The Week

Jakob Schiller: Eli Leon holds one of his favorite quilts from his collection. Each square, using different fabric from the 1930s, pictures a boy bouncing a ball..
Jakob Schiller: Eli Leon holds one of his favorite quilts from his collection. Each square, using different fabric from the 1930s, pictures a boy bouncing a ball..
 

News

The Art of Doing it Right By ELI LEON Special to the Planet

Tuesday November 29, 2005

When I first went to look at Ernestine Camp’s quilts in the early 1980s, I didn’t expect the work to be of much interest to me. The improvisational African-American patchwork I’d been collecting and documenting was generally made by women who’d had littl e education and worked at jobs that required no formal training. -more-


Peralta Replaces Firm Overseeing Vista College Construction By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Tuesday November 29, 2005

A contract dispute between the Peralta Community College District and a San Jose construction inspection firm over the Vista College construction project have left district and company officials squabbling over why the firm stopped work in July and whether Peralta will pay the firm $130,000. -more-


Council Calls Session to Study Homeless Programs By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday November 29, 2005

The City Council has called a special work session starting at 5 p.m. Tuesday on the city’s existing homeless and anti-poverty programs. -more-


Peralta District Trustee Hodge Escalates Attacks Against Office of International Affairs By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Tuesday November 29, 2005

Embattled Peralta College District Trustee Marcie Hodge has escalated her attacks against the district’s Office of International Affairs, with her sister hiring San Francisco Freedom of Information Act attorney Karl Olson to renew a request for an investigative report on the department. -more-


Planning for Downtown Berkeley’s Future By ROB WRENN Special to the Planet

Tuesday November 29, 2005

The city has begun the process of creating a new plan for Berkeley’s downtown. The current Berkeley Downtown Plan was adopted by the City Council in 1990. The work of putting that plan together began in 1984. -more-


Fire Department Log By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday November 29, 2005

Telegraph fire -more-


Police Blotter By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday November 29, 2005

Sex crimes -more-


Editorial Cartoon By JUSTIN DEFREITAS

Tuesday November 29, 2005

To view Justin DeFreitas’ latest editorial cartoon, please visit -more-


Letters to the Editor

Tuesday November 29, 2005

LIQUOR STORES -more-


Column: Thanksgiving at Our House By SUSAN PARKER

Tuesday November 29, 2005

On Wednesday morning I go to the store and buy onions, Brussels sprouts, butter, cranberries, and $195 worth of other edibles and non-edibles. I start cooking. -more-


Commentary: Transparency Needed in Berkeley Lab Nanotechnology By Michael W. Toffel

Tuesday November 29, 2005

On Dec. 6, the Berkeley City Council will consider asking the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL) to be significantly more transparent about the health and environmental issues associated with its new nanotechnology facility. -more-


Arts: Oakland Opera Opens ‘Peace Through Song’ By KEN BULLOCK Special to the Planet

Tuesday November 29, 2005

Oakland Opera Theatre will present “Peace Through Song” this weekend. -more-


Arts Calendar

Tuesday November 29, 2005

TUESDAY, NOV. 29 -more-


Books: Burdick and the Ugly American: The Novelist as Propagandist By PHIL McARDLE Special to the Planet

Tuesday November 29, 2005

Eugene Burdick (1918-1967) was a professor of political science at the University of California and the author of The Ugly American and other best-selling novels. He was described to me years ago as “a cigar smoking extrovert.” At the time of his death, Clark Kerr spoke of him as “...one of the truly blithe spirits of the university—joyous, curious, friendly, creative, helpful.” -more-


The Carnivorous Habits of Christmas Trees By RON SULLIVAN Special to the Planet

Tuesday November 29, 2005

We don’t have a lot of eastern white pines (Pinus strobus) in Berkeley. There are lots of domestic cultivars—weeping, or tall and narrow, or bluer than the usual—and if I’m remembering correctly, it’s the species Mom and Dad used to get for the Christmas tree when I was a kid in Pennsylvania. That was partly a matter of tradition, I guess, but also because its soft needles weren’t hazardous when we were all hanging ornaments and tinsel. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday November 29, 2005

