Reorganization of the Nutrition Services Department, a progress report from the B-Tech, and a presentation by the Life Academy at Berkeley High School were highlights of the BUSD Board meeting on Wednesday. -more-
Since 1973, the Berkeley community has been able to air complaints in public against its police officers and compel them to respond. But a recent California Supreme Court decision may have knocked the teeth out of the ordinance that created Berkeley’s Police Review Commission. -more-
Prakash Stephen Pinto wants the deserted glass-strewn lot at San Pablo Avenue and Harrison Street near his Stannage Avenue home replaced by shops and new housing, but he told the City Council Tuesday night that the project before them “is a serious detriment to the neighborhood.” -more-
With the specter of Proposition 90 lurking in the wings, Berkeley’s City Council Tuesday passed a conditional new law governing the sizes of apartment and condominium buildings. It attempts to reconcile conflicts between size bonuses offered by the state of California and the City of Berkeley as a reward for the provision of affordable housing. -more-
In an effort to bring public awareness to the issues involved in critical contract talks between the City of Oakland and the powerful Oakland Police Officers Association, members of the Black Elected Officials of the East Bay sponsored a public forum Wednesday night on the contract negotiations. -more-
Berkeley should be ready to boost downtown parking prices for a host of reasons, declared members of the panel charged with developing a new plan for downtown Berkeley Wednesday night. -more-
Some library activists have been watching the search process for a new library head and say they don’t like what they see. -more-
A Federal Court in San Francisco denied a request by Oakland-based environmental nonprofit Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) on Wednesday for a preliminary injunction against Berkeley-based Pacific Steel Casting (PSC) citing insufficient evidence that CBE would prevail on the merits of its arguments. -more-
Opponents of Oakland’s massive Oak to Ninth development project have amended their California Superior Court complaint against the project, asking that the court invalidate the City Council’s approval of the project because the final version of the project agreement was never available to the council or the public at the time of the council vote. -more-
A 15-year-old Berkeley High School student was assaulted Tuesday afternoon near Planet Juice in downtown Berkeley. -more-
Berkeley police are offering a $15,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the killer of a 23-year-old Oakland man who was shot in Berkeley Sept. 4. -more-
The plight of artists seeking to live and work in West Berkeley is the subject of a special meeting to be held this afternoon (Friday). -more-
UC Berkeley police are investigating the death of a graduate student whose body was discovered Friday evening in the same residential co-op where 16 residents were treated at local hospitals a week earlier after consuming cannabis-laced cookies. -more-
After the City Council and mayoral candidates fielded questions on workers rights, affordable housing, a closed-door city-university lawsuit settlement, the city’s (convicted and alleged) criminal police, the use of city resources to fight terrorism and more, some 60 Berkeley residents participated in the Berkeley Progressive Coalition Endorsement Convention Saturday, choosing to endorse Zelda Bronstein for mayor and Dona Spring, Kriss Worthington and Jason Overman for City Council. -more-
Supporters of the Milo Foundation urged the Zoning Adjustments Board last week to authorize the animal adoption agency’s continued use and plans for 1575 Solano Ave. and 1572 Capistrano Ave., as other neighbors called the business a nuisance. -more-
The appearance of State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell in Oakland on Friday morning to announce the selection of a new state administrator for the Oakland Unified School District shows how far OUSD School Board members are being kept out of the loop in the running of Oakland’s schools. -more-
With growing community concerns over what some local media outlets are calling the “shocking escalation” in Oakland’s murder rates, Oakland officials are trying to settle a simmering dispute between the city’s two major citizen law enforcement advisory groups and its police department over the allocation of scarce police resources. -more-
Berkeley Police Chief Douglas Hambleton announced Monday that he has suspended two of his officers pending the outcome of internal investigations. -more-
Fresh from summer break, the Berkeley City Council will jump into the fray with a public hearing tonight (Tuesday) on a controversial five-story project proposed for the corner parcel at Harrison Street and San Pablo Avenue. -more-
We have had many inquiries about whether or not the Planet will endorse candidates for the November election. Election day is a little over six weeks away, and mail-in ballots (formerly known as absentees) will be out in little more than a week. More and more voters are going to be voting by mail, so the campaign is winding up right now. Last-chance political efforts, sponsored by MoveOn.org and others, are underway across the nation and in this area. -more-
The Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) will take up the price of parking when they meet Wednesday. -more-
Having just gone through the process of accepting that Cody’s on Telegraph would be no more, I found the sale of Cody’s Fourth Street and San Francisco stores to a Japanese buyer something of a further shock. As well as an important reality check. Let us never forget, I thought to myself when I learned of the sale, that business is about money. -more-
As a BUSD parent who has been working on improving the food that the district serves for the past 10 years, I think that there is basic level on which Ms. O’Malley misses the point about the food project at the Berkeley schools. -more-
As a Berkeley teacher, I have followed the recent discussion about out-of-district students with interest. -more-
On Sept. 12 Pope Benedict XVI aroused the fury of the Islamic world with a speech given at the University of Regensburg in which he assailed the Muslim concept of holy war as a violation of God’s will and nature. The pope quoted a 14th century Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Paleologus, who derided Islam and the Prophet Muhammad for introducing “things only inhuman and evil,” such as spreading the faith by the sword. The pope held up (Catholic) Christianity, by contrast, as a model religion that promoted a “profound encounter of faith and reason.” -more-
