News

A Tokyo-based buyer will purchase the two remaining Cody’s Bookstores, according to Pat Cody, former owner of the original Cody’s with her late husband Fred Cody. The purchase is “a good thing,” Cody told the Daily Planet Tuesday morning. -more-

The Capoeira Arts Cafe has been bringing South American instruments such as Berimbaus, Agogos, Caxixis and the Brazilian martial arts dance Capoeira to Berkeley for the past decade. -more-

An Alameda Country judge agreed with the city and Measure I opponents, ruling Friday to allow only limited changes to the text of the city attorney’s analysis of the Condominium Conversion ballot measure that will go before voters Nov. 7. -more-

Helen L. Seaborg passed away on Aug. 29 from pneumonia. Born March 2, 1917, in a Florence Crittenden home in Sioux City, Iowa, she was adopted by George and Iva Griggs. After her father’s death, she and her mother moved to the Santa Ana area of southern California. -more-

With the Labor Day holidays over and summer beginning to wane, public attention now turns to the elections scheduled for the first Tuesday in November. -more-

What Howard Jarvis started, Howard Rich aims to finish. -more-

Berkeley’s Density Bonus Subcommittee met with city staff last week for the first time since being informed two weeks ago that all the work it had done on development standards for a year would be useless unless put in place before the Nov. 8 elections. -more-

It had seemed so easy at the time; sitting in the library computer lab at Berkeley High School, clicking merrily through the many classes I could take next year as an 11th grader. AP Writing and Composition, sure, I’ll sign up for that. AP U.S. History, that’s a must. Politics and Power as my elective (the teacher, Mr. Teel, is leaving after next year, I might as well take it). -more-

Even though summer vacation is over and the school year is here, there are many opportunities for local teenagers to find jobs and volunteer activities. -more-

The Berkeley Police Department sent out an urgent request to the community on Friday afternoon to help identify suspects who may be responsible for a number of robberies in Berkeley and possibly other Bay Area cities. -more-

Berkeley’s role in radical ideas, movements and programs is often thought to date from the 1960s—that decade of the Free Speech Movement and of assorted demonstrations that led to the town nickname, “plywood city” for the boarded-up broken windows. -more-

The University of California has filed a lawsuit against the city of Santa Cruz in an attempt to stop two growth-restricting ballot measures from taking effect should voters approve them in November. -more-

A day before Hurricane Katrina hit last year, New Orleans residents Quamrun Zinia, husband Riyad Ferdous and their little kid got into a car. At 11:00 a.m., they set off. They just packed stuff for their kid. Then they drove 400 miles to seek shelter with Zinia’s brother who lived in the Houston suburb of Belleville. It was a category five warning, and evacuation was mandatory. -more-

For 6-year-old Eli Lebowitz, going to school on Monday evening was exciting because he got to attend a barbecue, meet all his friends before starting school on Wednesday and even receive a brand new backpack full of school supplies. -more-

When Jackie Tolbert sang “Amazing Grace” at the corner of Twelfth Street and Broadway in downtown Oakland on Tuesday, the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, tears welled in the eyes of several of the listeners from her hometown—New Orleans. -more-

A freelance journalist who has spent a month in prison was granted release on bail by a federal appeals court in San Francisco today while he appeals a subpoena requiring him to give a videotape of a demonstration to a U.S. grand jury. -more-

The name of its parent foundation is Pacifica. Nonetheless, during the more-than-half-century of progressive radio programming, KPFA has often been home to interpersonal tensions that periodically boil over into public view. -more-

Total Academic Performance Index (API) scores for the Oakland Unified School District rose 19 points from 634 to 653 in scores released this week by the California Department of Education. -more-

A Mercedes Sport Utility Vehicle rammed into a Berkeley school bus stopped at a red light on Sacramento Street Wednesday afternoon. -more-

The question of changes to the law regulating condominium conversion is supposed to go before the voters in November. But Measure I is taking a detour to court today (Friday). -more-

The Downtown Area Planning Committee (DAPAC) voted on Wednesday to form a subcommittee that would deal specifically with issues related to Center Street and the new hotel planned for the intersection of Shattuck Avenue. -more-

Green Machines, cleaner sidewalks, brighter lights, bicycle cops, and a brand new website are just some of the changes Berkeley has initiated to kick off the $360,000 Telegraph Avenue revitalization campaign. -more-

Telegraph Avenue has been our Broadway, our Hollywood and Vine, our street of dreams, our own theater of excess. Is it still? Perhaps for some. Maybe for newcomers. It isn’t for me, not any more, even though I go there every once in awhile. It is where I shop for books or CDs I can’t find anywhere else. For me, the street doesn’t have its old aura. It doesn’t promise exciting developments in the arts or politics. I no longer expect anything of it except new chain stores and trouble. -more-

Yes, we miss Cody’s on Telegraph. Its closing was like a death in the family. But contrary to the East Bay Express’ predictably snarky cover story, the independent bookstore scene is alive and well in the Bay Area. Bookbuyers are still holding out against the blandishments of Barnes & Noble and Borders, and the online convenience of Amazon. Berkeley is home to a whole constellation of bookstores, generalist and specialist, used and new, with something for just about everyone—and then there’s Oakland and San Francisco. -more-

Though summer’s waning, one of its staples of performance spills over into the fall—outdoor theater. Traditionally, September and October feature the best weather of the year for coast and Bayside communities, the summer fog replaced by mellow warmth. -more-