News

Sink Hole Closes Tunnel Road

Wednesday January 07, 2009 - 10:38:00 AM

 Tunnel Road westbound will be closed from Highway 13, as will the intersection of Vicente and Tunnel Road, this morning and afternoon due to a large sink hole caused by a water main break, according to Berkeley police. -more-


Treesitting Pair Occupies Acacia at People's Park

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday January 06, 2009 - 04:51:00 PM

The treesitters are back on UC Berkeley’s turf, this time occupying the branches of an acacia at People’s Park. -more-


Burning Body Found Near Berkeley Shore

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday December 30, 2008 - 10:40:00 AM

Berkeley police and firefighters rushed to the shoreline early Tuesday morning, where they discovered a body burning inside a container. -more-


Post-Christmas Fire Claims Berkeley Cats

By Richard Brenneman
Monday December 29, 2008 - 04:42:00 PM

Two cats died on Friday from smoke inhalation in a slow-burning fire in a rented home at 1367 La Loma Ave. -more-


Buried Body in Wall Identified by Police

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 09:57:00 AM
A crime scene cleanup technician finishes donning his protective gear as he prepares to work on the Ashby Avenue room where police found a body buried behind a wall.

The dramatic suicide of a Berkeley man last week led police to a second gruesome discovery two days later, a badly decomposed male corpse walled up inside the first floor laundry room. -more-


Fire Forces Evacuation of Regent Street Apartments

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 09:59:00 AM

A second-floor bedroom fire led Berkeley Police to evacuate a large three-story apartment building on Regent Street on Monday morning as firefighters fought to contain the flames. -more-


People’s Park Tree-Sit Ends With Holiday Reprieve

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 09:59:00 AM
The threatened acacia trees are fenced off at People’s Park.

Berkeley’s latest tree-sit ended the same day it began last week when campus police signed a Christmas truce that spares—for the moment—two acacias in People’s Park. -more-


Round and About

By Jerry Cote
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:19:00 AM

Virginia Bakery… Virginia Cleaners… Virginia Street—it’s all right there on two short blocks in a small north Berkeley neighborhood. As I jog past the bakery’s storefront, the scent of warm bread and joy from inside drifts out into the street deliciously. -more-


Finding Berkeley’s Center

By Ted Friedman
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:06:00 AM

In 1950s Springfield, Illinois, we often settled arguments with the absurd challenge: “If you’re right, I’ll kiss your hiney [although we pronounced it differently and spelled it with only three letters] at Fifth and Monroe.” Why there? It was the center of town, at least to us. -more-


Remembering Rose

By Joanne Kowalski
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:05:00 AM
Rose Eve Patterson, July 20, 1942-Dec. 17, 2007.

Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home...[in] the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world. -more-


Wine Tasting Class

By Ray Saturno
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:50:00 AM

Here are the results of a recent wine tasting class held at the El Cerrito Recreation Department. This was a “blind tasting” of four California Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons. Each member of the class had a score card with four categories; color, odor, taste and after taste. Each category had maximum of two points. With this system, a top score would be eight points. The class was led by Ray Saturno who has worked in the wine industry for 10 years and has been teaching wine tasting classes for 30 years. -more-


Louise and George, Helen and Lloyd

By Andrea Carney
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:07:00 AM

Recently sitting in our backyard, Louise knitting, me browsing through a collection of political essays called The Power to say No, the sun slowly starting its descent, Louise looked up thoughtfully and said, “You know, George, this house is awfully large for the two of us now that the children are grown.” -more-


Jolly Folly: Why an Atheist Keeps Christmas

By Sonja Fitz
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:41:00 AM

Local (San Jose) boy-turned-preacher Rick Warren recently made the rounds of morning talk shows to promote his latest book, The Purpose of Christmas (released in November, naturally—just in time for holiday shopping!). (Christmas too commercial, you moan? Please, that’s so last year. We’re in an economic crisis: it’s our duty to shop.) It set me thinking yet again about my giddy love for this holiday. Me, a devoted atheist and card-carrying secularist, one of the annoying holly-festooned carolers sending out handmade Christmas cards in an era of eCards and text greetings. -more-


Poem

By Iris Crider
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:07:00 AM

Mountain cold steaming -more-


Murky Waters Run Deep in the Reservoir of Memory

By Helen Rippier Wheeler
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:23:00 AM

