The Week

Debbie Moore and Steve Ingraham protest outside Pacific Steel. Photograph by Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice.
Debbie Moore and Steve Ingraham protest outside Pacific Steel. Photograph by Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice.
 

News

Flash: Berkeley Council Approves Creeks Ordinance

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday November 14, 2006

After two years of meetings and hearings in which property owners often clashed with environmentalists, the Berkeley City Council approved a revised Creeks Ordinance (6-2-1) late Tuesday night aimed at safeguarding the city’s many open and culverted waterways. -more-


UC Regents Approve Training Center,

By Richard Brenneman and Judith Scherr
Tuesday November 14, 2006

Despite promised lawsuits by the City of Berkeley and project neighbors, UC Regents voted Tuesday to approve a massive athletic training center along the western wall of Memorial Stadium. -more-


Environmentalists Protest Pacific Steel Emissions

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday November 14, 2006

Gas masks, air filters and angry posters marked the Pacific Steel Casting protest rally on Saturday, which drew more than 250 protesters. -more-


Regents Ready to Approve Stadium Training Facility

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday November 14, 2006

UC Regents are scheduled to decide this morning (Tuesday) whether or not to approve the $112 million Student Athlete High Performance Center, a 142,000-square-foot building along the western wall of UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium. -more-


Final Vote Tallies Show Increased Leads for Election Winners

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday November 14, 2006

With the lion’s share of votes counted, Kriss Worthington has slightly widened his lead in the squeaker Berkeley City Council District 7 race, according to the Alameda County registrar of voters. In fact, all the winners increased their winning margins. -more-


Next Step: How to Implement Instant Runoff Voting

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday November 14, 2006

The question for Alameda County election officials in the next few months is like a paraphrase of the old O’Jays song: “Now that we’ve got IRV, what are we gonna’ do with it?” -more-


Neighbors Still Oppose University Avenue Project

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday November 14, 2006

Supporters and opponents of the proposed 148-unit Trader Joe’s Building on 1885 University Ave. turned out in full force at the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) meeting on Thursday. -more-


Council May Ask University to Preserve Oaks Near Stadium

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday November 14, 2006

Councilmember Dona Spring quotes from an old Joni Mitchell song: -more-


Creeks Hearing Provides Opportunity for Public’s Input

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday November 14, 2006

Community members will have one more chance to weigh in at a public hearing tonight (Tuesday) on a proposed city law some praise for protecting creeks but one that others say would be costly to homeowners and restrict the use of their property. -more-


Peralta Has Array of Projects Set Aside for Measure A Funding

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday November 14, 2006

The Peralta Community College District will spend Measure A bond money on any of the broad range of projects that appeared on last June’s ballot, not just on the line item “Measure A Capital Projects” list, which currently appears on the district’s Department of General Services website. -more-


Hancock Addresses Richmond Citizens Group

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday November 14, 2006

Loni Hancock came to Richmond Thursday night to visit the citizen panel she helped to create. -more-


Latin-Americans Join Ranks of ‘Ideologically Excluded’

By Camille T. Taiara, Special to the Planet
Tuesday November 14, 2006

Waskar Ari Chachaki is an ill-fated victim of the War on Terror. Born in the remote Andean highlands of Bolivia, by age 42 he had earned a Ph.D. from prestigious Georgetown University. Ari, the first member of the pre-Incan Aymara tribe with a doctorate in history from the United States, also helped establish eight indigenous organizations in Bolivia and Peru. He’s an expert in indigenous history, culture and political movements. -more-


Pelosi’s Ties to Bay Area Jewish Community Run Deep

By Dan Pine, J — The Jewish Newsweekly
Tuesday November 14, 2006

Call her Madam. Madam Speaker, that is. -more-


Riddle, Issel Win School District Seats

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday November 14, 2006

Editor’s note: This article was published in the Nov. 10 issue, but did not run in its entirety. This is the complete article with updated vote totals. -more-


BUSD President Doran Retires

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday November 14, 2006

Berkeley School Board president Terry Doran will be retiring at the end of the BUSD meeting on Wednesday evening. -more-


Visions, UC Hotel Plans Lead DAPAC Agenda

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday November 14, 2006

It’s back to the vision thing Wednesday night for the citizens panel helping formulate a new plan for downtown Berkeley. -more-


