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I was certain that the three Berkeley women were too naive and inexperienced to realize the bay was as doomed as the orchards of the Santa Clara Valley, which were being obliterated for subdivisions and eventual siliconization. The notion that the big-buck developers, the shoreline cities and some of the country's biggest corporations could be turned back by a few starry-eyed bay savers seemed preposterous. But I admired their idealism and kept my cynicism to myself. I soon had occasion to become less skeptical.
Unlike many do-gooders, they realized that protests were not enough. They would need a positive plan of action. So they promptly formed the Save San Francisco Bay Association, soon to be known as Save the Bay. Kerr coordinated the political strategy; McLaughlin did outreach, speaking to clubs and civic groups; Gulick managed the administrative paperwork.
They mailed out 700 flyers alerting residents to the threat of the bay's disappearance and were surprised to receive some 600 responses with pledges of support. They consulted economists, law experts, and biological scientists and assembled an impressive array of facts. The bay's shallows and tidelands, they learned, were incubators of many forms of marine organisms that were vital to commercial and sport fishing and the ecological chain of life. Filling these areas would destroy the fisheries and create a biological desert.
The fills would also change the climate. The bay acts as a regional thermostat -- bayside cities are cooled several degrees in the summer by breezes off the water. Filling would result in hotter summers and less-temperate winters.
By 1963, Save the Bay was able to persuade Berkeley to shelve the plan to double its size by filling. But with other cities and corporations planning to fill, the group's leaders realized they would need action from Sacramento. They had some save-the-bay bills introduced in the Legislature and sent busloads of bay savers to hearings -- unsuccessfully at first.
A turning point came when Kerr was able to reach San Francisco state Sen. Eugene McAteer, whom she had met socially. He was a powerhouse in the Legislature, hoped to run for mayor of San Francisco and knew a good political issue when he saw one.
The cause had attracted some potent support from newspapers, civic leaders and celebrities such as radio-TV star Don Sherwood, who had a huge audience. But above all, the issue had captured the imagination of ordinary residents.
Membership in Save the Bay grew by the thousands, including people from other states who had fond memories of their visits here. The bay had an undeniable charisma. This shining expanse of water at the edge of the continent was a symbol of nature's beneficence, California's spectacular past and the historic promise of the Western Gate.
McAteer was able to push through a bill creating a study group that evolved into the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission. It was an ingenious innovation, the first agency in the country to limit regional development, with unprecedented power over cities, counties and private developers. Its permission was required for anything built or dumped in the bay.
McAteer had a fatal heart attack in 1967, before the commission received final approval from the Legislature. By 1969, the three Berkeley women, after eight years of unremitting toil, sweat and tears, could lift their champagne glasses in victory.
Their success was not limited to its effect on the bay. In retrospect, the save-the-bay campaign, beginning in 1961, marked the origin of the environmental movement. Although it had roots in the conservation movement, which had also started here when John Muir founded the Sierra Club in 1892, conservationists were focused on wild lands and national parks.
The first person I heard use the word environment, in the sense we now know it, was Kerr. John W. Gardner, a former Cabinet officer and later founder of the reform group Common Cause, had made a speech in UC Berkeley's Wheeler Hall on the problems confronting the nation. Kerr, who had known him socially through her husband, the UC president, charged up to him afterward and said: "Why didn't you talk about the environment?" He was obviously taken by surprise and could only mumble.
That new usage came to be part of the American vocabulary and a symbol of radical new cultural values. The save-the-bay effort was the first major revolt against the dominant postwar mind-set of unrestricted development, the mandate of "progress," the tyranny of bulldozers. It demonstrated the power of grassroots action in a democracy and provided a model for emulation elsewhere.
The most immediate reaction came from Southern California, where most of the ocean coastline was being walled off by beachfront luxury houses. Ellen Stern Harris, a leading activist for parks there, was inspired by the success of the bay savers to propose a similar effort on a much larger scale. She suggested to a committee of the Legislature that the bay commission model be used to control development along the entire California coast.
