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Just got this e-mail from Ziegler: "You will want to read about my bizarre adventures on Saturday at Western CPAC in Newport Beach. You can view the complete story with video here. Please spread this link to those who you think might be interested as there are many who will be trying to spike this story. Also, please don't respond to this e-mail unless it is urgent as my e-mail box needs to be cleaned out and I am way behind in doing that. Thanks so much for your support." REMEMBER: JOHN ZIEGLER WILL BE SPEAKING AT UC MERCED THIS...

UC Protest Movement Continues to Unfold By Richard Brenneman and Riya Bhattacharjee Thursday October 01, 2009 UC Berkeley students headed back to Sproul Plaza Wednesday evening to discuss possible actions to protest the university’s budget cuts and related topics. After a hugely successful student and faculty walkout Thursday, Sept. 24, which received national and international media coverage, about 200 students took part in a general assemby at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 30. The meeting had barely begun by the time the Daily Planet went to press. Student organizers said the meeting was intended as a grassroots effort to brainstorm ideas...

Protesters Disrupt UC Regents Board Meeting The Associated Press Sep. 16, 2009 SAN FRANCISCO -- A meeting of the University of California Board of Regents was briefly disrupted by demonstrators protesting layoffs, executive pay and proposals to raise student fees. The regents left the meeting hall at the UCSF campus Wednesday after more than 100 protesters stood up and chanted for about 15 minutes until they were forced out by campus police. Fourteen demonstrators who refused to leave were handcuffed and escorted out of the meeting room. Most of the demonstrators were UC union employees. UC officials are discussing plans...

Talk about rolling out the welcome mat for new students. Some University of California professors are so peeved that UC's Office of the President has forbidden them from taking furloughs on teaching days that they're planning to walk out on their classes later this month. The date they've chosen - Sept. 24 - is the first day of class at several UC campuses, including UC Davis. Professors advocating for the walkout say they can make political inroads by forcing students to feel the impact of budget cuts prompting the furloughs. "Instructional furloughs pressure the state to cease defunding the UC...

When University of California President Mark Yudof announced a massive furlough plan last month, the idea was that almost all UC employees would have their salaries reduced this year by taking some days off without pay. But a third of UC's 180,000 employees haven't faced the furloughs yet. They're represented by about a dozen labor unions that are fighting Yudof's plan. Speaking Thursday to the Sacramento Press Club, Yudof said UC's unionized workers received 4 percent raises this year, while non-union employees are taking pay cuts ranging from 4 to 10 percent. He said the university would lay off some...

Glass Ceiling on Scholars by: Deborah Lambert, July 15, 2009 When Dr. Ward Connerly heard that the University of California (UC) Regents academics had spearheaded a system-wide rule change, he wasn’t surprised. Connerly, president of the American Civil Rights Institute and architect of Prop. 209, the 1996 policy that effectively banned affirmative action state admissions, recently wrote in mindingthecampus.com that since state school administrators weren’t exactly ecstatic about the skyrocketing Asian enrollment, they recently approved a change in policy. Starting in 2012, “UC will no longer automatically admit the top 12.5% of all students...Instead the eligibility pool will be...

Ward Connerly, former University of California regent, has an article, "Study, Study, Study — A Bad Career Move" in the June 2, 2009, edition of Minding the Campus that should raise any decent American's level of disgust for what's routinely practiced at most of our universities. Mr. Connerly tells of a conversation he had with a high-ranking UC administrator about a proposal that the administrator was developing to increase campus diversity. Connerly asked the administrator why he considered it important to tinker with admissions instead of just letting the chips fall where they may. His response was that unless the...

The treesitters are back on UC Berkeley’s turf, this time occupying the branches of an acacia at People’s Park. Two protesters declared their occupation Monday morning of one of two People’s Park acacias that the university plans to chop down. Unlike the Memorial Stadium treesit, which ended in September with the demolition of a venerable oak grove, the People’s Park protest wasn’t sparked by construction. While the university wanted to clear the stadium grove to make way for a four-level high tech gym and office complex, UC Berkeley spokesperson Irene Hegarty says safety concerns have prompted plans to remove the...

