“[R]acism against our minority student athletes ... underlies much of the opposition to our student athlete high performance center,” declared UC Berkeley Chancel-lor Robert Birgeneau in a letter sent to two major donors to the school. -more-

UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau kicked off the public phase of a $3 billion fund-raising drive Friday, seeking funds for scholarships, campus improvements, faculty salaries, research—and $600 million for buildings. -more-

A poster promoting Israeli-Palestinian peace at an AC Transit bus stop in front of UC Berkeley’s Eshelman Hall has been repeatedly vandalized with anti-Semitic slogans and swastikas, authorities said. -more-

Beneath the heated rhetoric and sharp divisions, one fact emerged from a Monday night meeting between Berkeley police, city officials and residents: the desire for a police force that is engaged with the community on a day-to-day basis. -more-

It’s called the case of the “Freshman Fridays” at Berkeley High: seniors tossing eggs at ninth-graders when they leave school or sports practice, sometimes hitting them in the face. -more-

It was a busy, eclectic night at Berkeley City Hall Tuesday, with the Berkeley City Council moving forward on a range of issues, including changing the city’s condominium conversion mitigation fees, establishing citizen nuisance wood smoke abatement procedures, and raising recreation fees. -more-

Friday, Sept. 13, was a typical day for residents of 1910 Oxford St. in Berkeley—except for the commotion of a heavily armed SWAT team racing up the back stairway of a neighboring University building on Berkeley Way. -more-

UC Berkeley shut down the CampusLink terminals at the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union last week because of non-compliance with the fire safety code, university officials said last Wednesday. -more-

Wat Mongkolratanaram will be back Thursday at the Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board meeting to request a use permit modification which will allow the Berkeley Thai Temple to serve its disputed yet exceedingly popular Sunday brunch throughout the year. -more-

Police are calling on the public to help in solving the murders of two men who were gunned down early last Thursday on Derby Street. -more-

RVs roasted -more-

The Berkeley Board of Education recently discussed the 2008 Accountability Progress Report—which provides results from California’s Academic Performance Index (API) as well as the federal Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and Program Improvement (PI)—with district officials at a public meeting in the City Council Chambers. -more-

Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District Special Tax Measure VV -more-

Berkeley Planning Commission members, missing two of their most outspoken dissenters last week, boosted by 50 percent the number of 120-foot buildings to be included in the environmental study for the new downtown plan. -more-

Every Tuesday, J. Moses Ceaser invites 10-20 strangers into his home to join him in cooking a sometimes exotic and frequently delicious vegetarian meal. -more-

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TAXIBUS -more-

One week before Congress was set to adjourn, and seven weeks before a presidential election that could dramatically change national policies, Wall Street and its media allies have decided to grasp another bag of goodies yet from the Bush presidency: a $700 billion taxpayer bailout of the once high-flying financial services industry. That’s right. The same Wall Street players whose greed created our economic crisis now want the taxpayers to pick up the tab. And like the Republican political operatives who went down to Florida in the days following the 2000 election and created an astroturf “base” opposed to a recount, so is Wall Street drumming up a false hysteria that claims that “regular folks” are demanding the bailout’s prompt approval. -more-

First of all, we must confess we were a bit puzzled that the authors of the Sept. 18 commentary, “Healing KPFA,” self-identified as “KPFA Staff,” when nearly half the six signatories are actually KPFA Local Station Board members affiliated with the “Concerned Listeners” block, rather than staff members. Furthermore, of the six actual staff signers, five are paid department heads, and not rank and file or unpaid employees. To say the least, a rather skewed sampling of “KPFA staff.” -more-

The excellent editorial and the news reports published in the Berkeley Daily Planet on Sept. 17 reminded me, an alumnus of UC Berkeley, of those turmoil years of the 1960s (as referred to in said editorial) when the students fought for their free speech rights. I witnessed how the sit-in demonstrators within the Sproul Hall were thrown out with water jets. And soon Mario Savio, one of the leaders, was arrested. -more-

We were saddened to hear of a student’s death due to the over-use of alcohol on yet another college campus (“Is the Parens Patriae Power Dead at UC Berkeley?” commentary, Sept 18). This is a situation that unfortunately happens far too often in university towns all across the United States. Our culture has led us all to believe that college and alcohol go hand in hand. All one has to do is look at how the density of alcohol outlets increases as you approach the Cal campus. Is this what we want for ourselves, our students, and our community of Berkeley? -more-

The old gymnasium at Berkeley High School was granted national and state landmark status as a historic district in January 2008. Earlier, in July 2007, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission landmarked the gymnasium. -more-

Berkeley Unified School District students, parents, teachers, administrators, community members, and taxpayers should be commended for their schools’ achievement reflected in the 2007-08 Accountability Progress Report recently released by the state Board of Education. The results tell us that the provisions of Measure A, part of a unique and fruitful partnership between Berkeley schools and their community, are benefiting students. -more-

I was amused by Russ Tilleman’s Sept. 18 letter opposing Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). To bus riders who are frustrated by the absence of good transit and who want something done about it, he gives a Marie Antoinettish response: Let them drive cars. -more-

This presidential campaign is historic in many respects but as oratory it is not different from others; verbal combat is waged under the dual canopy of context and perspective. -more-

In the latest example of privatizing profit and nationalizing risk, the Bush administration has proposed bailing out Wall Street’s investment houses, hedge funds, and all the commercial banks by giving away $700 billion of taxpayers’ money. The total cost of the ad hoc bailout of financiers may eventually exceed $1 trillion. And the administration’s Treasury secretary, Hank Paulson, says we must give him the power to use this $700 billion any way he sees fit. And, by the way, Congress has to give it to him right now! -more-

If most Americans think Iran and Georgia are the two most volatile flashpoints in the world, one can hardly blame them. The possibility that the Bush administration might strike at Teheran’s nuclear facilities has been hinted about for the past two years, and the White House’s pronouncements on Russia seem like Cold War déjà vu. -more-

A little over a year from now, Oakland city staff will recommend—and the Oakland City Council will thereafter make a decision on—the master developer for one of Oakland’s largest and most important development projects in decades: the 108-acre Gateway Project on the old Oakland Army Base. -more-

The black phoebe is an admirable bird in many ways. What I appreciate most about it is its identifiability. No other California bird is anything like it: small, black with a white belly, short crest, upright posture. This is remarkable in a member of the tyrant flycatcher family, many of whose species are cryptic in the extreme. -more-

I confess to some iconoclastic tendencies. I’m probably more geek than rebel but I certainly don’t like to run with the pack. One way in which this is true is that I’m a big fan of antique wiring. It might seem obvious that very old wiring systems are inherently dangerous but it ain’t necessarily the case. Some of these are in great shape and can serve your need handsomely and some are either inherently inadequate by design or have been ruined by any of the armies of despoilers that roam the country. -more-