News

BHS Small Schools Plans Gather New Momentum

By Matthew Artz
Tuesday November 04, 2003

When Berkeley High School sophomore Ian Ericksen first enrolled at the roughly 3,000-student school, he didn’t like what he found. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday November 04, 2003

TUESDAY, NOV. 4 -more-


Arts Calendar

Tuesday November 04, 2003

TUESDAY, NOV. 4 -more-


Immigrant Death Case Ends in Plea

By Matthew Artz
Tuesday November 04, 2003

A guilty plea by the fifth and final member of a notorious Berkeley real estate dynasty may spell the end of a sensational case that began with a young woman’s death by carbon monoxide poisoning in an apartment building owned by the family. -more-


Letters to the Editor

Tuesday November 04, 2003

CORRECTIONS -more-


State Official Challenges Builder Asbestos Claims

By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR
Tuesday November 04, 2003

A review of California Occupational Safety and Health (Cal-OSHA) documents relating to the temporary closing of Kimes Morris Construction’s Hayward building renovation site for asbestos violations two years ago reveals that another Berkeley businessman was cited in the violation as well. -more-


Gill Tract Should Be Used For Agriculture

Amy Kaplan
Tuesday November 04, 2003

Editors, Daily Planet: -more-


Development Committee Biased Toward Big Boxes

By Martha Nicoloff
Tuesday November 04, 2003

The mayor’s committee charged with cleaning up pesky development issues has just published its first draft. -more-


Council Faces Eventful Agenda

By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR
Tuesday November 04, 2003

With a Nov. 25 deadline looming to finalize any measures to be placed on the March, 2004 ballot, continuing discussion over four proposed ballot measures will dominate tonight’s (Tuesday, Nov. 4) Berkeley City Council meeting when members return from a one-week vacation. -more-


CENA Gives Qualified ‘No’To Proposed Tax Hike

Dean MetzgerPresident of CENA
Tuesday November 04, 2003

Dear Mayor and City Council, -more-


Adult School Driveway Set By CalTrans

By MATTHEW ARTZ
Tuesday November 04, 2003

CalTrans officials have given the green light to plans by Berkeley school officials to include a San Pablo Avenue driveway in their plans for the controversial Franklin Adult School. -more-


Police Blotter

By MATTHEW ARTZ
Tuesday November 04, 2003

Paper Route Robbery -more-


From Susan Parker: Crab Competition Almost Too Much to Stomach

From Susan Parker
Tuesday November 04, 2003

Finally, a really cool assignment! I was asked to be a judge at the Third Annual Crabby Chef Competition. -more-


Qualified Praise for Solano Avenue Complex

By JOHN KENYON Special to the Planet
Tuesday November 04, 2003

In the last two or three years, the popular top end of Solano Avenue has seen noticeable improvement. The Oaks Theater, for ages just a marquee and a pylon, has stripped off its upper-level disguise of ‘mansard roofs’ to reveal a substantial office wing with matching Moorish windows. Round the corner on Colusa (heading north), an old Masonic temple, attractively remodeled as luxury condos, faces across the avenue to the sprawling new Thousand Oaks School, architecturally uninspired but lavishly landscaped and neighborhood-friendly. -more-


Berkeley Bowl Workers Reject Unionization Bid

By JAKOB SCHILLER
Friday October 31, 2003

After more than four months of intensive organizing efforts, Berkeley Bowl workers rejected unionization effort in a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)-supervised election Thursday. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Friday October 31, 2003

FRIDAY, OCT. 31 -more-


Arts Calendar

Friday October 31, 2003

FRIDAY, OCT. 31 -more-


Visiting the Faculty Club

Friday October 31, 2003

Although the very name “Faculty Club” perhaps conjures images of aloof inaccessibility, the 101-year-old Berkeley campus institution is anything but. -more-


Letters to the Editor

Friday October 31, 2003

TOLERANCE -more-


Berkeley Builder Cited for Asbestos Violations

By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR
Friday October 31, 2003

A prominent Berkeley contractor has been cited for 17 violations of California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal-OSHA) regulations from their renovation of a Hayward commercial building, including the improper removal, handling, and dumping of asbestos material. -more-


Tax Hike, Smart Cuts Only Way Out of Budget Mess

By DION ARONER
Friday October 31, 2003

With all the attention on the budget battles in Sacramento and Washington, the financial crisis facing cities has slipped mostly under the radar. But cities provide most of the front line services used by Californians, and throughout California those city services are on the chopping block. -more-


