In the District 7 City Council race, incumbent Kriss Worthington increased his lead over challenger Sean Barry. While the initial vote-by-mail ballots counted on election night favored Barry, he is so far not winning the ballots dropped at the polls on election day.

In District 8, the race tightened a bit. While George Beier is running third with first choice ballots, he leads Lori Droste by just 19 votes in the ranked choice vote by 1692-1673; at the end of yesterday's count, he had a 28 vote lead. Lori Droste still leads with first choice votes and widened her lead in today's count. Neither McCormick or Alvarez Cohen have any real chance of winning.

In the School Board race for third place, Karen Hemphill pulled further ahead of Julie Sinai, and now has a 300 vote lead, up from a 244 lead yesterday. -more-

BART officials this afternoon are reporting delays due to police activity at the downtown Berkeley station. -more-

With 89 more votes counted in the District 7 City Council race, Kriss Worthington's lead widened from 81 to 100 votes. In District 8, 399 more votes were counted, and Mike Alvarez Cohen inched closer to frontrunner Lori Droste, but the ranked choice vote continues to give a narrow lead to George Beier, 1449-1421.

As of 4:52 p.m. today (numbers in parentheses are votes as of 12:44 a.m.yesteday)

District 7:

Kriss Worthington 475 (421) +54

Sean Barry 375 (340) +35

Kriss' margin before latest update: +81

Kriss' margin after latest update: + 100

District 8: Lori Droste 883 (775) +108

Mike Alvarez Cohen 866 (741) +125

George Beier 817 (711) +106

Jacqueline McCormick 579 (519) + 60 -more-

The British House of Commons vote to endorse diplomatic recognition of a Palestinian state is a vitally important gesture. Israel and the US should not ignore the message which is a sign of the growing frustration and anger over Israel’s settlement expansion. Ignoring stated US policy, Israel announced it plans to build 1,000 new housing units in areas of Jerusalem which the Palestinians claim encroaches on their independent state. Richard Ottaway, a Conservative lawmaker and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee voiced the frustration of many of Britain’s lawmakers when he stated “such is my anger over Israel’s behavior in recent months that I will not oppose the motion. I have to say to the government of Israel that if they are losing people like me, they will be losing a lot of people.” Sweden’s new left-of-center government recently announced that it would become the first major Western European nation to recognize Palestine. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has urged the United Nations Security Council to set a specific deadline for Israel to end the occupation. -more-

The second anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, which pummeled the New York City region, comes on the heels of a joint investigation by ProPublica and NPR who contend the American Red Cross diverted critical resources away from those in need and instead launched a massive PR campaign to buttress its image. -more-

I wanted to bring to your attention the condition of the sidewalk at the corner of Hopkins and Sutter. Part of the sidewalk is covered with pebbles dumped there from the corner house. I have seen elderly people slip as they picked their way through the uneven pebbles strewn over the sidewalk. Can the City of Berkeley oversee clearing of the pebbles before some pedestrian suffers a dangerous fall on the sidewalk at Hopkins and Sutter? -more-

My correspondents have forwarded to me links to two cogent analyses of the District 7 vote:

Citizens Speak

and

Students on Camera

Isn't it great that the council majority finally gave students their very own district? -more-

Following the midterm elections, Republicans remain firmly in control of the U.S. House of Representatives and now enjoy a majority in the U.S. Senate. Senator James Inhofe (R-Ok) is expected to become Chairman of the Environmental and Public Works Committee (EPW). -more-

Democrats have offered many excuses for their devastating losses in the 2014-midterm election, but they failed to include the most obvious: they were weak. Starting with President Obama and extending through most of the Party leadership, Democrats didn’t fight back. Democrats routinely let Republicans get away with actions that, were the roles reversed, Republicans wouldn’t stand for. -more-

Welcome, Jeff Scott! Jeff Scott is the new Director of Berkeley’s Library Services. He commences his new role this month, November 2014. -more-

Words are more than mere vibrations of the vocal cords. The words we speak change us and affect those around us, and the words we think may determine who we will become. Words can heal, or they can be used as weapons. -more-

A classroom of students chanting the lesson as the Teacher points to a right triangle—and in the corner, wearing an intense frown, is Red, "bored," as the Teacher later puts it, though her malaise—or wish—is more intense than any boredom ... -more-

A middle-aged writer (Brett Mermer) introduces himself to tell us what he did last summer: he wrote a play about what he, as a 14 year old, did one summer years before,July, 1945, in fact, a war year—a summer that changed his life. This is the slender framing device for A. R. Gurney's coming of age play, which demonstrates both charm and pith in this production by Piedmont-Oakland Repertory Theatre (PORT). -more-

—Renowned countertenor Andreas Scholl will sing arias from Handel and selections from Bach with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, led by Julian Wachner—who just made his San Francisco Opera debut, brilliantly conducting Handel's 'Partenope'—this Saturday night at 8, Sunday afternoon at 4 at the First Congregational Church, Dana between Durant & Channing. Bach: Sinfonia to Cantata No. 42, Cantata No. 170, Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F major; Handel operatic arias; Teleman: Concerto in F major for violin, oboe & two horns. $25-$100. philharmonia.org -more-

—The excellent folks at the East Bay Media Center are once again hosting the Berkeley Video & Film festival in its 23rd edition, already underway with the Student Film Marathon, featuring in part work by the outstanding students of the famed USC Cinematic Arts program, several documentaries on Tibetan Buddhism & Bön, often shot in situ; Peter Yost's documentary on Mt. Tamalpais, narrated by Peter Coyote; a doc on poetry—and short comedies, drama, all kinds of new film and video, shown in the Center's well-refurbished Performance Space. 7 pm Hallowe'en through November 8, various times. $10; students/elders $5; Berkeley High students free with id—& wear a Hallowe'en costume or mask for 50% off. 1939 Addison, between Milvia & MLK. http:/berkeleyvideofilmfest.org/ or 843-3099 -more-

In the late 1930s, Lise Meitner, an emigre German Jewish physicist in Sweden received a letter from her longtime collaborator, chemist Otto Hahn in Berlin, detaailing a problem: an experiment involving unranuim the two had been pursuing with their collaborators before Meitner's escape from Nazi Germany, was not, as expected, given the knowledge and theorizing of the cutting edge of then-contemporary physics, producing heavier elements ... on a walk with her nephew, Robert Frisch, a scientist living in Copenhagen, Meitner hit on the answer: without knowing it, they had split the atom. Hahn would receive the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the discovery. Meitner was mentioned, but did not share the prize. -more-

A new designation for a novel set of acts, coming to the Marsh's Cabaret Room next week for one night only, under the mighty aegis of Subterranean Shakespeare—but The Bard it ain't, exactly ... -more-