Bayer Healthcare AG—Berkeley’s sixth largest employer and the city’s largest corporate job source—announced a 11 percent workforce reduction Thursday, a move that will leave 190 Berkeley employees without a job. -more-
Berkeley and its environs are known as a treasure trove of inimitable shops, each worth a visit. -more-
Berkeley High Principal Jim Slemp plans to keep the controversial Identity and Ethnic Studies (IES) course mandatory for ninth graders despite a petition reportedly signed by more than 1,000 students calling for its demise. -more-
Bill O’Donnell was no saint. In fact, I think he would object to any pious reference with his name. Why? Because he was one of the most honest human beings who ever walked the earth. -more-
Anyone struggling to get into a holiday mood can find delightful solace in the array of notable musical and theatrical performances taking place this weekend in the greater Berkeley area. -more-
Nine years after a fire burnt down their first home, Berkeley Montessori School is moving to the flatlands—hoping that at their new address they can breath life into a Berkeley landmark and surrounding neighborhood fighting to improve its image and maintain its character. -more-
Long-struggling advocates of democratic governance for the Pacifica Network and its member stations chalked up one more small victory last Friday with the expiration of the deadline for candidate applications for the upcoming board elections. -more-
Some 75 balloon-wielding demonstrators—including a state assemblymember, a mayor, a city councilmember, a county supervisor, and a seven-foot-tall costumed Grinch—staged a candlelight vigil at an entrance to Hilltop Mall in Richmond Wednesday evening, protesting plans by retail giant Wal-Mart to open a store there. -more-
A decidedly glum Berkeley City Council took the first tentative steps Tuesday night toward budgeting in the Schwarzenegger era, squirming through a complicated revenue-cutting presentation by Budget Manager Paul Navazio, then putting off any decision until next week’s council meeting. -more-
Woman Attacks Two In Bookshop, Ends Up Bloody in the Street -more-
We’ve heard a lot lately about how the recording industry is increasingly dominated by a few large conglomerates, producing fewer and fewer choices for listeners and less and less income for artists. -more-
Pivotally located smack between the downtown BART station and the edge of campus, the proposed UC Berkeley hotel/conference center/museums complex could bring important benefits or major headaches—perhaps both. It certainly poses a wide range of difficult, and interrelated, issues. -more-
I was sitting in my desk in my second grade classroom, I think, at Highland Elementary in Oakland—which takes this back a ways, I know—when an earthquake came and split a crack so wide in the school’s administration building that you could stick your fingers in it. That summer, they tore down the administration building and put up a new one. Eight years later, when I had just entered Castlemont, Oakland built a high school for the rich kids up in the hills. -more-
Christmas, 1849: not a joyous time for a party of gold seekers led by a Vermonter named William Lewis Manly. An alleged shortcut from Salt Lake City to California has left them stranded in Death Valley. They’ve slaughtered their draft oxen and dismantled their wagons for firewood. They’re hungry enough to try anything, however unpromising. -more-
I was in St. Joseph the Worker church most recently on Sunday evening, the night before Father Bill O’Donnell died. It was that most Berkeley of events, the Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra’s holiday special: Handel’s Messiah, sung by an enormous assemblage of unauditioned but well-rehearsed community members who rattled the stained glass windows with glorious sound. The orchestra was splendid. The soloists were thrilling. The audience enthusiastically stood up to join in singing the Hallelujah Chorus. BCCO performances bring out all kinds of Berkeleyans, people who probably couldn’t sit down at the same dinner table for conversation (or even agree on the choice of a restaurant), but who manage to get together harmoniously a few times every year. -more-
Editorial: Father Bill’s Death Stills a Resounding Call to Conscience 12-12-2003
UC Professor Creates Guidebook for Volunteers 12-09-2003
Bayer Announces Berkeley Job Cuts By JAKOB SCHILLER 12-12-2003
Priest’s Death Evokes Fond Reader Memories 12-12-2003
Berkeley Shops Offer Array Of Holiday Houseware Gifts By Zelda Bronstein Special to the Planet 12-12-2003
Arts Calendar 12-12-2003
BHS to Keep Ethnic Studies By MATTHEW ARTZ 12-12-2003
Father Bill: Greatness Tied to Earthly Humanity By JAMES CARTER 12-12-2003
A Musical Weekend Anne Wagley 12-12-2003
Neighbors Cry ‘Fowl’ Over Fast Food Aroma By XIAOLI ZHOU Special to the Planet 12-12-2003
Letters to the Editor 12-12-2003
Berkeley This Week 12-12-2003
Berkeley Montessori Moves to the Flatlands By MATTHEW ARTZ 12-12-2003
Today’s the Deadline For Pacifica Board Hopefuls By JAKOB SCHILLER 12-12-2003
Richmond Wal-Mart Fought By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR 12-12-2003
City Council Ponders Governator-era Budgeting By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR 12-12-2003
Berkeley Briefs 12-12-2003
Police Blotter By MATTHEW ARTZ 12-12-2003
Berkeley Offers Alternative Ways to Buy Music By BECKY O’MALLEY 12-12-2003
UC Hotel Plans Pose Major Challenge for City By JOHN ENGLISH Special to the Planet 12-12-2003
Brown & Co. Power Grab Guts School System J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR 12-12-2003
Potent Packrat Leavings Tempted Starving 49ers By JOE EATON Special to the Planet 12-12-2003
Father Bill Dies, City’s Beloved Activist Priest By John Geluardi Special to the Planet 12-09-2003
Berkeley This Week 12-09-2003
The Other Diaspora Israelis Must Confront By George Bisharat Special to the Planet 12-09-2003
Shambhala Booksellers Closes After 35 Years By ALTA GERREY Special to the Planet 12-09-2003
Arts Calendar 12-09-2003
City, UC Disaster Meet Provokes Citizen Complaints By MATTHEW ARTZ 12-09-2003
Letters to the Editor 12-09-2003
Indians Master the Language of the Raj By DAVID SUNDELSON Special to the Planet 12-09-2003
Berkeley School Board Faces Declining Enrollment, Deficit By MATTHEW ARTZ 12-09-2003
Pictures Perfect: A Pair From Heyday Books By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 12-09-2003
38 Options Recovery Graduates Honored By JOHN GELUARDI Special to the Planet 12-09-2003
Cody’s Books Co-founder Leads an Activist’s Life By DOROTHY BRYANT Special to the Planet 12-09-2003
Council Gives First Glimpse at Austerity Plans By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR 12-09-2003
Protest Targets Wal-Mart By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR 12-09-2003
Berkeley Briefs J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 12-09-2003
Does Everything Tasty Have to be Bad For Me? From Susan Parker 12-09-2003
Police Blotter By MATTHEW ARTZ 12-09-2003
Police Blotter By MATTHEW ARTZ 12-09-2003
Maybeck Designed Rose Walk By SARAH WIENER-BOONE Special to the Planet 12-09-2003
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