A complaint was filed on May 2 through the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Nahla Droubi, the landlord of the property that houses the dispensary. The lawsuit threatens to seize the property for allegedly violating federal law, which prohibits operating a marijuana dispensary.

Berkeley City Council members and representatives from Berkeley Patients Group held a press conference Wednesday afternoon in front of the Old City Hall expressing their opposition to the lawsuit.

“There is no legitimate reason to target Berkeley Patients Group,” said Sean Luse, chief operations officer at BPG. “They’re in compliance with state law. The U.S. attorney general … has chosen to hurt our patients by diverting attention from the real issues.”

Berkeley Patients Group also came into opposition with the federal government in February 2012, when it received letters from the U.S. attorney’s office for violating a federal law banning dispensaries from being located within 1,000 feet of a school. Even though California law dictates that the distance only has to be 600 feet, the dispensary voluntarily closed down and reopened at a new location in December a few blocks away.

According to the complaint, the U.S. attorney began sending Droubi letters again in November 2012 before the new location opened, warning that the new location would be in violation of the same federal law by being within 1,000 feet of two preschools. A second letter sent in February noted that the group could face criminal and civil penalties if operation continued.

Luse said that the federal government should focus its attention on other crime problems in the city, like illegal drug and gun trafficking. He also said that they plan to fight the lawsuit.

“We look forward to having our day in court and believe we will ultimately prevail,” Luse said.

City Councilmembers Darryl Moore, Kriss Worthington, Laurie Capitelli and Jesse Arreguin voiced their backing of Berkeley Patients Group at the press conference. Mayor Tom Bates also showed his support for the dispensary.

“I’m very, very disappointed that this has happened, and we’ll do anything we can to make sure they get back into business,” Bates said.

Councilmember Kriss Worthington said that the federal government was overstepping its boundaries, referencing the recent California Supreme Court ruling on City of Riverside v. Inland Empire Patients Health and Wellness Center. In the ruling, the court recognized the legality of medical cannabis dispensaries but allowed that local governments may ban dispensaries despite state law.

“Being a U.S. attorney doesn’t give you the right to change state law or city law,” Worthington said. “It’s so absurd. It’s a waste of time, and it’s threatening patient care.”

In the meantime, the dispensary will remain open, according to Henry Wykowski, attorney for Berkeley Patients Group.

“The only people that would benefit from the closing of Berkeley Patients Group are the gangs and cartels,” Wykowski said. “This action will cause them to prey on the patients who now have a clean, safe place to get their medicine.”

The federal government filed a similar lawsuit against a medical marijuana dispensary in Oakland last July. The city of Oakland filed a lawsuit in response, claiming that the federal government had overstepped its jurisdiction. A federal judge later dismissed the lawsuit, saying that only the dispensary and its landlords could contest the government’s seizure of property.

Wykowski said that they intend to file a claim in response to the lawsuit and will also present their case in court.

Contact Tara Hurley at thurley@dailycal.org.

The post Berkeley marijuana dispensary threatened by federal government appeared first on The Daily Californian.

One of the selected plans was submitted by the Berkeley Student District Campaign, a group that aims to give students more representation in city government through the creation of a district with a student supermajority. A student supermajority would increase the likelihood of a UC Berkeley student being elected to Berkeley City Council.

“It’s important to note how historic of a move the council took last night (by) indicating that one of their top proposals is one submitted by students,” said Shahryar Abbasi, ASUC external affairs vice president. “It’s quite a shift in the discourse and the dialogue.”

About 45 UC Berkeley students, including Abbasi, attended the City Council meeting in support of the campaign. While seven different plans were considered at the public hearing Tuesday night, only two did not include a student-majority district.

The only remaining competition to the Berkeley Student District Campaign is the “simplicity” plan, which focuses on straightforward district divisions. The plan’s author, Eric Panzer, openly endorsed the Berkeley Student District Campaign’s plan and said that he hopes his proposal will be considered only as a “worthy alternative.”

