Mayor Tom Bates has taken the first step in implementing the “most pressing” recommendation of his Task Force on Permits and Development—amending Berkeley’s obscure “ex parte” communications rule. The rule, adopted by the City Council in 1985 and strictly interpreted by City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque, places restrictions on communications with city councilmembers on pending construction developments. Presently, it bans all but written communication outside of a public hearing with councilmembers who are presently deciding—or might possibly decide in the future—on an application or appeal on a pending city development project. -more-

For the second year in a row, the Berkeley High Jazz Band came away as winners of the Monterey Jazz Festival’s Annual National High School Jazz Competition. The event, held last weekend in Monterey, is the premier jazz band competition nation-wide and featured jazz band from across the country. -more-

The stumbling economy has brought good news to Berkeley apartment dwellers. Although hard numbers are difficult to find, it appears that rental rates are dropping in the city at the same time home prices have been tracking upward. -more-

Jakob Schiller

TUESDAY, APRIL 6 -more-

It’s not walking and it’s not biking, but it’s transportation that doesn’t hurt the environment. Many say it’s the newest invention that promises to revolutionize the 21st century. -more-

GALENA, Alaska—The Nuclear Regulatory Commission hasn’t issued a permit for a new commercial nuclear power plant in the United States since the late 1980s, when the technology topped the list of energy industry taboos following the infamous meltdown of the Chernobyl reactor in the U.S.S.R. But if Japan’s Toshiba Corporation has its way, the prototype for a new generation of “micronuclei” power plants will be constructed on a remote stretch of the Yukon River in Alaska before the end of the decade. -more-

On Sunday I attended my friend Jernae’s fourteenth birthday party. It was held at the Martin Luther King Pool, located at Bayview Playground on Third Street in Hunter’s Point. Behind a chain link fence, her mother and relatives had dragged a portable barbecue across a grassy field and cooked up a pile of ribs and wings. They covered a picnic table with enormous square pans filled with potato salad, coleslaw, deviled eggs and macaroni and cheese. Paper plates overflowed with chips and dip, pickles and pork rinds. Coolers sat on the ground, packed with soda pop and ice tea. -more-

UNIVERSITY AVENUE -more-

Editors, Daily Planet: -more-

Seagate Properties breezed through the Civic Arts Commission recently with a density bonus proposal that should have raised the eyebrows of more than the three commissioners who voted it down. -more-

If you’ve ever used a moisturizer that left your skin feeling soft and smooth instead of greasy, you have Libby Labs, one of West Berkeley’s major light manufacturers, to thank. “We brought that technology into the industry,” says the company’s founder and guiding spirit, 85-year-old Henry (“Hank”) Libby. Today, Libby’s daughter Susan, 56, and son Gordon, 59, run the company, which makes both cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. -more-

The last time bartender Joshua Cluff had to toss people out of the Albatross pub was because they were arguing too loudly about the Iraq war. Last Saturday, the Albatross froze as a woman yelled in triumphant glee, not because the University of Connecticut had made it to the NCAA finals, but because she had just won a game of trivial pursuit on an obscure geography question. At the table to the woman’s right, Liz Guneratne and Tajma Evans sat drinking a flask of wine while their dog Luke munched on popcorn crumbs. -more-

TUESDAY, APRIL 6 -more-

The Ohlone, who were living in the Bay Area when the first Europeans arrived, left only a few scraps of oral tradition to puzzle over. One is a song, or part of a song, that goes: -more-