News

Three days after one Berkeley institution closed its doors on Telegraph Avenue another won overwhelming approval to open. -more-

A multi-year, $1.65-million contract for city office supplies will go to Office Depot, pending approval by the City Council tonight (Tuesday). -more-

With Oakland education leaders traveling to Sacramento this week to lobby for a return to local control of the Oakland Unified School District, OUSD documents reveal that the real power over the future direction of Oakland’s public schools may lie with private foundations. -more-

State officials have ordered a popular after-school tutoring program to leave Richmond’s contaminated Campus Bay after officials and citizens spotted children playing in a toxic off-limits area. -more-

Berkeley Councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Max Anderson are proposing amendments to the city’s condominium conversion ordinance that would prevent condo conversion for 20 years from the date a landlord has quit the rental business for that particular property and would prevent condo conversion for 10 years from the time the owner has enacted an owner move-in eviction. -more-

In an effort to keep people with a variety of income levels in Berkeley, the city instituted its “inclusionary” housing ordinance in 1986, which mandates that developers reserve one-fifth of new housing units for people earning 80 percent of area median income. -more-

Following a Sunday afternoon town hall meeting at Redwood Gardens that attracted 61 Berkeley residents in search of a “progressive” candidate to take on District 8 incumbent Gordon Wozniak in November, a vote of attendees supported Jason Overman, a city rent board commissioner and UC Berkeley student. -more-

A dozen residents have appealed plans for a five-story, mixed-use building on San Pablo Avenue, a project once described by a neighbor as “bursting at the seams.” -more-

As the city prepares to fund one planning process in South Berkeley, the county and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) are launching another on Thursday night. -more-

A rally to save Berkeley’s troubled Housing Authority drew about two-dozen supporters Tuesday. -more-

By a 6-3 vote, the Berkeley City Council passed the mayor’s controversial new Landmarks Preservation Ordinance (LPO) Tuesday, setting the stage for a November confrontation at the ballot box. -more-

The Oakland Unified School District held the first of three public hearings Wednesday night on the proposed sale of 8.25 acres of OUSD Lake Merritt-area properties, but a key component of the proposal was only available to those who later followed a trustee’s suggestion to look up the actual development proposal on the district website. -more-

While Berkeley’s Elmwood district gained one landmark last week, it may be about to lose another community mainstay—it’s post office at 2705 Webster St. at College Avenue. -more-

Warm-water pool users cheered as the Berkeley City Council, its chambers packed wheelchair to walker, voted 6-3 to place a referendum before the voters asking for approval of a $4.5 million bond to complete funding for a new warm pool. -more-

Warm-pool users, already reeling from the fear that their only source of exercise will be demolished without a replacement—the school district plans to remove the pool and the city may not come up with funds to build a new one—discovered Wednesday the pool had been vandalized. -more-

The Pacific Legal Foundation filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court this week aimed at reversing the California Supreme Court’s unanimous March decision that upheld Berkeley’s refusal to subsidize the Sea Scout’s fees at the Berkeley Marina because of the group’s affiliation with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), which denies membership to gays and atheists. -more-

Claiming there was no time, no local need and insufficient public interest, the City Council killed a proposal Tuesday to put public financing of city elections on the November ballot. -more-

Berkeley’s African-American students earned the second lowest standardized test scores in the county, whereas Berkeley’s white students laid claim to some of the highest, according to United In Action, a local minority student advocacy group. -more-

The recent strategy laid out by the Bush Administration to prepare for a possible bird flu pandemic in the United States is one which the administration hopes it will never need. -more-

In May of 2005, TerraMark proposed a development on the OUSD Lake Merritt properties which it called “The Trophy.” -more-

Short blotter -more-

Mexican presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador might have had a better showing if the polls in the Mexican cities of Saltillo and Durango were moved to the California cities of Stockton, Sacramento, and Fresno. -more-

Politicians and observers in Taiwan and the Chinese community are using the unsuccessful recall motion to unseat Taiwan President Chen Shui Bian as an opportunity to discuss democracy, according to the Chinese-language press. -more-

The July 2 elections in Mexico saw the Partido Revolucionario Democratico (PRD) poll 35.31 percent of the announced presidential votes, a rise for this moderately left “BCA del Sur” from 17 percent in the 2000 contest. -more-

Stupid is not a nice word. When applied to others it’s neither kind nor p.c., even when deserved. When applied to oneself, stupid is often the only term that fits. Sadly, I use this term in personal reference more often than I’d like, sometimes several times a week. In fact, after a stellar stupid, I might greet the day with “Okay, what stupid thing are you going to do today?” -more-