Dona Spring dreams of visiting Point Reyes, something the 55-year-old Berkeley councilmember has never done before. After rheumatoid arthritis left Spring wheelchair bound in 1972, weekend getaways have been few and far between. -more-

In a crowded field in which candidates are trying to distinguish themselves from one other—such as in the current four member June 3 Democratic primary to succeed Loni Hancock as California Assemblymember from the 14th Assembly District—individual and group endorsements can be a key factor in victory or defeat. -more-

The Berkeley City Council will meet today (Tuesday) with a busy agenda, including putting tax measures on the ballot, the city’s proposed sunshine ordinance, competing density bonus provisions, its position on spraying to thwart the Light Brown Apple Moth and a proposal to charge for evening street parking downtown. -more-

Foreclosures nationwide soared 57 percent in March, and rates may be running even higher in Oakland as East Bay cities are caught in the turmoil of the subprime mortgage disaster. -more-

A Berkeley peace activist, thwarted in one suicide attempt, apparently succeeded in another, more dramatic bid to end his life Friday. -more-

Berkeley planning commissioners will holding hearings Wednesday on the Southside Plan’s draft environmental impact report (EIR) and proposed amendments to the city’s wireless ordinance. -more-

Pacific Steel Casting’s appeal of a small claims court decision which went against the company in November began last week and is expected to go on for the next two months, a spokesperson for the steel foundry told the Planet Friday. -more-

We were standing on the corner in front of Rice’s Barbershop. There were about six of us between the ages of 18 and 21, African American males who had grown up together in the same West Philadelphia neighborhood. A black Chevy slowly approached and someone from inside the car rolled down the window leaned out the passenger side and shouted, “The Republicans are paying $75, go to the Overbrook High gym; the Republicans are paying $75!” -more-

“One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds,” Aldo Leopold wrote long before the first Earth Day. He was thinking about land abuse in the Southwest, but his words have a much broader resonance. -more-

For anyone who has been ignoring the news as of late food is an enormous issue this year. Prices are up 83 percent since 2005, sparking riots in countries around the globe including Egypt, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, and Indonesia. In Haiti the unrest has even led to deaths and the fall of the government. -more-

As a graduating Berkeley student majoring in the biological sciences, a left leaning member of the San Francisco Bay Area and a voter wishing to make informed decisions, not a day goes by that I don't hear something on campus or in the news about biofuels. Biofuels are the controversial topic of conversation today, and with politicians voicing their support and violent food riots occurring in Haiti, perhaps it is time to seriously question the merits of biofuels and take some time for self reflection. -more-

Ben Bernanke has a lot in common with the next president. The pinnacle of his career will mostly involve cleaning up someone else’s mess. When he took over as chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank in 2006, Bernanke stepped into a quagmire so deep and wide that he sometimes has that stunned, wide-eyed look of a drowning man. -more-

On April 8, General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker told the Senate the president’s Iraq surge strategy has “worked” and, therefore, current troop levels should be maintained. The hearings came at a time when public attention has shifted from the occupation to the economy. Given the looming recession, why should Americans care how long our troops stay in Iraq? -more-

Last week’s column gave an overview of expansion plans by the University of California’s Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, including two huge new buildings in Strawberry Canyon: the Computation Research and Theoretical Facility (CRT) and the Helios Facility. A group called Save Strawberry Canyon is fighting the expansion for a whole litany of reasons: earthquake and fire risks; impacts on air and water quality and greenhouse gas emissions; damage to a significant cultural landscape; procedural flaws in the lab’s Long Range Development Plan (LRDP); and, not least, endangered species issues. -more-

Today is the 38th anniversary of the first Earth Day, a media event created in the United States with the sponsorship of a senator, Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. In other countries around the world, Earth Days coincide with the vernal equinox, around March 20, but in this country it’s been April 22 since it started. (The DAR once spread the scurrilous rumor that the date was chosen because April 22, 1969, was the centennial of Lenin’s birth.) -more-

THE MAYOR’S -more-

Most of us hold an unshakable belief that an informed citizenry is the very heart of democracy. Motivated by this belief, our citizens group is drafting a Sunshine Ordinance intended to make the workings of our local government transparent. Similar ordinances have already been adopted by several Bay Area cities, but the effort has been repeatedly delayed here. Who in Berkeley could possibly oppose this idea? Not surprisingly, officials who benefit from keeping the public ill-informed have for years resisted shedding light on City business. Now, however, these sunshine-obstructionists, led by Mayor Bates, have sprung into action; they are promoting a weak, so-called “Sunshine Ordinance” in an effort to preempt our proposal. -more-

Chelsea Clinton recently forwarded me an article by New York feminist Robin Morgan in support of her mother’s candidacy. Though Chelsea and I have never met, I somehow ended up on one of her thousands of listserves. Morgan’s piece listed contemptible misogynistic behaviors practiced in various locations around the world and in different periods of history. By way of somewhat questionable logic, she bundled them all together as proof that Hillary is the best candidate, and angrily denouncing naysayers, fired it off. -more-

Dear Christopher Edley Jr., Dean of UC Berkeley Law School: -more-

House Democrats’ decision to delay consideration of the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement until the next administration represents a move to protect the rights of the Colombian indigenous communities and U.S. national security interests. The decision comes after President Bush sent the controversial trade agreement to the House, which under presidential “fast track authority” requires an up or down legislative vote after ninety days. “Free trade” has most recently been a thorny topic, especially among Democrats, with Hillary Rodham Clinton’s recent dismissal of a top advisor, Mark Penn, for his work on the Colombia deal. Although the White House claims that the trade pact will “enhance national security” by “strengthening a key democratic ally” in the region and “bring economic gains to both sides,” the reality of the situation is quite another matter. -more-