News

Berkeley police are still looking for a hit-and-run suspect who struck a bicyclist at Sixth and Hearst streets Friday morning. -more-

A decoy shoulder tap operation by the California Alcoholic Beverage Control Saturday cited 22 people in Berkeley for various violations. -more-

A number of regular readers have asked what's become of the comic strips. The good news is that you can see Sylvia, Doonesbury and many more on the GoComics website. and Get Fuzzy on the comics.com site. -more-

Berkeley celebrated its first day as Tree City USA by planting 13 trees in and around Thousand Oaks Elementary School in North Berkeley. -more-

What do many Berkeley African American and Latino students need in order to do well in school and get into the college of their choice? One answer to that question, an intense mentoring program that is now eight years old, was celebrated this past Monday evening at a reception on the UC campus. -more-

Berkeley police are asking for the community's help in identifying a suspect who robbed an Andronico's Market in the city Sunday night. The robbery was reported at about 10 p.m. at the grocery store, located at 2655 Telegraph Ave., according to police. -more-

On Sunday, March 28th, AC Transit will implement major service changes in Berkeley and other East Bay communities. These changes reduce service overall by 8.4 percent and were necessitated by reduced state funding, declining sales tax revenue and other economic factors. Below is a summary of changes to bus routes serving Berkeley: -more-

A prosecutor and a defense attorney agreed today that a dangerous mixture of alcohol and testosterone led to the stabbing death of University of California at Berkeley senior Christopher Wootton near campus two years ago. -more-

Dear reader: There are two types of people in Berkeley: rubes like you and me, and there are the elite. The normal rules that rubes live, bleed, and die by don’t apply to the elite. The elite needn’t follow the well-established required procedures nor abide by municipal regulations. They’re special and they know what’s best for us, and what’s best for them.

One of Berkeley’s most onerous departments of rules and regulations is its Building Department. If the average citizen rube wants to replace a water heater, stove or even a light switch, the law says he has to pull a building permit. If the rube wants to repair his front porch, he has to turn in working drawings and a lot map, and pay hundreds of dollars to get said building permit. I know from personal experience.

Heaven forbid after buying your 1,145 square-foot house for $435,000 less than a year ago, as Ryan Lau did, you should want to tear down your miniscule old and decrepit garage built in the 1920s and replace it with a lovely residential structure twice as large and located far less than the required four feet from the property line. If a rube wanted to build too close to his neighbor’s property he would have to get a ‘Use Permit,’ which would likely require a public hearing and cost the rube thousands and thousands of dollars. He might even end up in front of the Zoning Adjustment Board!

Of course if the person who wants to do such a thing is named Ryan Lau, Councilman Darryl Moore’s long-time aide and appointed Commissioner to the Zoning Adjustments Board, rules mean nothing. -more-

A San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled earlier this week that nearly 3,000 graduate students in the University of California system will be reimbursed about $38 million in fees that were improperly raised. The ruling, issued by Judge John Munter on Wednesday, affects about 2,900 students who applied to and accepted an offer of admission to various UC professional schools prior to Aug. 25, 2003. -more-

Berkeley High School Principal Jim Slemp, whose tenure was sometimes marked by controversy and contentious relationships with parents and teachers, announced Wednesday morning he was going to retire in June. -more-

Records from the state Office of Traffic Safety show that Berkeley has consistently been one of the least safe—and in some cases the most unsafe—places in California for bicyclists and pedestrians for the last several years. -more-

An Oakland woman was struck and killed by a truck Wednesday night near a South Berkeley intersection.The suspect, 42-year-old Jesse Donald Kelly of Oakland, was arrested at the scene and booked for gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and driving under the influence of alcohol, causing injury or death. The driver, stopped after the incident and cooperated with police, Berkeley Police Department spokesperson Officer Andrew Frankel said. He said the incident was Berkeley’s first pedestrian related fatality of 2010. -more-

More details are emerging about the string of violent incidents that took place in and around Berkeley High School last week. A message from Berkeley High Dean of Students Ardarius McDonald on the school e-tree message service Friday said that a fight which broke out between two groups of Berkeley High students Thursday escalated in the On Campus Intervention office when a parent and at least one non student arrived. -more-

Berkeley’s Downtown Streetscape and Open Space Improvement Plan (SOSIP) subcommittee, which is charged with advising the City Council on changes to Berkeley’s downtown, got off to an initially bumpy start Monday, then settled into a series of relatively quick decisions about preferred directions. There was little discussion of how all this would be paid for, however. -more-

A special City Council workshop on cuts to Berkeley’s Public Health funds revealed some hard truths Tuesday, including the possible threat of losing the city’s independent health department. The 5:30 p.m. meeting began with Berkeley’s Budget Manager Tracy Vesely briefing the council on the $14.6 million deficit the city faces in 2010-2011, including a $3 million shortfall in the Public Health Department. -more-

The Berkeley City Council Tuesday bade farewell to the city’s Deputy Director Lisa Caronna who will be retiring this week. -more-

The three UC Berkeley graduates who were detained in Iran last July were allowed to call home March 9 for the first time in more than seven months. -more-

Review of the expansion of one historic branch public library building, likely demolition of another, and affirmation of the landmark designation of the old Mobilized Women of Berkeley building at 1007 University Avenue were major issues before the Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission at its regular monthly meeting on Thursday, March 4, 2010. The Commission also considered several shorter items including building remodels and historic plaques. -more-

The Berkeley City Council went through a flurry of motions Tuesday night, approving over-the-counter alcohol permits for quick service restaurants downtown, columbaria within city limits and a $130,000 package for a new rent board deputy director. -more-

A decoy shoulder tap operation by the California Alcoholic Beverage Control Saturday cited 22 people in Berkeley for various violations. -more-

Berkeley police said that a bicyclist was hospitalized after being in a hit-and-run accident at Sixth and Hearst streets Friday morning. -more-

A string of violent incidents took place in and around Berkeley High School over the last couple of days, details of which are still not clear. -more-

The Alameda County coroner's bureau has identified a pedestrian who was killed in Berkeley on Wednesday night when she was struck by a pickup truck driven by an alleged drunken driver. -more-

The Richmond Chamber of Commerce, erstwhile defenders of land speculators and global oil corporations, just can’t let go of politics. They should rename themselves “Richmond Chamber of Horrors.” -more-