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Parent groups are crying "hypocrisy" after a video surfaced showing the president of the Berkeley teachers union dropping off his two-year-old daughter at an in-person preschool. Matt Meyer, president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, has fought for what he called the "gold standard" for the teachers he represents — saying Berkeley schools should only reopen to in-person learning when educators are vaccinated, among other criteria. A tentative plan between the Berkeley Unified School District and Berkeley Federation of Teachers in mid-February would see preschoolers through second grade returning to class at the end of March and other grades staggering...

A little more than a year ago, 2,000 antifa tried to shut down my speech at UC Berkeley, according to police on the scene. The Berkeley police chief had ordered her officers to stand outside the building like mute ninjas, and make no arrests, unless they personally witnessed a felony being committed in front of them. So barring a bank suddenly popping up on the sidewalk and an antifa attempting to rob it, I had no official protection from 2,000 violent, mentally disturbed thugs. Thank God I had the Proud Boys. There had been no warning of the antifa mobilization...

The administrators at the University of California, Berkeley, have launched strict coronavirus lockdown rules that include a ban on outdoor exercise. The university announced that its lockdown would last at least until February 15, but that date is already an extension from the original February 8 end time. Shockingly, the school exclaimed that the police would monitor the lockdown. “Due to the 14-day incubation period of this virus, it is too early to be sure we have contained this current surge,” UC Berkeley told students, according to the Daily Californian. “We understand this extension is frustrating, but please understand this...

Police officers monitoring dormitory halls, frequent inspections of student ID cards — these are among the measures being implemented in a dorm lockdown as UC Berkeley continues to grapple with a spike of COVID-19 cases on campus. First reported by the Daily Californian, the self-sequester mandate for UC Berkeley students living in the dormitories, originally intended to end Monday, has been extended for another week, with stricter security measures in place. “We don’t wish for residents to be alarmed by this increased UCPD presence, but we must ensure the health of our community,” an email sent out to students reads....

The city of Berkeley urged residents of the hills to consider staying elsewhere amid what is expected to be the year's biggest wind event set to begin Sunday. "Hills residents should consider pre-emptively evacuating to the homes of friends, family, or to hotels until dangerous weather subsides," a press release from Berkeley reads. Warning of the potential for wildfires during the wind event and possible blocked roads and exit routes due to fallen trees, the press release urged Hills residents to "reduce the risk to your household" by leaving Sunday afternoon before a fire starts, especially for those residents who...

Berkeley’s City Council has passed an ordinance that will remove unhealthy food from grocery store checkout aisles. The ordinance is the first of its kind in the U.S., supporters said. The new policy will require retailers larger than 2,500 square feet to stock healthy food at the register and in areas where customers wait in line, instead of items like chips, soda and candy. It forbids food items with 5 grams of added sugars and 200 milligrams of sodium, chewing gum and mints with added sugars, and beverages with added sugars or artificial sweeteners. In Berkeley, the policy will affect...

Berkeley in northern California will ban the sale of junk food from supermarket checkout displays -- becoming the first US city to do so, according to local media. The city council unanimously passed a bill this week to promote healthier eating, by prohibiting products with over 5 grams of added sugar or 250mg of sodium from checkout aisles. Drinks high in sugar and artificial sweeteners will also be restricted. "The healthy checkout ordinance is essential for community health, especially in the time of COVID-19," said councilmember Kate Harrison. "What is good for Berkeley customers is also good for our businesses."

BERKELEY, Calif. - The man suspected of killing a 19-year-old UC Berkeley student in June has been charged with murder Berkeley Police Department said on Monday. Tony Walker, 60, of Berkeley was arrested at his home August 20 for the shooting death of Seth Smith on June 15. Smith, who was set to graduate from Cal next year, was found on the sidewalk of Dwight Way near Valley Street. Alameda County District Attorney's office charged Walker, a convicted felon, with murder as well as a number of criminal enhancements. Police had offered a $50,000 reward for information in this case....

It’s been scrawled across the pavement in front of government buildings in bright yellow paint, etched into cardboard signs and poster boards as a rallying cry during protests and addressed as a possibility in countless city council meetings. “Defund the police.” While cities across the country continue to reel in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd, some city officials, politicians and activists are taking action, working on measures aimed to divert funding away from what they view as bloated police budgets, and toward community-based organizations. The objective, commonly summed up with the controversial phrase, has both ardent...

Last week, I posted an item about a Psychology Today article titled "The Ideological Animal" (now fully available at the website). The article purports to explain what motivates those of us who made the post-9/11 shift from left to right and it uses my story, as well as the discussion group I started, the 9/11 Neocons, as an example. As I indicated at the time, I have no serious complaints about the article's take on me, which I found to be generally fair. Mostly, I objected to the inaccurate use of the term "pro-war rallies" to describe my days as...

