In a sometimes testy meeting that lasted until after midnight, the Berkeley City Council approved a compromise two-year agreement with 3M Corporation for maintenance of the city library’s electronic book monitoring system, granted City Manager Phil Kamlarz an 8 percent raise, and told staff that more work needed to be done before complicated modifications to the city’s condominium conversion ordinance can be passed. -more-

The Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker factory in West Berkeley will be closing this year, leaving 150 employees without work. -more-

After spending the last two weeks dealing with the sometimes violent aftermath of the Fruitvale BART station shooting death of a Hayward man by a BART police officer, Oakland turned its attention to its own law enforcement problems this week with the suddenly embattled chief of police announcing his retirement, two prominent civil rights attorneys threatening to initiate contempt of court charges against the city because of failure to fully implement a court-imposed police settlement agreement, and Mayor Ron Dellums calling for a 10 percent reduction in crime over the next year. -more-

The $819 billion federal economic recovery package that the House approved Wednesday will inject California’s public school system with nearly $10 billion in federal aid over the next two years, providing funds for scholarships, child-care development, at-risk children, Head Start, school renovations and other programs. -more-

Berkeley police are asking the community to help them track down a serial sexual predator accused of assaulting at least three college women around UC Berkeley’s South Campus area early Saturday morning. -more-

MediaNews, the region’s dominant newspaper publisher, Wednesday ordered all its Bay Area employees to take a mandatory unpaid week off during the next two months. -more-

Despite protests from neighbors and community members about traffic impacts and height, the Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board approved local developer Ali Kashani’s five-story mixed-use project last week. It would bring 98 condos, 7,770 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and 114 parking spaces to a 43,210 square-foot lot at 1200 Ashby Avenue, on the corner of San Pablo. -more-

Two environmental groups filed suit Monday in an effort to block construction of a casino resort and condo complex at Richmond’s Point Molate. -more-

The public is now able to comment on the Berkeley citywide pools master plan, which was released on Friday, a week later than it was originally promised. -more-

The 2020 Vision program, initiated in June as a collaboration between the City of Berkeley, the Berkeley Unified School District and community organizations to close the achievement gap in the schools, will launch an All City Equity Task Force during a three-day retreat at the Berkeley Yacht Club today (Thursday). -more-

The proposal for the Berkeley High School redesign—which has generated controversy so far but has been moving at a brisk pace since it was first unveiled in November—is scheduled for public discussion to give the community and district officials a chance to comment on its strengths and weaknesses. -more-

UC President Mark Yudof named a key ally of new U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s to fill the secretary’s former post as head of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. -more-

The first draft of the key regulatory document required before the city and UC Berkeley can sign off on a new downtown plan is now available online. -more-

BB attack -more-

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson scheduled a bail motion for former Berkeley City College student Andrew Hoeft-Edenfield—accused of murdering UC Berkeley nuclear engineering student Chris Wootton in May—for Feb. 2. -more-

While a Berkeley man was charged last week with murder following the death of the victim of a Jan. 11 West Berkeley shooting, a 47-year-old woman originally charged with the shooting has been released. -more-

Berkeley’s downtown had a big event in the midst of the Great Depression. -more-

I turned 43 on Friday. Woo hoo! Age doesn’t scare me, in the just-a-number chronological sense: I hope never to lie about my age—ridiculous vanity. Wrinkles don’t scare me: peaches are sweet and delicious, but so are raisins. Gray hairs don’t scare me: gray is a lovely neutral. I’ll look fab wearing chartreuse. The fact that I am, technically, old enough to be my 3-year-old son’s grandmother doesn’t scare me. -more-

BRAINS WIN! -more-

THANK YOU, RICHMOND -more-

In his Jan. 22 UnderCurrents column. “Oakland’s Test In the Aftermath of Oscar Grant’s Death,” J. Douglas Allen-Taylor says that Oakland is being tested. I agree that people in Oakland, and the Bay Area, are being tested, but not in the way he describes. The important question is, when people rise up against brutal injustice, what stand do you take? Do you stand aside and criticize? Or do you join the struggle, and see it through? -more-

