On July 13, 2010 Hamed Mirabdal received a manila envelope in the mail. When he opened it, he gasped. Inside was his wallet, stolen from him four years earlier during a brutal assault in which he almost died. There was a short note in the envelope. “Found this while gardening on San Lorenzo Avenue in [...]
Posts under ‘Government’
Fight to bring pedicabs to Berkeley
For the last year, Ken Lin-Ott has taken to the streets of Oakland late at night, offering rides to anyone who wants to hop into his pedicab. Passengers usually take a short ride – to a restaurant or bar, or a trip back to their car. Lin-Ott doesn’t charge anything for the service. He just [...]
After last year’s tumult, UC officials optimistic
The chancellor of UC Berkeley held an upbeat press conference on Thursday to say that the campus is bouncing back from last year’s tumult. Declaring himself “cautiously optimistic,” Chancellor Robert Birgeneau said that the campus is on a sounder financial footing than it was last year, thanks to a 32% increase in student fees, staff [...]
Berkeley’s Southside gets new joint police focus
Residents living on the Southside of campus will soon see a greater police presence in their neighborhood, particularly late at night on the weekends and during Cal football games. The city of Berkeley police department and the UC Berkeley police department announced Tuesday that they are forming joint patrols to cruise the neighborhood. They hope [...]
UC prof tells students they have been “swindled”
Michael O’Hare, a professor at UC’s Goldman School of Public Policy, will formally welcome new students to the classroom on Wednesday. But in advance of starting his first-day lecture, O’Hare has written a lengthy welcome note that tells students how they have been “swindled.” The once gold-plated education offered by UC Berkeley is now a [...]
Michael Pollan speaks on egg recall
Local food expert Michael Pollan was on CNN Monday night explaining why no one should be surprised that 550 million eggs have been recalled because they may have been tainted by salmonella. Salmonella in eggs can be linked back to the 1970s and 1980s when industrial farmers started crowding chickens together to streamline their growth, [...]
Arnieville protesters arrested in Sacramento
Details are sketchy, but police in Sacramento have started to arrest members of Arnieville, the group of disabled activists who set up a camp on a median along Adeline Street this summer. The group went up to the Capitol today to protest against proposed budget cuts to programs that send assistants into the homes of [...]
Will poetry be the key to voters’ hearts?
For his fifth bid for a seat on the Berkeley City Council, Kriss Worthington decided to try something unusual: communicate his message with a poem. Instead of submitting prose for his candidate’s ballot statement, Worthington turned in a poem. “I only have 200 words. What can you really say with 200 words? I said, ‘let [...]
Protests greet John Yoo on first day of classes
Cindy Sheehan, the anti-war activist, and dozens of protestors from Code Pink, The World Can’t Wait, the Boalt Alliance to Abolish Torture and other groups marched through Berkeley Law School today to protest John Yoo’s position as a member of the faculty. After holding a brief press conference outside the law school, the group marched [...]
Berkeley couple at heart of Prop 8 case speak out
After a federal judge ruled that Prop 8 was unconstitutional on Wednesday, Kris Perry and Sandy Stier of Berkeley, the two women who brought the case, spoke out at a press conference in San Francisco. One poignant thought from Perry: “For so long, Sandy and I and our family have been regarded as less than, [...]
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