Iceland Again On the Brink By MATTHEW ARTZ
Berkeley Iceland faces possible closure this month after city officials gave the rink until Aug. 22 to remove more than 4,000 pounds of potentially toxic ammonia used to cool the ice surface. -more-
Berkeley Iceland faces possible closure this month after city officials gave the rink until Aug. 22 to remove more than 4,000 pounds of potentially toxic ammonia used to cool the ice surface. -more-
Now entering its seventh year, the struggle over the fate of the historic Blood House centers these days on a complex game of what might be called “musical properties.” -more-
The union representing the Peralta College District’s support workers has charged that Peralta administrators are setting up a permanent category of “second class workers” throughout the four-college district. -more-
Casino San Pablo began its latest incarnation Monday as a gambling Mecca where bettors can try their luck against fast-playing machines. -more-
Should Casino San Pablo eventually win approval to expand to a full-scale casino with 2,200 regulation slot machines, the result would cost Contra Costa County medical services a minimum of $3.6 million annually, according to a study released Monday. -more-
The UC Berkeley point man for campus development and planning projects in Berkeley will be leaving the university within a month. -more-
When Berkeley arborist Joe Lamb first traveled to the South East Asian island of Borneo in 1990, his worst fears of what environmental disaster could look like were realized. -more-
At a time when the daily headlines are all about North Korea and Iran trying to get nuclear weapons, it is a good thing to return to Hiroshima. -more-
About a dozen Berkeley police officers raided a Vallejo home Saturday in search of Christopher Hollis, the man police say shot the 19-year-old Berkeley woman who was also his friend. -more-
Two city panels have meetings this week to address the complexities of the city’s application of the state density bonus laws. -more-
The story “Alleged Berkeley Gang Members Arrested in Richmond Slayings,” (July 29-Aug. 1) listed a Berkeley address for Joseph James Carroll, Jr., one of the men sought in connection with the murder, according to information provided by Richmond Police Department. Residents of that address, however, said that Carroll does not live there. -more-
http://www.jfdefreitas.com/index.php?path=/00_Latest%20Workì -more-
This week the City Council, the Planning Commission and the Zoning Adjustments Board all go on their long summer breaks, and not a moment too soon. Legislatively and judicially speaking, the past year has been an annus horribilis. To know that these bodies will be on vacation for the next month and a half is something of a relief. -more-
It’s hard to believe that summer is more than half way over but the signs are everywhere: winter clothes on display in department stores, back to school ads in the newspaper. I’m just getting acclimated to the warm, sunny weather here in the East Bay when it’s once again time to return for classes at chilly, fog-shrouded San Francisco State. -more-
Sometimes when I have ranted too long about Israel/Palestine, my husband tries to shut me down by saying, “Do you know how most Americans feel about this subject? They don’t know and they don’t care!” There is a reason for this, of course, which is part of my frustration. What I have come to think of as Mordor—the eye that never sleeps—is always looking everywhere, making sure that no one ever does learn, or know, or think about this urgent issue. Three recent examples from three different locales. -more-
As a member of the Peace and Justice Commission, I would like to make a few comments about Matthew Artz’s article of July 22: -more-
Now that they’re bare of fruit, it’s safe to talk about the handful of loquat trees, Eriobotrya japonica, on the streets of Berkeley. I’ll admit I’m a bit paranoid on this matter. I used to live with a pair of them, planted by the landlord in the curb strip where we rented on Derby Street for years. One of them had bad bark scarring when we moved there and subsequently died when a strong wind snapped it in two. -more-
An SUV driver battered his vehicle through the doors of the Starbucks at Solano and Colusa avenues Tuesday morning, scattering a dozen or more customers who leapt out of the way and jumped through open windows as he backed up and tried it again. -more-
The City Council learned Monday that the greenest project ever planned for Berkeley might leave the city in the red. -more-
Christopher Wilson, the 20-year-old Berkeley High graduate police say drove the getaway car in the Meleia Willis-Starbuck shooting, was scheduled to be released Thursday on a $326,000 property bond in to the custody of family friends. -more-
The way Berkeley skateboarder Sean O’Loughlin tells it, one moment last April he was racing down the eight-foot bowl at Berkeley’s Harrison Skateboard Park, and the next, police officers had turned the fenced-in park into a holding cell. -more-
A Peralta College proposal for joint use with the Oakland Library of the soon-to-be-closed Oakland Kaiser Convention Center left some Peralta trustees and staff members angry and some encouraged at last Tuesday’s trustee meeting. -more-
The Hershey Co., the nation’s largest candy maker, announced Monday that it plans to purchase Berkeley-based Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker, Inc. -more-
The search for a home for the Brower Ball, as some wags have dubbed “Spaceship Earth”—a massive sculptural memorial to the late Berkeley environmentalist David Brower—took another twist Monday when Ohlone Park was crossed off the list. -more-
Hazardous waste cleanup operations at UC Berkeley’s Richmond Field Station are expected to cost the school an additional $20 million, according to a document recently posted on the university’s website. -more-
Without any public fanfare, Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown’s Oakland School for the Arts (OSA) has quietly moved from a charter high school to a charter middle and high school. -more-
A short-handed Planning Commission Wednesday endorsed the Gilman Street ballfields and set a Sept. 14 hearing on the proposed West Berkeley Bowl. -more-
Richmond police have arrested two Berkeley men and are seeking two other city residents—all described as gang members or associates—in a June 27 double slaying in Richmond. -more-