The capitalist state has two roles long recognized by political thinkers. First, like any state it must provide services that cannot be reliably developed through private means, such as public safety and orderly traffic. Second, the capitalist state protects the haves from the have-nots, securing the process of capital accumulation to benefit the moneyed interests, while heavily circumscribing the demands of the working populace. -more-

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Though I missed the thrill of being there, I felt privileged to experience the historic 44th inauguration (I wish we could get rid of that monarchial word) through the lens of various media cameras. The Channel 4 talking heads even had a surprisingly impassioned “pre-show” discussion about the significance of a black presidency and articulately placed the event upon Dr. King’s shoulders and upon the shoulders of the Civil Rights Movement activists who shed their blood, sweat and tears for this day. Protests and marches were discussed in an almost surreal heroic and positive light. I had the feeling that dissent might even become fashionable for the mainstream, in which case I could give it up and move on to other things. -more-

As director of the Asylum Project at the East Bay Sanctuary, I see those who want to escape marriage and be free and those who want to be free to marry. We represent women who have fled forced marriage and wife inheritance—both sometimes including female circumcision—and domestic violence. Apart from the lack of love and the slavery aspects of forced marriage and wife inheritance, they can be death sentences in polygamous societies where AIDS is rampant. Domestic violence can be a long, slow death sentence, or a sudden one. We also represent clients who have suffered lifelong and truly horrible persecution on account of their sexual orientation. -more-

California’s fiscal state frustrates anyone who pays attention. The discontent comes from two angles—either someone is fed up that Republicans insist on not raising taxes, arguing that paying taxes is an important duty of all citizens, or someone is upset that California cannot live within its means as it continues to spend more and more and then cries for help when revenues deviate from expectations. -more-

With the coming of the new Obama administration, much has been said about how much change and hope he will bring to this country. Indeed, Barack Obama did accomplish quite a creditable victory over his Republican opponent. Many thousands of starry-eyed individuals enthusiastically cast their votes for the Democratic candidate, with the hope of electing a government which would be more responsive to people’s needs. While it is quite a historic occasion to have the first black man elected to this country’s highest office, my concern is what he actually intends to do once he is there. Careful examination of Obama’s rise to power, his past voting record, and those who have supported and advised him, sadly indicate that the majority of the American public has fallen for a grand deception. -more-

He’s gone. George Bush has left the White House; it’s safe to come out of hiding. But, before progressives take a deep breath and begin attacking Barack Obama for not pursuing our pet issues vigorously enough, let’s stop and applaud those of us who, for the last four plus years, have fought the good fight against Bush’s fascism: the heroes of the resistance. -more-

In the immediate aftermath of the public release of the first cell phone video of the New Year’s Day Oscar Grant shooting death, we were cautioned by “police experts” that conclusions should not be immediately drawn from the videotaped scene of the horrific event because the video lacked context. -more-

The parrot reports keep coming in. (For anyone who got here late, I had asked readers for any information on the red-and-green parrots, conures, or parakeets that frequent northwest Berkeley. Based on the response, the flock consists of four mitred parakeets, AKA mitred conures, and they’re seen most often in the vicinity of James Kenney Park. Most of the sightings have been fairly recent, although Steve Halflich has been observing them for 19 years.) -more-

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Oakland Magic Circle has been in the business of prestidigitation since 1925. On Tuesday, Feb. 3, they will put on their 84th annual Installation Banquet and Gala Show, featuring European magic and quick-change team Stoil & Ekaterina, plus comic magician, juggler and unicyclist Frank Olivier, veteran of Broadway and the Johnny Carson show, and others. Bjornson Hall, 2258 MacArthur Blvd. Oakland. Dinner & show: $25 ($20 for kids 12 and under), advance tickets required: brownpapertickets.com (800) 838-3006. Show only, $20 at door from 7:30-8 p.m. -more-

Berkeley is a city filled with “Custom Homes.” This is a term I hate, but in the absence of something better, there it will have to lay on the page, windless and mundane. To me, the term “custom home” brings to mind brochures filled with hackneyed images of rock jawed builders (plans rolled up under one arm, a pipe smoking in one hand) as they explain procedure and rectitude to their adoring clients. Custom homes are those that are built on site on an individual basis rather than as part of some larger group, tract or prefab model to be shipped out to an awaiting customer in Tuscaloosa. -more-