When the freshly elected Berkeley City Council convenes next month it will have three new members and one unenviable challenge. -more-

Race, which formed a quiet subtext to the Berkeley School Board elections, bubbled over the surface this week as a representative of presumed defeated candidate Karen Hemphill charged that “that Berkeley showed its true colors” on election day. -more-

Several thousand votes likely remain uncounted in Berkeley after an unprecedented surge in last minute voter registrations left nearly 5,000 residents off of the voter rolls. -more-

Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commissioners Monday approved plans for a pair of duplexes in the city’s newest landmarked historic neighborhood, ending a long and grueling battle. -more-

A new citizen seeking to cast her first vote and her husband screamed, yelled and threatened to call the police before they were allowed to cast their ballots at the YWCA polling station Tuesday. -more-

A friend has a post-election analysis: “I’m disgusted and fed up with the working class in this country. They sold out their own self interest for the right to yell ‘faggot’ out of their pick-ups.” She’s got a point. About half of the American electorate has once again distinguished itself by preferring snake oil to vitamins—not the first time this has happened historically, not even the first time in my lifetime, but it’s always disheartening to see this self-destructive behavior in action. -more-