The last UC Santa Cruz treesitter surrendered to campus police Saturday, moments before a chainsaw-wielding crew began to level the redwood grove they had occupied for 402 days. “We knew they were getting ready for an extraction, so we had been preparing,” said Jennifer Charles, who had been the designated media contact for the protest. In the end, when “about 90 police in riot gear” and the commercial tree-cutters appeared Saturday morning, only one treesitter was left in the branches, Charles said. He came down of his own volition, to be promptly booked on charges of trespassing, disturbing the peace...

Berkeley’s tree-sitters faced another day in court this week, and UC Regents were plotting the fate of Memorial Stadium and an interim venue for the Cal Bears. UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof said Wednesday the work at the stadium will require finding a temporary home for the Cal Bears, with the only question being whether the move will be for one season or two. “Based on current planning, it looks now like no more than one year,” he said. While construction of the new high-tech gym and office complex now under way immediately west of the stadium will provide new...

Thousands of high school seniors are racing this month to complete their applications to the University of California in hopes of becoming freshmen next fall. Meanwhile, UC officials are struggling with the question of how to create more opportunities for low-income and minority students to attend the state's elite public campuses. It's been a tense issue since voters passed Proposition 209 in 1996, banning race and gender preferences in public institutions. Now, the UC president and regents are weighing changes to the admissions process that include dropping the SAT subject tests, loosening course requirements, and lowering the minimum grade point...

Berkeley's tree-sitters may have thought their nearly two-year protest was an act of civil disobedience, but to UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau it was actually "racism against our underrepresented minority student athletes." The chancellor's blunt assessment came in a letter he sent to alums Janice and Thomas Boyce at the height of the tree standoff in June. The Boyces had written to Birgeneau to complain about the university's "unscrupulous and perhaps illegal action" of rehiring campus Police Chief Victoria Harrison with a hefty contract - and about what the couple saw as the heavy-handed tactics that the university was using...

“[R]acism against our minority student athletes ... underlies much of the opposition to our student athlete high performance center,” declared UC Berkeley Chancel-lor Robert Birgeneau in a letter sent to two major donors to the school. That allegation in a June 27 letter stunned the recipients, Berke-ley residents and long-time university donors and supporters Thomas and Janice Boyce. The appearance of the letter, given to this newspaper by a third party, comes as the campus is launching the public phase of a $3 billion endowment fund-raiser, with Birgeneau in the lead. The chancellor’s letter followed earlier letters from the couple...

A poster promoting Israeli-Palestinian peace at an AC Transit bus stop in front of UC Berkeley’s Eshelman Hall has been repeatedly vandalized with anti-Semitic slogans and swastikas, authorities said. The poster—part of the “Only in Israel” public awareness campaign launched by San Francisco-based BlueStarPR and sponsored by the Jewish Community Federation and Foundation of the Greater East Bay—has a picture of Israeli Arab soccer star Sowan Abbas calling for coexistence among communities. The poster also gives an example of a soccer team consisting of Jews and Arabs training together in the Arab-Israeli town of Sakhnin. Gabe Weiner, a campus coordinator...

Berkeley's infamous tree-sitters have been hit with a rude surprise since they came down to earth: Judges are socking them with thousands of dollars in fines and legal fees.Ironically, much of the money - which could total more than $10,000 per sitter - is going straight to the University of California, the very institution the tree-sitters were protesting as they tried to save a grove of trees outside Memorial Stadium."It's really vindictive," said an attorney for some the sitters, Dennis Cunningham. "They don't have this kind of money."Maybe, but university lawyer Michael Goldstein isn't making any apologies."We've asked the judge...

BERKELEY (CBS 5 / BCN) ― Three tree-sitters said Wednesday they don't regret trying to stop the University of California, Berkeley from building a sports training facility next to its football stadium. Eight days after the last tree-sitter came down from a 90-foot-tall redwood tree, ending a 21-month protest at a grove of trees next to the stadium, tree-sitter Raul Colocho said, "On one level it was a wonderful experience to be up there.'' But Colocho, also known as "Huck,'' said "it's a shame'' that the university cut down more than 40 trees after it won court approval to go...

