The J. R. on this memorial display on the wall of Don's Headquarters barber shop stands for "Junior", the name old friends and family called Berkeley murder victim Kenneth Warren.
M. H. O'Malley
The J. R. on this memorial display on the wall of Don's Headquarters barber shop stands for "Junior", the name old friends and family called Berkeley murder victim Kenneth Warren.

Extra

Press Release: Occupy Oakland Say Oakland Police Violate Their Own Policies

From Occupy Oakland Media Committee
Sunday January 29, 2012 - 07:52:00 AM

Yesterday, the Oakland Police deployed hundreds of officers in riot gear so as to prevent Occupy Oakland from putting a vacant building to better use. This is a building which has sat vacant for 6 years, and the city has no current plans for it. The Occupy Oakland GA passed a proposal calling for the space to be turned into a social center, convergence center and headquarters of the Occupy Oakland movement.

The police actions tonight cost the city of Oakland hundreds of thousands of dollars, and they repeatedly violated their own crowd control guidelines and protester’s civil rights.

With all the problems in our city, should preventing activists from putting a vacant building to better use be their highest priority? Was it worth the hundreds of thousands of dollars they spent? -more-


Oakland Police Say 200 Arrested During Occupy Actions

By Bay City News
Saturday January 28, 2012 - 11:11:00 PM

Police arrested around 200 Occupy Oakland protesters during a day of action Saturday that began with the protesters' attempt to take over a vacant building to establish a community center there. -more-


Press Release: Audio of Oakland Press Conference with Mayor Jean Quan and Oakland City Officials

From Sgt. Christopher Bolton, Oakland Police Department and Harry Hamilton Oakland City Administrator’s Office
Saturday January 28, 2012 - 10:58:00 PM

A downloadable audio file of the press conference has been posted at http://bit.ly/wuOsp8. -more-


Press Release: City Provides Update on Occupy Activities in Downtown Oakland – 10:30 pm

From Sgt. Christopher Bolton, Oakland Police Department and Harry Hamilton Oakland City Administrator’s Office
Saturday January 28, 2012 - 10:48:00 PM

Oakland, CA – At an 8:30 pm press briefing, Oakland officials provided updates on the Occupy activities in downtown Oakland. -more-


Occupy Breaks into Oakland City Hall

By Bay City News
Saturday January 28, 2012 - 07:47:00 PM

Oakland City Hall was broken into by multiple people tonight during Occupy Oakland protests, according to police. -more-


Press Release: Occupy Oakland Responds to Oakland Police Repression Tonight, Demands Accounting of Brutal Tactics, and End to Disinformation

From Jamie Omar Yassin, Occupy Oakland
Saturday January 28, 2012 - 08:41:00 PM

Occupy Oakland's building occupation, an act of constitutionally protected civil disobedience was disrupted by a brutal police response today. Protesters were met with baton strikes, shot with rubber bullets, and exposed to tear gas. Police immediately issued denials that tear gas was used, however, as many victims can attest, it was used freely and without regard to safety. -more-


Updated: Oakland: At Least 100 People Detained Near YMCA in Occupy Protest

By Bay City News
Saturday January 28, 2012 - 07:54:00 PM

At least 100 people have been detained and face possible arrest outside the YMCA at 2350 Broadway in Oakland after allegedly attempting to force entry into the building, according to Oakland police. -more-


Oakland Protesters Prepare for Second Try to Enter Building

By Laura Dixon (BCN)
Saturday January 28, 2012 - 05:40:00 PM

Around 250 to 300 Occupy Oakland protestors have gathered at Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland to rest and reorganize following a failed attempt to take over a building this afternoon. -more-


Press Release: Update on Occupy Activities in Downtown Oakland – 4:30 pm

From Officer Johnna Watson, Oakland Police Department and Harry Hamilton, Oakland City Administrator’s Office
Saturday January 28, 2012 - 05:26:00 PM

Oakland--By 12 pm, a crowd of approximately 250 had gathered in Frank Ogawa Plaza for the Occupy rally. Just before 1:30 pm, the group started marching southbound on Broadway. As the group of approximately 450 marched, traffic disruptions occurred on downtown streets. At approximately 2:15 pm, some of the marchers entered the campus of Laney College. -more-


