Official Alameda County election results as of 1:30 a.m. show incumbent Councilmembers Jesse Arreguin, Gordon Wozniak and Linda Maio winning re-election in Districts 4, 8 and 1 respectively. Councilmember Kriss Worthington got 49.79% of the first place votes for District 7, so he’ll be trying to pick up about 6 more votes on Friday when third place finisher Ces Rosales’ votes are added to votes for Worthington or George Beier. -more-

Voters in Richmond appear to have re-elected Gayle McLaughlin for a second term as the city's Mayor, according to complete unofficial election results. -more-

The 14th annual Mario Savio Memorial Lecture () drew a huge crowd to UC Berkeley's Pauley Ballroom on Thursday, October 28. The event honors the memory and legacy of a remarkable student leader whose presence and passion became synonymous with the favor of the Free Speech Movement, which rocked the Berkeley campus in 1964. The unprecedented student sit-in and occupation of Sproul Hall — and the mass-arrest that followed — reverberated across the country challenging the established order of the Eisenhower years and triggering the social ferment that became known as "The Sixties." (For details, see the FSM Archives .) -more-

On Monday, November 1, 2010, at 3:05 a.m. two male UC students were walking on the 2700 block of Haste Street. The two noticed a male walking towards them. As the male walked past them he pulled out a semi-automatic handgun, pointed it at them and demanded their property. The victims complied and the suspect was last seen fleeing on foot westbound on Haste Street. BPD searched the area but was unable to find the suspect. The victims were not injured during this encounter. -more-

A second man has been charged with murder for the fatal shooting of Gary Ferguson Jr. near a Berkeley barbershop in broad daylight last week. -more-

The King's English -more-

Editor's Note: The latest issue of the Pepper Spray Times is now available. -more-

My upbringing wasn’t highly unusual. I believed I was much more different a person than I actually was. I was a fairly typical Jewish boy; shy with girls, intellectual, and ambitious. However, in high school, I was bullied to the extent that I wanted to get out of school and go to work early. This I did. However, my job wasn’t much to brag about, looking back on it. The job also caused me to be somewhat isolated. And at age seventeen, my behavior inexplicably became bizarre and dangerous. My older brother had exhibited mental problems at the same age. Now I was acting strange and bad enough that I was put into a mental hospital. -more-

Frances Dinkelspiel on berkeleyside.com has a sensitive story about a Berkeley High freshman of 14 who was shot and killed by an older boy (17) who was supposedly his best friend. Reports in The Daily Californian and other publications differ slightly from this account. Berkeley police have yet to release much concrete information about this shooting--a number of questions are still unanswered. -more-

The results of the Daily Planet’s Measure R cartoon contest have been tabulated.

Gar Smith is the winner by a nose, followed closely by Justin DeFreitas, with J.Epstein a very respectable third and Matt Breault and Joseph Young not far behind. -more-

It’s been 77 years since Adolph Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, ending the fourteen-year democracy known as the Weimar Republic. A long time ago but painfully relevant as the November 2, 2010 elections near, because there are ominous parallels between Germany in 1933 and the United States in 2010. -more-

Are the U.S. and China on a collision course? Consider the following: -more-

Dr. Robert Neil Butler, M.D.-- psychiatrist-turned-gerontologist -- died in July. He was the first to articulate the concepts of "ageism" and of "productive aging." -more-

Three young tourists, a woman and two male friends, travel to a distant and dangerous part of the world. They cross a restricted border and find their lives changed forever. This sounds like the saga of Sarah Shourd, Jeff and Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal but this is the story of another trio — three student journalists from Europe who crossed into the killing fields of Kilinochchi at the end of Sri Lanka’s bloody rampage against the LTTE — the Liberation Tigers. -more-

At intermission, I spied this witty actress with whom I’ve worked, and asked her what she thought about the play. “Wonderfully cheesy!” she quipped. It was pithy and apropos. -more-

On our recent trip to Copenhagen, we visited the National Gallery of Denmark (Statens Museum for Kunst) for the first public showing of Bob Dylan's "The Brazil Series," 40 acrylic paintings and eight drawings he created during the period 2009-10. Yes, the Dylan of "Blowin' in the Wind," " Mr. Tambourine Man," and "Like a Rolling Stone" fame. Actually Dylan has been sketching most of his life. -more-

There is a wave of Iliad and Odyssey plays washing over the East Bay: the “Salt Plays” at Shotgun, and now PENELOPE’S ODYSSEY by Gary Graves at Central Works playing at the historic Berkeley City Club. -more-