The Week


          More than 100 UC Berkeley students gathered on the steps of Sproul Plaza Wednesday evening for a candlelight vigil for the victims of the Mumbai terrorist attacks.
By Riya Bhattacharjee
More than 100 UC Berkeley students gathered on the steps of Sproul Plaza Wednesday evening for a candlelight vigil for the victims of the Mumbai terrorist attacks.
 

News

LBNL Begins Environmental Review of Scaled-down Helios Lab Building

By Richard Brenneman
Wednesday December 10, 2008 - 10:35:00 AM

Changed designs for the new lab building to house the half-billion-dollar BP-funded Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) have forced Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to launch a new environmental impact review. -more-


Planning Commission Looks at Ashes, Ferry, Transit Corridor Development, Helios and Downtown Ban on Fast Food

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday December 09, 2008 - 09:52:00 AM

Planning commissioners will take up a proposal to end the ban on new fast food restaurants in downtown Berkeley, and the new downtown city councilmember wants them to hold off. -more-


Newspaper Giant Forced into Bankruptcy; Doesn’t Affect Zell’s Berkeley Apartments

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday December 09, 2008 - 09:52:00 AM

Berkeley’s biggest landlord is having trouble with one of his other businesses: the Tribune Company, publisher of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and other media. -more-


BHS Governance Council To Vote on Redesign Proposal Tuesday

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Monday December 08, 2008 - 12:12:00 PM

The Berkeley High School Governance Council is scheduled to vote on Tuesday on the high school’s proposal to develop a new small school, establish advisory programs and change to block scheduling, after reviewing the plan at an all-day meeting. -more-


Details Bedevil Planners’ West Berkeley ‘Project’

By Richard Brenneman
Monday December 08, 2008 - 10:43:00 AM

Berkeley Planning Commissioners struggled last Wednesday with the fate of West Berkeley in a session that raised more questions that answers. -more-


Nolo To Stay In Berkeley, Reports Strong Sales Despite Publishing Woes

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Monday December 08, 2008 - 10:42:00 AM

Nolo Press, which calls itself the nation’s oldest publisher of legal information, will remain at its current location in West Berkeley following a decision by the business’s landlord, the Genn family, not to sell the property. -more-


BUSD Classified Employees Gets Pay Raise But Disagree on Contract

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 09:23:00 PM

Members of the Berkeley Council of Classified Employees have finally received a pay hike from the Berkeley Unified School District, but have yet to reach an agreement over their contract, union president Paula Phillips said Wednesday. -more-


Berkeley Mourns Mumbai Terrorist Attacks

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 09:45:00 AM

The Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai used to be a place filled with happy memories for Anil Thakkar and his family. Not anymore. -more-


Feeling Lost in a City Under Siege

By Sritanu Chakrabarti
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 09:47:00 AM

MUMBAI, India — It’s been a long day at work and you just need to unwind by having a couple of beers with your friend from college who is in town. He wants to go to Leopold’s, the popular pub at Colaba. You think about the beef chili out there for a moment, then refuse to yield to temptation. For some reason you don’t want to travel today. You meet him at a sports bar close to the office and have a great time talking about old times and catching up with each other’s lives. -more-


Winter Shelters Open Despite Grim Economic Outlook

Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 09:47:00 AM

Despite the bleak economic scenario, Berkeley’s winter homeless shelters have reopened for the winter, with a couple of them reporting a slight boost in funding and one witnessing record turnouts. -more-


San Pablo Condo Project Defaults, Forced Sale Scheduled

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 09:49:00 AM
2700 San Pablo has never had a tenant.

The latest chapter in one of Berkeley’s more hotly contested buildings will unfold on the courthouse steps in Oakland at high noon on Dec. 16. -more-


Future Berkeley Cell Phone Expansion Is Uncertain

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 09:51:00 AM

With the Berkeley City Council scheduled to look at two cell phone antenna facility applications over the next two weeks, the significance of the Berkeley Planning Commission’s failure to agree on changes to the city’s Wireless Telecommunication Facilities Ordinance may become clear. -more-


UC, City Downtown Settlement Heads to State Supreme Court

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 09:50:00 AM

The battle over the legal settlement that ended the city’s lawsuit against UC Berkeley’s plans for massive growth off-campus is headed for a higher venue. -more-


