News

Though the thermometer hovered in the upper 40s and seemed even cooler beneath a mantle of oak leaves and an overcast sky, the crowd that gathered near Memorial Stadium Saturday was anything but cold. -more-

Rejecting the pleas of angry neighbors and threats of a lawsuit, the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) voted 5-3 early Friday to approve the “Trader Joe’s Building.” -more-

A marathon Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) session Thursday ended with approvals for two major housing projects, new bus yard, a new home for Freight & Salvage and demolition of the Drayage. -more-

Oakland’s newly elected state assemblymember, Sandré Swanson, has proposed setting up a Select Assembly Committee to investigate state takeovers of California schools, and the idea has already gotten support from key legislators from the affected districts. -more-

Freelance journalist Sarah Olson does not want to testify at First Lt. Ehren Watada’s court marshal in February. At around 8:45 a.m. on Thursday, she received a subpoena from the U.S. Army telling her to do so. -more-

Woodfin Suites housekeeper Alma Cruz has spoken out at City Council meetings, walked picket lines and talked to co-workers about the need for Emeryville’s Living Wage Law for hotel workers to be enforced. Voters approved the law—Measure C—in November 2005. -more-

The former bond counsel to the Peralta Community College District says that the list of projects in the Peralta’s troubled Measure A bond ballot statement last June may not be specific enough to have qualified the measure under the Proposition 39 requirements under which it was passed. -more-

2007 marks 10 years since the passing of baseball legend Curt Flood. Many of today’s sports enthusiasts, including those who follow baseball, have little sense of the man and his contributions to the sport of baseball. -more-

Immigrants whose lives are upended by unfair rules and arbitrary law enforcers should thank the day electrical engineer Jayashri Srikantiah decided to leave Intel to become a lawyer. -more-

UC Berkeley Campus Police have cited two of the tree-sitters protesting plans to cut down a grove of Oaks for the new Memorial Stadium, including former mayoral candidate Zachary Running Wolf, and served court orders barring them from campus. -more-

A number of citizens urged the Berkeley City Council Tuesday not to approve the second reading of the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance, which will make landmarking older structures and sites more difficult. -more-

Even before the second and final City Council vote Tuesday establishing a more developer-friendly Berkeley landmark law, opponents were preparing their counterattack. -more-

The city may have dodged one bullet by going along with developer Patrick Kennedy’s notion of how much time to devote to culture at the Gaia Building—Kennedy threatened to sue the city over the question—but by doing so, the city may be running head-on into a lawsuit Kennedy tenant Anna de Leon has promised to file. -more-

With the Hallmark Card takeover of UNICEF cards, Berkeley’s United Nations Association Center that has carried the popular cards for almost half a century, is shutting its doors tomorrow (Saturday)—hopefully a temporary closure to change the center’s focus, says UNA volunteer Mary Lee Trampleasure. -more-

In what can only be considered good news for opponents of the proposed massive Oak to Ninth development in Oakland, a Superior Court judge has tentatively ruled that a lawsuit filed by the Oak to Ninth Referendum Committee can go forward, at least for now. -more-

The newly constituted board of directors of the Peralta Community College District acted swiftly to tighten up spending procedures at the four-college district, sending back to district administrators $17 million of a $5 million Measure A bond project authorization request after complaining about details missing from the request papers. -more-

Holiday shopping unfinished? Unwilling to make one more trip to a multitude of malls or to … Emeryville? -more-

Threatened, robbed -more-