The perpetual ring of the telephone shatters the otherwise calm interiors of Michele Lawrence’s spacious office in the headquarters of the Berkeley Unified School District at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. -more-

The little town of Albany stood up Tuesday night, first to the University of California, and then to the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and its partner, the U.S. Depart-ment of Agriculture. -more-

Berkeley peace activists are gearing up to circulate a petition to place a measure on the November ballot restricting where public and private military recruiters can locate within the city. -more-

Two weeks after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed slashing K-12 funding as part of his proposed state budget cuts, Berkeley public school officials announced Wednesday that it was time to get on the bus and head for Sacramento. -more-

The AC Transit Board of Directors tabled a proposed 25 cent bus fare in-crease Wednesday night to study its implications on ridership, with the issue likely to come back before them before the winter is out. -more-

Full implementation of AC Transit District’s proposed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line ran into a potential chokepoint Wednesday night when dismayed district board members learned that the planned bus-only lanes may not be possible in a 1,000-yard stretch in the heart of Oakland. -more-

Tenants and customers of West Berkeley’s landmark Sawtooth Building have been granted an extra month to use a parking lot they say is critical to their commercial survival. -more-

“Activism is the elixir of life” was his motto. And Milt Wolff was an icon of activism, as were his fellow veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. He could be seen at demonstrations and political events well into his 80s and even 90s. -more-

Robbery ring -more-

Civil rights in Berkeley has become like the residue of smoke once the smoker has left the room, says Osha Neumann, an attorney who works mostly with homeless and indigent people. -more-

Lawyers challenging UC Berkeley’s plans for a gym next to Memorial Stadium must produce expert evidence to back their claim that the two buildings are really one. -more-

Presenting the draft Downtown Plan to Berkeley’s Planning Commission Wednesday night, DAPAC Chair Will Travis declared that the commission could tinker with the proposal’s fabric only “at your peril.” -more-

West Berkeley zoning changes and a dramatic public challenge rounded out a Wednesday night Planning Commission schedule otherwise dominated by the Downtown Area Plan. -more-

The Berkeley Board of Education on Wednesday approved the appointment of Dan Lee to the Merit Commission. -more-

TRAGEDY AND COMEDY -more-

I’m sure most everyone has heard about the tragic deaths of pedestrians in our neighborhood. In less than seven months, four people have died within one mile of Thousand Oaks. Laurie Capitelli, our city councilmember, Betty Olds, and Dona Spring are gathering information to determine what kind of new safety measures the city can take to limit these horrendous accidents. In the Friday, Jan. 11 edition of the Berkeley Voice, Mr. Capitelli is quoted “We want to know if these deaths are a horrible coincidence or if there are some things going on that we need to address.” I have no doubt that all of our political leaders would like to improve the safety of our streets, but Mr. Capitelli also said in a recent e-mail to his constituents “After three years in the District 5 office, I can truthfully say the number one constituent complaint is about traffic; too much, too fast, too reckless.” It has been obvious to me and anyone who walks, rides, or rolls around Berkeley that the conditions for these “horrible coincidences” were all in place, even though alcohol and impaired visibility were a factor in two of these accidents. Over the last few years, traffic and related safety issues have been the number one topic of Thousand Oaks Neighborhood Association (TONA) meetings, and repeated requests to improve enforcement have fallen on deaf ears. Our previous Councilmember Mim Hawley, told a TONA meeting that police were reluctant to write tickets as the city only kept half of the fine, the other half going to the state. -more-

After a second tragic pedestrian death on Marin Avenue, I’m glad to hear several Berkeley City Councilmembers calling for better traffic enforcement, signage, and analysis of collision statistics—and for driver restraint. -more-

On this day reflecting over Martin Luther King Jr.’s life, we remember his famous words: “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” -more-

My neighbors and I put together a website (www.livableoakland. com) about our fight against Measure A, which will appear on the Feb. 5 ballot. In it we posted information about our neighborhood, sometimes known as Lower Temescal, or Baja Rockridge, or just plain North Oakland. -more-

I don’t usually find myself in agreement—even partial agreement—with NovoMetro columnist V Smoothe, but she raises some points in her Jan. 16 post “Mayor’s Cop Promise Impossible To Keep” that ought to be considered. -more-

The settlement of the residential blocks south of the UC campus began, naturally, on the streets closest to the university and progressed southward. In 1903, the area now known as the Willard neighborhood, comprising the Hillegass and Berry-Bangs tracts and bounded, clockwise, by Dwight Way, College, Ashby, and Telegraph Avenues, was most densely built along Benvenue and Hillegass Avenues north of Derby Street. -more-

When you crawl around under houses every day, you see some odd things. It’s part archaeology, a little zoology and, of course, all that construction stuff. It doesn’t take too long doing this to realize that you’re not always alone down under the house (or up in the attic). There are little neighbors that like to share the space. They’re not trying to get inside your house, per se. It’s just that they want a safe warm space and you happen to be right there. Termites use the same logic. They don’t know that they’re eating a house. What’s a house to a termite. They’re just eating some fallen trees that happen be in their path. -more-

Woodland gardening takes on a new aspect when one is practicing it here in coastal northern California. There are considerations one must take with regard to natural resources and scarcity—as much a product of time as of place, as everything living here gets more squeezed by human overpopulation, including us humans who are doing the overpopulating. -more-