A year after a high-profile sexual assault against a 12-year-old student, Willard Middle School still does not have a police officer assigned to its campus. -more-
Sharper scores 24 vs. Bethel -more-
When Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory announced the closure of its Tritium facility last September, many city officials and residents breathed a sigh of relief. But now a neighborhood organization is raising concerns about how the laboratory will dispose of left over radioactive and chemically toxic materials. -more-
LOS ANGELES – Two Jewish Defense League members accused of terrorist activity thanked their supporters Sunday and asserted they would be found innocent of the charges against them. -more-
SACRAMENTO – A Sacramento publisher’s commencement speech was drowned out by hecklers after she began speaking about threats to civil liberties posed by the federal government’s investigation of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. -more-
Five finish 2,757-mile route -more-
Advocates say program will reduce landfills -more-
SAN FRANCISCO – If your e-mail box is already besieged by unwanted salutations and solicitations, brace yourself – the onslaught is about to get worse. -more-
Student body at Oak Grove have reduced landfill output by almost 90 percent using worms and pigs -more-
SAN FRANCISCO – Burning Man organizers do not understand why the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has doubled fees over the past three years for those wishing to attend the popular festival in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. -more-
The Berkeley Democratic Club, home to the moderate wing of the city’s Democratic Party, overwhelmingly endorsed Charles Ramsey for the 14th State Assembly District seat and Jacki Fox Ruby for the Alameda County Board of Education on Thursday. Both candidates are up for election in March. -more-
A recent exhibit at the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum explored the concept of environmentally responsible architecture. The buildings presented in the exhibit were designed and built within the past few years and their design was distinctly contemporary. -more-
Splendor of the masters reborn in pages of many fine art booksxZ -more-
When it comes to Northern California dominance, the Berkeley High girls’ basketball team is usually right up there with De La Salle football. But although the Spartans won yet another NorCal title this season, times may be changing for the Lady ’Jackets. -more-
Berkeley police officers exchanged high-fives in Old City Hall Thursday night after the Zoning Adjustments Board voted to shutter the Golden Gypsy Massage Parlor for good. -more-
Floyd Lee Gill, owner and operator of Gill’s Ambassador Shoe Repair Shop in Berkeley for 48 years, died Dec. 12 from natural causes. He was 77 years old. -more-
BATH, MAINE – The following local residents recently received academic honors from the independent, character-based Hyde School in Bath: -more-
Following are some local-serving community agencies that can use financial and/or volunteer help. The Daily Planet is listing these nonprofits as a public service and does not have first-hand knowledge of the work of most of the agencies. -more-
CASTRO VALLEY — Within a 10-month period in 1999, three women who worked in the same office at Eden Medical Center were diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer, a very rare and aggressive type of the disease that strikes just a few dozen women in the Bay Area every year. -more-
Terrorist leader reminds one Bay Area resident of a gloating, smirking criminal -more-
Installing a frost-proof sillcock -more-
Q. Roy asks: Help! I recently moved into a house that has a wooden front door with a large oval window, which takes up most of the door. In the past two months a gap has slowly formed and grown between the door and the window molding. It is about 3/4 of an inch at the top of the window and tapers down as it follows the contours of the window. You can see through it to the outside. It appears that the window is settling. Is this possible? What can I do to fix it? Is there a caulk I should use, or will I have to replace my front door? -more-
BERTHOUD, Colo. — Bent over a 14-foot-long ponderosa pine log, Peter Haney gripped a 19th-century broad ax and meticulously shaved small slices of wood from its right side. -more-
Years of protesting, complaining come to a head as one prominent performer opens a bloody wound on an elephant -more-
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Interior Secretary Gale Norton says she supports forming a task force that would help her smooth money-management problems with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. -more-
TUCSON, Ariz. — Federal, academic and international scientists will be eyeing Biosphere 2 this weekend to determine its suitability for climate research. -more-
reighter departs on two-day voyage egging on embargo debate -more-
