Prosecutors plan to file murder charges in a brutal attack that left a Berkeley homeless woman dead. -more-

Berkeley filed suit Wednesday against UC Berkeley, charging that the university’s Long Range Development Plan violated state law and would sanction a university building boom, leaving residents to pay for strained city services and clogged roads. -more-

A former El Cerrito mayor’s small claims court action has ended in a ruling that the city has been collecting an illegal tax for the last seven years. -more-

Federal housing officials have given Berkeley-based non-profit developer Jubilee Restoration a March 1 deadline to show how it will repay approximately $200,000 in misspent federal funds. -more-

The battle over a tribe’s plan to build a Las Vegas-size casino in San Pablo heated up this week in City Council chambers and competing press conferences. -more-

Despite a plea by the Berkeley High men’s baseball coach for opening the discussion of a baseball field on Derby Street, Berkeley Unified School District officials continue to keep that issue off the table until the City Council weighs in. -more-

The City Council gave the final go ahead for a first-of-its-kind disability services center, but not before a last-second scare. -more-

The Oakland-based developer seeking to develop portions of Laney College and Peralta Community College District properties has apparently neglected one of the most powerful stakeholders in the area: the Bay Area Rapid Transit District. -more-

Getting some time to eat in the middle of the workday sounds simple. In reality, many restaurant workers put in their entire shifts without stopping. -more-

Dame Stella Rimington finds the whole idea of a “war on terror” a little puzzling, and when Stella Rimington is confused the intelligence community should pay attention. -more-

RADIO FREQUENCY -more-

Click here to view the latest work by Justin DeFreitas -more-

Like a train on a one-way track, the Oakland Unified School District is barreling down what seems to be a pre-determined course, with the faces of worried passengers appearing at every window, wondering where all of this is supposed to end up. -more-

Less than a week after being elected chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Howard Dean met with a group of activists in San Francisco. -more-

Hooker Sting -more-

The Feb. 22 article “City Wants to tax University, File Lawsuit on LRDP” incorrectly reported the reason why Jim Chanin requested that the City Council review memorandums of understanding between Berkeley police and other law enforcement agencies. He requested the review because they are required by law, not because he feared that the Berkeley department was sharing information about his clients. Chanin has had those concerns involving the Oakland Police Department. -more-

Berkeley and Albany share a friendly border in our northern corner of Alameda County. The border zig zags through multiple residential, commercial, mixed use/light industrial, and industrial neighborhoods. Usually a “Welcome to ____” sign is the only obvious marker of a change in municipality. Many of North Berkeley’s residents are immediately adjacent to Albany to the north and west. We share friends, favorite restaurants, and cherished artists with Albany residents. -more-

Public libraries in the United States stand on three principles: The first is patron confidentiality, the idea that every one may use the library in privacy, that everything you read is personal and private. The second is intellectual freedom, the idea t hat you may read, view and listen broadly: that all ideas should be available to discuss and to learn from, even those which are repugnant to society as a whole. The third principle is equal access to information. In the U.S., this means that public libra ries are free, that all may use the library regardless of economic, social or other barriers. Librarians and library supporters have felt so strongly about these ideas that we have written them into state law. In California, libraries are forbidden from sharing information about a library user’s record unless presented with a subpoena; and libraries may not charge fees for basic services. -more-

“The hope for success in promoting the whole truth about our race lies with open-minded school administrators.” -more-

“At the foundation of every culture,” composer William Bolcom insists, “is how words and music marry. It’s our patrimony, it’s ours—it’s what makes us.” -more-

The Impact Theatre company, housed in the tiny black basement of La Val’s Pizza and encouraging their audiences to bring “a slice and a pint” downstairs to munch on during their shows, bills itself as offering “Theatre that doesn’t suck.” -more-

FRIDAY, FEB. 25 -more-

Vintage Berkeley refills the wine-store niche that ran dry in the North Shattuck district a couple of years ago when North Berkeley Wine moved west to Martin Luther King Jr. Way. But this new arrival may be a bit different from any wine store the Bay Area has seen before. -more-

FRIDAY, FEB. 25 -more-

Hungry for revenue, Berkeley is seeking to charge the University of California for millions in unpaid city services as it also plans to challenge the university’s Long Range Development Plan for being too massive and too vague. -more-

With a Berkeley Federation of Teachers (BFT) “work to rule” labor action scheduled to officially begin this week, meaning teachers refusing to work off the clock, the first effect Berkeley Unified School District parents and students are likely to see is a drop in homework. -more-