Other activists, including publicists Janet Adams and Claire Dedrick, who had very effectively lent their talents to the bay campaign, enthusiastically promoted Harris' idea, as did various chapters of the Sierra Club and local conservation groups. The result, after a long struggle similar to the bay effort, was the 1972 passage of Proposition 20, creating the California Coastal Commission.
The new commission was headed by the same leaders who had guided the bay commission -- Chairman Mel Lane, the well-connected publisher of Sunset Books; and executive director Joe Bodovitz, a former newspaper reporter with an intimate knowledge of state and local politics.
The bay campaign had helped inspire similar local battles to curb the bulldozer throughout the Bay Area. Plans for freeways through Golden Gate Park and around the San Francisco waterfront were defeated, as was an effort to build a nuclear power plant on scenic Bodega Head. There was a gradual proliferation of local groups like the Committee for Green Foothills, Save Mount Diablo, San Bruno Mountain Watch, the Greenbelt Alliance, San Francisco Tomorrow and the Marin Agricultural Land Trust, which set a pattern for land trusts preserving farmlands and open space throughout the country.
On New Year's Day 1970, President Richard Nixon with much fanfare signed the National Environmental Policy Act, which embodied that revolutionary instrument, the environmental impact statement, required of all federally financed projects. Most states later enacted equivalent requirements. The environment had become a major force in American politics.
Fast forward to 2007: 46 years after Kerr, Gulick and McLaughlin founded Save the Bay, the bay is some 40,000 acres larger than it was in 1961. Save the Bay, now headed by David Lewis, has organized similar groups into a national network, "Restore Our Estuaries," ranging from Puget Sound to Chesapeake Bay to Galveston Bay in Texas.
After a period in which the environment was eclipsed nationally as a political issue by wars, epidemics, crime and corruption, the threat of global warming has pushed the environment again into the headlines. In the resulting rebirth of environmental concerns, this region is again playing a leading role.
San Francisco may soon have the world's greenest building when the new home of the California Academy of Sciences opens in Golden Gate Park. The city's proposed Public Utilities Commission building at the Civic Center will have similar innovations, including solar cells and wind turbines. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature have shattered precedent by cooperating across party lines to cut the state's emission of greenhouse gasses by 25 percent within 14 years.
PG&E, once the bane of environmentalists, offers rebates to consumers who reduce their use of natural gas. Peter Dundee, the corporation's CEO, concerned with power-plant emissions of greenhouse gases, has issued a statement that would have been unbelievable coming from a leading industrialist at any previous time in U.S. history. He told The Chronicle's David Lazarus: "Congress needs to impose regulations on us." Other industrialists asking for emissions restrictions include heads of General Electric, Alcoa, DuPont, Ford, Chrysler and General Motors.
The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has long been involved with reduced-emission projects and energy-efficient devices, such as compact fluorescent light bulbs.
Its director, Nobel physicist Steve Chu, plans to make it a world center of green technology, financed by BP's munificent $500 million grant. Meantime, Silicon Valley venture capitalists are eager to lead the green-tech boom.
Kay Kerr, feisty as ever at 96, watches over the bay from her home on the Berkeley Hills. Esther Gulick died at 84 in 1995. Sylvia McLaughlin nimbly climbed a UC Berkeley oak tree shortly after her 90th birthday to protest the university's planned removal of many oaks for a new athletic building. And she maintains her interest in Save the Bay and works for expansion of the East Shore State Park, which she helped create. It now occupies the shoreline between Richmond and North Oakland.
It would be absurd to compare saving the bay to saving the Earth, which will require revolutionary changes in the way all of us on this planet live and work, but it should give us courage and perspective to remember the first environmental activists, who didn't realize that what they were trying to do was impossible.
A former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Dr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), says he has submitted a petition against Justice Tanko Muhammed, who was appointed last Friday as the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria by President Muhammadu Buhari.
In a statement from his chambers on Monday, Agbakoba said he submitted his petition to the National Judicial Council, asking it to determine the propriety of Justice Mohammed accepting to be sworn-in by the President in place of the suspended CJN, Justice Walter Onnoghen.