One-Stop Homeless Shelter Opens In Oakland

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday November 14, 2006

The cities of Berkeley and Oakland teamed up Monday to host a one-stop service fair called Project Homeless Connect. -more-


Texas Border Residents Ask If They’re Friend or Foe

By Mary Jo McConahay, New America Media
Tuesday November 14, 2006

SAN ELIZARIO, Texas—Residents of this hardscrabble town on the Mexican border are feeling jumpy and under siege. Since 9/11, border immigration enforcement and drug interdiction have been swept into the war on terror, with chilling effects. -more-


Back to the Future for the Berkeley City Council

By Judith Scherr
Friday November 10, 2006

More than half a million dollars and piles of glossy mailers later, campaign weary incumbent mayoral and council candidates—Mayor Tom Bates and Council-members Gordon Wozniak, Kriss Worthington, Dona Spring and Linda Maio—will retake their old seats on the familiar council dais. -more-


Measure J Defeated, Supporters Vow Fight

By Richard Brenneman
Friday November 10, 2006

Though Berkeley voters rejected Measure J Tuesday, backers say they’ll go back to the electorate if city councilmembers adopt the new landmarks ordinance they passed on first reading in July. -more-


Mixed Results for Sequoia Voting System

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday November 10, 2006

With Alameda County operating its new Sequoia voting system for the first time in last Tuesday’s general election, the county experienced its share of opening -more-


Riddle, Issel and Hemphill Win BUSD Seats

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday November 10, 2006

Incumbents Nancy Riddle, Shirley Issel and challenger Karen Hemphill have won the three open seats on the five-member Berkeley Board of Education. -more-


Anti-Mall Duo Win in Albany; Green Candidate Claims Richmond Victory

By Richard Brenneman
Friday November 10, 2006

While Albany’s going to pot, Richmond may be getting a new mayor and El Cerrito is in for the same old, same old. -more-


Berkeley Condo Conversion Fails, Measure H and G Pass

By Judith Scherr
Friday November 10, 2006

The defeat of Measure I, a property-owner-backed measure that would have eased conversion of rental units to condominiums, was much easier than No on I coordinator Jesse Arreguin had anticipated. -more-


Kernighan Reelected, Guillen Wins Peralta Seat, Ruby New Oakland Auditor

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday November 10, 2006

In the three major contests in this week’s election for positions in Oakland-area government, voters split the difference, with two incumbents turned out and one incumbent re-elected. -more-


Search Begins for Next Berkeley Library Director

By Judith Scherr
Friday November 10, 2006

A search for a new Berkeley Library director has begun. -more-


Pamyla Means Nominated To Fill City Clerk Post

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday November 10, 2006

City Manager Phil Kamlarz will be asking the Berkeley City Council in closed session on Monday to approve the appointment of Pamyla C. Means as City Clerk. -more-


Caplan Named City Finance Head

By Richard Brenneman
Friday November 10, 2006

One of Berkeley’s neighborhood services liaisons, Michael Caplan, got a new job Thursday when he was named acting manager of the city’s Office of Economic Development. -more-


Veterans Day Celebrated Saturday

By Richard Brenneman
Friday November 10, 2006

Saturday, 88 years after the guns went silent in Europe at the end of World War I, Berkeley will celebrate Veterans Day with a flag ceremony at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park. -more-


Planning Commission Toasts Proposition 90’s Defeat

By Richard Brenneman
Friday November 10, 2006

There was at least one post-election celebration in Berkeley that brought together Bates and Bronstein backers and Measure J fans and foes in a common spirit of -more-


LeConte Students Conduct Exit Poll

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday November 10, 2006

Third- and fourth-graders at LeConte Elementary School skipped their science, math and writing classes on Tuesday for a hands-on lesson in civic participation. -more-


Groups Plan Protest Against Pacific Steel

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday November 10, 2006

West Berkeley residents will join environmental justice groups and community members on Saturday in a rally against the toxic pollution and noxious odors emanating from Pacific Steel Casting. -more-


News Analysis: Immigration Reform Surprise: Hard Liners Lost

By Frank Sharry, New America Media
Friday November 10, 2006

In the months leading up to Tuesday’s election, the conventional wisdom in Washington, D.C., was that immigration would be a powerful wedge issue that would help the Republicans either limit their losses or even retain control of the House of Representatives. -more-