We were something like a family for five years, 1926-1931. In a memory-snapshot of the three of us standing at the foot of my father’s little bed in his little room, in front of the closet that was so small the hangers hung flat against the wall on hooks. I have trailed my parents in there and am observing. They are arguing. He takes down a gray cardboard carton, and heaves it onto the foot of the bed. The throw causes it to bounce, and the lid comes off. Inside is a new doll, Betty, a Christmas gift and the second of my three dolls. -more-


Holiday Bikes for Kids

Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:02:00 AM

Claudia Medina of the Alameda County Office of Education smiles Monday as she looks over the bikes her agency arranged as holiday gifts for youths at Berkeley’s Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency family shelter on Harrison Street. -more-


The Joys of Life on Two Wheels

By Laura McCamy
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:26:00 AM

The Jack Kerouac of this generation would write a very different version of On the Road. Stalled freeways and clogged cities don’t provide the adventure he went in search of. Today’s seeker might find the freedom of the road in a different mode: on a bicycle. As I glide past stuck cars on city streets or match the speed of the freeway on the bike path that parallels I-80, I feel liberated and exhilarated—a little bit of a modern-day Kerouac. -more-


Stolpersteine

By Laura Bushman
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:08:00 AM

Family Tree

By Roopa Ramamoorthi
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:27:00 AM

Few weeks ago I spent two days in Mendocino -more-


25 Below

By Sandra J. Whittaker
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:08:00 AM

Blazing sun dogs rise ... -more-


Christmas Story

By Richard Cormack
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:35:00 AM

There is a homeless man whose daily station is a bench in front of an espresso shop near the UC Berkeley campus. He’s a gray shell of a man now, crippled and aged, but his life once mattered. In his younger years he sat in a comfortable office and made decisions that affected people. -more-


The Poor Wee Birdies (spoken in Scottish brogue)

By Sandra J. Whittaker
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:09:00 AM

Oh, I would na’ be a birdie -more-


The Timid Ones

By Lowell Moorcroft
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:36:00 AM

The Timid Ones -more-


December

By Annie Kassof
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:10:00 AM

A few years ago I drove to OSH so my kids, at their request, could get me my Christmas present. I remember this as an especially poignant moment—sitting in my car watching the two of them walk through the crowded parking lot. I was already pretty sure what they were getting me. I’m not materialistic, but as on other holidays I’d cobbled together a list anyhow. Though far from glamorous, first on the list was a new toilet seat; something we could use at the time. -more-


Sunday

By Jerry Cote
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:51:00 AM

sunday -more-


In Search of French: From Tahiti to Nice

By Tony and Laura Bushman
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:36:00 AM

Where can you learn French in the winter where it is warm? In Tahiti. So we set off for French Tahiti. The weather in Tahiti was sticky and hot, but the water was perfect. The yellow and red hibiscus plants were captivating and the azure ocean was stunning. We lay on the beaches, swam among the coral and admired double-breasted white-throated warblers. With all this beauty surrounding us, it was clear we would not be learning much French in Tahiti. Two weeks were up before we got fully acclimated in our search for French lessons. France seemed the better place to learn French. The trip from Tahiti to France was a three-day nightmare, which left us dizzy from lack of sleep. We were met at the airport in Nice by Christian, our host, with a very warm welcome. -more-


Seeing

By Marcia Craddock
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:11:00 AM

The L.A. night was sullen. Low clouds reflected the hundreds, thousands, millions of neon lights and produced an angry red glare in the compressed sky. The air was still and the traffic noises muffled, almost muted. -more-


Last Licks

By Linda Rose
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:37:00 AM

I kissed my beloved canine companion on the lips yesterday and let her tongue lick all over me. Something I would never let her do if I had lipstick on. -more-


Up a Tree Without a Ladder

By Mary Spivey
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:12:00 AM

Christmas is, generationally, stressful. My parents’ mantra was “...in my day we were happy to get an orange and an apple in a stocking...” My comments “... seems like it should be practical and meaningful.” Watching television ads now seems like light years away from a Christmas culture I recognize. -more-


The Ache of Christmas

By Dorothy V. Benson
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:37:00 AM

Do I remember turkey and all the trimmings -more-


The Little Engine That Wanted To

By Kathy Horn
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:12:00 AM
The Little Engine

