Standing between former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Berkeley-Oakland), gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides speaks to an enthusiastic crowd in a South Berkeley backyard. Photograph by Judith Scherr.
Standing between former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Berkeley-Oakland), gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides speaks to an enthusiastic crowd in a South Berkeley backyard. Photograph by Judith Scherr.

Page One

Angelides Woos Berkeley In Backyard Pow-Wow

By Judith Scherr
Friday August 25, 2006

The 80 or so people that packed a sunny south Berkeley backyard Thursday morning didn’t seem to need convincing that Phil Angelides, 53, would be their pick for governor on Nov. 7. -more-



Maio Faces Mitchell In District 1 Race

By Judith Scherr
Friday August 25, 2006

Fourteen-year District 1 Councilmember Linda Maio might have thought she’d breeze through the fall election without a challenge: She’s off on vacation without having put a penny into a campaign account. -more-



Book Alleges Mob Ties to Jerry Brown

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday August 25, 2006

A book scheduled to be released next month revives decades-old charges that California attorney general candidate and Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown had close ties with individuals related to organized crime during Brown’s tenure in the 1970s as governor of California. -more-



School Board Gets Back to Work After Summer Recess

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday August 25, 2006

The Berkeley school board met Wednesday for the first time after summer vacation. Mateo Aceves took the oath of office as the new student school board director for the coming school year. -more-



Incoming Freshman Take First Look at BHS

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday August 25, 2006

Photo I.D.s, brand-new textbooks and lots of good advice marked Tuesday’s freshman orientation at Berkeley High for the Class of 2010. -more-



Features

Berkeley City College Opens, Ready or Not

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday August 25, 2006

With hallways and classrooms still filled with construction tools and rubble and workers only taking a short break to make way for brief speeches and a hurried open house public tour, the Peralta Community College District cut the ribbon this week on the new $65 million downtown Berkeley City College campus a day before fall semester classes were scheduled to begin. -more-


Equity and Inclusion Chancellor Post Created for UC

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday August 25, 2006

At the UC Berkeley back-to-school media briefing on Wednesday, Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau made the announcement of a new position in the UC system—vice chancellor for equity and inclusion—deemed to be one of the first such cabinet level positions in the country. -more-


Democratic Clubs Debate Over a Place for Greens

By Judith Scherr
Friday August 25, 2006

While the Democratic Party tent might be big enough for hawks such as Joe Lieberman and Hillary Clinton and radicals like Cynthia McKinney and Maxine Waters, there’s no room for people of other political stripes, most notably Green Party members. -more-


Upcoming Political Candidate Events

Friday August 25, 2006

August 26 -more-


Column: Undercurrents: ‘Sydewayz’ Video Celebrates Sideshow Culture

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday August 25, 2006

By the time I finally learned how to pronounce Oakland documentary filmmaker Yakpazua Zazaboi’s name without stumbling over it, he had dropped out of sight and I lost contact with him for a couple of years. Yap, as he’s called on the streets, was the premier videographer of Oakland’s Sideshow Movement in the years between 1999 and 2004, recording hours of footage at the immense after hours gatherings at the Pac ‘N Save parking lot on Hegenberger and then, when the police chased the events into the neighborhoods, following them into the heart of the neighborhoods of Deep East Oakland. -more-


Ethnic Media Share Survival Stories One Year after Katrina

By Donal Brown, New America Media
Friday August 25, 2006

The men in the office slept on the floor, had to forego bathing and ate rations provided by the National Guard, but they were able to broadcast nonstop after the devastating hurricane. The men were five dee jays for 1540 Radio Tropical Caliente, some of the workers for the ethnic media of New Orleans that survived Katrina to provide first response services and eventually overcome financial blows and play a role in the rebirth of the city. -more-


Back to Berkeley: East Bay Celebrates Diversity With Festivals, Fairs, Parades

By Joe Eaton, Special to the Planet
Friday August 25, 2006

Diversity is not just a lofty abstraction: it tastes great, and you can dance to it. With the exception of the wet months, the Bay Area calendar is full of street fairs, music festivals, parades, and other events where you can hear everything from mariachi to taiko and sample endless variations on grilled-meat-on-a-stick. -more-