According to Agbakoba, by submitting himself to the President to be sworn-in as acting CJN, Justice Mohammed lent himself to constitutional infraction by the executive arm of government.
Agbakoba recalled that Justice Mohammed was part of an NJC panel that sanctioned Justice Obisike Orji of Abia State for allowing himself to be sworn-in as Abia State Chief Judge by the state’s governor without the recommendation of the NJC.
Agbakoba said, “It is a matter of regret that Justice Tanko Muhammad, who participated in this process, will lend himself to this constitutional infraction.
Insisting that the President violated the law in suspending Justice Onnoghen, Agbakoba cited Section 153 of the constitution, saying the law was clear on how a CJN could be removed.
He said, “The Constitution is clear about the procedure for suspending or removing the Chief Justice of Nigeria.
“The Chief Justice of Nigeria can only be removed on the recommendation of the NJC. See Section 153 (1), Paragraph 21 (a) of the 3rd Schedule and Section 292 (1) (a) (i) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999and the Supreme Court decision in Elelu-Habeeb v AGF (2012) 40 WRN 1.
Meanwhile, anti-corruption group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, has given the NJC till Thursday to take over Onnoghen’s case and look into the false asset declaration allegations levelled against him.
SERAP, in a statement by its Senior Legal Adviser, Bamisope Adeyanju, asked Justice Muhammad to recuse himself from the case.
It said if the allegations against Justice Onnoghen were established after the investigation by the NJC, the CJN should be handed over to the relevant anti-graft agency for prosecution.
“The NJC should take the recommended action within five days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter, failing which SERAP will take appropriate legal action to compel the NJC to take action on the case,” the statement read.
I honestly do not know. CU lack of interest in football does not justify $3m coach or lofty and unrealistic goals in Power 5 conference.
While HCMM is out here keeping the #CUBuffs in the basement, Dan Hawkins just claimed a share of the Big Sky with UC Davis.
Since @RunRalphieRun lost out on the #LesMiles sweepstakes, I'm going to help them with other names they might want to consider as #MikeMacHawkins ' replacement.
This is the first time the #cubuffs have been held to 75 or fewer rushing yards in 3 consecutive games since 5 straight games in 1984.
1. Who will be head coach.
2. Who will start at QB.
3. Where the game will be played.
Gonna be a heck of a week in Boulder.
@BrianHowell33 #cubuffs have lost 6 straight while scoring first in each of those games. That’s crazy.
A driver is in for a shock after workers at one of Scotland's busiest railway stations cut up the car park around his vehicle, leaving it on a tiny island of asphalt.
Workers at Edinburgh Waverley blocked off an area of the parking compound on Thursday ready for resurfacing work.
But, when they turned up for work in the morning, a Mercedes had parked in the middle of the cordoned-off area.
Undeterred, the crew dug up the surface all around the dark blue car.
Workers did build a tiny ramp in front of the car to allow its owner to drive away on his or her return.
A Network Rail spokesman said: "The car park had been cordoned off so we could begin work to resurface it and improve the lighting at the facility for our passengers.
"The motorist moved the barriers and parked in the worksite, but we've left a ramp for them to exit and will be happy to return their vehicle once they contact us."
Pictures of the stranded car made their way around social media after being spotted by members of the public.
One commuter said: "I came back to my car and saw this Merc totally on its own.
"It is pretty hilarious really. The owner has obviously totally ignored the cordon that had gone up and has been left there.
"Fair play to the workers, they've just got on with their jobs."
The work is part of Network Rail's £130m refurbishment project, which includes the roof being replaced at Waverley Station along with new entrances created and refurbishment to the station's concourses.
Skybox Security, Inc. is a privately held company founded in 2002. The company is recognized as the pioneer in quantifying security risk and automating labor-intensive threat analysis and security control assessment processes.
