The Berkeley City Council went into extra innings on the Sprint cellular facility appeal last Tuesday night, using up four separate ballots before finally upholding Sprint’s application to put three antennas on the roof of a commercial building at 1600 Shattuck Ave. After all of that voting, it was actually a single non-vote—an abstention by Mayor Tom Bates—that was the deciding factor. -more-

FRIDAY, FEB. 20 -more-

FRIDAY, FEB. 20 -more-

Tears were shed Wednesday after the Berkeley School Board approved a fiscal emergency plan that slashed $3.2 million from its general fund and killed a 31-year-old program serving teenage mothers and their children. -more-

The University of California has drafted a policy explicitly forbidding student governments from lobbying on state ballot initiatives, setting the university on a collision course with UC Berkeley student government leaders. -more-

On Wednesday a California Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Berkeley attorney that aimed to increase security measures on electronic voting systems before the March 2 primary. -more-

The controversy over who will represent Berkeley’s interests in the early stages of development of the proposed downtown UC hotel complex—the Planning Commission, the city council, or the mayor alone—continued to simmer even as the Planning Commission’s Hotel Task Force moved forward with the stated blessing of the UC hotel’s project manager. The mayor, a city councilmember, and representatives of both the task force and UC all weighed in on the representation issue at this week’s task force meeting in exchanges that ranged from the testy to the “let’s all get along.” -more-

“MILWAUKEE, Feb. 18 — Howard Dean ended his bid for the presidency on Wednesday, leaving John Kerry and John Edwards battling over free trade and jobs as the Democratic presidential contest veered into a more combative two-man struggle.” -more-