A Berkeley resident donned a rat costume at Tuesday's City Council meeting to show her displeasure with the BRT proposal.
Riya Bhattacharjee
A Berkeley resident donned a rat costume at Tuesday's City Council meeting to show her displeasure with the BRT proposal.

Page One

Flash: Berkeley Police Apprehend Robbery Suspects

Thursday April 22, 2010 - 03:38:00 PM

At 1:00 on Thursday afternoon Officer Jamie Perkins of the Berkeley Police Department announced the arrests of three robbery suspects, all Richmond residents, who were responsible for a series of North Berkeley robberies. -more-



New: Southside Lofts Residents Triumph Over Laundromat Once Again

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Wednesday April 21, 2010 - 03:55:00 PM
Southside Lofts homeowner Scott Stoller told the City Council Tuesday that the lack of an attendant at the laundromat would put his 4-year-old daughter Arunima's safety at risk when she played in the condo complex.

Southside Lofts residents emerged victorious once again Tuesday when the City Council voted to uphold the Zoning Adjustment Board's decision to deny a use permit for a laundromat in the building. -more-



New: Berkeley Residents Strongly Oppose BRT at Council Hearing

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Wednesday April 21, 2010 - 12:11:00 PM
Berkeley resident Alver H. Starkey holds up a "No BRT" sign with dozens of others at the City Council meeting Tuesday. "I am here to stop BRT," Starkey said. "We need cameras at bus stops, more care for A.C. Transit bus drivers as well as more trees."

Even as the Oakland City Council voted to support AC Transit's Bus Rapid Transit plan Tuesday evening, Berkeley residents rallied vociferously against it at their council meeting, prompting Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates to say around 10:30 p.m. he would try to glue together the best parts of BRT to address the community's concerns. -more-



New: State Finds Stimulus Spending Problems in Oakland

By Bay City News
Wednesday April 21, 2010 - 10:34:00 PM

A state audit has found that the city of Oakland's use of federal stimulus money includes a lack of a valid contract, inadequate review of contractors' reimbursement requests, significant accounting errors and inflated job numbers. State Inspector Laura Chick's report analyzed the use of $3.1 million of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money by the Oakland Workforce Investment Board, which is a city agency, and the nonprofit Oakland Private Industry Council, which received all of the stimulus funding in question. -more-



New: Bart Launches Bike Officer Patrol Progam

By Bay City News
Wednesday April 21, 2010 - 10:21:00 PM

BART today unveiled a new program that will take more than 60 of the agency's police officers out of their cars and place them on bicycles starting this summer. -more-



Victim of Saturday’s Fatal Shooting Was a 20-Year-Old Berkeley Man

By Bay City News
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 12:34:00 PM

A 20-year-old Berkeley man who was fatally shot in San Francisco's Bayview District on Saturday night has been identified by the San Francisco medical examiner's office as Stephen Powell. -more-



NEWS ANALYSIS: Tibet Earthquake: The Deepening Divide of Identities

By Topden Tsering, Special to Berkeley Daily Planet
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 11:35:00 AM

The 6.9 magnitude earthquake that ravaged eastern Tibet’s Kyegundo on April 14 has brought to sharp relief the region’s contentious place in China’s geopolitical fold, deepening the divide between the fractured township’s predominantly-Tibetan population and the Chinese government apparatuses. -more-



Kyle Harty Strang Memorial

Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 01:22:00 PM

A Kyle Harty Strang Memorial will be held on Tuesday April 27, 2010 from 5-7pm in the BHS Little Theatre. The public is welcome. -more-



Features

A Reader’s Guide to the Housing Maze

By Helen Rippier Wheeler
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 12:51:00 PM

When Conservatives’ attempts to eliminate HUD failed, they focused on Section 8. The U.S. Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Section 8 Housing Assistance Payments Program was established in 1974. It provides 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 associated with sheltering seniors with small incomes who are willing, able, and eager to live independently. -more-


Laundromat, BRT, Recycling Fees Head Back to Council

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 12:32:00 PM

The Berkeley City Council will be holding an 8 p.m. time- specific presentation and discussion on the Bus Rapid Transit Build Option at its first meeting after its spring break tonight (Tuesday.) -more-


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 04:58:00 PM

Cell Phone Towers – Should We Fear Them?

By Raymond Barglow www.berkeleytutors.net
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 06:41:00 PM

Is your new iphone dangerous? California State Senator Mark Leno has proposed legislation requiring all cell phones sold in the state to carry information about their radiation levels on sales boxes, usage instructions, and advertising displays in stores. San Francisco is considering similar legislation for cell phones sold in the city. -more-


Rally for Education in Sacramento Tomorrow (Wednesday)

By Cathy Campbell
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 05:14:00 PM

I'm writing to ask for your help in getting folks from Berkeley to a critical rally in Sacramento on April 21st. Below you will find specific details of the bus pickup times and locations. Everyone is welcome to come aboard one of these BFT/BCCE buses we just need to know who's coming. If you can please spread this info far and wide we would be so appreciative. -more-


