So as it turns out, the missing Rice University student’s car that was found in West Berkeley last month was cluttered with books and notes on how to assume a new identity.  And we thought he was hiding in the tree grove at Cal.

“There was literature in the vehicle which discusses how somebody would go about pursuing a new identification or persona,” Berkley police spokesman Officer Andrew Frankel told the Houston Chronicle, which has been following every move int he case. “His prints were on everything.”

There was also a book in the car on how to live on the cheap in San Francisco.

Police discovered the 2004 silver Dodge Neon, belonging to 21-year-old Rice student Matthew J. Wilson, on the 1200 block of Allston Way in mid-June and believe it was sitting there for about a month. The car did not appear to have been dumped and had clothes and a backpack belonging to Wilson inside.

But riight away people started to speculate: could Wilson be one of the protesters that has been living in a tree grove at the UC Berkeley for 18-months?

Police now say no and have turned the car over to the family as it’s no longer considered evidence.

Still, the computer science major from Haworth, Okla. remains missing.

He was last seen on  Dec. 14, when police say he withdrew $400 from a Houston ATM. About an hour later, he took out an additional $100 from an ATM.

He then returned to his off-campus apartment that he shared with a roommate and washed some dishes. About 11 p.m., the roommate said Wilson came into the apartment with what sounded like plastic grocery bags, according to a timeline posted on the Web site findmattwilson.org.

Shortly before midnight, Wilson used a debit card to fill his Dodge neon with gas. The card was not used again.

He has not been seen since.

Rice is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to Wilson.

The UC Berkeley Botanical Garden will stay open until 6 p.m. on Wednesday so you can all get a giant whiff of the massive corpse flower, which has a trademark stench that has been described as smelling like gym socks, rotting flesh or an overturned outhouse. Do I have your attention? The Titan arum, affectionately named Odora by garden staff, began issuing its trademark stench before the garden opened Monday. 

“Odora is a great name for it because it’s so odoriferous,” said garden spokeswoman Janet Williams, adding that this plant’s foul smell seems even more powerful than that of its two predecessors at the garden, Titania the Titan last year and Trudy the Titan in 2005.

The rare Titan arum blossom can last up to 72 hours before collapsing. As of Tuesday morning, the blossom was still open but the garden staff was expecting it to close within the next 24 hours. Odora is not as stinky as Monday but still a stinkaroo. She’s also a big one/

When a first flower bud was identified on June 18 it was about about 28 inches tall.

Odora has now bloomed to 44 inches and can  be seen (and smelled) at the Tropical House where visitors can also see a normal typical giant leaf and last year’s 4 ft. tall fruiting stalk with ripe fruit produced from pollination of Titania (Odora’s cousin) last August. 

Along with its rather unusual odor, the titan arum has other unusual characteristics. Sometimes the plant can grow up to  2 inches every 24 hours.

Don’t take my word for it. Check it out for yourself.

The UC Botanical Garden is at 200 Centennial Drive. Admission is $7 for adults, $5 for seniors and $2 for children ages 3 through 12.

Even on a day (last Thursday) when the Dow Jones industrial average finished with a loss of 358 points with another surge in oil prices and warnings of trouble in financial, automotive and high-tech industries dogging the market, troops’ supporters donated more than $1 million for military care packages.

During an 8-hour Web telethon called “From the Frontlines,” people made donations to cover the costs of sending the largest single shipment of care packages for U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

More than 50,000 care packages containing Jelly Bellies, lip balm, cookies, coffee, hand-held fans and other personal care items will be headed to the troops a few days before the Fourth of July.

“Clearly people are yearing for a way to support the American military. The economy be damned, people came together as a community online in a way that has never been done before,” said Melanie Morgan, who heads Move America Forward (www.moveamericanforward.org) the nonprofit that organized the drive.

The telethon was hosted by Morgan, and blogger, author and TV analyst, Michelle Malkin and included guests Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, retired Lt. Col. Oliver North, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, military families and others. President Bush and his wife, Laura, sent a letter of support that was read during the telethon.

The original fund-raising goal for the drive was set for $500,000. However, donations surpassed that amount in the first few hours of the telethon, Morgan said.

The telethon was broadcast by http://www.UStream.tv. It can be viewed on the Move American Forward Web site. The care packages will be shipped from Sacramento on July 2.

Last month, former KSFO morning talk show host Melanie Morgan told me that the group she heads, Move America Forward, (www.moveamericaforward.org) was working to send more than 50,000 care packages to the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s a lot of chocolate chip cookies and toothpaste.

Morgan said the group was striving to bring the “largest amount of care packages in history” to American service men and women.

Tomorrow is the day Morgan and conservative blogger, author and Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin will host a web-a-thon in hopes of raising  $500,000 for Operation Care Package. 

