It looks like the nine-story SNK Realty Group’s Arpeggio building, under construction on Center Street in downtown Berkeley, is on hold, at least for the moment. Passersby have noticed that construction has been halted for several weeks. The sales office on the site has closed, and the Planet’s calls to the sales number listed on the project’s website instead reached an independent Oakland real estate broker, who said that units would not be for sale until at least June. -more-

The Sequoia Apartments at the corner of Telegraph and Haste, the building which housed Mario's La Fiesta for more than 30 years, experienced a big, smoky fire two-alarm fire Tuesday afternoon, attracting fire crews from all stations in the city of Berkeley. -more-

You would think a 52-year-old garage sale might have run out of things to sell. But the White Elephant Sale (WES) keeps restocking and plugging along, annually offering tens of thousands of objects, from odd to ordinary, in the cause of raising money (some sixteen million, so far) to benefit the programs of the Oakland Museum of California. -more-

Last Tuesday (February 15) the Berkeley City Council discussed open government, Bradley Manning, the Affordable Housing Impact Fee, and PG&E's pipelines in Berkeley. -more-

A new study could show that the radio frequency radiation levels of some PG&E SmartMeters is significantly higher than previously thought, a spokesman for an environmental health coalition said. -more-

Shahram Farshchi, 56,the driver of a car which crashed on Sunday into at least four other cars on Solano Avenue in Berkeley and Albany was arrested by Berkeley police, according to a series of stories in the Albany Patch online newspaper. The driver told the paper that he believed he might have suffered a seizure, but this theory has not yet been confirmed by police or physicians. Three people were taken to the hospital with possible injuries, but all were released after treatment. -more-

Global Warming; Book Vans: Mental Illness; The Role of Aladdin? In response to your op-ed re: the Berkeley Public Library; In Response to the Letters about the Libraries -more-

UC Berkeley has unceremoniously announced its intention to wire "properties owned, leased, or controlled by the campus" for video surveillance. The campus policies website (campuspol.chance.berkeley.edu/newpolicies.cfm) has been updated with the pdf file titled "Video Security Applications". As listed on the document, the responsible executive behind the surveillance plan is the [now former]vice-chancellor. Oddly though, he left his name off the form. The man who wants to scrutinize everybody, didn't want his name on a publicly scrutinized document. For the record his name is Nathan Bromstrom. If people want to take video footage of him (fair is fair), he lives on Canyon Road (thanks Google). -more-

Today was the fifth day of KPFA’s annual major winter fund drive. In a previous article I wrote with great concern for the future—the financial viability--of the station and the Pacifica Network of which it is a part. My concern has not lessened as both the network and KPFA remain close to insolvency, and so the outcome of this present fund drive is particularly important, although a mini-fund drive in December was a great success bringing in 150% of projections. -more-

Angela Hill laments the demise of the Olde Bezerkeley in the Trib.

George Lakoff reveals What Conservatives Really Want on the Truthout website.

Josh Kosman in the Chronicle outs the Vienna Philharmonic, coming soon to U.C. Berkeley's Zellerbach Auditorium, as being STILL a notorious bastion of racism and sexism--and I thought they'd reformed! -more-

The Berkeley Chamber of Commerce, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is entitled to its opinion. But we don't have to agree with it, and we don't. -more-

Behind the recent appointment of Israel’s new military chief of staff are several months of bitter infighting among Israeli generals and intelligence agencies over whether to attack Iran, and, in the event of such an attack, how to rope the U.S. into the war. -more-

As the world watched, millions of Egyptians engaged in an eighteen-day democratic revolution. For those of us fortunate enough to live in the United States, there are five lessons to be learned from the insurrection in Egypt. -more-

Demonstrations led to the downfall of President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia. There are protests in Bahrain, Yemen. Jordan, Algeria and new demonstrations in Iran, a nd minor incidents have occurred in Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Morocco. Repressive regimes around the world must be very nervous. Is Colonel Muammar Qaddafi's Libya next? -more-

Persons with mental illness may suffer an episode of acute symptoms even if taking medications as prescribed. An acute episode or in some cases, a longer period of severe mental illness affects the afflicted person, but also puts a strain on family members. -more-

After a few months delay, we rejoin my ongoing and probably fruitless quest to get a mortgage modification under HAMP, the Home Affordable Modification Program, rolled out with much fanfare by President Obama, wherein he promised it would help four million homeowners to reduce their mortgage payments so they could stay in their houses instead of losing them to foreclosure. Number of at-risk homeowners who have received permanent modifications so far? 549,620. Number of homeowners kicked out of the program? 729,109. Number of permanent modifications cancelled? 44,972. Therefore, actual number of permanent modifications? 504,648. Number of at-risk homeowners jerked around by their mortgage servicers, the Treasury Department, and the White House? 100%. And note, these modifications aren’t actually permanent-the way the name implies- they only last for five years. Meanwhile, there were 3.9 million foreclosures filed in 2010- that is one for every 45 households. -more-

In high school, I was placed on something called the Regents Diploma track. Almost everyone there was headed for college or the military. It was rumored that the Daughters of the American Revolution chapter provided college scholarships for members’ daughters. My mother trekked up to a Poughkeepsie, New York cemetery to document family history that would help to establish her, and thus, my, DAR eligibility. -more-

"Time for you to leave ... " -more-

There are two words that cause confusion because they have but one letter difference: tortuous and torturous. The former means full of twists, turns, or bends, perhaps like a labyrinth; the latter, painfully difficult or slow. For Aaron Henne’s A Man’s Home—Central Works’ first offering of their season— both words apply. -more-

Josh Kornbluth has become a near-icon in the Bay Area with his drollery and reminiscences of growing up Pinko, and observations of the culture. As a non-observant, cultural Jew reared with professions of atheism, his perspective of a displaced outsider give him special standing. -more-

A call from a theater friend took me to Pinole a couple of weekends ago to catch the Pinole Community Players production, in the Community Playhouse downtown on Tennant Avenue, of The Full Monty. -more-