The Week

<b>The Campaign Against the Daily Planet</b>
          A few East Bay individuals are threatening to bankrupt the Berkeley Daily Planet unless it stops publishing criticisms of Israel’s policies and actions.
Justin DeFreitas
The Campaign Against the Daily Planet A few East Bay individuals are threatening to bankrupt the Berkeley Daily Planet unless it stops publishing criticisms of Israel’s policies and actions.
 

News

The Campaign Against the Daily Planet

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:17:00 AM

A few East Bay individuals are threatening to bankrupt the Berkeley Daily Planet unless it stops publishing criticisms of Israel’s policies and actions—opinions and ideas they brand “anti-Semitic.” -more-


Sidebar: Red Scare: Conn Hallinan

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:15:00 AM

John Gertz has singled out Daily Planet columnist Conn Hallinan for an extra measure of rancor, resorting to red-baiting when all else fails. -more-


Sidebar: ‘Kill the Cops, Kill the Jews,’ and Other Fabricated Quotes

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:11:00 AM

“Kill the cops, Kill the Jews,” screams the dpwatchdog headline, adding “The First Amendment as the Last Refuge of Scoundrels.” -more-


Sidebar: Strange Bedfellows

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:16:00 AM

FLAME’s founder and president is octogenarian Holocaust survivor Gerardo Joffe. In 1967, Joffe founded Haverhill’s, a mail order firm that has advertised heavily in both liberal magazines—including The Nation—as well as conservative magazines such as National Review. -more-


Sidebar: Will the Real Dan Spitzer Please Stand Up?

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:12:00 AM

Responding in December 2007 to a critic who had questioned his journalistic credentials in the East Bay Express letters column, Spitzer called the critic lazy , then cited “the Google index in which my name is referenced 1,340,000 times.” Note that Spitzer said “in which my name is referenced,” not “in which I am referenced.” -more-


Sidebar: Two Refusals

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:10:00 AM

Both Jim Sinkinson and Dan Spitzer declined to be interviewed for this article. -more-


Sidebar: The Arianpour Affair, and Other Controversies

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:16:00 AM

Though most reader submissions the Daily Planet has published on the Israel-Palestine conflict have been based on legal and moral arguments, the Aug. 8, 2006, reader-submitted commentary by Kurosh Arianpour crossed a critical threshold, perceived by many as extending beyond a criticism of Israel and its supporters to an attack on all Jews. -more-


Sidebar: Sanne DeWitt and the Israel Action Committee of the East Bay

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:11:00 AM

A man identifying himself as “Dan Patterson” walked into South Berkeley’s Vault Cafe recently and brandished a letter in the face of proprietor Houishi Ghaderi which threatened consequences for any business which continued to advertise in the Daily Planet, -more-


Police Still Looking for Last Suspect in West Berkeley Homicide

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday June 09, 2009 - 03:28:00 PM
Rafael Campbell.

Authorities are looking for the last suspect wanted in connection with the murder of Berkeley resident Charles Davis. -more-


First Swine Flu Death Reported in Alameda County

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday June 09, 2009 - 03:28:00 PM

Alameda County reported its first swine flu death Tuesday, a middle-aged man who tested positive for the H1N1 virus and had pre-existing chronic health conditions. -more-


Obata Studio Designated a Landmark

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Monday June 08, 2009 - 04:47:00 PM
The former studio of Japanese-American artist Chiura Obata was granted landmark status by Berkeley's Landmarks Preservation Commission.

The Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission voted 5-3 Thursday night to designate renowned artist Chiura Obata’s former studio on Telegraph Avenue a landmark. -more-


City Council Will Consider Telecommunications Master Plan, Downtown Plan

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Monday June 08, 2009 - 02:42:00 PM

The Berkeley City Council will consider creating a Wireless Telecommunications Master Plan Tuesday night. But with the budget stretched and planning staff busy with other major projects, this one may be put on the back burner. -more-


Tiny Quake Strikes Beneath El Cerrito

By Richard Brenneman
Monday June 08, 2009 - 02:41:00 PM

A mild earthquake sent a seismic shudder across the East Bay Saturday afternoon, rating a modest 3.2 on U.S. Geological Survey seismometers. -more-


Flash: Two Girls Recovering after South Berkeley Shooting

By Bay City News, Special to the Planet
Sunday June 07, 2009 - 07:06:00 PM

Two girls are being treated at a hospital today after they were shot in a Berkeley home this morning, a police spokeswoman said. -more-


MediaNews' East Bay Papers Ratify Union Contract

By Richard Brenneman
Saturday June 06, 2009 - 08:17:00 AM

Media News Union Vote -more-


Planners to See Designs for Center Street Plaza

By Richard Brenneman
Saturday June 06, 2009 - 08:15:00 AM

Berkeley planning commissioners are scheduled for lots of talk and no action this week. -more-


West Berkeley Pedestrian Killed by Amtrak Train

By Richard Brenneman
Saturday June 06, 2009 - 08:04:00 AM

A pedestrian who apparently leapt in front of an Amtrak passenger train in West Berkeley Thursday morning was fatally injured, according to railroad spokesperson Vernae Graham. -more-


Two Assault Cases Cap Officers’ Busy Tuesday

By Richard Brenneman
Saturday June 06, 2009 - 08:09:00 AM

A pair of assaults kept Berkeley Police hopping in the hours after a massive manhunt in South Berkeley Tuesday. -more-


Black Oak Books Moves Out

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 06:55:00 AM
The shelves are empty at Black Oak Books.

Shattuck Avenue lost an icon Sunday. -more-


Police Find Shooting Suspect in South Berkeley Dumpster

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 06:58:00 AM
The Berkeley Police Department SWAT team searches for an armed suspect near the corner of Shattuck and Ashby avenues.

After a high-speed car chase and a lengthy search Tuesday afternoon, police found the man suspected of firing shots from a vehicle in West Berkeley earlier that day. -more-


News Analysis: A Tale of Two Downtown Plans

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 10:08:00 AM

The two downtown plans before the City Council offer two conflicting visions, one defined by the dream of a “green,” human-scale city center, the other by the developers’ high-rise imperatives. -more-


City Council Approves Climate Action Plan

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 06:59:00 AM

The Berkeley City Council moved forward on its two major policy initiatives Tuesday night, giving unanimous approval to a slightly amended version of the Climate Action Plan (CAP) and holding its first public hearing on the Downtown Area Plan (DAP) before giving suggestions to staff for possible changes. -more-


Students Show Decline in SAT Scores, Gains In AP Scores

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:00:00 AM

Berkeley High School students showed a sharp decline in 2008 SAT math and verbal scores, but large gains in Advanced Placement tests, according to a report prepared by the Berkeley Unified School District. -more-


Fujimotos Bid Adieu to Monterey Market

Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:14:00 AM
Bill and Judy Fujimoto.

About 200 North Berkeley shoppers gathered along California Street across from Monterey Market Wednesday afternoon to bid a fond farewell to Bill and Judy Fujimoto, who are leaving the business his father built. The Fujimotos specialized in buying fruits and produce from growers they cultivated. And unlike another popular Berkeley grocer, Monterey Market under their leadership often invited its customers to taste before they bought—without the threat of lifetime banishment. -more-


Christian Minister Fights for Gay Marriage

By Paul Gackle, Special to the Planet
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:12:00 AM
Rev. Mark Wilson.