The City Council may favor Panzer’s plan due to its clarity, according to ASUC External Affairs Vice President Redistricting Director Noah Efron.

“There are certainly some council members who want clean lines on their map,” Efron said. “The council still has full control.”

Throughout the hearing, multiple City Council members expressed their support for a student-majority district, which has never existed in the city of Berkeley. The only UC Berkeley student to ever hold a seat on the City Council was current State Assemblymember Nancy Skinner, who served from 1984 to 1992.

The plans were made possible by the passage of Measure R last November, which amended the existing city charter to eliminate the 1986 boundary lines and adjusted the district boundaries to reflect the city’s updated population.

According to ASUC External Affairs Vice President-elect Safeena Mecklai, a student district would allow students a say in major city issues like safety, economic development and other issues that impact students and residents equally.
“I think we would benefit from more voices of young people,” said Councilmember Jesse Arreguin last night. “It accomplishes the goal but keeps a lot of major neighborhoods intact.”

The next public hearing, during which the City Council is slated to select a plan, will be on July 2.

Though the meeting will take place during the summer, Mecklai said the campaign plans to build a coalition of students to attend and express their support.

“We certainly took (last night) as a great victory, and it certainly feels more tangible now than it ever has,” Efron said. “(But) until we hear that they have officially adopted it, we won’t be celebrating.”

Contact Claire Chiara at cchiara@dailycal.org.

The post City Council to consider two proposals that include UC Berkeley student district appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Sinai was voted in unanimously by the four sitting board members from a pool of 10 candidates. Sinai will fill the seat vacated by former board president Leah Wilson, who stepped down in March after being appointed court executive officer for the Alameda County Superior Court. Wilson resigned citing concerns about a conflict of interest.

Current board president Karen Hemphill said that despite a strong applicant pool, Sinai had qualities that showed the board she was the most suitable person for the job.

“I felt that the Board needed someone who was already familiar with the District and was involved in public education and Julie met all of these attributes,” Hemphill said in an email.  “She has been a long-time public school activist, used to work for the District and in her current work at the university, it’s all about partnerships and collaboration.”

Before working at UC Berkeley, Sinai was also chief of staff to Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates. Sinai said she hopes to apply her previous community and university experience to the school district and help the board with its current challenges, which include a new superintendent, increased efforts to improve academic achievement and heated negotiations with teachers’ unions.

“My future plans are to become familiar with the issues that the board has to tackle and look how to move our equity work forward,” Sinai said. “I will also help with looking at the physical status of a student district and do whatever I can do to reach an agreement with the unions.”

Michelle Moskowitz, director of advocacy and institutional relations at UC Berkeley, works with Sinai and congratulated her appointment, saying she believes Sinai will exceed expectations on the board.

“I think Julie will be an amazing asset to the board, as she has many years of experience working for the city of Berkeley,” Moskowitz said. “They could not have made a better choice. All of her colleagues at the Government and Community Relations Office congratulate her.”

Hemphill said she is glad to be working with Sinai and believes that the board will benefit from working with her.

“I expect that Julie will be a great asset in building partnerships with our community, the County and of course the University,” Hemphill said in an email.  “She also will be great in furthering our work to advance overall academic achievement and Julie’s up close knowledge of what a governing body does and how an effective elected body works together through her work as the Mayor’s Chief of Staff will be very useful.”

Sinai will serve the remainder of Wilson’s term until the seat comes up for re-election in November 2014.

Contact Seif Abdelghaffar at sabdelghaffar@dailycal.org.

The post Julie Sinai appointed to Berkeley school board vacant seat appeared first on The Daily Californian.

The appeal was signed and mailed at the same Downtown Berkeley post office slated for sale at a ceremony attended by more than 30 people. The U.S. Postal Service recently approved relocating its Downtown Berkeley space as part of a nationwide effort to cut costs and consolidate offices.

“We’re not going gently,” Bates said. “We’re asking Congress to have a moratorium on all post office sales.”