Flash: Occupy Oakland Protest: Police Tear Gas, Threaten to Forcibly Remove Protesters

By Laura Dixon (BCN)
Saturday January 28, 2012 - 03:32:00 PM

Police tear gassed Occupy Oakland protesters this afternoon near Lake Merritt and warned them to leave an area where they had gathered or they would be forcibly removed. -more-



Page One

Berkeley Police Identify Victim of Last Night's Murder

By Becky O'Malley
Friday January 27, 2012 - 01:01:00 PM

Berkeley Police Lt. Dave Frankel has informed the Planet that the victim of the murder last night at the corner of Shattuck and Emerson has been identified as Kenneth Warren, who worked at Don's Headquarters, a popular neighborhood barber shop at the same location, as well as at the Port of Oakland. -more-



Video Report on Berkeley Murder Scene Last Night

By Florian Charread
Friday January 27, 2012 - 12:59:00 AM

[Editor's Note: Reader Florian Charread sent the Planet this video which he made last night at the scene of the shooting which took place at the corner of Emerson and Shattuck in Berkeley.]

Shooting aftermath-Berkeley from manaovisual on Vimeo. -more-



Flash: Man Shot and Killed on Emerson near Shattuck in Berkeley

By Becky O'Malley
Friday January 27, 2012 - 12:22:00 AM

A man was shot and killed on Emerson Street near Shattuck in Berkeley tonight. This account, author unknown, was forwarded to the Planet from the neighborhood watch group:

"My husband just finished talking to the police. We heard a group of shots (maybe 10?) and then a pause, then a few more shots (maybe 5?), then a pause, then another group of shots (maybe 10?). I went and called the police. My husband went to the window and saw a man with dark skin (maybe African American) get into a dark grey Honda (Accord?) and drive off heading east on Emerson without his headlights on. My husband walked outside and there was smoke in the air. We thought it was firecrackers and he was looking for a burn mark on the pavement or something to indicate firecrackers. He went back inside the house and got a flashlight and then saw bullet casings on the pavement but didn't see anyone injured. The police arrived and other neighbors came out. Other people came by and were screaming. Someone screamed, "Oh my god it was Donnie! Oh my god oh my god! No!" It was really terrifying as this was in the apartment building [near] our house. The paramedics came and did CPR on someone on the balcony of the apartment building. The victim was on the second floor. The paramedics took him away and we don't know if he was alive or dead. The police are now going door to door taking statements. I believe the officer used the word 'homicide.' "

Berkeley Police confirmed at midnight that the shooting did take place as reported, and that the victim has died. Comments on the Berkeleyside website indicate that the victim may have been the nephew of Don Warren, the owner of Don's HeadQuarters barber shop on Shattuck, a well-regarded fixture and a stabilizing influence in the neighborhood for decades, including the eight years when the Planet office was located next door. -more-



Police Respond to Berkeley Shooting on Thursday Night

By Erika Heidecker (BCN)
Thursday January 26, 2012 - 08:34:00 PM

Police are responding to a fatal shooting in Berkeley tonight, police said.

Officers responded to the 3000 block of Shattuck Avenue and found a male victim suffering from multiple gunshot wounds near an apartment building at the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Emerson Street, according to police Sgt. Mary Kusmiss.

The victim was taken to a trauma center where he was pronounced dead.

"The evidence suggests that this was not a random shooting," Kusmiss said. -more-



Free-Market Medicine—A Personal Account

by Michael Parenti
Friday January 27, 2012 - 12:36:00 AM

When I recently went to Alta Bates hospital for surgery, I discovered that legal procedures take precedence over medical ones. I had to sign intimidating statements about financial counseling, indemnity, patient responsibilities, consent to treatment, use of electronic technologies, and the like.

One of these documents committed me to the following: “The hospital pathologist is hereby authorized to use his/her discretion in disposing of any member, organ, or other tissue removed from my person during the procedure.” Any member? Any organ?

The next day I returned for the actual operation. While playing Frank Sinatra recordings, the surgeon went to work cutting open several layers of my abdomen in order to secure my intestines with a permanent mesh implant. Afterward I spent two hours in the recovery room. “I feel like I’ve been in a knife fight,” I told one nurse. “It’s called surgery,” she explained.

