In a memo that City Councilmember Dona Spring calls “shocking” and “the kind of letter that you’d expect from a UC attorney,” the assistant attorney for the City of Berkeley appears to have advised Mayor Tom Bates on strategies to amend Berkeley’s zoning ordinance to fit UC’s needs for the proposed downtown hotel and conference complex. According to Assistant City Attorney Zach Cowan, a “side benefit of including zoning amendments is that we can amend whatever is necessary to bulletproof any City approval.” -more-

TUESDAY, FEB. 17 -more-

TUESDAY, FEB. 17 -more-

From: Cowan, Zach -more-

After more than 30 years of struggle for a home of their own, Vista College officials acknowledge their new campus set to rise in downtown Berkeley is a victim of bad timing. -more-

The California Unemployment Appeals Board ruled recently that Arturo Perez, a produce worker at Berkeley Bowl who was fired last September during an unsuccessful union organizing drive, is eligible for unemployment. Perez who has a charge pending with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) accusing the Berkeley Bowl of firing him illegally, can now use the ruling by the appeals board to boost his claim. -more-

The long-delayed saga of the North Berkeley Sprint cellphone facility comes to a definite close at tonight’s (Tuesday, Feb. 17) regular 7 p.m. city council meeting—that is, unless the council rules against Sprint and the cellphone company sues the city. In addition, the city council will take on several long-range zoning and development issues tonight. -more-

In the first of several scheduled city council working sessions on ways to balance Berkeley’s beleaguered budget, City Manager Phil Kamlarz has recommended four immediate sources of new revenue that, if implemented, could bring in as much as $3.8 million a year to the city. Kamlarz made the proposals at last week’s city council meeting. The city manager has set an April 20 public hearing on the new fees. -more-

A UC Berkeley journalism lecturer’s 32-year-old photograph of future Democratic U.S. Senator and presidential candidate John Kerry has wound up in a forgery that suckered the New York Times. -more-

BAGHDAD, Iraq—Maysoon al-Damluji is a member of an elite club, but one that’s trying hard to become a lot less exclusive. As Iraq’s Deputy Minister of Culture, al-Damluji is one of a small handful of Iraqi women entrusted with real political power in the country today. -more-

The Claremont Resort and Spa suspended three workers last week after they participated in a pro-union rally outside the resort on Tuesday. -more-

Whenever my husband Ralph is admitted into the hospital, those of us who take care of him go a little crazy. And Ralph’s current visit to Oakland Kaiser has almost done us in. Now in his forty-second day in Room 335 of the intensive care unit, we are growing cranky and impatient. -more-

Editor’s Note: Berkeley residents must feel lately like they are pawns in a giant game of Monopoly. Not only have buyers been feverishly bidding up prices on residential properties, it seems that anyone who has the wherewithal to purchase a city lot also wants to buy a building to put on the site. In the last couple of weeks, hotels in particular have been in play in Berkeley Monopoly. The ownership of the landmark Claremont Hotel, just over the Oakland border, will be transferred from Conglomerate A to Megacorp B. Downtown, the Shattuck Hotel will become a single room occupancy facility for international students. In the old days, international students used to stay at the UC hotel on University Avenue, but that’s become an SRO for people in need of help. With downtown’s last big hotel going, the University of California, which has been busy buying up most of the lots on the board in the last few years, now wants to buy itself a big new hotel. None of this action is necessarily bad, but it’s unsettling to many. The Planning Commission has created a task force to study the hotel scheme, which will hold a public forum tomorrow, Feb. 18, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. In preparation for the forum, there was a site tour last week led by a UC planner. The Daily Planet asked attendees to describe what they saw, and these are some responses. -more-

Telegraph Avenue neighbors and merchants are wise to oppose AC Transit’s proposals to take over much of Telegraph, Bancroft Way and Durant Avenue, as the Daily Planet reported on Jan. 30 (”Bus Lane Plans Provoke Telegraph Neighborhood”). -more-

SAME-SEX MARRIAGE -more-

A powerful alliance of police and city hall interests have joined to promote a canine patrol unit. But many are asking, have the alternatives been thoroughly explored? -more-

In August 2001 I’d just taken a buyout from the Contra Costa Times after 18 years reporting and editing, hoping to freelance about topics of personal interest—including historic preservation. -more-

For the group who gathered at the South Berkeley Senior Center (SBSC) last Wednesday, Black History month did not mean reading about times past, it meant reliving them. -more-

Driver Rampages Through Campus -more-

While looking for burrowing owls down at the Berkeley Marina a few weeks ago, I was surprised to run into a pair of black oystercatchers working the riprap along Cesar Chavez Park. Maybe I shouldn’t have been. I’ve always associated these birds with the wave-bashed rocks of the outer coast, but I’ve since read that in Washington State, at least, oystercatchers are beginning to colonize more sheltered shores. Maybe that’s happening in San Francisco Bay as well. -more-

A Bay Area-based government program set up to promote the building of low-income housing has instead legally issued a substantial percentage of its low-cost bond financing to high-end apartment construction, according to documents on the agency’s website. It calls into question why an agency program whose self-declared purpose is “to deal with the increasing shortage of affordable housing” has ended up funneling so much potential low-cost financing into housing that is clearly not low-cost. -more-

FRIDAY, FEB. 13 -more-

CLOSE THE LOOPHOLES -more-

FRIDAY, FEB. 13 -more-

The owners of the Claremont Resort and Spa announced on Thursday that they have an agreement to sell the fabled hotel to an Orlando-based real estate investment trust. -more-

