News

Berkeley High Student Arrested in Robbery after Campus Lockdown

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Wednesday May 07, 2008 - 06:04:00 PM

Berkeley High School came under a brief lockdown Wednesday morning when Berkeley police searched the campus for a 17-year-old high school junior who was arrested for robbing a sophomore. -more-


Gaia Resolution Rescinded

By Judith Scherr
Wednesday May 07, 2008 - 06:03:00 PM

The Gaia Building on Allston Way was back before the council Tuesday. -more-


Hoeft-Edenfield Charged with Murder in Death of UC Berkeley Student

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday May 06, 2008 - 05:18:00 PM

The District Attorney’s office charged Berkeley City College student Andrew Hoeft-Edenfield, 20, with murder in the stabbing death of UC Berkeley engineering student Chris Wootton this afternoon (Tuesday). -more-


Mystery, Anger Cloud Story Of Friday Night Shooting

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday May 06, 2008 - 05:42:00 PM

Anger over the brazen Friday night shooting in a troubled Berkeley neighborhood has renewed calls for a greater police presence and pitted neighbor against neighbor. -more-


Immigration Arrests Spread Fear of Crackdown at Local Schools

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday May 06, 2008 - 04:37:00 PM

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents picked up a Berkeley family around 9:30 a.m. today (Tuesday), during what immigration authorities called routine targeted enforcement action, and took all four family members to the Office of Detention and Removal Operations in San Francisco for questioning. -more-


Conyers Asks DEA for Answers on Medical Cannabis Raids

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday May 06, 2008 - 12:19:00 PM

Rep. John Conyers, chair of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, didn’t mince words in a recent letter to the Drug Enforcement Agency administration asking for a response to allegations that the agency has stepped up raids on dispensaries of medical marijuana. -more-


Vietnam Vet to Face Charges for Domestic Dispute and Standoff

Bay City News
Tuesday May 06, 2008 - 11:35:00 AM

A 60-year-old Vietnam veteran is facing felony death threat and misdemeanor domestic violence charges for allegedly striking and threatening to kill his girlfriend and then barricading himself inside his house for nearly nine hours, Berkeley police said today (Tuesday). -more-


Council to Look at Instant Runoff Voting

By Judith Scherr
Monday May 05, 2008 - 05:05:00 PM

Four years after Berkeley residents voted overwhelmingly for Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), the City Council will vote tomorrow (Tuesday) on whether to implement the new voting process for the mayoral and council district elections in November. -more-


UC Berkeley Student Stabbed, Berkeley High Graduate Held

By Riya Bhattacharjee and Bay City News
Sunday May 04, 2008 - 10:34:00 AM
Booking photo of suspect Andrew Thomas Hoeft-Edenfield.

Berkeley police arrested Berkeley City College student Andrew Thomas Hoeft-Edenfield, 20, as a suspect for the fatal stabbing of UC Berkeley engineering student Christopher Joseph Wootton on Saturday. -more-


Berkeley, Richmond Council Target Berkeley Lab Projects

By Richard Brenneman
Monday May 05, 2008 - 04:16:00 PM

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) made minor changes in its plans for its planned biofuel lab, but rejected any move to another site, according to a recently released environmental review. -more-


Report from Indiana: 40 Years after Kennedy—A Party Reanimated

By Rama Sobhani
Monday May 05, 2008 - 12:23:00 PM

Bloomington, Indiana, a Friday night in April, there’s a rally downtown to open the new Barack Obama campaign center. About 50 or so people are milling about the small room, holding plates of food in one hand and shaking strangers’ hands with the other. For the first time in 40 years, a Democratic candidate has a reason to open a campaign office in Indiana. -more-


LPC Gets First Look at Plans for Landmarked UC Buildings

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Monday May 05, 2008 - 11:47:00 AM

UC Berkeley officials briefed the Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) Thursday on several campus projects sites still at the planning phase at landmarked buildings and sites. -more-


Chan and Polakoff Statements Missing from Ballot Pamphlets

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday May 02, 2008 - 05:18:00 PM

Campaign statements from candidates in two key local legislative races—former 16th District Assemblymember Wilma Chan in Senate District 9 and Berkeley physician Phil Polakoff in Assembly District 14—do not appear on the official ballot pamphlets for the June 3 primary, some of which have already been mailed to voters. -more-


Former Rent Board Member Sentenced to 6 Months in Jail

By Bay City News
Thursday May 01, 2008 - 04:00:00 PM

Former Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board member Chris Kavanagh was sentenced today (Thursday) to five years probation, including six months in the Alameda County jail, for his conviction for one felony count of falsely registering an ineligible voter, namely himself. -more-


Trees Felled at El Cerrito’s Del Norte Center

By John Geluardi, Special to the Planet
Thursday May 01, 2008 - 09:34:00 AM

When customers arrived at Maggie’s Coffee House in El Cerrito Tuesday morning, they were surprised to see a regular customer standing his ground between a tree and three men, one of whom was carrying a chainsaw. -more-


Week’s Second Shooting Alarms Oakland Neighbors

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday May 01, 2008 - 09:37:00 AM

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


State Committee Calls for Aerial Spray Moratorium

By Judith Scherr
Thursday May 01, 2008 - 09:38:00 AM

The state Senate Environmental Quality Committee unanimously passed a resolution 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-


Zoning Officials Investigate Thai Temple Food Permit

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday May 01, 2008 - 09:39:00 AM

Sunday brunch at the Berkeley Thai Temple could soon become a thing of the past. -more-


Vivarium May Quit City Over Development, Parking Woes

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday May 01, 2008 - 09:40:00 AM
East Bay Vivarium owner Owen Maercks hugs 8-year old Taz, the store’s resident 7-foot-long Asian Water Monitor.

