The Week

Blake and Mabel Neighborhood Association in Berkeley celebrates National Night Out on August 2nd.
Sheila Kolenc
Blake and Mabel Neighborhood Association in Berkeley celebrates National Night Out on August 2nd.
 

News

BART is Running in Berkeley Again

By Bay City News Service
Tuesday August 09, 2011 - 11:02:00 AM

After BART train service was stopped for several hours throughout the system due to a computer glitch Monday night, service was fully restored by 11:15 p.m., BART spokesman Jim Allison said. -more-


Berkeley Celebrates National Night Out

By Sheila Kolenc
Wednesday August 03, 2011 - 02:36:00 PM

Berkeley, CA - Tuesday night, 53 neighborhoods across Berkeley celebrated National Night Out – a program to promote community spirit and police-community partnerships. Folks blocked off streets, brought out backyard BBQs, stretched speaker cords to front porches, and set up folding chairs and tables as a way to get to know each other. -more-


City Design Review Committee
Approves Apartment Complex Design,
Debates Downtown

By Steven Finacom
Wednesday August 03, 2011 - 08:13:00 AM
The design for 651 Addison as presented at the July 21 City of Berkeley Design Review
                                Committee meeting. Committee members generally praised the design, but had problems with the
                                darker colors on the façade. The railroad tracks are at right; Addison Street crosses in the foreground.

Business at the July 21, 2011 City of Berkeley Design Review Committee meeting was divided between final review of a large new apartment building in West Berkeley and discussion of design guidelines for Downtown Berkeley that delved into the value of street level open space in new development, setbacks on tall new buildings, and the architectural value of bays projecting over the sidewalk. -more-


2010 Census Data Reveals More about Berkeley

By Steven Finacom
Wednesday August 03, 2011 - 01:27:00 PM

The 2010 United States Census has been churning out more information about Berkeley and other California cities. Here’s a breakdown of some of the statistics released so far this year. -more-


Disaster Lessons for Bay Area from New Zealand Earthquakes

By Steven Finacom
Monday August 01, 2011 - 10:31:00 AM

The September 2010 and February 2011 earthquakes that shattered much of Christchurch, New Zealand, present cautionary lessons and examples for California and other earthquake prone regions, according to disaster expert and Professor of Architecture Mary Comerio. -more-


Big Berkeley Cop-Ops

By Ted Friedman
Wednesday August 03, 2011 - 01:08:00 PM
This was not a "big op," but if you multiply the squad cars by five, you can envision a big one. This op was to arrest a suspected bike thief, who had fled into People's Park late Sunday afternoon. Too much heat for a bike theft? The suspect had come to the repeated attention of Berkeley police for constant troublemaking in the Telegraph area, according to a reliable source. As he was prepared for arrest, the suspect broke into tears of remorse. The allegedly stolen bike is leaning on a squad car.

Somewhere out there on some cloud there's the big police operation. Yeah, it's the op to end all ops. -more-


Opinion

Editorials

Should Oakland Allow Safeway to Do as It Pleases in Rockridge (and Even Berkeley?)

By Becky O'Malley
Wednesday August 03, 2011 - 01:12:00 PM

What kinds of limits should be put on corporate expansion in urban neighborhoods? That’s the question posed by the Safeway Corporation’s ongoing drive to turn the many sites they’ve acquired in city neighborhoods for, traditionally, local grocery stores into mini-mall destinations reminiscent of what you might see in the suburbs, complete with florists, pharmacies, delis, you name it. The company moved to Oakland in 1929 and was there for most of the 20th century, and it therefore owns a big chunk of Oakland real estate, though headquarters are now in Pleasanton. -more-


The Editor's Back Fence

New: Obscenity du Jour

Thursday August 04, 2011 - 05:39:00 PM



See the whole show tonight at 7 at the Frances Albrier Center in San Pablo Park. -more-


Cartoons

Cartoon Page: Odd Bodkins, BOUNCE

Wednesday August 03, 2011 - 01:35:00 PM

Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Wednesday August 03, 2011 - 01:10:00 PM

