News

Historian Leon Litwack Retires with Golden Apple

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday April 20, 2007

Images of a young Jimi Hendrix setting his guitar ablaze flickered across the screen at the UC Berkeley Wheeler Auditorium on Wednesday. The film Berkeley in the ’60s was not just entertainment for the some hundred students from History 7B (American History since 1865)—it was classwork. -more-


UC Academic Senate Confirms BP Contract

By Richard Brenneman
Friday April 20, 2007

Berkeley’s Academic Senate handed a victory to supporters of the proposed half-billion-dollar contract between the former British Petroleum and the university. -more-


Universal Health Care Bill Passes Committee

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday April 20, 2007

A bill that would guarantee single-payer health care coverage to all Californians passed the California State Senate Health Committee Thursday, leaving at least one community advocate optimistic about the bill’s chances of becoming law. -more-


DAPAC Gives OK to Downtown Proposals

By Richard Brenneman
Friday April 20, 2007

DAPAC members finally adopted recommendations for developing UC Berkeley-owned property in downtown Berkeley Wednesday, but it took more than three hours, and one key element remains to be decided. -more-


Mayor Bates Touts Berkeley’s Green-City Initiatives

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday April 20, 2007

Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates urged local businesses to help propel Berkeley toward becoming the greenest city in the country at the Sustainable Berkeley Commercial Property Climate Protection Luncheon gathering on Tuesday. -more-


Senate Bills on Police Public Information Meet Mixed Fates

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday April 20, 2007

Legislation that would re-open police disciplinary hearings and open up police personnel disciplinary files narrowly passed the Senate Public Safety Committee this week on a partisan 3-2 vote, leading advocates to the conclusion that a compromise will be necessary for the bill to survive both the Legislature and a possible veto from Gov. Schwarzenegger. -more-


Panoramic Sales Net City $2.1 Million

By Richard Brenneman
Friday April 20, 2007

The sale of seven Berkeley apartment buildings will make the city richer by $2.1 million in the form of a one-time property transfer tax payment, reports Calvin Fong, an aide to Mayor Tom Bates. -more-


Longfellow’s Technology Programs Attract National Attention

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday April 20, 2007

Forty-two school board members from around the country paid a visit to Longfellow Arts and Technology Magnet Middle School Monday to look at what the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) is doing with technology in the middle schools. -more-


SF Board Landmarks UC Laguna Extension Campus

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday April 20, 2007

The Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board (LPAB) in San Francisco voted 6-1 in favor of the local landmark designation of the UC Berkeley Extension Laguna Street Campus Wednesday. -more-


Opium, Drug Use Drive Second Wave of AIDS Pandemic

By Khalil Abdullah, New America Media
Friday April 20, 2007

Intravenous drug use (IDU) is emerging as a significant driver for the “second wave” of the international HIV/AIDS pandemic, according to Dr. Chris Beyrer, a leading authority on the disease. -more-


Local Businesses Raise Money for Students

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday April 17, 2007

As Anuradha Biswa Karma waits for her grade-four textbooks in an obscure part of the Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal, little does she know that there is someone working in Berkeley to send her the money to buy them. -more-


State Senate to Hear Single-Payer Health Care Bill Wednesday

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday April 17, 2007

Single-payer universal health care advocates in California begin their second try in two years to make their cause state law when the state Senate Health Committee holds a hearing in Sacramento this Wednesday afternoon on state Sen. Shirley Kuehl’s (D-Santa Monica) SB 840. -more-


Faculty Senate Nears Showdown Over UC-BP Pact

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday April 17, 2007

UC Berkeley faculty will cast their ballots Thursday on competing resolutions triggered by the largest corporate grant in the history of the American university. -more-


Deal Looks Familiar to Novartis Grant Reviewer

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday April 17, 2007

To Alan P. Rudy, the furor surrounding the developing half-billion-dollar research pact between BP and UC Berkeley is deja vu writ large. -more-


Hancock Sponsors Global Warming Forum

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday April 17, 2007

Assemblymember Loni Hancock sponsored her second major public gathering in her assembly district in two months, holding a town hall meeting on global warming at Berkeley City College that attracted several hundred participants and presentations from several local and state agencies. -more-


Downtown Committee Looks At UC Sites, Green Planning

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday April 17, 2007

The Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) will make a second try Wednesday at revising a report on city policies regarding UC Berkeley’s plans for the city center. -more-


KyotoUSA Backs Solar Project at Washington School

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday April 17, 2007

Helios in Greek myth was the sun god who drove a chariot daily from east to west across the sky and sailed across the ocean each night in a huge cup. -more-


Two-Story Additions Dominate Zoning Agenda

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday April 17, 2007

The Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) set the appeal of an application for an administrative use permit for 933 Keeler Ave. for public hearing at the board meeting Thursday. -more-


Ask Alberto Gonzales: What About Petrona Tomas?

By Hilary Abramson, New America Media
Tuesday April 17, 2007

Somebody should ask Attorney General Alberto Gonzales (or whoever takes his job) about Petrona Tomas. -more-


Berkeley Businesses Blaze a Green Trail

By Marta Yamamoto, Special to the Planet
Tuesday April 17, 2007

How strong is your commitment to the environment? Is it strong enough to make you alter your lifestyle, switch from favored products or seek out and support environmentally conscious businesses? -more-


Oppenheimer: The Road to Alamos

By Phil McArdle, Special to the Planet
Tuesday April 17, 2007

In 1943 Robert Oppenheimer left the University of California at Berkeley to become director of the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico, where the first atom bomb was built. He maintained a connection with the university for several more years but never really returned. Instead, he became director of Princeton’s Center for Advanced Study and a consultant to the government on issues raised by atomic weapons. After his political “disgrace” for supposed disloyalty in 1954, he devoted himself to writing, producing essays and books, notably Science and the Common Understanding. President Kennedy cleared his name and “rehabilitated” him in 1963. -more-