Landmarks Commission Weighs in On Residence’s Historic Status

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 09:50:00 AM

The Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission will review a nomination Thursday to place the Donald and Helen Olsen House in Berkeley on the National Register of Historic Places and will prepare a report on whether or not the property meets the standards of the list. -more-


Arlene Blum Awarded 2008 Purpose Prize

Thursday December 04, 2008 - 09:50:00 AM

Berkeley resident Arlene Blum, founder of the Green Science Policy Institute and leader of the first American expedition, comprised entirely of women, to climb Annapurna, will receive $100,000 for her work mobilizing scientists, government, industry and consumers to protect health by reducing toxins in our homes and the environment, as one of the 15 winners of the 2008 Purpose Prize, according to Civic Ventures, which awards the prize. -more-


Arreguin Sworn in as Councilmember

Thursday December 04, 2008 - 09:51:00 AM
 
                Federico Chavez, administrative law judge, swears in Jesse Arreguin as the new councilmember for District 4 at Berkeley City Hall last Wednesday. Arreguin, who took office on Nov. 27, became the city’s first Latino councilmember and the youngest elected official on the City Council.

Golden Gate Fields for Sale as Magna Reorganizes

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 09:48:00 AM

Golden Gate Fields will be up for sale under terms of a corporate reorganization announced last week by corporate owner Magna Entertainment (stock symbol MECA). -more-


Police Blotter

By ALI WINSTON
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 09:52:00 AM

Looney’s burglary -more-


Fire Dept. Log

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 09:53:00 AM

Dies in crash -more-


First Person: A Memoir of My Worst and Briefest Jobs

By Jack Bragen
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 09:54:00 AM

I worked as a stable cleaner when I was 23 years old, medicated on Prolixin, and underweight. The work was heavier than I was prepared for. It was a joyless and unrewarding job for the brief two weeks that I held it. It ended with me on bad terms with the ranch owner; I had to threaten to sue to get my paycheck. The rancher sent me a $15 check that was dirtied with manure, and a nasty note about how badly I had done. -more-


Great Green Gifts for Good Kids

Thursday December 04, 2008 - 10:02:00 AM

By Stevanne Auerbach -more-


You Write the Daily Planet

Thursday December 04, 2008 - 09:48:00 AM

It’s time to submit your essays, poems, stories, artwork and photographs for the Planet’s annual holiday reader contribution issue, which will be published on Dec. 23 (that’s right—a Tuesday!). Send your submissions, no longer than 1,000 words, to holiday@berkeleydailyplanet.com. Deadline is 5 p.m. on Mon., Dec. 15. -more-


Opinion

Editorials

The Best-Laid Plans...

By Becky O’Malley
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 09:56:00 AM

Some have accused this space of being obsessed with city planning, and they’d be right. In a small but urbanized burb like Berkeley, if you’re interested in government at all, it’s hard not to be. Realistically, the only significant power left to cities in California is control of land use. -more-


Cartoons

Reprints: jdefreitas@berkeleydailyplanet.com

Browsing the Addison Street Gallery

By Justin DeFreitas
Friday December 05, 2008 - 01:34:00 PM

Reprints: jdefreitas@berkeleydailyplanet.com

Barack Obama's Diversity Twister

By Justin DeFreitas
Friday December 05, 2008 - 03:57:00 PM

Reprints: jdefreitas@berkeleydailyplanet.com

Feeding the Foreclosure Beast

By Justin DeFreitas
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 11:14:00 AM

Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Monday December 08, 2008 - 08:46:00 AM

SAN PABLO CONDOS -more-


Letters to the Editor

Thursday December 04, 2008 - 09:57:00 AM

GOLDEN GATE FIELDS -more-


A More Personalized Education is Good for All Students

By Carol Lashof
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 09:57:00 AM

On Dec. 9 the Shared Governance Council at Berkeley High will consider a proposal for restructuring the high school. The redesign plan includes an alternating block schedule with four 80- or 90-minute class periods a day, a 30-minute advising period twice a week, and a daily “Academic Support and Community Access Period” for most students. The goal of the plan is to increase personalization. If it is approved by Shared Governance, the proposal will move to the School Board for consideration. -more-


Standing in the Way of Progress

By Rick Ayers
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 09:58:00 AM

I was dismayed but not surprised to see the large group of privileged parents descend on the community meeting at St. Joseph the Worker’s Church to consider the Berkeley High school redesign proposal. It’s a familiar pattern: the school community spends years reflecting and considering ways to make BHS more successful for all students and, when it comes close to a vote, the predictable group pours out in a vocal campaign of opposition. -more-


