The Week

An unlicenced 16-year-old Berkeley High student took his mother’s SUV for a drive without permission Wednesday morning, hit a parked car and tried to flee the scene, but flipped the vehicle over and smashed into the school building. See story, page five.
Mark Coplan
An unlicenced 16-year-old Berkeley High student took his mother’s SUV for a drive without permission Wednesday morning, hit a parked car and tried to flee the scene, but flipped the vehicle over and smashed into the school building. See story, page five.
 

News

Oakland School Disputes with State Show Rocky Road Back to Local Control

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday February 29, 2008

Posted Sun., March 2—In December 2007, State Superintendent Jack O'Connell came to Oakland to announce that he was turning over two more areas of control to the state-operated Oakland Unified School District: personnel and facilities management. -more-


Council Postpones Several Items, Approves Blood House Move

By Judith Scherr
Friday February 29, 2008

Posted Sat., March 1—Tuesday’s Berkeley City Council meeting, which was mainly devoted to a discussion of the light brown apple moth, ended in a surprise finale, with an 11:30 p.m. vote to extend the meeting until midnight falling short of the needed two-thirds approval. The council had been meeting since 5 p.m. -more-


Student Crashes SUV into Berkeley High

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday February 29, 2008

A 16-year-old Berkeley High School student lost control of a KIA sports utility vehicle around 8 a.m. Wednesday and rammed into a cement planter located alongside the school’s H Building. -more-


Allegations Mount Against Willard Administrator

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday February 29, 2008

Since the Planet reported last week that the Berkeley school board is investigating Willard Middle School Vice Principal Margaret Lowry for improper conduct involving two students, several more Willard parents have come forward with complaints against Lowry involving their children, complaints that they say were lodged with the school district months ago and about which they have never heard any resolution. -more-


Council May Face State in Court to Stop Moth Spray

By Judith Scherr
Friday February 29, 2008

The state secretary of agriculture failed to convince the Berkeley City Council Tuesday night that aerial spraying of a pesticide to eradicate the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) is either necessary or benign. -more-


Police Review Commission to Investigate Death of Anita Gay

By Judith Scherr
Friday February 29, 2008

Patricia Johnson wants to know what happened the day a Berkeley police officer shot her sister. -more-


Dellums’ Oakland Police Plan Gaining Momentum

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday February 29, 2008

With much less rancor than was widely anticipated, the Oakland City Council’s four-member Public Safety Committee unanimously approved Mayor Ron Dellums’ Augmented Police Recruitment Program Tuesday night with few alterations. -more-


BUSD Reaches Settlement in Old Gym Demolition Lawsuit

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday February 29, 2008

The Berkeley Unified School District reached a settlement with Friends Protecting Berkeley’s Resources Wednesday over the California Environment Quality Act (CEQA) lawsuit filed by the group a year ago. -more-


BUSD Fails to Meet No Child Left Behind Goals

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday February 29, 2008

Berkeley Unified School District did not meet the 95 percent participation criterion for local education agencies in their third year of Program Improvement for 2007, according to a state Department of Education release Wednesday. -more-


Planners Make First Move to Challenge Downtown Plan

By Richard Brenneman
Friday February 29, 2008

The ongoing battles over building heights and economics in downtown Berkeley heated up Wednesday night when the Planning Commission took its formal position on the Downtown Area Plan. -more-


Planners Side With Staff in Debate over Density Bonus

By Richard Brenneman
Friday February 29, 2008

A Planning Commission majority agreed Wednesday night not to challenge acting City Attorney Zach Cowan’s contention that key sections of a proposed density bonus ordinance are illegal. -more-


Kennedy/Teece Buildings Priced at $147 Million

By Richard Brenneman
Friday February 29, 2008

Berkeley’s newest and biggest landlord paid $147,397,171 for his seven apartment buildings, making Patrick Kennedy and David Teece richer than ever. -more-


Council Calls for Full Court Press to Stop Spray

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday February 26, 2008

Posted Wed., Feb. 27—The state secretary of agriculture failed to convince the Berkeley City Council Tuesday night that aerial spraying of a pesticide to eradicate the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) is either necessary or benign. -more-


Councilmember Promises Probe Of Anita Gay Shooting

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday February 26, 2008
Mourners lit candles at the end of Thursday night’s memorial service for Anita Gay, who was fatally shot outside her South Berkeley apartment by a police officer Feb. 16.

