News

OAKLAND-- Hundreds of demonstrators from throughout the San Francisco Bay Area set up early morning picket lines in front of four gates into the SSA terminal in the Port of Oakland, as a ship carrying Israeli cargo was preparing to dock. Demonstrators were protesting the Israeli attack on the flotilla that sought to break the blockade of Gaza, in which Israeli troops killed nine people. In response to the picket line, members of Local 10 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union decided not to go into the terminal and unload the cargo. In the afternoon, with picket lines again in front of the gate, the stevedoring company decided not to ask for a crew of longshore workers to unload the ship, in the expectation that the crew would again not enter the terminal. -more-

From 5 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. this Father’s Day morning somewhere between 500 and a thousand pickets blocked the 4 entrances to Berth 58 at the Oakland, California Port to prevent the workers from unloading an Israeli ship sailing up the California coast. The ILWU workers did not want to cross, nor did they challenge the picketers. Teamster truckers were turned away at one gate. At 9:30 a.m. the official announcement came that the Union Contract arbitrator had evaluated the situation and decided that potentially dangerous working conditions allowed the Longshoremen to legitimately honor the picket lines. Police were low key. The ship has delayed entry to the Port. -more-

The Daily Planet won three awards in the San Francisco Peninsula Press Club’s 2009 annual Greater Bay Area Journalism Awards dinner, held June 19 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Foster City.
Riya Bhattacharjee won first place in the Breaking News category for her March 5, 2009 story about the death of a LeConte Elementary school student (“Investigation Continues into Kindergartner's Death") and second place for Continuing Coverage on the incident. The Daily Planet competed in the non-daily newspaper category. -more-

A 27-year-old Oakland man will be arraigned today on attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon charges for a shooting in Berkeley last month that left two people critically injured. -more-

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Berkeley Mayor's Office <mayor@ci.berkeley.ca.us>
To: lecontechat@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thu, June 17, 2010 4:28:20 PM
Subject: RE: [lecontechat] do we want BRT in Berkeley?

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University of California at Berkeley administrators and police did a poor job of planning for a protest last November that resulted in the takeover of a building and more than 40 arrests, an investigative panel said today. -more-

The Berkeley School District Board voted on Wednesday evening to place two measures before the voters in November. The first is a bond measure for 210 million dollars “to improve school safety and facilities for learning and teaching.” This measure would fund construction of classrooms and science labs, seismic upgrades and technology upgrades, and would renovate playgrounds, restrooms, cafeterias, heating and fire safety systems, and other facilities. -more-

The Richmond City Council had been scheduled to consider a resolution today (Tuesday) condemning the Israeli military's takeover of a ship in the Freedom Flotilla last month and the country's continued blockade of Gaza. Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and Vice Mayor Jeff Ritterman were originally sponsoring the resolution, but Ritterman announced Monday night that he is no longer backing the resolution, in a letter forwarded to the Planet by fellow councilmember Tom Butt. -more-

Attorneys for a Berkeley law professor went before a federal appeals court in San Francisco on Monday to seek dismissal of a lawsuit in which a former military prisoner claims that legal memos written by the professor justified his alleged torture while being held in a Navy brig. -more-