Columnists

From all over Oakland this winter and spring, there have been calls for a crackdown on the city’s crime and violence, with police being allowed to fill in the details, at their discretion, of how such crackdown will be carried out. -more-

Tuesday, May 6th, was the decisive night in the struggle for the Democratic nomination. It provided new insight into the character of the two competitors. -more-

A strange thing happened last week. Financial experts, government officials, CEOs, and the odd billionaire investor declared the financial crisis all but over. These are the same folks who only a month before were calling it the worst systemic financial crisis since the 1930s and predicting that even the basic functions of the global money machine were at risk. Now only weeks later we’re being told that the worst is over and stocks have begun rising again. Things move quickly in the new economy—but that quickly? After all, that other big crisis that started in 1929 lasted a bit longer than nine months. -more-

A “very odd affair” is how the Financial Times (FT) characterized the Bush Administration’s release of intelligence charging that the Syrian building bombed by the Israelis last Sept. 6 was a North Korean-designed nuclear reactor just weeks from being operational. -more-

Last week—just as I was in the middle of writing my column about the calls for Illinois Senator Barack Obama to go for a knockout blow in the Democratic presidential primaries—the latest round of national clamor over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright issue was breaking. This was prompted first by Rev. Wright’s appearances on Bill Moyers and his speeches at the National Press Club and the NAACP Freedom Fund Dinner, and then by Sen. Barack Obama’s followup press conference in which he broke, once and for all, with his former pastor. -more-

Once upon a time, houses were built with the materials at hand, or those things that could be made using the materials at hand (concrete, for instance). Around here, that tended to be wood and masonry (stone, brick, stucco, and concrete). These days, more and more construction materials are fake. -more-

If you’re like Joe and me, you’re spending as much of this sunny weather as you can outdoors, especially in our handy local parks. The breeding birds are here, and they’re putting on a show as they sing and chase and carry on, establishing territories, picking mates, building nests. The bloom season is at its height, multiple species carpeting outer Point Reyes and interior grassy hillsides. -more-

I had a slight tense phone call with a rather difficult person this morning. Not a great way to start the day, but I guess it goes with the business and I’m lucky to be employed. -more-