Liz Martin sits on the passenger’s side of her shabby gray van – the side away from the sun – which is parked on a Saturday afternoon next to the spot where her merchandise is on display at Berkeley’s Ashby Flea Market. She keeps her eyes on three stools supporting organized piles of colorfully embroidered used bed sheets and pillows folded in plastic bags. Martin, who is 82, has been a vendor at the flea market since it began more than 32 years ago, and she never has left her spot.
At first, she said, “There was nothing here. It was kind of a hard time but we stuck around. I used to make 75 cents a day, but I stayed here and the flea market got built up.” Martin is wearing a red spotted shirt and long colorful skirt; time has not had much effect on her dark skin. Through the van’s half-down window, she muses, “I really do not know why they called it a ‘flea market.’ All I know is that when they first said ‘flea market,’ I thought they were talking about selling fleas.” She bursts out laughing.
In fact, the flea market at the Ashby BART station is a Berkeley landmark, which many customers from around the Bay Area visit for the good deals. The market is open only on weekends, but it provides a valuable service to both the vendors who want to earn a living by selling new and used merchandise, and for customers looking for bargains.  Some people go to the market for the fun of the day or to just have a glimpse of the merchandise.
The market is divided into rows of stalls; the floor is covered with merchandise shaded by brightly colored umbrellas and small tents. One can find nearly anything needed to furnish a full house: records, jewelry, clothes, incense, tools, books – even African masks and old portraits of American celebrities. Groups of drummers sit next to the Ashby BART’s main entrance and play African music. The smell of hot dogs and Mexican food from mobile booths fill the air; children play around or cling to their parents’ clothes. On a perfect sunny day, the market is like an open mall where families can relax.
People also find it a good place to re-sell used objects, or buy secondhand items to furnish their houses. A shopper named Elizabeth, who gave only her first name, was looking for a good, cheap piece of furniture for her daughter who recently bought a condo and ran out of money to furnish the place. “Furniture is just as good old as new,” she said. “People come to the flea market both because they want to recycle things and for clothing. You see here things you do not see anywhere else.” But Elizabeth predicted that the slow economy would push people to try shop carefully. “After a few more months when needs pile up, I expect more people would be looking at flea markets and thrift stores,” Elizabeth said. As she walked away, she kept her eyes open for worthy items she might buy.
For some vendors, the flea market provides a second income, if not the main way they pay their bills. Dray, who goes only by her first name, is a 58-year-old woman with 18 grandchildren, who works part-time building computers for Oakland high schools and sells jewelry and clothes at the flea market on weekends.  As she uses her long red artificial nails to arrange her colorful handmade jewelry, displayed atop three stools, she says, “I come here to supplement my income and pay my bills to go back to school next fall.”
The flea market was established in 1976 right after Ashby BART was built. It was formed to sell antiques and used objects. The vendors began to organize their merchandise on stools and advertised their trade by telling friends.  People began to come over to browse the merchandise and maybe buy something. Today, the flea market is crowded on weekends, with more than 190 vendors and dealers.
Despite its popularity, the Ashby Flea Market has not escaped some threats to its location throughout the years. The last one, according to the market’s Web site, was a proposal by the South Berkeley Neighborhood Development Corporation to housing on the west parking lot. But Errol Davis, the flea market’s general manager, says that although the issue is not entirely settled, he considers it a “cold case” that is unlikely to move forward anytime soon. “I think they stopped because of the economy,” he says. “We are fine for now.”
And as jewelry seller Dray points out, the country’s recession is actually good for the flea market and its culture of deal-making. “People do not have money to buy expensive stuff. I’m helping the economy, I’m helping the people,” she says. “It is a good place to bargain and make money.”

The 34 condominiums built on top of an abandoned gas station at 2700 San Pablo Ave. last year were supposed to signal the transformation of their southwest Berkeley neighborhood. Vacant lots and empty buildings would give way to a vibrant, mixed-use district.

Then the units didn’t sell, and the developer lost the property through foreclosure. The building failed to attract a bid when it was put up for auction in mid-December, and now, a year after its completion, it’s owned by a former lender who is renting the condos as apartments with no plans to sell.

“About 10 units,” less than a third, “are occupied,” said Mark Seiler, a co-owner of Metrovation, the lender.

But despite the building’s troubles, hundreds of new condos are still likely to be built along San Pablo during the next few years, according to city planning documents and interviews with developers. The new developments may be welcomed by some, but they could also spark resistance from residents who fear they will make the neighborhood less affordable.

