Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates and City Councilmember Linda Maio vowed Wednesday night to reopen Pacific Steel Casting’s use permit to force action on odors emanating from the company’s West Berkeley plant. -more-

The Democratic and Repub-lican Presidential primaries will dominate media coverage for the Feb. 5 California elections, now less than a month away, but several important state propositions are on the ballot as well. -more-

Four propositions on the Feb. 5 California Presidential Primary ballot—Propositions 94, 95, 96, 97—all deal with identical issues, attempts by citizen groups to overturn recent amendments to gambling compacts between the administration of Governor Ar-nold Schwarzenegger and four individual Native American tribes. -more-

For the first time since the issuance of the Blue Ribbon Affordable Housing Commis-sion’s report last year on inclusionary zoning and condominium conversion, Oakland City Coun-cil’s Community & Economic Development Committee met this week to try to resolve the year-long deadlock over the two issues. -more-

FRIDAY, JAN. 11 -more-

When Rebecca’s Books, specializing in poetry, opened Oct. 27 at 3268 Adeline Ave. in South Berkeley, the Morning Star Choir came up from the Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church in Los Angeles to sing. -more-

Customers and bank employees, aided by a passerby, captured a Berkeley man after he ransacked a San Pablo Avenue bank Monday, attacked two employees with a knife and beat an assistant manager with a telephone. -more-

A Berkeley man with a long criminal record was sentenced Thursday to 56 years in state prison for attempting to murder Berkeley police Officer Darren Kacalek nearly three years ago by shooting at him at least five times. -more-

The courtroom battle over UC Berkeley’s stadium area projects has taken a new twist—arguments over whether or not a judge should gather critical new evidence. -more-

Fire Chars Grocery, Smog Shop -more-

It is perfectly understandable why many citizens in Oakland have not waited to see if the pending Oakland police reorganization makes any changes in the problems of violence and crime in the city. Instead--almost as if the city’s police arbitration victory never happened and Chief Tucker’s reorganization plans were never announced--there have been continued loud cries from many neighborhoods that something must be done about the crime problem, including hiring more police. -more-

PERILS -more-

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Daily Planet extended an invitation to the Concerned Listeners' group to submit a commentary regarding the KPFA Local Station Board election which would have run alongside this one, with both sides then invited to comment on the other in a later edition. Concerned Listeners did not respond. -more-

Albany Unified School District and San Jose Unified School District have both recently gone through a lengthy process to redesign their high school fields. Albany, a small school district with one high school, attempted to develop its high school field, located in neighboring El Cerrito, also a different county. San Jose developed five high school fields all located in San Jose. Both districts planned on putting lights in fields that had previously been unlit at night, causing neighbors to be concerned about increased disruptions to their lives and homes. Each district needed to go through a legal process, producing an environmental impact report for the project. Albany’s process ended up in a very contentious neighborhood battle, which is currently in litigation with neighbors and the nearby City of El Cerrito; no one is happy, not the school board, not the students, not their families, nor the neighbors or the community. San Jose ended up with a relatively smooth process where most folks seemed satisfied with the process and can accept the results. Why this difference? -more-

Author Maxine Hong Kingston, an Oakland resident and UC Berkeley teacher, will appear with members of the Veterans Writing Group she helped found in 1993 on Sunday at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists as a benefit reading for the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. -more-

Say what you will about the quality of his achievements, from the silver screen to the governor’s mansion, there’s no doubting the ambition of Arnold Schwarzenegger. -more-

FRIDAY, JAN. 11 -more-

The grocery business used to be a very lucrative one in the early days of the 20th century. Some East Bay retail grocers amassed considerable wealth, not to mention social prestige. Stephen J. Sill was one of them (his store building, designed by James Plachek, still stands at 2145 University Ave., now occupied by Berkeley Ace Hardware). Another was Frederick Charles Koerber (1876–1953), who owned several grocery stores in Oakland and Berkeley before branching into real-estate development, mortgage banking, and municipal politics. -more-

On Boxing Day we took a stroll with friends through the Blake Estate gardens. Allen had had the very good idea to go there; the place was devoid of humans except for brief walk-ons—one groundskeeper with a wheelbarrow, one woman with a dog—and the four of us. -more-

A woman I’ve been working with is toying with the notion of being her own general contractor on a rather large remodel she doing here in the Berkeley Hills. I have to admit that when she first told me this, I blanched a bit. I know what it means to do this job and it’s so much more than most people think that it was hard not to start shaking my finger at her right there and then. -more-