The Public Demands Solutions

By Frank Sharry, New America Media
Friday November 10, 2006

Two polls, one on the eve of the election, the other through the media’s exit polling, confirmed earlier independent polls that the public wants a solution and wants that solution to be comprehensive. -more-


Asians in Eight States Favored Democrats in Election

New America Media
Friday November 10, 2006

Asian American voters in eight states continued a decade-long shift towards Democratic candidates, with 79 percent of those polled favoring Democrats in Tuesday’s congressional and state elections. They also rejected an affirmative action ban that won in Michigan. -more-


News Analysis: GOP Could Learn From Arnold’s Effect on Black Voters for ‘08

By Earl Ofari Hutchinson, New America Media
Friday November 10, 2006

The Arnold Effect was on awesome display Tuesday. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger trounced his hapless and ineffectual Democratic opponent and nearly pulled a few Republicans along with him into other state offices. -more-


News Analysis: Blacks Play for High Stakes In Mid-Term Elections

By E.R. Shipp, New American Media
Friday November 10, 2006

In 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Plessy vs. Ferguson that Jim Crow laws mandating various forms of segregation were OK and that if Blacks had a problem with that “badge of inferiority” it was “solely because the colored race chooses to put that construction upon it.” -more-


Berkeley Sea Scouts Defend Their Program

By Rio Bauce, Special to the Planet
Friday November 10, 2006

After their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court failed, several Berkeley Sea Scouts (BSS) have tried to make the public understand the service they offer. The BSS have been under pressure because the City of Berkeley has accused them of operating under the discriminatory policy against gays and atheists of the Boy Scouts of America. For this reason the city took away their previously free use of the dock at the Berkeley Marina, sparking the court case. -more-


Opinion

Editorials

Zoning Board Denies Expansion of South Berkeley Police Substation

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday November 14, 2006

The Zoning Adjustments Board denied the expansion of the South Berkeley Police Substation for employee lockers and vehicle storage on Thursday. -more-


Editorial: Cleaning House and Making Lemonade

By Becky O’Malley
Friday November 10, 2006

Let’s hear it for Grandma! Grandmothers all over the country, including this one, are delighted that one of their own has taken on the job of cleaning up the House—the House of Representatives, that is. Losing no time, Berkeley’s Grandmothers for Peace planned to rally Thursday at Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco office to let her know that they would support her in an effort to extricate the country from the mess in Iraq left behind by her Republican predecessors (with more than a little help from some misbehaving Democrats). -more-


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Tuesday November 14, 2006

APOLOGY OWED -more-


Commentary: Customer Service Hard to Come By on AC Transit

By Earlita Chenault
Tuesday November 14, 2006

On Sept. 6 I boarded the No. 51 AC Transit bus in Alameda and, after putting in money, was told that the transfer machine was not working. The driver subsequently gave me an expired transfer card on which he’d written that the transfer machine was broken and signed his employee number. He instructed me to give this to the next driver. -more-


Commentary: Violence and Parking Enforcement In the City of Berkeley

By Kirk Rivera
Tuesday November 14, 2006

I am a student of violence. There is, to consider, the actual explosion of rage, when flesh collides with flesh. I have been at the wrong end of two encounters, I have seen it happen to another, and have heard, sometimes within minutes, of many others. But I am even more interested in the moments before the eruption—the thickening of the voice, the ape-like bulking of the shoulders, the trembling of the cheekbones, the reek of flammable testosterone. I’m crackingly alert to the warning signs that scream: MOVE! What is my line of work? Parking enforcement for the City of Berkeley. -more-


Commentary: Allison Campaign Bolstered Oakland Progressives

By Beandrea Davis
Tuesday November 14, 2006

I can’t say I was surprised when I awoke early on Nov. 8 to find Pat Kernighan the declared winner of Oakland’s competitive District 2 City Council race. -more-


Commentary: Why Measure J Lost

By Alan Tobey
Tuesday November 14, 2006

It’s convenient, of course—and not entirely wrong—to blame the 57-43 defeat of Measure J on greedy developers, conservative businesspeople and negative campaign mailers. But Measure J proponents also need to look in the mirror. Not only were they weakened by others, they contributed to losing the race all on their own. -more-


