For a woman who stands at less than five feet tall, Mayor Shirley Dean has been a towering presence in Berkeley politics for more than a quarter-century. -more-
The Berkeley High girls volleyball team ended its season on a sour note on Tuesday, falling to Castro Valley High in straight games, 15-3, 15-10, 15-6, in the first round of the North Coast Section Division I playoffs. -more-
UC Berkeley has agreed to grant pro-Palestinian protester Roberto Hernandez a new student conduct hearing, acknowledging concerns about the legality of UC police videos, reports and testimony used in his current hearing. -more-
From the moment Kevin Moen ran over Gary Tyrrell in Memorial Stadium’s end zone in 1982, the man with the football and the man with the trombone have been inseparable in college football lore. -more-
To keep cigarettes out of the hands of underage smokers, City Council moved one step closer Tuesday to imposing fees on local tobacco merchants. -more-
The fifth-ranked Cal men’s soccer team received a first round bye for the NCAA Championships and will host a second round game Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. at Edwards Stadium. The Golden Bears will face the winner of a University of San Diego-UC Santa Barbara first-round match. -more-
The University of California has declared a formal impasse in contentious contract negotiations with its 18,000 library assistants, childcare workers and other clerical employees, setting the stage for state intervention in a 19-month-old labor dispute centered on wages and workplace safety. -more-
Dozens of city employees were forced to evacuate the Civic Center building at 2180 Milvia St. Tuesday when a broken water main caused a small flood. -more-
WALNUT CREEK – William C. McDowell, a newspaper publisher who sold the family business when he joined the Navy and later became an executive at United Press International, has died. He was 97. -more-
OAKLAND – Questions still surround the death of an Oakland woman found Friday afternoon by her husband who was later arrested for a parole violation. -more-
A Berkeley man was in stable condition after he was shot in the stomach shortly after 4 p.m. Tuesday in Oakland, according to Oakland Police. -more-
CINCINNATI – Alan Kalmanoff, the man appointed to oversee police-community relations as Cincinnati recovered from race riots in 2001 resigned Wednesday after city officials complained that his bills were excessive. -more-
FREMONT – A fourth suspect in the beating and strangling death of a Newark transgender teen has been charged with murder, almost a month after Eddie “Gwen” Araujo was killed at a party when it was discovered the youth was male instead of female. -more-
REDWOOD CITY – Seven police officers were placed on administrative leave Monday after a man they subdued with restraints and pepper spray during an arrest died in their custody. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO – Two University of California researchers say their review of industry documents shows tobacco companies have tried to boost their presence in the black community by targeting groups such as the NAACP, giving money and cultivating beneficial relationships. -more-
WASHINGTON – Despite years of work on agriculture and intelligence issues, Rep. Gary Condit is destined to be remembered for his relationship with a young woman found slain in a park. -more-
SACRAMENTO – A former employee of a natural gas trade journal and energy trader told California lawmakers Monday the daily lists of gas prices were manipulated to boost prices. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO – Fighting for survival, online magazine publisher Salon Media Group Inc. has introduced an unusual advertising program that waives subscriptions for readers willing to wade through an interactive commercial. -more-
FRESNO – A cliffhanger state Assembly race has moved into the courtroom, with Republicans and Democrats fighting over the release of the names and addresses of 154 provisional voters. -more-
Soaring assault rates and a large number of self-inflicted wounds make Alameda County one of the most dangerous areas in the state for young people. But the county does a better job than most in providing after-school programs, job training and other violence prevention programs, according to a new study. -more-
Gabriela Rios-Sotelo doesn’t have her mentor around anymore but has become a leader in her place. -more-
Vijay Lakireddy, 32, was sentenced to two years in a minimum security prison Monday for his role in a family operation to smuggle young Indian girls into the country for sex and cheap labor. -more-
ALAMEDA — For once, it was the Oakland Raiders who got the ball and kept hold of it as the clock slowly ticked away. -more-
The NCAA upheld its one-year bowl ban on California’s football team Monday, but restored nine scholarships it revoked in June after an investigation into academic fraud and other infractions. -more-
Alabama hasn’t been regarded this highly in 25 years. -more-
With absentee ballots counted, 8th District City Council candidate Gordon Wozniak has inched closer to winning an outright victory in the Nov. 5 general election and avoiding a runoff against his nearest competitor, UC Berkeley graduate student Andy Katz. -more-
To the Editor: -more-
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department moved swiftly Monday to take advantage of a court ruling broadening its ability to track suspected terrorists and spies using wiretaps and other surveillance techniques. -more-
Berkeley has taken the lead on an ambitious project that, if realized, could have downtown sporting more trout than students. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO – Marin County medical examiners confirmed Monday they identified a body found floating between Angel Island and Alcatraz last week as that of a Swiss citizen who apparently was thrown from a party boat last month. -more-
