Thanks to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s recently submitted state budget, Berkeley will likely have to cut an extra $300,000 on top of its $10 million deficit in fiscal year 2005. But if the governor’s word is good, city finances could be structurally sound by 2007. -more-

Union employees at the University of California’s nine campuses, including Berkeley, turned out Thursday to protest the university system’s attempt to scale back or eliminate their jobs as a way to deal with state budget cuts. -more-

Reginald Zelnik, a much-beloved UC Berkeley professor of Russian history and a passionate defender of Free Speech Movement (FSM) activists in the 1960s, died on campus Monday afternoon. He was 68. -more-

FRIDAY, MAY 21 -more-

EMERYVILLE—In a unanimous vote Tuesday night in front of a divided community, the Emeryville City Council passed a resolution to help movie giant Pixar Animation Studios take a major step towards tripling the size of its Emeryville campus. -more-

As this is being written (Thursday morning) the latest news from Iraq is that, according to the Washington Post, “U.S. soldiers raided the home of America’s one-time ally Ahmad Chalabi on Thursday.” Well, sure. Guess what, guys? As we say in the trade, W E TOLD YOU SO. You’re just learning that Mr. Chalabi is a thug? Somewhat sleazy? It’s hard to believe that it’s little more than a year since huge demonstrations were mounted world-wide to tell whoever was running the show in Washington that: -more-