The proposed development project at 2323 Shattuck Ave. includes the restoration of a bank building into a restaurant, adjacent to a new five-story residential and commercial building. Photograph by Michael Howerton.
The proposed development project at 2323 Shattuck Ave. includes the restoration of a bank building into a restaurant, adjacent to a new five-story residential and commercial building. Photograph by Michael Howerton.

Extra

Dispensary Account Frozen: Medical Marijuana Supporters Rally

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday July 31, 2007

Some 50 people, including four Berkeley city councilmembers, rallied at the Maudelle Shirek Building Tuesday, demanding that federal drug agents and the Los Angeles Police Department stay out of Berkeley and that the city become a sanctuary for distributors of medical marijuana. -more-



Page One

Lack of Parking Prevents Approval Of Fidelity Building Remodel Project

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday July 31, 2007

The restaurant remodel and mixed-use development of the historic Fidelity Bank Building on Shattuck Avenue was postponed by the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) Thursday to investigate ways to alleviate the project’s loss of parking. -more-



Rent Board Member’s Residency in Question

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday July 31, 2007

Rent Stabilization Board Member Chris Kavanagh, a Green Party member first elected to the board in 2002, may not live in Berkeley, a requirement for all elected officials in Berkeley. -more-



Dellums Credited With Resolution Of Garbage Dispute

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday July 31, 2007

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums won a large measure of vindication over charges in some media outlets that he was missing in action in the Waste Management workers lockout dispute, when representatives of both Waste Management and Teamsters workers told a Friday afternoon City Hall press conference that a settlement of the month-long lockout would not have been possible without the mayor’s intervention. -more-



Panel Says City’s Integration Strategy Will Withstand Federal Ruling

By Angela Rowan, Special to the Planet
Tuesday July 31, 2007

Nearly a month after the U.S. Supreme Court severely restricted the use of race to bring about diversity in schools, a group of legal scholars and education officials gathered at a recent panel discussion on the issue and said Berkeley’s integration strategy is likely to withstand challenges based on the recent 5-4 decision, and may become a model for other districts that are struggling to integrate their schools without triggering legal barriers. -more-



Pacific Steel Releases Health Assessment, Citizens Say Process Flawed

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday July 31, 2007

After more than a year of delays, Pacific Steel Casting released its Health Risk Assessment report to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District last week. -more-



Death Sentence Upheld in 1988 Berkeley Murder, Bludgeoning Case

Bay City News
Tuesday July 31, 2007

The California Supreme Court Monday upheld a death penalty for a former Berkeley waterfront commissioner who brutally beat a university professor and his wife and then murdered and dismembered a fellow commissioner who would have testified against him. -more-



Features

City Opens Public Comment Period for State Mental Health Funds

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday July 31, 2007

Berkeley may be getting $330,000 more for mental heath services, in addition to the nearly $1 million already allocated under the state Mental Health Services Act (MHSA). -more-


Last Council Meeting Before Summer Break

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday July 31, 2007

The Berkeley City Council will meet briefly today (Tuesday) to hold a public hearing on the Elmwood Theater Business Improvement Area, required for the business improvement district to continue its operations, and to formally adopt findings that B-Town Dollar at 2973 Sacramento St. is a nuisance and should be shut down. -more-


Ruling Kills Law Allowing Seizure of Cars Involved in Drug Deals, Prostitution

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday July 31, 2007

The California Supreme Court ruled on Thursday against California ordinances allowing the seizure and forfeiture of vehicles used in picking up prostitutes or buying drugs, thus effectively ending the City of Oakland’s 10-year experiment in the practice. -more-


Lab Calls for Bids on Million-Dollar ‘Guest House’

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday July 31, 2007

UC Berkeley development officials will meet this morning (Tuesday) with builders eager for the chance to build an $8 million guest house at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. -more-


NPR Initiative Coming to East Bay to Collect Historical African American Stories

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday July 31, 2007

An organization affiliated with National Public Radio will be coming to Oakland and Richmond for six weeks beginning Aug. 9, collecting historical stories by Bay Area African-Americans for possible later broadcast on NPR. -more-


19th-Century Home, Marin Circle Fountain on LPC Agenda

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday July 31, 2007

On Thursday the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) will discuss the landmarking of a 19th-century dwelling at 3100 Shattuck Ave., which is proposed to be demolished for the construction of a new three-story mixed-use building . -more-


