A Berkeley police officer shot a man in Castro Valley after the suspect pinned another officer between two cars, according to an Alameda County Sheriff's Office spokesman. -more-

Combination will provide highest quality nonprofit journalism and investigative reporting locally, regionally, and globally

The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) and the Bay Area News Project (BANP), which operates The Bay Citizen, announced today that they have entered into a memorandum of understanding to pursue a potential merger. The agreement was unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both nonprofit organizations.The conceived merger will bring together The Bay Citizen, an award-winning nonprofit news organization focused on covering the San Francisco and Bay Area, and CIR, the nation's oldest nonprofit investigative news organization, which operates California Watch. The merger will create a more sustainable foundation for their shared missions: to provide high-quality journalism that is essential to an informed and engaged democracy. The proposed merger will bring together the collective expertise, reputations, and innovative talents of both organizations. -more-

A federal appeals court in San Francisco today ruled that Proposition 8, California's ban on same-sex marriage, is unconstitutional. -more-

The Berkeley Fire Department finalized the investigation report for the 2441 Haste “Sequoia Apartment” fire, which confirms the initial findings that the fire ignited accidentally in the building’s elevator mechanical room. -more-

With no fanfare, Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates,73, slipped in under the radar on Monday and filed a form kicking off his campaign to become a candidate for a fourth term--the "Campaign Intention Statement" of the "Re-Elect Mayor Tom Bates Committee."

He's already served one two-year and two four-year terms, so if he wins another four-year term, he'll have been mayor of Berkeley for a total of fourteen years.

His wife Loni Hancock, now running for yet another term as State Senator from the district which includes Berkeley, preceded him in the Berkeley mayor's office. This time the mayor's race will be decided by ranked choice voting, but as yet no other candidates have appeared to be willing to challenge the formidable power of the well-oiled Bates-Hancock apparatus, which last week knocked Oakland Assemblymember Sandre Swanson out of the race for the Senate seat. -more-

Craig Becker, owner of Berkeley's legendary Caffe Mediterraneum, popped in on an impromptu meeting of the People's Park Advisory Board in the park, Monday. He is well on his way to becoming, a park activist, a category, he often disparages. But he's trapped in the new battle for People's Park, and can't extricate himself. -more-

There’s a story that when George Berkeley, the future philosopher, was a student he decided to see what it was like to approach death. He hung himself, arranging to have a friend cut him down and revive him after he lost consciousness. -more-

I’m wary of saying something is “the best” or “the only” or “the oldest”, because it’s usually not possible to know for sure. -more-

Do you ever wonder about the butterflies in your stomach?

Do you wonder if that tightness in your chest, that queasy feeling in your abdomen, and, let's admit it, that worry, is a problem that others suffer from, too? Are you anxious? Do you feel something that you have identified as angst? Do you seem to have these fearful emotions for no apparent reason? Do you find that these painful emotions are almost unbearable? You are not alone. -more-

With no fanfare, Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates,73, slipped in under the radar on Monday and filed a form kicking off his campaign to become a candidate for a fourth term--the "Campaign Intention Statement" of the "Re-Elect Mayor Tom Bates Committee."

He's already served one two-year and two four-year terms, so if he wins another four-year term, he'll have been mayor of Berkeley for a total of fourteen years.

His wife Loni Hancock, now running for yet another term as State Senator from the district which includes Berkeley, preceded him in the Berkeley mayor's office. This time the Mayor's race will be decided by ranked choice voting, but as yet no other candidates have appeared to be willing to challenge the formidable power of the well-oiled Bates-Hancock apparatus, which last week knocked Oakland Assemblymember Sandre Swanson out of the race for the Senate seat. -more-

The City of Berkeley Police Department (BPD) has received word from the Alameda County Coroner’s Office that the 18 year old skateboarder passed away at 4:10 p.m. The young man, Tyler DeMartini was a Berkeley resident. Members of BPD extend their condolences to the DeMartini family. -more-