Unsual Art CollectionAwaits at Faculty Club

By STEVEN FINACOMSpecial to the Planet
Friday October 31, 2003

Considering unusual places to see fine art in Berkeley? -more-


Purify Groundwater, Agency Tells LBNL

By MATTHEW ARTZ
Friday October 31, 2003

Berkeley scored a victory against the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), after a regional regulatory board ordered the lab to implement the highest possible standards to clean up contaminated groundwater at its Berkeley Hills campus. -more-


On A Roll

By CAROL DENNEY
Friday October 31, 2003

I contemplate the depth beneath my stride -more-


Video/Film Festival Screens Treats for All Tastes

By ZAC UNGERSpecial to the Planet
Friday October 31, 2003

Depending on how you look at things, it’s either a wonderful or a terrible time to be an independent filmmaker. -more-


Sit-in Sentences Soon for UC Trio

By JAKOB SCHILLER
Friday October 31, 2003

Following a heated five-hour sentencing hearing Tuesday, three UC Berkeley students—Michael Smith, Snehal Shingavi and Rachel Odes—are waiting to learn what, if any, punishments the university will mandate for their actions during a March 23 campus anti-war protest. -more-


A Memorial Tribute to Roger Montgomery

By MARC A. WEISS
Friday October 31, 2003

My first memory of Roger Montgomery was when I was a graduate student in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley in 1978. I took his class on Community Development. Roger was well-known at the time as being a critic of the infamous federal “Urban Renewal” program that had displaced so many low-income minorities from inner-city neighborhoods during the 1960s that it had been informally renamed the “Negro Removal Program.” Roger had provided expert faculty support to a movement to block urban renewal in the west Berkeley flatlands, and had helped to stop a substantial degree of displacement that would otherwise have occurred. Roger was a passionate political progressive, and he brought his passions into his classroom teaching in a way that I greatly admired. I particularly remember him drawing a picture on the blackboard of the widely heralded urban renewal in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, home to the University of Chicago, and I was struck by the way a policy activist like Roger could think in such distinctly visual images. -more-


Rosa Park Parents Blame Testing, Not School

By MATTHEW ARTZ
Friday October 31, 2003

Berkeley school district officials are preparing for discussions on an administrative overhaul for Rosa Parks Elementary School, after standardized test scores released last week showed that student performance declined. -more-


BFD Fights SoCal Fires

By MATTHEW ARTZ
Friday October 31, 2003

Berkeley has sent seven firefighters and one engine to San Diego to do battle with the most destructive of the Southern California wildfires. -more-


Last Defendant to Plead In Sex Slavery Tragedy

By MATTHEW ARTZ
Friday October 31, 2003

The older son of notorious Berkeley landlord Lakireddy Bali Reddy was scheduled to enter a guilty plea today, Friday, Oct. 31, as part of the agreement that will complete the prosecution of family members for smuggling young Indian girls into the country for sex and cheap labor. -more-


Police Blotter

By MATTHEW ARTZ
Friday October 31, 2003

Under Currents: Perata Displays His Formidable Snooker Skills

J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR
Friday October 31, 2003

Well, you gotta hand it to 9th District State Senator Don Perata. Thanks, in part, to a calendar-challenged Superior Court judge and Attorney General Bill Lockyer (both of whom seem to think that four days equals four years), Mr. Perata has figured out a way to stretch his term limit from the voter -mandated two to a more convenient (for him) three. Now it looks like Mr. Perata, may have simultaneously managed to snooker his toughest opponent out of the race against him. -more-


Behind Every Bad Bush Move Stands Cheney

By JOSHUA MICAH MARSHALL Featurewell
Friday October 31, 2003

In The New York Times the other day, Iraq’s new interim president, Iyad Alawi, thanked Americans for liberating his country and then made a simple request: please bring back the Iraqi army. -more-


Correction

Friday October 31, 2003

Berkeley Path Named for Chronicler of Wild West

By MELISSA NIX Special to the Planet
Friday October 31, 2003

Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series by UC Berkeley journalism students on the paths of Berkeley. -more-


Crescent Path Delights

By CHRIS YOUNG Special to the Planet
Friday October 31, 2003

About 30 years ago, A.J. Ayres and other kids in his neighborhood rode their BMX bikes to Crescent Park, a private park with three inlets in the Park Hills area of Berkeley. The park has served the neighborhood for more than a half-century. He remembers they would stage plum fights there in August, when their ammunition got spoiled and wouldn’t hurt as much. -more-