News

A South Berkeley birthday party for a 15-year-old turned lethal Saturday night after the host tried to relieve a heavily tattooed man of a black pistol. -more-

A Berkeley cinema staple for 35 years has closed. -more-

The state chancellor of the California Community College system has asked the Peralta Colleges to become the administrative agent for Compton Community College in an effort to keep the troubled, 6,600-student Southern California school from being disbanded on June 30 because of loss of accreditation. -more-

Richmond’s getting ready to take the Plunge. -more-

The ongoing saga of the Gaia Building took a new turn Thursday night when members of the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) voted to reopen the thorny issue of culture. -more-

The Zoning Adjustments Board voted to declare Black & White Liquors a public nuisance Thursday after attempts at a compromise were torpedoed by state law and city code. -more-

Berkeley’s public schools are ranking higher than ever in the Academic Performance Index when compared with similar schools, according to data released Wednesday. -more-

Calling for peace in Iraq and denouncing federal legislation that would criminalize undocumented U.S. residents, the 27-day Latino March for Peace from Tijuana to San Francisco took a detour through Oakland Monday morning. -more-

Candida Martinez, booking agent for the Shattuck Down Low, stood in the drizzle Friday evening watching the picketers in downtown Berkeley and remarked on the irony that women opposing sexual slavery would demonstrate against Girl Fest, another organization fighting sexual exploitation of women. -more-

Depending on your political leanings, you may be exceedingly glad—or plumb horrified—to learn your child is maladjusted. -more-

Hispanic media report that hundreds of thousands of immigrants and their supporters are marching in cities across the country on behalf of immigrant rights. -more-

The Berkeley Police Department addressed growing concerns related to teen parties in Berkeley at the Northbrae Church Community Center last Thursday, two days before a teenage party in the city ended in the death of one of the parents. -more-

San Francisco was the site of a “reverse rebellion” last weekend. -more-

A group of voting rights activists—including nationally known labor leader Dolores Huerta—filed a lawsuit in Superior Court in San Francisco this week, seeking to halt the use of the Diebold paper trail electronic voting machines in California, but it is uncertain what affect it will have on electronic voting in Alameda County in the November elections and beyond. -more-

When Mayor Tom Bates ran for office against former mayor Shirley Dean four years ago, then-Planning Commission Chair Zelda Bronstein stood among his supporters. -more-

Wednesday BART services were disrupted for the second time around in two weeks when a bomb threat on a San Francisco-bound train at the 12th Street Oakland station resulted in services to all East Bay stations being cancelled for over an hour. -more-

The Willard Park tot lot will be officially reopening today (Friday) after remaining closed for two weeks in order to take care of rat infestation. -more-

Oakland teachers are one step closer to going on strike. -more-

On the agenda at Tuesday’s City Council meeting was a motion to ask the Berkeley School Board to add partial funding for a new warm pool at Berkeley High to the list of projects to be supported by the voters in a November parcel tax ballot measure. At the meeting, however, councilmembers argued that the addition could endanger the passage of the tax. -more-

The group chosen by the city to oversee development at the Ashby BART parking lot wants recruits for a task force panel to recommend projects to the city council. -more-

A $61 million project that will combine housing for the most disadvantaged, an environmental center, retail and underground parking got a set of approvals Tuesday, bringing the Oxford Plaza and David Brower Center proposed for Oxford Street and Allston Way closer to reality. The project was before both the Berkeley Redevelopment Agency and the Berkeley City Council, two bodies composed of the same elected councilmembers. -more-

Top state, county and city emergency services officials from the State of California and Alameda County met with senior officials from UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, Vista College, the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) and Bayer Health care yesterday to discuss emergency preparedness coordination and communication plans in the event of a major disaster in Berkeley. -more-

When it comes to regulating local quarries, the city of Richmond is between a rock and a hard place. -more-

Faiza Al-Araji, a middle-class Iraqi woman, was able to pay her innocent son’s way out of jail last summer. That’s when she understood that she had to leave. With her husband and three sons, she went to Jordan, leaving behind the chaos and misery of the country of her birth. -more-

Though “balance” was the buzzword at Wednesday’s joint meeting between the Creeks Task Force and the Planning Commission, creeks faction wars were as heated as ever. -more-

The latest local public agency to be hit by the automated payroll blues is the Alameda County Medical Center. -more-

It’s a familiar story in Richmond. A developer wants to build expensive condos on what looks like a prime shoreline spot but there’s one catch. -more-

At the school board meeting on Wednesday, Paul Goodwin from Goodwin Simon Strategic Research presented board members and the public with the findings of the voter survey conducted to assess community support for reauthorizing the BSEP and Measure B of 2004 Special taxes which expire at the end of the 2006-07 school year. -more-

Commuters driving by Martin Luther KIng, Jr. Way and Oregon on Wednesday morning had a chance to smile and wave again, this time not at one pair of hands but thirty. -more-

The Albany City Council declined to tackle the White House Monday. -more-

Cycling bandit -more-