The Patch website is reporting that Tyler De Martini, the 18-year-old Berkeley skateboarder who was struck by a car while skateboarding down Marin in Berkeley Monday evening, died this afternoon. -more-

The Berkeley City Council, in a vote where several councilmembers chose to abstain, passed a resolution declaring a drastically expanded house at 2133 Parker a public nuisance. -more-

The City Council of the City of Berkeley today unanimously passed a resolution recognizing the immeasurable sacrifice of Tibetan monks and nuns who have self-immolated in protest of Chinese political suppression. The resolution calls on the Obama Administration to insist that China immediately end excessive security measures on Tibetan monasteries and lay communities in the region, and allow members of the media and international independent fact-finding delegations to visit the affected Tibetan-inhabited areas in Western China and the Tibetan Autonomous Region. -more-

The Berkeley City Council at its meeting tonight has agreed unanimously to request that the City Manager evaluate and report back to the City Council no later than May 1, 2012 regarding:

1. The fiscal and operational impacts of not renewing the city's with Wells Fargo Bank and contracting with an alternative bank, including but not limited to Community Banks, membership-based Credit Unions or Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) for city banking services. -more-

The City of Berkeley is offering a $15,000 reward, and Bay Area Crime Stoppers (BACS) is offering an additional $2,000 reward, for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect or suspects responsible for the City of Berkeley’s first homicide of 2012.

On Thursday, January 26, 2012 at about 6:50 p.m., the City of Berkeley Police Department (BPD) got a flurry of calls from community members reporting gunshots in the area of Shattuck and Ashby Avenues, Shattuck and Emerson and around Essex Streets. Officers found Kenneth Allen Warren, 35, of Hercules who had sustained gunshots wounds and was on Emerson Street east of Shattuck Avenue. City of Berkeley Fire Department (BFD) Paramedics transported Warren to a local Hospital’s Trauma Center where he was pronounced dead by physicians there. -more-

Oakland police arrested an estimated 400 people Saturday during a day of protests that began with an attempt to take over a vacant building and ended with mass arrests and a break-in and vandalism at City Hall. -more-

An 18-year-old skateboarder is in "grave" condition today after being struck by a car in Berkeley on Monday evening, police said today. -more-

The Berkeley High School Info night for incoming 9th graders and their parents/guardians is being held February 1 at 7:00pm in the Community Theater (on the northside of the BHS campus on Allston Way). This is a must for any student entering BHS for the 2012-13 school year, both current and prospective BUSD students. Applications for Fall 2012 admission to BHS for students not currently attending a BUSD school are due the week of February 21-24. Much more information is available here. -more-

Taking early retirement from my job at U.C.'s Boalt Hall School of Law, where I was a lowly administrative assistant, clearly wasn't the smartest move I've ever made. Suddenly I had all this loose time on my hands, driving me absolutely bananas! Not to worry-- thanks to the good Lord above, a friend passed on her Elderhostel Road Adventure catalog, so now I can fill those empty hours with dozens of Road Scholar programs. Should you not be familiar with Elderhostel, this is a not-for-profit educational program dating back to 1975, with President James Moses responsible for its remarkable success. It offers more than 7,000 learning adventures in all 50 states and 150 countries around the world, as can be seen in the bulky catalogs sent regularly throughout the year. There's also an Adventures Afloat Catalog. To date I've taken more than 31 programs, some domestic , some international. To say which programs I enjoyed the most is almost impossible. I've attended three or four New York City programs. One focused on the Fifth Avenue Museum Mile at the Metropolitan Museum. I also had lunch at a restaurant in one of the Twin Towers, little dreaming of the horrific attack of 9/11. -more-

In early September, Evelyn Glaubman, who is a local artist, expressed her outrage to several of us about the unjustifiably low taxes paid by the rich and major corporations. She made a bunch of nicely designed posters and proposed that we publicize our concerns on Solano Avenue. None of us needed convincing. On September 12th, ten indignant protesters, mainly senior citizens, descended on Solano, by the closed Oak Theater on one side of the street and the Chase Bank on the other. We held up our signs, gave out leaflets, and engaged in conversations with people walking by. -more-

You gotta love Berkeley.

