Hundreds of East Bay folk gathered Wednesday in candlelight vigils, organized by Berkeley’s MoveOn.org, to oppose the Iraq war and offer support to the Vacaville woman who has managed to give a sympathetic face to the war’s opposition . -more-
Devin Pope, an economics graduate student at UC Berkeley, says he’s going to have a problem the next time his parents visit to help care for his toddler. -more-
Results of the newly released public school test reports show that Berkeley Unified School District students continue to rank far above state testing scores in the California Standardized Test (STAR) in elementary school, but that advantage tends to evaporate as students enter the higher grades. -more-
After four hours of sometimes emotional public testimony from a packed City Council chambers, a divided Alameda City Council voted in the early hours Wednesday morning to move forward with the Historic Alameda Theater Rehabilitation Project. -more-
Bayer Corp.’s 54 janitors no longer have to fear for their jobs. -more-
A bullet fired by a cyclist near the corner of Julia and California streets blasted through the windows of a city Seniors Van, missing the driver and two passengers Tuesday morning. -more-
Facing federal funding cuts, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is bracing for layoffs and asking administrative workers to consider early retirement. -more-
On Aug. 9, a suicide bomber killed two people and critically injured 30 in a gruesome bus explosion in Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province in southern China. According to the police, the suicide bomber, who died on the scene, was a 42-year-old peasant with end-stage lung cancer. In a society that emphasizes stability and harmony, the suicide bombing has shocked many and moved China’s health care—or lack thereof—to the center of public debate. -more-
If American liberals had four legs and fur, they would have been put on the Endangered Species List following last year’s presidential election. Defining who is liberal has become a national sport among politicians, as Democrats frantically run from the moniker, while Republicans hurl the invective blindly at everyone on the other side of the aisle. -more-
http://www.jfdefreitas.com/index.php?path=/00_Latest%20Work0 -more-
In Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialist play No Exit, three damned souls find themselves locked in a room in hell, where they are psychologically tortured forever. The Iraqis’ failure to meet the Aug. 15 deadline for a draft constitution, is more evidence that America is trapped in its’ own no exit hell. -more-
What should progressives do when confronted with the fact that they live in a city that honors a figure who has advocated beliefs or committed acts that progressives would normally condemn? -more-
As a Beth El representative on the parking committee for our new building, I have spent many hours working with LOCCNA about parking concerns and worked hard to come up with a plan that addressed those concerns. Over the years I have grown fond of many LOCCNA members. Many of us on each side of the table have listened respectfully to each other’s perspective. -more-
A powerful minority of the KPFA staff is intent upon ousting General Manager Roy Campanella II, on the job less than a year. The last manager, Gus Newport, resigned after nine months in the position due to difficulties in working with the factionalized staff. -more-
I was touched by Mr. Kennedy’s concern for affordable housing when, in addressing the Zoning Adjustments Board’s density bonus implementation subcommittee, he stated: “If the committee is interested in providing affordable housing,” he said, the committe e’s work “shouldn’t be done in the way of what is clearly the agenda of some people here who are interested in decreasing density” in the city (Berkeley Daily Planet, Aug. 5). -more-
Thank you for having the courage to publish the “Chemical Therapy Endangers Psychiatric Patients,” commentary in your Aug. 5 edition. It is a sad commentary on the state of so-called investigative journalism that articles affecting so many individuals are not reported, let alone investigated, by mainstream media. -more-
In her column of Aug. 2, Zelda Bronstein aptly referred to violations of the municipal code in the agreement between the city and UC but failed to suggest that there might be any other legal problems involved. Although I make no claim of expertise in this area, here are some thoughts on the matter. -more-
I am a living, breathing interfaith experiment. I had a briss and a baptism; a confirmation and a bar-mitzvah. My family attended synagogue on Friday nights and went to church on Sunday. Raised by parents of separate faiths, my mother is a minister for the United Church of Christ and my father is a lay Jew. Starting with me, they decided to raise their children both religions, not just half and half. I don’t call myself a “halfie” or “half and half.” I would never want to get only half of two religions. My parents have insisted that I get the whole of both religions. -more-
The first Downtown Berkeley Jazz Festival, “A Celebration of Latin Jazz,” presented by The Jazz School (on Allston Way) is in full swing and gearing up for the weekend. With 15 stages throughout downtown for 40 events (the festival ends Sunday), including music, dance, poetry and culinary arts, festivity’s abounding. -more-
“A Celebration of Latin Jazz” begins runs through the weekend. This year’s festival features jazz and film, poetry, dance and food celebrating Afro-Caribbean and Brazilian music and culture. -more-
On a recent Wednesday morning at 11:45, two pickup trucks and a station wagon had already pulled into the drive in front of the Berkeley Tool Lending Library at the corner of Russell and Martin Luther King Way. -more-
The two sides in a battle over a proposed movie cineplex and multi-story parking garage project in downtown Alameda both agree that more parking is needed in the city’s downtown area, and the 77-year-old Alameda Theater should be restored. They just don’t agree that the $23.7 million Historic Alameda Theater Rehabilitation Project is the way to do it. -more-
Released from jail and with no charges pending against him, the 56-year-old Oakland man accused in the 1970 shooting death of a Berkeley police officer continued to insist on his innocence in a telephone interview with the Daily Planet and protested his treatment at the hands of Berkeley police. -more-
