Tempers flared Tuesday night when 20 off-duty Berkeley police officers attended the City Council meeting to complain about what they said is woeful lack of parking for police department employees. -more-
Safety problems not fixed nine years after hills fire -more-
Sandwiching two lackluster efforts around a stellar second game, the St. Mary’s girls’ volleyball team lost to the visiting Albany Cougars, 15-8, 16-14, 15-6, on Wednesday afternoon. -more-
After listening to 35 people speak in favor of landmarking the West Berkeley Shellmound, the City Council unanimously voted to grant the site historic landmark status at Tuesday night’s council meeting. -more-
In a game usually filled with trash-talking and boisterous personalities, Nnamdi Asomugha stands out. Not for his woofing or his antics, because he doesn’t do much of that. Asomugha is known for his quiet leadership, big hits and dependable play from his safety position for the Cal football team. -more-
Religious protesters waved banners and sang songs outside the Berkeley Marina Radisson Hotel at a candlelight vigil Tuesday night. East Bay labor activists and members of religious groups organized the event to show support for the hotel workers’ new union. The union chapter, recognized in June, is now negotiating its first contract. -more-
Cal head coach Tom Holmoe announced Wednesday that Marcus Fields would not play the remainder of the season due to a shoulder injury and has elected to apply for medical redshirt status and return for the 2001 campaign. -more-
Alleging that Citibank is “the world’s most destructive bank,” members of the Rainforest Action Network led a protest outside the bank’s Shattuck Avenue branch Tuesday. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO — In a move that may lead to an expansion of vehicle seizure laws around the state, the California Supreme Court declined Wednesday to review a ruling that local governments can seize the vehicles of people suspected of dealing drugs or soliciting prostitutes from a car. -more-
TRACY — About 1,600 workers at a massive warehouse supplying Safeway supermarkets in three states went on strike Wednesday and blocked trucks from entering. Warehouse officials responded by bringing in replacement workers. -more-
ST. LOUIS — Al Gore and George W. Bush traded parting debate shots, the vice president calling the governor an ally of big business, the Republican nominee retorting that Gore stands for more federal spending and Washington power. -more-
The Berkeley Unified School District’s Board of Education is responsible for the education of more than 10,000 students in 13 elementary schools, three middle schools, a high school and alternative high school as well as an adult school. -more-
Research on health and schools, a wake-up call -more-
The American Civil Liberties Union announced today that it has formed a legal team to represent the alleged victims of Berkeley landlord Lakireddy Bali Reddy. -more-
About 1,200 workers at a massive warehouse that supplies Safeway stores in three western states said they will walk off the job Wednesday to protest working conditions and truckdriver salaries. -more-
The California State Automobile Association reports gas prices are slightly down in Northern California from the record highs of September, but relief is not evenly distributed in the Bay area. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO — The Greek captain of the troubled Neptune Dorado oil tanker was released from prison on $500,000 bail Tuesday and will stay in the care of the Greek Orthodox Diocese until an Oct. 30 arraignment. -more-
SACRAMENTO — The Mexican government and California Department of Corrections are starting a first-in-the-nation program to teach basic reading and writing skills to Mexican inmates. -more-
TWENTYNINE PALMS — A couple under arrest for the alleged torture and abuse of their two sons had a third child who died about 10 years ago and is believed to be buried on their property, authorities said. -more-
VISALIA — About 30 protesters hoisted signs and chanted slogans in a successful bid to temporarily stop crews from cutting down hundreds of mature oak trees along a bucolic central California irrigation canal. -more-
LOS ANGELES — An ocean pollution trial a decade in the making began Tuesday with prosecutors calling for more than $47 million to compensate for what they called the world’s biggest pile of DDT, in the Santa Monica Bay. -more-
LOS ANGELES — A monthlong transit strike ended Tuesday with both sides overwhelmingly agreeing to accept a new three-year contract that would restore bus and commuter rail service to 450,000 riders dependent on public transportation. -more-
Some 1,200 revelers from an overcrowded fraternity party on campus spilled onto Telegraph Avenue early Sunday morning, some of them smashing windows, looting shops and robbing pedestrians, police said. -more-
Devon Whalen and the employees of Mr. Rags clothing store were still sweeping up glass and putting things back on the shelves of their trashed store Monday morning. It was around 10 a.m., more than a day after a mob Berkeley police estimates as 1,200 people ran rampant down Telegraph Avenue, breaking out windows and looting at least seven stores. -more-
A discussion on providing parking for city and school employees will likely spark some controversy at tonight’s City Council meeting. -more-
Growing up Protestant, Dorothy Eng had no idea Islam existed. And had she not attended a talk offered by The American Institute of Islamic History and Culture on Sunday, she would have been equally oblivious of the practicing Muslims living around her. -more-