The letter, sent to the Postal Service vice president of facilities, stands in allegiance with various Berkeley community members. Residents have contested the Postal Service’s intent to sell since its announcement last June.

“(The letter) is a small step but a unified effort,” said Berkeley resident Claudia Smukler. “It’s good to see Berkeley and local representatives unanimous.

Members of the local committee Save the Post the Berkeley Post Office also reiterated how the sale is part of attempts to privatize public services across the nation.

“This is the heart of Berkeley and the center of civic life,” said Harvey Smith, president of Save the Berkeley Post Office. “During the New Deal, they built the post office among a community theatre and a credit building that is now City Hall. In the depth of the  Depression, the government put people to work, and now, they are doing just the opposite.”

Bates said the Berkeley community will continue rallying against the sale even after the Postal Service’s 15-day appeals period. At the signing, Save the Berkeley Post Office members said they have planned a rally for May 7 and are preparing to file lawsuits under the National Historic Preservation Act in an effort to stop the sale.

 “(The letter) is a good beginning for phase two, because we will be fighting and fighting,” said Sally Nelson, a member of Save the Berkeley Post Office.

Alyssa Neumann covers city government. Contact her at aneumann@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @AlyNeumann.

The post Mayor, State Representatives appeal post office sale appeared first on The Daily Californian.

According to the report, released Friday afternoon, the manner of death was accidental. The report also listed morbid obesity and cardiomegaly, or enlarged heart, as significant conditions in the investigation.

BPD’s own internal investigation was also released Friday afternoon, also finding that Moore’s death was accidental.

On Feb. 13, BPD officers responded to a disturbance call on the 2000 block of Allston Way and were directed to Moore’s apartment. Moore, who originally identified as Xavier Christopher Moore, became unresponsive while officers attempted to restrain her to a gurney. She was then transported to the Alta Bates Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

Moore’s death triggered substantial community response, including demonstrations at a City Council meeting and various protests, due to a perceived lack of transparency with regard to the investigation.

More updates to follow.

Contact Sophie Ho at newsdesk@dailycal.org.

The post Coroner’s report reveals Moore’s death due to drug overdose appeared first on The Daily Californian.

The Schoolwide Integrated Framework for Transformation, or SWIFT, an initiative led by educational researchers from the University of Kansas, selected Willard and five other U.S. schools for their use of “inclusive education,” said Wayne Sailor, a professor in the University of Kansas’ School of Education and director of the SWIFT Center.

Inclusive education is a classroom model in which students of all learning types, such as gifted, special education and English as a Second Language students, learn in one general classroom setting rather than under separate programs, with the idea that all students mutually benefit from the shared learning environment.

“A big problem is that if you go into a typical low-performing school, there are lots of resources that could help, but they don’t connect with each other — special education being an example,” Sailor said. “It looks for its own resources and provides a system only for those identified as such.”

The six schools chosen by SWIFT are already successfully operating on an inclusive model and will be studied by Sailor and his affiliates so the advances these schools demonstrate can be applied elsewhere.

At Willard, inclusive education has been around for 11 years, said Willard Middle School Principal Robert Ithurburn.

“There is not so much an ‘us-them’ mentality,” Ithurburn said of the learning environment at Willard. “I think it’s more of a real-world situation.”

In the United States, there has been a trend toward including more students in general education classrooms, which has been accelerating for several decades, said Jennifer Russell, a graduate of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education who is now a professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

At Willard, students with severe disabilities have an instructional aid with them all day long, and there are teachers’ aids who check in on particular students throughout the day, said Jessica Lee, Willard’s teacher librarian. Lee is also a parent of a Willard Middle School student.

Teachers may also practice “modified education,” in which students of differing abilities can be given parallel assignments, with a co-teacher focusing on modifying the lesson for others based on learning needs, she added.

An increasing number of educators, including SWIFT researchers, tout the benefits of an inclusive classroom model over a segregated one, but it’s a model with potential that is not always realized, Russell said.

With $24.5 million in grant money from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs, SWIFT will spend now until October researching the six inclusive model schools, Sailor said.

