News

Man Gets Five Years Probation in Connection With Fatal Berkeley Shooting

By Bay City News
Tuesday July 21, 2009 - 03:00:00 PM

A Berkeley man who had been charged with murder in connection with the shooting death of a former friend near the University of California at Berkeley campus three years ago will be released from jail today after serving only 18 months. -more-


Berkeley Police Seize Explosives From Grizzly Peak House

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Monday July 20, 2009 - 09:31:00 PM

A 911 call led to an arrest and seizure of explosives by Berkeley police Saturday. -more-


Daily Cal Receives Debt Relief, Three-Year Lease

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Monday July 20, 2009 - 03:31:00 PM

The Daily Californian, UC Berkeley’s independent student newspaper, can stay put—for now. -more-


Berkeley Police Investigate Sex Assaults

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday July 16, 2009 - 04:13:00 PM
Sketches of the suspects in the Cedar (left) and Hillegass (right) sexual assaults.

Berkeley police are investigating two sexual assaults which took place early Thursday morning. -more-


Berkeley Financier Faces Tax Woes

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday July 16, 2009 - 04:08:00 PM

David Teece is having a bad year. For a man once dubbed “an economics rock star,” 2009 is shaping up more like The Rocky Horror Picture Show. -more-


UC Regents Approve Pay Cuts

Bay City News Service
Thursday July 16, 2009 - 02:25:00 PM

The University of California Board of Regents Thursday morning voted unanimously to approve a plan that will institute employee furloughs along with other cuts and fee hikes to offset an anticipated $813 million budget shortfall. -more-


Students Plan UC Berkeley’s First Student Food Cooperative

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday July 16, 2009 - 02:30:00 PM
UC Berkeley alumna Alex Stone sets up the produce stand on Upper Sproul Hall Monday to inform students about the Berkeley Student Food Cooperative.

At first glance, the cute little blueberry baskets might seem out of place among the maze of political posters, stickers and T-shirts inside UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza. -more-


Bear’s Lair Vendors Threatened by Rent Hikes

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday July 16, 2009 - 10:35:00 AM

Plans to revitalize UC Berkeley’s Lower Sproul Plaza may have dire consequences for small, family-owned businesses on campus. -more-


Pacific Steel Lays Off Half Its Work Force

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday July 16, 2009 - 10:37:00 AM

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


City Council Passes Downtown Plan

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Thursday July 16, 2009 - 10:37:00 AM

The Berkeley City Council worked late into the night Tuesday to pass a modified Downtown Area Plan (DAP), setting the direction and goals for development in the city center for the foreseeable future. -more-


City Receives $1.3 Million in Homelessness Prevention Funds

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday July 16, 2009 - 10:37:00 AM

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


Laser-Powered Accelerator Plan Gets Boost From Recovery Act

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday July 16, 2009 - 10:38:00 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-


West Berkeley Zoning Struggle Heats Up as Deadline Nears

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday July 16, 2009 - 10:57:00 AM

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-


Planners to Vote on Subdividing in West Berkeley

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday July 16, 2009 - 10:56:00 AM

Planning commissioners will take up controversial zoning code changes for West Berkeley when they hold their last session before the August break on July 22. -more-


Environmental Review Details Richmond Casino Alternatives

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday July 16, 2009 - 10:57:00 AM

The long-delayed environmental impact report on the proposed Point Molate $1.5 billion casino resort complex is finally finished, four years after the first public meeting to gather public comment. -more-


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

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday July 16, 2009 - 10:56:00 AM

The University of California Board of Regents was expected to slash pay for faculty and staff Thursday, July 16, during the same three-day meeting at which they were set to approve funds for rebuilding Memorial Stadium. -more-


UC Buys Another Berkeley Office Building

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday July 16, 2009 - 10:56:00 AM
UC Berkeley has acquired another Berkeley office building, paying Seagate Properties $21.8 million for 2850 Telegraph Ave. The UCB law school already occupies about two-thirds of the six-story building.

UC Berkeley has quietly occupied yet another Berkeley building, with the law school taking occupancy of 2850 Telegraph Ave. -more-


Hall of Health Museum Closes After 35 Years

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Thursday July 16, 2009 - 10:55:00 AM

A downtown Berkeley based health museum that once drew 24,000 visitors a year is closing its doors this week because of falling attendance and a loss of grant funding. -more-


Three Arrests in Berkeley-Oakland Gang War

Bay City News Service
Thursday July 16, 2009 - 10:55:00 AM

An investigation into two rival gangs from North Oakland and South Berkeley led to the arrests Friday, July 10, of several suspects, including one who was shot by a police officer, authorities said. -more-


Former Cal Bear Sentenced for Student Rapes

Bay City News Service
Thursday July 16, 2009 - 10:54:00 AM

Former University of California at Berkeley football player Noah Smith was sentenced Wednesday to four years in state prison for sexually assaulting two female students. -more-


Gang of Five Robs Pair of Pedestrians

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday July 16, 2009 - 10:54:00 AM

Campus and Berkeley police are looking for a gang of five that robbed a pair of pedestrians at the corner of Oxford Street and University Avenue Sunday night, July 12. -more-


Albany Activist’s Family Wins Wrongful Death Settlement

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday July 16, 2009 - 10:53:00 AM

The family of much-loved Albany environmentalist Ruth Meniketti has won a $500,000 settlement for her wrongful death, said family lawyer and former Albany Mayor Robert Cheasty. -more-


Drought

By Shirley Barker Special to the Planet
Thursday July 16, 2009 - 10:52:00 AM

In the Bay Area we have the so-called Mediterranean climate, with cool rainy winters and warm dry summers. Rarely does measurable rain fall between May and September, five dry months. -more-