A second recreated urn sits against the backdrop of oaks in a nearby traffic island at Yosemite and The Alameda.
Steven Finacom
A second recreated urn sits against the backdrop of oaks in a nearby traffic island at Yosemite and The Alameda.

Extra

Berkeley Police Arrest Woman Suspected of Vandalizing 74 Cars

By Jeff Shuttleworth (BCN)
Thursday September 08, 2011 - 08:14:00 PM

A Berkeley woman has been charged with felony vandalism for allegedly puncturing the tires of dozens of vehicles in a crime spree in Berkeley and Oakland last week, Berkeley police said today. -more-


WikiCable: Did ‘creepy’ Russian put the arm on Cal?

By Richard Brenneman
Monday September 12, 2011 - 05:47:00 PM

When we ran the name “Berkeley”through Cable Search, the nifty web tool that lets users troll through the WikiLeaked State Department cables, we came up with a grand total of 142 hits, many of them referring to Cal grads who’d gone on to bigger and better things. -more-



Page One

UC Berkeley’s Plutocratic Prof: $500,000+ to GOP Candidate

By Richard Brenneman
Wednesday September 07, 2011 - 09:54:00 AM

He’s David J. Teece, a native of New Zealand, and he’s the very rich man who helped Tony Blair devise the economic policies which enshrined the neoliberal agenda in Great Britain.

But before we delve into his donations, let’s learn a little more about the man.

He has two day jobs, one as CEO of Berkeley Research Group, a high-profile consultant group which numbers governments, Fortune 500 companies, and white shoe law firms among its clients, and the other as Tusher Professor in Global Business at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

If there’s one thing Teece is good at in addition to his high-flying role as “economics rock star,” it’s his ability to make millions off students.

In addition to his high-salaried teaching job, Teece was also making a tidy pile as landlord to students. In partnership with developer Patrick Kennedy, Teece was owner of Panoramic Interests, the city’s largest private owner of rental housing prior to the company’s sale — for a tidy $147 million —to an ever-richer mogul, Chicagoan Sam Zell — the fellow who also owns the Tribune Company, publisher of California’s leading newspaper, the Los Angeles Times. -more-



The Urns Return: Historic Thousand Oaks Street Ornaments Recreated

By Steven Finacom
Wednesday September 07, 2011 - 09:38:00 AM
The urn restoration project will be celebrated at 3:00 pm on Saturday, September 10, in Great Stone Face Park next to this replica urn.

Berkeley’s Thousand Oaks neighborhood is about to get a bit more magical—or, rather, recover some missing magic from early days.

The urns are returning. Their revival will be celebrated this coming Saturday, at 3:00 pm, at Great Stone Face Park in a re-dedication ceremony open to the public. -more-



Winning the Vote for Women Will Be Celebrated at the Solano Stroll

By Steven Finacom
Wednesday September 07, 2011 - 09:11:00 AM

The Solano Stroll—Berkeley and Albany’s day-long street fair taking place this coming Sunday, September 11—is well known for its opening parade. Fire engines, school groups, yoga and martial arts schools, and other eclectic contingents interested in showing off their program, organization, skills and/or enthusiasm march, stroll, or amble down the Avenue at 10:00 am as a kick off for the event. -more-



Causes and Consequences:
Returning Cal Berkeley Students Attract Sex Perps

By Ted Friedman
Wednesday September 07, 2011 - 10:59:00 AM
An alleged sexual battery occurred on Grinnell pathway recently (pictured in daylight) at 1:30 a.m--see accompanying night shot. Cal's Eucalyptus grove, site of seven sexual assaults last year is to left. Valley Life Sciences Building, right.

She was crying hysterically as I emerged from my South side student apartment building near People's Park. She said someone had raised her skirt and touched her. -more-



Exclusive: Fallen Angel Plunges From Tree-Perch Ending Eight-Day People's Park Protest

By Ted Friedman
Wednesday September 07, 2011 - 12:23:00 PM
Amy Blue, her latest name,joined Moon Shadow Friday in a "love tree" at the North east corner of  People's Park near a crowded Haste St. walkway. The two met a year ago, while fellow "travelers" on the road. The attractive pair  have put  a new face on a tired tree-sit which ran out of steam and died in January when the previous tree-sitter, Matt Dodt, 53,  was charged with attempted murder. Those charges were reduced and later dropped.