Rev. Mark Wilson’s eyes were misty and his lower lip was curled as he stood on the steps of the San Francisco Civic Center in front of hundreds of same-sex marriage supporters on Tuesday, May 26. Just a few hours earlier, the California Supreme Court had issued a 6–1 ruling upholding Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that amended the state constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. -more-


Counselors Hit Hard by School District Cuts

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:00:00 AM

Teachers, parents and students packed the City Council chambers Wednesday to ask the Berkeley Board of Education to save high school counseling positions threatened by budget cuts. -more-


Willard Student Crime Sparks Community Meeting

By Rio Bauce, Special to the Planet
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:02:00 AM

Last Thursday, the LeConte Neighborhood Association held a meeting together with the Berkeley Police Department and Willard Middle School Safety Officer Andre Kellum to discuss the issue of after-school student vandalism. -more-


Daily Planet Wins Three East Bay Press Club Awards

Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:02:00 AM

Berkeley Daily Planet staffers won three prizes at the 2008 East Bay Press Club Journalism Awards dinner Friday, May 29. -more-


UC Berkeley Scrambles to Find New Police Chief

By Rio Bauce, Special to the Planet
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:03:00 AM

Since UC Berkeley Police Chief Victoria Harrison announced in early March that she would be leaving the force on July 31 after 19 years of service, administrators have been scurrying to find her replacement. -more-


School Board Raises Meal Prices

By Rio Bauce, Special to the Planet
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:04:00 AM

In response to state budget cuts, the Berkeley Board of Education voted unanimously at its May 27 meeting to increase the price of all school lunches by 25 cents effective July 1. The price increase would not affect students who receive free or reduced-price lunches. -more-


Landmarks Commission Considers Pre-WWII Building From Berkeley’s Japantown

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:05:00 AM

A piece of pre-World War II history from Berkeley’s lost Japantown will come before the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission Thursday, June 4. -more-


Campaign Launched in Opposition To Elimination of Cal Grants

By Rio Bauce, Special to the Planet
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:07:00 AM

In response to the governor’s proposed elimination of the Cal Grant for incoming freshmen, Berkeley High School students and administrators are launching a campaign to convince state legislators otherwise. -more-


BART Fare Increase Takes Effect July 1

Bay City News
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:08:00 AM

BART directors voted today to adopt three fare hikes that will go into effect -more-


Campanile Undergoes Restoration

By Rio Bauce, Special to the Planet
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:09:00 AM

On May 26, UC Berkeley began restoration work on Sather Tower (also known as the Campanile) to repair and clean the marble spire, secure the beacon, and repair the roof. The project is expected to be complete by the beginning of the fall semester. -more-


Fire Department Log

By Richard Brenneman By Richard Brenneman
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:10:00 AM

Where there’s smoke—even the sweet-smelling kind—there’s sometimes fire, as the occupants of one Berkeley apartment discovered to their chagrin last week. -more-


Remembering Claire Burch

By Lydia Gans, Special to the Planet
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:12:00 AM
Claire Burch, seen here interviewing a man at People’s Park, was rarely seen without a video camera in hand.

Claire Burch died May 21 at the age of 84. A tiny woman with a video camera always in hand, she was a familiar figure in People’s Park and on Telegraph Avenue. -more-


Planners Approve Easing of Downtown Business Permits

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:15:00 AM

Berkeley planning commissioners finished their adjustments to downtown zoning rules Wednesday night, May 27, easing requirements for entrepreneurs setting up shop in the vacancy-plagued city center. -more-


Port Commissioners Postpone Vote on BART Airport Connector

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:13:00 AM

The president of the Port of Oakland Board of Commissioners abruptly removed an agenda item proposing port funding for BART’s Oakland Airport Connector this week, only hours before commissioners were due to consider it, but a spokesperson for the port said that the action was no indication that there was any problem with commission approval of the item. -more-


AC Transit Takes First Step Toward Bus Line Cuts

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:16:00 AM

Officials of the AC Transit bus agency took the first step this week that they project will end with the elimination or reduction of bus lines within the two-county district sometime later this year. -more-


Opinion

Editorials

Editorial: ‘Part of Being a Good Friend Is Being Honest’

By Becky O'Malley
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:04:00 AM

Why did the Planet devote so much space this week to chronicling the misbegotten crusade of a few unpleasant twerps to destroy this paper? Many friends and family members have counseled us just to ignore them, in the hope that they’d eventually slink off into the shadows whence they came. -more-


Cartoons

Harrassing Advertisers

By Justin DeFreitas
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 10:28:00 AM

Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:06:00 AM

BERKELEY BOWL PROMISES -more-


Is the Berkeley Ferry Cost-Effective?

