Opinion

This has been a busy week for the hardy little band of Berkeleyans who follow what’s going on in city government. They’re mostly downtown dwellers anxious about what’s about to land on their neighborhood, so they follow everything the City Council and the Planning Department are prepared to inflict on them with laser gaze.

For those of you who actually read the Daily Planet on a daily basis, much of what follows will be familiar, because an earlier draft was posted on Wednesday in the Editor’s Back Page category. Since then a great deal of new information has been added to the public discourse by public watchdogs. I’m revisiting the topic in this space (traditionally the best read section) to make sure no one who cares will miss a beat.

Here’s the instant replay: last Tuesday a League of Woman Voters debate on Measure R, which will appear on the Berkeley ballot in the upcoming election, served as the arena for dramatic revelations about the out-of-town financial muscle behind the advisory ballot measure which purports to give citizens the opportunity to endorse the mayor’s “green vision” for downtown development. -more-

The redoutable Richard Brenneman has a new post on his blog pointing to a piece about the big money which has been made by UC Berkeley faculty members, "folks who have made large fortunes playing economics for profits." -more-

Who Killed Willard Pool? -more-

Californians are tired of University of California President Mark Yudof saying one thing but doing another. Yudof has spearheaded a drive to hike tuition on students struggling to pay their room and board while spending lavishly on his own housing. He has forced furloughs and reductions on the lowest-paid staff while he hauls down an outsized salary and bevy of perks of close to $1 million annually. -more-

In an audacious display of hypocrisy, President Obama signed an executive order on September 28, 2010, imposing financial sanctions against eight Iranian officials for "serious and sustained human rights abuse" violations committed in the year since Iran's disputed presidential election. The order freezes any U.S. assets they might own and bars them from receiving a visa to travel to the United States. -more-

In the Indian Subcontinent you should never get caught shop-lifting--no, not for legal reasons, for your own physical safety. Most of the time, the mob takes sadistic pleasure in beating up the suspect--sometimes the suspect dies, even though it might later be proven to be a mistake. -more-

I showed up at People's Park Saturday morning before the big homecoming game at Memorial Stadium expecting a riot. -more-