News

Off and Running at Berkeley High By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Friday September 02, 2005

Construction crews were still carting away trash by the forklift near the Donahue Gymnasium and in the newly refurbished Academic Building, many baseboards were still not in place and some of the wall tiles had not been cemented into place. -more-


Citizens File Suit Seeking To Overturn UC-City Pact By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Friday September 02, 2005

A group of Berkeley citizens filed a lawsuit against the City of Berkeley and several city officials in the California Superior Court in Oakland yesterday, asking the court to set aside the city’s settlement agreement with the University of California over UC’s Long Range Development Plan because it “contracted away the City Council’s right to independently exercise its police power in the future.” -more-


Noise Complaints Raise Tensions in South Campus Neighborhood By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday September 02, 2005

If, as the poet Robert Frost once wrote with a touch of irony, “good fences makes good neighbors,” the Berkeley corollary is clearly, “loud parties don’t.” -more-


Berkeley Emergency, Medical Workers Rush to Aid Hurricane Katrina Victims By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday September 02, 2005

Three firefighters and one healthcare worker from Berkeley have flown to the South to aid in the rescue and care of victims of Hurricane Katrina. -more-


County Will Seek Instant Runoff Voting Machines By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday September 02, 2005

Alameda County Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to call for proposals from voting machine vendors who can provide both a verifiable paper trail and the capacity for instant runoff voting (IRV). -more-


Union to Announce Hospital Strike Deadline By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday September 02, 2005

Officials of the union representing 8,000 workers at Sutter Health hospitals—including the Alta Bates Summit facilities in Berkeley and Oakland—are holding a press conference this morning (Friday) to announce a strike deadline. -more-


Turmoil In Oakland School for the Arts, Parents Say By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Friday September 02, 2005

An Oakland parent who transferred her ninth-grade daughter from the Oakland School for the Arts to Skyline High School after only one semester says that OSA’s academic program and some of its art programs are in “turmoil,” adding several other parents have pulled their children from the school during the past year. -more-


Editorial Cartoon By JUSTIN DEFREITAS

Friday September 02, 2005

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


Letters to the Editor

Friday September 02, 2005

HOUSING CRISIS -more-


Column: The Public Eye: The Difference Between Getting it Right and Getting it Done By BOB BURNETT

Friday September 02, 2005

A key Silicon Valley rule is that to be successful at developing new products one must focus on getting the job done, rather than on being right. The failure of the Iraq constitutional process brings America to a critical decision-point, where the American public has been presented with only two options, both based on the notion of taking the “right” next step in Iraq. -more-


Column: Undercurrents: Media Reports Muddle Questions on Oakland Shooting By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Friday September 02, 2005

Did someone fire seven shots “at” Oakland police officers following a motorcycle club charity event at the Kaiser Convention Center last Saturday night? Were the motorcycle clubs—composed of mostly black members—in any way connected with the fired shots or the reported “chaos” that surrounded it, including what has been described by police officials as a “massive sideshow” that rolled from the downtown area out into East Oakland? And what were the exact events that led to the fired shots? -more-


Police Blotter By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday September 02, 2005

Rape suspect busted -more-


Commentary: Looting New Orleans, and America’s Poverty Crisis By EARL OFARI HUTCHINSON Pacific News Service

Friday September 02, 2005

Two things happened in one day that tell much about the abysmal failure of the Bush administration to get a handle on poverty in America. -more-


Commentary: Seeing Through the Fads of City Planning By JANE POWELL

Friday September 02, 2005

I think that in the beginning, redevelopment was either a good idea or an act of desperation. I believe it was initially spurred by massive disinvestment in inner cities in the East. I have to laugh when I hear redevelopment people in California talking about blight and abandoned buildings; do you know that Baltimore has 40,000 empty buildings? Oakland only has 80,000 buildings altogether. In any case, the good idea or act of desperation, once it was in place, turned out to be not so good. It led to “urban renewal”—the destruction of mostly historic and intact neighborhoods deemed “blighted,” and the removal of the residents. Eventually urban renewal fell from grace and was replaced by new planning fads like: turning your downtown into a pedestrian mall, festival marketplaces, building aquariums, gambling facilities, or the current favorite, downtown baseball stadiums, and of course, “smart growth.” Because you have to understand, planning is subject to fads, and planners like to think big. Politicians like to think big, too, because it gives them big things to point at when they run for reelection. -more-


Commentary: An Urban Myth By GORDON WOZNIAK

Friday September 02, 2005

First, I would like to commend Daily Planet Executive Editor O’Malley for her two editorials welcoming UC Berkeley students back to Berkeley and presenting them with information on the myriad of opportunities to shop and participate in community life. I would also like to take this opportunity to correct a pervasive urban myth that the University of California and non-profits “dominate the majority of square acreage in Berkeley”. -more-