Colleges and universities across the United States stepped up their recruiting efforts to offset dwindling numbers of high school graduates over the two decades ending in 1999, a study by five leading educational institutions reported Monday. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court blocked a legal challenge to the detention of the 600 or so Afghan war prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, giving the Bush administration a major victory in its war on terrorism. -more-
SANTA CLARA — About 600 Santa Clara Superior Court workers walked off the job Monday, forcing the closure of two courthouses and prompting an injunction trying to force some back to work. -more-
By JOHN CURRAN -more-
SANTA CLARA, — Software maker Roxio is poised to snap up the remaining assets of the now defunct song-swapping company Napster for $5 million in cash and 100,000 warrants to purchase Roxio common stock, the company announced Friday. -more-
NEW YORK — Wall Street pulled back Monday as investors tried to extend six weeks of blue chip gains but were stymied by war concerns and a tepid Wal-Mart outlook. -more-
LOS ANGELES — He has been a genetically engineered twin and a pregnant man, a barbarian and a spy, a kindergarten cop and a killer. Now some Republicans are casting Arnold Schwarzenegger as the next governor of California. -more-
SANTA CLARA — Mayors from several U.S. cities gathered Monday at a conference to hash out energy issues with a focus on the future of the tumultuous deregulated market. -more-
LOS ANGELES — Four hundred years after it put down roots in what would become Southern California, a giant oak was offered a move Monday to save its life by getting it out of the path of a four-lane road to the latest outpost of suburban sprawl. -more-
OAKLAND – A 55-year-old woman died after a scuffle in her home, Oakland Police said, and they are investigating the death as a homicide. -more-
Last week, there were rumors several Arizona players would boycott Saturday’s game against Cal after a near-mutiny against head coach John Mackovic. But in the end, it was the Cal secondary that didn’t show up to play. -more-
STANFORD – Last week, Stanford midfielder Marcie Ward said that Sunday’s NCAA tournament match with Cal would “be more exciting than the football [Big] game.” She was probably right. -more-
OAKLAND – Flags flew quietly at half-mast last week in Alameda County for Oakland homicide victim number 97 – high school student Tamellia Cobbs, who was shot to death in East Oakland last Monday. -more-
As the St. Mary’s High Panthers took their two final timeouts of the regular season on Saturday with five seconds remaining in a tied game, they could only hope that Piedmont kicker Evan Lindenmayer would stay true to form. The junior kicker had not made a field goal all season, and had been inconsistent in his attempts to convert extra points. -more-
To the Editor: -more-
Lynne Stewart’s attorney tells Stewart she’s a client from hell. -more-
The Berkeley High football team was given the No. 5 seed in the North Coast Section 4A playoffs on Sunday. The Yellowjackets will face No. 4 Hayward on Saturday at 7 p.m. In an unusual twist, Berkeley will get a home game despite being the lower seed, thanks to its status as a league champion. Hayward came in second in the HAAL this season. -more-
A Berkeley police officer shot an armed suspect Friday in a botched robbery of a south Berkeley hair salon. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO – Sen. Dianne Feinstein says she wants a congressional hearing to find out whether the FBI used unlawful methods of obtaining information from the UC Berkeley five decades ago, a newspaper reported Sunday. -more-
OAKLAND – Students in kindergarten through 12th grade will learn about the proposed war in Iraq at 1960s-style “teach-ins,” the school board decided Wednesday night. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO – More than 7,500 of the state’s public school buildings may be vulnerable to collapse in a major earthquake, a new study has found. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO – A fourth suspect has been arrested in the beating and strangling of a Newark transgender youth killed at a party last month after it was discovered the teen was male instead of female, police announced Sunday. -more-
OSEVILLE – A split decision by the U.S. Supreme Court is fueling a hot new trend on school campuses — but one not particularly popular with students. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO – They’ve trained for the past 19 months, scouring legal documents, calculating data, hunting for the best witnesses. Most have logged more hours at work than at home during the last few weeks. -more-
Before taking the field against the University of Arizona Wildcats today the Cal football team, as it does before every home game, spent a night at the exclusive Claremont Resort and Spa discussing strategy and focusing its attention on the game. -more-
Murder and big-time bloody mayhem are what Medea commits when her husband starts fooling around with another woman. Cal Performances opened an ingenious and powerful modern-dress rethinking of the Greek classic Thursday at Zellerbach Playhouse on the UC Berkeley campus. -more-
For 47 minutes, Sean Young was a goat. But he needed just 10 seconds to make himself a hero. -more-
A deal struck to publicly acquire a swath of private Berkeley waterfront property could be a home run for local playing field advocates and environmentalists. -more-
