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.

Three months ago, the Oakland Tribune ran a story about UC-Berkeley’s hope to get a restraining order against animal rights activists accused of harassing university animal lab researchers _ at their homes.

Since that March story, the weekly attacks on more than a dozen researcher’s homes have continued. “It really hasn’t changed. They are there once a weekend,” said university spokesman Robert Sanders Wednesday.

Reading Matier and Ross at the top of SF Gate this morning one might think this harassment is something new. “Officials have been trying to keep the protests quiet, in part out of concern that publicity will only cause more incidents and an escalation in violence. At UCLA, animal rights protests have included attempted firebombings and one instance in which a researcher’shome was flooded with a garden hose,” the SF Gate story says.

“Looking at the numbers, it’s pretty clear that keeping things quiet in the press hasn’t toned down the protesters much. It’s just as clear, however, that the protesters aren’t reaching their goals, either,” the SF Gate story says.

The group, which calls itself Stop UC Berkeley Vivisection, began showing up at the homes of UC-Berkeley researchers in the East Bay on weekends last fall.

UC Berkeley clearly wants to put an end to the harassment _ but it’s not easy.

“We don’t have enough to go to court with a restraining order and since they wear masks it’s hard to identify who they are,” Sanders said Wednesday.

 The group claims that more than 40,000 non-human animals are housed on the UC Berkeley campus for research purposes. Roughly 50 percent are mice, 40 percent are cold-blooded animals, 9 percent are other rodents, such as voles and wild mice, while the remaining 1 percent are  primates, cats, coyotes, hyenas, ferrets, rabbits, and invertebrates.

 The activists usually show up with bullhorns late at night, and call the researchers murderers and torturers. They have broken flowerpots and used chalk to write demeaning messages on sidewalks outside the homes, police said. Cars have also been vandalized. Earlier this month, Sanders tells us, someone threw a rock through a researcher’s home window and the window of a nearby neighbor during the day. No one was injured.

San Francisco FBI Special Agent Joseph Schadler has said the FBI is working with police, and has sent agents to UC-Santa Cruz following an attempted home invasion of a biomedical researcher there in February. He could not say whether the events in the East Bay and Santa Cruz are related.

The new solar panels at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley were blessed on Sunday. The church has always been a little ahead of its time, as one of the first area churches to start podcasting its’ sermons on the Internet more than three years ago.

But these days their focus is on green technology.

The church (which is actually in Kensington) financed the purchase of the 50-kilowatt solar energy system with a $463,000 loan form its’ endowment but is expecting to get a $131,000 rebate from the state government through PG&E, church officials tell me.

Church members also pitched in more than $100,000 to cover costs.

With the new system, the church expects to reduce its annual power costs to near zero, church officials say.

They might need some serious help from the sun gods to do that.

To start things off right, Revs. Barbara Hamilton-Holway, Bill Hamilton-Holway, and Chris Holton Jablonski, blessed the 336 panels on Sunday. Then there was music and food and electric car demonstrations and other fun stuff.

UUCB is not the only Bay Area religious institution to look to the heavens for help with electrity bills. St. Paul ’s Episcopal Church in  Walnut Creek Congregation Shir Hadash in Los Gatos, the San Francisco Zen Center, Green Gulch Farm Zen Center in Marin County, the  San Francisco Theological Seminary, St. Anselm’s Episcopal Church in Lafayette, and Christ Church Lutheran in Fremont have also gone solar.

There’s a reason for that.

Churches and other non-profits have a financial incentive to do it now because money available for the state-sponsored rebates is on the decline. This news comes from Jessica Brown, outreach director for California Interfaith Power and Light (http:// www.interfaithpower.org), a statewide faith-based ministry that promotes  energy conservation and renewable energy in the faith community.