It’s the biggest mystery swirling through Berkeley City Hall these past few days. What possessed Councilmember Margaret Breland to sack her appointee to the Planning Commission, John Curl, one day before the Wednesday night meeting where Curl appeared set to be elected vice chair of the commission? -more-

The ire surrounding the presidency of George W. Bush officially made its way to the Berkeley City Council Tuesday night when the council voted 8-0, Dona Spring abstaining, to support MoveOn.org’s efforts to censure President Bush. -more-

The project director of the proposed Berkeley UC hotel and conference complex stated this week for the first time, at least publicly, that the massive downtown development project will have to come under the city’s zoning ordinances and permit process. UC Senior Planner Kevin Hufferd told a Tuesday afternoon meeting of the Planning Commission’s UC Hotel Complex Task Force, however, that the hotel would probably exceed the city’s downtown height restrictions, leaving the distinct impression that it is the zoning ordinance itself which will have to give if the project is to go through. -more-

Wednesday morning’s walkout at El Cerrito High School was one protest that left Principal Vince Rhea smiling. -more-

FRIDAY, MARCH 12 -more-

After months of painful debate among parents about letting their young children vote on an issue heavy with racial overtones, students at Jefferson Elementary School will have final say on a controversial petition drive to change the school’s name. But they will participate only from the confines of their homes. -more-

The Board of Education voted Wednesday night to approve the latest incarnation of the Identity and Ethnic Studies (IES) program, Berkeley High’s most maligned class. The move came despite a call for ending IES from the student senate, which claimed it exacerbates racial tension on campus and costs students valuable electives. -more-

A proposal that could change the way Berkeley calculates how much can be built in a single development—and aimed at cutting down the size of future projects—was passed unanimously by the City Council Tuesday night. -more-

Oakland school district officials announced today that they won’t be sending layoff notices to tenured teachers this year. Last year the school district sent layoff notices to 1,160 teachers only to find itself seeking in the summer and fall to rehire them or find replacements. -more-

Robbery Victim Shot -more-

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Once touted as the centerpiece of the Silicon Valley dream, San Jose now seems to be collapsing from the inside. In the past few weeks: A father was mistakenly killed downtown by a state drug agent, a Sikh man killed three other Sikhs in a park, longtime Bay Area families were threatened with deportation, and growing reports of abuse came out of our Santa Clara Juvenile Hall. -more-

NORMAN, Okla.—Defending his decision to support a constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage, President Bush declared that the “union of a man and woman is the most enduring human institution, honored and encouraged in all cultures and by every religious faith.” -more-

If society is judged by the way it raises its children, what does the present condition of the East Bay’s major school systems say about us? -more-

Since last fall, Berkeley Design Advocates (BDA), a group of architects, planners and developers, has been promoting its vision of a gentrified West Berkeley. -more-

LEADERSHIP GAP -more-

The proposed downtown hotel and conference center poses an unprecedented risk to Berkeley’s unique character. This is not just another development fight, as the stakes are far greater. Defeating this project requires rare unity among longtime combatants in the city’s development wars. -more-

Out of a whole year filled with most improbable and sometimes inelegant arm movements, bow or baton in hand, there is only one Monday when I always come to work with a sore wrist. That’s usually the first or second Monday of February, after the annual weekend of auditions for the Junior Bach Festival, now in its fifty-first year in Berkeley. -more-

Maybe if we all go over to the university and picket Zellerbach Playhouse we can persuade the university’s theater department to extend the run of their present production of Marat/Sade past this weekend. -more-

Let me begin my completely biased and highly arbitrary list of events by telling you about the Oakland Museum Jazz Series. Four days of the week you can grab an inexpensive lunch, sit in the light-filled room that is the dining area, and hear bassist Ron Crotty accompany one of three fine Bay Area pianists who are in rotation there: Brian Cook, Terry Rodriguez, and Bliss Rodriguez. Terry was the fellow playing when I stopped in recently. -more-

FRIDAY, MARCH 12 -more-

Years ago I had a duck who would have killed for a tomato. I almost feel the same way about scalloped potatoes. When the potatoes have grown in one’s garden, the pleasure is doubled. Yet each year I fail to achieve the maximum crop, in spite of having tried nearly every known method of cultivation. Could it possibly be that potatoes have their limits—about two pounds per plant—and never will fill a twenty gallon garbage can with tubers, as is so often stated? -more-

A grass-roots project organized by Berkeley parents and supported by State Assemblymember Loni Hancock will be distributing $66,500 between Berkeley’s 17 public schools on Friday as part of a fundraising drive to help the district which has been hit hard by budget cuts. -more-

The true traveler is he who goes on foot, and even then, he sits down a lot of the time. -more-

Berkeley gets another sobering look at the reality of the Era Of Diminishing Budgets tonight (Tuesday, March 9) when the director of the Berkeley Public Library is expected to propose laying off 16 employees and closing the main library on Sunday. The proposal will be presented at the City Council’s 4:30 p.m. work session at the Old City Hall, where City Manager Phil Kamlarz will present some $14 million in total proposed budget reductions for fiscal years 2005 and 2006. -more-

The Zoning Adjustments Board will soon have to decide whether or not to overrule the Landmarks Preservation Commission and give developer Ruegg & Ellsworth permission demolish the historic Blood House. -more-

The Grand Old Party has declared war on MoveOn.org’s Voter Fund’s television ads critical of President Bush, and MoveOn founder Wes Boyd is furious. -more-