RALEIGH, N.C. — A death row inmate who is said to have the mind of a first-grader became the first person to have his sentence reduced under a new North Carolina law barring execution of the mentally retarded. -more-
BALTIMORE — A public relations firm is under fire for inviting students with only straight, chemically processed or short hair to appear in a TV commercial for historically black Morgan State University. -more-
LOS ANGELES — The number of Californians out of work topped 1 million for the first time in nearly five years in November, as increasing job cuts in the state comprised a disproportionately large amount of the national total, officials said Friday. -more-
LOS ANGELES — Media mogul Barry Diller could emerge as head of Universal Studios if Vivendi Universal buys the film and TV assets of Diller’s USA Networks, sources familiar with the negotiations said Friday. -more-
REDWOOD CITY — Preparing to go out of business at the end of February, bankrupt cable Internet provider Excite@Home laid off 400 of its 1,300 employees Friday. -more-
Dangerous playground equipment, exposed piping and moldy bathroom floors are just a few of the safety hazards at LeConte School that parents and principal Patricia Saddler have been urging the district to fix for months. -more-
For a good time you can search the bathroom walls for phone numbers, try a quirky new salsa recipe or get into your favorite pajamas to watch yet another rerun of “Sex in the City.” -more-
924 Gilman Dec. 14: Hot Water Music, American Steel, F-Minus, Trial By Fire; Dec. 15: Strung Out, Limp, The Frisk, The Deadlines, The Creeps; Dec. 16: 5 p.m., Good Riddance, Missing 23rd, Downway, Audio Crush; Dec. 21: Kepi, Bonfire Madigan, Kevin Seconds; Dec. 22: The Lab Rats, Onetime Angels, A great Divide, Last Great Liar, Gabriel’s Ratchet; Dec. 23: 5 p.m., Over My Dead Body, Panic, Breaker Breaker, Some Still Believe; All shows start a 8 p.m. unless noted; Most are $5; 924 Gilman St. 525-9926 -more-
Berkeley High girls’ soccer coach Suzanne Sillett intentionally scheduled a very tough pre-league schedule for her team this year, intending to get the young ’Jackets ready for ACCAL play. But if the first two games are any indication, Sillett didn’t need to worry too much. -more-
After almost three years of strife, peace may be returning to the five listener-sponsored Pacifica Foundation radio stations. -more-
NEW YORK – His long hair trimmed and his goatee shaved, Jason Giambi stepped into Yankee Stadium wearing a three-piece suit and looking like a new man. -more-
City Council to consider definition of ‘culture’ -more-
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Cal swimmer Natalie Coughlin was named the female November 2001 Athlete and Team of the Month Award winner for athletic accomplishments during the month by the United States Olympic Committee on Wednesday. -more-
Jolyn Warford, Regional Marketing Coordinator for Whole Foods, said she provided the Planet with inaccurate information for its Dec. 5 story, “Protesters say hemp is food not drugs.” Warford said that, contrary to her previous statements, Whole Foods will continue to stock hemp food despite a new federal regulation banning the products. She said Whole Foods does not believe hemp food contains enough THC, the psychoactive chemical in marijuana, to justify the ban. -more-
Citing a “conflict of interest,” the federal court judge presiding over the trial of Vijay and Prasad Lakireddy, sons of jailed Berkeley landlord Lakireddy Bali Reddy, has handed the case to a colleague. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO — Scientists are uncertain how much of the carbon dioxide given off naturally each year within the North American ecosystem is reabsorbed by that system, complicating calculations of the net effect of human activities on emissions of the greenhouse gas. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO — NASA will cease communicating with its Deep Space 1 spacecraft on Tuesday, ending a three-year mission capped in September when the probe imaged what may be the darkest object in the solar system. -more-
Oakland A’s hitter caught in Vegas airport with a half-ounce in bag -more-
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court has upheld the tax-evasion conviction of Brian Setencich, California’s former Assembly speaker. -more-
SACRAMENTO — The California Department of Corrections said Thursday it will pay for the legal defense of three current correctional officers and one former employee accused in a pending federal civil rights lawsuit. -more-
ATLANTA — Smoking is more common in the Midwest and South than other parts of the nation, while Orange County has the lowest rate in the country, the government said Thursday in its first city-by-city study of tobacco use. -more-
Goodwin taken into custody for slaying of racing legend, wife -more-
BEVERLY HILLS — Actress Winona Ryder has been arrested for illegal drug possession and shoplifting from a Saks Fifth Avenue boutique, police said Thursday. -more-
Babar, Curious George are renewed and fun for kids -more-
