News

The battle over the future of Berkeley’s downtown is headed back to the City Council on Feb. 23. Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates is proposing to rescind the most recent version of the controversial Downtown Area Plan, which was approved by the council last July but was stayed by a successful referendum campaign to put it on the ballot for voters to decide in a future election. The mayor said Monday that he wants to put his own new plan on the November ballot instead. -more-

Berkeley police are looking for a 22-year-old man who is suspected -more-

Despite a $10 million budget shortfall in the next fiscal year, the Berkeley City Council made a commitment to the Black Infant Health Program at its Tuesday meeting. -more-

Berkeley’s Hesperian Foundation is working around the clock to help earthquake victims in Haiti. -more-

BART’S $492 million Oakland Airport connector plans hit a road bump Friday after the agency failed to convince federal authorities that it could complete studies showing the project’s impact on minority communities in a timely manner. -more-

Metropolitan Theaters will not renew its lease for Solano Avenue's Oaks Theater. -more-

“Four-day work weeks,” “special no-parking-fee days,” “bi-weekly refuse pick-ups.” -more-

Correction: The City Council voted unanimously to approve the pools ballot measure. The Feb. 11 story incorrectly reported the 5-4 straw vote as the final vote. -more-

What happens when you transport street food from the crowded, dusty streets of India to a sleek, no-fuss, 25,000-square-foot warehouse in West Berkeley? -more-

Children’s Hospital Oakland, while providing good jobs and good care to many children and their families over the years, has also been a mixed blessing for its neighbors. Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley and nearby residents have hammered out a modus vivendi for relatively peaceful coexistence, but CHO has morphed over the years, expanding outward from their 52nd Street campus by acquiring neighboring businesses and homes. Most recently, the hospital intended to build a 180-foot tower north of the campus, clearing an area occupied by single-family homes, but that effort was doomed by the failure of bond measures on the ballot in February 2008. The distinctive “Original Baby Hospital” is nearly swallowed up by later construction, and likely to be toast under plans for CHO’s fallback expansion plans.  -more-

Although the Berkeley Board of Education was scheduled to vote on Berkeley’s first public charter school proposal Wednesday, Feb. 3, the petition was withdrawn at the last minute. -more-

A Berkeley High School student has been suspended for handing out marijuana-laced cookies to his friends. -more-

The Berkeley Board of Education asked for more information from Berkeley High School Wednesday before weighing in on whether it should re-direct parcel tax funds from science labs toward equity grants. -more-

UC Berkeley police are asking people to be on the lookout for “Potty Pirates”—thieves who are removing brass flushing hardware from toilets and urinals on the UC Berkeley campus. -more-

Berkeley Unified School District has a brand new, state-of-the-art transportation facility that will save $450,000 annually. -more-

The Berkeley City Council did not take any action in a closed-session discussion Monday regarding a cannabis clinic’s proposal to move into the former Scharffen Berger chocolate factory. -more-

A friend recently announced that our Berkeley winters are becoming warmer. Always inclined to scoff at categorical and unfounded opinions, I decided to see if evidence showed this to be true. -more-

When you first walk into the Central Library, the Information Desk is directly in front of you. Unless you know where you’re going, it’s a helpful and welcoming place to visit. -more-

By now, the drumbeat is impossible to ignore: jobs, jobs, jobs. With one in 10 adults unemployed, President Obama had little choice but to highlight jobs during his Jan. 27 State of the Union address. He mentioned the term nearly 30 times during the hour-long speech. -more-