News

The Berkeley City Councilmember representing the district of embattled Oregon Street homeowner Lenora Moore has sharply criticized the neighbors who brought a lawsuit in Small Claims Court against the 75-year-old grandmother, saying that their action involved a “revenge motive.” -more-

Berkeley officials have taken the first steps toward moving the city’s popular flea market, the market’s attorney said Monday. -more-

Former Berkeley Police Officer Sgt. Cary Kent, 53, pleaded guilty Friday to three felony charges: grand theft, possession of heroin, and possession of methamphetamine. -more-

Cultural uses at the Gaia Building, sewer fees, and adopting the barn owl as the city’s official bird are just a few of the issues the City Council will address tonight (Tuesday) after its month-long spring break. -more-

Two incumbents will vie to maintain their hold on the Berkeley Board of Education, while President Terry Doran says he won’t run again. -more-

Warped lane configurations on Telegraph Avenue and a traffic analysis of proposed mixed-use development on University Avenue topped the list of hot button issues on the Transportation Commission’s agenda Thursday. -more-

Despite heavy rains experienced in Berkeley this year, two of the city’s emergency storm shelters have closed and a third has only a few more days of funding. -more-

Faced with a budget crisis, the Contra Costa Health Department has proposed $12.8 million in cuts that would eliminate 88 jobs and reduce some key services. -more-

Efforts by Richmond environmental activists are playing a major role in reducing developer opposition to laws tightening regulations at contaminated sites. -more-

The Secretary-Treasurer and Finance Committee Chair of the Alameda County Medical Center Board of Trustees abruptly resigned from the board last week, leaving the board without a key financial expert at a time when the center is facing a fiscal crisis and questions about board oversight of its fiscal management. -more-

Just when it seemed impossible for relations between the United States and Iran to get any worse, they have deteriorated once again. The rhetoric and counter-rhetoric over Iran’s nuclear program sounds serious and substantive. However, a little reflection reveals this situation for what it is: a continuing piece of high-stakes political theater that principally benefits the leaders of both nations by shoring up their lagging political fortunes. -more-

The following is an excerpt from Richard Schwartz’s Earthquake Exodus, 1906: Berkeley Responds to the San Francisco Refugees. This is the last in a series of four installments from the book. -more-

There is a 62 percent chance of an earthquake of a magnitude of 6.7 or greater striking the San Francisco Bay Area before the year 2032, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. -more-

A tall, heavy-set man claiming to be “God and the messiah” barricaded himself inside his Ocean Gardens home for 20 hours before surrendering without incident early Thursday. -more-

Berkeley Police Officer Sgt. Cary Kent has not been charged with a crime, but the district attorney’s warrant allowing officers to search his office, locker and computer ties Kent tightly to drugs missing from the department’s evidence vault. -more-

Citizens spoke out before and during the Wednesday night Police Review Commission meeting at the South Berkeley Senior Center, demanding commissioners investigate allegations that Berkeley Police Sgt. Cary Kent tampered with drug evidence locked in the Berkeley Police Department vault. -more-

Want your anti-war protest to get noticed? Don’t pay your taxes. -more-

The countdown has begun. If contract negotiations aren’t reached within a week, Oakland teachers will walk out. -more-

At least 42 candidates have applied to serve on the task force planning the first stages of development at the Ashby BART station. -more-

Berkeley’s legendary ice-skating rink will stay open—for now. -more-

The oft-embattled flagship Pacifica radio station, KPFA, seems to be cruising into its 57th birthday—tomorrow, April 15—on relatively calm waters, with fundraising goals met, the last beleaguered-short-lived general manager gone, a permanent executive director at the national level in place and, last week, the appointment of Interim General Manager Lemlem Rijio. -more-

Tom Butt thinks he’s found a way to get quick action to start fixing Richmond’s sorely overtaxed sewer system—shut down new connections till the job is done. -more-

The gathering at St. Joseph the Worker Church Tuesday morning was a send-off of sorts for Sarah Harper and Cheryl Sommers. The two women had called friends and the media to the church where they intended to speak out in public for the last time before they went to jail for three months. -more-

Despite a recent legal setback, the attorney for ousted Alameda County Medical Center Trustee Gwen Rowe-Lee Sykes said that he is working on continuing legal action against what he calls a “culture of intimidation” at the center “which retaliates, penalizes, and punishes people who point out problems” at the center. -more-

“This is where it all begins,” said Jim Allison, BART spokesperson, as he pointed out the Operations Control Room (OCC) at the Lake Meritt station on Monday morning. -more-

César E. Chávez, the courageous defender of those who work the earth, used to claim that farm workers were an early warning system against environmental destruction. -more-