Tears, sobs, angry words, whispered remembrances and promises of action punctuated Thursday night’s gathering in a South Berkeley church to honor the memory of a grandmother fatally shot by police on the night of Feb. 16. -more-


Assembly Resolutions Attack Moth Spraying Plan

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday February 26, 2008

Five assemblymembers introduced a swarm of resolutions Friday aimed at changing state rules that give the agriculture department secretary the authority to order aerial pesticide spraying after declaring an emergency due to the invasion of a pest. -more-


South Berkeley Man Killed; Police Reveal Few Details

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday February 26, 2008

Callers flooded the police switchboard moments before midnight Sunday with reports of shots fired in the 1500 block of Harmon Street. -more-


Wozniak Wants Two Readings For Peace and Justice Items

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday February 26, 2008

After Move America Forward took aim at a Berkeley City Council item approved Jan. 29 asking the city manager to write the Marines saying their recruiters were “unwelcome intruders” in Berkeley—and council supporters took to the streets to face off with MAF and to ask the council not to back down—the council softened its language, agreeing not to write the letter. Instead, on Feb. 12, it publicly reiterated support for the troops and opposition to the war. -more-


Dellums’ Police Proposal to Get Further Vetting

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday February 26, 2008

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums has run into a City Council delay in fast-tracking an Oakland Police Department enhanced recruitment plan, but it remains to be seen how much that delay is due to political, policy, or fiscal concerns, and how long that delay will last. -more-


Kavanagh Pleads Guilty to One Charge

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday February 26, 2008

In a plea agreement Friday, former Rent Stabilization Boardmember Chris Kavanagh pleaded no contest to one felony count of improperly registering to vote in Berkeley, when he actually lived in Oakland. -more-


Child-Caused Blaze Burns Lincoln St. House

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday February 26, 2008

Three Berkeley youths, the youngest a 6-year-old, have been criminally charged with setting the blaze that nearly destroyed a vacant home at 2050 Lincoln St. on Feb. 17. -more-


Council to Discuss Crime, Blood House

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday February 26, 2008

In addition to the discussion of the Light Brown Apple Moth and Councilmember Gordon Wozniak’s item to hear resolutions from the Peace and Justice Commission twice (see page one), the council will be looking at a number of other critical issues at its meeting tonight. -more-


Pixar Awaits Approval for West Berkeley Day Care Center

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday February 26, 2008

West Berkeley could soon be home to a child care center for Disney Pixar employees if the city’s Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) approves a variance for the proposed project Thursday. -more-


Restaurant Proposed for Act 1&2 Theatre Site

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday February 26, 2008

Developer Patrick Kennedy will ask Berkeley’s Zoning Adjustments Board for a blanket use permit Thursday to establish a 13,974-square-foot full-service upscale restaurant and bar at the former location of the Act 1&2 Theatre. -more-


Reader Report: Grandmothers Provide Supplies to Tree-Sitters

By Matthew Taylor
Tuesday February 26, 2008

UC police tried to physically prevent food, water, and supplies from reaching treesitters on Feb. 19, but failed in the face of determined efforts by grandmothers, students, and community members. Officers pushed, shoved, and used pain compliance techniques before giving up, as supporters sent supplies to the treesitters and sang “We shall not be moved.” -more-


BUSD Heads to Sacramento to Protest Education Cuts

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday February 26, 2008

Berkeley Unified School District officials and parents will be in Sacramento Wednesday to protest Gov. Arnold Schwarzenneger’s proposal to slash school funding by $4.8 billion over the next 18 months. -more-


Hamill Announces Candidacy for Oakland City Council

J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday February 26, 2008

What a difference a weekend makes in politics. -more-


East Bay Climate Great for Cultivating Herbs

By Shirley Barker, Special to the Planet
Tuesday February 26, 2008

Surely the healthiest diet in the world is vegetarian, the one which balances the complementary proteins found in whole grains and legumes, which features a wide variety of brightly colored fruits and vegetables, and which is augmented by judicious amounts of dairy products. -more-


