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Saturday, May 13, 2006
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More Democratic politicians ducking UC commencement
UC Berkeley students frustrated by speakers who refuse to cross picket lines of protesting workers
By Matt Krupnick, CONTRA COSTA TIMES
UC Berkeley students are fuming over a campus labor dispute that has led several Democratic politicians to cancel graduation speaking engagements. Former presidential candidate Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, backed out of today's commencement address for Boalt Hall law graduates after a handful of campus custodians and other service workers began picketing graduation ceremonies. Dean instead chose to attend a sparsely attended off-campus party in Berkeley on Thursday...
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  • Federal funding for park moves closer to reality
    By Sam Richards, CONTRA COSTA TIMES
    Pleasanton is one step closer to federal help in landing as much as $250,000 to help pay for Alviso Adobe Community Park. This week, a U.S. House of Representatives committee passed through a bill containing the money. The bill is officially known as the Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Fiscal Year 2007 Appropriations Bill.
  • Chili cook-off kicks off rodeo week
    Rowell Ranch Rodeo week heated up Friday night with the annual chili cook-off at Castro Village Rodeo fans and chili fanciers rubbed shoulders and tasted some of the spicy grub. The cook-off winner went home with $700 cash.
  • Council to decide if Bernal plan will go to voters
    By Bonita Brewer, CONTRA COSTA TIMES
    Pleasanton's plan for the 318-acre city-owned portion of the Bernal property, south of the Alameda County Fairgrounds, could finally go to voters in November if approved Tuesday night by the City Council.
  • Police warn Internet sellers after truck stolen in scam
    By Maria Natale, CONTRA COSTA TIMES
    The Pleasanton Police Department is urging local residents to be wary when using the Internet to advertise items for sale after a recent vehicle purchase scam report.
  • Arson suspected in string of structural blazes
    By Fred Dodsworth, KNIGHT RIDDER
    Berkeley fire officials say a blaze was deliberately set early Thursday at a house on Essex Street, roughly 48 hours after another fire around the corner caused $350,000 in damage to the three-story "flying cottage."
  • Heroic veterans extend invitation
    ON DEC. 7, 1941, 18-year-old Lawson Sakai was sitting in his family kitchen, listening to the radio. Suddenly, an announcer broke into the regular program and said the Japanese had just bombed Pearl Harbor.
  • Teachers vote to come to terms with district
    By Kimberly S. Wetzel, CONTRA COSTA TIMES
    A long-standing contract dispute between the teachers union and the school district ended Wednesday night after teachers voted heavily in favor of a tentative contract agreement.
  • Budding scientists meet mentors
    High school girls interested in science, engineering, technology and math had a chance to break bread with potential mentors from Lawrence Livermore Laboratory on Wednesday evening at Amador High School in Pleasanton.
  • Weekend events start with red-hot contest
    By Sophia Kazmi, CONTRA COSTA TIMES
    Follow your nose to the Rowell Ranch Chili Cook-off, where gallons of the spicy stuff will be judged Friday on distinct criteria including just how good it smells.
  • Picket keeps Nunez from speech
    By Matt Krupnick, CONTRA COSTA TIMES
    Several thousand UC Berkeley graduates and their families flocked to the university's Hearst Greek Theatre for Wednesday's commencement convocation, only to have their graduation speaker leave campus rather than cross a picket line.
  • Drills stress perils of drunken driving
    LIVERMORE -- The make-up helps the actors look as if they've really been in a traffic accident, that they're badly injured or that they were actually killed. The wrecked cars certainly look as if they've been in some kind of wreck.
  • Boy, 3, finds gun, then shoots, kills man
    By Peter Hegarty, CONTRA COSTA TIMES
    Police say they think a 3-year-old boy who shot and killed a man at an Alameda apartment may have found the handgun while rummaging through a closet, looking for a bag of candy.
  • Permit, towing fees eyed to relieve budget
    By Bonita Brewer, CONTRA COSTA TIMES
    Some potentially controversial increases in fire department permit fees, along with new franchise fees on tow truck companies doing work for city police, could help shore up a possible $2.4 million gap in Livermore's city budget during the next two years.
  • Livermore lab seeks manager
    By Betsy Mason, CONTRA COSTA TIMES
    The contract to run Lawrence Livermore Laboratory officially went up for bid Tuesday when the Department of Energy issued its draft request for management proposals.
