Local News and Opinion from The Berkeley Daily Planet

News Updates

Tune-Up Masters Condos Project Rises from the Dead

By Richard Brenneman

Friday January 18, 2008

Posted 1/21—Berkeley Design Review Committee members gave a qualified thumbs up Thursday night to plans for a controversial and long-delayed condominium project on University Avenue. -more-

My Diary of the New Hampshire Primary

By J. Harrison Cope

Friday January 18, 2008

Posted 1/20—Concord, New Hampshire, Thursday, Jan. 3, 8:30 a.m., 4°F. It’s hard to believe we actually get votes and elect presidents this way—standing on street corners waving signs and yelling, driving miles and walking miles and missing three dozen people, talking to a dozen more who aren’t even slightly interested just so we can talk to one or two people who might possibly, with a lot more coaxing and contact, be persuaded to vote our way. -more-

Albany Leads Opposition to Aerial Spraying in Alameda County

By Judith Scherr

Friday January 18, 2008

Posted 1/19—While Albany is preparing to take an aggressive stand in opposition to aerial spaying intended to eradicate the light brown apple moth—epiphyas postvitattana—Berkeley has adopted a wait-and-see attitude. -more-

News

Outrage Over Alcohol Inspection Fees Forces City to Halt Plans

By Judith Scherr

Friday January 18, 2008

Faced with some two dozen irate small business owners, the Berkeley City Council reversed itself Tuesday, backing away from a December decision to charge bars, restaurants and liquor stores $467 each year to inspect for -more-

City Council Questions, Approves Green Corridor

By Judith Scherr

Friday January 18, 2008

The mayors of Berkeley, Oakland and Emeryville, along with the UC Berkeley chancellor and the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, met under the TV cameras’ glare in early December to unveil the East Bay Green Corridor Part-nership. -more-

City Rejects University Plan For Third Fence At Oak Grove

By Richard Brenneman

Friday January 18, 2008

Berkeley city officials turned thumbs down on a request by UC Berkeley officials to build yet another fence surrounding the tree-sitters encamped near Memorial Stadium. -more-

Dellums Focuses on Oakland’s Crime and Violence in First State of City Speech

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor

Friday January 18, 2008

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums flipped the script in his first State of the City address Monday night—as the hip-hoppers like to say—focusing on policy recommendations for the coming year rather than on listing accomplishments for the old, and largely abandoning the rhetorical flourishes for which he is best known, replacing them with a more sober and businesslike recitation of details. -more-

Berkeley High Teachers Press District for More Space

By Riya Bhattacharjee

Friday January 18, 2008

Brandishing posters, placards and signs at the Berkeley Board of Education meeting Wednesday, more than 30 Berkeley High School teachers urged board members to construct the new classrooms approved for the high school by August. -more-

Council Delays Decision to Place Warm Pool on November Ballot

By Judith Scherr

Friday January 18, 2008

Remembering Robert Ewing, Memorial Planned for Sunday

By Matt Cantor

Friday January 18, 2008

C.J. McGowen, Berkeley Bait & Tackle owner, sells six or seven cases of beer a week. Under a City Council proposal—now under revision—he would have had to pay the same alcohol inspection fees as large grocers such as Andronico’s. Photograph by Judith Scherr.

Editorials

Editorial: Remembering That the Prize is the Presidency

By Becky O’Malley

Friday January 18, 2008

Let’s build our dream candidate, shall we? Experienced, smart, African-American, from an immigrant family though born in the U.S.A., and female.....wouldn’t we all be proud to support that person, don’t we wish she were running this year? Well, folks, I’ve been there, done that, in 1972, no less. I was one of the core group (non-hierarchical, of course) who ran the Michigan primary campaign for Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, and it was a huge success: We got 5 percent of the vote. It was an enormously satisfying experience, right up until Richard Nixon was re-elected in a landslide vote. It’s all been downhill since then. -more-