Sacramento, CA (AP) -- A state appeals court has reinstated a lawsuit challenging a policy that allows some illegal immigrants to pay lower in-state tuition to attend California's public colleges and universities. The 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento said Monday that a lower court erred in dismissing the suit brought by 42 students who paid far more to attend college because they were out-of-state residents. At issue is a 2002 law that made any California high school graduate who attended at least three years of high school in the state eligible for in-state fee breaks, regardless of immigration...

Four tree-sitters began climbing down from an 80-foot-tall redwood tree near Memorial Stadium this afternoon after UC Berkeley officials agreed to create a committee that will oversee future campus development, a spokesman for the protesters said. UC officials declined to comment on the reported deal, saying they will speak after the nearly 2-year-long standoff ends. But protesters atop the tree pumped their fists in a show of victory. Before climbing down, one of the protesters, nicknamed Huck, shouted, "We love you" to cheering supporters below. The protesters' deal with the university does not include amnesty from criminal charges, said their...

The standoff between UC Berkeley and four tree-sitters outside Memorial Stadium intensified Monday as work crews prepared to remove the protesters from a stripped-down redwood. Workers used bulldozers to clear and level the ground surrounding the redwood, one of two trees standing in the center of the grove after crews cut down 40 other trees over the weekend to make way for a $124 million sports training center. "The university is preparing for what will we hope be a quick and safe extraction in the coming days," campus spokesman Dan Mogulof said. "We had hoped it wouldn't come to this....

BERKELEY — University of California, Berkeley officials said this afternoon that negotiations between the tree-sitters are over and the university is now considering what steps to take to get the four tree-sitters down from their perch within the next day or so. Just two redwoods remain standing in front of Memorial Stadium. Four men continue living in one of the redwoods; the second tree is to be transplanted elsewhere on campus. The university cut off deliveries of food and water to the tree-sitters at 9 a.m. today. In an update this afternoon, university Dan Mogulof said negotiations and discussions with...

UC Berkeley officials warned today that "the clock is ticking" for four tree-sitters perched in a redwood tree outside Memorial Stadium. University police and other campus leaders spent much of the day talking with the remaining members of a 21-month protest over plans to cut down a grove of trees to make way for a $124 million athletic training center. The talks went on as logging crews worked with chainsaws and heavy machinery to clear the trees that were cut down Friday, Saturday and today, after a state appeals court rejected requests to delay construction. By this evening, 40 of...

Berkeley's latest political battle may be coming to an end: the UC has won a series of decisions in cases brought by local activist groups seeking to prevent the destruction of grove of trees right next to the law school. UC wants to build a sports facility there for our athletes. The battle over this grove of trees has created a real circus on campus. At one point, perhaps two dozen people were living in the trees. Some came down voluntarily, and when the UC started plucking them from the trees, one protester known as Dumpster Muffin climbed to the...

BERKELEY -- Except for a lone redwood holding four tree-sitters, UC Berkeley today finished cutting down the long-embattled Memorial Stadium trees that protesters had been fighting to preserve for 21 months. Arborists removed 42 oaks, redwoods, laurels, and other trees from the grove, leaving 28 around the perimeter. Several others, including a mature redwood, are slated to be transplanted to make way for a $124-million student athlete training center. The university has no immediate plans to forcibly extricate the tree-sitters, but hopes they'll come down voluntarily now that the grove has been removed, said campus spokesman Dan Mogulof. The campus...

BERKELEY - Crews began cutting down trees next to Memorial Stadium at UC Berkeley late Friday, 21 months after activists climbed into the trees to protest the university's plan to raze them to build a $140 million sports training center center. Work crews with chainsaws and bulldozers arrived at the university grove Friday and by 4 p.m. six trees had been chopped down. Clad in black ski masks, the four remaining tree protesters who were driven into a single redwood several months ago, remained in the tree Friday and at times sparred with arborists, tossing a bottle and branches toward...