It’s the only place in Berkeley where you can pet a Komodo dragon. And if you are lucky, watch in bug-eyed wonder as tarantulas perform handstands and Burmese Albino pythons bask in the afternoon sun. -more-


UC Republicans Want Parking Space Too

By Judith Scherr
Thursday May 01, 2008 - 09:40:00 AM

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-


UC Biofuel Ties Grow

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday May 01, 2008 - 09:42:00 AM

The tangled ties between UC Berkeley and the agro-chemo-pharmaceutical industry grew gnarlier this week, with GMO and herbicide giant Monsanto thrown into the equation. -more-


City Searching for Means to Finance Solar

By Judith Scherr
Thursday May 01, 2008 - 09:43:00 AM

A plan to support the proliferation of solar panels in Berkeley, approved in concept by the City Council last year, is neither quick nor cheap to implement, city officials have found. -more-


Evening Parking Meter Use Draws Critics

By Judith Scherr
Thursday May 01, 2008 - 09:44:00 AM

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-


Housing Commission to Hear Report on Hillegas Building

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday May 01, 2008 - 09:44:00 AM

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


Voluntary Manslaughter Verdict in Hollis Shooting Case

Bay City News
Thursday May 01, 2008 - 09:45:00 AM

An Alameda County jury on Tuesday convicted Christopher Hollis of voluntary manslaughter for the death of 19-year-old Meleia Willis-Starbuck, who was fatally shot near the intersection of College Avenue and Dwight Way in Berkeley in the early morning hours of July 17, 2005. -more-


Credit Card Pilferer Sought

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday May 01, 2008 - 09:47:00 AM

Berkeley Police are seeking a dapper-looking credit card thief who has managed to steal nearly $20,000 in cash and illegally purchased goods. -more-


Hancock Leads Chan in Endorsements

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Thursday May 01, 2008 - 09:50:00 AM

The power of incumbency brings with it two major political pluses: the ability to raise campaign money and the ability to gain endorsements. -more-


Big Donations in Senate, Assembly Campaigns

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Thursday May 01, 2008 - 09:51:00 AM

In the race to succeed Don Perata in State Senate District 9, candidates Loni Hancock and Wilma Chan are virtually dead even in large campaign contributions in the last month and a half. -more-


May Day Marches Call for Workers’ Rights, Amnesty

By Judith Scherr
Thursday May 01, 2008 - 09:52:00 AM

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-


Cinco de Mayo, Told by a Man Who Fought It

By Vicente Riva Palacio,introduction and translation by Ted Vincent
Thursday May 01, 2008 - 09:54:00 AM

The flood of beer commercials for the coming Cinco de Mayo would make one think that the event signifies Cinco Cervezas. Swamped in suds is the actual meaning, which is the commemoration of the battle at Puebla in 1862 where a hastily collected Mexican army stopped invading troops on their march to Mexico City to establish a colonial empire funded by Emperor Napoleon of France for Austrian Archduke Maximillian. -more-


Immigration Teach-In at First Congregational Church

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday May 01, 2008 - 09:55:00 AM

The Berkeley Organizing Congregation for Action (BOCA) will partner with the First Congregational Church of Berkeley Saturday to deconstruct myths, fears and assumptions about immigration. -more-


Berkeley Parks Celebrate Centennial with ‘A Day in the Park’

By Steven Finacom, Special to the Plant
Thursday May 01, 2008 - 09:55:00 AM
A series of clever “parks in a bottle” designed and created by landscape architecture students is part of the Berkeley park centennial exhibit in the Addison Street  Windows through May 17.

“The people want public parks where we can all go, and be free.” One hundred years ago in late April, 1908, that was the sentiment at a meeting where voters gathered to urge the passage of bonds to purchase undeveloped land for public park use in north Berkeley. -more-


UC Police Seek Suspects in Two Mass Gropings

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday May 01, 2008 - 09:57:00 AM

Campus police are looking for two different groups of young men who harassed and sexually groped young women last weekend. -more-


UC Berkeley Republicans Want Parking Space of Their Own

By Judith Scherr
Wednesday April 30, 2008 - 05:24:00 PM

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 - 05:06:00 PM

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 - 05:22:00 PM

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 - 04:42:00 PM

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 - 04:30:00 PM

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 - 04:54:00 PM

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 - 04:39:00 PM

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 - 03:32:00 PM

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 - 03:35:00 PM

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 - 05:00:00 PM

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-


BUSD Largest Contingent in Capitol PTA Rally

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday April 25, 2008 - 09:35:00 AM

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-


North Oakland Man Shoots Intruder

By Richard Brenneman
Friday April 25, 2008 - 09:12:00 AM
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.

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-


Santa Cruz County Wins Stay on Moth Spray Plans

By Judith Scherr
Friday April 25, 2008 - 09:16:00 AM

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 - 09:17:00 AM

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 - 09:20:00 AM

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 - 09:21:00 AM

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 - 09:29:00 AM

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-


Freeway Crash Kills Emeryville Man

By Richard Brenneman
Friday April 25, 2008 - 09:31:00 AM

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-


Assembly Candidates Weigh In On Health Care Debate

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday April 25, 2008 - 09:32:00 AM

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-


BUSD Approves $1.4 Million Old Gym Plan

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday April 25, 2008 - 09:33:00 AM

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-


BUSD Brings Back All Teachers from Layoff List

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday April 25, 2008 - 09:34:00 AM

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-


Southside Plan Concerns Prompt Added Review Time

By Richard Brenneman
Friday April 25, 2008 - 09:37:00 AM

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-


Cell Phone Critics, Companies Slam City Wireless Proposals

By Richard Brenneman
Friday April 25, 2008 - 09:40:00 AM

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-


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

By Richard Brenneman
Friday April 25, 2008 - 09:41:00 AM

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-