TUESDAY, NOV. 29 -more-


Peralta District Plans Bid to Save Kaiser Convention Center By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Friday November 25, 2005

A public-private partnership proposal put together by the Peralta Community College District and a Chicago sports and entertainment developer may be Oakland’s only chance to keep the city’s longstanding Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center from imminent closure. -more-


Corporation Yard Development PlanPulled Off Table By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday November 25, 2005

A plan that would have turned Berkeley’s Corporation Yard into a housing project collapsed Wednesday when the would-be developer pulled the plug. -more-


Public Money Makes Kaiser Center Area Development Hot Spot By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Friday November 25, 2005

While the attention of the media, the Oakland City Council, and the Oakland Mayor’s office’s continues to center around the proposed $65 million Forest City retail-housing development project in Oakland’s uptown area, a rich development prize awaits in the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center area a few miles to the southeast. -more-


Downtown Plan Panel Begins Discussion of Key Issues By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday November 25, 2005

After the new committee charged with charting a new plan for downtown Berkeley held its first meeting Monday night, many of the participants said that they wondered just how they could accomplish their tasks in the comparatively little time they have. -more-


Remembering Bob Nichols By CAROL DENNEY Special to the Planet

Friday November 25, 2005

Robert Norton Nichols, 52, passed away at his home in Berkeley after a brief illness. He was born May 14, 1953 in New Bedford, Mass., to Oliver (Nick) Winslow Nichols and Elizabeth Norton Nichols, now deceased. He attended Pennsylvania State College before moving west and becoming a union stagehand with the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Local 107, working theatrical events Bay Area wide. -more-


Is France Ready For Affirmative Action? By BRAHMANI HOUSTON Pacific News Service

Friday November 25, 2005

Unlike the United States, where affirmative action has been debated for decades, the argument over it has only just begun in France. -more-


Letters to the Editor

Friday November 25, 2005

PLAYING FIELDS -more-


Column: Dispatches From The Edge: Dark Armies, Secret Bases and Rummy, Oh My! By Conn Hallinan

Friday November 25, 2005

It would be easy to make fun of President Bush’s recent fiasco at the fourth Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina. His grand plan for a free trade zone reaching from the Arctic Circle to Terra del Fuego was soundly rejected by nations fed up with the economic and social chaos wrought by neo-liberalism. At a press conference, South American journalists were rude about Karl Rove. And the president ended the whole debacle by uttering what may be the most trenchant observation the man has ever made on Latin America: “Wow! Brazil is big!” -more-


Commentary: The War in Iraq is a Complex Problem By Ken Stanton

Friday November 25, 2005

Shortly after I returned from the war in Vietnam, I was invited to speak to a small church-sponsored audience about my experiences, as well as my opposition to the war. I had been a conscientious objector and had served as an Army medic in Vietnam. After my talk, a man who identified himself as a World War II veteran, approached me. He said that he had come to raise objections to my position, but had decided not to. Although he still did not agree with me, he said that he respected the consistency of my position. In response to his question, “What will happen if we leave South Vietnam?” I had answered that I fully expected the North Vietnamese to conquer the country. I added that I was opposed to the communist regime, and believed that the Vietnamese people would be better off with a democratically elected government. However, I did not believe that we could win the war we were fighting. Moreover, we were not creating a free and democratic society in South Vietnam, which would have been the only justification for the harm we were causing to millions of Vietnamese, as well as to tens of thousands of American soldiers. In my view, withdrawing American troops from Vietnam was a painful decision, but a simple one. -more-


Commentary: Arnold Bungled California’s Future By Alan Christie Swain

Friday November 25, 2005

Arnold screwed up. That’s the bottom line. He bungled the chance he was given this year to move California in the right direction. The most important issue on the special election ballot was the redistricting initiative. -more-


Commentary: Your Tax Dollars At Work By JUDY SHELTON

Friday November 25, 2005

Let me count the ways your tax dollars are being utilized by the folks at Berkeley Honda. We’ll just take one day: Friday, Nov. 4. -more-


