News

Laser-Powered Accelerator Plan Gets Boost from Recovery Act

By Richard Brenneman
Monday July 13, 2009 - 10:59:00 AM

A strangely colored beam pouring out a quadrillion watts of peak power spewing out subatomic particles juiced up by a ten-billion-electronic-volt laser plasma accelerator housed in a facility dubbed the “experimental cave?” -more-


UC President Announces Sliding Scale Cuts; Regents to Act on Stadium Finances

By Richard Brenneman
Friday July 10, 2009 - 03:59:00 PM

The University of California Board of Regents is expected to slash pay for faculty and staff during the same meeting where they’re set to approve funds for rebuilding Memorial Stadium. -more-


Pacific Steel Lays Off Half its Workforce, Citing Weak Economy

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday July 10, 2009 - 02:49:00 PM

West Berkeley’s Pacific Steel Casting, the nation’s fourth largest surviving steel foundry, is hurting badly. -more-


West Berkeley Zoning Struggle Heats Up as Deadline Nears

By Richard Brenneman
Friday July 10, 2009 - 01:49:00 PM

The fate of large-scale West Berkeley developments—pushed by both Mayor Tom Bates and officials at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory—continued to preoccupy city planning commissioners Wednesday. -more-


Berkeley Receives $1.3 Million in Federal Homelessness Prevention Funds

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday July 10, 2009 - 01:06:00 PM

Berkeley was awarded $1.3 million in federal homelessness prevention funds Thursday under President Barack Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. -more-


Three Arrests in South Berkeley-North Oakland Gang War

Bay City News Service
Friday July 10, 2009 - 01:48:00 PM

An investigation into two rival gangs from North Oakland and South Berkeley led to the arrests today of several suspects, including one who was shot by a police officer, authorities said. -more-


Wareham Wins Permit for West Berkeley Bioscience Lab

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday July 09, 2009 - 09:34:00 AM
Wareham Development’s proposal for a new 92,000-square-foot bioscience laboratory on the site of the landmarked Copra Building at 740 Heinz in West Berkeley.

In what was regarded as a first for West Berkeley’s zoning history, the city’s Zoning Adjustments Board last week gave Wareham Development the green light to exceed neighborhood height limits and construct a four-story, 92,000-square-foot bioscience lab on the Aquatic Park Campus. -more-


City’s ‘Chronic Homeless’ Count Drops 50 Percent; ‘Hidden Homelessness’ On the Rise

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday July 09, 2009 - 09:39:00 AM

Berkeley’s chronically homeless population decreased by nearly 50 percent over the last six years according to a recently released study. Federal officials said it was the largest reduction of chronic homelessness in the state to date. -more-


City Council Postpones Final Vote on Downtown Plan

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Thursday July 09, 2009 - 09:39:00 AM

The Berkeley City Council ground its way slowly—and sometimes painfully—towards passage of its proposed Downtown Area Plan Tuesday night, working its way through consideration of a series of detailed amendments by Councilmember Jesse Arreguín before finally putting the matter off until next week. -more-


Teaching Kids to Dance at AileyCamp

By Jaime Robles Special to the Planet
Thursday July 09, 2009 - 09:40:00 AM

Sitting in the empty audience of Zellerbach Hall, David McCauley talks about AileyCamp, the educational dance project that he is the charter director of for Cal Performances. Simultaneously, on the barren stage, stripped of its curtains and scrims, some 15 adolescents are being led through modern dance exercises by M’bewe Escobar, who has taught and danced with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for over a decade. -more-


Farewell to the Fujimotos

Thursday July 09, 2009 - 09:42:00 AM

The Monterey Market neighborhood—and the greater Slow Food community—hosted a party for Bill and Judy Fujimoto, who are walking away from the Monterey Market due to a family rift. A crowd of nearly 100 foodies, shoppers, growers, restaurant owners, musicians, and even the Cal Band, joined in celebrating the Fujimotos and their pioneering contribution to quality food in the Bay Area. -more-


Battle Over LBNL Computer Center Heads for Key Court Hearing

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday July 09, 2009 - 09:40:00 AM

The battle over construction of a new computer facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory may hinge on a single issue: whether or not it’s a federal project. -more-


Judge Halts Chevron’s Richmond Refinery Expansion

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday July 09, 2009 - 09:41:00 AM

Chevron must stop all work on expanding its Richmond refinery until a new project environmental review is completed and approved, a Contra Costa County judge has ruled. -more-


Zoning Board to Vote on Downtown Teen Center

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday July 09, 2009 - 09:41:00 AM

Almost two years after PG&E handed over their former service center at 2111 Martin Luther King Jr. Way to the Berkeley-Albany YMCA, the Berkeley Zoning Adjustments will vote Thursday on whether to turn it into a teen center. -more-


Richmond Man Convicted of Murder for Berkeley Shooting

Bay City News
Thursday July 09, 2009 - 09:42:00 AM

A Richmond man was convicted July 8 of first-degree murder and attempted second-degree robbery for the shooting death of 23-year-old Wayne Drummond of Oakland near the University of California at Berkeley campus three years ago. -more-


Hearing Scheduled for Oakland Contractor Charged with Underpaying Immigrant Workers

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Thursday July 09, 2009 - 09:43:00 AM

A July 20 hearing has been scheduled in Alameda County Superior Court in Hayward for a prominent Oakland general contractor arrested in an alleged scheme to defraud workers and illegally lower her company’s insurance rates. -more-


Albany Woman Killed by Amtrak Train in Berkeley

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday July 09, 2009 - 09:43:00 AM

A 69-year-old Albany woman died early Friday afternoon when she was struck by an Amtrak passenger train near the Gilman Avenue crossing in West Berkeley. -more-


Bank Robber Strikes in Downtown Berkeley

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday July 09, 2009 - 09:44:00 AM

A man walked into Chase Bank’s Berkeley branch at 2150 Shattuck Ave. at 1:40 in the afternoon Monday, July 6, and handed a note to a teller. -more-


Flames Force Evacuation of Russell Street Apartments

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday July 09, 2009 - 09:45:00 AM
A firefighter tosses a shovelful of broken wallboard out the window of a third-floor apartment in the 2300 block of Russell Street Tuesday afternoon. Layers of aluminum, melted by the intense flames, formed metallic icicles visible on the drainpipe and the bottom of the window frame.

Flames gutted most of the interior of two third-floor Berkeley apartments Tuesday, July 7, as firefighters and neighbors worked to evacuate tenants. -more-


Ground Broken for New Wesley Center Building

By Steven Finacom Special to the Planet
Thursday July 09, 2009 - 09:46:00 AM
Stephen Sutton (UC), the Rev. Renae Extrum-Fernandez (United Methodist Church), Deborah Matthews (Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board), and Vincent Wong (Wesley Foundation Board President) line up to swing gold-painted sledgehammers during the groundbreaking ceremony, while documentary filmmaker and UC student Brighton Kimbel records the scene from behind.

A long-planned private housing development and religious center for UC students symbolically got under way beneath sunny, breezy, skies Wednesday, July 1. -more-


Black Press Pressures White House for Stimulus Money, Advertising Fairness

By Hazel Trice Edney NNPA News Service
Thursday July 09, 2009 - 09:44:00 AM

WASHINGTON (NNPA)—U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, is pressing the White House and the president’s cabinet on the apparent void in federal government advertising in black-owned newspapers and radio. -more-