Representatives of UC Berkeley’s student government, landlords of the Daily Californian, an independent paper aimed at UC Berkeley students, have declared war on the paper’s editors, threatening to evict the paper unless editors sign off on editorial stipulations in a draft lease renewal agreement. -more-
The following letter was addressed to City Clerk Sherry Kelly. -more-
The Berkeley Unified School District has killed plans to reschedule today’s beleaguered Berkeley High-Oakland Tech football game amid continuing questions as to why the game was put off in the first place. -more-
On Sept. 9, at City Council, Tom Bates acted in a way that will damage his political career as mayor of Berkeley. Before this date, few will remember that Bates, with former Mayor Hancock, U.S. Senator Cranston, and then-Legislative honcho Willie Brown—all key Democrats—worked hard to defeat a Palestinian West Bank sister city resolution in Berkeley in 1988. Backed by big money, some of it from the Rightist American-Israeli lobby which unquestioningly supports all Israeli policy no matter how egregious, the Democratic Party machine interfered in Berkeley politics to trash the Jabaliyah resolution put on the ballot by 19,000 citizens. “We have a better way” to peace, they wrote in their glossy mailers. But the rest of us—whether Jews, Palestinians or other Americans of goodwill—are still waiting for the party’s “better way.” That fraud reminds one of Bush’s Iraq policies. As we wait, presidential front-runner Howard Dean has said his views are closer to the Rightist Israeli lobby—which has given over $120 million to the Democrats in a decade—than to the broad Israeli peace movement which seeks a just two-state solution. -more-
After an hour-long closed door session Thursday evening, the Berkeley City Council emerged to announce they had picked Deputy City Manager Phil Kamlarz as the interim replacement for retiring City Manager Weldon Rucker. -more-
The school board has bristled at receiving a “report card.” However, report cards are important tools to help us assess how well students and the school district are doing. Unfortunately for the students and community, the California’s Fiscal Crisis Management Assistance Team, (FCMAT) gave the school board and district administration failing marks in major areas of responsibility, including maintenance. -more-
The Berkeley firefighters got to test out what could be new and important fire safety equipment Thursday: high-tech gadgetry developed by a UC professor and a handful of students to prevent recurrences of events that led to the deaths of so many at the World Trade Center two years ago. -more-
The Berkeley High School Girls Crew Team, desperate to make Aquatic Park the new venue to race their rowboats, squared off at the City Council meeting Tuesday against an environmentalist determined to defend the migrating seabird habitat at the park. -more-
The Berkeley City Council approved a HUD Section 108 loan guarantee of up to $4 million for the Jubilee Village development Tuesday after first readjusting the amount which the project’s developers must come up with. The loan is planned for the purchase of the property only, and will not go towards the development itself. -more-
One of Berkeley’s signature streets hosts one of the area’s signature street festivals Sunday—the always rambunctious Solano Stroll. -more-
Middle Eastern politics dominated Tuesday’s Berkeley City Council meeting as audience and Council polarized over two competing resolutions calling for Congressional investigations of deaths in the Israeli-Palestinean conflict. -more-
My husband and I were at a crowded party in Berkeley. We were glad to be there. He had been bedridden for eight weeks, but had just been given permission by his doctor to get up for a few hours each day. -more-
For the longest time, it’s been my belief that if Mayor Jerry Brown were more like Bill Clinton, Oakland would have a better record of downtown development. But maybe not the way you’re thinking. -more-
Pacific Gas & Electric is moving its Berkeley customer service office on Sept. 29 from 2111 Martin Luther King Jr. Way to 1900 Addison St. -more-
For anyone looking for a pleasant way to spend a Saturday morning, the Berkeley Path Wanderers Association invites ones and all to join in a climb up historic Charter Hill behind the UC campus. -more-
While the corporate record industry files lawsuits against 12-year-olds and Cal students for downloading music from the web, O-Maya, a group of former Berkeley and St. Mary’s high school students, offers their music for free on the Web and for sale on their debut CD this weekend. -more-
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the last of a three-part series on the history of Memorial Stadium. -more-
MoveOn—the Berkeley based activist organization that’s been using the Internet to shake up the political scene—is calling together a flash mob to register voters in Berkeley Saturday. -more-
I’ve encountered coyotes in odd places—the men’s room of a park in Tucson, for one—but never, unlike a friend who knows his wildlife, in downtown Berkeley. He says it was crossing Shattuck Avenue, early in the morning before significant traffic. This shouldn’t have surprised me: I knew they were in the East Bay Hills (Tilden Park and Briones), and it was only a matter of time until they came to town. -more-