We’ve been on an incredible upward trajectory, and the investment will accelerate that growth. I’ve no doubt, with the innovations we’re bringing to market this year and next, Skybox will become the undisputed leader in security analytics.
More money going into a prominent robotics startup today: Boston-based Rethink Robotics has raised an additional $13.4 million led by Wellington Management Company.
That brings Rethink’s Series D venture haul to an even $40 million, with GE Ventures and Goldman Sachs being the other big, recent investors in the company.
Rethink Robotics has raised a total of $113.5 million, making it one of the more heavily funded private tech companies in New England. The startup recently unveiled a new robot for manufacturing called Sawyer, to go along with its first robot, Baxter.
Sawyer is designed to do things like electronics assembly and testing—and do it in factories worldwide.
Rethink Robotics, which got its start in 2008 (originally called Heartland Robotics), is led by founder and CTO Rodney Brooks and chief executive Scott Eckert.
Meany Hall at the University of Washington hosted Grupo Corpo, a Brazilian contemporary dance company, as the recent performance in the UW World Series. The World Series program brings diverse acts to Seattle for exclusive performances. Acts that many have never seen. Unfortunately, not all of them are homeruns.
Grupo Corpo is what I call an “Emperor’s new clothes” act. If the act is weird enough it must be avant garde and therefore cool. There is a difference between dancing and performing. The dancers of Grupo Corpo are technically proficient, but they are not performers.
A dancer can remember complex choreography and do the correct steps in the correct order. A performer can make the audience feel something with those steps. Dancing is moving around a stage, performing tells a story. The dancers at Grupo Corpo couldn’t convey any sort of message or meaning through their dance.
Unless they were doing a tribute to Charlie Brown, in which case they were spot on. There was a section my friend and I called the “Charlie Brown dance” because it reminded us of the dancing in the Charlie Brown specials. Even that was lackluster.
Most of the dancing didn’t fit the music. Like the score was an afterthought. When combining music and dancing, silence can be powerful. For the Grupo performance when the music would stop, there was no chance in the dancing. It felt out of place.
There was no connection between the dancers. The potential was there, but they fell short. I expected there to be some sense of intimacy between some of the dancers. But they looked bored in their pairings. One guy looked bored every time he was on stage. Most of the dancers looked like they were counting in their heads.
The good parts were easy to remember. I can remember the four good lifts, because there were only four good lifts. Two of the dancers did not mesh with the rest of the company. They stood out because they looked like they were actually having fun.
The most enjoyable part was where there was a connection with the music and dancing. The music had a Brazilian feel and for that piece everyone was on beat. Unfortunately, that was the exception, not the rule for the night.
Overall it was weird and not very entertaining. The music didn’t fit the dancing. There was a seemingly random noise that sounded like a tone from a hearing test. I like a real performance where the performers actually connect with the audience. Anyone can move around a stage and look bored.
The UW World Series brings exotic and dynamic groups to Seattle for exclusive performances. Most are a home run, Grupo struck out.
Google Glass, Google’s augmented reality (AR) glasses, originally debuted in 2012, but was officially discontinued in 2014. But after nearly four years of skunkworks development, the search giant pulled back the curtain on Glass’ next chapter: An industrial, corporate version called Google Glass Enterprise Edition.
Glass Enterprise Edition (EE) isn’t new. It’s been tested and deployed across factories in the U.S. by more than 50 companies including agricultural machinery manufacturer AGCO, Boeing, General Electric, Volkswagen, and DHL, where it’s been equipped with custom apps that catalog parts by scanning their serial numbers. But now, Google’s making Glass available to more businesses through its existing network of supply chain partners.
Regulatory filings way back in 2015 gave a glimpse at the new Glass, and it hasn’t changed much since. Glass Enterprise Edition features a headband-like piece of metal that perched on the wearer’s nose, a frame that’s compatible with prescription lenses, and a ruggedized design built to withstand falls and exposure to moisture. The camera button, which sits at the hinge of the frame, does double duty as a release switch to remove the electronics part of the unit (called the Glass Pod) from the frame.
