Featured events- 06/02/2012 - 9th Annual Berkeley World Music Festival, Sat, June 2
- 06/02/2012 - EAST BAY OPEN STUDIOS 2012 // JUNE 2-3, JUNE 9-10
- 06/02/2012 - Chocolate & Chalk Art Festival, Saturday, June 2, 2012 (Rain Date June 9) 10AM-5PM
- 06/01/2012 - Hillside Club Concert - Beth Custer Ensemble - 'My Grandmother'
- 05/31/2012 - One Man, Two Guvnors from National Theatre, London
Daily Archives: April 29, 2010
The Berkeley Wire: 4.29.10
Revolutionary spirit of Charles “Ozzie” Osborne lives on at Elmwood Cafe [Chron]
Police plan DUI checkpoints on Alcatraz and Adeline on April 30 [Berkeley]
Two Cal students worked on award winning documentary, “Presumed Guilty” [Chron]
UC scientists among those who have sequenced frog genome [Science Fair]
Photo: Another mom goes bananas by Claudie C-G/Berkeleyside Flickr pool.
Cal student allegedly involved in iPhone scandal
A UC Berkeley student was allegedly involved in the story of the lost prototype iPhone which made headlines on April 19 after details of the under-wraps phone were published with great fanfare on Gizmodo (above).
As reported in Wired today, Brian J. Hogan, a 21-year-old resident of Redwood City, found what is believed to be Apple’s next-generation iPhone which was bought by Gizmodo. However, CNet is reporting that Hogan had help finding a buyer for the phone from Sage Robert Wallower, … Continue reading »
Pot club move halted
The controversial move of Berkeley Patients Group, a medical marijuana dispensary, from San Pablo Avenue to the old Scharffen Berger factory has been stymied by a local developer buying the building, reports Doug Oakley in the Berkeley Voice.
Wareham Development, one of the more vocal opponents of the move, has acquired the building on the corner of Heinz and Seventh Street. Wareham owns a number of properties in the area and had threatened legal action of … Continue reading »
Tagged Berkeley Patients Group, Measure JJ
Cigarettes for minors? Not in Berkeley
Parents of teenagers will be heartened to learn that should their offspring want to buy cigarettes in Berkeley, they’re going to have a hard time doing so.
In a recent tobacco sting operation, only one store out of 43 in Berkeley sold tobacco to a 15-year-old.
The operation tested how well Berkeley’s tobacco vendors comply with the California Penal Code 308(a) which prohibits the sale of tobacco to minors. During the sting, a 15- or 16-year-old trained … Continue reading »
Tagged Cigarettes to minors
Pick of the listings: Newly revamped on Stuart Street
Someone may get in touch with me to point out some obvious flaw I have failed to notice on this listing, but it seems this remodeled lemon-yellow home on a corner lot at 1801 Stuart Street, might be worth a second glance.
Three bedrooms, and two baths, and a total 1,811 sq ft, a good-looking new kitchen and a tidy garden — and the price is $699,000, or $386 per square foot.
The home was built … Continue reading »
Paper or plastic? Or no real choice at all
The gentleman at the check-out (you know the one I mean — he’s distinguished-looking, always works the “15 items or fewer” register), was probably taken aback at how excited I was to see paper bags with handles this morning when I ran in to the Claremont Safeway to grab some groceries.
It niggles me the way that store pushes shoppers to use plastic bags — often a ridiculous over-abundance when they bag for you — by only offering as … Continue reading »
Tagged Paper or plastic, Safeway
Berkeley senate: We will not boycott Israel
ASUC Senators spent another lengthy night (and morning) debating whether to override President Will Smelko’s veto of a bill calling for divestment in Israel.
After hours of talk (again), there were not enough votes to overturn it. But the vote was close, with 13 senators in favor of overriding the veto, 5 opposed, and one abstention. One senator was not at the meeting. It takes 14 votes to override a presidential veto. (The original vote to boycott Israel … Continue reading »
Tagged ASUC Senate, Divestment from Israel, Will Smelko
Council considers BRT alternatives tonight
A special session of the City Council meets tonight to consider what proposals for the contentious Bus Rapid Transit should be pursued in the final Environmental Impact Study/Report. Because a large crowd is expected, the session will be held at Longfellow Middle School, starting at 7 p.m.
The meeting will open with a staff presentation on BRT, followed by five-minute presentations by Berkeleyans for Better Transportation Options and Rapid Bus Plus. Mayor Tom Bates … Continue reading »
Tagged Bus Rapid Transit Berkeley
FBI raid in North Berkeley
A Berkeleysider sent an email to us this morning:
On my bike ride to BART this morning I saw a big swat team of police, including battering rams and machine guns, at a house on Acton, 1/2 a block south of N. Berkely Bart. Wonder what was going on?
According to Berkeley Police Department’s Public Information Officer, Jamie Perkins, there was an operation that involved search warrants this morning. The Berkeley PD, however, was not the lead agency … Continue reading »
Tagged Berkeley Police Department, FBI
Future uncertain for Berkeley’s Serendipity Books
Peter B. Howard, the owner of Serendipity Books, has been collecting antique tomes for 47 years and the results of his diligence can be seen in the stacks and stacks of books at his store on University Avenue.
A world-renowned book collector who has rescued a number of valuable archives from the Berkeley city dump and gotten them preserved at university libraries, Howard estimates that he owns one million books. Half are crammed into his store, where the piles of books make it tough to move around, and half are stored in his warehouse.
But all that is about to change.
Howard was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this year and he knows his time – and that of Serendipity Books — is short. He is trying to sell his massive collection, as well as his business, but does not think it will be easy. He predicts that the store will probably close upon his death.
“There’s nothing to say,” Howard said by telephone. “People die. We all die. Businesses end.”
Howard has long been famous for his blunt talk. That, and the quality of his collection, which contains many first editions and rare books.
Ian Jackson, an old friend and fellow antiquarian book dealer, has served as an unofficial interpreter of Howard to the world. He even wrote two books about the store and its owner, one titled, The Key to Serendipity: How to Buy Books in Spite of Peter Howard. (I think the double entendre is intended.)
In an epigraph to that book, Jackson repeats a conversation he overheard at Serendipity:
Puzzled Customer: “Is there any rhyme or reason to this place?”
Peter B. Howard: “Yes! My rhyme! My reason!”
Howard’s collection is huge and covers many areas, including California history and western Americana. He is known for his collection of first editions of American and British literature, and has holdings of Ernest Hemingway, Henry James, Shakespeare, North Point Press, and fiction from countries around the world, according to an interview Nicholas Basbanes published in his 2001 book, Patience and Fortitude: Wherein a Colorful Cast of Determined Book Collectors, Dealers, and Librarians Go About the Quixotic Task of Preserving a Legacy. Serendipity also has large collections of literary manuscripts, screenplays and little magazines. … Continue reading »
