With a week to go before the Nov. 4 elections, candidates running for the Berkeley Board of Education turned the spotlight on the achievement gap at a debate organized by the Berkeley PTA Council at Willard Middle School on Monday. -more-

Berkeley planning commissioners have slated yet another special meeting for Wednesday night as they rush to finish their rewrite of the new Downtown Area Plan. -more-

Development-related contributions continue to pour into the coffers of candidates for next week’s Berkeley city council election, with Mayor Tom Bates in the lead both in total and sector-related contributions. -more-

When they first ran against each other in 2002, it was Berkeley’s epic political battle. Shirley Dean was the lightning-rod mayor and leader of the moderate-progressive political faction in a City Council and a city that were deeply divided along factional lines. Looking for a way to oust a political powerhouse, members of the opposing left-progressive faction recruited former state Assemblymember Tom Bates to run against Dean. -more-

Students at Berkeley’s Maybeck High School can move into new classrooms in St. John’s Presbyterian Church this spring, since the school received a relocation permit from city officials at a public meeting Thursday. -more-

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 45-day revision to the state budget gives the Berkeley Unified School District more revenue than what he proposed earlier this year, but leaves it with a minimal cost of living increase, district officials said Wednesday -more-

Berkeley developers are making a last-minute push to flood the coffers of Terry Doran as he battles to win the city council seat representing downtown Berkeley. -more-

Shay Black is an Irish musician who lives in Oakland just a few blocks from the Planet office on Shattuck. He has led an Irish music session in the nearby Starry Plough every Sunday for the last thirteen years. Recently, he's become a YouTube celebrity. Last month, a jolly video starring Shay was made at the Plough, posted on YouTube and now has 250,000 hits. It's a cover of a song originally written in Ireland which reclaims Barack Obama's Irish roots. Here's the first verse: -more-

Middle School is investigating three small fires that started in a couple of trash cans in the school’s restrooms and an open garbage area in the garden during school hours Wednesday, district officials said. -more-

If money is the mother’s milk of politics, as a legendary California Democrat once explained, then development is its cash cow. -more-

The four Berkeley Board of Education candidates will face off at a debate hosted by the Berkeley PTA Council at Willard Middle School on Monday night. -more-

Pink and green ceramic tiles—stacks of them—lay outside Berkeley High’s Community Theater last Thursday, waiting to be used to make a table honoring one of the school’s newest but most-loved teachers, who died from a heart attack in August while she was in the Phillipines on a Fulbright Scholarship. -more-

UC Berkeley police arrested one current and one former member of the Cal Bears football team on Monday in connection with the Sept. 30 break-in robbery of two students in their suite at the university’s Clark Kerr residential complex. -more-

Incumbent Laurie Capitelli represents District Five, covering central northern Berkeley, and is facing a difficult race in which his opponent, Sophie Hahn, has raised nearly twice as much campaign funding. -more-

In the battle to replace the late Dona Spring in the city’s fourth council district, only one of the four candidates in the running is a strongly pro-development advocate. -more-

Incumbents in two Berkeley council races didn’t raise a dime by the end of the Sept. 30 reporting period and only one candidate filed in opposition, leaving District Three’s Max Anderson without a foe. -more-

The Berkeley Rep announced last Thursday that it had raised $6,000 at the world premiere of Yellowjackets to help the Berkeley High School student newspaper, The Jacket, stay afloat. -more-

Berkeley’s oldest surviving public school will honor its past on Sunday to preserve its future. -more-

A Jefferson Elementary School third-grade teacher has resigned following allegations that she might have violated the separation of church and state by teaching creationism to her third-grade class, district officials said Friday. -more-

The Berkeley Unified School District is scheduled to hold a meeting on Oct. 30 to update the community about the status of the sale of the Hillside School. -more-

MEASURE HH City Expenditures -more-

Family and friends were shocked and saddened to learn of the sudden death of Le Bateau Ivre restaurant owner Thomas Eddie Cooper the afternoon of Thursday, Oct. 16. Even those closest to him will never fully understand the depth of depression which drove him to unexpectedly seek respite by taking his own life. It was a final moment of despair that does not define a rich and complicated life. -more-

Car thefts -more-

The Berkeley City Council went dabbling back in the condominium conversion waters this week, but for the third time this year came up with nothing definitive. The council has now decided to wait until the new year—and the arrival of new faces on the council itself—to revisit the issue. -more-

Though called a climate action plan, the document presented to Berkeley planning commissioners Wednesday night looked more like a developer’s dream. -more-

Thanks to the modern magic of cell phones, I’ve done a phone survey this week of friends working around the country to elect Barack Obama. A Chicago friend, from a long line of radical leftists, has been enjoying what is probably her first opportunity for enthusiastic participation in a national election. Illinois itself, of course, is Obama country, but she made field trips to neighboring battleground states: Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana. She points with pride to the news that McCain has given up on Michigan, a victory for which she personally claims credit. -more-

MISS CORRUPTION -more-

Across the country, progressive leaders are calling for a stronger academic program for K-12 students (www.Edin08. com). At the last presidential debate Senator Obama emphasized that academic achievement, particularly in science and technology, is the driver of innovation. Part of Obama’s vision to unleash innovation is to improve science, math and engineering education. -more-

