Scenes from the Abu Ghraib prison torture came to life in front of UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall Law School on Tuesday, as students and professors turned up to mark “Bush Crimes Day” and protest against Boalt professor John Yoo’s Oct. 19 attack on the independent judiciary in the Wall Street Journal. -more-

Business for Better Govern-ment—the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce political action committee (PAC)—has fired the first salvo of its campaign against Measure J. -more-

A lawsuit charging illegal campaign practices, allegations of illegal contributions and outright lies, and an apology for stealing campaign literature? -more-

The Mayor Ron Dellums era in Oakland started dramatically and three months early this week with a Thursday morning press conference by the incoming mayor on the City Hall steps, announcing that he had brokered a deal to prevent the impending infusion of thousands of dollars of business money into the last two weeks of the District 2 City Council and City Auditor races. -more-

UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium will get local landmark -more-

Energized with recorded rhythms such as Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power,” some 60 protesters rallied outside the Berkeley Public Safety building then marched through the streets and demanded the reopening of police complaint hearings. -more-

The Planning Commission voted on Wednesday to recommend that the City Council adopt the proposed Creeks Task Force revisions to the Creeks Ordinance while taking into account the recommendations by the commission. -more-

Two Oakland men have pleaded guilty in connection with the March slaying of a Berkeley man who was hosting a party for his three children and their friends. -more-

Not arson, despite odor -more-

When the pall of death hung over the East Bay during the October fire of 1991, I turned to the preparation of the evening meal devoid of feeling. To my astonishment, as I went through the routines of chopping, stirring, blending and serving, I felt as though a corner of this pall were lifting. -more-

Born into an aristocratic British family with fascist tendencies, Jessica Mitford—a.k.a. Decca Treuhaft or Dec, also called Susan by some of her six siblings—reinvented herself throughout her life, eloping to Spain at 19 with a second cousin who had fought against Franco in the Spanish Civil War, moving to America, joining the Communist Party and becoming a celebrated Oakland author in her middle age. -more-

The main issue in Albany is what will be the future of the waterfront. I want to preserve as much of the waterfront as possible as park and open space and complete the vision of access to the waterfront and bay that has been a goal of many groups. I would like to see the completion of the East Shore State Park in Albany between Berkeley, El Cerrito and Richmond. Since this land is zoned recreational and for the race track, I would see no reason for the city to change the zoning without a study of possibilities. I would hold the city accountable to a fair and transparent method of soliciting citizen input about ideas for the waterfront. This does not assume that I want or encourage Golden Gate Fields to leave. It is their property and they have been active community members for many years. However, I think that Magna Entertainment Corp. needs to recognize that Albany residents do not favor a large development next to the waterfront and I would hope that the city and Magna could initiate communications as to what would be a win-win situation for both them and Albany. -more-

I am a 22 year Albany resident running for City Council. Like so many others, my family chose to live here for the public schools. My husband and I have stayed on after our children graduated because we love Albany. This love of Albany has led me to participate in a variety of local civic and non-profit organizations over many years. With my civic experience and professional background, I feel I have much to offer Albany on the City Council. -more-

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UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium will get local landmarks status as designated June 1 by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, a unanimous City Council said Tuesday night. -more-

Former vice president Al Gore came to Berkeley Monday to support the “Yes on 87” campaign. -more-

Before the Le Conte Neighborhood Association’s Thursday evening candidates night, secretary Jerry Miller was undecided about whom he’d pick for mayor. But after listening to the three candidates—incumbent Mayor Tom Bates, former Planning Chair Zelda Bronstein and community activist Zachary Running Wolf, Miller told the Daily Planet: “I could really see the difference between the candidates. I don’t think I’m unclear now.” -more-

If there’s a single issue dominating the race for Albany’s vacant city council seats, it’s the now-you-see-them, not-you-don’t plans of a Canadian race track mogul and a Southern California shopping mall magnate for the city’s waterfront. -more-

Stephan Volker, the lawyer handling a lawsuit challenging UC Berkeley’s long-range plans, filed a similar action Monday in Santa Cruz. -more-

Architects and developers of buildings that promise to transform the face of Berkeley watched and listened Thursday as a city panel tweaked their plans. -more-

The Fair Campaign Practices Commission decided on Thursday that it will begin an investigation of the anonymous phone poll that was conducted throughout Berkeley in July 2006. -more-

Why is city staff pushing to overturn landmark status for UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium in the final weeks before UC Regents meet to decide the fate of the historic coliseum? -more-

