News

You come upon them almost as a pleasant surprise from out of the past, like an explorer finding a shining obelisk poking out of a sea of Egyptian sand. -more-

A Planning Commission majority, against the outspoken wishes of Chair Harry Pollack, Wednesday night elected the panel’s three representatives to the panel that will create a new plan for an enlarged downtown district. -more-

The Berkeley City Council Tuesday began tackling a dirty problem that could cost property owners up to $4,500. -more-

Faced with growing neighborhood complaints, West Berkeley’s Pacific Steel Casting Company announced Tuesday that it plans to install a carbon filter designed to eliminate the burning rubber smell wafting from its factory. -more-

For progressive activists, living in the East Bay has the defect of its virtues. It’s gratifying to reside among politically like-minded others but frustrating to find oneself mostly preaching to the choir about matters of state, national and global concern. (Local affairs are not nearly so consensual, as readers of the Daily Planet are acutely aware.) For that reason, many locals went far afield during last year’s presidential campaign. Since last fall, the missionary impulse has faded in most left-liberal quarters. But at the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club (WDRC), tapping new constituencies has remained a high priority, leading to some novel political initiatives. -more-

On a six-to-three vote, city councilmembers Tuesday approved proposed amendments to Berkeley’s condominium conversion ordinance, preparing the ground for a final vote next Tuesday. -more-

Berkeley veterans are promising to press forward with the city’s annual Veteran’s Day commemoration without the support of one of Berkeley’s most famous veterans. -more-

Although employment of local workers in the multimillion dollar Vista College construction project in Berkeley has jumped dramatically since a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) was put in place, Peralta College district trustees said they were disappointed that more has not been done to include both local workers and minority contractors in the project. -more-

Berkeley landlords can tack an additional seven-tenths of one percent onto the rents they charge tenants, the annual general adjustment rate approved Tuesday by the Rent Stabilization Board. -more-

Four years removed from nearly being taken over by the county, the Berkeley Unified School District received welcomed news from Standard & Poor’s. -more-

Once again, the Berkeley Police Department’s public information officers failed to respond to calls from the Daily Planet, this despite an e-mail sent to all regional media promising that Officer Steve Ergo would respond to all calls placed by the media between 4 and 5 p.m. Thursday. -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.

CLEAN MONEY -more-

Bangkok, Thailand—You may have noticed that the neo-conservatives surrounding the Bush administration have quit crowing about the new “American Empire.” They’ve been in retreat ever since it became apparent that the Iraqi occupation was a catastrophe, a blunder so ghastly that even stalwart Republicans such as Henry Kissinger and Reagan-era National Security Agency director Lieutenant General William Odom called it “the greatest strategic disaster in United States history.” -more-

To appreciate the possibilities of a legalized sideshow in Oakland, you have to put aside the preconceptions that have been built upon the five-year history of the illegal street sideshow movement. Instead, you must go back to the way things were before the Oakland Police Department chased the sideshows out of the parking lots and into the streets. -more-

Already during 2005, millions of human beings trapped by natural disasters have been saved through the rapid response of United Nations agencies. U.N. workers have, often at great risk to themselves, physically delivered differing types of lifelines—food, medical supplies, and shelter—to victims of the tsunami in the Pacific, Hurricane Katrina and hurricane Rita here in the United States, and most recently, the devastating 7.6 earthquake in Pakistan. Were it not for the capability of the U.N. to carry out humanitarian efforts in any part of the world on a moment’s notice, the resulting loss of life and land might well have negatively impacted millions more. -more-

I fully support UC’s removal of the clothing box at People’s Park. That the free box was an effective distribution system for used clothing for the poor is an illusion. After the ambitious entrepreneurs had taken the best clothes for resale, the rest were ruined, usually within hours, by rain, dirt, and careless handling. Thus the noble experiment became, ironically, a continuing demonstration of “Darwinian” capitalism and waste—two things supporters of the free box surely decry. -more-

