News

Updated: Families Say Release of Hikers is "Best Day of Our Lives"

By Jeff Shuttleworth (BCN)
Wednesday September 21, 2011 - 03:25:00 PM

Two University of California at Berkeley graduates who have been detained in Iran on espionage charges for more than two years were finally released today, according to their families.

Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, both 29, and a third UC Berkeley graduate, Sarah Shourd, were arrested on July 31, 2009, after embarking on a hike in Iraq's Kurdistan region near the Iranian border.

Iran accused all three of them of espionage and last month Bauer and Fattal were sentenced to eight years in prison. -more-


Flash: Two UC Berkeley Graduates Released in Iran

By Bay City News
Wednesday September 21, 2011 - 07:49:00 AM

Iran's official Press TV has reported that two U.S. hikers who have been detained in Iran since 2009 were released early this morning. -more-


Berkeley's Public Housing Units May Be Bought by Billionaire (Analysis)

By Lynda Carson
Wednesday September 21, 2011 - 03:31:00 PM

In another step to privatize Berkeley's 75 occupied public housing town-homes, billionaire Stephen M. Ross, CEO and founder of The Related Companies, and 95% owner of the Miami Dolphins, is in talks with the Berkeley Housing Authority (BHA) to buy Berkeley's occupied public housing units, through one of his companies. -more-


Press Release: Negotiations at Bayer’s bio-tech plant in Berkeley break down: Company refuses to protect jobs after taking taxpayer subsidies

From Craig Merrilees, ILWU
Monday September 19, 2011 - 05:37:00 PM

Four hundred workers at the Bayer Pharmaceutical plant in Berkeley, California are asking the company to honor promises made two years ago when executives accepted taxpayer subsidies in exchange for providing good-paying jobs.

Workers have been talking with the company since July 25, 2011, seeking guarantees that the company won’t get rid of good-paying jobs after getting a taxpayer bailout. Community concerns increased this spring when Bayer announced it was closing a nearby plant in Emeryville because they were outsourcing 400 jobs to a lower-cost facility overseas.

“It’s wrong for companies to take subsidies, promise good jobs to the community, then outsource those jobs after they’ve taken so much from taxpayers,” said Donal Mahon, a former Bayer veteran employee who is now helping workers negotiate a contract to protect good jobs and secure safer staffing levels at the Berkeley plant. -more-


New Thousand Oaks Urns Dedicated

By Steven Finacom
Monday September 19, 2011 - 09:22:00 AM
Elizabeth Sklut and Trish Hawthorne, co-coordinators of the urn restoration project, led the dedication ceremony.

The first two replica historic urns to grace the Thousand Oaks subdivision were dedicated before an appreciative crowd in Berkeley’s Great Stoneface Park on Saturday, September 10, 2011. -more-