News

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-

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-

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-

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-

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-

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-

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-

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-

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-

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-

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-

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-

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-

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-

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-

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-

Community members turned the heat up a notch on Pacific Steel Casting Tuesday when Berkeley lawyer Tim Rumberger filed a class-action nuisance lawsuit against the foundry on behalf of thousands of West Berkeley neighbors. -more-

A 21-year-old Emeryville man died and two people were injured in a spectacular crash on Interstate 80 at Ashby Avenue early Wednesday. -more-

The Daily Planet sat down with the four candidates in the California Assembly District 14 race recently and asked their views on various issues. The Daily Planet will reproduce portions of their responses in upcoming issues, beginning this week with the issue of health care. -more-

The Berkeley Board of Education voted Wednesday to proceed with the South of Bancroft Plan—which calls for the demolition of the nationally landmarked Old Gym to make room for a stadium and 15 new classrooms, with the option of relocating the warm-water pool located inside it to a site on Milvia Street—and approved $1.4 million for Baker Vilar Architects to design the new facilities. -more-

The Berkeley Unified School District was able to bring back all its “pink-slipped” classroom teachers Wednesday, after the district rescinded potential layoff notices for 11 multiple-credentialed teachers. -more-

Planning commissioners voted Wednesday night to extend the comment period on the draft environmental impact report (DEIR) for Berkeley’s long-delayed Southside Plan. -more-

Proposed revisions to Berkeley’s wireless ordinance ran into opposition Wednesday night both from neighbors, who branded the proposals as weak, and from phone companies, which said they were too strict. -more-

A private company founded by the head of one of two UC Berkeley programs created to turn plants into fuels for planes, trains and automobiles is launching a commercial venture to turn sugar cane into diesel fuel. -more-

Posted Thurs., April 24—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 the citizens’ group working on an alternate draft a 90-day extension to complete their work. -more-

Posted Tue., April 22—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-

Dona Spring dreams of visiting Point Reyes, something the 55-year-old Berkeley councilmember has never done before. After rheumatoid arthritis left Spring wheelchair bound in 1972, weekend getaways have been few and far between. -more-

In a crowded field in which candidates are trying to distinguish themselves from one other—such as in the current four member June 3 Democratic primary to succeed Loni Hancock as California Assemblymember from the 14th Assembly District—individual and group endorsements can be a key factor in victory or defeat. -more-

The Berkeley City Council will meet today (Tuesday) with a busy agenda, including putting tax measures on the ballot, the city’s proposed sunshine ordinance, competing density bonus provisions, its position on spraying to thwart the Light Brown Apple Moth and a proposal to charge for evening street parking downtown. -more-

Foreclosures nationwide soared 57 percent in March, and rates may be running even higher in Oakland as East Bay cities are caught in the turmoil of the subprime mortgage disaster. -more-

A Berkeley peace activist, thwarted in one suicide attempt, apparently succeeded in another, more dramatic bid to end his life Friday. -more-

Berkeley planning commissioners will holding hearings Wednesday on the Southside Plan’s draft environmental impact report (EIR) and proposed amendments to the city’s wireless ordinance. -more-

Pacific Steel Casting’s appeal of a small claims court decision which went against the company in November began last week and is expected to go on for the next two months, a spokesperson for the steel foundry told the Planet Friday. -more-

We were standing on the corner in front of Rice’s Barbershop. There were about six of us between the ages of 18 and 21, African American males who had grown up together in the same West Philadelphia neighborhood. A black Chevy slowly approached and someone from inside the car rolled down the window leaned out the passenger side and shouted, “The Republicans are paying $75, go to the Overbrook High gym; the Republicans are paying $75!” -more-

“One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds,” Aldo Leopold wrote long before the first Earth Day. He was thinking about land abuse in the Southwest, but his words have a much broader resonance. -more-

For anyone who has been ignoring the news as of late food is an enormous issue this year. Prices are up 83 percent since 2005, sparking riots in countries around the globe including Egypt, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, and Indonesia. In Haiti the unrest has even led to deaths and the fall of the government. -more-

As a graduating Berkeley student majoring in the biological sciences, a left leaning member of the San Francisco Bay Area and a voter wishing to make informed decisions, not a day goes by that I don't hear something on campus or in the news about biofuels. Biofuels are the controversial topic of conversation today, and with politicians voicing their support and violent food riots occurring in Haiti, perhaps it is time to seriously question the merits of biofuels and take some time for self reflection. -more-