Commentary: Listeners Marched to Support KPFA, Not Staff By MARA RIVERA

Friday September 02, 2005

I was one of those 12,000 or more KPFA supporters Bob Baldock referred to in his Aug. 26 opinion piece, and I have a different take than Mr. Baldock (for whom I have a lot of respect) on both the meaning of that march for KPFA six years ago and of the present situation. We did not march to support the staff, but the station. And we listeners not only won it back, but we won recognition as the guardians of the station, and network, and a role in station and network governance which we hadn’t had before. Now we find some staff blocking us in this role. -more-


Arts: Patsy Krebs’ Show at GTU Explores the Boundaries By PETER SELZSpecial to the Planet

Friday September 02, 2005

One of the most beautiful exhibitions to be seen hereabouts in a long time is currently on view at the library of the Graduate Theological Union on Holy Hill (2400 Ridge Road) in Berkeley, a venue that has mounted fine art exhibitions for over 30 years. -more-


Arts Calendar

Friday September 02, 2005

FRIDAY, SEPT. 2 -more-


Pick a Spot — Any Spot — on the Spectacular Redwood Coast By MARTA YAMAMOTO Special to the Planet

Friday September 02, 2005

Calf-deep in the snappy waters of the Pacific, on a driftwood-tossed beach across the river from the town of Gualala, I gaze at the portrait of raw beauty around me. My weekend escape was to be work-free but a travel article is writing itself in my head. Some places are just too good to keep to oneself. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Friday September 02, 2005

FRIDAY, SEPT. 2 -more-


BUSD Gears Up For New School Year By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Tuesday August 30, 2005

Two days before students are scheduled to come streaming into the halls and classrooms, two Berkeley public schools showed radically different approaches to preparation this week. -more-


District Urges Caution Despite Extra Money By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Tuesday August 30, 2005

The Berkeley Unified School District is projecting that it will have $346,000 more for the school year than it anticipated last June when the 2005-06 budget was passed, but district officials cautioned that it’s not quite the time to open up the checkbook to more spending. -more-


Redevelopment Foes Challenge Oakland Project By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday August 30, 2005

“Redevelopment is very simple to understand,” said Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby at Sunday’s community meeting on proposed redevelopment in Oakland. “It’s a land grab by corporate interests, big-box retailers and developers to grab land from people like you.” -more-


‘Flying Cottage’ Encounters Turbulence at ZAB Meeting By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday August 30, 2005

South Berkeley’s Flying Cottage hit yet another patch of turbulence Thursday night, this time from members of the Zoning Adjustments Board. -more-


City Officials Call on County to Implement Instant Runoff Voting By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday August 30, 2005

Berkeley election activists rallied on the City Hall steps Monday afternoon to call on Alameda County to hire a voting machine vendor that will support independent runoff voting (IRV) and provide a verifiable paper trail. -more-


Palestinians Struggle to Hold on to Land, Watering Holes By HENRY NORR Special to the Planet

Tuesday August 30, 2005

Life in the tiny Palestinian hamlet of Qawawis seems straight out of the Old Testament, but that doesn’t stop the Jewish settlers in the hilltop outposts that surround the place from doing their best to destroy it. And if something isn’t done soon about the settlers’ latest threat—denying Qawawis’s shepherds access to watering holes their flocks depend on—the villagers might have no choice but to abandon their ancestral homes and lands. -more-


News Analysis: Despite War of Words, U.S.-Venezuela Ties Remain Strong By VINOD SREEHARSHA Pacific News Service

Tuesday August 30, 2005

CARACAS, Venezuela—“I support Chavez for standing up to U.S. imperialism,” said Sean, a 16-year-old Canadian. He was one of 15,000 youths representing 144 countries at the recent 16th World Festival of Youth and Students, a communist splurge organized by Venezuela’s president and self-proclaimed revolutionary Hugo Chavez. -more-


News Analysis: Latinos Feel Brunt of Job-Based Insurance Drop By HILARY ABRAMSON Pacific News Service

Tuesday August 30, 2005

If every working California adult is “headed over the cliff” for lack of affordable health insurance, as the co-author of a new statewide study contends, then Latinos will be the first to go. -more-


Going to the Dogs By Ashley DuValSpecial to the Planet

Tuesday August 30, 2005

I knew I didn’t have long before they would spot me in my hiding place. There were so many that someone was bound to see me. There must have been 40 or 50 of them hanging around the fence and peering through the trees to the spot where I sat breathlessly. They seemed to be searching for wildlife—they found it all right. -more-


Editorial Cartoon By JUSTIN DEFREITAS

Tuesday August 30, 2005

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


Letters to the Editor

Tuesday August 30, 2005

WELCOME, BETH EL -more-


Column: The Public Eye: Defeat of Measure P Disguised Housing Crisis By ZELDA BRONSTEIN

