Local News and Opinion from The Berkeley Daily Planet

News Updates

Hoeft-Edenfield Denied Bail in UC Stabbing Case

By Riya Bhattacharjee

Monday August 18, 2008

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson denied bail on Monday to Berkeley City College student Andrew Hoeft-Edenfield, who has been charged with the stabbing death of UC Berkeley senior Chris Wootton. -more-

STAR Test Results Show Steady Gains for BUSD, State

By Riya Bhattacharjee

Saturday August 16, 2008

The results for California's 2008 Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program show a higher percentage of students in the Berkeley Unified School District scored proficient or above in reading, writing and mathematics as compared with the state results. -more-

Ashby BART Parking Lot To Close Monday for Ed Roberts Construction

By Riya Bhattacharjee

Saturday August 16, 2008

Starting Monday the east entrance and parking lot of Ashby BART will be closed for 18 months to allow construction of the $45 million Ed Roberts Campus. -more-

UC Berkeley Gym Plaintiffs Drop New Trial Bid

By Bay City News

Saturday August 16, 2008

Three plaintiff groups who filed suit to try to stop the University of California, Berkeley from building a new sports training center next to its football stadium Friday withdrew their bid to have a judge reverse her most recent ruling in the case. -more-

Rice University Student Tells Police He Wanted to Come West and Disappear

By Riya Bhattacharjee

Friday August 15, 2008

Matthew Wilson, the missing Rice University student who was found by UC police on the UC Berkeley campus Wednesday, was transported to a local hospital for medical assessment after being interviewed by a homicide detective from the Berkeley Police Department later that night. -more-

Power Outage Shuts Down West Berkeley

By Kristin McFarland

Thursday August 14, 2008

Approximately 1,000 West Berkeley PG&E customers were without power for more than four hours on Thursday. -more-

BART Services Restored After Delay from Cracked Rail

By Riya Bhattacharjee

Thursday August 14, 2008

BART services to the East Bay were restored around 11 a.m. after a cracked rail north of Lake Merritt Station caused a two-hour disruption earlier this morning. -more-

News

Walker’s Restaurant and Pie Shop to Close Sept. 30

By James Carter Special to the Planet

Thursday August 14, 2008

Solano Avenue, one of the last remnants of Main Street U.S.A., will soon lose a piece of its fabric as American as apple pie. -more-

No August Issue of Street Spirit

By Riya Bhattacharjee

Thursday August 14, 2008

There’s a sudden dearth of homeless people in Berkeley crying out the ever-familiar “Street Spirit, only $1.” -more-

Berkeley High Teacher Dies In Philippines

By Riya Bhattacharjee and Rio Bauce

Thursday August 14, 2008

Kalpna Mistry, a global studies teacher at Berkeley International High School, died from a heart attack Aug. 4 while on a Fulbright Scholarship to the Philippines. -more-

First Person: My Memories of Ms. Mistry

By Lucy Sundelson

Thursday August 14, 2008

One of the most satisfying experiences of my freshman year at Berkeley High was a trip to Sacramento to protest Gov. Schwarzenegger’s proposed education budget cuts. There were busloads of students from Berkeley High alone and hundreds of other students from all over California. We spent the day buttonholing members of the Assembly, touring the state capitol building and demonstrating in front of it. The whole energizing experience only happened because of the determination and tireless efforts of my global studies teacher, Ms. Mistry. -more-

Four Candidates Dropped from Berkeley Political Races

By Riya Bhattacharjee

Thursday August 14, 2008

Four people who did not have 20 valid signatures on their nomination forms, as required by state law, were disqualified from running in Berkeley’s 2008 municipal elections Monday, city officials said. -more-

Van Hool Bus Survey Comes Too Late

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor

Thursday August 14, 2008

AC Transit says it wants to get community feedback on the re-engineered Van Hool buses soon to go out on local routes, but the timing of the district’s public input process appears to make it unlikely that any suggestions or criticisms will come in time to have much effect on the buses’ manufacture. -more-

Commission Landmarks Brower House

By Riya Bhattacharjee

Thursday August 14, 2008

Santa Cruz, UC Settle Development Plan Lawsuit

By Richard Brenneman

Thursday August 14, 2008

Specifics of the UC Santa Cruz Agreement with City, County and Citizen Plaintiffs

By Richard Brenneman

Thursday August 14, 2008

Citizen Group Founder Unhappy with UC/Santa Cruz Settlement

By Richard Brenneman

Thursday August 14, 2008

Court: Berkeley Appeals Must Wait for Final Trial Judgment

By Richard Brenneman

Thursday August 14, 2008

Berkeley High Newspaper in Financial Straits

By Rio Bauce

Thursday August 14, 2008

Court OKs Homeschooling in California

By Riya Bhattacharjee

Thursday August 14, 2008

Design Unveiled for Berkeley High’s Old Gym

By Riya Bhattacharjee

Thursday August 14, 2008

Students Hit by High Tuition Cost

By Rio Bauce

Thursday August 14, 2008

Anna de Leon shares her memories of Dona Spring at a Sunday memorial service.

Berkeley Remembers Dona Spring

By Riya Bhattacharjee and Rio Bauce

Thursday August 14, 2008

Cal-OSHA Files Citation Against AC Transit

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor

Thursday August 14, 2008

Berkeley Police Report High Recovery Rate of Stolen Cars

By Kristin McFarland

Thursday August 14, 2008

Catalytic Converter Thieves Strike Berkeley

By Kristin McFarland

Thursday August 14, 2008

Zoning Board Agenda

By Riya Bhattacharjee

Thursday August 14, 2008

Bomb Scare at Bayer

By Richard Brenneman

Thursday August 14, 2008

Washington Elementary Goes Solar

By Rio Bauce

Thursday August 14, 2008

Fire Department Log

By Richard Brenneman

Thursday August 14, 2008

Desley Brooks’ Sister Opts Out of Peralta Race

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor

Thursday August 14, 2008

Enviro Commission Offers Tough Critique Of Downtown Plan Sustainability Chapter

By Richard Brenneman

Thursday August 14, 2008

Richmond Meeting Addresses Toxic Cleanup Health Concerns

By Richard Brenneman

Thursday August 14, 2008

Editorials

Editorial: When the Personal Becomes Political

By Becky O'Malley

Thursday August 14, 2008

The buzz of the week is that John Edwards was carrying on with the cute little blonde videographer wanna-be who was trailing his campaign for a while. Some commentators affected surprise. Not, of course, the irrepressible Alexander Cockburn, who’s been avidly repeating the National Enquirer’s breathless reports about the affair for months. -more-