Single-payer health care is an idea whose time has come. According to a Harvard Medical School study published Feb. 9 in the Archives of Internal Medicine, nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of physicians favor single-payer national health insurance, far more than support managed care (10 percent) or fee-for-service care (26 percent). Despite this high level of support (including most members of such establishment organizations as the American Medical Association and the Massachusetts Medical Society), only a little over half (51.9 percent) of physicians were aware that their fellow doctors support single-payer national health insurance. -more-

After 20 years in Berkeley schools, Kay Sims, special education teacher at Washington Elementary, has mastered the gentlest techniques for making children behave. -more-

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South Berkeley neighbors are starving for a pizza restaurant. But a Berkeley zoning ordinance is keeping ovens cold and espresso machines on ice at Spud’s, a trendy pizzeria planned for the corner of Alcatraz Avenue and Adeline Street. -more-

Faced with a lawsuit by Sprint Communications if the proposed new North Berkeley Sprint cellphone communications facility is not approved by the Berkeley City Council, the council blinked, took a step back, and gave itself another week to make its long-awaited decision on the controversial application. If the city council fails to take action next week, the Zoning Adjustment Board’s earlier approval of the project will automatically go into effect. -more-

By a 7-0-2 vote, the Berkeley Planning Commission accepted the proposed 25-member UC Hotel Complex Task Force Wednesday night, despite grumbling by some commission members that the entire commission should have picked the task force members from scratch or that the task force wasn’t even necessary at all. Planning Commissioner Jerome Wiggins, one of two commissioners to abstain on the acceptance vote, complained that the task force did not contain any residents of South Berkeley. Commissioners added an amendment leaving open the possibility of adding more members. -more-

Attempted Bank Robbery -more-

Last year was not a year of garden variety corporate wrongdoing. No, the sheer variety, reach and intricacy of corporate schemes, scandal and crimes were spellbinding. Not an easy year to pick the 10 worst companies, for sure. -more-

Thirty UC Berkeley graduate students are back in the running for a Fulbright-Hayes fellowship thanks to the intervention of the board that oversees the foreign study program. -more-

They call themselves bloggers—creators of weblogs, otherwise known as blogs—and they’re realizing the writer’s age-old dream of instantaneous publication to a worldwide audience. -more-

“Berkeley Cougars Blue, Gold and White, we’re here to take it all the way!” were the words that helped cheer the Berkeley Cougars cheerleading squad (part of the Berkeley Cougars youth football league) right into a national cheerleading competition held this past weekend in Las Vegas. -more-

Berkeley has blocked the start of construction on a permanent home for Vista College—more than 30 years in the making—due to a parking dispute with the Peralta Community College District. -more-

Berkeley has blocked the start of construction on a permanent home for Vista College—more than 30 years in the making—due to a parking dispute with the Peralta Community College District. -more-

My parents moved to an all-white East Oakland neighborhood in 1941, during the war. My father was a shipyard worker at Mare Island, and later an Oakland firefighter. Afterwards, my parents built a grocery store, which they operated for more than 40 years. Still, my parents were (and this must be said with lowered voice, and a narrowed glance, and one hand cupping the mouth) niggers, and in 1941, many white folks were still not quite certain what niggers would amount to or whether they might bring down the neighborhood. And so, in 1941, several of the good white folks got together and tried to keep the real estate agent from selling a home to my parents. They failed. In fact, other black folks followed, many of them first-time homebuyers who also joined the Oakland Fire Department. Discouraged, the good white folks emptied our East Oakland neighborhood, moving to San Leandro and San Lorenzo, or across the foothills to the then-almost wilderness valley of eastern Contra Costa County. And that’s how our part of East Oakland came to be mostly black, with a later flavoring of Latino. -more-

RACIAL CRITERIA -more-

Cecilia Bartoli’s first concert in Berkeley in 1991 was to a half-empty Hertz Hall. Since then she has rocketed to superstardom (commanding fees of $60,000 to $80,000) and is second only to Pavarotti as a successful classical recording artist. Her Vivaldi recording sold over 500,000 CDs—a phenomenal number for a classical disc of unfamiliar music. In the rock world that would be equivalent to a triple platinum album. Her Gluck Aria album was a comparable worldwide bestseller. -more-

“If a life of wine, women and song becomes too much, give up the singing.” -more-

A new gourmet food court will soon occupy the empty space at 1509 Shattuck Avenue that has sat empty for almost two years after the Dale Sanford electronics store moved out. The project, which will house take-out spin-offs of some of Berkeley’s more well-known restaurants, is meant to bolster business and add another touch of flavor to an area well known for its food. -more-

February weekends may be chilly, gloomy, and gray in the Bay Area. But even if you don’t have the time or the means to jet off to Hawaii for a respite, you can still find some tropical magic only a bridge away from Berkeley at the San Francisco Orchid Society’s 2004 Pacific Orchid Exposition, Feb. 19-22. -more-

It’s hard to leave this event without at least one orchid. If you’re going to buy, here are some basic tips: -more-

Today, Feb. 17, my parents have been married for 65 years. They are still living in their home by themselves, at 89 and 91. Our family is very lucky to have them still with us, still in good spirits and relatively good health. -more-

Here’s a really radical thought. How about voting for John Edwards in the presidential primary? -more-