With a Berkeley Federation of Teachers (BFT) “work to rule” labor action scheduled to officially begin this week, meaning teachers refusing to work off the clock, the first effect Berkeley Unified School District parents and students are likely to see is a drop in homework. -more-

Berkeley’s insatiable appetite for new buildings is about to claim one of its most charming victims, a Gilman Street garden of earthly delights. -more-

Oakland Councilmember Jane Brunner has called for a city manager’s report to study transferring control of the much criticized Oakland Animal Shelter from police to civilian hands. -more-

Michael Cohen, 9, runs along the Berkeley pier on Monday afternoon. Cohen had come to play in the rain with his dad, brother and friends.. -more-

Another major player will drop a piece on the Laney land development chessboard this week when representatives of the Bay Area Rapid Transit District make a presentation to the Peralta Community College Trustees on plans to develop BART’s Lake Merritt Station. -more-

Two months after BUSD Board Director Joaquin Rivera said “it’s been a long time since we’ve heard anything positive” about the district’s budget, district board members have learned that they are going to wait a little bit longer—the district has revised the “positive” certification of last year’s budget back down to “qualified.” -more-

Glen Yasuda is asking city planning commissioners to put his plans for a new Berkeley Bowl on hold for a month while he prepares a new application. -more-

There’s a 350,000-pound spaceship headed straight for Berkeley, and the only questions left are where and when the big blue ball is going to land. -more-

City officials have called a Thursday night session to address what could become a major problem in Berkeley—“soft story” apartment buildings. -more-

TEACHER PAY -more-

Click here to view the latest work by Justin DeFreitas -more-

I’m not an expert on movies that feature quadriplegics as protagonists, but recently there seems to be a glut on the market. I’m referring specifically to Million Dollar Baby and The Sea Inside, one a Hollywood blockbuster nominated for seven Academy Awards and the other a lesser known foreign film from the Spanish director Alejandro Amenabar. -more-

On Jan. 28, HBO aired a somber BBC film, “Dirty War,” about a hypothetical terrorist attack on central London. Using a small amount of Cesium wrapped in a few pounds of TNT, a group similar to Al Qaeda manages to render several miles of Central London uninhabitable, killing hundreds immediately and subjecting thousands more to the cancerous effects of a radiation dispersal device. -more-

PRO-ACTIVE, PRO-CHOICE -more-

During the November, 2004 election, both Gayle McLaughlin and Lynda Deschambault provided a crucial political breakthrough of sorts for the Green Party of California: Both women surprised local observers by becoming the first Green Party candidates ever to win municipal offices in Contra Costa County. -more-

Out of the darkness, Capt. Rachel Radcliff (Jan Zvaifler) steps, in fatigues with a Big Red One patch on her shoulder, briefcase in tow, wearily reeling off the dizzy details, in operations jargon and military time, of a journey to yet another Middle Eas tern backwater under fire. -more-

Nicole Galland is living the life of most writers’ dreams. Her first novel, The Fool’s Tale, was published last month and she has since signed a deal with her publisher for two more. -more-

We’ve all had the experience of rereading a book after many years and discovering a different book from the one we remember. The knock-out stunner has become a simplistic dud, or the ho-hum classic has been transformed into a profound statement touching our deepest hopes or fears. What’s actually changed, of course, are the times, and the reader’s experience. -more-

TUESDAY, FEB. 22 -more-

Like many things called “California,” California pepper trees aren’t. Schinus molle comes from the inter-Andean valleys of Peru. The tree, a broadleafed evergreen, is distributed all over the world now, used as a landscape and street tree in arid and semiarid areas. Those broad leaves aren’t so broad in appearance; they just aren’t quite conifer needles, but finely divided compound leaves like soft miniature palm fronds. The “peppers” are clusters of pink to red berries that persist long enough to be a decorative asset, and are small enough not to be too much of a mess when they do fall. -more-

TUESDAY, FEB. 22 -more-

In the olden days, when women used to hang their laundry in the back yard on clotheslines, a lot of neighborhood news was spread over the back fence. The telephone increased the range of gossip transmission, and made it possible for eager consumers to find out what was going on in the next town as well. The contemporary substitute for the back fence is e-mail, a way of finding out what’s become of friends and acquaintances in distant places with little effort. -more-

A reader’s letter in this issue chastises the Daily Planet’s business side for a tongue-in-cheek headline on the latest house ad: “In Greater Berkeley, almost everyone who counts reads the Planet.” The same question was raised in the newsroom by a staffer who thought that the line might seem elitist to some, as it in fact did to this reader. -more-