News

Posted Thurs., March 20—Registered nurses at Berkeley’s Alta Bates Summit and Herrick Hospitals are walking out Friday for a 10-day strike against the Sutter hospital chain. -more-

Posted Thurs., March 20—Calling for immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq, participants in daylong events in Berkeley marked the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War on Wednesday with protests at the downtown Marine Recruiting Center and a rally in Civic Center Park. -more-

Posted Wed., March 19—San Francisco police arrested 10 UC students who chained themselves to the doors of the UCSF Mission Bay community center this morning (Wednesday) in an attempt to prevent the UC Board of Regents from meeting. -more-

Posted Wed., March 19—Flying in the face of his hosts' concerns regarding demonstrations at the Marine Recruiting Center, Mayor Tom Bates spoke out about his opposition to the War in Iraq and support for peaceful demonstrations. The speech was delivered Tuesday at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon where the mayor was the featured speaker. -more-

Posted Wed., March 19—One of the most highly anticipated Oakland election battles in years may have been knocked off the ballot when veteran District 3 Oakland School Board member Greg Hodge came up one signature short of qualifying to run in the June 3 race for the Oakland City Council. -more-

Posted Tue., March 18—The embattled AC Transit District is considering its fifth fare change in the last 13 years, with a possible increase in adult fares of as much as 25 cents and increases to the youth and senior passes coming as early as this summer. -more-

Fifty-five teachers and counselors in the Berkeley Unified School District received pink slips over the weekend notifying them of anticipated layoffs in face of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal to slash state education funds by $4.6 billion. -more-

Candidates in the hotly contested Democratic primary race to succeed Loni Hancock as District 14 Assemblymember are relying upon distinctly different fund-raising strategies, with a Richmond City councilmember dividing his contributions almost evenly between individual and business or labor group donors and Berkeley City Councilmember Kriss Worthington and Berkeley physician Phil Polakoff taking 98 percent of their donations from individuals, but with the majority of Worthington’s donations coming from inside District 14 and the majority of Polakoff’s coming from outside. -more-

World War II veteran Selwyn Jones, 86, told the Police Review Commission at Thursday’s public hearing on the Berkeley Police Department’s response to recent demonstrations that he’d been pushed to the ground by police during a recent protest at the Marine Recruiting Station. -more-

UC Berkeley’s local tree-sitter Michael Schuck—who calls himself Fresh—climbed down from his leafy perch outside Wheeler Hall Friday and was promptly arrested by university police for trespassing. He was issued a citation and released later that day. -more-

Two Code Pink members who entered the Marine Recruiting Center at 64 Shattuck Square Friday and asked its officers to leave were arrested by Berkeley police for trespassing on private property. -more-

The question of how to approach matters of peace and justice took center stage at the March 11 Berkeley City Council meeting. At the meeting the council also looked at a new report on pedestrian safety, asked staff to write a graywater permit process and more. -more-

A number of events were held last weekend leading up to the five-year anniversary of the Iraq War—among them a demonstration at the Richmond Chevron refinery, where two dozen protesters were arrested, a rally in Walnut Creek and a town meeting with Rep. Barbara Lee in Oakland. -more-

Objections from the Berkeley Landmarks Commission and the Elmwood-Claremont Neighborhood Association over the Berkeley Unified School District’s proposal to paint John Muir Elementary School blue and green forced the Berkeley Board of Education to reject the proposed colors and stick to its original scheme instead. -more-

The Berkeley Unified School District’s student assignment system was once again challenged by Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) Monday when the Sacramento-based right-wing public interest litigation firm appealed an April 2007 court decision which had ruled in favor of the district. -more-

Berkeley High Lady Jackets were soundly defeated by Long Beach Poly 55-31 Saturday in the state CIF Basketball Championship Div. I game at Arco Stadium in Sacramento. -more-

Court hearings are slated this week in two major Berkeley land disputes, one involving the university and the other the so-called Trader Joe’s building. -more-

Posted Fri., March 14—The Berkeley Board of Education approved possible lay-off notices for 50 certificated employees Wednesday to prepare for Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger’s proposed $4.6 billion state education budget cuts. -more-

Several hundred city workers converged on the steps of the city administration building Wednes-day. Some brought the tools of their trade: garbage trucks, pick-ups and code enforcement vehicles, the latter of which came in handy for blocking off the street for the noontime party. -more-

Several Berkeley police officers jumped on a public bus full of elementary students last week and held a gun on their after-school teacher, misidentified as a robbery suspect, while he was taking students to a basketball game. -more-

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia—which entered into a $28 million partnership with UC Berkeley last week to collaborate on research, curriculum and hiring of faculty—announced Thursday an $8 million grant to Paul Monteiro, professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Berkeley. -more-

In the race for money to finance their campaigns to replace Don Perata as State Senator for District 9, Assembly-member Loni Hancock is drawing heavily on businesses, labor organizations, and associations from around the state, as well as on individual contributions from inside District 9, while former Assemblymember Wilma Chan’s main source is Asian-Americans living outside the district lines. -more-

These days, Iraq War veteran Sean O’Neill speaks out against the war. -more-

Margaret Lowry, removed from her position as Willard Middle School vice principal last week and reassigned to a staff administrative position, has resigned and will leave the Berkeley Unified School District at the end of the school year. -more-

A five-day anti-war camp-out at the downtown Marine Recruiting Station (MRS) aboard a Code Pink truck, designed to draw attention to the March 19 five-year anniversary of the Iraq War, turned nasty Tuesday afternoon: An attorney says the city may be using code enforcement to selectively stifle free speech at the Code Pink protest, and a Code Pink activist says she was assaulted by a city of Berkeley code enforcement supervisor. -more-

After Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, nobody’s thinking of nuclear power in the U.S. these days, right? -more-

Could UC Berkeley’s first commercial ethanol partnership be headed for rough waters? -more-

The struggle to draft a Berkeley density bonus law ground forward Wednesday night, shadowed by the uncertain but foreboding impacts of a June ballot measure. -more-

Fans, foes and the simply undecided can hear the pros and cons of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Monday night, thanks to the efforts of the Claremont Elmwood Neighborhood Association. -more-

District One Oakland School Board member Kerry Hamill ended one part of the suspense in the June 3 Oakland election, filing her papers late Wednesday afternoon for the at-large Oakland City Council seat being vacated by incumbent Henry Chang. -more-

To begin with, my father brought me to Herrick in 1990 when I was having a full-blown psychotic episode and my behavior was out of hand because I was quite delusional. It wasn’t my first or last psychotic episode. There would be one more in 1996 before I would swear to permanently stay medicated and cooperative with treatment. -more-

Warm pool rescue -more-