Larnice Holliman, an 87-year-old Berkeley woman, died Thursday afternoon in a fire that swept through her one-story wood-frame house in the 1500 block of Allston Way. -more-

The former head of a local African American landlords association has charged that the Berkeley Housing Authority’s new Section 8 rules will result in a severe reduction in available Section 8 housing and a drop in minority renters using the program. -more-

Oakland Police are continuing to seek the gunman who murdered Nyima Sorenson, a young Berkeley man, outside a tavern in Rockridge shortly minutes before 2 a.m. on June 25, said Homicide Lt. Jim Emery said Thursday. -more-

Dana Rassas has done her fair share of traveling, but when the 24-year-old Jordanian decided her latest adventure would take her to Israel for a masters program in environmental studies, she was hesitant to spread the news. -more-

Sometimes all it takes is a phone call. -more-

No phrase is more firmly enshrined in democratic iconography than “the rule of law.” The concept is frequently invoked both to criticize and to justify government actions. In the United States, respect for the rule of law has deep roots. In the Anglo-American legal tradition, it goes all the way back to 1215, to the Magna Carta. The Declaration of Independence, whose birthday we just finished celebrating, is all about law and the lack of respect signers thought the English crown was showing for it in 1776. -more-