I voted NO on Measure KK not because it’s anti-transit, but because it’s bad government. Measure KK is another “solution” which creates more problems. It is another defective idea like the two-thirds majority requirement for taxes. Supporters of KK hope that by requiring an (expensive) election, Berkeley will be prevented from allocating a dedicated lane for the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) on Telegraph Avenue. The measure also requires an election for a bus-only or HOV lane anywhere else in the city. One wonders why only lane decisions must be submitted to voters, and not, say, parking, zoning, staff salaries or library hours. I think some folks really want to keep buses out of the way of their cars. -more-

There are a lot of good reasons to vote “no” on Measure LL, but perhaps the best one is that the campaign to pass it is based on lies. Measure LL would repeal our current, green Landmarks Preservation Ordinance (LPO) and put in its place a loophole-laden ordinance, designed to expedite the demolition of our historic homes and neighborhoods. The fact that proponents refer to it as a landmarks preservation ordinance may be the biggest lie of all. That’s because if a developer chooses the right options among the new and confusing bureaucratic procedures for landmarking, a historic building could be cleared for demolition before the public even knows what’s going on. In effect, Measure LL provides a means to keep historic structures from being preserved. -more-

In its Centennial year could Albany commit both civic and financial suicide? -more-

Robert Lieber has a solid list of environmental and progressive accomplishments from his four-year term, including leading both the Albany City Council and the mayors of Alameda County to take a strong stand opposing aerial pesticide spraying of the Bay Area for the light brown apple moth (LBAM). -more-

Whenever the topic of Israel arises, there’s always a lineup on both sides of what appears to be an “issue,” and people fire off at each other. But there is no “issue.” As Norman Finkelstein points out, there is at this time among historians, including those in Israel, unanimity on all but a few small points as to what the situation is and how it arose. Furthermore, there has been agreement since the early ‘seventies as to what any possible solution of the conflict would look like: a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza; a shared capital in Jerusalem; international control over the sensitive religious sites; and a solution to the refugee problem, probably some mix of repatriation and reparations. This is also, by the way, what international law demands. In return for compliance, the Arab states have repeatedly offered to fully normalize relations with Israel. -more-

As the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), we would like to thank the Berkeley Daily Planet for publishing commentaries such as Marc Sapir’s that expose the violence of the Israeli occupation and challenge the notion that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. IJAN is a growing international network of Jews whose Jewish identities are not based on Zionism but on a plurality of histories and experiences. We share a commitment to participation in struggles against colonization and imperialism. As such, we struggle against Zionism and its manifestation in the State of Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people and the confiscation of their land. We strongly support efforts to end the war and occupation in Iraq. However, the war waged upon Iraqis is intimately linked to the 60-year occupation of Palestine. Within this context, we ask: -more-

There are lots of places in the world where you need to watch your step. You don’t want to be a Sunni in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad (or vice versa). It’s probably not smart to speak Tamal in southern Sri Lanka. You might want to keep being a Muslim under wraps in parts of Mindanao. But most of all you don’t want to be a trade unionist in the U.S.’s one remaining ally in South America, Colombia. -more-

How much is the relationship—such as it is—between presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain affected by the fact that Mr. McCain’s Mississippi ancestors once held African people in slavery? Is the palpable annoyance—barely disguising a seething underlying anger—which the public observed in Mr. McCain’s facial expressions and mannerisms during the recent series of debates an echo of the feelings old maw’se would have felt if one of the nigger house servants had stopped serving the dinner guests one evening and, primly tucking the swallowtails of his formal coat under his ass, sat down at the table to begin carving up a bit of the main course meat for himself? -more-

Lately I’ve been running into mantises, or, more properly, mantids. A friend in Vacaville has a sort of colony in the shrubbery outside her condo. On a recent visit she pointed out a mantid egg case, or ootheca, from which legions of miniature predators will emerge. On a hike near Mare Island last week there was a large brown mantid perched atop an animal dropping in the middle of the trail, not at all camouflaged. Waiting for flies? Preparing to lay eggs? Not a clue. -more-

There aren’t many houses in Berkeley over a century old that have never been sold on the open market. When one comes up for sale, it’s worth taking note, especially if it’s an original Julia Morgan design, relatively unaltered, and the family home of a renowned UC scientist. -more-

Samuel Heywood (1833-1903) was Zimri Brewer Heywood’s fourth son, the first Heywood to have settled in Berkeley, and the one most closely associated with the family’s West Berkeley lumber yard. -more-

It’s a sad fact that women are significantly more likely to be overcharged at the auto-repair shop than their male counterparts. I remember reading these studies by consumer advocacy agencies in the 1970s. In the age of Hillary Clinton, this doesn’t seem right or fair but that’s the way it is. Men have been the initiates to the secret information of spark plugs and tire rotation for much of the last century while women have struggled to gain a place at the bull-session in which the arcane knowledge was shared. It is clear that this has extended to the building trades as anyone with eyes can tell you. Even in my profession of building inspection, a look around the room rarely reveals more than about 5 percent women. -more-

THURSDAY, OCT. 23 -more-

Going below into the cargo hold of S.S. Red Oak Victory, hearing swing music after the quiet, panoramic sweep of the Bay Area from its decks at night, is to move from the contemplation of thousands of distant lights over water to the close-up ensemble movement and singing of a multiethnic cast of thirty, costumed in wartime (that’s World War II) dress, who present Rivets, an original musical by the Galatean Players Ensemble Theatre, celebrating the Rosie The Riveter legend and touching on the reality of life and work on the Home Front—on site: the Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond. Tonight through Sunday afternoon are the final performances. -more-

By the pricking of my thumbs, -more-