No Good Reason to Turn Away from Turnips

By Shirley Barker, Special to the Planet
Tuesday July 31, 2007

In my gilded youth I went on a skiing trip to Austria. In those carefree days one traveled by boat and train in a leisurely, comfortable, civilized way, with none of the overcrowded panic that mars voyaging today. The train had sleeping berths and we woke gasping at the proximity of massive Alps rearing skywards almost close enough to touch, or so it seemed. Our destination was a picture postcard-perfect village, Obergurgl. -more-


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Tuesday July 31, 2007

LAUFER’S KPFA -more-


Commentary: Other Choices for KPFA Host are Possible

By Richard Phelps
Tuesday July 31, 2007

I am writing given your recent editorial comment about KPFA’s new Sunday Morning talk show host, Peter Laufer and his reply. Some history is important. Right after Larry Bensky announced that he was leaving the Sunday Morning show I approached Sasha Lilley, the recently appointed interim program director, while at an event at the Berkeley Unitarian-Universalists Hall at Cedar and Bonita. I suggested that they should consider breaking up the two-hour block and getting some diversity in that time slot: Women, people of color, and political diversity. Having the same politics controlling the questions and direction of the interviews every Sunday can get tiresome and redundant. Having different expressions from diverse people with diverse politics could reach more people and be much more interesting. -more-


Commentary; Long-Time KPFA Listener Responds to Peter Laufer

By Doug Buckwald
Tuesday July 31, 2007

As a long-time listener and volunteer at KPFA, I have been following the issue of Larry Bensky’s replacement with great interest. Even though there continues to be infighting over station management issues, the hosts on KPFA generally maintain a high level of respect for their audience, and do their level best to allow people to express their views on the air. I hoped, at a minimum, that the new host of the Sunday morning show, Peter Laufer, would embrace these ideals. -more-


Commentary: Tired Liberal Defense of Conyers is Beneath Contempt

By Dave Lindorff
Tuesday July 31, 2007

What a cheap shot by columnist Becky O’Malley, backhandedly saying that my criticism of Rep. John Conyers for having 45 people who came to demand that he act on the impeachment bill for Dick Cheney that he has let sit in his committee for three months arrested was “not quite racism.” Why does the white Becky mention the race word? Because the chair of the Judiciary Committee is black? -more-


Commentary: Think Outside The Bus

By Ignacio Dayrit
Tuesday July 31, 2007

I am very torn about the Bus Rapid Transit project. I want transit to work and will take the bus more often if it does happen. Still, after reading the articles and letters pro/con-BRT, I remain unconvinced that BRT will be successful. While ridership will grow, such growth can be had with gentler, incremental and cheaper measures that have not been considered, and that in some combination, could increase ridership just as much without having to resort to tearing up Telegraph: i.e., proof of payment system, Bay Area transit pass, security, better shelters, NextBus, lower fares, free rides in downtown areas, increased gas tax, WiFi, more buses/shorter headway, better neighborhood parking programs and enforcement, employee TDM, etc. -more-


Commentary: City Council Ignores Elmwood Congestion

By R.J. Schwendinger
Tuesday July 31, 2007

I mailed a few letters this past Saturday, getting to the post office just before pickup at 4:30 in the afternoon. The post office is on the corner of College and Webster in the Elmwood. I live on Prince Street and was alarmed that every parking spot on the street was taken; it is the longest uninterrupted street in the city, between College and Claremont avenues. Traffic on College was backed up beyond Woolsey, almost to Alcatraz Avenue as a result of the red traffic light at Ashby. Alcatraz is four blocks south of Ashby. After I mailed my letters, I walked to the corner of Ashby and College, and as a result of the red light there, traffic was backed up on Ashby several blocks east as well as west. I wondered: has the city ever commissioned an environmental report for auto exhausts in my neighborhood, especially on the corner of Ashby and College on a Saturday afternoon? -more-


