The former San Pablo Florist and Nursery at 1806 San Pablo Ave.—a key piece of pre-World War II Japanese history and one of the last standing links to Berkeley’s hidden Japantown—was reduced to rubble early Saturday to make way for condos in West Berkeley, although property owner Syed Adeli had told the Planet on Dec. 7 that demolition wouldn’t occur for two months. Tonight he’s expecting the City Council to defer $315,588 in fees so that he can start construction before his building permit expires on Friday. Photograph by Richard Brenneman. -more-

Bill Huyett, superintendent of the Lodi Unified School District, has emerged as the leading candidate for the new superintendent of the Berkeley Unified School District. -more-

“Talkin’ trash” will take on new meaning at today’s (Tuesday) City Council meeting when contracts for hauling rubbish from the city’s Second Street Solid Waste Transfer Station will be considered. -more-

Councilmember Darryl Moore wants to get to the bottom of the surprise dredging of an Aquatic Park lagoon in early November. -more-

While the proposed new zoning standards for West Berkeley are officially dubbed “relaxed,” that adjective didn’t necessarily apply to area business owners and developers addressing the Planning Commission Wednesday night. -more-

When geologists across the country observe the 140th anniversary of the 1868 Hayward earthquake next year on Oct. 21, they will have more than speeches and slideshows on their mind. -more-

The Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board on Thursday postponed discussing the Alta Bates Medical Center parking violations until April . -more-

King Swim Center regulars now have the option of doing laps at the Downtown Berkeley YMCA while their pool gets a facelift over winter. -more-

Berkeley planning commissioners take up LBNL building plans and West Berkeley housing questions when they gather for their final meeting of 2007 Wednesday night. -more-

Once again, a two-day nurses’ strike at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center turned into a five-day affair, with a three-day lockout added by corporate parent Sutter Health. -more-

When it comes to environmental issues like global warming, America and China behave like a couple in a bad marriage, playing the blame game. But to tackle the problem of global warming, neither country can go it alone. -more-

U.S. militarism has to be considered under three headings. First, the U.S. military is the largest single consumer of fossil fuel in the world. Second, the U.S. economy, the largest national consumer of fossil fuel in the world, has shown that its primary mode of maintaining a supply of fossil fuel for itself is through military action (assault, intervention, occupation of other oil-producing nations). Third, the U.S. military operates in the interest of a corporate economy, of which it (the military) is the foremost sector in the U.S. -more-

As we get closer to election time, and I’m beginning to get more literature, photos, and slogans, I’m pondering what should I keep, display or throw in the garbage (recycle). Nowadays people express their beliefs, passions and identity on T-shirts, bumper stickers, and even tattoos! But I still like to look at what’s on people’s mantels. -more-

ROSS AND OTHER STORES -more-

On tonight’s City Council agenda is a very interesting request from Councilmembers Maio and Capitelli to “defer” permit fees. It is Item 36 on the agenda and I encourage all to read it. -more-

Last month I watched as boxes and bags of food came into Berkeley Food and Housing Project generously donated by our supporters. I watched as those items went out as quickly as they came in as they left with our graduates who have moved into housing, but are still forced to manage their lives on the edge economically. -more-

I can understand why Oakland’s elected officials would want to be seen as team players in the Bay Area Green Corridor grand scheme. After all, Oakland was not even included in the biosciences industry Bay Area life sciences strategic planning several years back, yet when it was time to lobby for the stem cell institute to be located in the Bay Area, the same industry lobby wasted no time obtaining letters from Oakland City Council members endorsing the project and offering up land in Oakland. Earlier this year, an outside consulting firm, linked to the same industry lobby, referred to Oakland as a “hole-in-a-donut” when it comes to promoting technological innovation. -more-

Last Tuesday at midnight the temperature outside fell to near-freezing as I left my heated apartment in search of a restaurant open at that hour. The trip began as an adventure; bundled in scarf and gloves to ride a bicycle in the bracing air. But all sense of adventure died as I wheeled past the dark, silent figures sitting and lying on Telegraph Avenue, mute and stoic in the penetrating cold. These are the people that Thomas Lord (in a Dec. 11 Daily Planet commentary) and Tom Bates, et. al., want us to see as “potentially dangerous.” -more-

If your holiday shopping this season finds you in a bookstore, take a moment and do me a favor. -more-

This weekend, against my better judgment, I will be doing a couple of Audubon Society Christmas Bird Counts, one in Marin County, the other in Solano. (The Christmas Bird Count arose as a humane alternative to the traditional Christmas Side Hunt, whose object was to shoot every bird you saw. The data compiled by this annual exercise in citizen science has become a mother lode for ornithologists studying trends in North American bird populations.) -more-