The union made some big wins at Berkeley High on Tuesday. Except that the students were acting as both management and labor and the cash was just play money. -more-

Rich Robbins of Wareham Development, Inc. has a vision for the seven-story West Berkeley building he recently bought for around $20 million. -more-

A $100,000 process to write a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, approved by the City Council in February, will be carried out inside city government—with staff hired for the purpose—and not outsourced to Sustain-able Berkeley, as the Council directed last month. -more-

The Berkeley Board of Education voted to eliminate sixth grade from Berkeley Arts Magnet (BAM) Wednesday. BAM was the only elementary school in the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) that offered sixth grade to its students. -more-

Student assignments are in. Parents suffering from sleepless nights and frenzied nerves over their toddler’s kindergarten placement were finally able to rest in peace when the last of the 560 school assignment letters were mailed out from Berkeley Unified’s Office of Admissions and Attendance earlier this month. -more-

Well, it’s “whither journalism” time again. Straws in the wind: Thursday’s Chronicle, with the top story, over the fold, complete with big picture, about our friend Jane Stillwater, whose comments sometimes appear in these pages. Jane’s off to Iraq, trying to get herself embedded in an army unit, and her saga will undoubtedly be reported in exquisite detail on her blog, as are other events in her never-dull daily life. The jump headline says it all: “64-YEAR-OLD BERKELEY BLOGGER OFF FOR IRAQ.” This story has everything: “elderly party still full of beans,” “beloved-tho-quirky Berzerkly hasn’t changed,” “elderly newspaper HAS changed: now it reads blogs” and “foreign news is OK if it has a local angle.” More power to Jane for capturing the zeitgeist, perhaps finally getting the attention of anyone who doesn’t already know that there’s a mess over there. Maybe a 64-year-old Berkeley blogger can clean it all up. Or if not, at least it makes entertaining copy for the Comical. -more-