The Berkeley Unified School District Board of Directors voted 3-2 Wednesday to kill a proposal to consider a regulation high school baseball field for its Derby Street properties. -more-

Amid news that Berkeley’s Volvo dealership, and the more than $100,000 in annual sales tax revenue it generates, is packing off to Emeryville, the City Council Tuesday debated how to attract new businesses. -more-

The Berkeley public schools Board of Directors voted unanimously Wednesday night to expel a Berkeley High School student for one year for bringing a gun on campus in her backpack last month. -more-

A career Berkeley cop will become the city’s next police chief. -more-

Bombs flew at Monday’s Landmarks Preservation Commission meeting, both literally and metaphorically. -more-

Library workers Wednesday railed against library trustees and a director who they said have ignored their concerns while cutting seven jobs. -more-

A formal demand by city officials that UC Berkeley adhere to its parking tax appears likely to send a second town-gown dispute to the courtroom. -more-

Planning Commissioners sang the praises of the proposed David Brower Center Wednesday night, but city planning staff wondered just how they could fit the complex into existing city zoning laws downtown. -more-

HEALTH CARE -more-

Click here to view the latest work by Planet cartoonist Justin DeFreitasÿ -more-

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—Brazil is scrambling to appear in control of the eco-conflict raging in the Amazon rainforest. After the assassination of 73-year-old environmentalist Dorothy Stang (an American and a nun), Brazil’s president has sought to make up, in weeks, for years of inertia on the Amazon issue. -more-

Fake Bomber Bust -more-

“The cities of the south shall be shut up, and none shall open them: Judah shall be carried away captive all of it, it shall be wholly carried away captive. Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north: where is the flock that was given th ee, thy beautiful flock?” Jeremiah 13:19-20 (King James Version) -more-

The March 4 Undercurrents column by J.Douglas Allen-Taylor (“When Objective Investigators Become Activists”) contains some serious mis-statements and factual errors that require correction. -more-

Something important was missing from the recent exchange in the Daily Planet’s letters section about Office of Transportation Director Peter Hillier’s untimely departure from the Thousand Oaks Neighborhood Association’s Feb. 24 meeting on traffic and parking—namely, the “pointed questions,” as letter-writer Jerry Landis put it, that moved Mr. Hillier to declare that he had “been insulted” and to walk out. -more-

Jared Diamond, author of Pulitzer-Prize Winning book Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Society, states unequivocally that one of the greatest risks humanity faces is clinging to recipes of the past that worked well for decades, but can no longer work under changed circumstances of the present and future. Collapse, his latest work, hints at a critical failing in the planning/design process in Berkeley. -more-

As a parent-member of the Academic Choice Design Team, I have an emphatic answer to School Boardmember Terry Doran’s question (Daily Planet, Feb. 18), “Does [Academic Choice] lead to a better Berkeley High School or a better Berkeley High School for some students?” Those of us associated with the program all believe that it will lead to a better Berkeley High for all students and are prepared to work to see that it does. A better Berkeley High, as Principal Jim Slemp has said repeatedly, is a Berkeley High that offers many excellent choices so that every student can find a program or school that meets their personal needs. Small schools are great places for some students and BHS is developing a variety of fine small schools. Do CAS and CP Academy make BHS a better school for all, or just for the 500 or so students in those two small schools combined? I’d say they make the whole school better, both because they offer a quality choice to students with specific interests and needs and because other, different programs can adapt and benefit from some of the things that those small schools do well, such as creating community to support students. -more-

Stained yellow teeth, wheezing fits, sudden cravings, bad breath, and eventual death. All symptoms of smoking. But look on the bright side, you won’t need any more cough drops. What a deal, for only as little as $165 per month, for an average smoker. The tobacco industry advertises in order to lure in its biggest target: youths between the ages of 10 and 20. Studies show that teenagers are heavily influenced by tobacco advertising. In 1998, surveys found that the tobacco industry was one of the top 10 advertisers in at least 18 countries. Eighty percent of the American advertising companies believe that tobacco advertising makes smoking more acceptable to youth. Every year the number of dollars the tobacco companies makes increases. Every year the tobacco company spends more trying to get youth to start smoking. The only warning given is the few lines of size five print: may be hazardous to your health. -more-

Berkeley High has produced a number of outstanding individuals over the years and Peter Wright is no exception. -more-

Octavio I. Romano, Ph.D., founder and senior editor of Tonatiuh-Quinto Sol Publications, and emeritus professor in the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley, passed away on Feb. 26 in Berkeley at the age of 82. -more-

Thirty years ago an extended women’s music and arts performance program was a revolutionary idea; today it’s an expression of a community’s solidarity. -more-

FRIDAY, MARCH 11 -more-

Bittersweet, the new chocolate café on College Avenue, has a small sign but you can’t miss it. The smell of dark, rich chocolate emanates from its front door. -more-

FRIDAY, MARCH 11 -more-