Then, while still pumped up with anesthetics and medications, I was rolled out into the street. The street? Yes, some few hours after surgery they send you home. In countries that have socialized medicine (there I said it), a van might be waiting with trained personnel to help you to your abode.

Not so in free-market America. Your presurgery agreement specifies in boldface that you must have “a responsible adult acquaintance” (as opposed to an irresponsible teenage stranger) take you home in a private vehicle. I kept thinking, what happens to those unfortunates who have no one to bundle them away? Do they languish endlessly in the hospital driveway until the nasty weather finishes them off? -more-



Public Comment

The Tea Party, Planning and Democracy, Part Two (News Analysis)

By Zelda Bronstein
Friday January 27, 2012 - 12:31:00 PM

[Editor's Note: This is the second part of a two part series. Part One can be found here.]

Progressive observers treat the Tea Party’s forays into land use planning as the work of paranoid reactionaries. The March-April 2011 issue of Mother Jones ran an article by Stephanie Mencimer that portrayed Tea Partiers as “nutters” whose opposition to increased density and mass transit is rooted in “a hostility to what it sees as elites” and a pro-sprawl, suburban lifestyle. Last December, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy’s Anthony Flint riffed off of Mencimer’s piece in a post on the Atlantic magazine’s “Urban Wonk” blog that decried Tea Party disruption of planning efforts from California to Maine to Florida.

The truth is more complicated. Pace Rosa Koire, to attack smart growth as part of an international plot guided by the U.N.’s Agenda 21 really is to espouse conspiracy theory. To denounce “human-caused global warming” as a myth, as does the East Bay Tea Party, is to indulge in perilous denial. But to claim that land use planning is often run by unresponsive elites is to tap reality. Flint himself intimated as much: “Some might wonder,” he wrote, “whether there’s some truth” to accusations that “planners have draped the public process with the trappings of citizen input, while in fact all the decisions to promote smart growth have been made.”

Some do more than wonder, and they’re not all members or even “fellow travelers” of the Tea Party—for example, longtime Berkeley community activist Doug Buckwald. Speaking at the Dublin open mike, Buckwald assailed Plan Bay Area for discriminating against dissenters from smart growth doctrine. He said that a friend had tried to register for a workshop online at 7:30 am the day that registration opened, only to be told that the meetings were filled, and that she would be placed on a waitlist. She never got a confirmation from MTC, but she did receive letters from Greenbelt Alliance urging her to sign up and hold the line against opponents to the process who were poised to flood into the meetings. -more-


CNN Attempts to Defame Memory of Martin Luther King

By Jack Bragen
Saturday January 28, 2012 - 10:29:00 AM

An article by John Blake (a writer for CNN) attempts to create a controversy where there is none and to portray Martin Luther King Jr., as not being accepting of gay people. This is in line with CNN's tendency to be manipulative of public opinion and to do so through casting clouds of doubt in the absence of facts. -more-


New: Another Occupy Oakland March Attacked by Police.

By Marc Sapir
Saturday January 28, 2012 - 11:01:00 PM

Oakland, CA--Saturday, January 28, 2012, Sheila and I joined about 1,500 members of Occupy massed at 14th and Broadway in downtown Oakland. Occupy Oakland’s announced intention was to march to and occupy a long vacant building “somewhere” in the city to re-create a living, working, and coordinating center for this young “politics on the fly” movement for the rights of the 99%. As you probably know, previous occupations of public space from coast to coast have been destroyed and precluded by Government ordered police actions, making community development, collaboration and participatory mass democracy yet more difficult. -more-


Editorial

Handgun Violence Strikes Again: Another Senseless Shooting in a Berkeley Neighborhood

By Becky O'Malley
Friday January 27, 2012 - 12:49:00 PM

There’s bad news today in the Planet’s old neighborhood in south Berkeley. Kenny Warren, nephew of Don Warren who’s been running the very popular Don’s Headquarters barber shop on Shattuck for four decades, was gunned down last night as he stood on the balcony at a friend’s apartment on Emerson, around the corner from the shop.

