The Planning Commission is asking the City Council to save crafts and manufacturing jobs in west Berkeley by enacting a moratorium on the construction and expansion of office space. -more-

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Saturday, Feb. 3

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Community takes a hard look at Berkeley High -more-

As the story goes, Canadian playwright George F. Walker, born and raised in Toronto’s industrialized inner city, was driving a cab in the early 1970s when he saw a poster for a local theater company requesting original scripts. -more-

St. Mary’s John Sharper missed the game’s opening shot, but he and the rest of the aggressive Panthers team didn’t miss much else as they cruised to a 78-50 win over St. Joseph’s on Friday night. -more-

By Erika Fricke -more-

3-1 defeat gives St. Patrick-St. Vincent first-round bye -more-

Principal Patricia Saddler of LeConte School knows how she wants to spend the $22,225 award the state just granted the school because of its improved performance on the Stanford 9 test. -more-

Berkeley now 7-0 in ACCAL -more-

Smoke and fire pour from a home at 782 Contra Costa Road midday on Friday. Firefighters had the blaze under control in about 20 minutes. The single-alarm blaze that was reported at 11:40 a.m. was probably caused by an electrical malfunction, Assistant Chief David Orth said. Nobody was injured in the fire, which destroyed the second floor of the home and killed two parakeets. Orth reported an early estimate of at least $200,000 damage. -more-

FOSTER CITY — Webvan Group could be among the first few dot-coms to push for unionization, but union activists say company rules are hurting their efforts. -more-

SACRAMENTO — With a $10 billion power-buying plan in place after two days of vote-wrangling, lawmakers prepared Friday for more contentious negotiations over what to do, if anything, about $12 billion in debts claimed by the state’s biggest utilities. -more-