Local News and Opinion from The Berkeley Daily Planet

News

20-Hour Standoff on Fifth St.

By Richard Brenneman

Friday April 14, 2006

A tall, heavy-set man claiming to be “God and the messiah” barricaded himself inside his Ocean Gardens home for 20 hours before surrendering without incident early Thursday. -more-

Drug Cop May Have Stolen Evidence

By Judith Scherr

Friday April 14, 2006

Berkeley Police Officer Sgt. Cary Kent has not been charged with a crime, but the district attorney’s warrant allowing officers to search his office, locker and computer ties Kent tightly to drugs missing from the department’s evidence vault. -more-

Citizens Ask For Probe Into Missing Drugs

By Judith Scherr

Friday April 14, 2006

Citizens spoke out before and during the Wednesday night Police Review Commission meeting at the South Berkeley Senior Center, demanding commissioners investigate allegations that Berkeley Police Sgt. Cary Kent tampered with drug evidence locked in the Berkeley Police Department vault. -more-

Tax Resistance: Woman Opposes War, IRS

By Suzanne La Barre

Friday April 14, 2006

Want your anti-war protest to get noticed? Don’t pay your taxes. -more-

Health Care Costs Drive Oakland Schools Crisis

By Suzanne La Barre

Friday April 14, 2006

The countdown has begun. If contract negotiations aren’t reached within a week, Oakland teachers will walk out. -more-

Controversy Surrounds Ashby BART Task Force

By Richard Brenneman

Friday April 14, 2006

Berkeley Iceland Scores A Reprieve For Now

By Suzanne La Barre

Friday April 14, 2006

New Interim General Manager Takes on KPFA

By Judith Scherr

Friday April 14, 2006

New Sewer Connection Ban Proposed in Richmond

By Richard Brenneman

Friday April 14, 2006

Local Women to Do Prison Time for Protest

By Judith Scherr

Friday April 14, 2006

Alameda Med Center Accused of ‘Culture of Intimidation’

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor

Friday April 14, 2006

A Look Inside BART’s Operations Control Room

By Riya Bhattacharjee

Friday April 14, 2006

César Chávez and Environmentalism

By Santiago Casal Special to the Planet

Friday April 14, 2006

Richard Brenneman: Wearing body armor and carrying a military assault rifle, a Berkeley police officer stands guard outside the Ocean Gardens apartments where a man armed with kitchen knives held off police for 30 hours before surrendering early Thursday..

Editorials

Editorial: Immigration Brings Us the World

By Becky O’Malley

Friday April 14, 2006

Last Friday we found ourselves in Oakland at lunch time, in fact in the Old Oakland area near Ninth and Broadway where the Friday Farmers’ Market is held. Every farmers’ market has its own personality. -more-