Opinion

Editorials

Editorial: Tell It To The Marines

By Becky O'Malley
Friday February 29, 2008

OK, I admit it, I finally cracked. What put me over the edge Thursday morning was this letter, similar in vocabulary, grammar and spelling to many we’ve gotten in the past few weeks: -more-


Editorial: Stuck With Bill’s Bills

By Becky O'Malley
Tuesday February 26, 2008

“I am never forget the day I first meet the great Lobachevsky. -more-


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Friday February 29, 2008

Commentary: Spraying Provides More Questions Than Answers

By Helen Kozoriz
Friday February 29, 2008

Thank you for printing the article “Assembly Resolutions Attack Moth Spraying” by Judith Scherr. Shocked and outraged at the proposed plan by the California Department of Food and Agriculture to conduct aerial spraying of the pesticide CheckMate on Bay Area communities beginning Aug. 1, I felt compelled to attend the Berkeley City Council meeting last night to find out for myself what is really going on. -more-


Commentary: The Anschluss

By Alan Feng
Friday February 29, 2008

The United States can be compared to a powerful, but immature and egotistic child, imposing its will without discretion on the world. Consider what lengths the child may go to in order to obtain a delicious cookie: case one, if the cookie was rightfully earned, then he shall taut the “fairness” and “justice” of obtaining the cookie. Otherwise, seeing that there is no logical explanation for legal acquisition of said cookie, he may throw a tantrum, saying things like “but I want it!” Finally, when it is agreed that someone else should get the cookie, the child may just walk in and take it anyways. In the end, the child gets the cookie whether or not it was due. -more-


Commentary: Absence of Evidence is Not Evidence of Absence

By Gale Garcia
Friday February 29, 2008

In the Jan. 11 issue of the Daily Planet, Fred Massell disparaged Berkeley’s Luddites, and claimed, “While I too wanted to believe the worst about cell phone radiation, it appears that there is no real evidence to show that it causes any actual harm.” -more-


Commentary: Doing Good Without Doing Harm

By Sharon Hudson
Friday February 29, 2008

These days, a lot of usually “progressive” people seem to be just saying no to a lot of traditionally progressive ideas. -more-


Commentary: Car, Bike and Pedestrian Citizenship

By H. Scott Prosterman
Friday February 29, 2008

Pedestrians have the right of way. That’s a good thing since the law protects us from large, dangerous machinery, operated by caffeine-fueled drivers with nasty dispositions. -more-


Letters to the Editor

Tuesday February 26, 2008

Commentary: Hospital Plans Cause Stress for Neighbors

By Bob Schenker
Tuesday February 26, 2008

I awoke this morning feeling hung over from another evening of verbal mayhem. The venue: another meeting of the public with officials of Children’s Hospital Oakland. I dread these events because they are stressful and worse, seemingly completely unproductive: residents of the neighborhood voices sharp, hands gesticulating, hospital officials trying to look concerned and sincere, nodding and taking notes. -more-


Commentary: The Plentitude of Substantially Diluted Media

By Rizwan A. Rahmani
Tuesday February 26, 2008

Every four years we are subjected to a barrage of visual and aural assaults by the mainstream media—abuzz with news about the presidential campaign and the candidates. This time around the primaries have been particularly irritating, considering it started about a year ago, and the actual election is still nine months away! As far as a year or so ago, you started to hear such mundane questions as, if Hillary will run for the office or how Giuliani will fare against Hillary? This at a time, when much more important national issues were at hand regarding war and constitutional dalliances by the current administration? The amount of watered downed, insipid, corporate agenda-laced, shallow coverage of our political process has only been exacerbated by cable news and the new corporate owners. We have only Ted Turner to thank for it. The cable news media’s self professed, expert political talking heads (usually qualified by a caption), spout their biased, non-independent, political drivel as infallible commandments that we are to accept like believers. The worst part of all this is that there isn’t any other single authoritative source available to us as an alternative. -more-


