When Biko Eisen-Martin spotted a woman giving birth to the first of triplets in the middle of downtown Berkeley, he didn’t hesitate to give her the shirt off his back. -more-
A recent California Appellate Court decision involving a City of Malibu zoning dispute could have a legal impact on litigation filed against Berkeley’s recent negotiated settlement with the University of California over the university’s Long Range Development Plan (LRDP). -more-
Christopher Hollis, 22, fired the shot that killed his friend and former Berkeley High School classmate Meleia Willis-Starbuck, his attorney acknowledged Wednesday. -more-
Gardeners at the UC Berkeley’s University Village in Albany are finding themselves with more on their minds than what to plant for the approaching winter season. -more-
The creators of one of Berkeley’s most venerable institutions will have their day Monday, thanks to a City Council resolution. -more-
The Berkeley High School baseball team’s long desired South Berkeley field of dreams came one step closer to reality Wednesday when the School Board voted in favor of closing a block of Derby Street. -more-
In the wake of a recommendation by the Fiscal Crisis Management Assistance Team (FCMAT), the California superintendent agreed this week to turn over what he is calling a “limited” measure of local control to the Board of Directors of the Oakland Unified School District. -more-
City officials are trying to figure out a way to keep Berkeley Iceland open past today (Friday) when the rink’s latest extension to install a temporary ice cooling system expires. -more-
Inspired by today’s (Friday) National Diversity Day, three Berkeley city councilmembers are doing a typical Berkeley thing next week: taking an introspective look. -more-
Opponents of the Alameda Theater Cineplex filed a lawsuit in California Superior Court this week seeking to force the City of Alameda to conduct a review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) before moving forward with the movie theater project. -more-
The headline “Pacific Steel Reevaluates Response Policy After Gunpoint Robbery” in the Oct. 4-6 edition was incorrect. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District, not Pacific Steel, reevaluated its policy. Also the Berkeley Police Department asked to clarify that the air district and not BPD spokesperson Joe Okies disclosed the name of the robbery victim. -more-
In ruling for Malibu citizens against their city council last week, the Los Angeles-based Court of Appeal set aside a secretly-negotiated and secretly-voted-on CEQA and land use settlement on two grounds: the Malibu City Council unlawfully contracted away its future police power over a specific project, and the council unlawfully committed to future governmental action that independently requires a public hearing. (Trancas Property Owners Assn. v. City of Malibu, No. B174674, Sept. 26, 2005.) -more-
To view Justin DeFreitas’ latest editorial cartoon, please visit www.jfdefreitas.com To search for previous cartoons by date of publication, click on the Daily Planet Archive.
-more-As the summer ended, the “tipping point” was reached on Iraq. Most Americans now believe that the war is unwinnable, that our troops should be brought home and the funds reallocated to pay for the recent hurricane damage and to bolster homeland security. The problem is that George W. Bush doesn’t agree; despite the change in public sentiment, and the fact that his approval ratings have plummeted, the president continues to insist we’re making progress and, therefore, the occupation should endure. It’s unlikely that Bush will change his mind. George’s carefully crafted image as America’s “CEO President” ignores the reality that he was a failure as an executive. He made dreadful mistakes, but never learned from them; now they have come back to haunt America, as the Iraq situation deteriorates. -more-
One of the problems about having an adult discussion about Bill Bennett’s recent race remarks is that we simply don’t have the words with which to conduct it. -more-
Six months have passed since we started working with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) to finalize any remaining cleanup at Campus Bay. We have some good news to share, with more updates expected in the coming months. -more-
If you read the headline in the Daily Planet (“West Berkeley Forum Challenges the Rezoning of Major Thoroughfares,” by Richard Brenneman), you’d think there was nothing but unanimous support for this completely orchestrated meeting against the rezoning of Ashby Avenue and Gilman Streets. That’s far from the truth. My comments were the first ones made after the presentation of the “so-called panel of experts” and Mr. Brenneman conveniently ignored them in the highly biased tradition of this glorious free speech publication. -more-
I returned from a wonderful trip to the Peruvian Amazon and the Camino Inca to hear of a commentary in the Daily Planet (Sept. 13) seriously disparaging my assessment of the KPFA situation. It was signed by the four union reps of the core paid staff at KPFA. They write with great authority, accusing me of “abandoning reason” and being “singularly misinformed about the facts.” But I infer that in aiming to make me look biased and uninformed they are targeting the views of hundreds if not thousands of actual listeners that are being also disparaged. If I read it well, the article by Ballard, Lilly, Mericle, and Maldari seems to imply that I am either a lone wolf crying in the night, a spokesperson for a small group of misguided disaffected listeners, and/or a shill for KPFA Station Manager Roy Campanella. Thoughtful reflection should lead to a different conclusion. -more-
The UC Berkeley Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies will present Marc Blitzstein’s celebrated musical about the labor movement, The Cradle Will Rock, originally staged by Orson Welles for the WPA’s Federal Theatre Project in 1937, openi ng tonight (Friday) at 8 p.m. with five more performances through Oct. 16. -more-
