News

Police are searching for a suspect connected with the murder of Maceo Smith, 33, found shot to death in broad daylight at the Douglas Parking Lot at 2542 Durant Ave. Tuesday, a block from UC Berkeley. -more-

Breaking with tradition, Mayor Tom Bates made his “state-of-the-city” address Tuesday night, not at a public gathering in City Council Chambers, but at a semi-private event held in a privately owned West Berkeley auditorium. -more-

Four suspects stole $6,000 from the Cooperative Center Federal Credit Union at 2001 Ashby Ave. in Berkeley shortly before noon Tuesday, but they were later arrested in Oakland, according to Berkeley police spokeswoman Sgt. Mary Kusmiss. -more-

More than two dozen people spoke to the City Council with one voice at a special meeting Monday night: placing two buildings proposed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories in the environmentally sensitive, landslide, wildfire and earthquake-prone area of Strawberry and Blackberry canyons is the wrong thing to do, they said. -more-

Although the Berkeley City Council declared the U-Haul location at 2100 San Pablo Ave. to be a nuisance and voted unanimously in October to shut it down, the business is suing the city a second time to keep its doors open. -more-

Tonight (Tuesday) Mayor Tom Bates will give his sixth state of the city address, according to a press release sent to some members of the media on Monday. The event will be held at 7 p.m. in the auditorium at Meyer Sound, 2837 10th St. (at Heinz). -more-

A group of Berkeley residents who oppose AC Transit’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) proposal will present city planning commissioners with their own counterproposal on Wednesday night. -more-

UC Berkeley and 11 other California institutions will share $271 million in state bond funds slated for construction of stem cell research labs, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine announced last week. -more-

While the city’s $315 million 2008-09 budget looks balanced today, Berkeley could get bad news this week when the governor updates state budget woes and, perhaps, asks cities and counties to loan or give up to the state millions of dollars from their already-stretched budgets. The state is projecting a $20 billion deficit. -more-

Berkeley police arrested an Oakland resident Thursday, charging that he punched a Berkeley High sophomore in the chest, pulled out a knife and chased a group of students through downtown Berkeley to the gates of the school. -more-

Andrew Hoeft-Edenfield—the Berkeley City College student charged with murdering UC Berkeley engineering student Chris Wootton—did not enter a plea when he appeared at the Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland Thursday. -more-

Berkeley police have recovered the airsoft gun allegedly belonging to the 17-year-old Berkeley High School junior who was arrested for robbing a sophomore Wednesday. -more-

The City Council took the following actions on Tuesday, May 6: -more-

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

The scattered hair lying on the front porch of the Sigma Pi fraternity house Monday sum-med up the residents’ feelings for UC Berkeley engineering student Christopher Wootton, stabbed to death early Saturday morning less than a block away—love, admiration and respect. -more-

A brazen Friday night shooting of two young brothers in a troubled south Berkeley neighborhood has renewed calls for a greater police presence there. (The Planet is witholding their names because of their age.) -more-

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 Tues-day afternoon. -more-

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

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

The wisdom of siting new laboratory facilities proposed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories in the “pristine” Strawberry Creek Canyon area was strongly questioned by members of the public and several councilmembers at the Tuesday evening Berkeley City Council meeting. -more-

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

The Daily Planet sat down with the four candidates in the California Assembly District 14 race, and asked them their views on various issues: health care, education, and economic development. The Planet is presenting some of their responses, continuing here with the economy. Their views on health care were published in the April 25 issue. -more-

Candidates in the Assembly District 14 race were asked their views on urban casinos as an economic development strategy. -more-

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

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-

1. Where were you born and where did you grow up, and how does that affect how you regard the issues in Oakland and in your district? -more-