“West Berkeley is Berkeley’s last diverse, working neighborhood.” said Toni Mester, 65, a teacher who lives near the foreclosed project.

The first signs of transformation along San Pablo started before the recent condo project. Over the past few years, clusters of high-end shops and restaurants have sprung up along the street, especially near the intersection with Dwight Way. Three years ago, the neighborhood became the site of the Berkeley International Food Festival, and this spring, the Berkeley Bowl supermarket plans to open a new location on Heinz Ave., a block from San Pablo.

“There’s a lot of great things happening in west Berkeley,” said David Mayeri, who has approval to build 40 condos, with retail on the ground floor, at 2747 San Pablo Ave.

Mayeri and other developers said they believe the recent foreclosure was caused by the national credit crisis, and that there is still demand for condos in Berkeley.

“We really believe in this market coming back,” said Ali Kashani, who is planning to build 100 condos, with 12,000 square feet of commercial space, at the corner of San Pablo and Ashby avenues.

It appears the new projects could be supported by the lack of other new housing options in Berkeley, which has seen property values remain fairly stable. This fall, as the median condo price dropped by a quarter in Alameda County, it fell just 7 percent in Berkeley, according to Pacific Union Real Estate.

“There’s always been more housing demand then supply in Berkeley,” said Michael Caplan, Berkeley’s economic development manager. “I don’t see that changing.”

But Mester, who called Kashani’s project a “yuppie dormitory,” said that regardless of their financial prospects, the new developments are too dense, and the condos will appeal mainly to short-term residents because there is little open space.

“We should be building affordable family housing for people who actually want to raise children in Berkeley,” she said.

Others argue that San Pablo is precisely the type of place where high-density development should go, because residents will have access to an express bus line.

“You’ll never please everybody,” said Darryl Moore, a city councilmember who represents southwest Berkeley “I’d much rather see development occur around a transit corridor as opposed to inside a neighborhood that’s established.”

Moore said that the new projects will help create low-cost housing because Berkeley requires 15 to 20 percent of new units be priced for low-income residents. He said he does have concerns about the neighborhood’s design, but has proposed a special planning document, similar to ones created for downtown Berkeley, to guide new development in the neighborhood.

“Right now we have no development plan,” Moore said. “It’s a little haphazard.”

On any given weekday, if there is a public lecture or seminar at the University of California, Berkeley, there is a good chance it is listed on Lowell Moorcroft’s online calendar.

For more than four years, Moorcroft, 62, has used university computers to publish “Lowell’s Listings — Intellectual Events Around U.C. Berkeley.” The site has developed a following among local retirees and others who come to the campus to learn about everything from the siege of Sarajevo to the capture and storage of greenhouse gases.

Lowell Moorcroft working on his calendar at a campus computer terminal

The calendar has listed more than 10,000 events since 2004, archives show, and it appears to be the most comprehensive listing of U.C. Berkeley events in existence. It is Moorcroft’s life’s work, he said.

But while the calendar has earned Moorcroft praise from his users, he said it has also become an obsession that has taken over his life as he fights to avoid becoming homeless for the second time.

“It’s consuming me,” Moorcroft said of the calendar.

Moorcroft first became homeless in 2000 after he lost his job as a database manager, he said. He discovered the U.C. campus as a place with free computer access to help with his job search. He attended lectures to occupy his time, and filled his stomach with the free food often served there.

He started tracking campus events with a free Yahoo calendar, and by 2004 made the listings available to the public. At the time, U.C. Berkeley had no campus-wide listing of public events.

“There’s just a treasure of things happening on this campus that really was hidden from the public because there wasn’t an easy way to find out about it before,” said Jeff Kahn, manager of the university’s official calendar.

In 2006 the university launched a new calendar network to provide a campus-wide events portal, and Kahn said the network is still expanding. But events for several major departments, such as the law school, are still not part of the network, which is the reason some users say they still use Moorcroft’s calendar.

“It combines all the events into one place,” said Anthony Charles, 63, a retired Berkeley resident who said he attends about three campus events per day. “It’s a lot more complete.”

Moorcroft said he spends the first three hours of his day working on his calendar. He draws from a list of more than 350 individual calendars, and subscribes to hundreds of departmental email lists.

If he has a question about an event, he contacts the organizer directly for clarification, and he has become a familiar name in many departments.

