Berkeley teachers, facing heavy layoffs, are raising questions about hefty executive salaries and an apparent conflict of interest in upper-level contract negotiations at the Berkeley Unified School District. -more-
In the early 1890s, the hilly areas north of the university campus began being developed with houses that were a dramatic contrast to the late Victorians still in fashion. The first of these was a fraternity house designed by Ernest Coxhead in 1892 (now the School for Public Policy at Hearst and Le Roy) followed by Bernard Maybeck’s Charles Keeler house in 1895. -more-
Residents fighting to save the 19th-century home of Berkeley pioneer John M. Doyle announced Monday that they will give up their battle, allowing developer Patrick Kennedy to go ahead with plans to demolish the old Victorian building and develop a 35-unit housing project on the site. -more-
Hopefully you will receive dozens of e-mails from teachers who, like me, are insulted by Michael Larrick’s commentary piece (May 2-5 edition), which reveals more about the author’s ignorance than it does about the current state of education. He says we should keep the graduation exam as a means of gauging teacher quality; that the current sorry state of education can be laid in the laps of academically challenged teachers who are responsible for inflating grades and engaging in social work more than teaching academics. -more-
The University of California, concerned about the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome, has canceled its summer study abroad program in Beijing, China, and has barred students from SARS-affected countries from enrolling in UC Berkeley summer classes. -more-
Everyone agrees that California’s health care system is in crisis. Seven point three million Californians, a full 20 percent of our population, lack health coverage. Costs are rising at rates far above inflation, and workers all over the state are seeing skyrocketing co-pays and declining service. -more-
New Police Chief Roy Meisner has taken the helm of a department that will have to struggle to maintain police services with a high percentage of young officers and a reduced budget. -more-
Every Tuesday morning for a couple of years, I have enjoyed the special moment when the city recycling truck passes by. The truck stops, I hear the crash of glass dumped into the truck, then a voice signaling to the driver, “Yo!” and the truck moves a few yards onward. Then pickup, crash, “Yo!” and, perhaps, the pickup man jumping onto the running board as the truck lurches onward before he jumps off again. -more-
UC Regents approved the construction of a six-story molecular foundry in Strawberry Canyon last month without an environmental impact report (EIR), rankling some city residents and at least one City Councilmember worried about environmental impacts. -more-
Fifth-grader Ruthie Praskius is one of hundreds of Berkeley students who will head to Sacramento Thursday to protest some $5 billion in proposed education cuts, and she has a message for the governor. -more-
Unchained melodies float free and constant in the azure air off Telegraph Avenue in South Berkeley’s The Village while boys and girls from age 13 to 70 drift into James Casella’s second floor Blue Note Music-storefront searching for their “Holy Grail.” -more-
A dozen members of the Berkeley-based California Peace Action joined hundreds of demonstrators in Santa Clara Friday, where President Bush toured a United Defense Inc. facility and later addressed the company’s workers. There Bush promised a brighter economic future for Silicon Valley and the United States. -more-
University of California clerical workers overwhelmingly have approved a new contract, ending a bitter, two-year fight with UC management over wages and workplace safety. -more-
Sarah Jones has a hard time sitting still. -more-
Departing Planning Director Carol Barrett gets the Harry Truman Award for this week. Truman, you may recall, said, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen,” and that’s exactly what Barrett is doing. -more-
You wouldn’t know it from the burly 41-year-old’s sanguine demeanor, but when William Mendoza returns home next week, he will face the threat of murder, torture and kidnapping at the hands of paramilitary agents opposed to the union activism that Mendoza and other union leaders have been engaged in for the last two decades. -more-
For four years the Crowden Music Center has brought some of the Bay Area’s finest chamber musicians to Berkeley as part of its Sundays at Four concert series. This weekend, the center is hosting the Empyrean Ensemble, a professional contemporary music ensemble in residence at the University of California, Davis. -more-
In his first state of the city address, Mayor Tom Bates touted a congenial City Council, praised new development and warned of a looming budget deficit. He also promised to enhance the city’s business environment and to improve educational services for the city’s youth. -more-
The education establishment has shown itself to be an advocate of low standards, false educational theory, poor selection and training of teachers, and it is incredibly wasteful with taxpayer dollars. Today’s teachers suffer from the inability to pass on the accumulated knowledge of civilization from one generation to the next. Teachers unions operate as political organizations while masquerading as professional groups, and now they want to eliminate one of the few objective tools we have to measure their performance. -more-
Local UC lab escapes federal contract review -more-
In an unlikely alliance, UC Berkeley’s mathematics department joined with the Aurora Theater Company last week for a discussion at the Bechtel Engineering Center entitled “Hardy and Ramanujan in Berkeley.” -more-
Lawyers for Tod Mikuriya, M.D. — a psychiatrist who has lived and practiced in Berkeley since 1970 — have filed a motion to dismiss the case against him brought by the Medical Board of California (MBC). -more-
JAKARTA, Indonesia — News of controversial Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir’s upcoming public trial is throwing new light on the horrific Bali nightclub bombings that killed 193 people in this southeast Asian nation last October. -more-
A PEOPLE OF STARTS -more-
A Berkeley city report on whether to install a stoplight at a busy Shattuck Avenue intersection where a man was killed last January recommends that one should be installed — eventually. -more-
An Alameda County Superior Court judge on Thursday ordered developers to delay demolition of the John M. Doyle House until May 19, giving preservationists a chance to appeal the court’s April 29 decision that rejected their request for a formal environmental review of the project and cleared the way for developers to go ahead with plans to replace the building with a five-story, 35-unit residential and retail complex. -more-