After hours of emotional public testimony and a middle-of-the-night vote by Berkeley leaders, the progressive California city is moving forward with a novel proposal to replace police with unarmed civilians during traffic stops in a bid to curtail racial profiling. The City Council early Wednesday approved a police reform proposal that calls for a public committee to hash out details of a new Berkeley Police Department that would not respond to calls involving people experiencing homelessness or mental illness. The committee also would pursue creating a separate department to handle transportation planning and enforcing parking and traffic laws. The council...

In the East Bay, in what's believed to be a first in the nation proposal, the City of Berkeley has proposed ending police traffic enforcement. Next week, Berkeley's City Council will vote on a proposal to create a Department of Transportation and use employees in that department to make traffic stops instead of Berkeley Police officers. "A minor traffic violation should not have resulted in the murder of a black or brown body, but at the same time we can also re-examine the nature of punitive law enforcement and broken windows policing that makes traffic enforcement so deadly to begin...

Hundreds of students at the University of California -- Berkeley are discussing a plan to create a course solely to help international students on F-1 student visas avoid deportation under new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) regulations -- and they say at least one faculty member is on board, Fox News has learned. The plan, which could run afoul of laws against immigration fraud if enacted in its current form, was hatched hours after ICE announced Monday that foreign students in the country are required to take some in-person instruction or they will not be allowed to legally remain...

The leftist rot has burrowed so deep into the timbers of the nation that it is moot whether it can ever be pumiced clean. The minions of the left -- unhinged academics, ignorant politicians, radical feminists, “social justice” warriors, global warmists, Deep State operatives, the Democrat party and similar political organizations throughout the West, media fifth columnists, the various agents of institutional culture, left-wing sans culottes, union syndicalists and metrotextual intellectuals... *snip* Where did all this come from? A starting-point is always elusive -- one recalls the lone provocative idea of deconstructionist Jacques Derrida, namely, that origins always recede. Was...

"His many personal and professional flaws, including his bankruptcies, sexual scandals, crude and cruel language, repelled me. I saw him as a populist, even a demagogue, who had not prepared for the heavy responsibilities of the presidency," he said in a new book, which was profiled by Paul Bedard in his Washington Secrets column. Yoo worried, at the time, that Trump would "test, evade, or even violate the Constitution." Bedard explains, "Over the course of 300 pages comparing Trump moves to the wishes of the Founding Fathers, Yoo discovered that despite constant criticism that Trump was destroying the Constitution, he...

Dear Professors I am one of your colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley. I have met you both personally but do not know you closely, and am contacting you anonymously, with apologies. I am worried that writing this email publicly might lead to me losing my job, and likely all future jobs in my field. In your recent departmental emails you mentioned our pledge to diversity, but I am increasingly alarmed by the absence of diversity of opinion on the topic of the recent protests and our community response to them. In the extended links and resources you provided,...

An anonymous history professor at U.C. Berkeley has penned an open letter against the current narratives of racial injustice underpinning the BLM movement and ongoing protests over the death of George Floyd. Its authenticity was confirmed by Kentucky State University Assistant Professor of Political Science, Wilfred Reilly, who says he was sent a copy of the letter along with Stanford University economist Thomas Sowell. UC Berkeley History Professor’s Open Letter Against BLM, Police Brutality and Cultural Orthodoxy Dear Professors I am one of your colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley. I have met you both personally but do not...

As higher education braces for the impact of coronavirus, the nation’s largest university system is poised to undermine the value of its own degrees by dropping admissions testing for political reasons. Last week University of California President Janet Napolitano released a plan to stop using the SAT and ACT in admissions. The tests would be optional for freshmen applying to enter in 2022 and excluded except in certain circumstances for 2023 and 2024. Ms. Napolitano hopes the university can create its own test for 2025, but even if that’s not possible she wants the tests scrapped entirely from then on....

A self-proclaimed "vegan runner" from Berkeley, California received backlash on Saturday after asking neighbors to close their windows when cooking meat because the smells were 'overpowering and offensive.' The rant was posted to @BestNextDoor -- an account that houses neighborhood drama -- which showed the runner had requested nearby residents only barbeque vegetables because it's "always hard for me this time of year when the weather starts warming up." "Several nights a week I'm out running around dinnertime and when people have their windows open I can smell what they are cooking," the request said. "I've noticed a sharp uptick...

... [A] task force of the faculty senate at the University of California, of all places, is resisting the movement to ban test scores in admissions. The 227-page report, completed in late January, recommends that the UC system keep standardized tests like the ACT and SAT as admissions requirements, and it demolishes the logic of the politically motivated anti-testing movement. The report dispatches the myth that standardized math and reading tests are useless for predicting college performance. Based on data from tens of thousands of students in the UC system, the report concludes that “test scores are currently better predictors...