As compensation for cooperation with researchers, each of the six model schools will receive a one-time payment of $16,500, Sailor said. He added that the schools additionally benefit from getting national recognition on the researchers’ website.

The schools will continue working and perfecting their model of education in the coming months.

“We’re excited to find out what we can do to be stronger, taking strategies and techniques from the other five schools,” Ithurburn said.

Contact Christine Tyler at ctyler@dailycal.org.

The post Willard Middle School recognized for inclusive education appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Moore, who died in Berkeley police custody on Feb. 12, became the focus of controversy during Tuesday’s council meeting. As the City Council attempted to move an item on mental health for further discussion later in the meeting, vocal protests erupted, eventually culminating in police officers forcibly removing one protester who refused to give up the floor.

Before the council meeting, protesters also held a rally in front of City Hall, holding signs stating, “We won’t forget Kayla!” and “Justice for Kayla (Xavier) Moore.”

Much of the anger in the room reflected protester frustrations about the scarcity of information regarding the case. Berkeley Police Department currently has a “press hold” on Moore’s autopsy report, and although the BPD has assured that the report will be released in the near future, the situation has resulted in strong criticism from members of the family as well as the community.

During the public comment session, two protesters ceded their speaking time to Arthur Moore, Kayla’s father, who directed most of his criticism toward Bates.

“I’m very, very disappointed that your chief of police put a hold on this case,” Arthur said to Bates. “We haven’t heard anything from your office stating that things are going to change … Nobody has said anything about my son. Nobody from your office. What I’m asking you to do is change your mind and give us some answers.”

Prior to the council meeting, much frustration was taken to the streets. On March 12, for example, about 70 protesters gathered at People’s Park and marched on Berkeley Police Department.

Though the protest was nonviolent, the anger was tangible as participants chanted slogans like “Vengeance for Kayla Moore.”

The march was soon followed by a birthday memorial for Moore, who would have turned 42 this year. The memorial also had a march with turnout similar to that of the march on Berkeley Police Department headquarters.

The council meeting, however, was not all emotional pleas and outbursts. Moore’s sister, Maria, proposed that the city have a mental health awareness month.

“What the city needs is more mental health services,” Maria said. “Let’s allocate those funds that would hire more cops to mental health services.”

The heated discussion on mental health and Moore’s death cooled down after the forced removal of one of the protesters. Councilmember Kriss Worthington emphasized that the council must focus on helping move the Berkeley community past this issue and toward a healing process.

Gladys Rosario covers academics and administration. Contact her at grosario@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @gladysrosario93.

The post City Council meeting erupts in heated debate over Kayla Moore’s death appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Restaurant owners voiced concerns that if the quota were relaxed, other restaurants would enter an already competitive environment, which would hurt their businesses. Multiple restaurant owners, including those of Gypsy’s Trattoria Italiana and Pappy’s Grill and Sports Bar, spoke at the meeting in opposition to removing the system.

“I strongly disagree with the proposal,” said Jahanshah Jowharchi, owner of Gypsy’s. “Our restaurant has suffered tremendously in the last two years … Many of us are going out of business due to overpopulation of restaurants.”

Currently, the city has quotas limiting the number of businesses, such as restaurants, barber shops and gift shops, that operate in the Telegraph commercial area. The proposal, if approved, would relax the restaurant quota system for the next three years.

Alex Popov, manager of Pappy’s, initiated a petition against removing the quota system. He also created the Telegraph Restaurant Association last week to voice the sentiments of local restaurant owners.

Thai Basil, CREAM and La Burrita are among 34 local restaurants that have signed the petition in favor of keeping the quotas.

“When I explained to (business owners) the issue, especially to those who are mom and pops, they said, ‘How are we going to survive if this passes?’” Popov said. “(Even) talking to nonfood businesses — they are concerned.”

Yet other business owners, such as Craig Becker of Caffe Mediterraneum — who is also president of the Telegraph Business Improvement District — think the quotas have done more harm than good.