1955. Little Girl dreams Roller Coaster lives outside her bedroom window. -more-


Come Walk With Me

By Kay Y. Wehner
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:38:00 AM

Come walk with me, -more-


The Little Christmas Tree That Almost Didn’t Get to Celebrate Christmas

By James K. Sayre
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:14:00 AM

Once, not long ago, there was a small Douglas Fir tree named Sarah that grew up on a Christmas tree farm near Woodland, Washington. When she was 5 years old, she was already almost six feet tall, so the owners of the Christmas Tree Farm decided to have Sarah and all her identically-genetically-cloned brothers and sisters cut down and shipped to California in early December. -more-


Bikini

By Esther Stone
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:38:00 AM

I confess. Guilty as charged. I’m an inveterate and unrepentant pack rat. -more-


Flamenco Puro

By Ruth Guthartz
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:14:00 AM

Because the seasons changed early that year, I chose an early spring cleaning. Armed with large plastic bags, a brown cardboard carton and a dust cloth, I tackled my bedroom closet. Determined to be sensible and unsentimental, I started by tossing away much of the footwear. -more-


Mrs. Perle

By Dana Chernack
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:39:00 AM

Mrs. Perle, my sixth-grade teacher, was an unnatural woman given to transports. Her transports had teeth, rather fangs. She was certainly venomous. Mrs. Perle tapped into something twisted within us all. Are we not all sadists and masochists in various degrees at various times? Yet, we hold ourselves back; we are self-aware, or aware of God. Mrs. Perle is mostly likely in hell now, that part reserved for petty tyrants, the ones without a saleable ideology. -more-


Winter Clouds Over Berkeley Marina

Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:03:00 AM

Brisk, cold winter winds kept the San Francisco Bay waters choppy off the Berkeley Marina, just north of one of the two sites proposed for a ferry terminal. -more-


A Box of Hope Tied with a Ribbon of Patience

By Pamela McNab
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:42:00 AM

I told my husband I wanted to skip Christmas that year; all I wanted was a box of hope tied with a ribbon of patience. -more-


Season of Hope

By Mary Wheeler
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:16:00 AM

Christmas, for me, is the season of hope, as I believe it is for many people. Historically, it started with the Solstice, when people celebrated the return of longer days and more sunlight. Bonfires were lit to represent hope of new light and warmth. With Christianity came the hope of a new birth: shepherds and wisemen following a star in hopes of greeting a new king. Now, for children, there is Santa Claus. What child does not await Christmas morning with hope and excitement that the long-wished for toy is lying wrapped under the tree? -more-


Election Haiku Diary

By Judy Wells
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:42:00 AM

Feb. 1 -more-


Vanguard City

By Dana Chernack
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:16:00 AM

We moved to Vanguard City, Calif., in June of 1973. Brooklyn had turned toxic. We came to V.C., as we referred to it back then, to be with the other dope smokin’ Godless Commies. We came to have a great time and build a just society. -more-


My 2009 Resolutions — for Other People

By Scott Badler
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:43:00 AM

Normally, I make New Year’s resolutions for myself. It hasn’t worked. For example, last year’s resolutions to “avoid the social ramble,” eat more gefilte fish and try to like people fell by the wayside shortly after President’s Day (oddly, Washington and Lincoln are two of my least-favorite presidents). -more-


In Their Pace ... In The Closet

By Garrett Murphy
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:17:00 AM

The majority in times past -more-


Wildlife in My House

By Sherry Bridgman
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:17:00 AM

Boys between the ages of seven and nine have a great affection for reptiles. They catch’em, cage’em and talk constantly about them. Could a boa constrictor swallow a VW car, Mom? -more-


Listen

By Cherrie Williams
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:51:00 AM
Winter Frost, 2003

From the tree watch, listen! -more-


Craven

By Joseph Stubbs
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:49:00 AM

Craven was a frog upon my bog -more-


Hope Is Never Silent

By Tracie De Angelis Salim
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:43:00 AM

“This is my identification,” he said, clutching a hand painted picture of ancient olive trees, pointing at it, exclaiming “This is it! Without this, I lose hope!” -more-


Regarding the Spanish Civil War

By Peter Loubal
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:18:00 AM

Civil wars are extremely uncivilized, their political aftermath even filthier. To put a human face on The Planet’s recent Lincoln “Brigade”—Spanish Civil War (Bermack /Jarach) debate, the story of my aunt. -more-


