News

To commemorate National Women’s History Month, the City of Berkeley Commission on the Status of Women (COSOW) recognizes and honors the efforts of extraordinary women who live, work or learn in Berkeley, and who have done outstanding work in the Berkeley community. The Commission seeks to honor and recognize the contributions of a wide spectrum of women, especially those who may be under-recognized for their work or are unconventionally successful. Awardees were selected through a competitive nomination process and represent a wide range of achievements and contributions. -more-

Berkeley police called off a search late Friday night when a grandmother and granddaughter, who had been missing for over six hours, were found hungry but safe, police said. -more-

A new season of five Berkeley Historical Society walking tours starting April 2 and running through early June delves into the local history of tennis, art, the UC Berkeley campus, and two north Berkeley neighborhoods.

All the walks take place on Saturday mornings from 10 – 12 and are led by knowledgeable volunteer guides from the Berkeley community. Proceeds benefit the non-profit Berkeley Historical Society. -more-

Accused People's Park stabber, Matthew Dodt, 53, aka Midnight Matt, appeared Thursday from behind the glass prisoner's wall, which had previously blocked spectators' view to once more plead not guilty to assault with a deadly weapon in Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse, Oakland. -more-

Police are still trying to identify a man who groped a University of California at Berkeley student on campus Tuesday night. -more-

The City of Berkeley is offering a $15,000 reward, and Bay Area Crime Stoppers (BACS) is offering an additional $2,000 reward, for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect or suspects responsible for the City of Berkeley’s first homicide of 2011.

On Tuesday, March 8, 2011, at about 1:00 p.m., the City of Berkeley Police Department (BPD) got a call of possible gunshots in the area of the 1600 block of Blake Street. Officers found Tobias Pemadorji Eagle, 30 years old of Berkeley, the victim of a shooting. Eagle was lying in the rear yard of a home on the 1600 block of Blake Street. City of Berkeley Fire Department (BFD) Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene. -more-

Editor’s Note: We’d like to see what our readers can do with this information. We’ve revived our old Berkeley Free Press blog site, which we started before we took over the Planet. We hope to give writers the chance to inform readers and express their opinions more spontaneously there than the Planet’s inherited newspaper format permits. To comment or see comments, click here.

The very earliest results of the 2010 Census are starting to be published. The Census Bureau has created a handy-dandy web site to help citizens explore the data. We're only getting the first trickle of data so far but here is a kind of "citizen's users guide" to help people get started, along with some basic facts that might be of interest. -more-

[Sent at 5:17 p.m. Tuesday] On March 8, 2011, just after 1:00 pm, the Berkeley Police Department received a call of “loud reports” in the area of the 1600 block of Blake St.

Officers investigating the call ultimately located an unresponsive adult male, apparently shot, in the rear yard of a house on the 1600 block of Blake St. Berkeley Fire Department paramedics confirmed the victim’s death at the scene.

Berkeley Police Homicide detectives are investigating the matter as a homicide. We are not releasing the identity of the deceased at this time. -more-

Presentation of a report to the Berkeley City Council on city recycling services sparked a vigorous protest and turnout of hundreds at a special 5:30 pm workshop yesterday.

The core issue was whether, as the consultants recommended, the City of Berkeley should shift curbside pick-up recycling services from the non-profit Ecology Center to an expanded City Solid Waste Division. -more-

A woman who was struck by a University of California shuttle bus Monday was in serious, but stable condition after surgery, a Berkeley police official said.

The 54-year-old woman was one of two female pedestrians who were injured Monday afternoon in Berkeley when one of the women was struck in a crosswalk by a University of California shuttle bus and the other injured herself trying to gain the bus driver's attention, police spokeswoman Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said. -more-

‘Pulp History’ Reveals a Corporate Plot to Overthrow American Democracy

It was more than 25 years ago, while researching a story in a dark alcove of UC Berkeley’s little-visited newspaper library, that I chanced upon some transcripts from the first hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). What I discovered was shocking beyond belief. The records revealed an organized conspiracy to overthrow the US government but it was not one hatched by a secretive Moscow-directed Communist cell. HUAC’s initial alarm was focused on a plot bankrolled by the owners of major US corporations — including Goodyear, US Steel, JP Morgan, Heinz, and Maxwell House. -more-

War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes. -more-

The City Council honored the Centennial of Women's Suffrage in California with a proclamation at the March 8, 2011, Council meeting. Local celebrations and commemorations will concentrate in the Fall, around the October 10 one-hundredth anniversary of the election in which women won the vote in California. -more-

With a whimsical, free form, spirit of celebration, several dozen partiers took to the streets and parks of Berkeley Tuesday, March 8, 2011. Loosely organized around “The Church of the Great Green Frog”, the annual event coincides with Mardi Gras “Fat Tuesday”. -more-

The Alameda County Coroner's office has identified the man who shot himself while barricaded in his home in the 1800 block of Marin Avenue in Berkeley as Owen Davis. -more-