News

A 34-year-old Oakland man is in custody today after being arrested on suspicion of robbing a bank in Berkeley on Monday afternoon, police said today. -more-

The Berkeley City Council may join the fight to free three UC Berkeley graduates detained in Iran. The council will consider tonight (Tuesday, Jan. 26) whether to send a letter urging Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to release the trio. -more-

Wareham Development has threatened to sue the City of Berkeley if it allows a cannabis clinic to move into the old Scharffen Berger building in West Berkeley. -more-

Berkeley’s second annual A Walk for Change in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday drew a modest crowd due to threatening weather. The group had planned to drive the mile route from Jefferson Elementary School to King Middle School this year, but a break in the rain allowed them to walk. At King, about 75 students, parents and school staff sat in the auditorium and listened to King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Organizers pointed to the empty chairs, where about 300 people had sat a year before, asking, “Where are you, on this special day of remembrance?” and encouraged the audience to go back to their communities and ask the same question. -more-

Berkeley is doing its part to bring relief to disaster-struck Haiti in the aftermath of the Jan. 12 earthquake that crippled the Caribbean nation, killing tens of thousands. -more-

The fate of Berkeley Iceland hangs in the balance over the next four months as its owner and the non-profit trying to save it attempt to strike a deal. -more-

Berkeley’s southside is under siege. Or so says a class-action lawsuit filed by some of the area’s residents at the Alameda County Superior Court Tuesday, seeking respite from rowdy UC Berkeley frat boys and their drunken brawls. -more-

The Berkeley City Council Tuesday approved stricter enforcement of its existing soft-story ordinance, approved a public hearing for a special property tax ballot measure to fund pools improvement, and discussed a report on the city’s involvement in the Omnibus Bill -more-

Berkeley High School’s Parent, Teacher, Student Association met Tuesday to discuss alternative models of school governance. Present to discuss the models were Superintendent Bill Huyett and School Board Policy Committee members Shirley Issel and John Selawsky. -more-

Berkeley Public Housing tenants showed up at Tuesday’s City Council meeting to rally against the loss of public housing. -more-

A group of lawyers, journalists and advocates filed a Freedom of Information Act request Thursday for a report about authors of the Bush administration's torture memos, including UC Berkeley law professor John Yoo. -more-

Several hundred UC Berkeley staff, students, and faculty held a noon rally on Wednesday to protest UC administration plans to privatize bus service at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Fourteen protesters, including Berkeley City Councilmember Jesse Arreguin, sat down in front of one of the buses in an act of civil disobedience and were arrested. -more-

At the Jan. 13 Berkeley School Board meeting, the Berkeley Federation of Teachers (BFT) joined the Berkeley Council of Classified Employees (BCCE) in opposing applications for two new independent charter schools in Berkeley, one a middle school and the other a high school. Both unions favor the development of a new educational program that is not independent of the school district. -more-

Kenneth Harvey Cardwell, Bay Area architect and professor emeritus of architecture at UC Berkeley, died Jan. 11 in Oakland at age 89. -more-

Al Winslow, a journalist and homeless advocate who adopted Berkeley as his home, died Jan. 8 following a short illness. He was 68. -more-

San Francisco's Commission on the Environment has announced that it will consider a set of recommendations to protect the public from cell phone radiation. These recommendations, which have the tentative support of Mayor Gavin Newsom, include: -more-

The horrific disaster that has befallen Haiti is perhaps unprecedented in the Western hemisphere. Estimates now say that perhaps hundreds of thousands have died as a result of the Dec. 12 earthquake. Many in the media have constantly said, as a mantra, that the reason so many have died is because of the weak infrastructure and poor quality of construction there. The implication is that Haitians are unable to govern and build a reliable, sustainable society. -more-

Three UC Berkeley students initially thought missing in Haiti are safe and will help with relief efforts, the university said Thursday. -more-