The champagne was flowing last night at victory parties for Nancy Skinner, who won the Democratic primary for the State Assembly with 46.8 percent of the vote and Assemblymember Loni Hancock, who won the Democratic primary for State Senate with 56.5 percent of the vote. -more-

A campaign season that began with the possibility of a major overhaul of the Oakland City Council’s old guard ended quietly in the status quo early Wednesday morning, as two incumbent councilmembers avoided run-offs against what had been expected to be stiff opposition, and two others easily swamped their opponents. -more-

Berkeley resident Nathaniel Curtis Freeman, 19, who was charged with murdering Maceo Smith on Durant Avenue on May 13, did not enter a plea at the Alameda County Superior Court Monday. -more-

Berkeley Police are offering a $15,000 reward for information that leads to conviction of the shooter who gunned down a 29-year-old Berkeley man on May 28. -more-

Is Berkeley being railroaded? That’s the question that was raised at the last Planning Commission meeting by both supporters and potential foes of a plan to upgrade and increase rail service through West Berkeley. -more-

Code Pink organizer Zanne Joi was arrested May 29 on charges of trespassing, battery on an officer and resisting arrest at the downtown Marine Recruiting Station. -more-

Berkeley planning commissioners voted 8-1 Wednesday to approve a key legal document that paves the way for construction of a long-delayed 24-unit condominium building at 2701 Shattuck Ave. -more-

While UC Berkeley’s new downtown museum may attract praise from architecture critics, downward-directed thumbs may come from those already frustrated with the hunt for downtown parking. -more-

University of California service employees, working for 10 months without a contract, have scrapped plans to walk off the job for two days this week and are back at the bargaining table. -more-

If education, health and other state services were spent responsibly within their budgets, there would be no budget crisis, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told a group of local elected officials and community representatives at a meeting in Oakland City Hall Monday morning. -more-

The future of public-access TV in Berkeley is under threat, according to supporters of Berkeley Community Media (BCM), who have requested city councilmembers to call a public hearing on Berkeley Unified School District’s plans to convert the nonprofit’s studio space into a daytime classroom in June. -more-

Berkeley Unified School District officials said they uncovered an athletic fundraising scam on Friday, when a resident of Glenview in Oakland called to report that a young man was going door to door saying he was raising money for the Berkeley High School baseball team to visit Maui. -more-

The Berkeley Board of Education took an in-depth look at Berkeley Unified’s 2007 Academic Performance Index (API) rankings at the school board meeting Wednesday. -more-

If the Berkeley Unified School District was hoping for community support for its new $8.3 million West Campus plan at a public meeting last week, it was looking in the wrong place. -more-

The city has closed a lot on the 1400 block of Derby Street, across the street from a day care center, because of potentially dangerous levels of arsenic. -more-

With some 30 cities and 80 organizations on record opposing the state agriculture department’s plan to spray coastal cities and the Bay Area to eradicate the light brown apple moth (LBAM), one city is bucking the trend. Reedley, a Fresno County agricultural community of around 24,000, has stepped up to support the state. -more-

Media mogul Dean Singleton’s union-busting moves at his Bay Area newspapers have hit a major roadblock—a regional unionization vote scheduled for next month. -more-

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums proposed $14.4 million in cuts to the City of Oakland budget last week to offset a projected $15 million deficit in the next fiscal year, including calling for the closing down of non-essential city services for 12 days each year. -more-

PATRICIA KERNIGHAN -more-

-more-

BERKELEY HIGH ATHLETIC SCAMS -more-

There was a time in the misty, not-too-distant past, when Sacramento’s Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA ) was passed along directly to their Teachers and Classified Staff. No More. -more-

I grow increasingly irritated, like a grain of sand in my shoe, when people who make a living talking misuse ordinary words. I am especially enraged when these word merchants—politicians, journalists, newscasters, pundits of all sorts—without exception refer to over 60 months of horror killing in Iraq as war. -more-

There is one obvious reason that Mayor Bates turned his annual State of the City address into an invitation-only private affair this year. It is just so much easier to twist and distort the truth if knowledgeable citizens are kept out of the audience. I will focus on one small part of the speech, to give you some idea of this approach in action: How did Mayor Bates characterize relations between the city and the university? -more-

The May 29 commentary, “NoCoHo at the ‘Kingfish’: Anatomy of a Deception,” is a vintage Bob Brokl hit piece, venomously twisting and misrepresenting whatever fragments of information he had. For what purpose? We can think of a few reasons for his piece and the timing: Use the co-housing group to attack his traditional opponents—incumbent City Councilmember Jane Brunner, who is running for re-election, and creative local developers of mixed-use projects in the Temescal District that meet Oakland General Plan guidelines for transit-corridor housing. Another may be to hide the court’s dismissal of his group’s lawsuits against these and similar developers. -more-

While aging anti-Castroistas in Florida and New Jersey continue to terrorize gullible U.S. politicians into supporting their quixotic dreams of returning Cuba to the ranks of U.S. gangster economics, this island nation has defied all rational odds against its socialist survival. -more-

Berkeley Unified School District has renewed its efforts to address the achievement gap in our public schools. With City of Berkeley, community, and Alliance (a partnership of UC, the City of Berkeley, and BUSD) support, the district is in the early stages of drafting a proposal that will go to the school board before our summer break, and pending the result at the school board go to the City Council for their feedback and consideration. -more-

June is a month of final acts: graduations, performances, recitals. We’ve gone to several recitals in the last two weeks and enjoyed every one. Nothing beats the sight of a bunch of fresh-faced kids polished until they shine and on their best behavior, enjoying themselves—albeit with a bit of tension—making music or dancing. And if the music sounds good, or if the dancing delights, that’s a plus, but it isn’t really about the product, it’s about the process. -more-

-more-

The May 8 letter from U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-MI), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, to George W. Bush, received virtually no media coverage, in spite of the fact that it warned the President that an attack on Iran without Congressional approval would be grounds for impeachment. Rumor has it several senators have been briefed about the possibility of war with Iran. -more-

OK, I’ll bite. Who did termed-out State Senator Don Perata end up endorsing as his successor in this week’s Democratic primary for the 9th Senate District? (A race won easily by 14th District Assemblymember Loni Hancock over former 16th District Assemblymember Wilma Chan.) -more-

Last week I wrote about an encounter with migrant phalaropes at Hayward Regional Shoreline. On that same day, we wound up having lunch at the edge of the Bay, on a narrow beach littered with driftwood and miscellaneous flotsam and jetsam, including an abandoned doll. -more-

There’s an old aphorism that says that it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. Bad phrasing, I’d say. What this old saw attempts to convey is that you are more likely to get what you want when you go ahead and do something and face have to ask for forgiveness than if you were to ask for permission in advance, facing the possibility that your desire may be withheld. -more-

Back in the late ’60s, a rather buff hardhat was introduced on a variety show on TV to sing a song. Expecting an amateur rendition, the audience ended up gaping at a cocky, tossed off “I Gotta Be Me,” rapidly escalating into a full-scale production number of a striptease, hardhat coming off to reveal a cascade of hair, jumpsuit coyly shed to expose the thorax of a workout instructor ... -more-

In my 20-odd years of studying and writing about bungalows, there are a few questions that have not been answered to my satisfaction. One of those questions is “What’s up with the big honkin’ pillars?” When the bungalow was exported from Britain to America to become an architectural symbol of the American Arts and Crafts Movement (and how that came to be is another question, which will not be answered here), gigantic pillars didn’t seem to be part of the deal. -more-