The Berkeley Planning Commission’s examination of the proposed UC Hotel-Conference Center-Museum Complex project was thrown into temporary confusion early this week when Mayor Tom Bates formally asked the panel to delay creating the project task force Bates himself had sought less than two months ago. -more-

FRIDAY, JAN. 23 -more-

An open letter to Berkeley City Councilmembers Linda Maio, Kriss Worthington, Margaret Brelund, Maudele Shirek, and Dona Spring: -more-

Are we standing at the pinnacle of civilization, or tumbling from the broken guardrail? While there is a lot to endure in these burdensome times (traffic, mad cows, Republicans), it is an easy and available pleasure to graze through the treasure trove of history that has accumulated in the five centuries or so while we’ve been otherwise occupied. -more-

FRIDAY, JAN. 23 -more-

After an initial, incomplete agreement last year between the University of California and the Coalition of University Employee’s Union (CUE) ended a two-year labor battle, both parties are back at the table, sitting down to the negotiate at CUE’s Berkeley offices Wednesday to hash out unresolved issues on the current contract before it expires in September. -more-

Open Letter to the Berkeley City Council: -more-

Berkeley Unified School District unveiled a new plan Wednesday for assigning students to elementary schools that supporters hailed for expanding diversity beyond race and critics blasted as a sitting duck for a legal challenge already mounted against the district. -more-

TUNE-UP MASTERS -more-

Tuesday’s long-delayed public hearing on Sprint Communications’ North Shattuck cellular antennae application dragged into the early morning hours of this week’s city council meeting, their decision on the controversial installation at least a week away. -more-

Local community college officials fear a proposal to push 10 percent of incoming University of California and California State University freshman into community colleges will end up pushing some Berkeley students straight out of higher education. -more-

Tell the doctor, “It hurts, here.” Then listen to the diagnosis and instructions. Sounds simple. -more-

Two Robbers Nabbed -more-

I can’t remember who told me this story. Could have been my father—it sounds like something he would have said. Could have been something I read someplace. Anyhow, in the version I remember, a guy works for years in a warehouse, along with a lot of his buddies. All day long he tells jokes, and he has all the guys cracking up. Jokes about the boss. Jokes about their small paychecks. Jokes about how fat one of his buddies is getting. Jokes about himself. When they knock off at five o’clock every evening, they all stop at a bar a block down from the warehouse, and they drink a couple of beers apiece, and this guy is always in the center of the crowd, all his buddies surrounding him, and he’s telling jokes, and everybody’s laughing. He’s one of those natural comics. Everybody loves him. He ought to be on Comedy Central. -more-

Public events are mirrors through which we may read ourselves. I’d like to say brazenly that the wave of eulogies following the death of the noted liberal educator Clark Kerr reminds me of what happened to the Democratic Party during his lifetime—the long slide from reaching for popular spirit to abject “centrism,” shamelessly greasing the gears of late-stage global capitalism. -more-

If you’ve spent any time at Cesar Chavez Park on the Berkeley waterfront this winter, you may have had an odd encounter: a meeting with a small brown owl, perched on a coyote bush or popping out of the riprap at the water’s edge. -more-