Prop. 8

BY Jose Patino
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 09:58:00 AM

Superman flies like a buzzard -more-


60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

By Rita Maran
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 09:59:00 AM

A quietly-revolutionary document that changed our world for the better, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, turns 60 this year. -more-


The Declaration is The Law

By Ann Fagan Ginger
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 10:00:00 AM

Probably more people in Berkeley and the Bay Area will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Dec. 10 than in most other communities in the United States. Many of us spend some time every month working for human rights in the United States or somewhere in the world. Many of us have complained that the United States does not live up to the Universal Declaration, even though Eleanor Roosevelt played such an important role in getting it set down in print. Even in Berkeley relatively few folks have learned from lecturers that the declaration was a declaration, and was not The Law. -more-


Rahm Emanuel: Agent of Change?

By Kenneth Theisen
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 10:00:00 AM

Many believe that Obama will be the “savior” who will rescue us from the political direction begun by the Bush regime. But so far his choice of top staff does not indicate positive change. Obama chose Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff. -more-


Windows Gallery Wrongly Disparaged

By Peter Labriola
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 10:02:00 AM

Considering the reams of bad publicity I’ve read regarding the Addison Street Window Gallery, I’d like to check in with my two cents regarding this wonderful enterprise. Back in 1993, the great Brenda Prager invited me, and fellow artist B.N. Duncan, to host our own gallery showing in the window, “Berkeley Artists on the Fringe”—a collection of oddball art by Berkeley street people. We couldn’t have asked for a more gracious host. In fact, it was the first public acknowledgment that my artwork had ever received from the town of Berkeley (whether this is a good or bad thing I’ll leave to you to decide). And it led to several other fruitful collaborations with the magnificent Berkeley Civic Arts program, including the recording of the “Telegraph Avenue Street Music” CD in 1994, with a big assist from Bonnie Hughes. -more-


Against Censorship at Windows Gallery

By Shankar Ramamoorthy
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 10:01:00 AM

Civic Arts Commissioner Stephanie Anne Johnson wrote a commentary in the Daily Planet supporting the restrictions on free speech imposed on the city-run Addison Street Windows Gallery. Commissioner Johnson deserves a response and the First Amendment a robust defense. -more-


Popular Speech Needs No Protection

By Douglas Minkler
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 10:01:00 AM

The Arts Commission’s response to the artist’s complaint of censorship thus far has resulted in a set of written restrictions on artists called “Guidelines for the Addison Street Windows.” These guidelines circumvent the artists’ First Amendment rights to free speech and can be summed up by the following excerpt from the new Addison Windows document: “Art must exhibit a high degree of consideration for citizens’ sensitivities to violence, sexual expression and negative portrayals of diverse populations.” -more-


Columns

Dispatches From The Edge—Syria Attack: Changing the Rules

By Conn Hallinan
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 09:54:00 AM

A little more than a month ago, four U.S. Blackhawk helicopters cros-sed the Syrian border from Iraq and attacked a civilian farmhouse near the town of al-Sukkariyeh. The U.S. claims the farmhouse was an al-Qaeda way station and the eight men killed during the raid were terrorists, including a major al-Qaeda leader, Abu Ghadiya. The Syrians say the dead—five of them members of the same family—were building a house and had nothing to do with terrorism or al-Qaeda. A BBC report found that most of the dead appeared to be construction workers, including a night watchman, which suggests the raid may have been botched. -more-


Undercurrents: Elements of Brown’s ‘Community Cleansing’ Still in Effect Under Dellums

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 09:55:00 AM

Oakland, in the Jerry Brown years, practiced an unofficial policy of what might be called “community cleansing.” This is not to be confused with “ethnic cleansing,” the horrific activity in parts of, say, Eastern Europe or Central Africa where whole ethnic populations are violently and bloodily removed, either through exile or actual genocide. No, Mr. Brown’s “community cleansing” policies were far more genteel, involving little violence (though some—that’s what the whole Oakland Riders police scandal was about) and targeting not whole ethnic groups, but rather portions of the population that were considered as being “undesirables.” Part of this involved harassment, part of it deliberate neglect of certain population segments and entire neighborhoods. In their place, Mr. Brown sought to attract more “desirable” (in his opinion) Oakland residents. Thus, while whole neighborhoods wasted away in the Brown administration, havens for crime and violence and poverty, Mr. Brown put millions of dollars of city funds into shiny new neighborhoods (the famous “10K plan”) that sought to attract people to live in Oakland who had previously looked down upon the city. -more-


Green Neighbors: Dealing with Sudden Oak Death: Dying by Degrees

By Ron Sullivan
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 10:11:00 AM
A live-oak in China Camp, dying by degrees. This is one of the places hardest-hit by SOD, but there are still live live-oaks who just might be a basis for species survival.

