Local News and Opinion from The Berkeley Daily Planet

News Updates

Flash: Berkeley Sea Scout Skipper Charged with Child Abuse

By Richard Brenneman

Tuesday December 04, 2007

Eugene Evans, the scoutmaster who sued the city after it refused a free berth to the Sea Scout ship Farallon because of the organization's anti-gay policies, was arrested Tuesday on six counts of child sexual abuse. -more-

News

Tree-Sitters Celebrate One-Year Anniversary

By Richard Brenneman

Tuesday December 04, 2007

Berkeley protesters and their supporters gathered Sunday to celebrate the end of the first year of what they hailed as “America’s longest-running urban tree-sit.” -more-

Oak Grove Burial Ground Debate Still Alive

By Richard Brenneman

Tuesday December 04, 2007

Are Native Americans buried beneath the oak grove along the western wall of Memorial Stadium? -more-

Dredging Toxics Report Still Not In

By Riya Bhattacharjee

Tuesday December 04, 2007

The City Council continued the discussion on the Aquatic Park dredging to Dec. 18 because of time constraints at last week’s council meeting. -more-

Committee Adopts Downtown Plan

By Richard Brenneman

Tuesday December 04, 2007

Downtown Area Planning Advisory Committee (DAPAC) members voted 17-4 to adopt their draft of a new downtown plan, but one of the nays came from the head of the Berkeley Planning Commission. -more-

School District Seeks Merit Commissioner

By Riya Bhattacharjee

Tuesday December 04, 2007

A member of the Berkeley Unified School District’s Merit Commission said the Berkeley school board may not have reappointed him because he took an independent position on budget allocations, one out of step with the board’s wishes. -more-

Chamber PAC Fights Filing with City

By Judith Scherr

Tuesday December 04, 2007

Alta Bates Nurses Announce Walkout

By Richard Brenneman

Tuesday December 04, 2007

Lab Sets EIR Hearings on EBI, Computer Labs

By Richard Brenneman

Tuesday December 04, 2007

LPC Votes on Shattuck Hotel Face Lift

By Riya Bhattacharjee

Tuesday December 04, 2007

Amtrak Train Kills Woman In Northwest Berkeley

By Judith Scherr

Tuesday December 04, 2007

University Begins Gill Tract Radiation Decommissioning

By Richard Brenneman

Tuesday December 04, 2007

California Tries to Reach Out To Punjabi Farmworkers

By Ketaki Gokhale, India West

Tuesday December 04, 2007

Caplan Named Economic Development Manager; Cowan Named Acting City Attorney

By Judith Scherr

Tuesday December 04, 2007

O’Connell Gives Authority for OUSD To Hire Local Superintendent

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor

Tuesday December 04, 2007

News Analysis: The Battle in Bolivia

By Roger Burbach, New America Media

Tuesday December 04, 2007

Five UC Berkeley Police officers stood watch at Sunday’s one-year anniversary celebration, two of them recording the day’s events with video cameras. Photograp[h by Richard Brenneman.

Editorials

Editorial: Whose Commons Is It, Anyway?

By Becky O’Malley

Tuesday December 04, 2007

Out and about in Berkeley over the weekend, we had a chance to observe numerous examples of the truism that it’s not what you do, it’s who you are that counts. We walked up Ashby to Peet’s on Domingo, one of the oldest locations for Berkeley’s pride and joy, the original leading edge of the gourmet coffee revolution. In the many years we’ve been walking to Peet’s, the shops in the small commercial enclave on that corner have had a lot of turnover. Since we’ve been in the business of selling newspaper advertising, we’ve learned that there are many more people in Berkeley who’d like to run small businesses than there are people who know how to do it. -more-