“Let your hair down, roll your sleeves up and let’s praise the Lord,” Rev. Allen L. Williams told his congregation at St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church. Williams had a special reason to rejoice. Last Sunday, he and churchgoers celebrated St. Paul’s 70th anniversary in Berkeley. -more-

FRIDAY, NOV. 28 -more-

FRIDAY, NOV. 28 -more-

Berkeley is home to many unique small businesses started by people from all over the world who came to California, liked what they found, and stayed. We’re an international city, and many of our retail stores mirror the countries their owners came from. -more-

It’s happened more than once, but I’m still not used to it: looking down from my dining room window as a Cooper’s hawk flies up the driveway. The driveway seems to be a transit corridor, part of the bird’s (or birds’) hunting territory. The effect—a feathered projectile hurtling past the kitchen window—would be even more startling from ground level. -more-

UC Berkeley’s planned downtown hotel and convention center is part of a growing trend for UC campuses that lure cities with the promise of big tax revenues. But in at least one case, university ownership delivered exactly the opposite. -more-

“The first time you sleep on the streets you become obnoxiously ill within two weeks. It happens to everyone,” said Marz, one of the many young transients who consistently line Telegraph Avenue. -more-

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first of a two-part series on the University Avenue strategic plan. -more-

When Henry Poole met Dennis Kucinich last May, politics fused with passion and technological savvy. What emerged from the meeting was an electronic presidential campaign, run in part from a room in a house that was once Berkeley’s best-known radical commune. -more-

UC Berkeley student instructors plan to strike the week of Dec. 1, just before final exams—potentially leaving students without last-minute instruction or final grades. -more-

Berkeley City Council quietly put the lid on the coffin of the parcel tax Tuesday night, voting 5-2 to keep it off the March 2004 ballot. -more-

An aide to Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates says that a proposal to funnel all city commission reports through the City Council Agenda Committee is not as far-reaching as rumor appears to have it, and probably won’t be put into place “if it’s going to be controversial.” -more-

So we’ve had another drunk-driving-police-chase-“sideshow” automobile injury accident out in East Oakland. How many, now? One loses count. -more-

The officer slipped out of his black-and-white police cruiser and strode up to a South Berkeley home. In his mouth, a caramel, sour apple lollipop, in his hands a 10-pound oven-stuffer turkey. -more-

EXCITING POTENTIAL -more-

Carjacking and Sexual Assault -more-

The gardeners of the Greater Berkeley area are doubly fortunate. They enjoy the blessings of nature—a climate that is exceptionally congenial to horticultural pursuits—and the blessings of commerce—an uncommon number of first-rate, one-of-a-kind, locally owned gardening supply stores. -more-

Getting gifts makes me miserable. -more-