BERKELEY, CA (KGO) -- U.C. Berkeley may begin cutting down the oak trees at the center of an ongoing battle. They pulled out the chainsaw after a huge legal victory on Thursday. At about 8:30 am on Friday, the chainsaws started up and branches of the tree that is home to the four remaining tree sitters began coming down. U.C. says this is the beginning of the end, but supporters say they are not giving up without a fight. For starters Friday morning, tree cutters removed every branch below their first platform. "We want to continue to make conditions for...

The state Court of Appeal refused Thursday to issue an order barring UC Berkeley from bringing the chainsaws to chop down trees at Memorial Stadium. Stephan Volker, attorney for the California Oak Foundation, said he will appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court Friday morning, asking the state’s highest court to preserve the grove—at least for the moment. The ruling prompted an email alert to supporters of the ongoing tree-sit:“the appeals court has ruled, UCB can cut trees any time they want, get ready, we need witnesses & direct action.” The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the...

BERKELEY, Calif.—UC Berkeley officials said they would immediately move forward on their long-delayed plan to build a new sports center after an appeals court refused Thursday to block the project that inspired lawsuits and tree-sitting protests. The California Court of Appeal denied a request from two citizens groups for an injunction barring construction of the athletic training facility near Memorial Stadium. Although the groups indicated they plan to take the case to the state Supreme Court, campus officials said they wouldn't wait any longer.

BERKELEY —Two groups defeated in a lawsuit against UC Berkeley's plan to build a $125 million athletic training center near an earthquake fault appealed the ruling Thursday to the state court of appeals. In the first step of the appeal, the California Oak Foundation and the Panoramic Hill Association will ask the court to forbid construction of the facility until the court begins deliberations on the case, which could take 10 to 18 months, according to a statement from the two groups. The court could make a determination on whether UC Berkeley can begin construction while it awaits the outcome...

BERKELEY, Calif.— A judge has lifted an order blocking the University of California from building a sports center that has been the focus of an impassioned tree-sitting protest. Superior Court Judge Barbara Miller's ruling Tuesday clears the way for UC Berkeley to begin constructing an athletic training facility where several dozen oak trees now stand. Opponents of the project say they plan to appeal. University officials said they have promised construction will not begin until the state appeals court has ruled.

BERKELEY —UC Berkeley will voluntarily delay construction of a $125 million athletic training center at Memorial Stadium until a state appeals court considers a lawsuit opposing the project, university officials said Monday. The project, which is increasing in cost by $750,000 a month due to delays from the lawsuit, is now stalled until at least the end of September, said Cal spokesman Dan Mogulof. The $125 million project has been held up in court since December of 2006. In July, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara Miller ruled in favor of the school and against three groups who sued the...

BERKELEY -- Workers cut down two-dozen tree limbs and removed sleeping gear and other supplies today as UC Berkeley officials tried to coax four protesters down from a redwood tree near Cal's Memorial Stadium, but the tree-sitters defiantly refused to leave. The developments came as a judge is expected to rule soon whether to lift an order barring the campus from cutting down the redwood and 43 other trees in the stadium grove to build an athletic training center. Protesters in varying numbers have been sitting in the trees since Dec. 1, 2006, saying they will not leave unless UC...

Chainsaws lopped off all lower branches of the last remaining bastion of the Memorial Stadium tree-sit Thursday as UC Berkeley prepared for their final moves against the protesters in the oak grove. Contract arborists, equipped with Plexiglass shields, worked from the platforms of two cherrypickers, whacking off the branches of the redwood and two nearby oaks. “The removal of these branches will make it very difficult for those who are illegally occupying university property to move back into the trees they had formerly occupied, and will help prevent new protesters from joining them,” Vice Chancellor Nathan Brostrom said in a...

BERKELEY _ Arborists from UC Berkeley are sawing down lower branches of redwood trees and Coast Live Oaks at the protest site in front of Memorial Stadium this morning. The idea, university spokesman Dan Mokulof said, is to ensure that no one else can join the protest. It will also confine the four remaining protesters to a single, tree he said. They remain in the tree pending resolution of an appeal of lawsuits challenging the university's decision to cut down the trees and build a sports training facility on the site. No one is being harmed, Mokulof said. "We're trimming...

