The Planet needs your help. Give to the Fund for Local Reporting! The final hurdle for creating enterprise zones in West Berkeley has cleared, paving the way for more than 1,000 local businesses to receive tax credits. Full Story »
The Planet needs your help. Give to the Fund for Local Reporting! Three UC Berkeley alums detained in Iran since July 31 will stand trial, according to Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, U.S. media reported Monday. Full Story »
The Planet needs your help. Give to the Fund for Local Reporting! After months of debate, BART’s board of directors joined the Port of Oakland in awarding a contract for the construction of an Oakland Airport connector. Full Story »
The Planet needs your help. Give to the Fund for Local Reporting! Eight people were arrested after protesters stormed UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau’s house on the north side of campus around 11 p.m. Friday, smashing windows, lights and planters. Full Story »
Sixty-one of the 66 protesters who were arrested at Wheeler Hall Friday morning are expected to be cited and released from Santa Rita jail by the end of the day, UC Berkeley officials said around 3 p.m. Friday, Dec. 11. Full Story »
This morning (Friday) at about 4:30 AM UC police entered Wheeler Hall and began arresting activists who were staying there overnight as part of continuing protests against budget cuts and fee hikes. Full Story »
The Planet needs your help. Give to the Fund for Local Reporting! The Daily Planet invites readers to submit essays, articles, photos, cartoons and poetry for its annual year-end reader contribution issue. Send your submissions to holiday@berkeleydailyplanet.com by 5 p.m. Friday, Dec. 18. Full Story »
A male writer wants his girlfriend’s opinion of a story he’s written. The writer is in the States; the woman in question is living in Cairo. The text could be obliquely about their relationship, or at least his attitude about relationships, with Arab women in particular. What are her thoughts? Full Story »
Well, we’re moving along. It’s taken far too long, but things are looking up, and those things are photovoltaic solar panels. About six weeks ago, Conan the (not quite) Republican, signed into law two bills that will surely change things a lot in this state, and PG&E is none too happy about it. Full Story »
Just as it’s getting cold and nasty out, I see the third movement in the street-tree symphony is well underway: Chinese pistache trees are resounding with color. Full Story »
“Greenhouse Britain” Works by Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison, pioneers in the eco-art movement. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Kala Gallery, 2990 San Pablo Ave. 841-7000. www.kala.org Full Story »
If The General (1927), Buster Keaton’s best-known work, shows the great comedian’s more classical side, with its steady narrative arc and character-driven gags subordinated to plot, Sherlock Jr. (1924) gives us the modernist Keaton, acutely award of cinema as a construct, of the role of fantasy in the movies, and of the curious nature of three-dimensional reality as represented in a two ... Full Story »
Rebecca’s Books, the warm, homey shop specializing in poetry, but with much more than poetry books inside, will be holding a benefit extravaganza from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. this Saturday at its Adeline Street store—just north of Alcatraz and a few steps from popular destinations like The Vault and Sweet Adeline’s. Full Story »
Blanche Richardson recalled the “biggest ever” book signing of “the hundreds and hundreds of authors” who have come to Marcus Book Stores over the past 50 years: Muhammed Ali appeared at her family’s Oakland store five years ago. Full Story »
John O’Keefe’s The Bronte Cycle, Part 1 was performed Monday night by an enthusiastic Subterranean Shakespeare cast of nine, directed by Diane Jackson, in a delightful, absorbing staged reading, which creatively worked the room at the Unitarian Fellowship on Cedar at Bonita. Full Story »
Leave it to the Shotgun Players to program The Threepenny Opera, Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s Weimar German cabaret musical, fitfully updated to ’70s punkishness, in place of a feel-good holiday show—though, amid high spirits, the attractively evil characters triumph over the more banal forces of order (or is it really due to the banality of order that they triumph?). Full Story »
The little angels in our Nutcracker are our 7- and 8-year-old students,” said Berkeley Ballet Theater Artistic Director Emerita Sally Streets. “It’s nice for young audience members to see someone their own age up on stage.” Full Story »
Click here to read the printed paper. As low as $24 for 15 words. Join the Planet Sales Team! Full Story »
It is already apparent that any health bill approved by Congress will provide fewer benefits at a higher cost than health systems in any other industrialized nation. Full Story »
Until recently, if highway 580 commuters glanced eastward toward Berkeley, they saw a collage of green shoreline with dilapidated, graffiti laden buildings, and a strip of flat water on the backdrop of an industrial landscape. Full Story »
I would like to offer two suggestions for today’s job summit you are hosting at the White House. Full Story »
The Berkeley Unified School District has the largest racial achievement gaps of any school district in the State of California. Full Story »
The Alameda County Board of Supervisors decided to cut General Assistance (G.A.). Currently, a full “grant” is $336. Beginning Jan. 1, Alameda County Social Services is directed to cut $84 if living with a roommate—and who on GA isn’t?—cut $40 more if not receiving Medi-Cal; cut an additional $231 if rent is more than GA grant; requiring landlords to sign a W-9 IRS form and penalizing recipient ... Full Story »
As part of our campaign against the general assistance cuts in Alameda County that the Board of Supervisors voted for last June, 3–2, we from the BOSS Community Organizing Team are planning to go to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors meeting, Dec. 10 at 9:30 a.m. at 1221 Oak St. between 12th and 13th, near Lake Merritt, to speak to the issue of the GA cuts at the public comment. Full Story »
I’m delighted to see that the New York Times ran an article on how a small band of thugs has attempted to kill a very rare and endangered species—a local independent newspaper—by intimidating its advertisers and smearing its owners for providing an equally rare public forum. Full Story »
A crow stands on a tree branch in Switzerland. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
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