Page One

BP’s Biofuel Lab Headed for Downtown Berkeley

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday August 06, 2009
UC Berkeley is moving its BP-funded agrofuel research from a site in the hills above Strawberry Canyon to the heart of downtown Berkeley. -more-

Rabbis Condemn Sinkinson’s Campaign Against the Daily Planet

By Justin DeFreitas
Thursday August 06, 2009
The Council of East Bay Rabbis has condemned a publicity campaign by Jim Sinkinson to intimidate Daily Planet advertisers. -more-

A Rough Life for Women

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday August 06, 2009
Cheryl Ferguson, 49, a homeless woman, died on Berkeley’s streets July 24. Ferguson was found unconscious in front of the downtown public library around 1 a.m. When Berkeley police failed to revive her with CPR, deputies from the Alameda County coroner’s office took custody of her. -more-

KPFA Charges Pacifica With Raid on Station’s Funds

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Thursday August 06, 2009
The sometimes contentious relationship between Berkeley’s KPFA radio and its owner, the national Pacifica Foundation, took another twist this week when KPFA supporters posted an online petition alleging that Pacifica recently withdrew $100,000 from the KPFA Wells Fargo bank account without notification of or consultation with station representatives. -more-

UC Berkeley Grads Detained in Iran

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday August 06, 2009
The three American hikers who recently disappeared in Iran have been identified as UC Berkeley graduates. At least two are journalists based in Africa and the Middle East. -more-

Updates

FBI Joins Search for Missing 5-Year-Old

Bay City News
Tuesday August 11, 2009
The FBI is now involved in the search for a missing 5-year-old boy with cerebral palsy who was last seen in Oakland on Monday afternoon. -more-

Hackers Strike UC Journalism School's Computer System

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday August 11, 2009
Hackers have struck again at UC Berkeley computers, this time at the Graduate School of Journalism, the university announced Tuesday. -more-

Police Continue Search for 5-Year-Old Boy Missing Since Monday

Bay City News
Tuesday August 11, 2009
Police this morning continue to search for a missing boy with cerebral palsy who was last seen in Oakland Monday afternoon. -more-

Settlement Ends Cell Antenna Suit

By Richard Brenneman
Monday August 10, 2009
The long-running and sometimes noisy battle over the installation of cell phone antennas in a South Berkeley neighborhood has ended quietly with a few pen strokes. -more-

Bayer Considers Moving Out of Berkeley

By Rio Bauce Special to the Planet
Friday August 07, 2009
Berkeley officials confirmed Friday that plans are in the works to try to provide tax incentives to Bayer, the city’s largest private-sector employer, to keep the company from leaving the city. -more-

News

Gill Tract Development Plans Move Forward at UCB, Albany

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday August 06, 2009
The Gill Tract, once known for agricultural research, will soon have 300 apartments and retail stores, including a Whole Foods.
While crops still grow on the Gill Tract, the buildings and greenhouses that once housed a thriving research center stand vacant, defaced by broken glass and graffiti scrawls. -more-

Three Berkeley Post Offices May Close

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday August 06, 2009
The United States Postal Service is considering closing at least three Berkeley post offices as part of a plan to consolidate services in light of a huge budget deficit. -more-

Books Inc. to Open Berkeley Branch

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday August 06, 2009
There’s finally some good news for book lovers in Berkeley. -more-

LBNL Gets Additional $40 Million in Stimulus Funds

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday August 06, 2009
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory received an additional $40 million in stimulus funds from the Department of Energy Aug. 4. -more-

‘Mobilized Women’ Building Landmarked

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday August 06, 2009
The Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Mobilized Women of Berkeley building at 1007 University Avenue as a city landmark last month. -more-

BART Begins Allowing Use of Translink Cards

By Bay City News Service
Thursday August 06, 2009
BART this week began allowing payments through TransLink, becoming the latest Bay Area transit agency to use the “smart card” fare collection system. -more-

Clarification

Thursday August 06, 2009
    Neil Goteiner, a San Francisco attorney for UC Berkeley economist David Teece, has asked the Daily Planet to correct two stories about his client published in the Planet on July 16 and 23 stating that the IRS had taken Teece to tax court over its claims that he had underpaid his taxes by some $12 million. -more-

Journalists Return From North Korea, Invited to Come to San Francisco

By Bay City News Service
Thursday August 06, 2009
Two U.S. journalists who had been jailed in North Korea but were pardoned Tuesday arrived back in California this morning and will be invited to visit the Bay Area in the next month, a family friend said. -more-

Obituaries

Doris Richards, 1937-2009

By Sasha Futran Special to the Planet
Thursday August 06, 2009
Doris Richards and friends.
The lives of many dogs throughout the country were changed due to the activism and hard work of Doris Richards, who died July 27. Richards helped to start the Ohlone Dog Park, the first in the nation, and succeeded in keeping the park open despite several attempts to close it down. She served as president of the Ohlone Dog Park Association (ODPA) from 1985 to 2002. -more-

A memorial for Cheryl Ferguson, a homeless woman who died outside the Berkeley Public Library.
Riya Bhattacharejee
A memorial for Cheryl Ferguson, a homeless woman who died outside the Berkeley Public Library.