Commentary: Our Greenhouse Gases and Our Border

By Alan Tobey
Tuesday July 31, 2007

Berkeley’s process to begin implementing Measure G, the greenhouse-gas reduction initiative passed by 81 percent of Berkeley voters last November, is off to a good start. Community workshops held in collaboration with city commissions have been well-attended and lively, and have produced long lists of helpful ideas for action. It seems that the city council will have more than enough raw material from which to decide on policies and incentives after it receives the staff report in December. And many of us citizens will then gladly line up to sign a pledge to do our own bit to help further reduce the greenhouse gases we help to produce in Berkeley every day. However, we’re still taking too narrow a view, and that phrase “produce in Berkeley” explains why. City staff report that about a quarter of our greenhouse gases are produced by automobiles as they drive our city streets (freeway traffic, for which we’re not primarily responsible, is excluded). But there’s an even larger contribution to greenhouse gases that we’re also responsible for—the hundreds of thousands of vehicle miles traveled every work day by commuters into and out of town. According to the evolving Measure G implementation plan, if the miles aren’t traveled in Berkeley they simply don’t count. And that’s leading us to an ostrich-eye view of what we need to do. -more-


Healthy Living: How Does a Passion for Health Become an Unhealthy Obsession?

By Sally Bryson
Tuesday July 31, 2007

When it comes to food, “everything in moderation,” is how my grandmother would have said it. And that includes knowledge. -more-


Editorial

Editorial: Good vs. Evil: The Latest Chapter in an Old Story

By Becky O’Malley
Tuesday July 31, 2007

Talk about abrupt transitions: We spent a long weekend in the Santa Cruz mountains with some of the grandchildren, with no newspaper delivery and recreational attractions out-competing Internet and radio news updates. So listening to the latest news on NPR on Monday morning was the classic rude awakening, with a featured report on the secretary of state’s announcement that she’s proposing to drop more weapons, to the tune of close to $30 billion or more, into the steaming cauldron which is the Middle East today. A big hunk of the new money, $20 billion, would go to Saudi Arabia, theoretically to balance a perceived threat from Iran, but in addition, to allay Israeli fears about the Saudis, Israel’s already huge weapons funding would be increased to at least $30 billion. And there’s another $13 billion for Egypt. -more-


Columns

Wild Neighbors: Orbweaver Brains: Is Bigger Always Better?

By Joe Eaton
Tuesday July 31, 2007

About the time of year the robins wind down and the naked ladies begin to bloom, we start seeing the garden spiders. They’re orbweavers, probably Araneus diadematus, and at this stage they’re just little orange-and-black specks with legs. Between now and Halloween they’ll get a lot bigger, and plumper. -more-


Arts Listings

Arts Calendar

Tuesday July 31, 2007

Arts: ‘Telegraph 3 p.m. Project’ at Gaia Building

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Tuesday July 31, 2007

Books: The Skinny About and by Decca

By Pele DeLappe, Special to the Planet
Tuesday July 31, 2007

Books: A Librarian Who Made a Difference

By Helen Wheeler
Tuesday July 31, 2007

Events Listings

Berkeley This Week

Tuesday July 31, 2007

Back Stories

Opinion

Editorials

Editorial: Good vs. Evil: The Latest Chapter in an Old Story 07-31-2007

Editorial: It’s Not Racism, It’s Just Plain Stupid 07-27-2007

Public Comment

Letters to the Editor 07-31-2007

Commentary: Other Choices for KPFA Host are Possible By Richard Phelps 07-31-2007

Commentary; Long-Time KPFA Listener Responds to Peter Laufer By Doug Buckwald 07-31-2007

Commentary: Tired Liberal Defense of Conyers is Beneath Contempt By Dave Lindorff 07-31-2007

Commentary: Think Outside The Bus By Ignacio Dayrit 07-31-2007

Commentary: City Council Ignores Elmwood Congestion By R.J. Schwendinger 07-31-2007

Commentary: Our Greenhouse Gases and Our Border By Alan Tobey 07-31-2007

Healthy Living: How Does a Passion for Health Become an Unhealthy Obsession? By Sally Bryson 07-31-2007

Letters to the Editor 07-27-2007

Commentary: West Berkeley Tax District Benefits Developers By Sarah Klise 07-27-2007

Commentary: Racism From the White Left By Jean Damu and Alona Clifton 07-27-2007

Commentary: KPFA Talk Show Host Talks Back By Peter Laufer 07-27-2007

Healthy Living: The Secret of Life By Winston Burton 07-27-2007

News

Dispensary Account Frozen: Medical Marijuana Supporters Rally By Judith Scherr 07-31-2007

Lack of Parking Prevents Approval Of Fidelity Building Remodel Project By Riya Bhattacharjee 07-31-2007