First she was buoyantly up in a "dangerous" People's Park tree protesting "Everything," but now she's at Highland Hospital with a broken back, ending an eight-day protest which was a protest-in-progress. -more-



Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Wednesday September 07, 2011 - 05:05:00 PM

UN Vote On Palestinian Statehood; Non-Cooperation; Ditch Plastic; My Apple Addiction -more-


Noise and Parties in South Berkeley

By Vincent Casalaina
Wednesday September 07, 2011 - 11:10:00 AM

How bad is it? It's much worse than you think if you live in the north half of the Willard neighborhood. There were two out of control parties on my block last weekend as well as several less wild parties on the same block. -more-


Noisy Berkeley Neighbors Revisited

By John Vinopal
Wednesday September 07, 2011 - 05:03:00 PM

With a second commentary regarding the vicissitudes of City living, I wonder if the first commentator might reflect on her good fortune to live next to a law-abiding neighbor who has an afternoon party once a year rather than a group house of howling students? If this is not consolation enough, she might further reflect on not living next to an elementary school (daytime yelling), a middle school (same plus trash), the high school (add car radios), or southside in general (all of the above plus public urination). -more-


Editorial

Editorial Postponed, Awaiting New Information

By Becky O'Malley
Wednesday September 07, 2011 - 11:43:00 AM

This week's editorial was supposed to be about how we might rate the performance of the Obama administration to date. On reflection, I've decided to hold it until after Thursday's "jobs" speech, in the unlikely circumstance that it might add important information to the discussion. Also, I have some personal complications, so some stories from others will be posted later as well. Check this space later in the week, maybe on Friday. -more-


Columns

Seabirds Lost and Found

By Joe Eaton
Wednesday September 07, 2011 - 09:29:00 AM
Probable Bryan's shearwater, Midway Island 1991.

This has nothing to do with Berkeley, the Bay Area, California, or the continental United States. It’s about a species of bird I’ve never seen and that no one may ever see again; about the quirks of taxonomy and the unlikely places that scientific discoveries are made. -more-


On Mental Illness: Forced Treatment--Good or Evil?

By Jack Bragen
Wednesday September 07, 2011 - 04:38:00 PM

I was contacted by a nonprofit agency that espouses the forced treatment of persons with mental illness, which includes forced drugging. In recent editions of this column, I have validated such an idea. Certainly, forcing treatment on those who refuse it and who are also in jeopardy of deteriorating into a dangerous state could stop a lot of tragedies from taking place. -more-


The Public Eye: Labor Day: Dreaming of Joe Hill

By Bob Burnett
Wednesday September 07, 2011 - 09:44:00 AM

For many Americans, Labor Day marks the end of summer and has little to do with the Labor movement. I wonder what Joe Hill would make of the demise of unions and the struggles of American workers. -more-


Is the GOP the Anti-Science Party?

By Ralph E. Stone
Wednesday September 07, 2011 - 09:41:00 AM

Texas Governor Rick Perry, Representative Michele Bachmann, and Representative Ron Paul, three of the leading GOP presidential candidates, are unabashed Darwinian evolution and global warming deniers -- as is the Tea Party Movement. The GOP is in danger of being hi-jacked by these anti-science candidates. -more-


Senior Power Longevity is long life

By Helen Rippier Wheeler
Wednesday September 07, 2011 - 09:50:00 AM

I don’t buy books. I borrow them. From public libraries. Mostly new to me and to the library. I like before>later>after documentaries. Somebody, usually an expert, studies a group of individuals who have something in common and follows up on each. -more-


My Commonplace Book (a diary of excerpts copied from printed books, with comments added by the reader.)

By Dorothy Bryant
Wednesday September 07, 2011 - 09:18:00 AM

One of the chief obstacles to intelligence is credulity. Credulity . . . is a greater evil in the present day than it ever was before, because, owing to the growth of education, it is much easier than it used to be to spread misinformation, and, owing to democracy, the spread of misinformation is more important than in former times to the holders of power.

Bertrand Russell (1872—1970) -more-


Cartoon Page: Odd Bodkins, BOUNCE

Wednesday September 07, 2011 - 11:07:00 AM

Arts & Events

Eye from the Aisle: FROST/NIXON at Hayward’s Douglas Morrisson Theatre worth the trek.

By John A. McMullen II
Wednesday September 07, 2011 - 04:45:00 PM
Craig Souza as David Frost and John Hale as Richard Nixon.