There we were, sitting outside at the Farmers’ Market despite the cold foggy weather, enjoying cappuccini from Blue Bottle and biscotti from Phoenix Pastrificio after buying our organic Brussels sprouts produced by Swanton Farms with United Farm Workers union labor, discussing the future of Occupy Oakland. Before going to the market, I’d posted an excellent thoughtful essay on the topic from my old friend Osha Neumann, which raised many points that people like us need to think about.

And then, as sometimes happens with al fresco coffee conversations, a passerby chimed in.

“Me, I’m the 98%,” he asserted.

What’s the 98%?

“There’s the 1% who have all the money, the 98% like me who work for a living, and the 1% who don’t need to work and just want to make trouble.” (Paraphrased: no notebook at hand to transcribe exactly.)

I looked over his physical presentation. His claim to working class status checked out.

AT&T logo jacket? Check. Communications Workers of America arm patch? Check? Tools dangling from belt? Check. Watch cap? Check. Handlebar mustache? Check. And I remembered seeing him park his motorcycle as we came in.

He told us he was a telephone lineman, recently transferred to the night shift as an alternative to a pay cut, who has been employed for many years by the company which has answered to a long succession of corporate acronyms. He had a bunch of sarcastic translations of these various initials, all of them too colorful for a family publication like this one.

He’s resentful, deeply resentful, about what the latest claimants to the Occupy Oakland name have done, supposedly on his behalf. -more-

Berkeley’s Telegraph Avenue, Hit by Hard Times, Needs a Makeover -more-

The story is here. -more-

Senator Loni Hancock (Berkeley) has announced in an email blast to her mailing list that she will not face any opposition in her quest for re-election to the California State Senate. -more-

Berkeley Police Information Officer Sgt. Mary Kusmiss today issued press releases denying two rumors which have been published elsewhere. She said that a recent Berkeley murder is NOT connected with a recent Vallejo murder in any way, and that there has NOT been a hold-up of any Wells Fargo bank in Berkeley. Neither rumor was published in the Planet. -more-

Zelda writes a fair minded series of articles. She and The Tea Party can agree - follow the money! Yes, NGO's and regular folks should have a say - and they should be held accountable to scrutiny - who do they represent? Who stands to gain financially? What about those left out by virtue of full time jobs, no transportation, etc. And so should the money backed agencies, and support groups. -more-

Recent news coverage highlights possible benefits the expanded Lawrence Berkeley National Lab could bring the city of Richmond (“Richmond chosen as site for Berkeley lab’s second campus,” CCT 1/26/12.) But Richmond residents have reason for concern. Much of the research to be conducted at the lab will use a new, insufficiently regulated, potentially dangerous emerging technology -- synthetic biology. http://www.humanebiotech.com/theissues/syntheticbiology.html -more-

Bay Area activism has proven once again that it can withstand government resistance, police brutality and a little bit of winter’s rain and cold. -more-

“The Bay Area Occupy Movement has got to stop using Oakland as their playground,” said Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, speaking at a press conference Saturday evening after a day of demonstrations called by Occupy Oakland that saw approximately 400 arrests, multiple injuries, and numerous confrontations with police. She ticked off the damage that had been done when a group of protesters broke into City Hall, overturning a scale model of the building, vandalizing a children's art exhibit, and burning an American flag. The next day in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, she returned to her talking point: "It's like a tantrum . . . They're treating us like a playground." -more-

As the Oakland City Council prepares to approve more layoffs and make even deeper cuts to already less-than minimal City services, Occupy Research released initial survey results that show the Occupy Movement provided food, healthcare, and other social services to Oakland residents in three months.