“I think the government has a big role in making any commercial district successful, but I just don’t think that the quotas are the right way to go about it,” Becker said.

Due to time constraints, the council did not debate the restaurant quota matter and decided not to approve it at this time.

“If they would have taken a vote last night, we would have prevailed,” Popov said. “The fact that we didn’t get everything done in one meeting is not that big of a deal, but as long as we’re continuing to have Telegraph in the spotlight … It might take a long time, but as long as we’re looking at ways to improve the business district.”

The City Council voted, in one motion, to adopt of a number of the other items pertaining to Telegraph, such as looking into the financial impact of converting Bancroft Way and Durant Avenue into two-way streets and of creating parklets.

Gladys Rosario covers academics and administration. Contact her at grosario@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @gladysrosario93.

The post Restaurant owners voice concerns over relaxing quotas appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Six groups presented the council with seven different plans for redistricting, one of which was made by the Berkeley Student District Campaign in an attempt to create a student supermajority district. UC Berkeley junior and current redistricting director Noah Efron, senior Michael Manset and junior and ASUC External Affairs Vice President-elect Safeena Mecklai all presented for the BSDC.

Representatives of the BSDC said in the meeting that because the student community is currently divided into four districts, it is difficult for students to have their voices heard on the council. A student supermajority district would allow students to be represented on City Council.

“Twenty-five percent of Berkeley residents are students and they are not represented,”  Manset said during his presentation. “By creating a student district, students will have an institutionalized seat on the council to represent them. Our plan has District 7 remain the student district but increase in size so that 86 percent of students live in the district.”

Mecklai said that if having a student council member is not possible, the council member elected should understand student issues and be in tune with issues in student life.

“If the student community is condensed to one district, students will have more of a voice on the council,” Efron said. “The student community should be seen as a community of interest because while crime has decreased in other districts, in the student community crime has remained the same.

UC Berkeley alumnus Alfred Twu also submitted a redistricting plan and said that a student district should be made so that students could have a voice on the council.  However, Sherry Smith, president of the League of Women Voters of Berkeley, Albany and Emeryville, said that other communities and neighborhoods should also be considered when redistricting rather than just the student community.

“I can see why students would want a student district because then they would have an impact on the council and the council member elected by them would be responsive to their needs,” Smith said. “However, there are other communities of interest, such as the West Berkeley neighborhood, that should be considered. So what the council must do is weigh all the submitted plans out and possibly merge some together to achieve what is best for the city of Berkeley.”

Berkeley City Council will meet again on May 7 to vote on a redistricting plan and will begin to modify and change the plan once it is chosen.

Contact Seif Abdelghaffar at sabdelghaffar@dailycal.org.

The post Berkeley City Council looks at redistricting plans appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Currently, the city has quotas in place limiting the number of each type of business — such as restaurants, barbershops and gift shops — that can operate in the Telegraph Avenue commercial area.

Thirty-four local restaurants, including Gypsy’s Trattoria Italiana, C.R.E.A.M. and La Burrita, have signed a petition opposed to relaxing these quotas for three years.

Alex Popov, manager of Pappy’s Grill and Sports Bar, created the petition and the Telegraph Restaurant Association to organize the thoughts and concerns of local restaurant owners.

“We’re concerned with the general appeal of (Telegraph Avenue),” Popov said. “We don’t want (visitors) to think of Telegraph Avenue as just a place to go when they’re hungry.”

The current city quotas specify that 19 carry-out and 30 quick-service restaurants may operate in the area, yet the petition counted 72 carry-out and quick-service restaurants in operation.

Some restaurant owners said there are too many restaurants operating in the Telegraph area and that they desire more retail diversity. According to Popov, 17 of the 18 stores on Center Street in Berkeley are restaurants.

City Council members will discuss the quota issue in a meeting Tuesday night at 7 p.m.

Gladys Rosario covers academics and administration. Contact her at grosario@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @gladysrosario93.

The post Mayor proposes relaxing quotas on local businesses appeared first on The Daily Californian.