“Most of the coordinators that I work with from time to time definitely know his name,” said Jessica Owen, events coordinator for the university’s Institute of International Studies. “From time to time we’ll have an error on one of our calendar entries, or something that hasn’t been updated, so I’ll get an email from him.”

But Moorcroft’s attention to detail takes time, something that is lately in short supply. According to an eviction settlement with his landlord, Moorcroft must move out of his Berkeley rooming house by mid-December, he said, because he hasn’t been paying the rent. His first Social Security check recently arrived, but with his bad credit and evictions record, he said few landlords are willing to bet on the chance that he will pay.

Landlords may be right to worry, because Moorcroft, a self-proclaimed socialist, dislikes private ownership.

“I have always had problems with jobs and landlords,” he said.

Moorcroft may be facing homelessness, but dressed with a sport coat and tweed cap he could play the part of a college professor. A Midwest native, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin, and moved west to Seattle in 1969, he said. He cut fabric in a garment factory until he injured his hand and then became an office assistant.

Since then, Moorcroft said he worked in a variety of clerical jobs, and became interested in computers in the 1980’s when they became widely used in offices. In his last full-time job, he was a database developer for a financial advisory firm, he said. Until he lost the job in 2000, Moorcroft said he lived in “a large flat full of tools and furniture and cookware and records and books.”

With his mornings spent on the calendar and the rest of the day at campus events, Moorcroft has little time to spend looking for a job. He said he wants “some kind of small version of the normal life—housing and a part-time job” and knows that he may have to give the calendar up.

“The actual physical work is kind of tiring, staring at the computer screen copying and pasting,” Moorcroft said. “I’d like to get out and sell the [calendar] for a few hundred dollars like you’d sell a business. And if they want to continue it or screw it up, let them do it.”

But with Moorcroft’s life wrapped up in U.C. Berkeley events, it will not be easy to step back from the calendar and lose his closest link to the campus.

“How am I going to find out what’s going on?” he said.

CLICK TO LISTEN:
[audio:http://rosebud.journalism.berkeley.edu/~j200/510report/youth_vote.mp3]

Splashed across headlines and news channels, this was to be the year of the youth vote.

CBS clip: “On Tuesday, the election could very well come down to young voters.”

Low and behold, young voters did turn out in droves. Researchers at Tufts University estimated that 52 percent of eligible youth voted this year, rivaling previous record highs from 1992 and 1972.

James Correa, 20

Yet still, even with these record highs, only half of eligible youth turned out for the polls. What gives?

20 year old James Correa kicked back on a bench while waiting for BART on election day. Though he’s followed the election closely, he says he’s given up on getting his friends involved.

James Correa: “Yeah, they do not vote, just because they do not care really. It sucks to say, but they just don’t care.”

This year, it seemed like the stars were aligned to obliterate previous turnout patterns. We’ve seen tremendous dissatisfaction with the current president. We had the first real post-baby boomer candidate, let alone the first viable African-American candidate, we have a plummeting economy, and all of this coming together in the explosion of campaigning over the internet, cell phones, you name it.

Jose Quintanilla, 18

So how can it be, in this historic election, so many youth still did not vote.

Turns out, it’s the same reasons as always.

Jose Quintanilla: “Actually, I’m not going to vote.”

Karen Weise: “Why not?”

JQ: “Because I felt like my vote wasn’t going to count or anything.”

That’s 18 year old Jose Quintanilla. He used to be more politically involved, but he’s been questioning if government is really looking out for him.

Shauna Morgan, 27

Then there’s Shauna Morgan, a 27 year old with a bounce in her step that belies just how much she has going on.

Shauna Morgan: “With a three year old and a ten month old, you know, there’s a lot of things that I would like to have voted for, but it’s just too hard to keep up with right now with the custody battle and everything going on with me.”

And others, well, they’re just plain old not into it:

19 year old Darrett Woon estimates that 20 of his friends voted, but he did not head to the polls.

Darrett Woon: “I don’t really care. I don’t know. Politics isn’t my thing kinda.”

Darrett Woon, 19

Shauna and Darrett and Jose, they all said they think they’ll vote at some point in the future. But overall in this election, almost 40 percent of the nation’s electorate did not vote, so perhaps it will take more than a historic election to buck the trend.

New estimates released Nov 7 show the Presidential election may have set a 36-year record for the rate of youth voter turnout. And the University of California, Berkeley appears to be one of the top contributors to that record among the nation’s college campuses, according to registration statistics and interviews.

