Up to 100 recycling bins burned in a fire near the University Avenue offramp from Interstate Highway 80, the city's acting fire chief said.

Fire investigators are trying to determine the cause of the fire. Initial reports suggested the fire may have started from an explosion in a methamphetamine lab, Dong said, but investigators have so far found no evidence of that.

The fire was reported at 2:41 p.m. near the corner of Hearst Avenue and Second Street, according to a fire dispatcher. -more-

In the year 2000, the Berkeley City Council voted for a living wage law that benefits workers employed by businesses contracting with the city or on Berkeley owned property. The Council on Tuesday (May 6) approved a much more modest, and unquestionably, a rather miserable minimum wage ordinance that extends to almost all workers in Berkeley. Here is all there is to it. There is no minimum wage increase this year. On January 1, 2015 the minimum wage will be $10 an hour, which will be only a dollar more than the State minimum wage law. In January 1, 2016, the minimum wage would rise to $10.75. So it will be two years before it reaches the current minimum wage in San Francisco. No further increases have been enacted for the following years even though the City's Labor Commission, whose members are appointed by Council members, submitted a proposal that would increase the minimum wage by 2020 to $15.25. It also included an annual cost of living adjustment (COLA). -more-

Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates has used his official online newsletter, the “Bates Update”, to oppose the “Green Downtown” initiative petitions which are now being circulated in advance of the November election, and Councilmember Jesse Arreguin, who supports the measure, has cried foul.

In a letter sent yesterday to City Manager Chris Daniel, Arreguin said that the recent issue of the email publication urges voters to be wary of “a measure that would cripple the voter-approved downtown plan." He says that’s “not an impartial statement but rather a negative statement which in the context of the overall email implies that voters should not sign the petition.”

The full text of the Bates letter can be found here . It uses as a return address the mayor’s official City of Berkeley email address, mayor@cityofberkeley.info, and the street address of Berkeley City Hall.

Arreguin also told Daniel that at Bates’ State of the City speech last Wednesday the mayor openly urged people to not sign the initiative, as the Berkeleyside.com site reported : “... he urged the community not to vote for a plan he said is designed to 'stop growth downtown,'the Green Downtown Public Commons Initiative."

The councilmember said that he believes that the State of the City presentation was organized by the mayor’s office and that its costs were paid from the Mayor's Office budget.

​He alleged that “These two public statements using government resources appear to violate the state law around misuse of public resources for political purposes and are also certainly contrary to the memo you sent previously discouraging political activity using city resources.” -more-

On Tuesday May 6 at 7 PM, the Berkeley City Council will entertain an ordinance that, if passed, would raise Berkeley’s minimum wage to the highest in the state. The measure comes after over a year of intensive study, debate and dialogue in the City about how best to remedy increasing levels of wage inequality that has left millions of working families in poverty. -more-

Let's get the most important thing out of the way first. A bit of levity.

Mayor Bates wanted you to know that if we had the redistricting referendum vote in June, it would have cost $300,000. The second point the Mayor wanted to get across is that the students have not failed.

We know the Mayor's talking points because he laid them out live on video and audio broadcast, during a City Council break, while standing unawares next to a live microphone. You can see it in replay on the city's web site.

You see, during that break in the council meeting the Mayor buttonholed Lance Knobel, of the Berkeleyside web site, to make sure Knobel was in possession of the mayoral message. What appears to be meant as a private conversation went out on the air and is forever preserved in the public archives.

For the record, as far as I can tell, Knobel responded simply with pleasantries. Berkeleyside itself gave no noteworthy emphasis to the Mayor's talking points. If this was some great conspiracy about a state-run press being directed by Supreme Leader Bates then it seems the conspiracy has collapsed.

It's just a funny thing that happened. See it yourself on the April 29 video, starting from about 1:36:50:

Actually I hope that Berkeleyans will watch more of the April 29th meeting. There's a lot that can be observed there. Here are time indexes and notes to highlights.

Council Covers its Brown Act Issues Before an Angry, Passionate, and Articulate Public -more-

It was supposed to be a night to "Ground the Drones" but, as Berkeley Peace and Justice Commissioner Bob Meola put it, "it was more like the movie, Groundhog Day" — an experience of being trapped in a maddening rerun of past events and unable to move forward. -more-

Presentation to the City Council Workshop on Drones

This morning, the Flexible Work Time Initiative submitted 4,604 signatures to the Berkeley City Clerk, well over the 2638 valid signatures needed to get the initiative on the November ballot.

This is an advisory initiative, asking the city of Berkeley and state of California to make it easier for employees to choose part-time work and other flexible working arrangements. It advises the city and state to pass laws similar to laws that have been successful for over a decade in the Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom and laws that have been passed recently in Vermont and San Francisco. For more information about these laws, see http://www.flexibleworktime.com/models.html.

