Daily Archives: May 17, 2012
The Berkeley Wire: 05.17.12
Cal junior hot on trail of Sutter’s Mill Meteorites [UCB]
Occupy arrests undermine food justice movement [Policymic]
Unclean hands at the Gill Tract? [East Bay Express]
Saul’s new chef is spicing things up [JWeekly]
Slow, in Berkeley, offers great value [San Francisco Chronicle]
Judge issues temporary restraining order against farm activists [Patch]
KPFA, with plummeting ratings, launches new a.m. show [Express]
Photo: UC Berkeley’s Campbell Hall is being dismantled. Photo: Aaron Glimme.
Accolades for Edie Meidav and other East Bay authors
The East Bay Literary scene is heating up. Never before in the 31-year history of the Northern California Book Awards have the Fred Cody Award for Lifetime Achievement, plus ten nominations for book awards, all been given to East Bay writers.
The authors who have been nominated represent a wide range of disciplines, expertise, and artistic talent. They include: Barry Eichengreen, Adam Hochschild, Andrea Lingenfelter, Mary Mackey, Edie Meidav, Sandra Gilbert, David Meltzer, Michael Pollan (Fred Cody Award Winner), Amy Reed, and Katherine Silver.
Each week, from now until the June 10 Awards Ceremony, Berkeleyside will spotlight one of these writers. … Continue reading »
Berkeleyans closer to being able to sell backyard produce
In August 2010, Sophie Hahn told a reporter it was easier to have a pot collective in Berkeley than to have a vegetable collective. Last night Hahn’s desire to see the city allow residents to sell the food they grow in their backyards came one step closer to reality when the Planning Commission unanimously passed the Edible Garden Initiative.
Until now, Berkeley’s zoning codes have prohibited selling or otherwise conducting commerce outside a house in a residential neighborhood.
The legislation covers fruit, vegetables, nuts, honey, and shell eggs from fowl or poultry, provided they are all whole, intact, and organically grown. (Read the Sale of Non-Processed Edibles from Residential Lot memorandum.) … Continue reading »
Activists accuse Bayer of killing bees, protest in Berkeley
A group of about fifty protesters from Taking Back Our Food System, an East Bay coalition of food, Occupy, and environmental and human rights activists, staged a demonstration outside Bayer’s plant on Parker Street in west Berkeley Wednesday afternoon to protest what it said was the pharmaceutical company’s role in creating pesticides that killed bees.
The demonstrators claim that Bayer is a major producer of Neonicotinoid pesticides (Neonics) and that research show this line of pesticides has a direct role in Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). “Because bees pollinate a most of the world’s food, Bayer’s Neonic pesticides are a threat to our food supply,” they said in a statement read at the demonstration. … Continue reading »
Berkeley murder suspect DeWitt breaks deputy’s jaw
Daniel Jordan DeWitt, the 23-year old charged with murdering Peter Cukor, 67, outside his Berkeley Hills home on February 18, yesterday punched an Alameda County sheriff’s deputy and broke his jaw, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
DeWitt was being placed in waist and leg chains ahead of being transported to Napa State Hospital when he punched the deputy without warning at John George Psychiatric Pavilion in San Leandro.
DeWitt, who according to his family was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia five years ago, allegedly punched and kicked a nurse at the same psychiatric facility in 2010.
Sheriff’s Sgt. J.D. Nelson told the Chronicle: ”Unfortunately, there are people in society who will strike out at a moment’s notice and for no reason. Those are the kind of people we have to deal with on a daily basis.” … Continue reading »
Olympic star Natalie Coughlin runs with King students
On Monday, 11-time Olympic medallist Natalie Coughlin introduced First Lady Michelle Obama at a Let’s Move press conference in Dallas. Yesterday, the Cal grad and Lafayette resident took time out from her training schedule to join with students at Berkeley’s King Middle School at its annual runathon.