Press Release: Cornell, TP and Yoo

From Matt Cornell
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 01:15:00 PM

According to a press release from Los Angeles artist Matt Cornell, students at UC Berkeley were surprised to discover a new brand of toilet paper in the stalls of the law school building this morning. -more-


Editorial

The Day Our Sixties Started

By Becky O'Malley
Thursday April 15, 2010 - 09:33:00 AM

Somehow I seem to have become an honorary member of the Free Speech Movement, on their mailing list and invited to their reunions. In all honesty, I must admit that when the FSM was making waves in 1964 I was in Ann Arbor making babies. But before that, four years before that, I was present at the creation, so to speak. I was one of the five thousand Bay Area citizens who rose in protest against the House Un-American Activities Committee (commonly known as HUAC), the trailing edge of ugly ‘50s McCarthyism which finally got its deserved comeuppance during the merry month of May in the newly minted 1960s. -more-


The Editor's Back Fence

The Latest Plan

By Becky O'Malley
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 06:08:00 PM

Herein another experiment in our never-ending quest to find the right model for reporting news of Berkeley and the rest of the urban East Bay on a shoestring in our spare time: This week we’re trying to do two shorter issues instead of one humongous one. -more-


Updated: Worth a Look

By Becky O'Malley
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 01:07:00 PM

In this space in the next few days you'll find links to websites and articles that you might not have seen. -more-


Columns

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDGE:Nuclear Treaty’s Pluses & Minuses

By Conn Hallinan
Sunday April 18, 2010 - 06:32:00 PM

Amid celebrations around the signing of a new treaty between the U.S. and Russia on reducing the number of nuclear weapons, Hisham Badr, Egyptian ambassador to the United Nations conference on disarmament, played crow on the cradle: “We in the Middle East feel we have, short of a better word, been tricked into giving concessions for promises that never materialized.” -more-


SENIOR POWER: “Old People Don’t Read Books.”

By Helen Rippier Wheeler
Sunday April 18, 2010 - 05:13:00 PM

The Rippowam River rushed by at the foot of our dank street, or, depending on the season, gurgled its way to Long Island Sound. I would sit on the stone embankment overlooking the water, ignoring the garter snakes in the crevices. The Ferguson Public Library children’s room was another 1932 shelter. Story hour was held in a separate room with a large picture window. I played stamping books, using a piece of black crayon stuck on the end of a protractor. It slipped off, jamming crayon into my palm, still imbedded there in a tattoo effect. -more-


WILD NEIGHBORS: Chickens in the Mist

By Joe Eaton
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 01:06:00 PM
Rooster asks for political asylum, Kokee Lodge parking lot, Kaua'i.

Chickens were not high on the agenda when we went to Kaua’i. We hoped to see some of the endangered native forest birds, and the seabirds that nest on the North Shore. But chickens were inescapable. They greeted us at the airport in Lihue. They wandered around the hotel where we spent the first night. There were chickens on the beaches, chickens along the highway. (But relatively few road-killed chickens—far fewer than the dead armadillos you’d see in a comparable-sized chunk of Texas.) -more-


Arts Listings

New: Arts In Berkeley

By the Berkeley Arts Festival
Wednesday April 21, 2010 - 11:07:00 AM

East Bay Top Tips: April 23 through May 2

By Bay City News
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 10:32:00 PM

Museums and Exhibits in the East Bay: April 23 through May 2

By Bay City News
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 10:27:00 PM

Folk,Jazz,Pop,Rock for the East Bay: April 23 through May 2

By Bay City News
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 10:14:00 PM

Theater for the East Bay: APRIL 23 THROUGH MAY 2

By Bay City News
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 10:08:00 PM

Classical Music in the East Bay: APRIL 23 THROUGH MAY 2

By Bay City News
Sunday April 18, 2010 - 11:04:00 PM

BB Wolf (Nicholas Weinbach) gives LRR Hood (Jaclyn Friedenthal) a pre-dinner squeeze in BareStage’s INTO THE WOOD playing thru this Sunday at UC Berkeley’s Cesar Chavez Student Union.

UC's BareStage Does Sondheim Proud

By John A. McMullen II
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 12:44:00 PM

Back Stories

Opinion

Editorials

The Day Our Sixties Started 04-15-2010

The Editor's Back Fence

The Latest Plan 04-20-2010

Updated: Worth a Look 04-20-2010

Updated: Worth a Look 04-15-2010

Cartoons

Odd Bodkins By Dan O'Neill 04-14-2010

Public Comment

Letters to the Editor 04-20-2010

Cell Phone Towers – Should We Fear Them? By Raymond Barglow www.berkeleytutors.net 04-20-2010

Rally for Education in Sacramento Tomorrow (Wednesday) By Cathy Campbell 04-20-2010

Press Release: Cornell, TP and Yoo From Matt Cornell 04-20-2010

Letters to the Editor 04-15-2010

Comments on the Project Proposed for 2707 Rose By Fred Wyle 04-15-2010

Climategate Controversy Update By Ralph E. Stone 04-15-2010

Happy Tax Day: Are Americans getting our money's worth? By Steven Hill 04-15-2010

