News

Accused by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office of lying about where he lives in order to maintain his seat on the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board, Rent Board Member Chris Kavanagh stepped down temporarily from his post, while he battles the question in court. -more-

Most everyone attending Saturday’s forum on Mayor Tom Bates’ Public Commons for Everyone Initiative agreed on one part of the proposal: Berkeley needs more public toilets for everyone. -more-

Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium oak grove tree-sitters, who first took to the branches last Dec. 2 on Big Game morning, seemed at first to have suffered a legal setback on Monday afternoon when a Fremont judge issued a preliminary injunction. -more-

Last week, essential workers at two of Berkeley’s largest institutions said they were headed toward walkouts. By Monday afternoon, one strike threat had ended but the other was moving forward. -more-

U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton won the running battle she held over the weekend for the attention of the Oakland electorate with her Democratic Presidential rival, Senator Barack Obama, announcing the endorsement of Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums during a hastily convened Monday afternoon appearance at Laney College. -more-

Fired in 1999 when, as KPFA’s general manager, she stood up to national Pacifica management, Nicole Sawaya will take the position of the boss she battled in the bloody KPFA vs. the Pacifica Foundation Board fight. -more-

Homicide detectives have arrested a pair of alleged gang members for the May 6 West Berkeley beating death of Agustine [CQ] James Silva Jr., 19, of Antioch. -more-

The Berkeley Police Department (BPD) is looking for two men who sexually assaulted a 27-year-old woman early Friday morning. -more-

Like Superman, Berkeley’s citizen downtown planners will be leaping tall buildings Wednesday night—though they’re already well past the traditional single bound. -more-

Two new names were added to Berkeley’s list of late-night dining spots after the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) approved their permits Thursday. -more-

In what would appear to be the most stinging rebuke possible to the conduct of the Alameda County Registrar of Voters Office in the November 2004 Berkeley Measure R Medical Marijuana initiative election, a California Superior Court judge has ordered that a new Measure R election be held in November of next year, and that Measure R proponents be reimbursed for litigation and recount costs. -more-

Preserving California’s Japantowns will call upon Berkeley’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) Thursday to nominate the city’s pre-World War II Japanese heritage sites to the State Office of Historic Preservation. -more-

For many years I resisted the growing of roses. My mother, a passionate rose grower, employed a gardener whose name, extraordinary to recall, was Budd. Mr. Budd was my introduction to the professional horticulturist. I do not remember seeing him busy with spade or hoe. As with my father’s relationship with Peter-who-cleaned-the-car, work seemed to consist of employer and employed standing side by side, gazing at potential problems, in my mother’s case perhaps a grandiflora (of which she later grew an impenetrable 10- foot hedge, not as difficult as it looks) that needed to be shifted, or for my father, an engine requiring carburetor adjustment, my mother’s loquacity occasionally interrupted by a gruff Hampshire “argh” or “um,” my father’s silence only broken by the cough of partial combustion. -more-

Players on the Berkeley High School women’s field hockey team often spend more time riding a bus to their games than playing them. There are few nearby opponents and sometimes they have to ride as far as San Jose. -more-

UC Berkeley’s biofuel bonanza—$635 million in expected corporate and federal funding—got off to an early start Monday with word of an unexpected $10 million advance from Washington. -more-

Proposed laws and services aimed at people exhibiting “inappropriate street behavior” make up the Public Commons for Everyone Initiative, to be discussed at a forum Saturday. -more-

A Berkeley man slain by a fusillade of high-powered automatic rifle shots fired from a passing van early Saturday morning had himself been arrested two years earlier as one of six suspects in a similar slaying in Richmond. -more-

Planning Commissioners Wednesday approved a modified plan and rezoning agenda that will open up the northern end of West Berkeley to car dealerships. -more-

The courtroom battle over UC Berkeley’s stadium-area building boom pitted the city’s hired legal gun in a Tuesday showdown against the university’s own sharpshooter-for-hire. -more-

Fulani Offuti has been an hourly worker in the Parks and Recreation Department for 11 years, working most recently in James Kenney Park’s inclusionary program, where disabled and able-bodied children are integrated into recreation activities. -more-

More than 25 uniformed Berkeley police officers crowded into a courtroom today for opening statements in the trial of a man accused of attempting to murder Berkeley police Officer Darren Kacalek more than two years ago. -more-

At over 25 meetings held during two days this past week, parents, teachers, students and community members showed up to question, comment and prophesy on the role of the new superintendent who will replace current Berkeley Unified School District superintendent Michel Lawrence in February. -more-

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board member Chris Kavanagh pleaded not guilty today to five felony counts stemming from allegations that his real home is in Oakland and that he falsely claims he lives in Berkeley in order to hold office and collect city benefits there. -more-

Code Pink took to the streets of Berkeley Wednesday to try to drive the U.S. Marine Recruitment Center out of the city. -more-

Berkeley still has a long way to go before it can eliminate health inequalities, according to city officials who spoke at Tuesday’s Community Action Forum at St. Paul AME Church. -more-

Flames destroyed most of a large carport behind one of Berkeley’s tenancy-in-common (TIC) buildings last Friday, consuming two cars in the process. -more-

One of the two students who were injured in a series of unrelated accidents at Berkeley High Wednesday was back in the classroom Thursday, said Berkeley Unified School District spokesperson Mark Coplan. -more-

The wisdom of Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums’ policy of keeping his distance from the politics of the Oakland City Council gets its first real test this Tuesday when the council considers Dellums’ appointments to the powerful Port of Oakland Board of Commissioners. -more-

Today (Friday, September 28) is the last day for eligible persons to put their applications in the mail for the two available units of Berkeley’s public housing, Berkeley Housing Authority Director Tia Ingram reminded the BHA board at its Wednesday evening meeting. -more-

I’m not one for making holiday plans too early. I cringe at Halloween displays in stores on Labor Day, and abhor hearing ho-ho-ho’s anytime before Thanksgiving. -more-