It’s Big Game week in Berkeley and Bear backers have never had so much reason to revel in their football team’s success or fear for its future. -more-

Berkeley’s Alta Bates Summit Medical Center faces the potential loss of the accreditation status needed to offer service to Medicare and Medicaid patients, following a scathing report from the Joint Commission of Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). -more-

Land use, and the development of a long range strategic plan to guide it, will likely be one of the major issues facing the new Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees when it convenes in January. -more-

There will likely be more cake than debate at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. -more-

Teachers, parents, students, and other citizens who think Berkeley classrooms don’t have sufficient textbooks or instructional materials get the chance to put their concerns on the record when the Berkeley Unified School District’s (BUSD) Board of Education holds a public hearing on the matter this week. -more-

A major share in one of Berkeley’s most notable buildings, the Hink’s Building at 2200 Shattuck Ave., has been sold, said John DeClerq, senior vice president of TransAction Financial, which had owned the building until early last week. -more-

Two Drivers Robbed, One Shot -more-

Three fires caused significant damage to Berkeley residences over last week, reports David Orth, Berkeley Deputy Fire Chief. -more-

One of California’s best-known Democrats has surfaced in leading roles as an advocate in three high-profile Richmond projects. -more-

AD HOMINEM CRAP -more-

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In Anne Galjour’s Character Building Workshop at San Francisco State University, we were assigned to read Fences by August Wilson. In preparation for class discussion we researched pop culture, circa 1957, the year in which the play is set. For most of my fellow students, this was like studying ancient history. Even Ms. Gajour, a lively, talented playwright and instructor, doesn’t remember 1957. But I do. I was born in 1952 so I didn’t have to look the decade up on the Internet. I thought I deserved extra credit. -more-

The Daily Planet’s Nov. 5 story on the problem of uncounted ballots (“Thousands of Ballots Still to Be Counted”) didn’t tell the half of it—or probably even a quarter of it. -more-

In 1982, the Oakland Symphony seemed to be going in a promising direction. Under the baton of Calvin Simmons, the orchestra began to look like a world class aggregation, or at the least, a top regional orchestra, especially after it made the newly restored Paramount Theater its home base. -more-

We’re getting some domestic fall color lately from a couple of tree species on the streets of Berkeley. One of the brightest is a relative newcomer here, Chinese pistache, Pistacia chinensis. -more-

TUESDAY, NOV. 16 -more-