The best holiday tales are wrapped together in “A Christmas Treasury: Very Merry Stories and Poems” (HarperCollins, $16.95, all ages), a beautiful gift from illustrator Kevin Hawkes. -more-
Kiss someone under the mistletoe and you’re doing what the Druids did centuries ago. That’s all that remains from the many mistletoe legends of European peoples of centuries ago. -more-
HONOLULU — Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are such a tiny minority in the United States that only seven states count them as more than one-tenth of a percent of the population, according to a 2000 census report released Thursday. -more-
LAS VEGAS — California must meet a commitment to reduce its dependence on Colorado River water over the next 15 years, a federal Interior Department official warned Thursday. -more-
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. — With a heavy snow in the mountains, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has decided to release a small amount of irrigation water to some farmers who typically leave their fields flooded in the winter. -more-
ELKO, Nev. — The mother of a teen-ager who was slain by a Bureau of Indian Affairs police officer said the officer shot her unarmed son in the back after a struggle at their home on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation. -more-
RENO, Nev. — Executives behind the largest maker of cat litter in the world figured they’d found the perfect place for a West Coast mine and processing plant when they discovered premium clay deposits in a high-desert valley north of Reno. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO — If your e-mail box is already besieged by unwanted salutations and solicitations, brace yourself — the onslaught is about to get worse. -more-
SAN JOSE — Charges will be dropped against a Russian computer programmer accused of violating electronic-book copyrights in exchange for his testimony in the trial of his company, ending part of a case that has generated worldwide protests. -more-
Watching a smiling Osama bin Laden assess the Sept. 11 terror attacks, a man who was in the World Trade Center that day said he wanted to smash his TV screen. Said a Marine who also watched bin Laden, “He needs to be taken out.” -more-
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA struggled Thursday to understand a fleeting but perplexing problem with one of space shuttle Endeavour’s key navigation devices. -more-
BOSTON — US Airways concourses at Logan International Airport were closed for 90 minutes Thursday after the FAA discovered some employees at security checkpoints were improperly trained. -more-
Flags in Berkeley? -more-
Don’t abandon what makes U.S. truly best
Music
Hoping to wash away the painful memories of the recently completed 1-10 disaster of a season, Cal introduced a new head football coach on Wednesday morning. University of Oregon offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Jeff Tedford will be the man to replace Tom Holmoe on the Cal sideline, agreeing to a reported five-year contract late Tuesday night. -more-
“It’s a new day.” -more-
When Cal chancellor Robert Berdahl made crew rowing coach Steve Gladstone his surprise pick as athletic director earlier this year, he knew he was hiring an unusual candidate, one who would do things a bit differently than your average administrator. The hiring process for Cal’s new head football coach, Jeff Tedford, shows just how independent Gladstone is. -more-
After a yearlong moratorium, the City Council adopted “workable” amendments to Berkeley’s Zoning Ordinance, which will govern the placement of cell phone antennae around town. -more-
Four years in the making, the Southside Plan came one step closer to completion on Wednesday, as a new draft was released to the public and members of the Planning Commission. -more-
As the City Council meeting closed in on midnight and two councilmembers had already gone home, the council voted to supply workers who answer the city’s general information phones with material about the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors. -more-
Wednesday’s Planning Commission meeting had to be canceled because of an administrative error by city staff. -more-
Longtime Berkeley Police Department employee Desmond Griffen died Tuesday as a result of a brain aneurysm suffered Saturday. He was 46 years old. -more-
RICHMOND — A reinforced apartment building shook, rattled, but did not fall as engineers put it to the earthquake test Wednesday. -more-
SAN ANSELMO — Even in a community where personal growth is prized above all and wealthy ex-hippies groom their children to be independent thinkers, the spiritual journey of John Walker Lindh is a shocker. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO — The state Supreme Court decided unanimously Wednesday to keep a serial rapist locked up at a state mental hospital until at least February while it considers his case. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO — California’s largest utility wants to investigate and settle claims from its creditors who are owed less than $100,000 without review by a bankruptcy court or other creditors. -more-