Legal filing pulled over technicality, homeowners group says — BERKELEY — Two plaintiffs who sued to stop UC Berkeley from building a $140 million sports training center next to the university's football stadium have withdrawn a motion for a new trial.The California Oak Foundation and the Panoramic Hill Association — two of the three plaintiffs that sued the university in December 2006 to stop the center from being built on a grove of trees — where protesters have been living for 20 months — had filed the separate motion in Alameda County Superior Court based on alleged building code violations.But...

A federal judge has ruled the University of California can deny course credit to Christian high school graduates who have been taught with textbooks that reject evolution and declare the Bible infallible, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.U.S. District Judge James Otero of Los Angeles ruled Friday that the school's review committees did not discriminate against Christians because of religious viewpoints when it denied credit to those taught with certain religious textbooks, but instead made a legitimate claim that the texts failed to teach critical thinking and omitted important science and history topics. Charles Robinson, the university's vice president for legal...

A federal judge says the University of California can deny course credit to applicants from Christian high schools whose textbooks declare the Bible infallible and reject evolution. Rejecting claims of religious discrimination and stifling of free expression, U.S. District Judge James Otero of Los Angeles said UC's review committees cited legitimate reasons for rejecting the texts - not because they contained religious viewpoints, but because they omitted important topics in science and history and failed to teach critical thinking.

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge says the University of California can deny course credit to applicants from Christian high schools whose textbooks declare the Bible infallible and reject evolution. Rejecting claims of religious discrimination and stifling of free expression, U.S. District Judge James Otero of Los Angeles said UC's review committees cited legitimate reasons for rejecting the texts - not because they contained religious viewpoints, but because they omitted important topics in science and history and failed to teach critical thinking. Otero's ruling Friday, which focused on specific courses and texts, followed his decision in March that found no...

The fight between UC Berkeley and two groups fighting to stop a sports training center from being built will drag on after the state Court of Appeal on Thursday left in place an injunction stopping construction. The case now returns to Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara Miller for further work and hearings. The city of Berkeley, the Panoramic Hill Association and the California Oak Foundation sued UC Berkeley in December 2006 to stop it from building its $140 million sports training center, where 44 trees are planted. People have been living in the trees since then, and at least...

UC Berkeley, poised to clear the Memorial Stadium oak grove for a sports training center, has asked the city for help to control a growing encampment on a nearby street median of people who support tree-sitting protesters. Campus Police Chief Victoria Harrison last week asked the Berkeley police and city manager's office to remove the encampment, which includes 10 to 20 people, tents, dogs, sleeping bags and banners along about 100 feet of the city-maintained divider on Piedmont Avenue. "The median is not meant to be a campground or a park. It's a major traffic artery for campus," said Harrison....

SANTA CRUZ — Firebombs were intentionally set on a porch and in a car belonging to two UC Santa Cruz researchers in separate incidents early Saturday in what police have classified as acts of domestic terrorism. Police are calling one of the bombings an attempted homicide. In one incident, a faculty member's home on Village Circle off High Street was intentionally firebombed about 5:43 a.m., according to police. The residence belonged to UCSC researcher David Feldheim, a neuroscientist who works with mice. He was one of 13 researchers listed in threatening animal rights pamphlets found Tuesday in a downtown coffee...

UC Berkeley asked a state appeals court Friday to allow the campus to begin construction of a sports training center next to Memorial Stadium, where tree-sitters have waged a protest for the past 20 months. The university is eager to get started on the project and clear out the four remaining tree-sitters before the Cal football team's first game at Memorial Stadium on Aug. 30, when 70,000 fans are expected to converge on the area, a UC attorney said. In a 77-page brief filed with the state Court of Appeal in San Francisco, the university says it has suffered extreme...

UC Berkeley has been hit by a new delay in its plan to cut down trees in a grove occupied by tree-sitters next to Memorial Stadium and build an athletic training center there. A 17-month-old court order blocking the project had been set to expire after Tuesday, following this week's decision by an Alameda County Superior Court Judge allowing UC to build the center. But beginning today, the injunction will be extended at least 20 days following a notice of appeal filed by two groups that sued to block the project, the California Oak Foundation and the Panoramic Hill Association....