“Oakland is spending millions to prevent Occupy from providing vital services to Oakland residents when they need it most. These funds should be used to prevent further cuts to schools and social services, instead of being wasted on the violent repression of activists and community members who are trying to fill in the gaps where local government has failed.” said Sarah Thomason, member of Occupy Oakland Research Working Group and graduate student at University of California, Berkeley.

Over the past four years, Oakland has slashed $97 million from its General Purpose Fund, and $34.2 from other sources, cutting transitional kindergarten and adult education programs, reducing library services by one day each week, eliminating the senior shuttle and elderly nutrition programs, among other cuts, and laying off 277 City workers.

Initial survey results from Occupy Research show that: -more-

I found her article to be balanced. I am conservative and yes, one of "those" tea party nut jobs...

Recently, my "google alerts" went off and warned me about our County's plan to finalize a two-year process (of public input and comment) for our 25 year Comprehensive Plan.

I researched and was appalled at the draconian (I know, it's my opinion) nature of the sweeping changes headed our way. I read the Comprehensive Plan (CP) thoroughly at least 3 times and gathered my wits and performed deep-research.

I think you are on to something when you challenge your government's agencies to prove where the growth numbers are coming from. -more-

90% Smokefree is a Contradiction in Terms, by Carol Denney -more-

In her two articles about regional planning for smart growth, Zelda Bronstein repeatedly claims that the planning is undemocratic. She sympathizes with Tea Party members who have disrupted planning meetings and who gave the biggest round of applause one evening to a Berkeley extremist who is well known for disrupting city meetings. -more-

Here's rare good news, rare indeed these days, about a truly worthwhile piece of new legislation that's about to be born in the City of Berkeley. The City Council will give the final YES on women's human rights becoming law in Berkeley this Tuesday 31 January 2012, when it formally approves the passage into Berkeley law of the safeguards and protections of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). CEDAW-related legislation is already in force in the city across the Bay; San Francisco was the first city in the US to establish new law based on CEDAW principles, making Berkeley the second city in the US to be taking this historic step. -more-

The outcome of the 2012 Presidential election will depend upon voters’ perception of the US economy and the jobs market. Republicans have labeled Obama a failed president claiming he could have done more to create jobs. In the GOP response to Obama’s State-of-the-Union, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels said, "The President did not cause the economic and fiscal crises that continue in America tonight. But he was elected on a promise to fix them, and he cannot claim that the last three years have made things anything but worse.” -more-

Last year, California State Senator Lou Correa (D-Orange County) was sued for a $4,000 debt owed by an unrelated “Luis Correa,” and learned of the lawsuit only after his wages had been garnished. Sear's billing department had handed the original debt off to LVNV Funding LLC, a debt-collection clearinghouse, which in turn hired the Brachfield Law Group to collect the actual debt. Brachfield sent numerous letters to Luis Correa that went unanswered. The company then apparently decided to stick it to Lou Correa instead. The senator sent numerous letters to Sears and Brachfield explaining they had the wrong Correa. Those letters went unanswered, too. Then came the order to garnish the senator's wages. -more-

Massachusetts

The state is proposing building two or three assisted living centers for aging prison inmates with medical problems as part of a new master plan for the Department of Correction. The 400-page Corrections Master Plan obtained by the Boston Herald also proposes barring federal prisoners from Massachusetts prisons by 2020, handing sexually dangerous inmates to the Department of Mental Health, and building regional women's jails to alleviate overcrowding at the main state women's prison in Framingham. -more-

When the Alameda County Breeding Bird Atlas was published late last year, I wondered in print if anyone had undertaken, or was planning to undertake, a comparable project for San Francisco. It turns out that a San Francisco census was in fact completed some time ago, but the results have never been published. Thanks to a reliable source, I’ve seen the digital draft version. -more-

I give myself credit for having seen clearly in a number of important situations, in itself not so difficult . . . it is less a question of an exalted or shrewd intelligence than of good sense, goodwill, and a certain kind of courage to rise above the pressures of one’s environment . . . A French essayist has said, ”What is terrible when you seek the truth, is that you find it.” You find it, and then you are no longer free to follow the biases of your personal circle, or to accept fashionable clichés.— Memoirs of a Revolutionary, Victor Serge (1890-1947) -more-