When Tom Bates ran for mayor of Berkeley four years ago my daughter Gracie and I occasionally volunteered at the Bates campaign office to work the phones. It was tedious work but Bates was running for mayor on a promise to improve education and Gracie would be attending Berkeley High School soon so it seemed like a good way to introduce a 12-year-old to local politics and civic affairs. -more-
A little over 10 years ago, just after the explosive launch of the Internet information age, I wrote a feature-essay for Metro newspaper in San Jose called “W.W.W.—World Without Wisdom.” (The essay was all mine; the idea for turning the “world-wide-web” initials into “world without wisdom,” however, was the Metro editors’—I’d always wished I’d thought of that.) -more-
Scare the hell out of the American people. That, in a nutshell, is the Republicans’ fall congressional campaign strategy. If you doubt it, consider the following: George W. Bush launched a propaganda offensive in the run-up to the 9/11 anniversary with a speech in which he called Islamic terrorists “successors to fascists, to Nazis, to communists and other totalitarians of the 20th century”; Donald Rumsfeld in turn likened administration critics (read Democrats) to those who appeased Nazi Germany in the 1930s; Dick Cheney, appearing on Meet the Press, accused opponents of the war of inviting more violence; Rep. Peter Hoekstra, a Michigan Republican and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee in August released a hyped report on the supposedly grave threat to US national security posed by Iran—one strikingly similar to the hyped intelligence documents the administration used to build its case for war in Iraq. -more-
At 10 a.m. every Friday, Mary Ann Broder opens the Friends of the Library Bookstore for business. She’s been doing that since 1998 when the Friends of the Berkeley Public Library first moved into their present location in the Sather Gate Mall housed in the public parking structure a half block below Telegraph Avenue, between Channing Way and Durant. -more-
One of the largest residential parcels in the Berkeley, the John Hopkins Spring Estate, commonly known as the Spring Mansion, occupies 3.25 acres in the Southampton area of the north Berkeley Hills. The property is so large as to require three addresses: 1960 San Antonio Ave., 1984 San Antonio Ave., and 639 The Arlington. -more-
Everyone has something particularly annoying about their job. I’m sure yours has at least one (I can see the heads nodding). O.K. It’s more than one. Me too. I’ve got a few and one of these serenity-busters that bugs me the most is being asked which building code justifies an item that I’ve called-out during an inspection. -more-
When we start thinking good thoughts about rain, it must be the peak of fire season. That means fall planting season is coming soon, and it’s time to start looking for plants to fill in (or overcrowd) our gardens. Especially California natives, because this is a good time to plant them, to take advantage of the winter rains. Even drought-loving plants need a bit of watering help in their first year. -more-
Democrats continue to gain momentum in their bid to wrest control of the House of Representatives from the Republicans. According to veteran DC prognosticator, Charlie Cook, there are now 46 House seats in play. In order to prevail, the Democrats will have to win 15 of the 36 tenuous GOP seats. And hold onto 10 shaky Democratic seats. -more-
On Thursday I bought three pints of Haagen-Dazs ice cream for Ralph, Andrea, and me. We were planning on watching “Survivor” together. It was the 188th episode, the beginning of the most controversial season yet. Real life-like explosive racial stereotyping, the news reports said. -more-
By Ron Sullivan -more-
Film was the dominant art form of the 1920s, an international cultural phenomenon which, in the days before sound, was considered a universal language. -more-
Fritz Lang is best known today for Metropolis, the 1927 science fiction classic that recently screened at Pacific Film Archive. The film has been tremendously popular throughout the decades, and the fact that much of the film has been lost, cut by censors and misguided studios, has only added to its allure. -more-
Ranging from a violent clash between brothers in a quiet orchard, to edgy life at court under the onus of a suspicious usurper, to philosophical exile in the Forest of Arden where the usurper’s own brother, the deposed duke, has fled with his retinue, CalShakes’ As You Like It, directed by artistic director Jonathan Moscone, spreads out from a series of situations and encounters into a big show (if not quite a spectacle), incorporating a gypsy band, vocal renditions of The Bard’s sublime songs, a rather modest drag act, a little Big Time Wrestling, a good deal of business and routines imported from cabaret, burlesque and sitcom ... in other words, something of an extravaganza, played out under an enormous moon waxing through the boughs of trees (all scenery) to the nighttime sound of crickets (very real), in the Bruns Amphitheatre, facing the hills over Siesta Valley near Orinda. -more-
At 10 a.m. every Friday, Mary Ann Broder opens the Friends of the Library Bookstore for business. She’s been doing that since 1998 when the Friends of the Berkeley Public Library first moved into their present location in the Sather Gate Mall housed in the public parking structure a half block below Telegraph Avenue, between Channing Way and Durant. -more-
One of the largest residential parcels in the Berkeley, the John Hopkins Spring Estate, commonly known as the Spring Mansion, occupies 3.25 acres in the Southampton area of the north Berkeley Hills. The property is so large as to require three addresses: 1960 San Antonio Ave., 1984 San Antonio Ave., and 639 The Arlington. -more-
Everyone has something particularly annoying about their job. I’m sure yours has at least one (I can see the heads nodding). O.K. It’s more than one. Me too. I’ve got a few and one of these serenity-busters that bugs me the most is being asked which building code justifies an item that I’ve called-out during an inspection. -more-
When we start thinking good thoughts about rain, it must be the peak of fire season. That means fall planting season is coming soon, and it’s time to start looking for plants to fill in (or overcrowd) our gardens. Especially California natives, because this is a good time to plant them, to take advantage of the winter rains. Even drought-loving plants need a bit of watering help in their first year. -more-
From ancient geological ages through the present, plus selected eras in between, the heritage of Berkeley is on display this fall in six walking tours. -more-
“Both the theater and the circus are places where imagination thrives, springs up and flies high,” says Ismail Azeem, coproducer with Lisa Marie Rollins of The Secret Circus, to be presented by The Marsh Berkeley on Wednesdays and Thursdays from Sept. 20 to Oct. 19. “So to take all kinds of artists and put them together under one tent—it’s genius and magic all at once.” -more-
By Ron Sullivan -more-
