Free Republic

BERKELEY-- Here's a bit of irony: The tree sitters who have been living in a grove of historic oaks they want to save are being accused of lopping off the top of a redwood and a cedar to make room for at least one sleeping platform. "They have not been cited because we don't know who the responsible (person) is ... it's still under investigation," said Mitch Celaya, UC Berkeley's assistant police chief. "The trees are permanently damaged. It's not like the top of the tree is going to grow back." Since early December, a small group of people have...

The sticky subject of the Iraq war has prompted Country Joe McDonald and fellow organizers to pull the plug on Berkeley's annual Veterans Day observance -- at least for now. After much debate, organizers just couldn't agree on whether to allow a parent from the anti-war Gold Star Families for Peace to speak. "It's ironic, to say the least, that this has happened in Berkeley,'' said Country Joe, whose anti-Vietnam War anthem, "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag,'' made famous the question: "One, two, three -- what are we fighting for?'' Now, one might think any veterans event would have a rough time getting...

Maudelle Shirek may not get her name on a post office in her hometown, but the city could name a different building after the godmother of Berkeley progressives. She is so revered in one of the nation's most liberal cities that a committee of city officials and citizens has been meeting for four months to find ways to honor Shirek, who left the City Council last year after 20 years and was known for her political activism on national and global issues. On Wednesday, the day after Republicans in the House of Representatives rejected an effort to name Berkeley's main...

Berkeley may be the home of the Free Speech Movement, but expressing emotion with a car horn is apparently not a protected form of communication there. An Oakland woman alleges that Berkeley police violated her First Amendment rights when an officer ticketed her last year for honking in support of a labor union's picketing outside the Claremont Resort and Spa to protest rising health care costs and other issues. Carol Harris, 51, is appealing her $143 "unreasonable use of horn'' citation to Berkeley's Police Review Commission, which will consider the case on Thursday. Harris was among nearly 40 motorists who...

'I'm glad the FBI and CIA are all over these terrorist threats', I say [to the White House press office] 'But I have a question about what else we're doing.''Yes?' [replied the liason]'Has anyone asked what they want?' Silence. 'You know the terorists who are out to kill innocent Americans? What do they want? To stop this I mean.'She says she'll have to get someone to get back to me. No one did.I take it these are questions that the White House is not accustomed to fielding.

Workers at the nations only unionized peep show walked the picket line, arguing that a contract offer by the management at the 'Lusty Lady' Club is too skimpy.Wearing pink T-shirts that read 'Bad Girls Like Good Contracts,' dancers banged on their pots Monday and chanted 'Two, Four, Six, Eight..pay me more to gyrate!''We want respect, said Vivian 27, who has worked at the Lusty Lady in San Francisco's touristy North Beach district, for a year and a half.The dancers are complaining that the clubs latest contract offer cuts hourly wages and eliminates their one day of sick pay. Sick pay...