Charles Siegel, initiative organizer and author of The Politics of Simple Living, said, “This sort of law is important to promote better work-family balance. But we also want to emphasize the environmental benefit of giving people the choice of downshifting economically. If people choose to work shorter hours and to consume less, then they will also pollute less.” -more-

Albany has taken another step in the long and agonizing process of turning the parkland at the end of Buchanan Street over to the East Bay Regional Park district (EBRPD). This includes the Bulb, a former landfill and a source of controversy for many years. State parks do not permit overnight camping, off leash dogs and works of art, all of which were, and still are, present on the Bulb. -more-

As of the time of writing it appears that proponents of submitting the Berkeley City Council majority’s redistricting plan to the voters will not appeal a judge’s decision to allow the disputed council district boundaries to be used for the November city council elections, which will choose councilmembers for new four year terms. The legal sleight of hand which made this possible is much too slippery to detail here, but the real-world result is that the decision effectively nullifies citizens’ right to challenge council decisions using the method authorized in the City of Berkeley Charter. -more-

redistricting! its mysteries are deep
a casual perspective may not see
what purpose drives a boundary's quiet creep
embracing some reluctant addressee
sadly not an "ever fixed mark"
but wild much like the ocean's changing shore
unfair or fair? they cry from dawn to dark
they cry until there's no one left to bore
the wrangling and contention never ends
the finger pointing name calling and worse
the court case pitting neighbors against friends
where both winners and losers feel the curse
redistricting! our lives are hard enough
without this stupid gerrymander stuff
-more-

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

You can view it absolutely free of charge by clicking here . You can print it out to give to your friends.

Grace Underpressure has been producing it for many years now, even before the Berkeley Daily Planet started distributing it, most of the time without being paid, and now we'd like you to show your appreciation by using the button below to send her money. -more-

Israel's sudden withdrawal from the peace talks comes as no surprise. Jewish Voice of Peace stated that this is simply a tactical move to deflect the failure of decades of aborted peace talks to address Israel’s ongoing settlement expansion and illegal occupation of Palestinian land. Sadly, the US government has rewarded successive Israeli governments with billions of dollars of our tax money, removing all incentives to reach a peaceful accord with the Palestinians. -more-

America is no longer a democracy, according to a new joint university study. Instead, it has evolved into an oligarchy dominated by moneyed special interests.

The study, entitled "Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens" by Martin Gilens of Princeton University and Benjamin Page of Northwestern University, concludes that ordinary citizens have effectively lost their say over public policy. Thus, America now resembles an “economic elite domination” or a form of government in which the wealthy economic elite (less than 1 percent of the population) has near exclusive control over policy-making decisions.

“The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence,” the authors state. “Our findings indicate, the majority does not rule – at least not in the causal sense of actually determining policy outcomes. When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the U.S. political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favor policy change, they generally do not get it.” -more-

National Basketball Association Commissioner Adam Silver has banned Los Angeles Clipper’s owner Donald Sterling for life, fined him $2.5 million, and will urge the board of governors to force a sale of the team following the publication of a recorded conversation between Sterling and his ex-mistress, V. Stiviano, during which Sterling made racist comments. -more-

Each May since 1963 communities across the country have celebrated Older Americans Month. To learn more about Older Americans Month 2014, contact the Alameda County Area Agency on Aging at 1 800 510-2020; to read more about it, subscribe to its Senior Update publication. This year’s OAM theme is “Safe Today. Healthy Tomorrow.” It focuses on injury prevention and safety. The next Senior Power column will consider falls and their ghastly concomitant, fear of falling.

Here are some surprising 2012 statistics about the 43.1 million senior citizens in the United States. They are 13.7% of the total population. -more-

The voices of persons who suffer from mental illnesses are oft silenced by a number of forces. Our perspective is one that should be heard, and that usually is not. Persons with mental illness frequently have difficulties speaking up for ourselves in a number of forums including, but certainly not limited to, simple verbal communication. This is often a cause for bullying in subtle and gross forms, since without being able to protest, we are often unable to prevent being stepped on. -more-

"It's a fine end to all my scheming ... " So says Josie Hogan—conflicted temptress, appointed by her father to seduce their drunken landlord, a man who she perhaps harbors other feelings for ...

Josie's words above are humorously quoted by director Ron Nash, reflecting on the directing project this play culminates, in his program notes for Marin Onstage's production of 'A Moon for the Misbegotten,' Eugene O'Neill's last play—later than 'Long Day's Journey into Night' and featuring once again the character of James Tyrone, based on O'Neill's tormented older brother.

With a small cast and crew, Marin Onstage and Nash finish out their "trilogy" of collaboration splendidly, which began last year with a remarkable staging of Ibsen's 'A Doll House,' followed by an exciting, gamey production of Strindberg's 'Miss Julie'—and now, from the American heir to that modernist theater tradition, the intended climax of 'Moon.' -more-

—Golden Thread, the Bay Area production company staging plays about the Middle East, presents The Fifth String, an original play for families, written and directed by founder Torange Yeghiazarian, May 2-4 and May 10 at the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California in downtown Oakland (an extraordinary historic building from 1911, originally a Masonic Temple, in Moorish Revival style). -more-