Up to 53 percent of eligible young voters—ages 18 to 29—took part in the Nov 4 election, according to estimates from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE). They favored the winner, Barack Obama, by more than 2-1 (click here for Politico‘s analysis of Obama’s “youth mandate”).

U.C. Berkeley students wait to vote Nov. 4 at an on-campus polling place

This year’s turnout is up five points from 2004, and up 12 points from 2000. It is the highest youth turnout since 1972, the first election after the voting age was lowered to 18.

In interviews following the election, U.C. Berkeley students said they were energized by the candidacy of Obama, and mobilized to vote in part by online social networks such as Facebook.

“When it turned to election day, everyone’s [Facebook] status turned to say, ‘go out and vote for Barack Obama,’” said sophomore Bailey Pennick, 19.

Facebook users can set a customized “status” message that tells friends what they are doing. Using a special feature, about 1.2 million users set their status to support Obama, and more than 370,000 did so to support his opponent, John McCain.

At U.C. Berkeley, the election followed the registration of more than 12,000 new students voters, according to Why Tuesday, a non-partisan group that led a national registration drive of more than a half-million students. That is the highest of any campus participating in the drive, which registered more than a half-million total students.

Senior Stephanie Chan, 21, said she “never paid attention to anything, really, in politics,” until she first learned about Obama in 2006. A friend lent her a copy of Obama’s first book, Dreams from My Father, and she soon became an organizer for the group Students for Barack Obama.

“After reading the first chapter it just seems like he’s a really great guy,” Chan said of Obama. “I love his background in community organizing.”

For young voters in particular, a candidate’s persona is often more important than specific proposals, according to Jack Citrin, a political scientist who studies turnout and the director of U.C. Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies

“The youth vote is not an issue vote but a personal vote,” Citrin said.

The last election with a comparable surge in youth voting was 1992, when 52 percent of young people voted and President Bill Clinton was elected to his first term.

Like Obama, 47, Clinton was relatively young – 46 – when he was elected. But a candidate’s age itself doesn’t explain a surge in youth support, according to Citrin. In 1980, Ronald Reagan became the oldest elected president while winning the youth vote by a large margin, he noted.

“It’s not so much really a matter of their youth as their image and the context in which they ran that helped to mobilize young voters,” Citrin said of candidates with youth support.

Despite the estimated 23 million young voters who voted Nov 4, youth turnout was still several points below the country as a whole, which surged above 60 percent.

U.C. Berkeley junior Wes Bruns, 21, said he was among those who didn’t vote.

“I just don’t feel an election right now has a huge impact on me,” said Bruns, who said he thought about voting but didn’t request an absentee ballot from Southern California in time.

Halloween festivities combined with election-day fervor at “Abuzz for Obama” on Friday night. Berkeley resident and artist Stacey Moss celebrates Halloween each year with a candy corn-themed fête. For this, the seventh annual get-together, she transformed candy corn cutouts into honeybees abuzz for presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Wearing an orange and black dress with a campaign slogan on the back, Moss welcomed guests – even John McCain and Sarah Palin. (To emphasize their tongue in cheek attire, McCain wore an Obama t-shirt beneath his bathrobe, and price tags hung from Palin’s suit.)

When Moss said, “I really love Halloween,” she really meant it. She has so many candy corn decorations that they require most of the backyard shed during the rest of the year.

This year the Obama paraphernalia rivaled the candy corn decorations. Slogans adorned buttons, candy and even fans. The centerpiece was the chocolate cake, nearly two feet in diameter, iced as the campaign logo.

Before cutting the cake, guest Elaine Zeiger, as the alien “Amabo” (read it backwards), said a few words and invited anyone to “add their Barackas.”

“Well actually, I think we have a word from Barack,” said Moss, as she put on a cd playing an excerpt of Obama’s ‘A More Perfect Union’ speech on race.

Trick-or-treaters got into the fun, including the Obama cheerleaders, who did a routine and stayed for cake.

Before he left, guest Joseph Lough spoke to host Michael Reich, Moss’ husband who is an economics professor at UC Berkeley. “Next time I see you we’ll be living in a new America.”

On a recent weekday afternoon, one employee, who said he has worked at the store for about a year and a half, proudly displayed a row of stickers affixed to the back of his nametag – one for every thief caught. Once he catches ten, he said, the store gives him a $50 gift card.

