Opinion

There was no editor’s column in this space last Friday because I was in Concord on Thursday, serving as a judge in the California Newspaper Publishers’ Association’s annual awards contest. Every paper that enters the competition is required to submit a judge for the regional entries, so I went. My assignment, with one colleague, was to review two categories: investigative/enterprise stories and environmental/“ag” reporting, both for less-than-daily papers above 25,000 circulation, the next group above the Daily Planet’s 2004 figures. Next year, we might be in this group, since our circulation is increasing. -more-

The controversial proposal to develop Laney College and Peralta Community College District lands surfaced briefly and then resubmerged this week, when an item appeared on the Peralta Board of Trustees closed agenda to discuss “real estate negotiations” between Chancellor Elihu Harris and developer Alan Dones, but no report on the negotiations was given to the public in open session. -more-

The BUSD board Wednesday accepted a Second Interim Financial Report on the district’s 2004-05 budget that continued BUSD’s “qualified” budget status and discussed the district teachers’ work-to-rule slowdown over a contract dispute. -more-