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Friday August 25, 2006

Commentary: Rolling Out Berkeley’s Green Carpet

By Mayor Tom Bates
Friday August 25, 2006

When I ran for mayor four years ago, I promised to put the environment at the top of my agenda. Earlier this month, two of Berkeley’s innovative energy and environmental programs were highlighted in “New Energy for Cities,” a national report released by the Apollo Alliance. -more-


Commentary: LBNL: 75 Years of Science, 75 Years of Pollution

By L A Wood
Friday August 25, 2006

This weekend marks the 75th anniversary of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Established a decade prior to World War II, the “rad lab,” as it was first called, has maintained a strong presence at the UC Berkeley campus since that time. Today the national laboratory is operated by the Department of Energy and it continues with its radiation research. -more-


Editorial

Editorial: Is ‘Berkeley for the Berkeleyans’ Good Public Policy?

By Becky O’Malley
Friday August 25, 2006

The ever-estimable Nation magazine’s latest issue highlights, among other things, what the cover calls “the new nativism”—the most recent episode in the “America for the Americans” tendency that has been with this nation since its founding. One article traces its historic roots: all the way from Ben Franklin in the 18th century inveighing against German immigrants to Pennsylvania (now the belovedly quaint Pennsylvania “Dutch”) through anti-Irish riots at the beginning of the 19th century at the time of the Potato Famine immigration, on to the Chinese exclusion advocated by the Irish-American Dennis Kearney’s Workingmen’s Party in the West during the last part of that century, culminating in the 20th century charge against “hyphenated-Americans” led first by Theodore Roosevelt, followed by the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. The 1965 immigration law reform was supposed to have put an end to national-origins quotas, but now all over the U.S. there’s a revival of crusades against Spanish-speaking immigrants both legal and undocumented. Xenophobia—the pathological distrust of outsiders—in other words is as American as cherry pie, as Stokely Carmichael was once castigated for saying about violence. -more-


Columns

Central Oregon Coast: Uncrowded Beaches, Spectacular Ocean Vistas, Bargain Prices and 3 Skate Parks

By Carole Terwilliger Meyers
Friday August 25, 2006

By Carole Terwilliger Meyers -more-


East Bay Then and Now: SBCC: A Grand Building On a Modest Scale

By Daniella Thompson
Friday August 25, 2006

The half-dozen years before World War I were significant ones for Berkeley’s ecclesiastical architecture. -more-


About the House: New Houses Aren’t Quite as Trouble-Free as They Seem

By Matt Cantor
Friday August 25, 2006

Crisis is opportunity isn’t it? And some days I just have to say, Thank you, Lord Buddha, for another #$%@ing growth opportunity. -more-


Garden Variety: Selecting Plants with Natural Scents in Mind

By Ron Sullivan
Friday August 25, 2006

After a day of being olfactorily jostled by vehicle exhaust, the odd pile of dog turds by the sidewalk, and overdone, overused, over-applied synthetic perfumes, being surrounded by natural scents clears the crud from one’s mind and mood. -more-


Arts Listings

Arts Calendar

Friday August 25, 2006

Sankofa Institute Presents Charlie Parker Symposium

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Friday August 25, 2006

Moving Pictures: The Birth of Animation

By Justin DeFreitas
Friday August 25, 2006

Events Listings

Berkeley This Week

Friday August 25, 2006

Back Stories

Opinion

Editorials

Editorial: Is ‘Berkeley for the Berkeleyans’ Good Public Policy? 08-25-2006

Editorial: It’s Time for a Meeting 08-22-2006

Public Comment

Letters to the Editor 08-25-2006

Commentary: Rolling Out Berkeley’s Green Carpet By Mayor Tom Bates 08-25-2006

Commentary: LBNL: 75 Years of Science, 75 Years of Pollution By L A Wood 08-25-2006

Letters to the Editor 08-22-2006

Commentary: Clif Bar Loss Indicative of City’s Out-of-Date Policies By Steven Donaldson 08-22-2006

Commentary: I Will Put an End to Fake Democracy in Berkeley By Christian Pecaut 08-22-2006

News

Angelides Woos Berkeley In Backyard Pow-Wow By Judith Scherr 08-25-2006

Maio Faces Mitchell In District 1 Race By Judith Scherr 08-25-2006

Book Alleges Mob Ties to Jerry Brown By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 08-25-2006

