News

UC Berkeley is hosting a discussion on Wednesday about the proposed development of the Anna Head parking lot site for student housing. -more-

Berkeley police said today that they have a person of interest and a vehicle of interest in connection with seven daytime "window-smash"burglaries, and one attempted burglary, at homes in northwest and north central Berkeley in the last 10 days. -more-

Berkeley’s Malcolm X Arts and Academics Magnet, an elementary school that integrates art and academics, has been awarded the Title One Academic Achievement award for 2008-2009. -more-

Berkeley’s largest private development site—8.2 acres adjacent to Aquatic Park—is coming on the market, and the owners want the city to ease the rules. -more-

The last UC Santa Cruz treesitter surrendered to campus police Saturday, moments before a chainsaw-wielding crew began to level the redwood grove they had occupied for 402 days. -more-

Neighborhood opponents of West Berkeley's Pacific Steel Casting went one-for-two in Alameda County Superior Court legal decisions on Friday, with one judge overturning a previous Berkeley Small Claims Court ruling in favor of several PSC neighbors and, in a separate action, a second judge ruling that a class action lawsuit against the steel foundry can go forward. -more-

Berkeley’s Zoning Adjustment’s Board delayed approval of developer Ali Kashani’s five-story condo project at the corner of Ashby and San Pablo avenues on Thursday. -more-

The man residents of downtown Berkeley elected to represent their district on the city council came to the planning commission Wednesday night to make a request. -more-

President-elect Barack Obama has picked Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Director Steven Chu as the nation’s new Secretary of Energy, according to the Associated Press and numerous broadcast and wire service accounts. -more-

With two new faces on the dais, the Berkeley City Council returned to an old subject Monday night: international affairs. The council approved a compromise proposal calling for federal prosecution of UC Berkeley Boalt Hall Law Professor John Yoo for supporting torture by the Bush administration. -more-

With a growing national recession and state legislators and the governor stalled in Sacramento over solutions to California’s looming projected $28 billion two-year budget deficit, Berkeley city officials are predictably warning that the city is in for uncertain economic times. -more-

After a daylong workshop spent honing the original proposal, the BHS Governance Council passed a redesign plan Tuesday that would put students on a new class schedule and incorporate an advisory curriculum into the school day. -more-

When city staff drew the boundaries for the new Downtown Area Plan (DAP), they made a mistake that planning commissioners are now faced with resolving. -more-

Changed designs for the new lab building to house the half-billion-dollar BP–funded Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) have forced Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to launch a new environmental impact review. -more-

Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) members will decide the fate of two buildings on San Pablo Avenue on Thursday. -more-

Miya Rodolfo-Sioson, long-time advocate for disability rights, died at 10:45 a.m. December 3, at Highland Hospital, with her brother Renato at her side. Miya was being treated for inflammatory breast cancer. She was 40 years old. -more-

Looking up at the wall of photos overhead, Sal Vaca said, “We want our participants to be able to come in and see someone they know, someone who looks like them.” -more-

Berkeley’s biggest landlord is having trouble with one of his other businesses: the Tribune Company, publisher of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and other media, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday. -more-

The Berkeley Council of Classified Employees members have received a pay hike from the Berkeley Unified School District but have yet to reach an agreement over their contract, union President Paula Phillips said last week. -more-

Nolo Press, which calls itself the nation’s oldest publisher of legal information for nonlawyers, will remain at its current location in West Berkeley following a decision by the business’s landlord, the Genn family, not to sell the property. -more-

The Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission said Thursday it was unable to comment on the nomination of the Donald and Helen Olsen House to the National Register of Historic Places because the application is not complete. -more-

Planning commissioners struggled last Wednesday with the fate of West Berkeley in a session that raised more questions than answers. -more-

To end the age of waste is the message of Urban Ore, a Berkeley institution, the business that represents the ultimate in salvaging just about everything and turning it into something that can be used. On a three acre spread just off Ashby and Seventh Street, Urban Ore has a most amazing assortment of stuff—hundreds of doors, windows, bathtubs, books, dishes, hardware, sometimes a piano or two, “collectibles” and all sorts of oddities large and small. -more-

If you engage the world, by 50 or so something changes. -more-

Without music life would be a mistake. -more-