In dealing with Sudden Oak Death, we’re trying to limit or cope with an enormous wide-ranging biological change, the sort of thing we can’t quite map let alone stop. Its outlines are almost fractal; one complication leads to more and those to more still, and that’s true at whatever scale we see it. But fractals can be calculated, and we don’t quite have the knowledge to calculate this stuff precisely. -more-


About the House: Working Well with Contractors (Horror Story or Happy Ending?)

By Matt Cantor
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 10:11:00 AM

Why do so many people have horror stories about remodeling and the contractors who perform this work? Is there a direct line from the Mafia to the remodeling industry? Do they post notices in High School locker rooms reading “School not working out? Why not try contracting? Anyone can qualify!” As a recovering contractor and one who inspects the work of contractors, I have had occasion to see both sides of this curious and often heated area of commerce. -more-


Arts & Events

Arts Calendar

Thursday December 04, 2008 - 10:04:00 AM

THURSDAY, DEC. 4 -more-


Other Minds Performs ‘New Music Seance’

By Ken Bullock Special to the Planet
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 10:05:00 AM

The New Music Seance, Other Minds’ wryly titled, more intimate (and historically minded) counterpoint to its bigger annual festival in the spring, will return this Saturday afternoon and evening to the candlelit wood interior of the 1895 Arts and Crafts-style gem designed by Bernard Maybeck, San Francisco’s Swedenborgian Church, 2107 Lyon St. in Presidio Heights, with three programs (1, 4 and 8 p.m.) for the third year of the Seances. -more-


Oakland Public Theater Presents ‘Children of the Last Days’

By Ken Bullock Special to the Planet
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 10:06:00 AM

“Bring your good Sunday clothes, your tambourine, your church fan—and your sense of humor!” -more-


The Sculpture of Martin Puryear

By Peter Selz Special to the Planet
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 10:07:00 AM
Martin Puryear’s Ladder for Booker T. Washington (1996).

Sculpture in America is at present at a high point, both in terms of quality and diversity. Currently, SFMOMA presents a retrospective by the celebrated African-American sculptor Martin Puryear, which came to San Francisco from New York’s Museum of Modern Art. It was preceded there by a major exhibition of the preeminent Richard Serra of giant curved steel slabs generating kinesthetic responses on the part of the visitor. -more-


Holiday Shows Abound in Bay Area

By Ken Bullock Special to the Planet
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 10:06:00 AM

‘Tis the Season ... with an abundance of shows to keep you jolly, both traditional—Christmas Carols, Nutcrackers—and what might be called antidotes to too much cheer, or when the cheer gets cloying, and something quieter (or, on the other hand, more caustic) is called for as a restorative. -more-


Moving Pictures: Harry Langdon: Silent Comedy's Forgotten Genius

By Justin DeFreitas
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 11:11:00 AM
DVD releases of the films of Harry Langdon should help establish him as one of the great comedians of the silent era.

Comedians were a dime a dozen in the days of silent film, but great comedians were precious and few. The judgment of history has left us maybe a half-dozen top-notch talents, and just a few of those names are much remembered today. Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd are the heavy hitters of course, the names that immediately come to mind, with perhaps Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Mabel Normand, Charley Chase, and a few others lagging not so far behind in name recognition. Still others, like Laurel and Hardy, did well in silent films but are today best known for their sound work. -more-


About the House: Working Well with Contractors (Horror Story or Happy Ending?)

By Matt Cantor
Thursday December 04, 2008 - 10:11:00 AM

Why do so many people have horror stories about remodeling and the contractors who perform this work? Is there a direct line from the Mafia to the remodeling industry? Do they post notices in High School locker rooms reading “School not working out? Why not try contracting? Anyone can qualify!” As a recovering contractor and one who inspects the work of contractors, I have had occasion to see both sides of this curious and often heated area of commerce. -more-


Community Calendar

Thursday December 04, 2008 - 09:53:00 AM

THURSDAY, DEC. 4 -more-