Five days after this week’s Berkeley High-Oakland Technical High football game was abruptly canceled by Principal Jim Slemp, Berkeley school officials were still trying to reschedule the game for an alternate site—but apparently not in coordination with their counterparts at Oakland Tech. -more-
So, now begins the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, as the English poet John Keats described it. Labor Day is over. Squirrels are having noisy battles in oak trees over this year’s acorn crop. The swallows are packing up to leave Capistrano. And here in Berkeley, citizens can celebrate the seasonal return of the City Council to take up their civic responsibilities—for a couple of weeks at least. Since we’re in California instead of England, we can expect the mists of August to lift somewhat in September and October. But the miasma that lately seems to hang over decision-making in Berkeley shows no signs of abating. -more-
A year and a half of walking picket lines in the heat and rain is not enough to deter the Claremont Hotel employees who are currently organizing to form a union and sign a new contract at the upscale hotel on the Oakland-Berkeley boarder. -more-
For the last quarter-century, writer Peter Manso’s notes from an old interview for a now-defunct magazine have gathered dust, locked away in storage and largely forgotten. -more-
Residents in North Berkeley have been trying to stop wireless base-station antennas proposed by Sprint at 1600 Shattuck in a residential area. This battle has been going on for 10 months. After months dealing with the City, neighbors of 1600 Shattuck have reached the conclusion that some city staff are back stabbing them to support Sprint by any means possible. Misconducts and actions of the City has caused monetary damages and emotional distress to the neighbors. Neighborhood groups around Berkeley might have similar experiences with the City. A chronology of events regarding antennas is as follows: -more-
Bus drivers have abandoned plans for a one-day walkout after cash-strapped AC Transit temporarily restored some of the service cuts they had scheduled for December. -more-
With her Cody’s bag clutched to her Armani suit, 44 year old Buffy McNoodles doesn’t look like a threat to Telegraph’s streetlife, yet three decades of local Berkeley coverage prove she is. -more-
Enthusiastic supporters from Berkeley crossed the Bay Saturday to hear presidential hopeful Howard Dean address 1,100 unionized health care workers in San Francisco. -more-
Mark Morris and his Dance Group regularly perform for Cal Performances at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall—so much so that some claim the globally renowned dancer/choreographer as an honorary citizen of the People’s Republic of Berkeley. -more-
Way back in 1947 Roger “Bob” Gilmore went to work for Byron and Rhoda Bolfing at their Elmwood Hardware store on College Avenue in Berkeley’s Elmwood neighborhood. -more-
Berkeley residents holding visitor parking permits must either use or exchange them by next Monday, thanks to a change in city parking ordinances. -more-
Blacks Struggle With Including Gay Rights Under Civil Rights Banner -more-
The latest round of labor troubles at Berkeley-based non-profit Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency (BOSS) stemmed not from managerial malice but from improperly filed time sheets that delayed paychecks to employees last week, Executive Director boona cheema said Tuesday. -more-
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second in a three-part series on the history of Memorial Stadium. -more-
Members of one South Berkeley neighborhood say their home has a lot going for it, and they gathered Sunday to create a mural to share their exuberance with the world. -more-
Oakland writer Mary Monroe is an inspiration in perseverance. She wrote her first book, “The Upper Room,” in 1974. After hundreds of rejection letters, and eleven years, the novel was finally published in 1985. It got great reviews and quickly disappeared. -more-
Every Uncle Henry Book has the Uncle Henry Promise printed in the front. It takes up a full page, but the central premise is that “you will always have fun when you read it.” In fact, says Uncle Henry, sometimes “adults will laugh so hard they will fall on the floor and roll around clutching their stomach.” -more-
Faced with a long stretch of unemployment the vast majority of upstanding, college-educated people who live indoors, bathe regularly and use deodorant would find the prospect of turning to panhandling intolerable. The sheer degradation of it would frighten even the most thick-skinned human from even considering it. -more-
About the same time my memoir came out, Gene Simmons of the legendary glam-rock band Kiss published “Kiss and Make-Up,” his official biography. We share the same publishing house and the same New York publicist even though our life stories are astronomically different. -more-
When searching a mainstream news Web site don’t be surprised if you find Muslims described as “ragheads” and “Islamofascists.” Just don’t expect Israelis to be subjected to the same sort of ethnic slurs—articles that contain derogatory terms about Israelis are forbidden. -more-
Now that two years have passed since the numbers 9/11 burned themselves into the American consciousness, many in Berkeley feel that the time has come to take a different approach in commemorating the events of that awful day. -more-
Reviewing Impact Theatre’s inaugural production at La Val’s Subterranean Theater is a little like trying to pin down a Baskin Robbins menu: Which tastes better: Chocolate Mint? Or maybe Strawberry Wonderful? -more-