The Bay Area is home to several dozen worker cooperatives, or collectives, in which every member is at the same time a worker and an owner of the enterprise. Some are thriving and others are struggling, but they are all enterprises dedicated to the notion that there is a better way to do business than business as usual. -more-
The Nabolom Bakery, Berkeley’s second oldest collective, will almost certainly shut its doors at the end of August, said Jim Burr, a member of the cooperative and former chief financial officer. -more-
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CITY ADVERTISING DOLLARS -more-
Just before my daughter and I enter Berkeley High School’s gymnasium for Meleia’s memorial service, I see her mother, Kimberly, encircled by loving arms, red-eyed sorrow and whispered words of comfort. Our daughters, although three years apart, attended Park Day School together and my daughter looked up to Meleia like a big sister. Meleia always greeted her with hugs and praise. -more-
We may never know for certain what Meleia Willis-Starbuck said to the two Chris’s—her friends Chris Hollis and Chris Wilson—to get them to drive out to College Avenue on the tragic night that Ms. Willis-Starbuck was shot and killed. The case has already entered into the realm of our judicial system, which may be concerned with exacting justice but is not always equipped to discover truth, not feeling the one is necessarily dependent upon the other. -more-
It’s interesting how the English language has been altered and rearranged to obscure the truth. When we don’t like the way something sounds and believe it to be too clear an expression of reality we just change the words and assume it also changes realit y. -more-
How appropriate that Richard Brenneman’s article “Brower Sculpture Decision Could Come Monday” appeared next to the “Corrections” box! As if the innuendo and lack of objectivity of the article weren’t bad enough, the misinformation and errors delivered in faux 19th century voice are characteristic of the writer’s careless diction and inaccuracy in reporting. Unless they were promised anonymity, it would be instructive to know the sources of Brenneman’s coverage, which is an embarrassment to the Berkeley Daily Planet, and a disservice to its’ readers. -more-
I agree that the business of the Peace and Justice Commission should be to promote world peace. But this mission was sadly perverted when the commission began to pass one-side resolutions concerning the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The divestiture resolution was their first attempt. Cynically, as the Daily Planet points out, that resolution called for a boycott of both Israel and Palestine. However, on the day it came before the City Council, hundreds of pro-Palestinians turned out to urge its passage. They and everyone else involved knew that, whereas Palestine exports virtually nothing to the U.S. (except perhaps, jihad), tiny Israel has more companies listed on NASDQ than any other, except the U.S. itself. Enactment of this resolution might, for example, have led to Berkeley shutting itself down, since, most computers contain chips designed or manufactured in Israel. The old Peace and Justice Commission was quick to jump on Israel, but passed not one resolution condemning suicide bombing, Darfur, Wahhabism, Arab mistreatment of women and gays, or Palestinian cleptocracy. The old Peace and Justice Commission was setting Berkeley’s citizens against one another by condemning one side, and one side alone. I have spoken with some of the commission’s newer members, and agree that some of them are unlikely to support anti-Israel resolutions. But, very importantly, neither are they inclined to put forth pro-Israel or anti-Palestinian resolutions. I can’t speak for them, but my sense is that, consistent with the principles of the Peace and Justice Commission, they are waging a peace campaign--they want peace to return to Berkeley on this issue. -more-
The past few weeks have yet again shone the spotlight on President Bush’s chief political advisor, Karl Rove. It turns out that “Turd Blossom,” as the president so affectionately calls him, allegedly leaked the covert identity of an active CIA agent to strike back at her husband, Joseph Wilson, a political opponent of the administration while they were cooking intelligence to trick Americans into invading Iraq. While lawyers bandy questions back and forth over whether Rove actually broke the law, and operatives from both sides prepare to protect or decimate America’s most powerful political aide, we should remember that this isn’t the first time Rove got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. -more-
It has been about five years since I had my problems with Walgreens and its pharmacy in Cathedral City, Ca. I felt that was a serious matter—so serious that the California Board of Pharmacies got involved and Walgreens was fined. I’ve moved on since then and recently came up to Berkeley. -more-
The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year by looking back and looking ahead. -more-
When Mike Daisey begins his solo piece, The Ugly American, he is sitting at a table on the Thrust Stage at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, facing the audience. He is sitting there at the conclusion, too. -more-
Can a sailing school in Berkeley change the world? Anthony Sandberg, 56, the Founder and President of Olympic Circle Sailing Club, believes that the answer is an emphatic “Yes!” -more-
The air around these pages has been crackling of late with thunderbolts hurled from the Olympian heights of Berkeley’s arts community. No sooner does artist A praise, for example, the primitive power of the examples of art at the Albany Bulb than artist B ripostes with suggestions that they are untidy and barely accessible. The “Here-There” metal cutouts installed on the Berkeley-Oakland border, to the tune of $50,000, are either witty examples of post-modernism or ludicrous mis-spending of public funds. The only public sculpture, (as far as anyone can remember) which was ratified by a ballot initiative is still, many years later, the target of derision in some circles. In light of all this excitement, it’s hard not to suppress a smile at one writer’s comment that “visual arts coverage in the Planet is infrequent and often inaccurate, a tradition one hopes will be corrected before Berkeley’s vibrant visual arts community dies of neglect or goes elsewhere.” -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-