InBerkeley

Chocolatier Blue, the Berkeley-based gourmet chocolate maker, is opening a second store on Fourth St. in the location formerly occupied by Sketch.  A call to Chocolatier Blue confirmed they are planning to open the new shop in September, though an exact date was not available.

Owner Chris Blue was chocolatier for Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago before opening the first Chocolatier Blue at 1964 University Ave., and spent his childhood summers on a self-sustaining family farm in Nebraska, which is where he learned about organic agriculture and how important it is to support local farms.  His hand-made confections use Amedei chocolate, which is considered by many to be the best chocolate in the world. Fresh organic cream is shipped directly from a Nebraska farm, raw butter is from the 5-Star Butter Co. in California, pistachios are from Sicily and raw produce is from local markets.

Business, Food, Retail, West Berkeley

Something to ponder the next time you go swimming at the UC Berkeley gym:

The skulls and bones of Japanese war dead from World War II’s Battle of Saipan are being kept at the University of California-Berkeley in apparent violation of the Geneva Conventions for the protection of war victims.

The remains of several Japanese soldiers or civilians removed from the island of Saipan in 1945 by a Navy doctor are housed on storage shelves maintained by the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology on the UC-Berkeley campus, museum officials said.

The admission has sparked the fury of international law experts and anthropologists, who say the university has a legal and ethical duty to return the remains to Japan.

Three sets of skeletal remains with skulls, and various bones of three additional Japanese war dead without skulls, are stored in wooden containers in vaults beneath the Hearst Gymnasium swimming pool.

via MontereyHerald.com/San Francisco Chronicle.

Issues, Politics, UC Berkeley