The gunman is reported to have fired many many rounds of bullets, perhaps as many as 80, from a pair of automatic weapons, the super-lethal variety which make it possible for any fool, without need for target practice, to hit his mark with at least one bullet. Forty shell casings were recovered from the sidewalk alone.

We say “his” mark here because neighbor accounts suggest that the shooter, like his victim, was a young African-American man. This is sad but not surprising. -more-


The Editor's Back Fence

Fund for Berkeley Murder Victim's Children Will Be Established

Saturday January 28, 2012 - 03:32:00 PM

Don Warren, uncle of Kenneth Warren, who was gunned down on Thursday night next door to Don's HeadQuarters barbershop in Berkeley, said today that a fund for the victim's five children is being established. Don asked anyone who would like to contribute to send an email with contact information to warren.fund@berkeleydailyplanet.com and they will be contacted when the fund has been set up, probably early next week. -more-


Funding Israel and Berkeley Law

Saturday January 28, 2012 - 10:32:00 AM

Anyone interested in Israel or high tech funding might want to take a look at this piece, which touts an upcoming conference sponsored by U.C. Berkeley's Law School to promote investment in Israeli technology companies. -more-


Columns

THE PUBLIC EYE: Obama’s Common Sense

By Bob Burnett
Friday January 27, 2012 - 06:11:00 PM

ECLECTIC RANT: Remembering Vietnam

By Ralph E. Stone
Friday January 27, 2012 - 06:00:00 PM

January 30th marks the forty-fourth anniversary of the beginning of the Tet Offensive, a defining event in the Vietnam War. I was a U.S. Army Transportation officer stationed in Vietnam during the 1968 Tet Offensive. -more-


SENIOR POWER: Sister Age

By Helen Rippier Wheeler
Friday January 27, 2012 - 06:13:00 PM

Food became a metaphor for life as M. F. K. Fisher learned and explained the arts of cooking and of eating. Her reputation as a writer about food and its importance in human life began in 1937 with publication of her first book, Serve It Forth. -more-


Odd Bodkins: Squishy (Cartoon)

By Dan O'Neill
Saturday January 28, 2012 - 11:18:00 AM

Bounce: Chamaeleon Eyes.gif (Cartoon)

By Joseph Young
Saturday January 28, 2012 - 11:23:00 AM

Arts & Events

Press Release: Group Demands Mortgage Modification for Noted Author

From The Friends of Jane Powell
Saturday January 28, 2012 - 10:41:00 AM
Sunset House circa 1910

The Friends of Jane Powell, a group organized to help the noted author of home renovation books and Planet contributing writer, is demanding her mortgage servicer GMAC negotiate and memorialize a reasonable modification of her home mortgage. In support of this effort the group will be holding a fund raising event at Jane’s historic home on February 12 at 2:00 pm. -more-


Back Stories

Opinion

Editorials

Handgun Violence Strikes Again: Another Senseless Shooting in a Berkeley Neighborhood 01-27-2012

The Editor's Back Fence

Fund for Berkeley Murder Victim's Children Will Be Established 01-28-2012

Funding Israel and Berkeley Law 01-28-2012

THIS JUST IN! New Lab to Be Build on UC Berkeley's Richmond Property! 01-24-2012

Cartoons

Odd Bodkins: Squishy (Cartoon) By Dan O'Neill 01-28-2012

Bounce: Chamaeleon Eyes.gif (Cartoon) By Joseph Young 01-28-2012

Public Comment

The Tea Party, Planning and Democracy, Part Two (News Analysis) By Zelda Bronstein 01-27-2012

CNN Attempts to Defame Memory of Martin Luther King By Jack Bragen 01-28-2012

New: Another Occupy Oakland March Attacked by Police. By Marc Sapir 01-28-2012

New: Self Immolations and Tibet By Tenzin Dorjee 01-26-2012

New: Jerusalem Concert by Children's Orchestra Cancelled by Israeli Government Action By Samia Nasir Khoury 01-24-2012

Welcome Back Streicher!- The Alabama-Arizona Immigration Laws Recall 1935 Germany By Jean Damu 01-24-2012

One Person, One Vote (Except in Berkeley) By the Occasional Curmudgeon* 01-24-2012

