Telegraph Avenue neighbors and merchants packed a Planning Commission meeting Wednesday to protest proposals to speed up buses from downtown Berkeley all the way to San Leandro by eliminating some traffic lanes for motorists on Telegraph Avenue and turning the three northernmost blocks of the street into a car-free, bus-only pedestrian mall. -more-

FRIDAY, JAN. 30 -more-

REALITY CHECK -more-

THE OBVIOUS -more-

FRIDAY, JAN. 30 -more-

About 30 protesters withstood steady drizzle early Thursday morning, worried that once Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) completes its newest laboratory complex, far smaller, more dangerous particles could rain down on them. -more-

Chanting “Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! M-T-O has got to go!”, an overflow crowd of city workers told the Berkeley City Council Tuesday night that a city manager’s mandatory time off (M-T-O) proposal to help close the budget gap wasn’t acceptable to the city’s non-public safety unions. -more-

A lawsuit filed early last week in San Francisco Superior Court by the Center for Environmental Health in North Oakland and another Bay Area activist organization could force the growing farmed salmon industry to radically change the way their product is raised. -more-

Instructors at UC Berkeley Extension’s English Language Program believe politics played a role in the university’s decision Monday to terminate the 31-year-old program. -more-

Top textbook publishers are giving students a costly lesson in exploitative pricing, according to a study released Thursday by California Student Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG). -more-

Friends and family of a well-known Berkeley activist will gather this Saturday to remember the remarkable life of Mildred Schoenberger, a 30-year resident of the city who died Dec. 15 at the Loving Care Nursing Home in El Cerrito after a long illness, three weeks shy of her ninety-eighth birthday. -more-

Sprint Wireless Communications and North Berkeley residents will have to wait another week to wait to find out whether city councilmembers will approve Sprint’s controversial cellular antennae facility at the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Cedar Street. -more-

Fewer students applied to the University of California this year than last, the first such drop in over a decade, according to a UC report released Tuesday. -more-

Tie-up -more-

My Mexican friends tell the story of two brothers who lived in a fishing village on the Monterey coast in the days when Alta California was still part of Mexico. From the time they were babies, the two brothers were all but inseparable; where one would be, so would be the other. One summer morning when they were in their late teens, however, they came into dispute. One of them wanted to go to the market at San Miguel, while the other wished to travel to the town of Gregorio, where a young woman lived. For the first time, neither would give way to the will of the other, so finally, one of the brothers hit upon the plan. -more-

Yellowman, which opened at Berkeley Repertory Theatre Wednesday night, finished the evening with two standing ovations. -more-

Naked singers and local folk heroes helped a packed crowd celebrate years of Berkeley activism on homelessness and mark the opening of a new temporary shelter during a benefit show at the Freight & Salvage coffee house Wednesday night. -more-

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the last in a series of articles by UC Berkeley journalism students on the paths of Berkeley. -more-