Opinion

Editorials

Summer Heat Wave Impacts Local Farmers’ Market

By Malia Wollan, Special to the Planet
Tuesday September 26, 2006

The record-breaking, triple-digit heat wave that rolled through California this summer did untold harm to the state’s $31.8 billion agricultural industry—cooking walnuts in their shells, killing dairy cows and wilting tender greens in the field. -more-


Editorial: The Planet Endorses . . .

By Becky O’Malley
Friday September 22, 2006

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-


Reader Commentaries

Letters to the Editor

Tuesday September 26, 2006

POPE FAUX PAUS -more-


Commentary: In Defense of the Pope

By Carol Gesbeck DeWitt
Tuesday September 26, 2006

Pope Benedict XVI may be too old and conservative for what is best for the Catholic Church. However, the undeserved bad media coverage and misinterpretation of his out of context comments are appalling. Most of the media is sound-biting the controversy into a wider spreading of unfortunately horrible publicity that does not present the facts of the situation, only furthering the damage. Peace is what the world needs more of, not inflaming violence and those who want to escalate it. -more-


Commentary: Zionism, Judaism and the Promised Land

By Carl Shames
Tuesday September 26, 2006

I greatly appreciate the forum you have provided for airing viewpoints on a very contentious set of issues, and the effort you made in a recent editorial with regard to anti-Semitism. Nevertheless, difficult problems remain that must be brought to light. Before I go further: My own background is a left-wing, non-Zionist Jew. -more-


Commentary: Attack on Mayor Was Misguided

By Don Jelinek
Tuesday September 26, 2006

Randy Shaw’s long attack on the record of Mayor Bates was a study in strange contradictions and outright errors. I’ll just take a few moments to point out a few of them. -more-


Commentary: Golden Gate Fields Pushes for Casino, Mall

By Robert Cheasty
Tuesday September 26, 2006

By ROBERT CHEASTY -more-



Letters to the Editor

Friday September 22, 2006

SUNSHINE ORDINANCE -more-


Commentary: Cody’s Goes Global, Leaving Local Shoppers Behind

By Anne Blackstone
Friday September 22, 2006

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-


Commentary: A Choice Between Bad Food and No Food at All

By Eric Weaver
Friday September 22, 2006

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-