Eighteen-year city employee Stephen Barton, asked to resign last Tuesday, was publicly pummeled in a memo by the Berkeley city attorney Wednesday, a six-page document addressed to the mayor and City Council and filled with attacks aimed primarily at Barton, but also at the city manager, deputy city manager and other city staff. -more-

Twenty-three young men and women were sent out to conquer the real world on Friday. -more-

The Berkeley City Council tonight (Tuesday) will take another look at the mayor’s controversial Public Commons for Everyone Initiative. At the last meeting, an exhausted council did not address the specifics in the measure intended to enhance shopping areas by removing persons whose behavior is unacceptable. -more-

Berkeley police found the body of the year’s second murder, 46-year-old Terrence Marlow Broadnax, shortly after noon Friday in a fourth-floor apartment at University Avenue Homes. -more-

World Can’t Wait called on all Berkeley High School students Monday to sign a letter protesting the U.S. military’s requirement that Berkeley High give student information to military recruiters unless the students request the school not to. -more-

Littering, downtown safety issues and plans for the warm water pool dominated the meeting held between representatives of the city and the Berkeley Unified School District Friday. -more-

The Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) will once again hear the appeal of an administrative use permit for a residential addition to 2008 Virginia St. -more-

The Housing Advisory Commission is asking the Berkeley City Council to have an independent investigation conducted into allegations made by City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque regarding former Housing Director Steve Barton’s alleged refusal to take her advice and similar allegations directed at City Manager Phil Kamlarz, Deputy City Manager Lisa Caronna and other staff. -more-

The new Berkeley Housing Authority Board will meet in joint session with the City Council at 5 p.m. -more-

In a scene that invoked historical images of a lanky President Abraham Lincoln walking through the streets of a liberated Richmond shortly before the end of the Civil War, Ron Dellums took a 15-block walking tour of International Boulevard in the Fruitvale District Friday evening surrounded by a phalanx of city officials, local residents, staff, police and private security packed around him so dense that the tall Oakland mayor could only be viewed by his snow-haired head towering above the crowd. -more-

The Oakland Police Department official in charge of Oakland’s sideshow enforcement activities may have seriously understated the number of vehicles towed in Oakland in connection with a state sideshow car towing law. -more-

Berkeley landmarks commissioners failed to reach a consensus on the old Berkeley High School Gymnasium Thursday, with a motion to declare the aging structure a landmark failing on a 4-3-1 vote. -more-

A joint subcommittee hammering out a proposal that would define the role of historic buildings in the center of downtown Berkeley will hold its final meeting Tuesday night. -more-

Berkeley residents will have another chance to weigh on with their visions of the future of downtown Berkeley during a Saturday workshop at the Berkeley Public Library. -more-

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) tops the agendas of two city panels this week, the Planning Commission and a DAPAC subcommittee. -more-

While Berkeley struggles with drafting a legally mandated new plan for the city’s downtown, a committee of Richmond residents has been working toward a new plan for their city. -more-

HOUSING DIRECTOR -more-

The UC infatuation with the BP con game grant goes on despite many comments, letters and op-ed articles in papers and magazines pointing out that fermentation of biofuel crops releases much carbon dioxide needlessly before getting the fuel and leaves much unused biomass in cellulose and lignin. This money would be much better used to find how to get solar energy combined with a catalyst to split water getting hydrogen, the clean fuel. Also the money could be doing much more in maximizing a pyrolysis process to make charcoal from our already harvested biofuel crops, our organic wastes. Their disposal costs many billions a year, while allowing, especially in composting, the recycling of trapped carbon back to the environment as carbon dioxide. Now in Naples, Italy, a major problem of no more disposal space for wastes is making a major ugly mess, which other cities may soon be snarled in, if we do not recognize those wastes can be utilized to get energy and some carbon removal. -more-

I am writing to comment on some of the issues raised by the so-called Public Commons for Everyone Initiative on the City Council agenda for Tuesday evening. Without my belaboring the ironic and Orwellian implications of using the term “commons,” what concerns me most is the disproportionate emphasis on coming up with new laws rather than bringing community and city resources to bear directly on the issue of problematic street behavior. Has anyone analyzed how many taxpayer dollars would go to pay for the staff time of members of the city attorney and city manager’s offices to come up with new laws? We could be spending those funds on pragmatic solutions, such as instituting true community policing, funding peer counselors to work on the streets, and increasing services to address the real mental health and substance abuse issues that cause most of the problems. -more-

Thank you, Daily Planet, for publishing Madeline Smith Moore’s June 8 testimonial, “Why I’m a Racist.” I appreciate her honesty and accuracy. The article also deserved to be published in a paper that all too often (whether intentionally or subconsciously) reinforces the sensibilities of many of its privileged white liberal readers. Perhaps ironically, as one of those readers, I not only agree with the vast majority of Moore’s sentiments, but also hope to prevent the story’s content from being distorted, diluted, or forgotten. I am, unfortunately, socialized to be white (that makes me a racist). Yet I support the message that racism is real, all-pervasive, and experiences of it need to be heard, respected and acted on. I also apologize for, and in the future should avoid, needing a person of color to start and participate in this antiracist conversation. -more-

Hillary Clinton remains the favorite to be the Democratic presidential nominee at their August 2008 convention in Denver. However, while most Dems view her positively, she’s unpopular with Independents and Republicans. This is called “the Hillary problem,” but it’s really “the Bill problem.” -more-

On Friday I came home from my substitute teaching job at 4 p.m. I was in bed by 5:15. I slept for 14 hours and awoke refreshed and happy. School is out. Yeah! -more-

It may be a drab little brown bird, but the song sparrow has attracted a lot of scholarly attention. The song sparrows of San Francisco Bay alone support a kind of cottage industry. We have four distinct subspecies here, three confined to tidal marshes, the fourth to neighboring uplands. The marsh sparrows, generally smaller and grayer than the upland birds, have adapted to their environment by evolving a higher tolerance for salt water (although their insect prey appears to meet most of their water needs). -more-