Voters here in Berkeley and throughout Alameda county could be back to voting on paper in the November elections, according to a stunning, far-reaching ruling last week by California Secretary of State Kevin Shelly. -more-

While critics of UC Berkeley’s recently released Long Range Development Plan fear the university’s vision for Berkeley amounts to a parking space for every car and a traffic jam for every street, a local legislator—Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley)—is pushing a state bill that would require the university to pay Berkeley for those and other headaches caused by its continued growth within the city. -more-

Sherrie Aldinger decided to become a police officer in her senior year at Cal, while she was working in a dress shop at the corner of Telegraph Avenue and Durant Street. -more-

The City Council will get its first look tonight (Tuesday, May 4) at a finalized budget plan for the upcoming fiscal year that is sure to leave many in Berkeley feeling shortchanged. -more-

TUESDAY, MAY 4 -more-

The mythic history of the American Revolution which used to be taught in the elementary schools (and perhaps still is) reserved a special bad guy slot for the role of the Hessian soldiers who fought with the British against the American revolutionaries. They were “mercenaries,” hirelings who fought for money instead of for principle (like the Americans) or for king (like the Redcoats). Never mind that the major part of the payment for their services went to their German rulers, and that the Hessians themselves were poorly paid peasants. (Many of them were stranded in the United States with no way to get home when the war was over.) Americans, our teachers made clear, didn’t use mercenaries. World War II was fought by citizens, not mercenaries. -more-