The Quarter Meal—Berkeley’s only daily dinner service for low income and homeless residents and one of the city’s largest programs to meet their needs—will cut back service from five days a week to three beginning March 1, and to shut down by June 24. -more-

TUESDAY, FEB. 3 -more-

GETTING IT STRAIGHT -more-

TUESDAY, FEB. 3 -more-

Berkeley—virtually world headquarters of the educated eccentric—would seem a perfect home for Paul Mitchell. -more-

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a letter sent to Berkeley Chief Building Official Joan MacQuarrie, Mayor Tom Bates, Planning Director Dan Marks, Housing Director Steve Barton and Mark Rhoades for submission to the Members of the Zoning Adjustments Board. -more-

Thomas Jefferson’s legacy in Berkeley may rest on the vote of school children born after William Jefferson Clinton took office. -more-

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Nearly eight years after 86 percent of Berkeley voters approved a state ballot initiative opening the door for medical marijuana, local cannabis clubs fear the city might abandon its arm’s length embrace of them for a full-on bear hug. -more-

Berkeley’s bed and breakfast owners have nine days left to apply for a -more-

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in a series about people and businesses that make things in Berkeley. -more-

KOLKATA, India—Usually the dour official at the Kolkata airport barks, “Any gold? Electronics? Computer?” But this time, when I landed in India from America via Singapore, he was more interested in the food I was carrying. Cooked food from abroad, especially from Southeast Asia, is now suspect. In the age of the bird flu, I have been upgraded from potential electronics smuggler to a disease vector. -more-

Farmworker groups sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Seattle last month, charging the agency with ignoring important health data in 2001 when it re-approved use of two pesticides extremely hazardous to farmworkers. -more-

Editor’s Note: Former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and documentarian Errol Morris will discuss the Oscar-nominated film The Fog of War with UC Journalism Professor Mark Danner Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall on the UC campus, accompanied by clips from the film. Admission is free to students, $10 for the general public and $5 for Commonwealth Club members. The film is playing in its entirety at the Act I and II Theater, 2128 Center St. -more-

My husband Ralph is back in the Intensive Care Unit at Oakland’s Kaiser Permanente Hospital. We are old hands at this. I can’t count the number of times we’ve been on the third floor, but this is our first visit to the most critical wing, the place where there is one nurse for every two patients, an always-on-duty respiratory therapist, television screens that monitor the patients’ rooms 24/7. -more-

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An incident that left a $10,000 mural—meant to celebrate the city’s bike users—sitting at the Public Works Department’s corporate yard, caked in mud and punctured by gouges and holes, raises questions about Berkeley civic arts program -more-

The city’s bed and breakfasts—generally houses long inhabited by homeowners-turned-innkeepers who decided they had room to spare for short-term visitors to the city—offer a more personalized experience than a hotel, many guests say. -more-

Greens! Who needs them? -more-