The Week

Opening Day for Berkeley City College 
          Karen Cotton, left, helps students register for classes at Berkeley City College (formerly Vista College) on Friday afternoon. The official ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the new campus at 2050 Center St. is scheduled for 10 a.m. today (Tuesday). Photograph by Riya Battacharjee
Opening Day for Berkeley City College Karen Cotton, left, helps students register for classes at Berkeley City College (formerly Vista College) on Friday afternoon. The official ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the new campus at 2050 Center St. is scheduled for 10 a.m. today (Tuesday). Photograph by Riya Battacharjee
 

News

Chan Calls for Delay Of OUSD Land Sale

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday August 22, 2006

State Assemblymember Wilma Chan, who co-sponsored legislation that led to the state takeover of the Oakland Unified School District in 2003, says that contract negotiations to sell Oakland Unified School District Lake Merritt-area property that were authorized in that legislation “should be slowed down” until more information can be obtained about the controversial deal. -more-


Father of Army Officer Resisting War Speaks Out

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday August 22, 2006

When Ehren Watada signed up for the army, he thought he was being patriotic. But after talking to veterans returning from Iraq and studying documents that showed Bush had lied about weapons of mass destruction there, the 28-year-old lieutenant became convinced that the patriotic position was to refuse deployment to Iraq. -more-


New Test Scores Show Trouble For Jerry Brown’s Charter Schools

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday August 22, 2006

Student test scores at Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown’s Oakland School for the Arts (OSA) charter school dropped significantly in two key areas from last year to this, according to a report on the California Standards Test (CST) recently released by the California Department of Education. -more-


Bayer Grant Gets Students Working in Biotechnology

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday August 22, 2006

Biotech Partners, formerly Berkeley Biotechnology Education, Inc/BBEI, received a surprise $150,000 grant from the Bayer Foundation on Wednesday, which reaffirmed Bayer Corporation’s commitment to the model biotechnology school-to-career program that the company established with the city of Berkeley 13 years ago. -more-


UC Custodians Call for Fair Wages as Term Opens

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday August 22, 2006

UC Berkeley custodians welcomed students moving into southside dormitories with an informational picket line on Sunday, calling on the administration to give them fair wages. -more-


Finance Department Head Resigns, Takes Hayward Post

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday August 22, 2006

After more than a decade crunching numbers as the head of Berkeley’s Finance Department, E. Frances David will be making a shift south to become assistant city manager in Hayward. -more-


Pacific Steel Report on Health Risk from Emissions Past Due

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday August 22, 2006

Pacific Steel Casting Corporation will hand over their health risk assessment report to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) in the first week of September, according to Elizabeth Jewel of Aroner, Jewel & Ellis Partners, the company’s public relations consultants. -more-


Testers Posing as Katrina Survivors Encounter ‘Linguistic Profiling’

Lorinda M. Bullock, New American Media
Tuesday August 22, 2006

As the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches on Aug. 29, displaced Americans from Louisiana and the Gulf Coast have been slowly rebuilding their lives and looking for a place to call home. -more-


A Few Questions for Berkeley High Principal Jim Slemp

By Rio Bauce, Special to the Planet
Tuesday August 22, 2006

Berkeley High School Principal Jim Slemp took some time off from his busy schedule recently to answer a few questions as he begins his fourth year as principal at BHS. -more-


Oakland School District Trustees Release Counterproposal to Downtown Property Sale

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday August 18, 2006

Oakland Unified School District trustees dramatically changed the debate over the district’s downtown properties this week, introducing a proposal to build a “new, permanent, state of the art education center” on the 8.25-acre property currently occupied by the district’s administration building and five educational facilities. Under a resolution drafted by veteran school board trustee Noel Gallo, the new facilities would house a kindergarten through high school program, the two early childhood development centers currently on the property, and the district administrative offices. -more-


State Regulators Sue Pacific Steel Casting

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday August 18, 2006

State regulators have sued Berkeley’s Pacific Steel Casting Company (PSC), demanding either an accurate, up-to-date emissions list or a $10,000-a-day fine. -more-


Alta Bates Construction Draws Ire From Neighbors

By Rio Bauce and Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday August 18, 2006

Neighbors of Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley are irked by very loud construction noise at the hospital site, which they say has been going on for the last two weeks or more. -more-


5 Candidates Compete For 3 School Board Seats

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday August 18, 2006

The Nov. 7 local office elections will see five candidates competing for three open seats on the five-member Berkeley Board of Education. -more-


Downtown Planning Panel Advises Council To Abide by City’s Landmarks Ordinance

By Richard Brenneman
Friday August 18, 2006

While the fate of Berkeley’s existing landmarks law remains an open question, a joint committee made it clear Tuesday night that they want to follow its criteria in the new downtown plan. -more-