Dona Rosa, a blind fado singer from Portugal, and Azerbaijani Ashuq vocalists Gulare Azafli and Zulfiyye Ibadova will bring the San Francisco World Music Festival to Berkeley’s Ashkenaz, as part of Ashkenaz’s “Taproots & New Growth” series, Sunday at 8:15 p.m. -more-
Once a year the coastal town of Half Moon Bay shines in an orange-tinged light, the site of the famous Art and Pumpkin Festival. Fun-filled delights for all ages await those able to negotiate roads that resemble clogged arteries, allowing individual cars, like blood cells, access to town. -more-
The Caltrans sign at the end of the back road out of the Best Buy electronics store parking lot in Emeryville gives an odd command: Left Turn Only. The odd part is that the sign sits in front of a two-way street, Hollis Street, where a right turn appears permissible. -more-
What’s to be gained from converting the Ashby Avenue and Gilman Street corridors in West Berkeley from manufacturing and light industrial zones to commercial? -more-
The eight remaining tenants of an illegal West Berkeley live-work warehouse have agreed to vacate their homes by the end of the month in return for approximately $10,000 and six months free rent dating back to April. -more-
Former Congressmember Ron Dellums has extended for a week his deadline for announcing whether he will run for the office of mayor of Oakland in 2006. -more-
Berkeley physician and inventor Kenneth Matsumura wants to terminate the Terminator, and if preliminary results are any indicator, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger may face a recall vote in next June’s general election. -more-
A former UC Berkeley employee has sued the university charging, that she was laid off for criticizing her department head for awarding fellowships based on political favoritism rather than merit. -more-
A Bay Area Air Quality Management District monitor, responding to four complaints of bad air wafting from Pacific Steel Castings, was robbed at gunpoint outside the plant’s West Berkeley headquarters at 1 a.m. Friday. -more-
An article in the Sept. 30 issue on the 35th anniversary of The Monthly mistakenly reported that Fred Cody wrote exposés on milk, meat and sugar diets. Tom Klaber was the author of those articles on the meat, dairy, sugar and cancer industries in The Monthly throughout the ‘70s. -more-
To view Justin DeFreitas’ latest editorial cartoon, please visit www.jfdefreitas.com To search for previous cartoons by date of publication, click on the Daily Planet Archive.
-more-There’s a strike at Berkeley Honda. The owners of the business have raised big bucks for Cal. Is UC siding with the dealership to the extent of bending or breaking campus rules about free speech and free alcohol? Based on what I observed on campus last Saturday afternoon, the answer appears to be yes. -more-
Should we erect a statue of Jimi Hendrix in Berkeley? Whaddaya think? -more-
There are words for certain people who have lost loved ones; a widow, a widower, an orphan. But what do you call a parent who has lost a child? I pondered this question with Kimberly Willis-Starbuck, mother of Meleia, lost to us all in a tragic shooting in Berkeley on July 17. -more-
Several weeks ago a woman came to our front door and introduced herself as Grandmaw. -more-
“They went, they sat, they came back,” said Deputy Fire Chief David Orth Monday. -more-
If John Gertz actually wants to understand what he calls “anti-Israelism,” I suggest he take a break from name-calling and use the time to learn a bit about what’s happening on the ground in occupied Palestine. -more-
I’m only a part-time reader of the Daily Planet, and the San Francisco Chronicle doesn’t often cover the Berkeley ferry issue, so I may be a little out of date. I wonder if ferry planners have even considered what might be a huge boon to hundreds, if not thousands, of West Berkeley residents, and that is putting the ferry terminal closer to the shoreline rather than at the tip of the marina? -more-
I am impressed that Ms. Mickleson (Letters Sept. 16) chose the words “ignorant hedonist” to describe how I painted her, and while I will not quibble with her interpretation, I will advise that she be mindful of her own brush strokes. Having carefully followed this developing story I think Ms. Mickleson would be well served to check her own bucket of paint. -more-
A rice bowl, a pair of chopsticks and a brightly colored cloth, when put together, cause a samurai to materialize, leaping, fencing, then, quickly changing into a junklike boat on cloth waves, the same simple objects manifesting the transoceanic voyage of Japanese to America. -more-
Microcina leei may very well be the most obscure creature I’ve ever written about. It stumped Google Image; the accompanying photograph is of a very distant relative. It’s only a millimeter long and spends its entire life hiding under rocks. -more-
Anyone who’s lived in Northern California for a few years is bound to have mixed feelings about October. It is arguably our most beautiful month: warm sunny days, crisp fog-free nights, clear enough to see the moon and all the stars even in the city. But October’s gorgeous weather stirs memories in many of us of two October events in the last twenty years that reminded us of our mortality, and of the fragile grip we have on our lotus-eater lives even in this perfect-seeming region. -more-
As Berkeley prepares to remake its downtown once again at the behest of the University of California, we had the pleasure of spending Friday night in downtown Santa Cruz, which remade its downtown at the behest of the Loma Prieta fault. After the 1989 earthquake, the city hastily demolished many of the buildings on Pacific Avenue, and has been rebuilding the streetscape there ever since, with the aid of a redevelopment authority to coerce reluctant property owners into going with the flow. Berkeley won’t have the Draconian power that the earthquake gave Santa Cruz (G_d forbid we should have such an earthquake here!) But it’s useful to take a look at what works and what doesn’t, in a situation where almost everything’s possible. -more-
