit to judge the artwork there as if it were no more than a museum exhibit. She describes “nightmarish and sado-masochistic fantasies” in some of the artwork, seemingly unaware of the influence of her voice in our community and the effect of her words in shaping public opinion about what is to happen to this fragile, untamed space. -more-

My name is Michael Cook and I am a business representative and a member of the Machinists Union that represents the bargaining unit employees at Berkeley Honda, formally Jim Doten Honda. I appreciate Mr. Lubeck’s exercise of freedom of speech with his editorial published in the July 15-18 edition of the Berkeley Daily Planet. He did, however take some liberty with the truth on several issues. Mr. Lubeck knew when he was hired that he was replacing a service writer that had been working for Jim Doten Honda for many years. Mr. Lubeck started work on June 1. He only worked alongside some of the mechanics that are walking the street. He never worked alongside any of the mechanics that were not hired; therefore he has absolutely no idea of what their abilities, training, or certifications were then or are today. However, he did watch as four Honda Top Tech or Master Tech award banners were taken down from display in the service drive because they were no longer working at Berkeley Honda. Not one of the Wyotech students that were hired to replace mechanics with as much as 31 years of experience has qualifications that exceeds even the least qualified mechanic in the old Doten crew. Mr. Lubeck watched several Wyotech students get fired because of mistakes that resulted in destroyed transmissions and loose wheels. Our members talked to the customers that had those problems and no amount of denial on his part will make that truth go away. -more-

As one of the original appointees to the Peace and Justice Commission when it was established in 1986, I welcome the opportunity to explain and define the purpose, goals and most importantly of all, the mandate of the commission. This is in response to a recent commentary in the July 12 issue of the Daily Planet titled “Opposed to the Department of Peace” by Johnathan Wornick, Councilmember Gordon Wozniak’s appointee to the commission. -more-

At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, the “parking lobby” (DBA, YMCA, various business owners) was calling for an additional level of underground parking at the Oxford lot. Nobody offered to raise funds to pay for this additional construction; the lobby evidently wants the city to compel the developer to cover that cost as a public duty. -more-

“The gallery floor is off limits, and there are no showcases, so they asked me to create 30 ceramic pieces that will hang on the walls!” -more-

Maestro George Cleve’s Midsummer Mozart Festival orchestra performed four of Mozart’s early works on July 17 at Berkeley’s St. John’s Presbyterian Church. Cleve’s disciplined concentration on Mozart has allowed him to discover and reveal qualities and nuances in both acknowledged masterpieces and obscure gems that might otherwise go undiscovered. -more-

FRIDAY, JULY 22 -more-

Early on a recent morning at J.R. Muggs cafe in El Cerrito, Lorene Francois stepped up to the counter to order her daily cup of coffee. But before being served, she had to answer a few questions. -more-

FRIDAY, JULY 22 -more-

A story on the Pinebrook estate, at 1106 Keith Ave., on the front page of this issue’s Real Estate section, mistakenly reported the era in which a cottage on the estate was built. The cottage was built in the 1930s. -more-

The most appalling aspect of the bombings in Spain, in England and in Egypt in the past weeks is that the choice of victims is indiscriminate. Though it appears that the bombers have some general connection to the Islamic religion, many of the victims, perhaps most of them, do too. -more-

TUESDAY, JULY 26 -more-