Despite concerns voiced by more than two dozen neighbors at a special public meeting Monday, April 27, the Zoning Adjustments Board gave Berkeley Bowl the green light to open a new store in West Berkeley without previously required traffic changes. -more-

Sunday’s 40th anniversary celebration of People’s Park reflected Berkeley in all its passionate quirkiness. More than 1,000 people joined the party, from old- timers who remember the riots when it all started, to students for whom it is all ancient history—and everyone in between. -more-

Sunday around 3 p.m., I find myself in People’s Park, at the 40th anniversary celebration, in front of a crowd of at least 500 what, back in the day, we called hippies and freaks, letting their freak flags fly. -more-

Aretha Franklin’s hat. Three little words that stirred up a lot of excitement for avid hat buyers in Berkeley last week. -more-

Berkeley High School announced Friday it will not charge for each student’s first two tickets to this year’s graduation ceremony at the Greek Theater. -more-

Despite budget constraints, Oakland Unified will stick with the school district’s tradition of not charging for high school graduation tickets this year, district officials said Thursday. -more-

The Berkeley City Council on Tuesday will once again vote on whether to approve the Climate Action Plan for the purpose of environmental review. -more-

His Holiness the Dalai Lama received a rock star welcome at UC Berkeley’s Greek Theater Saturday, April 18, his third visit to the campus since taking over as the head and spiritual leader of the Tibetan people in 1937 at the age of 2. -more-

Safeway was set to unveil the latest design for its College Avenue store at a public meeting at the Claremont Hotel Wednesday, April 29, after the Daily Planet went to press. -more-

A coalition of East Bay school districts and two local organizations was awarded a Solar America Showcase grant to explore energy independence, the U.S. Department of Energy announced April 28. -more-

The El Cerrito City Council is expected to decide the future of the Cerrito Theater Monday night, May 4. This will be the council’s first public meeting on the theater since it was revealed that the current operators, Speakeasy Theaters, have fallen behind on rent. -more-

Ashby Flowers is here to stay. For another decade at least. The Berkeley flower shop, which has been battling Whole Foods Market since last year over a lease renewal, announced Wednesday afternoon that both parties had signed off on a 10-year lease. -more-

The year from which figures regarding the Greek Theater in the April 23 story, “Berkeley High Raises Graduation Ticket Prices,”was incorrectly reported. The figures were from 2008. -more-

It’s the corner of Ellis and Woolsey Street in the heart of South Berkeley. A young black male with dreadlocks opens the door of his grey BMW and unloads four plastic bags from the front floor of the car, as his counterparts in the back seat tell jokes and the radio blasts rap music. Dressed in a dark hoody, wearing dirty jeans dangling from his thighs, he opens the back gate to a neighborhood yard and he stashes the bags behind a garden trellis on the house’s patio. He drives off in a hurry. It’s nearly 6 p.m. in the Lorin District where a half block down the street three young black men sit on logs in front of a grey blue house, actively making drug deals this July evening, as their family members have for most of the last 20 years. -more-

UN CONFERENCE ON RACISM -more-

I thought the rage I felt so often during the Bush administration would fade away. It actually quieted a little but got aroused to a fever pitch when memos from years ago authorizing torture were made public and started a whirlwind of furious reactions. Evidently, not everyone agrees that human beings inflicting excruciating pain on a bound and helpless human being is torture and that all torture, no matter the purpose, is a crime. -more-

According to the April 23-29 Planet, Patrick Kennedy recently told the Planning Commission that “downtown is on life support” and only new housing construction will save it. I once agreed with Kennedy’s assessment—but that was before the new buildings that he and other developers constructed in the past decade failed to improve the Berkeley downtown business climate. -more-

On Tuesday, May 5th, the City Council will consider two appeals of the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) approval of the Ashby Arts project, appeals that go to the heart of the City’s procedures for projects along San Pablo Avenue. -more-

Congratulations to Berkeley Unified School District for the award of federal stimulus funds serving low income and special needs students (Daily Planet, April 9). As the former student school board member when I was a high school senior and a BUSD parent, I urge Superitendent Huyett and the School Board to spend this money to set up systems that will reduce costs or increase revenue in the future. For example: -more-

When I encountered Planning Director Dan Marks at a workshop in December, he told me that “only two or three” neighbors opposed the Ashby Arts project. That’s when I realized that the process was rigged against them and that staff and the developers were in deep cahoots. -more-

Len Conly correctly points out in his letter to the editor (April 16) that car use in Berkeley has steadily increased for the last three decades, even without the population increasing. Now that Berkeley is embarking on a building boom that will greatly increase the population and contribute to gentrification, it seems wise to assume that the trend of more cars will continue. The Berkeley -more-

When the next big quake hits the East Bay, the only backup local first-responders can count on are nearby volunteers. -more-

“When Secretary Alfonso Jackson in the Bush administration proposed ending Section 8 assistance to lower-income people in need of help to rent decent apartments, I objected that this would leave people with no affordable housing after five years. When I asked him directly what he planned to do for those who would find themselves in this situation if his five-year cap on Section 8 eligibility were to go through, his reply was that we would help these recipients become homeowners.” -more-

Polls indicate that California voters are confused about Proposition 1A, which comes up for a vote on May 19. While Gov. Arnold Schwarz-enegger is for 1A, the California Republican Party opposes it. California Democrats are similarly split. Proposition 1A is unusually contentious because it proposes to fix a symptom rather than the underlying problem. -more-

EDITOR’S NOTE: Paul Hogarth was a delegate at the California Democratic Party’s convention and gave one of the floor speeches against Proposition 1E. -more-

If you were paying attention last month, you may have noticed a number of small pale-orange butterflies flying in a northwesterly direction. That would have been the painted lady migration, a not-quite-annual phenomenon that sometimes blankets the state. In peak years, numbers have been estimated in the billions. -more-

The Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra, the 180-voice, 40-year-old local musical institution, will present Anton Dvorak’s masterwork Stabat Mater this Sunday afternoon, May 3, and the following Saturday night and Sunday afternoon (May 9 and 10), at St. Joseph the Worker Church. -more-

DOUBLE DIGITS:A MUSICAL -more-

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the last in a series of three articles on La Loma Park. -more-

I have suffered so that you don’t have to. I’m going to share a plumbing secret. The desire for knowledge of this secret has produced much gnashing of teeth, and the frequent abuse of the many names of God. In order to reduce heretical behaviors and to increase the likelihood that you will be welcomed at the Valhalla of your choosing, I offer the following: -more-