More than 50 years after being removed from their industrial jobs and told to “go back to their kitchens,” women from as far away as Oklahoma returned Saturday to a hero’s welcome in Richmond for the dedication of a war memorial built in their honor. -more-
OAKLAND — Accused murderer Stuart Alexander reloaded his handguns, walked over to three wounded meat inspectors lying on the floor of his San Leandro sausage factory and shot each in the head. -more-
SACRAMENTO — A Web site offering to sell 15,000 votes for president to the highest bidder is being investigated for possible voter fraud, Secretary of State Bill Jones said Monday. -more-
Julia Query always dreamed of fighting the good fight for freedom, justice and equality, she says at the start of her movie “Live Nude Girls UNITE!” She never expected to realize that dream by organizing fellow strippers into a union. -more-
The big event in Bay Area theater this month is the first visit ever to California by Ireland's famous Gate Theater. -more-
SACRAMENTO — State health officials are considering new standards to clean up sites contaminated with radioactive materials, despite critics’ claims people living near sites could be exposed to higher levels of cancer-causing radiation. -more-
LOS ANGELES — The nation’s high school students lie a lot, cheat a lot, and many show up for class drunk, according to preliminary results of a nationwide teen character study released Monday. -more-
STANTON— Kate Schmidt won friends by telling people she played softball in the 1992 Olympics before losing her leg to a doctor’s mistake. -more-
SACRAMENTO — More California bar patrons like the state’s nearly 3-year-old ban on smoking in bars than did when the prohibition was imposed, according to a new poll. -more-
Toot Sweets bakery at 1277 Gilman St. was robbed twice by the same person Oct. 11 and 12, according to Berkeley police. -more-
Home to San Pablo Park, one of the city’s most-used recreation areas, the newly remodeled Longfellow Middle School, the new Over-60 Health Center-senior housing project, and the city’s community-built playground at Aquatic Park, District 2 also comprises the heavily-trafficked San Pablo Avenue, a state highway, with 11 developable parcels, an often thriving prostitution trade at San Pablo and Heinz avenues and the site of the city’s third homicide of the year on Haskell Street. Median home values and income are among the lowest in the city. -more-
Fans storm field following 46-38 homecoming win -more-
Schott, Sabo score as Cal wins third in a row over Cardinal -more-
The landscape of south Berkeley is set to get its long-awaited makeover, if the City Council approves a set of plans and specifications designed to make the Adeline-Ashby-Alcatraz corridor a bicycle and pedestrian-oriented commercial street. -more-
Led by three goals apiece from Brian Brown and Adam Wright, and 12 blocks by goalie Brandon Brooks, No. 1 ranked UCLA defeated No. 4 Cal, 11-5, in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match Saturday afternoon at Spieker Aquatics Complex. -more-
BERKELEY — Berkeley police had their hands full after a mob of about 500 people broke store windows and looted several businesses on a busy street near the University of California, Berkeley. -more-
The Downtown Berkeley Association dropped its sponsorship of Monday night’s candidates forum, after protests from several City Council hopefuls who called foul, claiming that an organization that gets city funding should not be sponsoring an election forum. -more-
The Cal women’s volleyball team defeated William & Mary Friday in front of a standing-room-only crowd at the RSF Fieldhouse, 16-14, 13-15, 15-11 and 15-7. -more-
An Aztec dancer celebrates Indigenous People’s Day last year at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park, at Martin Luther King Jr. and Allston ways. Today is Berkeley’s Ninth Annual celebration of native peoples in Martin Luther King Jr. Park, a holiday which replaced Columbus Day in the city in 1991. Organizers invite the entire community to the event. Bring a lawn chair or blanket to sit on, they say. “Do not sit in the inner circle or the areas reserved for dancers. No alcohol is allowed. Please join in when you are invited...Ask permission before taking pictures.” This year the celebration honors Leonard Peltier, indigenous rights activist, incarcerated for 24 years. -more-
It’s a lesson as old as humanity itself: it’s not how you start something, but whether you finish it. The Berkeley High Yellowjackets (2-4, 2-0) started the first four games of the regular season with tough losses in non-conference play. But a 26-19 victory over the Encinal Jets (2-4, 1-1) Friday night gave the Yellowjackets a 2-0 record in conference play that might turn some heads within their very own ACCAL league. -more-
A San Francisco police officer charged with assaulting his girlfriend in her West Berkeley apartment and binding her hands with a nylon strap appeared in Berkeley Superior Court Friday to face charges of misdemeanor battery and false imprisonment. -more-
In what has been a disappointing season for the Cal football team, the upcoming five-game stretch leading up to the Big Game against Stanford could be even uglier. -more-
RICHMOND – Phyllis Gould rarely thinks of the years she spent welding troop ship deck houses together in the shipyards of San Francisco Bay. Fifty-five years have passed since then, decades of marriage, divorce, child rearing and the myriad distractions of home life. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO – One of the nation’s top fish conservation groups wants the California golden trout declared an endangered species, fearing the state fish will be rendered extinct by an alarming rate of hybridization in its two native Sierra Nevada watersheds. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO – In a break with mainstream pro-Israel organizations, more than 100 Jews called on Israel to accept some responsibility for violence in the West Bank at a gathering outside the Israeli consulate here Friday afternoon. -more-
