News

A series of earthquakes centered in the Berkeley area at the end of 2011 jolted a group of neighbors, students and elected officials to push for building safety near the University of California at Berkeley campus in anticipation of the "Big One." -more-

A national organization dedicated to ending discrimination in housing filed an administrative complaint this week against a major national bank with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. -more-

Berkeley, CA - Two radical groups have settled their lawsuits over an armed, over-broad police raid after the law enforcement agencies agreed to delete improperly seized computer data and pay $100,000 in damages and attorney's fees. Moreover, the University of California-Berkeley Police Department (UCBPD) acknowledged that at the time of the raid one of the groups qualified for federal protections designed to protect journalists, publishers, and other distributors of information from police searches, despite the police's persistent denial of that status throughout the lawsuit. -more-

The city of Berkeley is falling apart. Deferred maintenance on the town’s deteriorating infrastructure—streets, public pools, street lighting, parks, recreation facilities and community centers, storm drains, seismic retrofits of city buildings—has led to $523 million worth of identified, unfunded projects. Between March 14-19, likely Berkeley voters were polled over the phone about possible bond measures for the November ballot whose passage would go toward paying for the repairs. On April 3, the council viewed the sobering results : none of the proposed measures came close to the 67% required to pass new property taxes. Grasping for alternative sources of revenue, Mayor Tom Bates proposed that a follow-up poll ask about a “green tax” on petroleum and a “carbon fee” on natural gas in Berkeley. -more-

Recent seismic activity in the East Bay has been the latest series of events to highlight the importance of retrofitting Berkeley's apartment buildings. A magnitude 6.7 earthquake on the Richter scale, such as one that is predicted by the U.S. Geographic Survey to take place on the Hayward Fault in the next 30 years, could lead to the total collapse of hundreds of seismically unsafe apartment buildings in Berkeley and a terrible loss of life and limb. -more-

An 18-year-old Berkeley man pleaded not guilty Friday to a murder charge stemming from the shooting death of another man outside a liquor store 11 days earlier. -more-

Were priorities that kept cops off telegraph all day on February 18 set so early they could not respond to Peter M. Cukor's plea for help, a response that could have saved his life? -more-

About 20 people who were occupying a University of California at Berkeley building today to protest what organizers say is a lack of minority students enrolled at the university left of their own accord late this afternoon, a school spokeswoman said. -more-

The City of Berkeley will sponsor the 10^th Annual Holocaust Remembrance Day event this year with special guests Robert Pave and Cecilia Sasana as Survivor Honorees, and Martha Fuchs author of recently published book. Legacy of Rescue: A Daughter’s Tribute. Musical performance by Cellist Isaac Pastor-Chermak, Cantor Linda Hirschhorn, and Kol Hadov. The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at 2121 Allston Way will host the event on Sunday, April 22 at 12 noon. -more-

Not that anyone cares, but two recent attempts to re-start tree-sits in People's Park have been foiled, and oh yes, I was so inside the story, i'm starting to feel out-on-a-limb. -more-

The city of Berkeley is falling apart. Deferred maintenance on the town’s deteriorating infrastructure—streets, public pools, street lighting, parks, recreation facilities and community centers, storm drains, seismic retrofits of city buildings—has led to $523 million worth of identified, unfunded projects. Between March 14-19, likely Berkeley voters were polled over the phone about possible bond measures for the November ballot whose passage would go toward paying for the repairs. On April 3, the council viewed the sobering results : none of the proposed measures came close to the 67% required to pass new property taxes. Grasping for alternative sources of revenue, Mayor Tom Bates proposed that a follow-up poll ask about a “green tax” on petroleum and a “carbon fee” on natural gas in Berkeley. -more-

A suspect in the shooting death of a 24-year-old man in Berkeley on Thursday night was arraigned on a murder charge in Alameda County Superior Court today. -more-

Peter Douglas, who died on Sunday after a long battle with cancer, can be considered the Thomas Jefferson of the coastal protection movement. -more-