Just as voters approved a bond measure last week filling AC Transit’s coffers with money for new infrastructure projects, cash shortfalls are once again threatening basic AC Transit service. After eliminating 43 lines last December to close a $50 million deficit, AC Transit now finds itself $17 million in the red and is mulling more service cuts, the sale of its top-of-the-line buses, and another service-saving ballot measure—the third in the last five years. -more-

TUESDAY, MARCH 9 -more-

Elise Blumenfeld’s voice resonates enthusiasm as she guides a reporter through a verbal tour of Berkeley’s newest officially recognized historic district. -more-

With a Target store moving in next door, a resort hotel envisioned a few blocks further north and transbay ferry service beckoning at its shore, Gilman Street—part of Berkeley’s industrial core—is emerging as ground zero in the city’s planning wars. -more-

For almost 14 years, Rebecca Dennison has been fighting one of the world’s toughest fights. Since testing positive for HIV in 1991, Dennison, who is a Berkeley resident, has also become one of the leading advocates for women living with HIV/AIDS. She was honored for her work last Saturday when she was inducted into the Alameda County Women’s Hall of Fame. -more-

A group of concerned homeless residents came knocking at the city’s door on Friday, asking officials to help them find a way to keep a temporary shelter at Oakland’s old Army Base open until the weather dries out and warms up. -more-

UC Berkeley and Federal Express have agreed to fund Fulbright fellowships jointly for graduate students denied funding after a FedEx error caused applications to be picked up past the deadline. -more-

Burglar Caught -more-

One of the great modern California folk myths is that African-Americans did not show up west of the Sierra Nevadas until the opening of work for black folk at the World War II shipyards. In fact, African-Americans were migrating into the state in signifi cant numbers as early as the mid-19th century, and in the East Bay had formed a stable, diverse, and well-defined community by the turn of the last century. One of the survivors of that pre-World War II black community—Berkeley native Dorothy Reid Pete—ce lebrated her ninetieth birthday last week. -more-

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN—Although temperatures sometimes drop below freezing, farmers have already planted this year’s opium poppy crop in fields just outside Kandahar city. It’s no secret to the government of interim President Hamid Karzai or the U.S. troops who patrol the area. Opium poppy is virtually the only winter crop. -more-

What’s the first stop you make after spending two months in the west wing of Oakland’s Kaiser Permanente ICU? If you are anything like my husband, Ralph, you go directly to Fentons Creamery and Restaurant, the venerable 110-year-old ice cream institution located just a few blocks up the street from the hospital, but a million miles away in terms of sweetness, atmo, and calorie counts. -more-

ALBANY ZONING -more-

Thomas Jefferson was a slave holder. Allowing a Berkeley school to remain named for him is a tacit, but, powerful statement that owning more than 150 slaves was a minor or excusable part of his legacy. Citing selected pieces of his writing to characterize him as an opponent of slavery goes against the common sense notion that “actions speak louder than words.” To minimize the fact that he bought, sold and worked other human beings for his personal profit is disrespectful to the memory of those for whom slavery was not a concept to be pondered, but a life that was lived. It is equally disrespectful to the memory of the many white Americans of Jefferson’s era who actively resisted the institution of American slavery. -more-

Welcome to the second installment of my “Ask Mayor Tom” column. If you have a question or an issue you would like covered in this column, please drop me a note (my contact information is at the bottom). -more-

Finally, after 25 years as an amateur community opera, the Berkeley Opera has taken a first step toward becoming a small professional company. By presenting Wagner’s Ring at Berkeley’s Julia Morgan Theatre in a three-and-a-half-hour condensed version designed to be produced by small companies, the opera makes this work accessible to the general public at a reasonable price. Jonathan Khuner, the artistic director, took a risk and broke the ground for further explorations in this direction. Cast with professional singers rather than local amateurs, and staged by the brilliant young stage director Mark Streshinsky, with stunning projections by both Streshinsky and Jeremy Knight, the general quality of the production was well above what has previously been seen at the Berkeley Opera. Hopefully it will be the dawning of a new age for this company. -more-

At Berkeley High School, students usually congregate on campus and in the park to laugh, eat lunch and make plans for the weekend. But for many Berkeley High students, recent gatherings include memorials, funerals and grief support groups, as they come t o grips with the accidental deaths of two popular students. -more-

Someone once said that in order to understand the culture and history of a people, you must “flush the johns.” You might also consider visiting a shopping mall. If you’re retail consultant Paco Underhill (a “tall, bald, stuttering research wonk on the cusp of his fifty-third year”), you would spend your time sniffing around 300 malls all across the country, observing American shoppers in their sweatpants and sneakers and taking copious notes. -more-

TUESDAY, MARCH 9 -more-

The ceanothuses are blooming! Ceanothi? Or is “ceanothus” like “moose”—singular and plural? Either way, it’s almost not a street tree, but the plantings on the University Avenue median are too gorgeous right now to let semantics stand in the way. -more-

Okay, the vernal equinox is creeping up on us. It’s light outside when we wake up in the morning, and the birds have launched their spring programming. As noted in these pages, stuff is blooming all over the place. It’s the time when the thoughts of many turn to romance. And, also, when the thoughts of some turn to politics. -more-

Things you’d never know if you didn’t read the papers…even the local Knight-Ridder-CocoTimes-Lesher-Hills-faux-front offspring that appears in driveways in upscale zip codes from time to time. From the Berkeley manifestation of this conglomerate publishing empire, we learn that our mayor was “frosted” because a memo addressed to him by a city attorney found its way into the Berkeley Daily Planet. Since the mayor’s office didn’t honor us with his comments, we’ll quote the full item from Knight-Ridder’s Berkeley Voice, for those of you who live in the flats and don’t see it: -more-