Meet Pleo. He's going to crush Furby

That's the headline from a CNN article about an amazing new robotic dinosaur toy called the Pleo. Pleo was created by Emeryville's UGOBE Inc. and could change the way we look at toys.

Every Pleo is unique. Yes, each one begins life as a newly-hatched baby Camarasaurus, but that's where predictability ends and individuality begins. Pleo doesn't just do what he's told. He develops his own personality, moods, and habits—all shaped by the time he spends with you. In creating this Life Form, we merely set the wheels in motion. Making the magic is up to you and Pleo.

And they look pretty darn cute. Best of luck to our neighbors at UGOBE. Check out the PleoWorld site for more information.

BART To Unveil 50-Year Expansion Plan

From ABC7:

A heated debate could begin Thursday when BART is set to introduce a new vision for the future -- a 50-year plan that could vastly expand service in the Bay Area. But it could widen the rift between the demands of the expanding inland communities and the city centers, where the jobs are. ABC7 previews the plan that you'll see Only on 7.

Today you can ride BART to Oakland, but not to Emeryville. You can ride it to downtown San Francisco, but not to the city's west side. All that could change under an ambitious seed plan being developed.

Linton Johnson, BART chief spokesperson: "The BART of the future is going to be much more expanded, It's going to have a lot more local service."

And possibly some great new for Emeryville:

The plan also calls for extending BART to the west side of San Francisco to the Presidio or the ocean via Geary Boulevard. And BART staff says Emeryville needs direct service. The city has become a shopping, business, and residential center.

Emeryville's mayor agrees.

Nora Davis, Emeryville mayor: "Clearly this corridor needs to increase the richness of transit opportunities and transit performance. We're delighted BART is exploring these possibilities."

Pixar's Ratatiouille Pre-Release Review Consensus: It ROCKS!

There are some great reviews coming in for Ratatouille:

"By the end of the film, the audience was literally roaring with delight over the nimble twists the film navigates. I've been to early screenings where the free-ness and the excitement of seeing something early can make a crowd a little more enthusiastic than a film might actually warrant, but in this case I'll give the credit to the film itself. The crowd was applauding before the closing credits even started rolling." The New Cruelty, Ain't It Cool News Fan

"This film is very magical in ways that not only the best of Pixar has brought us, but the best that Disney used to bring us. Great characters, fantastic animation, and a sense of love in creating a unique story for the cinema. The audience ate it up... literally - the ratatouille served upon entering the theater was quite delicious. This is what great family cinema can do... everyone in the theater from age 5 - "who knows" seemed to have a great time." The Brain Machine, Ain't It Cool News Fan

"Ratatouille" is delicious. In this satisfying, souffle-light tale of a plucky French rodent with a passion for cooking, the master chefs at Pixar have blended all the right ingredients -- abundant verbal and visual wit, genius slapstick timing, a soupcon of Gallic sophistication -- to produce a warm and irresistible concoction that's sure to appeal to everyone's inner Julia Child." Justin Chang, Variety

Keep an eye on Rotten Tomatoes to see how the rest of the critics like it.

Simon & Schuster and Emeryville's TurnHere Launches Ground-Breaking Online Video Program for Authors

Publishing powerhouse Simon & Schuster launched today an ambitious program to create and distribute short-form online videos of authors. The videos have been created by TurnHere, the Internet video studio/distribution company based in Emeryville, California.

Clips of 40 authors have been produced and many more are planned. The videos have the breezy, informal feel that has become the TurnHere style. The distribution channels are varied: Clips will be seen on the publisher's page, author sites, retail sites and on video sharing sites including YouTube and a new dedicated book site on TurnHere. Simon & Schuster's parent company CBS will become involved too.

This video is Beet.tv's interview with Sue Fleming, who heads online marketing for Simon & Schuster.

Source: Beet.tv

Union pressure-group admits "retaliation" charges against Woodfin Suites were baseless

Below is a press release from the Woodfin Hotel about this issue. The City Council has not had an opportunity to review this information or make any decisions. The info is just for your information.......

PRESS RELEASE FROM WOODFIN HOTEL

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 8, 2007
CONTACT: Eric Schellhorn, (415) 652-9444

Union pressure-group admits "retaliation" charges against Woodfin Suites were baseless

* HOTEL VINDICATED AS EBASE PULLS COMPLAINTS AFTER MONTHS OF FALSE ACCUSATIONS, EFFORTS TO SABOTAGE HOTEL'S BUSINESS

* CITY ATTORNEY'S INVESTIGATION COSTS EMERYVILLE TAXPAYERS UNTOLD THOUSANDS
* HOTEL MANAGER CALLS FOR FULL PUBLIC APOLOGY FROM CITY ATTORNEY AND UNIONS

EMERYVILLE, Calif. - The lawyer for EBASE has withdrawn all retaliation complaints the union front group urged former Woodfin Suites employees to file against the hotel, a clear acknowledgement that its year-long protest of the hotel was founded on baseless allegations and outright lies.

