News

An Alameda County Superior Court judge’s ruling has forced a halt to the planned construction of a gymnasium complex next to UC Berkeley’s California Memorial Stadium. -more-

Forget flexibility: It’s now the “West Berkeley Project.” -more-

Pam Bennett of Code Pink was arrested Friday when she bared her breasts in front of Berkeley's downtown Marine Recruiting Station. -more-

Jerry Wachtal describes the Panoramic Hill area where he lives as “a rare paradise,” where you can get to downtown Berkeley in seven minutes and be at home with “trees, birds and wild animals.” -more-

By a narrow margin, journalists at East Bay newspapers owned by the Bay Area News Group-East Bay (BANG-EB) voted to unionize Friday. -more-

The Berkeley Police Department is helping Houston police investigate the disappearance of a 21-year-old student who has been missing since Dec. 15 from his off-campus Houston apartment, authorities said Friday. -more-

Trying to strike a balance between budgetary necessities and political realities, the AC Transit Board of Directors put off consideration of a proposed across-the-board fare increase until after the November general election last week, opting instead to begin the process of putting a parcel tax increase measure on the fall ballot. -more-

Three candidates for local offices added their names on Friday to the list of those collecting signatures for Berkeleyl elections on Nov. 4: Beatriz Levya-Cutler for school board and Robert J. Evans and Eleanor Walden for Rent Stabilization Board. -more-

The February shooting death of Anita Gay, 51, by Officer Rashawn Cummings was justified, Berkeley police say. -more-

The ongoing battle over bus rapid transit (BRT) smoldered anew when Berkeley’s planning and transportation commissions took their second joint look at the concept Wednesday night. -more-

The Berkeley Planning Commission continues its look at the Downtown Area Plan Wednesday night, with three separate chapters on the agenda for the 7 p.m. session. -more-

Berkeley firefighters found themselves fighting flames on two fronts Thursday, one at the site of the disastrous 1991 hills fire, the other in West Berkeley. -more-

City Manager Phil Kamlarz has told a number of councilmembers, including Mayor Tom Bates and Councilmember Dona Spring, that he is planning a nationwide search for a permanent replacement for former City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque after the budget has been put to rest. -more-

The Berkeley Unified School District announced this week that all teachers who received lay-off notices as a result of proposed education budget cuts will be able to keep their jobs. -more-

Berkeley City College student Andrew Hoeft-Edenfield—charged with the murder of UC Berkeley nuclear engineering student Chris Wootton—did not enter a plea during an appearance Thursday at the Alameda County Superior Court. -more-

Reports of its death having been greatly exaggerated, Rich-mond’s Point Molate casino is not only alive—it’s being fast-tracked by state and federal agencies. -more-

It will be a Juneteenthless June for Berkeley residents this year, after what some event organizers said was a myriad of restrictions imposed by city officials just months before the big weekend of the 22-year-old tradition. -more-

Berkeley Technology Academy Principal Victor Diaz summed up the school year at the 2008 graduation ceremony at UC Berkeley’s Alumni Hall on June 5: “It was a year of extreme highs and extreme lows—a crazy, crazy year.” -more-

UC Berkeley became a much more dangerous place last year, according to crime figures released by campus police. -more-

No one showed up from the Firefighters Union to speak to the issue of putting a fire safety/disaster relief bond measure on the November ballot, so councilmembers decided to put off discussion on the measure until they could hear from the union at the June 17 meeting. They also took no action regarding a possible library bond measure. -more-

A ballot measure to fund a new warm pool and rehab neighborhood pools was taken off the table at the Berkeley City Council’s Tuesday night meeting. -more-

Nearly a month after Washington Elementary first-grader Jamon Lewis drowned in the Don Castro Regional Recreation Park on May 18, the school is still struggling to recover from his death. -more-

Berkeley High School replaced its soccer coach Tuesday because of what some community activists said were complaints filed against him for disrespectful and racist behavior. -more-

Plans to rehabilitate the red brick building at the West Campus will be presented to the Berkeley Board of Education on June 18 before this issue comes out, Berkeley Unified School District officials said. -more-

With hard-fought but largely ignored June primaries behind them, voters will be setting their sights on the Nov. 4 presidential election and, locally, on races for the Berkeley City Council, school board and Rent Stabilization Board. -more-

Who will decide if buses get their own lanes on Telegraph Avenue? If Bruce Kaplan and Dean Metzger get their way, the people will. On May 28, Kaplan and Metzger submitted a petition to the City Clerk with 3,240 signatures of Berkeley voters in order to place on the Nov. 4 ballot an initiative “to require voter approval before dedicating Berkeley streets or lanes for transit-only or HOV/Bus-only use.” -more-

A number of Peace and Freedom Party members were given “non partisan” rather than Peace and Freedom Party ballots on Tuesday in Alameda County, registrar Dave Macdonald acknowledged Thursday in an interview with the Daily Planet. -more-

The race to succeed Henry Chang as Oakland’s at-large city councilmember is going forward with scarcely a pause following last week’s primary elections, with Oakland District One School Board member Kerry Hamill responding to charges by AC Transit At-Large Director Rebecca Kaplan that public safety “scare tactics” employed by Hamill during the primary campaign may have “backfired.” -more-

A quirk in the way in which the Alameda County Registrars Office posts online election results caused the Daily Planet to misreport one of last week’s races. -more-

U-Haul Berkeley was doing a brisk business last Thursday afternoon, with customers maneuvering trucks in and out of the lot at Addison Street and San Pablo Avenue, workers cleaning up the vehicles and people queuing up five deep at the indoor customer-service counter. -more-

A man held up the Bank of America branch at Shattuck Avenue and Center Street at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday and escaped with cash, Berkeley police said. -more-

While most people are refraining from washing cars or watering lawns, taking shorter showers, and flushing only when they really need to, the UC Berkeley is pouring water down the drain like it was—well—2007. -more-

Bill Gates, the money man behind the company that has formed the first corporate/UC Berkeley ethanol partnership, is dumping his shares. -more-

Despite fears that Lawrence Berkeley National Lab was rushing ahead Tuesday with construction of a new road leading to the site of a proposed controversial new lab, crews were taking down two trees in Strawberry Canyon for safety reasons, not roadway building. -more-

T-Mobile will be back today (Thursday) to ask the Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) to approve a permit for constructing a new wireless telecommunication facility on the roof of the Affordable Housing Associates-owned building at 1725 University Ave. -more-

When Superior Court Judge Trina Thompson Stanley was growing up in West Oakland, she faced her share of challenges that could have deterred her life’s journey. She credits her success, becoming the first African American woman elected to the bench in Alameda County, on listening to and following the right people, those she calls her “guardian angels.” -more-

My second-grade students want to know the answer to that question and they’ve written a poem to elicit an answer. Each year my Spanish dual-immersion students at Rosa Parks produce laminated poetry bookmarks as part of our “Pepper Ink” labor unit. This year students chose their topic on the way back from the school library, after learning that their beloved librarian, Deborah Howe, might be in peril from the governor’s budget cuts—a deficit he cunningly created by rebating part of the vehicle license fee when he first took office. -more-

The name of a a in the May 29 article about a string of East Bay robberies was incorrect. The correct name is De Afghan Kabob House, located at 1160 University Ave. -more-

The front-page story on June 5, “Big Win for Skinner, Hancock in State Elections,” mistakenly reported that Loni Hancock had been elected to the State Senate and Nancy Skinner had been elected to the State Assembly. They won the Democratic primary in those races for the November election. -more-