“It’s annoying,” he said of the shoplifters. “But kids will be kids.”

Employees at the store requested anonymity because they feared reprisals from their employer. But they said they catch at least one shoplifter every day. The thieves usually swipe small items, they said; the loss is balanced out by customers who purchase more expensive goods.

Retailers all along Telegraph Avenue and Bancroft Way south of the UC Berkeley campus say shoplifters steal from them almost daily. But other than constant vigilance, they said there’s not much they can do to stop the theft.

“It happens once a day, twice a day, sometimes three times,” said Erica Weston, who manages the Urban Outfitters store on Bancroft Way near Telegraph Avenue. “And that’s just the people we catch.”

Urban Outfitters is one of shoplifters’ most frequent targets, according to Berkeley police logs. The logs show the store called about shoplifting six times over the past ten days; on two occasions, the store called twice in one day. Neighboring outlet American Apparel called once in the same time period, as did Royalty Couture on Telegraph.

Representatives from many of the stores in the area declined to be interviewed for this article, citing store policy. But those who would comment said that the thieves are mostly teenagers who take small items. Some, they said, they recognize as repeat offenders.

Weston said her store prosecutes shoplifters aggressively. “That’s why you see us in the log so much,” she said. “We don’t just let people go.”

Employees at other retailers said it isn’t always worth it to call the police.

“It’s a waste of time,” said Sal Rahman, a manager at Royalty Couture. Often, he said, employees can catch the thief in the act and retrieve the stolen goods themselves. Then they ban the thief from the store.

Berkeley Police Department spokesman Andrew Frankel said the commercial area around campus is a hotspot for shoplifting and petty theft, perhaps because of the high concentration of young people. The beat officer for the area always goes to the location and takes a report, and, in some cases, formalizes the shopkeeper’s citizen’s arrest. But as far as deterrence, he said, the police can only give advice.

“The beat officer who’s there will offer input to the store about what they could to do eliminate temptations: maybe put the items that are most pilfer-able under lock and key or the direct observation of somebody working a cash register,” he said. “It’s worth it to install cameras.”

Retailers said their preferred method of deterrence was employee surveillance.

“We can always be more vigilant, offer better customer service and floor coverage,” said Weston.

Rahman agreed. “You’ve got to keep an eye out.”

BERKELEY — It was standing room only at last week’s mayoral debate, and the audience heard from twice as many candidates’ perspectives than the event billed. Two write-in candidates, Kahlil Jacobs-Fantauzzi and Zachary RunningWolf, joined Mayor Tom Bates and Shirley Dean on stage to discuss their positions on Berkeley issues. Over 100 people attended the debate, sponsored by The Berkeley Daily Planet and held at the West Berkeley Senior Center.

On the City of Berkeley’s website, the City Clerk’s section lists three official write-in candidates for mayor: Jacobs-Fantauzzi, RunningWolf and Richard Lorren Jolly. All filed Candidate Intention Statements and checked non-partisan.

The Green Party of Alameda County endorsed Jacobs-Fantauzzi, 32. Last week, the educator and community organizer said, “People are excited about [the campaign]. The hard thing is getting people to find out.” To spread the word he said he planned to speak on campus and at events.

This is not RunningWolf’s first mayoral campaign. He went up against Mayor Dean in 2006 and, according to election results, received nearly five percent of the vote. RunningWolf, 45, is a Native American elder known for his involvement with the UC Berkeley tree-sit that came to an end in September. On Monday morning he said, “I’m waking up for another 10-14 hour day. I’ve had to do incredible groundwork.”

Jolly, 20, is a senior at UC Berkeley majoring in political science and media studies. While the other write-in candidates have more traditional websites, Jolly created a Facebook group, Richard Jolly for Mayor 2008. He said a website is in the works. His focus is on campus, where he is “flyering and talking to people at parties.” He did not attend Monday’s debate.

Jacobs-Fantauzzi and RunningWolf arrived early and spoke to Daily Planet Executive Editor Becky O’Malley. During the sometimes tense exchange that followed, RunningWolf raised his voice and told O’Malley, “Your publication hasn’t even covered all the people who are running.”

She told him, “We do the best we can.”

Jacobs-Fantauzzi asserted, “We have the right to speak on issues just like anyone else.”

In the end, both Jacobs-Fantauzzi and RunningWolf took seats on stage beside Bates and Dean. In her introduction, O’Malley told the audience, “We have a couple of people who insisted on being added to the program at the last minute.” She apologized, as she said it would cut into time for questions.

