How does M2ool Balance his laptop?
Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 3:43 pm
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews ... ck_check=1
Judge: Cal tree-sitters can stay, for now
The Associated Press
News Fuze
Article Launched:09/12/2007 07:32:22 PM PDT
BERKELEY, Calif.—A judge on Wednesday refused the University of California, Berkeley's request to immediately evict a group of protesters who took up residence in an oak grove threatened by the planned construction of a campus athletic center.
In denying UC Berkeley's request for an emergency restraining order, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Richard Keller said university officials failed to prove the tree-sitters posed an immediate health and safety menace.
The judge agreed, however, to schedule an Oct. 1 hearing on whether to grant the school an injunction that would lead to the protesters' removal from the stand of trees they have occupied for nine months, according to campus spokesman Dan Mogulof.
"I think anybody knows that Berkeley has been a pretty friendly place for people with a point of view, and we don't want to change that," Mogulof said. "We respect the protest, but it has crossed the line."
Mogulof said the university felt compelled to go to court because the tree-sitters have expanded their makeshift community above Memorial Stadium and used propane stoves that pose a fire hazard. One protester was injured after falling from her perch, and others have carelessly dropped buckets of human waste, he said.
Several lawsuits that were filed to stop the university from building the sports complex are scheduled to go to trial later this month. One was initiated by the city of Berkeley, which maintains the proposed center would not be safe because the stadium sits atop the Hayward Fault.