Myth of the "impartial" press; Disappointed Obama Fans; University Matters; Sports Basement at Berkeley Iceland is an Abomination; Altruism; Peace Lanterns; Malaise; Nasty, Brutish and Short: Found on the Freecycle Site -more-


New: The Solano Stroll Non-Payment of Musicians

By Phillip Rosheger
Thursday August 04, 2011 - 11:00:00 AM

First of all I wish to point out that there has taken place over the last 30 years or so what I have been calling "a radical devaluation of music and the arts" and that a major problem has been the lack of acknowledgement of this problem on all sides. If there is to be any "blame" I must point the accusational finger toward both those who hire and those both hired and unhired musicians who have complacently settled for less and less and less and opted out for no pay at all and who have no sense of solidarity among each other. Here solidarity desperately needs cultivation. -more-


Resist the Repubs Before It's Too Late

By James Carter
Wednesday August 03, 2011 - 02:31:00 PM

We must resist what the Mad Tea Party and the RepubliKlan are trying to do in Washington and across the nation. We must fight them and resist before it is too late. -more-


Columns

New: Right-To-Work-For-Less Laws

By Ralph E. Stone
Saturday August 06, 2011 - 09:35:00 AM

While vacationing in Charleston, South Carolina earlier this year, the local media were full of editorials complaining about the April 20, 2011, complaint issued by the National Labor Relations Board against Boeing Company alleging that Boeing’s decision to assemble large commercial aircraft at a new final assembly plant in South Carolina violated the National Labor Relations Act. The complaint alleges that Boeing illegally “transferred” work from its unionized assembly plant in Seattle, Washington to this new South Carolina facility. -more-


Dispatches from the Edge: Afghanistan: Of Bumps & Foolishness

By Conn Hallinan
Tuesday August 02, 2011 - 08:03:00 AM

Kabul, Afghanistan-American and allied forces in Afghanistan are strengthening a layered defense along the border with Pakistan to seize Haqqani network militants as they try to make their way to Kabul to carry out spectacular attacks, according to senior military officers---New York Times, 8/1/11

Okay, New York Times, time for a little geography lesson, with a few bits of history thrown in. -more-


The Public Eye: Republicans: The People Grandpa Warned Me About

By Bob Burnett
Monday August 01, 2011 - 10:18:00 AM

When I was a teenager, my grandfather ate dinner with my family and repaid us with a post-dessert homily. His favorite was “the Red menace,” where he raised his voice to warn us about the perils of Communism – “Watch out for those people… they will say and do anything to win.” Fifty years later Grandpa’s words apply to the leaders of the Republican Party -more-


Wild Neighbors: Former Californians: The Dire Wolf

By Joe Eaton
Wednesday August 03, 2011 - 07:53:00 AM
A dire wolf pack as imagined by Charles R. Knight.

I’ll admit that I’m out of touch. Nobody told me there were dire wolves in George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones saga. Being too cheap for premium cable and too lazy to have read any of the books, I don’t know if Martin has other Pleistocene megafaunal species running around his fantasy landscape. Still, it’s nice to see Canis dirus enjoying its moment of celebrity. -more-


Senior Power: Big Difference…

By Helen Rippier Wheeler
Monday August 01, 2011 - 09:49:00 AM

A town meeting is a form of direct democratic rule, used primarily in parts of the United States since the 17th century, in which most or all community members come together to legislate policy and budgets for local government. The term is commonly used by U.S. politicians to describe forums at which voters can ask questions. -more-


On Mental Illness: Medication: More or Less?

By Jack Bragen
Monday August 01, 2011 - 10:34:00 AM

When someone is taking medication to treat a psychiatric illness, there is the issue of how much (the dosage, usually measured in milligrams) of a particular medication ought to be given as well as the choice of which medications. There are psychiatrists who are fairly authoritarian, will order for their patients what medications are to be given and how much; they expect such orders to be followed. This type of psychiatrist doesn’t expect the patient’s intellect to be very intact; and thus explanations for the prescriptions will be brief. This type of bedside manner often feeds the anger of those who are noncompliant. -more-


Pepper Spray Times

Grace Underpressure
Monday August 01, 2011 - 12:33:00 PM

Editor's Note: The latest issue of the Pepper Spray Times is now available. -more-