  • Golf tournament will fund soldiers' care packages
    A MOTHER'S WORK IS NEVER DONE, and Operation MOM, which prepares packages to support our troops overseas, is beginning to plan its summer mailings for the soldiers.
  • End of chapter
    By Cassandra Braun and Martin Snapp, CONTRA COSTA TIMES
    Cody's bookstore to close its flagship Telegraph Avenue store in Berkeley, bowing to financial pressure as sales fall.
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  • Dublin schools consolidation on track
    By Eric Louie, CONTRA COSTA TIMES
    Public anger over how the vote was taken seems unlikely reverse the school board's decision.Post a Comment

  • Projects to improve traffic flow receive a $5 million infusion
    By Sophia Kazmi, CONTRA COSTA TIMES
    Alameda County officials hope that, with the help of $5 million for various traffic improvement projects in Castro Valley, traffic will flow a little better in some places -- and a little slower in others.
  • UC joins efforts against sweatshops
    By Clanci Cochran, CONTRA COSTA TIMES
    After student protests and arrests, the University of California has agreed to participate in a program that aims to ensure that UC does not contract with companies using sweatshops to produce school logo apparel.
  • School board chief to resign from post
    By Eric Louie, CONTRA COSTA TIMES
    Dublin school board President Randy Shumway said Monday he expects to submit his resignation, a move prompted by his company's relocation. Shumway, who was elected to a four-year term on the school board in November 2002, is moving to Utah. The market research company Shumway owns, Progrexion, has merged with a Salt Lake City-based firm. Shumway has been asked to lead the new company, which will take the Progrexion name.
  • EAST BAY ROUNDUP
    Pleasanton FIRE CAPTAIN STILL RECOVERING: A Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department captain remained in fair condition Monday afternoon at Stanford Hospital, recovering from injuries from a fall at a garbage transfer station last week.
  • Family of drowning victim files claim
    By Linda Goldston, KNIGHT RIDDER
    The family of Dr. Zehra Attari has filed a wrongful death claim against the city of Alameda in connection with the accident that claimed the life of the 55-year-old San Jose woman.
  • Doctor's family files claim against city
    By Kimberly S. Wetzel, CONTRA COSTA TIMES
    The family of a doctor who drowned after driving off an Alameda boat ramp into the Oakland estuary last fall said Tuesday that their loved died needlessly and that city officials could have done more to stop the tragedy.
  • Number of auto burglaries on the rise
    By Scott Marshall, CONTRA COSTA TIMES
    The first reaction to discovering a vehicle has been broken into is helplessness or fear, which typically soon turns to anger. The best way to avoid that flurry of emotions, police say, is to outsmart the enemy before trouble begins.
  • BART plans to raze former headquarters
    By Mike Adamick, CONTRA COSTA TIMES
    BART's former headquarters building, a '60s-era symphony of bleak concrete and scratched glass, needs to come down because it will be at risk in a major earthquake.
  • Constructive church groups offer relief in New Orleans
    By Sam Richards, CONTRA COSTA TIMES
    The whole world was made painfully aware of the widespread carnage wrought on the Gulf Coast last year by Hurricane Katrina. Fred and Jan Hull had seen the wreckage earlier, so when the Danville couple returned in April to help lead a house-building effort in McComb, Miss., there were few surprises about the degree of devastation, or the need for those houses.
  • For Ohlone tale-teller, stories inspire dreams
    By Bonita Brewer, CONTRA COSTA TIMES
    Tribal elder shares his heritage with kids each week at the American Indian Center in Livermore.
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  • Grieving student touched by support
    IMAGINE YOU ARE an international student. You are away from family, friends, home -- everything that makes you feel comfortable and safe. Now, add having to attend school where people use a foreign tongue, all while you have to navigate immigration laws, student visas and a strange monetary system. Do all this while taking at least 12 semester hours to fulfill requirements for that student visa, and be dependent upon family back home to help with the costs -- which are very high because of international...
  • Pleasanton Rage tops rival in girls' soccer
    The Pleasanton Rage under-15 girls soccer team settled a score Saturday by defeating the rival Danville-based Mustang Mavericks in a championship game at the California Youth Soccer Association State Cup.