News

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-

In a speech that touched on topics both local and global during his campaign stop at the Berkeley YWCA Sunday, Democratic presidential contender John Edwards sent a message to UC Berkeley. -more-

Critics of the proposed agreement between UC Berkeley and BP — the rebranded British Petroleum — should take their best shots now, because once the deal is signed not only Big Oil, but Big Academy and Big Government Lab will mobilize their own PR folks to fire back. -more-

Next week, Mayor Tom Bates will introduce the “Public Commons for Everyone Initiative,” a proposal some say could provide the needed muscle to displace those who sit endlessly in the city’s public spaces adjacent to businesses. Others contend the mayor’s plan would erode the civil rights of those targeted, especially the homeless and mentally ill. -more-

On a 5-0-2 vote, Berkeley’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) raised a challenge to expansion plans for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Thursday night. Commissioners Miriam Ng and Fran Packard abstained on the vote. -more-

Supporters of a new multi-school education center for Oakland Unified School District’s Second Avenue properties moved quickly to capitalize on the momentum gained from the collapse of the deal to sell that property, winning key commitments from local political and agency leaders for their project at an overflow mass meeting of more than 300 parents and students at Laney College last Thursday night. -more-

Topical folksinger, hero, revolutionary, teacher, social worker, ex-political prisoner, Annette Auguste—best known as So An—is celebrated among Haiti’s poor majority for her commitment to the tiny nation’s struggle for sovereignty and democracy, according to members of the Berkeley-based Haiti Action Committee, which is bringing So An to the Bay Area this week. -more-

The membership of the City of Oakland Blue Ribbon Affordable Housing Commission that appeared in the Feb. 20 Planet story “Oakland’s Inclusionary Housing Commission Under Fire” had a number of errors. -more-

“I’m free at last,” said Zachary Running Wolf, after his release from jail last Wednesday following his Feb. 23 arrest by UC Berkeley Police on a charge of threatening a peace officer. -more-

The property housing Cody’s Books at 2 Stockton St. in San Francisco is being marketed to new tenants, raising speculation on whether Cody’s will be moving from the location as well, according to a recent story by Sarah Duxbury in the San Francisco Business Times . -more-

Only hours before they were to become public record as part of Oakland City Council’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Affordable Housing, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums released its second set of task force policy recommendations last week, calling for several proposals for a “coherent and responsive public policy to address affordable housing needs in Oakland.” -more-

Matthew F. Stolz, retired professor of political science at San Francisco State University, died of cancer at his Berkeley home Feb. 20. -more-

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District reviewed Pacific Steel Castings’s (PSC) final emissions inventory report and released it to the City of Berkeley and the public on Feb. 23. -more-

DAPAC to Mull Report by Town/Gown Panel -more-