Giving Love for Christmas

By Melinda Pillsbury-Foster
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:50:00 AM

Christmas is coming and along with the joy most of us experience the stress of not having finished our buying. This year most of us are also suffering through the pangs of not having enough money to buy the gifts that would we would normally give. -more-


Bookstore Blues

By Roopa Ramamoorthi
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:43:00 AM

I looked at my watch. My husband had just dropped me off at the Berkeley BART station. I had 15 minutes to catch the train to San Francisco to meet Bernadette. We were to join some of our classmates for a beach barbecue reunion of our “Human Factors and Team Dynamics” class. -more-


Richmond Plans Threaten Point Isabel

By Rosemary Loubal
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:18:00 AM

Richmond’s Planning Commission voted to rezone Point Isabel to accommodate a Kohl’s department store with 400 parking spaces. Local developer Oliver, who owns the land, has already vacated the existing stores and offices on the corner of Central Avenue and Rydin Road. There is constant traffic from Costco and USPS trucks. The dog-park lots are often full. Hundreds of people daily use the area for hiking, cycling, dog walking, bird watching. Thousands at weekends. Ever more traffic and pollution will further worsen already major traffic and access issues for park visitors and trail users, and damage the bird habitat and the vegetation of this world-class shoreline, a major segment of the Bay Trail, s fantastic regional asset that is to eventually completely circle the bay. -more-


Night at the Musée d’Orsay

By Judy Wells
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:44:00 AM

If the curators knew -more-


I’d Like to Live in Paris

By Judy Wells
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:44:00 AM

I’d like to walk along the Seine -more-


Call Center

By Roopa Ramamoorthi
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:45:00 AM

“Hello, this is Sandy speaking, how can I help you?” I pushed the words up my nose, tried to manufacture the twang we are encouraged to have, to make us sound more American. It could have been Sally. But doesn’t Sandy sound closer to my name Sandhya? -more-


Crackpot Rules

By Don Anderson
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:20:00 AM

Having visited Berkeley many times since 1939, I thought it would be a good retirement colony. So I hired a 26-foot moving van, engaged my daughter and stepdaughter and drove north from Idyllwild on Nov. 2. -more-


Three Poems

By (s.b.r) Soul-1990
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:48:00 AM

Dissent -more-


Going to and from Work in Downtown Berkeley on a Friday of the First Rain

By Mike Palmer
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:46:00 AM

My alarm is the morning news at 6:30; -more-


Paulina

By Dana Chernack
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:46:00 AM

The air hangs heavy this particular April afternoon as Paulina Rabinovich parks her orange Volvo on Bonita Street. -more-


On Passing

By Randy Fingland
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:23:00 AM

past the window & doors that mask the offal smells from -more-


Backyard Photo

Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:21:00 AM

A squirrel eating a fig. -more-


People’s Park Treesit Ends With a Reprieve

By Richard Brenneman
Friday December 19, 2008 - 11:18:00 AM

Berkeley’s latest treesit ended Thursday, the same day it began, when campus police signed a Christmas truce that spares—for the moment—two acacias in People’s Park. -more-


Berkeley Man’s Suicide Leads to Discovery of Body Buried Behind Wall

By Richard Brenneman
Friday December 19, 2008 - 03:02:00 PM
A private crime scene cleanup technician finishes donning his protective gear Thursday afternoon as he prepares to work on the Ashby Avenue room where police found a body buried behind a wall.

The dramatic suicide of a Berkeley man late Monday afternoon led police to a second gruesome discovery two days later, a badly decomposed male corpse walled up inside the a first floor laundry room. -more-


Berkeley Schools Top Bad Air Quality List

By Kristin McFarland
Wednesday December 17, 2008 - 07:13:00 PM

Last week’s USA Today report that placed three Berkeley schools in the first percentile of schools with bad air quality has activists, community members and school directors in an uproar. -more-


Neighbors Win One, Lose One in Legal Actions Against Pacific Steel

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Wednesday December 17, 2008 - 07:14:00 PM

Neighborhood opponents of West Berkeley’s Pacific Steel Casting went one-for-two in Alameda County Superior Court legal decisions on Friday, with one judge overturning a previous Berkeley Small Claims Court ruling in favor of several PSC neighbors and, in a separate action, a second judge ruling that a class-action lawsuit against the steel foundry can go forward. -more-


