Dated but not forgotten: This is the story of 16 seniors who have called South Berkeley home at different times in the last century. -more-

Sustainable Berkeley, the mostly city-funded grouping of public and private individuals and institutions, promises to lead the local fight against global warming and at the same time “brand” Berkeley as the country’s leading green city. -more-

Critics who say UC Berkeley shouldn’t taken $500 million from a British oil company to develop alternative energy espouse an “abhorrent” attitude and threaten academic freedom, declared Chancellor Robert Birgeneau Thursday. -more-

It has come to this: The North Shattuck Association (NSA), the North Shattuck Plaza Inc. (NSPI) and the Live Oak Codornices Creek Neighborhood Association (LOCCNA) have agreed to appoint representatives to a newly formed committee that will help move the disputed $3.5 million North Shattuck plaza in Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto forward. -more-

Presented with three significant documents—recommendations on UC Berkeley downtown developments, ground-floor uses and a proposed economic development package—citizen planners held off any final action Wednesday. -more-

The University Press Building—UC Berkeley’s doomed downtown landmark—will be granted one last fling before the wrecking ball comes. -more-

Though the UC Berkeley’s massive Memorial Stadium-area expansion plans have been stalled by a court order, the university is moving forward with a seismic study. -more-

The month-old administration of Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums did something this week that the predecessor administration of Jerry Brown failed to do in eight years of office, hold a full-blown City Hall press conference to which all media was invited and questions were raised and answered with equal access to all areas of the press. -more-

“The people of this State do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created.” -more-

A little over a month after Oakland city officials were blamed for allowing a sideshow-abatement state law to lapse, the California legislature is quietly moving to reinstate the law on an “urgency” basis. -more-

When can Berkeley police infiltrate political groups? What is the local police role when a government spy agency asks them for help? -more-

San Francisco-based MKThink Group presented an initial needs assessment plan for People’s Park to the park’s Advisory Board on Monday. -more-

What excites Willard Middle School eighth grader Naima Yi most about attending Berkeley High next year is its visual arts program, something the thirteen-year-old described as “super awesome.” -more-

NORTH SHATTUCK PLAZA -more-

Let us first set aside the potential ad hominem attacks against BP Amoco PLC. So what if it is the corporation that pleaded with Washington and London to remove the democratically elected prime minister of Iran from office which resulted in a violent coup d’etat in 1953 because of concerns over control of Iran’s oil resources? So what if it is the corporation that deliberately failed to adequately maintain its Alaskan pipeline so it could drive up the price of oil, and which, upon discovering the whistle blower, hired a CIA operative to break into the employee’s office? So what if it is the corporation who, along with oil giants ExxonMobil and Shell, heavily influenced the new Iraq Oil and Gas Law which would give Big Oil a 75 percent concession to Iraq’s oil resources in a so-called “Production Sharing Agreement”? Yes, let us put BP’s past (as well as its recent past) behind us and look towards the future of renewable energy so that, in the words of Berkeley National Laboratory’s Steve Chu, we can “help save the world.” -more-

I write in response to J. Douglas Allen-Taylor’s recent column about the infamous slur word that is America’s pride and joy. The ignoble word that bigoted, racist, vulgar, people will continue to use. They use it in secret and public to try and make inferior a certain group of American and world citizens. -more-

I have reported elsewhere on the history of U. S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s 2001-2005 conflict of interest due to her husband Richard C. Blum’s former stake in two war contractors, URS and Perini corporations. Unfortunately, the senator is not the only one in her family with an ethics problem. In March 2002, Gov. Gray Davis appointed Blum to a 12-year term as a regent of the University of California. For the next three years, both URS and Perini benefited from construction contracts awarded by the regents. -more-

Interesting, isn’t it, how much of the country continues to react to the complications surrounding the issue of race like the little boy who finds himself amazed, after multiple trips to the zoo, that the zebra continue to have stripes. The zebras have always had stripes, since they have been zebras, and the stripes have been there on the zebras each of the times the boy comes to visit. But each time, upon viewing the phenomenon, the little boy’s mouth drops in amazement, his eyes open wide, and he stands on tiptoe and leans over the railing to get a better look at this wonderful curiousity which has never been pointed out to him before, except for all of the many other times it was pointed out in the visits prior to this. -more-

It really annoys me when I see a real estate listing with a picture of a bungalow which announces something like “fabulous Victorian”—you would think there are enough bungalows around here that agents would get a clue, but apparently not. So herewith I shall answer the question “What is a Bungalow?” -more-

Lately I have been known to make outbursts over my Sunday morning cup of tea. It’s usually because I’m reading an article in a local paper purporting to give an update of our real estate market. Some of the articles come from wire services and describe a totally irrelevant national picture. Other times the article is describing the “local market,” but what they’re really discussing is the entire East Bay, from Hayward through Hercules. -more-

Okay Matt, I have been thinking about this for a while. There is a design feature I’ve noticed while looking at open houses these past years. -more-

Are you ready to make personal contact with your wild neighbors? Ready to go eye-to-eye with the swiveling head of a great horned owl, outstare a magnificent Bald Eagle, chuckle at an opossum burrowed head-deep into a cereal box, count the leaves being pulled out of a Trader Joe’s Indian Fare carton by a California ground squirrel? -more-

Some films carry with them the burden of their own achievements, their reputations so ingrained in the public consciousness that often those who have never seem them convince themselves they have. And when they finally do see those films the expectations can be almost insurmountable, rendering the experience underwhelming. Try explaining to the uninitiated the allure of Casablanca, or the innovation and genius of Citizen Kane. For many younger viewers these films are merely overhyped relics from a pitiful, technologically challenged era. -more-