When Councilmember Laurie Capitelli introduced new elements to a draft Landmarks Preservation Ordinance at a council meeting earlier this month with no notice to the public, some community members cried foul. -more-

An agreement between the chief of the Oakland Police Department and the powerful Oakland Police Officers Association union to put more officers on Oakland’s streets at peak crime times delivers considerably fewer officers than first proposed by the chie f, and appears to do so at considerably greater cost. -more-

Something’s foul at the Alternative High School. -more-

The Gaia Building, the heart of one of Berkeley’s longest-running political and cultural dramas, is heading back for another look by the same city panel that approved its construction. -more-

Berkeley police made the biggest pot bust in the department’s recent history Wednesday, and they wanted people to know. -more-

The City Council meets tonight, Tuesday, first at 5:30 p.m. as the Redevelopment Agency, then at 7 p.m., in its regular role. -more-

Decision time is fast approaching for the hotly debated creeks ordinance, but Creeks Task Force members are still torn over how to regulate the city’s hidden waterways. -more-

At last Thursday’s Berkeley Transportation Commission meeting, the board unanimously passed a motion asking for a transportation services fee (TSF) to be approved by the City Council at its July 11 meeting. -more-

Aficionados of Himalayan cuisine can eat their hearts out tonight (Tuesday), knowing that they’re doing good by eating well. -more-

More than 75 percent of Berkeley voters would support a renewed school parcel tax, a new survey says. -more-

The Deficit Reduction Act of 2006 which was passed in February 2006 by Congress and signed by President Bush included language that essentially overturned the Rosales v. Thompson decision handed down by the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. The decision in Rosales broadened the eligibility criteria for federal foster care funding under Title IV-E, which enabled children to be found eligible for Title IV-E. -more-

Richmond-based robbers -more-

Car torched -more-

BERKELEY UTOPIA -more-

The City of Berkeley, members of the city government, Anna De Leon, and Panoramic Interest have spent weeks, months, years, and thousands of your tax dollars debating and clarifying the issues of the Gaia Arts Center. In an attempt to bring controversy about the Gaia Arts Center back to city government, Ms. De Leon is using her status as an attorney, misinterpretation of the facts, and influential friends in the city government to encourage city planning officials and the ZAB to reexamine the Gaia Arts Center and modify zoning. -more-

A decade ago we led the successful community effort to rebuild the tot-lot at Thousand Oaks School Park in conjunction with the daylighting of Blackberry Creek. As Glen Kohler has stated (letter to the editor, Feb. 21), the daylighting project was a wrenching experience for our neighborhood. Replying to Kohler, Urban Creeks Council leader Carol Schemmerling (Feb. 28) wrote: “There were indeed, advocates and critics (after all this is Berkeley)…” -more-

Two weeks ago, some local residents spotted something truly special in Codornices Creek: a pair of adult steelhead trout—a federally listed threatened species—trying to build nests (“redds”) for their eggs. Fortunately, Friends of Five Creeks and the Urban Creeks Council were able to capture these spawning attempts on film for the first time ever on this creek (you can view the video clip at www.urbancreeks.org). -more-

In the three years I’ve attended San Francisco State as an MFA student, I’ve developed a consuming interest in the theater. Brian Thorstenson, whose play Shadow Crossing is now at the Berkeley City Club, was the first instructor to inspire me in the craft of playwriting. In his course, “Reading and Viewing Plays,” we read and saw half a dozen live performances, and watched several on tape. We analyzed and critiqued, then copied scenes from each play, put them into our own words and voices, and made them our stories. -more-

Once it’s reached adulthood a Monterey cypress is easy to recognize, though it takes wildly different shapes depending on whether it’s near the ocean shore, its native habitat, or inland even only a few miles. Its native habitat, in fact, is the very small section of coastland between Monterey and Point Lobos. If it were only there, it would be rare—and most likely endangered—just because its range would be so small. But it’s handsome and easy to grow from seed, so it’s in cultivation and part of human-made landscapes all over the world. -more-