Church Burial Rights Gain Support in Berkeley

By Richard Brenneman
Wednesday December 17, 2008 - 07:15:00 PM

Forget all that stuff about “godless Berkeley.” -more-


Council Fails to Act on Cell Phone Antenna Applications

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Wednesday December 17, 2008 - 07:17:00 PM

Berkeley City Council stumbled (again) on Tuesday over the vexing issue of expanding cell-phone tower facilities in the city, failing to decide on a Verizon Wireless application for 1540 Shattuck Ave. and failing for the third straight meeting to either grant a hearing or dismiss a similar appeal for ZAB approval of a T-Mobile facility at 1725 University Ave. -more-


Conference Calls for Strategies To End America’s Prison Cycle

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Wednesday December 17, 2008 - 07:15:00 PM
Nation of Islam Minister Christopher Muhammad of San Francisco speaks at Saturday’s Stanley “Tookie” Williams Legacy Summit while Bill Ayers looks on.

More than 300 ’60s and ’70s era radicals and students not born until the ’80s gathered at Oakland’s Merritt College on Saturday to honor a man executed by the State of California three years ago and to hear strategies to end the cycle of criminalization of American communities and the country’s re-volving prison door and the death penalty. -more-


Hillside School Neighbors Seek to Purchase Playground

By Kristin McFarland
Wednesday December 17, 2008 - 06:44:00 PM

Hillside Elementary School, a local and national historic landmark, stands on the brink of yet another reinvention. -more-


Zoning Board Approves Shattuck Offices, Delays Action on Kashani Condos

By Richard Brenneman
Wednesday December 17, 2008 - 06:45:00 PM

Berkeley’s Zoning Adjustments Board delayed approval of developer Ali Kashani’s five-story condo project at the corner of Ashby and San Pablo avenues last week. -more-


Two Marina Sites Emerge for Ferry Terminal

By Richard Brenneman
Wednesday December 17, 2008 - 06:47:00 PM

Sprawling parking lots proposed at either of the two Berkeley Marina sites picked as potential locations for a new transbay ferry service have sparked concerns among the city’s planning commissioners. -more-


Fire Department Log

By Richard Brenneman
Wednesday December 17, 2008 - 06:49:00 PM

Boat blaze -more-


Police Search for Three Men Involved in Pharmacy Burglary

Bay City News
Wednesday December 17, 2008 - 06:50:00 PM

Berkeley police are searching for three men responsible for the burglary of more than $10,000 worth of prescription drugs from Elephant Pharmacy around 1 a.m. on Dec. 9. -more-


Shopping with Old Friends: A Day on Piedmont Avenue

By Anna Mindess Special to the Planet
Wednesday December 17, 2008 - 07:04:00 PM
A mud pie from Fenton’s.

The charm of Piedmont Avenue in North Oakland is its mix of newness and nostalgia; like a big family, where young and old live side by side. -more-


School Acknowleged for Closing Achievement Gap

By Kristin McFarland
Wednesday December 17, 2008 - 06:45:00 PM

Berkeley’s Malcolm X Arts and Academics Magnet, an elementary school that integrates art and academics, has been awarded the Title One Academic Achievement award for 2008-2009. -more-


Prime West Berkeley Property Headed for the Marketplace

By Richard Brenneman
Wednesday December 17, 2008 - 06:47:00 PM

Berkeley’s largest private development site—8.2 acres adjacent to Aquatic Park—is coming on the market, and the owners want the city to ease the rules. -more-


Commission Votes to End Downtown’s Fast Food Moratorium

By Richard Brenneman
Wednesday December 17, 2008 - 06:46:00 PM

The man who residents of downtown Berkeley elected to represent their district on the City Council came to the Planning Commission last week to make a request. -more-


UC Santa Cruz’s Redwood Grove Felled

By Richard Brenneman
Wednesday December 17, 2008 - 06:48:00 PM

The last UC Santa Cruz tree sitter surrendered to campus police Saturday, moments before a chainsaw-wielding crew began to level the redwood grove they had occupied for 402 days. -more-


Window-Smashing Burglar Sought by Berkeley Police

Wednesday December 17, 2008 - 06:48:00 PM

Berkeley police said that they have a person of interest and a vehicle of interest in connection with seven daytime “window-smash” burglaries, and one attempted burglary, at homes in northwest and north central Berkeley in the last two weeks. -more-