People’s Park, a Berkeley landmark, has a tradition of free exchange. The tradition of sharing food, sharing music, trading clothing, giving away helpful information (and yes, sometimes love) without compensation is more than 35 years old. The freebox, one of the best examples of this tradition, is simply a box into which one puts old or simply unwanted items for the next person to use, and takes whatever interests them. -more-

Laura Menard’s letter in your Oct. 18 edition about the small claims law suit against Lenora Moore contains allegations and insinuations, which require a response, tedious as the task may be. -more-

I am a resident of South Berkeley. I have been assisting Lenora Moore in presenting her defense. In the Lenora Moore case I feel that the plaintiffs have displayed a sense of privilege and entitlement. Not only are they trying to get Ms. Moore to sell her family home through the small claims court process, but they have attacked anybody that is assisting Ms. Moore in defending herself. -more-

In his Oct. 4 Daily Planet commentary, “New Owners Did Not Fire Honda Workers,” Chris Regalia is technically correct. All that is required to follow his argument and absolve the new Berkeley Honda management of responsibility for the plight of the former Jim Doten workers and the continuing picket line and demonstrations is to enter the realm where angels dance on the heads of pins. -more-

Editors, Daily Planet: -more-

The line of great jazz trumpeters, young men with a horn, begins with the legendary New Orleans cornetist Buddy Bolden. You can read a brilliantly fictionalized account of his life in Michael Ondaatje’s 1976 novel Coming Through Slaughter. -more-

The United Nations Day Peace Concert Committee and the Oakland East Bay Symphony will present “A Concert for Peace and Humanity” this Sunday at the Oakland Paramount Theatre. -more-

Berkeley Arts Festival will present playwright Wajahat Ali and poets Boadiba, Karla Brundage and Tennessee Reed in a reading by New Voices from the Before Columbus Foundation this Sunday at 4 p.m. at the Arts Festival Gallery, 2324 Shattuck Ave. in downtown Berkeley. Admission is free. -more-

FRIDAY, OCT. 21 -more-

Just because the A’s aren’t playing in this year’s World Series doesn’t mean that there is no joy in Oakland this October. -more-

FRIDAY, OCT. 21 -more-

Richmond residents opposed to a developer’s plan to build 1,000 residential units at Breuner Marsh are looking to the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) to insist the land be preserved as open space. -more-

The new Berkeley Bowl planned for the corner of Ninth Street and Heinz Avenue in West Berkeley “would not result in any significant and unavoidable impacts,” according to the conclusion of the massive draft environmental impact report (EIR) prepared by Christopher A. Joseph & Associates, a Petaluma consulting firm. -more-

Is Peralta Community College District Trustee Marcie Hodge running for the 6th District Oakland City Council seat against incumbent Desley Brooks in next June’s election, and if so, whose idea was it? -more-

The Berkeley Public Library, already beset with labor-management problems, risked further alienating organized labor this month when it hired a non-union firm to do its janitorial work. -more-

In a sign of increased scrutiny over district operations that began last January when four new board members were elected, the Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees has hired an inspector general to report directly to the board on district operations. -more-

In the past two weeks, several more Cal football players have given witness statements to investigators in the murder of Meleia Willis-Starbuck, according to John Burris, the attorney for co-defendant Christopher Hollis. -more-

To raise funds to renovate Berkeley’s first racially integrated church, the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA) has joined with the South Berkeley Community Church to hold a Wednesday night meeting that will explore the church’s history. -more-

The article “Diversity Lacking in Council’s Commission Appointments” in the Oct. 14 issue mistakenly attributed to Councilmember Gordon Wozniak the quoted opinion that Bates’ appointment of only one African-American was “pretty sad, and pretty surprising. For years, the NAACP used to give [former mayor] Shirley Dean a hard time because she only had one African-American appointment. After that, to her credit, she appointed a number of African-Americans, at least as many as four. But now I see that Bates has the same number of African-American appointments as Dean had.” The quote should have been attributed to Councilmember Kriss Worthington.3 -more-