There's More to Tobacco Story By Carol Denney 01-24-2012

Happy New Year, Berkeley--The Chickens Have Come Home to Roost By Jim Fousekis, Berkeley Budget SOS 01-24-2012

News

Press Release: Occupy Oakland Say Oakland Police Violate Their Own Policies From Occupy Oakland Media Committee 01-29-2012

Oakland Police Say 200 Arrested During Occupy Actions By Bay City News 01-28-2012

Press Release: Audio of Oakland Press Conference with Mayor Jean Quan and Oakland City Officials From Sgt. Christopher Bolton, Oakland Police Department and Harry Hamilton Oakland City Administrator’s Office 01-28-2012

Press Release: City Provides Update on Occupy Activities in Downtown Oakland – 10:30 pm From Sgt. Christopher Bolton, Oakland Police Department and Harry Hamilton Oakland City Administrator’s Office 01-28-2012

Occupy Breaks into Oakland City Hall By Bay City News 01-28-2012

Press Release: Occupy Oakland Responds to Oakland Police Repression Tonight, Demands Accounting of Brutal Tactics, and End to Disinformation From Jamie Omar Yassin, Occupy Oakland 01-28-2012

Updated: Oakland: At Least 100 People Detained Near YMCA in Occupy Protest By Bay City News 01-28-2012

Oakland Protesters Prepare for Second Try to Enter Building By Laura Dixon (BCN) 01-28-2012

Press Release: Update on Occupy Activities in Downtown Oakland – 4:30 pm From Officer Johnna Watson, Oakland Police Department and Harry Hamilton, Oakland City Administrator’s Office 01-28-2012

Flash: Occupy Oakland Protest: Police Tear Gas, Threaten to Forcibly Remove Protesters By Laura Dixon (BCN) 01-28-2012

Berkeley Police Identify Victim of Last Night's Murder By Becky O'Malley 01-27-2012

Video Report on Berkeley Murder Scene Last Night By Florian Charread 01-27-2012

Flash: Man Shot and Killed on Emerson near Shattuck in Berkeley By Becky O'Malley 01-27-2012

Police Respond to Berkeley Shooting on Thursday Night By Erika Heidecker (BCN) 01-26-2012

Free-Market Medicine—A Personal Account by Michael Parenti 01-27-2012

Fire Hits Great China Restaurant in Downtown Berkeley By Scott Morris (BCN) and Planet 01-26-2012

Press Release: Alameda County Bans Bags, Mandates Recycling From Jeff Becerra, Stopwaste.org 01-26-2012

New: The Tea Party, Planning and Democracy(Part One) By Zelda Bronstein 01-25-2012

New: Two Arrested as Suspects in December Berkeley Shooting By HannahAlbarazi/JeffShuttleworth (BCN) 01-25-2012

Press Release: Study Shows Restored Wetlands Rarely Equal Condition of Original Wetlands By Robert Sanders, UC Berkeley Media Relations 01-25-2012

New: Ghosts of the Past: Blake's Re-opening on Telegraph Avenue as Pappy's--a Happy, If Haunted, Reminder of Berkeley's Past By Ted Friedman 01-25-2012

Columns

THE PUBLIC EYE: Obama’s Common Sense By Bob Burnett 01-27-2012

ECLECTIC RANT: Remembering Vietnam By Ralph E. Stone 01-27-2012

SENIOR POWER: Sister Age By Helen Rippier Wheeler 01-27-2012

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDGE: The U.S., Indonesia & The Times By Conn Hallinan 01-24-2012

New: WILD NEIGHBORS; The Short but Intense Life of the Tidewater Goby By Joe Eaton 01-25-2012

MY COMMONPLACE BOOK: (a diary of excerpts copied from printed books, with comment added by the reader.) By Dorothy Bryant 01-24-2012

Arts & Events

Press Release: Group Demands Mortgage Modification for Noted Author From The Friends of Jane Powell 01-28-2012

New: AROUND & ABOUT MUSIC: Berkeley Symphony This Thursday: Debussy, Dutilleux, Shostakovich By Ken Bullock 01-24-2012

AROUND AND ABOUT THEATER By Ken Bullock 01-25-2012

Don't Miss This By Dorothy Snodgrass 01-24-2012