During the debate, the write-in candidates shared their perspectives and told the audience what set them apart from the others. Jacobs-Fantauzzi said, “I don’t want to be a politician like other politicians.”

RunningWolf told the audience, “It’s going to take people like myself to stand up to UC Berkeley.”

Speaking before the debate, Fran Gibson, 63, said she had not yet decided between Bates and Dean, but “I’m going to decide tonight.” In terms of write-in candidates, she said, with hesitation, “There are some?”

On Tuesday morning, Gibson said, “I thought the write-in candidates helped line out the issues.” She said she had made up her mind, opting for “detailed, accessible, bright” Dean.

Dean, who server as mayor of Berkeley from 1994-2002, said the write-in candidates’ participation “certainly was fine with me.” She added, “I thought they raised some good and interesting points.” Citing requests for her yard signs as an example, she said she thought the debate went well.

Will Thomas, 29, said that he saw Bates and Dean as “two sides of the same coin.” He had already voted and wrote in Jacobs-Fantauzzi after reading his statement.

After watching the debate, he said the evening was affirming. “This is the type of person we need, it’s not the kid of person we’ll get.”

A team of UC Berkeley undergraduates tried their luck against more than thirty teams at the Red Bull Soap Box Race on October 18. The members of Team Husky spent a week constructing their soap box in the living room of Delta Chi, their fraternity.

Seniors Niket Desai and Matthew Pies and Juniors Kenji Kurita and Daniel Mangels are Team Husky. Watch the video to see how they fared…

“I think a lot of us here support Obama,” said Berkeley resident Dan Spitzer, 58. “But we’re worried about his associations.”

Mr. Spitzer, who described himself as pro-Israel, named some people who particularly worried him: William Ayers, a former member of 60′s domestic terror group the Weather Underground; Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter; and the late Edward Said, a Palestinian thinker and activist. These men and others, said Spitzer, did not support Israel, and he feared that their views had shaped Senator Obama’s own.

In response to Spitzer’s question, Pipes said he felt Obama would move US Israel policy closer to that of the Europeans, which emphasizes Palestinian rights. In his talk, Pipes derided that approach as ineffective.

Mr. Pipes’ last solo appearance at the university in 2004 drew national attention when members of the Muslim Student Association, a pro-Palestinian group on campus, protested and disrupted the talk.

This time, the lecture went on as planned.

Though Pipes did not discuss Obama’s personal associations at length, on his website he has published a number of articles suggesting that the senator has practiced Islam and identified as a Muslim. Throughout the campaign the Senator has said he is Christian.

On his website, Senator Obama expresses strong support for Israel, as well as for the military and economic assistance it receives from the US. In the past, the Senator has supported Palestinian rights as well, and his Web site endorses a two-state solution.

Questions about Obama came up several times during the half-hour question-and-answer session. Afterward, audience members said they still felt uncertain.

“I support Obama on most things,” said Spitzer after the talk. “And I’m going to vote for him because I’m an American. But I’m more than a little wary of some of the people he’s been close to.”

Jonathan Wornick, 44, said that up until a few weeks ago, he had been regularly raising money for Republican candidate John McCain. Now, though, he said he felt conflicted, because he agreed with Obama on many social issues but wasn’t sure he could trust him on Israel.

Danny Ponticello, 20, a third-year political science major at UC Berkeley, said all the discussion about Obama had thrown his vote into question.

“I’m conflicted now,” he said. “Before this talk, I had been leaning towards Obama. But I’m pro-Israel, so I’m going to have to look up some more information on his stance.”

Two other students who were talking with Ponticello both said they supported McCain.

Over a hundred people attended Pipes’ talk, which was held at the Boalt School of Law under high security: five uniformed police officers stood inside and outside the lecture hall, and students screened audience members with hand-held metal detectors at the door. Anyone who attempted to disrupt Mr. Pipes as he spoke would be “forced to leave,” said John Moghtader, the president of Tikvah, the pro-Israel student group that sponsored the event, before the lecture began. He added that “there may be sanctions imposed.”

Zohair Jamal, communications director for the Muslim Student Association, said before Thursday’s event that no protest was planned.

“They are entitled to their freedom of speech,” he said. “We feel that if we disagree with an event, whatever it may be, it would be a much better use of our time to use our voices on campus and hold our own events countering what was said.”