School Board Gets Back to Work After Summer Recess By Riya Bhattacharjee 08-25-2006

Incoming Freshman Take First Look at BHS By Riya Bhattacharjee 08-25-2006

Berkeley City College Opens, Ready or Not By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 08-25-2006

Equity and Inclusion Chancellor Post Created for UC By Riya Bhattacharjee 08-25-2006

Democratic Clubs Debate Over a Place for Greens By Judith Scherr 08-25-2006

Upcoming Political Candidate Events 08-25-2006

Column: Undercurrents: ‘Sydewayz’ Video Celebrates Sideshow Culture By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 08-25-2006

Ethnic Media Share Survival Stories One Year after Katrina By Donal Brown, New America Media 08-25-2006

Back to Berkeley: East Bay Celebrates Diversity With Festivals, Fairs, Parades By Joe Eaton, Special to the Planet 08-25-2006

Chan Calls for Delay Of OUSD Land Sale By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 08-22-2006

Father of Army Officer Resisting War Speaks Out By Judith Scherr 08-22-2006

New Test Scores Show Trouble For Jerry Brown’s Charter Schools By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 08-22-2006

Bayer Grant Gets Students Working in Biotechnology By Riya Bhattacharjee 08-22-2006

UC Custodians Call for Fair Wages as Term Opens By Judith Scherr 08-22-2006

Finance Department Head Resigns, Takes Hayward Post By Judith Scherr 08-22-2006

Pacific Steel Report on Health Risk from Emissions Past Due By Riya Bhattacharjee 08-22-2006

Testers Posing as Katrina Survivors Encounter ‘Linguistic Profiling’ Lorinda M. Bullock, New American Media 08-22-2006

A Few Questions for Berkeley High Principal Jim Slemp By Rio Bauce, Special to the Planet 08-22-2006

Columns

Central Oregon Coast: Uncrowded Beaches, Spectacular Ocean Vistas, Bargain Prices and 3 Skate Parks By Carole Terwilliger Meyers 08-25-2006

East Bay Then and Now: SBCC: A Grand Building On a Modest Scale By Daniella Thompson 08-25-2006

About the House: New Houses Aren’t Quite as Trouble-Free as They Seem By Matt Cantor 08-25-2006

Garden Variety: Selecting Plants with Natural Scents in Mind By Ron Sullivan 08-25-2006

Column: The Public Eye: Notes on NIMBYism Part IV: The NIMBY Manifesto By Sharon Hudson 08-22-2006

Column: The Public Eye: Toward a New Liberal Foreign Policy By Bob Burnett 08-22-2006

Column: Horse and Cart, Write and Attend By Susan Parker 08-22-2006

The Tree of Many Names Scents Our Woodlands By Ron Sullivan, Special to the Planet 08-22-2006

Arts & Events

Arts Calendar 08-25-2006

Sankofa Institute Presents Charlie Parker Symposium By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet 08-25-2006

Moving Pictures: The Birth of Animation By Justin DeFreitas 08-25-2006

Central Oregon Coast: Uncrowded Beaches, Spectacular Ocean Vistas, Bargain Prices and 3 Skate Parks By Carole Terwilliger Meyers 08-25-2006

East Bay Then and Now: SBCC: A Grand Building On a Modest Scale By Daniella Thompson 08-25-2006

About the House: New Houses Aren’t Quite as Trouble-Free as They Seem By Matt Cantor 08-25-2006

Garden Variety: Selecting Plants with Natural Scents in Mind By Ron Sullivan 08-25-2006

Berkeley This Week 08-25-2006

Arts Calendar 08-22-2006

Arts: Dream Kitchen Kicks Off Downtown Jazz Festival By Ira Steingroot, Special to the Planet 08-22-2006

Arts: ‘House of Lucky’ At La Vals By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet 08-22-2006

Arts: SF Shakespeare Presents ‘The Tempest’ By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet 08-22-2006

The Tree of Many Names Scents Our Woodlands By Ron Sullivan, Special to the Planet 08-22-2006

Berkeley This Week 08-22-2006

Correction 08-22-2006