By Paul Kamen
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:07:00 AM

Is the Berkeley ferry cost-effective? Of course not, as a recent letter to the editor by David Fielder demonstrates. Without even considering operating costs, just the capitalization of the boats, terminal and parking structure amount to about $8 per ride. Ferries are never cost-effective when there’s already a bridge and a tunnel spanning the same body of water. -more-


Why Local Newspapers Matter

By Glenn Scherer
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:07:00 AM

This February, Denver’s Rocky Mountain News died. In March, The Tucson Citizen followed. Meanwhile hundreds of other American newspapers reduced staff and declared themselves in significant economic trouble. -more-


Berkeley Low-Income Rental Housing Not Necessarily Affordable

By Helen Rippier Wheeler
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:07:00 AM

The U.S. Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Section 8 Housing Assistance Payments Program was established in 1974. It provides project-based and tenant-based housing assistance to low-income persons who rent. It has been one of the best possible uses of federal funds, because it countermands need for costly welfare-type expenditures. For example, sheltering seniors and persons with “certain disabilities” with low incomes who are willing, able, and eager to live independently. (Most low-income seniors are not frail and do not need costly “assisted living.”) When you and your landlord qualify under Section 8 for tenant-based housing assistance, you pay one third of your income for rent, and the balance subsidized. -more-


Two Torture Tentacles

By Marvin Chachere
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:08:00 AM

In 2004 a senior advisor in the Bush White House made this incredible remark to Ron Suskind: “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality” (New York Times, “Without Doubt,” Oct. 17), thereby updating Nixon’s famous remark to David Frost, “When the President does it that means it is not illegal” (1977). -more-


New Leadership in Pacifica Radio

By Daniel Borgström
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:08:00 AM

After years of stumbling leadership, Pacifica radio has new people in key positions: LaVarn Williams, formerly a local board member here at KPFA, is now the interim chief financial officer (CFO); Ricardo de Anda is the interim general counsel; and Grace Aaron, now the interim executive director (ED), oversees the five-station network. -more-


Underground Berkeley Utility Wires for a Safer City

By Pamela Doolan
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:08:00 AM

Since the installation of overhead wires for technology and cable television, the old telephone poles of Berkeley are heavily overloaded causing a public safety hazard and visible blight. The city of Berkeley needs to join the 21st century and countless other California communities up and down the state by putting utility wires throughout the entire city underground. -more-


Columns

Dispatches From The Edge: Shadow Wars

By Conn Hallinan
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:10:00 AM

Sudan: The two F-16s caught the trucks deep in the northen desert. Within minutes the column was a string of shattered wrecks burning fiercely in the January sun. Surveillance drones spotted a few vehicles that had survived the storm of bombs and cannon shells, and the fighter-bombers returned to finish the job. -more-


UnderCurrents: Old Conservative Political Correctness Extends to Sotomayor Debate

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:09:00 AM

You have to admire the ability of our conservative friends—don’t you?—to continually create these rice-calling-cotton-pale moments in order to deflect attention from their own transgressions and, thus, to avoid criticism. -more-


Wild Neighbors: The Baptista Tapes: Why Sparrows Change Their Tunes

By Joe Eaton
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 06:56:00 AM
White-crowned sparrow songs track changes in habitat.

