If you live in South Berkeley, chances are you’ve met Bill Bahou. For 22 years, he’s run Roxie’s Delicatessen on the corner of Shattuck and Ashby, serving quality, affordable sandwiches to one and all and offering a helping hand wherever he can. -more-

FRIDAY, OCT. 10 -more-

For many, the nightmare of trying to survive on low wage jobs just about anywhere in America remains just that, a nightmare. One person who’s lived to tell what it’s really like to try to live on a little over $5 an hour is journalist Barbara Ehrenreich, author of “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.” -more-

FRIDAY, OCT. 10 -more-

West Berkeley neighbors say they hope the recent police raid of a notorious drug den will finally clear the drug dealers and loiterers from a long-blighted intersection. -more-

FRED LUPKE -more-

On a recent afternoon at the Women’s Cancer Resource Center on Telegraph Avenue, Maria gets a tender embrace from Mary Tunison, the center’s executive director. -more-

As a tenant the proposal to increase homeowners taxes by $250 annually will cost me nothing, but I oppose it because it is wrong. It is wrong to scare Berkeley residents with polling questions threatening to cut off emergency services unless we agree to increase taxes. It is wrong because homeowners are not all rich, some struggle to get by or are dependent on fixed incomes. But mostly, it is wrong because it is unnecessary. -more-

In response to vocal concern about a rapidly rising crime rate in North Oakland neighborhoods, the chief of the Oakland Police Department admitted last week that his office “made a mistake” in diverting elite officers from North Oakland and West Oakland last summer. -more-

Let’s give a cheer for good old Arnie— -more-

Volunteer poll workers mistakenly barred a Daily Planet reporter from watching them handle data chips embedded with thousands of electronic votes shortly after the polls closed on election night. -more-

Berkeley librarians insist that embedding their books with a state-of-the-art monitoring device despised by privacy advocates will not grant Big Brother a glimpse at patron’s reading material. -more-

The nationwide Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary—otherwise known as BAMN—returned to UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza Wednesday to celebrate California’s decision to vote down Proposition 54. -more-

Police May Bring Back Dogs -more-

When Rush Limbaugh’s drug problem first surfaced in various website chatter, I was intrigued. When it made the evening news, I admit I felt a moment of joy. Limbaugh is the icon of brutish, cheap-shot conservatism and his entertaining style has spawned a vast legion of broadcast talkers even nastier than he. How could one not find some pleasure in his fall from grace? As we learned from the unmasking of other righteously destructive rightwingers, hypocrisy is their middle name. -more-

On Monday night the Oakland A’s played the Boston Red Sox in the final baseball game of their American League Division Series. A win moved them one step closer to a World Series title; a loss ended the season. It was a big game. I wondered if Oakland’s playoff fever stretched north to Berkeley. -more-

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On the day after the recall election, a couple of my more politically-involved friends asked—in no small state of befuddlement—how Californians could simultaneously overwhelmingly defeat Proposition 54 and elect Arnold Schwarzenegger governor. -more-

In light of a continuing string of wheelchair pedestrian accidents, including Fred Lupke’s recent death, the Berkeley Commission on Disability’s subcommittee for transportation met Wednesday to draw up requests asking the city to revisit what they say are important safety measures proposed for the city’s general plan. -more-

While some Indian jewelry and saree stores are rumored to have taken off for Los Angeles and more lucrative markets, new Indian stores and restaurants are opening almost monthly on and around University Avenue. Indian Americans travel from San Jose, Fremont, Palo Alto, Yuba City, and even Los Angeles to shop here. -more-

How smoothly last Tuesday’s recall election went in the city of Berkeley depends upon which end of the process you observed. Poll workers reported a nearly flawless experience by voters using the Diebold touch-screen voting machines throughout the city. But there were glitches in the vote compiling process. -more-