An elderly woman suffered life-threatening injuries when she was punched, knocked to the ground and dragged by a vehicle during a carjacking Tuesday evening in Berkeley, police said. -more-
[Editor's Note: This BPD press release originally mentioned the race of the suspects at the point where they were spotted by the Oakland police. The racial adjective has been omitted by the Planet from this posting of the otherwise verbatim BPD press release because it adds nothing useful to the story, since race alone is not enough information to apprehend a suspect without additional descriptors.]
On 8/30/16 at 5:37pm, the Berkeley Police Communications Center received a report of a vehicle versus pedestrian collision near the intersection of California and Oregon Streets in south Berkeley. Officers responded to the scene and found an elderly female victim on the ground with life-threatening injuries. The victim was transported by the Berkeley Fire Department to the Alameda County Hospital where she underwent surgery for injuries and is expected to survive. Initial information was difficult to obtain from the victim due to a language barrier.
It was later determined what occurred was more than a case of hit and run. Through an interpreter the victim shared that as she parked her car an SUV pulled up next to her. She said that after she got out, someone punched her in the face and knocked her to the ground while someone else pulled her bag away from her.
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Berkeley city officials announced today they are offering a $15,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the fatal shooting of a 22-year-old man earlier this month. -more-
After failing for months to reach a consensus on the issue, the Berkeley City Council voted unanimously at a special meeting today to raise the city's minimum wage to $15 an hour in two years. -more-
On Sept. 15, 1996, thousands of people gathered at The Circle in Berkeley’s Northbrae neighborhood to celebrate a landmark occasion: the dedication of the restored Fountain at The Circle, the sparkling centerpiece of the city’s first public art project.
Designed by famed architect John Galen Howard and erected in 1911, the original fountain had been gone from The Circle for nearly 40 years, after being struck and destroyed by a runaway truck in 1958. Meanwhile, Howard’s adjacent Fountain Walk had become overgrown and fallen into serious disrepair.
This month, the fountain celebrates another landmark: its 20th birthday – a milestone reached thanks in large part to neighbors and friends near and far who have donated generously to keep it smoothly functioning and flowing over the years.
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“What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
.Weed: a wild plant growing where it is not wanted and in competition with cultivated plants.”
--Google
“A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, "a plant in the wrong place".
--Wikipedia
Last weekend I had two more lessons in how powerless the California Environmental Quality Act is to inform politically-based decisionmaking. One was at the Wellstone Democratic Club's endorsement meeting and the other was the Superior Court hearing on the EIR for 2211 Harold Way.
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a self-driving car tried to take me
to a place I did not want to go
it kept going faster and faster
when I wanted to go really slow
that self-driving car was annoying
it just had a mind of its own
it wanted a clear destination my dear
and me I just want to go home
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Consider the major differences in the political life of African Americans during the 1960s and now. Let's take the very important issue of voting rights. Among the major achievements then was the voting rights bill in 1965, which gave African Americans their long overdue right to vote. Also, suffrage has served for some as a springboard for political office. Over 40 African Americans, for example, now serve in the House of Representatives. Many others have been elected to State and local government positions. -more-
Hundreds of thousands of healthy trees are targeted for eradication; precious SF East Bay forests that mitigate global warming, create oxygen, sequester carbon, are home to wildlife and provide renewal for you, your children and your grandchildren. Thousands of gallons of Monsanto Roundup and Dow Garlon will follow the deforestation, poisoning plants, land, waterways, wildlife, pets, children and adults alike. -more-
You can put lipstick on a pig and it's still a pig. This is a perfect description of Donald Trump, who marches to his own drummer, adheres to his own set of morals, and has seduced millions of Americans into believing that his tremendous brain and business acumen are just what the country needs. -more-
Can we accord priority to the most important issue? It seems we don’t give sufficient importance to values-orientated education. By ‘education’ I don’t mean the acquisition of book knowledge or perfection in sports. I mean awareness of our responsibilities towards other human beings as I was shocked to learn about how some American athletes behaved in Rio. Winning a gold medal should not entitle an athlete to behave badly. I wish our team had the character to act responsibly while they were guests. Can we regain our reputation as decent Americans? -more-
Women finally got a piece of the action in 1920. Passage of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution provided American women with full voting rights fifty years after all American men were enabled to vote. Sixteen other nations had already guaranteed women this right.
August 26th is designated as Women's Equality Day to commemorate this event. Women’s Equality Day is officially proclaimed in some locales. It was instituted by Congressional Representative Bella Abzug (1920-1998) when she was 60 years old. Women and girls have come a long way but there is still much work to be done to achieve true equity. Women’s Equality Day is not on the calendars of the Berkeley public library, the City of Berkeley, nor Berkeley senior centers.
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On August 17th, Donald Trump once again shook up his campaign. While there were early indications that Trump would “soften” his image, these were refuted by the August 19th release of his first general election campaign ad “Two Americas: Immigration”. This TV ad stems from the same darkness that fueled Trump’s acceptance speech: bigotry and hate. -more-
By mid-morning on August 12, more than a foot of rain had fallen near Kentwood, Louisiana, in just a 12-hour stretch — a downpour with an estimated likelihood of just once every 500 years, and roughly three months’ worth of rainfall during a typical hurricane season. It’s the latest in a string of exceptionally rare rainstorms that are stretching the definition of “extreme” weather. It’s exactly the sort of rainstorm that’s occurring more frequently as the planet warms. -more-
If you have a life-changing psychiatric illness, the expectation that you can't work a job can be bad for you, yet so can the expectation that you can. Either way, you are dealing with some type of expectation that affects how you perceive yourself. Expectations or judgments that we can or can't work could come from family, from mental health workers or from oneself. -more-
Fresh Voices XVI, Memories & Desires, the always fresh, always entertaining ongoing program of new opera, artsong and composition, is closing this weekend, with two shows—Friday the 26th and Saturday the 27th, both at 8:15—at the Lesher Center, 1601 Civic Drive in Walnut Creek. -more-
When I was in graduate school, our professor Mel Shapiro—who was a two time Tony winner-- wrote an important book on Acting. The first exercise was to tell your life story in ten minutes. But you couldn’t just talk about it. You had to act it out, use props, add whatever you like. -more-
