The state Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) has launched an investigation into the fall that claimed the life of a construction worker at the new Berkeley City College Building. -more-

A Berkeley High School student was gunned down in Oakland Saturday night as he was standing on the street with friends, police said. -more-

The three candidates for this June’s Oakland mayoral race—Oakland City Councilmember Nancy Nadel, Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente and former Congressmember Ron Dellums—have begun to increase campaign activity. -more-

The fate of Berkeley’s warm water pool—a treasured resource to many of Berkeley’s disabled and elderly residents—looks bleak, City Councilmember Dona Spring said Thursday. -more-

The University of California continues to harbor big plans for a 152-acre parcel of land near door to a massive chemical plant on the southern Richmond shoreline—both as an academic research facility and as the potential home for cash-generating corporate research programs. -more-

A test dig at the Richmond shoreline site where a retired UC Berkeley worker said barrels of possible radioactive waste had been buried has turned up no evidence of radioactivity or barrels, a state agency reported. -more-

Sometimes, apparently, government can act quickly. -more-

Prosecutors and Internal Affairs investigators have launched a criminal investigation into the handling of drug evidence at the Berkeley Police Department. -more-

The panel charged with helping draft a new plan for downtown Berkeley will hear from a panel of experts Wednesday discussing “What Makes a Great Downtown?” -more-

The Berkeley City Council will face a relatively light agenda when they hold their first meeting of 2006 Tuesday. -more-

Toward the end of the Jan. 13 article “A Samizdat For Our Time,” quotation marks were mistakenly omitted from a quote by playwright Harold Pinter, giving the impression that the words were those of the story’s author. We regret the error.. -more-

Berkeley High students Robert Coil, a senior, and Alexis Hooper, a junior, are two of the most gracious teens you could hope to meet. They have ambition, good manners, and guts—the kind of kids who would make their parents proud, if only their parents were around. -more-

Berkeley High School Principal Jim Slemp’s State of the School speech last week gave the picture of a high school that is ready to step into the future. -more-

In Sunday’s New York Times Book Review, I read that Louis Sachar has finally written a sequel to his best-selling, award-winning young adult novel, Holes. Reading the review of this new novel, Small Steps, reminded me of a trip I took three years ago. Although I didn’t go far, it made a lasting impression, just as the book Holes made an impression when I read it back in 1999. -more-

To view Justin DeFreitas’ latest editorial cartoon, please visit -more-

CAMPAIGN FINANCE -more-

Editors, Daily Planet: -more-

You’d never know it from reading his press releases, but Mayor Bates is pushing a proposal to effectively eliminate Berkeley’s Landmarks Preservation Ordinance (LPO). He recently told a group of concerned citizens, “This is going to happen, I have a majority on the council.” But there’s more to it than a council majority. -more-

Last weekend my son was confronted by a team of police in a parking lot when he was returning from watching the Chronicles of Narnia. He was held at bay on suspicion of robbing the nearby Circuit City store even though the description of the suspect was i n no way similar to his physical features except that he is an African-American. -more-

Thanks for publishing a lengthy obituary on Campbell Coe, one of Telegraph Avenue’s colorful characters and an important person in the local music scene. Scott Hambly’s writing evokes the wide-ranging talents of a true “Renaissance man” and observes his conversational style thoughtfully. His description of the “incredible” tales that turned out to be true was as well put as it’s ever been. I have a few corrections and comments: -more-

It would be impossible to write a comprehensive history of American poetry in the last century and not make significant reference to the Bay Area. Only New York would seem to exceed it in importance. And one couldn’t very well compose that Bay Area section without paying considerable attention to Berkeley, home at one time or another to a number of major poets, such as Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder. -more-

TUESDAY, JAN. 17 -more-

Political analysts in Europe and the United States a month ago reacted with horror to the news that a native-born Belgian woman had become the first female Western convert to Islam to blow herself up for “martyrdom.” It’s as if being born and raised in the West were a vaccine against religious extremism. -more-

For many years big budget Hollywood movies depicted Arabs as terrorists or greedy oil barons, but since Sept. 11, 2001, and the war in Iraq, it seems such films are finally falling out of fashion. Arab analysts and media are lauding portrayals of Arabs and Muslims in the recent films Syriana and Munich, and the smaller budget independent film Paradise Now. Each are contenders to be on the list of Academy Award nominations released on Jan. 31. -more-

Two small gray shorebirds pitched down into the new Berkeley Marina mitigation wetlands, among the ducks and geese, and swam off out of binocular range. They were red phalaropes, part of a huge involuntary invasion blown in by the winter storms, scattered along the coast from the mouth of the Columbia River to Morro Bay. Some were dying of starvation when they hit land; the luckier ones seemed to be hanging around and regrouping before heading back out to sea. -more-

TUESDAY, JAN. 17 -more-