As part of a city effort to crack down on liquor store violations, Dwight Way Liquor may soon sell its last bottle of booze. -more-

With former Congressmember Ron Dellums setting a self-imposed deadline of Oct. 1 to announce whether or not he will run for mayor of Oakland in next year’s elections, organizers of a “Draft Dellums” campaign have announced that they will conclude their petition drive at a Wednesday morning press conference at the Ron Dellums Federal Building in Oakland. -more-

The suspected shooter in the July 17 killing of Meleia Willis-Starbuck was captured in a Fresno apartment Friday as he hid in a bedroom closet. -more-

The owner of the two-story plywood shell with a house atop that South Berkeley neighbors call “The Flying Cottage” has won a major battle in her fight to resume construction on the building. -more-

For the second time in less than a week, UC Berkeley officers have ripped apart the latest incarnation of a long-standing clothing donation box at People’s Park. -more-

A compromise to keep Berkeley Iceland open hit a snag last week when the skating rink reported that a temporary outdoor refrigeration system the city ordered it to install would be too noisy for neighbors. -more-

With conversion to the new PeopleSoft management software causing problems in an overworked Peralta Community College payroll office, Peralta trustees have called for an update on the PeopleSoft conversion at tonight’s (Tuesday) trustee meeting. -more-

A gala dinner at HS Lordship’s Restaurant Sunday evening raised an estimated $83,000 for victims of Hurricane Katrina both in Berkeley and across the country. -more-

The Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees meets Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the district administrative headquarters, 333 E. 8th St., Oakland. Items on the agenda include: -more-

After a brief respite from his work of recovering the bodies of victims of Hurricane Katrina in Biloxi, Miss., Berkeley Fire Department Lt. Darren Bobrosky is at it again. -more-

The spirit of Katrina—accompanied by anger that government foresight and dollars could have blunted much of the hurricane’s damage—blew into San Francisco Saturday, stirring passions at the anti-war march and rally. -more-

NEXT YEAR IN NEW ORLEANS -more-

One of the many nice things about Berkeley is our town’s neighborhood shopping districts. Their linear form is a legacy of the city’s early twentieth century development as a streetcar suburb. Their distinctiveness is a holdover of another sort: unlike much American retail, this city still abounds in unique mercantile enterprise, a lot of it locally owned and operated. -more-

Last weekend I took care of my 3 1/2-year-old nephew, Bryce. It was party, party, party for 49 hours straight. We went to three parks and several places of business. We threw a small tantrum in Ross Dress for Less, and we forgot (several times) how to share while playing with Clyiesha, Maynard, and Lil’ Bobby. But all in all we had a pretty good time. -more-

The agreement signed by the City and the University earlier this year provides a historic opportunity to work together on a range of community issues—from summer literacy programs to economic and urban development plans. -more-

On Tuesday night, Sept. 27, the Berkeley City Council will take up the planning process for a new Downtown Area Plan. The concept of a new Downtown Area Plan has generated quite a few letters and commentaries on the pages of the Berkeley Daily Planet, and also one lawsuit by Berkeley residents, (including the authors) against city officials and the Regents. We thought you might like a few facts about the Downtown Area Plan as envisioned by the City of Berkeley/UC regents Settlement Agreement: -more-

All across the nation people are collecting clothes for the needy. But in Berkeley they're throwing clean, freshly laundered clothing in dumpsters, locking the dumpsters, and threatening potential donors with misdemeanor tickets. -more-

Pigeon Drop -more-

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A casual chat between a customer and the proprietor of a butcher shop about spousal murder ... an aggressive real estate investor torn between evicting a pregnant woman and her passive husband, (former neighbors), or reinstituting her old affair with the husband instead ... a suicide-prone go-fercum-hit-man in an amorous clinch with the monstrous realty lady while her butcher husband watches a strip-show in a seamy club. -more-

A documentary that takes aim at the business of genetically modified food will debut Friday at Shattuck Cinemas. -more-

In his 80s, George Stewart was a tall, slender gentleman with white hair and white moustache carefully trimmed, in a businessman’s style. I thought his observant blue eyes were his most interesting feature. He wore his years elegantly and spoke carefully, with a great concern for accuracy. In his speech, as in his writing, he was clearly not a man given to verbal extravagance. -more-

George Stewart changed my life. -more-

OK, it’s autumn. The warblers are migrating through town—Joe saw two yellow warblers and a Wilson’s, another yellow and an orange-crowned, two more yellows and a Townsend’s; we’ve seen Townsend’s and hermit warblers with gangs of Wilson’s warblers and the usual chickadees and bushtits in Tilden Park. The fog has a colder, Arctic-flavored edge to it in the evenings. The trees are starting to fall into step, the mulberries tossing leaves to the ground with an audible whack. -more-

TUESDAY, SEPT. 27 -more-

TUESDAY, SEPT. 27 -more-