In a May 30 letter to EBASE attorney Andrew Kahn, Emeryville City Attorney Michael Biddle acknowledges that per Mr. Kahn's instructions, "...the administrative claims alleging discharge of employees with Social Security no-match issues in retaliation for their support of and efforts to enforce Measure C have been withdrawn." Measure C is a local wage ordinance local unions placed on the Emeryville ballot in 2005 as part of a back-door effort to unionize the city's hotels.

City Attorney Biddle has spent untold thousands of taxpayer dollars and more than six months' worth of staff time investigating the unfounded charges. During this period, it came to light that EBASE had coerced employees into filing complaints against the hotel. Two employees subsequently withdrew their complaints, while a third admitted under oath that he wasn't even aware he had filed a complaint.

"For a year now, EBASE has been making outrageous and patently dishonest statements about our hotel in the press, disturbing our guests with bullhorns and marches on Saturday mornings, and intimidating our customers into taking their business elsewhere," said Hugh MacIntosh, General Manager of the Woodfin Suites Hotel Emeryville. "This has had a tremendously destructive impact on our business, our reputation and morale among our employees.

"Now, EBASE has admitted that this whole effort has been nothing more than a ruse, a smear campaign designed to bring our hotel to its knees," MacIntosh added. "This group has absolutely no credibility, and it owes this hotel and its workers a public apology."

"Our city attorney should be no less contrite, MacIntosh continued. "He doggedly pursued this investigation absent any evidence of the claims' validity for months. He, too, should do the honorable thing and apologize to our company, our employees, the Emeryville City Council, and all Emeryville residents."

Source: Ken Bukowski

City Manager orders Woodfin to pay over $86,000 in back wages

John Fricke writes:

Dear Emeryville neighbors,

The city staff has concluded its investigations of the seventeen worker complaints filed against the Woodfin Hotel. In a decision issued today, the city manager has ordered Woodfin to pay the seventeen workers over $86,000 in back wages, not including undetermined amounts based on hourly records that Woodfin has still not provided to the city staff. In addition to back pay owed, Woodfin was assessed a penalty of $31,500 for its failure to provide wage and hourly records to the city in a timely manner

Tomorrow’s edition of the San Francisco Bay Guardian reports that, four months ago, the Woodfin Hotel used political influence to get federal immigration officials to initiate an investigation of the Woodfin workers. Here is a link to the article.

In a previous op-ed piece in the San Francisco Chronicle, Woodfin’s general manager then used the fact of the federal investigation to argue that Woodfin had no choice but to fire its workers.

Here is a link to the companion op-ed piece written by the Measure C organizers.

Tomorrow (Wed.) at noon, the fired Woodfin workers will gather at Oakland’s federal building (1301 Clay St.) to object to the federal immigration agency doing the bidding of Woodfin management.

Best,

John

Emeryville Health and Wellness Center Wins "Best of the East Bay Award"

Each year the East Bay Express polls it readers to compile the list of The Best in the East Bay. An annual event to celebrate some of the people and companies who are dedicated to making the East Bay a better place to live, work, play, eat, and shop.

This year the Emeryville Health and Wellness Center won in the category of Best Health and Wellness Center: a holistic complement to Western medicine.

Read it in the East Bay Express

And we mustn't forget the winner of the Best Cookie award: Teacake Back Shop. Yummmmmm.

Supporting Emeryville Schools

Many e'folk were asking people to Vote Yes on Measure A for the June 5th Emeryville election:

Dear Emeryville neighbors,

There is an Emeryville election on June 5th. We will be voting on whether
to approve a parcel tax for the Emeryville school district. The tax would
be fifteen cents per square foot of improved property.

In 2003, we ovewhelmingly approved a school parcel tax that levies ten cents
per square foot of improved property. The approval was for a period of six
years. The money raised through this tax has tremendously benefitted our
schools by providing money for targeted areas such as science, music, and
school libraries. This funding has been essential to providing our students
with the teachers they need to thrive academically and to succeed as adults.

