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72-year-old business still going
Don’t go to the Berkeley Stamp Company to beef up your postage stamp collection. -more-
BHS players head to Cuba for baseball tour
Rattlers to be first junior team to visit Castro. -more-
BUSD accused of ignoring student help program
Members of Berkeley’s African American community – church leaders, community leaders, parents, teachers, and students – turned out en masse at the Wednesday night School Board meeting to denounce the school district for not doing enough to help students of color improve their academic skills. -more-
Northern California’s top players facing off at Berkeley Tennis Club
The best junior tennis players in northern California are squaring off this week at the Berkeley Tennis Club, trying to add on points to qualify for the junior national tournament in August. -more-
Residents want to purchase project
Residents of the University Avenue Co-op Homes want to take advantage of a rare opportunity to buy their affordable housing development and have asked the City Council to fund a study of the proposed purchase. -more-
Playground soil tested for arsenic
The American Chemistry Council, an organization representing the U.S. chemical industry, tested the soil at the Cedar and Rose Park playground in north Berkeley Thursday, to determine whether the site is contaminated with arsenic. -more-
Teachers vie for prized housing spots on district land
SANTA CLARA — Forty teachers in one of the nation’s tightest housing markets won coveted spots Thursday in inexpensive apartments being built on school district property as part of a program believed to be the first of its kind anywhere. -more-
Features
High-speed rail project trying to limp along
SACRAMENTO — Facing a bare-bones budget, California’s high-speed rail planners are trying to scrape together enough money to keep the project limping along over the next 12 months. -more-
Bluesman John Lee Hooker dies at 83
Veteran bluesman John Lee Hooker, whose foot stompin’ and gravelly voice electrified audiences and inspired several generations of musicians, died Thursday at his Los Altos home. He was 83. -more-
Judge orders release of killer saying Gov. Davis can’t stop it
LOS ANGELES — Gov. Gray Davis does not have blanket powers to deny parole to murderers, a judge ruled Thursday in ordering the release of convicted killer Robert Rosenkrantz. -more-
Water conservation can take many forms
No one wants to stand by and watch their tomato plants wilt away to nothing in dry weather. Then again, who wants to run their well dry or waste water? The challenge is to keep plants happy and, at the same time, conserve water. -more-
Test for radon leak before starting to fill cracks
Q: I have two questions. I have cracks in my concrete basement floor from which I believe radon gas is creeping in. -more-
Trade deficit decreases
WASHINGTON — Americans’ demand for foreign-made TVs, toys and clothes waned in April, helping to narrow the U.S. trade deficit. Exports fell for the second month in a row. -more-
Gene mutation helps fight malaria
WASHINGTON — A gene mutation that arose thousands of years ago now protects hundreds of millions of people from severe malaria, the mosquito-borne disease that is the world’s deadliest infection. -more-
Editorial
Two versions of biotech protest story told
SAN DIEGO — Launching a week’s worth of protests tied to a biotechnology convention, activists entered a supermarket Thursday and slapped warning labels on shelves they say were filled with foods made with genetically-engineered crops. -more-