Daily Archives: March 28, 2011
The Berkeley Wire: 03.28.11
Berkeley woman, a delivery nurse, wins Oakland marathon [Oakland Tribune]
UC Berkeley scientists keep an eye on Japan radiation from campus rooftop [Mercury News]
Olivia San Mateo, a letterpress printer in north Berkeley [SF Chronicle]
Heading to Berkeley’s Sea Salt for brunch [Coco Times]
J-School graduate Jordon Conn talks sportswriting 101 [Golden Blogs]
Photo by heyk8/Berkeleyside Flickr pool.
Alice Waters goes to Twitter HQ, to tweet
Sitting in front of a laptop nursing a herbal tea at the Chez Panisse Café, or perhaps pulling up a chair at the kitchen table or even a straightforward desk, is not the way Alice Waters intends to use her brand new Twitter account.
Instead, Waters is traveling across the Bay to the Twitter offices in San Francisco this afternoon in order to post a tweet.
This won’t be her inaugural tweet because that was sent out at around 10:30am today informing us of the fact her second tweet would be “coming soon”.
The “big announcement” which was being heralded last week by Waters’ staff — and which the foodie world (the food media, Michael Pollan and Ruth Reichl included) is seemingly waiting for with bated breath – focuses on the arrangements for Chez Panisse’s 40th birthday celebrations and the concurrent campaign to support the Edible Schoolyards that are popping up all over the nation. … Continue reading »
Lady Jackets fall in final minutes to nation’s number one
Berkeley High’s Lady Jackets girls basketball team didn’t lose heart in the state Division I championship on Saturday night, but they fell short in the end to the nation’s number one-ranked team, Mater Dei, 59-47.
Trailing by 16 after Mater Dei went on a 13-0 scoring tear at the end of the third quarter, Berkeley found the form that had taken it to the country’s number five rank. The team cut the margin to three points with 2:52 left in … Continue reading »
BHS Principal takes action in wake of gun activity
By Frances Dinkelspiel and Tracey Taylor
There were two on-campus gun incidents at Berkeley High last week, and police discovered an Oakland youth outside BHS on Friday afternoon carrying a gun, but Principal Pasquale Scuderi does not think gang activity or an intra-school beef is the reason for the recent spate of gun activity.
The three gun-related incidents last week appear to be unrelated, said Scuderi. Kids might be bringing guns to school because of the glamorous role guns have in our society, he said.
“I don’t buy that the only reason kids are carrying guns is for personal protection. I think there is some sort of fascination, a cultural fixation with firearms,” he said.
On Friday, at about 4:15 p.m., police shut down the sidewalks on Milvia Street and closed the school’s east gates after a BHS teacher walking to his car noticed four youths gathered around the open trunk of a white Buick Park Avenue, according to Sgt. Mary Kusmiss of the Berkeley Police Department. The teacher then spotted what looked like a black semi-automatic handgun in the trunk and called 911. … Continue reading »
Pay raise, no added health costs in Pacific Steel contract
The workers at Pacific Steel Casting won’t have to make new co-payments for their health insurance, according to details of a new contract released today by the union.
After a strike last week, the company and members of Local 164B of the Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and Allied Workers International Union agreed to a new four-year contact that will give the 461 workers a $3.78 per hour wage increase, according to Ignacio De La Fuente, the vice-president of the union. The company will increase the hourly rate by 75 cents over four years and also pay 44 cents more per hour toward the workers’ pension plans.
Most importantly, the company will continue to pay 100% of employee health benefits, said De La Fuente. The workers had gone out on strike March 21 because the company had been asking them to pay as much as 10% of their salaries toward health care. … Continue reading »
“He’s so hot” — aka, the Tony Taccone adulation society
It seems the Artistic Director of the Berkeley Rep has something of a “following”. In fact, read the comments on a story we ran about him last week, and it becomes clear a certain group of fans is positively smitten with Tony Taccone, speaking with more than a little hyperbole of his brazen attractiveness, his warm personality, handsome features — even his prowess as a lover.
Berkeleyside has reason to believe these people might know … Continue reading »
Claremont branch of the library will close April 2
The Claremont Branch of the Berkeley Public Library will close at 6 pm Saturday April 2 for nine to twelve months.
During that time the entire building will be renovated and seismically strengthened. When the branch reopens, it will have 350 more square feet of space, a new reference desk, a more open and inviting lobby, a separate, sound-proofed teen room, a new picture-book alcove for children, more chairs for reading books and new windows … Continue reading »
Comments changes on Berkeleyside
The vigorous community of commenters on Berkeleyside is, we believe, one of our strengths. It’s unsurprising that there are fiercely held opinions in Berkeley, but we’re happy that — for the most part — people find ways to express them civilly on Berkeleyside.
To improve our ability to moderate comments, and to provide a better format for discussions, we’ve switched to a new system for comments. We’re now using Disqus, a local company, to provide our comments platform.
What … Continue reading »