Editorials

Paris and Berkeley’s Downtown Development

By Becky O’Malley
Thursday August 06, 2009
Last stop, Paris, on the globalized grandparents’ express. Our clever son-in-law has arranged to exchange their family’s Santa Cruz house for a series of European equivalents which are the homes of families like theirs—no money needed to change hands. Grandparents and aunts were invited to go along for the ride, with eight of us together at times. It’s been fun, if exhausting. Who could pass up the use of three-bedroom family apartments in both Rome and Paris, but who anticipated how far apart the two cities actually are, or how hot Rome can be in July? -more-

Reader Commentaries

Letters to the Editor

Thursday August 06, 2009

The False Claims and Misrepresentations of Jim Sinkinson

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday August 06, 2009
I am tired of the malicious lies and deception being hurled by those who are out to destroy the Berkeley Daily Planet. -more-

In Support of the Downtown Plan Referendum

By Toni Meister
Thursday August 06, 2009
I am supporting the Downtown Plan referendum because the mayor and the current Berkeley City Council majority are giving away development rights and failing to protect neighborhoods from adverse impacts and detriment. -more-

Green Should Be Green

By John Koenigshofer
Thursday August 06, 2009
Early environmentalists believed that limiting population growth was the foundation for all efforts to preserve our natural world. Today’s urban environmentalists have a different view. Green is not literally green anymore. It does not mean grass, trees, open space or anything resembling nature but is a code word for increased population density; an accommodation of limitless population growth. -more-

Report From Gaza

By Stephen DeGange
Thursday August 06, 2009
Most of us don’t get to visit the headlines. I had such an opportunity recently week when I joined a convoy bringing humanitarian aid to the besieged people in Gaza. I was joined on this trip by my son, Powell, a graduate of Berkeley High School and UC Davis. Powell works as a labor union organizer and activist with Unite Here in San Diego and has taken a special interest in Middle East affairs since majoring in political science at Davis.  -more-

Columnists

UnderCurrents: Parking Fiasco Has Roots in Jerry Brown Years

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Thursday August 06, 2009
The Grand Avenue-Lakeshore Boulevard commercial district has long been one of my favorite hangouts. For years, I would park at the old Lucky/Albertsons parking lot and then walk up Lakeshore and then down around to Grand, window shopping, maybe making a purchase or two at the Gap—when its styles were more to my taste—renting a movie from Blockbuster, sitting down for coffee or sometimes a meal from one of the many Asian cuisine restaurants, almost always ending up for a half-hour or more of browsing at Walden Pond Books. I’m a sucker for a good used book store. -more-

Wild Neighbors: Alhambra Creek Update: That Touch of Mink

By Joe Eaton
Thursday August 06, 2009
Young mink at Alhambra Creek beaver pond.
The wildlife scene at the beaver pond in downtown Martinez continues to surprise observers. Last year, in addition to the beavers, muskrats, river otters, turtles, and herons, someone spotted a single mink. Now there’s an entire mink family. -more-

East Bay Then and Now: A Yankee Bricklayer’s Creation, Bonita Hall Endures

By Daniella Thompson
Thursday August 06, 2009
Bonita Hall was built in 1905 as a warehouse with a lodge hall on the second floor.
On the corner of Bonita Avenue and Berkeley Way stands an elegant Colonial Revival brick building that might have been transplanted whole from a New England town, where it might have served as a Masonic lodge. -more-

Stimulus And Response

By Matt Cantor
Thursday August 06, 2009
Forced-air heating is stupid. I’m sorry if that’s what you’ve got; it’s also what I have, so you can feel bad for me, too. It’s not that we’re stupid. It’s just that heating air is a dumb way to heat space. It noisy, it’s dirty, it’s not especially efficient and it takes up a huge amount of space in a home. In case you’re not sure what I’m talking about, let me apologize, go back, slow down and explain what forced-air heating is. -more-

Arts & Entertainment

Arts Calendar

Friday August 07, 2009
THURSDAY, AUGUST 6 -more-

Ideal Bread West: Lacy’s Legacy at the JazzSchool

By Ken Bullock Special to the Planet
Thursday August 06, 2009
Josh Sinton recalled his mentor, the late Steve Lacy, famed as one of the great soprano saxophone players, an accompanist to Thelonius Monk and other jazz masters and as a prolific composer, while talking about the band he’ll lead, Ideal Bread West, in a program of Lacy compositions this Saturday night at the Jazz- -more-

Orwell’s Menagerie Rides into Town for Show in John Hinkel Park

By Ken Bullock Special to the Planet
Thursday August 06, 2009
“All Animals Are Equal — But Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others.” -more-

Golia and Friends Bring Jazz with Strings to Flux 53

By Ken Bullock Special to the Planet
Thursday August 06, 2009
“I prefer just to call it music,” L.A. multi-instrumentalist Vinny Golia replied to questions about the material and style of an unusual collaborative performance tonight, simply titled Vinny Golia and Friends, at Flux 53 in Oakland—a new, independent arts center on the site of the Egypt Theater, which closed last year after 35 years of community arts programming. -more-

‘Growing Up in Oakland’

By Ken Bullock Special to the Planet
Thursday August 06, 2009
Young filmmakers at work for the Growing Up in Oakland Youth Film Festival.
Growing Up In Oakland: Youth Film Festival will be presented from 2 to 5 p. m. this Saturday at the Peralta Hacienda, the six-acre historical park at the restored Antonio Peralta House (listed on the National Register), dating from 1870, in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood. Admission is free; tours of the Peralta House are $3. -more-

The Cinematic Poetry of Hiroshi Shimizu

By Justin DeFreitas
Thursday August 06, 2009
Japanese director Hiroshi Shimizu, nearly unknown in the West, was a friend and sometime collaborator of his better-known contemporary Yasujiro Ozu. -more-

Other New Releases From Criterion

Thursday August 06, 2009
The Last Metro -more-

Events Calendar

Community Calendar

Thursday August 06, 2009