Berkeley City Hall’s efforts to enable the University of California's expansion in Berkeley have taken a new turn. Having already facilitated the school’s colonization of residential areas in Southside and Downtown, Berkeley city officials are now trying to expedite UCB’s appropriation of Berkeley’s commercial districts, as well as industrial zones in West Berkeley. -more-

The recent report on the rapid expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank amid the ongoing war in Gaza sheds light on the increasing number of Israeli settlers, supported by what Prime Minister Netanyahu has called "the most moral army in the world." This development, alongside ongoing terror attacks and the weak stance of the Biden administration, has intensified efforts to seize land long used by Palestinians, exacerbating the already volatile situation in the region. -more-

Kimmel's Verses Versus Colbert's

Once again, the Smithereens jury box has declared late-night host Jimmy Kimmel guilty of crafting the best "episode taglines" of the week—mostly directed at Donald Trump, the Ochre Ogre. Stephen Colbert's writers came in a distant second, with the following titles: -more-

My latest diagnosis is: "Atypical Psychosis." It was given to me by an unknown doctor at psych emergency in Martinez. The translation: I have psychosis and it impairs my ability to function in life. It does not sound as scary as "Schizophrenia: Paranoid-Type." And it sounds less severe than "schizoaffective disorder."

However, I have been spending long hours staring off into the space in front of me, with my thoughts jumbled and disorganized but not loud, and me not writing, and not doing anything productive or enjoyable. It makes me wonder, is my psychiatrist being straightforward with me? It is a question brought about by paranoid thinking.

The past year has been more difficult than anything I have seen in the past twenty. I am affected by multiple environmental factors. I am in a very different environment from what I'd been in for two decades. The strain of adapting makes it difficult just to survive and to meet my basic needs. My writing has been affected. Everything has been affected.

Surprisingly, I have not fallen apart. I continue to have neuroplasticity. I have become acclimated to the current conditions in which I live. There are some difficult aspects to how I live, and there appears to be some level of danger. Yet, I've taken steps, some of them external and some internal, toward adapting. And now it is harder for me to claim my environment is bad for me. And this is probably a good thing. -more-

This is the beginning of the June 2024 issue, the second monthly issue of the confusingly named Berkeley Daily Planet. It was started as a print paper early in this millennium by three Stanford MBAs who thought there was big money in small papers.Wrong.

The Planet was never daily. After a couple of years using up the venture capital the founders tired of losing money and left town. The remains of the enterprise (a few macs, some software and a bit of old furniture) were acquired by the O’Malley family for $15,000, just in time . We went on to further demonstrate the axiom that the way to make a small fortune in the newspaper business is to start with a larger one.

Eventually, after several excellent but expensive years with a very fine staff, marred by an unpleasant tangle with a few local theocrats, the never-daily print newspaper morphed into an online weekly journal of opinion. Some of the unpaid contributors opine on the topic of“Berkeley” and others on the fate of the whole “Planet”, but they’re all opinionated and also good writers. We're blessed with a great group of literate and interesting regulars.

We maintain our longstanding policy of requiring people to sign their own real names if they want their opinions published unless they have a very convincing reason for needing to be anonymous.

My job is to shoehorn their work into an archaic software framework, plus writing my own occasional topical essay. Nowadays even weekly publishing takes more work than I’m able to contribute myself, especially with a recent broken ankle, so under this new plan pieces will be posted whenever they come in, top down, with a new list in a new issue started around the first of each month.

As always, let us know what you think: opinion@berkeleydailyplanet.com. -more-

Worth Noting – Very Busy Week Ahead:

If attending meetings in person, note meeting locations, some meetings are NOT at the usual sites.

• Sunday, June 2, 2024: From 11 am – 5 pm is day 2 of the Book Festival and the outdoor marketplace
• Monday, June 3, 2024:
  • At 10 am the Land Use Committee meets in the hybrid format with a full agenda.
  • At 2:30 the Civic Arts Commission Grants Subcommittee meets on Zoom.
  • At 3 pm City Council meets in closed session.
  • From 5:30 – 7:30 pm is the first community meeting on updating the federally required Local Hazard Mitigation Plan (LHMP).
  • From 6 – 8 pm is the in-person meeting on the African American Holistic Resource Center.
  • At 7 pm the Peace and Justice Commission meets in person with planning for Gaza Peace Conversation as item 8.
  • At 7 pm the Personnel Board meets in person.
• Tuesday, June 4, 2024:
  • City Council meets in the hybrid format with agenda items 43 - Fire Codes, 44 - Building Codes, 45 - appeal of 18-story mixed-use project at 2113-2115 Kittredge (site of California Theater) and 46 - the biennial 2025 & 2026 budget.
• Wednesday, June 5, 2024:
  • At 2 pm FITES meets in the hybrid format with a full agenda.
  • At 5 pm the Commission on Disability is hybrid for commissioners and in-person only for the public. (Check packet for CoB response to videoconferencing for commissioners.)
  • At 6 pm the Planning Commission meets in person with LHMP on the agenda.
  • At 6:30 pm Board of Library Trustees (BOLT) meets in person.
  • At 6:30 pm the Police Accountability Board (PAB) meets in the hybrid format.
  • At 7 pm the Homeless Services Panel of Experts (HSPE) meets in-person.
• Thursday, June 6, 2024:
  • At 11 am is the online community meeting on the Mental Health Services Act and Proposition 1.
  • At 12 pm the Budget and Finance Committee meets in the hybrid format on the 2025 & 2026 budget and Measure P.
  • At 6:30 pm the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) meets in-person.
  • At 7 pm the Housing Advisory Commission meets in-person.
• Saturday, June 8, 2024:
  • The Berkeley Neighborhoods Council meets on Zoom with tentative agenda CoB response to Homelessness and AC Transit Realignment.

Check out Calscape and Bringing Back the Native Garden Tour websites to brighten up outdoor spaces. https://www.youtube.com/c/BringingBacktheNativesGardenTour



Check the City website for late announcements and meetings posted on short notice at: https://berkeleyca.gov/

At the bottom are the directions for getting on or off the email list for the Activist’s Calendar and Activist’s Diary and how to make the most out of ZOOM with closed captioning, zoom transcripts and converting YouTube to a transcript.

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BERKELEY PUBLIC MEETINGS AND CIVIC EVENTS -more-