FROST/NIXON strikes me as a dauntingly challenging play to produce, particularly because of the casting. -more-


Around & About Music: Schuchman, Ganz & Ronen play Franck, Crumb, Gaubert, Ibert at Unitarian Universalist Church on Saturday; Guirao-Howard-Dorman Trio with works by Brahms, Ravel, Higdon at Berkeley City Club for Berkeley Chamber Performances next Tuesd

By Ken Bullock
Wednesday September 07, 2011 - 09:27:00 AM

--Cellist Burke Schuchman, pianist Brian Ganz and flautist Yael Ronen will play Cesar Franck's Cello Sonata in A, George Crumb's Vox Balaenae, Phillippe Gaubert's Flute Sonata No. 1 and Jacques Ibert's Deux Interludes, 8 p. m. Saturday, September 10, at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, One Lawson Road, Kensington. $25, seniors $20, students $10. (415) 672-4265; Palomarin.music@gmail.com/ -more-


Around & About Theater: Oakland Performance Artists at San Francisco Fringe Festival

By Ken Bullock
Wednesday September 07, 2011 - 09:23:00 AM

The San Francisco Fringe Festival is now in progress, with dozens of shows from around the Bay Area--and the world--hosted by the Exit Theaters, not far from the Cable Car turnaround and BART station at Powell and Market. -more-


Eye from the Aisle: Masquers’ MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP-- Scarpelli & Budinger’s Laugh Riot!

By John A. McMullen II
Wednesday September 07, 2011 - 09:15:00 AM
Jane the housekeeper (Peter Budinger, left) spurns the lecherous swineherd Nicodemus (DC Scarpelli, right).

The team of Scarpelli & Budinger have done right by the late Charles Ludlam and taken Pt. Richmond’s Masquers Playhouse up a notch in their campy -more-


Eye from the Aisle: OF DICE AND MEN at Impact Theatre—must see for D&D’s!

By John A. McMullen II
Wednesday September 07, 2011 - 08:54:00 AM
Jonathan Brooks, Maria Giere Marquis, and Jai Sahai

OF DICE AND MEN at Impact Theatre is about “Dungeons & Dragons” and the adults who play the game.

If you have ever been a D&D aficionado, get a ticket immediately. -more-


Back Stories

Opinion

Editorials

Editorial Postponed, Awaiting New Information 09-07-2011

Cartoons

Cartoon Page: Odd Bodkins, BOUNCE 09-07-2011

Public Comment

Letters to the Editor 09-07-2011

Noise and Parties in South Berkeley By Vincent Casalaina 09-07-2011

Noisy Berkeley Neighbors Revisited By John Vinopal 09-07-2011

News

Berkeley Police Arrest Woman Suspected of Vandalizing 74 Cars By Jeff Shuttleworth (BCN) 09-08-2011

WikiCable: Did ‘creepy’ Russian put the arm on Cal? By Richard Brenneman 09-12-2011

UC Berkeley’s Plutocratic Prof: $500,000+ to GOP Candidate By Richard Brenneman 09-07-2011

The Urns Return: Historic Thousand Oaks Street Ornaments Recreated By Steven Finacom 09-07-2011

Winning the Vote for Women Will Be Celebrated at the Solano Stroll By Steven Finacom 09-07-2011

Causes and Consequences:
Returning Cal Berkeley Students Attract Sex Perps
By Ted Friedman 09-07-2011

Exclusive: Fallen Angel Plunges From Tree-Perch Ending Eight-Day People's Park Protest By Ted Friedman 09-07-2011

Columns

Seabirds Lost and Found By Joe Eaton 09-07-2011

On Mental Illness: Forced Treatment--Good or Evil? By Jack Bragen 09-07-2011

The Public Eye: Labor Day: Dreaming of Joe Hill By Bob Burnett 09-07-2011

Is the GOP the Anti-Science Party? By Ralph E. Stone 09-07-2011

Senior Power Longevity is long life By Helen Rippier Wheeler 09-07-2011

My Commonplace Book (a diary of excerpts copied from printed books, with comments added by the reader.) By Dorothy Bryant 09-07-2011

Arts & Events

Eye from the Aisle: FROST/NIXON at Hayward’s Douglas Morrisson Theatre worth the trek. By John A. McMullen II 09-07-2011

Around & About Music: Schuchman, Ganz & Ronen play Franck, Crumb, Gaubert, Ibert at Unitarian Universalist Church on Saturday; Guirao-Howard-Dorman Trio with works by Brahms, Ravel, Higdon at Berkeley City Club for Berkeley Chamber Performances next Tuesd By Ken Bullock 09-07-2011

Around & About Theater: Oakland Performance Artists at San Francisco Fringe Festival By Ken Bullock 09-07-2011

Eye from the Aisle: Masquers’ MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP-- Scarpelli & Budinger’s Laugh Riot! By John A. McMullen II 09-07-2011

Eye from the Aisle: OF DICE AND MEN at Impact Theatre—must see for D&D’s! By John A. McMullen II 09-07-2011