Here’s a story that should gladden the hearts of all packrats and stringsavers. Sometimes there are good reasons not to throw stuff out. -more-


About the House: Hydrostatic Pressure And Why Your Basement Leaks

By Matt Cantor
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 06:58:00 AM

It might appear to be over-reaching to attempt a discussion of something that sounds as high-handed as hydrostatic pressure in a lay essay, but if you’ll bear with me, you’ll quickly see how this is both relevant and conceptually accessible to just about everyone. -more-


Arts & Events

Arts Calendar

Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:18:00 AM

THURSDAY, JUNE 4 -more-


Howard Wiley, ‘Bringing Jazz Back to Oakland’

By Ken Bullock Special to the Planet
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 06:59:00 AM

Upstairs from Clancy’s Cantina, at 311 Broadway, near Jack London Square, is the Aqua Lounge, a refugee from the post-Moderne, Scandinavian design period of cocktail joints. A no-nonsense, but easygoing, comfortable kind of place, with no pretensions. -more-


‘You, Nero’ at Berkeley Rep

By Ken Bullock Special to the Planet
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:02:00 AM

Nero fiddled while Rome burned.” An anachronistic line everybody’s heard; there’s no graceful way to say that he “lyred.” Amy Freed picks up on both the imperial aestheticism and the anachronistic sentiment in her play, You, Nero, now onstage at Berkeley Rep. -more-


Berkeley’s World Music Festival Begins Saturday

By Ken Bullock Special to the Planet
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:02:00 AM

The Free Sixth Annual Berkeley World Music Festival, with performance venues stretching along and just off Telegraph Ave., in People’s Park and in cafes and shops from Bancroft Way, almost to Parker, will celebrate music, song and dance of a wealth of cultures, from noon to 9 p.m. this Saturday. -more-


Kenny Washington at Anna’s

By Ken Bullock Special to the Planet
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:03:00 AM

Kenny [Washington] is the most thrilling singers’ singer I have heard in recent years,” said Anna De Leon of her headliner this Saturday night at Anna’s Jazz Island in downtown Berkeley. “He combines the joyful and effortless musicality of Ella and Sarah with a voice that is comfortable in a more-than-four-octave range. He can sing all across the American spectrum—jazz, show tunes, rhythm and blues, Motown ... all with great passion and great skill.” -more-


Pops Concert Closes Young People’s Symphony Orchestra Season

Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:03:00 AM

Young People’s Symphony Orchestra, founded in Berkeley in 1935, the oldest youth orchestra in California and second-oldest in the nation, will present its last show of the season (conductor David Ramadanoff’s 20th) this Sunday at 7 p. m. with a Pops Concert, music by Berlioz, Hindemith/von Weber, Prokofiev, Gershwin, John Williams, LeRoy Anderson and John Philip Sousa. -more-


Around the East Bay: Wilde's 'Lady Windemere's Fan'

Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:00:00 AM

Oscar Wilde’s wry predecessor to Earnest-ness, Lady Windemere’s Fan, is onstage now at the Masquers Playhouse, updated by director Patricia Inabnet to the status-seeking 1950s. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2:30 p.m. Sundays. 105 Park Place, Point Richmond. $18. 232-4031. www.masquers.org. -more-


Around the East Bay: 'A Streetcar Named Desire'

Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:01:00 AM

An unusually good production of A Streetcar Named Desire goes into its final performances at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday, at Altarena Playhouse. Director Sue Trigg and her cast stage Tennessee Williams’ masterwork in the round, and do it justice by making every detail build on the last. The final scenes are indelible. 1409 High St., Alameda. $17-20. 764-9718. www.altarena.org. -more-


About the House: Hydrostatic Pressure And Why Your Basement Leaks

By Matt Cantor
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 06:58:00 AM

It might appear to be over-reaching to attempt a discussion of something that sounds as high-handed as hydrostatic pressure in a lay essay, but if you’ll bear with me, you’ll quickly see how this is both relevant and conceptually accessible to just about everyone. -more-


Community Calendar

Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:16:00 AM

THURSDAY, JUNE 4 -more-