“Sacrifice is not a bad thing,” said the opinionated and vociferous Bill Maher on how people should change in response to 9/11. He ardently reiterates this point and many others with vivid pictures and straightforward, thought-invoking prose in his new book “When You Ride Alone, You are Riding with Bin Laden.” Maher’s points are made through the book’s pictures of World War II-style U.S. propaganda posters, as well as 33 new eye-opening posters created to hoist American citizens to action against terrorism. He takes his book on a tour of the United States, which stops in Berkeley next Tuesday. -more-
STANFORD – Cal finally won a postseason game in women’s soccer, and Laura Schott finally got her record. -more-
LOS ANGELES — A federal judge issued a sweeping ban Friday on a section of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act that barred non-citizens from being airport security screeners. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO — Polluters are getting off way too easy under the Bush administration, according to the former chief of civil enforcement for the Environmental Protection Agency. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO — They’re still not free, but they’re getting closer. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO — California’s largest local phone service company has asked state regulators to more than double the rates it charges competitors to lease its phone lines, a change consumer advocates say could lead to fewer choices for customers. -more-
TOKETEE, Ore. — Eleven-year-old Will Allen watched with a mixture of pride and regret Thursday as his favorite climbing tree was carefully cut to serve as the congressional Christmas tree in Washington, D.C. -more-
The nine-campus University of California, expecting millions in state funding cuts next year, may have to raise student fees by as much as 10 percent, officials said Thursday. -more-
To the Editor: -more-
I had misgivings when I heard the title of Transparent Theater’s second play of the season – “Eternity Is in Love with the Productions of Time.” What a mouthful. I prayed that Transparent would unsort this knot of rhetoric and unravel its mystery by means of an absorbing play. -more-
Berkeley’s Alta Bates Medical Center was one of several Bay Area hospitals that responded Wednesday night to a vague FBI warning of a possible terrorist attack at local hospitals. -more-
To the Editor: -more-
HELENA, Mont. – Despite their best efforts, Sacramento State players have gotten themselves into a sticky situation. -more-
Owning a business is supposed to be the pinnacle of the American dream. But for many south and west Berkeley entrepreneurs in the midst of recession, being self employed has been a tough and lonely occupation. -more-
To the Editor: -more-
The Berkeley High football team is just one win away from the school’s first perfect season in nearly 30 years. The weight that accomplishment isn’t lost on head coach Matt Bissell. -more-
Conservative activist Ward Connerly appeared to back off on a request for an independent study of the University of California's controversial, racially-sensitive “comprehensive review” admissions policy Thursday. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO — Nine gay linguists, including six trained to speak Arabic, have been discharged from a U.S. Army language institute despite the threat of war in the Middle East and a critical shortage of language specialists in the military and intelligence agencies. -more-
Henry May, the Emmy Award-winning set designer who collaborated with artistic luminaries such as Orson Welles and Leonard Bernstein, has died at a nursing home. He was 81. -more-
OAKLAND — Two parolees arrested in connection with the drive-by killing of a 15-year-old girl and the wounding of two boys in East Oakland on Monday were arraigned in Alameda County Superior Court Thursday. -more-
For the second straight year, an overwhelming number of Californians told pollsters they prefer to drive alone to work and live in a single-family home, two desires that often confound lawmakers trying to steer growth back into cities. -more-
OAKLAND — Alameda County prosecutors Thursday filed an expanded set of felony sex charges against Yusef Bey, a leader in Oakland's Nation of Islam community. -more-
BERKELEY — Family, friends and University of California, Berkeley students remembered former Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien as a leader with infectious optimism and a professor with high expectations. -more-
SANTA CRUZ — The city of Santa Cruz has joined Berkeley, Cambridge, Mass., and Denver, Colo. in opposing parts of the USA Patriot Act, passed by Congress last year shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO — Pressplay and MusicNet signed deals Thursday that give both online music companies the licenses to distribute content from all five major record labels. -more-
WASHINGTON — Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a California liberal, easily won election Thursday as leader of minority House Democrats and swiftly set a goal of crafting a “down the center” program for economic growth. -more-
LOS ANGELES — Harry Potter’s got his work cut out for him to match his box-office grades from freshman year. -more-
SACRAMENTO — California faces a budget deficit of more than $20 billion for the second straight year, Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill said Thursday. -more-
SAN JOSE — Advanced Micro Devices Inc., battered by weak demand for computer chips and tough competition, said Thursday it will cut 2,000 jobs, or 15 percent of its work force. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO — Failed online credit card issuer NextCard Inc. sought bankruptcy protection Thursday in a last-ditch attempt to come back as a financial services consultant. -more-
JARRATT, Va. — A Pakistani man who killed two CIA employees in a 1993 shooting rampage outside the agency’s headquarters was executed Thursday as the State Department warned of global retaliation against Americans. -more-