Call for Guard to Come Home Fails in State Committee

By Judith Scherr
Friday August 18, 2006

Despite best efforts of activists and legislators, California Coast Guard troops serving in Iraq won’t be heading home to resume stateside duties. -more-


2.9 Earthquake Delivers Early Morning Wakeup Call

By Richard Brenneman
Friday August 18, 2006

A magnitude 2.9 earthquake jostled some Berkeley residents awake at 5:58 Thursday morning—a short, sharp reminder of the presence of the Hayward Fault’s fitful presence. -more-


Committee Issues Wellstone Endorsement Recommendations

By Judith Scherr
Friday August 18, 2006

The Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club’s electoral committee heard from a host of candidates Wednesday night and recommended that the full club endorse Andy Katz for East Bay Municipal Utilities District, Nancy Skinner for the East Bay Regional Parks Board, Anne Marie Hogan for Berkeley auditor, Dave Blake for Berkeley Rent Board, and Jason Overman over Gordon Wozniak for Berkeley District 8 City Council. -more-


Clifton the Only Peralta Trustee To Face Challenge In November

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday August 18, 2006

There will be no more massive turnovers in the Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees, at least for now. -more-


Security Experts’ ‘Suicides’ Called Into Question

By Jeffrey Klein and Paolo Pontoniere, New America Media
Friday August 18, 2006

European Media Probe Dangers of Secret -more-


Italy a Special Place in the Heart of the Dirty War

By Jeffrey Klein and Paolo Pontoniere
Friday August 18, 2006

As the investigation into covert CIA’s and local rogue intelligence operatives in Europe expands across the continent, Italy’s emerges as the thinking head of a hydra whose tentacles reach far into worldwide communication net and backward into the history of international conspiracies. -more-


A Few Good Restaurants For Health-Conscious Diners

By Rio Bauce
Friday August 18, 2006

Are you trying to eat better? Do you describe yourself as a vegetarian, a vegan, or a raw-foodist? Have you had trouble finding good healthy food for a reasonable price? Here are a few local restaurants to get you started. -more-


Police Blotter

By Richard Brenneman
Friday August 18, 2006

Hoodied heisters -more-


Opinion

Editorials

Editorial: It’s Time for a Meeting

By Becky O'Malley
Tuesday August 22, 2006

Over the weekend we received the e-mail reprinted [below]. Evidently the signers of the letter have been misinformed by someone for some reason. They say that “we recently requested a meeting with the Daily Planet Executive Editor Becky O’Malley. Ms. O’Malley refused to meet, stating ‘you won’t convince me of your position.’” -more-


Editorial: Can Oakland Re-Think Oak to 9th?

By Becky O'Malley
Friday August 18, 2006

Sunday morning we enjoyed a visit to the DMV offices on Claremont Avenue in Oakland. That’s a first—when has anyone ever enjoyed a DMV trip? The reason it was a pleasure is that we weren’t actually visiting the DMV, but were taking advantage of Oakland’s newest urban amenity, the Sunday farmers’ market which has set up shop in the parking lot there, just blocks from our home on the Berkeley border. It’s a tasty mixture of organic produce, booths for specialty cooking and a rotating roster of craftspeople and selected musicians. -more-


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Tuesday August 22, 2006

ALCOHOL -more-


Commentary: Clif Bar Loss Indicative of City’s Out-of-Date Policies

By Steven Donaldson
Tuesday August 22, 2006

Berkeley is now seeing the loss of yet another world-class business. Clif Bar is moving to the City of Alameda. Clif Bar, with it’s great all-natural organic nutritional bars. A green business, with a commitment to employees, customers and the community, is leaving what should be its natural “ideological” home for the City of Alameda. -more-


Commentary: I Will Put an End to Fake Democracy in Berkeley

By Christian Pecaut
Tuesday August 22, 2006

The last refuge of scoundrels is their long record of public service. Tom Bates long ago voided not only his 30 years of public office, but also whatever dignity and respect he had accrued prior to 1972. Such is the inevitable effect of consciously choosing to deceive those with less power than you have. So disastrous are these deliberate misreports of perception and understanding by more powerful people, that almost the entire ability for below figures to sort out what is accurate/inaccurate is destroyed. -more-


Letters to the Editor

Friday August 18, 2006

RENT CONTROL -more-


Commentary: Inconvenient Truths From Berkeley’s First Native American Mayoral Candidate

By Zachary Running Wolf
Friday August 18, 2006

A nation that loses its cherished freedom and protections will often discover that it has been a victim of spin and counter spin. This is not difficult to understand when we consider that a significant majority of our citizens still believe that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. The truth of the matter is that it is difficult for humans to accept that they are continually being brainwashed. -more-


