News Updates

Berkeley School Board Candidates Face-Off in Debate

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday October 28, 2008
With a week to go before the Nov. 4 elections, candidates running for the Berkeley Board of Education turned the spotlight on the achievement gap at a debate organized by the Berkeley PTA Council at Willard Middle School on Monday. -more-

Downtown Plan’s Traffic, BRT, Parking Issues Face Commission

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday October 28, 2008
Berkeley planning commissioners have slated yet another special meeting for Wednesday night as they rush to finish their rewrite of the new Downtown Area Plan. -more-

Developers Continue Cash for Council Race Favorites

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday October 28, 2008
Development-related contributions continue to pour into the coffers of candidates for next week’s Berkeley city council election, with Mayor Tom Bates in the lead both in total and sector-related contributions. -more-

Bates and Dean Keep The Passion, But Turn Down The Heat

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Monday October 27, 2008
When they first ran against each other in 2002, it was Berkeley’s epic political battle. Shirley Dean was the lightning-rod mayor and leader of the moderate-progressive political faction in a City Council and a city that were deeply divided along factional lines. Looking for a way to oust a political powerhouse, members of the opposing left-progressive faction recruited former state Assemblymember Tom Bates to run against Dean. -more-

Maybeck High School Gets Green Light to Move Into St. John’s, Wareham Shows New Design for 740 Heinz

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Saturday October 25, 2008
Students at Berkeley’s Maybeck High School can move into new classrooms in St. John’s Presbyterian Church this spring, since the school received a relocation permit from city officials at a public meeting Thursday. -more-

BUSD Fears Mid-Year Cuts Could Jeopardize State Funding Further

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Saturday October 25, 2008
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 45-day revision to the state budget gives the Berkeley Unified School District more revenue than what he proposed earlier this year, but leaves it with a minimal cost of living increase, district officials said Wednesday -more-

Developer’s Email: Give To Doran To Solidify Our Control of Council

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday October 23, 2008
Berkeley developers are making a last-minute push to flood the coffers of Terry Doran as he battles to win the city council seat representing downtown Berkeley. -more-

"Obama is Irish" at the Starry Plough Now a Major YouTube Hit

by Becky O'Malley
Friday October 24, 2008
Shay Black is an Irish musician who lives in Oakland just a few blocks from the Planet office on Shattuck. He has led an Irish music session in the nearby Starry Plough every Sunday for the last thirteen years. Recently, he's become a YouTube celebrity. Last month, a jolly video starring Shay was made at the Plough, posted on YouTube and now has 250,000 hits. It's a cover of a song originally written in Ireland which reclaims Barack Obama's Irish roots. Here's the first verse: -more-

Willard Middle School on Alert after Trash Can Fire

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday October 23, 2008
Middle School is investigating three small fires that started in a couple of trash cans in the school’s restrooms and an open garbage area in the garden during school hours Wednesday, district officials said. -more-


News

Bates Leads Dean in Developer Funding

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday October 23, 2008
If money is the mother’s milk of politics, as a legendary California Democrat once explained, then development is its cash cow. -more-

School Board Candidates Focus on Achievement Gap

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday October 23, 2008
The four Berkeley Board of Education candidates will face off at a debate hosted by the Berkeley PTA Council at Willard Middle School on Monday night. -more-

Students Remember Berkeley High Teacher

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday October 23, 2008
Pink and green ceramic tiles—stacks of them—lay outside Berkeley High’s Community Theater last Thursday, waiting to be used to make a table honoring one of the school’s newest but most-loved teachers, who died from a heart attack in August while she was in the Phillipines on a Fulbright Scholarship. -more-

UCPD Arrests Two Students For Clark Kerr Armed Robbery

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday October 23, 2008
UC Berkeley police arrested one current and one former member of the Cal Bears football team on Monday in connection with the Sept. 30 break-in robbery of two students in their suite at the university’s Clark Kerr residential complex. -more-

Hahn Tops Incumbent in Funds, but Developers Favor Capitelli

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday October 23, 2008
Incumbent Laurie Capitelli represents District Five, covering central northern Berkeley, and is facing a difficult race in which his opponent, Sophie Hahn, has raised nearly twice as much campaign funding. -more-

