News

A celebration of smiles will be held at Emerson and Jefferson Elementary Schools this weekend. -more-

A weary mayor and seven councilmembers—with Councilmember Betty Olds having gone home—and more than two dozen members of the public waited in the council chambers past midnight Tuesday to address the mayor’s controversial Public Commons for Everyone initia-tive, a proposal aimed at curbing inappropriate behavior in shopping areas by intensifying law enforcement in an initial phase and adding social services later as funding will allow. -more-

With the release last week by Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums of a budget that proposes to spend $1.1 billion per year over the next two fiscal years, the focus of Oakland’s budget discussion now shifts to the Oakland City Council. -more-

Two operations and five days after he was beaten outside a Berkeley student co-op, a San Francisco State student remains under medical care at Summit Alta Bates Hospital. -more-

Nextel and Verizon representatives at Tuesday’s council meeting squared off with irate neighbors of UC Storage at 2721 Shattuck Ave., with the communications companies getting what they wanted—the promise of a public hearing to review a zoning board decision which denied the powerful companies permits to install their antennas atop the Shattuck Avenue building. -more-

The Berkeley City Council got a first look at the draft two-year 2008-2009 $614,050 budget at a workshop before its regular meeting on Tuesday. Final budget decisions will not be made until the June 26 council meeting. -more-

If a Burger King wants to set up shop on Telegraph Avenue, the Berkeley Planning Commission decided Wednesday night that they’re not inclined to block it, though they don’t expect the fast food chain to open up on Berkeley’s emblematic commercial street. -more-

The Berkeley Board of Education delayed its vote on a controversial proposal to establish a Community Day School on the B-Tech campus Wednesday. -more-

Tuskegee police have charged Quentin Motez Davis, 18, of Macon County, and Romanita Michelle Cloud, 18, of Tuskegee, Ala., with the murder of Berkeley High Graduate Canon Jones, who was shot after he left his dorm to buy food on April 29. -more-

State Assemblymember Loni Hancock, City Councilmember Kriss Worthington and Father Stephan of St. Joseph the Worker Church were among the 38 people arrested in front of the Woodfin Suites Hotel Thursday, committing civil disobedience to show support for 12 hotel workers fired April 27. -more-

A murder and three stabbings marked Berkeley’s most violent 24 hours so far in 2007, ending with the wounding of two firefighters inside their station. -more-

Telegraph area merchants, property owners, residents and city officials and their representatives took a field trip to San Francisco last week to find out how “the city” curbs inappropriate behavior on Haight Street. -more-

Charges of misconduct levied against two Berkeley police officers in the recent past spurred a five-member Police Review Commission subcommittee to look at creating more effective police policies. -more-

As in the recent successful battle to landmark Iceland, most advocates of landmarking the old Berkeley High School gymnasium are more concerned with its current use than its history. -more-

The Joe Lurie Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Fellowship was launched at the UC Berkeley International House’s 19th Annual Celebration & Awards Gala Thursday. -more-

A massive branch broke off from a pine tree in the Berkeley Hills late Friday afternoon and smashed into a home at 1570 Hawthorne Terrace, causing considerable damage. -more-

The Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board will meet Thursday to discuss the following items: -more-

Velma Sykes worked hard to ensure that her children received a quality education at their public high schools in Sacramento. -more-

Efforts to limit family re-unification visas are the most dangerous, yet least known aspect of the immigration reform now being hatched in Washington, D.C. Karen Narasaki, executive director of the Asian American Justice Center, warns that the quota of family members being allowed to join their families in the United States may be halved. -more-

In the last week of April, more than five years into the “War on Terrorism,” Retro Poll asked a national sample of Americans this question: “Do you agree or not with the government’s assertion that people seized and detained at Guantanamo are presumed to be dangerous terrorists or they would not have been seized in the first place?” A slightly different wording last October had garnered 37 percent agreement. In the recent poll 48 percent agreed. We conclude that a substantial proportion of people do not grasp a key principle of democracy: Unless everyone is presumed innocent under the law until proved guilty of a crime in a fair trial, dictatorial powers of government achieve supremacy. Civil rights like this exist not just to protect criminals, but to protect the public from arbitrary government abuse of authority. The War on Terrorism promotes the denial of this democratic tenet. -more-

Telegraph Avenue quotas, West Berkeley car sales and new quotas for Berkeley housing top the agenda for Wednesday night’s Planning Commission meeting. -more-

The Berkeley Board of Education will vote on approving a proposal to establish a Community Day School on Wednesday. -more-

Berkeley Bowl theft -more-