Berkeley -- Angry shouts of "Shame! Shame!" erupted in the Berkeley City Chambers Thursday night after the council declined to appeal a court ruling against the city allowing UC Berkeley to build an athletic training center next to Memorial Stadium. The conflict has drawn wide attention because of a 20-month protest by tree-sitters at the project site who have demanded that UC preserve the grove of more than 80 oaks, redwoods and other trees next to the stadium. The city had sued - along with stadium neighbors and a tree preservation group - to block the project. The other two...

Score one for the Berkeley tree-sitters. Hours after UC Berkeley won a court decision Tuesday allowing a long-blocked athletic training center to be built next to Memorial Stadium, supporters of illegal tree-sitters occupying the project's site commandeered a new tree on the main campus and strung ropes from it to the besieged aerial protesters. But late in the day, campus officials reached an agreement with the protesters to remove the lines and abandon the newly occupied tree, UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said. Campus officials were stunned Wednesday morning to find two more tree-sitters able to travel with ease and,...

Berkeley’s treesitters and Memorial Stadium neighbors who had sued to block construction of a gym at the site of the adjacent oak grove were dealt a resounding setback Tuesday. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara J. Miller issued a judgment that upholds the university’s plans for a four-level gym at the grove site and hits the litigants—including the city and the late City Councilmember Dona Spring—with an order that they pay most of the university’s legal bill. Her order also ends, on July 29, the injunction which has blocked construction and the destruction of the grove. Construction could begin immediately...

Berkeley -- UC Berkeley can build its proposed athlete training center, an Alameda County Superior Court judge ruled late today, handing a crucial victory to the university in a protracted battle marked by a highly publicized protest by tree-sitters since December 2006. The long-awaited ruling by Judge Barbara Miller said the university has overcome the legal barriers to the project, which has been blocked by a court injunction since February 2007. Miller said the injunction can be lifted in a week. She postponed the removal of the injunction for seven days to give opponents an opportunity to appeal to the...

UC Berkeley, eager to resolve the tree-sitters' standoff outside Memorial Stadium before football season begins, asked a judge Thursday to allow construction on a sports training center to begin as soon as next week. The university also asked the city of Berkeley, a neighborhood group and a group of oak tree advocates, who have sued UC to block the project, to put up a $1.5 million-a-month bond if they choose to appeal the judge's ruling on whether the $125 million training center can be built safely and legally. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara Miller said she will decide soon...

One of the four tree-sitters at the Memorial Stadium oak grove descended from the foliage Monday, leaving three protesters attempting to stop UC Berkeley's plans to build a sports training center. Jeffrey "Muskrat" Musgrave, 30, climbed out of the trees at about 12:30 p.m., and was arrested by UC police. He was charged with trespassing, violating a court order, vandalism and possession of marijuana, said campus spokesman Dan Mogulof. Musgrave was taken to Berkeley city jail, where he is expected to be cited and released, Mogulof said. Musgrave, who joined the 19-month-old tree-sit protest last week, came down due to...

BERKELEY -- Three of the Memorial Stadium tree-sitters left their perches today and Tuesday night, leaving just four protesters making a stand against UC's plans to build an athletic training center in the grove, UC Berkeley officials said. The three protesters, who have not been identified, climbed down from the trees late Tuesday night, campus spokesman Dan Mogulof said. One of them was arrested by campus police while the other two climbed up a different tree, he said.After talking to police this morning, the two came down. All three have been charged with trespassing and violating a court order to...

University hopes concessions set stage for athletic training center next door - UC Berkeley made key concessions Friday in its long-running standoff with the city, tree-sitting protesters and neighbors of Memorial Stadium that the university hopes will clear the way for its plans to build an athletic training center next to the stadium. In documents submitted in Alameda County Superior Court, the university says it will scrap all non-football events at Memorial Stadium and drop plans to attach a concrete support beam to the stadium's west wall, two roadblocks cited in a judge's interim ruling in the case last week.UC's...