The Berkeley City Council will be holding an 8 p.m. time- specific presentation and discussion on the Bus Rapid Transit Build Option at its first meeting after its spring break on Tuesday. -more-

A 20-year-old Berkeley man who was fatally shot in San Francisco's Bayview District on Saturday night has been identified by the San Francisco medical examiner's office as Stephen Powell. -more-

The Berkeley Planning Commission was presented an abbreviated version of the Downtown Area Plan Wednesday. -more-

The bomb squad closed off MLK for a couple of blocks around Mr. Mopps this afternoon. Around 1:00pm in front of Mr. Mopps toy store the Berkeley Police bomb squad investigated a mysterious, unattended package. -more-

After almost nine hours of often contentious debate and discussion Wednesday, the fate of the UC Berkeley student senate Israel divestment bill remains undecided as of Thursday morning. -more-

April 16, 2010 is a poignant and significant, although now nearly forgotten, anniversary date in the history of higher education in California. Exactly 150 years earlier the campus site of what would become California’s most important educational institution—the University of California, Berkeley—was dedicated. -more-

Berkeley High School’s The Jacket Online is among 10 high school newspaper websites to win the 2010 Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s Gold Crown Award. -more-

This Saturday, April 17, 2010, is Cal Day at the University of California, Berkeley. The 150-year old campus grounds are filled with activities and opportunities for the general public, most all of them free. -more-

A UC Berkeley student present at the scene of a collision between a Berkeley police car and a car full of teenagers early Sunday morning was arrested “for challenging an officer for a fight and refusing to leave the crime scene,” a Berkeley Police Department public information officer said Monday. -more-

It’s going to be a busy summer for Berkeley High School. The school’s principal, Jim Slemp, is set to retire in June, and Berkeley Unified School District kicked off a search for his replacement this week. -more-

All frauds have a purpose, mostly to relieve the unwary of their wealth, though occasionally to launch some foreign adventure: the 1965 Tonkin Gulf hoax that escalated the Vietnam War comes to mind. -more-

Recently there’s been a lot of speculation about why the mood on the right has turned so sour. Some observers attribute it to the lack of leadership at the top of the Republican Party, the surreal reality that Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh have more influence than do elected Republicans. Others say it’s a poisonous combination of economic angst and racial hatred. But there’s a more obvious explanation: we’re witnessing the death throes of conservatism. The right-wing ideology that ran the US for thirty years has proven to be a total failure and the passage of healthcare reform was the final nail in its coffin. -more-

The Rippowam River rushed by at the foot of our dank street, or, depending on the season, gurgled its way to Long Island Sound. I would sit on the stone embankment overlooking the water, ignoring the garter snakes in the crevices. The Ferguson Public Library children’s room was another 1932 shelter. Story hour was held in a separate room with a large picture window. I played stamping books, using a piece of black crayon stuck on the end of a protractor. It slipped off, jamming crayon into my palm, still imbedded there in a tattoo effect. -more-

A few interesting new links: -more-

Police Call for Boycott -more-

The Planet has received a copy of a letter which Fred Wyle of Greenwood Commons sent to his neighbors regarding his opposition to the very large structure proposed for 2707 Rose. With his permission, you can read it here. -more-

Last November, 1,000 stolen e-mails from one of the world’s leading climate research centers in Britain seemed to challenge the scientific consensus that global warming is happening and that it is induced by human activity. The e-mails appeared to show researchers scolding skeptics of global warming, discussing ways to hide their data, and discussing ways to keep skeptics' research out of peer-reviewed publications. One e-mail authored by researcher Phil Jones seemed to suggest using a "trick" to "hide the decline" of temperatures. -more-

Most Americans seem to regard April 15 -- the day income tax returns are due to the Internal Revenue Service -- as a recurring tragedy akin to a Biblical plague. Particularly this year, with U.S. government deficits soaring, everyone from the tea baggers to Fox News and Senate Republicans is sounding the alarm about a return to "big government." Recently former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani even stated that President Obama was moving us toward – gasp -- European socialism. -more-

In Washington DC and around the country, conservatives are hoping they can bluff their way into upset victories in this year’s elections. Health care, clean energy, financial regulation and other much-needed reforms are in their gun sights as they fire inflammatory claims and accusations. In Berkeley, the local “Party of No” seems to hope it can use the same tactics to defeat a ballot measure that would save some of our community’s most basic yet best-loved amenities – our four municipal swimming pools. -more-

The city council has said it will hold a special meeting to hear public testimony concerning the staff proposed “Locally Preferred Alternate” (LPA) for BRT in Berkeley. This meeting is to take place on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at the regular council meeting, with the final vote by the council to be taken on April 27, 2010. -more-

From 2009 elections the KPFA Local Station Board (LSB) was reconstituted with a majority of independent listener and staff representatives and new officers; the now minority Concerned Listeners (CL) allied representatives are fiercely loyal supporters of the station management and status-quo. In a March 5 commentary from a management and "core staff" viewpoint, KPFA News Directors reported that General Manager (GM) Lemlem Rijio was forced to resign by a "faction" on the Board. When the results of LSB executive sessions are broadcast and slanted, why hold closed sessions with people who feed confidential information to News staff? If not for confidentiality rules protecting employee privacy, it would seem preferable to conduct business publicly so we could assess the accuracy or spin of such reports. -more-

he French Hotel and Cafe on Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley has agreed to allow the installation of ten cell phone antennas on its roof. Most of those who work there will not in the short run feel any different, and those who do, perhaps by experiencing headaches, fatigue, or poor concentration, are unlikely to attribute it to the electromagnetic emissions. The same applies to the many cafe customers for whom it is a second home. Since these rays are invisible and silent, they can be easily ignored. In the long run, however, the emissions will not ignore them. -more-

Pedro Costa's Ossos marked a turning point in the his career, the moment when the Portuguese director found his subject matter if not his voice. -more-