In the news today: Zoning changes for Panoramic Hill and Telegraph, fines for daycare centers proposed, new marijuana regulations, 155-unit apartment complex for South Shattuck, credit card fraud and a music club in financial trouble. -more-

[Editor's Note: This was received as a press release at 3 on Monday afternoon. A more complete article will follow. Berkeley Police Department Public Information Officer Jamie Perkins confirmed that the crime at Rabbi Lerner's home in the 900 block of Cragmont was reported at 11:40 today, Monday, and she said at about 6 p.m. that there were no suspects as yet.]

Berkeley police today confirmed that the attack on Rabbi Lerner's home late Sunday May 2nd or early morning Monday May 3rd was in fact a crime and was being investigated. -more-

Last night the Berkeley City Council unanimously approved the “Reduced Impact Alternative” BRT that is similar to “Rapid Bus Plus” as the “Locally Preferred Alternative.” It rejected the “Build Alternative” which would have removed traffic lanes and placed boarding stations in the middle of the street even though AC Transit sent a letter saying, more or less, that it was obliged to choose that alternative. This meeting with Bus Rapid Transit the only agenda item ended after 11:00 pm. Sixty-six members of the public were against the “Build Alternative,” twenty-three in favor and five asked all alternatives to be studied. Here are the alternatives. -more-

In the news today: -more-

"Driving while Black." "Walking while Black." These are phrases in the contemporary vernacular for racial profiling, which is defined as the inclusion of racial or ethnic characteristics in determining whether a person is considered likely to commit a particular type of crime or an illegal act or to behave in a "predictable" manner. Arizona's new immigration law will now target those "walking or driving while Brown." -more-

A state appeals court in San Francisco on Monday upheld a lower court decision that the environmental report for Chevron's Richmond refinery expansion project is inadequate under state environmental laws. -more-

In the news since the last issue: -more-

In a late night vote on Thursday, the Berkeley City Council voted to support hybrid alternatives to AC Transit's Bus Rapid Transit proposal which eliminate dedicated bus lanes and bus boarding stations in the center of the street. According to AC Transit spokesperson Cory LaVigne this plan can’t be considered as part of the environmental impact study currently underway, making it effectively a "no build" alternative at this point. -more-

The usual catch-phrase for environmental responsibility is "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle." However, on Earth Day, in a small computer lab in University Village, Albany, a local group added "Repair" to the list. Toolbox open, my daughter grinned as she unscrewed the base of our long-broken vacuum cleaner. In a corner, two of my friends leaned over the disassembled guts of a malfunctioning laptop. Broken cameras, microwaves, and electronics filled the tables near their hopeful owners as tools were passed around and volunteers guided each project and offered advice. -more-

04-30-10 Letters to The Editor -more-

Everyone's celebrating the Governor's "pledge" to save the Cal Grant... everyone except for students, that is. The pledge to save the Cal grant doesn't save anything at all. In fact, it hurts low income students and their families. -more-

The latest polls indicate that if the mid-term elections were held today, Democrats would lose seats in Congress because of dissatisfaction about the economy, particularly high rates of unemployment. Over the next six months, what should the Obama Administration do to solve the jobs problem? -more-

So what does being stranded in the middle of the high Mexican desert have to do with Chrysler and cocaine? Well, it was a Chrysler that got Anne and me into the mess—a model aptly named Attitude (“all attitude,” as one of my kids would say). But there was no cocaine or other assorted drugs in the tiny town of Bondojito Huichapan Hidalgo, just a hardware store, a minuscule tienda, and, of course, a church. -more-

Part 2: “…go with the flow.” -more-

Kaua’i is an extraordinary place to see seabirds. Kilauea National Wildlife Refuge on the North Shore hosts nesting Laysan albatrosses, red-footed boobies, and wedge-tailed shearwaters. The boobies occupy a wooded slope above the ocean; we watched them bringing in twigs as nesting material. The albatrosses, mostly unpaired adolescents and supersized chicks, use a nearby hill. Almost literally underfoot, the shearwaters had excavated burrows right at the edge of a paved path. Great frigatebirds, long-winged piratical creatures, nest elsewhere but come to Kilauea to steal fish from the hapless boobies. -more-

A century ago, theatre changed. The first “modern” play was The Seagull by Anton Chekhov. The usual theater fare then was melodrama which was considered to be high art. The Seagull was people just talking, expressing their innermost longings, mired in incontrovertible conflicts of the heart, and locked in a “union of opposites.” When it opened in St. Petersburg, the audience response was hostile. The actress playing Nina was so frightened that she lost her voice mid-performance, and Chekhov hid backstage after the first act. But fellow playwright and producer Nemirovich-Danchenko saw the play’s potential and three years later in 1898 convinced C. Stanislavski to direct it for their Moscow Art Theatre. The rest is history. The MAT brought its work to NYC in the ‘20’s, the crowd gasped when actors just behaved and engaged in such startling and ground-breaking staging as turning their back on the audience while conversing. It overwhelmed the audience with a naturalism that set a new tone and mode which would be the forefather of film acting. The crest of the Moscow Art Theatre still bears a seagull. -more-

Tony Judt is a distinguished scholar, historian, writer, and academic, born in England and based mostly in America. Of his thirteen earlier books, I have read only one. Presently, I am working my way through his 2005 masterpiece Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945. I am more familiar with his highly informed and probing reviews and essays in the New York Review of Books. One of those NYReview essays (December 17, 2009) grew into this book. -more-

Spring showers will give way to local, native, wildflowers this weekend as a number of local homeowners invite the public into their gardens. -more-

Highly acclaimed pianist Sarah Cahill will inaugurate the Berkeley Arts Festival at 8 pm on Saturday, May 1, performing a program of exciting piano music, including of Annie Gosfield's Five Characters Walk Into a Bar (2010), Eve Beglarian's Night Psalm (2009), Terry Riley's Fandango on the Heaven Ladder (1994), Balinese Ceremonial Music arranged by Colin McPhee/Evan Ziporyn (2007), Tania Leon's Mistica (2003), selections from Larry Polansky's B'midbar (2009), Guy Klucevsek's Don't Let the Boogie Man Get You (2005), and selections from Mamoru Fujieda's Begonia in My Life (2009). -more-

Any old messiah can turn water into wine. But wine into water? That takes a community effort. -more-

If you want to get dirt under your fingernails in a productive cause, there’s an opportunity this weekend. -more-

With previews starting Friday, April 30 at 8, at the Berkeley City Club: TERRORISTKA, a new play by Rebecca Bella, directed by Jessica Holt for Threshold Theatre (which began in a Berkeley directors workshop), based on a true story Bella heard while a Fulbright Fellow in Russia, of a young Chechen woman, recruited to be a suicide bomber, journeying to Moscow, told in verse and song. With sound design by Greg Scharpen and costumes by Tammy Berlin, both of Central Works. Thursdays through Saturdays, 8 p. m.; Sundays at 5 2315 Durant Ave. $12-$29. (415) 891-7235; thethresholdproject.blogspot.com -more-