Rent Board Member’s Residency in Question By Judith Scherr 07-31-2007

Dellums Credited With Resolution Of Garbage Dispute By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 07-31-2007

Panel Says City’s Integration Strategy Will Withstand Federal Ruling By Angela Rowan, Special to the Planet 07-31-2007

Pacific Steel Releases Health Assessment, Citizens Say Process Flawed By Riya Bhattacharjee 07-31-2007

Death Sentence Upheld in 1988 Berkeley Murder, Bludgeoning Case Bay City News 07-31-2007

City Opens Public Comment Period for State Mental Health Funds By Riya Bhattacharjee 07-31-2007

Last Council Meeting Before Summer Break By Judith Scherr 07-31-2007

Ruling Kills Law Allowing Seizure of Cars Involved in Drug Deals, Prostitution By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 07-31-2007

Lab Calls for Bids on Million-Dollar ‘Guest House’ By Richard Brenneman 07-31-2007

NPR Initiative Coming to East Bay to Collect Historical African American Stories By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 07-31-2007

19th-Century Home, Marin Circle Fountain on LPC Agenda By Riya Bhattacharjee 07-31-2007

No Good Reason to Turn Away from Turnips By Shirley Barker, Special to the Planet 07-31-2007

Supreme Court Ruling Kills Oakland Law Allowing Seizure of Cars Used to Pick Up Prostitutes or Drugs By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 07-27-2007

Clash Deepens Over Bus Rapid Transit By Riya Bhattacharjee 07-27-2007

New Housing Authority Tackles Tough Questions By Judith Scherr 07-27-2007

West Berkeley Car Rezoning Ignites Public Opposition By Richard Brenneman 07-27-2007

Greenhouse Gas, BRT Issues Draw Crowd By Richard Brenneman 07-27-2007

Citizens Ask Council to Uphold Open-Meeting Laws By Judith Scherr 07-27-2007

Meeting Draws South Branch Library Supporters By Judith Scherr 07-27-2007

Woman Arrested for Sex Abuse of Berkeley Teenager By Richard Brenneman 07-27-2007

Investigation Continues of OUSD Boardmember and Student By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 07-27-2007

Computer Recycling at Elephant 07-27-2007

First Person: Two Great Revolutionaries: ‘Loving Spirits Who Will Live Forever’ By Cynthia Johnson 07-27-2007

Columns

Wild Neighbors: Orbweaver Brains: Is Bigger Always Better? By Joe Eaton 07-31-2007

Column: Undercurrents: Dellums Undeservedly Trashed in East Bay Trash Conflict By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 07-27-2007

East Bay Then and Now: Oscar Maurer Studio Celebrates Its Centennial By Daniella Thompson 07-27-2007

New Real Estate Features 07-27-2007

Garden Variety: Sebastopol Field Trip: A New Nursery By Ron Sullivan 07-27-2007

About the House: Oblique Strategies and the Home Remodeling Process By Matt Cantor 07-27-2007

Quake Tip of the Week By Larry Guillot 07-27-2007

Arts & Events

Arts Calendar 07-31-2007

Arts: ‘Telegraph 3 p.m. Project’ at Gaia Building By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet 07-31-2007

Books: The Skinny About and by Decca By Pele DeLappe, Special to the Planet 07-31-2007

Books: A Librarian Who Made a Difference By Helen Wheeler 07-31-2007

Wild Neighbors: Orbweaver Brains: Is Bigger Always Better? By Joe Eaton 07-31-2007

Berkeley This Week 07-31-2007

Arts Calendar 07-27-2007

Davis Brings Standards, Spirituals to Anna’s By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet 07-27-2007

Moving Pictures: ‘Following Sean’ By Justin DeFreitas 07-27-2007

Berkeley Opera Presents Unconventional Version of ‘Aida’ By Jaime Robles 07-27-2007

East Bay Then and Now: Oscar Maurer Studio Celebrates Its Centennial By Daniella Thompson 07-27-2007

New Real Estate Features 07-27-2007

Garden Variety: Sebastopol Field Trip: A New Nursery By Ron Sullivan 07-27-2007

About the House: Oblique Strategies and the Home Remodeling Process By Matt Cantor 07-27-2007

Quake Tip of the Week By Larry Guillot 07-27-2007

Berkeley This Week 07-27-2007