Berkeley Ca

Joana Carneiro, who served as an assistant conductor with the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 2005 to the end of last season, will succeed Kent Nagano as music director of the Berkeley Symphony beginning with the 2009-10 season. A native of Lisbon, she is the official guest conductor of the Gulbenkian Symphony in the Portuguese capital and previously served as assistant conductor of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and music director of the Los Angeles Debut Orchestra.

At a party a few years ago, a couple cornered me and excitedly told me of their upcoming vacation plans. They were going to that huge Mall of America in Minnesota. I asked questions and listened, all the while thinking how pitiful it was. All the great places in the world to vacation--New York, Paris, Yosemite--and they were going to a mall. Still, I have to admit, there is one mall of sorts that I would center my vacation around.

About 35 activists for the homeless were evicted early Wednesday from a house they took over last week, and supporters responded by knocking over garbage cans, setting trash fires and throwing rocks at a police barricade outside the dwelling. Several protesters scuffled with police during the vandalism, which began about 6 a.m. when police removed squatters occupying a house owned by the University of California, police said. Two UC Berkeley students were arrested, police said.

Under the image of a stern serviceman in uniform, the sign in the window of the U.S. Marine Corps recruiting station extols the traits of America's armed forces: "Smart. Tough. Elite." This famously liberal town recently added its own descriptor: Unwanted.

Facing mounting national criticism, the City Council was expected Tuesday night to reverse an earlier declaration that U.S. Marine Corps recruiters were unwelcome. But council members also planned to reaffirm the liberal city's antiwar stance. The council's vote last month to denounce military recruiting tactics ignited a storm of protest. The city received 26,000 calls and e-mails, including several death threats. Most of the feedback was critical.

Even this college town, traditionally the defender of the downtrodden, protector of the left and arbiter of political correctness, has had enough -- enough of the homeless. After months of hand-wringing, the Berkeley City Council this week passed a law to hire monitors to patrol city streets and parks and report inappropriate behavior by the homeless and others to police and social service agencies. The plan makes it easier for police to enforce a law against camping in public places.

A man engaged in a yearlong war of words with families using a playground next to his home has been ordered to stop harassing children and their parents. A court commissioner granted a three-year restraining order to parents who said they were tired of Art Maxwell's making their kids cry. They contended that Maxwell videotaped families and gave dirty looks to patrons of the Becky Temko tot lot.

The California Supreme Court appeared inclined Tuesday to back the city of Berkeley's decision to deny an affiliate of the Boy Scouts of America a financial break because the group excludes gays. In 1997, Berkeley ended a long tradition of giving the Sea Scouts a free berth at the city marina after the youth group, which teaches boys seamanship, refused to formally repudiate the anti-gay policies of its parent organization.

Eighteen students were arrested and cited for trespassing Tuesday after rushing past security guards and into the outer office of UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, where they held a two-hour sit-in. The students said they hoped to push the 10-campus UC system to adopt stricter guidelines for the firms that supply much of its licensed apparel, including better conditions for workers.

The use of subatomic materials as building blocks for consumer products has turned into a big business so quickly that there is little monitoring of nanotechnology's effects on health and the environment. So Berkeley intends to be the first city to step into the breach and regulate the nascent but fast-growing industry.