LOS ANGELES — Authorities on Thursday raided the record label and homes of rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight, a figure in an East Coast-West Coast rap feud that some believe led to the killings of two major stars. -more-
“Grand Theft Auto: Vice City” is the game your parents warned you about. -more-
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Laser lights are being tested at an Anchorage airport to help prevent pilots from making a sometimes fatal error — crossing in the path of other aircraft. -more-
ST. LOUIS — Women in St. Louis will be among the first in the nation to try a new method of birth control approved by the government last week. -more-
LAS VEGAS — Nevada’s two public universities last year released the academic records of thousands students to a regent whose review of two files prompted calls for her resignation last month. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO — The federal government has denied a petition by environmentalists to list a type of Pacific red snapper as “threatened,” despite government estimates the population is at less than 4 percent of its unfished level and has a 50 percent chance of rebuilding in the next 170 years. -more-
City officials are still trying to determine the cause of a fish kill two weeks ago that struck down approximately 50 fish at Aquatic Park. -more-
As Berkeley residents revel in their own eccentricities, annually asking each other “how Berkeley can you be,” the same question can be posed to neighbors in Livermore. A new documentary film about the weirdness over the hill premieres this weekend at the Film Arts Festival in Berkeley. -more-
Although the Cal men’s basketball team is two days away from kicking off its season, the big news on Wednesday was a group of players who won’t suit up in a Golden Bear uniform for at least another year. -more-
University of California President Richard Atkinson, who pushed for SAT reform and campus diversity in the post-affirmative action era, announced his retirement Wednesday and will step down Oct. 1, 2003 after eight years in office. -more-
Enforce the laws we have -more-
It’s one of the most vexing questions in town-gown politics: how much is the city spending on fire, sewer and other services provided to UC Berkeley? The city has decided to spend $50,000 to answer it. -more-
To the Editor: -more-
UNITED NATIONS — Saddam Hussein’s government agreed to a tough U.N. resolution on weapons inspections Wednesday, declaring it wants to save the Iraqi people from war. But the harsh tone of Iraq’s acceptance letter raised questions about how it would treat the arms inspectors. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO — Hospital workers at Stanford and Lucile Packard Children’s hospitals walked off the job Wednesday to protest the last offer in their contract negotiations. -more-
SACRAMENTO — California’s racial subgroups have been showing big improvements in math and reading, although black and Hispanic students continue to score below national standards, according to a report by the state Department of Education. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO — A gate that got stuck days ago, when workers repaired a pipeline hole spewing millions of gallons of Hetch Hetchy reservoir water into the air, is reducing the water supply to the San Francisco Bay area. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO — PG&E Corp. on Wednesday reported a 40 percent drop in its third-quarter profit, dragged down by the bankruptcy costs of its utility and deepening troubles at the company’s unregulated energy trading division. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO — EMI Recorded Music announced Wednesday it has expanded its online music distribution program to offer more CD burning options and “permanent” song downloads that can be transported to some portable devices. -more-
LOS ANGELES — Days before the premiere of “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” the film’s producer said it fears pirated copies are showing up on the Internet. -more-
LOS ANGELES — Many Iraqi-Americans fear that war is inevitable despite Saddam Hussein’s decision to allow U.N. weapons inspectors into the country. -more-
DENVER — State biologists are hoping to introduce 150 more Canada lynx to Colorado in an effort to get the endangered cats to reproduce. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court has dismissed a lawsuit from environmentalists challenging the federal government’s approval of the San Francisco Bay area’s plan to reduce vehicle emissions. -more-
BAGHDAD, Iraq – The chief U.N. weapons inspectors, wrapping up a critical two-day visit, urged Iraqi officials on Tuesday to look again in their nuclear, chemical and biological “stocks and stores” to ensure they have no weapons-making to report. -more-
OAKLAND — Two dozen recruits will soon hit the streets as Oakland Police Department officers — one of the first classes to graduate from the police academy since the department instituted reforms in the face of a series of scandals. -more-
ISTANBUL, Turkey – Security guards on Israel’s national airline El Al overpowered a man who tried to hijack a flight from Tel Aviv to Istanbul on Sunday. -more-
t takes the average immigrant 15 years to earn an income comparable to the average non-immigrant, according to the Berkeley-based New America Foundation (NAF). Sylvia Rosales-Fike, executive director of the Berkeley nonprofit, is helping immigrants, what she calls “new Americans,” speed up that process. -more-
PASADENA — Former United Nations weapons inspector Scott Ritter says the U.N. resolution to disarm Iraq makes war inevitable. -more-
The Alameda County Commission of the Status of Women is asking county residents to submit nominations for the Alameda County Women’s Hall of Fame. -more-
