Down and Out in Berkeley

Some residents of Berkeley, Calif., want to put a measure before city voters that would require a public hearing before letting military recruiters set up a new office within 600 feet of homes, parks, public health clinics, libraries, schools, or churches, reports the Contra Costa Times. The effect, says the newspaper, is to engender a “more complicated city process that sometimes can be stalled or nixed in city bureaucracy.” The group pushing this measure would need to get 2,000 signatures within the next six months for it to appear on the November ballot. But, the newspaper reports that may not be the slam-dunk the group expected, since it’s sparked some public outcry against the initiative.