News

Three generations of Cody’s Books owners—Pat Cody, Andy Ross and Hiroshi Kagawa—sat around a small table Thursday morning at the Fourth Street store. -more-

The city of Berkeley could have a full retail food co-op as early as next year if all goes as planned for a group of residents from Berkeley and Oakland, who are launching the prospective grocery. -more-

Oakland Unified School District trustees passed a resolution Wednesday calling for a multi-grade education center to replace the high-rise condominium tower development being considered for the district’s downtown administration building site. -more-

“We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us,” chanted more than 150 people who rallied for immigrant and workers’ rights on Labor Day at St. Joseph the Worker Church. -more-

Police continue to investigate the murder of Wayne Drummond, 23, who died of a gunshot wound to the torso in the early hours of Sept. 4. No suspects have been arrested. -more-

A Superior Court judge struck down the citizen challenge to Berkeley’s Measure J ballot language following an hour-long hearing on Tuesday, meaning that the legal analysis proposed by the Berkeley City Attorney’s office and approved by City Council on a divided vote will appear on the November ballot. -more-

Just returned from Haiti, participants in a conference of Haitian progressives and international supporters in Port-au-Prince will share their experiences meeting with political prisoners just released from jail and their eyewitness account of a U.N. military operation in a poor neighborhood. -more-

UC Berkeley police arrested three people on felony drug charges today following an incident in which about a dozen students were briefly hospitalized after consuming what are suspected to be marijuana-laced cookies. -more-

Royal Grounds coffee house, underneath the university-owned Manville Apartments for graduate students, was the scene of a hit-and-run accident on Sunday. -more-

At Wednesday’s joint meeting of the Transportation Commission and the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee, board members discussed and debated downtown parking in Berkeley. -more-

Are you a student? Do you need all those extra dimes and nickels to pay your tuition? But, you still need to eat, right? Here are a few restaurants around campus that can keep your stomach and wallet full. -more-

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-