Morgan says it may become a fight for mic time with the all-star lineup that includes Ann Coulter, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, Talk Radio Network’s Monica Crowley and Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh, Lt. Col. Oliver North,  ABC Radio Networks’ hosts Sean Hannity and Mark Levin as well as Nancy Reagan. 

The Jelly Belly candy company (maker of President Ronald Reagan’s favorite candy) has donated 100,000 bags of their gourmet jelly beans that will be included in the care packages, acccording to Move America Forward.  While the jelly beans shipped in the past were welcomed by the troops, military members say their real value comes in being able to hand out the candy to the children of the war-torn nations in which they are serving.

Comedian Jackie Mason and actor Kelsey Grammer will also be on hand for the web-a-thon as will men and women of the U.S. military and various representatives of military and veterans organizations.

Kicking off at 1 p.m., the Jerry Lewis-style 8-hour Internet telethon will airing on Ustream.tv. Calling the show “From the Frontlines,” Morgan said it’s the grand finale to a month-long push to collect sponsorships to send the care packages right before the Fourth of July.

It’s rare, but every once in a while reporters get to do something fun.  I’ve had my share of fun flying around in the Goodyear Blimp, taking a ride with a professional skywriter, meeting Halle Berry at the Paramount Theatre and going to the Price Is Right game show, all in the name of a good story.

Now I can add being a judge for the Westcoast SongWriters competition at Berkeley’s Freight & Salvage coffeehouse to my good-times list. The invitation from Grace Woods, the manager of the East Bay Chapter of the West Coast Songwriters (westcoastsongwriters.org)  Association,  popped into my email basket last week. “Given your experience, we would be honored if you would help out the local songwriting community and come be a judge,” it said.

A judge of musical talent and songwriting? Me? OK,  how could they want someone whose musical knowledge extends to playing the flute up to the 8th grade? 

It must be my knowledge of writing they were after. OK, that made sense. “Sure, I’ll do it,” I wrote back.  OK, so this is where I started dreaming about how I’d get to be justifiably mean and critical, like American Idol judge Simon Cowell in trying to determine the best song and the best performance.

But there was no room for mean and overly critical on Monday night. Every single one of the two dozen performers who took the stage at the Freight sang and strummed and played piano with passion and gusto. Their original songs ranged from folksy to soulful to downright foot stompin’ fun.

A singer songwriter named Tim Mooney emerged as the winner in the best song category with “A Great Generation,” a tune about the stories he’s heard from his dad, now 85 and suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Mooney won three hours of  studio time at a local recording studio. Chris Hanson got the top nod for his Bob Dylan-like performance” of ”Diamond Ridge,” taking home some blank CD’s as a prize.

Next up is the East Bay Play-Offs on  July 21 at the Freight & Salvage.  The winner there will go on to the State Play-Offs.

Who knows what will happen to the state winner. But “Two at a Time,” a song in the new movie “Sex in the City” was written by  Westcoast SongWriters Association members Joel Evans and J. Elle. To catch another round of the West Coast Songwriters contest head over to Cafe Royale, 800 Post Street in San Francisco at 7:30 p.m. tonight. It’s free.

This 6-foot boa constrictor was trying to stay warm when a man found her curled on a pile of dirt at Aquatic Park last Friday. He didn’t want to pull the snake from the dirt so he rushed to Berkeley Animal Care Services where snake expert April Stevenson was just closing up for the day.

“I was really excited because I like snakes,” Stevenson told me. With the help of the folks at the East Bay Vivarium it was determined that the snake had an upper respiratory infection, mouth rot and an unknown mass on the lower end of her long body. Injections of antibiotics were started and everyone did their best to keep the snake warm so she could fight the infection. They even named the non-venemus snake_ Antoinette.

Stevenson, who knows a thing or two about snakes and has three of her own, said she believe the Colombian red tale boa was someone’s pet.

“Someone probably dumped it at Aquatic Park. It was doing the best it could, hoping the sun could keep it warm enough,” she said, adding that she believes the snake had been there about a week.

 In any case, the Berkeley animal shelter will keep her for at least another week and then possibly put her up for adoption. “I’m considering taking her,” said Stevenson.  Want more information? Call the Berkeley Animal Care Services at 981-6600.  

When Eagles Up, the pro-military group, rode into Berkeley in March they designated the city as a “no spend zone” to penalize the city financially for its anti-military stance.

Except for buying a pizza, organizers said bikers didn’t spend a dime in Berkeley. Well, the group has changed its’ tune and is returning to the city this Saturday to show Berkeley a little love and some dead presidents.

“This time, I think we should spend money - at every establishment that has two things displayed in their window -  an American flag (and)  a sign that says, “We Support the Troops,” organizer Doug Lyvere, the director of Western Operations for Eagles Up, tells me. The group will converge on the U.S. Marine center at 64 Shattuck Square about 10 a.m. Saturday and rally until noon when Move America Forward leader Melanie Morgan and others will give speeches in support of the Marines, who earlier this year were called “uninvited and unwelcome intruders” by the Berkeley City Council.