Letters to the Editor

Friday November 10, 2006

A CLARIFICATION -more-


Commentary: Another Berkeley Neighborhood Sacrificed for Greed

By Regan Richardson
Friday November 10, 2006

Halloween may have come and gone, but the sadly misconceived project at 1885 University Ave. still begs the question, Trick, or Treat? The answer, of course, is both. The supposed Treat? Trader Joe’s. The Trick? Trader Joe’s with a four-story, 148-unit apartment building looming menacingly above it, The Hudson-McDonald Tower of Horrors. -more-


Commentary: Berkeley Needs Copwatch to Track Police Conduct

By Jonathan Huang
Friday November 10, 2006

Recently, an attorney for the Berkeley Police Association, Harry Stern, disparaged Berkeley Copwatch for its service to the community. Those remarks were absolutely unwarranted, shameful, and insulting to the citizens of Berkeley. -more-


Commentary: How the Oakland Chamber of Commerce Destroyed an Election

By Paul Rockwell
Friday November 10, 2006

When the people of Oakland enacted the Campaign Reform Act of 2000, they wanted to make sure that non-affluent voters had an equal voice in the political life of the city. The preamble states: “The integrity of the governmental process, the competitiveness of campaigns and public confidence in local officials are all diminishing.” The high cost of elections “gives incumbents an overwhelming and patently unfair advantage.” -more-


Commentary: Bias Against Minorities in Math and Science Continues

By Jonathan David Farley
Friday November 10, 2006

It was a Cold War love story. Julia Robinson had never met the man she was writing. He was from Leningrad; she was from Berkeley. And yet they did one of the most precious things a man and a woman can do together. They did mathematics. And they did that beautifully, solving one of the twentieth century’s greatest conundrums, Hilbert’s “Tenth Problem.” -more-


Commentary: It Was 20 Years Ago Today...

By Toni Mester
Friday November 10, 2006

“The past is prologue” wrote Shakespeare, and it was 20 years ago that several key events predicted the future of Berkeley and framed our present. -more-


Columns

Column: The Public Eye: Campaign 2006: A Look at the Winners and Losers

By Bob Burnett
Tuesday November 14, 2006

As the dust settles from the tumultuous 2006 mid-term elections, let’s consider the big political winners and losers: -more-


Column: Dining With The Diva Princess

By Susan Parker
Tuesday November 14, 2006

I lost my husband and acquired a teenager. It’s not much of a deal. I still have to clean and shop, and carry out the trash. I still have to water the plants, pay the bills, and turn down the volume on the television. -more-


Step Back in Time at Ardenwood Historic Farm

By Marta Yamamoto, Special to the Planet
Tuesday November 14, 2006

Down a tree-canopied lane bordered by lush fields of lettuce, corn and pumpkin. Through a filigreed iron gate and white picket fence. Past goldenrod Arden Station where Tucker waits to pull a visitor-laden rail car to Deer Park Station. Drop out of the frenzied pace of modern life. Get lost in the country estate of a wealthy 20th century farmer, a place caught in time. Visit Ardenwood Farm. -more-


Don’t Lose Your Head for St. John’s Bread

By Ron Sullivan, Special to the Planet
Tuesday November 14, 2006

Before it got drafted to be an allegedly “heathier” substitute for chocolate, carob was a dietary staple of poor folks and a treat even for the wealthy. Ceratonia siliqua is a handsome, tough, warm-climate tree that grows long, thick, flat brown pods to cradle its seeds. -more-


Column: Dispatches From the Edge: Coming Home: War and Remembrance

By Conn Hallinan
Friday November 10, 2006

“It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell.” -more-


Column: The Public Eye: After the Celebration: The Democrats’ To-Do List

By Bob Burnett
Friday November 10, 2006

When Democrats quit celebrating their victory in the mid-term elections and begin to consider their priorities for the 110th Congress, they need look no further than Iraq. The basic issues that plague Iraq--security, infrastructure, and governance--are the same that beset the United States. Due to a devastating combination of managerial ineptitude and ideological inflexibility, the Bush administration has lost Iraq and severely damaged the United States. They couldn’t stop the looting there and refuse to stop the looting here. -more-


Column: Undercurrents: The Politics of Citizen Access in Oakland

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylo
Friday November 10, 2006

It’s doubtful that politics brings out more silliness in the human character than any other human endeavor—it just seems that politicians, and the people they employ, seem so much more intent than anyone else on broadcasting the odd things that are sometimes on their minds. -more-


