Heated tempers and pointed questions dominated the opening minutes of Thursday’s Berkeley Unified School District’s public planning meeting last week on the West Campus site. -more-
Peralta Community College District Trustees this week will be asked this week to approve an $8 million no-bid contract to build Laney College’s new art building using a controversial interpretation of the California Public Contract Code. -more-
As if ongoing budget and contract problems and the task of hiring 60 new teachers were not enough, Berkeley Unified School District must replace five of its 16 school principals and the district director of food services this summer. -more-
The City Council Tuesday will consider a proposal that could make the condominium king in Berkeley. -more-
Berkeley is set to be at the center of hemophilia research as the new headquarters for Bayer’s Biological Products Division. -more-
Funeral services for former Berkeley City Councilmember Margaret Breland will be held at 11 a.m. Friday morning at the Liberty Hill Missionary Baptist Church, 997 University Ave. Mourners are also invited to pay respects at a “Quiet Hours” vigil at 7 p.m. Thursday at Fouche’s Hudson Funeral Home, 3665 Telegraph Ave. -more-
Contra Costa County and the City of Orinda joined the ranks of East Bay casino foes last week, while a Washington D.C. hearing targeted Casino San Pablo. -more-
Protesters plan to target the San Francisco offices of Simeon Properties today (Tuesday), challenging the firm’s plan to bring a Super Wal-Mart to the Oakland Metroport, near the Oakland International Airport. -more-
Poki Namkung, Berkeley’s health officer for the past ten years, resigned last week to become health officer for Santa Cruz County. -more-
Drivers who bank on parking at a broken meter in Downtown Berkeley might have to start riffling through their change. -more-
Berkeley’s planning commissioners will face only two action items Wednesday, each freighted with enough potential controversy to carry a meeting. -more-
The Daily Planet incorrectly reported April 8 that Robert Pennell had initiated landmark designation for three homes on Buena Vista Way. All three were initiated by the Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission. Pennell supplied documentation only for his own house at 2730 Buena Vista. -more-
SAN DIEGO—The race was over. -more-
Spring is a time for renewal, yet the headlines for the past few weeks have been filled with the news of death and dying. As politicians wrestled over the fate of Terri Schiavo, and the world mourned the passing of Pope John Paul II, my own small circle of acquaintances experienced sadness, confusion and loss. -more-
“There’s no action tonight,” said City Manager Phil Kamlarz as he introduced the Berkeley City Council’s March 8 work session on business revenue and the budget. “It’s really just informational and a discussion.” -more-
Jaimie Levin’s letter praising the Van Hool buses (DAILY PLANET, March 8-10) shows how totally out of touch AC Transit is with its riders. When these buses were first introduced, riders’ complaints were so loud and clear, that one could assume they would not continue to order them. But no, they plugged their ears and didn’t even listen to their own Riders Advisory Committee (RAC) which gave the buses their thumbs down. The board then eliminated the RAC to avoid listening to riders’ pesky demands. And soon Van Hools will be invading all the bus lines—AC Transit plans to replace ALL their buses with them. -more-
“Kathakali discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets.” -more-
It’s not quite a tree—except for a specimen belonging to a friend of ours, a monster some twenty-five feet tall, standing, or rather lounging, somewhat angled in the arms of a Hollywood juniper in his back yard. But I can’t resist it; it’s one of Berkeley’s showiest plant citizens, and it’s blooming now, if the rain hasn’t knocked the flowers off between deadline and distribution. It’s even a California native. -more-
Graffiti vandals armed with glass-etching acid struck hundreds of windows along College and Telegraph avenues on two consecutive nights this past week, inflicting hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. -more-
Margaret Breland, one of Berkeley’s toughest political fighters, has succumbed to her long struggle with cancer. She died in her sleep at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley Thursday morning. She was 69. -more-
Berkeley teachers took their increasingly rancorous contract dispute back to the Berkeley Unified School District board meeting Wednesday night, filling the Old City Hall Council chambers with union members and supporters chanting “Fair Contract Now!” -more-
For urban gardeners and several neighbors of the Thai Buddhist Temple, it was the Berkeley chainsaw massacre. For the temple it was a new beginning. -more-
Several Berkeley library employees contend that a stepped-up effort to thin the library’s collection in the past year has been so rushed that valuable books were carted off in dumpsters. -more-
Firefighters withdrew from their round-the-clock watch outside the Drayage warehouse Tuesday evening, one day after being fired upon from the warehouse by a pellet gun. -more-
The Alameda County mental health worker who was accompanying a 16-year-old girl at the time the teen slashed the throat of a Berkeley woman last month was arraigned and charged as an accessory to the attack Thursday, Berkeley police said. -more-
The Creeks Task Force unanimously approved a work plan Monday asking the city for $100,000 as it begins work to recommend a new creeks ordinance. -more-
The City Council will meet Monday, April 11 at UC Berkeley’s foothill dorms to discuss the university’s proposal to suspend a pedestrian bridge over Hearst Avenue to connect the two halves of the residential community. -more-
In one of its more rancorous sessions, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) was attacked by citizens accusing it of obstructionism, and in turn assailed Planning Commissioners with the same allegation. -more-
Two Berkeley landmarks have been singled out recently for recognition, one a Craftsman creation and the other the embodiment of Art Deco. -more-
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has launched a major public corruption investigation of alleged misconduct involving welds in the construction of the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge. -more-
In the film The Ambassador, human rights workers and former victims of torture in Central America sometimes look straight into the camera when they talk about former American ambassador to Honduras John Negroponte. -more-
Laurette Goldberg, pioneer, prime mover and doyenne of early music in the Bay Area, died of heart failure Sunday morning in Alta Bates Hospital where she was undergoing treatment for other conditions. She was 73. -more-
It appears that with a full two years still left in his term, Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown is going the aging rock star route, giving us a sort of nostalgic farewell tour, complete with “the best of Jerry” retrospectives by local media as he waves his way out the City Hall door. Our friends at the San Francisco Chronicle have been leading the pack, absolutely gushing over Mr. Brown as they describe the “success” of the mayor’s promise to bring 10,000 new residents to downtown Oakland (“Downtown Brown,” March 20), his increasingly law-and-order stances as he bucks up his credentials for California Attorney General (“Tough Penalties For ‘Sideshows’—Mayor Proposes Curfews For Those Convicted Of Reckless Driving,” March 30), or his wedding to Anne Gust (too numerous to mention in one column). -more-
Decisions about public libraries should be made publicly. But just as radio frequency identification (RFID) tags in library books can be secretly read and tracked, the Berkeley Public Library (BPL) installed RFID technology with little public awareness or discussion. Indeed, it appears that BPL did not tell the library’s governing body about known problems with RFID at other libraries before RFID was approved in April 2004. We think this gives the Board of Library Trustees (BOLT) ample reason to reconsider and reject RFID in Berkeley. -more-
I would like to pose several questions and also state a couple of facts that were left out of your article discussing public safety overtime in the City of Berkeley. -more-
A memorial service for Maria King scheduled for Saturday, April 9, has been postponed. The memorial will now be held at 4 p.m. May 15 at St. Joseph The Worker Church. King, a homeless woman, was stomped to death earlier this year.? -more-
Several years ago on a visit to Los Angeles I passed a woman who seemed to me quintessentially Californian. She wore immaculately tailored jeans, a crisp shirt, her burnished hair flowed luxuriantly, her complexion glowed, she was the very picture of health and elegance. And she was swinging along on rollerblades. -more-
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