One of the country’s most famous anti-war activists is now one of Berkeley’s newest residents. -more-

Berkeley Iceland will apparently remain open for business after city officials approved its proposal to quiet the rink’s temporary refrigeration system, which the city feared would disturb neighbors. -more-

Lucretia Edwards, who might best be remembered as the mother of Richmond’s magnificent 3,000-plus acres of shoreline parks, died peacefully at her home on Oct. 12. She was 89 years old. -more-

The City Council will take up soft story buildings tonight (Tuesday), an amendment to the city’s condominium conversion ordinance and a host of other measures ranging from approving the budgets of local Business Improvement Districts to a renewal of the city’s needle exchange program. -more-

There’s no police blotter today because Berkeley Police spokesperson Officer Joe Okies is on vacation through the end of October and his temporary replacement didn’t return calls by deadline Monday.. -more-

Summer dust, first rain trigger power outages -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.

UC PARKING -more-

A Lively Collection Awaits at the Berkeley Public Library -more-

I hadn’t planned to write another column about Meleia Willis-Starbuck so soon but things change and this is about more than Meleia. No sooner did I write my last column saying I hoped that John Burris, her accused murderer’s attorney, wasn’t attempting to lay the foundation for blaming Meleia for her own death with his statement that Christopher Hollis’ bringing of the gun to the scene of the crime was an example of his being “too dependable,” than Burris was quoted that same week stating that he knew that Meleia asked Hollis to “bring the heat.” -more-

My dad has been asked by the widow of his best friend in the Army to contribute to a memory book about her deceased husband. Specifically, the widow has requested tales of heroism and valor during my father and her husband’s stint in the Army Air Corps, 1944 to 1945. -more-

First there was Green Party candidate, Audie Bock. In 1999 she stunned political experts and beat long-term black Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris for an assembly seat in a special election in Oakland. -more-

The Berkeley City Council is scheduled to discuss the potential benefits to several communities of not demolishing the Bevatron, a retired nuclear accelerator, and recommend instead that it be preserved as a historical landmark and education facility. As the council has no actual authority in this matter, this would be a recommendation only and most likely would be ignored by the Department of Energy, which runs Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL). -more-

On June 24, 2004 the City of Berkeley, a Charter City, entered into a contract with Checkpoint Systems Inc., New Jersey, to “deliver, install and make operational the Intelligent Library System (radio frequency identification technology) at the Berkeley Public Library...” for $643,000. -more-

The recent discussions on planning for an avian flu pandemic highlight a critical problem in disaster planning—our inability to predict the future. Even if, as with Hurricane Katrina and the 9/11 terrorist attack, a few people may have anticipated and forewarned of potential disaster, these events appeared to have a low probability of occurring in the near future. As a result, few people in public policy-making positions were prepared to spend the time, money and political capital necessary to prepare for them. So how do we plan for an appropriate disaster response without wasting limited resources chasing after every potential disaster? -more-

The 23rd annual San Francisco Jazz Festival begins this Thursday and continues for another 42 events through Dec. 10. This is the most concentrated amount of great jazz available in the Bay Area all year. -more-

The African-American Shakespeare Company is providing the opportunity to see one of the more obscure ventures of the Bard, Two Noble Kinsmen, at the African-American Art & Culture Complex, on Fulton Street in San Francisco, through this weekend. -more-

Sometimes the greatest mysteries are closest to home. Just ask Kent Brown, a Berkeley man who’s embarking on a quest to learn about his grandmother. -more-

TUESDAY, OCT. 18 -more-

All through September, I’ve been seeing warblers in the backyard: not the yellow-rumps that spend the winter, but migrants of other species stopping over during their southbound flight—yellow warblers running the gamut from bright to drab, orange-crowns, a female Townsend’s, at least one Wilson’s. -more-