The school board is now seeking our approval for a parcel tax for ten years.
The money raised will benefit the same areas of learning. As before,
Measure A explicitly states that the money raised shall not be used for
general educational purposes, but will only be spent on specific areas of
learning. In addition, property owners who live in their home and who are
65 years or older can seek an exemption from the tax.

Please join me in supporting Measure A. Please vote YES on MEASURE A.

Best,

John

And a note from Forrest G:

While, I'm sure many of you have already voted absentee ballot, I wanted to remind those of you who haven't voted to vote YES on Measure A which helps continue the great improvement of our schools. I've attached a recent photo of some of our Indian dancers who were asked to perform by Mayor Gavin Newsom at the Asian Art's festival at SF City Hall. Your support of Measure A has allowed our students to continue to flourish and exhibit their talents both inside and outside of Emeryville.

And the votes are in: Measure A Wins By a Large Margin.

Emeryville Voters have shown a clear sign of support for Emery Unified Special Election. This is a real victory for our Schools.

Ken B

The Results:

YES: 689 (87%)
NO: 104 (13%)

Doug's BBQ is For Sale

Rumor has it that the famous Doug passed away.....the restaurant business is for sale for $675,000.

Doug's gets many rave reviews over at Yelp... hmmm, I think I'll have to go get some Ribs tonight after reading those reviews.

YAYA and EYAP BRING NEW ORLEANS TO EMERYVILLE May 29-June 10

YA/YA Inc. (Young Aspirations/Young Artists), the New Orleans based, nationally recognized non-profit arts and socials service organization, is headed to Emeryville at the end of May for two weeks to replicate it's acclaimed concept of painting stories and aspirations on chairs to the youth of Emeryville's Secondary School. YA/YA is a guest of the non-profit 45th Street Artists'
Cooperative's Emeryville Youth Art Program (EYAP). EYAP is now in its 24th year at Emery Unified. IKEA Emeryville donated 150 chairs for this "Dream Chair"
project and the workshop will culminate with an exhibit of the 125 students' work at Bay Street Emeryville (5657 Bay Street next to Williams Sonoma), June 8-10, noon to 6pm. A reception at the exhibition will take place on June 7 from 4-7pm. Public Transportation: MacArthur BART station, Emery-Go-Round Powell Route (weekdays) and Shoppers Route (weekends). Many of the chairs will be for sale with the proceeds going directly to the student artists.
The purpose of the workshop is to inspire artistically talented youth to the paint their dreams and showcase their talents to the community.

YA/YA Alumnus, Sharika Mahdi, will lead this project. She is also one of the original members of YA/YA's Art Guild formed in 1988. Mahdi says, "My goal is to inspire and motivate the teens to follow their dreams, stay positive and ultimately have fun!" Currently, Mahdi is a visual artist and entrepreneur and aspires to motivate kids all over the country with similar art workshops while always imparting her YA/YA experience. "I want these teens to receive the gift of imagination as I have."

YA/YA, Inc. (yayainc.com) is a non-profit arts and social service organization whose mission is to provide educational experiences and opportunities that empower artistically talented inner-city youth to be professionally self-sufficient through creative self-expression. Since it's founding in 1988, the YA/YA studio-gallery has provided young artists who have limited access to educational resources and career opportunities the chance to apprentice with professional artists, create public artworks, design merchandise, serve as cultural ambassadors, work as project managers, and mentor others in the arts.

YA/YA has received extensive media exposure with features in Fortune, Rolling Stone,The New York Times, Elle Décor, and ArtNews, as well as MTV's House of Style, Sesame Street, and NBC's Today show. In 2002, YA/YA was a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show as a recipient of her Angel Network "Use Your Life Award".

Over the past 24 years the Artists' Cooperative's EYAP program
(www.emeryarts.org/eyap.html) has brought over 70 Emeryville artists into the classroom as artists-in-residence at both Emery Secondary School and Anna Yates Elementary School. Workshops and instruction have ranged from painting, sculpture, photography, and ceramics to a solar mural, and a student video to Vladimir (Russia). These projects in the Emery schools are designed to develop artistic skills and concepts, in addition to self-esteem and a respect for the work of fellow classmates. The 45th Street Artists' Cooperative, Inc. is a national model for artist owned live/work space. Its membership is comprised of nationally and internationally recognized artists and arts educators working in many different media. This is the first West Coast chair workshop facilitated by a YA/YA alumnus. EYAP is proud to bring this opportunity to Emery students and looks to continuing this project at Emery in the coming years.

For more information contact: Sharon Wilchar at 510/318-2455 or 510/652-6122.