News

The battle over landmarking the Bevatron building ended Thursday when a city panel voted to bestow the honorific not on the structure itself but on the ground beneath. -more-

Nestle USA’s announcement last week that it was moving its PowerBar business from Berkeley to Glendale, Calif., has received mixed reactions from the local community. -more-

With the state’s office of the superintendent for public instruction announcing an interim Oakland Unified School District administrator to replace the outgoing Randolph Ward, opposition to the sale of the OUSD downtown properties got a boost in the past few days when two more Oakland public officials came out against the sale. -more-

Berkeley city officials, residents, and local independent wireless providers continue the search for the perfect Internet system that will provide city-wide Internet access to people who live, work, or recreate in Berkeley. -more-

On a sunny afternoon last Sunday, Berkeley residents picked Lisa Anne Stephens, Howard Chong, Chris Kavanagh, Pam Webster and David Blake as candidates for the Rent Stabilization Board. Bob Evans, current Rent Stabilization Board member, although given high marks by the Rent Board’s screening process, was not selected to be on the slate. -more-

Should the South Berkeley branch library at Russell and Martin Luther King be moved to the new Ed Roberts campus to be built at the corner of Woolsey and Adeline? The Berkeley Library Board of Library trustees in Berkeley has allocated close to $25,000 for a consulting firm to do a community needs-based assessment for the South Berkeley library branch this month in an attempt to answer this question. -more-

Although the candidates may not raise it themselves, the battle between Latinos and African Americans for political power in Oakland and the East Bay has already become an issue in the race for the Peralta Community College District Area 7 trustee seat. -more-

Artists living in one of the city’s last West Berkeley creative havens said they fear impacts of a planned new building at 740 Heinz Ave. could end their idyll. -more-

This past Sunday, youth rights activists from around the country, from as far as Washington, D.C., came to the National Youth Rights Association’s (NYRA) annual meeting (www.youthrights.org) in San Francisco to discuss ageism in the community and what progress the individual regional chapters have made to combat it. Five people from NYRA’s Berkeley chapter, including myself, attended the meeting. -more-

MARYSVILLE, Calif.—First it was the long wet spring that took its toll on Sarbjit Johl’s peaches. Then the 10 straight days of triple digit temperatures last week, California’s deadliest hot spell in five decades, cooked the fruit on the trees. -more-

For septuagenarian Jane Jackson, fasting is a way of life. -more-

Armed officers storm home; suspect gone -more-

If money talked, it could turn into a noisy campaign season this year. Preliminary campaign finance statements for the 2006 races that were released Monday show most candidates in the City Council and mayoral races, despite lofty Berkeley idealism, are in hot pursuit of the gritty greenback dollar. -more-

Former Mayor Shirley Dean says she’ll be on the campaign trail. -more-

On two 6–3 votes, the city council Tuesday endorsed ballot language and a legal analysis that backers of a landmarks ordinance initiative said misrepresents their proposal. -more-

On Tuesday, many Berkeley residents came together to bring public safety awareness into their communities by celebrating National Night Out Day 2006. There were block parties throughout the city, which promised food, fun, and socializing. -more-

I dreaded the day when my mother would need to move into a nursing home. That day came, and a year and a half later, I enjoy her nursing home life on my visits—joining in Tai Chi or a round of mindgames, right alongside her. Her nursing home is so homey and hospitable that I wonder why more nursing homes aren’t like it. -more-

Supporters of neighborhood watchdog group Cleanaircoalition.net will be coming together with environmental and community groups this month to demand that Pacific Steel Casting make the results of their already delayed emission inventory report and health risk assessment available to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and the City of Berkeley immediately. -more-

Economic Development Manager Thomas Myers went from helping site 7-Elevens in South Central Los Angeles to working four-and-one-half years to get Berkeley Bowl situated on Oregon Street. -more-

With the deadline for their eviction from their home of the last 31 years fast approaching, the artists of the Nexus Institute are looking for a new home. -more-

The Berkeley city attorney’s office has good reason to gloat over this week’s California Supreme Court ruling that the state’s universities aren’t exempt from paying for impacts of developments on surrounding communities. -more-

An Oakland judge Tuesday barred a November vote on an initiative that would have stopped waterfront development pending the creation of a new plan. -more-

“Since its heyday during World War II, when workers from Richmond’s Kaiser shipyards filled the streets and sidewalks,” we learn from Richmond Councilmember Tom Butt’s e-mail forum, “Macdonald Avenue has reflected the common patterns of American downtowns. Many businesses have struggled to maintain economic viability in a climate of shifting commercial development and shopping patterns.” -more-

These days Nadine Ghammache thinks of little else than Lebanon, the tiny country by the sea where she was born. -more-

While the controversy continues over the all-but-total destruction of the massive, historic Ninth Avenue Terminal as part of Oakland’s Oak To Ninth Development Project, the City of Richmond is quietly moving forward with the development of one of its waterfront areas that preserves the similarly historic Ford Assembly Building. -more-