News

A California Superior Court Judge has voided the City of Oakland’s approval of the controversial Oak To Ninth development project, sending the project back to the Oakland Planning Commission and the City Council for a new round of environmental impact report certification and commission and council votes. -more-

The Ed Roberts Campus—an easily accessible center where disabled people will find legal advocacy and housing help, learn computer skills, find specialized day care, practice fitness routines and meet friends for coffee without the barriers most local cafes present—may have found the last $9 million it needs to start construction on the project that began 12 years ago. -more-

Forty HazMat professionals battled toxic gunk on the treacherous Berkeley Marina rocks as part of the Cosco Busan Oil Spill Response Monday. -more-

Berkeley City Manager Phil Kamlarz took several emergency actions after the Nov. 9 oil spill. In a specially called meeting Monday afternoon, the council retroactively approved the measures: -more-

An Alameda County Superior Court judge awarded thousands of dollars in damages to a group of West Berkeley neighbors Friday who sued Pacific Steel Casting for loss of use and enjoyment of their property and mental distress. -more-

Campus police have escalated their campaign against the tree-sitters at UC Berkeley Memorial Stadium, making arrests Sunday and Monday in the protest that began nearly a year ago. -more-

With the impediments removed to the Oakland Police Chief Wayne Tucker’s plan for 12-hour shifts and dividing the city into three districts, community police advocates both inside and outside the Dellums administration are hoping that the way is now clear for the administration to move forward on a proposed Comprehensive Public Safety Plan as well. -more-

Scott Slaughter, 31, of Oakland lost his life Thursday morning when he crossed the train tracks north of the Berkeley Amtrak Station on his way to his job at Truitt & White, located near the tracks on Hearst Avenue. -more-

(Editor’s note: This is the first of two articles on implications of the just-concluded $500 million agreement between UC Berkeley and BP. Part two will be published Friday.) -more-

The Berkeley Board of Education held back last week from approving Emeryville-based Baker Vilar Architects to plan the demolition of the Berkeley High School old gym due to the lack of a timeline for the project. -more-

Mostly they play for the pure fun of it. -more-

A Berkeley woman tearfully pleaded not guilty Friday to charges that she murdered her 9-year-old son at their Shattuck Avenue home last month. -more-

Editor’s note: This story ran in an incomplete version in the Nov. 16 issue. It is reprinted here in its entirety. -more-

As a local movement to censure U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein for supporting Michael Mukasey’s nomination for U.S. Attorney General began, more than 200 students gathered in front of UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza Wednes-day to witness a waterboarding demonstration. -more-

The $500 million pact between UC Berkeley and one of the world’s largest oil companies went into effect Wednesday, though research covered by the contract started months ago. -more-

The only sound along the deserted shoreline at the Berk-eley Marina Wednesday was the clattering of pebbles inside Carole Rathfon’s double-layered plastic bag. -more-

Richmond residents expressed concern this week at the failure of state and federal officials to rescue oiled birds from the Rich-mond shoreline. -more-

The question of who will implement the East Bay Smart Solar Program, funded by the Depart-ment of Energy with matching city money, brings to the fore the question of how government engages nonprofits and other organizations—for better or worse—to do work it cannot or will not do. -more-

DAPAC approved a limited-height mandate for the downtown Berkeley plan, dividing their Monday night vote between a majority who felt they’d compromised enough and a minority who wouldn’t approve anything without an economist’s imprimatur. -more-

The Memorial Stadium confrontation between tree-sitters and campus officialdom heated up Thursday, marked by three arrests and a fence breach. -more-

Berkeley officials said they plan to submit a work plan for dredging Aquatic Park lagoon to the State Water Resources Control Board for approval, according to city and state officials. -more-

A three-year-old business assessment district that had become controversial with some of its members was voted off the Avenue at last week’s Solano Avenue Association (SAA) board meeting. -more-

Berkeley planning commissioners voted to clamp down on liquor stores that started selling spirits before the city instituted its current zoning policies. -more-

Arguing that the California Department of Transportation did not adequately assess impacts on the environment in its plans to add a fourth bore to the Caldecott Tunnel, attorneys Stuart Flashman and Antonio Rossmann have filed a petition in Alameda County Superior Court in an attempt to get Caltrans to modify its plans. -more-

California Attorney General Jerry Brown told a gathering of California county leaders in Oakland this week that global warming was the single most important issue of our time, that the California Environmental Quality Act was a “key environmental milestone” in fighting the greenhouse gas emissions that are much of the cause of global warming, and that counties which do not address such emissions in their CEQA environmental impact reports face a likelihood of being sued by his office. -more-

The California Senate Education Committee has scheduled a public hearing in Oakland next month on the State Department of Education and procedures for return to local control of school districts in state receivership. -more-