Four Candidates Battle For District 4 Vacancy

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday October 23, 2008

Only One Major Fund-Raiser In Three City Council Races

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday October 23, 2008

Berkeley Rep Raises $6,000 To Help Student Newspaper

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday October 23, 2008

John Muir Helps Students By Saluting Legends

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday October 23, 2008

Teacher Resigns in Creationism Controversy

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday October 23, 2008

Hillside School Sale Meeting

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday October 23, 2008

Voter’s Guide to Berkeley Measures HH and JJ

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Thursday October 23, 2008

Remembering Thomas Eddie Cooper

By Richard Giordano
Thursday October 23, 2008

Police Blotter

By ALI WINSTON
Thursday October 23, 2008

Council Tinkers with Condo Ordinance

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Thursday October 23, 2008

Climate Action Plan Mandates Transit Corridor-Based Growth

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday October 23, 2008

Students created an altar at a memorial last Thursday for Berkeley High School teacher Kalpna Mistry who died in August.
By Riya Bhattacharjee
Students created an altar at a memorial last Thursday for Berkeley High School teacher Kalpna Mistry who died in August.

Editorials

Propositions: Just Say No?

By Becky O’Malley
Thursday October 23, 2008
Thanks to the modern magic of cell phones, I’ve done a phone survey this week of friends working around the country to elect Barack Obama. A Chicago friend, from a long line of radical leftists, has been enjoying what is probably her first opportunity for enthusiastic participation in a national election. Illinois itself, of course, is Obama country, but she made field trips to neighboring battleground states: Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana. She points with pride to the news that McCain has given up on Michigan, a victory for which she personally claims credit. -more-

Editorial Cartoons

The Berkeley Progressive

By Justin DeFreitas
Saturday November 01, 2008

Reader Commentaries

Letters to the Editor

Thursday October 23, 2008

Advance Math and Science in Berkeley Schools

By Priscilla Myrick
Thursday October 23, 2008

No on Measure KK

By Steve Geller
Thursday October 23, 2008

LL Is for LLies

By Judith Epstein, on behalf of the Berkeley Neighborhood Preservation Organization
Thursday October 23, 2008

Time for a Change in Albany

By James D. Cleveland
Thursday October 23, 2008

Why I’ll Vote for Lieber, Panian, and Toomey

By Nan Wishner
Thursday October 23, 2008

Oy Vay the Israel Thing

By Joanna Graham
Thursday October 23, 2008

Anti-Zionism Is Not Anti-Semitism

By the Bay Area International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Thursday October 23, 2008

Columnists

Dispatches From The Edge: Targeting Unions in Colombia

By Conn Hallinan
Thursday October 23, 2008

Undercurrents: Revelations Tell More About America Than It Does About McCain

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Thursday October 23, 2008

Wild Neighbors: Love and Death Among the Mantids

By Joe Eaton
Thursday October 23, 2008

Arts & Entertainment

Arts Calendar

Thursday October 23, 2008

‘Rivets’ aboard S.S. Red Oak Victory

By ken bullock
Thursday October 23, 2008

Woman’s Will ‘Macbeth’ at Jack London Square

By ken bullock
Thursday October 23, 2008

Randy Shaw

Shaw Talks about his Book on Chavez, UFW

By Zelda Bronstein Special to the Planet
Thursday October 23, 2008

Arab Film Festival Comes to East Bay

By ken bullock
Thursday October 23, 2008

Home & Garden

From the street 2616 Etna sits solid and shingled, with the second floor under a gambrel roof.

Open Home in Focus: Kofoid House at 2616 Etna St. for Sale

By Steven Finacom
Thursday October 23, 2008

Emma Heywood built the flats at 1917-1919 Grove St. in 1909.

East Bay: Then and Now—Samuel Heywood and Sons: Lumber and Politics

By Daniella Thompson
Thursday October 23, 2008

About the House: Women and Their Buildings

By Matt Cantor
Thursday October 23, 2008

Events Calendar

Community Calendar

Thursday October 23, 2008