News

Some stories are impossible to write as an objective reporter. -more-

Between Mayor Tom Bates’ State of the City address, a motion on the controversial Ashby BART housing project and a hearing on the city’s Landmarks Preservation Ordinance, Berkeley’s City Council will have its hands full tonight (Tuesday). -more-

Steve Barton, Berkeley’s housing director, said, “It’s probably the most complicated financial structure ever put together for a non-profit development in Berkeley, and quite possibly the most complicated for any Berkeley project.” -more-

The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California is demanding information from the U.S. military about a report of spying on UC students who have protested the Iraq war. -more-

Berkeley’s Landmarks Preservation Commissioners issued a scathing review of plans for the Prince Hall Arms, a four-story, 42-unit senior citizen residential and commercial building planned for 3132 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. -more-

Investigators seized more than 30,000 electronic child pornography images when they searched the locker last month of a Berkeley firefighter who is now being held in Santa Rita jail in lieu of $1 million in bail, said the prosecutor handling his case. -more-

Berkeley officers are investigating two different shooting reports that occurred during the predawn hours Sunday. -more-

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Hit, run, burn -more-

Planning commissioners will face a full agenda when they meet Wednesday night, while the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) faces a fairly light slate Thursday. -more-

A clean-air watchdog group is threatening to sue Pacific Steel Casting, if the West Berkeley foundry fails to permanently eradicate foul odor emissions within 30 days. -more-

In the wake of a U.S. Court of Appeals rejection of the City of Berkeley’s bid to regulate telecommunications companies inside the city’s borders, one of the leading proponents of that regulation says that the issue should be dropped for now. -more-

After a relatively quiet period at the end of 2005, the Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees returned last week to the type of open-ended fiscal battles that marked the first of last year. If that continues, it would seem to dim the prospects of the passage of a new construction bond measure in the near future, which district leaders have repeatedly said is needed to repair and rebuild the district’s aging facilities. -more-

OAKLAND (BCN)—A University of California, Berkeley football player testified today that Dartmouth College student Meleia Willis-Starbuck was arguing with a group of men in Berkeley just before she was shot to death last July 17. -more-

Stew Albert, one of the creators of People’s Park, a former editor of the Berkeley Barb and a founder of the Youth International Party—the Yippies—died Monday at his home in Portland, Ore. -more-

The elephant before them was the groom in a shotgun wedding. -more-

SAN FRANCISCO—Turn a quiet corner of the U.S. health care system and bump into a medical niche unknown — and unavailable — to most patients. -more-

From where I sit on Thursdays in the Friends’ bookstore at the Central Library, I can watch parents and their children streaming into the elevator for the ride up to the Children’s Room on the fourth floor. I remember 50 years ago when my own children and I climbed the endless staircase up to what was then the library’s top floor. They loved hearing their voices and footsteps echoing in the tall space and the exhilarating—and scary—glimpses down the stairwell. -more-

Residents of Berkeley and surrounding communities with a connection to San Pablo Park during the years from the Depression through the 1960s have been invited by the city to come to the park this Saturday to share their memories. -more-