Tuesday August 30, 2005

When 79 percent of Berkeley voters nixed Measure P, a.k.a. the Building Height Initiative, in November 2002, were they expressing satisfaction with the current state of planning and development in this city? That’s what some prominent individuals have been saying ever since that bitterly contested election. -more-


Column: A Confederacy of Excuses By SUSAN PARKER

Tuesday August 30, 2005

If I didn’t have this column to write I could deal with Ralph’s broken wheelchair. It hasn’t worked in over five weeks, forcing him to stay in bed except for the occasions when he must go to doctor appointments and attend meetings at the Center for Indep endent Living, in which case he and chair must be pushed, not an easy task considering their combined weight tops 300 pounds. -more-


Police Blotter By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday August 30, 2005

Crime Pedalers -more-


Commentary: KPFA Staff Has Refused to Implement Local Station Board’s Decisions By BILL MANDEL

Tuesday August 30, 2005

Bob Baldock’s commentary in last weekend’s edition is astonishing. It is a combination of contempt of court and frank admission that the entrenched staff at KPFA has no use for the democracy its broadcasts preach to the world. -more-


Commentary: Diebold VP Says Company’s Machines Recorded Tallies Accurately in Test By DAVE BYRD

Tuesday August 30, 2005

A recent guest editorial in your paper inaccurately criticized Secretary of State Bruce McPherson about the latest developments in California’s move to electronic voting machines. The piece misused several figures reported by the Associated Press and Con tra Costa Times about a recent testing of Diebold Election Systems, Inc.’s (DESI) AccuVote-TSX with AccuView Printer Module election voting machines. The author also sarcastically accused a respected public official of poor math skills. One of the misstated facts claimed that during the dry-run test of the Diebold election system, McPherson’s office reported a 10 percent failure rate (the guest writer wondered if the failure rate was actually higher, which it was not). In fact, in that test, 10,720 votes were recorded on 96 voting machines with 100 percent accuracy. Despite 11 paper jams and 21 other problems on the new machine-printer combination, not a single ballot was lost. -more-


Commentary: Library Forum on RFID Revealed Threats to Privacy, Health By WANDA CROW

Tuesday August 30, 2005

Here are some of the things that I learned at the Aug. 1 “community forum” on radio frequency identification devices (RFID) sponsored by the Board of Library Trustees: Patrons’ reading materials cannot be protected from prying eyes, and anyone can buy a reader/scanner for $150. I learned that there are many studies showing that radiation from radio frequency poses a threat to public health, and I discovered that Councilmember Gordon Wozniak studied none of these before he became an expert panelist for the forum. Moreover, Checkpoint (the RFID company that the library contracted with) is negligent in repairing its equipment, and the Berkeley Public Library and its board were, and continue to be, even more negligent in researching the claims of RFID’s efficacy in reducing both repetitive stress injuries and theft of library materials. As well I learned that Checkpoint is not a new company, but one that’s been around since the 1960s. -more-


Arts: Jazz Greats and Newcomers Fill Out Fall Programs By IRA STEINGROOTSpecial to the Planet

Tuesday August 30, 2005

The Bay Area will play host to an abundance of great jazz this fall. The single most important event of the next few months is the San Francisco Jazz Festival with almost 50 events scattered around the city. In Oakland, Yoshi’s continues to bring some of the best jazz musicians in the world to their restaurant/nightclub, while in Berkeley, there will be great jazz offerings at the Jazz-school and at Anna’s Jazz Island. -more-


Books: Two Novels in Support of the Artist’s Right to Privacy By DOROTHY BRYANT Special to the Planet

Tuesday August 30, 2005

A few years ago I attended a performance of a new opera The Aspern Papers, after the Henry James novella. The composer had, of course, taken liberties with the story, juggling generations of time, changing some names, changing the dead poet to a dead composer, changing the setting from Venice to Lake Como so that the poet-cum-composer could drown while taking a midnight swim home from his lady-love’s villa (if you tried to swim down a Venice canal, you’d probably get a nasty case of dysentery, but you couldn’t drown). I accepted these changes, but I became uneasy when private letters were changed to the only copy of a lost opera. And when the finale featured Tina as a woman scorned, burning this manuscript of the last opera by the great composer, I left the hall sputtering condemnations to my bemused companions, who shrugged, “Guess he wanted to make it more dramatic, more operatic.” -more-


Arts Calendar

Tuesday August 30, 2005

TUESDAY, AUGUST 30 -more-


When Sorting Out Cedars, Take a Look at the Latin By RON SULLIVAN Special to the Planet

Tuesday August 30, 2005

Alert reader Hal Hoffman called the Daily Planet to note that I’d sent the last tree column, published on Aug. 16, without mentioning the tree’s species epithet. He’s entirely correct, and I’m grateful and abashed; getting that Latin-ish binomial in is a principle of mine. Knowing the scientific name of anything is a key to learning what there is to know about it, from every possible source. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday August 30, 2005

TUESDAY, AUGUST 30 -more-