From its birth more than 60 years ago, Israel has always presented itself as “an oasis of democracy in a sea of despotism,” an outpost of pluralism surrounded by tyranny. While that equality never fully applied to the country’s Arab citizens, Israel was, for the most part an open society. But today political rights are under siege by right-wing legislators, militant settlers, and a growing religious divide in the Israeli army, all of which threaten to silence internal opposition to the policies of the government of Benjamin Netanyahu. Since that may include a war with Iran—and the probable involvement of the U.S. in such a conflict—the move to stifle dissent should be a major concern for Americans. -more-

For the Groundhog Day faithful, recent mild weather has fostered a widespread expectation that Punxsutawney Phil would predict an early spring. He dashed the hope in seconds. But we in the Bay Area, with its moderate temperature, have no need to worry about frigid weather. And we're happy to offer several "heart-warming" activities in weeks to come. -more-

It’s sort of annoying when you can’t criticize a play because it’s so good. A baker needs to bake, a critic needs to criticize. That noted, this stymied critic is regaled to remind you that, every so often, there is a reason to cross the bridge. Becky Shaw at SF Playhouse is a great excuse. -more-

Those of us who have been rallying Mondays are deeply troubled about how much inequality adversely effects our lives and the quality of life of the 99 percent generally. Bill Moyers, who has a wonderful way with words, expresses his concern: -more-

On Sunday, February 5, at 2 pm, at the Berkeley History Center, 1931 Center Street, Barbara Babcock, Stanford Law Professor Emerita, will discuss Clara Foltz, the ground-breaking woman lawyer and subject of her biography, Woman Lawyer: The Trials of Clara Foltz. Deserted by her husband and needing to support her five children, Clara Shortridge Foltz became a path breaker. With the help of her fellow woman suffragists, she fought her way into the California Bar in 1878 and became the first woman to practice law in the state. She introduced the idea that indigent criminal defendants should have state provided lawyers and that convicted criminals should have the possibility of parole. She became the first female deputy district attorney in the United States. -more-

A peculiarity of contemporary drama is that we often start out disliking all the characters. In good modern drama, as the play progresses and we live their life and struggle with their struggles, our opinion changes. -more-

Nancy Carlin has directed an enjoyable but uneven ARMS AND THE MAN by G. B. Shaw at Center Rep in Walnut Creek. -more-

Three years ago, Shakespeare at Stimson closed. They sent a letter to their audience asking if they wanted more, and there was a resounding, “Yes!” -more-

The collaborations of director Luis Buñuel and screen writer Jean-Claude Carriere examine and satirize the dark underbelly of bourgeoisie society. Their films are dark, a bit twisted and sometimes discomfiting. But Buñuel and Carriere do not judge these characters. They are presented from a certain distance; we watch them, we gain a certain understanding of them, but we are not made to either identify with them nor be repulsed by them. Buñuel and Carriere merely present them as they are and allow the audience to come to their own conclusions. -more-

Virago Theatre Co—based in Alameda, and featuring a predominately East Bay cast—opens its production of Shelagh Delaney's 1959 hit comedy of asingle mother and her teenage daughter moving into a working class slum in Northern England, this weekend at the Thick House on Potrero Hill in San Francisco. -more-

A young early 19th century girl, learning about thermodynamics, asking her tutor the meaning of "carnal embrace" ... He replies it's about hugging a side of beef ... A garden in the new "scenic" style, sublime, with a hermitage—but where's the hermit? ... And almost 200 years later, speculation, conjecture—and a costume ball—on the former inhabitants and visitors of manor and garden, which may have included Lord Byron, and their thoughts, their secret loves—maybe a fatal duel over one of those loves ...

Tom Stoppard's 'Arcadia' is on the boards at Live Oak Theater, and looks very good there, the set, props and costuming a triumph for Actors Ensemble of Berkeley. -more-