Questions on whether a lecture on religion is a cultural use of the Gaia Building and whether Sunday church services are considered culture will be among the issues facing the City Council at tonight’s (Tuesday) meeting. -more-

Once again, Berkeley’s Planning Commission will look at the Creeks Ordinance this week. -more-

With two weeks to go in the hotly contested Area 7 Peralta Trustee race, two predominant issues have emerged. -more-

If you were in Downtown Berkeley last week, you may have seen Berkeley High School students dressed in red and gold clothing or as celebrities and said to yourself “What’s going on?” -more-

We love our special city, and for good reason. Berkeley is a remarkable place, admired and even envied by people around the globe. We of course want it to keep it at its best and work to make it even better. -more-

When I was a little girl, my mom would stop traffic when ducks were crossing the road. No one else seemed to do such things then, but in time, I too became a crosser of ducklings, turtles, and a doer of deeds needing doing. -more-

I’m honored that a diverse coalition of senior citizens, environmentalists, neighborhood leaders, students, tenants, and homeowners asked me to give our community a viable alternative to the out-of-step District 8 Councilmember in this election. -more-

In 2002 I ran as an independent who could bridge the gap between the two often-warring factions on the City Council. Council meeting were acrimonious and often ran into the wee hours of morning. Under the leadership of Mayor Bates, the City Council has developed a more collegial manner while addressing difficult issues. I am proud to have played an important role in this transformation. -more-

Wednesday night the genteel old Berkeley City Club (I’m so old that I remember it as the Women’s City Club) was the scene of a discussion between the two candidates for Berkeley’s District 7 City Council seat. Present in the audience and on their best behavior were some distinguished graying veterans of the venerable group known as People’s Park activists, as well as a number of members of the Telegraph Avenue Merchants’ Association which sponsored the event, some neighborhood residents and a small but enthusiastic claque supporting candidate George Beier. (An overheard conversation as the audience left suggested that some of these were from Oakland and Concord, but it’s OK if they came to cheer for a friend or family member—one was his sister.) -more-

Mohammed Ali, the iconoclastic boxing champion originally known as Cassius Clay, used to describe his technique this way: “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.” We’ve tried to take that as our motto for the editorial column of this publication, but evidently we’ve overdone it on the butterfly side. I got an anguished call last week from my old friend the Marxist Tax Accountant, who surprised everyone by becoming the father of twins just about the time the rest of us were seeing our kids off to college. -more-

ALBANY -more-

Call me frustrated. Some weeks ago—never mind how long precisely—I set out to try to get straight answers from Mayor Bates about some questionable statements he has made about the recent settlement agreement between the City and the University of California. I dutifully attended campaign forum after forum, patiently waited for the question period, then stood up and carefully aimed my inquiries. But every time it seemed that the mayor would be obliged to give a direct answer to one of my queries, he slipped away into the unfathomable depths. Alas! Did my efforts ultimately prove as fruitless as Captain Ahab’s hunt for the great white whale? We shall see. -more-

A lot of readers are focusing on the effects Proposition 90 will have on eminent domain in California, but many are missing that this is one of the most squarely anti-environmental initiatives to reach the California ballot in decades. -more-

NEBA DEFECTIONS -more-

Editors, Daily Planet: -more-

Over the past few weeks, Chris Kavanagh and his comrades have flooded the Daily Planet with denunciations of Measure I, the citizen initiative that would allow a limited number of surplus rental units to be converted to condominiums. According to Kavanagh the measure is nothing but a conspiracy to evict thousands of tenants. Simply stated, the truth has not been told. -more-

By Dan McMullan -more-

On Aug. 23, 17 members of the Warm Pool attended the School Board meeting asking for your support. We were not just representing ourselves. We were representing approximately 400 people a week, in ages ranging from two months old to 88, who exercise, rehabilitate themselves, and gain strength and peace of mind at this valuable facility. Included in this group are the following: -more-

There are times when the tensions between Venezuela and the Bush Administration seem closer to commedia dell arte than politics: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez compares President George W. Bush to the devil, right down to the smell of sulfur; Homeland Security responds by strip searching Venezuela’s Foreign Minister at a New York airport; Venezuela seizes 176 pounds of frozen chicken on its way to the U.S. Embassy in Caracas. -more-

Sometimes, in politics, you come to a point where it is not possible to provide definitive answers, only questions. We seem to have come to such a point in the proposed sale of the Oakland Unified School District downtown properties. The question is: Why is that proposed sale still on the table? -more-