About the House: Ask Matt: Addressing House Foundations, Shingle Roofs

By Matt Cantor
Friday November 10, 2006

Dear Matt, -more-


Garden Variety: Get Your Supplemental Sunshine on University Avenue

By Ron Sullivan
Friday November 10, 2006

I just had to ask. The charming young salesperson at Berkeley Indoor Garden did have list of what, other than the obvious, customers grow using B.I.G.’s wares: orchids and other tropicals, carnivorous plants, some rare and picky succulents, sometimes lettuce and herbs and baby greens just to have them handy. -more-


Quake Tip of the Week

By Larry Guillot
Friday November 10, 2006

Have You Met Your Neighbors? -more-


Arts & Events

Arts Calendar

Tuesday November 14, 2006

TUESDAY, NOV. 14 -more-


Arts and Entertainment: Around the East Bay

Tuesday November 14, 2006

THE MAGIC OF ANIMATION -more-


Theater: Azeem Brings ‘Rude Boy’ to The Marsh

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Tuesday November 14, 2006

The visitor from New York, who wandered into the Gaia Building lobby by mistake, caught a glimpse of the program for Azeem’s solo show at The Marsh, and said as he left, “I get enough ‘Rude Boy’ at home!” -more-


Step Back in Time at Ardenwood Historic Farm

By Marta Yamamoto, Special to the Planet
Tuesday November 14, 2006

Down a tree-canopied lane bordered by lush fields of lettuce, corn and pumpkin. Through a filigreed iron gate and white picket fence. Past goldenrod Arden Station where Tucker waits to pull a visitor-laden rail car to Deer Park Station. Drop out of the frenzied pace of modern life. Get lost in the country estate of a wealthy 20th century farmer, a place caught in time. Visit Ardenwood Farm. -more-


Don’t Lose Your Head for St. John’s Bread

By Ron Sullivan, Special to the Planet
Tuesday November 14, 2006

Before it got drafted to be an allegedly “heathier” substitute for chocolate, carob was a dietary staple of poor folks and a treat even for the wealthy. Ceratonia siliqua is a handsome, tough, warm-climate tree that grows long, thick, flat brown pods to cradle its seeds. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday November 14, 2006

TUESDAY, NOV. 14 -more-


Arts Calendar

Friday November 10, 2006

FRIDAY, NOV. 10 -more-


Arts and Entertainment Around the East Bay

Friday November 10, 2006

50 YEARS OF GREAT ARTHOUSE CINEMA -more-


Exhibit, Book Capture 100 Years of the Bancroft

By Dorothy Bryant, Special to the Planet
Friday November 10, 2006

“I did not stop to consider, I did not care, whether the book was of any value or not; it was easier and cheaper to buy it than to spend time in examining its value. The most worthless trash may prove some fact wherein the best book is deficient, and this makes the trash valuable.” -more-


Moving Pictures: Buster Keaton’s ‘General’ Pulls In To PFA

Friday November 10, 2006

In 1998, amid an orgy of end-of-the-millenium top 100 lists, the American Film Institute released its list of the 100 best American films, a list that included three Charlie Chaplin movies but inexplicably no Buster Keaton films, despite the fact that several of his works, most notably The General (1926), rank among the silent era’s best and frequently hover near the top of many critics’ lists of the best films ever made. -more-


Moving Pictures: Iraq Documentary is Stirring, Poetic

Friday November 10, 2006

Now that the election is over, with all its slogans and clichés and simplistic solutions for myriad complex problems, along comes a documentary that provides a solid, sobering dose of geopolitical reality. -more-


About the House: Ask Matt: Addressing House Foundations, Shingle Roofs

By Matt Cantor
Friday November 10, 2006

Dear Matt, -more-


Garden Variety: Get Your Supplemental Sunshine on University Avenue

By Ron Sullivan
Friday November 10, 2006

I just had to ask. The charming young salesperson at Berkeley Indoor Garden did have list of what, other than the obvious, customers grow using B.I.G.’s wares: orchids and other tropicals, carnivorous plants, some rare and picky succulents, sometimes lettuce and herbs and baby greens just to have them handy. -more-


Quake Tip of the Week

By Larry Guillot
Friday November 10, 2006

Have You Met Your Neighbors? -more-


Berkeley This Week

Friday November 10, 2006

FRIDAY, NOV. 10 -more-