News

Posted Wed., April 9—As pro-Tibet groups and supporters of the Beijing Games engaged in a war of words during the Olympic Torch Relay in San Francisco today (Wednesday), Tibetans in Berkeley kept their businesses closed to join in a movement very close to their heart. -more-

Posted Wed., April 9— The United Healthcare Workers-West members who met with the press outside the San Francisco Federal Building Tuesday are in a fight—but this time it’s not with their corporate bosses. -more-

Posted Tue., April 8—A sewage spill discovered at Bayer Healthcare's Berkeley campus at noon Monday prompted the city’s Division of Environmental Health to prohibit human contact with water in a section of the Berkeley Aquatic Park. -more-

A five-year-old city skateboard park that was to cost $200,000 and ended up costing four times that amount today is splitting at the seams. -more-

A small but dedicated crowd turned up to mark the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination by reading aloud his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” at the downtown Berkeley Public Library on Friday. The event coincided with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Youth Council’s National Day of Nonviolence, started nine years ago by the organization’s former director Jamal Bryant to encourage youth to fight against community violence. -more-

A U.S. District Court judge has ruled that the Oakland Police Department’s street strip-search policies are generally constitutional—though portions of it are not—but trials in individual cases must be held before the court can determine whether constitutional rights have actually been violated. -more-

Demolition of the strip mall at the corner of University Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way will begin June 1, said developer Chris Hudson. Some preliminary dismantling of the building is already visible. -more-

The Berkeley Board of Education will discuss a report recommending adaptive re-use of the Berkeley High School Old Gym on Wednesday. -more-

Berkeley-based Disability Rights Advocates settled a seven-year-old lawsuit with the state Department of Education Friday. In the settlement the state agreed to study the pass rate for special education students on the California High School Exit Exam. -more-

Former 16th District Assemblymember Wilma Chan has filed a complaint with the California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) against 14th District Assemblymember Loni Hancock—Chan’s opponent in the race to succeed termed-out 9th District State Senator Don Perata—charging that Hancock has illegally used her assemblymember officeholder account to pay a campaign staff member. -more-

The state agriculture department’s plan to eradicate the light brown apple moth (LBAM) “is like the 9-11 terrorist policy applied to agriculture,” Miguel Altieri, UC Berkeley professor of agroecology and an entomologist, told the Planet Monday. -more-

A federal decision on a plan to create a new North Richmond reservation for a landless tribe of Pomos who want to build a casino is months away, a federal official said Monday. -more-

Berkeley Planning Commissioners face back-to-back meetings this week where they’ll juggle two political hot potatoes on succeeding nights. -more-

Posted Mon., April 7—Former 16th District Assemblymember Wilma Chan has filed a complaint with the California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) against 14th District Assemblymember Loni Hancock—Chan’s opponent in the race to succeed termed-out 9th District State Senator Don Perata—charging that Hancock has illegally used her assemblymember officeholder account to pay a campaign staff member. -more-

Posted Sun., April 6—The City of Oakland will honor the legacy of Paul Robeson—one of the giant figures in American History—with an April 9 City Hall reception on the 110th anniversary of his birth. -more-

Posted Sat., April 5—A small but dedicated crowd turned up to mark the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination by reading aloud his Letter from a Birmingham Jail at the downtown Berkeley Public Library on Friday. The event coincided with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Youth Council's National Day of Nonviolence, started nine years ago by the organization's former director Jamal Bryant to encourage youth to fight against community violence. -more-

Demolition of the strip mall at the corner of University Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way will begin June 1, said developer Chris Hudson. -more-

Commuting Peet-o-philes will no longer have to trudge the block or so from the downtown BART for their morning cup o’ joe. -more-

A state legislator and county officials took sharp issue with the environmental documents prepared in support of a Lake County tribe’s bid to build a casino on industrial land in North Richmond. -more-

After almost a year-long hiatus, the North Shattuck Plaza is back—this time as part of the recently launched public review draft of the Berkeley Pedestrian Master Plan prepared by the city’s Public Works Department Transportation Division. -more-

Whether it’s searching for a new animal shelter site, preserving Berkeley’s architectural heritage, scrutinizing police conduct or making sure schools have emergency caches, commissions do much of the city’s hard work, city staff, commissioners and several councilmembers told the Planet Thursday. -more-

The ten-day strike of registered nurses (RNs) at Sutter Health’s Bay Area hospitals ended Monday with the start of the 7 a.m. shift. -more-

Under “friendly” but pointed pressure from community activists to fulfill a campaign pledge, Oakland Mayor Dellums has set a May 31 deadline to begin removing barriers to the hiring of formerly incarcerated people for City of Oakland jobs. -more-

Advocates for tenants’ rights are hopeful that the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) will keep the water running permanently in multi-family rental properties in foreclosure status and adopt a lien system to collect unpaid bills from landlords. -more-

The company that owns Golden Gate Fields is splitting from its corporate parent, whose directors have been eager to strip their successful firm of its ties with the money-hemorrhaging gambling subsidiary. -more-

The Berkeley-Albany-Emeryville NAACP Youth Council will mark today (Friday) the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King by reading his Letter from a Birmingham Jail at the Berkeley Public Library on Kittredge Street. -more-

UC Berkeley officials have called for new designs to transform the face of Lower Sproul Plaza, the less familiar portion of the university’s most famous public space. -more-

Code Pink had the last laugh on April Fool’s Day, but the anti-war group preferred to call their little prank a “hope” instead of a hoax. -more-

Bay City News -more-

Garage blaze -more-