Controversy is mounting over a proposed use permit and an application to demolish a one-story commercial building in the historic Squires Block in North Berkeley which was submitted for review to the Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). -more-

UC Berkeley and a Swiss multinational must clean up thousands of truckloads of toxic-laden soil illegally buried at the Richmond site of a planned 1,330-unit housing complex, state officials ordered Friday. -more-

While UC Berkeley may have offered to downsize a planned parking structure northwest of Memorial Stadium, opposing lawyers say that’s not enough to derail the lawsuits holding up construction of a new high-tech training gym. -more-

A former Oakland Assembly-member running for outgoing State Senator Don Perata’s District 9 Senate seat says she doesn’t believe that a term limits initiative will pass next February, allowing Perata to run again. -more-

A group of South Berkeley residents won a close victory Thursday when the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) voted 5-4 to reject a use permit application by Verizon Wireless and Nextel Communication for 11 cell phone antennas atop the UC Storage building at 2721 Shattuck Ave., following a second remand from the City Council in May. -more-

Not in my own youth, but in the Victorian novels I read as a child, it was the custom for Americans at their Fourth of July picnics to read aloud the Declaration of Independence. In the mid and late 19th century the American revolution was still part of living memory. The older folks at the picnics were still able to summon up the tremendous excitement with which their grandparents and great-grandparents seized their destinies and started a new kind of country in a still-wild place. -more-