As the current school year winds down at Berkeley High, it’s time to finalize plans for the new one, including the allocation of resources. It’s time as well to evaluate the year now coming to an end, and both of these tasks were on the agenda of the most recent governance council meeting this past Tuesday. -more-

In the news today: Bayer Pharmaceutical’s announcement of a new Innovation Center will not change anything for its Berkeley campus, the Berkeley City Council tonight (Tuesday) will consider an Arizona travel ban and a request for continuation for reconsideration of the Berkeley Iceland landmark designation. -more-

Berkeley police are seeking four suspects believed to be responsible for at least two robberies just south of the University of California at Berkeley campus in the past few weeks. -more-

A three-alarm fire that destroyed a home and damaged two others in North Berkeley on Thursday afternoon was apparently caused by a faulty lamp switch, an assistant fire chief said today. -more-

Margaret Regan has been covering immigration for over a decade for the Tucson Weekly and other publications. Her book is “The Death of Josseline: Immigration Stories from the Arizona-Mexico Borderlands.” She talked to NAM editor, Sandip Roy. -more-

PG&E on Monday issued an apology along with 45 reports dating back to August 2006 detailing reviews, monitoring, testing, and corrections identified in the company's SmartMeter program. -more-

Jurors this morning convicted Andrew Hoeft-Edenfield of second-degree murder for the stabbing death of University of California at Berkeley senior Christopher Wootton near campus two years ago. -more-

Protesters ended a 10-day hunger strike yesterday on the University of California at Berkeley campus during a meeting with the university chancellor and top administrators that both sides called productive. -more-

Home Services Crucial; Gulf Disaster; A 50^th Anniversary at the Newman Center; Don't be Fooled by PG&E; Clean Up, BP; Gulf Disaster; Oil Takeover; Tea Party; Greed and Oil; End Political Parties; BRT Proponents Have Their Facts Wrong; Gestapo Epithets; Action Alert: Sleep-Out Protesting Schwarzenegger’s Deadly Cuts; Radical Republicans Doomed; Zionism; Local Likudnik Nutcases & Group Generalizations; More about Israel; Stop the Dirty Energy Proposition; PG&E Smart Meters -more-

Here for your amusement and horror is a map showing area residents who did not receive their notice (mailed April 14th) of Trader Joe's application for their liquor license as required by law. I polled almost every single residence within the notification area to collect signatures from everyone willing to state that they did for certain not receive any such notice. Only a third of people were home and only half of those who answered could state for certain whether they had or hadn't received the notice, and not all of those who knew they didn't get the notice were willing to sign the poll. And yet I managed to collect 28 signatures. In fact, I did not find anyone who said they had gotten the notice in their mail. -more-

Watch the Youtube video that has already been seen over 100,000 times and is being talked about everywhere... Click here. -more-

Dear UC President Yudof,

I received your enclosed message and statement, “UC Statement on Divestment,” and was saddened and disappointed. Not because I disagree with your position and the UC Board of Regents’ – that’s human – rather because of the thin rationale and less-than-honest language it employs. Let me elaborate. -more-

Imagine Berkeley Iceland reopened with new skating facilities, expanded community spaces, and a new cafe', all filled with kids of all ages. Envision the Berkeley Iceland building widened with a new community housing development designed to enhance the landmark deco look and respecting the neighborhood's character. This is the plan which is the basis of an offer made in recent months to purchase Berkeley Iceland and create a lasting legacy much as as the original design did for over 65 years. This plan provides the vision for a sustainable mixed use complex which the entire Berkeley community can support. -more-

After getting the pro- Measure C flyer (I use the pools and would gladly pay for them if it’s presented correctly) I came up with this: -more-

Now here's a touchy subject -- recently there's been spate of suicides by Marines who have just returned home from Iraq and Afghanistan. But here's the really touchy part: These suicides have all taken place on stateside Marine bases. One Marine recently escaped from a hospital at Camp Lejeune, got hold of a gun somehow and shot himself right there on the base. And another Marine at Quantico jumped in front of a train. -more-

This coming Tuesday, May 18, 2010, may be the most important date for the future of Point Molate since November 9, 2004 (See Point Molate is a Go, November 10, 2004). The City Council will vote on an agenda item placed by Nat Bates to extend the Upstream Point Molate Land Development Agreement (LDA) another two months from May 20 to July 20. -more-

Matt Kondolf, a professor who teaches environmental sciences, wrote an opinion piece in a recent Daily Planet which shows that, though he may be an expert on hydrology and river restoration, he obviously does not have transportation expertise. Prof. Kondolf makes numerous distorted claims and facts. -more-

