A Bay Area-based government program set up to promote the building of low-income housing has instead legally issued a substantial percentage of its low-cost bond financing to high-end apartment construction, according to documents on the agency’s website. It calls into question why an agency program whose self-declared purpose is “to deal with the increasing shortage of affordable housing” has ended up funneling so much potential low-cost financing into housing that is clearly not low-cost. -more-

FRIDAY, FEB. 13 -more-

CLOSE THE LOOPHOLES -more-

FRIDAY, FEB. 13 -more-

The owners of the Claremont Resort and Spa announced on Thursday that they have an agreement to sell the fabled hotel to an Orlando-based real estate investment trust. -more-

Single-payer health care is an idea whose time has come. According to a Harvard Medical School study published Feb. 9 in the Archives of Internal Medicine, nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of physicians favor single-payer national health insurance, far more than support managed care (10 percent) or fee-for-service care (26 percent). Despite this high level of support (including most members of such establishment organizations as the American Medical Association and the Massachusetts Medical Society), only a little over half (51.9 percent) of physicians were aware that their fellow doctors support single-payer national health insurance. -more-

After 20 years in Berkeley schools, Kay Sims, special education teacher at Washington Elementary, has mastered the gentlest techniques for making children behave. -more-

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South Berkeley neighbors are starving for a pizza restaurant. But a Berkeley zoning ordinance is keeping ovens cold and espresso machines on ice at Spud’s, a trendy pizzeria planned for the corner of Alcatraz Avenue and Adeline Street. -more-

Faced with a lawsuit by Sprint Communications if the proposed new North Berkeley Sprint cellphone communications facility is not approved by the Berkeley City Council, the council blinked, took a step back, and gave itself another week to make its long-awaited decision on the controversial application. If the city council fails to take action next week, the Zoning Adjustment Board’s earlier approval of the project will automatically go into effect. -more-

By a 7-0-2 vote, the Berkeley Planning Commission accepted the proposed 25-member UC Hotel Complex Task Force Wednesday night, despite grumbling by some commission members that the entire commission should have picked the task force members from scratch or that the task force wasn’t even necessary at all. Planning Commissioner Jerome Wiggins, one of two commissioners to abstain on the acceptance vote, complained that the task force did not contain any residents of South Berkeley. Commissioners added an amendment leaving open the possibility of adding more members. -more-

Attempted Bank Robbery -more-

Last year was not a year of garden variety corporate wrongdoing. No, the sheer variety, reach and intricacy of corporate schemes, scandal and crimes were spellbinding. Not an easy year to pick the 10 worst companies, for sure. -more-

Thirty UC Berkeley graduate students are back in the running for a Fulbright-Hayes fellowship thanks to the intervention of the board that oversees the foreign study program. -more-

They call themselves bloggers—creators of weblogs, otherwise known as blogs—and they’re realizing the writer’s age-old dream of instantaneous publication to a worldwide audience. -more-

“Berkeley Cougars Blue, Gold and White, we’re here to take it all the way!” were the words that helped cheer the Berkeley Cougars cheerleading squad (part of the Berkeley Cougars youth football league) right into a national cheerleading competition held this past weekend in Las Vegas. -more-

Berkeley has blocked the start of construction on a permanent home for Vista College—more than 30 years in the making—due to a parking dispute with the Peralta Community College District. -more-

Berkeley has blocked the start of construction on a permanent home for Vista College—more than 30 years in the making—due to a parking dispute with the Peralta Community College District. -more-

My parents moved to an all-white East Oakland neighborhood in 1941, during the war. My father was a shipyard worker at Mare Island, and later an Oakland firefighter. Afterwards, my parents built a grocery store, which they operated for more than 40 years. Still, my parents were (and this must be said with lowered voice, and a narrowed glance, and one hand cupping the mouth) niggers, and in 1941, many white folks were still not quite certain what niggers would amount to or whether they might bring down the neighborhood. And so, in 1941, several of the good white folks got together and tried to keep the real estate agent from selling a home to my parents. They failed. In fact, other black folks followed, many of them first-time homebuyers who also joined the Oakland Fire Department. Discouraged, the good white folks emptied our East Oakland neighborhood, moving to San Leandro and San Lorenzo, or across the foothills to the then-almost wilderness valley of eastern Contra Costa County. And that’s how our part of East Oakland came to be mostly black, with a later flavoring of Latino. -more-

RACIAL CRITERIA -more-

Cecilia Bartoli’s first concert in Berkeley in 1991 was to a half-empty Hertz Hall. Since then she has rocketed to superstardom (commanding fees of $60,000 to $80,000) and is second only to Pavarotti as a successful classical recording artist. Her Vivaldi recording sold over 500,000 CDs—a phenomenal number for a classical disc of unfamiliar music. In the rock world that would be equivalent to a triple platinum album. Her Gluck Aria album was a comparable worldwide bestseller. -more-

“If a life of wine, women and song becomes too much, give up the singing.” -more-

A new gourmet food court will soon occupy the empty space at 1509 Shattuck Avenue that has sat empty for almost two years after the Dale Sanford electronics store moved out. The project, which will house take-out spin-offs of some of Berkeley’s more well-known restaurants, is meant to bolster business and add another touch of flavor to an area well known for its food. -more-

February weekends may be chilly, gloomy, and gray in the Bay Area. But even if you don’t have the time or the means to jet off to Hawaii for a respite, you can still find some tropical magic only a bridge away from Berkeley at the San Francisco Orchid Society’s 2004 Pacific Orchid Exposition, Feb. 19-22. -more-

It’s hard to leave this event without at least one orchid. If you’re going to buy, here are some basic tips: -more-