After a 10-month protest atop an oak grove next to Memorial Stadium, a judge ruled on Monday that UC Berkeley can now start removing up-in-a-tree protesters, as well as their ground support, even if police can't identify the protesters by name. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Richard Keller amended his ruling from a month ago. At that time, his decree gave authorities the power to strip the environmental activists off of the UC-owned land,......

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The battle over that athletic center at Berkeley took another turn as a camp out in the oaks that was set up to support all protestors up in the trees was rousted by the cops this morning. According to reports, around 6 or so, the cops came to chase everyone away and then came in and swept up all the camping equipment and supplies, supposedly including people's laptops. Now that's just mean. ...

Stadium issues aren't just affecting Bay Area professional teams, but college teams too. There's a fight going on about renovating Cal's Memorial Stadium that's been going on for the past few months. And it's even taken an "Only in Berkeley" angle: to protest the planned cutting down of some Oak trees, activists went all Julia Butterfly Hill and camped out on them before the Big Game. ...

Half by SFist Jon, half by SFist Rita. You guess who wrote which half! --Cal Alum fights the good fight to keep view of Memorial Stadium free. --More lane closures on the Bay Bridge for the very last time. --It's raining. --Who's got San Francisco values around here? --Bill Clinton endorses Cindy Chavez for SJ Mayor. --Animal rights activists and environmentalists hate Pombo. --They're reopening the lagoon by the Palace of Fine Arts. --And cancer......

Time is a fungible concept when you're deep in trascendental meditation pondering koans, hence we're a tad late. But not too late, as Bears fans in Berkeley will probably be humming om and pondering the unknowable ("What in the hell is a Sun Devil?") until just minutes before the 12:30pm kickoff against Arizona State today. Which brings to question, "With two good offenses, is the best offense still defense?" Cal fell like a tree......

Man, things couldn't get much worse for Stanford football fans. Not only did they lose to lowly San Jose State last weekend, 35-34, but the infamously irreverent Stanford band has been put on provisional status after a series of incidents culminating in vandalism of the 'Band Shak' last July. Meaning that the only horns blaring at Stanford Stadium this weekend will be playing for the Navy's Midshipmen. Don't be surprised if you see a maudlin......

This SFist was actually kind of excited about the chances of the college football programs around the Bay this season, with the Pac 10 looking wide open. Then Cal got whipped like cream by Tennessee, getting nothing from potential superstar Marshawn Lynch (whom we've been watching closely for years), while Stanford was creamed like butter by Oregon, saddling themselves from the start with a conference loss. So when we were asked to write a weekly......