Organizers, who are already scouting Berkeley for America flags and troop support signs, are also encouraging members to spend at least one $2 bill. “ They’re rare enough to make a point.  Any every business that gets at least one of these, will know that the veterans are giving back, again,” Lyvere says.  

There’s no telling how many motorcyclists will show up Saturday. Last time, organizers said there were 400 bikers who spent $25,000 to $30,000 in neighboring cities. That’s a lot of pizza.  

Disclaimer: Russell Bass is looking for publicity for his 15-year-old Berkeley restaurant.

Usually we news folks would look the other way. We don’t much care for shameless self promoters.

We ignore them. We delete their e-mails. We roll our eyes.

But Bass’ promotion _ a contest to win a free official same-sex wedding ceremony and reception dinner at Cafe de la Paz _ is a pretty good one.

“We’ll marry you gayly,” says the advertisement that an angry Bass on Monday placed in the Bakersfield Californian, Kern County’s largest daily newspaper.

You see, Bass is more than a little ticked off at Kern County for their refusal to marry same-sex couples. Kern County officials say they aren’t doing weddings _ gay or straight _ because they don’t have the staff. Officials in Butte County also won’t do civil ceremonies there anymore.

Bass says he’ll give away the prize to the first same-sex couple that can tell him “Why I’d rather get married in Berkeley at Cafe de la Paz” that in Kern County. To enter go to www.cafedelapaz.net.

The winning couple will be treated to a wedding for ten at Cafe de la Paz, which Bass happily tells us translates (in Spanish) to Peace Cafe.

It seems odd that there is an anti-nudity ordinance in Berkeley of all the liberal places on the planet. But the law has been on the books for almost a decade and that means you can’t show your stuff in public _ no matter how much you want to.

Pamela Bennett, a 45-year-old Code Pink activist was arrested at the the Breasts Not Bombs rally Friday because she didn’t follow the rules, police said. “feel that this is really silencing the message. If Berkeley can’t allow (nudity) for a few minutes then where are we with free speech?” said Bennett.

She thinks the arrest was political and that police targeted her because she’s been arrested three times before at the Marine recruiting center for tresspassing. Police say she was told to put her pink top back on once and didn’t do it. The second time she got the cuffs and a trip to the Berkeley city jail.

“I didn’t plan to get arrested today,” she said. “I planned on baring my breasts (for a news photograph) and getting that photograph out there to show warmth, nurturing and peace. I wanted to counterbalance the other (negative images of war) that are out there and show the vulnerability,” she told me Friday afternoon after being released from jail.

Bennett was headed back downtown to the embattled recruiting center, which has been under fire since February when the City Council called them “uninvited and unwanted intruders.” She wasn’t sure if she was going to show her breasts again. She said she’d drawn a pair of boobs on her clothing and written the word “Danger” nearby to make a point.

Nudity in Berkeley wasn’t outlawed before the late Andrew Martinez, formerly known as the Naked Guy, began showing his stuff on the UC Berkeley campus in 1992. He led campus nude-in and nobody really cared. Nudity without lewd acts was not illegal.

UC Berkeley eventually banned nudity and asked Martinez to leave, issuing its “Policy Statement Concerning Public Nudity and Sexually Offensive Conduct” in December 1992. In 1999, the city adopted an anti-nudity ordinance, after Martinez attended a City Council meeting naked. Martinez was once part of the X-Plicit Players, a group of naked folks that had historically been in Berkeley events and parades, including the How Berkeley Can you Be parade.

This year, they were asked to stay home. When we wrote the story, organizer Greg Keidan told me this.  ”For some reason, some people in Berkeley didn’t want to see naked people in the streets. They (organizers) wanted to make it more of a mainstream event.”

Breasts Not Bombs, the ladies who like to go topless in public during non-violent public protests, are gearing up to show their stuff at the embattled U.S. Marine recruiting center on Shattuck Square in downtown Berkeley from 10 a.m. to noon Friday. They are doing it in the name of peace and justice and we’re all for that.

But we do have a question: will the 24-hour Fox News camera that is attached to a building across the street and has been steaming live video for several months be showing the bare breast brigade on their Web site? We tried to check the status of the site  http://www.foxnews.com/protestcam/ today but couldn’t get a picture. 

The Breast Not Bombs women say they are coming to Berkeley because they can’t bare another day of the military recruiting youth and occupying the “sovereign nation of Iraq.” They want to stop “funding the war and turning valuable human life into casualties or cannon fodder.”

Now, the U.S. Marine center has been plenty of action in the last four months since the City Council called them “uninvited and unwelcome intruders” and Code Pink and the like began rallying outside weekly. But we’re pretty sure this is the first time the bare ladies will be out in force.

As the group likes to say, maybe the breast is yet to come.