Other upgrades include a larger display with an expanded field of view, a beefier battery, an improved camera (from five megapixels to eight), a speedier Intel processor, and a high-speed 5GHz Wi-Fi chip.
Google says that Glass Enterprise Edition, which runs a stripped-down operating system that doesn’t support notifications or social media apps, has dramatically improved factory productivity. At AGCO, it’s reduced machinery production time by 25 percent and inspection times by 30 percent, and at DHL, it’s increased efficiency by 15 percent.
It’s also been a boon in medicine. Sutter Health and Dignity Health, two healthcare providers that have supplied doctors with Glass units optimized for note-taking, say the heads-up display has reduced the amount of time doctors spend on patient notes and other administrative work and doubled the amount of time they spend with patients.
In many ways, Glass’s growth in enterprise is in line with industry trends. A recent Forrester Research report predicts that by 2025, nearly 14.4 million U.S. workers will wear smart glasses.
Noel Francisco and James Burnham practice law at Jones Day in Washington, D.C. They represented former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell against the federal corruption charges brought against him and his wife by the government. The story came to as happy an ending it could have for Governor McDonnell and his wife when the Supreme Court unanimously set aside their convictions this past June and the government subsequently chose to abandon the charges. The Supreme Court opinion in the case (by Chief Justice Roberts) is here>.
• Immunize only witnesses who can help deliver convictions.
• Investigate and charge all potential crimes.
• Claim that concealment proves consciousness of guilt.
FBI Director James Comey said that in Mrs. Clinton’s case there was no evidence of criminal intent. Yet she set up a private email server in her basement and permanently deleted thousands of the emails it contained. A plausible motive would be shielding her activities from public scrutiny. The Comey standard—that direct evidence of knowing criminality is needed to prosecute—is certainly not the one that his agency and the Justice Department applied to Gov. McDonnell for more than three years.
To be clear, we aren’t endorsing these heavy-handed tactics, many of which are befitting Inspector Javert of “Les Misérables.” But these are the sorts of things investigators do when they are serious about bringing criminal charges. In deciding whether the investigation into Mrs. Clinton was a real one—as opposed to a grand, expensive spectacle of law-enforcement theater—Gov. McDonnell’s treatment is instructive.
“Instructive” doesn’t quite capture it, but understatement has its uses.
Colorado’s driver’s license program for immigrants faces many more hurdles than previously believed, including long wait lines that have resulted in fraud to allow people to jump ahead in line.
Colorado’s immigrant driver’s license program faces a host of new challenges heading into the new year that are threatening to further damage the already-hobbled initiative.
Lawmakers are planning several new bills aimed at keeping the controversial framework from falling into further disarray, but the political climate jeopardizes any efforts to expand the program’s funding.
Months-long wait times still plague applicants. And based on the estimated number of people in the state who are eligible for the licenses, which are for those living in the country illegally, and the dearth of slots to apply, the holdup can stretch out years.
In recent months, the program also has been mired by reports of fraud schemes aiming to swindle those desperate to get an appointment to apply for the licenses. State prosecutors and the Colorado Division of Motor Vehicles say they are investigating, spurred by the frustration of legislators who call the chicanery an outrage. It has become a frequent topic for lawmakers in hearings about the program.
There are reports from activist groups that some people have paid as much as hundreds of dollars to illegitimate services claiming to be able to move them up in the line.
The licenses are available by appointment only, and there are only about 90 slots each day. There could be as many as 150,000 in Colorado who are living in the country illegally and eligible to apply, according to estimates by immigrant advocates.
The program is meant to pay for itself by charging applicants about $55 more for a license than normal residents. But the three Republican lawmakers on the JBC last year denied a DMV request to use money raised by the initiative to increase the program’s breadth.
The GOP move fell in line with how the program’s original fiscal plan was written in 2013, which dramatically underestimated how many people would seek the licenses, and left the program cash-strapped from its August 2014 start.
The DMV says it won’t ask for more funds and plans to try to improve services “within its current allocation,” a spokeswoman said last week.