By Angela Kilduff
BERKELEY — It was standing room only at last week’s mayoral debate, and the audience heard from twice as many candidates’ perspectives than the event billed. Two write-in candidates, Kahlil Jacobs-Fantauzzi and Zachary RunningWolf, joined Mayor Tom Bates and Shirley Dean on stage to discuss their positions on Berkeley issues. Over 100 people attended the debate, sponsored by The Berkeley Daily Planet and held at the West Berkeley Senior Center.

By Will Jason
By the time “Yellowjackets” closed Oct. 19 at the Berkeley Repertory Theater, the play helped raised more than $6,000 for the cash-strapped high school newspaper, the Berkeley High Jacket. But while the play—which follows a racial controversy involving the Jacket 14 years ago—helped to solve the newspaper’s financial crisis, it also brought to light a more persistent challenge that continues to face the paper today.
Set at Berkeley High School in 1994, the play follows the boycott of the Jacket by a group of minority students and teachers after …

By Will Jason
When University of California, Berkeley junior Mariana Kayichian looked for new housing this summer, it was with safety in mind that she chose a house on Piedmont Avenue.

Reporter Angela Kilduff talks to UC Berkeley students on Team Husky two days before they compete in the Red Bull Soap Box Race.
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Multimedia by Casey Miner and Amanda Dyer
Panoramic Hill residents live in lush greenery with breathtaking bay views. But beauty has it price.

Video and story by Angela Kilduff
A team of UC Berkeley undergraduates tried their luck against more than thirty teams at the Red Bull Soap Box Race on October 18. The members of Team Husky spent a week constructing their soap box in the living room of Delta Chi, their fraternity.
Seniors Niket Desai and Matthew Pies and Juniors Kenji Kurita and Daniel Mangels are Team Husky. Watch the video to see how they fared…

By Will Jason
A ballot measure to end gay marriage in California has attracted money and endorsements from Christian groups around the country, but many local Christians say they are wary of being associated with the campaign.
Groups supporting the gay marriage ban, Proposition 8, have raised more than $25 million, according to data from the California Secretary of State’s Web site. Some of the biggest contributions have come from Christian groups like Focus on the Family, which is evangelical, and the Knights of Columbus, which is Catholic, according to an analysis …

By Casey Miner  At his talk at UC Berkeley Thursday night, controversial Middle-East scholar Daniel Pipes discussed many threats to the existence of the state of Israel. But the audience was worried about a threat closer to home: whether Israel would be safe under a President Obama.
“I think a lot of us here support Obama,” said Berkeley resident Dan Spitzer, 58. “But we’re worried about his associations.”
Mr. Spitzer, who described himself as pro-Israel, named some people who particularly worried him: William Ayers, a former member of 60’s domestic terror group …

By Will Jason
With the urging of the University of California, the state legislature recently passed a new law aimed at protecting the personal information of animal researchers. But more than two weeks later, the names and home addresses of several U.C. Berkeley researchers still remained on several Web sites, according to a review by 510Report.
Stopping animal experiments has long been a goal of many animal rights advocates, who consider the practice cruel and unnecessary. Supporters of animal research say the practice is needed to help cure diseases and improve humans’ …

By Casey Miner  The street vendors of upper Telegraph Avenue are fixtures of Berkeley life; their colorful stands lend the few blocks near campus some of its legendary character. But as anxious consumers cut discretionary spending, those stands see fewer and fewer patrons.
“They can’t afford to buy,” said Bill Tumath, 62, who sells “cosmic spirals” – metal or copper hanging spirals that spin around brightly colored spheres – from a table near Bancroft Way. “They have the money, but they have other priorities.”