If you’re looking for architecture inspired by precedent, there’s no better place to look than the University of California campus. Nowhere else in town is so much architectural variety concentrated within such a confined area. And the precedents are apparent in all manner of buildings, from the most prominent to the humblest. -more-

One of the toughest parts of my job has always been finding the justification to support large expenditures on my client’s part. While it may be fun to spend someone else’s money, you won’t make much of a reputation telling everyone that they need a new foundation. You have to parse the good-enough from the doesn’t-cut-it and that’s often disconcerting (for me and for my client). -more-

The older and bumblinger I get—and believe me, I’m starting from an advanced baseline of bumblitude—the more I appreciate how forgiving a process gardening is. Composting is one of the more forgiving parts of it, and cheapest. It can stink if you do it wrong—but, if you do it wrong, it generally still works. -more-

How’s Your Earthquake Knowledge? (Part 3) -more-

It’s worrisome enough that Berkeley has failed to maintain a relatively simple blinking crosswalk at the risky Ashby/Piedmont intersection, as the Daily Planet reported on Oct. 6. -more-

The Alta Bates Emergency Room doctor gave Ralph 24 hours to live. An attendant wheeled Ralph, in a hospital bed, into the East Wing of ICU. The admitting doctor said Ralph probably wouldn’t make it through the night. -more-

Berkeley was a much different place 80 years ago. But then as now, it was prime barn owl territory. During the summer of 1926, E. Raymond Hall of UC’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology kept track of a family of owls nesting in the tower of the First Presbyterian Church that then stood at Dana and Channing. Hall, who habitually worked late, heard them calling while walking home from the museum between 10 p.m. and midnight. -more-

FRIDAY, OCT. 27 -more-

“All you need to make a movie,” Godard once pronounced, “Is a girl and a gun.” -more-

San Francisco’s Shelton Theater, near Union Square, is a busy place. With at least six theater companies sharing four stages, the house’s logistics alone are almost a bedroom farce. So with farce in mind, I caught two of the resident comedy troupes last week. -more-

Terry Gilliam’s Tideland is a stream of surreal images and literary references. Based on Mitch Cullin’s 2000 novel, the film is, in the director’s own words, something akin to Alice in Wonderland meets Psycho. The parallels to both are clear: A young protagonist uses her (hyper)active imagination to escape the brutalities of the reality she inhabits, at one point even falling into a rabbit hole; and the American Gothic quality of the film, along with a few gender-bending details and the disturbing drama surrounding a depraved family, readily call to mind Hitchcock’s 1960 psychodrama. -more-

If you’re looking for architecture inspired by precedent, there’s no better place to look than the University of California campus. Nowhere else in town is so much architectural variety concentrated within such a confined area. And the precedents are apparent in all manner of buildings, from the most prominent to the humblest. -more-

One of the toughest parts of my job has always been finding the justification to support large expenditures on my client’s part. While it may be fun to spend someone else’s money, you won’t make much of a reputation telling everyone that they need a new foundation. You have to parse the good-enough from the doesn’t-cut-it and that’s often disconcerting (for me and for my client). -more-

The older and bumblinger I get—and believe me, I’m starting from an advanced baseline of bumblitude—the more I appreciate how forgiving a process gardening is. Composting is one of the more forgiving parts of it, and cheapest. It can stink if you do it wrong—but, if you do it wrong, it generally still works. -more-

How’s Your Earthquake Knowledge? (Part 3) -more-

FRIDAY, OCT. 27 -more-

TUESDAY, OCT. 24 -more-

It’s not exactly High School Confidential, the interactive show Sausalito’s Antenna Theater is staging at Berkeley High through this weekend, but as an example of Antenna’s ‘Walkmanology,’ more of a tour through four years on campus compressed into 45 minutes, literally a walk-through of secondary education. -more-

I am waiting for a rehearsal, held in the living room of a beautiful home, to begin. It’s the first time I will hear the pianist and soprano who are performing an aria that I wrote the libretto for. Earlier I saw the composer, Peter Josheff, going over the music with the pianist. He was totally focused. What he was telling her matters. -more-

At the Friday night opening concert of the 24th annual SF Jazz Festival, Sonny Rollins performed a half dozen tunes for almost two hours with an astounding amount of passion, strength and nobility. -more-

Berkeley was a much different place 80 years ago. But then as now, it was prime barn owl territory. During the summer of 1926, E. Raymond Hall of UC’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology kept track of a family of owls nesting in the tower of the First Presbyterian Church that then stood at Dana and Channing. Hall, who habitually worked late, heard them calling while walking home from the museum between 10 p.m. and midnight. -more-

TUESDAY, OCT. 24 -more-