News

UC students paraded around campus for hours last night after the presidential election was called for Barack Obama. -more-

It was a historic night of celebration in Oakland, the like of which we have never seen in our lifetimes. -more-

Bates Reelected; Arreguin Beats Doran in District 4 -more-

Turnout was heavy in South Berkeley Tuesday, with voters lined up outside the Black Repertory Theater on Adeline Street even before polls opened. -more-

Some community members are outraged that the City of Berkeley-run Addison Street Windows Gallery decided not to display posters from a national series of exhibitions called the Art of Democracy on the basis of curatorial judgment, and instead replaced them with pottery during election week. While supporters of free speech called the decision “censorship,” Carol Brighton -- the curator of the gallery -- and the city’s Civic Arts Coordinator Mary Ann Merker denied the allegations, explaining that it was not uncommon for public agencies to refrain from showing work which depicted violence or nudity. -more-

Whatever shape the new downtown plan takes before the city council signs off on the document next May, it’s certain to be a lot different from the draft prepared by the citizens they picked to draft it. -more-

Terry Doran is finally seeing some of the dollars developer Ali Kashani asked his colleagues to give, though most of the latest influx stems from one company, Hudson McDonald. -more-

The day after one of their own learns whether she’ll move up a notch in city government, Berkeley planning commissioners will gather Wednesday night to face a full agenda. -more-

Campaign contributions are continuing to pour in as the election nears, though a plea for developer donations for one candidate hasn’t yet materialized. -more-

The Planet proudly presents its first online news video, the mayoral candidates in action on Monday. -more-

Hundreds of students and activists from all over the Bay Area marched from Ferry Park near the Embarcadero to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in downtown San Francisco Friday to protest what they called atrocities committed against undocumented immigrants by code enforcement officials in sanctuary cities. -more-

Tilden Burn Out of Control -more-

A group of neighbors of the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center have always had a good relationship with the hospital’s workers, they say, until early Wednesday. -more-

Old-style politics is alive and well in Berkeley, where the PAC-man wields a big stick and an even bigger wallet. -more-

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-

Berkeley’s four mayoral candidates, two of them seeking write-in votes, made their pitches to a packed house at the West Berkeley Senior Center Monday night. -more-

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-

Berkeley developers were making a last-minute push last week to flood the coffers of Terry Doran as he battles to win the City Council seat representing downtown Berkeley. -more-

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-

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, and posted on YouTube, and it now has had 250,000 hits. It’s a cover of a song originally written in Ireland that reclaims Barack Obama’s Irish roots. -more-

Willard Middle School is interviewing some students who fire department officials said might have been involved in setting three small fires in a couple of trash cans in the school’s restrooms and an open garbage area in the garden during school hours last Wednesday. -more-

Measure LL Landmarks Preservation Commission -more-

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 last week. -more-

On Oct. 15, Margaret Emmington died peacefully at Alta Bates Hospital at age 104, but not before she fulfilled her last wish: the day before she died, she was able to mark her absentee ballot for Barack Obama. Over the last year she had emphatically stated that it was her hope to live long enough (imagining, even, that she might live to see the inauguration) to cast her vote for the man who would change the mind of the country. -more-

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson on Monday postponed the pretrial hearing for former Berkeley City College student Andrew Hoeft-Edenfield until Jan. 26, 2009. Hoeft-Edenfield is charged with murdering UC Berkeley nuclear engineering graduate Chris Wootton, -more-

If crime figures presented to the Berkeley City Council Tuesday by Berkeley Police Department Chief Doug Hambleton are anything to go by, property crime—which includes burglaries, car thefts and arson—in the city has declined since the 1970s. -more-

Starting in December, Berkeley’s homeless youth will be able to get off the streets every evening and spend some time looking for jobs, housing and peer support, according to a $100,000 contract approved by the Berkeley City Council Tuesday. -more-

A rifle in one hand -more-

The Oct. 23-29 story “Four Candidates Battle for District 4 Vacancy” incorrectly reported that Jesse Arrgeuin was running both for City Council and for re-election to the rent board. While Arreguin had taken out papers for both seats, he withdrew from the rent board race when he filed for council. -more-