The shooting death of Berkeley Police officer Ron Tsukamoto in August 1970 occurred during a period of tense confrontation between left-leaning community and political organizations and law enforcement agencies in Berkeley and the Bay Area, as chronicled in the pages of the Berkeley Daily Gazette. -more-
KPFA’s Local Station Board voted overwhelmingly Sunday to retain General Manager Roy Campanella II despite a complaint filed by eight female station workers charging him with sexual harassment. -more-
Waist-deep in the big muddy, Berkeley’s Creeks Task Force (CTF) is slogging ahead with its efforts to come up with a new framework to address a highly turbulent issue. -more-
City officials are considering Berkeley Iceland’s proposal to stay open while the embattled ice rink upgrades its antiquated cooling system. -more-
Bayer Corp. is considering laying off 54 janitors at its Berkeley facility. The jobs would be contracted out to a firm that pays its employees nearly half what current Bayer janitors make, according to union officials. -more-
The Berkeley Unified School District moved quickly to fill the gap left by the resignation of outgoing Deputy Superintendent Glenston Thompson, bringing back the man Thompson himself replaced a year ago. -more-
Two subcommittees of the Landmarks Preservation Commission will meet with two developers at the site of their projects, each one involving a structure under the commission’s jurisdiction. -more-
The story, “Waterfront Development Frays Albany Council” in the Aug. 12 issue incorrectly reported that Albany City Councilmember Allan Maris accused his council colleague Robert Lieber of “lying to the press.” Although he did accuse Lieber of authoring e-mails distorting Maris’s positions, it was Albany resident Steve Pinto whom he accused of making false statements in a letter to a local newspaper. The story also incorrectly reported that Matt Middlebrook is a top executive at the public relations firm of Fleischmann-Hilliard. Middlebrook has left that company to become vice president of government relations for Caruso Affiliated Holdings.? -more-
Since the London bombing attacks, Arab writers have expressed amazement that for two decades the British government looked the other way as Islamist extremists preached hate-filled jihadi ideologies in city mosques. Now, several Arab commentators insist that Downing Street must have made a deal with London’s radical Islamists: They could say what they wanted about Jews, the corrupt West and Iraq, as long as they didn’t attack the United Kingdom at home. -more-
http://www.jfdefreitas.com/index.php?path=/00_Latest%20Work -more-
One of my treasured mementos is a yellowing copy of the December 1971 issue of a Berkeley community newspaper called New Morning. Laid out like a tabloid, its 12 pages radiate the freewheeling exuberance of this city’s political counterculture some 30 years past. The pervasive tone is sounded by the comic book-style narrative that occupies most of the front page. “Friends,” it begins, “this is a lesson in dialectics called OM is MAO spelled backwards.” -more-
I hadn’t seen the Scrabblettes in several weeks. Everyone was busy so we postponed lunch and playing Scrabble together until Pearl got back from barging in France and Rose returned from ferrying among Washington’s San Juan Islands. Louise stayed home but that didn’t mean she wasn’t otherwise engaged. There was gardening to do, plays and movies to see, friends to visit, and a trip down memory lane to West Oakland with her mother. -more-
The Live Oak Codornices Neighborhood Association (LOCCNA) has heated up its war against the members of Congregation Beth El, using misleading signs and Daily Planet letters to spread misinformation. The underlying myth that this group continually promulgates is that Congregation Beth El is moving into a new neighborhood. -more-
As a former resident of Berkeley, I and many of my friends, also Cal graduates now living in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys, enjoy reading the Daily Planet online. So it was especially disheartening to read the past several issues of the Planet, and the outrageously racist, anti-Jewish and anti-Arab comments made by numerous letter writers. -more-
On behalf of the West Berkeley Alliance for Clean Air and Safe Jobs, I would like to respond to Matthew Artz’s Aug. 5 article, “City, Pacific Steel Will Study Noxious West Berkeley Odor,” and to Tom McGuire’s Aug. 9 letter to the editor about Pacific Steel’s “daily emissions of toxic effluvia,” as Mr. McGuire eloquently puts it. The West Berkeley Alliance for Clean Air and Safe Jobs builds on the more than 25-year history of community action regarding Pacific Steel Casting Company’s pollution. We are everyday people in Berkeley, Albany, El Cerrito and Kensington concerned about the quality of life, the impact on workers at Pacific Steel and other local businesses, the risk to children in nearby childcare centers and schools, the risks to pregnant women and their unborn, the risk to elders and those with compromised immune systems, and the danger to the environment. -more-
Call me stolen-elections-hypersensitive (see 2000, then 2004) but something happened last week that perked up my vote fraud antenna and makes me wonder why no one else I know of has picked up on it. -more-
“A Celebration of Latin Jazz” begins Thursday and runs through the weekend. This year’s festival will feature jazz and film, poetry, dance and food celebrating Afro-Caribbean and Brazilian music and culture. -more-
Don’t panic, folks. Those trees aren’t dying. -more-
As I blew out my candle and walked away from the vigil in front of the French Hotel last night, I told the friends who were with me that this is as close as many of us in Berkeley ever get to church. Demonstrations like this are the most inclusive of our indigenous religious institutions, with all the elements which contribute to a soul-satisfying religious experience. Congregants from my generation spontaneously sang our oldest hymns--“We shall overcome…we shall not be moved….ain’t gonna study war no more”—memorabilia of our successful struggles to end segregation and stop the war in Vietnam. -more-
Cindy Sheehan has finally managed to capture the imagination of the nation and of the world. Those of us in northern California have been aware of her campaign against the war in Iraq for more than a year. Members of Military Families Speak Out, including Cindy Sheehan, spoke at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Berkeley in July of 2004, but it’s taken a while for the national media to process their message. This has historically been the case for ideas and movements originating outside of the New York-Washington corridor. -more-