SACRAMENTO — Bryan Woodbury may have a solution for motorists who are tired of urban gridlock: A car that can zip through traffic like a motorcycle and squeeze into the smallest parking spaces. -more-
LOS ANGELES — Soto Elementary School’s next-door neighbor is a spaghetti network of concrete connecting four of Los Angeles’ busiest freeways. -more-
PALO ALTO — Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon said Wednesday that big school districts like the one in Los Angeles should be broken up, and he suggested offering some form of vouchers to students at underperforming schools. -more-
SACRAMENTO — The number of anti-Arab hate crimes in California has dropped to about one a day from the nearly 10 a day reported immediately after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the state attorney general said Tuesday. -more-
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Immigration authorities arrested 10 people in the San Diego area Wednesday in a first-of-its-kind crackdown on Middle Eastern students suspected of violating the terms of their visas by not being in school. -more-
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gray Davis ordered five state agencies to increase their terrorism preparedness Wednesday at the recommendation of his terrorism task force. -more-
LOS ANGELES — The chairman of the Jewish Defense League was charged Wednesday with plotting to blow up a Los Angeles-area mosque and the office of an Arab-American congressman. -more-
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Fewer people than expected have signed up for the state’s medical-marijuana program. -more-
Demonstration urges state to better staff-to-patient ratios -more-
Sabrina Keys remembered receiving her first three form letters from college basketball programs when she was in the eighth grade. Her first hand-written letter came as the Berkeley High basketball standout started her sophomore season. Since then it’s been a steady stream of letters, visits to college campuses and, as Keys estimated, conversations with more than 50 schools. -more-
ditor: -more-
OAKLAND – The Alameda County Board of Supervisors relied on faulty data earlier this year when it voted to build a 420-bed juvenile hall in Dublin, according to a new report by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, an Oakland-based nonprofit with a national reputation on juvenile justice issues. -more-
Editor: -more-
Six housing projects for low-income and disabled people will vie for city funding at a special meeting of the Housing Advisory Commission Thursday night. -more-
Editor: -more-
Josh Daniels selected as head resident at Wesleyan University -more-
Conscientious objectors will have to wait a while to pass on their information via city wires after the City Council delayed its decision Tuesday on whether or not Berkeley will lend a hand to the group’s cause. -more-
SACRAMENTO — California had the largest Death Row population of any state, but just nine executions since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, the U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday. -more-
SACRAMENTO — California will face a growing shortage of qualified teachers in this decade as older instructors retire in record numbers and schools hire more teachers without preliminary credentials, a study says. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO — The Bar Association of San Francisco announced Tuesday the establishment of a three-year law school scholarship at Golden Gate University to be awarded to an Afghan woman. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO — A serial rapist locked up at a state mental hospital nearly two weeks after a judge said he had no legal grounds to keep him in custody may be released Wednesday if the state Supreme Court refuses to hear the case. -more-
SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers and state officials proposed a spate of new laws Tuesday to counter terrorism, including new wiretap rules and the death penalty for terror attacks. -more-
PICO RIVERA — Visitors to Lyon Christmas Tree Farm come with saws in hand during the holiday season, looking for the perfect tree among rows of molded pines and cypresses growing under massive electric towers. -more-
MOUNTAIN VIEW — That epicenter of holiday shopping, the enclosed suburban mall that came to symbolize 1980s culture, is becoming a powerful engine for redeveloping California. Malls where millions of teen-agers had their first kiss and suburban families roamed the food courts are being razed and reborn as entirely new visions for life, work and shopping, architects say. -more-
HOUSTON — The head of Compaq Computer Corp. told employees that the company is exploring the company’s future prospects should its $24 billion merger with Hewlett-Packard Co. fall through. -more-