BRT, the Brown Act and the Sunshine Ordinance By Dean Metzger 04-15-2010

The ‘Party of No’ Takes Aim at Berkeley’s Pools – and at the Truth By Robert Collier 04-15-2010

Cell Phone Sites and the Politics of Cancer By Harry Brill 04-15-2010

KPFA Manager "Resigns:" Pacifica Democracy vs. Reactionary Politics and Contradictions in the Latest Management Transition By Robert English 04-15-2010

News

Flash: Berkeley Police Apprehend Robbery Suspects 04-22-2010

New: Southside Lofts Residents Triumph Over Laundromat Once Again By Riya Bhattacharjee 04-21-2010

New: Berkeley Residents Strongly Oppose BRT at Council Hearing By Riya Bhattacharjee 04-21-2010

New: State Finds Stimulus Spending Problems in Oakland By Bay City News 04-21-2010

New: Bart Launches Bike Officer Patrol Progam By Bay City News 04-21-2010

Victim of Saturday’s Fatal Shooting Was a 20-Year-Old Berkeley Man By Bay City News 04-20-2010

NEWS ANALYSIS: Tibet Earthquake: The Deepening Divide of Identities By Topden Tsering, Special to Berkeley Daily Planet 04-20-2010

Kyle Harty Strang Memorial 04-20-2010

A Reader’s Guide to the Housing Maze By Helen Rippier Wheeler 04-20-2010

Laundromat, BRT, Recycling Fees Head Back to Council By Riya Bhattacharjee 04-20-2010

Cell Phone Towers – Should We Fear Them? By Raymond Barglow www.berkeleytutors.net 04-20-2010

Pictures from the Planet Fundraiser at the Omni 04-20-2010

04-20-2010

New: Victim of Saturday’s Fatal Shooting Was a 20-Year-Old Berkeley Man By Bay City News 04-18-2010

New: Laundromat, BRT, Recycling Fees Head Back to Council By Riya Bhattacharjee 04-18-2010

Reader Tip: Bomb Detonated on MLK in Berkeley? By Paul Hernandez 04-17-2010

150 Years Ago Berkeley Campus Was Dedicated to Learning By Steven Finacom 04-15-2010

New: The Berkeley Downtown Plan Gets Shorter By Riya Bhattacharjee 04-15-2010

Updated: No Final Decision on UC Berkeley Israel Divestment Bill after Marathon Meeting By Riya Bhattacharjee 04-15-2010

Berkeley High Jacket Wins Columbia Scholastic Award By Riya Bhattacharjee 04-15-2010

Much to See and Do on UC Campus on CAL DAY, 2010 By Steven Finacom 04-15-2010

Berkeley High Starts Search for New Principal By Riya Bhattacharjee 04-15-2010

UC Student Arrested for Battery after Witnessing Police Car Collision By Riya Bhattacharjee 04-15-2010

04-18-2010

04-15-2010

Columns

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDGE:Nuclear Treaty’s Pluses & Minuses By Conn Hallinan 04-18-2010

SENIOR POWER: “Old People Don’t Read Books.” By Helen Rippier Wheeler 04-18-2010

WILD NEIGHBORS: Chickens in the Mist By Joe Eaton 04-20-2010

The Public Eye: BTW, Conservatism is Dead By Bob Burnett 04-14-2010

Dispatches From The Edge:Behind the Afghan Fraud Conn Hallinan 04-14-2010

New: Senior Power: "Old People Don't Read Books" By Helen Rippier Wheeler 04-18-2010

Arts & Events

New: Arts In Berkeley By the Berkeley Arts Festival 04-21-2010

East Bay Top Tips: April 23 through May 2 By Bay City News 04-20-2010

Museums and Exhibits in the East Bay: April 23 through May 2 By Bay City News 04-20-2010

Folk,Jazz,Pop,Rock for the East Bay: April 23 through May 2 By Bay City News 04-20-2010

Theater for the East Bay: APRIL 23 THROUGH MAY 2 By Bay City News 04-20-2010

Classical Music in the East Bay: APRIL 23 THROUGH MAY 2 By Bay City News 04-18-2010

UC's BareStage Does Sondheim Proud By John A. McMullen II 04-20-2010

WILD NEIGHBORS: Chickens in the Mist By Joe Eaton 04-20-2010

Arts Calendar 04-15-2010

San Francisco Symphony Presents Charlie Chaplin's 'Gold Rush' In All its Glory By Justin DeFreitas 04-14-2010

Berkeley Arts Festival Will Use the New Magnes Museum Building in May By Bonnie Hughes 04-14-2010

Ibsen at the Aurora: John Gabriel Bortman By Ken Bullock 04-14-2010

The Poor Players at the City Club Next Week By Ken Bullock 04-14-2010

Nordic Mysteries: The Millenium Trilogy By Ralph Stone 04-15-2010

Pedro Costa's Fontainhas By Justin DeFreitas 04-15-2010

Some Upcoming Events 04-14-2010