Commentary: Musings on an Identity Crisis

By Joan Levinson
Friday August 18, 2006

By JOAN LEVINSON -more-


Commentary: Too Little Green, Too Far in the Red

By Michael Katz
Friday August 18, 2006

A few points about Peter Buckley’s Aug. 15 response to my May 26 commentary on the proposed David Brower Center/Oxford Plaza megastructure: -more-


Columns

Column: The Public Eye: Notes on NIMBYism Part IV: The NIMBY Manifesto

By Sharon Hudson
Tuesday August 22, 2006

In 1990, 60 percent of New Yorkers said they would live somewhere else if they could, and in 2000, 70 percent of urbanites in Britain felt the same way. Many suburbanites commute hours every day just to have “a home, a bit of private space, and fresh air.” But unfortunately, running off to suburbia or to the wilderness to find contentment is becoming environmentally and economically unviable. -more-


Column: The Public Eye: Toward a New Liberal Foreign Policy

By Bob Burnett
Tuesday August 22, 2006

Conservative foreign policy has failed and taken with it their dream of a new American empire. Unfortunately, in the course of its jingoistic pursuit of global supremacy, conservatism undermined the international institutions that both Democratic and Republican presidents struggled to strengthen, before the disastrous reign of George W. Bush. -more-


Column: Horse and Cart, Write and Attend

By Susan Parker
Tuesday August 22, 2006

I should have knocked on wood last week when I said I often use Kaiser’s Emergency Room as an office in which to get some writing done. As I e-mailed the essay to the Daily Planet, Ralph’s health took an unexpected and rapid slide downhill. I drove him to ER. I took a pen and notebook with me, but because his vital signs were alarmingly weak, he was rushed through triage and put in a room for patients who need immediate attention. -more-


The Tree of Many Names Scents Our Woodlands

By Ron Sullivan, Special to the Planet
Tuesday August 22, 2006

Up in the hills, in the parks and in the places next to them, are Monterey pines—imported from Monterey, and many now old and ill and tottering—and native trees: redwoods, the odd Douglas fir, oaks, and a tree of many names, its official binomial being quite a melodious mouthful, Umbellularia californica. -more-


Column: Dispatches From the Edge: The Deadly Tales We Tell Ourselves

By Conn Hallinan
Friday August 18, 2006

History is the story we tell ourselves in the present about the past, but how we punctuate the story, where we put the periods, the commas and the ellipses, depends not on everything that happened, but on who is telling the story, where we stand in the narrative, and what outcome we want. -more-


Column: Undercurrents: Keeping Watch Over Oakland’s Schools Was Not for Brown

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday August 18, 2006

When I was coming up, I used to attend Vacation Bible School, and faithfully study my daily passages, and then ask many questions that often seemed to annoy the teacher in charge of the class. -more-


Impressionism 101: Start in San Francisco

By Marta Yamamoto, Special to the Planet
Friday August 18, 2006

Radicals of the 1860s, they broke the rules and moved out of their studios. Away from poised portraits and still lives, they painted open-air scenes meant to capture everyday subjects in a passing moment. They painted with un-mixed vibrant colors in broad and daubed brushstrokes creating shimmering canvases bathed in light. The Impressionists turned their backs on academic painting, commanded attention and revolutionized the world of art. -more-


About the House: A Few Tips on the Dangers of Excess Water Pressure

By Matt Cantor
Friday August 18, 2006

Pressurizing the entire municipal water system is not an easy matter. I’m sure glad I don’t have to do it. Everyone’s bound to be unhappy. If you’re down in the flats or close to a pumping station, you’re pressure is going to be very high. If you’re waaaaay up at the top of the hills, it’s going to be much lower. We pump up the system to a pressure that will make sure that the person furthest from the pump will still have enough pressure to get a decent shower, even when her darned husband flushes the toilet (If I’ve told that man one time, I’ve told him…). -more-


Garden Variety: Work All Day? Plant a Night Garden to Welcome You Home

By Ron Sullivan
Friday August 18, 2006

Being a night person gives you a different look at things. Strolling at night or commuting to a night shift, especially when the moon’s out, you get to see gardens that no one else sees, even their owners. Silver leaves glow at night, and reshape a garden’s contours. White-flowered groundcovers make a garden float, changing perspectives and lifting a viewer off her own feet. Noises are damped, and what you hear is framed and given significance. There’s a feeling of privilege, of witnessing what mortals routinely miss. I can see where the stories of fairies in the bottom of the garden come from. -more-


Quake Tip of the Week

By Larry Guillot
Friday August 18, 2006

Will Uncle Sam Save Us? -more-


Arts & Events

Arts Calendar

Tuesday August 22, 2006

TUESDAY, AUGUST 22 -more-


Arts: Dream Kitchen Kicks Off Downtown Jazz Festival

By Ira Steingroot, Special to the Planet
Tuesday August 22, 2006

The ambitious second annual Downtown Berkeley Jazz Festival, produced by the Jazzschool, begins this Wednesday. Over the course of five days, 45 musical events will be presented at 15 venues all over downtown Berkeley. -more-


