Local News and Opinion from The Berkeley Daily Planet

News Updates

UC Berkeley Republicans Want Parking Space of Their Own

By Judith Scherr

Wednesday April 30, 2008

If the City Council gives its OK, the UC Berkeley College Republicans may have a parking space of their own on Shattuck Avenue on Wednesday afternoons, directly across the street from the Code Pink anti-war, anti-recruitment demonstrations in front of the Marine Recruiting Center -more-

Housing Commission To Hear Report on Hillegass Building

By Richard Brenneman

Wednesday April 30, 2008

Members of the Housing Advisory Commission (HAC) on Thursday will look at efforts to rehabilitate the low-income housing building located just across the street from People’s Park. -more-

Week’s Second Shooting Alarms North Oakland Neighbors

By Richard Brenneman

Tuesday April 29, 2008

An early Monday evening running gun battle left one man critically injured and police searching for a lime green car which had struck several cars during an exchange of gunfire with a pedestrian. -more-

LPC Takes Up UC Berkeley Landmark Projects, Fidelity Savings Bank Building

By Riya Bhattacharjee

Tuesday April 29, 2008

The Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) at its meeting Thursday will hear a presentation on landmarked UC Berkeley campus projects which are in their planning phase. -more-

State Committee calls for Aerial Spray Moratorium

By Judith Scherr

Tuesday April 29, 2008

The state Senate Environmental Quality Committee unanimously passed a resolution yesterday (Monday) calling for a moratorium on aerial spraying for the light brown apple moth (LBAM) until the state agriculture department “can demonstrate that the pheromone compound it intends to use is both safe to humans and effective at eradicating the light brown apple moth.” -more-

Police Seeks Suspects in Two Mass Gropings

By Richard Brenneman

Monday April 28, 2008

Posted Mon., April 28—Campus police are looking for two different groups of young men who harassed and sexually groped young women over the weekend. -more-

May Day Marches Call for Workers Rights, Unconditional Amnesty

By Judith Scherr

Monday April 28, 2008

Posted Mon., April 28—Three Bay Area marches on May Day—and an eight-hour shutdown of West Coast ports—will merge traditional calls for better pay and benefits with support for the rights of immigrants and a call to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. -more-

Power Outage Downs Some City Phones

By Judith Scherr

Monday April 28, 2008

Posted Mon., April 28—A power outage affecting some 300 AT&T phone customers interrupted phone service at a number of Berkeley offices this morning, according to Public Information Officer Mary Kay Clunies-Ross. By 2 p.m. all phones and services were back on line. -more-

Evening Meter Use Draws Critics

By Judith Scherr

Monday April 28, 2008

Posted Mon., April 28—If Mayor Tom Bates and councilmembers Laurie Capitelli and Dona Spring have their way, free evening parking in downtown Berkeley may be a luxury of the past. -more-

Neighbors Oppose Thai Temple Restaurant Operation, Seek to Curb Expansion Plans

By Riya Bhattacharjee

Friday April 25, 2008

Russell Street residents faced off Thursday against their neighbors at the Berkeley Thai Temple, charging them with running a commercial restaurant in a residential neighborhood, bringing litter and congestion to the area, every Sunday. -more-

News

North Oakland Man Shoots Intruder

By Richard Brenneman

Friday April 25, 2008

Oakland Police are investigating a Tuesday morning shooting in which neighbors say a North Oakland man shot an intruder breaking into his 59th Street home. -more-

BUSD Largest Contingent in Capitol PTA Rally

By Riya Bhattacharjee

Friday April 25, 2008

Berkeley Unified School District PTA members made their district proud when they formed the largest contingent at the “Flunk the Budget” California State PTA rally in Sacramento Thursday. -more-

Santa Cruz County Wins Stay on Moth Spray Plans

By Judith Scherr

Friday April 25, 2008

The courts and the governor took independent actions Thursday that resulted—at least temporarily—in stopping the planned aerial and ground spraying for the light brown apple moth. -more-

Sunshine Law Draft Hearing Postponed, Citizens’ Group Gets Extension

By Riya Bhattacharjee

Friday April 25, 2008

The Berkeley City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to postpone the public hearing on the Berkeley city attorney’s draft sunshine ordinance—which promises greater access to local government—to October and granted a 90-day extension to complete their work to the citizens’ group working on an alternate draft. -more-

Citizens to City: Tread Lightly on Tax Measures

By Judith Scherr

Friday April 25, 2008

Berkeley voters are more likely to approve a bond measure on the November ballot that supports watershed management and clean stormwater issues, but few would be willing to shell out their hard-earned dollars for a new skate park. And they’d be more willing to add a $50 item to their tax burden than a $150 item. -more-

Council Approves Staff’s Density Regulations to Head off Prop. 98

By Judith Scherr

Friday April 25, 2008

The City Council adoption Tuesday around midnight of an ordinance that would add open-space and parking regulations in all commercial-area development, a preemptive strike against possible fallout from the passage of Proposition 98, was a disappointment to some West Berkeley residents who hoped to see the passage of a competing ordinance—one that would have limited building heights along San Pablo Avenue. -more-

Berkeley Lawyer Files Class-Action Suit against Pacific Steel

By Riya Bhattacharjee

Friday April 25, 2008

Freeway Crash Kills Emeryville Man

By Richard Brenneman

Friday April 25, 2008

Assembly Candidates Weigh In On Health Care Debate

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor

Friday April 25, 2008

BUSD Approves $1.4 Million Old Gym Plan

By Riya Bhattacharjee

Friday April 25, 2008

BUSD Brings Back All Teachers from Layoff List

By Riya Bhattacharjee

Friday April 25, 2008

Southside Plan Concerns Prompt Added Review Time

By Richard Brenneman

Friday April 25, 2008

Cell Phone Critics, Companies Slam City Wireless Proposals

By Richard Brenneman

Friday April 25, 2008

Firm Founded by UC’s Keasling Lauches Biodiesel Venture with Sugar

By Richard Brenneman

Friday April 25, 2008

Richard Brenneman

Oakland Police officers confer on the Shattuck Avenue sidewalk in the aftermath of a shooting at a 59th Street home when a resident reportedly shot and seriously wounded an intruder Tuesday morning.

Editorials

Editorial: Watching Not Much on the Small Screen

By Becky O'Malley

Friday April 25, 2008

Like every other Left-of-David-Brooks opinion writer in the country, I’m longing to lay into television journalism in general, ABC’s in particular, and especially George Stephanopoulos and Charles Gibson for the travesty of an interview show that was wrongly labelled as a presidential primary debate last week. -more-