Commentary: Open-Street Plan Makes Best Use of Derby Site By PETER WALLER and SUSI MARZUOLA

Friday November 25, 2005

School Board Member Terry Doran stakes out the high ground in “We Want It for the Kids,” his Nov. 15 Daily Planet commentary, and we have to agree with his basic points. Berkeley kids need better sports facilities, and they need them now. They need good multi-purpose fields that will take the pressure off of existing fields such as San Pablo Park. Central Berkeley is short on open space and the Derby Street site is a unique opportunity to address this need. Decisions regarding the future of this site should be based first and foremost on meeting the recreational and athletic needs of the full range of the Berkeley Unified School District kids. -more-


Commentary: What Are You Willing to Sacrifice? By Jon Kidde

Friday November 25, 2005

Just about everyone supports the troops. It has become taboo not to. They are, after all, not making the decisions, just following orders. So whether you agree with the war effort or are opposed to it, it has become unpatriotic, unsympathetic, and even seen as a disregard for life to not support them. They are just troops, just soldiers, sailors, and airmen carrying out their duties, but willing to sacrifice their lives. They come back emotionally and physically bruised and battered. Officially, more than 15,500 military personnel have been physically wounded in action. With Veterans’ Day sparking the country’s memory, discussions about the returning veterans, who will be forever changed regardless of their physical condition, are only now entering into the mainstream discourse. The 2,057 bodies that return, hidden by the blackness of night and the darkness of our own indifference are only remembered by their loved ones; the honor of their life and the dignity of their duty repressed and concealed by a fearful government. -more-


Commentary: Sometimes You Get What You Want By CAROLE TERWILLIGER MEYERS Special to the Planet

Friday November 25, 2005

I told my son David a few years back, when he was just starting out as a music video director and working with lesser-known rap groups I’d never heard of, to give me a call if he ever hooked up with someone I could relate to, like maybe one of the Big Three from my generation—The Beatles, The Stones, or Bobbie D. -more-


Arts: Sendak’s Tales Take the Stage at the Rep By KEN BULLOCK Special to the Planet

Friday November 25, 2005

Like an enormous pop-up book, the production design by famed illustrator and children’s book author Maurice Sendak takes three-dimensional form on the Berkeley Rep’s Roda Stage, bringing to life two mid-20th century Czech light operas adapted to English by playwright (and friend to Sendak) Tony Kushner, Comedy on the Bridge and Brundibar. Both are charming and witty, yet darkened by the ensuing tragedies of war and genocide that contribute their own ironic chiaroscuro and vanishing points. -more-


Arts: Historic Sacramento Houses Showcase Treasures By STEVEN FINACOM Special to the Planet

Friday November 25, 2005

Three special buildings—including two historic houses and a really fine art museum—provide appealing destinations for a day or weekend trip to Sacramento this winter, especially when rainy or cold weather argues in favor of indoor activities. -more-


Arts Calendar

Friday November 25, 2005

FRIDAY, NOV. 25 -more-


Ten Reasons to Go Outside, Even If It’s Raining By MARTA YAMAMOTO Special to the Planet

Friday November 25, 2005

Thanksgiving dinner has been eaten and re-eaten. The turkey’s been picked down to the bones. Endorphins lulled you to sleep with that slightly “full” feeling. Your house seems rather full too, with family and friends occupying every seat. What’s next on the agenda? -more-


Berkeley This Week

Friday November 25, 2005

FRIDAY, NOV. 25 -more-


Opinion

Editorials

Eeditorial: Out of Control With Bush at the Wheel By BECKY O'MALLEY

Tuesday November 29, 2005

When I was a small child, about 5 or so, I had a recurring dream in which I was driving a car, but was still a child and didn’t know how to drive it. It carried me all sorts of places I’d never intended to go, and I couldn’t make it stop. My dream car never crashed, because I learned how to wake myself up before things got too dire, but it was frightening nonetheless. The United States at the moment is in the grip of a similar dream. All sorts of things are careening out of the control of the electorate, of those of us who are theoretically in the driver’s seat, but who cannot control where the country is going. -more-


Police Blotter By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday November 25, 2005

Behavior most fowl -more-