Arts: ‘House of Lucky’ At La Vals

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Tuesday August 22, 2006

After the heavy metal overture screeches to a halt, both Frank Wortham and his one-man show, House of Lucky (ending its run this weekend), put on by Impact Theater at La Val’s Subterranean, come on with a bang. -more-


Arts: SF Shakespeare Presents ‘The Tempest’

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Tuesday August 22, 2006

Summer is almost gone, at least that official version that stretches between Memorial and Labor Days, but it’s still possible to catch that theatrical hallmark of the season, Free Shakespeare in the Park. -more-


The Tree of Many Names Scents Our Woodlands

By Ron Sullivan, Special to the Planet
Tuesday August 22, 2006

Up in the hills, in the parks and in the places next to them, are Monterey pines—imported from Monterey, and many now old and ill and tottering—and native trees: redwoods, the odd Douglas fir, oaks, and a tree of many names, its official binomial being quite a melodious mouthful, Umbellularia californica. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday August 22, 2006

TUESDAY, AUGUST 22 -more-


Correction

Tuesday August 22, 2006

In the Aug. 15 story “Incumbents Hit Filing Deadline,” the Planet reporter Richard Brenneman wrote that “Challenger Howard Chong has filed his papers for the Rent Board . . .” Howard Chong is not a challenger, however, but the current chair of the Board. -more-


Arts Calendar

Friday August 18, 2006

FRIDAY, AUGUST 18 -more-


CalShakes Brings ‘Merchant of Venice’ to Orinda Stage

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Friday August 18, 2006

At outdoor cafe tables topped with Cinzano umbrellas the actors loll, idly watching video screens arranged around an open-work structure’s beams like townhall clocks at the points of the compass, facing the audience. Watching as a platinum-bewigged young woman, dolled up in loud fashion but draped in a sleek tawny fur with beige boots, flops into a chair, pushes back her sunglasses, reaches for her bag as if a beached globe-trotter, and impatiently tosses wads of play money onto the stage ... Watching as a bearded financier doffs “the badge” of his “Jewish gabardine” to bathe in cash as he reclines in a dumpster ... Watching as a suitor woos his intended by hefting a black plastic garbage bag of loot to throw his hat in the ring. -more-


Summer Outdoor Cinema Series Features Classic Film, Live Music

by Justin DeFreitas
Friday August 18, 2006

Pyramid Alehouse kicks off its annual Outdoor Cinema series this Saturday with a screening of the 1969 Robert Redford-Paul Newman classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. -more-


Impressionism 101: Start in San Francisco

By Marta Yamamoto, Special to the Planet
Friday August 18, 2006

Radicals of the 1860s, they broke the rules and moved out of their studios. Away from poised portraits and still lives, they painted open-air scenes meant to capture everyday subjects in a passing moment. They painted with un-mixed vibrant colors in broad and daubed brushstrokes creating shimmering canvases bathed in light. The Impressionists turned their backs on academic painting, commanded attention and revolutionized the world of art. -more-


About the House: A Few Tips on the Dangers of Excess Water Pressure

By Matt Cantor
Friday August 18, 2006

Pressurizing the entire municipal water system is not an easy matter. I’m sure glad I don’t have to do it. Everyone’s bound to be unhappy. If you’re down in the flats or close to a pumping station, you’re pressure is going to be very high. If you’re waaaaay up at the top of the hills, it’s going to be much lower. We pump up the system to a pressure that will make sure that the person furthest from the pump will still have enough pressure to get a decent shower, even when her darned husband flushes the toilet (If I’ve told that man one time, I’ve told him…). -more-


Garden Variety: Work All Day? Plant a Night Garden to Welcome You Home

By Ron Sullivan
Friday August 18, 2006

Being a night person gives you a different look at things. Strolling at night or commuting to a night shift, especially when the moon’s out, you get to see gardens that no one else sees, even their owners. Silver leaves glow at night, and reshape a garden’s contours. White-flowered groundcovers make a garden float, changing perspectives and lifting a viewer off her own feet. Noises are damped, and what you hear is framed and given significance. There’s a feeling of privilege, of witnessing what mortals routinely miss. I can see where the stories of fairies in the bottom of the garden come from. -more-


Quake Tip of the Week

By Larry Guillot
Friday August 18, 2006

Will Uncle Sam Save Us? -more-


Berkeley This Week

Friday August 18, 2006

FRIDAY, AUGUST 18 -more-


Corrections

Friday August 18, 2006

The names of two candidates were incorrectly reported in the Aug. 15 story “Incumbents Hit Filing Deadline.” -more-