In the face of angry neighborhood opposition, Berkeley City Councilmember Max Anderson Tuesday withdrew his motion to have his council colleagues reaffirm support of a state grant to plan development at the Ashby BART station. -more-

City councilmembers voted Tuesday to spend the city’s full $1.23 million budget surplus, discussed proposed changes in city landmarks law and watched a tense confrontation between two of their colleagues over the issue of diversity in appointments, in addition to debating the proposed development project at the Ashby BART station. -more-

In a town where free speech is holy and libraries are sacred, library workers are claiming retaliation from management for speaking out about work-related issues. -more-

The Transportation Commission’s proposal to charge new developments and businesses a fee to offset the impacts of additional car traffic they cause has raised red flags with Community Economic Development Coordinator Dave Fogarty. -more-

The two-year-long labor dispute at the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center hospitals appears at an end, with both sides announcing a settlement Thursday. -more-

The cliché, surely quoted at some time previously in this space, is that anyone who loves law or sausages should not watch either being made. As someone who loves the law with all its defects, I’ve tried to follow that warning in recent years, but occasionally I can’t avoid seeing what goes on in government. The last month has been particularly bad at the federal level, what with the always excruciatingly embarrassing State of the Union speech, followed by the attorney general’s mealy-mouthed performance before the Senate Judiciary Committee. But what’s been going on in Berkeley is even more embarrassing. -more-