Caffe Trieste Opens in Peet’s Territory
Papa Gianni knows he’s treading on enemy territory by bringing his famed North Beach coffee house to Berkeley, the hometown of Peet’s Coffee and Tea.
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Richmond Activists Fight for Wetlands, Open Space
RICHMOND–On a hill rising high above San Pablo Bay, Whitney Dotson stared out at an expanse of marshland along the eastern shore and could still see himself and his brother, Richard, as kids swimming in the grassy marsh channels in the early 1960s.
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DNA Database Catches Criminals, Say Top Cops
RICHMOND — For eight years, Milena Sellers wondered who could be so brutal as to kidnap, torture and murder her nine-year-old son, Jonathan and his 13-year-old friend, Charlie Keever. In 2001, a cold hit by the state’s DNA database gave her an answer.
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Teacher Mentor Leaves Living Legacy in Alameda
HAYWARD — Oakland resident Linda Lambert has helped educators in Egypt, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and Thailand improve their teaching. On the eve of her retirement this week, the former California State University, Hayward, professor returned to her roots in Alameda County.
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Satanists Not so Spooky, Say Supporters
SAN FRANCISCO — Stockbrokers may be down on their luck, partisans may be biting their nails, and the unemployed may be hopeless. But at least Satanists have caught a break.
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Picketers Frustrated in Hotel Strike
SAN FRANCISCO — After being locked out for almost a month, workers, many of them immigrants, said Wednesday that they are are frustated by the lockout but determined to win.
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Child Victims Get New Attention in SF
SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris said Tuesday evening that domestic violence against children is emerging as a serious problem in San Francisco.
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Haloween Brings Annoyance to Castro Street
SAN FRANCISCO — Ken McDonald removed the bright orange sign from the window of his Castro Street liquor store. It announced a ban on consuming alcohol on the streets on Halloween.
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Downtown Richmond Starts on Recovery Street
Richmond — Sirens wailing, two police cars flew down Macdonald Avenue this morning past empty stores and fast-food restaurants. The historic downtown area lacks appeal, but a few Richmond residents see a bright future amid the blight. Today the Richmond Main Street Initiative celebrated a simple contribution towards revitalizing the historic downtown, the installation of new trashcans and benches.
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Proposed Casino’s Neighbors Fear Crime, Traffic
RICHMOND–Residents of Parchester Village, a small African American community in Richmond, are not happy about a proposed casino on Parr Boulevard just across Richmond Parkway from their homes.
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Emeryville Divided Over Pixar Quest for Expansion
Two referendum measures on the Nov. 2 ballot have left residents of Emeryville bitterly divided – at odds with city officials and with themselves – on whether to allow Pixar Animation Studios to nearly double its campus.
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Richmond Councilman Exceeds Limits, Returns Garbage Money
RICHMOND — Richmond Councilman Gary Bell, who is running for re-election in November, accepted campaign contributions that apparently exceeded the city’s cap on donations and later refunded a portion of the money.
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Albany Home to Historical Farm
ALBANY – Every city has its homegrown mystery, that strange phenomenon that sparks conversation among locals and causes even longtime residents to scratch their heads in bewilderment. Here in Albany, it’s the Gill Tract, a 14-acre piece of tree-filled land that sits incongruously among the concrete and brick of San Pablo Avenue at Buchanan Street, just across from a gas station and next to the University of California’s student housing, Albany Village.
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Oakland Black Leaders Call on Voters to Turn Out
OAKLAND — African-American leaders and longshoremen today rallied their community to unite as a force for political change, decrying economic inequality and calling on black voters to come together in turning out President Bush in next month’s presidential election.
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Creek Clean-Up Underway in San Pablo
SAN PABLO — A whale-sized mound of sand, weeds, and trash was choking San Pablo Creek into two narrow channels near the city center today. But amid the heap of liquor bottles, old clothes, and tree branches, one item stuck out, upright and improbable: A lone pitchfork.
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Academics Debate Threat of Terrorist “October Surprise”
The set of debates is over, the polls show a closer race than ever, but it just might be that the presidential election will be decided by an event that hasn’t occurred yet.
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Richmond Candidates Split in Two Sides
RICHMOND — Candidates for the Richmond City Council were sharply divided into two camps during a forum last night at the Richmond Senior Center. On one side were the four incumbents, who for the most part agreed the city is on the right course toward recovery. At the other end were 11 challengers, many of whom argued that nothing short of a political facelift will save the Bay Area’s most depressed city.
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Alameda Health Officials Discuss Flu Vaccine Plans
OAKLAND — Alameda County medical officials met today to develop a flu vaccination strategy to combat what the county public health department predicts will be an especially rough flu season.
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After Evictions, Townhomes Grow Dangerous
As the sun sets at the Harbor Island apartments in Alameda, a smattering of large overhead lights begin to flicker on, creating a network of shadows among the 20-building complex. The sky is still clear, but there is no light coming from the many vacant, boarded-up units. Darkness soon falls, and for many of the 150 to 200 residents that still remain at the 615-unit complex, walking the grounds is no longer an option.
“After a certain time, you’re in your house. Its like you’re under house arrest,” said Regina Tillman.
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Alameda Landlords Slammed as Evictions Continue
ALAMEDA — Backed by 25 or so protesters carrying signs that read “Slumlords neglect and evict” and “Keep diversity in Alameda,” members of the Harbor Island Tenants Association accused owners of the apartment complex of racism and asked why evictions were necessary to complete renovations.
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Oakland Immigrants Urged to Report Home Abuse
OAKLAND — The panelists at a lunchtime forum for Domestic Violence Awareness Month agreed that immigrant victims in Oakland often fail to report their problems to the police.
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Free Speech Era Expert Sees Links to 1934 Strike
BERKELEY — San Francisco’s General Strike – the 1934 union struggle for improved labor conditions that led to riots, deaths and martial law – so terrified Bay-area residents with its suspected Communist underpinnings that the aftershocks still reverberated three decades later when Berkeley’s free speech movement erupted.
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Berkeley’s Longest-Serving Cop Reflects on Career
BERKELEY — The best Christmas present police Capt. Bobby J. Miller ever received was the reunion of a 62-year-old man with his son after the older man recovered from alcoholism at a substance abuse treatment center Miller co-founded.
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Clerk Delivers Joy to Berkeley Post Office Regulars
BERKELEY — When Tom Citron says he’ll buy you dinner if you catch him in a bad mood, it’s not an idle promise. “I mean a nice dinner,” Citron explains, “I know some excellent chefs in San Francisco. We’re not talking McDonalds.”
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Former Bush Official Defends Treatment of Prisoners Memo
BERKELEY–In the last few months, Boalt Hall law professor John Yoo has been constantly identified with one thing – the Justice Department memo he wrote about the treatment of prisoners in United States custody at Guantanamo Bay.
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