Commentary: Hey, CARB! More Recycling, Please

By Arthur Boone
Tuesday February 26, 2008

On Feb. 28, the Economic and Technology Advancement Advisory Committee (ETAAC) will make its final report to the California Air Resources Board (CARB), giving its ideas on how California can reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As a 21-person committee comprised primarily of academic and business interests, the ETAAC has been charged to be the “big-picture” think tank on what California people, governments, and businesses need to do to stop the threat of global warming. (Climate change is now no longer au courant; GW is straight up; CC is a weasel word.) -more-


Commentary: Climate Action Plan is Far-Sighted, But Needs to Be Boldly Nearsighted, Too

By Alan Tobey
Tuesday February 26, 2008

There is much to praise in Berkeley’s new draft Climate Action Plan. The goal of reducing our climate-warming greenhouse gases by 80 percent before 2050 is a bold and needed one, as 81 percent of voting Berkeleyans agreed via Measure G in 2006. The vision presented is attractive and inspiring: Berkeley as a greener city with a more sustainable economy. A Berkeley less dependent on the private gasoline-powered automobile and more supportive of walkable full-service neighborhoods, housing more of our own workers. A Berkeley using more regionally-produced food and more locally-produced renewable energy, and no longer sending our waste to landfills. And a Berkeley more lively and prosperous as an inspiring urban place. -more-


Statement from Chris Kavanagh

By Chris Kavanagh
Tuesday February 26, 2008

The Feb. 22 plea agreement reached between myself and the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office reflects the reality that since my 2002 election, I complied with the City of Berkeley’s residency requirement to hold public office as a Rent Stabilization Board commissioner—with the exception of a period of time during parts of 2006 and 2007 when I involuntarily lost my Berkeley home. The original and potentially very serious counts and allegations filed against me have been dismissed, and a single, technical violation of the California election code was agreed to. -more-


Columns

Column: Dispatches From the Edge: Notes from the Southern Cone

By Conn Hallinan
Friday February 29, 2008

Getting it right is what the government of Brazilian Lula da Silva seems to be doing these days. The country’s National Survey of Sample Households has just pulled together the results of his government’s economic policies, which indicate that women and the poor are doing considerably better than they did under previous governments. -more-


Column: Undercurrents: The Oakland Police Department’s Mixed Message

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday February 29, 2008

In one of the more hilarious scenes from Tim Burton’s 1996 parody film Mars Attacks, a group of invading Martians send a decidedly mixed message on an American street, broadcasting a recorded message shouting, “Don’t run; we are your friends” while simultaneously disintegrating with ray-gun blasts all humans within range. -more-


About the House: What to Look For When Looking Under the House

By Matt Cantor
Friday February 29, 2008

I spend a lot of time under houses. This isn't glamorous but it's what I have to do in order to do my job. Actually I don't mind it much. -more-


Wild Neighbors: Globetrotting Rodents: The Odyssey of the Black Rat

By Joe Eaton
Tuesday February 26, 2008

It’s the Year of the Rat again‚—but which rat? For most of us “rat” signifies Rattus norwegicus, the Norway, brown, sewer, or wharf rat, progenitor of all those rats in all those labs, whose original homeland was northern China. But a case could be made for a less-well-known relative with roots in Asia: Rattus rattus, the black, roof, house, or ship rat. -more-


Arts & Events

Arts Calendar

Friday February 29, 2008

FRIDAY, FEB. 29 -more-


Albany Jazz Band Plays Anna’s

By Ken Bullock, Special to The Planet
Friday February 29, 2008

The Albany Jazz Band, a big band of more than 20 pieces from an Albany Unified School District adult education class, meeting and practicing Wednesday nights over the past decade in the band room at Albany High School, will make its Berkeley debut, playing two sets of swing and featuring a vocal harmony quartet, 3 p.m. Sunday at Anna’s Jazz Island. -more-


Woman’s Will Stages 10th Annual ‘24-Hour Playfest’

By Ken Bullock, Special to The Planet
Friday February 29, 2008

Woman’s Will, Oakland’s all-female Shakespeare specialists, will stage their 10th annual 24-Hour Playfest on Monday, March 3, 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater on College Ave. The night before the performance seven women playwrights, seven women directors and some 35 actors “of various persuasions” will gather at the theater to develop an overall theme, after which the playwrights write all night in an intensive creative session that results in seven new plays. The new plays are rehearsed the next morning, with tech rehearsals in the afternoon. A video highlighting the process from a past show is on the troupe’s website, www.womanswill.org -more-