Both the wireless corporations and the federal government have hidden from the public the substantial number of studies that reveal a cause and effect relationship between cell phone sites -- towers, antennas, and other equipment -- and their adverse health effects, including cancer. In fact, in some instances, discomforting symptoms appear shortly after exposure as well as in the long run. Nor is the public warned that children are especially vulnerable, with twice the leukemia rates for those residing near cell towers compared to children who live further away. Nevertheless, despite the corporate denial of the harm done, a growing number of communities have been catching on. -more-

The relationship between the recently defeated Bus Rapid Transit proposal (in Berkeley) and densification of our neighborhoods has ramifications which will continue to come up again and again, and it is vitally important that we look at these issues. -more-

The pros brought to bring in the crowds and supposedly to help a diverse and open music program at Berkeley High School were fabulous. The Jazz Mafia, Zakiya Hooker(John Lee Hooker’s daughter)and her blues band, and a wonderful samba band "Fito Reinoso" made for a great day of music. -more-

I would like to you consider what I believe to be a fairly easy community service project that can potentially make a significant difference in the country of Afghanistan.Making a difference for the people of Afghanistan can make a very real difference for America. -more-

If you want to know what's happening before it lands on you, watch the under-the-radar activities of the Agenda Committee, a cozy Berkeley City Council subcommittee (Bates, Maio, Wozniak) that pre-scripts what the council might do a week or so later. Of course, even when they agree on the agenda, minds can change in the interim. But here's the first draft of what might happen at the June 4 City Council meeting, to be considered at the Monday agenda committee meeting. -more-

Breaking news stories can be seen on this page in the "extra" section.Click the "next issue" button above to see these new articles: Berkeley's Budget Nightmare (and Ours); Iran Sanctions Won't Work; Open Letter to UC Berkeley Officials Re Genetic Testing of Incoming Students; Of Pools and Many Things, and Why I am Supporting Measure C -more-

Regular readers (now more than 20,000 visitors a week, with almost 600 subscribers) will find this week’s Planet particularly confusing. We’re in a new phase of our experimental process, so please read this carefully and then bear with us during the transition. -more-

The Richmond Plunge restoration is almost finished. It was filled for the first time last week in a gala celebration that featured smiley-face beachballs standing in for future swimmers. -more-

I want to talk about the World Wide Web but, first, some talk about money. -more-

Americans are taught to think of mentally ill people as freaks or misfits. Usage of the word, “psychotic,” as a noun to designate a mentally ill person, is widespread. You may not realize that such a usage is hurtful and insulting to people who have to deal with these illnesses on a day-to-day basis. The word “psychotic” in correct English is an adjective that describes some of the symptoms mentally ill people must endure. -more-

Over the past twenty months the USA has experienced two cataclysmic disasters, the 2008 near meltdown of the financial system and the recent Gulf Coast ecological disaster resulting from a deep-sea oil leak. While both events resulted from failed oversight, they have a deeper genesis: magical thinking. -more-

How’s your current awareness ? If you’re aged in California, you should know about the CSL.Alas, too many people have never heard of it. -more-

Dedicated to my pursuit of discovering low cost restaurants, I've now extending that search to international restaurants. Accordingly, I hereby highly recommend Anzu, specializing in Japanese cuisine. This small but very attractive restaurant is located at 2433 Shattuck Avenue (across from the Toyota dealer if you have trouble spotting it). -more-

One last Kaua’i column and I’ll have gotten it out of my system.

Early on in our visit we spent a day in the Alaka’i Swamp, in the highlands of western Kaua’i. Not strictly a swamp in hydrological terms, it’s more of a bog where rainwater has collected above an impermeable layer of lava. It even has bog plants like the carnivorous sundew, the same species that grows in the Arctic tundra, probably transported to the island on the plumage of a migrating Pacific golden plover. There are patches of stunted ‘ohi’a trees, similar to the pygmy forests of the Mendocino coast. -more-

A single mother, atoning for her sins in a convent; the justice of countryfolk over adultery…not the stuff of Baroque or Romantic opera, but very much of the verismo style, stories from real life. True to its company name, Verismo Opera will stage two of that style's shorter masterworks, Puccini's Suor Angelica and Cavelleria Rusticana, by Pietro Mascagni, this Saturday night at 7:30 at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar. -more-

Lots of folks don’t watch TV. It’s a waste of time. But if you are tempted by this addictive diversion, let me alert you that we are living in a Golden Age of Phil Farnsworth’s one-eyed monster. -more-

When Sean Chapin found himself addicted to drugs and homeless at the age of 25, he knew something had to change. -more-

Kent Nagano returns as conductor emeritus to lead the Berkeley Akademie Thursday night, May 20, at 8, in Mozart's Quintet in E flat for Piano and Winds, Jorg Widmann's Versuch uber die Fuge (Attempt at a Fugue) and Mozart's Concerto in A for Clarinet, at the First Congregational Church, Channing Way at Dana. -more-

The Berkeley Arts Festival will run through the month of May at 2121 Allston Way in downtown Berkeley. -more-