SAN JOSE — Internet search engine Google Inc. announced Tuesday that it now offers direct access to more than 3 billion Web documents, including newsgroup postings back to 1981. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO — Excite@Home received court approval Tuesday to continue high-speed Internet service for about 2.1 million subscribers through February under a series of deals that will generate $355 million for the bankrupt company while preserving the right to sue its cable partners for alleged abuses. -more-
SANTA ANA — The fight between Playboy pinup Anna Nicole Smith and her stepson over the fortune left by her late husband went to federal court Tuesday with lawyers arguing over whether the Texas oilman intended to leave her an inheritance worth $474 million. -more-
WASHINGTON — Wild horses put up for adoption by the Bureau of Land Management continue to be slaughtered, in some cases within weeks of the owner gaining title of the animal, according to the latest BLM records. -more-
WASHINGTON — The government is spending $7 billion to decontaminate a former nuclear weapons plant in Colorado and turn it into a wildlife refuge. But critics said Tuesday that the cleanup will still leave the soil too polluted. -more-
TUCSON, Ariz. — U.S. Customs Service special agents Tuesday found a sophisticated drug tunnel running directly under the border between a wash in Mexico and a Nogales home facing the international fence. -more-
Several dozen student and community activists converged on the UC Berkeley campus and the surrounding area Monday to call for an end to U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan and to advocate for the protection of human rights at home and abroad. -more-
The City Council will have to step gingerly through a thicket of potential lawsuits tonight as it considers regulating the location of wireless communication antennae, which make cell phone use possible. -more-
Among the issues the City Council will consider tonight are councilmembers’ recommendations for amendments to three elements of the Draft General Plan. -more-
Editor: -more-
Editor: -more-
A magnitude 2.6 “micro earthquake” that apparently did little more than rattle a few Berkeley windows at 2:54 a.m. Monday was preceded by two even smaller quakes, one measuring a magnitude of .9 at 2:44 a.m. and another measuring 2.3 at 2:42 a.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park. -more-
OAKLAND — Video games offer little racial and gender diversity, and most contain some level of violence, even those developed for the youngest gamers, a children’s research group said Monday. -more-
SOUTHERN AFGHAN-ISTAN — An American who fought with the Taliban was gaunt and dehydrated but in good condition Sunday as he recovered from a gunshot wound to his leg, a Marines spokesman said at the southern Afghan base where the man is being held. -more-
Just as Americans opened their wallets for Sept. 11 victims, charity officials say some are now giving to help civilian Afghans who have been uprooted by the war on the Taliban. -more-
SAN JOSE — Shares of Hewlett-Packard Co. and Compaq Computer Corp. both fell Monday, their first day of trading after HP’s largest shareholder said it would vote against the proposed $24.6 billion acquisition of Compaq. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO — Calpine Corp.’s shares plunged 17 percent Monday amid investor fears the rapidly expanding power generator is headed down the same perilous path that ruined one of its biggest business partners, bankrupt Enron Corp. -more-
SAN JOSE — JDS Uniphase Corp., a leading maker of optical networking components, reaffirmed its gloomy second-quarter sales outlook Monday and predicted more bad news to come. -more-
PASADENA — A flood of legal briefs to the nation’s largest federal appeals court predicts the trashing of some deeply held American ideals no matter the case’s outcome. -more-
OSLO, Norway — Saying “humanity is indivisible,” U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for global cooperation in fighting poverty, ignorance and disease as he and the United Nations accepted the centennial Nobel Peace Prize on Monday. -more-
SAN DIEGO – An American Airlines flight about to take off for Chicago was delayed more than three hours on the runway Sunday after a fake grenade used to test security screening rolled out of a carry-on bag. -more-
Police officers in Berkeley are once again teaming up with the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves to deliver toys to the children of needy families this holiday season. -more-
The Berkeley Fire Department is offering several tips that could help people reduce the chances of being a fire casualty this holiday season. -more-
SHAFTER — Seven people were killed when a minivan collided with an Amtrak train on Wednesday near Bakersfield, authorities said. -more-
A woman thwarted an armed, would-be robber simply by walking away from him Monday evening, according to Lt. Cynthia Harris of the Berkeley Police Department.
SAN FRANCISCO — Several weeks after the November election, the Coast Guard fished eight ballot-box lids out of San Francisco Bay and 240 uncounted ballots were found stuck in voting machines — the latest embarrassments in the city’s sorry electoral history. -more-