SANTA CRUZ – The city council in this seaside community has given preliminary approval to the most generous living-wage ordinance in the nation, a minimum wage of $11 an hour with health benefits – or $12 an hour without benefits. -more-
FULLERTON – Erin Brockovich, the law clerk who brought about a record settlement against Pacific Gas & Electric Co., is among the winners of this year’s Beacon Awards presented by the California First Amendment Coalition. -more-
SHELDON – Scientists released about 100 flea-sized wasps Thursday in Sacramento County, hoping the Australian insects will seek their natural food source: a bug killing eucalyptus trees. -more-
Vice President Gore and Texas Gov. Bush have been doing everything they can think of in the past two weeks to attract the crucial votes of senior citizens. -more-
The Poetry Center & American Poetry Archives is pleased to announce the winner of this year’s Poetry Center Book Award. Cole Swensen’s newest book of poems, “Try” (University of Iowa Press), was selected for the annual award by this year’s judge, poet Elizabeth Robinson, of Berkeley. The Poetry Center Book Award has been given every year since 1980 to an outstanding new book of poetry published in the previous year. -more-
The Berkeley High women’s volleyball team won against Encinal High of Alameda Thursday evening at Berkeley’s Donahue Gymnasium. The Yellowjackets swept the Jets in three straight games, 15-9, 15-1, 15-7, for a quick victory. -more-
Stuart Cohen’s on a mission. He wants to awaken the Bay Area from what he calls its “transportation nightmare.” -more-
At a ceremony last week when a low-emission AC Transit bus was dedicated to the city of Berkeley, Mayor Shirley Dean rallied support for Measure B. -more-
In the handsome program catalog for “Divas: Divine Women of the Italian Silent Cinema,” filled with gorgeous movie stills, Pina Menichelli reclines on her side, her dress slipping off her shoulder, the line of her neck describing sultry insolence. -more-
For listeners of Radio Unica, a national Spanish language station, Jim Lehrer spoke with a sweet female voice and both George W. Bush and Al Gore had a slight Argentinean accent. -more-
The real power of the United States comes from its values, said both Al Gore and Texas Gov. George Bush during Wednesday night’s debate. But the meaning of “values” remains illusive. -more-
EMERYVILLE — An explosive device was destroyed by a bomb squad early Thursday after police responding to reports of gunfire discovered the device in a hotel room. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO — A California appeals court has exempted Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown from a political conflict-of-interest rule that was blocking his participation in the city’s downtown redevelopment efforts. -more-
The Associated Press -more-
LOS ANGELES — Disgraced police officer Rafael Perez may be eliminated as the star witness in the Rampart police corruption trial if he persists in demanding immunity from prosecution for three murders in which he is a suspect, a lawyer said late Thursday. -more-
SHELDON — Scientists released about 100 flea-sized wasps Thursday in Sacramento County, hoping the Australian insects will seek their natural food source: a bug killing eucalyptus trees. -more-
LOS ANGELES — Thousands of striking Los Angeles County employees returned to work Thursday after union leaders heeded a plea from Cardinal Roger Mahony to end the interruption of services to “the poorest and most vulnerable” people. -more-
Hidden Nail Trick -more-
Q: I have just finished renovating my living room and am now at the stage where the wallboard work is completed. Can you give me some advice as far as painting is concerned? -more-
Sidewalks take a beating from the very beginning. -more-
James recently expanded his home office. A big decisions he had to make was to choose the right windows for the job. The wall that was being “pushed out” contained a window and a sliding door. James wasn’t sure whether he should nix the window and replace the smaller sliding door with a larger one, or go with just windows or reuse what he had. He anguished over the choice. He wanted it to be just right. -more-
SACRAMENTO — A residential charter school that would use organic gardening to try to turn troubled teens around failed to win approval from the state Education Board Thursday, but will get another chance. -more-
What: Charter schools are public schools created by parents, teachers and/or community members that operate free of much of the 7,000-page state Education Code. -more-
In what sounds like something out of “Jurassic Park,” bacteria that lived before the dinosaurs and survived Earth’s biggest mass extinction have been reawakened after a 250-million-year sleep in a salt crystal, scientists say. -more-
SACRAMENTO — Opponents in the fight over the school voucher initiative on California’s Nov. 7 ballot accused each other Tuesday of using deceptive ads. -more-
WASHINGTON – A type of genetically engineered corn that is not approved for food use was withdrawn from the market at the government’s urging Thursday after the crop showed up in additional brands of taco shells. -more-
Downtown San Francisco was a friendly place Wednesday morning. At 7:30 a.m., more than 300 volunteers, wearing fluorescent green hats and vests, stationed themselves on street corners and cheerily waved hello to passers by. -more-
