A champion of Berkeley rent control was ordered last week to pay his former tenants more than $100,000 in restitution by the very rent board he campaigned to create. -more-

FRIDAY, FEB. 27 -more-

PROPER CREDIT -more-

The Peralta Community College District and the City of Berkeley have reached a settlement on parking mitigations owed to the city by Peralta, giving the district the green light to start construction on its new downtown Vista College campus. -more-

As someone who has lived in Berkeley for 29 years, I am annoyed by the continuing manipulation of our local electoral system. Berkeley ballot measures in recent years have changed the election date, replaced at-large city council elections with district elections, changed the vote total needed to win from 50 percent to 45 percent, and changed council terms from four years to two years and back to four years again. But of all these changes, the Instant Runoff Voting proposal—Measure I on the ballot, is the most sinister and anti-democratic. -more-

Despite misgivings by several commissioners, Berkeley’s Civic Arts Commission voted 6-3 Wednesday night to endorse a major Seagate Properties project for downtown Berkeley. If it eventually passes full city approval, the 149-apartment, mixed-use complex would replace four Center Street buildings between the City Center Garage and the Wells Fargo Annex. -more-

RAISE TAXES -more-

In what has become a school ritual almost as common as an afternoon assembly, students at Berkeley’s Malcolm X Elementary headed for dry ground upstairs after Wednesday’s torrential downpour flooded their classrooms for the second time in two months. -more-

At a Wednesday night Berkeley School Board meeting this week, with Chez Panisse owner Alice Waters sitting beside board members, district brass pledged to tackle one of their most foul problems—bad food. -more-

How to vote in the primary on Tuesday? Here’s a simple algorithm: If Kerry is way ahead, vote for Kucinich, because In Your Heart You Know He’s Right. (If you’re under 50, that was Barry Goldwater’s old slogan, and it worked for him. Well, not exactly. If you’re under 30, it’s too hard to explain who Goldwater was.) -more-