The Theater: Virago Stages Voltaire’s ‘Candide’ in Alameda

By Ken Bullock, Special to The Planet
Friday February 29, 2008

Candide, Voltaire’s long, comically hair-rending parable of optimism amidst the evil in the world, occupied composer Leonard Bernstein for decades, resulting in many revisions of his intended masterwork of musical theater. Feisty Virago Theatre Company, which has taken on various theatrical challenges (including a creatively site-specific Threepenny Opera in the Alameda Oddfellows Hall), turn their greatest challenge to date into a paradox: a sprawling, three-hour show, with a six-piece chamber orchestra and cast of 13 playing over 40 roles, that is somehow intimate and refreshing, even breezy. -more-


Opera Piccola Presents ‘Mirrors of Mumbai’

By Ken Bullock, Special to The Planet
Friday February 29, 2008

Opera Piccola will present Mirrors of Mumbai, an original piece of musical theater about the changing life and attitudes of a family in India with connections to Silicon Valley. Written by playwright Sonal Acharya and well-known jazz artist George Brooks, who is in-residence with the troupe, with direction by Susannah Woods, it premieres tonight and tomorrow night at 8 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, and a week from Saturday night at downtown Oakland’s Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts on Alice Street. -more-


About the House: What to Look For When Looking Under the House

By Matt Cantor
Friday February 29, 2008

I spend a lot of time under houses. This isn't glamorous but it's what I have to do in order to do my job. Actually I don't mind it much. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Friday February 29, 2008

FRIDAY, FEB. 29 -more-


Arts Calendar

Tuesday February 26, 2008

TUESDAY, FEB. 26 -more-


Books: Eastwind Books Provides Literary Hub for Asian Community

By Anna Mindess, Special to the Planet
Tuesday February 26, 2008
Eastwind Books on University Avenue specializes in books from various Asian cultures, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, 
                Vietnamese, Thai, Cambodian, Hmong, Hawaiian, Indian, Tibetan, Pakistani, Malaysian, Filipino, and Indonesian.

In order to keep his favorite bookstore from being turned into a beauty shop, Harvey Dong transformed himself from customer to owner of Eastwind Books in 1996. -more-


‘Wakefield, or Hello Sophia’ at Central Works

By Ken Bullock, Special to The Planet
Tuesday February 26, 2008

Dying embers of a fire on a blustery night; a pensive woman, alone in a room ... when the door opens and a rainsoaked man steps in, greets her by name, and just stands there while she gawks. It’s her husband, who left on a two-day business trip 20 years before. -more-


La Peña Celebrates Words and Life of Paul Robeson

By Deb Schneider, Special to the Planet
Tuesday February 26, 2008
Paul Robeson leads Moore Shipyard Workers in singing “The Star Spangled Banner” in Oakland in September 1942.

Paul Robeson was something of a Renaissance man. A singer, actor, lawyer, writer, civil rights advocate, all-American athlete and political activist, Robeson was a powerful and eloquent spokesman for racial justice well before Martin Luther King, Jr., or Malcolm X, yet these successors have eclipsed him in the annals of history. -more-


Wilde Irish Stages Centennial Bash for Irish National Theatre

By Ken Bullock, Special to The Planet
Tuesday February 26, 2008

Wilde Irish, Berkeley’s resident Irish theater company, will stage a centennial celebration for Ireland’s National Theatre this Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m., with two original Abbey Theatre short comedies: Lady Gregory’s The Workhouse Ward and John Synge’s In the Shadow of the Glen. -more-


Wild Neighbors: Globetrotting Rodents: The Odyssey of the Black Rat

By Joe Eaton
Tuesday February 26, 2008

It’s the Year of the Rat again‚—but which rat? For most of us “rat” signifies Rattus norwegicus, the Norway, brown, sewer, or wharf rat, progenitor of all those rats in all those labs, whose original homeland was northern China. But a case could be made for a less-well-known relative with roots in Asia: Rattus rattus, the black, roof, house, or ship rat. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday February 26, 2008

TUESDAY, FEB. 26 -more-